#hasn't really had the time to practice on account of the. gestures. You Know.

[madeimpact]

And, continuing my trend of projecting and making all of my muses musicians in some way, Sora is a ukulele island kid. Learned from his mom! He's a little rusty though.

[dasphinxone]

Preview of Chapter 2 of As Above, So Below, Okoye x Attuma

I struggle with getting Namor's voice right to my ear, as it's hard to write a dude who rules as a god and who's been alive for 500+ years. Hopefully I got it right here.

Anyway, a preview of Chapter 2 of my Okoye x Attuma arranged marriage AU where Okoye gets taken to Talokan alongside Shuri and Riri. Okoye really doesn't like Namor when he summons her after she arrives in his kingdom.

Okoye willed her face to neutral in front of this stranger. While she immediately registered his pointy ears and the feathered wings on his feet, nothing surprised her anymore. Not since Thanos and the blip. Nonetheless, this Namor character still had the potential to kill her where she stood. What the shark man told her of his origins and that his people worshipped him as a god wasn't in her favor; when one had no equal in society, sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies usually rapidly followed.

She'd been at court in Wakanda long enough to know when political games were afoot. No doubt, that explained why Namor initially ignored her, focusing on his exacting brushstrokes to the mural behind where his desk sat in between them. After some long minutes, he spun around and grinned, as though seeing her for the first time. His smile sharp, it shifted his handsome face to significantly more predatory.

Laying down his paints, he sat down and gestured for Okoye to do so as well.

"I prefer to stand," she swiftly declared. At his unenthusiastic look towards her, she shrugged. "Forgive me, my lord, but I slept for some time on my journey here. My legs could use the practice of standing again, if you do not mind."

The edges of Namor's lips briefly turned upward. "The Princess failed to mention that her general proved so humorous. How fascinating!"

She couldn't help her relief at word of Shuri. "So she is alive?" she inhaled.

"Whole and healthy," Namor assured.

"And the scientist?"

His expression swung to displeased as he rolled his broad shoulders. "She is as well...Attuma said you bested him in combat?"

Okoye let out a huff of irritation. "I fought him to a draw," she retorted.

Namor's gaze swept her in inspection before he slowly set down his paintbrush. "Oh," he murmured, "Is that so?"

Okoye allowed herself the barest of smirks. "If I bested him, he wouldn't be alive to tell it."

She didn't expect his laugh. Light and airy, it bounced off the walls of his hut, his brilliantly white teeth bared before he contained himself. Leaning back in his chair, he dropped his hands to his desk as he eyed her. "No wonder my most talented general has taken such a liking to you.”

Okoye shrugged, even as her thoughts reeled at the God King's revelation. They nearly killed each other on that bridge. The brute appeared to take pleasure her injuries, toying with her like she was some green recruit. Oh, how she wished for her spearpoint to put him down permanently. "I haven't been privy to such," she distantly answered.

"He hasn't mistreated you, has he?" Namor frowned. "I instructed him that you, like the Princess, are our special guest. You are to be treated accordingly."

So send us all the fuck back home, water elf, Okoye's mind sneered. Willing her expression to stoic, she firmly replied, "Does that go for the scientist as well?"

Namor's gaze briefly darkened. "She will die for her invention that has led directly to us. I will have no one endanger my people."

Okoye bristled. "She's a child-"

"By the Princess' account, she is the equivalent of an adult by your surface standards," Namor steepled his fingers in front of himself, "Or do your kind not value learning that there are consequences for one's actions?"

Okoye's mouth thinned into a tight line. "We also value leaders who arrive to decisions within a framework of the full facts and nuance." Namor arched a brow, Okoye staring him down as she continued, "Especially when it comes to taking a life."

"Do not the needs of many outweigh the few?"

"Does not the murder of an innocent drench one's hands in blood that may never be washed away?" Okoye retorted.

Namor shrugged. "Blood I am willing to bathe in to ensure these sorts of dire decisions never weigh on my people's shoulders. Or do such burdens fall outside of leadership?"

"The greatest leaders are benevolent-"

"Yes. They are benevolent on behalf of their own citizens rather than outsiders who attempt to destroy their way of life," Namor interrupted. "Would not Wakanda do the same to one in order to maintain peace within its borders for those who matter most?"

"I will not deny the past. Yet we have evolved."

Namor's mouth twitched. "Evolution is in the eyes of the beholder. The accursed conquistadors invading my ancestors' shores centuries ago attempted to genocide us out of existence. They called us backwards in our ways. In need of evolution. It is why their repulsive language is the fourth most spoken on your surface, is it not?"

Okoye couldn't hide her surprised expression at his knowledge of world history. She still surged forward. "You are not the only group this occurred to. Our continent has been ravaged for hundreds of years. By some of the very same destructive colonizers who attacked yours."

"And yet Wakanda avoided it all via isolation and zero tolerance for invaders," Namor magnanimously waved.

Okoye wrinkled her nose in distaste. Circular arguments like this were the very reason she avoided politics, preferring to focus on protecting those on the throne itself. Though she regretted her apolitical stance when that monster Killmonger took the throne. While not technically a usurper since he won it via the usual right of conquest, he nearly shattered her country. All while she stood by and watched it occur due to her vows. It utterly unmoored her. The deepest regret of her life, she wasn't sure she'd fully recovered from it before Thanos arrived to destroy the entire universe.

This bullshit conversation was wasting her time. Getting Shuri and Riri out of the hands of this conniving water elf, whose god complex extended as far as his flinty eyes could see within this soggy kingdom, was her priority. Flapping her gums over some fucking political science thought experiment certainly wasn't on her list of ways to pass the time.

"Where are Shuri and Riri?" she demanded, going into parade rest with her hands clasped behind her.

Namor smirked as he sat up a bit straighter. "They, like you, are my special guests. No harm will come to them. For now.”

"And when the 'for now' runs out?” Okoye's chest rose and fell as she quelled her rising fury, “Will you kill us all at your whim?"

"You are a very direct person, General Okoye," Namor thoughtfully replied.

"I must be to ensure the safety of my Princess and those under her protection. Such as the scientist," she flatly said.

Namor narrowed his eyes at her. "An honorable calling, so similar to Attuma's." Okoye's gut twisted at the comparison as he continued, "During the day, you may guard the Princess and scientist as you wish. For they will also be under guard by my most trusted warriors. At night, you will be housed in the grotto where you were before and guarded by Attuma. He has been instructed to treat you with respect and the highest of guest rights. But he will not hesitate to kill you should you attempt escape."

Okoye thinly grinned. "I would never leave without Shuri or Riri, who falls under Wakandan jurisdiction."

Namor laughed again. It was just as dismissive as his wave as he called for Attuma to escort her to the other two women.

Okoye did not miss how he never answered her question of what would occur when the "now" ran out in regards to Riri's life. It only meant she'd have to plot that much harder to free them all from his drowning grip.