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sirenologyyy · 2 years ago

Text

SPEAKING SONAR !

ao'nung x fem!sully reader

✷ premise : as tensions rise and your family is forced out of the only home you've ever known, fish boy meets forest girl and the rest is history (tragedy)

✷ warnings : kidnapping, swearing, injury, blood, violence, and death

✷ author's note : gotta have ya'lls parents' povs here hehe, also some spider content if ur an anti dni I'm a spider defender 4 lyfe.

✷ trigger warning : THERE'S GUNNA BE A KINDA GRAPHIC SCENE LATER IN THE CHAPTER ABOUT THE SULLYS AND QUARITCH, IT INVOLVES BLOOD AND MORE BLOOD so be advised... but it's short dw dw

part 4 of the SOLD OUT OF LOVE series

When you'd be confined to the lab because of influenza which you caught often, Spider would risk the possibility of infection and stay in your room all day because unlike you, your germs feared Spider. You'd close all the lights and the both of you would lay on your bed and look at the glowing solar system Max and Norm had painted on your ceiling. It was a moment of peace he wouldn't exchange for the world, just lying next to his sister in the dark, basking in the silence.

Until he speaks. "Do you ever wonder what it would be like if we lived on Earth?"

You turn to him. "I'd always be in the hospital"

"Yeah, well what's different now?" He bit back.

You chewed on your lower lip, he was right. "We'd be going to school, we'd have friends-"

"-that are not giant blue aliens" He adds, the both of you laughing.

"You think if we were on Earth we wouldn't be orphans?"

He shifts, and the bed bounces underneath you. "Maybe" Spider replied cautiously. "If my mom hadn't been flying that gunship she'd probably still be here... not sure about my dad though"

"You're lucky you knew your dad"

He shook his head adamantly. "No I'm not"

"Fine, then you're not" you say, giving up.

"Would we even know eachother if our moms weren't brought here? If they hadn't met our dads?"

This made Spider think hard. "We still would, my mom knows your aunt Trudy"

"No, they met at that flight school, if they weren't chosen, they wouldn't know eachother, we wouldn't know eachother"

This made him tuck his lips together. "I guess you're right"

"I am right" You tell him, propping yourself up by your forearm, Spider mirroring your action. "But what does it matter anyway? We're stuck here, there's no life for us back in Earth cuz it's dying, we've got nowhere else to go"

"Then I guess we gotta stick together don't we?" He replies, poking your shoulder. "Us outsiders gotta stick together, Spider and Firefly, that way nothing can tear us apart"

You grinned, your teeth lighting up in the darkness. "Nothing" You echoed, twirling your pinky over his, breathy giggles taking over you both.

You were the first to pull away, lying flat down on your back, using the same hand to scratch at your IV taped to your wrist used to replenish your dehydrated body. That was several months before the accident, where it changed your lives forever. It was never Spider and Firefly against the world anymore, it was just Spider.

Because the promise you had made to eachother, the promise of the two children orphaned by war initiated in a dark room lit up with neon stars and planets was forever broken.

The both of you grew up in Pandora, took your first steps on Pandora, spoke your first words on Pandora, you had Spider, Spider had you, he didn't care that he could spend most of everyday outside when you were stuck in your room. He'd tell you everything and spare no detail, the speeches, plays, and presentations you two had made to convince Max and Norm to let you out for 3 hours were the highlights of your life, especially when they'd agree.

He lost his mom, his dad, and when they pulled you out of that river unresponsive he thought he might as well lost you too.

2 months ago he had been bragging to the Sully children that he could palace his chin on top of your head without even standing on his tip toes, he blinked and suddenly you could place your entire forearm on top of his head without even trying. He stayed silent, knowing he should be grateful you weren't so sick anymore- but at what cost? He had been more alone now since before you were born, you had been alone together, now he was just alone.

But he wasn't the only one feeling what he was feeling, you were battling your own surges of loneliness trying to grab hold of you. It was a hard change, human food started to taste like paste, you weren't used to being a tug away from being naked, your skin being so blue. It was weird.

You shared a bond with Spider not even the other Sully kids could replicate, now he was gone, and you didn't know when you'd get him back, if you'd get him back.

Lo'ak snapped his fingers in front of you. "Baby sis, you good?"

You blinked. "Uh-huh" You mutter unconvincingly, standing up with a basket you dug against your hip, making your way down to the fish nets to retrieve your lunch for the day.

"What's up?"

"Missing Spider"

"Oh" He says. "He's a tough guy, he'll be fine"

Even Lo'ak didn't believe his words, and so you nodded along. "Yeah, I know"

He crouches beside you, grabbing the pesky fish that fought back and dropping them into the basket. "I've seen him chug Whiskey with a straight face, and, get a scolding from our parents for letting us take a sip, if he can survive that he can survive anything"

"I know he can" You tell him, sliding a fish into the hole of your basket. "Sometimes I just wonder if it's enough"

"It is" He assured you, placing a wet hand on your shoulder. You appreciated the gesture but pried his hand off of you moments later.

Lessons that afternoon were interesting, it was the only word that could sum up the entirety of what had awaited you after lunchtime. The moment you saw Ao'nubg across the beach with your siblings you turned your heel and bolted the other way, you hid in your Marui, helping your mother with repurposing old clothes, chopping fruit for dinner that night.

1, 2, 3, 4 Sullys on the beach, yet one was missing.

He itched to ask them, your brothers, it practically consumed him, knawed at him on the inside to ask your brothers where you were and why you missed your lessons.

Only at the end of the day did he finally give in. "Where is she?"

"Where is who?" Neteyam wonders.

"Your beloved sister?"

"Kiri? Tuk? They're right over there with Tsireya and Rotxo" Lo'ak butts in, pointing his thumb at the secondary group floating on their backs in the water, giggling and gliding.

He rolled his eyes. "No genius, your other one, Y/N?"

Lo'ak shrugged. "Dunno, she says she was dizzy, Mom didn't wanna let her swim in her state"

He hummed. "I see"

But for the past week, it was almost as if you hadn't run out of excuses to miss lessons. They'd wait half an hour for you to come out only for one of your siblings to tell the rest of your friends that you weren't coming. Ao'nung never bothered to come anymore, claiming that he himself wasn't feeling well and that he must have gotten what you've caught all the while having no interactions this past week.

After lessons, Tsireya would catch him hanging out with his other friends or if not then lying on his hammock throwing a woven grass ball in the air, but when his grating mother couldn't leave him alone for two seconds then he'd be riding his ilu on the other side of the island for some peace and quiet.

It was the 4th day of you purposely evading lessons, you sat in your Marui with your mother while she braided your hair. "When will you start attending lessons again Ma'íte?"

"When I feel better" You reply.

"There is this boy that keeps coming to our hut, he says he misses your presence in lessons" You practically froze on the spot as your heartbeat began to rise in a cresendo.

"What was his name?" Your mother asked to herself while you sat there and apprehensively awaited for her next words. "Ahh yes, Rotxo"

Either she knew what she was doing or she had no clue at all- but you wouldn't put it past her. "Yeah, Rotxo's a sweetheart"

Your mother hummed in agreement. "Yes, such a sweet boy, very polite" She stopped, tying off the braid she had previously been working with and starting on another one. "although you were never really drawn to the sweet ones, were you Ma'íte?"

This woman was sick.

"I don't know what you mean" You lie.

She giggles. "You might not be my child by blood but we are more alike than you thought" She asks you for one of the shells you were holding and you hand it to her, feeling her thread it into your locks. "Just say it, sweet girl"

"Say what?" You managed, ignoring the warmth that plagued your cheeks as you straightened your posture.

"That you thought I was talking about somebody else"

You needed to get out of here, she's practically nipping at your heels. Your sweet mother, bringing you in for slaughter. You remaining silent only made her laugh.

"So there is someone?"

"No" you replied a little too quickly. "No, there is no one"

"Then I believe you"

"Good, then we'll just chalk this conversation up to finished"

"Maybe we will" She tells you to stand up and look at yourself in the mirror, admiring the beads, shells, and hair cuffs you told her to put in, turning your head so that the sunlight reflected onto them.

"You did amazing mom, it looks beautiful" you grinned.

She smiles, placing her hands on your shoulders. "I did nothing sweet girl, the beauty is all yours"

"How's she feeling?" You both turn your heads to see your father walking in the Marui. "Still lightheaded?"

"She's feeling fine, aren't you Ma'íte?"

You nod.

He took one good look at your face and turns to your mother. "Neytiri, her face is all flushed, is she coming down on a fever?"

Your eyes widen as you whirl your head towards the mirror. Goddamnit.

You mother pretends to be shocked, turning you to face her. "Your father is right, maybe you should stay home today afterall"

You shook your head. "No I think I'll go out today, it's been long enough"

Jake frowned. "Is she sure? Are you sure? "

You nodded. "Mm-hm" already making your way across the Marui.

"No funny business alright???"

"Alright! Alright!"

"Y/N!" Your father called out.

"I got it!" Was all you said before you jogging down the steps and onto the beach.

Neytiri approached Jake by the mouth of the Marui, the pair of them watching as you ran up to your other siblings and your friends splashing eachother with water by the coastline.

"Ma Jake" Neytiri began.

"Mm"

"It may have escaped your notice but no matter how much you deny it, she is her own woman now, not the little girl we have taken under our wing so many years ago"

Jake sighed, his ears flattening against the sides of his skull as he turns his head towards Neytiri. "I know that"

"I know you do, and yet you refuse to acknowledge it"

"She's got too much fire in her"

"That is a good thing"

"Come on, you knew Betty, cross her one time she'll cross your heart out" He exclaimed, trying to prove his point.

"Ma Jake, believe me when I say that you cannot keep protecting her forever, someday you have to let her go"

"I made a promise to her mother that I'll keep her safe, with everything she's done for me in the past I owe her that much" He explained, Neytiri places a hand on his cheek in the process. "I'm too scared of screwing this up, I try and limit her, and what is she doing? She's going against me, fooling around"

They watched as you joined in on the fight, cringing and screaming when Kiri sent a huge wave your way. "Go easy on her, if you restraint her too much she will drift farther and farther away from us"

"I haven't been living up to my promise like I wanted, I've almost lost her once, I'm not about to let that happen again"

They turn to the beach again and watch as You and Tuk harshly tackle Neteyam, Rotxo and Kiri throwing fistfuls of sand at eachother, and Tsireya giggling her head off as Lo'ak tried pulling off a piece of seaweed that had gotten stuck on his tail but ended up spinning around like a top.

"Stay down!" Tuk screamed at Neteyam floating in the water pretending to be dead and even sticking his tongue out for effect.

You grab her waist and placed her on your shoulders. "The mighty warriror Tuktirey has defeated the fearsome wildebeest, she knows nothing! only rage!"

She let's out a war cry, everyone else in the group started doing the same causing passersby to look at what was causing the sudden ruckus on the shoreline She then leaps off of you and into Neteyam causing a huge splash, she pretends to wrestle with his body while your oldest brother tried his hardest to contain his giggles. All of you began chanting Tuk's name as she managed to stand on Neteyam's chest (with him holding her by her ankles of course) banging her fists on her chest as you all started hooting and cheering for her.

Since you were so close to your Marui, Neteyam (who you were sure had a bruised lung at this point) got word from your father that you were allowed to stay out a little later than usual.

Lo'ak was with Tsireya somewhere, Neteyam and Kiri were riding their íkrans above the islands, which left you and Tuk collecting shells on the beach.

"This one! This one!" She says, pointing a finger at a shell that looked similar to one she picked earlier.

"You already have one that looks like that" You say, holding a bucket already half-full of shells.

"Yeah but now I have two of these, so if I lose the other one I got this one" She explained whilst dropping it in the bucket, joining the other shells.

You laughed, shaking your head. "Can't argue with that logic"

All of a sudden you hear Tuk gasp, you turn around just in time before you see her bolt into the forest. Abandoning the bucket you run after her, calling her name, firing threats at her until you reach a clearing and you realize you lost sight of her.

"Tuk!" You shout. "Dad will skin you alive!"

No response, only the breeze and the chirping of insects in the distance mocking you.

"Come out! Come on! " You say, looking behind trees and bushes, behind rocks and shrubs. "Tuktirey Te Suli Neytiri'ite this is not funny!"

"Kinda is"

Your head snaps up at the voice, but you don't turn around.

"chilly night tonight, isn't it Forest Girl?"

At that you finally turn around to see Ao'nung, leaning against a tree, sporting a devilish smirk.

You feel your hands ball up into fists, your nails creating crescent shaped dents onto your palm. "What did you do to my sister"

His eyes widen, he shows you his palms, chuckling raucously. "If my calculations are correct she might be running into your brother and my sister any minute now" He steps forward. "Listen, I asked her to lead you into the forest so that I could talk to you, alone" He states, aquamarine eyes scanning your face. "I only wanted to talk to you"

You prayed to Eywa to give you the strength to not punch the lights out of this boy. "You were in cahoots with my sister??" You practically shrieked.

"Well-" He began, trying to think of a statement that he could use to defend himself but sighed when he realized his mind was blank. "Yes, that is exactly what it is"

"I can't believe you!" You spat, narrowing your eyes into slits.

"Y/N I just wanted to say sorry, please" He begs, the fact that this was the first time he used your actual name in front of you and not some derogatory nickname did not go unnoticed by you or him.

"You fuck up, you apologise, you trick me into trusting you and then what? You fuck up again?" You wonder. "Is this a part of your golden boy routine? Get some praise for admitting to your mistakes?"

"No" He proclaimed steadfast, walking up to you again so now there were only a handful of inches in between you. "I am the son of the Olo'eyktan, I should have been treating you with more respect, I have been stupid, an-and selfish and I have let arrogance and conceit take over me"

He stops to take a breath, wetting his lips before he continued. "I want you to see that I do not want my past behavior to define me, if you will accept my apology and let me make it up to you it would mean the world to me... but if you don't, just say the word and I will never show my face to you again"

An ultimatum. You shouldn't have expected less from him. You found yourself scanning his face for any weak points, any tell tale signs that might tell you he was lying and was only doing this as a dare or if his parents promised him a grave punishment when he came home unsuccessful. You hated it when you realized he was telling the truth.

As much as you would have loved walking the shores of Awa'atlu knowing that Ao'nung would never show you his putrescent face again- you couldn't help but succumbing to his words, his promises, you were fighting with yourself, telling your other half to turn heel and sprint, sprint, and never look back but you were falling, he was using his tricks against you, letting his big blue eyes do all the work.

That was when you felt it, a little flame, bursting to life inside of you, warm, unfamiliar, questionable, lighting up the dark caverns of your chest, flooding it with an obscure sensation.

"Why did you want to talk to me all the way out here? In the forest?"

He sighs. "My father encourages me to maintain good relationships with all the Sully children, he says that it is most vital to have connections once I become chief..."

You cock your head to the side a little. "...but?"

"My mother says that I do not need to see you more than I have to"

And there it was.

"Why?" You implore.

"She thinks you're the one that is causing me to skip lessons and my training-"

"-You've been skipping lessons?" Was what left your mouth.

"Admittedly, yes, I have been skipping lessons"

"Why?"

"I didn't feel like attending them"

You gave him a genuine look of disbelief. "That's it?"

"What about you?" He evades. "I heard you have not been keeping up on appearances either"

"Yeah, I wasn't feeling all that great the past few days" you confessed, crossing your arms over your chest. "But I guess I'm feeling better now"

He nods languidly, taking in the situation. "So will you be coming tomorrow?"

You look at the ground then up at Ao'nung. "maybe"

"Good" He says with a smile, you almost wondered why it was so good to him but he squashes your assumptions when he opened his mouth again. "I might have to teach you how to swim all over again"

You flick your finger against his toned forearm, making him look at it and let out a scoff of objection. "Don't get ahead of yourself"

The silence that followed after was evident, your eyes travel up to the sky and realize that it might be around dinner time, mere seconds before your Dad starts ringing the dinner bell and all 5 of you scurry back to the pod like a bunch of sows.

"I guess I'll see you around?" You spoke up, making his head turn to you again. "I gotta go find my sister before she makes Awa'atlu falls to its knees"

"Wait" says he, making you stop. "You never answered me"

You exhaled through your mouth. "Fine you skxawng, I forgive you" you see him grin, ducking his head. "What will the nation do if you never show your face to anyone ever again?"

"I agree, pretty things should be enjoyed"

You involuntarily gagged, earning a loud chuckle from him. "Come on, you like looking at my face"

You remain quiet as he chuckles to his own joke, you roll your eyes and turn around. "Goodnight jackass"

He collects himself. "Goodnight tree hugger"

"Keep 'em coming" you taunt, hurriedly making your way out of the forest as he stays and watches you leave. Only when he was sure you were out of earshot was when he punches a fist in the air and whoops in glee.

"The ocean blessed you with a gift, brother "

Ao'nung stirred. "The Tulkun have not returned yet, and anyway no Tulkun is ever alone"

"This one was" You turn to your brother, sat across from you. "He had a- a missing fin, like a stump, on the left side"

Tsireya's expression changes. "Payakan"

"Who's Payakan?" Kiri wonders.

"A young bull who went rogue, he's outcast, alone, and has a missing fin" says Rotxo.

Tsireya turns to Lo'ak, taking his arm. "They say he is a killer"

"He killed Na'vi," Ao'nung butts in. "And other Tulkun" He says, leaning forward, his eyes meeting yours before it lands to Lo'ak. "Not here, but far, to the South" He adds.

Lo'ak shook his head, intent on proving his point. "He's not a killer"

Tsireya purses her lips beside you. "Lo'ak, you are lucky to be alive"

"I'm telling you guys, he saved my life, he's my friend!"

"My baby bro!" Neteyam crooned. "Who faced the killer Tulkun, and lived to tell about it" Lo'ak shrugged Neteyam's arm away, standing up to face all of you. "You guys aren't listening"

"Lo'ak I'm listening!"

"Lo'ak come back, you skxawng"

Neteyam runs off to follow him, Tuk dragging Tsireya and Kiri off to the ilu pen, Rotxo following them just for the sake of Kiri, leaving Ao'nung and you behind.

"And then there were two" He beamed, following you as you walked down the steps of the platform and onto the beach. You couldn't help but notice the slight bounce to Ao'nung's steps when he started walking in front of you "You were a whole lot quieter today, Forest Girl, is there something you'd like to share with the class?"

You shook your head at him, biting down on a smile. "You're baiting me, no thank you"

"I am doing nothing of the sort!" He exclaims, giving you a playful frown. "You wound me, Forest Girl"

"Good, somebody's gotta keep you on your toes"

He gave you an unsatisfied hum. "Thank Eywa for you then"

"Damn right, you should be" You replied, approaching the trees that lined the beach, hearing the creaking of the branches only to see Ao'nung already 3 feet above you. "Get down from there, I don't wanna have to carry you all the way home just because you broke something"

"I think I'll risk it," He says. "That way you've got a better of view of me from up here" He begins flexing his muscles in front of you and you shot him a look of disgust, gritting your teeth to keep you from giggling. You failed.

What was happenning?

Ao'nung finally hops down, landing on the sand beside you. "We have got plenty of time to kill before eclipse, what do you suggest we do?"

You begin walking again, Ao'nung following you. "We sit and watch the water"

"Boring" He droned.

You look at him with eyes wide. "You were the one who asked"

"Clearly my mistake, I did not realize how utterly dull you are"

You stopped walking and turned to him, raising a quizzical brow. "What about you smart guy? What do you suggest we do?" You wonder.

He shrugged, a sly smirk playing at his face. "I was thinking we just go to the cave and-"

You stop him from talking by placing a finger over his mouth. "Nuh-uh, the last time we went there I practically got my ass beat because of it, I am literally an arguement away from my Dad chaining me to our Marui"

He compromised. "Fine, we could go to the other side of the island and visit the waterfalls?"

"I'm not allowed to go to the other side of the island"

"Your father won't know"

"No means no, Ao'nung" You insist.

He threads his fingers together, cracking his knuckles. "You wanna go to the diving rock? It's got a killer drop, 30 feet"

You shook your head. "No, no more swimming"

"Then I have got nothing" He confessed, placing his hands on his hips and facing the water.

"Look, you don't need to push it, bro" You tell him, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was like he took a punch to the gut. "You can go do all that stuff without me, I'll just hold you down"

"You wouldn't" He says, making your ears flick upwards. "I just wanted to..."

"Wanted what?"

His eyes meet yours, turning his body away. "It's- nevermind that now, it is stupid"

You slap his shoulder. "No it won't, tell me"

He keeps his eyes down, only meeting your gaze every now and then just to catch a glimpse of your face, how the setting sun casted a syrupy glow onto your face, how it only made him want to look at you longer. It was like an anvil had been tied to his ankles, pulling him down to the seabed, down, down, down until he finally allows it.

"I wanted you to stay a bit longer" He concedes.

"Why?" You teased. "All you gotta do is ask"

He looked unsure, hesitant but scans your face nonetheless, after a moment of standing, the setting sun a witness to Ao'nung's diffident self, he sighs. "Will you stay?" He finally asks.

You considered it, turning to the water as you felt your lips curling up into a mischeivous grin. "Fine, only because you begged" You said. "Desperation is a good look on you, you know" Ao'nung shoves you again and you stagger back cackling, letting your laughter rip.

You see him grinning too, pointing at you as you kept on laughing. "Foul play, you do not get to word it that way"

"I was telling the truth!"

"You were twisting my words" He insists, giving you a shrewd smile.

"Only a little bit" you admit, pushing your hair away from your face and sitting down on the sand

He props his leg up, placing his elbow over his knee while you sat cross legged. "I hope your father didn't reprimand you any more than what I have seen two days ago"

"No, he just gave me the silent treatment, he always does it"

"Now why would he do that?"

"He dosen't want to fight with me anymore than he already does, that's why he stays quiet"

He lets out a condescending scoff. "Dosen't look like it"

You half-shrugged. "I'm used to it, it's no big deal"

A moment of silence settles.

"Open out your hand" Ao'nung says oh so suddenly.

You turn to him, your interest piqued. "Why?"

"Just do it" He says, pointing his chin at your hand. "And look the other way"

You sighed, opening your palm and keeping your eyes away until he dropped something in the middle of your hand, something cold, something hard. You finally look down and you couldn't help the gasp that escaped your lips.

It was a necklace. Held together by golden twine with clay beads and pearls strung a centimeter away from the others, then, a pearlescent conch shell as big as your thumb in the very middle.

It looked amazing.

You hated it.

"I asked Tuk for the beads you managed to gather, wasn't hard, all I had to do was bribe her with some candied fruit" He surmised like it was something to be proud of.

"You've got to stop using my sister for your stunts" You say, placing the necklace against the light, your smile widening to an O as it glimmered.

He smirked, ducking his head. "She's the only Sully who truly likes me"

"That's not true" You tell the boy, waiting for him to look up to you, and when he does you continue. "Not really"

And this boy blushes.

"Hah! 14 different shades of purple!" You shout.

He dosen't say anything, only letting you make fun of him, prodding at his forearms, giggling when he averts his face.

"Are you done?" He asks after a while, failing at stifling a grin.

You shrugged, lifting your hair up to tie the necklace together. "Maybe" you laughed, patting your hair down and raising your eyebrows at him. "So, how's it look?"

"Uhh, it looks- it looks great" He responds, feeling the unfamiliar warmth blossom beneath your ribs. "Now you'll have something to draw attention away from your frightening face"

You click your tongue at him, hearing his infectious laugh and watching as he shields his face away from the beating that was about to come.

"Y/N"

The laughter stops. The both of you whirl around to see Neteyam donning his signature stony expression, you stand up straighter, distancing yourself from Ao'nung.

"Come on" says Neteyam, his gaze switching to you, then to Ao'nung, then the necklace. "Mom's calling you, she needs help with dinner"

"Can't you help her?" You can't help but wonder. That was probably too mean.

"She wasn't calling me was she?" He retorted, ice running through your veins. "And anyway, i'm not interrupting anything here, am I?"

"No" You tell him.

"Then let's go" He says, you reluctantly walk towards him, he takes your shoulder, leading you out of there as he looks at Ao'nung whose eyes followed you away a little too long for his liking.

"Ao'nung" Neteyam acknowledges.

He nods. "Neteyam" says Ao'nung.

You both arrived at the Marui, your mood souring by the second. "Explain yourself" Neteyam demands.

You spun around. "What is there to explain? you saw us, we were just talking"

"I mean if you know the way he looks at you or you're just pretending to be blind"

"What are you talking about?" You almost screeched, your eyebrows knitting.

"I don't like you hanging around him," Neteyam tells you, pointing back at the beach. "he's bad news"

You hiss at him but what came out was a groan of annoyance, walking deeper into your pod. "Just butt out of my business"

"Your business is my business!" He tells you pointing at his chest.

"That is not true"

Neteyam groans. "It's Ao'nung, Y/N" He emphasized.

"I am perfectly aware of his name" You sassed.

"He's too old for you" Neteyam insists. "He'll break your heart"

You let out an incredulous laugh, as you turned around. you couldn't believe what he was saying, what he thought was happenning. "That is not what was happenning back there, alright?"

"Why'd he give you that then??"

You don't answer him, instead you scoffed, rolling your honey color eyes. "You are way off-base"

"No," He insisted, stopping you from walking out of the Marui. "what I am is right"

You throw your hand in the air as you walked passed your oldest brother, silencing him. "Whatever, I'm done here"

"I'm still talking to you"

"Well I'm not" You yelled back, running down to the beach, your anger simmering.

In an attempt to avoid your big brother you decide to join both your sisters, Rotxo, and Tsireya to visit the Cove of the Ancestors, hastily agreeing and in a hurry to hop up on your ilu, your brother decided that he would not let you go away so easily and insists that he joined too.

"We have to be there before eclipse settles, it's better that way" Rotxo appends with a grin, before his ilu splashes him in the face, Kiri laughing at his misfortune.

And Rotxo was right. It did look better after eclipse.

The sky may have darkened into a deep prussian blue but the water hadn't, it glowed several different shades of purple, you look down and see a warped image of their spirit tree, your siblings oohing and ahhing beside you.

All of you swim downwards, Rotxo instructing you to connect your queue to one of the bright purple margins of the leaves and you do, once you had linked your queue it felt as though you were being pulled through a blinding white tunnel, until it stops, and you land on all fours like you had been thrown out of there by some disembodied force.

You look up, you were back in the lab.

Your bare feet on the cold obsidian like tiles giving you fleeting flashbacks of what it was like to be standing back here, your first home. You look down, your hands were smaller, you weren't blue anymore, you adjust your focus to your reflection on the tiles and there it was.

You were a human again.

The sound of arguing catches your attention, it was coming from a few doors down and so you stood up, feeling the weight of your bones pulling you down, the world spun you around and you grab the nearest object to steady yourself, blinking until the world stopped spinning. You slowly made your way across the lab, the familiar mess of papers, the coffee stained tables, holograms of different insects, different plants propped up, books open to pages booked marked with sticky notes, the familiar intricate yet haphazard scrawl of Norm's handwriting, how his t's had a little tail.

"I trusted you! I trusted all of you!" The voice was a woman's, loud, piercing, she was definitely angry, but about what?

"Look, listen to us, all we wanted, all I wanted was to keep her safe, I tried my best Betty, believe me"

Betty?

There was no way.

"Don't try and kiss my ass Sully, do you think I believe the shit you're tryna feed me?" She shouts, followed by a few words in some foreign language where she rolled her r's a lot. "I told you to take care of her, then I come back 8 years later because she cracked her skull open because you- you! " You heard a tussle, like she had pushed someone into a wall. "You let her out at night in this cesspool! In the pouring rain!"

"Betty, we didn't know it was going to rain, alright?"

"Shit excuse, you have trackers in their exopacks don't you?"

"We do but- but Spider and Y/N managed to bypass it without us knowing, we had a hard time locating them and when we did-"

"-My baby's been bleeding out for 20 minutes" She says as you her tired voice turn brittle. "20 minutes" She repeats.

You finally see the door at the end of the hallway, its hinges eased open letting out a ray of periwinkle light on the floor. You walk up to it, standing on your toes and you see a woman, her thick wavy locks looked more puffed up when she was angry, her hickory brown eyes practically piercing needles onto Jake's face, Jake, who was also human, who was standing on his own two feet.

"That's 20 minutes too long Sully"

"Betty, we can't count our losses in this scenario" Jake tells her. "Look, her conditions stable-"

"-Yeah her conditions stable but she's damn lucky she didn't suffer any permanent neurotrauma"

"Betty "

"You're done Jake" says your mother, prodding a finger at his chest, you watch him raise his palms and cringe. "I'm taking her back"

Jake's eyes widen. "You can't do that"

"She's my daughter"

"I raised her! " Jake snapped.

" She was never yours! " Your mother retaliated.

You feel Jake's heart rip at the seams just by the look of his face. "Betty, you can't do this" He says weakly.

"Tough luck Sully, I can"

"What if we all just take a breather-"

"-Up your ass Norm" with that the door sprang wide open and you truly see what was going on, there was Jake, there was your Mom, there was Norm, there was Max.

And they were all looking at you.

"Luz, Míja, what are you doing up??"

Who the hell was Luz?

Was that supposed to be you? The name she gave you before she died? Before Neytiri came in and gave you a new one? One that stuck so well that even Norm and Max started using it?

You don't answer, still shell-shocked from taking all of this in for the first time.

"Come on, we have to go," She says, grabbing your hand and leading you out of there.

She pulls you out of there, further out of the lab and you pass by a mirror, you see a fleeting image of yourself, you were 8 again, practically skin and bone, fresh and healed bruises everywhere, knobby knees, and sallow skin. How the hell?

"You can't take her away!" Jake yelled. "Please, Betty! you're not thinking this through! Please! " The desperation in his voice was evident, it almost tugged at your heartstrings before you remembered how he treated you, how he snapped at you and yelled at you, restricted you, and berated you.

She keeps pulling you, pulling you out of the lab, your eyes widen as you remember you didn't have an exopack, nothing happens, you didn't choke on the spot, you see the Sully kids the way you remembered them that night- scared, shaken, dejected, calling out your name as you were pulled away by your mother, Neytiri holding all of them back.

You turn to Betty Chacon and the woman she was, your mother, the one who birthed you, and gave you life.

You couldn't believe she was here. You gripped around her hand tightly, following her into the forest where you walked through the trees. Until you hit a branch and your vision turns black.

Your eyes snapped open, realizing you had been pulled out of your encounter with your mother, at first you were angry, it was too short, you wanted her back, until you realize the spirit tree blinked like a lightbulb going haywire, you see your sister convulsing beside you. Anxiety floods your nerves as you jolt her awake, realizing you needed to pull her braid out but when you did it felt like your whole body was on fire.

TRIGGER WARNING !

Fire.

You open your eyes again and you see fire festering all around you.

You see blurry, fleeting images of Quaritch, you hear guttural screams, shrill screams, knife tearing through flesh, splattering, it was blood splattering on the stones. You blinked hard and see your family all lined up in front of you, impaled by sticks, you could hear blood splattering on the floor like you had just hung the washing and not wringing it dry, you run to help them, making a beeline towards Neteyam who was in front of you, but you screamed, realizing he had no face, like somebody has ripped it off his head.

"You're next" And it was Quaritch who was standing behind you, throwing Neteyam's face onto the rock like a slab of wet cloth, right beside the others, whose expressions of terror were imprinted on their faces forever.

END !

You feel your world jolt, when in reality it had been Rotxo shaking you out of your reverie, asking if you were okay or not answer you didn't think of answering back, only swimming up to the surface because you remembered your sister shaking violently.

You and Rotxo resurface to see Neteyam giving Kiri CPR atop his ilu, she gasps, and the next thing you knew Neteyam zooms out of there, Tsireya calling for Tuk to ride with her, leaving you with Rotxo who places a hand on your shoulder.

"Y/N! Y/N are you alright???" He practically demands, his wide eyes full of worry.

You blinked, almost having to untie your mouth open to speak. "We need to go back, my- Kiri- she's-"

"And we will," Rotxo assures you. "Hinewai is here already, see? Do you need a moment?"

You shook your head, propping yourself up on Hinewai's back. "No"

You and Rotxo speed through the waters to make it back to the village where you see throngs of village gathering around the beach, seeing your sister being transferred onto a bamboo gurney, hearing your mother's inconsolable wails wracking her body as Jake held her in his arms, barking orders left and right, Neteyam making sure they were being carried out, Tuk was sobbing, Tsireya stood close by in order to calm her, you couldn't find Lo'ak anywhere, there were too. much. people.

Your chest tightens again.

#ao'nung x fem!reader #metkayina #omatikaya #jake sully #neytiri #ao'nung fic #ao'nung x reader #ao'nung x you #tsireya #neteyam #spider #lo'ak #kiri #tuk #rotxo #atwow ao'nung #atwow #avatar the way of water #sold out of love ao'nung

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nivenus · 2 years ago

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I just saw Avatar for the first time since it was in theaters 13 years ago. Some quick thoughts.

1) The CGI (mostly) still holds up. Aside from one sequence near the beginning, I don't think you can really tell this was made more than a decade ago. That's pretty damn impressive since CGI often ages poorly.

2) It's a better film that I gave it credit at the time though it's still quite flawed in some ways (more on that in a bit). But after a decade non stop of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars as the dominant box office brands it stands out a lot more and feels a lot more original.

3) It's hard not to perceive part of the backlash against the film among nerds (which I think the success of Way of Water has shown did not reach into the mainstream) comes from the fact that this film makes the Colonial Marines from Aliens the bad guys. Unequivocally. As someone who thought the Marines were never the most interesting part of Alien or its imitators that doesn't bother me as much.

4) I think another reason people (myself included) backlashed against the movie is that it is overwhelmingly, heart achingly sincere. There is not a sarcastic or self-mocking bone in Avatar's body. Everything it does is done with deliberate, open hearted purpose and frankly a lot of us nerds are uncomfortable with that! But again, after a decade of films aping the wink wink wisecracking of 2012's Avengers, one might argue Avatar's bleeding heart is actually a major plus in its favor.

5) That being said, it's not flawless and one bit of criticism from 2009 remains quite relevant: the film, while unequivocally anti-colonialist, is made with an entirely white lens. The Na'vi are the good guys, yes, but with the exception of Neytiri (and only barely to be honest), they're never the *heroes*. The greatest ass kicking moments, the greatest triumphs and heartbreaking moments belong not to them but to the humans like Jake, Grace, Norm, and Trudy. The Na'vi are sympathetic, but we don't see anything from their point of view: they're accessories to the human characters' emotional journey.

6) That being said, if this was the first movie you saw about colonialism I think you'd be hard pressed to come away from it thinking that was a *good* thing. Cameron is not the least bit subtle about painting Quaritch and RDA as the bad guys nor about drawing comparisons between them and not only historical colonizers but the modern U.S. military (see point 3).

7) One thing I appreciate a lot more now than I did in 2009 is the sheer volume and quality of worldbuilding. It's clear this was a passion project for Cameron and he put every bit of detail he could cram in. It's also a very notable early example of a conlang that isn't either Tolkien or Klingon.

8) Lastly, the movie struck me as faintly religious which is interesting. I don't believe Cameron belongs to any religion but it struck me that Eywa very much represents an idea he would like to believe is true, even if he doesn't actually believe in it.

Anyhow, I might do a more detailed analysis after I watch Way of Water, but for now I'll end by saying Avatar remains a complicated but very well made movie, with a good message muddled somewhat by an exoticizing lens.

#avatar #james cameron #way of water #film retrospectives

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crusherthedoctor · 9 months ago

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IDW Sonic

Well hey howdy hey, which universally known take of mine should I select for this one. :P

I'll go with this: we all know I don't think IDW Sonic is a particularly good representation of the character because he's a holier than thou twat who's ironically less sincerely benevolent than Game Sonic, who the comic consistently props up as being in the right despite the opposite being true. But there's another layer to it: I also react negatively to Mr. Principles because he's a bastardization of the archetype they're seemingly trying to go for. Contrary to a lot of folk, I tend to prefer hero-heroes over anti-heroes so long as they're well written and entertaining (and when it actually fits the character rather than being applied to one that it makes no sense for), so when characters like Holier the Thou come along, it can convince people that nice and kindhearted heroes are inherently bad or boring... and a lot of folk are already convinced of that as it is.

Given I have Trudy under my belt, you can see why this would steam my hams. >:L

#Crusher's Asks #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog #Anti-IDW Sonic

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kim-ruzek · 8 months ago

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i just watched fire and five things:

i am actually really enjoying this paramedic, not because she's an amazing person but because she's fresh and she brings a new dynamic in a polarising way but not like in an anti-51 kind of way which is refreshing and also i loved the way she talked down the kid - definitely has 51 potential

trudy taking down the woman was so fucking badass, i love her so much

i loooooved seeing kylie at 51 and her interactions with james

stellaride continues to be couple goals, i love them so much

carver and violet are definitely growing on me, that ending scene between them was so bloody cute

#ree has thoughts #chicago fire #chicago fire spoilers #stellaride #trudy platt

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go-to-two · 11 months ago

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I feel like this is an unpopular opinion but Trudy isn’t the Mother the fans think she is…

I'm trying to think of what happened last night that could have prompted this, but yeah I agree. I've said something to this effect before in regards to her keeping the truth about the Roy Walton case from Kim. I don't even approach this in an anti-Trudy way. She's a great, great character who clearly cares for the team. But she's also a police Sargent first and everything else second. She loves them, but she will prioritize the job over them if the situation calls for it.

#anon ask

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kiss-my-freckle · 6 months ago

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Full Episode Commentary

1x15: A Few Good Men

This post is long and anti-Stefan.

I laugh at the title because Damon is written as the "bad" brother. At this point, he could collapse into rubble having found out Katherine was never in the tomb. She was out in the world all this time, but never once bothered to see him.

So... a bachelor is a man that's never been married. While it's weird for them to include Alaric, they wrote them to be short on men for their fundraiser, and did it for the sake of putting Alaric on stage with Damon. imo, it's of no coincidence that Caroline makes reference to The Bachelor in 3x20.

I love the way Harper apologizes before kllling an innocent. As a person, I consider him their greatest tomb vampire. His daylight ring is a purple gem, magnificent. A great color for supernatural beings, especially witches. It symbolizes power and mystery. Harper takes the man's clothes to fit in rather than stand out. It's an era thing. His cell phone starts to ring, but Harper has no idea what it is or what it does, so he tosses it on the ground. Elena is leaving Bonnie a voicemail. She misses her, but understands she's mourning her grams. She tells Jenna she's been writing in her diary. Sometimes I wonder what things she might've written about Damon. Is it weird to wanna know what and how much of Damon is in her diary? Elena asks Jenna if she dug into her adoption. She's been wanting answers about her biological parents. Jenna introduces her to her mother, Isobel. A cheerleader in high school like Elena. Is it a surprise that Elena becomes a vampire like her mother? The closest connection Jenna could find for Isobel was her cheerleader friend, Trudie. She gives Elena her address, then informs her that Alaric's dead wife might be her mother. "There's something else. Mr. Saltzman… Ric. His wife was from around here, and her name was also Isobel." That's a lot for Elena to take in, so she needs to talk about it asap.

When she tells Stefan about it, he has all reason to worry. Alaric already informed him in 1x13 that Damon killed his wife, so if they're the same person, then Damon killed Elena's mother and Stefan knows it. He immediately tries to control the situation, first trying to find out what Jenna told Elena about the death of Alaric's wife. Whenever Stefan questions people like this, it's always to see how much they know before he tells them things he doesn't have to. This allows him to continue keeping secrets he wouldn't tell otherwise. People tend to pay when Stefan keeps secrets, and it's a constant thing with him. Not just his secrecy, but his need to control the situation. He doesn't even bother to wait for Elena to invite him along to meet with Isobel's friend. He invites himself, that's how controlling he is. "Now, listen, if you do decide to go talk to Isobel's friend, I'll go with you. Okay?"

"He's dealing in his own way." They start talking about Damon, who is fang-deep in his mourning process. Their chosen soundtrack is perfect for the scene and I love the lighting. Thighs, wrists, neck… Damon is enjoying the taste of four Tri-Delts aka sorority girls. "No! Buzzkill Bob." I consider this a Trevor parallel. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? I spent the last 145 years with one goal: get in that tomb." Only having one goal in life may not seem like a big deal, but I consider it an impairment. It would cause tunnel vision, to the extent that Damon would obsess, fixate until he completes this goal. With one goal, I consider him a metaphoric tomb vampire, and his world would look very much ike the tomb. To put it bluntly, getting in and getting out looks the same. That's why Damon needed the tomb open. It's not about what he does or doesn't deserve, it's about his livelihood.

Better for him to have several goals so his world isn't narrow, empty, and miserable with every goal failure. "I succeeded. Granted, Katherine wasn't in there to be rescued, but why dwell?" Damon shrugs off his pain like it's no big deal. "You know, it's so liberating not having a master plan because I can do whatever the hell I want." This line is specific in the fact that he's done with necklaces and grimoirs and strategies to open the tomb because it's open. He now has the freedom to do whatever he wants. A heartbreaking freedom for him, but freedom nonetheless. Important in the fact that this freedom is the reason he's able to fall in love with Elena. The tomb door is symbolically linked to their dance soundtrack in 1x19. That's when Damon falls in love with Elena.

This is where the brothers differ in heartbreak. Damon outwardly tells Stefan he might as well spill because he knows Stefan isn't there to help him through the pain. Yet in 4x7, that's what Damon wants to do for Stefan after his breakup with Elena. He makes a direct reference back to this episode. "Or we could just blow it off and go get drunk. Brother bond over some Tri-Delts. If you, you know, want some quality time." And of course, you can't forget Stefan's response to that. "Let's not pretend like this isn't the best day of your life." This is all part of their Stelena - Datherine parallel.

Instead, Stefan ignores Damon's pain and acts like this is a good time to question him about Isobel - as if he's blind to the fact that Damon is mourning. The very first scene I wanted to scream at a character. Stefan is being selfish and controlling. "There was a woman you may have known a few years back named Isobel in North Carolina at Duke." Damon's like… wow, I can't believe you went there. Stefan's questioning him about a woman from his past while he's mourning a woman from his past. "You wanna discuss the women in my past right now? Seriously?" Just as he was with Elena, Stefan immediately tries to control the situation while being secretive. This moment here would've been the best time for Stefan to come out with it. ALL of it. Like hey… Isobel was Alaric's wife and is possibly Elena's mother, and you killed her. Rather than actually tell him WHY it's important, he simply tells him to think hard because it's important. Stefan is setting Damon up to hurt Alaric and Elena with this cagey crap. "Nothing is important, not anymore." For 145 years, it was important for Damon to open the tomb to rescue Katherine. Nothing is important anymore, now he's mourning. "I have to go and exploit some women in the name of grief, which I'm sure you understand." It's not a shock they cut scene this way. Damon is exploiting some women in the name of grief, and here they are… introducing Matt's mother lol. She walks in on Matt and Caroline while they're getting ready to have sex. I'll be referring to this scene in my 1x16 re-watch post.

Alaric talks to Jenna about being one of their bachelors for the fundraiser. They kiss whie hanging up a bannr for the event. Jenna interrupts for the sake of telling him about Elena's mother. According to Ric, Isobel never had a baby. Poor Ric, blind to the realities of his wife. When Jenna shows him the photo of Elena's mother, he realizes it's his dead wife. Like Elena, that's a lot for him to take in, so he leaves. It's made clear that Trudie knows vampires exist. She watches Elena cross the threshold despite not inviting her in. I'm not sure if she tested her for self-preservation or if it was Isobel's desire to know. Trudie texts Isobel to let her know about Elena.

Matt's mother has been gone for months, and tells him she's never in one place too long. While she's gone for those months, Matt is having to work to pay the bills for the sake of having a home. I hate how a lot of these parents treat other kids. Carol treated Vicki like trash. Matt's mother is speaking of Caroline like trash. I can understand wanting the best for your kid, but wow. Even the ice thing is wow. She has Matt waiting on her because she's basically a guest in his home. When they start talking about Vicki, she speaks as if Vicki takes after her. "Are you trying to say I need a reason to come back?" She hasn't been home for months and he's the one that's been taking care of the house, so I'd say so. I don't know any parent that blows in and out of their kids' lives like this, but I consider it altogether insane.

Stefan meets with Alaric. This is when the issue with Isobel starts to thicken. Stefan hands him another three-in-one, which makes this a total of six warnings about Damon. Alaric thickens the issue by pressing the issue. The Damon vs Alaric in this episode is all about time. Alaric had time to mourn his wife. Granted, he's been looking for her killer, but he's had enough time to mourn Isobel that he's now building a relationship with Jenna. Damon just had his heart ripped out by Katherine. "Just" being the key word. Alaric has been looking for Isobel's killer for a few years now, but acts like time is an issue with finding his wife's killer. He already found her killer, so no, I don't see any reason why Alaric can't wait to get answers next week or next month when he's got her killer in his sights. Yeah, I get that he wants answers and he wants justice, but I'm sure he wants to stay alive too, and Stefan just warned him - again. Give Damon time, period.

But the problem isn't just Alaric pressing the issue. It's Stefan. He won't even offer him a vague explanation as to why Damon needs time. That's why Alaric's comment to Stefan in this scene is everything. "I need to know what happened. I think you would, too." He's basically telling Stefan that if it were Elena, he'd be the same way, so it's a line that needs to be directed at Damon. There Stefan is, refusing to offer Alaric insight into Damon's mindset. If Alaric knew that Damon "just" had his heart ripped out after waiting 145 years to rescue Katherine, that Damon himself needed similar answers about why Katherine wasn't in the tomb, he wouldn't be so hard-pressed to get answers. He'd know and understand how unstable Damon is, and give him time to work through that. Stefan is now trying to control the situation while being secretive with all three… Damon, Elena, and Alaric. Like cars, they're gonna collide. Alaric hands Stefan a photo of Isobel for the sake of jogging Damon's memory. Thing is, he remembers Isobel quite well. Damon simply wants to mourn.

They show more flashbacks of Alaric and Isobel. She's starting to pull away from him, that's how consumed she is with her work. Trudie pushes Elena to try the tea because she dosed it with vervain. She already knows Elena isn't a vampire because she crossed the threshold without an invite. This has me wondering why she felt the need to dose her because this would act as a basic one-time dose. Elena immediately tastes the vervain. When she starts questioning her knowledge of vampires, Trudie insists she leave. Honestly, these scenes between Elena and Trudie come off a lot like Enzo's scenes with Sara. She sees one of Isobel's men outside of Trudie's house and drives off.

This is where Alaric has me wanting to scream at him. Stefan just got done telling him that Damon isn't stable right now. "Unstable" is a broad term, but Alaric doesn't consider this. "You know, he murdered my wife, or at the very least made a meal out of her. When has he been stable?" For Damon, this is humanity-driven instability, and it's this type of instability that makes him dangerous af. He just had his heart ripped out by Katherine. "Damon is not stable right now." Stefan made it clear with his usage of "right now" that Damon can be stable, he's just not stable right now. He'll be more stable later, best to get his answers later.

Alaric assumes Damon doesn't get depressed, which is an asinine assumption to make. That's when Damon hits him with it. "You say that like you know me." Alaric claims it's just a hunch, but it's an assumption. He knows nothing about a vampire's humanity or their humanity switch. imo, he should've done more research on vampires before approaching Damon, never mind the fact that he's ignoring all six of Stefan's warnings. This is the moment Damon realizes he didn't compel Alaric in 1x12. He's being shady, and Damon knows it.

Liz pops in and makes a reference to Damon being a daydrinker. She's about to ask him for a favor when he slams her with his truth. "You ever been in love? Have you ever been so bent on someone just to have your heart ripped out by them?" That's what he's feeling. Liz reminds him of Bill. "Right. Gay husband." Damon buys her a drink so they can mourn together lol. I love Liz, but why ask Damon to be a bachelor now? I mean, he's daydrunk and mourning a lost love. How does she think he's gonna act by the time he hits that fundraiser? Literally everyone in this episode is refusing Damon the ability to mourn. "You know, a room full of women clamoring to win a date with me. Sounds tasty." I can't stop laughing at Damon's comment. Tasty has an alternate meaning. He's gonna get a date to feed on like he did the Tri-Delts. "I have to go and exploit some women in the name of grief, which I'm sure you understand." Damon is ready for round two with thighs, wrists, and neck lol. Damon feels the need to investigate Alaric. Distraction is how he deals with loss. When Katherine rips his heart out in season 2, he investigates the Lockwoods. When Elena chooses Stefan in 3x22, he investigates Connor. Because he knows he didn't compel Alaric, he at least knows Alaric is on vervain. It's not just about the investigation for Damon, it's about the fight he believes is inevitable, and mourning is a great time to pick a fight.

It's at this point that a member of their vampire-killing founders council is working for a vampire. That the very sheriff of Mystic Falls is working for Damon lol. Liz is about to dig up some info on Alaric for Damon. Forget about Damon offering his help, Liz is now offering hers.

Isobel's man rings Trudie's doorbell and thanks her for the text. She's terrified, and given what she says at the end of this scene, it's because she believes he's a vampire. An easy assumption because Isobel is a vampire. "I didn't tell her anything. I - I kept my promise." I didn't know he'd kill Trudie, so this scene surprised me lol. This guy isn't a vampire. I don't even think he's a witch. I think he's a human like Isobel's other human pets. Harper is walking around town, seeing how much the world changed in 145 years. Talk about shock. He catches sight of another tomb vampire, which I think is Frederick's girlfriend. I don't remember ever seeing them kiss, so idk. Harper avoids her as if he doesn't like her.

"I have to go and exploit some women in the name of grief, which I'm sure you understand." I wanted to gif this entire scene while jumping off Damon's initial comment. Click to view them larger if you want. "Exploit" means to make use of, which can be good or bad. It depends on the exploitation. Whenever Damon is in scene with Elena, expect it to be humanity-driven. He shifts while getting dressed for the fundraiser, differentiating Elena and the Tri-Delts.

"Better. Me." Damon pre-Katherine is the better man, that's why I feel he can get away with comments like this. Sweet, politce, innocent, earnest to a fault. This is how Stefan and Katherine describe 1864 Damon. "Dashing? Gorgeous? Irresistible?" Damon is fishing for compliments and offering her options. He does this while closing the distance between them. Damon is the type of person that won't talk to you from across the room when he can stand right in front of you. He hovers over her because he's mourning Katherine. She doesn't push him away, she simply pulls herself out of the way. Even though Damon knows and accepts she's not Katherine, she's Katherine's doppelganger. This is where his comment in 1x3 belongs. "She was beautiful. A lot like you in that department." He hasn't fallen for Elena yet, but he's attracted to her for that reason. Elena won't give him the kind of compliment he wants. Like he did with Stefan, Damon is shrugging off his pain like it's no big deal. He self-medicates with alcohol rather than talks to someone about how he feels. I can tell by his speech that he's just as drunk in this scene as he is in 2x1. Have a Miley Cyrus moment...

Elena: Wrecked. You look wrecked. Damon: No reason why. ♪ I came in like a wrecking ball I never hit so hard in love All I wanted was to break your walls All you ever did was wreck me ♪

Damon tells her he's one of Mystic Falls' most eligible bachelors. She's surprised by this because he's mourning Katherine and about to get a bachelor date. Again, the difference between Alaric and Damon is time. This fundraiser is natural for Alaric because he's had time to mourn Isobel, to the extent that he's building a relationship with Jenna. For Damon, the fundraiser is just a distraction from the pain.

"Never better. Yep." He lies about how he's doing. Like Stefan's bloodlust, Damon's humanity is written like addiction. The first step is admitting his feelings, and he's not ready for that. "What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my newfound purpose - how can I help people?" Damon should be pissing and moaning. I wouldn't blame him if he did, he simply doesn't. He's being honest in his feeling that it's his newfound purpose to help people.

Everyone should be helping Damon during his mourning process, but they're not. He's helping them. That's why I'm altogether bothered by everyone in this episode. Stefan knows he's unstable right now because of Katherine and is doing absolutely nothing to help him through it. He'd rather ask for Damon's help than help him, and this is despite him knowing for fact that Damon is lying and needs his help.

The helper wants help, that's what this Delena scene is about. There's… something about dressing someone that's just as sexy as undressing them, so even though they just solidified their relationship, this scene is sexy. Technically, Damon is exploiting her caring nature, and doing it to fufill an emotional need. He wants to be cared for like their hug in 1x14, to feel cared for because Katherine knew where he was and she didn't care. The best way for him to be cared for, is to pretend he's too drunk to button his own shirt. He has no doubt she'll help him because she's a caring person. Note how Damon doesn't hug her back in 1x14. He's the same way in this scene. It's all her, and it's intimate.

Elena's heart has to be viewed in two ways to see their love triangle throughout the show. Physically, it pumps blood filled with oxygen and nutrients to all parts of her body... and it can easily stop beating. It's also an emotional organ that feels everything, can fall and un-fall... and it's just as breakable. Stefan consumes her blood, Damon consumes her emotion. In this scene, he's feeding on her care rather than her blood like he did with the Tri-Delts. That's how Damon "consumes" Elena. Damon pretending he can't button his own shirt just to get her to help him is no different than Stefan pretending he's human just to get her to date him. This is their slow burn ship in action. Like I said, this scene is about the helper wanting help. Wanting help and outright asking Elena for it.

Damon: What can I do for you? I'm a barrel of favors today. It's my newfound purpose - how can I help people? Damon: Help a guy out, will you? Can't get this.

Elena tries to talk to Damon about her biological mother. "Eccch. Who cares?" She's offended by his response because she takes it the wrong way. Because he realizes she took it the wrong way, he feels the need to extend it. Who cares because she left you. Who cares because she sucks.

This is Damon hiding his care for Elena in Stefan's care for Elena… "Stefan will come after you, you know that. For messing with Elena." This is Damon expressing his Katherine-abandonment through Elena's Isobel-abandonment… "She left you. She sucks."

Elena is checking out Damon through this entire scene, and it's kinda hard not to. When she enters the room, he's walking around without a shirt and his pants are lowered for full view of his love handles and yum-yum trail. That's such an old term, but yeah… I think it'd be weird if she didn't check him out. Her eyes are drawn to his lips as he talks to her. That's when Stefan walks in and throws her off-guard. She didn't expect to be caught in this position, so intimate with Damon. "Uhh. I need a bigger jacket. Wow. You know, an occasional sorority girl might, um... you know, help fill you out a little bit." He tells Stefan that if he fed on Tri-Delts, he'd need a bigger jacket too. This is the comment Elena takes offense to, the reason she tells Stefan, "Maybe this heartache will be good for him. It'll remind him that he has one, even if it doesn't beat." She's offended by Damon's feeding on humans and making light of it. His humanity is only for her. Because Stefan entered the room, his humanity is gone.

Because Damon likes being honest, he purposefully shows Elena that he had no problem buttoning his shirt. That's why she looks at him the way she does. He conned her into helping him. Stefan is upset over the fact that Elena went to meet Trudie by herself. He's so controlling that he acts like Elena needs a babysitter. He hands her the photo Alaric gave him and confirms for her that her mother is Alaric's wife. This would've been the best time for Stefan to come out with it. ALL of it. Like hey… I have to question Damon about your mother because he was caught feeding on her and they never found her body. Instead, he continues being secretive in an attempt to control the situation. "Listen, Elena, there's a lot about Isobel that Alaric can tell you, but I need you to hold off a little while before you talk to him." Rather than tell her the truth about Damon, he demands she hold off on talking to Alaric. They then do an intentional scene cut. While Stefan demands Elena hold off on talking to Alaric, Jenna suggests Alaric talk to Elena. This is where Alaric contradicts his earlier statement. He feels it's not a good idea to inform Elena about her mother. So not only is Stefan keeping this secret from her, Alaric is as well. "Where'd our girlfriend go?" It's easy to skew things with Damon, but I prefer not to. His comment isn't romantic context, but friendship context. While an honest and innocent comment, feeds their slow burn ship.

He didn't need a reminder, but look at his response here lol. Damon is drawn to all three (Katherine, Isobel, Elena) because of their Petrova fire. This is "Moth Damon" with "Petrova Fire" in 6x22 context...

♪ I'm on fire like a thousand suns I couldn't put it out even if I wanted to ♪

♪ These flames tonight Look into my eyes and say you want me, too Like I want you ♪

That's why Damon refers to the "ecitement" in Isobel's eyes. He has no idea he's drawn to flame, he just knows he's drawn to the excitement of it. I can't say the same of Stefan because I don't know if he's like Damon that way. John didn't send Isobel to him, he sent her to Damon specifically. While it is possible Stefan would've slept with Isobel, he wouldn't turn her into a vampire because he hates vampires.

So anyway… Stefan is being secretive and further tries to control the situation. Like the first time he questioned Damon, this moment here would've been the best time for Stefan to come out with it. ALL of it. Like hey… Isobel was Alaric's wife and Elena's mother and they never found her body. Did you kill her, turn her, or let her go? Rather than tell Damon that Alaric and Elena not only deserve to know, but need to know, Stefan tells him that he himself wants to know. Because Damon isn't stupid, he asks Stefan "who else" wants to know. Rather than answer him honestly, Stefan opts to ask Damon if he killed her. Because Stefan refuses to answer him honestly, Damon responds in kind. "Sorry. Don't know her." With dishonesty.

Matt's mother shows up to the fundraiser. "He found his rebound girl." Some of these parents are straight-up nasty, istg. It's one thing to not like someone your child is dating, another to be a child about it. In her desire to hate on Caroline, she's painting her son in a harsh light. If Caroline is his rebound girl, then Matt is using her to recover from losing Elena. Alaric walks away when Elena tries to talk to him about Isobel. I honestly can't be sure about him. Is he refusing to talk to Elena because Stefan told him to leave her out of this? tbh, Alaric doesn't seem like the type that would avoid her simply because Stefan demanded it.

Damon is flirting with Carol. She has no idea what he's selling her, that's how fantastic he is with alternate meanings. "I've got the big date planned. It's a romantic dinner, secluded spot - somewhere woodsy." Damon plans to eat and he wants Carol to rig the pot lol. "You know, a room full of women clamoring to win a date with me. Sounds tasty."

Liz interrupts his flirtation with her folder on Alaric. It's easy to understand his mindset at this point. Damon realizes that Alaric knows about vampires and has been investigating him. Specifically, investigating his involvement with Isobel's disapperance and presumed death. From his perspective, Alaric turned to Stefan to get answers about his wife. So Stefan is asking him questions that Alaric should be man enough to ask Damon himself. What could've been an appropriate conversation between two adults becomes a car collision. He's not gonna hand Stefan the answers Alaric wants, he's gonna hand them directly to Alaric. Damon basically views Alaric as a scared little bitch that's hiding behind Stefan, so he's gonna be a dick about it. Similarly, what could've been an appropriate conversation between two adults becomes a car collision. I'm talking about Delena. Damon has no idea Isobel is Elena's mother, and Elena has no idea about Damon's involvement with her mother. Because of Stefan's secrecy and need to control the situation, Damon is about to reveal his involvement with Elena's mother, be a dick about his involvement, and do it in such a public way. This is your triple collision.

The writers wanted Alaric on stage with Damon because the intimate distance has a greater impact. Shoving the truth in Alaric's face while in his face… because Damon likes things up close and personal.

Carol: Do you have any hobbies, like to travel? Damon: Oh, yeah. L.A., New York. Couple of years ago, I was in North Carolina. Near the Duke campus, actually. I think - I think Alaric went to school there. Didn't you, Ric? Yeah, 'cause I - I know your wife did. I had a drink with her once. She was - she was a great girl. I ever tell you that? Cause she was - Delicious. Mmm! Mmm mmm mmm.

This entire scene jumps back to their first convo in 1x12.

Alaric: You, uh - you live here your whole life? Damon: On and off. Travel a bit. Alaric: Really? Where? Around the states? Heh. I'm sorry. I'm nosy. I… I don't mean to pry. Look, it was nice meeting you.

Talk about alternate meanings. Jenna has no idea why Elena is upset because she has no idea vampires exist. Elena rushes out and Stefan follows. I view things differently than Elena does. I want to know why she's protecting Stefan. She just got done flipping her car because he was lying to her and keeping secrets, and here he is with the same crap. Rather than confront him about his lies like she did Katherine, she's focused solely on what Damon did to Isobel because she's her mother. It boggles my mind how Elena ignores the obvious... Stefan is not gonna stop lying to her. Anyway, this is your 1x11 parallel…

Elena: Oh, my god. Stefan. Stefan: I know. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you. But I just - I wanted to know more. Elena: You could have told me. Stefan: I wanted to tell you.

They make it clear that Carol doesn't like Mrs. Donovan.

This is Donovan's bachelor, the plumber. Her sex with men isn't the reason I consider her trash, it's the way she treats other people. She continues being nasty with Caroline.

"Okay, just stop. Stop trying so hard. This thing you're doing, this nice thing, it's fake. Like you. Like your mom. And for some reason, Matt fell for it, but that doesn't mean that I will. I don't like you, okay? So tell plumber boy I'll be at the bar."

I can take personal insults, but it's best not to insult my mother. If I were Caroline, Donovan would have a broken nose. I hate Caroline in earlier seasons, but start to like her around season 5. That's not to say I don't like some of her scenes. I do. But there are certain things I don't like about her. When I was her age, I was the type of person that would've kicked her ass in high school. But I'm an adult and nothing like Donovan. This woman is literally trashing tf out of a young, teen girl. Better to offer Caroline advice than trash her. Donovan is character proof that being ugly on the inside makes you ugly on the outside. This right here is one "good" man...

He cares that he hurt Elena and outed his truth this way. Their run-in scene is written opposite their shirt-buttoning scene, and plays on the intimate distance they had. Thank Stefan for Damon's truth coming out the way it did. He created a collision in his desire to control the situation, that's why I consider A Few Good Men an anti-Stefan episode. Even though Damon is written as the "bad" brother, he would've handled this in a good way had he been given the truth. "Am I missing something here?" While Stefan views Damon as an ass, I view Stefan as one because he knowingly kept these truths from Damon and Elena. In her anger with Damon, Elena is completely glossing over the fact that Stefan lied to her - again. But as I often say, she's written to love Stefan blindly and recklessly. Damon can be a dick, but he's not a complete dick. He feels what he did to Elena, and he hates himself for it. Stefan and Elena are approached by Isobel's man, and we're given the basics. Isobel is like Damon, both abiding Cade's sentiment. "Never meeting her was the only way to protect her." The man's "Do you understand?" lines are specific to compulsion. As I said earlier, this guy comes off like one of Isobel's human pets. Now I have Otep on the brain.

♪ I need new voices in my head to speak my secret evils with I need new lovers in my bed to be my friends and special pets ♪

After killing Trudie and delivering his message to Elena, Isobel's man steps into traffic. A compelled self-sacrifice. It appears Isobel is a lot like Katherine in the fact that she hates loose ends, and those loose ends are human. Elena takes his cell phone, which is written opposite Harper at the open of the episode. Jenna won her bachelor date with Alaric and Carol won her bachelor date with Damon. I have no doubt these wins were rigged by Carol, and rigged as Damon suggested. He skips out on his bachelor date with Carol for two reasons. He's upset with how things transpired between him and Elena, and he questions Katherine's connection to Isobel. Alaric skips out on his bachelor date with Jenna because he's about to ignore Stefan's warnings. They pull another flashback for Isobel. "Maybe I don't want to. Maybe I want more." As I said before, they have a lot of "more" dialogues for their vampires. A compassionate person would be "more" compassionate as a vampire.

Matt brings his mother home, clearly too drunk for her plumber date. "It's Pete. He's gone, and it's all my fault. I did it. I always do it." This is why she hops up on Damon, they're rebounds for each other. She passes out on the couch. The Katherine-Isobel fake death parallel...

"You were supposed to mourn me and move on." "You were my wife and I loved you."

There are more parallels for them, but this is enough. Damon is left with the understanding that Stefan was keeping secrets from him and Elena. She didn't know about his involvement with Isobel, and he didn't know that Isobel was her mother. It's because of this, Damon feels he may have assumed things about Alaric. It's the one thing Alaric doesn't know, but should. Damon has been mourning Katherine. The whole Alaric vs Damon in this episode is time. Alaric has a planned date with Jenna because he's had time to mourn Isobel. Damon's wounds are fresh, raw and real... and his emotions are magnified because he's a vampire. Alaric doesn't know this. He assumes Damon's instability, not knowing it's his most dangerous mode. While Stefan could've been open and honest with Alaric, he chose not to be. So Alaric is walking in with the intent to kill Damon while Damon is still somewhat mourning the loss of his own wife so to speak. Because he has a new understanding, Damon offers Alaric an out. "Are you really this stupid?" Alaric refuses to take it. Damon offers him a second out. "You gonna put down the stake?" Alaric refuses to take it. He probably wouldn't be this upset if not for Damon's actions on the fundraiser stage, but this collision is written alongside Delena's. Damon was genuinely trying to remedy the situation, but because Alaric refused to put down the stake, Damon shifted to being a dick.

For the same reason I don't blame Damon for threatening to turn Elena, I don't blame him for killing Alaric. People "warn" to protect. The only difference between Damon's two assaults is the person he's defending. With Elena, he was defending Katherine. With Alaric, he was defending himself. Elena only got one warning. Watch Damon kill Alaric because he ignored Stefan's six warnings…

"If you're here for revenge, this is going to end very badly for you." "Damon can never know why you're here. He'll kill you without blinking." Alaric: I can take care of myself. Stefan: No, you can't. I can help you. If you let me. "Damon is not stable right now." "I'm telling you not to push this." "Your survival. How's that for a reason? I'll handle it, but for now, I need you to let it go."

This is the warning Stefan gave him that matters here... "No, you can't. I can help you. If you let me." It's the Gilbert ring that "helps" protect Alaric from Damon. Stefan giving Alaric the truth would've been better protection. "Ah, this is a shame. We're kindred spirits, abandoned by the women we love. Unrequited love sucks." Damon is being genuine here, and it's a shame on Stefan and Alaric. It's all parallel... In 1x13, Elena put her trust in Stefan. In 1x15, Alaric put his trust in Stefan. "Fool me once, shame on you."

This is why Damon has to break Elena's sire bond in season 4... "Unrequited love sucks." Her love has to be real or not at all. If he wanted a fake girlfriend, he'd compel himself one. Damon sits on the couch and watches Alaric die. He's not enjoying it, he's full of wonder. Elena wasn't the only reason he skipped out on his date with Carol. He believes Katherine may have sent Isobel to him… just like Lily sent Oscar to him. After all, he now knows the three of them are Petrovas.

Stefan walks in to see Alaric dead on the floor. "What happened? What did you do?" Like Damon's response to Stefan in 1x6… the real question is, "No, what did you do?" This is what happens when Stefan keeps secrets in his desire to control a situation. "Do what? He attacked me." Just as Damon fed on Vicki and her friends to survive desiccation in 1x6, he killed Alaric to survive the stake in his hand. "Like you've been handling Katherine?" Stefan is in the wrong for saying this. Seriously. He never once tried to help Damon through his mourning process, never once offered to help him "handle" Katherine. This is despite knowing Damon needed help. Instead, he selfishly spent the entire episode questioning Damon about Isobel, and now has the nerve to spit this crap out of his mouth. Unbelievable. What's just as unbelievable, is the fact that Stefan shows more concern for Alaric than he does his own brother… that's how messed up he is. With Alaric dead on the floor, you'd think Stefan learned a lesson, but no. "Stop it. You don't have to keep looking." This line is Stefan's new secret that he's keeping from Damon. "Stop looking. She doesn't want to know you. She doesn't want to talk to you. You need to stop looking."

Stefan automatically assumes Damon turned Alaric simply because he came back to life. Damon literally just got done telling him that he killed Alaric in self-defense, like what? Stefan is an absolute idiot. While yes, it doesn't make sense that Alaric is alive…. Damon isn't the only vampire in existence. It would've made more sense for Stefan to question who turned him, not automatically assume Damon did. "You must have vampire blood in your system. Somebody slipped it to you." That somebody didn't have to be Damon, but that's how Stefan is. He hates on Damon every chance he gets.

Even though Isobel chose a different life, she loved Alaric enough to protect him with a Gilbert ring before she left. Because of Isobel's man, Elena knows she's alive and attempts to talk to her on the phone. Isobel hangs up on her because as I've said before, she lives by Cade's words. She doesn't want a vampire in Elena's life, and she's a vampire. Harper shows up at Pearl's house. I'm sure some left town, but the tomb holding 26 vampires is now Pearl's house holding 26 vampires.

#Bite Me

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the-study-of-fandoms · 2 years ago

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Military science fiction is a fascinating subgenre that I have not studied nearly enough, but I want to talk about how the military is used in Avatar.

The obvious thing is that Avatar is anti-military, in the sense that SecOps under Quaritch appears to be mostly American military veterans acting as the physical enforcers of colonization. But by making then no longer direct members of the military there is a separation from the real American military and this fictional job, and there is a lot that goes unexplored. Looking at Quaritch, Trudy, and Jake brings up several things.

Trudy is a Marine pilot. We know nothing about her past, why she joined the Marines, why she came to Pandora. All we do know is that she went along with the status quo until the destruction of Hometree, when she defected. We are meant to see her as a rebel, as someone we sympathize with, but we don't get a lot of time to see the way she emotionally handled Pandora and what the RDA was doing. You are meant to see her as a juxtaposition to characters like Wainfleet or Quaritch.

Speaking of Quaritch, he is really a simple character. He is meant to be the undeniably evil, brutish soldier, someone who lacked empathy and only understood violence. But there is more to examine than that. Again, we don't know his background or why the US was in Nigeria (thought it is interesting that both countries Cameron chose have been affected by colonization). He and his recoms are not sympathetic people. They didn't defect like Trudy, in fact they doubled down on the violence against the indigenous Na'vi.

Cameron wants to say something about the military and violence, but he didn't give himself enough room to and ended up with rather simplistic storylines that people have been trashing for almost two decades, which is a shame. There are some really cool things we could discuss, and the fandom has started some good conversations.

#avatar 2009 #james cameron #military science fiction #avatar 2 #jake sully #trudy chacon

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earninganincomplete · 10 months ago

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The Three R's

Summary: There's a recycling crisis in Sandrock, and Burgess knows he's the one to try and solve it.

Rating: G

Characters: Burgess, Pablo, Dan-bi

A/N: @perniciouslizard is my main. I just felt like messing around with character voices, so I wrote a bit of nothing for fun.

Word Count: 1337

Once a month, Pablo’s mailbox was stuffed full of magazines. Most of them were popular fashion magazines from around the region, but a few were more “general interest.” Pablo always rolled his eyes and did air quotes when he said that, for reasons that Burgess thought must only be clear to super fancy people like Pablo and Amirah.

That didn’t matter. Pablo said he needed all those stacks of glossy paper to run his business, and Burgess had to trust him. They seemed to be kept next to the stations inside the salon, so there was no reason to think it was an elaborate scam to release more litter into the oasis and the surrounding areas. Pablo and Burgess had different priorities, but Burgess knew he wasn’t evil. He’d even seen Pablo pick up a bottle from the ground and toss it in the trash when he thought no one was watching.

The magazines were still a problem, though! “Accidental” litterings could happen, especially during a sandstorm. Burgess had watched, once, in horror, as one of the builder’s free roaming cats knocked down a recycling bin, got the secured lid off, and scattered the contents. Bits of junk had hit the wind and were out of sight before Burgess was able to make it down from the temple grounds.

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!” Burgess had set up a meeting at the Blue Moon to try and explain to Pablo why “reduce” took the primary spot in everyone’s favorite anti-trash slogan.

“I’m just one man, sweetheart,” Pablo said. “You can’t expect me to keep a full house entertained and ensure I’m paying proper attention to beautifying my customers. And if I leave them alone, they get bored and leave before everything’s set properly. Even the elderly transform into petulant children if you don’t give them something to look at while they’re waiting.”

Again, Burgess couldn’t argue about how Pablo ran his business. He still recalled very clearly the time a tourist fell asleep on a busy day and got locked in when Pablo closed up. When she woke up and realized she was in the dark and couldn’t figure out how to get out, everyone in town heard the stream of insults and cosmopolitan expletives coming from the salon when she found Pablo in his bedroom and woke him up. He had assumed she was a “fantastically coiffed robber.”

“Well, I guess if you’ve done everything can to follow the first and most sacred of the three R’s, then I guess...can you try reusing them?”

Pablo sighed. “Sometimes I rip them up if their ‘newest trends’ section is offensive enough. Plaids? This season? Really?” His voice was soft and gentle. “And after I burn the parts no one deserves to have to see, I give the rest of that magazine to the doctor for his bird.”

“You burn it?”

“Oh, just the worst parts. I promise. But I don’t think his bird uses enough paper in a month to take all of them. Maybe the town should think about investing in better locking lids on their garbage bins? Just an idea?” Pablo had an air of calm about him as he sipped his tea, but Burgess got the sense that he didn’t think any of this was his responsibility. But litter was everyone’s responsibility.

“I can apply for another grant, but Mayor Trudy says that garbage collection already takes twice as long since we added the old locks, and the animals have already figured out how to break into the cans, anyhow.” Burgess had ordered sand tea because it seemed like what everyone drank when they sat in the Blue Moon talking to Pablo. He hadn’t taken a sip yet. This was a difficult puzzle and he was determined to solve it. He sighed. “I guess using gene manipulation to create races of super intelligent mutant animals was another bad move on the old world’s part! Who could have guessed?”

“And they made them so ugly, too,” Pablo said, sympathetic. “Well, it seems like a more complicated problem then I realized.” He frowned. “Well, how about you just take them? Maybe your church could, I don’t know, distribute them to the fashion needy throughout the area? While you’re out there dropping off food and things, anyway.”

Burgess had to approve of charitable impulse, which made it difficult to turn down the offer. He felt a tiny be like this very serious problem of chronic littering – a problem Pablo had caused with his rampant magazine subscribing – was not being taken seriously. And maybe the problem was being foisted off onto him and the church. “Um, thanks! I’m sure all the people living in the depths of poverty on the edges of civilization could use...something to read?” Literacy rates fell dramatically the further people lived from any major city.

Pablo must have had the same thought. “They all have pretty pictures in them, too.”

He couldn’t figure out how to turn down the offer, so Burgess took the donation. He didn’t want to store them in with the more important things in church storage, so he kept them in a neat stack in the back of his dorm room. Whenever someone (usually Dan-bi) went on a charity run, they would take some along. They only ever took a couple, since food kind of took priority space-wise. It usually took a full season to distribute them.

The ranchers thanked the church for the “free TP,” but Dan-bi mentioned they all were dressing more colorfully when she visited again. “Farmer Ban asked me if he thought his shirt looked good on him, even though he’s a ‘winter,’ whatever that means.”

“Oh! Then he probably wants to wear different shades of blue? The quiz I took says I’m a spring and I should wear bright colors! Except I’m not sure I guessed my undertones right, and that’s a big deal, apparently.” Burgess had read every single magazine. It was difficult for him to have a piece of paper nearby and not read it. Plus, some of the magazines had surveys! And quizzes! “Maybe I’ll ask Pablo later.”

“I bet he’ll love that.” Dan-bi shoved a couple more magazines into her bag. “I think this might be your last season with these. I guess some of Fang’s patients started reading the scraps X was scattering around, and they spent less time trying to talk to him. So he’ll take the leftovers.”

That would probably just move the problem forward a couple more seasons, but Burgess was willing to accept a lot to get the distracting quizzes out of his direct eye line. “That’s great! But, oh no! What about Farmer Ban? If his love of fashion is just starting to blossom, I wouldn’t want to crush it before it had the chance to bloom!”

“I’ll save him a couple, Burgey-boy. Don’t worry.” She started to leave, and then ran back. “Oh, hey! This Friday! Babysitting? You up for it?”

“Oh, of course! It’s such an honor that-”

“Yeah thanks bye!” She was gone.

“Well...bye!” He called out the window.

Burgess knelt down next to the stack of magazines. “And goodbye to you, too, magazines with beautiful people on the cover!” He really would miss the quizzes, though, even if all the articles about getting a “summer body” made him feel kind of bad in a weird way he tried hard to not think about.

He heard a loud bang right outside the dorms and rapidly jogged out to find out what was making the noise. Coco was sitting on one of the dorm’s recycling bins, pecking at the elaborate lock the builder made for him to test out. Three pecks and it fell off. “Co Co--!” It flew away when it spotted Burgess.

“You can’t keep getting away with this!” He shook his fist at the sky. “I’m adding it to your fine!”

Man, everyone was just running away from him that night. He piled some rocks on the can and went back inside.

#mtas #burgess #pablo mtas #fanfic #mtas burgess

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