#the discourse over this shit is ridiculous

[homosexuanal]

Every single year it's the same fucking discourse about kink at pride and it's the same things being said over and over again and it's not even just during pride month there's at least 3 months prior a bunch of shit about it being said it's beyond ridiculous at this point please

[khaire-traveler]

Since I haven't made an official post saying this (I don't think), I want to make it clear that I support godspousing.

People are allowed to have whatever kind of relationships with their deities that they want to have. It's not up to us, as outside observers, to dictate what people can and cannot do within their PERSONAL deity relationships.

Seriously, some of y'all need to, like, chill. Eat a Snickers. Drink some water. Stop worrying about what other people are doing within their PERSONAL practice.

[lighthouseas]

this fandom is so weird about everything like. why can't we be normal

[something-about-sunflowers]

Times like these (my entire twitter timeline comprised of Izzy Enjoyers being the only ones to talk about how fucked up it is that one of them got fucking doxxed, for the heinous crime of *checks notes* 'liking the fictional character Izzy Hands') I remember why I:

1. Only ever really lurk on twitter anymore and

2. Don't trust anyone in the fandom who hates Izzy.

By all means, you don't like Izzy? That's fine. But if you actively hate him, especially if you're vocal about it? I don't fucking trust you.

Fucking. Do better.

[luxraydyne]

pop quiz what breed of childhood trauma borne neuroticism is it called when being condescended to on just the most neutral, limpid, nothing thoughts you express like you’re a little silly child, or “out of your depth”, or woefully misinformed, or just speaking on something you shouldn’t cause fuckin hell you’re doing it *wrong*, and with the most plainly obvious remark too, makes you want to chew on your own arm until you reach bone marrow

[a-tian]

I’m about to block the jc AND canon jc tags at this point 💀

[thatone-churro]

hang on. there’s no way we’re revitalizing “are [cishet] aro people queer” discourse. it is almost 20-fucking-24. no. say sike right now. you’re all fucking ridiculous. how are we not only not over this, but bringing it up for active discourse again. and acting like the things being said are common discussion and not. blatant aphobia. which is homophobia. it’s queerphobia. did we never fucking learn from the many “they want us to fight amongst ourselves because if we’re divided it’s easier to ruin us” type talks that everyone was making a while ago. or was that a phase too. what happened to “anything not heteronormative is what queer is. anything with romance/sex/gender that’s othered from what society deems the “norm” is what we are. we are a community of outcasts because the greater community doesn’t want us either way.” what the shit.

[thinkingaboutjaedyn]

all this lauren james discourse is making me not only angry, but also very much sad. imagine being a young black girl who looks up to lauren james, going on social media to obsess over her because young fans do that, and seeing all this racism in comment sections about her. not only a young black girl but imagine being a black girl in soccer seeing a black player who's making such a impact receive so much hate online that's just pure racism. how do you think she's going to feel? women's soccer is becoming bigger, more and more young girls are able to see women soccer players be respected and held in high regard. do all these great things... but only if they're white little girls. for black little girls they see their favorite black players being harassed and racially abused online over something that happens in a game.

y'all love to use black bodies as entertainment and for profit. y'all love black athletes when they win games for you, but when they make a mistake or slightly out act suddenly all the racism in this fandom pops out. i don't even think some of y'all see black players as human with the way a lot of woso fans talk about them. yes, lauren james sometimes act out of frustration and step on someone's foot, obviously that isn't right but she doesn't deserve racism 😐 in the most recent situation with lauren where it LOOKS like she had millie in a headlock was so bothersome to see and then for millie to turn around & like a comment & reply to that comment about the headlock is insane. THEN for some other engwnt players to comment or like that post? if i was lauren, i would be angry. they probably liked that post not even thinking about it but that's what so frustrating. these white players can go through this space not worrying racism. it's a privilege to just casually do something like that and not realize what could happen after. the fact jess carter who is black liked that post too / commented on it is ridiculous.

there are so many players who are more aggressive than lauren by far or act out way more than lauren. not just katie mccabe but there's players like lindsey horan who i have literally watch videos of her acting out on the pitch after an opponent does something to her.

some of you woso fans just want black players for entertainment but forget the person behind it. you want them to win you games and take your teams to great heights but treat them like shit. black women are dominating women's soccer right now. be thankful to lauren james because half of those chelsea/engwnt goals wouldn't exist without her. be thankful to trinity rodman for being a force on the field. be thankful to jaedyn shaw who's been scoring in nearly every game she starts for the uswnt. be thankful to khiara keating who is a brick wall at just nineteen. be thankful to bunny shaw who is a top scorer for man city. there are so many other black players i can list which just shows much impact they have on this sport. stop treating black players like shit because these teams y'all love so much wouldn't be anything without them.

[himboskywalker]

Been mulling this over and I finally decided to be a shit stirrer today. I don't write bottom Obi-Wan for multiple reasons and I'm going to be meanly honest in a way I don't think I've ever been on here.

I just don't like it most the time, I think the predominant amount of fandom uwu mommy bottomWan takes are wildly out of character, sometimes outright ridiculous, and a lot of it gives me the ick. But for all of you guys who DO like it, I'm happy for you, I'm so glad you guys have lots of brilliant writers who do write what you prefer or enjoy, and I couldn't be happier to share this ship with you guys.

But here's my problem. I don't know what it is about this demographic of obikin fans and I know, believe me I know it's not all bottom Obi-Wan fans, but boy is there a vocal chunk that has put a bad taste in my mouth. No, I don't want to fucking write it, or certainly not in the way you want. No, I don't agree with you, and no I don't appreciate people who prefer bottom Obi-Wan whining in my inbox or in other authors' and artists' inboxes that awwww jeeee I really would enjoy your writing more if you'd just write it exactly how I want. There are PLENTY of brilliant obikin authors who are wonderfully talented and who I deeply respect who DO write what you guys like, so WHY in god's fucking name, is there a very loud chunk of bottomwan fans who are constantly making trouble for fellow fans in the same godamn ship who approach it or enjoy different aspects than them?

I'm sure there are obikins who prefer bottom Anakin who are just as bad and annoying and problem causing, but it certainly feels like the most vocal are in a different camp. Guys, it does not fucking matter. If you don't like that I write mostly if not entirely bottom Anakin, then go somewhere else and read someone who does write to your preferences. The more messages I get through the years of bottomWan stans whining to me about not writing what they like, the more sour I get on the matter.

The fact of the matter is, I might have been inclined several years ago to write Obikin with more variety of top/bottom. But then I had interactions like this, and I decided to NOT write it on pure, vindictive principal. And even though I might have been inclined lately to finally write outside of my comfort zone and branch out, shit like this makes an author say, you know what fuck you, you're not getting anything from me.

I am so sick to death of this stupid discourse in this ship, and I am sick to death of getting pushy, whiny comments from folks who just uwu can't like my stuff. Guess what man, I could not give less of a shit what you think about my writing or what you want from me.

[imaginespazzi]

i wanna get on the pazzi train so bad but paige moves so weird that i want better for azzi. flirting with someone on live, entertaining tiktoks of people thirsting over you, idk it's just mad weird and it makes me think there's no way they're together and if they are then azzi's putting up with a lot of shit and i don't like that.

Stay off the train 🙏🏾😑

You know I was gonna ignore all this Jada-Paige commotion (beyond how it related to my Kazzi agenda) because I found the whole thing kinda funny (Jada's hella real for her reaction to Paige) and I'm not in the mood to get into discourse these days but then I got like three asks similar to this and so now, I needa rant because y'all piss me off

Genuinely, genuinely do y'all like either of these girls? Because this narrative is so ridiculous and disrespectful to both of them.

Paige, is literally a sweetheart. Like that girl is a golden retriever of a human being and values trust and loyalty so much. Y'all she would not hurt a fly, let alone Azzi of all people. How is her joining someone's live or liking a couple of tiktoks equal to her "moving weird?" And quite frankly if "do you guys have a shake shack in Iowa" and endless basketball schedule talk is what y'all consider flirting, then bestie I'm so sorry but I don't think you've ever had someone flirt with you before. Paige has never given anyone any reason to think that she'd ever step out on anyone and it's so unfair that people make their own assumptions based off of the literal most mundane things.

And then we get to Azzi. In what world does Azzi fucking Fudd, strong independent gorgeous successful queen, give you the impression that she'd put up with that kind of disrespect if it existed? She might be horrendously down bad enough for that girl that she'd begrudgingly take 3562 photos of her, but stay with her if she was cheating/"moving weird"? Absolutely not. She does not need your protecting or your so-called sympathy, because a) Paige isn't doing anything wrong and b) Azzi is not a fucking doormat who's "putting up with a lot shit".

I'm not going to get into it but there is implicit racism in this narrative. It happens with a lot of ir/fictional interracial couples where people think the white person in the relationship must be cheating or whatever because they can't possibly just be happy with their bipoc partner and that said partner will just put up with it because they don't know their worth.

If you don't think Pazzi are real, that's perfectly fine. I've never been one to say you have to believe in them but please, for the love of god, just use the most obvious reason which is that neither of them have outwardly confirmed a relationship. Please stop villainizing Paige and please stop infantilizing Azzi.

[sapphoscorner]

Edit: please reblog this with some information about demisexuality, I did make a mistake here by saying "Cove doesn't understand sexual attraction" he does, so my bad on that part

SO, I usually don't get too involved in fandom discourse, but with how Baxter fans are acting about the loss in the MDDB I snapped and decided we should have a talk.

(This turned out longer than expected so more under the cut. I BEG YOU TO READ THIS AND TOP UNDERSTAND WHERE THE ANGER AND FRUSTRATION COME FROM.

This is all over place, I tried my best to make this as comprehensible as possible)

Specifically I want to talk about this fandom obsession with him and how, is getting to a point where people are legitimately re-writing the game and erasing Cove existence to have this fucking man instead.

And look, I want to say that I get the appeal, I do, but I don't because Baxter's route is genuinely the worst written one out of the three; Compared to Cove's and Derek's (and Derek treatment in the fandom is a WHOLE OTHER ISSUE) is really not. I'm not here to judge one taste, I am here to tell you that your love for him is ridiculous.

It is genuinely ridiculous how much popular he has gotten and so many of you are forgetting about Cove and how important he is to the story, and generally how he is important to a lot of marginalized people. Some of you keep forgetting that Cove is autistic and demiseuxal and that is such a rare representation to see and it is already erased in the fandom (especially his autism), but now is even more erased because people are grabbing everything that makes Cove Cove, and are applying it to Baxter.

That is also not touching the fandom treatment of Derek and how overly criticize his route his compared to Baxter's, like...DEREK'S PARENTS ARE GETTING MORE SHIT THAT BAXTER CANONICAL BIGOTED PARENTS LOL, WHAT IS THIS?? Are you guys serious?? I've seen a fanfic with Irene being transphobic, why the fuck would someone write that when Baxter's mom is right there?

And Derek shitty treatment doesn't end here because people are straight up erasing the guy and not ?? talking about on how well written he is ?? He is not erased sorry, he's forgotten, no one cares about him. And when people care is a) rare or b) so criticize to the point where is no longer a criticism but just you bitching about it.

And it doesn't end there! Baxter is so talked about that people are more interested in him making a cameo in OL:N&F than the main characters of that game, THAT'S HOW THINGS HAVE GOTTEN, We've gotten to a point where people cares more about some white man than Qiu or Tamarack, which are way more interesting than him as characters but neither of them are white skinny man so lol, who cares about them.

AND TO TOP THIS SHITSHOW IT SOMEHOW GETS WORSE FROM HERE BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T EVEN ARE CARE ABOUT THE INTERESTING ASPECTS OF BAXTER'S CHARACTER!!

Everyone is molding him like clay to create this, confident rich white boy when he is not?? and that's...the whole point of his route?? That he shouldn't need to put up this mask and to actually be a fucking human being?? THE FACT THAT HE IS A QUEER KID WHO HAD TO CUT OFF HIS PARENTS AND HAD TO BE INDEPENDENT FROM THEM AND LEARNING TO NOT DEPENDENT ON HIS PARENTS? (monetarily wise that is)

And like, people forget the man is queer, he is queer, he's a queer person who had to hide who he is to his parents and then had to cut them out for his own sanity, and no one mentions it.

The fandom as a whole erases queer identities,when this game is literally made FOR queer people don't you love it when straight people come into our spaces and erase our identities lol, that is a problem that more people should acknowledge, alongside the fact that Baxter's stans have taken over this safe space, overtook the main love interest, and ignore the genuine interesting aspects of Baxter's character to make him their own little doll they can play with and not appreciate a guy who is trying to learn how to stop being that mask everyone in the fandom has fallen over.

And I know, I know , I will get shit for daring to go against your favorite white boy, but consider that some of us played this game because an autistic character was in it, consider that this game is queer friendly and the fandom is also erasing that queerness to make horny fan fiction**, consider that some of us fond comfort in Derek and Cove's story and now we see everyone overtaking their stories by a white boy (that you can find in every other game), consider that his talk is tiring, consider also the fact that Baxter is technically queer and no one ever talks about it, consider that this game was a safe space for marginalized people and now it no longer feels that way

.

.

.

**with horny fanfiction I mean people re-writing Cove whole personality (and sexuality if we're being honest here) and making him this...horny big man when...he is not? He got stressed out by simply having to share a bed with MC, he's extremely shy around the subject of sex and he gets incredibly nervous about it.

I personally think that is due of both his queerness and autism (and yeah his personality, but autism affects ones personality so lol, sue me) since demisexuality means he genuinely doesn't understand how people can feel sexual attraction, and mixing that with autism means he probably doesn't understand the SOCIAL pressure around sex and having sex.

Granted that's speculation on my part but as someone who is (probably) autistic and asexual I can tell that, at least a majority feels this way and Cove is literally is the type to have this kind of mentality, he does not understand how Baxter can flirt with him after mere seconds of knowing each other

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

do you have any opinions on the hazbin critical and vivziepop critical tags?

tw // mentions of sexual abuse and sucide

I have a personal beef with them. And not because I love Hazbin and Vivzie so much but for more presonal reasons so the following opinion won't be measured at all.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are some legit criticisms out there. Like, the show could definitely do better with body diversity and giving us more varied sapphic relationships instead of just throwing a ton of male/male couples at us. And, yeah, Vivzie's response to some of the criticism has been... questionable. (I still cringe when I think about that one time she explained that Raphielle can ship ValAngel because they are sa survivor, but Raphielle explicitly admitted to not be one).

But then, there's stuff that's just... pulled out of nowhere. Like the whole thing about Valentino being a "fetish character." Come on, the world of villains is filled with queer, flamboyant baddies. What sets Valentino apart is how his abusive behavior is shown in the open, making us rethink our love for villains. If it weren't for Mascarade, people would worship this moth daddy gangster in a dress, much like they are with Vox now. It's hard to root for the bad guy when you see the fallout of their actions. Like, Loki committed war crimes and no one was outraged when he got his own TV series and dragged creators for supporting atrocities.

Constant Valentino/Angel Dust discourse actually leads to the more serious issues I have with this "community", more harmful than just "bad media literacy" like the way they handle the topic of sexual abuse and weaponize it, without ever listening to victims. There is this constant shitstorm about Angel being a "bad sa survivor rep," that the way he's written is insensitive because "he shouldn't be horny, he's sexually traumatized." Like, do these people not understand that making Angel unable to enjoy his sexuality the way he wants would essentially mean acknowledging that it's no longer his but belongs to his abuser now? Also, the argument I keep seeing that drives me BAT SHIT CRAZY aka "I can enjoy this media that is centered around murderer, you cannot enjoy the media that treats rapist as a nuanced character because rape is objectively worse than murder." WHO THE FUCK TOLD YOU THAT? Reading this makes me feel so angry and sad and guilty because frankly, I was raped, and of course, it was horrible but still I'd choose it any time over being murdered. Because I have my life, I'm loved, and I love, I pursue my dreams, and I can still experience so many good things in my life. Painting sexual assault as this worse-than-death experience is not the feminist take they think it is and does not do victims any good.

Or accusations that Vivzie's support of fandom bullying led to someone taking their life. It's such a ridiculous and harmful claim. Honestly, this thing always makes me heated because suicide is not an easy decision, ask any person who ever faced it. It's not like "ah, this stranger told me to kms, I guess I gotta do it now." Of course, any kind of bullying and abuse adds to the suffering and can be the final trigger, but to me, it's just so disrespectful and harmful that someone could have experienced prolonged, intense suffering and all of this is omitted, their death labeled as a result of "fandom bullying" and weaponized in fandom drama. Also, it's simply cruel to put the blame for it on one, uninvolved person.

Also, it always annoys me when people hold small creators to immensely high standards while not doing the same with others. If we keep lynching and canceling every media that is not objectively morally pure, we won't be left with only perfect media. We will be left with media produced by white, privileged billionaires who might be real-life rapists, abusers, and thieves but are too powerful to be taken down by social media outrage. Hazbin's success is a major W for the underappreciated medium of animation (we saw what WB did to 90% of their animated shows), unpopular genres like musicals (Wonka creators were literally too ashamed to market it as one??), and unapologetic queer narratives that are not written for a heteronormative audience or centered around queer oppression (ofmd, the other medium I can think of in that realm has just been canceled). I can't stand people so desperate to put it down driven by their black-or-white sense of morality. Kant won't be patting your back for being the Moraliest Person because you bullied an indie creator and her fans.

Also everyone who feels the need to explain me hazbin critical agenda - save your breath. I'm very emotional about it and I frankly don't fucking care why you think you are right.

[mariacallous]

I feel completely disillusioned by the American government (the 2 party system, electoral college, etc) and in a broader sense, capitalism. So much so that I don’t want to vote in any elections and thus condone our shitty system. I’m into civil society associations and other discourse along those lines, but I’m experiencing cognitive dissonance. I feel like by not voting I’m lumping myself into a group of unengaged, nonpolitical people and it doesn’t feel good. Thoughts?

Fuck your disillusionment. It’s boring. Of course the system is shitty. The system has always been shitty, and the system will always be shitty. That’s the very nature of the system, and the system will do all it can to resist change. It takes ridiculous amounts of energy to force progress onto the system — the collective will of entire generations sometimes isn’t enough.

Maybe, if we’re lucky, we can make the system grow a tiny bit less shitty over the course of our shitty little lives, but there’s no guarantee of that either. So I say again, fuck your disillusionment, because disillusion breeds apathy, and apathy is how entropy and ignorance win, and that’s how things get even shittier.

As a citizen, you are obligated to engage in the system. It’s your civic fucking duty. It doesn’t matter that the system is shitty, because engaging with the system isn’t the same thing as condoning it. If you want to manipulate the system, you have to participate in it, and the very fucking least you can do is vote.

Seriously, vote. It matters. It literally counts. People who go around saying your vote doesn’t count are enormous gaping assholes. That goes double for the mealy-mouthed shit sacks who insist there’s no difference between the two parties. Fuck that noise. Every single decision we make in this shitty world is a choice of lesser evils, so suck it up and choose.

[modify-and-sever]

I haven't posted here in a while because I've tried to stray from discourse for the sake of my health lately, but I really just need to talk about my hatred for the attitude that's been put forth re: the newly budding autoandrophile / forcemasc kink community on here.

it's absolutely ridiculous how many times I've seen people making fun of or treating this kink as though it's something unhealthy or dangerous - an attitude which conveniently does not carry over in regards to forcefem content. it's really just a microcosm of how a lot of other queer people view masculinity and ESPECIALLY trans masculinity as something frivolous and worthy of mockery. People saying that the kink and its community is "weird" and "dumb," which again, I have to note, is not something so uniformly believed about forcefem kinks!

This isnt me saying you can't dislike or be made uncomfortable by a kink. And before my words end up twisted, I am also not blaming transfems for any of this - my mention of forcefem and its wider reception from the queer community is only as a reference point as it relates to forcemasc. My issue is that once again, the queer community has seemingly found a socially acceptable way to mock trans masculinity once again, and as a trans guy it is really not fucking subtle what you guys are doing when you say some of the shit that gets said. The mockery and satirical fake posts, the way that every single time we find a new way to experience masculinity we just happen to be laughed at for it in a way that isn't TECHNICALLY transphobia so we can't actually be mad about it. I realize that kink is not above satire but really it feels fucking targeted when we already don't get taken seriously in literally any of our other endeavors.

a kink community on tumblr is not the end all be all of the transmasc community nor do I really think it has grave importance offline, sure, whatever, I must make a million disclaimers lest I be yet again branded as an overdramatic woman by people who are meant to be my peers. whatever. I really just wish that for once, for ONCE, we could have ONE thing that people actually respected enough for it not to be such a casual target of humor.

[maria-taiwin]

Top/bottom discourse in mlm couples is so ridiculous, especially on twitter, people talk like sex dynamics is some unfunny activism or the meme of the superior galaxy brain but you should just chill and mind your own business.

Especially you need to learn how in reality whether top or bottom is not tied to any gender shit stereotypes, these are just very personal preferences and many couples even change role.

However you can't brag to read MDZS and love wangxian because uuhh LWJ is got associated with some maiden trope and then making him a top is a synonymous of huge superior brain, and then making stupid discourse over how is bad that Xie Lian is over feminized (?) because he's the bottom. You know you are talking about characters from the same author, right? It's really dumb this fight about what trope is progressive over a fucking sex dynamic. It's 2023 folks.

I don't think MXTX would be proud to read such old stereotypes about femininity and how the dignity of her characters depend on random bed positions.

Sure, analysis over masculinity/femininity and gender roles in fiction are always interesting, and I too love how WangXian take both male and fem elements along the story but without being tied to just one personality trait. I really like to discuss it. But why this is a matter of praise only in mdzs fandom (mmmh half of it honestly, hypocrisy is high there too) and then everytime I interact with TGCF fandom I read misogynyst bullshit against Xie Lian and how he's a shou stereotype just because he's shorter, tiny, called a princess etc.?

Active your brain and stop relying your beliefs over old unrealistic 2000s porn magazines 🤷‍♀️

Top/bottom roles depend just on how you seek pleasure in bed, that's it, it's not a standard over morality, dignity, strenght, and sure it doesn't depend over height difference or physical appearance or either gender.

Both Xie Lian and Lan Wangji are amazing and complex characters and this doesn't change over who is the top or the bottom. Sure you can prefer one over another, but if you tell stupid misogynyst (plus homophobic) bullshit then don't cry if I call you out about this 🙃

[inkblot-inc]

"Go Fish"

Summary: We get to see a bit of what the Council of Nine got to discussing while our main trio was getting acquainted (and re-acquainted) with the living island. Among other things anyways...

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Mutant!TigerShark!Reader

[AU Masterlist] Arc 2: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] This is Part 4

Warning(s): Starting with a bit of human discriminaiton in the beginning, and then there's a touch of mutant discrimination/racism at the end...also language cuz of course there is-

Note(s): There's a lot more dialogue than i thought in this chapter- There’s even a whole scene of dialogue spoken between Enokan people, and while initially I was going to be difficult and use code for the whole exchange, I decided to keep it in regular text. I figure from the perspective of the scene, everyone knows and is speaking the Enokan language, whereas for other scenes, there were people present that don’t speak or understand the language. God I hope that makes sense. That really just means that you have a brief break.

Word Count: Just scraping by 3k

*squints* I give NO ONE permission to repost or translate my work. Make your own shit!

While Sienna met with the Council of Nine, they came to the decision that the two humans were to be left alone for now. Not only because of their apparent connection to one of their people, that being Y/n, but Enoka herself hasn’t shown herself hostile toward them.

They could have been done away with as soon as they set foot on her soil if She wanted to, as history has proved before.

Of course there was confusion and disagreement among most of the council members, as humans have been nothing but trouble for them. But at the end of the day, the Council of Nine acts as Enoka’s mouthpiece, and to deliberately go against Her would be sacrilege.

-----

One of the oldest members in the Council of Nine, Gideon, was not as easily appeased at the “stagnant” solution, and decided to speak up. “But we were ALL there at LumeCrest,” A few of the council member’s eyes went downward, “Even She couldn’t prevent things from going tits up! We must be proactive in getting rid of all of our potential threats.”

“And we are, that’s why we’re discussing this here and now. Enoka sees all that happens on this island. If she believes that the outlanders are safe enough to be here, then that’s all there is to it. She has yet to change her mind, but if she does, we will be the first to know and act.” Leander, the member of the council chosen to be impartial while presiding over this discourse, definitely had his exercise in patience. 

Gideon would not let up, “But can She read hearts? She speaks to the mind, but can she foresee what these strangers will do? It would serve us well to be vigilant and get rid of the root of the problem before it decides to grow. And who’s to say that these humans couldn’t have poisoned one of our own against us and had them lead the two here?”

Sienna set her glass of water down firmly, her eyes narrowed and fixed on the table in front of her. “Mind your tongue. That’s my blood you’re smearing, you cretin.” She took another sip of water to cool her head. This greybeard would not be getting a rise out of her to try and discredit Leander’s point with bias.

The older man’s indignation was clear as he banged his staff on the polished flooring. “By Sthenya’s Wings!-”

Sienna didn’t even turn her head to look at the white haired man, “Don’t you dare attach my mother’s name to your tantrum, Gideon. I could care less that you’re my elder. Keep my family’s name out of your mouth. They have nothing to do with our conference,”

One of the younger members, Aeris, piped up as she ran her index finger around the top of her own glass, “Hells, Gideon, with your lack of faith in the fucking ground you walk on, it’s a miracle you’ve been on the council this long.”

There was a pregnant pause after Aeris was the only one to chuckle at the ridiculous debate. Leander eventually cleared his throat, “Regardless of our personal feelings, Enoka has spoken. To not heed her words would make us impious figures. If you still find you cannot trust or show confidence in Her judgment, then let someone else take your place” Leander looked between all the council members before releasing a breath to recenter himself. “That’s all that will be said about the matter. Our people will express caution with the outlanders and they will be monitored during their time here,” He nodded his head in Sienna’s direction, “And they will leave Enoka physically and mentally intact,” He stared directly at Gideon who continued to grumble under his breath. “This meeting has come to its conclusion, I trust all of you have your work cut out for you over the next few days. May Enoka hold your hand.” With that, Leander got up from his own seat along with all of the other council members save for one.

---

Despite her overall stoic demeanor, Sienna was overjoyed to have found her youngest sibling.

It doesn’t take her long for her to find you, Natasha and Wanda walking through one of the more secluded Enokan flower fields before joining you.

Realizing that the three of you have only been on the surface level of the living island, Sienna then takes it upon herself to show you all the developments that Enoka has gone through in your *ahem*... time away.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward between the three of you as it hadn’t been that long since your last conversation reached a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

Both Natasha and Wanda didn’t have the time nor were they really eager to explain that neither of them really felt wanted on the island. In an effort to say something, both women took to saying that the timing of going to Enoka’s main vessel was too soon.

-----

“It’s not that we don’t want to visit the…..being that we’re literally standing on, but maybe we do that when we’re more settled.” Wanda placed a placating hand on your shoulder as she could feel your rebuttal brewing.

Natasha looked toward the lighter footsteps she heard in the distance briefly before speaking up in a slightly louder tone. “Maybe sometime after we find where our bags were put.”

Wanda’s eyes widened slightly, “Preferably, yes.”

Your eyebrows still furrowed, you let up on the idea for now, “Alright alright, fine. But I’m gonna make sure that shit happens,” You were still slightly confused at their insistence, but you could partially see their point, maybe easing into it was easier?

You coughed a bit before you reached up to your neck to smack your apparatus a bit. It was then that you heard a slight sloshing sound that shouldn’t be there. “Tash’, can you come look at my bulbs real quick?”

Natasha came closer to see that the domes holding water around your neck were only half full, and only managed to splash against the gills on your neck instead of surrounding them. “It’s emptying.”

The redhead moved to tighten the bulbs or see if the reservoir needed adjusting before Sienna finally approached the three of you. “I trust the three of you have been staying out of trouble,” She raised a brow at the device around your neck with curiosity and a hint of apprehension. “Is everything alright?” I saw that around your neck when we met as well.”

You briefly tapped Natasha’s hands before going to remove  the apparatus yourself, “I’m just fine, my ‘rratus is just fuckin’ up. Probably from when you knocked it off my neck back on the boat.” Your eyes were looking over the breathing device with practiced diligence before sighing, “It looks like it’s an internal issue, and I don’t have my bag with my kit inside to try and fix it.”

“If it’s tools you require to fix your… contraption, then you would certainly find such if we go below,” She looked up at the sky to see the Sun just starting to wane following a darker blue hue. “We should make it by sunset if you’re in a hurry. Follow me,”

---

The four of you walk (it’s a walkable place for sure bud goddamn the three of you are getting your steps in) toward the center of the island that almost resembles a plaza with a gigantic sinkhole in the middle that certainly wasn’t there before in your memory.

Sienna explains that the sinkhole came about as a byproduct of the flood.

If you look over the lip of the sinkhole you can see an encased cross section of the newer underground/underwater parts of Enoka that have been developed over the past ten-plus years.

For mutants whose mutations don’t do well in water, there’s a walkway as well as elevator of sorts down to the lower levels of Enoka.

The four of you decide to take the elevator to the underground layer that’s between the surface and underwater layers of the living island.

Sienna makes it clear that Enoka has rebuilt herself the best She could and is now identified, not only what’s on the surface, but by three residential layers known as: The Survived (surface), The Buried (underground), and The Sunken (underwater)

There are just as many homes and establishments underground as there are on the surface and one could conclude that the same could be said for the underwater portion as well.

The underground is flooded in artificial light in the form of lanterns and poles that hold resemblance to streetlights.

It turns out that over the years, the Natural energon Enoka produces was synthesized to be used in smaller devices put around the subterranean portions of the island.

The natural energon has found many new uses, not only as a form of energy/power, but also helps produce stronger currents of electricity.

Those eclectic currents were then used to jumpstart their private network, allowing one to pluck signals from outside of Enoka.

et voilà: secured access to the internet and media from all over.

-----

Sienna had the four of you walk around the rim of the layer closest to the wall to avoid regular civilians as they had the habit to stare at Natasha and Wanda. The two of them not only felt but probably smelt off to the general population of mutants, and while you'd gotten agitated more than once at the squints and partial glares your partner and close friend received, you took to almost straddling the stone wall to minimize attention.

“Enoka certainly feels bigger than she was before the flood,” You rested your hand on the large stone wall that made up the integrity of The Buried. “Y teb u'yore a 'hll fo a tol torgresn, oto.” There was the smallest pulse underneath your hand that made you chuckle. You turned toward Wanda and Natasha and gestured for them to come closer to the wall. “Here, feel for yourself.”

Natasha didn’t need much convincing, but Wanda was a bit more hesitant. “I’m not stroking a wall, gup.”

Natasha’s hand stayed in one place, but the rough surface was rather warm as opposed to the cooler temperature of normal sediment. “She really is everywhere,”

You nodded at the russian’s remark with a flash of your pointy grin. “Basically,” You then reached for Wanda’s hand before she could protest and continued to goad her until she lightly placed it on the wall. There were a quick few pulses under the brunette’s hand that almost tickled and made her hand flinch.

You chuckled at Wanda's response as you slowly let go of her wrist while she kept it there, “ese, u'yore nief, Wandy.”

Sienna watched the exchange with a far away look in her eye.

~ “Just rest your hand on the tree, grumps. She’s not gonna bite your hand off if you touch her.” A younger Sienna had the adolescent version of you by the wrist to try and place your hand on one of the trees along the shoreline.

Younger you definitely fought a lot harder than Wanda seemed to be, “That’s not what Rudy said! ‘Noka snacks on kids and I don’t wanna get eaten!”

Sienna briefly chuckled before kneeling in front of you, “I told you that you can’t trust anything that that birdbrain says, Y/n. come here, I’ll show you,” She grasped your wrist once again and slowly moved your smaller hand toward the trunk of the tree.

Once it touched the scratchy texture of the tree, your little face scrunched together to brace for the impending chomp on your hand. A chomp that never came even after more than a few seconds. You slowly opened your eyes to see your hand perfectly intact before slightly blushing in embarrassment.

Sienna rested her hand on your shoulder as you focused more on the warm feeling radiating under your hand. “The last thing She wants is to hurt us, Y/n. The most she’ll do is reprimand you, and I’m sure Rudy knows that much well enough” You jumped slightly after feeling a few stronger pulses from the tree trunk under your hand, almost as if She was cosigning Sienna’s words. You laughed at the thought of the Bird boy that always managed to get in trouble or piss someone off.

Sienna took her hand off of your shoulder to ruffle your hair with a smile, “Ese, u'yore nief, Y/nn.” ~

Sienna cleared her throat as she returned back to the present. “The passage to The Sunken is just this way.”

---

The passage down to The Sunken is inside of some form of glass tube that allows the four of you to see out into the ocean,  where people and sea life alike are going about their day.

Aquariums have nothing on this view fr-

You’d gone down far enough that you can even start to see farmers at a few of the brine pools and sea farms by the ocean floor.

The difference in air was something even Natasha and Wanda had begun to notice as you could almost taste the residual salt that still hung in the air at this deep of a level.

-----

The four of you finally reached a space that looked more like a medical building of sorts. Though the expectant smell of sterilizer was replaced with that of pear and lemon.

“Everything that isn’t grown directly by Enoka herself comes out of this building. We’ve even started Sunken Gardens down here so that that our lowest layer has access to plants that were originally only grown on the surface. Our bigger brains do work down here.” She led you into one of the smaller laboratories that had shelves stocked with tools, machines, and naturally made (as well as engineered) chemicals and metals.

You inspected a stack of thinner sheet metal with a smirk, “Well ain’t that somethin. I’ll definitely be able to make hella improvements down here,” You grabbed a few sheets of the white gray metal and a mess of other things and set them on an empty table before you turned to the three women in the room. “This shouldn’t take me too long, but I don’t blame you guys if you aren’t too interested in just watching me.”

Natasha spoke up before the thought could fully register, “Watching you has never bothered me before,” Wanda and Sienna were content to pretend that neither had heard what the redhead said while she found the rubber tile flooring to be more interesting.

Sienna pushed ahead, “I figured you all would want to get to your belongings and where you’ll be staying sooner or later.”

At the mention of their belongings, Wanda perked up and agreed. “I really should,” The brunette gave a longer look toward Natasha before turning to Sienna, “Both Wanda and Jaws can stay here, but if you could show me where we’ll be staying that’d be great.” There were a few things Wanda had to look over in her bags, and maybe call Vision to unwind a bit, but maybe this would also be a small opportunity to have a positive interaction with Sienna.

Sienna, for her part, seemed neutral about the prospect, “We should get going now, since I believe your things were set up on the surface.” The security chief watched Wanda’s eyes widen at the thought of having to walk back up through the two layers before fracking a knowing smirk that looked very similar to your own. “There’s an elevator to The Survived in this building, no need to worry for your arches.”

---

Far outside of Enoka was a deep gray ship that was occupied by a great deal of armed forces in full black suits roaming around. Below the main deck in the cockpit/planning room of the ship was a familiar brown haired man standing over the screen in the center console showing a map with a small blip on it that was no longer moving. It hadn’t moved for about five hours now. The Brown haired man looked to his left at the woman at the helm steering the ship, “You told us we had to fall back, but how far out are we?” The woman internally sighed before taking her eye off of the waters in front of her. “A little over a week. I told you we would have to take this slow so that they don’t catch on. Stay on the move and circle around so we don’t get caught by their defense and surveillance. We’ve been over this, Graydon. I urge you to find your patience.” Graydon ran a frustrated hand through his hair before taking a breath and calm his rather antsy behavior. He looked back down at the virtual map with the steady blinking light on their target. “I know, Tar’. I just want to do this as soon as possible before the higher ups decide to pull us out of this job.” “Well they’ll know we’re there as soon as we step foot on the goddamn sand, so urgency isn’t really a factor,” Tara looked at Graydon for a second before putting the ship on autopilot and getting up. This isn’t a high level op. There’s only a 75% chance they’ll put us on more if we do this right.” She moved to stand next to Graydon before taking a look at the map to try and see what he was seeing. “What’s so important about this job that you’ve wanted to run it three different times?” “My birth mother was one of these muties. Said she wanted a place just like this for people like her where they could breed mutants and make more of them like rats. She’d go so far for her perfect world that she threw me away… She’s gotta be there, and even if she’s not I want to burn her dream to the fucking ground.”

** footnote: I wanted to use a completely different script for the Enokan language being spoken, but I couldn’t find a way to import it so that it was shown, so instead I made a simple code using typoglycemia (aka just unscramble the letters of each word). To make it so that it didn’t look as clunky, I sometimes replaced (i) with (y). Some words that end with vowels may have an apostrophe that takes the place of the vowel. Apostrophes can also be found at the beginning of words with vowels for fluidity’s sake. I didn’t think swears should be scrambled cuz that just *looks* off to me. The point of these changes is to have this resemble a spoken language more than it is a blatant tactic to confuse you.

Here’s a word unscrambler in case you need it