#yeah she’s a nomad obviously

[mt07131]

❗️ ONE ❗️MORE❗️TIME❗️

[comradekatara]

What if Aang and Gyatso ran away together, allowing them to avoid the genocide but still confront Azulon twenty years later after Aang has mastered every element and win the war? 80 years later what would the world look like, and (in this unlikely AU scenario where all the rest of the main cast is still born) how would Sokka, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Azula, etc be different?

I mean it wouldn’t take aang 20 years to master every element he’s literally a prodigy. he mastered all four elements by the time he was 13. but yeah. if gyatso had found him in time. oh man. the inherent tragedy of poor timing, magnified by one hundred years. it’s unclear exactly how long after aang getting frozen sozin’s comet arrived (it was within the same year, but certainly not on the same day, as natla suggests), but it was probably sometime between a few weeks and a few months later. so I don’t think aang would’ve been able to prevent the initial attacks on the four temples, but obviously there would’ve been survivors who weren’t at the temples at the time, since yknow. they’re nomadic (natla also has them conveniently gather for “the great comet festival” as a way to explain why they were all killed at once but like. they weren’t. that’s not how genocide works). and so if aang and gyatso were together, away from the southern air temple, during the attack, that would definitely spur aang to fulfill his responsibilities as the avatar. he’d still feel the same crushing guilt, the ignorance of not heeding the threats of war, the responsibility on his shoulders of repairing his culture and ending an imperialist regime before it’s too late. but obviously, to a far less extreme extent, and with gyatso there to guide him, instead of temporally displaced and utterly dispossessed and bereft of his mentor, with no air nomads (besides appa) left. there would still be air nomads immediately after sozin’s comet, who were eventually captured and executed (or forced to hide and assimilate, hey ty lee’s family) over a century of imperialist conquest and violence. but if aang never time traveled, he would have still defeated sozin at the age of 13 and ended the war under a massive time pressure. roku would still be on his ass trying to get him to correct his mistakes, and aang would still feel the crushing burden of being just one kid tasked with saving the world from disaster.

so based on aang’s lifespan as indicated in lok, the next avatar would be an adult from the southern water tribe by the time the rest of the gaang are kids. and maybe the avatar is kya (im not gonna do the exact math here, because who cares). and kya is tasked with maintaining balance in a world where there are fewer air nomads than there should be, but due to aang’s influence, there are far more than there otherwise would be, as he spent the rest of his life ensuring that the world was a safe place to live in and keeping the rulers of the fire nation in check. and the world has never really forgiven the fire nation for what they did to the air nomads, but the extent of their imperialism was never fully realized because aang stopped sozin before he could oppress and attack more populations. so kya is constantly working with various nations and peoples to maintain balance, but she’s basically just a diplomat because aang did most of the work of putting out fires and now she’s just facilitating and ensuring that the peace he established continues. so she has time to like. start a family. and sokka has a complex about being the nonbending son of the literal avatar (and hakoda’s like “try being the nonbending partner of the literal avatar” but it doesn’t really make him feel better because that’s so obviously not the same) because obviously he can develop a complex about anything (still a much better complex to have than his actual deal, tho, so we’re counting this one as a win) and katara has a complex about having to be the best waterbender ever because her mother is the avatar. and their home life is kind of unstable because their mother doesn’t have a lot of time for them, but she’s still a very loving parent and eventually she takes them on trips with her and they love being able to see the world and help their mother with her diplomatic duties (katara is very justice-oriented, sokka relishes in getting to help kya with the more administrative and bureaucratic side of politics). so it’s better.

katara and sokka meet toph on one of their diplomacy fieldtrips, since the beifong family is incredibly powerful in the earth kingdom, and as much as they try to hide toph’s existence from the world, it’s kind of hard to ignore a whole twelve year old girl in a fancy hanfu just running around your mansion. sokka and toph immediately get along, and she takes him to the earth rumble where he becomes obsessed with the entire spectacle of it. katara finds toph kind of obnoxious, and is glad for them to finally leave gaoling. then of course toph stows away with them, and sokka has to somehow keep that a secret from both katara and kya until the beifongs come aknocking like “did you by any chance KIDNAP OUR DAUGHTER?!?” and toph’s like “NO. I KIDNAPPED MYSELF.” and katara is just so fucking fed up with the whole thing someone please return this tiny aristocrat back to her mansion dear GOD. but ultimately toph is just so cute that she gets her way and kya agrees to show her the world before then returning her to her family (at which point toph assures sokka that she will simply run away again). toph is just so happy to have relative freedom that she doesn’t even mind that katara is [checks notes] bullying her for being blind. and so she kind of just tags along on their travels throughout the earth kingdom. but then, once they go back home, she realizes that there is simply no way that is agreeing to live in the south pole, so she and sokka reach a compromise and she moves in with suki on kyoshi island, who sokka goes to visit all the time.

oh yeah. he obviously knows suki. their introduction is far more formal, what with them actively knowing the avatar will be visiting them in advance, and he doesn’t antagonize her (he also doesn’t need to learn any grand lesson about patriarchy since gender roles were not being reified by colonialism in this world. fwiw) but he still asks her to teach him what she knows (even though he did receive formal training from hakoda as a child, not for any life-threatening purposes, just because it’s a part of their culture) because he’s obsessed with learning every single thing he can about the world. suki finds it really cute that this nepobaby is so humble, and they have a fun time getting to know each other without the threat of war looming over their heads. yue similarly gets to know sokka on a diplomatic trip to the northern water tribe and there’s immediate chemistry and they’re infatuated. but obviously she’s also engaged, which is an issue. since there’s no siege, both hahn and yue survive and eventually get married, which is as tragic for yue as it sounds. eventually yue gets so sick of hahn that the next time she sees sokka she’s just like fuck it and just straight up enters her infidelity era (which is fully morally justified btw). sokka knows that if anyone ever found out that the princess of the northern water tribe was having an affair with the avatar’s son, it would cause an international scandal, so he’s incredibly careful not to do anything that might expose them. and it’s very bittersweet, but it is what it is.

haru and jet’s respective villages were never occupied so they both grow up in pretty normal households. haru is still kind and brave, and jet is still obnoxious (sorry), and katara is still infatuated with both of them, but jet never like. tries to kill sokka or flood a village, and she never helps haru liberate a prison camp, so they kind of just have normal teenage relationships that last for a brief while and then end naturally. of course sokka still cannot stand jet, but it’s purely vibes based so he just chooses to ignore him while katara sews him the ugliest hat you have ever seen in your life. and eventually haru and katara will reconnect when they’re slightly older and get into a more serious relationship. because they’re cute together. also they meet aunt wu and the events of “the fortuneteller” just play out exactly as they do in the episode. idk why but that’s important to me.

as for azula and zuko, they both grew up hearing from their father that “the fire nation was robbed of its glory and humiliated by the avatar, and that one day it is their destiny to take back their honor and finally realize sozin’s vision, restoring their glorious bloodline to the true throne once and for all.” and ursa’s always like “oh well you know your father has fanciful notions because he was descended from the firelords, but that’s a totally outmoded system of government, and ever since avatar aang instated a republic, the quality of life for all of our citizens has improved tenfold. that’s just evidence-based data talking.” so zuko believes ursa, because she’s nicer to him, and azula believes ozai, because he has his claws in her. kya knows that ozai and the rest of the old royal bloodline still pose a threat to the stability of the fire nation and the world at large, so she is always attending to that family just to ensure that they’re not doing anything insane. and sometimes she takes her kids along with her. and well. for one thing, a better-adjusted sokka hanging out with azula (still being abused, albeit to a lesser extent) is kind of just amazing to me. she explains why the fire nation is ontologically superior and that’s why they’re being nerfed by his stupid lib mom and he’s just like “you’re so smart so how are you so stupid.” he’s deeply enthralled by her cognitive dissonance and just her whole deal in general.

meanwhile katara is infatuated with zuko, and ursa, who immediately adores katara because she’s such a cute and friendly girl, is kind of quietly encouraging him to date her, because the waterbending prodigy daughter of the avatar is really an ideal match for her son. and zuko really likes katara too. they get along really well, and they agree on a lot, are both really passionate about similar things, and go on fun little adventures together, and help each other with their bending, and make each other laugh. but every time katara tries to kiss him he interrupts her by being like “does your brother think im cool?” and katara’s just like “what.” until eventually even she realizes that the idea of actually dating this boy is simply impossible. and for a while she’s crushed that the guy she likes is obsessed with her stupid loser brother (can you imagine anything worse. truly. i cannot) but eventually she comes around because she’s always wanted a gay best friend who she can carry around in her pocket. and then she makes him go shopping with her and paint her nails and go to plays and at first he’s like “this feels kind of offensive” but eventually he realizes that even though she IS stereotyping him he actually DOES really like all those things so he’s just like FINE. I GUESS. katara meanwhile is trying to oh so subtly figure out whether or not sokka even knows that zuko exists and sokka is just like “oh yeah he seems nice enough. his sister though. well she fascinates me.” and katara is like “what the fuck nooooo” but then sokka keeps talking and she realizes he’s discussing her like an abnormal psych case study or something he would dissect in a lab and she’s like “oh. okay. thank god he’s not into her. he’s just some kind of freak.”

katara crowns herself queen of the gays and vows to zuko: “i am going to get my brother to fall in love with you if it’s the last thing i do.” but all of katara’s attempts to make zuko attractive to sokka backfire because she’s exclusively making him do things that she finds attractive and sokka simply has the exact opposite taste. he goes to katara like “i don’t know why i never noticed it before, but zuko’s vibes are kind of rancid. he even kind of reminds me of that guy jet who sucked so bad.” and katara’s like FUCCKCKKKKCK. eventually katara is out of options so zuko’s just like “fine i guess i can’t sink any lower..” so he just knocks on sokka’s door and when sokka opens it he just gets on his knees and clasps his hands together and goes “pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease just one chance PLEASE” and sokka is just like “ummmmmmmmm???? lmfao???? okay….” and goes on a very awkward date with zuko where all he does is just answer every single one of zuko’s somewhat invasive questions about his life in the most detached, impersonal way possible and then at 9pm on the dot sokka yawns and is like “wow im so beat…. this is my bedtime so. goodnight” and zuko is just like scribbling down in his little diary “sokka goes to bed at 9pm on the dot every night because he is regimented and responsible…” sokka gets home and katara’s like, eyes all sparkly “how did it goooo???” and sokka’s just like “man. i don’t know how i didn’t see it sooner. i thought azula was a freak, but zuko is just as much of a freak, if not more so! i definitely need to go out with him again. he’s such a fascinating test subject.” and katara is just like “fuck my life why is he like this.” and then goes to zuko and is like “yeah!!! sokka said he had sooooo much fun!! he really wants to see you again!!” and zuko just lights up like “REALLY??!!?” and katara just doesn’t have the heart to tell him the reason.

anyway. katara and sokka travel the globe. katara establishes some water tribe healing centers in other parts of the world, works as a liaison between the air nomads and the southern water tribe, gets back together with haru, goes on countless adventures, and builds a beautiful life for herself. sokka starts attending ba sing se university because he’s sick of people assuming that his diplomacy skills are purely due to nepotism. so he decides to major in polysci so that he can point to his degree as a qualification. but pretty quickly he realizes that polysci is a stupid field of study and everyone in his classes (including the professors) are completely incompetent and have no actual field experience. so he starts taking different classes, shopping around to figure out what it is he really wants to study. turns out that a lot of different subjects interest him, and maybe being a diplomat isn’t his only possible career. he spends a good decade in academia, just contributing research to all kinds of different fields. then he gets sick of academia and goes into engineering. he starts working with an inventor in the earth kingdom (the mechanist) and basically revolutionizes technology. then he’s like “im sick of inventing cars and computers and smartphones and falafel” (his most important invention) so he goes back to his physics research. but then he gets kind of sick of how insufferably arrogant physicists are so he’s like “maybe it’s time to revisit my favorite case studies” and goes back to the fire nation. katara tags along purely for damage control.

sokka, katara, zuko, and azula are all having dinner together. azula was eventually able to extricate herself from ozai’s abuse and moved to a more rural part of the country to heal. she got really into spiritualism and started working with air nomads taking care of sky bison. zuko moved to a different city in the southern fire nation where he became a herpetologist who primarily works with dragons, and also got really involved in theater. by the time sokka and katara revisit them they are both really happy and thriving. sokka has even read some of zuko’s plays, and has to admit that they’re quite good. which is disappointing, because he was hoping to use them as case studies in his research. at some point during their dinner, zuko’s like “i can’t believe we used to date. i must’ve been so annoying back then, i don’t know how you even put up with me.” and azula’s like “hang on. no. you weren’t dating sokka. i was dating sokka.” and they both stare at each other and then turn to look at sokka for like five minutes of total silence. katara gets so fed up with this that she just bursts out, “NEITHER OF YOU WERE DATING SOKKA. HE WAS USING YOU AS DATA FOR HIS ABNORMAL PSYCH PET PROJECT.” another five minutes of silence. and then azula is just like “oh that actually makes perfect sense. in hindsight that really explains a lot.” and zuko’s like “but kataraaaaa why wouldn’t you TELL meeeee” and katara’s like “well i didn’t want to hurt your feelings and destroy your ego forever. but now that you like. ride dragons for a living i figure that you’ll be fine.” and zuko’s like “yep. haha. im fine! totally fine.” he wasn’t at all living under the illusion that sokka was returning to him after all these years because they were going to reunite and get married and ride his favorite dragon into the sunset forever. his ego definitely isn’t destroyed by this fact at all. he’s sooo good don’t even worry about it. sokka’s just like “well anyway, im very glad that you both seem to be doing a lot better now. that’s really great news. big mazel to you both. okay bye.”

anyway. as for kya, she lives a long and happy life, and is so proud of both her children. she dies at a very old age, completely content. the next avatar is of earth kingdom heritage, of course. and it’s mako :)

[hello-nichya-here]

Azula's mommy issues how it does (and doesn't) affect her personality and theoretical redemption

Ah, Ursa and how she ties into a possible Azula redemption. I recommend you get a snack and some water, because this answer is gonna be a long one XD

Before we even get to the dynamic between these two characters and how it informed Azula's actions, let's remember THE main thing that is responsible for Azula being the way she is: Indoctrination.

Her nation had been waging war against the rest of the world for 100 hundred years. Azula is 14. For 86 years her family had been telling everyone, including themselves, that the war was just, it was for the good of the world and of the Fire Nation, it was "sharing their glory", it was just them taking over land that was rightfully theirs because of "divine right to rule" (something Azula herself says to Lu Fang when she's taking over Ba Sing Se).

We see children cheering for a puppet version of Fire Lord Ozai in a festival, as he defeats an "evil" Earth Kingdom general. We are explicitly shown that Fire Nation schools lie about things like the Air Nomads, a pacifist culture, having an ARMY that Sozin's men attacked, framing it more as a mutual conflict between equals in which the Fire Nation won, instead of a sudden attack against an entire group of people that were just minding their business.

We see IROH write a letter about how he hopes his family can see Ba Sing Se IF THEY DON'T HAVE TO BURN IT TO THE GROUND to conquer it - and not only do Zuko and Azula both laugh, URSA is also laughing.

Azula was raised to believe her nation had every right to do all the attrocities it commited. And just like Zuko, she is still a teenager, not an adult like her dad, uncle or mom - and while they had less excuse than the Fire Siblings for not knowing any better since they were already grown, they do still have more excuse than Azulon and especially Sozin, since they were ALSO raised to believe that stuff was perfectly normal.

Even if Ursa had been a perfect mom, Azula would likely still be a villain, though maybe less bitter and insecure over feeling unworthy of love (but that would not disappear completely, since Ozai was still an abusive dad that very clearly expected perfection from his children at all times, which is way too much pressure to put on anyone, let alone on two kids. And since she was his favorite, she'd obviously try to copy him, so she wouldn't end up like Zuko, so her more cruel, ruthless side would also be very present).

HOWEVER, that does not change the fact that Ursa's flawed parenting had a deep impact on her daughter.

For starters, even the creators/showrunners and writers of the show have said Zuko is her favorite child - and a parent playing favorites is NEVER good, even if they don't downright abuse the one they don't like as much. And for a kid that is in an abusive home, seeing her brother be treated as completely worthless because he is not the favorite, it isn't that hard to understand how Azula concluded that, if her mom didn't like her as much as she liked Zuko, it's because she didn't like her AT ALL. Add in Ursa's concern over Ozai's influence over Azula and how it's shaping her personality, plus the fact that she said "What's wrong with that child?" WITH AZULA IN THE ROOM, and we have the source of her belief her mom didn't just dislike her, but also saw her as monster.

Because yeah, let's not forget Azula had TWO parents. Two parents that clearly wanted very different things from their children. Ursa was cool with all the imperialism stuff, but she was horrified at the thought of the family being at war with itself, fighting for the crown. She was a bad guy, but she had standards. Meanwhile Ozai was clearly on team "stab everyone in the back to get what you want, then rule by fear." Once her mom was out of the picture, Azula naturally felt like her dad had essentially proven his method was better, since he ended up getting everything he wanted (though Azula does question that in the finale, when she imagines Ursa of all people trying to make her see trying to use fear to force people into supporting/loving her would only further isolate her, showing some part of her DID internalize a point of view that did not align with Ozai's).

But even before Ursa was forced to disappear from her daughter's life, she was already failing to connect with her, but not solely because of Ozai. Think about it. We see lots of scenes of Ursa spending time just with Zuko, and some of her with both of her kids - but never do we get even a single scene just between her and Azula.

When Zuko immitates Azula's bad behavior (because he thought it was cool and funny) and throws bread (not a rock like the fandom insists, BREAD) at the turtleducks, Ursa is visibly shocked and distressed, but she EXPLAINS to Zuko why what he did was wrong (it hurt the baby turtleduck, and thus made the mother mad) in a VERY light-hearted way that he clearly remembers fondly. When Azula says things about Azulon being likely to die soon or Iroh being pathetic, Ursa is shocked and distressed - and either just says "Azula, we don't speak like that" or a very angry "Young lady, not another word" but without ever trying to explain to her why what she did was wrong.

Meanwhile, ZUKO actually says things like "How would you like it if Lu Ten wanted dad to die?" or explaining that Iroh gave up on conquering Ba Sing Se out of grief for his only child. Those two scenes were the CLOSEST Azula got to having someone actually try to explain things to her in a way she could understand - but obviously she's not gonna take her brother as seriously as she would an adult, and Zuko has his own stuff to deal with so he can't step up and be a replacement parent to her like Iroh was to him (and considering how young he was at the time, expecting him to do so would be unreasonable - hell, he likely didn't even notice just how badly Azula needed help until she had her breakdown).

Things get worse if we take the comics as canon (which I don't, but I know a lot of people do). On that version of the story, Ursa goes from "Making effort, but screwed up along the way" to "Neglectful/abusive piece of shit that should have her kids taken away."

Comics!Ursa's idea fo "quality time with her kids" involves talking solely to Zuko and ignoring Azula, instead of interacting with both of them. She doesn't encourage them to spend time with each other like she did in the show. When she is banished, she visits both her kids - but only wakes Zuko up. He gets a sweet farewell so he always gets to remember that, no matter what happened, his mom loved him and did not want to leave him. Azula doesn't get a single word, and is left to believe her mom didn't even bother with her.

Worse of all, Ursa CHOOSES TO FORGET HER OWN KIDS. After she had explicitly said she does not believe they are truly safe living with Ozai. After she explicitly said to Zuko "Never forget who you are." Not to mention, she writes a letter with the fake claim that Zuko is actually NOT Ozai's kid - because she knows he will read it and get mad. She risked putting her son in danger just to piss off her husband. That's what she did to the kid she LIKED. How low would she go if the kid in danger was the kid she didn't care for? Oh, wait the comics answer that too. She never bothered asking ANYTHING about what had happened to her all those years (nor to the kid with a scar on his face, mind you), showed more empathy towards her when she COULDN'T remember who she was (and even then it was just a "If I really am your mom, I'm sorry I didn't love you enough." That's it. That's all Azula gets), and she doesn't do ANYTHING about Azula running away. No asking Zuko or someone else to find her, no crying about losing her again, no indication that she is worried about her safety even though she is all alone and mentally unstable.

The comics really did Azula dirty, and I HATE Ursa in it. It reached the point of "I don't want these two to make up, I want Azula to give a whole speech about how much her mom sucks, just like Zuko did with Ozai" because that's what she deserves. Show!Ursa made mistakes, Comics!Ursa IS a mistake. The sympathy for Azula despite her bad actions grows significantly on that version of the story, because how the fuck can we speak her to not be so mad at the world after all that?

But at last, we need to make an important distinction clear here: It doesn't matter if we are talking about the comics or the show, if we like or dislike Azula, if we do or don't want her to be redeemed, the simple fact still is that she WAS screwed over her entire life, her troubled relationship with her mom had a deep and longlasting impact on her mental health, and there was no way in hell she would have EVER been an innocent little angel that is 100% against everything her evil father does. It's just impossible considering her backstory.

And there is a very clear double-standard in how people talk about the idea of a redeemed Azula VS the reality of a redeemed Zuko. Both start with the premise of "This bad guy has understandable, sympathetic reasons to do bad things, since they were indoctrinated from birth and had a terrible family life", both include the character having to see how their actions are hurting them AND others (including those they care about, Zuko's "victim" being Iroh, while Azula's are Mai and Ty Lee. Plus, they've both hurt each other in some ways, some more deliberate than others), and both culminate with the character turning their life around, confronting those who wronged them, and finding a support system for themselves.

Yet one is treated as revolutionary despite not being the first redemption arc ever (nor the only redemption arc in the story itself), nor being perfectly written (because perfect writting doesn't exist), while the other is labelled as lazy, out of character, or "making excuses" for bad people just because they had a tough life (like Azula is an actual person). There is no thematic or moral difference between redeeming Zuko and redeeming Azula, especially in a show that says "EVERYONE has the potential for great good and great evil" and ends with Zuko telling his abuser he hopes he'll also have a change of heart someday, even if he is not sticking around to witness or actively try to make it happen.

Redeeming Azula is no different than redeeming Zuko. It's perfectly fine to want to just one of these things instead of both, but it is NOT a superior choice in anyway, and it's very hypocritical of the same fandom that criticizes the idea of a redeemed Azula because "mommy issues isn't a good enough reson" when they can't stop praising the redemption arc that has "the villain had daddy issues" as it's core premisse. Personal preference is one thing. Being a dick about it is another.

[jacks347]

Would the listeners survive a zombie apocalypse? (In my slightly sarcastic, completely subjective opinion)

Idk man, I'm bored and got time to kill in church so here we are

(Tagging this is going to be a nightmare-)

(Edit from the future: It was. It really was.)

Redacted:

For sake of my sanity this isn't all the listeners, just the ones I'm still actively keeping up with (I'll get to the others...eventually)

Angel - Solid maybe. Out of all the unempowereds, definitely has one of the highest chances. But it would take an extreme streak of luck.

Babe - No...I'm sorry but no. Would be like one of those extras that you see eaten in the first minute of a horror movie.

Sweetheart - Probably. Can a zombie detect someone invisible? Sweetheart is smart enough to survive, they'll be fine.

Darlin - Yes if they have Sam to hold them back from sacrificing themself for the "greater good". No if they're left completely to their own devices.

Lovely - Depends on the version. Pre Adam, no. Pre Inversion, maybe? Post Inversion, definitely. Hard to die to a zombie apocalypse when you're a) already dead and b) literally immortal.

Treasure - Okay, I know Treasure is the newest addition to the roster and we haven't had a lot of time to see their personality develop but as of now? Yeah...no.

Freelancer - They'll do it on -3 hours of sleep simply out of spite. Freelancer has been through enough, they're just tired. They'd survive but begrudgingly.

Honey - Honey would survive out of spite and spite alone. Would definitely have that baseball bat from The Walking Dead.

GBA:

Guardian - ...you're kidding, right?

Darling - Yeah...no. Soft bby would never.

Faithful - Possibly? That stubborn attitude and medical abilities would help but has absolutely no combat training so ehhhhh, it depends.

Paradise - If she can break a pirate crew out of space Fort Knox and wrangle Yargwynn, a zombie apocalypse is pocket change. Paradise would own an apocalypse.

Partner - I swear I'll stop bullying the new additions. Once they're worth not bullying. The man made the zombie apocalypse, I guess we're gonna find out if he survives won't we? I'm not hopeful though.

Escaped:

Asset - No one in ATW even knows how to do basic math, the only way any of them survive is through sheer force of which they might actually be successful. So maybe.

Raven - Yes but she would have a mental breakdown about it so she would not be the same on the other side.

Slash - ...seriously?

Guest - Hm, a trained vampire slayer in a zombie apocalypse, I wonder what would happen! Obviously she'd be fine.

Intern - Entirely dependent on who they're trying to keep alive. If it's just them, probably. If it's them and the rest of their merry band of misfits, no.

Future Wife - You're funny. RIP my girl, no one will know her husband broke the fuckin timeline for some pancakes.

Agent Schäfer - Once the shock and panic wore off, yeah she'd be fine. Hope she doesn't get eaten during that freeze.

("Where's Lass?" When Desmond returns for more than five minutes, come talk to me about listening to Blue Infinity)

Nomad:

Pack Mom - Definitely. We already know she's a deadly shot and wasn't afraid to shoot a living person, a dead one would be fine. She will be perfectly fine.

Lass - Yes. Not with as much overwhelming power as Pack Mom but she'd get through it. I mean...she has formal sword training, I think she'd do okay.

Little One - Probably not. Out of the original Frosthaven romances, they are the least likely to survive. They'd put up a good fight though.

Lamb - Yes and no. Physically, she'd be just fine. Mentally, I don't know if she could do it. Slipping back into that killer mindset might just drag her under.

Chester's mate - Probably not. Out of all the new Frosthaven romances, they're the most average. They'd try though.

Harlow's roommate - No. I love them but no. Not our slightly stupid boat captain.

Caltraxus' TA - Yes and they'd hate it every step of the way. Would survive completely hungover if that was an option.

The Doctor - Probably? If not by her own merit then definitely through someone else cause everyone needs a doctor in the apocalypse.

Beau's mate - Yes. Literally fought a bear once. She will be just fine.

(The lack of fandom names for Nomad's listeners saddens me greatly. And also makes my work so much harder)

This was so dumb but I had fun so :P

[badbatchposts]

Quiet Corners of the Galaxy, Chapter 4

While on a routine mission for Cid, the Bad Batch encounter a woman fleeing from the Empire. Crosshair suspects her seemingly free-spirited, nomadic existence is actually a cover for something else, but struggles to keep his attraction toward her in check as their personalities and ideals clash.

Relevant tags: Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut (not for a few chapters still), Canon-Typical Violence

Chapters posted 1-2x weekly!

Read the full fic so far on AO3

Read previous chapters on Tumblr: Ch. 1 l Ch. 2 l Ch. 3

Chapter 4 summary: The Batch are so bad at being under the radar. They learn more about the mysterious woman; Crosshair doesn't trust her.

“Don’t go to sleep, burk’yc.” Crosshair could see the woman nodding off any time he left her with a few moments of silence. She blinked her eyes open again and refilled her mug with more hot water.

“You’re not exactly the most fascinating conversationalist,” she remarked. She eyed his rifle, which he was methodically cleaning and breaking down, his post-mission ritual. “You’re not a bad shot. I saw the trooper helmets when you were done with them. Guess that’s where you get the name. Bullseye, was it?”

“It’s Crosshair. And I’m better than not bad,” he scoffed testily.

“I suppose that’s why you waited until after I was shot to step in. Or maybe you’re just scared of the Empire.” Her voice was neutral, but she had played her hand too obviously; she was goading him, probing for information just like he was.

He reined himself in and went on the offensive. “I wonder,” he purred, “if your hair’s that color everywhere.”

Crosshair expected steel, fury, maybe a flush coming over her cheeks. Instead, she ran her fingers through her locks disinterestedly, picking out the leaves he had noticed before. Both ears, he observed as her hair was smoothed out of the way, were pierced from top to bottom with a series of small silver rings. “It didn’t used to be. Last few years haven’t been the gentlest for the galaxy, have they?” She nodded at the closely cropped gray hairs that coated his own head, growing back patchily around the burn scar at his temple. “What’s your excuse, grandpa?”

“Genetic enhancement,” he replied cryptically.

“Guess that explains the big guy.” She gestured to Wrecker, who was dead-lifting Gonky at the other end of the ship, before offering her beverage to Crosshair. “It’s supposed to be a communal practice,” she explained in response to his raised eyebrow. He made no motion to take it, eliciting a shrug from her. “That’s alright. I always drink it alone anyway.”

“What? No one likes sharing with you?”

“My life seems like it’s a lot less…communal…than yours.” She glanced vaguely around the ship, which was littered with evidence of their co-habitation. “I suppose mercenaries run in packs.”

“We’re not mercenaries,” Hunter interrupted, rejoining them. He had always taken issue with that term. “We’re clone troopers.”

Crosshair prickled a little. He would never understand why the others had been so difficult to track down during his time with the Empire. Hunter didn’t seem to get the finer points of staying off the radar, since he took the opportunity to expose who they were to the first pretty face they came across.

“Haven’t seen a lot of clone troopers that look like you all.” The woman offered Hunter the mug; sniffing curiously, he took a sip.

“It’s good. Thank you,” he said. Crosshair could tell what Hunter was doing. Where the sniper was rigid, aloof, difficult, the sergeant could be considerate, relatable, diplomatic. He thinks he can break you down this way. But he’ll only get a more amenable version of you, the marksman thought. The woman’s face did appear to soften as his brother continued. “We’re a bit different from the rest of them. But with the Republic gone, none of us are soldiers anymore. Gotta find ways to make ends meet.”

The woman seemed to be opening up. Crosshair didn’t trust a minute of it. “Yeah, I know all about that. It’s hard to get by these days.” She turned to Hunter with a small smile. “I’m Dara.”

“Dara.” He smiled back at her. “Any reason we should be worried that the Empire might come looking for you, Dara?”

She shook her head. “The shuttle really was… well, not exactly a misunderstanding. I just panicked. I’ve been traveling. I was staying in a village on Takodana when the Empire began rounding up all the villagers—I have no idea why. I hid and tried to make a break for my ship, but some troopers spotted me. The shuttle was closest. I managed to take off but it took a hit before I entered hyperspace, and that was just where I ended up when my systems started failing.”

Hunter looked thoughtful. “Well, they probably won’t come after you. But I wouldn’t risk going back to Takodana. You likely won’t be getting your ship back.”

He was already heading back to his bunk when Dara spoke up again. “Thank you. I mean it. All of you.” She shot grateful looks at Tech and Crosshair in particular. “I’m lucky you found me when you did.” She was treated with another smile from Hunter as he left. Tech looked rather pleased with himself.

Crosshair leaned toward her, drinking in her beatific expression as he looked into her eyes. “Liar,” he hissed. Even as her expression remained largely impassive, her eyes glinted and nostrils flared ever-so-slightly, hinting at the snarl she was just barely containing. There, he though, leaning back satisfactorily. The knife’s edge of her self-control. That was a start.

[aliceismypixie]

The villain of my story ∥ The woods aren't for games

Summary - "The villain will always be the villain if the hero tells the story" or atleast that's what they say. No one knew why you became what you are. But you wanted your revenge on Isabella Marie Swan and you were ready to do anything to have it.

Pairing - Twilight x villain!reader

Pronoun - she/her (but can be read as a male reader or gn reader)

Warning - kidnapping

Words count - 1.17k~

Set - After Breaking-Dawn Part 2

Chapter 1 - Masterlist

Lucky them, vampires didn't need to sleep. Unlucky them, vampires couldn't sleep.

For the past two weeks, everyone just wanted to drown themselves in a peaceful slumber only to wake up and realize that the threat was only a bad dream and they were actually okay. Jacob, Seth and Leah had the luxury to sleep but once they would wake up, the hard reality would catch up on them and they were forced to watch over their friend.

Yes once again, there was a protection details for Bella once again. And everyone was either tired or annoyed about it. Leah and Rosalie were annoyed about the protection detail, sure they were somewhat 'friends' with Bella, but honestly Leah was there because she didn't have any other choice and Rosalie was more attached to Renesmee than Bella. The rest were tired. Everyone did try to hide it but it was pretty obvious. This family couldn't get a break. At Least not until the threat was gone.

"So you can't see anything ?" Leah asked with a scoff and Jasper tightened his hold against his wife.

"I've tried okay ? But all I see is a blank space. I can't see them or whatever their plan is. I've tried !" Alice argued back as the family was once again reunited in the living room.

"But we can't just have a protection detail, right ?" Seth innocently asked from his seat beside Esme, who sent him a motherly smile.

"No, we need to add a protection force. We can ask Sam's pack for help." Edward butted in and if Rosalie wasn't outside playing with Resentment Renesmee and Jacob, she would have rolled her eyes.

Of course Edward was only thinking about Bella's safety. But could you blame him ? She was his wife and he loved her more than anything. And as selfish as it sounds, the mind reader was ready to put anyone's life on line if it was to ensure Bella's well being and safety. He did it when the two nomads vampires hunted them, he did it when he forced everyone to leave Forks only to left them once they were out of the city, he did it when the newborn army was against Bella and he did it when the Volturi threatened to kill his family. And by his family, I was only talking about Renesmee and Bella.

But could you really blame him ? It was admirable ! A man boy, willing to risk's all his loved one's life for his true love ! Please take in consideration that Bella was only his singer and not his mate. See that ? He was so deeply in love with the main character that he was willing to do anything for her.

But anyways, Edward Anthony Masen-Cullen was only the main lead of the love triangle for the main character so let's not go deeper into the subject yeah ?

Bella felt like she was a burden. I mean she was but the main character is never a burden. But it wasn't her fault if people were revengeful ! All she ever wanted was to live a happy immortal after-life with her vampire god-like husband, her hybrid super rare child and her husband's super rich family. She was the victim here.

As I was saying, Bella felt like she was a burden and all she wanted was for everything to stop and go back to the way it used to be. Obviously not what it used to be before she met the Cullens, but like, you see the past year that passed without the Volturi or a rogue vampire wanting to kill her was actually nice.

"I'm so sorry guys. I really don't know who it could be…" Bella muttered.

"They're alone against all of us anyways." Emmett smirked, clearly thrilled by the feeling of being in a dangerous situation.

"Emmett, this is a serious matter." Edward scolded with a glare and his brother rose his hand in surrender.

"And I was serious too, relax dude." The buff vampire replied yet the tension in the room stayed so thick that you could cut it with a knife and Jasper's power was almost useless.

"We need to be ready for any eventuality." Carlisle announced and everyone agreed, feeling a strange and uneasy shiver run down their spines.

Rosalie, Jacob and Renesmee were all hanging out in the forest. The Cullen's territory was safe for now and if they felt any threat, they needed to go back home immediately, not that Renesmee would know anyways. Right now they were simply enjoying the fresh air outside of the suffocating windows of the Cullen's three story house and talking. Well, Rosalie and Jacob weren't really talking to each other you know, mostly talking to their favorite child.

"Aunt Rosalie, do you think that we'll catch them ?" Renesmee asked and the blond vampire sent her a comforting smile.

"Of course we will. They will not hurt any of us, don't worry." The Goddess-like vampire replied and Jacob rubbed his fluffy head against Renesmee's side, agreeing with Rosalie for once.

"Well then, you'll have to catch me !" Renesmee started to run away and the two grown up exchanged a look before running after her.

They were unlucky though, Renesmee inherited her father's speed. I would say the little girl was lucky to have inherited her father's speed, but when an immortal child was after you and equally as fast as you while your family was too far away to protect you, I wouldn't exactly say I was lucky.

Smelling the unfamiliar scent of lavender and wet-grass around them, Jacob and Rosalie immediately tried to go faster while Jacob howled, alerting the members of his pack. The two adults chased after Renesmee, missing the shadow passing them through the trees as they couldn't even see the hybrid in front of them.

"Renesmee slow down !" Rosalie called in panic.

Hearing her aunt's worried tone, Renesmee turned around swiftly, but what she didn't expect was to see a hooded figure only a few inches away from her with their red eyes glowing.

"I would stay quiet if I were you." The voice was childish yet there was some kind of venom and dangerous aura in them that made Renesmee stunned in fear.

Not far away from them, echoed the call of Rosalie, soon followed by the rest of the Cullens while the shifters were all in their wolf form causing the hooded figure to smirk before putting a hand on Renesmee's mouth.

"Let's go dear." They muttered and suddenly the clearing was empty, as if they never were there in the first place.

Reaching the clearing, everyone's expression fell as they found it empty. The only thing they could find was a letter gently laid on the ground and Bella took, her hands trembling at the thought of what probably happened and her heart fell, as well as everyone else's, as she rode the words of the letter out loud.

"'I told you to keep an eye open Bells. The woods aren't for games'."

Chapter 3

[thecaroliner]

NATLA: An Extremely Mediocre Mess

I spent the entire day watching Netflix's ATLA adaptation and oh boy was it...something.

I struggle sometimes with putting my full thoughts into words but here goes. No idea how long this will be.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

I want to start out by getting a few things I thought were good or at least fine out of the way.

First off I wanna mention the acting (aside from Gran Gran) was fine. I think Gordon Cormier has a lot of potential and it really felt like sometimes he was being held back by the script and direction. Really hope this role opens up new doors for him in his acting career!

Not that I think ATLA needed more violence or anything, and initially I was against them adding more violence just to make it more "realistic", but I actually didn't mind it. It was way more gruesome than I thought it would be, both Sozin and Ozai literally set people on fire and burn them to a crisp. Kind of does help set in the actual horror of what they're doing. We even saw the same happen to Kya in a flashback. Again, this wasn't needed, but I didn't mind it.

The bending effects DID look a little better than in the trailers I thought. Firebending in particular I thought was decent, all the other elements were just okay, with waterbending I feel suffering the most from it. The rest of the CGI kind of sucked though which I'll get into later.

Having Gyatso be more of a presence I thought was nice, as I always felt like he could've been a little more to the front of Aang's mind in the original series than what he was. I honestly LOVE the idea of him hanging around in the Spirit World for Aang, as in the past I've thought of that idea and wished it had happened. Except....they just kind of throw this plotline away later for no reason. So that's great.

Lastly, it was neat to see Indian culture being represented in Omashu.

Now that that's out of the way....time to really dig in.

The series starts with the Air Nomad genocide, pretty brutal stuff but I don't have much to say about this aside from the moments with Gyatso being nice.

Aang can apparently just fly now, but he only really does it to show off in this first episode. Apparently it's because he's an Airbending prodigy, despite the fact that the ability to fly was established in LOK as being a very rare occurance that only comes after letting go of every earthly attachment. But sure, let's just have Aang fly now. Why even have his glider in the first place?

He gets frozen in pretty much the exact same way, which now leads us to the Southern Water Tribe, where Katara is practicing waterbending in secret in the abandoned Fire Nation ship. It's mentioned later that Sokka and Gran Gran forbid her from practicing bending in case the Fire Nation comes back and tries to kill her, which...sure, I guess.

They find Aang's iceberg, but since Sokka isn't sexist anymore, her anger at him isn't what opens the ice, it's her attempting to pull their canoe back to them and she accidentally splits the iceberg open.

Speaking of Sokka's sexism, remember when people were trying to say "Oh the show isn't getting rid of that arc, it's just updating it because a lot of moments in the original show were iffy!" Yeah, no, they got rid of that arc entirely. Which, honestly if they had just done that without making a big deal out of it in interviews wouldn't have been an issue. The issue is them trying to act as though the narrative of the show itself was sexist and not actively showing us that Sokka is in the wrong.

Anyways, Aang literally just falls out of the iceberg and it's lowkey funny cause he just slides out like he's going down a water slide.

They take him back to the village unconscious and once he wakes up, Gran Gran (who's acting was awful by the way. Not sure if it was the actress' fault or the direction, it really felt like the direction to me). She immediately recognizes Aang's tattoos and just tells him flatly that the Air Nomads are all dead. No compassion or anything. Oh, and she out of the blue begins narrating the original series' intro verbatim which was so out of place and funny. HEY REMEMBER THE OPENING FOR THE CARTOON?? THAT'S IN HERE TOO!!!!!

Weirdly enough....it almost felt like Sokka and Aang had more of a bond than Katara and Aang. Sokka was initially skeptical of Aang but then instantly wants to go save him and I swear they had more interactions than Aang did with Katara. The two of them don't even really feel like friends until the last two episodes or so.

Also, they go to the Southern Air Temple in the first episode where Katara doesn't calm Aang down from the Avatar State but rather a memory of Gyatso did. Okay....

Oh, this also had one more thing I liked, and it was Aang giving Gyatso a proper burial. I always assumed that happened at some point, whether during the series or sometime afterwards. Nice to see it here.

Okay, so my thoughts after this are just gonna skip around a bit because I was writing them down as I went. The first half the series really didn't have much egregiously wrong with it, it was mostly just mid.

It's mentioned briefly that...Aang's airbending went out of control sometimes? Like the reason he had to train with the monks was so that he would stop accidentally hurting his friends with airbending. Because why have the storyline of him accidentally hurt Katara with firebending when you could have this instead?

The like...purple and motion blur effects they used for the Spirit World scenes was such an eyestrain....

In the Spirit World, Kyoshi gives Aang a vision of the attack on the Northern Water Tribe. Before, Aang had no reason to even bother going here, because Katara is teaching herself waterbending (turns out Gran Gran had the waterbending scroll the whole time! But hid it from Katara til now). Aang also doesn't even attempt waterbending at all this season btw

The Gaang gets to Omashu, where they decide to combine The King of Omashu, Jet, The Northern Air Temple...and The Cave of Two Lovers. Despite this sounding clunky and weird, I think these storylines together actually did mesh well (except for the COTL, which OH BOY I WILL GET TO)

The idea here is that the Mechanist, whose name is now Sai (don't know if this was ever mentioned in any supplemental material or if it was just made up for this show) and Teo live here. Jet and the Freedom Fighters also live nearby, where they are trying to plant bombs around Omashu and make the Gaang think it's the Fire Nation.

One scene I wanna mention, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I SWEAR Sai said he needed to control the "attitude" of the hot air balloon...not "altitude."

Aang ends up getting captured by Bumi's generals, and he almost immediately figures out who Bumi is. Which...I cannot believe Aang named his son after THIS Bumi. He's kind of a huge asshole and is mad at Aang for abandoning them for the past century. Like you really had to make the character angry at him Bumi???

So, um. Let's talk about the COTL plot now.

Katara and Sokka go to try and find Aang and find out that there's a series of elaborate tunnels underneath Omashu, where they run into the singing nomads. This was literally only a plotline so that they had an excuse to sing Secret Tunnel this season. They explain to the siblings the story of Oma and Shu (which is just verbatim from the original series), ending with "Love is brightest in the dark."

Remember that. They preface the storyline of the tunnels by explicitly telling Katara and Sokka about the two lovers. Very romantic.

Katara and Sokka quickly realize that the cave crystals glow in the dark and begin to follow the path. Love is brightest in the dark, right? Along they way they begin bickering because Katara feels like Sokka still sees and treats her like a child.

Eventually they get pursued by a badger mole who begins to chase them. They apologize to one another and hold hands as they think they're about to be killed but...the badger mole stops attacking.

Why does it stop attacking, you ask?

Because now apparently badger moles can feel human emotions. They don't like feeling people fight and want to feel the love between them instead.

I was LOSING IT at this part. "Love is brightest in the dark" was apparently metaphorical.

And don't get me wrong, I love seeing platonic and familial love portrayed in media...but like, to do this storyline...don't preface it with a romantic tale of two lovers????? It gives off a very unintentionally creepy vibe for the siblings. And I'm sure I don't have to explain why badger moles being able to sense love is just dumb as shit.

Moving on....Bumi is nice again. Yay.

They go to the town where Hei Bai is attacking and Aang somehow accidentally pulls Katara and Sokka into the spirit world with him because the writers also wanted to have The Swamp here. Oh, and the Koh storyline. He doesn't steal faces for showing emotion anymore either, he just captures people and eats them later and steals their faces then. Cool.

Oh, and Wan Shi Tong is there and he looks emaciated.

Katara relives the night her mom dies, while Sokka sees a mysterious looking fox in the forest. Initially I assumed this was one of Wan Shi Tong's knowledge seekers but oh no. Oh no, it is much, MUCH worse. We'll come back to it.

Aang manages to find Gyatso in the Spirit World, which again is an idea that I LOVE. Gyatso explains that after he died, he never moved on to the next cycle of enlightenment, instead choosing to stay in case Aang needed him. They have a really touching moment, and Aang promises to come find him again after he finds Katara and Sokka.........which we'll come back to.

The events of The Blue Spirit happen, not much to talk about here. Aang connects with Roku (apparently he can only connect with past Avatars at their respective shrines, btw) and finds out Roku stole a totem of The Mother of Faces from Koh and that's why Koh hates the Avatar. Why steal that totem?? Hell if I know. Roku's also a funny man now I guess.

Aang saves Katara and Sokka from being Koh food and all is well. Yay.

They finally get to the North and this is where the show really went from being mid to pure cringe for me.

The "women only learn healing" plot is still here. Katara is rightfully angry about it, but Aang's like "oh well maybe you should listen to them". Yes, really.

Here Aang is so worried about losing anyone else, which, obviously understandable. But he doesn't want Katara and Sokka, especially Katara, to fight AT ALL. Which I mean. OG Aang never once tried discouraging her from learning to fight. Obviously he loves her and does have concern for her safety a number of times throughout the show and comics, but he also knows she can kick ass and stand her ground on her own and never tries to stop her.

Katara fights Pakku, and despite literally the day before saying she still has a lot to learn and a long way to go, she's just instantly declared a master waterbender now!

And oh boy my friends, buckle in because now we're gonna talk about Yue.

First off...her wig looks BAD. Like I'm pretty certain I saw her real hair sticking through a few times. Why not just dye the actress' hair....even Shyamalan's Yue hairstyle looked better than this, and we all know what that looked like.

So right off the bat Sokka asks Katara if Yue is at all familiar. Katara says no but Sokka keeps pressing and eventually follows Yue, where we learn she's a waterbender? Okay, not like her being a waterbender or not has any affect whatsoever on the story, but sure. We also learn that she had previously been engaged to Hahn but broke it off because he "wasn't the boy of her dreams". Not sure why they bothered to write him in the first place.

So...Yue and Sokka begin talking, and Sokka finally realizes why she's familiar to him.

I genuinely had to pause the episode to laugh when this reveal happened.

YUE WAS THE FOX SPIRIT SOKKA SAW IN THE SPIRIT WORLD.

Yes, I'm being 100% serious. When Yue was healed by the moon spirit, she turned into Danny Phantom and can now just hop in and out of the Spirit World. As a fox for God knows what reason.

BTW, this has jack shit to do with anything overall. It adds nothing. It serves NO PURPOSE. Genuinely do not know what the hell they were trying to do with that.

Um, so yeah. Moving on.

Apparently in this version, Tui and La only become mortal fish once a year or something? On the night of the "ice moon". Your guess as to what on earth an ice moon is is as good as mine.

Zhao begins to lead an invasion on the north and Momo is killed in the crossfire.

Well, almost.

Again I just busted out laughing because Momo has served NO PURPOSE until now, he's just been there because he was in the og series. I'm sorry Momo, as much as I love you....why were you here.

To save a kid from being crushed by falling debris. He just pushes them out of the way and is crushed. The reason is just so that Yue can take him to the Oasis and use healing on him with the Spirit Water.

Katara and Zuko have their classic fight and Zuko says "Oh you've found a master haven't you?" To which Katara replies, "Yeah, me" because she's a master now after 2 days remember?

Koizilla happens...the tribe is saved...Yue makes her sacrifice. So now she can go be the moon instead of a fox I guess.

Also, I think Iroh killed Zhao, despite earlier in the series refusing to kill the Earth Kingdom soldier who captured him because "we've all seen enough death."

And then...Aang goes back to the Spirit World, to find that the little "house" Gyatso was in is empty now. Gyatso is just gone now, with no explanation, although he seemed to know when he met with Aang beforehand that he would be gone from the Spirit World next time Aang tried to find him. Great job, taking the only interesting storyline made up for this series and just throwing it out the window for no rhyme or reason!

Now lemme talk about Azula....

She's not even Azula anymore. She's really insecure and worried about pleasing her father. Because whenever I thought of Azula, I always thought "insecure!" Like I get what they were going for, Zhao says this honestly kinda raw line about Zuko merely being the fire to sharpen the iron that was Azula, but like....why did she have to be this insecure person now? Also why is she even an archer now? It again has nothing to do with anything

Mai and Ty Lee are there for also no reason at all other than to be like "HEY REMEMBER THESE TWO CHARACTERS FROM THE ORIGINAL SHOW?!" They just stand there and watch Azula train sometimes.

The show ends with a Fire Sage showing Ozai through their planetarium (which they have now I guess) that Sozin's Comet is returning "soon." Who knows when! Just soon!

Also, Kataang shippers do not get your hopes up. Not that I expected much Kataang here at all, but I swear they barely even feel like friends until the end. It almost seems like Katara is more interested in him than he is in her.

My expectations of this series were low from the beginning. When it was first announced this project was in development, I said it was unnecessary and couldn't improve upon the OG in any way...and I was right. Even as its own thing entirely divorced from the cartoon, it's just kind of bland and downright confusing at times.

Anyways, my fingers hurt now so I'm going to wrap this up. Apparently I've been typing for like 1.5 hr now lol

Watch the original series instead :)

[pinkyjulien]

Just a heads up: you, a white creator, putting Native American/First Nations/indigenous inspired clothing on your white OC, and then calling it the "wilding" appearance, could be considered cultural appropriation and could also be considered offensive to people from those cultures.

And yeah, I am doing this from a throwaway account to protect myself because I know how Tumblr and the cyberpunk 2077 fandom works. Even if I do have a valid point or critique, I could still be attacked by "fans" on my main who refuse to use any critical thinking for themselves.

Safe travels 👋 I hold no animosity towards you personally.

(From a "cowardly" anon in an extremely hostile fandom which likely will pretend that this outfit and the name for it isn't tinged with implicit and internalized racism.)

(And, no, I'm not one of the so-called "housewives")

Hey Anon,

Not sure what to say, you claim to not hold any animosity towards me, yet this could've easily been a DM. I'm only assuming you're blocked and had to create a side blog to by-pass the said block.

If this was truly a well-spirited heads up, it would've been a DM.

But anyway, if you're here to accuse me in a sugarcoated way, I already know you're having the time of your life about it in some obscure discord server, so might as well.

The Aldecaldos (and Nomads in general of every clan and family) are multi cultured, there's people of every races, every ethnicities- we see it in game and it's mentioned time and time in the sourcebooks. They're communities, formed of many minorities; queers and pocs alike.

Valentin joins the Aldecaldos during the Star ending, just like the canon game event; he makes friends left and right, and friends makes gifts to one another. We also know that resources, clothes, cars, guns, are shared in nomad communities.

The name "wilding" is a direct reference to the Neo Tribe sourcebook, page 21. I used that same name for Mitch's appearance. They use those outfits to ride off near cities, just like the definition on the page below. They're both proudly showcasing their Aldecaldos colors in whichever place / cities they're visiting.

In my own canon, Dakota is kind of a mother figure for Valentin; she helped him after fleeing the Wraiths, she gave him his first gig with Jackie, she made sure the 'caldos ripper kept the bullet he revoved from Valentin's skull, etc etc

That Jacket could've well been a gift from her before leaving to Arizona, but I haven't decided yet. I was just happy to share my modding project of those past two days.

I've always liked Nomads and what they stand for, their diversity, their lives, their outfits and aesthetics too.

None of the above information is presented as an excuse, they shouldn't be seen as excuses either; I'm simply sharing what inspired me (actively or subconsciously) for this outfit.

If Valentin's appearance, both models and name, did actual upset anyone, I apologize, as this obviously WASN'T the intention. If it does bother you, I invite you to block me.

With all of the "explaination" out of the way; why are you really here?

Because we both know you already knew that about the Aldecaldos. You played the game, you know Panam is half native, you know there's a bunch of native characters in the Aldecaldos and in the game in general.

This ask isn't fueled by kindness or by an attempt at educating someone who could've made a simple mistake.

Nope, you're simply part of this "hostile fandom" problem. Everything you said in brackets reeks of past drama.

Again, you claim to not hold any animosity, but I believe otherwise; that's totally fine, but refrain from contacting me with this fake benevolence, everyone can see it's bullshit.

Repeating myself, this could've been a DM, yet you choose to assume I have some "internalized racism" that You Need to point out, doing so via a side-blog supposedly out of fear (since I don't know who you are, I'll choose to believe you simply by-passed a block) while also dragging in the "Housewives" for no reasons.

You're part of this fandom problem. You're part of the reason why nobody feels safe about sharing anything; you and your friends are out there spying, monitoring what everyone does, assuming the worst at any given occasions and ready to write callouts, to throw witch hunts.

Please, do some critical thinking yourself, remove all the bias and all the "Pinky Bad so this is obviously Racist" bullshit fogging your brain, and ask yourself why you really sent that ask.

[friedoats]

Okay so i finished NAtLA

Im gonna be talking about what i think could have been done better, my few nit picks where i was ready to throw my tv out the window, the stuff that made me go what the hell, and the 2 things that i felt like they did really well/better than og, and shit that had me laughing

And before i go any further if i were to sum up everything wrong with this the main and biggest issue with this remake is that there is a common theme of them making shit up that a, completely disregards the og world building. B, give us no reason for the deviance. And c, just putting in cheap plot devices or shit that doesnt do anything for the story.

With that aside for what it was i liked it. it was okay, it definitely met my expectation of being average and mediocre.

Could have been better

Episode run time/plot set up had a choppy flow. So all the episodes average out to about 50 minutes and we got 8 episodes this season, they obviously would have to merge or cut episodes no matter what. The flow was especially weird with ep 3&4 the ones scened in omashu, where they combined like 3 episodes from the original and just-was not put together well and they definitely could have paced the story better. I honestly think-in my personal opinion-it would have been better if they had split the 7 hours down to 20-25 minutes each episode. that would have given us about 17 episode rather than the 8 40-50 minutes that each episode was, i think it would have helped their pacing

Why the comit celebration with the air nomads? Like why are they celebrating that comit? Is it culturally significant to them, if anything it seems like something only the firenation would celebrate, what significance does the comit that strengthens firebenders that only omes by once every 100 years have to the airbender? In the og it was multiple sycronized attacks on each temple if im recalling corectly, but yeah comit festivle at the air nation just was a tad bit weird for me

For yue im just mad the didnt save their cgi budget to give us floaty ghost yue, we were deprived of spirit yue and i detest that, other than that i apreciate she had the option to not go through with the aranged marriage, they would have written her as a character better, it just felt, a lot more surface level than in the og.

Huh/it happened

Why'd they take aangs shirt off in the first ep? I know they did it to show us his sick tattoos but, bro is seriously in the southern water tribe please give him his shit back while he's passed the hell out

I have...opinions about them physically showing us the genocide of the airbenders because on one had, we didnt see that in the og and its and intresting exploration of what we knew but hadn't seen, on the other hand, genocide... idk if it was necessarily an okay thing to portray the way that they did, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth (but thats kinda the point of it(genocide is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable it should feel wrong)) but yeah it was definitely a decision that they made.

I was ready to throw my phone

My only complaint about Suki is just the fact that they made her shy??? Like that felt so unnatural not having her talk to sokka for a whole 20 ass minutes (closer to five but it felt like 20) and not to mention the scene where shes teaching sokka i-i dont have words it was just horrible. it was so ooc for suki and i cant even think of a reason why they would do it, like, the audience doesnt gain anything from her not talking besides cringe 10,000 and it doesnt do anything for the plot whatsoever or narrative, someone was just like, "what if she didn't talk lol because outsiders are in her village and that water tribe guy is cute". The reason that sokka and suki worked was because she was just as if not more head strong than him, and she's really not the kind of person to have a crush at first sight. Just felt ick. Give me season one misogynistic, sexist sokka, let him have caracter development of getting his ass beat and his standards thrown back at him torn to shreds

Let sokka be problematic

I threw my phone

The only being able to talk to the previous Avatars via avatar statues makes no fucking sense and i have no clue what the hell possessed them to make them think it was a good idea to do that. First off how in the hell would they have figured it out (people in atla world)? There would have been a point at the beginning of the avatar cycle where mfs were not making statues of them, and then they did do it and some avatar was just like lemme meditate under this previous avatar and see what happens-it just agh. Second of all at some point avatar statues are going to be destroyed whether by time or intentionally at some point there will be avatars that will just never be reachable or wholly forgoten. It also just feels like a cheap plot device to get them to go places and we dont really gain anything from it.

Okay the spirit episode with hei bai, was just... a mess. And im chunking this all together, number one the fucking, ahhdhdhg, it makes me mad just thinking about it, the fact that katara and sokka got "pulled into" the spirit world with and was just bad. Bad storytelling. Bad writing. And they fucking knew it, and they knew that we would know that they were pulling shit out of their ass with it, they acknowledged that in the fucking show, they had sokka and katara say "hey how did we get in here with you" and aang just shrugs and says "idk" and it actually has me griping at my scalp and pulling my fucking hair out. that was first draft kinda stuff and the fact that it made it into the final fucking product has me raising my fucking fists to fight whoever made that decision. Numero dos why was yue there (yes i know that they gave an explanation but still why, it served no purpose it did nothing) number 3 sokka should not have a face aang should not have a face, koh the face stealer. he steals faces, specifically when people show emotion. Thats what makes him scary, not the memory bullshit whatever that was . It was just weak.

Kataras whole bending arc, nothing more needs to be said, actually basically her whole character in this.

Okay i really liked this

I really liked how they casted Azula. Spesifically that she looks her age, she looks young, because she is, even though shes definitely trying to be/apear older. And i like that they made her also just as much a victim of ozai's abuse as zuko(dont get me wrong love og but this is a good expansion of the narative for an adaptation) not to mention durring zukos agni kai shes not smiling, she looks conflicted, glad its not her, but thats her brother. and shes still is a genius in bending and her personality has been moulded to not be a target for ozai and vying for his aproval its obvious that she aware that ozai's wrath could also be turned onto her and had learned from zukos mistakes to not get the brunt of it. Just a good exploration of azula over all

Appa looks so cute! They did my boy good and Momo! Adorable truely 10/10 except the part where they nearly fucking killed him, that was unnecessary and he shoud have a part of the moon or ocean spirit in him like yue canonically speaking but ig.

Other coments

Half the budget was spent on wigs lol i have nothing more to say on this

I think we could have stood to have a bit more mention of sokkas Insticts

That was just a whole ass regular kayak at the end and it had me on rolling on the fucking floor

I felt like i was reading a fan fic written buy a child that doesnt actually like the source material and only read the spark notes

Side note

I didnt add a lot of stuff that i originally was going to bc its kinda obvious and were things that i felt like i couldn't add anything to

[littlerosette]

oh you just know aang is gonna be gloating and smirking from the inside out.?),$ but the other 50% of him will be in a sour mood because now katara’s fiancé says she can’t hang w him anymore 😢

(first of all, you liking kataang makes me adore you even more thank you for having fantastic taste ily)

and yeah literally. it’s all quite tortured. aang is walking the line between being constantly jealous and heartbroken. katara is visibly miserable at all times except when she’s with him. they’re very obviously in love, and her fiancé is an asshole (it’s hahn) but he’s slightly justified in feeling upset because katara and aang are constantly staring longingly at each other with shimmery eyes and making public displays of how much they need to be around each other.

and on another note of aang’s jealousy, i think it’d be really fun to explore air nomad philosophy on marriage and relationships, because i Love the idea of aang being very blasé about it until it comes to katara marrying someone else. in that case he’s very who is he

[boneinator]

buzzer: 🦒👿🎸😱

rosetta: 🩷🎨👼🤖

Damn boy those are a lot of questions ! Long one !!

Buzzer:

🦒do they interact with the spg bots?

Yeah sure ! He wasn't actually built by Peter one but he was who upgraded him to actually run on blue matter (which is why he's so Blue™ it wasn't meant to be around so much radiation) so he's around sometimes - they have more of a "family friend" bond instead of the usual "basically siblings"

👿what is their greatest flaw?

He stoopid ☹️ jk it's his inability to actually be himself around ppl - there is a reason for him to try to mimic the Walter Workers and it is not wanting to be human it's just irrationally afraid of not being enough . This is also why he's so anxious all the time and it kinda makes him hate it's fangs/claws bc they physically show that , he can't really hide it

🎸do they play any instruments?

He plays the drums ! Bc then he can just hide at the back of the stage lol , and tho his voice sucks 90% of the time (he can't regulate it's voice volume bc janky vocoder) there's a really low chance of him singing decently

😱what is their greatest fear?

Loosing what little he already has . Boy is going insane already proving his anxiety overthinking right would make him lose his screws even more

Rosetta:

🩷have they ever been in love?

Yes actually , he's had a lot of partners come and go in her life ! None of them stuck around for long tho , her nomad like lifestyle kinda keeps her away from settling down (deal breaker most of the time) or they could have just been with him for the robot novelty . Plus being queer was obviously frowned upon at the time and you can't really pass with her , he was not hiding for you lmao

🎨what are their hobbies?

Birdwatching ! They have keept her company around all her travels so he's taken a liking to observing them and their different habitats

👼what is their best quality?

Kind of related to red matter kind of related to her inspirations but it's her passion ! This thing ain't giving up on anything and if she loves you she's going to make the impossible for you to have that present

🤖do they like being a robot or do they wish they were human?

She wishes she understood exactly what's going on in a human's mind - how their feelings work , what aging feels like - but she wouldn't trade being a robot to know , her origins are very dear to him and he's made passing down all his past knowledge to the next generations her life mission . You could say she likes it

[petite-ursus]

More Tortall thoughts as I listen to Kel's story...

I'd actually love to hear more about The temples of the Great Mother Goddess...

I'm interested in the beliefs of those who live and work within the temples. In banquets Kel is transferred to serving a priestess of the goddess, who sits with the Shangs, as she doesn't offend anyone at that table. The priestess sits multiple times with the Wildcat. Obviously she doesn't mind women who don't live a standard woman's life, even outside her temple. But I'd guess there are also some in the temple who believe women who don't want to live a Standard Woman's Life should turn exclusively to the goddess (or similar) as the only acceptable alternative and not anything beyond goddess work. Another tier of sexism, not a total divestiture from it.

But I'm also interested in how these temples exist alongside systems in places even like Sarain, which is even more sexist than Tortall. The disconnect between the belief of the general population of both of these countries that women are not meant for ruling or combat and a temple which is relatively autonomous (though we do see limits to that as Thayet flees Sarain and cannot be offered shelter.)

Because yeah, there are women who are purely priestesses, but also there are woman guards in the temple of the Goddess.

In the temple in Corus, in Alanna's books, they wield double-headed axes to prevent men from setting foot on the grounds. Women can and do seek refuge in the temple and cannot be taken away from the temple until its court finds them innocent or guilty. In Kel's books it's noted they go after rapists, even if they're nobles.

It's different than the Shang, where yes there are women, but the members are roaming, not incorporated into any specific country's life and laws (except ostensibly wherever their school is, but this is, as far as I know, undisclosed.)

Even the K'miri are nomadic, and though they maintain a tradition of allowing women warriors and leaders, it is scorned by those in the ruling class, and that power and freedom of choice does not extend to the official law the of the land (Thayet can't be a warrior or inherit.)

We know more about the Mithran cloisters, where mages and Mithran priests are trained. And Mithran priests even teach at the palace.

But the priestesses don't work amongst the people, or teach, as far as I can remember, outside of wherever they're trained and... where do the disciples of the goddess train? Is this the same convent in the City of the Gods where Alanna might have gone? The Goddess on Earth does live there.....

George's mother Eleni and Thayet's cousin were both priestesses. So it's equal opportunity for commoners are nobles.

I just. Want to know more.

Is any of this information anywhere? I haven't read the Provost Dog series in years and years and I know that deals more with the actual city, so maybe there?

[ao719]

Best Kept Secrets

Best Kept Secrets - Don’t Tell Me We’re Nothing (Chapter 7)

Characters belong to Pixelberry.

Summary: An unforeseen encounter with the past proves that even the best-kept secrets eventually make their way into the light.

Title inspiration: Feel Something - Landon Austin

Pairing: Liam x OC

A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out. Not beta’d. Please excuse any errors.

Warning: This series will contain NSFW material. If you read, you acknowledge you are 18+

Catch up here

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Standing in the bedroom of her hotel suite, Amara was in sort of a daze as she placed items into her overnight bag. She would soon be headed to Lythikos and she was still trying to wrap her mind around how easily she had agreed to attend the festivities, especially with Liam standing right beside her. She was initially invited to the festival, but then as they continued to talk, Olivia thought it would be remiss of her not to extend an invitation to Amara for the ball taking place the evening before as a special guest of the Duchess herself.

You could have just said you’d think about it, then politely declined later when he wasn’t around. Amara shook her head as she zipped the bag shut. She was wary about going to Lythikos at all. She was wary because Liam would obviously be there. She was starting to lose her sense around him, and despite knowing the little game he was playing with her, she was still falling right into it, like a moth to a flame.

Liam was getting a divorce. And although he hadn’t come out and said the words, he wasn’t exactly trying to hide how he still felt about her. Knowing that was making it harder for Amara to pull away. But was there a reason for her to be pulling away? With his impending divorce on the horizon, was there anything standing in the way of them pursuing something this time around?

Amara closed her eyes, silently admonishing herself for allowing her mind to even venture down that road when she already knew the answer. Yes, there was plenty standing in the way. The lingering secrets still between them. They could change everything … including the way Liam looked at and felt about her.

Pulled from her thoughts by an incoming message, Amara glanced down at her phone on the bed, seeing Riley’s name on the screen; she and Drake had also been invited by Liam to Lythikos to attend the festival events; they were her ride. Amara grabbed her phone, sending a message back that she would be down in a few minutes. She grabbed both her overnight bag and the garment bag containing her dress from the bed and headed out of her room.

When Amara stepped into the living area of the suite, she was met by Daniel and Imogen; she softly smiled as they looked up and met her gaze. “All set?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah,” Amara replied as she lifted her bag in her hand. She then looked between them hesitantly. “Are you guys sure about this?”

“It’s no trouble,” Imogen smiled.

“Seriously, we’re fine, Amara,” Daniel said. “You’ll only be gone two days and are a phone call away. We’ve got things covered here.”

“Are you sure? Because I really don’t have to go,” Amara replied, her tone slightly pleading as if she were hoping they would just tell her to stay.

“We’re sure,” Daniel insisted, giving her a look.

Amara returned his look. Daniel was being rather insistent for more reasons than one. She knew one of those reasons was the woman sitting beside him, who he had become completely smitten with over the last year. And he knew that she was aware of that. But it wasn’t the only reason for his persistence. Daniel made his opinion on Amara talking to Liam no secret, so she also knew that he thought two days away in the same vicinity as him and nowhere to run but snowy mountains might give her just enough of a push to do it.

“Fine,” Amara sighed. “But if you need anything—”

“We’ll call. We promise,” Daniel nodded. “Now go. And maybe, ya know, actually try to make the most of this trip,” he quipped with a knowing arch of his brow.

Amara side-eyed him before moving toward the door. “I’ll call later.”

****

As the SUV made its way to Lythikos, Liam stared out the window at the passing scenery, lost in his thoughts — thoughts of Amara and these next two days with her.

Liam could tell Amara was on edge the minute Olivia had mentioned inviting her to the festival in front of him. He didn’t need to pretend to know why. She remembered. Most of Cordonia and the places they frequented all felt like a looking glass into their past; each place they found themselves in together was almost like watching a silent reel of their previous story playing out. Lythikos was no different, holding a piece of their now scattered puzzle. And Liam knew Amara was struggling to hold onto her restraint around him with each piece of that puzzle she stumbled upon.

If it were up to him, Liam would gather all those pieces up and put them together to remind Amara of exactly what they once shared. He couldn’t, however, because he knew there were pieces missing; she told him as much on more than one occasion since her return. He still wondered what exactly he didn’t know, but he also knew better than to push her. Whatever those pieces were, she still wasn’t ready to show him.

As they started to reach the snowy outskirts of Cordonia, Liam couldn’t help but be reminded of the last festival Amara attended. That time two years ago, she was extended a spontaneous invitation from the King himself.

**

Sitting in his study one evening after a long day, Liam stared at his phone lying on his desk; he was debating on sending Amara a message, or maybe even calling. He hadn’t seen or heard from her in the past few days; he had been stuck in endless meetings, none that concerned her or required her presence. He was sure she was busy with her own work, but it had been the first time since her arrival — and in the weeks since they had gotten closer — that he hadn’t seen her, even just in passing.

As much as he knew it shouldn’t bother him, he didn’t like it.

And Liam wasn’t sure, with his schedule over the next few days, when he would be able to see her.

As much as he knew it shouldn’t bother him, he liked that even less.

Then, an impulsive thought struck him, one that went beyond a simple message or a phone call. As he stood from his seat, Liam glanced up at the door, calling for whoever was on the other side. Two younger guards who had been in training the past week entered the King’s study and bowed. “Gentlemen,” he said with a nod to greet them. “I need my car brought around to the back of the palace right away please.”

“Any particular reason, sir?” one of the men questioned.

Liam lifted his stern gaze as he slipped the papers from his desk into a drawer. “I want to go somewhere. Is that reason enough?”

“Go somewhere, sir?” the other guard asked.

“Yes,” Liam nodded. “As in, I want to leave the palace grounds.”

“Is … is something the matter, sir?”

Liam’s brows furrowed at the line of questioning he was receiving over a simple request. “No. I just want to go somewhere.”

The two guards shared a look before looking back at their King. “We just need to reach out to the head of the guard so we can assemble your motorcade, sir. Just like any other time you leave. There’s no need to bring your personal vehicle around.”

Liam shook his head adamantly. “No … that’s unnecessary. Forgive me for not being clear. I want to go somewhere … alone. By myself. No King’s Guard, no motorcade, no protocols. Just me. Just … Liam. Which is why I need my car so I can take myself where I want to go.”

The two younger guards looked at one another again before their eyes went back to Liam. “You can’t do that, sir.”

“What do you mean I can’t do that?” Liam asked, keeping his expression impassive despite the irritation he was starting to feel.

“It … for you to leave, sir … alone … well, you can’t,” the one guard said. “They don’t want you going anywhere without any security since the attacks.”

“It’s … it’s out of the question,” the other guard added. Liam arched a brow at the man’s words, and he stared back at him nervously. “Respectfully … sir.”

“Out of the question?” Liam repeated as he leaned up against his desk and crossed his arms over his broad chest, purposely shifting his body language to appear even more intimidating than the two men clearly already saw him.

“Y-Yes, sir,” one man gulped.

This is a damn joke. Liam clicked his tongue as he nodded and looked down at the floor. “I am not a prisoner …”

“No, sir,” they both replied in unison.

“I am the King of Cordonia, the most powerful man in the country … not to mention, a perfectly capable adult …”

“Yes, sir …”

Liam looked up at the two of them, eyeing them coolly. “But I can’t go anywhere by myself?”

“No, sir …”

“Do you see why I would be a little annoyed?” Liam questioned.

“Yes, sir.”

Liam pushed himself off his desk and let out a breath as he grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair and slipped it on as he moved toward them. “I am a grown man. I am going to leave and leave without protection. You two are going to stay right here. Do not leave that spot,” he pointed down to their feet. “Do not move. Do not call anyone. Do not even touch your phones, or mine for that matter. Just stand there … and breathe.” Liam brushed by the two young guards and walked out the door, leaving them slightly wide-eyed and rooted in place, confused as to what they were supposed to do.

It wasn’t like Liam to do something like this; evading his detail wasn’t something he’d done before nor had he ever given them any sort of a hard time. But he had to see her. And he wanted to do it alone.

****

Twenty minutes later, after finding his keys and managing to get out undetected, Liam pulled up outside of Amara’s hotel. He threw his car in park as he glanced at the entrance, hesitating. She’s going to think I’m crazy just showing up out of the blue. He wasn’t even sure what he was going to say when she asked the inevitable question of what he was doing there. That’s if she was there at all; maybe she was out. He shut off his car and opened the door, slipping out; he was already there and didn’t see a point in turning back now.

Liam pushed his way through the revolving door and entered the lobby; knowing she was staying in the royal suite, he headed straight for the elevator. Thankfully, it wasn’t all that busy; he hadn’t put much thought into his spontaneous idea and what could happen if the wrong person saw the King entering a hotel at night to visit “a friend.”

As the elevator made its ascent, Liam stared up at the floor numbers above the doors, watching them illuminate one by one, still questioning what the hell he was even doing. When the car jerked to a stop and the doors slid open, he let out a breath as he stepped out, turning for the door at the end of the hallway; he stopped in front of it, staring for a moment before raising his hand and tapping his knuckles against the wood. The few seconds that passed felt like much longer before the door finally opened.

Amara’s eyes slightly widened. “Liam?”

Liam looked at her; she was wearing a pair of lounge shorts and a tank top, paired with an oversized chunky knit cardigan that was slouched to one side. It was the first time he’d seen her so … casually dressed.

And she still managed to take his breath away.

“What, uh …” Amara pulled her cardigan up to cover her shoulder before crossing her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“I …” Liam let out a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m … not entirely certain. I just — well, I — we hadn’t seen each other, so I thought …” He trailed off, letting out a breath.

Amara let out a soft chuckle, watching his cheeks blush as he stared at her. “Well … I guess I shouldn’t leave His Majesty out in the hall,” she said with a good-natured grin as she stepped aside.

Liam cleared his throat, staring for another moment before he nodded and stepped inside. He lingered in the entryway of the suite, hearing the door latch shut behind him; Amara walked by him and into the living area, and he followed behind her. “I’m sorry … for just dropping by,” he said. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Not at all,” Amara replied. “I was just unwinding.” His eyes fell to the half-empty wine glass she gestured to on the table beside the sofa. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Uh, sure. Scotch is fine.”

Amara nodded and turned to the bar cart; she poured a finger of scotch into a tumbler. Was she surprised that Liam showed up outside of her hotel room that night out of the blue? Yes. But as much as she knew she shouldn’t be glad that he was there … she was. Because as much as she knew she shouldn’t have missed not seeing him over the past few days … she did. She missed being around him.

When Amara turned back to him, she chuckled at seeing him still standing. “You can sit, Liam.”

Liam smiled sheepishly before lowering himself onto the sofa. “Thank you,” he said when she handed him the glass.

Amara sat on the opposite end, tucking her legs beneath her as she reached for her wine before looking at him. “So … is everything ok?”

“Yeah, I just …” Liam looked at her. “I wanted to get out of the palace for a bit … by myself.”

“So you came here?” Amara smiled.

Liam nodded. “I … hadn’t seen you in a few days, and … I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I guess I wanted to … see you, that is.”

“You guess?” Amara teased.

Liam chuckled, feeling himself relax. “No, no guessing. I did … want to see you.”

The two fell into easy conversation. They talked about what they had been up to the last few days that had kept both of them so busy. They talked about their work together and Liam’s continuing to rise approval ratings. They talked about Drake and Riley’s blossoming relationship, each noting how their friend was smitten with the other.

Despite his hesitation and nerves about what she would think of him showing up at her door unannounced, Liam wasn’t surprised at how quickly and easily he found himself so comfortable around her; her mere presence seemed to put him at ease. From the very beginning, she saw him as just Liam and she treated him as such. It was strange, but after only knowing her for just a short time, he felt more himself around Amara than anyone else.

Before they knew it, two hours had passed. Liam glanced down at his watch, his eyes slightly widening. “Wow, I didn’t realize how late it was.”

“How time flies,” Amara chuckled.

Liam smiled sheepishly. “I should probably let you get some sleep.”

“I’m sure you need your rest as well with all your meetings,” Amara smiled as they stood from the sofa.

“Well, I thankfully won’t be stuck in meetings for the next couple of days. I’ll be heading to Lythikos tomorrow.”

“Oh?” Amara questioned. “What for?”

“They’re holding their annual winter festival, and Olivia hosts a ball the night before for all the nobles.”

“And then you all stay for the festival?”

“No,” Liam shook his head. “That’s for just the people of Lythikos.”

“As their King, you should join them,” Amara suggested.

Liam let out a wry laugh as he looked at her. “The people of Lythikos aren’t very … warm toward any nobles from the outside, especially the royal family, because there’s been a bit of a … rocky history of sorts.”

“Ok, well, as their new monarch, now is a better time than any to change that. You and Olivia are really close friends, Liam. The two of you coming together, you showing your support for the people of Lythikos while she shows her support for the crown, and getting the other nobles to follow suit … that could be huge for your image.”

“Do you ever stop working?” Liam quipped.

“No,” Amara chuckled.

Liam stared at her thoughtfully, taking in her suggestion. It might not be a bad thing if Olivia was on board with it, which he was sure she would be. “Ok, I’ll talk to Olivia about it … on one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“If she gives the ok, which I’m sure she will … you join us,” Liam smiled before turning toward the door.

Amara arched her brow. “Me?”

Liam nodded, opening the door before turning to face her again; he leaned against the frame. “It was your suggestion after all. And I’m sure you’d enjoy the festival. You can invite Daniel and Riley as well if you’d like.”

“You just don’t want to go another couple of days without seeing me,” Amara teased.

Fighting back a guilty smile, Liam shook his head. “No, I mean, not that I wouldn’t — I would like to — but that’s not —”

“I’ll be there,” Amara chuckled.

**

Back then, Liam had no idea how his impromptu visit to see her that night and the maybe not-so-innocent invite he extended would be the thing that started to shift everything between them. At that time, they were already tiptoeing along a line they both knew better than to cross, but it was as if they couldn’t help themselves; the thrill of the risk of getting closer to it had them feeling too curious for their own good.

And back then, there seemed to be too much on the line and in their way. Now, things were different. Liam was getting a divorce, his approval ratings were the best they’d ever been, and all he wanted — needed — was for Amara to see that there was a clear path for them now … if she still wanted to take it. He’d still been unable to read her as far as her feelings, if any, toward him, however.

Sure, Liam knew she remembered their past, but that didn’t necessarily mean Amara felt the same way now that she did back then. She constantly hid behind a mask of indifference and he knew she was trying to gently shut him out. But he was making a little progress; he’d been able to start to slowly knock down those walls of hers by getting under her skin and in her head just enough to gauge her reactions. He just needed a little more time to hopefully make some kind of breakthrough.

****

Amara slipped out of the backseat of Drake and Riley’s truck, looking up at the massive estate before glancing around at the snowy grounds. “Welcome back to Lythikos,” a voice called out, and they all turned just as staff passed by them to retrieve their bags.

“Duchess,” Amara nodded.

“Please, just Olivia is fine.”

“Yeah, that duchess shit goes to her head,” Drake quipped with a grin.

Olivia looked at Riley. “How you manage to put up with him is something I will never understand.”

“Hello, Olivia,” Riley giggled.

“I’m glad you all could make it. Maxwell just arrived. He’s looking for you,” Olivia said as she gestured to Riley. “Which tells me that he’s already up to no good.”

“I promise to keep him on his best behavior,” Riley grinned.

Olivia arched her brow. “Somehow, I don’t believe that.” Riley shrugged innocently at the implication. “Your rooms are all prepared and your bags are being taken to them as we speak. Drake, Riley, you’re in your usual room. Amara,” she said as she turned and guided her inside the keep. “I’ve put you in the east wing.”

Drake and Riley shared a look as they trailed behind them, and he raised a brow in question at her. “I had nothing to do with it,” Riley whispered harshly.

****

Amara stepped inside and glanced around the sizable room she had been assigned to for her stay; her overnight bag was on the bed and her garment bag hung on the closet door. She walked to the sliding door that led to a small balcony, staring out at the view it offered of the snow-covered mountains.

“Not a bad view.”

Amara turned at the sound of his voice, seeing Liam lingering in the hallway outside of her open door. “It’s nice,” she nodded, holding his gaze. “Where are you staying?”

“Right there,” Liam gestured to the door behind him, and Amara arched an accusatory brow. “No, I did not plan this. That’s my usual room when I stay here, and I had nothing to do with Olivia giving you this room.”

“Does she …” Amara trailed off.

“No,” Liam shook his head, knowing she was wondering if Olivia was aware of their past. “She probably just assumed you’d want to be around a familiar face,” he shrugged.

Amara nodded, still staring at him before she abruptly dropped his gaze and went to the bed; she turned her back to him as she opened her bag, silently berating herself. She’d been in front of him for less than a minute and was already struggling.

Liam lingered in the doorway, watching her rifle through her bag; his eyes then flickered to the garment bag hanging on the closet door. He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. “Perhaps I can escort you down to the ball tonight …?”

At his words, Amara froze; she closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a breath. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?”

“Because no one knows about your divorce, Liam,” Amara huffed. “You still need to play it off, so you should probably worry about escorting the woman who — by all technicality —is still your wife.”

“Madeleine isn’t coming this evening,” Liam explained. “She had another … engagement.” She turned to look at him at his words; she knew what he was referring to by engagement. The Queen was meeting with one of her trysts. “She’ll be here for the festival tomorrow, however.”

Amara shook her head, turning back to her bag. “Still … it’s not a good idea.”

After a moment of silence, thinking she got him to see it her way and drop it, Amara stiffened when she felt him directly behind her. Liam’s chest brushed up against her back as he dipped his head to her ear. “It’s just a ball, Amara,” he whispered, rustling her hair with his breath. “Maybe a dance …” He heard her let out a sigh, slightly tilting her head, almost as if to give him better access to her ear while fighting her body’s natural instinct to lean into him. He subtly smirked with a bit of triumph; he hadn’t even done anything and she was visibly flustered. Suddenly, he took a step back. “Think about it.”

Not feeling him behind her anymore, Amara spun just in time to see him slip out of her room without another glance in her direction.

****

That evening, Liam stood in front of the floor-length mirror in his room, adjusting his tie before grabbing his cufflinks and slipping them into place. He stared at his reflection, giving the lapels of his suit jacket a quick tug before turning to leave.

When Liam opened his door, he paused when he saw Amara’s door open at the same time; they met gazes as they both stepped into the hall. Pulling his door shut behind him, his eyes fell from hers to take in her ensemble. She was wearing a deep red, one-shoulder satin gown with a thigh-high slit; her hair was down with soft curls framing her face.

When Liam met her gaze again, he smiled softly. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Amara replied.

“Shall we?” Liam asked, gesturing his hand for her to go ahead.

Amara turned and started down the long hallway, and Liam fell into step beside her. She gave him a sideways glance. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be escorting me down, Liam.”

“I’m not escorting you. We’re merely walking to the same place at the same time,” Liam replied, unfazed. “If I was escorting you, you’d be on my arm, which you are not.” He glanced over, fighting back a smile at the frustration in her expression as she looked at him. “Did you want my arm?” he asked, raising it to her in a teasing — yet hopeful — invitation.

Amara let out a breath as she looked away from him. “I can manage.”

In the foyer of the estate, Drake and Riley mingled with Maxwell, Bertrand, and Rashad while other guests began to file into the ballroom. As Bertrand and Rashad started toward the double doors while discussing courtly politics, Drake and Riley both glanced up to the top of the landing when movement caught their eyes. Liam and Amara started making their way down the stairs with a respectable distance between them. Both Drake and Riley saw Liam’s eyes shift in her direction; he was watching her every step, making sure she made it down the stairs in one piece, eagerly ready to jump in and help her at a moment’s notice if she needed. Drake subtly shook his head; to anyone else, it would probably seem like nothing more than the King showing some basic chivalrous behavior, but his best friend knew better.

It was his way of escorting her without actually escorting her. And the look in his eyes wasn’t helping to mask how much he really wished she was on his arm.

“Hello,” Riley smiled as Amara approached her.

“Shall we?” Amara quickly replied, not stopping to chat as she started toward the ballroom doors.

Riley gave Liam a look before catching up to Amara. As the two women walked ahead of them, Drake gave Liam a knowing look. “What?” the King questioned.

“Nothing,” Drake scoffed with a chuckle.

****

Midway through the ball, Amara sat at a table in the back corner of the room, sipping a flute of champagne as she watched the Cordonian nobles mingle and rub elbows. She chuckled to herself when she caught sight of Riley standing with Maxwell; he was speaking to Olivia, moving his hands animatedly with a pleading expression as the Duchess stood in front of him with her arms folded, shaking her head in response to whatever he was saying while Riley looked between them and laughed.

Suddenly, her vision was obstructed when Liam stepped in front of her; her eyes traveled up the length of his body before settling on his face. “Enjoying yourself?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Amara nodded. “You?”

“Eh,” Liam shrugged. “It’s been alright. It could be better, though …”

Amara stared up at him; she knew she shouldn’t ask, but she couldn’t seem to help herself either. “How so?”

Liam held out his hand to her with a soft smile. “Dance with me.” He could see the hesitation in her eyes, but also the consideration as well. “It’s just a dance, Amara.”

Amara continued to stare at him, still hesitating. It wasn’t what anyone else would think if they were to share a dance that concerned her; they’d think nothing of it at all. It was herself she was concerned about. She was already struggling, and she knew that even the act of a simple dance was going to make it worse.

Before she could respond, however, Liam turned when he felt a tap on his shoulder; he forced a smile at the woman in front of him. “Duchess Adelaide,” he nodded.

Adelaide peered around Liam, offering Amara an apologetic smile. “So sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to ask my son-in-law for a spin around the room.”

Amara nodded, gesturing to the two of them. “By all means.” She was thankful because she was so close to saying yes when she knew better, but a part of her was also a bit disappointed. Liam gave her a look, but she ignored it. “Have fun.”

As Adelaide guided Liam toward the dance floor, Riley rushed up to Amara with a mischievous grin. “You look like you could use a break from all of this. Come with me,” she said, grabbing her hand and pulling her to stand.

“Where are we going?” Amara asked as Riley led them toward the exit.

Riley giggled. “I need to grab something for Maxwell.”

Five minutes and a few twists and turns later, Riley and Amara stood in the armory of the Lythikos estate. Amara glanced around at all of the weaponry, the blades of swords and daggers, among other weapons, glinting in the light. “What the hell are we doing down here?” she questioned.

“Maxwell wants to open a bottle of champagne,” Riley replied as she moved to a wall full of fancy knives.

Amara furrowed her brows. “And a corkscrew won’t suffice?”

“Maxwell is … extra,” Riley laughed.

Amara thought back to seeing her and Maxwell speaking to Olivia, and she eyed Riley curiously. “Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling you were explicitly told not to come down here …”

“It’s fine,” Riley waved her off. “Plus, like I said, you looked like you needed a little break.” She glanced at Amara. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah,” Amara lied. “Just … got a lot on my mind.”

“A lot regarding Liam …”

Amara couldn’t lie that it was about him; Riley knew better. “Yeah.”

“Are you planning on talking to him while we’re here?”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea to do here?”

“Do you really think it’s a good idea to keep avoiding it?” Riley clapped back.

“It’s comp—”

“Complicated,” Riley finished for her. “Yes, so you’ve said.” The two friends met gazes, and Riley heaved a sigh at Amara’s taken-aback expression. “Look, Amara, I’m not trying to be pushy or insert myself into this or tell you how to handle it all … but you need to take that first step and talk to him. Yes, it’s complicated because of his situation and who he is and trying to get out everything you never had a chance to say before, but the longer you wait and put it off, the more complicated it’s going to become for you. You can’t keep running from it.”

Amara let out a breath. “I know, it’s just … every time I think I’m in a good place to do it, something comes up or happens that makes it feel even more complicated than it already is.”

“Like what?” Riley questioned.

Before Amara could answer, they were interrupted by voices coming through a vent in the ceiling. They both turned toward the sound, taking a step closer to it. “Is that …” Amara trailed off.

“Liam and Drake,” Riley chuckled as they got even closer. They both tilted their heads to listen.

****

“Ya know, you’re not being very subtle, Your Majesty,” Drake quipped.

Liam looked over at him from where they stood in front of the dessert table. “What do you mean?”

“The way you’ve been looking at Amara the entire night,” Drake replied. “Maybe it’s just me because I’m your best friend and I … know things, but you might wanna dial it back a bit, especially in front of this gossip-loving crowd. Beaumont even noticed it and mentioned it to me.” Liam glanced over at him. “I’m not trying to be a pain in your ass, Li … but you are married and the King, and even though nothing may be going on now, you know people will take that shit and run with it just to tell a damn story.”

Liam sighed, glancing inconspicuously over both his shoulders before bringing his gaze back down to the small plate in his hands and dropping his voice even lower. “Not for long …”

Drake’s brows furrowed. “What?”

“Married … I won’t be for long.” Liam lifted his gaze to meet Drake’s. “Madeleine and I … we’re getting a divorce …”

****

Riley’s eyes went wide. “Did I just hear that right?” she questioned as she snapped her gaze over to Amara, who didn’t appear to be surprised by the news at all. Amara closed her eyes, knitting her brows. “He’s really getting … did you know?”

“I only just found out,” Amara said quietly.

“When?”

“The night of Maxwell’s bonfire … that’s when he told me.”

Riley thought back to that night. “That’s why you left early …”

Amara nodded. “It was just … a lot to wrap my mind around.”

“Is it because of you?”

“No,” Amara shook her head. “I asked the same thing, but he said they had started the process long before I showed back up. The night he told me, they had just gotten everything finalized with the council and all of the paperwork. They’re trying to figure out the announcement and when to make it because of the alliance talks … so I sent Daniel over to lend some help with that because I obviously couldn’t take it on myself. And I couldn’t tell you because he said no one else knew.”

“Holy shit …” Riley gasped as she palmed her forehead. She then looked at her friend, feeling the anxiousness radiating off of her. “So … what does this mean for you two?”

“Nothing,” Amara threw her hands up. “It doesn’t mean anything for us because there is no us.”

“There could be.”

Amara shook her head. “Riley—”

“Has anything happened between you two since you’ve been back?”

“No,” Amara answered, casting her eyes downward. “Almost? Yes … but I’ve stopped it.”

“Well, it seems to me that your return came at a pretty damn good time, Amara. There’s a real chance for you two to figure things out now. I mean, I know how you feel, whether you want to admit it or not. And as for Liam, the guy is clearly still in love with you.”

“Yeah, maybe …” Amara nodded, lifting her gaze to meet hers again. “But for how long?”

Riley let out a soft breath, understanding the meaning behind her words. “Amara …”

“I think I’m going to head up to my room. I’m kind of partied out …”

Riley knew to just let her go; she could already tell Amara was more on edge lately — now understanding why — and she didn’t want to push. “Ok.” She pulled her into a hug. “I’ll check in with you when we head back to our room.”

Amara nodded as they drew back before stepping by her and disappearing out of the room.

*******

The following day, Liam stood on the grounds of the estate as the festival was well underway. His eyes scanned the crowd for Amara, spotting her near the nog booth with Drake and Riley. He had looked for her last night in the ballroom after he finally finished his dance with Adelaide; when he couldn’t find her, he asked Riley, and she informed him that Amara had already retired to her room for the night. When he headed back to his room, he stopped outside her door, debating for a few minutes whether to knock or not, but he thought better of it before retreating to his own room.

At breakfast that morning, Liam saw her; they shared a few lingering glances, but they didn’t talk. And since then, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Amara seemed to be trying to avoid him. There wasn’t much he could do about it at the moment, however, because Madeleine had arrived that morning and the two were busy making their rounds, speaking with the festival goers.

Across the grounds, Amara casually sipped a steaming mug of Lythikos nog, letting the hot ceramic cup warm her cold hands. Her eyes happened to flicker up when she caught the sound of his familiar laugh; she spotted Liam speaking with a man at his booth who was offering the King and Queen a sample of whatever it was he was cooking.

Amara turned, walking in the opposite direction; she’d been avoiding him all day. She knew she shouldn’t be, but with him purposely trying to get in her head, something she knew for a fact he was doing, it was making her already jumbled thoughts even worse. She didn’t blame him; he had no idea her reasons for acting the way she was, but she certainly wasn’t in the right headspace to talk to him at the moment. So, she was doing one of the things she did best when it came to her personal life: avoiding the problem altogether.

Despite knowing that Riley was right when she told Amara she couldn’t keep running from it, it was easier said than done. It was easy to say that when you were standing on the outside looking in. She’d also been unable to get Riley’s other words from the night before out of her head. “There’s a real chance for you two to figure things out now. I mean, I know how you feel, whether you want to admit it or not. And as for Liam, the guy is clearly still in love with you.” They’d been ringing in her ears since they were said.

Amara was very well aware of what Liam’s divorce could potentially mean for them and of the chance they could have that they didn’t get before. It was one of the first things she thought when he told her the news.

That was until the reality of everything crept back in.

One thing Amara knew for certain was that she needed to take a step back and try to get out of her own head. And she needed to keep Liam out of there as well if she had any hope of taking that first step like Riley suggested.

****

That evening, as the festival began to wind down, Amara wandered away from the grounds, needing a quiet moment alone. At the end of a walkway at the far end of the festival, she turned, bringing an open clearing into her line of vision. She stared across the blanket of untouched snow that glittered beneath the moonlight before she started to make the trek to the other side of the clearing as the memory started to play out in her mind.

Once at the cliff edge, Amara let out a soft breath and took in the view, shaking her head as she ran her fingers through her hair.

The memory was on a loop now.

Sure, Cordonia was considered a small island compared to others, but it was like no matter where she went, Amara couldn’t get away from Liam or their past.

**

Amara trudged through the untouched snow of an open clearing; she was unsure of exactly where she was going, but she could find her way back by her footprints. She was just thankful for the quiet reprieve away from the festival. She needed a moment to herself. Spending the day trying to force herself to believe she wasn’t falling for a married man — a married King — was proving to be rather exhausting.

Struggling wasn’t a word that could begin to describe what Amara was feeling. As much as she was glad for Liam’s surprise visit a couple of nights ago at her hotel, it only solidified what she was afraid of. She had taken those few days that she hadn’t seen him and tried forcing any thoughts and rising feelings she was having about him away, but the moment she opened the door and saw him standing on the other side, they came flooding right back. And he wasn’t making things any easier, returning her smiles and lingering stares. She wasn’t sure what to make of any of it, but she knew it was a road she shouldn’t even think of venturing down.

Once at the other side of the clearing, Amara’s eyes widened when she stopped near a cliff edge; below, cradled in a valley between snowy mountains beneath a blanket of stars was a small town, lit up by a gentle golden glow of street and house lights.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Amara gasped and her hand flew to her chest as she turned. “Sorry,” Liam chuckled. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s ok,” Amara smiled. “I didn’t hear you.”

“I saw you wandering off …”

“And decided to follow me,” Amara quipped.

“Guilty,” Liam smiled ruefully. “It is rather cold out here. I didn’t want you to not be able to find your way back.”

“I guess I can appreciate that,” Amara smiled.

“How’d you enjoy the festival?”

“It was fun,” Amara nodded. “The people of Lythikos are … definitely not for those without thick skin, but they’re not all that bad.”

“They’re not. Some even said hello to me today. So, I guess I should take that as a win,” Liam chuckled.

“I think it’ll be seen as a good thing that you were here today.”

“Me too,” Liam nodded in agreement.

The two fell into a comfortable silence as they took in the view, but Liam’s eyes kept shifting in her direction. They had been all day. He found himself unable to focus on anything but her since her arrival in Lythikos that morning, and fortunately for him, Madeleine was away, already having a previous engagement that she chose not to cancel for the last-minute plan to attend the festival. He’d been able to spend the entire day with Amara, uninterrupted.

When he glanced at her again, despite the heavy coat her hands were shoved into the pockets of, Liam noticed Amara shiver. “I told you it was cold,” he teased.

A visible puff of air escaped Amara’s lips when she laughed. “I can handle a little cold weather, especially for a view like this.”

“Well, here,” Liam said, pulling his scarf from around his neck. “This might help.” He smiled as he draped the scarf around her, adjusting it so it was snug around her neck.

Amara let out a breath, closing her eyes as the warmth from him shot down her spine and the scent of his cologne lingering on the fabric filled her senses. When she opened her eyes again, Liam was staring down at her intently; in the moonlight, she could see both the apprehension and longing in his eyes, certain they mirrored her own. When his hands shifted up from the scarf to her cheeks, she swallowed thickly, but she didn’t move.

Tentatively, Liam leaned in, stopping a hairsbreadth from her lips; when he watched her eyes flutter shut, he closed the space between them, pressing his lips against hers. A warmth bloomed in his chest along with a strange sense of relief as she leaned into him, sighing into the kiss. But as quick as it started, it was over when they heard the sound of crunching snow behind him, startling them apart before they could become remotely caught up in the all-too-brief moment.

Liam turned to see Bastien and another guard approaching him; he stepped away from her to speak with them. Amara lifted her trembling hand, closing her eyes as she brushed her fingertips against her lips. Conflicted. That’s how she felt. A part of her was somewhat thankful for the interruption, but a much bigger part was disappointed because she didn’t want that kiss to stop.

Liam turned back to her, pulling her from her stupor. “I’m so sorry … I have to handle something that just came up.”

“It … it’s ok,” Amara nodded, holding his gaze. There were questions on both ends about what that kiss meant.

“Sir?” Bastien questioned.

Amara watched Liam close his eyes and tense his jaw before looking at her again. “I’ll be right behind you,” she said, gesturing for him to go ahead.

Liam nodded before reluctantly turning and walking away.

**

Amara chewed the inside of her cheek as she continued to stare out at the view. While it seemed she couldn’t escape the memories from two years ago, it also seemed that with every piece of their history she recalled, the more emotional she became. Why, she wasn’t sure. She blinked, ridding her eyes of the sting as she let out a heavy breath, trying to get a hold of herself.

“I see you’ve managed to find your way back here again.”

Amara scoffed at the sound of his voice behind her, dropping her head as she shook it. “I seem to be finding my way back to a lot of places lately.”

Liam stepped up beside her, looking down into the valley below. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Amara replied.

Liam nodded, not buying her answer, but not pushing her for more. He remained quiet for a moment before looking at her and speaking again. “I feel like you’ve been avoiding me today …”

Amara closed her eyes. “Liam … it’s just …” She trailed off, heaving a sigh before glancing up at him. “It’s hard … for me to be around you.”

“Have you thought that perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard if you’d just stop fighting?”

Amara furrowed her brows. “Fighting what?”

“I don’t know,” Liam shrugged. “You tell me. You say it’s hard to be around me. Why is that unless there’s something you’re fighting yourself on? So, stop fighting.”

“Liam, it’s not that simple,” Amara shook her head. “Things with us never were.”

“It could be that simple.”

Amara tensed in frustration as she looked away from him, but Liam kept his gaze on her. He watched her eyes shift back and forth as if she were silently weighing the pros and cons of something. He knew there were some things he didn’t know that she claimed to want to tell him at some point, but the more he watched her struggle, the more he realized the weight that whatever she was carrying was putting on her.

Liam turned his body toward her. “Amara, talk to me …”

Amara knew he was becoming more curious, but it wasn’t something she could do at the moment; nothing about it was right. So, she did another thing she was good at and changed the subject. “Can I ask you something?”

“Always.”

“At the IAA festival … I talked with Madeleine,” Amara said, and Liam nodded. “She explained to me how and why she didn’t hold any judgment or resentment toward me about the past — our past — but she said something that I’ve been wondering about …”

“What’s that?”

“She said that you explained to her where keeping the truth from her about us stemmed from … but that if I wanted to know what that reason was, I would have to ask you …”

Liam let out a wry chuckle before turning his head and fixing his eyes over the edge of the snow-covered mountain they stood on. He took in a deep breath, holding it for a moment as he mulled over his response. “Because I wanted to keep you to myself …”

Amara’s brows furrowed. “What?”

“I spent my whole life in the spotlight. I grew up in it. Everything I’d ever done and said had been under a microscope, more so after Leo abdicated, and even more once I became King. One way or another, there was always someone who knew exactly what I was doing. So when things happened between us, with the way I felt about you …” Liam trailed off, letting out a sigh. “I just wanted to keep that — keep you and what we had — for myself. Not as a secret, but … something that was just for me.”

Amara was surprised by his answer. She always thought the reason Liam never told Madeleine about them was simply because he had broken his own rules and didn’t know how to. She never expected that. She cleared her throat, “Well, you didn’t have much of a choice but to keep it to yourself,” she quipped, trying to lighten the mood. “Our circumstances were … pretty less than ideal.”

“But something else happened that made it even harder to tell her,” Liam added.

“What?” Amara questioned.

“Eventually, I didn’t want to keep you to myself anymore … because I wanted to show off the woman who’d made me happier than I’d ever been.” Liam glanced at her again. “I wanted to publicly worship the ground you walked on, Amara, and I would have … you know I would have.”

Amara stared up at his moonlit face, hearing the sincerity and emotion behind his words. “Liam,” she sighed.

“The risks didn’t matter to me,” Liam said, stepping closer to her. “It was worth it for what you gave me.”

Amara knew she shouldn’t ask, but again, she couldn’t seem to help herself. “And what was that?”

“The one thing that I never thought I’d have …” The corners of Liam’s mouth lifted in a small smile as he reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, letting his hand linger on her cheek. “Love.”

Amara closed her eyes, unwittingly leaning into his touch as she let his words wash over her. When she looked back at him, he was staring down at her, and she could see the storm of emotions swirling in his expression, knowing it mirrored hers. Liam leaned in, and she felt his lips barely graze hers; all it would take was one imperceptible move from either of them for that kiss to happen, and she didn’t seem to be stopping it this time. As much as she knew she should, Amara couldn’t bring herself to fight it because she wanted it to happen; she wanted to remember what his lips felt like against hers.

If she couldn’t escape her past, she might as well embrace it, right?

And just as she decided to take that leap, the cold air replaced Liam’s warm breath on her lips when he stepped back.

Amara’s eyes snapped open just as a clearly frustrated Liam looked over his shoulder at the sound of snow crunching beneath heavy footsteps. “Sir,” Bastien paused a respectable distance away from the two. Liam offered her an apologetic look before turning to approach his head guard.

While she could barely make out what Liam was grumbling to Bastien over whatever he had interrupted him for, Amara started to panic over what she just almost allowed to happen. She was falling deeper and deeper into that place, and if Liam was able to take her there, she wouldn’t be able to come out of it. She was falling for him all over again, but this time the stakes had changed; there was a history there between them which amplified and complicated everything. His presence in her life and his pull on her was too strong, and perhaps eventually she could take his advice and stop fighting herself … but today was not that day.

After going back and forth with Bastien longer than he would have liked about the “emergency” call he received being something that could have waited, the head guard apologized for interrupting. Liam waved him off, knowing he was only relaying the message he’d been given. Bastien bowed before turning and walking away.

When Liam turned back around to face Amara, she was gone, leaving behind only a new trail of her footprints in the snow that led back to the festival grounds.

*******

The following afternoon, Liam sat in the back of the SUV as it made its way back to the palace from Lythikos.

When he headed back to his room the night before after Amara had abruptly left him in that clearing, he again debated on whether to knock on her door but chose not to. She clearly needed her space. That morning, however, he stopped by her room while on his way to breakfast, wanting to make sure she was ok. There was no answer. When he met the others in the dining hall, he didn’t see her, and asked Riley if she had; Riley told him Amara left just an hour beforehand, heading back to the capitol.

As they neared the capitol and the exit that led down into town, Liam’s leg bounced nervously as he weighed his options. There was another reason, other than wanting to make sure she was ok, that he wanted to talk to Amara that morning; he had another invitation to extend to her.

“Take the exit,” Liam called out to Bastien who was driving.

The head guard met the King’s gaze in the rearview mirror, nodding in understanding. “Yes, sir.”

A short time later, the SUV pulled up outside of Amara’s hotel. “I’ll be right back,” Liam said before opening the door and slipping from the vehicle. He walked to the entrance, pushed his way through the revolving door, and stepped into the lobby, moving to the front desk. Unlike the last time she stayed there, he had no idea what room she was staying in.

The man behind the counter looked up, eyes slightly widening before he bowed. “Your Majesty. How can I help you?”

Liam smiled. “I’m looking for what room a … friend of mine is staying in.”

“What’s the name, sir?”

“Amara Onasis.”

The man typed her name into his computer. “She’s in the penthouse, sir.” He looked up and met Liam’s gaze. “She has a request for no visitors without a call to her first …” Of course she does, Liam thought to himself. “But … you are the King, so …”

“No,” Liam shook his head. He knew he could get up there and catch her off guard, but he didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. “Give her a call first.”

The man nodded, lifting the phone and dialing up to the penthouse. “Good afternoon, ma’am. You have a visitor down in the lobby …” His eyes flickered to Liam during a moment of silence. “It’s … it’s the King, ma’am … yes, I’ll let him know.” He hung up the phone. “She said she’ll be right down.”

Liam nodded. “Thank you.” He stepped away from the desk, nearing the elevator, wondering why she wouldn’t just let him come up.

The minutes ticked by as he stared at the elevator, watching the numbers illuminate as it changed floors. After what felt like forever, Liam turned his head at the chime, seeing Amara come into view as the doors slid open. “Liam …” she said as she stepped out; she glanced around, walking to a quiet corner in the lobby before looking at him. “What are you doing here?”

Liam stared at her; he didn’t know why, but she seemed anxious and on edge. “Are you alright?”

Amara sighed. “I’m fine. Just … wondering why you’re here.”

“I wanted to make sure you were ok because you just left this morning without a word … after vanishing last night.”

“I had some stuff I needed to do.”

Liam nodded, but he didn’t fully believe it. “Also … I wanted to extend this invite in person …”

Amara knitted her brows. “What invite?”

“To the lantern festival … in Valtoria.”

The minute the words left his lips, Amara closed her eyes, subtly shaking her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Liam.”

Liam played coy. “Why?”

When she opened her eyes, Amara looked up at him again. “I think we both know why.”

As he continued to stare at her, Liam thought about how each piece of their past seemed to bring him closer to knocking down her walls. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, believing this would be the one piece that could finally show him something. “Amara, please,” he pleaded, holding her gaze. “Will you come?”

[bramblesthatcat]

i know im not a steven universe blog but youtube knows i used to be a mentally ill middle schooler so i got recommended a bunch of SU songs and now i've binged the show again + movie + future and idk here r some of my SU opinions/hc bc fuck it why not.

opinions/thoughts

i totally think the Diamonds were redeemed way too quickly, and rewatching season 5 made me realize how god awful the pacing of that season was. they really needed a season 6 or like, split 5 in half idfk

obviously theres a difference between redemption and forgiveness, but I really wish that SU:F focused on that more bc it would've been a great internal conflict for steven but we only get like an 11 minute episode based on it (and yeah u could say that steven having mommy issues in Future is basically that but imo mommy issues r different than diamond issues)

pearl has the patience of a saint bc if my magical girl literal goddess of a gf/situationship left me for the 90's equivalent of a soundcloud rapper id never stop raging (yes this is partially a copypasta of that one tweet but they hit the nail on the head fr)

rewatching the series i love pearl so much i really see my younger self in her, especially w/ how autistic coded she is in regards to her feelings/emotions

i love seeing the different classic manga/anime artist styles reflected in each of the diamonds, like pinks design is so sailor moon vibes

steven shouldve flipped his shit before Future like, at least 6 times

headcannons/silly lil ideas

i like to think after SU:F and he's had time to heal, steven tries to connect with the diamonds and not run from/suppress that part of his family, like he's not gonna be 100% w/ them but he tries to at least accept it

steven also connects with greg's side of the family! idk I like to imagine he spends a lot of holidays with them to catch up on all the ones he missed

steven spends his summers in beach city and every other part of the year he dedicates to travel (idk he never seemed the type to settle down anywhere for long, and i fw the wandering nomad type)

steven grows his hair out as he gets older, like young-greg length (long haired men > literally any other hairstyle), despite the length it stays curly

once steven begins to accept/cope w/ being part diamond, he lets his hair go pink (either by dyeing it or magic, take ur pick) with the mentality of "im reclaiming this color from my mommy issues, also i look cool af" (this hc is mainly based off of how I like steven's pink hair in Future. style was first, lore was second lol)

post-Future steven is 1000% more willing to throw hands and lose his shit but in like a coping way bc he knows if he keeps it pent up it'll be 10x worse

steven definitely starts one of those van life style tiktok accounts and has a bunch of cats as his van pets

[incomingalbatross]

Was tempted to make up a whole crop of next-gen OCs for my own personal Ranger's Apprentice timeline, just so Will and Alyss can have like four kids who keep choosing to be something OTHER than Rangers. I succumbed to the temptation.

Their oldest is named Daniel (obviously) and grew up learning Ranger skills as part of life. No one pushed that career path on him or anything, but there was still a lot of shock and mental readjustment when he turned fourteen and declared he was going to be a knight.

Will and Halt are both disappointed but working very hard to make sure Daniel knows they're not disappointed IN HIM. (They just wanted to get to share their work with him.) Halt is also recalibrating how much he's allowed to insult knights now. Gilan, having done the exact same thing in the other direction, is the voice of unconditional support. Horace is INCREDIBLY smug (and also begging to take his nephew as his own apprentice).

Their second son is named Robin and no one is surprised when he wants to be a Courier, because that's still a family business and it's been clear for years that he's more interested in his mom's work than his dad's. Will's just like "yeah that's fair" and makes sure to give Robin knife lessons on the side, in case of dangerous assignments.

Their third child is named Caitie and after some agonizing she confesses to her mom that she doesn't want to apprentice in anything in particular, she mostly just wants to pick something she won't have to leave home for. Alyss and Will get this and Caitie ends up with a variety of odd jobs at Castle Redmont that will help her learn household management and stewardship. Everyone there loves her, anyway, so they're willing to bend structures for her.

Their fourth child I am tentatively naming Alan, and he's frankly very confused that none of his older siblings chose to be Rangers. He has to check if there's a rule against it, or something, before tentatively bringing up the possibility of his own apprenticeship to his dad. Will—who had by now accepted that none of his children were going to be Rangers—is DELIGHTED by this twist. Alan isn't the favorite child, because there isn't a favorite child, but there are definitely some jokes made to that effect. He himself is very excited about having this extra bond with his dad (does he take after Will in his attachments? maybe) so he doesn't mind being called his mini-me at ALL.

There is a fifth child, and her name is probably Tiffany, and she is BOUND and DETERMINED to be a professional jongleur. Will is delighted to have such a musical child, but also concerned? about the nomadic lifestyle this would entail?? Rangers and Knights and Couriers travel but they always have infrastructure. Neither Will nor Alyss likes the idea of their baby growing up to travel alone, even with all the weapon skills Will can give her. It's an ongoing conflict.

Anyway there's like a six-year period where people keep going "wait, your kids aren't Rangers? NONE of your kids are following in your footsteps? But they're Will Treaty's children! That's so weird!" and Will has to keep shutting that conversation down because it's RUDE to his kids.

[balanceoflightanddark]

With Me or Against Me

It cannot be overstated of how the effects of growing up in the militaristic, imperial Fire Nation can have on a young mind. Especially if you grow up as the Princess of Fire Lord Ozai. Azula has shown time and time again in the series that she has a militaristic mindset. That she and her friends are soldiers first, people second, often to the point that her ability to socialize outside of her most immediate social groups are...

...limited.

Okay, so what does this mean for the character herself?

Well, I believe one of Azula's problems that's pretty dang indicative of how the Fire Nation operates is...she has a sort of black-and-white morality view of the world. Where everyone who is part of the Fire Nation and a loyal servant of Fire Lord Ozai is an ally, while traitors and others are enemies.

Now obviously this isn't an attempt to condemn Azula since this problem is pretty damn rampant in the Fire Nation. Evidence of this is right in the education system. Remember how in "The Headband" when the schoolteacher claimed that the Air Nomads had an army that was planning to attack? And how Aang called out the bullshit she was propagating since the Nomads were...you know...pacifists?

The Fire Nation was in-universe known to rewrite history to make themselves look heroic and everybody else as enemies standing in the way of progress. A view which they share to all of the other nations. That they're the honorable harbingers of civilization, while everyone else is backwards savages not above pulling some of the dirtiest tricks in the book.

And how the treacherous and deserters are possibly among the most loathsome people you can find.

Azula was more than likely raised with that mindset like everyone else. Even more so when you consider she is the daughter of somebody who did effectively backstab his brother to ascend to the throne. So naturally, she's going to have some trust issues. That almost anyone can be some enemy out for blood.

Something that of course can be tempered into absolute loyalty to one person such as her father. After all, she can have friends if she wants, but she needs to remember that only her father understands her. That she needs to keep a close eye on all her allies, lest...

...yeah. Even if Azula handled that poorly, the betrayal only just reinforced this "everybody outside of Ozai is an enemy" mindset.

And again, she's not unique in this regard. Part of the Fire Nation doctrine is literally all about displaying fealty and loyalty to the Fire Lord:

"My life I give to my country. With my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our forefathers before him. With my mind I seek ways to better my country. And with my feet may our March of Civilization continue."

Loyalty to the Fire Lord is one of the core tenets of the Fire Nation oath, along with them claiming themselves to be the marchers of civilization. So it wouldn't be a stretch to say that anybody who opposes said march, be it rival nations or Agni forbid traitors, are naturally enemies of civilization. And so should be met with the same mercy that they would surely inflict upon them.

After all, the Fire Nation is guilty of propaganda, and one of the chief tactics of propaganda is turning their enemies into literal monsters. Azula is just the chief product of this toxic mindset of turning kids into soldiers.

To make matters worse, Azula just became the Fire Lord and Zuko's challenging her to the throne. Who at this point is a traitor in the eyes of the Fire Nation. Also he showed up with Katara. And...guess what happened with the last coup attempt?

One dead Fire Lord, and one mother who gets banished for being a traitor and doing some pretty underhanded things.

Even if Zuko wanted to do things honorably, Azula sure as hell isn't going to accept that. He's a traitor, and traitors cannot be trusted. Something that's practically written in the DNA of the Fire Nation. And if she backed down, there's no telling what he might do to her and the Nation.

Or what he arguably does do in the comics.

The common sentiment is that Azula was power hungry. That she had a grudge against Zuko for being Ursa's favorite. But if her whole childhood is saying that those that betray the crown are monsters that will stab you in the back for showing even the slightest amount of pity...is it pure spite or indoctrination that fueled Azula's fire in the Last Agni Kai?