#<— placeholder ship name for all four of them

[athofear]

this is my ot4

artihunter fans 🤝 error 404 fans 🤝 zip bomb fans 🤝 counterstrike fans 🤝 supernova fans 🤝 bloodmoon fans

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Emotion

Hey, remember Felix? You know, that minor character who is the entire reason Gabriel has all of Ladybug's other Miraculous? The writers remembered he existed more than halfway through the season.

Let's get into the eighteenth episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fifth season: Emotion

We start off with Marinette and Adrien getting ice cream, and just like last episode, right when they're about to kiss, Adrien stops at the last second. While we don't see it, it's heavily implied that Gabriel is behind this. It turns out that Adrien has to get ready for some dance for rich people. While it has a name and I think it was mentioned in a few earlier episodes this season, it's really just some dance for rich people, so I don't care enough to remember it. Of course, all of the rich characters we know are invited, like Kagami, Chloe, Zoe, and Prince Ali. Lila, on the other hand, wasn't invited. This might sound important, but nothing happens with her until the end.

Zoe isn't going because of the “character development” she's gotten, so she offers to let Marinette wear her dress to the dance, which just so happens to be a masquerade ball. Tikki asks why Marinette even wants to go to this party she wasn't invited to, but all Marinette says is that it's so she can tell Adrien that she didn't have to keep the dance a secret from her. Why didn't Marinette just call Adrien? Because then we wouldn't have a story.

At the ball, Adrien and Kagami are the king and queen or whatever because their parents are really determined to make their ship sail even though the two show no real interest in each other (insert your own joke about the writers here), but they're interrupted by Amelie, Emilie's twin sister and Felix's mom. She's worried because her son has been missing for weeks, but Gabriel couldn't care less about the little twerp.

At the party, we get a somewhat amusing joke where Chloe fails to recognize Marinette under her mask, where Marinette not only says her name is Zoe, but her “underling” is named Chloe too. But speaking of...

Chloe: How rich are your parents? Rich? Very rich? Immensely rich? Of course, otherwise you wouldn't be here! It's too bad we can't bring out underlings with us. I'm sure these tin cans can serve properly but we can't make fun of them! (grabs a drink from a butler robot before kicking it) So lame!

Okay, did the writers just stop caring about writing convincing dialogue for Chloe? This is a problem I've noticed a lot this season. Yeah, Chloe was bad in the last four seasons, but here, she constantly talks about how Sabrina is her “underling” (Passion), or how she finds Marinete's suffering to be amusing (Derision). It's not really out of character, but it's weird how she's so much more blunt when it comes to boasting about how full of herself she is. It feels like a lot of her lines this season were meant to be placeholders for stuff the writers thought they'd change later, but then they decided to keep it in anyway. And of course to show how stuck up the other rich kids saying the same kind of stuff Chloe normally says, which is somehow less subtle social commentary than Hop Pop shouting “EAT THE RICH!”.

Adrien and Kagami talk about how they're expected to follow orders, while pretty much saying that Kagami is a Sentimonster since the camera really wants to show off her ring.

Oh wow. what does this mean? Wow, this is such a compelling mystery with so many twists and turns. I am so very invested right now.

However, as the two talk, it's clear that Adrien isn't himself, literally.

��Adrien”: Let's leave, I dare you.

Kagami: Are you insane? We can't do that.

“Adrien”: Of course, we can. I can.

Kagami: (gasps) You'd do that?

“Adrien”: Wanna bet?

Kagami: No, we can't.

“Adrien”: See? You're not as free as you claim. Don't you think we should be able to decide our future?

I'll get back to this later.

Marinette tells “Adrien” that she loves her, but Chloe figures out that Marinette crashed a party she wasn't invited to. Of course, because this is Chloe, we're supposed to ignore how unnecessary this plan was for Marinette. Seriously, Marinette crashing the party in “Gabriel Agreste”, as illogical as it was, made sense, because they needed to stop Chloe from showing Gabriel incriminating footage of Marinette. Here, Marinette had no real reason to crash this party when all she had to do was call Adrien, and Chloe, like her or hate her, makes a good point in that she wasn't invited. But again, since this is Season 5 Chloe, she could say she opposes human trafficking, and the writers would still find a way to make her look like the bad guy.

Chloe tells the other rich kids to help her expose Marinette, but because they're so stuck up and entitled, they refuse to touch her. I'll give you all a moment to groan from that unfunny joke. Then we get this conversation between Marinette and “Adrien”.

“Adrien”: All eyes are on you.

Marinette: They're looking at me like I'm a monster.

“Adrien”: Look closer, Marinette. (whispers into her ear) They're the monsters.

I officially take back everything bad I ever said about the Canto Bight scenes from The Last Jedi.

While I get what the episode's going for, we really haven't seen a lot of the 1% doing things that would actually warrant this level of scorn from the audience. Yeah, most of them were egotistical snobs, especially Chloe, but you can't really see this as a shot at the elite when it's aimed at their children instead of their parents. All we've seen in this episode is the rich kids being jerks (and even then, it's played for laughs), Chloe rightfully trying to get Marinette thrown out of a party she had no reason to crash, and Gabriel and Tomoe trying to pair their children together. If you want to show the audience how bad rich people are, you need to show them actually abusing their power and mistreating others. As bad as the aforementioned Canto Bight scenes were, they still worked because it managed to back up the point it was trying to make.

Compare this to characters like the Ferengi from Star Trek or the World Nobles from One Piece. These are allegories for the 1% that work because they do a better job at exaggerating aspects of them that can translate to how we see the elite in our world. With the Ferengi, they represent everything wrong with cutthroat businessmen who base their entire society over financial gains, and with the World Nobles, they represent the disconnect with the common people by being so arrogant, they wear helmets that prevent them from breathing the same air as the commoners. If you wanted to show how bad the rich were, especially considering what's going to happen in a few minutes, you needed to do more to make the audience not like them so we'd be more happy to see them get their comeuppance.

Marinette figures out that Felix impersonated Adrien once again (it honestly stops being impressive when he's done it during literally every episode he appears in), and he decides to transform using the Peacock Miraculous in public for some reason, calling himself Argos.

Argos' design is okay. The suit and coattails look pretty nice, and the coloring on his face works a lot better than Gabriel's. The only problem I have is the way the hood looks. It looks too goofy to go with the rest of the suit. It kind of reminds me of that salmon suit Squidward wore in that one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Before anyone else at the party can do anything, Argos reveals a Sentimonster he created, Red Moon.

Red Moon is... a red moon. It's just a red moon that floats above the city, and it gives Argos the ability to make anyone bathed in its light disappear with a snap of his fingers. If anything, this shows how overpowered the Peacock Miraculous is, and that Gabriel was a real idiot for not trying anything like this while he was Shadowmoth.

Anyway, after making everyone think his cousin is a supervillain as part of his brilliant plan, Argos decides to tell everyone in the room about what his Sentimonster can do. He demonstrates this by, of course, choosing to snap away Chloe before targeting Gabriel and Tomoe. You really have your priorities straight, buddy. Argos then carries Marinette outside before throwing her in a dumpster, because if he snapped her away, than Ladybug couldn't fight him.

But then Argos decides to go to the streets, and decides to snap away a bunch of innocent civilians... while singing a jazz song. To anyone curious as to what it sounds like, I must warn you, it isn't for the feint of heart.

I take back everything bad I ever said about the Hawkmoth rap.

First off, I'm just going to say it, Bryce Papenbrook cannot sing. Argos is clearly trying to sound like a suave and confident villain like Doctor Facilier from The Princess and the Frog, but his delivery is terrible. It either ranges from flat monotone to trying to shout while dealing with a sore throat. The point I'm trying to make is that there was a good reason someone else did the singing voice for Adrien in the recent movie.

Second, this doesn't do anything to make us root for Argos as a character, because there's no reason for him to be doing this. I can understand why he'd use his power to get rid of Gabriel and Tomoe (even Chloe, given we know how much she's done), but why is he suddenly going nuts snapping a bunch of random people who haven't even met him before? The episode tries to make him a character who only does bad things because he has no choice to, so him doing this to a bunch of innocent civilians makes no sense.

Finally, WHY THE HELL IS THIS SCENE A MUSICAL NUMBER?! It's hard enough to see Argos callously wipe out a bunch of bystanders, essentially committing genocide, but the tone of the song is all upbeat and cheery, while the lyrics are about how Argos should get whatever he wants. What is the purpose of adding a song here? Are we supposed to find this funny? Is it meant to establish Felix as a wild card? Is the song supposed to make us like him more because of how catchy it is? What was the writers' endgame here? Like I mentioned earlier, this flies in the face of the characterization the episode is trying to establish for him.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug and arrives on the scene, confronting Argos over what he did last season.

Ladybug: You're the reason why I lost the other Miraculous in the first place! And why he took them! You gave them to him without any regard for the consequences it might have with the people of Paris!

Argos: True, except I work for no one. I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish!

Ladybug: Your wish?! What do you want?! What are you trying to do?! You're destroying the world and we don't even know why!

Argos: When I merge your Miraculous together, I'll make a wish to create a better world! A free world, where no one will be under anyone's control anymore, where no one will be excluded like I was! A world without people like you to decide what's right or wrong! Who gets powers and who doesn't!

Dude, you're literally playing God right now by snapping away people who did nothing wrong, while singing a song at that. You have no right to lecture Ladybug on how to use power responsibly. And once again, even though we just saw him happily snapping people out of existence like the kid from that one Twilight Zone episode, the episode is going back to portraying him as someone who's only doing this because he has nothing to lose.

Ladybug tries to use her Lucky Charm, but gets nothing in response. This is because her plan is to get Argos to give up, but even in episodes where her plan was to get Akumas to give up, she still got her Lucky Charm (Rocketear, Qilin, Penalteam, Reunion, Perfection, Intuition), so this doesn't really make any sense. Ladybug calls Argos' bluff, so he wipes out everyone from existence. After running into Kagami and snapping Adrien back into existence, Argos is surprised that they aren't thanking him for wiping out all of humanity, and in fact, see him as a complete psychopath.

We then learn Felix's true plan. Earlier that day, Argos capitalized on a opening he had been hoping he would get for weeks, and then created Red Moon. Right after Adrien's date with Marinette, Argos ambushed Adrien, and snapped him out of existence with Red Moon's power. He then decided to impersonate Adrien so he could infiltrate the dance and snap Gabriel, Tomoe, and everyone else out of existence.

I think my feelings on this plan can be perfectly summarized by Tony Stark.

First off, why did he need to sneak into the dance? All Felix had to do was transform into Argos, and nobody would know who he really was.

Second, why did he need to impersonate Adrien? Felix claims he's doing this for him, yet all he did was steal his girlfriend and ruin his public reputation. As a matter of fact, why did he even snap Adrien away? You're already wiping out all of humanity, so I don't think temporarily doing the same to Adrien will earn you any goodwill.

Third, why did he waste so much time screwing around with Marinette and Kagami? I sort of get why he would try to get in Kagami's good graces (keyword being “try”) by trying to convince her to rebel against her mother more, but why did he dance around with Marinette while pretending to be Adrien? Felix later says he wanted to spare Marinette for Adrien's sake, but he barely knows her, and whether she finds out Felix impersonated her boyfriend or not, she's going to be pissed at either you or Adrien because of your galavanting. In fact, I don't think he ever told Adrien that he danced with Marinette while at the dance in the first place.

Finally, he really needed to wait for this for weeks? If your goal was to get rid of Gabriel and Tomoe, why didn't you just ambush them yourself instead of waiting for a public function? This isn't like has last few appearances where he needed to rely on his intellect. He has superpowers now. All he has to do is create another Sentibug or some kind of assassin Sentimonster and he can be rid of them easily. Instead, he waited weeks for a chance to steal his cousin's identity, dance with his girlfriend, talk trash about Kagami for listening to her mother when he's supposed to be helping her and Adrien, blow his cover in a crowded area by transforming, and use his killer moon to erase all of humanity from existence while singing. Remember, this is the show that usually makes jokes about Marinette's obsession with unnecessarily complicated plans.

Anyway, Argos tries to use his powers to bring Marinette back, but for some reason, they won't work. My best guess is that it's because Marinette transformed into Ladybug, but that shouldn't chance the fact that Argos snapped her with Red Moon's power. After trying to justify his genocide by saying he never wanted to hurt Adrien and Kagami, Argos remembers how his powers work and brings everyone back. After Ladybug lets him go scot-free, Argos goes to a private place realizes that he may have made a few mistakes for almost wiping out all of humanity, tearfully snapping Red Moon out of existence, calling it “his sister”. Because I guess we were supposed to emotionally connect to the giant moon that showed little to no signs of sentience this entire episode? Argos transforms back to Felix, and we learn that Amelie knew where he was the whole time, and she was apparently testing Gabriel for some reason.

After Adrien explains to Marinette that his father ordered him to not tell her about the dance, Adrien goes to talk to Gabriel about it. Gabriel, being Gabriel uses his control over Adrien to force him to never talk about Marinette again. Gabriel then gets a call from Lila, and even though she's been nothing but helpful to him since Season 3, he's apparently tired with her. Why is he suddenly rejecting the help of his most competent (by comparison) ally?

Also, the episode ends with the revelation that Lila somehow knows Gabriel is Monarch. Why? How? I DON'T CARE, BECAUSE THIS EPISODE SUCKS!

Oh my God, this episode was just terrible! “Derision” and “Adoration” definitely got to me with the way their stories were handled, but this was the first episode in a while to really piss me off. The plot was contrived as hell, basically being a repeat of “Gabriel Agreste”, and you all know how I wasn't exactly a fan of that episode. Think about it: Marinette sneaks into a party, Felix tries to scheme against Gabriel, and Marinette and Adrien end up getting caught in one of his schemes.

The social commentary about how bad the rich were just felt more pretensions than anything else. I get that it's meant to teach children a lesson about the real world, but the episode feels so confident in what its trying to say when it's not that deep, even by kids' show standards. Rich people are bad? Yeah, I think someone like me who lives in the same country as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg knows that. Will you actually teach kids about the financial conditions that allow the wealthy to abuse their power or the cutthroat methods they'll resort to in order to turn a profit? No? You're just going to tell kids that rich people are jerks without giving any actual evidence in the same episode you're using to try and to teach them? Man, these writers just keep hitting it out of the park here!

This whole “Rich people suck” message also falls flat because Felix is the one pushing it. You know, someone who already comes from a rich family? It's not like Bruce Wayne where he uses his money to help the people of Gotham, as Batman or not. Felix just whines about how “tHeY'rE tHe MoNsTeRs.” when he's just as well-off as they are. The episode tries to do a subtle discrimination message as evidenced by his rant as Argos earlier, but it doesn't work because we have never seen anyone discriminate against Felix for who he is. Yeah, the episode once again tries to hint at him being a Sentimonster, but because the show hasn't just pulled the trigger and confirmed it, it's hard to really sympathize with him being “excluded” when we've never seen him being treated differently by others in earlier episodes, and even if he was a Sentimonster, nobody would know or be able to discriminate against him in the first place.

I don't know why the show keeps trying to excuse Felix's actions when once again, he pretty much committed fucking genocide yet the episode still wanted us to feel bad for him realizing his actions had consequences. If he actually wanted to own up to his mistakes, he'd either hand over the Peacock Miraculous to Ladybug or help Ladybug stop Monarch. For someone who claims he hates when people abuse power to make others suffer, he's no better, judging from how both times he's gotten to use a Miraculous, he's either screwed over Ladybug (Strikeback) or endangered a lot of innocent people. And if you're wondering why I didn't point out any double standards between the treatment of Felix compared to Chloe, that doesn't really matter. No matter how you feel about Chloe, whether you feel like she got screwed over or not, it doesn't really make how the writers are glorifying Felix any better or worse, as his potential “redemption arc” isn't off to a good start.

The plot was stupid, Felix was an idiot, and it felt like more effort was put into the musical number than the writing. In my opinion, this is easily the worst episode of the season so far.

Although at the very least, now that we have even more evidence that Adrien, Felix, and even Kagami are all Sentimonsters, I think I know what clip I can start using to describe my feelings on this plotline.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE EPISODE IS... FELIX

For someone who managed to outsmart Gabriel on multiple occasions with no superpowers, Felix's intelligence really took a nosedive the second he got the Peacock Miraculous. He came up with a completely unnecessary plan that involved impersonating his cousin's identity and mocking his friend when he's supposed to try and win their favor, he danced with his cousin's girlfriend without his consent, transformed in public, smearing his reputation even further, and proceeded to gleefully wipe out humanity through a musical number, and needed other people to point out how immoral his actions were. Of course, Marinette gets second place thanks to her plan to break into the party and later letting Argos get away.

[din-miller]

A Little Jive Is Good for You

PAIRING: All Bad Batch Boys x AFAB Reader (gender neutral) no incest/all separate stories

Summary: Reader surprises their partner with a new sex toy called Jive. (It's a wearable g-spot vibrator)

WARNINGS: 18+, sex toy, app controlled sex toy because we fancy here, oral (cunnilingus), fingering, semi public sex (?), tiny bit of angst (sorry echo), thigh fucking, I don't know what phones are called in Star Wars so I'm using device as a placeholder for now, afab, gender neutral reader, all established relationships, tbb headcanons but it's spicy

A/N: I originally wasn't going to write for Crosshair but the setting of the fic didn't work with the others so he made the cut. Congratulations buddy.

Hunter doesn't notice the app at first. It's not until half his Caf is gone, the article he's reading is finished and his thumb swipes back to his home screen that his eyes fall upon the newest icon.

We-vibe

He frowns, never having heard of it before. For a brief second he wonders if he should get Tech to come over and look at it. Make sure it's not a virus or some kind of tracker. But his curiosity gets the best of him. It's probably some kind of prank of Wrecker's. He's done it before. So, Hunter takes his chances and opens the app and he's met with a dark purple background and a bold-all-caps word.

TOYS

Definitely Wrecker's doing.

He hits the play button and it takes him to another purple screen, this time a lighter shade. There's four squares that surround a circle and inside that circle there is a smaller one labelled JIVE.

With a little hesitation Hunter presses on the smaller circle that he's able to move around. He plays with it, swinging it around inside the big circle before moving it to the bottom left square right on top of a little wave symbol.

Three things happen at once. A faint pulsing sound comes from the cockpit followed by a gasp and a wave of arousal – your arousal – hits his nose so hard that his cup falls out of his hand and onto the floor, bouncing a few times as warm Caf spills onto the ship's flooring, but his hands are too busy clenching the table to notice.

His nostrils flair, seeking the smell of your arousal, breathing it in deep inside his lungs and his tongue darts out to taste the air. Sweet and faint, yet it sits on the tip of his tongue and his eyes close, picturing the glistening of your wet pussy, the way your walls flutter around the toy – kriff, what he'd do to have his cock buried deep in your tight cunt.

Hunter breathes out your name, a plea and you're appearing before him naked as the day you were born.

"Ner kar'ta," Hunter swallows, eyes unapologetically locked on your sex, "Look at you, so wet, so beautiful."

You're in front of him now, his head perfectly lined up with your dripping cunt and his fingertips gleefully trail up your thigh stopping just where you ache for his touch.

"Hunter, baby, please!" You beg, desperate and unashamed. He must sense your desperation, because his hand lays flat over your mons pubis and his thumb rests on your outer folds. He doesn't part them, just presses lightly against them.

"I can feel the vibrations," He grunts, eyes falling close, "I can feel the anticipation as it rushes through your body, the need for pressure, for movement against your wet pussy. It calls to me, ner kar'ta."

"Kriff, answer it then!" You growl, pushing his chair away from the table and throwing a leg over his thighs to straddle him. You rock yourself against his clothed sex, seeking friction against the throbbing of your own.

"Very demanding for someone who started this," He reminds you, but his arms wrap around your waist, device forgotten as he helps you move against his cock, "Not complaining though."

You snake a hand down between your bodies to change the vibration with the built in button. This one's stronger and your hips jerk up, separating from Hunter but the clones quick to pull you back down onto his lap.

Slowly, teasingly so, he removes the toy and presses it against your clit with the palm of his hand as his fingers coat themselves in your arousal before sliding into your cunt.

It doesn't take you long to reach your orgasm, in fact it slams into you at full force when Hunter presses against your sweat spot with just the right amount of pressure.

Then his own orgasm stains the blacks he's currently wearing, messy and so fucking hot. He rarely cums in his pants – preferring to do it in or on you – so when he does your ego inflates. At least until Hunter pulls another orgasm out of you.

Echo had figured it was Tech's doing too. His brother is always updating his technology, making sure everything works. He even programmed all the apps and keyboard to be one handed accessible.

Everyone except you and him had gone out for the next few hours, leaving the ship empty and comfortably silent. At least it was silent until Echo's curiosity got the best of him and his thumb started flicking the small circle labelled JIVE around.

He doesn't have heightened senses; he can't hear the toy, can't smell your arousal. It's not until you appear at the cargo holds door way, wide eyes locked onto the device in his hand with a desperate 'please' falling from your lips that he knew the app wasn't Tech's doing.

Echo's heard of apps like this. A way to pleasure your partner hands free. He went down the rabbit hole of sex toys when you and him first became sexually active. A fear of not being able to properly please you with only one hand plagued him night and day until you sat him down and reassured him that he satisfies you plenty.

"Please," You plead once again, crossing your leg over the other one seeking friction against your core as you squeeze your thighs shut, "Echo, kriff, I need more."

Echo's eyes flicker down to your body, clad only in panties, then to the screen in his hand. His thumb gives an experimental slide of the JIVE button and you stumble towards him, a wave of arousal soaking your panties, and without missing a beat you sink into his lap. Echo's dress in just his blacks, his cock straining against the fabric of his pants and the first brush of your sex against his is utter bliss.

His scomp snakes around your waist balancing you on his lap as he awkwardly tries to catch the device in his hand as it slides from his grip, his brain a little too distracted by the whispers of vibration against his cock to have proper coordination to hold the device.

A part of you is begging yourself to move and take off your panties, to free Echo's cock and slide your drenched folds over the wide width of his sex, but as much as you love pussy jobs you can't seem to separate yourself from your husband long enough to take them off.

So instead you unapologetically hump against his clothed cock, moaning when he moans at the feeling of the toy's vibration against his length.

Neither of you last long, which in all honesty is never a disappointment, and thankfully the night is still young and the way your husband is looking at you, you know you'll be sore tomorrow.

Wrecker finds out about the toy by feeling it. You've momentarily forgotten you were wearing it until his fingers found the tail end of the toy as his deft fingers slip into your panties.

Your back is to his chest as he brackets you in with his meaty legs, one hand palming your tit as his hips expertly grind against your ass.

You've spent the day teasing him; dirty flirting, a brief risky flash of your tits – his biggest weakness – just to build up to this moment.

"Aw, mesh'la, did you get a new toy without me?" His fingers blindly feel out the new toy, or at least the part not inside you, until he finds a small raised bump near the end of the toy. His finger settles on the button but doesn't press it, awaiting your consent.

He's always been like that, a big man who will wait hand and knees to get the go ahead. Especially when it comes to sexual activities and new toys. You admire that about him, consent being the key to everything he does, but right now? Right now you want him to hold you against his chest until the vibrations shoot through your core and leave you a sobbing mess.

The need makes you beg without embarrassment, "Press it, kriff, don't tease me!"

The moment the toy activates you're letting out a silent scream, eyes rolling into the back of your head, body arching up and away from Wrecker's chest as the vibrations pulse inside your tight cunt, right snug against your g-spot.

His hand firmly squeezes your tit before pinching your perky nipple, his breath hot against your neck as he gently nibbles against the flesh again and again, leaving marks, claiming what's his.

His finger travels down farther until it reaches his target; your dripping cunt. He coats his finger with your juices before gently guiding it inside you, right behind the back of the toy.

Nothing about Wrecker is small, his fingers are meaty, chunky, and he knows it. With one finger he curls it in into the silicon of the toy, pressing it against your most sensitive area. Your hand shoots out to wrap around his wrists, nails leaving red crested shapes in his flesh and it's all you can do to keep the tears building up at bay.

You can't stop the cry that leaves your mouth as your arousal soaks through your panties and drips onto the mattress below you. Kriff, you didn't even last half a minute before cumming. It's the quickest you've ever finished and you probably should be a little ashamed of how fast it was, but Wrecker's chest vibrates with the loudest moan you've ever heard from him;

"Mesh'la, I'm gonna–,"

"Wait," You shakingly push yourself up farther onto his torso until his cock slides through the opening of your thighs, "Fuck my thighs, baby, let me see you cum."

He groans, needing no further instructions before fucking your thighs, fast. His precum acts like natural lubricant as his cock jerks back and forth, hot and heavy between your thighs.

"Squeeze around my cock, mesh'la." Wrecker grunts breathlessly and you press your thighs together tightly. The toy is still vibrating inside you and you reach down to the built-in button to turn it off, overstimulated.

Wrecker's fingers dig into the flesh of your hips as his release paints your thighs, his cock helplessly twitching between the valley of your legs as he cries out your name.

Once you catch your breath, and can lift a finger, you'll show him the app. Show him how to use it. Maker, you can't wait.

Tech knew right away what the app meant for, his codpiece already becoming too restricting before he even opens the app.

He calls out for you, wanting to see your face as it overcomes with pleasure. Pleasure he's giving you, he's responsible for.

The moment you walk into the room and see his lust filled gaze, app open on his device, you're stripping yourself of your clothing, sitting across from him in the co-pilot's chair, legs spread wide to give him a clear view of your pussy.

He doesn't activate the toy right away, instead he's leaning forward in his chair, eye locked onto your cunt. He's studying the part of the toy he's able to see and you roll your eyes fondly before snapping your fingers together.

His eyes shoot up to yours, swallowing at the blatant need that reflects back at him. It's clear that neither of you will be lasting long. Not this time at least.

"I trust you're smart enough to figure out how to work it." You teasingly trail a hand down your body, ghosting over your sex before retreating back up to your chest to play with your breasts.

"Of course," He huffs, adjusting his goggles, "It's a basic design; clearly fashioned by humans with a basic understanding of technology–,"

With a soft chuckle you bring a hand down to hover over the built in power button, "Then you'd know I can control it with a quick press of the button right here. Really, I don't even need you–oh kriff,"

Your hips jerk up, a surprise moan falling from your lips as the toy buzzes to life inside you and your walls clench around the silicon, "Tech!"

"Too much?"

You shake your head, fingers clenching the arms of your chair, "No, it's good, it feels so good."

Tech hums, eyes once again locked onto your pussy and you know he's silently debating with himself on whether or not to take a holo. You're about to tell him to just take one but all that leaves your mouth is a pathetic whine as the vibrations change to a stronger setting.

Tech's out of his chair and on his knees before you, "I want to taste you."

That's basically all the warning you get before your legs are hooked over his shoulders, his tongue darting out to collect your arousal before spreading it over your clit. He flicks the tip of his tongue over your sex before pulling back, "You're so wet for me."

You nod, eyes rolling back as his mouth returns to your sex, "All you for, Tech. It's all for you."

Crosshair knew instantly that the new app was your doing. You're the only one who knows his passcode. He just didn't know what the app was designed for.

He had ignored it at first, letting most of the day go by before managing to corner Tech and demand his brother tell him what the app was. Of course Tech had simply explained everything about it, but when he went to go turn the toy on Crosshair shoved the barrel of his rifle under the clone's chin. Tech was smart enough to make himself scarce.

Now with the knowledge of what the app was designed for, Crosshair was in control with you willingly at his mercy. He lets you continue your faux innocent act, pretending himself that he hasn't noticed the app.

He'll wait for the opportune moment to arrive. He's a patient man, he's not weak like his brothers. We won't wait on hands and knees for you to come to him and you know that.

The moment comes almost five hours later as he volunteers himself and you to do the supply run Echo and Tech were originally signed too. Hunter had given him a questioning look, obviously wondering why he'd willingly offer to do something he'd usually bitch about doing.

Crosshair had just glared back at his brother and Hunter was smart enough to end any further questions there.

"So," You start, eyeing the man beside you as you walk side by side through the market, "Why us? Echo was relieved to be getting some fresh air, you know. You also hate people, crowds and shopping. Have to admit, I'm a little baffled."

He doesn't look at you but his words are sharp, "You're not an idiot, ner kar'ta."

"I've never claimed to be one, I– oh, you, you wouldn't," You come to a halt, pulling Crosshair with you. Your eyes are wide, full of fear and a building of desperate want, "We're in public, Crosshair."

"Best not make a scene then."

It's not an order, nor a demand, it's a challenge.

One you already know you're going to lose.

But then again this is Crosshair, the man you've spent all day unknowingly giving him a raging hard-on. He's pent up, sexually so, and that's your doing and that doesn't go unpunished.

So it doesn't really come as a surprise that when you're about to cum he turns off the device, denying you of the orgasm you're desperate for.

Because when you do cum, you'll be on your knees, mouth wrapped around his cock. Not here, in a crowded marketplace; not when he can't praise you. Not when he can't taste himself on your lips.

–

Sorry about how roughly Tech's ended. I've never been good at writing cunnilingus. Blow jobs on the other hand I'm a master at but that's mostly because I've spent ten years writing gay porn.

[kitkat-the-muffin]

This took a while but it’s finally done!

I’m quite proud of how this turned out. Took me all week to design and draw the character, and took me all day to photoshop this Strife template (I don’t believe in downloading fonts)

Anyway, this is my Usersona for Cloutchase! Think of it as my new online presence (at least until I recolor it for future use)

I’ve put the full drawing, as well as further elaboration on the process, below the cut, and I recommend checking that out too!

I did trace the og template a bit, but that’s cause I suck at drawing poses. The arms are entirely my own design though, so I’m kind of proud of that. The colors were color-picked from previous usersonas so I had a palette to work with

I struggled a lot with the outfit design, and that was mostly due to the limited colors at my disposal. I think it turned out alright, though, even if it didn’t all go according to my initial sketch. For example, I wanted a small ponytail but ended up with two long pigtails. They’re absolutely fabulous though, so I’m very happy with the end result. You can’t make something grand without scratching a few drafts first, after all. I plan to maybe use this design in the future for other things after I think of a new color scheme. My placeholder colors were magenta, purple, and teal!

I actually based the design off of several references from characters I like, or more specifically characters I want to cosplay some day. Those characters were Uzura from Princess Tutu, Sophia from Persona 5 Strikers, Strelitzia from Kingdom Hearts Union X, and Saki from Romantic Killer. All four of these characters also happen to be previous profile pictures of mine from Discord, so I guess that’s why I felt drawn to their designs when creating this new online persona, or “usersona” lol

I named her Muffy (she/her) cause that’s the nickname I’m trying to push for on Tumblr, especially after being called “Kitkat” or “Kat” for about 6 years now. It’s time for a change I suppose. The “McQueen” part is in relation to my blog title as a self proclaimed “shipping queen” but also I wanted to make a Cars joke. The Strife Specibus was a last minute decision, though. I was gonna go with yoyokind but then realized I ALWAYS use yoyokind as my default weapon and I don’t even know how to use yo-yos irl. So instead I decided to give my little chaos child the most dangerous weapon in America that isn’t a gun: pepper spray.

“Peprsprykind” is an actual modus from canon too, I saw it on the wiki hahah. Muffy only has one can but it’s full of GLITTER so she can ruin people’s lives and make them sparkle all at once! However, she does have some restraint of course, it’s only for when she’s feeling evil of vengeful heheheheh. I had a whole conversation with a friend about how choosing pepper spray seemed kind of boring to me at first, but maybe I can do something unique with it. Maybe use it on Amino and watch them swallow it like the ungodly demon they are, who knows?

Anyway, might post the progress video later if I feel like it. For now ima relax tho since this is my first actual drawing in a while that I’m actually proud of, and I’m tired from dedicating a week to it

I hope the @cloutchase team enjoys Muffy’s presence as much as I do

[vicwrites-and-acts]

Writblr Introduction

I've been on Tumblr for a bit now; mainly lurking on my other blog, until I decided i'd make a new one to actively engage in the community, and share what I am most passionate about. So here's my official introduction!

About me:

My name is Victoria, but most call me Vic, so I am fine with whatever you'd like as long as its not derogatory. I'm 24 and very unsure of where the future is going for me. She/her pronouns for me preferably, but I'd also answer to dude or bro, because it's a love language.

I'm a mom of three, so writing or engaging is sometimes limited to my free time. I'm American (I know, I know, how boring.) Kidding. Mostly. I'm also Neurodivergent, but that's probably pretty obvious.

I've been writing since I was eleven, and it's always been a major passion; there's just something so raw and real about storytelling, and I've always been a pretty immersive reader. The book just transforms on the page and I'm swept away into different worlds. Until recently, my writing has mainly been fanfiction. I found it so much easier than being confident in my own abilities as a writer, because the foundation was already laid before me.

I can almost never focus on one thing at a time. So you'll probably see me flip flopping around like a fish out of water.

I'm also an aspiring actress as well as an author. So you'll probably see some things related to that – I hope you don't mind. Some other interests include: Soap making, candle making, sewing, knitting, and Psychology!

Asks and tag list/tag games friendly!

Side note: I am not at all familiar with writblr/tag games at all so any tips is 100% appreciated. Always open to new friends as well!

I will more than likely use this blog for posting about my OC'S, my WIP's, aesthetics, moodboards, Playlists, poetry, and reblogging helpful writing tips, as well as reblogging and helping the writblr community.

ABOUT MY WRITING:

I enjoy reading/writing sci fi, dystopia, fantasy, and horror on occasion. My works will almost always have a romantic subplot because I am a smol hopeless romantic in a big, big world.

HUGE fan of redemption arcs. Yes, please. Give me the morally grey character who does awful things but in the end makes a huge turnaround and is just so chefs kiss

Some of my works will have triggering content, and it will be marked with trigger warnings when applicable.

Some fandoms I engage in and do writing in on my main blog @johnmurphysgirl is as follows:

LOST

The 100

Stranger Things

BBC Merlin

Jurrasic Park/World

There's probably more but my mind goes blank. Rip

My WIP:

Title: Tempus (subject to change/filler name)

Genre: Sci fi, dystopian, romance

(think Lost in Space meets Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

Current status: hahahaha panic induced screeching; chapter two is halfway finished, but I've been struggling with severe writers block for months.

POV: third person, eventual switching, multiple povs.

Plot: Scientists have always meddled in things they couldn't begin to understand; mixing viruses and making bio weapons in the same containment area as cures for all manner of ills. The scientist in question lets out a dangerous disease, a vampiric mutation called the NightWalker Virus.

Only a select few were chosen to go to the Odyssey; a space station that would lead them to safety on a newly discovered planet.

Eris Matthews is an unauthorized stowaway on the Exodus with her best friend Cashmere Moni, and the owner's son, Rhys Grey. The ship's capacity was only meant for four people, not six. They crash land onto their new home, far from the civilization they'd hoped to find.

They'd fled to the stars in hopes of salvation, only to find their new home riddled with demons and unanswered questions, betrayals, and it is not at all what it seems.

[houjichaya]



13 + 71, yamaniku, i believe the rest of the details can fill themselves out???

ah, yes, thank you for requesting one of my favorite ships! tbh, it deserves way more traction in the fandom than it currently gets. 13 (detective AU) + 71 (twenty-four hours to live), ft. yamaniku (nikaidou yamato/@stellamancer) -- written in second-person pov because I wasn't sure how well legit yamaniku would be received by the niku in question. note: proper ship name is still up for debate, so yamaniku is being used as a placeholder for the time being! nikudou could be kind of cute, though. nikainuku? nikaiku? niniku? ninniku? the possibilities are endless... (if only yamato's name were written with different kanji. mountain meat would have been amazing!!!)

"Another love letter arrived for you." The envelope that's being offered to you is a soft pastel green, and nothing about it screams love letter, but your partner has taken to calling them that as of late. It's probably because the last letter you received playfully invited you to dinner, as if the sender wasn't a wanted criminal and you weren't the detective hot on his trail.  "Thanks," you say, taking the envelope without so much as a glance in his general direction. It's already been dusted for prints and checked for explosives, you suppose. If you die, it'll come out of Ishida's paycheck.  As usual, the envelope is addressed to my darling detective, written in crimson ink reminiscent of blood. Your brow furrows in irritation as you make your way over to your desk. In one fluid motion, you grab a letter opener and slice it open.  The contents read as follows: As fond as I've grown of our little game of cat and mouse, I must admit that I tire of your futile efforts to catch me. I thought I provided you with a wondrous opportunity in inviting you to dinner last night, so you can imagine my great sorrow when you failed to show up. I had to find someone else to keep me company and ease the pain of my broken heart.  (You almost crumple the letter up right then and there. Another victim will be found soon. Maybe you should have gone with your gut, after all.)  In the past few months, I feel as though we've come to and understanding of one another. It is my hope that you don't refuse me again, although our first meeting will inevitably be our last.  You have twenty-four hours to set your affairs in order, as I imagine you won't be able to do much else after. Remember: if you don't find me, then I'll find you.  Yours, Nikaidou Yamato Some love letter, you think, folding the page up and stuffing it back into the envelope so you can submit it to evidence later. It's more of a death threat than anything else, but you find that you don't mind all that much. Either way, you'll finally get to see him face to face, which means he's as good as caught.

As it turns out, Nikaidou Yamato looks nothing like the image that's been circulating the tabloids in increasing amounts over the past few months. In fact, he bears little to no resemblance to the photos in his file, which explains why no one (read: you) has been able to pin him down. And that's why you never saw him coming. The twenty-four hours came and went in the blink of an eye, and when you finally returned home to clear your head and maybe grab a bite to eat, he made good on his promise to find you instead. He ambushed you in your own kitchen, holding a knife to your throat to keep you in check. He wasted no time in shoving you down into one of the chairs in your dining room and tying you up. Which brings you to your current predicament. "See something you like?" His lips twitch at the corners as he leans back in his chair, eying you over the table that separates the two of you. You're seated directly across from him, hands bound behind the chair's back with what feels like rope. The knots won't budge. He's smart enough that he also secured your legs, which is something you hoped he'd overlook if you didn't put up too much of a fight. How unfortunate. You narrow your eyes but keep your lips pressed tightly pursed. To be honest, some part of you has noticed that he's incredibly handsome, which explains how he's been so adept at getting close to his victims, but you're not about to tell him any of that. "Come now," he says, his voice a lazy drawl. His eyes appear to be glinting with laughter as he watches you, but maybe it's just a trick of the light reflecting off his glasses. "You might as well say what you want now, or else you'll regret it later." You close your eyes for a short moment, open them again. Yamato is giving you an expectant look, and you quickly glance away, focusing instead on his hands. They're folded together in front of him, resting innocently on top of crisp white tablecloth, as though they've never been stained with the blood of innocents. "...Why are you doing this?" He makes a face. "Boring." "No, I mean"--you try your best to motion towards the tablecloth that you're only now realizing you've never seen before in your life--"why are you doing this?" There's silverware placed neatly in line with your shoulders, as one might expect from a fine-dining restaurant: forks on the left, knives and spoons on the right. It takes Yamato a few seconds to understand that you're not inquiring about his terrible life choices, and soon a smile blooms on his face, misleading in it's warmth and delight. "Ah!" He leans forward, resting his elbows on the table, and you instinctively flinch backwards -- as much as you possibly can given your current state -- which elicits a chuckle from your captor. "I thought you'd be exhausted after running around all day chasing dead ends, so I made you dinner." "How romantic," you say dryly, not quite able to stop your lips from twitching in amusement. And it would be, if you weren't tied up and the man sitting across from you wasn't a wanted criminal. He grins lazily. "A woman like you deserves it." "It'd be nicer if you untied me," you say casually, and Yamato laughs. The look on his face now makes your heart drop. He's toying with you. He knows that you're not able to spring yourself from his trap. And regrettably, he's right. "Later," he says, eyes darkening, and your blood runs cold as you remember his promise. His threat. "I'll leave your body somewhere nice so your partner won't have to look too hard. But let onii-san have a little fun with you first, okay?"

--bad end

[chamomileteainabuttercup]

18, 20, 39 and 41 for reyrose please? Thanks :)

Nice! I don't get to talk about them all that much (the sequel trilogy turned out so poorly that discussing it just isn't much fun) but I really like to imagine a life they could have together. A lot of this requires ignoring stuff I didn't like, primarily from The Rise of Skywalker. We're going to an AU where Rey is most certainly not Palpatine's granddaughter; she's a "nobody" in the positive sense that she doesn't carry the baggage of being descended from anyone with a significant history. Whatever she does, she's doing of her own accord. Plus, she certainly did not have a romantic attraction or attachment to Kylo Ren. She was simply trying to do what she thought might work to bring peace, despite her natural aversion to him. Also in this AU, Rose got to do stuff that mattered! I don't have many specifics because it would require writing a whole different plot for the movie, but she did!

(oh and the big bad/puppetmaster was Jar Jar, but that's well beyond our scope here)

On to Rey and Rose!

18. What are their dates like? How long do/did they date? Do they ever feel the need to take a break from each other?

For Rey and Rose a really good date is a day out rummaging through junkyards and pawnshops. Rey is great at finding things, Rose is great at fixing things, and together they find all kinds of technological curiosities that they repair, restore, or refashion into something new. They don't necessarily have a lot of dates as such because they're both pretty busy working with their friends to re-establish peace and democracy across the galaxy, but when they have a day off together that's how they like to spend it. Rather than needing a break from each other, during their busy times they wish they could see each other more, and not be too tired to enjoy their time when they do. (It's like having a partner who's going through medical school, but both ways.) When things aren't so busy but they can't take a whole day to do something nice, they work on their fix-it projects together, share a meal, or have a movie night in with Finn and Poe.

So whether that qualifies as "dating" or not, mileage may vary, but that stage of their relationship goes on four or five years before they decide together to make it permanent and get married.

20. What does their home look like? Their room?

Once things calm down enough that they can have a home of their own and spend a lot of time in it (so a few years on from when they meet, a little after they marry), they buy an old scrapyard and set up Rey and Rose's Salvage and Repair, and live in a house they build at the back of the yard. I'm not sure what planet this is on, and it might well be Tatooine; I'm happy with Rey going to live there but I don't want her to take the name Skywalker. After all, Tico is a good surname, if she needs one, and again, it doesn't have baggage.

The house is by no means beautiful; it's functional and sturdy and designed to largely keep itself warm or cool depending on the climate. Their room is sunny and always a little messy and dusty because neither of them is particularly houseproud, but it's not dirty or chaotic. They always have a few rescue droids around the place that they're rehabilitating - ones that have been abused or badly damaged and need some TLC both to get them running smoothly again and to help them regain trust and confidence. Some go back out into the world to find new jobs and some become permanent residents - one of those is Professor Huyang, who they found on a scrapheap during the alternative third-movie plot I haven't fully figured out, and who helped Rey to make herself a better lightsaber and taught Finn how to craft his own too. Huyang is the closest thing to a Jedi mentor they have - since Anakin's lightsaber was cut in two in The Last Jedi, I wanted a new lightsaber quest to be part of the story, and it was meant to tie in with Finn's Force sensitivity coming to the fore and Rey trying to help him get to grips with it while still learning about it herself.

39. Who initiated the relationship? Who kissed who first?  When did they realize they were in love?

This is very much a romance that grew out of a friendship which had a bit of an inauspicious beginning. When Rey needs to go on her quest, Rose, having recovered from her injuries, volunteers to go with her so she doesn't have to do everything alone. That's a good reason but it's also a way to get some distance from Finn, who she's realised is in love with Poe, and now she feels mortified about her grand romantic gesture for him. Finn is a Good Boy who's grateful for her feelings although he can't reciprocate, and doesn't want Rose to feel badly but it's not really in his power to help her with that. She needs time to get over the disappointment and embarrassment without having to see him being all in sync and starry-eyed with his extremely handsome and dashing fighter-pilot boyfriend who is all (bites lip) at the sight of him.

To begin with she also feels awkward with Rey, because she's Finn's best friend and also has this whole legendary magical vibe about her that's a bit intimidating - but a few days on the Millennium Falcon with her and seeing the Magic Knight Hero who floats rocks with her mind also chews with her mouth open, and will happily eat a brick of uncooked noodles as a snack, and has the most delightful scrunchy-nosed smile, and is just as much of a greasemonkey and gearhead as she is (and they need to spend a lot of time just keeping the Falcon going, and there's nothing like solving problems together for making friends), and she soon gets over any awkwardness and realises Rey is a kindred spirit.

Both of them are conscious of their liking for each other growing into a romantic attraction, but they're awfully busy avoiding the First Order and fixing their ship in flight and questing for kyber crystals and encountering Jedi ghosts and realising the Falcon's computer with the "peculiar dialect" is sentient and building a new droid body to transfer L3-37 into so she can live again, so it's a bit hard to find a good time to talk about it. At the end of a tiring day they're sitting in the lounge of the Falcon where the holo-chess table is, feeling pretty exhausted, and Rose leans her shoulder against Rey's, and then her head, and Rey takes her hand between both hers, and they sit quietly for a couple of minutes more, each becoming sure that the other feels the same way, before something goes bleep and the lights go off and they have to get up and find what's wrong and fix it.

While Rose has both hands busy with tools, her hair flops over her eyes and she asks Rey, who's holding the flashlight for her, if she can get that. Rey gently brushes it back with her fingers and pauses with her hand on Rose's cheek, and Rose looks up at her, and the first soft kiss is mutually initiated. And at that moment the whatchamacallit Rose is trying to reset gets its act together and the lights all flicker back on very prettily. It is nice.

Incidentally, Rey has no idea Jedi weren't supposed to have romantic relationships or get married. Either Luke didn't know either or he didn't get around to telling her (it's not mentioned in the ancient texts she saved because they predate that rule, which cynical people say really had a political rather than spiritual purpose, preventing the concentration of power in the hands of Jedi dynasties). It doesn't become a problem. Over the years Rey gradually rebuilds a reinvented Jedi Order (one that's a lot less hierarchical and order-y), finding people of all ages with talent that went undeveloped during the dark period, and a few who've had some training and have been living off the grid - like this one little green kid who lives in a flyspeck on the map called Mos Pelgo with his elderly dads who are nevertheless younger than he is.*

41. Are they party-goers? What are they like when they’re drunk? Does it happen often?

The Rebellion/Resistance does love its victory parties and peace celebrations, and naturally they go to a lot of those. There's also Finn's birthday party. Finn doesn't know when his actual birthday is. Poe has picked one out for him and throws him a rager of a party every year. They don't get drunk with great frequency, they're more likely to have a drink or two to relax together and leave it at that, but Finn's birthday party is the annual occasion when they predictably do.

When Rose gets tipsy, she gets very red in the cheeks and laughs till she snorts - it doesn't take much. She's a happy, friendly and cuddly drunk who everyone wants to take care of. Also kind of sweaty.

Drunk Rey can go one of two ways, giggly and silly along with Rose, or feisty and belligerent. Everyone hopes for silly Rey, who won't do anything worse than jump in a pool with all her clothes on. Belligerent Rey wants to prove how much she loves her friends by fighting anyone who she thinks she overheard saying one word against them. Belligerent Rey has to be pushed in the pool to cool her off.

---------------------------------------------------

*I haven't decided why he stopped attending Luke's school before disaster struck and as a placeholder will use "Expelled for drinking ink."

[hopelessly-aro]

Nothing is Ever Impossible

Soulmate September Day 21: pick your favourites and combine them

Ship: eventual DLAMP

Tags (as far as I know): fluff and angst, high school au, road trips maybe, happy ending, domestic fluff if I continue it that far, definitely hurt/comfort I know that much

Words: 574

Summary: There are ten known ways a pair of soulmates can be linked together. And it usually is just that - a pair. Sets of three are rare, four is abnormal, five would be...well a set of five soulmates is impossible. Or is it?

IMPORTANT: This is just a prequel of sorts, and all I had time to write. When I saw the prompt I wanted to go wild so each of the ten different pairings has a different bond. But this is a big task and I really want to do it properly so I’m posting this now as essentially a placeholder for day 21 but I wont get round to writing the rest until November at the very earliest.

Basically I'm just warning you this is extremely unfinished and is immediately going on hiatus. If you wanna read more, check my blog in November at which point I will have a better idea of when its gonna be continued.

Warnings: the only things would be negative self talk, minor misunderstandings and swearing. In AO3 terms: rated teen, no archive warnings apply. I will warn about things in more detail when I actually know what I'm doing.

AO3, chapter 2

There were ten known ways that people were marked out as being soulmates. Some of them were physical marks on the skin: a compass pointing towards them, their name, the first words they'd say to you, a timer counting down until your first meeting, a unique mark you'd share. Some of them were more intangible links: feel their emotions, hear the music they listen to, share dreams, a red string tying your hands together, or the letters you send to them will always reach them.

Logan knew all of this, which was why he was so certain that he had three of them.

The first one to appear had been the mark on his left wrist - an anatomically correct heart in beautiful shades of blue. It had been there for as long as he could remember so of course it was only natural that he assumed he had one soulmate, like normal, for the first six years of his life.

Then the compass appeared on his right wrist. The circle with north/south/east/west on it would always spin to remain orientated correctly, no matter how Logan moved, while the needle pointed to where his soulmate was, always somewhere roughly North-East.

His parents had been shocked when they found out, and a little unnerved, but it wasn't so uncommon to have two soulmates and they got used to it eventually. Logan himself didn't think it particularly odd, in fact it rather made sense - Logan often felt as though he could never have settled for loving just one person.

Sometimes two didn't feel like enough.

He was twelve when the foreign emotions started creeping in, but it took Logan an embarrassingly long time to realise they were coming from another soulmate and weren't just early teenage angst.

His parents however refused to believe it was anything but that. "Two soulmates are rare enough" they said, "three is practically unheard of", "its just teen hormones darling, you'll understand when you're older".

Logan very quickly gave up trying to explain that sudden bursts of frustration when he was just relaxing in his room were absolutely not normal, and decided that he would just have to deal with having a third soulmate on his own.

As Logan got older, and that particular soul-bond got stronger, he was more and more easily able to distinguish between his own emotions and the ones from his soulmate, and even able to push specific ones at them when they were feeling particularly angry or frustrated or self-loathing. It was difficult because Logan had never really been one for expressing emotion, preferring to just acknowledge that he was experiencing a feeling and move on with his life. But the more he tried, the easier it became.

And soon his soulmate was doing the same thing for him.

When Logan was overly stressed or upset or frustrated that people wouldn't listen to him, his soulmate was always there to push calmer feelings to him, and often give him the oddly specific feeling that he needed to take care of himself more.

For several years, Logan was sure of himself. He had three soulmates and that felt about right. The odd feeling that something was still missing would surely fade when they all met each other.

But Logan didn't have three soulmates, he had four. And it happened that the first one he met was the last one he knew about.

~~*~~

Hey thank you so much for reading even though this is a mess! I really do wanna continue it but I just don't have any sort of time right now, sorry.

@tsshipmonth2020

[lilfriezatyrant]

The Royal Henchmen

[Part 2/last part]

The five space capsules have finally landed on the planet. The cold-hearted Emperor of the Universe, who rules his dominion with terror and an iron fist, knows that he will soon possess all the Dragon Balls to finally fulfill his long desired wish for immortality. Vegeta will pay for the iniquity of betraying him! And finally he will wipe out this planet for good, because it will have no use for him. A plan he had in mind from the very beginning. The natives here...these Namekians were stubborn from the beginning and didn't cooperate, so the thought was quickly obvious that his universe will soon have one planet less.

The hatch on the roof of the ship slowly closes again when Frieza has found a suitable place with his vehicle. A few minutes ago, he could perceive several impacts on the planet. He utters a quiet, amused chuckle and the tip of his tail lightly taps against the hover pod's outer shell. Although it's been a long time since he's had summoned them, he experiences a certain anticipation. His strongest fighters, five in number. King Cold's elite and now handed down to him.

With the scouters, it is easy to get his stolen treasures back.

Oh, how he'd love to enjoy seeing that monkey's face when he just shatters his dreams! Ripped away by his best squad, led by an alien who is a master of body-swapping. Captain Ginyu. Four more aliens of different races are under his command. Guldo, in the shape of a four-eyed pipsqueak, he is the weakest, and yet Ginyu had accepted him. Probably because of his unusual psychic powers. He can stop time, paralyse objects and even beings...helpful tricks in a fight. With telekinetic powers he is also able to get hold of things, just like the emperor himself. And only a few beings are born with this difficult supernatural ability.

Burter, the fastest of the team and in most parts of the universe. Known as the blue hurricane, which very often forms a team up with Jeice, the red magma. Both can form an unbeatable bond, with which they have already defeated many insurgents and enemies.

And then there is Recoome...an alien that looks very similar to the human race, but is by far more stronger. He is the concentrated force of Ginyu's unit. Pure aggression... albeit a bit clumsy and boisterously. But he is as loyal as any member of his elite soldiers, which the ruler appreciates very much.

His enthusiastic tapping of his tail against the dark metal casing now falls silent as his honoured guests are also on the round and flat roof of the ship. Again an amused and short chuckle with his elegant voice sets in as he now recognizes her silhouettes more clearly. Instead of tapping, his tail tip now swings slowly back and forth and he strokes the cool surface of his vehicle. It seems almost like conducting as each individual member introduces himself. Strangely enough, the names of his soldiers are not very important to him. At least not the cannon fodder. Names don't matter to him...whereas his closest and most loyal soldiers, like Zarbon, Dodoria and the members of the Ginyu Force he keeps in his sophisticated mind. Maybe it's also because he has known them since his childhood. Hm. More or less.

When everyone had introduced themselves again with their names, he wanted to greet his elite, but to his confusion, the soldiers perform a kind of...choreography. Each one of them has a pose, and they live every movement. An already... passionate gesture from everyone. Actually, he wouldn't care, but he wasn't expecting anything like this.

Ah, yes... his best fighters had a certain mannerism...

His pink cheeks are getting a bit reddish now, also his nasal bridge is getting a subtle pink tone. 

The short choreography, which also serves as a greeting, ends together in a common pose.

Some long seconds of silence pass by, in the face of the emperor there is still confusion and embarrassment, his mouth is slightly open because of this unexpected irritation. "My...", his first word is rather a placeholder before he has found his voice again. "...what an entrance.", the blush has disappeared again and his gaze is directed at Jeice who approaches him with a green suitcase. "As you requested, Lord Frieza. Here is Your scouter.", the facial expression now appears delighted and he accepts the device with a red visor. As he attaches the detector and communication system to his ear, the commander himself turns on his green scouter. "Apparently there are other people with our traitor...", the Emperor's piercing gaze is now directed at Ginyu.

"Is that so?" He thinks for a moment and his tail swings back and forth a little faster. "Probably it's just the two insects that have bothered me before...", his dark lips now curl into a very sadistic and gloomy grin. "Do what you want with them. But... do NOT kill Vegeta immediately. His betrayal is inexcusable that I will take care of him myself!", his blood-red pupils pulsate violently and he says the last words with an intense emphasis that every one of the elite soldiers listens spellbound. "But first, I ask for the Dragon Balls, Captain Ginyu. Get them back.", his voice still sounds incisive, but less enraged. All members salute in a unit and the commanding authority of this unit assures him that it will not be long before he can fulfill his wish.

(source of the original pic, please click here :D)

I hope you enjoyed the last part too uwu

-> Part 1

[talesfromgringolandia]

Underwing Challenge Day 4 - What’s the world of your WIP like?

So first of all, the world of Bo and Shen is incomplete. There’s a lot of gaps that I haven’t gotten to yet, mostly names and stuff.

For example, there’s this big blur of the history of the early years of the Venus colony. Essentially, Earth colonized the entire solar system, including Venus. Then there was a massive war, and Earth lost, leaving Venus completely stranded, without communication to the outside world.

Some basic info on Venus: The air pressure at the surface is equal to 90 earth atmospheres, making it completely uninhabitable. But it was also rich in minerals, so colonists would use gas to drill out the valuables. The gas ended up trapped in the rocks, which floated up to the height where the pressure equals earth pressure. This is my explanation for the floating islands. Also, the people doing the mining tended to belong to the same families, who became very isolated in their wealth. After some time, they ended up permanently deformed by their delves into the abyss, becoming the dwarves.

Before the war, people lived on artificial floating islands, powered by electricity and stuff. The “natural” islands were decorated with plants and animals and made great vacation spots, but no one lived there. But after the end of the war, or maybe during it, Venus experienced its first abyssian storm.

Near the surface of Venus, it's constantly storming, and in those storms live dragons. Please don’t ask how they weren’t noticed during the mining phase. These dragons are pure black, have no legs because they can almost swim in the thick air down below, and can breathe lightning. Sometimes, storms from the Abyss will overflow into the upper atmosphere, and rarely, those storms contain hordes of dragons.

During the first dragon storm, the artificial islands were completely destroyed. The citizens were unprepared. The small portion who survived fled to the natural floating islands, where they struggled to survive. It was essentially the apocalypse. It only took a few generations for these people, who were reduced to stone age equipment without electricity, to forget a lot of their history.

Soon, the Titans appeared. I don’t know where they came from. They introduced the people to the Aether, and taught them how to use it.

After a long time, sky ships were invented, and people could finally travel to other isles, establish nations and such. And that's how the current situation came to be.

Here’s something to understand about the technology in the Sky Isles. They can’t mine metal from the islands, because they risk destroying the very ground they stand on. But luckily, alchemists, people who use aether to control organic things, came up with a solution. They genetically engineered plants which can be spun into a fiber, which is a pretty good substitution.. It's still not quite as good as actual metal, or True Metal, so the few scraps of true metal that remain are incredibly valuable.

All sky ships, weapons, large buildings, et cetera, use some metal fiber. There are various kinds of metal fiber plants. Iron oak is by far the most powerful, but also a little rare because it's very difficult to cut down the tree. The most common is copper-root, which are like onions. There’s also silver-leaf,(not sturdy, but pretty), and probably something for gold? Still not finished with that bit. But copper-root tools and buildings are everywhere, while sky ships are most likely made of iron oak.

Most technology is developed in Galras, where Tinkerers can use the aether to cause massive clockwork machines to move. So most sky-ships are built there, although they need to cooperate with the dwarves to finish them.

What's the Aether? In-world, not many people know, with the exception of some individuals who specifically study its nature. It's something people use to do cool things. The aether is actually the manifestation of people’s souls in the real world. You use your spiritual soul to effectuate physical change, and these interactions are called aether. The more aether you use, the more you attach your soul to those activities. This is why tinkerers are known to be mad scientists, and why many alchemists grow so attached to their craft as to start experimenting on people. The Titans know how to effectively and safely use the aether to not only avoid negative effects, but create positive ones. Felenor and the other good titan use this knowledge for the good of humanity, while Ildra and Lralso use it to turn people against each other.

I must also mention the clockwork sentients - clockwork robots, powered by aether, who have minds of their own. More on them later.

There are four main nations, each composed of one main isle and those isles surrounding the main one. These isles, in order of settlement, are the Dwarven Isles, where the dwarves live underground in labyrinths; Destra, where the paladins originated; Galras, a technological power, and the origin of Tinkering; Endora, covered in a dangerous swamp, and only has one city, also called Endora; and Minvir, a mountainous, snowy isle where the sparse tribes are at constant war with each other.

I’ll talk more about the specific isles below the cut, because this post is long enough.

So remember the dwarves? Their ancestral profession changed their appearance significantly. Their skin appears permanently burned, and is ebony black. Not like dark brown. Pitch black. They’re also short. They’re excellent engineers, and can see in the dark better than humans can.

During the dragon storms that caused the apocalypse, they managed to flee separately from everybody else, ending up on an isle that was already full of holes because it was home to an insect hive. They’ve tamed these insects, which range from the size of dogs to the size of elephants, and they harvest the insects honey, which can be spun into a steel fiber that needs a better name. The honey can also be burnt to produce the gas that goes into the balloons on Sky-Ships, which means that dwarves are obscenely rich. They are also very secretive, to the point that a lot of people don’t know the actual name of the Dwarven Isles. Coincidentally, neither do I.

Occasionally the dwarves will venture into the Abyss to recover true metal from the wreckage. I’m not sure how they do this yet.

The first isle to be settled, besides the Dwarven Isles, was Destra, which you might recall is the origin of many paladin orders. There is a lot of history in Destra, it's kind of like visiting Rome, its really ancient. At the moment, it's completely conquered by the paladins of Ildra, Titan of suffering and despair, who let paladins of Lralso(deception, dishonor) run free. Paladins of Felenor(justice, honor) and of placeholder name(love, charity) have to flee or are killed. Some fought back, but most of those were killed.

Before the conquest of Ildra, however, Destra was mostly run by paladins of Felenor. Their law was just and honorable, which doesn’t mean there weren’t some bad eggs in the system, but the system was good. But some people didn’t enjoy being ruled by a law they had no choice in, and began a revolution on the south side of the isle. During this, they discovered tinkering, and turned the tide of the war with the construction of clockwork robots. Once they had conquered half the island though, the paladins began to learn how to easily deal with the automotons, who were pretty stupid being simply robots. So the Tinkerers ended the war by building massive drills which cut the island in half. The Tinkerers' side became Galras. The northern isle, which is still called Destra, was weak after the war, which opened them to Ildra’s conquest. Those drills still line the northern coast of Galras.

More about Galras! Their capital city is Kellenth, which is like one giant skyscraper many stories tall. Towards the top is where the elite live, while the bottom extends deep into the ground. The bottom floor is full of criminals and evil, where the light doesn’t shine. It's like cyberpunk, but it's clockwork. The city is supported by four massive True Metal pillars, which are a statement to how rich Galras has become.

Shortly after the war with Destra, Galras created a Clockwork Sentient, a clockwork AI. It soon went rogue and fled to an unknown isle, where it has constructed a factory of clockwork sentients. These ones are not nearly as powerful as the first, which is now called the Master Sentient. These minions are known as clockwork sentients, or just sentients, and sometimes they defect and come to live alongside humanity. Understandably, many people are… reluctant to accept them. The Master Sentient frequently conducts raids on Galras, and has recently conquered a small corner of the isle. They are rapidly becoming a significant threat, and the war against them is affecting the entire nation. The Master Sentient is not actually the first sentient, but there are some left over after the war with Destra, who are now ancient and live in the corners of Galras.

Don’t forget the Sentries! Sentries are soldiers who use clockwork armor and weapons, which they control by their aether, in combat. They compose the higher ranks of the army and protect city streets. They also make great mercenaries. Each suit of armor is unique, since soldiers will customize it with their own gizmos and setup. Think of each gamer in reality having their own setup.

Also the Storm Guard! There’s a fleet of ships specifically dedicated to preventing dragon attacks. This was created after a particularly bad battle with the Master Sentient, during which a surprise storm turned the tide, allowing the humans to win but at a much higher cost.

Next is Endora! It was originally established way back when Destra wasn’t split in half, as a rest stop for passing sky ships. That was hundreds of years ago, and now Endora has grown significantly. It has developed a reputation as a land of freedom, where there is neither the arm of the Galrian government nor the chaos of Ildrian Destra. There are farms right outside the city, and some small villages as well. Don’t forget the hordes of monsters that live in the swamp just beyond civilization; they frequently come out and attack settlers.

Endora has also become a safe haven for alchemists, who fled from Galras after people reacted to the image of alchemists as mad scientists who experimented on people. Many alchemists in Endora still perform these experiments, creating the chimeras, human-animals hybrids who often flee society to live in the swamp. There is a large hidden community of chimeras living there now, and many have adapted alchemy to the purposes of protecting nature, rather than exploiting it. These call themselves druids, rather than alchemists. Don’t take too kindly though - they can put the well-being of nature over human lives. These are two extremes though. Most alchemists are well-meaning doctors, and most druids are guardians of their people.

Recently, the Felenor Academy for Guardians was founded by Ambrose, where young men and women are trained to protect the city from monsters, and their families from crime. The city is mostly run by the people in charge of the ports, so at the city border with the swamp, not much is done. The Academy is changing that by empowering people to protect themselves.

Endora is also a major exporter of fish, which, since there’s no ocean, are rare pretty much everywhere else.

[a-cai-jpg]

it's startlingly easy for the line between reality and fantasy to blur

(hold on tight, don't lose your grip.)

glossary:

S. - novel by Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams Ship of Theseus - fictional novel by V.M. Straka S. -  character in Ship of Theseus "S" - collective of writers Ekstrom, Durand, Summersby - part of "S" Filomela - editor for V.M. Straka Signe Rabe - daughter to Ekstrom and Durand (contested!) Desjardins - Straka scholar, married to Signe Rabe

For the past few days, I've been reading and re-reading a book titled S.

S. is a novel co-written between Doug Dorst and J.J. Abrams. (I believe Dorst did most of the writing and Abrams came up with the idea.)

I was taken by the novel when I first saw it because of the handwritten notes in the margins and the inserts.

(I don't know if y'all remember those huge, flip books in Costco that would have inserts and pop-ups about dragons and faeries and stuff. I used to spend hours standing in that aisle flipping and perusing through all of them.)

But damn, S. is so much more than margin-notes and fake post cards.

S. is a novel with three different storylines.

When you first take the physical book out of its booksleeve, it's a book titled Ship of Theseus by V.M. Straka, a novel published posthumously by Straka's editor, Filomela, after his untimely death in 1946.

Within this 456-page book, you become privy to the lives of three groups of people. Firstly, there is the protagonist of Ship of Theseus, a amnesiac man simply named S. Then, there are the authors of the margin-notes, Jen and Eric, two students at Pollard State University trying to discover the secret behind the mysterious and elusive author of Ship of Theseus, V.M. Straka. Lastly, there is the story of Straka himself.

(I feel like I can't talk about the book without explaining what I found in the book, so heavy spoiler alert.)

After some extensive note-taking and reading, I've more or less figured out the three storylines. I will allude to two of them, but the following is an in-depth-ish synopsis of Ship of Theseus itself. 

In Ship of Theseus, S. wakes up in an unnamed town known only as The Old Quarter, washed up from shore. He hears voices of those suffering, and he meets a girl who introduces herself as Sola. She is reading a novel titled The Archer's Tales. This is a real book (real, in the sense that it exists in the second level, the Jen and Eric level), written by Sobreiro. In Spanish, it is El Libro de Ese (The Book of S).

S. is kidnapped and wakes up on a ship, which is later revealed to have the name Sobreiro etched on its hull. After a storm, he ends up in a town called B--- and finds himself amidst a worker's rebellion against a factory. He sees a woman who looks similar to Sola, but goes by the name Szalómé, and in his pursuit of her, he realizes that there is a man planning to bomb the factory and kill the workers. He hesitates between warning them and following Sola, and ultimately retraces his steps back to the factory, but he is too late.

He and four crucial persons of the rebellion survive the blast and escape. In the getaway, the four are killed by the Detectives who work for Vévoda, the malicious owner of the factory hiding a dangerous secret. S. jumps off a cliff into the ocean. Somehow, he ends back up on the ship. It looks different, a patchwork of different types of wood, but he knows its the same ship. 

Something interesting to note about the ship is that the sailors have their lips sewn shut. There is a rotation system, where one sailor at a time goes to the orlop, but S. is never allowed to go there.

(i didn't know wtf an orlop is, but apparently, it's the lowest deck of a ship lol)

S. searches for his identity through writing and scrawls his stories into the wooden walls of the ship with a nail. When the ship approaches land again, he is rowed to shore by a crewmember. He follows a guide on the land through a town, El H---, and realizes that decades have passed since he last stepped foot on shore. In El H---, he arrives at a library/museum where the residents are packing up art and literature to protect from an impending invasion by the Agents, who are the evolved version of the Detectives. There, he sees a portrait of a woman who looks like Sola, but is told her name is Samar. He is given a valise and then told to return to the ship. The invasion arrives, but he successfully makes it back to the ship with the help of a person that he believes is Sola.

The valise is filled with material and notes on how to make various poisons and a stack of 57 photographs of individuals.

The next time he arrives on shore, the crewmembers haul boxes and boxes of cargo from the ship into a warehouse for safekeeping. He climbs a volcano and meets a very old woman who shows him a book of the Ship of Theseus. She tells him to make a decision, and that the question of Sola is always there. He races back to the ship, enters the orlop, and sees a solitary writing desk, ink, reams of paper, and boxes identical to the ones currently being packed into the warehouse. He sits down and begins to write. 

(It's clear that when the sailors go to the orlop, they too, are writing.)

The sailors return and sew his mouth shut. 

S. embarks on his new mission, having made the decision the old woman had presented him. He begins his journey to kill each and every one of the 57 people photographed, who are Agents of Vévoda. With every person killed, a page of a book is tucked into his or her pocket. In Vévoda's retaliation, a similar signature is used. 

In a mission to kill the governor, another one of Vévoda's people, he recognizes the governor as one of the original four who had escaped with him from the rebellion. Not only does he realize he's been betrayed by someone who believed in the cause even before he did, the guides who are with him are killed, and he thinks he sees Sola and his younger self.

After a stint in the Winter City, S. finally meets Sola, who travels with him to the château to kill Vévoda and his guests, who are all powerful statespeople and businesspeople from around the world. During the operation, which is to poison the black wine that Vévoda has created, he realizes that this is not what he wants. He asks himself if it matters what he wants, and makes the decision for the very first time that yes, it matters. So he doesn't kill them.

Instead, he persuades Vévoda's heir to drink the wine, and the young man ends up spilling the intentions of the Vévoda powerhouse, which is to create the opportunities and provide the resources for power-hungry people around the world to have their way, utterly disregarding the powerless. 

At the end, there is a vision where S. and Sola return to the ship and, as they sail, spot another ship that he says is "one of theirs."

Just Ship of Theseus by itself, ignoring the other two storylines, is packed with allegories and metaphors.

The novel itself is difficult to get through and vaguely existential, but I think Straka's message ultimately distills to the notion that the struggle against greed is both overwhelming and relentless. To join in the fight is to lose your identity and free will, but sometimes, it is the decision that you have to make.

S., therefore, is not a singular person, but rather, one link in an ongoing "tradition" starting with perhaps Sobreiro, in the 1600s (I quote "tradition" here because it is the term used in the book). He wakes up with no memory and is pushed into and along this revolution against the growing power of Vévoda, likely like the many people before him and the many after him (the younger S. that appears with Sola). 

(Hence why he has no name, but instead, a placeholder, because this is a story that will be lived many, many times by those who hear and answer to the calls of the suffering.)

(I write about S. in a very passive manner, because he is just that.)

The Ship of Theseus is a thought-experiment exploring whether or not the ship is the same ship if you replace all of its original parts. The answer presented in the novel is a conflicted one. The author argues that the next Vévoda, the heir to the corporation, may or may not be the same as his father. Furthermore, the author writes an S. that deviates from the original plan--who chooses Sola over the tradition. Both Vévoda and S. are placeholders for two ideas--the former being the corrupt and greedy, and the latter being the opposing force. Using the Ship of Theseus as the title implies that each iteration of Vévoda and S is identical, yet the author challenges that notion in the last chapter.

Why would the author do that, you may ask?

BECAUSE the message Dorst and Abrams tries to bring with S. is much more nuanced. 

NOW.

NOW IT'S TIME TO BRING IN THE NEXT LAYER.

WHO IS V.M. STRAKA?

That is the question asked in the foreword written by Filomela, the editor, but also the question Jen and Eric try to answer throughout the book. 

There is one compelling theory that I love very much, which is V.M. Straka is ultimately a figurehead for a movement started by a collective of radical literary scholars who are trying to uncover the corruption and greed of businesses and governments around the world, sometimes with very extreme methods like murder.

This is true. To a certain extent. (The group is known as "S.")

(Yes. I know.)

(Guess what their signature is? A page of a Straka book tucked in the pocket of the corpse.)

But, Straka was also a person.

(This is where Dorst and Abram's novel grows beyond Ship of Theseus.)

In the original Ch. 10 that Straka writes, Sola and three others die, and he returns to sea feeling like he has failed the people he's tried to protect. At the ocean, the point-of-view suddenly shifts, and the reader begins seeing through the lens of an unnamed young man.

The young man boards the ship.

WHAT BEGINS AT THE WATER SHALL END THERE, AND WHAT ENDS THERE SHALL ONCE MORE BEGIN.

See, Ship of Theseus is semi-autobiographical, regardless of how much Eric tries to argue that you can't assume everything a writer writes is about him/herself. Ship of Theseus is Straka's final reckoning with the movement in which he's immersed himself. This is why it’s titled Ship of Theseus.

In Straka's original manuscript, with S. standing in as himself, he writes that he's failed his fellow comrades. He despairs that the next generation will similarly be both humbled and tortured by the fight.

Because this original manuscript is lost after Straka's death, Filomela writes a happier ending, in which S. loses neither Sola nor the fight. S. and Sola continue the "tradition," along with numerous others after them. This is the ending she wishes for them, because she was in love with Straka, but the ending Straka never dared to choose.

Ugh, and that's what's so fucking powerful about S. It is a conversation amongst three S.'s and three Solas. There's the original S. and Sola in the novel, where S.'s preoccupation with the "tradition" ends in Sola's death. There's Straka and Filomela, where Straka's fear of choosing Filomela ends in his own death and a missed opportunity with Filomela. Then, there's Eric and Jen, where they choose each other AND Ship of Theseus.

They choose to continue embarking on this journey to prove who Straka is together, possibly outing the powerful corporation the “S” was fighting against in Straka’s time, and ultimately, reconciling the indecision of S. and the fear of Straka.

Before I leave you, there is one other thing Ship of Theseus discusses that makes my heart skip a beat when I think about it.

S. writes. His crewmembers write. Their writings are protected in a warehouse. They no longer have the ability to speak, but their power comes through the words that they write and leave for the next generation.

(Eric was right to be fixated on the "generation" theme.)

When S. is on the Territory (where he kills the governor), Vévoda's people are blasting mountains carved with images of the Old Village's history for natural resources to build formidable, destructive weapons.

The erasure of indigenous stories for the benefit of the greedy and powerful and the erasure of stories in general is a prominent theme throughout Ship of Theseus.

(similarly, our world is plagued by the same problem, both in the past and today. see: cultural terrorism. but also colonialism and imperialism in general lol.)

However, what is striking is the black stuff that Vévoda is manufacturing. This black stuff is the puddle of grotesque liquid that burns through the flesh at the top of the mountain when S. and his comrades flee from B---, it is the exquisite wine Vévoda saves for his most important guests and markets as his greatest weapon, and it is ink.

His most powerful weapon is ink. What all the rich and powerful want is the power to write the past, present, and future.

After Vévoda's son drinks the wine, he has a choice to make. He can continue on the Vévoda tradition and bring destruction about the world under the guise of creating something greater, or he can rewrite the future. He chooses the latter. (and unfortunately dies.)

BUT.

Straka writes, 

"He passes a barrel on which no mark is visible, as its contents have leaked through a split stave and blackened the wood below....He kneels down and touches a finger to it, and all at once, the mad chorus of voices in his head goes silent. 

Silent.  

Settled. Returned to the earth and settled. Voices and narratives, re-absorbed into the ground on which we walk. And this is the key, he realizes, the thing that makes the purpose of all that work on the ship and in El-H--- and on the Obsidian Island and in Budapest, Edinburgh, Valparaíso, Prague, Cape Town, Valletta, the Winter City, and a thousand others come into focus. All that ink, all that pigment, all that desperate action to preserve that which had been created--it is valuable because story is a fragile and ephemeral thing on its own, a thing that is easily effaced or disappeared or destroyed, and it is worth preserving. And if it can't be preserved, then it should be released and cycled. To write with the black stuff is to create and, at the same time, to resurrect. We write with what those who've come before us wrote.

Everything rewritten. Part o' the tradition."

We all have the power to write our own stories and the story of the world around us. We all have the power to choose to destroy or create. Destruction is not a necessary precursor to creation.

(I lied, I'm not leaving yet.)

There is very, very important note that Jen writes in the book. She says that for every person who betrays the "S," there is someone who is their ally. This applies to the collective "S" and S., the character.

I think the most irresistible part of S., this larger novel written by Dorst and Abrams, is the "S"--this collective of radical writers (the pen is mightier than the sword!) dedicated to bringing about a just world. 

I--

Oh my god.

Many of the members of "S" are parallels to the characters in Ship of Theseus (and this is the most exciting part with Jen and Eric's research, as they match each real life person with the characters).

There is one person in particular, Durand, for whom my heart sings. After her lover, Ekstrom, passes away (possibly due to Straka's carelessness), she writes and researches relentlessly. Before dying, she is determined to fight for women's voting rights and to untagle the stories of history so they are not forgotten. 

And then there is Filomela, who singlehandedly tries to rewrite the accepted "tradition." She falls in love with a person through the words, never meeting him, but dedicates ten years of her life to waiting for him. She isn't part of the "S," but she's part of the "S" because like how Sola has The Archer's Tales at the beginning of Ship of Theseus, the "tradition" is passed to Filomela, unbeknownst to her. But she fucking kills it.

I mean, she even fakes her own death and manages to live until over 100.

In her parting letter to Eric and Jen, she writes, 

"Please remember, though, not every question must be answered. Matters of the past may be allowed to remain in the past; matters of the present and future may be allowed to go unexplored. The world will not end in any case....I will tell you what matters most (although you must know this already, as you know my story): it is love. When you fall in love, friends, let yourself fall. It is my fondest wish that this note finds you both happy, healthy, and falling."

As Straka's editor, she must know that "falling" is a prominent theme in Ship of Theseus. As privy to part of the "S," she must also know that falling is ultimately how many of the members find their end. And yet, she uses and repeats this word, because falling is terrifying and negative and unwanted, but falling in love shouldn't be feared. 

I like that last line, but I really, really, really like, "...not every question must be answered. Matters of the past may be allowed to remain in the past; matters of the present and future may be allowed to go unexplored."

See, V.M. Straka is a person with flesh and blood, with history, with emotions. 

But he is also something greater than that. He is a collection of writings influenced and contributed to by a number of skilled authors and scholars with a singular vision. He is a fight against the corrupt and evil.

So, when Filomela fell in love with the words written, whom did she fall in love with?

Jen is convinced that she fell in love with the person, Vaclav Straka, who disappeared after a suicide attempt by drowning in 1910 and had his future erased to become V.M. Straka.

But, I think she was in love with the person who embodies a revolutionary spirit. She suspects who Straka is, she must have after so many years working with him, but she's okay with not knowing and loving the ideal in her mind, especially after Straka dies. 

(maybe i'm just projecting)

There's another arc in the storyline that I love very much, which is that of Signe Rabe.

In the "Interlude" chapter, Filomela writes a question to V.M. Straka into the text, asking, "Who is Signe Rabe?"

Jen and Eric ultimately discover Signe Rabe to be the wife of Desjardins, a Straka scholar, but also, the daughter of Durand.

The identity of Signe's father is contested. Some people think it's Straka, others think it is Summersby (another member of the "S"), but I like more answer more.

Signe Rabe is the daughter of Durand and Ekstrom, raised by Summersby and Straka (there's a margin-note where Eric talks to Summersby's lawyer's daughter, who mentions a little girl whose parents were killed and chased around the world by bad people so she's raised by two uncles).

I love that--I love it so much more than Signe being raised by her real father and his friend. 

(that's awful, i know but shh)

Because, the "S" is more than just a collective of radicals--it is a family bound together by their vision for a better world, a greater ideal. And Straka--Vaclav--who was like a son to Ekstrom, who was saved from ending his life by Ekstrom in 1910 to live this extraordinary life, atones for his sins and raises Signe, who forgives him.

WHAT BEGINS AT THE WATER SHALL END THERE, AND WHAT ENDS THERE SHALL ONCE MORE BEGIN.

UGH.

Ok, I'm done.

-ish.

(My favorite character is Desjardins, who is first described as "too old + senile to take on students" by Eric.

But God, imagine. This man who marries a woman he loves, a woman who dies far too young and leaves him with a secret about who she is. And because he loves her so much, he looks for Filomela for twelve years, possibly decoding everything in Ship of Theseus just like Jen and Eric did, and hands her the final chapter that Straka wrote. 

And he continues to pursue the question of "Who is V.M. Straka?" for the rest of his life, embroiled in this larger conspiracy for the simple reason that he fell in love with Signe Rabe.

And he ultimately dies, falling out of a window in the same hotel Ekstrom, his father-in-law, died in.)

(I HURT.)

( Filomela describes him as a nice, polite man "moving with great sadness.")

(I imagine him to be a wily, tall, young man who falls in love, who becomes sad and serious, who begins to hunch over as the years pass him, who finds someone--Eric--to continue on his work, who is okay with dying after passing his documents to Eric because someone will continue the tradition.)

(Ok, now I'm really done.)

(Thank you for reading. Farewell. Next time I will not write so much.)

daily song rec:  任贤齐 - 天涯 (cover by 任贤齐 & 刘宇宁)

(sometimes i hear liu yuning’s voice and i’m like oh yes this is why girls wore wedding dresses to his concert)

[feckyeslife]

Divergent Gift Exchange: Official Info Post!

Cross-posted from: https://feckyeslife.dreamwidth.org/20831.html

Planning has concluded. Thank you to everyone who gave feedback and showed interest! I have moved to Dreamwidth for coordinating (it's easier for me) but will be cross-posting to Tumblr as well to continue to keep y'all informed!

Key Links: Tagset | Collection

Timeline

✅September 2020 - Planning, feedback on structure

October 1-18 - Tagset nominations

October 5-18 - Signups

October 21 - Assignments go out

November 16-20 - Check in!

Dec 6 - Assignments Due

Dec 14 - Collection opens for reading (anonymous)

Dec 26 - Author reveals

Nominations

Please note that the tagset will be open for nominations while signups are running! I have pre-loaded in a pile of relationships and I think every canonical character, but I wasn't able to pre-load in everything. It took too long and I didn't want to push off the timeline any further.

If you have not participated in an event with a tagset before, it's fairly straightforward! When putting in a sign-up, the field for Characters and Relationships are limited to what is in the tagset to help facilitate matching. Otherwise, minor differences in how one person inputs a character or relationship name might mean even though they're asking for X and someone is offering X, they might not get matched. Using a standardized tagset eliminates that issue!

TL;DR You're going to want to check the tagset and nominate anything that you want to request which isn't already in it.

Requirements

This is a fanfic-only event to be held on AO3. If you require an AO3 account, leave a comment below or contact the mod (feckyeslife) for assistance.

500 word minimum

Complete by assignment due date (no placeholders)

Does not include requester Do Not Wants (DNWs)

Sign-ups

Sign-ups will include two parts- requests and offers.

Requests must include at minimum one (1) non-romantic request. This means you’re asking for a fic about just one character, two characters with a platonic relationship, or multiple platonic relationships. Please include any optional prompts, your likes, Opt-ins, and your DNWs in each request. Example:

Natalie Prior & Tris Prior Prompt/Likes: Bonding after Tris realizes that her mother was Dauntless. DNW: Natalie to die during the Abnegation attack

Requests can include additional requests (up to 3) that are either romantic or non-romantic. Please include any optional prompts, your likes, Opt-ins, and your DNWs in each request. Example:

Four | Tobias Eaton/Tris Prior Prompt/Likes: Tris helping Four with one of his fears. OK with smut, as long as it is consensual DNW: Non/Dub-con, BDSM or similar kink

If no match can be made to your offer, the moderator will reach out to the email associated with your AO3 profile if possible. The prompts/likes and DNWs cannot be used to box your author into writing something extremely specific. Example:

Peter/Christina Prompt/Likes: Hooking up throughout Initiation, Christina feeling embarrassed about their relationship. Smut please!! DNW: Relationship without smut, Peter/Christina being in a public relationship

Opt-ins are aspects that you are open to, but are not required. Opt-ins are also not assumed to be OK by authors unless stated.

Smut

Dub/non-con

Requested Character(s) Dies in fic

Suicide/Self-harm

Underage (under 16) relationships

Offers must include at least 3 characters you feel comfortable writing for and any relationships (romantic or non-romantic) that you are comfortable writing for. See matching below for more details.

Matching

Matching will be done with OR matching – your offer will be matched to a character or a ship included in someone’s request. I am fairly confident that by including a non-romantic request with each sign-up, matching should leave everyone knowing that they will be able to create something their reader will enjoy.

Any opt-ins (such as smut) are not requirements. The prompts/likes and DNWs cannot be used to box your author into writing something extremely specific.

Any requests which cannot be matched to an offer will result in the moderator reaching out to the requester and giving time for them to add to or change their sign-up. If by Oct 21 there are still no matching offers, the request will go to the pinch-hit list.

Defaulting/Pinch Hits

If you cannot complete your assignment, please notify the moderator. All incomplete assignments will be automatically defaulted on Dec 7th and sent out for pinch hitting.

If you are interested in volunteering as a potential pinch hitter (no requirement), please leave a note in your offer or comment below. Pinch hitters may also be solicited from the wider community (Dreamwidth, Tumblr, etc).

Anything Else?

Any remaining questions feel free to ask below!

[megatronswaifu]

Nightlight defected from the Bots?! I must know MORE! :0

yes she did!!! it’s a long story BUT I’M SO HAPPY U WANNA KNOW MORE so i will try to do my best to relay it briefly…my writing is very abridged but it still does the job. this is the TFP version of her defection.

basically, nightlight came to earth on a stolen ship with her friends (other ocs who i haven’t really finalized – here are some doodles i did around a year ago), seiner, wheelhop (used to be named “popcorn” as a placeholder), and phase (used to be named rook before somebody pointed out that there’s already somebody named that). a gang of girls!

they are all a very silly and flawed bunch but they get along.

nightlight does not often go on missions because she is a scaredy cat and honestly isn’t very skilled at fighting, and she kind of just stays back. if she does go on missions, she usually ends up getting protected or rescued, so she tries to help in other ways.

one day, the gang of girls decides to go out on a stroll in an uninhabited (by humans) place on earth since they felt cooped up in the autobot base. there is literally no reason for cons to be around so they just decide to have fun.

sadly and very annoyingly, decepticons DO appear and they have to sprint their fucking afts off running and shooting back and hiding, until they can finally sit still enough for the biggest bot, seiner, to comm ratchet,

“ratchet!! ratchet we need a ground bridge! the decepticons found us!”

(rest of story and another doodle under cut)

ratchet pulls up a groundbridge and informs them that the bridge is on the right, on the other side of the mountain they’re currently hiding behind. they make a break for it, and sprint to the bridge. they hop right through, and to their horror and surprise, the room they hop into is purple. it’s dark. it’s got decepticons.

the ground bridge behind them closes, and the girls scatter around and run out the door. they get chased and are forced to run about what is presumably The Nemesis. they finally find a room in which nobody has followed them into or figured out they’re hiding in.

the girls begin to talk.

wheelhop: “WHAT THE SHIT WAS THAT I THOUGHT RATCHET GOT US A GROUND BRIDGE????”

seiner: “well uhh fuck obviously we didn’t go through it, what went wrong?”

phase (in cybertronian sign language, she is mute): “maybe we went through the wrong one.”

wheelhop: “you mean there was a decepticon bridge open at the same time?”

phase nods.

seiner (looking over at phase, with a considering expression): “seems like it.”

nightlight: “but, but ratchet said it was on the right…right?”

…on the “other right” of the mountain, a completely separate ground bridge sits. on that bridge’s other side, ratchet attempts to comm them, to no avail. the girls have accidentally run through another ground bridge that the decepticons were using to mobilize their own forces into the area, and had completely missed their own ground bridge because they went to the wrong “right”. they must come up with a plan to escape. seiner, being a leader-type, looks around the room. it looks like they found themselves in an unused monitor room.

seiner eyes one wall of monitors and says, “we might be able to access some sort of map from this computer. we can find our way out that way.”

nightlight: “we can’t call someone for help?”

phase: “decepticon technology blocks our signals.” she has stood up and is at the monitor, but she hesitates. phase turns to the group.

“if we access this computer, we will most likely notify the cons that we are in this room,” she signs. “as soon as i turn this monitor on, we are on a timetable. the nanosecond i get the map, we must go.”

all of them, very tense, sit in anticipation as phase accesses the monitor. lo and behold, the decepticons are notified, and a team of vehicons rushes towards the abandoned section of the ship. however, when they arrive, the door is open, and the girls have escaped the room.

meanwhile, in the airducts of the nemesis, the four of them crawl, squished, with a map of the ducts on phase’s arm-minimonitor. they traverse the map, having found a suitable way out, for several hours, trying not to get spotted, waiting for the longest periods of time for vehicons to leave areas so they can pass, and being incredibly stressed.

at one point, they must cross from a room and into a hallway to get to their last path. the hallway isn’t very populated, and only at the far end are some vehicons stationed, where nobody will see them, so although obviously very tense, they are not as afraid as they have been a few other times on this “adventure”.

first, phase, the navigator, and an expert at agility, jumps quietly out of the duct, into the room, and opens the door to the hallway. she peeks out. there is no-one. she swiftly emerges from the door and sprints to the other side, opening the other door on the opposite side they must enter.

second, wheelhop follows, a terrified but determined look on her face.

third, seiner, the big bot she is, tries her best to run across quietly.

fourth, nightlight crouches down outside the threshold of the door, propping her foot in a “ready, set, go” position, getting up the courage to run to the other side. her expression is nervous and she is shaking.

just as she is about to hop up, the voices of the vehicons down the hall they had previously not given a care to suddenly stop dead. nightlight’s helm shoots towards their position, to see soundwave, the decepticon third in command, walking down the hallway.

her helm whips again back to her friends, on the other side of the hallway, who all have their mouths open and optics wide as dinner plates. after taking a few seconds to be terrified, they all motion frantically for their friend to run to the other side as quickly as possible. but nightlight hesitates, and shakes her head frantically back. soundwave is too close! she’ll be seen! she doesn’t want to go. nightlight, with fluid pricking her optics, attempts to re-open the door they came from, but it seems it locked when she exited. she takes another look at her friends, and scared out of her spark, she curls into a ball, her helm between her legs, her arms around her kneejoints. if she stays small, he won’t see. if she stays in the crook between the door and the wall, she’ll be okay. he won’t see.

nightlight watches from between her legs as her friends sink into the room, and the third in command approaches from down the hallway, his shadow dangerously puddling closer. it passes over the floor and between her legs, and so do his pedesteps. nightlight, assuming her hiding technique has worked, lifts her helm. she is greeted with soundwave’s expressionless, petrifying helm, and one of the spymaster’s tentacles grappling her arm and yanking her harshly into the air. she shrieks, and is wordlessly taken off to some random place in the nemesis. as she is dragged off, she yelps and cries the names of her teammates in fear, but she cannot see them any longer.

wheelhop, seiner, and phase sit deathly silent in the vent they were forced to escape into. they eventually discuss; they are almost out. finding nightlight would take hours, possibly days if they were going to check literally the entire ship, because they had no clue where the interrogation rooms were (nothing much was labelled on the map). and they weren’t even sure she would be there. they could be killed, or worse, interrogated for information and then killed. it would be better to return to base and come back with a bigger rescue team. they were exhausted. after much deliberation, and despite it basically emotionally killing them do make this decision, they decide to continue on their path and escape the ship, without nightlight.

meanwhile, nightlight shivers in an interrogation room with knock out overlooking her, doing something on the monitor next to the table. she is not strapped to the table, as she is too small to reach the straps, so she is simply cuffed to one of said straps, with additional cuffs on her ankles and wrists. nightlight holds back desperately on tears. surely she will be tortured.

the little moped waits for something to happen. she expects to be killed or interrogated. there’s a bunch of surgical instruments (or, other things, nightlight can’t really tell what they are if she’s honest) on a table a few meters away and she’s about to cry. knock out is scary as the pits. she is helpless. suddenly, the cherry-red doctor is talking to someone on his comm.

and the door fucking opens. and megatron walks in.

and all her sense of decorum and self-regulation and “i should be a good bot and stay still” is thrown out the window in an instant, and she tries to jump up from the table, wailing and sure of her demise. she is going to die or be tortured and THEN die, and now, by the hands of megatron at that? she is faced with an autobot’s worst and scariest nightmare. why her?!

knock out has to yoink her back and hold one of her legs to the table, and really she’s not strong compared to him so it doesn’t take much effort. she is very small on main so you can understandably imagine how scary this looks like to the poor thing: a gigantic shadowy figure that frankly just looks like a dark tower, with searing red eyes, radiating with millennia of hatred for her kind, moving towards her. this is made even worse when she realizes the tower has walked very close, closer when she had last peeked through her servos, and is now reaching for her. she hyperventilates and cries out and kicks (or really, attempts to) when two humongous servos grab her legs, and all the minicon can do is babble pleas.  

to her surprise she feels the stasis cuffs unlock on her ankles and wrists, and she is slowly let go of to scramble away and curl up on the table, taking a second to sooth herself. nightlight eventually sneaks a look from behind her fingers to see megatron just standing there with a patient expression.

weirdly, knock out next to him with a “?????????what” look, completely baffled as to why megatron just uncuffed a prisoner. it seems he did not expect this either.

and megatron puts on his best Do Not Worry I Am Very Friendly face and says, “hello nightlight”. nightlight doesn’t respond, but still glances at him with a look of profound confusion.

and megatron sweet talks her for a while. asking her questions, talking as nicely as he can. and even though, to any sane bot viewing the scene, one would see megatron’s clear intentions of evil, our poor nightlight is immune to social cues. so, she’s thinking, “what’s happening?“ and all of this is…a lot.

eventually, megatron says, “nightlight, i’d like you to join our side.” the periwinkle bot thinks, “well this isn’t torture or death, but….” and megatron can tell she’s baffled, so he keeps talking.

“your friends left you,” he says firmly. nightlight’s face sours pitifully, and megatron continues, “they’ve already left the ship. i’m sure you heard the overhead comm announce we were no longer on lockdown.”

nightlight looks away, feelings clearly hurt, and he continues still, “they didn’t stay to rescue you. they escaped without even an attempt to come for you. they don’t see you as a valuable part of their team.”

and this very much hurts nightlight. this is exactly what she worries about, in her endeavors as a friend and as an autobot; that she is not a good and contributing team member. is she really that small, that bad at fighting, that dumb? megatron continues by saying, “but the decepticon army has a place for you.” she looks up for a second in hope, but not any longer, and megatron can tell she is very conflicted, so he changes the subject.

(and ok side note i have this idea that before tfp megatron went gladiator he was a miner. and he was marx on main in the mines and had already developed kind of a following, and the governmence was like 

“oh god oh fuck we can’t kill him he’s got too big of a following he might be seen as a martyr if WE kill him”

“well alright then government man #1 how about we put him in the gladiatorial pits. then we won’t be the ones to kill him. he’ll be taken care of and we won’t be blamed for it”

“very sexy idea government man #2!”

and they did it but megatron was tough as shit in the end and y’all all know what happened)

but anyways,megatron leans in closer as if sharing some sort of nice, secret moment with her, “i know you used to work in the mines, nightlight.” and this is true. nightlight used to work as an autonomous flashlight to give easier lighting to miners and contractors and such, in her life back on cybertron. “o-oh yeah i did that…” she replies sheepishly.

megatron: “did you know i used to work in the mines too?”

and nightlight immediately forgets she’s sitting in front of the warlord who obliterated most of their race, who destroyed their planet, and is responsible for the death of many of her friends and comrades, “you did?!” she perks up and moves slightly closer, naturally friendly. the fact that megatron was a miner is kind of common knowledge, but nightlight doesn’t know shit fuck about cybertron’s history or important figures and she just thought megatron was a gladiator before this and that’s it. 

nightlight hasn’t met another ex-miner for a while and she’s visibly excited. most of the other autobots, including her teammates, had other occupations on cybertron, and sometimes she found it hard to relate in certain situations. megatron and nightlight chat nicely for a while, but eventually megatron says something maybe a little too violent that reminds her “ah…i am talking to THE megatron”.

the moped looks down. the warlord questions her expression. “um. well. y'know,” she fidgets, “you guys…i can’t join the decepticons. you guys kinda…you guys do…bad things. sometimes. a lot of bad things.” she is not unsure of this fact, but she does not want the confrontation, so she lightens her choice of words as best she can. megatron leans down again, soft-yelling at her in his typical overly-intense way, “you don’t think the autobots have committed JUST as many grievances as us?”

and the answer is obviously NO, they have NOT committed as many war crimes as you, but nightlight falls for his manipulation and backs off, looking guilty. she’s so awfully gullible. and megatron happily grabs onto this fact and runs with it, naming off bad shit that the autobots have (allegedly) done, and nightlight is successfully freaked out.

the gigantic mech sees he’s scared her and can tell he’s convinced her, so he leans back and ends the interaction, “i’ll give you some time to think, nightlight. we will talk later. tell me your decision then.” and with that, placing his servo once on the table as if to say goodbye like a friend but not quite touch her personal bubble, he walks out. and poor nightlight is left to think, alone, about what she is supposed to do.

megatron exits out of the doors and starscream is there, and they walk off all evil-like and start talking. 

starscream begins their conversation,“well how did it go?”

megatron: “swimmingly.”

starscream: “is she convinced?”

megatron, especially evilly, grinning that nasty shark-smile: “i have left her no other option.”

and DUN DUN DUNNNN it’s somehow revealed that starscream and megatron decided to form a plan to lower autobot morale by stealing away nightlight to become a decepticon. they didn’t come up with it before this, it was impromptu when they got the alert that the girls had entered the ship. not many people defect over, and nightlight, from what they have seen, is a dumbass and is very convincible, so she was the perfect target. her friends, who were admirable fighters and were admittedly putting a dent in their forces, would be especially broken by their friend leaving them for the decepticons, moreso than if they had just killed her. so, they decided to convince her to defect so their morale goes to shit. how satisfying would it be for nightlight not to look at her friends in longing and love, but disdain and hatred when they next meet? she is weak, so if the plan doesn’t work out like they’d hoped, they can just kill her.

eventually, of course, whether she is fully aware she had no other choice or not, she says yes, and she gets her new paint job, her new symbol, her new optic color, and is successfully brainwashed. megatron and co continue their skilled manipulation, and nightlight is forced to make a new life as a decepticon, without her friends. yippee!!

anyways, if you made it here, here’s a little doodle. it’s the differences between her autobot and decepticon look! sorry it’s messy.

thank you for viewing.

EDIT: popcorn is now named “wheelhop”! so i changed all instances of her name.

EDIT2: same with rook phase!

[midastouches]

why i love long live (2010)

i really could break this down line by line but i will not micha this is for u honey enjoy <3

Long Live

I had this best guy friend, since like sixth grade. We really only became friends because he started dating my best girl friend and i actually dated his best friend for like a solid two weeks because well, sixth grade relationships :) ANYwho, me and this bgf would talk a lot because we spent a lot of time together because of my bff/his girlfriend. Anywho, eventaully our conversations got really deep and I developed a huge huge crush on him that I couldn’t admit because well, he was dating my best friend.

flash forward a few years later when i finally actually have my own phone and can talk to him, he and my best friend go through this huge messy breakup that essentially means I have to pick a side and can never talk to the other one. I pick the boy that this point i’ve had a crush on for four? years at this point of my best friend (this is actually one of my biggest regrets, and yes, me and girl bff made up later that year on valentines day wow im so bisexual woo)

we end up getting super close, and we talk a lot. i learn that he used to cut himself, except he would do it on his back so no one could see. i would tell him about how much i hate my body, how uncomfortable it makes me and how much i hate eating and gaining weight. we would talk about our depression and the things we hated about high school, and I really though he would fall for me, I did. 

He didn’t. 

I learned about his new girlfriend later that day at a winter strength and speed session. She was blonde, blue eyes, and i somehow convinced myself that she was essentially going to be someone he dated until I turned sixteen and would be able to date him. I recognize now how utterly stupid that was of me just to assume that, assume someone’s feeling were only a placeholder. 

Anyway, high school goes on, and we’re still super close, but there’s now a buffer. I turn sixteen, he and this girl still date. He turns sixteen. They still date. My anorexia gets even worse and my junior years goes to shit. I find it in myself that I can’t talk to him, I can’t be that girl who obsesses over someone elses. So, I simply start to remove myself from him for my own well-being. I put my feelings for in a denial mode and I start to flirt with other people, other boys that make me think I’m moving on, but I’m not. 

Because everytime I get a text or a snapchat from him, my whole face lights up and I know I’m fucked. 

And to my credit, I was not othe only one trying to convince myself he felt something for me. Countless other people in my high school shipped us, countless other people could tell I had a crush on him and they would tell me all the ways they could tell he secretly liked me. It made the narrative continue and my feelings for him were still buried. I couldn’t tell him, I wouldn’t tell him. I was not going to jeopardize our friendship, his relationship with his girlfriend all because I had a dumb crush on him. I just kept thinking it’ll go away, it’ll go away. 

It didn’t, but again, let’s go into the denial phase. 

Hit senior year. We barely talk now except for in person stuff, mainly because I’m trying to convince myself that he doen’t care about me at all. We’re both in cross country though so August hits and I see him eevery day. Except that I think the crush has faded a bit, and I’ve got this other guy I’m talking to, one who makes me feel seen and compliments me and is just overall an amazing guy. Septemeber passes by, now I have a boyfriend and there’s homecing nominations coming up. He gets nominated, I get nominated. I joke to my boyfriend that I’m not going to win, I’m not part of the popular crowd. He bets that I will win. 

This boy texts me in class later that month, after everyone’s voted and now the boy and girl our paired. He send a photo with the pairings and oh look, we’re paired together. All I can think is fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. There’s a ton of homecoming events, lots of pictures, and we’ll be in every single one of them together. 

(also one of the dress up days for homecoming that week is goth day and he gets smudged eyeliner put on him and i just about lose it)

spring forward to the pep rally and we’re all down there, facing eachother, me holding a rose covered in foil and tape with about a dozen other couples surrounding us. I’m looking at him, he’s looking at me. 

They finally tell us to unravel the roses and i can’t. i’m struggling. just about every other girl has their rose unwrapped  but I don’t hear any screaming yet, no winner has been declared. I’m looking at him and he’s got a damn smirk on his face watching me struggle when I finally get. The homecoming queen is announced when she is holding a red rose. 

As I finally get the foil off and stare at the rose in shock, I realize it’s as red as sin. The whole gymansium goes up in a roar of celebration and all the sudden he’s hugging me so tight tight tight and I’m hugging him back just as tight but we’re being pulled from eachother and the other girls who lost are hugging me and I glance back and he’s just go this huge smile on my face and 

holy shit we won. holy fuck shit. we aren’t popular in the way the others were. we were just a rag tag team of a girl and boy and we fucking won. 

we’re crowned king and queen and the entire time long live by taylor swift is stuck in my head. 

the photos of us are gorgeous. the candids, the staged. our crowns. 

and everytime i look back at them i just think of this: 

I said remember this moment In the back of my mind The time we stood with our shaking hands The crowds in stands went wild We were the kings and the queens And they read off our names The night you danced like you knew our lives Would never be the same You held your head like a hero On a history book page It was the end of a decade But the start of an age

flash foward to today. We don’t really talk at all. Occasionally I see him on a run, or at his work. Occasionally we’ll see eachother around, but it’s never awkward. He always brings the same grin to my face that makes me wonder if he ever knew. 

I still love to look at the photos. Every smile, every laugh. 

I think I’ll be in love with him forever. I think that a part of my heart will always belong to him, and I don’t think he’ll ever know. But I hope that sometimes, just sometimes I linger a bit too long in his mind as well. 

Hold on to spinning around Confetti falls to the ground May these memories break our fallCan you take a moment Promise me this: That you'll stand by me forever But if God forbid fate should step in And force us into a goodbye If you have children someday When they point to the pictures Please tell them my name Tell them how the crowds went wild Tell them how I hope they shine

Long live the walls we crashed through I had the time of my life with you

This is why Long Live is one of my favorite songs. It provides this amazing narrative for me to relate one of the greatest people who have ever touched my life. As far as I’m aware, he doesn’t have tumblr, so he’ll never actually see this, but yeah, that’s kinda it. if you read this far, tysm and I hope you have an amazing day <3

and for one moment a band of thieves and ripped up jeans got to rule the world. 

[salavante]

Aesop 29 or the Helmsman

(I’ve drawn his floating head a lot, so here’s him with his hood up, which I draw less) Also formal apology because I think like maybe no more than four people who follow me play Destiny, so a couple things may sound a little esoteric. I’d suggest checking out the Ishtar Collective (links to offsite) if I refer to something unfamiliar. 

Full Name: Aesop-29

Gender and Sexuality: Male and Homosexual.

Pronouns: He/Him.

Ethnicity/Species: Exo, from the little crop of Destiny fancharacters that I have.

Birthplace and Birthdate: Unknown factor. But Aesop was found by his Ghost in the middle of nowhere, in a southwestern state that I have not chosen yet. Arizona, Texas, Colorado and Southern California are all candidates. Aesop has just a little bit of a Texan accent. 

Guilty Pleasures: Aesop is trying to learn how to play guitar and is really bad at it, making him very shy and nervous about his attempts. Similarly, Aesop enjoys singing, but usually does it when no one else is around - because no one else has really heard him sing before, it is a well kept secret between him and his Ghost that he’s actually pretty good. I personally like to keep the list of music that he likes to the 50’s-60’s bracket to match the kind of retrofuturistic style that the Golden Age tech in Destiny has. We the viewer read it as being ‘old’, even if it’s much, MUCH older than we realize because the setting is far future. That’s really all that matters, that we recognize it as being antiquated. His favorite of the very small pool of albums he has access to are Marty Robbins’ “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs” and Nancy Sinatra’s “Boots” and “Sugar”. Sojourn teases him about it and has thusly introduced him to the feeling of shame. He also likes drinking alcohol even if it doesn’t actually make him drunk. Sometimes he does it out of spite. Someone you don’t like? Pound his drink right in front of him and walk away.

Phobias: Aesop’s kinda agoraphobic - he feels trapped and panicked in enclosed areas with lots of people, can be overstimulated by large groups of people talking/making a lot of noise. This makes him mostly useless in large-scale conflicts. He has managed to curb some of this by being accompanied by Sojourn or Calico to areas or situations that are high risk (whether that means a combat scenario or just going to The City), but this can get squirrely because Calico doesn’t have a ghost anymore and if killed would die permanently, and Sojourn has a tendency to get worked up in a fight and leave him behind on accident. If everything goes well though, Aesop is perfectly functional fighting in the small group that is his fireteam - himself, Sojourn (exo warlock) and King (human titan). His ghost, Chanticleer, can also sometimes talk him down if he’s starting to spin up into a panic attack. It’s something that he wants to fix, but, existing within the confines of your anxiety is a cold comfort that he indulges in. In general, he’s a very anxious person with a lot of existential dread, but he puts on a clownish, brazen act and hopes people don’t notice.

What They Would Be Famous For: Honestly, probably something very mundane, like breaking a dopey Guinness-style record or something like that. The entire point of Aesop is that he is very average in his skills in a world of blisteringly powerful space wizards and the like. I find his challenges are more about what goals he sets for himself and if those goals conflict with the status quo. Does his worth need be defined by how good he is at killing things vs. is the pursuit of personal wellness and happiness selfish in the context of a world fighting for its survival. Can these things coexist. etc.  

What They Would Get Arrested For: Probably something relatively benign done for the sake of pulling a dangerous stunt in the name of fun or looking cool. If he was a regular ass human in a normal modern setting, probably taking a nice vintage car for a joyride.

OC You Ship Them With: Aesop will have a love interest in the comic canon, but I’m gonna keep that under my hat for awhile yet. It’s not Cayde though, Cayde is dad. If Amanda Holliday was a man, he’d be utterly and entirely in love, but, alas. He’s still infatuated with her platonically though, and thinks she has pretty much the coolest job in the world. A promise of visiting her is a good way to entice him into going to The City.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: When death is not a factor, this becomes less of an issue, hah. Aesop and his bff Sojourn have killed each other a number of times in training, to an almost nonchalant degree. Aesop has also been killed much more in training, by his fireteam’s resident titan, King. Aesop will also find a rival in a local Fallen pike gang, the leader of which has the placeholder name of Easy Rider. I also have a Cabal villain I am throwing around and trying to decide if they’ll stick, but I need to do a lot more work and research on that. They’re my least favorite enemy type mechanically, but I think they could make perfectly acceptable antagonists in a narrative. 

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Aesop does not read. He can, he just doesn’t. I think maybe, MAYBE, someone could get him to read comic books, but those aren’t very sturdy and I feel like the amount of intact physical copies at this point would be almost nothing. The pool of movies and media that he has available to him are very sparse, but he absolutely drowns himself in spaghetti westerns, and would probably also like trashy action movies if they were available to him. I also think he would like Grease, HAHA. It has cars and guys in leather jackets singing in it. He’d also probably like any kind of rustic, western themed musical. And anything with cars in it would have his immediate interest no matter how bad it is, but he’d zone out in any parts he doesn’t like. 

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: To be honest I think most of the time, movies are a little too long for him and lose his interest partway through. He has a really short attention span and anything too long, complicated or artsy will lose him and he’ll start being fidgety and chatty and start making his boredom everyone else’s problem. Even if there’s a movie he likes, if there’s a part that’s boring to him, he zones out. He probably watches the same 2-3 movies over and over again, which is fine because his available library of media is probably really small. I like to think that they probably have movies in some kind of archive that they put up publicly in The City every once in awhile, like they have a projector that puts it on the side of a building and people just bring chairs and shit. Aesop has an aforementioned fear of crowds but he probably does some hunter parkour bullshit and perches somewhere at a healthy distance to watch from afar, as long as it’s something he thinks he would like. If he doesn’t he gets up and leaves.

Talents and/or Powers: Aesop seems to have an interest in vehicles, but due to a bet with his mentor, Calico, he has not actually been taught how to drive a Sparrow and so pines for them from afar. As said, he’s learning how to play an instrument, and if we want to be technical, is a Gunslinger speced Hunter with the Golden Gun super. He is very bad at being stealthy, as he is very impatient and is also a little bigger than the average exo. He’s just kinda tall and wide and tends to clunk around. If his Ghost Chanticleer wasn’t as clever as she was, Aesop would probably be perma-dead by now.

Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s kind of a dumbass and a space cadet but has the potential to be very sweet, and the people he cares about, he latches on to really hard. Similarly, when set to a task he cares about, he does not quit. Unfortunately, many of his goals are unresolved, but it does not mean that he will stop trying. If he were to, say, become romantically interested in someone, he would go to great lengths to connect with him, even if it meant doing things Aesop himself may not like. In specific circumstances, Aesop may find that he has a great capacity for nurturing and bringing out the best in other people, a talent Aesop himself undervalues. Though he’s not all that intelligent, Aesop is very reflective and existentially inquisitive, and thinks about a lot of big picture stuff that other people might push aside in an era of crisis. Though he may not understand science or the way the world works in a mechanical sense, he is awed by it, and is a great appreciator of natural beauty. He’d cry at a particularly beautiful sunrise, if he could cry. I’d say he could be described as having a romantic soul.

Why Someone Might Hate Them: To be honest, Aesop has trouble establishing empathy with people he doesn’t know very well, and so is less invested in Earth’s plight than he probably should be (it would not be hard for Dead Orbit to sway him to their views). This makes some people think that he doesn’t take his charge seriously, and they also usually assume that he’s a slacker because he’s plateaued in his abilities so early. Really, Aesop is acutely socially anxious, can have panic attacks in large crowds, and generally prefers to stay away from The City unless he needs to go there, and so has a big emotional disconnect from it. Calico and Chanticleer have tried to get him more accustomed to groups, but has been thusfar mostly unsuccessful. His insecurity and anxiety also cause him to pull odd, dangerous stunts to prove his worth, making him unreliable and impulsive. He can bungle social interactions rather spectacularly, and is easily goaded into doing really stupid shit. Really, he is a person who may just be “too much” for some.

How They Change: Oooooghhh….I can’t talk about this. I forgot how frustrating it is to not be able to talk about things because you’re going to make a comic out of it. Suffice it to say he’s gonna change a lot.

Why You Love Them: I think Aesop encapsulates a lot of anxieties I have post-college. Aesop is a person in transition who is unsure of his future, knowing only that he can’t quit now, because quitting means failure and failure means death. Because he is in transition, he is anxious about forming relationships with people, worried that either he will be left behind by them, or that they won’t like him when he’s “finished” becoming a person. I think he has a complex relationship with his personhood and sense of self. I dunno, I think that’s an interesting anxiety for a protagonist to have. I am also interested to see what Aesop will end up contributing to his society/organization and his interpersonal relationships, and if he’ll be happy with it. I’ve put a lot of work into him, the ‘original Aesop’ I had in mind might as well be a completely different character now. Aesop was originally a little cameo that I did in our TTRPG game, Godslaughter, because my boyfriend had put a dunmer cameo character into our game and I wanted to return the favor. Then he made a sheet for him. Then I decided to keep him around, then I decided to play Destiny 2, then I decided I loved it, lol. There is still a version of Aesop in the TTRPG but he is so incredibly different, they may as well be different characters. We refer to him as “Bad Aesop” but should probably call him something more dignified (we won’t).

[enzelffxiv]

It occured to me that I should probably make a "who tf are all these people" post for my characters. I have a bunch of bios half filled out but I always get sidetracked before I can finish them all and format them, so. Going to try to summarize everyone in a few sentences!

Imry Ceigwardwyn (Adamantoise, Balmung, Behemoth, Cactuar [rule 63] ) -a young Sea Wolf adventurer with a friendly and boisterous personality. Rather naive and clueless. Loves helping others. Both WoL and non-WoL flavors. (PLD/DRK. IC: gladiator w/o a soul stone, unless she does the DRK questline. Has some conjury ability.)

Victor Kresnik (Adamantoise) -expy of Victor from Tales of Xillia 2. Mostly for fun and looking sharp in a suit. Sometimes I play an AU version of him. Doting father, enthusiastic culinarian, estranged son of a wealthy Ul'dahn businessman. (DRG/NIN/WAR/MCH/CUL. IC: who the fuck knows but it involves the black market and murder.)

N'valyh Tia (Adamantoise) ["Val"] -Miqo'te mercenary and incorrigible flirt. Useless bisexual. Blind in one eye. Ends up in relationship w/ Akiv'a after double-crossing him, losing a fight to him, then later saving his life. (NIN/MNK. IC: fights with knives/fists/wrestling type moves, no formal training.)

Kototsuki Malaguld (Adamantoise) -Raen from the western mountains of Othard. Witnessed the fallout from Bozja. Hates Garleans. Exiled from her pacifist clan for having extreme anger issues, lived among the Malaguld tribe for a time before heading to Eorzea looking to fight stuff. (BRD/WAR. IC: fights with a bow & axe)

Nergui Malaguld (Adamantoise) -Steppe Xaela. His parents took Tsuki in when he was young. He's rather intimidated by her. Quiet and thoughtful. Loves to fish. Ended up in Eorzea when his parents sent him after his sister hoping she'd keep him safe. Now lives near Idyllshire with Akiv'a's cousin Sef. (BRD/FSH. IC: hunts with a bow but dislikes fighting.)

Faunh Seket (Adamantoise) -a Miqo’te from Meracydia who fled to Eorzea to escape an arranged marriage. Worked as a barmaid in Limsa before becoming an adventurer. Good friends with Akiv'a’s father. Anxious and judgmental but fiercely loyal. (BRD. IC: uses a bow, plays a mandolin-like instrument.)

Elouan Linvernois (Adamantoise) -Ishgardian astrologian. Falsely accused of heresy but miraculously survived his execution. Joined Faunh's adventuring band after they saved his life. Still heavily scarred & missing fingers. Bookish and a little awkward. Has a huge crush on Faunh that she's too nervous to admit she reciprocates. (AST/WHM. IC: Technically uses conjury but learns some Sharlayan astrology later on.)

Arst Outway (Adamantoise) -Expy/AU version of King Gaius from Tales of Xillia because I couldn't resist plonking him down in a DIFFERENT version of Fantasy Mongolia. (DRK eventually. IC: a big ol sword.)

Weinblyss Galeturner (Balmung) [Eyngeim Klynkestwyn] -Imry's long-lost cousin. Lost her family to a shipwreck as a child, raised by pirates. Now a drifter after her captain vanished in the turmoil of the Calamity. Offers her services as a mercenary and healer. Ruthless, amoral and a bit vain. Triple Triad fiend. (WAR/WHM/MCH/ALC. IC: Uses conjury, esp wind magic. Also proficient with axe & musket.)

Sivana Villeneuve (Balmung) [Noline Sellecerre] -XIVth Legion deserter. From a tiny northern village in Islabard. Joined the army to feed her family after her father perished at Carteneau. Decided self-preservation was more appealing after van Baelsar's defeat and faked the deaths of herself and her partner while on patrol. Worked briefly at Garlond Ironworks before becoming a courier. Irritable & no-nonsense. (DRG. IC: Was an eques. Fights with a spear but has passing knowledge of other weaponry.)

Aerling Dorne (Balmung) [Keiho Oshiga] -XIVth Legion deserter. Son of a Doman woman and a Garlean officer. Joined the army to escape the miserable circumstances of his birth. Was scouted for the Frumentarii but deliberately failed aptitude tests, apparently content to be a grunt forever. Strangely attached to Sivana, would probably do anything for her. Outwardly jovial, cowardly, doesn't seem to take much seriously. (PLD. IC: Was a hoplomachus.)

Pyha Sharpshade (Balmung) -Sky pirate. Former Coeurlclaw. Under Captain Tohnrune Rokren, her crew mostly raids slavers and other pirates who prey on the weak. (Much of the crew are escaped slaves themselves.) Laid-back, friendly, "cool big sister" type, a little impulsive and hotheaded. Doting partner of Duua Kagon. (NIN. IC: Fights with knives.)

Raiya Ceigwardwyn (Faerie) -Imry's older sister by four years. Introverted and a bit awkward, fascinated by all types of magitek. Likes to build things. Eventually follows her sister out into the world to accomplish her dream of joining Garlond Ironworks. (SCH/MCH. IC: dislikes fighting and avoids it as much as possible.)

Nennali Durant (Faerie) -Ala Mhigan refugee, was brought to the Shroud as a young child & raised by a Duskwight couple. Has a strong sense of justice & quick temper, but is a kind and loyal friend. (NIN/WHM. IC: Uses knives to defend herself, has some healing ability)

Tache Wystlan (Faerie) -Ala Mhigan refugee, was abandoned as a baby shortly before the city fell & brought to the Shroud along with Nennali. The two girls were accepted by the elementals on account of their strong innate conjury talents, but the woman that brought them there was turned away. Tache was raised by an adoptive family & in training to become a Hearer when Nennali left the forest, and eventually followed, her desire to be with her friend stronger than her sense of duty. Sweet and friendly and a little timid. (WHM. IC: Conjurer but not afraid to hit people w that stick.)

Yulili Yuli (Faerie) -A girl from Summerford with dreams of adventure and very overprotective parents. She met Imry at the Moonfire Faire one year and took the opportunity to run off and start her own adventuring career. (They actually dated very briefly before Yulili called it off, on account of Imry being too busy for her.) (BLM. IC: thaumaturge.) (also Imry's in game retainer)

Ketenbraena Skaetfyr (Faerie) -the result of Imry getting the DRK soul stone. An autonomous being of darkness born from Imry's despair and her inability to process her grief. (Ultimately sort of a mashup of Esteem-Fray and Myste. This was done before SB came out.) Imry views them as a separate person and wanted them to be able to experience life for themselves, and willed them a body of their own with...mixed results. Eventually she gave them the soul stone and gave up using it herself, since they can't maintain their form without it nearby. (DRK. Very literal here.)

Ragna Estelwede (Famfrit) -a mysterious scholar from Gyr Abania. [Working on this.] (SCH/RDM. IC: Arcanist, dabbles in other disciplines.)

Enzel Silverfist (Faerie) -Ragna's apprentice, a tall and reticent girl who, despite her training in the arcane arts, seems to prefer solving problems with her fists. (MNK. IC: PUNCH STUFF and a lil magic.)

Ehr Tohl (Faerie) -A young dragonet from Nidhogg’s brood trying to find his place in the world after the end of the Dragonsong War. Curious and friendly. Accompanied by his surrogate mother, a white aevis named Faye, formerly an Ishgardian noblewoman from 600 years past. (WHM. IC: Dislikes fighting and and avoids it if possible.)

Relulu Relu (Cactuar) -Adventurer/healer, constantly exasperated. (The result of my WHM of Darkness headcanons being jossed and deciding to make an OC w them instead.) (WHM. IC: conjurer)

Memenu Menu (Mateus) -One of Faunh & Elouan's adventuring companions. Died at Carteneau. Sassy grandma. Formerly of the Order of Nald’thal. (BLM. IC: thaumaturge)

Whispering Glacier (Zalera) -A young mountain Hellsguard who has decided to see the world. Curious & clever. (BLM/RDM. IC: Would be Dancer if it exists. Uses a variant of thaumaturgy.)

Laelius Valens (Goblin) [Laelius dus Valens] -Pureblood Garlean. Commoner who left home & took on a new name & became a security guard for a scientific facility in Islabard. AFAB NB, presents as male. Sharp-witted, dislikes attention & prefers to keep their head down. Self-preservation first and foremost. Reluctantly befriends a young scientist & does their best to keep him out of trouble. (PLD/DRG/MCH. IC: Trained with sword & shield, halberd, firearms.)

Estellise Sidos (Tonberry) -Expy of Estelle from Tales of Vesperia. Mostly a placeholder character b/c Tonberry was my first server and I like to visit. And use the game as a dress-up doll simulator. (PLD/WHM)

Other characters I don't have in game but use in RP:

Uriah Bellveil: N'valyh’s in game retainer, a merchant and old friend (and lover) of his Jaliqai Malaguld: Nergui's in game retainer, his cousin, excitable and hotheaded Grehwyta Swygwaenwyn: Imry & Raiya’s mother, captain of the merchant ship Lively Gale Ceigward Styrmwolksyn: Imry & Raiya’s father, navigator of the Lively Gale J'ranmaia: bodyguard & first mate, Lively Gale J’majha: Ranmaia's twin sister, ship's cook Zezeruda: ship's accountant & the one who told Imry adventuring tales Yvelle: conjurer & ship's healer Imry Crewe: Ala Mhigan adventurer, Imry's namesake. Missing, assumed deceased. A'rhaya: Ala Mhigan adventurer, Raiya’s namesake. Missing, assumed deceased. Sylbund Hyltkoensyn: pirate captain, the closest thing Weinblyss had to a father. Killed by a rival captain, avenged by Wein and Melchior. W'doyagha: Sylbund’s trusted friend & navigator Fyrilgeim: Innkeeper who often took in pirate orphans & unwanted children, the closest thing Weinblyss had to a mother Melchior Ortels: Wein's childhood friend & surrogate older brother, took over as captain after Sylbund’s death. A brilliant navigator. Wherabouts unknown since the Calamity. Theldry Masterman: a young girl who joined Melchior’s crew seeking vengeance against the pirates who killed her parents. Other crewmates: 

Sora: a mysterious Doman man. Saved Kamui's life, being the only person present who'd seen an Au Ra before, was able to translate for him. Armelius: a one-eyed sharpshooter. Half Highlander/half Hellsguard. Kerrich Fairclough: (all I've got is a name and appearance here) Kamui: a Hingan Raen found adrift in the ocean. He joined the crew with nowhere else to go. Loyal but doesn't talk much about his past. (Two Lalafell brothers who don't have names yet.) Paoriri Paori: XIVth Legion laquearius, was Sivana’s first army buddy. From Southern Islabard near Thavnair. Tannem: XIVth Legion signifer, originally from Dalmasca. She and Paoriri are an item. Céline & Maixentais Durant: Nennali's adoptive parents. 

-I do in fact have a couple NPC alts for fun but idk if I'll do anything with them anytime soon.

Some of my partner's characters who are important to mine: 

Akiv'a Ryaol: a Miqo’te from a remote Keeper tribe deep in the mountains of Coerthas. His father was a wandering adventurer from the Basilisk (P) tribe who took his young son with him. Saved Imry's life once and they became (reluctant on his part) friends. They are now nigh inseparable to the point where they're often assumed to be a couple. (They aren't; both of them are painfully gay.) Khai Ryaol [P'khai Tia]: Akiv'a’s father. His relationship with Akiv'a’s mother Kiht was unusual in that they had children due to mutual affection for each other. Deceased as of the Calamity. (Akiv'a is named after his grandmother, Akiv, in a slight deviation from regular keeper lore) Iiriku Rururiku: (former) Sultansworn and reluctant adventurer. One of Faunh & Elouan's companions. He and Memenu were old friends. Sanlie Kierha [N'kierha Sarre]: N'valyh's half sister by their father N'sarre. They didn't grow up together and only met as adults. Sefika Ryaol [Sef]: Akiv'a’s cousin, a fierce hunter with a wicked sense of humor. Calgaran Talareis: a mysterious Duskwight woman who trained Imry when she was a fledgling adventurer for a time. Montienne David: Nennali and Tache’s childhood friend. Nennali's parents took him in after he lost his remaining family to the Calamity. X'lhenai: an Ala Mhigan refugee Nennali meets on her travels. They have a tempestuous relationship at best. Duua Kagon: sky pirate, formerly of the Steppe.