#fen’s partner isn’t real

[industrations]

@alarainai ‘s partner is actually not real, it’s just @imdamagecontrol and i in a trenchcoat

[teshadraws]

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Seekers of Soul

[Chapter 36] (25 Pages)

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Between moving into their new quarters, practicing her aura moves, and going on missions, Nia is too busy to get sick!

-

Nia wakes up feeling…off.

Since Tobias fell asleep at Maggie’s after their talk the night before, she’d decided to bunk with Avery in Team Shellshock’s quarters. Waking up in an unfamiliar room is probably just throwing her. She’s always a bit groggy in the morning anyways, but her limbs and eyes feel particularly heavy today. She yawns as she sits up, then hums to get rid of the tickle in the back of her throat.

Xander’s team is already gone for the day, leaving their room quiet and dark. Nia is tired enough to easily go back to sleep, but it feels a little strange being in here without any of the actual team members present. Besides, it does look like it’s about dawn (curse her early morning riser of a partner for changing her internal clock), and Tobias is sure to be rarin’ to go, even after last night’s emotional conversation.

So Nia stumbles out the door, making sure it’s shut tight behind her, and shuffles down the hall to their own new room on the Seekers floor. Tobias, predictably, is already back and preparing their satchel for the day’s mission. Nia manages to give him a tired smile and a mumble of greeting, and then the charmander is turning her around to hurry them out the door and to the mission boards.

For today’s job, they go into the forest to help a team of construction Pokemon who are building a family’s new house, its wooden framework hidden away amongst the trees. Nia and Tobias are directed to move lumber and other building materials from transportation carts over to the workers, and to lend a general helping hand when someone needs it. As they work, Nia is bothered by every too-difficult lift of wood and every extra-sleepy blink that reminds her that she just doesn’t feel quite right.

Halfway through the day, a nearby timburr sneezes, sniffing and grumbling about the cold going around. Nia, walking by with her arms full of wooden planks and buckets of paint, stops so suddenly she almost drops the entire pile onto her toes. A bit of maroon paint sloshes out onto the grass.

Oh. Right.

Her heart sinks to her stomach as she thinks of the little sewaddle baby from the day before.

Sneezing right in her face.

(“Even a common cold for a native Pokemon could wreak havoc on your body if you were to catch it,” Fen says, looking seriously into Nia’s eyes. “If you ever feel sickness coming on, you let me or Maggie know immediately. Okay?”)

As quick as the memory enters her mind, she shoves it frantically away, just like she did yesterday. She isn’t getting sick. She isn’t. She can’t get sick. Because if she gets sick, it could be serious and she can’t die here, not in a world away from her family, not before finding her way home and—

“Hey,” Tobias says quietly, taking some of the buckets and wooden planks from Nia’s arms and giving her a weirded-out look. “What’s up?”

Nia looks at him and consciously wraps her panic—her racing heart and nauseous stomach and the tears stinging at her eyes—up in a neat little box, doing the mental equivalent of chucking it full-force into the woods.

“Nothing! I’m good,” Nia says, ignoring the way her throat tickles with the beginning of a cough. “Thanks.”

Tobias doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t push.

The rest of the day, Nia alternates between quietly freaking out and purposefully ignoring her anxious thoughts as much as possible. She tries to soothe herself with a stream of platitudes. Maybe she’s just tired after the long journey with the migrating bug types yesterday! Or maybe she didn’t sleep well in the unfamiliar room. What’re the odds of that little baby getting her sick, anyways?

(The odds are higher than she’d like.)

Should she tell Maggie and Fen? Everyone told her she should if she thinks she’s getting sick, but—

But if she doesn’t say it, doesn’t make it real, it feels manageable. Distant. An overreactive, anxious thought instead of reality.

She’s not sick. She’s not.

By time they return home in the evening, Nia is exhausted both physically and mentally from the day’s work and the constant internal struggle. Earlier that morning, Nia and Tobias had decided to officially move their belongings down to their new room in the Seekers wing after the day’s work, but she regrets that now as soon as they start making the long climb up to Maggie’s quarters.

Seeing the meganium is always a treat, of course! Even if Nia feels unreasonably guilty stifling a cough in her presence, knowing that she’s—well, not downplaying a possible sickness, but…

Well, no use scaring Maggie with a possible false alarm, right?

Luckily, the conversation is short since Sage is planning to move into Maggie’s room that evening as well, and Tobias clearly doesn’t want to be around to watch the ivysaur take his place.

Finally, they’re back in the their new room on the Seekers floor, and Nia can just relax and look forward to flopping down on the plush red rug in the middle of their new room.

“We should get some decorations,” Nia says, looking around the empty space. All of the natural wooden furniture and little patches of greenery are soothing in the evening sunlight, but a bit dull on their own. The rug is a nice pop of color, but the room is just begging for more.

Andyn and Xander’s team’s quarters are more personalized, full of posters and cushions and little knick-knacks. Nia always likes the homey, lived-in feeling when she visits them.

Tobias, coming in behind her, drops Nia’s last stack of books on the ground none-too-gently, shaking his arms out after the long walk from Maggie’s quarters. “Decorations? Why?”

“It would look nice!” Nia says, giving him her most convincing smile. “Make it feel more like a home than some stranger’s room.”

For a moment Nia wonders if she shouldn’t have said that. Tobias and Maggie only just made up last night, and while the charmander finally seems to understand that the meganium still loves him and just wants what’s best for him, it’s probably still a bit of a sore subject.

Thankfully, Tobias just gives her a tired look. “I already helped you carry your mountain of books down here. Count me out.”

“But you don’t mind if I do it?” Nia asks, tail starting to wag hopefully.

“Just don’t go overboard.”

“Deal!” Not that she’ll know what he counts as overboard until she’s already done it. Eh, she’ll deal with that problem when they get to it.

They don’t honestly have that many belongings to move in, other than their mission supplies and Nia’s books. Tobias’ rain cloak is hung on the wall near their nests, but that’s about it. Nia is going to have to save up her Seekers earnings and keep an eye out for fun decor to buy.

Nia knew she should’ve bought a souvenir at Ghatha.

Ooh! Or maybe she could buy something from Hazel and Margot’s shop at Afon’s Cap! Their woodworking was incredible. She’ll ask the raichu about it in her next letter.

“Maybe Hazel could make me an actual bed, too,” Nia muses.

The older human did have one of her own, in their little house at Afon’s Cap. Nia’s body isn’t ever sore like she would’ve expected from sleeping in literal heaps of straw and moss on the floor, but she can’t help longing for old human comforts anyways. She still can’t figure out why Pokemon here at the guild don’t tend to use blankets. Maybe some kind of instinctive preference for more natural nesting materials?

She glances at their nests, quietly longing to go back to bed even though it’s only early evening. Just because she didn’t sleep well in Team Shellshock’s quarters the night before, of course! She was unfamiliar with Kry’s quiet snores and having Avery to share a nest with instead of Tobias.

Right.

Tobias, meanwhile, beats her to it and flops down on the plush red rug in the middle of the room. “Who needs that? I’m about to make this my new nest.”

Nia’s answer is interrupted by a quiet knock on the doorframe behind her.

For a moment, Nia is surprised by the thought of someone stopping in to say hi. Every Pokemon they’d passed by while moving in had looked friendly enough to Nia, until they saw Tobias trailing behind her. Even without a scowl on his face  they avoided him, looking agitated or at best indifferent as they pointedly stepped around them.

Nia had known from Xander (and Andyn, and Maggie, and Tobias himself) that Tobias had shot down any fledgling friendships as soon as he arrived at the guild, and it’s not like Nia had seen Tobias hang out with many Pokemon, but…

Well, it’s one thing to know that Tobias is on poor terms with the majority of the guild and another to actually see it. It was less obvious up in the medical wing, with just Maggie and Fen for company. Tobias gets along just fine with those two, and with Arlo and the shinx kids and Azami, but anyone their own age…

Well. Not that Nia can really blame the other Pokemon for avoiding him, with what Xander said about Tobias lashing out and pushing everyone away as soon as he showed up at the guild. But Nia also can’t help noticing how Tobias glares back at the Pokemon they pass. Not angrily, but…defensive. Almost like he’s staring down an outlaw or feral ready to hurt him. Nia doesn’t really have anything else to back it up, but that alone makes her suspect that the guild Pokemon weren’t the most understanding of the traumatized charmander when he first showed up.

Just a poor situation all around.

No wonder Tobias looks at her like she’s grown a second head sometimes, when she chooses to hang out with him in her free time, or just does something small for him like handing him his cloak without him asking. He’s really not used to having friends his own age, is he?

How has he not been terribly lonely all these years?

Regardless, when Nia turns to see who’s at their door, she’s less surprised and much more excited.

“Thought we’d come check out our new neighbors,” Andyn says, grinning. The deerling, a vibrant orange with the changing fall, prances through the doorway to bump her side to Nia’s, looking around appraisingly. “Nice digs. Could use some more color, though.”

“That’s exactly what I thought!” Nia laughs.

“Hey, Nia,” Ezra says, trailing in after his partner with a lazy salute. The sneasel nods to Tobias as well, a much friendlier expression on his face than the charmander has received all day. “Tobias.”

Tobias gives Ezra a dry look, but after a moment rolls his eyes and flops an arm up into something like a wave. “Ezra. Kindling.”

Andyn stops in place, glaring daggers at Tobias. “You are insufferable.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“How in Virizion’s great green forest are you two partners?” Andyn huffs, giving Nia a disbelieving look.

Nia shrugs and plops down by Tobias, close enough give him a playful nudge with her foot. “He’s warm. Like a heater. Gotta prepare for the winter, y’know?”

“I knew there was an ulterior motive,” Tobias drawls, kicking back hard enough to make Nia sway with a laugh.

Andyn still looks baffled by the easy interaction, but shakes her head and folds her legs to settle on the rug by Nia. Ezra joins her, looking totally at ease between the deerling and charmander.

“No Jaz?” Nia asks, looking around for the little stufful.

Ezra waves her off. “She’s busy today. Said to tell you hi, though.”

“Well, she was actually super worried that she was being rude by not visiting right away,” Andyn says, fond exasperation in her voice. “I told her you wouldn’t care.”

Nia laughs and shakes her head. “Not at all. I’m happy you two decided to stop by, though! I was just telling Tobias that we need to get some decorations in here.”

Andyn looks to Tobias, a malicious glint in her eye. “We are going to make this room as bright and loud as possible.”

Tobias shoots up, glaring back at her. “Do not. I will burn it all down.”

Nia laughs and relaxes as the two bicker, closing her eyes and fighting off another yawn. These two remind Nia more and more of Tobias and Junie. Andyn and the little bird would get along like a house on fire. Or they would drive each other crazy. Hard to tell.

The two only stop squabbling when a second knock sounds at the door, and Nia is delighted to look over and see Xander and Felix peeking in. The luxio waits politely at the door, giving them a wave of his tail, but Felix walks right in, a small sack slung over his shoulder.

“Aw, looks like we were too slow!” The wartortle teases, giving Nia a warm smile and a wink as he plops down at her side. “We wanted to welcome you two to the floor first. Here, brought you a little housewarming present and everything.”

“You didn’t have to do that!”

Felix hands over the bag, and Nia looks inside, leaning over so Tobias can peek too without making it obvious that he’s interested.

Oh, of course.

“Berries,” Nia laughs. Guess they can never have too many! She passes the bag to Tobias so he can dig through it for rawst berries.

“Figured you’d be hungry after moving everything in,” Felix says, but falters as he looks around the empty room. “Not that there’s…much to move. Yikes, we gotta get you guys some junk to decorate.”

Nia and Andyn yell that that’s what they’ve been saying, and the group dissolves into laughter as Tobias groans and flops back onto the rug, rawst berry in hand.

Nia’s laughter peters off into a cough, and she clears her throat before anyone can comment on it. She digs into the berry bag to have something to do, holding it open for the others to take some too. Felix pulls out a persim berry before Nia can spot it, and she can’t help glancing at the pink fruit longingly, mouth watering.

Felix notices and chuckles, splitting the persim berry in half and holding one piece out to her. Nia takes it with a happy hum of thanks, popping it in her mouth. The juices feel nice on her dry throat.

As they snack, Xander asks Andyn how Team Evergreen has been doing, and the deerling immediately dives into a rant about co-op missions. Apparently they have to partner up with another team for a mission before they can advance to C-rank, and Andyn is really not looking forward to it.

“Wait, that’s a requirement?” Nia asks through a mouthful of pecha berry. “You have to partner up with another team?”

Xander nods. “Once you reach D-rank, you’re required to partner up with another team at least twice before you can advance again.”

“Supposed to foster cooperation skills or something,” Felix says, waving his hand vaguely. “Honestly it’s just kind of a pain. I don’t mind talking to other teams, but it’s hard to adjust when each team does things so differently. Especially if there’s combat involved.”

“I forgot about that,” Tobias says, putting his chin in his hands with something dangerously close to a pout. “Ugh.”

“Yeah, I’m not looking forward to it either,” Andyn grumbles. “We tried it once before and the other team just couldn’t keep up.”

Nia perks up as an idea strikes her. “Oh! We could go together!”

To Nia’s surprise, Andyn looks hesitant.

Tobias picks up on it immediately, narrowing his eyes with a growl. “What? Think we can’t keep up?”

Andyn frowns, looking like she wants to fight. But she glances at Nia to keep her temper in check. “No! No. Just…you two are a newer team! Plus there’s only two of you. So you might…struggle a bit.”

“Try us,” Tobias challenges.

“I think it’d be fun,” Ezra says with a shrug. “At least we’d know we actually like the other team.”

“I don’t think we’re too bad in a fight, either,” Nia adds. “W-Well, Tobias isn’t. I’m getting there. I just learned quick attack! And we’re going to work on my aura tomorrow during training.”

Andyn finally slumps, defeated in the face of Nia’s enthusiasm. “…Okay, yeah. Fine, we can try to do a team mission sometime.”

Nia and Ezra cheer, and Tobias sits back, satisfied. As Xander and Felix start giving them tips for teaming up, Nia smiles and listens intently, ignoring the tickle of a cough once again building in the back of her throat.

——————————————————

Nia wakes up the next morning feeling…tired. And the tickle of a cough has evolved to something phlegmier, making her sniff and clear her throat as she tries to ignore the faint headache pounding at the back of her skull.

But Nia and Tobias have training planned for today and she won’t be missing that! She’s way too busy to get sick.

Nia drags herself out of bed and tries to keep her yawning to a minimum as Tobias ties her scarf around her arm and leads the two of them out the door. They head to the training floor, where Val and Azami are already waiting for them in a free area, leaning in close to one another’s space and talking quietly. Val says something, eyes uncharacteristically warm, and Azami bursts into laughter, nodding. Nia almost feels like she’s intruding on something, oddly enough, but the two mentors turn to greet them as soon as they draw close.

“Spitfire!” Azami cries. The tsareena looks delighted at the sight of Tobias. “Finally! Been wanting to train with you all week, but you ran off to Ghatha without me!”

Tobias snorts, trying not to look pleased at the greeting and failing miserably. “Hey.”

Val just gives Nia a stoic nod, and Nia returns it with a beaming smile and a wave.

They aren’t doing team training today, so Azami takes Tobias to the other side of the little training area to spar. She hears the grass type say something about practicing Tobias’ dragon rage attack.

Nia turns to Val, only a little nervous about what they have planned for today. She feels much better about using her aura again after talking to Val and Avery the other day and not having her energy act up ever since they returned to the guild. Turns out that not being in one life-threatening situation after another has done wonders for her stress levels.

“Aura training time?” Nia asks the medicham.

Val doesn’t smile, but there’s a subtle levity to her tone as she says, “Aura training time.”

Nia follows the medicham in sitting on the floor to do some meditation exercises, taking measured breaths to calm herself. One after another. In. Out. In—

Something in her chest catches on the inhale, making her lungs jump with a cough. She pushes it back down, clearing her throat and swallowing down any more tickling sensations. She sniffs, then resumes her breaths.

Once Nia feels properly centered, Val instructs her to call her aura to her hand. While Nia does so, she gushes about her success in finally getting quick attack to work.

“Once I’m more comfortable with it I might see if I can get the move ‘work up’ figured out next,” Nia rambles, watching her aura pool into her palm, blue and bright. She wills it into a sphere, less liquid light and more solid mass. “Tobias thinks I should be able to learn it, and since it just gives a strength boost it should be helpful even though I still fight with a branch most of the time, right?”

“Correct.” Val nods. She’s peering closely at Nia’s aura, an idea clearly building behind her eyes. “Would you like to try something?”

“Always!”

Val’s lips twitch before settling back into a neutral state. “You are learning to mold and solidify your aura. Try to stretch it into a longer shape. Like a staff.”

Nia tries to visualize it, and perks up when she realizes what Val is getting at. “Like a branch!”

Val nods. “If you can form your own energy into a weapon, you will not have to rely on finding an external item to defend yourself.”

“Oh, that’s such a good idea,” Nia murmurs, brow furrowing as she focuses, trying to get her aura to stretch. The sphere in her hand wavers and lengthens, slowly. Nia holds her breath, shaking with effort. But after a few moments the energy shivers, unstable, then dissipates entirely.

Nia gasps a heavy lungful of air, panting and trying to catch her breath. Instead, her throat catches on another cough, and she can’t help hacking into her fist for a few moments. Ugh. She hasn’t felt this drained after using her aura in a while. Granted, she’s trying to do something new with it, but still.

Val pauses, looking at Nia’s face with a slightly furrowed brow. “Are you all right?”

Nia nods her head hard enough to make herself dizzy, trying not to think about the extra bit of exhaustion in her limbs and the congestion that’s been present in her chest since this morning when she woke up.

She is not getting sick. She can’t get sick.

(Hazel’s face flashes through her mind, the raichu’s expression soft and concerned. “Your symptoms might come on weak, but don’t take any chances.”)

Cold fear melts in her belly like ice. Nia takes a shuddering breath and physically makes herself relax. “No, I’m. I’m fine. Let me try that again.”

Val gives her a warning look. “Do not push yourself if you are unwell.”

“I’m fine, really!” Nia insists, forcing a bright smile and already summoning her aura again. “C’mon, I’ll get it this time.”

Val looks strangely uncertain for a moment, but relents.

By time Nia and Tobias leave the training floor hours later, late in the afternoon, Nia has managed to get her aura into a semi-solid baton-like form for a few seconds. She just needs to work on lengthening it to the size of a staff and actually keeping it solid for longer periods of time.

She’s also exhausted, despite the many breaks Val made her take to watch Tobias spar with Azami, spitting plumes of beautiful purple flames. She’s feeling sore (more than usual) and a little chilly (probably just…drying sweat. Does she sweat in this body? She doesn’t think she does—she’s a dog, right?). The tickle in her windpipe makes her clear her throat with a quiet grunt every once in a while, and she sniffles here and there. But she’s still okay.

(Fen’s voice again. “It can become…well, not to scare you, but fairly serious.”)

Nia takes a cue from Val’s training and consciously slows her breaths throughout supper, warding off her fear. She picks at her food and tries to focus on Tobias’ half-hearted complaints about Azami’s training methods, smiling and nodding at all the right parts.

Tobias keeps giving her probing looks, but doesn’t say anything.

They go to visit Maggie after supper, Tobias telling the meganium about his progress with dragon rage and clearly excited in his own way. Nia tries to match his enthusiasm when Maggie asks how her own training is going, and only a few coughs sneak out between forced grins and attempts at acting normal. Luckily, Maggie seems too preoccupied with making sure Tobias is doing all right after their argument to dote on Nia quite as much as usual.

It’s silly anyways. If Nia doesn’t make a big deal out of a little cough and some sleepiness, it’ll probably just go away on its own. The discomfort in her gut is just her overreacting. She doesn’t want Maggie and Fen to freak out over nothing.

Or worse, to freak out over something.

Nia goes to bed early that night, before the moon has risen high enough to see through the trees. Before Tobias does, even. Just as an extra precaution. She’ll sleep it off, and in the morning she’ll feel better.

——————————————————

Tobias wakes Nia at dawn, and she knows immediately that she feels ten times worse.

She groans and takes a moment to wake up fully, blinking heavy eyes and fighting against the tug of sleep. She sniffs, her sensitive nose so stuffy she can’t even smell anything. She can hear her own breath catch in her chest, congestion clear in each inhale. And the fall air feels particularly cold today, seeming to cut right through her fur to her sore muscles.

(Fen’s voice, trying not to sound concerned: “For now, don’t worry unless you begin showing signs of sickness—coughing, fever, chills, pain, anything of the sort.”)

But she’s not sick. At least not badly sick. If she can get through the day, she can just…go to bed extra, extra early. Yeah!

It’ll be fine.

She’s not scared, because there’s nothing to be scared of.

She takes a deep, rattling breath and immediately chokes on it. She coughs into her elbow, turning away from Tobias as he ties her scarf around her arm and hoping he doesn’t say anything. He gives her a questioning look, as if to ask if she’s all right. She gives him a thumbs-up and a weak smile in return.

Tobias, luckily, doesn’t push. Either because he’s not worried about it, or because he’s so distracted getting ready for today’s mission. Either way, Nia is grateful. The normalcy soothes some of her own insistent anxiety.

She’s also grateful Tobias is back in full form and able to lead their team today. She follows him down the tree and to the mission boards without a word, too busy focusing on walking without falling over through the pounding haze in her head.

Ugh, she really does feel gross. When they finally stop at the mission boards, Nia sways where she stands. Her head feels like it’s stuffed full of cotton, and everything filters through her senses a bit muffled and dreamlike. Nia doesn’t even realize that Tobias has said something until she looks up to find him staring at her expectantly, brow furrowed.

“Sorry, what?” Nia asks, hoarse.

Tobias’ frown grows. “You’re really out of it today. Are you sick?”

Nia vehemently shakes her head, immediately regretting it for how dizzy it makes her. She grabs the edge of the mission board to steady herself. “No, I-I’m fine. Really. Just tired. Did you pick a mission?”

Nia tries hard to look alert and interested in the paper in Tobias’ hands, even when the letters swim in her vision.

Tobias doesn’t look convinced. “If you’re sick we can—”

“I’m not sick,” Nia says, a little sharper than she means to. She knows the denial is useless anyways, for all that her voice is nasally with congestion.

Tobias rolls his eyes and throws his arms up. “Fine! Fine, you’re not sick. Whatever. Just don’t blame me if you puke or something in the middle of the mission.”

Nia nods and stubbornly grabs for the paper in Tobias’ hands, but he quickly yanks it out of reach and reattaches it to the mission board. Nia gives him a frustrated look.

“I’m picking a different one,” Tobias says, leaving no room for argument. “Just…hang on.”

Nia relents, sniffling and pouting like an angry child. She knows she’s being unreasonable, but she doesn’t feel well and she’s scared and she knows she should she should tell Maggie or Fen but she just—

Acknowledging it makes it real. And she doesn’t want to face the scary truth behind what getting sick might mean for her. So instead she closes her eyes, leaning her head against the cool surface of the mission board.

“All right,” Tobias says eventually, taking her badge to input their mission. “C’mon.”

Nia doesn’t argue, trailing behind her partner with shuffling steps. One foot after another, keep moving, through the tunnels and into the cool, dewy morning of the forest. Her body shudders, and she crosses her arms. The cold air rips a painful cough from her chest. She keeps Tobias’ tail flame in the edge of her vision like a beacon.

When he does finally stop, she almost bumps into his back, blinking blearily at where they are.

Oh. Wait, what?

“Hadley’s house?” Nia asks, perplexed. “You hate Hadley.”

Tobias flushes and grumbles something about Nia not being able to survive anything harsher than Hadley right now before moving forward to call for the elderly golisopod.

Oh. He…took this mission for her? Because she doesn’t feel well?

For a moment Nia genuinely thinks she’s going to cry. A few tears spring to her eyes, but she just laughs to herself and rubs them away, sniffling to pull herself together.

She thinks she always did get more emotional when she wasn’t feeling well.

Hadley has shuffled out of his little house, the giant golisopod looking pleased to see them even with Tobias’ obvious air of displeasure.

“Hello again, young’ins! Still E-rank?”

Tobias huffs, a few embers escaping. “D-rank, actually.”

“Can’t we just come to see you?” Nia adds, managing to smile up at the large bug Pokemon.

Hadley seems caught off-guard by that, clicking his giant claws almost bashfully and reaching up to pull his old sun hat a little lower over his eyes. “Well, o’ course, little miss! Just thought you’d be too busy for an old bug like me.”

Nia smiles, then turns to where Tobias is—at first glance—ripping violently into Hadley’s garden. Nia stares blankly at the sight, brain taking a bit longer than usual to catch up.

“Uh. So what are we doing for you today?” She asks, trying to sound upbeat.

“Helping me tend to my plants!” Hadley says, waving a claw at Tobias as he—on closer inspection—tugs at a bundle of weeds, putting his whole body into the motion, face red with effort. Oh. Well, at least he isn’t destroying the poor old man’s garden.

And it is an impressive garden. Compact and contained within the small clearing holding Hadley’s house, but lush and packed full of different plants and herbs. Berries and vegetables dot vibrantly among the leaves.

“I’ll get them watered, if you two can handle the weeding and pruning,” Hadley says, using a clawed hand as big as Nia’s head to give her a gentle pat as he passes. To Nia’s surprise, the old Pokemon crouches among the plants and starts spraying a fine mist of water from his mouth, conscious of not accidentally catching Tobias in the spray. Are golisopods part water type?

Still watching Hadley with hazy curiosity, Nia moves to Tobias’ side, trying to see which plants to pull and which to leave alone. Clearly she wasn’t a farmer in the human world. When she spots what she is pretty sure is a weed, she starts tugging at it, surprised by how deeply it’s dug into the soil.

“Don’t know why he can’t just do this himself,” Tobias grumbles, sounding more like he’s making conversation than actually complaining.

“I think he’s just lonely,” Nia whispers back.

She tugs harder at the root, then takes a moment to catch her too-short breath. So of course that triggers a coughing fit. Nia folds over, hacking into her hand. The coughs tear wet and sharp from her chest, and she staggers, panting hard as she tries to stay standing.

“Would you just sit down?” Tobias says, giving her an exasperated look.

“What? No, I have to help,” Nia protests. Then she immediately sneezes, sniffling miserably. Gross.

Tobias rolls his eyes and moves behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders and steering her over to the side of Hadley’s house, pushing down until she sits. “I only took this stupid mission so you would sit down and rest, you stubborn fighting type. Trust me, I can handle some gardening. I was an herbalist for like. Eight years.”

Oh, he can be so sweet when he wants to be. Nia feels her chest go to mush, and Tobias looks mildly panicked at the sight of tears gathering in her eyes.

Nia laughs, congested and gross and wiping at her eyes. “I-I’m fine. Just…you’re the best. Thanks.”

Tobias flushes beet red (he is in desperate need of more positive reinforcement), stammers something, then turns and marches away to start ripping away at weeds again. Nia chuckles and slumps back, finally admitting defeat now that she’s already on the ground. Even getting back to her feet sounds exhausting.

So she decides to sit back and watch with slow, sleepy blinks, already falling into a daze. Hadley doesn’t say anything about Nia sitting this task out, which means that he can probably tell she doesn’t feel well. Great. Well, there’s no way she can join Tobias on his usual visit to Maggie tonight, then. She’ll call her out in a heartbeat.

Nia must doze off, because next thing she knows, Tobias is shaking her awake. It’s warmer than it was when she fell asleep, and the morning sunlight has shifted to sometime in the mid-afternoon.

Nia sniffles, trying to sit up and struggling to accomplish even that with her pounding head and the nausea rolling through her stomach. Oh, she feels worse? Wonderful.

Tobias’ face creases with concern as he watches her. “All right, let’s get you back to the guild. You need to go see Maggie.”

“Are we done?” Nia mumbles, taking Tobias’ offered hand and letting him pull her to her feet. She stumbles as black spots dance in her vision, and leans heavily against him. “Wait—no, no Maggie.”

“Yes Maggie,” Tobias says, sharp. His hands go to her elbows, holding her steady. “You’re obviously sick. You need some medicine.”

“No! N-No, please,” Nia whines, giving Tobias a pleading look through teary eyes.  “Just…let me go back to our room and sleep. I-If I’m still sick tomorrow, you can tell Maggie then.”

Tobias looks baffled. “Why don’t you want me to tell Maggie?”

“B-Because—“ because if Nia goes to Maggie or Fen, it makes it real. And she’s so, so scared of that.

She can’t die here, not when she still has to go home to her family.

She digs her fingers into Tobias’ arms. “Please, Tobias.”

Tobias stares at her, looking torn, before finally sighing and shaking his head. “Fine. But if you’re still sick tomorrow I’m dragging you up to the medical floor.”

Nia nods, so relieved she almost melts out of Tobias’ hold. The charmander moves to put her arm over his shoulders, holding her up. She shivers and gratefully leans into his heat, even in the warm afternoon air.

Tobias digs a hand into their satchel for a moment, and Nia doesn’t know what he’s doing until he mutters a quiet command to hang on and the light of teleportation consumes them.

Nia almost collapses entirely when they touch down in the guild. She shudders and gags, stomach flipping, and keeps her eyes squeezed shut as she tries to get her legs to stabilize under her. They feel as useless as jelly right now. Tobias grips her tight and pulls her back up, eventually managing to direct Nia’s staggering steps towards the stairs.

The journey to their room is a bit of a blur. By time Tobias releases his grip and Nia falls into her nest, she’s absolutely drained. She blinks slowly at the far wall of their room. She shivers, a cold chill wracking her frame, and tries to curl up in the straw and moss, wishing for a warm, fluffy comforter.

She really needs to ask Hazel to help her get a human-style bed and blankets.

Nia’s eyes drift shut for just a moment, and when she opens them again the light in the room has grown dimmer, gray with dusk. Tobias is crouching in front of her, looking at her with a furrowed brow and a water pouch.

“Here,” he says, holding it out. “You have to stay hydrated.”

Nia feels weak, but her throat is dry and closing up with another cough, so she grabs the water skin, taking a few messy gulps before pushing it back.

Tobias caps it and sets it aside. His voice is quiet and calm, in medic mode. “How’re you feeling?”

His words take a few moments to filter through the haze in her thoughts. Apparently she takes too long, because Tobias reaches out to feel her head with his hand. He’s warm.

Another cold chill shudders through Nia’s body. She reaches out for Tobias with grabby hands as he pulls away. “Come back. ‘M cold.”

It takes Tobias a moment to register her words. Then he flushes red and jerks away. At Nia’s miserable whine, he hesitates. Then sighs and rubs at his face.

“Fine. Scoot over.”

Nia tries to, but only manages to wriggle an inch or two to the left of where she was before. Tobias hesitantly settles into the nest at her side, and Nia shimmies closer until she can feel the ever-present heat radiating off his body. Like a little campfire warming her during a chilly night. Her nose brushes against the charmander’s scarf, and she kind of wishes she could smell through her congestion. His scent is weirdly soothing, warm like sun-baked stone. Like lying on concrete in the summer and letting the sunshine warm you to your bones.

She finally relaxes, sleep taking her under in seconds.

[hrtiu]

Boba/Fennec prompt: Boba really likes Fennec's hair (or her fingers, or some other, very specific part of her body, whatever you like) and can't stop touching/admiring/playing with it, and she goes from confused that he cares so much about that part to irritated that he Won't Leave Her Alone to embarrassed that he's paying so much frakking attention to her ((to realizing she likes it)) to secretly being endeared by his cuteness. Bonus points if she blushes a lot because of all this and he likes that too ;)

Thanks for the prompt! I think I ended up with something probably a bit angstier than you were thinking, but hopefully you'll still enjoy it! AO3 link.

Every morning Fennec Shand sat down in front of her burnished chromium mirror and did her hair. She started with the main braid down the center of her head, then wove together three smaller braids to either side. Once she’d tied off each individual braid, she plaited all seven together into a dark, twisting tail that reached almost to her waist. Then she took a long string of orange-red fiber and threaded it between the braids at the top of her head, tying them down and securing her bangs as flat against her scalp as possible.

“Why do you always have your hair like that?” Boba asked one morning when she came down for breakfast in Old Jabba’s palace.

“I don’t know. Why is your hair always like that?” Fennec said, helping herself to a generous slice of bantha bacon.

Boba let out a gruff laugh and shook his head. “It must take forever.”

Fennec stabbed her bacon with unnecessary force. “I don’t do it when I’m on an assignment, and beyond that I don’t see that it’s any of your business.”

Boba didn’t say anything for a long moment, and Fennec wondered if maybe he was going to apologize. If he did she’d probably die of shock.

“Hmm,” he grunted, then returned his attention to his breakfast.

It was the reaction Fennec expected, but she found herself both relieved and annoyed. Shaking the contradictory emotions away, she finished her breakfast.

---

Living on Tatooine wasn’t all enforcing Boba’s will and collecting tribute. Boba was a benevolent warlord, and Fennec especially enjoyed being a part of his more generous impulses.

Most recently he’d bequeathed a chunk of his land to a tribe of Tuskens who’d cooperated well with him in the past. The Tuskens saw it as Boba returning the land to them, but regardless, they were going to be its permanent, uncontested tenants. Most of the Tusken Raiders Fennec had met seemed to enjoy their nomadic lifestyle, but this tribe was interested in putting down roots—so long as they could do it on their terms. As a show of good faith, Boba was donating three large moisture vaporators and a system for water storage to the village, and Fennec had been looking forward to the day of their installation for months.

Tribespeople clustered around the massive spires dug into the packed earth beneath the dunes, talking amongst themselves and asking questions to the mechanic who’d come up from Mos Eisley to install the thing. The poor translator Boba had dragged along was working doubletime to sort through the confusion.

Fennec stood next to Boba above the dug-out space, just a little outside of the cluster of activity. She wasn’t here to do much besides reinforce Boba’s involvement in the donation of the generators, but she was enjoying herself nonetheless. A small child whose face wrapping kept coming untucked approached the vaporator and turned the spigot, screeching in delight when clean water poured onto her outstretched hands. Fennec couldn’t help but smile.

A group of young Tusken women approached them, their hoods draped over their faces and ornamental collars jangling against their cloaks as they walked. They thanked Boba in sign language, and he signed back his appreciation with short, stilted hand motions. They giggled at his discomfort with their language, and Boba’s scarred face reddened.

“Great,” he grumbled to Fennec. “I knew that protocol droid wasn’t teaching me right.”

“Calm down,” Fennec said, resting a hand on Boba’s arm. “You’re doing fine. Just let them enjoy themselves.”

Boba frowned, but the gesture didn’t reach his eyes. He leaned into her touch, and Fennec felt light and warm.

The girls turned their attention to Fennec, and her contentment turned to unease. One of them pointed to Fennec’s braid and made a twisting motion with her hands, bringing her fingers together as her wrist turned. The other nodded in agreement, adding in a few giggles for good measure.

“Oh, um…” Fennec stuttered, unsure how to respond.

“They’re saying it’s pretty,” the translator from Mos Eisley said, hurrying up the steep hill towards them. “She says your hair is pretty.”

“Ah,” Fennec said. Heat rose in her cheeks, and her tongue felt thick in her mouth. Boba snorted and smirked at her, and she shot him a quick glare before smiling back at the girls. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

The translator signed Fennec’s response back to them, and they nodded and made gestures of thanks to Boba and Fennec before retreating back to where their tribe clustered around the vaporators.

“So they’re allowed to talk about your hair, but I’m not?” Boba asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“Yes, that’s exactly right,” Fennec said, already heading for the steep slope that would take her down to the rest of the tribespeople. They’d be eating dinner soon, and it wouldn’t do for her and Boba to be late to the table.

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t need to make sense,” Fennec said. “It’s just what I want.”

Boba rolled his eyes but followed Fennec down the slope, his steps awkward and careful on the slippery sand.

“Always what you want,” she thought she heard him mutter under his breath, but that could have been the whisper of the winds against the sand.

---

“Shand! We’re going to be late!” Boba yelled at Fennec through the thick door of her room.

His booming voice startled her, and one of her fingers slipped before she was able to tie off the last of her individual braids. “Dammit,” she muttered. “I’m coming!”

“I’m not going to look weak in front of Kanjiklub because you couldn’t stop fiddling with your hair,” he said.

The corners of Fennec’s mouth turned downwards and she saw her own eyes flash in the mirror. “We’re not going to be late. Calm down.”

His boots thudded heavily against the floor as he paced back and forth in front of her door. Fennec’s frown morphed into a full-blown scowl and she made sure to take extra care to get her braid right, taking her time with each knot. Boba needed to learn patience, and he needed to learn that she wasn’t some massiff he could train to do his bidding.

She finished up the braid then moved on to weaving the orange thread around each cord, laser-focused on her task but unhurried in execution.

Boba’s fist pounded on the door once more. “If you don’t hurry it up I’m going to cut off that damned braid myself!”

Fennec froze. She pressed her lips together and stood from her chair, leaving her hair weaving half-finished. She stalked to her bed, pulling her boots and coat off as she did so, then fell into her thick, fluffy blankets.

“...Fen?” Boba asked through the door, though this time his voice was softer—almost chastened.

Fennec held her wrist comm up to her mouth and messaged Dilick Wa, the other bounty hunter Boba kept on retainer at the palace.

“Wa? You there?” she said.

“Yep. What’s up?”

“Meet Boba on the landing pad. You’ll be going with him to meet Kanjiklub tonight.”

“...But weren’t you going-?”

“Just do it.”

She shut off the coms.

---

Lights flickered by for every floor they sank underground, each beam illuminating the red-tan-and-white of Boba’s scarred features. Normally Fennec didn’t like being underground, but on Florrum she might be willing to make an exception. Relief from the unrelenting heat and sulfur-infused dust was worth the loss of adequate sniper perches, in her opinion.

“So,” Boba said. “Arawat Ragistar. Anything else you can you tell me about him?”

Fennec forced a shrug. “Like I said: he’s an assassin. He has plenty of other skills, too. He’s tricky and dangerous, but in general he’ll stick to his word if you pin him to specific commitments.”

Boba nodded slowly. “How is he as a business partner?”

“Wouldn’t know. I only knew him as an assassin.” A heavy pause filled the space between them, and several more floors passed in silence.

“He’s a real bastard,” Fennec said, and she wondered if it was some strange trick of the senses that made her voice sound several decades younger to her ears.

“I know you don’t like him, but we need good connections on Florrum.”

“I know.”

The lift slowly came to a stop, and Fennec tensed as the doors opened. A shiny protocol droid welcomed them into the bare, utilitarian bunker that served as Arawat’s headquarters, and they followed it through a series of round vault-style doors. The final door was bigger than the rest, and it opened on a broad audience chamber, at the end of which sat a sleight, waspish Sullustan. Her old mentor.

“The great Boba Fett!” Arawat said, throwing his arm wide, “Welcome! And Little Fennec, you’ve come back home!”

Fennec nodded her head in response, biting back a bitter response. That was what he was fishing for, after all.

“Arawat Ragistar, thank you for having me,” Boba said, moving to sit in the plush chairs across from Arwat’s restrained setup. “You’re not an easy man to find.”

“Of course not,” Arawat said. “What good assassin would be easy to find? Isn’t that right, Little Fennec?”

Fennec pursed her lips. “Right.”

“We’re interested in bringing some of our import routes through Florrum,” Boba said. “It could be profitable for the both of us.”

“Now Fennec Shand, on the other hand. That’s a name I’ve heard of,” Arawat said, as if he hadn’t heard Boba at all. “‘Best assassin in the galaxy,’ I’ve heard. Of course, if anything I’d taught her had sunken in, she’d know that the best assassin is the one you’ve never heard of.”

Boba’s jaw clicked—a tiny motion Fennec doubted most anyone else would notice. “I’m not sure how that’s relevant to our arrangement.”

Arawat leaned forward over his knees and threaded his fingers together, and Fennec’s own stone face stared back at her in the mirror reflection of his shiny black eyes.

“It’s vanity, you know? Pure vanity,” he said, his voice silky smooth. “Like that hair. Do you know how many times I told her to cut it? There is no tactical advantage to long hair—not a single one. The only reason to keep it is vanity, pure and simple. ”

Fennec stared back at him, refusing to look away. Boba had fallen silent at her side, but she hardly noticed him any more in her peripheral vision. She was back 35 years in the past, her reflexes sharp and her body lean, but her spirit broken.

“Couldn’t quite get all the Chandrila out of her after all-”

“We’re through here,” Boba cut Arawat off, standing to his feet.

Arawat finally turned his attention to Boba, his jowls flapping excitedly around his cheeks. “What? But we were-”

“We’ll bring our goods through some other way. Thank you.”

Boba turned to leave and Fennec followed after him, her jumbled thoughts struggling to right themselves as she kept up with his assertive pace. The protocol droid started leading them back, but Boba brushed past him, retracing their steps to the lift with ease. Arawat didn’t follow.

The lift opened for them and Fennec followed Boba in, holding her tongue until the doors sealed shut.

“Are you crazy? We need his cooperation,” Fennec hissed as the lift zoomed upwards. Her eyes darted to the corners of the lift, searching for the holo cameras she knew must be somewhere.

Boba bristled. “I’m Boba Fett. I don’t need anybody except-” He shut his mouth. “We don’t need anybody.”

The lights from the lift illuminated his face at regular intervals, but the open emotion he’d shown down below was gone. Back was his stoic warrior’s face, the one she’d grown to respect but couldn’t fully trust.

“Fine,” Fennec said after a weighty pause. “Mustafar should work, anyway.”

“Mustafar?” Boba asked incredulously.

“Just get a few heat-resistant vehicles and you’re golden. That hostile environment is its own security.”

Boba grunted in agreement, and the lift continued upward. They fell into a companionable silence, and though the tension in Fennec’s shoulders gradually fell, she still ran her fingers nervously up and down the end of her braid.

---

The last time Fennec had been to Naboo it had been for a hit. The beauty of the planet hadn’t been lost on her at the time, but the elegant promenades and magnificent waterfalls didn’t look quite the same through a scope. This time she and Boba were here for a business deal and she had a chance to truly appreciate Theed’s splendor.

She leaned against the stone balustrade bordering the balcony and closed her eyes, letting the faint mist from a nearby waterfall gather on her face. Heavy footsteps sounded behind her, but they were the comforting, familiar gait of her partner, and she paid them no heed.

“Hiram agreed to our terms,” Boba said from her side. “Production can start next month.”

“Hmmmm,” Fennec hummed. “Sounds good.” They’d thought negotiations would last longer. That gave them three whole days to relax before their shuttle was scheduled to depart.

The breathtaking vista before them occupied all of Fennec’s thoughts. In the distance threads of water laced their way down verdant green cliff sides, and elegant copper-colored buildings stood above the cliffs like sentinels on watch. The waterfall closest to their villa roared as thousands of gallons toppled over the edge every second, and Fennec could feel the power of it through her feet and into her bones. She closed her eyes in appreciation. Beauty and power—the ultimate combination.

Boba leaned on the balustrade next to her, bringing him into her orbit. “I ordered dinner,” he said.

Fennec hummed again. Dinner in their private villa overlooking the waterfalls sounded perfect.

Boba stepped to the side then his warm breadth was at Fennec’s back, enveloping her like a thick cloak. She tensed, her instincts screaming at her to bolt. But maybe this time, she didn’t want to run away.

With a sigh Boba rested his chin on Fennec’s shoulder and his hot breath tickled at the loose strands of hair that had escaped their bindings by her ear. She shivered.

Boba leaned further into her and rested his cheek against the side of her head. He took a long, slow breath in and turned his face more towards her, his nose catching slightly against her braids as he moved his head up and down in what could only be described as a nuzzle.

Fennec’s breath caught in her throat. “Boba…”

“Easy,” he murmured. “I’m just enjoying the view.”

Fennec couldn’t help a soft snort at that. “Nothing you haven’t seen before.”

“Maybe,” he said, his breath heavy and thick in her ear. “But I don’t usually have a chance to relax and enjoy it.”

His hands slid up to her arms and he pulled her gently backwards, stepping behind them until he reached a plush daybed set near the back of the balcony. He sat down and she went with him, allowing herself to be tugged into his lap.

She didn’t think. She just let her senses bask in his warmth, in his sturdy, fierce presence. She reclined against his front, her ear pressed up to his unarmored chest. His heartbeat thudded clear and strong against her cheek—a steady, constant presence she was only just realizing how much she cherished. He rested his chin on top of her head and held her loosely around the waist.

Water tumbled over the cliffs of Theed and time passed, but Fennec didn’t notice either. All she felt was an unfamiliar sense of peace and security. Maybe, after all these years, she wasn’t broken after all.

“...We could always extend our stay,” Boba said, his voice a gravelly rumble through his chest.

“Hmmm.” Fennec closed her eyes and let her fingers cling to the fabric of his tunic.

“Or visit other planets. Maybe even go to Chandrila.”

The distant blare of alarm bells sounded in Fennec’s mind, but she did her best to ignore them. It was nothing. She was fine. She was at peace, and she trusted Boba.

“I’ve never been there before,” Boba continued. “You could show me around.”

The alarm bells shrieked, and the peace shattered.

Fennec hauled herself out of Boba’s lap. She stepped back to the edge of the balcony and ordered herself not to look back. It was colder now, but the chill was familiar. “We should leave as we planned. I need to check in with our supplier in Mos Eisley.”

“Fen, come on-”

“I think I’ll call it a night.” There was a courtyard of space between her room and Fett’s, but maybe she’d stay someplace else for the night.

Boba got to his feet and followed her across the balcony, but he made no move to touch her. “You wear Chandrilan braids every day. You can’t tell me you hate the place-”

Fennec rounded on him. “I may be in your service, but that does not mean I have to tell you anything about my personal life.”

Boba grabbed her by the wrist, the snarl he usually reserved for his enemies rising to his lips. “Shand, can we leave the carbonite bitch act behind for once?”

Fennec wrenched her arm from his grasp and shoved him back. “Touch me again and I’ll kill you.”

She whirled around and fled the balcony, making first for her room before turning instead towards the villa’s entrance. How far away could she get for the night? It might be an interesting challenge to see.

---

She came back the next morning. She was a professional, and she trusted Boba to understand the line he’d crossed. And just as she’d expected, he didn’t mention anything about the previous night’s blowup. Two days later they returned to Tatooine, and life continued the same as ever.

Boba’s business ventures on Tatooine were actually fairly legitimate. He built up the local economy, gave loans to entrepreneurial spirits, increased imports and exports exponentially, cracked down vigorously on (unsanctioned) crime, and generally made the miserable ball of dirt and sand that was Tatooine a more tolerable place to exist. That being said, nobody could be successful in the Outer Rim while working completely above board.

Which was why it came as no surprise when the Hutts sent assassins after him for co-opting a chunk of their spice territory.

Fennec squeezed off another round from her perch on one of the palace’s domes and allowed herself a smirk of satisfaction as the target dropped.

“Last intruder down,” she said into her comm.

“Good job,” Boba said from his safe room below. “Let’s give it a half hour to see if anyone else crops up. Then regroup in my study.”

“Copy that.”

Fennec waited patiently in her perch, her sharp eyes staring through the scope for any sign of additional assailants. She was reasonably confident she’d dispatched them all, though, given the size of their transport and typical Pyke Syndicate strategies. Fennec snorted to herself. The Hutts must be really strapped for cash if they were resorting to hiring Pykes.

After the allotted time had passed with no sign of other hostiles, Fennec climbed down from her perch and made her way to Boba’s rooms. Boba was neither sentimental nor high-maintenance, but the comforts of the past few years had led to him accumulating a certain amount of personal belongings to display in his quarters. Mandalorian relics, his father’s old helmet, a Clone Wars-era DC-17—that sort of thing. Fennec walked past his mementos and met him at his armchair near the back of the study.

“All clear?” he asked, looking up from a datapad streaming updates from his security system.

“As far as I can tell. Hutt enforcement really isn’t what it used to be,” she said.

“Not the only thing around here that’s getting rusty, it seems,” a soft voice hissed behind her ear.

Fennec’s eyes widened and she twisted around, but before she could move a cold, slimy hand had her by the hair and a vibroblade pressed up against her gut.

“Tsk tsk tsk,” Arawat’s hateful voice whispered near her ear. “Little Fen still has so much to learn. What did I tell you about our work? The best assassins are unseen.”

Fennec’s heart seized in her chest and with each breath her stomach pressed against the vibroblade. For now it was cutting through her coat, but soon enough it would be her skin.

“You might want to rethink your position,” Boba said, slowly rising to his feet. “There are two of us and only one of you. One way or another, you’re not getting out of here alive.”

“Ah haha, the mighty Boba Fett. You know, if you were your father I would be afraid right now. Old Jango wouldn’t hesitate to let a subordinate die to get ahead in a fight. But you’re not like that, are you?” Arawat said. With each word his fleshy jowls slid along Fennec’s neck, making her skin crawl.

Boba bared his teeth and the divots and crevasses of his scars almost turned his expression inhuman. “Care to test that theory?”

“Yes, I think I do,” Arawat said. “Put your weapons down, or I’ll gut her like a fish.” The blade pressed further into her stomach, drawing the tiniest sliver of blood.

Boba met Fennec’s gaze, and an understanding passed between them. Something Fennec had always known somewhere in the back of her mind came to the forefront, and she set her jaw. She trusted Boba. She trusted him more than she’d ever trusted another living person. She trusted him more than she trusted herself.

She didn’t know what he was going to do, but something in his eyes told her to prepare. She slowed her breathing, diminishing the blade’s contact with her flesh, and moved her hand just the slightest distance closer to the vibroblade she always kept tucked into her belt.

Boba moved to disarm himself, one hand going slowly for his blaster while the other stayed up and opened for Arawat to see. Then the thrusters of his jetpack activated, and he barreled right into Arawat and Fennec.

For several chaotic, terrifying moments, Fennec’s world was a tangle of clattering metal, unidentified limbs, and confused violence. Somehow, Arawat managed to maintain his vice like grip on her braid, and while momentum threatened to pull them apart, Arawat held onto her hair with a vicious tenacity. When they landed in a heap on the other side of the room, he yanked her to him again. Boba made a lunge for Arawat’s blade, but he wasn’t going to be fast enough. Fennec needed to get away. As she was, she was a liability.

She pulled the vibroblade from her belt and cut behind her, severing the thick braid right at the base of her skull. She flung herself away from her old teacher, and by the time she looked back Boba had already shot the Sullustant in the chest.

Arawat Ragistar was dead, and she and Boba Fett were both alive. It was a win.

She lay panting on the floor, her heart racing and blood still oozing from her side. As the adrenaline faded, her awareness tunnelled on the length of coiled black hair still hanging from Arawat’s limp hand where he slumped against the wall.

Strong arms pulled her to her feet and inspected the cut to her side, but Fennec hardly noticed.

“Hey,” Boba’s gruff voice cut through the haze. “Go see Pershing and get this stitched up. Then get some rest.”

She nodded numbly, then went to do as ordered.

---

Pershing gave her a few stitches, then added a thick bacta patch for good measure. Fennec didn’t feel anything, and Pershing’s complaints about not being a medical doctor and his demotion to glorified nurse slid easily in and out of her ears. Eventually he was done and her feet found their way back up to her rooms. She shut herself inside and sat down at her desk, her head feeling strange and floaty without the familiar weight of her braid.

Fennec stared at her reflection in the mirror, her face unchanged but somehow unrecognizable in its new frame. A soft knock sounded at the door, and she didn’t bother to shout the intruder off.

Careful footsteps sounded around her room, and Boba’s mangled face appeared above her in the mirror, the softness of his expression completely incongruous with his scarred visage.

Slowly, gently, without a word, he reached for her hair. He ran his fingers through their short, chopped length, sifting the strands carefully from side to side.

“You’re beautiful,” he said.

Fennec stared into his eyes through the reflection of the mirror, her body frozen in ice. Leaving her plenty of time to protest, Boba’s calloused fingers gathered up several hanks of hair from the crown of her head and started braiding. She’d never let anyone see her process before, but that didn’t stop him.

She barely had enough hair to reach the nape of her neck, but still he braided a short rope down the center of her head, then three smaller ones on each side. Then he picked the orange thread up from her desk and wove it between each braid, the extra support of the thread maintaining the seven braids’ integrity despite their length.

The last person to braid her hair for her had been her mother. Fennec could still remember the feeling of her thin, deft fingers in her hair, could still hear the sound of her soft, gentle voice cooing at her while she worked. She couldn’t remember her mother’s face, couldn’t remember her name, could hardly recall even the vaguest impression of what Chandrila was like. This memory was all she had left.

Fennec’s shoulders shook, and with a start she lifted a hand to her cheek and realized she was crying. The braids now completed, Boba let his hands fall to her shoulders, where their generous warmth helped hold her together.

Boba turned her chair around to face him and knelt down in front of her, lifting her chin to meet his gaze. “It will grow back. But even before then, you’ll still be beautiful.”

She turned around in her chair and slid her arms around him, burying her face into his stomach. He sank down to the floor and pulled her down with him, holding her and murmuring unintelligible sweet nothings as he stroked her hair.

“I don’t want anyone to see me like this,” she said, her voice raspy with tears.

“I’ll never let anyone see,” Boba said. “I’ll close my own eyes if it will help.”

Fennec chuckled, her body shaking against Boba’s solid torso. “No, I think it’s alright for you. But only you.”

“Hmmm,” Boba hummed. “It’s a deal, then.”

Fennec rolled over onto her back, then tugged Boba on top of her. “It’s a deal.” She threaded her fingers together behind his neck and pulled him down to her.

[waveypedia]

little details i adore about astro boyd

(yes i watched it again yes i love it sue me)

The way the camera tilts when boyd talks when the “camera” Is Boyd’s pov to show he’s moving his head

The little flashes of Boyd’s true core memory from the very beginning

when boyd “malfunctions” the first time, only gyro freaks out. Akita looks totally calm

Boyd’s fake core memory fading out to show the reflection of his horrified face

Gyro almost never actually addresses boyd, treating him like an inanimate object, until he calls him a real boy

Gyro’s little gasp of horror when he realizes Fenton is out of commission

Lil bulb’s bulb turns red when gyro belittles boyd and machines in general in the lab, and that’s what puts him out of commission

(that was the inciting incident for it to go evil in both the great dime chase and beware the buddy system (as buddy), but gyro himself has never said it)

The picture of young gyro and boyd has a crack in it, representing their broken relationship

Immediately after Huey jumps and grabs gyro’s arm to protect boyd from him, gyro (unconsciously?) shields him with his arm

The shot right after has Huey still on gyro’s arm (continuity mistake) but then gyro just gently sets him down, even as he’s freaking out

Later, when Gizmoduck crashes into the ground, gyro grabs Fenton’s bag and Huey and carries them out of the blast zone w/o a second thought

Launchpad acting as troop leader 

The s’more with donuts and cookie dough (where did they get that???) 

Huey is more upset that the s’more isn’t regulation than that he’s being teased 

Huey’s “wow, that was easy” when Boyd asks if he wants to be friends 

Boyd has the jwg downloaded into his brain 

Boyd accidentally set the bully’s s’more on fire with his laser eyes hehe karma “

Manny!! Get this dangerous machine out of my lab!!!” “Which one?” “

What idiot called [him] [Boyd]?!” Haha mark beaks did gyro just called mark an idiot (it’s what he deserves) 

Gyro is so dramatic he keeps monologuing dfghjkl

The way akita belittled and never actually addressed gyro, his former intern, until they started fighting & how he addressed gyro as intern, (what he calls Fenton) even though he’s obviously not an intern anymore 

“Protect Gizmoduck” 

Every time lil’ bulb sat on gyro’s shoulder and when he sat on gyro’s head in the lab 

Akita knew gyro wasn’t responsible for Boyd’s “malfunctioning,” yet he belittles gyro like he was responsible since he knows it hits a nerve 

Huey insisted on calling boyd boyd, while everyone else called him 2b0. He also used he/him pronouns while everyone else used it/its pronouns, which is dehumanizing 

Gyro’s little “ow” when he and akita are slapping each other 

Huey’s terrified expression when boyd, in world breaker mode, broke fenton’s helmet 

when gyro has lost his glasses and akita is doing his “you’ll never invent anything worthwhile” bit, he backs away from akita only for his hand to go over the edge. He does a little hand wave and turns his head to find the ground, but there’s nothing there. And he can’t see so he doesn’t know how far off the ground he is! He probably thought akita was gonna kill him 

Gyro’s little satisfied “hm.” when inspector tezuka arrests akita

Actually all of gyro’s little noises, hums, screams, and grunts. Jim Rash is really talented.

The way Boyd’s head lifts when gyro says 2b0 and floats in front of Fenton

huey stands Fenton and lifts his head when gyro has Boyd’s attention and Fenton is out of commission 

There’s a picture of a crying strawberry in the background of boyd and gyro’s hug which perfectly encapsulates my feelings on the matter 

Gyro’s sweet, calm, loving expressions after he hugs boyd 

Huey frowns when boyd chooses the name beaks chose for him, but then smiles again when he explains his reasoning 

Team science walks RIGHT BY akita’s hiding place right before inspector tezuka stops them 

When gyro says “hide 2bo”, Fenton straight up rests his arm on boyd’s head like an armrest. Huey just shoves his hand in front of Boyd’s face 

When inspector tezuka leaves gyro to grill boyd, gyro just kinda… remains lying on the cop car. He doesn’t get up until she starts running after Lil Bulb (and then he sprints away)

Gyro’s “oh no” when he sees inspector tezuka 

The way gyro’s voice trails off when he knows he’s failed to convince inspector tezuka he’s on a field trip, and her attention is diverted to boyd, but he finishes his sentence anyway 

The pissed look gyro gives Fenton when he blows a hole in the wall of akita’s lab (even though gyro asked him to) 

The way Fenton’s hair bounces and flops around whenever he moves his head 

the fact that Fenton apparently thinks gyro was born in akita’s lab (where was Fenton born?) 

Lil Bulb sitting on gyro’s head 

“I don’t wanna break anything.” / “Then why must you insist on breaking my heart?!?!”

Gotta say I hate doofus and I’m glad he was only in this episode for a couple of seconds but that was so funny and I hate him a tiny bit less for his comedic value

Doofus and mark beaks vehemently refused Boyd’s hugs, but Gyro, who notoriously doesn’t like hugs (“the hugging is just for today”) gave him a giant one

It’s a huge step from the beginning of the episode where gyro literally jumped on a table to avoid boyd

The way huey says fenton’s name (fen-uhn) 

The fact that the Gizmosuit gets alerts for crime everywhere, not just in duckberg. it sounded like it taps into local police radios?

Fenton can speak Japanese

Fenton defending Gyro to inspector Tezuka, but not himself

Inspector Tezuka called Fenton Gyro’s “partner” - and he is, by the end!

Akita’s little homemade sound effects and gadgets 

“computer, zoom and enhance” *pulls out a magnifying glass*

Huey’s annoyed face when Fenton is overjoyed at the robbery 

Boyd can eat bowls 

All the ads for glomgold’s energy drink, especially the ones that show glomgold hella buff (what is with him and wanting to be seen as buff?)

When they fly away from tokyolk, Boyd’s pose at first mimics Fenton, but then he flies ahead and he and huey have a kid fun moment (tm)

According to the end credits, the thieving pigs are named Clown and Capsule! 

Bully Beagle, the junior woodchuck beagle boy

[mobius-prime]

288. Sonic the Hedgehog #207

Blackout

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: James Fry Colors: Matt Herms

Wow, imagine that - this issue opens with yet another battle! This time, Amadeus is leading a desperate defense against the Iron King at Fort Acorn, which if you'll recall, is the last line of defense against any attacks on the ruins of Robotropolis. This is kind of important, because all New Mobotropolis' power comes from the radioactivity present there. However, within New Mobotropolis, Sally has no idea, because she's currently on something of a date with none other than Monkey Khan!

Ah, Nicole and her lack of situational awareness. Gotta love her. Sally hastily assures her she isn't interrupting anything, so Nicole explains what's going on at Fort Acorn, and that she's taken the liberty of sending Sonic and Tails ahead to help the defense. Sally approves, and sends Khan off to help as well, but instead of heading over herself she wanders off, deep in thought about something. The defense at Fort Acorn is going rather poorly despite Amadeus' best efforts, but luckily before things get too bad Sonic and Tails arrive to save the day.

Aww! Tails flies everyone away, leaving Sonic behind as the sole defender of the fort. He does his best to contain Jun Kun's advance, but since Jun Kun is, well, invincible, this is kind of hard. Khan then shows up and an argument begins over titles and whatnot, each demanding to be called the Iron King and King of the Free People respectively, while Sonic becomes mildly bored waiting for the fighting to continue. Meanwhile back in the city, Sally visits Bunnie for a chat just as Antoine leaves to go get himself and his wife lunch. Apparently, he's been hovering nonstop ever since her incident with the Iron Queen a few days ago, despite Dr. Quack's assurances that she's now fine. Bunnie can sense something is bothering Sally, so Sally admits that she's beginning to develop feelings for someone. To her surprise, Bunnie approves without even hearing who it is, pointing out that Sally and Sonic aren't together anymore and he's tried to move on, so she should too. She then gives an amazingly detailed and accurate summary of Sally's taste in men, which pretty much sums up exactly all the previous characters she's been interested in as well.

This analysis actually brings Sally to tears, and Bunnie reassures her that she's doing the right thing by moving on, and should test the waters with her new crush to see if they're compatible. Honestly, it's an incredibly sweet scene, and I feel even those who aren't too jazzed about Sally and Monkey Khan potentially being A Thing would still agree with Bunnie's assessment here. If you want my opinion, I do think they have some genuine chemistry here now that Khan's gotten some serious character development of his own, and even though my favorite ship is the good ol' Sonic and Sally, I approve of Khan as well for the simple reason that Sally is polyamorous goddammit every sign is there let her be poly Ian.

Unfortunately, however, things aren't going so hot for Sonic and Khan. The Iron King is just too strong, and since he's stolen the Fan of Fen Xing which defeated him last time, they don't have an easy win on their hands this time. However, seeing the Iron King's thickheaded actions as he beats on the shield surrounding the city, Sonic gets an idea. Khan distracts the Iron King while Sonic quickly rushes to the power siphon that draws the energy from the ruins to contact Nicole and tell her his plan. Once she's got it, he runs back to the Iron King and… surrenders.

Pfff. The Iron King almost seems friendly there, doing the hair ruffle thing. I feel like with the right influence in his life, he could have actually been a decent, if brutish and somewhat dimwitted, guy. As he smashes up the siphon, Sonic whispers to Khan the real deal - Nicole rebuilt the entire siphon underground in a minute, leaving the one the Iron King is smashing an empty husk and the perfect diversion. Triumphant, Sonic and Khan return to New Mobotropolis, for once getting along great and joking around with each other - but Sonic is immediately surprised and confused when Sally takes Khan by the arm and leads him away to talk. However, when Amy approaches and asks him to dinner, he appears to consider something for a moment before accepting. Oh boy, I see some more dating shenanigans on the horizon…

The Iron Queen

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Renae de Liz Colors: Matt Herms

Oh, but what about the poor, deceived Iron King? Well, the Iron Queen is currently screaming her lungs out at him for being so stupid, and similarly yelling at Snively for his own failures. When she stalks off, the Iron King irritably recounts to Snively how once upon a time, she wasn't a shrieking harpy, but rather a soft-spoken but cunning partner who awoke ancient machines within the Dragon Kingdom to serve her and Jun Kun's purposes. However, they faced heavy opposition from the four warring clans in the region, and couldn't get a proper foothold. Regina then had the idea to seek sponsorship from Robotnik, who with his technology gave them the strength they needed to conquer the free peoples of the Dragon Kingdom. However, with this new strength, the four clans recognized them as a legitimate threat and began to push harder against them. Regina tried to buy off the Bride of Rich Nights, the leader of the Yagyu Clan, but when Rich Nights refused Jun Kun killed her and allowed Regina to take the credit so she could become the clan's new bride.

Man, that is actually downright genius. It really shows how Regina, for all her screaming lately, really is an amazing tactician. In fact, I'd say she's probably so angry right now specifically because she tends to get her way, and not being able to win lately has been grating on her nerves. This story also kind of hints at the idea that she and Jun Kun aren't necessarily only together out of convenience, but respect each other as more than just business partners. I'd still say it's not a marriage of love, but it's also not just a title, either. The Iron King, finished with his story, angrily blames Snively for her coming here to the west and him subsequently being screamed at. Snively is frightened by his anger, but Jun Kun merely stalks off to think about how to get past New Mobotropolis' shield. However, Snively apparently already has a plan, and with it plans to win Regina over once more and get rid of Jun Kun so he can become her next Iron King. Oh, boy…

[sapphicambitions]

Quentin & Eliot Talk Marriage.

Part 3 of the Happy Little Fantasy Series. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 2.5)

---

Quentin and Eliot talk about the concept of marriage.

At first, it’s a sensitive subject, brought on because Margo and Fen are getting married. It’s been almost a year since the Monster and since they started living together. They dance around it. They both know for a fact that they want to live the rest of their lives together (forever and ever amen) but they’re both still healing and having a hard time talking about their feelings. Quentin feels like it shouldn’t be a big deal to talk about it, since they were kind of already married in a previous timeline. And Quentin has also been vocal about wanting to get married to Eliot. But El is nervous and doesn’t know how to talk about his nervousness to Q without making it sound like he doesn’t love him. Because he loves him so much. Marriage is just terrifying to him, and he’s not ready yet.

Eliot never really thought he’d get married. The concept as a whole was something he protested as a teen and then in college and then at Brakebills when he was bouncing from boyfriend to boyfriend. He’s a gay man from Indiana. Marriage has never even been on the table. Quentin doesn’t understand that, but he tries to. Quentin’s dad had always been accepting of his sexuality, from the time he came out in undergrad to when he told his dad about Eliot and the mosaic right before he passed. But he knows this is hard for Eliot. So he doesn’t push. Q knows they’ll talk when he’s ready.

A few months after Fargo’s wedding (Fen insisted on using this hashtag, despite not having a smartphone herself), Eliot comes into the kitchen while Quentin is cooking dinner and explodes into a tirade. He goes on about divorce rates for couples who get married after they’ve moved in together and the homophobia that queer men face when they’re trying to get married and why marriage as a construct is just the government’s way of enforcing gender roles and how the tax benefit isn’t even that great and how they don’t need a flashy ceremony in order to commit to each other for the rest of their lives and he goes on and on and on. Quentin just listens with open ears and open hearts as his partner rants, understanding that Eliot just needs to get it off his chest and out of his system.

Eliot finishes with a deep inhale, his eyes watching Q quietly stir the boiling pasta.

“Is that what I sound like?” Quentin asks, putting down the wooden spoon. “Like all the time?”

Eliot, who previously had this terrified look on his face, laughs, and nods. Quentin smiles at him, pours the pasta into the strainer, and slings his hand towel over his shoulder before making his way over to Eliot. He takes the taller man’s hands into his own and squeezes them.

“El, those are all valid reasons to not get married,” Quentin says. “If you really don’t want to do the rings and ceremony and government bullshit, we don’t have to. I’m content to just spend the rest of my life with you,”

Q really thought that what he said would make Eliot feel better, but instead Eliot seems to be blinking back tears. Whatever Eliot wants to say is clearly embarrassing him, so Quentin just waits while Eliot clears his throat. (Patience and listening, therapy taught them.)

“But I wanna be able to say “That’s my husband!” when we’re out,” Eliot says, looking down, voice breaking. “And I want to prove my father wrong when he said I would never get married. Is that bad?”

Quentin uses his thumb to wipe away the tear tracks on Eliot’s face. “No, El, it’s not bad,”

Quentin looks back at the pasta and the boiling vegetables and the sautéing chicken. “I think this conversation has been productive, but unless you want burnt chicken for dinner, I think we should continue it at a later date”

Eliot exhales and nods and Quentin kisses his cheek.  “I love it when you get domestic on me, Coldwater,”  

A later date rolls around. They’re walking through a park, hand in hand, and Quentin furrows his brow. “If we were to get married,” he states, sort of out of the blue, “Would we do a hyphenated last name? Or some kind of joint name? Would I take your last name? Would you take mine? How does this work?”

Eliot smiles. “You ask a lot of questions, Coldwater”

Quentin gasps, and sends Eliot a shit-eating grin. “The Coldwaughters,”

Eliot rolls his eyes. “No,”

“Get it?”

“Unfortunately,”

“Like Coldwater but with Waugh instead of water?”

“Hush, Q,”

“It would be fantastic!”

Eliot shuts him up with a kiss, and Quentin doesn’t complain. Q can also tell that Eliot is trying very hard not to laugh about it, too. It feels good, honestly, to be having this conversation so casually. And in public. And to be holding hands with his partner in public. And to kiss his partner in public. There’s a happy twinge in his chest as they laugh to themselves.

Eliot’s mouth twitches. “I kind of like Coldwater-Waugh,” Quentin thinks he could melt.

One night, they’re sitting around the fire pit in their backyard, drinking wine out of coffee mugs and enjoying the peace of the evening. Fireside lounging at night was something sacred to them, and they spent more nights than not enjoying the cool breeze and staring up at the stars, holding hands. Normally, they’d be sitting in their chairs, but tonight they unfolded their picnic blanket and are sitting on it together. It reminds Quentin of the first time he kissed Eliot, really kissed Eliot, at the mosaic and makes his heart happy. He seems to be having a lot of those moments these days, in the months and years after the Monster.

“So I was doing some reading today,” Eliot says, and Quentin takes a swig of his wine. “I read that while the when and where and how of a proposal is a surprise, the actual agreement to get married is not,” Eliot’s got a very casual tone in his voice, and Quentin nods.

“Like a business communication proposal?” Quentin quirks an eyebrow.

Eliot nods and his eyes flit around in the way that they do when he’s trying to cover his emotions. “Yes, just like that,” He says, completely deadpan.

They sip their wine.

“I want to be married to you, Quentin,” Eliot blurts out, turning to face him. Quentin smiles, a curious smile, and covers Eliot’s hand with his own.

“Are you sure?” Quentin asks, and Eliot nods.

“There are a lot of good reasons to not get married,” Quentin suggests.

Eliot shakes his head. “They’re still good reasons, but I also have one really good reason to want to get married. And it’s because I love you,” Quentin can tell this is hard for him, but that he’s trying to be brave. He also thinks that he’s never been more in love with Eliot than this moment. “But this isn’t the proposal,” Eliot says, gesturing with his coffee wine mug, before Quentin can get any ideas. “This is just the agreement. Proposal still to come,”

Quentin grins and raises his eyebrows. “Are you planning on doing the proposing? What if I wanted to propose to you?”

Eliot matches his grin and does the little wiggle that he does whenever he’s excited or turned on by Quentin. “We’ll just have to see, won’t we?”

They go ring shopping together. That seemed like the logical, adult next step. They don’t buy anything while they’re there, but they do get their fingers measured and decide they don’t want to do engagement rings. Just wedding bands. And they want to do gold, not silver. Gold because it reminds them of the golden tile and the beauty of all life and the chance to do fifty years together again. The woman behind the counter keeps asking where their girlfriends are. They ignore those questions.

Quentin talks to Margo. He’s nervous about the proposal and how to do it properly, for Eliot. So he goes to their best friend and asks how to craft the perfect Eliot Waugh proposal. But Margo rolls her eyes.

“Dipshit, Eliot doesn’t love you because you’re like him. He loves you for you. A big flashy proposal isn’t very Coldwater. Do something from the heart,”  Quentin makes a face at Margo’s sincerity and Margo throws her hands up in the air. “You came to me for advice, there it is!”

Quentin still doesn’t know what he wants to do.

Eliot talks to Julia. He has absolutely no idea how to propose marriage without sounding like an idiot and he’s not sure if he should even come up with a proposal. What if Quentin wants to do the proposing? What if Quentin is expecting to be proposed to? But Julia rolls her eyes.

“You could chuck a ring box at him and he would probably burst into tears,” She says.

“Great!” Eliot says, and doesn’t feel better. So Julia purses her lips and gives him real advice.

A few weeks later, Eliot is so nervous he might throw up. He gets home before Quentin, but only because he gets off work early. When he told his boss that he was proposing to his partner that night, she squealed and practically shoved him out the door. Perks of working at a shelter for LGBT youth--they soak up the gay shit. But Eliot doesn’t complain because it gives him plenty of time to prepare. He knows that Quentin won’t be home until sunset because of meetings he has with publishers in the city, which will make his homecoming and this moment even better.

So Eliot sets up in the backyard and leaves a note on the front door. He lays out their blankets and lights their tiki torches and get his proposal gift ready and paces while he rehearses his speech. He knows Quentin will say yes, but he’s still nervous. He’s nervous that it’s not going to go perfectly or that he’ll mess it up or that Quentin will be disappointed. Which he tries to tell himself is a stupid thing to think, and then comes back with the thought that it’s not stupid and his feelings are valid. And then he thinks that being a human with emotions is exhausting.

So he waits. And the sun begins to sink into the horizon.

Eliot hears Quentin’s car pull up their driveway, hears the engine stop and the door open and close. Footsteps approaching the front door. Footsteps coming around the back. Eliot takes a deep breath and picks up his proposal present. Show time.

Quentin rounds the corner, and they both freeze. And then they both laugh. 

Because in Quentin’s hands is a bucket of peaches. 

And in Eliot’s hands is a bucket of plums.

With sheepish grin, Quentin approaches Eliot, who looks glorious in the firelight.

“Hey,” He says softly, and Eliot grins.

“Hey,” Eliot says back, and gestures with his bucket. “Peaches?”

Quentin nods. “Plums,” He answers back.

Eliot feels like his chest is going to burst from love, and the look on Q’s face says the same. They both know what’s about to happen and what this is. 

Quentin looks a little bit like he’s about to cry, but he’s got a smile on his face and he laughs a little bit. “Um, so, you first?”

Eliot doesn’t think, doesn’t doubt himself, he just crosses to Quentin and gets down on one knee and places the bucket of plums at his feet. He looks back up at Q and pushes through the urge to shy away from the wave of emotions passing over him. Not today. He’s going to be braver, just like he learned from Q. Plus he’s got like a whole rehearsed speech in his head.

“Love is hard for me,” Eliot starts. “The idea of committing myself to someone else has always been terrifying and that fear has held me back in so many ways,” Eliot takes a breath to steady himself. “But I love you, Q. And I love getting to chose you every single day.” Quentin is definitely starting to cry a little bit, but Eliot continues courageously. “You’ve always called me your plum,” Eliot states, “And so I give you this bucket of plums as a symbol of me giving myself to you and choosing you. Now. Tomorrow. In fifty years. Forever.”

“Oh, God, El,” Quentin chokes, bringing a hand up to his face, and Eliot can’t help but laugh.

“Q, will you marry me?” Eliot asks, and then Quentin is furiously nodding and spurting out a thousand yes, yes, yeses. He’s nodding and they’re both laughing and Eliot feels like he’s made of air.

Quentin nods and takes a deep breath. His turn now. “So destiny is bullshit,” Eliot makes a little noise in the back of his throat, remembering that day they were crowned kings. This is so much better. “But you,” Quentin breaths. “You are my soulmate. My lifetime love. And I want to spend the next fifty years and the next fifty years and the next eternity with you,”

Quentin looks down at his bucket of peaches, overwhelmed by emotions and bites his lip. “I wanted to give you a bucket of peaches to ask you to marry me because, to me….” He clears his throat and Eliot can see he’s trying to compose himself. “Because, um, when you died, I sent a bucket of peaches to Margo. And that same bucket of peaches is what brought us back our mosaic memories.”

Q looks at Eliot, with such hope and love and devotion in his eyes. “But now I want to use them to create a new memory, of the start of our life together,” Quentin puts the bucket down and gets down on one knee in front of Eliot, their knee caps brushing. “So will you marry me, El?”

“Fuck, yes,” There’s not even a moment’s hesitation from him and then they’re both crying and kissing and that night they feast on peaches and plums and each other.

Quentin and Eliot talk about getting married.

They want a summer, outdoor wedding under a big tree. Or maybe on a beach. They talk about whether to get married on Earth or in Fillory. Debate, more like, but they eventually decide on Earth. They buy the gold wedding rings and Margo keeps them safe until the time to actually put them on. They talk about floral arrangements and color schemes and who they want to invite. They talk to Josh about catering and spend an afternoon in Fillory, tasting the most delicious cakes in the entire multiverse. They talk to Fogg about officiating their wedding. They talk to Julia and Margo about being their Best Men. They talk about their first dance song and if they want to do personal vows or “repeat after me” vows. They talk about all things wedding related and Quentin helps Eliot keep two feet on the ground and level head about the situation and Eliot loves him for it. (“Where were you the last time he got married?” Margo teases.)

Quentin and Eliot talk about the concept of marriage, again.

They talk about their fears and their hopes. They talk about what it’s like to be married to another man in America, and how it’s a fucking revolutionary act. They talk about what marriage means to them, and the commitment it entails. They make a specific distinction between society’s expectations of marriage and how they want to continue moving forward in their lives. They talk about the trauma they’ve endured in the last few years, and acknowledge that they still have a lot of work to go. They talk about the possibility of adopting, and expanding their little family. Because they already are a family with each other and their friends and their cat, but they want to be parents again. They talk about the ways they can best support each other when they have mental health relapses. They talk about all the ways they love each other.

Quentin and Eliot get married.

With exchange of written vows and golden bands, and with a tender kiss in front of all of their friends, they become the Coldwater-Waughs.

Quentin still thinks Coldwaughters would have been better.

[soul-heart-and-beyond]

Fenton Headcanons!

Here are some headcanons to better explain Fen and the several aspects of him that make up his history, personality, and ideology! It may not be exactly canon all of the time, so I will just say that my Fenton is canon divergent right now and settle that matter.

I’ve given my portrayal of Fenton a lot of thought in how to keep him separate from others by giving him a different source of inspiration and there fore ideals and standards to live by as he goes about his life. Note that this source will give him the workings on who to base his own superhero persona off of, while still trying to be his own person both inside and outside the suit.

First off, he’s always been a major fan of Supermallard and his heroic deeds as it just seemed like the duck emanated hope, justice, warmth, and kindness while still putting those in the wrong behind bars or a prison that could sustain them. Whenever he was placed into his larger fights, he would do all that he could to make sure at the end of the day that the lives of those he protected would be safe and the villain in jail or taken to a maximum security station. Seeing this at such a young age inspired him to be someone like Supermallard too, a kind, considerate, and overall intuitive person. He had always believed in doing nice things for others, but the comic and the character inspired him to be someone that could help the world someday.

Because of this, he tries to give himself a more deeper voice when in the armor to mislead others into thinking that he’s older than he really is, even if is voice isn’t exactly too used to it. It is also to ensure that the young ones have someone they can look up to and depend upon to rescue them.

The comics did give him a little more of a feel for wanting to delve into super science, hence why he decided to make that his major as he is still going through college to finish up his master’s degree. Being 26 doesn’t leave him much choice in the financial state he’s in so he just has to continue on going and finish the degree course, not that he minds that.

Fenton definitely does like to be safe and secure in the experiments and things that he does, even when it involves risks. Usually the only time he’ll be reckless is through underestimating, lack of needed knowledge, or just plain unconscious.

With that, he does have some trouble dealing with opponents that are exceedingly good with machinery or magical elements, as his list of experience right now is barely even at professional level for superhero stuff.

He does practice his in Gizmoduck armor whenever he has time to do so on his schedule and not already fighting crime, living out his life as Fenton, or creating new inventions for McDuck Enterprises.

Reading about Supermallard’s alter ego, Duck Kent, has made Fenton more of a person to be skeptical of the events that go on around him and the things people say. Whether it’s a false alarm or him actually detecting a suspicious person that is hatching some kind of plot or scheme, or having something that they don’t want him to know, He will catch on eventually, and may even show that he catches on too!

When a lot of situations look bleak with the only option of winning is to take the life of the one causing the havoc, Fenton will do his best to try and make sure that he can find another way that doesn’t involve the end of a life. If he does have to take a life, then he will have it linger in his memory as one of his failures to keep justice and order for every living creature.

While Fen loves glazed doughnuts, he adores cinnamon buns/rolls even more, as the light and fluffy texture mixed in with the sweet and slightly spicy taste of cinnamon and sugar just make him complete. While on the moment about favorite desserts too, he greatly appreciates Starduck’s triple caramel and chocolate cappuccino, even if it is a bit bad for one’s health if had in excess amounts. To himself, he limits his intake on them and saves them as special treats to himself for whenever he does a major accomplishment.

Even though he has a driver’s license and know how to drive well, he doesn’t own a car so he uses bus transportation to get to the money bin. It’s hard work lifting his Gizmosuit on his way to work and back hom, but this has also become part of a training exercise that has made him more stronger than before he obtained the suit and first started calling himself “Gizmoduck”. Can his lift a car? No, but he can lift a good shelf or heavy box now all on his own. And if someone’s wondering why he doesn’t turn into Gizmoduck and fly to the money bin, I got two answers. One: If he messes up any part of it, he could risk having more people know about his secret identity, and not know if they will spill it to others.If that happens, they will target his friends and family, and that’s just a bunch of stress he could lessen on himself if he just moved about from home to work and work to home as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera. The second one is that he knew it would be like a training regimen for himself, and so if he wanted to be as good as himself as he was as Gizmoduck, he needed to toughen up his real body too. That armor can’t protect him from everything, (like the radioactive/atomic central processor from the “Who Is Gizmoduck” episode)

This one particular headcanon may be a turn off to any Hueys out there, but this is kinda one for a reason. Due to the event with the radioactive/atomic explosion, Launchpad almost flying the Sunchaser into Dewey due to his missiles misfiring, and Mark Beaks’ attempt to turn into a General like monster and take both Huey and Webby, this Gizmoduck is one that still works for Scrooge McDuck and partner/lab assistant of Gyro Gearloose, but he is a more solo kind of hero. He would rather not have anyone that can’t defend themselves or not the proper age take risks that they don’t have to when he’s there and can solve the problem or save the day by himself. Some backup from other heroes he definitely wouldn’t mind, as they have experience and can hold their own against crooks and villains, but no sidekicks for this duck. Maybe a World’s Fowlest or The Duck and the Daring, but any Gizmobuddies he has he doesn’t want in the action. It would wound his heart greatly to have them be injured, hurt or killed because he couldn’t do everything, and so to eliminate that possibility, he refuses to take young sidekicks or wards. Maybe he’ll help out a young superhero-in-the-making, but that’s the only exception.

To make his suit more durable he will be adding some of his own touches here and there to the enhancements of the original Gizmoduck suit before making a Mark II altogether at some point. The material Gyro used was fine, but it dents way too easily, and if he’s going to be doing this superhero job, he needs more durable armor to match his constantly growing villains gallery. 

He does also try to incorporate some of his Fentonium into the suit as a sort of auxiliary power for whenever he needs it after doing a large attack or sustaining a lot of damage. It doesn’t give him anything special like his lasers, pies, or other actions, but he can still move the wheel, use some scanning functions, and moves his limbs like his arms.

Speaking of his abilities, that’s another thing I’ve been thinking of, and I have some original ideas along with ones inspired from things that he was already inspired off of, so a little more of just referencing at that point. He has these moves, and they are not all accessible, but eventually he does acquire or create them over time. They each have limited uses outside of Gizmo Uppercut, so he does have to plan his movements wisely.

Gizmo Cannon [Photon Cannon] (Iron Man/War Machine/Marvel Vs. Capcom): Instead of him pulling out or warping a giant photon cannon out of nowhere, he brings out two of his shoulder cannons and uses them to concentrate the blast of photon energy onto his target. He overall has a total about four of these uses before needing to recharge. It’s not as cutting as his lasers, but they should do well to gradually chip or damage his opponent’s armor, and a good continual damage too.

Gizmo Salvo [War Destroyer] (War Machine/Marvel Vs. Capcom): For his really tough combatants, and this is one of the more ammo-consuming moves that he has, Gizmoduck will launch his missiles, bombs, and ammo into the sky, and have them act as an air strike on his foe. Generally for the big guys or heavy hitters that think they’re tougher than anything justice has, and he has about two uses of this before he runs out of his ammunition reserves, so it’s something to save up for.

Gizmo Uppercut [Mega Uppercut] (Mega Man/Marvel Vs. Capcom): What superhero worth his title wouldn’t have an easy but flashy uppercut or signature move that gives that feeling of flair? This one really doesn’t consume any of his energy as it just converts some of the photon and laser energy his suit has into a punch to inflict more pain on evildoers. Really it’s just like a Shoryuken but with photon and laser energy. Not lethal as it’s a small dose of them, but it can knock someone out.

Gizmo Field [Energy Field] (Cell/Android 17 and 18/Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3): If there was ever a moment that he needed to have some protection against projectiles or any attacks while making his own, here’s a force field attack to give him the advantage. While he can’t propel anything like magic or advanced super science beyond that of Earth’s current potential, he can still lessen the pressure of the attacks using it. The shield also does deal moderate damage and extends to the size of a small transportable hot air balloon. He’s got six uses for it, and it does tap into his energy reserves for his Gizmo Cannon and Gizmo Uppercut.

Fentonium Fore [Mega Ball] (Mega Man/Marvel Vs. Capcom): This one’s an interchangeable one between Gizmoduck and Fenton (Finally, some moves that Fenton can use while outside of the suit for once), and it’s where he takes a ball of Fentonium and smacks it towards his enemies to act like a ricocheting projectile weapon, and he does have a ping pong racket to continue the transition. Not only that, but he can aim it too for trick shots if he needs a distraction or low profile weapon.

Photon Sphere [Spirit Bomb/Genkidama] (Son Goku/Dragon Ball Z/GT): This is definitely a move he learns very late into his career, but it is where he takes all of the energy that he has stored into suit at the present time and can even convert any other energy given to the sphere to make it more stronger. This move does put strain on Fenton’s real body but the suit should be fine, as long as the arm parts are still functional so that way he can throw it and push it. It’s a one time use before needing a recharge, so if it fails, then he has no more tricks up his sleeves. This is overpowered, as the energy is enough to roughly a continent with his own suit at full power (which most likely won’t happen), but can get to half of a planet or a moon with that much energy plus that of what others add to him.

Fenton Flurry (Original): Knowing that he has to fight without the armor, he has some moves he never mentions as he fights, but gives them a name in his head. This one is pretty much a flurry of punches towards his enemy and while it is clumsy and sometimes badly timed, it can catch someone off guard when he does time it right or in a confined space.

Photon Blaster (Original): During the Shadow War, he modified Gyro’s blaster weapon with the help of Manny and Lil’ Bulb, though this time he made his own spare while on his some of his lunch breaks. it has both a phaser or bullet-like function and a laser function for consistent pressure.

[cassolotl]

(From White Collar S03E07: Taking Account)

Okay so, I have a lot of feelings on this topic, and I’m going to try to untangle them via the medium of blog post.

FIRST OF ALL, Mozzie is adorable.

When I hear Mozzie say that he doesn’t like to label his relationships that way, I’m like, of course, he knows what he wants and it’s cool.

But when I do it, I am full of self-doubt and my inner monologue starts accusing me of being afraid of commitment. How can I tell which one it is? Do I just not get on well with relationship labels even with the people I am committed to and love very much, or am I just bad at commitment and/or it’s some kind of personal failing? And for that matter, how do I know that Mozzie isn’t afraid of commitment? :D

Each time I get into a relationship, I feel less comfortable with the label thing, even though labels seem to be a natural part of letting relationships be whatever they want to be. In my last relationship I decided to try relationship labels, I don’t know, mindfully - on purpose, to see exactly how and why it was uncomfortable, and to maybe try to get used to it and get over any fears or other weird emotional issues. “Why am I having so much trouble with this thing that other people find so easy and enjoy so much? Let’s explore it.” I also wanted to try it because my partner at the time wanted it, and her being happy was really important to me. I felt like I had good reasons!

The results were mixed. I got used to calling her my girlfriend, and when we broke up it hurt to stop calling her my girlfriend, which I’m guessing is a fairly common experience. But while we were together, even though it became familiar it never felt true. I never saw/heard her refer to me as her enbyfriend but I imagine that might have felt fake or confusing for me too. And I’m like, is that because of something inherent in our relationship, or is it all me and my label-resistant nature? When I try to think about what I would have liked to do differently, I honestly have no idea.

I know for sure that it is really hard for me to trust people. It sucks that I get into relationships with people who betray my trust when I feel like I should know better by now (gosh that sounds melodramatic), but I hate who I am when I’m with trustworthy people too, because my inability to trust makes me push them away. Being vulnerable does not feel good for me, and I end up hurting people in self-defence.

It all comes back around to Mozzie, kind of? Something that helps me a lot is seeing people like me in the world around me, and since people like me are pretty unusual and we don’t reveal that kind of stuff to people we’ve just met, that’s often in TV shows. Characters who don’t like to label their relationships tend to be commitmentphobic! So it makes sense that I would suspect myself of secretly being that, since I’ve never seen anything else. But in my experience I actually quite like commitment in practice.

So, Mozzie and his new not-girlfriend, that could be a nice representation for me, but Mozzie is a bit all over the place in terms of his mental health. (OCD, paranoia.) I would like to see myself in a character who is not portrayed as weird in a slightly comical way?

A TV-relationship that I love is Eliot and Margo in The Magicians. When Eliot finds himself trapped in an entirely empty world the first thing he screams is Margo’s name. Margo’s a woman, Eliot is pretty gay and is actually kind of grossed out when he has to consummate his arranged marriage with Fen (his wife and queen, long story). He’s not commitmentphobic but he needs (and seems to also like) a lot of relationship freedom. And always, above basically everything and everyone else, is Margo. They love each other passionately, they empower each other, their relationship is surprisingly healthily balanced for two people with such strong characters, they overcome all their differences to accept each other completely, and it’s totally platonic [except for that one threesome and possibly more threesomes/orgies]. If I had to put a label on their relationship I’d call them allies. Their bond is epic and legendary. I think they just call each other “best friend” or something, but that doesn’t really encompass it.

Waiting around for TV writers to start writing the kinds of relationships I want to have, so that I can sort my brain out, doesn’t seem like the best course of action. But I don’t know how else to get myself on course, emotionally and relationship...ly, using only my own brain. I don’t know if it’s even possible, and I think it’s unreasonable to expect someone to right themself without any external assistance at all. I feel like I can’t invent-and-visualise what I want until I see it happen outside of myself, so my only real option is to just keep flailing around having confusing emotions and not-quite-satisfying-in-the-right-way relationships until the thing that feels right happens accidentally, which could literally never happen.

And then there’s my romantic orientation. Is this all part of being aromantic? I’ve always put all of this in the “aromantic” box, but that doesn’t help me to work out what I want or how I want to be in relationships or how to actually do the kinds of relationships I’m happy in.

All of this gives me an emotion that I don’t know the name of, the one that feels like I need to cough up a hairball. I guess there’s more going on under the surface, I don’t know.

SUBMIT POST, I guess??

[wxldchxld]

😰when my muse is stressed, how do they act out? & ⧱ what really is my muse’s biggest flaw

😰 when my muse is stressed, how do they act out? 

I guess it depends on the type of stress. If she’s just like, overloaded stressed where she feels like she’s taken on too much, her response is to leave. This can be everything from taking a break to completely bailing on the person or situation entirely and not returning to it. Beck is a bottler. So her first instinct is to shove it down and pretend to be happy and make everyone happy and she thinks if she can just achieve that the stress will go away. The end result is now not only has Beck fled the situation, but also that it probably came out of the blue. This was, essentially, the core of why she and Harper broke up. Things changed, Beck spooked, and instead of saying “hey we need to talk” she just disappeared into the night.

That was kind of a special situation, and a lot of the times Beck will come back once she’s cooled off, but she’d still rather not talk about it. Unless you’re someone she trusts and genuinely wants a relationship with. If those feelings are in place she’ll be more willing to talk or even may force herself to initiate it. She didn’t with Harper because... shit was complicated.

If she’s extremely distressed where she feels like she is in danger she either runs or shifts or grabs her wand. Depends because she tends to leap before she thinks, so she’s rarely like “so what would be best for me in THIS crisis situation.” 

⧱ what really is my muse’s biggest flaw

My girl is a hot mess, and I could probably fill a book if I tried to list all of the flaws so I’m glad we’re going with one.

This isn’t something that Beck is aware of, and if you confronted her with it, she’d adamantly deny it, but from an authorial stand point Beck’s biggest flaw is she doesn’t value other people just on the moral grounds that they too are people. And it’s not just because she’s a bit vain.

Hang with me, because my explanation for how she got that way isn’t going to seem relative at first because it’s a combination of two neutral things that have, over time, created a negative.

I feel like Beck’s naturally a wanderer. She’s not necessarily a loner, because she doesn’t get those desires to escape being around people, especially if they’re people she likes. For instance in a relationship, while Beck doesn’t prefer clingy partners, she also doesn’t really hit a wall where she’s like “holy shit if we don’t get some space from one another I might explode.”

However Beck will very often prioritize her desire to see new places and travel around over relationships. It’s about the journey, yes, but it’s also about her intense desire to feel free which comes from a childhood of constant criticism and frequent abuse, as well as it’s just a result of her magic. The wilds call to her. This is why in verses where Beck is married and forced to stay still, she keeps herself almost frantically busy, and she doesn’t cope well in urban areas bc she still needs that exposure to the wilderness. 

Essentially, the first neutral is that Beck values her own freedom and comfort over the comfort of others. But she’s not emotionless; leaving people hurts. When she left Harper, even though it was her choice, she cried for months. Her solution? Just don’t get close to people. Keep them at an arm’s length. Because the desire to leave is going to come, and someone is going to get hurt and Beck doesn’t like hurting people she loves or getting hurt herself.

The second thing is Beck was severely mistreated by her mother after the death of her father. Denise removed her children from the home and family they knew, took them somewhere else, changed their names, and then proceeded to neglect and abuse them away from prying eyes that might call her out on it. People were just too scared to go against her. Beck bore a little more weight from the abuse because Denise didn’t like her. She was defiant, unlike Fen. Then her mother died (in most verses; in my GoT verse she dies later), and she was given to her great aunt and uncle to raise, and they were abusive as well. Then her brother, once they were older, started to lose his grip on his sanity, and he abused her too. 

So Beck’s essentially been passed from family member to family member, and even Fen, who at one time she loved and trusted more than anyone in the world, fucked her over.

This is NOT an excuse. People are handed their deck of cards in life and, to some extent, they make a choice. When Beck hit her crossroads the first time where she was with Harper, someone who could protect her and would believe her, she chose to leave. Again after Fen kills her familiar Dawnbreaker, and she’s found a way to escape, she doesn’t go tell someone what he’s doing. She doesn’t skip the country and make a life for herself in a city where no one will find her with a coven that might protect her. She chooses to go back to the wild. When that very action is what she knows provokes the anxiety and rage in Fenris in the first place.

Over time, both of these factors, as well as the sheer amount of time she spends in isolation, has turned into the fact that Beck (who is also naturally kinda vain) usually doesn’t see people as anything but a danger or a nuisance. This is why she doesn’t care about stealing from them or conning them, and sometimes she even sees the act of manipulating others as kind of a game. It’s why if she feels slighted, she doesn’t feel even slightly sorry for sending a hex your way. She doesn’t even get pissed off about it really. It’s just like “oh he’s a prick... I’ll turn him into a cow for a week or so.” And she doesn’t think at all about how royally that could fuck someone up in their head, especially if they didn’t know about magic. She doesn’t care. 

She’ll hex people to get out of tight spots too. I won’t say she likes this, but if she feels it’s beneficial enough she won’t blink an eye. 

Like I said she’ll steal, and she’ll spy too. Now she’s not about to go steal like, national information that could endanger millions, but if you want a private investigator that doesn’t give a fuck about laws or privacy just go to Beck.

Probably the worst thing is that a lot of the times she is just either completely unaware of the problems of others or she doesn’t care unless it is extreme. She’s not going to let someone hurt a kid or beat a woman or something like that if she’s in a position where she knows about it and can stop it... but she won’t readily put herself in harm’s way just to help someone else either. It’s not a heroic “I must act now!” sort of thing if she gets involved. Even her work with the SoE in some verses where it is literally her job to remove people that are being abused from situations where the law won’t help, she does it because she feels like she owes the SoE a debt and she almost never puts herself at risk during that time.

Beck just---doesn’t consider people. Often her attempts to make them happy are a result of old coping mechanisms, channeling her own hyperactive energy, or an attempt to make them more pliable for manipulation. 

Beck is extremely difficult to get close to on a real level. After two years on this blog I can honestly say she’s got maybe one person SHE would call a friend outside of the muses I write and have given her extended history with. Even in many of her relationships, while she’s gotten to the point where she cares about the other person some and has started to think about how they might feel in a situation and put that on equal footing as how she feels.

I enjoy writing this because I feel like lots of people use this trait, but that they do it differently. Distant characters are often painted as cold sarcastic loners who are just kind of assholes. That’s not Beck. She’s very warm and bubbly and she can be attracted to people, interested in people, and kind to people, all while consistently lying to them, keeping her true feelings bottled up, and lacking trust in them entirely. And like I said she doesn’t really realize that she devalues people like this, but she does. She only realizes it later when she starts to care for them and often has to dig herself out of a mountain of lies she’s told. Some of which are even actively dangerous to the other person.

[gostudysupport-blog]

Safe Weight Loss Supplements: What Exactly Are Their Key Ingredients?

If you are among the believed 68 percent of Yankee adults who're either obese or overweight, you might be prepared to start searching in excess of-the-counter diet supplements and weight loss supplements for an additional boost.

However, you are not prepared to sacrifice your wellbeing simply to be thin, and you are searching for any weight loss supplement that'll be both effective and safe.

This is often a tricky factor to locate because the U.S. Fda does not regulation nutritional supplements ore Studeerpil trials to show safety or effectiveness. It is just after numerous customer complaints the Food and drug administration issues an alert or perhaps a recall of unsafe weight loss supplements, because it did with Fen Phen in 1997.

Due to this insufficient regulation, the choice is yours-the customer-to research essential to pick a weight loss supplement that's both effective and safe. However, there's a couple of methods to start searching, and something is as simple as knowing which natural or herbal ingredients deliver weight reduction without having to put your wellbeing in risk.

To obtain began, here's a glance at five common weight loss supplement things that deliver weight reduction without severe negative effects.

African Mango Diet

Sometimes listed as Irvingia gabonensis, African mango diet is really a fruit indigenous to the trees of African and Southeast Asia. Recognized for their fat- and protein-wealthy nuts, the fruit is extremely prized as a diet aid.

African mango diet is comparatively new around the weight reduction market, however it was already endorsed by reliable figures like television personality Dr. Oz. Because of its high fiber content, African mango diet has the capacity to suppress hunger, lower cholesterol levels, promote healthier bloodstream sugar levels, as well as burn off fat in moderate amounts.

The 2005 study that propelled African mango diet to fame involved 40 obese individuals, who have been either given African mango diet or perhaps a placebo. Individuals who supplemented with African mango diet saw decreased Cholestrerol levels ("bad" cholesterol) and elevated High-density lipoprotein cholesterol ("good" cholesterol), with an average 28-pound weight reduction within the eight-week period. Individuals who received a placebo reported no such changes.

The outcomes of the relatively small study were then supplemented having a 2009 study which reported both weight reduction and bodyweight reduction. Within this study 102 overweight and/or obese subjects received 150mg of African mango diet two times daily and demonstrated "significant enhancements in bodyweight, excess fat, and waist circumference."

As the fat-burning qualities of African mango diet possess some affect on these results, the majority of the power African mango diet is based on its high fiber content. Fiber is remarkably good at filling the stomach and maintaining your body satisfied, thus diminishing calorie intake and helping enhance the metabolic process.

Safety Profile: Unlike most weight loss supplement ingredients, African mango diet isn't a stimulant. What this means is it doesn't trigger faster reactions in your body or boost the body's core temperature to enhance metabolic process and burn off fat. Rather, it relies mainly on suppressing of your appetite, meaning the center problems usually attendant with weight loss supplements aren't usual to African mango diet.

Due to this, African mango diet is recognized as "possibly safe" by WebMD when used for approximately 10 days. The only real negative effects reported with African mango diet are elevated wind, some headaches, and sleep issues.

Red Pepper Cayenne

This spicy plant produced from chili peppers not just enhances your dinner-time pallet, but could really assistance to burn off fat.

Based on a 2010 study printed within the Journal of Proteome Research, red pepper cayenne could use-up more calories and improve fat metabolic process. Researchers placed subjects on the high-fat diet, and half supplemented with cayenne as the partner didn't.

Individuals who supplemented with cayenne really lost 8 % of the excess fat when compared with individuals who didn't.

Cayenne seems to boost weight loss in this manner since it includes a component known as capsaicin, which accounts for growing the proteins in your body that breaking lower fat. This can lead to less fat stores as well as an improvement in digestion and metabolic process overall.

[free-the-mages]

15 Questions

:] Many thanks to @fen-harel for the tag!!! They’re always including me and that makes me feel... included. And happy! <3 I don’t remember if this is my first OOC meme thing like this but it’s the first I do remember, so… yeah! ;] Ya’ll (who read this) are ‘bout to learn more about me than you probably want to!

Are you named after someone? First off, the name I use online – Kaitlyn – is my real name. As far as being named after someone… like, not really? Though my mom has, on multiple occasions, told me about how Sheena Easton’s character on Miami Vice was named Caitlin, but she didn’t like that spelling so she changed it. So the name was brought to her attention from that, but she didn’t name me it because she loved the show or the character or anything. She just fell in love with the name.

When was the last time you cried? More like, when was the last time I didn’t cry?! Haha, jkjk. I am an emotional wreck tho. :] I actually teared up a bit earlier today, realizing it was N7 Day, and that sending me into the rollercoaster of feelings I get from Mass Effect in general, but there are also some super heavy feelings attached to the Trilogy for reasons outside the scope of the game itself. I guess. Idk if that makes sense, but it’s not something I’m gonna go into so publicly here. (Tbh, it’s not something I have an issue talking about, it’s just something that could definitely be triggering for others and I don’t wanna put that out there like that.) Anyway, moving on!

Do you have kids? I have a cat! I’m not gonna ask if she counts because she 100% does!! Her name is Memphis (yes, like the city in Tennessee) and I love her and she’s my baby!!!! My lil’ Mem Mem! My Moo Moo!! (she is my world, guys.)

Here’s a couple gifs I made for you guys of her high on the ‘nip!

Do you use sarcasm a lot? A fair amount, yeah. But really only if I’m comfortable with people though. I’ve even had friends who don’t fully understand my humor/sarcasm and are like, “… seriously?” and I’m like, “… no.” :3

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their approachability. I’m not insanely social, ya know? So when I’m meeting people or taking note of people, I tend to assess how approachable they appear. And yeah, some of that is how they look, but come on. The whole not judging a book by it’s cover thing is definitely a thing. I guess I just really know whether or not I’m going to feel comfortable with/around a person by the sense of approachability I get from them. It happens immediately, really. Mostly from the way they greet me, or introduce themselves to me, or engage with me. I gravitate towards immediately engaging people. If a person seems standoffish, I’m like… this isn’t gonna work probably. Which isn’t super great, because maybe some people are just having an off day and aren’t super into engaging at that time! But it is what it is, I guess. One does try to be better, though. ^^ Now, if we’re talking about online, it’s pretty much the same thing. I notice the way they present themselves, and you usually can really tell how approachable a person is by the way they talk through text and like, emojis and stuff. :] Being social online isn’t really any easier for me than it is in person, so if I’m looking at someone’s blog or something and I’m just like, “This person seems so great. I’d like to be friends!” then I def know they’re def approachable. To me, at least. xD (I’ve come across a lot of approachable appearing people thus far in my time in the fandom! <3)

What’s your eye color? Like a bluish/greyish/greenish color. It shifts a bit sometimes. There are also some orange-ish flecks in there.

Scary Movies or Happy Endings? Well, I’m not super into scary movies. I mean, I definitely love a happy ending, no matter what!! But I’ve been trying to challenge myself in recent years to watch more scary things because I detest being frightened (it’s more of the jump scare/startle thing that I really hate) but I can’t just watch any scary movie. It has to have a plot that really sticks out to me. However, thus far, every scary movie I’ve gone out of my way to see has been a dud in my – and my movie-going partners’ – book. I’ll keep trying, though! One of these days I’ll find a scary movie that I’ve personally picked to see that I actually like and would watch again!

Any special talents? Um…. I’m fat and can do the splits?! Is that a special talent?! (By some people’s reaction[s], it sure seems like it. xD) Idk. I tend to think there’s nothing special about me, as one does, u kno. :]

Where were you born? A hospital in Florida sometime during the rampage of Hurricane Hugo.

What are your hobbies? Um… video games? xD Drawing! Writing (when I actually write, that is)! Making gifs! Sleeping! Making fun of myself in a way that seriously sounds like I’m putting myself down but it’s totally okay because that’s just what I do so don’t worry about it! :D I’m just garbage, guys. <3

Do you have any pets? THE GIFS AGAIN!!!!

THAT FACE.

LOVE HER.

How tall are you? Last I knew I was like, 5’7” or so.

What sports do you play/have you played? None, because I am not athletic in the least! OHOH! I did play volleyball for a half a second in elementary school! But there were no other teams to play against so we literally had ONE!! practice. :]

Favorite subject at school? LUNCH!!!! *fat girl in body and spirit* :3 But really. I’ve always been pretty good at English/whatever you wanna call your literary classes or whatevs. I was in AP English in 10th grade! But I didn’t apply myself like I should have after Freshman year, so… the whole AP thing didn’t last long. :] Anyway, I was good at the English, but I wouldn’t say that, as a class, I ~~~liked it all that much. MATH IS G A R B A G E THANK YOU VERY MUCH. So is gym. TOO. MUCH. RUNNING. Idk. School was a total crapshoot for me so I wouldn’t say I really appreciated any class.

BUT THAT’S A FUCKING LIE.

FRENCH.

FRANÇAIS.

MY TEACHER WAS A GLORIOUS WOMAN AND SHE MADE THE CLASS SO FUN AND ENJOYABLE.

So yeah. The answer is French. :]

Dream job? Honestly I always felt like it was something I’d never have, so it’s something I’ve never really thought about. I mean, just something I enjoy doing that I don’t hate in less than a decade. That makes me some decent money, ya dig?

So basically that’s it!! :D Whew, that was long! I’m not gonna officially tag anyone ‘cause everyone’s already been tagged, I just know it. But if you aren’t tagged and you happen to see this and wanna do it, then DO IT!! :D And tag me so I can read it!! Also thank youuuuu to anyone who read this. Love you all!!!

 <3

[fyrapartnersearch]

Bang bang! Lets try this again!

Howdy!

Round two everybody! :) 

Since the announcement, game plays and official trailers, DMC 5 is back in town! And I am absolutely crazy about it!  I was one of the lucky who got to attend the GC 2018 and play the demo, and admittedly, I am pumped to the core. I am seeking anyone who might be interested in starting an RP based on the series. It doesn’t matter which version or timeline, for I am open to any possibility. I also highly welcome original ideas, alternate plots and OC’s! I have a few ideas myself and would like to discuss them with my new potential partner <3 

Also, I am willing to play any canon character and pair them with whomever!

Okay, as for the guidelines, nothing much has changed on my part. Same old, same old ;)  I’ll keep it short and sweet for my introduction. I am Fenry, but you may address me as Fen. Obviously this is not my real name but I would like to keep a pseudonym as my identity until I get to know my partner better. 



I am 25 years and that means adult themes and topics will be included

Female

Over 10 years of roleplaying experience

Masters graduate

I live in CET, Europe

Prefer doubling, though I can make exceptions

My roleplaying partner must be above the age of 18, preferably 20+. 
I don’t care which gender honestly, as long as the Roleplay and friendship is good I am all for it. Contact me with a small introduction. Tell me about yourself, what you’re ideas are, how long you’ve been writing and your limits. I want to know more about you, assess your character before we move to anything else. It would otherwise come off as impersonal. 



The qualities I prefer in an RP buddy are: 


Mature

Dedicated

Detailed

Literate

Frequent (which doesn’t mean that you need to send me 5 messages per day. 2-3 times per week is absolutely fine since I am not able to respond as much either)

Flexible

We all have real, social lives outside of the roleplaying world. I understand when you’re not able to reply as fast all of the time, because it is not much different for me either. I will try to respond at least 4-5 times a week. If it’s a good week, my replying rate will increase depending on the given situation. If there’s work ahead or any sort of obstacle that might get in the way of our exchange, I will let you know as soon as I possibly can! I promise you this! 
But I also hope you do the same when there’s something that might cause a hiatus.




I am looking for LONGTERM and CONTINUOS Roleplays! My partner should be very committed because otherwise, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense and we might as well drop it.





When it comes to my writing style and preferences, I will list these things here for you to read.

Writing: I am a multi-paragraph sort of writer, which means that frequently, my writing will exceed at least 500 words, and upward of 1000+ words. I love detail in description, and I am actively seeking someone of the same infamy. Generally, I tend to write in the 3rd person. I’ve also tested the waters of 1st person but found it fairly awkward, if not, jarring so I’d rather keep it with 3rd person.

Pairings: I openly play characters of both genders, preferable m x f pairings, but I am open to m x m and f x f relationships as well. I have more experience with m x f relationships, so I might excel in this category more than I would do with the others. However, like I said, do not let this deter you. Very much open to other sexual orientations and preferences. Romance and intimate erotic scenes are always a part of the story, so if you are someone who prefers fading to black, I am afraid to tell you that my request isn’t something for you. This is not negotiable, sorry.

Genres: I am versatile when it comes to genres and settings that I like to play in. Supernatural is my absolute jam, especially urban and gothic fantasy, maybe even a bit of mythology as well? 
Anything involving vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, shape shifters, aliens, mutants, other urban creature of folklore, given some sort of modern day spun, is absolutely perfect for me. I’m not as fond of general real-life or general modern day genres and themes without a good, complex idea attached to it.

Characters: Faceclaims, GIFs, drawings, mood boards or just a plain physical description is absolutely welcome / sufficient. I am not someone who necessarily needs a face claim for a character in order ‘to get the picture’. There are many instances where I could not find a suiting match for my character’s definition, so I resorted to drawing them myself or leaving it with a simple description. 
Characters should have flaws - that is a no brainer obviously, since nobody likes a Mary Sue / Gary Stu - but also some unique traits that make them stand out and remain memorable. I take inspiration from JK Rowling or George R.R. Martin for example as each of their character remains very unique and unforgettable in my opinion. They definitely did something right and I want to emulate that, so don’t be afraid to be rather bold with your character creation. Let your imagination run wild and surprise me with your ideas!

World building & plotting: An active roleplayer is wanted in this category, without a doubt. I love to world-build, but I tend to lose interest when I am the only one who puts in the effort into it. I can’t do the thinking for two people, so I implore you to at least share the burden (which should not be regarded as such because roleplaying is a fun hobby and nothing more). Too often I find people shying away from it in this regard. If I feel that I’m carrying the weight of the world-building part with specific ideas, I will end the Roleplay in immediately. And consider that the world building is just the tip of the beginning, so from that, I’ll be able to see whether we’ll be a match or not. Because we’d be starting from scratch with whatever we do, it would be a big relief to have someone who doesn’t mind letting ideas flow to set up the universe that we will be roleplaying in.

Content: I find writing erotic, dramatic or action packed scenes very enjoyable. I don’t hinder myself when certain subjects are mentioned that may be uncomfortable for the general public. But then again, as a reminder, a Roleplay is not reality but fiction. For example situations that heavily imply and involve brutality, mayhem, psychological and physical torture are things that need exploration.

Characters should be fully fleshed out, even the not so pretty parts of one’s personality and actions. There is no black and white, but a wide ranging spectrum of grey areas. A story does not always end well and life is never fair, so to implement this into a Roleplay, it would make a fantastic and very exciting story. Nothing is ever certain, people have their ups and downs… we shouldn’t make an exception here. I am not afraid to delve into even more sinister areas such as psychological trauma if its needed to further the story. I want to be as transparent as I possibly can. I have very few limits. The only subjects I will not touch, or rather avoid are heavy graphic rape scenes, bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia. Other than that everything is fair game. What I also find quite fascinating is describing someone’s mental as well as physical transformation, ascending to a higher or lower state of being, etc. The process of metamorphosis, may it be the manipulation or corruption of someone… it all is quite eerie and at the same time, intriguing. It all leads to the progression of the story, so be warned that we won’t be walking on egg shells here. 


The story will not be solely centred on dark themes. I love me a mixture of everything, including drama, fluff, angst, action, comedy, romance, adventure, mystery and so forth.


The ones I’ve marked in bold are the ones I am currently itching for the most.


 The pairings I’ve listed down below are just some ideas that we could use for pairings (or even alternate versions). 

Pairings:

age gaps (non pedophiliac)

friend x best friend’s older sibling

enemies to lovers

cop x criminal

friends turned lovers/pining

grumpy x sunshine

dark hearted man melting for the innocent woman

reunited old lovers and/or friends

boss x employee

neighbours

mentor x mentee

hitman x victim

hurt/comfort

height differences

pet names

rich x poor (or noble and peasant / different social classes)

If you are interested, contact me here: No password is required, just message me and we see how things go from there <3 Email: mynioncosplay@gmail.com Discord: Fenry#4086 Hope to see you there!

-Fenry 

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 6, A Window Into An Empty Room -- Review

Welcome to another Shadowhunters review. Yup, it's time for my weekly subjugation of bad writing. But at this point, who's fault is it really? The writers? Or mine -- for consistently choosing to come back to this show. I could quite simply say no and drop the show but I'm just too damn curious to do that. I guess at this point, it’s self-imposed torture. So Season 3, Episode 6, A Window Into an Empty Room, here we come.

So some weeks back, I made a post about my thoughts and opinions on the Dom Controversy and I got a lot of new followers because of that. Apparently, some of you think I'm really wise and mature for saying the things I said in that post. And whereas I'm honored that you're showing an interest in me, I would like to preface this review with saying that I am NOT a huge supporter of this show. I do enjoy certain elements of it but I'm not what would be classified as a devoted fan. For me, Shadowhunters is not a good show and I do get very critical of the show in my reviews. Honestly, for me, I watch the show because 1) I'm too curious not to and 2) I find that this show can be so bad its funny and that's how I reap enjoyment out of it. I am not at all invested in this show or its characters anymore. If you're a die hard fan and you lash out at everyone who has a different opinion than you, you might want to skip these. I'm just saying. My reviews may not be for you. If you do decide to be a total troll, well then pay attention to the below disclaimer. 

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you're the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that's on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that's the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling YOU how to think and feel. I'm telling you what I, quirky and socially awkward me, think and feel. So please, lets discuss with dignity and respect. If I'm critical about this show, it's only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters, I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It's great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to point out the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do like the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my fondness for the books. I don't really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as the changes are good, it makes sense, and it doesn't create plot holes within the confines of the world the show has created. My problems with this show are problems I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it's perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world building, and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movie. 

If any of you know me, you would think this would be the kind of episode I'd enjoy. Just chalk full of character moments and whatnot. That stuff's catnip for your resident hopeless romantic. But this episode really left me feeling apathetic and when I say apathetic, I mean BORED. Considering most of this episode took place in a bar, you’d think I would have a great time with this episode. Watching the Shadowhunters characters hang out a bar, watching their shenanigans, it should’ve been a lot of fun. Yeah, no. I can't believe I wasted my lunch hour watching this episode. This episode had a couple of issues. 1)Remember, how I talk about how the show switches through plots super quickly and as a result you lose any sense of empathy for the story being told? Well, that's what happened here except it was less about plot and more about character dynamics. We kept on switching through character scenes and you couldn't really get a grasp on the good, juicy character bits because once you were starting to feel something you were immediately taken to a completely different character dynamic and then you lost whatever impact that scene would've had the potential to leave you with. And 2) Subtlety. This show is always not subtle but this episode in particular failed a lot. It was completely unsubtle in everything it tried to do. And of course, like I say in every review, the dialogue is atrocious. It was so forced and it made me want to pull my hair out. I wish I knew what happened in the writers room. I wish I could have a meeting with the writers and be all, "Yo, this isn't how real people talk to each other." But let's get on with this.

The A-Plot...Which I Wish Would Hurry Up and End

Let's talk about this just so I can get it out of the way. Still hate this plot. There's nothing interesting about it. Lillith is being her typical bland self, giving Jace the exact same villain monologue she gave him a couple of episodes ago. Which by the way, makes no sense. Why is she grand standing to someone who clearly is not in control of his own mind at the moment? I mean, it would seem like he doesn't even really remember what happens so what's the point of her gloating to him? And like I said, she gives him her motivations a second time as if the audience didn't remember the first time. I really hate it when the writers treat me like I'm stupid.

But apparently, Owl Jace needs to find one last virtuous human to, I guess, desecrate their purity. I think that's what's going on here. Jace finds one on the street but bumps into Alec before he can complete his mission. Then we get this overly friendly Jace persona who is obviously not Jace. This is what I mean by subtlety. You can tell clearly from the tone, that Jace doesn't really have any feelings about anyone for that matter. Which I find odd to begin with since Lillith only took away his love for Clary. He should still be feeling things for Alec and Izzy, right? Unless his ability to love is tied to Clary, which on a psychological level, I hope isn't the case because that's really unhealthy. So for whatever reason, the show decided to go all the way across the room instead of just meeting somewhere in the middle with this. Writers, your audience is smart. You can throw in some subtlety, a pinch of subtext, and we'll pick up on it. 

Everyone has a seemingly happy reunion with Jace but Clary (being her typical Mary Sue self) feels like something's off. She meets with Magnus to discuss the demon who attacked her and after getting some kind of demonic heat signature off of Clary's body (yeah, it's just as convenient and weird as it sounds) determines that the demon he's been fighting is the same demon that attacked her. He sends a fire message for assistance and we get a visit from Brother Zachariah. Book fans know who he is. And I myself, as a book fan, didn't give two shits. Why? Because while I applaud the show for putting in book nods, especially someone as much loved as Brother Zachariah is, these nods mean absolutely nothing without the context. Brother Zachariah was completely unnecessary here. It could've been any Silent Brother or really any warlock to relay this information. And seeing how they've messed up the yin fen storyline, I don't want them to touch any of the TID characters. Please, keep them separate in their own universes. As I've said, I don't mind when the show puts book things in but at the same time, I wish they would throw the books away and do their own thing because them mixing and mashing their own ideas for the story plus book ideas hasn't been working out very well. Choose one track of adaptation and stay on that track. Trying to do both isn't working. It just makes the story overly convoluted and confusing. 

While at the Hunter's Moon, Jace comes across both Ollie and Charlie who are apparently giving off virtuous auras. And at this point, I was good with either one of them going crazy and potentially dying. I don't like either one of them but Jace goes after Ollie just as Clary and Magnus realize that she's in danger. They show up, completely suck at fighting Owl Jace and then Luke shoots Jace a few times and that causes him to lose the weird shape shifting mask he has going on and climbs up a building spider-man style and Ollie, now possessed (I guess), runs off. Most likely to kill her lover. As horrible as it sounds, I'm hoping both her and her partner (Sam) die in the next episode. I find both of them woefully uninteresting and since the show doesn’t have the time to flesh them out as characters, they're just a waste of screen time. And now everyone is super shocked now that they know what the audience has known for a long time, Jace is the Owl. Although, honestly, Clary didn't react super shocked. How about once more with feeling, Clary? 

And also, let's talk about how dumb the writers apparently think we are. Magnus tells Clary that Lillith most likely is hiding in human form and Clary legitimately asks, "Is that even possible?" What show has this girl been watching? Clary, practically everything in your world shape shifts. You, yourself, have done it. You turned the Mortal Cup into a World's Best Dad mug. The first demon you ever encountered was a shapeshifter. Of course it's fucking possible. Why did the writers feel like this question needed to be asked? Did they think we forgot? Considering how often it's integrated into the story, I'm thinking not. I know I'm certainly not likely to forget considering what a huge plot hole that shape shifting rune is and I'm reminded of the plothole every time its used. 

Also, I'm not sure if it was just me, but did anyone else find Clary particularly cringe-worthy in this episode? None of her lines were working for me. But then again, I guess I've never made any secret about how much I don't like her as a character to begin with. Plain and simple, she just such a cheesy, one-dimensional character and Kat really doesn't bring anything special to the table in portraying her. Even though I think Kat McNamara is a wonderful person, I think she's absolutely adorable, her as Clary just has never worked for me. 

Also, this episode ended in a really strange spot. They ended right on the climax. Even though I was glad the episode had finally ended, I was left with, "Well, where's the rest of it?" Which is something I haven't had to think since the ye old days of Season One. 

More Malec Immortality Drama

So we got more Malec drama in this episode with plenty of Alec salt, which I adore. Because speaking as a mortal being who will eventually die, coming to terms that your immortal lover is going to watch you wither and die over the years can't really be that comforting of a thought. But again, while this is a plot point in the books, I don't think it works that well for Show Malec. Show Alec has always been proven that he wants to talk things out, get things out in the open and here, he's just kind of giving up and letting Magnus call the shots on how this fight goes just doesn't feel like Show Alec. And so help me, if in the next episode he apologizes for everything and Magnus apologizes for nothing, I'm going to pull out my hair.

Unfortunately, this fight is very in character for Show Magnus. How dismissive he is of issues but this is an issue I feel he really shouldn't be so naturally dismissive of. He's had a lot of lovers. Surely, he's had this problem before. And yet, he just expects Alec to forget about it and just be fine with it? No words of wisdom, nothing? At least in the book, there was kind of a reason given for how this was handled. When Malec first started, Magnus was very upfront with the relationship they were in. They were to live in the now and not talk about his past and it only became an issue when Alec realized he wanted more. And then Show Magnus gets angry with Alec and calls Alec a child and Alec decides to leave. Which good for Alec. I feel like they both need to do some soul searching here. Alec needs to figure out what he really wants and if Magnus can give him what he really wants. We all want love but love is founded upon equality. It requires both parties to be on equal ground. Both parties need to be able to grow and change with the other. And that's something that's not possible for Magnus who won't be able to grow and change with Alec. So Alec needs to decide if he's really okay with that. And Magnus also needs to look at this and really think about why this bothers Alec. Why Alec can't just let this go. He's essentially asking Alec to give up everything while he loses nothing. It's that compromising issue I've often talked about with Magnus. For him, it's always his way or the highway. He never meets at common ground. Like I've said before, there's probably a reason why he's had 12,000 relationships and I don't think it entirely has to do with the immortality issue. If I'm dating someone who refuses to compromise, I'll show them my lack of compromising when I toss them to the curb.

And Magnus stans, feel free to come at me if you want. But you’ll only be wasting your time as I have little to no investment in this show or its characters anymore. I’m literally just watching to see what happens. 

But Alec meets that shadowhunter who complimented his bravery last episode and of course, we only get one nice shadowhunter in the Institute because he's needed to further Alec's plot. Why can't there just be nice people at the Insitute? Why do they all have to be jerks? Complexity, writers, PLEASE. I get that the shows’ going for this whole xenophobic angle with the shadowhunters but not only is it boring as hell but I think it's kind of unbelievable considering these shadowhunters are living in NYC, home of the weird -- and that's just on a mundane level, I bet the shadow world is infinitely more weird. Maybe the Institute's xenophobic shadowhunters would make more sense if the Institute was in Lima Ohio but NYC, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But blonde shadowhunter (he doesn't even have a name yet) tells Alec to pretty much just stay true to himself and do whatever he feels is right. I'm not sure if this is going to lead to Alec cheating on Magnus, who knows. But hopefully this fight will end with both of them having done some thorough soul searching and coming out with a much stronger relationship than they had before. Because I'll be real with you guys, the way Malec was left off in the finale of 2B, even though they were together, it still felt like a pebble could be thrown at the foundation of their relationship and it would crumble to dust. And we got fans talking about how much they can't wait for these two to get married? They have far too many issues to be thinking about marriage right now. 

But in this Malec subplot, Magnus does tell Clary that both he and Alec said things they regret so #progress for Magnus, I guess. 2B Magnus would never have said that. Never would've entertained the idea that he might've reacted badly to something. 

Izzy and the Boyfriend I Don't Care About...And Then the Boyfriend I Do Care About

The show is really toting around this Charlie angle. They're trying so hard to make the audience see this guy as a legitimate character. But the show's issue is that by them having every character tell us how great Charlie is, good character that does not make. We need to see him interact with Izzy, interact with Izzy's world, build real bonds with these other characters for me to give a shit about him. The only thing we know about this guy is he's a pediatric surgeon which I find laughable considering the atrocious stitches he gave Izzy last episode and potentially a creepy stalker. See my episode 5 review if you're confused about my stalker remark. Basically, the show has its characters treat Charlie as this amazing guy for Izzy but do nothing to make the audience care about him. He's just a very bland, run of the mill character and I hope he doesn't stick around for too long. But then again, did he really have any potential to be anything but that anyway? The show keeps on jumping through plots and character dynamics so quickly, they don't have time to develop Charlie as a character. Again, subtlety is the key here. When introducing a new character, the audience doesn't want a character jammed down there throat and being told we should like him, we want to make that decision on our own with actual given character development. But sadly we get none of that.

Then we got some Sizzy feels which were just awesome. I really like the angle the show has been going with Sizzy. Just being these really casual friends supporting each other whenever they need it. This may be the one endgame book couple that the show doesn't completely screw up. I actually really like what they're doing here and hopefully they'll keep doing what they're doing. I don't know if they're going to be endgame in the show but I really hope so. Alberto and Emeraude have a really fun chemistry and I'm interested to see how that'll play out in a relationship dynamic. But again, it all falls on the writers to be subtle and complex with the relationship. Because if there's any endgame couple within the TMI books that's complex, it's Sizzy. 

Also, Izzy was completely badass with her staff again. Yes, I approve. Throw that whip to the trash.

More Heidi vs Maureen

We got more Heidi in this episode and whereas I didn't completely hate her storyline, I can't help but feel this might be more impactful with Show Maureen. For one thing, Show Maureen has a relationship with the audience. We've met her before so we're more likely to care about her. She was a friend of Simon's to begin with so the guilt of knowing that he did this to one of his friends would've been so much more powerful. And then giving her up to the Praetor Lupus probably would've killed him. I keep on imagining this storyline of Simon accidentally turning Maureen and Raphael torturing her into becoming a daylighter and through her torture the only thing she could focus on was Simon and the massive crush she had on him. That through this torture, he was her center and this caused her to fixate on him in an unhealthy way. Simon could've been dealing with this and having a hard time trying to save Maureen from herself but also trying to protect his friends from her. Since Maureen was also Clary's friend we could've had some interesting character dynamics with her. Clary, despite being a fully fledged shadowhunter, still wants to help her friend. And then at the end, when Maureen really goes off the rails, Clary realizes the identity problem she has. She hasn't chosen to be a shadowhunter or a mundane. She's trying to keep one foot in each world instead of choosing. And her lack of choosing is what brought her to the Maureen situation. So yeah, this basically just turned into a rant on how I think Maureen would've been far more interesting in this plot than Heidi could ever hope to be.

Also, I want to point out how dumb it is to incorporate Heidi into the story only to get rid of her a few episodes later. If she doesn't come back at a later point, what was the point of this storyline? It'll just turn into a waste of screen time. 

Maryse De-Runed and Everyone's Fine With It

So everyone's being super chill about Maryse's derunement. Or I should say everyone who has a name on this show and if they have an attachement to an actual character plot. I still don't agree with Maryse's punishment. I definitely feel like it's a little uneven and dumb. I kind of wish we got something leading up to the derunement. But instead Maryse just pops up and is all, "yup, no longer got my tats." The show also needs to make up their minds on rules for this derunement as well. Are they or are they not allowed to have relationships with other shadowhunters? The altercation when she first shows up leads me to think they're not but then Alec as the leader of the Institute says no, Marsye is welcome anytime. And I'm all for Alec breaking rules but then I'm also like, "It is the law, why is he still the head of the Institute if he keeps on breaking rules?" Clearly he's the only progressive shadowhunter around besides blondie. I highly doubt they'd allow someone like him to be in a position of power. Shadowhunters are a military force and in a military force, rules are probably the most important thing within the structure. You don’t break the rules and not suffer consequences. But this is Freeform, what am I thinking? Apply logic? Maybe I really have gone insane.

Then we get some really clunky dialogue. Seriously, who says, "My Daughter" in a serious way anymore? Whenever my parents utter that phrase, it's usually meant to be sarcastic or glib. And Izzy tells Maryse she, Alec, and Jace are taking her out for the night. In which they spend some time with Maryse and then all immediately abandon her at the Hunter's Moon because you know, they've got relationship dynamics to flesh out after all. Maryse was just a way to get them all in one place. 

And in another attack of the writers not being subtle, we have Luke out of nowhere flirting with Maryse which I found to be quite cringey. Not the acting because I could watch Isaiah Mustafa all day. It's just him out of nowhere being all of sudden overly friendly with Maryse. When it was teased that Maryse and Luke were going to become a thing, I was like, "I'm down with that." They're relationship could be really interesting. But of course, I forgot about the writer's inability to be subtle and a relationship like theirs requires both complexity and subtlety. Which sadly does not exist in this show's resume. 

Well, that's Season 3 Episode 6, A Window Into an Empty Room for you. Man, that title is a mouthful. Honestly, not a fan of this episode. A couple of scenes I liked but as I've said previously, this show has a tendency to have too many plots going on at once and as a result can't give enough time to those individual plots. The same thing happened here with this episode. Instead of plot, though, it was character relationships. Lots of character relationships to get through but not nearly enough time was spent with on any single one to leave me resonating with emotion. It was all very clunky and boring to watch. And this episode was extremely unsubtle with everything it attempted to do. Plus, the dialogue was atrocious and I really do feel like these writers are either 1) sociopaths who have only a very surface level grasp of human emotion and a very surface level grasp of what you should say in certain situations or 2) they feed their scripts through a robot that writes the most generic dialogue to move the episode along. It’s not even that the dialogue is bad (I mean it is, don’t get me wrong), but it’s also boring as hell. I'd probably give this episode a C. I just didn't find it interesting. Sorry guys. As always, I'll hope for better next week. 

That's all I've got for you guys. If you had any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. As always, please be respectful. These are my opinions and they do not, in any way, reflect yours. If you really feel you need to be a troll and leave me hate, feel free to do so but just know, I probably won't respond. Like I’ve said, I have very little investment in this show and its characters. Leaving me hate isn’t going to do anything because I just don’t care enough to be offended.

[ladystylestores]

The Maldives is now open to all global tourists. Here’s how they’re doing it

(CNN) — Though border restrictions and quarantine measures are keeping people from visiting many of the world’s most popular travel destinations at the moment, one country famed for its natural beauty is now welcoming all guests — the Maldives.

As of July 15, this island nation in the Indian Ocean is reopen to international tourism and, perhaps remarkably, very few strings are attached.

Global travelers — US citizens included — will not have to enter into a mandatory quarantine upon arrival at Velana International Airport in the capital, Male. Nor will they need to produce proof they have tested negative for coronavirus.

There are also no new visa requirements or additional fees to pay.

One island, one resort

In the beginning, international visitors will only be allowed on the resort islands and they need to book their entire stay in one registered establishment.

Exemptions will only be made for transit arrangements, according to the Maldives government’s guidelines.

In terms of Covid-19 prevention, tourism officials are banking on the fact each resort essentially offers its own form of quarantine already — albeit a pretty enjoyable one.

Trans Maldivian Airways is the world’s largest float plane operator. We go on the job with one of its most experienced pilots, Canadian Andrew Farr.

The Maldives is made up of 26 atolls filled with over 1,000 islands occupied by dozens of resorts, all spread out over 90,000 square kilometers.

Most of the islands in the Maldives developed for tourism feature just a single resort. Should guests or staff come into contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19, in theory they will be easily traceable, while the potential for spread is kept to a minimum.

But as enticing as it sounds to hop on a plane for the Maldives right now, travelers may have to contend with their own country’s quarantine measures upon their return — and that might deter them from visiting.

“What is important to take into consideration is that it depends not only on the Maldives, but also on lifting of travel restrictions in different countries. It is not just desire but ability,” says Sonu Shivdasani, CEO and founder of Soneva, which has two Maldives resorts — Soneva Fushi and Soneva Jani.

That said, guests are already demonstrating a willingness to return, he tells CNN Travel.

“We have more on the books at Soneva Fushi for August than we had at the same time last year. As the borders open, and our main markets are allowed to travel to us, it could be our best August ever.”

Are any airlines actually flying there?

In spite of the global aviation downturn, it is possible to fly to the Maldives commercially right now, with several major airlines connecting through the Middle East.

These include Emirates Airlines, which offers connections through Dubai from major global cities like London, Chicago, Toronto and Sydney. Fellow UAE carrier Etihad will resume flights from Abu Dhbai to the Maldives from July 16. Turkish Airlines is tentatively starting flights from July 17.

The 5.8 Undersea Restaurant is the world’s largest of its type. A $200 prix-fixe menu accompanies a view teeming with coral life.

Bear in mind, just because the Maldives isn’t requiring visitors to submit proof they’re Covid-19-free, some airlines are, so be sure to check ahead of time.

Upon arrival, passengers are asked to fill in health declaration cards and a 30-day tourist visa will be provided. Travelers showing symptoms of Covid-19 will be subjected to a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test at their own cost and sent to a designated facility for isolation.

Are all resorts reopening on July 15?

Of the 156 resorts on Maldives Tourism’s list of reopening dates, 43 will be open July 15. (Several on that list remained open throughout the pandemic, serving guests who choose to stay there, or those who came in later via private plane or yacht.)

Dozens more will reopen in August, with 50 or so more planning to follow suit in September and October.

French hospitality group Accor has five Maldives resorts and will be staggering openings in the coming months.

“We intend to reopen Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort from August 1, followed by Pullman Maldives Maamutaa Resort in September,” says John Bendtsen, Accor Area General Manager for the Maldives.

“Our remaining properties in the Maldives will reopen from October 2020 — Mövenpick Resort Kuredhivaru Maldives, Fairmont Maldives Sirru Fen Fushi and Raffles Maldives Meradhoo.”

So far, the response from guests has been very positive although cautious, he says.

“We are seeing a real appetite for travel more towards the end of the year with the Christmas and New Year period particularly positive as well as the first quarter of 2021,” says Bendtsen.

“Travelers who have already visited the Maldives previously are much more confident and we are seeing a lot of returning guests make bookings for the 4th quarter of 2020.”

Soneva Jani’s not your typical luxury resort. Here’s what visitors at this “no shoes, no news” property can expect.

In terms of health and safety, the government is issuing “Safe Tourism Licenses” to accredit tourist facilities that abide by legislation and specific safety requirements like having a certified medic on call and holding an “adequate stock” of personal protection equipment.

Some resorts are implementing additional measures to protect guests and staff.

At Soneva’s two properties, for instance, guests will be asked to undergo a Covid-19 PCR test at the brand’s private airport lounge before they’re transferred to their resort by plane. Once at the resort, they will go straight to their villa and are requested to remain there until the test results are received and are negative.

If a guest’s results come back positive, they will be asked to isolate in their villa, where they will be looked after by trained nurses.

“During the first week of stay, we would also ask guests to take one more real-time PCR test,” says Shivdasani.

“Although this could be considered as being slightly excessive or over-cautious, at Soneva, all our islands are ‘One Island One Resort;’ it is our goal to make our private island homes Covid-19 free environments, so that our guests can truly relax and engage with our hosts and fellow guests and not feel any concern about being infected.”

Soneva remained open throughout the pandemic and has been following the best practices recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the recommendations of virology and infectious diseases experts, adds Shivdasani. Enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols are also in place.

Reopening gives Maldives ‘first mover advantage’

The Maldives has recorded nearly 2,000 confirmed cases and five deaths from Covid-19 so far.

Like all countries heavily reliant on tourism, it’s been hit hard by the crisis — and at a time when their tourism fortunes were rising. According to the World Bank, tourism directly and indirectly accounts for two-thirds of the country’s GDP.

The industry flourished in 2019 as visitor arrivals grew by 14.7% (year on year), with total arrivals reaching a record 1.7 million. Officials were hoping they’d hit 2 million arrivals this year.

In a statement issued in May, Ali Waheed, the country’s minister for tourism, described the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as “more devastating than the 2004 tsunami and the 2008 global financial crisis.”

The Conrad Maldives Rangali Island has opened the world’s first-ever underwater hotel residence.

“For the first time in 47 years of tourism in the Maldives, we have experienced zero tourist arrival since this March,” he said, before adding, “we cannot keep our borders closed for long.”

Eunice Aw, Singapore director of global hospitality consulting firm Horwath HTL, tells CNN Travel via email the tourism industry in the Maldives has proven to be resilient, bouncing back quickly from previous crises, however the country faces an uphill battle as they unlock their border to all visitors.

“Given the unprecedentedness of Covid-19, moving forward, even with the reopening of borders, visitor arrivals are not expected to surge and overall arrivals in 2020 are estimated to fall by approximately 70 to 75% year on year,” she says.

“This takes into consideration the pandemic situation in many of the Maldives’ main source markets such as China (17%), India (10%), Europe (49%) and the US (3%), where countries are either still trying to contain the pandemic or battle against second or third waves of the infection.”

Adding to this, Europe — their biggest market — is a 10 to 12 hours’ flight away and long haul travel recovery is likely to lag behind short haul travel, she adds.

“Tourism recovery has to be further supported by the resumption of international flights, reciprocal travel arrangements with partner countries, relaxation of quarantine/isolation requirements in visitors’ home countries and recovery in travelers’ confidence to travel.

“Nonetheless, the reopening of its borders in July will give the Maldives a first mover advantage to capture pent up demand of holidaymakers once recovery is on the way.”

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[daenerysvan]

Woodland Wanderer

It’s always good moving off and getting onto the road in the Daenerys. It fills me with the strange sense of well-being satisfaction and dare I say, happiness.

I decided to do a tour-de-force of woodlands. First stop was Twyford wood in South Lincolnshire. This used to be a US airbase in the second world war and it is a bit strange emerging from the woods to find a long runway. There are three here, all now with cracked cement and nature pushing its way up through every crevice.

There are butterfly conservation areas and I spotted a Common Blue. It’s been a long time since I last saw one.  It's iridescent  blue colour reminds us that nature isn’t afraid to display her full range of capabilities. Something we had best not forget.

Next stop was the delightfully named Morkery wood. This wood was fairly average. I did however stumble upon a pheasant breeding area with hundreds of teenage pheasants all displaying the same vacuous and unfortunately, constant look of surprise that you see when they stumble into the road in front of your vehicle.

My next stop is Holme Fen. As I arrive, the song 'Wanderer' by Mogli comes on. It's a song taken from the road trip movie 'Expedition Happiness' which features Mogli, her partner and their dog Rudi. Their mission was to travel south through Canada, the USA and then down through South America

I saw this film a few evenings ago and unfortunately I felt it lacked depth. They clearly had loads of money as they start off by buying an old yellow schoolbus. They then set about converting it in that sickeningly capable way that seems so hard to those of us who feel they are lacking in practical skills.

Too much of the film was about their dog and his ever increasing vet bills; all of which seem to get paid without any fiscal worrying. We didn't really get to 'feel' their journey and information on their routes and meetings was scant.

To top it all they caved in due to the dog, only about half way into their journey! 

All that said, Mogli's soundtrack is pretty good and apt for such a road trip and get title track, definitely has a Daenerys vibe going on.

I’ve only been away for one night this time, but every time I draw near home, Daenerys always seems to leave me with a sense of having been on a real journey, with a warm sense of my time, well spent.

[exbex]

🔥 Check please

I am as happy as everyone else to see a healthy, queer relationship, but Zimbits is over-rated. Some of this is the limits of visual story-telling (or perhaps not, Ngozi is good at surprising me. Well, at this point how good she is is not a surprise, but, yanno), and the limits of 1st person narration. I am dying for some real conflict, and I hope we get heaps of it in Year 4. And I hope that that conflict is instigated by Parson. Because while Zimbits, as a healthy same-sex relationship, is all-too rare in media, it shouldn’t be immune. Well, lbr, I don’t really care if the conflict shakes up the Zimbits relationship. I just want some meaty conflict that isn’t ���I will sacrifice what I need for your career, Jack” and “like hell you will, Bits.” That conflict was fine, but, yanno, done. Granted, what I really want is Patater to come out of year 4, and probably some NurseyDex, but this is not likely to happen. I think my problem with Zimbits is the age difference, and I do not mean in terms of years, but in terms of a certain kind of maturity. Basically, I want Jack to raise his concerns about Bitty being a terrible student. Which brings me to my unpopular fandom opinions: I hope that Jack isn’t thinking marriage and shit right now. Take your time boys. I know Jack is 25 and that is a typical age for people to start thinking about that stuff, but Bitty is quite young still, and Jack being rich AF is not a good reason for Bitty to get shit grades/marry Jack and be a kept man, because getting a good education is a good way to not end up being stuck in a shit marriage. Not the only way, and I’m not saying it’s likely that Jack would be a shitty husband, but that leads me to another way in which I differ with some fen: I don’t want a fairy-tale esque ending for them. Show me some real struggle for them. YEs, they have both been stuck on the shit train earlier in their lives, with the bullying and the closetedness and the overdose, but, again, I want some meaty conflict, because that’s what real life is like. I dunno, maybe that’s not such an unpopular opinion after all. (Fanfic will deliver the conflict, if Ngozi doesn’t, but I thinkees she will).

So my true unpopular opinion: I like Jack’s yellow sneakers and his overall Burger King robber aesthetic. Fen act like it’s the height of fashion crimes and, literally, dude is dressed like that when he’s exercising/going to class in cold weather; it’s not a big deal. Also, I don’t want Bitty to become Captain. It’s too damned predictable at this point. And again, he’s a shit student; how the hell is he going to be able to juggle Captain duties? I know I’m like a dog worrying a bone but I seriously saw someone say in a livestream once that Bitty would be okay because his boyfriend is a rich athlete and I was all “hell fucking no, he needs a backup plan like everyone else and shouldn’t be dependent on a partner.”