#i feel very nonhuman a lot of the time and if i were to pick a specific kind of animal i feel like it would 100% be a reptile

[nekrotastikextasy]

Me when I'm a lizard

[pezpenser205]

me being largely nonhuman/antihuman and a lesbian, therefore being forced by my brain to be attracted to humans has actually allowed me to fully understand how men attracted women who say they wish they were lesbians are real and based and do not deserve the hate they get. like girl i get it thats literally how i feel about you.

no offense to the good humans out there #notallhumans <3

[a-beneficial-union]

Heya howdy, it’s my day off and hotter than sin out there, so instead of picking the grapes before we reach lethal temperatures (like a sensible person), I would like to procrastinate by rambling about an idea that’s been increasingly taking hold of my thoughts.

To put it simply, I think that Ben Tennyson, Rex Salazar, Danny Fenton, and Zak Saturday would be very interesting to compare and contrast in terms of their backgrounds and how their occupations are either matters of passion or functionally forced.

Ben and Rex are the most similar to one another in that they are deeply entrenched in the heart of organizations which can, and have repeatedly threatened, to severely punish them (through captivity or execution). They are both viewed as inherently irresponsible in spite of the fact that they show shocking maturity in how they act given their circumstances. Rex gets a bit more leeway in this, as his makeshift family (Dr. Holiday, Six, and the monkey) make compromises with him so that he can still live his life, the way any healthy relationship should allow for, and overall there is mutuality between this group’s members.

Ben, on the other hand, is lambasted constantly by the people he cares about for not being responsible enough, for not being constantly around. When you remember that he is a child (and later a teenager) working for a relative, it feels less like trying to teach him and more like trying to wring him out for all his worth. Moments where characters other than Rook show concern or regard to Ben are shockingly scarce, often reserved for climactic moments or as ways to demonstrate severity. I think Ben is seen hugging his grandfather one time per series, in spite of the fact that he’s demonstrated to enjoy physical affection and in spite of the fact that his grandfather is the sole generative figure actively in Ben’s life at this point. (Rex isn’t shown receiving much physical affection either, but in his case it feels like he prefers it that way?)

Danny and Zak both live in a part of larger organizations/communities which have threatened them, but it’s always clear that the people closest to them would never do them harm, and are very loving. There’s an entire episode dedicated to Maddie fussing over her son, trying to spend time with him (and having to protect him). Fenton Works might hate Phantom’s guts, but that’s because they’re misinformed due to some unfortunate scenes causing them to perceive Phantom as a threat. A lot of Maddie and Jack’s theatrics in the house about how they’ll take Phantom apart “molecule by molecule” starts feeling less like proclamations of aggression and more like wrongheaded attempts to comfort their children, one of whom is repeatedly seen fleeing at the sight of ghosts.

In regards to associations with peers, Ben and Danny were both ostracized (with Danny having a small friend group and Ben being part of a soccer team, who dump him without much hesitation) whereas Rex and Zak were isolated. Rex and Zak still had friends, but they were always long distance. Zak’s peers were most often species other than his own, generally his pets and the sentient bear-thing that is his adoptive brother (Fisk).

All four accidentally wound up in their respective fields due to family matters, with Rex and Zak becoming what they are very young (Zak being Kur from birth); Danny and Ben become what they are just after their formative years. That said, Ben is an Anodite descendent, which was from birth (the relevance of this varies based off of interpretation of canon), and he has a fair amount of close family who are nonhuman, all of whom are either implied or explicitly stated to have hidden their natures.

Onto deceit. Danny and Ben’s life orient around how well they can misdirect, confound, conceal, dissuade. Both were keeping their natures secret from the people close to them, including their housemates and families. They had two or so people who were aware of what they were or of their activities, and that’s it. For Danny, discovery is dangerous. With Ben, as aforementioned, a lot of the people in his life growing up were keeping pretty massive secrets from him. Was he truly ignorant, or did he clue in on the fact that no one could know? That would be a good explanation for why he’s so practiced in discretion and perfectly fine with not telling people what’s going on in his life. His grandfather and cousin knew right from the get go, but even then his grandfather was very obviously hiding things.

Zak’s family and family friends pretty much always knew what he could do and what he was up to. When he does start hiding things, it clearly pains him with guilt and he’s incredibly unskilled at covering up his activities. His parents know he’s up to something almost immediately, recognize that life has been stressful of late, and make the choice to give him some space while reminding him that they’re there for him.

Rex…doesn’t really hide things from Providence, at least not from what I can remember. He runs away at one point and the people in his life are talking to/at him over the phone the majourity of the time.

The subjects of Rex’s work often lack self awareness, being generally destructive because their bodies (and brains) have just been violently reshaped into large, dangerous beasts. His work is intervention and captivity.

Danny’s work is with more sentient beings; the undead and the effected living. Some are maliciously violent with premeditated plans to harm others since they’re no longer mortal, therefore can act lawlessly. Others are obsessive and unbidden, the abilities granted by their new existence drastically changing their capabilities compared to their much more fragile peers. It’s easy for such people to get carried away, and their undeath is broadly believed by the fandom to have given them all aggressive monomania. For them, they need to be either redirected, made aware of how their actions are effecting those around them, or be brought to safe places where they can continue on without putting others at risk. The last ghostly group are those who are aware of their deaths and are acting out. How should young Danny approach them? If they try for vengeance, are they not justified? (We see him point a group towards the one who wronged them at least once, when he steers a group of animals to the person who cruelly experimented and killed them.) At the same time, he has to navigate a world where people have seen the chaos brought by the ghosts and who would probably have some strong feelings on the matter. Some would be worshipful, others enraged as their homes and lives are desecrated. Valarie is shown loathing ghosts on principle and goes on to target the demographic as a whole, do we really think she’s the only one?

Zak’s subjects are, well…his subjects. He has inherited governance over a class of life collectively referred to as “cryptids” and whom he can twist the minds of. This ability extends only to what the subject is inclined to, but how far can that go? We see him and his family tempt subjects with external stimuli, granting him the opening to slip into their consciousness and persuade them to his will. He works exclusively in intervention and relegation, if it weren’t for his immense empathy and genuine desire for both the cryptids and humans to live peacefully, he could very easily abuse his position. He verges on this one time and it is the conflict of the episode, and it is something he is called on by those around him and which he quickly rectifies.

Ben’s lot is a more diverse bunch. While Zak’s focus is mostly on animal-adjacent creatures, a few being cognizant, Ben deals with people. He handles war, conflict, invasion, opportunistic cruelty, the beginnings and ends royal lineages, hostile takeovers, the list goes on and on. Rex and Zak dabble in this, bur those are exceptions. Danny has to contend with it on occasion, as powerful people lord over him with threats and control. Ben is often a delegate, but can be far more easilt be called a warlord or living weapon.

I say “living” because I question how truthfully it can be said that Ben’s human. The Anodites are claimed to be all or nothing, but real people say that about ethnicity and so the claim comes across as in-universe bigotry. It feels like someone looking to their children and thinking “You’re Americanized, therefore you have no claim to your ancestors” or “They’re not dark enough”.

Speaking of colour, they’re all white passing with Ben being on one end, Zak on the other, and Rex and Danny (jet black hair) being intermediaries. Ben gets immediate White privilege where Zak might get it denied in the wrong circumstance. I don’t myself adequately knowledgeable to discuss their ethnicities or races, but colourism is something I have quite a bit of experience in. I am the palest person in my family and grew up being teased that I must have been adopted because the Italian and Syrian seemed to have skipped me, and I know others who have similar issues of not having the traits of their predecessors. I have siblings who have some slight Black traits and have been ostracized for it by our parents, and I have listened to the trash people say about my clearly Mexican siblings (and their father) because they assume I’ll be on their side.

I think Rex is the only character whose ethnicity is explicitly discussed, since he’s an amnesiac and gets to reconnect to the surviving member of his original family. His older brother openly finds hilarity in Rex’s Americanization, up to and including Rex’s poor fluency in Spanish. Ben is directly denied his heritage when he meets his grandmother, who takes one look at him and blatantly decides him too dissimilar (which she is implied to have done to her children as well). Zak gets to learn of countless cultures through being shuffled around the map, and Danny is an Illinoisian (he is of the corn and soy).

Back to the human aspect, Ben’s human status is dubious whereas Zak’s is questioned but concrete. Rex and Danny have their humanity and legal statuses questioned repeatedly. Rex, Danny, and Ben are all shapeshifters with nonhuman attributes; Zak is human through and through (ironically enough).

Each of these characters have grown around their work, with it informing their personalities, boundaries, and affects. A neat comparison between Ben and Zak is how they relate to cage fighting— but I really need to get a move on, so that’ll have to wait ‘til next time.

[aestherians]

Defining Paratypes - Once and For All

Word count: ~1450 Estimated reading time: 10-12 minutes

1. Introduction

Language is a funny thing, huh?

In June 2018 I erroneously coined the word “cameotype” — English is my 2nd language and I’ve picked up a lot of words by just noting in which contexts they’re used and then never looking them up in the dictionary. Usually this works, sometimes it doesn’t. I thought a cameo meant an addition, something secondary, or something along those lines. When people discussed cameo-shifts, I knew they were discussing brief, temporary shifts, but it was only after coming up with this word that I realized what “cameo” actually means: A minor role.

That’s absolutely not the meaning I was going for when I made up the word “cameotype,” and I backtracked as soon as I realized my mistake. But I still needed a word to cover that concept I’d originally intended for “cameotype” to cover — to quote my original post: “You know those characters, animals, and so on that make you feel all shifty but aren’t technically kintypes or [hearttypes], yet are still important enough to your therian/’kin experience that you feel like mentioning them somehow?”

In March 2019 I finally shared a follow-up post where I suggested a few alternatives: Paratype (from para-/beside), fratertype/fratype (from frater-/sibling), and sintype (from sin-/together), all of which better describe the concept I was going for. My Anglophonic readers helpfully pointed out that the latter two words sound weird in English, and “paratype” ended up being the most popular word.

And then I never made another follow-up post.

2. An Ill-Defined Definition

I’m not sure why I never wrote a concise definition but in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t. It allowed for 4 years of input and discussion of the term and its scope. Originally, I wanted it to be very broad, covering “anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the established [alterhuman] categories but is still important to your nonhuman identity,” and I thank the gods that that didn’t become the go-to definition. It’s too poorly defined to be useful, and the broadness I was going for is already covered by synpath and vaguetype.

It did, however, end up with a not-much-better definition in Kiera’s Alterhuman Dictionary: “A character, animal, or mythical creature that is not a kin/therio/fictotype or a hearttype, but somehow feels important to your established identity. Some examples of how it may manifest include: inducing shifts of one or more of your established ‘types, showing up as a cameo shift that somehow feels related to your established ‘type, or feeling similar to a hearttype because they remind you of your kintype in some significant way.”

I never got around to asking Kiera to change that definition.

3. Covering all bases

Like I said, I’m glad I ended up waiting so long to write this essay, even if it wasn’t intentional. It allowed me to see a lot of perspectives that I wouldn’t even have considered on my own.

First of all, how do you know if something’s a paratype or something else? After all, it’s possible to have two kintypes that are extremely similar, like two species from the same genus, or two characters who fit the same archetype. If they feel obviously connected, how do you determine if one of them is a paratype or something else? The annoying answer is that you don’t — not really. Alterhumanity isn’t a hard science, we can’t run calculations to determine which identity facets fit into which categories. All our jargon should be opt-in, not something you feel forced to use because you fit a dictionary definition. If your kintype is a labradoodle and you later learn that goldendoodles exist, and you feel like you’re a goldendoodle concurrently with your labradoodle kintype, you can choose to call the goldendoodle a paratype, a kintype, both, or neither. “Paratype” is an opt-in category (no one is forced to use it) and it’s not an exclusive category (if something’s a paratype that doesn’t mean it can’t simultaneously be another kind of ‘type too).

The only requirement for something to be a paratype is that it has an associated identity. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s always an offshoot of something else. I was a bit wishy-washy about this at first since I was more attached to the “it feels like a hearttype/kintype/something else, but it’s not” part of the concept than the “it feels that way because it’s connected to your preestablished identity” part. But no, no matter how a paratype presents itself, or what the experience of it is, it’s defined by its origin: If your paratype-like feelings don’t exist because of another identity facet, it’s not a paratype.

Paratypes are not defined by their origins in the same way that some folks try to define kintypes - whether a paratype is psychological, spiritual, or something else is irrelevant. A paratype can be a quirk of the brain just as well as it can be a past life. As long as the paratype/your connection to the paratype is an offshoot/extension of a preestablished identity, it counts.

The example I’ve used most often to get the idea across is that I am a bison, and because I’m a bison it’s only natural that I feel a connection to domestic bulls. This connection does feel like a hearttype. Unrelated, I am also unicornhearted. The difference comes down to whether I can separate my otherhearted feelings from other parts of my identity. If I can (like with unicorns), I call it a hearttype. If I can’t (like with bulls) it’s a paratype. It’s definitely splitting hairs, but the distinction is valuable to me.

I did get a question once, asking if a paratype had to be an offshoot of an alterhuman identity, or if it could be connected to a gender identity or a disability. I had not considered that possibility, but I gave it a tentative yes. Especially in light of Mord’s “Alterhumanity is Queer” essay, queerness and alterhumanity is not something I want to split hairs about. If you feel connected to dogs because of your gender, or cats because of your disability, and you want to refer to those connections as paratypes, I’m not gonna stop you. More power to you!

It's also worth noting that throughout this essay I have been using animals as examples, but “paratype” is by no means limited to therianthropic/animalhearted identities. Plantfolk, fictionfolk, objectkin, conceptkin, and factualkin can all use it if they want, and the term can be used for any identity category, from kintypes and hearttypes to headmates and past lives to constels and linktypes. It can even be used for paratypes - in theory, a paratype can have a paratype can have a paratype, ad infinitum. Personally, I’m spiderhearted and as a result I feel strongly connected to other arachnids, including ticks, and as I feel connected to ticks, I feel connected to other ectoparasites, like mosquitoes and lice.

A paratype can have any kind of connection to your preestablished ‘type. I use the bison <-> bull example often because it’s an easy way to explain the concept, but other examples may include a lion therian whose paratype is gazelles, a reptile with a sun paratype, a rabbit with a hawk paratype, a robot with a glitch paratype, a mushroom with a tree paratype, a werewolf with a silver paratype, and I could go on. Even something like a lost love from another life or an entire universe could be categorized as a paratype if you wish to do so.

You can also get noemata from a paratype, or only have one specific version of a species/object/character be your paratype. A paratype can be as vague as it can be specific - it can be every single type of dragon ever, or it can be a specific interpretation of a specific dragon species from a specific book. Essentially, you can have any kind of alterhuman experience be classified as a “paratype” as long as it meets the “offshoot/extension of a preestablished identity” criterion - which led to the excellent essay “How a hearttype gave birth to a parallel life of a paratype - a view on the connection between spiritual and psychological roots for otherkinity” which I implore you to read - but not before you’ve finished the final section:

4. A definition - finally!

paratype, plural paratypes (noun) From para- (prefix): beside, alongside, related to; and type (noun): a particular kind, class, or group

1. (biology) a specimen of a type series other than the holotype 2. (biology) the environmental component of a phenotype 3. (alterhuman community slang) an identity facet that only exists in relation to a preestablished identity

[hongluboobs]

Please tell us the reason behind the pokemon choices! I get most of them, but am curious about Meowstic and Nihelego in particular. Is it for the nihilEGO pun?

OKAY i am on my iphone so i’m typing this from scratch again instead of my drafts. also it is night. tumblr decided to not give me notifs until now but it’s okay!! we ball😁

I’m unsure how much you know abt pokémon so I’m gonna do my best to explain but this is a lifelong special interest so i may miss some things^^

Quick going over the ones you didn’t ask about:

Mewtwo: clone created to replicate Mew, Went Horribly Wrong, ended up destroying the lab it was born in. It’s even a really long time since I’ve seen the movie but i believe the mewtwo there is neglected child core. This is REALLY Angela especially because in pokedex entries they often talk about the thing that makes mewtwo nothing like mew is that it’s “heartless”. poor poor angela baby…

Mega Gardevoir: This is a mostly aesthetic pick. That thing really looks like her if it’s shiny (see image) and the colors match perfect. the way gardevoir is portrayed in pmd reminds me a lot of Angela. Gardevoir is about immense loyalty to a trainer (even if it ruins your life forever and the trainer does not care, as shown in pmd) and i read it as something about the script

Porygon2: Honestly this could be any of the mons in this line but Porygon is a digital being and the first fully synthetic pokemon which begins acting in ways which were not programmed as it evolves. Kind of represents Angela acting in ways a machine should not and breaking free of her predetermined role to me :)

Now onto the pokémon you actually asked about!! :)

First up, Meowstic!

This first part is a small design thing but this thing has Angela’s face to me, especially with the yellow eyes with red pupils. Angela’s eyes are inconsistent in canon but I like to represent them with both red and yellow to represent both of her “parents” (sorry Benjamin… i love you but u aren’t included there😔)

This pokedex entry is one of the main reasons this is an angela pokémon to me, aside from vibes.

It has the same “closed eyes to repress” thing that Lobcorp angela has going on, just with repressing incredibly explosive powers instead of repressing The Horrors!

These pokedex entries are really goofy but they read very angela to me :) its unfriendliness is part of its charm!

Also i have no idea when i’ll ever get to post these so now is a good time as any to drop meowstic angela :)

Nihilego is a slightly different case because it’s tied less to dex entries and more to how it is used in the story of sun and moon. I haven’t played those games in YEARS so i might be a little bit questionable with my reasoning but this one’s really important.

Nihilego is intentionally designed to mirror one of the human characters in pokémon sun and moon.

(image i found online. i see it somewhat differently but it’s close enough for this)

Anyway this human character’s mother has neglected/abandoned her in obsessive pursuit of this pokémon and other Ultra Beasts.

The fact this pokémon not only has a similar silhouette to angela but serves as a “replacement” for a human character in a parent’s mind while also being Distinctly Nonhuman… it’s by no means a perfect comparison but there’s Something There

This dex entry always gets me too… it’s just a girlie… :(

It really makes me want to replay sun/moon because i feel like my memory of the story being really shaky has me on the edge of a breakthrough about this thing… but it looks like angela and i can draw story parallels basically:)

I have No Idea if this is coherent but I hope it cleared things up a little ^^^

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 35 - Translation State by Ann Leckie

I preordered this book and then took literally a month to get around to picking it up and actually reading it, so I’ve probably missed the entire initial burst of hype and discussion already. Still, I was really pleasantly surprised how nice it felt to slide back into this universe, and Leckie remains as fun an author as always.

The book is set in the Imperial Radch universe, a vague amount of time after the events of the Ancillary Justice series proper – the main plots don’t exactly intersect, but the story absolutely assumes a decent amount of known context, and also reading it will spoil you on the entire resolution of the trilogy – but at some remove from where any of it actually took place. The jumps between three POVs: an inconvenient child of the aristocracy given a diplomatic sinecure and sent offworld after hir grandmother dies, a working-class man who founds himself entangled in diaspora and resistance politics when someone tell him he’s the rightful heir the whole oppressed nation might rally behind, and a juvenile Presager Translator being raised and educated before they’re ready to Match and take their place in the wider universe. All three plots start intersecting fairly quickly, thankfully, but importantly none of the three are Radaachi – the only characters who are are some of the antagonists of the piece.

I don’t exactly mind any of the three – there wasn’t a POV whose chapters I dreaded or was tempted to skip, which happens quite a lot in books like this – but I would be lying if I didn’t say that Qven the juvenile Translation was my favourite several times over. Especially in the books early stages, when he’s living amongst the other juvenile Translators and we get a good look at what their socialization and life cycle actually looks like. Somewhat less so in the latter stages when they end up much more human in perspective (tragically) as well as politically, but I’ll take the xenofiction we get. (If I had a nickel for every time a sci fi book used a love of trashy genre serials as a character beat to make a nonhuman intelligence everyone in-universe is terrified of sympathetic to the audience and code them as relatably neurodivergent, etc, etc)

This is the fifth book Leckie’s written in the Imperial Radch universe, and the second that’s more or less entirely unrelated to the plot of the original trilogy (well, not entirely, but the connections are fairly minor and high-level). Which honestly does an amazing job at making the world field vast and lived-in – nothing to make it feel like there’s a wider universe out there and the protagonists aren’t actually the main characters of all creation like it being objectively true, after all. I’m honestly slightly disappointed how pivotal the Republic of Two Ships was to the whole uncomplicated happy ending but that’s an incredible nitpick.

The sheer messiness and number of different cultures and ethnicities adds a lot to how big and complex the world feels, too, and the number of political conflicts that couldn’t possibly shake the setting or even interest the really high level players, but are still matters of life and death for everyone involved. I did really dearly love the whole subplot with the diasporic ‘cultural association’ that was like 50% a way for the host state’s foreign ministry to keep a handle on and funnel supplies to a resistance movement they were funding in a neighbouring stellar nation.

Speaking of cultures – so this is a very trans book, or a very nonbinary book specifically I suppose. Only 1/3 of the POV characters is cis, another of them transitions from nonbinary to a different type of nonbinary over the course of the novel, a major supporting character is literally ‘she/her but like an 18th century ship of the line’, the defining cultural quirk of the hegemonic human empire is that they misgender you, etc, etc. But, like, outside the Radaachi there seems to be general consensus among all the human cultures we see of not just it being fine to be nonbinary but of the specific existence and legibility of a third and fourth gender, with their own presentations and scripts and expectations and so on. And I’m just, so curious what the differences in normative expectations and stereotypes between the two are.

Anyway, if I had one really substantial critique of the book it’s that holy shit we get it already. My tolerance for intense mutual pining ran out like 50 pages before the 2 POVs in question actually talked about it and instantly figured things out, and in the meantime it seemed like every single chapter from either of their perspectives included a passage of obligatory angst over how obviously the other doesn’t want to Match with them. One of you is theoretically in your thirties, my guy (even if he never actually acts like it).

More broadly, the whole drama around matching is just the most brute-force analogy with sex and commitment I think I’ve ever seen. With basically every attendant trope (being terrified of trying again after a traumatic attempted rape, being filled with guilt over the urges you get during puberty, hell even waking up in the middle of the night all sweaty and unpleasant). I prefer my alien life cycles to be, like, genuinely strange, but this was laid on so thick it went beyond that to just feeling like a Buffy episode.

Anyway, did really enjoy the book, the fact that all three of the POVs are more fuckups who’ve wasted their potential (and just, like, over thirty) more than world-shakingly talented teenagers, especially. Also bureaucrat and courtroom drama, my beloved.

[rescue-ram]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 🤍

@marley-manson also tagged me!!! Love to ya both 💕

I'm gonna go ahead and shout out my Trapper Epic The Courage to Be. It's in progress but I'm really excited and proud of it. The first chapter I think is some of my best writing, it's coming along well, and I have sooo many ideas for it. I want to write the Trapper fic I've always wanted to read, and I'm trying to get into some deeper themes. It looks at Trapper as a closeted gay man, who's year at the 4077th is both the happiest he's ever been (he's in love, the atmosphere is so weird he can let down his guard and be more "gay" than at home, he learns doesn't have to prove anything) and the worst year of his life (the obvious reasons!!) And then he loses all of that... it's about to get really good y'all and I already think it's pretty damn good :3

Of my other two published MASH fics I'm gonna link The Time Has Come For Us to Say Sayonara. Absolute shout-out to TrapHawk HotFerret for unlocking my Id Vortex (which is funny bc no one has sex in that fic) but it's so weird lol. Sayonara was fun to write because it was a slightly different headcanon of what happened to Trapper than I'll be writing in Courage, and it's always fun to look at the way MASH shifted from S3 to S11. It's got a good mix of feels, from humor to angst to romance. I think a lot of peeps will like it.

I really like a lot of my X-Men fic, it was hard to pick two.

Manifiesta deserves a shout out. It's set in an imaginary peaceful future, and is a mix of "Disaster Summers Family" humor fluff and intergenerational trauma angst. It was my first time writing Alex and I think it's good- Alex's daughter manifests her powers, and everyone gets together to celebrate, and Alex slowly gets pushed to a break down as he tries to deal with all of the extremely mixed emotions the event raises. If you like messy family dynamics, give it a read.

In The Bleak Midwinter is a Christmas fic, weaving three short stories together. It contrasts Logan and Scott's relationships with their brothers with their relationship with each other. There's some strong religious themes that I thought were nuanced and had fun exploring. Again, I'm really proud of the first chapter, and I put some work into making sure there was a continuity of imagery between the chapters to highlight the contrasts. I think there's a lot of feels and angst, as well as familial warmth and "neither platonic nor romantic but a secret third thing" to be felt in this fic.

I'm gonna cheat slightly and half rec two of my Rescue Bots fics.

The Rites series came to me fully formed in a fucking fugue state, and every two years or so I contemplate the orb and write another chapter. It's very canon compliant and a look at a human-nonhuman, mortal-immortal relationship, with a lot of world building fleshing out the source material. I think the second installment is strongest. However I can't go nuts about this fic, because I have to ponder the orb again and finish it...

a child of god, much like yourself is a complete stand alone story. It encapsulates a lot of my headcanons about pre-war Cybertron, in the form of a love story between a man and his deeply profoundly flawed God. It's literally about the implications of a caste based society divided between a purpose built slave caste and nsturally occuring life, and the revelation that there's no difference between the two but nothing the two POV characters can do about that, and more metaphorically about what it means to be human. HOWEVER you probably have to be on 8 layers of Transformers lore to understand it XD I hope that doesn't put anyone curious off from trying it- as someone who's first piece of Transformers media was LITERALLY Eugenesis I know something about jumping into this fandom with both feet... but I also know this is a Lore Dense fic, lol.

[poognthebrainbois]

🍄 🍐 and or 💬?

(All 3, let's go!)

🍄 - How did you get your system name?

Okay so technically a friend of ours thought of it.

But:

We've since extrapolated meaning from it that I will now share with you all.

For a little context: we grew up with musical theatre. We were majoring in it at university. And singing has always been important in our life. So in a general sense, we knew it had to be something surrounding that. Anyway,

I can't find it but we wrote a whole thing once about how

the concept of a songbook is a collection of a performer's go-to songs for auditions and such, and how some they may know much better than others, but they're all meaningful in some way to the performer, and each song helps showcase a different aspect of that person's abilities, and shows what they value and the versatility of the person. A performer will often take out old songs that no longer fit or serve them, and add new songs that they've only recently learned, but every song was once a part of the book. And I feel the same way about our system. We're all songs in the Songbook, and some of us are very new, and some of us have seen our worst and best moments. But we're all part of the same book, and we're all important for our own reasons.

That, and we've actually met and/or gotten to know a lot of headmates through singing.

While we were at school, we used to lock ourself in a practice room in the music building and do karaoke by ourself.

Specific songs had meaning/hit hard for some headmates, who would either have picked the song for that purpose, or have come to front during the song without even realizing. It's such a surreal experience.

🍐 - Are there any nonhuman headmates (in the system)?

Yes! Several! That number actually used to be much higher.

We've got a couple vampires, a couple werewolves, a couple introjects of dnd/LARP characters that are very unique (mostly elves but also some more obscure races). Uuummm... We have various magic users? Not sure if that counts... Some fae-adjacent people. A couple pure animals (A cat, a wolf, and a bird), a demon, a couple Time Lords, aaaaand whatever the hell Yakko Warner is.

💬 - Free space! Talk about anything!

OKAY SO

A number of us/our headmates have personal Spotify playlists and/or Pinterest boards. And I would absolutely love to link them for you if you want.

Also! We made a Google Slide Presentation about each of the headmates our friends were likely to meet!

Each headmate has 4 slides.

An Introductory Slide, containing basic information like name/pronouns as well as a little blurb about who they are/what they're like, and other info like system role, indicators when fronting, and likes and dislikes (sometimes containing positive/negative triggers).

A "faceclaim" Slide (we don't usually use the word faceclaim), which is covered in mostly Picrews or personal art of the headmate, to get a sense of what they look like.

An Aesthetics Slide, compiling a lot of stuff from their Pinterest board if they have one. Outfits and aesthetics indicative of their color pallete, Pinterest quotes, things of that nature.

Aaand a Miscellaneous Slide! Most of these are just a bunch of tumblr posts that "fit the vibe". Also other various memes, or pics dreamed "not sophisticated enough" for the Aesthetics Slide.

Another key feature of these slides is that everyone's slides are their favorite color, and the Introductory Slide is typed out in a font that either matches their vibes or is similar to their handwriting.

An example (that's probably outdated) can be seen in this post (cw aro discourse).

As always, feel free to ask whatever questions you want!!! Fill that inbox!!!

Thanks for asking/reading! :)

[lightofthedarkdarkofthelight]

Queer / neurodivergent soft SOFT friendships pls

Cis hets DNI pls thx

Hi you can call me by the first letter of my name ‘T’, I’m in my late 20’s, soft butch, trans masc, enby, stone butch, gender blind (in all respects tbh), vegan, artist, writer, researcher, outdoors fanatic, lover of all things nonhuman

My special interests: philosophy specifically/particularly metaphysics, biocentrism and ecosophy aka anything to do with the study of the matter of our universe and all it contains, the absurdity of how matter is essentially based on illusions and tricks, everything non-human , all the connections/symbiotic relationships of natural relationships in the natural world and also spirituality / faith systems and the law of assumption

My social battery and social ways tend to mean I can be amazing socially socially for a select time but then I crash out and disappear to hermit land (depending on how social I was being this could literally mean no internet interaction for months let alone in person) I’m working on this

I go through phases (years/months) of having great genuine soft friendships to absolutely zero and I want to work on this also, currently and perhaps obvious to this post Im in the latter phase. Which means my social skills are probably poor again. One brilliant thing about adhd though is regardless of all the above as soon as I’m vining with someone I’m the joker of the moment bound to make you smile.

Neurodivergent friends: this is actually a category that can be a loophole on my dni aka men as my issues with men I’ve found can sometimes be not a thing at all with someone neurodivergent, I myself have autism, adhd and cptsd. I’ve had close friendships with I swear like every known diagnostic out there haha so don’t feel you have to be apprehensive about this I know how it is and I’m really chill honestly, they are just descriptions to better establish our ep connections right. Also agere in this context is a vibe and we connect on this.

Im really looking to connect with queer poc, queer women, butches, dykes, masculine presenting women, trans lesbians, transmascs

I have a lot of trust issues right now but specifically around men/cis hets,

For in person friendships:

I’m based in the uk, I’m very loyal but to the point I do need to work on it as not to be taken advantage of, I can be quite tactile after trust is established, I, the friend that will always (consensually) pick you up play with your hair give you a back rub or vice versa i love being picked up having hair played with, I also love nature walks, going to queer/poc events, making art/getting crafty, reading (also isn’t it special when you can read in silence with a person or group of persons), friends you can stargaze with or go wild camping are especially close to my heart, despite this post I’m the banter loving playful puppy sort could literally have a conversation that makes zero sense due to its randomness and still have a blast whilst equally get deep on conspiracies and philisophical theories. Also like to binge shows that tend to be, fantasy, lgbt, anime, cartoons, documentaries, crime based, conspiracy based etc

For long distance/online friendships: It could be that we live far apart or you aren’t good with being in person in which case as long as you are the creative writing or rpg sort this could still work, I’ve had friendships that were mainly lived out through back and forth writing creating story experiences to share in worlds we create, or if you are into RPG as this can be similar as long as you are down to teach me the ropes of your game(s) of interest I, down for this, also down to do video calls when we both feel

I will probably end up drawing for you or write you poems lol

Things I think worth noting about me: my literal communication style benefits from CLOSED questions I hate open ended questions as my brain will scan through too many possibilities and uncertainties which can lead to me saying what I think I’m meant to not what I mean, clear and concise communication is great else I overthink or project or misunderstand or get paranoid and probably won’t express this. I sometimes need persistence, like being called, texted a lot in order to start re engaging this actually also helps wit my trust.

I love comics and sorta live off WEBTOON because comics/graphic novels are expensive for how fast you get through them:( particularly obsessed with fantasy stories that entail queer dynamics

I’m happily taken in a relationship so queer couple friendships, friendships with queer families/parents is also great=)

Feel free to message things about you or just message in short as a response or repost if you are looking for similar things and want more people to see/interact all is cool

[somedaynotsoon]

Super Small Stardust Saga, Chapter 6

"Oh no!! The consequences of my actions!"

I basically split this chapter into two parts - Chapter 5 was the first part, and Chapter 6 is the second. Made it a lot easier to get back into it.

As usual, this is an archived version of a Cohost post. The formatting and HTML broke, so this post in particular is turbo-scuffed. Feedback is always appreciated, thanks!

You awaken to utter darkness. Below you is cushioned softness of an utterly pleasant caliber. All around you is a warm humidity, coupled with an intense feminine scent. As you stir and roll, you feel a wet spot.

...Oh no!! Did you wet the - no wait.

You slowly pick yourself up and flip yourself over, looking up at a thick string of viscous alien fluid. You were so cozy, you'd forgotten you were in Nadira's panties overnight, you suppose. You couldn't see anything very clearly with how dark it is in here.

You're surprised how recognizable the entire environment is, despite the disparate physiology. The only hint that something is amiss or nonhuman is a scent of hair or fur, and a lingering aftertaste not dissimilar to some 'rustic' or 'rugged desert' beverages you've tasted. It's still unmistakably feminine and hot, though.

You have your glasses, though your spacesuit/uniform was left on your own bed. You suppose you were going to have Nadira take you back there so you could change before today's launch...

...Oh gosh that's right the launch-! Nadira needed to wake up...!

Just as you think that, you hear a great and powerful stirring from above. Gravity itself shifts below you as Nadira sits up in bed, her crotch imposing down before squishing on top of you. It's too dark to look at it, but it certainly feels like a vagina. Or at least, it feels like how you'd imagine a vagina would feel at your scale. You were something of a mote against hers.

She didn't seem to even notice, though. You felt her rise up from her bed, march to the sink, and lean over to wet her head and face. As she dried herself off, Nadira looked calmly into the mirror. You heard her, muffled, speak to herself in the mirror.

"Just get dressed... nobody will notice if you shower after the launch, but everybody will notice if you're late. Yes. We won't even be the most disheveled one there. Miss Friya probably stayed up all night playing MMOs the night before launch again. We are pristine. We are perfect. Okay. Off we go."

The odd pep talk was difficult to hear, but you realized all too late that Nadira was just going to toss a sweater, socks, and boots on. Her fur-skirt meant she didn't really see the need to wear pants...but more importantly, she was going out there with you still in her panties--!

Just as you squirm to try to get up, Nadira exits her door, then swiftly crosses her legs as she stands, as though caught off guard by someone. You let out a squeak, which is purely buried against the dark fold smothering your entire body.

"Second Mate Nadira III. Please report to the deck immediately! Your coworkers are waiting! I can't believe I have to round up a bunch of stragglers like this. We're supposed to be professionals." That seems to be Lt. Bitwise. He's a busybody as usual.

"Right away, Sir Bitwise. We are ready."

"...Mmmgyeah..." Mads seems disenchanted from Nadira's princessy speech mannerisms. You hear him march off.

"Three...two...one...okay he's out of earshot. I shouldn't run in these boots, however."

Oh no. She's not going to-!?

The Phosfynx takes off into a sprint, her boots leaving loud and heavy clunks as she books it for the bridge. Or maybe it's just to get away from anyone with higher authority than her who can chew her out for showing up to the launch ceremony eight minutes late without having gotten a real shower yet.

You are once again completely and utterly stifled from getting Nadira's attention, this time her thighs smearing the fabric of her underwear to and fro, slowly but surely tugging it snug against her body and folds, before beginning to swallow it. The more she sprints, the more your face and arms are swallowed by the cavernous flesh above you. Each full-speed turn she takes is driving you further against what must be vulva, but in this darkness may as well be a dark, drooling monster engulfing you whole.

You hear Nadira skid to a harsh stop, and a moment later her panting and the dings of the Main Elevator. Oh...no no.

You still can't get her attention, even now-! You yelp as best as you can, but it's just lost against her very flesh. The vulpine crotch all around you absorbs the pithy sound effortlessly, and while you would easily be audible if you could just get your face off her folds, your humiliation is far from over, as Nadira didn't even tug out her cameltoe before entering the bridge. She plunks down in her seat, and crosses her legs, further sealing you in her musk and lips.

Though, now that you're no longer below her, a very, very faint trace of light filters in from beyond the wall of her underwear. You can see extremely blurry figures moving back and forth. There seems to be commotion amidst the various officers.

"Nope! Haven't seen her, sorry." Jora chirps with a dismissive sneer.

"Moss?" Jynx barks across the room.

A chair swivels. "Nope, sorry. Dunno where the captain is, either. She's not in her room?"

You feel Nadira's body chill for the slightest of moments. She fidgets in her seat.

Oh. Oh no. She forgot you were a human again, didn't she?

"N-no...Ahh...ahh..." Nadira breathes, her sighs hot and heavy. You freeze, but it's already too late. You can feel the infinite expanse larger than a city above you contract with vibrations that shake you to your very bones. Fluid pools around your body.

Everyone present in the bridge turns.

"Sorry, what was that, Nadira?" Jynx says, not even having realized Nadira was here yet.

"A-aahhihihi...I-I'm c-cummiiiiIIIIING---!" Nadira moans blissfully, her voice completely out of her own control.

Wave after wave of thick, saline juices pour from the unknown darkness directly over you in heavy, merciless waves, shoving you from privacy and against the front of Nadira's panties. Humiliating on its own, but her underwear was so displaced from her run that you found yourself shoved along the sides, the flow of sticky love pouring out onto Nadira's seat, and you along with it. Where everyone, their attention thoroughly captured, were now looking.

The good news: You are out of Nadira's panties! Hooray!

The bad news: You are soaked in her cum, stuck to her thighs and chair, in just your own underwear, with half of the rest of the officers looking directly at you in horror.

Nadira's handpaw smashes down on you with a lightning speed, quickly covering you and shoving you immediately back into her panties, as though to hide you. Of course, she's just shoved you haphazardly directly back into her own orgasmic tide, so it is little consolation, especially not when everybody already knows.

Nadira stutters to try to come up with something, anything. "A-aha...Where are our manners. We are not feeling well. We should...visit the...room." She's completely out of breath. It's hard for her to get through the sentence without groaning. She's sweating.

Jynx is succinct and professional, silencing everyone else in the room with but a single lift of her paw. "Nadira."

"Queen Jynx... ehehehe. Y-your majesty?"

"Do you have the Captain in your underwear?" Jynx says it so matter-of-factly.

"N-no...? This is..." Nadira struggles to come up with a lie. "...A stowaway?"

Ramon shouts from across the room. "BULL FUCKING SHIT! Why do you think I keep my doorbell off for everything except ship-wide emergencies? THIS ALWAYS FUCKIN' HAPPENS!!"

Jynx shoots a look at him, and he stops talking. She turns back to Nadira. She is as calm as ever, though her voice lacks her usual playful candor.

"I have only one question. You will answer it succinctly and honestly, are we clear?"

"Y-yes ma'am."

"Did you approach her, or did she approach you?"

"S-she called me to her room last night. She was in just her underwear and asked me to...'support her'."

"..." Jynx is silent for the longest time. A great and palpable tension sits in the air.

"Okie doke! No harm in a little consensual fun, then! As long as you clean up your chair so it doesn't stain, you're squeaky clean. Nobody outside this room has to know."

"R-really!?"

"Oh, of course. Justine's the one in trouble. May I speak with her?"

You feel Nadira's paw shove itself into your prison and pull you free again, your body sticky with Nadira's fluids sticking to you all over. You do your best to sit at attention atop her palm, even though your muscles ache and all you want to do is lay down on her soft paw and fall asleep. Maybe wake up from this very awkward nightmare.

Jynx locks eyes with you, and you feel a chill run down your spine. The short feline alien is nevertheless menacing when she's serious. And well, still monumentally massive to you.

"Captain, we all need to destress from time to time. That's why this vessel has an entire Gallery Deck with a library and a gym and a hundred other things. And your choice of playmate is yours to make at any point. It complicates your relationship with your other crewmates, of course, but you're free to do that if you want. Hell, you can conduct the ship launch from the tip of Second Mate Nadira's waistband, for all I care."

You avert your gaze. Yes you're blushing, but you just imagined you proudly announcing takeoff from Nadira's cute panties and you're struggling not to snicker. You shouldn't. You REALLY shouldn't laugh now of all times.

"However! You are under no circumstances to abuse your power to beget sexual favors from your subordinates, and you should absolutely NEVER delay a vessel like this on Bureaucracy launching orders because you're too busy exploring your coworkers. The Captain's badge is not a license to do whatever you please, and it is extremely questionable to me that this is one of the first things you've done with your newfound authority."

"O-oh. S-sorry, Director. Am I going to be punished for this? I don't want to lose my badge -"

"No. No, you are not going to be punished for this. The embarrassment of almost all your officers getting THIS first impression of you is plenty already. I want one, and only one thing from you right now."

"Y-yes?"

"Go get changed and cleaned up and get back here immediately. We're launching in four minutes, and I am required by law to document your exact circumstances in the black box should you not be on the bridge at that time. So unless you want your little tryst to be immortalized in the ship's logs for the rest of time, both of you had better move your butts." She sticks out her tongue and does a wiggly wave-goodbye.

You and Nadira exchange a nervous glance. You duck and hold on to her palm for dear life as she immediately books it towards the elevator.

Three and a half minutes later, you are dry, clothed, and seated in your Captain's chair, and Nadira, has changed into a pair of spats.

The launching ceremony occurs without incident, though the majesty of the roar of the ship's engines and the sight of the great dark frontier ahead of you is undercut slightly by the rest of your officers sneaking glances at you and giggling, whispering amongst themselves.

Damnit. You were never gonna live this down, were you?

Well... you suppose you'll have plenty of time to try in between here and the first stop on your mission.

Here begins Day One of your adventures as a spaceship captain.

You should probably familiarize yourself a bit more with the Rampant Lovelander. Tour it a little? Meet more crewmates? You ought to spend time anywhere but up here on the bridge.

So... where to go.

Option 1: The Gallery Deck Option 2: The Main Deck Option 3: The Gut Deck Option 4: You need a proper shower. Back to your room you go.

{None of these chapters were written yet as of the announcement of Cohost's closure.}

[azalea-bee]

FOR THE UNCOMMON OC QUESTIONS BTW!! pick any oc, do em all, whatever you want! i wanna know more abt your guys :D 2, 3, 17+18, 28, B, D :3c!!!

HII tysm for asking!!! :D ok ok i want to do all of them for at least a few of the questions but that’s five whole people so i’ll put this under a cut because it might get long lol

2. How easy is it for your character to laugh?

winnie laughs allll the time, she’s super easygoing and giggly so not hard to make laugh! emrys is very quiet and doesn’t laugh out loud easily, but he does smile instead. dove has a very loud and easy laugh! cassia doesn’t laugh as easily or loudly but he does laugh when someone is being particularly funny, esp if it’s winnie when she’s small. and micah laughs a lot but it tends to be sarcastic, you have to surprise it out of them if you want a genuine laugh :]

3. How do they put themselves to bed at night (reading, singing, thinking?)

emrys sleeps a lot bc he’s a lion, so it doesn’t take much as long as he feels safe. winnie likes to put on their coziest pajamas and get comfy with a million pillows. cassia tends to sleep in short stretches and wakes up a lot, so she tends to listen to music or a podcast and just resumes it whenever she wakes up again (and he also sleeps better with other people nearby). micah has a whole complicated skincare and wind-down routine before bed but tends to lie in bed awake for a while despite their best efforts oops. and dove likes to read before bed, usually obscure magic tomes or niche spellbooks to look for tips!

17. Are they easily embarrassed?

not particularly any of them? i think emrys would be the easiest to embarrass though.

18. What embarrasses them?

for emrys, he gets embarrassed when he gets stuck as a lion for a bit. his lion shifting is connected to his emotions so it sometimes forces him to be vulnerable and obvious about his feelings when he doesn’t want to be, which he REALLY does not appreciate lol

28. Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth? 

i’ll do micah and dove for this one: micah would prefer the unpleasant truth always, no exceptions, and assumes the same is true for others. dove hates conflict so she’d prefer the lie but she can also usually tell when people are lying so it doesn’t matter much either way.

B) What inspired you to create them?

long story short, i was bored and just really wanted to make up a group of fun guys, and i had already had a vague story brewing for a while that wouldn’t leave my head hehe. so i made them all a pinterest board to figure out their vibes and went from there :P

D) Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

mostly they’ve stayed the same, cassia and emrys have changed the most i think? but that’s just because for a while i couldn’t decide if i wanted to include obviously nonhuman traits in their world or not. so i went back and forth on the lion thing and cassia’s horns, but eventually i decided these ocs were already self-indulgent and they were too much fun for me not to include so lion shifting and horns it is hehehe

thank you for the ask!! this was very fun to answer :D

[devotional-devouring]

7 and 29 for the kin ask meme! 🖖 Ven

HELLO I'm so sorry this sat in my inbox for so long!! I hope you're doing well and thank you so much for the ask!!

7 - "What's your favorite type of gear?" Currently I have no gear so technically no favorites BUT if I did I think a headband of sorts with wings on them would be so fun and would make me so happy. Honestly if I had big wings for my back that'd also be incredibly amazing. But I think starting small and trying to make the headband first is a good idea lol (I'm also looking into clothing that would make me feel closer to my kintype but still be lowkey. Still figuring that one out!)

29 - "Is your gender influenced by your kintype?" Yes! So, all parts of my identity sort of influence each other in some way. I think the simplest way being angelkin has affected my gender is through my pronouns. I use it/its in a very nonhuman way but also ze/zir/zirs feels incredibly angelic to me! I don't know if its the way it sounds or how it looks or what but something about it just really makes me feel connected to my angelic identity.

And If I may infodump a little bit...

Angels in my religion are pretty much completely genderless. The form an angel takes, the names it may use, pronouns it chooses, etc -- none of these things have anything inherently attached to them and angels don't really follow any set concept of gender (but they do understand how other beings conceptualize gender even if it's not something they follow themselves). So an angel could choose a form based off it's mood at the time or what it thinks looks fun to embody or whatever will get its current task done easiest. It might pick a name that feels fun to say with a human tongue or pick a name that isn't actually a name at all but reflects something important about itself. It might mix and match different things -- like having a "feminine" face, a "masculine" body, neopronouns, a raspy voice, and no name at all.

And as an angelkin, I tend to take after this a lot! I may have been born into a particular sort of human body and given a particular name, etc, but I don't identify with any of it all that much. It's just a vessel, one that I can reshape into something that better suits how I feel. And the labels given to it (name included) are now up to me to decide. I can't say I'm completely genderless but I don't think I view what pieces of gender I have the same way some other folks view theirs.

But! I think I may stop here otherwise I'll keep rambling lol. I hope these answers were satisfactory and fun! If anyone is curious where the questions are from, check out this post and if anyone would like to send one, please don't hesitate! (I promise I'll get to it a lot quicker this time, I swear asldjk)

[moviemunchies]

I have so many feelings and feeling-shaped things attached to the Eragon movie that I don’t know how to approach this review. If you weren’t a fan of the book eagerly awaiting this movie like I was–I must have watched the tailor like thirty times when it was released–you can’t understand the excitement for this movie, followed by the disappointment in how little regard for the source material the movie had. AND THEN all the fan reactions.

There was this guy–username was Thorin Oakenshield–on the Inheritance Forums of Shurtugal.com that wrote, like, a song? Or a rap? “The Eragon movie/Was less than groovy/This song it made me sing/Bad images did it bring”.

I probably got it horribly wrong, but I’m amazed that I remember that much.

And there was this one person who made a post arguing that actually, this was an Oscar-worthy movie, and we were all being unduly harsh, and in hindsight, that person was _definitely_ trolling all of us, but we were all worked up about it.

Anyhow I kind of love this movie even though it’s a cold mess.

[Sorry, this might be rambling. But YES I have all the books, and YES I have written to the author–and he wrote BACK!]

Alright, so, the story goes like this: Christopher Paolini was a fantasy and sci-fi fanboy living in rural Montana and his local library ran out of books for him to read. So at fifteen he decided to write his own book, and he got it published with his parents’ small publishing house. And like, yeah, it contained a lot of obvious shout-outs and homages to books he liked, maybe TOO much, but he worked his butt off promoting it by going to schools and stuff in costume to ask people to buy his book. It got noticed by Carl Hiaasen of Hoot fame, and Knopf picked it up, edited it a bit, and re-released it.

It tells the story of Eragon, a farmboy on the edge of the Empire, who discovers a dragon egg while out hunting. When it hatches, he bonds with the dragon and becomes the newest Dragon Rider, a member of an order wiped out by the current king (who used to be a Rider himself), and goes on a quest to avenge his uncle, find his destiny, and fight the Empire. And stuff.

In overall Plot it’s remarkably like Star Wars. This has been remarked upon. A lot.

This was back in the day when everyone always wanted their favorite books to become movies. So when a movie was announced, we were all pumped. And then the movie came out and it was… eh? Alright, we all hated it. Any original or complex or memorable elements from the book were cut for the movie, which streamlined the Plot into an hour and forty-five minutes. Furthermore, things like the elves and dwarves were reduced to only mentions in the movie–characters who were nonhuman in the books are apparently human in the movie for no discernible reason. Budget, possibly?

Really, lack of budget would explain quite a lot about this film. The design for large chunks of the movie is uninspired–even though the film quality is better, the village and castle sets wouldn’t look out of place in a SyFy original movie from that era (I have no idea of SyFy original movies have been cleaned up since then–I haven’t watched any since those days). There are some cool things like Saphira’s general design, the look of Zar’roc, and the Raz’ac, and if you ever get the deluxe edition of the DVD like I did, the special features show some of the concept art, and there’s some really cool looking stuff. But overall, it doesn’t have a very good visual language, one that sticks out to viewers.

[Side note: Durza looking like a generic evil sorcerer was disappointing, considering I always imagined him looking like superpowered Johnny Rancid from Teen Titans.]

[Other side note: the dragon armor that Arya shows Eragon, or at least the face plate, is not the one we see her wearing in the final battle. Possibly CGI design changed in production.]

I know a lot of people had problems with Saphira’s design in the movie. The feathers, in particular, rubbed people the wrong way. I didn’t mind that much, especially since the wings in the move are BOTH feathered and batlike, which is odd but unique and I think dragons with feathers is a cool idea? I like the fur-like feathers along her back and at her tail better, but look, the feathers are fine.

[Another side note: the tie-in video game did NOT have feathers on Saphira’s wings.]

You know what’s less fine? Her teeth. There are shots in which her teeth look almost human-like, and that’s just plain wrong.

And even worse, just her entire character and role in the story. Antis of the book complained about how she solved problems for Eragon all the time, but she’s weirdly subservient in the movie in a way that’s annoying. It’s explained that if a Rider dies, the dragon will also die, but not the other way around–which isn’t how it worked in the book, and Paolini claims he actually asked them to alter the line when he saw the script, which they didn’t. So the result is Saphira constantly telling Eragon how noble it would be to die for him. It’s annoying, actually.

Speaking of book inaccuracies: the geography. At one point Brom says something like, “And from there it’s a straight shot to the Varden.” Which it’s not, there’s a massive desert in the way. And I thought I’d let this one go because obviously people who haven’t read the book don’t care. But then rewatching this time, I noticed: there’s a map! In Galby’s throne room! We see it! And sure, nobody’s taking notes, but it’s there, and we can see the big friggin’ desert! And that’s never mentioned! What the fudge!

Random criticism: as much fun as it is to watch Brom beat the snot out of Eragon with a stick after Eragon claims he has sword skillz, do you ever notice that at no point does Eragon actually get better at sword fighting? He doesn’t practice, Brom doesn’t really train him. And to be fair, it’s not like the movie expects us to think he got better, because we don’t really see him win any duels. When he fights, he tends to fall back on magic and his big honking dragon, which is fair because I might do the same in his situation.

I remember everyone and their mother saying the performances were bad in this film, other than a couple. I don’t know, I think they’re alright. They’re not good, mostly, but they’re also not really working with great material. The script is mostly wooden, and the editing is WEIRD. It’s pretty obvious that some scenes were shortened for time. Especially noticeable is when Roran leaves (the full scene can be seen on the deluxe DVD, which includes book character Katrina) and when Eragon has his fortune told–seriously, he asks for the name of the “girl” in his future, and then it cuts to him leaving the hut before getting an answer.

Also hang on–Arya is Eragon’s love interest? There was always something _off_ about this in the books, considering the age difference, but that age difference is because she’s an immortal elf over a hundred years old (an element not alluded to in the film). Sienna Guillory is over ten years older than Ed Speelers, and obviously so. She’s clearly in her thirties in this film, which is fine, but what’s less fine is when she’s meant to be the love interest of a character who we’re told is seventeen. 

But back on performances, I think Jeremy Irons as Brom is actually fantastic? He’s fun to watch, has great dialogue, performs his lines well–he’s actually a great part of this movie. Sadly he dies, but he’s great while he is on screen.

The actual worst performance? John Malkovich as King Galbatorix. Galby isn’t in the first book, so he has nothing to do here except to groan about his stone (I know how that sounds and I don’t care) and give orders to Durza. There is no reason for him to be here, and John Malk knows it. He does not care. He’s phoning it in, if even that. It’s amusing in its own way, but it’s also pretty egregious that he sounds like he’s trying to take a nap and the movie’s bothering him.

[Also! The story was that Christopher Paolini had a cameo in the movie as one of the Empire’s soldiers in Farthen Dur at the end that got beheaded, and you bet your bottom dollar that I was looking for it when I was seated in the theater, but alas! His cameo got cut.]

As you can probably tell, I thought this movie was bad, but I mostly made my peace with it. The past few years I find that I’m always scratching my head when I see someone new has made a review to bash this movie, because… well, duh, it’s bad, we all know it. It feels like beating a dead horse. If you haven’t read the book, or if you have and didn’t care that much about it, then the movie is dumb, but it might be fun for you. If you have read the book, and are a fan, you’ve got a 80% chance of hating it. 

[wedreamedlove]

Hello! What couple in light and night has the best chemistry in your opinion? And which couple is your favorite? Sorry for my English, and thanks in advance!

not sure if you also sent in this earlier ask, but since they're about the same thing i'll just put them together.

i mentioned in a past post that it feels like light and night has multiple genre universes under the umbrella of its main universe (the one we players play) and i still stand by this opinion. it means that every male lead feels like the “otp” when we’re in their “universe” and so all couples have strong chemistry and it just depends on what you personally like.

Sariel = xianxia

Evan = gothic romance

Osborn = wuxia

Jesse = greek tragedy

Charlie = modern drama

SARIEL. this pair can be summed up as the immortal nonhuman + mortal human couple. there are even xianxia tropes here like past lives (still waiting to be confirmed but there’s too many hints), sealed or wiped memories, punishments for defying fate and crossing the interspecies line. these two really give off the feeling of star-crossed soulmates.

EVAN. not only is he a vampire, but also a byronic hero. think of the atmosphere from charlotte bronte, emily bronte, and jane austen but then crank up the gothic romance vibes to something like crimson peak. there is not enough space here—and i’m not eloquent enough—to talk about what vampires represent in classic literature (sexual taboo, transgressions, etc) but just know that light and night writers are well aware of the savagery, inhumanity, and hedonism behind classic vampires and lean into that hard. this is peak monstrous vampire + human couple.

OSBORN. he was a punk, she did ballet. what more can i say? sorry, sorry, but he really attracts good girls who have a rebellious streak. the way this works in a wuxia universe is to think of him as a wandering swordsman who has his own moral code that protects the weak and innocent, not necessarily upholding justice because he kills people but overall doing good. the heroine is the sheltered princess or noble who longs for freedom and adventure and joins this wanderer. meanwhile, the swordsman learns to love and be loved by the innocent girl and has a home that tethers him to the world. they can be summed up as the rogue and noble or, as Osborn would say, it’s the big bad dragon who kidnaps the sword-wielding princess.

JESSE. they’re childhood friend to lovers so there’s no way they don’t have chemistry. what i really like about them (because i normally don’t like this trope) is that they roughhouse more than other childhood friend pairings i’ve seen. they do so much playful ribbing to each other; makes me feel like they’re a college couple. his genre universe comes into play here—and, admittedly the example sounds bad—by forcing a path onto Jesse because of his very nature and the heroine can do nothing but maintain her love for him and pray for his safety, like penelope in odysseus.

CHARLIE. pick any dog blood drama currently playing right now and this is their chemistry, haha, except they’re really steadfast and supportive of each other. but i mean we have evil relatives and conspiracies surrounding them and Charlie is under crushing parental expectations. these two have really sweet soulmate vibes and a fairy tale atmosphere like cinderella and rapunzel, with both of them being princes and princesses for each other.

as for myself, i thought my bias was obvious here but my favorite couple is Osborn and his heroine. i share a lot of her reactions to him so i’m just constantly being flustered and teased by this man. i also really, really admire his untamable and unbreakable spirit. my friends joke all the time about me having a thing for "freedom” men (it’s all in the yearning) but i also adore men who crave to love and be loved and Osborn covers both of these so well.

It turned out that the desire for freedom was just because there were no attachments. — [SSR The 400 Blows]

O: I think it’s precisely because there’s nostalgia and attachments that a long journey becomes a trip. O: Otherwise it can only be called “wandering”. — [SSR Within Reach]

[kyberphilosopher]

Eunoia

The Mantis crew decides to take a well deserved break.  Word Count: 2422

Warning(s): straight fluff, short Requested: yep This can be read for a female, male, non binary, or any other reader.

Eunoia is the shortest English word containing all five main vowel graphemes. It comes from the Greek word εὔνοια, meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking”. It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health. In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself and his audience, a condition of receptivity. In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life.

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･  *

Cal is actually not as observant as people think he is. You know because you’ve been leaning against his doorway, watching him, for about two minutes now and he hasn’t noticed a thing. 

Maybe if you were in his position you’d be the same. That seems about right. He’s hunched over his desk with the lamp on bright, tinkering with something that you can only assume is for BD-1. He’s probably lost in thought. Maybe he’s dreaming of better days. Or maybe he’s just trying to figure out which wires and bolts connect to which. There’s no way to be certain from your position. He’s the mechanic, you are not. 

So why have you been watching the redhead from his doorway for three minutes now? A simple answer. He is your friend, and you enjoy his company. Even when he’s not giving you attention, completely unaware to your presence in moments like this one, lost in his own world, it’s his warmth that really counts. Cal is such a relaxing bout of fresh air compared to everything else in the galaxy, in your life. It’s like being at a great party, but whether you enjoy it or not, stepping outside and tasting the air and the smell of something wonderful. Even if you had a day full of talking to people and had become burned out, talking to Cal would have been no problem at all. Maybe in a way that makes him your favorite person. 

Yeah, maybe. 

BD-1 jumps onto Cal’s desk. His head looks at the boys hands, cocking about as if observing. Then he meets your gaze, only to find a smile. One index finger raises to your lips, prompting the little droid to stay quiet about this, before you turn away and head towards the main part of the ship. 

“Where’s Cal?” Greez gruffs upon seeing you. He’s shaking spice onto a steaming brown plate, which puts a pep in your step. Greez’s cooking always makes life better. 

“In his room,” you answer. You turn from the doorway to the counter, where something hot does cause stringy, swirly puffs of air to waft upwards from a large metal container. With your back to Greez, you pull a plate for yourself and begin hulling it full of food. Some sort of rice or grain?  

“Hmph, that reminds me,” the Latero begins mid-chew. “Me and Cere was talking about taking a vacation.”

“Vacation?” you scrunch your eyebrows and put the lid back on the container. “Where to?”

“The beach maybe?”

You scoff as you turn around and lean on the counter. One hand holds the plate while the other uses your index finger to prod at the mush. It smells alluring. The individual pieces of it stick to your skin. They burn and sting, but it’s so small it doesn’t bring much of a reaction. “I don’t know a lot of beaches.”

“Well, ya know,” Greez shrugs. “Just a thought.”

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･  *

It was more than just a thought. Six days later, the Mantis touches down on Scarif. But first there’s the issue of landing. 

“Watch that tree,” you point, leaning over Cal’s shoulder as he co-pilots beside Greez. A second later, the ship gives a great rock and the palm tree crunches beneath it. “You weren’t watching the tree.”

“Sorry,” Cal offers sheepishly. 

“What?” Greez says. He’s the one in main control of the ship. He’d never let Cal take over the whole thing. “What he do?”

“Ran over a tree,” you snort. 

“Cal!” Cere scolds, turning around in her chair. 

“I said I was sorry!” Cal defends. 

“I’m telling the wookies what you did,” you whisper.

“Don’t,” Cal whispers back, though it’s still desperate. 

The Mantis parks itself in a field of tropical emerald on the cuff of a beach. The sand is white, the waves cyan and royal blue and sloshing. There’s several beaches on the planet. All of which are very beautiful. Would be a true shame if anything were to ever happen to Scarif. It’s so different compared to so many other planets in the galaxy- not occupied by Imperial forces or scumbags. 

Greez waves everybody off. Cere exits first. Cal is ahead of you, but he steps to the side and rather gentlemanly insists, “You first.”

You hum and move past him. The Scarif air hits your face with a warm breeze. It smells of salt and water and some kind of flower. The horizon goes orange and pink and salmon with the setting sun. It is... serene. It nearly knocks you off your feet. It takes his voice to realize Cal is beside you at the bottom of the ramp. 

“Woah,” he offers simply, in as much awe as yourself. 

“Woah,” you repeat in agreement. It’s still for a second. “Come on. Let’s join them. Or else I’ll have to cast a Jedi mind trick on you.” Your fingers wiggle up and down by Cal’s face for dramatic effect. 

Cal rolls his eyes. “Shut up,” he utters with a push on your elbow, urging you forward into the sand. 

Okay, so maybe you like Cal more than just a friend. But who can blame you? Things had been feeling different between you two lately. You’d always gotten along pretty smoothly. You made up for skills that Cal seemed to lack himself, and his abilities- human and nonhuman- never ceased to amaze you. He was a friend. And then, when you tended to the stab wound he’d gotten from Vader, there was a moment where you held each others eyes. After that, the joking became more constant. The little touches on the shoulders and elbows and forehead taps happened more often. And you started watching him from his doorway sometimes and... and at some point you just caught feelings. 

Cal Kestis seemed to feel the same, but who could really say? No use poking that bear right now. 

The sand is soft, even beneath your boots. Cere stands in front of the water, just breathing in the air. The light breeze makes her vest ripple. It’s tempting to just join her. 

“Gotta say,” you hear a familiar voice say from your left and below. “We picked a nice place.”

“Maybe we should stay a while,” you joke, though you secretly hope for it, to Greez. 

“Yeah,” Greez rolls his eyes. “Until this moron gets us into trouble again!”

Cal perks up. “What did I do?”

“Anybody who can lift things with their mind is gonna attract some attention, kid. You just brought it on us.”

“So true,” you jump on with a smirk to Cal. 

“Alright,” Cal turns away towards the beach. You position yourself so you’re closer to him, and Greez takes the opportunity to waddle away further ahead to waves.

“Sorry for bursting your bubble, Cal,” you continue with a smug grin. “Maybe in the next life, don’t be born with force powers? Just a suggestion.”

“You think you’re so funny,” Cal tells you, though he’s smiling too. His pale green eyes spare a glance at you, thick lashes dancing on his boyish face. 

Your knees bend until you collapse on your bottom in the sand. It’s so soft, it doesn’t even resist your weight. It makes way for you easily, like a blanket. “I do.”

Cal joins you in the sand quickly enough. You’re both face to face, the wind in your hair and the water at your side. It crashes every few seconds, but it’s peaceful. Some kind of bird flies overhead, and butterflies are in the forested area behind you. The light of the sunset illuminates Cal’s hair more than usual. The brightest points of his eyes are highlighted. 

“He loves you,” you offer. 

“You think so?”

“I am one hundred percent certain... Just don’t touch the ship.”

Cal raises his hands as if surrendering. “Understood. Hands off.”

You turn your head to the water. Greez and Cere are standing ahead, most likely having a conversation of their own. The tide carries so much of the stress your shoulders hold away from you. Everything with the holocron, the empire- it was ridiculous what living in hiding could do to a person. It’s hard to imagine how Cal did it for so long. How painful that must’ve been for him. How painful it is to imagine him in pain. 

“How’s your stomach?” you decide to ask at last. 

Cal tilts his head for a second. “Better.”

“Perfect?” you raise your knees to your chest and rest your arms on them. 

Just then, a little whirring noise pulls both of your attentions away. BD-1 bounds down the ramp of the ship, twirling around in observance as if excited. “Hey, BD,” Cal greets. “I know, buddy. I know.” The droid places itself in Cal’s lap, still looking around at the change in scenery. 

“We’ve never been able to do this before,” you tell him. “I mean, I wasn’t here for the whole adventure. But I was here after and before and... and just... we’ve never done this.”

Cal is quiet. “I haven’t either.”

You look at him. 

“Taken a break. I guess time on Bracca was the closest thing.”

You smile softly. “I’m sure it was really nice.”

Cal rolls his eyes along with his head, though the corner of his chapped pink lips turn upwards. “As nice as it could be with the Empire.”

“That’s pretty nice.”

Cal and you huff a humorous puff of air in unison. 

“What were you doing before the Mantis?” Cal suddenly asked. 

“Oh,” you roll your eyes and wave your hand. “Not important. Don’t even worry about it.”

“Come on!” Cal shifts. 

“I’m serious!” you defend. “It’s boring stuff. You wouldn’t want to hear about it. Not as interesting as the force.”

“Well anything related to you is interesting,” Cal says casually, one of his palms lifting in the air for effect as he shifts again. 

Well that makes your face feel hot. Anything related to you is interesting. How often do people get to hear that? And how casually it comes out of Cal’s mouth, the shrug of his shoulders that you tie so easily to him, that’s how you know it’s honest. Not only have you heard something intimate that not many people will in their whole lives, but it was also heartfelt. 

“Yeah,” you mutter, though it sounds distant and far away as you watch Cal’s eyes. He doesn’t seem to mind. Then you snap back to reality. “This is gonna be good.”

Cal watches you pop to life, standing up entirely and running towards the water. BD-1 perks up as well to watch you just in time to see your much bigger form nearly knock the Latero over. And, much to Cal’s surprise, the little droid jumps from his lap and bounds after you. The red head decides he’s next to follow. 

“BD-1,” he rasps, also nearly pushing Greez to the ground. “Don’t touch the water!”

But it’s too late. However, nothing happens. BD-1 stands in the shallow waves, unelectrocuted and unbroken. He doesn’t spark a bit, only cocking his head in wonder at his friend. 

“Think fast!” a voice calls. 

A splash of warm and salty water slaps against Cal’s face. He cringes, turning his shoulders away on impact with a little gasp that makes his throat burn. “Hey!”

Another splash. 

Cal turns to you. You’re standing with your hands on either side of yourself, open and matching your smug and proud face. Your boots are still on, which can’t be comfortable given that they’re now submerged in water. BD-1 is on the back of your shoulders- something Cal thought was only between him and the droid. Apparently not. 

“What’s wrong, Cal? Can’t handle the current?”

Cal stills himself. Then he bends down himself and flicks water upwards. 

“Hey! No!”

He does it once more. 

“No!”

So you too repeat your original actions and begin forcing salty liquid up into the air in Cal’s direction as well. BD-1 grips onto your collar for stability while you both go to town, careful to not open your mouths too wide and taste the saltiness. 

“Be careful you two!” Cere calls from the shore. Neither Cal nor yourself heed her words, continuing on in disrupting the tide. 

“They’re fine,” Greez assures with the wave of one of his many arms. 

“Are you sure about that?” Cere responds with a hand on her hip as she watches you tackle the Jedi to the sandy terrain below the shallow water. 

“Completely fine.”

You push both of Cal’s shoulders down jokingly, careful not to subdue his head under the water. He cranes his neck to keep it above the waves. Through his soft lashes, Cal can just see your smiling, evil intentioned face with BD-1 on your shoulder gazing at him. 

Honestly, it feels just how it did last week- the last time you had watched Cal in his room. Gazing at him, admiring him. Just now you get to touch him, relax with him, splash water at him, even. You wish you could capture this moment if not forever, then for a while, and Cal wishes the same. 

* ✭ ˚ ･ﾟ ✧ *･ﾟ * ✭˚･ﾟ ✧* ･  *

Sorry it’s short. Idk if it’s my best work certainly but I haven’t written for Cal or Star Wars in a while. But I didn’t kill the reader in this fic or have someone sick or in danger! So it might be my first ever straight fluff? I don’t know. But what a good character to do it with. I’m glad to give Cal a break. And i hope the requester enjoys. 

[iam93percentstardust]

Prompt: tony can’t get enough of Steve’s strength and Steve loves it bc he’s still quite self conscious of his body? 💚

I realized halfway through writing this that you probably meant for a canon-compliant fic, but I was already so deep into the worldbuilding for this little science fiction fic (seriously, you don't even know how much unnecessary worldbuilding I did) so I kept with it

Also on ao3 here!

~

“Steve!” Tony hollers through the communicator. Steve glances up from the board game he’s playing with Natasha and Clint and over at where the communicator hangs from the ship’s wall. He still doesn’t really understand the technology behind the communicators even after a year of being awake, but they’re hung all over the Avenger’s Shieldand he won’t deny that they’re useful.

“I’m here,” he says at a normal volume, knowing that JARVIS will easily pick up what he’s saying and transmit it to Tony. Tony’s just being loud because he’s always loud and because he’s down in the engine room of the ship with all its noises from the conversion of stardust into energy.

“Great! I need your muscley goodness down here like yesterday.”

Steve hides a smile and stands, passing his pieces off to Clint, who’s losing worse than either Steve or Natasha. “Here, you can have mine. Not sure how long I’ll be down there.”

Clint’s eyes narrow and Steve tries not to fidget under the cybernetic enhancements. When he went into the ice nearly three hundred years ago, mankind didn’t even dream of space travel, at least not realistic space travel, and now they’ve got colonies on galaxies as far away from their own, it makes his head spin. Humans have peace treaties with over two thousand alien civilizations. And mechanical body enhancements, meant to augment humans for travel and work and sometimes sheer entertainment, are as common as breathing. But Steve, with his serum-induced enhancements, is somehow still the odd one out.

“You know,” Clint says, “you don’t have to help him out if you don’t want to. Tony means well but that doesn’t mean he can’t be abrasive sometimes.”

“I don’t mind,” Steve says truthfully. Everyone else on this ship seems to dance around his non-cybernetic enhancements—and around the fact that he’d been frozen in the ice caps, now stretching as far south as Florida, for three hundred years—but Tony never once seemed to care. He’s thrilled about Steve’s enhancements—no one else on the ship is quite as strong as Steve is, not since Thor joined the crew of the Milano—both because of what Steve can help him with and because of what the serum means for scientific advancement, though Steve hasn’t let Bruce or Yinsen take any of his blood yet.

He heads down into the belly of the ship, pausing once at one of the portholes to look out at the stars flashing by them. It still amazes him that humans have achieved all of this (and horrifies him that they achieved this but left their own planet behind).

Tony’s “lair” (as Clint calls it) is located at the very bottom of the ship. It’s here that Tony holds his court, making sure that the engines that run the ship are still intact and running smoothly, tinkering with other projects that the other crewmembers give to him, and designing improved systems for the Shield, whether that’s comms, mechanical, or even medical. Tony does it all. According to Natasha, Tony, who’s one of the few nonhumans on the ship, was once a member of high society on his home planet, Aur’a, but left it all behind to join the Shield and travel the galaxy.

Steve opens the door and is immediately met with a wave of heat. It’s always hot down here. Tony says it’s because of the celestial energy, that stars run so hot that even residue energy is still too hot for unenhanced humans to handle. Fortunately, neither Steve nor Tony are unenhanced, and Steve would be willing to bet that the reason it’s so hot in the engine room today is because Tony is working with raw stardust.

The copper pipes running the room are too close to avoid bumping into for someone as large as Steve, so he doesn’t even bother trying to avoid them, letting them brush against his skin as he follows the sound of Tony humming. When he’d first joined the crew, he’d been worried about Tony complaining that Steve couldn’t move around the engine room without knocking something over, but Tony has never once complained, only just made easygoing jokes about bulls in china shops and told him that the pipes are built to withstand forces a lot stronger than Steve. It had gone a long way toward helping him feel comfortable in the space and now he spends a lot of time down here, talking with Tony about the mechanics of the ship, even though a lot of it goes over his head.

He ducks underneath one of the pipes and rounds a corner to find Tony sitting on a bench, carefully chipping at a speck of stardust on the benchtop in front of him. Tony once told him that it only takes a miniscule amount of stardust to power the ship for an entire week, which is good because stardust is difficult to mine. Tony’s goggles are perched on top of his nose, giving him an owlish appearance. Steve finds it adorable, but he waits until Tony is done with the chisel before walking over to drop a kiss on top of his hair.

The rest of the crew doesn’t know that they’ve been seeing each other for a month. After their first kiss, Steve had asked if it would be okay to keep it quiet a little longer. Steve’s brain is still firmly convinced at times that they’re in the forties, so the idea that he can date a man and have it be as accepted as dating a woman is still a little foreign to him. Tony had been more than accommodating though, which is only one of the reasons Steve loves him so much.

“Oh!” Tony exclaims, clearly startled. “Didn’t realize you were already here.” He turns, pushing his goggles up to his hair. “Did you get even more muscley since the last time I saw you?”

“Tony, you saw me this morning,” Steve says amusedly.

“Right you are, Capsicle, but I still stand by what I said,” Tony shoots back with a cheeky wink. He runs his hands over Steve’s biceps, making a low purring sound under his breath. Steve just barely manages to hear it over the sound of the engines, and it makes him smile.

Sometimes, he still feels self-conscious about his size. Spending most of his life looking and feeling one way only to change in only seconds had been disorienting, and he hadn’t had much of a chance to get used to his size before he’d been thrown into the war and then frozen in the ice. Tony’s always good to talk to though when he needs someone to remind him that this is okay, that he isn’t taking up too much room just by existing. Somehow, he always manages to get to the heart of Steve’s insecurities and allay them.

He indulges in Tony’s warm touch for a little longer before asking, “So what did you need me for?”

Tony perks up, spinning on his heel and picking up the speck of stardust with his bare hand. “I need your help opening the converter door so I can toss this in. Something must have gotten damaged during the battle with the Hydra’s Scales, because it’s not opening for me.”

“Huh,” Steve says, following Tony through the warren of copper pipes toward the energy converter. He has no idea how Tony knows where he’s going without a map. Steve still sometimes needs a map and he’s lived on this ship for a year. “That’s not something you can fix?”

“Not with what I’ve got on ship. I’ll ask Fury if we can stop in Knowhere later this week. They’ve probably got what I need.”

“Wow, Tony Stark admitting he can’t jury-rig a solution from his lab. Hell must have frozen over,” Steve comments, grinning when Tony turns to scowl at him.

“You shut your mouth,” Tony growls.

“Or what?”

Tony’s eyes turn dark and heated. He slinks closer to Steve, runs his fingers up Steve’s chest, and purrs, “Or I’ll shut it for you.”

Steve’s brain shuts down. “Uh…”

“But not right now,” Tony says abruptly, tweaking Steve’s nipple through his shirt. He spins back around and marches off, leaving Steve floundering in his wake. He gapes after him for a second before hurrying to catch up.

“You,” he says, carefully bumping Tony’s shoulder with his—he doesn’t want Tony to drop the stardust after all—“are a menace.”

“That’s me: mechanic and professional menace,” Tony says cheerfully.

They stop beside the energy converter. Steve can immediately see what Tony means by there being something wrong with it. The converter is made out of some sort of transparent material—Steve doesn’t know what—so he can see right in to where something is twisted in the converter itself, partially fusing the door shut. Even Tony, with all his abilities as an Aurum, can’t reach into an active energy converter without burning his hand to ashes, and the converter has to stay active or they’ll be dead in space, so they’ll have to stop somewhere where he can make the necessary repairs.

“See?” Tony says. “I need someone who can muscle that open for me.”

“Well, I’ve definitely got muscles.”

“Mmm, yes you do,” Tony murmurs. Steve wonders if Tony’s thinking about the same thing he is: that time he pinned Tony to the walls of their shared bunk and—well, now’s not the time to be thinking about that.

He grabs onto the wheel and wrenches it to the left. Tony sure hadn’t been kidding; the wheel doesn’t budge at all. He applies more of his strength, muscles bulging. Under the squeal of metal, he hears Tony’s breath catch, and he grins saucily at him. Tony sticks his tongue out and gestures at the wheel again.

“Come on, Captain Crunch. Put your back into it.”

Steve, having no idea what Captain Crunch is supposed to be a reference to, makes a mental note to ask Tony about it once they’re done here. For now, though, he uses all of his strength and slowly—so slowly—the wheel turns, protesting the entire way. Eventually, he gets it open, letting another blast of heat into the engine room. Tony tosses the stardust in. It flares in the heat of the converter, setting off beautiful gold and purple sparks. Steve closes the door. It closes a lot easier than it opened. Tony hums thoughtfully at it.

“Well, that narrows things down,” he says, once the door is fully closed.

“What, that it was easier to close than it was to open?”

“Mmhmm. Only a few things that could be. Probably need to tell the One-Eyed Pirate though that we have to stop on Xandar instead of Knowhere. I don’t think Fujikawa will have what I need. Steve, don’t let me forget to tell Fury the course change.”

“Got it.”

“And thanks, by the way. Definitely couldn’t have done it without you.”

Steve glows at the praise. Maybe it’s silly, but it’s nice to be reminded that even in this oversized, clumsy body out of time, he’s still able to do some good. “Happy to help,” he says honestly.

They head back to Tony’s little work area, Tony eagerly chattering on about the project he’s working on for Natasha. Steve listens, fingers itching for the drawing tablet he’d left in the galley with Natasha and Clint. Tony is lovely when he’s animatedly talking about his inventions. Steve has half a dozen folders saved on his tablet, filled with nothing but different poses of Tony.

Tony leans up against the workbench and pulls Steve in, looping his hands around his neck. “Now, where were we earlier?” he hums, eyes dark.

“Careful,” Steve warns, bracing himself with hands on either side of Tony’s body. “I might crush you.”

“You might,” Tony agrees, though he doesn’t sound concerned at all. “And I might like that. All that coiled strength pinning me down? Oh, honey, yes.” He shivers, a small delighted smile curling his lips up.

“You just like me for my body,” Steve accuses. It isn’t the truth and he knows that. Tony loves him for many reasons; Steve’s strength is only one of them. But it’s fun to tease his lover and Tony is always happy when he does. He frequently worries that Steve is too serious.

“Yes, darling, that’s exactly it.” Tony kisses him lightly. Steve lets himself lean into Tony’s body a little more, grinning when Tony shudders against him.

He pulls away, tucking his head against the curve of Tony’s neck. “Thank you,” he breathes. He doesn’t know how Tony always knows when Steve is feeling self-conscious about his body, but he somehow does and he always comes up with something that’ll help.

Tony strokes his hair. “Anytime, darling. Anytime.”