#kinda feel motivated to write

[lucasandlily]

In another life (What could have been, what it can still be), Part 1

A/N: Hiiii, I wanted to post the whole thing at once because I feel like it's better experienced that way cause of how they continue between each other, but I started to feel pain writing it so I'm just posting it in two parts 🙏

Rui's POV! Second-person pronoun "You" is used. Somewhat established relationship in some of them. 5 universes he could have lived + 1 he still can. Is this a Rui x reader disguised as a character study, or a character study disguised as an x reader? Your guess is as good as mine. Rui gets so so much affection in this. World’s most touch-starved man meets writer who just wants to give the guy so many headpats (3019 words)(and counting!)(This is the longest fic I've written guys) AO3 link here

The anomaly is fast, zipping around in the air, defying the very laws of gravity itself. Its eyes are bright in the dim lights of the laboratory, phasing through states of matter as Lyca jumps and slashes, his claws doing nothing as its body shifts into nothingness, then back again as Lyca lands, growling at it in frustration. 

Rui can empathise, leaping aside when it dives at him another time, leaving cracks in the tile floor where he was standing. It's obviously corporeal, and he has landed a couple lucky shots at it, though it doesn't really seem to care.

“Amazing. Amazing! This goes against everything we've learned! This, this could lead to an incredible breakthrough!” 

Rui hears the scientist exclaim somewhere behind him, who would've been the next victim had they not stepped in. 

“Um, ma’am-” he hears you start to say, but the shouting seems to have gotten the anomaly’s attention too, as it turns to face the both of you. 

“Hey, wait!” you shout, as the lady marches forward, dragging you along when you try to hold her back.

He watches the anomaly rise into the air again, glowing eyes aimed at you, now in front of the scientist as you try to push her back. 

Rui tries to rush to you, warn you, arm out to push you out of harm’s way, stopping short when he remembers how that malevolent spirit looked after he had drained the life force out of it. How you had startled away from his hand after. 

Then, the anomaly dives. 

And he's brought back to his first mission with you. How he had hesitated then. How he had failed to keep you safe. 

How he promised himself not to let it happen again. 

He does the only thing he can think of. 

The anomaly crashes into him just as he steps in its way. 

His back hits the ground hard, the anomaly crouched over him, its clawed feet pinning him by the shoulders. Its eyes seem to shine into his soul, like a searchlight into his mind, and it opens its gaping mouth to shriek in his face. 

It is loud, and then it is nothing. 

Rui would be worried he'd gone deaf if he wasn't staring into its mouth, like a sea of stars in the night sky that he just can't look away from, glittering specks of colour in an endless expanse. He sees stars, planets, universes, surrounded by the vastness of space, enveloping him like a blackhole he just can't escape.

And then, everything goes dark.

2.

The sun is warm in Jabberwock, shining down on Rui as he ruffles the soft wool of the anomalous sheep, a small smile on his face. 

Suddenly, he leaps back from the living creature, staring between its startled form and his ungloved hand in horror. It retreats away when Haru runs up to him.

“Rui! Wha happened? Everythin’ okay?” 

Rui looks up from patting himself down, still processing everything that just happened.

“Harurin! Where- where are my gloves?”

“Huh? Whaddya need gloves for?” 

Rui pauses. Looking into the distance, where the sheep are, he tries to pinpoint the one he just touched, eyes tracing the grass for piles of ash. 

“You okay buddy? You look a lil tired.” 

Rui turns back to his friend, worry written all over the redhead’s face, and he realises he does feel tired. Like all the energy he's accumulated over the years never existed at all. He's hasn't felt like this since-

“It's alright!” Haru interrupts his thoughts, “I can handle it for today, you go get some rest! Don't want you gettin’ heatstroke now!” 

Rui almost argues, but he sees Haru start to approach, to push him toward the dorm, and instinctively takes a step back. Haru backs off in surprise, but if he's offended, Rui doesn't wait to see.

“Yeah you're right. I think I'll go back.” he says, turning back to the Jabberwock house, throwing a half-hearted wave back.

He stuffs his hands in his pockets. It's not the coolest pose to be walking in, but his hands feel too exposed to care. 

He breathes in the smell of the grass and flowers on the walk back, trying to figure out how he got here in the first place. He tries to remember what happened after the darkness. The stars. The shrieking. Slamming onto the tiled floor. Stepping in to protect you. You. 

He does a full body jump when he feels hands on his shoulders. You quickly let go, startled by his reaction. 

“Woah! I didn't mean to scare you! You just seemed so lost, and you didn't hear me call out!” you quickly try to explain, in that flustered tone you use when you try to defend yourself. 

He chuckles reassuringly, relaxing a little at your appearance. He puts everything else aside for now. 

“It's okay, it’s okay. What did you need me for? You know I'd do anything you ask~” he lilts, throwing in a wink. 

You giggle, handing him a case file, “I've been assigned another mission with Jabberwock, so I need you to look at this!” 

He takes the file carefully, avoiding your hands, and gives you a look of confusion, “Wait, then why are you showing it to me?” 

You blink. “Because Haru’s not here?” 

“Shouldn't you be giving it to Towa, then?” 

“Well, you're the vice-captain, so I thought…” 

“You can't be showing the Obscuary vice-captain Jabberwock documents you know~” he tells you gently, shaking his head. Maybe you got confused somehow, he thinks. 

But your previously raised eyebrows have become knitted, and suddenly he's not so sure. 

“Lyca’s not vice-captain yet. Subaru and I barely even got him out of trouble with the general students,” you say, slowly. “And you're the Jabberwock vice.”

That can't be right. Your voice feels far away as he tries to piece everything together. Maybe he really is just tired, because suddenly everything isn't making sense, and he's just not used to it because he hasn't had this little energy since the curse and-

He feels a warmth on his forehead. It's comforting, even under the sun. Grounding him back to reality.

Your face is close to his as you feel his forehead with your bare hand for a fever, another on your own forehead to tell if it's warmer than usual. 

His blood runs cold. He can't look away as he waits one dreadful moment for your body to start disintegrating. 

No. Not again. Not you. Please. Especially not you. He can't lose you like this. 

Nothing happens, as he waits, continuing to plead in his mind, but he realises he doesn't feel the rush of your life force becoming his own. Not even the pull of it under where your bare hand makes contact on his skin. 

Your touch is just warm, the way he always imagined it would be, when he threw glances at you handling glasses when you weren't looking, or ruffling Lyca’s hair. What he doesn’t expect is the comfort it brings him. Not just from the relief of not seeing you wither away like so many others, but from how long it’s been since he’s had anything like this. 

“It doesn’t feel different…” you mumble, finally looking up, “Ah! But your face is so red!” Rui’s sure his face becomes redder when your hand slides down to his cheek instead. 

“It’s heatstroke!” he squeaks. It’s too much too fast, and he doesn’t quite know how to deal with it. He backs away quickly, pushing the file back into your arms and running off. “I gotta go. Haru’s in the fields if you need him!”

“Huh? O-okay!” he hears you call behind him, “Feel better soon! Remember to drink lots of water!”

“I will!” he returns, waving back.

“I didn’t even know ghouls could GET heatstroke.” You mumble to yourself, but he’s already long gone.

-

“Hey, did you hear? They’re gonna make the werewolf vice-captain!” Rui hears a girl not-quite-whisper to her friend. 

“Eh~ really~? Poor Subaru-kun’s had his hands so full because of him…” her friend doesn’t even pretend to keep her voice down as she fidgets with the lavender jewel on her lapel. 

“I guess it makes sense since Obscuary doesn’t have a vice yet…” she trails off, missing the grimace on Rui when he hurries past. 

-

Rui finds himself in the familiar woods of Obscuary, stumbling through the overgrown weeds. 

‘Someone really needs to clean this place up,’ he thinks, carefully stepping over the untrimmed plants. 

As he nears the mansion, he hears the familiar sound of Lyca yelling. 

“You gotta clean this up you moth-eaten casanova! It’s starting to smell bad!” 

“Ah, but I’m not used to the new machines of this era you see. I have no idea how that washer machine works.” 

Opening the door to the mansion, Rui finds random junk scattered across the floor. It’s less decorated than he left it, the walls stark of paintings and decor. It reminds him of the mansion when he first moved in, brimming with ill-gotten energy in a new environment. 

The memory urges him to the bar, or where it should be. As he opens the door, he is greeted with a room that is mostly bare, save for a table and a few chairs. He paces to where the bar would be, tracing the walls empty of shelves. He decides not to linger, following the noise up the stairs.

Lyca whips around and growls, ears up, when Rui enters Edward’s room. He’s right, it does smell. Clothes are scattered about everywhere, far worse than he’s ever seen. He doesn’t even want to imagine what the strange green sludge on what’s probably a table is. 

“There you are.” Edward says easily at what Rui suddenly realises might be an intrusion. 

“You know this guy?” Lyca asks the vampire, eyes darting to him for a second before going back to keeping his eyes on Rui. Even the fur on his tail is upright. 

“I’ve seen him around.” Edward replies, leering wide at the blonde. “The body you’re in isn’t going to be very happy to be here, you know.” 

Rui’s response dies on his tongue as Edward approaches him, Lyca still watching cautiously behind them. 

“Here, let me help you out.” Edward says. Rui doesn’t know what he does before he’s out like a light. 

3.

A sterile light shines over Rui, blinking in disorientation. He just barely manages to make out the surroundings of a lab in time to hear Yuri finish his explanation. 

“That’s right. I, Dr. Yuri Isami, have cured your curse!” 

“What?” is the only thing Rui manages to say. He blinks. What? 

“I- Weren’t you listening!?” Yuri shrieks, hand to his chest and lip curled. 

“I think the patient might be in shock.” Jiro says in his defense. Yuri opens his mouth, then huffs. 

Jiro tells him something else before they both leave the room, but Rui is too overwhelmed to notice. 

His curse is cured? Just like that? Everything is just happening so fast. He can hardly believe it. He tries to remember everything he wanted to do when his curse was cured, everything he thought about doing, before the disappointment made him stop. He wishes he made that list now. 

When was the last time he’d gone surfing? Felt the sun on his bare skin? Not worried about the potential danger?

When was the last time he’d felt grass on his fingertips? A dog licking his face? 

When was the last time he walked around in a crowded street? How many festivals had he missed? Why couldn’t he remember? 

When was the last time he reached out to someone? When was the last time it was okay? 

“Rui..?” you call out to him hesitantly, bringing him back into the lab with you, still sitting on the medical bed where the other two left him. “They were briefing me about your curse, cause you looked like you weren’t going to be listening for a while…” 

You approach slowly, hands tucked into your chest as usual as you come close. You stop in front of him, an expression he can’t read on your face. 

Cautiously, you raise your hands, like you’re presenting them before stopping near his face, in front of the apples of his cheeks. It takes everything in him not to flinch away. You look into his eyes, and he knows the question before you say it. He thinks you might know the answer too. 

“May I?” you ask.

“Yes.” he breathes, barely above a whisper. 

Slowly, your fingertips. An experimental touch. 

Then, your palms on his cheeks, cupping his face. He puts his hand over yours as he leans into it. 

Your thumb brushes his bottom eyelid, and he realises he might have started crying, though he doesn’t know when. You are there to wipe away all the wet hot tears with gentle warm hands. 

What strikes him now, of all the things happening in the moment, is the expression on your face as you gaze at him. Your eyes are soft despite the hard lights, but he feels the sneaking urge to rub his finger between your knitted brows. 

He’s pulled into you, your arms around him and your hands clutched on the back of his shirt. A hug, when’s the last time he had one of those? He wraps his arms around your waist, his head buried in the crook of your neck. He breathes in a shuddering breath. 

He smells the shampoo in your hair, stronger than all the times he caught a whiff of it when you walked past him just a little too close. He catches the scent of your fabric softener, which he’d only gotten once when you’d forgotten your jacket in the bar, and he’d been feeling particularly needy. 

It’s comforting, familiar despite having never held you this close before. It feels like coming home after a long day. Feels like being greeted by your loved ones at the door. Like a sense of normalcy he didn’t think he’d ever be allowed to have again in this life. 

He doesn’t remember Edward’s words to him just before he got here. 

-

The two of you walk back to Obscuary together, hand in ungloved hand as you lead Rui along the path. You explain that although the curse has been cured, he will still keep all the excess energy until he runs out, but he will gradually be able to start sleeping and the like. 

He squeezes your hand gently, like he has a dozen times already during the walk back from Mortkraken. You squeeze back, like you have a dozen times after, your thumb stroking the back of his hand. 

You don’t let go even as you’re opening the door to the mansion.

“I guess all those tests really were worth it in the end, huh?” you say, smiling back at him. 

He begins to question you but stops short when he’s greeted by the sight of his friends at the door, streamers lining the walls, creating a sharp contrast with the gothic furniture. Someone’s even managed to wrangle a party hat on Lyca.

“Is this…real?” is the only thing Rui manages.

He doesn’t notice the look Edward fixes on him as you giggle, “Well, we figured that after everything you went through, this is cause for celebration, no?” 

“You’ve been through a lot all this time.” Haku says, clapping a hand on his shoulder. If he notices Rui flinch at the contact he doesn’t mention it. 

Rui can’t help but laugh, each breath like a gasp of disbelief, almost startles when he feels his tears on his bare skin when he goes to wipe them, but it’s a genuine happiness he feels. The party feels almost like a haze in the midst of it. 

He makes himself a drink alongside Haru and Romeo’s. 

Lyca begrudgingly lets himself be convinced to stay still as his hair is ruffled. 

You stay latched onto his arm all the while. 

Rui steps out into the chill air of Obscuary for a breather. Despite the act he puts up, he doesn’t quite know what to do being in the centre of attention for so long. It’s a little dizzying, so much close contact after so long, but he feels a fullness in chest he doesn’t quite know how to describe. 

“Enjoying yourself?” he hears Edward’s voice behind him. He turns to see an enigmatic look on the vampire’s face. Rui doesn’t manage to respond before Edward continues, “No matter. Celebrations can always be held again.” 

He disappears back into the mansion to let Rui figure out what he meant by that. You follow him out shortly after, so he doesn’t. 

That night, you stay over in his room. Your body pressed against his, only your clothes separating the two of you. Before, it would’ve been too little, too risky. Now it feels like too much in the way. 

He toys with the hem of the T-shirt you borrowed from him before you gently guide him under it. 

“I didn’t think I’d get to do this, have this ever again…” his voice is barely above a whisper, his words only for you to hear. Your flesh is soft and pliant under his hand when he kneads your belly. You giggle when he pokes your side a little too hard, and he thinks he’d like to hear the sound over and over again. 

“You deserve it. You can have it as many times as you want.” you press your forehead against his in response. Your hand running down his chest leaves him feeling breathless. The motions of your hand slow until it rests on his back, your breath slowing and evening out. He doesn’t notice himself matching you as he watches the rise and fall of your stomach, each a reminder that you are alive. 

He holds you close, and closer still. He hopes this is real. He hopes he gets to stay here forever. 

When he sleeps, he dreams of stars.

I don’t really know what I’m doing, but that’s okay, because I just know that I wanted to feel, and I did. I hope this made you feel too (I hope you enjoyed it). 

Reblogs and Comments are appreciated! I love you (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。

[reinanova]

Consider:

Harry walks in on Parker kissing Eliot to comfort him (or vice versa) and he backs out of the room in a panic because this poor precious child is unaware of polyamory and the leverage OT3. So, in support of the Bro Code, he goes to Breanna and asks her to send a message to Hardison so he can talk to him.

Now Breanna, the wonderful little sis she is, asks Harry what’s so important that he feels the need to contact Hardison immediately. So Harry confesses that he just saw Parker cheating on Hardison with Eliot and that he needs to tell Hardison about it.

You cannot tell me that Breanna, our gay ace gen Z icon, is not aware of her brother being in a polyamorous relationship. And okay yes, maybe she “accidentally” found evidence of their relationship when she “accidentally” hacked into their phones but that’s hardly her fault. That was just the proof for her suspicions.

Back to Harry. Breanna is just holding back laughter at Harry’s obliviousness and of course she’s here for the drama (and listening to Hardison rant about the interruption) so she sets up a video call with Hardison, secretly sharing the video screen to the room Eliot and Parker are in.

So Hardison shows up on the call, visibly busy with lots of chaos and going ons behind him and is all, “Breanna, what’s wrong?”

And then Harry is all, “Hardison, I gotta tell you something” and tells him what he saw and is very apologetic that he’s informing Hardison that his girlfriend is cheating on him.

Hardison stares into the camera like he’s on The Office, visibly annoyed before going “Really man? Really??? You interrupt me while i’m dealing with [lists like five things he’s got going on right now] for this?”

And then turns to Breanna and says, “You let him call me for this?”

And she gives no fucks about it and just shrugs and is all “I thought it would be funny.”

Now Harry is growing more and more confused and he’s like, “Umm excuse me, are we just ignoring the whole girlfriend cheating on you thing?”

At this point, Parker drops in from the ceiling or something behind Harry and is like, “It’s not cheating when they’re both my boyfriend.”

And Eliot also pops up and says, “I should hope I’m able to kiss my girlfriend when our boyfriend isn’t around to kiss us.”

After Harry recovers from his mini heart attack after getting startled twice by Parker and Eliot, he’s like, “Cool, cool. Wait, what??”

But Eliot and Parker have already wandered off and Hardison is distracted with his stuff and Breanna shrugs at Harry before picking up her laptop and leaving to go catch up with Hardison while she has him on the call. So Harry is left standing there in confused but supportive spirit.

[himejoshiangels]

have u ever seen a comic book panel so beautiful it made u wnna cry?

[definitelynotshouting]

in case you're wondering how its going rn

[ch1zzie]

Forgot to post this here butttt

Working on a welcome home animation and mighttttt take me a while

[saturn-sends-hugs]

@the-bi-space-ace @floundrickthewayfarer

👀 oh. uh. …gimme a sec—

*digs through old wips bin*

OK SO, like the original post, this fic was going to be a time loop. specifically, a time loop of the citadel mission. MORE specifically, Fives, in a time loop of the citadel mission.

>:)

concept ramble below cut

the bare bones idea was just for the first chapter to be a domino twins focused rewrite of the citadel mission, complete with silly banter, devastation, and fives losing his absolute mind as he gets back to base alone.

but then!! fives would wake up! and tada, echos right there next to him like he was earlier, the mission hasn’t happened yet and hey, it must’ve been a dream.

but fives can’t help but notice that he knows exactly what’s going to happen. he recognizes what people are going to say before they say it, he knows the plan for the mission and knows every death that happens along the way. he’s uncharacteristically quiet through the whole thing, and when the shuttle explodes, he cant stop it.

he wakes up again. and again and again and again and every single time, he can’t save him. no matter what he does, no matter how he tries to change things, echo always dies.

or so he thinks, of course. i’m pretty sure the ending i had planned required fives to realize that echo DIDNT die, and the time loop only happened because they always left him behind

it was really just an excuse for me to pack as much echo and fives angst into a single fic as i possibly could. when else am i gonna get to explore all the fun possibilities like:

Fives struggling to cope with echos death in the midst of it replaying on a constant loop

Fives trying to convince Echo of the time loop and because he’s Echo he believes Fives, but it still never changes the outcome

Fives sacrificing himself for Echo only for it to fail as Echo dies instead

Them making it past the shuttle explosion only for a million other things to kill Echo anyway

Fives getting sick of the aftermath of echos death and the journey back to base and just… skipping back to the start

Fives convincing Rex of what’s happening and still nothing changes

Fives not being able to look at Echo anymore without seeing him die

Fives slowly growing more cold and distant towards his twin as he’s forced to survive in this nightmare

seriously the angst potential is limitless

but yeah. that was the idea :P we’ll see if it ever gets written.

[0vergrowngraveyard]

special flower? 🌼

ykw? special flower gets the gone west wip

In no time at all, Sonic was up the cliffside, laying down on his side as he watched and teased Knuckles while the echidna made his way up. At one point, Knuckles pelted a small rock at Sonic that hit him square in the nose, barking out a laugh in response. How his nose didn’t break was a miracle in itself.

Tails shook his head at their antics as he wound up his namesakes and lifted himself off the ground. “Guess we should start heading up as well.” He said, grabbing onto Amy and Sticks’ outstretched hands as he hoisted them into the air.

“Please, I don’t want to have to clean up your brother’s corpse and deal with Eggman.” Amy replied with an annoyed groan. “It’s one or the other, not both.”

Tails laughed, “Tell me about it. I’ll have us up there in no time!”

Now, Tails was a fast flyer. He had to be. His brother was Sonic the Hedgehog for crying out loud! But for some reason he felt like he was forcing himself to fly, like it didn’t come second nature to him.

He was being watched.

i very bravely reread the whole fic earlier today and idk how i feel about it. i want to finish it (this was the idea that got me back into writing fanfic), but im gonna have to go through and change entire sections of it

[lemonlimestar]

:/

[clarythericebot]

Guys I just...love running? I finally found a way to make a fitness habit stick, and now that I have, I'm in the throes of enjoying it. I love knowing what kind of extra running gear I need, after so much trial and error (cap, sunglasses, sunblock if you know what's good for you!!!). I love feeling and noticing how my body is becoming more powerful--it's such an ecstatic delight to realize what had me keeling over two weeks ago I can do now with confidence. I love becoming a fixture in the neighborhood (people are recognizing me! I am now the girl who grins at dogs, the girl who tries and fails to help kids get their balls back when they throw it too far but the kids think it's sweet and funny, and of course, the girl who runs). I love having a fav warm up and cool down YouTuber (thanks Run with Ash) . I love posting pictures of my run and having a lil secret private Instagram page where I track my health progress. It's just so nice. From someone who found it so difficult to exercise, when you find the thing that helps you, it is so so nice

[fruitsofhell]

Anyone give a shit about my Kirby-Steven Universe AU I developed for 3 seconds last year?

Broader Plot Synopsis:

Midnight Agate (Meta Knight) was a young quartz assigned to watch over the colonization efforts on Popstar with a small brigade of Rubies (The Meta-Knights). While waiting for things to truly get started, she let her sentimentality get the best of her and got to know the natives rather than killing them as were her orders. Seeing as it was a backwater planet and mission no one was watching carefully, she thought things would be fine.

While she was playing at being a knight for King Dedede (King Dedede) an undercooked Rose Quartz (Kirby) popped out, and caused some Kirby style antics for them (KDL, Adv, RoMK plots). Agate attempted to be subtle about what Quartzby's existence meant - not wanting to let on to her king friend she was an alien sent to blow up the planet - but in her continued waffling she began to watch the quartz take a liking to the planet just as she had, and started doubting the entire thing.

Eventually, after defusing the silly rivalry between her and Dedede, she began to work on deactivating gem structures (all those Ancient Artifacts we know in canon) and halting the colonization process, but accidentally alerted homeworld authorities whom then proceeded to send Halcan Quartz (Galacta Knight) when it was obvious things were a mess.

That's about as far as I got with solid ideas, but I have more fun disjointed ones. Like Midnight Agate falling in line with Halcan Quartz for a while out of pure fear and obedient instinct before eventually confronting her with the help of Quartzby and her rubies. And from there Halcan Quartz's own sentimentality gets tapped into for a redemption arc.

And from THERE the equivalent to the Diamonds in the would be Zero - a white Diamond I would suppose. I also had lots of fun ideas expanding on Agate and Halcan Quartz's connections to their planets (especially the latter to Halcandra CAUSE I LOVE HALCANDRA).

I really like how both Kirby and SU use their science-fantasy themes to tell stories about enjoying the little things and how you can kinda redeem almost anyone by tapping into that universal humanity. Or atleast I've always read the text of SU into the subtext of Kirby just cause the latter informed my media tastes so much.

I'd def fuck with this AU again if I have another SU phase. But I'm literally just talking about this cause I'm overwhelmed by how much Kirby stuff I have ideas for and needed to fart SOMETHNIG out.

[chrollogy]

[mypinkshoelaces]

the feminine urge to write a long marauders fanfiction that's focused purely on female characters, bc why the hell not

[oh-meow-swirls]

how does the raft not capsize.

[qoldenskies]

FIRST DRAFT DEFEATED!!! its 54k words currently

[ostensiblywhump]

The Millstone—Emerald or Crimson?

Whumpuary day 11: "I didn't ask for this" | blood | abandoned

Word count: 1,101

Content warnings: none

———(0)———

Maa likes brushing her thumbs under Brier’s eyes. Who knows why, but it’s with that smile with eyes that see something else, so if Brier asks, maa might not even hear the question.

“Maa?” she says anyways, her mother’s callused thumb scraping over her eyelid. “Why do you do that?”

“Hmmm?” maa hums, and blinks, now actually looking at Brier. Her bells go ting-ting-ting, rising up like a question.

“This!” Brier says, plopping her hand over her maa’s.

“Ah,” maa says, and smiles again. The smile she gets when the man she says to call maba leaves. “Because your blood is green.”

Brier blinks, then scowls, because: “That doesn’t make sense, maa! My blood’s red!” She tripped and scraped her knee while playing with the other kids in the village they were in last week, and it was definitely red. It stained the bottom of her skirt a little. Maa had to scrub a lot to get it out.

Maa laughs, but her song doesn’t change from the deep, long bell, like the one Brier once heard ringing for a funeral. “You’re right,” she agrees. “It’s red, silly me. I meant your eyes are green.”

She leans in a little, and the gold of her gaze pins Brier in place. Her song still rings for a funeral.

“Green as the mountains, the forests, the country itself. It means you’ll rule one day, little heir, just like your ma’ba.”

Maa lets go, and lets Brier go, and Brier has her answer that didn’t really sound like an answer. It doesn’t stop her from frowning still, because if she’s going to be like maba, then ‘you’ll rule one day’ just sounds like ‘you’ll leave one day.’

———

The man Brier is told to call maba is back. It doesn’t make sense—her brothers like him when he’s here, and he’s nice, but shouldn’t he be thann, not maa? Maa stays. Thann is the one that comes and goes.

But Brier is good, and does her best to do what maa says. So she does.

She’s with maba now, learning how to show the animals that she’s a friend. It’s hard, because she can’t hear her own song, but she has to make a sound that the animals can hear and know is friendly, not confused or frustrated or whatever she’s feeling instead. But maba just tells her, “Try again.”

Brier flops sideways—one of the good things about maba is that he doesn’t care if she moves or fidgets, like maa does when she’s showing Brier how to do things. He just cares about her actually doing the stuff he’s showing her. “Mabaaa,” she says. “It’s hard. Can’t I try again tomorrow?”

“Not without my supervision,” maba says. “And I will be going tomorrow. So you must learn today, or wait until when I visit next.”

Brier groans. “Why can’t maa super-vise? Then I have every day to practice and I can show you I did it when you come back!”

“Because she cannot do what we can.”

“Maa can do anything!”

“Not this.”

“Why not?”

“Because she wasn’t born to it.”

Brier’s face scrunches. “Maba, I don’t know what that means. What does being born have to do with being friends with animals?”

Maba’s head tilts, green eyes staring. Brier stares back, because she’s really good at staring contests, and she wants to know why maba thinks maa can’t do a stupid thing like making animal friends when she can do everything, and she … likes looking at maba’s eyes. They’re the only ones she’s seen that are like hers—everyone has yellow or brown or black or sometimes blue or gray, but never green. Only maba, and only her.

“Belladonna wasn’t born to rule,” maba says, and Brier is confused for a second until she remembers that’s the word her family calls maa. “She can’t project her—song. Can’t impose her presence. Her eyes aren’t green, so it’s not in her blood.”

His head stops tilting, and his face doesn’t change, but it never changes anyways. It’s his song that presses down on Brier, a boom-crash like lightning strikes and glass breaking at the same time. It makes Brier lose the staring contest, and her hands to curl into the grass.

“It’s in your blood,” he tells her. “It’s your nature, mine, and no one else’s. You were born to rule.”

His song dulls suddenly, lightning trapped behind glass again. Learning how to breathe without a song putting a weight on her lungs, Brier doesn’t say anything to the contrary.

———

“You were born to rule,” Bion hisses. “It’s your blood, and to reject it is to reject the heart beating in your chest, my Ruler.”

The two times Brier was told that outright, she said nothing. Now, she laughs, giving voice to all the discontent she’d felt those two times and this one, when someone tried shoveling that load of horse-shit with her.

“I didn’t ask for it in the first place,” she says, dropping down to Bion’s level and speaking in their mother tongue. Maybe that’ll make this stupid old scribe actually listen. “And my so-called heart must not be so vital to me, if it abandoned me before I learned that it wasn’t worth anything.”

It isn’t logical. She was taken away from her maa and eldest brother, not abandoned. And when her other brother disappeared after years of surviving together on the mainland, it had hurt, but even in her darkest moments, she always suspected he was taken in turn, not anything else.

But scrabbling in the mud, young, alone, face throbbing with the scales pushing themselves out of her skin and in such blinding pain, she’d called for her maa, her brothers, even her maba. Three of those hadn’t, couldn’t, answer for years already at that point. But one always had, and when only silence replied to her desperation, it had been ….

What had their homeland done for her? For Bion, even? Given them both something to yearn for, only to yank it away in a wash of carnage and despair. It had placed this duty on her, marked her with these eyes, and crushed her with the burden of it. Blood and birthright meant nothing, when all it did was hurt you.

“If you’re so fixated on blood, then listen to your ruler as you are born to do, my people,” Brier says. “Heal, retake your life away from the homeland and the damage it did. And then you’ll know that you never needed a 15-year-old with green eyes to tell you how to be happy.”

[obscuremechala]

oc designs i will be tweaking entirely be upon ye

four of the main ensemble and there's still more to go, these guys take up a lot of my brain's bandwidth

bex tries to explain the lore under the cut bc this post is kinda on the long side ? idk

so this story takes place on a rather isolated mining planetoid named Melien, under the jurisdiction of an offworld company, Unilacht Co. Excavation Division, hailing from a planet inhabited by sentient robots called mechala. Due to [circumstances kept vague to uninformed personnel], this branch of Unilacht operations has also been tasked with the mission to build a substantial army--using whatever means necessary.

However, the reclusiveness and secrecy of the Unilacht Co. Excavation Division's overseers has frustrated a good amount of their personnel. Currently a substantial number of their mechanicized soldiers and personnel have joined a rebellion effort started by the former Unilachti Command Administrator (who has since been recaptured, but the movement continues in his absence).

Enceladus, Maltrion, and Meo were all part of the same defection cohort (joined the rebellion at the same time). Virion joined them a bit later under some interesting circumstances. All of them are not fond of the Unilacht for vastly different reasons, but all have their own deeply personal reasons to resist the rule of the Unilacht.

ok now im motivated to do a lot more drawing/stuff with these guys while i revamp the plot for the 45th time be prepared for more oc shenanigans *looks at smudged ink on wrist* all 5 people who voted on the poll. appreciate you :thumbsup: