#@homebase jobs

[job-post-1]

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[ladyboss023]

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[wof-reworked]

whats ur opinion on dragons having different houses bc of class or tribe? i love dragon architecture </3

I'm such a fan of dragon architecture oh my god. One of my biggest worldbuilding gripes (besides the lack of clarity around food/cooking) is that the actual housing arrangements of the dragons are so vague????? Like towns are a thing but also Tui seems to imply most dragons sleep in caves even though it makes no sense for any of the other tribes???? like ma'am most of your dragons live in swamps, jungles, or deserts where the hell are they even finding them

Basically, we have functionally no point of reference for anyone who isn't royalty (Winter, Turtle) or grew up in such specific circumstances that don't reflect back onto broader dragon society to the point where their input is rather moot (Moon, the DoD, Peril, Qibli). Qibli is the closest thing we have but the Scorpion Den is a combination of a shanty town and refugee camp that makes it harder to draw conclusions for the rest of the population. (We're also not counting Darkstalker bc. well. 2000 years)

For my writing, my stance is usually that dragons are primarily nomadic. Dragons who live in/around towns stay there primarily for reasons like child-raising, business, injury, apprenticeships, or just laying low/blending into a crowd. Like with how dragons don't need to cook their food to eat it, dragons are not dependent on housing and are able to comfortably sleep and live outside (barring extremes such as the central desert or really the entire Ice Kingdom). So, the exact permanence of a dragon's stay in town is situational and tribe/job-dependent more than anything else.

As far as the tribes go, Icewings and Nightwings are the most home/town oriented tribes- both tribes have the rarest approach to housing in that almost all members of both tribes live and sleep primarily in one home location that they return to for the majority of their life. For Icewings, this usually looks like multi-generational families that split off into new homes/houses only once there's a real need for it. On the other hand, Nightwings living on the volcano lived primarily together in caves/dormitories divided by age- even though this no longer exists, most Nightwing towns and houses involve many shared buildings and resemble something more like tight clumps of houses or caves.

For the majority of the tribes (Skywings, Sandwings, Mudwings, Rainwings), most dragons will have multiple houses that they move between as needed or wanted. While outliers exist, most dragons have at minimum two homes/dens: one in a more populated area that might operate as a job homebase or a place to receive guests, and a more isolated, private home that exists for the dragon in question to stash any items of importance or valuables, as well as eat and sleep. For more nomadic dragons, banks exist in towns to hold treasure, freeing up their secondary/non-work den to be little more than a shack or burrow with sleeping arrangements. More houses usually equals more money/class power, up to a certain point, where you start to see buildings more akin to Vulture's mansion or even the Royal Palaces, where one building or collection of buildings is large/grandiose enough to host other people's jobs and living spaces (on a related note, gardening is a very stereotypical high class hobby to have, as it shows both an abundance of leisure time and of space).

Between these tribes, Skywings are the most town and home oriented- Skywings often live primarily in towns and only leave for what is essentially a nesting den, as without rudimentary flight skills, Skywing towns are borderline unnavigable and occasionally hazardous for dragonets. Even with their relative isolation, nesting dens in the past have often been located near other nesting dens, creating something of a nesting village for Skywings parents to socialize and raise their hatchlings. Queen Scarlet's reign did irreparable damage to this style of collective child-rearing and nesting dens as a whole. With her breeding programs, most Skywings were forced into partnerships for the sole reason of producing more future Skywing soldiers, and the majority of eggs were instead stored in mass hatcheries until their hatching day.

On the other hand, Mudwings are the most isolated and nomadic, in part due to the structure of sib groups creating a situation where most Mudwings hatch into life with a social network already established. The Mud Kingdom is also temperate enough that housing isn't always necessary, and most Mudwings only congregate in towns for business or seeking a mate.

Finally, Seawings are almost entirely nomadic, and will usually move between a territory, with small dens and hoards scattered within. These territories can hold many multiple families, or they can exist for a single dragon- Seawing property laws are almost nonexistent and mostly maintained by honor and frequent patrolling of the territory to maintain order and mark it as lived space. These territories aren't uninhabited land either- Seawings will grow seaweed and herd schools of fish on their territory, and many take a certain landscaper-esque role, shaping the terrain into something aesthetically pleasing or useful to the inhabitant and helping signal to other Seawings that the land is occupied. One of the few times Seawings will settle in one den or space is for a hatching den- this lasts from the laying of the eggs until the hatchlings become able to swim well enough to keep up with their parents.

I've been pretty burnt out on WOF writing for a while, but this was honestly a refreshing change of pace from what I've been working on recently. Thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble about dragon housing !! I'd love to hear what other ppl think, the more headcanons the merrier :>

[ozuk-authentic]

Okay 👏 I am a bit late but I had a massive stardew valley session and I've not been able to play for the past week. (If anyone is wondering, Alex is my future hubby (in stardew valley ofc)). Either way, sorry for being late.

Today we are doing the Arospec flag, Acespec flag, Ally flag and the Gender queer flag.

Arospec flag up first.

First impressions, it's giving: going to buy paint with my mum at homebase and getting those paper strips with all the paint shades and colours. But in a good way. I love the green aesthetic where the top is more of a yellowish-green and the bottom a blueish-green as it smoothly transitions between the shades. But again t̲̂̓ͩ̑ḣ̖̻͛̓ẹ̿͋̒̕ l̷̢̨̨̫̼͙̞͉̗͉̖̲̖̞̿̉i̵̢̢̡͚̩̞̥͕̜̻̫̩̐̈͘͜️ṉ̵͓̬͈̞̥̭̥̇̓̔͋ẹ̷͓̺̰̽̍͛̉̐̔͋̓̚͜️ş̵̛̳̍̃̏͆̏̂̎͌͘͝͝͝͝.

8.5/10

Acespec flag up next.

It's giving Lily from Duolingo; in a good way too. However, I do think that the dark purple at the top in general is a bit out of place from the rest of the colours. However, I 𝘢𝘮 gay and extra, so my favourite colour is purple and I truly am a sucker for all purples so,

7.5/10 (also, this was a suggestion from a reader so, suggest me more to make my job easier)

Ally flag up next.

Honestly, solid flag. I don't know what to say apart from that it (technically) is not j̪̟̮̔ͩư̡͕̭̇s̠҉͍͊ͅt̲̂̓ͩ̑ l̷̢̨̨̫̼͙̞͉̗͉̖̲̖̞̿̉i̵̢̢̡͚̩̞̥͕̜̻̫̩̐̈͘͜️ṉ̵͓̬͈̞̥̭̥̇̓̔͋ẹ̷͓̺̰̽̍͛̉̐̔͋̓̚͜️ş̵̛̳̍̃̏͆̏̂̎͌͘͝͝͝͝.

7.75/10

Time for the Gender queer flag.

Again, purple makes my eyes moan, especially that lavender shade. The green on the other side is great too. But one issue I have with the flag is that, if you're familiar with the history of women's rights in England around the early parts on the 1900's, you'd be familiar with the suffragettes. And if you've seen their flag, you'd realize the way that they look so similar. Doing research on the flag, the creator of the Gender queer flag didn't know about the Suffragette flag and that it was only an accident that it looks so similar. While I know that they weren't trying to appropriate the suffragette flag, it would not take too much effort to turn the flag by 90°. Besides that,

8/10

[cheesecakeislazy]

I have insomnia, my phone is about to die, and I feel like I need to write! So here we go boys!! (And gals and non-binary pals) Sorry if this one is shitty TwT

Sensitivity is High

F!Reader x BEN Drowned Smut

You and Ben laid in bed together, just enjoying the moment. Nothing was going on today, it was a free day. Cuddling in bed, looking at memes, listening to music, and playing co-op games together.

While for most people, a day where you can relax with your partner would be quiet and calm, for the two of you, it was quite the opposite..

Within the other rooms of the mansion you could hear Jeff blasting metal music, you could hear Toby annoying Masky by doing anything possible, if you listened carefully you could hear the subtle sounds of Sally trying to sneak a few extra snacks before anyone noticed. While on the outside, you could hear the faint sounds of Clockwork exercising with Jane, the crunching leaves as Slender went on a walk, the sound of the front door slamming open because Masky started to chase Toby outside. Yep, this was home. Full of chaos, full of loud voices and sounds consistently. However, almost everyone within the mansion agreed that this hellhole was better than their old lives, or the life they would have now if Slender wasn’t nice enough to give them a job.

While normally you and Ben would have been joining in on the chaos, the two of you decided to really relax. No pranks, no jokes, no annoyance to others, just each others company in bed playing Minecraft. The life you had was hectic at best and mentally painful at worst, but having Ben with you? It made those shitty days not so bad.

“Alright! Tha-That’s our base d-done!” Ben was honestly really good at Minecraft, speedrunning, building, pvp, he was a Jack of all trades when it came to the game. Probably because the elf-like boy had been playing the game practically since it came out.

“Hm.. well now that we got the homebase finished, you wanna play something else?” You looked over at your boyfriend, as much as you loved playing MC with him, you were pretty bored right now.

Ben took a moment to think before he nodded, saving the game file and quitting the game before looking over at you. “S-So then what d-do you wanna play in-instead?” His voice glitched less during moments like this, alone, just the two of you in peace, it made you generate a gentle smile from your lips.

“Ah, to be completely honest? I kinda wanna just… shut down? At least for a little.. you get me?” Sometimes, as much as you loved gaming, you just wanted to take a 4 pm nap and cuddle. “O-Oh! Y-yeah! That sounds great! I-I-I wouldn’t mind that at all, Babe!” His ears tinted a slight pink at the tip, an indication that he was happy with the idea of cuddles.

As you both laid there, bodies intertwined with each other, arms and legs looped and twisted together like multicolored playdough, a part of your brain sparked curiosity. You had suddenly remembered Ben’s ears.. during more.. intimate moments.. the ears twitched consistently. It made you wonder quite a bit if the ears were extra sensitive, at least compared to the rest of his body.

Deciding to act on this sudden surge of curiosity and confidence, you shifted around slightly, making it look like you were just making yourself a little bit more comfortable. However, you were actually getting your head just a smidge bit closer to his ear, slowly you moved your mouth forward, and before Ben could question or react, you softly bit onto his ear.

The sound that came from Ben was a mixture of arousing and concerning, as you couldn’t tell if the yelp/moan was of pain or pleasure. You pulled away as soon as possible, and stared into his eye sockets.

“Sorry! I was just curious.. if they were.. sensitive.” You realized that after saying it out loud, your explanation for possibly putting your lover in pain, was extremely stupid.

“Uh- It- Uhm! N-No- N-No! Y-you real-really shouldn’t b-be-be sorry-!!” You could tell it certainly had some type of effect on him, as his voice had gotten much glitchier. You were about to open your mouth and make another apology, despite his statement, but as you shifted your leg you felt something poke you. Ah, it was that kind of sensitive..

You smirked to yourself, you found it quite adorable that by just biting his ear softly, you had given the poor man a hard-on. It was obvious that Ben was embarrassed by this fact, he hated to look needy in front of you. But unfortunately for him, he was about to look even needier..

Slowly and carefully, you began to shift your entire body lower and lower on the bed, until you had reached the point of his body that laid right in the middle of his pelvic bone. You laid right in front of his boner, Ben immediately knew what you were trying to do.

“N-no!! Y-Ya-You really don-don’t have-have to-to D-d-Do that!!” His glitchy stutters only turning you on more. You began to remove his sweatpants and boxers, as his cock lie infront of your face you looked up at Ben, wanting his consent before you actually ended up doing anything.

Thankfully, as you expected, Ben bit his lip and nodded at you to continue. Gently, you put his tip inside your mouth, precum already leaking from it. Sucking and licking softly at the head of his cock, tasting the slight sweet salty mixture, Ben threw his head back slightly and let out a few quiet groans and pants.

Slowly getting more and more of his cock into your mouth and down your throat, Ben whimpered for more. The feeling of his cocks tip hitting the very back of your throat as you sucked him off always felt so good on another level. The slight burn of your lips as they tried to stay open and fit his cock inside. Using your tongue to lick the underside of his cock as you bobbed your head up and down his shaft. Ben slowly began to get more overwhelmed by the pleasure and started to buck his hips upwards into your throat, causing you to gag slightly. The feeling of your throat gagging on his cock made him moan your name, tightly gripping onto your hair. God, you were so fucking perfect..

As you continued sucking and licking BEns cock, you saw his ears twitch in unison with his cock. Not only did it remind you of how you had gotten into this, but it also made you wonder if his ears were as sensitive as his cock..

But you weren’t able to ponder on the matter for long, as Ben had busted his load inside your mouth, filling and overwhelming your tastebuds with the sweet and salty creamy substance that made you addicted to giving this man blowjobs. Once you had lifted your head off of him, and swallowed the load he had just so kindly gifted to you, you looked up at him.

Ben looked back at you.. his red eyes no longer circular, little red hearts lay in their place.

“Switch spots with me, Baby~ And take off y-your clothes.. I’m g-gonna return the favor~” Ben licked his lips as he winked as you.

Your panties were already soaked from sucking him off, but the thought of Ben devouring your cunt made you shiver with excitement.

[tondroom]

Applying criminological theories to Phantom of the Opera #1

I study criminology, and I have an exam in a week about criminological theories (=theories that attempt to explain deviant behavior/crime.) Each theory has a different perspective. So, I figured, why not apply a theory to Phantom. It's been on my mind.

For example, there's Classical Strain Theory (Merton, 1938). It was developed as a criticism of the 'American Dream.' Merton argued that not everyone can achieve the ideals of the American Dream (ex: a good house, good job, nice salary). I mean, if you're born into a poor family, of course it's much harder to get to a top university and become a lawyer. So, he argued, that the people who don't have the means to achieve society's goals, experience "strain". An individual responds to strain in different ways. They respond differently in different situations.

🎭 "Conformity"

An individual accepts the goal (example: American Dream) and try to achieve it with socially accepted means anyway. So, they try to 'work hard' and follow 'legitimate routes.'

🔪 "Innovation"

An individual accepts the goals, but they try to use different - absolutely not socially accepted - means. Innovation! You could get rich by working hard, but you could also steal things or extort people. And this is exactly what Erik does. Let's apply this element of strain theory to him. One of his society's goals is to, as a man, have a steady job and make money. Erik isn't able to achieve this goal due to his face. He's stigmatised and ridiculed for it. He doesn't have a face that's allowed in a workspace. Not to mention that his upbringing caused him to be socially unskilled, and he generally has some odd traits that make him unable to keep a job. That causes a lot of strain. The dude can't achieve his goals. Thus, to achieve society's goal anyway, he starts to manipulate and extort the managers of the opera house. In that way, he's achieved the goal of making money, just differently (and through criminal behavior). There are probably more examples of Erik's innovations, but I want to explain the other responses to strain too.

🥀 "Ritualism"

Ritualism is another response. This is when you accept society's goals, but you don't have the means to achieve them, and you basically give up on trying. An example is an exhausted person working a thankless job, never trying to move up the hierachy within their company. They have kinda accepted their fate, and accepted that they don't have the means to grow into a better position. This can also be applied to Erik, especially to the very moment he starts living inside the opera house. One could say his goals are to get a (1) nice-looking house and (2) become a 'normal,' functioning member of society. Clearly, Erik's tried to achieve these goals in his past; he's travelled around the world, and one could say he attempted to find a steady homebase everywhere he went. He's worked different jobs (circus-artist, architect, assassin), trying to become a functioning member of society the way society wants it. But again, there's an obstacle each time he tries to be 'normal': his face. Everyone rejects and abuses him. So, he gives up on becoming a functioning member of society, also deciding to accept he won't have a nice house, nor a nice job. He hides himself in the opera house and 'functions' from the background, from the shadows. His reality is an unfortunate reality for a lot of neurodivergent and disabled folks too.

🕳️ "Retreatism"

This is when someone also gives up, but they retreat from society altogether in a literal sense. Merton mentions severe drug-addicts and homeless folks as an example of this. These folks don't have the means to achieve society's goals, so they give up on them and retreat from society. They're technically 'there', but not a part of it; they don't 'function' at all anymore, according to Merton. And Erik's a fine example of this during the last scene of Phantom. He lets Christine go, giving up on trying to achieve society's goals of getting a nice family, a house, a wife... But it's no use. It's implied he withers away from sadness and dies. He gives up and retreats - unfortunately resulting in death.

✊ "Rebellion"

This is when you can't achieve society's goals, so you reject them and try to reform society. Merton mentions terrorists as an example of this. However, I could argue that activists or protestors are also an example of it - without correlating them to the extreme example of terrorists. Erik rebels a lot in the show, but I want to focus on the moment he drops the chandelier onto an audience, killing them. One of society's goals is to make money, like I mentioned before. Erik does this, by innovation; he extorts the managers for 20 000s francs each month. They pay him, up until they start to reject his extorting. Christine also rejects (and 'betrays') him, ruining their teacher-student dynamic. He can't be her teacher any longer and he probably won't get to marry her either. He can't achieve the aforementioned goals of being a functioning member of society, plus marrying someone, which is another goal. So, acting out, he drops the chandelier on a bunch people, killing them horribly. This shows he rejects society's goals and the means to achieve them.

Criticism

Of course Merton's theory is an old one, and he only applied it to the American Dream. It's also hard to test this theory, because how do you measure strain? It also doesn't explain specifically what makes some individuals resort to crime, and what makes others conform. Therefore it also doesn't account for the emotional state of an individual, and how much "strain" they can handle. I mean, Erik's clearly damaged emotionally, causing him to have moments where he acts completely irrationally. This is evident when he chokes Christine for a moment in the musical, but stops when he 'comes to his senses.' Is Erik's criminal behavior a result of strain, or a result of other factors, like mental illness, or even brain damage due to the abuse he endured?

But all in all, it's an interesting theory and it's fun to apply it to characters. And now, I have to go back to studying again. See ya (:.

[pedrostylez]

How The Crow Flies - pt. 2

Javier Peña x fem!reader x Frankie Morales crossover

Word count: 3k

Chapter Summary: Javi P clearly is infatuated with you and can’t move past it, we meet Santiago, and a little sprinkle of Frankie

Chapter Warnings and Disclaimers: 18+ only. I am not responsible for what you read on the internet. You have been warned! Locations and descriptions of places may be inaccurate in comparison to each story (Narcos and Triple Frontier). Timelines are obviously different between the two stories, so we are going to meet in the middle and say we are in the early 2000s. These are not necessarily canon characters in regard to how they act, how they treat people, and their current relationships. mean!Javier, alcohol, drinking, mentions of drinking, mentions of sex work, SMUT!!!! car sex, dirty talk, riding, the smallest sweet moment but idk you could miss it, derogatory use of whore, mention of addiction issue

A/N: A little bit of a shorter chapter, but introducing lots of important characters. I hope you like it! Please support by commenting, sending me respectful thoughts, and reblogging. I appreciate every single one of you!

Taglist: @thevoiceinyourheadx @suzdin @survivingandenduring @bariskaplans @inept-the-magnificent @casa-boiardi @paleidiot @darkheartgatita @missladym1981

The next few weeks kept Javier on his toes. 

He hated the feeling of stakeouts, and even more of undercover. This time around, however, he was not the one doing either. 

Watching you take on those tasks with ease, settling into the role as if you were going around to the corner store to buy a soda, made his skin twitch with anxiety. 

Not even a day after you had agreed to begin staking out for clues to where Lorea’s homebase was, you found Yovanna. You hadn’t given him all the details, claiming it was better that you kept things to yourself until you found out more, and it upset him.

 No, it worried him. 

How was he supposed to keep his promise to keep you safe if you didn’t tell him what was going on?

You forced Javier to rent a small home on the edge of town as a base, living out of it as if you weren’t working with the Embassy. You stopped coming into the office, only calling on a secure line and giving updates when he visited once a week with bags of groceries and a hope to see you naked. 

You were in full undercover mode. 

“I’ll tell you when I have something.” You huffed out, pulling at the strap of the dress as you gazed at yourself in the mirror. “You can’t keep coming here if you want me to be a working girl trying to find clients.”

“I’m one of you clients.” He shrugged, watching your fingers skate down your side. He subconsciously licked his lips. “You need groceries anyways, and I need to have more updates on you to ensure your safety.”

He catches your eye roll as you take a deep breath and nod. “Got it, boss. Do you want me to take notes so that there is a paper trail too? Or would you rather I let each person know that I encounter that I am an undercover agent?”

“Quit sassing me.” He growled, wrapping his fingers around the back of your neck and pulling you close. Your chest pressed to his, stumbling on heels you hadn’t worn in years. “I said I would protect you. Let me.”

“Then let me do my job, Javi.” You bite out, pushing away from him.

Javier sighs at the memory of you so forceful, so annoyed with him as the sun sets, oranges and reds surrounding your figure as you walk down the sidewalk. You’re holding clumsily on to your new found friend, giggling and making lustful eyes at any man walking past. 

You had done exactly what you had been asked, but something made Javier feel queasy watching you lean into this woman like you were too drunk to stand. 

He had to remind himself you were faking it.

Javier closed his eyes and leaned his head back, sweat dripping down his back from the long day of watching you. He thought that he was going to have to assign David to do this, or even Jason. Javier winces at the thought, wanting to avoid asking Jason to keep you safe. He has this nagging  worry that his assumptions about Jason’s infatuation with you are correct, and he doesn’t want to give Jason an opportunity to lay in your bed like he does. 

But if you continued on like this, tempting him at every corner and pushing him away when he asked questions, he wasn’t sure he could keep it up.  

His eyes caught your figure again, standing in line at a bar on the edge of town. You hadn’t looked at him once since he had started trailing you, keeping tabs on you, but he knew that you saw him. 

He hoped you were thankful for it. 

The music inside of the bar was weirdly quiet, stepping in with Yovanna. She smiled over at you, pulling you along with a stumble and a laugh. “Would you like a shot before he comes?”

You nod happily, sitting on one of the bar stools and adjusting the end of your dress. “What is his name again?” 

“Santiago.” She nods, blood rushing to her cheeks. “He’s been helping the local police some, as a consultant. But don’t worry, he’s not weird about it.” She laughs, sliding the shot glass to you. “He’s a good guy.”

You nod, giving her a wink. “Don’t worry. I’m sure he is.”

She looks relieved as she laughs, wrapping her arm around your shoulder. She gives you a squeeze before turning when she hears the door. 

You look to see as she greets someone, pouring your shot out on the floor behind the bar before she can clock it. You’re uncomfortable, tight clothing and tall heels making you feel like a child trying to walk for the first time and acutely aware that you have a certain someone up your ass. 

This itching of annoyance starts to creep out of you the more you think about it, and the more you notice him parked in his vehicle with his eyes trained on you, but you tamp it down as Santiago looks over at you. “Hi there!”

“Hi,” You say lowly, shaking his outstretched hand limply and with a giggle. Yovanna laughs with you, bumping his shoulder and introducing you. 

“She’s just moved here and I’m helping her find work. She’s well versed in…certain aspects.” She coughs, giving Santiago a pointed look that he immediately nods to. 

“Ah, I understand. Well, you’re in the right place. Yovanna has helped me learn all about how things work around here. She’s the best person to ask.” He says calmly, his fingers pressing into Yovanna’s hips as she giggles. 

You already know that Yovanna used to be a working girl. She was your only contact that seemed like she wanted to help you get what you needed-a way in. 

She had this infatuation with Santiago, as far as you could tell. Even with what she did for work, helping keep the books straight for Lorea and moving drugs in and out of his house, she wanted to stay attached to him. Your only conclusion was that she thought it to be a way out, a way of protection, and you had to give her credit for covering her bases. 

As far as Yovanna was concerned, you were looking for a quick way to make money. And what better way to do that than to be introduced to the richest security guards in Colombia by the girl that used to be the one receiving it?

The talk with Santiago is relatively short, his cell phone ringing soon after and him announcing that he had to run to meet with some friends that were coming into town. A quick press of a kiss to Yovanna’s cheek as a goodbye, a nod of acknowledgement toward you and he is out the door.

“He’s handsome.” You say quietly, shoving her shoulder before motioning towards the door to exit. 

Yovanna had been motioning at patrons for you to attempt to speak to, but you had shook your head at all of them. “He’s very good in bed.” She announces, causing you both to laugh full heartedly before heading out into the night. 

You eye Peña in the same spot as before, plastering on a lazy smile before turning your head to Yovanna. Her eyes are elsewhere, watching Santiago clap someone on the back before climbing into a Jeep. He sends a small wave in her direction, but your eyes are locked on the driver. 

His hat is secured on his head, dark waves curling at the edges as he gives you nothing more than a glance. Arm loose, hanging out of the driver’s side window as he speeds away. You could see the beginnings of a beard, but nothing well kept or easily discernible about him. 

“Must be his friends.” Yovanna sighs wistfully, turning to you and looking over your shoulder. You almost miss what she says, still watching the Jeep curiously. “Looks like you have an admirer.”

“Huh?” You whip your head around, eyes back on Peña. You swallow back the snarl, placing a small smile on your lips instead. “Think I should take him for a spin?”

Yovanna laughs, pushing you slightly in the general direction. “Let’s talk tomorrow?” She asks, raising her eyebrows. “If you’re not too busy with new clients.”

You giggle, taking calculated dizzy steps toward his car. “I won’t be. Call me!”

Javier sucks in a breath watching you trip on your way over to his car. You’re smiling, lazily leaning against his open window and tilting your head. “Would you stop following me?” You bite, remaining neutral in stance. 

He looks over your shoulder to see Yovanna watching you, smiling himself. “I told you, I would keep you safe.”

“You’re making it so she won’t set me up with the people I need to get your stupid intel.” You say slowly, pushing your ass out to lean into the car further. Running your hand up the path of buttons to his chest. 

His breath stutters, shutting his eyes to recenter. “Get in the car.”

“Fine.” You smile, stepping around the front headlights and dragging your finger over the paint. You slide into the passenger seat, facing him fully and pushing out your chest in his direction. “You have to take me out of city limits so that she doesn’t see that you’re a cop.”

Javier grunts, not giving Yovanna another glance before putting the car in gear and speeding away, heading in a direction he is less familiar with. “What have you got so far?”

“Not enough to share.” You slouch when he’s driven fully out of sight, crossing your arms over your chest. “If you would stop interfering, I would have something already.”

“Who’s that guy that you were watching?” He asks, annoyed with you suddenly. He didn’t appreciate being badgered by the person he was protecting-who he promised to protect.  

You shake your head, scoffing. “How many times do I have to say–”

“Does she know him?” He asks again, turning to face you for a moment before back on the road. He plans to pull off soon, toward a hideout he’s seen teenagers use. 

You roll your eyes. “Yes, she likes him.” You grumble, pushing your hair out of your face and exposing your neck. 

Javier swallows roughly, eyes back on the road. “What does he do?”

“He’s a cop.” You say matter of factly. “I figured you would know him, and it would blow my cover.”

He shakes his head. “I’ve never seen him before.”

You both sit silently, thinking to yourselves on what that could mean when he pulls into the dark dirt road. “I’ll look into it.”

When you don’t respond he glances over, the dark cab and no street lights making only your eyes light up from the buttons on the dash, already watching him. 

Javier finds a spot in the empty gravel lot, looking out into the city with benches and rocks situated for the view. He cuts the engine, leaning back into his seat and closing his eyes briefly. “I’m not trying to blow your cover.”

Your arms loosen, shifting in your seat to better face him. You take a deep breath, resting your head against the glass of the passenger window. Javier’s eyes trail down what is illuminated of your body, stopping at your chest as you say, “Do you not trust me?”

He reels back, eyes flicking up to your face and seeing a knowing smirk. You had caught him, but weren’t mentioning it. “I trust you, I don’t trust them.”

You scoff, throwing your hands up in the air. “It’s part of the gig, Javi.”

“Don’t call me that.” He grinds out, hands clenched into fists. 

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, glancing at his hands before up to his face. “Why not?”

He sighs, loosening his hands and shaking them out. “This is supposed to be a serious conversation and you are making it difficult.”

You chuckle, reaching a hand out to his knee and giving a quick squeeze before gliding your thumb back and forth. “Oh, Javi.”

He looks down at your hand, soothing his nerves while also riling him up and confusion floods his system. He doesn’t understand how he can both want you, and be pissed at you. He doesn’t understand how he can want to keep you safe–his, and want to push you away from him. 

“You want me to fuck you?” He says lowly, watching as your face flushes red, a small smile being held back. 

“Huh?” He grabs your arm and yanks you over the center console, straight into his lap. “You don’t want to be a whore for others but you want to be a whore for me? Is that it?”

Your surprised look changes to serious, a teasing lit leaking from your mouth. “Isn’t that why you keep following me around, agent? For me to be your whore?”

He winces as he closes his eyes. Instead of answering, his hands dig further into the skin of your thighs, pulling you against him to feel his stiffened member concealed by his jeans. “Lift your skirt.”

Your smile shines, almost breaking him of his annoyance until his eyes trail down to see you lift the hem of your dress, no underwear in sight. 

He gawks for a moment, stunned that you wore nothing at all until he feels your fingers swiftly unbuttoning his pants. Javier bats you away, skin hot under his jeans being exposed to the night air before he looks back up to your center. 

Somehow you are more desperate than ever before, and Javier feels his control slipping; wanting to lose himself in you again and again. Your hips wiggle above him, adjusting to sit properly on him as he holds you up and away from him. 

His eyes can’t look away from you, glistening and ready for him. “Look at that.” He says quietly, almost to himself, gripping at your hips roughly and sliding you against the underside of his shaft.

You whine, nails digging into his shoulders and throwing your head back toward the felted ceiling of his car. Your teeth sink into the meat of your lip, trying to not show how desperately you want this. 

He tilts his hips so the head of his cock catches at your entrance, a sigh of relief leaving you both in unison. Reaching one hand up to the roof of the car, you try to balance yourself and bounce at the same time. 

You’re unsuccessful, groaning in frustration and tilting your head down to watch him enter you over and over, your slick covering his exposed skin. You bite at your cheek, trying to concentrate long enough to get a rhythm back. 

But Javier isn’t having it; he reaches a hand up from your hip, pressing into your cheeks and forcing you to look at him. “Don’t fight it. I want to hear you, hermosa.” He growls out, hips snapping up into yours with a speed he hadn’t yet reached before. 

Your jaw goes slack in his hand, trying to keep your eyes open to watch him as he pounds into you. Tears are pricking at the back of your eyes, his thumb running shockingly sweet circles across your chin while his other hand shifts from your hip to your clit. 

“J-Javi–”

“Shhh, your sweet pussy can handle it.” He murmurs, cooing at you with his thumb swiping fast circles around your clit. 

He forces himself to hold off, watching you fall apart in his hands, around his cock, in the heat of his car. You’ve melted into a puddle, leaning into his hand around your face and fluttering your eyes shut.

The strength of your walls squeezing around him has him groaning, pulsing into you without another thought. 

You puff out a breath against his palm, lightly pressing your lips to his thumb. “I trust you.” You say quietly, eyeing him almost cautiously. 

He sighs, nodding as he pulls you forward, a kiss to your sweaty forehead. “I trust you, too.”

The patio of the restaurant was cooler than inside, but Frankie could feel his skin melting off of him from the humidity. He had hoped the night air would have helped with his inability to cool down, but he thinks maybe only the beer that he’s sworn to not drink would do the trick. 

Frankie’s fist closes around nothing, the nails digging into his palm to try and ground himself. He did not need a drink, he did not need a drink–

“We can use her, Fly. If I have Yovanna under my thumb like I think I do–”

“She has you under her thumb, Pope.” Redfly snarls, taking a big sip of his beer before slamming it on the table. Frankie flinches slightly, looking out toward the busy street to distract himself. “You’re going to fuck all of this up.”

“Just give it time.” Will mediates, leaning back and cracking his neck. “This new girl will distract them without even knowing that is the point, Pope’s girl will get us in, and then we can get the money and get the fuck out of here.”

The conversation continues, back and forth between Redfly and Pope about whether they should just infiltrate the place and kill everyone, or if they should play it safe. Frankie closes his eyes to try and drown out the noise, reliving the moment he drove away from the bar. 

Your lips parted, shining with gloss. 

Your chest falling out of your dress, smooth skin enticing him. 

Your legs shining in the street lights, calling for him to come closer. 

You were tempting beyond belief, and he knew you would ruin his ability to focus. You would be just as bad as a sip of beer.

He opened his eyes and hoped he wouldn’t see you again.

[semisolidmind]

Since this was gonna be longer than a standard ask, I thought I'd submit it instead.

Here are my human x mascot OCs for Fuwa Fuwa Pandemic

Sakiko "Kiki" Djobo

They/she

Has a Togolese father and a Japanese mother. Raised primarily in the U.S. but spent a lot of time with family in their parents' home countries growing up.

Kiki was able to get a job as an English teacher at a Japanese school that happened to be close to where her maternal grandparents lived, so she spent some time visiting them before her job officially started. That is, unfortunately, when everything went down.

Kiki ends up escaping an encounter with a mascot, but her grandparents sacrificed themselves to save her. They hid her in an old bunker in the house, where she stayed until the threat of starvation forced her out.

Eventually, she meets up with a group of survivors, mostly around her age, who are trying to find the perfect place to settle, where there are few mascots or where they can more easily defend themselves from attacks.

The group travels far, but eventually they come across an old farm near a city that seems to be mostly left alone at this time and decide to make it their homebase. Kiki, who likes to garden, and a grad student who was studying industrial agriculture convince the group to try and farm it for a steady source of food. There's even a stream that bisects the farmland, a stable source of water they can exploit for themselves and the crops.

Suiko

He/him

Suiko is an apex mascot, inspired by a mythical water creature that, according to folk tradition, inhabited that very creek, the Kappa.

Because the mascot he was based on was actually made of waterproof materials, Suiko is one of the only mascots who has the ability to swim, as his skin is naturally smooth and watertight.

His swimming prowess has allowed him to supplement his carnivorous diet with water creatures, such as fish and frogs. But he'll drown a human if he's hungry enough and the opportunity presents itself. Transient survivors are often drawn to the creek because it's a good water source.

If he's not that hungry or he's too tired to hunt, he may engage survivors in polite conversation, but they should still be wary of him.

How They Met

At first, Suiko enjoys his solitary life, but he begins to grow lonely. Until, one day, a group of survivors overtakes the recently abandoned farm that surrounds his part of the creek. He revels in the prospect of a steady source of meals for the next week or so.

But one of them comes to the creek to do laundry, and he has to admit, he finds them kind of attractive. And he's not that hungry at the moment, so he reveals himself and promises not to hurt them if they don't try to run from him.

The human hesitantly agrees, eventually introducing herself as Sakiko, or Kiki, for short. Even though this mascot is polite to her, she can't help but feel disappointed that her group might have to move again. Until she remembers a bit of folklore about Kappas; they love cucumbers. And the farm has a few cucumber plants that are putting out fruits like crazy. So Kiki promises to come back and give him one. He's a little skeptical, but he lets her go because he's genuinely curious about this exalted "cucumber."

Kiki leaves to put the clothes out to dry and comes back with a handful. Suiko's face lights up when he tries the strange fruit and he becomes somewhat obsessed with them.

So he and Kiki strike a deal that, if she brings him cucumbers whenever she can and talks with him for a while, he'll leave the other survivors alone and will hide from them while continuing to defend his territory from rival mascots.

—————-

they sit by the river and “talk” (suiko talks, kiki listens and tries not to think about how easily he could tear her apart)

[butmakeitgayblog]

Hugs! I saw your repost of some ADC FTWD pics. Was she in a podcast talking about how unhappy she was? So you know which one?

Yeah the ELLE podcast she just did, she talks about how being in that apoc environment nonstop for so many years without really having established a homebase for herself here in the states was effecting her mental health and happiness. I'll link the podcast below, but the way she made it sound was just that basically constantly working on such a an intense show without having a real homebase or roots or an established support system that she could unerringly fall back on was slowly getting her to a place where she was kinda losing herself in the work. She was starting to do things like feel so tired at the end of the night of shooting that she'd debate if it was even worth washing off the dirt and blood from filming because she'd just have to be back up in 6hrs, so what's the point. She alluded to the fact that while her mind knew the things they were filming and this arrid, lifeless landscape she was constantly in wasn't real, she was starting to have a problem with her body becoming confused and being too attuned with being in that hellish kind of environment. It sounded almost as if her fight or flight system and general feeling of happy vs. hopeless was starting to acclimate and align way too much with constantly being in that apocalyptic world (she didn't say that last part directly, but I'd bet money that's what she meant without saying it.)

Which makes sense. I mean she's not from the states, she was the youngest on the show among a group of people who all have spouses and families and homes here, she didn't have a house here for years which meant she was living out of a suitcase both while filming and after, she didn't have a partner at the time, she was bouncing from friends to friends to friends who all had their own established support systems and their own jobs. So there she was in her offtime, trying to disconnect from this apocalyptic mindset that she'd been rotating in and out of for the last 4+years in this endless grind of like 7-8 months of filming every year, but not ever really having anywhere or anyone solid to help ground her.

It sounds like it was lonely. And really mentally depleting, and I'm glad she stepped back when she did. If anything she probably should've done it sooner, but from everything she says about herself she seems like someone who is really hard on herself and very focused on always doing things perfectly ya know? Idk, but sad situation and one I'm sure is more common among actors who work on long projects or especially dark projects than people talk about openly.

Anyway here's the podcast, it's pretty good. Not really the canned answers of media training or promoting a project, a lot more actually just hearing what she has to say and so on

Apple podcast

Spotify podcast

[storiesofsvu2-0]

Love Comes Quietly Ch 3

Future Alex Blake x reader warnings: language, some alcohol, thats about it. Eta: don’t come for me if the statements about DC aren’t accurate, i did my best to research, i’m just relaying what google said lol

Returning to DC was exactly like slipping back into the same old routine. Alex immediately tossed laundry in, then tackled the fridge, letting out a sigh as she tossed out far too much fresh produce. After transferring the laundry over to the dryer, she headed out to get groceries, it looked like they’d actually get to stick around homebase for a while so she would at least have time to prep stuff to toss in the freezer. She enjoyed her little reset nights as she called them, leaving a window open while she cooked to let the fresh air in, piling away Tupperware containers into the fridge and freezer before putting fresh sheets on the bed. By the time she was settling into the couch with a glass of wine and a book she felt accomplished, leaving her in a positive mindset for returning to the office the next morning.

Everyone was more than a little thankful for the fact that it was a paperwork day, finally having the chance to catch up on things that had started piling up. Emily ended up spending most of her day holed away in her office, sorting through resumes, reading recommendations and conducting phone interviews that she knew were basically pointless, but she had to at least look at all the contenders. She was so focussed on speeding through all of it that she didn’t catch the time, realizing she was about to be very late for a budget meeting, scooping up the appropriate files and her phone her office door finally opened. She was unsurprised to find everyone, Garcia included in the bullpen, and while it was still a professional level of quiet, it was very clearly a casual day.

“Hey Reid!” She called out as she made her way across the room and the man looked up, “I need you to clear those books out of that spare desk you’ve been using as a library by the end of the day.”

“But…where will I?” He started and she chuckled.

“There’s an empty shelf in JJ’s old office.”

“Does this mean we’re finally getting a new agent?” Garcia asked with an excited grin.

Alex had already put it together, her eyes glancing toward her phone and she couldn’t help but reach out to tap the screen, frowning when there was no notification from you. Emily caught the movement, especially when Alex looked up to her with a curious expression and she let out a small laugh.

“I just sent the email and she’s out on a case right now. Besides, I’m not even sure if she’s actually going to take the job.”

Without another word she slipped through the door, effectively leaving the team to excitedly gossip over the new team member. Emily’s wording, and direction directly to Alex had them all assuming the same thing, this mystery girl from Boston who happened to be in New York last week was going to be their newest profiler.

*

A few hours later, and a few hours up the coast; you were letting out a huff of a tired sigh, tucking into a stool at the kitchen island. Your laptop was open in front of you, phone on the island beside a notebook where you’d been scribbling out multiple ‘to-do’ lists to organize everything you had to get done and it seemed like the list was just getting longer and longer as the day went on. You’d just unwrapped your take out dinner when your phone began to buzz on the counter top. You let out a small whine, dropping your food back to the counter, praying it wasn’t work but Alex’s name flashed across your screen and a smile broke out on your lips.

“Hey.” You answered, popping the phone onto speaker mode.

“I believe congratulations are in order.” Her voice came through the phone and you could practically see her grin, letting out a small laugh.

“I guess they would be.”

“Drinks on me when you get out here?”

“Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind.” Standing from the stool you crossed the kitchen to the fridge, pulling out a bottle of wine. When you opened it the cork pop echoed through the room,

“I’m not interrupting, am I?” Alex asked and you laughed, pouring the wine into a fresh glass.

“No.” You settled back in your spot, “you just mentioned drinks and it made me realize I think I deserve a celebratory one.”

“Well cheers to you then.” Despite not being able to see it, Alex still raised her own glass before taking a sip, listening to you do the same.

“Mmmm. God, yeah, needed that.”

“Long case?”

“Nah. We wrapped this morning; my paperwork was done before lunch. Once I got Emily’s email I put in the transfer papers with the brass and took the rest of the day off.”

“Big celebration plans?” She asked with a tease and you laughed again.

“More like I have an entire apartment to clean out and pack up in god knows how short of time. I’ve already made three trips to donation and one to the dump, got as much as I can listed to sell.”

“Do you have to worry about breaking a lease?”

“No. Thankfully I own, so I can leave all that to my realtor and not have to worry.”

“That’s good!”

“Yeah.” You smiled, “hey… the weather’s not that different down there, right? Or am I gonna need a completely new wardrobe?”

“It’s relatively the same.” She laughed back, “but make sure you have at least a couple of things for extreme weather, you never know where a case will take us.”

“Right, right.” You muttered, picking up your pen to scribble down a couple of things on the notepad, “Prentiss said the usual business casual…”

“Yeah, no one’s really particular about it. As long as you look put together she’s not nitpicky about things.”

“Go bag’s like, a small duffle, what’d you use for daily?”

“Same over the shoulder I use when I teach. But if you’re a pockets and hands girl I’m sure you’ll be fine.” She teased and you laughed, playfully rolling your eyes before you paused to finally take a bite of dinner.

“Mm. Sorry.” You mumbled over the bite of food as you chewed and it was her turn to chuckle.

“So I did catch you at an awkward time.”

“It’s fine.” You waved her off, wiping at your mouth with a napkin, “like hell I was cooking today, it’s just take out.”

“What’ve you got? It’s chicken stir fry over here.”

“I stopped at Little Whale for a lobster roll, figured I should get as ‘em while I can.”

“Oh James was talking about that place, said it’s one of the best in town.”

“And it shall be missed.” You sighed before taking another bite, “okay…. Top places in Washington, romanticize me.”

Alex let out a laugh, the smile reaching her eyes as she sipped at her wine, thinking about the best places she’d been over the years living there.

“You know, I’ve become pretty fond of Founding Farmers, it’s all house made from scratch, absolutely delicious, including cocktails. But if you’re looking for something like Little Whale, a place like Plume, Monocle might be better compared.”

“Eh,” you shrugged, “I’m not really into the crazy fancy places, it’s just the freshest lobster in town.”

“Fair.” She laughed, taking another bite of her dinner.

“Best breakfast?”

“Oh Cracked Eggery, hands down.” She quickly swallowed her food, “it’s mainly sandwiches, but they’ve got these garlic parm truffle tots and they are the best fucking thing I’ve ever had.”

“Please tell me that’s on the morning commute.”

“From me? Yes.” She laughed.

“Wait…” you stalled, wine halfway to your mouth, “I think we need to backpedal a bit. You’re in Washington, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” You finally took a swig, “cause I won’t lie, I’ve only been to Quantico once and that was for my training fucking decades ago. It always confused me that everyone always says DC, but Quantico is in Virginia… like, I may be a federal agent but I somehow didn’t realize that DC wasn’t like, a full sized state.” You felt yourself cringe at the admission but Alex let out a playful laugh,

“It’s confusing, especially if you’re not from around the area or spend a lot of time here.”

“So like, should I be looking into information about DC, or should I be looking at settling in Virginia? Cause Maryland would be too far North and a bitch of a commute, right?”

“I mean, it’s all up to you when it comes down to it. Most of us are in DC, but like you said, a commute from Virginia might be easier on you. Traffic can be a bit of a bitch.”

“Okay, hold on.” You toggled on the track pad of your laptop to wake it up, “let me pull up a couple of places I’ve been looking at. How bad’s the drive from DC?”

“Nothing terrible.” She shrugged, moving from the table to scrape her plate into the garbage and put it into the dishwasher, “make sure you have an EZ pass if you plan on driving. I usually keep occupied with audio books, or just leave earlier to beat the rush. Public transportation is pretty decent, but again, crowded.”

“And inconvenient considering the hours we end up working.”

“Exactly.” She smiled softly, refilling her wine glass.

“Okay, bare with me as I sort though all this, I swear I have every possible window open on my laptop.”

“Okay.” She chuckled, picking up her glass and moving into the living room to settle onto the couch.

“Found a couple good places in Columbia Heights?”

“No.” Alex immediately shook her head, “heavy gang presence. Relatively safe during the day if you use your head but I’d be worried coming home late.”

“I knew it seemed too good to be true.” You huffed, un-favouriting the postings until you came across another one, your lips pursing. “Chevy Chase?” You raised an eyebrow before you scrolled down the page and let out a small laugh, “well, considering my salary that’s out.” You repeated the process, “okay, not as nice as the last but this one’s in Brentwood.”

“Absolutely not. Now you’re going in the wrong direction.” Alex said with a laugh and you huffed, rolling your eyes.

“You’re so much more direct than google ever would have been, bless you.”

“I told you I was more than happy to help, didn’t I?”

“Georgetown? That’s where you regularly teach, right?”

“Whenever I can.” She replied, “it’s one of the nicest areas in Washington, probably run into a lot of the younger demographic thanks to the school, it can be relatively pricey though. Their French Market on the weekends is not to miss though.”

“Noted.” You scribbled that down onto the pad of paper, clicking through the listing before double saving it with a star for later. “Okay last one I’ve got in Washington is in Petworth.”

“Ehh…” Alex grimaced, “high homeless population, which isn’t that much of an issue, but again, not very safe at night.”

“Ugh. Okay.” You let out a sigh, pausing to take the final bite of your sandwich, “I’ve got a couple of places in Alexandria to look at, I’ll check with my realtor and see if she can set me up with someone down there to get a better vantage point.” You minimized the page containing all the listings to reveal the Airbnb site and you let out another groan, “fuck, now I’m gonna have to go through all the Airbnb’s I bookmarked too…” Withholding a whine you took another sip of your drink, “why is this such a pain in the ass?”

“Better question is why are you looking at Airbnb’s? That’s gonna jack up you spending in a heartbeat, it’s not cheaper than renting!”

“Yeah but after comparing it to hotel costs in DC I think I’d rather have an actual kitchen and the mental security of knowing I’m the only person with a key if we’re away on a case, no numerous housekeeping and hotel staff in and out constantly.”

“Okay you’ve lost me now.” She admitted with a chuckle, “why hotels?”

“I’m not about to buy a place without seeing it in person first.” You laughed, “no matter how incredible a realtor is. And Emily warned that I might get less than a day in the city before we’re off on a case, it might take me a while to actually find a place I’m willing to call home.”

“While I understand that, it’s still completely ridiculous to waste your money like that.”

“It’s either that or flying back and fourth multiple times over the next couple of weeks and guess which is cheaper?” You sighed and Alex let out a huff, tugging her lip into her mouth, “so unless you’ve got another solution in that big brain of yours, Professor Blake…”

She paused for a moment, her eyes drifting across to the arm chair the James would frequent after dinner, now left empty every evening before they shifted in the direction of the kitchen where her single plate was stashed in the dishwasher, where she consistently was making a meal for one.

“Actually…. I do…” She couldn’t help but smile as the idea started to spring to life in her brain.

“Oh?” You asked, pausing in your scrolling through the Airbnb site.

“Come stay with me.”

“Are you serious?” You asked, suddenly sitting upright and she chuckled.

“Yes. I’m in DC, it’s a nice house in a good neighborhood, decent commute. I’ve got a guest room, there’s a home office and another extra room you could toss a desk in or do whatever you’d like with. James used it as an office but he took most of the furniture when he moved. It’s been sitting empty since.”

“Alex… I really don’t want to intrude….”

“You wouldn’t be.” She took a sip of her drink, “I’ve discovered I’m not too fond of an empty house. Despite the fact that James was gone a lot for work there was still a feeling of him here, now it’s just kinda lonely. I could use the company.” She laughed.

“You sure you wouldn’t get sick of me if we’re working together too? I mean that might be a lot…”

“It’ll make my commute to Quantico far less boring.” She teased and you let out a huff of a laugh, “there’s a backyard pool and hot tub…”

“Oh now you’re just tempting me.”

“You need a place to stay, and I have space just sitting here unused. I enjoy your company, it’s the least I could do.”

“Okay.” You smiled in the direction of your phone, finally closing your laptop, “but only until I find an actual place, promise I’ll be on my best behaviour and you feel free to kick me out whenever you’re sick of me.”

“I doubt that will happen.” She smirked and you rolled your eyes before your head turned to the beeping coming down the hall.

“Ah, fuck. I’ve gotta swap my laundry over.”

“Go.” She waved you off, “it’s getting late anyways. I’ll send you the address and some pictures in the morning, let you know what you’re getting into.”

“If it’s good enough for you, I’m sure it’s perfect.”

“Night y/n.”

“G’night Alex.”

With a soft smile on your cheeks you hit the hang up button on your phone before pocketing it and wandering down the hall to deal with the laundry. You let out a content sigh as you moved back into the main room, scooping up your wine and dropping onto the couch with considerably less stress tensing up your body. The move itself was already intimidating, but you weren’t about to let that stop you, you always powered through. Now, you had someone already willing and prepared to help you through things and figure out the details before the brass had even sent through your papers. Perhaps your move to Washington was not only going to go smoother than expected but was exactly what the universe had in store for you.

______________

@svulife-rl @clarawatson @hbkpop @momlifebehard @alexusonfire @itisdoctortoyousir @temilyrights @alexxavicry @evilregal2002 @alcabots @ladysc @dextur @augustvandyne @supercriminalbean @lex13cm @prentiss-theorem @happenstnces @whiteberryx @heidss @geekyandgay98 @onmykneesformarvel @inlovewithemilyprentiss @desperate-gay @amypoehlfey @overtrred28 @emobabeyy @1974-sp @theclassicgaycousin @kalixxa @leftoverenvy @bigolgay @daddy-heather-dunbar @regalmilfs4me @scorpsik

[official-rugi]

Reading Ghost Junk Sickness really got me in the mood to try and design some space guys, so uhh I made a little GJS crew of my own for fun! 😅 Its just the two of them for now, but they mostly run cargo to other places, sometimes bounty hunt as they search space for Stardrivers home planet! Armando is originally from June 7th so it became their homebase as they run their cargo or help with bounties. Armando works as the ships mechanic, while Stardriver is the pilot and finds jobs for them to take on!

[stitchlingbelle]

Watching Halo, episode 1

Things I Know About Halo:

The Master Chief is a badass supersoldier who Doesn't Take Off His Helmet.* (I thought it had turned out he was a woman and the fan base rioted but apparently I mixed him up with Samus Aran?) There's a couple AI people, Roland the orange dude and Cortana the hot chick. There's a guy named Arbiter, I think he's an alien? Aliens destroy a lot of planets. There's some sort of mystical Old Ones leftover tech? (Is that the Halo part?) Names I have heard: Miranda Keyes, Dr. Halsey, Makee, Thomas Lasky, Chyler Silva**

That established, let's give this thing a go!

Nice opening scene. The costuming and set design are good, definitely have that Star Wars-esque vibe but are doing some of their own specific things that ground the world. The characters definitely gave you that lived-in-universe feel of established relationships and community right away. (Also I'm delighted by their use of Korean and their made-up alien language. Again, nice worldbuilding.) I am, however, confused. There's also an entire rebelling against the galactic empire thing going on? No one told me this. How do these people find the time with all the aliens?

Oh shit, THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE ALIENS. Oh noooo.

The violence is really well done. The explosion plus blood splatter shot was great. Good use of camera work to minimize the more difficult to pull off FX shots while still getting the brutality across. The helmet-cam shots are a good storytelling choice while also being a fun nod to the games. I do not envy the stunt people fighting in these suits, though. They made them look powerful. They did not make them look dexterous, graceful or effectively designed for hand-to-hand combat.

Noooo they killed the little kid! ...and everybody else. Man, I liked those guys. Poor Kwan. (Is she in the games? Is she this ineffective? She was like, I'm going to help! and then just... didn't.) And then the Spartans just... walk off?

DO NOT TOUCH THE WEIRD ALIEN TECH. You're a Master Chief! I have it on good authority that keeping people from touching things they shouldn't is a major part of your job! Set a good example for your troops! Also, check your six.

It's Dr. Halsey! Mad scientist alert, this woman does NOT seem to adhere to ethical guidelines. Nice lab coat. I don't trust you. Why do you have a person in a pod? (Why do you have them right where your boss can see them if they're not supposed to exist?) Who's Miranda Keyes and why do you have beef with her? Departmental rivalry?

Wow, Miranda is a lot younger than I expected. Also, that was terrible. Take care of the girl, butter her up, THEN ask her for shit. And do it in person, the hologram thing was weird and off-putting. Not sure that Kwan thought this through-- there's a happy medium between agreeing to be their propaganda mouthpiece and openly threatening to lie and say they caused the massacre, sweetie.

Alien homeworld (or homebase, idk)-- very cool design, good effects-- why is there a human here? Oh, THIS is Makee? What is her deal? Great costuming.

HALSEY IS MIRANDA'S MOM??? Wtf. Also I like Miranda, I don't think she knows what she's doing outside of her (own) lab but it sounds like her heart's in the right place. Great parting shot at dad, but also, maybe that's why your parents worked (for however long. Are they still together or not?)

Great scene with Kwan and Master Chief over the meal. Humanize him with a joke and then WHAM, dead mom story. I like how they're not letting you assume that Madrigal's people were just wrong about the Spartans. Nope, straight up, this guy commits atrocities because he never questions his orders. (She implied that she was there? How did that part go down?) Fortunately teenagers question everything, especially orders! Just in time to make you question this one...

From here on out it's action action action, with a lot of quick character bits mixed in (Halsey and Captain Keyes exchanging looks, the Spartans all listening to Halsey above their orders, high command doesn't trust their own creations-- how many different ways of monitoring their own ships do they have? This is taking surveillance state to a whole new level.)

YAY for Kwan getting a useful moment! If human strength does not avail, use guns tools, that's what we invented them for. No, Kwan, this man does not have a plan. I'm kinda sad the alien artifact activated, it would have been entertaining to watch the other Spartans get involved. (John: "This is our new pet. No, we will not be handing her over to be executed. Yes, she hates us all for very specific valid personal reasons. Roll with it.") Aaaand off they go, escaping to where? Not sure they know and I, with approximately 1% knowledge of this universe, certainly do not.

Finally, hopping back to address the One True Issue that divides the fandom: the helmet scene. It depends on how much the Never Remove the Helmet thing is an irl game artistic choice vs an in-universe character choice. If it's not an actual THING for John-117 himself, then I don't have any problem with it. Different mediums and all that. If it's like the Mandalorian thing, then yeah, it felt a little rushed, but still a necessary moment for humanizing him and building trust ASAP with a hostile teenage girl with a gun.

In conclusion: this was much better than I was expecting! I really enjoyed it and will probably watch the rest of the season while I bake today. And honestly it's been so long since I watched scifi on TV that it was sort of nostalgic? I was just ridiculously pleased by things like establishing shots of Reach and futuristic teenager haircuts.

Thanks so much to ATBNL and @sarnakhwritesthings for talking me into this!

*Has anyone done a 'John-117 is a Mandalorian' crossover yet? Someone definitely has, right?

**The last two do not appear in the TV show and also one is dead, except they're actually alive and married because @authortobenamedlater is in charge here.

[pandorafallz]

Vampire AU | Homebase and Caves

Neytiri sat alone, tucked away in her mother’s healing den for the sake of privacy to continue making her gift. A small, final thing really to complete Jake’s attire to the full vision he had for their Dreamwalkers which he hadn’t had too much time in getting to between her training, his human days, and other duties at both Hometree and his camp.

She was very proud of his work, in the last two and a half months, even if a portion of that had not been yet dedicated to a hunter’s path, he had grown significantly. She itched for him to get his Ikran with Ashleysloan and the other hunters-in-training Tsu’tey had but he hadn’t yet made a clean kill yet and it worried her he may be too late to gain a life-long bond in time of the Great Hunt. It was not a thing to miss, even if there were plenty of warriors on Pa’li but he had all the makings of aerial hunter.

She was impressed with his slingshot throwing, he had picked the skill up within a month of arriving and while she struggled with it, she valued the skill and power behind such a weapon. The sling had given him perfect training to work a yìmkxa to bind an Ikran’s mouth shut and a bola took only three hours for him to master.

He was driven… protective and had a strong heart. He cared for her interests and her wellbeing and she had a hunch he was up to something but it felt innocent in her heart not to be concerned and she felt it was related to her. She felt like Eywa was assuring her herself.

On the other hand, despite his attractiveness in both his bodies and being, he could be a complete and utter moron in many ways. It was almost endearing but she knew she had to factor in a lot of ignorance and human elements of him that wouldn’t simply be let go, even as they grew together.

Neytiri knew she shouldn’t nurture those thoughts of a Dreamwalker. He wasn’t of Omatikaya or one of the people. She was his teacher and guide in their world and to get him through the rites of passage to become a hunter and to be seen as an adult among the people. To take the call of battle should the need arise.

It did make her wonder, while those with Dreamwalkers could gain the rite of adulthood with their people, those without… would find it more difficult. Maybe those who found a calling would grain their rites of passage through their jobs. Weavers had rites, as did the wood shapers, gatherers, hunters and even the Bone shapers had the rites of passage.

Jake would take the rite of passage with getting his Ikran but he was also a bone shaper… not fully qualified but he had impressed a stern woman with natural skill and proved he was capable of becoming a great artist.

The new whistle he had around his neck was an attest to that. She had watched him carve that bone down into something beautiful. Something that would take someone months to learn and yet it was like Eywa was guiding his hands. Neytiri was certain if he didn’t take his hunting rite, Hukinli would get him through their rite of passage and be offered a very good place among the bone shapers and to be allowed to maintain the Toruk totem. He might be happy but she knew by his request and heart, he was meant to fly.

She would get him wings to do so.

But for now, she could gift him these gloves to mask his presence to those initial concepts Breekung created for the Dreamwalkers. To cover his extra finger and toe.

His feet covers were done and Hukinli had been gracious to offer the carved bones with a simple request but the hand gloves were harder to craft with the thin hide but also allowed flexibility, and range of motion of the fingers and wouldn’t be at risk of getting caught.

Na’vi didn’t have a lot of reason to wear gloves and to simply cover one finger that was not in the way of a bowstring or to prevent calluses, it meant to her the gloves were to be seen as a symbolic reason beyond hiding the little finger that the Na’vi simply didn’t have. Appearance was one thing but it had to have an acceptable reason for it or it may stand out.

Still, she hoped Jake could find them suitable.

“Neytiri?”

Her head rose, pausing as her dear uncle’s head appeared first then the rest of him into the den space.

“<I see you, uncle>” She greeted with a soft gesture. “<Are you looking for my mother? She has made her way with father to the Miner’s Caves ten minutes ago.>”

N’deh nodded softly. “<I heard they were both taking the trip. I thought you may allow me to assist here ?>”

“<Assist?>”

“<Where I am desired or needed, or simply, I wish to spend time with my niece.>” N’deh spoke.

“<Tsu’tey is keeping an eye on the clan for now but will come and join me soon.>” Which meant she really had to be done with these gloves soon to avoid him from seeing it. Neytiri felt… a little guilty that she had made these, beyond the fact it was more than just helping Jake.

A gift like this carried weight. Significant weight even given she was an unmated woman. She knew better than to hurry and hide it given N’deh was right in front but she felt less inclined to hide it as he crouched and helped move some of her misplaced needles and cut fibres and collected them up neatly.

“<Is that a gift?>” N’deh asked, reaching for the finished one. “<A handpiece?>”

Neytiri’s heart thudded a little. “<Yes. While the Dreamwalkers have changed most of their arrangements, elements had been… less considered.>” Neytiri spoke, “<even you have forgotten such a piece.>” He had the loincloth and body paints now but again lacked the gloves.

N’deh eyed it thoughtfully, holding it against his own hand but there was a size difference that gave it away that it wasn’t meant for him. “<Nantang hide??”

“<Yes. Relatively thin, allows for flexible movement and doesn’t show the silhouettes of a small finger during hand movement. Minor tanning for consistent colouring.>” Neytiri elaborated.

N’deh remained silent, running his finger over the carved bone before he placed it back down before he turned to her softly and reached up, touching her cheek with warm “<Be careful, Neytiri>”

Neytiri frowned, “<It’s an innocent gift, uncle.>”

“<For Jakesully? I’ve noticed this will fit his hands perfectly.>”

Neytiri let out an impatient click of her tongue. “<Do not worry. I know my duty to the clan and I will not compromise what’s expected of me.>”

N’deh let out a soft tut in response, sounding far too much like her mother when displeased. “<Duty to the clan is one thing but you should…consider your own happiness too. Your heart does not beat after Tsu’tey.>”

“<Who my heart beats after is not of your concern, Uncle.>” Neytiri remarked dryly. “<You’re not my mother>”

“<No. I am not but… I am someone who loves a Dreamwalker. Wanting someone you cannot have is a hard ordeal but it is durable.>” N’deh let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping as if burdened with a great weight.

Neytiri’s shoulders relaxed a little but she felt… a strange empathy with her uncle as he began to reorganise her mother’s herb pots into an order that would certainly annoy her when she realised what he did.

Of course, he knew. Separated, broken bonded and exiled. That would set the burden on his spirit vastly. She couldn’t…imagine the pain of a severing bond that came from her father’s actions but the fact was, he was living through it. Not so bad as if the tswin had been removed.

He had a strong spirit. Resilient and patient.

If… if she considered it, how would her father react? Her mother? They would disapprove, that was certain given that both wanted her with Tsu’tey. She would lose her place as a tsakarem if she mated with Jake. That would devastate her mother.

A simple solution would be to mate with both Tsu’tey and Jake and have the best of both but Tsu’tey and Jake only had a basic acquaintance relationship with each other with no strong appeal that could be encouraged to bloom into love. They would not share her so she couldn’t have both.

Only one.

She didn’t want Tsu’tey. Not that she would admit that out loud but her uncle was right her heart was for Jake.

Tsu’tey did not love her for… her. They were friends, they had a history but his heart had been for her sister. Despite it being of no intent, she felt more like a consolation prize for him. To become Tsakarem by default due to her birth, not by choice as Tsu’tey had been given. She knew he loved her, perhaps as a close friend but he’d never love her like he loved Sylwanin.

If they mated, they would not have their true hearts supporting it. She could provide children that could have her heart but it would not be a satisfying or content relationship. Could she live with that over the warmth and attention Jake could certainly provide?

“<Is it worth it?>” Neytiri asked, breaking the silence as N’deh put the itching powder next to the soothing paste for the skin.

N’deh paused for a moment. “<Mating with a Dreamwalker?>”

“<You lost everything. A home, our people… the connections to Eywa for your attempt. Is one Dreamwalker really worth the loss and the pain?>”

N’deh rolled back onto his heel. “<If we weren’t separated by the sky people’s walls and the Omatikaya’s forest, Yes. She is worth it to me>.” He said. “<I would take exile with her, go where she is and see that we could be happy.>”

“<Even if she is a sky person under that false skin?>”

“<What she is has never concerned me.>” N’deh said, “<I wouldn’t even care if she became cold, because who she is is what matters to me more than her bodies. She makes me happy. I make her happy. We’re pieces of a puzzle that’s not yet whole.>”

Neytiri felt her stomach flip at the…insinuation of his acceptance of the chances of her being a blood demon but she kept her expression from reacting to that; he didn’t truly know. He thought her still warm and alive as a sky person in the sky people’s village. She couldn’t tell him otherwise, not just because it was against her father’s word but her heart ached to do that to him.

“<I do not wish you banished, my dear niece so be careful on how you choose to go forward.>” N’deh spoke, “<I will support you, regardless.>”

Neytiri nodded her thanks but it made her wonder for a moment if it would be best if she spent more time at the camp. If she chose Jake, if she was successful in claiming him then… she would certainly follow her uncle in banishment… but she would still be with Jake. She could live with him in his camp, under the agreement and still be happy.

Happy enough.

-

“So, are you all coming?”

Jake eyed the selection of faces that had joined them at the cave entrance where Alejandra was waiting with Austin and Xanthe. By Alejandra’s feet, it looked like she had a small bag of what looked like strings and all of their avatar-sized shoes were bagged and ready to go.

Waiting was Kung Sr, Bree, Ruby in her human form as well as Zane, Ashely in her avatar and Kendra.

“Harper wanted to come,” Kendra started, “Eliza benched her given how sensitive her side is at the moment. I’m here to see what sort of terrain it’ll be from a… non-miner’s POV. I’m probably just gonna be visiting the hot springs and Homebase right now.”

“Not the other caves?” Xanthe cocked her head curiously.

“Not today. I’m sure with the Na’vi coming along, it’ll be stressful to guide a large party as it is.” Kendra answered.

“Fair enough.” Alejandra agreed before she reached down and pulled out a selection of beaded cords, “Xanthe, take the human-sized people down the blue route. That’ll be safe for them, People with Dreamwalkers, I’d like for you to stay and follow this route with us since you’ll be needing this route when big.” She handed Kendra and the Kungs their own beaded cord and promptly showed them how to fix it onto their forearm.

“What are these?”

“I’ll explain once we’re at our cave,” Xanthe said cheerfully. “Come, pick up a set of avatar shoes. I’ll be easier for them to wear when not soaked through.”

Between them, each of the four humans slung up a bag each and made their way from their cave and out. Jake watched them leave, giving Bree a wave as she departed through some foliage with a dramatic twirl.

“Ten bucks that Bree’s here because Kung won’t her stay alone at her camp,” Ruby remarked.

Jake snorted a little. “She’s probably just protective. Bree is a minor.”

Alejandra let out a dry snort. “Doubt it. Zoey’s a complete control freak.”

“Zoey?” Jake frowned at the miner, “Wait, that’s Kung’s first name?”

Alejandra smirked. “Yeah, she hates that name but never got around to legally changing it. I call her Zoey just to annoy her. ”

Jake sighed deeply. Right. This situation they had talked about yesterday.“Can we please keep things civil between you two while she’s here? We’re not in the RDA anymore and believe it or not, we need to remain a community.”

Alejandra’s nose wrinkled. “Jake, has she told you anything of her life before Junior busted her out?”

“I knew she was the Head of MineOps, oversees team management of supervisors over the mine and all that. I don’t know the full details of the job. I ain’t a miner.” Jake admitted. “She’s made it no secret she was no saint about it. She has a military legacy.”

“She didn’t care about us. Only doing her job and getting us to try and meet those damn quotas that Selfridge wanted. Two people died and it’s on her hands too, not just Selfridge’s.” Alejandra seethed, with a scoff. “Two good men. My friends.”

Jake’s head tilted sadly. “I…empathise with your loss, truly, Alejandra.”

Alejandra’s eyes narrowed. “I sense a ‘but…’ here, Sully.”

“Kung’s also suffered personal losses due to the RDA; her own daughter’s death. She lost her job and was imprisoned. I don’t want to undermine your loss and I won’t but there needs to be… a understanding here that you two are no longer part of the RDA. No longer a major or a MineOps officer. I’m not asking you to forgive and forget and be buddies. Just keep things civil so it doesn’t upset the rest of us. We’re not out here to fight each other.”

Alejandra scowled at him. “You’re asking a lot, Sully.”

“I know but I can’t see how we can thrive with those shadows in our corners.”

Thankfully, they were interrupted by a Pa’li trotting through the treeline before the familiar sight of Eytukan and Mo’at appeared and gently disembarked from their mount.

Eytukan’s eyes washed over their group first then around to the cave’s entry with a careful interest in the surroundings.

Mo’at crossed the distance quickly and with purpose. “This is… close to Hometree. I didn’t expect it to be so close.”

Alejandra’s mood shifted as she turned her attention to the Tsahìk. “Fortunately, yes. We’re still scanning other areas for entryways. This is the direct route to Homebase big enough but I’m certain we can find other routes and caves that will lead close or direct that don’t have long water start. Can you hold your breath for a long period of time?”

“We cannot, but Na’vi can learn to extend their breath in the waters with regular practice and meditation. People of the reef must learn this as a life skill to thrive in the oceans.” Mo’at spoke.

Alejandra nodded, “We have breathing equipment we can give you in the meantime but I will need to give you all a safety briefing on how to use it and how to safely navigate the cave that will not compromise yourself or people swimming behind you. Water caves are dangerous and can kill if not respected.”

“As you wish.” Mo’at agreed. 

Alejandra relaxed, “I don’t doubt your abilities to survive in a cave but even the greatest of swimmers and divers could make a small mistake that can cost lives. You’re not too familiar with this breathing apparatus so you’re not going to be able to get out easy without assistance if something goes wrong and we may miss indications of distress. We cannot afford the mistake with two clan leaders taking the same trip with us.”

“We understand your fears,” Mo’at assured, sounding a little more patient than before.

Jake knew some of her instructions from his time in the Marines but with the new face mask that was handed out in the debrief, he opted to listen and fixed it onto his face as a demonstration to both Na’vi, touching over to feel the seal was good before offering a thumbs up.

“Feels good.” He said, voice muffled by the plastic.

“Good.” Alejandra nodded, “now for these.”

From the bag again, she pulled out the same cords she handed to the others. But these ones were slightly different; longer and had different colours beaded in different patterns. Only, it seemed that the cord was folded in half, meant to be parallel to each other as it looped around a finger and was secured at the elbow.

“Fix these onto your arm, preferably on the outside but inside works if it’s comfortable.”

Jake took the cord he had and fixed it onto the outside of his painted arm. Just under his knuckle was a red bead. It looked… hand-crafted from resin, not a natural stone that was carved either. Inside the bead, he could see a… bead of water inside with glowing moss. It seemed to… shine a little through the design. Made sense it had to be made to glow in the dark.

“What… is this?” Jake decided to ask.

“These look like Songcords?” Eytukan noted, eyeing the cord on his forearm with some careful curiosity.

“Songcords were an inspiration but this is an idea we thought would be…accepted by the Na’vi who don’t want to use human technology.” Alejandra started. “We know there will be times where you’ll want to visit independently, so we had to figure out a way for you to get through our defence systems and directional twists that wouldn’t give us away either. Rope is a good idea and in the life-death or blatant areas of risk, we have rope to act as a guide or to cling onto. But rope will sell us out if the RDA see us run into a cave. They can follow us. They can follow a rope.” Alejandra explained. “Wei came up with this idea is using a colour-code system to tell us the direction of the path without need of rope and so… we developed the idea of using coloured beads for us to use and setting down coloured moss or bead displays in the cave as a reference.

 “What do you call them?” Jake wondered, amazed as he looked at such a simple idea. It gave the Na’vi what they’d be most comfortable with as well as familiarity. A lot of untapped potential…

Even Mo’at looked impressed at the notion, seeing it in a new light, or probably surprised humans would come up with a favourable solution so quickly.

“Waycords. I wanted to call them Wayfinders but I got vetoed because it sounded too much like that outdated RPG game.” Alejandra sighed, slipping one onto her own arm which was significantly smaller but held the same pattern. “They’re completely customisable, depending on where you’re going. We’re making a few for different areas. The cave we’re taking you to also has cords to other areas. Not many since we’re still in the development phase of these. Most of these were made last night for you.”

“How do these work? The pattern on the other side is reflected downwards, is it not?” Eytukan said, also trying hard not to sound impressed.

“Left string is the way there and right is the way back, or if you want to add to expand or an alternative route, then another cord is put in its place. You could simply follow the left back in reverse but this cord is simply to and from Homebase. Unmarked passageways aren’t part of the path.”

“But different colours for the same path?” Ruby asked peering at hers.

“If we route directly using one colour, that’s just as bad as a rope. If we’re following the red all the way, and the RDA realise we’re following red tunnels, they’ll find us sooner or later. By changing colour often, we make it harder for them to follow us. If we go down red and then go gown blue and yellow, they’ll think we’re still on red and get lost or hit a dead-end.” Alejandra explained.

“Very smart,” Mo’at remarked.

“Indeed, I did not consider those risks.” Eytukan eyed his face mask, being careful as he set the plastic onto his face. “<This does not feel pleasant.>” He remarked in Na’vi although also muffled.

“<It’s a temporary solution, husband. Unless a person from the reef comes to guide us through breath training, then we cannot hope to make way without either passing out or drowning.>” Mo’at replied back, being far more careful to thread the mask under her shawl to avoid getting caught up in both her tswin and her shawl. Her fingers pressed into the seal under her chin as she took a few testing breaths and then nodded her content

“Ready?”

With seven definitive nods, Alejandra leads the way into the cave tunnel. It was four metres in when the cave tunnel opened up into a four-meter-wide chamber with a steep incline straight into water that seemed to settle entirely from edge to edge. Around there was colourful foliage, vines and flowers and even the water was filled with glowing plant life along its bottom. An assurance even, for Jake to see. They wouldn’t be swimming blind. He had never considered the possibility, really.

“Here, once you’re done with the tanks, we hide them here,” Austin called, sticking his hand into a hidden crevice behind some vines. The shadow of the vine seemingly masked its very presence, even. “So… you guys can come and go whenever ya please.”

“Will you guys need more canisters?” Jake wondered.

“Yes but… that’s a later’s problem.”

Jake hummed, making a mental note to double-check the camp or maybe look into more shacks. Most had spare canisters after all for their air filters and shit.

Alejandra, without any hesitation just walked straight into the water and disappeared with a smooth dive. Jake took the lead after her with Eytukan after him and Jake was surprised to see how deep it went by the time his eyes adjusted to the water and became clearer.

The water was cool and pleasant as it washed over his skin, cleansing and refreshing as he noticed the rope against the ceiling of the cave, tied out of immediate view from the cave but noticeable once you were in. His body paint didn’t wash off, even as he treated the water to remain under. The bubbles streaming from his canister filter up to the top.

Eytukan was far smoother in the water as were Mo’at and Ashely, Ruby and Zane certainly flopped like fishes but Austin seemed more at ease.

After a moment of double-checking that their masks were truly working and at little risk of detaching, Alejandra took the lead and swam at a surprising pace for her size, sometimes using the rope to pull her along but it took a second to realise that she had no shoes on either. Probably for the best. They were hard to swim in.

The seven minutes climbed by slowly they swam along before Jake saw the human ahead disappear up entirely. Soon enough, Jake saw the end of the tunnel and lent his head up, breaking through the surface to another tunnel but it was far narrower.

Jake clambered out first and settled more into the tunnel for space because it was gonna be a very tight squeeze. Mo’at appeared next followed by Eytukan and then Ashely, then the last three humans.

“Dump your masks in the basket for pick upon your exit. You won’t need these ones.”

“What about when we’re in the human atmosphere?” Jake asked, frowning but slipped the canister off his hip and peeled the mask from his face, the air smelling surprisingly damp.

“There are Co2 canisters already there you can use for supplemental sips,” Alejandra answered, squeezing the water from her dark hair. “It’ll be a narrow path until we get to the blue tunnels so stay single file.”

“How long is the dry pathway to your home?” Mo’at asked, peering around Jake’s elbow as she deposited her canister away as well.

“About seven hundred and fifty-one metres. Fortunately, this is the second shortest route. The waterway took us over a lot of dead, weaving space.” The miner chuckled but didn’t dawdle any longer and led the way down the red tunnel.

It became a pattern, Jake followed on with the cord on his wrist the colour patterns as tunnels and other pathways opened up, each one set with a coloured spot of moss in front. One tunnel had no colour and vine tied across and when asked, Alejandra responded with

“Death drop.”

A peek-in did show an immediate drop onto stalagmites. So they didn’t question it any further.

Red, blue, blue green, green, red, yellow and finally, red which led them to a longer, even tunnel but now, LEDs and string lights seemed to line the roof of the tunnel, signalling the more human-augmented areas.

Then they reached the airlocks at the end of the tunnel. The airlock was supported in the wall with what looked like a mortar mix and metal panelling along the edges and… he could see the surfaces had also been painted as well as if trying to blend the stone around it. Not very well, it seemed, maybe they needed to get Ruby onto it.

“The airlock is bigger on the inside, don’t worry. We separated the doors from one another purposely.” Austin said, squeezing through and opening up the airlock door.

Jake peered in to see a large opening in the middle, a monitor balancing on the wall, and large tubes coming in and out of both sides through the mortar finish as part of the air exchange systems. “Sweet. N’deh almost got stuck in my shack’s airlock one night. I didn’t want that experience personally.”

Mo’at chuckled quietly.

One by one, they filled the space but it was very close and personal and that feeling only increased when they had to bend down to crawl through the human-sized airlock out. Mo’at almost stepped on Jake twice and Eytukan almost fell on top of her when the clan leader cracked the back of his head and the base of his tswin on the doorway.

The relief was immense to put distance between him and the airlock the moment he would squeeze out of the metal door; they should probably try and find a means of building a Na’vi-sized airlock as well. If this became common, they’d need a proper door scaled to the taller folks.

Jake’s eyes took in the open space inside the cave in wonder when he noticed the new surroundings, airily following along to see lights strung up across the cave, waving around stalactites along the ceiling and stalagmites along the floor. Na’vi bladder lanterns were also dotted about where string lights couldn’t hand and there was… a surprisingly far distance to see despite the light limits. Mirrors were also used to shed light both further and brighter as well. Jake had wondered why they wanted those the most last second.

Now it made sense.

Homebase had a large, open centre that had multiple off-branches of cave tunnels. Some were fitted with airlocks now, others were still using a fabric airlock to keep the atmosphere in but some looked to be untouched and no doubt sealed off.

It was clear to see areas were sectioned off for specific purposes.

The sleeping area was off to the left, bunk beds, mattresses on the tarp-covered floor and a few hammocks were up. The bunk beds each had their own curtain stapled on for some privacy. Sleeping bags looked to be used in place of comforters and blankets for now. Meters away from the bed and more central was the clear common area; the place where people worked around a large, suspended LED from a floating rock shining down on them but it had a light yellow ting so the light wasn’t too harsh.

To the far right, close to a wall was an area that looked like food preparation and a lit fire being tended to by one of the miners. Full shelves of baskets were up against a row of stalagmites and some were used to hold supplies with rope and hooks.

A few of the miners were milling about, occupied with work. Someone looked to be in the common area, weaving together something, one was making beads; the sort found on the Waycords. Kendra and the others looked to be about as well and settled while they had waited for their arrival.

There were two unfamiliar faces about but he knew their names in passing and could guess who was who easily. Both were male, one was a tall, athletic white man, with long blonde hair that was platted and a short stubbly beard. He had strikingly grey eyes with only a few flecks of blue in the outer rim of his irises that only became visible as he came to greet them but… Jake just thought Marcus looked like a majestic Viking.

The second man was… not what Jake expected. Wei was a short Asian dude, with short black hair but he was surprisingly very large for his height. He had a double chin, round belly and thick limbs but despite his weight, the clothes he wore looked baggier than what he would have thought. He had lost weight, logically, Jake realised. The guy was now out of RDA’s junk food and only eating what was available and when. There was a story there, no doubt.

Wei looked to be occupied at a hand-crafted potter’s wheel, melding clay and water with his hands that worked so delicately to form a rounded pitcher with clear skill and precision. Beside him lay at least six other pots of various shapes and sizes that looked to be drying out now, a bowl of clay water and a box of tools that would aid his craft. Handmade from wood, shapers and scrapers. A metal string that Jake would guess would cut the clay from the wheel once he was done. Bree was watching the man work, asking him questions to which he was answering with a smile.

“Welcome to Homebase.” Marcus greeted warmly. “Good trip?”

“As expected,” Alejandra spoke pulling off her waycord from her arm and tucked it into her belt. “How’s everything here?”

“Wei’s making more pots to store those beads we’re making. I’ve been scoping out a few caves that we could use as a drying room and we’re almost done with the bricks and stone cutting to make a large kiln down in the east tunnel.” Marcus spoke.

“Sounds interesting, how are the visitors?”

“We’ve shown them around and they’re helping a little with some of our chores.”

Alejandra nodded, pleased. “Come, I’ll show you around as well.” She directed this to the Na’vi who were peering around the space. “Toilets is past that red curtain. There’s a hole in the floor to do your business, a pitcher of water to wash any… spillages. The tunnel beside leads to a water pool, small and flows underground, we use this to wash and clean.” She pointed out to the tunnel past the food preparation area.

“If we drop a bead or something, will be lost forever,” Jake asked.

“Yep.”

“Noted.” Jake passed a look down at himself, glad for one that he didn’t have anything too loose on him just yet.

“That airlock with the green red and green leads to a more private of areas and Bree is barred until she’s eighteen,” Alejandra said, earning a scowl from the minor.

A soft snigger echoed before he could stop it because it was such a… human thing to have. Probably a wise idea given the fact the bedrooms were shared with no privacy.

“Sex cave?” Jake couldn’t help but ask with a grin.

“Yep.”

He sniggered again.

“Don’t worry, we do what we can to keep it safe and sterile,” Alejandra spoke, though her cheeks as a slightly darker flush. “So, where do you want to go first? You can hang around and see how we live or want to move on to our caves?”

“Is it a smooth passageway between caves or will we yo-yo between caves and Homebase?” Jake asked.

“Yo-yoing. Homebase was picked because it’s rather central to our other caves and tunnels. Hotspring’s is the South-East tunnel, which is the blue tunnel, the cave I want to show Mo’at is north and purple, and the special cave with a treat for all visitors is West but lower down than the other systems. Crystal caves sit beyond a water cave in the turquoise cave. South of the hot springs.”

Jake pondered his options quietly.

“I wish to see the crystal caves first, ensure that there is little harm being done with your stone mining.” Eytukan decided. “After which, I do not mind.”

“I will see the cave you desire me to see first.” Mo’at decided.

“I’ll tag along, colour me interested.” Jake mused because… well something had to be important enough for the Miners to want a Tsahìk’s opinion. Ruby departed from her boyfriend’s side to join him.

Zane wanted to remain around the camp first and join them for the hot springs cave and the special cave.

“Marcus,” Alejandra called, “Mind showing Eytukan the crystal systems for me?”

The blonde nodded. “I’ll mask up and find my tablet.”

“We only have one Waycord for each right now, except the way here.”

“Want them back?” Jake realised, eyeing the cord on his arm.

“No, you can keep them for now. You’ll need them to get back later.”

Within a few minutes, the group disbanded off to where they were going to be. Ashely was handed a Co2 canister to sip when Xanthe asked for help with her taller height. With a soft parting from her mate, Mo’at took the lead after Alejandra to the purple door and one by one, did they get through the airlock and out.

The tunnel was narrow at their shoulders, so they walked single file along. Jake almost took the wrong way before Ruby pulled his tail.

“Ow.”

Ruby poked her tongue out playfully.

It was a long route, and it began to wind but it was more like a labyrinth than a maze of tunnels. Smooth and rough limestone became coated with moss and foliage. Vines grew and glowed, a dampness hung in the air and there was even a soft breeze that flowed down the tunnel. The air began to smell…pleasant. Flowers also seemed to crop up as well, adding a beauty to the tunnels as well.

Then, at the far side, he could make out a natural light, a lulling purple that shone through a curtain of vines.

Alejandra slowed. “Mo’at, please go ahead first.”

Mo’at moved with little hesitation past the human, noticing the same purple light and her interest had clearly skyrocketed. She ducked her head as she gently shifted te vines away before she paused with a soft gasp of awe.

Jake, unable to help himself, hurried forward and ducked his head through the curtain before he felt the weight of what he saw.

It was a large, open cave but it was lit with the strong light of a central tree that was tall enough to have a large daylily-like flower head open to extend long pink tendrils to the dais of roots bellow. The roots were thick, flowing in all directions and there was a small pond of water furthest away with glowing fish but Jake didn’t spend a second on them. Around the tree were woodsprites, dancing and spinning happily.

The trunk had large flower heads open, similar to the larger ones but with only a few tendrils peeking out of it but these tendrils weren’t smooth like the largest ones, they were small, white and pink but thin as a human finger and the ends were feathered out like the end of a Na’vi Kuru.

Something in Jake stirred with a… booming warmth and he felt the urge to come close.

This was a site of Eywa. Hidden underground and healthy.

Mo’at’s face was awed, gentle as she made her way to examine the tree but… the moment she stepped onto the dais the flower head moved closed up and withdrew the tendrils, drawing a surprised gasp. Even the flowers along the trunk closed as well.

“<Fascinating…>” She looked shocked at the display, her hand coming to touch the trunk. Closing her eyes and took a slow breath to listen. “<I sense the Great Mother’s presence… her whispers are loud here…but I cannot hear so easily.>” She sounded troubled.

“I thought this was an important spot. Only a few of us have been in but not too close. I thought we’d have to run this past you first.” Alejandra remarked, keeping her distance by the vines but looked to be holding herself back. “It’s… it makes me feel weird.”

“Weird?” Mo’at opened her eyes, turning her attention down.

 Alejandra cocked her head a little. “Almost tranquil. I feel… an odd pull towards the flowers. I don’t know if they’re safe so I’ve… not allowed myself to investigate the feelings. I’m…not a botanist.”

“I feel it,” Ruby remarked, looking at the tree with dilated pupils and wide eyes, her hands clenching into her shirt. “I want to touch it.”

“Eywa will not harm you.” Mo’at assured, stepping back, crouching close to continue her exam of the bark, running careful fingers over the trunk, “Eywa is discrete and more subtle with sky people. If you feel this so intently, then she must be screaming at you to listen.”

Jake licked his lips but didn’t wait for anything else, bounding up quickly to the roots, his heart beating in his head his hand pulling his tswin from behind him forward. The flower head opened up again, offering tendrils again to them.

Ruby went straight for the flower heads, as did Alejandra. Jake spared a moment to watch as they both in sync seemed to grasp an offered tendril from two different plants and situated it to the back of their necks. Both slumped almost immediately, to Mo’at’s alarm as she dived to the two humans' side, but didn’t disconnect as she rolled Ruby around to examine her half-lidded expression

Jake took a breath as he let the tendrils of his tswin wrap around before…

He felt himself sink into a pleasant, familiar warmth of Eywa. It felt much like his first time, connecting to Eywa. The beat of her heart seemed louder than before. No words to be said from the Great Mother but. Jake found himself in an unfamiliar jungle.

Nor was it vacant.

A lone human was sitting on the grass, happily weaving something on a loom. The human looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties, a thin, warm tanned-skinned male with dark black hair that was braided back, his entire wardrobe a mix of human and Na’vi in weaving. Thick braids of colour over his top half that wrapped a part of his chest like a chest piece. His pants were a little baggy, model similar to human clothes but the weaving was different, more open. Despite being out in the open, he wore no mask on his face nor was there one near him in this memory.

The man paused as he noticed him. “<Hello? What are you doing here?” his was voice deep but soft and curious. Fluent in Na’vi, with a perfect accent as well.

“<Eywa brought me here.>” Jake replied, “<We’re…connected to this tree. Unlike the tree of Voices…>”

“<Oh yes,>” The man realised what he meant. “<It’s a rare sight to come across them, more rare than Tarsyu and their saplings but Eywa provides for those left for us to take.>”

Jake crouched down. “<Eywa grew these trees for us?>”

“<Of course. She needed ways to understand Humans so she provided a way for those who were willing to See. Humans and Dreamwalkers alike can connect and be with Eywa.>” He said, his hand coming to rest over his heart.

“<Who are you?>”

“<Jayson Lopez. My wife and friends call me Jay.>” The man replied.

“<You have a wife? Friends?>”

The man broke out into a wide smile. “<Yes. I love her very much. She visits me often and shows off our baby’s growth with each visit. I wish I could be for her now… but accidents happen.>” He sighed sadly.

“<You’re…dead.>” Jake felt his insides plummet a little. “<I’m sorry.>”

Jayson nodded once. “<Maybe you’ll find her. She’s with our friends traveling since the crash. Our numbers have grown since then. It will soothe her to see more people out of the RDA as well.>”

“<What’s her name?>”

“<Anela Harding. Our son is Javier Harding, named after my father. Our second child is not yet born.>”

Jake nodded. “<I’ll let the others know>”

“<Your Tsahìk is worried. Please go now to soothe her fears but feel free to return.>”

Jake opened his eyes, blinking back to reality before he felt a warm hand on his cheek he met Mo’at’s large yellow eyes peering at him carefully inches away.

The intense urge to connect faded away and he…felt good. “I’m okay.” He assured, turning his gaze back to the tree with fondness. “Eywa created this tree for us. Dreamwalkers and sky people. For the ones left behind.” Or in his case, to willingly flee the RDA.

Her other hand came to his chest, touching over his heart. “Did the Great Mother tell you this?”

Jake shook his head airily. “A human spirit rests with Eywa. He told me. There are…more of us out there. Lost. Left to die but found a way to survive, like Morgan.” Jake realised. “He’ll be…interested to know that. He wasn’t the only one left to die.” He frowned a little. A sad fact. RDA really did not care for their people.

“Then they must have been out for a while for Eywa to provide such sites for them,” Mo’at noted then turned her attention down.

Alejandra looked…groggy as she sat up, still connected to the tree but more aware.

“Huh, Eywa’s real.” She remarked, a little dry as if remarking on something obvious as day to an ignorant soul. “I think I need a drink.”

“Then we should return to your home.” Mo’at decided. “You will need rest after your first connection. We can hold off on the other caves.”

Alejandra nodded airily. “A nap sounds… so good now.” She gently tugged the tendrils from her neck and sluggishly rose to her feet, Jake offered an arm to her.

Ruby was still under, connected to the tree. Mo’at lent over the small human, touching her cheek

“Rubycarr?”

“…no.” Ruby shook her head, screwing her eyes. “No, let me stay.”

“You must come back to us first. Another time.” Mo’at reached under her, guiding her head away from the moss, her hand dwarfing the red-haired significantly before she gently tugged the tendrils away with efficient care.

“No… please let me go back.” Ruby cried, her eyes snapping open and filling with tears. “I haven’t felt that way since my first communion with Eywa in my avatar.”

“You can return but later. Your human mind needs time to adapt now to these new connections. It is unsafe.”

It took a lot of convincing before Mo’at picked up the reluctant human and let her bawl into her shoulder about it before they headed back to Homebase to regroup and discuss this new cave… and what it meant for them.

Things were going to be a lot more interesting now, weren’t they?

Masterlist

[burningfieldof-clover]

I just read most of your Bad Batch fics and I absolutely love them and I saw your scenarios list and there were so many good options.

I was wondering if you could do a Hunter x Bounty Hunter!Reader with "Chr B meeting chr A's kid in public and helps them out. Which makes the kid like B but B doesn't know it's A's kid." which leads to "They didn't mean for it to turn out this way. But they tried it once and couldn't stop themselves from wanting more."

Hello lovely friend I hope you didn't mind the wait! This is my first time writing for Hunter and I had a blast. Probably... too much fun because I went on and on with this one... Kind of wondering if I should make some mini-fics about the lessons that are referred to in this writing.

lessons learned

warnings: cussing a lot for some reason, general kind of "aw sad" feels, slightly "whoa that's hot" feels at the end

word count: 4307

reader x hunter

Bounty hunting. Not exactly the most glamorous job in the galaxy, but it pays well so who would deny it? It kept your ship running, your belly full. You got to collect some beautiful weapons and some breathtaking views to the places you went.

There was… one downside.

Saying you had an arch nemesis would sound strange. At first thought, you would assume it’s another bounty hunter, right? No. It’s a fucking bounty itself. 

You’ve been chasing him for years. Before the Clone Wars ended, jilted citizens or affected warlords put bounties on this clone’s head for unbelievable rates. At first you thought it must be because he’s so unbelievably dangerous, or committed some kind of unbelievably terrible crime.

No. He’s just good at his job.

Now that the Clone War is over, it’s been corporations or government bodies placing the bounties on him. It didn’t matter who placed the bounty, it was always going to be the same challenge. 

You thought back on the very many times you’ve hunted this clone, the one with a signature red bandana and half a face of a tattoo…

The first time, he made himself known to you with a blaster to your back. He pointed out he could smell the scent of your shampoo. While this was embarrassing as hell, you considered the job failed.

The second time, he found a strand of your hair caught on a tree limb in the forest he was hiding in. With frustration, you now wore a helmet that tucked your hair inside to prevent that situation from happening again.

The third time (or was it the thirtieth time?), he heard your sneeze. He heard your fucking sneeze. From an ungodly amount of distance away.

This has been going for so long. Honestly, you’ve been improving in your craft since you started hunting him. You learned some valuable lessons that most bounty hunters had probably never even thought of. You had a lovely stash of credits and could retire in a couple more years if you wanted.

Another bounty had crossed the database requiring the very clone you rival with. You took it without looking at the prize. You weren’t going to get it. You at least read details of his last known location and plotted the hyperspace jump. With a grin, you leaned back in your chair and propped your feet up on the console. It’s been a while. You could almost say you missed him.

Taking a mental checklist of all the ways you’d failed before, you parked your ship in the most crowded spaceport you could find. It would fit right in and be a little more difficult for him to locate (Lesson 16).

The bounty intel stated that he was headquartered in some kind of cantina that barely deserved to be called one. It had a couple regulars. The owner was a Trandoshan. Jedi used to visit during the war. Sounds simple enough.

A normal bounty hunter would camp out inside and wait for their mark to appear. However, the clone is a master at determining sketchy looking patrons, so that was out. (Lesson 8).

If you tried picking out an inconspicuous high ground, he usually had those covered too (Lesson 29).

If he really has chosen Ord Mantell as his homebase, then integrating yourself into society was going to be your plan. It’s something similar to the infamous long con most deviants live, but this was the next idea on your list of failed attempts at catching him. So, for the next few weeks, you lived on Ord Mantell.

It has felt like a vacation so far. No blaster bolts heading your way, no skeevy guild members to bargain with and absolutely no need to live in the most terrible of situations just to maybe catch your mark. You felt… normal. 

Today you were shopping. You only bought groceries for a few meals at a time so you would have an excuse to familiarize yourself with the setting. You learned the accent present in most humanoids in the area. It would be easy to convince anyone you were a native.

Wandering past a stall that sold a couple gifts and knick-knacks, you paused and browsed for a moment. There were some overpriced jewelry replicas, some small carved toys, a miscellaneous trinket or two… Feeling slightly nostalgic for a moment, you picked up a carved wooden tooka. It reminded you of a doll you had as a kid. How long ago were your younger years? With a longing glance and chuckle, you put it back down and carried on. 

You knew you had everything you needed, yet to continue the charade you started going through your basket of items to appear as though you were checking your shopping list. A small tug on your sleeve pulled away your focus with a start, and you almost reached for the blaster hidden under your groceries, but paused when you found a child to be the cause of the disturbance.

“Hello,” she said with a cheery tone. 

You watched her with skepticism before sounding out a wary “Hello.”

The child had notable blonde hair tucked under a hat and curious brown eyes that watched you. “I noticed that you looked a little sad,” she said with uncertainty and reached in her pocket. “So, I… I got you this. I hoped it would cheer you up.” She held up her hand and in her palm was the wooden tooka you were holding just moments ago.

It wasn’t everyday that a child tries to commit an act of kindness like this, so it warmed your heart slightly. Although, still suspicious. “T-thank you,” you told her quietly. 

A small laugh escaped her mouth. “You’re welcome! My brother has a similar toy that means a lot to him. It looks like it means a lot to you, too.” 

You couldn’t help the grin plastered on your face. “You must have a great brother,” you said as you knelt down to level with the girl.

“I really do!” She smiled at you some more, then held out her hand. “My name is Omega. What’s yours?”

Quickly, you fashioned up a fake name and gave it to her. She repeated it in her bizarre accent. 

“That’s a pretty name. Are you shopping?” Omega asked and pointed her eyes to your basket.

You looked at your basket yourself. Why is it so hard to talk to this kid? Is it really that hard to be social with anyone who isn’t a bounty? “Uh, yeah. I just finished up, actually. I’m about to head home.” 

Omega looked back at your face, wanting to continue the conversation. “I’m shopping too,” she then adjusted the straps to the bag on her back. “I’m almost done. Do you want to hang out with me while I finish up?”

This stunned you. But it also gave you the opportunity to continue blending in so you can work on hopefully capturing that damned clone. You nodded, then stood up. “Yeah, I think that would be fun. Are you sure it’s okay?” you asked her.

Omega confided in you with a cheerful “Yep! Besides, you don’t look all that dangerous.”

Oh, you sweet summer child.

With an uneasy laugh, you started to follow her. “Dangerous? Me? Impossible.” The tension in your body subsided a little as you tried to make small talk. “You, on the other hand? You look like you could take on a rabid rancor.”

Omega giggled and reached for your hand to hold onto while the pair of you walked. She said your name pointedly, “You have no idea.” She continued on chatting about small things, but for some reason you think she might have had something to do with a rancor at one point…

You only accompanied Omega for a little less than an hour, helping her haggle down some prices and looking for the best produce. She was more than grateful for your assistance, and honestly, you were beyond appreciative of the normalcy. Omega bid her goodbye and hoped she could shop with you again sometime. She ran off in the direction you assumed was her home. You were waving at her back before looking at that very hand, the one that held her hand while shopping.

What kind of humanity was this?

It’s been perhaps a month at this point. You haven’t scoped out the cantina yet so that any trace of you wouldn’t contaminate the job. You knew exactly where it was though. There was no worry there. 

Your blasters and rifle were ready to go at any time. When you weren’t in civvy clothes, you wore your field gear just in case you were ready to make your move. 

It was time to go shopping again. Part of you hoped that you’d run into Omega. The purity of her company was extremely sobering. Parts of you wondered what it would look like–feel like–if you retired and settled down. You would get to wear comfortable clothes like the ones you wear now. You’d go shopping while holding the hand of your partner, or eventually your child. You would add small wooden carvings to your list of things to buy, just to shower your offspring with love and–

What the fuck?

Your curious wondering had inserted your rival next to you as your partner. He held onto your hand and walked with you at a slow pace. He listened to you and spoke back calmly. At some point, you probably would have run a quick hand through his long hair as an action of endearment. His tattooed cheek would melt into your caress before he would press a kiss to your wrist. Your other hand was holding onto Omega’s. The three of you were a happy family–

Seriously, what the fuck?

You slapped your cheeks to get the imagery out of your mind. You shook your head as if you were trying to get rid of some tangles in your hair. Enough of those thoughts. Enough! You internally cursed yourself and were now looking forward to the end of this bounty. It’s time to get that clone off your mind for a while.

You did run into Omega again. She waved at you, calling your undercover name as she spotted you. “Let’s go shopping together!” she begged.

With a smile, you obliged. Yeah, you could do this one last time. One last time to act like a weightless being without a history of successful bounties, a ship you called a home instead of the apartment you were renting, the views of stars in space instead of the community you’ve learned to know…

In another lifetime, yeah. But not this one.

You approached Omega to close the distance. You were raising your hand to take her outstretched one–until someone ran past you quickly, ran past Omega and snatched her bag off of her arm.

You couldn’t believe how fast it all happened. Omega stumbled backward at the sudden jerk to her arm. She watched the thief run off for mere seconds before she took after him, yelling at him to stop.

Panic hit your soul as you watched. You couldn’t let this happen to her. Not a chance. No way you would let some asshole ruin your last memory with Omega. You reached into your basket and grabbed your blaster that was wrapped in a cloth. Unwrapping it quickly and dropping the empty basket, you started chasing. You switched your blaster to stun and flicked the safety off. You weren’t going to shoot blindly into the crowd–not until you had a calculated clear shot. 

You caught up with Omega. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine, but he–”

“Don’t worry kid. I’ll get it back for you.”

You hasten your pace to catch up with the thief–a Rodian. He was fast but wasn’t fast enough to escape you. You had stamina and a history of chasing, so this was nothing.

He shoved people out of the way and lost some of the distance he had on you. No matter. In true, inexperienced criminal fashion, he ducked into an alley. Either he just ran into a deadend or the gods blessed him with an actual throughway to another part of the city, but it was almost never the latter. 

Sliding to a halt at the mouth of the alley, you indeed found it to be a closed end. The Rodian was attempting to climb on top of crates and boxes to get to a balcony up above. Cocking an eyebrow, you took a shot at him. The stun blast hit him dead on and he fell into a pile of garbage bags below.

Omega caught up now. She watched you approach the downed Rodian and took Omega’s bag back. The young girl was braced with a stance of caution. “Do you always carry a blaster on you?” She took her bag from you gingerly and put it on her back, with both straps this time.

You sighed. “Yeah. It’s dangerous out here.”

“So you’re not a bounty hunter or something…?”

You paused. Well, shit. Do you lie to her? She’s such a good kid! “I, uh… kind of dabble in it here and there.”

Omega stepped backward and took a defensive position. “You’re not hunting me, are you?”

The anger in her eyes told you that she’s been the receiving end of a bounty or two. Why is someone putting bounties on a child? 

“Oh gods no, no no no. Omega, I would never. People actually put bounties on you? But you’re… you’re a child!”

Omega was still defensive and creating distance between you and her. “That’s none of your business!”

You stared down at the blaster in your hands. With another sigh, you knelt down to her level. You flipped the safety on and tucked the blaster into the waistband of your pants. You held your empty hands up to show her you were harmless, show her you had no intention of harming her. “Omega, I’m not hunting you. I swear to you.”

“The last time I trusted some stranger on the street, she tried to turn me in for a bounty. I’m too trusting. I want to assume people are good. I’m always wrong.”

Your hands fell into your lap. Watching tears form in Omega’s eyes broke your heart. If there was ever a sign to get out of bounty hunting… this was it. 

“I understand,” you say to her. Your shoulders slumped. Yeah, bounty hunting was the least glamorous job out there and you knew that. Putting bounties on a child is underworld level stuff. You never thought it was real, just myths told by guildmasters to scare you. In truth, they were testing the waters to see if you’d take the job.

Omega actually stepped forward. “Wait… you’re telling the truth.”

Meeting her eyes, you nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

“I’m sorry,” Omega told you. She spoke your name to get your attention. When you looked up, you saw her hand reaching for you. “Let’s go shopping. I don’t want my brothers to think something happened to me.”

You took her hand with a relieved smile. You rose to your feet. The pair of you started walking, Omega holding onto your hand like before. “Brothers, huh? You must have a big family.”

With a grin, Omega turned back to her carefree self that you met previously, and a weight lifted off of your chest.

You swore tonight you would find the clone you were hunting, and tell him it was over. You sure were going to miss this.

Omega bid you a goodbye and another wish that you two could go shopping again sometime. It took some effort to cover the broken smile you handed her, but you managed.

Heading back to your apartment, you put on your gear and grabbed your rifle. It was time to revisit an old lesson that you already learned from just so he could easily catch you. With a shake of your head, you still couldn’t believe a child was the cause of you wanting to quit. 

Again that imaginary situation where you and your partner were browsing the shops on the very street you walked with Omega. She on one hand and your clone target on the other. The clone was dreamy, to say the least. While the chase and failed attempts to catch him were part of the fun, you learned to appreciate the beauty in him. He was strong, smart, and a hell of a better hunter than you were. You smirked. Maybe that’s why his name is Hunter.

You were set up on a building across from the cantina, rifle loaded but not aimed at anything in particular. Hunter just had to do whatever it was that he did, show up with a blaster pointed at you, then it was over with. You had no idea how long it would take for him to show up, so you took the chance to lay on your back with your head propped with your hands underneath. The sky was pretty. There were stars dotting the sky. For a moment you wondered how many of those stars you had visited before. Which one would be perfect for an early retirement?

There was no telling how much time had passed before Hunter appeared before you.

“Getting a little sloppy, aren’t we?”

You sat up while observing him. He didn’t even have his blaster in his hand. He was still in full armor, though, minus helmet, so the blaster was at his side and his knife sheathed on his arm. He crossed said arms. 

You shrugged. “I think I’m just tired.”

Hunter tilted his head slightly with a raised brow. “Why bother, then?”

You pushed yourself to your feet and dusted off your clothes briefly. “I guess I wanted to come say goodbye. I’m quitting.”

He didn’t say anything for a while. His arms relaxed at his sides. “You’ve been here for over a month just to tell me you’re quitting?”

Your jaw dropped. “How did you know? I tried my best to hide my tracks!”

Hunter nodded down to the street where you heard a familiar voice. You saw Omega was perched on the shoulder of a larger man dressed in similar armor as Hunter. Wait, is Omega–

“I could smell you all over her. Plus, I have someone at the spaceports keeping an eye out for ships like yours.” Hunter’s hand started hovering over his blaster. “So, are you going to take this as another lesson and move on?”

Looking back at Hunter, you removed your helmet. Your helmet never covered much of your face to begin with, but you figured it would be a good gesture to show your face. You held out your hand, wordlessly asking for a handshake. “I’m done hunting. This is me letting you know that I’m retiring.”

Hunter looked at you, surprised. He wasn’t sure if this was a trick or what. Assessing your body language and expression, he felt that you were genuine. You couldn’t reach for a blaster if your helmet was tucked under the arm that wasn’t offering a handshake. He would be able to react quicker than you could, and you knew that, too.

Hesitantly, he took your hand and you both shook once. He didn’t let go, though. His eyes were stuck on the hands clasped together. 

“What did Omega say to you?” he asked.

You pulled your hand away before your cheeks could show a blush. “I knew bounty hunting was shitty to begin with. I had no idea how fucked up it was. Bounties on you? Understandable. But… on children? I’d rather protect someone like Omega before the thought of even glancing at a job like that.” You set your helmet on the ground next to your rifle. You ejected the magazine and double checked that the chamber was empty. 

Hunter watched carefully, each movement you made. He could definitely hear your heart speed up. He also sensed a tint of sadness in your words. Well, anyone would be sad about the thought of bounty hunting children. 

“She’s a good kid,” you said to Hunter. You slung your rifle onto your shoulder. “I’m gonna miss you,” you added.

Hunter sensed that sped up heart rate again. Was it yours? Or his? This cat and mouse game was a highlight in his life, he thought. It was a constant he could count on. There weren't many of those anymore. 

“Wait.”

“Hm?” You turned to lock eyes with Hunter at his little command. “Something on your mind?”

Hunter paused, not realizing he let that word slip out. “You uh… You should say goodbye to Omega.” 

You stared at him for a while. “That would be hard on her.”

“It would be even harder for her to realize you just left without a goodbye.”

You pursed your lips while trying to get a read on him. You really didn’t know what he was going for. Why couldn’t he just say he would miss this too? It’s easier than telling lies. Wait… “This isn’t about Omega, is it?”

Hunter turned his face to the side to avoid eye contact. 

“Where did Hunter run off to?” 

You looked down at the street below to hear Omega’s voice. She looked up and down the street before the big guy she was with shrugged. She followed his example and they headed into the cantina.

Looking back to Hunter, you gasped to find him closer to you, a few inches away at that. What was he getting at? What was he about to do? Your rifle strap slid down your arm and the weapon clattered to the ground. Hunter looked like he was struggling for what words to say next.

“I have to confess,” he said in a hushed tone, his hands landing on your shoulders. “This game of ours?” Slowly, he was leaning toward your ear. His voice was becoming softer, almost a whisper. “It’s one of the few things that got me through the war. Kept me sharp.”

Being this close to him, honestly with him getting this close to you, made you think of all the times your paths had crossed. Never once had the two of you ever touched each other. His hands were moving down your shoulders, down your arms, squeezing gently.

Your hands started to touch his armor covering his chest in response. Not fair! He can feel the shapes and curves on your arms but you can’t reach him?

Your eyes met his and it was no surprise there was a romantic tension in both visions. “What are you going to do now?” you asked him.

The back of one of his fingers traced your cheek. The action caused your breath to hitch in your throat. You had moved to standing on your tiptoes, your lips getting dangerously close to his. 

A grin graced his lips before he finally answered you. “This.”

That grin then kissed you, taking your breath away as he pushed passion into the actions, wrapping arms around you, a hand tugging at your hair at the base of your neck. This was unfathomable. You’d been chasing this man for a couple years, chasing after some credit amount that couldn’t compare to this. You had been chasing down this very moment. 

Your arms wrapped around his neck and you finally got to touch that beautiful hair of his. Soft, curly, so easy to pull. He growled into the kiss, distracting his tongue long enough for you to press yours into his mouth and take your turn exploring. 

The man was phenomenal. He was a fantastic hunter. He was an exceptional soldier. He was absolutely hot as hell. 

The tangled kiss eventually cooled off and the two of you pulled away but remained in each other's arms. He looked over you with half-lidded eyes. He could comment that yours looked like the galaxy was staring back at him. The galaxy only had eyes for him.

After a few quiet moments, you giggled. “Is that supposed to trick me into remaining a bounty hunter? So I can keep chasing you down to the most secluded planets for the rest of our days?”

Hunter audibly smirked. “I wouldn’t mind keeping you around if you promised to… say, hunt me down every so often?”

You laughed whole-heartedly. It caused him to chuckle with you. “Okay,” you nod, “okay. Yeah, that can be arranged.” You laid a small slap against his chest armor. “That sounds like a fair trade. I can keep hunting, you can keep getting off to it, and I get to be friends with Omega?”

Hunter moved in to kiss you again but instead bit your bottom lip in a warning. “Don’t promise me something you don’t plan on following through with.”

“Oh, honey. I never break promises.” You broke away from him to grab your rifle off the ground and slide it back onto your shoulder. Your other hand grabbed your helmet. “Care to,” you nodded to the cantina with your head, “share a drink with me?”

Hunter took a step so that he was sideways and held his arm out in a “lead the way” motion. You smiled and walked by him, more than happy with the outcome of this retirement. 

You had some kind of pep in your step you hadn’t seen in yourself in ages. On the way down the side of the building, you did have to ask him a clarifying question:

“Hey what did you mean you could smell me all over Omega?”

Hunter laughed nervously. “Well… let me introduce you to my brothers...”

They didn't mean for it to turn out this way. But they tried it once and couldn't stop themselves from wanting more.