#lyle the rant guy

[lylethewaterguy]

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

Character Evolution in Secrets of Sulfur Springs

This is about casting and physical attributes, not about development. This is about a show I truly love, and not one that I hate. These are all observations and thought processing about the casting of the Tremont/Dunn family in the series.

Daisy: Kyliegh Curran | Ashley B. Jones

So! Our girlie Kyliegh played her great grandmother (or great great grandmother? - I forget, Daisy, as a kid) And, I was like, "Well... it's not perfect.

You can't tell how much darker this woman is than Kylie in her photos, but on the show, she looked a tinge too dark for me to fully invest in the idea that she was well cast, but I rationalized that maybe she was inside more as a kid and then you know, was just lightskint like a light skinned biracial because of that when she was young. (I have met people whose parents tried keeping them inside on sunny days so they wouldn't get too dark), which is wild and off topic, because I don't think that would happen with Daisy, but saying IF she was simply inside a lot more as a kid, she could be that much lighter than the child actress vs the adult actress.

Harper's mama is biracial, I think. I feel like the kid that played her mom is, though Idk if the lady is or not. I do know that Kylie's character is supposed to be fully Black, even though the actress is not, irl. And her ancestor, Daisy, who she played had two pretty unambiguously Black parents and her and her little brother came out light skinned. Him, looking like his mama, her looking like the milkman's child..

Grace (Daisy's Mom): Kenneisha Thompson

Now... this happens sometimes in real life. But like I've said before - it don't happen nearly as much irl as it do on TV. So, Kyliegh as that woman - meh. Not a great casting choice, if not a bad one.

I understand they needed them to be identical to make the plot work, but I don't understand why everybody in the family is clearly Black then come her, actually biracial, and then here she come again a couple generations later, as Harper. Lol.

Her mama though Jess Dunn: Izabela Rose | Diandra Lyle

They did better in skin tone, but I would love sometimes for productions, especially big money bitches to try to do some side by sides every now and then and be like, "Are we sure this is the right choice?" or acknowledge some of the wild changes.

Where is a wide nosed sista to play this mama? Did she get a nose job at some point? We just supposed to imagine her nose was always that dainty? It has nothing to do with the plot, but Idk how I would overlook that you have such a drastically different nose in your adult like than you did as a kid. Her grandmother had a wide nose (scroll up) and she had one as a kid, then it just... went small when she grew up?

I am a big nosed bitch... and my nose was SMALLER as a child, because I was smaller. I actually was quite aware of Izabela's nose when she was Young Jess because we were going back and forth in time, from her nose to Diandra's nose. BEAUTIFUL WOMAN! They are both so lovely. They just do not look like people who grew up to be that person! Ma'am you didn't contour away all that nose. (I love both these actresses).

The fact that I dwell on this casting has nothing to do with their performances and everything to do with how badly I want casting to try to get people who actually look alike when they are playing the same character, unless for some reason within the story, they somehow look different. This Is Us only magnified my fixation on this subject. Most of them people looked just like them kids.

This is the man who plays Harper's daddy, FYI:

But like we said, we rationalizing that Mama Dunn is biracial, or at the very least so lightskinned that a biracial girl could be her daughter, especially since her negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils turned into one of them Vogue magazine joints in her adult life.

Now this one... Baby...

It's just absurd. This is where we gotta draw the line, throw in the towel, stop rationalizing that there is a phenotype at play skipping generations or whatever else we could do with our earlier casting choices.

This photo is lighter than the woman is and you can still see that this is a whole nother human that would not in this universe that we currently know of, under any circumstances according to our knowledge of science, would this beautiful biracial baby girl grow up to be this absolutely unambigously Black, dark skinned woman!! She just wouldn't!

Two very lovely people who acted they asses off and earned them Disney paychecks and Disney better had paid them what they was worth. Because they both said that they was gon' out act whoever in this scene when Ruby got onscreen.

Whoever did this casting said, "F**k it, Girl. Call who we know," because ain't no way, Chile. Ain't no way y'all was putting no kinda thought or planning into this woman growing up from that girl. When she said she was Ruby, I said, "RUBY WHOOOOOO?"

Ruby: Jaidyn Triplett | Joyce Guy

I won't go into any further tangent about how the darkest ones cast in the family were the ones we didn't see much of, or in Ruby's case, the literal Magical Negro that had to save the day........................

I truly enjoy the show. It's a fave. But, yes. It has it's issues and I have mine and now that they are out of my head, because as a wise friend once said, "Misery loves an audience" (Shoutout to Noah, a Queen of Quotes) - I can now live in peace. Yes, and continue watching this, even though they have this problem in casting.

Sometimes, people think that colorblind casting only applies to when you just cast anybody for any role, willy-nilly, but this is an offset of colorblind casting, as well. Colorism casting, maybe. Where any Black person will do, despite looking nothing like the same character that they're supposed to be portraying. Or where certain skin tone versions of that character has more screen time. Sometimes, this is done through photos or short flashbacks...

But this show had these people onscreen talking and had us getting to know them and then colorblind casted them in different eras of their life. And perhaps I only notice it in Black people, because I don't have any type of face blindness when it comes to us. If that is the issue they're having, maybe they need people who can tell the difference between Black people and their skin tones and facial features to handle that aspect of a job.

That's all I have for now. Do watch the show, though. If you can handle fw with Disney. I mean, it's out there free, but I know some people are even not for that and I commend you. I be watching some of they stuff for free still, and this lil' rant? Ramble. This lil' ramble has been sitting in my lil' brain for a time.

Idk what it is called or if there is a name for it. Whenever they do the colorblind casting or the colorism casting within the same character. It feels like it needs it's own word. It's different from when they simply change the character from one medium to the next, to be within the same universe and have a person that simply does not share that character's physical characteristics, even though they're the same character.

End ramble.

Wait. Last note: This is a Black and Black biracial people's post. Anybody else who pass through, don't get cute. I'll blast you right to the block.

[ladykailitha]

Never Hold Back Your Step... Part 8

Hello! It does look like there is only one more chapter to write on Paper Hearts so yay!!! I'm not sure how much longer Sweet Home Indiana is but it's nearing it's end too.

Steve is never going to go to another party after this, Eddie gets book two of the Boy with a Bat, and they have a frank discussion about how Eddie gets paid for his less than legal side gig.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

trigger warning: homophobic language by an OC.

****

At least the swim team knew to how to throw a party. Lyle was hosting and even though his family wasn’t well off, not like Steve’s parents, there was still enough room for the whole team and a few of their friends to have a good time.

Granted there wasn’t any booze, not openly anyway, but there were ice chest after ice chest of canned sodas. And all kinds, too. Steve was on his third Coke and had already sussed out the dude with the beer and was working his way over.

Going right up to the guy was asking for trouble that neither of them wanted.

The music wasn’t too loud, but you could dance to it in the main part of the house. People were actually laughing and having fun.

Which really should have been Steve’s cue. The universe was out to get him and wouldn’t let him have a moment’s peace.

He had almost reached the guy with the beer when Ezra blocked his path.

“Hey, Steve,” he greeted syrupy sweet. “I’m so glad you made it out. I wasn’t sure if you would come without Eddie Munson.”

Steve frowned and tried to move around his co-captain. “I go lots of places without Eddie. I went to nationals without him, didn’t I?”

Ezra put his hand on Steve’s chest to stop him. “Sure you did, but we didn’t win nationals now, did we?”

Steve looked down at the hand on his chest. “We swam our hearts man, the other teams were just better. Hell, that team from Georgia was on fire.”

Ezra snorted and rolled his eyes. “They only got where they were because they were black. They didn’t have any real talent. Not like us. Not like you and me, Steve.”

“Are you saying Lyle and Nick held us back?” he asked with his brow furrowing deeper in his confusion.

“We’ve always known that Lyle is a strong swimmer and not a fast one,” Ezra moaned waving the drink in his other hand around. “But he’s all this shit town has on offer.”

Steve gently pushed Ezra off of him. “Hey, how about not talking shit about the actual host, man.”

Ezra rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he huffed. “That’s not even why I’m over here. I’m here to warn you about Munson.”

And there it was. Everyone in his life had felt the need at some point in the last six months to warn him off the super senior.

The other boy leaned in close, his lips a snarl. “He’s a queer, a little faggot boy,” he hissed, the spit landing on Steve’s face. “It’s the town’s worst kept secret.”

Ice slid down Steve’s spine. Oh shit. Of all the places he thought the other co-captain was going to go, that was not it. Drugs. DND. The ranting on table tops. All that slid away to sheer terror.

“And you better not bend over in the showers,” Ezra continued, “a pretty thing like you would just be his type.”

Steve’s eyes went wide. “Wha–what do you mean?”

“Everyone knows that if you can’t pay for your weed,” Ezra sneered, “that he’s willing to take a blowjob as payment instead.” He leaned further into Steve’s space, so that they were almost touching, the stench of weed radiating off the other boy in waves. “I saw Harry Masters sucking him off for a gram of the good stuff.”

Steve stomach lurched and swooped, bile rising up in his throat. Harry Masters was on the baseball team. He was tall, good looking, with that devil may care charm of Rob Lowe. Looked like him, too.

“What he does or doesn’t do doesn’t effect me, man,” he said, trying to aim for nonchalant and missing by a mile.

Ezra laughed in his face.

“Dude,” he cackled, “if you didn’t want people to think you’re down bad for ‘the Freak’ maybe rein in the eye fucking. I’ve seen the way you look at him and it makes me sick.”

That was when Steve got it. He had been wondering what the hell this conversation was.

“Oh my god!” he laughed. “Fuck, man, you were scaring me for a second there. You’re just jealous I don’t have the hots for you.”

Ezra pushed him. “The fuck I do, Harrington!”

“No, no!” Steve crowed. “I’ve got it all figured it out. All the times I caught you staring at me, all the times I felt someone watching me, all the times you’d try to keep me late after practice. You wanted me all to yourself.”

His co-captain turned purple with rage and swung at Steve, but before he could even flinch, there was someone at his side, holding Ezra’s wrist to keep the hit from even going anywhere near Steve’s face.

“Eddie!” Steve breathed. “What are you doing here?”

Eddie smiled at him with that soft dimpled grin Steve loved. “Hey ya, Stevie. I was just plying my wares when I heard the commotion and came over to make sure you were all right.”

“So you are my good luck charm,” Steve said brightly.

Ezra wrenched his arm out of Eddie’s hand. “This doesn’t concern you, Freak!”

Eddie leaned in close and cocked his head to the side. “It does, because you were talking shit about me and Stevie, here. And as Stevie’s good friend, I’mma gonna come to his rescue. Now, you’re going to skedaddle on home and sleep all this off.”

Ezra spat in his face. “Or what?”

The older teen just smiled menacingly. “Or else that gram you smoked will be the last you ever smoke, because I’ll report to you for doping for matches.”

Ezra paled and he gulped. “You can’t do that! I’ve never done anything but weed.”

“That’s true,” Eddie admitted. “But they’d have to do this big investigation and your name would be dragged through the mud. Or you could toddle off and go to college and leave this town in your rearview mirror.”

Ezra turned on his heel and ran out of the house as if the hounds of hell were on his tail.

Steve shook his head. “You do know this is where all the allegations about you being a devil worshiping cult leader come from, right?”

Eddie threw back his head and laughed. “They can think all they want.”

*

Eddie and Steve talked about what Ezra had said about how people make payments for their weed.

“I won’t deny that people have offer to blow me or even have sex with me in exchange for drugs,” Eddie said as they lay curled up on his bed. “But I’ve never taken anybody up on that.”

Steve twisted his head to look up at his boyfriend. “I can’t say I’m not pleased to hear that, but is there a reason why?”

“Several,” he admitted pulling Steve in closer. “One is that there is an actual fucking pandemic going on regarding gay men, and I wouldn’t trust those assholes even with a condoms. Another is that if I say yes to one, then I’ve got to say yes to next guy. And as my supplier wants actual cash for his product, blow jobs aren’t currency in any country I know of. And despite what Ezra said, most of the people offering aren’t men.”

Steve hummed as he snuggled under Eddie’s chin. “I can see that. Any other reasons why you won’t?”

“Does having a super hot boyfriend count?” he chuckled.

Steve kissed the underside of his jaw. “That’s a very good reason.” His hand slipped down his boyfriend’s side and to his belt. “A super hot boyfriend who is very grateful for the rescue.”

Eddie moaned as Steve’s fingers ghosted over his zipper. “Yeah and how are you going to show that gratitude?”

Steve slid down Eddie body and undid his belt. “I was thinking it was such a shame you didn’t get those blow jobs when your cock is so delectable.”

Eddie gasped and threw back his head as his super hot boyfriend’s breath felt hot on the front of his boxers. “God, baby. Show me what you’ve got.”

And Steve spent their evening doing just that.

*

Steve fidgeted nervously at Eddie’s locker after school. He had finished the most recent comic with only a week of school to spare. He had made sure that Jonathan and Nancy weren’t staying after school for any reason so they didn’t see him make the hand off. He knew he should have just done it at the trailer, but with him cutting it so fine before the end of the year, he didn’t want to make Jeff and the others wait for it.

Eddie loped over to his boyfriend and looked around. “Hey, sweetheart. You okay?”

He thrust the comic at Eddie, his eyes downcast. “It’s the most recent comic. There’s an explanation like before. But please don’t let people see that part.”

Eddie cradled the comic to his chest. “I’ll be careful, I promise. I’m guessing this means you aren’t coming over tonight?”

Steve shook his head. “Lucas wants to go see the latest Bond film, but his friends don’t want to go with him...”

“So you offered to take him,” Eddie finished. “That’s sweet of you.”

Steve snorted and shook his head. “His parents think I’m taking him to ‘Meet the Littles’ or some shit like that.”

Eddie threw back his head and laughed. “Yeah, that’s more like the Steve Harrington I know and love.”

“I’ll call when I get home, though...” he muttered, running his fingers through his hair.

“Okay,” Eddie murmured. “Well talk then.”

*

This time Eddie went straight to the back page to read the explanation first.

“Hey, Eds,

Again there are parts in between this, parts that don’t include me, that I’ll some day tell you all about. But I’m focusing on the parts I was part of. This time it all started with what the kids thought was a new species of lizard and turned out to be the beginning stages of an Upside Down monster. One they they dubbed the demodog.

I can just picture you frowning as you try to remember where you heard that from and the answer is you heard it from me. You asked me what it was and I told you it from one of their game thingies, but that’s only part of it. These demodogs have flower faces and run on four legs. They are part of a hive mind that allows them to communicate with each other.

Dustin had taken one of these things home and it ate his cat. His cat. You can be disgusted, I know I was. He had originally gone to Nancy’s for help but she had gone off with Jonathan about something related to Barb Holland. This was right after our fight at the Halloween party.

I was on my way with roses to apologize to her, when he intercepted me. And the rest is as they say is history. I would do anything for that kid now.

The other players are Lucas Sinclair and Max Mayfield. I don’t know if you need to know that, but I feel like you have to understand that for the rest of it to make sense.

I have so many tales to tell you but I can’t because it could get you hurt and that is the last thing I want to do.

Also, (blurred words) show you all the times I was brave, that I did the (more blurred words) when it came (blurred words) because I love you so much and (blurred words again) less of me.

Love,

Your Stevie”

Eddie hated how easy Steve had pegged him for frowning at the name like he said he would or how he knew he would be disgusted at the poor cat. He stared at the blurred words for a moment before his own eyes welled up.

Steve had tried writing over the parts with what were clearly tear drops but all it had done was make it worse. Why he didn’t just write again, Eddie didn’t know.

But Eddie could now make out the words, “Also, I wanted to show you all the times I was brave, that I did the right thing when it came to it, because I love you so much and I didn’t want you thinking less of me.”

He flipped back to the beginning and started reading. It was thrilling and exciting. That was if you didn’t know it really happened. And happened to the sweetest boy he had the privilege of knowing.

He wiped away his tears and made a promise to whatever it took to protect this boy with every fiber of his being. Because by god, someone had to.

****

Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Tag List: @mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @emly03

@spectrum-spectre @zerokrox-blog @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson

@messrs-weasley @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @danili666 @goodolefashionedloverboi

@val-from-lawrence @i-must-potato @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog @justforthedead89

@vecnuthy @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @anne-bennett-cosplayer

@yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon @cinnamon-mushroomabomination

@dragonmama76 @scheodingers-muppet @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual

@angels-of-hades @mugloversonly @y4r3luv @greeniebean911 @birbsauce

@acingthecounts @cryptid-system @counting-dollars-counting-stars @kultiras @ravenfrog

[whxre-bxby]

Hate-Fucking with Mansk

THANK YOU FOR 1K Followers you guys deserve the world!

Recom Mansk x Recom f. Y/N

I will be making one with Lyle thanks to the great plot idea from @onlyreadz

Masterlist

Summary: Mansk has been attracted to you since you were human. As a newly recruited recombinant, he was ready to focus on the mission but your presence distracts him. A hatred for you builds up in him along with frustration and one evening, it all comes out and he can't help himself but deal with you.

WARNINGS: SMUT, man-handling, degrading, mean Mansk, filthy language, violence, fighting, angst, non-con (a little), hurt/comfort,

Side rant: this shit took me ages, enjoy (made with love)

Word Count: 9760

Today was the day the recombinant plan was being put into action. This was a major breakthrough for the RDA and their best hope of finding Jake Sully. 

Since the recom’s had the memories of soldiers and were now much bigger than humans, they needed to be woken up in groups so that the medical staff could tend to them all. All of them were therefore woken separately to ensure everyone's safety and prevent chaos. 

Mansk was in the first group along with Lopez, Warren, and Walker. Everything went well there and once they had been medically checked they were allowed to leave and dress themselves in their uniforms. 

They were told to wait in the cafeteria until everyone was awake. Mansk had a hard time adapting to his new body but he kept it to himself. His friend managed to distract him from it too. 

The second group was slightly more chaotic. But what did they expect when they had Lyle and Miles in the same room? Quaritch apparently delivered a solid punch to Lyle’s face which was well deserved because that is not the first thing one wants to wake up to. Especially not after one’s memories have the Na’vi categorised under the clear enemy. Nothing huge happened and soon they joined the others in the cafeteria. 

The group you were in was the last group but you were woken at the same time as the second one, just in a different room. 

Let’s just say that chaos was very much present there too. You woke up along with Ja, Prager, and Brown and Ja did the same thing Lyle did to Brown. Brown was known for being fast to act on his instincts so Ja wasn’t just punched, he was put in a chokehold. 

While this whole commotion was happening your eyes were opening and the noise startled you, making you sit up. There was a human next to you trying to keep you laying down but it didn’t really work. You scanned the room, watching 2 Na’vi males roll around on the floor while a third tried pulling them apart and obviously, you freaked out. Before they knew you were awake you screamed, jumping off the side of the bed. The fighting stopped for a second as they looked at you. Prager hurried over to you, trying to calm you down and introduce himself but you weren’t having it. 

The pause in the fight was used to Brown’s advantage as he pulled Ja to his feet and they slammed up against a screen attached to the ceiling. It broke off, swinging to you and the edge of it hit your jaw. 

Prager stepped closer than you wanted and the heart-beat detecting monitor next to you was launched at him. Prager ducked the heavy equipment and it flew right past Brown’s head who had let go of Ja in shock. Ja had rolled him over now, yelling at his previous friend while Prager was shouting at you to stop damaging the equipment. 

He called your name which confused you and soon you remembered that you were supposed to wake up like this. 

Y/N’s POV: 

“Oh fuck- Prager I’m sorry.”  I said, clasping my face in my hands and gathering myself. 

He tried comforting me while pulling Ja off of Brown and eventually, everyone had calmed down. 

The medics tried patching up my bruised jaw and bleeding nose but it hurt more so I left to get dressed. We were given new uniforms and then given permission to leave and meet the others. 

When we arrived, Quaritch was already giving everyone a pep-talk. Ja flung the door open stepping inside. Brown put his hand on his shoulder in an apologetic manner for the punches but Ja pushed his hand away, still mad. 

The room went silent as we walked in. Brown followed Ja inside and both of them had bruises and small cuts. I walked in after Brown, holding a bloody tissue to my nose and Prager was behind me to watch out for us. 

No one else was injured. Just Lyle had suffered a punch. Fike apparently too. Seeing us all walk in was like watching soldiers return from war and Quaritch sighed. Maybe this team would kill itself before he could order us to step outside. 

Lyle broke the silence by laughing, getting up and examining Brown before laughing more. I wasn’t in the mood for his jokes so I sat down next on the bench, ears tipped back. I noticed through the tattoos and some facial features that I was sitting next to Z-Dog who was already grinning at me. I scoffed at her amused reaction and she pressed me against her before biting her lip. 

“What the fuck happened?” she asked, making me show her my bleeding nose while she and Walker suppressed laughter. 

“Don’t wanna talk about it.” I say, shrugging it off. It was embarrassing. 

“Lyle got punched by the Colonel.” she whispered and I looked at her wide-eyed before wheezing. 

“No way.” I say, looking at Lyle who had now sat down too. She nodded and I gave in. 

“Brown had Ja face-down on the ground.” I whisper back, smiling. “And I thought Prager was going to kill me.” 

She held a fist in front of her mouth as we both grinned. “They threw a TV at me.” I add to her amusement and she laughs. 

“Assholes.” I whisper jokingly. Everyone settles down and Quaritch begins explaining our mission. 

Third Person POV:

Your group walked into the room and everyone had examined you all, noting the injuries and the tension. Mansk recognised his former colleagues, smiling to himself when he saw how they messed each other up. Then his eyes moved on to you and his smile was swiped clean off. 

He stared and his heart stopped beating for a moment. Of course, Mansk remembered you. You were his main and secret problem as a human. He didn’t know you had signed up for the Phoenix project. 

His eyes stayed fixated on you as you sat down and he scanned all your features. As you talked to Z-Dog, Lopez nudged him in the side with a chuckle. 

“Not even a minute in and you’re back on ‘er.” he whispered and Mansk’s eyes shot to him while he flattened his ears back. 

“Shut up.” Mansk shrugged him off, looking down at his feet. Lopez knew that he used to like you before.

Mansk had a thing for you when you were humans but he never told you and you never knew. He didn’t plan on telling you now either. The plan was to do what he did before: suppress his feelings and ignore you as best he could. He wasn’t able to ignore you before but now this was going to be a new version of Mansk. A better one, he told himself. This time, he would avoid you. 

Mansk needed to set his priorities straight. He was on a mission here which involved some personal conflict for he knew Jake too and wanted revenge. He hated the Na’vi and was ready to give this mission his all. No distractions. That wouldn’t happen this time. He also hated that his attraction to you stayed even in your Avatar form. 

Y/N’s POV:

We had landed on Pandora now. 

The next day we were getting our gear ready for the mission and I was given a gun I’d never seen before. I wasn’t familiar with this type of weapon because this wasn’t the one we would ever use. They probably created new guns while we were gone. I held it, examining the firearm and trying to figure out how to load it and with what. 

Everyone else was busy with their stuff, except for Mansk who was leaning against a table next to his finished and clean guns. I remembered him. I think we might have even been quite good friends. One of the things I remember about him was that he knew his weapons. He could definitely help me with mine. 

I grab my stuff and walk over to him. He’s wearing his shades and only looks at me once I’m right next to him. 

“Hey,” I smile. “Can you help me with this? I don’t know how to load it.” I say, laying out my weapon which seemed to have three parts. I expected this to be a good ice-breaker and from then on we could have a nice conversation and catch up on things. But no.

He just tilted his head to the side to look at my gun, then at me and then he looked away. 

“You should know how.” he replied, his voice low and cold. Mansk then reached for his things and left, exiting the room without another word. 

I stood there watching him leave, surprised by his answer. We used to always talk. What was that about?

Either way, I found his reaction unnecessary. We’re meant to help each other and he was being an asshole. Mansk better have a good explanation for that otherwise I’ll be pissed. Maybe something happened, so I’ll let it slide once. 

Something similar happened that evening. We were once again in the cafeteria specifically made for the recombinants and I had just gotten my food. 

Zdinarsk was the closest person in here to me so I was obviously going to sit with her. We had large tables for multiple people to sit on at once and I spotted her next to Lyle. As I’m walking to her I notice Mansk is opposite Lyle and the only space free is opposite Z-Dog which is next to him. 

Maybe he will apologise now and tell me what got him in such a bad mood. 

Without thinking much of it, I put my tray down on the table and Zdinarsk smiles at me before continuing to listen to the conversation between Lyle and Prager who was on the other side of Mansk. 

I sit down and notice Mansk glance at me from the corner of my eye. He freezes, looking away and tightly clenches his fist around the knife he’s holding. I’m unwrapping my food and suddenly, he stands up in silence and swipes his tray from the table, leaving us all startled. 

Mansk walked away and I felt him glare at me as he turned away and walked to another table. 

Zdinarsk and I exchange glances. 

“What’s up with him?” Lyle asks chuckling and taking a bite out of his bread. They watched him walk off and I huffed, wiping my hand over my face. 

“No idea. He’s being a real dick.” I mumble, arranging the food on my plate. 

“Really? He was just joking around with us a minute ago.” Zdinarsk said and I looked up at her. Maybe he wasn’t just in a bad mood. Perhaps my gut feeling was right. Mansk might really dislike me for whatever reason. 

“I think he hates me.” I say, looking down and starting my meal. 

“What you do?” she asks, her eyes flicking between Mansk and me. He’s sat at the table behind me, his back facing mine. Lyle and Prager are quietly listening. Lyle loved listening to all the drama and the news. It was his guilty pleasure. In a way, he was a gossip girl.

As humans, I could be ranting about my ex to Z-Dog and he would be standing with us, eating his protein bars and just listening with wide eyes. 

“Nothing. Literally nothing.” I say and she stays silent in thought for a while before we all shrug it off and start talking about something else. 

Today we had started the mission and we were sent out into the forest of Pandora. Roughly in the area, the last battle took place. It was all very familiar and even though there was beautiful scenery all around us, it haunted me. I died on these grounds a few years back…

We were walking in line, following Quaritch and Lyle who were leading the way. 

“Alright team, we’re runnin’ out of time so we need to split up te’ cover more ground.” Quaritch said, turning around and resting one hand on his vest while the other held his gun. Lyle nodded, looking at us before Quaritch quickly counted down the line, pointing two of his fingers at his soldiers to divide us up into pairs. At least he wasn’t calling out our names, then it would feel like we’re back in school. 

Mansk stood frozen as I watched Quaritch quickly point the two of us together. He looked around and everyone was already walking off in pairs while the Colonel turned around, leaving with Lyle.

Great…

I had my own mission for the next hour: to make this the worst most unpleasant hour Mansk has experienced. He was getting some payback for how he treated me before. I don’t let things like that just slide. 

He was tense and his ears pinned back flat against his head as he huffed, looking at me. I gave him an innocent smile which I knew would piss him off. It did and he turned away, walking in the direction we were supposed to go in. 

If he doesn’t start a fight I won’t bother him. But I’m sure he’ll have something to say before our time ends. 

I followed him in silence, looking around and holding my weapon steady. 

After about 15 minutes of hearing nothing but the sounds of the forest, the first comment came from him. 

“Walk faster.” he said, not even bothering to turn around. I stop and my ears perk forwards as I process his words. Who does he think he is?

“I’m right behind you.” I snap back, rolling my eyes. “Dipshit.” I mumble. 

His ears react to the insult and he turns around. “What?” 

“Dipshit.” I repeat in a mocking way, making his brows furrow in irritation behind his stupid shades. I walk past him, refusing to waste another second of my time dealing with him. 

“Quit it, you’ll ruin the mission.” he says, starting to walk behind me now with his ears strained again. 

“Oh really?” I say, waving my arms. “How?”

I turn to face him and as I do I slightly stumble over a root in the path. Mansk raises an eyebrow at me. 

“Actin’ like that.” he replies, motioning to my leg. Now my ears are flattened back and my tail flicks in annoyance as I glare at him. 

“Like your behaviour is so much better. Take your stupid shades off and then we’ll see who’s talking.” I call out, turning around again and walking away. 

That got under his skin. “Take it back.” he growls, following me again. 

“Like, apologise? No way. If any one of us needs to apologise it’s you.” I sneer in response. 

I hear him scoff in annoyance too. My attitude was frustrating him but I didn’t care because he was such a pain in my ass. 

“Yeah? For what?” he asks, watching me walk in front of him. 

“For being such an ass to me for no reason. The fuck did I do?” I ask, stopping and turning to face him. I really wanted to know. 

He scowled at me before just ignoring what I said and walking further. I let out a frustrated groan. 

“Fucking answer.” I call after him, fighting the urge to call him a ‘hormonal bitch’. Damn was he lucky I was restraining myself. 

“Shut up and walk.” he mutters with an ice-cold tone. 

“You’re being such a moron. We used to be friends.” I say, looking down while continuing to walk straight ahead. My body bumps into his and then I realise that he stopped in his tracks, facing me. 

He was towering over me, a stern expression dressing his face. 

“We weren’t friends. You were a pain in my ass. Always clueless. Never knowin’ what to do and never doin’ it right.” he snarled at me and his harsh words startled me, making me take a step back. I didn’t expect that. 

“How you got chosen for this mission is a fuckin’ mystery te’ me, airhead.” He added, walking up on me and staring me down before walking off again. 

I wanted to shout an insult back at him but deep down his words hurt me. I stood still for a few moments, repeating what he just said to me and it made my heart ache. My memories told me we used to be great friends. Why were his so different?

Mansk almost disappears behind the trees so I start walking again,re-adjusting some of the gear I had on. After about five minutes I catch up to him again but we walk in silence. When we turn a corner I notice Mansk stopped walking again. 

“For fuck’s sake what is it now?” I complain, wanting to push past him until I hear a loud snort and huff. I freeze myself as Mansk and I slowly look up, meeting eyes with a huge animal. 

I immediately recognise it. It’s an elephant-sized cow creature. The one that crushed Lyle. It’s almost roaring at us and Mansk stretches his arm out in front of me, pushing me back. 

The purple feather-like parts on its head move around and I realise it is displaying a territorial warning. The one Jake, Grace and Norm dealt with in the forest. Grace taught me all about it. 

Mansk curses under his breath before grabbing my vest and tugging me back. 

“Run.” he shouts but I push him off of me. 

He doesn’t understand and gets frustrated with me, wondering why I wasn’t going with him. I turn back to the creature and throw my gun down on the ground next to me. It wouldn’t help in any scenario here. Mansk didn’t know that and I heard bullets soar through the air. They pushed off of the animal's thick skin, not harming it. The action just made it angrier.

“Don’t you dare shoot at it.” I snarl at him while the animal backs up. “You’ll make it worse.” 

He’s watching me with wide eyes, standing a few feet behind me. 

“Put the gun down, Mansk!” I shout, watching as he hesitates. My attention returns to the animal and it has finished backing up now. I steady myself on the ground, placing one foot in front of the other and watching it. It takes off, running towards us at full speed and I take a step forward, snarling at it and baring my fangs. 

Mansk’s heart drops in fear as it nears us.

It comes to a halt barely in front of me, quickly backing up and huffing. I watch it for a while, not moving from my position. It watches me, waiting for me to retreat but I don’t, so it turns and leaves. The tall grass rustles as the animal turns away and I straighten my posture, watching it until it’s fully gone. 

I turn to look at Mansk who looks completely shocked. His expression makes me scoff. 

“Clueless airhead, huh?” I say, giving him a shit-eating grin before picking up my gun and resuming our walk. “Look at you hiding behind me like a bitch.”

His perked ears tip back again as I resume the argument.

He watches me with wide eyes before quickly following. I knew he was confused but he wouldn’t ask so I might as well enlighten him with the things I do know. 

“That was a Hammerhead Titanothere. They’re not usually aggressive. It was just a territorial warning display.” I say and I know very well he is listening. 

“Shooting it is useless. They have bulletproof skin. You just need to stand your ground when it does that.” I continue to explain, not looking behind me. 

Now I turn around, just to mock him. “You see, I’m not good at loading these stupid guns and yet my chances of survival here are still bigger than yours.” I smile at him and he shoots me a glare. 

It amazed Mansk how well you handled that situation. Of course, he wouldn’t ever say that. But you had climbed a rank in his eyes. That didn’t change how much he despised you though. He despised your attitude even though it was his fault you were giving it to him. Mansk hated how easily you would get him distracted and how you never seemed to understand his grudge against you. 

We returned to the meeting area and no one found anything. The mission was called off for the day and we returned to Bridgehead. I didn’t speak to Mansk on the way back at all. Why should I? He wasn’t just rude anymore he was unnecessarily mean to me. 

Later that evening, I was back in the gym. The gym was its own separate building with very bright lights. Everyone had left because everyone gets up early. I couldn’t sleep though because I felt so frustrated and angered, I needed to let it out somewhere. The unlucky boxing bag was getting it all. I was able to properly let my emotions out because no one else was in here with me. The recom’s had their own gym because we needed bigger equipment. And everyone had gone to bed. 

I wanted to scream my lungs out as I delivered punch after punch to the bag but I knew someone would hear me, thinking it was an emergency. 

I continued beating the shit out of the boxing sack when I heard the main door click open. My arms reached for the bag to still it and I held onto it to stay on my feet while turning around to see who had entered the gym. I had hair sticking to my face and my chest was heaving while beads of sweat decorated my blue skin. 

My eyes met the eyes of Mansk who was standing in front of the door with his hands in his joggers. My ears immediately pin back which secretly amuses him. 

I watch him for a few seconds, wondering what he’s doing here but he doesn’t move or do anything. He isn’t even wearing his usual training clothes. 

“The fuck you want?” I ask, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand which was in a boxing glove. 

Mansk scoffed and looked at the ground for a second in thought before scanning the empty gym. He was wearing his damned shades again. They made him look meaner.

“Nothin’.” he said, facing forwards again. I didn’t like whatever he was up to. My eyes linger on him for a little while longer in an attempt to read his mind before I turn away, taking my gloves off. 

“Done already?” he asked from somewhere behind me, walking closer. I roll my eyes and sigh, trying to pull myself together so that I won’t snap at him. 

“I’ve been here for over 2 hours. Yes, I’m done.” I snarl, refusing to look at him. 

“Don’t let me intimidate you.” he said with a breathy laugh and I knew he was smirking to himself right now. Mansk was surprisingly talkative with me. Definitely not in a pleasant way but he was a very distanced and quiet person in general. Maybe he just needed me to know how much he disliked me. 

I scoff. “Yeah, right. Like you could ever.” 

Mansk exhales a huff through his nose as tension builds in the air. 

“Maybe if you weren’t so rude I could take you more seriously.” I say, throwing the gloves to the ground and heading to the showers. 

“I’m rude?” he asks, now standing on the large rubber mat I was training on. It was a big square designed for boxing and sparring. 

“Nooo.” I reply, sarcastically. Mansk hated sarcasm. 

“Fuck- why do you have to be like this.” He mumbled, brushing his nose with his finger. I stop walking and turn around. 

“What did you say?” I ask, awaiting an answer as I stand with my weight shifted on one leg and my arms crossed in front of my chest. 

Mansk didn’t answer which made me huff in annoyance. Why did he even come here?

I walked over to him, getting back in the ring and leaning on the side ropes so I could look at him properly. His ears perked forwards, paying me attention while his eyes followed my movements. 

“If you came here just to get on my nerves you can leave.” I say, not allowing myself to look away. My tail swished behind me, showing my pent-up frustration with him. His one did the same and his ears pinned back.

“Or you can tell me why the fuck you’re like this.” I add, giving him the options I can think of until another idea enters my mind. 

“Or…” I say, not necessarily meaning this seriously. “ you can fight me.” I press my body further into the elastic railing fencing in the boxing ring while a mischievous grin paints my face. He was probably going to walk away. 

Mansk seemed surprised by my words, not moving for almost a minute as he thought. I was about to turn away and walk to the showers again when I heard his voice. 

“Fine.” Was all he said as he walked towards me. I backed up and he entered the ring with me. 

“Don’t respond with just ‘fine’. I’m gracing you with the option to finally be close to me, so you can stop being an ass.”  I joke, turning away from him and I hear him fucking growl.

I freeze, turning around to him again. He looks really pissed. 

“Oh no, I’m so intimidated now.” I mock him, ridiculing his stern expression. 

“Shut the fuck up.” he snarls, making my ears perk forward at his aggressive reaction. 

I snort. “What do you want me to say? ‘Make me’?” 

He cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders back. “Sure.” 

“In your dreams, jerk.” I snap at him, taking the opposite corner. 

This was a great opportunity in my eyes. He agreed to it and I would finally be able to punch the shit out of him. ‘Legally’. 

He was staring me down, waiting for any sudden movement I would make which would trigger him to pounce. 

“You gonna count down?” he asks eagerly, fighting himself to stay still. 

“When you grow a pair.” I spit my words and that’s all he can take. 

Mansk lunges forwards, running to me with quick steps. I dodge his first punch by moving to the side and then grab his left arm, twisting it. He groans and then one of his hands is gripping my wrist. I let go of him and his now free hand wraps around the back of my neck. He swiftly turns me around so that I’m no longer facing him and within the next second, my knee is kicked in and I fall down a level. He holds me up by my neck while both my knees hit the ground but before he can think of what to do next, my legs lock around his ankles and I manage to trip him. He falls back while I turn and straddle him, trying to keep him held down. 

“Asshole, you’re breaking all the rules.” I hiss at him, leaning down to his face to emphasize my words and he angrily pushes me off of him. I land on my back and when he’s about to jump on me I roll to the side. 

“There’s no fuckin’ rules when I’m fightin’ a bitch.” Mansk gnarled, pushing his upper body off the floor and not taking his eyes off his prey. I sit back on my knees and as he attempts to tackle me down I deliver a punch to the side of his face which brings him out of balance. 

“I’m sorry, which one of us was fucking-” I gasp for air “cowering behind the other in the forest today?” I say, recalling him standing behind me when we were almost attacked by the large animal. 

He stays still for a few seconds, holding his jaw and breathing heavily. I didn’t manage to hit him properly because he slightly moved out of the way, meaning it couldn’t hurt too much. However, it was still a punch and it felt good. 

He growled again, turning to me and as he lunged forward, his hand caught my ankle. Immediately he pulled me to him. My free leg kicked his shoulder back but his posture was stable and he pinned them to the ground. His hand then grasped my queue, forcing me to turn around while I leaned on my forearms, refusing to lay down flat on the ground. I was facing the ground while struggling to hold myself up. Mansk was towering above me, one hand still firmly holding my queue while the other pulled my left arm out from beneath me, pinning it down against the ground. 

“You mean the one time you wore almost nothin’?” he snarled, moving up my body and pressing his knee down on my leg to eliminate the possibility of me getting up. I sensed sarcasm when he brought up the ‘one time’, which was rare for Mansk to use.

His words confused me and I stopped struggling for a second to think about them. 

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I say, clearly distressed and resuming my fight of attempting to push him off. 

“Fuckin’ look at you. You wear nothin’ but this excuse of a bra and these tight shorts.” Mansk growled. Tight shorts? Someone’s been paying attention.

I did always wear the same type of clothes. Similar to Walker actually except that her pants were longer than mine. I didn’t think much of it because Na’vi wear loincloths and chest pieces that barely cover anything. So why should we?

Our bodies were different now, adapted to the climate of Pandora, not the air-conditioned base we stayed in. We were used to the warmth. 

I push myself up and off the ground with my right arm. 

“It’s weather appropriate.” I snap back, glancing over my shoulder as I pin my ears flat against my head. 

Mansk tightens his grip on my queue, tugging me up before almost slamming me down into the ground so that I was now pressed flat against it. 

“Well it’s not workplace appropriate.” he opposes, pushing his words through clenched teeth. 

I whine in pain while Mansk lets go of my wrist, placing his hand down on my shoulder. He was leaning on his arms which ensured that I would stay on the ground. 

“Oh I’m sorry does it bother you?” I murmur, trying to at least roll over. 

“Fuckin’ right it does.” he says and his hand is digging into the skin of my shoulder. I whimper in pain, arching my back to try and have him loosen his grip but he doesn’t. 

Luckily, my leg finds his tail, roughly slamming it down and trapping it between my foot and the ground. 

Mansk hisses through his clenched jaw, the pain making him retreated his abusing hands. I push myself forwards, lifting the leg that caused him the pain and kicking him in the side so that he would not be restraining my right leg anymore. I succeed, finally free from his grip again. 

“Why don’t you go and cry about it to Lyle.” I say, regaining my breath while resting on my hands and knees. Lyle was our team leader and often dealt with our complaints in the past. 

He looks up at me and I can tell he is raging. I’ve never seen Mansk this worked up before. No one has. 

His tail aggressively flicks behind him as he shakes his hand. “Lyle happens to like it.” he answers, spitting the words like venom. I raise an eyebrow in amusement. 

His words surprise me and I grin. “Maybe I should go to his room then.” I say, not thinking much of it. In my mind, I thought insults would get Mansk angrier but somehow the last sentence I spoke did. 

“...and tell him about what you’re do-” 

I don’t get to finish my sentence because Mansk is back on me. I try to back up but he’s too fast. I’m leaning back on my forearms once again, facing him. My leg attempts to kick him in the face and push him away but he dodges it and it slides over his shoulder. His left hand tightens around my calf, holding it in place on his shoulder. 

My eyes widen when I realise my mistake. I was stuck now.

He noticed my wide eyes and even through his anger, this little victory made him grin at me devilishly. 

“You ain’t goin’ anywhere.” he growled, flashing me his sharp fangs as his grin widened. I glared at him and then Mansk leaned further forward, making my leg bend rather uncomfortably. His free arms reached forward and he held down my other leg by digging his fingertips into the flesh of my thigh and holding it down. 

I hiss through clenched teeth at the pain from his tight grip. 

“Thought you were goin’ to put up a bigger fight than this.” he mocked me and I pushed the leg he was holding on his shoulder against him but to Mansk it just felt like a nudge. 

“Shut up, I was working out for over 2 hours you dick-” I start complaining, not giving up my struggle. He hushes me, placing his hand over my mouth to shut me up. I freeze, staring at him wide-eyed. What the fuck was he doing?

“See? I like you better when you’re not runnin’ your mouth like-” he starts to say, thinking I calmed down. I didn’t need to hear the stupid things he had to say and without hesitation I bit into his hand, letting my fangs scrape his skin and causing a scratch. 

Immediately his hand retreats and he holds it against his side, examining the scratch with perked ears. Then Mansk looks back at me and he’s angry again. 

“Try that again and you’ll lose a finger.” I snarl and his ears tip back. Somehow, I loved our new ears. They made it so easy to read one another. 

“You won, congratu-fucking-lations, let me go.” 

“Nah, don’t think so.” he growled and that devilish smirk was back on his face. “You need to be taught a lesson.”

I snort. “Me? The reason I’m a bitch to you is because you decided to be an ass since day one. And that for no reason at all.” 

“No reason?” he scoffs, digging his fingers deeper into my flesh to contain himself. 

“Yeah. I didn’t do shit and you’re acting like such a moron that-” 

“You fuckin’ distract me Y/N. Can’t do anythin’ when you’re around.” he snarls, making it sound like he’s spitting venom again. “I fuckin’ hate you, your big mouth and you’re poor excuse of fuckin’ clothes.”

My mouth drops open and I try to suppress laughter, but I won’t be able to hold it for long. 

Mansk despised so many things about you but not necessarily you. He hated how attracted he was to you and he blamed you for it. For, in his eyes, showing off your body. He was angered by his internal battle of trying to understand why he even felt attracted to an Avatar of a Na’vi. Mansk resents that he can’t get you out of his head and that once he sees you he can’t take his eyes off you. 

He was ready to fully devote himself to this mission and get it done once and for all but you are such a big distraction to him. You’re Mansk’s weakness and he used to swear to himself never to have one which makes his hatred for you worse. 

I’m biting my lip and looking at Mansk whose chest is heaving. I can see how he’s restraining himself from probably killing me but right now it just seems funny to me. 

“Goddamn, you could have bought me a drink first.” I laugh at him, releasing my lip which has my teeth marks imprinted in it. 

Soldiers like Mansk amused me and almost seemed stupid to a certain extent. Such a big intimidating man in the military losing a battle to his feelings because he never shares anything with anyone and of course one day it’s all got to come out. And when it does, it’s nasty like this. 

People like Quaritch would completely neglect mental health, focusing just on physical appearance and a strong survival mentality. Mansk was similar. The idea of talking to someone about his feelings made him think he was growing weak and that was the thing he dreaded the most. 

“If you’re so desperate for me you could have told me and-” 

Mansk can’t stand that. His right-hand releases my thigh and quickly wraps itself around my throat making me stop talking. 

“You keep talkin’ like that and I won’t be able to hold back.” he warns me. I examine the veins bulging out on his forearm, pumping blood through his body. His neck was strained and I could see his artery. He was really tensed up. 

“What makes you think I’d listen to you, jackass?” I snap back, refusing to let him intimidate me. 

Mansk can’t help himself anymore. You’re right there, laying beneath him.

He leans down, holding my head in place as I watch in confusion. His lips crash down against mine and after I realise what’s happening, my body seems to respond to him and I kiss him back. It’s not a nice kiss in any way. It’s harsh and our teeth clash at one point. I push his chest away from me, breaking the heated kiss and gasp for air. He seemed even more restless now.

Maybe deep down I was attracted to this menace of a man. 

“I’ll make ya listen.” he replies, once again flashing his fangs through a smug look. 

“I’d rather die.” I say, pulling my left leg which he let go back to my body. As I retreated it from beneath him and to me, my calf caressed his groin and Mansk tensed up. It took me a while to figure out what just happened and an extra few seconds to come to the conclusion that he was hard to the point that his erection strained his pants. 

My mouth drops open and I gulp before my gaze shoots up to him. He’s already looking at me and his ears have drooped but he didn’t let his harsh grip falter. This is definitely not what I expected. 

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I wheeze but he presses my throat tighter. 

The pressure he’s causing makes me uncomfortable and I slap him across the face, almost making his shades fly. Shock engulfs him for a good few seconds and I’m crawling away. 

I turn away from him, steadying myself on all fours as I prepare to stand but he’s quicker. In an instant, his hands are back on me and I’m unable to move forwards anymore. Mansk's palms close around my waist as he tugs me back to him. 

My ass comes in contact with his lower abdomen as he pulls me towards him and I gasp when I feel him press against me. 

“If you don’t move away in the next three seconds I will kill-” 

Before I can finish my sentence a stinging slap is delivered to the spot under my ass and above my thigh. 

I whimper, clenching my fists together. 

“You’re gonna keep you’re dirty lil’ mouth closed and take what I give you. Understood?” he said and I heard him unbuckle his belt. My pupils blew wider as his strong musk flooded my senses. 

“I’ll rip your tongue out you-” 

Another slap which hurt more than the previous one made me shut up. I clenched my eyes closed, suddenly feeling weak. My body seemed to be responding to his presence against my will, making me almost surrender. 

My arms and legs trembled and my tail was no longer hastily flicking around. It stilled and I pulled it under me and between my legs. 

His palm was once again holding my queue, grasping it so tightly it made me feel lightheaded. 

“Mansk, you asshole-” I murmur while one of my arms gives out beneath me. “You’re so dead.” 

My threats fly by him, not bothering the soldier at all. His long-denied emotions have collapsed in on him and that internal war of frustration triggered his new primal senses to come to light. Mine were becoming visible too and it seemed that there was no way to stop this.

My eyes seem to be burdened by a blurriness until Mansk’s touch brings me out of my haze. His free hand is feeling along the waistline of my sports shorts and with a few harsh tugs, he pulls them down my waist and legs along with my panties. My tail is pulled out of the cloth and I bare my fangs, hissing at him as the gym air comes in contact with my refused heat. 

Mansk groans, letting go of my queue and grabbing at the flesh of my hips and ass. I raise my tail, making it flick him in the face because I wasn’t giving up just yet. He growls, holding it down against me as he examines my heat-struck body. 

“Fuck…” he curses under his breath, exhaling shakily as he holds my thigh and makes me spread my legs wider. 

He hated you without a doubt, but fuck you looked so good to him. Everything about your body made him harder and suddenly you seemed so inviting to him, he couldn’t resist. 

My ears were pinned back as I was fighting my desire for him and I tried thinking of a way to fight him but my mind was blank at this point. 

I felt him let go of my hip and his right hand was placed on my shoulder, holding me steady. 

Without any warning whatsoever, Mansk brought his hand up to my shamefully dripping pussy, gliding two of his fingers between my folds. I whimper, hiding my face in my other shoulder while grimacing. I didn’t understand my body. 

He rubbed me and naturally, my legs spread wider and my hips followed his movements. 

Mansk wanted to say something but he didn’t know what. Your quarrelling feud was still very much ongoing, this was just an exceptional hiccup in the entire fight. One that couldn’t be prevented by either of you. 

Suddenly, Mansk pushed both his fingers into me and I jolted forwards at the unexpected intrusion. He kept me still by pulling me back with the hand on my right shoulder and now he leaned over my bent body, starting to finger me. Neither of us were thinking anymore. 

I whimpered, stretching my arms out in front of me so that I wouldn’t fall forwards. He wasn’t being gentle either. My body was rocking forwards every time his fingers bottomed out and his pace was rough. 

I hiss, baring my fangs again when I start feeling a form of pleasure. 

Mansk can’t resist you anymore. He has to take you whether you’re ready or not. If you continue to fight him, he’ll just be rougher. 

He pressed himself against my bare skin again, before pulling back and lining himself up with my entrance. I couldn’t even follow what he was doing, my mind was so clouded with lust. 

With one hard thrust, Mansk forced himself as deep into me as possible. I cried out in surprise and my body tensed at the foreign feeling. 

He groans, finally feeling pleasure wash over him. The long-needed feeling of euphoria was at last flooding his own senses and he needed his release more than anything. My walls were hugging him tightly because my Avatar had never done this before but it made him almost speechless.

“You look like a bitch in heat.” he snarled and I tipped my ears back. 

“You-”  

He pulled back, drawing his rock-hard dick out before snapping his hips forward once again and starting to fuck me at a brutal pace, making me unable to answer. 

I cried out again, not sure if it was in pain or pleasure this time. He wrapped my queue around his hand, making my head tilt back and my back arch against him. 

Mansk was losing himself inside you and he bent over you, pressing his chest against your back to ease his longing to be close to you. 

His arm was resting next to me as he held me in place, not letting his thrusts falter. 

His skin was slapping against mine, no doubt leaving mine reddened and flushed. He dug his fingers into my shoulder to contain and ground himself in reality and I snarled at him, baring through the pain. 

Something about the fact that you hated him but still let him do this really turned Mansk on. He wouldn’t be able to explain it but he definitely preferred this with you over soft sex. You didn’t deserve to be treated nicely, not when you dressed like that and talked to him in that way. 

I wanted to throw an insult at him but I couldn’t talk and neither could he. Grunts and pants filled the room as we still fought each other in a way. I leaned away from him, making the angle more difficult and in return, he held me so tightly his fingernails were close to cutting my skin. 

He would harshly tug me back and closer to him every time I somehow got loose until at one point, he leaned all his weight on me, no longer holding himself up with an arm. Both his arms wrapped around and beneath my body. One of them came up to my throat from between my arms while the other locked my body in place by tightly hugging my waist. 

Mansk’s head was buried in the crook of my neck as his panting fanned against my cheek. His eyes were closed while I was a whimpering mess, occasionally biting back the pathetic noises to hiss or snarl at him which I knew pissed him off more. Every time I did, he would fuck into me from behind even more relentlessly than before. 

I could tell he was close because his thrusts were no longer as sharp. He became more sloppy, mindlessly chasing his high as he pounded into my abused pussy. 

Mansk groaned, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes clenched closed. 

“Fuck- take it you dirty slut.” he growled. 

The hand around my throat tightened, making sure to keep me in place as he thrust into me the last few times. His body tensed and he forced himself as deep into me as possible. Mansk’s teeth bit down on the skin of my left shoulder and his fangs slightly tore the skin while his body shook. I felt him release and shoot his hot cum deep inside me as he held me closer and tighter than ever before, to ensure he’d stuff me full with as much of his load as possible. 

I moaned when I felt him fill me. It was something I had never felt before but fuck was it good. 

After about a minute, his tight grip loosened and he let his arms fall to the side. I finally inhaled properly while he steadied his own heavy breathing. 

Everything was so intense, neither of us could move for the next few minutes. He just stayed pressed on top of me, luckily supporting his weight this time while I let my head fall forwards. 

Even though I didn’t cum I was tired. Too tired to push him off or even walk to the showers. 

After a few minutes, Mansk had calmed down and slowly he lifted himself off of me. I felt him surprisingly gently pull out and I whimpered at the movement inside me. Everything felt bruised. 

My arms were trembling beneath me and I let myself fall to the side, finally relaxing. However, the heat between my legs remained. Even after all that cruel handling, my body felt needy. 

Mansk stayed kneeling behind me, looking down at me in pity. He felt a little guilty for what he had done. 

“Y’ alright?” he asked, placing his hand on my thigh as I lay on my side. My relaxed ears flatten back and he notices it all.

“No, you moron.” I snap back at him. Isn’t it obvious that I’m not at my best?

And just like that, all guilt and pity left Mansk’s body. You were clearly well enough to continue bickering. He also noticed how your tail restlessly thudded against the ground. Your scent was still strong, maybe even stronger than before which reminded Mansk that you didn’t cum.

“Aw, you want more don’t you?” he teased me, rolling me over on my back and moving my hands away from my face. He saw how flushed I was and that answered his question. 

“It wasn’t even good, loser.” I snarl, knowing it will get under his skin. But oddly it just made him chuckle. 

“Who were you moanin’ for then?” he asked with a smug grin on his face. An idea popped into my head and now I grinned at him. 

“Lyle could do it better.” I say and Mansk stills. I look at him trying to figure out whether he was thinking or whether he was genuinely hurt but that was difficult because he still had his damned shades on. 

“Mansk-” I say but within an instant, he’s on top of me. 

“I’ll make ya cum so hard you won’t be able to think about no one but me.” he hissed, and when I tried opening my mouth to respond he cut me off again and pressed our lips together. 

I huffed in annoyance, refusing to kiss him to see how much angrier he can get. 

Mansk wrapped his hand around my throat again, squeezing from the sides to cut off my air and blood flow for a few seconds. I gave in, kissing him back with as much lust and passion as I could. 

Without breaking the make out, Mansk trailed his hand down my body and spread my legs apart. I didn’t fight it this time. It seemed like a challenge to him. 

I lift my head and look between our bodies, my eyes going wide as I realise that Mansk is still hard. He pushes my head down by my neck, leaning over and sucking hickeys into the skin. I bite down on my lip, suppressing my noises which sound like muffled whimpers to him. 

He would make sure that even doing that won’t keep you quiet when he’s inside you again. 

Mansk pressed himself against my bare heat which was dripping with his cum. He ground his hips against me and I let my head drop back in pleasure and sighed. 

I felt his lips form into a grin against the skin of my collarbone. I still had my bra on because he was in too much of a hurry to take it off before. Mansk was completely naked on the other hand.

His teeth tugged at the strap of my sports bra before he leaned back and pulled it over my head. Without hesitation, he leaned back down, roughly groping my breasts and leaving a dark hickey above one. 

The grinding stopped when he pressed the tip of his leaking dick against my entrance again. Slowly he applied pressure, straightening himself and picking up my right leg to wrap it around his waist. I let him move me around because for whatever reason, I was convinced he wouldn’t make me cum. Not when I was already so sore. 

“Where’d your feral side go?” he teased, smirking down at me. I dramatically exhale to show my irritation. 

“I’m not fucking feral.” I hiss and he scoffs. 

“We’ll see.”

“I’m sorry do you want me to punch you?” I ask, looking up at him. 

“You won’t be able to in a sec.” he says and with that, he pushes himself back inside me. He enters me easier this time because we’re both coated in slick from the last round. 

My pupils grow wider at the feeling and I strain my ears back, not wanting him to see the hint of pleasure I just felt. 

Mansk still isn’t gentle because he has no reason to ‘make love’ to you. However, it’s not as brutal as before. 

He starts to thrust into me more precisely this time and my body tenses when it starts feeling good. Fuck. 

His tail found mine, making them wrap around each other while he focused on finding my weak spots. Mansk’s left hand held my thigh up on his waist as he pushed deeper each time until he started bottoming out on each thrust. 

My breathing grows heavy and I feel a small pressure build in me but it’s enough for me to resist. 

Mansk is eyeing me, watching my expressions and he notices how I’m fighting myself. He has a solution for that. 

While thrusting into me again, he lets go of my thigh which stays on him and his thumb circles my clit. 

I inhale sharply, pressing my lips together making him smirk. He slowly sped up the rhythm of his thrusts, letting his thumb brush over my clit every once in a while making me try to close my legs around him. 

I throw my head back and clench my eyes closed, realising that I’ll lose this silly bet and that if he doesn’t stop I will cum. 

Suddenly, he presses his thumb right against my clit and at the same time, his dick brushes up against my G-spot. He feels my walls clench around him briefly and I hiss, letting my mouth drop open. 

“There you are.” he growled, meaning my ‘feral side’. It seems that Mansk liked the animalistic noises we emitted. 

“Fuck-” I whimper, arching my back off the ground. He takes the hint, feeling a sense of pride in his chest as he continues doing exactly what he is. With each thrust, he applies a little more pressure on my clit and rubs under it and I’m gone. I’ll definitely lose. 

My hands grip his shoulder, needing to clutch something for support. Deep inside I’m angry at him and at myself for letting this happen and for having it feel so good. So to put up my rebellious message, I dig my fingernails into his back, clawing at the skin in a desperate attempt to contain my pleasure. 

Mansk growls, leaning forwards and once again resting his head in the crook of my neck. He licked over the area he bit into last time and then nibbled on the skin around it, tracing his fangs along it in a threatening manner. 

Tears sting the corners of my eyes, slowly threatening to spill. Mansk looks up at me and grins at the sight. 

“Such a needy little thing.” He coos and I know he’s making fun of me. 

“You started it-” I sniffle and almost sob in pleasure. “...you idiot.” I can’t think of any good insults or comebacks. 

I hiss when he bites down a little more than he should on my neck and I take it as a warning. 

“C’mon, stop fightin’ it and cum f’ere me.” he mumbles, placing a kiss on my neck. He doesn’t stop his actions and I know it’ll all be over in a few seconds. 

“No-” I whimper, and at this point, I’m begging myself not to come more than I’m telling him. I hate how good he’s making me feel. But it doesn’t matter because, with the next thrust, I’m seeing stars. 

“Mansk-” I almost scream, clenching my legs around his waist and throwing my head back. My fingers are still, digging into his back one final time as my own body shakes and my eyes roll to the back of my head. 

He rides out my orgasm, extending it for as long as possible. 

I’m mindlessly mumbling his name over and over again. 

Finally, I come down and my body goes limp beneath him. My chest is heaving and when I look up at him, Mansk has the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. Instantly I frown which makes him chuckle. 

“You still mad?” he asks and I stare at him in disbelief. 

“Until you grow the balls to apologise, yeah.” I reply, wiping my hand over my forehead. My language and attitude being present after all that amazes him. 

He smiles with a sigh before speaking. “I’m sorry.” he says but I shake my head. 

My hand lifts up to his face and I push his shades up onto his head so that I can see him properly. “I don’t think you mean it.” 

He drops his head in defeat before facing me again. “I’m sorry for being such an idiot to you.” he says and I smile, satisfied. 

“Are you into me?” I ask but he doesn’t answer. “Because if yes, than this is not the way you should approach things.” I laugh and he smiles to himself, feeling unsure. 

“Yeah..” he mumbles, wondering whether he should apologise again. He wasn’t good at these conversations. 

I sigh, knowing I’ll have to deal with this emotional wreck from now on. To ease his thoughts I pull him down by his dog tag and this time I initiate the kiss. Mansk melts into it, holding my cheek and when we pull away he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. 

“You have to help me up, I don’t think I can make it to my room.” I say and he grins, nodding and getting up. Mansk gently pulls me to my feet and accompanies me in the shower. It was nice, finally seeing this side of him. 

He let me touch him and purred when I washed his back of some dried blood. 

Since everyone was asleep we managed to sneak into his room and we fell asleep together. Who knows how much longer we’ll be around to experience this.

Tag list: @ikranwings @number1gal @drinking-tea-and-be-obsessed

[themenendezbrothers]

Imperfect self-defense is a partial defense to a murder charge that can be used when someone kills another person based on an honest but unreasonable belief that they were in danger: A little bit of a rant and a [VIDEO]

These are just my opinions

Tons of witnesses testified to the abuse... Including the guys, and coaches (and relatives). There was no question they were physically and mentally abused.

Let's not even talk about the heartwrenching emotions and crying. You could see their faces turning completely Red when they started to cry. Once they composed themselves, their complexions went back to normal. I mean yes, that's what happens but still. Their faces tense up and they squint their eyebrows.

There's no excuse for murder at all but their testimony shows they thought their parents might be armed in that moment, they're running around the house. That's not premeditation. At the very least they should've gotten manslaughter.

The events of Lyle and Erik about when Erik finally told Lyle about the abuse. They both testified in different ways but told the same thing.

The inappropriate naked pictures. The massages. Noise is heard from the room. etc.

Anyway, they didn't rehearse this to make their stories match.

They told the truth and the details remained consistent and the same.

Experts testified they were sa.

They were never "caught" out giving conflicting information.

THE WORSE is for a sa victim to not be believed. What if they were women?

THIS WASN'T PREMIDATED. Sure they purchased guns (or tried to). To protect themselves seeing as how:

THEIR FATHER THREATENED ERIK SEVERAL TIMES HE'S A DEAD MAN IF HE TELLS. ERIK TOLD. They're running around petrified that night.

Here's what is puzzling me. Why did the judge at the last minute and almost at the end of the trial change the ruling for the jury? Did it have something to do with the Vicary/Leslie incident? Some say the theory was that the defense was trying to undermine... or something.

What jurors had to decide is whether—when they gunned both parents—the brothers were genuinely afraid their parents were about to kill or seriously hurt them.

The judge had said that regardless if there was abuse. There was no imminent threat from the parents.

But what is more infuriating are all the people saying they made it up.

They were.

The option for MANSLAUGHTER wasn't there as it was in the first trial. The Manslaughter would be contingent and rely on the Imperfect Self Defense. The judge took away the imperfect self defense from the Brothers so now Manslaughter was off the table. The jury had some very narrow parameters here. They only had MURDER to choose from.

[sunandsstars]

Welp another rant

whyyy do people hate spider so much, i get he may have been annoying, i admit i didn’t like him at first either, but maturing is realising he’s a frightened kid who just needs a proper parental figure in his life. people be hating him just bc he “killed neteyam” bro didn’t even kill him 💀

and also this whole thing with spider “not being a na’vi” and not “having their culture” or “jake being more na’vi than him” is so fucking silly

Spider was BORN and RAISED on pandora in the omaticaya tribe, he’s hung around and lived with the na’vi his whole life. which means speaking their language, learning their customs, wearing their clothes, the stripes on his skin to look more like them, his hair. he’s racially human, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have na’vi culture at all. And comparing him to jake is so stupid, jake was BORN and RAISED on earth, he grew up on VERY different cultures and languages, like he lived in cities in a technologically advanced planet. he may have been on pandora for 15 years but it’s harder for adults to integrate themselves in another society like that, but it’s so much easier for kids. jake even said in the comics (apparently) that spider is more na’vi than him.

the racism guys 💀 “he can’t be na’vi and have their culture. he’s just human” so you’re saying because he’s a human he can’t be apart of ANY of the na’vi culture? that’s stupid. If we compare it to races on earth, you’re saying that, if someone (let’s say white british) was born and raised in a country like china, they can’t have any of their culture? can’t speak the language? wear their clothes? eat their food? take part in their traditions? bruh

and the hissing thing 😀 it may look goofy to us because as humans we don’t hiss… unless you’re a furry… but again spider was raised with na’vi, who hiss as a warning display, like cats. He will do the same as them because it’s literally what he grew up on

people being mad for the neteyam thing are dumbbb, i get your mad that your underaged boyfriend is dead, but spider didn’t actively shoot at him. Lyle killed him for one. “but all the events led back to spider” i don’t think he asked to get kidnapped, tortured, and taken as hostage for the humans to use 💀 neteyam was his friend, he definitely didn’t want him to die, and neteyam went back because it was lo’ak’s idea to save spider.

people who hate on spider make no sense and truly don’t understand his character and his side. they’re definitely only seeing a black and white image here

ps. the person called “Taylor” is in everyyyyy comment reply and is really getting on my nerves💀 most of what they’re saying makes 0 sense. they fr don’t know what they’re talking about

pps. why do people get mad when others defend spider? genuinely. like aren’t you doing the same thing trying to get him cancelled? you are making your pointssssss, we’re just trying to as well

[shira000]

the women in love island the game s9 rant

Often I see people comparing the women but the truth is, whether one is a hypocrite or a bitch in your face it doesn't make her a good pers. Kat gets defended because ''at least she is not a hypocrite like nat'' oh really? because imo she is, just in a different manner: She defends mc only when it's convenient to her, if her li dares to breathe near the mc she gets childish but if mc doesn't like the same same man or the man she's after is not after mc, then she is ok with u, and u don't see that as hypocrisy? and i'm not saying i wouldn't get angry if it was me-but the way kat handles things is super immature and hypocrite like when, she got angry at jude/lyle for the date w/us, like girl stfu, it happened before he met u, if she was in our place she'd say something like: well i cant help it if everyone likes me. During casa in order to make jude/lyle jealous she takes the guy you're close with for a chat and has the audacity to say u interrupted the, y did she choose the guy i wanted and not one from the others? she clearly wanted to hurt mc but instead says she wanted jude to get jealous. Melissa isn't any better, before she leaves she asks your li to meet outside the program-in a paid scene, so she's not straight forward like everyone paints her, especially because on that same chapter she tells mc she wanted to be friends but behind her back asks her li to meet outside. Nat is fucken annoying but the other women aren't less bitches. Don't let me start on uma and kelly is the least bad but fb still damaged her character by making her say: i wanted to have lunch with your fav li from Casa before you left-this is the same character that a second before said she didn't connect with anyone but everyone ignores this.

[pandorafallz]

Vampire AU | New problems, old Stories

Quaritch stared at the fence. His hands were on his hips and a disgruntled expression on his face that hadn’t lifted since the alarms had been cut off and this had been their next problem; the fucking fence.

The deserting women that had legged it after locking in the brig guard and the two love birds from the maintenance that also flew the coop in the chaos. He was waiting on the inventory reports but…he was very pissed off that they had left with a bang.

Literally.

The outer fence had been taken out by a mine explosive attached to its main support, not including a small fire that had caught the trees but it seemed fate had been kind that it hadn’t gotten out of control before they had turned on the waterworks and put it out. What was left was a huge space of burnt metal and debris and he had put two armed amp suits to keep it protected as the manufacturing rig in the factory got to work and built them a new one which had to wait until morning for the machines to wake up—safety measures forced them from overuse so night time gave them the time for them to cool down. This was still becoming a long ass day within the first few hours of it.

How did someone get their hands on explosives to do this?

Major Kung, he knew very well with her years of service to the RDA. She had run the mining operations with an iron fist before her deceit came to light. It made more sense where she could have gone her hands on mining explosives. Except given Kung had been in the cell at the time, it made it hard for her to set it up at the fence as well.

In all honesty, he was surprised that the other one would follow her mother's footsteps and aid her escape. He knew very little of Bree Kung given she was only qualified for her excellent xenolinguist skills and fast learning, also the matter being she was the youngest person on this base. No combat training of any kind, despite her mother’s long history of veteran lifestyle. How did she get her hands on bombs when she wasn’t cleared for anything less than a dumbbell?

In total, four more female staff went within the night.

This meant he was gonna have to do a lot of checking into their medical and personal files for any potential reports that were removed before he was notified, which he hated to have to do but it was something he had to set as a precaution for all those bailing now with so much shit suddenly passing him by.

“Sir,” Wainfleet called, coming up beside him. “Samson’s come back; they followed the sidewinder for about five miles before the tracks vanished into Omatikaya territory and…it looks like any further trails looked to have washed away from the rainfall this morning before daybreak.”

“So…no leads.”

“No, sir.”

Quaritch let out a heavy exhale, wondering for a moment how long Selfridge was gonna rant and rave about this before he nodded. He could probably hold off on visiting the guy by checking in with the other departments. The MineOps certainly needed tending to given no doubt everyone knew Kung and that she had bailed on them. He should stomp down any rumours and get order properly re-established before anyone thought it was a good idea to follow after friends.

Yes, that was the next best thing and certainly would take up time before he’d get inventory reports and personal files and Selfridge would probably have to wait in his lectures for him to do his job.

So Quaritch did just that, taking a trip to the mine with Lyle. At first, it wasn’t overly fruitful, but he talked to Captain Hale who had temporally taken over the head of MineOps since Kung was arrested who had given them a tour around and talked with various staff.

Captain Hale looked very at home in her new place, though she lacked the cold steel of command that Kung had, there was an…edge to her that set him alert as she talked through complaints the Miners had, not that Quaritch paid it too much attention as he strained his eyes across the whole pit; the machines that were toiling away at the earth and soil for its rich veins of ore of each of their paychecks.

“...I’m just surprised that Kung didn’t try to bash Selfridge’s face sooner.”

He refocused back to the Captain in surprise. “What?”

Hale looked at him, an eyebrow arching behind her mask very innocently. “Sir?”

“What did you say Kung would do?” Quaritch said, because…he had a growing sinking feeling this was a matter that was beyond simple daughter bailing mother out of trouble. What was problem common knowledge here? Would that bite them in the ass later? “I knew Kung was entirely loyal to the RDA before she backstabbed us. Why would she want to hurt him?”

Hale blinked at him for a moment then hesitantly looked about. “Let’s go to my office. That’ll be…easier. We found some things of interest, since you’re here already I didn’t have to send it to you.”

She led the way from the mine side and to a stack of moveable, shack modules set off to the side to overlook. Once inside the airlock, they all took off their masks before Hale headed towards her desk.

“Sorry, it’s…a bit of a mess. Still organising stuff.”

Quaritch eyed the office; noting how pristine the place was and how orderly things were displayed; the walls were covered with pictures and stuck-up pieces of paper of reports and general schedules. Clearly, they weren’t seeing the same thing but he opted not to question it as Hale went to her monitor.

“It was a huge surprise when you arrested Kung two weeks ago,”  Hale was saying, “Kung is many things, some wouldn’t speak of her fondly but she’s also paranoid and smart. Enough to leave paper trails on shit she thinks is important in her absence to back up necessary claims. Purchases, orders, signed contracts…. Hell, even tool specifications. Including the safety check tools that were recalled and repurposed.”

“I thought I had everything from Kung?”

“Only what was local servers on Hell’s Gate and what’s sent to your systems at the time. Mine Ops has connections to Hell’s Gate but a different server. Kung had a personal memory drive in the server for everything hidden in the MineOps operation console.” From the woman’s desk drawer, she pulled out a large case and flipped it open. Inside were three long, green thin memory cards. Easy to miss, he realised if put into a computer system.

“How did you….” Lyle lent forwards. “How’d you find that shit?!”

Hale shrugged, “Wasn’t in the server specs. We double-checked before removing them. Shen helped route it out for me to what they were and that they weren’t dangerous like viruses. Nope, just extra memory.”

Quaritch reached forward, taking one of the memory slides. He’d get the rest of the servers checked for extra shit like this. Shen was a wild card to call to aid but she was brilliant and inheritably scrappy. This wasn’t in her job description but…Hale had long since outranked Shen so she was perfectly in the right to get the woman’s help.

“Do you know what’s on them?”

“A little. The typical records that I mentioned but…she also seemed to have complied scientific papers for Pandoran medical remedies for Earth Diseases or illnesses, her contract, Bree and Raina’s contract and… medical experimental requests. Every reason for her betray the RDA is on that, no doubt.”

“A little, huh?” Lyle poised.

Hale just flashed the guy a very pearly grin. “I have a good memory.”

Quaritch sighed heavily but put the chip back in and took the case. “I’ll look into it. Anything else?”

Hale shook her head. “Our production has slowed since Kung’s gone. Stress is building and we’re running out of tools we need to check the mine walls. I’ve requested to Selfridge last week for funds for replacements but I haven’t heard back. It’s making my men nervous.”

“We’re not messenger birds, Captain.” Lyle spoke heading back towards the airlock, “We have the system for a reason.”

Hale’s lips pursed though her eyes narrowed at the guy for a moment then slid to Quaritch. “It’s a matter of security, Coronel. No checks are being made and if one wall fails then we lose good men who happen to be in the fall way. There’s been a lot of…accidents in the last couple of years. My men aren’t forgetting that. ”

Quaritch just signed but added it to his To-do list that was ever going. “I’ll look into it.” At least nudge Selfridge into it; he didn’t want Hale to get on his ass as well. He always had one red-head on his ass about shit he couldn’t care less about and he certainly didn’t need another. 

 -

Grace once again set herself up in the smallest lab as the lunch called others away and left her with only a few and allowed herself to continue to work rather than join the others and waste food without question. Her thirst was burning softly at the back of her throat as a reminder she’d need to feed within the next day or so if she didn’t tonight. She was in no particular mood to get welcomed into someone's bunk or sneak into someone's bunk when they were asleep either so she’d wait for now.

The only two scientist with her was Molly and Choi who were also busy and giving each other goo-goo eyes that Grace wasn’t particularly fond of witnessing but she had no reason to send them away yet. They were still working after all.

“..So, a new sample would be better to get. Cryo storage isn’t perfect. There’s mild decay in the cells.” Molly complained to Choi, allowing the Xenobotanist to take a peek.

His lips pursed a little. “You’re not wrong but we’re only seeing this in more detail given our eyes are better. The human ones can’t see the dead cells that well; even through a microscope. I doubt it’ll interfere with the results.”

“Maybe it’s cold damage?” Grace suggested, not looking up as she picked up her pipette. “Not all plants are adapted to cold, even for preservation.”

Molly considered her words, though seemed to direct her next sentence to Choi rather than reply back. “That’ll be a good test to run still. Getting new samples tomorrow, and do a comparative test. Masterson and his team are the closest ones in their link shack to more. We can ask them to collect and we can swing around to pick it up tomorrow.”

“I’ll drop him an email.” Choi said, “Though Grace, can you authorise my holiday? I’ve emailed you some days next week I want to book off for personal reasons.”

Grace spared him a look. “Holiday?”

Choi nodded and adjusted his lab coat as he left Molly to her microscope. “It’ll be…officially four years since I turned. Kinda like a birthday…” He stared. “I want to celebrate.”

Grace set her pipette down into the holder and then leant towards her monitor to check. “You’re not exactly able to eat cake…” She wondered, “What’s there to celebrate? I’m sure most of our turnings were traumatic and non-consenting.” No one really…talked about how they came to be unless you were there to be witness to it. Grace didn’t ask and it felt awkward too. Her own turning was brutal and…she had no intention to celebrate that. Everyone knew what happened. But, each to their own. If he wanted to celebrate it, it was his business.

Choi hummed, and he returned to his station. “Did I ever tell you how I turned?”

“Maze got bored?” Grace suggested idly; she knew who sired who in this weird undead living situation they were all in. Maze in question chuckled under her breath in the link room but couldn’t retort back as she wasn’t alone.

“No.” Choi chuckled, “She overindulged one evening. Accident. Remember when the cooks got a fresh stock of garlic in that year; almost everyone was eating garlic meals for weeks in one form or another.”

Grace winced sympathetically. The garlic meals were the worst in the Mess; the viable blood was servery shortened until the human bodies processed it all out. They couldn’t eat well, if at all on those people. She must have been starving to drink too much.

“I didn’t eat garlic, so I was in the all-clear. Kamath and Walker had already fed from me the day before before Maze got too temped.” He shook his head fondly. “My body hadn’t replenished fast enough in that time, she took too much than normal as well.”

“Ouch,” Grace said, finding the email buried under the mass of other emails and notifications on what passed through her department. She swiped the request form onto her datapad and signed with a stylus.

“It wasn’t fun but… well it’s something that happened to me and…there’s no point in hating the event. Its part of what I am now. Why not make something of it?” Choi shrugged.

“You do you, Daniel.” Grace said, “But I’d rather not celebrate my turning for many, many reasons.” It was the worst and last day of her life. Why remember it in a good light?

“Fair. Maybe you could celebrate something else? You first human prey? Finding your shtick? First human to sleep with?” His suggestions sounded more like a joke though unit made her wrinkle her nose.

“Three ‘No’s and I haven’t slept with a human since I turned.” Grace pointed out and it wasn’t for the obvious reasons that the others would think. A dull throb rose at the side of her temple at the reminder; skirting her away from thinking about it. Nope. “And first prey? Really?”

“Hey, we all had our firsts.” Molly pointed out, drawn away from her work to talk. “I mean, there’s something to remember; you’re finding trust with your own body and instincts; building confidence…making sure we don’t end up killing anyone by accident.”

That was something, she supposed. She knew her first almost went sideward given she had underestimated her own strength with the man. Blood bags were one thing but…fresh and from someone alive…was a whole new area. Quite the learning curve and she had long since had to abandon self-consciousness that she had started off with into this new life.

“Who was your first?” Choi asked Grace curiously. “I wasn’t about for it.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Why does it matter?” She turned her attention back to her monitor.

“Doctor Patel.”

Grace turned and glowered sharply at Molly who looked very intently through her microscope and doing her best to ignore her withering look.

“My first was Alejandra Castro, MineOps gal.” Choi announced with fondness and without prompt, “freshly showered from a gym visit; very good diet… also very easy to convince her to let me into her bunk. She was very horny. Not surprisingly, she was a week away from her period. That aside, she’s very sexually active.”

Grace rolled her eyes.  “We all know that.” The woman’s habits hadn’t changed.

“Who was yours, Mol?” Maze had decided to join in with the lab and came to lean against one of the benches. “Mine was Deke Harrison, a guy from SecOps. He repairs the AMP suits and has a habit of jogging around the base alone before bed. Very…fit.”

“Also very gay. You’ll never have a chance of bedding him.” Molly pointed out with a sly grin reflecting off her monitor.

“I know, he turned me down once and told me.” Maze sighed wistfully. “He’s still a good snack. So, Mol?”

Molly didn’t turn their way through Grace eyed the woman with a suspicious look at her non-answer after all of this stupid, personal talk. “Molly?”

“I’d rather not…talk about my first.”

“You literally outed Grace’s here.” Maze snorted, less than impressed. “If you’re gonna out that information, you’ve really got to share your own shit here as well.”

Molly wrinkled her nose.

Grace’s eyes narrowed a little, watching how Molly didn’t seem to meet her eye as she tried to get back to work now. But the fact the woman was staying quiet said that she was worried or self-conscious about her first. Molly had been a vampire at least a year before she had been turned so the window of option was still vast. If it was someone not known or personal, she would have said something. Then Grace had a sinking feeling given…how the woman was refusing to look at her.

“Me? I was your first?” She groaned. “I thought Shen’s attack on me was my first bite.”

Molly flashed her an apologetic look. “I—yes, you were my first but in my defence…you were very easy.”

Choi snorted in the back of his throat, turning around to his bench.

Grace just gave her a very unimpressed look but...in all honesty, Grace could be mad about it but…the reality was that…someone had to be their first prey. Unavoidable. However, she didn’t like being called –“Easy? Easy?”

“You were alone, in the lab late at night.” Molly pointed out as if it was a simple observation. “Plus, your back was to the door.”

“How many people fed from me when I was human?”

“A few, as we said, you were a very easy target.”

Grace inhaled deeply, leaning away from her bench. “Ugh.” She tried to think of when this could have happened; a lot had happened that year. A few…painful things –one that she didn’t want to think about. “When?”

Molly chewed on her lip. “So… you know when you fell asleep at the lab that February and broke your arm falling off the counter…”

Grace stared, a little unimpressed. It had been a difficult break to deal with when she had come to that night; one simple snap but there had been also a lot of micro-fractures around it that had been weird. The same arm Shen broke the night she lost her life. She hadn’t questioned the incident; she had felt awful and weak but she put that to the injury and exhaustion.  She had spent most of that night in medical and drugged up to the land of the Dinosaurs. Didn’t question why Dr Solis had given her more supplements and an injection—probably Erythropoietin to up her red blood count and to cover their asses on what was drunk away.

“You broke my arm.” Grace wrinkled her nose. “I kept feeling the twinges of pain through my avatar for most of that time as I healed. It was really weird.”

“Sorry.”

“Why don’t I remember it now? Surely as a vampire, I should recall all your tampering.”

“When you turn, your memory isn’t restored…and we can’t suppress other vampire memories or resurface them.” Choi said, “Probably for the best.”

Grace scoffed. “I want my memory.” She at least deserved to know when she was one of her group’s Happy Meals here. She had…long since thought her attack from Shen was the only time she was bitten but…perhaps she had thought too innocently. Vampires had been here for a long time. “How can I get it back? Surely there are ways to do that?”

“The telepaths might help better than us.” Maze suggested, “Hale will be around after dinner. Kamath has double shift with dozers.”

“Alright.” She’ll bother Hale about it. Kamath was more experienced but Hale was a fast learner with the art of the mind.

Telepathy, while Grace had that, it wasn’t something she ventured into more than she had to with her meals. She knew it was secondary in nature after her telekinesis in terms of their Vampiric abilities but it wasn’t her primary. She knew she should venture into her other gifts a lot more. She could hold a vapour form for a short period of time and a bat form but never more than that. Paz morphed a lot when Spider was doing tummy time in her quarters to entertain him and she had a lot of forms mastered. Hearing the baby giggle and try and grab what his mother was shaped as was pleasant music to her ears. She was also ninety-seven per cent sure Molly and Choi had literally fucked around in non-human forms as well for the fun of it.

Grace spared a glance at the clock and then peeled off her gloves. “I’ve…got to go. Meeting with Quaritch and Selfridge.”

 -

Shen happily checked through her monitor as she flicked through the data and made sure it all mirrored Martin Duncan’s own coding. Everyone’s method of coding was unique; small tricks and tells and subtly that, if she was a human, she could have easily missed in making to pass off as someone else’s. She made this to even convince Duncan he had done it himself.

It was worth the extra bucks to do this and it was easier getting the blame on someone else than having a loose end with a question mark. With a final look, she closed the programs and terminated her monitor’s connection with the server to scrub it offline.

“Ugh.” The door opened behind her though Shen didn’t turn as Angela came in and flopped onto her bed. “Humans.”

“I dread to ask,” Shen said, turning the screen off once she was done to turn her attention to the British blonde who lay about across the covers, arms and legs spread.

“I hate doing fucking nothing while our food escapes out into the wild,” Angela grumbled. “You were right, Midori has the best blood….I miss that already and it’s been a week!”

Shen snorted a little, running her fingers through her locks of dark hair. “Free range meals?” Shen suggested. “I mean… it’s just a longer trip out, just make sure you’re not caught.” The thought of…going out and actually…hunting down these humans sounded more thrilling than seducing them into a private area and going for some flesh. She liked the idea of the chase and the sweet victory on her lips at the first bite.

It was one of the few things she…enjoyed. Hell, even when she got Augustine a few years back, it was a thrill to remember, even if her impulse control and rationale were elsewhere; she retained the memory despite that frenzy. She wasn’t…really that sorry for it; only sorry for getting caught so publically but Midori’s blood had been far too tempting. It wasn’t her fault she metabolised blood far quicker than the others. Something about seeing Augustine run flicked a switch in her predator brain and… if it hadn’t been for the fact the woman had been so close to hitting the fire alarm, she knew her hunting self certainly would have let Augustine run for longer; let her think she was getting away then to get her at the last second when she got to her bunk, grab her and drag her back then just…sink her teeth in.

That would have been glorious.

It was a want she desired again but Mansk’s stupid rules kept them far too restrained, even with their mutual wellbeing in mind which was annoying sane. She liked living on the edge; it was safe to know the shelf and the fall and teetering on it was what made her feel alive. Sure, it got her turned but that didn’t change much.

Angela snorted a little. “I suppose. Finding them won’t take too long.”

“No, you two, keep to the ones in Hell’s Gate” Mansk’s voice echoed in dry annoyance somewhere in the amour bay.

Shen scoffed a little, slinking off her chair though she rolled her eyes. She could continue to live with what she wanted and fantasise about her ways of hunting. She eyed her girlfriend thoughtfully before a sly smile crawled onto her lips as an idea sprung to mind.

Angela eyed her expression, rolling her head to face her. “What? You wanna fuck now? My break ends in five minutes. I got a shift with dozer escorting with Fike and Kamath. Aren’t you also skiving off?”. That was not a ‘no’ between them, just a ‘sure if you’re quick.’

“Not...now. I’ve got a few ideas for tonight.” Shen said, licking her lips. “You might…enjoy it.”

Angela tilted her head curiously, “I damn well hope so if you’re looking at me like that. I do like your attention after all.”

 -

The meeting was…boring as Grace expected. Most of which she knew in overhearing but they didn’t know that. Grace had ignored the plate that was offered for when meetings went over meals as per usual though Selfridge’s anxious nibbling from his plate grated on her nerves a lot.

“Any word from your blue teams?” Selfridge finally asked when he got to her. “You have two link shacks operating, not including the ones that left us.”

“No, nothing.” Grace said, “I suspect we’re being watched when we’re taking samples but I can’t prove that just yet. They’re experts at hiding their footsteps and presence. It’s possibly they’re assessing us and what we’re doing but haven’t decided if we’re worth making contact with.”

Selfridge let out a frustrated huff. “Then make a better effort. You need to find ways to force an interaction.”

“I can’t force the Na’vi to cooperate.” Grace fired back sharply. “That has never worked in the past and certainly not any time soon. They need to see us work and respect the land but that’s hardly going to happen overnight.”

“It’s been a month. Since you’ve upped your expeditions. More than that, even.” Selfridge huffed indignantly.

“They’re not monitoring us every visit, Parker. Having my teams out there has helped in our research but it’s going to take time for the people to make contact with us. Their last contact with us, officially was when the RDA gunned through my school and killed some of their kids. You think they’re gonna jump to meet us?”

“It’s been two years. They’ll get over it.” Selfridge said, waving it off. “But we’re here to make progress. So be creative here that doesn’t wind us burying our men and that they’re out of that tree by the time we get to it.”

“Maybe we should try a new angle?” Quaritch suggested, “Site 26’s still available.”

Grace’s head snapped towards him sharply. “What?”

“That’s one angle but that’s hardly going to help,” Selfridge said, not that convinced either.

“It might. We don’t know what they’re thinking and that worries me. If they’re not trying contact because the science groups are coming to and from Hell’s Gate, then another approach must be considered. If Augustine sets up at Site 26, she’ll be surrounded by forest and easier to approach at any time of the day. I doubt they’ll miss the fact you’ll be living there after a few trips out.”

“I am not agreeing to move out just yet, thank you very much.” Sure, there was a lot of what she wanted at Hell’s Gate but the feeding situation was what was keeping her from jumping on board with this idea. “I’m Head of SciOps and the Avatar Program, I have a lot of shit to organise before I can leave Hell’s Gate for long periods of time, even if I do decide to go.” She had the power to decide, even if these two jerks were for her going.

“How long would it take to organise?”

“A month.” She gambled, over-inflating the timeline for the sake of it. Selfridge didn’t need to know the real-time. “Getting new working systems in place and getting people to take on new responsibilities takes time and an adjustment period. That’s if I decide.”

“A month.” Selfridge scoffed, “That’s too long!”

“What? It’s not like your dozers are gonna be any closer to Hometree. It’s been a month and it’s barely a fifth there.” She pointed out. “Now, I don’t plan on leaving so let’s move on. I’m sure MinOps has some riveting information in their progress and gossip about little Kung pulling a mission impossible?”

Selfridge’s face flushed angrily.

 -

Quaritch’s steps were easy to follow behind her when they had finally left. Grace tried to lose him, which was poor given she couldn’t use her speed to do so with the number of people around and active cameras and the fact he sounded like a man on a mission didn’t help.

He finally caught up to her as she tried to duck towards the Ladies’ restroom.

“Augustine.”

“What?” She turned with a dark look.

“We both know you love Site 26 and would jump ship at a moment’s notice to get away from Selfridge and his bullshit,” Quaritch said knowingly. “Why are you stalling?”

Grace raised an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?”

“I know you heard me correctly. Why not? You could be there tomorrow and be happy. You’ll no doubt take Norm and another researcher with you.” He said, “You’ve never missed an opportunity to jump to the mountains before.”

Grace’s jaw clenched. “It’s not that easy. The last time I went to site 26, do you know what happened?”

Quaritch’s hardened expression fell, softening up. “That was over a year ago, Grace.”

“So was what? All three of us could have died, Miles. It took three hours for your idiots to roll up and pick us that rogue mountain after the crash.” Grace knew this was a dirty tick to pull; using that horrible day as an excuse but…if it bought her time to think up some other alternative options, she’d use it. “I’ll know when I’m ready to take that trip and that’s not any time soon.” She made to move around him but she barely held back the gasp as she felt his hand grab her wrist, the metal ring he had on felt like it was burning into her wrist before she yanked her hand free, her other hand coming to pull down her sleeve.

Fuckin’ sliver.

“You can have Trudy Chacón as your pilot. She knows the mountains better than anyone. Even Socorro. She won’t crash.”

“Thanks but…I need time.”

She didn’t wait, moving on and quickly before she spared a look down to her wrist; a light and irritated discolouration band looked to be cropping up over the affected skin.

Fuck. Good to know Quaritch had silver on him.

Ass.

 -

Jake was at Hometree with most of his camp, aside from N’deh who had elected to stay behind. Nadine was at the fire, practicing Na’vi with the cooks again in going over what they were making. Morgan was at the weavers with some more kids making slings or just weaving shit—Jake couldn’t tell from his angle. Kim was hunting with Neytiri and Jerome was with him carving new arrow shafts while Jake made wooden beads.

He kept himself parked in plain sight of the spiral for the new arrivals and when they came, he made sure to wave.

The neck brace woman was in her avatar and the oldest woman of the group was not present with the group. Zeke and Ruby were the only ones from their camp also arriving with Tsu’tey.

Tsu’tey went off to find the chief and the group seemed to give pause as he was noticed before the avatar snorted first and broke the awkward tension.

“Sully, of course, you’re here.” She said, her hands on her hips, “Though…no Avatar?”

“I use it every other visit here, trying to balance its use every day.” Jake explained, “That said, welcome, nice to see a few more human faces around. Eytukan will direct you to places but a good portion of kids speak English, even if the adults don’t but enough that you two can get a message across.”

“Kendra?” Jerome set down his tools, rising from the ring with a wide grin on his face which exposed his naturally long canines.

“Rome?! Holy fuck!” The Japanese woman moved around the avatar with vigour, “You blended straight in! I didn’t even recognise you!”

Jerome grinned down, crouching down to accept the hug she offered. “Still tiny, I see.”

“You’re still weird looking.” Kendra prodded back and leant away. “You’re making it work, I suppose.” She reached up to tug the man’s loincloth a little to make a point.

Jerome just snorted, “I suppose. Kim’s out hunting right now so she’ll be back around noon but she’s looking forward to seeing you.”

“I’ll look forward to it. I heard what happened to ya, sorry man.” Kendra carried on, her hands coming to her hips. “Also, congrats on the baby.”

Jerome nodded his thanks, “Thank you.”

“Babies. Plural.” Ruby pointed out, from the side.

Kendra gawked at that. “Oh, good luck.”

“Children are a gift.” Jerome reasoned.

“Hm, yeah. The real gift being woken six times at night for food or a change.” Harper added in, a little sarcastically.

Just then, Eytukan arrived to get involved and began directing the six new faces to other areas. Jerome returned to the bead-making and Jake got back to it.

Zane was put to making beads with him. Jake’s smaller hands made it far easier for the man to copy than it was a Na’vi though both remained supervised so he wasn’t teaching him the incorrect methods. Jake learned the names of everyone at the camps when they began to talk.

Ashley Sloan was the avatar driver, Eliza Drennek was a surgeon who was at the camp and currently looking after Ashley’s human body in the link bed, Mingxia Wu was a Valkyrie pilot then the ones he already knew, like Ruby Carr, Zeke Hodge, Trinity Harper, and Kendra Midori.

Jake found himself fascinated a little as Zane spoke about his life on Earth, how he wound up coming to Pandora and even what his parents did as well.

“You see… my parents run a few of the wildlife reservations.” He was saying, “Africa took less of a brunt of the polluted air but…high levels of sun that scorched the land. Large areas of our roofs were developed to use as Solar fields to use the space to retain our family’s job maintaining the parks. Using the Sun’s power and less smog, my family’s expenses were cut straight down to afford things more comfortably. When Pandoran plants finally reached the Earth side. They made sure to purchase some of them and hired some of the scientists to put the plants to reviving the land.”

Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “It worked?”

“From what I last heard in my last family transition there’s…signs of new growth but it’s slow going; the plant had to have some adaption to survive our atmosphere.”

“You are using our plants to…fix yours?”  The voice of Ten’nel, the main bead maker asked as he eyed Zane curiously. “How come it got so bad to require from Ewya’s child?”

“We have to. That’s…why there are scientists so interested in your world. Your plants have grown and thieved in what Humans would think as…unsuitable in terms of high carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, both are poisonous to us and don’t exist in high concentrations in an atmosphere..” Zane spoke, “Our…plants don’t know how to adapt, and we changed our world faster than nature could keep up. Plants died, and as a result, the soil became…laden with minerals that can’t support growth. Your…plants can absorb these minerals, and toxins and breathe new life back into the soils, and your plants can clean our air, and filter out the toxins. Earth has suffered greatly and in most because of humans, but….it’s on the basis of how our culture formed around a concept called capitalism and mass population growth and demand of food and shelter that humans demanded more from our planet than it was able to support naturally.”

“Humans built areas to produce things like clothes and food in mass and quickly,” Jake added in, “Like… making beads, machines would make thousands of beads a day to be traded for supplies and it’s cheaper and faster and no waiting time. Instant demand met and trade. Humans use a concept called Money. A trade of goods and services for this Money. Humans on Pandora are here for service, in return when they get back they get money. Money is used for food, shelter and entertainment. Now, these built areas are called factories; they create but there’s waste that comes of their creation. Like these wood chips.” He nodded down to their laps where they were they were covered.

These chips, Jake had seen would be put to use; going into the fire when it needed a little more of a kick into life. Bones fragments would be turned into paint, or ground into bone meal and stone would returned to the soil or ground further to help sand down wood with a brush. They had little waste.

“The waste from the machines are not like wood chips.” Zane pointed out dryly, “It…depends on what’s being made. But to generalise on a global scale, machines produce waste that can’t be reused; be it unsafe minerals or toxic smoke. Humans didn’t know where to put the waste so the smoke was left to rise, water waste was returned to the water, and earth waste was put into water and to the soil. Out of the way and life continues on. Humans thrive, make more babies, more demand on food and supplies and so, more factories are built to support them, and more waste is put into the world. It builds up and up and…well we’re depending on another world plants to fix the problems that are still ongoing because we need those factories to survive”

“That sounds….awful. Did your Earth mother not teach you methods of how to look after your world?” Ten’nel asked, a little horrified like a few of the others.

“There’s no Earth version of Eywa.” Jerome piped up, ears pinning back sadly. “No connection, no mother and so, no teaching. Humans had to figure stuff out on their own. No one to tell them not to mine, no one to tell them not to set stone upon stone, or to create the turning wheel. Earth is harsh, even when our world was filled with plant life and thriving animals.”

“Well, Earth has had at least five mass-extinction level events, humans didn’t survive that by praying to the ground for help that’ll never come. You’ll sooner be dead.” Jake pointed out. “Survival of the fittest and natural selection and all.”

“You all sound like you’re having a horrifying conversation.” Ashley’s voice called as she passed them towards the spiral “You do realise Na’vi don’t have a concept of extinction.”

“Ugh,” Jake wrinkled his nose. Yep, that was on him for that bit. Of course, this world didn’t have that. “Right…”

Zane just chuckled at him. “Maybe that conversation is for another day.”

“Yeah,” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Hey, at least we explain why humans are the way that we are. A little.”

Zane hummed, though not fully convinced but thankfully they got back to a less intense discussion and allowed the group that had listened to fully digest their sudden wave of information without being subjected to listening to more earth horrors.  Ten’nel looked…uncomfortable but not horrified or disgusted though he didn’t seem to ask for more.

 -

Jake watched as Kim arrived and Harper and Kendra immediately went to her; to hug and to coo over her pregnant belly a little. Kendra though more refrained but was still happy for her nonetheless. Jake finished up with the beads faster than Zane so he was set to help Mo’at as the new guys filled the positions he would have been going to, like the weavers.

Inside, he was surprised to see Ashely’s avatar dormant on the mat as he was set down. Mo’at was examining her with interest as well, though less vigorously as she had with his Dreamwalker a few days ago.

“She unlinked?” Jake asked, settling his legs out onto the mat.

“Indeed. She said she needed to tend to her sky person form for a few hours given her injuries. The healer at her camp has strict rules while she is still healing and one that I find myself agreeing with given the nature of her wounds.” Mo’at replied. “Her Dreamwalker does not exhaust but her mind does. Apparently, she was stubborn enough to come before she was healed to do so.”

Jake snorted a little. “She looks like someone who wanted to know what she was getting into first than wait around and see. Grace said drivers have to go through link sessions to prepare the mind for long-hauls in the link. Though I’m surprised she’s putting her human body through the wringer than just come here human.”

“She informed me that cannot wear a smaller mask for long periods of time because it doesn’t protect her eyes. Our air can irritate your eyes with long exposure, does it not?” Mo’at asked, tilting her head at him.

“Hm, yeah. It stings.” He supposed that made sense. “As long as she’s okay and you’re good with the arrangement…”

“Indeed. She said she’d have the healer with her come down and speak to me next time they come here.” Mo’at said, setting the avatar to rest more comfortably on her back and hands on her stomach. “I look forward to that. I haven’t examined a sky person’s form properly, so it would be nice to understand our differences with an expert on functions. The Dreamwalkers have been enlightening, yet they are too like Na’vi and only seem to hold a part of Sky-people in them.”

“You were never shown a sky person’s body?” Jake raised an eyebrow at that. “Didn’t Grace show you diagrams? Pictures?”

Mo’at shook her head. “As I have mentioned before, my error with my interactions with Grace was never asking such questions back. The children at the school may have seen pictures but their parents never wanted them to bring the education to them so directly. Most need not worry.”

Ah, so leave school at the school and or leave it at the doorstep at Hometree. It was familiar in families that didn’t approve of other’s opinions or education. Kids might like it but…kids lived in their own way of logic. Still, it seemed weird to not want to spread the culture around as much but…maybe that was one of the reasons why the adults were less open to change.

“Maybe they’ll change their minds, they’ve got humans coming and going every other day. But… it sounds like you and the doc could get along with your shared interest.”

“Indeed.” Mo’at agreed, “For now, I want to test my stronger medicines on your skin. Your skin looks and feels to be thinner than ours. We’ll find out swiftly what works for you and what doesn’t.”

“You didn’t ask the others?” Jake asked, his hand coming to roll up his sleeve.

“It’s their first day here, Jakesully.”

 -

As Jake worked with Mo’at, he talked through what he had spoken to the bead makers about and then some. A Tsahìk’s perspective would seem useful to understand human history. They found that human skin did absorb a lot quickly but he had only a mild reaction to a select few ingredients which made him a little groggy. Mo’at grumbled a little on how to edit the receipt to make it safer with fewer side effects.

While his body cleared that out, he was allowed to return down to the others after Ashely linked back with her avatar. He was uncertain about having a new person lift him down but he held his tongue as he clambered into his chair.

It was the soft patter outside that pulled his attention, He sighed deeply at the sight of rain then he wheeled slowly towards Ruby, Harper and Kendra who were trying to learn how to clean, part and spin a cotton-like puff ball into thread with a few of the weaver kids.

 “If it rains like this into the night, we’ll probably have to wait till morning to return,” Jake said as he got close enough.

“Like…spend the night?”

“It’s unsafe to travel in heavy rain. Mud, potential for thunder strikes and flooding so… yep.”

“Oh fuck, I don’t think my Exo-mask has a big battery for another twelve hours!” Ruby gasped, her hand coming to her filter in alarm, checking it over as if it was in an immediate risk of shutting down.

“Relax,” Kendra spoke, patting the bag pack she was leaning against. “I got spares.”

“Oh, thank god!” Ruby relaxed a little.

“Thank me, more like it. I’m a little paranoid so I also got a few spare masks, filter sheets and a med kit with me.”

“Little paranoid?” Harper asked with a smirk. “I'm pretty sure I saw you put in your laptop as well.”

“And now we can watch a film before bed so you are welcome,” Kendra answered back nonchalantly, pulling a face as she lost the thread.

“Oh, what films you got?” Jake asked out of curiosity, “I mean, I got a load of films but if you got stuff that I haven’t and vice versa, we could mutually download copies?” He pushed himself around a large root.

“I favoured TV series over films. A few Marvel Series and films, Star trek, Star Wars, Walking Dead, The Home Alone film series, Buffy, Interview with a Vampire, Merlin—“

“Wait, was the last one?” Jake asked before he could stop himself.

“Merlin.”

“Before that?”

“Oh, Interview with a Vampire.” Kendra said bluntly, “bit bloody but a good watch. I got the book version downloaded. Did you want a copy?”

Jake met Morgan’s eye across the ring who had been passing with a basket of nut-shells though he looked a little uncomfortable; rolling his head to his shoulder a little a motion not unmissed by Harper who frowned in confusion.

“No…it’s…just threw me off.” Jake said, “I’ll…look into it later. I should really get back to work.” He was sure he’d get around to telling the new guys about vampires. Tomorrow before they left, once they knew he wasn’t just a nutcase. He’d need someone to help back him up on this.

Tsu’tey was serious enough….if he was willing to be there.

Masterlist

[systemadministratorclu]

Ask fandom game for Atlantis!

The first character I first fell in love with:

Milo James Thatch. How could I not? Look at him, he's adorable!

 (Also, whenever 6yo me and friends played pretend with the characters of this movie, I was always Milo. And I wore glasses at the time, and he was the first movie hero I'd seen that wore glasses, so it was kind of a 'ooh, someone like me!' thing)

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke. I actually think Disney kinda dropped the ball a little bit with this one. He could've been a much more dynamic character, especially with the background they give him on the collector's edition dvd (his struggles in school gives me 'undiagnosed learning disability' vibes and he definitely has some form of PTSD from his time in the military. As much combat as he saw and as many times as he was wounded, there's no way he doesn't). A friend and I were even saying he could've been a sympathetic antagonist who wanted to try and end World War 1 (which literally begins July 1914, a few months before the movie takes place) making him kind of a 'Justified Asshole' for you AITA readers (basically, it'd be like "on one hand, yeah, what he did sucks, but also, we Get It. He had a good reason, and there really was no good option here') Instead, the motive they give him (make a fuckton of money) is kinda stupid because it was hinted earlier on that everyone's already going to make a fuckton of money just for going on this expedition.

Basically, the more I looked into him and asked questions and looked beyond just what we see onscreen (because there IS more there. He's a human, and humans are nowhere NEAR as simple as just what we see onscreen), the harder it was to hate him.......Also, I wrote some fanfics with a canon-divergent version of him that I now adore. More on that in a moment.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t:

Helga Katrina Sinclair. She creeped me out from the get-go, from the first time I saw this movie (in theaters, which was AWESOME). Like, the instant I saw her, the 'EVIL!' alarms in my brain went off. If I'd been asked to guess who was the main antagonist of the movie before seeing the end, I definitely would've said her. She still gives me the creeps, and I find it incredibly easy to write her as a main villainess in my fanfics (especially Heart of Hell, where she goes full-on evil queen Disney villain on steroids, doing shit even Disney's most evil don't do)

That said, I have read some AU versions of her (that make her not so evil) that I do like.

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Gotta go with Rourke again. Poor guy is pretty universally hated by the fandom (undeserved, I think, but I'm not going to start another Rourke rant here. I'll spare you this time, but he seriously does not deserve the amount of hate he gets.)

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

Probably Kida. Don't get me wrong, I still like her a lot (badass warrior princess/queen FTW!!) Just not the way I used to, mainly because I no longer ship her with Milo. (No offense to him, but she really doesn't need a man. Let her be the epic queen she is on her own.)

The character I would totally smooch: 

Milo, because the look on his face would be priceless and hella cute. And Rourke, just to see the look on his face as he realizes THAT'S why I needed the stepstool (he's 6'4", I'm 5'2")

The character I’d want to be like: 

Milo again! (I kinda am in that I'm a frickin' nerd. However, I am not a genius with near superhuman intelligence)

Also Audrey. She don't take shit from anybody, but she's really sweet to her friends and even if she's really snarky with them, you can tell she really cares about them.

The character I’d slap: 

Gaetan "Mole" Moliere, and affectionately unless he says whatever he said to Kida. Slapping him seems to be a thing in this group.

A pairing that I love:

Scholmander (Milo/Rourke). This should NOT be a surprise to anyone here who knows me. This became a thing for me because I at first thought "no way could it ever work without being toxic/abusive", then I saw a part of an edit someone did, then wrote a fanfic, then went "holy shit, it works without being toxic/abusive!", wrote three more fics, and now I've written a bunch more, I have more planned, I RP it on here, and it's canon to me now. I love them so much.

A pairing that I despise: 

Rourke/Helga. Well, anyone with Helga, really, but especially this. I honestly think if he didn't have her so close to him all the time, he might not have acted as 'evil' as he did in the movie. I think she has a lot more influence than anyone, even Rourke, thinks. The best thing I can compare it to is that she's like Grima Wormtongue in LOTR. Except she's not serving another power, just herself. (And yes, I have read stuff/looked at art for this, and it just felt wrong, gave me those Wormtongue vibes)

Also don't like her with Milo. That just SCREAMS 'toxic/abusive' with all the emotional/psychological manipulation and gaslighting that would likely occur because he's got such a gentle heart and is a little naive at times, thus easily taken advantage of.

[cursedcomics]

Dream Job writing the Legion of Super Heroes pt. 10

Legion fans are also quite progressive with their support of the LGBTQ+ community.  The Legion also has quite a number of fans from the community who would like to see more characters that reflect their diversity and are not written as troublesome or consistently difficult.

I don’t want this book to drown in romance. I want the legion kicking Super Villain butt, but the expectations of fandom is that there will be romances.

No one wants the book to be strictly a gay romance novel with Eternals movie-style panicked rants followed by in your face gay kisses to make a point, but Legion fans aren’t put off by a non-straight relationship having a serene, well laid out romantic moment, whether it is a kiss, hand holding, or just a heart warming glance between two people.

I have no interest in showing scenes where two characters bicker so someone can say “look at them bicker --- they must be a couple!”  I would much rather show them in the background holding hands and get on with the superhero drama.

This will sound a little harsh but “There is a place and a time for a gay kiss”. Just like there is a place and time for a straight kiss.  I used to read Clairmont’s x-men where random guy kissed random girl all the time and wonder “Are the X-,men swingers?”

A tender moment between anyone should be in the flow of the story. You have to find that balance. 

I have no problem finding the right balance.

A recent US survey found that 7% of the US identified as LGBTQ+. While that seems low, lets go with that.  If the Legion had 50 members at least 3-4 of them would identify as such.  

So Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, Kinetix, and Chemical King.  

Done, right?

Just joking.

I think 5-7 would be better for storytelling purposes and would allow greater ability to please our fanbase and show a diversity of characters.

I am also personally a believer in a spectrum.  I think there are a lot of people who may have gay tendencies, but see themselves as straight. So another few characters who could be in that group and a few others people might assume are ---but aren’t ( --- Lyle?). 

And then you have Jan --- a spiritual kid who (to my take) falls in love with a person’s soul. Gay? Straight?  It matter to you, not him. 

So you may have gay characters who never get together.  You could have a LGBTQ+ member with a member who would not seem or identify as gay.

I think for most Legionnaires, participating in an LGBTQ+ relationship would be a jarring departure from their historic behavioral patterns.  Brainy? Jo? Brin? Imra? Drake? absolutely not.... But not for all of them.

I think having that potential helps for storytelling drama.

I think in writing a book about teenage heroes there should be a healthy dose of relationships blossoming and wilting.  I hope to include some of the vigor of “Young Heroes in Love” in this Legion. (Shameless plug, that comic was awesome doing its own thing.)

I do want to be clear though --- there are no sacred cows and I won’t bow to groups “claiming” characters. I have to write what makes sense when I am writing.

Male gay Legion fans like to claim Jan as with his pink costume it seemed he was created as a subtle tip of the hat to gay readers.  But...the legion changed writers a lot and he wasn’t written that way.  He lived a very content straight lifestyle for years until it was retconned in a (mostly) well written way into a relationship with a transwoman and then finally awkwardly hammered into a gay relationship.  

To me, as a fan that just reads heroism, that says Jan is deeply admirable because he loves the soul of a person, not their physical form.  Just something else to love about his unique brand of heroism. With all the horrible diseases we contract late in life, we should all hope to have that kind of lover in life. 

To other Legion fans it might read like Jan was always straight until he was radically retconned to be gay or that he was gay and then radically retconned to be straight before being restored to his rightful state.

The thing is both reads are equally valid and modifying him to be exclusively one way or another changes the character -- which I am absolutely loathed to do.

The whole point of this is to retain the characters you love.

I want him to be him and the story to take him in the way he is meant to go in this timeline.

I know there is a feeling that Ayla (Lightning Lass/Light Lass) and Shrinking Violet should be together.  I am not going to guarantee that either.

In the original timeline, Ayla had a rocky but long relationship with Timberwolf who didn’t quit the Legion in support of Ayla when she had what might be described as an emotional meltdown.  Vi had a long relationships with Duplicate Boy and then weirdly was abandoned by him when she was kidnapped turning her into ...kind of a wildly angry person.

Their relationship happened because VI basically swore off men after Duplicate Boy’s betrayal and convinced Ayla who seemed on the fence that they were better off together. She gave her a hard sell and Ayla eventually came around.

 And they WERE better together.

But...

There is zero comic support to the idea they started off KNOWING they were gay. Plus is this really the relationship we should have as the featured gay relationship in the Legion?  Two women who tried hard with men and were betrayed by them?  Can’t two women just know themselves and fall in love without it being somehow proof that men suck? I know a lot of lesbians and most of them do not have stereotypical chips on their shoulders like this Levitz era duo.

Vi and Ayla seem more like they fell in love with each other first, had horrific moments, and then PAINFULLY discovered they could be a happy lesbian couple.

The new timeline has to roll out in a quick manner. 

Compressing the timeline in this project gives an opportunity to eliminate the “everyone has to pair up in heterosexual couples” inclination in Legion history.  I am happy to remove that from continuity for time purposes, but really neither character starts out comfortable in their own shoes as lesbians. 

And there is a wild card in Kinetix.  To me, she does seem very comfortably lesbian. That will have her driving the ship.  So the chips will fall where they may.

And there will be other characters inside and outside the Legion that will play a role in these relationship dynamics.

It probably won’t be what you expect (or maybe it will), but I think you’ll be happy with the results. It won’t be a gay romance novel, but it won’t be 3 panels in code every 4 months either. 

[thegheistmistress]

{OOC Rambles - Characters/Groups I'd LOVE to interact with - RP Blog Rules}

{Not even gonna lie, I have a LIST of characters I'd love to interact with, but if not, it's perfectly fine and I wanna rant about them. Here it is, enjoy my list, and the fact it's technically all Batman characters/DC related ones is fun-}

{Also I apologize for a LONG post, but I'm in ramble mood-}

~==Characters I'd LOVE interacting with at some point==~

-Batman Characters-

Riddler, {Due to interacting with a few/one that I'm pretty sure was pretty chill}, Scarecrow {Same deal, honestly also Crane is hella interesting}, Black Mask {I know one I haven't interacted with in a LONG time, love 'em}, Prof. Hugo Strange {Not even just because of my OCs backstory, I love and hate Strange, in a good way}, Two-Face {Cause it'd be very interesting}, Penguin {I blame loving how Gotham had him, but I'll interact with any version honestly}

Poison Ivy {Honestly, I just love Ivy as a character}, Harley {I'd prefer the version of her who isn't with the Joker, cause honestly Harley/Ivy is best couple}, Music Meister {Honest. TO. Gods. I LOVE this character}, Jeramiah Arkham {I blame a OLD RP I did somewhere else, they were pretty cool, even if my character HATED his guts.}

Mad Hatter {Any version is good, honestly, just I stay away from the creepy versions of them, aka where it goes into territory that me no likey/aka really perverted for some reason??}, Red Hood {I love Jason Todd, he's such a shit-}

The Court of Owls {O.M.F.G. I love the group as a whole, it also SCARES me, which is good}, Professor Pyg {Dude scares the shit outta me, honestly, but he fascinates me as a villain.}, Bookworm {I love a lot of the old Batman Villains, he's one of them}, Louie The Liliac {Idk what it is with guys with coloured suits-}

The Flamingo {I recently found out about this guy and I'm like- BRUH}. James Gordon {I mean come on, my character is meant to work at the GCPD, this would be fun and interesting}, Harvey Bullock {Again, pretty sure my character would know him, but it'd be up to whoever is playing him on how he feels about her},

Mr. Freeze {This man has ALL my sympathy, I love how he got his ending in the main Arkham Games, let this man be fuckin' happy-}, Catwoman {She'd be pretty cool to interact with}, Lyle Bolton {I remembered RPing with someone as him and I loved interacting with them}

Any of the Batman honestly, and their allies, they're all wonderful, and I love it when people play multiple characters, heroes, villains, all of them.

-In General DC Characters-

John Constantine {I blame a friend for getting me into him and HONEST to GODS, this right bastard of a man has been living rent free in my head for the last few weeks, all cause he kicked down the door and said he's staying-}, Zatanna {Love her, she's cool}, Any Green Lanterns {Big fan of them}. I'll add more to here as time goes on.

==========

{Whew, that's a list. But, I honestly would love any characters, I mostly do DC characters, BUT depending on the fandom, I will do Marvel though I know NOTHING about it minus some stuff. Any superhero characters, super villain, anti-heros, etc. all game for RP, even OCs in Gotham City in general or the DC Universe as whole}

{Whenever RPs start, just ask for rules since it will be different per session, but in general it's these as the in general interaction rules.}

No killing my character{s} without consent. {That should be obvious, it's no fun if the only character I got is dead}

2. No Mary Sues for the love of all that's holy. No one is perfect and like, I know my limitations since I want to have FUN.

3. No god-modding. {The only information that should be known really is she works at the GCPD, other information like Strange knowing is moreso from old stuff that happened and I enjoyed it, hence fuel for any of those characters to use for RPs}

4. Don't rail road the rps into uncomfortable situations, aka uncomfy irl, and control my character without consent. (Unless its a defined path/part we both have agreed to do).

5. If I say something is uncomfy to me during a RP, like OOC uncomfy, I'd rather it not continue.

6. I know y'all got traumatized characters, she's def one now, but if ya do stuff involving certain ones tag it accordingly/spoiler/allude loosely to it cause I got peeps who I follow that don't need to see that.

7. Any 'spicy' things are automatically fade to black if approved at the earliest point, mostly cause again, got peeps who don't need to see it and I just want a fade to black cause I'd rather continue from an after-point.

8. No sudden shipping, ask me about it first. {I'm perfectly fine with wholesome shipping/Fluff/Angst, that stuff is 100% fine. Cause it's hella nice and fun, and in the past she's actually been shipped with Riddler and Scarecrow, I DO remember that, but she doesn't always have to be shipped, being friends with characters first and chemistry between them is important before leaning to sailing that shipping to them.} {Now, if an old muse shows up and they happen to be one I shipped her with, absolutely you're allow to bring that ship back}

========

{Other than that, there's specific rules for specific RPs that'll pop up, have a lovely day, ya'll.~ If I forgot anything, just let me know.}

[smokeybrandreviews]

NBA Rant: World Champion for What

This stuff with Noah Lyles is hilarious because, technically, he ain't wrong. The fact that the US didn't even medal in FIBA, also goes a long way to prove his point. That said, the best players in the world do come here to hoop. I get both sides. The game has evolved and, while the level of NBA talent is still absolutely the best in the world, it's not like the world isn't catching up. A long time ago, we used to send college kids to compete in hoop against professionals from around the world. We won several gold medals until we lost one. The following world competition happened to be the '92 Olympic and the US sent the greatest NBA team ever assembled to absolutely embarrass the rest of the globe. And we did just that, however, it lit a match under the ass under the ass of the international game and they went to work. It's been thirty years since the first Dream Team busted ass across Barcelona and the international game is producing players almost as good as some of those guys who ran alongside Jordan. The Eurogame is all grind, fundamentals, skill, and hard work. If we're being honest, the US game has fallen sharply in terms of skill and relies too much on athletic talent. Why do you think guys go overseas and get exposed in Euroleauges?

The problem most US citizens have is the fact we do not see the game of basketball as a properly global one. For us, especially black kids from the ghetto, it’s intrinsically American. More to the point, it’s intrinsically black and black people are uniquely American. Way back when the NBA first started, there were no other participants around the world. It's American invention. For about a third of the NBA’s existence, the US WAS the world to the league. I mean, the simple answer, and probably the truest one, is that World Champion sounded cool and looks good on the trophy. That’s probably it. Hell, baseball calls their championship game the “World Series” so this argument can be made for that, too. Ultimately, this sh*t basically boils down to a very narrow US focus. We don’t value FIBA or “world” games unless it’s the Olympics. We are taught, early on, that the Olympics are the end all, be all, of global competition even though, technically, they’re not. No one else but the US takes that sh*t as serious. Well, maybe the host country but the United States puts so much weight on Olympic gold, it’s stupid. That is something, to this day, I never fully understood.

If you can’t tell, I’m in Lyles’ camp on this one. Calling a national title anything more than that is dumb to me. Especially when there are world games basically held every other year. I’ve watched the NBA for three decades, man. I know for a fact that the talent pool across the world has caught up. Cats like Giannis and Luka are out here running circles around our home grown guys, strictly because they had to have the skill to dominate in their respective leagues. Giannis is an athletic freak, for sure, but Luka? That dude is basically Dirk 2.0 and making our best talent look like clowns. With no vertical. Like, kid has a four inch jump but dog-walks most teams night in and night out. Basketball has truly become a global game and should absolutely be embraced as such here in the states. We shouldn’t refer to the winners of the NBA Championship as “World Champions” because they’re not. They are NBA Champions. I absolutely believe that the NBA is the premier league in the world. The best to ever play, play in The Association, regardless of where they are from. Luka and Giannis play in the NBA. Jokic, Duncan, and Ginobli. But also Jordan, Kobe, Magic, Curry, Steph, and LeBron. The best to ever do it, are from the US. The best to ever do it, are black kids from the ghetto. Still, it’s more than presumptuous to call our title, a world title, when Team USA just got beat by Canada in the actual world games, getting bounced out of medal contention in the process.

[smokeybrand]

NBA Rant: World Champion for What

This stuff with Noah Lyles is hilarious because, technically, he ain't wrong. The fact that the US didn't even medal in FIBA, also goes a long way to prove his point. That said, the best players in the world do come here to hoop. I get both sides. The game has evolved and, while the level of NBA talent is still absolutely the best in the world, it's not like the world isn't catching up. A long time ago, we used to send college kids to compete in hoop against professionals from around the world. We won several gold medals until we lost one. The following world competition happened to be the '92 Olympic and the US sent the greatest NBA team ever assembled to absolutely embarrass the rest of the globe. And we did just that, however, it lit a match under the ass under the ass of the international game and they went to work. It's been thirty years since the first Dream Team busted ass across Barcelona and the international game is producing players almost as good as some of those guys who ran alongside Jordan. The Eurogame is all grind, fundamentals, skill, and hard work. If we're being honest, the US game has fallen sharply in terms of skill and relies too much on athletic talent. Why do you think guys go overseas and get exposed in Euroleauges?

The problem most US citizens have is the fact we do not see the game of basketball as a properly global one. For us, especially black kids from the ghetto, it’s intrinsically American. More to the point, it’s intrinsically black and black people are uniquely American. Way back when the NBA first started, there were no other participants around the world. It's American invention. For about a third of the NBA’s existence, the US WAS the world to the league. I mean, the simple answer, and probably the truest one, is that World Champion sounded cool and looks good on the trophy. That’s probably it. Hell, baseball calls their championship game the “World Series” so this argument can be made for that, too. Ultimately, this sh*t basically boils down to a very narrow US focus. We don’t value FIBA or “world” games unless it’s the Olympics. We are taught, early on, that the Olympics are the end all, be all, of global competition even though, technically, they’re not. No one else but the US takes that sh*t as serious. Well, maybe the host country but the United States puts so much weight on Olympic gold, it’s stupid. That is something, to this day, I never fully understood.

If you can’t tell, I’m in Lyles’ camp on this one. Calling a national title anything more than that is dumb to me. Especially when there are world games basically held every other year. I’ve watched the NBA for three decades, man. I know for a fact that the talent pool across the world has caught up. Cats like Giannis and Luka are out here running circles around our home grown guys, strictly because they had to have the skill to dominate in their respective leagues. Giannis is an athletic freak, for sure, but Luka? That dude is basically Dirk 2.0 and making our best talent look like clowns. With no vertical. Like, kid has a four inch jump but dog-walks most teams night in and night out. Basketball has truly become a global game and should absolutely be embraced as such here in the states. We shouldn’t refer to the winners of the NBA Championship as “World Champions” because they’re not. They are NBA Champions. I absolutely believe that the NBA is the premier league in the world. The best to ever play, play in The Association, regardless of where they are from. Luka and Giannis play in the NBA. Jokic, Duncan, and Ginobli. But also Jordan, Kobe, Magic, Curry, Steph, and LeBron. The best to ever do it, are from the US. The best to ever do it, are black kids from the ghetto. Still, it’s more than presumptuous to call our title, a world title, when Team USA just got beat by Canada in the actual world games, getting bounced out of medal contention in the process.

[lylethewarblerguy]

I wanna talk about a glee storyline that I have a bit of an issue with. (cw: mentions of suicide)

You all know the Dave Karofsky suicide storyline right? And how in that episode there’s a scene where Mr Shue sits down with all the students and discuss suicide and how they have so much to live for? On the surface I really like that scene. It’s a little cheesy and I don’t like the whole peanut butter part of it for other reasons, but overall I think it’s a good scene. Telling students anecdotes from your own life to relate to their experiences can be very helpful, especially with dark topics such as suicide. (That being said you should never divulge too much information and you should always be offering information about your own life in order to help students and never to help yourself) But there’s something that really bothers me about that scene in the context of the episode.

Dave tries to take his own life because of homophobia. Him being queer is a vital part of his attempt. And the show kinda half touches on this by having Kurt telling Quinn not to judge Dave because she doesn’t know what it’s like. It also kinda hints at it with the scene with Sebastian that only has queer characters in it. But really the only time the show faces the homophobia part of Daves attempt head on (if you could even consider it that) is the scene with Kurt at the end when he’s telling Dave how it gets better and stuff. But throughout the episode they also have other, cishet, characters getting all emotional because “life is short” and shit.

Idk, I just really hate how that episode brushes over the queer aspect of the storyline. Like with that scene, Mr Shue sits down all the students to discuss suicide as if it’s just a thing that they’re all equally at risk of doing. But we never once see a scene of him reaching out to the queer students specifically. Or even a scene of the queer students meaningfully talking about it together. And in that very scene Mr Shue tells them that they’re gonna talk about suicide and Rachel (if I remember correctly) is like “I don’t think any of us would try that” and Mr Shue is like “I did” and then starts talking about his own experiences. A cishet student tells him that they aren’t at risk of suicide and he, also cishet, responds by explaining how you never know and everyone has a breaking point. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with talking about teen suicides and cishet people are definitely also at risk. But suicide is not a thing that just kinda happens and you can’t address suicide attempts without addressing the cause of the attempt.

Dave tried to take his own life because of the homophobia he received as a result of his queer identity. And to remove that context from his attempt and treat the suicide attempt of a young queer kid as a general PSA on how “sometimes teens just try to off themselves I guess” just feels wrong.

[lylethewateraquaticguy]

I’ve talked about this before but I hate how negative and anti everything the internet is and how it’s giving me the same miserable outlook on life. Every time I talk about something that isn’t 100% perfect I feel like I need to list the bad parts and explain away my own joy or else people will be mad at me. Fuck that. Entertainment doesn’t have to be perfect for you to get joy out of it. So I’m gonna start something here: tell me a piece of entertainment you enjoy that the internet has repeatedly told you that you shouldn’t.

I’ll start: I love Big Mouth, I love the Netflix Eurovision movie, I love insatiable, my favourite character from Agents of SHIELD is Fitz, and my favourite tv show currently running is Titans.

There’s enough shitty things in the world and I refuse to let people take my escapism away from me. I refuse to be shamed out of enjoying life.

[octoberobserver]

Kelvin x Keefe Fic - The Righteous Gemstones

S2 Finale Coda - Read it on ao3

“You’re all wet.”

Kelvin blinked down at himself and the small droplets of water trailing in from behind him.

“Yes, Keefe. I am all wet.”

He watched as Keefe crossed their shared room, his dark eyes scanning every inch of him silently. He forced himself not to move a muscle as Keefe threw off his giant sun hat, and took several steps closer to him, close enough for his breath to tickle Kelvin’s cheek.

Their eyes met.

“Did you…go swimmin’ with your clothes on again? ‘Cause I heard that ain’t the safest and—”

“The Lissons held Daddy and the rest of us at gunpoint,” Kelvin blurted out, his breathing labored. “Made us walk into the sea ‘cause they’re snakes in the grass. Frauds, charlatans. They—they’re behind who shot at Jesse and Amber and nearly killed Daddy. Lyle did in that reporter guy too. They just wanted Gemstone money and didn’t care who they hurt to get it. They’re no-good, self-righteous—”

“You’re shakin’,” Keefe cut across Kelvin’s rant, darting into the adjoining bathroom and grabbing one of the large, fluffy white towels.

Before Kelvin could protest, he was wrapped up in it and the strong, firm grip of Keefe’s hands rubbing his shoulders, up and down, up and down.

“Are you okay?” Keefe asked in his usual gentle tone, but his eyes gave away his worry, his gaze lingering over Kelvin for any visible sign of injuries. “Are you hurt?”

Kelvin’s throat tightened. He blinked back the stinging sensation behind his eyes.

“I-I’m fine, Keefe. It���BJ got shot in the leg. Daddy’s gettin’ him and Judy airlifted to some hospital right now. Aunt Tiffany and Uncle Baby Billy are hitchin’ a ride with baby Lionel too. Joe Jonas is keepin’ the guests calm and distracted.”

Keefe nodded, taking his rasped explanation in his stride, carefully steering him backward until his knees hit the edge of one of the double beds. Slowly, he lowered him to sit, kneeling down in front of him and raising a smaller towel to his hair, running it over his soaked strands.

Kelvin sat motionless, eyes closing against the feel of his friend’s fingers detangling and drying his hair.

“They got away,” he admitted after a few beats of silence, his voice small, eyes still closed.

“They won’t get far,” Keefe assured him, still quiet but firm, “the Lord will deliver unto them their comeuppance for their wicked deeds and preying on your and your family’s kindness.”

Kelvin hoped, prayed that he was right.

“We should get you out of these wet clothes, into a hot shower, and find you something to eat. You’ve had a shock,” Keefe murmured, his breath brushing against the shell of Kevlin’s ear.

He suppressed a sudden shiver that he knew wasn’t only caused by the damp fabric sticking to his skin.

“Daddy says we should dine among the regular folk, keep smilin’, let them know everything is okay. Don’t want a panic or nothin’.”

He opened his eyes as Keefe’s hand stilled in his hair.

Their faces were a few inches apart.

Kelvin could count his eyelashes.

One. Two. Three. Four—

“I think…I think you should…dine with us back home too. Permanently.”

It was something he had been thinking about for longer than he’d ever admit. Even to himself. Just one of many other things he didn’t admit to himself.

He had first asked Keefe to accompany him to lunch the night of his successful bearing of the Cross but may have let him believe it was a special, every once in a while kinda thing. A treat to not overindulge in.

He still wasn’t sure why.

Keefe stared at him, his dark eyes warm but mouth downturned in confusion.

“You mean upstairs-church-lunch at Jason’s Steakhouse? But I thought that it was only family that—”

“You are family, Keefe,” Kelvin cut in before he could lose his nerve. “And I want—I’d like you to be by my side. Every time. If…if you’d like that too…as well.”

This was something he could admit to. Not the whole truth, but a part of it.

Their eyes locked, barely a second ticking by that somehow still felt like forever.

“I would be honored.”

Something shook loose in Kelvin’s chest at that, he letting out a relieved if a little uneven laugh.

“Okay, good. Great. I—I’ll just go take a shower and we can head down to dinner, then.”

Keefe’s lips upturned in a small but sincere smile as he nodded, beginning to stand. Kelvin’s hand shot out, fingers closing around his wrist and squeezing before he could stop himself.

He could feel Keefe’s heavy gave on him as he stared down at his newly-repaired hand, struggling to sort through his jumbled thoughts and form a coherent sentence.

He could have died today. Been shot and killed, along with his family, and Keefe would have been left behind. Safe, yes, but never knowing…never knowing how much Kelvin really—

“Save me some of that cornbread. Potato salad too. We’re not eatin’ light today.”

Fighting a wince at his cowardice, he slowly raised his gaze back up, unsurprised to see his friend, his best friend in the whole world (and something even more that he was afraid to examine too closely), already looking at him.

“Of course. I’ll grab a puddin’ cup too. Before all the chocolate ones are gone.”

Like always, Keefe seemed to know what Kelvin was saying even when he himself wasn’t completely sure.

With that, Kelvin let his wrist go and he rose slowly from his knees, pushing himself up with his palms braced against Kelvin’s thighs, their eyes never leaving one another’s.

Silence hung between them.

“Get…get some strawberry ones too. I-I know they’re your favourite,” Kelvin mumbled, feeling oddly breathless, forcing himself to stand too, his legs a little wobbly as he made his way over toward the bathroom.

“I will,” Keefe called after him. “Enjoy your shower. I’ll leave fresh clothes out on your bed.”

Kelvin nodded, keeping his back turned as he took a deep breath and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door with a snap and leaning back against it.

That warm twisting in his stomach made its familiar appearance, but like always, Kelvin shoved it down. Now was not the time. Just like all those other times weren’t either. Which, in recent months, seemed like every second of every day.

Because deep down, Kelvin knew what Keefe was to him. His number one disciple. The most impressive feather in his cap. His ultimate success story. His best friend. The man he wanted by his side at upstairs church lunch and pretty much everywhere else. His…his new kinda family that made his abdomen hot and his heart hammer in his chest.

But those weren’t thoughts for now.

Now he had to get ready and get back to his duties as a Gemstone.

But someday, maybe, it would be time.

Time for Kelvin to sort through those thoughts, those unspoken truths that he had been denying himself for a while now.

Because what Jesus the Savior once said about the truth was, well, true.

It shall set you free.