#less than container load shipping

[eshippro]

The Role of Technology in Modern Freight Forwarding

In today’s global economy, the movement of goods across borders is more complex than ever. The freight forwarding industry, which acts as the intermediary between shippers and carriers, has undergone a significant transformation due to technological advancements. From enhancing operational efficiency to providing real-time visibility, technology plays a crucial role in modern freight forwarding. This blog explores how technology is revolutionizing the industry, the key innovations driving change, and the future outlook for tech in freight forwarding.

1. The Evolution of Freight Forwarding

Freight forwarding has traditionally been a labor-intensive process involving a network of agents, paperwork, and manual tracking. The primary role of a freight forwarder is to arrange the transportation of goods from the point of origin to the destination, handling customs, documentation, and various logistics challenges along the way. Historically, this process was slow and prone to errors, with communication largely reliant on phone calls, faxes, and physical paperwork.

The advent of technology has transformed this landscape, introducing automation, data integration, and advanced analytics that streamline operations and improve service quality. This shift has been driven by the need for greater efficiency, transparency, and scalability in a rapidly evolving global market.

2. Key Technological Innovations in Freight Forwarding

2.1 Digital Platforms and Software Solutions

One of the most significant technological advancements in freight forwarding is the development of digital platforms and software solutions. These platforms consolidate various functions, including booking, tracking, and documentation, into a single interface. They offer a range of benefits:

Automation : Automating routine tasks such as booking confirmations, invoice generation, and shipment tracking reduces the need for manual intervention and minimizes errors. This is particularly crucial for managing cargo shipment and door-to-door shipping efficiently.

Integration : Modern software integrates with other systems, such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and TMS (Transportation Management Systems), facilitating seamless data exchange and improving overall efficiency. This integration is key for coordinating International Shipping Services and managing less-than-container

User Experience : User-friendly interfaces and self-service portals enhance customer experience by providing easy access to real-time information and simplifying communication, such as obtaining an Instant Freight Quote or tracking ocean freight cargo.

2.2 Real-Time Tracking and Visibility

Real-time tracking technology has transformed how freight forwarders and their clients monitor shipments. GPS and IoT (Internet of Things) sensors enable the tracking of goods throughout their journey, providing visibility into their exact location and condition. This advancement offers several advantages:

Transparency : Customers can track their shipments in real-time, which builds trust and enhances communication. Whether it’s for international freight shipping or sea freight forwarding, real-time updates are crucial.

Proactive Management : Early detection of delays or disruptions allows for proactive measures to mitigate issues and minimize impact, essential for global freight forwarder operations.

Data Insights : Detailed tracking data provides valuable insights into supply chain performance, helping to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement in freight forwarding services.

2.3 Advanced Analytics and Big Data

The use of big data and advanced analytics is revolutionizing decision-making in freight forwarding. By analyzing large volumes of data from various sources, freight forwarders can gain actionable insights and make more informed decisions. Key applications include:

Predictive Analytics : Forecasting demand, potential disruptions, and optimal routes based on historical data and trends aids in planning less than container load shipping and managing ocean freight shipping efficiently.

Performance Measurement : Analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics operations, crucial for both door-to-door shipping and freight forwarding services.

Cost Optimization : Identifying cost-saving opportunities through data-driven analysis of shipping routes, carrier performance, and fuel consumption, which is vital for optimizing international freight shipping and managing cargo shipment expenses.

2.4 Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly being integrated into freight forwarding operations. These technologies offer several capabilities:

Automation of Complex Tasks : AI can automate complex tasks such as document processing, customs declarations, and compliance checks, simplifying the management of international shipping services.

Enhanced Decision-Making : Machine learning algorithms can analyze historical data to predict trends and optimize decision-making processes, improving efficiency in sea freight forwarding and global freight forwarder activities.

Customer Service : AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants provide round-the-clock support, handling queries and providing information efficiently, including instant freight quotes and updates on ocean freight cargo.

2.5 Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology is emerging as a game-changer in freight forwarding by enhancing transparency and security. The decentralized and immutable nature of blockchain offers several benefits:

Enhanced Security : Blockchain provides a secure and tamper-proof way to record transactions and documentation, reducing the risk of fraud and errors in freight forwarding services.

Streamlined Processes : Smart contracts on the blockchain can automate and enforce agreements between parties, reducing the need for intermediaries and expediting transactions for cargo shipment and less than container load (LCL) shipping.

Improved Traceability : Blockchain enables end-to-end visibility and traceability of shipments, ensuring that all parties have access to accurate and up-to-date information, crucial for international freight shipping and sea freight forwarder operations.

3. The Impact of Technology on Freight Forwarding

The integration of technology into freight forwarding has had a profound impact on the industry:

3.1 Improved Efficiency and Cost Savings

Technology has streamlined operations, reducing the time and effort required to manage shipments. Automation and digital solutions have minimized manual processes, leading to cost savings and increased productivity. Additionally, data-driven decision-making has optimized routes and resource allocation, further enhancing efficiency in ocean freight cargo and door-to-door shipping.

3.2 Enhanced Customer Experience

With real-time tracking, transparent communication, and user-friendly interfaces, customers now have a better experience throughout the shipping process. The ability to access real-time information and receive timely updates enhances customer satisfaction and builds trust, especially in international shipping services and freight forwarders near me.

3.3 Greater Flexibility and Scalability

Technology enables freight forwarders to adapt quickly to changing market conditions and scale their operations efficiently. Digital platforms and cloud-based solutions provide the flexibility to handle varying volumes of shipments and expand into new markets with ease, crucial for global freight forwarder operations and managing less than container load (LCL) shipping.

3.4 Increased Accuracy and Compliance

Advanced technology reduces the risk of errors and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements. Automation of documentation and compliance checks minimizes the likelihood of mistakes and facilitates smoother customs processes, essential for international freight shipping and sea freight forwarder tasks.

4. The Future of Technology in Freight Forwarding

As technology continues to evolve, the future of freight forwarding promises even more advancements:

4.1 The Rise of Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous trucks and drones are expected to play a significant role in the future of freight forwarding. These technologies have the potential to revolutionize transportation by reducing human error, optimizing routes, and lowering costs, benefiting ocean freight shipping and door-to-door shipping services.

4.2 Enhanced Integration with Other Supply Chain Technologies

The integration of freight forwarding technology with other supply chain technologies, such as warehouse management systems (WMS) and supply chain visibility platforms, will create more cohesive and efficient supply chains. This synergy will enhance the management of international shipping services and improve overall logistics efficiency.

4.3 Greater Focus on Sustainability

Technology will play a crucial role in promoting sustainability in freight forwarding. Innovations such as electric vehicles, optimized routing to reduce fuel consumption, and eco-friendly packaging solutions will contribute to a greener supply chain. This focus on sustainability will impact all aspects of freight forwarding services and less than container load shipping.

Conclusion

Technology has become an integral part of modern freight forwarding, driving efficiency, transparency, and innovation. From digital platforms and real-time tracking to AI and blockchain, these advancements are reshaping the industry and setting new standards for performance and customer satisfaction. As technology continues to evolve, the freight forwarding industry will likely see even more transformative changes, creating opportunities for greater efficiency and sustainability in the global supply chain.

Embracing these technological advancements is not just a matter of staying competitive; it's about leading the way in a rapidly changing world. For freight forwarders, investing in technology is essential for navigating the complexities of global logistics and meeting the evolving demands of the market, whether managing international freight shipping, optimizing sea freight forwarder operations, or providing door-to-door shipping solutions.

[eshippro12345]

Tracking LCL Shipments Singapore

Less than Container Load

https://e-ship.sg/assets/img/blog/tracking-lcl-shipments.jpg

Tracking LCL Shipments: Ensuring Visibility and Efficiency

In today's globalized economy, efficient logistics management is essential for businesses engaged in international trade. Among the various challenges faced in shipping, tracking LCL (Less than Container Load) shipments stands out as a critical aspect of ensuring timely delivery and customer satisfaction. This blog explores the importance of tracking LCL shipments, methods used, and best practices for effective management.

Why Tracking LCL Shipments Matters?

Tracking LCL shipments provides crucial visibility throughout the shipping process. Unlike Full Container Load (FCL) shipments, where a single consignment occupies an entire container, LCL shipments combine multiple smaller shipments from different consignors into a single container. This consolidation offers cost-effectiveness and flexibility but also requires meticulous tracking to monitor each consignment's progress.

The Methods of Tracking LCL Shipments

Online Tracking Platforms : Many freight forwarders and shipping lines in Dubai and across the UAE offer online tracking platforms where shippers and consignees can enter their shipment details to monitor its status. These platforms provide real-time updates on the location and estimated time of arrival (ETA) of the container.

GPS and Container Tracking Devices : Some advanced shipping companies utilize GPS tracking devices placed within containers. These devices transmit location data at regular intervals, allowing stakeholders to track the container's precise location throughout its journey.

Communication with Freight Forwarders : Establishing clear communication channels with your freight forwarder in Dubai is crucial. They can provide updates and address any concerns regarding the shipment's progress and potential delays.

The Tracking Process: Step-by-Step Guide

Booking and Documentation : The tracking process begins with the booking of an LCL shipment with trusted freight forwarding companies in Dubai. Proper documentation, including packing lists and bills of lading, is essential for accurate tracking.

Loading and Departure : Once loaded into a container at the origin port, often managed by logistics companies in UAE, the container's journey begins. Tracking starts as soon as the container is sealed and dispatched.

Transit Updates : Throughout transit, stakeholders receive updates on the container's location and estimated arrival times. This information helps in planning downstream logistics and preparing for customs clearance at the destination port.

Arrival and Discharge : Upon arrival at the destination port, managed by cargo shipping companies in Dubai, the container undergoes unloading. Shippers and consignees receive final notifications confirming the shipment's arrival and readiness for pickup or onward delivery.

Best Practices for Effective LCL Shipment Tracking Use Reliable Partners: Choose freight forwarders and shipping lines in Dubai and the UAE with robust tracking systems and a reputation for reliable service.

Proactive Communication : Maintain open lines of communication with your freight forwarder to address any issues promptly and ensure smooth tracking.

Document Management : Keep all shipment documentation organized and readily accessible, as accurate information is crucial for effective tracking.

Utilize Technology : Take advantage of digital tools and platforms offered by global shipping logistics providers for real-time tracking updates.

Conclusion

Tracking LCL shipments plays a pivotal role in supply chain management, offering transparency and control over the shipping process. By leveraging advanced tracking methods and adhering to best practices, businesses can optimize their logistics operations, enhance customer satisfaction, and maintain a competitive edge in the global marketplace. For more insights into optimizing your logistics strategies with freight forwarders in Dubai and logistics companies in the UAE, stay tuned to our blog for future updates and industry insights.

[villainessbian]

Concept: most aliens can get anxious, can get scared, can get fight-or-flight. What most aliens do not get, however, is stress. Stress is a weird thing even by human standards. It can build up over time or be something tied to a very limited situation. It can be caused by a lot of things, and it comes in a lot of different ways. But it's a core human reaction, when a situation is wrong, it causes stress until it is righted. And it even affects different people differently!

Cue Human Cassandra, on a ship with her friend and co-worker Human Pauline. The ship is crewed with a mix of species. It's a cargo ship - load up in a space port, unload in another, get news and supplies during their stops, and live as an ever-shifting family as some of the two dozen crew members, give or take, get replaced. Some leave come payday, and new ones come looking for the thrill of low-level adventure, experiencing warp drives across the safer roads of the known universe.

But getting the supplies you need, or want, in stops is never so easy. Humans are new to the galactic community, and their needs misunderstood. Most broad-edibility food is bland for them, but that's okay. A big enough bag of their condiments can last them years. But ADHD meds... now that's less easy to get, the further from Earth you are. And a contract too big for their captain to pass on came up, much farther than the two humans expected.

Cassandra's mood deteriorated, her work priorities out of order, her sleep schedule in disarray. Little by little, she grew restless, shifting moods and gears unpredictably. A few weeks in and she was a mess, barely able to keep up with the minimum her job doing maintenance and running safety diagnostics for the route charting team required of her. While Pauline could help with the mechanical aspects of keeping the ship running, picking up the "slack", the safety had to be double-checked by the charting and pilot teams. When the curves of asteroid probability reached beyond a certain level, several hundred simulations had to be run, time-consuming processes had to be used, to avoid any collision at speeds beyond speed c. Some truly exotic things happened to ships that experienced those, but none of them contained the words "surviving crew." A safe route avoided any probability of collision over .1% and when going faster than light, any choice of course required thinking in 3 dimensions plus relative time to navigate dangerous probability fields in one piece, finding time-specific corridors and accounting for a dozen variables at once.

After she had a breakdown over a path she would normally have been able to find in under a minute, Pauline spoke to a concerned pilot team member:

"You have to understand her, this is a stressful situation and she's doing her best..."

"What do you mean by 'stressful'?" Gabalt asked. The furry little creature stood on two arched legs, and barely reached up to Pauline's shoulder, opening three wide eyes with curiosity and concern in equal parts.

"Things are... getting difficult for her, and keep getting more difficult because she does not have medication to help her brain be efficient. It makes her tired, and inefficient, and as it goes on, she's less and less able to cope with the situation. The longer this goes on, the worse it gets, and that is stress. Getting more tired because it takes more energy to deal with the situation, and less efficient because she's more tired, and things get harder because she's less efficient, on and on until something can solve the problem and the stress goes away."

"That sounds... hard. Do all humans have to deal with this?"

"Well, everyone has sources of stress, but she's got a disability. Without her meds, she gets stressed all the time. Not a lot all at once, but it always adds up."

"Oh no! So she'll be stuck like that until we get closer to Earth?"

"Most likely, yes."

But the most momentous thing to happen this day was not her breakdown. Not an hour later, alarms blared up. The simulation holograms all displayed blinking red masses - the less-travelled "safe route" was not as well protected! An asteroid range had been detected cutting through the border field, and it was in their way!

Pauline froze up, not knowing what to do. Gabalt was too surprised to act fast. All the courses from the ship's library of regular manoeuvres suggested a crash chance of over 60%, and mere seconds to act before entering the field!

Before anyone could react, Cassandra came in running from her corner to the front of the bridge, slamming the warp drive shutdown button. Most holograms stuttered and collapsed, the exit from FTL essentially dividing one or several of their dimensions by zero.

Looking quickly at the few remaining ones and gazing at the screens showing the current outside situation like a large window would have - plus a few critical extra points of data - she adjusted the angles manually while everyone still shuddered from the gravitational and temporal whiplash of suddenly coming back into normal time. Unblinkingly, she spotted the asteroids on the route while the ship was still going, if not at relativistic speeds, still fast enough for a single pebble they met to vaporise the Whipple shields, the outer hull, the inner hull, the crew members, and the hull again coming out if they but grazed it. Confirming the angles visually, she played with the reaction wheels, the thrusters, the gravity drives, to divert the ship's course just enough to miss a collision while not risking any grave injury on board. There was no time to react - if anything showed up straight ahead on the "unaugmented" outside view screens, it was too late to not get splatted. After half the crew had had the time to get thrown to the side or on the ground due to the rough handling, she'd managed to avoid any crash.

Gabalt was reeling. While it was surely not impossible, these was the kind of moves experienced veterans would never wish to attempt, and the margins for error were ridiculously low! She'd saved the ship and everyone on it, whereas she'd been unable to do a simple safety run so soon before?

Pauline was white as a sheet, but this was nothing compared to Cassandra, shaking violently and breathing unevenly.

"Pauline? What is she doing?"

"That's... probably the adrenaline."

"What's it for?"

"It's from stress. When it comes it overcharges the body. It's like the traditional, 'fight or flight' instinct from survival in prey-predator paradigms, it lets you move fast but paralyses thought... it feels pretty bad after a lot of it is released though. Now she's crashing down, must be harrowing."

"How did she do that? And you said her thoughts were paralysed for precision manoeuvres?"

Cassandra's voice came, nearly a mutter: "I just... had to. do it."

Gabalt needed to understand what happened.

"What do you mean you had to? Someone had to do it, but why you?"

"It- it was very stressful, I saw you freeze, and so."

"But... but HOW did you do all that? That was extremely complicated, few pilots -whose main craft is directly piloting- would want to even try doing that when given a choice!?"

"I had to. do it, so I did. I couldn't. couldn't make a mistake."

"This makes absolutely no sense."

Pauline interrupted. "She just works like that. Lots of stress and when people freeze up, humans with her condition... sometimes, surprisingly, function better in the moment than others can."

"Ah. So it's a human thing. of course, it's a human thing. NOTHING MAKES ANY SENSE WITH YOUR ACCURSED SPECIES" the diminutive pilot pouted.

And so one more story of the humans doing the impossible spread around. Humans of a subtype, more easily harmed, sometimes unstable and needing help for the simplest things... accomplishing odd, unthinkable, borderline heroic feats under duress none could be expected to withstand - but only then. Cursed, blessed? No story-teller seemed too certain. But the "magical" species never stopped surprising all others. And a new proverb developed: "it's not over until the human says it is".

[ltwilliammowett]

Half time with our calendar and this is the perfect moment to introduce you to a lady who shows the interface of Age of Sail and Age of Steam. She is generally regarded as the start of the Age of Steam and yet she still has both elements. But who am I talking about ? - The HMS Warrior

More about her history here:

HMS WARRIOR was built as part of Britain’s response to concerns over France’s maritime ambitions which included the building of LA GLOIRE, a powerful ironclad which was the most advanced warship of its day.  WARRIOR was commissioned on 1 August 1861 and at that time unquestionably ruled the seas. Her main guns, engines and boilers were contained within an armoured wrought iron hull and she could be driven by both steam and sail. This combination meant that she could outrun and outgun any ship afloat and she never fired a shot in anger – the classic deterrent.

During the first commission her main role was to lead the Channel Squadron. On 22 November 1864 she paid off for her first major refit at Portsmouth Dockyard during which the ship was comprehensively refurbished. She was also completely re-armed with 7” and 8” muzzle loaded rifled guns. However, in the American Civil War the success of the Monitor was to have a dramatic effect on naval thinking and WARRIOR’s role as ‘Monarch of the Seas’ was to be very short-lived.

She re-commissioned in July 1867 and re-joined the Channel Fleet. The second commission was rather less interesting than the first as she was no longer regarded as the most powerful warship afloat and faded from the limelight. The second commission ended in 1871 and she then spent four years in refit at Portsmouth being fitted with improved boilers, steam power for the forward capstan and a new poop deck to accommodate an Admiral.  On completion in 1875 she became part of the First Reserve Fleet where she was to remain until paying at Portsmouth on 31 May 1883.

After periods as a depot ship and part of HMS VERNON she was paid off in 1924. She was then converted for use as a floating oil jetty and in 1929 was towed to Pembroke Dock where she was to remain for the next 50 years. In 1967 the campaign to restore WARRIOR started and prominent in this was Sir John Smith who formed the Manifold Trust. A committee chaired by the Duke of Edinburgh met in 1968 to discuss her future and from this emerged the Maritime Trust. When Pembroke Dock closed in 1978 the Manifold Trust agreed to underwrite the cost of restoration and the ship was handed over to the Maritime Trust in 1979.

In 1983 ownership was transferred to the Ship’s Preservation Trust which became the Warrior Preservation Trust in 1983. Although the hull was very sound the rest of the ship was in a poor state. The task which was part restoration and part re-building needed vast resources not only of money (£8M) but also of skill, patience and endurance. The 8 year restoration programme at Hartlepool transformed her into one of the world’s most important historic warships and in 1987 she returned to Portsmouth where she is now moored in the Historic Dockyard.

A planned preservation programme is in place for the ship and over the years she has been dry-docked twice, and the upper deck, (£725K provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund), all three fighting tops and half moons and the stern gallery have been replaced.

[feyhunter78]

Pink Pastels Pt 18

Description: Miguel deals with Todd, and has a late night visitor—you.

Pt 19

The purr of car engines overhead, the slight rattling of the bridge, the coos of pigeons and the soft lapping of the waves fills Miguel's ears as he stares down at the waterlogged corpse at his feet.

“Lyla, how many people know about this?”

“About the mauled body of your new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend?” Lyla smirks, her heart shaped sunglasses low on her nose as she observes the scene.

Miguel sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, “Lyla, please just answer my question.”

“Just a few displaced people along the river, the Swedish shipping vessel that reported the sighting, and the Coast Guard has the call record, but since you got lucky with the currents and since I made a few more urgent calls to the Coast Guard, they haven't set eyes on him yet.” She tells him, raising her eyebrows at him.

“Thank you.” He says as he zips up the body bag and tosses it over his shoulder.

“So, what are you going to do with him?” She asks, flickering in and out of his masked vision.

“Acid.”

“Acid? Lame.” Lyla huffs.

He snorts. “It's quick, efficient, and less likely to leave a trace.”

“Yeah, but wasn't he like a total dick to y/n?”

He grunts in response as he swings through the city until he finds the disposal grounds of Janson Inc, the manufacturing company you mentioned Todd works for.

“I mean, I thought you'd go way more psycho than you did.” She says, laughter on the horizon of her tone.

“Lyla” He warns, as he heaves the body bag containing Todd into the acid, watching with no small amount of satisfaction as the fabric, flesh, and bone dissolve.

“Ok, ok, I'm just saying, I think I know you pretty well and-”

“I want him forgotten, I want y/n to forget about him.”

Lyla says nothing for a moment, then sighs heavily. “Miguel…you know it doesn't work like that. You might have been able to easily replace this universe's version of you, but that doesn't mean you can just as easily replace Todd.”

Miguel turns from the acid, the surrounding area bathed in a sickly green glow. “I know.”

“And you know y/n's different from Ana, Xina, Dana, and even Tempest, she cares about you, about Gabi. She really cares about Gabi. She's not just going to jump you now that her ex-boyfriend is gone. She's going to weigh the consequences.”

A smirk tugs at his lips, and for a moment his mind supplies him with the memory of you begging for him, his name on your lips like a fervent plea as you fall apart on his thigh. Of the way your eyes linger on his lips, how you reached for him in the doorway of your apartment.

He grunts in response. He knows you, better than you know he does, better than Todd did, perhaps better than anyone else in the world. You'll weigh the consequences, but that doesn't mean he can't try to lighten the load.

“Okay, Mr. Stupid and Silent, don't believe me. It's your funeral.” Lyla huffs before her form flickers out, and he's left alone in the dark.

Miguel unlocks the door to his apartment and silently pads through the quiet space.

Gabi's asleep, he knows this. You're asleep, he knows this. He should also be asleep, but he's filled with a nameless emotion--an anxious energy raging against the edges of sleep that are threatening to creep in on him.

He sits at his desk, flipping through security feeds, ensuring there's no record of him. He's clean, there's no trace of him or Todd.

He was smart, made sure no one would see when he broke into Todd's apartment and knocked him out.

No one noticed as he carried Todd's unconscious body to an abandoned warehouse, and no one heard Todd's screams as he tore into him, leaving him a mangled mess that Miguel finally dangled him off the bridge.

He watched unflinching as Todd plummeted. The sound of Todd's body slamming into the water echoed off the banks, and Miguel waited until he sank to return to his apartment.

No one would ever know. He got away clean.

“Hey Boss? Y/N's here.” Lyla says, her words hitting him a millisecond before he hears your soft knocking on his door.

He bolts up, running a hand through his hair and checking his appearance in the hall mirror before he swings open the door to see you. Perfect, perfect you.

Your hair is loose, hanging free, and you're clad in fuzzy socks and an oversized sweatshirt.

Are you wearing pants under that? Shorts? Is this a seduction tactic? Because it's working.

“Hey, I'm sorry, I know it's late, but I just...” You wave your hands helplessly, your nails are pink, a pretty pearlescent pink.

He reaches out to catch one of your hands in one of his, squeezing it slightly. “Don't apologize, I’m more than willing to help, whatever it is.”

You give him an embarrassed smile. “Okay, so, it's a new apartment and I swear I keep hearing all these noises, and I know it’s childish but...would you come and take a look? Make sure there's nothing there?”

He's in love with you, fully, completely, unreservedly.

“Of course, y/n, I felt the same way when I moved in. The building is a bit older, there are lots of creaks and groans.”

He follows you to your apartment as he says this, and you look back at him in surprise. “You were scared?”

He chuckles sheepishly. “Actually, Gabi was, I just wanted to make you feel better.”

You smile and duck your head. “I appreciate the effort."

You hold the door open for him, then stand in your lit kitchen, your arms wrapped around yourself. Your bare thighs are exposed by the rising fabric of your sweatshirt, and he averts his eyes. 

He strangles his desire to sink to his knees and grip the soft flesh of your thighs, to wrench them apart and bury his face between them. To watch you come apart on his tongue as the sounds of your pleas and moans fill the air.

“I feel like I heard something near the balcony. You say, tearing him from his thoughts.

“I’ll go check.” He tells you, making his way towards your balcony, his senses on high alert even though he knows there's nothing.

It's an older building, Gabi was scared when they first moved in, that much is true. But there's nothing to be scared of, he's ensured that. In fact, this building, this block might be the safest in all of Nueva York.

Miguel throws open your balcony door and makes a show of checking every inch. He's rewarded by your soft laugh.

“All clear?” You take a half step forward, a smile playing at your lips, the lingering traces of sleep still gracing your expression.

“All clear. Anywhere else you want me to check?”

You nod towards your bedroom. “I swear I heard shuffling in my bathroom.”

He waits at your door, looking back at you. “Through here?”

You breeze past him and sit cross-legged on the edge of your bed. “The door on the left.”

He pushes the door open and flicks on the light. He's seen this room already, through your necklace, but standing there, on your plush, pastel purple bath mat, looking into your mirror, the mirror he's admired your bare body in, sends him into a tailspin.

“You see anything?” You call softly.

He shakes his head. “Nothing, no monsters lurking in between your towels.

“I didn't think there were monsters." You mumble, padding over to him, your scent hitting him like a freight train.

Has it always been this strong, or was it because he's in your home and everything around him screams y/n?

He inhales deeply, his fingers curling around the edge of your sink, his eyes closed as he fights to calm himself.

“Miguel? Are you okay?” You ask, placing a hand on his bicep.

He pulls you forward, pressing your back against the sink, his arms on either side caging you in.

You look up at him with an adorable expression of surprise, as if you hadn't seen his agility when he was disguised as Spiderman. “Miguel?”

He steels himself, even as he feels the plaster of your sink give beneath his fingers. He'll fix that later.

“Pancakes or French Toast?”

“I'm sorry?” You ask stunned.

“For breakfast, cariño, which would you prefer?” He forces the words out, prays they're smooth and unassuming.

You smile up at him, and he feels his stomach flip. It's a childish thing, for a small smile to affect him this way.

“Oh, pancakes please, and I can help you cook if you need.”

You're so sweet.

“No, no, mi vida, I'm cooking. All you need to do is keep me company.”

Your eyes follow the movement of his lips, and his nostrils flare when he smells the arousal wafting off you.

“Are you sure? I really don't mind.” You insist, palms resting against his chest.

He leans down and presses a fleeting kiss to your forehead. “I'm sure, now goodnight y/n.”

Then he leaves you there and heads back to his apartment, his head spinning, your scent still lingering around him.

Taglist: @miggyoharaswife, @badbishsblog, @imisshim2much, @wanderlustingcastaway, @lynn-9703, @sleepyamaya, @erensbbg, @sweetea85, @ilovemiguelohara, @natthernandez, @stxrrielle, @ihateuguys, @jenniferdixon05207, @blep-23, @luvisaaxoxo, @minimari415, @emerald-09, @violet-19999, @kenchosaikuo, @groovycass, @youcantseem3, @lovefks, @nightshxdex, @dusstory, @aesniri, @munsonssecretblog, @kirke-is-my-name, @starbearieee, @chatoicboy, @act1839, @needsleep3000, @totally-not-georgia, @witchy-lizard, @cxmeiloorun7, @justrandomlolidk, @chimpkinnuggies, @alicefallsintotherabbithole, @loser-alert, @wwwellacom, @ryantryan6969, @lollipopin, @youcantseem3, @a-cult-leader, @verexi, @purpleskiesandroses, @they2luv1naia, @sophiaj650, @idolautism, @rheannajrs, @merakiq, @rexs-wife, @sukaretto-n, @twilight-loveer, @f1shb0nez, @callsign-blue, @marcelineormars

[transhuman-priestess]

The follow-up to The New Flesh. Read that one first!

15 months prior to the raid on the Blair Mountain, Captain Terry Holder butts heads with her Chief Engineer as an unknown threat bears down on their ship.

This story does not contain sexual themes, however it is part of a larger work which does, therefore, this story is only for consumption by legal adults over the age of 18. It includes moderate violence, and coarse language.

January 14, 2253 1041 Earth UTC

15 months prior to the raid on the Blair Mountain

The Hildas, 550 Million Kilometers from Jupiter

“Chester, how long do you think we’re going to be stuck here?” Captain Terry Holder asked.

She and her first mate, Chester Silvera, were sitting in the mess hall of the Huntington. The ore hauler had been coasting .9 AU from 153 Hilda for 56 hours with a damaged ablator in her #2 main engine. Holder was growing restless.

Silvera, on the other hand, was in a fine mood. “Why are you so eager to get back to port?” He was downing his third slice of pizza since taking a seat 10 minutes ago. Holder couldn’t understand where his appetite came from.

“It’s creepy out here,” she said, “The nearest station is 6 days away. It takes 10 minutes for someone to even hear a distress signal. There’s nothing outside the hull. We’re alone.”

“Captain,” Silvera replied, smirking “You are aware that you can, in point of fact, choose a different occupation than deep space captain, correct?”

“Shut up,” Holder said, smiling. “You know what I mean.” She leaned back in her chair. She’d barely touched the chicken Parmesan she’d gotten from the replicator.

“You’ve been out here for 15 years, Terry,” Silvera said, slipping effortlessly into confidant mode, “You’ve been a captain for 8. You’re used to this. What’s different now?”

Holder sighed. Chester, as always, knew how to get to the heart of the matter. She sat for a moment, not wanting to say it out loud, but knowing she couldn’t hide it from her friend and crewmate. Finally, she said, “It’s Powell.”

“The engineer?” Silvera seemed genuinely surprised.

“Yeah,” said Holder, her hand idly falling to the nickel-plated pistol she wore on her hip, “I don’t like her attitude.” She rubbed her thumb on the hammer, feeling the familiar knurling, catching her thumbnail on a well-worn burr.

“You seem to get along with her just fine.” His pizza lay forgotten on the plate, he was all business now.

“Well, that’s what they pay me for, Chester.” She took a bite of chicken to buy some time before continuing, “She’s arrogant, inflexible, obsessed with rules and procedure.” She tossed her fork to the table. Chester scooted back slightly, sensing one of his captain’s moods coming on. Holder stood and began pacing.

“It’s always ‘SOP says this!’ or ‘The tech manual says that!’ always coming up with excuses why something can’t be done, except when it’s something she wants done, then procedure flies out the fucking door!” She ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

“Terry-”

“We’ve been coasting for two and a half days.”

“Terry is-”

“She told me that she has to strip the bell down to the cooling tubes for fuck’s sake.”

“TERRY!” Silvera banged his hand on the table for emphasis. Holder stopped talking.

“Yeah, Chester?”

“This is about the pistol, isn’t it?”

Holder rolled her eyes, “No, it’s not about the fucking pistol.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

The engraved, nickel-plated .45 was a family heirloom. Captains in the Civil Navy were allowed sidearms for ceremonial purposes, but they weren’t supposed to wear them outside of certain occasions. Of course, in deep space, the captain had more or less free reign, barring mutiny, and Terry liked the feeling of the heavy steel on her hip. She didn’t keep it loaded, though she did keep 2 magazines of hollow-points on her belt.

She’d never had to draw it in anger, though there had been a few close calls with pirates where she’d gone as far as to carry it cocked and locked. But that was on her old ship, the Joachimstahl.

This was her first sortie in command of the Huntington. She’d inherited the ship from a retiring captain, Jack Thorton, and the crew along with it, including the old engineer, who immediately took issue with Terry’s habit of wearing the piece. She’d actually pulled Chester aside to complain about it. It pissed Terry off.

Chester smiled gently. “Terry, I’ve known you five years. I’ve been your right hand for two. You need to get over this grudge.”

“She’s a little shit, Chester.”

“She is a fine engineer. Captain Thorton had nothing but praise for her. Has she ever disobeyed an order?”

“No, but-”

“Has she ever put the crew in danger?”

“No, but-”

“Then you need to drop this little grudge, and you know that.”

Terry was about to argue when her the radio on her belt chirped.

“Captain,” the voice of Jill Cambell, her radar navigator, “There’s something weird on the scope here.”

Terry keyed to reply “What do you mean by weird?”

“I mean I’ve never seen anything move this fast. You better get up here.”

“Be there in a minute.”

***

Captain Holder and First Mate Silvera walked onto the bridge of the Huntington. The radar station was the only one currently occupied. Campbell turned to them as they walked through the door.

“Alright, Jill,” said Terry, “What’s cracking?”

“About 20 minutes ago I got an off radar return about an AU out on the long-range band.” Campbell reported, “No exhaust signature, and it was redshifting so much I thought the scope might be broken.”

“And?”

“It’s not.” Campbell said, tossing a hand in the air. “I switched to the secondary dish. Same cross-section. Same redshift. Hit it with the high-rez, same cross section, same redshift. Whatever it is, it’s at least 50 meters long and it’s moving at O.1C.”

“So send a message to SETI’s Europa Division.” Terry was amazed but couldn’t understand why Campbell had called her to the bridge for this, “I mean, that’s incredible, really, it is, but if they’re moving away from us what’s the rush?

“Well,” Campbell seemed nervous, “Now they’re blueshifting.”

“Bullshit,” Holder dropped the word like a bag of bricks, “How is that possible? Even if something could put out that much delta-v, in that short a span, the g forces of changing direction would rip it to pieces.”

“I don’t know how, Captain,” Campbell said, turning back to the scope. “But I’d really like to have a plan when they get here.

***

“Fucking Christ, whose god damn idea was this?” Chief Engineer Genevieve Powell cursed to herself.

“Sorry Chief,” Engineer’s Mate Karl Miller said over the radio, “I uh, didn’t copy that.”

“Whoever designed the Shinkolobwe-class engine is either a sadist, an idiot, or both.” Powell replied, “This engine is pissing me off.”

She was nearing the end of a 4-hour long EVA replacing a cracked ablator panel right in the throat of the massive 10-meter fusion rocket. When the engines were active, the reactors would vent hot plasma out the back at temperatures approaching that of the surface of the sun, sending the ship moving in the opposite direction and accelerating it to a top speed of 20 million kilometers per hour.

But right now, they weren’t doing anything of the sort. The ablator shield, a layer of boronated plastic 4 meters thick meant to both protect the engine bells from melting and absorb excess neutrons, was cracked, right in the throat. With the ablator shield damaged, the plume coming out of the rocket engine wouldn’t be smooth and even, but roiling with turbulence. Turbulence that would, at best, drop the propulsive efficiency enough to put serious differential stresses on the spaceframe. At worst, it would impinge on the hull, or through to the engine bell, either way burning through and destroying the ship.

Which was why Powell had been awake for 40 hours. Why she and the engineering team had been working in shifts to painstakingly repair the panel. Angle grinders, caulk guns full of boron paste, a portable X-ray unit, and lots and lots of elbow grease.

“Miller,” Powell said, wiping her cheek on the inside of her helmet. “You ever wonder whose brilliant fucking idea was it to use ablative shielding instead of magnetic on a 100-giganewton fusion engine?”

“Can’t say I have,” Miller replied, “You’re gonna have to take that up with Tycho Shipbuilding. Captain wants to know your ETA.”

“God dammit,” The Captain was pissing Powell off. No respect for the work involved in keeping nuclear fusion going without blowing the whole ship to hell, or bombarding the crew with fast neutrons, or turning them all into sludge with 100g burns. “Is this about me not using the tether?” The umbilical tether was supposed to be worn whenever the EVA thruster pack was in use, as a backup, in case the thrusters failed. Powell hated the damn thing. It got in the way and the thruster pack was reliable enough she didn’t need it.

“Uh, I don’t think so, Chief.”

“It’ll be done when it’s fucking done. I’ve got another 3 meters of length on this bitch of a crack. It goes 45 centimeters deep. It’s going to take at least another 10 hours to fill that.”

There was a pause as Miller relayed this to the captain, then, “Uh, Chief,” Miller said, nervously, “Captain says you have an hour.”

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN? Put her on, now.”

“She says there’s some kind of pirates bearing in on us in 60 minutes.”

Powell rolled her eyes, “That’s not possible. There wasn’t anything within 4 AU of us when I came out here. Tell her I’m not doing anything without talking to her first.”

A brief pause on Miller’s end, then, “Have it your way.”

Powell continued grinding at the crack for a moment. Then Holder’s voice came on. “Powell, I know we don’t get along,” that was an understatement, Powell thought, “But Campbell confirmed this thing is moving at one-tenth c, heading directly towards us. It’s crossed 20 million clicks since she started tracking it. It actually reversed direction to come this way. I know it sounds like bullshit, but I need you to get whatever you can filled and get back into the airlock. I sent out a distress signal but I won’t hear back from Hilda station for at least another 2 minutes”

“Captain, you can’t just rush something like this!” Powell protested, “The differential forces alo-”

Holder cut her off, “I’m aware of the structural ramifications. It’s my ship and that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”

“Captain,” Powell said, “how are we going to outrun something a hundred times faster than us?”

“We’re not. But I’ll need the engines. Trust me.”

Powell gritted her teeth. She couldn’t stand Holder, but Campbell was good. She and Powell had served together under Thorton, and Campbell had helped Powell develop a couple of scanning tools for the engines that worked a hell of a lot better than stock equipment.

“If Campbell’s sure then. I can maybe get you 10 cm of depth along the rest of the crack. It won’t be good for the full trip back to Europa but I should be able to get you enough dV to get us on our way before I have to come back here and fix it again.”

Holder thought for a moment, then replied, “Make it so, Jenna.”

“Aye captain.”

For the next 45 minutes, Powell broke rule after rule for ablator repair. Instead of x-raying the crack she ground it down to 15 centimeters visually. She filled it in with ablator paste and smoothed it by hand before it had cured instead of sanding it once it was dry. By the end of the ordeal, she had used 100 kilos of ablator paste, far less than the 700 the job properly needed. She looked out at a nearby asteroid as they drifted past, and said into her mic, “Miller?”

“Chief?” came Miller’s soft voice through the headset. Powell saw a glint of something off by the big rock in space.

“Tell the captain I’m climbing out. I’ll be at the airlock in 5-” Powell was cut off by a squeel of static and a flash of bright light from the dorsal side of the ship. The shock jolted the Huntington and knocked Powell against the inside of the engine bell. She felt her shoulder crack. The screeching of static faded but was replaced by her own cries of agony. She was floating out towards the center of the nozzle, she couldn’t move her fingers to control the maneuvering pack.

Another flash and another impact jolted the ship vertically. Static filled Powell’s ears as she bounced into the bottom of the engine bell and then up, out into the vast expanse of space.

***

“Owens, damage report,” Holder barked.

Iris Owens responded, “Two detonations in the 2 kiloton range, a kilometer dorsal of us. Numbers 5 and 6 radiators showing a pressure drop. The rest are showing overheat but coming down.”

It had been an ambush. Holder didn’t know how it happened, but it couldn’t have been anything else. Somehow the two ships, 10 light-minutes away from each other, had coordinated. While the Huntington had been busy worrying about the distant ship, another had been hiding behind a nearby asteroid.

There wasn’t time to think about it though, “Miller,” Holder barked, “Pitch us up 115 degrees, roll 45 starboard.”

“Pitch up 115, roll 45 starboard.”

“Powell, what’s your status?”

***

Powell couldn’t move her right arm. The impact had shattered her shoulder blade and humerus. Her RCS system was giving her a warning that one of the quads had malfunctioned. Even if she’d been able to move the translation control, it wouldn’t have done any good.

I’m going to die out here, she realized.

Flashes of warm yellow-white light appeared behind her. The hypergolic RCS system was pitching the ship up, rolling it to the right. She watched as the huge ship seemed to breech like a whale, then pirouette. Over her radio she heard the captain’s voice, “Powell, what’s your status.”

“I’m alive!” she’d never been so happy to hear Terry Holder’s stupid fucking voice, “I’m alive but I can’t get back to the airlock! My thrusters are damaged and my shoulder’s broken.”

“Powell?” came the captain’s voice again, “Powell can you read me?”

“I can read you,” Powell shouted, tearing up from pain, or maybe from fear, “I can read you! Please respond.”

She realized that Holder couldn’t hear her. The wire for the microphone must have been damaged by the impact that broke her shoulder.

She was alone out here.

***

“Miller,” Holder said, “What’s Powell’s biomed say.”

Miller turned red in the face and stammered, “Uhhh,”

“Miller I do not have time for this, what’s her biomed say?”

“She isn’t wearing it.”

“What​?”

“She said she didn’t have time to put it on.”

“Retract her tether.”

“She’s not wearing that either.”

Holder felt ice creep down her spine. The whole scene seemed to go quiet and time stood still. In 8 years as a captain, Holder had never lost a crew member. She hadn’t even considered it a real possibility. But now, with her chief engineer missing and unresponsive, she didn’t know what to do. It felt like she was a lieutenant again, fresh out of training. She looked at Silvera, pleading.

Chester, for his part, looked as disturbed as she was. But he kept his cool, “Its your call, Captain.”

Holder knew what she should do, but that didn’t make it any easier. The fact she couldn’t stand Powell made it even harder, somehow. But if Powell wasn’t responding, and there was no way to retrieve her, then she was dead, one way or the other. Holder didn’t want to think about it.

Time started again, “Owens, get ready to dump ore bay 3. Miller, point the ventral hull at that ship and be ready with a 200m/s dorsal burn.”

***

The ship swung away from Powell, but then continued through its arc and, incredibly, came close enough to her that she was able to grab a handrail, only 20 meters from the airlock.

She scrambled to gain a foothold as she held on tight with her one good arm. This was a long shot, but it was her only hope for survival. She found purchase, and set her aim, then kicked and swung herself around, spinning head over heels. For 3 eternal seconds, she drifted through space, only inky black and stars filling her vision. Then the ship came back into view, and she grabbed at the first thing she could see and held on for dear life.

She’d grabbed one of the many high-gain antennae that dotted the hull. Carefully, she slid her hand down and pulled herself towards the hull. She was only 5 meters from the airlock. As her hand made contact with the hull, she felt a rumble through it. She looked around, and her heart dropped.

***

“Ore bay 3 open, Captain,” said Owens.

“Good. Disengage cargo restraints.”

“Cargo restraints disengaged”

“Miller, 200m/s dorsal,” Holder commanded

“200 m/s dorsal, captain.” Came Miller’s reply.

***

The roof of the ship lit up all around Powell. She could feel the heat from the thrusters. The sudden change in environment made her jump, and she lost her grip on the antenna. Relief turned, once again, to mortal dread as the Huntington sped away from her, leaving her floating, dying, in deep space, billions of kilometers from her home in Dublin.

***

“Dorsal burn complete, captain.” Said Miller.

“Good,” said Holder, “Now put that ore between us and that ship, face us away from it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She would only have one chance to make this work, but Holder was a star poker player and knew how to use a bum hand to her advantage. Hold 3 had, until a minute ago, contained 20,000 metric tons of dense iridium ore. The Huntington didn’t have any armaments, but that didn’t mean she was defenseless.

“Holder, on my mark, engage engines, full power. Skip the purge burn.”

Miller nodded, “Preparing to fire main engines.”

***

The captain had jettisoned the contents of bay 3. Powell was beyond panic now. Not calm, but something else entirely. Numb to everything around her, she watched with a detached fascination as the ship pitched downward and yawed to starboard, before translating forward slightly, and finally starboard. It settled with the #2 engine that she’d just been working on a mere 10 meters away. She could see the big regenerative cooling tubes and the mounting cavity behind them.

She watched as the bell shuddered slightly, and recognition dawned on her. She hoped she wouldn’t feel what was coming next.

***

“Ignition complete.” came Miller’s clipped voice, “Standing by for full-power burn.”

Captain Holder got on the PA, “All hands, prepare for burn in 10 seconds.”

A preternatural calm came over the Captain. She hoped that Powell’s work had been enough. With 3 seconds left before the burn, she opened a channel, hoping Powell would somehow hear her, and said, “Please forgive me, Jenna.”

The two main engines of the Civil Ship Huntington spooled up. The ship’s dual fusion reactors pumping liquefied lithium deuteride into preburners that heated the silver grey dust hot enough to push it past liquid and gas and into ionized plasma, so hot the electrons and nuclei were ripped apart by sheer kinetic energy.

That was only the beginning, though. Next, the reactor squeezed down with a magnetic field stronger than the sun’s, and as the plasma was squeezed and heated even further, strong forces in the lithium atoms broke down, creating hydrogen and tritium, the latter of which sought out another atom to join itself to and, finding deuterium, they embraced, creating helium. As they did, each of them sacrifice a small portion of its mass to ensure this wedding would endure and, in doing so, a tiny fraction of each of those atoms was transformed, vanished from existence, into pure energy. This happened billions of trillions of times in a single second, and all of that energy had to go somewhere. Knowing this, the ship’s computer opened a hole in the magnetic confinement that coincided with the opening in the engine bell. Kinetic energy and Sir Issac’s third law dictated what happpened next.

Superheated plasma existed the engine bell at a temperature unmeasurable by any mechanical means, directly at the mass of iridium behind the ship. Much of the heavy metal immediately evaporated, but some survived, now white-hot and superheated, and heading directly towards the unknown ship assailing the Huntington at nearly 20 million kilometers per hour. The kinetic energy imparted transferred itself immediately to the ship, shredding it as easily as buckshot would disintegrate a clay pigeon. The Huntington sped away under her own power as the enemy ship dissolved under the barrage.

***

There is no air in space, thus there is no convection. There is, however, thermal radiation. The bulk of the plasma had been directed behind the Huntington, but the brilliant white-hot glow of her engines carried heat as well as light. It was this heat, in a pulse that lasted only 10 milliseconds before the Huntington sped away, that struck Jenna Powell.

For 10 milliseconds, every inch of her space suit that had been facing the engine, as well as her face, were heated to incandescence. Only her flesh and hair burned. The suit’s suppression system temporarily flooded her helmet with CO2, which worked to quell it within 2 seconds, but the damage had been done. The exterior of her suit, unable to ignite due to the lack of oxygen, instead boiled off. The sudden release of energy propelling her backwards, away from the rocket blast, saving her from the quick and painless death she had expected.

She screamed. She screamed and she cried. She was alone. Alone, and dying. She thought about home. About the Wicklow Mountains, about the sound of rain on a March evening, about the warmth of her bed. She thought about all of these, and how she would never see them again.

A shadow appeared over her. She felt herself being pulled backwards. Suddenly, an unfamiliar hallway appeared around her. A door closed in front of her, and she heard the hiss of an airlock pressurizing. After the silence of space and her ordeal, the sound was like a hammer in her brain.

She felt artificial gravity engage, and fell to the floor on her broken shoulder. She couldn’t even muster the energy to scream.

A pair of strangely mechanical armored legs appeared in front of her, and she felt herself lifted off the floor by powerful hands. A twisted face came into view, covered in wires and metal.

“Do not resist,” the figure said, its voice feminine and curiously synthetic, “You will become beautiful.”

Jenna Powell blacked out.

[yuliasolsystem]

I'm back today not to whine about Legato or Knives and how the fandom sees them differently than I do, but about the Plants. And how the fandom sees them differently than I do.

It really upsets me that people don't realize how terrible the situation of the Plants in the manga is.

Their position is worse than slavery, they are literally livestock to be consumed. Everyone thinks that on Earth and the other colonies the burden on the Plants must be less because people there aren't fighting for survival. But that's the problem with humanity, we take more than we need to survive, and humanity in TriMax is quite realistic in that sense. Even on No Man's Land, there are rich people who enjoy luxuries simply because they can, not because they will die without them. And where life is better, there are only more such people. Also technologically advanced civilizations consume more energy, so no, it's unlikely that on Earth the load on the Plants is less, it's just that there's an option to replace those who died with new ones.

There's also the argument that "Plants want to be energy sources themselves". But I don't think that's true. They are artificially produced, they have no choice what to do with their life. Yes, the Plants feel sorry for humans, because Plants are kind beings capable of empathy, but that doesn't mean they accept their situation. The Plants of No Man's Land went with Knives of their own free will, and from what the Earthlings are saying, the Plants on Earth and in other colonies are also starting rebellions here and there.

Yes, at the end of the manga the humans agreed to "coexist" with the Plants, but what exactly was supposed to change? In the last chapter, we see that they built a large Plant dome in Octovern. Also, that there are now televisions on No Man's Land, which most likely run on the same energy from the Plants, because no other energy sources were shown and we've seen that the Earthlings' ships are powered by the Plants, so it's unlikely that there's any other energy source at all. So all that's changed is the container that holds the Plants. But even if humans sincerely wanted to do Plants justice, what could they give them? In fact, the Plants don't even need light bulbs or a dome. As mentioned in the manga, the dependent Plants have a sort of collective intelligence, so merging is no danger to them, and once merged they can function without human support. They only came back because humans would die without them, not the other way around.

Ideally, production of dependent Plants should be stopped and independent Plants should be allowed to negotiate the terms of their coexistence with humans, since they are able to communicate with both sides, but as I mentioned above, dependent Plants are still a source of energy for Earthlings at least, independent Plants on Earth are controlled by the government (according to the Chronica they all have some kind of neuro-blocking), and Vash is hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters.

What I want to say is that the only possible kind of coexistence between Plants and humans is as a source of energy/food and a consumer, i.e. either livestock and owner or parasite and host.

[fictionlover100]

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓬𝓮𝓼 𝓘𝓷-𝓑𝓮𝓽𝔀𝓮𝓮𝓷: Prolouge

Synopsis: Hanbin sets out to find his crew one by one he finds them.

Genre: Sci-fi Adventure, Angst

Pairings: ZB1 X OC

Word count: 5.2k (5,286)

Info/ Masterlist / Next

The Space ship was significant, containing at least 18 bedrooms with workout space, a kitchen, and many more amenities. However, the ship was heavily damaged and needed constant repairs.  Hanbin had been saving up for this ship for a long time. He worked on cargo loading and transport for a long time. He was excited to finally be able to start his own journey with his own crew.  But, now that he is in front of it, he feels alone and isolated. He needs to find a crew and fast, preferably some people who can work on fixing the ship. He was so lost in thought, staring at the ship, that he hadn’t realized the kid was standing beside him. 

 “This is sick. I haven’t seen a ship this size since I was 8.” The person spoke, looking at the ship with a smile. 

The person turns to Hanbin, extends their hand, and states,“ I’m Han Yujin, by the way. I'm here to show you how the ship works.”

Hanbin is silent at first. This kid in front of him could not be more than 13 years old. 

How can he tell me about the tech on the ship? It's probably older than him. 

“I know I look young. I grew up around the ship,” Yujin states when Hanbin looks at him with a confused face. 

“I’m Hanbin. How old are you? Shouldn’t you be in school?” Hanbin extended his hand hesitantly, and Yujin accepted, shaking it back.

“I'm 16. Growing up, I just studied many ships in my free time, so it's like second nature,” Yujin led Hanbin onto the ship. 

“ I notice that there seems to be a lot of issues with the oxygen system, so I can repair that before you head off…” Yujin rambles on about the issue of the ship, and in Hanbin eyes, Yujin would be perfect, but he might be young for the type of work he wants to do. “... also light travel will be tougher due to the size, but I can add that on in--” 

Hanbin interrupts Yujin, “ Why don’t you join my crew? It is clear this ship needs repair, and if you can spot those little details to fix. You are smarter than most ship repair people.” 

Yujin was stunned. He had thought of sinking on a ship and leaving, but who would help train the new mechanic? What about his friends? He can’t leave them. 

“ I appreciate the offer, but I have friends that need me,” Yujin stated in a dejecting way.

“It's clear you want to come. Do these friends of yours have skills like you?” Hanbin asks. Yujin thinks maybe they can join him. But he doesn’t know if they want to leave this planetary system. 

“ I have one friend who is good with computers and tech. The others get into fights a lot, though” Yujin states, laughing and looking at anything but Hanbin.

“ Well, I’m here for the next few days; why don’t you introduce me, and maybe they can join you too?” Hanbin states he thought finding his crew might be a good idea.

“ Uh… If they agree, then I’ll join.” Yujin states 

Gyuvin was sitting in the stands outside a cage with a computer in his hands. He couldn't care less who was in the ring; he was more focused on trying to find work as a technology expert. The crowd around him was loud and noisy, yelling at the people in the cage—some people flaunting their wealth and screaming at the fight in the ring. The current match that everyone was screaming at nearly the end of the match. Gyuvin was only here waiting for one person, and his match was next. 

When the 1st match was over, Gyuvin had closed his laptop. He watches as the ring worker drags the loser's unconscious body out of the ring.  Gyuvin stands looking at the ring, seeing the next opponent to enter the ring.

“ That was great, ladies and gentlemen. The last person's fight against the feared Titan is new. The rookie beast Gunwook Park!” The crowd boos the new challenger in the ring. However, Gyuvin smirks, seeing his friends entering the ring. 

Gunwook was physically fit, with his broad shoulders and lean body. He entered the ring with a stoic face, not daring to show a reaction. Gyuvin goes to the betting booth to look at his friend's odds of winning. 

The sign states: Gunwook V. Titan - 1:25

Gyuvin pulls out 200 credits and speaks to the bookie, “ 200 credits,” 

“ 200 on Titan” 

“No, Gunwook.” The bookie shakes his head and hands Gyuvin back a ticket. Gyuvin walks closer to the ring, squeezing his way through the crowd. He makes his way toward the ring fence and spots Gunwook's corner. He catches Gunwook attention and sends him a thumbs-up. Gunwook smirks and gets ready to fight.

“ Gyuvin, what the hell are you doing here?”  Gyuvin cringes at the voice. It was a female voice and one that he recognized well. 

“ Hey, Izumi, funny seeing you here; I thought you would be back in the shelter,” Gyuvin stated, scratching their head and focusing on the match. Gunwook also spots the person standing next to him and laughs to himself. 

“ This is what you guys sneak out to do; why Gunwook returns with a bruise.” Izumi crosses her arms and looks at Gyuvin. `

“ Yes, now we need to cheer on Gunwook`.” Gyuvin turns Izumi toward the ring. The bell rings, and Gunwook stands from the corner. Izumi closed there eyes and shuffled closer to Gyuvin, trying to avoid the sight of the rough fight. 

The Titan strikes Gunwook, directing the punch toward his head. Gunwook could barely dodge the punch, and he felt the rush of air pulling past his ear. The crowd cheers for Titan, and Gunwook knows there are only two people in the crowd who are on his side. Gunwook took the opportunity and went for Titan's arms. His attempt was successful, and he flipped Titan to the ground. Gyuvin cheered as the rest of the crowd reeled in anguish. 

“ What’s happening?” Izumi's eyes were still closed, and They were speaking toward Gyuvin. 

“ He is winning; that’s what's happening,” Gyuvin said with a smirk. “ and we are going to be able to buy a ticket out of this stupid system,” 

“Well, I would say keep your money.” Izumi says, “Yujin said he has a way out of this system.”

“Last time I trusted Yujin, I lost 1,000 credits and was still here,” Gyuvin spoke, still looking at the fight.

“ Yujin met a guy in the mechanic bay looking for a crew, and the ride would be free. Just have to stick with the ship.” 

“ That sounds too good to be true,”

“ Yujin, check the dude's background. He is legit, Gyuvin,” Izumi states. “Gunwook, Yujin, and you can finally leave, and you can keep your credits,”  

Gunwook had put Titan on the ground and secured him into a headlock. He was waiting for the titan to tap out, but the titan was scratching his legs and punching his arms. But Gunwook was in pain but silent, hoping the titan would sleep.  Izumi finally decided to take a peek at the ring. They see Gunwook grinding their teeth as the titan struggles to escape his grasp. Eventually, the titan loses consciousness and collapses to the ground. Gunwook lets go immediately and stands victoriously. Gyuvin cheers, and the people around them seem annoyed that a rookie beat the reigning champion. Gunwook leaves the ring and joins his friend in the crowd. 

“ Izumi, I thought the Goodie would be back at the shelter,” Gunwook spoke, wiping the sweat off his forehead. 

“ They say Yujin has an opportunity for us to leave this system and be a part of the crew finally,” Gyuvin spoke with his arms crossed over his chest, standing in disbelief. 

“ If you two don’t believe me, at least meet the guy offering Yujin,” Izumi pleaded. Gunwook is convinced but looks to Gyuvin for confirmation. 

“ Fine, I will sit down and talk to him,” Gyuvin gave up. He doesn’t believe this is real, but if Izumi is convinced, he might try it.

------

One month later

  “ Do you have any idea where we are going?” Gunwook asked, sitting in an open chair within the cockpit. Hanbin was looking at the dashboard with intergalactic maps next to it. He could barely hear the question, more focused on not crashing the ship into an asteroid. 

“ Hey…. Captain.” Gunwwok spoke again and waved his hand in front of Hanbin's face. It effectively woke him up from his daze.

“ What… Sorry,” Hanbin spoke, still looking at the maps.

“ I asked. Do you have any idea where we are going?”  Gunwook spoke, leaning on the dash console.

“ Yeah, of course.” Hanbin laughed off, “ One of the outer planetary systems to stop and stock up before the next mission.” 

Hanbin had straightened his posture at the question, though Gunwook didn’t believe him. Over the past month, Gunwook had spent most of his time on the ship with Hanbin.  Gyuvin and Yujin were focused on repairing the ship and rarely gave Gunwook the time of day. He learns what Hanbin tells and knows when Hanbin is lying to him. It helps when you grow where they did. 

“ Look, next time we stop, we should look for a navigator or someone that can get us better-paying gigs at least.” 

“ You may be right, but we need to start making more money before we hire anyone else,” Hanbin states, navigating the ship. 

“ Why not teach me how to navigate the ship, and then when we stop, you can go looking for better jobs instead of working to plot the next course,” Gunwook offered. Hanbin smirked; he knew that would help, but what about his role in the group? But Gunwook was right; he needed to step away from the plotting course and focus on jobs on which he could make more money. 

“ Alright, I'll teach you how to plot a course and navigate; once we land, I'll look for our next job, Deal?” Hanbin spoke, handing the original course plan to Gunwook.

“ Deal,” Gunwook spoke with a smile. Finally, he has something to do rather than watch people work all the time. 

Over the next week, Hanbin began to teach Gunwook about the ship's navigation. As well as how to pilot the ship to avoid space debris. Gunwook was grateful that he could just be a little less lonely. 

-

The Ship had pulled into the port. Gunwook looked through the front window to see a flashing sign that read Welcome to Base One. 

Gyuvin had been on his laptop to get the ship's mainframe up and working. So far, it's been a month and only weak progress. He was slowly getting frustrated with the bit of progression. The rest of them had tried to convince him to take a break, but it was just bothering him about why he couldn’t finish his repairs. But before he can go at it again, the laptop in front of him slams shut.

“ You have been looking at the screen for way too long, and you need to stop 'cause you're gonna drive yourself crazy,” Yujin spoke with his hand on the laptop.

“ If I don't finish, I will go crazy,” Gyuvin spoke, looking annoyed.

“ It will be the same as you left when we all return, " Yujin said. “Besides, I haven’t eaten, nor have you, and Hanbin is paying,” 

“ Well, who can turn down free food?” Gyuvin spoke, getting up from his seat. He turned around to see Gunwook standing at the door frame.

“ Guess who successfully landed and navigated the ship,” Gunwook spoke with a device smile.

“That's so cool; I didn’t know you knew how to do that,” Gyuvin spoke, 

“ Hanbin taught me over the week,” Gunwook said dreamily. “Maybe one day I can be a full-time navigator,” 

 “Congrats, now can we all just go eat?” Yujin whined. The other boys had left the small electrical room to find Hanbin on the loading bay looking at a small hand-held thin glass device.  Hanbin is looking at available gigs, but nothing satisfies his demands. Then he sees a message from an old friend, putting a smile on his face.  The same person was the reason why they came to this place. Hanbin quickly put the device in his pockets and smiled at the three boys approaching him.

“ You guys are ready to eat,”  Hanbin said. All of them nodded while Yujin was rubbing his belly.  Hanbin snickered at the youngest action. 

“ There is a place an old friend recommended this.” Hanbin spoke as  the boys got off the ship and onto the port bay. 

“What is the place called?” Gyuvin asked

“It’s called In Bloom,” Hanbin said, walking toward the restaurant's direction. 

-

INSIDE THE IN BLOOM

The inside of the place was loud and Chaotic. The waiter and bartenders were scrambling. 

If you asked Jiwoong why he was here, it would be so that he could earn some credits. The only thing on his mind was the job at hand. Jiwoong sat in a corner booth facing toward the exits and was monitoring  every individual in the place. He was keeping track of who had entered and exited. He was busy looking at his surroundings but failed to notice a blonde lanky waiter walking toward his table. 

“ Would you like another drink, sir?” The waiter spoke. Jiwoong read the metal-plated name tag on the waiter; it read Ricky. Jiwoong never really looked at the waiter and made sure that his face was the last thing he could be remembered by.

“ Just another beer,” Jiwoong placed an empty cup before the waiter. 

The waiter didn’t get a good look at the stranger's face but grabbed the cup and walked away to compile the request. Ricky hated this place, the one he was bound to for his life. He wiTheyd to see the stars be like those who told stories about those heists and flirtatious escapades in the bar. But, this place was far from the stories that the patrons came and talked about. 

“ Hey Kid! Can you get another round for this lovely Lady and me,” A grimy old man spoke with a beautiful young woman sitting on his lap. 

The women seem to be a drunk and giggling mess. The only thing keeping her from falling on the floor was the arm of the old man. This is the worst part of the job.

“ I can get you a round, but the lady, not so much,” Ricky said with a capitalistic smile, getting the new glass for the previous person he was tabling.  The old man began to complain, but Ricky had already tuned the man out, busy working on the other gentleman's beer order. Once the glass was filled with the forty beverages, Ricky returned to the table and placed it before returning to work behind the bar.

Jiwoong grabs the glass and takes a sip, and then the In Bloom doorbell above the entrance rang. Jiwoong spotted four men enter as a group. Jiwoong had made eye contact with one of the people in the group and looked back with the same distant gaze. The group had secured a table and had barely paid attention to Jiwoong. 

Jiwoong noticed that one had checked his phone and headed to the bar, presumably for a drink. But, the waiter who had handed him the beer was too busy cleaning the glass.  Jiwoong did not want to be distracted by the exciting interaction, so he focused on the door and opened his ear to ensure he found his target. 

-

An hour had passed since Hanbin Crew had arrived at the tavern.  Gunwook, Gyuvin, and Yujin were in their 3rd glass of water, and Hanbin's gaze was still at the door. He occasionally looked at his phone, waiting for his friends to arrive; just as Hanbin's eyes left the door again to check his phone, the bell above the door jingled, and two people walked in. 

Both were around the same height, smiling from ear to ear. The others held their heads down and were careful. Hanbin spotted his friend and waved them to the table. 

“ Matthew! Over here!” Hanbin motion. The Smiling one grabbed the other arm and dragged them toward the table. 

“Hey bro, what’s up?” The smiling one, Matthew, said, walking up to Hanbin with his cautious partner beside him. Hanbin stands and outstretched his arm, and Matthew walks straight into Hanbin's arms. The other three boys look at newcomers with curiosity and hesitantly. 

“ Who is the sad duckling you brought with you?” Hanbin said, noticing the figure on Matthew's right-hand side. 

“ A friend from college… He needs help, and you have a ship,” Matthew said, smiling beside Hanbin. The stranger held out his hand toward Hanbin. Hanbin looked at his face and noticed that the man wore round glasses and looked more sophisticated than Matthew. 

The stranger introduced himself, “ Hi, I’m Taerae.” 

He quickly sat down at the next available seat to not draw too much attention to himself. However, one person at the back of the tavern was paying keen attention to Taerae. 

“ Matthew, I can’t afford another mouth to feed,” Hanbin said, shaking his head and sitting back in his seat.

“ What if I said I can get you and everyone on your ship jobs without working for the Intergalactic Council,” Matthew said in a hushed tone. 

“I would say that statistically it's nearly impossible,” Gyuvin said, knowing very well that the Intergalactic Council had effectively made it impossible to find high-paying jobs unless you come from royalty.

  “ The only way you could do that is illegal trade, which is asking for a death wish,” Hanbin spoke carefully. It was a bad idea that they were discussing going against the Intergalactic Council in such a public setting. But Hanbin knew that if anyone reported them, then it would be the death of his dream.

“ I can get us the job of hunting down rare artifacts, and all we have to do is collect and deliver the items,” Matthew spoke with wonder in his eyes. “ These jobs are higher paying than the jobs you guys have, and if there is an injury, Taerae can patch you guys right up.” 

Hanbin was contemplating; the offer was good, and it would be enough to pay off his debts and feed the crew. But, it would mean that if caught, they would have a bounty on their head.

“ Fine but we need people to help out with other aspects of these missions. You and I both know that we need at least three more people, someone to help train us with basic skill of defense, someone with charm to help with distraction, and someone who can get us into hard places.” Hanbin spoke using his finger to emphasize the importance

 Matthew just smirked and responded “ We can find those types of people along the way.”

Jiwoong was focused on that name for the past couple of days. He slowly got up from the table and left some credits on the table. He wipes out a high-tech Lazblade, aims at Taerae's neck, and announces himself to the group of boys.

“Kim Taerae, This can go either way. I can kill you right now, or we can leave peacefully and not cause a scene,” 

The rest of the table quickly stood up, backing away from Jiwoong's weapon. Hanbin had widened and was the first to put his hand in the air to face the unspoken attacker. 

“Hey, I'm sure Taerae here didn’t do anything wrong,” Hanbin said, alleviating the situation with a slight tremble.  However, Jiwoong ignored Hanbin and waited for his target to move. At this point, Ricky had seen the blade in the bounty hunter's hand. Ricky made his way toward the group that was causing a seen

“ What is going on here?” Ricky spoke in an irritated tone. Jiwoong had managed to look at the waiter who had served him earlier. “ Just some bounty I am here to collect,” Jiwoong spoke calmly, his eyes trained on the back of Taerae's head. Hanbin widened even further; his friend never informed him of the bounty on the guest. Matthew had lowered his head, avoiding Hanbin's gaze. 

“ Look, I didn’t do anything wrong,” Taerae finally said and slowly stood up. “ You might have the wrong guy.” 

Hanbin watched the whole ordeal and was stunned, unable to do anything. He looks at the blonde/white-haired waiter with hints of prayers in his eye. He was practically begging Ricky to kick the bounty hunter out. Ricky knew if he kicked out the bounty hunter, the situation would continue outside, potentially damaging the tavern's reputation and causing him to lose his job. But, if he allows the bounty hunter to continue, fewer people will start coming, and he will lose his job. “ Okay, Look, either way here, I will lose my job, so why don't we just calm down,” Ricky spoke with a sense of calm and compulsion. This causes Jiwoong to move his gaze from his target to the waiter.

“ This doesn’t concern you,” Jiwoong spoke to Ricky. Gunwook took the opportunity to make a move toward Jiwoong. Gunwook knocks the weapon out of Jiwoong's hand, and it clatters to the ground. 

“He said you have the wrong person,” Gunwook spoke, trying to be more intimidating. Jiwoong quickly went to grab his weapon and aimed towards Gunwook's neck. Hanbin is quick to make sure Taerae stays behind him.

“ Okay, Sir, Please put the Blade away,” Ricky exclaimed, losing his patience. Gunwook and Jiwoong enthralled the other part of the Tavern. This causes the outside onlooker to chant, ���Fight! Fight!”

“ Look, Kid, This is just a part of my job, and I could kill you instantly, " Jiwoong said with a frustrated tone. “ So let me take him, and I will be out of your hair.”

“Yeah, Then do it,” Gunwook yelled in Jiwoong's face. Jiwoong chuckled at Gunwook. This was hilarious to Jiwoong. Did Gunwook have no common sense to never mess with a bounty hunter and his payday? Gunwook had noticed the 

“ Okay, Gunwook, Let's not make threats to a man with a blade to your neck!” Gyuvin spoke. Ricky approaches Jiwoong and Gunwook and places his hand on their shoulder. 

“ You should listen to your friend,” Jiwoong said, smirking and tauntingly. 

Ricky is slowly pushing Jiwoong and Gunwook apart and is the only one actively trying to defuse the situation. Jiwoong put his blade away, turned his body toward Taerae, and started to walk toward him. However, he is turned around by a strong pull and struck in the face by Gunwook. Jiwoong was pissed and decided to punch back harder. Ricky tries his best to stop the brawl but is pushed to the ground by Jiwoong and Gunwook. The people around the pair start cheering and enticing both of them. Hanbin starts to stress and tries to help stop Gunwook from creating a bigger scene, but to no avail. Jiwoong throws a couple of punches toward Gunwook and tries to subdue the giant bo; however; Gunwook manages to dodge them. As the fight grew longer Jiwoong began to learn Gunwook’s moves and landed a successful punch straight into the boy's stomach. The crowd became louder with every punch and dodge between them. Matthew and Taerae were both trying to escape through the crowd but to no avail, and they were still in sight of the bounty hunter. 

“ ENOUGH!!!!” A towering man with a larger build and a deep, booming voice shouts, causing the crowd to disperse and the fight to end. Ricky knew that now he might get an earful. At that moment, Jiwoong and Gunwook stopped throwing punches and were out of breath. The larger man made his way toward the group. Once there, he grabbed Gunwook and Jiwoong both by the collar and guided them to the door. Hanbin was the first to exit after the pair, followed by the rest of the crew. Ricky had stayed in place, hoping his boss would let this fight slide. 

“ Ricky, I expect you to leave your apron on the bar stand in the next few minutes.” The owner of the bar spoke

“ I didn’t even start it this time,” Ricky pleaded with his boss. “ Look, I need money. At least wait til the end of my shift to fire me.” 

“ This was the 3rd fight you have been involved in this week,” the owner said, towering over Ricky. “You knew the risk of not letting me handle the roughhousing.”

Ricky dejectedly removed his apron and placed it on the counter before walking to the back to grab his things.  Now, he was out of a job and needed to find a new one quickly. -

OUTSIDE THE IN BLOOM

Gunwook was still breathing heavily, while Jiwoong looked unbothered. Gunwook was still annoyed because he nearly lost and probably would walk away from this fight with a couple of bruises. But Jiwoong was the complete opposite, he looked unscathed and more annoyed that he was still there. Jiwoong scanned Gunwook from head to toe; he recognized the protectiveness in his fighting style. Jiwoong saw his younger self within the younger boy. 

“ You're a good fighter I give you that,” Jiwoong praised Gunwook “ But, I have to do my job kid and I know he is your friend but, if i don’t bring him in he will have the mark of death…”

Gunwook knew all too well what the mark of death meant but, he also knew that he didn't need to lose anyone else. Jiwoong watches the younger boy's facial expression change form a face of stoic to sadness then back. 

“...and the next person to try and grab him won't leave you alive next time,” Jiwoong said, trying to scare him. 

The entire group had finally all  made their way outside with Matthew and Taerae by the time Jiwoong spoke. Hanbin, Yujin, Matthew, and Taerae were still in a bit of a shock at how quickly the fight escalated. Gyuvin was more focused on the fact that he hadn't seen Gunwook start a fight since they were kids, Gunwook was a fighter but he mainly waited for the opponent to strike first. So, to Gyuvin and Yujin they knew Gunwook was fighting about a simple bounty but something more puzzling. They all started at the bounty hunter and the ship's new navigator waited for the tension to break. It shocked  the group when Taerae broke 

“ Have you ever asked what my crime was?” Taerae spoke directly to Jiwoong. 

“ I don’t need to know,” Jiwoong said, attempting to grab Taerae’s wrist to cuff him. But Gunwook shoved Jiwoong's hands away causing the bounty hunter to drop the cuff to the ground. Jiwoong stood in disbelief as he see the groups that was with his target slowly try and form a human shield around Taerae

“ You really want to protect someone you just meet that bad” Jiwoong spoke to the group. 

“ I saved someone's life,” Taerae spoke so everyone around him could hear. But Taerae’s gaze was fixed on Jiwoong. “ However, according to the Intergalactic Council rules, the person I saved was a waste of resources and technology, ” 

Jiwoong hesitated in picking the cuffs off the ground. He makes direct eye contact with the medic for the first time. Jiwoong knew the medic was wrong but these benefactors controlled the system and he had to follow the system. “ You really want to roam the universe with the mark of death, put all these people you just meet in danger,”

Taerae takes a step in front of the human shield that was made out of people he might be his safety for the rest of his life. 

“Yes, even if it means I have to die to help people I swore to protect, the benefactor will never rule how I practice my medicine… just like they don't control your emotion,” Taerae spoke, offering a single handshake as a peace offering. 

Jiwoong knew that if he did this they would tell him that he could no longer be a bounty hunter. He let too many people on his list go and never gave word back to the IGPF that they needed to be marked for death. Afterall, Jiwoong was human; he had feelings and empathy toward those people trying to make life less cruel.  Letting one more person go they might start going for his head. Jiwoong needed a plan fast and he knew all about the research plan made he could join  them and teach them how to protect themselves 

“ Frist, I need an assurance, if I let you go they come after me for not completing another job and I don't think either of us want to die,yet” Jiwoong spoke with a sense of confidence in his voice “ Lets make deal, I come a long on your little adventure and give you all the protection you clear need and I can teach skill that can help you on your task acquiring artifact for the researcher,” 

The rest of the group's eyes widened, including Matthew. The researcher believed that no one had heard his proposal to his old friend. They thought they were discussing pretty quietly. Jiwoong stifled a laugh at the group face because most people would never know that a bounty hunter had such keen observation skill. 

Hanbin spoke first “ We have a deal, but I need to make it clear that you can never ever inform the IGPF about this”  Jiwoong responds with a simple nod and proceeds to shake taerae hand.

That is when the door to the In Bloom opened again and they noticed the waiter that had been serving them earlier exit with a defeated look on his face. Ricky noticed the two parties he had just tried to separate from fighting shaking hands. It just had to be his luck. They resolved it outside and now he was out of a job.

 Ricky was pissed. “ I told you both this could be resolved with a simple conversation outside and now since you decide to have a fight inside I am out of job” That's when Ricky remembered the research of this group remark before the whole ordeal.

“ You know what if you don't want me to report this little deal to IGPF which would cause the doc to receive a mark of death and the rest on a run give me job on your ship,” Ricky spoke in such a calm was that Hanbin was still slowly processing that what the man had just said was a threat. 

“ Are you serious?” Gyuvin said in disbelief that another person heard them speak, maybe that wasn't so discert after all.

“Serious as ever and aren't bounty hunters, the first rule is never make deals in the open” Ricky says gazing at the bounty hunter. Jiwoong also realized how stupid he could be.

  Hanbin rolled his eyes before speaking sarcastically “ Anyone else want to join along?”

Ricky didn't respond, instead he walked toward the group with a hand out and in the palm of his hand was the keys to the Hanbin ship. Hanbin was flabbergasted at this kid's action. 

 “ You should be more focused on your surrounding and make sure you have everything before you leave” Ricky speak and shake Hanbins hand to make sure the deal is secure. 

Hanbin then realized that Matthew was kinda of right they would find the type of people they need on the way.

[formulatrash]

What's your take on the hockey booktok thing? Since you mentioned it on twt

my initial take would be that all these people scare me so much I don't want to get into it but also people keep messaging me to be like did you know people ship carlando" off the back of it and yes. I did know that.

my understanding of what's happened on booktok, which I absorb any information about only twice a year during whatever version of this is blowing up at the time, is pretty limited. partly because I'm not on tiktok and partly because I can't read. but the crux of it seems to have come down to people writing disgustingly thirsty comments on a hockey player and his wife's posts, regardless of what they were about, somehow feeling empowered to be horny not just on main but in someone's face because of booktok.

that's, clearly, not remotely acceptable. if there are communities of people out there that thirst about me I don't know about them (although the cold tendrils of horror about the Wikifeet page have just gripped me and no, oh god, that isn't the phrase I should've used at all get me out of here) but there are loads of people who fucking hate my guts. that's like, fine, it's their own business; if they keep it on discord or whatever and away from me it doesn't do me any harm. lord knows, I have committed the act of hating and indeed being horny, sometimes simultaneously, when I was at a safe enough distance for none of the subjects to ever know.

this is a thing about fandom. if you post "Max Verstappen looks breedable" on here then he's extraordinarily unlikely to ever see it or probably know what it means. if you comment that on Kelly's instagram posts, even if you don't like her and even if that's for valid reasons, that's very different.

as I gather it, the booktok thing has exploded into RPF in general. which, I gotta say, RPF and sexually harassing a dude and his family are in fact very different things. one has a rich history, both as actual ways of telling history (Anthony and Cleopatra: RPF, Chernobyl: RPF, the god damn Gran Turismo movie is RPF about an uncomfortably large number of people I know IRL and to be fair it looks like it slaps I'm gonna see it) and as a longstanding artform. RPF's history of horny is even extremely longstanding, with obscene RPF being used by both the French and Russian revolutionaries to undermine the concept of royal divinity.

RPF is political because it involves an interpretation of real events and people. and the perspective from which that's written will always be political. RPF can, certainly, be feminist; there's quite a lot of retellings of classical stories that fit this. RPF can, also, be fucking weird horny shit. or terrible man takes. or incredible, tender, queer retellings; Kaz Rowe's graphic novel about real-life surrealist Claude Cahun is an obvious example of the latter. Pride, the film about the miners' strikes and the AIDS crisis, is another.

so yeah, it is a legitimate and recognised form of literature and art and also uhhhh. well. I mean the omegaverse is definitely recognised, legally, in court because of that one case but I don't know that even its fiercest enthusiasts would really be all that keen on describing it. not as like, literature or anything just I think most people would rather literally never have an IRL conversation about that. ever.

I'm not 1000% clear on how carlando got into this but clearly that's broken containment a long time ago anyway. when you had Sky doing love heart interviews 15 races into them being teammates or whatever, there was an obvious amount of gay chicken being played by the producers that frankly, as a queer person in motorsport, I'm a lot more comfortable with the fan version of.

no, obviously, I do not think they are dating - or want to think that tbh - but frequently-queer fans projecting the wish fulfilment of seeing a kinder and more representative world for their desires, in places hidden from the subjects, is a lot less weird than leering, laughed-at dating questions and milk baths. in an ideal world it wouldn't have to be a secret, yearned-for alternative because things would be safe and open enough for there to be real queer stories everywhere but that, unfortunately, is not the one we currently live in.

wish fulfilment and telling stories are not the same things, necessarily. sometimes you tell the stories to remind yourself it's ok to have wishes or to work out what those even are. I don't think there's anything necessarily harmful about what names the characters have in those, provided the line between reality and any real people's privacy is kept.

clearly, with the booktok thing, that's where things went extremely wrong. generally tiktok as a whole seems to have a very odd perception about other people's agency, whether it's pranking videos or like the girl who filmed people peeing at Spa. if you regard everyday people as content opportunities (spoiler: the law does not think this and particularly in the EU you cannot film people without their consent) then I guess it's easy to slide over to seeing an athlete as a target for what I suspect very few of the people doing it recognised as very unpleasant and invasive harassment.

there's nothing wrong with fancying athletes. there's nothing even wrong with sexualising them, provided you respect some boundaries and provided it's not part of the conditions of their working contracts. there's a lot of difference between there being a discord where, idk, people say Mitch Evans is hot (he is, although somewhat implausibly he genuinely does not know this) and sponsors for female tennis players wanting them to wear revealing outfits and stay skinny or teenage girls being encouraged into provocative photoshoots by people who promise them roles, etc. teenage male athletes being pressured into doing things they don't want to yet or maybe at all to prove they're men, queer athletes being forced to hide who they are or repress it entirely.

would it be a little bit odd to find RPF of yourself? yes. I won't lie, I would judge the characterisation. I already do judge that on the frankly very weird things people write about me. you have never seen RPF as strange as the narratives people will make up about you in the comments of an article about hydrogen and frankly those scare me a lot more than whether someone thinks I'd be assigned beta or whatever.

stumbling across something, rather than having explicit sexual fantasies forced into your face, especially on what's your own social media pages where people you know in real life can see them, is very different though. some people who engage with RPF cross lines, whether that's weird conspiracy stuff about girlfriends being faked or stalking people's friends accounts etc.

RPF doesn't inherently cross lines, even when it's public; there's a very interesting interview here with Jann Mardenborough and the guy who plays him in the Gran Turismo movie about, among other things, portraying a fatal crash he was involved in. clearly, Jann is not only aware of but is the executive producer of what's ultimately fiction about himself and there's an ownership there, of course. but some parts of the movie are made up, for sure.

obviously I'm like, the not-very-secret infiltrator here because clearly I am On Tumblr and know what AO3 is. I follow a bunch of people who write fanfic because they also make nice gifs of my favourite blorbos and I like to think we can all make peace with our own boundaries about that kinda thing. also I read every single Shane/Ryan fic in like 5 weeks and honestly, not going to apologise except to myself for persisting with a few that didn't pay off.

but like: you do not have to make RPF or any fandom activity unethical. the way you conduct yourself does that and some people step way out of line.

[eshippro]

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[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo Where are You? S1 E13-E17

13. Which Witch is Which?

This batch of five episodes is the greatest consistent run in the season! I love pretty much all of these! 

This episode has maybe one of the most basic premises: the gang find a witch and a zombie in the swamp on their way home. Simple! Yet, this simple narrative works! 

I love both the villains here, although, they’re really nothing too special! I think the witch is somewhat unique here, we haven’t seen this kind of character before, and she is your quintessential evil witch, with sickly green skin evocative of the Wicked Witch of the West, her robes a gorgeous purple, blending two of my favourite colours and making a design that is simply pleasing to me! She is the first female monster too! Although, the criminal underneath is a man, so… Still, she makes a mark from her voice and laugh, which is far less common in this series than silent stalking villains! Also, she’s voiced by Scooby voice actor Don Messick, which is just impressive to me! 

The other villain is the zombie, again, the villain thrives because of how simple this design is, and how he juxtaposes the witch. Yet, he’s made distinctive through his goblin-like design, with his pointy ears and almond shaped face, the crimson eyes standing out brightly against the rest of his swampy green design. I also personally like him because I used to have, and probably still do somewhere, the Lego figure of him, he came in the Mystery Machine set! I believe that the only other set to feature Where are You? (season one at least) characters is the Mystery Mansion, containing the Black Night,  Phantom and Dracula. I love this set so much but God is it expensive - I got all the cheapest ones, but I’d love the Haunted Lighthouse or Mansion now! 

Regardless, this is the weakest of the following five episodes, I find it mostly coasts on how great and fun these villains are and how great their dynamic is! The Witch is smart, she can talk and laugh, while the Zombie struggles to understand Shaggy’s joke, he can only groan and trundle along. They make a perfect fit as a result, they are an evil mastermind and a stupid henchman. 

They tie all of the ideas in together nicely, such as the setting of the swamp, the villains and themes of voodoo. All this works nicely together, but the episode feels like it’s coasting from beat to beat. There’s not really an interesting mystery to follow nor good enough gags! 

Also, the mouse joke is swapped out for a squirrel joke, which is far less interesting to me personally! 

This episode manages to be completely fine because of the strong villains! It’s an enjoyable watch for sure, but the pacing leaves something to be desired. 

14. Go Away Ghost Ship

I think growing up, this was my favourite episode. There’s so much going on, it’s funny and creepy, it has the best of what the show has to offer! It’s kind of weird how a select few episodes are so good, while many others are serviceable and fine, but meandering and unfocused. This is a tight episode, it’s constantly doing something funny, and I love it. 

Go Away Ghost Ship follows the gang learning about a ghost pirate hijacking cargo ships, and so, they leave to the ocean to investigate it. 

I’ve watched this one a lot growing up, it was on the Creepiest Capers DVD I would watch loads! The three season one episodes in that compilation have all ended up in my top six episodes of the season, which could be a nostalgic bias, but I truly believe that these are some of the best episodes the series has to offer! I would highly recommend the compilation to all! 

My notes for this episode were about double the length of most other episodes, it’s just so good. 

Firstly, I really love the malt shop and beach as a wrap-around location, they use both a few times at the start or end of an episode, or sometimes both, and it really makes this world feel more alive to me! Plus the characters, I love watching them dance and chat together, it makes them feel like actual friends rather than characters. Here it’s not different! The mystery also takes a minute to set up, a cold open reveals the villain, but the gang don’t meet him until around a quarter of the way in, which isn’t much sure, but they set up the characters nicely! I love the gang pretending to be room service, this does give them a more meddling image, pushing through anything to solve mysteries even if they shouldn’t be posing as people they aren’t, or entering rooms they’re forbidden from. It’s such a great and fun way to characterise them, but it’s seldom done. 

When they do arrive at the ship, it’s so much fun, they almost treat it like a haunted house in the way they bring it to life through a series of rooms, all building into gags, but the writing here feels way stronger, each gag has consequences, one action affects what happens next, the episode has stakes more so than any other. 

I’ll use an example to explain what I mean! We see the gang quickly separated when the ghost ship sails right through their tiny boat, Scooby and Shaggy entering through the side of the boat while the others head to the top. Shaggy and Scooby are chased by a floating sword, leading to their capture with Redbeard, however rather than make them walk the plank, he forces them to cook for him, where they fill the stew with horrible ingredients (chains, cobwebs, soap and ashes). However, when he goes to eat it, he instead forces them to eat the stew, the soap in the ingredients makes them blow bubbles which they use to escape, however during their escape they encounter the pirate henchman, so, Shaggy uses his imitation ability to lure them away. 

Every single joke here lands. I love the sequence of them cooking, the imitation where Shaggy, for some reason, must wear a pirate hat to do it, the skeleton head just talking, his delivery really funny to me, the shark that’s actually just a fin, Scooby cutting the fog and eating it (which always looked so tasty to me as a child) and the gay blade of course. Everything here is so great, I love this episode God! There’s so many more great moments too! Such as Shaggy’s dual where he fights with a sausage and also him coming up with a really out there password which just so happens to be the correct code.

But what’s a Where are You? episode without a villain? I like Redbeard, he’s a great pirate character, but I wouldn’t consider him a favourite villain! He’s good, but the show has better, which just goes to show how strong this episode is, not entirely dependent on its villain! 

However, he is still good! His red design makes him feel like a typical pirate, but I think they made a great decision in making him ginger, it makes him so much more memorable and unique in contrast to any old pirate design! He doesn’t convey the ghost theming in the same way most other characters with ghost slapped at the end of their name don’t, however this isn’t too big a deal for the villains! He’s great, I don’t want to underplay him, his personality is very distinct, he feels cruel and unpredictable, asking for one thing then changing his mind, it makes him a scary character to live in the world with. 

Wow, what a great episode! Although not my overall favourite of the season, it’s real close, it’s so very good. I think this is one I would be most likely to recommend to others to watch to get an idea what the best of the series looks like!

15. Spooky Space Kook

I love this episode so much. It’s not my favourite, not by a long shot, but it’s so comforting. It’s not as fun as episodes like Go Away Ghost Ship, but it is so vivid in its style, it’s creepy and everything about it is cool. It’s not always the most consistent or interesting episode, but it’s a marvel to watch. 

Spooky Space Kook follows the gang searching an airfield haunted by an alien. 

I think this episode is only so good because of the villain, I personally find aliens terrifying, they make me get depressingly existential and bubble with anxiety! The Space Kook is actually never named! The name simply comes from the episode's title, with the characters in the episode calling him things like “Ghost Man” and “Mr. Trouble”. No wonder those names didn’t take off!

The design is maybe perfect, he’s a skeletal astronaut, the glowing carmine surrounding his face contrasts perfectly with his navy suit and skull, which is always great to look at, the close ups rule. Yet, most interesting about his design is the way his suit grows luminous, it makes him stand out so much. We have never seen this effect before, therefore it really fuels this feeling of being otherworldly, he’s so different to the other villains in this aspect. Of course, he’s a hulking villain without any dialogue, but he makes this vivid mark on you when he appears, he’s not a funny character, he’s not from this world. 

Of course, there’s also his cackling laugh. It’s perfect. There’s not much more that can be said about it, but wow it’s so good. From the moment he appears, you know him. Then you hear him, and he’s so never going to leave. I love this design, and characterisation for such a thinly layered character. Designs do the heavy lifting in this show, but the laugh really adds so much. 

The episode doesn’t quite match the quality of this perfect villain, but there is a lot that I love about it! Mostly, the setting, which is an abandoned airfield. It’s ripe for the space connections, it’s eerie in a less overt way than many of the show's other gothic settings. It’s more than a feeling of isolation that it evokes, instead drawing forth the clashing feelings of being alone here, but the universe being vast with creatures we never can or will understand. 

This episode aired a mere six months after the first human stepped onto the moon. It feels echoed in this feeling of the villain, of life being so expansive, space travel shook the world more than I need bother discussing. However that feeling is echoed throughout this episode, this fear of what happens next. As a species, we have evolved so far, so what follows? Who follows? 

Tying into this, the villain strangely uses many ways people theorised the moon landing was fake as means to fake his disguise. These include, men on wires, no sound of an engine and camera projections feigning space travel. Specifically, we see a scene evolving a key, which is one of my favourites, however many have drawn parallels to the goofy nature of it and the “impossible” shots taken within the lunar lander. Also, the spaceman here is the villain, sure, he’s an alien, but his design is clear in being an astronaut, the name given on the character’s model sheet being Ghostly Spaceman, with no mentions of aliens. Likely, this is all a coincidence, or these theories helped influence how the writers made the character fake being a monster, however, with so few astronauts at the time, it’s a unique way of marking this important moment in history, painting them as the villain. 

Unrelated, but I hate how the show insinuates that Shaggy is good at mechanics. They imply that Shaggy and Scooby, you know, the dog, would be far more capable of getting Fred down from a hook and wire than Daphne and Velma. I buy the idea that Velma wouldn’t know mechanics, sure, but it’s literally just a switch that needs to be pulled, she’s more than intelligent enough to see that! It’s just a way of getting all the characters back in a single location, but quickly, they split them again afterwards! 

However, I do love the sequence of Scooby and Shaggy atop the watchtower as the Space Kook attempts to break in. I wouldn’t describe it as tense, it’s Scooby-Doo, but it’s well written, and I like it a lot! I also love the aforementioned key sequence! 

This one is so great because of its villain, but the episode he’s inside is still enjoyable, and one I personally like a lot! Just a great time :) 

16. A Night of Fright is no Delight

This is maybe the Scooby-Doo episode. 

A Night of Fright is no Delight is an iconic episode for a reason. Not only is it the highest rated episode on IMDB, alongside being critically acclaimed, for a Scooby-Doo episode, but it also features some of the shows most iconic villains, has one of the most enjoyable mysteries in the first season and the episode used in the Supernatural crossover, which I hope to watch at some point for this blog! Also, Be Cool Scooby Doo reimagines this episode, alongside a handful of other season one Where are You? episodes. 

The episode follows the gang heading to a haunted mansion after Scooby is listed in the will of a millionaire after saving him! However, soon we see the gang stalked by a pair of giggling green ghosts. Loosely, it’s an adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Then There Were None. 

Already, this premise is silly and out there, but I love it. The gang go to the house and are told that to get the fortune, they must stay overnight at the haunted mansion. 

Following this, we get to see three fifths of the gang in pyjamas. I love all their pyjamas, and as you’ll see in the following episode, I love all costume changes for the characters. Shaggy’s are my favourite, his sleepy cap and gown is so perfect for his character, as are Scooby and Freds, the formers a dressing gown style set with slippers, while Fred wears a more relaxed blue shirt. I love this so much, and the way Fred always talks to Shaggy whenever they’re set to share a room. 

Would you believe this episode is not the only time in the series we will see a member of the mystery gang go to a house for inheritance money, only to learn the house is “haunted”, where they must solve a mystery while staying there to earn their money from the housekeeper attempting to steal it. Also the money is from a man called Beauregard, who is a confederate. Because, as far as I’m aware, it happens at least once more in the Boo Brothers movie.

The villains here are so popular for a reason! The Giggling Green Ghosts are great, they appear like “sheet” ghosts, but not in the same way as The Phantom does. No, these characters look like they’re wearing robes, which of course, they are. However, these robes are a beautiful shade of green which only look better against their red faces. Not to mention how great the addition of the single shackle and chain is on their arms. I remember as a child I had these glow in the dark rubber handcuffs which I think were based on this episode? I loved them loads, but I’m not too sure why. 

Plus, they have a second form, The Phantom Shadow, which is simply just when they are projecting themselves as shadows, but the transparency is definitely creepier for them, their edges feel more jagged and their appearance less human, like real ghosts. God it’s great! 

We get to meet five others who are set to inherit the money, all of them becoming suspects, before we swiftly find them all locked away in coffins. Sure, this makes the mystery a whole lot smaller, reducing the options to two characters, however, it’s such a creepy image that it really doesn’t matter. 

I love how the gang are split up in this one two, much like in Go Away Ghost Ship where both parties are in peril constantly which makes it feel like there’s a better reason for them to be split up, especially when one half has a lot more character than the other. Here I also love how they get split up, I enjoy how Velma bounces between the pair she’s stuck with, here she’s with Scooby and Shaggy, which I love, they get into way sillier antics and it allows for a more focused character like Velma to constantly bring them down to earth. 

I love this one, it slowly drips the villains in, from the Phantom shadow to the green ghosts to two green ghosts. It’s great, constantly upping the stakes. Great stuff!

I really get why this one is loved so much, it’s such a great episode for a plethora of reasons” It’s so very great. 

Also, the house is totally haunted. Like, not by the phoney ghosts, by actual ghosts, we see paranormal activity at the end of the episode, which is just brushed off, but still, it’s there! 

17. That’s Snow Ghost

The finale! 

When I saw this episode among the five, I was least excited for it. The villain was just the least interesting to me, everything about it felt kind of boring and bland to me, but honestly, I love this one so much! 

I find snow like sand, although I prefer it a lot. For me, I will either love something set in the snow, or hate it, it depends how the snow is wielded. I love this!

To start with, what is unironically my favourite part of this episode: the outfit change. The winter outfits are just so much fun, I love episodes where an outfit that characters always wear are swapped out for new ones for the new setting or scenario. I think my least favourite outfit is Fred’s; his new coat is nice, but his entire outfit is now blue on blue on blue. However, it does fit the character well!

Velma’s is my third favourite, it’s pretty much just her usual outfit, but I love the scarf and the way it’s all tied together with the bobble hat! 

I also love Shaggys! His coat runs the risk of falling into the same pattern as Velma and Fred’s outfits, however, the dark green stripe adds so much! And I adore the brown from his trousers used as fur on the coat, as well as the colour of his earmuffs - God, it’s great!

And finally, the best, is Daphne. Her coat is so cute, her colour scheme is already my favourite but it works so nicely using the softer purples for the fur here! Plus, her hat is so fun, I love this lots!

Beyond the new designs, I also enjoy how weird the side characters are here, like it’s because they’re the villains, but they are unapologetically strange! It’s so fun to watch, because usually the villain’s identity is obvious anyway! This way we at least get to see some more unique types of people. Although, this only works because it’s not an everyday thing, it’s just so strange seeing such weird characters here because of how grounded everyone usually is! 

Beyond them, I love how they use this setting, showing the group sledding across hills in a fun little visual gag, exploring frozen caves and using snowmobiles. Ultimately, it’s just a fun time watching them go around this wildly different location!

This brings me to the villain! He’s fine. He’s definitely more interesting than a lot of the groaning, hulking villains, the snow ghosts design obviously evocative of a yeti, the design based on one we see in a flashback, I think. This gives the design a bulky look with white fur and striking yellow eyes, the long horn like eyebrows his most unique feature. However, he is enjoyable to watch! Why? Because he is so violent. It’s absurd. 

This is the first villain we see attempt murder. 

Sure, other villain’s have attempted to harm the gang before, but here we see the ghost tie Velma to a log on a conveyor belt, heading head first into a buzzsaw. That’s just the start of it though, because after he also captures shaggy he also… covers him in snow. Huh! Regardless, seeing the villain willing to murder the gang is funny! A villain attempting to harm the gang is used sparingly as is, but attempting murder to cover up a smuggling operation is so over the top and great. 

Not to mention this episode ends in a perfect way! With a rodent themed gag :,) 

What a finale to the season, even if being a finale to a season of an episodic show is pretty unimportant, but I’m glad I was proved wrong about this one! This is some of the most I’ve laughed at an episode because of how extreme some of it is, or just strange some of the decisions are! A very good way to end a very good season!

Episode Ranking:

Go Away Ghost Ship

That’s Snow Ghost

A Night of Fright is no Delight

Spooky Space Kook

Which Witch is Which? 

Villain Ranking: 

Space kook

Giggling Green Ghosts/ The Phantom Shadow

Witch 

Ghost of Redbeard

Zombie 

Snow Ghost

Next Review: SDWaY S1 Villain Ranking

Previous Review: SDWaY S1 E9-12

[tapwrites]

To Filler or not to Filler

Some people say filler is bad in a story, others say it's fine... still others say it's important to include, to have a well-rounded story! Are they even talking about the same thing?

What is filler, anyway?

Let's tackle that first; define our terms.

Think about what the word "filler" means in other places. Filler is used to fill a hole in a wall so the cracks don't show. Filler is foam padding in a box so the item being shipped doesn't get damaged. In speaking people use um, er, and "like" to fill time while they figure out what they want to say--that's called "filler" as well.

Filler is something used to fill gaps, with no meaning or use beyond that. Something that is not necessary beyond simply filling something.

So what does this mean in storytelling terms?

This term is often used referring to serial TV shows (long stories told over multiple episodes, as opposed to "episodic" TV shows where each episode is a self-contained story).

The example that comes to my mind is Naruto: a show featuring long stories told step by step in 23 minute episodes. But from time to time, when the animators are behind the airing schedule a self-contained episode is aired that has nothing to do with the story, progresses nothing, explains nothing, and by the end of it nothing has changed. You could skip such episodes and not have missed anything.

Why did that episode exist? Purely to play out time. They've got to fill 23 minutes every week. So it doesn't matter what's there, all that matters is that it is there. Like filler, the only reason it exists is to be there, to fill something.

Now the question is...

Is "filler" ever needed for novels?

By definition, "filler" does nothing. It does not make your story better. It does not bring you closer to the characters. It does not set the tone. If it did any of those things, it wouldn't be "filler"!

So when would you want a load of words to be in your story that does nothing but use up pages? Never. Not for a regular book or short story, at least.

So... why do some say "filler" is good in some circumstances?

I suspect it's because they're not talking about filler. They're talking about something different.

Another anime trope is the "beach episode," where the cast take a break from the story and just go to the beach and hang out. Nothing of note happens at the beach. The characters don't grow, we don't learn anything new, and they all go home ready for the story to continue in the next episode.

In fact, such episodes can just pop up out of nowhere. It makes no sense that they could actually go to the beach and hang out in that moment, but they just wanted to throw in a beach episode, so a beach episode just... happened.

Even so, episodes like this are enjoyed by the fans for several reasons. One reason is, the fans like the characters and simply enjoy their banter and shenanigans even if it's nothing to do with the story. (Another being they get to see anime characters less-than-clothed.)

That kind of episode is filler, because it does nothing beyond use up air time. But it's still enjoyable because we get to hang with the characters without the drama of the story getting in the way. So it's understandable that some conflate the two, thinking that "filler" must mean characters hanging out, or the scene isn't action packed, or something like that.

But that isn't actually true.

Filler episodes can have just as much action and stuff going on and still not impact the story, and still not have any time to hang out with the characters. So filler doesn't mean getting to know the characters.

And hanging-out-with-the-characters episodes can show new things about the characters which will be important later, or simply intensify the drama that happens later in the story. So such episodes by definition are not filler.

In fact, a character-hangout can only be a "filler" if it doesn't show anything new about the characters; if it doesn't show or change the relationships between characters. The moment it does anything useful like that, it stops being filler and becomes just a normal scene that still adds to the story that happens to be low-intensity.

Even in storytelling, "filler" doesn't mean a scene with no plot progression or low-stakes or low-impact or low-action. It means it has zero impact beyond that section of any sort. Low-stakes scenes are exactly the kinds of scenes where the characters can interact, where the reader can get to know them, where the background of the world can be filled in.

People are right--those are good scenes to have in your story. And varying the intensity of scenes so that some are big and some are small is what pacing is all about! But the fact they're doing something for the story means it is not filler. It's simply a low-intensity scene.

So feel free to have low-intensity scenes in your stories. But you never need to add filler.

Oh wow, so all we've covered so far is what "filler" means in the first place. But now that we understand what we're talking about...

How is this useful?

There are two main things to take away from this discussion. The first is what "filler" means: zero impact. No change if it's removed entirely.

The second is that there's more that a scene can add to a story than simply plot progression. Character development, character change, worldbuilding... all those kinds of things add to the reader's experience of the story as a whole, even if those ways are subtle or the reader may not realise why it's included.

To say that such things are just "filler" discounts them as meaningless fluff you don't need to put any thought into. Or, it raises the idea of "filler" to something that really enhances any story--which it, by definition does not do.

Unless you have a deadline of releasing a new scene every week and you're behind on figuring out the next non-filler story beat, we don't need to write filler at all. In which case, to seek to add filler is to purposefully pad out the word count of your story with nothing--lowering the overall impact of the story itself.

What if you already have a scene that feels like filler?

Of course, you can simply remove it and suffer little effect on the rest fo the story.

There are times when a scene "feels like filler" to a reader, even if it has elements that do add to the story. Just remember what filler means: zero impact. The less apparent impact a scene has on anything, the closer to pure "filler" it is.

So, try adding more complexity to it. Doesn't have to push the plot forward or have action in it, but the key part is to make it feel like there's a point in reading that section. It might even be a case of making what's there stand out even more, make it more dramatic, something like that.

What if you're struggling to write a scene?

On the other hand, I sometimes see writers asking for help because they're struggling trying to write a filler scene. Or there's a scene they want to have in the story but they're getting blocked trying to write it.

They're struggling because it's a filler scene. If they don't know that, there's something in the back of their mind that senses it. And if they do know it's a filler scene... they know it's pointless even writing it.

In which case, if you still want that scene to be there, the key is to make it not filler. Or... less close to having zero impact. Come up with a reason why it has to be there--what part of the later story does it make work? What dramatic moment does it intensify because this moment happened?

Now you've got a solid reason for writing the scene, it should be a lot easier to get yourself to write it!

[xb-squaredx]

How Monolith Soft’s Future Was Redeemed

Whether you’ve heard of game developer Monolith Soft before or not, if you’re into the gaming landscape they’re definitely a name worth remembering, and they’ve had quite the history over their 23 years in the business. Founded by Tetsuya Takahashi and Hirohide Sugiura, themselves veterans of Square from the 1990s, the company has undergone many trials and tribulations and worked with a variety of different companies from 1999 to the present day. With their latest release wrapping up the current trilogy in the Xenoblade series, I figured there was no better time than to look back and reflect on the journey the company and the founders of that company have gone through, so let’s get right to it!

TAKAHASHI’S PERFECT WORKS

Looking at Takahashi’s resume alone will show that he had a hand in a variety of beloved games during his time at Square. Working on Final Fantasy IV, V and VI among a few other titles such as Romancing Saga, Takahashi and his wife, Soraya Saga, would pitch an idea for the seventh Final Fantasy game. While rejected for being considered too dark for the brand, they were eventually given permission to develop it into their own title, which would become known as Xenogears. Takahashi and Saga had ambitious plans for the title, believing it could become a massive franchise in its own right, though the actual game’s development was fraught with issues.

Xenogears was composed of two discs, and the first disc set up lofty expectations for the rest of the game, balancing a story steeped in religious and philosophical themes alongside turn-based battles that would utilize giant robots, or “Gears.” However, the second disc was mostly comprised of narration from characters with hardly any gameplay or cinematics. This was allegedly done as a result of both the development team’s inexperience and inability to extend the two year development deadline, and thus was done as a compromise of sorts, or else the game would have shipped half-complete. The game’s English localization almost didn’t happen, with several translators quitting the project, both due to the difficulty of translating a game loaded up with references to various scientific and philosophical concepts, on top of controversy surrounding its religious themes. Despite these setbacks, the game was still critically acclaimed and it was clear that Takahashi and Saga were keen on developing the game’s world more. Alongside development of Xenogears they had also crafted “Perfect Works,” their plans for other installments in the setting that would span a much larger story. Xenogears itself was considered, chronologically, to be the fifth part of what would have eventually been six entries.

However, Takahashi and company had routinely faced issues with Square both before and during development of this title. Growing frustrated with their prioritizing of the Final Fantasy brand above all else, they would eventually found Monolith Soft, taking with them a number of other staff they worked with. They found themselves in bed with Namco, who would publish their games for much of the 2000s. Monolith Soft would then decide to start over and craft a new franchise that would follow Perfect Works…and that game would become the Xenosaga series.

A more explicitly sci-fi series from the get go, Xenosaga was conceived as a six game series, with possible plans for it branching out into multimedia, with an animated series and manga series produced, alongside a few spinoffs titles that would end up staying Japan exclusive. A spiritual successor through and through, Xenosaga contained a number of references to the Xenogears series, alongside a continued focus on mech battles, religious and philosophical themes and turn-based combat. While the first game was a strong debut for this new franchise, each subsequent entry would sell less and less, eventually trimming the series down to three games out of its originally planned six. History repeated with regards to development issues, particularly with Xenosaga: Episode II, as Takahashi had taken on a supervising role, and the team itself was composed of newer staff that wasn’t prepared for such an ambitious title. Takahashi would admit the series underperformed on the whole, part of the reason for the sudden halving of the planned story. Despite a clean start, it seemed as if Perfect Works was anything but a perfect project, with now two failed franchises behind them. However, the winds of fate would wind up changing.

FINDING THEIR FOOTING WITH NINTENDO

Monolith Soft ended up cozying up with Nintendo as the years went on, eventually being purchased by the company and becoming a first-party studio in the late 2000s. Morale at the studio was low after Xenosaga’s abrupt ending, but Takahashi was ready to move onto a new project as a way to boost employee spirits. Coming from an image that appeared in his head of two gigantic gods locked in fierce battle, the idea would develop into a game originally titled Monado: Beginning of the World. However, at the behest of former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, the title would be changed to Xenoblade, to honor the struggles Monolith Soft had undergone over the years and serve as a slight connecting thread to past projects. And the rest is history…to a point.

The original Xenoblade Chronicles debuted on the Wii in 2010, a massive near open-world RPG with a deep MMO-inspired combat system and an ambitious story. Compared to past efforts, Xenoblade was a game that Takahashi and company were able to realize with a comparatively smooth development, with few compromises to the original vision of the game at that. Releasing to relatively high critical acclaim, the game was initially not localized outside of Japan. Eventually Nintendo of Europe showed interest and would localize it, but Nintendo of America wouldn’t budge. This game, alongside a few others, actually inspired the “Operation Rainfall” fan movement to give them more attention and see localization (and I’ve even written about it before LINK HERE), and while Nintendo might not publically acknowledge the campaign as a deciding factor the game would eventually be brought to North America…exclusively in Gamestop stores. A low initial print, combined with Gamestop selling “used” copies at high prices, insured it became one of the harder to find Wii games, and while it was somewhat better known outside of Japan, it was still rather niche.

That began to change in the Wii U era, however. In a 2013 Nintendo Direct showcasing early looks at various Wii U games, a mysterious title from Monolith Soft was shown. Codenamed X, it was yet another massive RPG with a decidedly more sci-fi look…that sure seemed familiar. Eventually releasing as Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015, this title would also see acclaim for its massive world and complex combat, though being a Wii U release it didn’t exactly reach many players. A year prior however, Shulk was revealed to be included in the base roster for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, being the last character announced before launch. This helped to put Xenoblade as a series on the map, and gave some momentum that Monolith Soft would continue into the Nintendo Switch era.

Since their acquisition, Monolith Soft would also work as a support studio for Nintendo, particular with their Kyoto office comprised mainly of artists, creating assets for a variety of projects. Over the years, they’ve worked on the Super Smash. Bros. series (Brawl), the Legend of Zelda series (from Skyward Sword all the way to Tears of the Kingdom), the Animal Crossing series from New Leaf onward as well as the Splatoon series. Their help was greatly appreciated with the more recent console Zelda titles in particular, as they were instrumental in creating the vast expanses that would help make Breath of the Wild a smash hit. Considering they’ve lent their talents to a variety of games that have gone on to sell like hotcakes and break past previous franchise records, I think that really helped them prove their worth as an asset for Nintendo, and as such they are given license to continue their own ambitious projects.

At the tail end of 2017, the Switch’s debut year, we would get Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which would go on to become the best-selling entry in the series and experience a boon of new players. More in-line with the fantasy aesthetics of the Wii game, 2 also continued exploring similar themes and further developing the battle system shared across both previous games in the series. Despite its success, the game itself still ran into problems though. With much of Monolith staff working on BOTW it was mostly a skeleton crew on Xenoblade 2, resulting in a number of third-party artists being brought on to ensure the game could be completed, though that also led to complaints about the inconsistent art style and character designs. Technically, the game had issues at launch that were slowly patched out, and being the first simultaneous worldwide launch of the series, it was clear that the English localization was not given as much care as previous games. Despite this, it was clear that this title was what helped to establish Xenoblade as a core Nintendo IP moving forward, and the franchise continues to do well.

A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Following Xenoblade 2’s release, it would receive a prequel game as part of its expansion pass, Torna: The Golden Country, which fleshed out events happening in that game’s distant past, alongside polishing up gameplay to relative acclaim. In 2020, an enhanced port of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 would release on the Switch, with updated visuals (in particular polishing up the character models), and a new epilogue story, Future Connected. The heroines of Xenoblade 2, Pyra and Mythra, would be announced as playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pass as well.

In 2022, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would see a surprise reveal at the start of the year, releasing just a few months later. After the somewhat mixed reception of the previous game, 3 received rave reviews and several Game of the Year nominations. Many felt it to be an emotionally charged journey, once again spanning a massive world and containing complex combat to wrap it all together. In just a few years, the entire trilogy was now available all on one system. Not too shabby for a series initially struggling to get localized.

The major thing to remember with the Xenoblade series is that it was yet another fresh start for Takahashi and company. While still clearly its own thing, as the years went on many eagle-eyed fans would spot various references to past Xeno games. These often were seen as knowing winks and nods, but little else. When it came to various characters and story beats, there were also some connecting threads indicating that Takahashi, after all of these years, might finally be dusting off “Perfect Works” and starting anew again, after he had previously sworn it off and considered the ideas scrapped. One major change this time around however seemed to be based around making sure each individual game in the Xenoblade series would be a standalone tale that wouldn’t require playing previous entries. There were some connecting threads, yes, but ultimately each entry could stand on its own and fully realize a given theme or story idea without having to overtly connect into a larger narrative. And then Xenoblade 3’s story DLC happened.

Released at the tail-end of April 2023, Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed was yet another prequel campaign in a similar vein to Torna. Future Redeemed would cover events that occurred in the backstory for the base game, however this time around it became clear VERY quickly that this was where it would all come together. Without getting into the details of things, on top of being wary of spoiling this expansion after it just released, Future Redeemed ends up being the means to tie the trilogy together and end it on a satisfying note, with a conclusion that gave fans a lot of closure. Various theories were finally put to rest, though just as many have sprung up in the wake of that game’s ending.

It isn’t immediately clear just where this franchise, or Monolith Soft as a company, will be going next, but my gut tells me we have some great things in store. The core Xenoblade trilogy may be done, but Takahashi has gone on record stating he wants the series to continue for as long as he can do so. There’s still a lot of clear affection for their previous efforts as well. Xenosaga’s KOS-MOS and T-ELOS were guest characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s expansion pass, and there have been more…overt nods to the series in general as time has gone on. There are rumors here and there that the series might return in some form. At the very least, I’m sure many a fan would be happy with simple ports to current systems, but we’ll have to wait and see just where Takahashi’s Wild Ride takes us.

In the end, I’m just happy to see that Monolith Soft has managed to turn out alright after all these years. I first became aware of them when, on a lark, I picked up a copy of the original Xenoblade. I was struck by that game’s scope and ambition and I’ve been a diehard fan ever since. Seeing just how much they’ve been carrying Nintendo into the Switch era, I think it’s only fair that they get the respect they deserve. On top of it all, it sounds like the company promotes a fairly healthy work/life balance, and their time with Nintendo has enabled them to see their visions through with few compromises. A win-win for all involved, really. Their own original entries might always be a bit niche and definitely won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m glad their ambitions are becoming more and more realized as time goes on. From humble beginnings in the trenches at Square, to now being a pillar of one of the Big Three game publishers, I can’t wait to see the heights that Monolith Soft can climb.

-B

[steventhusiast]

Fanfic Tag Game

tagged by @hbyrde36 for this lil tag game EEEE i love tag games :D

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1. How many works do you have on AO3?

12. a lot of them aren't stranger things related tho! and they're allll oneshots. working on my first (first for this account anyway) multi-chapter fic atm :D

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

27,486 hoooo boy idk if that's more or less than expected. like i said, mostly oneshots!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently only writing stranger things fics, but every now and then i go back to my spider-man phase so i'll inevitably write spider-man fanfic again. i've also written moon knight (tv show) fanfic before. i just love when my blorbos suffer what can i say

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

NONE of these are stranger things fics fdhgskjfhd

When Peter Forgot What Day It Was

Debriefed

Protector

When the Past Calls

Avengers, Meet Moon Knight

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i try to! i didn't for a while because i didn't know how to respond to like, comments with just emojis? i've always appreciated them but yeah only started trying to respond to ALL comments recently. love comments so much, so i want to encourage as much as possible!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

hmmm idk i tend to write hurt/comfort, like it ALWAYS ends with some sort of happy. so idk. i mean there is To All The Days We Were Together (To All The Time We Were Apart) which i'm SUPER proud of and that is super sad because it acknowledges eddie's canon death while also being a steddie fic. poor stevie

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

hmmmm maybe Google Translate? it's not got LOADS of plot in it it's just a cute lil meet cute.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

gonna also knock so hard on wood for this, but so far no. i've received a comment pointing out how i've gotten various cultural aspects wrong before and just corrected, but never something hateful. i'm definitely VERY afraid of getting hate though. i am fuelled by validation

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

no, i kind of want to give it a try though? i used to write it (like when i was fifteen/sixteen LMAO) and the things i wrote did well but,, obviously i didn't know anything? you know? idk maybe i should give it another go

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

not really? crossovers feel like BIG projects and i haven't really done a big project yet

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no. i've had people request to translate my fics before though? which doesn't count but like,, feels weird because i think one time (when i was writing on wattpad), the person didn't even ask they just started publishing my fic translated and didn't credit me.......... was so strange

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

LMAO yes. both with permission and without as mentioned. i don't mind it if people ask, you know! i just have to make sure it links back to me- it's my work

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

i don't know, this is a hard one. steddie right now,, but like. i just enjoy fics my favourite charaters are in, you know? i will read any ship that is well written and contains steve, and most ships that are well written that contain robin, etc etc.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

i would LIKE to think i will finish my WIPs but i don't know. im not very good at that. we will see, i don't wanna say any and discourage myself

16. What are your writing strengths?

i find these kinds of questions very hard to answer HAHA. i think maybeeee i'm quite good at writing internal monologue? i don't know. i get worried to say things like that because i don't want to sound like i'm boasting and it not even be a boast that's supported LMAO. i TRY and ENJOY writing internal monologues of characters a lot, and often have to cut things out to make sure it's not going too internal

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

transitions. i'm TRYING to get it in my head that i don't always have to detail every little thing for the reader to know it's happened, you know? need to work on figuring out things people can assume has happened, or fill in the gaps for, and what people can't

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i don't mind it! i think it depends, you know? if the reader is supposed to understand the dialogue, i prefer if there's a translation in brackets or something, or when it's written in english but the dialogue description tells me the language, more than if i have to scroll all the way to a bottom of a chapter to find the translation. and if the dialogue is NOT meant to be understood by the main character/reader (unless you speak the language of course), i LOVE it i think it's neat

19. First fandom you wrote for?

troye sivan..

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

either Separation Entwined (she is near and dear to my heart) or When Peter Parker Forgot What Day It Was because it's me combining all my favourite spider-man oneshot tropes into one thing fhdjsgkdf

NO PRESSURE TAGS (sorry if you've done this already) @dreamwatch @cranberrymoons @spoookysix @theheadlessphilosopher

[lyutenw]

ACOD| Chapter XVI

The night was unforgiven to Aria and her dreams were getting more and more twisted as the hours passed. Raven wouldn't leave her alone and was present in every single fragment of the dreams, haunting her. She would wake up almost every hour drenched in sweat and mistake the shadows of the furniture in front of her for Raven's back walking away from her.

After a feverish night, the morning sun came to salvage Aria, waking her up immediately. The room felt delightfully empty, and Aria calmed down when she realized Ellian was not sleeping by her side and wouldn't be for 6 more days. Yet, she couldn't help but wonder how waking up to Raven by her side would feel like; would it be serene, passionate, happy?

"Not that I have any chance to find out..." Aria murmured and rubbed the sleep off her eyes. She was drenched in sweat and eager to have a bath, but more than that was eager to see Raven's eyes and face.

As Aria got up from her bed and ragged herself to the bath, her thoughts raced. She wondered how she could be thinking of a man she barely knew. Was it because he had helped her so readily?

She shook her head trying to make the thoughts disappear. The corridors were surprisingly full of people and the maids and servants were running up and down in a frenzy. She noticed Marina and quickly cornered her.

"What's going on?" Aria asked, physically blocking Marina from moving on ahead with her arm extended to the wall.

"Good morning my queen!" Marina smiled happily and shifted the basket she was holding from her right to her left side. Whatever the basket contained, it smelled of roses.

"Princess Zaya will be returning to Celenial tomorrow, so per request of the king we are loading the ship with gifts for the royal family." Marina continued, this time with less enthusiasm as with every word she could notice Aria's scowl deepen.

"I see..." Aria trailed off, thinking of how her sister hadn't let her know of anything, especially her departure.

"Do you require my assistance, my queen?" Marina noticed that Aria was heading to the bath and visibly blushed; she had been so preoccupied with everything she had forgotten to assist her master.

"No, it's okay Marina." Aria murmured and let her arm fall to her side, freeing up the way for her maid.

"Go on ahead." She smiled at the girl and took a heavy step forward.

"Princess Zaya is also in the bath, my queen." Marina said quickly before Aria had a chance to walk away.

"It's okay." Aria answered and quickened her pace.

Zaya was completely under the surface of the water once Aria found her. She had been doing it since they were little kids; she would always say that under the water everything would become quieter, and she would feel smaller and way more insignificant that their father made her out to be.

Aria let her nightgown fall to the marble floor and slowly went into the bath, careful not to disturb her sister. But Zaya felt the change in the water and opened her eyes, then resurfaced. She quickly brushed her hair back with her hands and looked at Aria who was washing her own hair with the herbal water.

"How did you know I was here?" Zaya asked, her voice trembling in the slightest.

"I didn't, I just wanted to have a bath." Aria answered, not meeting the eyes of her sister, and continuing to slowly wash her hair.

"Oh... Do you know?" Zaya bit her lip and lowered her gaze to her watery reflection; a distorted and unknown woman looking back.

"Yes." Aria said and floated on her back, her eyes closed and ears deep into the water. Zaya had been right all these years; the water did muffle the world. Her not saying anything more was a sign she didn't want to learn anything about it, not even hear it for fear it was made true, but Zaya didn't pick up on it; she thought her sister was mad that she was leaving.

"I'm so sorry Aria, Ellian told me that I should get back and how our father had written him a letter when I came here that I should not stay any longer, I'm so sorry, you know I don't want to go back." Zaya said in one breath, her voice now trembling along with her entire body. Aria realized that her sister had it just as bad and went near her. She threw her hands around her shoulders and hugged her.

"I know, it's okay." Aria said and caressed her sister's hair, Zaya hugging her back tightly. Aria knew the future of her sister, even though she didn't have the same power as Raven. She knew that she was to marry the man that their father had picked out for her, she would have no choice, just as she hadn't had one.

The two sisters remained in a tight embrace for a long while, until the warm water had turned cold, and they were forced to exit the bath and wrap their bodies in their towels. They didn't say anything else to each other, Zaya because she didn't know what to say other than 'sorry' and Aria because she had nothing to say. Deep down she knew that the day she would be forced to be alone again would come, she just hadn't expected it to be so soon.

Aria walked back to her room quickly, thinking of what to do next. Zaya was to depart the next day before noon, so there was no chance to help her escape her wedding unless she was to come back soon. But the trip to Celenial was almost a week long, so it would be at least a month away before she would be able to come back, if she ever did.

"One more broken promise..." Aria murmured as her heart shattered into a million pieces. She had no chance to help Zaya escape with her lover. As much as it saddened her, Zaya was a lost cause; she would have to marry the man their father had picked out for her or face the consequences. And the consequences would usually be dire.

Her mind raced; whether she liked it or not she would have to focus on her escape. She didn't know when she would see Raven again, but at least she knew she had her papers ready. The only thing left was the money to buy the ticket for the ship and that would be easily acquired in a few days. She looked at herself in the mirror focusing on the necklace adorning her neck. Ellian's gift. She lifted her hand and tugged at it, thinking on whether she wanted to pawn it or not, but as much as she looked at it, the more she couldn't let it go. It wasn't burning her skin like something that didn't belong there, it was stuck, like it had found its missing place like a puzzle piece.

Aria sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. She looked around defeated and let her body fall back. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Finding some minutes to relax made everything hit her at once; all these months she had been cruising through life like a bystander, not the one that everything was happening to. Before she could register it, her tears had escaped her eyes and were streaming down, more with every second that passed. She placed her hands on top of her ears, pressing them so she could hear nothing but her own heartbeat.

Vivid images of Ellian's dark eyes looking at her flooded her mind and she gasped, jerking up from the bed. She was heaving, the air around her not enough for her lungs. The imaginary Ellian was not gone, he was still there, fucking her in that bed despite her screams and cries. Aria curled into a ball and sunk down on the floor. She wanted to become as small as possible, non-existent, so that Ellian couldn't find her again.

❋

When she was done crying, the sun had gone down, and the room was deadly still and silent. She didn't know how long she had been crying, but after a while there were no more tears left and she was just gasping for air. The ghost of Ellian was still lingering, but now it was just his scent and not him.

Aria slowly got up from the floor, her limbs were numb, and she felt exhausted. Her hair had dried completely and was a mess of knots and curls. A knock on the door snapped her out of her trance and she tried to fix her hair before the one on the other side entered.

"Hey." The soft voice of Zaya echoed around the room as she entered and closed the door behind her. She was dressed in her nightgown while Aria was still in her cold towel messily wrapped around her body.

"Hey." Aria answered her voice not coming out right, it sounded chocked, raspy, and anxious. Zaya noticed her sister being in distress and inched closer, grabbed her freshly washed nightgown that had been laid down on the bed by her maids and quietly helped her into it.

Aria was a ghost. Her otherwise plump body, with her soft curves and full hips had grown into a skeletal remain. Zaya didn't comment on anything, she knew that with everything her sister must have been going through, eating had been the last thing on her mind. For the first time, Zaya also noticed her scars, healed and going way back. She didn't know what had caused them, and she didn't have the guts to ask.

Her mind went back to all the times she had seen Aria tiptoe around at nights, leaving her room and going to the unknown for years as they grew up. She had noticed her grow up with deepened black circles under her eyes and had noticed their father developing them as well. She shook her thoughts away; Aria hadn't told her, so she didn't need to know.

"Thank you." Aria croaked out and despite trying not to, she started crying again. She knew she had to be the older and stoic sister, but her emotions were too much. She was losing her one person to hold on to before she drowned.

Zaya didn't know what to do' she could count the times she had seen Aria cry on the fingers of one hand. She internally panicked, but she managed to make Aria lie down on the bed and hugged her.

They stayed there, hugging, until Zaya fell asleep, but Aria was still awake.

"I'm so sorry Zaya, I'm so sorry." Aria cried out, knowing that Zaya couldn't hear her as she was fast asleep. Aria felt so selfish not being able to help her sister escape and live her life. Her heart was heavy thinking that Zaya would go back to Celenial, and she would marry a man she didn't love. She had to save herself and despite knowing that most of her tears fell for her poor little sister that had been birthed a few minutes later.

When she was younger, Aria would keep thinking that everything that was happening to her was because she was the first born. Growing up she had realized that it was because she had been the daughter of the servant. Her life had been decided as she had exited her mother's womb; she would be the sacrificial bride that would unite the two kingdoms that had been at war for 100 years. It hadn't mattered that Zaya had been the one the king of Oceana had wanted as a bride; it had always been her fate to wed Ellian, whether she ended up dead or not.

There had been a rumor circulating the palace of Celenial for years after the birth of Zaya. It was said that the queen had induced her labor by punching and hitting her stomach after she had learnt that Aria's mother had gone into labor. Aria had always wondered how bad one must want power to risk harming their own child, but now she understood.

She would do anything to kill Ellian and be the queen, but would she do it, she would be dead. Her only chance was escaping. Her only fighting chance was Raven.

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