#best ranger cycles

[sailorrhansol]

Storm Breaker | (l.jh)

❀ Pairing: Jaeger Pilot!Lee Jihoon x Jaeger Pilot! f.reader  

❀ Summary: It’s a known fact Lee Jihoon is one of the best pilots the jaeger Program has. The only problem? He can’t keep a co-pilot to save his life. He thinks you’ll just be another Ranger in the rotation, but you are an unpleasant surprise. 

❀ Word Count: 23,373

❀ Genre: Pacific Rim AU, Forced Proximity, Annoyed to Lovers

❀ Type: Smut, Angst

❀ Rating: 18+ Minors are strictly prohibited from engaging in and reading this content. It contains explicit content and any minors discovered reading or engaging with this work will be blocked immediately.

❀ Warnings: Jihoon is a bit of an asshole, action/fighting scenes, brief descriptions of blood, mentions of offscreen deaths, brief mentions of sick parents, brief mention of having no family, sexual tension, explicit language, A Lot of Pacific Rim Techincal Terms But They’re Explained, terrible humor, a hint of angst, brief depictions of Jihoon being insecure about his childhood, sexually explicit content including nipple play, biting, a total of one (1) spank, oral (f. receiving), the slightest hint of voyeurism mentioned, unprotected sex (don’t do this), multiple orgasms, a lot of spit and cum, cum eating, vaginal fingering, a lot of biting, Jihoon is emotionally constipated and then lets it all out lmfaoooo

❀ A/N: HERE SHE IS. This story takes place in the Pacific Rim universe but you definitely do not have to watch the movie to enjoy it - I’m pretty sure I explain everything in terms of how it works but if something is confusing, please tell me and I will adjust! I hope you enjoy this Jihoon who has been the apple of my eye for like almost three months now. STAY TUNED FOR MY SECOND FIC IN THIS UNIVERSE SHARING CHAN AND WYLIE'S STORY :)

❀ A/N 2: SPECIAL THANKS TO @daechwitatamic for not only collaborating with me on our little corner of the internet, but beta reading this giant piece and constantly motivating me while writing it. I could not be anywhere without you I love u 

❀ Also in this Universe: Cherry Bomb by @daechwitatamic

❀ Disclaimer: Disclaimer: All members of Seventeen are faces and name claims for stories. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios. Moreover, none of my works accurately reflect, represent or take a stance on the nuances of Korean culture, cities, people etc. Seventeen members are not Seventeen culturally, intellectually, physically, or representationally in my stories, and should be considered name and face stand-ins for made up characters.

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Jihoon doesn’t flinch when Xander throws his helmet against the wall. The crash is loud, but the reinforced material doesn’t crack under the force of the concrete. It clatters to the floor while Jihoon tucks his helmet under his right arm. Sweat drips down the side of his neck and down his back, but he can’t get to it while in his Drivesuit. 

Just add it to his list of inconveniences.  

Everyone in the room freezes as Xander storms toward the command center and right for the Marshall in charge, his steps thunderous against the metal floor. Instead of following him, Jihoon leans against the doorframe, watching the way his co-pilot rages, imagining steam coming out of his ears. 

“I can’t fucking pilot with him,” Xander screams, stabbing an accusatory finger in Jihoon’s direction. “I refuse to do it. Reassign me.” 

Eyes drift toward Jihoon. He ignores them, watching as Xander stops at the command post where both the Marshall and the LOCCENT Mission Controller who just walked them through their kaiju fight stand. Both of them stare at Xander, who is red in the face, chest heaving. 

It’s a bit of an overreaction, especially for a team who just dispatched a Category Four kaiju. But it doesn’t matter. Xander isn’t Jihoon’s first co-pilot and he won’t be his last. They rarely last long, a cycle of Rangers who cannot stand to work with him for more than a few fights. Jihoon examines the scratches on his suit, thinking that he needs to get it buffed while the Marshall deliberates how to answer Xander’s demands. 

“Ranger-” 

Xander cuts off the Marshall. Bold, if you ask Jihoon. “I’ll leave the fucking program if that’s what I have to do. I won’t pilot with him anymore, I don’t care that we can drift. He won’t trust me, he won’t give up the reins and he refuses to let me in. He’s arrogant and pig headed!”

“Pig headed,” Jihoon mutters to himself. “That’s new.” 

The Marshall sighs heavily, eyes drifting toward Jihoon, who is still leaning against the doorframe. He lifts a single shoulder in a shrug, unsure what the Marshall expected. Pinching the bridge of his nose, the Marshall asks Xander to follow him, gesturing toward the door at the back of the command center that leads into offices. 

Silence blankets the room at their departure. At least, as silent as it can get in the jaeger hub. The beeping of machinery and radar is a constant sound under the hum of machinery and the awkward cough of one of the workers in the room. Jihoon raises his brows as if to ask someone to say something. No one does and he nods, dismissing himself. 

Laughter trails up the stairs followed by loud steps. He looks down to see Chan and Wylie coming up the stairwell, cheeks flushed and hairlines sweaty from their battle with Dreadfury only minutes earlier. Their team had the assist on the kill, and though they hadn’t landed the final blow, their constant offense had given Jihoon and his partner the time they needed to figure out how to move in. 

Chan sees Jihoon and raises a questioning brow, pausing in the stairs. “Lose your co-pilot?” he asks, looking Jihoon up and down. 

“How’d you guess?” 

“Standard,” Chan and Wylie say at the same time. 

They do that a lot, so in sync that despite the fact that they’re two different people, sometimes Jihoon feels like he’s talking to one. Wylie is a little shorter than Chan, but just as furious in personality and attitude. She leans against Chan, cocking her head to the side. It’s not a conscious movement but an instinct, her body naturally attaching to her co-pilot’s. Jihoon knows that level of closeness well. 

“Think they’ll just finally get rid of you?”

“Nope.” 

“Standard,” they both say in unison again. It’s Chan who says, “Must be nice to get away with murder, Woozi.” He continues up the stairs, clapping Jihoon on the shoulder as he goes. Wylie trails behind him, shooting Jihoon a grin. “One day you’re gonna end up on your ass.” 

“That’s fine. You’ll both take me in, right?” 

Both of their voices meld as they howl in laughter, passing him and going into the command center, yelling “Nope!” 

Despite their teasing, Jihoon smiles. He’s known the pair for years and despite their ability to get under his skin, he’s fond of them. They’re good jaeger pilots, scrappy as they come and vicious in the field. Unlike Jihoon, they’ve piloted their jaeger together from the start, syncing like twin flames and sticking to one another. 

It helps that they grew up together, of course. And that they’re in a relationship, one heart, one soul. 

Sighing, Jihoon jogs down the rest of the stairs, tired and sore. He needs a shower, food and a fucking nap. He and Xander had been pulling extra shifts, the kaiju activity having increased with the bad weather. He suspects it was also in an attempt to get Jihoon to bond with Xander more and get him to open up, but that hadn’t happened.

That’s the problem with piloting with Jihoon. The more time people spend with him, the less they can stomach the way he resists them in the mental bridge that connects co-pilots. It isn’t that he’s afraid for them to see what’s in his head - they haven’t earned a right to his privacy.

Privacy is important to him. 

Murmurs ripple through the cafeteria as he enters, rolling his head to the side to try and workout the kink that is formed there. He glances around and fights the urge to roll his eyes. Word spreads fast when you’re secluded in the Shatterdome with nothing but fucking ocean and giant monsters around you. 

As usual, he ignores the stares and whispering. He catches Soonyoung’s eye from afar and shrugs when his friend gives him a questioning glance, earning an eye roll. Not for the first time, Jihoon finds himself wondering why someone like Soonyoung or Wonwoo can’t be his partner. 

Drift compatibility. 

He knows that’s the answer, but he’ll never stop wishing that pairing jaeger pilots together was a little easier. So many factors go into making people drift compatible and yet he’s yet to find a partner he can tolerate - or tolerate him in return. If it were as easy as picking his friends, he’d have settled with someone long ago. 

Brushing away the thought, he heads to his room. It doesn’t matter what he wants. If wishes were horses, everyone would be a rider. He’s pretty sure that one of his former co-pilots had said that - in regard to Jihoon being impossible to work with, of course. 

The dark and quiet of his room brings the peace Jihoon craves. He feels the tension melt from his shoulders. He suddenly realizes how tired he is, feeling like parchment stretched too thin over a rough surface. He peels himself out of his clothes methodically, welcoming the chill of the room against his sweaty skin. 

He trails to the shower, tossing his clothes in the hamper as he does. Leaving the lights on so it’s only the dull orange glow over his bed, he turns on the shower as hot as it will go. It takes a second, but soon steam is filling the room, choking him as he slides under the stream of water, sighing as the heat of it burns away any lingering frustration for the day. 

Tomorrow, he’ll have a new partner. It’s a simple fact and a routine he is familiar with. That’s fine with him - they can keep assigning people to him until they find someone competent. Jihoon isn’t going anywhere. 

He has nowhere else to go anyway. 

-

“I need you to do me a favor,” Kira says before you can finish stepping out of the jaeger. The Marshall of the Sydney Shatterdome looks deadly serious. You scoff under the helmet, reaching up to unclasp it and shuck it off. Fresh air fills your lungs. It’s hot and tastes like metal in the jaeger bay, but it’s familiar. “And I need an answer quickly.”

“Ever heard of foreplay?” you grunt, helping Maya out of the giant mech behind you. She shoots you a thankful grin, taking off her helmet. Her face is flushed pink, hairline sweaty. “You really just dive in dry, huh?” 

“You know my cousin is a Marshall of a Shatterdome overseas?” 

You pause. “Yeah.” 

“They’re asking for a skilled pilot to pair with one of their Rangers. They sent over the drift profile and you’re the only pilot we have that’s a match.” You frown and she holds out a hand to stop your protest, a crease in her mouth. “Just look over the report and the profile I sent you, alright?” 

“I mean, my answer is no. I’m fine here.”

“You are. You’re one of our best teams,” Kira says earnestly, her dark eyes flicking between you and Maya. “But respectfully, your value is needed elsewhere. There isn’t enough activity here to keep a veteran of your status on shift, Blue.”

You feel a flicker of uncertainty. Rarely does Kira use your nickname. It’s too familiar for a military commander of her status, and though you’ve considered her a friend for years, she never uses your nickname on shift. Unless she really needs something from you.  

Licking your lips, you hesitate to answer. You don’t want to say she’s right about your skillset and risk insulting your coworkers and other pilots in the jaeger Program, but it’s an accurate statement. The Shatterdome you report to is old - one of the first built in the beginning. But kaiju activity is mostly unpredictable, shifting with the tides. You barely get them once a month anymore, and there are too many pilots who need the practice.

You don’t. 

You glance at Maya and she offers a soft smile. “Hey, I didn’t think you’d be my co-pilot forever. Hoped, maybe. But I didn't expect it.”

“Oh come on, I’m with you for life, Maya.” 

“Romantic.” Maya’s gaze softens. “Marshall has a point, though. We’re a little… slow here.” 

It makes a pang go through your heart. Maya has been your co-pilot since your mother passed away, and though you didn’t go through the Ranger training program with her, she’s the perfect balance to you. You like having her around, and the thought of changing pilots just because someone wants your experience is… unideal. 

Sensing your unease, Maya reaches out and touches your forearm, squeezing over the metal of your Drivesuit. Her smile is soft. Knowing. Like she knew that being in the drift with you wasn’t forever, and she’s already saying bye. 

“Look,” Kira sighs, bringing your attention back to her. “My cousin really needs a skilled pilot and someone who is a leader and isn’t afraid of working with veteran pilots. They get more activity, and they need someone sharp. Skilled. Strong.” 

“I mean, I’ll look over the papers.” 

“Thank you.” She steps away. “I need to know by the end of the day, though.”

“Jesus Christ, Marshall. End of the day is in like two hours.”

Her smile is firm. “I know.” 

Waving her off, you leave your jaeger behind, Maya trailing after you. She peppers you with encouragement as you walk, steps heavy on the metal catwalk. You don’t respond right away, thoughts trying to catch up with being thrown an offer immediately after slamming a monster back into the depth of the ocean just minutes ago. 

You don’t have to ask why you. Drift compatibility alone is important enough to move jaeger pilots around the world from Shatterdome to Shatterdome in order to make the best pairs possible. There aren’t a ton of pilots - especially among the younger ones - at your base that are compatible with you.

Stubborn, Kira had always said. Finding an equally dominant co-pilot that meshes with you is difficult. You suspect that if you were not extremely talented at what you do and a veteran at your base, they might have moved you to an advisory position a long time ago.

Advising is not for you, though. The grind of metal and the heat of the fight is where you thrive, letting your mind go empty, entirely driven by instinct. Instinct was the reason you were so good at fighting kaiju. Your mom had always said you had the instinct of a warrior, and after putting down as many monsters to protect humanity’s coasts, you had to agree. 

Maya immediately goes to the shower once you reach your shared room. You dive onto the bottom bunk, snatching the tablet sitting on your night stand. Your eyes squint from the brightness, sensitive in the dim room. Clicking through your emails, you find the reporting and profile from Kira and open it, information unfurling before you. 

“Huh,” You muse, raising your brows as Lee Jihoon appears on your screen. “I know your name.” 

His profile is impeccable - and so is his skill. Chewing on your lip, you throw yourself onto your cot and flip through all of the materials provided on your potential co-pilot. Veteran Ranger. Highly skilled in combat. Top of his class in the academy. 

Clicking on the attachments, you watch the attached videos. There’s clips from his fights in and out of the suit. You find yourself hypnotized by his fighting style. There is a beauty to it, but it’s absolutely lethal. Efficient. There are no extra flourishes, no showmanship. Lee Jihoon fights to kill. 

“So why do you need me?” you mutter to yourself, pulling up his past partners. The list is extensive, stretching back to multiple co-pilots over weeks at a time. “Jesus christ. You do not play nice.”

He must not, at least. Half of the pilots assigned to him are only barely compatible. You know it takes more than just matching fight styles, but based on the history glowing at you from the screen, Jihoon’s Marshall was doing anything they could to keep him, even if it meant pairing him with someone who was scoring as low as 54% compatible. 

Pulling up your side-by-side analysis, you whistle. 98% was a good fucking number. You’d only ever had 90% with your mom, and she was genetically linked to you. Still, with as many partners as Jihoon has had in the past year alone, you don’t know that it’s worth it, even if his base has more kaiju activity and looks to be in need of veteran fighters.

Sighing, you close the tablet and throw it on the pillow. Resting your head against the metal wall, you close your eyes, thinking. You’re happy where you’re at. You’re a leader here, and you like Maya as your partner. She’s young and eager to learn - and you like your jaeger. Shadow Stalker is a good suit, though a little older. 

Biting your lip, you grab the tablet again, opening the jaeger details on Jihoon’s profile. Newer model. Built for endurance. Equipped with multiple blades, suited for pilots who prefer sword-style fighting. She’s painted gray-blue like the deepest part of a storm - blue like your mother’s first jaeger, which makes you grin. 

Storm Breaker. It’s a good name for a jaeger and it matches the profile. She’s built to withstand the brutal waves of the deep ocean and the onslaught of a high-category kaiju. Your interest is piqued, curious about Storm Breaker and her brutal pilot. 

Closing the tablet again, you stare into the distance, thinking. “What’s your deal, Lee Jihoon?” 

-

Jihoon hates sparring with Chan almost as much as he hates sparring with Wylie. Chan doesn’t scratch at Jihoon like a feral cat like Wylie might, but he does bite, which is exactly what he does when he can’t get out of Jihoon’s hold. 

“You fucker,” Jihoon hisses, letting him go. Chan slips out of Jihoon’s grasp and rolls to his feet a few feet away, crouched low and ready to go again. Despite years of being a jaeger pilot, Chan nor his co-pilot have fallen out of their scrapy upbringings, fighting like two street orphans. “What, are you going to bite a kaiju if you can?” 

“Of course not. I just don’t like losing to you.”

“Too bad.” Jihoon straightens and lifts his fists, planting his feet firmly. Sweat slicks the back of his neck, wispy pieces of hair escaping his hair tie and sticking to damp skin. “No more biting.” 

“No promises.” 

Somewhere behind him, Jihoon hears Minghao shriek. “She bit me!”

Scratch that. Maybe Wylie does bite. 

Chan comes at Jihoon again. He’s a good fighter and he’s ruthless. It’s one of Jihoon’s favorite things about him. But there’s always an opening, always a moment between fluid movements that reveals itself that Jihoon can take advantage of. 

He does exactly that, going on the defense, watching and waiting for the moment. When it reveals itself, Jihoon strikes lightning fast, catching Chan in the chest hard and taking him down to the ground. Jihoon feels the wind leave Chan’s lungs as he coughs hard, head smacking the mat. 

Behind them, Jihoon hears the collective wince. Chan is dazed for a second, groaning underneath Jihoon’s hand pressed to his chest. He can feel the hammering of Chan’s heart, a little faster than his own. When it’s clear Chan isn’t going to claw at him, Jihoon stands and offers him a hand.

With a heaving sigh, Chan takes it. Jihoon claps him on the back, grinning as Chan tries to catch his breath, rubbing the back of his head. “That hurt.”

“Oops.” Chan looks over Jihoon’s shoulder and grins, causing him to turn around and follow the younger’s gaze. Wylie sweeps her feet under Mingho’s, knocking him to the mat. She pounces like a creature from hell before he can react, pinning him down. “Well, at least one of us didn’t get our ass beat today.” 

“Stop biting, Dino,” Jihoon says as they trail off the mat, a warning. Chan has the decency to look chagrined, bowing slightly to his superior. Jihoon adores the kid, but he will not serve as a chew toy. 

Grabbing a water, Jihoon sits down on the floor with Seungkwan, Soonyoung and Seokmin as Junhui and Minghao trade places. Minghao is nursing a scratch on his neck from Wylie’s nails, muttering about her being a demon straight from hell as he sits. Wylie gives her new opponent a wicked grin, taking her place on the mat and beckoning Junhui toward her. Jihoon shakes his head, gulping down water and leaning back on his hands. 

“Fresh blood,” Soonyoung notes, gesturing toward the training room entrance as the Marshall leads a group of people in. “They’re holding trials for the two new mark fives tomorrow. Wanna go?” 

“No.” 

Soonyoung laughs. “Come on, they might be looking for another partner for you too.”

“Don’t care.” 

“You can’t keep going through partners, man.”

Jihoon doesn’t react, eyes scanning the group of cadets. They all look fresh-faced and in awe as they’re led around the mats, wide eyes glued to the sparring pilots as they go. His eyes settle on you, though, pausing. 

You don’t have the same awestruck wonder as the other cadets, trailing behind them as your eyes scan the structure, the fighters and the equipment around you. Calculating. Critical. You’re a little older than the other cadets too - not in looks but in aura, chin lifted, gaze sharp. Experienced. 

Soonyoung follows Jihoon’s line of sight and straightens. “Woah. Who is that?” 

“My new drift partner,” Seokmin sighs dreamily. Soonyoung and Seungkwan smack him at the same time, offended. They’re one of the few triple pilot groups, operating a massive piece of machinery made for slaughtering and hammering down on high-grade kaiju. “What? Look at her!” 

“You shouldn’t fuck your co-pilot,” Seungkwan mutters. “Look what happened to Seungcheol and Cherry. She’s still at that training facility in Alaska. Didn’t come back after their drift glitched.” 

A collective hum goes through them. All of them recall that situation, but no one says a thing. The weight of Cherry’s absence sits heavy on them - even Jihoon misses her a little. 

“I don’t know,” Soonyoung notes cryptically, eyeing Wylie. She’s managed to get Junhui off his feet, slamming him down with a rattle of mat and springs, pinning him with a savage growl. Wylie Coyote indeed, Jihoon thinks, smirking. “Seems to work for Wylie just fine. God, look at Chan, he literally has heart eyes. Disgusting.” 

It’s true. The pilot in question sits at the edge of the mat, elbows resting on top of his knees as he watches his girlfriend with his mouth open, lips upturned a little. His eyes are dazed, focused on Wylie as she holds onto a thrashing Junhui. There’s so much love in his gaze that Jihoon averts his eyes, worried he’s observing something sacred and private.  

“Not everyone is like them,” Seungkwan shoots back. “They share a brain cell.” 

“We’re literally drift partners. We basically do the same thing.” 

“And yet I don’t want to fuck you, Hoshi.” 

Soonyoung cocks his head to the side. “You know, that brings up a valid question-”

“No,” the other three say at the same time, cutting him off before he can get going. 

Still, Seungkwan’s point is valid. The drift is something that is so intimate that it isn’t uncommon for copilots to have a romance or some sort of tension. The neural handshake makes you become one, unable to hide anything. It is inviting someone else into your head to see everything you see, everything you have seen. Memories, feelings, thoughts - nothing is yours anymore. 

Jihoon hides it all from his co-pilots. He knows he’s not supposed to - openness and being honest and true with your partner makes for a better drift. But the intimacy of the connection makes him uncomfortable, and he’s not ready for anyone to see him - really see him. 

So he hides in the drift. Knows how to bring nothing to it, to give only the parts of himself he has to in order for his partner to fight alongside him. Jihoon gives nothing more. And they don’t need it, frankly. 

The Marshall leads the new recruits back out of the room. He watches you go, wondering what your deal is. As though you sense his eyes on you, your eyes flicker over to his, catching his gaze. He’s unsure why, but he pauses, the room stilling for a split second. Then you’re grinning wickedly, vanishing from the room. 

He brushes it off and turns his eyes back to his friends. 

-

Lee Jihoon is prettier in person. You don’t know why it’s the first thing you notice as you watch him walk across the training center. He’s dressed in fitted cargo pants and a racing jacket over a t-shirt, emphasizing his broad shoulders. His hair is bleached and pinned into a low bun, some of his bangs hanging in his dark eyes. He doesn't notice you watching him as he nears an empty mat, shedding the jacket. 

He’s compact. Small, but toned, muscles rippling as he begins to go through a series of stretches. You know he’s a good fighter from your observations the day before. Everything about him screams efficiency. You can’t put your thumb on it, but the way he carries himself is methodical.

Lee Jihoon is the perfect jaeger pilot on paper. 

It’s the partners that he has a problem with. He’s had eight co-pilots in the last year alone, which is more than anyone has the right to. Before that, he managed to keep someone for six months before they requested a transfer to a different location. 

You sense Jihoon’s gaze, realizing he’s picked up on your staring. His expression is as neutral as it was yesterday, as though he has zero interest in whoever you are. He must not - he turns away and gets back to what he was doing, the moment passing without fanfare. 

Everyone in the room is paired with their pilots, going through fight sequences. You watch the different pairs, noting those who exhibit high-drift compatibility and others who are still learning. You note how many talented pilots this base has, likely due to the high activity. 

As though the thought summons the very creatures from the depths of the ocean, an alarm goes off. You don’t flinch, used to the kaiju alert system. It had gone off the day before, though. You look up at the screen as it flashes the names of the pilots on duty, calling them to report to the drop bridge. 

A few shouts of good luck draw your attention to the center of the room where two of the younger pilots head out. You’d seen them sparring earlier, so in time with one another that you weren’t sure where one began and one ended. The man looks at the girl and gives her a smile so full of love that you look away, startled at its intensity. 

While romantic connections between pilots aren’t totally uncommon, you’re not used to it. Most of the Rangers at your old base were family members and childhood friends, connection deep and intimate but not like that. You wonder what it must be like, if it makes love any easier to be that deeply connected. 

“So are you my new co-pilot?” a soft voice startles you and you turn to see that Jihoon has snuck up on you. His eyes are darker in person, entirely consuming as he looks down at you with a cocked head. His blonde hair sticks to his forehead, pale skin covered in a sheen of sweat. “You must be, right?”

“What makes you think that?”

“You’re not a cadet. And you’ve been watching me for the better part of two hours.” 

You shrug. “You can learn a lot from watching veterans.” 

“You could at least offer to spar to see if we’re any good together.”

“You mean to see if I’m good enough for you.” He lifts a shoulder, not disagreeing with you. Wiping your palms on your knees, you stand up. Even though he’s small, you’re still a little shorter than him, nearly eye level. You stick your hand out, giving him your name. “But you can call me Blue.”

Instead of taking your hand, he nods and turns on his heel, striding back to the mat he occupied earlier. You stand and stare at the newly vacated spot, hand held out in the air. “Alright,” you mutter to yourself, dropping your hand and going after him. 

Eyes follow you. You can feel them as you trail after him, watching his smooth, even gait. Everything about Jihoon is refined and controlled, even down to the minute expressions as he steps onto the mat and turns to face you. Sliding your shoes off, you join him, feeling the spring beneath your step and the softness of the floor.

Jihoon heads to a rack of bo staffs, picking one up and tossing it to you. You snatch it, spinning it lightly to test the weight. The balance is near perfect, a slight weight to the left side. You adjust accordingly, grip firm. Jihoon does the same, spinning his staff and rolling his shoulders.

“Who were those pilots called to make the drop?” you ask, conversational. 

“Dino and Wylie.” 

“Good pilots?” 

He takes his stance. “Excellent. They’re terrors. It won’t be a problem for them. Are you right handed or left handed?”

“Ambidextrous.”

“Good.” 

You don’t know why, but his assessing gaze bothers you suddenly. Like you know that even though you know you’re an excellent fighter, it still won’t be enough for him. The thought that you’ve lost before you even begun pricks a nerve and you strike first. 

It’s immediately obvious why you’re compatible. Jihoon knows your next move before you know what it is. You feel him move like an instinct, imagining his attack and defense before it happens. It isn’t a fight, but a dialogue, two skilled fighters communicating in a pattern only familiar to them. 

Sweat slicks the back of your neck and back. You barely register it, losing yourself in the rhythm of Jihoon’s movements. The sound of the training gym fades to the background and you barely hear the crack of your staffs as they meet over and over again. You hardly see him, vision fading to a narrow point of instinct.

This is how you fight. Muscle memory, driven by intuition.

Your intuition tells you that you’re perfectly matched, fighting style so similar that it’s hard to get a hit in - you won’t get a hit in, too in sync with him to out maneuver him. 

So you deviate. 

Instead of dodging a smack to the ribs, you let him hit you. His surprise is so apparent that he breaks his concentration and you strike, foot sweeping behind his ankle and pulling, knocking him from his feet. Jihoon goes down hard, breath leaving his lungs as you pounce, pinning him.

For a second, it’s just the two of you. His heart pounds, chest heaving in time with yours. Even your breaths are evenly matched, a tempo that is deeper than most human understanding. Drift compatible. You feel it the same way you feel the spark of his skin even through the fabric of his shirt. You’re so aware of it that you don’t hear what he says at first, his mouth moving but no sounds coming out.

“What?” 

“That doesn’t count,” he asserts. “I hit you first. The fight is over after that.”

You frown. “The fight doesn’t end until there’s a killing blow. A swipe to the ribs wouldn’t do it.”

“That isn’t how that works.” 

“There are no rules of engagement in the ocean.” 

He scowls. “There are basic principles to fighting. You lose when you get hit first.”

“Do you lose when a kaiju hits you first? Or do you keep fighting?” 

Jihoon huffs underneath you, shaking his head. You’ve still got him pinned, your palm pressed to his chest and your knee planted in his stomach. He glances away from you and you become aware that everyone has stopped to watch the two of you spar.

And you’re still on top of him. 

Clearing your throat, you climb off of him smoothly. You offer a hand to help him up but he doesn’t take it, getting up on his own. He’s flushed, cheeks tinged peak and mouth twisted in frustration. You watch him as he gives the room around you a cutting glance, making everyone immediately turn back to what they were doing. 

Jihoon puts his staff back and you watch him. He looks minorly irritated on the surface, but you can see it rippling deeper than that. He’s unsettled and it makes you grin. 

“This won’t work,” Jihoon says as he turns back to you, crossing his arms over his chest. You ignore the way his biceps flex and blink at him in confusion. “You can’t be my partner.”

“What? We’re compatible. That was one of the best fighting flows I’ve ever had.”

“We’re too different in principle.” 

That gets a frown from you. “I don’t think so at all. You let your instinct guide you. So do I.” 

“You deviate.” 

“I let the natural dialogue of the fight lead me.”

You let silence fall between you. You can see why so many other pilots had issues with him. Jihoon approaches every statement as though it is the absolute truth, a fact that cannot be disproven. He speaks with the authority of someone who knows he’s right often, and frequently goes unchallenged.

Instead of letting him get a rise out of you, you switch topics. “Are you hungry?”

He pauses. “What?” 

“What part of the question didn’t you understand? Are you hungry?”

Jihoon is perplexed. You’re sure that by now, mostly people have visibly grown upset with the combative dialogue. You don’t mind much, watching as he thinks on your question. You take the opportunity to appreciate the gentle slope of his nose up close, the delicate curve of his mouth, the contrast of feminine and masculine features that make an exquisite face. 

Then Jihoon unfolds his arms and walks past you. You turn to follow him but he says over his shoulder, “I don’t want to have lunch with you. We’re not friends.” 

There’s no room for argument in the way that he says it. You watch him as he leaves, never once turning back. 

-

You are vexing. 

There isn’t another word to describe you. Jihoon hasn’t the slightest idea how you’ve managed to so thoroughly irritate him at your first encounter, but he can’t stop thinking about how frustrated he is when he slams his tray down on the table. 

It’s a little early for lunch, mostly engineers and staff going on shift soon filling the room to eat quickly. The giant clock above the entryway to the cafeteria resets and Jihoon relaxes a little, confirming that Chan and Wylie are fine. He knew they would be - a Category Two kaiju is nothing for a pair like them.

Jihoon finds himself thinking of you. Of what you must be able to do in a jaeger.

Curious, Jihoon looks up your name. It rings a bell - you were pretty renowned at your homebase. Clicking through videos, he sets his phone on the table as he eats, eyes glued to the screen. Your drops are easily accessible to him, clicking through them as he eats. 

There is something hypnotizing the way you and your old co-pilot Maya Veliz fight. You’re efficient and without flashy moves, which he can appreciate. But there’s a speed at which you make decisions and take risks that has him shaking his head. 

Yet, there is something vaguely familiar. He pauses his meal to watch closer, realizing what it is. There is a brutality to your fighting that he recognizes in himself, a need to kill. You fight to win, willing to take a little damage if it means you can deal the final blow.

The thought unsettles him. Your fighting style is so similar to his that he would be lying if he tried to say otherwise. There is logic and calculation to your moves, but then there’s always that deviation. That random blip in your pattern that is unexpected and dangerous. 

“Will watching my drop footage make you like me more?”

Your voice startles him. He drops his fork and it clatters against the table, loud in the soft din of the cafeteria. You’re leaning over him, a smirk on your face and a devilish glint dancing in your eyes as you look at his phone screen where you successfully put down a kaiju. 

“Deathclaw wasn’t very impressive. It was pretty small. My mom and I took out Umbraxis my first year, though.”

Jihoon snatches his phone and locks the screen, putting it face down. He scowls down, feeling his heart flip a little. Your scent drifts over to him at your proximity, a mix of amber and jasmine. It’s already familiar to him, having caught the scent when you pinned him down earlier, hand pressed to his heart-

You sit across from him and he looks up at you. His mind goes blank, staring as you unwrap your silverware picking up a fork to stab a piece of chicken and pop it into your mouth. You hum happily, totally unaware - or maybe unbothered - at his increasing irritation. 

“Tell me about your jaeger,” you demand - not ask. Your eyes find his, two pools of curiosity that have his tongue heavy, words sticky. “I want to know all about her.”

“You’re not going to make the drop with me.”

The curve of your mouth is wicked. “Tell me anyway.”

For a few minutes, Jihoon doesn’t answer. He waits to see if the silence will push you away or make you anxious. It doesn’t seem to. You keep eating without saying anything else, occasionally glancing at him with a cocked brow as if to suggest you have all the time in the world. 

“She was re-outfitted two years ago,” Jihoon says slowly. He doesn’t know why he’s answering you at all, but he continues, “Mark-5 now with the new outfitted tech - she’s still nuclear-driven to avoid any EMP attacks. Outfitted with GD6 steel-obsidian chain swords on each arm, but there are also smaller, detachable blades for hand-to-hand fighting, along with some projectiles. She’s also got a lightning strike powered by the nuclear-core but it can only be used once, and only as a last resort. It obliterates local wildlife in the water.”

“What’s the suspension look like?”

“Gyro-stabilizers to stay fluid when fighting and L-10 locks on all of the joints to strap in and withstand damage. She’s built to take a lot of blunt-force and melee attacks, but she’s top heavy if she loses footing.”

“Have you only been in Storm Breaker?”

He nods. “Since my first drop.”

“She’s beautifully built.” 

Jihoon doesn’t respond. It does bring him a small sense of pride to know that you admire the jaeger he fights in, but he doesn’t thank you. He suspects you notice but doesn't say anything, which surprises him. You seem like the stubborn type who doesn't like to back down from a fight, and yet multiple times this morning you’ve conceded to him, refusing to get upset. 

It bothers him. He can’t tell if it’s because you’re a people pleaser or if you think you're gentle-parenting him, and he doesn’t like it either way. 

So he doesn’t talk to you. He lets the conversation die there, despite sensing your amusement from across the table. He feels the grip on his fork increase, metal biting into his palms as he tries to ignore you. He can smell the jasmine and amber of your perfume, which makes him feel more insane, and he can’t help but steal glances at you and dart his eyes away.

You’re pretty. He’s had attractive co-pilots before. That’s not new, nor has it ever bothered him. Something about you draws the eye, though. He thinks it’s the aura of confidence you give off, effortlessly comfortable in your skin and your situation, despite Jihoon not making it any easier on you.

“Hi,” The raspy voice interrupts Jihoon’s thoughts and he looks up as Wylie slams her tray down on the table. She’s sweaty, freshly peeled from her Drivesuite and offering a hand to you as she gives her full name. “You can call me Wylie, though. Everyone does. Are you Woozi’s new co-pilot?”

“Yes,” you answer at the same time Jihoon says no. “Though I didn’t know that was the name he preferred.” 

Wylie shoots him a sly grin and sits down next to him. He curses and scoots over, the younger girl nearly on top of him as she leans her elbows on the table. “He doesn’t prefer it, which is why it stuck. He's a very cranky cat, but he’s nice once you get to know him.” 

Jihoon scowls, turning to her. “Did I invite you to sit down with us?”

“No.” 

That’s it. That’s the end of her statement. Jihoon watches as she settles happily, opening chocolate milk and chugging it back like it’s water. Jihoon cringes and readies to lob an insult her way when he’s interrupted again, another tray slamming down next to hers. 

Closing his eyes, Jihoon summons all the gods he doesn’t believe in to give him the god damn patience. Chan is wearing a shit-eating grin as he leans across the table, offering his hand in the same, chipper manner his partner had moments before. 

“I’m Chan. But you can call me Dino.”

“Why Dino?” 

“I step on everyone.” 

You raise your brows, amused, eyes flickering to Wylie. Sensing your question, Wylie says around a mouthful of mac and cheese, “Like Wylie Coyote because I’m a menace who doesn’t stop attacking.” 

“How was your drop?” 

“Easy,” they say in unison. 

Jihoon focuses on his plate, feeling grouchy. They start to talk like he’s not even there, and though that is typically how conversations go around him, he’s suddenly bothered by it. Especially when you seem so smug that at least someone likes you. 

He wants to tell you they don’t count. Chan is one of the nicest people in the Shatterdome and will talk to anyone, if they give him the time of day. Wylie isn’t exactly nice but she’s in love with Chan and is happy to be nice to anyone who is being nice to him. The pair are relatively easy to win over. 

It only gets worse for him when Soonyoung and the others start sitting down. Everyone seems eager to ask you questions, a new shiny toy for his friends to play with. He chews on the corner of his lip, feeling stormy in the corner of the table as Seokmin peppers you with questions and exclamations at your answers. 

A shift in tension makes Jihoon look up. Seungcheol sits down at the table slowly, as though trying not to be a distraction or catch any attention. He’s three seats away from Wylie and out of her eyeshot, but Wylie is a born predator, sensing him like a hunter. Her eyes cut over to Seungcheol and she bristles, shooting up to her feet to grab her tray and storm off. 

Chan sighs, muttering a brief apology before grabbing his things and going after her. Jihoon glances at Seungcheol, watching the way his jaw ticks at the interaction. Surprisingly, you don’t ask any questions. You lean over to Soonyoung and ask him about some of their earlier fights, shifting the energy at the table from tense to light in a second.

Seungcheol relaxes, and though he doesn’t introduce himself, he’s not unkind to you. Jihoon feels a pang for the pilot, knowing that the last year has been difficult for him. Cherry left Seungcheol adrift without a partner, and he’s been unable to find someone to replace her. 

He thinks about offering you to Seungcheol as an alternative. 

Jihoon does learn a little bit about you while listening to everyone talk, though. You've only had two co-pilots in your life where Jihoon has lost count. He wonders what growing up piloting with a parent feels like, and though you smile as you talk about growing up working with your mom, there’s a tightness to your mouth, a look in your eye that he can’t place.

Feeling his gaze, your eyes shift to him. Jihoon realizes he’s been staring at you. He stands and leaves the table abruptly, Seokmin’s voice apologizing on his behalf drifting after him. 

Thankfully, you don’t follow him. He dumps his tray and leaves it in the discarded pile for the cafeteria staff and immediately begins the climb to the command bridge where the Marshall’s office is. His thoughts race but go nowhere at the same time, an echochamber that he can’t untangle. 

Before Jihoon can knock on the entrance to the Marshall’s office, the military commander looks up and waves Jihoon in. “I was about to call for you. Shut the door, please.”

Jihoon does so without comment and sits down. He glances around the office, distracting himself as the Marshall finishes what he was working on. The office is orderly and tidy, every ounce the professional and uptight officer that sits in front of Jihoon, leaning back in the seat to sigh heavily and level Jihoon with a stare. 

Before Jihoon can open his mouth to list all of the reasons you shouldn’t be his pilot, the Marshall speaks. “You’re on probation.” 

“I - what?” 

“For the next three months, if you lose your co-pilot, you will be reassigned to administrative work or to a new Shatterdome.”

Jihoon opens his mouth. Closes it. The weight of the Marshall’s words don’t quite sink in, though Jihoon can tell they’re heavy. Real. “We’ve given you plenty of chances to effectively remain a pilot for Storm Breaker, but the board feels as though the trade off has become an issue.”

“The trade off?”

“You’re costing us money. And cadets. People want to train where they can potentially see themselves become a pilot. When we have open spots and jaegers coming up on retirement, it bolsters recruitment.” The Marshall levels him with a tired stare. “But when we have a pilot who no one can partner with, it puts us in a bind to send cadets where they will fit elsewhere.” 

“Look - “

“No you look, Lee. You’ve been a pilot here for six years. That’s considered a veteran in this field. But the higher ups grow tired of even veterans when they’ve been unmanageable for the last two of those six years.”

Heat flashes up the side of Jihoon’s neck, equal parts embarrassed and angry. He’d been the first in his class to suit up, selected as Haneul’s co-pilot to fill in for their partner that had retired. Jihoon remembers how proud - and nervous - he was and how easy it had been to partner with Haneul.

He didn’t have that anymore, the safety net of the only parental figure he’d ever known gone. 

“The pilots you’ve paired me with have no business being in a jaeger,” Jihoon says matter of factly. “I don’t respect them.”

“Well good thing we’ve given you someone to respect.”

Jihoon shakes his head. “I can’t fight with her.”

“You can and you will. Your drift compatibility is 98% and you have similar fighting style and come from similar machines. You’ll start Conn-pod training tomorrow.”

“Don’t make me partner with her. I don’t like her.”

The Marshall stands. “One day you might learn that if you give people a chance, you’d like what you find.” 

“Marshall-” 

“That’s all, Ranger.” 

The air feels heavy as Jihoon leaves the Marshall’s office. He stops on the command deck, his eyes flickering over to the windows. The glass is floor to ceiling all the way around, giving the tower a 360-degree view of the pacific ocean. Blue stretches out as far as the eye can see, backdropped by the shining silver of the city. 

Boats bob on the water, shifting back and forth on the dark surface. Air teams go back and forth, working in the aftermath of Chan and Wylie’s successful kaiju destruction. Jihoon can see the toxicity on the surface of the water, an oil slick that he knows the exact pungent smell of. 

Trailing to an observation window, he stares with unseeing eyes. How many times had he stood up here and provided commentary to his friends during a fight? He didn’t frequent the command deck, but sometimes it gave him perspective. Or he was a little worried about his friends, especially when they were taking on higher category kaiju. 

Jihoon chews on the side of his lip. He’s talked Wylie and Chan through plenty of bouts before. He remembers sharply the terror of the fight that had changed all of their lives over a year ago, watching as the hull of Fang Striker was breached, the screams of terror as Wylie took a talon to the stomach, nearly killing her. The aftermath of Chan’s grief.

A chill breaks out over his arms. Jihoon knows he isn’t cut out to sit through something like that again, to try and get a panicking pilot to focus and get to safety. He’s not made for an advisory role. Not built to watch pilots come and go, completely operating out of his control. 

Death is easier to process in the heat of battle. It gives him an excuse to be distracted, to hide from the immediate pain of losing a pilot during a fight because he’s too busy protecting himself, protecting the city. He’s not made to watch it from afar and take the full weight of it.

Turning away from the window, Jihoon descends back down to the ground floor. 

Probation period. Three months of having to stomach you or he’s out. Flexing his fingers, he heads to his room, needing the silence. If Jihoon is going to do this, he knows he needs to keep himself in line. Can’t push you away like he has the others. 

And he hates you for it.

-

Music bleeds through the metal door out into the hall. You wonder how any of the neighboring rooms let him get away with it. Then again, Lee Jihoon seems like someone most jaeger pilots don’t go toe-to-toe with often, if they can help it. At least it’s classical music, the swelling sound of Mozart sweeping into the hallway as you open the door, propping it with your hip to haul the box in your arms through. 

Jihoon’s eyes snap open immediately. He’s lounging on the bottom bunk of the bed in the far corner of the room, face lit by the glow of the muted screen in the corner showing the rain and ocean spray beating against the Shatterdome. Nothing disturbs the seas at the moment, though you wonder in a hotspot like this how long that will last. 

A scowl twists his mouth. You let the door shut behind you, setting the box down on the media table by the doorway. “Mozart?” you ask, arching a brow. He glares at you, sitting up from where he had been lounging with his hands tucked behind his head. “A bit cliche, don’t you think?” 

“What do you know about music?”

“Enough to know that someone with balanced compositions that orchestrate total control and logic in its make is… not surprising for you.” He blinks in surprise. “I like Tchaikovsky. There’s something more mercurial to his compositions.” 

“Tchaikovsky was inspired by Mozart.”

“I didn’t say one was better than the other.” You smirk. “You don’t like differences of opinion, do you?”

“I always value opinions. Some more than others.”

“Mhmm. Where can I put my things?”

Jihoon closes his eyes and lays back on the bed. His blonde hair is undone, fanning around him in a silvery-white halo. “The trash chute, preferably.” 

“Wherever I want, got it.” 

He ignores you. You suppress a laugh and move into the room proper. It’s small, filled with only the essentials to house two people to eat, sleep, and shower. A small kitchenette sits to your left, hidden in darkness with all of the lights off. You spot a shelf filled with dry goods - mostly protein bars - and coffee. There is a sad excuse for a sitting area with a tiny table and two chairs next to the TV screen, a bunk bed with a wardrobe next to it, and a tiny bathroom.

Cozy. 

Pulling open the wardrobe, you see that there’s room for your things. You shoot Jihoon a sidelong glance. He certainly hadn’t moved his things over to take over the full wardrobe after his last pilot left. You wonder if he’s just used to being unable to use the full space or if he had made room for you.

You doubt it’s the latter. 

Ave Verum Corpus plays in the background as you unpack the tiny box that is your life. You hum along, shutting the wardrobe and padding over to the bathroom. Jihoon could be asleep for all you know, but you suspect he’s not. When you glance over at him after shutting the medicine cabinet, you see his foot tapping to the beat of the music.

“What other kind of music do you like?” His foot stops tapping at your question.

Turning off the bathroom light, you move to the door to break down the cardboard box you brought your things in. Jihoon doesn’t answer at first, his frame rigid with tension, as though he had forgotten you were there until you spoke. You suppose that’s entirely possible, if not a little unlikely. 

Just when you think he’s not going to answer, he mutters, “I like ballads.”

“Romantic.” He frowns but doesn’t say anything further. “What’s your favorite one? Or artist?”

“Go play twenty questions with someone else. I’m not interested.”

“I’m going to find out anyway.” He opens his eyes then. They’re dark, pupils blown as his face twitches in an almost snarl. “It is an inevitable fact that we will have to drift. I recommend making peace with that now.” 

“I’m going to bed,” he announces, flopping over on his side and crossing his arms.

You let Jihoon be mean. It does you no good to fight with him when you eventually need him on your side, and you can sympathize with him to a degree. He didn’t choose you as his pilot and he’s backed into a corner, a do or die situation that he can’t back out of. The only way is forward and it’s against his will. 

As he pretends to sleep, you occupy yourself on the top bunk with your tablet, sliding headphones over your ears so he doesn’t bitch you out. Flicking through online channels, you familiarize yourself with your fellow jaeger pilots at the Shatterdome, watching fight footage and interviews. 

You come across a set of popular pilots, only one of them familiar to you. You recognize the man from dinner earlier - he had sat down and the tension around the table had increased tenfold. Wylie had immediately clocked his presence and stormed off, Chan trailing behind her with an apologetic look.

Tapping on their information, you hum in interest to yourself. Seungcheol. You recognize the name, vaguely. He piloted Duellona Fury with his copilot, a woman you don’t recognize but that has a bright smile. They make a good team, totally in sync and feeding off each other’s energy. You wonder where she is now, assuming she’s the source of the tension between Wylie and Seungcheol.

You wonder what you and Jihoon will be like as drift partners. So far he seems to hate you, but he does tolerate you. It’s a start, if not ideal. You won’t start drifting right away - not for real anyway. Practicing combat drills and learning more about one another is the first step to any partnership, followed by practice drifts.

In the drift, there’s no room for hatred or enmity. Trust is paramount, but almost as important is respect. Respect for what you see in the thoughts and feelings of your partner, respect that they’re good at what they do and that they’re the best person for the job, respect that they are your equal. Too many partners get lost in trying to save the other, losing sight of being equally capable or feeling like they know better. 

Jihoon doesn’t seem capable of that. Not right now, anyway. It doesn’t matter, though. You’re his only option to stay in the jaeger program, and though he hasn’t said anything about it, you’re pretty sure he knows. 

“Can you shut the tablet off?” Jihoon grunts from below. You sigh heavily, tucking it to your chest. “The glow is fucking bright.”

“The TV is also glowing, Jihoon.” 

“Yeah, so your tablet adds to the general light in the room.”

“Close your eyes.”

“It isn’t helping. Go under your covers.”

Closing your eyes and taking a deep breath in, you lock the tablet and shove it under your pillow. “Better?”

“Yes.”

Weather the storm, you think to yourself. Jihoon is angry and capricious, but it’s more to do with his situation than it is to do with you. And despite his snappy nature, there are flashes of him willing to work with you by answering questions, albeit with attitude. 

You can do this. You can make Lee Jihoon like you. Maybe even respect you.

-

You are not a morning person. Lee Jihoon, however, is a morning person. Which is why it takes everything inside of you not to launch your pillow at him when you hear the classical music wake you from sleep in the morning, making you lift your heavy head to look around the room, vision blurry.

Heat from a fresh shower drifts from the bathroom only a short distance away. You stare in confusion, blinking rapidly as Jihoon walks out of the bathroom. He’s brushing his teeth furiously with one hand, looking at his phone with the other, blue light making him look like a phantom in the dim light. 

And he’s dressed in nothing but a towel slung low on his waist, making you nearly go catatonic. 

It’s not like you haven’t seen a body before - it’s just a body, and soon enough, you’ll be in his head. It’s important to get any weirdness out of the way because in the drift, you’ll bare everything. But for some reason the image of his small, compact body scrambles your brain this early in the morning.

Jihoon is built like a weapon, all sleek lines and hard muscles. He stands in the kitchen, setting down his phone as he opens cabinets and starts to make coffee, toothbrush still in his mouth. The muscles in his back flex as he moves, skin pale and smooth as the moon. 

“Are you a coffee person?” he asks, because he knows you’re awake. Of course he does. You don’t answer for a moment, stuck between eyeing the narrow taper of his hips and the question that implies he’s willing to make you coffee. He turns, arching a brow at you. “Now you shut up?” 

That brings a scowl to your face. “Yes, I drink coffee.” 

“Great.” 

He goes back to what he was doing, ignoring you entirely. Dragging your eyes away from him, feeling flushed and overwarm, you throw the covers back, scrambling from the top bunk. You land with a soft huff, feeling the chill of the concrete floor as you dart to the wardrobe to pull out clothes. 

“What time is it?”

“You have eyes, look at the TV.”

Got it, you think. He’ll make coffee for you but not do something as simple as answer what time it is. You do look at the TV, seeing the darkened feed of the churning ocean breaking against the walls of the Shatterdome. There are multiple camera angles, weather radar and Dome messages that break up the screen into sections. The time is in the top corner, flashing 5:13 am. 

“Ji, it is five in the morning.”

“Five-thirteen. And don’t call me Ji. I’m not your buddy.” 

Taking a deep breath, you mutter curses under your breath. “I’m going to shower.”

As expected, you get no response. 

The great thing about living in a billion dollar buildinding with hundreds of people is that there’s no shortage of hot water. You’re grateful as the steam fills the room, hot water making your coiled muscles melt the second you step under the shower. You let the frustration from the morning fade away, the rush of the water and the feel of it sluicing down your back-

A loud knock on the door breaks your reverie. You hear it open. Jihoon grunts, “I wasn’t done brushing my teeth. I need the sink.”

“Then use the sink.”

Jihoon shuffles into the bathroom. You hear the faucet turn on and you go back to tilting your head backward under the stream of water, ignoring the sound of him going about his morning routine. In a way, it’s sort of peaceful, the sounds of him softly opening and closing cabinets and the clinking of jars against the counter soft in the background. 

He’s back in the kitchen by the time you’re out of the shower and wrapped in a towel. You venture out into the main room in kind, deciding that if he is going to walk around in nothing but a towel, so will you. He barely gives you a glance from his bottom bunk, lounging around in low-slung sweats with no shirt, blonde hair splayed on his pillow. You ignore him in favor of the lone mug of coffee sitting in the kitchen steaming.

Gripping it and bringing it up, you let the ceramic warm you from your palms upward, inhaling before taking a tentative sip. It’s bitter but it helps you wake up. You glance at Jihoon from over the lip of the cup. He scrolls on a tablet mindlessly, as though he’s forgotten you’re there.

Neither one of you speaks as you finish your coffee. Turning to the sink, you start washing the cup out. You notice his used mug sitting in the bottom of the sink and pick it up, wash it and put it in the drying rack next to yours without thinking about it before returning to the bathroom to dress fully.

Once dressed and out of the bathroom, it’s almost six. Jihoon is bent over by the door, his boot on the coffee table as he laces it. Now fully dressed, his long hair is pulled back in a bun, a few silver whisps escaping and falling across his face. Again, you’re struck by how beautiful he is for a moment. 

He straightens and looks at you, raising his brows. Instead of answering him, you hurry to the wardrobe, pulling out your boots to slide them on and head to breakfast. You half expect him to leave you behind, but to your surprise, he lingers with the door open, dark eyes clocking your every movement. As soon as you’re done tying laces, he’s out the door and charging again, leaving you to scramble behind him.

Silence follows you into the cafeteria, which has the quiet atmosphere of an early morning. Workers and pilots ending their shifts sit at the table, scarfing down breakfast for dinner. Early shift workers hurry to grab a bite before heading off to the different parts of the Shatterdome. It’s not nearly as loud as lunch or dinner, but the soft din is inviting as you go through the line, following your new co-pilot wordlessly. 

None of the friendly faces from yesterday are in the cafeteria, so the two of you sit alone. Jihoon is methodical as he sets up his breakfast, each move calculated and precise. He eats the same way, finishing something entirely before moving on to the next time. 

His obsession with organization and control is almost fascinating, if not a little worrying. Instead of asking about it, you eat in silence, humming delightedly at the cheesy hashbrowns made available that morning. He casts you a single annoyed glance when he notices you enjoying your meal. 

Breakfast goes without a fight, though. Glancing at the large clock above the entrance to the cafeteria, you realize you only have a few minutes left before your day of training starts. Jihoon seems to be on the same wavelength, pulling out his phone to scroll through your schedule. 

“Meditation first,” he murmurs. He shoves his phone in his pocket and stands without preamble. “Do you think you can manage meditation?”

“Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but we haven’t spoken for over an hour.”

Confusion crosses his face, quickly followed by astonishment. He hadn’t realized that most of your morning has been spent in silence. His brows pull together, mouth turning slightly as he works over your words. It seems to make him unhappy. He narrows his eyes and his mouth twists before he turns and marches away from the table, leaving you behind. 

Mouth quirking, you follow quickly, not wanting to lose your way to wherever it is you’re supposed to report to. He walks faster this time, determined to keep you moving and on your toes. Wherever the studio designated to you for the morning feels like it’s halfway around the world. Jihoon leads you down a series of halls and stairs, never slowing his pace once.

By the time you get to a small, soundproof room, your calves are burning. 

“You need conditioning,” he mutters, noticing the way you’re a little out of breath.

“You basically just took me on a light jog,” you protest. “I think it’s fair to be a little winded this early in the morning.”

“It doesn’t matter what time it is. What will you do if we make the drop at four in the morning?” 

Jihoon doesn’t wait for you to answer. Instead, he goes to the middle of the room and sits down on the floor, and crosses his legs. Instead of taking his bait and picking a fight with him, you sigh and stride into the room. He positions himself, ready for you to sit in front of him. Instead, you circle around him, sitting down behind him. 

“What are you doing?” he asks, twisting toward you.

“Meditating. Turn back around so we can be back-to-back.”

“What? Why?”

“Just trust me.”

“I don’t.”

“Well, try. It’s easier to feel your breaths and your heartbeat this way. Plus, there's less pressure if you don’t have to look directly at me.”

“Thank god for that,” he mutters.

You roll your eyes at the barb but grin when Jihoon listens, twisting back around to face the front. He lets you settle against him, the warmth from his back melting into yours. He is rigid, his spine solid as it digs into yours for a second. You lick your lips, feeling electricity shiver down you at the contact, like there’s a spark. 

The hum of the air condition is the only sound in the room. You close your eyes, leaning into Jihoon so that you fit flush together. You match your breaths with his, feeling your breathing slow down. Your heart slows to, like it’s trying to let him catch up, both of you melting into the same rhythm. 

Behind you, Jihoon relaxes. The back of his head rests against yours, both of you leaning into the touch, becoming the equal opposing force holding the other up. 

Balance is imperative in co-pilots. Jihoon needed to bring to the fight what you lacked and vice versa, the two of you making something whole, something complete. It’s a balance that’s not easily achieved, and though you’d always been a good pair with your mother and then maya, you know instinctively that it’s nothing compared to Jihoon’s counterbalance. 

A timer goes off in the room, startling you with how quickly time has passed. You blink your eyes rapidly, letting the room swim back into focus. For a second, neither one of you moves, content to lean against the other until Jihoon seems to realize he’s still pressed against you. He scrambles to his feet unexpectedly and you fall backward, losing his counterweight immediately. 

Thunking against the floor, you glare up at him. He smirks, looking down at you as he wipes dust from the back of his pants. “You should never let a co-pilot fall,” you huff, hauling yourself to your feet. 

“Good thing we’re not really co-pilots.”

“Yet,” you supply. You get up, stretching and feeling your joints pop. “Even you can’t deny that it was a great first meditation session.”

“Let’s go. We have sparring.” 

-

Jihoon doesn’t like you. 

He doesn’t like you, but he has to admit you are a perfect fit for him. You are loud where he is quiet, you make light when he remains serious, and you deviate when he’s planned. Yet somehow, you manage to mesh with him in your training, the perfect opposite force to him.

For the most part, you leave him alone. He can tell you’ve figured out when to bite back and when to eat your words. It’s become a game to him, throwing insults your way to watch whether you’ll riposte back or swallow your pride. 

The amount of times you swallow your pride impresses him, unfortunately. His original assessment that you are unpredictable and uncontrolled was wrong. He can see the way you actively meet his cold winter with warm summer, trying to melt him. 

He doesn't like giving you credit for your control, but he does so begrudgingly. 

Worst of all, he realizes that it’s not you he dislikes. It’s his situation, it’s knowing that you’re his lifeline and he has to accept you, and it’s knowing that despite his initial dislike, you’re a mirror that he can’t look away from. It doesn’t help that you live two feet away from him at all times, occupying every moment of his life just a reach-of-a-hand away. 

Training is tiring. It feels like he’s a rookie all over again, going through the exercises as the two of you learn to fight together, moving through meditation sessions, sparring, talking sessions - which don't really involve a lot of talking on his part as much as yours - and drop simulations. 

Drop simulations are the most exhausting for him. You bring everything to the drift. It’s nearly overwhelming at first how much you’re willing to show him. From the moment the mental bridge connects the two of you through the simulation software, Jihoon is shocked at the way you lay yourself bare. You hide nothing from him, letting him roam around your thoughts at his leisure. 

He feels everything you’ve ever felt. Elation when you make your first real drop with your first co-pilot, your mom. Sore ribs after a particularly difficult sparring match when you were a teeager in the training program. Pride when you finish the top of your training program. Terror when a fight goes awry and your mother overwhelms you in the drift, taking the full neural load of the jaeger to protect you. Rage at her doing so. 

“What happened here?” he finds himself asking, sticking near the memory. 

He thinks you won’t answer him, but of course you do. Unlike him, you’re open for the taking. “The hull was breached in my first year of fighting. My mother panicked because it was on my side of the jaeger and she tried to take on the neural load.” 

Jihoon says nothing. Piloting a jaeger alone overwhelms the nervous system and the brain, which is why each jaeger has two pilots in the first place. It can be done, but the risk for damage is always present. He senses where your conversation is going.

“We only piloted together for three more years after that. She was starting to struggle to make the drift, so we paused to get her examined. They discovered lesions on her brain and linked it to the damage from that day she tried to pilot alone.”

“She wanted to protect you.”

“She did, but it doesn’t make up for what she did. I was her equal, not someone she was supposed to protect.” You look at him and he looks at you, surrounded by your memories in the drift. “I am deserving of treated like an equal.” 

He understands what you’re really saying, that he should treat you like an equal too. Instead of responding, he busies himself with studying other parts of you that you let him have. 

There is a melody to your mind that he enjoys, though he’ll never tell you so. The more you drift together, the more Jihoon realizes that you are exactly like a Tchaikovsky piece. There is an organized chaos to you, a mathematical formula that is logical and measurable, but that deviates from the norm once in a while. 

Every drift, you remain open to him, your thoughts for the taking. You don’t even hide the moments you’ve thought of him - both in occasional attraction and irritation. Irritation at him bringing nothing to drift, opening no part of himself to you. Irritation when he’s mean to you. Hesitant fondness when he does something nice. Confused attraction when he walks around in just a towel. 

Water sluices down his back. Jihoon’s thoughts are still foggy from three weeks of nothing but practice and drills. He also finds it harder to sleep sometimes in the room, his dreams filled with the scent of your amber and jasmine and the lively sound of Tchaikovsky acting as the soundtrack to his dreams.

You’re still asleep when he exits the bathroom. He’s made sure to turn the light off before opening the door, steam billowing out after him. He scoops headphones from the nightstand as he heads to the kitchen, towel snug around his waist. He pops the earbuds in, the sound of Mozart starting his morning as he begins to make coffee. 

Jihoon has quickly learned that the longer he lets you sleep in the morning, the less whiny you are when you wake up. Instead of playing his music out loud, he lets you sleep until he’s made two cups of coffee, adding a spoonful of brown sugar and milk to yours. He sets it on the table and walks back to the bathroom, one of the requiem pieces carrying him through his routine. 

On the way to the bathroom, he stops by your bunk. He hesitates for a second, drinking you in as you sleep. Nestled in that top bunk is the only place you’re as peaceful as you are in the drift. Your features are smoothed out as you slumber, mouth open a little, drool sticky on the corner of your mouth. Jihoon’s lips twitch a little and he shakes his head before reaching out to tap the ankle hanging off your bed. You mumble in response. 

“Get up,” he says gruffly. “You’ve slept long enough.”

He returns to the bathroom and shuts the door to get fully dressed. He knows you’ll be standing in the kitchen looking dazed and confused sipping coffee until he comes out and frees the bathroom for you to shower. 

The alarm for a kaiju alert goes off. He hears it blaring over his music and he pulls the earbuds out, opening the door half dressed in just pants as he looks at the screen flashing red. A Category Four kaiju has been sighted in the bay. His heart skips, knowing that Cat-4 kaiju are dangerous even for the most skilled pilots at the Dome. 

Assignments flash across the screen. Solar Saber and Fang Striker have been summoned to drop. Nervousness flutters in Jihoon’s stomach. He snatches a shirt and yanks it over his head, moving quickly around the room to grab boots. 

“What are you doing?” you ask, leaning off the counter. 

“Heading to the command deck. Come or don’t.”

“I’ll come.” 

You dump your coffee in the sink, jumping to action as you peel off your pajama pants, searching for cargos. Jihoon hardly realizes you’re changing in front of him - he’s seen it all in your head anyway - as he laces his boots. He doesn’t know why, but he starts to explain himself, “Dino and Wylie have a… history with Cat-4 kaiju.” 

“You want to be an extra set of eyes and ears.” He nods at the accurate assessment. “Got it. Run me through Solar Saber drop stats if you know them.”

Jihoon does. He fires off what he knows about the team. Their stats are fine, but a Category Four kaiju is new for them. They have a good jaeger. It’s on the newer side, nuclear powered with plasma cannons and a massive plasma sword that burns brighter than the sun, earning the machine its name. It’s piloted by a set of twins, which produce some of the best drifts in the jaeger program.

But there’s a nervousness in Jihoon’s stomach that he can’t place. Everytime his friends drop, he knows they’ll be okay - but he also knows the level of danger. Perhaps it’s because of Chan and Wylie’s accident last year or because they’re dropping with a team Jihoon doesn’t trust, but he suddenly wants to tell the Marshall to let Storm Breaker do the drop.

A hand brings him out of his thoughts. Your gaze is as calm as the surface of a lake, piercing. “We’re ready, if we need to be.” 

Of course you know what he’s thinking. Despite his best efforts, you seem particularly good at stitching the tiny threads that escape through Jihoon’s wall of ice.  

You drop your hand and grab the room keys, heading toward the door with top speed. His arm is warm where your fingers were a moment ago, burning like a brand. He shakes it off as he follows you out, both of you jogging up to the top level of the Shatterdome to observe. 

Crew races around the dome. Jihoon sees Seungkwan and Vernon rushing up the stairs to the command deck. He follows suit, you quick on his heels. People fill the room, talking over one another as they shout into headsets and screens flash different camera angles. 

The Marshall stands in the center of it all behind the LOCCENT Mission Controller who will walk the pilots through the fight. Jihoon doesn’t recognize the man giving them instructions, but he joins the wall of people standing behind him to observe the screens, taking a place next to Vernon and Seungkwan. 

You glance at Vernon and back to Jihoon, a question in your gaze. “This is Vernon,” Jihoon says in response. “He’s currently a jumphawk pilot. Could be a jaeger pilot if he could figure out the drift but he’s too screwy up top.” 

“Thanks, man.”

“You can call me Blue,” you offer. Your eyes drift to the screens. “Friends of the pilots out there?”

“Wylie is one of my best friends.” 

Instead of telling him something like they’ll be alright or offering words of comfort, all you do is nod. Jihoon respects that. Anything comforting would be a potential lie and useless in a world of blood and metal, salt and fire. 

The entire room falls into a steady cadence. Jihoon crosses his arms as he focuses on the screen. He’s mutely aware that you’re standing so close to him he can feel the heat of your arm, hands shoved in your pockets as you watch the screens, brows furrowed in concentration. 

On screen, Solar Saber churns the water toward a towering kaiju in the bay. The creature is straight out of a nightmare, a barbed tail whipping across the surface of the ocean, misting water as it does. From what Jihoon can tell, it’s got four legs, each equipped with long talons. Rows and rows of teeth reveal itself as the kaiju opens its mouth and roars, the vibration from the sound so deep that it vibrates underneath his feet. 

“I don’t like that tail,” Vernon mutters next to Jihoon. 

“It’s like a manticore.” Jihoon glances at you. You’re not looking at them, but your head is tilted in curiosity as you point to the screen. “Four legs, a curved tail with a barb. The webbing around its neck suggests it might have a frill.”

“Strike teams, confirm positions,” the LOCCENT controller says into the mic. 

“Fang Striker in position two miles north of kaiju and Solar Saber.” It’s Wylie’s raspy voice that crackles over the shared radiowave with the jaeger teams. “Perimeter is set.”

“Solar Saber ready to engage,” a female voice comes over the speaker. Jihoon recognizes it as one of the twin co-pilots, Jezzi. 

“Permission to engage.” 

As Solar Saber engages with the kaiju, the command deck goes quiet. People guiding the helicopters and ground teams speak softly into their mics, a level of tense calm washing over as everyone watches the fight ensue.

Solar Saber is beautiful to watch fight. The armor is painted radiant gold and the glow of the sword is magnificent against the stormy waters as it slashes at the kaiju. Jezzi and her sister Yaz are calm throughout their bout, their voices clear and communicative as the kaiju batters them. 

“Cut off the tail,” you mutter under your breath. “It’s going to-”

Jihoon sees what you do as soon as you say it. While trying to kill the kaiju with a direct blow, Solar Saber has forgotten about the tail. The tip of the tail shivers, reminding Jihoon of a cat ready to strike, and it does. One moment, Solar Saber and the kaiju are locked in a wrestling match. Next, the tail is hammering the hull of the jaeger, striking over and over again like a scorpion.

Chaos explodes on the screens. Jihoon holds his breath as red flashes across the screens as the tail breaches the hull of Solar Saber. A tingle settles over him, the buzz of nerves as he watches Solar Saber take a knee, ocean water surging around the jaeger as the kaiju’s tail continues to hammer the jaeger’s head open. 

Jihoon grabs the LOCCENT Controller’s chair and yanks him backward out of the way, jamming his finger against the button to speak. “Don’t let it force you under the waterline,” he barks. “Cut off that tail, Solar Saber. If it forces you down, you’re going to take on water and drown.” 

“The right panel is damaged from acid from the tail,” Jezzi yells over the comes. “Sword arm cannot engage.” 

“Then disengage, Solar Saber. Do not let it force you down another knee.” 

Yaz screams back something incomprehensible over the comms. The left arm of Solar Saber lurches, reaching for the kaiju’s tail. It catches, yanking at the appendage hard. The kaiju screams as the tail breaks where Solar Saber has it gripped. The kaiju frenzies, screaming wildly as frills - just like you’d predicted - shake to life by its head, vibrating back and forth in a threat display as its dismembered tail whips back and forth, spraying ichor. 

“Fang Striker engaging,” Chan’s voice comes over the comms.

It’s the Marshall who answers. “Fang Striker, hold the perimeter.” 

“Fuck the peremiter,” Wylie seethes. 

The Marshall turns to you and Jihoon. “We’re ready,” Jihoon says at the same time as you.

A string of curses leaves Marshall’s mouth. “Fang Striker, assist Solar Saber with the intent to disengage. Storm Breaker dropping in ten.” 

Heart hammering, Jihoon turns to follow you out of the command center, footsteps like thunder as you sprint to the jaeger bay. He doesn’t even think twice about dropping with you, any reservations about you vanishing as the fighting instinct takes over. 

You’re an entirely different person when you step onto the catwalk, your team already scrambling with pieces of your Drivesuit. There is an eerie calm about you. You meet his gaze head on as your team fits armored pieces of Drivesuit onto your arms. Jihoon sees himself reflected so clearly that he’s startled. 

“What?” you ask, sensing the bewilderment. 

“Show me what you’re made of,” he says simply. 

Your mouth curves in a wicked grin and you nod once, understanding. 

Storm Breaker is beautiful. The fondness for her sweeps over him as he steps into the cockpit. The screens come to life, casting blue and red glow all over as he steps into the Conn-pod. He sheds any reservations he has as the team helps him connect. You’re only a few feet away, stepping into the left side of the Conn-pod. 

Jihoon���s world shifts to screens and canned voices in his headset as the shield of his helmet closes. It’s Seungkwan he hears over comms saying, “Engaging pilot to pilot connection protocol sequence.” 

“Do the pilots always take over the LOCCENT Controller’s here?” you muse, just to Jihoon. 

His lips twitch. “What can I say? Seungkwan knows I’m a control freak.” 

“Engaging neural handshake in three… two… one…” 

The world around him goes mute for a moment. Jihoon’s vision flashes white for a second. He feels you then, your thoughts and feelings becoming his. They’re not overwhelming though. He feels focus and determination from you with an undercurrent of ferocity. All of your memories and other feelings are there too, but they exist in the background. You’re a seasoned pilot, Jihoon doesn’t have to worry about you chasing the rabbit and falling down a hole of memories. 

“Neural handshake holding and strong,” Seungkwan calls. “Initiating drop in three… two… one…”

Jihoon’s stomach flies into his throat as he falls away from the world. The world is nothing but freefall for a few seconds. He feels the thrill that shoots through you and smiles - he can’t help it. Bending at the knee, he braces for impact. You do the same, and the cockpit lands on the jaeger’s mainframe with a metallic clang.

“Calibrating right hemisphere,” Jihoon announces, feeling the machine start to power to life. “Calibrated.” 

You repeat on the left side, the full machine powered on and ready with both hemispheres locked in.

“Storm Breaker ready to pursue,” Jihoon says. He looks up at the screen where Fang Striker is engaging the kaiju. Outside of Storm Breaker, he might feel his heart race with panic. Solar Saber is overturned and he has no idea if the pilots are inside of it as it takes on water. “Two miles out from contact.” 

“Pursue.” 

Your first step as a team is perfect. Fluid. Jihoon knew it would be. He hates to admit that he was wrong, but he knows it is. There is a thread of satisfaction bleeding over from you as Storm Breaker charges into the ocean, water rising rapidly around the waist. 

Ocean water slams against Storm Breaker’s chest as you charge toward the fighting. Fang Striker’s comms are patched in, but Wylie and Chan are silent as they rip at the kaiju, pulling at one of its wings that it unfolded from its back. Fang Striker looks tiny against the hulking mass of the monster, but its team is doing what it does best, savaging the creature a little at a time.

“Storm Breaker half a mile out,” you announce, voice like steel. “Ready to engage.” 

“Engage at your discretion.”

“Storm Breaker,” Chan says over comms. “Try and restrain this motherfucker. We’ve got a loose plate in its armor to exploit but it keeps shaking us off.”

“Heard.” 

As if hearing Chan, the kaiju flings Fang Striker off. Fang Striker’s red body crashes into the ocean, Wylie cursing the kaiju straight to hell and about fifty other foul places. 

Storm Breaker engages, both you and Jihoon plunging into the fight. The kaiju swipes at you but you both duck together, dodging the swing as you punch hard from the left in tandem. You knock it hard, it’s head snapping to the side. As a team, you use the opening to wrap the right arm around the kaiju’s neck, squeezing it toward Storm Breaker’s chest in a headlock. 

Stabilizers and locks click into place. He grits his teeth, as though feeling the actual strength it takes as the kaiju roars and claws at Storm Breaker, trying to free itself from the headlock. Together, you put the left arm around it, adding to the force to keep the kaiju from slipping from your grip. 

Clawed blows hammer down on Storm Breaker. Neither of you gives way, tightening your grip on the creature and ignoring the way the talons scratch against the hull. Storm Breaker is built to withstand, and neither one of you flinches as furious blows rain down on you, fists hammering. 

“It looks like that kaiju is playing you like a bongo,” Wylie’s voice comes over comms. “Hey Woozi, do you feel like it’s composing one of those songs you like?”

“Oh sure,” he shoots back. “Take your time, Wylie. It’s not like it’s trying to crack us like an egg.” 

“Ugh,” you sigh. “Don’t talk about food. I didn’t eat breakfast. Hey Seungkwan, can you ask Joshua to save me some hash browns? He’s always at the cafeteria first.” 

Jihoon rolls his eyes. “You’re all insane. Any day now, Fang Striker.” 

Fang Striker appears from the sky like a creature from hell, a red streak of death as it falls. They land on the kaiju’s back, the force of the landing vibrating through Storm Breaker’s frame. The kaiju tries to twist in Storm Breaker’s arms, but you and Jihoon tighten even further. Fang Striker’s sword glints in the sunlight as it unsheathes. 

“Don’t stab us,” you say at the same exact time that Jihoon has the thought.

They almost do. Fang Striker buries the sword through the back of the kaiju, the tip of the blade peaking through its chest, almost scraping against Storm Breaker’s stomach. The monster thrashes wildly for a few minutes, clawing at Storm Breaker’s hull. Fang Striker hits the release on their sword, leaving it embedded in the kaiju’s back to stand and fire into the kaiju with plasma cannons. 

Jihoon feels the tremor of the shots land. There’s a final kick from the kaiju before it slumps, putting all of its deadweight on Storm Breaker. In unison, you and Jihoon throw the creature off of you. It lands with a crash, water surging around the creature as its weight drags it down before buoyancy pulls it back up.

Storm Breaker straightens, standing in the open water with a battered Fang Striker a couple of yards away. Panting, Jihoon looks across the Conn-pod where you’re already looking at him, shield on your helmet up as you grin at him. There is unguarded happiness there, nearly as bright as the sun that glints off Storm Breaker’s helm. 

“So,” you ask the group. “Can we get hashbrowns now?”

Jihoon realizes at that moment he doesn’t dislike you at all. 

-

“Would you slow down?” Jihoon asks, setting his tray down next to you roughly. He plops in the seat next to you, giving you a severe side eye. “You’re going to throw up the second you hit the treadmill eating that fast.”

“I want to get more bacon before they run out,” you whine. “They won’t make more once it’s gone.”

Uncovering the top of his tray, Jihoon reveals a heap of bacon slices. You oggle as he sets it between the two of you, shaking his head and scoffing. “Yeah,” he huffs. “I know. I brought more, so slow down.”

Affection for your co-pilot warms you. The affection is certainly one-sided, but you don’t mind. In the four months you’ve been co-piloting with Jihoon, he still hasn’t opened up to you.

Despite having made the drop five times together, Jihoon still brings almost nothing to the drift. You catch pieces of him, tiny snippets of memories or emotions or thoughts as you become one. You slowly use them to fit together the pieces of the Jihoon puzzle you’ve been working on every day. 

It helps that you live in such close proximity, too. Jihoon’s habits speak far more for them than his words ever could. Like the way he wakes up at the same exact time every day and tries to be asleep at the same time every night, or the way he meticulously cleans your shared living space every Sunday, or the way he starts every sparring session with the same eight-stretch sequence.

He still doesn’t talk about him in your time slotted for getting to know one another. It’s not therapy exactly, but every pilot team has designated time daily to talk things out. To work through things that are bothering them, or to talk about themselves. The more pilots know one another, the better they fight.

You know virtually nothing about Jihoon. He doesn’t talk about himself during sessions, so you talk for him. You tell him about your childhood, about piloting with your mom, about how much you miss Maya. He eventually starts asking questions. Provides responses.

“We’re on the drop schedule tomorrow,” Jihoon notes, flicking through his tablet on the table next to him. “It’s graveyard shift. Do you want me to ask Mingyu and Wonwoo to switch to the day shift?” 

“Nah, I’ll be fine.”

He gives you a critical look. “You’re awful in the mornings.” 

“Not when I’m fighting.” You snatch more bacon. “Would you rather me or Mingyu in a jaeger at two in the morning?”

“Point taken.” Both of you know the only person more miserable than you in the morning is Kim Mingyu. Jihoon nudges you with your elbow and gestures to the bacon. “Finish up. We have to workout soon.” 

“Ugh.”

He smirks. “Cardio day.”

“Ji, no.”

He ignores the nickname. “So much running.”

Now you know he’s doing it on purpose. There are few things in your training schedule that bring Jihoon joy like torturing you during scheduled workouts. He had started slating them each day, determined to harden your conditioning despite the fact that you’re already in decent shape.

Decent is a word in his vocabulary. He only expects perfection and even then, you’re pretty sure it’s unattainable. Still, you finish your breakfast and let him lead you to the gym, peppering him with whining and protests the entire way. He ignores them with a placid smile, hands linked behind his back as he walks. 

When you get to the gym, there are other pilots and workers using their free time to exercise. There’s only a single treadmill open, which Jihoon gets on easily. You start to edge your way toward yoga mats with the intention of not working out at all when he leans over to look at the time on the treadmill next to him. 

“You’ve been on it for an hour,” he grunts at some boy who looks like a cadet. “Off you go.”

The cadet scrambles off, almost forgetting to turn the treadmill off before he does. He bows in respect before shooting off like a frightened school of fish. Jihoon turns to you, grinning as he pats the machine. “For you.” 

“Thanks,” you deadpan. “Just what I’ve always wanted.” 

Jihoon’s grin only grows when you step onto the treadmill as he leans over the rail and turns it on, pressing the incline and speed buttons until you’re walking at a warm up pace. Which, for Jihoon, is a solid jog. 

As you jog, you fish out headphones from your pocket. You pop them in your ears, careful not to trip as the sound of classical fills your ears. You’ve taken to using Jihoon’s playlists, despite originally making fun of him for it. You find that it distracts you more than you thought it would, and it helps that you feel like a character in a fantasy movie running to an epic soundtrack.

You’ve adopted a lot of things that Jihoon does. It happens naturally, especially the more you drift. You find yourself putting on Mozart instead of Tchaikovsky or taking your coffee black on accident or scolding others in the training room for not being precise and perfect. 

Ghost Drifting is what some call it. You don’t think you’re quite there yet, being that Jihoon still hides half of himself away. But sometimes, even outside of the drift, you feel him in your mind like a phantom presence. 

After your workout, you go through the same day you have everyday: meditate back to back, sparring, and your talking session, which mostly consists of you both sitting next to one another looking over your drop footage and noting areas for improvement. 

Jihoon’s shoulder is pressed against yours, his eyes focused on the tablet in your hands, tracking the slowed down movement of the video. He taps the screen, pointing to the right side of the jaeger that he pilots. “I was a bit slow here.” 

“It’s not your reaction time, you’d never punch that slow. That’s the arm that took damage two fights ago against Razorbill. Let’s talk to the J-Tech team and see if there’s a delay in the receptor. It might be a split second off.” He snorts and you glance sidelong at him. “What?”

“You don’t think I’d punch slow?”

“No.” 

Jihoon raises his brows. You can feel his surprise at your seriousness to his question. He obviously expected you to turn it into a harmless jab, but you mean it when you say, “Your reaction time has been perfect for the last sixteen drops you’ve made. If there’s a delay, it’s the machinery. Not you.”

He looks away from you, nodding once. The tips of his ears are red and he mutters, “Thanks.” 

Instead of pressing the matter like you want to, you smile and hit play again, both of you focusing on the screen once more to talk through the remainder of your allotted bonding time. 

In your room, Jihoon turns on the speakers, the sound of Pas de Deux from the Nutcracker floods the room. You pause by the wardrobe where you’re shucking your boots off, gazing at Jihoon as he moves into the kitchen silently, taking out two mugs, a box of peppermint tea and a kettle. 

He doesn’t feel your eyes on him, going about making tea for the both of you. He hums along to the song - you don’t know when he became so familiar with it, his movements comfortable. Practiced. Relaxed. A swell of affection overtakes you, realizing you don’t know when he started making you tea. Or putting on Tchaikovsky for you. Or not biting at you every two seconds. 

Sensing your gaze, he turns to look at you over his shoulder. You turn away from him, busying yourself with your boots to spare him from making an excuse as to why he’s making you tea. Because you’ll know he’ll give one, provide you with some sort of excuse that it isn’t a favor or because you’re friends, but rather something like the tea bags are too large for one or I have to boil the water anyway. 

When you’re done changing for bed, he’s standing next to you, mug extended. He doesn’t look at you, instead finding interest in the cameras outside the Shatterdome. You take the mug from him and say nothing, knowing he’d rather you not thank him. 

Mug in hand, you climb carefully into the top bunk, crossing your legs as you nestle the mug next to you, pulling out your tablet to read. He gets into bed without a word, both of you existing in comfortable silence, just like Jihoon prefers. 

-

Alarms wrench you from sleep. You’re thrown forward in your bed, red flashing on the TV as the kaiju alert system wails. You wipe sleep from your face as you haul yourself over the edge of the bunk, landing next to Jihoon who is pulling off his sweats in favor of cargo pants as quickly as he can. You feel dizzy and off balance as you do the same, shoving one foot in your pants and hopping on one leg as your foot catches while trying to shove in the other.

Jihoon grabs you by the elbow, holding you steady as you shove your foot through the leg of your pants and shoot him a grateful look. He nods, letting you go to finish zipping his pants and digging around for a shirt. He can’t seem to find one, cursing under his breath as he roots around. You toss him one of yours instead, grabbing a pair of socks and throwing yourself onto his bunk to yank them on, quickly followed by shoes. 

“Fuck,” Jihoon mutters as he looks up at the screen, the red painting him in hellish light. “We’ve got a Cat-4. They’re dropping Emperor’s Mandate and Fang Striker with us.” 

“Dino and Wylie weren’t even on rotation.” 

“They’re not making the same mistake they did with Solar Saber.” He pulls out a tablet, squinting against the glow. “We're the last line of defense. Hao and Jun will take point with Fang Striker.” 

“Got it. Let’s go.”

You take off at a jog, easily keeping pace with one another as you go. There are jaeger teams moving about the building getting ready, the alarms still sounding as you navigate to the jaeger bay. Your team is already there and ready to fit you into Drivesuits, sliding each piece of armor on with practiced care. 

Jihoon catches your eyes from where he stands across from you, letting a team member slide his hand into a metal glove. His eyes are dark as the stormy sea outside, a bottomless well that you can’t seem to dive down into, but want to. His lips twitch a little and he gives you a nod, which you’ve come to understand is Jihoon for I trust you. 

Screens blink to life as you enter the Conn-Pod. Closing the front shield of your helmet, you immediately turn on open comms, listening as the Marshall and LOCCENT Controller on duty - you think it’s Nainsi - talking Minghao and Junhui through their neural handshake. 

The spine of your Drivesuit connects to the Conn-pod, your heads up display coming to life. You feel the metal whirring and clicking into place, rotating your shoulders and flexing your fingers as your jaeger team finishes connecting Jihoon to the Conn-pod before exciting and shutting the door firmly.

“Storm Breaker ready to drop,” Jihoon announces. 

“Engaging pilot to pilot connection protocol sequence,” Nainsi answers. “Engaging neural handshake in three… two… one…”

It’s like jumping off a cliff into freezing cold water. You feel the flash of cold, vision going white for a split second before you feel Jihoon’s calm flow through you. He’s steady like an icy river, his thoughts, feelings and emotions hidden down in their dark depth where they can’t bother either of you.

You’re like rapids, rushing thoughts and feelings, pouring everything through the drift at him. He takes it in stride, used to the white-capped rush of information he gets from you each time you connect. Jihoon adjusts easily, already hitting buttons on his screen as images from your day flash through your mind - including you watching him make you tea in the kitchen.

Jihoon says nothing about that. He says nothing about the gentle wave of your embarrassment either as Nainsi says, “Neural handshake strong and holding.”

Chan’s voice crackles through comms. “Fang Striker on standby for neural handshake.”

“Copy. Storm Breaker prepare for drop in three… two… one.”

Dropping feels like falling through the core of the earth. For a few moments, it’s a flightless feeling as you fall through the Shatterdome. Then you land, knees absorbing impact as the head of the jaeger falls into the neck socket, locking in.

“Calibrating right side,” Jihoon announces. “Calibrated.”

“Calibrating left side. Calibrated. Ready to engage.” 

Nainsi confirms calibration and directs, “Storm Breaker, take north point defense two miles from the shoreline. Hold that line. Fang Striker, engaging in pilot to pilot connection protocol sequence in three… two… one.” 

You tune out the rest of Fang Striker’s drop as you and Jihoon behind to charge into the bay. The windshield in front of you immediately froths with sea salt and wind, battering down on the jaeger as the night sea surges against Storm Breaker’s legs. You cut through the water like a knife, carving your way toward the defense line as the jumphawk team flies into place. 

“Five minutes until surface breach.” 

“Oh! Hi, Vernon,” you chirp. 

“Sup?”

“Would kill for a coffee right now. And like, a bagel. Or hashbrowns?” 

Vernon groans. “Mood.” 

Jihoon snorts but says nothing. Minghao’s voice comes over the comms, soft and cool. “Blue, everytime I drop with you you’re talking about food.” 

“Have you considered that Ji doesn't feed me?” 

“So it’s Ji now, huh?”

“Don’t get her started,” Jihoon grunts at Minghao’s teasing. “One mile out from the line of defense.”

Chan joins the conversation, voice chipper. “Fang Striker ready to pursue. Also, good morning everyone!” 

Everyone groans in misery collectively instead of greeting him back. Wylie’s voice cracks like a whip as she spits out, “Be nice to him.” 

Everyone greets Chan after that. Jihoon shakes his head, amused. “Fang Striker, escort Emperor’s Mandate to engage. Four minutes until surface breach.” 

Black ocean ripples outward in front of Storm Breaker as you move. You near the defense line, the city lights like a sea of stars at Storm Breaker’s back. Air support circles overhead, monitoring kaiju activity and helping with positioning. You see the spotlights glinting on the surface, waiting for a kaiju to surface. 

To the east of your position, Fang Striker and Emperor’s Mandate cut through the water. Fang Striker’s red paint is violent against the night, but her build is small next to the towering white fury of Minghao and Junhui’s jaeger. 

“Storm Breaker in position,” Jihoon calls. You both stop moving, your jaeger coming to a standstill as the water sloshes around your waist. 

“Standby, Storm Breaker. Kaiju breach in one minute.” 

“Emperor’s Mandate and Fang Striker in position. Ready to engage.” 

“Engage at your discretion.” 

Comms go silent as the strike team waits for the kaiju to appear. It’s the calm before the storm, the silence pregnant with tension. You feel a tentative brush of Jihoon’s thoughts against you. You turn and glance at him, surprised. 

Jihoon is watching you with a stormy expression, thoughtful. “You thinking about letting me in that big ass head of yours?” You tease, just in your personal comms. 

He smirks and shakes his head, breaking eye contact to look out the front of Storm Breakers cockpit. “Not a chance.” 

It’s a lie. You know it's a lie because you feel it is as sure as you feel your own glittering satisfaction that he’s thinking about it. That Jihoon is considering opening the door for you, even a fraction. 

Your satisfaction only lasts a second as the kaiju breaches the surface in front of Emperor’s Mandate and Fang Striker. You watch in strained silence as the jumphawk team begins reporting what they can about the makeup of the kaiju.

Emperor’s Mandate engages immediately, their metal saber chain shooting from the right arm and punching through the shoulder of the kaiju. An electromagnetic pulse goes down the chain and it goes taught like a sword as Junhui slices upward, attempting to sever the kaiju’s arm. 

The kaiju lands a hard punch to Emperor’s Mandate in the middle, sending them backward into the ocean as the chain-turned-sword pulls out as they fall. Fang Striker is there before the kaiju can attack again, charging and tackling the kaiju at the waist. She’s not built for heavy fighting, but Chan and Wylie are vicious, clawing at the kaiju with their metal claws. 

“Fang Striker, roll!” Minghao orders. Fang Stricker does, using the kaiju as weight to rock themselves over and under the creature, vanishing beneath the water’s surface as Emperor’s Mandate lands a punch to the kaiju’s back with a plasmacaster, turning the night blue as the sparks flare. “Push and we’ll pull.”

Salt spray mists the windshield as you and Jihoon watch in silence. The kaiju is a massive, hulking beast with spikes down its spine and a nasty club tail that catches Fang Striker in the knees, taking her down. The two jaeger teams work in flawless tandem, punching when the other ducks, tackling with the other falls. 

In a way, it’s beautiful to watch the fury of what a jaeger can do. Your lips twitch upward as the fight starts to go their way, Emperor’s Mandate severing the leg of the monster as Fang Striker pounces on it, sinking both clawed hands into its shoulder blades and tearing through its hide. 

“Storm Breaker-” Vernon’s panicked voice gets cut off as your world turns upside down. 

You feel yourself slam against the restraints of the Conn-pod connecting you to the jaeger. A surprised shriek escapes you as you flip head-over-feet in Storm Breaker, crashing into the ocean with a violent slam. A kaiju raises itself from the water, rearing its head like a cobra as it shrieks, the sound shaking the entire hull. 

“What the fuck?” Jihoon screams over comms. Storm Breaker rolls as the kaiju strikes like a snake, barely missing you as it hits empty water. “Where the fuck did that come from?”

“There was no reading!” Vernon yells back. “The signature appeared a half second before it attacked like it had some sort of stealth mode!” 

“Kaiju don’t have fucking stealth mode, Vernon!”

“Maybe it got an iOS update man, I don’t know!” 

There’s no time to care about why or how a kaiju isn’t appearing on the reporting team’s screen. Whatever level it is, it’s fast. You and Jihoon get to your feet just as it strikes again, fangs striking at the windshield. It doesn’t crack, but the sound of kaiju bone against the glass isn’t promising.

Storm Breaker stumbles back a few steps before regaining footing. You both strike with your right fist, slamming into the neck area of the beast as it winds up to strike again. It looks like a massive cobra, coils and coils of kaiju body gathering each time it tries. 

A shudder vibrates through the jaeger as the punch lands, sending the kaiju back several hundred yards. You don’t give it a moment to recover, both of you charging as you equip short swords perfect for close-combat fighting and slicing. 

“I think it’s too fast to pick up a reading,” you shout over comms. “It moves so quickly!”

Fighting is a careful rhythm. You and Jihoon find it immediately, tuning out the sound of the other fight as you zero in on your target. It doesn’t matter that the kaiju took you by surprise, it doesn’t matter that Jihoon still hasn’t let you in, it doesn’t matter that somewhere, you have other friends in just as much danger.

What matters is this. The feeling of rage that flows from Jihoon - or maybe it’s you - as you both savagely plunge a sword in the serpent body of your enemy. What matters is the way you and Jihoon flow, two rivers with the same curves and dips, sliding around the kaiju as you strike again, spraying ichor into the sea. 

Storm Breaker’s sword extends from the right arm, reflecting the city lights briefly before you cut sideways. The blade slides clean through like a knife through paper. You and Jihoon both scream savagely in unison as the head flies separate from the body, sailing in the air for a moment before crashing into the surface as blood spurts from the main body. 

It flails for a moment longer before crashing under ocean froth and water. Victory surges through you and you look across the Conn-pod where Jihoon is grinning at you, stars in his eyes. You feel a moment of elation, laughter bubbling to your lips as Nainsi recalls you to the Dome, Emperor’s Mandate and Fang Striker standing victorious.

“That’s kill number six?” Jihoon asks, voice delighted. “We’re on a fucking roll.” 

“I guess I’m not so bad a co-pilot after all, right?” He rolls his eyes but you get the feeling the tips of his ears have turned red. “Come on, Ji. Tell me I’m a good co-pilot.”

“No way.”

“Come onnnn.”

He levels a look at you, dark eyes churning. He licks his lips, opening and closing his mouth before he finally murmurs, “Can I show you instead?” 

The left foot of Storm Breaker is yanked from under you. You go down screaming, feeling the impact of the seafloor as you go down in the shallows hard. Pain shoots up your left arm as you slam against the restraints keeping you attached to the Conn-pod. Lights flash in your heads up display and a sensor starts going off, the left arm of the jaeger going dead as it loses connection. 

Jihoon is screaming your name over comms as you grit your teeth, and gather your bearings. You suck in a sharp breath as you both scramble to get Storm Breaker on her feet. “Left arms gone cold,” Jihoon yells over comms. You manage to get Storm Breaker to her feet as you both throw out your right arm, bracing for impact as the kaiju’s head strikes again. “It grew back two fucking heads!” 

“Fang Striker pursuing!” It’s Chan voice over the comms. “Three miles out from contact.” 

One of the heads strikes at the helm again, knocking into Storm Breaker hard. Your world rocks as you shove with the full force of the right side of the jaeger, thrusters turning on as you launch the kaiju and its twin heads backward. 

“How the fuck do we kill this thing?” you screech, charging toward the creature as it slides through the water, coiling to strike again. “If we cut off its head again, it’s just going to grow another.”

“Stab it through the head? I don’t fucking know!”

Snatches of panic and anger and concern seize you for a split second, it feels like your own but you realize it’s not, Jihoon’s feelings bleeding into you like a fresh wound as you strike at the kaiju again. Its tail loops around the left leg again and Jihoon’s worry spikes, so raw and unfamiliar that when he lifts his foot, you don’t lift yours. 

Storm Breaker stalls, filled with mechanic screeching as the two of you clash in the drift in a moment of indecision. A storm of emotions batters down on you. Your lungs squeeze as you feel yourself torn away from the fight and into Jihoon’s memories, each one flitting by so fast you can barely resonate with them. 

A little boy bullied by bigger kids. A woman being torn out of a home screaming in the hand of a kaiju. The sound of Mozart drowning out the screams of destruction. Young Jihoon crying in his room alone, nursing bruised ribs and knees. Teenage Jihoon fighting back. A man named Haneul that has seen all of Jihoon’s scars. 

“... out of alignment!” 

Words crash through you as you feel a tremor go through Storm Breaker. Jihoon’s thoughts are like a hurricane tearing at your foundation. 

Hatred when he meets you for the first time. Pride when he makes his first successful drop. Grief when Haneul retired. Resentment when he’s reassigned to a new pilot. 

Jihoon screams your name but you are drowning in him. Jihoon’s emotional dam has broken and years worth of who he is comes out in a torrent.

Jihoon joins the pilot program because he wants to get away from the home. The smell of books and oil lanterns. Greasy fingers and fumes. A blue mat rushing up to meet him as he falls. 

“Emperor’s Mandate two miles out. Preparing to engage!” 

Bitter coffee. Celebrating Haneul’s birthday. The sting of Chan biting him mid spar. Pretending he didn’t hate his childhood. Hiding the scared little boy behind a controlled exterior. 

“She’s chasing the rabbit!” 

Chasing the rabbit. You hear the word and vaguely realize you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of Jihoon’s memories and emotions, completely unused to them in a space where you’re connected intimately. You try to gather your bearings, shutting down the images flashing across your mind that don’t belong to you as Storm Breaker gets rocked again. 

“Shit,” Jihoon swears. “Blue, come on. Come back to me. I’m sorry. Don’t chase my memories!”

A kite against a blue sky. Two paper boats on a lake. Your smile as you hang upside down off the bunk bed. Soonyoung giving Jihoon a birthday cake. Wylie in a hospital bed. Jeonghan and Joshua accepting pilots of the year. 

“I’m sorry,” Jihoon whispers, both in your mind and outloud. “Come back.”

You can do this. You can withstand the storm of Jihoon’s consciousness. You shake him out of your head, sorting out your thoughts and his. It’s nearly impossible to understand where you end and he begins, but you manage to hold back the wake of his uncontrolled consciousness.

Blinking, you come back to the present. There are lights and warnings going off as Storm Breaker takes another strike from the kaiju. Fang Striker is taking on its other head, the kaiju splitting focus between two jaeger teams as it tries to split open the top of your jaeger. Wylie and Chan are yelling in comms and Emperor’s Mandate is in pursuit to help you disengage. 

The left arm of your jaeger is still cold, totally disconnected from the rest of the machinery. You run through a list of fighting options with one arm down. The right side of the jaeger is fitted with a sword, explosive and a plasma caster in the first of the hand. But the jaeger overall- 

“Light it up,” you tell Jihoon. His relief crashing into you like a tidal wave. He understands what you want to do immediately. You feel his agreement rather than see it as you both start to tap controls on your control panels. “Fang Striker, prepare for lighting strike!” 

“Fry this motherfucker!” Wylie screams. “I fucking hate snakes!”

The nuclear reactor at the core of your jaeger starts to charge. From the top down, your jaeger begins to power down, lights flickering out and screens going dead. Your heart hammers as the kaiju slams into the head of the jaeger over and over again, trying to crack the helm wide open. Storm Breaker takes the savage blows as all but the nuclear core shuts off.

A low hum begins to sound at the heart of the machine. You feel the vibration tingle in your spine as all of the energy flow focuses in the center of the jaeger, slowly charging and pulling electricity from everywhere else. It’s a slow process, the kaiju beating down on you as the core winds up. 

“Fuck,” Jihoon swears at a particularly harsh strike. “This fucking bitch!”

“We’ve got it,” you tell him. You look across the Conn-pod at him, his face pale behind the shield of his helmet. “She’s not going to break, Ji.” 

You feel your words resonate in him. His affection is startling. He hides nothing from you now, every thought he’s ever had of you, every moment his eyes lingered on you too, every second he realized he didn’t dislike you at all - it’s all there for you to see. His soul laid bare. 

“She’s ready!” Your smile is like the sun. “Light her up!” 

Jihoon hits a button on his panel and the air turns to static. A ripple of energy passes through you, only lasting a split second before a bolt of white lightning explodes from the center of the jaeger. The world turns white, forcing you to shield your eyes as you hear the crack of deafening thunder. 

Ears ringing, you lower your hand as the light fades, blue sparks of electricity zapping across the ocean in a mile-wide radius. Smoking, the kaiju falls backwards, ocean spraying up on either side as it hits the surface of the sea. You can barely hear Fang Striker over the sound of the high-pitched whine in your ears.

You wait, but the kaiju doesn’t rise again. The jumphawk team circles above, waiting for another kaiju signature, but none comes. 

Sagging in your Conn-pod, you glance over at Jihoon. “Does that count as one or two kills? I’m so fucking over monster fighting today. I want a goddamn grilled cheese.”

-

Jihoon is a wreck. Not only does he visibly hover near your medical bed as the attending medic tends to your arm, ensuring it’s not broken, but you can still feel him like he’s attached to you in the drift. His concern is touching, but there’s also anger there. Not at you but at himself, boiling under the surface of his newfound worry. 

“So she’ll be okay?” he clarifies again, looking at the doctor with a hard stare. The man tending to your arm looks nervous under the sharp gaze of a jaeger pilot. “You’re sure it’s not broken? It better not be broken.”

“Jihoon,” you say gently. He crosses his arms over his chest, not taking his eyes off the doctor as he stares him down. “I’m fine. It’s just some bruising.”

“Just some bruising. Your arm practically fell off.”

“It did not. Let the doctor finish, Ji.”

He softens, turning to sit on an empty cot as he sulks. You watch him with muted amusement. His bottom lip juts out slightly, put out by you not letting him baby you. Cute, you think. 

Thankfully, the arm isn’t damaged. You’d bruised it pretty severely when Storm Breaker went down and you slammed against your restraints, but otherwise you’re unharmed. Some pain meds, ice and rest should do the trick, so you and Jihoon leave the medical bay with the doctor’s advice in hand and Jihoon muttering under his breath.

Back in your room, Jihoon sits you on his bottom bunk to examine the arm himself, holding you carefully as though he can break you at any moment. You let him have this, watching as his eyebrows crease and mouth twists while he rotates your arm delicately.

He has pretty hands. You’ve always thought so, but now you watch his slender fingers brush over your sore arm with care, feeling a shiver threaten the base of your spine. 

“You should ask for a reassignment.” Jihoon’s words land like a brick. You look up at him, eyes flashing with confusion. “I nearly killed you today. It was unprofessional and shameful as your co-pilot to knock you out of alignment like that. You don’t deserve that.”

“It happens, Jihoon. Fighting in a jaeger isn’t always perfect.”

“Well I am. And today I wasn’t. Request a new pilot, the Marshall will understand. People don’t last with me, it’ll be no risk to you.”

“I’m not requesting a new pilot. You’re who I want to drift with.”

He starts to pace. “Why? I’m obviously still that scared little boy who used to hide in his room alone.” 

Even without having felt his emotions in the drift, Jihoon makes so much more sense to you now. You reach out to him, taking him by the arms to stop his pacing. He won’t look at you, averting his eyes elsewhere. Your heart squeezes knowing that the reason Jihoon kept you out is because he didn’t want you to see who he was before he was the controlled, perfect jaeger pilot. 

“You’re not, Jihoon.” You squeeze his arm to emphasize your words. “But even if you were, I trust that little boy too. He was empathetic and kind.” Jihoon glances at you, unsure. “Don’t run away from me now that you’ve let me in. I’ve seen you and I still want you. Unless you don’t want me.”

“Of course I do.”

“It’s hard to tell with you, you know?”

His gaze drops down to your mouth. “I’ll show you, then.” 

Without another word, Jihoon grabs you by the waist and pulls you to him fully. Your arms slip around his neck, holding onto him for balance as he crashes his mouth to yours. His lips are warm and soft in contrast to the ferocity he kisses you with, fingers digging into your hips, mouth hungry. 

You meet him with equal fervor, fingers tangling in the long hair at the nape of his neck. He grunts when your nails scratch against his scalp, biting into your lower lip. He presses his tongue to the seam of your mouth and you let him in, sighing as his tongue brushes against yours, eager to taste you.

Kissing Jihoon is like standing in the eye of a storm. He’s brutal and calm, sharp and soft. His heart beats against yours, his chest heaving when he pulls away from your mouth to press wet kisses to the shape of your jaw and down your throat.

One of Jihoon’s hands slides up your back, fingers dancing along your spine until he reaches the base of your neck. He grabs you firmly, pulling your head back to give him better access to the softness of your throat. You let out a breathy sound and he groans low in his throat. 

“Don’t make that sound,” he whispers, biting your neck gently and chasing the sting with his tongue. “I’ll fucking crumble.” 

“So crumble.” 

“Fuck.”

Jihoon starts pushing you backward, your steps a tangle of feet. It might be the most uncoordinated the two of you have ever been, caught up in the heat of each other’s mouths as he kisses you feverishly again. It’s messy and spit-slicked, making you light headed. Your knees hit his bottom bunk and you crash backward, Jihoon on top of you. 

Your hands seek the warmth of his skin, sliding under the hem of his shirt over his flexing stomach to his firm chest. He lets you rake your nails across him as he settles on top of you, his hands planted on either side of your head and a knee slotted between your legs. 

Having him this close is everything. Months of not being able to have him entirely or the way you want has made you ravenous for him. You pull at his shirt, nipping at his lip and whining. He laughs darkly, leaning up from you to grab the back of his shirt and pull it up over his head. 

He lets you do what you want, content to let you run your fingers over the ridges of his stomach, the narrow shape of his waist, the firmness of his chest. He dives back down to attach his mouth to your collarbone, pulling the neckline of your shirt out of the way for access.

“Just take it off,” you complain, shivering as he continues his assault.

“Mmmf - difficult.”

This is not the composed Jihoon you’re used to. This is the raw, unedited version of him you’ve been begging to see. This is the storm letting loose because he knows you can take it - want to take it.

Jihoon does get tired of your shirt, growling as he grabs it firmly and tears it up and over your head. You laugh as he does, loving the way he scowls and presses you back down, biting your jaw as he does. He palms your tits over your bra, pinching your nipples through the fabric. You squeal and arch into him, head pressing into the mattress.

“Don’t laugh at me,” he huffs, mouth trailing butterfly-soft kisses toward your chest. 

“Sensitive?” you jest, dropping a hand between your bodies to press against the front of his pants. He hisses, hips twitching as you press against his cock. You grin wickedly as he pants raggedly against your skin, letting you squeeze him. “Yeah, you are.” 

Jihoon drags his knee up the bed, pressing between your legs. A bolt of pleasure surges through you and you whimper, making him smirk against your chest. “What was that?” 

“Nothing.”

He drops a hand down to your waist, squeezing. “Didn’t sound like nothing. Come on,” he urges. “You know you want to.” 

So you do. You roll your hips forward, pressing your clothed cunt against his thigh. The layers of clothes block too much of the sensation and you press harder, desperate for stimulation. A whine drips from your mouth as you grow frustrated. You feel the curve of Jihoon’s smile against the curve of your left breast as he places a wet kiss there. 

“Having a hard time?”

“Jihoon.”

One hand stays fixed on your hips, urging you to continue to grind into him despite it not being enough. The other slides up your front, his fingers light as feathers. He hooks a finger in the cup of your bra and pulls downward. He drags his mouth downward, giving your nipple a playful flick with his tongue. 

“Jihoon.” 

He hums thoughtfully, circling your pert bud with his tongue. A tremor goes through you and you squeeze your eyes shut. He closes his mouth on you and sucks gently, making you gasp. You continue to roll your hips into him as he scrapes his teeth against you gently. 

Cool air hits your spit-slicked chest as he kisses sloppily over to your other breast, repeating his ministrations. It feels so good you feel like you’re going to lose your mind. His skin is hot against yours and you’re desperate to feel more of him, hands pulling at his shoulders as he sucks wet marks into your chest. 

“More,” you whisper. “God, please more.” 

He knows what you mean when you say more because of course he does. He rids you of your bra entirely, throwing it somewhere else in the room. He works the buttons on your pants next, deft fingers moving quickly before tugging them down your thighs. He lets you pull his cargos down and throw them, but it’s as far as you get before he’s lavishing attention to your tits again. 

“Try now,” he pants. 

His knee is pressed right against the apex of your thighs. You don’t care that he can feel the damp cloth against his skin. You slow grind on his knee, feeling the pressure infinitely better with just a thin layer of underwear between you. A sigh of relief escapes you and he grunts, pleased as you keep going, thighs shaking. 

You could drown in him and not care. He smells like spearmint and soap, his hair soft as silk as it slides between your fingers. He gives a sound of approval everytime you card your hands through his hair, especially when he gives you a sharp bite and you tug. 

A tingle settles in the depth of your stomach. You feel like you could almost come this way, getting off with just his leg between your thighs and his mouth sucking greedily at your tits. You feel yourself tighten, hips pressing further but it’s not quite enough.

He reads you like a book. Jihoon slides his knee back and replaces it with his hand, fingers delicately pressing against your clit. It makes you see stars, going rigid in his grasp as he gently circles it a few times before dragging his fingers back down to press at your core through your underwear. 

“So god damn wet,” he lets go of your nipple with a pop. He hooks a finger through your underwear and pulls them to the side, his knuckles brushing your sticky folds. “So pretty for me.” 

His compliment makes you shy. You hide your face behind your hands and he laughs darkly, letting you. He’s already seen all of you in the drift, but this is different. More personal. Real. 

The press of a finger into your cunt is slow and maddening. You immediately want more, desperate for it. He doesn’t give it to you right away, taking his time as he busies his mouth with your chest and neck, content to finger fuck you at a leisurely pace. 

When he hooks his finger and presses right into that soft spot, you seize up. He grins, finding exactly what he was looking for. His mouth catches yours again, a tangle of tongue and teeth as he presses another finger in. You squirm against the mattresses, pinned under his weight. The heel of his hand presses into your clit, adding pressure as he strokes your front walls rhythmically. 

You’re greedy for him. You suck his tongue into your mouth and he moans, letting you do what you want. The wet squelch of his hand between your legs only spurs you on, his name dripping from your lips in a whine as you cling to him, feeling the start of your orgasm.

Jihoon knows it’s coming. His pace is more intent and he shuffles up the bed to get a better angle. Your toes curl and you writhe against the sheets, feeling the way they stick to your balmy skin as he works you closer and closer to an orgasm. 

He presses a soft kiss under your ear, chaste compared to the mess he makes of your cunt. “Come on,” his voice is husky and gentle. “Let go for me.”

It’s his for me that sends you over the edge. Your legs squeeze around his hand but he keeps at it, pressing tender kisses to your collarbones as you twitch under his touch. Your orgasm starts to wane and turn into overstimulation, your panting turning into whimpering, nails digging into the back of his neck, unsure if you’re trying to push him away or keep him there.

Jihoon retracts his hand slowly. You feel the way you drip down the curve of your ass as you pant, staring up at the bottom of your bunk trying to gulp down air. He nudges his nose against your jaw, bringing your attention back to the present as his dark eyes look up at you.

Your voice comes out rough from use. “Want you.”

The corner of his mouth lifts and he nods, lifting himself off you to let you peel your underwear the rest of the way down as he works his briefs down his thighs. You let out a squeak when you look up to see him using the cum on his fingers to stroke himself, head tilted back a little, eyes heavy. 

“What?” he murmurs, dropping his gaze down to you. His eyes are fucked out just from getting you off and it drives you insane, this visual of him blotchy with warmth, hair sticking to his forehead.

“You’re so hot,” you blurt and he pauses, raising a brow at you. “Don’t stop.” 

“You like when I touch myself in front of you?” You nod, chewing on your lip as you stare. He grins and starts stroking himself slowly again, squeezing his flushed tip as he does, beads of precum dripping over the edge. “I’ll give you a show later. If I don’t fuck you in the next five minutes I will nut in my hand.” 

“I mean, I wouldn’t hate it.” 

“Oh? You want me to cum in my hand instead of that pretty pussy?” You purse your lips, staring back at him with a pout. “Didn’t think so.” He laughs and shuffles on his knees toward you, shaking his head and groaning when your legs fall open automatically for him, revealing the mess he’s made. “Can’t believe I made myself wait for this.” 

“How stupid of you.”

Your stomach flutters when Jihoon lowers himself, cockhead pressing at your entrance. You ache for him - in more ways than one. Jihoon feels it too, hanging his head and letting his hair cascade around his face like a silvery halo as he slowly presses in. 

His name falls from your mouth as you gasp, feeling the pressure of him as he sinks into your cunt slowly. You feel full and overwhelmed and perfect all at once, a myriad of feelings peppering your senses until he’s fully sheathed to the hilt. 

Jihoon’s breathing is ragged for a moment as you clench around him, throbbing. He sucks in air sharply between his teeth, one hand going to your hip to press you into the mattress while the other lands next to your head, bearing his weight. 

“Thank you for waiting for me.” You almost don’t hear him when he says it, his voice so soft. “When you didn’t have to.”

Your arms loop around his neck, pulling him closer. His nose brushes against yours and you feel your adoration for him grow. “Of course I did. You were meant for me.” 

Prompted by your words, he nods and pulls his hips back slowly. The glide is easy with how wet you are. He thrusts back in with a hard snap, stealing your breath. The ability to string together coherent words vanishes as Jihoon sets a punctuated space. 

“Fuck,” you whisper. 

Fuck is right. Jihoon angles his hips perfectly, kissing your spot with each thrust with a deadly precision you’ve only seen in battle. Of course he fucks like he fights with absolute accuracy, driving you right toward an orgasm within a few minutes. Your fingers tangle in your hair, mouth pressed against his forehead where it rests against you. 

His hand slides from your hips to your thigh, slipping under it and hiking it upward. It deepens the angle and you let out a loud sound, unable to catch your breath as sparks fly behind your eyelids.

“Holy shit, like that.” You’re a mess under him and he knows it, driving his hips faster as you continue to fall apart. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck.”

“Yeah?” he asks, almost taunting. “Gonna come like this?”

“Yes, please don’t stop.”

And he doesn’t. He keeps going, driving you to the edge until you’re coming around him with enough force to knock heads with him. He mumbles something that sound like ouch but you’re too far gone, squeezing the fucking life out of him as you come before going boneless. 

Jihoon pulls out and flips you, your world spinning as you land face first in his pillows. They smell like him and you love it, sliding your hands up to grip at the pillows as he drags your knees up, ass toward him. Sweat slicks your back and you try to take in a few ragged breaths, turning your head to the side to watch him sidelong. 

His dark eyes dip to your ass and he curses, shifting backward so that he can lean down, hands prying your thighs apart to make way for his tongue as it slides up your pussy. 

“Oh shit,” you wheeze. 

He practically purrs against you, tongue licking slowly back and forth. The grip on his pillows tightens, one of your hands shooting back to grab his hair, holding him to you. He laughs, the vibration going straight through you as he sucks your clit into his mouth, tongue flicking over it. 

“I love when you pull my hair,” he admits, panting as he takes a breath. 

His tongue dives back in, pressing against your clenching hole. It is maddening the way he works you with his mouth. You feel like you’re coasting to another high. He knows exactly what to do, knows when to slow down, knows when to speed up. Jihoon has had access to you for months and it shows, navigating your body like it’s second nature to him.

“I’m gonna come again.” It comes out as a whine, fingers twisting in his locks. “Shit.”

“So come again.” 

You do. It’s not as hard as the first one but it’s just as good, your orgasm shivering through you. Warmth floods you and you bite into his pillow, muting the loud sound that spills from your lips. 

Jihoon doesn’t give you a second to recover before he’s up on his knees and pushing back into you. His hand cracks across your ass and you let out a startled yelp, earning laughter from both of you. Spent and delirious, your hand finds purchase on his wrist, holding on to him as he fucks you fast and hard. 

He lets go of where he holds your hip to lace your fingers instead, pressing your linked fingers against the curve of your ass as he drills his hips forward. Somehow the hand holding is more intimate, your throat screwing shut as Jihoon chases after his own high.

With a muted murmur of your name, he comes. His thrusts turn messy, each press of his hips against your ass met with a wet sound. You don’t even care about the slick running down your legs, absolutely spent and sweaty and tired and a little in love with the man behind you.

Slowly, he lets go of your hand. You drop your arm to the mattress, suddenly aware of the ache in your shoulder at the angle. Instead of pulling out, Jihoon leans forward, pressing his sweaty chest to your back, mouth brushing softly against your shoulders. 

“Thank you.” 

You’re so close to sleep that you barely register what he’s saying. “For what?”

“Withstanding the storm,” he laughs. “Withstanding me and waiting me out.”

“You’re worth it.”

“I hope so. I want to be.” 

With care, he detangles himself from you. You make a pitiful sound and he tuts at you, rolling you over on your back so that he can see your face. His eyes swim with more affection than you’ve ever seen, kick starting your heart. You lift a hand and tuck his bangs behind his ear, fingers lingering to brush across his cheek.

“So I’m kind of like your Storm Breaker, right?” 

He groans. “Don’t start.”

“What? You literally just said I withstood the storm or whatever.” 

“Come on, we’re showering.” 

“No way, I am not moving right now.”

“You are not sleeping covered in cum.”

“Ji,” you whine. 

He grins and kisses your head, getting out of bed. “Come on then, storm breaker. Withstand me a little more.” 

-

Also in this Universe: Cherry Bomb by @daechwitatamic

-

TAG LIST:

@ourkivee @tie-nn @cookiearmy @thesunsfullmoon @stray-bi-kids

@ldysmfrst @thepoopdokyeomtouched @avochele @kwonshiho

*If you requested a tag but don't see it here, it did not let me tag you!

[ross-hollander]

The unofficial guide to...

...naming your mercenary company:

You are not a "Legion" unless your actual fighting force is somewhere between one and five thousand, support staff not included.

Similarly, avoid numbered groups. Units listed as the "Dirty Dozen" or "Forty Thieves" may be called upon for a head-count to ensure that they are not guilty of false advertising.

You are not the [Adjective] Wolves, [Proper Noun/Noun's] Wolves, or in general anything related to canis lupus as a whole. There is a queue and until the last generation of units to take those names cycles out, nobody else can get anything wolf-related.

Always try to keep military-related names vague. Do not go with "Sappers" because that is very well-defined and clear. "Grenadiers", on the other hand, is harder to precisely pin down.

Intimidating names look great on the lists, but please note that "Executioners", "Butchers" or "Tyrants" tend to draw more fire than "Free Corps" or "Rangers".

At the same time, please note: the self-effacing, bashful-type names like "The Not Dead Yets" or "Better Than Nothing" are not as funny as you think they are.

No stealing names from mercenary units of better repute. "Stealing" here constitutes any name which, pronounced in casual speech, would be indistinguishable from the original, as in Erry-Danny Light Horse or North Wind Hylanders.

No names with words or slang considered profane on more than two planets. (Exceptions permitted for words used in an inoffensive sense, to the relief of the Slag Makers.)

No trolling search algorithms. Names along the lines of "Best Budget Mercenary Forces Security Solutions Security Manpower PMC" are disallowed.

[zhongrin]

a hybrid’s instincts

◇ characters ◇ zhongli, gorou, tighnari, (bonus) platonic!diona

◇ tags ◇ pregnancy, afab!reader, dragon!zhongli

◇ a/n ◇ what's that? will i ever stop pushing the dragon!zhongli agenda? hahahahahahahhahahhaha hhahaha ha ha- no.

𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡 ⬙ 𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡

oh? what's this? it seems like your pregnancy triggered something in these men. their more… "animal side", perhaps?

ever since baizhu’s confirmation - actually, even weeks before that - zhongli has been very reluctant to let you wander out of the house. or even out of his sight, in general (which is quite strange since with his enhanced dragon senses you know he’s able to locate you within the house with no problems at all).

at night, you sometimes wake up to him in his dragon form. sometimes it’s his compact form nuzzling and he's purring near your stomach, sometimes it’s his half-dragon form where he’ll place his head beside your stomach with his tail curling around you protectively. it doesn’t matter whether you’re already showing or not; your heartbeat and the little hatchling’s brings him a sense of comfort that he needs, lest he becomes restless.

his nesting behavior is out of control. he’ll bring you all the pillows and blankets, surround you with the nicest smelling flowers, make you always wear his shirt, and he’ll bring anything you want to the bed so you don’t have to leave the nest. the further you are into your pregnancy, the more reluctant he is to leave you alone. he ends up taking that paternal leave hu tao has been telling him to get. bless her.

gorou is just as excited as he’s alerted. kokomi will have to force her best general to take a temporary leave from the army throughout your pregnancy because he’s so jumpy and sensitive to literally everything and his behavior is making all of the soldiers anxious.

gorou insists that you take a walk with him every day; just something light around the block to keep you from feeling lethargic. he’s also developed a habit to sniff everything that will touch your hand. yes, that includes your supposedly harmless change of clothes. it’s not ridiculous in his opinion! it’s a necessary precaution!!

will snarl when a stranger approaches you and tries to touch you in any way, even if it’s just a friendly gesture. he would be so embarrassed and apologetic about it afterward, but only once you’re at the safe haven of your house.

are you a forest ranger? an adventurer? does your profession require you to venture into the wilderness? welp, say goodbye to your job for the time being, because there is no way in any cycles of samsara tighnari would let you go into the dangers outside while you’re carrying his pups.

walking arm-in-arm whenever you're out and about is a must these days. whenever a villager congratulates you, you can sense his hold tightening despite the polite smile on his lips. if it was up to his instinct, he wouldn’t have let you get out of the house, but rationally he knows you need to move around and breathe in the fresh air.

though you still won’t be exempt from your beloved’s sassiness (”you want me to get you coffee…? do you think i’m an idiot?”) as long as what you ask for doesn’t harm you, he’s at your every beck and calls now, no question asked. you’re craving for collei’s specialized pita pockets? he’ll learn the damn recipe from collei herself and serve it on your favorite plate the next day. you want to be carried everywhere? good thing he’s got the physique fitting for the head of the forest rangers. you want ten kisses a day? say no more; he’ll give you thirty.

[bonus - platonic]

at first, diona seems super indifferent about it, only reacting with a ‘hmph… congrats, i guess’, but her actions speak louder than words. you know how cats tend to hover around pregnant women and even lay themselves near their bulging bellies? that's right.

no, you will not be having alcohol. no, your spouse will not be having alcohol. no, all the people within five hundred meters radius from you will not be having any single drop of alcohol. she won't allow those boozehounds to get close to you.

she’s so amazed at how your stomach keeps growing bigger every time you visit her. when you give her your permission, she’ll curiously poke and stare at your bump. her hand will gently pat your tummy as she unconsciously smiles. she starts to seek you out more often after that, telling you that she’s just there in case you need help, but you know she’s just worried about you. she would be such a good big sister to your baby!

© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ no repost. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

◇ taglist ◇ @thestarsofenkanomiya | @genshinparty | @abyssmal-skies | @hamdehlesmis | @depressivecomforts | @sophiethewitch1 | @why-am-i-here-someone-save-me | @sunnshineflxwer | @heartonthemoon | @yuutasbabe | @percyval-archives | @carbs-need-more-love | @rebeccka | @queen-belial | @stygianoir | @niverine | @silentmoths | @niktwazny303 | @dustofthedailylife | @herdrops | @clovcly | @marina-and-the-memes | @angryhope | @mixed-kester | @shuangxo | @fiannee | @lordbugs | @anonymousficreader | @shizunxie | @ladylofspades

[denial-permanente]

On the internet I found so many different pieces of advice on how to clean up penetrative toys after use.. from soap to specific products to boiling water. Do you have any definitive method you'd say is simple and works best?

🔏 I wash our Vixskin Ranger X with hot water and anti-bacterial soap before and after, and let it air dry wrapped loosely in a white cotton towel. And periodically I pour boiling water over it, or run it through a dishwashing cycle.

It's not very difficult, and I can't imagine any other way.

[felassan]

New BioWare Blog post:

"Journal #6 Lethality and Levelling An inside look into Rook’s Warrior combat Hello everyone, Since our summer reveal in June, we’ve been reading all the great excitement for the game and listening closely to what you’d like to see next. Our reveal trailer showed off the prologue and very beginning of the game, and now we want to shift our focus to higher level combat. Today, we’re going to cover our game’s combat system, looking at how Rook and Companions can be built up to meet the perils facing Thedas, using deep RPG systems. This starts with choosing a desired class as there are three main classes to select from when creating Rook: stalwart Warrior, deft Rogue, or spell-slinging Mage. This blog and accompanying videos will focus on the Warrior class, and we’ll have more to share on the other classes before launch."

"PREPARE FOR BATTLE By choosing Warrior, the fighting style revolves around close range combat and defense. Skills, Traits, Runes, and Abilities are customizable to best suit that type of playstyle. The loadout will have slots for Abilities, accessed from the Ability Wheel. Picking which Abilities from the many in the arsenal to bring into battle is a strategic choice made for each encounter, and they can be swapped out anytime, except during combat. For some added depth, there are up to three equipable Runes. Runes provide a variety of control, utility, or additional damage to synergize with your build. While in combat, all three Runes can be cycled through and activated. There are a wide range of potential Abilities that are unique to each Class and can be customized by spending Skill Points. For example, the Warrior class will have certain abilities that deal fire damage. Players can plan their build around this, and each skill point spent could be in pursuit of this build. Each step taken is designed to augment Rook and/or Abilities. Eventually, Rook will gain access to Specializations, which grant powerful Abilities, unique to each Specialization. These Specializations will also provide a unique Ultimate Ability (more on that later below) tuned to the theme of that Specialization, so a Warrior specializing as a Grey Warden Champion will gain access to the devastating incendiary Warden’s Fire that launches a flurry of searing strikes that ignite foes like tinder. This is the best Specialization Area for defeating darkspawn, an enemy that many Dragon Age fans know well. Check out all the Specialization Areas below (minor gameplay spoilers) and we’ll have a separate spotlight on progression later as well."

"Warrior Rook Specialization Areas: Reaper - Become night's blade. Steal life and risk death to gain incredible, unnatural abilities Slayer - Leap into the fray. Wield massive, punishing weapons while rushing enemies to deal devastating blows. Champion - Be the shield. Shrug off damage while summoning righteous fire down on enemies. Rogue Rook Specialization Areas: Duelist - Draw your steel. Parry and dodge past enemies to gain strength with every strike. Saboteur - Set the stage. Deploy explosives and turrets that devastate enemies, then pick them off with arrows. Veil Ranger - Hunt the enemy. Snipe enemies from afar using artifacts that charge arrows with dangerous, powerful magic. Mage Rook Specialization Areas: Death Caller - Embrace the dark. Drain life from enemies and cast spells that writhe with the essence of death itself Evoker - Call the void. Freeze enemies in their tracks, then summon the deepest cold to tear them apart. Spellblade - Be the storm. Channel potent spells for close-quarters combat infused with lightning's wrath."

COMBAT BASICS Now let’s talk about the foundations of the combat system. The four core moves that all three classes share include jump, dodge, light attack, and heavy attack, which can all be chained together. Rook can dodge at any time, even mid-attack, which adds fluidity to the combat. Is taking damage or dealing it better at that moment? Light attacks do quick damage and build small amounts of stagger; heavier attacks are slower and build more stagger to your opponent. Once enough stagger is built, the enemy will be rendered more vulnerable to all incoming damage and allows Rook to perform a takedown.  Each of these attacks (light and heavy) can be charged by holding down the button to deliver a more potent version of the strike. For example, a heavy attack can be charged while using a staff to unleash a magical wave of destructive energy. Attacks can also be triggered while sprinting and/or jumping to add depth and fluidity to combat. In addition, each class has ranged attacks, blocks (or parries, if timed properly with the right weapon set), and the ability to control Companions’ combat strategy. Each Class also has two distinct weapon sets, which can be swapped seamlessly in the heat of battle. This drastically changes the available move-sets and strategies. Heavy attacks remove Armor Barrier (denoted by a yellow bar) faster, and ranged attacks remove Shield Barrier (denoted by a blue bar) faster. There is also the Stagger meter (denoted by a lavender bar) which builds as hits are landed against an enemy. Stagger creates opportunities for bonus damage and special Takedowns.  The Ability Wheel pauses the fight for more precise control over Rook’s own abilities and those of their Companions, and where those tactical RPG elements come into play. Players can use the Ability Wheel to assign Companions to attack specific enemies, individually or together. Abilities can also be bound shortcut keys to keep the action flow going, instead of always bringing up the Ability Wheel. Vulnerabilities and resistances of enemies can also be seen while targeting enemies in the Ability Wheel. For example, Darkspawn are weak to fire damage."

"BUFFS, DEBUFFS & CROWD CONTROL Some Abilities apply buffs or debuffs to help you in the fight. For example, Davrin has the Heroic Strike Ability which applies the Overwhelmed debuff to enemies. This will increase the enemies’ Stagger and make it easier for Rook to perform a Takedown. There are also Area of Effect Abilities to help the party defeat large groups of enemies. Controlling the field of battle is a key consideration in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Players will need to consider which buffs/debuffs or crowd control Abilities will work best for each situation.   Abilities require Class Resources (Mana, Momentum & Rage) to be able to use. Each class primarily builds up their Class Resource by dealing damage with basic attacks. In addition, each class has a secondary way to build their Class Resource - Warriors build Rage by taking and dealing damage, Rogues build Momentum by dodging attacks and parrying successfully, and Mages regain Mana passively over time.   Warriors who go into battle with a sword-and-shield build, will have access to the Shield Throw Volley. By landing a Heavy Attack on a Shield Throw return, the shield will ricochet, taking out multiple enemies. This sequence can repeat up to three times, causing a devastating ring of damage around Rook. This attack works well against swarms as well as distant adversaries. Other ways to manage distant enemies lean into Companion abilities, such as Davrin’s Death from Above to send Assan, his griffon, to attack enemies. Warriors also have the Grappling Spear Ability to pull enemies close for an easier victory. With these tools, attacks can be chosen based on the type of enemy and the situation to dispatch foes in the most optimal way, especially on higher difficulties."

"PRIMERS, DETONATORS & ULTIMATES Many Abilities include some type of coordinating effect and serve as either a Primer or a Detonator that can result in devastating combo attacks when properly executed with the Companions. These Ability combos can be set up in the Ability Wheel.  Finally, you have your most powerful attack: Rook’s Class Ultimate Ability. Doing damage to enemies increases your Ultimate Meter. The Ultimate Meter won’t fully fill during smaller skirmishes, because they are designed to decimate a significant swath of the battlefield or the toughest bosses.  All of these options combine together to create a rich combat experience that is highly customizable. The entire Skill Tree is also fully refundable, and Skill Points can be redistributed. We encourage you to try out multiple builds, use different Abilities for each mission, and change up the Companions you bring into battle. These videos have highlighted several of the ways that players can achieve strategic combat in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. We’ve put them all together in case you wanted to see them back-to-back. Check out the full video below! there’s a lot to explore in the game and a lot more to talk about. We’ll have more to share on the Rogue and Mage before launch, as well. Next week, we look forward to companions week, along with another Discord Q&A planned for August 30th where we can answer more of your questions about the game. Chat soon!             — The Dragon Age Community Team"

[source] <- video links at link

[hitomisuzuya]

JUST READ YOUR POST! I SHALL SUBMIT MY TIGHNARI REQ NOW ❤️❤️ just imagining Tighnari in heat.... trying so hard to contain himself for the whole day then at night he was on patrol with fem!reader and he couldnt hold back anymore so he told the reader he was in heat. AND THE READER BEING A BITCH WOULD TAUNT HIM BY SAYING HE HAS TO CATCH THE READER SO BE ABLE TO BREED EM 🫶🏻🫶🏻 just a whole game of cat n mouse in the forest at night. Obvi tighnari catches her and fucks her into oblivion 😳😳😳

a/n: omg I read something similar to your ask recently. I always wanted to write something like this. Tighnari in heat 😳😳😳 I hope you enjoy it.❤️ I have been waiting for the chance to write for Tighnari again. I didn't think anyone would request anything for him due to certain circumstances.

Tighnari x fem!reader. Tighnari in a heat cycle. Predatory! Tighnari. Cat and mouse game incoming.

Tighnari's heat cycles were particularly hard for him, especially since he'd met you. Before he met you, he always dealt with his heat cycles quietly and private, not wanting it get in the way of his duties as a Forest Ranger.

It took one week into his cycle for him to break. You were on patrol with him in the forest, chatting idly about the weather, or certain birds you see. Your demeanor may have been relaxed, but Tighnari's wasn't.

You smelt so good. Staggering a little, he leaned up against a tree. He was panting quietly, a hand over his mouth. His lips felt dry, and his cheeks were flushed.

"Tighnari? What's the matter? Are you sick?" You asked, your gaze boring into his hazel eyes. You were so concerned, and your eyes looked so beautiful. He wanted nothing more than to gaze down at you as you writhed beneath him, telling you how much he wanted breed you.

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not sick. I'm in heat," his ears drooped a little, "to be frank, I don't know if I can restrain myself any longer. It would be best if you went back to Gandharva Ville without me. I'll finish this patrol on my own." This was his first cycle with you, he didn't want it overwhelm you.

Like hell you were going back. In fact, you upped the ante. Go big or go home as they say. Reaching up, you gently tugged on his ears. "Chase me, Tighnari," you said. His ears pricked up. "I'm more happy to cool you down," you smirked, "that is, if you can catch me first."

Tighnari sighed. Why did you have to be so difficult, especially at a time like this? "Run," was all he had to say before you took off. "Just wait until I get my hands on you."

Honestly, for a second you wondered if you were in over your head. Tighnari knew this forest like the back of his hand. This was his territory. And so were you. There more than likely wasn't one place you could hide from him in that he wouldn't find.

You looked over your shoulder before cutting a hard left. Tighnari had thankfully given you a head start. You stopped to hide behind two large mushrooms, catching your breath as quietly as you could, pressing a hand over your mouth.

You waited, your body coiled like a spring as you listened for leaves to start crunching as Tighnari got closer.

Tighnari lifted his head, sniffing the air as he ran. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he called out. At first he'd been annoyed, but now he was enjoying it. He felt exhilarated, his heart pounding with excitement and lust. Your spontaneous game of cat and mouse had excited him than he thought it would.

"I smell something good behind these mushrooms." You darted out, bolting into the forest again. Tighnari was hot on your heels now that he had sussed out your hiding place. It was foolish of you to let your guard down.

You looked over your shoulder again. You'd put a little bit of distance between you. You were so distracted with how turned on you felt being chased down like this by Tighnari that you didn't notice a root of a tree sticking out of the ground slightly.

Tighnari caught you as you tripped. Wrapping an arm around your waist, he braced you against him as you both tumbled to the ground.

"I've caught you, my love," he said, pinning your wrists above your head as he crawled on top of you. "You didn't make it easy for me though."

"I'm impressed, 'Nari, I thought I was faster than you this time," You blushed a little, your pride actually hurt a little bit. You couldn't believe you'd tripped like that.

Tighnari chuckled, "Well, you did trip. But that doesn't matter," his hands were already roaming over your body. He nuzzled your neck, his tail flicking with excitement. "I was going to catch you anyways whether you tripped or not."

Tighnari had always put his research and his duties as a Forest Ranger first and foremost in front of anything like finding a mate. He'd never fixated on anyone like this before.

Now he finally had you right where he wanted you. Tighnari didn't tear your clothes to shreds as he stripped you and himself. He wanted to, but you would need something to walk back home in. A feeling of possession suddenly gripped him. Tighnari bit down on your collarbone, inhaling your scent. You moaned as he sucked a bruise onto your skin. "Mmm~, I think you taste even better than you smell," he mumbled, nursing his tongue against the fold of skin.

One love bite turned into two and three. Tighnari was marking you, marking his territory, taking care to leave them in visible places on your neck. He didn't want any of the new recruits ogling you to begin with, but if they had to (and he couldn't blame them) they would see his marks and know you belonged to someone.

Belonged to him.

You were squirming beneath him, spreading your legs so he could grind his erection between them. Tighnari could feel the heat of your need. He was thrilled that you want this just as much as he did.

Tighnari prepared you as best he could before thrusting his cock inside of you. He kissed you gently when you winced softly in pain. He didn't even start thrusting right away. He breathed in a sigh of relief, soaking in the way his cock felt inside of you.

You wiggled your hips a little as you tugged on his ears, making him whine. "Fuck me, 'Nari."

That was all he needed to hear. Tighnari's thrusts were slow at first, his ears flicking a few times upon hearing your moans, especially when you moaned his name. The way you sounded was like heaven in his ears. It made him feel more feverish, bordering on feral.

His pace quickened, his cock squelching as he drove himself home. His mouth watered when he saw your breasta beginning to bounce in time with his thrusts. He nuzzled your neck again before taking one of your nipples into his mouth, sucking as he swirled his tongue it. "I'm going to breed you full of my pups, I promise."

My goodness weren't you the lucky one? The fennec fox mates for life.

The feeling of his cum spilling inside of you ushered in your orgasm. You arched your back, his name tearing from your throat in a scream. He kissed you lovingly as you both rode your high.

Over the next month, it became common for you to isolate yourself in his hut with him. You soon discovered, much to your delight that he was absolutely insatiable.

pps. This turned out longer than I thought it would. I hope it's not too long. I may have gotten carried away a little. Both Tighnari and Scara always seem to make me do that lol😭

[donutwatches]

MHA 3.3 - Kota - part 1/3

This is a watch-a-long blog, so no spoilers past this episode please!

Didn't he already do that last season? Did I imagine that? I love that his training is creating the perfect bath temperature.

Apparently Midoriya's training is getting beaten up by a furry. I wonder what he is going to tell his Mom when she asked him what he got up to at summer camp? "Well...there were these park rangers dressed as cats".

What would class 1A do without Iida keeping it together 24/7? Everyone is dead on their feet, but Iida is like "Look alive people, we're about to make the greatest curry of all time".

HIS TINY SMILE. This was a small detail, but it was so moving. Just lighting a fire for cookin and making his classmates smile made him happy. In seasons 1&2 he was so shut off socially.

He is finding out that the part of his quirk that he rejected and hated for so long can help people, and that he can use it in a positive way.

Momo's power comes from food! She can make weapons from her body by eating cake, what a dream.

"It's like poo". Sero, noooooo! Why did he have to make it gross? lol

There is a full doozy essay incoming. I went ham. So don't click 'keep reading' unless you actually want to keep READING.

What Kota says in this episode got me spiraling into essay territory. Kota's point of view has helped a lot of MHA's themes click into place for me, but these thoughts have been brewing for me since season 1.

Categorizing people and placing labels on them can lead to dehumanization. The 'villain' label makes people who commit crimes less than human, and the 'hero' label elevates people into being more than human. Either way, dehumanizing people has consequences, and in Kota's perspective, it got his parents killed.

Someone labeled as a 'villain' can think, well I'm already called a villain, I might as well act that way. Someone labelled as a 'hero' is pressured to live up to being put on a pedestal, and that can lead to failure, or hypocrisy (like Endeavor's outside hero image conflicting with behind closed doors abuse).

The villains versus heroes narrative feeds a cycle where they are in perpetual competition with each other to negative results for the community. As if crime and justice are the same as competing sports teams, like red team vs blue team. This leads to what Kota says, "they're all showing off", and end up "killing each other".

I have had jobs where I worked with kids, and I saw social labeling play out. Some kids got labeled as 'trouble makers'. The kids saw that they got attention for challenging behavior, and it got worse. I have heard a kid state "I'm a bad kid" outright, and they internalized that as part of their identity. It is hard to undo the damage.

It reminds me of Shinso from last season, as an example of a teen being labeled a villain by his peers. He fought hard to reject being put in that category, but many real life teens don't escape the labeling.

There are also kids that get singled out as 'golden children'. These kids feel pressured to be perfect, and can struggle with their flawed human identity not matching their 'golden' reputation.

Bakugo is an example of an over-praised kid that develops a superiority complex. He is insecure about not being the best, because he was categorized as 'the best' at age five. I think 'troublemaker' versus 'golden child' is a small scale version of the 'villain' versus 'hero' in MHA.

These categories lead us to making blanket assumptions about individuals who fit the right image. All might is the symbol of peace, so he must be perfect, right? But the show reveals that All Might, while he is a good man, is a flawed human being. We see him struggling to upkeep the shiny symbol he has created, at the cost of his health and social life.

I wonder if MHA is going to explore a villain that could have been a good citizen, but got trapped by how society has cornered them into a 'villain' labeled box? I think this might be the major theme of the entire story. I've cracked it, I can stop here, I don't even need to watch anymore episodes, bye! ;p

"My friend", ok Deku, you're not fooling anyone.

The starry night backgrounds in this scene are beautiful!

This montage of Midoriya trying to force a quirk to happen almost killed me.

It takes me back to the 1st episode where Deku's opening line is "we are not all created equal", and the episode shows us both him and Bakugo being put into opposite social boxes based on their quirks.

Deku was labeled bad/useless because he was quirkless, and this flashback underlines how much it hurt him, but he was saved by how strongly he held to his ideals of heroism. That is the positive flip side of the 'hero' label. It gave Deku something to look up to and live for.

Kota isn't ready to accept that rejecting the realities of hero society is going to be more painful in the long run. He is too little, and trying to process so much grief, it breaks my heart.

What also breaks my heart, is that Deku is speaking from experience. He has lived quirkless in a hero society, and rejecting the reality of his quirkless-ness back then caused him a lot of hurt too.

This is such a great exchange. MHA doesn't do a lot of quieter character building moments, but this talk between Kota and Deku was so good.

Part 2 is here

Masterlist

TAGLIST

@jessiedead @blackaquokat @granny-griffin @champion-prism @bicheetopuff @setfiretotheshadows @hyperfixations-and-cringe

[erinwantstowrite]

Erin I have a question ⁉️

How did you start writing LoF? Like,.not writing it in general, I mean like how did you get—or learned—or studied—all the information regarding the Batfam and their backgrounds, and also about Peter and the Avengers, etc.

Currently, I'm honestly planning on writing a small fiction about Peter ending up in Gotham (You must know your words hold a very dangerous power to inspire) but unfortunately, I don't have the right information to actually START writing it TT_TT. Do you have any tips on how I can start?

(P.S Apologies if this sounds a little confusing, I am not entirely the best at explaining 😞🤞)

There's one person to blame for getting me into DC, and it's @alighterwood

I've always been a fan of Spider-Man. He was my first hero, I wanted to be him soooo bad. I had gotten around to sort of writing my own fic for it with my own version of Peter around last year? (Very much inspired by ITSV, LoF Peter came about because he's his own universe and is based on Spider-Man lore from multiple media versions). I had never thought about writing a Spider-Man fic until ATSV, but at the time I was pretty much dead set on rewriting VLD. I got inspired after rewatching ITSV and then watching ATSV.

But it wasn't until alighterwood got me reading their favorite Batfam fics (specifically Tim) that I started to enjoy Batfam or DC in general.

(My favorite Batfam fic is "The Lone Ranger Never Had to Deal with Bruce Wayne" )

From there I started branching out into learning more about Batfam, what is and isn't fanon, and forming my own opinions. It was a natural progression into "I want my favorite characters to meet each other" and alighterwood's evil genius plan ended up working.

I've read a few comics (mostly the Red Robin series, because Tim was my intro to Batfam so I figured I'd start there) but most of my information?

Wikis, reddits, forums from years (a few of them from decades) ago, my father (who was a Batman fan as a kid) and his friends (my uncles, who were all DC and Marvel nerds), my own friends- basically anything I can get my hands on. If I had a question, it was (probably) answered somewhere, or there was someone else with the same question that made me feel better for not getting it. The internet has a BOATLOAD of information about both Marvel and DC.

It's a LOT of research and note taking, to be honest. I have a physical notebook where I take notes on lore so I don't forget it. I comb through fanon AND canon and I decide from there what I want and what I don't want/what doesn't work and what does work for what I'm writing.

But here's something to keep in mind: at the end of the day, you're not writing FOR anyone else. You're not out to please people who are 100% canon, all the time, nor are you trying to accommodate people who only read fanon material. You're writing for YOU. This part is fun for me, but could be very tedious for other people. I'm a little weird like that (I started writing essays for fun since I learned about them in school).

I like doing research. Like a lot of writers, I go down multiple rabbit holes a day. I start by googling a simple question that should take five minutes and then I see something and go "oh! What's this!?" and pick it up, and the cycle continues when I see something else and eventually remember that I was writing.

I enjoy the research and figuring out the balance. Because DC and Marvel do the same shit with their own works! Shit gets retconned, or they bring characters back from the dead, blah blah blah. The fun part for me IS going insane trying to figure out the Flash Family and their STUPID family tree, or learning about characters that were basically forgotten by everyone- even the writers. The best part is that since it's my fic I'm writing, I can go: "What's the most entertaining way I can use this?" And no one can stop me.

But if YOU don't enjoy that part, and you try to do it, you might lose your spark!! Your inspiration!! You might not have fun, and that's what writing is all about!! My thing is, is that basically every fan interpretation, whether they try to stick to the original source as closely as they can or not, IS FANON. And fanon is fun!!

Basically it all stems down to: it's your sandbox and you can play in there however you want to. And sometimes, people see what you're doing and they're like "Can I play too?" and you're like "Yes that'd be awesome!!"

If you find that you do enjoy the research, I think it's well worth it. It's very satisfying to put together all that work and then get a comment from someone where they say "OMG!! I know that reference!" or "I love this interpretation of this very obscure thing!!"

My advice for writing a Peter in Gotham fic is to know where YOU are starting at, before you start writing your fic. If you're a Spider-Man fan and you don't know much about the Batfam, try reading a comic about them, or find some favorite fics and base your information on that. It works vice-versa, if you know more about Batfam and not a lot about Peter.

Imagine there are two people sitting in front of you. One is a Marvel fan, the other is a DC fan, and they know NOTHING about the other comics. But they both want to hear your story where you have combined them. It's important that you don't lean too much into either side: you keep both of their interest by appreciating the details from both DC and Marvel.

The Marvel fan will be happy to see Peter reacting to a new world and situations, even if they don't know everything you're referencing. But the DC fan will be excited because you care about the place that Peter is interacting with enough to make a joke that maybe only they would get.

So: have fun, explore everywhere you want to, and get a little crazy. Don't worry too much about not knowing everything there is to know. I don't know everything about DC or Marvel either!

[danger-xylophones]

Hi hi hi! Just found your account and saw your requests were open, I was hoping to request some lotr/the hobbit headcanons? Preferably about a reader who's struggling with depression while on the quest and the others notice their behaviour & give them some comfort/hope. You can do whichever characters you see fit, but if it's okay with you I'd particularly like to see Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas, Thorin, Fili, Kili and Elrond :) thanks a bunch, I hope you have a great day! <3

Howdy, welcome to the shitshow!

Thank you so much for this request! It was really therapeutic to write. Also I apologize if any of these seem ooc.

A lot of the described symptoms are things I've experienced in working through my own depression.

Warnings: depression symptoms, hopelessness, really vague reference to ideation (only in Elrond's)

Can be read as romantic or platonic, gender neutral

masterlist

Boromir

This man can be either the least or most comforting

And it all depends on how close you are when the symptoms rear their collective head

Early on, he’ll offer his ear and listen to your troubles but he can’t do much more besides helplessly shrug and say something akin to ‘we must press on’

He doesn’t outright say ‘suck it up’ but it does feel like that's what he means

BUT once you two become close (either as lovers or friends) he will try everything in his power to help

He’s not super knowledgeable on ailments of the mind, his brother was always a little more aware of the fragility of one’s psyche, but he does know the things that help him feel centered in reality

So, with your permission, he’ll take your hands in his

And squeeze them as hard as he can so your mind is forced to react to your body again

He makes sure he doesn’t hurt you but it is an uncomfortable sensation

“I will not lie to you, I understand very little the extent of your mind’s despair. I know I am afraid and I fear for the future and I know it is different than your fear.”

“Because your fear lies within absence - that there is no point in pushing forward because you cannot see a future not filled with suffering.”

And he’d rest his forehead against yours so you can feel another living being.

“But please, if you cannot see that there is a future where the light shines through unimpeded by darkness, trust that I can.”

“Trust that I see a world where there is peace. Trust that I see you there.”

.........

Aragorn

Listen, this he has his own struggles with depression

He understands the best

Why do you think he lived as a ranger for as long as he did?

Because it satisfied the urge to just vanish and have it be like he’d never existed

But he was fortunate enough to have a support system in Elrond and the lord’s children

They helped him learn that yes, there is great suffering and yes, it is pointless

But life isn’t

And since they’re immortal beings who have seen ages come and go and watched the cycles play out before them - they would know best of all

And it is this exact wisdom he passes on to you one night by the campfire after everyone else has gone to sleep

He hadn’t been able to sleep so he’d gotten up to keep you company during your watch

Only to find you lost in the void of your mind, eyes vacant and staring with a question on your lips

“There is no point.” he’d say as he came to stand beside you. “Suffering simply is.”

“Then why even try?” You hissed in distress

“Because life has a voice of its own that is being drowned out by the suffering. We are trying to raise life’s voice once more.”

“And the darkness of this world doesn’t want us to be quieted. So, it makes us hurt. And grieve. And give up.”

“But if you give up, if you surrender yourself, you do not escape it. You become it. Unfeeling and uncaring.”

“I am already unfeeling-“ you’d scoff

“But would you wish your fate - this emptiness you feel, on another? Would you wish it on Frodo?”

And his words would spark to life the little voice in the back of your mind that so rarely got to speak. And it would cry out ‘no’

“This shroud is no easy thing to be rid of.” He’d take your hands in his. “But you do not have to face it alone.”

Legolas

Legolas is another one who does not entirely understand what you're going through

But that does not stop him

He's a very perceptive elf so the second your demeanor shifts he knows somethings wrong

The moment you show the first sign of a depressive episode, whether that be a sudden loss of appetite, a spike in irritability, or a sudden despondency, he starts asking questions

And through your evasive answers, he keeps pressing the issue because he's a very emotional elf and he wants to make sure you're alright

And one night after making camp he's up in a panic because he can't find you.

Gimli mentions seeing you heading towards the bank of the nearby river and he immediately sets out, thoroughly prepared to scold you for wandering off.

But his admonishment dies on his tongue when he hears you crying

Instant panic - are you hurt? are you upset? overwhelmed? scared?

He races right over to you and grabs you by the shoulders

And since he's quiet enough to sneak up on an owl, he scares the shit out of you

And you nearly deck him on instinct

Except, Legolas is quick to catch your hand in one and cup your face in the other

"Tell me what troubles you, please, for it breaks my heart to see you so distraught."

There's a beat

And you finally break and tell him everything - your fears for the journey, your fears that this will all be for nothing, your fears that once Sauron is gone another great evil will take his place.

Every symptom and every stray dark thought

And he listens intently, cradling your face between his hands as if you will break if puts a modicum of force in his hold.

To his credit, you just might.

"I know that there are not enough words to silence the fear that torments you and robs you of your light. But please, if it would help you, allow me to hold you."

After a consenting nod, he pulls you into an incredibly tight hug and angles your ear over his heart so you can hear its steady beat.

And he just holds you until you're ready to face the others again

Going forward he pays closer attention to you and he makes sure you eat and drink water regularly among other things

He keeps you grounded

.........

Elrond

Elrond is the one who knows what to do to help you

Herald or lord, his approach is largely the same

He pulls you aside one day and takes your hands in his, tethering you to him while he speaks

"Your mind has been troubled. Please, tell me what ails you."

You can try and brush him off - the key word being 'try' of course

He is as persistent as Legolas but more capable than anyone else on this list

But he is subtler than the other elf

If you don't answer him, he starts to just take care of you

If you miss a meal, Elrond brings it to you

And he brings his own little snack so you don't feel weird being the only one eating

If he notices you haven't bathed, he will create the most relaxing bath you've ever had and offer gentle reminders to take care of yourself

Insomnia? He has literally every remedy in the world

And when your mind is a tyrant, he fends it off with reminders that not all hope is lost

And an acknowledgment that while the pain you're in is real, it does not have to be permanent and he will help you move past it

Because he cares about you and he values your life

Even when you don't

He's a healer, after all, let him heal you

He also makes sure to redirect your focus to the little things in life, the fragile things that you can protect

Elrond will make you a depression garden and he will help you maintain it for as long as you need him to

And even after that to always remind you that he loves you and that there are others who love you just as much

Thorin

oh boy

I'm sorry, he has no clue what to do

Very similar to Boromir, actually

At first, he's inclined to tell you to suck it up - or even do the shitty thing of trying to one up you with his problems

But, that will pass, eventually

The shift will coincide with his change in attitude towards you as a part of the company

If you're a dwarf, it won't take as long for him to be willing to hear you out

Hobbit, is a close second, then human, and lastly - elf

Regardless, eventually he will come around and realize that he's being an ass

He's still clueless but now he's at least making an effort to help you

Since he doesn't quite know what to do, he starts by just offering his ear

He tries to be very reassuring about the quest for the arkenstone

It'll get to the point where he opts for physical comfort

A hand to the knee, your back, your arm

When you're closer, he'll press his head against yours to ground you in moments of high stress

Unfortunately he never gets better with his words, everything he says always comes across as gruff and dismissive (despite not actually intending to sound like that)

But he has a comforting presence that he offers freely to you

And he will happily stand up to anyone in the company giving you shit for your symptoms

He has plans to encourage the greatest dwarven healers to start looking into mental health once he reclaims Erebor

.........

Fili

Unlike his uncle, Fili does have a surface level understanding of what you're going through

Honestly, because I headcanon Dis has some form of depression (genetics)

So, he's more aware of what that entails and understands that it's not a moral failing or a personality defect

He treats it like a curable disease - literally like it's a fever that will eventually break

When he notices you're acting off compared to what he'd expect, he'll pull you aside and out of ear shot of the others

"I noticed you've been a little down, lately - need an ear?"

Similar to some others, if you brush him off, he won't let it go - but he's a bit more subtle about it.

"Well, alright then, just know I'm keeping an eye out for you. It's always good to have somebody who's got your back, after all. Oh, like this one time Kili and I-"

He's almost casual about everything??? Like, he doesn't just ignore the fact you're suffering but he's very careful with showing his concern

Because he knows from personal experience that having people all up in your business (even when they mean well) is not fun

He also does a damn good job of keeping the others from overwhelming you

"What's wrong with them?" Dwalin huffs one night.

"Nothing, Master Dwalin," Fili is swift to reply as he ladles a portion of soup into a bowl for you, "they said they've just been feeling the weight of the journey a bit more these past few days. Rest assured, they're fine." The blond dwarf trounces away before any of the others can comment.

That's another thing he does - he brings you food during every meal and he eats with you

He noticed that you wouldn't eat if no one was paying attention to you and you wouldn't if people talked to you during your meal. So, he convinced Thorin to put you and him on watch during meals so you two had a built in excuse to eat in silence together without the rest of the company questioning you.

With time, he helps rebuild your hope through simple companionship and the normalization of your illness.

He knows you've got fragile pieces but you're not made of glass and he's not your savior.

He's your support

Kili

Clueless but somehow still helpful

He like...doesn't notice something's wrong???

Like genuinely, he thinks you're just like that and his whole thought process is 'yeah, they're a bit different, but I think they're cool'

I mean, how long did he call Bilbo 'Mr. Boggins' without realizing he was saying it differently?

Fili's probably the one that tells him that your odd habits are symptoms of depression

And he's just like 'oh' and then proceeds to ask what the hell that means

He hunts you down and is like 'why didn't you tell me you were sick????'

And then comes the not so fun part of explaining to him what you're actually going through

He does accidentally do the thing where he treats you like you can't take care of yourself but that doesn't last long

But he does ping pong back and forth between being genuinely helpful and being so clueless

It takes you sitting him down again and explaining to him that while you recognize that he wants to be helpful, he's stressing you the hell out

He will finally settle into his role as this supportive, comforting distraction

He's the type to crack jokes with you when you're feeling particularly down

The first time it happened, you'd gotten a little angry at him but he persisted and startled you which inadvertently helped shake you out of your slump long enough to realize you were in one and that there were steps you could take to make you feel better

And now, whenever you feel particularly hopeless - you go to Kili so he can distract you from the torment of your own mind

[strixcattus]

I mentioned wanting to post about my other STP AUs and then never actually followed up with that beyond some general notes on my D&D-esque AU, so here's a more specific rundown of the Voices:

Hero: A run-of-the-mill fighter from a small farming village on the west coast of the continent. Allegedly he was prophesied to do... something (still unclear on what, but the word "slay" was definitely involved), but he's not sure if he believes in that sort of thing. Somehow he ends up taking on quests with Cold and Stubborn far too often for comfort. Increasingly convinced he's the only normal person here.

Cold: A cold-blooded assassin and general blade-for-hire who only takes on jobs he finds interesting. In another time, he was less picky about whom he was assigned to kill, but he's grown discerning with time. He's only killed one noble in recent years before deciding to focus on more difficult targets... but she doesn't seem keen on leaving him alone. Most of his past is a mystery to everyone but Hero, though most people don't exactly feel like asking about it.

Stubborn: A textbook barbarian who decided never to die one day and hasn't changed his mind since. Tends to take on quests alongside Cold since their desires for an interesting fight line up... though Cold may or may not always appreciate the help. He met some sort of half-demon a few years back who had the same kind of loose relationship with death, and ever since they meet up every few months to kill each other. For some reason, most people think this is weird.

Contrarian: One of three recent bard-college graduates in the party. His specialty is theater and improvisation, particularly of a satirical sort. It hasn't even been a year since graduation and he's already banned from one of the northern kingdoms due to The Play. He's also banned from explaining what exactly was so offensive about The Play, and this one might be magically enforced, so best not to risk it. Of the bards, he's the most magically talented, though he mainly uses his talents for pranks.

Smitten: The second of three recent graduates. His specialties are the lute (which he's actually quite good at), romantic poetry (eh...), and singing/songwriting (no.). The most anyone can really get him to open up about his past is that he's from an island kingdom to the east and didn't grow up with any other beastfolk. "Smitten" isn't actually his real name, but not even Contrarian and Opportunist know what it really is.

Opportunist: The third of the recent graduates. He's a bit of a jack-of-all trades and fairly average at magic. It's mostly his fault that the three of them didn't manage to meet up again until they'd been tasked with killing a bunch of Princesses, because less than a month after graduation he got on the wrong side of a witch, was cursed into the form of a frog, and, being too proud to seek help, had to figure out how to either break the curse or turn back to his normal form on his own.

Hunted: I haven't fully figured out what's going on with him. He's a ranger who's been tracking a mysterious beast throughout the western forest—he's pretty sure there's some bounty put forth by one of the kingdoms within the forest, but his quest is mostly personal. He recently acquired an animal companion (a raven) to help him hunt down the beast, but only learned after the fact that the "animal companion" was A: sapient, and B: unable to fly.

Broken: He's been flightless since before he showed up at the first familiar-shop, and the constant cycle of being adopted by some aspiring wizard or ranger, then being cast out once they realized they'd been misled didn't do him any favors. It doesn't seem to be the result of an injury, though—he seems to know the real cause, but he isn't talking. At least the ranger who adopted him this time seems to be more understanding than the others.

Cheated: A solo adventurer who tends not to stick with a single party for very long. He's a warlock, allegedly, and he'll tell the story to anyone to asks of why you should stay far, far away from suspicious-sounding maidens in the woods, but no one has actually seen him use any spells. He frequents the tavern where Skeptic works—it's a more permanent fixture in his life than any party he's worked with.

Skeptic: He's not an adventurer himself—he runs an adventurers' tavern in the western woods, and has become acquainted with most of the others through his business. It's an underappreciated job, and it's a lot of work to ensure shady characters can't mess up the system, but adventurers tip pretty well. You just have to make sure the "No change" sign is visible, so they can't demand that you find some way to split the gold pieces that are the only currency they carry. Skeptic tends to stay distant from customers, though, with his only close confidant being the wizard outside town.

Paranoid: He had a reputation as a shut-in even before he started refusing to set foot outside his tower a few weeks back. But even more so, he has a reputation as being the best healing wizard in his part of the western woods—mainly by virtue of being the only healing wizard in his part of the woods, but he is very skilled. And driven. He was the first Voice to properly slay a Princess, even before the others formed their party.

The only problem is, whatever he killed in his tower basement doesn't seem to have been content to stay dead.

[eddygoldarm]

Okay, in this post, I will put all my headcanons for the brawlers origins/backstories.

I'll update it little by little as I go and find more things about them. Note that I I sometimes quit the game for long periods of time so I'm not always updated on the lore. So this is mostly my personal interpretation, if you have any canon information/trivia from the creators/interesting headcanons, feel free to share them! With that said, let's do this!

⬇️

WILD WEST

🩹Shelly : She was a normal farmgirl from the frontier, living in her family's ranch with her animals. But many gangs from the area made her life very difficult, and the rangers never did anything for her, so she decided to become some kind of vigilante. After many lonely years, she met Colt, who she thought was just another idiot. While she was right, he proved himself to be efficient and caring, and he convinced her to stop the cycle of crime by joining him. She accepted, and is now a mercenary working with Colt, fighting to make the frontier a better place. While still hot-headed, she's way more well adjusted and reasonable now, she's just a bit jealous of Colt. As her best friend, she knows him better than anyone else and dislikes the fact that this utter idiot gets more recognition than her.

⭐Colt : Colt has a secret : He is the son of Belle and Sam from the goldarm gang. Born as Edwin, he was raised by the gang and learned all the ins and outs of the criminal life since he was little. His mother Belle pushed him to perform better each day in order to make him strong. That way, he became an incredible shot, but also a boastful and well-groomed boy, never letting show a sign of weakness. But as the heists were getting more difficult, and the gang more violent, Eddy struggled to keep up, and Belle started to neglect him when he failed. He started to hate himself, as he felt like nobody would ever love who he was becoming. So, after a terrible accident that mutated him (that Shelly was in too!), he decided to fake his death to start his own new life. He assumed a new identity, and thanks to his gun skills and tactical knowledge, became a security officer at Starr Park. He slowly climbed the ladder, accomplishing his duty, pleasing the people and making a name for himself. Until he became the Oldtown sheriff, Colt is now happier than ever, as he has all he ever wanted: A great job, a lot of fans and friends that move him... unless?

🌵Spike : Spike was originally a regular cactus, living his normal cactus life in the middle of the desert. Until one day, a mountain of a human fell and landed on him, completely destroying the plant. Hopefully, a little chunk stayed attached to his shirt, and he managed to survive. The small shoot was given to a young Eddy, and then potted. The little plant was the boy's new best friend, he took care of it, carried it everywhere, and even talked to it. Spike learned a lot, everything even, and developed feelings for the boy as he watched him grow and struggle. Until one day, where the plant was blasted once again, it managed to survive, but something changed in Spike. He started to slowly mutate into a humanoïd shape, and could even now form "thoughts". Spike essentially turned into a little human (which freaked out Colt and made him sholt Spike in chock but we avoid talking about that.), that became Colt's new friend. With his newfound appearance, Spike became a weird little guy, just wandering around, either helping his friends or causing mischief. He is living his best life and nobody can stop him, he's a cactus! While more independant, he his still close to Colt, he cheers him up in his own weird ways, and keeps his secrets... which is very useful since he can't speak.

SHAMAN TRIBE

🦅Bo : The shaman tribe are the oldest group of the land, they live secluded in the jungle, in harmony with nature. Bo is one of their warriors, strong, wise and courageous, he was always curious about the world around him. When he was still young, he stepped out the jungle, and fell in love with the beauty of nature and mankind. He started to explore the world, acquiring knowledge and new connexion, that he shared with his peers. Of course, this idea didn't sit well with everyone; Leon and Nita's father, was killed by a man of the frontier, going outside could lead to catastrophe. Bo knew this, but thought it was worth the risk, and some people of the tribe started to go out as well, notably the widow, who was intrigued by Starr Park. While the warrior didn't care for it, he saw that it was cheering her up, and they started to hang out there together, they fell in love, and got married. Taking little Leon and Nita was becoming their ritual, until one faithful day, where the mother vanished without a trace. Submerged by guilt, Bo looked for months for her, sadly, he couldn't find any trace of her. Instead, he decided to take responsability, and took Leon and Nita under his wing. Today he is still a respected warrior, but ha has to carry the burden of his wife's disappearance. Also, Bo isn't his actual name, it's a nickname the people of the frontier have given him. He also uses merch from the park as a voluntary hinderance, to sharpen his skills, they're also gifts from the kids.

🦎Leon : Leon is a child from the shaman tribe, unfortunately, he didn't have a warrior spirit, and was rather shy. He preferred to stay in his corner, observing the world around him, his parents didn't care, and still cherished him. Sadly, the accumulation of his father's death, his replacement by a scary stoic warrior, and his mother's disappearance, made him close in on himself even more. Thanks to a gem mutation, he developped invisibility powers, and used it to hide and to cause trouble. This was a pain to deal with for Bo, who had no experience with parenting. Eventually, with the help of Nita, he managed to earn the child's trust. With time, Leon learned to open up and be a happy kid again, it's still difficult sometimes, he's still a troublemaker! But that's why we love him!

🐻Nita : Nita barely knew her parents, she always carried the teddy her mom had given her for comfort. When she disappeared, all she had to look up too was her big brother (Bo was too busy looking for her mom to take care of them), so she became a fierce little troublemaker like him. Together they began causing mayhem wherever they went, and this was the happiest she ever was. Of course, this fell back on her, when the teddy got destroyed (Bull did it), this got her seething with rage, giving birth to Bruce, the fierce spirit-bear (thanks in part to a gem mutation). After seeing the damage Nita had done, Bo finally decided to step in : he defeated the bear, and stitched the plushie back together. That way, she could always be comforted by someone if she ever felt angry.

RETROPOLIS GANG

🐂Bull : Bull (I think I saw his real name somewhere but it might have been a jape) was born and raised in the frontier. He was always a big boy, but contrary to his appearance, he was kind and well-mannered. Sadly, those traits that aren't desirable in this harsh environnement, Bull's childhood was difficult, because despite his herculeand strenght, he couldn't bring himself to hurt anyone. I like to think he briefly dated Pam, but she dumped him because he was too much of a wimp. Having enough of this, he quit his farm for Retropolis, where he got a job as a waiter. All wasn't perfect though, there were many gangs fighting, and he always got caught in the fire. One day, he got a spike of courage, and tried to save an innocent client, only to recieve a deadly gem explosion. The radiation, as well as the frustration of years of suffering, made him loose all his tempter, and in an instant, he singlehandedly obliterated the gang responsible. They all started to respect him and do favors for him. At first he didn't want this kind of power, he felt guilty for beating all these people, but he soon realized he could use it to do some good, he could maintain order and protect underdogs like him. Bull slowly assumed a stronger, bolder character, recruited some goons, and founded his own gang. While Bull's gang was terrifying, their goal was only to put those who caused trouble, and hurt innocents back in their place. Today Bull owns the diner, and is a well-known figure in Retropolis, feared by some, respected by many, despite his looks and methods, it's undeniable that he made the city a safer place. He might be scary now, but deep down, he's still the kind humble farmboy, so, as long as you're polite, you're always welcole at Bull's diner! His pancakes are bangin too.

🐦‍⬛Crow: He was just a normal bird, flying around, earing seeds etc... But one day, he got shot and fell into a crevasse filled with gems. This caused him to mutate enormously, and to become quasi-human. Crow was terrified; his body and world had changed, and he was all alone. So he wandered, trying to make sense of everything. But he got soon spotted by many criminals, who tried to capture him. After days of escape, Crow was cornered at Retropolis, he felt like he was doomed to suffer for the rest of his life. It was at this moment that somewhat lended him a hand for the first time: Bull saw what was happening to the strange bird-man, and ordered everyone to leave him alone. He gave him a jacket, lead him to his restaurant, and cooked him a breakfast. Crow had now a roof and a friend. The bird-man had come a long way, he learned to move, to speak and to act like a human, but he still has a long way to go to figure himself out, bird or human? Maybe something completely different, only time will tell. In the meantime, Crow is happy to belong somewhere, somewhere safe.

⚾Bibi : I headcanon that she's Kenji's daughter, she grew up in the sushi restaurant in Retropolis, helping her mom and dad. Contrary to now, she was a sweet and well-mannered girl, all was well until Starr Park attacked the restaurant, her mother got kidnapped, and her father went in hiding to try and fing her. Lost and confused, she didn't understand why her father suddently left her when she needed him most, so she saught refuge at Bull's diner, because she knew he could help. Bull accepted to take her under his wing, on the condition that she would be a part of his gang. Since then, Bibi has toughen up a lot, she adopted a bad girl attitude to match with Bull and Crow's energy, but if you look behind her façade, you can easily see she's still a sweet girl, she likes candy, video games and cute animals. Bull doesn't treat her like a child, but he still takes care of her, he's like a second dad to her.

(I'm sensing a pattern with Bo and Bull adopting weird children here lol)

STARRCADE

🕹️Brock : I don't think Brock has anything special, really, he's probably the most normal of all the brawlers. He's always was a geek, and was frequently bullied for liking comics, cartoons and video games. In his teens, with the help of Colt (who he met at Starr Park), and his dad, who is a ranger, he learned to assert and defend himself. He turned his nerdiness into a strengh, learning to dress cool, talk back, and creating gadgets to defend himself (a rocket launcher is a bit overkill imo). Despite his certified freshness, he's a bit of a bum, but he's fine with his life, he works in something that he's passionate about thanks to the arcade, and he's surrounded by cool friends.

🔫Rico : Like all robots of his kind, Rico was designed for combat, he was part of a squadron belonging to the rangers, and obeyed to the orders like any other robots would. Until one day, when he was ordered to get stolen gems back from the Gold Arm. During this mission, he got shot (by Eddy or Belle) in just the right spot, causing a mutation thanks to the nearby gems. Rico gained a free will and a consciousness, this, mixed to his calculator-brain, made him an extremely accurate shooter. He hid it at first, but the rangers quickly noticed it, and started treating him as an equal, he was given clothes, promoted, and nicknamed "Ricochet" because of his famous gun tricks. Eventually, Rico got tired of following orders, he wanted to be his own person, so he said goodbye to the rangers, and became a bounty hunter. This was the robot's prime years, as he wandered the desert, he became famous, as he was at the time the only independant robot, and a dreaded sharpshooter. It was at this time that he met Piper, but they weren't lovers, I'm not sure if they were partners or ennemies. Sadly, all things had to come to an end, and one day, he crossed paths with the Gold Arm once again, who completely obliterated him, he wasn't buried like a person, but thrown in the scrapyard. A few years after, Brock found his carcass, took it, and frankensteined him with a gumball machine, thinking it could be a great addition to the Starrcade. But by fixing him, Rico woke up again: the bounty hunter returned. Brock realised that he had just ressucitated one of the most famous figures of the frontier, he thought it was lit. The robot didn't feel like going back to his old ways, he thought the Starrcade was a nice place, so he decided to retire, and to hang out in Retropolis. He's not as fierce as he used to be, now he prefers to be silly and to play the gallery with his bouncy balls. And yeah, he dated a vending machine, but Frank broke it, and now he is with Piper, who charmed with his new persona.

👾 8-Bit : He is an old arcade machine that was given life after Brock forgot gems on it. He used to display a bad and difficult game, and all the players that tried to beat it spat their anger and frustration at him. Now that he is alive, he is a pure machine of hatred, trying to beat all the people that mistreated him. He respects Brock because he's one of the few that was good at his game.

BANDSTAND

🏋️El Primo : He is Shelly's cousin, and grew up on the same farm as her. He became passionate about lucha libre from a very early age, and began practicing on everyone and everything. Thanks to his training, he became very strong, he was a bit of a beloved local figure, but it wasn't enough for him. He wanted to become the strongest in the universe, but he felt like he couldn't progress. One night, as he was practicing under the moon, he saw a purple meteor descend from the sky. He thought that if he mutated, he could finally become strong, so he tried to intercept it, not realizing how much danger he was putting himself in. Thankfully, Shelly saved him in extremis, and scholded him for being and idiot, telling him that being mutated isn't fun or cool. They watched the stars fall together, the wrestler felt like he could become as powerful as them, so he modeled his famous jump move after the meteor's fall. Now, to spice up his tale, he tells everyone that the meteor hit him right in the face, gifting him with immense power and beauty. But both Shelly and him know he's just strong like that ;] Now he is a travelling luchador with his bandstand friends Poco and Amber.

🎺Poco : Poco used to be a normal human, he was a promising musician of the frontier, with his own life and family. Sadly, he tragically passed away in a brawl between criminals, before he could meet his fame. Decades later, because of a mutation, he ressucitated (Maybe Mortis did it lol), but he was cursed to be a skeleton for the rest of his life. Saddened by his state, and the loss of his home and loved ones, he began to wander the desert, playing mournful balads to himself. He didn't hurt anyone, but people avoided him for his appearance. One day, as he was approaching Oldtown, he met with someone who was badly hurt and couldn't move (idk who could that be, maybe Shelly when she was a vigilante? or El Primo or Amber), he decided to keep them company, and to play his guitar to soothe them. Little did he know, his beautiful music had now the power to heal others. Extremely grateful and excited by this, the person introduced them to the people of Oldtown, who slowly started to accept him. Now Poco has regained his true colors, and is beloved by everyone, nothing makes him happier than seeing the smiles he brings to everyone.

🔥Amber : I don't know of any potential backstory leads for Amber. I just think she's a normal girl who LOVES fire and wanted to be a performer with the baton (idk how you call this lmao). The problem was, she gets too carried away, and tends to destroy everything, which discouraged her. El Primo thought it was cool as hell though, and asked her to be a part of his show.

OLDTOWN

🍺Barley : Like the other cyclop robots, Barley was a fighter, and like some of his kind, he was destroyed in a fight, then repurposed by the common people (possibly by a younger Pam). He belonged to the previous owner of the Oldtown bar, and served as a simple bartender, he wasn't very special, but he was a fun novelty that attracted customers. While he was a great bartender, it seemed like his code wasn't changed properly, and each time a fight burst in the bar, he would go in fighter mode, and destroy everything himself. At one point he gained consciouness, and the fights multiplied, he started to feel remorse for his owner and fatigue to have to clean everything else. So he worked on himself a bit, his boss gave him a classy look, complete with a nice oufit and a mustache, and he made it a point to keep the bar in order. The owner eventually passed away, and Barley inherited the bar, and to this day, he's still serving his customers with a lovely smile. He still has "anger issues" though.

🌂Piper : Not sure for Piper yet. She was either a deadly criminal, a bounty hunter or a respected ranger, she knew Ricochet and the Goldarm gang personally. But one day she got tired of fighting, so she left her wild life, and came back to Oldtown, where she opened her charming bakery. While she isn't one to fight in the spotlight, she still has her fighter reflexes for before, so don't tease her.

🐍Byron : Byron is one of the sons of the Starr family, and Belle's older brother, since an early age, Byron was passionate about poisons and toxins. He studied snakes, scorpions and other venomous creatures, in the hopes of becoming a pharmacist, and make a ton of money selling miracle remedies. Byron was never involved in his family's business, mostly developping his practice on his side, so he was really surprised when Belle ran away and became an outlaw (he's a bit out of touch with his surroundings). A few years later, she showed up at his place with an injured Sam, he knew how dangerous they were, but as a man of the medical field, he had no choice but to help them. So, he began working for them, little by little, attracted by his greed, and his familial bond with Belle. Realising how successful this partnership was becoming, he gave up on his studies, preferring to supply the gang with remedies and poisons in exchange for money. Eventually, the gang got caught, and Byron with it, he was sent to prison, but managed to smooth talk his captives into getting a shorter sentence. Byron is back in Oldtown now, while unable to become a proper pharmacist, a medical diploma is just a paper to him. Because he's basically Colt's uncle, he allowed him to sell his products, as long as he didn't cause trouble. While Byron didn't achieve his dream, he's still became the richest person in Oldtown thanks to his passion, living the dream life in his big house filled with snakes. Also, like Belle, he's blacklisted from the Starr family gatherings, but he doesn't care.

BIODOME

🌹Rosa : Originating from Super City, Rosa is a talented botanist. One day, because of a lab accident, she suffered from a mutation, which made her strong as heck. So she made it her goal to study this phenomenon. While she had a lot of theoretical knowledge, she rarely ventured outside her lab, and lacked field experience. She worked so hard that she started to neglect her family, and her sisters went missing (One of them being Lily, they are so similar to me!!). Feeling remorse she decided to got to the jungle, where she thought Lily went, and where the mutated flora was plentiful. It was a dangerous territory, but she found a way to protect herself : she punched all the plants that tried to attack her, and domesticated a baby mutated plant to make and make herself and armor out of it. While she didn't find her sister (well, she did, but she didn't recognize her, and punched her as well), she learned a lot on her journey. Thanks to her talent, she was appointed by Starr Park to work at their shiny new Biodome, a giant greenhouse created in the hopes of rehabilitating plantlife in the frontier. Now she works here with her assistants Bea and Sprout, making new discoveries everyday.

🐝Bea : SHE LIKES BEES. I think she grew up in the frontier, where insects are fairly rare. When she understood their importance in the ecosystem, and the power they could have to repopulate the frontier, she fell in love with them, especially the bees. So she studied the bees, and became a bee scientist, and now she works at the biodome where she uses bees to help Rosa with her plant research. She's not as interested in the mutations as her, she's more of a tech nerd, she created the bee drone, as well as Sprout.

🌱Sprout : Sprout was originally a standard smart seed incubator, it's simply designed to keep seeds in good health before while they hatch. One day, after one of her jungle explorations, Rosa found a really strange mutated seed, brought it back to the biodome, and put it in the incubator to study it. Over the days, the incubator started to malfunction, it started to speak and move by itself. Bea checked it, and noticed that as it was growing, the seed was slowly taking over the incubator, who started to mutate as well. At one point, it almost seemed like it was having a mind of its own, so Bea decided to upgrade it, giving it arms and wheels, so it could be monitored more easily, and also drawing a face on it. And so, Sprout was born, they're Rosa and Bea's little assistant in the biodome, taking care of the plants. To this day, nobody knows what the seed holds, but Sprout takes care of it rigourously.

SCRAPPERS

🔧Jessie : She's a wild kid, since she was little, she's used to the rough and tough of the frontier. She was possibly born with a mutation that made her extremely intelligent, and by watching her mother, she quickly learned to make all kinds of different machines. She didn't have any friends growing up, so she considers her home-made electro gun and turret, Scrappy as such. Now that she's a little bit older, she wants to be let on her own, and make new friends by herself. Unfortunately Pam is too scared for her, and Nani won't let her wander off, when will they learn that she is a big girl now? Despite her intelligence and courage, she's still a little girl, she likes dolls and cute animals, and cries like a baby when she doesn't get her way.

⚙️Pam : I like to think that Pam was an heir to the Starr family, but, like Belle, decided to flee as she didn't like the life that was promised to her. Before running away, she was a worker at the robot factory, and she used her experience to make a living as a scrapper. She was a free spirit, and was carried by the wind, one day quietly visiting Oldtown, and the other riding to hell with the bikers. Pam's life was difficult, but she was strong enough to be happy with it. Eventually, she fell pregnant with Jessie (Bull is possibly the father, it could be really funny), and that made her an easy target. She decided to stop wandering, and to settle in the scrapyard, her pregnancy was difficult, as she had to defend herself, her baby, and her livelyhood alone. She managed it, but this experience calmed her down a little bit, she couldn't afford to do as she pleased anymore, now that she had a child. She is very protective of Jessie because of it, and she built Nani to watch over her. That still doesn't mean she's still sitting around doing nothing! Pam is always present for a little action, especially when it comes to annoy the Starrs.

🐥Nani : Nani was a scrapped mousebot, repurposed by Pam to be Jessie's nanny. She loves her family and is even more protective over Jessie than Pam. She doesn't hesitate to spy on her with Peep when she wanders too far. Nothing too complicated about her. I like to think that one day Starr Park got a hold of her, while she was freed by Pam, they still could used her as a basis to create R-T.

MINERS

🧨Dynamike : Mike was a miner back in the old days, his favorite part of the job was seeing the explosions him and his coworkers caused. This lead him to not be very careful with his equipement; one day, the canary they were using escaped in a new tunnel, as Mike tried to retrieve it, a wall crashed behind him, blocking the exit. Despite attempts to save him, the rescuers couldn't do anything, and left him for dead. Over 40 years later, as the miners where digging nearby, Dynamike, and his birdie reemerged from the tunnel, like nothing happened. To this day, nobody knows how they survived in there, when asked, he only responds with nonsense, it seems like years of isolation caused him to go a bit crazy. Nowadays, he's still working at the mines, and loving every second of it.

👷Jackie : She was originally a construction worker in Super City, but she got fired for being too vulgar and destructive. She then reconverted as a miner, where she suffered a mutation because of the gems. While she's not really passionate about her job, she's glad she can unwind as much as she wants.

⛏️Carl : Carl was a standard miner robot, since recent times, they've replaced the miners, as they are safer and more efficient. Jackie pushed him in a crevasse once, and he mutated, gaining a consciouness. Carl is a geology nerd, and unlike the other robots, he spends his time studying the rocks and gems they find. While he is very useful for the miners, Jacky can't stand him and his nerdyness, and she bullies him a bit.

PIRATES

🛢️Darryl : Same as the other cyclops, Darryl once gained consciousness after an accident involving gems. He was badly beat up, but he was repaired by people living near the beach (maybe Penny's family), replacing his full torso area by a big barrel, hence why he looks a bit different from the other robots. He soon realised that he didn't like to work for them, he wanted to live his own life, free from society, so, he became a pirate! He put on a hat, found a boat, and formed a crew, and now sails on the seven seas! Little did he know that managing a crew also took responsability, but he loves his little guys, so he tried his best.

💀Penny : Penny is a rebellious girl from the beach, her parents didn't really take care of her, so she did as she pleased, and survived by stealing from tourists. When she learned that Darryl was looking for crewmates, she immediately joined him. She met Jessie at the beach once, and they became good friends, Jessie taught her a bit of mecanics, and she learned to make her own turrets.

💣Tick : He's one of Penny's creations, and also her pet. He's a very basic robot, made of three canons stitched together. All he does on the ship is blow things up and be silly.

GHOST TRAIN

🚂Chuck : Chuck was a famous and passionate maestro, he was always looking to surpass himself in his art. His concerts where impressive, but he felt like he could do even better. Sadly, one day, the train he was taking derailled at the ghost station. While everyone evacuated safely, some debris fell on Chuck, and he couldn't move anymore, and he passed away in there. He later woke up as a ghost, bound to the train's seat, he had become the ghost train's new conductor. While it was confusing at first, he quickly got a hang of his new body, and exploited his powers to create even more powerful music! Chuck fell into a sick obsession with them, making him look crazy and scary, but the apparition of Gus soften him up a bit, and he remembered how to have fun with music!

🎈Gus : He was a regular kid with his head in the clouds, that liked balloons a lot. One day, as he was coming back from Starr Park, he lost his balloon in a train tunnel, and he went after it. The boy was never seen again, but some people say they can see the apparition of a boy with a balloon in the ghost station. Gus became a ghost because of a mutation, and is permanently bound to the train and the station. It was scary and confusing at first, but Chuck told him there was nothing to fear. He is used to it now, he uses his new powers to give a scare to the ghost station visitors, since he has nothing better to do.

🕶️Shade : It's a pile of clothes from the station's lost and found that mutated. Gus found it and quickly became its best friend. Unlike Gus or Chuck, Shade it very friendly towards the visitors, but they tend to run away from it as well.

MORTUARY

🦇 Mortis : Mortis' mom tragically passed away when he was little, since then, he had a fascination for death, he isolated himself from his family to study it in detail. He took trips to the graveyard to experiment on bodies, and eventually gained enough experience to become a mortician. One day though, he fell in a grave full of gems, and mutated, becoming essentially a vampire. He took this opportunity to study death even further, using his necromancy powers to hopefully one day resurrect the dead, or achieve immortality. He managed to do it several times, notably creating Frank. But as the years went by, started to outgrow his loved ones, and became a recluse in his own family. The only one that wasn't scared of him was a young EMZ, who thought her uncle was really cool. Mortis started to feel loved, and to assert himself again thanks to the little girl. Sadly, she passed away because of a sickness, Mortis couldn't accept it, and he resurrected her, cursing her with a zombified body and eternal life. EMZ hated her uncle for what he had done, but she made peace with it thanks to Frank, and Mortis promised to fix his mistake. Today Mortis is still the local mortician, living a cool vampire life with his zombie friends, he doesn't resurrect anyone anymore.

🪦Frank : Frank isn't actually a frankenstein monster, he's just the zombie of the Starr family's butler. Mortis was close to him, so after his death, he tried to ressucitate him, with mixed results. While Frank is alive, the resurrection made him broken in some ways, he barely had memories of his past life, couldn't speak, and had a very awkward body. Mortis admired him though, considering him as a huge achievement. He didn't really treat him like a person at that time though, which angered Frank a lot. He spent a lot of time trying to cope with his meare existence, and what would be his place in the world. Thankfully, when EMZ entered the picture, Mortis softened a lot, and he pushed Frank to explore himself, and to live his own life. He discovered that music was a great way for him to express himself, and he could do it without destroying everything! So he decided to become a DJ, and hosts raves every week at the graveyard!

💅EMZ : She was an outgoing and a bit quirky girl, liking everything spookh and a bit gross. She loved her uncle Mortis, because he was basically a vampire. Sadly, she passed away because of a sickness, but Mortis ressucitated her later. She was now a zombie girl, cursed with a putrefied body, her skin was purple, she was mostly bones, and had no hair and nose. Her schoolmates were mocking her for her appearance, and made her life miserable. She got so frustrated, that she completely leaned in her monster persona, and became a scary, sassy bully herself. But thanks to Frank and Mortis, she got the courage to assert herself once again, and so, she changed her appearance to become who she really wanted to be. She became the queen we all know and love today, and didn't even give a look to her bullies, she prefered to help girls like her feel more confident in themselves. To do this, she became a beauty influencer, and later launched her own line of beauty products!

STUNT SHOW

🎆Stu : Stu is former fighter drone, who was badly beat up after a brawl, he had no bottom part and his eye glow blue instead of yellow. He was found, and repurposed by Janet and Bonnie's parents to be a crash test robot for their stunts. Stu was "mistreated" but he loved it, and eventually gained a consciousness after a bad stunt, he was truly a part of the family. Sadly, one day, the girl's parents died in a tragic accident. Janet got depressed, and didn't want to perform anymore. Stu was left purposeless, as he only knew how to crash onto things. So, he took it upon himself to take care of the girls, and with the help of Bonnie, he managed to cheer Janet back up. He's now the leader of the stunt show and while it's difficult for him, he does his best everyday to bring the girls to their fullest potential.

🚀Janet : Janet has always seen her parents and Stu perform on stage, she loved the spotlights and the sparks in peoples eyes during the show. But unlike her parents, she wanted to become a singer more than anything, and she began to perform at an early age. Unfortunately, when her parents passed away after the accident, she was too scared to go on stage again. She saw how much Stu struggled to take care of the both of them, and slowly, she started to open up again. Little by little, with the encouragements of her little sister, she got the courage to step back on stage. She now gives everything she has during each show, wanting to impress people with her stunts and voice, as well as honour her parent's memory. She also is now responsible for everything regarding security in the show, making sure that nobody gets hurt, everyone (even Stu) has to wear a helmet now!

🦷Bonnie : Bonnie loved to watch her parents fly around during their show, and wanted to be just like them, but she was still too young to perform such dangerous stunts. Her mother promised that when she'd be old enough, they'd fly to the moon together. When they died, she couldn't accept Stu as their substitute, and began to behave badly to drive him nuts. She'd crawl around her parent's old stuff, and try to imitate them by jumping around between the obstacles. One day, she hid in her mother's canon, thinking she was ready to go see her mom on the moon, Stu fired it by accident, and she was launched in the air. She loved the sensation of flying through the sky, and the adrenaline it gave her, but she didn't notice she was about to crash. Stu managed to catch her, and miraculously, she was safe. This incident made Janet terrified, and she grounded her very badly. Bonnie wasn't discouraged, she wanted to fly again! So she started to slowly practice with Stu, and showed Janet what she was capable of. In return, both Janet and Stu found their purpose again, and you know the rest of the story!

GIFT SHOP

🪙 Griff : Griff spent the majority of his life in the frontier, and made his bread and butter as "professional scammer". With each new day, he came up with a new crazy plan to scam some idiots. He never got rich, but he had enough to live a tranquil life. He lived many years like this, until he scammed the wrong person, and the rangers finally caught up to his misdeeds. To avoid getting caught, he assumed a completely new identity, and sweet-talked his way into becoming the boss of the shiny new Starr Park gift shop! He wore this crazy hat and outfit as a way to hide in plain sight. Little did he know, owning a business takes work, and while he's good at making money, he's bad, oh so bad at keeping it.

🖤Edgar : Edgar is actually an heir to the powerful Starr family. The Starrs are all about their clean and traditional public image, and Edgar... let's say he stands out a bit too much. So, in order to correct his behavior, his mom thought it would be a great idea to get him a job. Meet new people, have responsabilities and all this schtick. So, she forced Griff to employ her son (since she can easily get him fired, or worse), and today, the poor kid wastes his day in this miserable shop. Edgar is a terrible employee, all he does is hang around, hands in his pockets, and complain, but Griff has to keep him if he wants to keep his life.

📒Colette : Since she was little, Colette LOVED everything Starr Park-related, like a Disney adult would. So when she heard a gift shop had just opened, she saw an opportunity to get closer to the brawlers, and to get tons of free merch! So she jumped on the occasion, and practically begged Griff to take her in. He was reluctant to employ this terrifying girl at first, but he saw how knowledgeable and dedicaded she was, and saw a way to cut corners thanks to her. Today Colette is living the best life ever, working her dream job, with loving coworkers, where she can stalk her favorite brawlers all day... Truly the dream!

Castle Courtyard

📞Grom : Little is known about Grom, what we do know is that, he has always served as manpower for various businesses and organisations. He saw a lot of things, bad things, but he had a job to do, and it wasn't asking questions. The second-to-last job he ever had was a playground supervisor in kindergarten, but he wasn't prepared for it. Nobody knows what happened back there, but this is what broke him, and even though he's now walking on greener pastures at Starr Park, he's never been the same ever again.

🗑️Ash : As a kid, Ash had big dreams of becoming a knight in shiny armor like in the old legends, to slay a dragon and get married to a beautiful princess. But life hasn't been good for him, and now he's a Starr Park janitor, who has to fight off rats and is stuck with a crazy russian man. The fact that he's rather crancky is understable. Still, deep inside, Ash still has that childish dream, wearing that trash can and brandishing his trusty broom and shovel is a way for him to reclaim it... charming...

🐀Moe : Moe is of the same rat colony that Ash constantly fights against. Unfortunately, he mutated very early in his life, and was never really part of the colony, as he was too human. He roamed in the park for a while, surviving off garbage that was left on the ground. Ash knew of his presence, and tried to get rid of him, as he thought he was just a big vermin. Grom found the rat though, and immediately fell in love with him, he adopted the little rat and named him Moe. Ash warmed up to him as well, and agreed to keep him, as long as he was helping them. So they built Moe his weird drilling machine, and he's now an unofficial Starr Park employee! Free labor!! Yaay!

SNOTEL

🐧Mr.P : He's always been a businessman on the grind, always speeding off to some meeting, working hours on end, without taking any breaks. All this to reach the top. While it somewhat worked, being now the owner of the Starr Park Snotel, it took a toll on his sanity. The stress of the business life turned him into a cranky, manic and tyrannical boss. He barely articulates when he speaks anymore, that's why his speech sounds like crazy penguin blabberings. No idea why he wears a penguin suit though.

🌬️ Gale : Gale seems to have his life figured out since he was young; he's a gardener/landscaper, and has been for 50 years now. Despite always doing the same job, he is completely contempt with his life. His work is his passion, but he nevers overdoes it: patience, steadyness, and kindness are his keys to a job well-done. Even at 60, at the top of a freezing mountain, under the orders of a crazy boss, he still blows the snow away with a tender smile. He likes his job so much that he doesn't even realize Mr.P doesn't respect his worker rights.

🍧 Lou : The Lous (idk what would be their real name) are a famous brand of robots scattered all over the frontier. They are ice-making robots, design to serve refreshing treats to the thirsty and over-heating people of the badlands. Due to their popularity, Mr.P thought it would be a great idea to buy one for the Snotel. He didn't really get why these robots were popular in the first place... nobody really needs shaved-ice on an ice-covered mountain... So now, poor Lou just sits there collecting dust. Gale comforts him by telling him that he just has to wait, and his time will come, but Mr.P pressures him to work harder to attract customers. He doesn't know what to do!! (Idk how he would've gained a consciousness though).

GOLDARM GANG

🎯 Belle : Belle Starr was one of the many daughters of the Starr family, she was to be raised to become a succesfull heir and raise children of her own to ensure the family's destiny. But she never wanted that life, Belle wanted to be free and make her own choices, instead of sewing and singing, Belle liked robotics and shooting, which she loved to practice with her father, who was a brilliant engineer, partially responsible for the creation of the modern cyclops bots. On the opposite, her mother tried everything possible to force Belle to become a noble woman. This lead her to discover, after the death of her little brother Edwin, how corrupt and evil her family's intentions were. She decided to run away, and to dedicate her life to fighting against the Starr's control of the land, marking her as an outlaw. During these years, as she multiplied her crimes, she became known as one of the most dangerous and terrfying outlaws, slowly recruting others like her, forming her group, the Goldarm Gang. Amongst them was Sam Bronson, a former factory worker who was the first to join her cause, and building her a golden arm after her old one gosld severed in the factory. They fell in love, got married, and had a child together, that she named after her little brother, Eddy. Their life was difficult, but the gang had each other, they were a small family. Nut Belle didn't want her son to suffer like she did in the past, so she pushed him to perform better and better with each mission. She witnessed the stress this was putting him under, but the thought of losing her son terrified her. Eventually, Eddy had enough, and denounced the gang to the rangers. They were all caught on a gem cargo, which exploded, killing Eddy, and all the gang was sentenced to jail. Both Belle and Sam managed to escape years later, and despite the grief, the guilt, the hatred and vindictiveness in Belle's heart, she seems to have settled down a little bit, living a quieter life with her husband and beloved robot-daughter Pearl. Her time hasn't come yet, and she still fights against the Starrs, but she has new opponents now, an idiotic pretty-cow-boy-toy and his enraged and brutish girlfriend.

🧲 Sam : Sam Bronson comes from a poor farmer family of the frontier. He always was the one to repair his family's old broken down trucks, and developed a passion for mecanics. His upbringing was difficult, as he was often the victim of criminal scum and corrupt rangers, who used robots to oppress his family. He decided to work at the robot factory to help them, and he quickly became respected and beloved by his coworkers for his skill and sense of humor. Sadly, one day, the direction of the factory decided to make the factory self-sufficient, and to fire most of the staff. Sam was revolted, and contested the decision, but they started to turn the robots against them, starting a riot. At this point, Sam realized that the machines he helped making weren't made to protect or help people, but to oppress them, and he, who saw technology as a beautiful invention, started to harbor a hatred for this perversion. During the riot, he met Belle, who was trying to destroy the facility, and had lost her arm in the commotion. They saved each other, and from then on, Sam decided to follow Belle, wanting to fight against the corruption of the land. He built her a new gold arm, fell in love, married her, had a son bla, bla, bla, you know the rest of the story. While Belle was very vindictive towards the Starrs, Sam is a bit more mesured: his main goal is to protect the common folk, and so, despite his appearance, is the voice of reason within the gang. He loved his son more than anything, and wanted to give him a happy life, so, he started to build a robot for him, but could never finish it before it was too late. Sam was devastated by his death, and didn't talk to Belle for months afterwards, but he realized she needed him too in order to grieve. So they got back together, and Sam forced Belle to slow down, take their time to heal and enjoy their life. He finally finished Pearl, and she makes their life a little brighter everyday, just like Eddy did. Despite his unconditional love for Belle, deep down, Sam hasn't fully forgiven her for what she did to their son.

🍪 Pearl : Pearl is Sam's passion project, a gift he wanted to give to his family and a way to prove that robots aren't supposed to be made to fight. He worked on her since Eddy was little, she was supposed to be her nanny and big sister, she would be motherly, tend to the house, and even make cakes, that Belle loves. But he was so busy with gang business, he could never finish her in time. Fast forward to when him and Belle escaped prison, Sam needed a way to distract himself from their unresolved feelings, and to cheer up/apologize to/make Belle open up. So he finished her in like, a week. Belle was really touched by this kind of dorky gesture from Sam, and quickly adopted Pearl as her own daughter. Pearl helped repair Belle and Sam's relationship by setting normalcy back between them. She is a bit disconnected from the gang's history, she knows about it, but her job is more to keep her family happy and proud, and she's really good at it. Belle and Sam kinda suck at directly express love to each other, so they express it through Pearl, she's their to represent their love (like a real child would). Well, all that's pretty and all, but Belle still managed to find a way to weaponize her 🤦... things never change...

[sodaliteskull]

Writeblr Reintro

Now that I am free from tumblr purgatory, and actually have some free time, I figured I may as well reintroduce myself!

I'm Steph, legal adult and she/they queer living in the mildest climate in Canada. I write pretty much exclusively sci-fi and fantasy, and I fill my casts of characters out with mostly ladies because I am really tired of hearing about dudes! I have five main WIPs I'm rotating around in my mind at any given moment:

The Silent Island of Crow intro post A forum RP currently being reworked into book formatting, it's about a bunch of weirdos getting up to shenanigans and dealing with threats from their pasts and elsewhere. Started really juvenile and grew to be more serious in tone, jarringly so, but there's still some interesting kernels in there...

The Island of Crows intro post ...So my best friend and I are taking those kernels and making something that's a little more consistent and in line with where our writing skills are now! Currently in the planning stages, but the core of it will remain the same: A bunch of weirdos getting up to shenanigans on an island they've all been pulled to for one reason or another.

The Starcrossed Cycle intro post The solo adventures of some of the characters I am going to be bringing to the Island of Crows, before they actually get there. Iradurel is a criminal frozen in time, and Ryla is the monster hunter that finds and frees her. The two of them will come to realize that this is not the first time they've been pulled into each other's orbits.

Abyssal Scrutiny intro post Look, I saw Power Rangers at a formative age, so super sentai shit is always at the back of my mind! So this is my take on the genre, where a group of people are granted powers from a mysterious source, in order to fight against eldritch abominations in some sort of parallel realm. Only, as Morgan uncovers, there is more going on than just fighting monsters of the day.

The Moons of Boryarlta intro post This started life with the intent of being a lesbian rewrite of a mecha anime, but has spiralled into an unholy hodgepodge of sci-fi genre nonsense. Stuck in a dead end job just trying to make rent, Cass didn't think she'd ever have the chance to leave her hometown, let alone her planet. But then she's captured and thrown into a gladiator arena on another world, and her life just gets weirder from there.

Beyond those, I have a couple random ideas that are percolating, so I may have more to add in the future. But for on here, I am always down for tag games (lol just late to respond to them!), love to hear about all the weird shit that people are writing about outside of the traditional publishing scene, and reblog a lot of images and words that remind me of my WIPs (I try to keep my tagging system organized). Gimme a follow if any of that sounds like your cup of tea!

[ithinkdogshouldvote2]

THE DNDADS TEENS PLAY BG3!!! HOW THEY’RE PLAYING AND WHO THEYRE ROMANCING!

‼️‼️Pretty major spoilers for big parts of Baldurs gate. PLEASE read with caution. ‼️‼️

Scary: she plays a drow wild magic sorcerer. If this is before she and Willy broke their patron pact, then her dream visitor is Willy. If its after that, then its some really hot emo person. In terms of romance, Scary is likely drawn to Astarion after the vampire reveal but is torn between him and Shadowheart. (Also Wyll because hes actually GENUINELY nice to her but sincerity scares her so she doesn’t try to pursue anything with him even though she does actually really like him) she tries to romance the dream visitor (if it's NOT Willy obviously) but is pretty disgusted by the later reveal and later kills them. Scary plays evil until she gets to the nightfall and shadowheart doesnt kill the night song. After that, scary makes an effort for the rest of the game to be better.

Lincoln: Linc is just a normal human guy oath of devotion paladin. He’s literally just playing himself. He makes his dream visitor his dad which makes later scenes REALLY uncomfortable and he gets real-world mad at Marco like it’s somehow his fault. Linc helped minthara take over the grove because he got to the goblin camp before meeting the tieflings and he supports women. (#ally)(also she reminded him of scary and her character) but he massacred an entire people and then didn’t know why everyone was so upset at the party. Anyways he ended up romancing her. He DID NOT romance the dream visitor for obvious reasons. Linc does a FULLY evil run because he listens to women (ally) also hes: "too far in now to be saved anyways."

Normal: norm is a half elf, elf, gnome, dwarf, halfling, dragonborn and gith. He keeps restarting the game when he makes a choice he feels guilty about (Often). it REALLY bothers him that he cant make ALL of his companions approve of ALL of his choices at the same time. Eventually, he settles on a halfling college of valour bard. His dream visitor is (unfortunately) hermie. For romances, like Scary, hes also drawn in my Astarion’s “emo bad boy ness” and normal BELIEVES that he can fix him. He cant. He ascends him because he really just BELIEVES that there’s no way astarion will continue the cycle of abuse. It’ll be different this time for sure. It’s- uh- NOT. (Shocker). Also he romanced the dream visitor and felt guilty about it. Normal plays a good route (with the exception of ascending astarion) and the final party is bittersweet with his partner being the way he is. (Scary hears him talk about what happens to astarion and is FULLY like: “norm thats straight up toxic as fuck. LEAVE HIM” "ITS MY FAULT HES LIKE THIS" "no its NOT norm i am BEGGING you to raise your standards")

Taylor: oh you KNOW hes playing a tiefling. He plays a gloom stalker ranger because now he can actually USE those skills on the road. His dream visitor is his anime waifu. He’s romancing Lae’zel WHICH SOUNDS KIND OF SUPRISING until you realize the conversation went like this: Lizzie: “you’ve earned my respect and more still. You’ve proven your wits and your efficient and dominant. In and out of battle.” Taylor: “heh. It’s about TIME someone recognized what i bring to the group. I truly am the backbone of our party and shes smart for finally recognizing the value of my expertise. A WORTHY PARTNER FOR- (15 more minutes of monologue)” also he romanced the dream visitor and DID NOT feel guilty about it and was in fact, VERY onboard with the later revel. But he does end up turning on them and killing them to free Orpheus. (which he cried about afterwards) Taylor plays a fully good play through and gets the best possible ending.

[commanderteag]

My brain has decided it is time to talk about random sylvaris so don't mind my random ramble. Spoilers but I don't go into detail.

Meet Áireamhán! (He/Him)

My most recent nerd. He is a ranger/druid. I don't have a very well-planned story for him as I don't plan to make him a commander. He is more just one to explore and draw or write about areas he's been in his little journal. That's how it starts but he later will join the Pirory and has to learn to pick up a sword fast. I'll add to his story as time goes on as I'm mostly using him to redo the story for Achiv so during that something will string together :P

He is a cheerful guy who's just happy to be here. Often lost in thought or scribbling something down. His people skills aren't great but he tries. He's stubborn and a major perfectionist. He finds himself in the company of animals more than others but he doesn't have an angry bone in his body. Well not that sylvari have bones but the point stands

Next, we have Maolmuire! (He/They)

Now I completely forgot I used the same face for Maolmuire as they are my most neglected sylvari- They're a Mesmer(I always change their spec)

Basically, I like the idea of the cycle after the attack while the Pale Tree was healing came out "wrong," so to speak. Their dreams are shadowed more like a glimpse into what their for instead of a clear story. They can come out with horns or claws or in Maols case wings and an out of shape arm.

Personality wise, he's curious but sneaky and a bit snippy. He feels the strange looks and glares he receives for how he looks, but he does not particularly care for them. He wants to know what the dream was trying to show him. He tries his best to do good, but in the end, there is this shadow he doesn't know or understand whispering to him. His is a very unserious plant. He never let what happened to him make them closed off they took it in their stride. They're chatty and witty but do tend to act before thinking. They struggle to take things seriously and can make someone's problem feel small without meaning. Don't go to them for therapy.

Final Sylvari I will be talking about:

Eilliu! (She/her)

Thief (Deadeye)

She is the champion of Aurene for my third commander who I am still to bring up Cuolr Wildreaker:

Cuolr met Elliu in the Vigil and they've been close ever since! Cuolr took on the commander role but Elliu was shown the vision of Aurene's egg and became her champion. Ellui is a very aggressive and secretive lady. She keeps her cards close and won't act before she thinks of just about every possibility. Everyone knows her as quiet Cuolr speaks enough for both of them.

[kirric-the-fan]

Hmmm... thinking about the Holy Quintet as if Precure instead: as in, same characters, but the contracting is benign and Kyubey is just a fairy trying to stop the Walpurgisnacht from destroying the Earth. Kyubey doesn't mention that they're a clone fairy, that there are multiple of them and that somehow their existence feeds the Walpurgisnacht, but the team discover and happily resolve that later on anyway.

Madoka: Would be your classic optimistic Pink lead cure. Very kind hearted- I see her as bit of a blend of Tsubomi, Miyuki and Nodoka. She would thrive in a precure-style season. Cure Cheri.

Sayaka: Level-headed musical cure. Still has healing powers, more for others though, and likely has a violin magical item. Still has a massive crush on a boy she wants to help. Cure Forte. (Although, to nick a name from some of my oc's and match the C-names theme, Cure Classic, Crescendo, or Concert would work too. But I feel like Forte fits the best.)

Mami: The older Cure. Ribbon powers. Obsessed with food and hospitality. She always hosts the team at her place. Was a lone cure before Madoka transformed and Mami took her under her wing- although it was Madoka who ultimately convinced them to become part of a team. Cure Cake

Kyoko: The Red Cure. Disillusioned about the whole precure stuff and using her powers for herself when she comes across the others. Kyoko is most likely to be a morally neutral, or villain-turned cure. The others need to help show her that she can still believe in doing good and helping others, and Sayak and Madoka are perfect for that. Cure Carmine.

Homura: Purple Cure. She struggles with her powers at first, always seeming to be the weaker cure, even if she can slow down time for herself sometimes. Gets very frustrated, but Madoka always helps her out and encourages her. Likes Madoka very much. Is the weaker cure until they run into Walpurgisnacht a month into them being Precure, and all but her get wiped out. Homura manages to travel back in time by about a month, and the cycle begins again. She gets more and more experienced, and more prepared each time, able to help the others where they used to help her. As they work, they are able to delay the Walpurgisnacht a bit in each cycle, slowly building experience until they are able to defeat it entirely. Homura gets good at masking when she's gone back a cycle, because she gets to a point and decides she doesn't want to worry the others about their repeated impending doom, but when she does, Kyoko is still able to see through her, and Know. It doesn't stay hidden for long. Cure Chronos.

Nagisa would be an honorary sixth ranger, possibly even a saved mascot cure: Cure Cheese.

Uhh, the team name would be somthing like Beautiful Blossom Precure, as a theme to how they grow, but also how time shenanigans are going on.