#and the potential for interesting plotlines just based on that alone

[balis77]

Shout out to Ultimate Spider Man for having one of the coolest fucking ideas ever (Gwen Stacy coming back to life as the new Carnage) and proceeding to do absolutely fucking nothing with it before they were like "oh Venom ate the Carnage part of her so she's normal now".

[thetoadking1]

My Top 10 Favorite Magnus Archives Characters

Note: This only will feature characters who showed up in voice on podcast. It will also not include characters from protocol. I will feature an honorary mentions section at the bottom.

Additional note: This is my own opinion. Feel free to disagree

Jonathan Sims: Look, judging from my fics you'd probably assume that Jonah was my favorite. I love Jonah deeply but Jon is one of the most well developed and relatable characters I have seen in a very long time. He has a good arc (one that could have only been improved by him going evil but that might just be me). I liked him in season one because I knew exactly what his deal was based on vibes alone and then got confirmed right. He's iconic. He's relatable. He deserves to traumatize people.

Elias/ Jonah Magnus: You knew this was coming. I think he's fun. He's evil and loves it. His character has a lot of interesting history with Smirke which in and of itself ties in with the world he's set in. He's also really funny (second funniest character in the podcast). But most importantly, he's a complex narrative foil to Jon. He's what Jon would have become if he turned to the Eye. And I just think that's neat.

Peter Lukas: The funniest character in the podcast I swear. Almost every one of his off beat comments had be wheezing with laughter. I shrieked at "that's Leitner too". While I wasn't the biggest fan of his whole extinction plotline, I respect the aesthetic. Like, who wouldn't want to live on a boat and feed sailors to a fear god of loneliness? (Look what he did to Martin was shitty but also consentual. Martin knew what he was getting into)

The Distortion (Michael and Helen): I categorize these two together because they're functionally the same entity taking different forms. I appreciate Michael for his whole spooky vibe. (Not so much the neon/80s/ rainbow thing the fandom gave him; I don't know where that came from). His inhuman nature was great, his backstory was interesting. Helen is even more interesting. Remember what I said about Elias being a foil to Jon? Helen is also a foil to him. She began her avatar journey around when he did. She was manipulated into Jon's life by Elias. She lost a few points because I think her potential was dropped in season five. She felt like a third wheel. Overall though, a good time.

Georgie Barker: I just like Georgie. She's cool. She has a cat. I love her cat. She has a ride or die response to people in her life including Jon. She was willing to lie to the police for him which is cool. Lost points for some of her behavior in season four but honestly, you gotta stick with the girlfriend and Melanie blinded herself to get away from that place

Trevor Herbert: as far as characters who actually speak in podcast, Trevor Herbert is among the ones who gets the least attention. I cannot fathom why, considering how diehard this fandom is about old man yaoi and found family. (Or at least I hope I'm wrong). But his arc is moving (so moving I stole it for an OC). I just like him (But seriously how is he only in 173 fics on AO3. Only ones with fewer fics on AO3 that I could find after a brief search were Maxwell Rayner, Manuela Dominguez, and Adelard Decker). Which is crazy for a guy I'm pretty sure got mentioned more often than Gerry.

Gertrude Robinson: I love Gertrude for two reasons: 1) because she's a character who was forced to make the hard choices and she made them and 2) her impact on the plot. She played the trolly problem every day and lost everything. She was betrayed by her assistant and forced to kill her. Then she got killed by her boss. She did everything she could to save the world even though it was all for nothing. And that's what makes her all the more tragic. I could write a whole essay about Gertrude's narrative influence and her also being a foil to Jon but this is already getting long.

Nikola: Do I even need to get into it? She's a mannequin clown who skins people and is gleeful about it. Only reason she's this low is because her inter-character dynamics aren't as interesting. She's great

Breekon and Hope: I just really like their dynamic between each other, especially Breekon post Hope. A neat idea.

Sasha James: I thought she was fun in season one and was quite sad to see her go so soon. But I appreciated the way she haunted the narrative.

Honorable Mentions: The Admiral, obviously. He's number one. Jonathan Fanshawe (the guy who told Jonah Magnus to fuck off). Also Gwen from Protocol because she's such a disaster and I love her.

[alpaca-clouds]

My Predictions for Nocturne Season 2

Alright, I have promised to do some predictions for Nocturne season 2 - mainly just for the hell of it. And because some people have asked me about it. So, I am trying to make my predictions.

I will do these per character, rather than going on about general plot points.

It should be noted in general, that since Powerhouse has so far not gotten Green Light for season 3 of Nocturne, I am assuming that they will try to end the Erszebeth plotline within season 2, as I am thinking they will try to not have the show potentially be cancelled on a cliffhanger. (Yes, I have maybe too much trust? xD)

Alright. Let's get me started.

Also: I originally wrote this before yesterday's trailer dropped. But I reworked it a little.

Richter Belmont

With Richter it is going to be assumed, that he will have a more classical hero's journey. I will once again iterate: My reading of Nocturne is, that the show will very much take this idea of a "divine bloodline". Annette is a descendant of Ogun, and I am fairly certain there will be a point being made out of both Maria (more about her a bit later) and Richter and in extension the entire Belmont family, also descending from a god. I am not sure which one. I am personally assuming that it will be some Celtic god, that is supposed to be forgotten. I am not sure if they will name a specific name - but I am fairly sure that this is going to be a point that is going to be revealed somehow.

Other than this, I am assuming his relationship with Annette will further develop. I am going to assume he will learn to connect to the place of the ancestors through her, because to me this would make a lot of sense.

From the second trailer I assume that there will be at least two episodes in which he will be alone with Alucard and Annette. Probably to show a couple of different aspects of him, given that for season 1 he mainly interacted with others only while Maria was there. So him getting away from Maria will also help to show him from a different perspective.

I am also somewhat expecting his story to get a bit darker, as I am expecting that if they get another season, they might go into a Richter corruption arc, like it happens in Symphony of the Night. In SotN this obviously comes a bit out of nowhere - and I am assuming the show will set this up a bit more. Especially as I am not going to guess he is fully possessed by Shaft or something. But either way, I am going to assume there will be some groundwork laid, but the season ain't gonna end with an already corrupted Richter. It will just be posed as a possibility before the end of the series.

Maria Renard

Alright, with Maria there is definitely more interesting stuff going on based on the second trailer especially. We saw her use a very differnt form of magic from what we have seen in season 1. While in season 1 her magic is very light and predominated by round forms, in season 2 we see dark magic with edgy forms going on. And her eyes will get dark at some point. I think we might learn something about where her magic is coming from. And I am assuming that this indeed has to do with the Otherworld from celtic mythology. Given that Edouard brought this up before, that the "other worlds" in different mythologies might be the same it might tie into that.

Something I keep wondering about: In the games that came up out of Japan, her animals are based on the Four Holy Beasts of the Cardinal Directions, because the game is from Japan. Now, in the show so far they have not been named as Suzaku, Byakko, Genbu and Seiryu. But... Yeah, I do wonder if this is going to come up.

I really do wonder if they will bring in something on Fae through Maria. We never got full confirmation whether fae exist in this world. However, it would make sense.

One way or another: I am fairly certain we will learn more about her magic. That is what I am rather sure about.

Annette

Annette is to me right now the hardest character to place in terms of her character arc. Because here is the thing: She is the one character who in season 1 goes through a pretty complete character arc. She has her wants in the beginning, she realizes her need. Yes, she failed, and I am assuming she will try to find out more about her powers in season 2, but I actually do not think there will be a whole lot of character development beats.

I am assuming that her plot will have two aspects to it in season 2. For one, she has some knowledge about magic that nobody else has, because she comes at it from a different perspective and knows of the Plane of the Ancestors. So, I assume that she will somewhat take the role of a teacher towards Richter.

I also am going to assume that she and Richter will look more into the background of the Egyptian gods. And I would not be surprised that through it she learned more about the real gods in the world. While Egypt is far away from the Yoruba homelands, I do wonder if there is something that overlaps there? I am just assuming that there is a reason that she is part of the "find out about Egypt" team.

Edouard

We do see Edouard in the second trailer for a couple of shots, marching with a night creature army into what seems to be Paris. Now, Edouard is another character who is heavy on the thematic aspect of this show. Especially in his face on the theme of free will. We can gather already, that he will free a couple of other night creatures through his singing. And while we only see shots of him in Paris, I am going to assume that he has some side plot going on before that.

I would argue that there is going to be the topic brought up of how this new night creature machine works. While we never get a full confirmation on how exactly this works in the old show, the fact that FlysEyes is probably from like the 7th or 8th century - or his soul is. So it is probable that for the most part the night creatures in the old show were souls that had hung in "hell" for a while pulled into random bodies.

But we see that Drolta, Edouard, and Jacques are all their own souls back in their own bodies. So the machine Emmanuel got works differently. And I would not be surprised if Edouard and Jacques will look into that at some point.

I am also... something tells me they might get into trouble and Olrox will help them escape? They need to escape after all before they can participate in the finale.

Tera

Okay, here is my prediction: No. Tera is not going to die. Dun dun duuuuun.

From what we see in the trailer, this obviously seems like the likely outcome. Tera is now evil, because she is a vampire, and everyone is going to fight against her, and she will even try to kill her own beloved daughter, so obviously she will die and it will be tragic.

While I am not 100% sure what is going to happen, I am certain she is under some sort of control while at the stone circle, and she will fight Juste there. But Maria will come in there, and she will somehow manage to get through to her mother.

And this is also where the beast-creature will show up. I am not sure how that creature relates to Tera and Maria. But I am certain that the creature showing up has probably to do with Tera's mind control.

While I am sure she is not going to die, I do notice her absence in the second trailer for the clips from that final battle. But I am still fairly certain she does not die.

However, I would not be surprised if Maria at some point thought her dead (and that might be the trigger for the Seiryu sequence?).

Juste Belmont

Okay, I am gonna be spicy with my take here: I almost expect Juste to die. Because for him to die in a heroic sacrifice would make so much sense for his narrative. He is that old generation, who has once failed and now has lost the believe that he could still make a big difference.

I am fairly certain we will get a scene within the first two episodes that go exactly in how he has failed Lydie and Maxim. Some people assume that Maxim might still be alive as a monster, werewolf or vampire. Though some part of me thinks that that is not gonna happen, because it would convolute the plot too much. Again, I am assuming they will try to present us with a season 2 that has something that can work as an ending. So while I could see that the show might leave it a bit open that maybe Maxim shows up eventually, I am guessing there will be no showdown on this in any way.

See, Juste sees himself also responsible for the death of his daughter. And I am assuming that he will be the one snapping Tera out of the control or whatever, to save at least one mother to Richter.

Now, him we see in the final battle. So we know he will at least survive till the big final. But I still cannot help: Yes, there is just the fact that in the trailer we see him under what seems to be a cherry blossom tree, and my anime-brain just cannot help and think: "Oh boy, someone is gonna die, aren't they?"

Olrox and Mizrak

In the new trailer we do finally see the two of them in a couple of scenes. We do know they will probably make up with each other, though I suspect they will not meet up again before episode 4. (I will talk about what I expect the episodes to go like a bit further down.) I am fairly certain that Olrox will be confronted by Drolta and Erszebeth about how he is a double agent, and might have to flee because of it. I am not quite sure about the details, but I am almost certain somehow he is going to be forced to make his decision who he is fighting for. As I said above, I could absolutely see that he might be the one to free the night creatures who are right now kept, but rebellious.

We see Mizrak with the others, and I am assuming he will be working together with Juste and Maria. We see one shot of him back in the Church in Machecoul, so I guess he comes along with Maria and Juste to that place.

We also know he probably tries to join the battle of Drolta and possible some other night creatures against the Blues. And I am guessing that the scene of him and Olrox together takes place after that battle.

Drolta

Okay, everyone who reads my blog knows my thought on Drolta. I knew she was not dead, because her role in the plot was not over. And very sure that in general her role in the story will be to reveal Erszebeth's weakness. She was a priestess of Sekmet, who for some reason decided to team up with Erszebeth. I do not know if we will have Drolta as the kind of colonized, who team up with the colonizer hoping to gain power for themselves, or if she did it in some way with the hope to protect her culture. But I am very sure, that Drolta is who got Erszebeth to drink the blood of Sekmet. And I am fairly certain that we will learn this season how that happened - and that this is the reason that Drolta is still alive.

I can absolutely see Drolta dying afterwards, but... Look, form the very first moment we saw Drolta I was fairly certain, that she is eventually playing a role for the good side eventually. I am not fully sure if she will cross sides (especially as we can see her fighting Annette and Juste in scenes in the trailer that seem to happen during the finale). But I think somehow we will learn about her and her relationship to Erszebeth.

Alucard

Okay, Alucard is also someone who we can now make a lot more predictions on. While we do not see him in the scenes with the Egyptian gallery fight, I am going to assume he is with Annette and Richter at the time - because we see those three together at multiple points in the trailer. Hence my assumption that he is with them. But I still wonder, what is going to happen with this scene where we see him in an Egyptian temple. Because I am 100% certain that is not a historical display, but actually in Egypt. Which is why I do wonder, if this is a flashback or something different.

Erzsebet

Again: I do not expect this to fully end on a cliffhanger. (Powerhouse, do not let me down xD) So I am gonna say: Erzsebeth dies.

That's it. We will learn more about her getting Sekmet's blood and all that. But... I am not going to assume she will be somehow redeemed. And I think she will lose slowly her control over her divine form. That is what I am gonna assume.

You cannot steal culture. You cannot steal gods.

My Prediction for the Episodes

So, whatI am expecting for the episodes so far is the following:

Episodes 1-2: I think these first two episodes will mainly go into establishing the new status quo and involve some info dumps. We will see Drolta come back, and the characters plan out their next moves. They will go to Juste for advice, and then will come up with a plan. Juste, Mizrak and Maria will go back to the church (maybe to free the night creatures?) - and Annette, Richter and Alucard will try to find out more about Sekmet.

Episodes 3-5: Juste, Mizrak, and Maria will deal with something at the church. Again, not quite sure what. There will be a fight. Some scenes with Maria and Juste. Also there will be the fight with Tera (probably later in those episodes) and they will get Tera back onto their side. And we will learn more about Maria's powers. Also they will probably hear about some ambush or something with the Blues which will make Mizrak go and try and warn them, I guess. But he will be to late.

Meanwhile the others try to learn about Sekmet. There will be some opposition. But eventually they will learn SOMETHING. I am assuming that towards the end of these episodes Alucard will travel ahead to Paris.

Episodes 6-8: Everyone is going to bit by bit arrive in Paris. Alucard will help the Blues prepare for the battle. And then the last two episodes will probably be fairly heavy on action. Of course interspliced with enough slower scenes, because action animation costs a lot mroe than dialogues. xD

[runnning-outof-time]

A Note to the Reader:

Hi there, it’s K!

First off (I’m assuming you’re looking into my newest series if you’re reading this) thanks so much for being interested in my latest writing endeavor!

This idea has been with me for several months now and I’m so very happy that it’s finally coming to fruition. I’ve been having so much fun planning it out and writing it….it feels like the early days where I was writing To Be Alone — it’s been nice to have that spark and excitement return.

The biggest thing I’d like to say about this series is that it’s based off of the Red Dead Redemption 2 characters Arthur and Mary’s story — that game is near and dear to my heart and upon my latest playthrough of it this idea came to mind. It won’t follow what goes on in the game completely, but the overarching plotline comes from it. I’d also like to say that the title: To Be Loved Once and True is a nod to the mission title used for Arthur and Mary: We Loved Once and True. It felt like another lovely way to pay homage to where the idea came from.

Next I’d like to note that while this series will follow the events of season 3 of Peaky Blinders, I’ve taken some creative liberties and played with the timeline and the order in which things happened in the season. I tried and tried to make it work seamlessly but just couldn’t get it to fit the events I wanted to include and have the story flow the way I wanted it to. Time is also a weird thing … the show kind of goes about it weirdly and there may be points where I misinterpret it….I’m going to try my best with acknowledging it but there may be points where it’s missed, and also points where events are more spread out on the timeline. It just didn’t feel right cramming everything that I have planned into such a short span of time (a span the series doesn’t even explicitly state)…but hey, it’s fanfic…I can do this, right?

It should also be known that I’m not the best at assigning faceclaims. This is probably not a big deal in the eyes of the majority of the people who will read this story, but I wanted to note that for the created characters’ faceclaims (aka the characters who weren’t present in canon PB) I went based off of who I was picturing in my head and who’s picture jumped out at me for having potential to play the character I was writing. It was rather hard finding people who matched the era as well, but I tried my best. I hope these choices won’t upset anyone as that truly was not/is not my intention.

I got the idea of adding chapter names from the amazing Lauren ( @littlepeakydevil ) …. I felt it was easier to keep track of what was happening where in the story as I was planning, and I have to admit that it was pretty fun coming up with a title for each chapter.

Finally it’s noted on the main series masterlist, but I’d also like to share it here — there will not be any explicit smut in this series. I do not feel comfortable with writing those types of situations to their full extent…the most I feel I can do is describe them in the way they’d be shown in a pg-13 rated movie. This may turn away some readers who are looking for that sort of content…..there’s a bunch of it on here, so I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for (I’d also hope you’d take a chance on my story as well).

I think that’s all. If you’ve read this far down please know that I appreciate you greatly and I hope that you’re as excited as I am to embark on this journey I’m about to share with you! I hope you won’t hate it :)

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in the story!

[bracken-black]

First of all this isn’t a mark against the devs. They were fighting for their lives to get the game made at all I 100% blame EA for these elements being missing from the Final Cut. Please don’t come onto this post moaning about how bad you think the game is. If you want to whinge go make your own post.

That being said here are some things I think would have made veilguard better overall (spoilers below)

1 (with big flashing arrows and blinky neon lights) - THE ARCHITECT. We’re fighting the risen gods who are confirmed to be the old gods that darkspawn hear and follow, and since the first game there’s been a faction of darkspawn freed of their control. That would have been an incredibly interesting point to bring up, especially with a warden rook. Even if it was more centred around Harding’s questline rather than the main story, perhaps the liberated darkspawn could have aided Kal Sharok somehow (maybe if the final confrontation was tweaked slightly and we saw cinematics from the different parts of Thedas we’d been helping throughout the game, perhaps we could have seen the dwarves fighting alongside them.)

2- Merrill. The first expert on eluvians we ever met and we don’t hear a peep from her. (Isabela mentions her during a joke about mispronouncing some elven but come on.) Even a dialogue from one of the veil jumper leaders about a contact helping them with eluvian lore would have been appreciated. It’s basically the same argument as morrigan being in inquisition instead of her. She was shown to be one of if not the first to unlock the eluvians secrets after the ancient elves fell and yet now it feels like every fucker and their aunt can just get one up and running with a bit of elbow grease.

3- where are all the elves that are supposedly following solas now? The trespasser credits mentioned servants from all across thedas joining his movement yet all the elves we meet talk shit about him and the rest of the gods. And when did they find out the gods were tyrants? Did solas go around with a megaphone giving speeches? In that case why is he working alone? Surely some of his audience would have joined his crusade? Maybe in the 10 years between games they joined him then got tired of his shit and left.

4- what’s up with meredith and her red templar army? I know it was a plotline from the animated show but I was under the impression it was still canon? They mentioned marching on tevinter and we’re based in and around tevinter throughout the game. Again even a mention through dialogue or a codex would have been something. Red lyrium is still a prominent part of the story so wouldn’t an army of soldiers infected with it be relevant? Again this could revolve around Harding’s story since we find out what red lyrium is and could potentially cure it?

Idk these are just some things I would have liked to see in the game. I think it would have helped make it feel more involved with the previous games and tied up some stories nicely. (Though I have heard this was supposed to be a soft reboot so I guess that wasn’t what the devs wanted.)

[2-steps-forward]

can i ask about what arima's role is like in this AU? how what happened between he and kaneki differs? i'm yet to read the fics, i hope to soon, but i'm very intrigued!

This AU / fic is heavily a WIP and as for planned ideas I'm only up to around like... the equivalent of the Kanou Lab Raid, I guess? I'm trying to diverge from canon and change things up, so I'm still feeling my way through a lot of how I want this to go. But also, this story is much more character- and world- based than it is necessarily plot, so finding a through-plot isn't really high on my priority list. It's more slice of life, I suppose...?

There's so many Tokyo Ghoul characters and I'm kinda just adding them in and figuring them out as-needed.

And Arima is one who hasn't really popped up that often, so I have a few different ideas but nothing solid.

Right now the only “content” I have with Arima is the file TSF-V14. It technically comes at the end chronologically, but it's really just an offshoot what-if ending — there's a few minor callbacks but it could be read alone, if you want. Even then, it’s not that much; Arima gets a tiny scene at the start, and they talk about him briefly a bit later.

Since Kaneki's a full ghoul in this au, Arima really doesn't have much interest in him. He's just another ghoul like any other; there's nothing special about him to catch Arima's eye.

That said, Hide exists. And when he gets the chance to work with Arima, he'll absolutely find a way to convince Arima to not kill him, and make Kaneki's survival a requirement for cooperating with him and Eto.

On Arima's side, he looks at Hide and Kaneki's interspecies friendship and is like "Hmm. Maybe I can use this..."

Arima is just purely neutral on Kaneki, though. If he's told to kill him by the CCG, he will. If he can get away with sparing him, then he will, because he knows Eto wants to keep Hide as an ally. If he can use Kaneki for something, he will. He's kinda just playing it by ear.

And being raised as a ghoul, this Kaneki has absolutely heard of the White Reaper and he doesn't doubt the tales. But he lives in the 20th Ward, where investigators don't even carry briefcases (Tokyo Ghoul Past), so Arima’s threat is quite distant and more of a horrible nightmare scenario to think of than anything realistic.

Arima and canon!Kaneki bonding was so specific in canon and a result of so many years working closely together in a mentorship. And I just... can't really see their relationship coming anywhere close to that in this AU? My focus is on the Anteiku gang and more the OG manga’s plot than :re’s plot. So far, I can’t find myself being able to justify them interacting enough to properly bond. Or even just... interact in general for more than a few minutes or a fight.

:re splits up so many things and all-around has such a dark outlook for the ghouls by the end and that's not the direction I want this fic to go in, so I'm going to stick to the OG storyline and Anteiku's side of things, and that doesn't really leave much room for Arima? I do have A Certain CCG plotline that's been steadily coming along as I've been writing the latter half of what I already have written, so maybe there's potential to bring Arima into that? Mayhaps it results in a little coup, and Arima pops in to join them at the last second, and they're like "Holy shit we have Arima-san on our side???" and suddenly morale is high.

Arima is such a "work quietly in the shadows" kind of character that he's difficult to bring in for more than a little cameo or reference.

But! There’s always the potential for him in general “Mint Legs” fics — which is the overarching au world in which I spit out so many offshoot ideas on pure whims that don't fit into the main longfic.

So here’s some Arima-related ideas I’ve just spitballed:

Without a half-ghoul Kaneki, I think I would put Kurona as the One Eyed King instead. Mostly because she's... kinda the only half-ghoul option they would have...? But mostly because I adore the "woman as a king" trope. Kurona is such a neutral party in :re, though, so I’ve kinda struggled to make it make sense. But… maybe if Nashiro never died, and Kurona’s motives stayed on hating the CCG instead of switching to revenge on Kanou, maybe she could be convinced to take down the Washuu? And if Nashiro doesn’t die… This is starting to make me think of those old “Hide is the second one eyed king because he’s Kaneki’s other half” theories.

Eto is the easy choice to get into Kurona's head and make her want to be king, given how she immediately breaks down the twins in the Kanou Lab Raid. But the twins were both in the academy, and probably still have some respect for Arima, so he could probably equally convince them as well. I feel like he's such a beloved icon in the CCG that even disillusioned folks wouldn't be able to truly hate him.

This ask actually got me thinking about the OEK plot more, too. Originally I just automatically excluded Kaneki from Arima's OEK candidates because he's not a one-eyed half-ghoul. But then again... neither is Arima himself. But he is nearly blind in one eye. And now... I'm kind of imagining Kaneki ending up with a bad injury that doesn't heal right, making him lose an eye, and that's how he's able to “properly” claim the OEK title. Maybe Arima purposely aims a nasty hit for an eye when he's fighting Kaneki, and hoping Kaneki's strong enough to kill him. (Which he actually did in V14 in canon... Huh... Never realized that before... 🤔 Fascinating...)

[lover-of-mine]

completely agreed. i was kinda hoping buck “getting off the hamster wheel” would be him not getting into another relationship and instead just loving himself as he is, but we will see i guess

i wonder if the hate for past girlfriends but love for tommy is based in internalized misogyny? or just a need for queer buck so bad that people will chuck him with the first available guy despite them never having on screen interactions before?

Seriously, the hamster wheel comment made me think that Buck was gonna look inside and figure out what he needs, and you can have a coming out plot without shoving Buck on the first willing dick, yk? And I feel like if we put Lucy on Tommy's place and make it seem like something was gonna happen there for real this time people would be kicking and screaming that Buck doesn't need a relationship, but since it's a guy, suddenly having reservations about why would they shove Buck into another relationship is being weird about queer relationships. Do you even hear yourself? The whole thing with Buck and love is Buck finally getting to a point where he chooses himself and he's not gonna get there with another love interest. And I think it is fascinating the way people are ready to let Buck use someone as a stepping stone, legit use the guy, because even if Buck ends up in a relationship, there's still gonna be the emotional infidelity thing that everyone loves to scream about how the show needs to stop doing, even more with the way the promotion keeps making it sound like Buck and Eddie will be each other's most important relationship this season. Natalia was perfectly harmless outside the way she only cared about Buck's death and people wanted her head on a spike. Taylor had her own set of issues, I will never judge anyone for not liking Taylor, but the hysteria around Natalia was fascinating to watch because people were MAD about her even if it was clear she wasn't gonna last, but now you add the potential for a male love interest, while none of the issues with Buck just jumping into a relationship are being addressed, and suddenly this is the perfect plotline? I'm genuinely confused. I don't want Buck in a relationship right now. Not even with Eddie. They're not there yet. I know Buck is a sexual person, but what are we doing here adding another person to the mix so that Buck won't actually face the fact he doesn't know how to be alone? I'm interested in how this is gonna play out but I don't see how that is any different than putting Buck with the first pretty girl who smiled at him.

[snugglesquiggle]

So I was watching a video about JJK and my brain inevitably came back to Corrupt Combustion, which lead me down a rabbit hole of thoughts, mostly focused on Adam. Specifically, his potential interactions with Uzi.

After all, she is a decent enough threat to his plans, with her connection to Nori. But given her closeness to Doll (and whatever relationship they have with Uzi being watched by Yeva), it's interesting to think about what might happen if he learns what she's been up to with Alice.

Because with everything he's doing, him being a Solver Drone with impossible powers, Uzi's going for the same goal without them. And she's succeeding.

(It's ironic. Nori is fully capable of creating Black Boxes, but won't. Her daughter is figuring out how to get around needing them.)

Which lead my brain to spiral with the thought that maybe some of his experiments are based off her work. The Corruption Blaster (better name pending) is, at the very least, a lesson in what not to do. He wants to turn drones into weapons, yes, but having them explode is such a mess afterwards.

Or maybe its the other way around, with Uzi finding one of his villain labs and taking cues from the experiments he did to improve her own work. After all, making a Black Box would make her goal a lot easier.

Which then made my brain go "what if they worked together?"

IDK I think Uzi should have more mentor figures who are villains.

you raise an interesting point about how they might interact given their differing philosophies, but they're kind of operating in different spheres, and the timelines don't work out, i think. uzi is just another kid to adam, and adam is just another wheel group member to her. it's hard for me to think of an angle where they become more than peripherally aware of each other, let alone interested.

uzi just doesn't matter at the time adam's plotline reaches its conclusion. (well, its seeming conclusion. i havent talked about how tessa fits into corrupt combustion and it's WEIRD)

ultimately it's kind of key to CC that uzi is powerless and has no one in her corner

...which i suppose, if i'm being consistent, that's an argument that should also shut down uzi getting trained by alice, which is still an idea i like. but maybe alice gets punished/imprisoned after her failed siege on the corpse spire. (not sure the angle. maybe it comes out that she did sketchy stuff behind the scenes to force the war to happen? or maybe she's found guilty of willfully putting drones' lives in danger, idk.) this would make what happens after the citadel incident that much funnier >:3

or maybe the relationship just falls apart because alice is a bitch and they dont get along. there's a pretty punchy potential moment where uzi realize both alice and nori prefer beau to her and she just ragequits because she has too much pride to try to be someone's replacement

i should probably explain what i'm actually going to do with uzi in corrupt combustion soon

which of course requires explaining what i'm doing with J

but i'm kind of rambling off topic for this ask. i do like the idea of adam taking cues from uzi in his experiments. contemplating it further, there is a possible interaction where, before nori tells him the truth, adam sees uzi as his past self. maybe she's feeling down one day, isolated because of her seeming lack of an innate function, and he explains how he was a late bloomer too.

anyway, thank you for the ask and i'm really flattered you're still thinking about corrupt combustion after all this time <3

[megansanimelist]

Fantasy Anime (Summer 2025)

Gachiakuta

Crawl back from the abyss of Hell to change this lousy world!

Rudo lives in the slums of a floating town, where the poor scrape by under the shadow of the rich who live a sumptuous life, simply casting their garbage off the side, into the abyss. Then one day, he’s falsely accused of murder, and his wrongful conviction leads to an unimaginable punishment—exile off the edge, with the rest of the trash.

Down on the surface, the cast-off waste of humanity has bred vicious monsters, and if Rudo wants to have any hope of discovering the truth and seeking vengeance against those who cast him into Hell, he will have to master a new power and join a group known as the Cleaners who battle the hulking trash beasts of the Pit! (LiveChart)

Cool as fuck.

Lord of Mysteries

In a Victorian world of steam, dreadnoughts, and occult horrors, Zhou Mingrui awakens as Klein Moretti. He walks a razor's edge between light and darkness, entangled with warring Churches. This is the legend of unlimited potential…and unspeakable danger. (Crunchyroll)

COOL AS FUCK.

Secrets of the Silent Witch

Monica Everett, the Silent Witch, is the world's only practitioner of Voiceless Magic, a veritable heroine who single-handedly fended off the Black Dragon of legend. However, the young prodigy is actually… super-duper shy! Yup, turns out she only learned Voiceless Magic to avoid speaking in public. Ignorant of this, the Seven Sages have placed her on a top-secret mission to guard the Second Prince. Can Monica keep it together as she contends with both social interaction and the evils targeting the young royal? (Crunchyroll)

Possible reverse harem alert. At the very least we get BAMF main girl.

Clevatess

Alicia, who had dreamed of becoming a hero since childhood, is chosen by the king as one of the thirteen heroes. Armed with a legendary sword, the heroes set out to defeat the Demon King Clevatess. However, their recklessness triggers a terrible crisis that could wipe out all of humanity on the continent of Edsea. Now, the world's only hope lies with a baby entrusted to the Demon King. (MyAnimeList)

Seems like 5 plotlines shoved into 1 anime. Could be a clusterfuck that's interesting to watch. BAMF woman.

Uglymug, Epicfighter

His looks are -255, touching girls causes him pain, and sexual acts will literally tear him apart. Just what can our ex-salesman Shigeru get in the other world in exchange for such inconveniences…? This is an epic tale of one very ugly, but ridiculously strong man! (AniChart)

The description alone is funny enough to give this anime a try.

The Water Magician

Reincarnation had Ryo dreaming of peace, but instead he lands into a monster-infested wilderness. With water magic and eternal youth, he survives countless wicked concoctions for 20 years, becoming one of the most powerful magicians ever. Ryo’s fate shifts when he meets Abel, a genius knight, thrusting him into magical society’s spotlight. Thus, the Water Magician’s wild adventure begins! (Crunchyroll)

It has most of the tropes for trash power fantasy anime, but also reminds me of Frieren. Super boring first episode.

Bâan: The Boundary of Adulthood (Movie)

A story of two people in search of a new life, who leave their birthplaces—traveling to a whole different world trying to find a place where they truly belong. Set in the fictional world of Euthania, a land rich in nature with various magical races based on South East Asian Mythology, which is connected to Japan via a warp gate.

This movie was created by anime youtuber Gigguk and has lots of references to SEA culture, something that you don't see often in anime. This has a full film production team like all other anime movies do btw.

[a-shoebox-named-meap]

Your local mountain/moon buddy here.

LOVED what you responded with. That trio would inadvertently wreak so much havoc based on temperament alone. And they all carry weight from parental/circumstance expectations. your multi marriage/divorce is big brain fr. 30000 years is a long time and he would absolutely be confronted with a few marriages of convenience or diplomacy or what have you. I also have lots of thoughts bout his conflicted emotions wrt his brother.

today I was wondering, there’s usually a line or threshold we reach when we go from this was enjoyable to I’m writing meta in my head while I cook dinner. What is that point for you; is it plot or character based or something else?

greetings, buddio :) i appreciate the feedback haha, always happy to spread the aroace xunfeng agenda. but yeah i too have a lot of thoughts about xunfeng and his brother. AND im a big fan of xunfeng + xiao lanhua as in-laws. that 500-year (or however long it is) period where dfqc is missing from the world is positively ripe for in-law headcanoning. and dfqc is quite the conversation starter

to your actual question. this one made me think really hard haha, i had to like.. think back on every one of my fandom fixations and ponder what made them interesting enough to keep playing with in my head. my thoughts haven’t fully condensed but my current conclusion is that the key features are Fun Worldbuilding and Unexplained Things. and these two things can go hand-in-hand, as they do in clj/lbfad, where there’s a lot of worldbuilding tidbits that are not fully depicted or elaborated upon.

take clj/lbfad and a few other things i’ve been historically obsessed with: percy jackson, how to train your dragon, avatar the last airbender, mdzs and tgcf. none of them are set in the world as we know it, which is where my mind starts to run wild about the fictional universe and its rules and its possibilities. in clj/lbfad we’re introduced to a handful of warring entities and a war spanning many millennia, but only in broad detail. people can do magic, but they don’t all do the same magic. we know there are different races and tribes, but we only know plot-relevant information about their cultures and their relationships with each other. the story has laid the groundwork of their universe and dropped a lot of crumbs. but it leaves a lot of holes to fill in, and that’s where my mind goes.

similarly, my mind also tends to run wild with characters and plotlines by latching onto the things about them (history, feelings, personal life, etc.) that we are left uncertain about, especially canon timeskips. for example, i think about the possibilities of xunfeng and shangque a lot more than dfqc bc i started off wondering what on earth those two were doing and thinking and feeling for the 30,000 years dfqc was imprisoned. we know full well what dfqc was up to and therefore i am not interested. changheng has some potential, but i have a decent guess about what he was probably up to. but there’s a gold mine of possibilities sitting untapped in xunfeng and shangque. they dropped more crumbs about xunfeng though, which is probably why i gravitate to him the most. (for all we know shangque was just hanging at the bottom of the sea the whole time, but he seemed to stay reasonably up to date about current events, so there’s that.) there are two other major timeskips in the show — the shorter period when xiao lanhua is gone and another when dfqc disappears a second time — and i’ve found myself thinking a lot about what all the characters are doing and what conversations they’re having in those times when a central character is missing. besides timeskips, all this also applies to precanon and postcanon when the canon has left some things open-ended (mdzs, atla).

i tend to be drawn to certain fanfics for the same reasons. two of the biggest fics i’ve seen play heavily with worldbuilding and Offering (alternative) Explanations For Things are Embers by Vathara and No Paths Are Bound by Cataclysmic_Calamity. their level of detail and the tight weave of their plotlines is hella impressive, but these are two really exceptional examples that come to mind. countless fics of this variety out there <3

thanks for the question! very thought provoking :0 would love to hear other ppl’s input about this

[butterflydm]

We are getting so much information today! I feel mildly overwhelmed, lol.

But exciting! The titles are all what we already knew, I think, though we weren't certain exactly where a couple of them would land. My guesses for the season based on these summaries (also spoilers from the recent interviews, since Rosamund did spill some pretty interesting information that may be fairly spoilery):

3x01 - we saw the chaos in the Tower. Is the 'new evil' about the Black Ajah or about the Forsaken? We know that we'll be getting Egwene's Accepted Test and the bubble of evil here (and! new information via Rosamund, who is just full of spoilers, Moiraine may have made some kind of deal with Lanfear to try to separate Rand from his friends, which uh, yeah, seems like it might piss him off if he figures it out, even if he ends up agreeing with the idea that it's safer for him to be alone - but yeah, if Lanfear and Rand's secret meetings start out because of MOIRAINE's interference... well, that just about matches the giant fuck-up that she did in The Shadow Rising when she drove off all of Rand's other potential advisers because she wanted to be the only voice in his ear). We've also heard that Rand & Moiraine are going to argue about his next steps (matching the beginning of TSR) and I'm guessing this is where we get our Callandor mention, as Moiraine will tell him that he needs to go to Tear next, and he overrules her and decides on the Waste.

3x02 - the dangerous visitor is more obviously Elaida but since Lord Gaebril looks to also be visiting the Tower (a guess per a more recent still), he could definitely also qualify. It kinda sounds like Perrin might be a lot further in his journey than Rand & co, since he "returns home" here, while Rand & co "forge" a path, so Perrin might leave at the end of ep1 while Rand & co leave in ep2. I think that Siuan is going to want both the dagger and the Horn 'safely' in the Tower's custody, and I think that's how Mat is going to end up in the 13th Depository and falling into the redstone doorway. Depending on what prophecies we get there, we can figure out if anything in his plotline is going to be cut or if it's all going to be kept. I'm placing it here just because 3x01 sounds so jam-packed and ep2 might be more focused on the group still in the Tower, with the arrival of Elayne's family and all.

3x03 - Nynaeve & Elayne get their assignments from Siuan about hunting the Black Ajah. Perrin runs into the Whitecloaks/Dain Bornhald. I wonder if Lanfear "playing a dangerous game" is about her trying to make alliances with the other Forsaken.

3x04 - Rhuidean! <3 <3 <3 <3

3x05 - I'm guessing Rand's "dark secret" that Egwene finds out is that he's been meeting with Lanfear since 3x01 (and we get the "Do you love her?" conversation from the trailer). Perrin rescues people from the Whitecloaks. Nynaeve & co arrive in Tanchico and we potentially run into Thom (depending on how many episodes we get him).

first 5 episode titles and blurbs are up!!

[knowlesian]

somehow i have not written about lucius and pete at all, which is DOWNRIGHT UNCOOL of me and as such: let’s do this.

it’s easy to let these two fade into the background when it comes to couple content; both our other main ships have conflict seeded somehow into things, either personal conflict or jim's revengequest 17k17 meaning they have to go exist in a plotline that isn't a kissing book for a while.

lucius and pete? lucius and pete meet, they don’t seem all that interested in each other. they don’t hate each other, they just seem more or less indifferent.  

then they get to know each other: and then they fall in love, and they stay that way. 

like: holy fuck, YES? more of that, please.

to be clear, i’m anything but arguing against the existence of high drama and passion and tragedy, because fiction is the absolute best place to explore dynamics that would not be super fun or healthy in real life. fiction allows a level of thoughtful remove which allows us to explore things we find frightening or exciting or shameful etc into forever without leaving the comforts of home! of course i love that shit.

but what we see so much less of— and what is often devalued or derided as boring and not worth watching or writing about— is what pete and lucius give us.

they're the opposite of dramatic. because when we talk about love as art or love as in passion, we end up slipping a lot into the language of danger and destruction; fires and hurricanes and drowning and wasting diseases. we so often think of passion in apocalyptic terms.

which is why i think it’s interesting that the show makes sure we know: lucius and pete fuck. they caps-f Fuuuuuuck. 

and they love an audience! these two have passion for each other, colloquially and otherwise. their captain filled the ship with chintz; to keep it real, they literally fuck on the floor.

and they are still so, so sweet. (have we considered: the swede didn’t have scurvy, but rather was struck by the levels of sucrose emanating off lucius and pete???? who could say.)

jokes aside these two are about both/and, not either/or.

i wrote more about this elsewhere, but i also love that we don't know how they fucked: we can draw assumptions based on the coding and what we expect from that coding, but we don’t actually know. only lucius and pete get to know exactly what they did: we only get to know that it happened, and lucius was on top. 

there's a lot happening there, you know? like. a LOT, a lot.

so anyway: pete and lucius love an audience, but they also reach for each other in their sleep and ask solicitous questions and whittle fingers and just generally improve each other’s lives. and since obviously lucius is not dead, not even a little (never, disaster, & etc), now i’m on a countdown to them holding each other again and potentially even pete ignoring the chance to chase ed with a sword to focus on showing open, public affection to the man he loves.

because i do think pete very well could/might/will harbor elaborate (and probably hilarious) fantasies of vengeance, especially if and when he finds out about The Shove, but being with lucius was what allowed him to let go of the idea that hurting somebody is how you prove your manhood.

so here’s my s2 wish for them on that angle: pete dropping his hero worship of ed and some more of his baggage about How To Man Good in one fell swoop as he kisses lucius’ fucking face off and ignores a chance to leave lucius standing there alone, criminally NOT having his face sucked off, in order to fall back into old patterns.

[depizan]

There's a Top 3 controversial SW:TOR opinions ask going around. It hasn't come to me, but I think I'll give my answers anyway. (None of which are going to be surprises for my mutuals.)

I don't like the expansions. They're a bit like the Star Wars sequel trilogy--there are some interesting characters, maybe even a few ideas that could be good, but the execution just doesn't work for me. There's an element of the story being awkwardly stapled onto vanilla SW:TOR for all of them, the stakes and plotlines feel wrong for an MMO (as opposed to a single player game with an actual ending), and by KOFEET it's just painfully obvious that they're writing for the Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior alone. The fandom has done cool stuff with the characters and even the stories, but as far as what's there in canon, I hates it, my precious. (The game play in the expansions has also tended to be punishingly unfun as well.)

The base game should have kept the galaxy in a state of cold war. Not only was that an unusual world (galactic?) state both for a Star Wars and for an MMO, but it provided an inherent tension that it rarely exploited as it could have. Build up the danger of a return to war, damn it. Have that threat hanging over everyone's head, with NPCs both pushing for it and trying to avoid it. Use it for the stakes it had the potential to give everyone's missions. It just had so much potential that it never quite lived up to, and was more interesting than the inevitable return to open war that we got.

The base game and KOFEET make opposite but equally frustrating bad decisions regarding the companion characters. Having the companions permanently stapled to the player characters no matter what in the base game cramped the story-telling. Being able to abandon/kill companions and having them potentially abandoning your character would've kept them as more consistent characters and avoided some moments that threw a lot of people out of the story regarding what their character would have done. Conversely, KOFEET making it possible to kill characters left and right, with that meaning that content for any killable character disappears after that choice, also cramped the storytelling. If you're going to make the companion characters be as integrated with the main story as KOFEET wanted them to be, then you need to continue content for them past the point at which other people might not have them any more. In the base game, the companions and their stories were self contained enough that they could be removed at various points and have it feel organic with the story. In KOFEET, it makes the only sensible canon be one in which all killable characters are dead.

[prolestari]

Strong Woman Do Bong Soon (2017)

Summary: A woman born with superhuman strength is hired by a gaming CEO to be his bodyguard.

My Rating: 7/10

Pros: The gif above shows just how goofy this show is. I laughed out loud every episode, and really liked most of the storylines. It was a really fun show to watch.

Cons: This was one of those shows where I felt like by not being Korean I was missing out on stuff. I didn't get some of the humor even though I'm sure it killed when it aired.

Fanfic-ability: 10/10. The characters are lovable enough to want to write them. There are tons of stories you can create before, during, and after the show. You could probably write a novel based on the last scene of the show alone lol. Super fun for AU's too.

Overall I liked the show a lot. It would have had a higher rating if there wasn't so much time spent with the gangsters. I didn't understand some of the jokes and wasn't especially interested, especially with so much going on with the love triangle and the kidnapper. The show also felt dated with its humor about who was actually gay. However, it was fun and goofy and Park Hung-sik remains an absolute dreamboat to watch. More spoiler thoughts under the cut!

I'm gonna do this as a sandwich. First, I liked the love triangle a lot. I'm not usually a huuuuge fan of them, but I did appreciate the fact that In Gook-Doo came to his senses and recognized that Bong Soo was girlfriend potential so early in the show. I also liked that Bong Soo recognized that she would be the rebound and didn't fall for his sudden interest in her.

Besides the gangsters (seriously what was the point of the entire monk plotline???) I really could not believe how ridiculous Min-hyuk was being about Bong Soo looking for her friend. I was howling at the idea that they expected her to go to work!!! And do a presentation!!! Literally the day after she is sent a video threatening Kyun-shim's life???? Nice way to make things all about you, Min-hyuk. Everything about that office was so weird, and then the random introduction of Gristle made it even weirder. At that point I was too invested though.

I'll end with another good thing, and that was the development of Bong Soo's relationships with her family. It was really nice to see her and her mother come to an understanding, and see her mom grow as a mother and partner. I loved how Bong Soo managed to charm everyone, from the high school gang to the gangsters to the police squad. She is probably one of my favorite K-drama characters of all time, and despite the show's flaws I really enjoyed this show!

[glamgoblin]

@machoestofmen *vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass* I'm so normal about an opportunity to express my opinion on this.

First let me say, I really love this channel and they literally do SO much to keep people updated in the bl world. Secondly, all opinions are coming from the person who managed to get herself invested in Meow Ears Up, so take that with a grain of salt. Like the bar is under hell, Satan is begging me to raise my standards. (I will not).

Thoughts under the cut!

7. Love Syndrome - Categorically wrong, should not be in the lowest ranked shows. Because it was objectively a good show? No no no....BUT I spent a long time sighing "when will my love Frank return from the war?" (literal) and he did! Eleven former GMMTV actors out of ten.

6. Boy Band - There's been a few shows about the the bl industry that have been really good (and actually critical about the industry!), so this could've been really interesting. Even though it doesn't seem like that was entirely where they were going. And a job based bl where they're not in an office too! I'm not sure why the rest of this one wasn't released internationally (esp. with Viki buying up a lot of things), but it could've been really good. I hope it gets released from prison one day, and that the plot is explored more. Eight missed opportunities out of ten.

5. Future- It's Rookie Thailand so my hopes are usually somewhere in the middle (this is absolutely personal taste and personal taste alone), but yeah maybe a little forced. Seven engineering degrees out of ten.

4. Luminous Solution - I haven't finished this yet honestly, but listen there is magic. MAG-IC! Immediate fave show. 8 unique plotlines out of ten.

3. Tin Tem Jai - I don't think I know anyone who hated this series? It just seems fine. But yeah not a lot of plot happening it's just sort of there. But in a fun way. I completely agree with what they said about couples with good chemistry but zero plot having good shows. Some of my favorite bls are only good because of the chemistry of the actors. Six suitable choices out of ten.

2. Hit Bite Love - I didn't watch this one so I can't say. I don't typically watch things with super young characters because I am old. Also it seemed too spicy from the summary so I noped out. N/A

1.Dinosaur Love- Aejoejroejoreairfjerorj DINOSAUR LOVE IS NUMBER ONE??? Out of all the shows on this list?? I'm about to be a member of the Pepper Protection Squad tm. But no I actually enjoy Dinsoaur Love. It's messy and has some...emotional whiplashes, but it's fun. It's silly. It's chaotic. That is what is /good/ about it. I was going to just do a little sentence or two but the fact that this was at number one made me want to write about all of them. It's a fun show. But be careful about trigger warnings, especially since this show doesn't bill itself as something that has potential triggers, but does.

I haven't finished all of these shows, so there's definitely things I could be missing. Buttttt regardless this was fun and everyone should watch everything with me.

The Worst BL Series of 2023, so far (according to @ThaiBL on YouTube)

I agree with ALL, except Hit, Bite, Love, which, after a few episodes I found to be quirky, often funny, and just plain weird, for the most part (but NOT one of the worst)!

[retrievablememories]

matched | ten (m)

title: matched pairing: alien!ten x black!reader genre: sci-fi, angst, fluff, romance, smut summary: the quest for love leads you to a new dating app with a slight twist—and straight into the inbox of someone who’s light-years out of your usual dating pool. word count: 9.7k warnings: familial conflict, strained parental relationship, mentions of cheating, prejudice/discrimination based on species, body modifications/alien biology, unprotected sex, oral (female receiving), dom!ten, photography during sex, cumshot, squirting, some spanking a/n: as always, i lose all impulse control whenever i get a ten request so i have finished this sooner than i expected

i decided to lean more into the romance plotline than stress too much over the realism of the science-fiction elements with this fic, so there are some inaccuracies/impossibilities...but that’s fiction for you 🙃

AM 2074 (After Migration)

You are lonely.

Your last breakup did not end well, to say the least, and you haven’t dated for a while since then. It seemed like a smart move—a safe one—to shun all romantic relationships until you felt ready again. At the beginning, you were glad to be alone for a while, to regroup and rediscover yourself worrying about another person’s opinions on everything you did. To not have to deal with someone else’s drama.

The toll of not having companionship is gradually getting to you, though. Even if your last relationship was a mess more often than it wasn’t, you still long for those good moments, like going on night dates on the weekends and sharing pillowtalk into long hours of the early morning. You hadn’t realized how much you’d missed those things until all the emotions of it crashed down on you at once.

Your friend Malika claims to have a solution for your loneliness. Now, sitting at this outdoor cafe, you’re simultaneously eager and hesitant to hear what she has to propose, knowing her track record for silly plots.

With twinkling eyes, she looks at you and says, “You should try a dating app.” She clasps her hands together and puts them on the table like she’s made a grand announcement. You absorb her words for a few moments, looking out at the street across from you and watching cars—some hovering above the asphalt, some driven autonomously, and many still with human drivers—pass by.

You eventually sigh, your shoulders slumping. “That’s the big solution you called me out here for? People have been using dating apps for decades, that’s nothing new.”

“Exactly! The fact that they’re still popular even in 2074 is proof that they work, Y/N. You can put yourself out there and talk to dozens of guys without even meeting them in person. If one connection doesn’t work out, you don’t have anything to lose, and you don’t have to see the guy ever again.”

“Maybe I’ll lose my sweet time and patience during the process, though.”

Malika shakes her head and types something into her hologram pad, then holds it up for you to see. The hologram displays a dating app called matched—it reminds you of what Tinder was supposedly like before it became eclipsed by more advanced platforms, though that happened years before you were even born. “This one is kinda new, but it’s gotten popular fast and has good success rates. I’ve tried it before and met some nice guys. Give it at least one chance before you hate on it.”

“Ugh, I don’t know...there are always so many weirdos hanging out on those apps. What if I meet someone who keeps a collection of severed alien tentacles in an icebox in their house? Like that one guy who showed up on the news?”

“...Really?” Malika rolls her eyes. “You’re so dramatic. Stop getting in your own way and just take a risk for once.”

You shake your head at her optimism. “I’ll do it because I know you won’t leave me alone about it, but don’t expect me to find some great love story on this app.”

--

Once you download the app and start making an account, it becomes pretty obvious that this isn’t just a regular dating platform.

Choosing your gender and age preferences is normal enough, and you pass through those screens quickly until you get to one that gives you two new options.

➤ Species Preference ❐ Human ❐ Extraterrestrial

Whoa. Aliens? An alien-friendly dating app?

You weren’t overly familiar with the mechanics of dating apps, and you certainly didn’t consider that ones allowing aliens might’ve existed until now. It had been 15 years since the first contact with aliens was established, and a little less than a decade had passed since aliens began migrating to Earth and taking up permanent residence—and vice versa.

Humans had little problem with accepting aliens’ technological adaptations and claiming them as their own, though they were far less welcoming of the aliens themselves. That resulted in strained interactions between the two species, with aliens trying their best to assimilate and humans questioning their every motive. As far as personal relationships went, interspecies mingling between humans and extraterrestrials was still fairly uncommon—something that only people who were considered to be on the fringes of society participated in. There were “normal citizens of society” who built relationships with aliens, but many of them also kept it solely as a kink or fetish to be done only in the dark.

You decide to check both options. It feels a little scary, like diving headfirst into the unknown, but you are open to it either way. You’ve interacted with aliens before, both as kind acquaintances and near strangers, and they’ve always been relatively normal in the grand scheme of things—beings trying to survive and make a life for themselves like anyone else. Certainly not plotting how to take over Earth as many people have speculated. If they really wanted to, they possess the technology to have done that ten times over already.

You take a while trying to come up with a clever bio and spend an even longer time mulling over which pictures of yourself to choose, but you eventually complete your profile.

The first few matches you make are not very successful.

Whether it’s human guys feeding you terrible pickup lines or alien guys who can’t make it past the language barrier—or who ask you to move back with them to their home planet after two days of talking—you don’t see any potential love interests during your first two weeks of using the app. 

You’re not sure what kind of skills Malika used to make multiple good matches, but maybe you need to interrogate her so you can sharpen your own. So you decide to do exactly that.

“Don’t give up on it just yet. Just be yourself—which also means not being afraid to cuss someone out if they come at you crazy. Some of these dudes lowkey like the mean girl shit, though, which is kinda weird.” Malika speaks from the shimmering translucent mirage of your hologram pad as you walk through the park one afternoon. She couldn’t make it out to meet you today, but you managed to snatch a moment to talk to her even if it couldn’t be face-to-face. “You probably shouldn’t expect to find a boyfriend in the first few days—”

“Girl, I don't think anyone was expecting that. Duh.”

“I’m saying, just give it time!”

“Okay, but listen. You didn’t tell me it’s also for aliens. Have you dated one before? You never told me!” You lower your voice then, not wanting anyone nearby to eavesdrop on your conversation and hear that part. You feel kinda bad for even thinking that way, but it’s hard to shake the stigma associated with interacting with aliens.

“Yes, and it was the best sex I ever had, but maybe I’ll tell you about that later.”

“Sis. Don’t withhold tea from me!”

“Someday when you’re not literally standing in the middle of the park, okay?” Malika shakes her head, smiling.

“Don’t forget about it, either.”

“I won’t. And you know what to do if you find a guy. I want to be the first to know!”

“Sure, sure. I wouldn’t hold my breath on it, though.”

You decide to spend some more time on the app after that conversation instead of just deleting it like you’d planned to initially. And one day, you get another new match that catches your eye out of the many others.

“Ten? Like the number…?” Besides the interesting name, you immediately see that he’s an extraterrestrial. From the Sommu race, as it says in his bio.

You click on his profile.

You’re a little surprised by how pretty he is, which isn’t to say the other aliens you matched with were all hideous. But he doesn’t have tentacles coming out of his face or two sets of eyes, either. The most noticeable thing about his alienness is his blue skin.

“Likes...dancing, art, music, okay so we have an artist type here...dislikes...fruit. Huh. That’s...interesting.”

The pictures of him on his profile are all deliberately artistic, as in they aren’t just some half-baked selfies he took with a hologram pad. You grow increasingly curious. It’s safe to say he’s either super into himself or just appreciates the art of good photography, and you figure there’s only one way to find out. You decide to take the first step and message him.

➤ Nice pictures :) 

You don’t know when or if you’ll get a message back, since he’s not online when you send it, so you try not to get your hopes up too much. Maybe you should’ve tried to come up with something more cool and funny—nice pictures?—but you try to remember Malika’s advice and roll your eyes to yourself. There’s no point in getting stressed over a dude you don’t even know yet.

You eventually get a reply back from Ten.

➤ thank you 🙏 are you into photography too? you have talent for taking beautiful photos 

You giggle quietly to yourself; another line, but it’s definitely one of the tamer ones you’ve received. Why not see where this one goes?

The first conversation you have consists mostly of the regular getting-to-know-you talk, such as your personal interests and favorite things. You get him to talk more about his photography hobby, which he’s eager to tell you all about—as well as his penchant for art.

To your optimism, you and Ten quickly get comfortable with each other. You soon forget about all the other potential matches you have, but those don't matter much to you anymore. So far, you’ve connected the most successfully with Ten, which means you’re more than glad to stop spending your time reading boring messages from guys who’ve only pretended to have things in common with you.

Things go so well, in fact, that he asks you to meet in person not long after you begin talking to each other.

For your first meetup, you decide to meet at a park nearby—the same one you’d been walking through the day you were talking to Malika about that very dating app. You and Ten have talked through the hologram pad on multiple occasions, so you’re more reassured that you’re not starting from scratch with some faceless being. Still, the thrill of seeing each other in person for the first time is undeniable.

“Y/N?” You turn your head at the sound of your name, and you see Ten walking towards you.

“Ten!” You give him a smile, waving at him. You feel a little more nervous than you usually would on a date, though you can’t tell if it’s the good kind of nervousness. You mostly chalk it up to not having been out with anyone in a while.

Ten’s just as pretty up close as he was in the photos and on camera, if not even more attractive; he’s breathtaking in the light of the sun. His hair is styled nicely, meticulously-place strands curling over his forehead, and his clothes perfectly outline his slim body. He looks pleased to see you, his lips curving into a coy smile.

“You could’ve given me a warning,” he says as he outstretches his arms to you. You hug him, but not without a questioning glance on your face. He is warm and smells good, like juniper, which almost makes you forget about your question.

“Warned you about what?”

“How you’re even more beautiful in person.” He says this at your ear before pulling away, and it makes the back of your neck bloom with heat.

“Oh, you’re laying it on thick.” You giggle nervously, shifting on your feet.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks.

“Yes, let’s go!”

You leave the park to go to an aquarium nearby, which is the biggest one in the city. You find out quickly that Ten is easily fascinated by the wide range of creatures there. Despite living on Earth for a few years now, he hasn’t seen a lot of them until now.

You walk through the blue-lit hallways together, surrounded by water everywhere you turn. You observe the different animals up close and from far away, reading information about them from the signs beside their tanks.

“What the hell is that?” Ten says through laughter, looking at the squished-up mouth of a stingray as it floats in front of the glass, baring its pale underside to you both.

“It’s a stingray!”

He scrunches his nose up. “It’s ugly. But kinda cute, too…”

You both end up staying at the aquarium longer than you expected, with Ten wanting to see practically every animal they had on display; plus, you got to see some you weren’t familiar with before either.

After visiting the aquarium, you go downtown—which is otherwise known as food truck central, where you can get pretty much anything you’re craving. This area is always quite busy this time of evening, especially on the weekends. Food in hand, you and Ten end up walking through a few of the quieter back streets where there’s not as many people—streets where the closely-packed buildings give way to the grassy yards and paved roads of nearby neighborhoods.

“Should we talk about our families now, or is it too soon?” you say jokingly. “You know, that seems to be the only thing we haven’t mentioned after talking about everything else under the sun.” You’re not entirely sure why you bring this up while knowing your own relationship with your parents isn’t great, but you are curious to hear about Ten’s family.

“I don’t really know mine,” he replies.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” You feel a little bad about it, thinking there was definitely a reason why he never mentioned the topic.

Ten looks confused for a moment before shaking his head. “No, it’s not like that. Sommu never form close bonds with their parents or siblings.”

You give him a curious look. “Why not?”

“Well, we aren’t born or raised the human way,” he explains. “Our parents have a bunch of us at once, raise us for the first couple of years, and then go off to reproduce again and continue the population.”

You’re startled at that. “Just for a few years? How do you survive?”

“We age faster...both physically and mentally. We become independent around 4 or 5 years old, and we can live without our parents.”

“That’s...definitely very different.” You try to wrap your mind around that information, though it’s difficult. Even with your not-so-healthy relationship with your parents, you couldn’t imagine having no family whatsoever at such a young age. You also can’t even begin to comprehend what it’d look like to be taking care of yourself at only 5 years old, fast aging or not. “But, you said a bunch at once...how is that possible?”

“We are formed inside things like eggs. It’s not like your form of childbirth. See?” And you become flustered when he lifts his shirt up to show his lack of a belly button, right there in the middle of the street.

“Uh, wow.”

“The human concepts of ‘family’ and ‘relationships’ are...very new to me.” He seems a little embarrassed to admit this. “That’s why I, um, joined a dating app, for more experience...I was told I need to learn to be more…” He searches for the word. “Im...pertinent?”

“...Empathetic?”

“Yeah, that.”

“So, did that come from a previous partner, or…?”

“Yeah, I’ve had two relationships since I’ve been here.” He seems wistful now, maybe a little sad. “They didn’t work out well. Maybe we were too different.” Before the mood can shift too far into negativity, Ten turns to you with a soft smile. “But maybe that’s not the kind of thing you want to hear while we’re on a date.”

You shake your head and smile. “I don’t mind, it’s interesting to know about.” More than interesting. You want to ask him a hundred more things about what his life was like when he first got to Earth. “Anyway, you can never have too many new starts in life. Let’s enjoy this one.”

--

At the end of your date, Ten walks with you back to your place. It’s almost midnight at this point, with you both walking all the way back from downtown. You’d drawn more than a few skeptical stares over the course of the day, but you both did your best to ignore those and just focus on each other.

“I’m really glad we got to go out today, it was fun,” you say, hugging your arms to yourself to shield against the cool spring breeze.

“I think I haven’t had that much fun in a while,” he agrees. Ten smiles wide then, the tip of his tongue sticking out from between his teeth, and you have to do a double take. 

“What—”

“Oh, that. Sometimes I forget everyone doesn’t have this...” And when he sticks his tongue out, you see clearly now that it’s split halfway down the middle. Sort of like how a snake’s would be. “D’you like it?” His expression is wicked when he asks this, and a strange heat sweeps through your body.

“Wow.” You cringe at your lackluster answer, but that’s the only thing you can muster up at the moment, too busy internally questioning yourself. You’ve seen body modders with split tongues in documentaries and on the internet, but it’s never appealed to you like this before, and you don’t know what to do with that new realization.

“It’s okay, it takes some getting used to.” He gives you a smile that might be called innocent by anyone else, but to your eyes it’s quite obvious he’s proud about making you flustered.

“Getting used to...yeah, I’m sure.” There are about 15 different questions you want to ask him about that, too, but you aren’t going there on the first date.

“So...can I expect to see you again?”

“Of course.” You smile again at the hopeful note in his tone. “Just let me know whenever you want to go out again.”

Before Ten leaves, he places a hand on your shoulder and kisses you on the cheek. It’s a simple and short kiss, but it still makes you blush beneath your brown skin.

You wave goodbye to him from your doorstep as he goes, feeling like you’ve finally done something right for the first time in a long time.

You’d taken a chance with dating an extraterrestrial, someone so different from yourself and your species, and you figured it would be a new experience. Obviously. What you did not bet on, however, was the idea that you’d fall for Ten so fast.

After three months of dating exclusively, you feel like you could say you love him, which is frighteningly quick for you; though you don’t tell him this yet.

You’ve decided to bring him to meet your family. The idea frightens you, because your parents have never been very receptive to the aliens’ migration. But you are still holding out some hope that maybe they’ll realize all their assumptions were wrong, and that you’ve found a nice man who you love and who you’re sure loves you just as much. Whether he’s human or not shouldn’t matter.

You manage to set a date when all your schedules match up so you can bring Ten over to your parent’s house. Ten is nervous—more nervous than he was when you went on your first date—which you find a little surprising. You’ve gotten used to him being the one who you can lean on, who always seems to know the right answer.

“Do you think it will go well?” he asks, his tone implying he’s not confident of the answer.

“I hope so.” You give him a smile that you hope is reassuring and squeeze his hand.

When your parents open the door, there’s visible surprise on their faces. You’d already told them your boyfriend was not human, which drew doubtful responses when you first said it, but they’re acting as if they never knew that information—as if this is the first time they’re seeing an alien, period.

“Um…hi, mom, dad.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ten says, though his own tone is overly formal, like he doesn’t know how he should speak. “I’m Ten.”

Your parents pause for a few moments longer. Finally, the awkward quiet is broken. “We thought you were just messing,” your dad says, though he steps out of the way to let you both come in, if a bit reluctantly.

“I—no.” You’re uncertain how to respond to that, though you don’t feel optimistic about what it entails. Your mother doesn’t say anything at all, just stares at you and Ten like you’re both strangers who’ve just waltzed in uninvited. She goes back in the kitchen to finish dinner once the door is closed, not saying anything to either one of you, and you already feel a cold pit settling in the bottom of your stomach.

Your dad sits in the living room with you and Ten, and another awkward silence ensues as your dad gives a stiff smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. He clasps his fingers together and pulls them apart repeatedly, like they’ll give him the answers for what’s going on.

“This is just a fling, right? Of course you won’t be staying with this ma—” Your dad almost says man but then stutters, thinking maybe the term isn’t appropriate since Ten isn’t human. He makes a vague gesture to fill in the space of the missing word.

“It’s not a fling,” you say, feeling like you’ve had cold water poured down your back. You’re sitting straight and still on the couch, and it’s not comfortable, but you’re too tense to move. Ten is almost equally stiff beside you.

“Y/N, we just want you to make good decisions for yourself.” That’s what your dad says out loud, though the look in his eyes finishes the rest of that sentence: And I don’t think this is a good decision.

“I am,” you insist. “I don’t need to be told that over and over again.”

“Me and Y/N are happy together,” Ten explains, and your dad seems a little shocked that he’s decided to speak.

“Do you truly think you’re what she needs?” your dad asks. You’re not sure what makes you more angry; the question itself, or the fact that he keeps his tone non-accusatory and light, as if he’s only asking something like where do you work? Like the answer doesn’t matter because he’s already made up his mind.

“As long as Y/N wants to keep seeing me, there’s no reason to stop our relationship.”

A sound of displeasure comes from your mother in the kitchen, and your skin prickles. Your dad nods to Ten’s answer, but he does so in a way that conveys he just wants this conversation to be over rather than consider anything that was said.

You deeply regret not leaving straight after that failed discussion, but you soon find out just how bad it can get once you all make it to the dinner table. Your mother is chillingly silent for the first half of the dinner, acting like neither you nor Ten exist, while your dad attempts to make awkward small talk about how things are going.

There comes a point where you can no longer handle the cold sweat and the nerves, and you put your utensils down. Not that you had much of an appetite anyway.

“Why won’t you even talk to me?”

Your mother glares. “You can’t guess? What kind of question is that to ask?”

You falter. You don’t know why she always does this to you. Ask ridiculous rhetorical questions that you both already know the answer to. Now you must sit here and explain why you asked like it isn’t already obvious.

“I’m visiting after I haven’t been here in a while. With my boyfriend. I thought...I don’t know. The least you could do—” Your mother shakes her head at the word “boyfriend,” and you already know everything else you said went in one ear and out the other.

“I still don’t know why you didn’t just stay with Christian?” she interrupts. “He had a decent job, came to see us often, and was NOT an alien.”

“But he cheated on me,” you say, a sickness rising in you.

“That’s what men do sometimes, Y/N. You deal with it and move on. You’re supposed to be strong—fix whatever is making him do it.”

You and Ten exchange a tense look, and there is clear confusion whirling in his eyes, but you don’t say anything to each other. “That relationship is over. I’m trying to do something for myself for once, not whatever you think I should do.” Even saying those words makes you internally recoil, unsure of what the reaction will be, but you don’t take them back.

“You may be an adult but we’re still your parents. Frankly, you need to be with a man of your own race and species—not this blue Martian here. How would you even have kids?”

Ten gives a humorless laugh, like he wants to respond but doesn’t want to make the situation worse or offend you. “You know what, I should just leave,” he says abruptly, rising from his seat.

You get up quickly after he does, but your mom slams her hand on the table. “Y/N, you better not walk out of here.”

You feel defeated and exhausted, like you always do when dealing with your parents and their objections to every single thing you do, but you decide not to give in this time. “Stop treating me like I’m still a child, ma.”

“What does being an adult matter when you still act childish? Don’t come back here crying when this doesn’t work out. I’ve already warned you more than enough.”

“That isn’t going to happen.” 

“So now you think you know better than me, when you couldn’t even keep a man the first time around.”

“This is hopeless,” you sigh, feeling wounded and angry at all these cheap shots.

“Y/N, please just listen to your mother for once…” your dad interjects, but you try your best to ignore their protests as you grab your things and follow Ten to the door. You can still hear your mother’s angry complaints as you close the front door behind you, though you’re surprised—but grateful—that neither of them attempt to follow you outside.

The ride back home is uncomfortable and mostly quiet.

“I’m sorry, Ten,” you say, feeling like you’ve been frozen from the inside out despite it being nearly summer. You’re near tears when you speak. Ten shakes his head, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

“It’s not your fault…” he replies weakly, though his words aren’t very persuasive to either of you.

He still walks you up to your door when you arrive back at your place, trailing slightly behind you. The night air is distractingly humid, wrapping around the both of you like a physical thing. Neither of you know what to say to each other.

When you get to your front door, you turn to look at him. “I shouldn’t have made you come. I should’ve known...” 

“I wanted to come,” he points out. “You didn’t make me do anything.” Ten’s tone isn’t outright harsh, but the words are noticeably sharp. Maybe he realizes it, because his face softens as if he’s said something wrong.

You nod. It’s as if there’s a mountainous gap between you two that you just can’t cross right now. “I get it.” You say this almost mindlessly, because you’re not sure what you’re getting, exactly. Your hand rests on the doorknob. You don’t want to end the night on this awkward and painful note, but neither of you are making any progress with this lack of a real conversation. Maybe now isn’t the right time to try to talk about it.

“I think...I’ll just go home tonight.” You expected he’d say that, but the words still make your heart hurt, even if you don’t want them to. He looks like he might say something else, but he just gives you a small nod before starting off.

“Ten…” You don’t know what you want to ask of him or tell him, if anything, but his name slips from your lips like it’s something you can’t keep inside.

Ten stops for a moment and turns back to you. He steps closer again, leaning forward to give you a soft kiss on the lips. When he pulls back, his eyes hold you in place.

He mumbles, “I’m not mad at you,” before leaving.

More than anything, you want to know how Ten is doing, but you’re too ashamed to contact him for the first couple days after that mess of a night. Maybe he thinks you’re just like your parents and doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. His reassurance at the door wasn’t enough to soothe your worries, and you end up tearing yourself up internally over it—repeatedly recalling the warmth of his lips and wondering if that’s maybe the last time you’ll ever feel it.

Similarly, nothing but radio silence comes from his end. He doesn’t respond even after you finally muster up the nerve to send him a text—a short text, but still a message all the same—and you fear he must really be done with you.

On Ten’s part, he does have one justification for it; he’s preoccupied with dealing with the avalanche of unpleasant memories and emotions that incident resurfaced. Everything about what your parents said and how they looked at him reminds him of his past and ongoing struggles with trying to assimilate on Earth.

Even though he’s often very sure of himself and what he wants, he begins wondering if he’s “enough” for you. Maybe you’ve just been humoring him this whole time, or you’ve decided your parents are right and you’d be better off with another human. 

Those thoughts keep him up into the early morning hours, and he soon realizes he doesn’t want to let you go. In fact, he’s not sure what he’d do with himself if you decided to walk out of his life right now, and the idea of it makes him ill. Which makes him feel even more foolish for tuning you out.

Ten’s anxiety over losing you culminates in him standing on your doorstep again after almost a week of emptiness and not knowing how you were thinking or feeling—which has been killing him in its own way.

You’re not quite sure how to feel when you open the door and see him on the other side, but relief shoulders its way to the forefront.

“Y/N, I’m sorry—”

“Can you please—”

You both speak at the same time, your words breaking afterwards. 

“You can talk first,” Ten says.

“Come in.” You let him in the door, and the words start spilling before you know how to stop them. “Ten, I-I’m...really sorry. I should’ve known better than to put you in that situation, but I thought…” Your words trail off. You don’t want to let him know just how desperate you still are for your parents’ approval sometimes. Even though it’s a fruitless case. “I just wanted it to go well. I want things to work now, for us. I really, really want things to work for us.”

Ten surprises himself with how quickly he moves to take you in his arms before the last words have even finished settling in his mind. He hugs you tightly. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t want me anymore,” he whispers, like he’s telling you something forbidden.

“That couldn’t happen.” You’re saddened he’d come to that conclusion. “But...it’s not fair for you to leave me in the dark, either. I want to help you...so would you please let me?”

Ten squeezes you a bit tighter, as if you might disappear from his arms. “I’m sorry I ghosted you...it brought back bad memories of how things were when I first got here. When people were more open about treating me like some kind of enemy. I didn’t know how to deal with it.” You tuck your chin into his shoulder and listen to his breathing, his heartbeat, the sound of his words. “Y/N, I’m not sure if I’m very good at love, or if I even know enough about it. Maybe the others were right and I’m kidding myself with something I’ll never properly learn. But, I…” His voice cracks. “I-I think I love you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Entirely overwhelmed, you answer his admission with a long kiss, cupping his face in your hands. His response to your kiss is automatic, the knots of tension unraveling in your embrace.

“I love you, Ten,” you whisper against his lips after you separate. Here and now, it doesn’t feel too soon at all; there couldn’t be a better time to say it. His expression is a lot of things at once. Relief, happiness, contentment...he’s blushing, but it shows up as a darker blue on his already blue skin. When he smiles, it turns his whole face into a picture of joy.

--

“I want to go away.” Quietly, you tell him this as you rest your head in his lap.

You’re both lying on your couch, the room dim and the sound of rain occupying the silence. A downpour started coming down soon after Ten got to your place. You’ve sat there just like that and listened to the rain on the windows for the past couple hours, not wanting to do anything else or separate from each other. You knew he wouldn’t want to go home, and you didn’t even have to ask him to stay.

Ten’s been petting your hair the whole time. The motion of his fingers in your kinky strands makes you sleepy, but now the movements pause at your words.

“Go where?” he asks.

“Away from all this. My parents hate me, and they won’t let me have any peace as long as I’m with you. I just want to go away for a while.” Despite you overflowing with love after finally getting your feelings out in the open, the thought of your parents’ disapproval has lingered steadily in the recesses of your mind. You close your eyes against the tears that begin to well up. Ten’s quiet for a few more moments, and then begins stroking your head again.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

A few tears fall despite you trying to keep them in, and your eyelids flutter when you feel Ten’s fingers on your face, wiping them away. “Then we’ll go away.”

Ten’s homeland is a planet where the sun—or rather, a star called Proxima Centauri that’s much like the sun—is always out, no matter what time of day it is. There are days where it rains or gets cloudy, but night never falls and the star never dips any lower in the sky, always staying pinned in that same spot like a tack on a corkboard. That everlasting light throws your body clock off, and combined with this weird new form of jet lag associated with space travel, you are a mess for the first week or so after your arrival.

Ten makes a few jokes about fragile human bodies, but for the most part he tends to you as best as he knows how and tells you stories about how he grew up to get your mind off the discomfort. He feeds you these neon green drinks that don’t look like anything on Earth you’ve had before, and although they do make you feel better, you begin to think maybe you should’ve had a wellness plan before running off-planet.

You aren’t the only human who’s ever visited or even lived there, though, which gives you reassurance about adjusting to everything. By now, there’s a small population of human beings living here due to the interplanetary exchange initiated by Earth.

Before you left, Ten told you he had a small home in his homeland. You didn’t quite expect to hear this, since he’d been on Earth for a while now and had no family to return to. Though he’d migrated, he still expected to come back to his planet every so often, if only to visit. Now was as good a time as any.

Although many differences exist, the scenery is much like Earth’s; there are ecosystems with plants and animals and other living beings—like the Sommu themselves. Ten’s homeland is not filled with wall-to-wall technology like you’d expect an alien city to be, based on the small examples you’ve seen on Earth. You might compare it to the tropics back on Earth, with the Sommu yielding to nature’s rightful place in their ecosystem instead of clearing out whole forests or continually mining for resources. Ten is amused by your struggle to comprehend the newness and unfamiliarity of it all.

When you feel good enough to explore, he starts taking you to the beach often. It looks mostly like any other beach, but there are large coral forms that grow out of the ocean, reaching up towards the impossibly blue and constantly illuminated sky. Because there is no moon to guide the tides, the water is eerily still, the surface mirror-like—like a huge lake or pond that extends in almost every direction for miles. You’d almost believe it was a mirror if you hadn’t seen a bird-like creature skimming across the surface as it flew by, creating fleeting ripples.

You swim around a little in the still waters after Ten convinces you that you aren’t going to turn into a fish or something equally scary. He has to hold both your hands the entire time to get you to step in, and he doesn’t let go until you’re confident enough to explore the water on your own.

“Just focus on me, okay?” His smile is bright and shining against his blue skin, and he looks you directly in the eyes as he backs into the water, breaking the surreal stillness of it with his movements. “It’s just like the water on Earth.”

“Okay, okay,” you say uncertainly, gripping his hands and stepping in tentatively. The water does feel like any other water you’ve touched throughout your life, which helps you calm down slightly. His hands stay tight around yours as you get waist-deep into the water.

When you’re finally able to let go of him, he claps his hands more enthusiastically than the situation probably calls for. “Yay, you’re a big girl now!”

You roll your eyes at him. “You’re not funny, Ten.”

--

On a bright afternoon, Ten lets you into a room of his house you haven’t entered before. You’ve passed by this shining white door several times, but it’s always remained firmly shut until now.

“What’s in here?” you ask as you hold his hand.

“That’s what I’m going to show you.” He laughs and pushes the door open.

You think it’s a darkroom at first, seeing nothing but dim light and the shiny surfaces of what looks like photographs as your eyes adjust. But when he touches his hand to a panel on the wall and the lights come on, you realize it’s not a darkroom. More like a small gallery for all his pictures.

The “pictures” are physical, but they aren’t like the old Polaroids or film photos that have begun fading out of existence on Earth. They’re small crystalline squares that play eternally-moving videos on their glossy surfaces—a bit different from the translucent holograms Earth adopted. You step further into the room to look at them. It’d probably take days to explore them all, there are so many. Different scenes play out as soundless movies, and when you look for long enough, you realize they’re split into different categories. Numerous events within a life.

Many are of the beach, other scenic places around his homeland, oddly-shaped buildings, and plants in colors that there are no names on Earth for. You step closer to one of the walls to look at the collection of images more closely. You actually do “recognize” a select few, linking them together with old memories Ten had shared with you only weeks ago. There’s so much happening in these small snippets of time, so many stories you haven’t yet heard, that you feel like you could look at them forever and not get enough.

“This is...something else.” Your words seem inadequate, but you don’t quite know how to express your sheer wonder.

“I could take some of you,” Ten suggests, from somewhere behind you. “I want to.”

You glance back at him. “Hm, yeah.”

“I’m serious.” Ten comes up behind you to clasp his arms around your waist. He tucks his chin into your shoulder. His lips are close at your neck, and you let them linger there. One of your hands goes to his own hand that’s over your waist, and you run your fingertips over his knuckles as you gaze at the photo wall before you. “I think you’d be the perfect muse.”

“You could do that.” You’re still entranced with it all, and you already know you’ve made up your mind to let him take as many photos of you as he wants.

--

The next time you go to the beach, Ten takes some photos of you standing near the huge coral forms—or at least as close as you are willing to get—and he laughs at your lingering hesitation.

Still, the crystalline photos he takes of you are the embodiment of perfection. When you look over them later, watching yourself twirl around and strike silly poses in the water, you can almost hear the sound of your laughter twining together and feel the warmth of a star that’s not the sun on your skin.

“What if we stayed here?”

You ask Ten this while you’re lying in his bed, watching a kaleidoscope of shapes on the ceiling. The bedroom window is open to allow the breeze to come in. The ceiling of the bedroom—and every other room in the house—is more like an ever-changing reflection of shapes and colors than an actual ceiling. You might compare it to a mirror, like the surface of the ocean, but you think it’s much more complex than that. Sometimes you can see the distorted outline of yourself in it, like a funhouse mirror. Other times, you see the sky above.

Ten lies beside you with one hand behind his head and the other resting on his stomach, and he turns his head to look at you.

“Stayed?”

“If we just decided not to...go back to Earth.”

He pauses for a few moments. “Is that a good idea? You have a whole life there...and your friends…” Ten doesn’t mention your family, which you are grateful for.

You sigh. Nothing like a quick injection of reality after letting your imagination get ahead of you. “We’d have to go back. I’d have to tell them goodbye. And sort some other things out. Maybe it wouldn’t happen right now. But, after I do everything I need to do on Earth...maybe I could migrate here.”

“That’s a big decision to make...and it should be yours to decide.” Ten pauses again, like he’s weighing his words. “You know I don’t have many connections on Earth…” In other words, leaving Earth and returning home for good might not be as big of a deal for him as it would be for you.

You sit up and look out the window, seeing how the warm wind stirs the trees outside. “I want to.” You say it almost inaudibly, your words nearly carried off by the breeze. You turn back to him only to find him already there, sitting across from you and looking at you closely. Your faces are only inches from each other’s as he searches your eyes. “What do you want to do?”

“I’ll do anything you want to.” Ten’s voice is earnest, like he’d follow you to Hell and back if you asked, and you believe him.

Resting your hand on his cheek, you kiss him.

This kiss is a little different from the ones you’ve shared before—more yearning. More desperate. You kiss like there won’t be enough time to do all the things you want to do with each other—to each other. His split tongue bumps against yours, caresses it, and it causes a shiver to go down your spine, like it always does.

You end up lying back on the bed again with Ten’s body crowding yours in, legs tangling together and hips pressing against one another’s. Neither of you have made a move to take the other’s clothes off yet, but then he separates from your lips for a long moment and studies your features, from your eyebrows down to your mouth.

“Touch yourself for me.”

Your mouth drops open slightly.

“I want to see it.” He takes one of your hands and guides it up under your skirt and between your legs, pressing your fingers against your sex through your underwear, and you look at him with wide eyes, taking a deep breath. He lets go of your hand, and you keep yours right where it is. You’re slightly nervous about his black gaze trained on you, unrelenting and prying, but you begin to move your hand anyway. 

Over your underwear, you press your finger between your lower lips, sliding between them and over your clit, and a little tremor goes through your body. You find yourself getting wet more quickly than you normally would with Ten watching you as you tease your entrance. You breathe a little heavier but make no sound yet. One of Ten’s hands reaches out for your ankle, though he doesn’t do anything other than keep his fingers there, a light touch that keeps passing back and forth over your ankle bone.

You circle your fingers across your clit more insistently, your legs tensing as the pleasure mounts higher. Ten’s lips part as he watches you, a heavy breath escaping from his chest. The hand on your ankle slides higher up your leg, just below your thigh, like he wants to slide his fingers into the mix and take over, but he doesn’t make a move to do so just yet.

Finally, Ten reaches under your skirt to pull your sticky panties off, sliding them slowly down your legs and leaving them somewhere on the floor. You want him to touch you again, the brush of his hands against your hips not enough, but he doesn’t grant your desire. “Keep going,” he says, leaning back on his hands, and you can see he’s growing hard.

You bring your hand back to its original place between your thighs, sliding through the wetness more easily and shuddering when your fingertips graze over your clit. You slide a finger into yourself then. A small moan slips out, and you close your eyes, but Ten’s fingers pinch your chin—not enough to hurt, but the sudden touch makes you look at him. “Keep your eyes open.” His thumb presses into your lower lip, and he stares at your mouth for a moment like he’s imagining sliding something hard and hot between your lips.

Ten kisses you on the lips again, and this time he trails the kisses down your body until he’s gripping your thighs on either side of his face. You pause in your movements when he reaches the junction of your thighs, and you watch as he grabs your hand and slips your finger out of yourself. He sucks the slick digit into his mouth, and you cannot tear your eyes away from him.

He lets your hand go and pulls you a few inches closer to his face, dragging you across the bed, and you can barely get your bearings back to sit up again when he slips his tongue through your lower lips. You moan, and he responds to that by repeating it again, catching your clit between the split in his tongue, and wiggling both sides.

“Oh Jesus...oh fuck.” Your hands go to Ten’s hair, pulling on it as you push your hips closer to his mouth, your back curving up. He is alluring tucked between your thighs like this, teasing and sucking your clit with his split tongue and prodding his fingers at your hole until he chooses to slide two of them inside.

His free hand keeps you close against his face as he eats you out, that wondrous tongue sliding against the most sensitive part of your body and making you gasp with boundless pleasure. Little droplets of moisture bead at the corners of your eyes from how good it feels, your stomach tensing and releasing as you try your best to keep still.

He has to keep his grip on your body tight when you come, as you try to squirm away from his tongue because of how stimulated you are. He only lets you go after he’s satisfied himself with licking up all the wet that’s spilled from you.

Then he strips your skirt off for you, because he knows you’re not quite in a state to do it for yourself right now. He peels the rest of your clothes off similarly, which doesn’t take much time or effort to do; you’ve dressed lightly for the weather.

Ten looks at you lying beneath him on the bed, his gaze stuck somewhere between awe and lust. 

He slips out of his own clothes with a certain practiced ease. Yes, he’s really blue everywhere. He looks mostly human-like everywhere, too, except for the lack of a belly button. 

Ten kisses you deeply as he slips into you, and you clutch at his sides. He tries to keep his pace slow at first, maybe for your sake or to just savor how it feels, but he gives into the feeling of you squeezing around him and starts thrusting into you faster. There is already sweat sliding down to his jaw, though you think it might be because of the heat, too.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” comes out of you in a voice you hardly recognize as your own.

His pelvis sliding against your clit from the proximity of your bodies makes you curl your fingers into the strands of his hair, wanting to touch every part of him you can. His lips go to the sweat-slicked skin of your shoulder, leaving little wet kisses behind as he wraps an arm around your waist and simply fucks into you, his shaft dragging against your walls.

He eventually separates himself from your neck, though it comes with some effort, to gaze at your face again. However, he finds that your eyes have drifted shut.

“Do you wanna come?” Ten asks, softly, gently, like you might break apart if he speaks too loud.

You’re a little winded from how he’s thrusting into you and can’t yet see the motive behind this question—because of course you do—but you answer with a shaky “I-I want to.”

“Then don’t look away from me.” His voice becomes harsher on these words.

“I…” Your lips move without any real words behind them as he thrusts into you harder, sinking all the way into you before pulling out to the tip. You want do what he’s just told you, but you find it difficult with the way he’s intent on burying himself into you, his eyes piercing into your own. “Mmm, I-I…”

You don’t know if you can, but the way he’s kindling your rising heat with each thrust makes you want to try very, very hard. Ten keep his hands on the sides of your face so you cannot look anywhere but at him.

The pleasure bears down on you more with each second, and you try to keep your breathing steady as another climax approaches.

“You’re almost there, come on baby,” he coaxes you, sloppily kissing the corner of your mouth before slipping his tongue in again. The way you gasp against his lips and tighten around him signals him to your orgasm, and he sits back to watch it play across your face, smirking at how you moan his name desperately.

Ten’s continued thrusts make you shiver from the flood of sensations overcoming your body, and you whimper at his movements until he pulls out and comes on your abdomen.

Ten gives you time to recover after you come down from your second orgasm, though he makes sure to lay a few more enamored kisses on your weakened body. He gets off the bed and exits the room after that. You don’t bother to ask where he’s going, because you know he’ll be back anyway.

When Ten comes back, he has his camera with him. The teasing tilt of his lips never leaves his face as he points it towards you. He takes a photo of you lying on his bed nude, with the breeze coming in and rustling the tree leaves and your hair, your skin shining bronze under the light of the eternal star. Then he comes closer, making the bed sink under his weight, and nudges your legs apart. He takes more photos of your lower stomach glistening with sweat and his cum—and photos of him sliding his slender fingers between your thighs and bringing you careening into another bout of euphoria.

The camera is soon forgotten after you come again. Ten climbs fully back onto the bed now and pulls you into his lap. His dick is hard again, and the length of it nudges against your lower lips, making you whimper from how sensitive you still are. He shushes you with a kiss and lifts your hips so he can slide into you, his shaft nudging that soft spot inside you and making you grip onto his arms.

You’re too mushy and dazed to do anything but let him push his hips up into you while you cling to him, your head lolling back. Ten’s mouth goes to the open expanse of your neck, and he wets your skin with his tongue.

The kaleidoscope of shapes above you on the ceiling morphs into one glistening reflection, throwing the blurred shapes of your bodies back to you. It’s like looking through a dense fog. You’re a little caught off guard by it, and you stare up at your nude forms. Ten looks up as well to see the cloudy figure of you cradled in his lap, and he only grins and thrusts up into you harder and smacks your ass in reply.

He grinds into you while he has you sitting full on his dick, and you think he must have set off your internal “reset” button somewhere between landing slaps on your ass and repeatedly hitting your g-spot. Your mind is blissfully, amazingly blank. The only clear thing you can distinguish is how he feels in and around you.

When you come this time, it comes with a gush of wetness that makes Ten whisper several smug praises into your ear for being such a good girl and making a mess on him.

As you quickly find out, Ten’s refractory period seems to be nonexistent, while his stamina is overflowing.

Ten knows how to mix the pain with pleasure in a way that enhances both feelings, and you don’t know if you’ve ever experienced anything more perfect. One moment, he’ll say something romantic and fairytale-like to you before shoving your head into the pillow and taking you from behind in the next moment, pulling one of your arms behind you for leverage as he thrusts into you hard. You want him to do whatever he desires to you, and so you let him hammer into you until you think your hips and ass will be bruised by the next morning.

You’ve never knew that sex could be so carnal and so loving at the same time, but this is all of those things, and it makes you feel so full that you could split at the seams. You scream, cry, and moan more times than you can count, so enveloped by pleasure that it seems like the atoms of your body will simply dissolve from the intensity.

When you both finally become too exhausted to continue, it’s still daytime. Of course. But Ten draws the blackout shade forward and seals all the light out, and so you know it must be time to sleep. Time blends together here. Even if it’s not yet the midnight hour, it will be as long as you deem it so.

“Come here,” he says, and rolls you over on the bed so you don’t have to sleep in the wet spot. You grin in sleepy amusement against his neck as he hugs you to his body. “Let’s stay right here.”

You know he’s talking about sleeping for the next few hours, but you can also imagine he’s referring to your new life—one you’ll create together.