#assigning moral worth to plants

[plantanarchy]

listen i love and grow and appreciate native plants as much as any plant ecology nerd but good god the energy of a lot of native plant discussion on social media continues to be so............ much

[pinknipszz]

modern headcanons | highschool edition

⋆✮↪ neteyam, lo’ak, kiri, ao’nung, and tsireya

neteyam

he always walks you to class. he loves company, especially yours. neteyam would go the extra mile by carrying your bag or holding your stuff. and he’s so humble about it! he doesn’t even think that it’s something you should thank him for. to neteyam, it’s just the standard. he once told you that most of his childhood was spent with his mother and grandmother, two women in his life who really care about manners.

he packs extra lunch for you. neteyam is the type of guy to bring an extra lunch box just for you. if you’re not hungry or you brought your own lunch, he’ll insist you take it home. you don’t know what you did to deserve him. he would experiment with different cuisines and sneak in little notes that make you swoon. sometimes, you return the favor. when you pack his favorites, like steamed fish or grilled meat, he loses his mind. everyone finds your relationship sickeningly sweet.

lo’ak 

he probably vaped at least once. he’s the type of guy to give into peer pressure. if someone offered him a blue razz ice elfbar at a party, he would try it without thinking twice. much to your surprise, lo’ak didn’t really get into it. he likes to brag about it though, especially to ao’nung. you scold him when he does. part of the reason why he tries to stay away from that stuff is because of you. he knows that you don’t like it when he jeopardizes his health, so he makes an honest effort to be mindful of his decisions.

he skips class. a lot. honestly, you’ve lost count of how many times he’s offered to “walk you to class” and lead you in the opposite direction. you guys usually stay on campus, like maybe in the janitor’s closet or under the gym bleachers. when you guys aren’t, though, you’re usually running off to a local gas station or even the mall. it really just depends on the class period. lo’ak isn’t exactly the best influence on you.

kiri

her favorite class is biology. it’s just the closest thing she could get to botany as a high schooler. kiri is interested in all things related to plants, to the extent that she started a club dedicated to maintaining the school garden. she doesn’t have any leadership positions like tsireya, though, but she likes it that way. kiri doesn’t want to feel the pressure of dealing with other people. she also doesn’t have the mental strength to be constantly reminded of the fact that global warming exists.

she skips class occasionally. you’re always surprised at how rebellious she’s capable of being. unlike lo’ak, she doesn’t stay on campus. she’s out the door when she gets the chance. instead of staying at places like the mall, though, kiri stays at the local park. it’s where she gets most of her work done. she usually doesn’t drag you with her against your will, because she understands that the risk isn’t always worth it. you’ve never said no to her, though.

ao’nung

he plays close-contact and collision sports. remember when he tackled lo’ak in that one fight scene? yeah. ao’nung would channel that energy into sports like basketball, rugby, and even wrestling. ao’nung isn’t a team captain or anything. that’s way too much commitment, but he does have the most influence. because he earns titles like “player of the game” or “star player,” ao’nung knows how to get sponsors for trips. you hate how it gets in his big head.

he sits behind you in every single class you have together. ao’nung finds it more convenient to talk to you this way. if there’s assigned seating, he’ll bribe, beg, or do literally anything else to sit behind you. it gets him in trouble most of the time, but it’s worth the effort. if it does work, though, ao’nung likes to braid small pieces of your hair or pass notes during class. your classmates give you two funny looks, but they never say anything about it. courtesy of ao’nung.

tsireya

she’s the captain of the swim team. she’s a natural in the water. she’s also very good at raising team morale, so there’s really no other person fit for captain. you always attend her swim meets and cheer her on as much as possible. if you’re being honest, she doesn’t really need it since she crushes the competition every single time. she literally brings home gold every single year. your school will literally never find another swimmer as talented as her.

she’s the head of the house and grounds committee. tsireya would be an environmental activist. she’s got a big heart. she spearheads all activities related to the environment in your school and even started a conservation charity. you have no idea how this girl manages all of that on top of sports and school work. it does get in the way of your quality time with her, but it makes her happy so you don’t complain.

(masterlist)

[acti-veg]

Hello !

i am a student in year ten that has been vegan for 2 years in march. i love your blog, and would love some advice on something.

for science this term, we are talking about genetic manipulation and selective breeding. im pretty against any purposeful breeding of animals, and was really disappointed to learn that's what our big research assignment would be about. Today i have just learnt that our task is to justify the claim that selective breeding and generic mutilation does more harm than good.

do you have any advice are wisdom ? i have asked my teacher many times for a modified task (possibly about genetic mutilation of plants instead) but she just isn't answering and being very frustrating.

am i overreacting ? maybe this isn't as bad as my gut says it is ?

any advice would be lovely , and im very willing to hear if am wrong in any way.

It sounds like what you're being asked to argue is the vegan position on this, in which case I don't think it is going to go against your morals at all. It's still science so you'll need to focus more on scientific ethics and practical problems, but that gives you plenty of scope to explain precisely why you are against genetic manipulation and selective breeding.

This is something we barely even think about it in daily life, and I think it's commendable that your school is covering it and giving you the opportunity to argue against it. You can discuss selective breeding in factory farms, animal testing, zoos, in animals used as entertainment, puppy mills etc.

Even if you were being asked to argue the opposite position, understanding and being able to represent the opposing view can often be really helpful in formulating your own counter-arguments. If you're really uncomfortable then do voice that to your teacher and see if she can adapt the task for you, but I think it would be worth giving it an honest shot if you can.

[calvatier]

Artefact Amias being mean to Lues 😔😔 cmon now,,,don't fight boys

Also first time drawing a front facing and slightly tilted up angle, uhrrr I didn't rly do much perspective cus I was scared,, 😞 I'll work on perspective more in the future

Lore:

So some context is that these artefacts are pieces of Amias' divine soul, all gods have a divine soul and ONLY a divine soul but bc Amias and Ordell were reborn into mortals, their divine souls were basically torn up and hidden/protected and then replaced with immortal "mortal" souls so they could walk the mortal realm. The divine souls couldn't float around in the divine realm or else they could be tampered with really badly or taken by other greedy gods, so the gods that rebirthed Amias and Ordell agreed that mortals would take better care of them. They infused the divine souls into different artefacts and assigned many people to protect these artefacts. Gods can't descend to the mortal realm so the artefacts are safer with mortals than with gods, Mortals can't use the divine soul bc no one has ever specifically studied how to make use of them + gods would punish them.

(replacement souls were exactly like their og souls, just mortal,,,think of it like cutting a flatworm in half and it grows into another two individual flatworms. So they had everything they once had. So for Amias, he still had the sickness that Zofagos planted inside his soul)

Artefact Amias doesn't plan on sticking by Zofagos, he knows his worth and oh my god,,,you bet your ass that he's an arrogant dickhead.

He is very much aware that he's an instrument of destruction, literally. But he doesn't plan on being just an "inanimate object" for long. What he truly wants is to have Zofagos/Lues collect the other artefacts of Amias or let Amias (the real and good one,,,my baby boy 🥺🥺) bring the other artefacts back to him then use this opportunity to take control of Amias and make himself BECOME Amias.

This Artefact Amias isn't like the other artefacts, the others have also gained some sort of image but they don't gain sentience. Theyre more like parrots, repeating what their protectors have said around them and also taking on their morals and ideals. They cannot think, they are not "alive". But this one specifically, is sentient. Some can come close to sentience and seem thinking but they're not, they're also pretty weak on their own. He can think for himself and have his own goals.

The reason is that Zofagos is the one who "activated" him, and Zofagos is a god, he infused it with his divine magic to have a stronger influence on it and it gained sentience through this process as well. This Artefact is powerful because of Zofagos and it has enough power to overtake Amias' real self and become him. It plans to do that.

So for real Amias, it might seem like a lose-lose situation. Either he kills this Artefact Amias and risks the artefact breaking and releasing his divine soul back into the divine realm, meaning hed lose his chance of ascending and returning to his godhood or let the Artefact take over and turn into an evil god.

[caxycreations]

Relanian Magic

I'm going to break this down into a few categories for organization's sake, so here they are in order:

Origins of Magic on the Planet Relan

Impact of Magic on Relanian Life

Magic in Nature

Channeled Magic

Innate Magic

Magic in the Modern World

So without further ado, let's get into it!

Origins of Magic on the Planet Relan

Relan did not begin with magic. Magic was introduced by the Relanian Gods. Gaius, Malor, Fina, Escor, Jan, and Dinora poured their power into the world, granting it magic and enabling the rise of the Sentients. Sentients are the product of feral animal species being born to a world where the very air itself was charged with raw magical power, infusing into their souls and minds the gift of thought, of self-awareness, of intelligence.

With the introduction of magic into the world, many things were "jump-started". Sentients were given knowledge of many things by the power of the gods, Ferals were given powers and abilities, and the first Mythicals were born, Sentient by nature.

In short, magic on Relan is concentrated divine power, given freely to the world to aid its life in surviving, growing, and bettering themselves and each other.

Impact of Magic on Relanian Life

With the introduction of magic into Relan, life underwent an explosive metamorphosis. Some physically, some on a deeper level. Ferals in particular were impacted greatly. Many species developed a supernatural glow, often in the eyes and markings, which over generations became natural bioluminescence.

Fauna was changed as well, with the natural effects of most plant life being amplified exponentially. Toxic plants became far more deadly, and beneficial herbs had their effects increased tenfold. This resulted in herbal remedies and poisons far more effective than our own world's equivalents.

Sentients were changed most of all. Originally Ferals, magic distorted them, changed them into bipedal, humanoid forms. The first Sentients were still very similar to their Feral counterparts, often with paws instead of hands, and rarely with the ability to speak any kind of formal language, though they now had the ability to communicate and assign word meaning to their vocalizations.

Over generations, Sentients became more human-like, with their physiology reacting to the magic surrounding them until they were notably different from their Feral counterparts. Vocal chords specialized for barking, howling, roaring, chirping, etc, became capable of true speech. Front paws became hands. Species with sideways-facing eyes became forward-facing, and many back legs took on a distinct shape both digitigrade and capable of supporting long-term upright movement.

The most notable impact on Relanian life, however, was the sudden addition of Blessings into the world. Blessings are innate magic, to be covered in a later chapter, but are worth mentioning now as they are the most enduring impact of magic on relanian life.

Magic in Nature

Magic in nature bears a conscience. It is capable of telling positive intent from negative, and is deeply attuned to the wills of the gods. As such, what they abhor, magic abhors, and what they encourage, magic encourages. It gets its sense of good and evil directly from the belief of the gods that created it.

Due to this, the will of magic can be said to be the same as the will of the gods. To fight the magic is to turn against the desires of the gods themselves.

Magic, when it was prevalent and well-known throughout the world, was known to follow a certain moral compass. To make it easy to understand, the list below outlines the laws of magic.

Needless violence is abhorred

Killing for killing's sake is abhored

Greed is abhorred

Defense of one's life is a necessity

Defense of innocent life is a necessity

Innocence is to break no godly law

Magic can, and will, pass judgement on those trying to use it for wicked reasons. To cause harm for the sake of causing harm, to kill for no reason beyond wanting to kill, to use magic for personal gain, these things will make magic less potent, and will reduce its effectiveness.

Meanwhile, magic will empower those using it for self-defense, the defense of innocent life, and the upholding of godly law. Magic inherently works to achieve these goals, and can most commonly be seen upholding godly law as best it can.

In areas full of unspoiled life (deep, undisturbed forests, large mountain ranges, vast and untamed plains, etc) magic is at its strongest, and there are six places on Relan with the deepest connection to magic. These six places are the result of magic coalescing in large concentrations of natural life, and weakening the wall between the physical world and the divine realms.

This weakening of the wall is responsible for one of magic's most profound effects in nature: the Godly Gates. There are six Gates, one tied to each God and their domain, from which magic seeps into the world and into which the spirits of the deceased may enter and exit the world at will.

These gates have magical protections surrounding them, and those who venture too close find themselves lost, or miles from where they initially believed themselves to be. The magic of the land works to protect the separation of mortal and divine realms. It is in its very nature to do so.

Channeled Magic

Magic, at one time, could be channeled into powerful effects both devastating and benevolent. Sentients, as their understanding of magic grew, began delving into how to gather it within themselves, drawing magic from the elements around them and transforming it into various forms to achieve various results.

Mages across the world developed the Relanian schools of magic, which are:

Conjuration, devised by the Andronians. It holds 3 subtypes which are Reparation, Creation, and Transformation

Evocation, devised by the Dornumites. It holds 2 subtypes which are Destruction and Medical.

Empowerment, a general form of magic all peoples discovered quickly upon experimenting with magic. It holds 3 subtypes, which are Physical, Mental, and Attunement.

Nature, a form unique to Ferusian Mystics. It holds 2 subtypes which are Growth and Necrotic.

A brief description of the subtypes is found below.

Reparation: repair magic. Can restore any non-living thing to it's pre-damaged state.

Creation: Can take the magic in the air and replicate it many times over, then manifest it into physical form as a solid object. Rarely permanent, requires knowledge of the object and how it works.

Transformation: surrounds an object with magic, then manifests a new form over it, melding the old form into the new one, magically changing its physiology or structure to match the new form.

Destruction: powerful concentrations of magic capable of great offense. Flames, lightning, and explosive bursts of raw energy.

Medical: magically enhancing a living thing's ability to heal or fight illness.

Physical Empowerment: increases the user's physical ability, or increases a targets physical ability.

Mental Empowerment: increases the users mental capabilities, enhancing perception, speed of thought, and reaction times exponentially.

Attunement: attunes an object to a user, allowing them to channel their empowerment magic into it to strengthen it or increase its effectiveness.

Growth: Can rapidly grow plant life beyond its normal potential, turning a single tree into a small forest, or grass into head-high walls of plant matter.

Necrotic: Opposite of Growth, decays and withers living tissue. Can be used to cull unhealthy plants to preserve the healthy ones, or on Ferals/Sentients that pose great threat to others.

Channeled magic was incredibly powerful, as the magic of the world was predisposed to support the life forms on Relan. It was their ally, and so obeyed them without question.

This gave rise to three types of practitioners, those who could not only channel magic, but held mastery over it. While nearly all Sentients could channel it, few could claim mastery and so the ability to manipulate this force to your exact will was rare.

The three types of practitioner were:

Mage: one who held great knowledge of magic, and mastery over the magical arts as a whole. Mages were in high demand for their vast wealth of abilities and powers. They were masters of every school of magic. Mages used magic as a tool, an object to be used according to their will.

Warlock: one who mastered the arts of combat magic, but little else. Complete masters of the schools of Evocation and Empowerment, but little to no skill in the other schools of magic.

Mystic: Those who held the balance of the natural world close to their hearts. Mystics were masters of all forms of magic, like Mages, but believed themselves the tool, and magic the wielder. They were deeply attuned to magic, and acted according to its will, rather than forcing theirs upon it.

Innate Magic

Innate magic was similar to channeled magic, though far weaker, and while channeled magic held a conscience, innate magic was inherently bound to the will of its owner and thus acted freely according to the will of its owner.

Innate magic took the form of Blessings. Blessings are abilities or traits beyond those natural for the individual given at birth from the mixture of the magical energies of the world and their soul.

Blessings are not given at conception, or during the time in the womb, due to the natural aura that surrounds all living things. The aura grows stronger over time, and by adulthood serves as a natural, albeit thin, barrier between the individual's innate magic and the magic of the world.

Infants do not have this barrier, but are protected by that of the mother until birth, at which point their soul is in direct contact with the magic of the world, leading to a unique and potent mixture of energies that gives them their Blessing.

Blessings are dependent on the current power in the world and its source. Magic's strength waxes and wanes over time, and the source of that magic changes as time moves forward. The months of the year are based around this cycle.

Magic waxes and wanes in 60-day periods, with it being at its strongest and most potent on the 30th day. These coincide with the waxing and waning of the power of the Gods. As one God loses power, another gains power, leading to the cycle. The cycle is, in order:

Gaius, the Overgod Fina, the Heartweaver Malor, the Fate Scribe Escor, the Father God Jan, the Mother God Dinora, the Prodigy

As the power of one god gives way to another, so too do the Blessings given change. Blessings bear certain limitations and themes depending on the God in power at the time. Some examples are:

Gaius: Physical Blessings, heightened senses, longevity. Fina: Strong relationships, greater romantic instinct, powerful emotional insight. Malor: Luck, foreknowledge, innate sense of possibility and probability. Escor: paternal instinct/ability, virility, masculinity Jan: maternal instinct/ability, fertility, femininity Dinora: intellect, logical insight, perception

These are not the only possibilities, but are the most common themes. Innate magic can be anything from simply enhancing something about oneself all the way to minor channeled effects. As a few examples of known Blessings:

Gaius: Enhanced durability and strength, well beyond physical limitation. Fina: casual love leaving the lover unable to fathom loving anyone else. Malor: Precognition, the ability to sense what is about to happen and instinctively react without thinking about it. Escor: An innate wisdom, always able to find the right words to embolden and educate. Jan: An innate wisdom, able to instantly understand and empathize with others. Dinora: Infallible memory, able to store and recall any and all information, stimulus, and/or event one has experienced with perfect, unerring clarity.

Blessings, while unique, are not entirely and wholly different from all others. One individual may have a natural luck about them due to their Blessing, with situations often shifting to benefit them, while another may have the ability to actively rewrite certain events before they happen to be more beneficial.

Outwardly these two Blessings seem identical, as both lead to the beneficiary seeming "lucky", though the exact nature of the Blessings is very different.

Blessings are as unique as the user, and fit the personality of their user perfectly due to the fact Blessings are born from their owner's very soul.

Magic in the Modern World

Magic has been largely lost in the modern world. Due to Sentients using magic for selfish and violent reasons in the ancient world, the world's magic has retreated, spreading itself thin across the globe to prevent Sentients from channeling it. What could not be spread thin has been concentrated in and around the six Gates, leading to deeply powerful magic surrounding them.

Forests, lakes, oceans, mountains, and the like that surround or hide the Gates are protected by these concentrations of magic, with the Ferals and the land itself of these areas being nearly impossible to navigate or remain in for any length of time.

What little magic remains available to the modern world is that which exists in the Blessings, which do not wane in power and remain as deeply connected to Sentients as their very souls. This is the one unbreakable bond between Sentients and Relanian magic, as it is directly tied to them by the gods themselves.

Due to magic withdrawing from the world and preventing itself from being channeled, the arts and schools of magic have been long forgotten, and are largely considered myth outside of Sen and Kanor, which are acutely aware of magic and its existence, as well as deeply reverent of it due to their history with it. Senese and Kanorian shamans even in the modern world can draw on a small amount of magic to read the aura of others and determine the nature of their Blessing, with more skilled shamans able to describe in detail the benefits of it.

The only remaining peoples with a direct connection to magic beyond the Blessings are the Tangkorak tribes scattered across Ferus, which to this day follow the teachings of the ancient Mystics. Despite magic withdrawing from the world, Tangkorak are able to draw on a small amount of it, which is what forms their tongues and eyes, allowing them speech and true sight. Tangkorak shamans are able to use a small amount of Nature magic, enough to expedite the harvest of their crops, or to wither away weeds that pose threats to their gardens, though these powers are greatly limited, and take many decades of training to make even irregular use of.

Closing Notes

Relan is a world of magic, with time period playing a key role in whether it is a world of high-fantasy and potent wizardry or if it is a forgotten power, unable to be used directly by all but the most deeply attuned.

When considering Relanian magic, the greatest thing to remember is that it does have a conscience of its own, and will never willingly break godly law. Forcing the magic to go against godly law will inevitably result in the magic turning against the user, either leaving them entirely or some other punishment for misusing it. This does not happen overnight, but over the course of ones life, as their misdeeds increase in number.

Have fun with it, and if you have any questions, by all means ask and I will gladly answer anything at all. Be it about Blessings, ancient magic, the schools of magic, or whatever topic you like.

[priveetru]

Throwing down a keep reading for convenience.

- What gives you the right to set the criteria for what ought to disqualify an entire class of human beings from moral consideration? - Why do you believe you are entitled to decide which humans we can treat as mere property?

These are good questions. Being morally valuable has a descriptive meaning which we are debating. When I say, 'I don't think' or 'I don't care' this is shorthand for, 'my understanding of moral worth does not include'. So I agree with you that moral worth is independent of perception, and instead is relying on some fact of the matter.

For instance, 'I don't morally care about plants' in longer form would be: to my knowledge, plants don't possess the attributes that would put them in the category of morally valuable.

You do the same in reverse when you assert fetuses are included in the group of entities with moral worth. Hopefully, it's clear why I have the right to state my understanding of the categories and what is in or out of them.

Describing definitions or putting people in categories is not an act of love, hate or fear. I don't put fetuses where they are for emotional reasons.

Being afraid of potential power dynamics or the bias of the existing paradigm are both reasonable concerns, but they don't change the arguments or the conclusions, just how much we would scrutinize them.

So, yes, the disagreement is that you call a person a 'happening' with some clear start (conception) and clear end (death) while I would say a person is a temporal part (to borrow terminology) of a human being (which is a happening) where at all times, it has a mind. Specifically, the thing that is important is the ability for the person to have preferences, since that is what I am describing when I discuss morality (maximizing on aggregate preferences aka some kind of utilitarianism).

Bringing that explanation back to the fetus, it's possible that you could show me science that concludes a fetus at 10 weeks has a brain stem and the majority of our concept of wants or preferences exists wholly in that part of the brain in which case I would be forced to say that any abortion after 10 weeks would be immoral since you are killing a person. As far as I know now, science has concluded we have sufficient parts in the brain developed at 20 weeks to start being assigned personhood.

No matter where the exact line falls, I am without doubt that there is a time after conception where we do not have sufficient structure in the fetus to generate preferences, and at this point, a person has not been formed yet so the preferences of the fetus cannot be considered and abortion is without negative moral consequence stemming from the killing of the fetus.

Hopefully, that makes my position clearer. The only thing to argue is which is the correct category for person, which is inextricably linked to my moral framework for me. I'd be interested to hear why your definition of person describes a moral category or what about being human makes us morally valuable since that should flesh out the differences in our positions

Haven't posted one of these in a while

[teruthecreator]

okay. thoughts on the grad finale

gonna slap it under a readmore bc i’m Sure i’m gonna ramble. 

uh spoiler warning for the finale of taz graduation, as well as spoilers for the season in general.

also, these are my own thoughts of how the season went, what the themes were, etc! if you don’t agree with me, that’s fine! but i don’t wanna have a convo w you in the replies about it i’ll be honest. if you want to share your opinion so badly, make your own post, alright? that good? we cool?

aight. so. finale thoughts.

to make it short: i think the finale was a satisfying end of a very good arc. 

to expand upon that, let me share what i think the themes of graduation were and why the finale satisfies those themes. 

i made a post about this a while back (here it is if you want) but my honest belief was that the theme of graduation was self-reliance: the concept that you don’t allow yourself to be governed by forces that go against your own beliefs. this concept was coined by essayist ralph waldo emerson to talk about how the american people shouldn’t allow the government to create laws that go against the will of the people. now, understandably, this feels very anti-capitalist which is what i think a lot of fans believed was reflected through the season. 

but, in reality, self-reliance has more to do with being active in your government and making sure you’re being represented the way you want to be by your representatives. that’s sort of the vibe emerson was going for in his essay, and i think. in a sense? that translates to graduation. but i took self-reliance in the more metaphorical about breaking away from those things that are controlling you. which, in graduation, was A Lot Of Things. 

the way i saw it, there were two major groups that inflicted order upon the world and the thundermen--conveniently separated as order and chaos (not the deities though, just the concepts). 

the order half of control existed mostly through the school and the HOG. the HOG created the economic reliance on the heroes and villains system, which removed all literal meaning from those terms and turned them into bureaucratic titles. society existed under these very strict checks and balances; heroes and villains supplied money to the kingdom in terms of entertainment, which then boosted that kingdom’s creditability and allowed them to contribute more to nua’s economy, which then led heroes and villains to have a higher demand, thus perpetuating the cycle. it’s important to note that this term does not represent the sort of morality we expect for heroes and villains--hell, even the term “evil” turned into an arbitrary term used to show those heroes and villains who failed the system. this is the more prominent representation of control that the thundermen break away from in achieving their own self-reliance. they don’t see the value in a system that holds no real moral code (fitzroy Especially, but i’ll get into that in a bit), and can’t help the public when there’s actually a serious situation. as we saw with althea in the beginning, the HOG had no way to help the thundermen when they were dealing with the whole Demon Prince situation (as he had already placed some of his own people in there, proving these kind of systems are easily corruptible). so this wasn’t a system meant to Actually create heroes and villains--it was just a way of boosting the economy. 

the chaos half of control existed primarily through grey and Chaos. grey represented how chaos could be controlled, through various means. he planted that tree for the centaurs to fight over because he knew it would constantly create conflict, which he enjoyed. he kept the school under a watchful eye to prevent anyone from stepping out of line with his grand ideas, and used several manipulation tactics to try and get his way (most notably, his own admittance of grooming fitzroy into joining his side, which didn’t work). grey was the perfect example of how chaos does not automatically mean a lack of control. he was very controlling in how he did things because he had an endgoal: find hieronymous and have a war. but he didn’t even realize he was contributing to a greater idea, that being Chaos’s insistence on causing general disarray. as we realize now, Chaos’s plan was both for them and Order, but i’m leaving Order out for a second because they only really rear their head in towards the end. for the most part, audiences were led to assume that Chaos was the Big Bad(TM); they were the one pulling the strings, allowing things to happen to cause general chaos and disarray. them supplying random mortals with their endless power was a way to plant chaos into the world of nua; but it was a chaos they controlled. fitzroy resisting them was not simply a refusal to bend to Chaos, but it was resisting the control put on him through his magic. 

these systems were constricting the thundermen on both sides. when they thought they’d find help in one side, they were disappointed to find that there was nothing anyone could do. the only people who could fix their problems were...them. so they forged a new path, set new ideas, and became self-reliant. that’s what i think is the most important aspect of graduation; not the anti-capitalist implications of turning over the economic and political systems in place, but the idea that if nothing that is supposed to help you is actually helping that you can just...do your own thing! 

and i think that’s what the finale really shows, at the end of the day. that these forms of control were not doing anything helpful, and were in fact ruining the fabric of space-time! that’s where i think Order comes in because Order is really...the ultimate culmination of control. they are aware that Everything being done will benefit their cause. the HOG? well, they make sure everybody’s so incompetent that they can do their work. grey? well, he’ll contribute to the plan without even realizing it. they even manipulated Chaos and enacted their own form of control over Chaos to make sure that they had no reason to believe that this plan couldn’t go wrong. but Order knew. Order always knew there was a chance for error, and that chance was very great. but they didn’t care! so long as they had control of things, they could try a hundred times to get it right. they had no care for mortals, unlike Chaos. 

the thundermen showing Chaos the truth is the final jenga piece that collapses this tower of control. which is why the finale is so great. 

travis does a phenomenal job of incorporating chaos (general chaos) into the battle mechanics. it may be stupid and slightly arbitrary, but having them change forms randomly and having to adapt to those new circumstances really does exemplify the season!!! the thundermen were constantly forced into new situations (being sidekicks/henches, fitzroy becoming a villain, being let in on the heiro dog situation, the unbroken chain trial, joining forces w grey, etc.), and in all of them they simply found a way to adapt and keep working their way. which made the finale generally interesting and also thematically interesting! 

i think my favorite part of the entire fight scene is right at the end, when argo chucks the shark’s tooth necklace at Order. and time stops. and they’re given a choice. 

the fact that they leave it to a coin toss?? oh my god...how fucking FITTING!! like, that’s disorderly. that’s going your own way. it’s new, it’s terrifying, it has DIRE UNKNOWNS ON EITHER SIDE, but it’s what they do! and...it ends up working out! i think it would’ve worked out either way, but the fact that they left it up to chance really shows how they aren’t allowing anything to control their actions. 

AND THEN WE GET TO THE EPILOGUE. MY GOD I LOVE THE EPILOGUE I’M GONNA GO OFF SO MUCH. 

first off, i loved hearing how Nua adapts to losing this very significant form of government/economic contributor and turns to more people-based work. citizens uniting together, fixing things, making amends, THAT’S SELF-RELIANCE BABEY!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE EMERSON SHIT! HAVING A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT THAT ACTUALLY HAS THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE!!! YEAHHHHHHHHH THAT’S THE WHOLE SELF-RELIANCE THING!

now, i’ll break it down by characters: 

fitzroy

GOD. LOVE IT. FIRST OFF, absolutely ADORED how his character arc involved him stripping himself of these self-assigned titles because he actually has an identity that is all his own and he doesn’t NEED arbitrary titles to prove his worth because HE HAS IT IN HIMSELF. not to self-plug or anything, but that’s ssoss!fitzroy’s WHOLE SHIT. I’VE ALREADY BEEN ON THIS TRAIN, BITCH, AND TO KNOW I GOT IT SO RIGHT...GOD. FEELS GOOD. 

but also, i just really enjoy how his ending went in general. the fact that he doesn’t really know what he wants to do, so he just...does stuff he likes to do? that’s so good! because, if you remember, fitzroy had a Very set schedule of life events when the campaign started. he was going to get his wiggenstaffs degree, go back knight school, get his knight school degree, and then go to goodcastle. but all of that was based on a very limited understanding of himself. 

fitzroy’s character arc has primarily focused finding himself, specifically in terms of identity. for someone who was bullied for his past, the present formation of himself was Extremely important to fitzroy. he thought that shutting out his past and taking on this grandiose title of knighthood would make him something more than himself. he would no longer be fitzroy; the poor, country kid trying to make it in a big world. he’d be Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt; respected, honored, revered, with a title to prove it. 

he explains to fauxronymous (pre-reveal grey) that the reason he wanted to be a knight was because he wanted to assist in doing good. morally good. fitzroy has Always had a very clear sense of his morality; this comes through when he refuses Chaos on the basis of many people having to die if he agreed. but being a knight also had the added of bonus of a very respectable title that no one would want to look beyond, which fitzroy felt he needed because...i don’t think he Saw anything beyond that. in himself. he wasn’t himself for a very long time, and i don’t know if he ever thought he would be again. he’d wear this new identity, start a new life, and be happier....he hoped. 

then, things changed! and he started to realize that arbitrary titles don’t do shit because plenty of people with Big Important Titles ended up being Awful People! so he started to value himself For Himself; his wit, his humor, his strength, his magical prowess. and, i think, he started to wonder what knighthood was Really about. was it about upholding a moral good? or was it just another bureaucracy filled with people who won’t do shit when things get bad. 

i think this is why him becoming a lawyer is fitting. especially because of the reasoning he gives sylvia nite. now for A LOT OF PEOPLE, i’m sure they hear lawyer and assume some corporate hotshot who doesn’t give a shit about people. but fitzroy is Not applying to be a corporate laywer. he SPECIFICALLY telsl sylvia that he wants to help people who cannot help themselves, and he wants to do good in that way. THAT kind of lawyer is more of the pro-bono, district lawyer. the ones that don’t make crazy amounts of cash, but help those who cannot afford lawyers and represent them when the government is fucking them over. those lawyers don’t rely on title, they rely on principle. 

that’s the perfect representation of fitzroy’s growth. holding his identity within himself, while still trying to do good by those who need it. 

firbolg (aka gary) 

i think the firbolg’s ending is so unique but so...right for him. his character arc has really been focused around finding his family. he had one, in the beginning, in his clan. but that didn’t end up, y’know...working out that much. so he had to go out into the world alone--something that firbolg’s are rarely--and try and navigate these foreign spaces all by himself. 

we see very early on how he latches onto the idea of groups. he likes being considered a part of the thundermen; he very much hoists himself upon the CFO title and wears it proudly. i think, where fitzroy needed to find identity within himself, the firbolg needed to find it within other people. which is completely okay! he’s still an individual, but you can tell he finds comfort in numbers because that’s what he is used to. 

him going back to his clan was, i believe, his finally severance with his identity as “firbolg”. he would never be welcomed back to his clan, and one of the few people in his life who supported him was now dead. but his father was proud of him; his father was happy he seemed to find his own clan, even if it wasn’t with other firbolgs. from that moment on, i think the firbolg begins to try finding himself within the thundermen. within his friends.

so his epilogue is neat! it definitely captures the loneliness he feels on his own, and how he feels lost with himself without others. i think it might seem silly to some that he would become a gary, but i think it’s fitting. the garys were always present in his time at school, and they were always helpful. they didn’t mind how long it took him to talk because the gary’s are stone gargoyles--what the fuck do they care about time? it was a group that the firbolg saw as familiar to him--always willing to help, slow, stony, and attuned to a larger group. 

and i think the way gary takes this idea of unity and family and puts it into financial assistance just...it just ties everything together! we saw how attached he got to the concept of finances, thanks to his very confusing accounting class. so he had all of this new knowledge--this knowledge that represented a separation from firbolgs--and this new clan. and he used it to help other clans and families!! i think the fact that the Garys financial advice works specifically with groups is what makes this so fitting. because gary wants families to feel stable within themselves; he understands how finances can create struggle and divides, and he wants to provide relief. 

giving financial advice to communities so they rely on themselves and not the government (aka inviting them to be controlled once more) is a VERY self-reliant concept. not that i think gary’s goal is to have no social networks to exist, but he wants to give communities the ability to rely on one another and foster that feeling of togetherness. so groups aren’t fighting over things, but are trusting and loving and relying. 

just like gary’s always wanted. and just like what he has with the thundermen.

argo 

argo’s ending is probably the funniest, but also the sweetest. i think that argo’s character arc revolved around finding his place. we see how argo’s early personality and motivations revolved around his past. he very much had a revenge story since the start; he wanted to enact revenge on the commodore for murdering his mother, no matter what it took. which made him very limited!! in terms of the self. he saw himself less for what he was now, and what he was then. and what he couldn’t do then. 

we see how much he finds comfort in being a part of the thundermen, but also how he feels...out of place. i think this is because a part of him is still attached to his past and doesn’t think he can do anything beyond his set plan. the unbroken chain certainly contributes to this, by not only separating him from the trio but also reinforcing his connection to his past through his mother’s involvement in the unbroken chain. 

the commodore also being a part of the unbroken chain is, i think, what causes the shift from past to present within argo. his life’s goal is standing right in front of him--attached to the group his mother once was a part of--with his friends at his side. letting the thundermen in on his history is the start of bridging these two halves of argo. and the fact that the thundermen are so willing to helps makes argo feel more a part of the team and more a part of this reality. 

when he kills the commodore, it isn’t intense. it isn’t overly dramatic (minus the fight prior, which was BADASS), it isn’t crazily staged. it is argo, staring down the commodore who lies prone on the ground. 

he kills himself unceremoniously and completes his life-long mission. 

what becomes of him in the epilogue is the culimination of both past and present. he takes what he knows and loves (the sea, the mariah, sailing) and blends it with what he’s come to love now (his friends, this adventure, and making people happy). there are SO many instances where argo uses performance to his advantage. this man is piloted by clint mcelroy, of COURSE he’s going to have a flair for the dramatic. 

so for him to open up a themed cruiseline, based on the stories of him and his friends? SO FITTING. and it isn’t forcing himself to leave his past behind or to completely ignore his present circumstances. because he’s found a place in the now, in the merging of these two sides. and by merging them, he paints a bright future for himself. a future that is partially known, partially not. partially old, partially new.

but it’s all his. 

after that, i think their final scene is just...sweet. a nice, jovial, joking send-off to a nice season. it proves these people have grown and will continue to grow, even when we no longer see their story. it does exactly what graduation does--shows you a struggle, a triumph, and a glimpse into the future. 

i’ll miss it so much, but there’s nothing more i could’ve asked of this ending. it was exactly what it needed to be; nothing more, nothing less. 

[lvrexe]

Henloo shrimp! May I request for a fic/hcs (whichever you prefer) on Kisame meeting his fem s/o adopted father for the first time? I thought it will be interesting if the father is also sort of like missing-nin or Kirigakure civilian just like him.

Thankiess🦈

Sooo I added some extra details, I hope you don’t mind..! ^^’’.... but this was honestly realllll fun to write, thank you so much for the request..!!

Kisame x fem!reader Genre: Fluff Point of View: Second POV Word Count: 2.1k

You were a low-ranked criminal born outside a village, roughly on the edge of the Land of Fire. You never really knew your birth parents; you just knew when you were little and starving, a man from Kirigakure took pity on your weak and trembling state. He was supposed to be there for a week, hiding away from the ninja from his home village, but seeing as he couldn’t just leave some starving kid alone in the woods. His moral compass couldn’t allow it, no matter how fucked up it was.

And so, he taught you some of his ways. Nothing too gruesome, just theft and stealth. Things to aid you and your survival. Not like you needed to do much as a kid, the man stayed week after week until the two of you were living on the edge of the borders, tucked away and well hidden by one of several forests.

“Hey! Get back here, you damn thief!” the shopkeeper shouted, waving his fist at you.

You stumbled around the corner before bolting down the streets of Konoha. Glancing behind you, you got a good glimpse at the shinobi who had lept into action. You scoffed and began to speed up. You whipped around corners, dashing down alleyways, anything to throw the shinobi off your track. They were stubborn though, they followed you through everything you did. As you turned another corner, you immediately dipped into a dango shop, wheezing and huffing. Silencing your chakra— just as your father had taught you—, you watched as the shinobi bolted down the streets, looking for you.

Knowing how keen shinobi were, you knew they’d be circling back when they realized they had lost track of you. Unless they decided you weren’t worth their time. Either way, you weren’t risking it. You flicked your hood up and stuffed the stolen foods into your jacket pocket, ignoring how awkward it looked. You took a glance around the shop before spotting two unusual figures in cloaks. One of them seemed to notice your stare and peered his head up; under his woven hat was palesh blue skin and piercing white eyes. He cracked a grin at you, he seemed to be able to read you like a book. He murmured something to his friend whose back was turned to you and after a short wait, the other shifted to the side. Taking the sign to sit, you planted yourself at their table.

That’s how you met the man known as the Tailless Tailed Beast, Kisame Hoshigaki, and his partner, Itachi of the Sharingan. Two S-rank rogue ninjas working in the Akatsuki. It was supposed to be a simple five minute interaction and the only interaction you had with them. But after a conversation started by Kisame, the two realized how useful you could be. Intel. You weren’t that high-ranked of a criminal, a petty thief in the Land of Fire. You’d slip right into the crowds of other villages.

Kisame took an immediate liking to you and Itachi tolerated you. You never paid Itachi any mind, though he came around when you had come back from Iwagakure with specific information on the Four-Tailed Jinchuuriki Kisame was assigned to. After a while, Itachi had warmed up to you a bit.

You were supposed to leave, supposed to head back to the Land of Fire, but Kisame had insisted you continue travelling with them.

“What?” you questioned, raising your brow.

Kisame chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. “Uh, well, you know, we may need intel again… For other missions,” he replied, explaining his offer.

You crossed your arms and thought back to your family. You were usually the one who got the necessary items. But you assumed your father could easily take care of himself. You looked back up at him. “Alright, sure,” you nodded.

Apparently, Kisame hadn’t even said anything to Itachi, as the Uchiha was confused upon still seeing you travel beside them. If he had any complaints, he never made them known.

You eventually learned that the reason why Kisame was so insistent on you sticking around was not because the two needed intel— in fact, you were only sent out to gather information once more after the first—, but rather Kisame ended up falling for you hard during your travels.

It took you some time to come around, but after a rather… enjoyable night, the two of you decided to try out dating. It ended up working out pretty well. Kisame, despite what his frightening appearance may imply, was a rather gentle lover. His touch was tender, his words were soft whenever he spoke to you, he never raised his voice even in heated arguments. But he’d be damned if he let anyone put their hands on you. He was highly protective, and, as you soon found out, was easily jealous of any man who dared to approach you with the intent of wooing you away with their charm.

It was a strong relationship, the two of you mixed well together, and after a year, you felt ready enough to introduce the man to your father.

“Hey Kisame, we’re headed back to the Land of Fire next month, right?” you asked one night. “Eh? Yeah, Itachi needs to head back for— eh, personal reasons,” he replied to you, shifting his body to face you.

“Do.. Do you think we’ll have time to make a quick stop?”

“Quick stop? What do you need?” he inquired.

“I… I want you to meet my dad.”

Kisame’s breathing hitched and his shoulders tensed. “Er…” he mumbled before turning his back to you in the futon. “I.. I’ll check with Itachi, we might not be able to.”

After that, Kisame avoided the topic altogether. Each time you brought it up, he’d turn his head to avoid your eyes and murmured an excuse or just changed the topic. Eventually, the month came to an end and it was time for the trip back to the Land of Fire. You were annoyed with your boyfriend, to say the least. The trip back was silent, filled with an awkward tension between you and Kisame that Itachi had to bear through.

The moment the three of you crossed the borders, Itachi came to a halt and turned around. His sharp gaze flicked between the two of you before he let out a sigh. “The unresolved issue between you two is bringing me a headache,” he stated simply. “I’m going ahead. You stay and figure out your relationship problem.”

“Eh, but Itachi—”

“I’ll be fine, Kisame,” the Uchiha snapped. He sighed and turned on his heels. “I can handle myself.”

You watched as Itachi left the two of you alone, disappearing into the woods ahead. Once his silhouette was far and out of sight, you wasted no time in turning to Kisame, hands on your hips and glaring a hole deep in the side of his head. “What is wrong?” you angrily demanded answers.

“Me? Nothing!”

“That’s a lie and you know it!” you huffed, “Everytime I bring up my father, you get all weird and it’s annoying.”

You crossed your arms and sulked as a frown grew on your face. You averted your eyes, avoiding his own. “We’ve been dating for a year now, Kisame…” you murmured, “Weren’t you the one who said you wanted something serious?”

“Yes, but…”

“So what’s the issue? You can’t just ignore my family like this,” you sighed.

Kisame grumbled and scratched the back of his neck. Fuck, he hated seeing you like this. He sighed, tempted to reach out before he dropped his hand. “I…” he uttered, “Babe, you know it’s not like that…”

“So what’s the issue, Kisame? Why don’t you want to meet my dad? You’ll have to eventually!”

He took a deep breath and a blush grew across his cheeks. “I don’t… Well, it’s embarrassing, y’know.”

You stopped for a moment, taking in his unusually timid posture. The way he averted his gaze to the ground, tilting his head from yours. Then it clicked. He’s afraid to meet your parents. Once the realization hit, you found it hard to not to laugh. You let out little giggles with attempts to silence them but as you continued on to look upon your embarrassed boyfriend, you couldn’t stop your laughter from bursting out. You clutched your stomach, hunched over and laughed to your heart’s content while Kisame watched in utter confusion and horror.

Kisame Hoshigaki; the Tailed Beast without a Tail and Monster of the Hidden Mist, afraid to meet your father.

The idea was hilarious to you. To Kisame? Not so much.

“He-Hey! Don’t you laugh!” he interrupted your laughing spree.

“Kisame, he’s my dad! He’s not going to do anything to you!”

“It’s not that!” he sighed.

“What if your dad doesn’t like me?” he eventually admitted. “I mean, look at me, y/n, I’m hardly human. I’ve got sharp teeth, gills and I’m a criminal!... Don’t even mention my gray skin…”

Now you felt horrible for laughing. You rubbed his arm and frowned, trying to get him to look at you again. You knew his appearance was an insecurity of his, Itachi being his partner likely increased that insecurity tenfold. “Hey…” you spoke in a hushed tone. Your hands reached up and cupped his cheeks. “Come on, Kisame, you don’t need to worry about any of that, I told you my family doesn’t care about appearances.”

“Yeah, for normal looking people,” he butted in.

“You’re normal, Kisame,” you insisted.

Kisame knew you weren’t going to relent, you never seemed to. He sighed and shook his head. “Alright, alright, fine… Then what about me being a criminal?”

You smiled. “Relax, Kisame… I feel like you and my dad would have a few things in common.”

-

“This… is it?” he murmured under his breath, a little taken aback.

You nodded as you pushed through some bushes. “Yup! Ever since I was a little girl, you know,” you clarified as you slipped into the front yard of the small cabin your father had built years ago.

Kisame stood in front of your home, staring upon the front doors, timid. Shit, he was nervous. His body even flinched as you placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Looks beaten down…” he commented.

You hummed. “It does… Dad’s probably been skipping out on the repairs…” you huffed.

Digging through your pockets, you pulled out your keys and unlocked the door. “Hey, Dad?” you called out the moment you swung open the front doors.

“Y/n?”

A middle-aged man poked his head through one of the rooms. His gloomy face lit up as he laid his eyes on you. “Ah! Y/n!” he called out as he walked out into the main room. “Come in, come in,” he insisted.

You entered the house, ready to embrace your old man, but knitted your brows in confusion as your father stopped and stared behind you. You remembered your boyfriend and turned around. “Hey, Kisame, come on—”

Kisame and your father stared at each other in shock. You glanced between the two, watching their stare-off. “Eh, is that the Monster of the Mist?” your father piped up. “Ehh… what was your name again? Kisame…?”

“Kisame,” he replied, “Kisame Hoshigaki, sir.”

“Ah, yes! I heard about your doings while I was raising young y/n here,” your father murmured. He walked closer to Kisame and leaned into the man, eyeing him up and down, scrutinizing his every action. “But what’s a man like you doing with my daughter?”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. “Dad, quit it. Leave my boyfriend alone,” you said, peeling your dad away from Kisame.

“Eh, he was a student of mine! Allow me to see how my student has grown!” he grumbled at you, but he reluctantly agreed as he made his way back to the table.

Slowly, you turned to your boyfriend. He stepped in and slowly shut the doors behind him. He noticed your stares and let out a short, nervous chuckle. “Heh, yeah… Your father trained me for a year when I was still in Kirigakure… He left because of his crimes…” he quietly explained.

Your father chimed in with a hum of agreement, confirming Kisame’s statement. “Now, come! Sit!” he instructed. When Kisame was taking off his shoes with timid movements, your father groaned. “Now, Hoshigaki!”

“Yes, sir!” your boyfriend blurted out as he quickened his movements, basically bolting over to the table. You sat yourself down beside Kisame and glanced over to your father, who analyzed you and Kisame with little subtly.

His eyes were more focused on Kisame, his eyes shooting daggers into him. Kisame shifted in his spot, visibly uncomfortable. This wasn’t the kind of student-teacher reunion he was expecting. You sighed and smacked the table as your other hand intertwined with Kisame’s. Upon hearing the smack, your father shook his head and quit his glares. He beamed a bright smile and sat up straight. “Now, tell me about this relationship of yours,” your father demanded.

[plantanarchy]

here's my controversial plant opinions of the day:

your garden can be both native and non-native plants. Its fine. It is not evil to plant non-native plants. Avoid invasives and noxious weeds but many non-native plants are good and fun

not all nativars are the Worst Ever or completely useless for pollinators the way many people claim BUT they do lower genetic diversity if cloned and not seed bred. This is more an issue if you are trying to reestablish a wild area or preserve a species, less so if you are landscaping your suburban house

Not all non native plants growing wild need to be eradicated or are horribly invasive, especially if they are growing in disturbed areas that we created. Hesperis matronalis for example grows places like roadsides, train tracks, and areas where invasives have already choked out natives.

Invasive plants are a symptom of a problem, not a problem themselves. They are not evil. It does not do any good to assign moral worth to plants. Native plants are not "good". Invasive plants are not "the enemy" They just are. They are filling a niche that our society left open for them.

If you are going to remove invasive plants en masse, you have to have a plan for whats going in its place. Garlic mustard, for example, tends to build up in population and then decline in number... unless the population is disturbed in which case it starts back up again.

Given that climate change is a thing and the fact that we have changed the environment on a micro level by putting in dams and streets and neighborhoods with lawns and shopping centers.... most definitions of native plants are bogus. The idea that traditonal native plants are better adapted to our local environment is no longer true. The winters are getting colder, watersheds are changing all the time, and your new development with all the topsoil shaved off in the baking sun with so much deer pressure even deer resistant plants don't stand a chance... the native plants are not native to that environment.

Oh, the problem is capitalism btw. Our infrastructure and livelihoods depend on creating environments where invasives thrive and natives cannot.

Individuals can help on a very small scale by planting their yards in an environmentally friendly way but if a highway project and new industrial center is going in down the street... nothing is going to help the local environment except lobbying and supporting conservation organizations

[max1461]

The thing is, a building that has bug poison sprayed in it sometimes isn’t going to stop having bug poison sprayed if I refuse to enter it; assigning ethical weight to entering the building strikes me as a result of an ethics-as-contamination mindset rather than a consequentialist mindset. Eating an individual burger is similar, with the difference being that abstaining from meat for a lifetime plausibly could have enough of an economic impact to actually affect decision making somewhere in the chain and thus materially reduce animal suffering (which is why I broadly support veganism, but don’t think scrupulous avoidance of all meat is morally relevant—if you cheat and have a burger once in a while, the effect is probably zilch, so it’s not worth worrying about).

On the other hand, putting some bugs in a terrarium that aren’t going to be happy there directly causes them to suffer, which I don’t want to do. Plus if I have bugs in a terrarium, I would implicitly feel that they are in my care and thus that I have a greater responsibility to avoid hurting them.

But I mean, that’s just the philosophical background here I guess. Practically speaking I think I would want to not risk it and would just make a terrarium with plants. But one with bugs would be cool.

more bug ethics concerns. is it ethical to keep insects in a closed terrarium? do they thrive in there or will there be problems with inbreeding etc.? closed terrariums are SO COOL and yeah one with only plants would be fine, but IIRC with no bugs there's a risk of mold growing and killing the plants. I'd really like to make one modulo bug ethics concerns.

[pl-panda]

The vines that bind us - Chapter 7

Chapter 1 || Previous || Next

-----------

After double-checking with security, it turned out that Tim Drake did not show to work. She sighed. Looks like more work for her… Just like Nathalie said.

She started by greeting the two plants in Mr. Drake’s office. Both were incredibly satisfied with themselves that they earned bigger pots. They were also even happier to see her. Next, she took care of her new plants. The two on her desk she quickly took a liking to. They were cute. Only the large plant that now stood in the corner next to the vent was snarky and dared to make an inappropriate comment about one of the office plants. The hole in that leaf was caused by a bullet thank you very much. Mari quickly and clearly explained where it made mistakes. 

With that done, she got to the paperwork that was left on her desk. There were many things to be done before the lunch break.

----------

Chloe was giddy the whole day. She got a green light to deal with the Liar in any way she wished. So many plans. So many possible revenge options. So many lawsuits to be filled. But as she was walking to the cafeteria, a new, even more devious, plan formed in her head. She would need the help of a certain stuck-up brat, but if she got him to help, it would not only destroy Lila but utterly ruin her. She already had several ideas from her other schemes that could be adjusted. Oh, this would be glorious if only she found… there!

Damian Wayne was not having a good day. He was in fact having a really, really bad day. His father had forbidden him from bringing another sword to work until his previous one is returned. Given how efficient the GCPD is, he would be lucky to get it before thirty. He was the only one of his brothers to arrive at WE before lunch, which led to more irritation. He definitely hated the corporate gossip about one Marinette Dupain-Cheng. How she was awesome, how she was a 'bamf' (whatever that meant), or how much they adored her kind-but-still-no-nonsense attitude. She took his sword!

“Wayne.” An irritating voice came from behind. Damian was of course aware that someone was behind him but dismissed it as an employee doing something unrelated to him. 

“Bourgeoise. What the heck do you want from me?” He spat

“To show you something.” She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jacket. He quietly admired how she found female clothing with pockets that deep. At the same time, he kept frowning at her.

“I swear, if it’s…” He didn’t finish, because she pressed ‘play’ and the video started. The whole thing laster about seven minutes. With each passing moment, his frown deepened and by the end, Chloe wondered how can he see anything when his eyes narrowed to two tiny slits. 

“I. want. her. dead.” He seethed through the clenched teeth.

“Good. But we can’t kill her. Mari forbid it and I know your father isn’t exactly fond of killing.”

“Tt. What. do. you. want?” He pronounced each word clearly.

“Simple. Destroy her with her own words.” She pointed to the group where she was clutching to Adrien’s arm for her dear life. “Mari-bear is too moral to play with her lies like that. Us? We play to win.”

“Fine. But I want my sword back.”

“Clever boy. I knew you could break into an evidence room.” Chloe smiled. “They returned it cleaned of blood the same afternoon. Guess you were too late.” 

“Tt.”

“Fine. I will get your precious sword. But if you try to mess with Mari…”

“I got enough of it from my father.” He scowled.

“Good. Now, onto the plan.”

---------

Mari didn’t come to eat lunch with Chloe. She was perfectly aware that the girl would start one of their plans and wanted to have an alibi. Instead, she dived into the paperwork that had to be done as soon as possible. It was going on good and if she dealt with it before the day’s ended, she would have time to try searching for her mother in the evening. She even inquired with the City Hall about the ownership of their old apartment and the answer should be coming any moment now. 

She was broken out of her concentration by a scream of rage and frustration.

--------

A few moments earlier

Damian stalked toward the group of teens that were relaxing from their intern duties. He could clearly see the Liar clutching to Agreste boy like a leech. Perfect for their plan. 

The boy had to agree that what Blonde concocted was both deviously brilliant and brilliantly devious. A perfect opening play. He made sure that he looked flawless before suddenly ‘appearing’ behind Lila and Adrien. 

“How could you?” He asked in an emotionless voice. His face was showing only traces of sadness. Just like he would look if it was for real.

“Who are you?” She asked dismissively.

“Really Lila?” He asked, allowing a small amount of water to appear in his eyes. It was not like him to cry at all, but his mother taught him all useful ways of emotional manipulations and tears were all the way on top of that list. “After all these years, our relationship meant so little to you? I specifically got this trip so we could reunite and you are just… hanging off of some french model?” 

“Listen here you…” She was interrupted when Chloe stormed, her heels clicking loudly around the cafeteria. Conveniently, everyone removed themselves when they saw Damian stalking toward intern-bitch. Speaking to police two days in a row is not a pleasant experience.

“Wayne. What’s the mess here.”

“Tt. You were right. She is a harlot.”

“Wayne?” Alya asked with wide eyes.

“Yes. You have the questionable experience of meeting a pissed Damian Wayne. My poor cake…” She moaned.

“Would you let that go, woman!?” He asked. This time he had no need to play his emotions. Bourgeoise never forgave him and Drake that Cake incident and it grated on his nerves. He paid her back.

“It was my birthday!” She raised her hands up. “And you are all idiots. Lila kept telling you how great her relationship with Damian was. And yet she is hanging off of Adrien, sinking her claws into his arm. I think the English expression was… I swear I read a book about it. Something with red A…” She pressed a finger to her lips, acting like she was trying to remember. “Ah! Scarlet Woman.” She grinned. “That’s what you are, Lie-la. A scarlet woman using men to get what you want.” That was vicious even for Chloe. Adrien took the opportunity to push the fuming girl away and get back. He could admire the chaos that was about to happen very soon. 

To their surprise, Lila calmed herself and giggled. 

“ah! Silly Dami-boo! I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I thought we were always just friends. It must’ve been one big misunderstanding” 

The people around started to nod their heads, accepting what she said as plausible. Damian Wayne wouldn’t be the first to get the wrong idea. At least until their phones buzzed. Chloe was smirking.

“Misunderstanding? This declarations of love say something different though. I seem to remember there was even some talk about a ring.”

Lila checked her phone and her eyes went wide. There were messages that looked like from her. That witch even replicated her speech pattern. It was much better forgery than what she did with Maribrat.

“Lila?” Nino stared at her in disbelief.

“I’m disappointed. After all this time together.” Damian shook his head. He pulled a small bracelet off and tossed it at her. “Consider this a break-up.”

Chloe smiled. “So you are free now.” She asked him. Damian saw the predatory grin and felt a sudden need to run. But he knew that the witch was not yet destroyed. 

“Yes…” 

“What say I concede that the cake incident was entirely Drake’s fault. If you take me for a coffee after work?”

Damian gave a distraught Lila a look of hatred. Then, he turned back to Chloe. 

“I would like that. Does 4:30 pm works for you?”

“I should be free by then.” She smiled. “It’s a date.”

With that, she left with Damian toward the elevator. Lila had enough of it and stormed to the bathroom. Soon after that, a shriek of frustration filled the building. Since it sounded like the bratty intern, nobody cared enough. The class was not allowed to leave their posts, not that too many of them wanted to be near Lila at the moment. They had many things to think about.

Damian and Chloe sat in the Law department, both having a satisfied grin. It was totally worth it.

“Just to be clear. I still hate you.” He said to her. 

“Same here.”

“To the Liar’s fall.” They raised a cookie each and bit in. Most people that saw them had to check again because the Ice Prince was actually hanging around someone his age. 

--------

Mari managed to record the shriek and now used it as Lila’s ringtone. It was a nice mid-day surprise that brightened her day. It lasted all beautiful hour until Marleen White, the head of PR, started knocking on the elevator, demanding to see her. Given her state and that she didn’t even call, it was something urgent. Mari quickly let her in.

“We have a huge problem.” She tossed a folder full of pictures on her desk. There were prints of chat screens with various dates. The content was most troubling. 

“I assume someone leaked it to the press?” She shrugged. 

“How can you be calm? It’s a disaster!” 

“They are fake.” Mari shrugged again.

“Fake?”

“A. That’s not Lila’s number on any of her four mobile phones. B. I have no idea who made it, but they have no idea how Damian Wayne acts. It’s straight up the same bullshit she will be facing a lawsuit for once the Law Department gets through the tons of paperwork. And C. This is an American number. Lila had no way of getting it three years ago. Plus the timing is too perfect. She gets punishment from the company and then the scandal with her dating youngest Wayne gets out. Whoever made it settled on fast, not precise.” Mari circled things on the prints.

“So it’s all fake?”

“I suspect she wanted revenge on the company for the extra work I had her be assigned.” Mari grinned at the memory of the shriek. “Or, someone’s doing it in her name.” For a moment her thoughts wandered to Chloe. She would have to speak to her soon.

“We will deny it and post all of the details you highlighted. The tabloids might still latch on it.”

“To be honest, I think it will be better than being dragged through the mud for the deaths. Especially since there was no story attached. Personally, I can’t care less about celebrity romance.” She dismissed the concern. It pained her a bit to speak about the dead in such a dismissive manner, but through the day she slowly absorbed that it was not her fault. She couldn’t blame herself. That’s what Marinette would do. Marinette was left in Paris by the irritating classmates and had her luggage (full of Adrien’s cheese-stinking socks) sent to India or somewhere. 

“That’s… quite a good idea. I assume you will want this forwarded to the Law department to add to the lawsuit.” 

“No point. It’s fake and we have no proof who leaked it. I’m plenty certain we have nothing or that person would already be sitting in HR.”

“The IT is looking into it, but they have little hopes. It went through an external server that we can’t get access to legally. Whoever leaked it was smart enough to avoid easy detection.”

“Good. By the way, what about that statement?”

“I sent it to your email.”

“I see it. I will read it and send you eventual suggestions.” 

“Sure. It’s nice to have someone competent in place.”

“I thought Mr. Drake was quite a good CEO. He got this company from the hole back to the top?” She tried to remember what she knew about Wayne Enterprises and Wayne Tech

“Yeah, but he is… eccentric. And can disappear at weird times for hours only to then work through three days without sleep”

“Oh. And Sarah was unhelpful?” Mari winced, remembering her own runs when the deadlines approached and she realized she spent the whole week constantly fighting Akumas. 

“She was good with people, but…” 

“I get it.” Mari smiled. “Luckily, I have experience with babysitting.”

Both women cackled at that.

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

Once Marleen was gone, Mari quickly called Chloe’s phone. The girl picked up almost immediately. She was speaking to someone. 

“I hope I’m not interrupting your work?”

“Don’t worry Mari-bear. I was just speaking with my newest side-kick.”

“Tt. I’m not a sidekick!” A voice came from next to her. Mari tried to resist the urge to facepalm. Chloe tilted the phone to show a pouting Damian Wayne. 

“Shut up Sidekick. I’m the mastermind behind our plans.”

“And I pay for them with my image and sanity.” He replied. 

“Hush you! I will let you know that some people would kill for the opportunity.” 

“Tt. Right now I want to kill someone.” 

“Har har. So funny, are you?”

“As much as I enjoy watching you two flirt… Get a room.” Marigold joked, watching both of them blush red. Before either had a chance to attack her for implying anything, she continued. “Chloe. Did you per any chance fabricated and published texts between Damian and the Liar?”

“Wait! That bitch actually published it?”

Mari facepalmed. She could feel the headache coming. In the hindsight, maybe it would’ve been better to just fire Lila’s sorry ass, together with the rest of the bunch. She could easily have Adrien and Chloe hired on some less permanent deal. They could both do without school for a while.

“Tt. Now I will really need my blade. Please tell me that nobody believed it?” Damian asked, frowning. 

“You’re in luck. Madame White caught the wind of it quick enough. She will be making a swift statement that this is an attack on your person and the image of Waynes as a whole. Plus publishing a detailed analysis of why it couldn’t have been you.” Bluenette reassured him that his precious reputation would not take any great hits. Or not too great of a hit at least.

“Good. Jon wouldn’t let me live it down.” He sighed in relief.

“Now, Chlo. You know I love and support your deviousness, but please try and limit the civilian casualties of your future plans.”

“Fine. I can’t promise Lila’s retaliation to follow the same rules.” She huffed.

“Good. You’ve got any plans for the afternoon?”

“She is already otherwise occupied.” Damian quickly interceeded. He might not like the blonde much, but his honor demanded that if he actually invited her for a date, he did his best.

“I will leave you to your scheming then. Or whatever else you are doing” Mari quickly hanged up on the couple before they could scream at her. She saw a bit of blush enter both of their faces so she counted it as a win. 

---------

The rest of the day passed relatively quickly. Tim Drake did not show for work, so she had to handle the paperwork herself. She never imagined how much work went into organizing one press conference. Sarah did absolutely nothing about it before she quit. Her biggest problem was that she needed to have it happen outside of WE since several journalists expressed their concerns about security. Now she was being hard-pressed to find a separate convention center. Except that things were expensive and Finances were definitely not being helpful. She posted the task to one of their employees. He would send her the offers before the day was up, but there was a slight delay and she would have to wait until four. Mari decided that she can wait and have it done that day. 

She informed Chloe and their teacher that she had to stay in the office after hours and get it done so they wouldn’t worry. Then, she dived into making what felt like dozens of phone calls. Out of four serious offers, three would actually pass the standards set by Mr. Drake in the email he oh so graciously sent her in response to a question about the situation. It was six when she actually got done with the negotiations, but the satisfaction was immense. The final price was ten percent lower than what she initially aimed for, so she had more funds for other things. The guest list was also reviewed in the meantime and already sent back, so that was one more thing crossed out of the list. 

After being done, she bid farewell to the receptionist near the entrance and went to the Taxi she called before leaving. It was already waiting, which was a nice boon for the end of the day. Her next stop was not the hotel though. She gave the address in the seedier part of town. Her old address to be precise.

----------

“Are you sure Ma’am?” The taxi driver asked unconvinced. “I mean it’s not the safest part of town.”

“Don’t worry. I can take care of myself. Besides, my mother used to live here.” She gave him a bright smile. 

“If you say so…” He shrugged and stopped before a rundown building. Moss and ivy had already overgrown this place a long time ago, but the plants seemed… unhealthy. Like they were left to fend on their own for too long. It was not a good sign.

Hesitating for a moment, Mari entered the building. She was hesitant, even though technically her mother was the owner. The ground floor was empty if one ignored several dozen wild plants in various states of growth. Some were dried and dead, while some others were lush and domineering. It used to be well-kept and ordered inside the garden that she and her mother tended to. She would fix that after she found her mother. 

The second floor was not much better. The dust everywhere was indication enough that Pamela Isley moved out long ago. Probably even years. Mari walked around, reminiscing about her childhood. It was not what one would call ordinary, but she would never settle for it anyway. She loved learning about plants with her mother. The martial arts lessons with uncle Wilson when he had time. Science with uncle Victor or her mother. Even the math with uncle Floyd. And Allegra and Claude were there to keep her company. 

Slowly, she trailed to her mother’s room. She hoped to find something useful there. She definitely did not expect to have to block a giant mallet with blue and red stripes. Ducking under it, she delivered a quick kick before running to the stairs. Mari dashed downstairs and burst onto the street. The Taxi driver actually waited for her. He was a godsend at this moment. She quickly jumped inside and ordered him to go.

“So? Unwelcome guests?” he asked a bit more cheeky than she would’ve liked. 

“Yes. But apparently my mom didn’t live there is some time.” Mari answered in a bitter tone. 

“Shame. Hope you have better luck, next time lass.” They rode in silence for a moment. “Name’s Chas by the way. Chas Chandler.”

“Marinette.” She smiled at the man. “Thank you for waiting. I would’ve probably been in a worse situation if not for you.” Mari did not add that the worse situation was ordering the wild plants to defend her. She worked with the wild plants maybe twice before and they didn’t listen that well to orders. 

“Where to now?”

Mari gave him the name of the hotel. When they arrived, she paid him and gave him a rather generous tip for the work. It was already dark, but apparently Chloe was not yet here. The class was supposed to be visiting some local museum or whatever. It’s not like she cared. 

When Marigold entered her room, there was a large book sitting on her bed. Tikki immediately zoomed out of her pocket and toward it. she hovered over for a moment before she huffed. 

“Of course he would do that. He is an idiot though. I would be a much better teacher.”

“Who are you talking about?” Mari asked the small goddess.

“No one!” Kwami said quickly and in a bit higher tone. The bluenette could’ve sworn she saw Tikki get even redder than before. 

“Okay… And what’s that? Nothing dangerous I hope?”

“It’s… it’s a spellbook.” Tikki said after hesitating a bit.

“Like magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Who would leave me a spellbook without as much as a note?” Mari asked. She could see Tikki was conflicted.

“I can’t say.” She finally let go of air. “I made a promise that I would keep the secret.”

“Fine. You’re sure it’s safe?”

“Yeah, but Magic is dangerous. You should only do it with some supervision.” Tikki warned her.

“Good thing I have you then.” Marigold grinned. 

“Mari! You know I can’t exactly just…” Tikki paused. “You know what, it’s actually not a bad idea. I can teach you some simple stuff for the starters.” 

“Huh? I actually expected you to be against it.”

“I trust you to act responsibly. And as a Guardian, you probably should start learning magic anyway.”

“Let’s get started then. Please tell me I can curse Lie-la!”

-------

NEXT

[spookybias]

ᝰ a favor | choi beomgyu ˎˊ˗

genre: fluff

type: drabble / twoshot

description: choi beomgyu was in desperate need of someone to do his homework, and you were in desperate need of his affection.

contents: beomgyu being egotistical and taking advantage of you, you being bold.

prompts ↓

"please don't make me wait any longer."

"maybe i'll do it if you let me kiss you."

read the second part here

𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐈 𝐁𝐄𝐎𝐌𝐆𝐘𝐔 𝐓𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐘𝐎𝐔, 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌. You sighed in annoyance. It was unfortunate that you packed up your belongings at the pace of a snail, because Beomgyu was able to catch you before you could escape.

Despite having a major crush on him, you were often aggravated by his existence. While other people admired him from afar, you were very open about your crush on him. To you, it wasn’t that serious. It was just a high school crush that would soon pass -at least that’s what you constantly told yourself. But to Beomgyu, it meant everything.

He could easily use it against you or to take advantage of you, whatever suited the moment best. When he needed a favor and you refused, he would quickly pull the “crush” card, guilt tripping you and making you believe that if you did whatever he asked of you, your chances with him would increase. And that’s the tactic he was using today.

“___, I need a favor,” Beomgyu said in a sweet and syrupy voice. He gave you one of his famous smiles, the one reserved for when he didn’t really mean it. “I need you to do Mr. Kim’s assignment for me.” He placed his hands on your shoulders into an attempt to soften you up.

Though you believed your crush on Beomgyu meant nothing, you often found yourself committing to his tasks to make him happy. When Beomgyu handed you money and waved you off to the vending machine because he was too lazy to go himself, you had no problem going for him. When he handed you a towel and expected you to wipe his sweat after dance practice and gym, there was no problem. But this? This was too much.

It was no secret that you were the top student in your class. You never participated on your own, but when a teacher called on you, you always had the right answer. Your test scores were always the highest in the class, and people often asked to copy your homework. You always turned them down, never willing to throw your morals and reputation away to please someone who was too lazy to do the work themselves. Beomgyu knew this, but thought that by being your crush, he could get you to let it slide just this once. And possibly many more times in the future, just for him. 

That made you angry.

“It’s a no from me.”

“Please, ___.” Beomgyu had no shame in begging. After all, he knew that as a top student, you wouldn’t give in too easily, but luckily he had a magic trick that always worked on you. “Just this one time. For me?”

“Uh, nope.” You wouldn’t give in this time, not for nothing. “Why don’t you go ask someone else?”

Because you were secretly the only person Beomgyu trusted enough to ask for favors. He wouldn’t let anyone else bring him snacks from the vending machine, ‘cause he only wanted you to know what he liked. He wouldn’t let anyone else close enough to dab at his neck with a towel, ‘cause only you weren’t crazed enough to try to kiss him. Beomgyu couldn’t just say that, though. “Because I know you’re the only one smart enough to help me out.”

“And why’s that?”

“___,” Beomgyu looked at you with pouted lips and furrowed eyebrows, “I thought you liked me.”

You were quick to respond. “So because I like you I should risk my reputation and my good grades to do your bidding? It’s a no from me still.”

“Come on!” Beomgyu threw away the innocent act. “If you like me so much and want to date me, you should be willing to help me out!”

“Assisting you with the project would be helping you out. Doing it for you is cheating.” You crossed your arms. You promised yourself that you wouldn’t give in. “And who said I wanted to date you?”

“Please.”

“No.”

Beomgyu was at his breaking point. This was the first time you had said no to him. He began whining about how tired he would be when he came home from the academy, how he had to clean his room and had two other projects, (which was a lie), so he was too busy to do Mr. Kim's.

“For me?”

“No way.”

“Please, I’ll do anything.”

“Maybe I’ll do it if you let me kiss you.” You weren’t sure where the sudden burst of confidence came from, but you figured he wouldn’t say yes and would give up instead. You had come to the realization that your chances with Beomgyu were nonexistent, and you were just his servant at times. Beomgyu, however, thought differently, but had too much fun bossing you around to take you out on an actual date. A small part of you hoped that he would let you kiss him. Then maybe all the times you favored to him would actually be worth something.

His ears were as red as a tomato as he stuttered out his answer to your suggestion. “Who - who do you think y-you are making demands like that?”

“Fine. Then no homework.” Oh yeah, you were pretty bold. You slid out the doorway.

“Wait!” Beomgyu grabbed your elbow and you stopped your movements. This was the first time he touched you. He couldn’t let you hurt his pride. “Fine, but I’m the one who gets to initiate the kisses around here.”

The two of you stood in front of each other. You uncrossed your arms and stayed still, worried that any excess movement could make him change his mind. As Beomgyu leaned down, you kept your eyes open, partially believing that this was all some sort of prank.

He stopped right in front of your face. You looked so cute, and secretly, he wished you had made him kiss you back when he asked for something the first time.

“Please don’t make me wait any longer,” was all you could say as the both of you stood stiffly outside your classroom. Beomgyu figured you were referring to how long he was taking to plant one on you, but your words held a deeper meaning.

When he placed his lips on yours it was for no more than three seconds. It felt longer, though, as it was your first kiss, and your first kiss shared with Beomgyu. Beomgyu pulled away, biting his lip, wanting to gather the taste of yours before it disappeared.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Beomgyu pulled a folder out of his backpack and waved it in your face as your tried to compose yourself. “Make sure your handwriting is neat when you do my assignment. I’ve seen your penmanship, and it’s not the best.”

You were instantly reminded of your relationship with Beomgyu as you took the folder.

As Beomgyu strutted off to meet Kai and Taehyun outside the school, he touched his lips and hoped to get another chance to kiss you. Maybe that’ll be his next request, and for you to say yes when he asks you out.

[linkspooky]

What do you think of Mahito, his role in the story's future, and what he might represent? I can't stop thinking of how he literally acts as an antithesis to Yuji (besides being his primary foil), humanity and the narrative itself and how that might mean that he is the main antagonist of Jujutsu Kaisen.

What are your thoughts on the new JJK chapter? With what Mahito said to Yuji at the start of the chapter?

Answering these asks together. Thank you both for sending them!

I’m going to center this analysis around Mahito’s statement that you are me, and his role as antithesis to Yuji as the anon stated above. There are two big ways you can interpret Mahito’s statement. They are the same in the sense that they are character foils, that Mahito is the Jungian Shadow to Yuji and all of his actions. The second one is based around the idea that Jujutsu Kaisen at large plays with Budhism, and BUdhist ideas, it’s an argument that Mahito and Itadori are spiritually the same. Not contradictory forces but complimentary, the whole of them each containing parts of the other. I’m not the best at explaining japanese budhism, because I myself am not a japanese budhist, but I will try my best under the cut. 

1. Spiritually the Same

So, Mahito’s arguments are ones that require a certain amount of abstraction to make sense. 

For example, is saving people the same as killing people? No, obviously not.

Alright, there’s your answer. Let’s go home, give me notes please. To understand Mahito’s argument you have to understand how far away from other living people his perspective is. 

Mahito positions himself as a third party observing from afar. From his position everything has a tendency to look the same. Let me explain: if every living creature has a soul, then what gives weight to human souls?

Heart, weight, both of those are words that are essentially trying to give human lives “worth.” Are human lives “worth something?” Are they more worthy than the lives of animals, plants, curses, etc. The way Mahito sees it everything has a soul. Even plants have a soul. However, there’s nothing too different in the souls of humans, from the souls of say bugs. The only difference he himsel sees is that humans have a capacity for reason. 

“The so-called dignity obtained by human reason”, humans assume their lives are more worthwhile, more dignified then say, the life of your dog, because a human has the intellectual capacity for logical reasoning and a full range of emotions on display, and your dog has been barking at his reflection in the mirror for twenty minutes because he thinks it’s another dog. 

Ideas of good and evil are not natural laws of the universe. They are made up by human reason. They only exist because humans said they do, and give reasons to them. Mahito’s perspective is a natural one on the world. 

The reason that humans are different from monkeys is just a quirk of evolution that enabled them to gain more brain mass over millions of years, and then gained higher amounts of intelligence. Everything else was reasoned out, ex posto facto. Humans come up with reasons why things happen after the fact, but they just happened. Humans just happened to evolve. 

If the natural state of the universe is chaos, and there’s no foreseen hand guiding everything, then things that happen just happen. There is no particular meaning to them. You can make up a meaning, but who is to say one invented meaning is more important than the other? 

There’s life on this planet, because we just so happened to be a certain distance away from the sun to enable an ideal climate for liquid water on the surface. Therefore, life is not some necessarily some thing that needs to be protected. It’s just there. 

If both Mahito and Yuji are fighting up with their made up value of life, Mahito believing there is no value, and Yuji believing there’s value worth preserving, then Yuji needs to actually make an argument. If no objective right or wrong exists, Yuji needs to prove why he’s right, rather than insisting he’s doing the right thing without thought. 

Yuji and Mahito are each other, because they both embody an ideal in the way life should be treated. 

When Mahito is saying this, it’s because Yuji gives weight to human lives, but not weight to the light of curses. That is to say, Yuji is fixated on the idea of giving humans a “good death” because he believes they’re owed that dignity, but will absolutely brutalize and tear curses to pieces. This is something Gojou commented on in chapter three, HUH ISN’T IT WEIRD THAT YUJI DIDN’T REALLY GROW UP SURROUNDED BY CURSES AND ALL I NEEDED TO DO WAS GIVE HIM A KNIFE AND POINT AT THAT AND SAY GO KILL THAT THING AND HE DID IT. 

Let’s say it wasn’t a curse for a moment. Let’s say Yuji wrestled and killed a tiger with his bare hands and afterwards you saw him skinning it. From a certain perspective his actions might look brutal. You killed and skinned a cat. Well, yeah, but I wouldn’t do this to a human. From a certain perspective his actions might look justified. There was an old lady nearby and I didn’t want to maul her. However, if you believe spiritually that humans are nothing special and all living things have equal dignity, Yuji killing and skinning that tiger is a violation of that dignity. 

Yuji believes that humans have dignity and wants to perserve that dignity even in death. That’s not objective fact though, that’s his own personal belief that he’s fighting for. 

The official translation even has Yuji call it a natural death rather than a good death. However, is Yuji just imposing what he believes to be good and insisting it’s the natural order of the world instead? 

Mahito’s argument is essentially that there is no right or wrong, and therefore the two of them are just both presenting ideas. If the order of the world is one where creatures constantly consume each other in order to survive, then what is so wrong about the curses fighting it out with humans against who becomes top dog? Curses are shown to have sentience same as humans. They don’t have human kindness, or compassion but they’re capable of assigning thoughts, and reasons behind their actions the same way humans do. What makes one life more worthy for another? Mahito’s words are a challenge, to come up with some reason to defy him. 

However, there’s a flaw in Mahito’s argument. 

Mahito’s argument is one that states nothing is a reason. All life is equal therefore one life doesn’t matter or is worth more than the other. However, then he uses that to give himself moral permission to do whatever he want. 

What do I mean by he needs moral permission? 

Mahito is justifying his actions, excusing his actions, the same way that Yuji is.

The appearance of the black flash this chapter signifies that the universe is a neutral party to both Yuji and Mahito’s fight. The universe is indifferent to both of them. However, Mahito presents himself as someone who is also indifferent, and objective, when he’s not. 

Mahito isn’t doing what he does for no reason at all. Mahito does it because he loves humans, while Yuji does it because he hates humans. Mahito tries to give permission to Junpei, he tries to give permission to himself. His views are not that of a true nihilist, because a nhilist wouldn’t seek permission like that. Mahito’s are that of a moral nihilist. All life is worthless, therefore I can do whatever I want with it. That’s not an expression of nihilism, or the abstract idea that there are no set goals or values to life. That’s just Mahito giving an excuse to why he wants to toy around with human life. 

(Also, I don’t really understand japanese budhism from the perspective of a japanese person, so please feel free to correct me on any of this, I’m just trying to go off of what was presented in the story! I’d love to hear other people’s perspectives). 

But basically what I’m talking about is expressed here by Mr. Yoshimura if you read Tokyo Ghoul. 

If all life on this planet is just trying to survive, and in compettition with one another to survive, then the taking of all life is equally evil. A human killing a curse for survival, and a curse killing a human for survival is the same FROM THAT PERSPECTIVE. 

However, I would argue that this assertion that “Life is Evil” is being said by a PERSON and that person is making a VALUE JUDGEMENT. Evil is an idea same as good. Life is neutral, life is random, life is indifferent, life is just atoms smashing around in pure utter chaos but it’s not necessarily evil and definitely not in the way Mahito takes it to be. 

2. We’re like the Same Dude

The second is that Mahito and Yuji are character foils. They are characters in a narrative who are meant to reflect each other, specifically that of the protagonist, and their shadow. 

Jung stated the shadow to be the unknown dark side of the personality. According to Jung, the shadow, in being instinctive and irrational, is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.

If Yuji and Mahito were two parts of the same whole person, like two halves of the brain, Yuji would be the sensible, reasonable half, and Mahito would be the one acting on pure emotion and instinct. 

Mahito and Yuji are both curse/human hybrids. They are both individuals that blur the line between humans and curses. Mahito is specifically, a curse that was created from the human fear of one another which makes him the most human of the curses and the most adept to change or growth. Yuji is a normal kid (as far as we know) who swallowed a finger, and his entire body became curse energy. He is half curse, and half human, in the regard that he is Sukuna and he is Yuji at the same time. 

Yuji and Mahito are people who both embody a vague area between human and curse, a curse that acts like a human, a human that acts like a curse in vice versa, however they choose to cling onto different apsects of their being. It’s ambiguous whether or not Mahito is a humanlike curse, but Mahito himself defines himself as only ever being a curse. Just like Yuji sees himself as a human too, he sees himself as Yuji, and not Yuji and Ryomen Sukuna at the same time. 

It’s Mahito who encourages the others to act more like curses, to live on impulse than desire, instead of trying to restrain themselves for the sake of reason. However, this is ironic, because the reason that Mahito is getting raised up as the leader of the curse family is because he is the mirror to humans, and is the most humanlike of all the curses. 

Mahito wants to be a pure curse, but his path requires him to become more and more human. Yuji wants to be a pure human, but his path in ingesting fingers will require him to become more and more curselike as time progresses. He will over time become more Ryomen Sukuna and less Yuji Itadori until the time comes for him to be executed after ingesting all twenty fingers. They are like opposite reflections in the mirror, clinging onto opposite parts of themselves. 

It’s even shown in their foiling in the Junpei arc. They both encourage Junpei to do the opposite things. Mahito encourages Junpei to follow his baser instincts and curse other people, to resent them for what they have done to him. 

Yuji however, applies to Junpei’s sense of reasoning and higher thinking. He suggests there’s a better plan than Junpei’s simple acting on. He asks Junpei not to do what he thinks is best in the moment and lash out on those feelings alone like Mahito suggested, not to follow his instinct to curse, but rather try to follow reason to find who is really at fault and then punish the correct person. Yuji appeals to the fact that Junpei have both empathy for the people he’s randomly lashing out at over his own pain, and that he has the ability to separate himself from his pain and try to search for what’s right instead. 

These are opposite ideas, and Mahito and Yuji clearly look at the world with completely opposite perspectives. However, these perspectives don’t contradict, they are complimentary. The existence of a shdaow doesn’t mean the conscious mind is right. The existence of the consious mind doesn’t mean the shadow isn’t there. In other words, light and shadow don’t negate each other, light cannot exist without shadow. 

In less poetic words. Whenever you make any action, your good intentions are equally as valid as your bad ones. There’s no such thing as a person without bad intentions. Anything can be seen from a both good and bad light. What Mahito argues to Yuji, is that Yuji was ignoring all along how dangerous an individual he was. Yuji uses his powers to save people, and he wants to become strong, but as has been pointed out in the manga before having all that strength collected in one person can be used oppressively and violently. 

This is what Getou says to Gojou. If he was Gojou he’d have the power to kill every last human being alive and spare only the sorcerers. Gojou is someone sitting on all that power. Power alone doesn’t justify itself. Equally as important is the choices and the reasoning behind wielding that power. What Mahito was pointing out, and what the plot is emphasizing is that Yuji was wielding that power, especially the power of Ryomen Sukuna in a way that was poorly thought out. 

Which is the point of this scene when Yuji realized the scope of Sukuna’s rampage. Yuji didn’t seriously think of the possibility that he was a walking bomb waiting to go off. This was brought up as an argument in the Kyoto arc, that it might be safer for everyone to just kill Yuji now so Sukuna doesn’t have the chance to get out. And then. Sukuna got out. And that’s what happened. 

Mahito isn’t saying that Yuji is good or bad, he’s saying Yuji hasn’t thought about what good or bad even is. Yuji only ever saw the good intention of his actions, he saw himself as a person saving others, and because of that he didn’t think properly about the risk he inherently carrying. He didn’t realize how dangerous of a person he was for carrying Sukuna around like that. Mahito is the unacknowledged shadow of Yuji’s actions, following him through the plot, and punishing him for his ignorance. 

Yuji is a good kid, but sadly the nature of the universe being true neutral good intentions don’t always lead to good results. It’s just a burden that Yuji has to think about, and carry with him as he moves on. Which I really, really want him to do. Yuji can think more, live on and live with his regrets, and still try to do the right thing even after enduring all of this because that’s what makes him human. 

Just like how all reasons for fighting are made up, humans are able to make up whatever reason they want to keep fighting. It goes both way. If all lives have equal weight. You don’t have to take it from Mahito’s perspective that they’re worth nothing. You can also take it from Yuji’s perspective, that every life is worth fighting for, worth living, because you and I are worth just as much as one another. 

[queen-susans-revenge]

Huh, I've kept chickens and I put a single human at about uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh a hundred chickens? Just in terms of like, general person-ness and likability and intelligence. Maybe a thousand. Chickens can be very winsome! God, I could go lower. TBH I would murder a person for just one chicken that I liked well enough, much like John Wick and his dog. Haven't seen those movies yet, but I have to imagine they'd be improved with chickens!

@alexanderrm​, we did the fractional moral weight thing last year; as with the infamous dust speck argument, giving any moral worth to chickens allows you to overpower humanity by assembling a sufficient number of them and threatening to make the world’s biggest plate of wings. From last year:

I would like to publicly state that I would not kill a single person to save any number of chickens. Utilitarian consequentalists who disagree and wish to bite that bullet can do so in the notes.

A couple of people did bite that bullet and indicated they would trade a random human life for a certain (large) integer number of chicken lives.

Note: this question assumes the chickens are bred specifically for the purposes of this thought experiment and has no impact on the overall chicken species or anything else outside the thought experiment.

It’s basically a trolley problem, but the second track has like a billion chooks.

[barnesbabee]

terra || S.M || J.Y

Summary: After destroying the Earth the human race has to face their biggest threat yet: themselves.

Pairing: Jeong Yunho x Song Mingi

Words: wouldn’t you like to know weather boy

Genre: Miscellaneous 

⚠  dystopian!au, mentions of war, violence, mxm ⚠

A/N: Yes I’m back, there will be a part 2 to this, first time doing mxm if someone comes at me with their high morals I’ll just tell you to suck my left nut <3 also this is loosely based on The100 (the second picture is Sanctum lol), it’s based on seasons 1 and 2 (mount weather) I hope you enjoy it please reblog and give me feedback!!

ᴄʀ: ʙᴀʀɴᴇꜱʙᴀʙᴇᴇ

[PART 1] || [PART 2]

  The heat and natural catastrophes started rising as the years passed, and all of the nations in the world reunited the greatest people in their country to secretly come up with a solution to the world’s end. Bunkers, artificial planets, space stations… Everything was discussed with great detail, but there seemed to be no answer. 

  Bunkers? How long would the human race have to last in a bunker? Wouldn’t there be a lack of resources? Would the bunkers survive the threats they would be facing?

  There wasn’t enough time to think about an artificial planet, let alone begin to conceive one.

  A space station would have the same problems as a bunker would, with the additional problems of constantly fixing the spaceship with the few resources the race would be able to take with them.

  So, in pure despair, a german scientist blurted out what would become the savior to their lives: cryo sleep. 

  And so after nearly a day of being stuck in the stuffy, stress-filled room the crowd of geniuses and world leaders and began working on the salvation of the human race.

  There wouldn’t be enough space for everyone in the spaceships they’d create, as a matter of fact, why would there be? One would not want to re-populate the earth with the people who destroyed it… So each government made a list, of scientists, biologists, farmers, doctors… Everyone deemed essential for survival on earth. 

  The spaceships would be launched out in space all at the same time, however, every 100 years one would be awoken and would descend down to earth. If it was survivable, they would contact the other spaceships through the communication systems implemented on each ship, if not, they would die and the next ship would come 100 years after.

  And once everything was done and ready to go, a new uproar started. 

  Who would board the first ships, which were, undoubtedly, the most dangerous? How would the groups be divided?

   “The Russians are not boarding after us. What gives them the right!? Are the lives of the Americans less worth it!?”

    Profanities and insults echoed around the gigantic, Victorian room. The delicately sculpted walls and columns, carefully painted high ceilings and classic decorations certainly didn’t match the lack of respect and class of nearly every man and woman present.

   It seemed impossible to reach a consent. Some leaders wanted a spaceship for their people only, as they thought it would agree easily since their mindsets were very similar, and the chances of disagreement would be less. However, others debated that it would be better to have a mixture of knowledge and ways of thinking from different regions. 

   Nonetheless, the wiser populations created an alliance whilst all of them discussed loudly, deciding to leave the most problematic nations go in the first ship. If they didn’t agree they simply wouldn’t board.

   There were twelve ships on what became the Mission Restituimus. Iwen Restituimus, Helles Restituimus, Mosco Restituimus, Quitela Restituimus, Arak Restituimus, Champa Restituimus, Beerus Restituimus and Liquir Restituimus. Each of them named after each of the gods of destruction, as a punishment, as a reminder of what they had previously caused. Destruction upon Earth.

  And so, as cruel as it might have been, all of the leaders and people chosen to go boarded the ships, leaving the rest of the world to die without any help.

  A couple of years past and most of the remaining humans were wiped out. The water level rose, the plants died, and consequently so did the animals. With the lack of food and hydration, the race became weaker, and the last heatwave sent whatever was left of them to a better place.

   100 years passed… 200 years passed… 300 years past… 

    25% of what was left of humanity was wiped out almost instantly as they set foot on the ground. Some being able to survive a couple of days, some a couple of weeks… It wasn’t until Mosco R. that there was a chance for humans. 

   They were alive long enough to determine what wasn’t right with the atmosphere around them and what could possibly be harmful, so they could find a way around it. Months had passed and the crew, that stood on the reviving planet in good health, and they still hadn’t called the rest of the ships. 

   People started wondering why the assigned captain of the team hadn’t made that decision yet.

   “Dr. Vorderbruggen, I feel it is safe for us to call the rest of us down onto Earth.” One of the many geologists aboard asked.

   The tall, skinny woman with permanently disheveled hair took a good look at the male and pushed her thick glasses up her nose.

   “What if we didn’t?” 

    All of the heads present in the room turned to face her in confusion. The woman pulled out a book. One that seemed to have had a life as rough as theirs. She threw it in the middle of the makeshift table they had in the small, unstable shed outside of the spaceship.

    They all looked at it for a second before looking at her, as if saying ‘are we supposed to know by looking at it?’.

    She smirked before speaking, creating an eerie atmosphere that made most of the present people quite uncomfortable.

    “How would you like to have an infinite life?” 

    There was an immediate split reaction in the crowd. Some looked on, interested, and others were reluctant about her words.

    “I had previously been researching a way for humans to live longer, but then the Earth was destroyed. However this past month I’ve been studying it relentlessly and I believe I found a way to keep our conscience alive and our hearts beating forever.” 

    Silence. 

    The silence in the room was heavy. Playing with human life and modifying it was dangerous…

    “But, the bodies… What about the bodies? They’ll get older and eventually rot, won’t they?”

     The scientist walked away from the chair and circled the red button that allowed them to communicate with the other ships with her slim finger.

     “That’s where our colleagues enter. We can’t call them yet because we’ll need their bodies. I’m working on finding out how but I’m so, so close. Of course, I’ll need the help of others and it needs some perfecting and some extra details, but it’s doable. Definitely doable.”

    The geologist that had initially asked looked around. He couldn’t believe people were actually considering taking other people’s bodies for their own sake....

    “But Doctor, won’t that have moral implications? It’s the lives of other people! We can’t kill them for our lives to be perpetuated!”

     She looked towards the man threateningly.

     “Dr. Bankole, what caused the last world to collapse?”

     The man hesitated.

     “Uneducated individuals.” He answered, confidently.

     “Our differences. It was our differences, the divergent ways in which we were raised. There won’t ever be any differences if we maintain our people. There won’t be any wars, there won’t be any conflicts, and we can rebuild our planet. The more people we welcome, the more chance there will be for our demise to begin once more.”

   The geologist refused to accept it. He took a couple of seconds to process her words, before launching himself towards the button in a fit of desperation. The doctor tried his best to save humanity, but unfortunately the crowd who agreed with the woman held him down. She smirked, knowing that her plan would be followed along.

   And so it was. For hundreds and hundreds of years the bodies of the crews who arrived down on Earth would be replaced with theirs. Anyone who disagreed with the plan was executed on sight, as they couldn’t afford to have any conflicts at this point. 

   The new ships who arrived on Earth would always be confused. There were humans? So why hadn’t they been called? But of course, the residents would tell them that there was a malfunction in the system, and before the newcomers could question it or find out about the truth their bodies would be taken to what they called ‘The Ceremony’.

   This went on for centuries and centuries on end, each passing year humanity became more robotic and synthetic. That was, until Liquir Restitiumus: the very last one.

   It came down through the sky loudly, ripping through the atmosphere with immense force. The thrusters cause the small particles of dirt and little bits of rocks to disperse underneath the machine, and, when it finally landed with a violent ‘thud’, the crew stepped out. They all had their fingers crossed, as they didn’t want to be the only ones there. They wished more of them had survived. 

  “Liquir! Brothers and sisters welcome!” 

  Their smiles widened, as they realized they weren’t alone and that Earth was finally habitable. A man, no older than fifty, greeted them. He wore a long, pink tunic decorated with what seemed like gold-painted branches, and a green sash with some letters painted on.

   Yunho, a young philosopher that was among others, frowned. How long had they been among the stars? Had it been only 100 years? The way the man spoke, the way he dressed… It seemed as if they had created a cult in the relatively short amount of time they had been asleep. However, he said nothing. Yunho was more of an observer, he liked to collect information and think, create theories and hypotheses.

    “We were to call you, however one of our people destroyed the mainframe since he disagreed with bringing others over… We are Beerus, the ship just before you, unfortunately no other ships before us survived…” The male lied, as he guided the crowd as if they were their sheep.

   Everyone took the time to listen, wanting to gather all of the information they were missing. 

   After just a couple of minutes of walking they arrived at a rather humble camp. There were small, colourful houses built on top of trees, almost morphing with them had it not been for the flashy colours, and some big buildings on the floor. 

   “The four buildings down here are the storage houses, the hospital and the Hall. Up on the trees are the houses of my people. We decided it would be best to live where less creatures would reach us, but fortunately there aren’t many predators as of right now.”

   “Your… people?” 

   “Yes, me and my wife were chosen as the representatives of our community. She was the commander of Beerus and so we decided unanimously that she should remain in power.”

    Yunho frowned. He thought that the commander of Beerus was a young man… Actually he was pretty sure it was a young man. Yes… He remembered because the male seemed about his age, and he was surprised to see someone as young as him be chosen for the mission. Yunho remembered feeling sad because in another situation maybe they could have been friends, but they were instead being sent to their death (most possibly). 

   Still, he kept quiet.

   “I, Samuel, welcome you to Regnum de Caelo in the name of all of our community. I hope you are able to live happily here. The welcome ceremony is in about a week. We need some time for preparations! We will be taking your sizes for some fitting clothing and we will be running some tests to assign you a position, up until then, feel most welcome, brothers and sisters.”

   The man wasn’t lying. They did need to take their sizes and run some tests, but not for the reasons he had stated. They ran these tests to make sure the new bodies were assigned to the correct person. Some of them only needed new arms, some of them requested bigger legs, and the couple in charge took care of that for their people. 

   Yunho roamed around the strange place. It was home, but it didn’t feel like home. At some point he felt like his cryo chamber was more home-like than this eerie place… It looked like something very creepy that they had splashed some colour on to try their best and conceal the actual appearance of the place.

   “Hello young man.” A woman greeted, as she approached him. 

   She was much smaller, and had thick, black hair, that she moved out of her eyes so she could properly examine the male in front of him. Her clothes were very much like the previous man’s, the only difference being the colour pattern. 

   “Hi.”

   Yunho wasn’t very friendly in uncomfortable situations, and although he tried to shoot her his best smile, he knew he had failed. The woman didn’t seem to care, as she went on and on about how amazing the ‘New Earth’ was. 

   From his periferal, Yunho could see someone peeking at him through the window of the so-called Hall, but he paid him no mind. He was a newcomer, people ought to stare.

   “Ma’am, if you don’t mind me asking, you developed a new whole type of hierarchy in just 100 years?”

   She cocked her head to the side.

   “Yes, we did. Just like on Earth we needed someone whom we trusted and respected to set order and make decisions when needed, so who better than the person we chose as a leader for the ship team?” The lady’s lips were smiling, but her eyes looked dull, even dead.

    Yunho hummed and looked at the ground, pursing his lips and furrowed his eyebrows as he tried his best to recall the launching ceremony. Each commander stood on a pedestal and introduced themselves, as they waited for the crew members to be sorted, 99 to each. He was sure the commander of Beerus was a man and not a woman. That much he knew. Because even though they had been in cryo-sleep for 1200 years, the last thing on his mind before entering the cold capsule was the boarding ceremony. 

    “But I was sure the commander of Beerus was a man-”

    “Annie! I’m sorry I must steal him away, I would like to perform his fitting.” 

    Yunho looked at the male that was gripping his arm. He was able to control his facial expressions, the surprise and confusion, but he was sure that was supposed to be the commander of Beerus…

   The woman gave him a weird smile, as if they were setting him up. As she walked away, the grip on Yunho’s arm grew tighter, and the other man only let go once they were by themselves, in a small room inside the Hall.

    “Are you out of your fucking mind!?”

   Yunho frowned, looking visibly offended at the male’s language choice.

    “Excuse me!?”

    The man took a deep breath and placed his hands on his waist.

    “Stop asking questions. Never ask questions, never doubt them.”

    “Why? What’s going on here is really odd and-”

     “It’s exactly because this place is odd that you need to keep quiet and stop doubting everything. If they think you’re onto them you won’t even make it to the Ceremony.” He explained.

    “I hope you realize I have no fucking idea what’s going on and I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

    The other male stopped in his tracks, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He quickly ran towards the window, made sure no one was outside, and then closed the makeshift blinds. He repeated the process with the small door and then pulled two chairs so the pair could sit down. The man’s antics stressed out Yunho a little bit. In the beginning he was confused, but now he was bordeline scared.

   “I’ll explain it to you. Just listen, ask later.”

   Yunho nodded as his eyes widened, ready for the explanation.

   “My name is Song Mingi, and you’re right. I was, and still am, the commander of Beerus. The crew that you see walking on Earth isn’t my crew, it’s Mosco Restituimus. When we first landed I had the same questions that you did, I kept asking around, I kept trying to understand what had happened. I’m an engineer, I even tried to go into their ship to figure out if they were telling the truth but I was caught. Two guards grabbed me and took me to a weird room, everything here seems makeshift and shitty but that room was oozing with technology that I had never seen. They strapped me down to a chair and put me to sleep. I was scared for my life when I woke up, I had no idea what they would do to me. I managed to escape, fucked up my back in an attempt to bite off one of the weird handcuffs. I freed myself from all of it and I was about to leave but I could hear someone speak at the end of the hallway. ‘Yes, he’s strapped down already and once you’re also secured we’ll begin the transfusion.’ I remember these words perfectly, they scared the shit out of me. I started panicking and sweating, but I decided that pretending I hadn’t escaped would be the best option. I placed the cuffs back in their place without strapping them, and soon enough two men came in. One laid down and I could see the other one strap him down and put him to sleep, just like he did to me. I had to take the chance. I took whatever sharp tool was in the operating table behind me and I stabbed him.” Mingi paused, he looked at Yunho, who seemed a little afraid of the way the man had just casually admitted to murder.

   Mingi proceeded to explain how he interrogated the other man once woke up, and he told Yunho everything. From who these people actually were to the Ceremony. 

   “I felt really nervous once I left the room, I had to pretend like there was a struggle. I told them the transfusion was successful but the other subject struggled and the doctor was killed. They seemed to believe me... After all these years they’ve become icredibly smart, but they fail to recognize many human behaviours, like lying.”

  Mingi could see the panic in the other male’s face growing as he finished his explanation. Before Yunho could stand up and dash, however, Mingi grabbed his shoulders.

    “Why… why are you telling me this!? What the fuck am I supposed to do now!? Did you just live among those people all these years!? How did you even survive-”

    “I had to go through procedures. I didn’t want to, but I don’t hate myself for doing it. It was the only way I could survive until the last ship, which was you, arrived. These people are almost 100% synthetic at this point, every single child that was born was either born dead, or with severe deformities that prevented them to be alive for longer than a couple days. I need help to save everyone. If we don’t take down the previous crew… They’ll take the last one hundred human bodies, and that will be the end.” 

   Yunho clenched his hands and pursed his lips. He was trying his best not to look like he was nervous, but the slight shaking and quivering didn’t help.

   “How many days do we have?” He finally asked, giving Mingi the response he was waiting for.

    Mingi smiled slightly, showing his small crescent eyes, that Yunho wished he could’ve seen in a scenario that wasn’t the possible ending of his kind. 

    “About a week. They like to get to know their future bodies before they make a decision and they also need to prepare for the Ceremony. We have about the same body structure, so it won’t seem suspicious if I walk around with you, they’ll just think I chose you.” 

   Yunho took a deep breath. He had no idea what he was signing up for, but he believed Mingi. The little unexplainable lies he had been told ever since he got here made him doubt this place, he didn’t feel secure, plus, the other male’s explanation made sense. 

   “And what do we have to do? I mean, do you have a plan?”

   Mingi raised an eyebrow at the stupid question.

   “I was here for over one hundred years, do you think I was just making friends?”

    Yunho blushed a little at his admittedly dumb questions. 

    “We have to kill them all.” Mingi told him.

    The male saw it coming. Of course that was it... It’s never just an on and off switch, it’s always war and death wherever they go.

    “I’m in.”

[bestintheparsec]

The Same Coin - Prologue

Javier Peña x F!Reader

Masterlist

Summary: You and Javier Peña are begrudging coworkers—nothing more, nothing less. Two people with a job to do but very different ideas on how to get it done. Much to your dismay, things never go according to plan; not when it comes to Escobar, or anything else.

A/N: Soo I’ve been working on something in secret😌 This tiny idea has been on my mind for months now, and I finally had the time to sit down and think about writing it. This is going to be a short series. I wanted something soft & angsty without getting too deep into the plot of the show—of course, this is me, so my ideas got a little deeper than I planned. But I hope you like it! Special love & thanks to @hiscyarika​, whom I have bugged relentlessly and, though she’ll deny it, I would not have been able to write this without her❤️ Thank you for reading, and as always, feedback is welcome! 

Words: 1.8k

Warnings: canon-typical violence, mentions of blood 

You are not fond of Javier Peña.

It’s not so much dislike, or even distaste, really—but more of a...mutual disagreement on how things ought to be done. Not that either of you claimed to stand on any moral high ground, but you tended to keep things as clean as possible. Peña, meanwhile, had his methods. 

This is all more evident as you listen to the incessant sound of the phone that’s been ringing while he’s clicking away at his typewriter, taking his time before finally picking it up.

“Peña,” he answers, putting out his cigarette. He listens for a second before looking up, giving you a nod as he jots something down.

When he hangs up, he finishes typing before slipping the note into his pocket.

“We've got a lead,” he says hurriedly. He tosses his paperwork aside, opening the drawer for his gun and gesturing for you to do the same.

“Are you going to run it by the ambassador first?” you ask, though you already know the answer. You lean back in your chair with no intention of getting up. He always does things his way, regardless of what anyone tells him. You’ve worked with him long enough—a year? Longer? No one has the energy to keep track of these things. But it’s been long enough for the two of you to know exactly how to grind each other’s gears.

“I'd rather keep this one discreet,” he remarks, raising his brows with an unspoken Just go with it.

You glare up at him, unamused. “Peña, you're already walking on thin ice around here. You want me to put my ass on the line, too?”

He clenches his jaw and impatiently rests his hand on the desk, leaning towards you. He's got frustration in his eyes that probably matches your own. 

“All I'm asking is that you help us get just one bit of useful information to work with,” he whispers. You can hear the annoyance in the stain of his voice. “We're chasing our fucking tails with how they're doing things here—even Escobar knows that. Don't you get tired of following the damn rules all the time?”

“Why can't you get Steve to go with you?,” you counter. You cross your arms and bite the inside of your cheek, trying not to let your own irritation show too much.  “I think he'd be much better company for you,” you shrug.

Unfortunately for Steve—who was more of a friend than coworker to both of you—he could never pick a side. He was fine with it, though, always finding a bit of amusement in letting you two bicker.

“Sorry to disappoint, but they assigned Murphy to go with Trujillo today,” Peña answers impatiently. "You really think I'd ask you if I didn't need to?" He straightens, putting a hand on his waist and leaning to the side in that goddamn arrogant stance he always has.

You let out an irritated sigh, shaking your head but pulling your own drawer open anyways. Stowing the gun behind your back, you stand and follow him out.

“Don't worry. If we get caught you can pin it all on me,” he jeers. You shake your head, knowing he's patronizing you.

You’re met by the usual hot air and humidity as you step outside, walking towards his Jeep. Heat waves radiate off the ground, prompting you to roll up your sleeves and wish you’d dressed lighter today.

“This better be worth it,” you mutter as you hop into the passenger seat and shut the door.

“It’s better than doing all that paperwork and you know it,” he retorts, though his tone is calmer now. He’s always content whenever he convinces you to get in on his schemes.

You decide it’s not worth arguing over anymore and drop the subject. He turns on the AC and slips on his aviators before pulling out of the parking lot.

You’ve been driving for a while, listening to nothing but the sounds of street traffic, when you realize you’re in an area of the city you’re not familiar with. You’ve never seen these buildings before. Even the street signs look different, with names you’ve never heard of.

“Who’s the informant this time?” you ask, breaking the silence. You continue to watch the unfamiliar businesses and buildings pass your window.

“Classified,” he answers curtly, to which you roll your eyes. He keeps his eyes on the road.

“Right. How much can we trust this information?” you reply. 

“We can trust them,” is all he gives you.

You sigh and turn to him. “Look, Peña, I’m glad you have your code for your sources, but if you’re gonna drag me along on this stuff, I’d like to be more informed.”

“And I’m telling you that all we’re doing is staking out this address. Quica and his guys are supposed to be meeting there, and if we can figure out who they’re talking to we may be able to find a link to one of Escobar’s informants.”

Silence falls over both of you again and you look out the window, observing as people go about their lives.

You exhale quietly. Sometimes you ask yourself how you both managed to remain civil with each other. Work is work, and you have the same goal, after all. But it’s surprising just how many eggshells you’ve avoided walking over with him.

“Sometimes you have to do bad things to catch bad people,” he’d said to you once. You can hear the words in your head sometimes. You’re never sure if it’s a reminder or a reassurance.

Peña’s not an asshole, not in the way the CIA thinks he is. But you often wonder how you’d gotten paired up with him despite how differently you work. There’s already so much chaos here; you would prefer not to feed the flames if you had the choice. Peña seems to see the chaos as all the more reason to do everything in his power to put an end to Escobar. He’s got many...sources of information that he’s willing to use. You never ask where he makes these connections, and you don’t know whose methods are better, but you’ve never liked being fire to gasoline. 

When you make it to your destination—a small, quiet neighborhood—he puts the car on idle and points out the alleged location; it's a typical, innocent-looking flat, covered by some shade. Neither of you have anything to add, so it’s quiet again except for the sounds of people on the sidewalks. Some of them are sweeping their front steps or watering their plants, chatting quietly with their neighbors.

You both sit and wait for long enough that you start to question whether anyone was coming in the first place. You unbuckle your seatbelt and take a swig from your water bottle, resting your elbow on the window. You tap your foot on the floor of the car, which draws his attention.

Javier Peña is not fond of you. 

He glances at you for a split second behind his sunglasses. You only look mildly annoyed as you watch your surroundings. You’ve got one hand wrapped around the other, unconsciously massaging your fingers; a nervous tic you have, one he knows of because of how often you’re on these sporadic missions with him. He chuckles quietly without humor, wishing you’d be willing to bend the rules more. Between himself, you, and Murphy, there seems to be this spectrum of gray hues. This, he’s able to accept. But with new management and all eyes on the three of you now, it’s more important than ever for you to be on the same page. Someday you might see eye-to-eye with him. For now, you always do your part and he does his—getting the job done is all that matters, anyways. Whether you need to drown things out with a glass of whiskey or not, isn’t his concern.

Another twenty minutes go by when a car finally pulls up to the flat, and three guys get out. Peña sits up straighter. You stare in disgust when you realize one of them is, in fact, La Quica. You can’t help but feel relieved though; at least the informant was right. You ponder how far this information could move your case forward, watching as the sicarios laugh and walk towards the door of the flat. They smile as though they’ve never watched blood spill by their own hands.

Pendejos, you think when you see how nonchalant they seem to be. 

Until one of them looks towards the Jeep—and meets your eyes. Shit.

The guy turns and says something to the others, nodding in your direction. Did they recognize this car? You bite the inside of your cheek and your pulse picks up a bit. 

“Peña,” you whisper through closed teeth. 

You barely turn your head to look at him, but his eyes are locked on La Quica. You start to suggest driving away, but don’t get the chance to finish. A shot rings out and a bullet shatters the windshield as you both cover yourselves from the flying glass. It misses both of you, but when you turn back towards them, they’re all running. One of them shoots a few more times towards you as he runs.

“Fuck!” Peña hisses, cocking his gun as he opens the car door and runs after them. Not even a second passes before you get out and follow in pursuit, swearing under your breath.

You’re not far behind Peña when you run past the entrance of their meeting spot—a movement catches your eye, and you see another sicario, who takes off in the opposite direction. You turn on your heels and follow alone, firing a few times at him. He’s faster. The Colombian heat beats down on you as you chase him through the streets and narrow alleyways. He shoots at and misses you. You’ve almost caught up to him when he pushes a bystander off their motorcycle, driving away and leaving you in the dust.

“Damn it,” you mutter to yourself, catching your breath. More shots ring out in the background, and you take another deep breath before running back in Peña’s direction.

The streets are cleared of people now, and you have no idea where the other sicarios went. You follow the sound of another gunshot, turning a sharp corner when someone slams, hard, into your body. You let out a grunt and swear again before realizing it’s Peña, who steadies you before hunching over, panting.

“They got away,” you state; it’s not a question. He nods.

You don’t know where you are anymore and tuck your gun away as you look around. “Let’s go find the car—” you start, taking a step forward when he grabs your wrist. 

You turn to him questioningly, and he’s still panting when you notice he’s got his hand over his thigh. Your eyes widen when you see the blood that’s pooling around the hole in his jeans. He’s been shot. And he didn’t even care to immediately point it out, you mentally roll your eyes.

“Fuck, Peña—” you reach out, and he tries to take a step forward.

Before you can stop him, his legs give out and he collapses onto you.

~

Translations: 

Pendejos = assholes

~

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