#they all have different reactions to you but in the end everyone somewhat accepts that youre a dog

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Universal Tongue

Pairing: Shigadabi

Rating: Explicit

Summary: Commissioned by @norsetenko, Dabi has been the science officer on the ESV: Ingenuity for three years, their vessel currently undertaking a five-year-long exploratory surveying mission. He never tires of going to new planets and seeing new things, though it's usually from a distance in the initial sweeps. But the jungle on this one is too thick for their rovers or drones to breach, which means he has the rare opportunity to go planet-side himself to collect his samples. Unfortunately for him, a heavy storm rolls in fast, and his pod is trapped in the mud.

Fortunately for him, there is a cave system nearby to take shelter in. And very, very fortunately, the strange reptilian humanoid who lives there is open to negotiating sharing his shelter for the time being.

Contents: Absolutely inaccurate sci-fi bullshit, language barrier, voice kink, brief descriptions of violence, anal sex, oral sex, xenophilia, non-human genitalia, double penetration, organic lube, oral fixation, tail fucking, grinding, cumming untouched, multiple orgasms, wet and messy, size difference

Word Count: 19,435

The ESV: Ingenuity has been his home away from home for three years. Exovin Explorations became his home at eighteen when he decided that even being on the same planet as his father and his constant belittling was too close. He put up with it getting so much worse for the two years that it took for him to study, improve his health, and eventually apply and test to join the program. It had been a grueling process to train his body, heavily scarred and stapled together from when he'd gotten into one of the labs at the Endeavor Institute of Interstellar Advancements and had gotten caught up in a volatile reaction. But he put everything he had into doing it, and had made it.  And the day he'd gotten his acceptance letter, Toya had packed his shit and left.

He went through his basic training, broke off into his specialized training, and at twenty, he had been assigned to the crew and the ship he would be acting as the Science Officer on. Burning the letter that had been addressed to him from his father trying to make him 'give up on a stupid dream' and go back home to at least be somewhat useful at his father's company, had earned him the callsign 'Dabi' and he had all but put 'Toya Todoroki' into the flames too. His official ID doesn't even say 'Toya' anymore, and of the names that he could have gotten saddled with, he's really not begrudging Dabi as his new one. 

"You almost ready, Dabi?" Spinner's voice crackles through the earpiece that's already comfortably in place as he finishes making sure that his suit is fully sealed from head to toe, and his full case of equipment is in order. At least he didn't end up with a name because everyone watched him fuck up the calibrations for one of their machines to the point it spun so fast it nearly decapitated someone. 

"Yeah, I'm doing final checks." He responds. 

Compress's voice crackles through next. "The radar is showing a forming stormfront about ninety miles off." 

"Are we postponing?" He doesn't really do a good job of keeping the slight disappointment out of his voice. The only reason he's getting to go down to the surface of this planet ahead of schedule is because the jungle biome that stretches across the southeastern quadrant of this continent has such dense vegetation that none of their rovers have been able to get in, and the canopy is too dense for their other sensors to scan. So far there haven't been any signs that the planet wouldn't be habitable to humans, but until every section is cleared, they're not supposed to go down to start cataloging anything for possible use. This mission got special clearance and Dabi always loves taking his first step onto a new planet, so he was excited to get to do so before everyone else. 

"No, it's still a ways off and it seems pretty localized, just collect the early samples." There's a wry warning in that tone, because it's been three years and the rest of the team on Ingenuity knows that he can, and will, immediately get distracted by any alien flora or fauna that he sees that is especially different from anything he's ever seen before. 

"... Am I still being dropped off in the lake?" Based on their scans, that's the only place that he can get dropped if they don't want him to have to hike into the jungle himself. He chooses not to comment on the warning as he ensures that he has his extra case of specimen jars just in case. 

"Yes." But he can practically hear Compress rolling his eyes.

"Cool," He secures his gear and gets into the single-person pod and straps in. "Starting launch procedures." 

It still takes another couple of minutes for his vessel to be lowered out of the belly of their ship. They've been holding just outside the gravitational pull of the upper atmosphere for the better part of two weeks now, and Dabi is excited to get to watch the descent out of the windshield as the pod slips lower and lower, into the cloud layer and then beneath it. The path that Compress programmed for his descent is smooth, though he does see the dark clouds and crackling lightning of the distant storm raging as he goes. 

It only takes a few minutes for his pod to be half-submerged in the lake, and with just a few flicks of switches across his control panel, it is starting to putter to the nearest shore. When he gets to the shoreline, another switch is able to get the mechanical legs to unfold from the chassis and bring it just up to the tree line before he checks in again, "Landed without issues. I'll be disembarking to collect air, soil, and water samples." He says mostly for the official logs. Then he pushes his luck just a bit. "Should I set up a collection container to try and get a sample of the rain in case it gets here?" 

Compress sighs. "We'll see. It's going to depend on how fast the storm moves. Be careful." 

"You got it, Cap." 

He disembarks with his specimen bag in tow and starts by collecting some of the rich earth that's on the bank of the lake. One of the best things that he's learned since he started training for this position is that life on other planets, no matter how strange it is, is also all so similar to one another. Planets with carbon-based lifeforms, which is Exovin's primary interest, are all made of the same building blocks no matter what else has changed. In the soil he takes from the bank, he sees that it's mixed with clay, and when he moves up a little closer to the tree line, he's greeted with with plants with pale woody trunks and tall splayed branches, though the leaves on this planet are extremely dark-- nearly black-- and fanned out in large bunches. The shape is different, the color darker than anything he'd ever seen on Earth, but he knows that he'll find cells in these leaves that aren't all that different to what he would find on Earth.

The little insects that he finds skittering around are all mostly clinging to those trees, steadily making their way upward to find a feast in those dark canopies, and the sounds of life filter in from every inch of the world around him. The buzzing of flying insects, the distant songs of birds that have chirps and whistles lower and longer than the ones that he's heard before, and the rustling of leaves above that make it abundantly clear that there are other creatures moving around in the foliage. He begins to take his samples, letting the pack on his hip begin to run a diagnostic on the makeup of the air. The gravity, according to their tests, is about one percent higher than the gravity on Earth, but it's not really noticeable as he moves around. Gathering the samples he was supposed to take is easy and quick, he's finished in twenty minutes before he asks for clearance to set up a way to collect water from the rain. 

He tries to find a spot that hopefully won't be too intrusive and begins to set that up as well before Compress's voice crackles in through his speaker again, "That stormfront is starting to move and it's picking up speed. Finish up what you're doing and return to the ship." 

"Got it." He doesn't dilly dally, though he wants to. He's the first human to ever set foot on this planet; he cannot be blamed for being curious and wanting to catalog literally everything he finds. They have another nine planets in their quadrant that they're supposed to finish doing these initial surveys on over the course of the next two years, and then they'll report all of their findings back to Exovin and return home for a year of rest and reevaluation. After that, they'll hopefully be given clearance to go to the planet that seemed the most likely to be able to sustain interplanetary resources and spend a few years there where he'll be able to explore and catalog new life to his heart's content. But for now, this little jaunt will have to do. He finishes up and starts to move back in the direction of his pod as he starts to hear the distant crackle of thunder. 

He's just stepping out onto the bank as a cavalcade of movement starts to come from alongside it and Dabi half tucks back into the trees to hide from whatever creatures are trying to take cover from the oncoming storm. The beasts that come through have six legs, and he's guessing they stand nearly as tall as a giraffe, their eyes are set into the sides of their skulls and their bodies have long, irregular stripes of white and gray across them, the color darkening and growing more solid as it reaches their heads which must be up in the canopy most of the time. The herd of nearly a dozen of them are moving fast as they go, and for a minute, Dabi is caught up in the majesty of seeing a species that it's possible no one else has ever seen before. 

And then they plow into his pod. 

"Shit!"

"Dabi? What's happening? Your pod just sent a distress signal--" Spinner's voice comes through sharply worried, but Dabi is just wincing as he watches the herd of megafauna trample his pod into the thick clay at the bank of the lake. He doesn't dare try to shoot them or set off an alert out of fear of starting a full stampede, and instead resigns himself to watching the metallic structure sink a third of its body into the earth. The pods are sturdy machines and he flicks a heads up display to switch to a live feed to show the rest of the crew on the Ingenuity what's happening. 

"Oh dear." Compress's voice sounds as shocked as Dabi feels, but then he starts to troubleshoot as the herd moves on and Dabi chances slipping back across the freshly trodden earth to get a look at his poor pod. "Spinner, are any systems reporting significant damage?" 

"No, it looks like everything is still intact, but two of the legs are wedged into its body like this. I might be able to remotely activate the third to try and dig it out, but I'm not sure." 

Dabi moves around to the side of the pod that may be able to help-- "The foot is underground on this side too." He warns before the other can activate it and make the situation worse. "I'll dig out this side and we'll go from there?" 

"You need to get inside for now," Compress tells him. "The storm is moving fast, the winds are charting at category four." 

"I can't get in," the pod would be the safest place to take shelter, "The hatch is buried--" he takes out one of the smaller drones that he has in his kit and launches it, sending it to scan between the trees and the rest of the area, looking for shelter for him. His readout is more simplistic than the ones they should be getting back on the ship and in a matter of minutes, he's seeing a strange blob of a structure about half a mile from the lake. "Is that a mountain range or a cave system?" 

"Both," Compress tells him. "It's the only enclosed structure within walking distance-- Do you think you can make it there?" 

Thunder rolls through the sky and Dabi's chilled just from how that noise has silenced the insect and birdsong. "Yeah, moving now." He has supplies to last him a week in his pack, just in case of something like this, and he knows how to set up for basic survival in case of situations like this, he'll be fine. He starts to make his way through the jungle again, having to turn on his headlamp even though he hates making himself a beacon for predators. He doesn't have a choice if he doesn't want to make this whole situation even worse by breaking an ankle tripping on a root. 

Dabi moves as quickly as he's able to through the foliage, but it still takes him ten minutes to find the cave system he's being guided to, and by that time, the rain has already started to fall thick and heavy. He ducks inside of the opening, large enough that he's got at least another six feet before hitting the ceiling, and calls his little drone back to him from where it must have been scanning the full system. The little bot takes a few minutes to come back as he checks in with the others on the ship. 

"I'm here, looks like it's high enough that hopefully it won't end up flooded with the rain." 

"Alright, good, it looks like there might be some thermal vents deeper down, so make sure to run a full air quality test before you remove your helmet-- if you need to." 

"Got it." He moves a few yards deeper into the cave and then does get out his on-site testing kit and starts to test the air quality and the soil and water samples he'd gotten from near the lake. If rainfall like this is common, then those samples should show him if there's anything particularly dangerous for him if he's exposed. 

It takes about twenty minutes for him to determine that the air is breathable and that the rainfall must be something truly torrential during these storms from the minerals he finds that have been deposited in the water through the erosion of stone. But it's not dangerous in it of itself. This is a perfectly habitable planet for humans and at least twenty three of the seventy eight cataloged species who work with Exovin. Spinner, a gecko-like humanoid called a Varqix, would actually love this part of the planet based on the temperature and humidity levels.  

Dabi takes off his helmet and cuts off his oxygen tanks to ensure that he doesn't waste what he has, just in case, as he sends that information back up to the ship. He settles in to watch the storm and run any other tests that he can on what he's gathered so far. He doesn't know how long this will last, but at the very least he can be productive while it's going. 

///

It's been about two hours with the sky still a riot of activity drenching the planet below, when Dabi's proximity scanners built into his suit start to beep. He glances up at the mouth of the cave, turning on the flashlight built into his wrist to see if there is a creature that calls this place home that he needs to be mindful of. But there's nothing at the entrance. He reluctantly turns to the deeper darkness of the cave and shines his light there, but he doesn't see anything coming from that direction either. The proximity alarm goes off more insistently, and Dabi hates every atom in the universe that has led him to this point as he preemptively brings a hand slowly and shakily to cover his mouth before he takes a timid breath and looks up towards the cavern ceiling. 

The hand was a good call, because even anticipating something being there, does not let him fully trap the scream that tries to tear out of his throat as that ring of light falls over the edge of the creature watching him from the ceiling. The alien is clinging to the rock, its skin as pale as the tree bark outside, and easily ten feet tall, and even longer than that as he sees its long serpentine tail coiling around one of his legs and across the irregular cragginess of the cavern. Its head is swiveled around to look down at him, solid red eyes from lid-to-lid save for the dark spot of his pupils. It's definitely a reptilian species, given the more slitted nostrils that are part of his nose and the longer slits that extend his mouth past the place it should naturally close at the corners. The creature opens its mouth and puts two rows of wickedly sharp teeth and that exaggeratedly large mouth on display in a frankly terrifying show, but Dabi has training for this.

He fumbles to push the button on the neck of his suit, and before the creature can drop down to hurt him. The speaker in his suit crackles to life and it starts to chirp out different ways of saying 'safe' in as many languages as Exovin has been able to register throughout the decades of interstellar travel. It takes about nine of them before they hit one that has the creature tilting its head and clicking back lowly. His translator locks onto those sounds and the earpiece he's wearing hums back to life. 

"What are you doing in my den?" The speaker translates the low growls and chuffs that make up this creature's language and the sound that his translator chooses to use is rude, frankly. The creature was already terrifying as it lowers itself from the ceiling. His body is mostly humanoid and densely muscled, his hands and feet ending with four digits on each, though his hands have one finger that is longer than the rest that seems armored, all of the appendages having wicked talons on them. Long white hair spills across the creature's scalp, reaching across its face, over its shoulders, and halfway down its back. Its long tail slithers languidly across the ground towards Dabi's things and he does his very best not to flinch as his translator takes in the language sample it's received and extrapolates a bit more to work off of from the language that the creature seemed to recognize. 

"I'm sorry to intrude," he starts carefully. The creature tilts its head to the side slightly as his translator parrots the words back in its own attempts at this guttural language, though it doesn’t make his voice as deep as the speaker made the creature’s. "I got caught in the rain and was looking for somewhere safe to stay. I don't mean you any harm." 

The creature listens, and then responds, "Do you feel safe here, little one?" 

Dabi does his best not to bristle, not wanting to potentially get himself into any more trouble. "From the weather? Very." 

It tilts its head to the other side, its tail swishing languidly across the ground as it looks down at him. "You don't belong here." Dabi is about to ask for clarification, but the creature goes on, "The sky egg, on the bank, that is yours, yes?" 

There's an immediate relief from that. At the very least, if the creature knows that it's possible for other creatures to come from their sky, he isn't going to have to handle first contact with a species that's going to be convinced he's a god or demon, or something else absurd. "Yes, I was visiting to learn about this planet," he gestures at his kit and the little vials of soil and cuttings of plants he was trying to process, "When a herd of six-legged tall creatures with long necks knocked it into the mud." He explains carefully. The translator will get better the more they speak and the more information it takes in from the other creature. 

"Aindrul," The creature tells him, and the translator tries to run that species name through their databases, but it comes up blank. It really was a new species then.

"Aindrul," Dabi agrees. "I can't leave until I can dig out part of my ship." He explains. "And I can't start to dig until the storm stops. I was hoping that I could stay here until the rain stopped? Then I'll go on my way. I'll do my best to stay out of your way." He will do his best to not annoy the creature with too many questions, though he has a million. Their scans of the other parts of this planet didn't show any signs of civilizations, which must mean that if this is the dominant species on the planet, then this species must not be very social, to the point where any information about culture that Dabi can learn will be especially interesting. It's always fascinating to hear about the cultural practices of species that are so completely different from humans. 

"...That is a long time to linger, little one."

Dabi frowns slightly, "Does the rain on your planet last a long time?" 

The creature frowns at him in return. "This is the storm of the tri-moon." He explains like Dabi is a child who should know better. "The rain will fall until the three moons are high over the lake." 

Dabi has to run some calculations in his head based on what Magne told him. She's their navigator and focused astrologist. This planet has four moons, none anywhere near the size of Earth's, with mostly two being visible at a time depending on what phase all four of them are in. Three can happen, but it would have to be the next time that they lined up to all not be waxing at the same. He tries to remember more specifics, but it wasn't his area and he was definitely more focused on and excited about the plant and animal life to have been as interested in the moons. "How long is that?" 

"A month, little one." 

Dabi blanches and the creature chitters at him. The translator picks up on the sound, but just informs him that it means 'sympathy, comfort' when his distress is so apparent to the creature. The planet rotates its sun a little faster than Earth does, the days are a little shorter too, but not by very much. Enough that a month here is three weeks of his time. Three weeks. Oh shit. "I, uh--" 

The creature chuffs at him again and then turns to start to go deeper into the cave, "You may stay so long as you do not get in my way, little one. But when the rain clears, you will leave, or my hospitality will end in a far less pleasant manner." 

His translator beeps to alert him that he was threatened, but the words and the slight growl to them was more than blatant enough for Dabi to pick up on that on his own, thank you very much. "Right, thank you!" He calls after the creature as he disappears into the dark. 

Dabi sinks back down to the cavern floor and pulls his helmet back on, calling back to the crew. Oh he is so beyond fucked. 

///

No one is happy to find out how long he's going to be stuck planet-side. It throws a wrench in their schedule, of course, requires a bunch of reports from Compress, and will definitely make him have to do a shit ton too when he gets back to the ship, but that's the long-term fuckery he has to deal with. In the short-term, Dabi is in a tight spot as far as rations go. He has a water bottle that is made to filter out any potential parasites, bacteria, toxins, and the like from just about anything he puts into it, and the rain itself is already, according to his tests, not too different from rain water on Earth, so he feels pretty safe about that. but he isn't as certain about food. It's standard practice for anyone on an away mission to take a week of rations with them, and he has that. He can stretch that as much as he can, but it won't be pleasant. What becomes far more pressing is that, as he gives these updates to the crew and they try to figure out what his next steps are, Dabi starts to notice that the temperature is rapidly decreasing. 

An aerial scan proves he's not insane about that, and the reason he's noticing it even in his thermal suit, is because it's dropped twenty degrees since the rain started two hours ago. The cloud cover is apparently so thick that any light and heat from the planet's sun is being dispersed in the upper layers of the cloud cover, leading to the ground cooling rapidly. Dabi is going to be in a rough spot if it gets too much colder at night even with the supplies he has. 

He talks to the rest of the crew for a few more minutes, but it's ultimately decided that he's probably best off going and talking to the reptilian alien again to see if it could tell him anything about surviving these harsh conditions. Dabi hesitantly starts to move deeper into the cavern and calls out, "Excuse me?" 

His voice, and the translator's approximation of it in the new language rings out around him, as he moves deeper, and it only takes until he's gone maybe thirty feet before he starts to feel more warmth in the air. Their scans didn't say this structure was connected to a volcano or anything like that, but Compress did mention there were other geothermal vents somewhere within the system.

"What is it, little one?" The voice comes from higher than he's expecting as he finds himself stepping into a wider cavern, an oblong chamber that seems to have a hole in the ceiling that's been dug out at an angle so that water can drain into what appears to be a carved pool in the floor. He turns to the left and sees that the creature has dug out a section of the rock too, about five feet up from the floor, and seems to have made it into a burrow. It's filled with leaves and other foliage from outside and the alien had been tucked into it, but now is poking its head out from the opening to watch him intently. 

"My name is Dabi," he tells the creature. "Do you have a name?" 

The creature waits for the words to be translated and then responds, his voice a low rumble that buzzes through Dabi's skull, "Tomura Shigaraki." 

Which gives Dabi a little more information about his species than he expected. "You have a clan name? Do you have a family?" 

"No. What do you need, little one?" 

"I'm sorry," He waits for the translator to repeat that, not wanting to offend the creature with his misspoken words. "... I wasn't prepared to be trapped through this storm. I wanted to know if there's any time when the rain lets up? I was hoping I could try to gather some supplies." 

"There are short lulls." The creature tells him. "Do you have enough to wait a few days for that? If so, I will take you hunting with me then." 

Relief goes through him, "I'll be good for a few days. Thank you, I really appreciate your hospitality... Shigaraki?"

"Tomura." 

"Tomura." He hesitates but still asks, "You told me before about the aindrul, I'm a human, what is your species called?" 

"Kir." As soon as the species is said, his equipment starts to run it through the database, but like the aindrul, this one turns up nothing. 

"Thank you. Humans... tend to like company. We like to talk to each other and spend time together when we're cohabitating with other species. I can do my best to make myself scarce if that's something you want, but if you're open to it, I'd like to know you more while I spend time in your den." 

The kir listens to the translator make his language understandable again and then considers him, its tail moving languidly where it's hanging out of its burrow, long enough that it's dragging against the cavern floor. "We can talk, little one, but not now. I spent the day preparing for the storm and I wish to sleep." 

"Oh! Okay," Dabi straightens, "I'm sorry if I woke you." 

"Humans apologize a lot." The kir remarks, pulling its tail up into the burrow and shifting so that the bulk of the pale body is hidden. 

"Can I ask one more question before you go to sleep?" 

"Hmm?" 

"What sex are you?" 

"...Are you looking for a mate, little one?" There's amusement in the deep growl of the creature's voice as it lifts its head to half turn back to him and pin him under that strange red-eyed stare. 

He hopes his burns hide the heat that goes to his face, "No, I just wanted to know what pronouns to use." Pronouns are hard across species, some not having any concept of them at all, and others having dozens with the punishment for getting them wrong being execution. But he would like to know so that he can report back to the others with as much detail about the kir as possible. That should help to make identifying this species against their database, if it's been entered under a different name, a little easier. "I'm male, I use he/him." 

"As am I, you may use the same for me, little boy." 

"I'm an adult," he stresses even as he starts to move back towards the cavern entrance so that the kir can sleep. 

"I suppose that means you won't get any bigger, what a pity for you. A little one forever." And Dabi cannot believe he's barely talked to this creature for ten minutes and he's being called short and a baby in one fell swoop. But the kir is amused instead of annoyed with him, and given the wicked claws and sharp teeth that he has, Dabi would rather be a source of amusement than a source of nourishment. 

Dabi leaves his main chamber and goes back down the long tunnel to the entrance, the air getting colder and colder again as he does. He is quiet as he packs his equipment back into his kit and brings it with him this time as he returns, taking out the small thin thermal blanket that is in his pack of supplies and trying to curl up as comfortably as he can on the hard rock floor. He sends a written report of the conditions, what he's learned about the kir, and then settles in as he listens to the storm rage in the distance and tries his best to fall asleep on the hard ground. 

Oh, this is going to be a hell of a time for the next three weeks. 

///

Dabi wakes, with something poking at his shoulder what feels like five minutes later, and he immediately palms the trigger in his suit that will electrify the outer layer to make whatever's touching him drop him if it proves to be hostile. Tomura sees his eyes open, and he takes hold of Dabi's arm, pulling him off of the floor. 

"Wha--" 

"Your teeth are chattering so loudly you're keeping me up." The alien pulls him, blanket and all back into the cavern and brings him over to his burrow. Before Dabi can say anything else, his tail coils around his waist in two thick wraps that covers him from sternum to the tops of his thighs. And when he's held tight by his tail, Tomura lets go of his arm so that he can use his claws to climb back up into his bed, pulling Dabi up with him. 

"Wait--" 

The kir chitters at him, and his translator doesn't have a word for the sound, so it simply tells him 'exasperated'. He pulls Dabi into the burrow, and even with the larger creature inside with him, it is big enough for both of them, though the kir curls his body and tail around him, tucking his blanket up tight between them too. He looks over Dabi, who is still a horrible cocktail of bewildered and humiliated, and then he tucks his head into his arms and closes his eyes, a very low purring starting to hum through his body. It's so low that it's a mild hum, but so deep that it rumbled through the kir's entire body and into Dabi's too. His translator tells him 'soothing, contentment' and Dabi really does mean to protest. But the burrow is filled with layers of soft material, grasses, leaves, and a strange shredded pale fluff like the head of a dandelion, which is much softer and warmer than the stone he was laying on before. Maybe the kir can be a communal species and aren't for some reason during the storm. 

This alien clearly feels empathy and has gone out of his way to express kindness, no matter how pushy that ended up being. That's a good sign, he reminds himself as he tries to relax against where his back is resting against the creature's long tail. There are plenty of creatures in the wide universe who don't feel or express those sentiments at all, regardless of species. He's a lot better off if he's trapped on a planet where this one would see his discomfort and choose to help him instead of leaving him to suffer or killing him for the inconvenience. 

He settles in and closes his eyes, listening to the creature purr and their deep even breaths echoing softly in the burrow. 

///

The next morning he finds the kir has already slipped out of his burrow by the time he's woken, and isn't in the cavern where he can see him, and Dabi does ensure that he checks the ceiling immediately as well. He checks in with the others first, 

"Good morning," 

"Morning sunshine!" Magne answers back. She and Twice should have taken over for Compress and Spinner in the past two or so hours, and she still sounds fresh and cheerful. "How are things planet-side? How's your big, scaly roommate?" 

"It sounds like it's still raining," he tells her, glad that his suit has enough lightly glowing element for him to see by even without using his full flashlight. "And he's nice. Any luck looking up his species?" 

"'Kir' didn't trigger any of our systems," she tells him apologetically, "but if you can get him to hold still for a scan or get a sample from him, we'll run it again." 

"I'll see if he's up for that." But probably not right now. The creature is already putting up with a lot from him. He doesn't want to push his luck and outstay his welcome when he apparently has weeks left of this. "Any sign of the storm letting up from there?" 

"Not that we can tell. The winds have held at forty miles per hour for the past few hours, but it hasn't stopped thunder storming. Sorry, firecracker." 

"Tomura said he'd take me with him to get supplies," he tells her instead. They had no idea that this storm would be a persistent problem, and there was no way they could have predicted that his pod was going to get smushed into the ground by the aindrul. There's no reason to linger on it, especially when, at the moment, there doesn't appear to be any significant and immediate threat to his life. "He also has definitely seen a ship and stuff before, because he's not really confused about it. Didn't Proximacard Multinational also do a brief tour of this sector? Any chance that we can send a request to them to try and find out if they logged the kir?" 

"I'll reach out, but it'll probably take a week or so to hear anything." 

"Not like I'm going anywhere." 

"I guess we can't abandon you there." She contemplates with a sigh. "You're the only one who gets excited about soil nitrates." 

"They're important!" 

"You have enough battery for long-range calls for two weeks, so we should start to ration your battery." She says, quickly deflecting from the rant he's definitely gone on before. He always had the doubt in the back of his mind that he would never see another world, so every small piece of these other planets he's gotten to explore has excited him. Even after years of it, every part of each world is a new, delightful mystery to unravel and observe. 

They talk for a few more minutes, deciding on stretching it to the four weeks they hope they'll need by only having him call in once every two days, Ingenuity time, and only for five minutes unless there's been a significant development. The only other calls he'll make are for emergencies. They'll keep an eye on the storm and let him know if the cloud cover thins enough and the lightning pauses long enough for him to leave before the tri-moons are in the sky. When they've done that, the call ends to start preserving his battery and Dabi carefully moves to the edge of the burrow and lowers himself down to the floor. That's not too difficult to do, though it was a little unnerving to back out of the opening and into the barely-lit cave without being able to see it, but he gets onto the ground without any trouble. He leaves his blanket up there. He doesn't know if it's going to get warmer again or if it will stay so chilled throughout the rest of the storm, but if it stays cold, he'll probably need to sleep there with the kir until he's able to leave. 

He moves out of the chamber to go back to his kit and he finds Tomura sitting on the floor, his tail coiled around his legs, as he looks at all of his little specimen jars and tools. His kit is three interconnected cases, one with tools to gather his samples, one to put his electronic equipment, and one with his supplies, like sample jars. His planet-side standard pack is also there and has been opened as well. 

Tomura has laid out everything from each of the packs in neat, clean rows that seem to correspond with which pouch or pocket he'd taken them out of. 

"Hmm, you know, I would have been happy to show you my things if you'd asked." It's not even really an admonishment. He doesn't know this creature, he doesn't know his customs, he's not about to tell him that to humans it was inappropriate for him to touch his things without asking. 

"You sleep for a long time, I will put them back when I'm finished." The creature picks up one of his ration packs. "This is... food?" He hasn't opened any of them as best as Dabi can tell, so he thinks that the kir must have just smelled the food through it. 

Dabi sits down with him on the cavern floor. "Yeah, I need about one more week's worth of food to last through the storm without discomfort." He won't starve, that's not going to be an issue unless things get really, really fucked, as far as the storm and his departure plan go. 

Tomura gently crinkles the package that looks tiny in his hand, especially with his one long armored talon. "...Does your food have to be... dry?" 

"No, our rations are dried so that they last longer without going bad. I can eat food with moisture in it." 

Tomura hums and puts the package back down on the neat pile of them. Then he turns his attention to the cuttings and other samples he'd taken the day before. "What are you doing with these?" 

"I'm a scientist. The group I work for has people, like me, go to different planets to try to learn more about them. I came here to take a few small samples so that I could bring them back to the bigger ship and see what they're like and how they grow." 

Tomura hums and picks up one of the jars with a cutting of a small plant he had found growing at the base of the trees. "Be careful with this one. When it's mature, it releases a cloud of burning dust." 

Well. He's glad to have found that out now rather than later and Dabi picks up the little tablet that Tomura's already laid out and scans the lid of the jar and makes a note about that. "Can you tell me about the others?" 

The tip of Tomura's tail lifts from its coil and swishes across the floor slowly and Dabi has hung out with enough cats to know that's a sign of aggravation, though he's not sure if it's something reptiles do as well. Though he does purr. Maybe he's got a little cat in him too, spiritually. "Why does your group want to learn about my planet?" 

Well, guess he does have to do this part of the pitch, though it's really his least favorite thing to have to try and make sound appealing. "We want to find planets that are safe to explore and learn more about. Not just humans, like me, but lots of different species who want to see new worlds. My crew just visits for a very short amount of time to find out what other species could come here for longer research studies. Sometimes the planets we visit only have a little plant life and some wild animals, but no people. When we find people already living on a planet, that other team will visit and talk to them to see if they can be allowed to study there." He explains carefully and then waits for the translator to do its work. After another beat he adds, "Do your people have a government that the other crew can contact?"

"We live alone, unless a mother is rearing her young, but a group could be assembled to meet these other people." Tomura doesn't say anything else about that topic and instead picks up one of his laser cutters that's no bigger than a pen. "Is this a weapon?" 

"I guess it could be, but I use it to take samples of things that I can't get with my clippers," he points to those and then puts his hand out for the laser cutter. Tomura hands it over without protest and Dabi picks up a loose rock from the ground, sets it in an empty space between them and turns on the cutter. He still can't hold his hand still enough to get a perfectly sliced line, given the flare of the laser can't cut anything more than three inches from it, and even touching the rock, Dabi cannot draw a straight line to save his life, but Tomura still chitters when the stone splits in half as Dabi finishes. 'Interest' his translator tells him. Dabi puts the laser back into the row Tomura had it in. 

"Do you have the means to hunt?" 

"Not really," he admits. "Humans don't usually have to hunt, and I'm a scientist," he says again, "I'm not normally supposed to hurt the plants or animals I find on a planet." 

Tomura considers that. "You should stay put then, little one. I'll bring back more food." 

His face burns but he doesn't protest. He doesn't know what other kinds of creatures call this jungle home, and he has no idea if he'd be able to keep up with Tomura, especially if he crawls through the trees the way he's so easily able to scale the cavern walls. "I'm really sorry about causing you so much trouble. Thank you so much for everything you're doing to help me. Your hospitality is greatly appreciated." He hopes that the mechanical chitters and chirps that the creature hears are able to express that sentiment clearly. Things would be much worse for him if he was alone, sitting here watching the rain fall and talking to the crew, sure that it would let up soon. 

Tomura listens to the clicks and his head tilts to the side slightly, still pinning him under those strange red eyes. "You're welcome, Dabi. You're a... curiosity. It's worth a few small inconveniences to sate that." The kir starts to put back the items in his kit, and yeah, they were laid out so he's able to pack them back inside exactly as they were. Dabi is guessing that if he didn't wake up, he wouldn't have ever even known that Tomura was in his stuff. "Do you eat meat?" 

"I can, plants too, but I'll probably have to cook them, my teeth aren't as sharp as yours." He just means for it to be an easy explanation, not really wanting to see if this creature knows about the risk of germs and parasites that could be in the meat of the other animals he hunts, but Dabi finds himself stiffening suddenly when a large hand shifts to his face.

The kir's skin is cool against his own and, Dabi finds, is covered in fine scales along the back , the palm tough, smooth skin. his long taloned finger rests against the side of his neck, as his two others hook under his chin and his thumb moves to his lips. He pulls gently on his bottom one. Tomura makes him bare his teeth and then clicks softly in the back of his throat. 

"Much blunter." Dabi's entire face goes hot as he pushes his large finger between his teeth, testing his canines lightly against his skin. Holy fuck. his thumb is the size of three of his own fingers and Dabi really doesn't even know where to start with the inappropriateness of this touch, but he really doesn't want to examine it either because then he might have to worry about the inappropriateness of the flickering warmth that goes through him at being manhandled so easily by this creature. "It's a wonder you can chew anything at all." He takes his finger out of his mouth and lets go of him and Dabi has to grapple for a second with that misplaced heat. Fuck, yeah it's been years since someone put something in his mouth like that, but he really doesn't need his body misbehaving like that. "Wait here, I'll bring back enough for you to eat." He instructs. 

Before he leaves though, he shows Dabi around the other parts of the cave system. A bit deeper in, there is a large pool that is being filled from three vents dug into the ceiling to let the rain water flow into it, creating a pseudo shower and bathing area, that Dabi is happy to be shown, because that means he will at least be able to be clean and clean the clothes beneath his suit while he's here as well. He shows him two other paths, one that goes deeper into the mountain that they can retreat to in case of flooding, and the other as a secondary exit in case the first is not viable for any reason. Then the kir leaves him to his own devices and goes out into the storm. Dabi watches him go, but with his coloration and the rain so thick and heavy, he loses sight of the alien in a matter of seconds as he takes off into the trees. 

///

Dabi's been alone for a few hours. The cave, even though the sky is still black save for the flashes of lightning splitting the sky, has warmed up significantly since last night, and he thinks that means he'll at least be safe during the day to take off his suit and just wear around his standard issue black thermal sweats and gray t-shirt for a while. He goes and tests the water in both chambers to see if it will be safe, bringing a small electric lantern with him. This, at least, has enough battery to last for months at a time given the simplicity of the device, and it makes it so much easier for him to see by. There are no notable parasites or dangerous contaminants in either of the pools, so Dabi does fill up his water bottle and let those filters take care of any additional microbial contaminants. He also goes back to the creature's bed and finds a few little foot holds in the wall and uses those to step up high enough he can actually look into the bed with the lantern. The cavern he's carved out for himself in the wall is an oblong shape with a domed ceiling that is at least nine feet deep and about four and a half feet tall at the highest point of the ceiling. It's been stuffed full of leaves and dried grasses like he'd noted before, but he is more interested in the white papery stuff. He takes a little sample of that out, putting that in the jar he has, and then reaching to touch it without his gloves. It feels soft and papery, and he figures the shreds of this must be what gives the rest of the bedding its fluff. 

He goes back to his equipment and sits down, beginning to go through his samples one-by-one, and doing whatever field tests he can with what he has on hand, writing everything down as neatly as possible in an actual notebook by hand. At least this way he'll be able to photograph these pages and send his work back to base during his next check-in to save power. And he waits. 

///

It's starting to get chilly again and he's gotten back into his suit when Tomura comes back into the cave. He hears the change of the cadence of the falling rain and gets to his feet, going to greet him at the mouth only to find himself gaping as he sees the large predator dragging an even larger animal behind in his tail. His arms are full of round, nearly bowling ball sized fruits, and he's completely drenched, not that that's a surprise, with his long hair plastered to his face and down his back. 

"Little one," he greets, but moves past him, inclining his head to get Dabi to follow, which he does, a good yard and a half behind him as he tries to take in what he can of the beast that the other killed. This creature also has the pale coloring that the other animals on this planet have had with the majority of its body being white, and pale shades of gray, in splotches and stripes, but the back and head of this creature is dark like the canopy above, the color split like that of a shark. It is a quadrupedal creature that he guesses must live among the higher tree branches because its feet and hands are structured the same, like with monkeys and chimps on Earth. It also is scaled rather than furry though, and its corpse is bleeding sluggishly as it's dragged deeper into the cave from the wounds in its neck and side that look like they're from Tomura's teeth and claws, its head rotated at a sharply unnatural angle that Dabi guesses is what actually killed it. 

They move into the main cavern and Tomura drops the beast from his tail and then uses that and his arms to set down and stack the bulbous fruits. Dabi hadn't turned off his lantern when he heard him approaching, and Tomura blinks at the light, but doesn't comment on it. The fruit are the deep red of an apple, though the color is almost uncomfortably uniform across all of them. He expects fruit to have variation in it, and the stunning lack of change aside from a slight difference in size is very strange. 

"Do your tests, find what you can eat. I will take whatever you cannot." 

"Thank you." He really doesn't have better words to express his gratitude for the other creature's hospitality, so he tries to at least just be fast about it. 

Dabi goes and gets his kit and uses his tools to take samples from the beast. He does test the meat, and over the course of the next hour he determines that the meat is edible, and will remain so after it's been cooked. He's glad that he did get survival training though, because as he carefully butchers a section of the large carcass, he feels Tomura watching him from his burrow. He hopes he doesn't look too inept. He has a small flash cooker with him, only big enough to contain 20oz of whatever he puts in it at a time, but it can also work as a dehydrator, and Dabi determines how much meat he'll need to stretch his rations to make it a full month, just in case something else goes wrong. 

He takes what he needs and it's barely a quarter of the meat on one side of the creature's body, then he moves off to the side so that he can work on cutting it into strips and making it into jerky. 

"Little one, surely that isn't enough." 

"I'm little," he says, with some amusement when the creature seems to be admonishing him. "And I don't hunt, I don't need as much energy as you do." 

He huffs softly, but does move over to the carcass himself and begins to take his meal. Dabi watches between changing out strips of meat in the small chamber. Tomura's mouth is large, despite how it looks when he's just talking, and he uses the way his jaw can seemingly unhinge to take large bites out of the creature's body, focusing on the areas that are covered in the most muscle tissue. The two rows of teeth carve deep grooves out of the creature and, like Spinner, he doesn't really chew his food, just making sure the chunks he takes in are manageable and then swallowing them down. He also can, apparently, eat bone, though he does tend to break open the bigger ones first to lick out the marrow with a long forked tongue. It's a little gross to watch, but no different in concept to any wild predator taking a meal, and by the time Dabi has finished dehydrating most of the meat and flash cooking the strip that he is going to eat fresh tonight, the kir has consumed half of the corpse. He purrs and the translator tells Dabi 'content', though he could have guessed that on his own. 

When he finishes with the carcass, Tomura takes the last of his kill out of the cave again, but he takes it through the other tunnel that he showed Dabi earlier and then doesn't come back immediately. Dabi takes that opportunity to have a bite of the meat himself. It has a toughness and a gaminess that Dabi has heard is common in wild game, and has a deeper umami flavor than beef alone usually does. It's definitely palatable and Dabi is certain that if it was prepared with even a bit of salt, it would be an easy staple meat and livestock on this planet if it were ever colonized. He is eating when Tomura comes back after about ten minutes, the blood and gore cleaned from his skin completely. 

He sees Dabi is eating and nods to himself before going over to the fruits. He uses his long index finger to break open a small part of the shell, and given the force he uses for it, and the way that the accompanying crack sounds as it echoes around the room with them, has him guessing they're as hard as a coconut at least. The coloration has also started to wash out slightly, getting less vibrant as Tomura puts the fruit back on the ground and kicks it towards the pool that is still filling with rain water. It rolls easily across the stone until it splashes into the little pool and then Dabi jumps out of his skin as it explodes with a loud pop, spraying a foot around the puddle with displaced water. 

Tomura lets out a hissy little chitter. 'Laughter, mockery'. Dabi glares at him, but the kir just chirps in reply before going over to the shallow pool and fishing out the fruit with his tail. It's cracked nearly all the way in half now, and the color of the outer skin is that vibrant rich red again. The inner flesh looks to be mostly a papery, stringy pulp, but he tears that away and pushes it to the side before extracting a fist-size mass of paler pinkish flesh that's dripping with a semi-translucent fluid before coming to sit down beside him. He offers him half of the flesh and Dabi takes it and puts a small pinch of the sticky flesh into his scanner. It takes a minute for it to work and firstly determine that it's not poisonous. Then it begins to break down the nutritional components inside of it. 

After another few minutes it beeps again and Dabi has to read the output twice to make certain that it's correct. The fruit is rich in vitamin C and D, with nearly double the amount of protein as guava, and it has more than ten percent of Ladreynyx per ounce. Holy fuck. Ladreynyx is one of the most sought-after substances in the wider known universe. It tends to occur on planets that at one point had a higher concentration of radiation, and early lifeforms seemed to develop this secretion to help counteract that and neutralize the negative effects of the radiation, healing their own cells and insolating them from the worst parts of it, so that they could thrive. It's such a hard to find substance, and one that medical professionals want in abundance so that they can test out how much good it can do helping to treat and prevent cancer and other forms of radiation sickness. All of which are becoming more common given how many people are going off-planet and getting exposed to the radiation of different planets and their atmospheres. 

"What's this fruit called?" He asks as he brings a small bit of it to his lips. Ladreynyx isn't poisonous unprocessed, but he is a bit concerned that it may be bitter and medicinal. The flesh has the texture of slightly unripe mango, and a sharp citric flavor that is bright on his tongue, but as he chews it mellows into a softer sweetness that reminds him of dango. 

"Uzut, they can only be harvested during the rain." Tomura explains, seeming satisfied with Dabi eating the flesh. "They wither quickly once they've been removed from the water and the inside becomes foul when the skin ashens." 

"And they explode?"

"Only when their shell is compromised in water. But it is a faster way of getting to the pits. It kills the fish that try to eat them." 

Dabi takes another bite of the flesh and then asks, "And what kind of creature was that?" There is some hesitation in the question. Some species find constant questions unpleasant, some find them outright rude, and he really doesn't want to piss off his host. 

Tomura doesn't get aggravated though. He answers any question Dabi asks him and asks his own in turn as the night gets colder and the thunder keeps booming outside. And they spend their evening talking about anything and everything that either of them can think of. 

///

They spend the next two days together, with Dabi sleeping in the creature's bed with him against the chill, and the kir being as amused and interested in learning about humans as Dabi is about learning as much as he can about this planet. Being on a surveying crew, he doesn't usually get to become so focused on the worlds they visit. Usually, he only gets to take a passing interest, but this, for as unorthodox and unforeseen the circumstances may be, is giving him the opportunity to learn as much as he can about this planet as possible. 

They're sitting together on the floor of the main chamber, Tomura curled around him, his tail easily fully encircling him, though not touching, just close so that he can watch as Dabi lays out his samples in order of what he wrote about in his notebook so that he can send his pictures back to base. He's learned that Tomura can change from being an endotherm to an exotherm, mostly at will, and during the day he tends to be endothermic and delights in having Dabi's much hotter body as a way to soak up some extra warmth when he can. When everything is all ready, Dabi turns his communicator back on and turns off his translator. He doesn't necessarily want the other creature to hear everything that he's saying, especially if they've turned up something interesting about the kir from past expeditions. 

On the hour, the connection opens up and Dabi immediately starts to take and transmit the pictures of his notes before Compress even opens his mouth. 

"Dabi--" he pauses in his greeting as he starts to see them coming through. "I take it you're doing fine then?" 

"Yeah, I'm good. Tomura has been super helpful and very nice." And the creature immediately pokes his head up from it resting on the circle of his arms when he hears his name and enters the frame slightly. He clicks at the screen and Compress smiles at the other creature. 

"That's good." And they launch into the rest of their check-in. No news yet from Proximacard and the storm is as thick as ever from their scans, but other than that, there hasn't been too much disturbance on their end either. They filed the paperwork to deal with the sudden delay in their schedule, and they may be rerouted to dock at the nearest space station afterwards so he can get a proper check-up and they can restock on the supplies they're going to be down because of the delay, but it doesn't sound like they're in any trouble over it so far. 

Dabi hopes they'll be in even less of it when he uploads his notes about the Uzut and their abundance of Ladreynyx. 

///

The storm rages on outside and time slips by. By the end of the first week, Dabi feels gross enough that he needs to bathe and preferably clean his clothes as well. The only thing that keeps him from it initially, is that it's dark and still fairly cool in the cave even during the day, and he's worried that he won't be able to get them dry again. He voiced the concern to Tomura and the kir considered for a little while before he disappeared for a few hours. Then he'd come back with a few strange mud-covered bulbs like that of a tulip, that were as long as Dabi's forearm. Tomura used his claws to tear them open and inside had been a fibrous tissue that Dabi had been able to light with his laser tool, creating a small fire near the second entrance to the cavern that he could use to dry his clothes over. That was a fantastic bonus, but he wasn't prepared for the kir to follow him into the second pool to bathe. 

His face had heated, but he stripped down anyway, only leaving his translator, the speaker wrapped around his throat, and the earpiece in place so that he would be able to understand what the creature said as he bent over the pool and sunk his arm in up to the shoulder. He pulled up an egg-plant shaped fruit from inside of the water, that was bleached as white as so much of the vegetation that grows near the ground on this planet. He squeezed it, and it started to ooze out a thick viscous liquid that smelled strongly herbaceous, and Dabi had to pull his clothes back on to run a sample through his scanner to determine that it wouldn't melt off his skin before he'd accepted it. 

It definitely wasn't quite soap as he was used to it, but the way it lathers and how it does help to leave his skin clean in a way he guesses isn't dissimilar to the way bitter ginger nectar can on earth. He washes himself and his clothes, and then wraps himself up in his thermal blanket as he waits for them to dry. And Tomura stays with him, his eyes linger over his body, but Dabi can't begrudge him that. He's been looking at the alien's body whenever he can, fascinated by every inch of pale flesh and patch of scales, the curve of muscles beneath, his single armored finger on each hand, his sharp, bright eyes and large, dangerous teeth. Tomura is far from the first alien species he's ever interacted with, but this is different from meeting a foreign species in one of his classes or on an established planet. This feels... special. So he doesn't protest when he finds the creature's strange eyes lingering on any patch of his skin, and when he chitters at him inquisitively about the scars littered across his body, Dabi explains what those are too. 

It's especially amazing how he takes that in stride and it doesn't change the texture of his glances. There is no pity that sours his looks. It's been a very long time since Dabi met someone who could manage that.

///

The first week is the most difficult, and even then, it's only a challenge because they are starting to put together a routine. Not because there is any real hardship. He learns that aside from hunting when he's hungry, something he usually only has to do once a week given the volume of what he eats during his meals, Tomura spends most of his days sleeping. It's not uncommon for species that haven't developed other kinds of entertainment, and since the kir are intensely isolationist to maintain their territories, they don't have any kind of society or trading. Dabi talks a little about his, how humans are a social species, how they have laws and things that they have to abide by so that they could invent agriculture and industry. He's not trying to convince the kir that is the way things should be done-- the earliest humans who wanted to explore the stars had definitely tried that, and there are chapters after chapters dedicated to them in every textbook for every beginner course on space travel that talks about how they were slaughtered for trying to colonize other sentient races. Which is why Exovin's policies are to make contact and enter discussions, meeting the dominant species on their terms before anything else. 

Tomura asks about how humans live on Earth and in their societies, so Dabi tells him. And in turn Tomura tells him things about his species. 

"Our mothers lay and hatch a clutch of usually two to three young at a time." 

"You have siblings?" 

"One, a sister. I haven't seen her since we left our mother's den when we were of age. I believe she makes her territory in the desert." 

"Will you ever visit her? Or your mom?"

"No, females are fiercely territorial. She would probably tear off my head long before realizing who I was." He chitters, but the translator says he's amused by the thought, so Dabi figures that his species must not get lonely, must not crave connection the way humans do. "Do you have siblings?" 

"Yeah, I'm the oldest of four. I have one younger sister and two younger brothers." And on and on their conversations go. 

Tomura doesn't seem to have any concerns about having their long talks, especially not when Dabi doesn't protest to him wrapping around his body the same way he does when they are laying together in his burrow at night. And Dabi never protests, even when he is made to feel so small because Tomura's voice is always so low. It rumbles through his chest in his chitters, growls, and purrs as he speaks, and they send a low, steady hum throughout the room. The vibration of them as he speaks sometimes makes gooseflesh crawl along his skin... and sometimes it puts a little heat there too. 

Dabi really does his best to not think about that, but he can't quite help it. He recognizes the growl that he lets out when he says 'little one' even without the translator now. Fuck, maybe three years without any sexual contact that wasn't his own hands is more than he thought it was. He never broke down or hooked up with any of the others, though he thinks that they may have been on and off throughout their voyage. He wasn't usually aching for it, but something about Tomura, something about the way he watches him, the way he leans in close and speaks too him so low that Dabi can feel the echoes of his voice in his own chest, that's making the celibacy a far more noticeable inconvenience. 

But he doesn't know how the kir mate, and he is not about to ask. Besides, he's damn sure that Twice and Magne won't let him live it down if his 'first contact' has to have the 'Kirk Clause' added to his final report. 

///

At the midpoint of the storm, the howling winds, crashing thunder, and torrential rain somehow get even worse. His check-in isn't until tomorrow, but Dabi has a sneaking suspicion that they're getting into a severe enough storm that tornados would be possible if this were Earth. He asks Tomura if they have tornadoes here, and he seems flabbergasted by the concept, which leads them to discussing the different natural disasters that they can have on their opposing planets and Dabi watches Tomura dig out another little hole in the side of the wall, easily breaking through the stone and scraping away the contents.

He had been thinking, given it was a smaller structure, that it was going to be a bed for him, because the kir wanted him out of his space, but when it's finished, it's just big enough for Dabi to store his kit and suit so that they aren't tucked off at the side of the room anymore. Tomura still lifts him into his bed at night and holds him close as they sleep, his purrs rumbling through them both.

///

It's still cool and late when Dabi wakes hearing his communicator chirping frantically from its place across the room. Tomura grumbles, but unwraps his tail from around Dabi's body, relinquishing his hold around his waist as well when he recognizes the sound. Dabi slips out of his burrow and goes over to retrieve his tablet, taking it into the bathing chamber so that he doesn't disturb Tomura any more than he already has as he answers with a yawn, 

"Hey Mag--" 

"Dabi," her tone is strained in a way that has him sharply shaking the last lingering threads of sleepiness. 

"What is it? What's going on?" 

"Are you alright? Tomura hasn't hurt you?" 

He blinks. "No, of course not-- Why?" 

Her face is pale and drawn as a file comes through for him. "We got the communication back from Proximacard. They registered the dominant species as REH-129, and marked the planet as 'unsuitable' for foreign life because the species was extremely hostile. Six of their people died." 

Dabi opens the file, trying to make sense of what she's telling him. He mutes the video file that's been attached to the report, leaving the subtitles on, and watches as the Proxima crew lands and starts to comb the jungle, taking their own samples and exploring. It's sunny and bright in the video, but the footage has clearly been edited down to show the first contact with-- Tomura. There's no mistaking the creature. He knows his eyes, his hair, recognizes the way he holds himself as he looms over the crew in one of the trees and clicks and snarls at them. He asks them who they are, why they're in his territory, and Proxima tells him that they've arrived to enter the planet into the rest of the interplanetary community, they say they're looking for useful things, that they want to find the government if there is one here, they hold themselves firm and strong in the wake of Tomura's increasing agitation. 

They open fire when he moves too quickly into their space. The phaser blast hits his skin and dissipates across it harmlessly. And Tomura opens his mouth wide enough to show off all of his teeth before he lunges. The footage is shaky and awful then, a horrible blur of violence as he watches Tomura easily tear through their suits, through flesh, as he cuts down the members of Proxima. They learn quickly enough that they need to run, and the last of the footage shows Tomura dragging their dead deeper into the jungle. His stomach twists. 

Based on the feedback they were able to get from the suits, he'd eaten a fair amount of the remains before the signal stopped transmitting. 

"They tried exploring other regions and they found the other REH-129's to be as aggressive if not more so." She warns. "Are you sure you're safe there?" 

He was positive of it up until ten minutes ago. "He hasn't ever hurt me." Is all he can think to say. He doesn't want to elaborate too much about how close they've been so far. 

"That may not always be the case. The Proxima members who survived their other interactions found that phasers didn't work, but electricity and laser weapons could do some damage. If you need to protect yourself--" 

"Okay." He cuts her off, his stomach gone sour from this new knowledge she's saddled him with. "He hasn't made any aggressive action towards me. He said his people are territorial-- they don't even visit family members to keep out of each others' space. They may have just been scared of how many people were showing up in their domains." He tries weakly. But that doesn't take away seeing how bloodthirsty Tomura could be if the mood struck him. 

Magne doesn't look satisfied with that. "Make sure you're wearing your monitor for your vitals, alright?" So they know if he gets killed. It's not as if they can get down here to help him if they think he's in trouble. 

"Okay." He agrees, but they don't stay on the call much longer than that. He doesn't return to bed for a long while. 

///

He can't help but keep replaying those clips over and over in his head as Tomura stretches and readies himself for the day. He yawns wide and shows all of his too many teeth-- and then he licks his lips like a cat when he's finished. He tilts his nose up and scents the air, opening his mouth again to get an even better read on the room, and Dabi sincerely hopes he can't literally smell the discomfort under his skin. 

"Hmm, I'm going out to hunt. I'll bring back a feast for us, little one." 

He has never felt so relieved to be alone as he does now. "Oh, you don't have to worry about me--" 

The creature titters at him in that low grumble, leaning down a bit to nose at his hair for a second before moving on. "You will like what I return with." He promises, and then moves out to the edge of the cave. "Stay in this chamber. The weather may be worse before I return." If Tomura had said that yesterday, Dabi would have asked if he had to hunt today, or if he could hold off until things got a little better, but he doesn't now. Now he's worried about what Tomura will do if he gets hungry, so he says nothing. He goes and Dabi tries to put it out of his mind. 

 It's worse than failure when he watches the videos over, and over, and over again, as if that will somehow make the horrors he's seeing less real instead of more. 

///

He's alone until it's starting to get cold again, and Tomura returns with his kill. He made sure to bring the same creature as the first time, knowing that Dabi can eat that too, and an array of other fruits. He waits patiently for Dabi to test them to see what he can eat and what he can't, and he does have to put one aside for containing a nearly lethal dose of arsenic around any of the flesh that touches the seeds. But otherwise, he's able to try the four that are presented to him. Tomura watches him, his tail slithering languidly across the floor, a constant purr in the back of his throat. 'Happy' the translator tells him when Dabi lights up as he finds one of the fruits tastes like fresh strawberries and citrus. 'Content' it says as they eat together. He tries to pretend that he isn't scared when his mouth opens to tear into meat and fruit with the same ferocity. 

Tomura takes the remnants of their meal and disposes of them and he wonders if he goes to the spot where he dumps the remains of his kills, if he'll find anything he can bring back to the ship of the Proximacard crew, something to send their families, maybe. He tries not to think about that. He waits for the other to clean the blood from his skin and return and he cuddles up in his burrow with him when they're both full and starting to really feel the bite of the cold air as the storm rages on. 

///

Dabi wakes to Tomura nuzzling into his neck and purring loudly, he shifts a little to hit his translator, usually leaving it off at night to save battery, and is immediately told 'hungry', which sends ice flooding his gut. 

"Tomura," his voice is thin with his sudden, sharp terror as the kir coils his tail tighter around his body, pinning his arms to his side and forcing him still as he nuzzles in closer to his neck. His tongue flicks over Dabi's skin as he takes a deep breath, scenting him more thoroughly than he ever has before. 

"You smell so good, little one." He purrs, nuzzling his skin again. "Smelled like this all day. What's different, Dabi?"

'Hungry' the translator tells him again as Tomura purrs, the sound of it rumbling through Dabi's body and trying to shake loose his arousal alongside the fear tinging his veins. "I-- Tomura--" He squeaks softly as one of his large hands moves around his waist, slipping underneath his shirt and meeting his skin with cooler flesh and the barest prickle of his sharp claws. Tomura's tail moves, trying to wrap a little tighter around him, as he shifts so that they're not laying curled around each other anymore, but the other creature has his weight over him. And his tail drags over the inside of his thighs as it rearranges itself, putting a pressure somewhere that's had none for so long. Preparing to die by being eaten alive is really not the appropriate time for his body to start to warm, but Dabi lets out a whimper as it happens, two sharp spikes of heat in his cheeks as he feels his face begin to blush. 

The translator clicks something out in Tomura's language and Dabi stiffens, terrified of how that was translated. Tomura hears it and then lets out the loudest, deepest growl that he's ever heard from him which should be pants-shittingly terrifying, and instead only makes Dabi's body go a little warmer from hearing it echo around the enclosed space. His hands are firm as they pull at him, forcing Dabi onto his stomach and before he can ask what he's doing, he's got one of his elongated, armored fingers between his teeth. his mouth stretches around the intrusion as it pushes into him, back until it's filling him, the tip making his throat flutter as it sits just at the point of breaching him. It's been long enough that he's had something there that Dabi gags weakly, his head going into a dizzying spin of terror and arousal. 

Tomura presses his face into the back of his neck again as his tail wraps around one of Dabi's thighs and pulls it up, making him tuck it between his chest and the floor, his other hand around his hip and pulling those up and back so that he's spread wide. 'Hungry, hungry, hungry' the translator tells him, but Tomura is growling and purring. The hand that isn't in his mouth moves over his hip and up his back, pushing his shirt up with the movement. 

"I thought that things may be different for humans-- but you smelled so good, little one. This is good, isn't it? This is what you're hungry for, isn't it, Dabi?" His voice ripples through him and Dabi doesn't know how to think past that sound, past the fullness in his mouth to find fear when Dabi is hungry. Hungry in a way that the translator doesn't understand in its coolness. Not for either of them. 

He moans weakly around the intrusion in his mouth and timidly rocks his hips back. The growl that Tomura lets out has Dabi's cock hardening as the kir presses in even closer, putting his hips flush to Dabi's ass. But he's never seen the other's sex organs, and he can't feel anything now. He whines around his finger, licking and sucking at his claw, and making the alien purr even louder as he does. He doesn't protest as he pulls at his waistband and the sweats and his boxers slip over his hips, leaving him open and exposed to the other, his cock already half hard. 

Tomura purrs and leans in close again, nuzzling against the back of his neck as his hips move against Dabi's bare skin again. And this time, he feels something slick starting to spread over his skin. It's hot and viscous, and Tomura's tail uncoils partially from his limbs so that the thin tip can move between his legs. It pauses on its way to his hole, finding his cock and rubbing along him. "That's it, little one. I'll give you what you need." 

Dabi feels certain he's going to when that tail leaves his cock, which has him whining and reaching his hand between his legs to touch himself, as his tail slithers over his balls and to his hole, spreading around more of that slick over him. He's happy to have it because all too soon, the tip is prodding at his center, nearly as wide as two fingers and Dabi is moaning again. It's been so long since he's had anyone else touch him there and he is desperate for it now. Has been desperate for this creature's touch since he first caught his chin. He tries to stay relaxed as his muscles are rubbed at gently. For all that Tomura is so large, such a violent predator, he seems to know how to be careful where it counts and Dabi will take that if he can get it. He still doesn't know what the other's genitals look like and he's not even sure if they're compatible like this, but he's willing to try. 

The tail spreads that slick inside of his hole, moving against him in serpentine, undulating motions that makes all of those nerves light up in a way his own fingers haven't been able to since he's been on this excursion. His tail isn't like his fingers, it's so much longer and it gets perfectly thicker as Tomura feeds it into his body inch by inch. He had been hoping for a cock, but Dabi won't complain if this is what he gets instead. He squeezes himself at his base when Tomura's tail rubs just right and he finds his prostate, the loud moan that comes out of him is muffled around his finger as his whole body goes tight and he jerks his hips back against the alien's strength to try and get more of that sensation where he wants it. 

Tomura growls again and that does not help Dabi's leaking cock. Fuck. It's been so long since he was fucked-- he's pretty sure he's not going to last very long at this rate. He forces himself to let go of his aching cock, clutching onto handfuls of the bedding instead as Tomura's tail thrusts inside him a few more perfect times. He feels helpless, useless in the creature's grasp, and tries to show that he can be worth his time, sucking on his finger, swallowing around him, and running his tongue along the chitin-like armor plates along it, careful of the sharp tip of his claw against the sensitive tissue inside of his mouth. It earns him another low purr and his tail starts to retreat. 

He wishes he could speak, but his talon is too deep in his throat for him to manage it, instead whining as he's made suddenly empty. Dabi tries to push back, wanting to be fucked full desperately, and going stiff as he feels his ass rub against Tomura's hips. It hurts a little and he has to nip at his finger to get him to pull back just enough so that he can peek over his shoulder, but as soon as he does, he thinks his brain may melt. 

Like most reptilian races, Tomura has internal sex organs. Or internal until they're needed, and they both need them now. The two cocks are pressing out of a slit between his legs, stacked on top of one another, thicker than Dabi's and longer too, proportional for his body, but holding the same familiarly phallic shape that he expects. There are bumps along the top, ridges that move up his lengths to frame his head, and he's soaked, that thick slick dripping translucent from his heads and his slit. He whimpers. He wants to be full but-- but they're so big. 

Tomura's other hand cups his ass, pulling him open wider, his thumb brushing the edge of his flushed, puckered hole, and opening those stretched muscles again so he can dribble more of his slick inside. "Such a pretty color, little one." He purrs and makes Dabi tremble as his voice sinks that praise all the way into his bones. He presses forward, his heads rubbing against his hole, and he goes absolutely breathless with his anticipation. There's no way that he can fit both of those inside. A thin panic starts to go through him, terrified he'll be torn open, but the kir seems to recognize the tightening of his hole as nerves, seems to see the difference in their size, and he shifts to just focus on his lower member, letting the other glide between his cheeks instead as that blunt head starts to push inside of him. 

His cock is thicker than the amount of tail he was given, and the stretch, even through the slick, makes Dabi moan. Tomura starts to chitter too, purring his pleasure, and the translator can only tell him 'good' and 'hungry' as the kir slowly feeds his first cock into Dabi's body. He hopes that the other understands how good he's feeling as well, and tries to lave his tongue along his finger like he would if he had one of those thick, gorgeous cocks inside his mouth. It takes a moment before he's inside as deeply as he can go, purring the entire time. But once he is, he starts to gently rock his hips, and that immediately makes Dabi desperate for it. He doesn't know if he's ever wanted to be fucked harder in his entire life, and he can't stop himself from trying to immediately twitch his hips back to get more. 

For a split second he thinks he must have done something very wrong because Tomura snarls, his grip tightening everywhere. He's certain for a moment that he's about to die impaled on this creature's cock, but then he's pulling his hips back and snapping them forward into his body. Dabi lets out a loud cry of pleasure, his cock twitching and begging for release as the kir sets to a fast, brutal pace that pushes Dabi deeper into the bedding. 

He's blinded by his pleasure, by the rough thrusts of the other man, and he can't even swallow around the finger in his mouth anymore, drool slipping out past his lips. But as he gets more pliant, Tomura must think he's ready for more, because he draws his hips nearly all the way back on one thrust, and then there are both heads at his hole again. He doesn't have a chance to tighten, to fear, this time because it's a smooth movement, eased by his slick, and unrelenting in the even pace he uses, as he fucks both of his cocks into his hole. 

Dabi has never been this full before. Hasn't ever felt such blinding, perfect pressure against every inch of his inner walls, a constant, hard press against his prostate just from how deeply his cocks are reaching and how wide they're stretching him. And he can't hold on. Dabi gives a broken sob as his balls tighten as he's made so, so full, and he cums all over the creature's bed. 

"That's it, little one," Tomura chitters, his other hand going to Dabi's softening cock and cupping him, keeping his sharp talons far from his skin. "Such a good boy, showing me how good you feel. Show me again." 

He doesn't have the breath, or the use of his tongue to tell the other that he can't again immediately, but it doesn't matter. Tomura keeps fucking him, his cock pushing pleasure along every inch of his nerves until Dabi thinks he might tear around it. And he doesn't stop until Dabi is hard again and moaning and sobbing constantly as Tomura's thrusts and growls go through him and make him so, so hot. He didn't know he could feel like this-- he's never wanted someone like he wants Tomura right now. and it's with a fresh sob that he finds himself going impossibly tighter around the kir's cocks as his own pulses with pleasure as he spills across the bed a second time. 

The tightening of his muscles again seems to be what pushes Tomura over the edge, his hips slamming hard into Dabi's, putting his cocks as deeply inside of his body as possible, and then he snarls. The sound should be terrifying, but it only makes Dabi keen with an animal pleasure he's never felt before, as his cocks twitch and he soaks his insides with his cum. 

It takes so long for him to stop spilling, and by the time he has, both of their breaths are just starting to calm from the way they were echoing around the little burrow. He pulls out and Dabi mewls as he feels the flood of him go down his legs and soak the bedding. But Tomura doesn't seem to care. He purrs and chuffs at him, 'content, content, content', pulling Dabi's exhausted body in close as he licks the tears from his cheeks, but he doesn't take his finger out of his mouth. Dabi doesn't protest it, slumping against his chest and letting himself be soothed to sleep by the happy purrs deep in his throat. 

///

When he wakes again, he's horribly sticky, and still cuddled up tight against Tomura's chest, his jaw aching a little because he still has the tip of his finger between his lips. Dabi tries to shake the last of the sleepiness and reaches up to pull on Tomura's wrist. The kir looks at him, his tail twitching with his agitation, but he hesitantly lets him take it from his lips. A low, clicky, chirp leaves his throat as he does, and Dabi frowns as the translator tells him 'fear'. 

"What's wrong?" His throat feels a little thick, and he really is gross from the mix of sweat, cum, and bedding stuck to his skin, But he does not want Tomura to be scared, or threatened, by him. He doesn't even want to imagine how badly that would go. 

"...Typically, we don't stay with our mate after we've finished." He says carefully, watching Dabi like he might be the dangerous one. "Females try to incapacitate males once they've finished mating. They often tear or bite off their mate's--" 

Dabi blanches. "Humans don't do that," he tells the other quickly. "Humans can stay with their partners if they want to, they raise their young together sometimes, no one gets hurt in our mating unless they want that, or unless... something else is going on that's not okay." He doesn't want to elaborate on that now, not when he's trying to put the other at ease. He catches his hand, lacing their fingers together, running one of his along the heavily armored one. "...You keep females gagged so they can't.. bite?" And clearly evolved this as a way of doing so. 

"Yes... Do humans not eat their mates?" 

"Not like that." Dabi explains. "Why do kir?" 

"Once impregnated, it becomes hard for a female to hunt, if a male can't escape before she's recovered from the coupling, she kills and eats him to sustain herself until she's ready to lay her clutch." He's fairly certain that sounds like the mating practices of some spiders on Earth and arachnid-like races that have been registered. He'll have to ask if female kir exhibit that same kind of sexual dimorphism later, but not right now. 

"Oh. Well, you don't have to worry about that with me. I'm not a kir and I'm not female. Humans don't use our mouths to hurt each other when we have sex, and we mate for pleasure, not just to make children." He explains carefully. A flicker of warmth goes through him. "I can show you what we use our mouths for." 

Tomura considers him for a moment, his other hand coming up to his jaw, his thumb catching his lower lip again. Dabi presses a kiss to the pad of his finger, waiting for him to decide. "Alright, little one. Show me." 

Dabi is still careful and slow as he moves up the creature's chest so that he can start by pressing a kiss to his cheek. His skin there is cool, but not covered in one of the thicker patches of scales that seem reserved for along the tops of his thighs, his back, chest, stomach, and along the backs of his arms. He peppers those little kisses along the seam of his elongated mouth, showing that there's nothing dangerous in the action before he takes a little breath, tries to push aside the flesh he's seen the other rend with his teeth, and gives him one against his lips. Tomura is still beneath him, letting him do what he pleases, and Dabi pulls back a little. 

"We use our tongues too-- just not our teeth. Can I?" He figures he's better off asking than having his tongue abruptly removed. 

"Be careful, you're so delicate, little one." The kir purrs and the sound of his voice, the soft concern in it, makes Dabi want to show him that his softness is good. That he can make it good for the other as well. 

He presses back in and seals their lips together, going slowly, but deliberately as he shows the other how to kiss him back. Tomura still hesitates when his tongue prods lightly at the seam of his lips, and Dabi tries to soothe away that concern by running his hands over his skin, along his chest, down to his waist as he all but climbs on top of the creature instead of just being cuddled against him. Tomura opens his mouth a little and Dabi slips his tongue inside, careful of his very, very sharp teeth. It takes some coaxing before their tongues are moving together, and Tomura's is so much longer and more flexible than Dabi's own, and he tastes like the fruits they'd eaten the night before, though mingled with the staleness of sleep. 

They kiss, and kiss, and the longer it goes on, the longer Dabi proves that his mouth isn't any danger to the other, the more bold Tomura grows, eventually even chancing slipping his tongue between Dabi's teeth and licking into his mouth the same way that Dabi had his. He moans, his cock starting to harden, because Tomura's tongue is longer, bigger, and settles inside with a weight that makes Dabi hungry for something else. 

He pulls back a little and when Tomura sees his cock starting to flush, he begins to purr loudly again, his tail moving up Dabi's thighs to prod at his hole again. Those nerves are so sensitive from being fucked before that Dabi immediately moans, rubbing himself against those questioning little touches, and then watching with his own fascination and arousal as that slit starts to show on the kir again. His skin separates along an invisible seam between his legs and a translucent fluid starts to leak out. His tail moves from Dabi's hole to tease along the lips of his sheath, making more of that slick ooze out, and when his tail is shiny with it, it goes back to Dabi's body. 

He hums, pleasure sparking down his spine, and a recklessness deep in him when he murmurs, "Humans kiss there too." 

Tomura chitters, a sharp surprised sound. "Do they now?" 

"Mmhmm," he agrees, trying not to get distracted as the tip of his tail slips inside. "Can I? Please? I like to lick my partner's cock-- cocks." He corrects. "I promise I don't bite." 

The kir hesitates a second but then lets out a low breath. "How can I deny my mate anything that would bring him pleasure?" And the words alone are doing it for him as he moves down Tomura's body. His tail stays stretching and teasing his hole, but Dabi is mostly focused on how badly he wants to have Tomura in his mouth. 

His heads are just starting to press out from his slit and Dabi gathers some of the slick dripping out across his fingers and gently slips one along the lower head and up into his sheath, just a bit. He glances up to make sure he isn't causing any discomfort, but Tomura is growling and purring as his cocks start to press out a little more. Dabi teases his fingers along and around him, finding the one place of Tomura's body that is as warm as his own. He licks his lips before bringing them to the head of his upper member, and then he licks gently against that sensitive part of his anatomy. The flavor of him is overwhelming. It's a sharp citrus flavor like so much of the fruit here, but it has a musky bitterness to it as well that tempers the flavor somewhat. It's a strange taste to have on his tongue, but not one he'll complain about, especially not when he hears the strained little chirp that the kir lets out as Dabi laves his tongue along him. 

He's more than wet enough with his natural lube for Dabi to be comfortable kissing him along his lengths as they continue to press out until he's fully erect again. And then Dabi leans in, and completely wraps his lips around the head of the upper one. Tomura growls as Dabi moves his tongue over him, reveling in just how soft his skin is. He forces himself to pull off, even though he wants nothing more than to have the weight of him in his mouth, stretching his jaw. 

"Can I keep going?" 

"Yes," The other sounds half crazed, a hand moving to catch his hair and pull him, trying to get more. 

Dabi laughs, pressing another teasing kiss to the one he hasn't sucked on yet. "I can't get both into my mouth, is that okay?" 

"Little one, anything you do with your mouth is more than enough." 

"If I tap your thigh, it means I need you to let go so I can breathe." He warns, but trusts the other not to hurt him, and too impatient to have his jaw stretched open again to wait for confirmation. 

Dabi figures he's representing the whole human race and their persistent love of both giving and receiving oral sex, so he doesn't do anything by half. He does his best to keep his head on and not drift away and just fall into the haze that having his mouth so full can put him into. He moves along his upper length, his hand wrapping around the lower one and stroking him in time with each movement of his head as he slowly bobs down lower, and lower, his tongue working over him. The ridges and texture along his cock feel as good in his mouth as they did when he had him inside of his body before, and he drools constantly against his tongue as he chitters, chirps, growls, and purrs in such a messy string of noises that goes straight to Dabi's cock and has him leaking against his stomach too. 

He lets himself warm up a bit longer before he takes a breath and then sinks down until his head is pressing past the tight ring of muscle into his throat. Dabi can immediately feel the stretch there and it has him moaning, sending those vibrations along Tomura's length and his hand tightens in his hair as he snarls again, his tail in turn, fucking deeper into Dabi's body. He tries to hold onto some sense of rhythm after that, but it feels impossible. He just can't stop himself, moaning and rocking, trying to be fucked from both ends, and Tomura obliges him. He starts to move his hips, lightly at first, but when Dabi sucks and swallows so hungrily around him, the movements get faster, harder, and Dabi is floating, taking in little sips of air between movements and moans as they move together. 

Dabi doesn't get a warning, forgot to say he would want one, when the kir is close. He just gets a sharper deeper flavor of citrus and salt on the back of his tongue, and then Tomura is holding him in place, holding himself deep in Dabi's throat, as he cums. The gush of it makes Dabi dizzy as he does his best to swallow and swallow, but it still feels like there's too much and he taps his fingers frantically against Tomura's thigh. The kir chitters and pulls out, and Dabi feels his cum drool across his chin, as he gasps for breath, moaning from how close he is to his own orgasm. 

Then Tomura pushes his thumb back as far as he can on one side of his jaw and keeps it spread open, "Give me your tongue, little one," he growls and Dabi can't do anything but moan deliriously and open wider, letting his cum-soaked tongue lull out over his lower teeth and sore lip. Tomura shifts, bringing his second, still hard cock, to his mouth and fucking it inside. he doesn't push into his throat this time, but being used like this, just held open for the other's pleasure makes Dabi's entire body burn with his need. He finds himself moaning and shifting, spreading his thighs around one of Tomura's and rubbing his dripping cock against the texture of his cool scales there. That sensation makes his nerves scream, and Dabi chases more and more of it. Tomura fucks his tail and cock into him at the same frantic, unrelenting pace, and in a matter of minutes, his cum is splashing across Dabi's tongue again, and Dabi is following him, cumming hard against his thigh as he tries to swallow as much as he can with his mouth held open. More of it just spills down his chin and onto their skin, but the kir is purring the entire time that Dabi shudders through his orgasm. 

"Gorgeous, little one. So beautiful, so wonderful. My mate," he praises, gently removing himself from inside of Dabi's body. Dabi can't even hold himself up anymore from how good his whole body feels in the wake of his orgasm. Tomura just gathers him up again, and holds him close, licking up the mess from his skin as he purrs and purrs. 

///

They can't keep their hands off of each other once they've started, and Tomura learns to wrap his serpentine tongue around Dabi's cock and lick, squeeze, and stroke him like that until he's falling apart. He delights in learning about his prostate and that his tongue can be as good as his tail or cocks to stimulate the gland as well, and make Dabi feel good too. And they still talk, they still share meals together when Tomura goes out to hunt, and Dabi grows accustomed to the creature purring and purring all day, every day, getting even louder whenever they touch. 

But for as good as the sex is, as kind as the kir has been to him, Dabi knows, and when he goes out to hunt again and Dabi is left with only the dwindling storm as company, he finds himself thinking about that again and again. He sits with those thoughts making him colder and when the other comes back with more fruit and a smaller reptilian quadrupedal corpse, Dabi knows he has to shatter this soft thing between them that feels so good. 

"Tomura?" 

"What is it, little one?" He asks, setting down the food and coming to get into Dabi's space, licking over his cheek as he scents him deeply. 

"...I'm not the first human you met." He says carefully, watching the creature's strange eyes. "Another group came here, right? In orange suits?" 

Tomura's lip curls back and he gives an unhappy hiss. "Yes. They were not like you. They were many and violent. They encroached on my territory," His tail flicks with his agitation. "They wanted to take my land as their own and claim the spoils of it." 

"...You killed them." 

"Of course." He doesn't sound concerned about that, but when Dabi doesn't say anything for a second, Tomura nuzzles in a little closer, chittering at him softly. "They were different from you, Dabi. You came to my home and asked for permission, you ensured you were not hurting me or my land. You met me with kindness, not violence. I will meet you in kind for as long as you stay here with me." He promises. 

Dabi lets out a shaky breath. Well, he guesses when he calls Fuyumi next time he's on the ship, he's going to have to actually thank her for smacking him all throughout high school until he finally grew some manners and tact. "The storm is going to stop soon, isn't it?" 

"You could stay anyway." Tomura offers, "I would never begrudge your company." 

He can't, but the kir seems to know that even without making him reject the offer outright. Instead Dabi wraps his arms around his neck and the other purrs softly before he leans in to give him a kiss. 

They don't eat until, much, much later. 

///

The rain does stop after another three days and Dabi watches it happen with a hollowness in his gut, even as Tomura brings him outside so that he can see the three foreign moons sitting high and lovely in the sky. He sits close to him as he calls back to base and Compress tells him that if he can retrieve his pod, then he should be ready to go as soon as he's able, the kir scratching at his neck almost constantly as he listens. They're already so far behind schedule that they really can't afford to linger, and they're sure he's ready to come home too. The Ingenuity has been his home for years, he should be excited to go back. There's a pit in his stomach as Dabi puts what he's taken out of his pack, back inside, and Tomura ensures that he's leaving with samples of every fruit that he's given him. 

He walks with him out through the mud that Dabi really would have expected to be thicker given how much rain they had, but it seems as though the temperature creeping higher and higher is sending it evaporating and choking the environment with humidity and fog. Tomura keeps an eye out, ensuring no creature is brave enough to try to hunt him. The lake is, unsurprisingly, flooded, coming up to the tree line, but with a press of a button, the submerged pod is able to dislodge itself from the soft earth and crawls up to where they're standing. And then there's really no stalling anymore even though it feels like there's lead in his chest. He's only just started to turn to Tomura when the kir wraps his tail around his waist, and cups his face between his hands and kisses him. Dabi meets it just as desperately. Fuck he's going to miss Tomura. It's a sharp burning ache of that deep in his chest. 

"Be safe in your travels, little one," Tomura murmurs, resting their foreheads together. "And if the moons allow, come back to me again?" 

He feels his throat tighten. Two more years of his trip surveying this sector, then a year minimum back on Earth, waiting with baited breath to find out if this planet will even be considered for deeper study given how hostile the kir can be. Another four months to travel out here again. That's so long. Tomura might not even still be here when he gets back-- if he does. "I'll try. Thank you, for everything. I wouldn't have survived without you and I'm so glad that we were able to meet." He gets up on his tiptoes, and Tomura gives him another kiss. 

"...Be safe, Dabi." He seems reluctant to let go of him, but he has to, and Dabi steps away and seals up his suit and puts on his helmet. 

He doesn't dare watch out the window as he gets inside and does his final checks for launch. He is not gonna walk back into the Ingenuity crying. 

///

When he arrives back, he's immediately put in full quarantine. It's standard procedure for an extended stay on a foreign planet and Dabi subjects himself to it without complaint. Twice has him go through a barrage of medical scans, even as all of them talk to him through the glass like he's a zoo animal about how happy they are he's back. And he is happy to see them again. He did miss the familiar halls, their faces, but he doesn't think he does a very good job of hiding his melancholy. Definitely not when Magne and Compress come to see him at around midnight the third night that he's in quarantine and they pour him a shot before carefully passing it through one of the special hatches in his containment unit, before they both take a seat on the other side. 

"So Twice reviewed your vitals data from while you were planet-side." Magne starts. "I tell you a guy killed six people and you immediately have to get on that as fast as possible?" She teases carefully. 

But Dabi doesn't want to tease, doesn't want to make light of something that felt so... solid. Real. It only was a week and a half and Dabi is pretty sure it's the only romantic entanglement he's had in his life that made him want to stick around and find out how much more that could be. He drinks instead of answering her and Compress takes that as his cue to step in. 

"Dabi, whatever happened on the planet... if you're in need of counseling or assistance--" 

"Wasn't forced, Mister," he says flatly. "Tomura was good to me. He didn't like that the Proximacard crew tried to pull their colonizing bullshit. I was polite, he didn't see me as a threat, and we got close." He puts his cup back into the slot, waiting for it to be decontaminated before Magne can pour him another. "I've started writing my report, I'm being as thorough as possible." 

"...I'm sure there are things that you won't be including in that report. And that's fine, Dabi." Compress tells him gently. "But we're here as your friends. If that's something you need right now." 

Magne pours herself and Compress a shot and then puts the whole bottle in the chamber for Dabi. "Come on, firecracker, tell us about the scary lizard boy you had to hump and dump." 

"He purrs like a cat." He grumbles, taking the bottle when it's relinquished. "And he's got two dicks." 

"Oh, well, I could overlook murder for that too," she agrees sagely and Dabi tries to unravel the knot of sorrow that's been living in his gut. 

///

It's not years before Dabi is touching down far closer to the cave system that he spent so much time in before. It's only six months. Six long, agonizing months negotiating his contract. He'll still have to go back to the nearest base in a year and a half if Tomura lets him stay, and he'll be responsible for trying to find a way of harvesting the fruit of the uzut to try and find a sustainable way of getting more of the Ladreynyx for further study-- but he can stay here if Tomura lets him. 

He disembarks with a shaky breath. He has his own ship now, not a pod. It's small, only big enough for him and maybe one other person, and it won't be able to travel long distances, but it's his, and it can take him away if he's not welcome anymore. God, Dabi hopes he's still welcome. He takes off his helmet before he steps out of the ship, hoping that seeing his face will ensure that he doesn't draw any undue ire from the kir. 

"Tomura?" He calls into the forest, into the cave. Things are so quiet for a second and then he hears twigs snapping, and before he can fully turn, the kir is breaking through the tree line and rushing up to him. Dabi has a split second of terror that he'd mistaken what happened between them, his heart going to have to break before it stops beating-- but then he hears Tomura's familiar purrs as his hands catch his face and his tail wraps around his waist as he's hoisted from the ground so that the kir can chitter and purr at him as he brings their mouths together in a series of frantic, needy kisses. 

"Dabi," his name is spoken with such reverence between the kisses that it leaves him breathless. "You're back--"

"I'm back," he agrees, warmth blooming in his stomach as he curls his hands over the kir's shoulders. "I can stay, if you'll let me--" 

"I regretted letting you go the moment you left." And Dabi thinks, maybe, if he didn't know the other creature so well, that might be a frightening sentiment. But instead he feels so warm. 

"I've been trying to come back ever since. I have obligations, my company wants me to send more samples, and I'll have to leave again for a little while to check in, but I can stay," his voice still goes small. "I can stay?" Because this is for so much longer than before, this is asking a lot of a creature whose race typically lives in solitary. 

"By my side forever, little one." Tomura promises him, leaning in to nuzzle at him and scent his skin. "So I never have to miss you so fiercely again." 

Dabi doesn't know if kir have a word for love in the romantic sense when they barely hold ties to their families. But Dabi hopes that a year and a half to start is long enough for him to figure out how to explain the concept. 

Thank you so much for reading and thank you @norsetenko for commissioning this piece! If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a comment, they brighten my day!

[jonny-b-meowborn]

Okay I've been thinking about the lil cute therian fic I've been writing, and I think I know how I wanna end it and it's like. Very much self indulgent not really accurate to the mechanisms canon and way too cute but the thing is I can do whatever I want forever so I think Im gonna do it (I'm only like idk 1/3 done tho so don't get too excited fjdnfjndn)

[atryoshka]

Frenchie and Izzy getting together would be genius and tbh I can't unsee it now

Love that Izzy and Frenchie actually have a lot in common on a deeper level that wasn't really apparent to me until s2 when we see how they deal with trauma in equal but opposite ways. We have Frenchie with his little box that allows him to straight up ignore the dark shit he's been through like it doesn't exist, happily eat some blood cake, and thinking that his death being given a clear deadline is a comfort. Then we have Izzy trying to stone face his way through having his body parts severed, just business as usual bc that's the pirate life and it won't change even though he's visibly holding back tears, and then accusing the crew of being too cowardly to kill him, actively inviting death bc he doesn't get why any of it even matters so keeping him alive is pointless.

What's interesting is that given the right circumstances, they could easily trade places, with Izzy being more lighthearted and Frenchie falling apart at the seams.

We've already seen signs of this with Izzy being much more chilled out after the crew made him the new unicorn, finding something in this terrible life that make him see them, and himself, in a more positive light. Like yeah, life is still filled with unimaginable horror, but now has a custom gold painted unicorn leg to trudge through it with, which is absolutely absurd but now he can't help but smile. So he decided his life is so unserious right now and you know what? A shark took his leg, end of story, here's a little wooden shark I made today just for fun lol. Frenchie on the other hand is still pretty relaxed despite everything that's happened so far, but I have a feeling that he was probably very similar to izzy in the past before he joined the crew of The Revenge. His past is pretty mysterious even with the little tidbits we get like him being in the service for bit. It doesn't sound like he was doing it for too long so the other things in his life that he doesn't talk about remain unknown, probably even to himself. The box exists so he can pretend any trauma he experiences doesn't even exist, unlike a fiction which still somewhat acknowledges that there was something that happened to him in a way he could accept. The truth is, he actually never moved on bc all the parts of his life that he's ignoring are still lurking inside him waiting to break out at anytime. I think when something accidentally triggers a memory he suppressed, we'll see a different side to him. Less chill, more shrewd survivalist, like when he and the others reunited with the revenge crew after being stranded at sea. He bounced back pretty fast after they got past the pinnata and cake standoff but it was interesting to see how ready he was to be violent and how untrusting he was of everyone's intentions in that context. He'd usually be much more chill and willing to fast talk his way out of a situation, even when he knows someone has bad intentions. (There's also probably something with religious trauma he's hiding but that's a whole other can of worms I won't get into. All I'll say is that combined with his very strong beliefs of the supernatural and grudging flippant way he does the cross symbol on himself when others do it, when they boarded the cursed ship, he was that only one to not step in the satanic circle before anyone even questioned what the strange lines even were. Did he immediately recognize it and consciously avoid it or was it gut reaction? Idk, but he sure as hell didn't speak up about it and just wearily watched the other step into it and draw their own conclusions. ) But getting back on track Honestly, their dynamic would be really interesting to explore in the show bc they could understand and care about each other in ways that would probably surprise them if given the opportunity to spend more time together on screen. tl;dr: All this to say that I fell down the rabbit hole after realizing that they are basically this meme, which has a lot of potential for so many hilarious and accidentally heartbreaking moments

[rae-pss]

Good afternoon rae! hope you have a nice day 😌

So about the whb self aware Au , The reader ( us ) is control the Mc ( Ra-on ) nody right? even so there will be a difference bitween reader/us and the Mc like : souls , aura right? the devil or even the angel pretty much can sense it but need some time to distinguish between both. Like when the reader control or even talk through Mc body is will show ( little / much ) the difference right? I just wonder how they will reaction about it when they start to knowlege that the mc being control by us for that moment can be? ( No need all the reaction of them , like the seraphim or the king ) 🤔🤭

masterlist

˗ˏˋ꒰ 💭 ꒱ . . . good afternoon to you too! damn, inspiration tends to come to me once per month or how is this even possible; yet, i'll post separately the seraphim ones (one i manage to write it down). well, whatever, once more thanks for sharing your ideas with me, sweetie. i hope you like it, dear anon (<3). ˗ˏˋ꒰ 💭 ꒱ . . . lowercase intended, 448 words.

〔 SATAN 〕

—satan's the first to realize the sudden changes that the human suffered at times. the fact of being with her most of the time gives him the privilege of being able to notice those strange quirks before anyone else.

—that said, sadly, it didn't dawn on him that it could be a sign that the presence he felt at times seeing him was manifesting in ra-on. It wasn't until he found himself lost in her eyes that her pieces wanted to form the puzzle.

—loves being able to talk, being able to just be with you whenever the opportunity presents itself. this demon seems to live longer every time that, for some other reason, he manages to feel an iota of anger in you when you are in the human body.

〔 MAMMON 〕

—when he realized how his master's aura was becoming more intense, and how her behavior was consequently changing, it didn't take long for mammon to connect one point with another.

—now he understood why the others, aka the gehenna demons, seemed to not want to leave her alone with anyone else for long.

—he doesn't miss an opportunity to talk to you, that superior being who seems to control ra-on in the crazy adventure he lived there in hell. once even admitting that there was when he could touch your bottom directly.

〔 LEVIATHAN 〕

—observative and perceptive as he alone, it did not take leviathan long to realize that these changes in the human were due to the presence that seemed to be over everyone.

—firstly, as it should be, he took it in a somewhat bad way. his envy shining brightly knowing that some already knew before him. the audacity… despite that, as it should be, he had to accept that even with his internal rage.

—if the opportunity arose, he would spend it with you in her castle, preferably inside her chambers where nothing and no one could interrupt you.

〔 BEELZEBUB 〕

—of all of them, I would say that beelzebub is the last, or one of them, to realize what is happening regarding you and the position of ra-on's body. for nothing other than the reason we all know, his constant disappearances and unforeseen appearances.

—of course, he only needed to be in front of that new human aura once to decipher who he was really talking to. that characteristic side smile of his showing itself on his features.

—every time he gets the opportunity to be close to you, be sure that he will take advantage of it. however, don't get too attached, because as always, he will end up leaving before you know it.

[shuhwaa]

Le Sserafim Reaction | Them realizing they're falling in love with you

Le Sserafim all members x gn!reader words: ~200 per member genre: fluff, reaction warnings: none

(requested)

Chaewon:

you've been dating for a few weeks, slowly moving past the stage where you only just get to know each other

now you're at a state where you can both feel that it's about time you decided if you wanted to give yourselves a real chance, or take the experience and move on

and somehow she just can't reach a conclusion

of course she likes you, or she wouldn't be dating you to begin with, but she just isn't sure if she's ready for the next step or if she'll make the right decision

it's when she's out with her friends and they start talking about a different couple and how in love they seem that she begins feeling like she wants that with you as well

she'd love to become closer with you, to hold your hand and to kiss you whenever she wants and to make memories with you that are special simply because you're together

it's during that train of thought that it suddenly hits her: she's already falling in love with you

stops in her tracks and blushes at the realization 

panics for a moment and even makes her friends worry, but she can somewhat calm herself down quickly

"I'm fine, guys. I just realized... I think I'm in love with Y/N..."

runs off as her friends are cheering for her, because she needs to tell you about this right now

Sakura:

you don't know each other to the point you're super comfortable around each other yet when it begins to dawn on her that she's falling for you

though she's been very conscious of not making you feel uncomfortable around her, she's been acting naturally so far

however, now that she has feelings for you and she wants to get closer to you she isn't sure how to act around you

she’ll try to impress you and to come across in a way that she thinks would draw you in

but things will just get kinda awkward between you two

though you will catch onto the fact that there must be a reason for her sudden change in behavior so eventually you just ask her about it

she'll try to downplay it, but in the end she'll just admit that she likes you

"I don't know how to go about this whole dating thing..."

when you try to reassure her by telling her you like her and that she should just be herself, she'll relax

she will be a lot more proactive now, and she's actually very blunt when asking you out on dates or just talking to you in general

one thing's for sure: you will always know how she feels about you and whenever you're ready, you can take your relationship to the next level comfortably

Yunjin:

the oblivious type

says she knows herself and is perfectly in tune with her feelings 110% of the time

but somehow she just can't put her finger on why or how you make her smile so much and make her heart race etcetc...

you two are very obviously flirting, yet somehow everyone seems to understand what's going on except her jdhdhdhd

until one day it finally hits her, and she almost has an existential crisis over it...

"Wait... oh god... oh my god, am I...?" 

surely she can't be in love with someone she thought was just a friend???

she comes to accept it eventually and the next time you two meet, it'll be obvious something's weird about her

she decides she'll have to talk to you about this asap, but she'll be quick to notice that maybe the conversation won't be all that complicated, because now she's starting to see the signs that you might have a crush on her too

Kazuha:

you two have been spending time together a lot lately

you're both aware that you're interested in each other, but you decided to take things slow and figure out your feelings as time passes

it's when you're spending a quiet moment together, just sitting side by side after both having a stressful day, that she realizes

you're like a second home to her, making her feel safe and like she can really be herself, and she figures she must've fallen in love with you sometime along the way

smiles to herself as she dwells on all the moments she's spent with you that made her come to love you

that's until you ask about the broad grin on her face, your question making her shy all of a sudden

"Ah, nothing... just thinking back." 

she tries to move on at first, but when you insist she eventually ends up telling you how she feels

talks about how you make her feel comfortable and how she always looks forward to seeing you and then eventually she'll confess:

"Actually, I think I'm falling in love with you."

Eunchae:

you know that cliché of the teenage girl lying flat on top of her bed, thinking about a special person and then suddenly kicking her feet in the air out of happiness cause she just realized she's in love? yeah, that's her

can't stop smiling about it once she understands that she likes you in that way

you've been texting all day, just sharing trivialities when she stops to wonder why each and every one of your messages makes her smile so much

that's when she can feel herself blush as her heartbeat speeds up at just the thought of you and she knows

she really is in love with you

of course she's excited, so a part of her wants to tell you about it immediately

but you haven't been dating for long, so she doesn't want to overwhelm you with such a big revelation

decides to keep her feelings to herself for now and to spend some more time with you to see if maybe you show her signs that you’re falling in love with her too

[wildymoon]

urge to have character choose death (consciously or not) due to a heavy breakdown (yours or not) because I'm an angsty shit

vs

not wanting to lose like 20-25 levels worth of progress this loop (I am So Close to max level I can practically taste it aaaaaaa)

FIGHT!

(isat spoilers, found it in act 2 but that's because I'm vigilant about things sometimes)

for context I caught bonnie eavesdropping and stared at the pineapple option afterwards for about 5 seconds before coming to my senses

If I wasn't going for the OP achievement early so I didn't have to do it later I 100% would've though

...

in other news I have a new idea as to how the loops start to mesh together somewhat for ACOH, and it very much directly involves this

I feel very bad for Bonnie though cause depending on how much of this idea I use they will feel Very Guilty for two of Siffrin's deaths and not just the tear one...

anyway, actually explaining my idea here!

So, we've seen how the deaths make everyone loop back, it's still gonna play out almost exactly the same with that. And the effort of the timeline to keep your equipment with you while also not breaking people's minds is still there, that's just the timeline fixing itself.

But what about the points like with Bonnie, where you go back a bit to prevent that?

What if it wasn't solely caused by [??????? ??????], but also something fucky with the others' memories?

After all, I don't think Bonnie-who-remembers-accidentally-pushing-Siffrin-into-a-tear would accept saying some of the things they did in this situation (source: similar breakdown at similar age, albeit over something very stupid and with a very different reaction, would not have said some of the things I did if I knew the world wasn't ending)

and then Siffrin takes the pineapple and fucking perishes. Not Sure whether it'll be it slipping their mind entirely (previously they were hyperaware that "pineapple? kills me maybe??"), brain fog mixed with guilt over the situation (and the fact that it won't just magically get that much better despite the rewind), or just straight up "I made them irrevocably upset this time, let's start this over entirely"

I am very much unintentionally traumatizing the fuck out of Bonnie here. Why is there so much opportunity to do this. Is it going to get worse. Bonnie can't look Siffrin in the eyes their next loop until they all nearly go through the hallway without dealing with the boulder first.

I was fully intending for Isabeau and Siffrin to be the first whose loops cross but this is an Opportunity if you can't tell.

Depending on how I play with this idea either Bonnie will talk with someone (likely Odile) about the loops (!!!!) or I'll keep with Isa and Sif being the first to talk together about it

[ryuichirou]

TWST x Horror game setting

comedydoctor18 asked:

Who do you think of the twisted wonderland crew would survive a horror game (or love them a bit too much for everyone's liking) and who would be screaming in terror?

It’s such a good question, I am very sorry it took me so long to write this one. I keep coming back to this ask and smiling at it, it’s so right up our alley…

Also, as you read this, you might say "but Ryu, I meant it as if they sit down and play the game, not they as if they are inside the game", and yes, I kind of got confused there, so please bear with me. I will write a proper list for your actual question later, but for now please accept this slightly off interpretation of it.

I think what I ended up writing is in a way similar to the HC list about the cast getting kidnapped, but the specifics are quite different, so I hope this is going to be a somewhat fun read.

Also, the default state for all of them is “going through some kind of semi-abandoned place with enemies running around”  and doing it solo, simply because otherwise the post would be too huge and take ages to write lol

Sooo.

Riddle would be terrified and pissed off at first, because this is his reaction to any type of intense confusion, but when he finds a place to hide and starts thinking about the situation, he’ll manage to calm himself down somewhat (he’ll still tremble a lot) and plan how to play it smart. If he’s lucky, he’ll survive the game, but he might also start to use his magic too much, overblot and kill all the enemies at once lol

Ace is kind of reckless but he is a fast learner, plus his self-preservation would kick-in. He makes stupid mistakes, but he learns from them. Still, he would have a lot of moments of “wow I almost died just now”. He’ll get scared, but at some point this feeling would shift into frustration and anger, similarly to Riddle. He would still prefer to be stealthy and smart though… as much as he can, of course.

Deuce is surprisingly good at handling monsters. He prefers to kick the shit out of them, because hiding requires more thinking, and it’s very difficult for him to think when he is scared. And he would be super scared, his brain would probably shut off completely at some point, especially if he is all alone. Of course, it’s always better to have someone by your side, but I feel like Deuce would be affected by being alone the most when it comes to his mental state.

Trey though, ironically, has better chances of survival if he is doing it alone. Maybe because if he is alone, he doesn’t have to hold back or to think about making sure the others are safe and well. He has this vibe of a horror game protagonist, who is just a guy with glasses, but somehow is capable of running for an entire day, fighting monsters with some piece of metal he’d found somewhere and healing himself with drinking dubious potions lol

Cater would be super scared, but ironically I think he would have a bigger reaction if he had someone around than if he was alone. He would also his clones to confuse the enemies and try to be as stealthy as possible: he doesn’t want to fight anyone, he just wants to get out of here. It would probably take some time for him to calm down and focus, and if he sees someone, he would cling to them instantly.

Leona is supposed to be a smart and strong guy, but I still think he would fuck up somehow in a very stupid way; but then again, he would also probably spend a couple of days just sleeping somewhere, maybe thinking about the plan, maybe just conserving energy. He has good chances against the enemies, but he doesn’t want to fight them if they’re just going to keep spawning again and again.

Ruggie is a champion of surviving, he is stealthy and resourceful, so he would probably plan ahead and end up having a lot of first aid kids, food, ammo, anything that could be helpful. He won’t use all of this himself of course, but he’ll sure as hell trade if there is someone stronger than him running around… In general, Ruggie has good chances, and he isn’t scared because he doesn’t allow himself to be: he has to act smart and be quick about it.

Jack is super bad at hiding lol his floofy tail is very obvious. So he would go Deuce’s route: fighting everything he sees and trying to kick and bite his way out of the situation. His main downfall is that he is a softie, so if he sees or hears someone who needs help, he’ll prioritise them over his own life. He would be scared, but similarly to Ruggie, he wouldn’t allow himself to be, albeit for a different reason.

Azul is a scheming motherfucker. He is that one shady guy who offers to form an alliance because “we’re stuck here together, right, so why don’t we work together?”. He is also that one guy who backstabs you immediately when you’re no longer needed. He is smart, stealthy, resourceful and super careful, so he has good chances even when he is alone, but mentally he wouldn’t be okay at all: he hates being out of his element and being surrounded by nothing but unpredictable violence. He is surprisingly strong when it comes to physical combat, but also painfully slow… His perfect plan would be to find someone who is physically strong to carry him around and do all the hard work lol like in the Beanfest.

Jade and Floyd are difficult, because in our heads they are just the twins from Outlast…. They are so horror game monster coded for us that it’s difficult to picture them on the other side of the situation. I feel like they would want to join the chaos and have as much fun with it as possible. Of course, they are concerned over their own safety, so he’ll take care of themselves first and foremost, but the moment they feel more comfortable, it’s the Purge, baby. They’ll completely alter the course of events and make sure the game (there isn’t any game, you sick fucks, we’re just trying to survive out here!) lasts as long as they want it to last.

Kalim wouldn’t survive if he is all alone in this lol is what I was going to say, but Kalim has this weird Kalim luck, so he is probably going to survive SOMEHOW. Like he would hide in a bunker and then a huge bang is going to destroy the entire map. It’s almost comedic. Kalim is going to be very scared the entire time though, and also think about Jamil all the time. He’ll try to think what Jamil would have wanted him to do, and the thought of Jamil maybe being out there and needing his help would motivate him to leave his hiding spot and go looking for him… which isn’t the smartest decision, but then again –Kalim’s luck.

Jamil has good chances, but he really needs to use someone as a shield. For the majority of time he’ll hide and avoid combat as much as possible; in the perfect scenario he wouldn’t face any of the enemies at all. But he has the opposite of Kalim’s luck, so he’ll have a very hard time. I can even picture him having a mental breakdown when the enemy catches him, like the laughing-crying type of breakdown, but he has to go through a lot for that to happen.

Vil has very good chances of survival. We’ve seen him during the Beanfest – he is very good at figuring out where to hide, when to attack and how to fight. Plus, he’s physically strong and has good stamina. He would still get scared, but wouldn’t show it much aside from his hands trembling. He’ll also get super messy because he just has to, I want to see him bloody and dirty lol Ironically, his demise would probably be him trying to help someone. I just really like this as a twist… Especially if there was no one to save (no one to appreciate his heroic act) and it was just a trap. He’s perfect for stuff like Dead by Daylight.

Rook – let’s be honest here, this man would survive any type of horror. It’s not like it’s impossible to scare him, but it’s pretty difficult. He is mostly worried about his loved ones than scared for his own safety. This is Rook we’re talking about: Slenderman is scared to see him when he turns around.

Epel is that one virgin that miraculously survived all of this. It’s not going to be easy, it’ll be messy and he’ll get hurt a lot of times. He’ll give up every two hours or so, but then get angry and somehow persevere. His Unique Magic is going to be pretty helpful, but it takes too much energy, and Epel is already weakened and very very scared. But then again, he’ll even get to directly punch a bad guy! And maybe bite them…

Idia is that nerd who knows all the tropes, so on the one hand, he knows that he is probably immune because he is a virgin, but then again, he is that nerd who knows everything, so his chances of dying are pretty high. He’ll give up on his life pretty quickly, though after thinking about how his own thought process is: this is real life, not a videogame or a movie, so of course he’s going to die in about 10 minutes. But when a really dangerous moment happens, he’s going to surprisingly feel such strong desire to survive that he’ll run away successfully… He is fast when he’s running away from someone lol And he is probably good at hiding, plus tries to play it smart. I think he has some chances of survival, but they aren’t very high, if he is all alone by himself.

Ortho wouldn’t die, he would be excited about this experience lol But he would definitely be worried about Idia, so instead of surviving, his goal is going to be finding Idia and making sure he is okay.  If he can’t find him though, he could get very distressed, and then it’s game over for all the monsters and any other fools who are currently trying to survive :(

Lilia wouldn’t have many problems, a lot of times he would have this “heh, I’ve seen worse” type of vibe. I would say that the only thing that’s going to slow him down is that his experience is pretty dated + he is much older now that he used to be, but is this really an issue if he knows modern media quite well and probably is familiar with a lot of horror tropes? So yeah, peepaw isn’t scared at all.

Silver’s sudden sleepy time would sabotage him a couple of times, but in general he is very good both with his combat and survival skills. But he is similar to Jack in terms of wanting to help if he feels like there are other people (or animals) in danger. In a way, he is even worse about it than Jack, because he is very self-sacrificing.

Sebek has good chances of surviving, but he has his problems… First of all, he would be very angry, partially to cover the fact that he is a bit scared: stealth isn’t his stronger suit, but he compensates it with his brute force and combat skills. But then again, he is both angry and a bit scared, so he always jumps to fight even when he is supposed to run away or hide.

Malleus is too overpowered to have any issues with any type of horror game I think lol He wouldn’t be scared, maybe surprised and annoyed? We have to nerf that man somehow lol But anything that isn’t amusing to him would end up being burnt to a crisp by him.

[ninadove]

What is Miraculous’s self contradictory philosophy on consent?

This topic has been on my writing list for a while, and would probably be worth rewatching all 5 seasons and taking detailed notes! That being said, I think Ladybug’s reaction to the attempted kiss in “Felix” is a pretty good microcosm of the issue:

Unlike our heroine, we, the audience, know that this is just not true: as Chat Noir, Adrien crosses Ladybug’s boundaries on multiple occasions - including several attempts to kiss her, despite her obvious lack of enthusiasm.

So why is it that one undesired kiss makes us so uneasy, while others are easily written off as quirky?

The answer, of course, is that the plot itself wants us to root for Adrien; and, in order to prepare for future plot twists and revelations, be (at least temporarily) wary of Felix. Consent is a somewhat fluid concept in Miraculous; not out of maliciousness (at least I certainly hope so!), but because it serves a bigger narrative purpose.

Let's take a closer look at how the notion of consent is declined through two radically different character categories: on the one hand, our heroes; and on the other hand, our antagonists.

I. The Love Square: all’s fair in love and plot

Let’s start off our analysis with the obvious: the Love Square is meant to be. You know it, I know it, everyone is Paris knows it. Most importantly, the writers have known it since the beginning; and it is their job to sell us their romance, through compelling interactions.

Part of this effort was to make Chat Noir fall in love with Ladybug almost immediately, and be very forthcoming about his interest - something she rarely reciprocates during the first seasons, because if she did, the show would have ended years ago and I would not be writing this instead of loading the dishwasher like I’m supposed to. Chat Noir’s infatuation with the spotted heroine takes the form of many many many MANY flirty comments, outright love declarations and, on a couple of occasions, unwelcome kissing attempts.

It wouldn’t be fair to argue Ladybug is 100% closed off to his attempts. But as the seasons go by, and other scenaristic stakes build up, she does become more and more frustrated with them. To his credit, Chat knows when to back off when she expresses discomfort or states her love for “““another boy”””… But he is always quick to try his luck again, which in turns brings even more frustration, until Ladybug finally and rightfully snaps in S4.

Does that mean we, the public, see Chat Noir as a dangerous sociopath? Of course not. For the most part, we accept that his insistence is amusing at best, and harmlessly annoying at worst, because that’s what the show wants us to accept. Concretely, this gives a situation à la “Kuro Neko”: the episode defends the idea that Chat Noir’s imperfections, including his misguided and at times overbearing love for his partner, is a crucial part of what makes them such a good team.

And let’s not forget Marinette herself! While several members of the Girl Gang (namely Alya) routinely and jokingly call her out on her stalking, we mainly get to reflect on how this affects her - not her clueless crush. Her obsession is always always framed as embarrassing, funny, and even cute - classic teenage girl behaviour, am I right ladies?

So, there’s clearly a double standard between genders, which is also true with the antagonists - but it is only a secondary concern of mine. What matters most is that we accept Chat and Marinette’s behaviour, or more precisely this framing of their behaviour by the scenario, for two main reasons:

Because they’re our heroes, and although they are flawed, they can’t be too bad!

Because the romantic endgame we all know is coming “justifies” their actions. If these two are meant to be together, does it really matter if they mess up along the way?

This second point is best exemplified by the contrast between how we perceive consent when it applies to the Love Square, and how we perceive it when it comes to Adrigami / Kagadrien.

Having accepted her mother’s expectations, Kagami sees a future with Adrien and is therefore trying to push the relationship in this direction; she is not afraid to take the lead and generally does so through physical touch, attempting to kiss him before he’s ready and manually correcting his posture when sketching him.

Is Kagami crossing a few lines here? Sure. But it’s nothing a teenager wouldn’t do, and she is a lot less persistent than Chat. Yet we can’t help but notice and sympathise with Adrien’s unease. We perceive Kagami’s behaviour and the reaction it elicits differently not because she is a bad person, but because she is but a secondary love interest - a temporary distraction from the grand love story we’ve been invested in since the beginning. We have no trouble accepting the message the writers are sending us through these interactions: Kagadrien is not a toxic or abusive ship, it’s just not going to work out.

II. The Antagonists: Red flags and black marks

In many ways, love and intimacy are driving forces of Miraculous’ plot. After all, isn’t it grief over the loss of a spouse that started this whole debacle?

The heroes we root for on the battlefield are the same dumb teenagers we desperately want to see smooch, and so naturally, we start to equate morality and romance. For the writing team, this is a great tool to make heroes easily identifiable and, conversely, signal to the audience that a new antagonist has joined the chat. This phenomenon can be observed from the very first episodes, and is best embodied by a character we all know and… Uh… Definitely feel some type of way about.

Let’s not tip-toe around the issue: Chloé, at least in the early seasons, is a typical mean girl. She is a bully, a pretentious and spoiled kid, and generally rude to everyone around her. But do you know what her worst crime is? She has the absolute nerve to be in love with Adrien!

Chloé might be responsible for half of the Paris akumatisations so far, but it would be incorrect to state Marinette dislikes her purely because of her nastiness. Their personal rivalry over the prettiest boy in school is central to their original conflict, and plays a key role in shaping our initial understanding of Chloé’s part as a minor antagonist. When the show repeatedly has her throwing herself at Adrien, calling him by aggravating nicknames, and plotting to eliminate her pig-tailed competition, it isn’t trying to establish her as a viable romantic option; rather, it uses her disrespect for Adrien’s individuality and personal space to reinforce our conviction that she is bad news, and strengthen our sympathy towards Marinette at the same time.

In the grand scheme of things, however, Chloé isn’t a huge threat to our heroes. The real issue comes with the introduction of a major antagonist, one that has the motivation and brain cells to do some actual damage (take some notes, Hawkmoth).

Felix’s debut episode is… Well, to be fair, I think it is brilliant in a lot of ways! Once you shine the Sentimonster light on his “gratuitous” and “petty” shenanigans, they take on a much deeper and more interesting meaning. But this introduction certainly doesn’t do Felix any favours from a moral standpoint, and that is absolutely done on purpose: these 20 minutes are jam-packed with information aiming to convince us, the audience, that this boy Absolutely 100% Cannot Be Trusted, so that we don’t fall off our chairs when the “Strikeback” fiasco happens. And what better way is there to make us uncomfortable than having him basically molest our heroine on screen?

Seriously, look at the way this scene is composed. The creepy look in his eyes, Ladybug literally having her back against the wall, the music, everything. None of the other instances we mentioned throughout this analysis get this tense. Even younger viewers, who might not necessarily understand what is at play here, instinctively know that this is as bad as it gets.

And you know what? This would be fair if Felix was meant to be this awful, terrible, psychopathic villain that kicks grandmas down the stairs and eats puppies for breakfast. But he isn’t, and that’s where you lose your audience.

By the end of S5 (or the middle… these releases are getting confusing), we are invited to look at Felix not as a dangerous, hardened criminal, but as a kid fighting tooth and nail to free his fellow Sentimonsters and himself from an oppressive authority that wants them dead or under total control. This explanation makes him sympathetic to us; his conflicting feelings about his own actions make him a prime candidate for a redemption arc; and his true personality, which shines through his crush on Kagami and his impromptu musical number, make him an endearing character. So, we can all agree to like him now, right?

WRONG. Just because we understand the message S5 is trying to convey doesn’t mean we don’t remember what happened in S3, back when presenting Felix as an antagonist took priority over preparing his redemption arc. Many people still have, and will always have, major issues with his character because of this one scene and the very raw emotional response it successfully elicited. I, for one, adore Felix; but I completely understand how others may have trouble believing that he is genuinely fighting for freedom and bodily autonomy, given how quick he was to disregard Ladybug’s. They have every right to feel that way and, if I’m being honest, the writing team kind of did it to itself.

Closing thoughts

Like I said in the opening, I am sure there are many other situations to delve into, characters to psychoanalyse, and ways to interpret the examples I mentioned. An exhaustive essay would take pages and pages, and this is already way too long as it is, so let’s wrap up with a few personal impressions:

Is Miraculous bad / problematic / worth canceling over these scenaristic decisions?

The answer is no, obviously. Trying to overly sanitise kids’ shows is a dangerous slippery slope that has led to the cancellation of some of my personal favourite gems for “““arbitrary””” reasons (everyone involved with canceling The Owl House is on my personal hit list). But I do think it is important to take in stories with your critical brain turned on, and be aware of some of the messages they might be trying to convey.

In this case, Miraculous writers are less interested in consent as a real-life issue than they are in what it can do for their show, scenaristically and thematically. It doesn’t make them evil, but it does make for a contradictory, and at times uncomfortable, final product.

2. Does that mean any of these characters are horrible monsters that should be burnt at the stake?

Of course not! They are dumb 14-year-olds just starting to navigate life and love. Whatever problematic behaviour they’re exhibiting now is just par for the course: they will grow out of it. In fact, they are already starting to grow out of it, with some help from the plot and a chair:

Ultimately, what matters most is not where a character starts from; it is how they learn from their mistakes and grow into a better person.

I am hopeful that all 4 of them are going in the right direction. Chloé is unlikely to make any progress given how Thomas Astruc feels about her, but hey, everything’s possible.

So, here you go, Anon! I hope this has been an interesting read and worth the wait!

[demonslayedher]

Things that ran through my head while watching this episode:

--Keh! I, the Bird Fic writer, automatically enjoy Ginko's presence. What an unabashed device she is for info-dumping. Tanjiro totally forgets about Kotetsu long to soak in the oddity of the bird being so full of contempt for him (yet she perches on Tanjiro's shoulder anyway--what a perfectly condescending crow). Keh! When this came out my friend and I had so much imitating her. Keh!

--When it comes to noticing foils, Tanjiro essentially tried to repeat what he did when he saw Genya abusing a child, but was shocked by how he was no where close to breaking Muichiro's bone, let alone injuring him at all. Tanjiro did a lot of talking with his hands here--first trying to intervene, then defending Nezuko (which he actually did get a reaction out of Muichiro), and finally that "no, no key for you!" bratty slap on the hand. And that bratty slap is so cute. XD I love that Tanjiro is so conflicted with "Yes, but you deserve scolding!! I cannot quite figure out why, you need to be scolded!" So different from his usual to-the-point brotherly scolding. Muichiro is an enigma to him.

--This is going slightly off topic, but I appreciate how Kimetsu Academy dives into subtle aspects of the characters, like Muichiro being so callous. It's not just a matter of amnesia, he really is just like that and he's unaware of it, even though his desire to help people--and prioritization of that--makes him good at heart. Although he takes pleasure in being a jerk to Gyokko, to anyone else, he's just cuttingly straightforward, memories or not. Yuichiro might have influence how deep he cuts, but the straightforwardness was always his own.

--I like how Tanjiro's progression is compared somewhat realistically against the Pillars. Yes, he gets much stronger fighting Yoriichi Type Zero, but it takes him much longer to evade the strikes that Muichiro did so with ease; and Muichiro already decreased the difficulty level by damaging the doll. Likewise with Pillars vs. Upper Moons, I like how Rengoku Alone vs. Upper Three shows how outmatched even Pillars usually are, Uzui + a lot of help + Tanjiro's mark unlocked vs. Upper Six shows how hard they had to scrape by to get that accomplishment (and Uzui considered himself less talented than a Pillar like Muichiro in the first place), Muichiro The Genius + a mark thanks to Tanjiro vs. Upper Five, Mitsuri + lots of help (including from Tanjiro who has a mark and already has gained experience fighting Upper Six) + a mark thanks to Tanjiro vs. Upper Four is all set up as believable progression that the ongoing success of the Corp vs. the Upper Moons truly is thanks to the full Corp's efforts thus far.

--Which brings me to what Tanjiro says to Kotetsu about how he may not see an end to Kibutsuji Muzan in his lifetime, but he has to entrust that will to everyone else in the Corp. T H I S. This is what I love about Kimetsu no Yaiba and about Tanjiro as the hero.

--Backing up a second and appreciating other Corp (and Corp adjacent) contributions, Yoriichi. We know he made an immeasurable contribution by teaching Breath technique, and eventually, that his techniques passed down by the Kamado family eventually contribute heavily to Muzan's defeat. It makes me curious how and when Yoriichi Type Zero was made--was it while Yoriichi was a Corp member, and he was embarrassed about it but accepted it as a means of teaching, and he had Kotetsu's ancestor follow him around like an observing puppy? Was it after Yoriichi was ousted and the Corp was near extinguished with Kokushibo going after the Oyakata-sama of that day and such, and an old Yoriichi fanboy made it out of a perceived need to replace what was lost? Anyway, what I especially thought during the episode was "Ufotable sure played around with the background music sounds for Yoriichi Type Zero---ohhhhh, I wonder if this is just the first iteration of a Yoriichi leitmotif???"

--Wait, wait, backing up more. I remember what I really wanted to say: The true testament to Muichiro's skill is that somehow his hair never gets chopped off.

--Ok, so Kotetsu-kun.

--As a character, he leaves the deepest impression for his ruthless training and spitting fire. At his core, though, Kotetsu is just a scared kid who has lost a family member he looked up to, and with his lack of skill, he kind of knows that his family legacy is going to end with him because he can't uphold it.

--I WANT SO MUCH FOR HE AND SENJURO TO BECOME PENPALS

--Tanjiro, please, introduce them

--While it's easy to look most as extreme cases like Kanao and Muichiro getting Tanjiro'd and having it fundamentally shake them to their core and change their whole outlook on life, Kotetsu is also somebody who got Tanjiro'd in one very monumental interaction. Ok, almost everybody gets that moment with Tanjiro, I know, but for Kotetsu, that was a conversation he will probably carry with him for the rest of his life. It gave him the strength to overcome his feelings of inadequacy and bravely face that he has a daunting mission, he might not even accomplish. I'm just so proud of him for declaring that he's going to emotionally prepare himself to see the damage, and even though it's a shock, he's able to overcome it.

--But also, he is just a kid who tends to think in extreme kid ways, and now Muichiro is the scum of the earth. It's also a very funny spin on the mean little boxing coach trope, because usually when a shonen hero encounters a new master at this point in their shonen style hero's journey, that master far exceeds them in ability, experience, and especially understanding of how to tap into whatever power it is that the hero is trying to acquire or master.

--Nope. In this case, Tanjiro acquires the new and improved smelling technique exactly because his new master understands nothing (except for analyzing battle movements) and just brutalized him because that is the simplistic way a child (who does not practice martial arts) would think to push a martial artist to new heights.

--Tanjiro could have died, whether beaten to death, slashed with a sword, or simply dehydrated, and it would have been because he was following the instructions of a child who had no qualifications whatsoever to train him.

--Tanjiro... why

--And all this time!! All this time, what about the hospitable people in the village? Were they not at all concerned what Tanjiro was missing for days? If anybody did see them, were they not alarmed about Tanjiro being on the brink of death from lack of sustenance? Did Kotetsu make jaunts back into the village to grab food for himself and be like, "oh, yeah, Tanjiro? I'm letting him train with Yoriichi Type Zero, because he's going to kick that Pillar's ass."

--Nezuko, were you asleep this whole time???? While your brother??? ALMOST DIED??????

--It's endearing to know that Haganezuka has spent this whole time training as well. We know how full of passion he is, though it usually comes out in anger or fascination for swords, but he's just as open with his happy feelings. The way he looked at that mitarashi dango? That he probably how he looks when he replays Tanjiro's words in his head. You got Tanjiro'd, man.

--But you know what I really love to picture??? Genya and Muichiro. They have been here that would time. Like, it might even have been right after Muichiro finished training with Yoriichi Type Zero that Kanamori even started on a sword for him (knowing how fast they go, after all, though that's a pretty extreme turnaround time). Did Genya and Muichiro hang out? I want so much to think that they hung out silently in the bath. It's like 50 First Dates because Muichiro keeps forgetting who Genya is. Except sometimes he remembers, which takes Genya by total surprise because he yelled at Muichiro and didn't think he'd remember or something. Because the reason Genya stays at the village so long is because Muichiro breaks his other arm or something. --Anyway, a final thing to note--it's not very often we get to see Tanjiro in a tense daytime battle! It's so refreshing to see his battle expressions under bright sunlight! Especially has he is, in some way, learning from Sun Breath techniques.

[alltheboysandgirlsiloved]

Ben’s character arc: the summary and the highlights

In other words: why do I love Ben Pincus so freaking much

// spoilers for season 5

Ben is an extremely inspiring character to me. I firmly believe that he has the best character arc in the entire show. I also think, this is obviously biased, that out of all characters he has matured the most. And so I decided to briefly break it down to you because I felt like it.

Season 1

Ben’s just a kid who is afraid of life, kinda ignores that there are things he might be missing out on, and kinda doesn’t want to explore that. That fear or nervousness affects his relationship with other people.

Ben is just an anxious shy kid, who has a strong core but is still afraid to take an initiative; he isn’t big on crowds and people and prefers to keep some stuff to himself. For a while, he feels like he doesn’t fit into the group (everyone pretty much arrived at the camp somewhat excited, Ben was simply terrified). 

Slowly, Ben reaches out to touch and explore things that seemed beyond his reach – budding friendship with the campers, Bumpy (!) and, of course, his decision to fully get out of his shell to save the day on the monorail.

ft. Don’t get me started on the entire “it’s okay to be different” speech (10/10, that one was for history books)

Season 2

aka The traumatic experience.

Ben falls from the monorail, suddenly he is on his own in a situation that is very unfamiliar to him. It’s just him and his fears and he has to face the questions like “who am I?”, “how is this going to affect me?”, “what do I have to do to survive?”, “how do I face my fears?”

ft. “What? You’ve never seen a ghost before?”

Season 3

Finding a way back to “an old life”

On an emotional level, Ben doesn’t click with the other campers instantly, finding the connection is hard, and he struggles a lot. He feels like there’s a gap between him and them. While he knows that they care about him, it’s hard to bond over the same things as before; there are also things that Ben thinks are “uniquely his” and he’s very attached to them (Bumpy). These are all the marks left by the trauma, things that helped him find himself, things that in a way reshaped him. They are important to him.

He also finds out that there are aspects of his life, like Bumpy, that he has a hard time leaving behind even if it’s the right thing to do. It hurts too much. He learns how it feels to mourn over friends (Bumpy) that you have to leave behind.

ft. He likes to play with fire a little bit too much

Season 4

Being thrown into a new environment&the fear of “failing”.

Ben finds himself in a similar situation to Ben in season 1 and it affects him heavily. Once again we see this fear, this nervousness, and his insecurities make themselves known once again.

At the same time, he faces his biggest fear: pteranodons. Just when you think that he’s going to glitch, that he’s going to panic and freak out, he simply decides to, in a way, stop running. The scene with pteranodons is probably one of the most important scenes for Ben’s character in the entire series.

ft. Ben learns to trust a person “out of his safety zone” – it’s not easy, it takes time but eventually, he decides to trust Mae

ft. Ben’s entire conversation with Yas.

Season 5

Fully embracing both his insecurities and his courage. 

It may not be obvious but everything about 'season 5 Ben' speaks “confidence”. He’s confidently scared but also confidently brave. He doesn’t overthink his reactions to particular situations. It's obvious to be that he has a very healthy relationship with himself. He accepts the world as it is. He is also not as stubborn as before – in the end, he is, surprisingly enough, the first one to forgive Kenji. Probably one of the top 5 moments of the entire series for me personally.

ft. Ben and Bumpy episode/reunion call it however you want – I think that the moment he refused to control Bumpy even if it meant "getting her by his side" proves that he is emotionally one of the most mature characters. He would rather lose her again than do something against her will (even if her will is, or at least seems, unexistent at that point).

ft. Ben being the one who gives Yas the proper push. He might be awkward when it comes to feelings, especially anything romantic-related but, in the end, he’s a good supportive friend and others know that they can rely on him.

Season 5 post-time skip

Ben doesn’t stop. He doesn’t return to his shell. He fully embraces his interests and who he is. I truly, truly believe that there’s nothing that can stop him. He deserved happiness and that’s what he got.

(I probably missed a bunch of stuff but yeah. i just... I love Ben so much, he made a space for himself in my heart and I don’t think he will ever fully leave. thank you for all those beautiful moments, Ben. I know that you are just a fictional character but gods, among all fictional characters you are one of the best.)

[leam1983]

On the Marketplace of Ideas

Watching ContraPoints before bed, and I'm thinking she might - unfortunately - be right about polarized reactions.

She opens with Anita Bryant, who went on an anti-LGBTQA campaign in the seventies, concerned as she was "for America's children". In interviews, she'd claim that she actually loved gays and lesbians - enough to try and "save" them from their supposedly mortiferous ways.

It's hatred, yes, but phrased in a grating, faux-gentle and caring sort of way that probably felt like nails on a chalkboard. Compare and contrast with the way the community responded.

We're talking protests, picketing events, novelty toilet paper with her face printed on it, rotten fruits, dead cockroaches and human feces being mailed to her, her entire campaign as a promoter of Florida's citrus exports ground to a screeching halt and becoming a meme before memes existed as we know them. Bars both hetero and gay-friendly stopped serving orange juice-based cocktails because their association with OJ and Bryant was too toxic for business.

Her career was torpedoed. The El Gee Bee Tea went nuclear, more or less, some three generations before we fine folks would pioneer the Kung Pow Penis meme on the Hellsite.

In terms of actions taken, the essayist argues, there's not much difference between pro-somethings and anti-somethings. It ultimately boils down to one group trying to harm another because tempers run too hot and either group is convinced words have run their course.

In the modern day, CP equates that to JK Rowling. She, too, has been torpedoed, excoriated, vilified, mocked, jeered at and summarily ridiculed - and she more than certainly aided and abetted groups that did the very same to the LGBTQA community.

If the only distinction between two groups is who targets who, seeing as both groups have their avenues of civil discourse, their academic studies, their trench warfare scenarios and their stated victory conditions - then how do we distinguish them based on their actions?

It really makes you think: LGBTQA rights are backpedaling across the US and far scarier people are actively trying to campaign against us across Canada and America.

What's Rowling done, in comparison? She's written some books, Tweeted some shit, donated some money to asshats that don't even have so much as have national support in her home turf of Great Britain, and, oh - had her period in the limelight where her stuff was perceived as just harmless enough to give Frodo Baggins, Gandalf and a couple Uruk-Hai a case of the cold sweats.

And that period has more than likely passed, judging by the middling reactions to HBO's announcement of a 10-season epic focused on everyone's formerly favorite Gentleman Scholar in-training.

I'm not criticizing, mind you; I'm genuinely asking: Is the whole kerfuffle around Rowling much ado about nothing, at the end of the day? Even recent book critics admit her stuff's lost her lustre! Why do you think Pottermore and the Wizarding World project leads are so eager to shove more Potter down our throats? It's her one calling card and her single strongest breadline, after all!

Plus, imagine a situation where everyone on our side of the controversy behaved as sedately as the figureheads calmly explaining they were fighting for human rights on Prime Time television. Would the gays and lesbians have had an easier time at acceptance if they'd let one-off and self-professed crusaders have their day while they focused on the battles needing to be fought in the halls of power or the minds of the many?

Later on, Natalie tracks down Noah, her fellow unfortunate cited opposing party in Megan Phelps-Roper's The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling. Even he, as a trans man, admits that more good is concretely made in focusing on what can be done in order to offer shelter, protection and care to those in the community. Openly confronting TERFS, in a sense, is somewhat less productive, in his eyes, than regrouping and strengthening our efforts at acceptance.

You have to admit; watching the bigots flail and tear their shirts open when you're just - standing there is fairly satisfying a thing, in its own right...

The only winning move is not to play - and I sometimes wish my own peers would stop giving into bigots' games. Let them play on their own, hm?

[lightningandfireinmybones]

i was about to sleep but i can’t get it out of my head. just the flawless character and time period transition between tdopom and heaven knows…and what i mean by that is….

i think tdopom valaena, although constantly wants to escape her fate, subconsciously if accepts overtime. she’ll still put up a fight and say that she’s not pleased with any of it but i think deep down she accepts it. there’s obviously not many options for her to escape it- she’s in too deep with aemond to ever let go. and i think after jace even though she doesn’t want to be the heir and looks for other options, i think she feels the responsibility on her to be the one. tdopom being hotd/got era obviously you’re dealing with more sexism and knowing the fate of other targaryen women. she can delay it all she wants, but it’s going to happen eventually

meanwhile. heaven knows valaena has the opportunity to change and shape her own fate. the modern au allows for her to decide who she is going to be and i think that’s why we see a more self destructive version of her here. she has to experiment to figure out what her fate is, in tdopom it’s all planned out for her (even if she doesn’t like it). thinking of this chapter and her hesitation and fear of having kids…to me it’s different than tdopom. when she’s pregnant in the tdopom and baela offers the leaf as a solution, her not taking it is unsurprising to me. she accepts her fate there (even if she denies it to aemond) but heaven knows valaena would be eating pounds of the leaf if offered. heaven knows valaena has a million lives she can lead and she wants to try them all out. tdopom valaena although wanting to escape her fate, is unable to due to her time period of her story.

now i just have to believe that heaven knows aemond and her haven’t discussed kids until this moment happens. he’s obviously all in and has been for quite some time. i think that he thinks that she knows he wants kids (outside of the breeding kink) because of how serious he is about her. he thinks it’s pretty obvious what he wants, but valaena obviously doesn’t know that.

that concludes my wild deep dive into why it makes sense that the same character would have different reactions to being pregnant/talking about kids in different au’s 🫡

BESTIE I CANT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR THIS

because you got exactly what I was hoping to convey with this different versions of Valaena!!!

Tdopom Valaena chafes at the boundaries placed on her, but is ultimately in a system she doesn’t dare escape from, in a societal place that she ends up embracing to come into power (partially through duty and honor and the deaths of everyone above her kn the line of succession and partially through aemond convincing her to seize power for herself), but she always has been somewhat resigned to how her life will go, even if she resists it

Meanwhile,,, modern au Valaena was spoiled by her mother, protected viciously by aemond and her brothers and has all the fuck you money in the world to do whatever she wants, to find who and what she wants to be

And unfortunately!!! Her self destructive tendencies explode without a strict system to confine her in, as she has to spiral out to find a way back in to who she wants to be

Valaena in heaven knows is trying to find something even if she can’t figure out what it is her, but that’s the beauty!! She gets to explore and travel and be a menace to explore the possibilities of her life!!

(And you’re right regarding the possibilities of terminating pregnancy differences between them- modern au Valaena said NOPE)

But then we have aemond, our other emotionally stunted character, who thinks that he’s been perfectly clear about what he hopes their future will be like,,, but Valaena needs to hear it, needs to have that discussion and those clear boundaries, so we run into conflict as they both fail to communicate the way they need

Drama and love, whomst will win,,, I love my stupid murder couple

Thank you again bestie there is nothing I love more than someone taking the time to think about the story I’ve written and message me about it!! Makes me whole week!!!

[lucid-fate-if]

RO’s inner thoughts when they’re developing feelings for MC?

Why am I so excited to answer this? XD

Some of the ROs react and start developing feelings for the mc differently if the mc has a different personality. So you can ask "Zephyr with a shy mc" and I'll explain their thoughts with that mc.

For this post, I'm explaining their main tropes I guess.

Btw this is a long post...so I'mma put the read more thingy

Mionii/Miokai/Mio

They are...not going to be friendly when you first meet them and whether you're nice or nonchalant about their behavior, their opinion of you will be the same. When you tolerate their reactions and reply without a beat (making them guilty and slowly responding nicer to you until due to future events they'll begin falling for you.)

Development would go from:

Disinterest/annoyance (towards their situation but they tend to take it out on people :/) -> Bafflement/starts being nicer ("you dare speak like that to a prince/princes/noble!?" Or "why are they so nice?" Ect.) -> tsundere-like interest (developing feelings)

Akiyo

Akiyo is quite snarky too in their own way but not unprovoked like M. A way to have them develop feelings fast would be banter. Snarky remarks bouncing off each other will catch their interest fast.

Their thoughts on the Mc will differentiate with their personality but they'll want to know more about you if you interact with them a lot.

Development would go from:

Disinterest -> slow curiosity -> amused banter -> open feelings developed (they don't bother hiding it but don't go out of their way to show it)

Saeko

Saeko is one of the difficult ones to crack. her first initial thoughts would be "another person" and she'll move on because at the end of the day, she's there with a specific intention, not to make friends (you'll get some Todoroki vibes from her 😭). The only way to get her to develop feelings would be openly flirting with her cuz she's reaaaally clueless.

Development would go from :

Nonchalant -> suspicious -> accepting your strange flirting behavior as your normal self-> notices you don't act the same with others (if you flirt with all the ros she'll not think much of your flirting) -> interest if you talk about it directly to her directly (developing feelings)

Dante

Dante would not have a strangers to lovers trope since you know each other so if you flirt with him a lot and start flirting with others abruptly, he will take notice and be jealous, but not openly since he is aware you are not in a relationship (yet)

Development would go from:

Best friends -> confused best friends (are you just best friends?) -> rapidly developing feelings -> discouraged (if you flirt with others or/and just Dante feeling like he's not worth you :( )

Fai

Fai is somewhat dense when it comes to feelings like Saeko so this will either have to be from his own thoughts (notices how nice you are too EVERYONE and thinks you're such an angel :-:) or you're open about your feelings/discouraged moments with him (developing a protective relationship with him)

Development would go from:

Nice strangers (hi new team member!) -> sudden engrossment (interest in your MC's personality, whether you hide it or not, Fai is good with understanding people when it comes to feelings) -> Developing feelings slowly (but won't act on it thinking it's unwanted attention) -> more feelings once you return it!

Zephyr

Now Zephyr is a tough nut to crack, he's like a rude Tenya Iida. All he wants to do is WORK WORK WORK (on the competition and stuff yk) so no matter what you do, expect to be openly dismissed. Once he starts liking you though, he'll reject you and shoo you away only you mentally cackle and smile a bit (when he thinks no one is looking) when you walk away sulking.

Development would go from:

Workaholic/annoyed dude ("Mc take it seriously!" >:( ) -> understanding (once you're more genuine with him and relay on him, he'll get a better picture of who you are) -> False rejection (rejecting but not actually not liking you) -> more feelings developing!

Kaisen

Kaisen without spoiling too much, is suspicious of you at first and for a good while cautious (not openly). There will be options for a shy mc to try to fake being bold to flirt with him, a rude mc trying to be nice to him ect. All I'll say is those will be...interesting hehehe

Development would go from:

Suspicious boi -> more suspiciousness (watching your every move ;) -> amusement with a faking mc -> returning the strange behavior to get a reaction (for investigation obviously ☝️) -> genuine feelings developed!

???

Miss reducted has somewhat little to no interest in you too and will comment on your "pretty face" quite a lot. Commence the crushing faze from your side at your own risk XD. Her main trope would be the Super nice "hero" vibe giving mc x her negative reputation clashing.

Development would go from:

Zero love interest -> flirt (for fun cuz why not? she's bored and needs to do SOMETHING while she's stuck with you) -> attentive flirting (starts noticing your reactions as a person and finds it even more delightful and fascinating) -> retraction (starts developing feelings but pulls back. She can't be soft for no one) -> too late. She likes you :,)

[cerebraldischarge]

No more bullshit. No more hangovers. No more worries. No more painful memories.

No longer carrying the suffering of everyone else.

This is where we differed. Empathy is somewhat foreign territory for me. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about people, but absorbing their stuff rarely ever occurs to me. I’ll get mad on your behalf and shoot whoever upset you, but then I’ll make a goofy joke about something completely unrelated, simply because seeing you cry makes me uncomfortable. Hell, even seeing myself cry makes me feel awkward unless it’s brought on by music - which happens surprisingly often.

If I had to guess, it was empathy that got Danny into this whole thing. Yeah, he wanted to get rid of life for a long time, so there is a selfish angle to it too, but if it was just that, he wouldn’t have started a movement. He often complained to me about how hard writing is for him, and his perfectionism made it even harder. I could tell he wasn’t too educated, and made some consistent spelling mistakes, probably having learned some words wrong in childhood in the first place. An earlier version of me would’ve judged him for this and would’ve either withdrawn from him or made a point of constantly correcting him. But then I would’ve missed the fact that he was sharp as a scalpel when it came to actually thinking things through and not just regurgitating information. Probably smarter than me, in fact. He would call me while getting drunk, and give me lectures on geopolitics, which were interesting but at times went right over my head. An earlier version of me would’ve zoned out or tried to change the subject even before the juicy part started - I can just hear her going “I don’t give a damn about the bigger picture, I just want to be a grunt!” But because it became clear a long time ago that that’s not an option, I learned to let go of that single-minded focus and listen to pretty much anything that could break me out of my natural state of abject boredom.

Would an earlier version of me be mad about him leaving so abruptly, without waiting for me? I don’t know. Maybe a very early one. But I got used to losing people very fast. I did struggle with needing attention for a while, because adults would act like they lost all sense of object permanence and drop me like I didn’t exist every damn time another adult approached them - the message loud and clear: work is more important than you, and you are not my equal. I still feel a slight twinge of resentment when someone says “I have to go” mid-conversation, but then my mature brain steps in and I accept that people have their own lives, schedules, and obligations, and some little foreigner girl they barely know is going to score lower on the priority list than, say, a call from their boss or their duty to make dinner for their family. This acceptance also applies to the people who never return, for whatever reason. It applied to Allie when he got into that accident in 2009, it applies to Danny who decided he had enough - and, after the fallout of betrayal and the sunk cost fallacy had settled, it even applied to Lauren in a way. My parents are kind of a different category, because paying attention to me was their job - even when I absolutely did not want their attention, which happened more and more often as I got older.

Danny shared with me the time, information, emotional connection, and humor that he wanted to share with me. He definitely shared way more with his buddy Kevin, his aunt Amanda, and a few of his friends that I’ve never interacted with. And that’s okay. Some people would call me a psychopath for being okay with this, but why? If he had a horribly botched, painful end, or a nonconsensual one, or if he was still alive against his will, or something like that, I would feel sad about it, or angry, or guilty, or all three. I would have something pretty close to the expected, textbook grief reaction. But this way, there’s nothing to grieve.

Yes, the world lost a very gentle, smart, and all around cool guy. But would I really rather have him still around and miserable? Nah. People aren’t here to be used by us - not me, not you, not their families, not even the government. People come and go. I have understood this before my age got into the double digits. It’s inconvenient sometimes, but once I managed to cultivate some level of confidence in myself - which is not fucking easy by any means when one of your defining experiences is total rejection by an organization that you equated with life itself, mind you -, I realized I didn’t really need people to stay. I sometimes want them to, and I enjoy it if they do… and sometimes I really want them to leave me the hell alone, too. But I don’t need anyone else in that clingy, visceral, “one flesh, one mind” way that romantic relationships are characterized by. I got a taste of that with Lauren, but it was so exhausting and anxiety-inducing that honestly, I don’t want to experience it again. It’s also likely that I let her inside me to that extent because it played to my insecurities - “military spouse” was a hell of a lot more acceptable than “military reject” in my head and heart.

Danny would’ve made a great grunt, too. His body was a warrior’s. It took regular beatings from evil family members, from alcohol, and from just life in general, and still remained strong to the end. I’m somewhat grateful for that - he didn’t have to experience what my father did: not just pain, but the frustration of trying to move certain body parts and having them just flat out refuse to function. He also had the ability to be violent if necessary, such as when protecting loved ones from harm. For whatever reason, he never made the decision to do this professionally, though. An earlier version of me would have judged him for that. But that was before I realized that not everyone has the same values I do. I would have never expected to get to this point, but now I can even respect conscientious objection - at twenty, it was almost a swear word for me. And I respect, although don’t share, Danny’s belief that life itself is an inherently negative thing. (In order to share his conviction, I would need a clear understanding of the concepts of “positive” and “negative”, and I don’t have that. To me, these are entirely subjective ideas that cannot be defined in an objective manner. This is where I may depart from Rand, whose injunction is to “judge, and be prepared to be judged” - the only judgment I’m confident in making is that if a given action is performed with the informed consent of everybody involved, I cannot condemn it, but if consent is being violated at any point, that’s what I judge/define as evil. Maybe Rand would not regard this as a disagreement with her injunction, after all.)

It would’ve been nice to hang out in West Virginia together. To share a bottle of moonshine under the stars, and all that. To talk about our overbearing mothers, and the various cultural influences we carry within. To practice shooting for a few days and then shoot ourselves in a cabin in the woods. It would have been a whole bucket of fun. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Whatever is meant to be is now for me to find out.

[echoing-oursong]

Per your post about el and relationships and trauma while i agree i also think it is different to some degree with el because unlike the other characters, she grew up in a lab treated as a test subject. I think its weird to not want her to be in a relationship because she isnt any less deserving of it that the others or whatever but it is weird that they put her and mike together in the first season when she didn’t even know what a friend was, and i think often the trauma people are talking about with regards to el is her growing up in a very different situation than the other kids, and shes basically been in a “relationship” since she got out of the lab. If you know what i mean?

omg I just want to say how happy I am that you were really respectful about it. Okay so I totally understand what you are saying! I was having a really hard time saying what I wanted to say in that original post cuz so many people could counter it with that and I completely understand. El was not in society for most of her life and from what we’ve got this season even when she was with others that were like her in the lab, she was still being bullied and ridiculed. She isn’t around other people so much and things do get complicated because of her powers. While the others have the possibility of having a romantic relationship outside of the gang, like with dustin and suzie, El does not also have that opportunity. Because of her powers and the possibility of what people could do if they found out. With how comfortable and often she uses her powers it would be incredibly hard to hide it from another person. Even in this season we have a shot of el trying to use her powers against Angela and then after she forgets that she doesn’t have them. But what if she did have them and she threw Angela across the playground/ whatever you call it? I have a feeling so many people would be shouting and no matter what El would have gotten the police or authorities and etc called on her. She would have gotten arrested. And most likely she would have been subjected to the possibility of getting tested again. So like if that was her normal reaction to that situation was using her powers, I highly doubt how well she could have kept her powers and struggle with not having powers a secret. Also I agree with it being weird that they wanted to put mike and El right away. Like if it was a slow burn I would understand but they developed feelings fast. The thing is that I want to say El and Mike is a somewhat slow burn since they didn’t fully get together until the end of season 2. Which was a year after everything happened in season 1. But their feelings developed after a stressful and life threatening week in season 1 so it doesn’t feel like a slow burn at all. And it feels incredibly fast paced! And also during that year apart El was in a cabin where the only person she could truly talk to was hopper and she wasn’t allowed out of the cabin in fear that she could get captured again. So I do think El’s situation particularly in gaining friendships outside of the party and possible romantic relationships outside of the party is incredibly difficult. As there is always this possibility that the other people would not accept her powers and throw her right back into the situation she was in before. So it definitely is WAY more complicated then how I made the post. So I understand your hesitation and disagreement in it because I also had that when coming up with the post. Also I love what you said about ‘I think it’s weird to not want her to be in a relationship because she isn’t any less deserving of it than the others!’ Cuz also just want to add this even tho I said it in the original but like I think my whole problem is that fandom pairs everyone up and then leaves her to the side which to me has strange implications! I do agree with you on the whole Mike and El’s relationship! It is weird that they had them kiss when el didn’t even know what ‘kissing’ or ‘friend’ meant. I definitely respect your opinion and input! Thanks so much for saying this! 😊

[theprideful]

important!!!

transcript:

A person with a somewhat masculine voice says in a higher pitched tone, “Blue hair is weird!” They then change their voice to their regular tone, and say, “I’m gonna teach you this how I would teach a child. I don’t know your life story, but for the sake of making this an educational video, I’m gonna use stereotypes, so only take what resonates with you.

One child is born in a seemingly functional, to their awareness, loving family, while the other is getting quite the opposite. You can’t choose that you’re born with it, so you’re put out in this world and the majority of your peers are like you, and the majority of your teachers, parents and authority are like you, and the majority of the media out there is showing people like you. So all of the kids that are not depicted by this media feel erased and different immediately from the time they’re born, how they are born. You may feel too feminine as a boy, too masculine as a girl, like you’re in the wrong body, like you don’t think exactly neurotypically as everyone else, you’re too thin, you’re too thick, you’re too dark, you’re not dark enough. Kids like this immediately understand the struggle of not being accepted by the majority, and if it’s not the peers doing it, keep in mind they have the same authority and media only depicting the majority of one type of person.

So both the outcasts and the masses are gonna ask the same question of how do I fit into society, and the majority of the authority and media is gonna be saying things like “God is the answer,” “man marries woman,” “girls are this way, boys this way.” You have a set amount of rules that if you have no reason to question, you’re not gonna disagree with. But when this world has taught you it’s not for people like you, you’re gonna ask, “why is it that way?” which brings us to, “who is teaching us this?” Oh, people from this era or earlier, who’s making this stuff, people in this era or earlier, “Let me do my research on who taught them that stuff.”

A common flaw with human beings is that they accept societal norms that are only in place for a little bit over their lifetime because they never lived to see a reason to question it. When you are born in a world that’s seemingly against you, you have reason to research why these traditions are in place, and you say, “Wow, if I happened to be born in the 1900s, pink was for boys and blue was for girls, and cheerleading is for boys and heels are for men, and the bible was changed to be anti-gay”. It’s almost like what we are taught is unreliable and not inherently factual, and in the time this was being taught, no one in the masses was disagreeing.

Everyone’s born in a box, but we weren’t all born with default settings, so we learned that humans can express themselves however they want. The way you think that only natural hair colors is normal, or how you dress is the right way, or blue hair automatically makes you weird, or pronouns equals liberal, that is taught to you. If this existed in the 1900s, this would be awesome [he points at blue hair], and this would just be english language [he points at pronouns]. When you’re wildly accepted by the masses, I see why you wouldn’t want to step down, you’re at the top of the pyramid. But the reason that we dye our hair blue is that the only people that wildly accepted us are other people who weren’t afraid of being different.

Now listen, maybe you just like authentically being a part of the masses, maybe your true self likes this stuff, that’s fine. But you also have to acknowledge that you were taught to avoid anything that would get you bullied or a negative reaction by the masses. So therefore, who’s really the top of the pyramid? [He flips the pyramid drawing upside-down].”

End transcript.