#and then i can find all the missteps i made and things i said wrong and just fixate on them for hours and hours

[gaystardykeco]

becoming abundantly clear that the less i socialize with ppl the worse im getting at it and the worse i get at it the less i socialize with ppl

[dantakeyoman]

You Want Your Avatar To Become Fully Na’vi, But Neteyam Is Firmly Against It (SFW / Slight-Angst)

Reader is Fem! Avatar

CW: Angry Neteyam, he means well, he’s just scared :’), reader is in her avatar body during argument, things for the humans of Pandora aren’t doing so great, this was NOT meant to take this long, i dont think this came out well

“Absolutely not! It is out of the question!” Neteyam harshly dismissed, turning his back on you.

“Neteyam, you are only looking at the possible downsides. I-.” “I do not find your death a downside, (y/n),” he cut off, whipping back around in anger.

He could not believe you were suggesting this, knowing how he felt about the subject.

You wanted to make the change, to ask Eywa to bond your human soul with your Na’vi avatar.

But there was no guarantee that the Great Mother would accept this request. 

In fact, it was highly likely that she would deny it, taking you to join her sooner than planned.

Like so many had before you.

“Well, living in my human body is not much different from death, is it?” you huffed, angrily crossing your arms.

“Do not talk like that,” Neteyam glared, pointing a warning finger at you, saying Eywa forbid in his head for good measure.

“It’s true! I am a human, Neteyam! Living on a planet where anything and everything can kill me! My bones aren’t reinforced with carbon like you!” you burst, throwing your hands up in frustration.

“All it takes is one misstep, one wrong move, one place I’m in at the wrong time. And I’m done. Finished.”

“I will protect you, then! But there is no way I can let you go through with this!” Neteyam exclaimed, his eyes having the tiniest flicker of...something.

It was fear.

This conversation was truly frightening him. 

You seemed dead set on this, not budging a single inch even after the screaming match you two had been having for the past hour.

“There is no guarantee that you will survive the transfer.”

“There is no guarantee that you will be there every time I need saving,” you countered, sharply.

“I WILL BE!”

“BUT WHAT IF YOU WON-?!”

“KEHE!” he loudly hissed, silencing you mid-sentence.

You looked at him, blankly. Shocked.

He had never hissed at you before.

“I will not listen to this any longer,” he said darkly, turning around and getting ready to walk out.

You could not let the argument end like this. 

And you knew you had to share with him what you had found out from the scientists.

"There’s been talk, Neteyam,” you started, the Na’vi boy stopping in his tracks.

He was listening.

“I overheard Norm and Max talking about the oxygen tanks that were left over from the first Great War. They said that they can only last for so long. And with no way to replenish them, they’re guessing we only have about a year and a half of air left before it completely runs out.”

Neteyam’s eyes shot wide as he turned around, looking at you nervously.

Fearfully.

“That is why I have been so persistent with this. If I do not make the transfer, I will either be sent back to Earth-.” You paused, swallowing the lump in your throat.

“Or I will die.”

The horrible word sent Neteyam’s head spinning, his mind already coming up with images of you laying on the forest ground, gasping for air that was no longer there.

Both options were unbearable.

Your death was obviously out of the question. But going back to Earth? 

He’d never see you again. 

You’d go back to living with your people. And no doubt some human man would try to sweep you off your feet.

The very thought made his blood boil, and his heart burn.

Not you. Not his love.

He didn’t think he could physically function without you by his side.

Who would braid his hair? Who would cuddle him when he was tired? Who would help patch his wounds after battle?

The poor boy was so lost in his imaginary grief, that he didn’t even notice to walk up to him, until you cupped his cheek in your hand.

“Do you see now? The choice is death now, or death later-.” “Please,” Neteyam stopped you, pleadingly, his voice cracking as he rested his forehead on yours.

“Do not speak like that. Do not bring those pictures into my head.”

You sighed, allowing your thumb to caress his cheek as you placed a feather-light kiss on his lips.

“I will not go through it without your blessing, my Neteyam,” you assured, giving him a sad smile.

If Neteyam did not feel comfortable with you making the transition, then you would respect his wishes. 

Neteyam took a deep breath, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you into a tight hug.

“You promise you will come back to me?” he asked, muffled as he lowered his face into the crook of your neck, inhaling your scent.

You cheesed, a small chuckle escaping your lips.

“I do not believe Eywa brought us together if she did not plan for me to.”

...

“Tìng mikun ayoheru rutxe, ma Nawma Sa’nok!” Mo’at exclaimed to the People, the Sully family, and the entire clan connected to the Soul Tree.

“Srung si poeru, ma Eywa,” the clan chanted in unison, the bioluminescent ground pulsing on beat.

You, and your avatar body, lay naked at the base of the tree, unconscious as the undergrowth made tsaheylu with the nape of both your necks.

Neteyam kneeled nervously before you, saying his own quiet prayer to Eywa for your good health.

To everyone else, he seemed surprisingly calm about this, as if the whole ceremony didn’t faze him in the slightest.

But on the inside, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

If you were to die, he didn’t think he could take it.

He wasn’t strong enough.

When he watched the beautiful eyes of your human body shut, it felt as if his heart was being ripped out.

What if that was the last time he could look into them? 

His hands shook as he continued, the only one seeming to notice being his mother.

She knew how she felt.

She was in his exact place at one time. Years ago.

“Pori tireati, munge mì nga,” Mo’at walked over to your human body, shaking her hands above you.

“Srung si poeru, ma Eywa,” the clan chanted in unison.

“ulte tìng ayoer nì’eyng ngeyä ya!” she shifted to your avatar, shaking her hands above her as well.

“Srung si poeru, ma Eywa,” the clan chanted in unison.

“Tivìran po ayoekip,” Mo’at held her hands up to the air.

“Srung si poeru, ma Eywa,” the clan chanted in unison.

“Na Na’viyä hapxì!” she shouted, whipping her hands out to the People.

“Eo Eywa oe’ia. Eo Eywa oe’ia. Eo Eywa oe’ia.”

Mo’at’s eyes rolled in the back of her head as she continued to chant, Neteyam practically sweating bullets.

It’d be quite a funny sight if the stakes weren’t so high.

“Lu hasey!” she shouted, silencing the crowd.

The ceremony was done.

Quickly, Neteyam crouched over you, carefully removing the oxygen mask from your face and placing it next to you.

He leaned down, placing two, gentle kisses on each of your eyelids.

You looked so peaceful.

Moving over to your avatar, he carefully caressed her face, looking down at her so lovingly.

Don’t get him wrong, your human body was beautiful. One of the prettiest he’s ever seen.

But when it came to your avatar.....well....let’s just say your features, and a Na’vi woman’s features, mix very well.

“Please wake up, my love. I am right here. I am waiting for you,” he encouraged, raising your hand to his cheek as he sadly smiled.

He knew passing through the Eye of Eywa was very tiring, but he would be there to cheer you on the whole way.

And just like that, you gasped, your eyes snapping open.

The entire clan went up in uproarious cheers.

This was the first time the transfer had worked in a long time.

“My (y/n)!” Neteyam sighed, relieved as he pulled you into a bone-crushing hug.

He was at the brink of tears.

He was so, so proud of you.

That’s right. His soon-to-be mate was the one that survived. 

She was a strong, beautiful, and tough woman, Na’vi or not.

“It....worked!” you looked down at yourself, turning over your hands to get a good look at them.

I had truly worked. You were Na’vi now.

And you had seen Eywa.

Oh, she was so gorgeous. Her beauty was divine, and beyond complete comprehension, but she was still soft and kind, like that of a mother.

You would have to tell Neteyam all about it when you got a chance.

Speak of the devil.

“Neteyam!” you squealed as the boy quickly scooped you up bridal style, turning to the clan with a smirk on his face.

“AUAUAUAUAUAUAUAU!” he ululated happily, holding you close as he paraded you down the aisle, his smile nearly blinding you.

You laughed, wrapping our arms around his neck as the people of the clan cheered, some letting out their own shouts of joy.

As you two approached his ikran, you smirked, sitting yourself down on the saddle.

“I told you I would make it back,” you teased, earning a playful eye roll from the warrior as he hopped on behind you.

“I am happy you proved me wrong,” he smirked, turning your chin with his thumb and index, landing a passionate kiss on your lips.

It was the type to leave you breathless when you separated.

Which it did.

As you stared at him, stupidly...lovingly. He smiled, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

“What am I going to do with you?”

...

taglist !!

@vane28282, @remutoast, @p1nkprint, @ladyorchidia, @anthonys-viscountess, @karmz-7319, @cantbuysophialove, @scarabruhs, @an0th3rsss, @deloe18, @mariiyoushi, @av1xar, @alexxcorona113, @may-and-lay, @overlyfancybreakfastfoods, @harshita-hiranyamayi, @qui-02, @myheartfollower, @morks-watermelon, @bangtanxberm

[tumbleweed-run]

Relax

Kinktober 2023 Day 22 Intercrural Sex

“You need to relax,” Astarion chides above you, the heels of his palms digging into the skin of your shoulders. 

You huff, unburying your face from the mattress. “I am relaxed.”

He snorts. “Yes,” he agreed sarcastically, digging his hand into a particularly tight spot of muscle, “I can feel.”

You groan at the sensation of pain, good pain. A few deep breaths, and you try to relax your body as much as possible right now. Not all the knots under your skin will be solved by breathing exercises. 

You’d spent the last four days kicking around in the Undermountian, searching for something Gale said he needed for whatever it was he was working on. Luckily, you’d managed to find the ring, a rather unassuming little gold thing with no other adornments on it. Unluckily, so did a sea hag that was lurking in the Sargauth River. You’d been slammed around by it, having been the one unfortunate enough to have discovered it. The healing potion had done much of the work before you’d left, but your body still ached. 

While Gale had run off as soon as you reached home, Astarion had insisted you bathe and then offered a massage. You had no desire to say no to these offers so you hadn’t. The bath had been warm and lovely, you no longer smelt of rotting fish, but the work Astarion was putting into your muscles was much nicer. He was sitting lightly on the backs of your thighs, hands kneading gently into your flesh and muscles. Every so often, he drizzles oil on your back to aid in the slide of his hands.

“How did you learn this,” you ask, eyes drifting shut as Astarion’s hands made their way down your back. 

Astarion laughs darkly, and you cringe, realizing your misstep. “Sometimes we needed to relax our guests in… nonchemical or mind-controlled ways,” he answers anyway. 

You hum in acknowledgment, “You’ll have to teach me sometimes. That way, I can return the favor.” 

“You were the one dashed about the rocks, pet, I maintained a rather safe distance,” Astarion reminds, as he alternates which side he was rubbing. 

He wasn’t wrong there. 

You allow yourself to doze lightly as Astarion makes his way down your back. He doesn’t linger on your ass, only paying it the same attention as he did anywhere else. You want to pout, but there’s no real drive behind it. Your brain and body are beginning to stir, his nimble hands reminding you of just what else they’re quite good at, too. By the time he’s gently digging his knuckles into the muscle of your calf, you moan and bury your face into the sheets. 

If Astarion realizes, he doesn’t let on. Instead, he keeps up his work. As he begins on your second calf, slowly working his way up your leg, you sigh and shift your legs open a little. You tell yourself it's to allow him to get at every inch of muscle, not as a temptation. By the time Astarion reaches your thigh, he’s pushed your legs farther apart with his knee, fingers kneading ever higher. 

He pauses once he reaches the top of your thigh, his hand resting on the inside. “Yes or no?”

You’re tired enough that you can’t even consider playing coy. “Yes,” you breathe, trying to spread your legs even further. 

Astarion gently runs the side of his hand between the folds of your cunt, glancing against your clit. You gasp at the sensation. His touch is soft at first when he turns his hand to rub two of his fingers against the sensitive bundle of nerves. You moan again, low in your throat. 

He’s not teasing tonight. All of his movements are expert, a perfect demonstration of how to get you off as efficiently as possible. By the time he’s pressing his fingers inside you, you’re so wet you can hear them as they slide in and out. He shifts to achieve a better angle, and you realize you can feel his hard cock pressing against your leg. 

“Wait,” you mumble through the fog of tiredness and pleasure. 

He stops immediately.

“What about you?” You manage the words without a single slur, lifting your head slightly so they’re not muffled either.

Astarion chuckles. This time it’s warm. “Darling, you can barely keep your head up, I don’t think you’ll be able to keep your hips up,” he doesn’t sound angry about this fact. Quietly amused, yes. 

“No, but I want to,” you whine and move your arm to attempt to push yourself up. 

Astarion moves quicker, pressing on your shoulder with his clean hand. You huff and earn yourself another laugh from him. “You really are something,” he says in a much softer voice than he uses normally. 

“Do you want to have sex?” You ask bluntly, even though you’ve given up trying to sit up. 

Astarion is quiet for a moment. “I wouldn’t be opposed. After all, you are a delicious sight right now,” he agrees, “but the fact remains, you can barely sit up right now,”

He’s right, you realize. “I can roll over,” you suggest. 

“No,” Astarion says, “I have an idea if you’re so set on it.”

You nod, you hair undoubtedly going wild against the sheets. “I am.”

He stands then, and when you turn your head to look at him, he’s efficiently removing his trousers. Once they’re off he presses a kiss against your forehead before climbing back onto the bed. This time, he nudges your legs closed. He climbs up them and sits, much the way he had been at the start of the massage. 

Nothing happens, and then there’s the sound of something slick. He’s fisting his cock, you realize belatedly, probably with the oil. He drizzles some between the cleft of your ass, allowing it to slide down and pool between your thighs. Astarion moves and lays over your back, hands planted on the bed. Carefully he begins rutting against your ass. You try to roll your hips to help, but a hand reaches down and presses them back toward the bed. 

He continues like that until he, too, is panting softly with each thrust. Then, he shifts and angles his hips a little differently. The first thrust like this and his cock slides between your thighs. He readjusts his angle with each new thrust until he’s just barely between your folds, most of him still between the flesh of your thighs. With every stroke, his cockhead is brushing into your clit. 

You moan breathlessly at this new sensation. You aren’t helping in the slightest. Even his legs on either side of yours are helping keep them pinned together.

You’re reduced to whimpering as he’s now perfected each thrust, hitting you clit every single time. The fire that had dulled while he prepared roars to life with a fury. Astarion keeps going, faster, as his own sounds begin to run together. Deep moans meld with soft grunts. 

You come after just a few more strokes like that. Muscles spasming to draw your thighs together impossibly tighter. Astarion keeps fucking against you, each brush against your clit drawing out your release just a little more. With a harsh sound from somewhere in his throat, Astarion comes. He keeps himself buried between your legs, and you feel his cum spurting warmly there, coating your thighs. 

He collapses on you, his flesh warmer than usual from how close he’s been to you all night. You don’t mind, eyes already fluttering shut. 

He groans, dismayed, after a moment of resting against you. “Unfortunately, I do have to clean us up, without magic,” he laments. 

You chuckle but don’t stir; sleep already claiming you.  

[giuliettagaltieri]

Cacophony No. 7 in C minor

Pairing: Fiancé!Coriolanus Snow x Fiancée!Reader

Chapter Synopsis: The Fiancée

Warning: doubts, superstitions, bad omens

Word Count: 1449

3 of 7

Coriolanus Snow can never fathom just how many things can go wrong in a span of twenty-four hours.

When he got the position as President, he knew that he was the most powerful man in all of Panem.  He felt indestructible.  He was omnipotent.

It is very humbling how planning a wedding could make him believe otherwise.

The clouds ahead promised an enormous storm.

It took everything on him not to squirm as Tigris made final adjustments to his suit.  Tigris was trying not to say anything despite her obvious discomfort.  In his youth, he remembered Tigris to be unable not to keep quiet about the clothing she designed.

They have fallen ever since he got back from District 12 but to his surprise, she offered to make his suit.  Just like old times, she said.  Gone was the Coriolanus Snow of the past and he has no intentions of looking back.  But he chose not to comment for the sake of an attempt to salvage the relationship that they had.  It was his wedding after all, and grandma’am wanted nothing more than to see the family together for this union.

Tigris was muttering as she pulled on the vest.  Coriolanus breathed deeply, biting his tongue lest he offended his cousin. 

“It fastened two weeks ago.”

He raised a brow.  “Are you suggesting I got fat?”  

Tigris shook her head, her eyes almost fearful until it got passive again.  “No, no.”  She was obviously trying to find words that least offended him.  “You just got…bulkier.”

Coriolanus hums and lets her adjust the clothing to fit him best.

“Do something about it.”

He ignores her sharp glance and the shake of her head as she made adjustments to make it work, just like how she always did.  Tigris might be difficult for him to see eye to eye on things but he cannot deny the talent her hands possessed.

The door to the dressing room flies open and an anxious call from Grandma'am makes him and Tigris halt to see what has happened.

“Coriolanus!”  Grandma’am rushed to them, her eyes filled with panic and in her hands, a long chain of pearl necklace.  “Oh, it is dreadful!”  

Tigris helped Coriolanus out of the vest as he meets Grandma’am halfway in the large dressing room.

“What is it, Grandma’am?”

She hands him the long pearl necklace and she collapses on the couch, the back of her hand pressed against her temple.  Coriolanus and Tigris share a quiet look before he steps closer to the older lady who looks most anguished.

“Grandma’am?”

“She was about to wear it!”  She exclaims.  “Your poor fiancée, she was about to wear pearls at your wedding.”  She stands and grabs the necklace from her grandson.  She walks over to Tigris and forcefully places it on her hands.  “Take that away, far from the two of them.”

Tigris nods just to appease her and crams the long piece of jewelry in the small pockets of her skirt.  “I will, Grandma’am.”

Grandma’am looks away from the necklace and takes a deep breath to compose herself.  “No pearls at your wedding!  I will not permit it!”  She raises a finger warningly at Coriolanus.  “They represent tears one will shed in their marriage!”  She exhales sharply, scandalized by the near misstep.

Coriolanus nods, trying to stop the smile from forming on his lips.  You were never a believer of such superstitions.  He knew how much you loved pearls, the subtlety and elegance of them, incomparable.  

“And one more thing.”  Grandma’am turns to Coriolanus who perks up and looks at her attentively.  She’s his Grandma’am after all.  “You cannot see Y/N before the wedding.”

His brows meet.  “But how am I supposed to-”  

Grandma’am tuts and places a wrinkly finger against his lips.  “No buts!”

Coriolanus nods, smiling at her dedication to have everything done right.  He appreciates it.  His mother is no longer able to fuss over him, he was glad that at least his Grandma’am was still there.

“Oh.”  She cups his cheek, her eyes becoming glassy.  “You look so much like your father.”

Coriolanus smiles proudly.  He worshiped his father, to be told of their likeness is the highest compliment there is.

Just then, a rumble of thunder echoes as the sky gets darker and darker.

Grandma’am looks like she might pass out.

After having his suit fitted just right, Coriolanus paced the halls with purpose, his associate trying to keep up with him in order to finish giving the most recent weather report.

It was not good.

The storm will last until tomorrow evening.  The wedding will be taking place tomorrow in the afternoon.

Coriolanus grits his teeth when another lightning strikes.  “We cannot have rain tomorrow.”

“Mr. President, we cannot decide on weather patterns-”

Coriolanus halts in his steps to glare at the man, who shrinks smaller as his eyes dart everywhere.

In a hushed tone, Coriolanus spoke between gritted teeth.  “I do not pay you to lecture me about meteorology.  I pay you to follow orders.”

The man nods frantically.  “Yes Mr. President!”  He yells before running away.

The loud noise startles a bird finding refuge in the window sill.  When Coriolanus turned to see what it was, he wished he did not.  It was a crow.

A tired groan leaves his throat, his hands coming up to massage his brows.

Could this day get any worse?

“OW!”

He was quick to recognize your voice and Coriolanus had a split second to hold you in his arms as you both fell backwards.

The sound of something breaking had you both still, almost too afraid to see what it was.

“Corio!”  You try to get up but he places a firm hand behind your head to keep you against his chest.  He willed his eyes to remain on the painted ceiling.

“Don’t look.”  He whispers, which you found odd as there was nobody in the hallway and there was no need for you to pretend to follow Grandma’am’s strict lectures.

“Why must you have to stand right at the edge of the curve!”  You say, obviously irritated.

“Why must you be in such a hurry?”  He responds with less bite.  His anger was quick to dissipate with you trapped inside his arms.

You are quiet for a moment and Coriolanus was almost tempted to sneak a peek at you but he chooses not to.  For some reason, he finds himself heeding the warnings that Grandma’am gave him.

He smiles when you get more comfortable atop him, your fingers pulling and playing with his chain brooch.

“Corio.”  You suddenly call, your voice now tamed and a lot smaller…doubting.  “Do you feel like every force of nature is trying to keep us apart?”

He was dreading it the entire day.

Coriolanus clears his throat to keep his voice firm.  “Yes.”

Heavy raindrops started coming down.  The noise was enough to seep out any light from the two of you. 

The rainfall speaks in a way that demands to be heard.

And you and Coriolanus choose to listen, there in the crisp carpet of the long hallway in the lonely Presidential mansion.

He blindly reaches for your hand and you silently hook your fingers together.

“I feel sorry for them.”  He mutters.

“Who?”  You ask quietly as you listen to his heartbeat. 

Coriolanus brushes his fingers through your hair and wonders how you will wear it tomorrow.

“The gods.”

He receives a chuckle in return.

“Indeed.”  You say before pushing yourself up.  Coriolanus follows suit and places a comforting hand on your back as you remain seated on his lap. 

Try as the gods above and below to keep you apart, you are dead set on getting married tomorrow, come what may.

You both look at each, absorbing each feature, before your eyes travel to the broken compact, the one you dropped after bumping into him.

“I will buy you a new one.”  He says and you nod.  “Wardrobe malfunctions, pearls, storms, crows, seeing the bride, and broken glass.”  Coriolanus lists off all the bad omen that happened just today and you sigh.

You offer a hand for him to shake and he looks at it before his intense gaze returns to your eyes.  “I’ll come meet you at the altar tomorrow.  In heels or in a wheelchair.” 

He winces.  “Hopefully in heels.”

“You better be there.”  You say as you lean closer to him, a mischievous smile on your lips, making his lip quirk up playfully.

“Certainly.  In dress shoes or in crutches.”  He grabs your hand to shake.

“Hopefully in dress shoes.”  You giggle and he places a kiss on your lips to further seal your agreement.

Quest for Happiness

Wedding Invitation

[elasticitymudflap]

god, okay. fuck. i hate to say that i really underatand where simon's coming from, like, with his misunderstanding of betty and their relationship. because, well, autism. he's obviously used to being alone and people thinking he's stupid and weird, and is just very passive in his approach to other people in general. i know that feeling. it's a barrier you build around yourself to get through a world that refuses to understand you, and by this point you're so used to getting burned from making social missteps that you eventually stop trying to vocalize your own feelings and desires, so you're perpetually waiting for the other person to make the first move so you can follow:

'this cool girl i met has read my work and is really into it, she's so smart and even sees things in it that i missed! and she really wants to come with me on this next expedition? oh wow, okay, great! i mean, she's so excited about it she basically dropped her own plans and invited herself along, so this is clearly something she really wants to do! who would i be to deny her that?'

'and wow is she ever great! on our expedition together she always knows how to handle obstacles, she doesn't even need my help! i really should be following her lead, she really knows what she's doing so much better than me! i'm so glad she wanted to be here and help me!'

'i can't believe we found the enchiridion together! but she doesn't want to come along with me and take credit for its discovery? even though she helped me out so much and is so incredible and i really really like her- wait!! i shouldn't say that last part!! that would be really weird!! i don't want to make things weird!! she had a good time, and since all of this was her choice i won't try to stop her or make her feel bad or do something she doesn't want to. best to keep it professional.'

'oh hey! she left a note for me in that book i was going to check out, god she's so funny-wait. oh my god, SHE thinks we had something special too??! she says she's going on that trip, but she wishes she could travel the world with me??! she even gave me her address so i can come find her??! okay, mesage received, I GOTTA GO TALK TO HER!!!'

'uh oh, i don't know what to say to her, i obviously said the wrong thing just now and she thinks i don't feel the same way. i know she feels embarassed about the letter. i'll tell her letter was great!! it was incredible!! i want her to know that i want exactly what she wants, and that i feel the same way about her, i'll even say it to her the same way she did!!'

all i'm saying is... from somebody of This specific perspective, i can totally see why he didn't question her not getting on the bus, dropping everything to come with him, and all of her other desicions she made in ooo:

'okay i'm FINALLY going to apologize to betty for how the crown made me scare her away 1000 years ago! wait, hang on, she seems really confused that i'm saying goodbye to her?'

'oh no, we're running out of time but she feels really bad about the fact that she left me!! no, it's okay!! i want you to know that love you, and i forgive you for leaving me!! please don't feel bad about it!!'

to him, betty is unquestionably strong, competent, capable, and confident in everything she does. if she didn't want to do something she simply wouldn't do it, much the same way that he knows she would move heaven and earth if she wanted to make something happen; and who would he be if he didn't give her the chance to let her try? he simply doesn't PERCIEVE her to be insecure, overly self sacrificing, and in need of him to be a lot less passive about her choices, the way that someone from the outside looking in obviously can.

autism4autism couple my FUCKING beloved.

[normal-enderman]

OK GUYS LISTEN IM GOING FULLY MASK OFF ABOUT CHIP X JASMINE DRAKE I LOVE THIS SHIP AND HOW IT INFLUENCES THE DEVELOPMENT OF FISH AND CHIPS

LISTEN TO MY UNHINGED RANTINGS ABOUT WHY ITS GOOD AND MAKES SENSE

(THIS IS MOSTLY ANOTHER CHIP INTERNALISED HOMOPHOBIA CHARACTER ANALYSIS I'LL BE HONEST)

(ALSO I HAVENT FINISHED RIPTIDE YET SO IF JASMINE TURNS OUT TO BE EVIL WHOOPS I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I JUST SAID)

OK LISTEN so Chip has internalised homophobia, as I have previously established. I also, like many, ascribe to the popular interpretation that he has not-straight feelings towards Gillion. And it's really interesting how we can track how these feelings develop as the series progesses.

Chip starts off by freaking out the merest implication of something gay, but he gradually starts getting more comfortable around Gillion, and these reactions decrease. There starts to be more descriptions from Bizly of Chip being physically affectionate towards Gillion, putting his arm around him, leaning on him ect.

Which leads to their encounter with Jasmine... (from here on out we enter the realm of intense headcannoning and nebulous connection to canoncial events, just warning you)

What's SO AWESOME AND INTERESTING AND EXCITING about Chip's interactions with Jazz is that HE DOESNT FREAK OUT when Jazz flirts with him in an extremely forward way, and Chip almost seems surprised by how unbothered his own reactions are. It's like he's had all this time to gradually become accustomed to the potentiality of something gay possibly existing between him and Gillion. In a way, his relationship with Gillion was a safe avenue through which to explore his feelings, since Gillion never made any moves on him, and therefore, never made Chip feel threatened or under pressure to make a decision about how he felt. Chip had all that time to basically think "ok, OBVIOUSLY IM NOT GAY FOR GILLION THATS RIDICULOUS HAHA. what if I was though. What would happen. Would everyone hate me and i would die" and gradually explore the possibilty at his own pace.

Which leads to meeting Jazz, and suddenly being confronted with something extremely gay and explicitly directed at him, and.... he finds it's actually not that bad. It's ok. It’s not scary. He doesn’t feel threatened. What would have elicited a violent reaction from him before he met Gillion is no longer scary, because he's had time to think about it and come to terms with it before that point.

So I like to imagine that Chip ends up having a fling with Jazz, because he decides he's got to figure out how he really feels once and for all, one way or another. And unlike with Gillion, who he deeply cares about and loves as a friend and is terrified of misstepping with, Jazz is just some guy who thinks he's hot and is dtf, so Chip isn't as scared of experimenting with Jazz, since the worst outcome if things go catastrophically wrong is Chip has to jump out the nearest window and run away and just make sure to avoid the Jazz Pirates for the rest of his life.

After this fling, he pretty much is able to come to the decision that "ok. maybe i do like men. in which case oh my god these feelings for Gillion are actually a real thing that I have to deal with and can't just ignore" and he starts gradually, very slowly, expressing his feelings for Gillion more honestly, which leads to the iconic "babygirl/babyboy" moment in Zero, which was Chip extremely awkwardly trying to establish new ground in their relationship (though it's uncertain how effective it was considering Gillion's lack of understanding of Overseas culture. Oh well. Our boy tried.)

[causesciencethatswhy]

Solo's are not your friends

An advice to any ot7 shippers or heavy biased armys, please for the love of God follow accounts that are not just centred around the two or one member you heavily bias. If you find yourself constantly buying into the idea that your favourite member is being heavily mistreated and is the biggest victim of the evil company then please realise you've found yourself in an echo chamber.

This echo chamber consists of people who are either full solos or halfway into solo territory. Talking with actual ot7 armys and keeping up with what the members are actually saying in good faith will help you see for yourself how manipulative and downright abusive a lot of solo/shipper narratives can be.

This is not me trying to say that Hybe is a perfect company that can do no wrong. It has messed up at multiple occasions for each member, even the ones some people consider here as the company favourites. It is why I don't think any of it is a malicious attempt but simply missteps and over presumptions on their half on armys and their reasons for supporting bangtan.

If the only people who are giving you updates on each member are solos who've already made up their minds that their fav is the true victim and everyone in the group secretly hates their fav and our conspiring against them, then you're setting yourself up for an absolute miserable experience. The victimising narratives are not just harmful to the members and their autonomy but also to the fan who feels like they're in a constant war to rescue their fav member from the 'great evil' that is bangtan. It's all very manipulative and mentally taxing.

So please I beg diversify your timelines with not just ot7 armys but other interests you may have as well. While bangtan are the comfort zones for many people myself included, I'm not going to pretend that the constant intense discourse has not impacted my own mental health multiple times. Take a break from them if you're feeling too overwhelmed, they'll always be there doing their own things.

Loving bangtan for me has been one of my longest experiences in any fandom ever, and one way I've kept that love alive has been through taking well spaced breaks and watching original content outside of what online spaces have been saying.

And repeat with me : Solo's are all antis.

Take care of yourself, and like namjoon said protect yourself now .

[sevensoulmates]

I think seeing flashbacks to eddie’s upbringing or bringing back his parents or therapy scenes with him again could really kind of flesh out that arc with him. He always gave me like not-quite lapsed Catholic vibes and I assume he’s always had a complicated relationship with things like faith. and then there’s the whole internalized homophobia part of it — what hits me is that Eddie is so wonderfully open and accepting of other people’s queerness but I don’t think he’s not really of his own and it’s so fucking hard to teach yourself to be kind about that. AND ALL THE STUFF U SAID W CHRIS. Yes. I need more Chris Diaz on screen and not him being out of town whatever the fuck that means

Honestly, the lack of Christopher in 7x05 almost felt to me like the same kind of weird topsy turvy world as the lack of Eddie in Buck's coma dream in 6x11. Just like Eddie would've been his anchor to the real world in Buck's coma dream, Christopher is Eddie's anchor to the real world. If he was physically present in the episode, I doubt Eddie would've been making these kinds of decisions so willy-nilly.

I'm not sure if that was purposeful or they just couldn't fit a Chris scene in there or what. But I do find it fascinating that in the episode that was on the surface SUPPOSED to deepen the relationship between Eddie and Marisol, Christopher was so erroneously ABSENT. It made the Eddie/Marisol relationship feel like something fragmented, like something was missing. Because Marisol has apparently been spending all this time "babysitting" Christopher and in her biggest episode to date, she doesn't even get a single exchange with him? We don't see how Chris reacts to her? We don't know how SHE feels about living with a child? That's a big step for her too like that could literally be your step-child and it feels like there's zero relationship there, even less than Ana-Christopher. She's okay with suddenly becoming a live-in pseudo-mother, because honey, that's the reality of what you were about to do.

Unfortunately, we don't know if Eddie actually talked to Chris about Marisol moving in or not, and either way doesn't have very great implications. But I can give the writers the benefit of the doubt that Christopher's absence was done on purpose, to make the whole Marisol moving in plot feel wrong and like a misstep on every level possible. I guess we'll see how things go down in episode 7!

[hylialeia]

I never did write and post my thoughts after I finished reading Priory of the Orange Tree but given I've been thinking about the state of the fantasy genre a lot lately - across YA, adult, and "new adult" categories - I figure now is a good time to do that.

I didn't particularly like this book.

And I find this weird to write, because unlike most books I end up disliking, Priory was consistently well written in a technical sense, had a narrative voice I generally navigate towards, and consisted of some genuinely impressive worldbuilding and well-thought-out fantasy concepts.

Yet it took me months to finish it. I even hit a point where I almost DNF'd the entire thing, I was so surprised by my lack of motivation to continue. This book hooked me, presented me with something interesting, and then... completely flat-lined.

While a lot of this could have just been media burnout on my end (you can never really account for how your own personal mood and context when you start something new), I at least know for sure that my lack of enthusiasm had nothing to do with the novel's length. In fact, one of my technical criticisms of Priory is that I think it would have benefited immensely from splitting its story into a series and extending things, fleshing out more of the characters in each of their respective settings, as well as allowing for a lot more build-up towards the climax and eventual intersection of the characters' storylines.

As it stands, those are the areas that felt the most rushed and underwhelming to me. There were several potential instances of conflict throughout the novel that the narrative brushes over or ignores in a way I found particularly disappointing. In a book that grounds itself in examining religious bias, propaganda, xenophobia, and sexism, there were surprisingly few deeper conflicts or tense moments between our main characters. This became especially apparent by the end, when widely accepted histories (and religions) are turned on their heads and most of our POV characters carry on without any sense of fallout, betrayal, or lasting hurt. Each and every character puts aside their personal biases and histories in a way that should feel admirable and satisfying, but instead felt less than believable and even... underwhelming, given the speed with which it was done and the potential (fascinating!) conflicts that those agreements squandered.

I couldn't help but feel that the characters of Priory were either half-baked or intentionally watered down for the purposes of being palatable. Tané, Niclays, and Sabran were (in my totally subjective opinion) the most interesting characters by far; it doesn't escape me that they were also the ones who did, said, and/or thought some of the more uncharitable and even downright terrible things within the novel. Tané's inferiority complex and self-sabotaging nature, Niclays's mixture of pessimism, cowardice, and bitterness, and Sabran's privilege and willful prejudice, all served to make them more fascinating to me. They gave me clear character flaws that made their respective stories more interesting, flaws that stoked my desire to see them improve (or deteriorate) on the course of their character arcs. I found myself disappointed when those arcs became rushed in the final act, those flaws never proving a sufficient obstacle to their dynamics or growth.

Ead and Loth were sadly the worst case scenario. I wanted desperately to like them, but every POV chapter they had seemed to be written by an author terrified to make them in any way unlikable, or even portray them as in the wrong. Ead ends up being completely right about everything; the falseness of Sabran's history, her religion, and her country. Her only missteps result from a lack of information, which she quickly overcomes or is the first to genuinely discover, thus erasing any feeling of culpability that otherwise may have been implied; I never feel any legitimate moments of shame, grief, horror, or regret on her part, because the author never gives her legitimate reason to feel those things. Niclays is interesting in his betrayals and moments of cowardice, and the moments where he overcomes them are all the more meaningful for having seen him falter. Ead, arguably our main protagonist, never really gets something similar. She doesn't make any mistakes, and this is the greatest disservice Shannon could do to her as a character.

I barely know what to say about Loth, mostly because he only began interesting me when he encountered Tané - a dynamic that was cut woefully short and could have been absolutely fascinating if it was deeply explored. Prior to this moment (which had to be in the last 10% of the book, if I remember correctly), Loth is "a walking camera" (quoting a friend). He has characteristics with potential; religious, loyal, and dedicated... but considering the entire basis of his faith is overturned by one of his closest friends, he has shockingly little reaction or issue with this. Due to the important of larger plot happenings, Loth has to dust himself off and just postpone his reaction to the utter disassembly of his religious background for another time - which we are then never able to see. His reactions to most everything are basic, reasonable, minimal, or even dull; he could have paralleled Sabran in his religious prejudice, even showed some effects of his society's religious fanaticism, but he never really seems to - at least, never in a way that truly feels like it's testing him. For all intents and purposes, Loth feels like a character who should be making snap judgments and loads of mistakes, but instead is relegated to keeping those thoughts to himself (even hiding them from the reader) and soldiering on.

Priory was mostly recommended to me based on the impressive scale of its worldbuilding, which was definitely a cut above the rest. I thought Shannon had a firm grasp on her setting and some legitimately excellent imagery for it. I've been made more appreciative of this by the analysis in Global Medievalism by Helen Young and Kavita Mudan Finn, which dissects how Priory (and others) takes the predominantly white interpretation of medievalism and medieval fantasy expands it in a way that's far more inclusive and also far more interesting than much of our modern day "high fantasy" media. I'm not without my criticisms, however; the worldbuilding is another area where the pacing hurts the story, as we only have one 800 page book to get to know the seemingly important settings in which these characters live. That may sound like a lot, but it's perilously little; balancing those vivid worldbuilding details with a packed plot and character arcs meant that, at any given time, one aspect was always getting the short end of the stick.

While I appreciate Shannon's attempts to write with a feminist approach to high fantasy, I think her efforts highlight an issue I have with many similar approaches. Primarily, I find it difficult for a work to address, untangle, disassemble, and analyze misogyny in a setting where they... don't really show it. We're in a state where I think many of us have become (understandably) distrustful of media claiming "realism" or "historical accuracy" to defend its portrayal of violence and various types of oppression, but lately, I've noticed the response to that gratuitousness (in the cases where these things actually are gratuitous instead of just uncomfortable-yet-intentional, that is), is to avoid these things in the narrative almost entirely. That's all well and good; you don't have to include racism, misogyny, ableism, or imperialism in your fantasy world, especially when your desire is to write an alternative escapism to these things.

But when a piece of media is striving to say something about those topics, as I assume Priory does since its driving conflict results from a history of dismissing women's bravery and sacrifice against evil and instead granting the reward of their efforts to a man, then I have to admit, I feel somewhat underwhelmed when the women in the story never face any of the trials I myself deal with in real life. Their male colleagues seem consistently respectful with rare few exceptions; women across the series are allowed to occupy roles from respected advisors to knights trained in combat. Sabran herself seems to be one of the only women deeply impacted by familiar misogynistic mindsets, as she's constantly pressured to marry a man and produce offspring for the continuation of her line. Yet even this could almost be argued to be a special case within the world, since this pressure results from the religious belief that the continuation of her line (through her, the queen, the matriarch) is keeping the main antagonist at bay. This area felt like it wanted to be a subversion to much of the gritty, "realistic" fantasy that plagues the market, but to me, it felt more like indecisiveness. Is there misogyny in this world or isn't there? Is there homophobia in this setting or not? The answer could simply be yes, no, or even somewhat, but instead it felt like a "maybe".

Overall, Priory of the Orange Tree fell flat for me, maybe because my expectations were too high, or maybe because I just wasn't in a place to really dig my teeth into it. Mostly, though, I believe it fell flat because Shannon failed in what I believe to be the most important area of focus in a work: character. I would have traded worldbuilding, plot, imagery, and much more for a cast of characters that felt more intensely raw and complex, that were more unabashedly real in their flaws even if they risked becoming unlikable. Sitting at a 5.5/10

[secondeve]

hi hello happy opening, nice to meet everyone! i’m blue & this is shin jieum, sadpathetic girl looking to exchange a plot of land for just a bit ( a lot ) of the love or power she thinks she deserves ! i've got her profile, background pages up & more info / plots under the cut, pls like to plot or ask for my d/scord and i’ll be there! 💗

info

unknown / nth was on loop while writing her bio, though i think that's more indulgent for her than the sharp objects jieum's actually made out of rip but that's on context & for listening!

starting from the bottom: the shins are a family that somehow manages to weasel their way to capitalise on whoever's in power at the time ( usually the parks ). have an unfortunate tendency to angle for their daughters marrying into the founding families—though they can't be said to be unsuccessful on that front!

so that's how jieum is raised! mother is sour from losing out on the yang heir of her time & is now puppeteering her children into where she almost was. she lied to jieum that she's a yang-affair baby & insists that she's lost out, so she's got a big chip on her shoulder about not having what she's due

( would fuck her up to find out that she's actually just the daughter of a mediocre man but she doesn't know that. yet! )

but anyway jieum is not the alluring type :( she fades into the background, v much unperks of being a wallflower. not rlly charismatic or sweet enough to win any hearts & doesn't have the backbone to stand taller than kim i or yang on her own either so she's kind of fucked she's always 2nd yknow bridesmaid but never the bride until!!!!

she Does become the bride. hot damn!

she thinks she's finally getting her flowers, but this marriage is loveless & faithless so eventually ( quite quickly ) falls apart. her ego is her undoing and she turns cold & dry to park i, which only makes things worse, rip—she's defo keeping up the facade of a perfect home but it's not that at all

tries to soothe her ego by reminding herself of all the people she's better than now that she's married into the parks! has defo stepped on a few toes for her ego's sake but she has old habits of deferring to people & also needs her father in law's help re the land so she can't be Too uppity?

let's go horoscope girlies she's got a pisces sun aries moon taurus rising, she longs for love & loves herself too much but it's not enough for her... she might think she's playing the game well but it's usually clouded by her ego / insecurities. makes missteps all the time bc she's not used to being on the upper hand or needing to be careful since being 2nd means no one rlly notices u. feels sorry for herself all the time & can be kind but only when it makes her feel better about herself. also she's so bored & discontent with life she's just a housewife but who knows if she'll still be when she starts shilling for tk group!

plots

fellow stiffed by life sufferers. people who are willing to commiserate about how bad their lives are even tho objectively none of them are having it that bad

the first / only person she's ever come first to & like sure they aren't important or powerful but they make her feel powerful so maybe she's attached but sneakily. maybe she doesn't want to be associated w them too publicly?

a friend her friend they're hers & she might have smth codependent with them

someone who thinks she's so pathetic but she's like trainwreck entertainment for them they keep leading her down the wrong paths

or maybe someone who feels bad for her. they keep trying to help her & she keeps getting mad at them for meddling even tho they mean well & she Knows they mean well but her ego is small & easily bruised

people who don't like park i & the wife of my enemy is my enemy—but if she doesn't like him too then is she ur friend?

someone who smells a rat when she's around & repeating jung / iida's talking points about selling the land...

also someone who might believe her & legit thinks the shins have the good of the town at heart she's working an angle on them now

the usu yknow childhood friends rivals exes fwbs ( yes she's married but if he's cheating so is she... )

[fallout4-reacts]

I don't know if you've played any other fallout game but may I ask companions react to finding out that Sole is actually an Enclave remnant (like the guy from Far Harbor)? If you can't, it's fine. Just swap Enclave for Gunners. Thx!

Yes, I played 1-2-3-NV-4, I scratched and didn’t really like tactics, I scratched and didn’t have time to play 76

I’m a little fallout maniac

Cait : "What the bloody hell is that supposed to do to me?"

Cait and Sole landed on the edge of a good campfire because the area is clear, and the path is still long before Harbor Grand Hotel. Sole wanted to take advantage of the chance to discuss about their past, which had come back to haunt them when they encountered the Great Zealot Brian Richter. The enclave. 

"I... I had to talk about it."

Cait appears to soften as she places a hand on them.

"Hey, we've all made choices in the past that weren't exactly crystal clear, whether it was for the sake of survival or because we believed there were no better options. I'm the living embodiment of that, darling. But we've made progress, and honestly, I reckon we can confidently say we're heading in the right direction."

Sole gives her a gentle smile. Cait can get right to the point. They will always require her to return them to the present.

Codsworth : Codsworth listened as they went through each detail. There is no doubt that Sole has changed since the war. These awful decisions. He does, however, comprehend somewhere.

"You truly believed it to be a commendable decision?"

"I think. And I did. I opened my eyes though, and I left the ranks as I dealt with everything else.”

“Ah, I see you have made the correct decision, indeed. About your brahmin steak, mom/sir, do you still prefer it to be cooked thoroughly?”

“Yes Codsworth, please, with sauce. A lot of sauce.”

Curie : "In this Enclave, did they engage in acts of malevolence?"

Sole sighs.

"Unfortunately, that's what I discovered in the end, yes."

"But what did they do wrong?"

Sole's eyes widen in stupor.

"Brotherhood-like technology, Gunners-like mentality—can you imagine?"

"Have they perpetually exhibited such behaviour?"

They are shaking their heads.

"Not always. For a time, they pretended to be a legitimate military organisation deserving of the title. They then began to think bigger, desiring more authority. That's when I realised the foundations were in bad shape."

"I see."

Curie adds nothing. She'll undoubtedly have additional questions. She's always asking additional questions. But, for the time being, she has discovered a mushroom sample that she is very interested in studying, and her interest in this other subject has waned.

Danse (Post BB)  : The man spends a long time just examining Sole, softly detailing them as if dissecting them completely with his eyes. Sole believed that this story would be forgotten, but on one of their missions, Danse discovered incriminating documents about Sole. Since then, he hasn't said anything. He only gave Sole an intense glance, with his lips pressed in a thin, severe line.

Sole awaits his verdict, and possibly their execution.

"We've all had serious lapses in our judgement, from what I see here," he concludes.

Sole had no idea how nervous they were. It's as if an iron rod has suddenly cracked in their body, and they're on the verge of collapsing. Danse appears to notice and approaches them, resting a hand on their shoulder.

"The past, my friend, is but a distant memory. In the grand tapestry of our shared history, your unwavering camaraderie has been the cornerstone, steadfastly bolstering me through triumphs and missteps alike. I am your companion, Sole; you are mine, and that is the only thing of significance."

Deacon : He's nevertheless having difficulties believing it. He was certain he acknowledged everything about Sole's life. However, P.A.M. is formal here; there is no room for error. He swallows the sensation of betrayal he had after honestly believing he and Sole shared a fairly sacred tie, feeling duped. That evening, over the fire, he is unusually quiet, as if he is painstakingly digesting the information.

"Hey? Are there no jokes tonight? There are no comments on anything? What's the matter, buddy?"

"No 'buddy' with me."

Sole, who was initially a little worried, is now extremely concerned. Being like this is completely out of character for Deacon. Unfortunately, he knows that if he presses the spy, Deacon will simply vanish into the wilderness. Therefore, he endorses this shift in attitude in the hopes to finally discover and resolve the problem.

Dogmeat : The good dog is unconcerned...really… He's here right now with a nice master, and he'll follow them all the way to the end of the earth. Factions are human stories, not canine concerns. But he appreciates Sole's conversation. He like hearing Sole speak.

Elder Maxson : Sole felt compelled to confess everything. However, staring at Maxson's white countenance of hatred while he remains rigid and subdued in rage in front of them, they question whether this was the proper move. They bowed their heads in shame.

"I realise I should have told you sooner... But that was a long time ago, and... I no longer agree with their values."

The Elder remains silent, but it is far from reassuring to Sole. They have no idea how to get out of this horrible situation or how to repair what has been broken. They believe the storm will break. They assumed that their friendship, trust, and respect for the Elder would suffice, but it now appears that they misjudged Maxson's resentment for the fallen faction. When he finally speaks, his voice is filled with disappointment, rage, and hatred.

"Leave immediately, wastelander. Begone from this place and steer clear of my vessel. Do not ever return. You are henceforth deemed an enemy of the Brotherhoods and shall be met with lethal force upon visual contact. I should've had you executed, for the example... *he sighs*. I pray that my frailty shall never haunt me in the days to come. But I shall never desire to lay eyes upon thee again, and I shall never yearn to have thy name grace my ears once more. Set out from the vicinity where the Brotherhoods reside."

Sole is not told twice. They considered it. They were afraid of being executed. They now have certainty.

Hancock : He chuckles. These aren't even close to his main interest. It's not his concern, it's other times and other locations. He offers a good dose of Jet to help Sole relax.

"Um... no thanks."

"Your bad."

The mayor is now focusing on what is truly critical. Fahrenheit will have his head if he does not intervene because the previous caravan did not pay its charge.

Gage : "Is this the outfit where you pick up that sour disposition of yours?"

"Huh?"

"Well, boss, I gotta say, you're really holdin' your own with this Enclave business...Is it akin to the Brotherhoods?"

Sole weighs.

"Yeah, somewhere, a little."

"Are they the ones responsible for making you such a badass?"

“Maybe…”

"Well, ain't that a sight for sore eyes. So, it seems like we've got ourselves a winner here. So, are you planning on conquering these settlements, or do you have another tale to spin that I couldn't care less about?"

MacCready : He frowns. He doesn't want to pass judgement... After all, Sole pays him handsomely. And judging would make him feel hypocritical. He is a former Gunner, not exactly a hero. But he frowns. He is well aware of what the Enclave is and, if we may say so, that they are worse than these cretins of Brotherhoods. Looking back at the parallel between their past and his own, he gives Sole a keen look.

"Have you sorted everything out with them? Are they gonna come at us in the dead of night for a desertion execution?"

"They are no longer in operation. The Brotherhoods have entirely dissolved what remained of their organisation."

"Is that where ya left the ranks?"

"No, before that. I disliked who I had become."

Mac can relate once more. He hands Sole a bottle of beer.

" If those sorry bastards can't even put up a fight against you and you keep coughing up my caps, then there ain't no damn reason to waste breath on it."

Nick Valentine : "Enclave, huh? Yeah, I caught wind of that. The wicked little sibling of the Brotherhoods, as far as I can tell."

Sole attempts to swallow. They are well aware that everyone, without exception, judges the Enclave. They eventually deserted the ranks because it was a big crap.

"Did ya know, partner, that I was once a member of the Institute?"

Sole raises their head to meet Nick's gaze. The old synth is clearly mocking. Sole understands the message.

"I'm making a big deal out of it?"

"A tad, I reckon. Now, if we were to discuss this fresh lead you're bringing back, do we?"

Piper : "A genuine ex-Enclave soldier, huh? Wow! Do ya realise that I churn out one edition a week just with your crap?"

Sole's eyes widen in astonishment. And possibly of terror.

"Are you going to write an article about this?"

" No, I ain't pullin' your leg. Still, it would sell, but I reckon it'd reflect poorly on the reputation of the... General of the Minutemen, you know? I'd rather go after the real villains. I would prefer ask you a hand in proving McDonough is a synth."

"How do you intend to accomplish this?"

Preston : The Colonel remains silent. He doesn't appear to have heard anything. He keeps turning the molerat meat on the stick he's holding above the campfire. Sole can no longer hold for long.

"Don't you mind?"

Preston raises his head to gaze at his General.

"The individual who came to my aid at Concorde was no longer affiliated with the Enclave, friend. This fella, who's always ready to lend a hand to the settlers and those in need, ain't no Enclave member, I tell ya. You speak of the soldier from the Enclave, do you? I'm afraid I can't say for certain, friend. We appear to have designated General of the Minutemen the hero who cleans the Commonwealth. That organisation should be the only one on their service record."

Sole laughs. What else could they have expected?

Strong : "What Enclave?"

Sole sighs. He was looking forward to this discussion. The past usually comes back to haunt us at some point. But he didn't realise he had to discuss it with a companion who doesn't seem to care about much, usually.

"It was a military group. Really something. We were fighting... well, that's all in the past now. A little sloppiness, a few too many smacks to the face by the BoS, and all the former Enclave troops are in disarray and have rebuilt their lives elsewhere."

"Soldier brave. Enclave not soldier."

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Soldier fights to death. Puny human not dead. Not soldier."

“Hm. Okay, but what about this milk?"

X6-88 : "Indeed, it appears that prior to your decision to forsake Commonwealth organisations, you had already forsaken another former organisation."

"Wait a minute, what? I never turned my back on anyone!"

X6-88 indicates the screen in front of him. "You are present within the Enclave records. Do you deny it?"

Sole lets out a long sigh.

"I don't deny it. I was a member of that organisation. But it all crashing down. Like everyone else, I gathered what I could and moved on to rebuild my life."

"You have displayed a distinct lack of loyalty by abandoning them, much like the other factions that facilitated your arrival here. Is the Institute to be included in this package list, sir/madam?"

Sole is now staring at X6 as though he can't believe what he's hearing.

"It almost looks like you're trying to insult me."

There isn't even a wrinkle on the corner of the Courser's mouth.

" Sir/Madam, you have consistently forsaken your allegiances, repeatedly abandoning your organisations in favour of more advantageous prospects. I shall duly retain this information. If you have intentions to depart from the Institute, it is my solemn obligation to relay this information to my superiors."

"Well, as you so eloquently stated, I abandon my 'organisations' when I find a 'better' organisation. Let's play it that way if that's how you want to see it. Do you know of a better organisation than the Institute, X6?"

"Negative, Sir/Madam."

"Then you have your answer."

And the Courser seemed to be satisfied...

[nikibogwater]

I'm as disappointed as anyone else to hear that Wish missed the mark, especially after finding out about the film's scrapped concepts. But after taking some time to reflect (translation: thinking about it in the shower), I realized that in all the hubbub about what the movie didn't do, we sort of lost sight of the things it DID. No, this isn't me saying that the movie was actually a masterpiece and all the criticism is unwarranted, but I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that there was at least some small attempt to return to the classic Disney formula--something that a lot of audiences have been wanting for almost a decade now. They tried to make a fairy tale-inspired musical that wasn't a sequel or a spinoff. They tried to go back to the kind of universal themes that their older films often centered around. And again, the key word there is they tried. Based on what I know of the movie, I can't honestly say that they actually succeeded. But it was a teeny, tiny, wobbly half-step in the right direction. And if the movie wasn't supposed to be a triumphant celebration of the studio's 100th anniversary, I think a lot of people would be more forgiving of its' many, many missteps. It's just hard to stay positive when this movie kind of only goes to show how much the Disney studio has lost since its founding. They've forgotten the importance of taking risks, of prioritizing artistry over potential marketability. They've even forgotten the bare basics of good storytelling, like effective antagonists, relatable heroes, and applicable themes. But still, they did at least try, and that's better than nothing. The last thing I want is for the company to take away the wrong message from this experience. It wasn't the attempt to get back to the old formula that made people dislike the movie, it was the execution of said formula. The car's not broken, you just need to remember how to drive it.

I guess the TL;DR of this is just that I hope Wish serves as a necessary stepping-stone for the studio, to help them get back in touch with their roots and remember what made us love Disney films in the first place. It's sad that that's something they have to re-learn at all, but I'd rather encourage them to fix the problem than wallow in their own ineptitude. Sure, they tripped and faceplanted on the concrete, but at least they fell facing in the right direction. Here's hoping they can nail it with their next animated movie.

[ruthlesslistener]

I have a question that I'm finding more and more concerning with you that I think you probably don't notice at all, but why is your judgement on what's right and wrong so heavily reliant on what your discord friends say? You made mistakes and as some have pointed it out, but the moment your discord friends say you haven't done anything wrong; then you believe in them completely. One of the things I learned as an autistic person is to listen and learn from others if my behavior is found to be on the bad side, but I'm starting to notice how easily you believe in your friends and ignore others for their sake. I don't wanna say examples here, but as an autistic person to another, its fine to ask friends for advice and judgment but sometimes they aren't always right and we should take note of that more often. Like you, I also have trouble reading between the lines so I also rely on friends to help me understand. But I also know well they aren't always right and try to analyse situations myself more and decide for myself whether I'm the one who is in the right.

Please don't get mad. I know I'm not the only one who pointed this out, but you act like such a jerk when your wrongs are pointed out and frankly I think it's time you ease down too.

(Quick note- my tone here is neutral and contemplative, not mad. This is something I've been thinking about on myself)

The main reason why I ask my friends for feedback is actually BECAUSE I put a lot of thought into social scenarios, but I've got a huge blind spot when it comes to how they actually work and how I'm coming off in them. I tend to treat them like a math problem, but alas, I'm very much not good at math. Because my friends have an outsider pov of not being me while also knowing me well enough to be aware of my flaws and inclinations, they're able to give me perspectives that I simply do not have that I can then factor into my analysis of the situation. The entirety of the misstep was my own, but since I was extremely confused as to how a mild statement from my end (to my eyes) computed to someone thinking that I called them a pedophile because to me that wasn't even CLOSE to what I was saying, I went to others for help.

It's also worth it to point out that my friends were the ones who said I was wrong and that I came off as saying something I didn't mean, but ALSO that the people I wronged were handling it really poorly and jumping to conclusions even after I apologized and clarified it, which is where I wasn't in the wrong. So they're hardly telling me I was innocent, and I don't view them as the end-all-be-all statement of what's right and wrong here. They just get factored into my calculations when I have a missing variable.

That isn't to say that I don't act like a jerk when defensive, but it's not triggered by being wrong, it's triggered by accusations and people not listening to what I have to say. I most certainly was in the wrong to assume malicious intent, but I'm not in the wrong to point out that the people who assumed malicious intent handled it just as poorly as I did, given that they continued to claim that I said something about them that I outright said was an error made in ignorance on my part, and that I had intentions that I really did not have (ie, redtagging them). That's not me refusing to take blame, that's just the reality of the situation. I was wrong, I was speaking from a place of ignorance that I really should have put more thought into, and I DID react defensively and like an absolute ass when I got a slew of aggressive messages about it, but the fact that I continued to get more aggressive messages after it that continued to assume malicious intent after clarification isn't where I fucked up, because I really can't do more than what I already apologized for.

[nemirutami]

hi i was curious what fic you were refering to in your minato/akechi art :>??

It's a fic i've been writing on and off for a year now but i havent posted it anywhere yet haha.... unless?

In summary: It's about Akechi finding new work at a company called R.E.I (reliable, experienced, innovative) where Minato is the CEO (and widower) with a child Akechi comes to know as Rei (yep Minato named the company after his daughter). The fic focuses on all 3 influencing each other and helping each other cope/grow from their traumas but is also my biggest excuse to write cute scenes where Akechi gets to have an adopted daughter and be the dad he never got to be (he's terrible at it). If you're wondering "why would Minato hire Akechi" then don't worry. He has a very good reason. Minato hired Akechi because Akechi gave him shitty customer service and Minato took one look at him and said "I can adjust his attitude." now Akechi works for Minato bc he's an idiot. Most the fic is also me writing them comedically stupid and sad and very stupid. Oh, and I guess they kiss maybe. But really it's about broken people building a family w/o knowing. I made the fic as a joke and that's why it can't be named anything other than "Is it wrong to hit on my boss?" I've made a ton of art for it (some which I guess i've already posted alluding to the fic). I did make a cover sketch for it tho! There's a bunch of foreshadowing in the items on display (but it's too sketchy to make out I'm sure).

The 100k part of this fic is already up on patreon but I'm writing/editing the other 100K. So like, uh... 200+ pages of text and 29 chapters so far. In theory, the fic is already finished/has an ending, but I just need to fill in the gaps and tie plot points together.

If you're interested, I'll add the prelude/first chapter below the cut lmfao. It pretty much sets up the premise as tightly as possible in under 2K words. It has not been edited at all so take this abhorrently constructed first draft with no shame. You can judge my noodle words all you want but remember if you say a mean thing I will die.

Title: Is it wrong to hit on my boss?

Pair: Minake

Ch 1: That's not how this was supposed to go.

10 AM on the dot, to no one's surprise, he was flawlessly punctual as usual. Today was too important for missteps, and Akechi had carefully calculated each and every word he was going to use to land this job opportunity with one of Japan's biggest corporations in web development and online advertisement. Having worked at a low paying job for the most part (one with a boss that relentlessly attacked him and tried to convince him that he would amount to nothing, no less) didn’t prepare him for the call he received from R.E.I's founder about a new job opportunity. 

Cocky with confidence, he quit his job before the interview. 

After all, if this founder somehow went out of his way to request him, he must have done so with good reason.

With his hair tied back neatly into a ponytail and his shirt tucked beneath a more-than-a-little expensive looking business suit, he walked into the lobby, checked in, and got told to take the elevator up to the 3rd floor. He cocked his head curiously at the attendant before turning his gaze towards the elevator. Next to the elevator was a fire extinguisher for emergencies, and a metal plate outlining over 100 floors for the building. Naturally, there had to be some mistake. Floor 1 was considered the lobby, floor 2 was a storage for supplies and spare parts, and floor 3 was where their call center started. Their web developers were a fair bit higher up in the company, which made his directions only more confusing. What was a web developer supposed to do at a call center? While the thought of not having to fake a smile over the phone was comforting, the very image of having to do customer support 7 hours a day for the rest of his life put the fear of God in him.

"Pardon my rudeness, but there m-" Must be some mistake. The old lady at the counter was one step ahead of him and delivered her message with a sharp tone that left Akechi speechless.

"The founder's office is on the third floor," she interrupted her sentence with a huff, "-treat yourself to the coffee upstairs, you're gonna need it." and punctuated it with a dismissive wave of her hand. If more people hadn't entered the building and tried to take care of their own business, Akechi would have asked her to elaborate. But since he now for sure knew he was going to meet the founder, he decided not to make a scene.

"I… see. Thank you for the offer, but I must decline. I'm sure everything will go smoothly." But if they put him in a call center to provide customer support around the clock he was prepared to personally wire that black coffee maker into a homemade bomb and take down the whole building with him. While that thought crossed his mind, he smiled politely at the woman and took the elevator ride up.

Never in his life had he been so confused by a layout. He was aware of the building's size, but this was beyond ridiculous. The hallways almost looked like a maze, with paintings scribbled from wall to wall. Upon closer inspection, they looked like kids drawings. Either this was part of some PR stunt, or the founder was really into bright neon colors. If Akechi didn't hear the man on the other line himself and came here looking for a job, he'd expect to find a kindergarten at the other side of the many doors down the hall. His confidence was dwindling more and more with each step.

Once he reached the door he assumed would take him into the workplace where the founder was seated, he grasped at the handle only to find it locked. He blinked, and twisted the doorknob again, hoping it would open the door. When it didn't, he pulled a little harder until he heard a click from the other side, and noticed that the plate beneath the handle had the word "push" written in caps. Without thinking, he put far too much swing into his movement, and ended up smacking the poor sap on the other side that kindly unlocked the door for him, and the man's coffee poured right onto his suit and onto the floor in a loud mess.

"Ah, sorry!" He would have stayed and apologized properly if he wasn't at risk of running late. "If you give me a minute, I'll be right back and help you clean up!" and he was gone. He could have stayed and helped but chose to prioritize the meeting. In the end, that guy was out one cup of coffee and still had a stable income, whereas missing out on this interview might cost Akechi not only his career, but his livelihood. If this went south, he could wind up homeless. Unless he begged for his old job back.

No, the chill of winter would be less humiliating than going back on his hands and knees to the boss that not only demeaned him, but continuously plagiarized his work for his own benefit.

"Hewoo," In the midst of his early mid-twenties crisis, a soft voice spoke to him, but the only people he spotted were already head-deep in work. Another faint cry, this one, a bit more shy.

"Heo…" he turned his head down, and spotted a tiny girl hiding beneath a desk with her fist against her lips and her knees up to her chest. She looked about four years old, short curly hair with a clip-on to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Really, if she hadn't called out to him, he never would have spotted her in those shadows. He stared at her stupidly before turning his head up and asking if anyone brought their daughter to work. The girl shushed him, and got his attention once again.

"M, hidin…" 

"Ah," It was too early for a break, but he supposed someone might have taken some time off to call a responsible adult to come pick up their child from work. Still, he couldn't help but smile and crouch next to her, putting one finger over his lips with a whisper. "It's ok, I won't tell anyone." The little girl smiled so wide she was practically squinting. 

"Who r u…" He cocked his head slightly. Did she know most of the people on this floor? She spoke as if she knew he was a stranger. He shrugged it off. That can't be right. Must have been childish curiosity. 

"I'm Akechi Goro, and you?"

"Ake...ak...e...Aket…" She struggled and fumbled over her words, before she furrowed her brows with confidence and looked upset she couldn't yet pronounce his name.

"Gowo." He couldn't hold back a smile, and the little girl, now forgetting she's supposed to be hiding, shouts at him.

"Don't laff! That's mean!"

"Sorry!" His words said sorry, but his smile told her differently. At least, until his phone began beeping. It was now exactly 10 am.

"Sh-!" Too much in a hurry, he rushed to stand up quickly, and banged the back of his head against the table. He fell to his knees again, pushed down by the tabletop, and grabbed the back of his neck. The little girl, to no fault of her own, laughed at him without a shred of sympathy. Before he could get up on his feet, an arm patted him on the back.

"Hey, you ok?" He couldn't tell with his eyes closed, but the little girl mimicked the man's movements and reached her tiny hand out to pat Akechi's knee as if to comfort him. Before he could respond, he heard the man say "There you are!" followed by a tiny high pitched scream that honest to God was only giving Akechi a headache.

Still better than his old job, despite the abuse and trauma he's had to endure thus far.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the man that he accidentally slammed into squishing the little girl's cheeks, possibly as punishment.

"What did I tell you? You can't win."

"Mmmrmmmrrrr"

"Do you give up?" The child stubbornly stared him in the eye and only repeated her mumbling louder. The man sighed, but with the hint of a smile.

"Alright, go hide again." The joy in that little girl's eyes could part the skies on a cloudy day. She beamed and quickly ran off to hide elsewhere while the man covered his eyes and began counting. As soon as she was gone and he no longer heard the tip tap of feet, he got up and extended his hand towards Akechi.

"You look lost. Do you need any help?" This was humiliating. A kid laughing at him, he could handle, but a future coworker extending him his aid this early in their partnership was shameful. Especially since this was the same guy he left high and dry just moments ago.

"No, no, I'll be alr-" His voice was now much less sympathetic.

"Just take my hand." So much for debate. He didn't appreciate how everyone in this company cut him off mid-sentence, but took the other man's hand to get back up on his feet. As soon as he did, he got looked over rather thoroughly, a little too intensely to his liking.

"Doesn't look like you're bleeding, but if you're feeling dizzy, there's a nurse just two doors down to the left. She can examine you in case you've suffered any severe damage." His concern was flattering but unnecessary and sadly a waste of time.

"Haha, no worries. Actually... I need to get to the founder's office. Do you know where that is?" 

"Yes, but I wouldn't worry about t- Rei, don't climb the bookshelf! Junpei, will you-" 

"Aye, aye, boss! Come here you trouble bunny! How about you hop hop into bed and take a long looong nap? Man, uncle Junpei could use one too. I'll show you how it's done, like a pro!"

"Iori, sleep on the job and you're fired."

"Come on Philei, your dad is scary when he's talking to people that are not you!"

So much happened in the span of just a couple of seconds.

"...Rei?" He felt his blood run cold. "Her name is… Rei?" The man, somewhat confused that he was still standing there with a dumb look on his face, spoke as if this was basic knowledge Akechi should have known before stepping into the building.

"Of course, that's my daughter," he holds out his hand again, this time, expecting Akechi to shake it. "-and I'm the founder, Minato Arisato. And you are?"

Absolutely screwed.

[2ndeve]

let's gaurrr same girl same deal it's just blue again with shin jieum, nothing has changed so tbh if you've read this intro before u don't need to read it again! still a sadpathetic girl looking to exchange a plot of land for just a bit ( a lot ) of the love or power she thinks she deserves ! profile, background pages are here & more info / plots under the cut, like this or just hmu i’ll be there! 💗

info

unknown / nth was on loop while writing her bio, though i think that's more indulgent for her than the sharp objects jieum's actually made out of rip but that's on context & for listening!

starting from the bottom: the shins are a family that somehow manages to weasel their way to capitalise on whoever's in power at the time ( usually the parks ). have an unfortunate tendency to angle for their daughters marrying into the founding families—though they can't be said to be unsuccessful on that front!

so that's how jieum is raised! mother is sour from losing out on the yang heir of her time & is now puppeteering her children into where she almost was. she lied to jieum that she's a yang-affair baby & insists that she's lost out, so she's got a big chip on her shoulder about not having what she's due

( would fuck her up to find out that she's actually just the daughter of a mediocre man but she doesn't know that. yet! )

but anyway jieum is not the alluring type :( she fades into the background, v much unperks of being a wallflower. not rlly charismatic or sweet enough to win any hearts & doesn't have the backbone to stand taller than kim i or yang on her own either so she's kind of fucked she's always 2nd yknow bridesmaid but never the bride until!!!!

she Does become the bride. hot damn!

she thinks she's finally getting her flowers, but this marriage is loveless & faithless so eventually ( quite quickly ) falls apart. her ego is her undoing and she turns cold & dry to park i, which only makes things worse, rip—she's defo keeping up the facade of a perfect home but it's not that at all

tries to soothe her ego by reminding herself of all the people she's better than now that she's married into the parks! has defo stepped on a few toes for her ego's sake but she has old habits of deferring to people & also needs her father in law's help re the land so she can't be Too uppity?

let's go horoscope girlies she's got a pisces sun aries moon taurus rising, she longs for love & loves herself too much but it's not enough for her... she might think she's playing the game well but it's usually clouded by her ego / insecurities. makes missteps all the time bc she's not used to being on the upper hand or needing to be careful since being 2nd means no one rlly notices u. feels sorry for herself all the time & can be kind but only when it makes her feel better about herself. also she's so bored & discontent with life she's just a housewife but who knows if she'll still be when she starts shilling for tk group!

plots

fellow stiffed by life sufferers. people who are willing to commiserate about how bad their lives are even tho objectively none of them are having it that bad

the first / only person she's ever come first to & like sure they aren't important or powerful but they make her feel powerful so maybe she's attached but sneakily. maybe she doesn't want to be associated w them too publicly?

a friend her friend they're hers & she might have smth codependent with them

someone who thinks she's so pathetic but she's like trainwreck entertainment for them they keep leading her down the wrong paths

or maybe someone who feels bad for her. they keep trying to help her & she keeps getting mad at them for meddling even tho they mean well & she Knows they mean well but her ego is small & easily bruised

people who don't like park i & the wife of my enemy is my enemy—but if she doesn't like him too then is she ur friend?

someone who smells a rat when she's around & repeating jung / iida's talking points about selling the land...

also someone who might believe her & legit thinks the shins have the good of the town at heart she's working an angle on them now

the usu yknow childhood friends rivals exes fwbs ( yes she's married but if he's cheating so is she... )

[saltnpepperbunny]

Till World’s End- 4: Seven Days Remain

PREVIOUS: Eight Days Remain > NEXT: Six Days Remain >

COVER

Till World’s End is rated Mature. Viewer discretion advised. Content Warnings listed on the Cover.

* * *

“… He said what?”

“You don’t want to be the one who stands in his way,” Shadow reiterated. Selkie ground her teeth together, smoke practically puffing from her nose. Of course Lyn the human had approached her and she missed it! How irritating! She would’ve liked to scratch his nose off when he insulted her to her face!

But she tossed her irritation aside with a short exhale. It was illogical to be irritated about trivial insults in the midst of open warfare. She’d make a misstep if she let her anger run rampant. “We know for sure, then. Lyn is here to save the world.” A grin tugged at the corner of her lip. “We truly do have an enemy.”

“Yeah! It’s not good!” Shadow yiped. “You said you were working on a solution. Did you think of anything?”

Selkie sweat. “Of course I’ve thought of something! Just what do you take me for?” She whipped her head to the side.  “But if you have any ideas as well, I’ll hear them out.”

Shadow’s ears drooped. “You’ve got nothing, huh?” The question came out more as a dejected statement.

“No.”

“We’re doomed!” Shadow started pacing about the room like a caged animal in a veterinarian’s office. “If you can’t think of anything, what can I even do? Selkie, are we gonna have to k-k-kill him?!”

“Ideally not! Calm down!” Selkie hissed. She watched Shadow’s stormy eyes swirl. “I would rather avoid killing him. It certainly would make things easier, but breaking the pokemon’s laws could jeopardize us. I’m not willing to endanger you.”

Shadow sighed with relief. His eyes dripped honey, no doubt from her last comment. “But then what can we do?”

Selkie tapped her chin with her claw. She’d been considering Lyn’s arrival since the morning briefing two days ago but was uncertain how to approach the problem. What if she misstepped and did something too risky? She didn’t want to make a move that would put Shadow in danger, for she knew how humans treated weak pokemon. And after yesterday’s events, she was hesitant to act recklessly. She felt powerful enough that any move she made would likely work out, but if she fucked up, she’d upset Shadow again. Was it too risky to confront Lyn directly? What about spying on him? Neither felt like an issue, but what if it went wrong? Shadow had really put her in a bind here!

“There’s one thing other thing.” Shadow’s voice cut through her train of thought. “I think Lyn sensed you were a human, too. But after we met, he thinks otherwise.”

Selkie’s eyes widened. “So, he thinks I’m a pokemon… Excellent.”

Shadow’s brows shot up. “Excellent?”

“Excellent! We have the upper hand!” Selkie’s tail swished back and forth. “Lyn was warned of me, but now he doesn’t think I’m a human. He’s wary but has no real reason to suspect we might stand against him. We can gather information and form a proper plan.”

Shadow grinned wide. “From the shadows!”

“From the shadows,” Selkie echoed. How adorable her partner was. She shuffled towards the bedroom door. “Everything will be fine. But this is all contingent on ensuring Lyn’s ignorance. Whatever we do, Lyn must not find out that I am a human.”

Knock knock knock!

Selkie’s eye twitched. Who dared disturb her team’s peace? She swung the dorm door open to see—

FUCK!

Lyn the human stood in her doorway. A familiar yungoos recruit and Margarine the cutiefly were at his sides. Lyn’s eyes darted between Selkie and the zorua, and after the briefest of pauses, he shot her a wide, sharp-toothed grin. “Good morning, Team Tempest! The Guildmaster has assigned you to accompany my new team on a mission today!”

“…. Okay.” Selkie couldn’t decide whether to snap Lyn’s neck or her own.

* * *

“So, this is a mystery dungeon, huh?” Lyn stepped forward. His half-lidded yellow eyes widened just slightly in wonder; his mouth fell into an o-shape. “It looks just like an ordinary cave!”

“Ordinary caves don’t have stairs,” Selkie muttered. She pushed past Lyn to the front of the group. “Now, stick with me if you don’t want to die.”

This was great. Just fucking great. Leave it to the Guildmaster to ruin fucking everything! It had assigned Team Tempest and the newly formed Team Apex to fetch a lost item in Silver Inlet. Why Selkie’s assistance was even necessary on this mission was lost on her. Apparently, the Guildmaster wanted an experienced team to accompany Lyn on his first outing and provide extra support so Team Apex—consisting of Lyn, Margarine, and Thistletooth the yungoos—could figure out how to work together. But why hers of all teams? This wasn’t even an outlaw capture job! She couldn’t wait to gouge out that kommo-o’s throat, feel the blood run through the fur of her flippers and take its fangs as her prize. Fuck that stupid dragon.

Shadow came close to her and nosed her gently. Selkie took a deep, shaky breath. With a last glance at the members of Team Apex, she turned towards the dungeon’s entrance. “Let’s just find that joy ribbon and get out of here.” She shuffled forward, Shadow fell into step at her side, and Team Apex plodded after her. Together, they entered the dungeon.

Silver Inlet was one of the nearest local mystery dungeons. Due to the low numbers of ferals, rookie teams often took missions here to get their feet wet before graduating to bigger challenges. Selkie had never spent much time here as a new recruit; the more challenging dungeons had always been more alluring. However, she did appreciate the atmosphere of Silver Inlet. It was a spacious, silver cave littered with stalactites and connecting pools of water.

“It’s so… wet here,” Lyn muttered. Selkie glanced over her shoulder to see the litten’s fur stood up on his back. His eye twitched every time he stepped in a puddle.

“Bad choice in first dungeon for a fire-type,” Selkie muttered at him.

Lyn squinted. “I didn’t—… I didn’t pick the mission, the Guildmaster did. I wouldn’t have picked somewhere damp and cold.” He shot her a cheeky smile. “But I suppose these conditions are ideal for a popplio.”

“Oh, yeah. If I wasn’t babysitting, I could navigate this dungeon with far more ease.” Selkie gestured to a nearby pool of water with her flipper. “The pools here are all connected through tunnels under the ground. Swimming between them is the easiest way to navigate. Unfortunately for us, the Guildmaster shackled us with a fire-type. A feline one, at that.”

Lyn rolled his eyes. “Very funny.”

“It wasn’t a joke.”

“Hey! Come on!” Margarine flitted in between them. Selkie hated that incessant buzzing of its wings. She wished she could swat it out of the air. “We all gotta work together on this, okay? Let’s not fight. It’s my first time ever on a team mission, I wanna do this right.”

“Sorry, Margarine,” Lyn said.

“Yeah,” piped up Thistletooth. The yungoos has been lingering at the edge of the group, but it now paced forward. “Sorry the Guildmaster ruined our chances before we even got out the gate.” It narrowed its eyes at Selkie and Shadow. “Why did he have to give us the psychos?”

“Hey—” Shadow growled.

Selkie bared her teeth. “Oh, petty insults, how clever! You speak so boldly for a recruit who’s been with the Guild several weeks now, yet still needs to be babysat even in the mildest dungeons! I would personally be embarrassed to spit in the face of the pokemon assigned to keep you alive, since you apparently can’t be trusted to do that yourself!” She leaned down and thrust her pink nose into Thistletooth’s snarling face. “Next time, consider biting your tongue, you insolent little whelp.”

Thistletooth snarled at her but otherwise said nothing, and Selkie lifted her head back up. “Besides, listen to your teammate. We’re not here to bicker.” She shuffled forward, and Shadow padded after her. “I don’t want to be here anymore than you do. Let’s just get that lost item and go.”

After a moment of silence, she heard the plodding pawsteps of Team Apex quietly following her lead. Fucking finally.

They traversed the dungeon in blissful silence after that. As the fire of Selkie’s anger dwindled, boredom nibbled at the creases of her brain. Curses. Curse the Guildmaster, curse Lyn’s inept rescue team! She didn’t like coming here! Silver Inlet was boring! There were hardly any ferals nor items to find, never a monster house to crowd surf in! Just walking through damp, sparkling caves. Selkie ground her teeth together. Damn this boredom. She walked amidst an enemy who most definitely knew what she was at this point and still managed to find it dull.

Selkie glanced over her shoulder at Lyn. He was in a quiet conversation with Margarine, the two muttering together under their breath. Margarine caught her eye and gave a smile. Selkie stared back. The cutiefly dropped its gaze and went back to whispering with Lyn. Hm.

Selkie’s social connections amongst the Guild were sporadic and strenuous at best. Most recruits regarded her as the village psychopath, the creature to whisper behind the back of, the monster to poke and prod but never outright provoke. Few pokemon had the will to approach her, and most who did just challenged her to fights. Margarine was the sole exception: Its values guided it to seek out resident freaks to offer kindness to, and since Shadow was too terrified to talk to it, Margarine targeted all its efforts at Selkie. They spoke occasionally about their troubles, and what started as impulsive fibs on Selkie’s part had warped into an elaborate web of lies surrounding her dysfunctional popplio family, monetary troubles, and poor, ailing grandmother. She was rarely one to trick others in that way—she lied often, but keeping track of elaborate stories was more work than she was often willing to put in—but Margarine practically begged to be manipulated. Its trust was unyielding, its graciousness knew no bounds, and its pockets overflowed with coin. Selkie couldn’t fathom how a cutiefly family got rich, but economic disparity was just as stupid in her own world, she supposed. Wringing out the stupid little rich kid for its coin was an admittedly phenomenal pastime, and it gave her extra cash to spend on Shadow. (She knew he loved it.)

But now, Lyn and Margarine were together. How that happened was beyond Selkie; perhaps Margarine’s attempts to buy friendship from its fellow recruits finally paid off? Undoubtedly, the two would discuss Selkie at some point. All pokemon gossiped, humans especially so. What would occur when Margarine told Lyn of Selkie the human’s impoverished popplio family and ailing popplio grandmother? Would he tell it the truth? Let it live the lie? Could this exchange of information jeopardize Selkie’s mission at all?

She supposed it remained to be seen. Oh well. Hopefully, the end result would at least be interesting.

The group made their way through the dungeon, descending stone staircase after staircase. About three floors down, they walked in silence, Team Tempest at the head and Team Apex behind, when the fur of Selkie’s neck suddenly stood up.

She stopped in her tracks, eyes darted about the cave. “Selkie? What’s wrong?” Shadow asked her, but she did not respond right away. The shadows concealed the various tunnels around them like black curtains, but she could still hear it: the scratching and scuttling of approaching ferals.

“Ferals are coming. Prepare for battle,” said Selkie.

“B-b-b-battle?” Margarine spluttered.

“Aw yeah! Time to show our stuff!” Thistletooth yapped.

“Don’t get cocky,” Selkie growled at it. The last thing she needed was one of the Idiots Three charging into battle headfirst and getting wounded. That would be the epitome of inconvenience, if her escort mission suddenly became a real rescue. By the sound of it, a lot of ferals were approaching. Enlisting the help of Team Apex would be the easiest option, wouldn’t it? But how could she do that without this battle spiraling into a chaotic mess?

Out from the darkness burst a hoard of krabby. Selkie counted five, ten, no, fifteen? She stopped counting after twenty. The members of Team Apex backed away from the approaching hoard, hackles raised. Only Shadow stood his ground, but he lowered himself into a battle stance, teeth bared, and Selkie saw the nervousness in his eyes. How could she protect him without risking herself too heavily? How?

Suddenly, something awakened in her.

Selkie leaped up onto a tall, nearby boulder and slapped her tail to make an echoing THUD! Team Apex flinched and looked up at her, and her bark bounced through the cave. “If you want to survive, listen to me now!” She combed her brain, rifling through memories left dusty from years of neglect, and the corpse of a girl who had once prized pokemon opened her eyes.

“Cutiefly, use silver wind and knock them back!”

“O-o-okay!” As Selkie thanked herself for having looked at Team Apex’s movesets ahead of time, Margarine flapped her buzzing wings and unleashed a whipping wind that knocked back the oncoming krabby. The ferals grunted and braced against the attack, and Selkie whipped her head to Thistletooth. “Yungoos, use sand attack on as many of them as you can!”

Thistletooth snarled at her. “Don’t tell me what to—”

“JUST DO IT!”

Thistletooth flinched from her shriek and, with an irritated snarl, got to work. A fair amount of sand was fortunately available in the wet cave. The yungoos dashed past the hoard and kicked up a storm cloud that flew into their eyes and mouths. The krabby spluttered and hissed, and Selkie saw them open their mouths in preparation for bubblebeam.

“They’re going to attack! DODGE!”

The bubbles launched. Thistletooth, Margarine, and Shadow were quick to duck out of the way. Shadow charged forward, vanishing in a flickering shadow for a moment before he reappeared and bashed some krabby into the wall with a sweep of his paw. Margarine launched another silver wind to knock back the oncoming bubbles. Selkie barked at Thistletooth, “Focus on using bide to deal as much damage as possible! Let the bubblebeams hit you. Only use pursuit if you see one trying to flee!”

“Don’t need your advice, Psycho!” Thistletooth barked at her but followed orders regardless.

Selkie realized she’d lost track of Lyn, and her eyes darted around in search of the human. But before she could find him, Shadow’s bark suddenly rang out. “Selkie, be careful!”

She looked down to see a group of krabby scrambling up the boulder towards her. She snarled and readied disarming voice in her throat. Coming for the trainer, eh? She would show these idiot ferals what-for! A krabby launched a bubblebeam, but before Selkie’s own attack could leave her throat…

SMACK!

Something big and heavy slammed into her side. Selkie went tumbling down from the rock. The disarming voice left her throat in a yelp, and beneath her, the rocky walls of the mystery dungeon glowed blue and split open. “SELKIE!” Shadow screamed out, but he was too late to do anything. Selkie—and whatever had attacked her—rolled through the opened slice in the stone. She caught a glimpse of Shadow’s terrified face, hordes of krabby behind him, as the opening in the dungeon sealed once again. She hit the rocky floor with a thud.

There was no way back.

“DAMMIT! STUPID MYSTERY DUNGEONS!” Selkie jumped back onto her belly and slapped at where the opening had been with her tail. “OPEN UP! ARCEUS DAMN YOU!”

“Oouuuugh…”

Selkie’s ears pricked. She whipped around to see Lyn on the ground, rubbing his head with a red paw. No other pokemon was in sight. Frustration bubbled in Selkie like a boiling pot. She gnashed her teeth and barked at him, “You fucking idiot! Did you try to protect me back there?! What was the point of that?!”

Lyn hissed and looked back over his shoulder at her, yellow eyes crossed in irritation. “I was trying to protect you from those krabby, obviously.”        

“Well, now we’ve fallen through a hole in the dungeon! We’re likely on another floor, and your team has no protection besides my partner. Good job!”

Lyn curled his upper lip to show his teeth. “My teammates can protect themselves just fine.”

“Then what am I here for?!”

“I didn’t ask you to come! The Guildmaster did! I would’ve been fine coming here on my own!” Lyn suddenly barked at her. Selkie’s brows shot up. So, he could raise his voice!

“Clearly not, if you can’t even organize your own team for battle! I had to step in!” Selkie shouted. “And now we’re uselessly stranded on the other side of the dungeon, and my partner is alone with your troupe of circus clowns! If Shadow gets hurt, you’re dead, you hear me?! You’re dead!”

Lyn’s tail thrashed side to side. He glowered at her, yellow eyes flashing with irritation. “Like you give two shits about that zorua.”

“He’s my teammate,” Selkie growled.

“Your teammate is gonna be dead in seven days and you damn well know it!”

A fog of silence settled between them. Lyn’s sides heaved. He gritted his teeth. Even in the dark, gray cave, his lamplike yellow eyes shone bright as gold. There was life in there, a fire that bore deep into the murky depths of Selkie’s still water eyes. Finally, Lyn brushed the dust off his chest with a paw and gave Selkie a look that oozed disappointment.

“The Guildmaster didn’t ask you to bring my team out here, did it?” Selkie muttered.

“No.”

“What do you want from me, Lyn?”

“I want to understand.” Lyn paced towards her, his head lowered like a predator. “You’re like me. And I know you’re like me because I was warned of you. The one who brought me here said that another would stand in my way. But I don’t understand… Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why won’t you save the world?!” Lyn cried. “I’ve been here for three days. You’ve been here for years. And all you’ve done is dawdle around a rescue guild on some tropical island, adopt a pet zorua, and pull teeth off random outlaws! Do you not get it? In seven days, you’re dead, too!”

“I am completely aware of that fact, yes.”

Lyn looked at her like she’d just spluttered gibberish from her mouth. His brows crossed, his expression a mixture of offense and sheer confusion. “Wh… What? What?! Selkie, in seven days, this entire world will cease to be! The pokemon here, your zorua, yourself! Do you not understand?!”

“Do you think I’m dumb? I know what will come to pass! I perfectly understand my choice.” The skin of Selkie’s muzzle furrowed as she curled her lips. This was getting real annoying real fast. Oh, humans and their insistence on treating her like an idiot.

Lyn scoffed. “You’re suicidal. You’re meant to be the hero of this dying world, and you’re too suicidal to do anything about it.”

“I’m no hero,” Selkie growled.

“Well, luckily for you, I am.” Lyn slinked closer and began to circle her. He lifted his chin high and tall, a glass cup on the edge of the countertop begging to be swatted down. “Unlike you, I understand my place in this world. Before I came here, I was nothing. Just another human. But now, I’m a pokemon. I’m better than a pokemon. I’m the hero who’s gonna save this world.” The smirk he shot her made Selkie want to claw his face off. “Whether you like it or not, Edgelord.”

Selkie’s eye twitched so hard she thought it would bulge out of its socket. “I’m the edgelord? Me? I’m not the one who seems to think he’s the protagonist of a goddamn isekai.”

Lyn quirked a brow. “Oh, you know anime genres? Takes one to know one.”

Selkie rolled her eyes. “For a grand hero, you sure do come off more as a self-important schoolyard brat! Do you think anyone will thank you for saving the world?”

“They will.”

“They won’t! You’ve assigned yourself to a thankless job, and no good will come of it!” Selkie’s bark bounced about the cave. “You think you’re better than me because you want to save a bunch of worthless animals from themselves? Don’t make me laugh! All you’re doing is as you’re told!” Though her chest was empty, cold, and still, a chuckle bubbled from her lips. The giggles dropped and pinged against the floor like falling coins. “Haha! Hahahaha! You are so human, aren’t you, Lyn? You follow instructions like a trained rockruff. You sit and roll over and save the world as you’re told, all to save a bunch of pokemon you don’t give two shits about, and for what? To bolster your ego? At least mine is not so fragile!”

Lyn’s pupils turned to slits. He scraped at the ground with his claws. Agonizing noise. “You think I’m doing this cause I was told to? I accepted the mission cause these pokemon don’t deserve to die!”

“Hahahahahaha! Oh, but they do! Of course they do! There is a single pokemon in this world who doesn’t deserve to die, and he has CHOSEN death!” Selkie laughed. Her heart suddenly panged. What emotion was that weird heavy sensation meant to be? “Ahahaha! Everywhere I go is the same. Our world is rotten to its core, life there is torment, and the weak are eaten alive. This one is the same! If our world isn’t worth saving, this one isn’t either! Ahahahahahahaha!” She laughed and laughed. She thought of her zorua in the belly of that dark, monochrome cave. What was this pressure behind her eyes? “Isn’t it hilarious? Isn’t it tragic? How a world of innocent creatures can still mutate like this? Break like this? There is no difference between humans and them!” She stopped laughing. She looked Lyn dead in the eye. The pressure faded. Her body ran cold. “That is why they deserve to die.”

Lyn stumbled back. “Y-you’re a freak.”

Selkie wondered for a moment how to respond to that. Then, she shot him a bright grin. “Yours truly!”

Lyn’s eyes darted this way and that, a rattata in search of a bolt hole. Selkie shuffled towards him, and he hurriedly slunk back and jumped when his tail bumped against the cave wall. Selkie truly felt like the goddess of this world as she shuffled so close they were nose to nose, stretched a flipper out to lean against the wall and box the litten in. The fur of Lyn’s neck stood on end. Eyes wide as Selkie leaned down.

“Let me put it this way, Lyn. In one week, I am going to give Shadow his happy ending. I am going to have my happy ending. No creature in this world nor the one we came from has the power to save us. If you should choose to stand against us? Let’s just say…” Selkie raked her claws down the cave wall, and sparks of delight popped in her chest as Lyn shrank beneath her. “You do not want to be that person.”

They stared each other down in silence for what felt like eternity, Selkie’s eyes steadily narrowing as Lyn’s grew wider. She breathed in his fear, his weakness like curling smoke, let it wash through her lungs. In that moment, she was the most powerful being in this world. And then suddenly, Lyn’s golden eyes narrowed into a deep, dark glare.

War.

“Selkie!”

She knew that voice. Selkie’s head shot up to see Shadow dashing towards her from down the tunnel. Behind him came Thistletooth and Margarine, and when the yungoos saw Selkie pinning Lyn against the wall, it sucked in a gasp. “Get away from Lyn, you psycho!”      

Selkie pushed away from the wall, giving Lyn room to stand back up as the humans’ teammates rushed up to him. Thistletooth and Margarine surrounded Lyn in a fretful swarm, checking their leader for signs of misuse, as Shadow stepped up to Selkie’s side.

“I’m so glad I found you, Selkie,” Shadow sighed with relief. “Are you okay? Did you finish the mission?”

“No. The mission’s off. We’re leaving.” Selkie ripped her rescue badge out of Shadow’s treasure bag.

Margarine suddenly spluttered. “W-w-what? We’re leaving? But the mission isn’t over, we haven’t found the lost item! I-I-I—”

Selkie growled at the cutiefly. “You’re on your own. Your leader lied through his teeth. The Guildmaster never assigned my team to accompany you. You’ve lost your babysitters.” She lifted her rescue badge above Shadow’s head, and he vanished in a swirl of blue light.

As Selkie readied herself for the teleport, something light tugged on her collar. She glanced over her shoulder to see Margarine staring up at her, eyes wide, wet, and watery. “I-I-I’m scared to be alone here, in this dungeon. Don’t you care?”

Selkie blinked at Margarine. Her still water eyes were still, her heart empty for the thing that deserved to die. “No,” said Selkie.

She left in a flash of the dungeon’s blue light.