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eatmangoesnekkid · 1 month

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I don’t live my life thinking a lot about money, trying to ‘get’ more money, or not having enough money yet I am not motivated by money either. The act of receiving more money does not make me rush to hurry up and finalize my books or open up my school. I can’t remember the last time I worried about money because having money is an intimate frequency and energy of FREEDOM. You have to break the frequencies of constantly penny-pinching, being stingy, allowing how much money you have in the bank to dictate your mood or living afraid to buy the very things that you need that will expand or evolve you, which is not the same thing as shopping all the time as a coping mechanism for being human, incurring consumer debt or being irresponsible and reckless with your money. And your life force will never thrive when you are a slave or prisoner to money.

The Practical and Spiritual Journey to Making More Money —You Must Enlist Your Warrior and Your Energy

You have to look at earning money like a game and enjoy growing your money and playing the game or else you never win. Not just saving or hoarding it away in your bra but allowing your money to work for you while you sleep like putting it in stocks. I have a degree in Accounting and have always believed that women were born to be skilled in financials but we are socialized to perceive ourselves not. But when you were born with a womb, you are naturally gifted at multiplying a seed into something much larger and intelligent like a whole baby. You are a natural amplifier, nourishing and growing what has been received. Be willing to look into investments and not be afraid of accumulating “healthy debt” and learn to move your money around in order to grow it. Look to investing part of your earnings into different funds, even if it is just cutting back on buying coffee and putting that money you would have paid for a daily coffee into a savings that will accrue and be used to invest in the future. If you already have cash flow, getting rental property to airbnb or sell (everyone I know that is quietly wealth-oriented owns at least 2-3 homes) which can be overwhelming to think about when living pay check-to-pay check but just beginning to think about how you can earn more money from your own money passively gets the ball rolling in your consciousness like what would it be like to open up a laundry mat, build it up and sell it in a few years for huge profit? Laundry mat ownership is such a fast lucrative business, just like what you see in the hood in movies. Or buy a raggedy house, build it up and sell it for a higher cost and incredible profit. Some of you straight and bi women entrepreneurs who are ready for good lovers must find love and attraction with lovers who are builders and handymen and can help to upscale and modernize your home that you can then resale for great profit and stop messing with dusties who have zero skill sets and create more stress on your life. 🙏🏿 Because when you live a highly stressful, parasympathetic, flight or fight life, the first thing you lose is your sexual desire or libido i.e. your umlimited creative power. No thank you!

If you have a spiritual business like me, you can do deals underneath the table but also work towards a LLC to legitimize your company which gives you tax breaks and allows you to earn more money. Something about going through the channels to make something official moves it from just being a hobby to a legit business. As magical spiritual woman, your power move is to attract someone willing to invest in your work as a start-up. If you do, you must cherish this person, love this person with all your heart, hips and soul (if the relationship is romantic but of course it can also be platonic or familial, either way, love this person), adore them deep and true. The person, this angelic being, this God, is saving you massive stress and headache. Their presence in your life serves a larger purpose —you must help them to understand this because our world teaches us to be so fearful and suspicious of being helped or helping someone rather than gracious and honored. Too many people are missing out on great blessings of interdependence because they live afraid and suspicious of the big heart of another human. So sad that many amazing beautiful people are stuck in their little corners hoarding away and missing out on healing, thriving, and experiencing the gifts and/or talents of another human because of how we have been wired to perceive the desire to meet one another’s needs and desires by status quo culture. To be a woman who can love someone in ways that relax their body so deeply that they can finally get out of their head and rest well and regenerate their tissues at night is incredibly priceless.

**This is not the same thing as looking for a handout, walking around broken like the world owes you something or hoping someone will help because you tell a victimization story. It is about being mature and resourceful and consciously manifesting what is needed and not simply what would be cool or cute potentially through love and loving.

But not every woman is ready or qualified for the aforementioned experience because you do have to develop skills that will be greatly useful, nourishing, nurturing, decompressing, relaxing or expansive or beneficial in other ways to another person. You can’t just be attractive or whatever. You have to be a woman who has developed a certain ease and peace in her body and life first and and that is what joining my school and online temple will help you master. And I personally believe you must also really love someone if the harmony is right because 1. love is incredible and healthy for the body to experience for however long it lasts 2. love is essential for the brightest sustained outcome. I’m not talking about the “sprinkle, sprinkle“ foolishness being promoted online. I am advocating for more love between people and all that comes with truly loving someone.

Be so skillful in your mature womanhood that you don't run from challenges, but face and engage them head on, and refine, recalibrate, and evolve beyond them. Never lose the boundaries that you are running a business albeit a spiritual one but still a business. Stay devoted and disciplined, both are essential. Work towards hiring people who can help you scale and grow eventually.

The Spiritual Journey to Making More Money—You Must Invoke Your Lover

The key to having more money is to learn to surrender and trust and truly allow the universe to be your provider, which is not an intellectual idea but a frequency of feminine energy. This is less about gender and more about the willingness to live a little bit beyond the egoic surface layer of reality of urgency that tells you to hurry and produce, to hoard or take or trigger you to constantly need to check off a to-do list, always needing to plan or to cross your t’s and dot your i’s which will allow you to buy that nice house and cute car eventually, but could greatly inhibit your energy from flowing where you never really can feel the joy of a simple moment pulse up your spine because you live in stress and overwork for external things that never make you fully truly happy.

No matter what stage of life you are, the undercurrent of your reality must feel like more relaxation and freedom if you want to have more money but not exhaust yourself in rigorous pursuit and constant labor for it.

I had to learn to draw in the frequency of freedom—to laugh at myself, to play, to rest, to relax, to do silly shit like twirling throughout my day —when life was very stressful, drama was high, and money was low. Neighbors would see me twirling. I would sometimes twirl for customers whose shopping totals were over 200 dollars. Because changing frequencies or weaving new realities is most potent when life is hard. You have to discover strategic ways to do the things you really want to do in life but was told you couldn’t afford. You must also have this hunger and desire to play the game of life to win while laughing at yourself along the way as you refine more and more and develop intimacy with the currencies of relaxation, love and freedom, which naturally include having more money.

But do not just copy and paste and take from others. Give. —India Ame’ye

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Kahlil Gibran, Mirrors of the Soul

Chapter: The Money Drop (unedited)

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daycourtofficial · 2 months

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I got cursed like Eve got bitten - part XIII

Pairing: Azriel x Rhysand's sister!reader | WC: 2.5k | Warnings: none

Summary: reports of a rare powered fae popping up in Illyria send Azriel and Rhysand on a journey through the past, unraveling a truth they thought long buried

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Azriel had spent months planning it, desperate for every detail to be just right. Mating flights were an Illyrian tradition, most males crafting routes from the female’s family home to the home they will move into as a married couple. Azriel had gone a step further. Several steps, actually.

The flight had lasted hours, with several stops along the way. It began in the cabin in Illyria, your first home. Azriel felt like it was right - the both of you had grown up there, albeit in different centuries. He hardly knew much of you as you grew up - your father kept him incredibly busy for the first few centuries of his life, so much so that when the bond snapped when you were fifty, Azriel had only seen you a handful of times.

The two of you had flown through the dark skies, holding hands and synchronizing the flapping of your wings to make a beautiful song, imitating the beat of the bond in your chests. The first few stops were at various restaurants and the places you spent the most time together - the flower shop Azriel frequented, your favorite bookstore.

The two of you spent a while following the Sidra, allowing its cold water to splash against the both of you as you flew close to it before shooting back up into the sky, laughter mixing with the sloshing sounds beneath.

Your father, High Lord of the Night Court, had not been pleased that you had mated an Illyrian male. He had hoped he could tie you to someone who could provide him with more advantageous political ties. But he accepted the mating nonetheless, reluctantly answering your pleas to allow Azriel more time off to tend to you.

The familiar sight of your apartment came into view, and you began flapping your wings once more, pivoting to make a downward slope, but Azriel’s soft grasp on your hand kept you gliding through the air, passing the street the two of you lived on, continuing your flight over the people of Velaris. He felt your confusion ripple through him, but he sent coaxing love down the bond to soothe.

The two of you moved up in the sky, soaring over the buildings, passing over the roof of one building and immediately feeling something soft falling on you. He watched you look up, searching the sky for rain, only for your ears to ring with the screams of joy from your family - Morrigan, Rhysand, and Cassian stood on a nearby rooftop throwing petals at the two of you.

Your giggles filled Azriel’s ears as he watched Cassian wind his arm back, attempting to reach the two of you with his petals as you got further away, his last throw unsuccessful. It was better than the threat Rhysand had made about following the two of you on your flight, his offer to serenade you two quickly declined.

Azriel led you to the outskirts of Velaris, your path following the Sidra to a house on the bottom of the mountain. Azriel began banking, and you followed suit. Once he landed, you crashed into him, letting him catch you instead of landing on your feet. He wrapped his arms around your waist, trying to steady you but ultimately failing, the two of you landing in the tall grass, his back hitting the ground as an oomph escaped from his chest.

“Why do you do this?”

You poked his nose, straddling his waist as his wings cocooned around the two of you. “Because I think it’s funny.”

“I didn’t know you shared Cassian’s terrible sense of humor.”

You threw your head back laughing, and Azriel felt the warmth seep into his chest at the sound, the gentle beat of his heart going ‘I’m yours’, ‘you’re mine’, with each pump of the organ. He sat up, bringing you with him, your legs wrapping around his waist as he stood and carried you through the tall grass.

“Where are we?” Shadows caressed your hair, pulling stray pieces of grass that had made their way to your head.

“You’ll see.”

He walked up the hill, your face moving this way and that to take a peek at what was behind you, his large wings moving each way you turned to block your view. Your own wings responded by blocking his view, but his steps didn’t falter until he stopped and whispered into your ear, “look.”

He felt the chills you got through the bond, the sensation rippling through his body at his words. The bond was still so new - the only people he knew in his life to have one was your father and mother, a male Azriel despised seeing, a female he adored with every fiber of his being. It had been a year since it snapped - you had told Azriel of the bond one night, and despite your forwardness about it and his own lack of feeling it, he had assumed you would reject it.

He was pleasantly surprised when, instead, you had asked him to go out to dinner. At your invitation, Azriel spent the next few weeks courting you, going through the proper channels of wanting to marry a princess of the Night Court. Which included the shitshow of telling Rhysand, who promptly threw Azriel in a lake.

Your brother was fine afterward, the sight of Azriel dripping like a wet dog enough to calm down his overbearing instincts, offering congratulations once Azriel was within hearing range once more. Azriel had returned the favor nearly two centuries later when they all found out Rhys and Feyre were mates. It only felt right after all.

Before the pair of you stood a piece of land that truthfully wasn’t impressive from the onset. But this past Starfall Azriel had disappeared for a few hours, coming back scattered in the colors that streaked the sky, some poor excuse on his tongue for why he was missing.

And now you knew why.

He had been flying through the sky, catching the colors in jars, vials, and anything he could keep contained, the jars and vials now laid out before you on this plot of land, outlining a massive square with several additional lines, like plans to a house.

“Az, I-”

His hand stroking your arm shushed you, and you clambered out of his arms, moving toward the lights. The greens and blues and silvers you had watched streak the sky a few months ago laid out before you, telling you the story of a life not yet lived, a home not yet made.

You pulled him to you, his lips warm in contrast to the cool night air. His wings wrapped around yours, mirroring the arms that wrapped around your shoulders.

The two of you spent the night laying out on a blanket, reviewing the blue prints Azriel had brought along. How you wanted a big, open house with lots of rooms, but small enough to be cozy.

The two of you debated for hours that night about the ins and outs of the house, arguments that lasted as the home was built. Opinions the two of you turned into competitions, roping Cassian, Rhysand, and Mor into them, ignoring Amren because she would always skew her vote toward whoever was losing to keep the competition alive.

Azriel was shaken from his dream, the memories of the past flowing in and out of his head as he slumbered to feel a tugging in his chest. His shadows swarmed him, yanking him from the bed, desperate for him to be moving.

He stumbled out of bed through the darkness, his shadows throwing him a pair of pants and stepping into them as he walked hurriedly. He moved past the dresser, the one with a few jars of stardust buried beneath coats and blankets, a desperate attempt to keep their light. He made it through his door when you came out of your own, running into his bare chest, arms pinned in between your bodies.

“Are you okay?”

Azriel couldn’t get the words out fast enough - you were distressed, that much was obvious. Your hair was out of the bun you had fallen asleep in, your nightgown drenched in sweat, and you were covered in goosebumps. Azriel reached out, trying to wrap his arms around you to get you to go back into your room, but you kept squirming in his grasp, muttering something about Rhys.

Azriel called for him in his mind, a desperate plea for him to wake up, soft shushing sounds coming from his throat to calm you down, doing little to help your cries. The two of you waited several minutes until Azriel heard footsteps from behind him. He felt Rhys approaching from behind, peering at you over his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?”

At Rhys’s voice, your head snapped up, red rimmed violet eyes peering up at him. You started pointing at him, voice full of determination. “I need your help, please.”

Rhys had slipped into Azriel’s mind, asking what was happening, and left quickly at Azriel’s less than helpful I don’t know.

“Anything in my power, I’ll do.”

“I need you to look into my mind.” Azriel’s arms stiffened around you, the mood quickly shifting in the dark hallway.

“Some male followed me through Velaris. He gave me this really weird sensation. I didn’t-” You gulped down air, Azriel’s hand stroking down your back in rhythm with your breathing. “I forgot about it but he- I dreamt about him again- he’s not good, I just know it.”

Azriel didn’t have to turn to hear Rhys’s long sigh.

“I’m sure he wasn’t following you.”

Rhys didn’t think it was a great time to tell you or Azriel that he had hired someone in Velaris to keep track of you. He lived across the street from Rhys’s River House, a male Rhys has known for a long time. One of the few Velaris citizens to fight when the city was attacked a few years ago, he knew this male could protect you if need be.

He also knew you would not handle it well if Azriel or himself were caught following you through the streets of Velaris.

Azriel stiffened at the High Lord’s dismissals of your fears, but he didn’t know what to make of the situation either. Was it just a bad dream? Or had you really seen someone?

“Can you really read minds?”

Rhys nodded, a solemn look on his face, a stark contrast to the hope in your voice. “Then, look into mine! You’ll see him!”

“I can’t.”

Your face fell at the admission. “Why not? I’m giving you permission?”

Rhys sighed, looking around the hallway as if he could find the words on the walls. “You know how you.. Feel people? Their emotions?”

You nodded, eyes wild, not sure where he was going with this. Azriel’s grip on you tightened, well aware of what Rhysand was going to tell you. “Well, I can do something similar. I can gauge people’s minds - if they have mental shields, and sometimes strong thoughts wander into my own.”

Azriel watched him look at you, a sadness settling over his gaze. “When you first came here, I wanted to see how your own shields were, so in a way it’s like I poked you to see if you had any defenses.”

Your eyebrows knitted, not really understanding what he was saying. “But I don’t have mental shields.”

“You do. You just don’t know how they got there. Your mind is like an unkept estate - there are twisting vines and several layers hiding it from even the most powerful of daemati.”

Your mouth twisted, and Azriel felt an air of defeat cover you all before Feyre approached, her steps soft but loud enough to not be a surprise.

“But I swear, this guy I saw in town. He- I don’t know, something was wrong.”

Your words were jumbled, your form shaking in Azriel’s arms. His hand rested on the top of your head, moving back and forth in a soothing, petting motion.

A muscle memory.

One he didn’t know his hands remembered.

One he didn’t realize he was doing until you started calming in his arms.

“When did you see this male?” Your breath shuttered and Azriel felt heat pooling as you wrapped your arms around his torso, your hands clutching at his shoulders.

“When we- were out in town.”

Azriel felt Rhys bouncing off his shields, desperate for a way in, your admission news to Rhys.

“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, sweetheart.” The name slipped from his lips, and Rhys was throwing his entire weight at Azriel’s shields, the shadowsinger planting his feet to focus on his shields.

“What if you came with me and I tried to paint them?” You peeked out from Azriel’s chest, looking at Feyre over his shoulder, nodding softly.

A hole in his chest opened as you untangled yourself from him, his shadows lightly grazing your body, trying to keep you to him, but you walked through them, oblivious to their attempts to get you to stay. His body went colder as you walked away, Feyre wrapping an arm around you as she guided you down the hallway.

Azriel didn’t move until he heard the click of a door, and even then his movements weren’t of his own volition. Rhys had grabbed him by the back of his neck like a poorly behaved dog and dragged him back into Azriel’s room, the soft shut of the door a juxtaposition to Rhys’s manhandling.

“Sweetheart?” It wasn’t a question if Rhys’s growl was anything to go by.

Azriel gritted his teeth. “It slipped out.”

“And you went out into town with her?”

Azriel ticked his jaw, pulling his shadows tight around himself. “Feyre told her she could go into the city.”

“What?”

A new darkness crept through the room, pulling the oxygen from the room, the weight of the dark crushing for a second before Rhys reeled it back into himself.

“I’ll speak with Feyre about that later.”

The two stared at each other, Rhys’s violet eyes practically glowing in the darkness, his anger rolling off of him in waves the shadowsinger could practically see if he squinted.

“Rhys, do you really think someone followed her?”

“I’m not sure.” He rubbed his face, sure that if he could get into her mind he would see Damian following her through the city. “It might have been someone who recognized her. It’s been a few centuries, but I’m sure several people would recognize her.”

“Wouldn’t they have approached her?”

Rhys shook his head, “I don’t think so. If anyone did recognize her, I think they’d stay back. The wings being gone are a bit confusing for them.”

Azriel nodded, looking at his shadows that crept in beneath the door, updating him on your time with Feyre. “I don’t like her being out in Velaris alone right now.”

“I don’t either.” Rhys sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “But she trusts Feyre and we can’t go back on what Feyre told her.”

Azriel growled, “would you really allow her to leave if she wanted to?”

“Of course not. At least, not until she knows the full truth.” A sigh escaped his lips. “Whatever that even is anymore.”

Author’s note: what’s going on 👀👀

Permanent taglist: @vanilla-seabass @cyrygher @lees-chaotic-brain @topaz125 @chessebookgirl @fides25 @lady-of-tearshed @ashbatz @fxckmiup @lilah-asteria @justvibbinghere @daughterofthemoons-stuff @mybestfriendmademe @heartless-tate @tsunami-of-tears @idrkwhatthisisimsorry @olive-main @azrielsmate3 @pit-and-the-pen @durgenyx @dee-writes-smut @chairofchaos @thelov3lybookworm @berryzxx @throneofsmut @kennedy-brooke @prythianpages @itsswritten @acotarxreader @milswrites @the-golden-jhope @hannzoaks @secretlyhers @tothestarsandwhateverend @sarawritestories @chxosangxl

Azriel taglist: @brieflyclassymortal @thisiskaylin @magicstrengthandcourage @panther-girl-124 @slytherintaco @userxs-blogand

Thanks for reading ❣️

#acotar writing #acotar fanfiction #azriel x reader #azriel #azriel x you #azriel fanfic #azriel x y/n #azriel shadowsinger #azriel shadowsinger x you #i got cursed like eve got bitten

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hatsukeii · 1 month

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Today, I’m thinking about… haikyuu + other anime characters that would end up in this situation…

warning(s): none!! this is pure crack and you can interpret it as friendship or a relationship but just don’t do ANYTHING that happens in this fic because my friend almost shat himself afterwards…

“Dude, don’t fuck with me, I’ll literally fly your ass to Brazil and fight you if you win another round.”

You cackle at his empty threat, the ‘one card left’ message on your side souring his glare at every passing second that it stays on the shared screen. Scared to wake the rest of your household, you slap a hand over your mouth, the laughs threatening to burst from your chest. It’s been two hours of playing UNO online, and he hasn’t been able to win a single round since twelve. Frankly, it’s getting a little embarrassing for him, but you aren’t one to back down from a threat.

“Is that a challenge? Let’s fuckin’ go then, what are you waiting for? Put the next card down and see, bitch.”

He gasps through the screen, a hand flying to his chest as he searches for some sort of witty retort, or some form of instant retaliation. Instead, his mouse clicks through the call, frantically picking his +4 colour changer. He’s going to win this time, he’s certain of it. He’s going to watch you pick up four useless number cards, and throw his final card down before you even have the chance to come back-

“GET SHIT ON!”

You slam your final +4 onto the game, eight new cards slotting themselves into his deck as the gold medal and confetti of UNO victory explodes on screen. You pump your fists in his face, and he slams his hands onto his head, dumbfounded.

“Is that even allowed? What the fuck!”

“Uh, doesn’t matter? Because the system says I won! You’re dogshit!”

He turns in his chair, spinning round and round and round blankly as he drowns in his utter loss of dignity and ego. How can he possibly win against you, when all he gets are useless numbers to start with, and you somehow happen to score every single power card possible?

“What, you gonna fight me now? In Brazil?” You taunt, and his screen goes white as the google search engine pops up. His fingers hammer at his keyboard at an impossible speed, scouring the Internet for the quickest flight to Brazil. He’ll just scare you into thinking he was serious for a bit, just to see the panic that he has endured in the final moments of every single UNO round plastered on your face.

“There’s no way you’re actually doing this right now.”

He clicks onto the next flight to Rio, Brazil, highlighting the details as if forcing you to remember them for later. Drawing circles with his cursor furiously, he reaches down for his duffel bag, pretending to shove necessities into it. A singular t-shirt goes in, then his hoodie, all while the cursor sits dangerously close to the purchase button beneath his presaved credit card details, already filled out in each field.

"The next flight we can feasibly catch is 8am tomorrow. I'm coming over right now to pick your ass up, and we're gonna fucking fight in front of Christ the fucking Redeemer in Rio, me and you."

He reaches for his bottle, his arm stretching across the screen for the hunk of metal. As his fingers grab at it, he misses, and the entire bottle topples onto his mouse.

Click.

"Thank you for your purchase. Your flight number is: RJ3992. Please scan the code below at check-in."

The laughs that have been pushed under your throat all erupt at once as you hold your stomach and fall backwards, tears spilling from your eyes. He stares at the purchase confirmation, eyes peeled open and mouth ajar as $3000 worth of money vanishes into thin air. He did not intend to fight you in Brazil, but he might actually have to now. Should he call his bank? Call the airlines? His questions are answered as his phone rings beside him. From the other side of the call, you hear his murmurs as he comes clear to the banker on the line.

"No...not sure how it happened...just saw the confirmation...refund it now?"

You stifle your laughter, resisting the urge to punch your table in shock as he bargains with the banker to refund the ticket he just bought to Rio de Janeiro at two in the morning. Finally, he rips the phone away from his ear, letting out a sigh of relief. You cackle, pointing at him in a fit of hysteria, and he scowls at you, giving you the nastiest side eye he can conjure up. Not only has he lost every single round of UNO tonight, he's also come close to putting his credit in the negatives. It's time to call it quits.

"Still wanna fight me, huh? Another round?"

"Don't fucking try me, or I'll call them for the ticket back."

Characters: Tanaka Ryunosuke, Nishinoya Yuu, Kuroo Tetsurou, Lev Haiba, Kentaro Kyotani, Terushima Yuji, Bokuto Koutaro, Tendou Satori, Suguru Daisho, Miya Atsumu, Hoshiumi Kourai, Bakugou Katsuki, Neito Monoma, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Yo Shindo, Touya Todoroki, Aoi Todo, Gojo Satoru, Denji, Power + all your faves<3

author's note:

i can't make this shit up this actually happened to me once because the guy i was playing uno with kept losing and got upset and threatened to fight us all in brazil and then accidentally bought a 3000 dollar plane ticket to rio um???? bro had to call up the airline to cancel and then his bank had to call him at 3am to ask why he was suddenly withdrawing so much money i was about to piss myself laughing ngl

also IM FINISHED WITH FINALS!!! WOOOO!! CONFETTI!!!!

anyways tags!!

@starlysama @chuuya-brainrot @fiannee @bailey-reeds

ok love u guys see u soon bye bye

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fipindustries · 2 months

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"these are the rules" said the man with the imposing beard and the irises that shone a deep yellow light "i can't give you supernatural powers of your own"

"i see" said the man, holding an old, rusty oil lamp with almost entirely faded inscriptions in Nabataean "makes sense, so I can't ask to be a genie my self"

"right, or any other kind of power, flight, invisibility, teleportation, I can give you skills and talents, as long as they are humanly possible or I can give you supernatural properties that would be under my control and discretion, but wouldn't be yours to keep"

"That is ok, what else?" said the man sitting down on a rock in the cave he had fallen on. The sun was falling down the extensive hole in which he found himself, night was still far away, they had all the time in the world.

"Rule number two, I cannot grant meta-wishes, that is to say any wish that would, in effect, end up granting you more than the original three wishes, so no wishing for more wishes, no wishing for extra lamps or extra genies, not traveling to the past, no wishing to-"

"Wait, traveling to the past?"

"I will not grant wishes to those I already granted a wish for, in the past previous masters have thought to travel to the past to encounter a previous version of me that hadn't granted them wishes yet"

"Oh! I see, so they asked for that and then what?"

"And then they regretted asking," said the bearded man, with a dry tone. He hadn't sat down and so the man holding the lamp noticed that he towered over him. Fair enough, he wasn’t going to push the subject any further.

“Understood, rule three?”

“Rule three, I cannot grant a wish which requires me to fill up details or information on my own”

“Wait, hold on, that is more… academic than the others, what do you mean?”

“I mean that if you wish for something and you are not precise enough then I cannot fulfill the wish and you need to reformulate it”

“But I don't lose the wish, right?”

“No, since no wish was granted you can try again”

“I see… I'm still not entirely sure what you mean”

“Well, let’s think of the classic example” said the tall man stroking his beard, as he crossed his legs in the air, leaving him levitating a meter off the ground “the most common thing people have wished for: ‘i wish to be rich’, what does that mean exactly? Do you want me to deposit a great amount of some random currency into some random bank account in your name? Do you want to have a large pile of gold in your house? Do you want to own the deed to some oil fields? Or awake in the body of some specific rich man? Do you want to be Jeff Bezos?”

“No, thanks”

“Right, so you need to specify, I can’t come up with details on my own, I used to do that and it tended to leave masters… unsatisfied, to say the least”

“So you used to give monkey paw wishes?”

“Please do not compare me to that bauble, I used to grant wishes wherein the ambiguity in terms opened the opportunity for ironic and tragic outcomes”

“I apologize… and uh…” again, he didn’t want to push it further given that he had offended such a powerful being, but he needed to know what he was working with “did you do it… intentionally?”

“Yes! I did!” said the floating man cheerfully.

“Right… and uh, why did you stop?”

“Because someone wished for that to be case, my last master in fact, that was his third wish before dying”

“I thought you said I couldn't ask for meta wishes”

“...as long as they end up granting you more wishes, this did not meet that criteria so I was able to fulfill it”

“Ok, I'm sorry, you said dying? Your last master made his final wish and then he died?”

“Yes, the cannibal cult was eating his liver as he made that last wish”

The man holding the lamp stood up.

“Cannibal cult?”

“A result of his poorly worded second wish”

The poor human started walking around the sand covered hole, deep in thought.

“But now you don't do that anymore? Now you don't twist wishes into bad outcomes?”

“No, unless the specifics of the wish demand it or allow it”

“Why do that? Why twist wishes like that? Do you hate people?”

“In the past I used to hold a great deal of animosity towards the mortal race, yes, one grows resentful after spending thousands of years trapped in a lamp, but as of lately I have been able to come out much more frequently, and my recent masters have been very reasonable people, those who enslaved me have been erased from history millennia ago”

“Then why?”

“Because the nature of the universe requires balance, my power twists and turns and disfigures casualty and the laws of reality such that a deep wrong has been tallied, cosmically speaking, so that has to be counterbalanced”

“But now you’re saying that it doesn't? As long as my wish is air tight enough?”

“There is righteousness and wisdom in knowing precisely what you want and how to ask for it… but also I have not granted a wish under these restrictions yet so I'm not actually sure what will happen once I do” the bearded man shrugged and stopped levitating, putting his feet on the sand once again “now you know the rules”

“Ok, can I ask further clarifying questions?”

“Sure, I don't mind the conversation” he looked up at the sun, bathing them from the entrance to the cave five meters above them, the shine of his eyes did not seem to be occluded or diminished by the sunbeams.

“If I were to ask for a bar of gold, just a simple bar of gold”

“I would need to know how big, what shape you want it to have, where specifically you want the bar to show up and what is its procedence, if you want I could take one bar of gold from some bank specified by you and make it appear here”

The man holding the lamp thought about it for a second.

“If I made a wish for a cube of gold, weighing ten kilos and of the appropriate volume given gold’s density, to replace the corresponding volume of air that is a meter away from my nose in that specific direction and a meter off the ground, the gold cube previously nonexistent appearing ex nihilo, would that be specific enough?”

“Yes, it would, is that what you are wishing for?”

“No, but that is good to know”

The man sat down again.

“I guess the trick now is to think of a wish that can extract the biggest amount of juice I can in terms that I can specify”

The bearded man leaned against a wall, crossing his arms.

“Ok so there is a problem with wishing for a ton of gold, I’m sure eventually someone, either the IRS of the FBI or someone will come wondering where I got all of it, and I can’t just say that a genie gave it to me”

“You wouldn't be able to, you will forget I existed after your third wish is granted”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes of course, another anti abuse measure, so that you can't just pass on my lamp to a friend to continue asking for wishes”

“Huh…”

“Didn’t you wonder why this was the first time you heard of the existence of genies in the real world? I go around granting lots of wishes boy, yet you never heard of me”

“I was wondering about that actually, I'm also wondering, since you are real, what other magical entities are real”

“Very few, they don't exist anymore, they were wished away in their time”

“What! That is… huh… that’s tragic I guess”

“It was one of the earliest workarounds to the karmic comeuppance of twisting reality through wishes, clever masters realized they could offset the amount of wrongness in the rules of the world that their wishes caused by erasing other sources of supernatural alteration instead”

“Uh, how many of your rules are a product of previous wishes?”

“All of them” said the bearded man with a full on toothy grin “I used to be far more free in the past, the world used to be far more chaotic and mercurial, there is a reason I am in that lamp, there is a reason I can only grant three wishes and there is a reason why I can’t grant meta wishes, each of those rules is written in things deeper and vaster than blood, the earth didn't use to be the only populated planet in the universe, dark matter didn't use to be dark”

A full shiver ran through the body of the man holding the lamp, he was sweating even though he was under the shade of the walls of the cave.

He tried to say something but his throat was swollen and dry.

He swallowed multiple times, he could almost feel a burning sensation in his hands where they were touching the rusty lamp.

“Well… um, that is… terrifying”

The bearded man shrugged again.

“Just so you know, not all my masters have met terrible fates, some simply wished for someone to fall in love with them and this interference in reality was minor enough that at worst they got an unexpected pregnancy, others merely wished for a happy life and were granted one that was marginally happier than the one they already had which again was so little a cost for the universe that the price was barely noticeable, sometimes trying to be too clever is the thing that dooms you”

“Right, ok, that is actually helpful to know” said the human a bit more relaxed. “Ok, thinking it through, whichever way you slice it wishing for money seems the safest bet in the sense that I can turn money in any other material good I could wish for, I just have to think of a simple way to get lots of… oh, I got it, what if I asked for a piece of A4 white paper to appear a meter in front of my face with the results for the next lottery winning numbers written on them?”

“Which lottery?”

“The biggest one that runs on the country where I reside, I want the numbers that will be picked at the earliest lottery yet to happen, which is in like a week or so”

The bearded man thought about it for a second.

“Yes, that is a valid wish”

“Good! Well! That is progress! Let me think a little more, just to make sure I'm not missing anything…”

“Take your time”

“Mhmmm, I guess I can have one selfish wish for me, to improve my material conditions, another selfish wish for me, something intangible or abstract that I couldn't have, no matter how much money I posses and… well, I guess it would be nice to dedicate one wish to help the world”

“How magnanimous”

“Uh, ok, here is another question” the human started to blush a little “could I wish to become a woman?”

“Which woman?”

“Right, right, I don't want to be Anne Hathaway or whatever, or I don't want to have a body that looks exactly like the one Anne Hathaway has”

“If you were to ask for her body then you would just become her, with her thoughts, her emotions and her memories”

“And let me guess, if I were to ask for my brain in her body I would die instantly because the size of my head is different from hers or something”

“More or less”

“And the same would go for any body that is significantly different from mine… could I wish to have the body I would have if it was subject to the changes that years of the best HRT and surgeries in the world could provide such that it was as close to cis passing as it was humanly possible?”

“There is a lot of latitude in ‘the best in the world’ I would require specific treatments with specific doses and specific surgeries provided by specific surgeons, also you didn't really specify the gender you mean to pass as”

“Fuck me dude-that wasn't a wish!”

“I know, you didn't specify how would you want me to fuck you” said the man with the shining eyes, chuckling.

“Have people asked for that?”

“Yes, of course”

“And… uh, don't answer if this is too intrusive but did you…?”

“Yes”

No need to ask further questions.

“Anyway, going back to the sex change… mhmm, could I wish to have the body I would have had in a world where I was born with total androgen insensitivity syndrome, except for the brain and all the relevant connections to my spine?”

“Would that include all the scars that such a world would have left in that body?”

“Scars? What do you mean…? You know what, I do not want to know, let’s change tactics… I wish to have a body with C cup breasts, a 60 inch waist, a skin as soft as the skin of-” the man cut off himself when he saw the bearded man shaking his head.

“You are stacking wishes, either ask one change per wish or find the way to encapsulate all those specific changes under one concise wish”

The human kicked sand in frustration, away from the bearded man, just in case. In doing so he stubbed his toe on a rock and had to jump on one foot for a minute, cursing profusely.

“What if I just asked for a body that I was happy with?” he said eventually, with tears in his eyes.

“I cannot decide that for you, again, you must fill in the blanks, I cannot add or invent any information regarding your wish on my own”

“I know, I know, sigh, and if I were to ask for you to simply get rid of the cause for gender dysphoria in my brain?”

“There are multiple causes, genetics, certain brain structures, society, the shape of your body, which one do you mean?”

“Forget it, once I'm rich I'll deal with that on my own… I guess I'll use my second wish to become even richer. It is good and all if I get millions with the lottery, but if I knew what to do with it then I could increase the potential of those millions exponentially, so if I wished to have the same talent for investing as, say, Warren Buffet… no, if I wish to have the same knowledge as those that Warren Buffett holds in his brain in regards to finance without any of his personal memories subconsciously stored in my brain… such that I could access them and use them instinctively… is that a valid wish…?”

The man with the shining eyes thought once more.

“Yes, it is acceptable”

“Is there anyway that wish could fuck me over?”

“That is for you to decide”

“You know what, fuck it”

He was really frustrated by now. He knew that he was being lazy, he knew that he should be sitting down with the internet, do a lot of research and sit for a good week crafting the cleverest, most high yielding wish possible but he just couldn't be bothered, he wanted to get rid of the genie as sooner than later, he was giving him the heebie jeevies, and he wanted to start enjoying his wishes.

“Ok, now I have to think of the final wish… something good for the rest of the world…”

“Oh, can’t wait to hear this, those are always the best wishes” said the man, who was now floating again, as he rubbed his hands together.

That was incredibly creepy but the man holding the lamp chose to ignore it.

“If I were to wish to return the levels of carbon in the atmosphere back to what they were in the 1700's…”

“Ah yes, I got this one multiple times, it would go back to current levels in ten years”

“Wait, really? Jesus fucking christ, ok, ummm if I were to say the words ‘AI alignment’...”

“I would ask what does that mean”

“Right, I cannot ask for an aligned AI if I have no idea what that looks like and you can't create one if one does not exist, much like I cannot ask for a cure for cancer if I don't know the composition of… oh! Could I ask for all malignant cancerous cells in the world to disappear?”

“Sure, but cancer would eventually return”

“Yeah yeah, but still, that would make so many people all across the world happy in such a way that the sheer amount of utils might just be worth it…mhmmm, could do the same with malaria, the coronavirus, dengue fever, I could probably just say ‘all viruses’ but, mhmm, god knows what would that mean for the animal population, or the bacterial population or whatever other strange cascading effects in the ecosystem or the global immunological system or whatever…” his brain was getting tired, he could tell.

“Ok, how about increasing the IQ of every single human by…” he didn't want to say a number so big that society suffered a shock out of the sheer revolutionary change it would mean “...20 points”

“Ah! I like the way you think, that was essentially very similar to the very first wish I was ever asked by my creators back in Shambhala, took you a while to get there”

“Um.. what happened when you granted that wish?”

“Do you see any Shambhalas anywhere?”

“No, hold on, I want specifics, I need to know precisely how that wish failed”

“Remember boy that this conversation is a courtesy, I am under no rule or obligation to tell you about previous wishes, and frankly I'm starting to get tired, ask for your wishes already”

The man grabbed on to the lamp tighter but said nothing.

“So first wish, the lottery numbers, yadda yadda”

A white piece of paper with some numbers written on them appeared in front of him, it started to fall slowly towards the sand but the man grabbed it. He stared at the numbers and then he took a pencil from his pocket. He was aware he was going to forget the bearded man once the wishes were done. He wrote ‘these are the lottery numbers’ on the paper and he pocketed it.

“Second wish, investment knowledge equal to that of Warren Buffet, as I explained previously”

Nothing changed, not even in his mind, since he specified for the knowledge to be subconscious and instinctual. He thought for a second where he should invest his lottery winnings first. A list of twenty different companies jumped to the tip of his tongue. All good on that front.

“And your final wish?”

The man holding the lamp thought an extra second about his morals, about practicality, about the amount of utils that simple things could accumulate in the long run.

His foot was still hurting.

“I wish…” fuck it, the genie had said not to over complicate it “for every human that exists or will ever exist to miss stubbing their toe by a milimiter for the rest of their life”

“You got it boy”

The bearded man went back to the lamp-

A man was standing at the bottom of a hole in the desert. He shook his head slightly disoriented for a second. He looked around, there was nothing interesting in that cave. He walked towards the nearest wall and he started to climb out of the hole.

#writing

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thegildedbee · 5 months

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Calm/Hobby: May 7 & 8 Prompts from @calaisreno

As his Air Baltic flight from Oslo begins its descent into Tallinn, Sherlock stares distractedly out the window at the thinning layer of clouds, and pushes back at the whisper of bleakness that it it is the Estonian coastline coming into view, not the South East shores of England. He girds himself with stoicism as he feels a tendril of melancholy begin to unfurl at the fact that Sherlock Holmes no longer exists, now that Herr Lukas Sigerson has taken his place.

He knows that this new identity will only be the first of many.

Sigerson has brown eyes, and wears dark brown tortoiseshell glasses; his dark hair is beginning to have a salt and pepper cast to it, his lower face is covered by stubble. His loose-limbed gait is relaxed, and there's a remnant of a tendency to stutter when he speaks. Hidden from view are the still-healing cracked ribs on the right side of his torso, the damaged ligaments of his right knee, and the fact that the ossicular chain within his right ear bears traces of having been successfully reconstructed, the surgical repair restoring the hearing he had lost after the trauma to his skull.

When Sherlock had been ready to leave the UK to begin to grapple with Moriarty’s extant remains -- the people and infrastructure and schemes dispersed across the globe -- it had been hard to determine what to do first and where and why. Of the three assassins in London on the day of his fall, the one assigned to Mrs. Hudson – a thuggish fellow more noteworthy for his brawn than any brains – had been rolled up by Mycroft’s people even before Sherlock had been delivered to the morgue. The one assigned to Lestrade had been somewhat harder to ferret out, but as Sherlock began piecing together what details he could collect during his recuperation, he had determined that he was a functionary who had infiltrated the Met – and the resolution of that criminal had also been left to Mycroftian minions.

But John’s sniper was of a different cast altogether, an experienced professional who had made no mistakes and vanished like vapor. Sherlock believed that individual had been more than a freelance hire -– Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade had been brought into the mix of those in danger of losing their lives because every action of Moriarty’s was as theatrical and excessive as it was insane: ransoming John’s life had always been the true motive. John’s sniper would have been especially close to Moriarty, and likely a member of the upper echelon of his criminal syndicate. Sherlock suspected that acquiring the information that would allow him to destroy this person was going to be an exceedingly difficult proposition.

He needed information, and Sherlock had finally decided that the place to begin was with Estonia, the tiny nation that had regained its independence from Soviet occupation in 1991, and that had chosen to bypass the encumbering drag of the impoverished infrastructure bequeathed from the Soviets, by abandoning it. Estonia had instead risked its future by constructing an economy based on the latest digital technologies, leapfrogging more advanced nations as it became a cyber-powered incubator of innovation, and one of the most wired countries in the world. Sherlock had no doubt that Moriarty would have been intent on turning this transformation to his own advantage; he would have found the opportunity irresistible.

Moriarty’s claim to have a code that could take over any computer was false, but even so Sherlock suspected that this fabulation pointed at something all too real: investments by Moriarity in the dark web, and in the recruitment of cadres of hackers to be manipulated into hijacking computer networks. In April and May of 2007, Estonia had been besieged for three weeks by waves of cyberattacks that had crippled its digital public and private sectors, from government entities such as the foreign and defense ministries, to banks, corporate enterprises, and media outlets. Estonia had traced the attacks to actors within Moldova’s breakaway state of Transnistria, a long narrow geographic entity bordering Ukraine that displayed the Soviet Communist hammer-and-sickle on its flag and coat of arms. Sherlock suspected that these cyberterrorist actors were performing roles under Moriarty’s direction, and that he would find information from within Estonia that would point to the far-flung nodes of his enemy’s wretched empire.

With their impending arrival in Tallinn, the melancholy that had emerged begins to become more deeply rooted, and Sherlock’s mind's eye paints pictures of what lies in the deep of the sea passage below, and across the sea miles beyond Britain’s and Europe’s contours – fragments of exploded ordnance littering the ocean floor, where bodies entombed in submarines and battleships are testament to the destructive capabilities of bands of people bent on glory and riches and domination.

His meandering thoughts catch hold of a memory in the viewing room of his mind palace, the one that records the evenings when John had chosen a film to share as they sat propped up together on the sofa in the darkness. It focused on the US Army Air Force unit that flew missions from East Anglia in World War II, and the appointment of a new commanding officer tasked with reversing the underperformance of the bombing teams.

He had been riveted by the harsh speech the uncompromising commander delivers to the group of pilots, who simmer with resentment at his theory that part of their problems lie with their playing it safe. He tells them that while fear is to be expected, the only choice they have is to stop worrying about the fear, and about themselves. He can still feel the chill of premonition when he heard the figure on the screen bite out his message: “We’re in a war – a shooting war. We’ve got to fight. And some of us have got to die." But it was the follow-on command that is engraved in his mind beyond the memory palace, visible in the shadow of all else he is thinking about: "Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves already dead. After that, it won’t be so tough.” And so, too, was his bombing run a flight into the unknown, against unseen enemies, the actions of a self-created ghost who must reckon that he truly inhabits the underworld from this point on.

Sherlock closes his eyes and continues work on the new spaces that he has been constructing in his mind palace, an effort that never fails to bring him calm, even when other emotions are in play. These new rooms are cloisters and refectories based on the architecture of a thirteenth-century monastery, in deference to Tallinn’s remarkable preservation of the medieval city within its precincts, and he has reserved this adjacent building for whatever part Eastern Europe will play in his sojourns. It is complicated artistry, and he is the last one to rise and exit the airplane.

As Herr Sigerson makes his way toward the front of the compact airport, he adjusts the rucksack on his shoulder, and tugs the bottom of his jumper to straighten it. As a standard issue Norwegian, he is, of course, kitted out in knitted wool, although the garment he wears is only a single hue; the vividly colored patterns favored by so many of the inhabitants of his improvised homeland hurt both his eyesight and his sense of fashion. Sherlock smiles at the thought that John would be amused, were he to see his couture, and consider it revenge for Sherlock’s hobby of “inadvertently” wreaking havoc on the least attractive of John’s jumpers.

Sherlock's half-zip pullover is a dark navy blue with a beautiful sheen, and it is not completely devoid of decoration – it is just that the design is woven into the single color, slightly raised, subdued in its visibility. On the back is the Norse symbol of the vegvisir, which was said to allow its possessor to always find the right path, no matter how turbulent the environment might be. Next to the wayfinding icon is a letter from the ancient runic alphabet said to summon good luck. No doubt John would also be amused at the fact that his relentlessly rational friend is carrying these mystical totems on his body. Although, perhaps not, were he to know of the future toward which Sherlock has now committed himself. ........................................................ @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @friday411 @peanitbear @original-welovethebeekeeper rest of the @s in the tags, which will work for communication purposes, I hope? just say the word if you want to be untagged or tagged xoxoxo

#mayprompts2024 #calaisreno #sherlock bits and bobs #may prompts 2024 #johnlock

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shu-box-puns · 2 years

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You wanna be one of them (Tsu’tey x Reader)

Act 1 --> Next Chapter

If you prefer to read on Ao3, the fic is here!

Word Count: 6588

Summary: Avatar!Driver!Reader passes their Iknimaya and encounters Jake Sully.

Reader uses they/them pronouns.

NOTE: The arrows indicate when someone is speaking in na’vi. For example, <”Fuck you.”>

Flying was the best thing you’d ever experienced.

The weightlessness of your body. The quiet hum of your ikran’s consciousness in the background of your mind. The endless thrill of being so high in the air that one slip would have you plummeting to your death. But somehow knowing your mount would never allow it. In minutes of being airborne, the bond had strengthened into something unbreakable.

The joy it filled you with was indescribable.

Head tilted towards the sun, you could feel your cheeks aching from how hard you were smiling. Arms spread wide, you trusted your thighs to keep you in place as you threw your head back and let loose a victorious whoop.

Your ikran returned the call, shrieking his happiness to his brothers and sisters, who were eager to return his cry.

Around you, the other young hunters echoed the sentiment, performing barrel rolls and dangerous dives upon their own newly tamed ikran. You watched them with a sense of pride, glad that none of your group had failed their rite.

<”You ride better than you climb.”> Tsu’tey hollered from your left, snapping you out of your euphoric state. He was astride his own mount, looking relaxed in the saddle with a taunting look in his eye.

You grinned, flashing your fangs as you replied, <”I was born to do this.”>

He quirked an eyebrow, making a show of looking at your poor posture and incorrect hand placement upon your ikran’s antenna. <”Prove it.”> He challenged, before clicking to his ikran and taking off at speed. You laughed, yelling insults at his back as your own mount subconsciously prepared to follow.

You patted his neck, encouraging him to show his greatest speed. The ikran let loose a terrifying sound before shooting off after Tsu’tey, almost throwing you from his back in his eagerness.

Sitting up properly, you leaned over your ikran’s neck so your thighs supported most of your weight, tilting side to side with every bank of your ikran on the air currents. It seemed effortless on your mount’s part as you caught up to Tsu’tey’s ikran, soaring up and over him, only to continue on. You grinned, spinning in the saddle to jeer at him.

His normally serious facade had melted into the wind, leaving his face open and bright as he laughed at your antics.

Mentally, you told your ikran to bank, to which the beast easily obliged, tipping itself to the left as your leaned right to stay on. Tsu’tey followed your flight path, your ikran slowing its rapid pace to allow the warrior to catch up. Together, you dipped close to the side of one of the floating mountains, the spray of the waterfall dotting your skin as you sped past at breakneck speeds. The wind was sharp against your damp skin, as you swerved again in the air, feeling the air currents catch on your ikran’s wings, the powerful body beneath you coiling as you gained height.

This was far better than riding in the passenger seat of Trudy’s helicopter.

Far below, the ikran nest writhed with the countless colourful bodies, the beast starting to settle in for the night now that the hunters had claimed their partners.

<”We must start heading home.”> Tsu’tey yelled over the sound of the wind, to which you nodded, following his lead as he peeled away from the mountains and steering in the direction of home. Your ikran instinctively fell into place on his right, pulling back so the updraft created by the larger ikran would aid his flight back home.

As the mountains gave way to sprawling forest below, Tsu’tey hollered to the young hunters still messing around amongst the floating rocks. Returned calls sounded shortly after as the colourful beasts fell into formation either side of Tsu’tey, forming a neat ‘v’.

As the trees and rocky valleys of Pandora sped past below, the sun slid further and further behind the moon, allowing the bioluminescence of the jungle to flicker into life. Overhead, stars became visible against the growing inky blackness of the sky, a large portion of which was already taken up by the closest sister moon to Pandora.

Flying at night was somehow more beautiful than soaring around the Hallelujah Mountains.

The glowing constellations of your ikrans freckles rivalled the stars, you privately concluded as HomeTree loomed in the distance and Tsu’tey gave the order to begin climbing. The leisurely pace of your ikran’s wingbeats gradually began to increase in speed as the beast worked harder to gain altitude, pulling the air down in powerful strokes before striking up again for another wingbeat.

With controlled speed, the party soared into the branches of HomeTree and found suitable places to land and dismount. Sliding down from the back of your ikran, you stoked down the purring beast’s side as you walked around to his face. He was truly a gorgeous beast, stunning as he had been fierce when fighting him in the nesting grounds.

<”Well done today.”> Tsu’tey congratulated the group, calling the attention of all the young hunters to him. He easily commanded the attention of all those assembled, standing proud with the soft glow of his freckles to accent his form.

From the spiral staircase at his back emerged Eytukan and Mo’at, looking equally proud as their eyes trailed over the assembled hunters, grins growing brighter when they realised that everyone was accounted for.

Mo’at was the first to step forward, her arms raising dramatically as if addressing the heavens instead of her People. <”You are now adults in the eyes of Eywa.”> She declared, her face was the picture of joy. <”May the Great Mother smile upon you this day of your second birth. And may her kind hands guide you on this day and forever more.”>

As the hunters mumbled their thanks, Eytukan stepped up to her side, his chin raised. <”You will spend the following months crafting your bow from HomeTree. And are free to take a mate. But first, your celebration awaits.”> He bowed to the hunters, looking much like the proud father he was.

Hunters returned the gesture, clapping each other on the back, before focusing on their mounts. Vaguely, you registered Mo’at and Eytukan moving throughout the small crowd, congratulating everyone individually on their successful rite.

Unexpectedly, your mount nuzzled his face into your shoulder, sensing your underlying anxiety through the bond. With soothing hands to his snout, you quickly disconnected your kuru from him so he wouldn’t be able to sense anything else. <”I’m fine.”> You reassured him, although he would not be able to understand the words.

He chirped softly, head cocked to the side. <”Nosy.”> You laughed, lightly pushing his quizzing gaze away.

Earlier in the day, someone had already taken the time to set out the new saddles for the ikran. Neatly lining them up along a small branch nearest the helix staircase.

Pulling away from your ikran’s judgemental stare, you were quick in retrieving a saddle for him. Returning with it resting on your arms, you noticed the mischievous glint in his eye, already dreading the shit show that was going to be you putting it on him.

Approaching slowly, you offered him the equipment first, to which he lowered his head to give it a delicate sniff.

<”You have done well Dreamwalker.”> Mo’at unexpectedly stated from beside you, making you and your ikran jump. <”I will admit, the Great Mother’s plan for you was obscured from me, but you have proven yourself.”>

<”Thank you Tsahik.”>

<”I am proud of you.”> She continued as if you hadn’t spoken. <”Dr Augustine would be too.”> With that, she placed a firm hand to your bicep and squeezed, her expression kind before she drifted off to talk to the next person.

You became absorbed into your work, methodically coaxing your ikran into accepting the weight of the saddle between his shoulders. Rewarding him with scratches along his neck when he didn’t immediately toss it off. Gradually, he stopped trying to throw it off, and remained still to allow you to tighten the girth across his chest. From there, it was just a matter of providing his dinner before you followed the other hunters down the helix staircase.

You found dinner already underway with the fires blazing and the People gathered. A chorus of cheers erupted from the assembled people as the first hunters cleared the staircase, yelling cries of victory back, arms in the air.

Their joy was infectious as you slipped into the crowd in search of an empty space to crouch, lips pulled back into a fanged grin as you carefully picked your way through the families who had already turned back to their food. The other hunters had already dispersed back to their families, talking animatedly to loved ones about their crazy day.

Finding an empty space before the flames, you uttered your thanks to an older na’vi woman as she handed you one of the leaf dishes. She politely smiled back, offering formal congratulations on your successful rite before turning back to the conversation with her mate. You offered a quiet thanks before digging in.

It didn’t take long for Tsu’tey to find you. He’d hung back with the ikran to discuss his observations for the day with Eytukan.

His footsteps were silent as he approached you, dropping into a fluid crouch opposite and putting his bow down at his side. You didn’t bother to look up from your meal, content to eat after a long day of climbing mountains and almost dying. The silence was comfortable as the humm of the clan filled the large chamber, your ears swivelling to keep track of the different conversations going on around you.

<”You did well today.”> Tsu’tey commented, his hand snaking out to steal a grub off of your leaf. Rolling your eyes, you pushed the makeshift plate closer to him having already had most of your fill.

<”Is this just you complimenting your teaching skills?”>

<”Yes. I worked hard to make you into a respectable warrior.”> He replied easily, to which you playfully pushed at his arm. He shoved you back, fangs catching the bright firelight.

<”I wasn’t expecting it to be so easy.”> You admitted after swallowing your mouthful. <”I mean, I’ve heard you and Neytiri discussing the bond and everything, but it was so instant. Like he was an extension of myself.”>

Tsu’tey hummed, nodding along. <”Ikran make no mistakes in who they choose. As Eywa did not make a mistake in bringing you to us.”>

You rolled your eyes at the last part. <”Don’t go getting soft on me now.”>

He did not immediately respond with a fast quip, making you look up. Tsu’tey’s expression had lost the unfiltered joy of being in the air, but he still had a small, guarded smile tugging at the corner of his lips. The glint in his eye was unreadable. It could be amusement, it could be fear.

<”What?”> You asked, hand grasping his knee to ground him.

<”Young hunters that pass the rite are traditionally given gifts by their families.”> He explained, to which you found yourself relaxing.

<”Is that all?”> His expression grew pinched. <”Don’t worry, when I unlink later I’ll open a bottle of something just for myself.”>

Tsu’tey rolled his eyes before reaching for something next to his bow. <”I made you this.”> He said simply, holding out something small. Hesitantly, you took it from him, eyes raking over what you recognised to be a decorative armband. It was finely woven in the traditional Omaticaya style, with tiny beads made from glowing river pebbles woven across the centre. You turned it over and over, committing every knot to memory.

<”Thank you.”> You breathed, unable to find the words to properly convey how touched you were by the gift. Tsu’tey’s smile returned. Taking the armband from you, he softly asked which arm you wished to wear it on. You eagerly thrust your dominant arm at him, motioning to the height in which you wanted it to sit. He nodded along, expertly wrapping the band around your bicep and tightening it accordingly.

<”It looks good on you.”> He monologued, <”surprisingly.”> You gasped mockingly, placing your hand on his chest to shove him away.

<”Stop being an ass and eat.”> You fired back, to which he playfully, his tail batted at you, mouth opening to reply, when a shadow fell over your back and a voice you didn’t recognise spoke up in english.

“Excuse me, um, Dr L/n. Right?”

Tsu’tey’s easy smile had turned venomous as he glared up at the newcomer behind your back, but that could just be his face.

Meanwhile, your face had dropped at the quiet utterance of your sky person title. It sounded wrong in the setting of the clan. The familiar English sounded weird in a place it was no longer welcome.

Turning towards the voice, you looked up to find a young na’vi male smiling sheepishly back at you. Arching a brow, you turned fully towards him, rising to your feet. The pieces slotted into place as he gingerly waved at you, showing off his five digit hands. An avatar then. How the hell did he get accepted?

“It’s Y/n.” You corrected, and he nodded. You waited impatiently for him to continue, tail lashing.

He floundered for an explanation, eyes catching on someone over your shoulder before he pulled himself together. “Right. Um, Grace warned you about me? I’ve been around the clan for a few days now and haven’t been able to track you down.”

You grimaced.

The marine.

Oh god, no. Why?

Absently, a memory did surface of a file on your desk with a man’s face on it and the name ‘Jake Sully’ printed across the front. Although it had been stamped as urgent, you’d simply shoved it aside with everything else and pulled out your laptop to type up some notes. You were deeply regretting not having read that stupid file now.

“Oh, right.” You replied, waiting for more. Jake looked at you like he assumed that was enough. “Well thanks for stopping by-”

“Actually, she said you’d be able to help me.” Jake jumped in before you could turn away. You stilled, sending a thousand mental curse words Grace’s way before fixing him with a stern expression.

“Babysitting isn’t in my job description.” You returned sharply, this time promptly turning your back to resume your dinner. Whilst you’d been distracted, Tsu’tey had also risen to his feet and was watching Jake with a distrustful expression, hand hovering dangerously close to his hunting knife.

“Unbelievable.” The marine scoffed, but cut himself off when Tsu’tey tensed. You smacked your friend's thigh with the back of your hand, giving him an unimpressed look when he looked down to snap at you. You motioned for him to sit back down but he ignored you.

Meanwhile, Jake had clumsily stumbled around the edges of your space to stand in front of you again, his tail swaying side to side. “I’m just asking for a bit of guidance.”

“Neytiri is your guidance. Learn quick and learn well, you will die if you fuck up.”

“That’s it, that’s all the advice I get?”

“It’s more than I got.”

>_<

You hated Hell’s Gate. It was too cut off from the forest with its loud occupants and stone walls. And loud with the whirr of machinery and people in a way the forest never was.

It was jarring to unlink from a world that was so open and free to a life of tight corridors and exo packs whenever you wished to step beyond the protective barriers of the buildings. As a result, you tended to spend as little time as possible here, only unlinking long enough to keep this body alive before hopping straight back into the link to do more ‘research’.

Staying longer with the clan would’ve been much more bearable than whatever thing Grace wanted to talk about, but since you ignored her last request to look after Jake, you felt that you owed her in some way. Something told you that if you didn’t turn up of your own free will, she would stand outside of your link unit until you were done for the day and ambush you then. She’d done it before, and you knew she wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

With a sigh, you allowed yourself to start moving within the link unit. Reaching for the latch, you winced as the bright, overhead lights of the lab flooded into the dim unit, momentarily blinding you as the unfamiliar sound of commotion filtered into the small space. You took a breath, then pushed the unit open, following it up to find the lab alive with activity. Scientists were buzzing around the tight space in white lab coats, hurriedly packing away equipment and supplies into large storage boxes as if the building was on fire.

Heaving your stiff muscles over the side of the unit, you felt disorientated by the height of this body in contrast to your avatar, momentarily clutching the side of the unit to calm your spinning mind as you collected yourself. Your shirt was musty and clung to your sweaty back only adding to your discomfort as your legs tingled with pins and needles.

Eventually, you managed to straighten up, which immediately caught Max’s attention. “Oh, Dr.” He greeted cheerfully, unaware of your grimace at the professional title. He broke away from the group he’d been helping dismantle exo packs, and made a beeline to the messy disaster that was your desk. Pulling your lab coat off the back of your office chair, he approached you with a smile. “We didn’t hear you unlink.” He apologised as he approached, holding the coat out towards you with his hands on the shoulder.

“Long time no see Max.” You greeted with a tight smile, as you turned and allowed him to help you into the coat, it smelt better than your shirt, but was in desperate need of a wash. You were pretty sure there was dust on the sleeves.

“Yeah well, everyone’s been busy.” He returned easily, turning and disappearing off in the direction of the coffee machine, leaving you to stand stupidly next to your link unit, internally debating just climbing back inside and going back to the clan. From what you could see, Jake’s unit was empty so he wasn’t even around to annoy you this time.

Instead, you kept your feet firmly planted in place, the mental image of Grace standing over your unit the next time you opened it keeping you from running away. To occupy yourself you focused on the commotion across the room. Your eyes slipping over the new faces who must have come in during the last rotation, whereas faces you’d grown used to over your eight month stay were absent, either by choice or having rotated home already. Time was weird on Pandora afterall.

“Y/n, nice of you to join us.” Grace swept into the room with a dramatic sweep of her arms.

You smiled, taking her hand when she offered it and giving a firm shake. “Dr Augustine, you wanted to speak with me.”

“I did.” Grace confirmed, turning sharply to begin helping pack up yet another box. You winced as she grabbed fistfuls of important looking documents as well as fragile equipment and began shovelling the lot into the nearest storage box. “We’re moving to an off grid base. Our newest driver is talking to Quaritch.”

If your ears could prick in interest in this body, they would be raised high. “Jake?”

“That’s him. I’m sure you’ve seen him around HomeTree?”

“Yeah, he’s a persistent fucker.”

“That’s him alright.” Grace replied with a shake of her head, “constantly comes out of the link complaining about how good you are at slipping away.” Then she turned to you, all the carefree attitude of earlier melting away as her expression grew serious. “Look, we’re gonna need your field notes and jungle knowledge if this is going to be successful. Oh, and I need you to scout the Hallelujah Mountain base to see if it's livable.”

You pursed your lips, “on one condition.”

Grace cut in, grinning with confidence that suggested she knew exactly how to get you to agree. “You will have unlimited access to the link unit and your avatar.”

You raised your eyebrows, impressed by how easily she’d guessed your motives. “I’ll pack my desk.” She patted you on the back, and the lab dissolved into silence once more.

>_<

You spent the next couple of days, dodging Jake’s constant questions and annoying ability to pop up at the most inconvenient of times. In theory, it should’ve been harder for him to find you between training with Neytiri and your own obligations to the clan as a hunter. But nope, Jake was a stubborn one.

Which led you to now, it was a fresh day. The link units had been open and ready when you rolled out of bed this morning, the lab blessedly empty as you slid into your unofficial unit and woke up in your avatar.

Jake’s avatar was still dead to the world near Neytiri’s hammock on the other side of the sleeping levels, so you’d clambered up to the rookery. Eager to get away from HomeTree before he could wake and to check out that mountain base for Grace. The clan had brought in a big hunt yesterday that would require all hands to dismantle and preserve, so you wouldn’t be missed much.

Tsu’tey was already awake and tending to his ikran when you reached the top most level of HomeTree where the ikrans roosted. He nodded in greeting as you slipped past, which you returned with a nod of your own before calling for you ikran.

The beast was quick to answer, coming in to land with a majestic beat of his wings and a greeting call. You stroked his snout as he offered it, glad to see that his saddle remained on and secure, since new mounts tended to tear at them until they got used to the sensation.

<”Good morning.”> You mused, laughing when he chirped in greeting, nuzzling your shoulder. <”What do you say, want to get out of here?”> The ikran seemed to nod, shifting his stance so you could easily climb up.

Patting his shoulder with a soft promise to get breakfast on the way, you easily pulled yourself up into the saddle. Automatically, your ikran shifted so you were sat more comfortably, your long legs finding the stirrups as you reached back for your main braid, pulling it over your shoulder, you reached for his antenna and connected your kuru.

It was a surreal experience, to feel the bark digging into your feet, but be sat on the back of an ikran with your feet cushioned by smooth leather and warm hide.

<”You need to straighten your posture.”> Tsu’tey commented from across the way, to which you waved him off, even as you followed his advice. Beneath you, your ikran turned to the edge of the branch, claws digging into the mossy wood as he looked out over the forest.

<”Make sure you don’t overdo it.”> Tsu’tey continued, he’d wandered away from his own mount to watch you, eyes critical with his arms crossed. <”Remember ride-”>

<”Ride the winds, find the air currents.”> You parroted back with a smile, <”I never knew you cared Tsu’tey.”> He scoffed.

<”It would be embarrassing to be associated with you if you fell off.”>

<”You and your stupid pride.”> You joked, before adding more seriously. <”I’ll be careful.”>

“Dr L/n, do you have a moment!” Jake called from the helix staircase.

<”Go. I will see you at dinner.”> Tsu’tey urged giving your ikran a soft push, coaxing him towards the edge where you asked him to tuck in his wings and dive. The joyous whoop you let out drowned out the rest of whatever Jake was trying to tell you.

>_<

You had grown used to flying on your ikran. In contrast, sitting in the passenger seat of a helicopter was dull.

There was no wind in your braids or the constant threat of your visor slipping. Only the view from the windows which made you feel removed from Pandora rather than one with it. Trapped inside the helicopter with an exo pack strapped to your belt, reminded you of how painfully human you were, regardless of the fact you spent the majority of your days amongst the People, taking to the skies, and being twice your usual height.

At least the company was amusing.

Sully wasn’t so bad, you realised.

His tongue was sharp as he engaged in multiple verbal sparring matches with Grace, and his senses were honed to a degree that spoke of experience in the field. He fit easily into the little ragtag group of three scientists and Trudy, the insults rolling easily off of him when Norm made a probing remark.

But that didn’t mean you liked him.

You hardly knew anything about him. He was clumsy in his avatar, and way too happy to come running to you for answers instead of waiting two minutes to think about it himself. He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box, a fact which he proved multiple times whenever faced with an issue he couldn’t solve using his fists or a gun.

At least in short bursts, you could somewhat tolerate him.

The pocket compound was cramped with the five of you crowded into it, but you didn’t care much. As soon as you’d thrown your bag onto your bunk, you were weaving around the others towards the link room.

“Make sure you eat.” Grace called at your turned back, to which Trudy shoved a protein ration into your hands. You nodded your thanks, waving the bar above your head so Grace could see that you had something.

Slipping into the link room, you tossed the bar onto an overhead shelf, content to have something more filling when you unlinked later, before starting up the closest unit.

Across the room, Jake was also linking up. His wheelchair pushed to the side, with him already sitting on the side of the unit, whilst Norm fiddled with the controls. You nodded politely when you caught their attention, before busying yourself with the machine in front of you.

The connection out in the middle of nowhere was shockingly worse than the compound, with the technology being years older, but it was good enough. Before long, you were laying down on the bed of silicone and pulling the unit lid down.

Your mind drifted to HomeTree, to the daylight already wasted thanks to this change of location, and before you knew it, you were opening your eyes in your hammock high above the main chamber. The surrounding hammocks were empty, suggesting that everyone else was already hard at work several levels below. You were already dreading the tongue lashing Tsu’tey would no doubt have lined up for you.

Rolling out of your hammock, you reached for your bow and slung it over your shoulder before darting for the staircase that wound down into the main chamber.

There you found Tsu’tey sitting beside the main fire, carving new details into the top of his bow. His head was bent, eyes fixed on his work. Keeping your footsteps light, you held your breath as you tiptoed past him, intending to slip into the forest unnoticed under the guise that you’d been hard at work all morning.

<“You’re late.”> The sheer authority in his tone had your movements stilling and your plans going up in smoke. The hunter continued to whittle the wood, eyes never leaving the task at hand as the crackle of the flames filled the silence.

<“We moved compounds.”> You found yourself explaining, feeling weird about talking about your other life in the safety of HomeTree. <“Somewhere safer.”>

Tsu’tey’s hand stilled on the bow, ears flicking before he composed himself and continued to add detail to the rearing pa’li appearing in the wood. <“You’re away from the Sky People?”>

<“The more dangerous ones, yes.”>

Tsu’tey nodded, <“good.”>

<“Any chance of breakfast?”>

He shook his head. <“You’ll have to wait until the evening meal.”> You pouted but didn’t bother attempting to change his mind. Thankfully, the forest was always rich in fruits and nuts so you’d be fine until later.

<“Tsu’tey.”> Came Neytiri’s voice from the staircase behind you, Jake following her down the last few branches. As Tsu’tey put down his carving to greet her, you bowed your head respectfully before nodding to Jake. He nodded back, eyes flickering uncertainly from Neytiri’s turned back to Tsu’tey’s towering form. You shifted your stance, curious as to why the marine wasn’t hounding you for information and what Neytiri wanted with Tsu’tey.

You didn’t have to wait long as the woman in question straightened up with a simple, “then it is decided.”

Jake did not look overly pleased by this development.

At your confused expression, Tsu’tey stepped forward, his previously warm expression melted away by a stony exterior. “Jake-Sully will be joining us on today’s hunt.”

“Haven’t the other’s already left?” Hours ago judging by the location of the sun.

“We will be hunting separately.” Neytiri explained as if that were obvious. Your heart sank as you realised your day was about to consist of babysitting the marine. Judging by Tsu’tey’s face, he shared your realisation. “Jake needs to observe personally before his own kill.”

You sighed deeply, earning yourself a playful hit from Jake who would normally be trying to argue that he wasn’t that bad. You butted in before his long winded explanation could begin. “Keep up.” You warned him with an accusatory finger. “I’m not hauling your ass out of any bogs.” Was all the advice you offered before following Tsu’tey out of HomeTree and to the right where the pa’li preferred to graze. Since Jake hadn’t yet taken the final test, there was no point in taking the ikran.

Jake mounted his pa’li easily enough, to your surprise as you swung up onto your own mount. He fumbled in connecting his queue but remained seated when he urged his pa’li to follow Neytiri’s off into the undergrowth. You and Tsu’tey held back, exchanging exasperated looks before following near the back of the pack.

Your location in the herd gave you plenty of time to observe the marine. He was a lot more acquainted with his body than the first time you’d spoken when he’d been all long limbs and a loud voice. Now, he ducked to avoid the leaves, kept his pa’li steady despite scanning the undergrowth for potential prey. It was almost impressive, until he tried to jump his pa’li over a fallen log and slid off its back upon impact.

You tried to stifle your laugh as he hurried to pick himself up and haul his muddy ass back onto his pa’li before Neytiri turned around. To her credit, she only rolled her eyes at him a little before continuing on into the undergrowth.

A sharp prod to your lower back had you growling at Tsu’tey, who didn’t even pretend he hadn’t jabbed you with the end of his bow. <“Stop watching him. Focus.”> He teased, and you slowed your pa’li enough to reach across the space between you and smack his shoulder.

“Focus, you two.” Neytiri yelled from the front of the herd, “you can braid each other's hair later.”

Tsu’tey clicked his tongue, ears slicked back, whilst you playfully tugged at one his braids which was coming loose at the end and looking a bit worse for wear. <”You might have to take me up on that offer, Tsu’tey.”> You mused as he swiped at you with his bow.

<”As if I’d let you. You’d mess it up.”>

<”Hey I’ve gotten better.”>

<”You call /that/ better?”> Tsu’tey fired back, motioning to your own head of hair. Dramatically, you gasped pretending to be offended.

“Focus!” Neytiri repeated from the head of the herd, not even bothering to look back. You got in one last joking hit to his side before spurring your pa’li into a canter and taking off. Tsu’tey cursed at you for your troubles but didn’t bother to pursue. You both knew he’d find his own way of getting revenge anyway.

Before long, Neytiri grew so bored of your antics that she ordered everyone off of the pa’li to track yerik on foot. “I cannot believe Jake is better behaved than you.”

“Hey!” The marine interjected, only for Neytiri to wave him off dismissively.

Tsu’tey shouldered past you, throwing a smirk over his shoulder as he followed Neytiri deeper into the bush, Jake walking after them at a lazy pace. You rolled your eyes, before pulling your bow from your shoulder and holding it in your dominant hand, an arrow resting between your fingers as you fell into step behind the group.

The forests were always bountiful this far from the clan, so finding yerik wasn’t the hard part of the hunt. In contrast, the issue lay with what other predators had also come for the yerik.

You were up a tree when the thanator slunk into the clearing behind an unsuspecting Jake, your bow already notched in preparation to take down one of the grazing yerik.

To your left Neytiri yelled, drawing you and Tsu’tey’s attention off of your respective prey. You followed her gaze down to Jake and the advancing thanator, the former completely unaware of the approaching threat.

“Jake!” Neytiri yelled from the trees, scaring off the yerik and drawing the marine’s attention to her. She was frantic in pointing out the thanator, who hissed at Jake’s turned back. The man froze, a look of pure despair emerging onto his face before he even turned around.

“Run idiot!” Tsu’tey interjected, bow drawn to deter the thanator with arrows.

For once in his life, Jake listened to orders and took off at a dead sprint. Neytiri’s training showed in how he moved fast through the undergrowth, flying over fallen trees and slipping through the gaps in the trees whilst the thanator charged after him, obliterating everything in its path.

As the marine made steady progress on the forest floor, the three of you tracked his movements from the safety of the trees. Tsu’tey continued to fire arrows at the animal, careful not to wound it unnecessarily when he could scare it off with enough of a threat, whereas Neytiri kept ordering Jake to climb. Which the marine took no notice of when he dove into the roots of a tree and disappeared from sight instead of going up.

The thanator leapt onto the place he’d disappeared, shoving one of its arms into the dark space after him. It shrieked as it came up empty handed, before withdrawing and instead deciding to tear at the roots with its teeth. The sound of colourful swearing coming from beneath the tree was the only indication it hadn’t gotten to Jake yet.

Whilst you watched the spectacle as one would watch a car crash, you couldn’t help but hear Grace in the back of your mind. Her voice reminding you of how expensive the avatars were, and how long they took to develop, and how long they would take to heal. She would kill the pair of you if Jake got this body killed. And there was one thing for certain, you were more scared of Grace’s wrath than any six legged house cat.

With a sigh, you disengaged your bow and slung it over your shoulder. By nature, thanators weren’t the largest predators in the forest, they had a fight or flight mode that could be easily triggered by sudden movements or enough aggression. You prayed that it would perceive you as enough of a threat.

Tsu’tey paused in shooting at it as you peered down through the trees, mentally calculating whether the drop would do more harm than good. He must have recognised something in your expression, because in moments he was shoving through the leaves and leaping onto your branch, hand outstretched to grab your bicep. <”Don’t.”> Tsu’tey warned, hands closing around open air as you lent forward.

With a war cry, you dropped from the trees, ripping through layers of foliage with thunderous cracks that made the thanator’s gaze shoot upwards, before it leaped back with a snarl as you landed with a loud thump where it had previously been. Your knees bent upon landing, taking most of the impact as your tail thrashed. You pulled back your lips to display your fangs and hissed harshly, making yourself as big as you physically could. The thanator glares back at you, the mobile plates on its muzzle rising as it roared back. Feeling bold, you took a firm step closer, ears pinned back threateningly. Reaching for your bow.

“Jake!” You snapped, not daring to break eye contact with the predator currently sizing you up. “Stand tall and remain calm.”

“How the hell are you doing that?” He laughed, bordering on hysterical, but judging by his grunts and the rustle of grass had done as you’d asked.

“Deep breath.” You ordered, hearing him do just that. “Shoulders back.”

The thantor bunched, its muscles coiling in preparation to pounce. Somewhere above Neytiri ordered Jake to climb, you held firm, forgoing the arrow as you gripped the end of your bow like you would a spear. The beast met your gaze, eyes narrowed. You hunched your shoulders, arms tensed in silent challenge.

You saw the moment it came to a decision. Saw the slightest clench of its claws sinking into the dirt, the single flick of its tail before it pounced.

“Run Jake!” You shouted, leaping to the side, cracking your bow across its brow with enough force to throw it off course. Then you turned tail and ran.

Scrambling up the tree after Jake, you pushed at the marine’s feet, urging him up higher as you heard the thanator shake itself. The beast roared in outrage, thunderous footsteps rapidly approaching the base of the tree. Bark splintered under powerful claws, massive teeth snapping closed.

Muscles screaming, you cleared the first branches, throwing your bow up ahead of you onto a thick one, your nails bit into the trunk as you tried to hook your leg over. Powerful hands gripped your weapons strap, hauling you the rest of the way up.

You’d lost sight of Jake but judging by the harsh scolding coming from a higher branch, Neytiri had already gotten her hands on him.

Tsu’tey dragged you the rest of the way onto the branch, hands tight on your shoulders as he checked you for injuries, expression unreadable. When concluded that you were fine, he shook you. <“What were you thinking?”>

You gritted your teeth, prying his hands off of you. <“He was about to die.”>

<“Then you should’ve let him. Coddling him will not help him learn.”>

Your expression hardened, eyes narrowing as you rose to your feet. <“I’ll remember that next time you need saving.”>

Neytiri groaned from the branch above, poking her head around the trunk to glare at the pair of you. <“You’re like children!”> She snapped before pointing at Tsu’tey. <"You, stop being an ass. And you.”>

She flicked her gaze to you, <“Idiot!”> She smacked you upside the head making you snap at her. <”Never do that again!”>

#Tsu'tey #tsu'tey x reader #Multi-chapter fic #Idiots in love #He lives don't worry #courting #Gender neutral Reader

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snowalwayslandsontop · 2 months

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"I'm sorry, but did you just say that I should marry Felix." Coriolanus was certain that he had not heard Doctor Gaul correctly. It was late, nearly midnight and she had been working him at all hours in the lead up to the next Games. They were months away but he knew she was scrambling to make these the best, yet again. "Yes. I've been giving this some thought recently and it makes sense. You need a political alliance if you aren't planning on remaining a Game Maker forever. The Plinth dollar will only take you so far and they're still District, regardless of where they reside." Doctor Gaul was hovering in his office doorway, her bag in hand as she was clearly preparing to leave for the evening. "I'm certain there are more suitable candidates for a marriage of convenience." Coriolanus had never once considered Felix as a prospective partner. They were friends in the vaguest sense. He was closer to Festus than he was to Felix but they had spent enough time together over the years. "Who exactly did you have in mind? Miss Dovecote has made it clear that she wants to marry for love, not convenience which is why she still remains unattached. Livia Cardew? Her only saving grace is her mothers connection to the Bank of Panem. A pretty thing but she will bring you nothing but trouble." Gaul offered him a pointed look. This was not the first time they had discussed his prospective marriage. He had no interest in marrying for love. It was an entanglement he didn't need. No one would ever be allowed to touch his heart again. Lucy Gray. Sejanus. They were both in the past now and he would only look forward to the future. He liked Clemensia and he had floated the idea of marriage but she had turned him down, knowing they would never find that type of love with one another. Besides, she had never quite forgiven him for working with Gaul after what she had done to her. "I don't think Felix Ravinstill is interested in forming a relationship with me, let alone a marriage for convenience." Coriolanus remained unconvinced about Gauls supposed plan. Had she already discussed this with President Ravinstill? Just what she was hoping to get out of this? She hadn't come up with this plan out of the goodness of her heart. He knew Gaul viewed him as a pawn in her own little game and if she wanted this, it was because she was going to get something out of it. "The good news is that Felix doesn't know exactly what he wants. He's quite malleable in the right hands and I'm certain it would not be that difficult to lead him whatever direction you want." Gaul moved further into the room, coming to stand in front of his desk. "A marriage of convenience and a closer relationship with the President than you have right now. He likes you. He sees great potential within you and if you were to marry Felix, you'd be a Ravinstill for all intents and purposes. A powerful position, especially if you intend to take the Presidency one day." Coriolanus sat back in his chair, realising that this was far from a flight of fancy by Doctor Gaul. No, she had given this some deep consideration. She must have been keeping this thought to herself for some time, weeks if not months before she had approached him.

A marriage to Felix wasn't something he had considered before and yet, with Doctors Gauls words, the idea seemed to be taking shape. He would indeed become a Ravinstill, even if he knew he would never willingly give up the Snow name. But it would give him closeness to the family he hadn't had before. Being a family of the 'Old Guard' of Panem alongside the Plinths money could only take him so far and he needed more. The connection was a valuable one that he couldn't use by simply being friends with Felix as he was. But there were more complications than Gaul had considered certainly. "Felix and Festus have been an off and on again couple for some time." Coriolanus mused, more to himself than Doctor Gaul but she was already waving her hand at that concern. "Mr Creed is not going to marry Felix. We both know that he continues to have his eyes set on Persephone Price for marriage and besides, even if he didn't, I'm certain you could turn Felixs head. As I said, he's quite malleable in the right hands." Coriolanus shook his head at that. Could he seduce Felix? Probably. Under the guise of friendship and a marriage that would suit them both. Would that be enough or would Felix need a feeling of love from him too? "And steal him from Festus? The man will never forgive me for it, whether he intends to walk Felix down the aisle or not." "Losing Festus Creed would not be a tragic loss. He might be from old money but he is not powerful enough to cause a problem for you. Besides, if he has genuine feelings for Felix, it could earn you his loyalty." Gaul gave him a pointed look. "He wouldn't want to cause problems for your new husband now, would he?"

Coriolanus supposed not and if Felix did go onto marry Persephone, it could earn him her loyalty too at the insistence of her husband. The Ravinstills, Creeds and Prices support together would be invaluable when the time came to run for President, or anything where he might need the support of some of the more powerful families in the Capitol. He had the Plinths too, who while they were still seen as District, had moved on and up in the world once they had declared him their heir. "Let me sit with this for a few days." Coriolanus needed sometime to wrap his head around with this idea. "Don't sit with it too long. Next Friday evening, you will attend Pluribus' night club and I'll see if I can pull a few strings to ensure Felix is there too." Gaul was turning to leave once more. Coriolanus wondered if he should concerned that Doctor Gaul knew his schedule even when he was off the clock. "It's a casual enough evening, where the drinks can flow freely." "I certainly hope you're not insinuating that I need to get someone drunk to even consider being with me." Coriolanus was only half kidding, although he wondered if there was an insult in her comment. Apparently there wasn't, because she laughed at his words. An off-putting sound that still made his stomach churn despite how many times he had heard it. She paused in the doorway to turn back and face him. "No need to play coy, Mr Snow. We both know that you can be quite persuasive when you choose to be. You're learning. As I said, Felix is quite suggestible and I'm certain you'll able to persuade him without him even realising you're doing it." Gaul gave him a pointed look. There was a hint of smile and amusement across her features but he was also aware that this wasn't a suggestion. She expected him to do this, whether he wanted to or not. "Yes, Doctor Gaul. I'll be there on Friday evening." Coriolanus gave her a nod and Doctor Gaul recognised that he understood that her suggestions weren't really optional. "Very good." Doctor Gaul nodded, a hint of a genuine smile in his direction. "Go home, Mr Snow. It's late." Clearly she was pleased with his response, since she rarely told him it was time to take his leave for the evening. "Yes, Doctor Gaul. Good night." Coriolanus watched her leave the office, feeling relief in her absence. Once he was certain she was gone, he leaned forward to rest his head in his hands.

He had certainly not been expected this when he had come into the office this morning. A potential marriage of Felix Ravinstill? The nuptials would be a long way off yet. They'd need to date first, see if they were compatible in any way because Coriolanus did not want to be miserable or have problems made for him by a difficult spouse. However, Doctor Gaul was correct in that Felix could be easily persuaded, quite malleable under the right guidance. He could be that right guidance. Use Felix to whatever end he needed and discard him if he came too troublesome. His minds eye wandered to Felix. He was a pretty thing certainly. But he was spoiled and he had squandered away his destiny as a Ravinstill. The name and family privilege was wasted on him but it could be salvaged by Coriolanus himself. He could use the name and money and power to take what he wanted, with Felix at his side for as long as he was useful. A fine idea indeed. Coriolanus smiled as he stood, starting to pack up his paperwork for the evening. The idea was growing upon him and he wondered if Friday evening went well, if Felix would attend the Polo match with him on Saturday afternoon. They'd need to take things slow enough, make their romance believable and perhaps give Felix himself a chance to fall in love with him. It would make this arrangement easier. Love clouded ones judgement. He was only too painfully aware of that himself. He wouldn't be foolish enough to put himself in that position again but it could certainly work in his favour if Felix did develop feelings for him. Once his desk was clean and organised, he clicked off the desk lamp and plunged his office into darkness. He picked up his briefcase, closing the door behind him before heading for the elevator, a slight spring in his step as he focused on his next task. Seducing Felix Ravinstill. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A/N: This idea would not leave me alone once I had seen your response to the ask about Felix and Coriolanus in a marriage of convenience. @felixravinstills So this is dedicated to you and your splendid takes. I couldn't resist having Gaul have a hand in all of this because she really is the absolute worst and her mentorship with Coriolanus is so deliciously messed up. But I do think once they start dating, Coriolanus develops some obsession with Felix and perhaps passion ignites between them after all.

#hunger games fic #ballads of songbirds and snakes fic #felix ravinstill x coriolanus snow #coriolanus snow #felix x coriolanus #felix ravinstill #//is there a ship name for them?#rare pair

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ty-bayonet-betteridge · 11 months

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notes on taylors headmates for the plural au idea:

Taylor - civilian identity, system core. strong connection to protecting her immediate friends and family, very passive and willing to put up with abuse. instinctual use of power is to ignore it, allowing bugs in the area to act normally; can control them if necessary but her control is clumsy. Master 2.

Weaver - superhero identity, forms before fic begins as a response to Taylor gaining powers. doesnt initially come up with the name (im not yet certain what she will call herself b4 being named Weaver). believes in fair law and order, willing to make any sacrifice of herself to save others, does NOT expect others to do the same. nonlethal methods of subduing, against killing except for class-s threats. instinctual use of power is using small amounts of bugs to feel out area around her, and connecting threads between everything which she can use to pull enemies off balance, yank objects around, or trap enemies. Master (Shaker) 5, Thinker 1

Skitter - supervillain identity, forms after Weaver joins Undersiders as an undercover operation and Taylor starts to become attached to them (first public debut is bank robbery.) still cares about greater good and keeping the peace, but also cares about living a good life for herself, and is more vindictive, ruthless, and intimidating than the others. ok with killing for the greater good or to protect herself, as well as causing permanent harm to do the same or to prove a point. instinctual use of power is to use large amounts of bugs to scout out areas or track people, and to create swarm-clones. Also not shy about using the wasps, fire ants, etc. in her swarm. Prefers fighting from back and allowing her swarm to do most of the work. Master 7, Thinker 1.

Arsenal - Armsmaster introject, forms around the same time as Skitter. Persecutor-protector; he is agressive and dismissive towards the ideas and plans of the others and may sabotage them because he thinks that they arent as capable as they think, and are likely to fail, thus tries to keep them out of dangerous scenarios. Prideful. Does not have access to Taylor's power; passenger suppresses it completely if he is the only one fronting.

Dragonfly - forms during the meeting between the villains to discuss the ABB's presence; sees herself as a leader, negotiator, and diplomat. becomes much more prominent as the system starts to gain more respect for itself as an influential cape, and as Taylor becomes a warlord responsible for leading and organizing ordinary people. instinctual use of power is purely observational, limited to minor mapping of areas and tracking of key individuals. Master 5, Thinker 1.

TT - Lisa introject, forms around the time Taylor and Skitter join The Undersiders for real. Smug and self-assured. Leans more into the Thinker side of their power; she is most adept in the system at using the smallest amount of bugs she can to covertly map areas or track people, as well as most easily able to process their sensory information, but struggles in combat situations. Master 4 (Thinker 2, Stranger 2).

Antlion - restless, impulsive, emotional, straightforward. forms when they start spending more time with Rachel and is fiercely loyal towards her. prefers being in close quarters in combat as she does not want to be seen as cowardly - instinctual use of power is to gather them around herself, hiding her location and allowing her to intimidate her opponents. Master 5 (Changer 1), Thinker 1.

Passenger - formed by the other system members (primarily TT, Skitter, and Weaver) as a tulpa during the two-year timeskip in an attempt to break down their internal barriers surrounding power use. It doesn't work very well. Passenger is only semi-verbal and, though its power is slightly stronger than the others (longer range and somewhat better control,) it has worse emotional control and is not as rational as the others. largely acts on self-preservation and fight-or-flight instinct. Master 8, Thinker 2

Khepri - name given by external forces as it does not have the wherewithal to name itself. formed by the violent interaction between the actual system and their shard prompted by Amy's modifying of their corona pollentia. you remember speck, its basically just that, the thing that taylor turned into as her shard took over more of her actions. the other system members are all aware and in cocon during the speck-analogue but have only very limited ability to affect Khepris actions. Master/Trump 10, Thinker 5, Stranger 5

#wormblr #parahumans #worm spoilers #writing #taylor hebert #skitter

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adviceformefromme · 2 years

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The 2023 Winning Recipe in 7 Steps....

1 . Set your new year priorities correctly, meaning are the foundations correct? Are you manifesting a new wardrobe but you’re struggling to sleep at night so you don’t wake up early enough to get to work and get paid? Are you manifesting love but you didn’t clear those limiting beliefs that keep sabotaging you. This year the foundations need to be strong in order to win, there’s no more half manifesting, this year is about thriving winning and seeing results. Where are the foundations rocky? This could look like, fixing your sleep pattern, your diet, your energy levels, your home... the foundations. Identify and do the work.

2. Go on a MIND diet. This means limiting / detoxing social media, the news, everything that is distracting you from connecting with yourself and moving you further from your goals. A complete detox even for a few days will allow you to see clearly where your blocks are and what’s preventing you from winning. Slowly you’ll start to see that the hour wasted on IG when you wake up is not worth it when you could be planning your business, that the guys your messaging are actually stealing your energy and offering bare minimum in return. In order to see your downfalls you need mental space that’s why a January MIND diet is essential.

3. Connect with your new story, the story is slightly different from the identity, the story is more fun, you can journal to subliminals on YouTube, you can go on a rampage and write words that put you in a feeling of excitement and love of what you’re calling in. You can write scenarios, use a vision board. But most importantly, connect with your new story often. Your future is made up of what you pour into today, so keep filling your today with positive energy / affirmations and new identity and this is what will eventually be seen in the 3D.

4. Create a new identity. This is a declaration of the 2.0 version of yourself, the winning version of you. Use the power of ‘I AM’ to affirm your new identity. ‘I am an organised woman, I am a woman who is loved, and chosen, I am abundant and receive £10k in my bank each month..after tax’. This declaration needs to be repeated and remembered as you shift your current reality to your new ID.

5. Meet the needs of your own heart, this means you’re not searching for fulfilment outside of yourself. You focus on filling your own cup with love. Think today, how can you meet the needs of your own heart? Stop projecting the idea that you need to be loved and start loving yourself, this starts with getting clear with a pen and paper of what self love looks like for you and actually - pouring into yourself.

6. Take radical action. Take actions that means no going back, taking that leap of faith. Push yourself into the future you want with aligned actions. Stop playing it safe, this is your fucking life, book the flights to Rome, buy the Jimmy Choos, quit the job, launch the business., secure the new apartment, DESPITE the fear you feel. Push forward. The more you throw yourself into the future you desire, the more you will experience the life you've been dreaming of. Yes there will be fears, yes you might be scared but PURSURE anyway. Your dream life is gonna cost you your old life so take the actions and keep it moving.

7. Live in the end. Yes, you heard this a million times, but the more you rehearse the future you want, the more your brain hardwires this vision into your reality. Example. You wake up, check phone, laze around....Your dream is to be a CEO baddie of her lingerie business. Do you think Ms CEO is in bed all fucking morning? No she's grinding she's excited to live and start the day, she has shit to do, no time to be stressed about what man did or didn’t text her back, no time for a whole hour of dead scrolling. So this is what you have to continually remind yourself of. Show up as HER. Bit by bit, in the back of your mind should be the vision of your new identity, 2.0 you, your dreams, your visions. Once this is so clear, it will be easy to remind yourself of how to live in the end.

#level up journey #levelupjourney #lawofatrraction #manifesting dating101 lawofattraction #2023manifesting #new year 2023 #hypergamy #self healing #selfmastery advice levelup #empoweredfeminine growth levelupresources adviceformefromme

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midwestbramble · 20 days

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Walnut Folklore

Juglan nigra

Ruled by ☉

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Contents:

Overview

Folklore

Uses in Witchcraft

Safety Notes

Conclusion

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Overview

The Black Walnut tree stands anywhere from 80-150 ft. tall with the trunks reaching 2-3 feet in diameter. You can find these magnificent trees in full sun, on the edge of forests. The bark is deeply furrowed and gray-black in color. The leaves are compound with 23 stemless oval and smooth leaflets. It flowers in spring, giving way to globular fruit that fully ripens in late summer (the nut).

The Black Walnut uses a process called allelopathy, which is a way in which a plant may protect itself. It releases sesquiterpenes to keep other plants away so it has none to compete with for growing space and resources.

You can gather the green unripe hulls and allow them to ripen in a bucket. Sometimes you will see maggots between the hull and the hard shell of the nut, these do not affect the nut meat. Once the hulls have blackened, they are easier to hull. Use a hammer to smash it open and a stiff brush to scrub away any extra. Wait for it to completely dry. Then smash open the shell with a hammer, and pick out the meat.

Europe has a different species of walnut to North America.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Folklore

-The Witches of Benevento-

In Benevento, Italy, it is thought that witches from all over Europe celebrate their sabbats (getting there through spirit flight) under a walnut tree that was on the Sabato River bank. It is speculated that these legends stem from the Longobards who were said to hang goat or snake skins from the tree and then eat them to gain their powers.

-Appalachia-

According to Jake Richards' books, the walnut's "leaves are scattered about the house at sunset and left until morning, when they're swept out, to get rid of troublesome spirits" (Richards, pg. 170). He mentions that the hulls are also used to dye clothes, as I have found out on accident they work very well for.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Uses in Witchcraft

Harvest some leaves or bark to use as a focus when hedge riding (another term for spirit flight) to the witches' meeting and asking for it to watch over you, or ask your local walnut tree for it's protection while you perform your own rites. If you have a spirit that just won't leave, gather some leaves and make them get out with a floor wash or carpet powder. The brave might use it in a smoke cleanse, however I do worry about nasal irritation.

If you're handy with clothing, you could use the hulls to dye your ritual clothes, or any other clothing you may have, for protection from wayward spirits. This is a wonderful book on natural dying.

If you're inclined to kitchen witchery, the nut meat itself is incredibly fragrant and I suggest making Nocino, walnut bread, or a walnut cake for protective purposes or an honorary food.

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Safety Notes

Not indicated for long-term use. The compound juglone, found in the juice of fresh walnut hulls, is considered a strong skin irritant and may cause itching or burning sensations (don't be like me, and wear gloves).

⸙༄𓆤𓆩𓆪❁𓇢𓆸🏵

Conclusion

The walnut is an overlooked tree, I swear it’s everywhere. It is marvelous and awe-inspiring when allowed to reach it's full potential. You can find my blog about talking with my local walnut guardian here. It works protection against spirits, chasing them, while also protecting your own spirit while out roaming the otherworld.

References:

Midwest Medicinal Plants by Lisa M Rose

The Herbal Academy's Intermediate Herbal Course Monograph

The Witches of Benevento, World Heritage Journeys

Backwoods Witchcraft by Jake Richards

Images:

Title image made on Canva with black walnut image provided by the Boston Public Library via Unsplash

The Walnut of Benevento, by Giuseppe Pietro Bagetti (1764-1831)

Perfect Appalachian Sunset, by Sean Foster on Unsplash

#witchblr #witchcraft #green witchcraft #plant magic #folkloric witchcraft #traditional witchcraft #walnut folklore

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orangameelectronics · 18 days

Video

youtube

The Power of Pocket Capsule Mini Power Banks 5000mAh

So you're in the market for a new power bank, and you've stumbled upon the Pocket Capsule Mini Power Banks 5000mAh for Apple/Type C with Keychain Lanyard. Let me tell you, these little gadgets pack a powerful punch in a compact package. Let's dive into the features and benefits of these mini power banks to see why they are a must-have accessory for anyone on the go.

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In conclusion, the Pocket Capsule Mini Power Banks 5000mAh for Apple/Type C with Keychain Lanyard are a versatile and practical solution for anyone in need of on-the-go charging. With a high-capacity battery, multiple input/output interfaces, fast charging capabilities, and built-in safety features, these power banks have everything you need to stay connected and powered up wherever life takes you. Don't let a dead battery slow you down - grab a Pocket Capsule Mini Power Bank today and stay charged up on the fly.

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e-wills-afterhours · 1 year

Note

Heyo! How about some more Hiccstrid tenderness? Like... married Hiccstrid enjoying their evening or early morning? (Married or not)

River

----

Falling in love was a peculiar thing. Starting like the rush of a rain-swollen river, it cascaded over the numerous rocks of life's small problems, twisting around the bends of imperfect idiosyncrasies. The unstoppable surge of desire carried many further downstream than the relationship was meant to go, until the white caps of infatuation settled into steady currents of routine, and the loss of excitement was too much to handle. Some people craved only the rapids, good or bad--but there was much yet to be discovered and appreciated in love's gentle babbling and swirls, as the torrent eased. Adoration flowed on apace.

Undeniable was the undertow of raging hormones that Hiccup could not have resisted Astrid's affections at first if he wanted to--and he didn't. He was all too glad to be pulled under, dragged along by a want and need far more powerful than himself. This carried them in the beginning, adrift in the unrelenting waters until they all but drowned.

Then life interceded. Responsibilities and extenuating circumstances drew their focus away from each other solely, so that they could come up for air. Heads above the surface, they could see plainly the banks that now constrained them: they were older, Hiccup was going to be the chief someday, and expectations mounted as the carelessness of youth receded.

But it was there, in the comforting loyalty and companionship of a long-established romance that one could discover just how deep the waters ran; and Hiccup noticed it was more than the sway is his lover's hips or the blue of her eyes when she looked at him--now his heart skipped when she took his hand of her own volition, or the way she smiled with fondness and awe as he recounted his latest invention. He lived less for the physical aspects of their relationship, though such moments were still exquisite and plentiful. A kiss was just as thrilling as a long morning flight together, and fingertips roaming over flushed skin was as delicious as lying giddy and breathless together in a sunny patch of wildflowers, watching the clouds float overhead. He would just as much revel in passionate whispers in the dark as Astrid's belly laugh. Especially when a little snort slipped out and they both fell to pieces.

"Are you sure you aren't shirking your duties to spend time with me?" Astrid teased, rolling on her side to look at him.

"I never said I wasn't," Hiccup replied honestly, plucking a blade of grass from her windswept hair. "But as far as my dad knows, I'm still sleeping in. My chores aren't going anywhere. This sunrise, however..."

They snuck off together right before the dawn, to fly to some secluded place where they could watch the first bands of sunlight pierce the night. Someone would eventually notice, but the whispers and scandal no longer captured the village's interest. One might as well have remarked that water was wet.

"As if you sleep!" She rolled on top of him, straddling his waist.

Her braid hung loosely over her shoulder, and she was gorgeous as ever. Not just for her figure and the way she carried herself, but for the tiny freckles you had to be nose-to-nose to notice. Small, faded scars and flyaway hairs, with subtle asymmetries all made up Hiccup's vision of perfection.

Their dragons play-wrestled nearby, which they did often when they were not chasing animals through the underbrush.

"Everything in moderation," he replied, lightly tugging the end of her braid.

She wrinkled her nose in the way he adored before settling down on top of him, head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a squeeze. Though Astrid was not someone who needed such tenderness to thrive, she sought comfort from him anyway. For a moment, she could feel vulnerable--it had taken months into their relationship for her to allow herself to let go of that control. Hiccup has once never dared to imagine he might get to be her refuge, back when her affections were more assertive and demanding: an indefatigable force of nature. What they had now was solid and assured, peaceful and effortless. Her fingers locked with his as if second nature--perhaps it was. Whether their touches would grow hotter and more purposeful seldom mattered anymore. They floated along through each day, each moment alone together, as the current carried them without an agenda. Being together, however it manifested, was enough.

"I'm going to do some training today, with the older kids--the ones who recently got their dragons. Your dad wants me to teach them basic defensive maneuvers while flying," Astrid said, idly stroking his chest.

"That sounds about right."

His father used to watch the two of them with exasperating hope and enthusiasm, as if he had willed their feelings for one another into existence. Then acceptance moved into the wake. Astrid was just about as common around their house now as Toothless, and that was saying something. His father asked favors of her like she already bore Hiccup's last name, for their trajectory was obvious if one but followed the riverbend.

She lifted her head up to meet his gaze. "Will you be there?"

He placed a hand on the small of her back and asked, "Do you want me there?"

She smiled. "It might be nice."

"You sure Toothless and I won't cramp your style?"

"Babe, you are the style."

"Ha!"

Astrid gave a soft laugh and pressed her forehead against his, breathing deeply and contentedly as one might do before dipping into a spring, cool and serene.

"I love you, Hiccup," she murmured.

And he knew those beautiful words were genuine. They came from a calm and steady tenor where words needed not be spoken, and thus held more weight than the words tossed about in a red-hot tumult. The heady rush new love was long behind them, where sometimes what was spoken was at the mercy of the crest and nadir of lust and longing--where words of praise could turn into barbs when the thrills ebbed and there was no tumbling, chaotic passion left to hide them. Navigating the loud, all-consuming whitewater was fun for its season, but Hiccup had come to prefer his river clear and still, where he could rest in its depth and the gentle lapping at the banks of his heart.

So, he kissed her forehead and said, "I love you too," although he did not have to.

#hiccstrid #hiccstrid fic #this took me entirely too long to get around to #sorry about that #i liiiiiiive #rarely do i feel confident i nailed the nature of the prompt but this took off on its own as my oneshots so often do

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skjam · 1 month

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Pulp Fanfic Crossover Fodder: Dr. Goldfoot

Note: This is primarily based on Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965).

Little is known of the background of Dr. Goldfoot. This includes not knowing his full name, if that even is his birth name, and where if anywhere he got his doctorate. He claimed descent from a pirate, a member of the Inquisition, and Attila the Hun's mentor in violence.

As of 1965, he appeared to be physically in his fifties, and had resided for some years in San Francisco operating a private cemetery and funeral home as a front for his other activities. It was in this year that he invented his best-known device, the Bikini Machine. The Bikini Machine created humanoid female-shaped robots with fairly complex programming, allowing them a limited ability to pass as human women. Each came with a gold-fabric bikini; it's not clear if they had actual female anatomy underneath that cloth.

Dr. Goldfoot supplemented the basic programming by downloading data from computer tapes directly to their memory banks. This was used primarily for giving them the ability to speak knowledgably about their targets' areas of interest.

The plan was to have these "girlbots" marry wealthy men, strip them of their assets, and transfer the wealth to Dr. Goldfoot. His goals beyond that are unclear.

Due to poor instructions by Dr. Goldfoot's henchman Igor. girlbot #12 "Diane" mistook Secret Intelligence Command (SIC) agent Craig Gamble for her target, millionaire Todd Armstrong. Craig, a nitwit only employed by SIC because his uncle Donald J. Pevney was the San Francisco office chief, only understood that the bizarre-acting woman he'd instantly fallen in love with had suddenly abandoned him (when Dr. Goldfoot corrected her commands) but this was enough to put him on the case.

Diane "met cute" with Todd and quickly persuaded him to marry her. At no time was the marriage consummated, but it's not clear if this was due to incapacity on #12's part or a part of a strategy to string Todd along until she possessed all his assets. Eventually, Craig and Todd teamed up to "rescue" Diane from Dr. Goldfoot, despite the fact she'd already been reprogrammed to forget she ever met them.

After a number of hijinks and a chase through San Francisco, Dr. Goldfoot and Igor were seemingly killed by naval bombardment. In reality, they survived, and the two men and Diane replaced the flight crew on a passenger jet to France.

By 1966, Dr. Goldfoot had become separated from Igor and Diane (the latter of whom may have married the German man she was flirting with on the plane) and was operating out of Italy. (Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs) He'd accepted Chinese funding to rebuild his Bikini Machine. This new version created "girlbombs" that could impersonate specific people and explode on command.

This time, the plan was to disrupt NATO war games by assassinating the various generals involved. The plan was thwarted by another SIC agent, Bill Dexter, and two Italian doormen named Franco and Ciccio. Dr. Goldfoot then attempted to detonate a nuclear bomb in Moscow to start World War Three, but this also failed and he was believed killed in the explosion. In fact, he survived, but no further activity of his has been recorded.

By the 1990s, Dr. Goldfoot's girlbot technology had been acquired by Virtucorp, the front organization for Dr. Evil, and somewhat improved. (See Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.)

Girlbots are very sturdy, able to take a collision with a small automobile without being moved or taking noticeable damage. They can be pierced by small arms fire, but unless vital areas are specifically targeted, this does not impair their function in any way. They're also far stronger than they appear. (Fortunately, most of Dr. Goldfoot's girlbots were not programmed to use violence.) They have radio receivers which allow them to receive commands directly from a console Dr. Goldfoot also invented.

The first batch of girlbots, including #12, were mostly able to impersonate human women, but came off as eccentric. They relied on their good looks and aggressive courting tactics to distract targets from realizing there was anything odd.

In addition to the Bikini Machine, Dr. Goldfoot's technology included: opera glasses that sprouted poison spikes (never used on camera), laser lipstick, the ability to remotely control motorcars, and either remote viewing or multiple miniature cameras placed throughout San Francisco. The latter two were incorporated into the same console he used to communicate with the girlbots. He had some way of reviving the (recently?) dead, but the only person he is known to have used it on was Igor.

Dr, Goldfoot bore a strong resemblance to the actor Vincent Price. He always wore gold-fabric slippers, and it was implied at one point that his actual feet were also golden in color. He was fey in his mannerisms, although he did seem to appreciate the aesthetics of his Bikini Machine creations. He put little value on human life, and was fully willing for his girlbots to eliminate competition the hard way.

The mad scientist's grasp of geopolitics may have been a little shaky. He sent a girlbot with the appearance of a black woman to marry a person who would have been a white man in South Africa at the height of apartheid.

Crossover potential: A rather silly mad scientist who specializes in creating femi-form robots can have many uses, as long as the story is okay with that kind of humor. Assuming nothing else happens to him, Dr. Goldfoot would die of old age in the early 1990s.

Notably, Dr. Goldfoot's headquarters was not destroyed in the movie, so the U.S. government was presumably able to access his technology and study it. ("Top men.") Also, several girlbots were already out on assignment at the time of his defeat, and are presumably loose ends.

SIC is one of the many splinter intelligence agencies the fictional U.S. government sponsored during this time period to increase plausible deniability. The budget was apparently tiny, with the San Francisco office being headquarters in a two-room office, Craig and his uncle being the only two operatives, and Craig not having access to any spy gadgets or even a gun. (His salary was also miniscule--he considered a cheese sandwich at the cafeteria a suitable date meal.)

The fictional agency your main characters belong to may have absorbed SIC and its records if the story is set post-1966.

Have fun!

@krinsbez

#pulp villains #dr. goldfoot and the bikini machine #vincent price #crossover fodder #mad scientist

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insert-witty-user-name-here · 3 months

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50+ Good Things from the Biden Administration

Just a list of 50+ good things the Biden Administration has done in the last 4 years because I’ve been hearing too much rhetoric that it doesn’t matter who you vote for. It does make a difference.

Increased access to healthcare and specifically codified protections for LGBTQ+ patients against discrimination. (x)

Strengthened women's reproductive rights by increasing access to reproductive health care, improving confidentiality to protect against criminalization for patients receiving reproductive care, and revoked Medicaid waivers from states that would exclude providers like Planned Parenthood, and more. (x)

Expanded healthcare and benefits for veterans through the PACT Act (x)

Cemented protections for pregnant and postpartum workers through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act.

Improved access to nursing homes for those who receive Medicaid services and established, for the first time, a national minimum staffing requirement for nursing homes to ensure those in their care receive sufficient support. (x)

Lowered healthcare costs for those with Medicare which capped insulin for seniors at $35 a month, made vaccines free, and capped seniors’ out of pocket expenses at the pharmacy through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Fully vaccinated 79% of American adults against COVID-19 (I know this is old news now this is a big deal)

Banned unfair practices that hide housing fees from renters and homebuyers when moving into a new home (x)

Reduced the mortgage insurance premium for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages and clarified that inflated rents caused by algorithmic use of sensitive nonpublic pricing and supply information violate antitrust laws. (x)

Increased protections for those saving for retirement from predatory practices. (x)

Helped millions of households gain access to the internet through the Affordable Connectivity Program. (x)

Restored net neutrality (net neutrality is a standard which ensures broadband internet service is essential and prohibits interna providers from blocking, engaging in paid prioritization, and more.) (x)

Increased protections for loan holders as well as increased access to loans (x)

Cut fees that banks charge consumers for overdrawing on their accounts. (x)

Reaffirmed HUD’s commitment to remedy housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (which was– surprise, surprise– halted under the Trump administration). (x)

Rejoined the Paris Climate Accords.

Listed more than 24 million acres of public lands across the country as environmentally protected and has channeled more than $18 billion dollars toward conservation projects. (And revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline amongst others).

Invested $369 billion to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote clean energy technologies through the Inflation Reduction Act. Through the tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act, renewable energy (such as wind, solar, and hydropower) has surpassed coal-fired generation in the electric power sector for the first time, making it the second-biggest source of energy behind natural gas. (x)

Strengthened protections against workplace assault through the Speak Out Act. (x)

Increased protections for workers during the union bargaining process (x)

Is making it easier for passengers to obtain refunds when airlines cancel or significantly change their flights, significantly delay their bags, or fail to provide extra services when purchased. (x)

Invested $1.2 trillion into roads, waterlines, broadband networks, airports and more allowing for more bridges, railroads, tunnels, roads, and more through the Inflation Reduction Act (which also added 670,000 jobs). (idk about you but I like driving on well maintained roads and having more rail options).

Strengthened overtime protections for federal employees (x)

Raised the minimum wage for federal workers and contractors to $15. (x)

Strengthened protections for farmworkers by expanding the activities protected from retaliation by the National Labor Relations Act and more. (Previously anti-retaliation provisions under the National Labor Relations Act applies mostly to only U.S. citizens) (x)

Invested $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, audit the wealth, modernize its technology, and more. Additionally, created $300 billion in new revenue through corporate tax increases. (x)

Lowered the unemployment rate to 3.5% — the lowest in 50 years.

Canceled over $140B of student debt for nearly 40 million borrowers. (x)

Strengthened protections for sexual assault survivors, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students in schools through an updated Title IX rule. This updated rule strengthens sexual assault survivors rights to investigation– something that had been gutted under the Trump administration, strengthens requirements that schools provide modifications for students based on pregnancy, prohibits harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and more. (x)

Revoked an order that limited diversity and inclusion training. (x)

Cracked down on for profit colleges. (x)

Reaffirmed students’ federal civil rights protections for non-discrimination based on race, national origin, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender in schools. Specifically, the Department of Education made clear students with disabilities’ right to school, limiting the use of out of school suspensions and expulsions against them. (x) (x)

Enhanced the Civil Rights Data Collection, a national survey that captures data on students’ equal access to educational opportunities. These changes will improve the tracking of civil rights violations for students, critical for advocates to respond to instances of discrimination.

Provided guidance on how colleges and universities can still uphold racial diversity in higher education following the Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action. (x)

Issued a federal pardon to all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. Additionally, the DEA is taking steps to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III substance instead of a Schedule I, limiting punishment for possession in the future. (x)

Changed drug charges related to crack offenses, now charging crack offenses as powder cocaine offenses. This is a big step towards ending the racial disparity that punishes crack offenses with greater severity than offenses involving the same amount of powder cocaine. (x)

Lowered the cost of local calls for incarcerated people through the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act as well as increased access for video calls (especially impactful for incarcerated people with disabilities). (x)

Enacted policing reforms that banned chokeholds, restricted no-knock entries, and restricted the transfer of military equipment to local police departments. (x)

Established the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) which will better track police officer misconduct. This database will vet federal law enforcement candidates who have a history of misconduct from being rehired and will make it easier and faster to charge police officers under the Death in Custody Reporting Act. (x)

Added disability as a protected characteristic alongside race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. Under the law, police officers are prohibited from profiling people based on these characteristics. …It sadly happens anyway but now there’s an added legal protection which means a mechanism to convict police officers should they break the law. (x)

Required federal prisons to place incarcerated individuals consistent with their chosen pronouns and gender identity. (x)

Expanded gun background checks by narrowing the “boyfriend” loophole to keep guns out of the hands of convicted dating partners, strengthening requirements for registering as a licensed gun dealer (closing the “gun show loophole”), and more through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. (x)

Increased mental health programs within police departments to support officers experiencing substance use disorders, mental health issues, or trauma from their duties. (x)

Lifted Trump era restrictions on the use of consent decrees. The Justice Department uses consent decrees to force local government agencies (like police departments) to eliminate bad practices (such as widespread abuse and misconduct) that infringe on peoples’ civil rights. (x)

Improved reporting of hate crimes through the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (x)

Nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court

Confirmed 200 lifetime judges to federal courts, confirming historic numbers of women, people of color, and other judges who have long been excluded from our federal court system. (64% are women, 63% are people of color)

Designated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) status for immigrants from Cameroon, Haiti, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sudan, and more. (x)

Ended the discriminatory Muslim and African bans (x).

Provided a pathway to citizenship for spouses of U.S. citizens that have been living in the country without documentation. (x)

Expanded healthcare to DACA recipients (x)

This one is… barely a win but not by fault of the Biden Administration. The Department of Homeland Security as of Feb 2023 has reunited nearly 700 immigrant children that were separated from their families under Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy. From 2017-2021, 3,881 children were separated from their families. About 74% of those have been reunited with their families: 2,176 before the task force was created and 689 afterward. But that still leaves nearly 1,000 children who remain tragically separated from their families from under the Trump Administration. (x)

(okay this one is maybe only exciting for me who’s a census nerd) Revised federal standards for the collection of race and ethnicity data, allowing for federal data that better reflect the country’s diversity. Now, government forms will include a Middle Eastern/ North African category (when previously those individuals would check “white”). Additionally, forms will now have combined the race & ethnicity question allowing for individuals to check “Latino/a” as their race (previously Latine individuals would be encouraged to check “Latino” for ethnicity and “white” for race… which doesn’t really resonate with many folks). (x) (I know this sounds boring but let me tell you this is BIG when it comes to better data collection– and better advocacy!).

Rescinded a Trump order that would have excluded undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census which would have taken away critical funds from those communities.

Required the U.S. federal government and all U.S. states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex and interracial civil marriages by passing the Respect for Marriage Act, repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.

Reversed Trump’stransgender military ban.

Proposed investments in a lot of programs including universal pre-k, green energy, mental health programs across all sectors, a national medical leave program for all workers and more. (x)

Last… let’s also not forget all the truly terrible things Trump did when he was in office. If you need a reminder, scroll this list, this one mostly for giggles + horror, for actual horror about what a Trump presidency has in store, learn about ‘Project 2025’ from the Heritage Foundation. I know this post is about reasons to vote FOR Biden but let’s not forget the many, many reasons to vote for him over Trump.

So, there it is, 50+ reasons to vote for Biden in the 2024 Election.

Check your voter registration here, make a plan to vote, and encourage your friends to vote as well.

All in all, yeah… there’s a lot of shitty things still happening. There’s always going to be shit but things aren’t going to change on their own. And that change starts (it certainly doesn’t end) with voting.

Go vote in November.

#politics #us politics #election 2024 #2024 elections #joe biden #biden #get out the vote #vote biden #(I say somewhat begrudgingly tbh but you better believe I'm voting)#posting this one more time #because I think it's important and I have no shame when it comes to talking politics into an abyss

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