#wild atmospheric experience. very appropriate tho

[swallowtailed]

palisade 25 !!!!!!!

you know, i don’t think it was until the very end, when the title theme came back in (and, god, i love that song), that i actually thought: they did it. phrygian won. the sun’s gonna rise on palisade tomorrow—and on every other planet in the galaxy. mechanically, narratively, the crew had all the cards and they played them damn well. a change is gonna come. it’s already here. they won.

i was initially thinking about reading this arc as a story about death and rebirth. that’s a big part of it, but the question the pcs actually face is: are they willing to confront the possibility of their own deaths to fight for the future they dream of? (figure before the cadent, phrygian and authority—hell, trying to take down the combustor in the first place.) and that wouldn’t necessarily be the crucial question, except for the fact that the empire has pushed them and itself to that point. the divine principality uses death and destruction to prevent radical change and possibility. but the blue channel (palisade, the cause, millennium break) envision the future and set out toward it, going hand in hand with their own deaths, their own lives. and they fucking win. it’s just a really good opposition.

and on the note of rebirth, figure’s new class and new look (and new ghost pal) are fantastic. really cool to see that choice framed as a stance on their relationship to power and care, and also obviously the perennial aesthetic whips. (i did think at first that their mech’s transformation was a “congrats on the new playbook” present. u know, black hole themed mech.)

also, literally ever since meeting perennial i’ve been thinking, uh, she doesn’t seem evil or chaotic or imperial, she seems really cool actually? and i am SO PLEASED to be right. she doesn’t turn the wheel, she knows the wheel turns and she wants to break it!!! (which is perfect for figure—third chances, breaking cycles.) also there’s something from an earlier faction ep that has stuck with me—perennial wants to go home, whatever/wherever that is, but she can never go home… the wheel turns in one direction, huh? anyway, i’m really, really excited to see more of perennial in the back half of palisade :):):)

and phrygian. i loved their ending, genuinely—even though the fact of their loss was so expected as to be barely discussed (which felt a little hollow), they still got that stunning victory at the very end. their ten-thousand-year plan: all forty-one hundred stellar combustors going out like so many candles. (permanently, on a narrative level, because phrygian won that. their legacy is safe.) and to see the final roll come together—this arc was also about the power of friendship, okay, and that particularly includes help rolls and crew rolls, and realizing in the essential moment that you literally cannot lose even though you’re gambling with stars and planets. it’s just… it’s such a good win.

also pleased to have an answer to my question of how they were gonna manage tension between the two plotlines: just be extremely silly on the sun plot! and stand at the precipice of the narrative as a team. truly i do admire this table’s approach to storytelling. 

and i am so, so excited—not just for the next faction turn and the next downtime—but for everything that comes next in palisade and the divine cycle as a whole. it’s gonna be good.

[sneyrwrites]

|1| |Asteroid| Oikawaa Toruu

|Oikawa Tooru x reader| 

|Alien AU|  |Multipart | |Wordcount: 2604| 

The nights in the observatory were long and lonely since his coworkers left on vacation.

All night watching at a screen keeping record of the sky was something he used to do for fun, but now it had become a tedious task, until the satellite he was monitoring moved to anther section, he was stuck observing the same old nebula. That day the only interesting occurrence was a peanut-shaped cloud of dust surrounding a few young stars.

It was beautiful, but he had seen the same thing for the last week straight.

Sighing, Oikawa leaned back on his chair, the soft cushions soothing a little the back pain it appeared suddenly because of the several hours of hunching over the buttons. He closed his eyes, trying to relax. A nap wans’t going to hurt, Oikawa had everything configured to alert him if something went slightly out of normal.

He drifted off, the long hours awake doing the maintenance knocking him unconscious.

A weird static noise woke him up a few hours later

Opening his heavy eyes, Oikawa looked at the screens in front of him. Everything  seemed fine, except for a rare radio wave. It wasn't like the normal popping sounds from Mercury. It was more like the tone Venus made, but pitched up. A constant note.

"What the f...?" He looked strange at the oscillating curve of the transmission and track the phenomenon down. He needed to record it.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, with an experience years of practice polished to perfection. It intrigued Oikawa, as he with one hand collected data while with the other he chugged down the rest of  his cold coffee, trying to keep the sleepiness at bay

As he was figuring out the quadrant where it came from when the alarms blasted off.

The remaining sleep lest his body, as he was startled by the blasting noise. Now he was concerned. Warning signs flashed across the screens and everything went crazy. Desperate to figure out what was happening Oikawa got up, franticly tapping away, trying to decipher what was causing the chaos and the raising of his heart.

 Everything went black,  the observatory going silent.

Oikawa sat heavily on his chair, the anxiety that had circulated  his body starting to dissipate. Maybe everything was just a glitch from the generator, there was no way every single computer and hardware in there could just malfunction like that because of a signal. He was grateful he had made a backup copy that day. It would've been a catastrophe if he had procrastinated another day.

Oikawa leaned his head back and rubbed his face, his eyes closed as he tried to calm his laboured breath.

He just sat there, waiting for the power to come back up, the silent air of the mountain almost deafening. He never noticed how lonely it could get in the observatory, the constant buzzing of the machinery helping him distract. But now, with everything shutdown he realized he had chosen a solitary career.

He wondered how was Iwaizumi doing; it had been a few months since Oikawa left the top of the mountain to go see him. Even tho they never understood the other's life choices they still supported them. When Hajime joined the army Oikawa was there to support him, he would've never guessed his best friend was into serving and protecting the country.

He would call him when the power returned.

A blinding light flashed behind his closed lids and he perked up, ready to get to work on resetting everything. But he stopped in his tracks when he noticed that the light wasn't coming from the ceiling, but from outside. The weird warm light came from the windows. A strange red hue on it.

He got up and looked out. And it petrified him when he saw it. 

An asteroid coursing through the sky, right there in the middle of nowhere. It got closer and closer each time, shards of it coming off from the friction with the atmosphere, tuning it into a meteorite.

Oikawa was awestruck as he observed the lights flashing as the anomaly soared the sky, it was so beautiful.

It was falling at an alarming speed, and in less than a second the light disappeared behind the forest, the remaining of the meteor crushing to the ground. Light blinded him, and a cloud of steam, smoke and dirt went up in the air.

The trees surrounding the planetary shook from the impact, and the earth trembled.  Oikawa felt a flutter in his belly. Since he was a kid he had dreamed of witnessing an asteroid with his very own eyes. Throwing caution to the wind, he got up and ran to the exit, his shoes squeaking on the recently polished floor.

Stopping halfway, he turned back and grabbed his camera. Oikawa needed to document this, or no one would believe him. He was aware he needed to call someone, but he was way too excited to care. He would inform the authorities later, but for now he was going to fulfill one of his dreams.

The crisp night air slapped his cheeks as he ran through the trees of the woods that surrounded the observatory. Oikawa dodge tree branches and roots, hurrying his feet to go faster, not caring about the dangers. What if there was a harmful amount of radiation?

He could stand an extra ear if he could see the meteorite with his very own eyes.

As he got closer, he noticed the devastation the impact created. The tops of the trees were smoking and the pine needles had disappeared from its branches. The smell of burnt wood stung his nose, and he sneezed, slowing his pace. The heat grew, and a tingling sensation lifted the hairs of his arms.

The plants were shattered right at the middle, charred wood turned black. The asteroid must have break them on impact. He looked around, amazed at the consequences of the odd astronomical occurrence, and searching for the remaining. There was no way whatever caused this had disappeared with no remaining. Where he expected to see a giant piece of steaming rubble, he just saw a bright light.

It almost looked like it had form, but he knew that was impossible, light only manifested in the form of rays, it didn’t have a mass. He needed to see it up close.

With small hesitant steps, he moved forwards getting near the thing sprawled in between two broken trees, suspended in the branches. Energy buzzed in the air, and he felt his hair rais because of the static. Oikawa’s eyes got used to the brightness of the unidentified object, and he noticed that whatever it was, it looked like a body .

And it had moved.

Oikawa froze in place, as he saw how the thing slowly lifted what seemed to be a head, as if the motion took a toll on its body. Hands made of light gripped branches and it got down from the uncomfortable place, the same sound Oikawa heard from the radio emanating from its form. It turned its head, looking around, as if taking in the unfamiliar environment, and stopped when it turned to him.

Oikawa could feel a cold sweat run down his body. Was he dreaming? He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing, he's brain went in overdrive. Fear made his feet stuck to the ground, making it imposibble to follow his instincts to run away as fas as he could, and call for help.

The thing didn't have a face, and it looked like it didn't have gender  either. It almost looked  as if the light was compacted inside a balloon, glowing, but difusing it at the same time, and Oikawa noticed it didn't hurt his eyes at all. It was like looking at the sun without all the drawbacks.

His heart sped up even more when it took a hesitant step towards him, almost as if it was determining if Oikawa was a threat or not. Heat radiated from the thing and when it was only a couple of feet away, it extended an illuminated limb, fingers made of pure light shined, as a palm face him. If he wanted it, he could have reach out and brush his hand into its, but he was afraid.

He stood still. A shimmer came from the thing's hand and embraced him, surrounding him in a cocoon of warmth. He could feel the light brushing his skin, almost as if it was an extension of the thing in front of him, and the tenderness of it dissipated a little his nerves.

The cold invaded him when the rays retreated and it's hand went down. An explosion of white blinded him, and he fell startled on the floor, rocks digging in his palms, a few cuts opening up. A few heartbeats passed before he could open his eyes again without feeling like his eyeballs would fry.

The light being had disappeared, the only thing illuminating the dark woods were the burning leaves on the floor. If no one took care a wild fire might occur.

Oikawa got to his feet,  a disappointed feeling weighting down on his belly. He had witnessed something out of this world, literally, and he lost the chance to record it. Sighing, he lifted the camera and snapped a couple of pictures of the landing point and turned to leave.

His scream resonated through the woods.  Right in front of him there was a girl, just staring at him.

The lack of clothes on her body made a blush invade his face, as he tried to avert his gaze. She looked at him confused and leaned in, inspecting the change of color in his cheeks.

"um..." Oikawa started. Her eyebrows rose in her face, and her hand raised to his neck, trying to feel his vocal cords, but  Oikawa jumped back, before she could touch him "What the hell are you doing!?"

"What the hell are you doing..." She responded, a tender tone in her voice. The words came out a little slurred as if she was trying to make sense of them, as if she never heard them before.

Something in Oikawa's brain clicked. It was her, the thing that had fallen from the sky was standing right in front of him, and it had taken the form of a human. He took a few steps back, raising his arms in between them, trying to keep her at bay .

His gaze lingered a little more than appropriate on her chest and then fall down to her stomach. She had no belly button.

"What the hell are you doing..." She repeated, stepping towards him.

"Don't come closer!" He warned, hoping she understood, and that the tremble in his voice was just a product of his imagination.

"Don't..." The t's she made were exaggerated and strong. " Closer, don't what..." She tried to communicate, and if Oikawa wasn’t about to faint from the fear, he would have been amazed by the proof of alien intelligence e right in front of his very eyes.

She raised her own arms, imitating him,  eyes soft. Oikawa relaxed a little. She hadn't attacked him yet. That was a friendly sign, right?

Letting his arms fall to his side, the curious side of Oikawa’s brain took over, completely ignoring the voice of reason that told him to get the hell out of there. He walked up to her and examined her body 

She seemed human, skin looked normal, no weird colors like blue or green, no third eyes or tentacles, no slimy substance covering her or  teeth's poking out. Her hair was pretty and her eyes followed his movements as he circled her, trying to find something out of normal, besides the missing belly button.Careful not to scare her, he reached his hand to touch her skin. She stood still, a curious look on her face as Oikawa's  fingers brushed  her shoulder.

 A startled gasp left her lips.  He imitated her when he felt the high temperature of her body. His eyes went up to hers, and he took a step back when he noticed the change in her expression. It was almost as if she was blushing, but it looked wrong.

Her cheeks were glowing, almost as if two lightbulbs  were behind her skin. Her pupils made the goosebumps invade his body. They were glowing, and not only that, but they were glowing red, the same shade as the one he saw out the window.

"Um... Are you okay?” Oikawa asked. And wanted to kick himself right after, she didn't know his language, how did he expected her to respond?

The light on her face had faded, and she was back to normal, or well, as normal as an alien could be.

Surprising Oikawa, she brushed her fingertips across the exposed patch of skin in his chest, right above the collar of his shirt. A rumble came out of her, it wasn't threatening, almost like a purring of a cat. She seemed entertained caressing his skin, as if she never had felt anything like it. He felt like a dog for a second and wanted to laugh.

A chuckle came from his chest at the dumb thought, and maybe a little because of the craziness of the situation. Who would've thought that him, Oikawa Tooru, who had been obsessed with aliens for his entire life would've met one in person?

When the alien girl felt the vibration under her palm she looked up. Her touch traveled across his neck, a tingling sensation lingering where she had been, warmth spreading through his body. When she touched a sensitive spot where he was ticklish, his fist clenched.

Pain shot trough his arms as he remembered the minor injuries on his palms. A hissing sound left his lips, tearing her concentration from exploring his body. Blood had trickled down his palm. She grabbed his hands and examined them, a furrow on her brows.

Her fingers lighten up and Oikawa felt her temperature rising. He looked at her eyes and saw her pupils shining again. His hands were suddenly engulfed in a ball of warm light, an energy flowing from her to his body.

He just stood there, not knowing what was happening, letting her do whatever she was doing. Her actions hypnotised him, the fear had already out of his body only leaving excitement behind. Now his heart was racing for another completely different reason, the surrealism of everything causing a flutter in his belly.

She let go of him and took a step back. Oikawa almost missed the comfort of her touch, but he remembered the cuts in his hands. He surely had stained her hands. His eyes went to her fingers, almost certain he would find his blood on her, but he was surprised to see them void of any red stains.

Did he imagine it all? No, he remembered the sharp and throbbing pain in his palms.

Estranged he looked at his hands, and he felt a wave of dizziness invade him.

They were healed. 

The once torn skin now was fixed, no signs of cuts, dirt or blood. He looked up at her once more. The alien girl was just looking at him, as if she was waiting for something to occur.

Her pupils flashed bright once, and a flash of scorching heat slapped his palms. Horrified, Oikawa saw the bright markings on him, circles on his once even skin shining as if they were neon signs, matching the color of her eyes.

He felt sick. What the hell just happened? What did she do to him?

He opened his mouth to ask her just that, but with another flash of her eyes everything went dark, and Oikawa was out.

✘ Masterlist