#but they could at least put the ios translation on it and have it there

[neteyamssyulang]

† Scandalous consequences †

† Chapter 2 †

† For this story the humans use a shot to breath pandora air †

† Pairing: Aonung aged up x Fem human reader †

† Summary: Adjusting to life in awa’atlu was quite difficult for you since the clan hated you, not even your supposedly mate was helping.

† Warnings: Angst, Aonung caught cheating, clan bullying reader, Reader not feeling worthy of love/being a mother, Mentions of panic attacks, Two faced Aonung, Reader runs away.

† Total word count: 2,671 †

† Translation(s): Rä'ä 'ampi oe vrrtep -> Do not touch me demon, Marui -> metkayina home, Rutxe -> Please, Tanhì -> Bioluminescent freckle/Little star, Pefya kom nga, yaymak tawtute -> How dare you, foolish human, Tawtute -> Human, Kalweyaveng -> Son of a bitch, Nga rä'ä plltxe tsafya tsonta oe -> You do not speak that way to me, Io ou kerusey tokx -> Over my dead body.

Taglist: @papichulo120627 @livvieboo719 @xylianasblog @hannaxtakami @ikeyniofthetayrangi @nattomat @theyoungeagle @blushhpeachh @ohshititsfenharel

Daylight soon turned into eclipse, Tsireya had shown you to Aonung's marui a few hours earlier and you've just been sitting in there ever since, waiting for him to come home.

You didn't like this either but you were willing to put in some effort, the least he could do is the same.

Another hour passes before Aonung walks through the flaps of the marui, his hair once up in a bun is out and disheveled, marks covered his neck, shoulders and back.

Standing up you cautiously walked over to the metkayina reaching your hand out to touch him "Rä'ä 'ampi oe vrrtep!" He hissed moving away.

Pulling your hand back you looked down "I'm sorry..I've been waiting for you" your voice almost quiet as a mouse but just enough for Aonung's impeccable na'vi hearing to pick up.

The metkayina just scoffed instead of responding, walking past you he layed down on his cot turning onto his side so he wouldn't have to look at you.

Sighing you made your way over to cot, just as you were getting comfortable Aonung finally spoke "Lazy human, you left the lantern on"

"Can't you turn it out? I just layed down Aonung.." you did not want to get back up, all you wanted to do was lay with your "mate" and sleep.

Growling Aonung got out of the cot walking over to the lantern turning it off then stormed out the marui.

You cried yourself to sleep that night wishing you never met Aonung, you missed your home back in the forest. Atleast there you were treated as an equal.

Morning finally approached, you awoke to the sound of na'vi walking around outside the marui. As you were getting up Tsireya burst through the marui smiling.

"Good morning tawtute, you slept good I assume?" She asked silently walking over towards you, Tsireya knew her brother was an asshole but to mistreat you for something he knew would have consequences? Eywa knows that's wrong.

Avoiding her gaze you looked down "No, have you seen Aonung anywhere?" , the girl nodded hesitantly "Yes, Rotxo said he saw Aonung in the marui down the way to the right, you'll know it's the right one if you see a spear hanging above the doorway."

Thanking her you smiled before walking out the marui following the directions she gave, you walked down the way turning right and sure enough there was the marui with the spear.

As you approached the marui you heard the sound of moans and groans coming from inside, a female voice could be heard saying "Yesyesyes rutxe Aonung rutxe!"

Bursting through the marui your hands move to cover your mouth, tears threatening to leave your eyes. A woman is on the cot with Aonung ontop of her panting heavily.

Aonung is the first to speak "Get out! You do not belong here!", the woman under him just smirks  "Sorry honey, guess your man likes me more~"

As if pretending your not there anymore Aonung continued rutting into the woman while leaving his marks all over her neck and breasts.

Sobbing you ran out the marui, through the sea of na'vi, till you reached the small forest on the island. With your head down you walked through the forest till you found a small clearing far enough away from everyone.

Sighing you sat down leaning against one of the many trees "Your father is something sweetie.." you murmed gently rubbing your stomach.

Hours have passed now, how many? You didn't know but it had to be around evening time. Reaching into the small pouch you always have on, you pulled out a small needle with some fluids injecting it into your arm.

You needed to take the shot every now and then if you wanted to breath pandora air, it was annoying but it beats wearing those masks. "Tanhì! Where are you?" A voice called nearby.

You'd know your bestfriends voice anywhere "Over here Nete!" You shouted back moving to stand up now.

Neteyam came running from behind one of the trees towards you helping balance you out so you don't fall back down "Where have you been? We were all worrried about you"

Rolling your eyes you scoffed "Not everyone, I'm sure Aonung was too busy fucking that metkayina girl to even care about me."

Confused Neteyam's non existent eyebrows furrowed "What metkayina girl?", "I don't know her name but she lives in the marui with the spear above the doorway."

The omaticaya didn't speak for a few moments but you knew he was upset now, his tail thrashed behind him as a growl could be heard rumbling through his chest.

Finally your bestfriend spoke with a tear threatening to fall down his face "Her name is Meyäi, I chose her as my mate after I passed my iknimaya here."

So, not only did Aonung ruin whatever you guys were supposed to be, he also ruined Neteyam's relationship, someone who was supposed to be his friend.

The walk back was fairly long so Neteyam carried you bridal style the rest of the way till he reached your and Aonungs marui.

Like earlier moans could be heard from inside, he was seriously fucking someone in your home. Neteyam hissed setting you down carefully then bursted through the marui yelling at his so called "friend".

"So, this is what you do now? You have your own mate but no no you choose to fuck my mate?! After everything Ao-" "Cut me the boring sissy shit Neteyam" The metkayina groaned frustrated.

Aonung removed himself from Meyäi who's ears were pinned back against her skull in shame "Ma'Teyam..please I-" the girl tried speaking but Neteyam cut her off "No, I want nothing to do with you, either of you. I'm taking y/n to my marui."

With that your bestfriend grabbed what he knew was yours before exiting the marui taking your hand in his free one "Come Tanhì, you'll be staying with me until that skxawng can get his shit together."

Nodding you followed him hand in hand walking towards his marui.

The rest of the day is spent with your bestfriend just talking and weaving baskets together, it was peaceful until Ronal walked into the marui with a scowl on her face followed by a teary eyed Aonung.

"Pefya kom nga, yaymak tawtute!" She hissed glaring daggers at you before turning her attention to Neteyam "You! You know she's mated with my son so why are you sneaking into his marui to sleep with her while he's out!"

You and Neteyam both looked at eachother then at Aonung who's grinning but goes back to crying when his mom turns to look at him.

"Ma'tsahi-" "No!" She cuts him off "Y/n is mated to my son, you are no longer allowed to speak with her. I have been nice with letting you and your family stay here but you will not ruin my sons life."

Neteyam looked down in defeat, he knew he couldn't go against the tsahik. Aonung walked over grabbing you by your arm yanking you up onto your feet "You heard the tsahik, let's go my beautiful mate."

Aonung practically dragged you out Neteyam's marui towards his own with Ronal following, you didn't understand why he was doing this.. Neteyam had done nothing but help you.

Once reaching his marui Aonung led you inside with his mother still following close behind, he let your arm go only to go and stand next to the tsahik.

"I-" you tried speaking "Save it, pathetic human" she scoffed, "You are not allowed to leave this marui unless it's with my son, understood?"

Is she serious right now? You shook your head no  "No, I refuse to stay with this lying, cheating, son of a bitch" you spat narrowing your eyes at Aonung.

A low growl rumbled through Ronal "Listen here you foolish girl, you are my sons mate not that outsiders! You will obey my son."

Tears started rolling down your face as you nodded slowly, happy with the results Ronal bid her son goodbye then left the marui heading back to her own.

Aonung walked over chuckling softly to himself "Cry all you want tawtute, you are nothing without me now."

The next few weeks are proof of his words, you couldn't go anywhere without Aonung by your side, you couldn't even go see the sullys because of him.

You had no friends now, no freedom, nothing. Everyone in the clan avoided you as if you were a plague, women would call you vulgar names, men would look at you in disgust.

Rumors went around claiming that you weren't worthy to be Aonung's mate, you were just a human after all. A sky demon who is ruining their home.

Aonung kept up his two faced act, he would go see other women while his mother was busy with her tsahik duties but as soon as she was free he would be by your side pretending to care for you and his unborn child.

Every night you'd cry yourself to sleep wanting someone to hold you, to tell you it would be ok, it got to a point where you'd start having random panic attacks and breakdowns throughout the days.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ ✦ . 　

Tonight you finally decided you had enough of this, you packed all your belongings along with some food and left the marui before Aonung could come back.

You walked along the bouncy walkway trying to keep your balance till you reached the sandy beach, picking up the pace you walked faster towards the small forest looking for an area you could hide out in.

Seems like eywa was on your side since while searching you found a cave with a series of tunnels inside, choosing one you followed the path till it opened into a beautiful semi large clearing.

Sighing you walked farther into it laying your backpack full of your belongings on the ground before sitting down yourself.

Tears rolled down your face as you kept thinking you couldn't do this, you can't raise this child by yourself, your not worthy to be a mother, your not worthy of anyone's love.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ ✦ . 　

Two days have passed, the only time you left the cave was to get water and find more food. You were quite happy now, you had more freedom and were far away from that asshole who was supposed to be your mate.

You also rekindled your relationship with Neteyam and the sullys, they had seen you while you were out getting food promising not to tell anyone where you were.

The sullys knew what was happening between you and Aonung, they also knew that things were going chaotic in the village ever since you disappeared.

Aonung had taken Meyäi as his new mate since he wasn't bothered to go and find you, that had apparently caused some tension between him and his parents.

Yes his parents hated you but you were carrying their grandchild, they needed you to be found and brought back immediately.

Their son didn't care though, he never wanted a human as his mate. So he took Meyäi since she was adored by the clan and would make a great future tsahik when the time came.

When Jake told you this all you felt was angry, no furious to which neytiri scolded you on that saying you need to be calm since this wasn't healthy for the baby.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ ✦ . 　

Soon enough Neteyam's parents and siblings left leaving you and him alone gazing out to sea in sweet silence.

You kept thinking about how you could raise this baby on your own, and if there was a safe place to raise your child away from their kalweyaveng father.

Not noticing Neteyam standing up you were suddenly you were pulled out of your thoughts when he leaned down picking you up then began walking towards where his ikran was staying.

Confused you looked at him “Teyam where are you taking me?” Of course you trusted him but where could he possibly be taking you? The cave you stayed at was in the other direction.

The omaticaya sighed “I’m taking you far away from here y/n, you and your child do not deserve to be treated like sh-”

He stops talking as two figures emerge from the trees infront of the both of you “Treated like what forest boy?” a male voice speaks.

Shaking you turned your head to see Aonung with Tsireya “Didn’t my mother specifically tell you to never speak with my little mate?”

Neteyam scoffed “Why the fuck do you care? You took my mate as your own not even bothering to look for y/n”

The metkayina just shrugged “I don’t care, I am simply tired of my parents telling me to go look for the dumb human since she is carrying my child.”

You stayed silent afraid that you’d say something to make your situation worse, Tsireya and Neteyam exchanged glances before she took her brother by his arm “Aonung do not, y/n deserves much better than this.”

Aonung shook his sister off his arm turning to look at her “You will not speak sister, she is only a mere weak human who I would gladly get rid of, her and that child.”

Sensing your nervousness Neteyam held you closer while taking a few steps back, how could Aonung say that?.. It takes two to make a child, if he didn’t want to take the risk he should’ve pulled out.

Tsireya for once decided to stand up against her older brother “That child you speak of is innocent, you contributed to making that baby it is not y/n’s fault!”

Aonung snarled making her back away with her head down “Nga rä'ä plltxe tsafya tsonta oe!” Turning his attention back to you he stepped forward “Hand her over Neteyam.”

Your bestfriend shook his head “Io ou kerusey tokx” , The metkayina chuckled quietly “Oh that can be arranged.”

Before Aonung could unsheath his dagger Tsireya ran up taking you from Neteyam arms “Get her out of her Tsireya” , “Teyam don’t please!” You sobbed not wanting to leave your bestfriend alone.

Placing a gentle kiss to your head he whispered “I’ll come find you when it’s safe tanhì, go now!” Nodding Tsireya took off running towards the beach.

Looking behind her the last thing you saw was Aonung tackling Neteyam to the ground holding his dagger against the omaticayas throat.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ ✦ . 　

You both have been riding on her ilu for awhile now, she hasn’t exactly stated where your going except that you’ll be safe there considering how far away it is.

Another hour passes before you come across a decent sized island, through tsaheylu Tsireya tells her ilu to get close enough to shore so you don’t have to swim.

Once your close enough Tsireya gets off first then helps you off the ilu and onto the beach, you both wander the island till she spots a cave that should be good enough to stay in for now.

“I’m worried for him..” you spoke softly as she guided you into the cave before helping you sit down, “I know y/n, I am so very sorry for my brother but know he would never kill Neteyam. He’s stupid but not that stupid.”

You looked up at her through teary eyes unable to speak, too worried for your friend who could be hurt or even worse. Tsireya always told the truth and you trusted her, it’s Aonung you didn’t trust.

Tsireya sighed leaning down wiping the tears from your eyes “It will be ok, I have to go now but there is a stream here if you need water and plenty of food around the island.”

Nodding slightly you watched as she straightened herself back up then walked out the cave towards the beach.

Now alone you layed down hoping things would turn around so you could raise your child in peace instead of fear.

Unfortunately that wouldn’t be the case.

[riddlerosehearts]

🐍 same, there were many things i did not enjoy about HoO but leo is one of the highlights i will always treasure from it. in fact I made my OC just so I could make them be friends with him bc it's like an old childhood dream of mine 😭 it's several years late but i will do it anyway. have u ever made any pjo ocs?

I read your post and i agree with you so much!! EN did jamil so dirty and just the few changes they made to his lines flipped the entire dynamic between him and kalim and basically completely erased how tragic and difficult their situation is, and portrayed jamil as basically just someone throwing a fit over something easily changeable when it isn't. I play on JP so I was so surprised to see the changes EN made, it sucked seeing so many ppl hate my fav

oh nooo yeah if both riddle and jamil are in the athena cabin i have no clue who'd become the head counselor... this is so hard, if only we could have more than one :(. Kalim'd def be in a different cabin at least, but just him being around camp would make it so much harder for jamil to be himself, it hurts my heart. there are so many ways you can write this and it all has so much angst potential. on the other hand you're so right abt the missed leo nico friendship bc i always intuitively felt they could've be good friends without knowing why, but your analysis puts everything into words and makes me even sadder we had such a missed opportunity... like cmon rick....

idia labwear groovy but nico is actually so funny - nico ominously approaching cats with his hands out like the grabbing emoji when nobody is looking and completely unaware how scared the cats feel, meanwhile all he wants is to spend some time with kitty before the chain sneezing sets in

I love your ideas abt the outfits I think they fit super well!! if i get around to doodling the characters in a twst au i'd like to reference your ideas if that's okay with you! They'd both probably attempt to wear the uniforms as a full set in the beginning then decide it's way too much of a hassle/feels too stiff (totally not an excuse to want to draw them in the full outfit), then begin modifying things so it felt more like themselves, though at least I think they both would like the ignihyde uniforms better than the other dorms, igni's seems more casual and practical than the other ones imo. for some reason i feel like the savanaclaw colours would look good on leo, i just picture yellow being a nice colour on him - but leo in savanaclaw would just be like him stuck with a ton of jocks feeling confused why he's even there lool

also imagine leo meeting ortho, he'd be so fascinated that something like ortho was possible and be inspired to make a robot of his own (twst festus origin story?) idk if there's a robotics club but i could see that being leo's club of choice, nico maybe board games... which means he'd meet idia and azul omg, what do you think?

sorry it took me a bit a longer to answer this time. i haven't!! i don't make OCs super often in general, i don't even really have one for twst haha, but i love seeing all the creativity other people put into their OCs.

yeah exactly!! i do keep up with the JP main story updates and have read most of the JP events through fan translations, but i started by playing on EN. and i feel really lucky that i recognized the words for master and servant and could tell they were mistranslating some things, because i can imagine that otherwise i would've come out of it hating jamil for "betraying" kalim too. instead i loved him and was a little annoyed with kalim until book 5 showed more of his growth. i don't ship jamil and kalim but i do love both of them and it's sad that the complexity of their dynamic got watered down so much... i will note, though, that the app is rated E10+ on the google play store and 4+ on the iOS app store, so my guess is that higher-ups at disney thought the actual story wasn't kid-friendly enough.

something else to keep in mind with athena kids that i actually sort of forgot about until recently, is that they're all claimed from birth and therefore are pursued by monsters from birth :( and then also the fact that athena is a virgin goddess who just sort of gives babies to people who might not have been prepared to have one... i bet that would make things so much rougher for riddle and jamil. some other ideas i had are that if jamil's parent was a minor god, it could be nemesis (goddess of revenge) or terpsichore (muse of dance). and for kalim, if his parent was an olympian it would be either dionysus or apollo and if it was a minor god it'd be tyche (goddess of luck and fortune). like you said, there's so many different ways i could see their story going in an AU like this and they'd all be so angsty.

if you wanna see more analysis on how nico and leo fit together there's some stuff i've reblogged from others in my valdangelo tag! not all of it is necessarily romantic, i just basically use that for anything about the two of them--and a lot of the reasons why people like the ship are reasons why they'd work platonically as well. but yeah one of my biggest criticisms of HoO is how even though i like all the new characters for the most part, i feel like their relationships to each other were largely defined by romance (and i don't just mean the actual couples, but also the frank-hazel-leo love triangle for example) and a lot of potential was missed because of that!

oh yeah go for it!! feel free to use pretty much any of these ideas we've been brainstorming as basis for your own headcanons and stuff, i don't mind at all. and like i've been saying, if you did draw anything for this AU i'd love to see it. i can definitely see that about leo and nico both trying on the full uniform and then quickly deciding not to bother with it anymore lol. i imagined them both not wearing the tie because i just think nico wouldn't really want to and that leo might not even know how to tie one AFSKJGHDF. do you think leo would add any other accessories or personalization to his school uniform? also, i was thinking, i totally agree that they'd both like the ignihyde uniform, especially nico because it resembles the bulky jackets he normally likes to wear! but i wonder what nico would wear for a dorm uniform if he transferred to ramshackle... according to one of silver's voice lines at least, they canonically don't have one, so maybe he'd just wear, like, a my chemical romance shirt and call that a uniform lol. or keep his ignihyde uniform and confuse everyone.

omg, i love the thought of leo meeting ortho and being inspired to make festus because of him. he'd definitely be so fascinated by everything ortho could do. as for the clubs, i saved this excellent post about NRC's clubs for reference a while back, and since no other existing clubs were mentioned in either of the camp vargas events, i assume that that's all of them. but afaik there's nothing that says leo couldn't start a robotics club, and i'm sure there'd be people willing to join! out of the existing clubs i can totally see nico being in the board game club, i think that'd be a lot of fun for him.

[secondgenerationnerd]

Hey Hello i really need my overdose of magicfam or just zach but i need it because i like the way you write them

But of course!! Some more of our favorite teenage Zachary interacting with his parents 😂😂

——————————

Their lives aren’t always demon deals and magic fights. Sometimes it’s just John and Zatanna in the library, translating an ancient text with a pot of tea between them. The ruffling of pages only broken by the occasional comments from one of the Magi.

“Definitely not Celtic.” Zatanna murmurs, passing the parchment to John, “The Druids had a different language than that.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean, luv.” John holds the scroll to his book, “Could be Nordic influenced?”

“Thinking it’s a blend of languages?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” The pair look up as the front door opens, familiar footsteps creaking along the floorboards.

Zatanna calls out, “Tesoro? Sei tu?”

“Sì, Mum, sono io.” Zachary, their 17-year-old son, comes into the library. He flops onto the couch near their work table, sighing loudly.

“You okay there, mate?” John asks, not even looking up at his son’s dramatics.

“So we had that all team training thing today. I told you about that, right? Well, some fuckers from a different team were talking.” Zachary covers his face, “I tuned in just in time to hear them call Mum a MILF.”

Zachary expected his parents to be understanding. To recognize his pain in this dark moment. What child should have to hear their mother referred to in such ways? He really should have known better.

John scratches his chin, “I mean…Mate, they ain’t wrong—“

“DAD!”

“What?” The laughing magician shrugs, “As the one who helped make her a milf, I’m allowed to say so.”

Zachary yells in agony while his mother laughs, looking at John with a twinkle in her eye, “All these years and you still think of me like that?”

“Well, Z,” John shamelessly looks her up and down, “Thought last night proved that—“

“I’m selling my fucking soul.” Zachary grumbles, rolling off the couch and onto the floor. The dramatics only earn a laugh from his parents.

“Good luck finding anyone to buy it, mate. Yer mum put the fear of all gods into most buyers.”

Zatanna tuts, opening another book, “Because I know our son inherited your impulsiveness. Had to make it a challenge at least.”

“Bet Satan would buy it.” Zachary moves off the ground, heading upstairs to shower.

“When you see him, tell old Luci he owes me a drink—“

“DAD, I DON’T NEED THE REMINDER YOU SLEPT WITH SATAN!”

Shaking her head at their ridiculousness, Zatanna returns to their task, “John, I think it’s Babylonian and Nordic.”

“Ah! That’s the bugger.”

[unanuvola]

Come sarò io e come sarai tu (con qualche giorno in più)

Pairing: Damiano David x reader; Ethan Torchio x reader

Characters: Damiano David, Ethan Torchio, Victoria De Angelis, Thomas Raggi

Genre: Romance

Warning(s): Swearing

Summary: What if after fifteen years the past you really want to forget comes back to you at work? What would you do?

Note: thanks to my friend @tezz1n for the translation <3

⁂~⁂~⁂

PROLOGUE

June 2005

It was terribly hot for the beginning of June and I was in the middle of a chaos of people. It was as if most of the Manzoni High School students had the same brilliant idea as me and were trying to grab something to eat before the Måneskin concert. My patience reached its limit when I was surrounded by armpits’ smell. God, why are guys so afraid of washing themselves? 

"Excuse me... Please…" I said while trying to break free from sweaty and sticky people.

"Let her pass that her fiancé is going to perform! She can’t wait to throw her bra on stage!" 

I heard them clearly because, after all, they weren’t trying to hide themselves and I didn’t even need to look who was talking, ‘cause I knew them all too well.  Mariani and Russo from fourth grade, two losers with little desire to study and a big desire to be a pain in the ass. They started a little while ago, but I was trying not to care too much, in a little bit more than a month the final exams would have been over and I would have not seen those bastards ever again. 

"You know what? His boyfriend? In my opinion he fucks with all of them, also the lass from International!" 

While they were still laughing, I reached my table. I took a plate and a handful of cheese fries and asked for a cup of Fanta. I thanked and turned around, fries in one hand and a fully filled cup in the other. I’ve not even had the time to take a step when someone on my right pushed me and my orange flew on Russo’s white shirt. 

"Holy shit!"

My gaze went from the orange stain growing on the fabric to the livid face of Russo and a laugh broke free. The more he looked at me with hate, the more I could not stop laughing. 

"The fuck are you laughing at, dickhead? Look at what you’ve done! Where do you think to go? Come back here, bitch!" 

But I was already slipping in between the crowd with my medium finger well high so that the two losers could clearly see it. 

I sat in front of the stage that the end-of-the-year festival committee had placed in the middle of the school yard, and took my phone from my crossbody bag. Two missed calls from mom. I rang her ‘cause obviously I had no credit and, after some minutes, the phone started to buzz.

"Ehy momy! Something happened?" 

"No, just wanted to know if you’ll be home for lunch."

"Don’t know… it depends on what they guys are going to do after the concert," I said nibbling my lips, "but this evening I’m home for sure. I’d like to speak with you about something." 

"Ok, honey! See you at dinner. Please, on time. Have a good concert and say hi to Ethan!" 

"Ok! Bye, bye, bye!" and I hung up. 

So, this evening I would have said to my parents that I’d have liked to sign up for university here in Rome and to not come back to Turin. Was I ready? Absolutely not, but that was not the time to worry myself for sure. I would have thought about it later.

The other students from the Manzoni were starting to crowd and I had to stand up. I was about to put the phone in my bag when it buzzed. A message.  

From: Damiano 

<3

Without thinking twice I gave him a ring and then I started staring at that little heart mindlessly. Shit, I’m screwed - I thought while placing the mobile in my bag and taking my oh-so-precious digital camera, a birthday gift from my parents. 

I liked Damiano, well, I liked him a lot and, inexplicably, he liked me too. I wasn’t able to understand how such a miracle was even possible, but it was and the best thing to do was to live it every single day.

The principal took the stage and, after the usual recommendations (“No pogo, no throwing things on stage and no inappropriate behaviours."), he introduced the band.

"And now a big round of applause to Måneskin!" he exclaimed, gesturing for my friends to get on stage, "Have fun everyone!"

The firsts to get on stage were Thomas and Victoria, already carrying their guitar and bass over their shoulders. Then it was the turn of Ethan. His eyes were frantically moving over the crowd until they set on me. He smiled at me before sitting behind his drums. At least, it was the turn of Damiano. He went past me and winked, I could not do or say a single thing such was my bewitchment. The long hair over his shoulders, the shirt opened that allowed a glimpse at his abs. The same abs I was caressing only some evenings ago.

"Hey-yo this is Måneskin! The first song is for you, Malibù." Damiano said at the microphone and the unmistakable notes of Luna by Verdena started to fly in the sky.

Yes, Malibù is me. No, Malibù is not my name. It’s the nickname Damiano gave me one of the first times we’ve met. And in that moment, he was dedicating me one of my favorite songs. Saying I was in cloud nine was not enough. I sang every line, at the top of my lungs, and only when they started singing the other songs I decided to take some picture. I tried my best, but I was almost sure that all the pictures would end up being blurred because the guys were moving worse than snakes. What kind of official photographer would I be if I couldn’t even take a picture in focus?

At the end of the concert - too early for my taste - I ran in the classroom that had been set as backstage. I wanted to congratulate the guys and, even more, I want to jump on Damiano, saying to him that he’d been oh-so-good and then kiss him for the rest of my life. 

The classroom door was half-closed. Instead of opening it, I peek through the crack and what I saw turned my blood into ice. Without even noticing, I started crying. I covered my mouth with my hands to lessen the sobs, but it was too late. Victoria, her lips still on Damiano’s, opened her eyes and saw me. 

I started running, fast. My eyes were burning terribly and my brain couldn’t react to what I’ve just seen. 

I have not had the time to leave the school when I felt someone grabbing my arm. Even if my sight was blurred by the tears, I turned and saw Ethan. 

"What happened?" he asked me. His voice sounded so far away, like a distant murmur, "Would you tell me what happened?". His usual composure was gone. I squirmed and ran away without looking back. 

I exit the school building not knowing that that was the last time I would have seen Damiano. 

[pochiperpe90]

Trust your instinct. Interview with Luca Marinelli

“Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes” wrote Brecht. Let alone superheroes. The vices and problems of the characters, however, are extraordinarily human.

There are people enthusiastic about the film and others who have seen it and have told me: "You know, it's not my genre, actually I wouldn't have gone to see it, but I would have been wrong because it's special, it thrilled me". Because it's about something real. There is the suburban boy who lives for his own sake, who only thinks about how to turn the day, then the superpowers arrive and he wonders what to do, and it’s like if the question was addressed to the public. After will comes the love, that will change him, will makes him go further. Love is the greatest superpower. I don't know, maybe I’m too romantic but the superpower of love is a very strong one, that we all own and that changes the movie as well.

Is Lo Zingaro one of the many young people "sick" of social networks?

He uses the modern roads to arrive at what for him can be the success, to be seen by anyone, so he uses the channels of social networks. As a kid he had tried to become someone and they closed the door in his face, so now that the world is moving in this direction he wants respect, he wants his greatness recognized. In my opinion he has never really been seen, maybe this is the problem.

Is this why he loves to perform?

The character has always been like that and that's the thing that drove me crazy: his histrionic side. It was also for this reason that when I went to the auditions I greatly exalted this theatrical part of lo Zingaro, but Gabriele planted my feet on the ground saying to always remember his paranoia, his strong pain, his great and real need. Then we gradually looked for these things, to enhance his desire to be recognized by everyone on the street.

Cesare from Don’t Be Bad and Lo Zingaro: two outcasts, two fragile characters who harbor anger.

I loved them both but I find it hard to put them side by side, but the fact that there is this suburbs background is certainly the common starting point of the two. And I like how Gabriele wanted to respect this place and its inhabitants, without ever labeling, without representing Tor Bella Monaca as the den of pirates, the place of bad guys.

Ostia for Cesare represented a prison from which to escape, does Lo Zingaro want to escape from Tor Bella Monaca as well?

There is this desire to go out, it’s true, to succeed in something, to escape, to at least try to escape. The watershed of the suburbs is different, if one never grow up there, they will never understand it. It’s a question of sensitivity. Cesare chooses one thing or the other, he sees his friend taking a path but doesn’t believe it completely, perhaps because he finds the other much more concrete. There is a basic desperation there, there is the world that crumbles under his feet little by little, here instead there is something different: it’s the nature of lo Zingaro, the nature of wanting to be, he is there. It must be. Lo Zingaro wants to escape from there, but even if he had been born in the Parioli it would have been the same.

For his androgynous look, Lo Zingaro resemble David Bowie. When building a character, do you start from an external characterization?

As for me, when I approach the character I try to mimesis with the text, with the director's ideas, with my visions. This changes everything, from the physical to the attitude. The character becomes a robe. When you put on the character's clothes, you are him, then you take them off and really slowly you separate yourself from him, then he comes back the next day when you get dressed, and maybe you just keep him as a memory in your head in the evening, at home, when you want to do something with it.

How important is instinct instead?

Fundamental. Many times things have happened, that I don't know how to explain. You have to trust your instincts, always. It’s a bit of a form of self-respect. Many times when preparing a character you don't have to think about it too much. You need to think about it first, then you have to make a blank page, because what you need is permeated inside.

“Una parola detta piano basta già ed io non vedo più la realtà” (A word said slowly is already enough and I no longer see reality), reads the lyrics of “Un’emozione da poco”, the song you sing in the movie.

We were looking for a song that could catch the eye of lo Zingaro during his adolescence. And if you go to re-watch Anna Oxa's performance at Sanremo, her first festival at the age of sixteen, here, putting myself in the role of the character, but also in mine, I thought: "Wow! Look at that woman. Look at that force." From this comes the fact that this is his song, which it’s also his cell phone’s ringtone. What I also like is that all his explosive strength comes from our wonderful singers of those years: Loredana Bertè, Nada, Gianna Nannini and Anna Oxa. And it's nice that it comes from there: it‘s the strength of women.

I remember your featuring in a song by the hip-hop’s crew “Jagermasterz”. Do you also have a passion for music?

A friend, Dj Demis, asked me about it many years ago, and I enjoyed it a lot. I've always had a passion for rock music, when we were kids we had a band, we played funky: we covered Red Hot Chili Peppers, but mostly our songs, good times.

Did you imitate Anthony Kiedis?

I was a little more in tune (laughs). No, I actually played the guitar. I was the second guitar of the group. I still keep playing for me, though. Every now and then I tell some friends to get together and make a small group, but it's just moments where we get together and play some covers. An artist with a folk guitar is something that drives me crazy, I really like everything acoustic.

I know you used to watch a lot of movies with your grandmother as a kid.

With my grandmother I saw all the great classics of our past, but as a kid one of the first films I saw alone was “The Silence of the Lambs”: I found this videotape and I watched it, my parents thought I was playing and instead … But I wasn't scared, I saw the fun of those people and I liked that. That's what I find in my work right now. I feel like I could make a movie for a year, because waking up in the morning and knowing I can go to the set is a great luck, it’s never a burden to me.

Now that the journey of Don’t be Bad is over, how do you remember the journey with the Caligari’s band?

For me it's not finished, tomorrow I will have to meet some guys in Rebibbia because there will be a screening of the film. I still feel it intensely. We are still a strong group, I still like what Don't be Bad means. The Caligari’s band is always there, it's in the heart.

Don't you have the impression that with his death, Caligari was "canonized"?

It’s sad. A person who was only allowed to make three films and now people cry it a miracle, when he could have made many more. This is the greatest sin. But I say “always and in any case, cheers to Claudio!”. I have never lived an experience like this: a person who is dying and wants to give something to others. Seeing a person who isn’t afraid in this way, who wants to give but without knowing what he will receive back. Indeed, knowing how many doors in the face he had received. A crazy life lesson. In the end, it’s an attitude that does not surprise me, it gives me a little stomach ache but that's okay. The film remains, this is the important thing, what a whole crew carries in their hearts remains, Claudio and the Caligari’s band remain.

For sentimental reasons you have lived in Berlin for years. How is our cinema perceived from abroad?

We are always a great cinema. All our movies that were in Cannes last year are now in theaters in Germany, in short, we are there, we are always there. I am really convinced that last year some great Italian films were released, not many, not distributed at their best, but all films that make me proud. The thing I like least about our cinema is the lack of courage of the producers, if I think that Don’t be Bad risked not being realized, I get goosebumps: a film that took us to Los Angeles risked not being made. And the same story goes for They Call Me Jeeg. The truth is that only comfortable things are done.

Money, glory, passion, desire to recover from shyness: Luca Marinelli for what reason is acting?

It seems a simple question, but it’s not. Passion in the end means nothing. I would tell you out of necessity, but maybe that doesn't mean anything either. So I'd tell you why I like it so much. Just like the Roman say: me piace (I like it). I think I'm lucky to have chosen what I love to do in life, and to be able to do it. Because I can't imagine being able to do anything else. Of course, if in five years I can't do it anymore, I will have to invent something.

What?

I don’t know. Before this I thought I was an archaeologist, unfortunately with little success. I was making a mess, I even got the lesson times wrong.

minima&moralia

Just wanted to translate this old interview for the non-italian’s fans ^^ (sorry for my English)

[rainbowcrowley]

do you have any favorite stony fics that you could rec?

oh nonnie strap yourself in because there are A FEW

i’m just gonna list them all and say a few words. and this post became massive so i’ll put them under a read more... here we gooo!

oh and disclamer: most of them are rated E. it’s not that i only read explicit stuff, it just so happened that my faves are all E lol sorry

The AWAKANINGS Universe - i think these few fics are the first few i read and every single one of them were absolutely amazing. i even started re-reading them i few weeks ago!

Resistance - this one is a WHUMP. the tags almost scared me away at first, but i gave it a shot and ...holy maccaroni. it’s so well-written and in character. the drama. the emotions. the action. simply amazing. not for the squeamish, tho.

The Dick Pic-verse - most chapters are shown as text message conversations on iOS and if this concept alone isn’t dope as heck i don’t know what is.

almeno tu nell'universo - a really emotional civil war-fix it that made me shed a few tears here and there...

Of Beards And Best Defenders - a cute and funny, non canon compliant post-endgame fic (...so it’s a fix it lol) in which tony has a thing for steves magnificent beard.

take my heart clean apart - angsty start, happy ending. tony’s hopelessly in love.

Open For Christmas - ferret has a lot of awesome fics, but this one is my absolute fave. idk why. mechanic!tony does things to me, i guess.

Come on Closer - a sexy but kinda?? cute one. idk it makes me go “aw steeb”

these next two are written by my best friend and partner in crime @diebecceee! she originally posted them on a german a fanfic site (and in german, lol) and i hope she’ll continue to translate One More Miracle soon!

One More Miracle - an endgame fix-it she started planning mere moments after i made her watch endgame for the first time. magical shenanigans, wakandan technology and steve, who is determined to get tony back to the world of the living.

Just Cookies - everyone leaves the tower for christmas, steve has no where to go and tony hates christmas.

and last but not least... a few from my dear friend @ylissianprince:

Stark’s Tower for Strays - KITTIES! it’s been some time since i read it, but i remember loving it!

Twelve Days - an emotional one with a happy ending, ghosts and a lot of holiday magic

in the drift - a fresh one; pacific rim au!

aaaaand here are a few peeps who frequently share their awesome writing on this hellsite:

@therollingstonys @omg-just-peachy @s-horne @starklysteve @maguna-stxrk (there are so many more fhjsdfhsjk i’m sorry if i forgot someone it’s 1am and i’m tired okay) (check the stony fic of stevetony fic tags for more hhhh)

*~*~*~*

there are SO MANY MORE. i really had to keep my shit together to no list every single. one. i read. at some point lol. i’m gonna stop talking now. this took way too long already. thanks for the ask, nonnie!

ask me stuff, tell me how your day was or share a secret, on or off anon!

[redteabaron]

The three gods and their lots - (three heads of the dragon)

Contains meta below the cut as well as possible interpretations and theories and speculation. I feel like I should also add a disclaimer that no, I don’t think Targaryens are gods incarnate, this is just examining mythological aspects in their stories and characters and finding commonalities. (I only respect one mortal turning into a god and that is Bran) 

The major three gods of the Greek pantheon were: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. They drew lots and shared dominion over the world - Zeus was god of the sky and king of the gods, Poseidon was god of the sea, and Hades was the god of the Underworld. Three dominions, three gods. 

“The dragon has three heads.” - Daenerys IV, ACOK 

Aegon/Zeus

“I have. Why should I go running to my aunt as if I were a beggar? My claim is better than her own. Let her come to me...in Westeros.” - Aegon, The Lost Lord, ADWD

The lesson began with languages. Young Griff spoke the Common Tongue as if he had been born to it, and was fluent in High Valyrian, the low dialects of Pentos, Tyrosh, Myr, and Lys, and the trade talk of sailors. … Geometry followed languages. There the boy was less adroit, but Haldon was a patient teacher…” - Tyrion IV, ADWD

“...Yandry said we ought to throw you back, but the lad forbade it.” 

The prince. - Tyrion VI, ADWD

Upon his birth, Zeus had to be spirited away from his father, Cronus, who had swallowed his siblings and hidden so he could escape the fate of his siblings. He would later grow, revolt against his father, and regurgitate his siblings. After drawing lots, Zeus would be given dominion over the sky and be named king of the gods. 

Zeus was affiliated with protection, authority, righteous rule, battle, and justice. He was considered a fair protector and ruler, but not above petty jealousy or anger (or amorousness). 

Aegon, in what little we have seen from him, is actually groomed from a young age to rule. He doesn’t have the hands-on experiences several other characters are thusly put through in the books, but it is very clear he knows what is expected of him, has the knowledge required for the position, and has a good claim to the throne - one that is seemingly preordained, as Zeus’s was foretold before his father swallowed his children. 

Aegon’s connection to the red comet seen on the day of his birth can be loosely traced to Zeus’s mastery over the sky itself (where the sky reflects a point of significance to both Zeus’s temper or demands, so did Aegon’s birth seemingly coincide with the prophecy of the prince that was promised). 

“Young Griff”/Aegon had similarly been spirited away as Zeus had during a time of catastrophe when his claim would threaten another (where instead of a stone wrapped in swaddling, Aegon’s escape was tendered by Varys switching him with another baby) and raised in secrecy, despite being the rightful heir of a kingdom. It’s not Cronus he was hidden from or his actual father, but Robert Baratheon who is hellbent on wiping out the entire line of Targaryens, even agreeing to Tywin’s methods (whether or not he ordered the Mountain to do what he did to Elia and the children doesn’t matter; he was the Mountain’s lord, and so at best he just insinuated ‘do what you want’ very well knowing what Gregor was like). Not so different from Cronus, who, desperate to keep his power, swallowed all of his children.  

In text he’s shown to be a little impatient in his desire to be taken seriously and not be coddled by Griff (but honestly he’s 16 and every teenager everywhere in the history of anybody can be impatient and a little overdramatic; Tyrion is briefly reminded of Joffrey when Aegon throws a tantrum over cyvasse, but Tyrion is shown to not like a lot of people for various reasons, so). However, he has a fantastic grip on his studies, in particular language and history, and we can infer that he has an interest in ruling that goes well beyond ‘it sounds like fun’ (Robert Baratheon’s quote that he never felt so alive as when he was winning the war, and never so dead after it was won comes to mind), at least from what we know from Varys and Griff, and a bit from Tyrion. 

But aside from the impatience we see from him, he shows compassion and an unwillingness to forget kindness when he refuses to let Tyrion drown after Tyrion saves him from a stone-man. From the Tyrion chapters in ADWD, we see Aegon laugh quite freely, is at ease among people of a different station from him; we actually get the idea that even if he can be a little immature, he shows a lot of promise for rule and justice.  

One of the more interesting connections between he and Zeus is the fact that there is some debate as to whether Zeus is the youngest or the oldest of his siblings since he was never swallowed by his father (who technically, after he regurgitated them, also gave ‘birth’ to the swallowed siblings) - and there is understandable debate as to whether Aegon is really Aegon. It could go either way; they are Schrödinger's brother and represent a puzzle, a possible paradox (I do actually believe Aegon is the real deal; if Ned can smuggle out a secret-baby from a tower across a battlefield with only his buddy from the swamps, Varys could certainly have arranged a switch).  

And associating Aegon with justice, imo, isn’t a stretch - particularly when we’ll get to see him gain some traction outside of Jon Connington’s influence (who just likes to hate on the Martells because he’s a Rhaegar fanboy don’t @ me) and we see him meet Arianne. Jon C only sees Rhaegar in Aegon because all Jon C can ever see is Rhaegar; once we move beyond Jon C’s immediate and constant influence over Aegon (and him trying to shape him as Rhaegar 2.0) we’ll see Aegon have the opportunity to connect directly with his Martell side. I believe there’s a good chance we’ll see Aegon seek out, and speak about it, justice for his mother and sibling especially given that he’ll have a positive Martell influence at his side. We just haven’t had the opportunity yet. (And Zeus was always associated with righteous authority and justice). 

It’s not a huge hint, but there is also the connection Zeus has with gryphons; in a translation of Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Prometheus has a warning for Io “Beware of the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark, gryphons”. Gryphons/griffins are also said to pull Zeus’s chariots. Jon C is undoubtedly the guard dog that stands ready at Aegon’s side and manages to ‘carry’ him in a sense to Griffin’s Roost (poor influence on him notwithstanding, I can’t really cast aside the fact that he is loyal to Aegon, regardless of the reasons why). 

Admittedly, Aegon is definitely much milder than Zeus with his flaws microscopic compared to the king of gods, but I think a lot of mythology references aren’t word-for-word, and in asoiaf they sometimes pull through less obviously. Casting Aegon as Zeus works specifically for this because of the rule of three, and who I ended up going with for the other two in this meta/theory. 

Zeus was not without his share of flaws and while he was king of the gods, his rule never went unchallenged - chief amongst them to instigate things was Poseidon. Aegon similarly won’t be unchallenged for it. 

Daenerys/Poseidon

“The Dothraki sea,” Ser Jorah Mormont said as he reined to a halt beside her on the top of the ridge. Beneath them, the plain stretched out immense and empty, a vast flat expanse that reached to the distant horizon and beyond. It was a sea, Dany thought. - Daenerys III, AGOT

“...I shall fear the Dothraki the day they teach their horses to run on water.” - Ned, Eddard VIII AGOT

The horse seemed to know her moods, as if they shared a single mind...The Dothraki were a hard and unsentimental people, and it was not their custom to name their animals, so Dany thought of her only as the silver. She had never loved anything so much. - Daenerys III AGOT 

“...I know that somewhere upon the grass, her dragons hatched, and so did she. I know she is proud. How not? What else was left her but pride? I know she is strong. How not? The Dothraki despise weakness. If Daenerys had been weak, she would have perished with Viserys. I know she is fierce. Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen are proof enough of that. She has survived assassins and conspiracies and fell sorceries, grieved for a brother and a husband and a son, trod the cities of the slavers to dust beneath her dainty sandaled feet.” - Tyrion VI, ADWD

Poseidon was lord of horses, god of the sea (and all that it entailed). Upon drawing his lot, he envied Zeus his position as rightful king and challenged him for it several times (conspiring with his siblings at some points), and would often needle his sibling. He was a key deity to pray to for protection, mostly travelers and sailors. He was associated with the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses. In some stories, he too was smuggled away from Cronus, in others, he was swallowed like his siblings. 

Poseidon’s temperament was known to reflect the sea and storms; he was unruly and seen as a rebel against authority that existed both in the divine realm and the mortal realm. Him being lord of the sea, storms, earthquakes, and horses, reflects a wilder nature. 

While Aegon is seen as the rightful heir to the iron throne (and consequently has the Golden Company with him, lending a further air of credibility to his right since the GC are ‘honorable’) and has a shared mastery of the sky with Zeus (referring to the day of his birth and its connection to the red comet), Dany has been ‘given’ domain over the sea. The Dothraki sea, at any rate, and the Dothraki themselves (who are also known as horselords). While her temperament hasn’t shown itself to quite the extreme Poseidon’s has shown in his tales, she has a connection to the foreshadowing of a storm, of bringing a storm (her name, the day of her birth, repeated connection with the unruliness of her largest dragon Drogon, and indications of her possibly forming an alliance with Euron Greyjoy in the future etc). 

No squall could frighten Dany, though. Daenerys Stormborn, she was called, for she had come howling into the world on distant Dragonstone as the greatest storm in the memory of Westeros howled outside, a storm so fierce that it rippled gargoyles from the castle walls and smashed her father’s fleet to kindling. - Daenerys I, ASOS 

It’s an interesting connection that Dany has with the sea and horses, imo. She’s shown to love the freedom of the sea, of sailing, and she loves horses. Both are associated with freedom to travel and journey, as we see her ecstasy on the back of Drogon flight gives her a similar feeling. It is, I think, reflecting the fact that she isn’t shown to enjoy ruling, but she does enjoy power and victory (and conquering although it’s not so cartoonishly overt). The fact that Ned says there’s nothing to fear so long as the Dothraki never learn how to cross the Narrow Sea on their horses was setting up that they will ‘learn’. 

Dany, cast under Poseidon, as lord of horses and the sea (and journeying), gives them that “opportunity” (one they don’t want or need, desperately). 

While all the gods of the pantheon were guilty of petty meddling and warring with each other and having rivalries, Poseidon was infamous for having disputes with other gods for supremacy and control of other countries. At once point, when Athens chose to follow Athena over him, he flooded them in his outage. Some believed that his anger roused storms, caused earthquakes, and floods. (Again, he was far from the only god to do petty things like this, but he was held up as the one who was infamous for it even as he was also viewed as a protector). 

Dany doesn’t summon any of those things, but there is a buildup of her anger/frustration in the books. Her justice is biased (to say nothing of her hypocrisy in dealing with slavery, in one breath claiming it is abominable, in the next allowing it to happen and partaking a portion of the profit just as the slavers she had ousted did) when she corrects herself to demand that the wineseller’s daughters be questioned more harshly, rather than gently (implying there is torture to follow in the interrogation). 

We see that temper rear its head when she burns Mirri, a victim of the Dothraki who was taken as a slave after being assaulted a number of times, after Drogo dies, when Jorah’s duplicity is revealed to her and she sends he and Barristan into the sewers hoping they’ll die, etc, (not necessarily to say her anger in some of these moments isn’t warranted, but gradually over the course of the books, her frustration becomes more obvious and her solutions bloodier and less focused). 

Poseidon, despite having his own dominion and having drawn the lot for the sea, challenges Zeus for his. He loses, but it isn’t the only time he challenges Zeus, or any other gods, at times enacting terrible vengeance on them or their favored humans. 

Dany and Aegon meeting is pretty inevitable, but there is foreshadowing that they will be at odds. Maybe they’ll meet with the united idea that the Lannisters/Baratheons have to face justice for what was done, but Dany’s idea of a legacy is wrapped up only in the legacy of the Targaryens, and she refuses to consider any other elements that occurred during the Rebellion (her father going mad, why the Starks and Baratheons rebelled, what Rhaegar was at fault for, etc). Aegon at least is implied to listen to Tyrion - he isn’t only blinded by what Jon C undoubtedly has told him - meaning he’ll likely hear Arianne out too, and Jon Snow. Dany has one truth, passed down from Viserys, one legacy. 

Like Poseidon, Dany already isn’t satisfied with her lot, warring over other countries (or conquest, claiming Meereen for her own after Astapor falls to the butcher). She will challenge Aegon for a lot that belongs to him, but I believe that unlike Poseidon, she’ll actually win against him. 

Jon/Hades

Casting Jon as Hades is something I’ve already written about in this meta, so this is just a summary with bits added on. 

When I compared Jon to Hades, I also compared the Night’s Watch being the place when men went and died, metaphorically, they died in the eyes of the realm (no wife, no sons, no land, no glory, etc). I believe that Jon is being groomed for rule in a different way, that is, holding domain over the condemned or forgotten. 

When Aegon and Dany inevitably clash over the throne, the aftermath is going to look like a hellscape. King’s Landing is repeated through the text to be the seat of power, the center of Westeros, multiple times, and with another Dance building up, I think, leads to foreshadowing that it’ll be ruined or on the brink of ruin at the end. It’ll still need someone to rule it, whether through the infant stages of an elective monarchy (it sounds like they’ll need something more than that or it’ll just invite more chaos as though rule can only be achieved through conquest of some kind, particularly for a monarchy) or otherwise. 

Jon has already fallen into an unenviable position. Sure, he gets to be Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch - an order that vows to remain at the Wall, against a horde of undead, with no support besides Stannis, with ‘dead’ men as his subjects. 

Some myths meld Zeus and Hades into the same being existing on different plains. Hades is also known as “Other Zeus” or “Infernal Zeus”; here, where Zeus is the god of living mortals, Hades is the god of the dead souls. 

Aegon is meant to take the Iron Throne and be the ruler over the Seven Kingdoms, in King’s Landing, a place of power, wealth, bounty from other kingdoms, etc. Dany will be his end in the Dance of Dragons and turn that bounty, or its possibility, into a wasteland. I don’t doubt people will still be alive, but it’ll be a place of ruins, and so will quite a few other places. I think Jon will likely kill Dany after the fact, for kinslaying and being a threat to the north and the realm, and thereby becoming a kinslayer himself. 

The gods of Westeros punish kinslaying. Jon, at this point of finding his family and being murdered for being Lord Commander and spending time under threat with the free folk (even if they do get along now) will probably just want to go home. Punishment for kinslaying will be for him to hold another position no one wants; the throne. Where when Aegon is set to take it, the kingdoms are in chaos, he’ll seem like a bright spot with hope, we might see him pay attention to food issues, the chaos, logistics, etc. And then he dies. And then Dany dies. And all that’s left are the survivors - those seemingly forgotten and condemned to this place afflicted by war and famine -, and Jon. His punishment for kinslaying (and maybe making mistakes with Dany) will not be able to go home, or be made to take up a post at the Watch; he’s condemned, once again, to the people who’ll seem more dead than alive after everything that’s occurred. 

Jon’s duty was, and will continue to be, to the condemned.

[apparitionism]

Run

This is a pointless AU, a little idea from elsewhere that’s in the process of turning into a story-esque thing, not a comedy or a drama as such, just a “here’s another way two people might find their way to each other” tale. Also I’ve never deployed a Giselle character, really, and I figured I might as well try. She’s not a bad guy, mind you, nor even an obstacle; the only obstacles, at base, are misunderstandings and circumstances. Conventional ones. They might accurately be called clichéd. Anyway, this is some kind of starting line. Bang. (That’s meant to be a starter’s pistol, by the way; don’t be getting any ideas.)

Run

At four in the morning, Myka Bering sat three steps from the bottom of the dark staircase in her apartment’s foyer and pushed her feet into new running shoes. They looked like nothing special: a standard navy blue faux leather, with their manufacturer’s stylized “Z” logo embossed in silver on the sides. The pristine white of both the slim soles and the no-tie laces pleased her, despite the fact that their just-out-of-the-box luster would of course start graying at the first exposure to the city.

Myka stood up in the shoes and bounced on her toes, her ritual commencement of every day’s run.

The instant her heels left the ground, she understood just how difficult her life was about to become.

For this decidedly unspecial-seeming shoe—the Deceit—represented the latest attempt by the Zelus athletic corporation to gain an insurmountable advantage in the sport of running.

Myka’s job was to stop them.

*

At her desk at work later that morning, Myka revised, for accuracy, her overly dramatic thought of the morning: a small part of her job was to help stop them. Her actual job was to co-direct certification and compliance for Athletics Authority International, the globe-spanning organization that governed running, jumping, and throwing events. The organization regularly dealt with issues of equipment inappropriately boosting performance; thus Deceits, understood one way—nondramatically—were just the latest technological challenge to the idea of a level playing field.

But based on her morning’s run, Myka did not think Deceits could be understood nondramatically.

“Did you try the Deceits yet?” she asked Pete Lattimer, her co-directing partner. They had taken to joking that in their area, he was the “athletics”—an Olympic-team-alternate decathlete—while she was the “international,” for she’d got her job based largely on her wide-ranging language fluency. Myka suspected that today, athletics aside, his answer would be “no”; they’d received the shipment of test shoes only a few days ago, and Pete was focusing more on language than sports lately anyway, Duolingo-ing his heart out in Spanish so as to one day be able to impress Kelly Hernandez, head of Latin American outreach, such that she would first agree to go to lunch with him and then, swayed partially by his language skills but mostly by his charm, acknowledge that they were destined to spend their lives together. Myka wasn’t at all sure Kelly was going to persuaded by Pete’s bilingual (or “bilingual”) flirting... though he was also concentrating heavily on vocabulary related to sandwiches, so he’d probably end up with at least a food-related happy ending.

“Nah,” he said, confirming her prediction about the shoes. “I’m guessing you must’ve, though. They as crazy as those trials records make ’em seem?”

“Crazier,” Myka said. “To me. But I want to know how they really feel. To a real athlete.”

“Somebody needs a real athlete? I see why Lattimer’s not up to it,” remarked a tall woman as she approached Myka’s desk. Myka looked up and smiled.

“Same goes for you, Giselle,” Pete said, but with cheer. “How’s communications?”

“Turn those children over my knee if I could,” Giselle replied, equally cheerful. “That’s where you can help: how’s your javelin these days?”

“Why don’t you just run away? I thought you were supposed to be fast or something.”

Giselle Wade was fast—Myka knew it, and she knew Pete knew it too. Giselle was a legend in East Texas, where she had shattered high school track records, particularly at the longer distances. She’d done the same to NCAA times, placing some out of reach for what would probably be generations. U.S. bests had fallen to her too, though worlds had been elusive... but she had some impressive Olympic hardware all the same.

“Outran you,” Giselle said, which was true; her 1500-meter times were faster than Pete’s had ever been.

They would have gone on for a while before they wound down, but their jabs gave Myka the opening she needed. “Speaking of running,” she said to Giselle, “did you try the Deceits?”

“I did.”

“And?”

“And exactly what you think,” Giselle said. Before Myka could get her to clarify, she went on, “And this very morning I heard Zelus wants to push a version with spikes for sprinters.”

Myka objected, “But the thin soles!” Sole height was a major issue. The Deceit’s predecessor shoe, the Zelus Induct—which had also given runners a clear advantage—had been recognizable due to its oversized sole, packed with lightweight foam, that effectively lengthened a runner’s legs. The sole contained within the foam a carbon plate that acted as a spring, enabling a stride that used less leg energy and thus translated into distance runners having more kick over an entire race. AAI had rapidly banned that shoe, but the Deceit upped the ante because it somehow managed to do all the Induct’s dirty work, and apparently even more, in a standard-sized sole. Sprinters’ soles were basically flat, though, so how could the foam and plates fit? Not to mention: “Why would Zelus want to start a fight on another front?”

“Some other company rolls out skinny little cheat spikes first if Zelus doesn’t get on it? Old story about the toothpaste and the tube? You know.” Giselle shrugged. “All we can do is try to slow it down.”

“Ha!” Pete barked. “I see what you did there! Slow it down! Fast shoes!”

Giselle shook her head and murmured “that man” mostly to herself, but a little bit to Myka, who nodded in sympathy a commensurate little bit. Then Giselle said, “Thank sweet Jesus I don’t have to run in Deceits or against them. Glad I’m out of that part of it now.”

“I’m glad I was never in it,” Myka said.

“You know you got the discipline,” Giselle said. She’d told Myka this before.

It was a real compliment, but: “I don’t have the gift,” Myka responded, as she had in the past.

“Discipline counts. Makes up for a lot.”

“Those Deceits do too,” Myka said. “I barely even broke a sweat this morning.”

“That’s a shame.”

Myka offered a “huh?” expression, though she was pretty sure she knew what was coming.

“You, all hot and sweaty?” And Giselle sighed, a parody of infatuation. “Yes indeed...”

Myka rolled her eyes, and then they both laughed. It was a ritual: Giselle “flirted,” Myka “suffered,” they laughed.

*

Some months ago, not long after Giselle had been brought on board by AAI, she’d asked Myka out.

“I have a boyfriend,” Myka had said, because that was what she almost always said, as a learned reflex, in situations like that.

“Well,” Giselle said. “Look at me, getting the wrong impression. Sorry, Myka. Guess we’ll keep it professional.”

Giselle tended to put a drag on the last word of every sentence, a vocal habit that kept a listener hanging: would she say more? It might or might not have been intentional, but it was effective, particularly when combined with her linger of a Texas drawl. Thus her “professional” came out “pro... fess... io... nal.” Myka half-expected her to follow up with “or not.”

“Well,” Myka said back, when it became apparent that no more was in fact forthcoming, “not totally professional. We can still get coffee, right?” Because she did like Giselle.

Ah, there it was: Giselle gave her a still-flirty head toss and said, “Not to make the same mistake twice, but I did ‘get coffee’ with a lady one time and it turned into three days in Monaco. So we’ll see...”

Myka rolled her eyes, but then she laughed, and Giselle did too: the start of the ritual.

That should have been that.

But an international athletic governing body was apparently like every other semi-hermetically sealed social environment: a school, a team, a lab. Things got around. Mere hours after that conversation—which, granted, had taken place in the 40th-floor elevator lobby, the transit funnel for every employee of AAI, which occupied the entirety of that skyscraper level—Pete had marched back into their area from lunch and confronted Myka with, “I heard Giselle asked you out.”

Myka had tried not to respond, because really, what was there to say?

He went on, “And I heard you told her you have a boyfriend, which is what you said way back in history when I asked you out.”

“History? That was less than two years ago.”

“Anyway, I heard she believed you. Just like I did.”

“That was the idea. With her and with you.”

“I still don’t see why you didn’t just say ‘Pete, I don’t want to go out with you.’ It would’ve been fine.”

“I’d barely met you. I had no idea if you’d be a decent guy about it.”

“But I am a decent guy. About everything! So it would’ve been fine.”

“But I didn’t know you were a decent guy.” She had barely started at AAI; all she’d known about Pete Lattimer was that he’d been a decent decathlete. And that was no help at all, for every new coworker she met was a former Olympian or member of some national team or at least a famous ex-coach. It all made her feel as if she had no business working for the organization in the first place. They should have said that “athletic” was a requirement... each successive introduction seemed to drum with more force into her that a law degree and several languages were nothing against a sub-four mile.

Given that insecurity, she hadn’t needed any additional inputs or variables, so when Pete had said, “We should get dinner after work sometime,” she’d said what she almost always said, as a learned reflex, in situations like that. It had become a reflex because regardless of any other complicating circumstances—such as a new job where her body itself didn’t belong—it was easier. It was almost always easier than whatever might follow her saying anything else.

Pete said, “You didn’t know I was a decent guy, so you lied about having a boyfriend. And now you’ve lied about it again.”

She’d winced at the word “lied.” It was accurate, but she didn’t like it. Then you probably shouldn’t do it, her conscience told her. She told it to shut up. Then she told Pete, “I know that and you know that. Giselle doesn’t need to know that.”

“But you already like her better than you would’ve ever liked me.” At that, Myka started to protest, but he waved her off. “You know I mean because she’s a lady. Why didn’t you say you have a girlfriend?”

Speaking of what was easier: “boyfriend” was easier than “girlfriend.” It raised fewer questions, and it raised fewer... thoughts. And that was easier too.

It was supposed to raise fewer thoughts, anyway.

Fortunately, Pete hadn’t waited for an answer, or for Myka to start thinking any thoughts, instead moving on to what he clearly found most important: “And lady-wise, don’t you think she’s hot? I think she’s hot.”

Myka sighed. “Yes, I think she’s hot. In fact I know she’s hot. I have eyes.”

“So go out with her. She’s hot, you’re hot. Sizzle!”

“I just don’t want to.”

“Then why didn’t you go ahead and tell her that? Do you think she isn’t a decent guy?”

“Pretty sure she’s not a guy at all,” Myka had said, trying to joke him into just... stopping.

She didn’t want to get into the complicated conversation that would have ensued if she’d admitted to having genuinely, if fleetingly, regretted her reflex—because he certainly wasn’t wrong about Giselle being a woman, and he double-certainly wasn’t wrong about her looks. She was stunning; she’d had that wildly successful athletic career, then transitioned with seemingly no friction at all into modeling, at which she was even more wildly successful. Her legs were as long as the miles she used to run, and Myka was certainly, in that sense, human.

But Giselle had already developed a reputation at AAI, despite her brief tenure, for what could charitably be called a... short attention span. Maybe it was the inevitable result of her having been able to have just about anything—and anyone—she wanted, in not one but two elevated realms, or maybe it had always been Giselle’s personality as a romantic socializer, but while Myka had no trouble observing it from the outside, as a characteristic of her friend Giselle, she didn’t particularly want to be subjected to it. What if she slipped and overinvested? Exactly the kind of difficulty she didn’t need, regardless of any other complicating circumstances. Exactly the kind of difficulty she had never needed, and if she had slipped and fallen into it in the past? Well, that was the past, and she certainly didn’t need to revisit any part of that, much less repeat it.

These months later, however, some days Myka had a vague sense that a day should come when she should talk herself into telling Giselle she didn’t have a (nonexistent) boyfriend anymore. A day, that was to say, when she should ask for Giselle’s attention, if only for a short span. It seemed normal, human, to think that a short span of time, even if it led to a complicating slip and overinvestment, might—should?—be better than nothing, and so some days, Myka tried to want to talk herself into that.

But on different days, she’d think, definitively, I don’t want to. Because talking herself into it felt dishonest. Even if Giselle subscribed solely to Pete’s “she’s hot, you’re hot; sizzle” theory of the case, even if both of them might have enjoyed much of that short span of time: dishonest. Inauthentic. Deceitful.

“You’re not very good at having fun, are you?” Pete had asked her once, when she’d told him, in response to his sincere inquiry, that she had never actually dreamed of having Disneyland all to herself for a day. She’d agreed that no, she really wasn’t very good at having fun, and he’d said, “You need to get out more. Maybe not to Disney, but you need to get out more.”

You need to get out more. She’d laughed at him, because the most out she ever got, away from work, was for her 4am run. That, she could talk herself into without feeling dishonest at all. Far from it: she reveled in the discipline required for that strict self-persuasion every day, which was probably why she’d found that she could, ultimately, work well—reasonably well—with athletes. Athletics at its highest level was discipline, and Giselle and Pete and most of the others could see that Myka got that, even had that, as Giselle kept telling her.

But as Myka always told Giselle in return (not that Giselle needed telling), for real athletes, that discipline had to be kissed by the divine, and Myka had no access to such physical divinity. None at all. She was an exercise runner, lowest of the low in terms of athletic esteem. She knew because that was how the athletes said it, with a twist of pity: exercise runner. That was what she was, and she knew it.

Until she ran in the Deceits.

They were named, of course, for their unassuming look and for the illicit advantage they gave the world-class athletes. But for Myka-the-unesteemed, they were differently deceptive: they made her feel like A Runner. Giselle and her peers had been born with the kind of legs these shoes changed Myka’s into, springing from the ground with power, creating a feeling of “this is my body; this is what it can do, and if I push, still more,” and miraculously—deceptively—there was still more it could be pushed to do. Myka felt like her body before the Deceits had been Clark Kent, like it had been waiting for the chance to reveal that it wore the suit and had superpowers, like this had always been how she could run.

It wasn’t real. But it felt real.

So she understood why Deceits were breaking records—speed records now, but eventually, they would break sales records, too.

She also understood, very clearly, that they should be banned.

Even for exercise runners like her: deceiving oneself, Myka felt, was worse than deceiving others, regardless of whether they were fellow competitors or the outside world in general. Just as she didn’t want to talk herself into Giselle, she didn’t want to run every morning in those shoes. If she did, that self-deception would become a habit of mind, and Myka deep-knew that being clear-eyed about oneself was essential. A moral duty, her inner rector told her, and even though she would probably have been happier to not live her life quite that ramrod-straight (to, for example, be better at having fun), it had been her thought as she’d begun that first run in the Deceits. She’d kept on thinking it, throughout her entire route, as she devoured the miles with her newly athletic strides. Clear-eyed, mor-al, du-ty. Right-left, right-left, right-left.

*

Administratively, the world of athletics moved at a speed inverse to that of the track. The relatively “rapid” ban of the Deceit’s predecessor had taken six months to work out and implement, so it was no surprise that several weeks elapsed before AAI even scheduled negotiations with Zelus reps over the new shoes. They would be delicate, the negotiations, for Zelus money was essential to the sport. It was imperative not to make any penalties too prohibitive or too “insulting” to the company or its affiliates. Could already-ratified world records set in Deceits be voided? Would that lead to Zelus-sponsored athletes boycotting competitions? Could Deceits be banned? Would that be at all enforceable?

Myka knew that Dan Badger, the president and CEO of AAI, would be scrutinizing everything she and Pete and their team proposed. Newly appointed to show that AAI was turning a regulatory corner, he had made clear that his watchword was “integrity,” and that applied not only to the sport as a whole, but to every athlete who participated in it, every piece of equipment they touched, every employee under his purview, every official action they took. Unofficial actions, too: there was, as far as Myka could tell, no ethical give in Badger’s worldview. Where prior heads might have made a handshake deal of some sort with Zelus’s own CEO with regard to the Deceits—and Myka suspected something along those lines had occurred for the Inducts, most likely involving a wink-nod to the already-in-the-pipelines Deceits—Badger would have considered the mere suggestion of such a thing a personal affront.

“Why doesn’t Badge like you more?” Pete once asked Myka. “You’re exactly like him.” Myka wasn’t, in fact, exactly like him, for Badger was an athlete’s athlete, a hurdling champion from a decades-ago golden age of British track and field. That gilded aura was a carapace around him, deflecting whatever might have been directed his way from beings he considered lesser, including nonathletes like Myka. It wasn’t actively insulting or cruel, just... clear. The athletes called him “Badge,” among themselves and to his face, while Myka had the sense that if she uttered that collegial syllable, no one, and certainly not the man himself, would even perceive that any sound had escaped her lips.

Pete wasn’t entirely wrong, though; Myka had enough consonance with Badger that she couldn’t quite bring herself to resent him. His absolutely unimpeachable reputation was supplemented by the fact that he looked exactly as an athletic lion of his age and era should: face appropriately tanned for health and creased for character, hair silver and full, height calibrated as if to the millimeter to be imposing but not incongruous. He was the ideal figurehead for an organization that wanted to burnish its standing as a virtuous guardian of all that was competitively good in athletics.

In the end, Myka’s own inclinations aligned with her need to fulfill Badger’s expectations, yet neither she nor he could change the underlying economics of the sport. She might have been moved, under other circumstances, to restore her single-run-sullied Deceits to their silver Zelus box and push that box to the back of her closet, but instead she spent an inordinate amount of time looking at them. Was there any way at all to tell, just by looking, that they could do what they did?

Enforcement was a matter of measurement and testing, but these shoes were a drug for which no test existed. AAI had hired a group of materials engineers to take them apart, so Myka now knew how they did what they did: even newer foam, plus two carbon plates, set at angles to each other. They really might as well have been springs—invisible to the outside-shoe naked eye, but springs all the same.

AAI could nominally ban double-plate soles, but it couldn’t possibly dismantle every Zelus runner’s footwear at every event to ensure that the ban was being respected. Myka saw no way out other than to ban Zelus shoes across the board (for she’d been thinking, too, of what Giselle had said about spikes), but that brought her back to financial impossibility. And around she went again. And again. And again.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the rest of athletics administration proceeded without heed for Deceits, no matter how long Myka stared at them, no matter how many negotiating scenarios she tried, unfruitfully, to game out. Meets and championships and trials all continued, requiring level upon level of authorization and accompanying paperwork...

One morning, Myka was concentrating, squint-eyed, on a spreadsheet when she felt a tap on her shoulder. “Pete,” she began, still squinting at her screen, “I told you if I don’t approve the new certification tables for posting this morning—”

“I’m so sorry,” said an English-accented female voice, “but I’m not Pete. And I seem to be lost.”

Myka looked up. No, you’re not, was her first thought, which resolved into: You’re not Pete, and you’re not lost. You belong right here.

TBC

*

A few notes, just because:

I made up the governing body; it’s intended to be vaguely like the real organization World Athletics (formerly IAAF), which determines what’s allowable in track and field competition, but I’m not trying to replicate its structure at all. Further, the actual organization maintains that it doesn’t consult with shoe companies before making regulatory decisions... whether you believe that claim is of course entirely up to you.

Two passages from Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents are in some sense guiding my thinking here (because I’m like that). The first is this: “Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs he is truly magnificent; but these organs have not grown on to him and they still give him much trouble at times.” He’s talking about cars and eyeglasses and such things, but obviously the idea is applicable to athletic tech. An idea from a little earlier in the book seems relevant as well: “What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree, and it is from its nature only possible as an episodic phenomenon.” Right? We’ll see about that latter part though, Dr. Freud.

Finally, as that rude anon suggested some months ago, I’m obviously speaking to a community that’s mostly inactive now. But I’m a keeper of faith: one of the things I do best is wait. So one point of this story is that it exists. I’m waiting. C’mon and wait with me, if you like.

[anxiety-trademark]

The week in review:

Raw 09/21 NXT 09/23 NXT UK 09/24 Smackdown 09/25 Clash of Champions 09/27 + Main Event 09/24

Raw:

Billie’s not wrong. None of these people are wrong. That title has fallen so fucking far since Becky held it, Jesus.

Interesting to see Billie Kay be somewhat (?) supportive of Peyton. Manager?

I implore women to stop using red eyeliner unless you’re trying to look possessed.

Oh at least Mickie’s gonna have her last match with her snazzy pants on.

God that theme music is so outdated.

If there was one person on the roster that could convince me they wrestled in the Diva’s era, it’d be Mickie James.

Beautiful Octopus, dare I say best in the division. Look at those crossed legs. Just beautiful, Zelina.

Man it was cool watching Zelina reverse the powerbomb attempt into a rollup, but Mickie couldn’t be bothered to get her shoulders down for a 2 count before the reversal. Shame.

Zelina needs an increase to her speed to pull off the style she’s going for, but it’s a fun style.

oof I think Mickie actually caught Zelina’s forehead with that high kick.

Seated Senton off the top rope is garbage and I hate it.

Lmfao Zelina won with a backstabber. She’s literally Sasha-lite. Okay.

Word was Bianca was the star of the pc combine, right? So if you wanna showcase her strength, do it against someone I fucking know lmao. Who was this bro? Of course she’s stronger than a nobody in the pc. Friggin Alexa Bliss can effortlessly give piggy back rides to Sheamus. That’s impressive, because I know how strong and big he is. This could’ve been done better is all I’m saying. Maybe do a sitdown interview with her pc peeps hyping her up, or show footage of her blowing everyone in the combine out the park. Idk.

Ruby stop hyping up Nia and Shayna individually, individually they suck lol lesbireal.

So did Ruby just give Liv her shirt? …You know what, it works, I’m not gonna dig into this.

I feel like all women use the same starting moves against Nia and it’s a little tired ngl. They do this headscissors into a standing crucifix hold, and then slide down to try and roll her up. Then she picks them up and headbutts them. Come on peeps.

Mk just throw Lana through another table, she’s as useless in the ring (kf wise) as Liv is on commentary (non-kf wise)

Let me rewind, how did Nattie get taken out this time? A punch again. COOL. Nattie confirmed worst tag partner in the history of the division.

Lmfao rip Lana. Bye.

Wow we just said fuck entrances huh? Ugh God. Imagine Becky not getting an entrance as a damn champion.

So Peyton forgoes jumping for the German suplex, which could’ve resulted in her landing on Asuka’s head, and her reaction is to laugh. Consummate professional. Becky Lynch’s optic cranial nerve injury (caused by a failed German suplex) called, it can’t seem to find the humor.

Idk what that double underhooked move was by Peyton, but it was nice.

What bothers me about Peyton’s spinning heel kick, is as high as she gets it, she only hits people with her calf. Awkward to see.

That attempted transition into the Asuka Lock was... something.

Highlight: Lana going through the table

---

NXT:

Did Tegan say “why me” to Candice fucking her knee up with a metal pipe? Somebody get this girl some tissues.

Haha watching Tegan writhe in pain is funny. Candice gets points. And I do not like giving Candice points.

Really appreciate Rhea’s theme after hearing so much generic garbage lately. She’s so done with nxt as a performer, she has passed literally all of them by.

Not to be that person, but seeing so many people in the ring together bothers me. If one person was sick, literally all of them are sick now. It’s just kinda yikes.

Did they forego having a crowd? If so, wise. There’s enough ppl in the ring and at ringside.

Rhea fucking yeeted that girl into the barrier lmaooo.

“...Marina Shafir who’s done some great things on Raw Underground recently,” lmao sure.

The absolute half-assed attempt by that girl to pull herself up before Rhea booted her down to the floor was questionable.

So adding all these random peeps from the pc to this battle royal was done solely to have Raquel and Rhea flex for their feud in 4 months, huh.

Kacy does cool shit, wbk lmao. Gets kicked out, lands on her back, rolls into a handstand, rotates, pulls herself up into the ring using her feet on the ropes; gets kicked out, lands on the side of the guardrail, pulls herself up, uses the plexiglass to help balance herself, jumps onto the stairs; gets kicked out, lands on the side of the guardrail, stands on Kayden’s shoulders and gets chauffeured back to the ring. Brilliant. Would be overkill in a Royal Rumble, but it works here.

R&R eliminate each other/themselves together. Fitting. Dakota “help me I’m useless on my own” Kai is shook.

Why is Indi in the top 5? Or top 7? How is this girl so damn prestigious??

Kacy really just slung herself around the ringpost. I’m becoming a fan of her antics/performances in multiwomen matches.

I see Shotzi’s character is, “I come so close yet cannot manage to touch the gold.” I feel for her... cuz I can’t stand Candice.

Boooo

I love how Io carries herself. She’s a shining example of not allowing her heritage to hold her back or make her feel unimportant. She responds in Japanese, and without missing a beat, translates in perfectly spoken and quick English. Never dances, never smiles, never looks like a chump. Serious and answers the damn question. She gets points.

Highlight: Kacy shenanigans

---

NXT UK:

Lol I love KLR so much. Just ducks out of the ring the first time she’s bested.

“KLR is well versed in mental manipulation,” that she is. She’s honestly a top competitor in that sense; equal to the likes of Sasha and Charlotte when it comes to psychology.

Piper’s got power. Ragdolling KLR here.

That’s right, performing with Charlotte Flair at wm is an accolade one can only hope to achieve (I’m annoying I know) no but seriously, KLR vs Becky Lynch? Take my money.

Nice Superkick, nice Tornado ddt.

Dear ref, stop yelling at her and restart the count. Dweeb.

Lmao self inflicted wreckage of her knee. 

This ref is a walking headache. We’re now getting into the autumn of overbooked women’s matches. And UK’s first title match back. Yikes.

That senton was awkward and looked painful af for KLR’s neck. If you’re gonna risk that move while selling a leg injury, make sure you have more space to correct your landing.

I almost wish that turnbuckle came undone naturally because KLR is already such a good seller, but I’m gonna assume this is a worked move since it’s been left exposed.

Yeah see there are issues with that spot. Positives: KLR didn’t purposefully undo the turnbuckle, so it’s not on her to give another title match; the spot has potential, as I’m guessing that would be genuinely painful. Negatives: Piper is too big of a woman to hit the lower turnbuckle doing the cannonball, so she ended up hitting the middle... which was padded. Good ending on paper if you don’t do the equations, but poor execution. Not Piper nor KLR’s fault though.

Slow pacing and I hate overbooked garbage, but this obviously isn’t the only match they’re having so *shrug*

Highlight: Clean tornado ddt, and I do love KLR’s selling

---

Smackdown:

Lol Bayley has her chair. She automatically gets a point every time I see it.

Top of the ramp this time? Okay, sure.

Stop cutting to the fancams, production. I don’t care about their reactions.

A fine enough promo to move along both of her angles, but production sucks. Wbk though.

“...one of the most complex personalities,” which personality of Alexa’s are we referring to, though?

Their timing on her pyro was off and now I’m sad. The pops during the breakdown leading into the fountains are fucking amazing and honestly cannot be topped by any of the other women.

When did Alexa stop wearing her gloves to the ring? Probably when she turned face. Shame.

She just called Lacey bitter, southern tea, and you know what? What a fucking drag. Imagine bitter southern tea. As someone who was raised in the south, that is a disgrace to southern tea. Sweet sun tea or pass.

Look at Alexa: selling Lacey’s strength, full of agile speed, and yet here’s Lacey not even bothering to put her shoulders down for her pin attempt. SAD.

A problem I consistently have with SD in particular is how they set up commercial breaks. They always do something dramatic, cut to commercial, come back and shit’s always completely different. How you gonna cut from Alexa leading and hearing the Fiend’s laugh, to return to Lacey in charge ???

Dear Cole, why are you calling her Alexis lol. Like I know that’s her real name but, hello??

oof Alexa’s midsection is beet red.

Lacey has not been putting on a “clinic” stop tossing that term around, Cole. Good bump by Alexa though.

Love how Lacey doesn’t mind landing flat when her moonsault misses. Respect. Her and Charlotte both eat that so perfectly.

LOVE how the monitors of people turned into Fiend’s face. POINTS.

It’s like she’s reverted back to her heel persona. This is literally 2016 Bliss, right? Right??

Roman is a large, strong, intimidating guy... but holy shit the visual of 5′1 Alexa staring daggers into the back of his head is intense af. I almost complained that he cut off her exit, but well done with the continuity.

Highlight: I’m really digging the Alexa/Fiend story

---

Clash of Champions:

Loving the red roots, hate the eyeshadow.

See, if Asuka wants to fuck around in the ring, you won’t hear me complain. I just wish she took her non-wrestling segments more seriously.

The patience Asuka gave Zelina to set up the arm kick was dumb.

“A hard arm bar by Asuka,” he says, even though her legs were completely bent. Easy on the credit given plz.

Zelina telegraphs too much. None of the bumps she takes ever catch me by surprise.

In the spirit of being fair, put your fucking shoulders down and let her attempt a pinfall, Asuka.

Haha Sasha-lite did meteora in the corner.

Nice roll into a kick, half point for Zelina.

No you don’t get to sell frustration or disbelief yet, that’s not buyable.

I don’t know wtf Zelina was going for with that counter before the Asuka Lock, but honestly idc. Could’ve been a kickoff match indeed. State of Becky’s title btw.

Every week it’s the same shit with Asuka. She gets on the mic, speaks Japanese, barely accomplishes anything, then gets interrupted/slapped/attacked... with dancing and smiling inbetween. I really wish she was more like Io.

Nikki isn’t “medically cleared to compete”, and the tag team titles aren’t being defended. My memory is fuzzy but wasn’t there some covid concerns going around back then? Was that just baseless speculation?

Love that Bayley turned this into an opportunity to be a bigger douche than she already was lol.

IS SHE DOING A VICTORY LAP LMAO

I want to hate this from a smarky “give other women a chance” perspective, but Bayley is an ass and this is great for Asuka to build credit as a face, and after being made to look foolish yet again. Lesgo.

Lol sounded like Bayley said, “you think you can cuck me?” I’m sure she didn’t. I’m choosing to believe she did though.

I never know exactly who to blame when Asuka’s Codebreaker looks ugly, but I swear Charlotte is the only one it looks impactful with. Sell job isn’t the problem, but taking that actual move is always dicey af.

Great kick by Asuka. Rekt.

Bayley says nah fuck this rofl. Fair ending; a fun little sprint of meaningless jabs.

“Chairwoman of SD” I like that too, Graves. Points to you.

LMAOOO Bayley set that shit up perfectly kekekek what’s up Sasha.

She be looking fucking incredible, but that neckbrace is a mega bummer.

Character wise, I’m surprised Bayley’s choosing to dole out punishment rather than taking her title and bolting.

Welp maybe she should have, Sasha going to town lmao.

oof peep that red line going down Bayley’s arm. eesh. Welts all over her back.

Highlight: Sasha beating the shit out of Bayley with a kendo stick

---

*BONUS*

Main Event:

You don’t pan the camera over to fucking commentary during Bianca’s entrance. Do better @ production.

Ruby puts her confidence in Liv even though everybody knows Bianca is winning this match lmao.

LOVE Liv’s boots.

like 20 seconds into the match and it’s already 10x better than the Bianca vs Billie Kay one. Don’t even waste a spot on Main Event for Billie Kay. No, I’m not not sorry for saying that.

It’s not that I hold issue with Bianca’s showboating or mannerisms, but it’s all so much more fitting for a heel.

Beautiful stalling suplex, but Liv is rather small.

Beautiful distance on that dropkick to Liv. Liv gets points for throwing herself so far.

We have enough women who rip their shirts off deep into matches, me thinks. Don’t need it from Liv as well.

Momentum could’ve been split better, but that was a decent match.

---

*Clash of Champions would be my highlighted event mostly thanks to Bayley, but if that’s a cop out, I’ll give a slight nod to Smackdown’s handling of Alexa.

[winter-soldier-headcanons]

Bird brain

This request is for @buckysgirl04 , and I wish to apologize for how late this is! I promise I wasn’t ignoring you! The last couple months have been hell with moving into a new home and starting a new job. Now that the holidays are rolling around I’m finally able to start writing again. Again, I’m sorry this is so late. Also, I’m really, really, really, sorry if I butchered any of the Italian I’ve used. I know some stuff in Italian, but not a whole lot...

I hope you enjoy, and I hope I did your request justice! 

Bucky x Italian!Fem!Reader

Warnings: Mild language, and that’s it!

Y/N - your name

F/C- favorite color

*I’ll also put the translations for the bolded sentences at the end for those that’d like them.* 

---

“Please tell me!” 

“Nope! You have to figure it out on your own, Wilson!” 

Bucky’s head lifted from his book upon hearing your voice. His heart always raced when he heard your thick Italian accent. He especially loved when you spoke in your native language. Bucky and Steve had been the ones to stumble upon you while on their mission to Italy. They had located another Hydra base in Florence and went to check it out, and that’s when they found you. 

You had been in the middle of a fight when Bucky and Steve found you. The two men stood mesmerized as they watched your swift and fluid movements. It was as though you were dancing. Bucky’s eyes were glued on you when Steve nudged him. They moved forward to assist, but when they got near the remaining Hydra agents were sent sailing through the air. That’s when they noticed a wisp of (F/C) trailing from your outstretched hand. 

“Buona sera, Capitano America, e Bucky Barnes.” You greeted with a grin. “Mi chiamo (Y/N). Piacere.” 

The moment your first spoke to them Bucky knew he was in trouble. He’d already fallen head over heels for you. As if your display of power wasn’t enough, your smooth melodic voice was the icing on the cake. 

Bucky was brought from his thoughts when Sam waved a hand in front of his face. 

“Earth to Barnes!” Sam called gaining the assassins attention. “Maybe you’ll know what your girl said.” 

Bucky raised a brow as he shifted his gaze to (Y/N). Y/N gave him a cheeky grin and he could only imagine what she had said. 

“What’d you say, doll?” Bucky inquired, his blue eyes focused on (Y/N). 

“Nothing. Not a damn thing. We were just playing Mario Kart when I finally managed to beat Sam!” Y/N replied, her grin growing. 

Sam pointed at her as he furrowed his brows and whined “I know you called me something. I just don’t know what.” 

Bucky sighed, “Y/N...” 

“Fine, fine. I said, “Ha! Io vinco! Battere quello, cervello di gallina!” 

Sam swiftly turned his attention to Bucky who was too busy trying to maintain a blank expression. The corners of his mouth twitched as he wanted to burst out laughing. 

“What the hell did she say, Tin Can?!” 

At that moment, Natasha’s head popped around the kitchen corner. A knowing grin on her face, and the sound of Steve sighing filtered from the kitchen. Sam glanced back and forth between the three at a complete loss. 

“She called you a bird brain, bird brain.” Natasha finally replied, taking pity on the poor man. 

Y/N snickered as Bucky burst out laughing. Natasha followed suit and snickered at the gobsmacked expression on Sam’s face. Sam narrowed his eyes and shot Y/N a look. 

“Oh, so you’re gonna gang up on me now too, huh, Y/N? What’s a man gotta do to get some respect around here?” Sam muttered. 

“There’s no respect in Mario Kart. But, if it will make you feel better, you’ll always be il mio secondo preferito, Sammy.” Y/N said as she took a seat on the arm rest by Bucky.

“Wait, then who’s your first...never mind. Stupid question.” 

Y/N snickered once more as Bucky wrapped an arm around her waist. Sam huffed and strode toward the kitchen where a giggling Natasha and Steve awaited him. 

Bucky pulled Y/N onto his lap and brushed his lips against her ear and whispered, “Ti amo, mi amore.” 

Y/N was shocked to say the least. The past couple months she had been trying to teach Bucky Italian, but he never seemed to grasp it. Her expression quickly shifted to one of adoration realizing he actually remembered something. 

“I thought I’d surprise you. I’ve actually been having Steve help me after my sessions with you.” 

Y/N pressed her lips to Bucky’s in a deep, but chaste kiss. A few moments later Y/N pulled away and rested her forehead against Bucky’s. 

“Ti amo, anch’io, Buck.” 

~~

Translations:

Io vinco! Battere quello, cervello di gallina - Victory! Take that, bird brain!  il mio secondo preferito - my second favorite Ti amo, mi amore - I love you, my darling. 

Ti amo, anch’io - I love you too. 

[italian-sides]

Hello everyone! / Ciao a tutti!

I know I’m late since the first Remus’ appearance but shhh, the important thing is to post, still better than not posting it at all, hahaha 

also for this post you’ll have to thank both @misslilidelaney, which is basically the source of half or even more of the headcanons you’re reading, and @watcher-from-the-heights for being the best beta reader ever ((tagging @ts-italian-gang as well bc i can))

today I will indeed introduce to you the Italian version of Remus; since there will be some phrases in heavy Roman dialect, i’ll put a translation at the end of it to better understand what people are saying: so, enjoy your reading, y'all!

oh, yeah, before anything else:

tw: mention of weed

Romeo Stella

- Romolo and Remo’s elder brother, born on 25/06/1988, more or less a year before the twins.

- since he was a child he has always given very clear signs of his love for gore-y and creepy stuff in the drawings he brought to his parents from kindergarten, something which the aforementioned initially worried about but later accepted, albeit with some  difficulty.

- in high school he attended the liceo artistico and he definitely chose it because he wanted to develop this creative flair for drawing, that and because the Green Stuff that used to be spread at his school was the best in the neighborhood- i mean what?

- after gradutation he started attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome but at one point he stopped because he found a job almost immediately in a very… particular field and he seized the chance: basically he’s a cameraman for erotica movies, and every now and then he takes part in the scenes himself and if at the beginning he both studied and worked to round up his expenses, after a while he quit his studies to devote himself full time to filming.

- once his parents found out about his job, since Romeo continued to lie saying that he was studying when in reality it wasn’t true, they literally kicked him out of the house and at first begged for hospitality among the houses of his actor friends and the studio where movies were usually filmed, then Remo invited him to Bologna with the promise of a low-priced apartment and showing him the announcement of a film production agency, of the type “he likes so much” looking for a cameraman, and so then he moves up to North Italy.

- as far as his personality goes, Romeo “Er Mejo Der Colosseo” [1] Stella, as he calls himself, is A Mess™: inconsistent like few, he overshares about his life and sometimes his work a lot, to the point of often making uncomfortable  both the Italian Sides and Dolce&Remì’s customers.

- as far as his sexuality is concerned, inconsistency here too reigns supreme because he constantly changes labels and an example of his conversations on the subject is: “I’m bisexual” “I’m pansexual” “No, no, in the end I am straight” “Yes, but that guy has a divine ass” “Okay, I’m gay” “Okay but THOSE BOOBS”, so you can understand what a mess this human being is.

- he wants to be considered triplets with Romolo and Remo at all costs, but each time they introduce themselves to someone new, the conversation between the three of them goes something like this: Romeo: “eh, sì, siamo gemelli” Romolo: “ma n'è ‘n cazzo vero” Remo: “ma che cazzo stai a di’?”[2]; plus the twins don’t speak much or almost never about him because they’re a bit embarrassed about his job.

- if you think that the Stella twins together are chaotic, you have never had the opportunity to experience the Stella brothers: Romeo: “A’ Burino” Remo: “A’ Cazzaro” Romolo: “A’ NFAMI VE PARCHEGGIO NA MANO 'N FACCIA”[3]; the first time that the Main Four witnessed a scene like this, Virgilio was half creeped out and half turned on and Luca was comforting a rather upset Patrizio from all the bad words flying around.

- for the reason described above films and TV series’ marathons with all the Sides are organized in rare, very rare occasions, because while Romeo would only like gore/splatter horrors and most documentaries on True Crime, the others, except Giuda, are like: “EW NO”

- Romeo: “VE GUARDATE I FILM DA FICHETTINE, IO VOJO VEDE GLI HORROR. ME SERVE ER SANGUE NO 'E CANZONI DAA BELLA E LABBESTIA” Luca: “Ma volevamo fare la maratona della Marvel” Romeo: “Notteprego 'amo girato a parodia porno e nun posso più guardà Thor coji stessi occhi”[4]

- he’s besties with Giuda and they bonded almost immediately and if the Venetian is not at Dolce&Remì or with Emilio, he’s certainly at home playing videogames on Playstation with Romeo. This is because a while back, at the very beginning of the internet, Virgilio, Romeo and Giuda were invited to a random group on Skype to make friends and while in the beginning they were all very close-knit, over the years Romeo and Giuda had become a bit much for Virgilio and slowly, taking advantage of his transfer to Bologna, he moved away from them, while Giuda and Romeo simply lost sight of each other after a while, limiting themselves to the usual Christmas/birthday wishes; Virgilio low key can’t bear the two of them too much because he’s anxious that they could bad-mouth him on the things that he said and did in his past, but they also have the same fear of him as well, therefore they keep quiet

- him, Giuda and Tommaso are fans of “La Mamma di Crystal” ((“Crystal’s Mom”)), a Saint Seya’s parody, and since the first time they all discovered that the other two follow it too, all three of them don’t have a conversation without quoting it in at least one sentence

[1]: “The Best of the Coliseum”: it comes from the italian version of Thomas O'Malley, the stray Irish cat from the Aristocats, that in Italy was characterized as a Roman cat [2]: Romeo: “heh, yes, we’re twins” Romolo: “but that’s not fucking true” Remo: “what the fuck are you saying?” [3]: Romeo:“You’re a hick!” Remo: “You’re a jackass!” Romolo: “You fools, I’m gonna park a hand on your face!" (as in, slap) [4]:  Romeo: "You always watch movies for pussies, I want to see the horror ones. I need blood, not Beauty and the Beast songs.” Luca: “Actually, we wanted to do a Marvel marathon-” Romeo: “No, please, we shot a porn parody of some of the movies and I can’t watch Thor with the same eyes again.”

so che arrivo in ritardo rispetto all'apparizione di Remus ma shhh, l'importante è pubblicare, ahahah 😂 per questo post dovrete ringraziare sia @misslilidelaney, che ha praticamente la fonte di metà o più delle headcanon che state leggendo, e @watcher-from-the-heights per essere l* mi* beta

oggi appunto introdurrò la versione italiana di Remus quindi buona lettura a tutti! ah, sì, prima di cominciare tw: menzione di marijuana

Romeo Stella

- fratello maggiore di Romolo e Remo, nato il 25/06/1988, più o meno un anno prima dei gemelli.

- fin da piccolo ha dato segni ben evidenti del suo amore per il macabro e il gore nei disegni che portava ai genitori dall'asilo, cosa di cui i suddetti all'inizio si preoccupavano ma che poi col passare del tempo hanno accettato, pur con qualche difficoltà.

- alle superiori ha fatto il liceo artistico e l'ha sicuramente scelto perché voleva sviluppare questo estro creativo verso il disegno questo e perché la roba che girava a scuola era la migliore del circondario i mean what?

- ha cominciato l'Accademia delle Belle Arti a Roma ma a un certo punto ha smesso perché ha trovato lavoro quasi subito in un ambito molto... particolare e ha colto la palla al balzo: praticamente è un cameraman per film osé, per cui ogni tanto partecipa egli stesso alle scene e se all'inizio studiava e lavorava per arrotondare, poi ha mollato gli studi per dedicarsi full time alle riprese.

- una volta che i genitori hanno scoperto il suo lavoro, visto che Romeo continuava a mentire dicendo che stava studiando quando in realtà non era vero, lo hanno letteralmente cacciato di casa e se all'inizio elemosinava ospitalità tra le case dei suoi amici attori e lo studio dove riprendevano di solito i film, poi Remo lo ha invitato a Bologna con la promessa di un appartamento a basso prezzo e proponendogli l'annuncio di un'agenzia di produzione di film "che ti piacciono tanto" che cerca un cameraman e quindi si trasferisce su al Nord.

- per quanto riguarda la personalità, Romeo "Er Mejo Der Colosseo" Stella, come si soprannomina lui stesso, is A Mess™: incoerente come pochi, straparla della sua vita e talvolta del suo lavoro fin troppo, a tal punto da mettere spesso a disagio sia i coinquilini LAMP(A) sia i clienti del Dolce&Remì.

- per quanto riguarda la sua sessualità, l'incoerenza anche qua fa da padrona perché cambia labels continuamente e un esempio delle sue conversazioni in materia è: "sono bi" "sono pan" "no no alla fine sono etero" "si ma quel tizio ha un culo divino" "okay I am gay" "okay but THOSE BOOBS", quindi capite bene che casino che è quest'essere umano.

- vorrebbe essere considerato a tutti i costi un gemello, ma ogni volta la conversazione tra i tre quando si presentano a qualcuno di nuovo va più o meno così: Romeo: "eh, sì, siamo gemelli" Romolo: "ma n'è 'n cazzo vero" Remo: "ma che cazzo stai a di'?"; plus i gemelli non parlano poco o mai di lui perché si vergognano del suo lavoro

- se pensate che i gemelli Stella insieme siano caotici, non avete mai avuto modo di fare esperienza di assistere ai fratelli Stella: Romeo: "A' Burino" Remo: "A' Cazzaro" Romolo: "A' NFAMI VE PARCHEGGIO NA MANO 'N FACCIA"; la prima volta che i coinquilini LAMP(A) hanno assistito alla scena, Virgilio era mezzo inquietato e mezzo turned on e Luca stava consolando un Patrizio piuttosto sconvolto da tutte le parolacce che volavano in giro.

- per questo motivo descritto sopra le maratone di film e di serie tv con tutti sono organizzate in rari, rarissimi casi, perché mentre Romeo vorrebbe solo horror gore/splatter e al massimo massimo documentari sul True Crime, gli altri a parte Giuda sono tipo: "EW NO"

- Romeo: "VE GUARDATE I FILM DA FICHETTINE IO VOJO VEDE GLI HORROR. ME SERVE ER SANGUE NO 'E CANZONI DAA BELLA E LABBESTIA" Luca: "Ma volevamo fare la maratona della Marvel" Romeo: "Notteprego 'amo girato a parodia porno e nun posso più guardà Thor coji stessi occhi"

- è migliore amicissimo con Giuda e hanno legato praticamente subito e se il veneziano non è al Dolce&Remì o con Emilio, è sicuramente a casa a giocare alla Play con Romeo. questo perché ancora un sacco di tempo fa, agli inizi di internet, Virgilio, Romeo e Giuda avevano formato un gruppo su Skype un po' a random per fare amicizia e mentre agli inizi erano tutti e tre molto affiatati, col passare degli anni Romeo e Giuda sono diventati "troppo bad boys" per Virgilio e pian piano, approfittando del trasferimento a Bologna, si è allontanato, mentre Giuda e Romeo semplicemente dopo un po' di sono persi di vista, limitandosi ai soliti auguri di natale/compleanno; Virgilio low key non li regge perché ha l'ansia che lo sputtanino sulle cose che ha detto e fatto nel suo passato, ma anche loro hanno lo stesso timore quindi se ne stanno buoni

- Romeo, Giuda e Tommaso sono fan de "La Mamma di Crystal", una parodia dei Cavalieri dello Zodiaco, e dalla prima volta che hanno scoperto che lo seguono, tutti e tre non hanno una conversazione senza citarne almeno una frase

[curemoonliite]

Premiere Nebula Shipping Concepts!

I haven’t thought much about ships in this series aside from Kotostelle, who have basically been together in my head since I started writing Imperfect Storm. But here are a few that have come to mind and my thoughts on them.

ValkaxOmega

I mean, obviously, they’re a magical girl team, so people are gonna ship them. I gotta say, I like their dynamic, but it’d be really hard for them to reconcile their beliefs and get together. Valka will blame herself for Omega becoming an Actress for a very long time, and Omega just wishes Valka would open up more, especially in the first book where she keeps a ton of secrets. So these two could end up good together, but there would be a lot of miscommunication in between.

ValkaxPhea

They were roommates for a while, so I can envision this a little easier. They have similar views on what they want out of their lives, and both can be initially cautious of new people (Valka shows it more, but Phea is actually way less trusting). The problem I see with it is that they both idolize each other to an extent, and while that’s great for pumping Valka up and getting her out of depressive states...she also doesn’t see the very obvious signs that Phea likes her. Because why would she, really?

ValkaxLayton

Valka leans more towards women, so I feel like this is the only real male/female relationship she could have with the cast. She feels a strong connection to her team captain, Layton, and while they’re more of a BroTP as I’m writing them now, I could imagine Valka being more comfortable in that kind of relationship. Though I do feel that Valka’s experience with non-Actresses and dudes leaves her a little hesitant to trust them, so they’ll probably stay friends. (Or have the whole awkward “he likes her but she doesn’t” thing because that’s happened to me so much in my experience with opposite-gender friendships.) Anyway, I’m mainly considering this for nostalgia purposes, as Layton was originally created to be Valka’s love interest on the RPs I got the concept from.

ValkaxAlarice (only in AU)

I know this is yet another Valka ship (possibly because I have no idea who to pair her up with), but I can’t shake the feeling that Alarice would probably like Valka as a person if she ever got to know her as more than the Valkaine Project. Obvi too far gone in this ‘verse, but if she hadn’t gone to the dark side...a definite, fascinating maybe.

OmegaxXue

I’ve put thought into this, but not a ton of it (mostly because they haven’t really met in canon yet). It mostly stems from shared trauma from their brainwashing and the fact that their Actress names translate to “Soul Gem” when you put them together. But they’re both very feelings-based people, so it’d be a pretty healthy and open relationship. (Probably the fluffier version of ValkaxOmega’s mentor/apprentice relationship.)

OmegaxAlarice

One-sided from Alarice’s perspective, and solely because disguising herself as a regular person meant she was actually treated like someone other than her Firebrand leader self for the first time in years. Omega’s already been in one abusive relationship, so if she knew, she’d be mega cautious of getting into one with someone like Alarice. It’d never get anywhere unless Alarice hypnotized Omega into doing so, and she has better things to make Omega do, anyway.

PheaxXing

Mainly an aesthetic ship—fire and water duo, a model and a rock star getting together...it’s just cool. Xing’s currently captured, but I could see them being booked for the same shoots, dating a couple of times. Don’t know if there’d be anything more to it or not.

PheaxVanessa

Not in a million years. If you defect to the Firebrands, Phea might forgive you enough for the two of you to be acquaintances again, but never girlfriends. They totally act like exes, but were never actually together.

IoxIago

Two teenagers watching old movies and researching conspiracy theories. That’s basically it. Even if they were to develop feelings for each other, Io would never admit it. Anyway, she’s way more interested in movies and battles for the time being.

IoxStellexKoto

At the very least, I know Junior Varsity will form an Actress trio together. Whether it gets any further than that depends entirely on if Io ends up growing deeper feelings for these girls.

The ManufacturerxKaine

This is probably the most complicated ship in the series, because Kaine was literally made to be Valka’s dark clone and the Manufacturer’s ideal girlfriend. Problem is, while she’s into it in the beginning...her attention is bound to wander to other guys. (After all, she never really got the freedom to date around and find her own love.) Seeing what he does to her partner Koto is essentially the nail in the coffin for her.

KainexLayton

I haven’t thought much about it, but I like the idea of Layton being the sort of “nice guy” to show Kaine what life outside Star Corporations is like, and inevitably, how much the Manufacturer abused her. In the original RPs, Kaine was more of a yandere who gained interest in Layton to steal him away from Valka, but now I imagine it as more of a “spy accidentally falls for their target” sort of thing. She tries to get intel from Layton, and it all goes downhill from there.

DimanchexAlain

It’s pretty much canon that President Asteria used to like Valka’s father, Alain Sparks, to the point where they dated for awhile. Alain broke off the relationship because he didn’t want Dimanche to get the bad press that would accompany her dating someone who’d challenged the government. She’s since married Omega’s brother, and her relationship with him is fine...but she can’t help but wonder sometimes. Alain considered going back to her exactly once, but by then, he’d already unofficially adopted Io, who needless to say, would have felt very uncomfortable facing her estranged mother who assumed her dead at that point in time.

(So to summarize, Kaine might be the only Nebula member I know for certain is straight. This is subject to change.)

[mbcorvo-author]

Corvo’s Writober 2019 - Day 5 & 6

This is PART of a bigger thing I wrote, after what happened in yesterday’s D&D session. And I kind of wished that I always wrote everything so I could have the entire story of my character’s misadventures.

The original version of this is around 1577 words long, but since it’s more a novel-ized(?) version of what happened in a tabletop roleplaying game, I didn’t want to translate and share everything. I don’t know why, but I feel that this is a little bit personal in some ways. And also I didn’t want to spend hours on the ita-eng translation.

Since I still wanted to share something instead of jumping directly to Day 7, I decided to share only the pieces with the prompts in them and put some filler brackets for the left out parts.

The prompts I used are:

Day 5 - “I might just kiss you” from Fictober 19 prompt list by @fictober-event

Day 5 - Afterlife & Day 6 - Scorched from Writetober 2019 prompt list by @virtu-s and @elventhief 

Day 6 - “I can’t decide if this is the best, or the worst way to die” from October 2019 prompt list by @downwithwritersblock

___

Title: Love is a burning thing

The enormous Troll shouted in anger and fury when that flaming spell exploded in a big flame. Two guards collapsed lifeless on the floor, burnt from the magic fire that hit also the Paladin that wasn’t able to dodge it completely, but the giant Troll was still standing and even more furious. He turned around to look at who attacked him and with a growl moved in huge strides in the big kitchen to reach the violet Tiefling, golden eyes full of pure rage and despair, that was near the door that took to the fields behind the great mansion. He roared ferally and again struck his four muscular arms trying to hit the wizard, trying maybe to grab him and rip his head off like the creature already did on the other Tiefling that decided to defend the Paladin instead of continuing to be on his side. Two hits failed, but the wizard wasn’t enough agile – or maybe not enough clear-headed – to avoid the other two hits that took his breath away and made every fibre of his body scream in pain. He staggered back few steps, trying to recover from the attacks, left index finger pointed towards the Troll that for some moments found himself wrapped in black hellish flames that burned him further and making him exhale a pained growl. “I can’t decide if this is the best, or the worst way to die” was what crossed over the mind of the Tiefling Wizard. “Burned… scorched by one of my spells”. He had only a few instants to decide how to act.

“Lhuis, it’s been a lot since last time I talked to another Tiefling” said the wizard “We know each other such a brief time, but I have to admit that I like being with you.” the tail with the double-arrow looking tip moved and wrapped itself around the right leg of the Wizard, in a common instinctive movement that for Tieflings means embarrassment or nervousness. Nervous, the one that never shied away from flirting (or, at least, trying to flirt) openly with anyone he liked. “You know… finally finding someone that gets me, that likes me the way I am. And then… I have to confess to you that I like you. A lot.” violet lips, like his complexion, parted in a smile that let show a little part of his white pointy teeth that – with the horns and tails – gave him an even more devilish look. The other Tiefling, with unusual light skin, in the meanwhile took off the half mask that he used to cover the remainings of his horns, chopped off with his tail in the past by some intolerant humans that felt extreme hate towards what they saw as half-demons. He turned towards the wizard and moved few steps to stand very close to him “Kylech, I… I might just kiss you, you know?” asked, with a sweet smile on his face. Kylech reduced more the tiny gap between them, softly taking the other’s face between his hands “And so, kiss me” murmured on his lips, taking then the first step kissing him lightly.

[Here there was another big piece of flashback about Lhuis and Kylech and about the series of unfortunate events that lead to the current situation, and Kylech's realization that Lhuis is what he searched and needed after all his travellings.]

The golden eyes of the desperate wizard were fixed in the direction of the furious Troll with the maw still stained with his lover’s blood. Only a few instants before the Troll recovered from the pain caused by the hellish flames that hit him, few moments to decide. Risking to be mauled by the enraged being, or using his strongest spell even if that the too close range would mean risking being struck by it as well?

“Lhuis, I’ll join you in the Afterlife!” shouted the Tiefling, before striking against the Troll in front of him that fireball that at the impact exploded, flaring up and burning everything that was in its proximity.

Italian under the cut!

Questo è PARTE di una cosa più grande che ho scritto, dopo quello che è successo nella sessione di ieri di D&D. E tipo mi sarebbe piaciuto aver sempre scritto tutto, così da avere l’intera storia delle disavventure del mio personaggio.

La versione originale di questo è attorno alle 1577 parole, ma dato che è una versione romanzata(?) di quello che è successo in un gioco di ruolo cartaceo, non ho voluto tradurre e condividere tutto. Non so perché, ma mi sembra che sia anche un qualcosa di un po’ personale in qualche modo. E inoltre non avevo voglia di trascorrere ore nella traduzione ita-eng.

Siccome volevo condividere comunque qualcosa invece di saltare direttamente al Day 7, ho deciso di condividere solo le parti dove ci sono gli spunti e aggiungere delle parentesi riempitive per le parti tralasciate.

Gli spunti usati sono:

Day 5 - “I might just kiss you” from Fictober 19 prompt list by @fictober-event

Day 5 - Afterlife & Day 6 - Scorched from Writetober 2019 prompt list by @virtu-s and @elventhief

Day 6 - “I can’t decide if this is the best, or the worst way to die” from October 2019 prompt list by @downwithwritersblock

___

Titolo: Love is a burning thing / L’amore è una cosa che brucia

Il gigantesco Troll urlò di rabbia e ira quando quella magia infuocata esplose in una enorme fiammata. Due guardie stramazzarono a terra esanimi, bruciate dal fuoco magico che colpì anche il Paladino che non fece in tempo a scansarsi del tutto, ma il gigantesco troll era ancora in piedi e ancora più furente. Si voltò ad adocchiare chi lo aveva attaccato e con un ringhio avanzò a grandi falcate nell’ampia cucina per raggiungere il Tiefling viola, occhi dorati pieni di pura rabbia e disperazione, che si trovava in piedi nei pressi della porta che dava verso i terreni sul retro della grande magione. Ruggì bestialmente ancora una volta e fece saettare le sue quattro muscolose braccia per cercare di colpire il mago, cercare anche di afferrarlo e staccargli la testa con un morso come aveva fatto con l’altro Tiefling che aveva deciso di difendere il Paladino anziché stare dalla sua parte. Due colpi andarono a vuoto, ma il mago non era abbastanza agile – o forse non abbastanza lucido – per poter schivare gli altri due colpi che gli mozzarono il fiato e urlare di dolore ogni fibra del suo corpo. Indietreggiò di un passo, barcollando e cercando di riprendersi dai colpi, dito indice mancino che si puntò in direzione del Troll che per qualche momento si ritrovò avvolto da nere fiamme infernali che lo bruciarono ulteriormente facendolo ringhiare ancora di dolore. “Non so decidere se questo sia il migliore o il peggior modo di morire” fu quello che passò nella mente del Mago Tiefling “Ustionato...arso da un mio stesso incantesimo”. Aveva solo qualche istante per poter decidere come agire.

“Lhuis, era da parecchio tempo che non parlavo con un altro Tiefling” disse il mago “Ci conosciamo da così poco, ma devo ammettere che sto bene con te.” la coda terminante in una doppia freccia si avvolse attorno alla gamba destra del mago, in un classico istintivo movimento che nei Tiefling indica imbarazzo o nervosismo. Imbarazzato, lui che non si era mai fatto problemi a flirtare (o, almeno, tentare di flirtare) apertamente con chiunque gli piacesse. “Sai… finalmente qualcuno che mi riesce a capire, che mi apprezza per come sono. E poi...devo confessarti che mi piaci. Molto.” labbra viola come il resto della sua carnagione che si stirarono in un sorriso che lasciò intravedere la candida dentatura appuntita che – assieme a corna e coda – gli davano un’aria ancora più diabolica. L’altro Tiefling, dalla carnagione insolitamente chiara, aveva intanto posato la mezza maschera che utilizzava per nascondere quel che rimaneva delle sue corna, mozzate assieme alla sua coda molto tempo prima da umani intolleranti che provavano un odio estremo verso quelli che vedevano come mezzi demoni. Si voltò nuovamente verso il mago e mosse qualche passo fino a fermarsi vicinissimo a lui “Kylech, io… potrei baciarti, lo sai?” domandò, con un dolce sorriso sul viso. Kylech ridusse ulteriormente quella minima distanza che li separava, prendendo delicatamente il viso altrui tra le proprie mani “E allora baciami” gli sussurrò a fior di labbra, prendendo poi l’iniziativa scoccandogli un primo leggero bacio.

[Qui c’era un grande spezzone di flashback riguardo Lhuis e Kylech e sulla serie di sfortunati eventi che hanno portato alla situazione attuale, così come la realizzazione di Kylech del fatto che Lhuis è tutto quello che aveva cercato e voluto dopo tutti i suoi viaggi.]

Gli occhi dorati del disperato mago erano fissi in direzione del rabbioso Troll dalle fauci sporche del sangue del suo amato. Rimanevano pochi istanti prima che l’essere si riprendesse dal dolore causato dalle fiamme infernali con cui era stato colpito, pochi istanti in cui decidere. Rischiare di essere dilaniato a propria volta dalla creatura furente, oppure usare il proprio incantesimo più forte nonostante la distanza ravvicinata e rischiare di venirne investito a propria volta?

“Lhuis, ti raggiungo nell’Aldilà!” esclamò il Tiefling, prima di scagliare contro il Troll di fronte a lui quella palla di fuoco che all’impatto esplose divampando e investendo tutto quello che si ritrovava nelle sue vicinanze.

[lordmartiya]

lord Martiya’s Lilanette Week 2018/2019 Day 1

Hey, everybody, lord Martiya here with the newest edition of the Lilanette Week. This time I’ll be a bit more ambitious, as six of the stories will form a coherent plot just for you guys. Hope you’ll like it.

Anyway, I’ll start with one certain scene from “Chameleon”, and go from what my personal experience tells me about Marinette and Lila’s characters.

Day 1: Canon Machine Broke

Marinette had to admit she wasn’t exactly rational whenever Lila was involved. In fact, even if she wouldn’t admit out loud to anyone but Tikki, there was something in the Italian girl that scared her, and it had been there even before Volpina. Hence why she had been trying to expose her so stubbornly, why she had confronted her in the bathrooms… And why she had just let herself being physically intimidated by the girl who now had her backed to the wall with her hands at the side.

“You seem less dumb than the others, so I will give you one last chance: you are either with me, or against me.” Lila threatened, almost casually.

“What’s wrong with you?” Marinette let out.

And that got an unexpected reaction from the girl, who gave her a terrifyingly familiar glare and slipped for a moment in some dialect: “Nun facevo la bella vita. O cerchi ‘a filastrocca?”

“Uh?” Marinette said as she translated the phrase.

“Well, I suppose I could give it. Not that you’d understand, what with having your little place in the world to feel safe, the parents you can trust, bullies that are easily deammolla! Ma che cazzo?!”

Much to both girls’ (and Tikki’s) surprise, Marinette had hugged Lila, and had no intention to let go for a while. For she had now realized what scared her so much: Lila had lost all, or almost, all trust in other people, exactly what had almost happened to her because of Chloe’s bullying. And if it killed her, she’d make sure she could trust at least one person.

____________________________________________

Alya following an Akuma villain around was something rather common. That she had almost the entire class with her, however, was not, nor was the fact they had collectively caused it.

It had started with Chloe’s little comment as they returned to class after the lunch break. “I would have never expected to see Marinette sitting alone again”, she had said. Reminding everyone, including their teacher, that Marinette had a very different reason than jealousy for reacting as she had to what they had done to help with Lila’s tinnitus: they had volunteered the desk of a former bullying victim. Then, as they discussed how to resettle the seats, they had noticed Marinette and Lila were missing, and started fearing the worst: one of the two, most likely Marinette, had been Akumatized, and was now attacking the other.

As Alya metaphorically kicked herself for what she had done to the one who was supposed to be her best friend she had also remembered that Marinette had a very good reason for not trusting Lila in general: the day she had first come there she had been late, arriving in the nick of time, and had spent the entire lunch break working on homework that was due for that afternoon, so she had missed Rose vocally identifying Lila as prince Ali’s girlfriend before anyone else but Chloe could even hear her voice, much to the Italian girl’s bemusement (“For hopefully the last time, we’re friends” she had said in a dangerously low voice after slapping her face), not noticed the newcomer at all during the lessons, and couldn’t see her as she tried to downplay her relationships with famous people during the lunch break, and by the time she finally discovered Lila she only had a good-looking girl who had made a number of unlikely claims making moves on Adrien-the only way she could have got a worst first impression would have been seeing Ladybug’s reaction at Lila endangering herself at revealing their closeness (what had reportedly caused Volpina) but not hearing what the heroine had said, something that could have well happened considering Marinette lived by the very park it had happened. Seriously, it was like some kind of demigod had decreed Marinette and Lila were to be mortal enemies.

The fear of one of the two having been Akumatized was quelled when Mme Bustier’s phone, that she had produced to give the Akuma alert, was promptly infected by an Akuma (purple, meaning that Papillon hadn’t managed to reproduce the trick for multiple Akuma at a time yet)… And replaced by the one coming from the realization Marinette and Lila were missing together. Marinette, who was the fittest girl and either the second or third strongest female student of the school, with the only one who clearly surpassed her being an older Savate practitioner, rather short-tempered, and alone with the one girl that irked her as much as Chloe. And Lila, Marinette’s rival for the spot of second strongest girl who, for all her attempts to hide it, was a good amateur boxer, with a reputation in the relatively small female amateur boxing community because, when in London, she had won by knock-out against an older and larger girl. And of course Marinette was once again the one who didn’t know: they knew because Nora, having just realized her sister’s world-traveling classmate was that Lila Rossi, had barged in the class right after one of her calls to try and recruit her for her gym and revealed it, but Marinette had already left to calm down. And so she didn’t know why they hadn’t called Lila out when she had claimed her tinnitus was from saving Jagged Stone’s kitten (as if he’d be able to keep one alongside the crocodile!) rather than a training accident like the sprained wrist, or her reflexes had made her catch the thrown napkin and she had said it was to protect Max’ eyes from being gouged. God, the moment she thought back to those Lila was sure to convince herself everyone but Marinette was stupid.

So here they were, following Madame Poppins and her teen-tracking cellphone to find the missing girls, hoping they hadn’t been trying to kill each other.

“The second row?! Really?!”

“Really. I think Mr Agreste did that on purpose to get revenge for what she had put him through in the past and hadn’t thought about the possible consequences…”

Everyone stopped at the voices of Lila and Marinette coming from the bathroom… And not shouting at each other. Then Kim, reckless as usual, opened the door, and saw that, somehow, Marinette and Lila had become friends while everyone was worried they were trying to kill each other.

“Girls… Lunch break is over, and Mme Bustier’s phone got Akumatized.” Alya said.

Not even five seconds later, Marinette was running away with the Akumatized phone, with Madame Poppins giving chase after being apparently called out of her shock by Papillon. And Alya, having enough of that madness, decided to do as her older sister would have done and went to the Italian girl:

“Look, Lila, we already know of the boxing thing, my sister’s the Nora Césaire and told everyone when she tried to get you on the phone and have you enroll at her same gym, and nobody in Paris would say anything when Ladybug is doing her thing, so you can stop with those attempts at covering up.”

“Oh. And I who was starting doubting of your intelligence…” Lila admitted. “Say, Marinette’s a strong girl, isn’t she? In her heart, I mean.”

“The strongest.”

For a moment, Lila said nothing. Then, looking at Adrien that for some reason was running after Madame Poppins, she added: “S’er bionno nun move’r culo, Marinette me la fotto io.”

Alya didn’t understand Italian, let alone what was likely a dialect, but what she had just heard, and Lila “did I just make that pun?” snicker after she spoke, made her wonder if her fellow exchange student and Marinette becoming friends had been a good thing after all.

Note

When it comes to the class I work on a simple assumption: they aren’t stupid. That of course begs the question, how did they believe her? And my answer is easy: she had been at Le Grand Paris to speak with prince Ali for whatever reason (are they friend-friend, or just friend as two teens in the diplomatic world from nations in good relationship are? That is for you to decide), and Rose, sweet romantic soul she is, took the utterly wrong conclusion and loudly announced it to the whole class, resulting in her being established as “Prince Ali’s friend/star-crossed lover”, and pretty much everything else sparked from there, convincing the girl from the very cunning-dependant diplomatic world she was surrounded by idiots and not normal teenagers. As for the boxing thing, her general nimbleness and the way she caught the napkin hint at that or another martial art/combat sport with a heavy emphasis on footwork and parrying, and I’m of the idea she had said the very transparent lies about Jagged Stone’s kitten and the eye-gouging napkin planning to get caught and being “forced” to admit it… Except everyone but Marinette knew already, guessed she was trying to hide the boyish interest and was gentle enough to get along, further convincing Lila everyone but Marinette and Adrien were dumb.

What Does Lila Say

As you may know from my other stories, I imagine Lila as being from Rome, and her first language being not standard Italian but Romanesco, the local “colorful” dialect, for the simple fact I find amusing to have a classy girl suddenly speak in a way that outside Rome would be extremely crass. Marinette, given her grandmother, can understand it (it helps that in the end Romanesco isn’t too different from standard Italian), but not all of you readers can, so, let me translate: the first phrase translates literally as “I didn’t live the good life. Or do you want then list?”; the second is a demand that Marinette lets her go, with the general purpose Italian curse “cazzo” used as emphasis; the third, finally, translates as “If that blond doesn’t get his ass moving, I’ll steal Marinette”, with the verb used here for “steal” actually meaning “have sex” (Lila didn’t actually mean that double meaning).

[justxaxstory]

Universe Lore for Colonists AU

General Lore

This universe is set in an unspecified future time period. Safe to say many centuries from now.

Stations and colonies were built to allow mining and other resource based consumption and manufacturing.

They were staffed well in the beginning and then Earth Prime (as it became known) figured out it was an ideal way to get rid of unwanted people - criminals, the poor etc (think like Australia when the British used it as a penal colony). If they died - so be it - there was a low life expectancy for ‘those people’ anyway

The stations themselves met bare minimum code and were frequently shabby, cramped and dangerous. Some were better than others.

The people born on those stations became known first as the Colony and then the Colonists.

The Colonists thrived despite all attempts by Earth Prime to destroy them

The Earthers grew afraid of the Colonists.

Little known fact by everyone but the elite - the triggering event for the war was when the Colonists figured out how to terraform IO, a moon of Jupiter, to allow them to turn it into a proper home world for the Colonists, where the air was breathable, natural water would exist and crops could grow. They would no longer have to rely on Earth Prime

The leaders of Earth Prime panicked and the war began

Only the very elite would have this information or those so politically astute as to have figured it out (aka - none of my boys have figured that out).

Once all the forms of polluting enterprise and mining occurred off the planet, Earth Prime became a paradise - truly beautiful.

They have disposed of so many that there was space for them to spread out and grow into a world of cultural excellence.

Medical science is extremely advanced on Earth Prime so few people would have serious illnesses or injuries (even debilitating injuries such as those to the head or spine). Therefore people like Ivar would be extraordinary and bizarre. 

The war between the Earthers and the Colonists lasted for approximately three generations so few people alive today in either camp would remember the commencement of the war. Everyone young would only remember war as a constant. 

The children of Earth Prime have been largely protected from the war given that the conflict has occurred off their world. The children of the Colonists were not so fortunate.

The Colonists society is divided into Soldier and everyone else. At least 60% of the population of the Colonists are Soldiers. In times of extreme conflict, everyone can fight. 

Soldiers can be any gender or identity (I only play male muses but just for the purpose of world-building, it is important to note societal divisions are not gender based).

The Colonists are scarred, tattooed and frankly kinda terrifying in physical appearance, especially in comparison to Earthers.. 

Popular culture on Earth has Colonists painted as monstrous villains (although some may get off on that - some peeps just dig a baddie).

Sexy Times & Reproduction

For sexual culture and identity, there are two options and I am fine with either:

Sophisticated Earthers vs. Traditional Colonists. In other words, Earth Prime is extremely modern and liberal about sex and sexuality with all that entails. Meanwhile the Colonists tend to be monogamous with more traditional spousal roles (not gender because the lines divide based on who is a soldier and who is not). So the non-Soldier spouse is expected to be sexually submissive as well as performing home care and child care tasks.

Beyond Sex Earthers vs. the Animalistic Colonists. In this version, Earthers no longer engage in ‘sex’ that involves actual physical contact. This type of physical interaction would be intensely discouraged such that it would be rather ingrained in the Earthers. Reproduction is always artificial, with social constructs arranged for optimum rearing of children. In comparison to the Colonists who continue to reproduce naturally if possible. Resource approval would be needed for couples incapable of reproducing naturally. The Colonists would have to apply for permission to have a child. Only the Soldier spouses need apply. The non-soldier spouse is subject to the whims of their Soldier spouse. The children grow up in a family unit as much as possible but tend to get farmed into work at a very young age. By mid-teens everyone is working already.

The Weird and the Kinky Shit

Everything here is negotiable. I’m just a monster. Message me or put it in your tags if something here does not appeal.

Infidelity is a big thing for the Colonists and they tend to be very possessive of their spouses.

If the non-Soldier spouse is capable of lactating, they are provided medication to ensure they can do so. It is a supplementary food-source for their Soldier spouse and means that the non-Soldier spouse receives better food and care. Historically, a non-Soldier spouse had to learn to optimize their value or risk being disposable. Now it is just built into the cultural mainframe so seeing it in public etc would not be unusual.

Non-Soldier spouses will go into some pretty risky situations or places to accompany their Soldier. There isn’t the division between the battle and the ‘home’ as there would be for the Earthers. Since nowhere is safe, they may as well be where someone will prioritize their survival.

Failing to protect your Spouse is a mark of shame for the Soldier spouse and you may not be in future a desirable spouse.

However as a result, the Soldier spouse tends to be strict and domineering. It is under the guise of protection but it translates into nearly everything including sexual interactions. 

Sidenote & Disclaimer: Not every version of this universe must be identical. We can vary it to taste so to speak. If you want to vary it in some way or drop certain components, I am super flexible. I love, love, love collaborative world-building. That is my jam.