#At some point I thought that this clan would completely die out

[cinnamon-flame]

Clangen kitties! Say hello to Mothclan, the unlucky survivors of at least two near-extinction events.

I got into drawing clangen cats since it's super addicting actually, so if you have any cool looking kitties you'd like to see drawn, feel free to send the via asks and I'll try to draw them too. Mothclan trivia under the cut:

These poor cats survived a lot over the 425 moons they've been alive for. At the tail end of Lichenstar's reign the clan shrunk from 20 cats to 3. Tinystar and Boughstar are mother and daughter because of the slim number of cats. Pikestar was an unpopular choice (which means that I didn't like him at first) but the clan flourished under him. And now the clan is still recovering, majority of warriors are ex-kittypets and loners (Top hat and Lemonboy among them), so Mothclan has strong ties with cats outside the clans.

[lightlycareless]

Hiii, can i request a scenario on how naoya (when he has reached a point where he loves wife!reader from an arranged marriage) would react to one day not being greeted at all when he comes home? It is completely silent, no response as he calls for her and is getting a bit worried as he starts searching the rooms. But then he sees her laying on the couch, shivering and sweating from a cold that’s so intense she’s barely lucid and can’t even tell he’s there and talking to her

Heya!!

So... I took some liberties when writing this, kind of went a completely different route (the sick part, alongside worried Naoya still remains though), it just occurred to me when reading your ask, but I hope it's still of your liking 🥺!!!

anyways, here are the warnings: mentions of death, miscarriage, a very concerned and overprotective Naoya, a bit of fluff, and everyone wants to spoil you rotten lol.

And without further ado, happy reading!

“Y/N, I’m home!”

Home.

A word he never really cared for, always considering it sappy, alongside the fondness that was usually assigned to it, which Naoya couldn’t think of as nothing but ridiculous, if not hilariously overrated.

For many years, Naoya thought that a home was simply the place that one was raised in and that’s about it. Nothing of the sentimentality others liked to apply to it, brag about it…

Until, of course, he finally came to understand what the word meant; why it was so special, and why it was important to have one.

A home wasn’t made by the people he knew as family, blood related, found in the place he was forced to be in since he was born, and probably die in—no; it’s the one that was made by the people of his choice, people he met through his course of life, connected with, and now, cherished.

Amongst them, you.

He considered himself lucky to have found the love of his life, a concept he considered so… foreign, impossible for someone like him, if not a stupidity of delusional people desiring more from life.

So was Naoya destined to think for the rest of his existence, condemned by his same family to live a life of loneliness, hatred, and die the same way.

But you’d come to show him otherwise, shockingly, and unexpectedly, and in such a way he couldn’t even put up a fight, completely surrendering to you and the wonderful feelings that being in love with you provided.

Now that he’s experienced them, he couldn’t find the reason as to why his family would ever reproach such beautiful thing as harshly as they did—or that he believed them in the first place…

Well, that’s not something that bothers him anymore; the Zen’in clan could continue on in their hard stuck ways for all he cared; he, on the other hand, plans to spend the rest of his days alongside the woman of his dreams, starting by today, finally back in your arms after days of being pulled into pointless missions after pointless missions, which he would not hear of for a few weeks—having earned a well-deserved break for his consistently good performance.

Naoya even prepared accordingly for the occasion, having bought gifts from all the places he’d been to, as well as ideated ways to distract you from the boring estate and his nagging relatives he knows you don’t enjoy being around with, only tolerating them because they were, well, your in-laws, his family—with exceptions of those you do get along, and for them, he’s grateful that they do.

Ah, he couldn’t wait to see you, your face, and the adorable way it brightens up whenever receiving him.

To tell you of his day while resting his head on your lap, with you passing your fingers through his hair, gently soothing his stresses away as you reassure him that he’s the best sorcerer out there, he’s just… unlucky to bump into lesser talented ones.

Get something to eat too, he’d like his favorite for a start, miso soup—and perhaps have you feed it to him? God, it’s been a while since both have done that, and it’s not because he doesn’t like doing it, or you for that matter, but rather, he doesn’t want to risk being seen by others, it has to be in the utmost privacy, after all! He isn’t to be vulnerable in front of his family!!

Oh, he needs wishes to see you—right now. And he’s absolutely sure you’re feeling the same way…

If so… why hadn’t you responded? Why hadn’t you come to receive him in the same manner you’ve always done?

Naoya knows that his schedule can be a bit… unpredictable, making it difficult for you to know exactly when he’ll come back home—but even then, it didn’t take you that long to meet him after announcing his return.

You’d always come to the entrance, no matter if it happened right that moment, or a bit later; you just… did.

But today… it seems that you opted to break the routine by taking far longer than you usually do.

He’d remain attentive to his surroundings, hoping to either hear your approaching footsteps or voice softly calling for him at a distance, yet as time went on, he was received with neither…. And Naoya only begins to grow more worried.

Your husband tries to not jump to the worst conclusion just yet, opting to think that you were perhaps simply caught up tending to the house, maybe even partaking in an unwanted conversation with one of his relatives and having trouble brushing them off—for no matter the times you’d reminded them that your husband was back, and you needed to be there to receive him, still acted as if it wasn’t that important.

Things that implied that even when running late, you were still ok.

Yet…

“Y/N!” Naoya calls once again, hoping for a change…

…

…

…

Silence.

It’s by this time that he decides it’s better to search for you than to stand around and wait for you to magically appear.

Naoya begins by going into the main wing, eyes scanning through the gardens, your usual place of leisure when not busy, where you’d calmly enjoy the diligently tended for flowers (the ones he had changed to your favorite as soon as he found out which ones they were) while snacking on something, or in the company of your loyal staff—if that were the case of your absence, he understood why you didn’t answer.

But he wouldn’t find you near any of the gardens, or anywhere in fact! A statement that weighed even heavier upon finding out that the staff was in the same predicament as him, for when he asked a nearby servant of your whereabouts, he was received with the following answer:

“We haven’t seen her” Naoya’s heart sinks.

“What do you mean you haven’t seen her?” he breathes. “Where could my wife—did she—did she leave the estate?”

No. You… didn’t. Because that’s not what you told him you’d be doing a few hours ago, after letting you know he was on his way back home; if anything, you replied with how excited you were to see him again and that you’d be eagerly waiting for him!

So obviously, their words didn’t make sense. But if so… where were you?

Naoya now frantically searched for you through every wing, room, space, chamber, closet, just— anywhere, literally anywhere you could be while repeatedly calling out your name in hopes of getting a response, or even a glimpse of you; he doesn’t care what at that point, he’s happy with either!

Yet, the longer he went on without an answer, the bigger his sorrow became, to the point where his mind was machinating nothing but the worst-case scenarios, slowly losing his inhibitions as he repeatedly wondered Where were you? How come no one has seen you? Did he have to escalate this situation?

Just—Where are you, Y/N?!

Thankfully, there would be no need to pursue bigger solutions for he’d get his answer soon enough after entering the east wing, passing through the living quarters, and arriving to the laundry room, one of the last places he’d thought you’d be—rightfully guessing so, for you were there, apparently washing whatever garments you had pending, which you hadn’t been able to wash due to a variety of unknown reasons…

But far from feeling elated to have found you, Naoya felt as if whatever he had left of his heart was effectively broken, which felt short compared to the way he found you.

“Y/N!”

The sight that received him is one that will remain imprinted in the back of mind: you were laying on the floor, on your side, tightly clutching to your stomach as you breathed heavily, eyes tightly shut while groaning in what Naoya could only interpret as pain.

As if his worries weren’t through the roof at that point, this last conclusion is what urged Naoya to hastily make way to your side, swiftly kneeling to your level as he calls out for you once more.

“Y/N—Y/N” He’d breathe, firmly yet carefully placing his hands over you with intentions of picking you up, but his hold falters when his fingers briefly graze your skin, making him gasp in return. “Y/N you’re—you’re burning!”

This would be the only time you’d respond to him, barely able to move your head onto his direction, slightly opening your eyes to see him, a gaze that shows how much pain you were going through, barely able to understand what was going on, except for gently breathing the word that makes his heart squeeze out in pain.

“Na—Naoya…”

Any hesitation is effectively thrown out the window by that point, picking you up and rushing you towards their shared bedroom, all while barking orders to the nearby staff, demanding them to call for a doctor, as quickly as possible, unless they wanted to be jobless by the end of the day!

The staff reacts accordingly, and a few minutes later, the family doctor arrives to the estate, guided to your room and seeing that you were already being tended to, or at least that’s the idea he gets from the dampened towel on your forehead, undoubtedly in efforts of lowering your fever—which unfortunately, had been for nothing.

Well, he was there now, and he didn’t waste time either to get to work, quickly assessing your condition by the apparent symptoms, starting by your temperature, the color of your skin, and even the way you reacted to him while doing so, completely uncooperative—apparently, whatever put you in this state had evoked great instability from you, thus the doctor found it necessary to put you under sedatives.

But even when he was able to quickly gain control of the situation, the doctor still couldn’t arrive at a proper conclusion, less when the people around you had an even smaller idea of what struck you.

“I—I don’t know.” Naoya would respond, angrily, frustrated—and rightfully so. How come none of the servants had noticed your absence? Or worse, hadn’t seen anything that could hint as to what your sickness was about?! “Can’t you just—help her?!”

“That’s what I’m trying—I can’t help her if I don’t know what I’m dealing with.” The doctor responded as calmly as he could, but even he had to admit that everyone’s seeming ignorance annoyed him as well. “But I can still say that this seems much more than just a simple… sickness.”

“What do you mean?” Naoya frowns, the doctor looks at the nearby servants, tasked to be on stand-by if needed.

“I’d like to discuss this in private.” He tells them.

The servants don’t wait for Naoya to repeat the order before they’re already out the room and away from their earshot; a request that while didn’t raise any concerns from Naoya —if anything, he was glad their pesky, useless presence, was finally away from you— the doctor’s face was quick to convince your husband that something far worse than what met the eye.

And this made Naoya’s nerves reach a new limit.

“I told you; I don’t know what happened—” Your husband is quick to defend, believing the doctor was to interrogate him once more, only to be interrupted.

“You don’t need to tell me for me to know what happened.” He interjects, Naoya’s eyes widen.

“I’m lost.” Naoya scowls. “Stop talking cryptically and get on with it!”

“I’ve seen these symptoms before, Naoya. And as I said, these are not from a simple sickness, an allergy or any of the matter” He takes a deep breath. “I heavily suspect she was intoxicated—and not accidentally, but rather, intentionally.”

“Excuse me?” Naoya frowns.  “I told you to stop talking in riddles, say what you—”

“Poisoned, Naoya. I believe your wife was poisoned.”

Naoya’s world comes to a screeching halt.

You…

You were poisoned.

According to the doctor, you—You were attacked, besieged, with malicious intents.

Taken advantage of in the one place you’d never be on edge, your home, the same one he had repeatedly reassured your father that you’d be safe in—the Zen’in estate, home to the prestigious Zen’in clan! There was no safer place in the whole world! There couldn’t!

No one— no one wouldn’t dare do such a thing here—they knew better! Naoya would force them to now better…

Yet, someone dared to commit this transgression against you.

And to make it all worse….

Almost got away with it.

Who would even think of doing such transgression against you?! You?!

You had no quarrels with anyone, and even when you did, you handled things in such an amicable way just so you’d live peacefully, free of nonsensical arguments—you had no space for them in your life!

And yet, this still happened, and right underneath his nose….

There’s no doubt that he’ll put an investigation into order to find the bastard responsible for your suffering, and once he does, he’ll make him regret his existence, to the point he’ll have him begging for mercy—and even then, it wouldn’t be enough for Naoya.

However, that is something that will have to wait until he knows you’re safe, healthier, which the doctor had slowly began to help you with by giving you something that will immediately trap the poison from being further absorbed by your blood—activated charcoal, so he remembers— as well as some other prescriptions for side effects he wishes to prevent.

“Your wife was very lucky to survive, have you waited a second more—”

“I wasn’t waiting.” Your husband immediately responds, offended by his wording. “I wasn’t aware of this until I returned.”

The doctor presses his lips together, taking notice that throughout his whole visit, Naoya has never left your side, nor freed your hands from his.

“And I’m not surprised.” He silently admits.

Naoya hates the notion the doctor was implying, that this was an inside job. But considering the odd behavior of the staff, their seeming ignorance of your location and your status… it all pointed to that same conclusion.

The boiling fury inside him grows bigger.

“How could this be?” Naoya seethes.

How could someone get this far, this close to you, and no one suspecting a thing?

Your husband might’ve reproached the way the doctor expressed himself, but there was an undeniable truth behind them; he truly was lucky to have gotten back home just when he did, for had he taken a second longer, just one, you could’ve die—

Outside of that, the second most important question regarding this whole situation was…where was your staff? Why, of all days, were they absent?

Naoya is confident that if Mariya, your closest confidant, had been around, this would’ve never happened in the first place; the moment she saw anything out of the ordinary, she would’ve pulled all the stops and acted accordingly.

Yet, she was nowhere to be seen, and this makes Naoya both highly suspicious, and furious.

Where was she?  Where are the rest? Why would they leave you in your most needed time? Did they plan this? Plot against you?! Where the hell could they possibly—

“They’re going to be away for the weekend to visit their families.”

He suddenly remembers; you told him so earlier that week through a text.

“Will you be ok?” Naoya also remembers asking; he didn’t feel happy knowing you’d be alone without your most trusted staff.

“It’s just a few days, Naoya. Besides, they deserve a break! I don’t want them to get tired of me, you know?”  you laugh. “But you better come back quickly, ok? Just because they’re not around doesn’t mean I like being alone…”

“I won’t take long. I promise.”

If only he’d kept his word…

Well, if that was to be the answer to their absence, then it wasn’t fair to hold any level of animosity towards them, a weight being lifted from his burdened shoulders upon realizing your staff could strill be trusted in.  

Now all that was left to worry about is finding the culprit… and the status of that too.

“Is she ok?” Naoya would ask.

“She is, I managed to—”

“No, I mean… that.” Naoya’s voice hints to a silent agreement between the two. “Is… that ok?”

The doctor quickly catches what he means, affirming so by a nod. His reassurance lifts an immeasurable weight from his heart, even greater than the alleged betrayal of Mariya and the rest. One less thing to worry about.

“What now, then?”

“Since the damage was limited, to say the least, it won’t be necessary to move her to a hospital, however—”

She’s still in danger. Naoya concludes. More so if the attack came from someone inside… And what makes him think that just because he’s back they’ll stop trying?

If anything, seeing how close they got, they could try once again!

The mere thought is enough to push him into taking what is perhaps the most radical decision he could’ve taken in this situation, something that might come to torment him in the future, but until then, he won’t care, not even a bit; not when he had your safety to worry about:

That is… Naoya fired everyone, effective immediately.

He took no heed if any of them had been serving the family for years, if they were close friends of his father, or if their livelihood would be affected— Naoya just wanted them out of his sight, the estate, and as soon as possible, less they wanted to receive more of his anger, before continuing with the rest of his plan.

Due to the gravity of said situation, Naoya knew he had to contact your family; he also knew that you would’ve refuted the idea as soon as he mentioned it to you, not wanting to worry them if you’ve truly been attacked, but he couldn’t do this to your father; not when he was amongst the few people in the world he knew had your wellbeing as utmost priority— as well as holding a great amount of respect and appreciation for him, specifically for the way he welcomed him into your family.

Eiichi, your father, had to admit that getting a call from the Zen’in estate that didn’t come from you surely surprised him beyond any comprehension, and yet, that would be nothing compared to the shock he’d get upon knowing the motive behind said call; Naoya swore he almost heard your father passing out, or at least, in the process of.

“Poisoned?!”  Eiichi gasped, tightly clutching onto the phone—he might’ve as well passed out and dived into a nightmare! “Is she ok?! Where is she right now?”

“At the estate, with me—the doctor didn’t think it necessary for her to be hospitalized since he was able to stop the poison from spreading any further, but she still needs rest.”

“And the baby?”  the referenced secret between Naoya and the doctor; your pregnancy.

“Fine.” He breathes, swallowing. “The doctor didn’t tell me of any damage done to the baby…  but I’m—I’m still taking her to the doctor, just—just to be sure.”

“How could this happen?” Eiichi laments, heart breaking not only for you, but for Naoya as well. Your father knew all too well what it was to lose the love of his life, a pain that he would never desire on anyone, not even his own enemies…

One that he could slowly begin to hear in Naoya’s voice; oh, he could only imagine the pain he was going through, or what waited for him if he had lost not only you, but his child too.

But, well, the worst is over… at least for now.

“Someone from the staff did it.” Naoya declares, Eiichi’s heart sinks even further. “But I’ve taken care of it, I’ve fired everyone.”

And your father, contrary to Naoya’s relatives, did not question him. If anything, he seconded his decision, because had he been in your husband’s shoes, he would’ve done the same thing.

“Was her staff involved?” Your father asks, feeling a slight… anger with the idea that the ones you greatly cherished could’ve plotted against you.

“No, they were not; in fact, they were out of the estate when all this went down.” Naoya responds. “But I know that if they had been here, this would’ve never happened in the first place.”

“Bring her here, with me.” Eiichi immediately suggested, Naoya blinks, startled by the idea, if not against it.

“Father—"

“We can take care of her while she’s recuperating, take her to the doctor too. I’ll make sure that she has everything she needs. And not to misjudge your staff, or lack of, but the people here would never hurt her—they’ve known her since she was a child! There won’t be another safer place for her to be than here, Naoya. At least…  until she’s better.”

Previously, Naoya would’ve questioned the veracity of his words, done all he could to prove you were much better with him, but after this occurrence… he had to agree.

As much as it hurt him to know you’d be away from him, especially when you were pregnant… he knew this was the right decision to make. He couldn’t expose you to another similar situation—not even if he got a completely new staff… or if you didn’t want to leave.

So, Naoya accepts Eiichi’s suggestion, alongside buying him a ticket for the earliest available flight to Kyoto; a few hours later, your father would arrive to the estate, rushing to your side, keeping you company while tending to your every need as Naoya prepared everything for your departure.

When you eventually regained consciousness, you were (although a bit surprised) overwhelmingly elated to see your father visiting you, for it had been so long since you’d seen him, probably around the time you announced your pregnancy!

However, that excitement would soon diminish when Naoya told you why he was there… alongside the cryptic explanation of your “sickness.”

“It was an allergy.” Naoya would say, not wanting to stress you by the fact that you were intentionally poisoned, although that excuse did little to stop you from doing so. “Rare, but it can happen, especially with pregnant women.”

“An allergy…? But I didn’t…” you frown.

“It happened to your mother, once.” Eiichi followed Naoya’s lead. He hated lying to you, but… he concurred that keeping you safe, both mentally and physically, was worth doing so. “It’s nothing but hormonal changes, so don’t worry much about it.”

“I guess…” you frown, pressing your lips. “But that still doesn’t explain why I have to leave.”

“We need to check what caused your allergy” Naoya responds. “It might be something about the food, the flowers, or even the wood; I rather you be safe than to go through that scare again.”

“But is… all this really necessary?” Naoya gives you a tight smile and a nod. “Naoya, I—"

“It’s not all bad, Y/N.” Naoya says.

“Besides, don’t you want to spend time with your papa? It’s been so long since I’ve spent time with my adorable pumpkin!” Eiichi laments.

“Dad!” you gasp, flustered by his words. “Don’t—don’t say that in front of Naoya…”

“What? It’s true! And that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since I learned I’m going to be a grandfather!”

“Stop it!” your face becomes redder. “You’re embarrassing me!”

Naoya chuckles; it’s not like he’s seen you in… worse situations. Or better?

“But… I guess a visit is overdue.” You eventually concede, Naoya and your father sigh out of relief. “Though what about Mariya, Haruko, and Hitomi?”

“They’ll go with you, if you want.” Naoya says; he doubts they’ll say no, especially after knowing of the whole fiasco that occurred when away, might even offer themselves before he suggests the idea.

“If I didn’t know any better, sounds like you want me gone.” You jest, Naoya frowns. “It’s a joke, of course…”

“There’s nothing more I would like than you staying here, but until we figure out what caused that reaction from you, I’d rather not risk it.”

“It’s only temporary, Y/N. Besides, look—I brought you gifts!” Eiichi says, taking out the bag he brought from home seemingly out of nowhere, filled with things he knew you’d love, such as sweets, your favorite mochi’s of course, alongside some plushies that would always brighten your day when you were a child. “And there’s much more back home…”

Naoya can’t help but feel relieved you had your father for support, but at the same time, a bit jealous and, well, threatened. Not for bad reasons, of course, it was simply because how the hell did he not think of bringing you gifts first?!

“Dad… you’re embarrassing me in front of Naoya.”

“Ah, that’s a parent’s bane, isn’t it? To always embarrass their children—you’ll see what I mean when you both have your baby.”

Perhaps the main reason why you ended up agreeing to leave was because your pregnancy did not seem affected by your supposed allergy; had it been you would’ve refused to leave your husband’s side!

… Well, you still would’ve refused either way, but perhaps a bit more. You hate the idea of being away from the father of your child for too long, after all.

“I don’t think so—Naoya and I are going to be the cool parents, you’ll see.”

“That’s what your mom and I thought, and look at me now, can’t even say anything without you telling me I’m embarrassing you!” Eiichi says, you chuckle.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, mom was cool! You were always the funny one!”

Naoya smiles.

Now he knows for sure that there’s no safer place for you to be in than with your family, even if that were to be on the other side of the country…

After Naoya prepared everything for your departure, the three eventually made way to the exit, where you and your father would bid their last goodbyes.

“Won’t you accompany me?” you ask, a slight pout on your face, he smiles in hopes to cheer you up, but really, he felt miserable.

“I want to, but I can’t.” He explains. “I have to deal with this as fast as possible if you’re to come back quickly.”

“… Will you visit me over there, at least?” you frown.

“Yes. As soon as I have a chance, I’ll go see you.” Naoya promises.

It had all been too soon, just a few hours ago he arrived at the estate, and now, you’re leaving. Naoya laments that he couldn’t spend a day with you before your departure… but he guesses this to be a rightful sacrifice for your well-being.

“I wouldn’t dream of keeping away from my wife and baby for too long.”

At those words, Eiichi couldn’t help but frown out of sorrow.

It wasn’t fair that neither of you had been able to enjoy this wonderful occasion as you should.

He still remembers the excitement in your voice, the glint in your eye, and the beaming smile on your lips when announcing your pregnancy—alongside the nerves that came with it, of course, which Eiichi eased by reminding you and Naoya that their enthusiasm was nothing but indicative they were already on their way of becoming the loving and supportive parents their baby needed.

But as excited as both were, Eiichi had to cruelly put a stop to their celebrations, especially after Naobito was made aware of this, who wished to proceed by announcing the news to the whole community.

“I have to disagree, Naobito.” Eiichi would be the first to reject the idea, much to everyone’s surprise—yours, specifically.

“And why is that?” He’d ask back, not understanding why the father of the expecting mother, of all people, would be the one to reject so.

“It’s best if Y/N keeps her pregnancy a secret, at least… until it’s undeniably noticeable.”

“But… why, dad?” you asked. This was a moment of absolute joy, to be treated as such! So why did he intend to keep it a secret? Was he… disappointed?

No. Never. He was nothing but happy to see you happy and become a grandfather himself for the first time in his life!

But as a man of his years, he’s learned to be cautious of how said blessings are to be celebrated, as well as seen his fair share of happiness turn sour… things that Eiichi would rather take upon him than allow them to ever befall you.

“Because there’s people out there that might try to hurt you—or the baby.”  He’d explain. “Naobito cannot not deny this, but if anyone hears that you’re pregnant with the Zen’in heir’s baby, those that want to hurt the Zen’in clan, or our family, will see this as the perfect opportunity to do so.”

“I’d never allow such thing, rest assured, there’s no safer place than—” Naoya quickly interjects, wanting to reassure your father, but Eiichi was set on his warnings.

“I wouldn’t have said this if I didn’t see it myself.” Eiichi reminds him, Naoya swallows. “We live in a highly competitive world due to the nature of our families; I’ve lost my wife because of this! And I’d be damned to allow it to happen again to my daughter.”

He hated to remind you of the harsh truth; hated to see how your face would sadden, the excitement for your first child, his first grandchild, quickly disappearing…

“Why would someone do that?” you murmur, frowning.

“They wouldn’t dare—I’ll make sure of it.” Naoya hisses.

Eiichi remained silent, sad for you and your husband. Because even if you’ve experienced first-hand what it is to lose someone through these matters, both have yet to fully understand the extremes those supposedly loyal to them can go to if properly incited. Especially for someone who had so much to lose, just as the elite members of prestigious Zen’in clan.

Even then, your father would not allow such pain to reach you, not the same way it almost did to him and your mother, so, he insisted you keep these news secret from the world—and if you must, only if you must, reveal it to your most faithful ones; the rest could learn when your stomach was too big to deny.

If you do so, keep your baby hidden from the world, safe from those that harbor nothing but pain and sorrow… all will be fine. Eiichi promises so.

…

Or so, that’s what everyone hoped would’ve happened, because if there’s one thing to be learned from this incident, is that no matter how cautious you were, word of your pregnancy still managed to land in the wrong ears, and now, were actively against it.

The question no longer pertained as to how, but rather, who; who was the author of this terrible act?

The notion that someone of Naoya’s relatives, indirectly informed through Naobito’s… drunken rambles, soon crosses the minds of your father and husband. If so, it would make sense as to why they’d use an innocent staff member to do the deed, keep their hands clean of the whole situation, instead of going to bigger extremes.

It’s the most probable of the theories, but they could not annul the following: jealousy from the servants.

Naoya considered that statement to be the most delusional one your father could’ve gathered, but he’d be wise to remember how others perceive him—or more like what he represented. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched that others would desire what he had, or him, in some cases. And naturally, you’re an obstacle to that goal, your baby even more so…

It wasn’t fair, but it was your reality.

Nonetheless, Eiichi and Naoya will still do whatever it takes to keep you safe.

“It’s just for a few days, pumpkin.” Your father would say upon seeing the sadness in your face, which remained even when reassured that Naoya would be with you as soon as possible. “Besides, you’re going to see your brother and sister too—they’ve missed you very much, you know? They’ve been wanting to spoil you and their future niece, or nephew!”

You smile, it’s good that even when in the storm, your family is still able to exude happiness. You could only imagine how enthusiastic they’d be when the baby was finally here.

“I know… I missed them too.” You admit, before looking over to Naoya one last time. “Well… I hope that whatever is keeping you here is quickly dealt with.”

“You won’t even notice I’m gone.” Naoya promises, placing a kiss on your forehead. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about anything—before you know it, you’ll be back at the estate, with me.”

That’s a promise he unfortunately, doesn’t know if will become true inside the promised timeline, but will do anything in his power so it does.

Either way, it’s safe to say that Naoya did manage to keep one part of his promise—and that would be the one where he reassured you wouldn’t even notice his absence, done through sending you endless amounts of gifts, every day, effectively filling your room to the brim with all things he’d knew you’d like, and some for baby too: from clothes for you, to cute onesies he’d like his baby to wear when she was finally here.

“You still think the baby is going to be a girl?” you’d ask through one of the many videocalls he’d make—one daily, at the very least. “Wait a minute… you better not have spoiled me!”

“I just know” He reiterates with shrug; you roll your eyes. “If not, then I’ll have lots of things to return.”

“Well, if it’s worth anything, I also feel like our baby is going to be a girl.” You smile, warming up Naoya’s heart. “I can’t wait to meet her—I just know she’s going to have your eyes!”

“Or yours, I hope.” He longs, you blush. “Have you been eating well, my love?”

“Yes; and no allergies yet.” You explain, Naoya feels relieved—at least the problem didn’t follow you there. “Maybe I was just unlucky that day, Naoya… Are you sure I can’t return to the estate yet?”

“Not until I’m sure you’re going to be safe here.” Naoya responds, and while his words are meant to be comforting, you can’t shake off the sense that something worse happened; that something far bigger than a simple allergy had struck you, specially with the way your staff and family would act around you, going as far as denying you of any information pertaining to the Zen’in.

But… if your husband had a reason to not say anything now, then the best you could do is trust him. The truth will come out eventually, you suppose. So instead you could focus on other pressing matters.

“Well, at least don’t send me too many gifts.” You continued. “While I appreciate them, between you and my father, I don’t think my house has enough room to store all the things you’ve both given me.”

“Who’s given you more things? Me or your dad?” Naoya nonchalantly asks, you gasp.

“Naoya! That’s not the—take it seriously! Control yourself with the gifts, ok?” you say, he chuckles, but ends up agreeing; at least until the topic has quieted down, because there’s no way in hell he’s going to let your father win the upper hand like that one day ever again. “Or at least save them to when I’m back at the estate… which I hope is soon.”

“Almost there.” Naoya says. “Just a few more things, and we’ll be together once again.”

… even if the answer was to be the same, you still needed to ask.

“Is… everything ok?”

Not precisely, not when he has yet to find out the one responsible for all this…

But he’s gotten a lead, an idea of where to start, of who to hunt—which he knows he’ll find in record time thanks to the fury he harbors, further motivating him to do this as quickly and precisely as possible just so he’d have you back home, with him.

“Nothing you should worry about.” He reiterates. “Just keep focusing on your health, the baby, and not doing anything strenuous.”

“I’m just pregnant, Naoya… nothing extraordinary. I still want to help around., you know?”

“I know, and you’ll be able to do that and more in due time, but for now, keep safe, for me, ok? And our little mochi.”

“When will I see you again?” you ask again, hoping that perhaps this time around, the answer will be different.

“Soon.” He promises. “Soon, my love.”

Once he deals with the bastard that hurt you.

Naoya will give them nothing but a glimpse of the sorrow and pain they’d put you through, his fury—make their life a living hell, make them regret the foolish idea that they could ever get away from it; and still, he doesn’t think he’ll be satisfied with his revenge.

He’d want more, he’d want everyone to know that his family are not ones to mess around with.

He’d burn the whole world to set the message across if necessary—and that would only be the bare minimum for you, the love of his life, and now, his baby…

His home.

[tossawary]

This is a very niche fic idea that I have no solid intention of actually writing, but... "Naruto" has more than a few self-insert fics and some of them are transmigrations into canon characters. Some of them are about OCs who do not want to be a ninja and are desperately trying to get out of it. There's usually some deliciously frustrating tragedy and horror about the brutal and inescapable military system of Konoha.

So, I thought that it would be kind of interesting to do an OC-insert into Sasuke, probably ultimately more comedic than angsty, as the OC tries to fail out of having to become a ninja, but then has to struggle against the fact that a civilian Sasuke would probably be expected to start a new Uchiha clan ASAP. (They probably have to concede to at least becoming a genin for the benefits of legal adulthood of some kind at 12 years old, even if it means being a part of the damn military.)

But even if the OC would personally love to be a parent someday, they cannot condone participating in what's essentially a breeding program for a new generation of Sharingan-wielding super-soldiers. Children who are probably going to be chewed up and spat out by Konoha someday too.

I think it would be neat to have a character treat the Sharingan like a genetic disorder that they don't want a child to suffer. I think it would have been interesting if canon Sasuke had also wrestled with the idea of letting the Sharingan die out. Fuck it, he'll adopt if he wants to be a dad someday. I also think it would be funny to have an OC-insert whose goal is to get a secret vasectomy (body autonomy!) without the leadership of Konoha finding out.

Sasuke, as soon as Sakura becomes a medical nin: "I need you to do me a huge secret favor and NOT be weird about it."

Sakura, also still currently a teenager: "You're asking me to CASTRATE YOU, AT HOME, IN SECRET, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO NOT BE WEIRD ABOUT THIS?!"

(And there's the whole fucking issue of the "Naruto" universe having cloning, so, no, a vasectomy isn't a solid guarantee of getting out of this. But it might buy Sasuke a few years to figure out how to avoid the mad science route too if anyone tries to force marriage on him at any point.)

Even throwing aside the issue of children, even in an AU where the OC-Insert is cool with having bio children, I think it would be really funny to have a Transmigrator Sasuke announcing outright in the first Team 7 meeting that his dream is to retire super early and become a shinobi tradwife to a super strong ninja.

Kakashi: "...What?"

Sasuke, possibly talking out of his ass to troll his team and because he's already spitefully exhausted: "I said what I said. I'm the only Uchiha left to pass on my clan's techniques, so my dream is to be a stay-at-home ninja, supported by a super strong spouse who can protect my family."

I think this would break Naruto and Sakura's brains. ("Marry Hokage Naruto" is not the worst plan that a transmigrator could come up with, probably.) I think that this would be a super funny start to a Team 7 OT3 in which Naruto and Sakura become rivals for the position of Sasuke's shinobi sugar daddy/mommy. (Naruto doesn't consciously realize that he's competing for Sasuke's hand in marriage at first, but he gets it after a few years or so.)

Kakashi is... So Tired. Obito, are you seeing this shit??? What the fuck.

I know some OC-insert / SI-insert into Sasuke fics exist, I just think the funniest plot direction for a transmigrator in this situation would be to completely bail on both the "take revenge on Itachi" and "rebuild the Uchiha clan" dreams in the least macho ways available.

Also, what WOULD Itachi think of Sasuke abruptly deciding to give up on revenge and to become a house husband instead?

[enkidusbi]

can i read your thesis i wanna know about how mesopotamians kept their loved ones close. i feel like there might be something about roots or foundations or grounding, connecting the family to the home & people to place both physically and metaphorically. gravesites are powerful powerful place connections and im really curious about what we know about a culture whose gravesites and homes were one and the same. i imagine they were pretty comfortable with death

so it's not online yet because i want to publish it first in a journal BUT i can tell you a bit about it. this is gonna be specifically about the old babylonian period (19-15th centuries BCE) because that's what my thesis is on, but with some changes it's pretty much applicable throughout mesopotamian history

so the basic thought behind burial under the houses is that the dead don't cease to part of the family. ancestor cult is an important aspect of mesopotamian culture and domestic religion. the netherworld is not a nice place, it's dark and dusty and all the spirits have for food is dust. but if you feed your ancestors (this is a ritual called the kispum which consists of food offering, libation and the calling of their names. it's a regular ritual that some sources say was done monthly, and others say it was during the yearly festival of the dead in the month of the god dumuzi/tammuz) then they'll have things to eat and drink in the afterlife! and if you are a spirit, the more descendants you have, the more your well-being is ensured! it's a symbiotic relationship. if your ancestors are satisified, they can help you out with things and act as sort of benevolent protective spirits over the household and the family, and also welcome you in the netherworld when you die. but spirits who were not properly buried or aren't given the proper offerings can wander, come back to haunt you and cause harm. if you would like to know more about this, i recommend dina katz's book, the image of the netherworld in the sumerian sources, an amazing read. the point is, the dead are part of the family, they have their metaphorical place in the family structure and a physical place in the home

people in the notes mentioned that moving probably was difficult. and it definitely was. some of the people buried in these houses were in underground tombs, built from burnt clay bricks, and some others were just in graves dug into the earthen floor, all around the houses. now these brick tombs are often found completely empty, no skeletons, nothing. which means that the family took them when they moved away. probably because they were in some way the most important ancestors, maybe the main lineage of the family? this part is not really clear because these bones are missing, they took them, we don't know anything about them. however, in ur, there are two examples of just the skull being buried and i think that means that family moved to this house from somewhere else and brought the skulls of their ancestors along and re-buried them. it's a very rare find though

from an anthropological perspective, the phyisical proximity of the graves in the same place where the living slept, ate, worked, raised children, etc, was a kind of constant reminder. of their shared ancestors, of their shared identitiy as a family and as a larger clan or kinship group. from a psychological point of view, it was a strategy of coping with grief

important to note also, that this was not practiced by every family. there are houses with no graves at all or just one or two graves, certainly not the whole household. this means that most likely there existed also cemeteries, burial grounds outside the cities. to my knowledge, no cemetary like this has been found yet. but it would be insanely interesting to see what they were like and how the people buried there were different from the people buried in the houses at the same time!

in the end, let me give you a quote from the myth of erra and išum (translated by karel van der toorn in the book mesopotamian magic). this is what a man says about his house:

"These are my living quarters, I have personally made them and will have my peace within them, and when fate has carried me off, I will sleep therein."

i said i can't write a poem about this. and i don't have to, because they already did and it's beautiful

[bonefall]

I like both ideas, bc it provides an opportunity for the Dark Forest to evolve in some way; I really like the idea of Curl taking lead and trying to make the Dark Forest cats united (not for any real GOAL, but bc they're still clan cats dammit, and separated in little pockets they'll never be able to grow).

The camp one is kinda obvious- it was a place of horror, but they need a place to stay. She never came too close to the place until she realized that if she wanted to unite the cats into a group, they needed a camp. And Starclan (she hisses at the irony) knows she'll never do it on her own. She enters, and it terrifies her- before she knows it shes backing away and fleeing. Over time though, she makes it further in, stays a bit longer. She finds the dens are still pretty decent, and that her heart feels a lot lighter as she rips down and destroys the cage. She's elated to find hierloom tools in the camp eventually- some are broken, but can be fixed. She purrs as she thinks how happy Darkstripe would be to have some proper cooking tools. This was a place of fear and death, yes, but it doesn't always have to be that way, does it?

The dogs less so but hear me out. At first she is haunted by the dogs, downright terrified- the gnashing of teeth, the frenzied barks. It's not even anything she can think or dwell on; as soon as she hears the howling and barking, she's immediately running away, fleeing as far as her paws take her. She knows she'll never actually die here, but she's still so, so scared. Maybe she comes to the conclusion on her own, or maybe someone else points it out, but eventually she realizes what you mentioned. She saved her CHILD- she should be PROUD, not scared. This is her greatest moment- her death an irrelevant footnote compared to her baby's life. Idk *exactly* how it should go, but she confronts her fear, and manages to 'tame' it. She is no longer afraid, this illusion holds no power over her. Either they fade away and just stop existing without Curl's fear to feed it, maybe they turn docile and harmless, idk. No matter what though, i have a feeling that something like THAT will catch the eye of some DF cats, sorta like a Tiny to Scourge deal. "She got rid of her land mar" into "She destroyed the land mar" to "She KILLED her land mar"- even the first one has to gain her some respect frok the others, and gives her a solid footing to try and get cats together and united.

Ask was sent a while ago, and I've been looking at it since then. It's a really good pitch, and I had things to do, so I just passively chewed it for a while. Both ideas are really good; so I was trying to think of some way to get them together.

I think I've got a good thought now;

I'll make Curlfeather's Land Mar dog related.

But they're not the same dogs that actually attacked her (which, depending on how the arc goes, might ACTUALLY be apparitions from the Dark Forest which Ashfur dragged out for his schemes. Specifically they'd be Brightheart's nightmares.)

Curlfeather's Hounds are blind. They hunt completely through "smell," and they smell her fear

I can keep her Land Mar being quite unique by actually having it follow her. Instead of it being a place she's trapped in, she's haunted by random dog events which will inevitably interrupt any plans she makes.

So she's perpetually close to making the group that she wants, uniting these demons just because it's what she deserves, but she is forced to flee when her hounds find her.

The camp she ends up using doesn't have to be her OWN Land Mar; I have another cat who actually has a 1:1 camp as theirs.

Morningstar, the deposed leader of ThunderClan who refused to allow his cats to fight. His is simply his camp, on the day where Pearstar invented the Right to Challenge and killed him for his position.

Morningstar's also HATED in the Dark Forest, because of his pacifism. Thinking about it, it's actually a great parallel for what I'm planning with Curlfeather!

She has disdain for her father because she sees him as weak. Reedwhisker swearing loyalty to The Kin after being tortured was her catalyst for believing he needed to die; that RiverClan would have a sniveling, careless leader.

So if it's Morningstar she ends up developing a bond with, they can help each other.

Morningstar can make her realize that her terrifying death by the dogs is something she can be proud of. That it isn't something to fear and revile, but a sign that when she was forced to choose between love and ambition, she chose love.

And Curlfeather can see that maybe people like Morningstar, who she'd always seen as weak, have wisdom she'd never considered. Uniting these cats isn't about power or recognition; it's just about helping to make everyone's lives better.

I can even keep the "empty camp" idea. Stepping into Morningstar's gloomy Land Mar, setting a little fire just to help with the mist, and realizing it's not all that bad. There's old tools laying strewn about, the dens are all in working order. We can make a proper home here, if we let it be.

There's probably a cage there because of Ashfur, maybe it's the one that he made the demons toss Rootspring into. Maybe I'll have the demons eventually trick Curlfeather's Sighthounds into Deadfrost's Labyrinth, if Shredtail's still around. He double-died in canon but I wouldn't be too opposed to killing someone else in his stead.

She'll also have to prove herself to the other demons. Most of them are pretty wary of "leader-types" after what happened with Tigerstar. Ironically the closest thing they have to a "leader" is Darkstripe because his soups are so good. If he doesn't like your vibe, you're cut off from the "Social Circle."

I need to make some sort of pun out of Rings of Hell and Social Circle. Social Ring of Hell.

[teyamsgrl]

surrounded in smoke ✧ jake sully

❗️MDNI ❗️

YES I AMDE TSU'TEY ALIVE I MISS HIM BUT ENJOT THIS I WOULD LEGIT DIE FOR JAKE AND IM DO DRUNK YPING THIS

°˖➴ warnings: fem omatikaya reader, age gap (jake 30, reader 20), angst to smut, slow burn??, sorta cheesy lovey jake, l-bombs, oral f receiving, softdom!jake, dirty talk, size kink, tsaheylu, missionary 😮‍💨 - muntxatan: male spouse/mate

the multilayered tension between you and jake was obvious. the way you yearned for him was reciprocated completely, yet it was so difficult to address. jake being olo’eyktan gave him the highest status in the clan, and you knew you wouldn’t be able to compete with that. you were just another woman in the clan, a younger one at that. but to jake you were more than just ‘another woman’; you were the woman he needed, the one he would choose over anyone else. he admired your initiative, your skill in almost every possible task, your genuine kindness and generosity. you two loved each other, spent hours together yet never spoke about the one thing that was painfully evident, the one thing that kept drawing you both to each other day after day.

the war party had returned after a long day, sky dark and everyone's freckles glowing bright. all the injured men were travelling to the tsahik tent, several visibly bleeding and limping. you greeted them as they returned, searching the crowd for one specific individual. when you didn't spot jake, you began to notice the anguish on some of the faces of your fellow omatikaya. you tap tsu'tey's shoulder, urging him to look to you, "tsu'tey, where is jake?" your heart begins racing at the million possibilities swirling in your mind. "we don't know. one minute he was with us and then he was gone. we looked around the area but there was a lot of smoke and it was dark, it was hard to see if he was anywhere", your breath catches in your throat at his words, head dizzy with the thought of jake possibly being dead. "thank you.." you whisper, rushing to call for your ikran. when she arrives you hop on her back, connecting your queue with her and guiding her to the war zone. jake had warned you to never enter this area, even if it seemed necessary yet you weren't even worrying about your own safety at this point, chest heaving with every anxious breath you breathed. you finally land in the war zone amongst several destroyed rda gunships, smoke surrounding you just as tsu'tey had said.

you pulled your knife out and held it in front of you, just in case someone was to pop out of nowhere and attempt an attack. "jake!" you yell, looking through the mess of debris to see if he was anywhere to be seen. nothing. you move east of the zone first, smoke clearing as you get deeper into the forest. "jake!" you yell again, eyes scouring the area frantically. tears threaten to spill from your eyes as you get even deeper into the trees, hope slowly exiting your mind. as if perfectly timed out, you heard a low grunt in the close distance. "jake?" you yell again, running towards where the sound appeared to be coming from. you see a muscular arm peeking out from behind a tree, someone obviously slumped against it. you move around the tree to spot jake there, several bruises littering his torso. "jake, oh great mother, thank you" you breathe out, kneeling beside him. "y/n? sweetheart why are you out here? it's so dangerous" he says, hand reaching for yours. "i came looking for you, what happened?" you asked, squeezing his hand as a tear rolls down your cheek. "shit i don't even know, i ended up ducking into the trees at some point and got knocked out for a bit, guess i was farther out than i thought" he explains, his eyes following the tear's trail down your freckled cheek. "i thought-" you whine softly as more tears fall, "i thought you were dead, i got so scared when you didn't come home with everyone else" he brings his free hand up to cup your cheek, swiping your tears away gently. "oh sweetheart... i'm right here, i'm alright, don't cry..." he smiles softly as you nod, nuzzling into his large and warm hand.

"god y/n..." he sighs, heart swelling at the mere thought of you being worried for him. "what is it?" you place your much smaller hand on top of his, "it must be obvious now, but i just- i need to tell you, or ask you, i guess" he rambles, biting his lip from the slight nerves emerging inside of him. "i have chosen you, y/n... i love you. if you would let me, i would be honoured to be your mate..." he trails off, thumb tracing small circles on your cheek. your heart is racing again, so fast that it feels like it could just jump out of your chest at any second. "jake... i feel the same way, ever since we first met. i would do anything to be your mate.. but jake, you are olo'eyktan, the most important person in our clan. are you sure you want me to be your mate? i'm just another woman, a younger one who is really nothing special-" he cuts you off, "hey, do not say that about yourself. i have never met someone like you, and in any life, any world i would choose you. i am positive, i want you to be my mate" he states, moving closer to lean his forehead against yours. your breath quivers at the proximity, tickling his lips. "can i kiss you, princess?" you nod frantically, his lips colliding with yours in a passionate kiss. you hum into it and reach for his shoulders, coaxing him to draw you onto his lap.

he groans softly at the feeling of your warmth and weight against him, hands travelling all over your torso, groping and grazing every inch of you. when his lips part slightly you take the opportunity to slip your tongue into his mouth, tail swishing rapidly at the new sensation. his hands find a home on your hips, grasp strong as he pulls your hips down to meet his crotch in a gentle grind. you whimper slightly into the kiss as your clothed yet wet pussy rubbed against the tent forming in his loincloth. "jake.." you breathe as you retreat from his lips, hips moving at a rougher speed, his cock straining and begging to be released. "i know, babygirl... you look so fucking gorgeous" he whines out before ushering you to stand up, "off" he tugs at your loincloth in a hurried manner. you nod and quickly untie it from yourself, allowing it to fall as you step out of it. he grabs your thighs and pulls you so your pussy is now hovering in front of his mouth, slick visible and making him dizzy. "come here" he grumbles hungrily before attaching his tongue to your slit, gliding the muscle over your hole and finishing with a flick to your clit.

the whine that escapes your mouth is greedy, hole clenching around nothing. he chuckles at your noise before diving back in, tongue plunging into your hole and circling it, fingers leaving marks into your thighs. "jake" you moan, stabilizing yourself against the tree as your hips sporadically buck into him. he hums into your pussy, sending a vibration and shiver up your spine then coming back to your clit, sucking the bundle of nerves into his mouth. your jaw slacks while your clit pulses between jake's lips, knot inside of you beginning to tighten. "jake jake- i'm gonna-" you gasp out, roughly bucking your hips in anticipation. he hums and nods between your legs, urging you to let go for him. "oh fuck!" you squeal, back arching while you cum then slouching after your high passes. he smiles and kisses along your thighs, pushing himself to stand up, "good, princess?" "sooo good" you smirk, moving to be flush against him. he moves so his mouth is situated beside your ear, breath leaving goosebumps along your neck, "do you want more of me?" he questions, guiding your hands to his bulge. you whimper and nod, tracing his shaft over the cloth. a sensual sigh leaves his lips before he guides you to lie on a patch of moss nearby, the plush plant surrounding your body delicately.

your chest heaves as you watch jake remove his loincloth, cock finally being released. jake was huge, and your eyes widened at the sight. he buzzed at your reaction, coming to kneel between your legs. "ready?" he hoists your legs up and around his waist while he aligns himself with your dripping entrance. "y-yes, please.." you gasp at the feeling of his tip pushing in, this small section of his cock seemingly stretching you out so much already. "big..." you whisper as he continues pushing in, your back arching slightly at the further stretch. "i know princess, just a bit more... you're just such a small girl, huh?" he finally bottoms out, his eyes fluttering shut from the vice grip your pussy has on him. your back arches from the kiss his tip gives your cervix, his length making you stretch. "tell me when i'm good to move, sweet girl, i know it's a lot for your little pussy.." he expresses with care yet underlying hints of taunting. "now.. fuck me jake" you say earnestly, aching for him to begin.

he smirks and pulls his hips back just to push in again, gaining a deep and consistent rhythm. he groans as your skin slaps together, cock being sucked in each time he pulls away slightly. his hands have a nice grasp on your waist, your nails digging into his biceps. "taking it so good, look at you, so pretty down there" he moans alongside you, your mind foggy as you stare at jake above you, your pussy squelching at each thrust. "this- this is so good, so good at this, jake" you whine and move one hand to yank your queue from underneath you, holding it up towards him, "let us seal it.." he nods breathlessly, swinging his from behind his back and letting it connect with yours. his thrusts never falter as you both observe the tendrils working their magic, intertwining and connecting you both even further. both of your grips on each other tighten at the feeling of the tsaheylu; bodies, spirits and minds fully united. "i love you, muntxatan" you breathe, now dilated pupils boring into his as your bodies lurch back and forth in unison. "i love you too, so much" he groans in a whispery tone, thrusts slower and rough now, slamming into you like there's no better feeling than this. "again- cum again-" you whine, legs flexing around his slim waist. "i'm with you, babygirl, gonna give you all my cum, all of it" he leans down to kiss you, sloppily yet sweetly. you kiss back as best you can as your orgasm rips through you, your pussy clenching and pulling his orgasm out of him in an instant. "holy fuckkkk..." he moans into your mouth as he releases into you, painting your walls as you gasp loudly at the feeling.

he pecks your lips again as he comes down from the high alongside you, your hands rubbing along his heaving chest. "i'm kinda glad i got left behind today" he chuckles and brushes his nose against yours. "hey! why?! i got so scared!" you smack his chest lightly, trying to hold back the smile creeping onto your face. "i see that smile coming.. show me" he smiles down at you and strokes your cheek with one hand, the smile now full on your face. "there we go, beautiful... now look, i'm glad because you came to find me and then all this happened, otherwise it could've been more months just pining over each other" you nod in agreement, giggle escaping, "well i guess i'm glad too, and i'm glad you're only bruised up and nothing more.." he hums in response and touches his lips to your forehead, letting them linger as you breathe in time with each other, now mated for life.

[i-heart-hxh]

Do you think Kurapika will die by the end of the series? I’ve seen lots of people saying he will, and that togashi said he will, but i don’t think i’m sold.

largely i just think it would be a poor ending to his character. i don’t think him dying and the Kurta being lost forever would be a very satisfying ending. (although, i trust togashi to make any direction he ends up going in very good.)

i especially don’t think it will happen any time soon at the current point in the story. there’s just far too many loose ends that haven’t been tied up. i sincerely doubt he would die while the troupe is still active or the eyes are still out there.

I think what’s most likely to happen is that we get a technical death, similar to what happened to gon, where he “dies” but is brought back to life due to some dark continent fuckery and possibly some of leorio’s medical knowledge. bonus points if we get a classic scene of dead love ones encouraging him to keep living, lol

as a follow up to my last anon (about kurapika): i think it would be unnecessarily sad to make kurapika die permanently. maybe it would make sense, character wise, as he is totally driving himself into the ground at the moment. but i have a hard time envisioning a way that end could be a satisfying one. it would mark the absolute decimation of the kurta. permanently lost to time, with absolutely no hope of any kind of revival. kurapika is currently the only person with a deep knowledge of the kurta culture and traditions, and the only person who could pass that knowledge on. or even pass on the scarlet eyes. it kind of reminds me of the air nomads from avatar. but it would be like, if aang died in the process of fighting ozai and no other air benders were born after that

Hi anon! It's funny you sent this, I actually was just thinking about making another post about my guesses on Kurapika's fate about an hour before I received this. Good timing! I actually did a poll on this topic a while back and then added some of my thoughts after it finished. However, my thoughts and guesses have solidified quite a bit since then.

I agree with you--I actually think Kurapika is likely to pull through, albeit potentially after a death and then revival or some other drastic near-death situation similar to what happened to Gon. I agree that it's hard to imagine a fulfilling ending where Kurapika doesn't survive (though I have faith in whatever Togashi may have planned, even if it goes completely against my guesses). I have some thoughts to add on why this is my guess as well.

First off, the way Leorio's character is set up. Putting him in the same place as Kurapika while he's training as a doctor, knowing that his largest character motivation is not to lose any more friends... It would be awfully cruel for Togashi to have Leorio go through Kurapika's death in light of that. His role as a doctor needs to be tested and come to fruition, and his character arc needs to come full circle as someone who deeply wants to prevent his friends from dying.

Secondly, the themes of the series. I've talked about this a lot in discussions of Gon and Killua's relationship, but some primary themes of the series are second chances and the transformative power of love and human connection. When thinking about the series through that lens, having Kurapika not pull through after all (and having Leorio lose him), does not feel like it's in line with those themes. Kurapika needs a second chance to connect with the world of the living and find meaning in those around him.

I also suspect that Kurapika's storyline is going to come down to a choice between two things: Life and death, but not just his own. Here's why:

Kurapika, obsessed with getting revenge for the Kurta clan and gathering the body parts of his murdered family and friends, is currently guarding a baby. I think he will be put in a situation where he has to make a choice between Woble's life, and getting his revenge and gathering the body parts of his loved ones. He already had to make a similar choice once, in Yorknew. He had Chrollo in his grasp, he could have killed him, but ultimately he had to choose between doing this and Gon and Killua's lives--and he chose Gon and Killua's lives. He isolated himself from his friends as a result of this, trying to force himself to stay on his path of revenge without letting anyone get in his way (including, perhaps most importantly, himself), but now he's in a position again where it seems likely his plans will go off track when he has to choose between a living child and his people, who are already long dead.

(I also suspect he might find out the Phantom Troupe wasn't responsible--or at least wasn't entirely responsible--for the Kurta massacre and his ultimate antagonist will be Tserriednich, but that's a bit of a digression that I can talk about in more depth another time.)

I think ultimately this is how his character is set up: Will he choose to focus only on what he's lost and those who are already dead and on causing more death (including ultimately his own), or will he decide to protect and focus on those around him who are still living and on finding reasons to live himself (likely in Leorio, Gon, and Killua, among others)? It's true that, if he continues to live, he can bring the memories of the Kurta into the future with him, to honor those he lost, rather than living only for revenge that I'm sure his loved ones wouldn't even want him to burn down his life for. It's a bleak ending for him if he doesn't survive, and the Kurta would simply fade into history forever with him, like you were saying.

So, it's possible he will "die" or very nearly die in a fight against Tserriednich, in order to protect Woble, and then Leorio will have to find some way to get him to pull through--possibly using his training, possibly using something in the Dark Continent, maybe both. It would satisfy both of their character arcs to a certain degree and make sense with the trajectories they're on.

As usual, however, Togashi is unpredictable and he could have something entirely different up his sleeve, or even be misdirecting the audience on what he's trying to do. Only time will tell! But in the meantime, I agree with you that Kurapika's probably going to make it, even with the dire circumstances he's currently in.

[clangenrising]

Been re-reading through and I kinda have a theory-- About Oddstripe and who their possible father could be

Im not good with genetics of anything, but I see some similarities in Thrushstar and Floodstrike. They both have white patches, and Oddstripe described the guy to be brown and white, and Thrushstar happens to be brown and white, but this is probably a really long stretch, but I jus wanted to point that out cause I think its interesting to think thats true, atleast for me, would also explain how Sparrowsway is brown

again im prolly looking way into deep to it but again its an interesting concept to me atleast

Yeah, you're definitely reading way too deep into it haha

For one, Thrushstar died before Oddstripe's kits were conceived, so there's that.

Secondly, Oddstripe lived east of RisingClan, a few days travel into the desert. It would not make sense for Thrushstar, who lived on the other side of their territory and had a healer in camp who could help him, to seek Oddstripe out for healing (which is how the kits' sire met and bonded with Oddstripe).

Thirdly, and I think, most importantly, I feel like trying to find a secret reason why the Oddlet's sire was actually special and important is completely unnecessary and maybe even a bit insulting to Oddstripe's character.* The tom Oddstripe had kits with was someone who came into his life, thought he was pretty, and convinced him to try out sex for the first time then left without another thought. The sex wasn't even very enjoyable or meaningful to Oddstripe, it was just an awkward night that ended up having long term consequences.

And that's okay! Not every person you have sex with has to be special and important. Even if you have children with them they don't have to be important in your life. I think that it doesn't really matter who he was because this story is about Oddstripe! And I also enjoy writing about stories that are "realistic" in that sometimes people just come into your life and then they leave and there's not much to be done or said about it.

So, in conclusion, I'm glad you're enjoying the story and looking for secrets but you are maybe looking where there isn't anything to be found haha. If you want to find a mystery to look into, I ask you this: In this universe that I have built, why/how is it that Clan cats and even squirrels are taken to an afterlife when they die but non-Clan cats just stop existing? Is there maybe something going on here the characters aren't aware of? Food for thought.

(*SIDE NOTE: I am not upset and I don't think you meant it as an offense, you were just having fun and being silly with some headcanons and I am just having fun and discussing a topic I felt was worth discussing. Do not take this discussion as a condemnation of your character <3)

[that-one-kiddo-in-the-back]

Grey Jedi and Mandalorians. She's wrong about both

To start off, I am what Lily would describe as a Star Wars weeb. I live, breathe, and shit star wars.

First things first, Gray jedi is not a thing in canon. I'm sorry, everyone who wanted it to be canon it's just not. Ahsoka isn't a gray Jedi and none of the other morally gray characters that can use the force, and it's not because of what Lily thinks. simply put, no mortal force user can be in the middle. Now, you can have force users that don't aline themselves with the jedi or the sith, but that doesn’t make them a Gray jedi. If you're a jedi, you use the light side. That's why you're a jedi, and if you're a sith, you use the dark. That's why you're a sith.

Now that that's out of the way... Lily doesn't know how the Jedi and the Sith work or why people actually want a gray Jedi. She chalks people wanting a gray Jedi as people who can't make a choice because they are scared of that, not because maybe they want a force user that uses both sith techniques and jedi techniques. She brings up the jedi and sith code

She describes the Jedi code as "living without based passion," which isn't the same as just having no attachments. The jedi is loosely based on Buddhist priests who have no earthly attachments, so they can focus on their own self and inner peace and describes the Sith code as something they came up with to spit on the Jedi code and that the "passion they have is was is what's worth living and that living is the nature of the force" and how the sith code is asking why a Jedi wants to be an "empty husk of a person" which it isn't. Much like how the Jedi aren't perfect all the time... the sith still aren't the good guys. The only way you can use sith techniques is to let your anger and other negative feelings run through you. To use your anger to fan the flame where as the Jedi believes that the anger can drown you in sorrow and make you do things you wouldn't.

In Star Wars rebels season three, you watch Ezra struggle with the dark side after everything that happened on Malachor. You watched him become almost a completely different person, how he no longer saw his friends and family as equals but possessions. You saw how he was quickly to anger, and you can see the looks on the crews face when they can tell he's in a bad mood he was spiraling in his guilt for Ahsoka's "death" and getting Kanan blinded by maul. Everyone could tell he wasn't dealing with his trauma in a healthy way. Something lily needs to understand about the Sith is that they are all traumatized for one reason or another, i.e. it's considered taboo for a sith to pick up a young child. The sith believes you have to experience pain in order to open yourself up to the dark side.

The Jedi learns to let go of the past to move forward where the Sith cling onto the hate and lose themselves to it.

Mandalorian time, next to the mortis gods (the ones), the Mandalorians are my favorite group

The Mandalorians are like the real world Spartans (my siblings call them space spartans) fighting and survival of the fitteat teaching their children at young ages to protect themselves and others that can keep up that doesn’t mean they will watch you die well for some anyway. Mandalore is a bit more like earth as it has many clans, with some getting long with each other and others not so much.

She does have a point in that Mandalorians are toxic masculinity except for the fact that their are women Mandalorians and not all the Mandalorians think the same way hell the Mandalorians themselves talk about how much their own war mindset is destroying their planet death watch are considered traitors.

Something I thought was pretty interesting was how she made fun of people who say that Mandalorians can go toe to toe with the jedi... which is a true thing? The jedi and the Mandalorians don't get along all that much because of philosophy and other things. Mandalorian armor is made out of a metal that can't be melted by a lightsaber they made an energy whip to grab like the jedi when they use the force, and my favorite fact that the Mandalorians made guns called slugthrowers which as basically pistols that fire bullets making it impossible for Jedi to defect them

She also brings up dutchess Satine as the "only person that doesn't want the constant war" and how she was killed only for Obi Wan's characters' development and completely ignoring Bo-Katan's. Yeah, she died in Obi Wan's arms, but that didn't really develop his character. If anything, Bo-Katan had much more of an impact as she left Death Watch, the main group that was responsible for her sisters death and even helped get maul the man that killed her sister dethroned the jedi didn't save the Mandalorians they helped them.

At the end of her video, she goes on about how people who like the like the Mandalorians are plugging our ears and going lalalala at her claims, which are fair fan boys in Star Wars are one of the most toxic people you'll find. For Mother's Day, I made a tiktok saying which woman in Star Wars would be a good mother and had one guy telling me to go back to the kitchen (little shameless sharing of my own content don't mind me)

but what killed me was the fact that she fully blames the Jedi for making the clones. Which just isn't true. The clones were a trap set by Darth sidious and count dokku they were made with Jango fett's DNA with his consistency, and he got his own kid out of it. For the most part, the clones were treated with respect from the Jedi plo Koon treating them like battle brothers Anakin treating them like the people they are. Aayla even developed feelings for her commander, Bly. The sith made them kill the jedi when the time was right.

Something that needs to be said is that the Jedi didn't want the war they didn’t want to fight. No one except the sith and corrupted officials wanted the war because of how big it would be, and even more so, no one liked the idea of the clones everyone saw it as a slave army, which only fueled the Confederacy not liking the republic.

If Lily was a Star Wars character, she would have bought all the propaganda about the Jedi being blood thirsty and needed Order 66 to happen. she'd be on the empire side and call the rebel alliance a group of terrorists. Yes, the clones are slaves but they aren't the Jedi's slaves they're the siths Slaves.

Like I said before, at the beginning, I am a big fan of Star Wars, and for the most part of the video, she has some good points I just really wished she'd understand that the Sith aren't good people the Sith are fueled with revenge they use and manipulate the people around them for their own benefit yes the Jedi were corrupt, yes the Jedi aren't good people either. Get the sith off that pedestal. Yes, the Mandalorians aren't the galaxies' strongest species, and yes, the Mandalorians are the physical embodiment of toxic masculinity, but that doesn’t mean the Mandalorians are something that needs to die out.

[belit0]

y/n falling for akatsuki! shisui?

she is a kind soul, would he fall for her too?

JUJUUUU Akatsuki! Shisui my favorite Shisui

Let's analize it

Shisui is another blank canvas that I love, but I'm particularly interested in his Akatsuki possibility. Now, we know he is the only Uchiha who evolved/achieved the Sharingan through positive feelings, setting him apart from his entire clan. This reveals the purity he carries with him, the genuine kindness of his soul, and the devotion he has for the brighter side of life.

Akatsuki! Shisui, however, is a man who was abused for his innocence and need to do good, betrayed and scarred by the darkness of the world and the evil intentions of everyone around him.

I like to believe that Obito intervenes before he throws himself into the river, seeing the boy's potential and knowing his reputation, deciding he's even a better choice than Itachi. In my narrative, Shisui takes his cousin's place, and is the one who takes it upon himself to assassinate the clan.

Having lost an eye at the hands of such a nasty person fills him with the kind of violence he is unable to contain, and his pure mind begins to tinge with destruction and anger, frustration with himself for having been so naive to people who deserved nothing from him.

Shisui begins to hate himself at some point, for having let himself be used by those idiots, and after fulfilling Obito's objective, he recovers his eye. He doesn't get it implanted again tho, feeling like it is dirty and scarred by that nasty old man, yet there is a huge and terrible satisfaction in watching him die.

With the torture he inflicts on Danzo, he discovers a new facet of cold-blooded murder, a situation he never enjoyed during his confrontations in the war. Shisui gradually loses his mind and abandons whatever light is left inside him, filling himself with hatred and the need for destruction, anger.

His old side, that old Shisui who once believed in people and the possibility of doing good, fights against his new self, a constant battle between good and evil in his head. He loses his stability little by little, and ends up totally demented by his own thoughts.

Eventually, he fails to distinguish between right and wrong, consumed by the constant battle between the two voices inside his head, changing moods all the time and with no clear pattern to his personality.

Some days he is good, as he used to be, and others he is completely insane.

He can't fall in love with anyone, he doesn't have the emotional capacity to feel those things, but he does become obsessed. What he develops for (Y/N) is a mixture of darkness and strange warmth, divided by the two forces that dominate him.

His sick side wants her only for him but not out of love, rather out of possessiveness, becoming infatuated with (Y/N) in an unhealthy way, unable to stop thinking about her.

The old Shisui appreciates her presence and adores the light she emanates, desperate to be infected by her gentleness and return to who he was before.

Shisui has no way of thinking about anyone in that way anymore, unable to feel anything real and with his reality totally distorted, but the obsession he builds up for (Y/N) takes him to terrible lengths that only harm her.

[majycka]

Hello op! I am one of those people who actually like Utahime as characters, my initial reason was her character design and name (I still think she has the best design among the female cast in jjk, maki and yuki aside). Her CT made me love her more, cause that differentiates her from other jujutsu sorcerers, where selfishness and greed is required to become ones absolute best self, Utahime’s CT does the opposite though, she as a human and also by the virtue of her CT can never really be selfish in a way. She literally powers up others (and herself), and her major strength lies in connections (again completely different from what is expected of sorcerers). If we break down her CT, she is the strongest version of herself (since her CT also powers herself) when she is with others helping them to be even stronger, almost exactly opposite of what gojo, the pinnacle of what jujutsu society represents.

I am also someone whose perception of her don't align with that of her majority fandom, I think you are one of those people, too. I would love to know your thoughts on how you personally perceive her and why your point of view is different. Cause there are times I wanna discuss something about her with my irl mutual, but then again, it never goes well. They are too deep in fanon stuff. I am someone who generally likes to keep my headcanon toned down and mostly stick to canon. I really wanted a pov of someone who actually likes her but also respects canon quite equally.

I honestly would have loved to see her more. This is not even something i am saying a fan, but even as a minor character, what she represents is just so different from everything we have been told (even her students defy that).

I hope I didn't bother you a lot with my ramblings 🙏

Nah you're all good anon! I love it when I get to ramble with other ppl about my faves and I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments of Utahime! I'll proceed to just dump all my thoughts about her as well and discuss what fandom thinks of her from what I've seen.

One thing that I've picked up from fanon of view of Utahime (in some of the fics I've read) is she's SOLELY this strict teacher all about respecting tradition/authority when it's not and it reduces her to that "respect your seniors!" dialogue. In fact, I can even argue that Gojo represents more of JJK traditional view in valuing individual strength even how much he says he's being progressive. His view of dividing people between strength vs weak screams kinda the same as those traditional clans valuing cursed techniques above anything else. Meanwhile, Utahime's value of teamwork challenges this traditional view of individual strength when like Gojo said, the pinnacle of jujutsu, all sorcerers die alone even how much allies you have 'cause the jjk world is an individual sport.

But let's break down this a bit and see what Gojo mean by jjk being an individual sport. We have seen so far that people who usually ascend the ranks are pretty selfish. Mei Mei who cites herself having a pretty weak technique, optimized her CT by using her brother. Kusakabe who doesn't have a proper CT was able to be a grade one rank because he, at the beginning of the Shibuya arc, wants to save his own skin and would rather stay behind in fighting (but dude later on helped in pulling out the kyoto kids from the Kenjaku attack, still dude can be selfish). The big clan families will kill each other over cursed techniques. Gojo himself advised Megumi to be more selfish and greedy in power when they were training together. Of course, there are outliers such as a strong sorcerers like Nanami, who cares for children, but boom ended up getting killed right at the very end while Mei Mei was able to go to her Malaysia trip. It paints this image that selfishness is a needed trait to survive the jujutsu world and rise to power.

However by Utahime promoting teamwork shown through her kids, teamwork can give up the idea of selfishness because we learn when to trust others and work together for a common goal. It can save people especially in a world where being "weak" is a disadvantage. An excellent example of teamwork from Kyoto Tech is shown through that one scene in jjk 0 how each kid has a role in their group attacks which optimizes their cursed technique no matter how VARIED their ranks/skills are. Momo usually surveys the area, communicates to others, and is like the oversees everything in a big picture. Kamo acts as the leader, looks out for everyone and keeps them in task. Mai is the long range shooter and can back people up. Mechamaru constantly backs others up like Miwa. Meanwhile, of course, there's our fun outlier, Todo.

But the funny thing is despite Todo usually going off his own, breaking the "yay teamwork!" streak of Kyoto tech, his character brings up another essential point about teamwork: connecting with others. If it weren't for Todo showing up in helping Yuuji against Mahito, then Yuuji wouldn't be able to defeat him right after seeing Nobara blown up. Todo works best/fights best with his besto friendo. Todo is the same dude who said being sorcerers means always honoring their allies/friends because they keep us going. It's still very much in line in the spirit of Kyoto kids' teamwork and also their connection with others. Muta and Miwa. Mai and Maki. Momo and her bond with Mai and Miwa. Kamo and his mom. There's also their teacher Utahime who is close friends with Shoko, and she probably influenced these kids to get along with each other and foster that teamwork skills (you know like the MANY MAANNNYYY times Uta keeps on saying that the kyoto-tokyo kids should get along during the goodwill event). I'm not saying Tokyo kids can't get along, but it's not as the same degree as Kyoto's. I think what Kyoto's dynamic different is how they can be vulnerable with others and open about their problems/feelings which helps in these kids growing closer. For example, Momo is well aware of Mai's situation and will defend her. Miwa, who's well aware that growing closer will only end up hurting them because of the inevitable death in jjk, still chose to connect with her peers, and that lead to Muta even falling in love with her. For Tokyo, let's take an example of how the first years reacted to Yuuji's "death." Both Megumi and Nobara definitely tried hard to keep that stoic front. Nobara said how she can't cry on some guy she just knew for a few months when in fact Nobara is clearly affected. In the earlier arcs, Megumi and Yuuji were keeping secrets from each other about the whole "eating the Sukuna finger actually made things worse by awakening other fingers and kills more people everyday." The second years became close because of Yuta's nature who constantly reach out to everyone and not under Gojo's influence.

Moreover, I don't think I've seen this much group cohesion like Kyoto’s compared to Tokyo because it stuck to me how in Shibuya arc, the Tokyo kids are just constantly going off their own to prove their strength like Maki and Nobara which yes is a bit understandable cuz these kids are strong, but would it be so much stronger if they work together? But Gojo, their teacher, has established that he does not really advocate teamwork (even if he did for other’s help like Nanami and Utahime, he still ended up doing things alone). If Gojo's students are all strong individually because he's very particular in choosing his kids(aka choosing them for their potential/strength), then Utahime's student's are weak individually HOWEVER more stronger as a group. No wonder she is adored by everyone. No wonder that when Miwa was at her lowest during Muta's death, Kyoto tech was there for her.

However, there are times too when Utahime is carried away by the system and her students fell victims to it too(like the time she didn't know her student were targeting Yuuji, how Mai and Muta died in cruel way) because as the opposite of Gojo, she isn't traditionally strong who has the power to defy authority. She's more subtle about it because she works around the system (shown in investigating that haunted mansion from gojo's past arc and working to find the mole within the ranks and students) and doesn't easily power through them like how Gojo destroyed the mansion and can do whatever he wants cuz of his "strongest" title. That's why Gojo asked her help because she could investigate within the system and he couldn't do something like that when he's all about being loud and throwing around his weight. There are pros/con to her subtle nature, but since the JJK world favors the strong, then she gets stuff unchecked. So, NO, I don't think she's all that "strictly respect traditions/authority" type of person. She just knows how to play politics especially in a world where they will hammer down who is weak against the system, and yet, despite that, she's able to influence her kids to do something that sorcerers struggle with.

This is why her CT is beautiful too because literally and thematically anyone who gets into her "zone" will be strengthened by her. I've seen complaints about Utahime's CT in being merely a support/buffer type. Some people had been expecting that it could be something powerful and not just buffing people up. I’m guessing that its the girlboss belief that fans can latch onto. I mean most of the jjk girls are tough as nails that the fans like which yes is understandable! But I’ve seen this happen way too many time in shonen spaces where at times the considered “weak” or "support-type" fem characters are easily non favorable for fans. I think such thing doesn’t help people actually analyze the text and for me, if such character is written well then I’m 100% in (like c’mon, Miwa’s a “weak” character and yet she’s compelling not just her fun personality, but how she struggles with grief and a world where she gets her ass kicked for being weak). As for Utahime’s case, I love it! Because the whole point of the cursed techniques is it reflects a lot like of its user’s psyche and the series establishes that Utahime values teamwork and her connections with others which is anomaly in the jjk world, and it makes her CT badass in that way. That’s why it’s no wonder she’s a natural in supporting others! It 👏makes 👏sense👏!

My next fanon and canon comparison is more within the gjhm fandom which will be a bit controversial. Like I'm a gjhm shipper myself but there are times I have some issues in how they deal with Utahime. I think at times Utahime's spunk gets taken away just so she could coddle Gojo and easily ship them together fast. Like yall Utahime actually has some genuine reasons why she hates him not just 'cause of his annoying ass but cuz of his "weak" mockery to her. And I find it very much so amazing that Utahime's doesn't take his shit and will retaliate. I think it's Utahime wanting Gojo to be accountable on shit he does (like dang man this dude been getting away from shit) 'cause Gojo does perceive people in the traditional fashion of strong vs weak lenses. I keep on saying strong vs weak lenses because how Gojo nitpicks people he wants to "save" and that's usually people with "potential." Is it altogether bad wanting kids/students that have the drive to be stronger? Well, not exactly, no but when he started spouting how he wants to raise a generation way better than the higher ups, then why doesn't he include ALL of generation whether the kids start of strong or weak. Why didn't he pull out both Maki AND Mai from their Zenin situation? Don't give me the bullshit of "I can't save everyone who doesn't want to be saved" because especially if this is kids put in a dangerous environment, then it would be the job of adults to be responsible for them.

This is where the comparison of Utahime can show up again. Even how much different her kids are, personality and sorcery skill wise (llike Mai, Momo's fiery personalities way different from Miwa's, Kyoto being quite annoyed by Kamo's leader attitude), they obviously still make their group attacks work whether one is disadvantage in some skill or not. Utahime again and again is shown to care for her students whether not they're strong or weak. She prioritize their safety when that attack from goodwill arc showed up, and she went to the frontlines during the Kyoto-Kenjaku attack back in Shibuya.

I think, just personally, the fanon of Utahime coddling Gojo is ain't it for me when in many ways, Utahime can point out the flaws of Gojo's teaching that he needs. I'm not saying Utahime doesn't have her flaws either because she's weak to a whole system against her and there are times she couldn't be there for her students.

But yeah, that's about it for my Utahime thoughts and fanon discussion. Anon, if you have any fanon interpretation that you've encounter or more Utahime thoughts and wanna share then please feel free to drop an ask! ;)

[rainroses45]

(Sully family x daughter reader)

description: you are Neteyam’s twin sister and you always try to please your father

a/n: I honestly need some sad fanfic right now so i decided to do it myself…(not edited)

song inspiration: Cherry-colored funk

You were twins, two of the same people. You shared a birth, a home, a face, everything. Neteyam and you were the eldest of the family. Dad expected the both of you to be the role models. The co-captains of the ‘squad’. A role not chosen, but forced upon by the lectures and trainings throughout your childhood. You felt like a misplaced puzzle piece, constantly being shoved into different spots of a picture you weren’t apart of. They tried, oh how they tried to make you be the perfect fit. They cut you apart, shaved off your links that belonged to another puzzle piece, but it was no use, you were an outcast. Not only by your blood, but by your abilities.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

You thought back on today as you stared at the sky. The world was seeping in with your thoughts to the point you couldn’t tell where the crashing sound was coming from. Each wave came harder than the last, its current was strong and frightful, you wanted to make peace with it but weren’t quite sure how to confront it.

Today was a rough day, it wasn’t just how you failed to fit in with the clan, but you got into a fight with the chief’s son. Once again it wasn’t your fault, but it made your dad’s life so much easier to just place the blame on you. No matter how hard you tried to explain yourself, how hard you tried to defend your sister’s honor, nothing was ever put to justice with him in rule. He was the general and you were merely a soldier who served nothing more than another number, another responsibility, another disappointment.

His words still echoed through your thick skull. Its memory brought back the deep waves of depression and hopelessness. The liquid falling from your eyes wasn’t from the ocean, it physically pained you to be associated always as the disappointment of the family.

“I asked you all for one thing! One thing, and you guys completely disregarded it!” Your dad yelled at you, Lo’ak, and Neteyam, his fury rolled off of him in red waves. His tone and volume made you feel unsafe.

“Sir I take full blame,” Neteyam butted into the lecture, again trying to take the fall. I glared at him, he needs to stop doing that.

“Neteyam you need to stop taking the blame for your siblings. Go, I will talk to you later.” Neteyam sighed nodding back in acceptance, he looked at me in sadness and walked out the mauri. Lo’ak began to also leave thinking he was going to get away lecture free, but was soon shut down.

“Don’t think I don’t see you Lo’ak, I will talk to you next.” Your father stated with his arms crossed in disapproval. Lo’ak looked down grumbling, then left leaving me alone with my father.

“I asked for one thing Y/n. One simple order, and you completely disregard it!” Your father turned his attention towards you.

“But sir-“ You tried to explain yourself hoping it would ease the tension. Once news of the fight was heard, he kicked everyone out except you and your brothers, so much for your siblings right now. No one dared to argue back except your mother, but she was quickly distracted by Tuk’s calls.

“No more excuses Y/n! I’m tired of hearing your excuses.” He interrupted you, his words getting harsher and harsher.

“But sir Kiri-“ You tried once again to explain your reasoning, but you were shut down by your father.

“Do you even care about this family?” He glared at you letting his hands form into fists. His death glare cause you to tremble in anger and fear.

“What?” You looked at your father in shocked. How could he ask such a thing? You would die for this family. You would give up anything for your family. “Of course I do sir.” Your voice was shaky and dry while your hands sweat from nervousness.

“Then why are you acting so selfish? Why can’t you be like Neteyam and listen to me?” He asked you with his arms lazily open, waiting patiently for your ‘excuse’. His words hit you deep. Why couldn’t you be like Neteyam?

“I do dad! I try dad- I mean sir, I truly do try.” You looked everywhere until you finally met your father’s gaze once more. At this point tears threaten to fall from your eyes.

“Stop lying!” He screamed, you slowly began to move back from your spot. Your dad looked down to let out a sigh then looked back at you with his hands on his hips. “You’re dismissed, I don’t want to see you right now.”

With that final response you left the area and went to the isolated beach. It wasn’t suppose to end like that.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

“Guys,” you softly yelled as you swam towards a nearby rock. Your wounds began to ache more and more. The adrenaline was wearing out and you felt yourself slowly give up. You put your everything during the battle, taking down the sky people left and right, protecting the Metkayina and your family from harm.

Your lungs began to burn, but you couldn’t stop now; you picked your head up to see if anyone was on the rock or near by. Smiling you see your brother laying on the rock, you called out to him. “Neteyam!” The pure joy in your voice was so true and loud. “Neteyam!” You yelled once again, your spirit blossomed giving you the energy to swim towards the rock. During the short distance, you thought nothing of the silence or how your twin never responded back to your calls.

“Neteyam,” you said as you climbed the rock slowly, being careful to not cause any more damage to your open wounds. You touched your brother’s shoulder - it was cold. Your eyes widen at the blood staining your brother’s skin. He’s dead.

You drop your head down, letting your tears fall at the sudden loss, and then looked up to the sky screaming. Screaming for the loss of your twin. Screaming for the pain of not saving him. Screaming because you have only yourself to blame. It was always your fault. One of the only people who stood up for you, who truly loved you for you. He was gone. You didn’t get to say thank you, and you never will.

You slowly laid down next to your brother as sobs escaped. The pain of your wounds was soon forgotten and replaced with the loss of your brother. This is who the both of you are, a product of war. A product that stood no chance in the current. Loving any of us was a death sentence, wasn’t it? If you put everything into perspective, he fell but hit the ground; you fell and there nothing was there to catch you.

You looked back at all your memories, you wouldn’t apologize for your actions, nor would you regret what you have done, but you were truly sorry for the ending of it all. You didn’t know that you too would fill the ocean, and still not leave a permanent mark behind.

You watched the stars as the sky grew hazy and blissful. The pain was too much to bare, it was torturous. Rivers of red issued from your veins to be greeted by the sweet air. Your body ’s temperature dropped every second making it harder to fight off the breeze. You wished to go home and lay in the green moss. You wished you could visit the spirt tree, you wished you could talk to your older brother once more.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•

“Dad where is Y/n?” Kiri asked as they swam away from the drowning ship. Everyone was rescued and the sky people were finally taken care of. It wasn’t until this question was asked that a new problem arose.

“Lo’ak where did you leave your little sister?”Neytiri asked holding on to Tuk who was trying to free herself from her mother’s iron grip.

“She was fighting off one of the sky people, before I left.” He tried to recall back everything the has happened, but it was too blurry. Memories seemed to fade or be miss sequenced in his mind.

“Mama!” Tuk called out pointing towards the rock where Neteyam laid. “Mama look!” She demanded trying to grab her mother’s attention.

“What is it my sweet daughter?” The family turned around to face where the young child was pointing at. It was the rock where Neteyam rested, but there appears to be another body laying there. Quickly your family began to swim, hoping it was you on the rock.

༶•┈┈୨♡୧┈┈•༶

“Is it okay if i give up?” You asked to the darkness. Not knowing your family was nearby; they all began to swim faster trying to reach you. Your body was so tired, oh so very tired. The loss of blood and hope took a role on your body. You felt lethargic and on fire, like a ragged doll being burned alive. You were on the verge of closing your eyes when the sound of splashing and gasps were heard.

“My sweet daughter, oh my sweet daughter,” your mother wailed as she grasped your head into her arms. Your family saw your condition and they knew, oh they knew.

Your father climbed up the rock quickly after seeing how much blood you lost. “No, no, hold on there baby. I got you, I got you.” Your dad whispered as he turned you around to check your wounds. Two bullet holes were seen on your adoniminal , it was a full sweep.

“Be careful with her head,” you cried out in pain at the sudden movement. They shifted you back to the rock, you were still holding loosely to your brother’s hand.

“I am so sorry sweetheart,” your dad cried as he held your other hand. Kiri held Tuk as she looked around confused as to why everyone was crying. Lo’ak couldn’t even look at you, he stared off into the ocean.

“GREAT MOTHER PLEASE, OH GREAT MOTHER PLEASE,” your mother begged, for what you do not know. The sky was getting darker and you felt more heavy.

“I- I want to go home dad,” you sneered out in pain. You turned your head to the side and let out a cough filled with blood.

“I know baby, I know, we are going home, but you have to stay with us babygirl. Stay with us.” He wiped the blood away from your mouth as more tear began to fall from your eyes.

“Dad I am sorry-“ He quickly silenced you before you could finish apologizing.

“No, I am sorry baby. I am so sorry. If I could take back everything I would.” He promised with a sad smile. You were his baby. His little girl, how could he fail his one job. He was a father he was suppose to protect that is what gave it meaning, but right now he felt like that title should be ripped away from him. He lost his children. His reason to protect, how could he such a disappointment.

“Dad I-“ You never did finish your sentence that night. Your eyes rolled back and you let out your last breathe in vain. Goodbye world, you tried and that’s all that matters.

[marloart]

𝕯𝖎𝖛𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝕱𝖔𝖗𝖌𝖊𝖉 𝖎𝖓 𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊

❝ To Calum MacInnes she said. 'Your palm has been burned.” He said that was true. She said. 'Give me your other hand, your left hand.' He did so. She gazed at it, intently. Then, 'You return to where you began. You will be higher than most other men. And there is no grave waiting for you, where you are going.' He said, 'You tell me that I will not die?' 'It is a left handed fortune. I know what I have told you, and no more.' She knew more. ❞

          ━━━━━━ ✧ ━━━━━━

My submission for Folio Society's 2024 Book Illustration Award, the brief being to illustrate a scene from the short story, The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains.

I feel like I've grown as an artist through making this piece.

more detailed shots and explanations for symbolism under the cut!

Disclaimer: This piece of art was made between February 5th and April 3rd before the recent news of the author.

The coins at the top are specifically modeled after Scottish pennies from the 1600's to align with the Jacobitism era, specifically in a gold-ish hue to to another passage of the text mentioning " beware of gold silver is your friend." Two coins ( but four designs because back and front) due to it being one "clipped lowland groat" per fortune.

Additionally during my research I found one groat coin with James the III that looked a bit like Neil Gaiman so I did a blink and you'll miss it 'easter-egg' of the author.

Right: Close up of the coin/Left: reference images

Also the plaid used through out the border is actually the ancient MacInnes Clan hunting tartan, which I recreated digitally. This informed my color palette and I feel so lucky I happened to look up if there was a plaid pattern associated with the character this piece is about!

The Celtic knot on the right hand of the border is a triple Solomon's knot because of it's symbolism tied to immortality because it has no ending or beginning point.

For the actual palm, I did some research into palmistry to try and accurately foretell Calum's fate through the palm reading! His fate line is jagged and broken in places, showing that his drive for wealth may no longer be "justified" with the actions he has taken. The fate line is also intersected with a star shaped pattern through the middle of his palm, representing that he is self-willed and reckless. that he was prone to bad luck specifically out of impulse that would make him suffer and fail. The short marriage line is due to the union being passionless. The head line being completely separate from the life line was to show Calum as very independent and resorting to solve problems by himself. That he had a strong sense of inferiority. and not accepting of other's mistakes. And lastly the life and fate lines merging for obvious reasons.

I researched burn scars to try and paint them accurately as possible. They're more complex than I thought initially.

The vines tangled across Calum's wrists is foreshadowing to his actual eventual death, and the invisible lines of fate that bound him.

The bones; femurs, tibias, fibias, the skull, and spinal column are references to death.

The sideways hour glass was about time being on pause - in a limbo state. Calum believes he's immortal, so the grains of sand don't continue to flow correctly.

The background scenery is directly inspired by images of The Isle of Skye/ Scottish Highlands where the story takes place.

The framing is based around other celtic inspired knots, the corner pieces are a loose triquetra, because essentially there are three major characters who are critical to the plot; Calum, Flora, and The Narrator.

[itslouisan]

Well, short post on Urahara as a vocaloid fan

Okay so, I said how I believe Urahara is a vocaloid fan in my last post, so I thought why can't I elaborate? Hell maybe expand it to what I think other characters would listen to

Urahara:

• He'd like Miku, Vflower, Fukase, Len and Kaito songs.

• His first ever vocaloid song would be strobe light, world is mine, triple baka or rosary pale; (even though I'm sure there's others songs he'd like and I'll talk about it in a second)

• He'd love the idea of virtual singers, probably nerding out to ANYONE about how he thought it was a great technology for musicians who didn't want to expose themselves, were beginners or just wanted to experiment something new, and how he thought this source could be the future of the music industry or even idol industry, having so much potential to evolve and change (which he was correct)

• He would probably try his best to go to a magic mirai show, would get the light sticks, everything.

• About producers, I think he'd be into Kikuo, Materu, Wowoka, Kanaria, Aira, Pinocchio, Akka and Deco 27 (perhaps Ichika too), but there's millions of producers, and since I'm not fluent in japanese, I can more easily list songs than the producers unfortunately since searching about the producers takes time and has a language barrier, specially considering vocaloid is all over the place and in theory everyone who makes music using vocaloid, even covers and small stuff, could be a producer, so ehhhh-

• Collects figures. I think he would be more into the complex figures and looks rather than the prize ones that are simpler

Some examples of figures I think Kisuke would like:

Songs I think Kisuke would relate/like more than others:

1- Strobe Light

An underrated song, in my interpretation of strobe light, it talks about breaking the routine, a girl who's so stuck in it she craves for something new but doesn't have the courage of trying. At the same time could talk about the line between life blurring and becoming gray, boring, with nothing interesting easily, it talks about how everyone around you seems to move on while you're stuck in a point of your life trying to change and try, still people move on, die, give up, and you can't do anything about it, yourself wanting to give up and feeling lost.

My take is that Kisuke would like it since he'd find it in his early months of exile, feeling lost, that everyone moved on, that he'd have to fight to adapt and survive in this new life, together with guilt of his friends being stuck with him now and losing their lives due to his own mistakes. He'd be stuck in a lifeless hopeless situation and routine, trying hard to break free but unable to, after all the situation wouldn't allow him to. He'd crave for freedom, for giving everyone comfort and rest, yet he couldn't rest, stop, live comfortably for a long time, everything blurring out, I think he'd listen to it a lot in his first MP3 player.

2- Cinderella

Okay urayoru moment, in my view, Cinderella is about 2 people leaving everything behind, their lives, their expectations, just wanting to be with each other and trusting that despite the odds of their situation they can be together and happy having each other's company even in dark times with a great love and trust to change their lifes

WHICH IS SO KISUKE AND YORUICHI??? Yoruichi giving away her status, her expectations as a member of the Shihōin clan, her old life, everything to save her friends BUT SPECIALLY Kisuke, trusting that he could pull it off and make a better life for them.

3- love trial

A song about someone who had such a terrible experience in love and relationships, that lost the trust completely in others, judging a partner who had previously liked and had affection for, and in the first place trying not to warm up to them and liking them again.

Another urayoru take, because we all agree Kisuke has trust issues, but I say maybe he always liked Yoruichi, but, because of his issues, when Yoruichi WAS ready to show and give him affection, he wasn't ready in the first couple of weeks or months because of previous events in his love life and life in general (which I hc Kisuke never got the handle of emotional romantic relationships and his first time doing sex with someone was terrible so yup, poor thing) but eventually melting this resolve and accepting he wanted to be happy with her.

4- Plus boy

OKAY HEAR ME OUT, he IS a pervert, no matter what you think, SO A SONG LIKE THAT FROM LEN? Hell he eats it up, plus, plus boy is about a teen boy (or teens in general) and the first signs of sexual attraction and leaving the childhood innocence of stuff, I hc Kisuke became more perverted around 14 years old, so it matches. Plus it's fire.

5- Copy cat

So, Kisuke definitely can't get the handle of social interactions and social cues, I view him as the nerd cast out kid, so, I imagine due to my hc of him having autism, he learned with time to mask all his "undesirable" and "unlikeable" traits that pushed people off, taking this facade for so long he copied the behaviors of other kids, teens, colleagues, liked people, viewing himself as someone with no essence or real personality, that is, he said "fuck it" at some point stopping the masking traits but still having personas, which is progress I guess when we're talking about Kisuke and the fact Shinigami are ageless so this could take centuries of evolution :v

Honorable mention:

In one of the asks kon made, we can see the door of Kisuke's room in the shōten, which translated to "Kisuke's castle", FIGHT ME BUT THIS DOOR DEFINITELY BLASTED WORLD IS MINE INSIDE THERE SOME POINT AND HAD LED LIGHTS CHANGING COLORS TO IT, WEARING A PRETTY DRESS AND CROW.

[leofrith]

A Critique of ACV: The Last Chapter (SPOILERS!)

I wanted to hold off on sharing my thoughts about the new content until I’d given The Last Chapter time to breathe, because I was honestly hoping that maybe if I gave it some time, I wouldn’t dislike it so much. But the more I think about it, the more I find things to dislike about it. Which is why what started out as a quick write-up of my thoughts immediately after playing The Last Chapter has now spiraled into this very long critique that got so long I needed to add subheadings to break it up. 

Sorryyyyy. 

I’m basically spoiling everything from The Last Chapter here, along with Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and parts of its expansions. I also briefly mention a few other Assassin’s Creed games, mainly Odyssey and one of its DLCs. My point being, if you don’t want to know anything then please look away now. Or don’t. But I know I would have appreciated a warning before diving into this mess. 💀

As a disclaimer: this essay is not meant to be an attack, nor is it meant to place blame squarely at the feet of Darby Mcdevitt, or any of the other writers or developers involved with the game. There are so many moving parts in a game as expansive and with as much add-on content as Valhalla, and I can only guess what happened behind the scenes that brought us to this point. I don’t know who wrote what, who made what creative decisions, and I therefore don’t feel comfortable placing blame on anyone in particular. I have never worked for Ubisoft and I can therefore only speculate about their internal culture based on what has been leaked from the company over the years. Furthermore, this is not an invitation to personally attack anyone involved in the development of this game on Twitter or wherever else. This is purely an attempt on my part to articulate why me and so many other fans of Valhalla and of Eivor feel so profoundly emotionally betrayed by this ending, as well as outline some factors that I believe contributed to the way the game was mishandled. 

So. I think I had already accepted when the trailer released back in September that something like this was going to happen. I had already done my mourning for the fact that Eivor would never get the send-off she deserved, which is why I think I’m a lot less upset than I would have been otherwise… but that doesn't make this suck any less. The Last Chapter was completely underwhelming, it was emotionally unsatisfying, it completely butchered Eivor's character, it felt incomplete, and rushed, and it felt more like a teaser for Mirage than anything close to the conclusion Eivor’s story deserved.

The (Character) Assassination of Eivor Varinsdottir

When we first meet Eivor as an adult, she is overconfident, brash, and she has just gotten in over her head and gotten both herself and her crew captured by the enemy. She is in the 17th year of a quest for revenge she has been in pursuit of since she was nine years old. She has spent more than half of her life hunting Kjotve, the man who stole her parents, her clan, and her childhood from her, and is fully prepared to die if need be to kill him. She is an orphan who was taken in by the Raven Clan after the slaughter of her own people, and she considers these people to be her new family. Her love for her family and community are central to Eivor’s character right from the beginning. While she learns and grows past some of her flaws throughout the game, her love for her community and her loyalty to them is what sticks with her. 

Eivor also starts the game carrying an immense amount of shame for how her father died, laying down his axe in the hope that the rest of his clan would be spared, only for he and most of his people to be slaughtered anyway. Through her time spent acting as a leader to the Raven Clan–first as a warrior and later as their Jarlskona–Eivor finally understands by the end of the game why Varin did what he did, because she realizes that she would make the exact same choice to protect her people. Eivor, too, would choose to die in “dishonor” if it offered even the smallest chance to save her loved ones. 

Eivor is the reincarnation of Odin; she carries his memories and his thoughts, unbeknownst to her. She has visions and prophetic dreams and hears his voice in her head, but spends much of the game not understanding the meaning of it all. The part of her that is Odin pushes her toward chasing personal glory, toward the pursuit of knowledge, toward selfishness. But she chooses to abandon all that in favor of the people she loves, even as Odin rages and screams insults into her ear and calls her a coward–the one thing she has always been most fearful of becoming. Odin is a representation of everything she has been told to value in life, and she is (literally) pulled in the opposite direction by Sigurd, Randvi, Hytham, Valka, Gunnar, Soma… everything else. 

Eivor never truly seems to grasp the meaning of her connection to Odin, Sigurd’s connection to Tyr, Basim’s connection to Loki, or anything about the sages or the Isu at all. Not in the base game or in any of the DLCs. She never really acknowledges it explicitly until The Last Chapter. 

Put a pin in that.

Family and community are central to Eivor’s character. Loyalty is central to Eivor’s character. Honor is central to Eivor’s character. That’s why it makes absolutely no sense for Eivor to drop everything, seemingly out of nowhere, to go back to Vinland alone and live out the rest of her days learning from Odin, the part of her that she explicitly rejected at the end of the main game. And it certainly doesn’t justify Eivor deciding to leave Ravensthorpe in the middle of the night without a farewell, regardless of who she supposedly said goodbye to offscreen. It doesn’t justify her completely sudden and out of character decision to walk away from her clan, her family without a true goodbye. Eivor spends the entire base game acting as Jarl in Sigurd’s stead in everything but title, because Sigurd has all but completely abandoned the clan in order to chase his own ambitions, only for Eivor to supposedly do the very same thing? No. It’s completely incongruent with her character and actively contradicts facts that were established in the main game.

There are so many other inconsistencies, including the fact that I highly doubt Valka–the same Valka who we saw warn Eivor against digging too deeply in her visions in the intro to The Forgotten Saga–would simply accept Eivor departing for another continent to delve deeper into her visions. But the way they miswrote Eivor’s character was particularly glaring. There could have been a version of the last chapter in which Eivor's motivations actually made sense, but that version needed so much more evidence for it to be believable. Reading between the lines is one thing, but expecting players to accept the conclusions you’re feeding them without planting any seeds beforehand is just lazy writing. [insert “HE WOULDN’T FUCKING SAY THAT” meme]

The RPG structure is the root of all evil (I know just… hear me out on this)

I think applying an RPG structure to Assassin’s Creed was a mistake, and have thought so for a while, but not really for the reason you’re probably thinking of. The “but we’re reliving another person’s memories in the animus, so how can it possibly make sense to allow us to make choices that affect the narrative?” reason. My criticism of the addition of choices is mainly this: I think that by trying to “expand” the story by adding RPG elements and dialogue options, they instead ended up severely limiting themselves. Because the problem with adding dialogue options to Assassin’s Creed is they can never take those choices to their conclusion. They can never truly have consequences.

Trying to tell a linear story with a non-linear structure like this doesn’t work, or at the very least, it hasn’t worked in Assassin’s Creed thus far. Odyssey came closer, I think, because it had multiple distinct outcomes and player choices actually had an affect on the trajectory of the plot (Mostly. Hi, Legacy of the First Blade. I’m coming for you in a minute.). Odyssey's multiple endings present a different problem entirely in the context of Assassin’s Creed because despite the input of choice, there is still a canon version of the story and a canon ending. It leaves those players that arrived at a different outcome feeling alienated, and like their choices were incorrect or simply didn't matter. 

But in Valhalla, all roads lead to more or less the same destination and most decisions have no impact on the trajectory of the story. The problem that arises from this is that players will make their choices and expect some sort of payoff, as they should. But they won’t really get it. As per Darby McDevitt, for example, Sigurd always goes back to Norway at some point, regardless of whether a player ends up with the “good” or the “bad” ending. Sigurd returning to Norway is a fixed point and the timeline will always course correct, so to speak, to reach that end. 

(Thank you @/vikingnerd793 for the screenshot!)

Everyone gets more or less the same version of The Last Chapter, with the siblings’ interactions only varying slightly after the “bad” ending to reflect the fact that Eivor and Sigurd haven’t seen each other in a while. But even with the tiny variations in dialogue that exist, a few changed lines in a scene that doesn't last any longer than two minutes still fail to make Eivor and Sigurd's supposed off-screen reconciliation feel even remotely earned. Ubisoft wanted to offer “choice” while not following through with emotional payoff for those choices because they only wanted a single ending. Even if a player ends the main game with Sigurd deciding to stay in Norway as a result of Eivor’s “betrayal,” the consequences of that to their relationship are never truly explored.

Having only one ending with no variations in an RPG means that they couldn’t address any of the plot points that could have been affected by player choices. Interpersonal conflicts are watered down or only vaguely referenced. They couldn’t truly address the state of Eivor and Sigurd’s relationship because that would depend on what endgame the player reached. They couldn’t give Randvi an actual goodbye because some people didn’t romance her and therefore it might feel “forced” to those people, despite her being a major character. Vili–despite apparently being Eivor’s best friend–can’t appear because for some people, he’s busy being the Jarl of Snotinghamscire. There is no true emotional follow through for any of the choices made throughout the game. The end result is a goodbye tour consisting of Aelfred, Guthrum, and Harald, three people who Eivor has little to no emotional attachment to, but whose roles in the game are fixed no matter what choices the player makes, which means they’re safe to use. To be clear, Hytham’s role in the narrative is also fixed, but the reason I separate him from the other three is because he is actually emotionally significant to Eivor. His goodbye, unlike the other three, feels earned. 

To be clear, I don’t place the blame entirely on the writers for this because, as I’ve said, they were given a franchise that revolves around linear stories, told to put dialogue options into it, and make sure all those choices still lead to the same conclusion. As an extension of that, they brought back people who worked on the base game two years after its release to tie up loose ends that should have been dealt with years ago. I wouldn't be surprised if those same creators have all since moved on from this story and its characters, both creatively and emotionally. It's been two years. Even longer than that since they actually worked on the game. I wouldn't fault them for not having the same enthusiasm they once did. But the end result is a last chapter that feels almost completely devoid of emotion, and ties up absolutely none of the loose ends that most people would expect from a permanent “goodbye.” It fails to reach the emotional highs and lows that a conclusion with two years of build up should have. 

Which now brings me to Randvi. 

Oh, Randvi, now and forever shackled to her map table. 

I know this will be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people, but I always suspected that they would never actually follow through on making Randvi and Eivor's relationship canon despite the fact that it is indisputably the most fleshed out romance in the game. They are hinted at right from the beginning, in the form of Randvi’s clear dissatisfaction with her marriage to Sigurd and in Eivor’s lingering gazes. It is the only romance option in the game that has any effect on one of Eivor’s core internal conflicts: remaining loyal to her brother. “The wind calls [her] back to Randvi” after almost every single regional arc, whether players choose to pursue a romance or not.

But Darby McDevitt Official Headcanon or no, I never thought Ubisoft would "force" another romance after the backlash from Odyssey's Legacy of the First Blade (I told you I’d come back to it). I truly believe the company will and has happily suffered criticism from the Queer community for forcing a relationship on gamers who played Kassandra as a lesbian. Kassandra who, prior to the DLC, also never shows any interest in starting a family, or becoming a mother, or “continuing the family line”, as would become Ubisoft’s flimsy correction to the storyline after the criticisms started rolling in. But I highly doubt they would be okay with alienating the bigots who seem to form the loudest portion of their player base. That would be too much of a risk to their bottom line. 

To me, the romance plotline in Legacy of the First Blade was the inevitable result of Ubisoft wanting to tell a linear story with a non-linear structure. I think they did so without thinking through the implications of letting players choose their character's sexuality, only to then backtrack on it later because they needed Kassandra to have a baby. And what they seemed to take away from that was only that all forced romance is bad, without grasping the nuance of why that particular forced romance was so bad. This isn’t to say there should be any forced romance at all but that it should have served as a lesson of why one shouldn’t make a game with so much emphasis on player choice, only to take that choice away and even retroactively nullify those choices when it suits the needs of the plot. But that wasn't Ubisoft's takeaway. So in Valhalla, they pulled back. They made all player choices matter just a little bit less.

Eivor and Randvi’s relationship is inarguably handled with more care than any of the other romances in the game. It is inextricable from the narrative, whether it is a romantic relationship or a friendship. But despite any amount of blatantly obvious subtext that exists, Valhalla is still an RPG and the creators cannot confirm or deny any of the choices as correct or incorrect. And because they have to cater to all possible endings, they cannot address Eivor and Randvi’s relationship in any capacity because it might be misconstrued as being forced. Despite every overt piece of evidence that exists, Valhalla is still technically an RPG and at the end of the day, plenty of people did not choose Randvi. No amount of narrative director headcanons or heavy subtext will change the fact that Randvi is a seemingly meaningless choice in a sea of meaningless choices, and has now remained so permanently.

Ubisoft just really sucks as a company, actually

Everything that I am about to say in this section (and honestly, most of the next one as well) is conjecture because again, I don't know how certain creative decisions were reached behind the scenes. This isn't just about Randvi, or about Eivor's sexuality. It’s also about Ubisoft’s long and storied history of internal misconduct and suppression of marginalized voices. It's about Ubisoft's history of employee abuse in general. It's about the fact that Ubisoft suddenly decided to let players choose their gender, but only once they finally got around to making mainline titles starring women. Syndicate’s Jacob and Evie share the role of protagonist, and would have also shared equal screen time if Evie’s role hadn’t been significantly minimized throughout production in favour of her brother. Aya was originally meant to replace Bayek as the main playable character early on in Origins, but was later reduced to a side character who is only playable in a few missions throughout the game. Aya, the founder of the Hidden Ones. The order that would later evolve into the Assassins. The order that is the namesake of the entire franchise, just to be clear. Odyssey was originally conceived as Kassandra’s game, before the developers were made to allow players the choice to play as Alexios. Every female protagonist in the franchise thus far has been minimized in some way, and Eivor is unfortunately no different. 

Assassin's Creed is a huge enough brand at this point that they could have easily released Odyssey with only Kassandra, and Valhalla with only Eivor. But instead of taking a "risk" and doing just that, they added the male options to cater to a small but vocal minority of misogynistic piss babies who don't want women to exist in their video games, period. At least, certainly not as fully realized characters with personalities and thoughts and feelings of their own. That would require acknowledging women as people, rather than as identical playthings that mostly exist as a social stealth mechanic for them to hide behind when they need a cover. 

It’s especially funny because it was such a futile effort. That very same group of people was never not going to complain about Assassin’s Creed going “woke” for having female protagonists, even if they were optional. Those people were going to complain no matter what, and they absolutely have as evidenced by the fact that they've been having a conniption on Twitter for the past few months now that Eivor is suddenly getting even half of the attention from the marketing team that Havi has gotten for two years. The comments section on every official social media post featuring Eivor is a sea of people complaining about how “female” Eivor being canon makes no sense, how her voice sucks, how she is just the result of Ubisoft pandering to a “woke” demographic. The “fan” response could not be more blatantly misogynistic. What’s more, Ubisoft bases the trajectory of their games at least partially on fan responses. It’s a toxic feedback loop of them making creative decisions built on sexism and the fans responding in turn. 

Ubisoft deciding to implement gender choice as a mechanic didn't happen because they suddenly had a change of heart after happily ignoring their female players for years. It happened because they got busted for the "women don't sell" comments and the company's history of burying sexual assault allegations, and because they finally caught on to the fact that catering to gamers that aren't cishet men might actually be profitable. And it wasn't for lack of trying from the devs within the company because again, Origins was originally conceived as being Aya's game, Evie and Jacob were at the very least supposed to have equal screen time when development on Syndicate was in the early stages, Elise's role in Unity was also reduced... you get the idea.

Letting people choose to play as a woman or letting people choose to play as a Queer person is great. But it's an obvious cop out when your company also has a history of suppressing those very same voices, has done next to nothing to remedy the toxic company culture that encourages that behaviour in the first place, and when you've been dragging your feet as a developer about making your games even just a bit more inclusive for years. It’s an empty gesture when those female characters need to be watered down just enough for their male counterparts to make some amount of sense in the story, and when the marketing for the game hides them away like some kind of shameful secret. 

Suddenly making games starring female protagonists because you’ve realized that it might be profitable, while also making it optional anyway, isn’t exactly the win for representation they seem to think it is. Especially when the marketing favours the non-canon, male protagonists so totally that most people would assume Eivor and Kassandra are skins of their male counterparts. Because heaven forbid the poor baby boys have their escapist fantasy shaken if they have to play as a woman who’s better at getting girls than they are. Making your representation optional makes your representation look half-assed and while I absolutely adore Eivor and Kassandra, I mourn what they could have been if their stories were allowed to be fully theirs. 

Perhaps I’m being overly harsh and Ubisoft simply decided to implement gender choice in Valhalla in good faith. I honestly wouldn’t care if I thought it had, or if AC games had always allowed players to choose their gender. But considering the company’s history, and considering the game’s marketing, I somehow doubt that. Especially when, in their first game featuring a canon male protagonist since before AC pivoted to RPGs, they are not giving players the option to choose their gender. 

Hi Basim. 

Now don’t get me wrong. I obviously understand why Mirage doesn’t allow players to choose their gender; Basim is a pre-existing character, and it really wouldn’t make sense. But it is so transparent that they are willing to jump through narrative hoops to explain why Alexios is playable as the Eagle Bearer, but the same thing can’t be done for Basim. I suppose the importance of coming up with convoluted reasons as to why your protagonist’s gender is so easily changeable fades away when you’re not trying to replace a woman. 

But what’s this? By God it’s–it’s Mirage with a steel chair!

The final content update for Valhalla feels like a teaser for Mirage. Full stop. If you think I'm being too harsh or unfair, then that's your prerogative. But in The Last Chapter, in the long-awaited conclusion to Eivor’s story, we don't even get to play as Eivor. The entire questline (if it can even be considered that much) consists almost entirely of cutscenes, which we view through Basim's perspective while Eivor is relegated to a side character. It’s a collection of Eivor’s memories that are supposedly filtered by emotional intensity, as Basim puts it. Grief, longing, sadness: all emotions that I fail to see being presented in the memories they gave us, at least for the most part. For the first time in Valhalla, we are voyeurs to Eivor’s memories rather than experiencing her life through her own eyes. The role of the animus user in past Assassin’s Creed games has always been pretty unobtrusive, but The Last Chapter constantly reminds us that Basim is there and watching. "Animus magic," as Basim calls it, was less of a necessity to the plot and felt a lot more like Ubisoft's marketing department gone awry. 

I'm thinking about what Basim says at the end of the base game, when he is in the modern day and speaking to Eivor's remains. When he says, "I can take from you anything I want... your memories, your skills, your secrets. They're all mine." It's so ironic because he really stole Eivor's ending right out from under her, and I would have to laugh if it didn’t suck so much. It's all I could think about while I was watching Basim flippantly scrub through some of Eivor's most "emotional" memories which for some reason include… saying goodbye to Guthrum, a character we spend very little time with in the grand scheme of things, and who Eivor has next to no emotional attachment to. I understand the desire to tie up loose ends in terms of the historical events that were happening around this time, and they absolutely should have done all that because Assassin’s Creed has always been, in part, an exploration of history. But it should not have happened at the cost of providing closure for characters who were such significant figures in Eivor’s life.

I thought the Roshan quest was fun and I loved her and Eivor’s dynamic, even if we only got a small glimpse of it. But it was development time that could have been spent on wrapping up Eivor’s narrative instead of making another timeline agnostic add-on stealth mission in a game that has always had notoriously janky stealth mechanics. I look forward to seeing more of Roshan in Mirage and can now rest easy knowing that she is going to survive to the end of that game (although I cannot fathom why they decided to spoil that so early on). But they used what was apparently very limited time to give us a quest, very clearly a nod to Mirage, that does more to promote their next AAA title than serve the narrative of Valhalla.

Using the ending of a game to lead into the next is fine and is to be expected. But that transition should not come at the cost of a resolution for the story you're leaving behind. And really, it seems there was far more thought put into Basim and William Miles' first meeting than how Eivor came to the decision to leave for Vinland. 

I think Basim is an incredibly rich, complex character, and it will be interesting to see what direction they take his prequel. But as someone who has actually been really excited for Mirage, the way they've dealt with this transition between games has left me feeling so conflicted, not least of all because of how quickly Ubisoft dropped the ball on Valhalla as soon as Mirage was announced. I’m not sure I’ll be able to look at everything we will be gaining with Basim in the next game without also feeling bitter about everything we lost with Eivor. It’s not terribly surprising, since Ubisoft has never treated Eivor’s character with any amount of respect; not in the marketing, and not in most of the post-launch content that has come out in the past year. 

The post-launch that launched absolutely nothing

Darby has now said that The Last Chapter is meant as more of a direct follow up to the epilogue of the main campaign, to be played right after Gunnar's wedding. This is why they didn't feel the need to show a goodbye between Eivor and her people; the wedding functions as a sufficient goodbye to the Raven Clan.

But even if that was even remotely satisfying, it doesn't explain when Eivor came to accept her role as a sage, a role that she has yet to understand by the end of the base game, even if she is perhaps beginning to question it at the very least. It doesn't explain why it was never truly addressed in any of the some 100 plus hours of content that have been released for this game since then. It doesn't explain why Eivor and Randvi might finally pursue a relationship, only for Eivor to suddenly pick up and leave for Vinland, alone and permanently. It doesn’t explain why Eivor would leave for distant shores without saying goodbye to Ljufvina, or Vili, or Stowe and Erke, or Broder, or Oswald and Valdis, or Swanburrow, or any of the many other people whose relationships Eivor cherishes throughout the game. 

If anything, The Last Chapter being played immediately after Gunnar's wedding and the rest of the Hamtunscire epilogue makes it even more important for Eivor to say goodbye to her people, because that whole arc only cements Eivor’s devotion to her people, as well as how much her “encounters” with Odin have shaken her faith. Even then, that doesn't even touch on when or why she came to the decision to leave in the first place. 

Due to a “play anytime” approach that Ubisoft–for reasons I cannot even begin to fathom–decided to take with all the post-launch content for this game, all DLCs for Valhalla are exactly that: they can be played at any time. They go to great pains to avoid spoiling story points from the base game, they rarely make references to events from the base game and, perhaps most critically here, they don’t build on any of the plotlines of the base game. 

Remember that pin we stuck in Odin earlier? Hi. He's back.

None of the DLCs released in post-launch–from Wrath of the Druids to The Siege of Paris, to smaller, free additions such as the River Raids–touch on Eivor’s connection to Odin or her understanding of it, or any of the other potential threads left behind by the base game. Other more mythologically inclined entries like the Mastery Challenges, Dawn of Ragnarok, and The Forgotten Saga scratch the surface of it, but never dig deep enough for Eivor to put two and two together. Even in the Odyssey crossover with Kassandra, who has intimate knowledge of the Isu and their artifacts, Eivor remains completely clueless about her role as a sage despite it being the perfect opportunity for her to learn more. 

At no point is Eivor shown to make any wild revelations about her Isu heritage that could justify her decision to leave. There is a gaping hole in the narrative where that development should be, and therefore the jump from “everything else” to “I’m older now, and I want to learn from the god who lives in my head,” is unearned and comes from completely out of nowhere. The DLCs could have remedied this easily by giving us deeper insight into how Eivor interprets her visions, specifically how she interprets her relationship to Odin. They could have dug into how and when she comes to terms with that connection, and the same could be said for how she comes to know about all the other sages, including Harald, who Eivor and Sigurd suddenly seem to know about being the reincarnation of Freyr despite not seeing him in more than a decade and never mentioning it before. But they can’t, because the DLCs are playable at any time, and therefore cannot discuss things the player may not yet understand.

The brevity of this DLC was especially jarring, even as someone who went into this with low expectations. Because after two years worth of updates, including some sizable free ones, I thought that surely Eivor’s conclusion would be considered important enough to receive the time and attention it deserved. After all, Kassandra got her own surprise ending in the form of the Crossover Stories, announced completely out of nowhere two years after the last DLC for Odyssey was released. After all the time and effort and love that clearly went into that crossover, it seemed reasonable enough that the ending for Valhalla, a game that was still being supported, would have the same amount of effort put into it, if not more. Instead we got a barely there wrap-up that lasts maybe 45 minutes at most, if you’re being generous, and fails spectacularly at offering the catharsis that should be a no-brainer in a story where the main character’s death has been a mystery to be unraveled, right from the beginning. 

Eivor is dead. She has been dead for centuries, buried across an ocean from everyone and everything she knew in life. The how and why of Eivor’s burial site is a question that follows us through her entire journey and throughout the entire game. One that was never resolved… until now, with some vague notion about leaving everything she has worked for and everyone she holds dear behind in an attempt to find herself, all with the help of an entity with whom her relationship has been tenuous at best. Eivor decides to banish the part of her that is Odin because she doesn’t like that part of herself. That second soul, the part of her that values personal glory above all else. Even in The Last Chapter, she describes Odin’s memories as “malicious.” So why backtrack so completely? 

I have no idea.

It’s possible the developers weren’t given enough time to give this final chapter the breathing room it needed to make sense. It’s possible they had lost enthusiasm, and just wanted to rip the band-aid off and get this thing over with. It’s possible Ubisoft wanted to cobble together the scraps of a potentially satisfying ending so they could say they did it, before turning all of their attention to their next title. As it stands, I wish they had just left Valhalla alone, with an open ending, instead of providing a non-answer that feels like an afterthought. An incomplete conclusion to a story and a cast of characters that many of us still care so much about, but Ubisoft seemingly gave up on long ago. 

Eivor deserved better. 

The Raven Clan deserved better. 

Valhalla deserved better. 

We, the fans, deserved better.

If you actually read this far then there is a good chance that you also need therapy

This whole affair really reminds me of the last time I felt this profoundly disappointed by a piece of media I loved. It reminds me of how I felt after watching the second season finale of The Mandalorian, when it hit me that the whole season had just been a series of various cameos and fan service moments that only made sense to the plot at a stretch. It hit me that I had just spent the previous eight weeks watching the show runners completely sideline their main characters–Din Djarin and Grogu–and lose the plot in favour of promoting future Star Wars projects. When it seemed like all the good writing in the show previously had been entirely accidental. But the major difference between The Mandalorian and the ending of Valhalla is that I knew there would be another season of The Mandalorian to potentially patch things up and pick up on some of the plot threads that were dropped. For Valhalla, this is it. There is no more content upcoming that will patch this up and, in hindsight, there are plenty of other things added to this game in post launch that I think would have also made me feel the same way I feel right now if I knew they were the last piece of content we’d ever see. 

Am I overthinking this? Perhaps. Am I being melodramatic? Probably. But to me, this ending for Eivor feels like yet another perfect example of what happens when corporate interests are allowed to dictate creative decisions. 

I say all this as someone who has and will continue to defend a lot of Valhalla’s faults, because if writing this whole thing has done anything, it has served to remind me how good the core narrative of the base game really is. It has depth, it has heart, and I hope that other people who enjoyed it as much as I did–and are as disappointed by The Last Chapter as I am–are able to reconcile the beauty of Eivor’s character arc in the main game with the way it was seemingly undone in The Last Chapter. 

I’m trying my very best to not let this ending retroactively take away all the joy I’ve found in this game for the past year. And in spite of how negative this critique has been, writing it has actually really helped me do just that. Because in writing this critique, I was also looking back on Valhalla’s narrative, its highs and lows, its major plot points, and I was re-watching clips. A speed run of Eivor’s greatest hits, if you will. 

I was reminded of why I connected so strongly with Eivor in the first place. I was reminded of her strength, her kindheartedness, her love of children, her wit, the poetry of her dialogue, her sense of duty. I was reminded of her rage, her single mindedness, her sense of loyalty that is often to her own detriment when she offers it to those who don’t deserve it. I was reminded of her character arc from someone who spends so much of her life on a single minded quest for revenge, to someone who becomes a beloved leader to her people. 

I was reminded of the Valhalla sequence at the end of the game, a sequence that still makes me cry just as much now as it did the first time I played it, if not more. When Eivor, who has spent most of her life feeling nothing but resentment and shame toward her dead father, finally learns to understand why he did what he did. When she understands why he laid down his axe, the very same axe she holds now, in the futile hope that his daughter, his wife, and the rest of his people would be spared, only for most of his people to be slaughtered anyway. When Eivor has finally realized, through years of acting as a leader to her people, why Varin did what he did, even in opposition to everything she has ever been taught to value. When she has grown enough to realize that she too would make the exact same choice her father did, her cowardly father, because she too would die in dishonour if it offered even the slightest chance to save her loved ones. When Eivor, who has spent her life trying to justify her existence by being useful, finally accepts that her parents died because they loved her and not because she didn't do enough. When Eivor is holding the very same axe now that her father held then and the High One himself is offering her wisdom and glory and power and she, like her father before her, drops her axe and turns her back and chooses love instead.

That is the version of Eivor I will remember. Not the hastily cobbled together ghost of her that we saw in The Last Chapter.

[fl3shm4id3n]

ᵢ'ₗₗ Wₐᵢₜ Fₒᵣ Yₒᵤ

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐭 𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞, 𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐲.

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ɴᴇᴛᴇʏᴀᴍ ᴛᴇ ꜱᴜʟɪ ᴛꜱʏᴇʏᴋ'ɪᴛᴀɴ x ᴏᴍᴀᴛɪᴄᴀʏᴀ! ꜰᴇᴍ! ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

ꜱᴏɴɢ: ᴘᴀʙʟᴏ ᴀʟʙᴏʀᴀɴ- ꜱᴀᴛᴜʀɴᴏ

Tw: angst, flashback, death of a broken heart, malnourishment, depression, traveling with a corpse, death of exhaustion, sad but happy ending? sorry for any grammar mistakes, I'll edit his later.

A/N: I really liked the tale of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, hopefully this fic is of your liking.

Masterlist

It felt as if it were yesterday, when Neteyam had told you the news that he was living with his family to be with the Metkayina clan, the reef na'vi.

"Must you really go?" You asked with tears running from you eyes down your cheek. Neteyam was holding onto your hands, tightly, as if he didn't want to let you go. "I have to, or else, the clan may be in danger, my family is in danger." He said, trying his hardest in not cry, he wanted to remain strong for you. You sobbed "but, the clan can help, you father is Toruk Makto" you pointed out while crying.

Neteyam then pulled you into a tight hug, allowing you to cry on his shoulder. You somewhat sounded like his mother, she had pointed out to his father that he was the great Toruk Makto. "I'm sorry y/n, but i's not going to be easy. We have to go, or else, we could die, you and the clan can die because of us." He said, while hugging you close to him. You cried harder while you had your arms wrapped around his torso.

He then pulled you away slightly, making you face him. Your eyes were red and puffy from the crying. "Let's make a promise" Neteyam's words caught your attention. "A promise?" you asked while looking at him. He nodded. "Yes, that we will wait for one another, no matter how long it takes, I will return to you, I promise" he said the most calmest possible. You noticed the years in his eyes. You thought about it for a moment, then you nodded to him. "I'll wait, I'll wait for you." Those wee you final words to him.

The next day you along with your family and the whole clan was gathered at the Spirit Tree. You had been in tears already, watching how Tarsem 'killed' Toruk Makto, making him the Olo'ektan while JakeSully and his family left. You and Neteyam shared a glaze, who would of thought it would be the last. You felt your heart ache, painfully when you watched him leave with his family, you basically had gone hysterical.

You had missed him dearly. You'd hoped that it was just a bad dream that you had, you'd go to you secret spot and see if he might have been there, but not, it was real, he was really gone. He had left behind one of his necklaces, you wore it the whole time and never took if off. Neteyam loved the necklace, so you cherish it every day.

For days, you cried, you could not get used to the absence of Neteyam and his family. As much as you tried not to shed a tear, you couldn't help it. Not only that but you began to feel a sharp pain on your chest, you could feel your heart burning by the pain of not being able to see the love of you life. Not only that but you had completely neglected yourself. You barely left your home, you barely ate anything o drank anything at all. You just couldn't do it no matter how hard you tied.

This made your family concern, they thought that you'd be okay after a while, but no, you were not okay. They had asked Mo'at for some help. when she got a look at you, she knew something was wrong, due to how thin and sickly you have got. You no longer smiled or were active like before.

Mo'at had mentioned how he grandson would no have liked it f he saw you like this. The mention of his name made you cry in hysteria, anything that reminded you of Neteyam made you cry, even the mention of his name would get you to tear up. Mo'at understood how you were feeling, she felt the same way when someone were to mention her daughter, son and her grandchildren, she didn't blame you.

Several months had passed, you did not get any better, you were worse. You had got sick due t the lack of eating, drinking and sleeping. At this point Mo'at had asked the scientists for help, thy tried their best into help heal you, but nothing, nothing could of been done, you were in the verge of death. You had been bed ridden, numb and would not say a word that wasn't Neteyam. All you could think about was Neteyam, wondering when he'll return, nothing else mattered to you you just wanted Neteyam.

One day you heard your family talking, about something that happened to Neteyam. He got shot and most believed that he did not survive, this broke your already damaged heart. You began to shed tears, believing that rumor to be true, that was you final cry until you had passed that night when everyone went to sleep and have wished you a good night. The next morning, your family was distraught, you mother had tried to wake you, but you were cold to the touch, you were dead. They new from the scientist that you could of died at any moment, but it still hurt. Specially since it was your mother who had found you.

While everything was getting prepared for your funeral, the Sully's hand come back. No one expected for them to come back, specially around this time. Neteyam was alive, everyone was glad that they were back and well. When Neteyam asked about you, that was when things were going to turn out bad. He did no believe it when he was informed about your death. But when he got a look at you, he was destroyed.

Neteyam wanted to be in denial, you must have been sleep and just cold. He tried to wake you, even got a blanket to try and warm you up, nothing. He desperately wanted you to wake up and see that he was there, that he had come back like he promised. You were dead. He couldn't help but cry, he cried while hugging your corpse. He still couldn't believe that you were gone, you both had made a promise, a promise he kept, but you death was not part of that promise. Neteyam felt that he was responsible for your death, you waited and waited, but you couldn't handle his absence. He felt broken.

He stayed with your body that night, holding you as if you were sleeping next to him. He didn't want to let you go, ever. That night he dreamt of the things you both did years back. How you both hunted together, went of flights at night and would star gaze for hours. The next morning before anyone would b awake, Neteyam had taken you body with him. He was going to take you to the highest mountain on Pandora, he wanted for you and him to see the stars one more time together.

Neteyam didn't take his ikran with him, instead he walked with you in arms. He walked for days, non stop, not caring that he was exhausted, he just kept n gong. The whole walk he would sing your songcord, day and nigh, he'd sing it, as well as add another part to your songcord, for only him to sing and know.

Finally he had arrived to the highest mountain, but before anything, he had made you a bed out of flowers that he knew you'd like for sure. He then laid you down on the flower bed and used the remaining flowers to put around you. He had lid a torch using some wood he found, so when it was dark. For the rest of that day, Neteyam kept singing your songcord for hours and hours until night fall.

That nigh he laid next your copse, looking at the stars while he torch was still lit. For some reason that nigh the stars were much prettier then usual, some he thought that he could see you face smiling at him. He reached over to hold you hand, weakly. Neteyam felt his eyes getting heavier by the minute, all he could think of is you. Just you, the thing he saw was the stars that he could swear he heard you call out his name to him. "Yawne" beloved, he whispered one final time.

Neteyam had then woken up, in a strange placed, it looked like the forest, but this place was surrounded with purple plants, purple light and the trees were of the Spirit Tree instead of regular trees. He sat up to look around, trying to get an idea of where he was. Then he saw a figure walking towards him, when he got a better look, he noticed that it was you. You were alive and seemed well, also happy that you saw him. You looked just like how you did before he left.

"Y/n?" he called out to you, he quickly got up and ran towards you, bringing you into a hug. You hugged him back tightly, nearly fallling to the floor. "I'm so happy to see you" he said while hugging you even tighter tears steaming down his face. "I'm happy to you too, Teyam" you said while hugging him, also developing tears. You stayed in each others arms for who knows how long, it didn't matter though, you were just glad that to be together again.