#if she can keep even one of them she is in significantly better shape

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Laena Velaryon had been born a boy?

this one is a stumper for me because it changes a LOT (bc, and I cannot emphasize this enough, but Laena is important to the plot and to Rhaenyra as a character!!)

The great council still sides with Viserys because Laenor was alive, and Rhaenys pushed his claim in canon, so having a slightly older son isn't going to do much for that.

Where this really starts to affect the plot is when Viserys is looking to remarry. Laena is pushed forward as the "correct" match because she is Valyrian, and it would soothe Corlys and Rhaenys' ruffled feathers from the GC 101. But if they have no daughters, that clearly doesn't happen. This also means there is straight up no Valyrian woman able to marry and have children except Rhaenyra during this time period which is a little wild (Rhaenys and maybe Jocelyn are alive, but past child bearing years, and these people just refuse to marry Celtigars which is deeply funny). Viserys has some room to pick whoever he wants to marry in this situation though, and I think it's not unlikely that more than Otto tries to take advantage of that (but Otto is still going to win).

HOWEVER. Especially after Rhaenyra is named heir, I think Corlys starts pushing that a boy Laena (obviously she's called Laenor, and probably actual Laenor is called like, Lucerys or something) marries Rhaenyra. I think it's likely he throws himself behind Rhaenyra hard, insisting that Laena and House Velaryon will uphold her claim, protect her birthright, "We Will Be Strong As We Were In Old Valyria By Joining Our Blood", etc etc, and since Viserys is not snubbing Corlys by refusing to marry Laena, I think there’s a non zero chance Laena and Rhaenyra are engaged very young.

But what does this mean for the Dance? Well…

Rhaenyra is probably less hostile to her marriage. Laena is a daring dragon rider who adores his mother & supports Rhaenyra and, most importantly, can give her heirs, so I think Rhaenyra pushes against this marriage much less. However, part of Rhaenyra’s anger over the engagement isn’t just the risk of marrying a man who may not give her children, or easing her father’s political headaches, but the idea that Rhaenyra is not allowed sexual freedom while Daemon and Viserys (and later Aegon) all are. So whether Rhaenyra is hostile to the marriage largely depends on how well she gets on with Laena and whether she feels like has control over her sexuality. In canon they are close, but in canon Laena is a woman and that does make a difference. There’s also The Criston Cole And Daemon Of It All - if Rhaenyra has a fiancé looking out for her, does Rhaenyra get so attached to him? Does whatever happens the night she goes to Daemon & Criston still happen?

It’s all kind of hard to say considering both Eustace and Mushroom are full of shit and Gyldayn is a raging misogynist. And regardless of the fallout of that, what Laena gives Rhaenyra is incredibly important - Valyrian looking heirs. With at the very least a Jacaerys that looks like a Velaryon (because he is by blood this time), a large part of the Greens propaganda falls apart. Yes, she’s a woman, but she has a Valyrian heir with a husband she probably likes & takes an active role in her life, and the unwavering support of the Velaryons. PLUS with the dragon twins gone, that frees Jace up to marry literally anyone - like, say, Helaena! Or potentially, one of the storm sisters! And if anyone gets too cute with Rhaenyra, well, Laena has Vhagar!

Again, the wildcards here are Criston and Daemon. Daemon especially has no way back into the main Targaryen line because there are no Valyrian women for him to marry. I think that makes him much more erratic when Rhaenyra marries, because he can see his hopes of being “accepted” slipping away and he has no other option to turn to.

So….Rhaenyra is theoretically better off by the time her father dies. If she cares for Laena as a man the way she cared for Laena as a woman, she will have the full backing of House Velaryon, a legitimate heir who is free to make a great political match, a husband happy to back her claim, and once again, Vhagar on her side and Aemond defanged. The question is if this marriage stays happy or if it sours because Rhaenyra feels stifled, or Daemon/Cole does something particularly deranged about it at any point.

[keyaho]

.summary: nami's punishment continues. terry divulges himself. he also exposes himself. and indulges again.

short warnings: sensory play, oral, fingering banner: by me (i'm working on making some better than this one lmao. first attempt I know it ain't cute)

Part One || Part Two || Part Three

Nami thought she would get tired of her hands being bound away from her. She thought she would snap and tell him she didn’t like them anymore. Instead, she pulled on them as her arms ached, so much that the burn became familiar; like brushing her teeth. She wanted them even if she wanted to touch Terry more. In the guest room, Nami flexed her feet, one of them was bound at the ankle to the end of the bed. The other was pushed up, opening her legs. She stared up at the ceiling in wait, Terry somewhere in the house doing who knows what before he came and did god knows what to her body. 

“Your playtime has been cut in half, significantly,’ he says, still feeling miffed from her earlier attitude. 

Nami noted that Terry wasn’t going to just let things go. He held her to her choices while standing on his own. The fact that he was still going to indulge her was surprising. After the chicken tenders and fries, she figured he would keep distance between them. Instead, he spent ten minutes kissing her while her hands tugged on her pretty yellow leather cuffs. Personalized with ‘Pretty Gyal’ in black thread, the cuffs were becoming bracelets. A cute accessory to the debauchery Terry inflicted upon her. 

“But, I can indulge myself, yes?” 

“Yes, Sir.” 

“Good.” 

She couldn’t see him from her positon on the bed. Head in the pillows, the room was a comfortable temperature, the cuffs weren’t too tight and she was at ease. Moments later, Terry came to the side of the bed, placing a bowl on the table next to it. He picked up her phone and turned it off. 

“No distractions.” He had left his own to die in the kitchen. 

The guest bedroom door was shut, enclosing them in their own little world. He knelt next to the bed, his finger tips running along her side. 

“Tonight was supposed to end with my face buried in your pussy. I was supposed to be eating you like the last supper, watching you try not to cum. I was supposed to let you get one off, because I wanted to watch you break apart.” 

“I’m sorry, Sir,’ she says, ‘really sorry.” 

Terry’s face softened for a little, she noted the way the lines in his forehead disappeared before they snapped back and his eyes slanted away from her as he looked at her restraints. 

“So you’ve told me.” He paused. “However, your punishment doesn’t end after being spanked.” He kissed his teeth and shook his head. “I want the lesson learned to stick so you remember not to do it again. Understood?” 

“Yes, Sir.” 

He looked behind him at the bowl before continuing. “You circled sensory play and over stimulation.” 

“Yes, Sir,’ she replied, though her voice lifted at the end in question. 

“I’m going to add edging and if you are a good girl for me, I might let you cum.” 

The threat and reward lingered in the air between them. Her body tingled as he stood up with his fingers stroking her cheek, her bottom lip, and she parted her mouth. The bowl beside the bed disappeared as he placed it on the bed between her legs. 

“I want you to talk to me, okay?” Terry vocalized. “This is for you and you need to tell me what you like. Tell me what feels good.” He gestured to the room. “In here, I’ll do my best to give you what you need. Maybe even what you want.”  

Terry’s words hung between them as he stood up. 

He didn’t like to improvise but the chilling item in the bowl would have to do. Cold, his fingers dipped into the ice, the circular pieces came from a mold meant to make it easier to add to water bottles. The cylinder shape looked phallic and the sadistic tendencies Terry had began to surface. That would not be happening tonight. He wanted to be the first thing to fuck her. 

“Just feel,’ he instructed, ‘make the noises you want to.” He looked at her soft brown eyes. 

Nami hissed as the ice that landed on her belly and it sat chilling on her skin. It slowly started to melt, the cold water running down the her sides and hips. As it sat there, Terry took another piece in his hands and ran it down her inner thigh. She was warmer here and the ice snapped in half in his hands. 

“Hm..” 

His hands dipped into the bowl again and she hissed when a piece of the ice circled her nipple and another slipped between her legs. 

“Oh,’ she hummed, unsure which sensation she should focus on. 

The one on her chest was cold, but it was tolerable and her nipples hardened as he circled it around. The ice slipping between her lower lips was harsher, colder, and uncomfortable. 

“I…I don’t,’ she began, her eyes searching the ceiling as she tried to find the words. 

“What’s wrong?” Terry asks, stopping his movements and that gives Nami the clarity she needed. 

“I don’t think I like that as much,’ she admitted in a whisper. “Can I scratch that off the list?” She asked, the genuine question in her eyes made him smile. 

“Yeah, we can take that off, babygirl.” 

The initial touch of the ice was blissful, but the biting chill of it after wasn’t something she’d derive any pleasure from. Not even from the ice that he was pressing flush to her pussy, though the cold she liked. 

“Tell me why you don’t like it.” 

Nami licked her suddenly dry lips. 

“What part of me playing with your pussy with ice turned you off.” 

“The…the, um,’ she fumbled, his expression was one of pure elation as if he was enjoying talking to her this way. This wasn’t a Dom in front of her. Her free leg suddenly drew upwards as realization set in. He was too readable this way and she didn’t know if to feel happy or aroused. 

“At first it feels good. But then it’s too cold and it hurts. It stings and numbs.” 

“We can try it another way.”

He couldn’t push it off any longer. The ice had long since melted and his fingers were coated in her thick and sticky essence as he worked it from her body. He could feel her body shaking to stay still. Her hips stuttered and she gave into the pleasure, eyes drifting closed as she moaned. 

“You like that,’ he teased, applying a little more pressure. 

“Yes,” 

“Shh, my pussy is talking,’ he grabbed another piece of ice and chilled his hands before adding them to her body. 

He alternated between eating ice and rubbing it across her skin. The more he played with her pussy the hotter she began to feel and the ice became pleasurable. 

“That’s it, pretty baby.” He cooed. “You want to cum for me don’t you.” 

Nami was speechless, the multiple sensations her body was experiencing made her toes curl. A knot sat deep in her stomach, tight, and getting tighter. She fought against it but she knew moving would make it worse. Nami took deep breaths, loudly blowing them out as she tried to count herself down from a ten to a two. Her head cleared a little and she thought of something else, the shake in her limbs relaxing after a few minutes. Terry had pulled his hand away and watched as she fought the urge to cum. Her chest rose and fell slowly and she counted to herself. 

“Good girl,’ Terry was amused, ‘yu really waah cum fi mi nuh you?’ he laughed. “Tell mi how it feel.” 

Nami watched his eyes light up as he smiled. All fucking thirty-two teeth were bared and the shift in his speech sent the flood straight from her pussy to the bedsheets. She blinked in wonder as he kissed her wrists. Terry then leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead, cheek, nose, and then her lips. His fingers began to poke around her hole, flirting with her wet folds as his tongue licked into her mouth. The squelching sounds had been minor before. She could hear them now and feel the way her slick stuck to his fingers. 

“Talk to me, Nami,’ he whispered.

“It feels good.” 

“I know that,’ he replied. “Talk to me.”

“You have me so wet,’ she admitted, his fingers stroking continuously in the same pattern, driving her thoughts wild with the repetition. 

Her breath fanned against his face as she breathed, trying to control herself as his thumb began to strum her clit like a guitar. His fingers moved downward and she bucked her hips unexpectedly when his middle and ring finger pushed into her cunt and stroked in a ‘come hither’ motion. His thumb made light circles on her swollen clit. He scissored his fingers, stretching her left and right. 

Terry kissed down her jaw and sucked on the skin of her neck. The words left her lips faster than she could form them in her head. 

“Does it feel good, baby,” Terry asked. 

 “Yes, Daddy…” 

“Who's making you feel good,’ he hissed. His stroke became faster. 

“You, Daddy-please,’ Nami pleaded. His hand was doing demonic craft through his fingers. He was the spawn of a pleasure demon and she could feel her offering leaking from between her legs. 

Nami felt her body arching into his fingers, seeking out more from him, and he pulled them away. The relief that washed over her as her body fell to the bed was magical. Clarity set in and she threw her leg over to close herself off, trying to rub away the intense feelings pulsating through her slit. 

Terry reached over to the nightstand and turned on her phone. He slid it unlock and set a timer. He dropped the phone onto her stomach as he kissed down her body, his tongue drawing her left nipple into his mouth. He grinned as she pushed her chest upwards towards him, the touch caught her off guard. His tongue lapped there for a few seconds then left a trail towards her sex. Before that he tapped the outside of her leg to get her attention. 

“Yes, Sir,’ she slurred, the sexual haze settling over her as she tried to keep her thoughts clear. She was overwhelmed and her body felt hot. 

“You have two minutes left,’ he pressed a light kiss to her sex. The tip of his tongue flicked against her swollen clit and she whimpered. “You can hold it that long and Daddy will let you cum.” 

“Please, I’ll be good!” She didn’t want to wait two minutes. 

Amused, Terry looked up from his wet fixation. “You’ll be good huh?” 

Nami whined. “I’ll be so good for you.” 

He kissed her pussy again with a bit more firm pressure. Namis legs shaked. 

”Two minutes.” 

He started the timer and pushed her legs apart. Terry pressed his hand into the back of her knee and held it open as his tongue licked between her wet slit. She tried to count, but lost track when he licked from her weeping hole to her sensitive throbbing clit. Terry felt her trying to drag her body away from him. He let her, watching her twist away from him as he licked his lips. He followed her, pushing her legs back open. He finds the phone and drops it beside her head, his eyes threatening her to keep still. 

“Be still.” 

He grabbed her hips and lowered his mouth back to her pussy, slurping his tongue through it. His mouth was cold. The ice shocked her body with a sudden chill. Terry’s tongue quickly licked the chill away, warming her up and making her slicker. The sounds of him eating her out were loud and wet. He sucked her clit into his mouth roughly as his fingers rejoined in stroking her hole. 

Nami was on the verge of tears, the knot in her belly was hard to keep away, and she couldn’t see the time to know what was left and she was sure she wasn’t going to make it. 

“Hold out for me,’ Terry says. 

His fingers were playing a symphony on her g-spot, how could she? 

“Yuh naa go rush Daddy yuh?” 

He brought his fingers to his mouth, sucking them clean as she caught a glimpse of his face. His mouth and chin were soaked. The sight of him covered in her mess was too much. The deep baritone of his patois was just as mind numbing as the fingers that had been slipping in and out of her pussy. Nami’s legs drifted shut, her toes curling. 

The alarm on the phone blared and she let go, whimpering as her orgasm soared through her. She didn’t even need him to touch her, just the sight of him between her legs tasting her and the feeling of his thick tongue pushed her over. The alarm was just the trigger. Terry watched her body shake, her hole leaked, creating a large wet spot on the sheets. He thumbed her over the sensitive clit and watched how that same leaking hole clenched around nothing. How her sweet little pink cunt needed to be filled as it welcomed his fingers again. He stroked her a few times, watching her face wince in overstimulation. As Terry watched her sum, he kept eating the ice. 

When his cold tongue flattened against her pussy a second time, Nami tugged so hard on her restraint the latched holding them to the bed snapped. Her wrists were still bound as they came swinging forward from the sudden momentum. Terry heard the snap and looked up and his hand came out to grab her wrists before her hands could grab him. He had disclosed jujitsu as one of his hobbies but she was still surprised at his reflexes. Maybe it was the marine in him too. Either way he pinned them over head, but didn’t hold them. He looked at her in warning and she silently understood. 

“Yes. Sir.” 

He brought her body to the edge of the bed after unbinding them completely. He knelt between her legs as he watched her hands to make sure they were above her head. She had them face downwards and gripping the sheets. Once he parted her legs his mouth latched on to her clit. He assaulted it with his tongue, licked, sucked into his mouth, and devoted so much attention to it she was begging him to let up and slow down. 

His tongue licked lower, his resolve gone as he licked his way into her hole, sucking the slick she hadn’t stopped leaking. It was all unbeatable this time and he gave into temptation. He pulled her legs over his shoulders so he could hold her still. Nami rocked her hips against his mouth, his wet and deadly mouth. 

“I knew this pussy was going to taste good,’ he breathed out, a light chuckle in his chest.

His eyes were blue, Nami’s mouth dropped open as Terry’s tongue flicked against her like a snake's tail.  

With her legs pressed towards her chest, Terry’s tongue played around in her pussy. He was such a noisy eater, slurping and sucking until she was trying to wiggle away from him. His hips began to rock and he flattened his tongue against her pussy letting her ride his face. Her chest rose and fell as she sucked in air. She needed some relief and it was starting to expand in her lower belly. A fire so hot the ice on his tongue did little to soothe. 

She felt like crying. The sensation of being licked and forcing herself not to cum was making her head split. She felt like she was being pulled in two different directions. Nami looked down at him again. His eyes, fuck, those eyes. 

Were they? 

Green? Now? 

Chameleon ass…..

Fucking green eyed bast-

The shrill of the alarm scared Nami right into her orgasm. Her back arched off the bed and her toes curled from their position in the air. She sucked in a deep breath, feeling her pussy quiver as she wished to turn on her side and rub her thighs together, the friction needed. 

When did he set another one?

Terry tore himself away from her cunt. Standing abruptly he wiped a hand over his mouth and chin, but his skin still shone with the aftermath of her orgasm. 

Nami tried to sit up. Her body slumped back to the bed as she joined him in trying to catch their breath. Her voice was soft, sleepy sounding, but he heard it: 

“Thank you, Daddy.”

Terry looked down at himself. He had worn briefs beneath his sweats, hoping to contain himself a bit better and resist the urge to jerk off as he tasted her. Nami wasn’t like previous submissives. Her naivety turned him on. Her wonder and interest renewed his lust for the community. He looked down at her, his heavy breathing silent as she laid there, legs spread, for his next instruction. She was waiting to know what he wanted her to do. He bit down on his lip, slightly upset he lost control just now. He shouldn’t have indulged in her the way he had. Not when punishment was the precursor. He should have edged her and then let her be. Yet, Terry had given in. He had let her cum. He had went against his own R.E.L.Ls to indulge when he had been waiting for the right moment. A tinge of anger settled into his bones and he looked away from her inviting body and slipped into the bathroom. 

He had exposed a part of himself that he shouldn’t have and she caught it. Caught him. He couldn’t fault her for what she did not know was happening. As he busied himself with running her a bath, Terry opened the bathroom’s closet and pulled out a towel and placed it on the sink counter. 

“Sir,’ came her soft voice. 

She stood in the door, her hands bound in front of her, curly hair messy, and his shirt was wrinkled and damp. Nami was a mess of his doing and he bit back the urge to smile. Shit. He needed to reel himself in. The scene was over and he could feel the drop in energy. 

“Yes?” He replied after swallowing. 

“I was trying not to cum.” She whispered. She raised her hands and rubbed them over her flushed face. Her mascara had run, making dark streaks over her cheeks. “I really was trying.” 

Terry’s eyes softened as he walked over to her. “I know.” He cupped her face and brought his head down to kiss her. “You made it to the end of the two minutes.” He pulled away and kissed her forehead. “Twice.” 

“Am I still in trouble,’ she asked as she pursed her lips. 

“Nah, you’re not in trouble.” 

He let her go and she watched him prep her bath. He never stayed in the bathroom with her, so when he beckoned her in she didn’t hesitate. 

“Grab the counter.” 

She put her back to him and placed her hands on the counter. He stood behind her and she watched him in the large mirror. Shirtless, his chest pressed against her back and he unnecessarily leaned into her to remove the cuffs. His hands wrapped around her wrists as his fingers unlatched the leather. He kissed her neck, pulled down the shirt and pressed his lips to her shoulder all the while keeping eye contact with her in the mirror. She tried to look away but his eyes were hypnotic, drawing her in and keeping her hostage. 

With the cuffs gone, Nami lifted her arms to rub her wrists. Beside her, Terry opened a drawer and pulled out a blue tin of salve. His hands then grabbed the back of the shirt and lifted upwards before tossing it into a hamper near the closet. Terry turned around and turned off the water, testing the temperature. She stayed still, watching him over her shoulder. The muscles in his back flexed as he stood up right. 

“When you’re done, wrap in that towel and come see me in the living room.” 

Spread over his lap, Nami’s eyes rolled upwards as he rubbed the thick salve into her ass and inner thighs. His thumbs pressed into her skin and she went limp, enjoying the care. She was in another one of his shirts, not caring it was hanging off her head as she let her arms dangle. His hand smoothed up her back, her shoulders slumping more into his thighs. 

Choking. Spanking. Grabbing. Massaging. 

Those hands could do whatever they wanted to. 

“Do you need a nap?” He asked. 

They had done a lot over the past few days and he wondered if he was moving too fast. She was just so willing. 

“Not yet,’ she replied. If she did she wanted to take on with him. 

“I want to talk about one of the kinks you have.” He says. 

He pulls down her shirt and helps her sit up. She tucks her hands into her lap as she sits cross legged next to him on the couch. He closed the salve tin and dropped it on the infamous table. 

“Yes, S-’

“Speak freely.” He says. “This one is serious.” 

He had studied that paper like it was his orders for work. 

“Do you understand the depth of control I have to have to allow you to participate in consensual non consent, even with me?” 

Nami bit down on her bottom lip. It was one of the first kinks she circled and though she knew the extent of what it could be, Terry’s question had her second guessing. 

“No.” She whispered. “Do you not want to do it? We can take it off.” 

Terry’s hand came down on her knee, stopping her fidgeting. He leaned back and shook his head. 

“That’s not why I am asking.” He looked at her and then to where his hand was on her thigh. “You are giving me consent before it ever happens. That’s different than in the moment. Yeah, you can safeword, but there is no other way to do the kink unless you go all the way. No safewording.” He could see the concern on her face. “I wouldn’t do anything you hadn’t agreed to prior, but we can’t plan this kink. It comes when I want it to.” 

Nami had mentioned she wanted to give up control, as much as she could, because she liked being used in that way. For lack of better words if he wanted, Terry could use her as a toy. She derived so much pleasure from sexual intimacy. The kinks heightened the feelings, but being that close to a man was the main turn on. To be desired in that way. 

“If I see you aren’t enjoying it then I will stop it. And we can try at a later time.” Terry continued. “I’m going to come to you when you don’t want it. When you’re tired or when you’re busy. Your safe word is the only trigger and if you use it, I will never do this kink again.” He paused. “If I have control then I have it. It’s not shared. It’s not traded back and forth. It’s mine the same way your body will be in that moment. At my discretion and for how long I desire to use it.” 

She twisted the shirt in her hands while she looked down at the material. 

“But it wouldn’t happen until after I fuck you so you have nothing to worry about for now. I just wanted you to know the severity of that particular kink.” 

“How do we warm up to that?” 

Terry laughed, not at her, but he understood the joke. “We don’t, however, exploring your kinks helps me create the scene for you. I’ll do what you like after I do what I want.” 

Nami nodded, unsure of what to say. She needed to think about it. 

“Can I ask you something,’ she inquired. 

“Of course,’ he replied, his hand sliding up her thigh and beneath the shirt. “Anything you want.” 

“You….earlier, there was a difference,’ she fumbled over her words, trying to string them together so they made sense. “I called you Daddy but you didn’t correct me. Or punish me for it.” 

“In the heat of things I can forget to pace myself and I slip into a different head space.” 

“Was it my fault?” She asked. 

Terry’s eyes shot up to hers and he leaned forward, almost in her lap. She kept her hands tightly fisted in the shirt. 

“No, you did everything right.” He sighed. 

Nami waited for him to speak again, though she let out a sigh of content when he kissed her. His tongue swept over her bottom lip and she opened her mouth, letting him taste her as if he hadn’t. Her hands twitched and she huffed. So badly she wanted to hold his face, his shoulders, scratch up his back, marvel at the way his toned stomach rippled beneath her fingers and feel the heaviness of his dick in her hands. 

She was snatched from her thoughts as his hand pushed between her legs, the heat inviting his fingers back into her cove, just as wet as it had been before. 

“What are you thinking about that made you so wet, Nami?” He teased, pushing her to lie back on the couch. 

He unfolded her legs, pushed her arms up and settled between her thighs. 

“I really want to touch you.” She says, eyes glossy as he played with her pussy. Their talk became more sensual as he pushed them into her cunt, stroking a fire that was warming her belly. 

“I know.” He kissed her neck, tugging the skin between his teeth as she arched into his fingers. “I can’t keep my hands off you.” He admitted. “You taste so fucking good, baby.” 

He crawled to the floor, kneeling beside her before pulling her legs to either side of his head. He brought her body down, resting her thighs on his shoulders as he held her still. He kissed her clit, looking up at her as she held onto the back of the couch. 

“Mi nuh need yuh touchin mi rite now.” 

Terry whispered patois to her pussy, his lips licking up her slick as she dug her nails into the back of the couch. There it was again, Nami thought, something gentle about how he spoke to her, the patois rolling across her ears as she moaned. She tried to keep still, to watch him devour her, but her body betrayed her and she rocked her hips back and forth against his mouth again. 

She was still sensitive from earlier and the need to push his head away while pulling him closer at the same time was high. His tongue was flat as it pressed against her cunt and she could almost feel his damn tastebuds flaring up as they became soaked in her mess. 

“Sweet little pussy,’ he hummed. “Mi a guh fuck yuh senseless.” 

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[bonefall]

how much of Stormpaw’s demon are Maple’s curse vs just things that happen (cause in canon it’s really vague about whether Maple causes all those tragedies or has the ability to see his future for some reason)

EVERYTHING that happens in Stormpaw's Demon involves her. It's not being so dramatically renamed for nothing, she's a major driver and cause of the plot! Crookedstar's young name is in the title; but really, his demon is driving the misfortune.

That said... It's been a while and I'm heavily considering retooling the narrative.

Since I last REALLY worked on it, BB has changed in the sense that I'm a lot more willing to alter canon than I used to be. While my driving mindset used to be "telling a better version of the original story," and that IS a value I still hold... I've lost patience with the misogyny within the original work.

I've spoken at length about the way Crookedstar's Promise grinds my gears (PLEASE follow this link for a full breakdown of why), but in summary; it desperately tries to keep every male character likeable when they shouldn't be, saying nothing about the fact they are complicit in or even enabling abuse, while giving Crookedstar TWO flatly evil maternal figures. Even Brambleberry, who's heavily praised for being "like a mom instead," has a weird moment where she starts giving Crookedjaw the cold shoulder because she finds out he's chatting with a demon.

So like... I'm not sure if I want to make the "better version" of that story. That was the one that I already had, which had Mapleshade be acting entirely out of just the malice of wanting to hurt a child, while Hailstar and Shellheart are the excellent people canon wanted to see them as.

(not that it's even a BAD super edition, it's actually a really good one, but if it's my kitchen that's not what we cook here. Man I really do always massively overhaul my favorite SEs LMAO)

I think, specifically, I want to make Mapleshade slightly more morally gray and Hailstar more of an enabler. Shellheart is getting significantly retooled to make him more of the heartwarming parental figure I think he should be; someone loving to help balance out a very heavy rework.

And of course Brambleberry, I'm going to tweak her some. Try to make her flaws more consistent, get rid of that odd cold shoulder moment.

Old regulars will remember an old AU which is also still a massive favorite of mine; it was called Better Call Mapleshade, and it was kind of a commentary on how an environment can shape a person. Mapleshade, as a demon in heaven, was essentially their best prosecutor and defense attorney.

You can actually see how a lot of ideas from that AU ended up in Better Bones with the expanded trial system! I'm thinking of taking another page out of it, by making Mapleshade more aware of "the game" of Clan culture's structural unfairness, while also using it like a weapon against people she wants to hurt. A powerful demon of revenge.

Under the cut, what won't be changing, the way it was, and Draft 2 of Stormpaw's Demon.

(MASSIVE CONTENT WARNING FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CHILD ABUSE including ableism. BB!Rainflower is WORSE than canon.)

WHAT WON'T BE CHANGING;

These are major details of Stormpaw's Demon that are different from canon. I'm working with these as givens and won't be changing between drafts.

Mapleshade does have a bone to pick with Appledusk's lineage specifically. One option might make her more discerning when it comes to her targets, but no matter what, she is going to have her eyes on this bloodline. She Haunts Applekin.

Rainflower is Hailstar's deputy. And I will make her downfall spectacular. If you were worried I was going to make her more sympathetic then you have no idea who I am LMAO

Shellheart is not Crookedstar's biofather While I want Hailstar to maybe be worse; I do want to fix Shellheart by making him a good parent. I've decided a good way to do this is to make it that Shellheart adopts Storm AFTER he's been abused by Rainflower. He didn't have authority over him before then. In general, I do want him to have a bigger positive role in this narrative. DEPENDING ON WHICH VERSION: Oakheart might also not be his bio-brother.

Crookedjaw is not a cruel name; it's an Honor Title. I've ALWAYS been frustrated by how canon treats scars and injuries as bad things. It's a BATTLE culture. Surviving brushes with death is their WHOLE THING. There is no "crookedkit" or "crookedpaw," he was Stormpaw until he earned his warrior name, with "Crookedjaw" commending the massive lengths he's gone to in order to survive, adapt, and honor StarClan.

Mentor change: Goodbye Cedarpelt, hello Magpiesky! I decided to repurpose one of the Barn Cats! Magpie from the books is a daughter of Perchshine-- the cat who killed Mapleshade. She joined RiverClan long ago. She's actually the one who points him in the way of the barn, and has to train him "as a punishment for teaching him disobedience" when he comes back. I actually have a couple of minor reasons for making this change but I'll spare them for now. He might start with Cedarpelt, but then run to the barn when Cedarpelt is basically refusing to train him properly.

Some family tree shuffles I need to update this tree to show Crookedstar's new situation with Shellheart (and also reflect some other changes I made like confirming Hallowflight fully being Lizardtail's honor title and Robinpaw being the apprentice who gets eaten by Ripwater), BUT, overall this tree is solid.

The ableism Storm faces is going to have a different flavor I have built BB in a way where him surviving his injury would be very respected, but he'd get badly coddled and pushed into early retirement. Him running to the barn is because he suspects he wouldn't have gotten training otherwise.

He kills a fox there because it's Cool. I might give him the tail to wear as a trophy of the kill because that's also Cool. The fox was very old and feeble at that point, which was why it was attacking chickens, but shhh

The Way It Was (Very Evil Mapleshade)

Darkstar's Commandment creating the Queen's Rights, that no queen would ever have to reveal the other parent of their kittens, wasn't enough to appease Mapleshade.

Nor was the damning of everyone that Mapleshade killed. In a fit of irrational fury at all the death, StarClan sent all her victims into the Dark Forest.

But she can't chase them. In the Dark Forest, you don't see someone unless you WANT to see them, not unless you're hanging out in a "land mar" (a sort of personal hell that all demons get).

on the off-chance she does see them, Frecklewish usually rips her to shreds...

Which is the next problem.

You can't DIE in the Dark Forest if you're a demon. You poof back into existence the next day, no injuries, no scars, nothing.

she's bored.

And vengeful. In spite of the wrong being righted, she still thinks she deserves MORE revenge, because what she wanted was really Appledusk.

She finds it unfair that HER legacy is snuffed out, that it's Darkstar's Commandment and not hers, that her babies were destined for greatness and by extension SHE should have been great.

So she takes up a hobby in tormenting Appledusk's descendants. She wants to eradicate them completely, but is spiteful enough that she'll just settle with hurting them.

The first one she managed to kill was Applefrost, Reedshine's son. Just by accident. She didn't know she had such power over the mortal plane.

After that, she managed to drown Duskwater. The daughter.

But she couldn't wipe out HER daughter in that storm... and she brought two more Applekin children into the world.

Stormkit and Oakkit.

So, naturally, Mapleshade turned her sight on the little fuzzball.

He would be an easy kill, in theory. She smashed Stormkit's jaw on the rock, but Oakkit pulled him out.

From there, it's similar to canon for a bit. His recovery is long and painful.

Rainflower is disgusted, and wants absolutely no part of helping him through this process.

That wasn't an injury gained in battle-- it's because he's careless and didn't listen to her. He's going through all this suffering, and for what?

To never become a warrior?

She's cruel to him, begins to neglect and distance herself from him. Discourages him from suckling.

Mapleshade LOVES this. It's worse than she could have imagined. Rainflower is horrible.

Gleefully, she realizes that Stormkit dying now is what Rainflower wants.

So, she kills two other kits in the nursery.

Fallowtail's only survivor is Willowkit, so she has plenty of milk. She starts suckling Stormkit.

(Graypool is now an older sibling! She's actually an apprentice at this time! Later, she encourages Willowkit to visit their father, who decides to just kidnap them completely)

Eventually, being the deputy, Rainflower had some kind of conversation with Hailstar.

During that conversation, she asked him to do something very cruel to Crookedkit.

And Hailstar LOST IT

He's the successor of Volestar, who was appointed by Darkstar herself to uphold the Queen's Rights and protect children.

How DARE you try to turn RiverClan into a place of disrespect?? To use my power this way?!

So, her power was stripped, and Oakkit and Stormkit were taken from her.

From there, Storm eventually goes to the barn as discussed, and Mapleshade continues to do things to hurt him.

This was my first draft, and now having thought about it a lot, I feel like it's not super cohesive. A demonic Mapleshade who's entirely malicious is neat, but I feel like this makes her flat. Shellheart's not tied in super well either, and Hailstar's stand feels kind of hollow because Rainflower hasn't actually used or leveraged the new authority I've given her.

But most egregiously? Rainflower's abuse being so close to canon tastes kind of bland. I feel like I can make it sooo much more intense, complicated, and painful.

Draft 2 of Stormpaw's Demon (Demon of Revenge Update) Essentially an outline for the first few chapters establishing Mapleshade by dealing with Rainflower and then fragments for the rest.

Mapleshade's still malicious, but this time, there's more to it.

Darkstar's Commandment, and the damning of her victims, DID appease this Mapleshade.

But is she satisfied? No.

She doesn't feel like she was wrong at all, actually. Without her killing those three in revenge for her kittens, StarClan's anger probably would have subsided.

She can't hunt her victims down again though, because, they don't want to see her. She fights Frecklewish every now and then but what's the point?

She WON already. She already GOT the euphoria of dragging them all down with her.

Punishing everyone who had ever wronged her was the highlight of her existence... but now it's done.

She's in Hell and she's bored. Her punishment is never seeing her kits again, but more importantly, her punishment is eternal shuffling through the leaf litter when she's SO GOOD at getting revenge.

Problem with revenge is, when you get it, it's gone.

She probably messed with Duskwater and Applefrost a bit, but if she killed one of them, it was accidental. It made her realize that revenge without a motive is just boring.

The prologue would probably open up with establishing her as a character. Who she is, what she wants.

Because the first chapter would dive RIGHT IN to Stormkit. The only child of Rainflower, the deputy.

Right along with Stormkit, you only learn in hindsight that he was born in a storm that killed his grandmother. It's clear that Rainflower reminds him of this often.

And that she's nasty to him. Giving him unclear instruction and finding things to critique, telling him to jump and then barking at him that he didn't ask how high.

She has great expectations for him, and reminds him of their family lineage often. Of who killed his great-grandfather, of what a fantastic pair of warriors Applefrost and Duskwater were

"I lost everything the night you were born. You'd better be able to make up for it."

Unfortunately, Stormkit is not the sort of child who's good at listening to those sorts of orders. He's stubborn and defiant; angry and oppositional.

When he doesn't understand why you do something, he doesn't want to do it

He "embarrasses" her a lot, and gets hurt for it.

In public, these are swats and whacks. The things you're "allowed" to do to discipline your child. In private these are a lot more severe.

So when Stormkit is given an order or a command, he obeys completely out of fear rather than respect. And sometimes he forgets his fear.

The other cats in RiverClan? Well... Stormkit is a problem child, and Rainflower is a fantastic, organized, respected deputy.

Hailstar especially, unfortunately. He feels bad... for Rainflower.

"It must be so hard for her to have such a little brat as a son. He never seems to learn his lesson. When will he stop wandering off? What's wrong with him? He certainly didn't get that from her."

His best friend, Oakkit, gets in the SAME trouble he does.

He's mischievous, fearless, and outgoing, and... never gets punished for it.

There's times where Oakkit does something and Stormkit physically recoils, just imagining what Rainflower would do if HE did something like that. Especially in how Oakkit talks to his dad, Shellheart.

For example, Shellheart will come to get his son for suckling time and Oakkit will tell him to his face things like, "I don't want to! I'm HAVING FUN!"

and shellheart doesn't flip out. He just. explains why it's important to eat on time.

"I know. But Fallowtail wants to go have fun too! She's waiting for you to come and suckle so she can go play."

"Well why can't she just play now and I suckle later?"

"When a suckler is full of milk, it makes their belly very itchy. She's uncomfortable when you don't come and eat on time."

"nnnh"

"Tough sell? How about I sweeten the pile with a badger ride back?"

"Hm. You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Dad."

Stormkit doesn't know why he hates it. He's all angry inside when he sees them acting friendly. He's polite because Oakkit's his best friend and Mr. Shellheart is really nice, but he just...

He's too young at the time to know he's envious. He wants what Oakkit has so badly it hurts.

Sometime after an exchange like that, Stormkit is visited by Mapleshade for the first time.

And they talk about Stormkit's anger and resentment. Stormkit lets it slip that he HATES his Mi.

Waits for Mapleshade to stop him and tell him, like everyone else does, that "she's still your mother."

...but she doesn't.

Besides Oakkit and Shellheart, she's the first person who doesn't tell him that.

She just lets him talk. Lets him go on. Starts making nasty jabs, which make him laugh.

"She says she lost everything the day I was born!!"

"What?! That's crazy! She got you that day!"

"Right?! It's like she's saying I'm nothing! Maybe she SHOULD lose everything, then she'd know what she's got!"

And then she asks, "Do you want her to die?"

Suddenly, there's a chill in the air. He's really shocked by the suggestion of that. He didn't... he didn't mean it to go THAT far. That's not what he meant... is it?

But she's fading back into the shadows, just her eyes visible in the dark. Tells him that she can see he's unsure. That's ok.

Holds up a budding sprig of sycamore, the maple she's named for. Its buds grow in a "deer hoof," with one large bud in the middle and two "toes" sprouting on its sides.

Teaches him that if he needs someone in his corner, all he has to do is call.

(to summon her, a bud is plucked off the sprig and thrown in the river.)

He wakes up with the sprig in his paw, panics, and shoves it under the nest he shares with his mother.

The experience shakes him. He probably ran to Brambleberry for the first time, who explains very seriously that he was contacted by a demon.

From the description... Mapleshade. The cat who killed his great-grandfather.

He BEGS her not to tell Rainflower. PLEADS with her. He can barely hear her already saying yes under the throbbing sound of his heart in his ears.

When he calms down, he hears her saying yes. On the condition she will need to smoke the nursery with sage and cedar, and that he will be needing a bath as well.

When he's still concerned that Rainflower will question him, she makes a plan to distract her for a day, long enough for him to do his cleanse and the smell to fade.

And, of course, that he will not follow any instructions that Mapleshade left him. He agrees. But does not tell Brambleberry about the sprig.

For a while he's very "well behaved." But it's not about him, never has been.

It really doesn't take long at all for Rainflower to get worse. Kids who are defiant like that are usually exercising a defense mechanism-- if they're not aggressive about their boundaries, their limits are pushed to a breaking point.

And after a big blowout like this, which was probably a public spectacle, Stormkit runs back to his nest and digs out the sprig, runs to the river, and throws a bud in the river.

Having calmed down from his shuddering fury, the dread begins to set in as a dead-smelling wind ruffles his fur. He can't help but feel like he just did something very stupid out of anger.

Looking at his reflection, he sees no cuts or swelling. The blows weren't "bad enough." He doesn't have the kind of injuries that anyone would do anything about. Equal parts guilt and frustration swell in him like a tide at full moon. How could he be sitting here wishing she hurt him worse?

So he tries to soften it, "I don't want her to die, I just, I... I just want her to lose everything like she says. Please..."

The wind whispers in his ear, "it will get worse before it gets better."

"I can handle that," he sobs, "I can do anything. Please. Make it stop."

After that, Oakkit probably runs to come find him. Stormkit doesn't want to be found. He makes up a childish plan, on the spot, to run away and join ThunderClan.

Oak says that's mousebrained, but Storm has DEVOTED himself to this plan he made just now.

And is crossing the stones.

Oak sighs, but if Storm's going to ThunderClan, he should really go with him because then they could totally fight off a small fox (Childish hubris)

Unfortunately, Rainflower found them. asks Exactly What He's Doing.

The kids freeze. Stormkit in particular has that horrible, twisting anxiety that you get when you hear The Tone that means you're in for an absolute wallop when you get home.

He's about to start running, but then the voice tickles his ear-fur again. Mapleshade tells him to go back. It'll be ok. She's on his side. She'll make her pay.

Oakkit is still frozen in place when, as if possessed, Storm's body stiffly returns to his mother.

There's a silence. The river trickling through the stepping stones. Storm looking with fear and anger up at her.

She's waiting for an apology, groveling. He doesn't give her one.

So she raises her paw and gives him an awful, hard blow.

His little body twists, flung off balance, trying to correct himself, and he can swear he felt paws pushing him a second time, whipping him downwards.

The feeling of falling fills his stomach, the water sloshes into his ears before there's a ring of a sound like CLUNK-CRUNCH, and then the river floods his nose and mouth.

It all goes dark.

When he wakes up, it's with a throbbing pain in the side of his jaw so intense that he can feel it all the way down in the tip of his tail. He learns from Brambleberry that Oakkit rescued him-- jumped right into the water to pull him out. And then Rainflower pulled him out. That was when Shellheart came and found them.

There's a LOT of arguing outside, but Storm can't ask what it is because it hurts to move his mouth at all. Brambleberry hushes and soothes him, telling him it's nothing he needs to know about.

(MEDICAL INFODUMPING: i do actually have a medical reason I want his injury to come from someone hitting him which causes him to fall. The injury he'd get in canon would actually be a really simple and common split in the front of the mandible, which wouldn't cause his mouth to have a dramatic twist and would heal very easily. He needs to come down on the rock at an angle to shatter the joint like that.)

From here, the tune about Stormkit starts to change.

Oakkit was distraught when they got back, telling everyone that Rainflower smashed him against a rock.

Rainflower's story is that he was running, and she chased after him. EVERYONE knows that he has a habit of doing this.

Then HE slipped and fell and hit his face on the rocks. His fault.

Oakkit was running away with him, he's lying.

Shellheart is FEROCIOUSLY taking the side of his son, furious that she would imply he raised a liar.

Hailstar is taking the side of Rainflower. It's two troublemaking kits against his deputy.

Yes, Rainflower's disciplined him before, but that's no indication she'd do something like this on purpose.

Brambleberry weighs in that the injury that Stormkit has isn't the sort of injury a kitten gets from hitting his jaw. The bone is shattered.

probably does some kind of visual to go along with it, using a stick and a stone

"The bones of a kitten are like the young shoots of a tree. When they fracture," she takes a young twig and snaps it in her paws. The fibers in the center are bent but unbroken, with the bark splintered around them, "they flay but don't snap."

She places the stick on the ground, "So for the injury that Stormkit has," and violently smashes the rock down onto it. It's shattered and pulped, the fibers flattened, "there would need to be a great force."

Shellheart hisses, saying that THIS is the evidence. Oakkit's story is consistent but Rainflower HAS to have lied.

Several cats are now on his side.

...But more are on Rainflower's.

"She's his mother. She loves him. Oakkit has to be mistaken."

"Why would she chase down her own son just to smash his face on a stone?"

"She wouldn't pull them out of the river if she really wanted to hurt him!"

Hailstar prompts if there's ANYTHING else that could explain this?

It comes up that Brambleberry cleansed the dens the other day.

She says that it's possible there is a demon's influence at work. She can't know for sure which one it is-- but it may have a grudge against Rainflower.

She allows them to reach the conclusion that it's probably Mapleshade on their own. She will be talking to Crookedkit when he's able, but she's not about to tell anyone about his dream yet.

She doesn't want him to have the extra scrutiny when he needs to rest and heal, but if she'd shared that an unnamed cat had a demonic dream, it would set off panic as cats accused each other of dark magic.

Rainflower manages to escape consequences by pointing out that it was likely Mapleshade that injured her son.

Oakkit is still trying to tell everyone SHE did it, he SAW it, Stormkit walked back and she hit him and smashed his jaw on the rock

But he's hushed. It's decided there's not enough evidence. And not enough reason to doubt the noble deputy.

She's never done something like this before, after all. It's more likely it was an accident.

There is a group of cats that are dissatisfied about this, though, and it only grows when Brambleberry explains that Stormkit's prognosis is not good.

There is a very high chance he will die. Even adult warriors can wither slowly from this sort of injury.

Recovery will be slow and it will be painful.

...but after that incident? Rainflower gets bolder. She got away with it in public. She got a taste of the leverage she has, how much they trust her.

Stormkit spends a lot of time floating in between his dreams and his living-world pain. There's at least one interaction where he speaks to Mapleshade, screaming at her that he TRUSTED her, he KNOWS she's the one who hurt him! How could she?!

She can't say much, kept at bay by a hazy smokescreen of sage. "You must live! You must survive!"

Her old words echo in his head; It Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better.

Throughout the recovery, Rainflower grows more cruel and more distant.

In public she likes to talk about how difficult this is for her, but he's strong, he will survive.

In private, she'll do things that hurt him, like repositioning his head in a way that "his jaw will heal better in." When he cries, she's unsympathetic.

"You brought this on yourself. This is for your own good."

Her definition of "private" is also changing. She's getting more comfortable with snapping at him in front of limited groups of people.

Since she's deputy, the other two parents in the nursery, Shellheart and Fallowtail, do their best to care for Stormkit while she's away. He's pulled away from them when she gets back, any ideas or suggestions they have vetoed.

When they try to go to Brambleberry about this, she shakes her head with frustration and tries to make them understand she knows... and she's just as unhappy with it as they are.

She tells them she keeps going to Hailstar, but he's still hesitant. Even though she's trying to tell him that Stormkit's recovery is being undermined.

"Rainflower's son has always needed tough love. She's his Mi and knows him best... she's still taking care of him. Give her a warning before suggesting anything drastic."

In the other draft, I had Mapleshade kill two of Fallowtail's kits to free up milk for Stormkit. I'm not sure I need that anymore honestly, plus, this rework's heavy enough! She can just have Willowkit without any deaths, while Graypaw remains an older sibling.

When Brambleberry informs Rainflower and Stormkit that the jaw isn't healing straight and it will probably be at an angle forever, Rainflower reacts with disdain.

"His first scar and it's nothing he earned?!"

She's reminded he might not even survive. He's lost weight. He's eating less. Stormkit curls up quietly. He hates how they talk about him like he can't hear them.

"Surviving is the bare minimum," she scoffs reflexively. There's a silence so thick you can cut it with a claw. After an uncomfortable heartbeat, she continues, "What kind of a life will he live if he-"

"a life," Brambleberry cuts in, "he'd live a life. And it can be a good one"

Rainflower growls, spitting that the twisted jaw is a disfigurement. He'll never be able to open his mouth all the way. He can't chew and he can't suckle forever. Stormkit will never become a warrior if he can't even dispatch a fish with a killing bite.

"Scars are the sign that StarClan has mended our bodies after fighting a good fight, making any Clanborn cat worthy of being an elder" Brambleberry preaches, "Names are what mark us, calling upon our ancestors to look down at us and witness our actions, Rainflower. Don't say anything you wouldn't want them to see."

Rainflower flicks her ear, seething, a rumble in her throat, "was that some kind of threat? As if I've said something wrong?"

"If you feel threatened, look within."

Stormkit resents all of this talk. He can feel his mother tensing up next to him, hears the low rumble progressing into a growl. When adults play stupid games with his mom, he's always the one who ends up dealing it. Why don't they get that?

It's only Shellheart who seems to have it click, "Hey, this is the nursery. Can you take it outside, please?"

As Brambleberry and Rainflower leave, Stormkit lays curled up in his nest, cold and alone. Oakkit leaves Shellheart's paws to curl up around his best friend.

Shellheart stares at them, shifting, but ultimately stays where he is.

There's a lot of words I could write there, between Storm and Oak. Ones where Storm speaks about how he just wants the pain to be done with. Others where Oak comforts him, tells him how much he means to him. More where they end up running into the wall that they're just two little kids and they've both learned the truth that they have no control over what happens when Rainflower comes back into that den.

But I think it would be good to end there, at the lowest point. Because it gets better.

Pissed off by being gently confronted, after her warning from Brambleberry, this is the moment where Rainflower goes too far.

Hailstar is gradually losing his patience. Every time this issue comes up, he's making some kind of new excuse for her.

She's still a competent deputy who holds the Clan together, but this has taken a toll on her reputation.

Her biggest mistake was becoming more open with her abuse after being emboldened. And I think Hailstar is beginning to feel like he's got "egg on his face."

After standing up for Rainflower several times, getting heat from Brambleberry, and now the Clan also starting to murmur...

It's getting very difficult to justify why he's sticking his neck out.

and maybe, part of him is starting to feel a little self-conscious about the way that his deputy is acting about her injured child.

When she comes storming up on this fateful day, interrupting whatever he was doing to make a proposition, it's the breaking point.

Her suggestion: "I've realized that there's only one way to ensure my son survives his injury. He's being haunted by our demon, which only started threatening him when he disobeyed me for the last time. WE need to teach him a lesson, and make sure StarClan gazes down upon him to acknowledge his mistakes."

"...how do you intend to do that?"

"Stormkit must be given a Dishonor Title."

A Dishonor Title, one of the greatest shames that a leader can put onto one of their warriors. A punishment that ranks just below exile in terms of severity.

"you want to put a dishonor title... on your child? one with a life-threatening injury?"

"One that acknowledges his carelessness. To protect him from the demon."

Protect him from the demon. "I see now what must be done."

Previously, I'd thought of Hailstar as someone who would be loud and merciless when he does this. Now I'm thinking it was something he put a lot of thought into. He stands up, brushes past her, and goes to talk to some of his most trusted cats. Brambleberry, his mate Echomist, an experienced warrior such as Piketooth or Ottersplash, and lastly, Shellheart.

So it's not a surprise to anyone but Rainflower herself. He doesn't want this to be dramatic. He doesn't want it to be another big scene. Stormkit has gone through enough.

When he eventually has this Clan meeting, he calls it quietly. In his address to the gathered cats, a crowd that Shellheart and his family are missing from at his request, he says that his greatest regret is that he didn't do this sooner. He even doubts that Mapleshade is haunting her at all-- now having seen her behavior, he says it's more likely that Rainflower bashed her own child against a rock and simply lied.

First, he announces that Stormkit will be removed from her care. He will no longer be of the Applekin bloodline.

She is banned from the nursery at the request of Fallowtail, and will only see Stormkit when supervised by his new Mi, Shellheart.

Brambleberry has already agreed to this necessity, and is performing a ritual so that StarClan may approve of this choice.

He also strips her of her deputyship, and appoints Ottersplash instead. (I might change this to a different deputy eventually)

Not everyone agrees with Hailstar. There's an uproar from Rainflower's supporters.

She was a VERY popular deputy.

More that are just uneasy, feeling that this was a BRUTAL punishment that she didn't deserve.

Lots are happy and optimistic, though. But the mixed reception is exactly why Hailstar asked Shellheart not to be here.

This isn't something Stormkit has to deal with right now.

When Darkstar herself, who created the Queen's Rights, was on her last life, she appointed Volestar to uphold the law as her legacy knowing that Oakstar might try to break it again.

Volestar appointed Hailstar, in the hopes that he would uphold her legacy in turn, to protect kittens and those who can't protect themselves.

He was late, and can only hope he was not too late. He hopes that Volestar can forgive him for that.

Meanwhile in the nursery, Shellheart, Oakkit, and Stormkit are alone, far in the back, where the padded moss keeps out arguing voices.

Oakkit, bless his little heart, is babbling with excitement because his best friend is his BROTHER now. And it's gonna be THE BEST.

He's talking about how it's fine he can't chew because now they can have soup, and they're going to make the nest bigger, and they can stay up later because they can whisper quieter if they're this close together

But Storm doesn't really hear him. His head's swimming, thinking about the dull ache in his jaw, how MAD his mom's going to be because he can't imagine her not finding a way to hurt him, how this is all his fault because he called Mapleshade.

He can't stop it anymore and starts sniffling, which turns into weeping. Still, he's TRYING not to bawl, knowing, knowing he looks stupid when he does that

Shellheart just pulls him in close, so he can bury his face in his fluffy chest. Tells him it's going to be ok. He's safe now. No one can hurt him there.

Not on his watch.

Unfortunately, it's not the last he sees of Mapleshade. After this...

Mapleshade shows him everything she did for him. Yes, she did smash his jaw-- but it was to get him away from his mother.

And she planted an idea here and there, just little whispers into Rainflower's ear. Nothing she wouldn't do all on her own.

And now... Mapleshade believes she's earned some respect.

Stormkit can't disagree... she did exactly what she told him she'd do.

And now that he's not Applekin anymore, they can be Real Friends. They could even strike up a partnership, of sorts. After all, what did StarClan do to help him?

It wasn't StarClan that answered his prayers.

I'm still figuring out what, exactly, she's going to want from him. I have a scintilla that she wants to give him a life, maybe as some kind of bridge to StarClan to see her kits?

Some strange "attempt" at redemption, perhaps? Which she ultimately doesn't get.

Not that she didn't enjoy doing all that for love of the game, mind you. She's very good at getting revenge and it's fun and exciting to pull it off.

But hey, if you're good at something, never do it for free.

What causes Mapleshade to ultimately turn, and begin haunting the bloodline again + Oakheart, is Crookedstar rejecting her in some way.

She comes to collect on her end of the bargain and he refuses, breaking their partnership. He chooses StarClan.

And then from there, it's ON again. Now she has another EXCUSE to do what she wanted to do, and take out her boredom and malice on his family.

This time, it includes Oakheart as well-- because he was Crookedstar's brother.

It was also her curse that harmed Willowbreeze and eventually Silverstream. She's on the warpath.

Maybe she actually helped make him leader on purpose. Like he explicitly asked so she helped him by making the squirrel omen, instead of just doing it for him unprompted. Still figuring it out.

Shortly after the scene where Stormkit cries, he needs to have a confrontation with Brambleberry about Mapleshade I think. She needs to explain why Dark Forest demons are seen as bad.

She's biased, of course, but it's not like she's TOTALLY wrong either. Cats like Mapleshade ARE vengeful, in ways many other spirits are not.

If you're curious, Crookedstar's dishonor title from Rainflower would have been something comparing him to a parasite and referencing his ""accident"" like Fleaskip or Midgefall.

The point she's trying to make with the Dishonor Title is that her son is an annoying bug who didn't listen, as well as subtly erase she fact she knocked him off that rock.

She wanted his name to say "everything that happened was my fault and my mom did nothing wrong"

Not that Hailstar got as far as even asking lmao

[sansaorgana]

Could I maybe request a bit of a sequel fic to thrown to the wolves where we kind of see the outside galaxy's perspective on the couple and their son. Like a lady from caladan remembering playing with reader and reconciling it with who she is now or a low ranking guard on Giedi Prime and the few times he's caught glimpses of them reflecting on how great it is that his chances of being randomly killed by the baron have dropped significantly since the Baroness has arrived or a handmaid to Irulan whose heard whispers that even the emperor fears them. IDK I think it could be interesting to see them and see how rumor and truth shape their wider image in the galaxy.

Thank you once again though for the masterpiece that is Thrown To The Wolves!

THROWN TO THE WOLVES MASTERLIST

AUTHOR’S NOTE — Hi, darling! 💝 Sorry that it took me so long but I was dealing with the end of semester at Uni. 🙄 Thank you for the request because it was interesting to write from other people's perspective. Perhaps the story is not very long but I have one more story about Feyd and our beloved (Na-)Baroness in my inbox to write, so it's not the end... yet! 😁

WORD COUNT — 1,370

ENGLISH IS MY SECOND LANGUAGE.

After her arrival, Princess Irulan was told by her servants that her father expected to see her. She nodded her head and freshened herself before taking a walk down the corridor to meet with her father. To her surprise, The Reverend Mother was not there and it was unusual since she often reminded of The Emperor's shadow.

“Welcome back home, child,” her father greeted her and pointed at the chair next to his. Irulan sat there and looked at him, waiting for his questions. “How was the ceremony on Giedi Prime?”

“Splendid,” Irulan answered genuinely. “They have outdone themselves, I have to admit. And The Baroness gave birth to the new na-baron on the same night. The excitement was unbelievable.”

“On the same night?” The Emperor smirked. “That woman plotted it very carefully.”

“Not everything is a result of plotting and scheming, dear father,” Irulan sighed. “Women cannot predict the exact time of birth.”

She was a bit irritated with her father for assuming such a thing – not because she was under The Baroness’ charm or influence but because it was so… typical for a man of him. They had no idea about childbirth but they loved to pretend they knew everything.

“Do not underestimate them, The Harkonnens,” The Emperor tilted his head as he squinted his eyes at his daughter as if he was able to hear her thoughts. “Their technology and medicine advanced us in ways we don't even know about. They know very well that their experiments would not be approved by the other Great Houses so they keep most of them a secret. And do not underestimate The Baroness either. What do people say about her?”

“That she can temper Feyd-Rautha, the new Baron,” Irulan answered. “They hope for that certainly.”

“Tame him? Have you seen her on Arrakis?” The Emperor sneered at that. “Women tend to be more ruthless leaders than men for they truly do believe that their cruelty is justified for the way the society is treating them,” he reminded his daughter. After all, she would inherit after him as well.

If they were lucky. And deep down he knew they would not be. He was old and weak now but not stupid. He knew what The Harkonnens wanted – his throne. Feyd-Rautha himself perhaps would not be a threat that big but the new Baroness was a dangerous new pawn in that game. She had her ruthless husband under control and he was nothing but a loyal dog – he would bite and attack when she asked. And The Emperor knew that she would ask. She was only waiting for the right moment.

“The Harkonnens have gained a new amount of power and influence. A dangerous one,” he thought out loud. “They're so powerful now that I can't take away their privileges because they'd attack and only prove their forces are stronger than the Imperial ones.”

“It's better to keep them as friends,” Irulan nodded as she played nervously with her fingers.

“Let's hope and pray that the new Baroness wants to make friends,” her father smiled sadly.

He was old already, he couldn't care less. But he was worried about his daughter’s future.

“The word soon will spread about their power. We have to make sure all the rumours about them wanting the Imperial Throne will be silenced,” he added.

The rumour was spreading indeed. But a maid from Caladan who had used to be the new Baroness' personal servant back in the day… She didn't believe the cruel rumours.

As her former Princess was leaving to Giedi Prime, she had promised her to keep visiting her mother's grave. And she was standing above it now as she admired the new stone next to it. The grave of Duke Leto and Lady Jessica was standing right next to his late wife's. Baroness Harkonnen had paid for the transport of their bodies and for the funeral and the stone. She had given all the instructions on what should be written on it. 

Duke Leto Atreides. Lady Jessica – mother of Prince Paul Atreides and the unnamed daughter.

And the maid knew – she had heard the stories – that it was Baroness Harkonnen herself who had murdered Lady Jessica and her child. But the maid also knew that her former Princess could not be as fearsome and cruel as the rumours were saying. She still cared about her father and even made her peace with Lady Jessica in a way, since she allowed her to rest next to her mother. Another rumour said that she had also allowed Prince Paul's Fremen lover to take care of his body and give him a funeral according to their customs.

But the maid was sad as she watched. So many things had changed and she wished they all were still here – Duke Leto, Jady Jessica, young Paul and young (Y/N). 

A cold shiver went down her body at the realisation that only Baroness Harkonnen had survived out of them all. Perhaps the rumours were true after all – she had to be cruel and fearsome if she had been the only survival of her House and family and if she had helped to murder them herself. And the stone she had bought did not mean anything, really. It was just a stone.

Usually, on other planets, becoming the personal guard of the noble family was a privilege. On Giedi Prime it meant a death sentence. 

The young Baron couldn't care less about human life and he was always first to take it. The lives of slaves, servants and guards meant nothing to him and in the past he had been even killing them just out of boredom.

The young guard assigned to keep an eye on the nursery was tense every time the Baron was nearby. But so far so good, he thought, when he realised that the young na-baron Maxim-Feyd Harkonnen was already six months old and he was still alive. To last half a year nearby the Baron was an achievement for sure.

As he was standing in front of the doors leading to the nursery most of his days, he had an opportunity of witnessing the scary Baron Harkonnen performing activities that would certainly spoil his ruthless image. He was visiting the nursery every day alongside his wife – in fact, The Baroness was visiting a few times a day. But at least once a day The Baron was by her side, looking the guard up and down with contempt but doing nothing more than that.

Apparently, it was his wife's influence – so the people said. She believed that her own servants should not fear them too much because it was influencing their loyalty in a bad way. Whatever she believed in – for all the servants, slaves and guards it was a big relief.

But only the guards working around the nursery and two maids named Astra and Cara could see The Baron Harkonnen being… soft. Soft around his son when he was carrying him around and telling him war stories. He was definitely a very proud father even though he was often scared of hurting his child accidentally. And he tended to forget that children – especially so small – couldn't understand him. He often addressed little Maxim as if he was an adult and then he was getting frustrated that his son didn't understand him.

The Baroness found it funny each time. But even though she was a woman and most likely a reason why the chances of getting randomly killed decreased, it would be foolish to think she was not to be feared.

Not only her one command would make The Baron attack but also all it would take to enrage him was to look at The Baroness the wrong way. She wouldn't have to ask then, The Baron was a guard dog. A rabid animal, barely tamed by a madwoman – you never knew when she'd loosen the leash.

And that was the Galaxy's greatest fear now – and it was not the question of if but a question of when the leash would be loosened and the war for the Imperial Throne starts. And people wondered who was truly more dangerous – the rabid dog or the mad owner?

MASTERLIST

[inks-lil-quiet-corner]

Meet Souda!

She's my Pikmin 4 Rescue Corps OC! :D

I'll put their lore and stuff about them under the cut -w-

(small warning it's pretty self-indulgent (and also really long) lol)

==================================

Backstory-

Name- Souda

Pronouns- She/They

Age (in Pikmin 4)- 23

Occupation- Rescue Corps Rookie

Before joining the Rescue Corps, Souda was born to a pair of space pirate crew members, and was raised by the crew. They never enjoyed their time with them, as the living conditions and the way they treated them were significantly less than ideal.

When they turned 17, Souda took one of the crew's spare single-person ships and flew away out of rebellion, but then crash landed onto a strange and unfamiliar planet. The ship surprisingly didn't sustain any major damages, but they still stayed on the planet for a short while to cool off and relax.

On the planet, she met many strange creatures, including both friends and foes. The friends included these strange carrot-shaped creatures that she simply labeled as "my friends." The first one she met, a blue one, she gave the personal name "Aqua" to and put a green bow tie on them to be able to tell them apart from the rest. The foes, on the other hand...she just kept her distance, too afraid to go near them.

Around a week later, out of fear of the space pirate crew tracking their ship's location (since they didn't know how to turn the feature off) and pillaging the planet for all it's worth, she left with the ship and returned back to the crew.

When they became 18, they considered genuinely leaving the space pirates for good. They were too afraid to simply quit the crew since those who did normally just became the crew's servants and were denied freedom, so they instead fled and sought out shelter in a populated planet.

Once free from the space pirates, they lived a peaceful life in the planet they now resided in, and later on decided to apply to join the Rescue Corps out of a strong desire to help others and to be a part of something good. When they got accepted and passed their training, they labeled it as one of the happiest days of their life.

She strongly wanted to fit in, so she tried to raise up her confidence and even dyed her hair green to match her unit's uniform. She studied things that she wasn't originally tested on during training, and tried befriending as many members of the Rescue Corps as possible.

When she was sent out to PNF-404 for the rescue mission and saw the pikmin and other creatures living on the planet, she simply thought that the planet she went to when she was 17 and this one just had the same species living in it, but she never believed that they could've been one and the same. That was, until she was reunited with Aqua.

Extra Notes-

She used to be a very gloomy character, but after going to the strange planet at 17, she suddenly became more cheerful and excitable. She herself isn't exactly sure what caused her sudden shift in personality, especially since some of her memories of being on the planet were either a blur or oddly missing

Her shift in personality was the catalyst for her escape attempt when she turned 18, since it helped her become more self-aware of the things going on around her and think of the possibilities for a better life

They never talk about their past, and only express their strong distaste towards space pirates while keeping the reasons for disliking them to themself. They want to one day help others that want to be free from a similar life that they experienced

They love learning new things about nature and civilization. They first only learned these things because of their old occupation, but after escaping they learned that they truly did love the topic. They also have a vast knowledge on a large amount of languages, and still study them whenever they can

After reading Olimar's research notes on PNF-404, they became a huge fan of his. They're determined to try their best to save him (and maybe also get his autograph? perhaps?)

If any pikmin perish, they hold a personal funeral for each and every one of them

......And that's all I have for them so far! If anyone's actually read this far in, thank you for reading!! Feel free to lemme know your thoughts! :D

[melishade]

For peaceful timeline: do the family and the villagers celebrate holidays and new years and how do they do it?

Also happy holiday and happy new year

Previous episode of the Peaceful Timeline

Well…it wasn’t really a celebration.

The first winter, Optimus had found the cabin and he and Ymir were busying refurbishing it. The snow in the mountains is significantly worse than at the bottom of the mountain. Optimus has to keep a pregnant Ymir warm by letting her sleep in his alt mode for the night. He has to keep Ymir healthy and safe.

As the cabin is fixed up completely and Megatron shows up, Optimus and Megatron work together to shovel snow out of the way of the cabin while gathering logs to start a fire and keep Ymir and Baby Maria warm. They manage to get furs to keep them warm and it if gets really severe in terms of weather, Ymir and Maria stay in Optimus’ alt mode to keep warm.

Once Maria is old enough and becomes aware of Ymir, Optimus, and Megatron, things are easier for time. Optimus and Megatron are able to much more easily scoop up the snow and keep the outside of the cabin clean. They were initially shoveling the snow away and Megatron continuously fell over in the frozen ice. Megatron still does, and Optimus sometimes buries Megatron’s holoform in the snow with his alt mode when they are clearing the snow.

The wintertime is still a scare for Maria's health specifically because Maria is more likely to get sick from the cold, compared to Ymir and her power. As a result, Optimus and Megatron are scrambling to get a cure. Ymir is worried, but she can’t help but feel slightly better knowing that Maria can voice her concern and pain compared to when she got sick as a baby.

Megatron is scrambling and demanding Solveig to give him a cure for what Maria has for the year. He hates winter and enjoys spring for many reasons.

The family does play a lot in the snow with proper wear. Optimus and Megatron end up getting really intense with the snowball fights. Maria ends up making snow angels and sculptures with Optimus and Megatron’s help. Ymir just enjoys feeling the snow on her face.

Ymir and Maria have been snowed in a few times. Optimus tries to clear the snow in the face of a storm, but Ymir has to beg him to not push himself and to conserve energy. They would have to spend the day in the house keeping warm. Maria would be cold and bored, but Optimus would actually tell her stories from Earth, specifically Christmas stories, to help lift her spirits. Although Maria question the stories and their authenticity.

Maria: So an old man is able to spy on you during the year, break into the house through the chimney, leave gifts or coal, and steal our food?

Optimus: By the Allspark, Maria, it is fictional.

Maria: You're dodging the question.

Megatron: Answer the question, Prime.

Optimus turns to Ymir who just shrugs in confusion.

There's no real Christmas tradition they build up. They focus on survival. However, that does change when Oshern and Ymir officially get married. Oshern still has his business and he knows that Ymir and Maria do have more room up in the cabin and the whole family feels safer up there, but he's lived in the highlands. He knows the severity of a snow storm. He thinks that during the winter, Ymir and Maria should remain in his house in the village. Optimus and Megatron, after years of dealing with the snow, are actually wiling to let this happen. They've had one too many close calls when it comes to protecting Ymir and Maria during. So Ymir and Maria actually end up living in the village for the winter while Optimus and Megatron make sure the cabin is in good shape, which surprises the villagers. They never thought that that anyone from the top of the mountain would live down here even if it was temporary.

But the whole family gets exposure to how the village operates in the winter. They see how the village puts in effort to care about each other and their well-being. Oshern usually has to keep travels to the other town to a minimum and stacks up on flour to make bread. Oshern and Ymir sleep in the same bed while Maria ends up sleeping on Oshern's couch. His living space is usually meant for one person. Everyone has to work together to gather are much firewood as possible in case someone is running low. There are some gatherings in order to lift everyone's spirits. Optimus and Megatron visit and stay the night to check on the family, but so far, Maria hasn't gotten sick, so it's an improvement.

However, there have been discussions of Solveig's declining health and future plans on what to do when she does pass. Oshern does his best to lift their spirits when it comes to Solveig, but Ymir knows that Solveig's time is coming to an end. It hurts her seeing Solveig so weak and frail, lying in bed as the village helps her with hospice care. Optimus and Megatron see her and she makes a private request that they protect her home as long as possible. Knowing it is her dying wish they agree to it. Solveig tells Ymir that she is so happy for her and the life that she had built for herself and that she wishes good things for her, especially after hearing the news that Ymir had gotten pregnant. Ymir can't stop herself from crying. She knows for a fact that this is goodbye, but Solveig reassures her and tells her to smile. This is normal. Things change.

The spring comes, the village and family make it, but Solveig does not.

[jenny-from-the-bau]

i don't think this counts as really spooky or horror (and monster is debatable, depending on your opinion of shapeshifters) but hopefully you enjoy anyway. i was going to write a happy ending but then i decided fuck it, emily angst. also, apologies if this makes absolutely no sense, i've proofread it a million times but it's late and my english language skills deteriorate significantly when i'm tired lmao

emily as a shapeshifter who only believes she's useful when she becomes someone else but she feels like she loses a piece of herself every time. growing up, she would have so much fun shifting. she'd turn into animals or do funny impressions of her teachers behind their backs and she'd always win at hide and seek, but as she got older, it became something she did for other people instead of herself. she would make herself shorter to appeal to boys who didn't want to date girls taller than themselves or she'd become a prettier, cooler better version of herself so that she could make friends every time her mother was assigned to another country and she had to start over at a new school. it became obvious very quickly that people, even her mother, liked her more when she was someone else

the decision to become lauren reynolds is an easy one, since she's the only one on the task force who can literally become somebody else. every day she looks in the mirror, she feels more of herself slipping away, but she knows it's for the greater good. no one else could do the work she's doing. shapeshifting to ian doyle's type and becoming lauren reynolds is important and useful. she wouldn't be useful on the other side of things. she'd be letting her skills go to waste if she wanted to work on the behind the scenes aspects of profiling terrorists

when she gets back from the doyle mission, she tries her best to become emily again, but it's hard. she can't remember what emily is supposed to look like or who she's supposed to be. she feels awkward in her body, and she overcompensates by constantly shifting. she rarely keeps the same hair colour or eye colour or stature or face shape or gender for more than a few days

in the bau, she volunteers herself to be the honey pot every time. after all, it's what she's good for. she's sure it was why they had decided to hire her after all. she can be whoever the unsub wants her to be, whatever hotch thinks would be the most effective in an interrogation room. perversely, she takes refuge in these moments where she allows herself to be bait for unsubs. becoming somebody else is a hell of a lot easier than being herself. she finds it simpler to be what somebody else wants rather than who she really is, if only because she doesn't know who emily prentiss is supposed to be

emily's fine with this until she's not. they have a case where the unsub is killing victims who remind them of themselves, and it forces emily to confront the fact that she has no idea who she is. even to her closest friends, she's nothing more than who they want her to be. she's a combination of physical features and personality traits that she's stolen from other people, and she isn't really sure there's a person underneath it all. the person masquerading as emily prentiss is a broken, empty shell held together by false memories and a patchwork quilt of identities and she's the only one who can see that there's nothing (no one) inside.

-🐙

Okay, but what if she looks like herself when she sleeps well, so JJ starts taking pictures of her occasionally when she's asleep on the plane or in shared hotel rooms. Like maybe Emily doesn't even know. She was never comfortable enough with Doyle to sleep deeply, so it wasn't an issue, but when JJ shows Emily a polaroid one day, Emily is so confused. She hasn't seen her real self in so long and she's so confused about who that person is.

JJ is the only person who knows what Emily really looks like, so they start a little ritual of JJ holding a mirror and helping Emily shift back to herself. It gets easier over time, but Emily still gets frustrated. JJ never pushes, and she is nice to Emily in any shape, but she makes sure to be a really kind to Emily in her original body.

Bonus: Emily's hair changing colors when she gets flustered by JJ 😭

[navree]

Visenya + Maegor are Alicent + Aegon 2.0 ? If Aegon the Uncrowned was older and had better supporters could there be the first Dance much earlier?

I'm never one to smack down headcanons, especially when everything surrounding the Conquerors and the sons of the dragon and those generations are incredibly open to interpretation due to the lack of concrete information we have on interpersonal dynamics, but I don't personally see them as proto Alicent and Aegon. For one, it does depend on which version of Alicent and Aegon someone's thinking of, just because the show versions of their characters are vastly different from their book versions (Alicent in particular is incredibly different even though I love both versions of her, and Aegon in the book is significantly more well adjusted than our wet eyed king as portrayed by TGC). For two, the relationships do seem to be incredibly different. One of the things, to me at least, that shaped Visenya and Maegor's relationship is the isolation. Yes, Viserys doesn't seem to have been very involved in the upbringing of Alicent's children in the book, and we know in the show that he was the deadbeat dad to end all deadbeat dads, but Aegon and Helaena and Aemond and Daeron still had other people in their support systems. In both versions of the story, they had Otto and they had Criston Cole and they also had each other. Maegor is his mother's only child, raised primarily at her side, in a time where she was not involved at court and was keeping to herself on Dragonstone, which passed down to her son keeping to himself as well, and he doesn't seem to have interacted with any kids his age beyond just beating them in swordfights and unseating them in tourneys. He canonically wasn't close with Aenys when they were kids, and he did not grow up with his father, their relationship likely confined to whenever Aegon spent time at Dragonstone, which was rare given how he and Visenya had already pulled away from each other and lived separate lives at that time. Maegor and Visenya appear to have only had each other, which I think can be found in Maegor's later life, particularly in his search for wives and the way the one he was the most attached to, Tyana, is the most like Visenya (not entirely dissimilar to the way that Henry VIII kept looking for wives that closely emulated his mother, Elizabeth of York). So Visenya championing Maegor's cause as a contender for the throne, and Maegor's willingness to go along with it, comes from a much different motivation. It's Visenya looking out for, at this point, the only person that really matters to her, and putting her blood and her only love over everything else. Alicent's motivations, while they do contain a similarity (Alicent in both versions is also clearly motivated by love for her children) with Visenya's, are a lot more varied, based on things like her own issues with Rhaenyra and the law of the land and concerns about the fate of her children during a Rhaenyra monarchy that Visenya wouldn't have had for Maegor if Aegon the Uncrowned had been able to take the throne. There's also the fact that Maegor and Visenya and Alicent and Aegon are all incredibly different people, and as such would obviously have vastly different interpersonal dynamics based on who they are, even if there are some surface levels similarity of "monarch who wasn't thought of as the successor by the previous king takes throne, has mom who's on his side about it".

As for whether a Dance-esque situation could have arisen if Aegon the Uncrowned were older and had better supporters, I don't think that would have happened either. For one thing, Aegon was sixteen/seventeen and legally an adult according to all Westerosi societal customs during this time, so age wouldn't have mattered that much (and Aegon II was also pretty young when he took the throne, 22 in the book and 19 or 20 at maximum in the show) in the grand scheme of things. But there are a lot of much more complex factors at play. One of the reasons why the Dance was so contentious and such a disaster for the realm at large was because of how muddied the waters were. There really wasn't a "wrong" side to support, both because Rhaenyra and Aegon had competing legal claims with their own individual merits and also because birthright monarchy is a scam and the only right side would have been the creation of democracy, but I digress. There were a lot of factors at play making things complicated when everyone started picking sides that just didn't really exist in Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned's struggles. You can't really call anyone in the Dance a usurper, for instance. But what Maegor did is very clear usurpation. He was pretty far down the line of succession, no matter which way it was cut. If the Targaryens wanted to follow absolute primogeniture, then during Aenys's reign he would have been behind Aegon and Aerea and Rhaella and Viserys and Jaehaerys and Alysanne. If the Targaryens wanted to just go with male dominant primogeniture, then he still would have been behind Aegon and Viserys and Jaehaerys. He was well down the line and there was a plethora of heirs ahead of him with a more direct claim. Unlike Aegon, who is relying on the legal precedent of male inheritance that's been the law in Westeros for quite some time, Maegor didn't have that loophole. He literally just took a crown that he was not entitled to in any legal way, simply because he had the biggest dragon and he wanted it. And that's the key thing here. Because the thing is, none of the rest of it matters. Even if Aegon was older, if that were a factor, or even if he had more loyalists, it wouldn't have mattered. What made the Dance as drawn out as it was compared to other Targaryen dynastic disputes, like Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned, was that the Targaryens involved were evenly matched when it came to firepower. Each side in the Dance has a wide variety of dragons under their commands of varying power (the Blacks have more, but a lot of them are young, whereas the Greens have less but they're all pretty well disciplined and old and therefore more powerful) that keeps everyone on their toes. There's a reason why the Dance kind of effectively ends after the Blacks lose nearly all of their dragons; with Sunfyre as the oldest and most powerful dragon left in active combat (Rhaena's is way too small and Nettles had already vanished with Sheepstealer) the Black claimant, Rhaenyra, does not have anything to fight him and Aegon with, and as we know, it ends badly for her. And what doomed Aegon the Uncrowned in his fight against Maegor was dragon firepower. Aegon could have had all the allies and ground support he wanted, and maybe it would have made life harder for Maegor, but Quicksilver cannot square up with Balerion. In a straight fight, Quicksilver loses, which is exactly what happens. And even if Aegon had more support, it still would have pretty quickly dissipated after Balerion full on eradicates him and Quicksilver below God's Eye.

The Dance overall was just a very different set of circumstances that can't really be applied to other eras of Targaryen history and other dynamics and other squabbles, that's what makes it so unique and so interesting.

[causeimaperfectdancer]

Obviously, other peoples' relationships are ultimately their own business and I'm sure people have their own reasons for saying/doing these things that I might just not understand, but I can't help but get nervous for people when I read about how they love being "yelled at" and criticized by their friends to keep them humble and prevent them from stagnating.

Wanting to be humble is fine. Not wanting to stagnate is even better than fine, IMO. The thing about sourcing this to friendly relationships is that it can easily create a power dynamic. I can't tell you how many friendships I've had where I ended up in the role of Disobedient Child to somebody else's Critical Parent. How many people I've been close to who thought they had some kind of divine assignment to correct me and keep me in my place. I have been straight up groomed by someone who called herself my friend to behave specifically to meet her needs. Not in the sexual sense, but she was significantly older than me, I was a minor, and she basically tried to whip me into being one of her many yes-men and then treated me like an absolute demon when she saw it wasn't taking, that I was resisting. She would yell at me and call me a brat any time I said anything to the effect of "hey, this doesn't sound/feel right for me" or "I don't think you're considering my position" when she'd go off about how I should be thinking and living and feeling.

Friends certainly should tell you if you've crossed a boundary of theirs or they think you're being a dick in general, but it is absolutely not their responsibility to shape the kind of person you are. That's yours to define. I think a lot of us who grew up being corrected or criticized more often than allowed to Just Be tend to confuse those things with love and care for a variety of reasons, but the truth is that love and care can take many forms. It's not more real or helpful just because it hurts.

[stuairi675]

Entry 6: 31/10/24 - Smeg it; the Paradigm Daleks

Yeah, fuck it why not. I was gonna do this entry on the costuming (or rather the lack of armouring) when it came to female women jedi in The Clone Wars,* but I’ve lost my motivation for that topic. Perhaps it has something to do with Niamh shooting it down as an actual problem. I dunno, it’s a complicated discussion rife with ignorance on both sides; I know more about Star Wars, she knows more about feminism (one of us is doing significantly better in life than the other - guess which).

So yeah, not feeling the Star Wars equal rights campaign, but what I am feeling is daleks. I don’t even really wanna do an entry today, but it’s been a while since my last one and I gotta keep it up for the sake of my touch-typing practice, and I can, and probably do, talk about daleks in my sleep (I’m not actually ace, as it turns out, I just say that to assuage the embarrassment of driving off all my one night stands with my incessant, nocturnal ranking of dalek variants [the winner is the dalek emperor for those wondering, followed shortly by Rusty, the Girly Dalek - otherwise known as the dalek from Dalek** - Dalek Sec and then Dalek Caan]).

And prompted by a reddit post I saw asking why the paradigm daleks weren’t received too well, I feel like… answering it.

Ah, the paradigm daleks. Moffat’s new paradigm… daleks. Conceptually cool and, in person, intimidating, towering over even the lanky Mr Matt Smith. What happened? They should have been a slam dunk.

Well, it just so happens that their reveal was orchestrated in such a way that it undermined almost literally every effect the alterations were meant to emphasise.

For a start, they were massive. They were dominating. They were scary.

In person.

On camera… not so much. 

For one, we never actually saw them next to anything other than other paradigm daleks, at least until the season finale. The Russel T Davies time war daleks present didn’t get to share so much as some gossip, let alone a shot, before being summarily EXTERMINATED, so there went the possibility of that comparison. And what certainly didn’t lend some much needed fear factor to their unwieldy bulk was the set in which they made their debut in. I mean, what happened, for god’s sake? This was meant to be a dalek ship, straight from the end of series four. What was this bleak, white industrial setting? The fucking dalek rec room? I’m fairly sure to make room for some of the sci-fi shit they had to move out a ping pong table. 

The big boss man straight, white, cis supreme dalek is millimetres away taking out a light fixture (or something, I dunno what it is - it’s a big aluminium box hanging from the ceiling, it’s like a set Red Dwarf would try and flog as a spaceship), making them feel awkward and clumsy and cramped, which is funny because that was exactly the description the operators inside them gave when asked how it was to pilot the buggers. Yeah, turns out all that extra heft made them even more uncomfortable. 

So they were heavier, fatter, hunchbacked, harder to control and this was all in service of an effect that was not only countermanded, but overpowered, by the environment they emerged into. Hey, I know the feeling; the world just ain’t built for tall people - I have to duck in my local pub or otherwise get brained by a beam.

And whilst all these issues were detractors, certainly, nothing quite dammed them like the colours. On reflection, it seems like nothing new - different colours denoting different stations in the echelon - but something about these ones… just stank. The boldness was admirable, but misguided, and nothing highlighted this blunder quite like the procession of their unveiling ceremony. 

One by one, they came sliding out, like some weird car show for peculiarly shaped dodgems. And whilst I stand by the big boss man straight, white, cis dalek looking dope and acting as a serviceable alternative to the three-bulbed supreme dalek of yester-series, the choice to have an ambassador of each colour variant lined up in such a fashion as would be appropriate for the in-box toy line, turned them from a menacing council of evil, the latest in ethnic-clensing technology, into the mighty morphin power daleks. They look like their role on Skaro was to run the dalek branch of cbeebies. 

(LOOK CHILDREN! CAN YOU SEE THE BIRD? YOU CAN?! THEN IT WILL BE EXTERMINATED!!! AND REMEMBER CHILDREN OUR LESSON FOR THE DAY: THE ONLY GOOD TIME LORD IS AN EXTERMINATED ONE.)

It’s a shame the show never got to expand on its intention to have different dedicated roles for each dalek colour, as it wasn’t initially evident that the main dalek foot solider was the red ones and that the red one present in this batch was just the show model, along with the blue strategist, the orange scientist, and the yellow eternal dalek, whatever that means (I’m almost certain even the people that came up with the yellow eternal dalek don’t know what the fuck he does). Maybe if they’d been able to emphasise the differing roles of the daleks, things could have been different. But even so, Moffat didn’t end up doing all that much with the daleks in general, so ultimately it doesn’t matter.

I’m not sure I’d really have gotten into the red drone daleks being the default foot solider. Gone was the rough, rugged, frankenstein-bolted exterior of the time war weathered bronze models, here were the daleks at gay pride. Something about the smoothness and the brightness of colour made them feel too toy-like (though the shiny chrome ones shown off in later episodes look dope as fuck - I totally think they worked better as an officer class).

But yeah, that’s about the long and short of it. It’s a comical blip in Doctor Who history, and a valiant attempt to shake things up, but I think returning to the bronze model was the right call, even if we’re definitely due an update. The tricky thing with dalek designs I feel is that they’re effective in their simplicity, so trying to make too dramatic a change could be playing with fire.

One underrated aspect I find with the daleks, particularly the classic ones, is that they age remarkably well. Even in their first ever episode back in the Hartnell years, for all the flak their basic looks garners, despite all the mocking lampoons about their ability to create stiff peaks with one hand and unclog a sink with the other, they maintain a certain kind of elegance. You look at a silurian back in the day and you laugh at the shoddy costume; a dalek back in the day just looks like a dalek, and in my mind that is the pinnacle of iconic and effective design. Good on you, Terry.

Ruairi

*In brief all the male jedi get outfit changes more reflective of the wartime era in the Clone Wars series - complete with altered battle robes and a present, if somewhat perfunctory, display of armour (usually vambraces) - whereas all the women are rocking the same gettups they were portrayed with in Attack of the Clones. I can only assume this is a case of the designers being too happy with how they looked in their base states and being unwilling to alter them to account for different environments - the sort of mentality that keeps women characters in high-heels at all times. What’s especially curious is that there’s a good mix of conservative outfits and slutty outfits, neither of which are particularly suited for a battlefield. They’re meant to be generals. And don’t get me started on Ahsoka’s first outfit.

**Niamh named her the girly dalek when it absorbed Rose Tyler’s DNA and claimed “this is not life. This is sickness” and Niamh was like “girl same”.

[aylacoine]

Journal 3

The CREW field trip was an absolutely amazing experience. It was a long and hot walk, but getting to see everything was incredibly fascinating.

Stop 1: Trail Head. This is a photo of the trail head, where our walk started and ended. Here we were introduced to Piper who is the newest member of the CREW staff and is the education coordinator. She gave us a brief overview of the trail and what we would be learning before we began.

Stop 2: Pine Flatlands. Here we learned that this is one of the higher points associated with this portion of the land dedicated to preservation that crew works on. Its flat land with sandy, dry soil that makes the perfect living conditions for the pine trees.

Stop 3: Seasonal Marsh. The seasonal marsh is called this because it is only filled with water seasonally. Here there are usually many birds you can see grazing on various prey. Piper said this is a better version of one of these Marshes because it is in the shape of a circle, so it makes it very easy to see around the whole place to get a view of the wide array of wildlife.

Stop 4: Controlled Fire. Here at crew they preform prescribed controlled fires in order to keep the foliage less dense to make it the optimal living place for animals who need to graze. We also learned about that some of the plants they burn here have seed sacks that can only shed their seeds when they're exposed to high temperatures.

Stop 5: Ecotone. An ecotone is a place where two different ecosystems meet up. Ecotones have many benefits, but one of their main ones is that they promote biodiversity among same species in different environments. Animals from one ecosystem can cross the ecotone and bring their new genes over to create and even more diverse group of organisms, making it harder for them to be susceptible to various things.

Stop 6: Saw Grass Marsh. The saw grass marsh is a far far stretching marsh known for its saw grass. The plants have small purple flowers that we were able to see because they had recently bloomed. This marsh always has water in it, although during the wet season the water levels do rise significantly.

Stop 7: Marsh Boat Ramp. This is another marsh located along the walk, one that is also consistently filled with water, although this one is a lot more densely packed with foliage and Piper said that compared to the other marshes this one usually has fewer birds because of how densely packed the foliage is.

Stop 8: Pop-Ash Slew. These trees are known for being helpful to many different organisms. For example various mosses, epiphytes, and lichens live on these trees with varying degrees of symbiotic and commensalistic relationships. Similarly the trees can also be seen to be littered with holes from wood peckers who get sap out of their bark.

Stop 9: Oak Hammock. The oak hammock was located in terrain with dirt, so now quite the flatlands, but not a marsh either. These trees with their wide spread limbs host a variety of organisms in the form of habitat, food, and both.

Stop 10: Suzanne's Pavillion. This was our final stop of the trip where we were able to stop and recharge while Piper finished her tour and were able to discuss the walk and SDS topics with our group members.

Self and Group Reflection:

I really enjoyed this walk. It was a wonderful experience and I fully plan on bringing some of my friends back here to enjoy the walk with me. In our group we discussed how crew is a good example of environmental activism because they are free for everyone to use their trail and various other amenities. We also briefly touched on how its also good for sustainability because of the amount of education they bring to the community in the form of tours for people of varying ages and how they educate them on the importance of preserving this place and places like it.

[arickaandherfictionalothers]

You keep your eyes OPEN, Billy Hargrove-!

(Aricka x Billy, Aricka and Max.)

Trigger warning: heavy mentions of blood/gore; mentions of Billy almost dying, allusions to the torture Billy and Aricka went through, Billy talks Aricka through a first aid procedure where she tapes his chest up, mention of a medically induced coma, allusions to the abuse Max and Billy face at the hands of Susan and Neil. If I missed anything let me know and I’ll fix it-!

“Oh no, no you don’t,” Aricka presses her hands over the gaping wounds on Billy’s chest. His blood stained her hands a crimson red. His eyes started to close and she wasn’t gonna let that happen. “Look at me. Eyes on me water boy. I’m right here with you.” She looks away and yells, “MAX-!” Before turning her focus back on Billy. “You don’t get to leave me like this. You keep your eyes open Billy Hargrove. Stay with me. Stay awake. Don’t die on me Billy. Stay with me. Don’t go. Don’t go.”

By this point Max had ran over with Aricka Hopper’s first aid kit, and popped it open, setting in on the ground beside Aricka. “Hold his hand Maxie. I’m gonna try and clean him up,” she instructs. “Hey, Billy; talk me through this, you were the one who had a first aid class.”

Billy weakly grips Max’s hand. ���…get the cloth pad in the kit, cover the wound- go two inches past if possible.”‘Aricka does as instructed, and catches her breath as she sees bubbles.

“Billy- I see blood bubbles,” she whispers.

“Tape it,” he says; looking at her. “Three sides- tape it. No air- no build up in there.” She does as he says, running her fingers through his sweaty curls. “Don’t cry- butterfly. Gonna keep my promise.”

She wipes her eyes and laughs. “You better.” She helps him to a sitting position. “I at least remembered that part.” He leans against her, his head on her shoulder. “Ambulance is coming. Just hold on a little longer.”

“… is it really over?” Aricka nods, her torn Scoops uniform hanging off her shoulder. Billy’s was in worse shape- burn holes and ripped sleeves and the shorts were in tatters at this point- but they were alive.

“It’s over Billy. We got out.” Max hears someone call her name and runs to see what’s going on. “I’ve got you. Not leaving your side.”

“Promise?” He looks at her and all Aricka could see was her future- Billy was her everything. Her past, her present, and her future. He would be her first and last everything.

“I promise,” she whispered. Steve walks over then; looking as beat up as Aricka felt. He takes the sight of the two of them in, relief a prominent emotion.

“Ambulances are here, let’s get you out of here,” he says, helping Aricka and Billy to their feet, then Aricka and Steve both support Billy as they walk out of the smoldering mall.

Paramedics immediately ambushed them, but Billy’s tight grip on her hand kept her from being separated from his side. “I’m his girlfriend, please let me go with you? And his sister is here somewhere-MADMAX-!” She yells. The girl runs to them; and with the approval of the paramedics they climb in the ambulance, each grabbing one of Billy’s hands.

Then they take off for the hospital, where the healing process would begin.

~~~~~~

They had to put Billy into a medically induced coma for a few days- his injuries were more serious than expected. Aricka had helped significantly with her first aid attempts, but now Billy would sleep until the doctors decided his body could handle being awake.

Currently, Max and Aricka were holding silent vigil by his bedside. “… can he hear me?” The 14 year old girl asks, her hand shaking where it was holding Billy’s.

“Sure he can. He’s just sleeping Max. He knows you’re here.” Aricka’s words were enough to get the girl talking,

“Billy, I don't even know if you can hear this. If this hadn’t happened, I would've said "that's ridiculous, impossible." But that was before I found out about alternate universes and monsters, so I'm just going to stop assuming that I know anything.” She strengthens her grip on Billy’s hand. “Basically, you saved El’s life. You saved my life. I play that moment back in my head all the time. And I don’t have to imagine myself running to you, pulling you away. Because Aricka and I did. And everything will be okay again. I want to become friends. Good friends, like a real brother and sister. Before moving here I would’ve thought that was stupid. I thought you hated me; I thought I hated you. But we got a second chance- and now maybe we can be true siblings. I’ve always wanted an older brother. I’m glad it’s you.” Tears drip down Max’s face, but she doesn’t bother to wipe them off. “If you can even hear this, and I really hope that you can. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Billy. I’m sorry I didn’t stand up for you sooner. I’m sorry it took me so long to say all this. Love, your dumb little sister, Max.”

Max presses her face into the blanket on Billy’s bed, shoulders heaving with the weight of her emotions. Aricka walks around to her, kneels down and wraps her in her arms. Max willingly goes, curling up as small as possible in Aricka’s lap. “Shh,” Aricka whispered. “It’s okay Maxie. He loves you. He might not say it, but he loves you. And he knows you love him. You guys have had it so rough for so long, but now it’s gonna be better. You two can have each other’s backs when I can’t be there with you, it’ll be fine.” Her hands smooth down that fiery red mane of hair, Max clinging to Aricka like a lifeline. Aricka kisses the top of her head, a sisterly, dare she say maternal love for the girl in her arms as strong as the love she had for Billy filling her. “I’ve got you, sweet girl. We’ve got you, Max. We’re gonna get both of you out of there, we just have to be careful about it.”

The two girls stay until visiting hours were over, then Aricka took Max back to the Munson’s trailer for the night.

Max wouldn’t be going back to the Hargrove trailer until Billy got better.

~~~~~~~~

@astralshipper @rosieshipper @hyperionshipping @yeehawselfshipping @letsgofoletsgo @tsundere-selfship @callsign-revenge

[youngcolorhottub]

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[tojoclantiger]

Kazyua waited patiently for a moment at the main door of his home. The entrance recognized his face and issued a soft, welcoming note. It promptly unlocked for him. With a yawn, he stepped over the threshold and into the front area. Due to his rank among colony officials, the eldest of the famous Captain Dojima's children had one of the most spacious dwelling - places. It was sparsely furnished but comfortable.

Murmuring, Kazuya ordered the lighting to turn on. He quickly looked around for her. A simple scan told him that the Queen was likely still in what used to be his bedroom, which had become a makeshift hive and nest for her in recent weeks.

Kazuya quietly kicked off his shoes, set them neatly by the door, and then peeled his long - sleeved shirt from his skin. The planet beyond the entrance tended to cool down considerably at night. It was significantly colder out there than it was in here. For Regina's sake, Kazuya kept the temperature of his home very hot — as similar to her hive as he could physically stand. She could get sick if exposed to anything too chilly.

Another yawn, though this one was muffled ; Kazuya brought the fabric in his hands up to his face and used it to cover some of the sound.

[ Kazuya, ] she said, voice low.

The half - Inadian grimaced into his shirt. He couldn't help but feel guilty ; after all, Kazuya could only assume that he woke her up. "Hello, Regina," came his eventual reply. "I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I'll be in shortly."

[ I was not resting, ] the Queen replied. The way her shadow shifted across the wall told Kazuya that she was creeping closer to him. Her steps were impossibly light. Even moving swiftly, the regal creature made little to no sound.

Afraid that he might startle her, Kazuya waited until Regina was at his side before he turned to face her properly. His smile came so easily for her. Many in the colony thought he was mad for keeping relations with her ( as they whispered when he wasn't around ), but Kazuya didn't care. It was impossible to describe how she made him feel ; he supposed, though, that he could boil it down to love if that was the strongest word available.

The upper pair of the Queen's arms reached for his torso, settling where they pleased. Kazuya leaned in without hesitation to kiss the short creature in greeting. Regina returned the gesture, but it lacked enthusiasm. Worried, Kazuya drifted back. His mouth opened to ask if she was alright as his eyes combed over her figure to seek out any signs of distress.

Halfway down her body, Kazuya's world stopped. With an awed expression on his handsome face, he carefully dropped to his knees in order to get a better look at what she held in her lower arms. Regina's wings rustled together, creating a low and steady buzz - ing, at the realization that he had seen.

"Is this . . . ?? " Kazuya breathed.

[ A male, ] the Queen said simply, multi - jointed fingers combing through his black locks. [ A worker, if not for you. He is . . . part of the hive — but only just. I can sense him ; however, I also see his differences. This male is his own, like me, and he feels. Even if he is too young to understand. ]

Kazuya stared at the balled - up, impossibly delicate being she held. It was a baby, for lack of a comparative word in the Queen's language. As they suspected, its unusual genetic combination had caused it to skip the larval stage altogether. Instead, it appeared to have come into this world as a creature resembling a human infant. The bits of exoskeleton scattered over it were squishy still, which would allow it to continue growing. Kazuya could see immediately that its sensory hairs were softer. Thicker. All six of its spindly limbs were tucked against its middle ( perhaps mimicking its shape in the egg ).

A curious gaze focused on Kazuya. The half - Inadian blinked, and his brows furrowed. Those weren't . . . compounded, like the Queen's. Their child possessed a gaze eerily akin to its father's, though the fact that the entire eye was varying shades of extremely dark gray and black made it difficult to discern without being near. When combined with its prominent lips and cute button nose, the effect was shocking. Their offspring resembled Regina, but its features seemed to be more human - like.

The Queen used her free hands to tug up Kazuya's heavy limbs. Once she was satisfied that her beloved would be able to safely handle their little one, Regina passed the infant to him. Kazuya accepted the child with the same care he would give to a decorative glass he was scared of breaking. He was grateful for the Queen's gentle grip on his forearms, which were obviously in place to help support him. Kazuya guided the infant to his bare breast. His thumb stroked the striped fuzz on its middle. Soothed by this, the baby opted to unfurl. Something hard and waxy nudged into Kazuya's flesh.

Wings, he thought, grinning. Of course. Wings.

The child's antennae trembled as it looked up at its father. "Hello," Kazuya whispered. There was a heavy knot of emotion in his stomach. Open adoration. Nervousness. A love so strong that it overwhelmed everything else.

Regina continued to issue a thrumming, pleasant buzz - ing that filled the air around their unique family. [ A male, ] she said again. [ He is strong, Kazuya. You did well bringing life to his egg. ]

Kazuya chuckled. "You took care of his egg," he countered, experimentally offering a finger to the sweet hybrid in his grasp. "My . . . sperm shouldn't get all of the credit."

A faint vocalization left the baby's mouth as his miniature digits butted into it. Their child didn't appear to understand how to open his hands properly yet. Maybe his developmental milestones weren't going to be too far off from what Kazuya was used to in his world.

"Did he eat ?? " Kazuya asked.

[ Yes. ] Regina nodded. [ My honey, like all young. ]

[demoonlady]

Chapter 207: Stars and Oil, Part 3

// SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CHAPTER YET.

Opening words: “Choso reappears in Tsukumo’s critical moment! His plan is...?!”

》 Kenjaku: "So heavy!!"

》 Choso: "Are you watching... my little brothers? I'm going to kill our faaaaather!!"

》 Yuki: "This is getting interesting, fallen warrior!!"

*fallen samurai — the kanji is 落ち武者 (ochimusha), which means "fallen warrior". I personally prefer "fallen warrior".

》 Yuki: "You've been a great help, big brother."

The term used here wasn't just a mere thank you like "arigatou" or even "domo". Yuki said 助かる (tasukaru), which is spoken when a person is "saved" by someone else — in the sense that the rescuer helped that person escape from an undesirable/troublesome situation. 助かる (tasukaru) is used to give respect and it also conveys a deeper gratitude to the person/people who helped you out.

》 Yuki: "He got out [of Garuda's hold] during the time when 「Bom-Ba-Ye」 was weakened 'cause I was using Reverse Cursed Technique."

》 Yuki: "...he crushes everything with Cursed Spirit Manipulation!"

John Werry, have you forgotten what Geto's CT is? 🥹

This is just me nitpicking but I think "mini Uzumaki" sounds much better.

》 Kenjaku: "Your weight does not change when you use 「Bom-Ba-Ye」... That must mean even if your density increases, your durability remains the same."

When I read "tensile strength", my eyes hurt. I do believe the kanji in this context meant durability, or toughness. (And guess what? I asked my friend and she told me that the kanji 強度 means "tensile strength" in chinese 💀)

Closing words: “Direct hit!!”

–

My thoughts:

Good chapter! The battle was so intense that it could pass off as one of the close-to-end-of-series fights, y’know? All three of them are Special-Grade sorcerers and I believe Gege is trying to reiterate to us with this battle.. that if one cannot use RCT or if they run out of cursed energy, then it's basically endgame. And ultimately, it also boils down to who has the highest durability to tank the physical blows once their CE runs out. Hats off to Yuki and Choso for their strategy to try and deplete Kenjaku's CE as well as tire him out physically since right now we can assume that Kenjaku isn't like Gojo who doesn't run out of CE, or like Yuuta who has abundant amounts of CE. But with that ending, things don't seem to look real good so what's gonna happen next?

Kenny using Rasengan on Yuki was purely intentional, I bet. Especially after he has confirmed that she’s capable of using RCT. Since CE has been said to originate from the belly, it’s not surprising he pulled that move against her. But ayo, I was definitely taken aback by the mini Uzumaki, it’s so smollllllllll. With that hole in the stomach, I'm not sure if she’d be able to channel CE to perform RCT on herself, but maybe she still can do it since Hakari did it too haha. Nevertheless, being the gutsy woman that she is, chances are Yuki will gamble everything she’s got and finish this fight strong. Reminder that she's a Special-Grade who's said to be able to overthrow a nation, so I don't believe she's gonna get offed in the next chapter, as such please don't worry, Yuki stans! Perhaps, like everyone's been hoping for, we might get to see her expand her domain - though, the effectiveness might be significantly weaker.

Choso isn’t in good shape either and will need time to recover from “Gravity” technique. But even if he plunges in to help Yuki, he’s not gonna be able to keep up. Between him and Yuki, IF one were to die, I’d say it’s most likely Choso. Just continue to say our prayers, alright, guys? :’) Meanwhile, Tengen.... isn’t going to do anything much, is she?

If you ask me, the best conclusion to this battle is... Uraume showing up to grab Kenjaku's arse outta there, and they'll cop Tengen on the way too. Maybe Uraume's gonna announce that the preparations are now ready..? A popular take right now is that Tengen will merge with Yuki, which is plausible, but I think it’d be better if the merger doesn’t work in the way they wanted it to. Seriously if it does happen and the both of them think that Kenjaku’s plans will be hindered, please tell me that they're ded wrong. I can't see him being stopped right now, not yet. Kenjaku's gonna remain as the final boss until Sukuna has properly reincarnated in a body of his own.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting on the secret that Tengen’s hiding from us all. Yeah, no problem, just keep us waiting some more, Gege-chan. You enjoy doing that to us anyway lmaooooo.

[mk-writes-stuff]

Okay I’ll do this for both my major WIPs - I’m assuming they get to keep their magic and are on neutral ground/terrain (and that the Seven Stations characters have gotten over being on a planet)

Seven Stations

We have a number of strong contenders here. Cassie, Ruthlessness, Ambition, and the elf lady trio are all going to give it a good shot. Oh, and Azrael. I’m going to stick to book 1 characters to cut it down to size so I think Cassie would be our winner!

Belladonna would die so fast. Girl has no body fat and no survival skills. Nellie is also currently reliant on her meds so she’s out pretty fast too. Stellaris would 100% die from a trap baited with cool-looking flowers or something. Sel would die in a similar fashion but with rocks. Rhys cannot handle a weapon and probably dies from complications of accidentally stabbing himself. Narcissus would 100% die because he has no survival skills and someone would kill him to make him shut up. Probably Cassie

Goldenrod is manipulative but not much else. She might be able to get into a group but if she didn’t she’d be done for - and even if she did they’d off her before the end. Ricinus can fight but again no survival skills, and same with Cassiopeia

So yeah Cassie probably takes this one. Her survival skills aren’t great but she’ll manage

The Pirates’ Roost

This one is significantly harder because these people know how to exist without technology

Merry is magically powerful but only reactively and they wouldn’t give his weapon of choice (because they don’t do guns). He’d survive the magic users okay but Amelia would just take him out. He’s also too willing to trust alliances when he shouldn’t

Malcolm is bonkers powerful as long as you don’t have earplugs. If anyone got or made earplugs they’d take him down with one arrow to the wing and then just beating him up (he’s like 5’7 and super skinny)

Tatum is very powerful but relies on their medication so it probably wouldn’t be them either. The pain would get the better of them. They also have zero survival skills

Amelia is a strong contender - her magic is useless but she can fight and she can improvise survival. She’s definitely making it near the end

Both Julian and Kiali will die. They’re medics. They’re not making it out of this alive

I’m going to throw in Jetti too even though she’s a villain - honestly she’d probably have a good shot. She’s a survivalist, she can breathe underwater, and she has poison blood. She and Amelia would be a pretty even fight

So all in all - Malcolm wins if he can sneak up on people enough, otherwise it’s a tossup between Jetti and Amelia. But if it’s one of them they will not be in good shape by the end

Question for writers out there: If all of your characters were put into the Hunger Games, who would win, assuming they're there as perfect strangers and have no ties to one another?

(My answers under the cut >:))

Assuming no ties between them exist, it's gotta be Izjik. She's personable enough to get sponsors on her side and has incredible survival skills on top of her combat abilities. She'd hide right off the bat, not worrying about gathering weapons, and immediately start setting up traps within a strategic territory, as well as stockpiling food.

Right off the bat, Astra would probably die being over-eager to get to the weapons, never mind that she doesn't know how to use any.

Mashal and Avymere would fight for weapons - a fight Mashal is very much winning, despite trying to reason with them. After that, Mashal would be in control of the weapons, as both Twenari and Sepo are too cautious to fuck with the metal man. Mashal would probably find Elsind hiding somewhere and convince them to ally with him, as he doesn't want to kill anyone else.

Twenari, for all her power, is a city kid and doesn't do well in the forest or whatever other terrain is set up. I think Ivander would be able to snipe her off before drinking some stagnant water and dying, because he too is a city kid.

That leaves Mashal and Elsind, Sepo, Djek, and Izjik. By this time, it's clear that Izjik has been stockpiling food, so Mashal and Elsind head over to propose an alliance, only to get caught in some deadly spike traps. A true tragedy for the peacemakers of the group.

Djek would be hiding and waiting for everyone else to kill each other, which is also what Sepo is doing. I think the two would run into each other through sheer happenstance, and unfortunately for Djek, that's not a fight he's winning.

Which leave Sepo and Izjik - very fitting as they're the two best survivalists. Sepo would try to sneak into Izjik’s camp under the cover of darkness, avoiding her traps. However, because she's relied on traps so far, he would underestimate her physical skill and his ass beat.

So yeah, Izjik sweeps. And in this scenario, she doesn't know any of these folks, so she's only mildly guilty. A girl's gotta do what she's gotta do, you know?