#nuada x mantis

[thenexusofsouls]

Nuada was completely wasted by this point, though he was very much enjoying the random things he was gleaning from Mantis from time to time. He assumed she was feeling a bit amorous towards him because she too was inebriated, and that was alright. It did not need to be real to make him happy. Even if, by the morning, she felt a completely different way about him, it still would have been nice to feel such things from her tonight. "Not necessarily..." he said sluggishly. "But I... I would love... to go home with you."

He grinned like a happy child as he was scooped up by the Abilisk. "Hello, friend," he said to it, giving a tentacle a little rub with his hand to show his thanks. It was a fun ride, but mostly, it was a necessary one. He was very much unsteady on his usually agile feet. There was a good chance he might not have made it to Mantis' apartment without assistance from someone... or something.

Nuada didn't really see Mantis' apartment and all the lovely plants and trinkets contained within it until he'd plunked down onto her couch and slowly receded into the soft puff of the seat cushion. After a moment of admiring how comfortable it was with his eyes closed, they opened and- Oh... Her living space was as beautiful as she was. Nuada adored the green, natural life he found everywhere, even if it was contained inside an apartment space and not out in a forest. Plants hung from all around, growing on the walls and over ledges... It was amazing. So full of life and lovely, just as she was. "You have a won-... wonderful apartment... Mantis," he struggled to say. "So many lives... share your space..."

At the mention of tea, he perked up. "Yes, I-I would love some. I should... probably attempt... to sober myself... in some manner," he recognized, though at this point it was probably impossible without several hours of sleep. "It was very good, though," he said of the Destroyer Punch. "However... p-perhaps next time... I ought... not to have quite so much." He smiled at the blanket she offered. "Thank you," he said softly, reaching for it. It was warm and soft, and it certainly was not going to help him in his quest to remain awake...

Going Knowhere || closed with thenexusofsouls

She was home. Mantis was finally home again. Not because Knowhere was her home as a place, but because home was where the Guardians were.

It had been two years since Mantis chose to bid farewell to the Guardians, leaving to find her own purpose while Quill left to return to Earth. The Celestial siblings had stopped running from their past, and it was freeing, as scary as the choice had been. Mantis had taken the three Abilisks with her… and the green seed Nuada gave her, of course.

Moments after landing, Mantis was greeted by some of the residents that lived on Knowhere. She rarely wanted to draw attention to herself, but she knew the three giant Abilisks would attract a few looks. Drax was all over her. He had picked her up at least three times to hug her, tightly squeezing Mantis until her eyes bulged from her skull. Part of the reason why Mantis had been at peace leaving his side was because now there were other children, children who needed him, after he spent years protecting Mantis since she reminded him of his daughter.

“Okay, Drax, enough! I want to say hello to everyone else,” she exclaimed, patting his back until he finally put her down.

Nebula, Kraglin and Adam hugged her affectionately, but soon enough Groot pushed them aside so he could hug Mantis, as well as Rocket. Cosmo licked Mantis’ face and Mantis giggled, patting the dog’s head. Cosmo was still the best girl in the galaxy.

When Mantis asked where Quill was, Drax told her he was still on Earth, but he wrote to the Guardians regularly to let them know he was okay. They were family, all of them, and they would always be.

“I say we throw a party tonight,” Rocket suggested. “You’re back, bug. We've gotta celebrate. What do ya think?”

“That sounds good! Thank you, Rocket,” Mantis said.

“Abilisks!” someone cried nearby, and collective screaming followed.

After reassuring everyone that the Abilisks were with her, lest panic took over all of Knowhere, Mantis asked the Guardians if they knew where Prince Nuada was. She had left without saying goodbye to anyone but the Guardians, and she wondered if Nuada would be angry with her. Rocket and Groot offered to look after her Abilisks while Mantis looked for the Elven Prince.

Mantis walked with more self-assurance than before. She no longer held her hands in front of her body, letting her arms swing at her sides instead. She was more poised now, secure in herself yet more mellow. Confident – but not unfriendly. As if her two years of complete independence had allowed her to grow more than her several centuries with Ego. She wandered over to the spot where Nuada was, following the direction Rocket had told her, and a few bark children appeared to say hello. Mantis smiled and waved at them. She remembered taking them to Knowhere shortly after bringing Nuada's people, as well as Mr. Wink. She never wanted Nuada to choose either his people or his friends; he could have both. She tilted her head when she spotted Nuada, and offered a polite smile.

"Hello," she said, trying not to make things awkward. "Good to see you," she added. "Okay, I know I left without saying goodbye, but... I already said goodbye to my friends, and I realized if I stayed a little longer to say goodbye to everyone, I would not leave. I would just think about how much I would miss everyone and stay. The seed is fine, by the way! I have been speaking to it regularly and making sure it knew it was a good seed. My Abilisks would keep it safe when I couldn't, so... yeah."

@thenexusofsouls

[optimismrpt]

                                    SCI FI FC MASTERLIST

below the cut is a masterlist of sci fi fcs with a focus on alien and robot fcs. It’s not quite finished since I still have some to add but I’ve got a good start going! If there are any you can think of that I missed please tell me (especially in regards to star trek characters as i have never seen the show)! if you are looking for a masterlist of high fantasy fcs click here!

MCU

Nebula - Karen Gillan (gif icons!)

Gamora - Zoe Saldana (gif hunt!)

Mantis - Pom Klementieff

Ronan - Lee Pace

Thanos - Josh Brolin

Laufey -  Colm Feore

Red Skull -  Hugo Weaving

Korg - Taika Waititi

Korath the Pursuer - Djimon Hounsou

Taneleer Tivan - Benicio del Toro

Malekith -  Christopher Eccleston

Ebony Maw - Tom Vaughan-Lawlor

Corvus Glaive - Michael Shaw

Proxima Midnight - Carrie Coon

Minn-Erva - Gemma Chan

Talos - Ben Mendelsohn

Rockett Raccoon - Bradley Cooper

Groot - Vin Deisel

Drax - Dave Bautista

Yondu - Michael Rooker

Ayesha - Elizabeth Debecki 

X-MEN

Mystique - Rebecca Romijn

Nightcrawler - Alan Cumming & Cody Schmidt McPhee

Blink - Jamie Chung & Fan Bingbing

Azazel - Jason Flemyng

THE MANDALORIAN

IG-11 - Taika Waititi

Kuiil - Nick Nolte

Xi’an - Natalia Tena

Burg - Clancy Brown

Qin -  Ismael Cruz Córdova

Q9-0 - Richard Ayoade

STAR WARS

K2SO - Alan Tudyk

Chewbacca - Peter Mayhew

R2D2 - Kenny Baker

C3PO - Anthony Daniels

Yoda - Frank Oz

Darth Maul - Ray Park

HELLBOY

Hellboy - Ron Perllman & David Harbour

Abe Sapien - Doug Jones (gif pack!)

Prince Nuada - Luke Goss

Princess Nuala - Anna Walton

Johann Kross - John Alexander

DCEU

Killer Croc - Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

DC’S DOOM PATROL 

Cliff Steele - Brendan Fraser 

I, ROBOT 

Sonny 

I AM MOTHER

Mother - Rose Bryne

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY 

Airiam - Hannah Cheesman (gif pack!)

Saru - Doug Jones

Po -  Yadira Guevara-Prip

STAR TREK

Jaylah - Sofia Boutella

Keenser - Deep Roy

Nero - Eric Bana

EX MACHINA

Ava - Alicia Vikander

THE MACHINE

Ava - Caity Lotz 

CLOUD ALTAS

Meronym - Halle Berry

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

Alita - Rosa Salazar

LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS

K-VRC (gif pack!)

X BOT 400

SCYFY DEFIANCE

Stahma Tarr - Jaime Murray

Datak Tarr - Tony Curran

Irisa - Stephanie Leonidas

TRON: LEGACY

Castor - Michael Sheen 

Gem - Beau Garrett

AVATAR 

Jake Sully - Sam Worthington

Grace Augustine - Sigourney Weaver

Neytiri - Zoe Saldana

RED DWARF

Cat - Danny John-Jules

TERMINATOR

Marcus Wright - Sam Worthington 

The Terminator - Arnold Schwarzenegger

JUPITER ASCENDING 

Caine - Channing Tatum 

[thenexusofsouls]

✨️✨️✨️NUADA & ROMANCE✨️✨️✨️

Feel free to ramble about how he sees love, how he can go from finding someone annoying/naive to being head over heels for them, *points at my bug daughter*, how he courts them, what he likes and dislikes, what he finds attractive, etc.

{i am the caretaker of souls} Okay, cool! XD Here we go!

Nuada views romantic love as a good thing, but something of a luxury as well. He's well aware that some people find it, and some never do. Although he's had his fair share of casual sexual flings, Nuada hasn't ever really connected with someone seriously on a romantic level. A big reason for that is because he's very guarded about his more vulnerable side.

Being a highly trained and skilled warrior of his people, Nuada is used to always being and appearing strong, and he's learned to be a bit paranoid about being vulnerable around potentially the wrong people. So he's very guarded about who he sleeps next to, who he lets his guard down around, and who he shows his vulnerable side to, because in his profession, trusting the wrong person could mean his life.

He's also a very defensive person, and one who surprisingly does not have very thick emotional skin. He's easily hurt, and reacts very poorly to things like mocking, rejection, or patronizing. So if he opens up to someone and they respond with one of those things, he'll be hurt, which then makes him defensive, and that then causes him to retreat, both literally and psychologically. Like he'll literally walk away from you, and he'll also pull back in his own mind and become closed off for a while.

Nuada wears his heart on his sleeve. He's a very genuine person, he doesn't like to play games or deceive unless it's part of a battle tactic. What you see is what you get with him. He says what's on his mind, for he sees no reason to hold back. His "wild heart" condition means he lives out loud, emotionally, impulsively, passionately, and genuinely. But that can sometimes cause him to get in too deep in situations where he gets himself hurt. When that happens, then he pulls back and needs to be alone, to go off for a while and reset with himself before he reaches back out to others.

So all of this plus his connection with his sister and his strong empathic abilities have made it really difficult for Nuada to connect with others, let alone on a romantic level. He doesn't feel understood by most people, nor does he feel tolerated and liked. He's a pariah among his people, so that doesn't help things. Not that he can only form romantic attachments to his own kind, because that's definitely not true, but his estrangement from his own kind leaves him a lot more isolated more often, which then causes him to get used to being alone in an unhealthy way.

The reason why he went from thinking one way about Mantis to actually developing feelings for her is... it's complicated, heh. So... the simple answer is... he got to know her better and now he likes her. That's true, but there's more to it than that. She treated him in a way that most people don't. And this ties in actually with him finding her annoying/naive at first. Mantis did some very pointed things that most others and certainly his own people, don't ever do. 1) She disagreed with him, 2) she argued back at him on various conversation points, 3) she still treated him decently despite disagreeing with him, and 4) she was willing to discuss her different viewpoints instead of simply rejecting him because of his.

So at first, Nuada finds this annoying because... well, she doesn't agree with him and of course he's right, so... XD Maybe he thinks she's naive too because, how could anyone not see how crappy humans are? XD But... after a while, that sort of challenge to him becomes... kindof a turn-on, heh. He's not used to being challenged or disagreed with, nor is he used to stimulating conversation about things. As a warrior prince, most simply get out of his way. Those who don't are eager to please and will yes-man him all over the place. Nuada, being a very genuine person, really hates people who are disingenuous with him. That irritates him and makes him angry and frustrated. So when someone comes along who is not only willing but unafraid to challenge him, he likes that.

Mantis also didn't treat him poorly because she disagreed with him. Nuada from a very young age was chastised, punished, ostracized, and ridiculed for being different, for his points of view, for his sometimes impassioned and radical ideas, etc. He resents that kind of treatment, so whenever someone is respectful of him, not in a patronizing sense or because they fear him or because they have to since he's a prince, but because they're just being a decent person... that counts for a lot with him. A whole lot.

With that sort of groundwork laid out, Nuada was bound to at least start becoming more interested in and intrigued by Mantis, if not romantically attracted. What pushed him over the edge was honestly just the way she is. He likes her positivity, the way she values her friends and found family, and how much she is just soaking in life whenever she can because there's so much to see and do that's amazing! Her passion, her energy, her curiosity... they stir his own. Nuada could never be with anyone who was boring, mundane, or a conformist in any way, heh. He's interested in unique people who can match his own wildness with their own lust for life.

That and he thinks she's beautiful and cute, which always helps, heh.

And all of these things and points that were raised also apply to anyone else he gets into a ship with, in that there are some things that are very important to him that he'd need before he develops feelings for someone. Mutual respect, that stirring or challenging of his mind, and treating him as a person and not just a prince or a warrior, that's always going to be important to him. Oh, and being kind/respectful to his found family as well. If someone doesn't get along with Mr. Wink or show kindness to the bark children, there's a good chance Nuada won't like them much either.

How Nuda courts someone... hmm... Well, that depends on the kind of person they are and what they like to do. If they're a warrior like him, he'd enjoy sparring with them. If they like nature or flowers or animals, he might take them to a forest for a walk. if they enjoy reading, he might bring them rare books or even try to write some poetry for them himself. So I guess the way he courts someone is by showing his appreciation for the person they are by indulging them in what they love most. And in sharing it with them, whether it's something that also appeals to him or not. It appeals to them, and that's what matters.

He also would want to learn more about them, spend time talking with them, and would be a great listener for them. Nuada does have a wild spirit, and he can often be... kindof all about himself, heh, but if he cares for someone, he can quiet himself to give them his undivided attention. It's not easy for him to do, honestly, to sit for a long time or to listen quietly, but he would do it for them. Because he's want to show that he does respect and love them, and that means it's not only about him. He'd want them to know that he's invested in their life and their happiness and not only loving the idea of them.

As far as what he finds attractive physically about someone... he likes long hair. Red hair is his favorite, but after that he likes dark hair. Mostly because it's so different from what he's used to seeing with the typical hair of his own people, so he finds it especially unique and beautiful. Eyes are a thing with him. He has to like your eyes if he's going to fall in love with you. And um... as far as turn-ons... I have no idea how this started, really, but it's one of my oldest headcanons for him...... Nuada has a thing for corsets. They drive him crazy in the best of ways. Someone could be very cute or beautiful to him but then if they slap on a corset, it's like their attractiveness just skyrocketed, haha. He just finds them so sexy, and they do make him feel very amorous when he sees them, heh.

What he finds attractive emotionally are people who are kind, understanding, tolerant, and caring... ironically mostly things he's not, haha. I think it's because he's not those things, though... that he admires them so much? Like he knows how life and the world (or universe) can suck the energy and spirit out of you and leave you apathetic, cynical, mean, etc., so people who can keep their hearts and their softness through all of that really hold Nuada's interest and have his respect.

That's all I can think of right now, but if I think of anything else, I can always add to this post. =)