#please he’s so hot

[baylishh]

Need me a man who looks like Madara Uchiha

[thrdchld]

i think i have successfully read all belos-centric fics and i’m going to go insane because i NEED MORE

i really gotta reflect on my character about this

[egophiliac]

still ruminating over Lost In the Book With Spooky Skeletons Part 1, so here's a selection of some of my favorite little bits! (...some more loosely paraphrased than others) (I just feel like Idia has no room to criticize in general, okay)

anyway, I'm sure we're just going to have a fun time celebrating Halloween and nothing bad is going to happen whatsoever! :)

[shallowcoffin]

THE SECOND PART IS EVEN BETTER PLEASE

keeping ya desperate bean fed fr

was so ready there to be a round two-

Bodyguard (Part Two)

Alpha-17 x fem!reader. Reader works as a political aide who is volun-told to assist a controversial politician. Said politician pissed off the wrong people and Alpha was assigned to be his bodyguard until the inflammatory issue was voted on. After your transport was shot down, you and Alpha are alone in an abandoned cabin, trying to survive a cold night.

Read part one here! Early cut on this one because we get right to it.

Rating: NC-17, explicit, smut, lemon, etc. Minors DNI!

Word Count: 3,000

Warnings: fingering, unprotected piv sex, hint of a hint of a breeding kink.

Previous | Masterlist

Alpha’s kiss was deep and thorough, raging with the passion he had hidden so well. You were caught up in the onslaught at first, shocked by it, but you recovered enough to eagerly participate. You threaded your fingers into his hair just to add to the sensations. He seemed to be doing the same, running the tips of his calloused fingers over every bit of skin you had left exposed.

It was lovely, tucked in a nest of blankets in front of a fire, kissing Alpha like it was more important than breathing. But this wasn't all you wanted - you were working with a goal in mind. Every time you moved, it was to let the blanket wrapped around you slip a little looser. The blanket that had been draped over your shoulders was long gone, as well.

When Alpha's fingers danced across your collarbone and down, you saw your chance, moving in the slightest shrug and giving the kiss every ounce of attention you could muster. Thus distracted, Alpha's hand worked further and further down, until he was cupping your naked breast.

He only pulled away after his thumb brushed over your pebbled nipple, coaxing a sound from you before you could stop it.

"Sorry, mesh'la," he apologized, slowly removing his hand. He placed it instead on the curve of your hip - an even more promising spot, to your way of thinking.

"It's fine, Alpha," you assured him. "Better than fine, actually. It's what I want."

He groaned, rolling away from you slightly… hips first. "Don't say things like that. I can't be expected to control myself."

"I want you to lose control, actually," you said, your tone matter of fact. "I want you. All of you."

Alpha groaned again, rolling fully onto his back and rubbing a hand down his face. "I can't say how much I've wanted to hear that, but…"

"But what?" you asked, immediately pulling back. "If you've changed your mind-"

"No," Alpha said, his grip on your waist tightening, keeping you from moving further away. “I just thought civvie women wanted some kind of commitment before sex."

You stared at him for a moment, then said with a smirk, "Please, you’ve seen what it’s like working for Julgum. I can’t even commit to being alive until the vote."

You tried to lean up to kiss him again, but he pulled back as you glanced up in confusion. Alpha shot you an unhappy look as you chuckled awkwardly in the near-silence.

" …it was a joke," you explained lamely.

I don’t think it's funny," Alpha disagreed, rolling toward you once more. Any happiness you would have felt about that was tempered by the fact that he was now staring down at you from close range. "If you died from one of those di'kutla attacks, it would only be because I'm already dead."

You smiled at that, but you could feel the confusion in it. "You’re here to protect Julgum, not me."

Alpha shook his head, immediately denying your level-headed reminder. "No, I’ve been protecting both of you since my second week with Julgum."

Well, that created more questions than it answered, frankly. "Who paid for-?"

"No one paid," Alpha interrupted, sighing dramatically. "Kriff. Is it so hard to believe that I wouldn’t want to watch you die?"

Yes, but that was the kind of thing that stood a better chance of starting an argument than stopping one. And, after the revelation that Alpha did indeed care whether you lived or died, you really didn't want to argue.

You had a better idea of how to pass the time.

Instead, you started laying kisses across the skin under his jaw. “We can-” kiss “-talk about-” kiss “-commitments later.” Kiss. “For now, I was really enjoying what we were doing. Can we get back to it?”

In his most long-suffering tone, Alpha said, "I suppose we can."

Your lips met again and the flurry of movements knocked every other thought out of your mind. Alpha took control of the kiss and of you, grasping your hips to tow you on top of him. The blanket fell away completely then, baring you to him.

Alpha let out a shaky breath, scrubbing a hand down over the lower half of his face. “You’re killing me, mesh’la. You’re so beautiful.”

He reached up, reverently touching a large fingertip to your nipple. The sensitive peak, already half-budded from the cold, tightened further as he brushed over it again. Your lips parted around a half sigh. Alpha, encouraged by the sound, flipped his hand palm-up and settled the back of it against his stomach… and just under you. The angle left his hand cupping your mound.

Alpha’s torso was as broad as the rest of him, and your legs were splayed widely to accommodate him. As a result, the lips of your pussy were spread wide as well, offering everything for Alpha’s fingers without a single barrier.

When those fingers curled upward and in, your head tipped back and you let out a sound of desperation. Alpha paused for a moment, but you took the opportunity to grind yourself down on his hand and he kept going. He played with your spread folds, stroking them as if they were the soft velvet of a flower petal. His thumb lavished attention on your clit, rolling and smoothing over it until the muscles of your thighs were bunched and shaking with effort.

Finally, he breached your entrance with one finger. It met no resistance, sinking deep immediately as your hips bucked. “More, please!”

Alpha’s lips quirked at your plea, but he obliged. He circled his finger back out - making sure to pause against your g-spot along the way - and returned with two fingers. They pressed in more slowly, but you took them down to the knuckle.

Ridiculously, you found yourself close to orgasm just from that, especially as his thumb continued working over your clit.

“Alpha, I- I’m gonna come,” you warned.

Alpha gave a deeper thrust with his fingers.

“Ungh! Alpha, I don’t- I want to- I don’t want to come without you inside me,” you panted out.

“I am inside of you, mesh’la,” he countered, pushing his fingers inside of you until his knuckles stretched your entrance. “Don’t you feel me?”

“Alpha-”

“Come for me, little one,” Alpha entreated, his voice softer than you had ever heard it. “Give me this one. I want to see you fall apart when I can focus all of my attention on you. Please.”

You braced your palms against Alpha’s chest and tilted your hips back slightly, gasping at the change of angle. Your hips danced up and down as you fucked yourself on his fingers, finding a rhythm that worked for you. Alpha helped you along, holding his fingers steady, but spreading them a little wider as you went along. He also angled his thumb to provide stimulation to your clit at the bottom of every stroke.

For a beautiful, horrible moment, you teetering on the meeting place of pleasure and pain, both dreading and longing for the fall. And then Alpha gave a firm rub over your clit and you dropped over the edge of the precipice.

You said something as you came, but you didn’t have the slightest idea what it was. It could have been Alpha’s name. It could have been a wordless cry given form when you clenched your jaw. It could have been an oath of undying loyalty to the Grand Army of the Republic, for all you knew.

When you were aware of your surroundings once more, you had collapsed forward onto Alpha’s chest and his hands were stroking your back. Well, one of his hands was. The other was still buried knuckle-deep in you.

“Are you okay, mesh’la?”

You hummed, unable to form words just yet.

“I’ll never forget that,” Alpha mused quietly, his chest thrumming under your ear with the sentiment. “I’ll remember how you looked coming around my fingers until the day I die.”

That was eerily close to what you had thought earlier about Alpha’s profile in the muted moonlight. Still, you had to admit that you were jealous of the moment Alpha had chosen. You wanted to see how he looked when he fell apart, when he shot cum deep inside of you.

The thought made you tighten around his fingers. You could feel Alpha still beneath you, his breathing cut off but his heart pounding faster than ever. Before he could react, you slid down slightly, reaching below yourself to grip Alpha’s cock through the thin layer of his body glove.

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” you told him, your voice roughened with how loudly you had shouted during your release.

Alpha sat up immediately, pulling his fingers from you to strip off the shirt of his undersuit. The expanse of golden skin that he exposed made your body surge with awareness and you gave a shiver. Alpha stopped.

“What are we doing?” he asked, the question sounding like an admonishment to himself. “You’re still cold.”

You were ready to argue with him - between the fire and Alpha, you couldn’t remember being less cold in your entire life - but you never got the chance. Alpha cradled you against his chest and rolled over, depositing you against the pile of blankets as you stared up at him wide-eyed. It all happened too fast for you to really take note, but somehow, Alpha managed to free himself from the body glove bottoms and was poised over you in a moment. Your legs were spread wide around him, making space for him between the apex of your thighs.

However much time you had gotten between him stripping and him speaking, it wasn’t nearly enough to admire his body as thoroughly as it deserved. In that short time, you managed to catch sight of a man who was strong without looking unhealthy. His chest was broad, his arms and legs toned, and his cock… Your mouth watered for a taste, but you were willing to bet that Alpha wasn’t going to let you take that kind of detour.

The head of his hard cock was pressed against your entrance before you could take a full breath. Alpha sat there, patient, like he had all the time in the world. “Are you ready, mesh’la? We could take some more time, work you up to three fingers. I could use my mouth.”

“Alpha, please.” That all sounded lovely, but… “I need you now. Please.”

“Tell me if it starts to hurt,” he ordered as you nodded in frantic agreement. And then he was pushing forward and you forgot how to speak, how to nod, how to breathe.

No, you hadn’t gotten a good look at Alpha’s cock, but your body was insisting that it was the most beautiful thing in the galaxy. He stretched you until the sensation was almost painful in its intensity, but he never quite crossed that subtle line. The only thing you could do was stare up at him, wide-eyed, as you tried to process everything you were feeling.

The pressure eased as he reached the end of you and held the position while you adjusted. While he was so close, he leaned down to capture your mouth in a deep, savoring kiss. He massaged your breasts while he did, giving small pulses of his hips at the same time. With all of the stimulation, it didn’t take long for your body’s acceptance to turn into a wave of pure need.

“Alpha, fuck me,” you pleaded, unabashed by the neediness in your tone.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Alpha insisted. “I’m going to start slow. Say something if you need me to take it back down a bit.”

You nodded and he slowly withdrew, leaving your channel fluttering in a mixture of emptiness and anticipation. The emptiness disappeared and the anticipation paid off as he pushed back in, surging into you until your hips meshed.

With a pleased little sound, you lifted your hips, trying to subvocally urge Alpha to hurry up. He obliged, pulling out faster and giving his first real thrust into you once more. The increased force pushed a moan from you, toes curling against the softness of the blankets. He was large in every sense of the word, so it shouldn’t shock you that his cock was the same, but you swore it almost seemed to grow as he drove deeper.

“Perfect, perfect,” Alpha muttered under his breath, toying with your clit between strokes of his cock. “You’re better than I could have imagined, mesh’la, so good for me.”

“Alpha,” you groaned, lifting your hips to meet his in an even harder thrust. The impact felt like it pushed all of the air from your lungs, and you gasped out a curse.

“Okay?” Alpha asked, pausing while he checked on you.

“If you stop now, I’ll be forced to do something drastic,” you warned, squirming under him. That was a mistake. You felt fully impaled on his cock, stretched around him, and moving only made you feel it more acutely. Of course, now that you had started, you couldn’t stop.

Alpha started up a steady rhythm, driving into you so regularly that you didn’t have time to breathe except by riding the push-pull of his thrusts. Your range of motion was limited, pinned as you were beneath Alpha’s bulk, but you did your best to actively participate in this.

You knew things were going to be intense when you started feeling white-hot sparks shooting to your fingers and toes before your body even started to tighten for your orgasm. Alpha was big. Maybe he was pressing on things that you weren’t used to incorporating. Or maybe it was because he hadn’t stopped playing with your clit yet. Or maybe it was because you had wanted this for such an extended period.

Whatever the cause, your inner muscles clamped down on Alpha as your orgasm drew closer. It was his turn to hiss out a curse. “I won’t last long if you do that.”

“I can’t help it,” you complained, but your voice was so breathlessly pleasure-soaked that it came off as more of a compliment than anything. “I’m close.”

“Then let’s get there together,” Alpha suggested, planting his hand beside your head and adjusting his stance to increase the speed and strength of his thrusts.

You cried out as he drove into you once… twice… three times…

By the fifth or sixth stroke, your body was so tight around him that Alpha was losing his pace. You were drunk on sensation, rambling gibberish in a half-muttered stream of consciousness monologue, speaking to anyone who was listening.

And then, your body gave an unmistakable ripple, shuddering as your muscles locked. The muscles of your pussy clenched, trying to draw Alpha deeper and lock him in place until he had given you everything he had to give. You couldn’t pretend you weren’t disappointed when he pulled out entirely instead, shooting his cum over your stomach and breasts.

You lay together on the blankets, soaked with sweat and shuddering with the occasional aftershock. When he caught his breath, Alpha wordlessly handed you a dry washcloth that he had tossed aside, claiming it was too small to do any good in the makeshift pallet. It wasn’t ideal, but it helped you wipe up the cum before it started to cool too dramatically. A quick dip between your thighs took care of most evidence of your arousal and you were as clean as you were going to get.

“I wouldn’t have minded if you came inside me,” you told him conversationally as you tossed the soiled rag away.

Alpha shuddered, hips twitching upward. “You can’t say things like that, mesh’la. Not unless you’re ready for another round. You want me to put a baby in you?”

“No, I just-” you paused to gather your thoughts, forcing yourself not to dwell too deeply on the question he had asked. “I just wanted the full experience. I wanted you to have the full experience.”

“I wanted to,” Alpha explained haltingly, “but I thought, with the cold, that sending you outside dripping cum might not be the best way to keep you warm.”

“Oh. You’re probably not wrong about that,” you agreed. “It’ll have to wait until next time, then.”

“You want there to be a next time?” he asked, arching a brow.

“Well, yeah, as long as you do.” You smiled sardonically. “Despite your suspicions, I didn’t quite manage to work you out of my system with a single fuck.”

Alpha stretched, tucking an arm behind his head as a makeshift pillow. “So you think two will be the magic number?”

“Maybe,” you said with a shrug. “But it’ll at least give you the chance to come inside of me.”

He groaned, twisting slightly away from you. “Stop. You’ll get me hard again and you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

“Least threatening thing ever said,” you told him with a chuckle.

The conversation faded into silence after that and you were quickly drifting off toward sleep when Alpha spoke again.

“So… you’ve liked me since the speech, huh?”

You laughed despite yourself, floating on a wave of endorphins and the natural high of spending time with Alpha. “I mean, you can’t lie on top of someone for that long and expect them not to get ideas.”

He laughed, and it had an edge of carefree pride that made you happy to hear. You added, “But you’ve liked me since two weeks after you started with Julgum! That’s longer ago than the speech.”

“Much longer,” Alpha agreed easily, tugging you close enough that he could press a quick kiss on your smiling lips. “I’ve always been a man of good taste.”

---

A/N - I love that big grump so much. That's why his story was so light on the spice - I was trying to keep it as PWP as possible, but then, he insisted on plot.

Thanks for reading!

[loganspr1ncess]

born to take these photos, forced to save them off pinterest

[im-still-watching-anime]

apollo’s confidence in court: oh my god i’m the worst lawyer ever my client is going to go to JAIL because i can’t even do my JOB

apollo’s confidence outside of court: i’m the only smart one here, i’m the most normal guy in the world and NO ONE is doing it like i am, investigations are EASY, klavier gavin wants me carnally

[logansbaby]

guys i CANNOT get over this gif….. im so sick he’s so fucking HOT and that damn nose?? the way he’s kissing her like he’s starved i cant do this i need to be sedated omg.

[pangloss-artee]

my little meow meow

[rinsoap]

no thoughts, just alt bfs <33 he lets you dye his hair every other month, looking forward to sitting on the tiled bathroom floor between your legs while you perch on the rim of the bathtub, painting over his overgrown buzzcut. he likes to give your knees little kisses as his foot taps to some system of a down song you hum along to.

he'll happily accept your offer to do his makeup after you finish yours. you drag pencil eyeliner across his lids and corners of his eyes, smearing it in lazily until it's grey to add an even more tired appearance to his face. you finish off his quick look with a kiss to his cheekbone that leaves a dark lipstick print where your lips were.

before he goes out, he always makes sure to be wearing a piece of jewelry you've gifted him; chrome rings, matching red pendants, a little sword earring. he loves being asked where he got his jewelry because then he gets to mention you! "oh this? my beautiful girlfriend got them for me, thank you for asking."

he does not take his playlists seriously at all. he just shuffles his liked songs and calls it a day. he's got one playlist though, and its dedicated to makeouts with you. and he takes that very seriously. he loves pulling you on top of him from laying beside him. he likes to have you on top of him, thighs squeezing against his hips as you straddle him. you lean down to press your lips on his, holding his face with both hands gently while the playlist blasts over the sounds of your kisses. it always starts out gentle, polite even, but as soon as the playlists shuffles to she wants revenge, all niceties are thrown out the window. he pulls you close, and you follow his movement. your hands keep switching from his face, to his neck, to his chest, not knowing where to touch, but knowing you want to touch him. he mimicks similar movements, needing as much of you as he can get. he squeezes the flesh of your hips and lets his hands roam over your body, up his shirt you’re wearing to rub the skin of your waist and back. you need each other, and that's all you know.

SUNA RINTARO. miya osamu. KOZUME KENMA!!!! semi eita. tsukishima kei. kunimi akira. KYOTANI KENTOROU!

MITSUYA TAKASHI!!!!!! ken ryuguji. hakkai shiba. BAJI KEISUKE. kazutora hanemiya.

[darlinggash]

“don’t talk, don’t talk” yes sir. 😫

[tategaminu]

[zephyrine-gale]

day 5 of drawing one dan heng dan feng a day until he comes out

[keferon]

What are your thoughts on a decepticon prowl?

Oh I'm all for it. But! Only if he's actually a Con. Like. Wholeheartedly.

Not "nnnooo we're doingg a bad thing and I kind of dont wanna do bad thing but I have no choice poor me".

You know how in canon he truly believes he's on the right side and makes everything to ensure that Optimus wins the war? You know how he's willing to make every tough decision so Optimus doesn't have to risk his reputation? You know how he literally makes Autobots look like shiny brave and clean heroes who did nothing wrong ever?

I want all that but the other way around. I want him to do that for Megatron and for the Decepticons. The implications would be so fucking dramatic I could write a whole essay.

Low rank Cons would hate him so fucking bad.

Starscream would try to murder him at least once a day.

Megatron would absolutely treasure him. Autobots would have it r o u g h

Can you imagine

[sorsabruh]

BEEE!!! He's so stupid and silly I love him

[starcurtain]

Fact Checking Some Myths About Aventurine and the IPC

Especially in light of Jade's new myriad celestia trailer and the reveal of the other Stonehearts, I've seen a ton of wild claims about Aventurine--particularly how he's an unwilling member of the Stonehearts and needs to be saved from the IPC--that just aren't sitting right with me because they're based significantly more on the fanon take that Aventurine is an "innocent victim" than any actual evidence displayed in the game. So I wanted to take the time to collect some in-game evidence to see if we can sort out what Aventurine's actual relationship to the IPC is. Time to do some fact checking--this is a long one, buckle up!

Claim #1: Aventurine was sentenced to die by the IPC.

Verdict: There's no actual evidence that Aventurine was ever sentenced to anything.

This entire idea that Aventurine was actually successfully sentenced to die by the IPC comes from two pieces of "evidence" in the game. First, the scene with Dr. Ratio where those words are stated:

Leaving aside whether the IPC legally has the right to sentence anyone to anything by themselves (they're a corporation, not an actual governing body), this is the exact line that Dr. Ratio fans have been bending over backward to prove is "just an act" and that Ratio would never actually mean this (because if he actually meant this, it would make him pretty racist). So if we've already busted our asses to prove this line isn't true and was just Ratio and Aventurine acting... why would we be using this line as evidence that Aventurine was actually sentenced to anything?

We can't say "This entire scene was an act because Sunday/the Family was listening in!" and then go "Okay, but this one part is definitely true (despite there not being any other evidence in game to corroborate the statement)." Either this scene is acting, and this line isn't true--or the line is true, and Ratio's kind of a racist. Make up your minds, people. 😂

Actually, I can help make up your mind. We can prove that this line is likely a strong part of Aventurine and Ratio's deliberate act because Ratio's comment (which took place in 2.0) doesn't actually make any sense once Aventurine's story is fully revealed (in 2.1).

Ratio relates Aventurine's slave brand to the IPC, suggesting that the brand is proof that Aventurine is "doomed" and "sentenced to die by the IPC." Ratio even goes so far to say "Or was it from the Amber Lord himself?"

But from 2.1, we know that Aventurine's brand had nothing to do with the IPC, and his former slave owner was definitely not an IPC employee (as he refers to the IPC the same as Aventurine's sister did, "the guys in black").

Aventurine's brand came from being owned by a non-IPC-affiliated slaver--it had nothing to do with the Stonehearts or even Oswaldo Schneider.

So Ratio's entire comment linking the brand to the IPC makes no sense, and therefore his statement that the brand marks Aventurine as a "doomed Sigonian thrall sentenced to die by the IPC" also makes no sense.

Instead, I would argue that this line is a perfect example of the kind of exaggerated acting that Ratio and Aventurine were doing specifically to make the eavesdropping Family see Aventurine as an easy target. With this line, Ratio is emphasizing that Aventurine is a sitting duck without his Cornerstone, that he'll be weak and helpless--and that no one in the IPC will come help him, because they've already sentenced him to die. This is Ratio deliberately baiting Sunday into thinking that Aventurine will be easy, isolated prey without his Cornerstone--which is exactly what Aventurine wanted Sunday to think.

This line, which comes from a scene that we've already established is a deliberate act to mislead someone, cannot be used as evidence of Aventurine's real situation within the IPC.

"But then what about the trial scene with Jade?!" I already hear people saying. "Aventurine was definitely going to be sentenced to death!"

I'm not arguing that death wasn't a possible option for Kakavasha initially; it's clear that committing severe enough crimes can earn you the death penalty in Star Rail's universe. But I think we need to take another good look at this scene and see what really happened here.

First, we need to clarify that this scene with Jade was not an actual trial. The scene begins with a broadcast which clarifies that the suspect in the "Egyhazo-Aventurine Fraud Case" was just caught, and the IPC are conducting investigations into the "motive of the suspect."

So Jade's scene with Aventurine is not an actual trial (I mean... Jade's not even legally a judge!); it's an investigation with the goal of determining why Kakavasha would have tried to scam the Intelligentsia Guild and IPC at Egyhazo.

We can confirm that this scene with Jade is not an actual trial because she is even says "We haven't been able to find you any defense [lawyer], so you perhaps will have to defend yourself."

To which Aventurine responds that he easily could defend himself from the charges--but that it's pointless to do so. Why? Because he never intends to get to a trial in the first place.

He's there to gamble with Diamond (who he asks to see right on the spot, indicating that he's done his research in advance and knows who the head honcho he needs to talk to is). Instead, Jade says that he'll have to gamble with her, to which he agrees, and lays down his terms.

(He even says "I bet you won't send me to the gallows." We know that Kakavasha always wins his bets--he bet she won't send him off to a trial to be executed, and he once again won his bet!)

Jade, known for picking out "unpolished stones with great potential" and promoting them into positions of power to extract their value, agrees immediately, and literally tells Kakavasha to go change his clothes right then and there. She really said "I like your confidence; you're hired on the spot."

So... This was not a trial, Kakavasha never went on trial, and because he never went on trial, we have zero evidence in-game that he was ever sentenced to anything.

The IPC doesn't give a shit about the murder of some no-name slaver (I mean come on, think of how many other murders they've covered up at this point--do you really think they're holding one past murder of a no-name NPC over Aventurine's head years later?).

They might give a shit about the money they lost on Kakavasha's schemes, but Jade's entire schtick is one of equivalence--having Kakavasha join the IPC as a Stoneheart means he will ultimately generate infinitely more wealth for them than his schemes ever cost them in the first place, and that's the central piece of Jade's statement in this scene:

Is Aventurine's whole role in the Stonehearts exploitative, focused on his endless ability to win bets and generate profit? YUP. But that's ALL the Stonehearts' goal at this point--he's not unique in being "exploited" for his value. One look at Topaz confirms that.

So, ultimately, we have no evidence that Kakavasha was ever sentenced for his crimes, let alone that he was sentenced to die specifically by the IPC.

Claim #2: The Stonehearts will execute Aventurine if he tries to leave or fails his mission(s).

Verdict: There's no actual evidence for this either, beyond the obvious that most people in a powerful enough position in an evil corporation probably can't just up and quit their jobs without consequences.

I've seen this idea that the Stonehearts are planning to execute Aventurine--either for his past crimes, for failing a mission, or for trying to leave the IPC--many, many places, and unfortunately, I really think people are reaching this conclusion strictly on "The IPC is evil" vibes alone.

The IPC is evil; they coerce nice people like Topaz to buying into lifelong contracts; they're colonizers and exploitative capitalists, so of course they would threaten to execute poor innocent Aventurine!

Look, I won't defend the IPC. They are evil. But post hoc, ergo proctor hoc--just because one thing is true, doesn't mean the other statement naturally follows.

Just because the IPC is evil and exploitative (and probably does kill people to shut them up) does not automatically mean they're out to execute Aventurine for the slightest mishap.

I've seen many people say "He was going to be executed for his past crimes, so what do you think will happen if he tries to leave the Stonehearts?" But A) We just established he never went to trial for those past crimes in the first place, so we have no idea if he would have actually been sentenced to death anyway, and B) We have no evidence in-game that any of Kakavasha's past crimes would be back on the table if he were to try to quit the IPC. This is literally just fanon, based on the vibes of the IPC being evil alone. Probably informed by Topaz's "lifelong contract" situation giving people the impression that everyone who works for the IPC has to have a lifelong contract.

What evidence do we have that Aventurine is not at-risk of being executed for screwing up a mission? I mean, Aventurine himself says it. When Jade first states that Aventurine might be punished for destroying a Cornerstone, the only two possible punishments he states are:

If execution was on the table, wouldn't that have been the first punishment Aventurine listed?

And Jade's myriad celestia trailer also states that the only punishment on the table is whether Aventurine will be expelled from the Stonehearts:

And the biggest proof that execution isn't on the table?

The fact that Diamond himself agrees that Aventurine should not be punished even for the serious act of willingly breaking a Cornerstone. If Aventurine can do something as serious as breaking part of Qlipoth's will and body, something he was told to treasure more than his own life, and still get away with it... You can bet the IPC really does not give a shit about his old schemes anymore. Aventurine is way too valuable alive for them to be constantly threatening to kill him.

(But then what about Obsidian's statement that she wants a "bloodbath"? Surely that's evidence that he would have died if they voted against him?

First of all, "bloodbath" is a pretty common metaphorical term. I don't know about you, but any time people get into big drama at my work, this term comes up ["They were all talking shit; it was a total bloodbath"]. "Bloodbath" can mean any intense struggle; it's often not literal death.

However, I'm inclined in this case to say that the real reason Hoyo threw in this "bloodbath" line was just to double down on Obsidian's obvious vampire aesthetic. She's a "vampire." Duh, of course she needs to say something about blood. I think this line speaks more to establishing Obsidian's character as a violent, self-centered person than anything to do with Aventurine's actual situation.)

So, there is no actual evidence in the game that Aventurine is still being held accountable for his past crimes, or that the IPC is planning to execute him for messing up on a mission.

In fact, there are several pieces of evidence in the story suggesting the opposite, that multiple people, including the other Stonehearts, think he's kind of crazy for trying to get himself killed every mission he goes on.

When Aventurine was affected by the Harmony's power, the "future" Aventurine asks him this directly.

"Why does every one of your schemes put your own life at risk?" And players are told the answer to that isn't because of the IPC--it's not because the Stonehearts are out here forcing Aventurine to gamble with his life. When the "Future" Aventurine suggests Aventurine might be taking these risks because of the IPC, real Aventurine flat out says "You don't know me at all." He's not taking the risks for the IPC--he's taking them for himself.

Later, "Future" Aventurine even says that if Aventurine just used tactics like Opal's--which he claims Aventurine could easily do--then he would have been able to claim Penacony for the IPC without putting himself at risk at all. But Aventurine chose not to do that; he chose "death."

Because Aventurine is actually, at least slightly, suicidal. I don't personally think Aventurine would ever have turned a fully-loaded gun on himself and pulled the trigger, but he was actively seeking opportunities to die. Before Penacony ended, he was deliberately putting himself into situations where his life was at risk, taking unnecessary gambles with his life on the line--because then he would win either way. If he won the gamble, he would get whatever prize was promised, and if he lost the gamble, then he would have the "freedom" of death, to be reunited with his family. (It's important to note that the only time the word "freedom" is used in Aventurine's story through 2.1 is in direct reference to death--it is never used in reference to getting "free" from the IPC.)

Aventurine's plans were not self-destructive because of the IPC. They were self-destructive because he was self-destructive. And, in fact, multiple other members of the Stonehearts call out this behavior as a bad thing.

Jade describes Aventurine's ploy in Penacony as "overplaying his hand."

Topaz describes Aventurine's work habits as:

Then there's even Sugilite, who clocks Aventurine's suicidal tendency directly by stating that Aventurine's "death" scheme in Penacony wasn't for the IPC at all--it was entirely for himself.

If the Stonehearts were holding execution over Aventurine's head at all times, why would death be an "unnecessary [personal] extravagance"?

The takeaway from all the other Stonehearts' dialogue about Aventurine is that they actually think he goes too far and that his methods are more risky with his own life than they need to be.

Does that sound like a group of people who are planning to kill him on the drop of the hat?

Okay, okay, I can hear you saying "But that still doesn't mean he can leave the Stonehearts without consequences. They would kill him if he tried to leave."

To that I say: A) There's no actual in-game evidence for that statement; it's literally just "IPC is evil so they definitely would do this" vibes, but B) Is that statement really unique to Aventurine? Do you think Topaz could leave the Stonehearts without consequences? Do you think Jade could just fuck off and leave the IPC if she got the desire to?

It's pretty typical, I would think, that anyone who achieves a high-ranking in a stereotypical "evil capitalist mega-corporation" is not free to just abandon their high up position without consequences. The phrase "You know too much" comes to mind.

I'd argue that people are probably right--Aventurine probably could not leave the Stonehearts without something severe happening, at the very least a memory wipe--but that this is probably true of all the Stonehearts. They're too far up the chain. They know too much about the inner-workings of the literal planet-destroying world-domination company. They've had too much access to insider info to easily leave their positions.

Not being able to easily leave the position has nothing to do with Aventurine personally or his past crimes. It's just (at least likely) a basic fact of being too high up in the morally-grey-at-best super organization. (Well, then again, apparently no one even knows if Agate is dead or not, so maybe they actually don't even care lol.)

Claim #3: Aventurine didn't want to join the IPC; he's working with the IPC only because he's forced to.

Verdict: The game suggests in several places that Aventurine joined the IPC of his own free will. Whether he's still loyal to them is not 100% clear.

I think this is the biggest question mark I'm left with when reading other people's posts about Aventurine--this enduring idea that Aventurine never wanted to join the IPC and was only forced to do so because he was captured and death was his only other option.

But that is literally not what the game is telling us at all. The game tells us--in multiple places--that Aventurine orchestrated his own circumstances so that he could gain an audience with Diamond and win a position within the Stonehearts by his own gambles.

First, let's re-examine that scene with Jade. One of the first things Jade says is "What kind of person would come up with a scheme [the Egyhazo fraud] that doesn't benefit them in any way?"

The takeaway from this is that Kakavasha did not actually stand to gain anything from scamming the Intelligentsia Guild into digging for Tayzzyronth's remains in the desert at Egyhazo. All he achieved with this fraud was putting himself at risk of being caught by the IPC.

Does that sound like Aventurine to you? The guy whose mantra is literally:

So obviously, Aventurine stood to gain something from scamming the IPC at Egyhazo. What could he possibly have wanted to achieve by creating a scheme that seemingly didn't directly benefit him? Well, he says it himself:

Aventurine wanted to be brought before the IPC. He got caught on purpose. He once again gambled with his own life, betting that, instead of being put on trial for all his past crimes, he could convince Diamond (though it ended up being Jade) to invest in him. The game literally tells you, in multiple places, that Aventurine was taking another one of his stereotypically crazy, potentially self-destructive gambles to try to achieve something:

Aventurine wanted the IPC to invest in him. He wanted in on their power and wealth. No one in the IPC forced him to target their organization not once but twice with his "desert-digging schemes" when it is clear that Aventurine could easily make money elsewhere. No one forced him to suggest this gamble with Jade to convince the IPC to invest in him. No one forced him to, in the words of the game itself, "seek a Cornerstone."

Aventurine's character stories are the only indications we have (for now) about what his motivations for joining the IPC might have been:

They suggest he joined with the intention of gaining wealth and power to help his people and others who aided him in the past--only to find out that that was no longer possible, invalidating his original reason for joining and likely leaving him without motivation or will to really even stay in the powerful position he had worked to get into. Part of his suicidality is likely linked to this--that he set himself a massive, unbelievable goal in an attempt to gain power and wealth to finally help his people--only to be entirely too late. But in any case, these character stories make it clear that he did personally seek to join the IPC of his own free will.

(And I mean, hello? The whole point of Jade as a character is being the one who sees people's desires and then grants them--ergo, Aventurine's desire was, in fact, to join the IPC himself.)

If we needed any more corroborating evidence for this, just consider everything post-Penacony, when Aventurine has decided that he does actually value his life now and wants to live. Aventurine would have had so many chances to "escape" the IPC if he so chose. First, he could easily have pretended to actually die within the Nihility. He could have entirely fucked off with Argenti's help, created a new identity, and made himself a pile of independent wealth from gambles, all without the IPC ever knowing where he went. But he didn't.

Then, he had a second chance to betray the IPC and fuck off again with Boothill's help. Boothill had already knocked out Aventurine's bodyguards at the door--there was literally no one else around. A little blood on the floor and no one would have doubted that the IPC-hating, wanted vigilante Boothill had done away with Aventurine.

Hell, Aventurine knows the Trailblazer. One word to the Trailblazer, and Aventurine could board the Astral Express and be whisked off to the other side of the universe.

But none of those things happened. Aventurine made no effort to remove himself from the IPC--even though he knew he had broken a Cornerstone and would be facing possible punishment. He didn't even make a single mention of trying to "escape" the IPC at all.

Because he isn't trying to.

(And edit, an addendum, because I kept seeing this on Twitter too: A bunch of people were claiming that because Aventurine wasn't smiling when he got his Cornerstone back, that was evidence that he hates the IPC and doesn't want to be there:

Like... did they forget that every single time Aventurine makes his major gambles, he has such anxiety that he can never convince himself to believe he'll actually win, to the point that the "Future" Aventurine accuses him of clenching his trembling hand beneath the table? Is it really that surprising that someone who never actually believes he's going to win would have a shocked face when he does win here, especially after witnessing the literal power of an aeon restore something he thought was broken forever? Come on now...)

Would the guy who always wins his gambles bet that he would get a promotion if he absolutely didn't want his job?

People really, really seem to struggle with this aspect of Aventurine's character, going out of their way to ignore the game's text and suggest that he definitely absolutely would never, ever have joined the IPC of his own free will. People really hate the idea that Aventurine is a morally-grey character who makes choices that are actively harmful to himself, like willingly joining an organization that is exploiting him.

Knowing that the IPC played a part in the Avgin extinction, people literally cannot fathom that Aventurine would willingly join them.

But I think that denying this part of Aventurine's character is bad. There's no need to reduce Aventurine to an innocent, helpless victim who is being exploited against his will and who would never do a single evil thing himself. That's not who the game is telling us he is.

The game tells us, repeatedly, that Aventurine is a survivor who will do whatever it takes to succeed at whatever he sets his mind to--even up to murdering innocent people to survive himself. Up to willingly joining the IPC to seek wealth and power. He's not a 100% good person who is still being forced through an existence he has no control over.

He's a self-destructive gambler who makes terrible choices with his own life, and willingly joining the IPC to let the Stonehearts exploit his abilities is one of the most obvious indications of that in the game.

Please stop denying Aventurine his complex, three-dimensional character writing to make him your pure, innocent trauma woobie. I'm begging people.

Claim #4: Aventurine wants revenge on Oswaldo Schneider.

Verdict: There's no evidence in the game (yet) that Aventurine is even aware of Oswaldo Schneider's role in the Avgin extinction, let alone actively trying to seek revenge for it.

Personally, this one hurts me the most, because this is where I'd like to see the story going. I want it to be that Aventurine was partially motivated to join the IPC specifically to orchestrate an inside job and get the Avgins' revenge on Oswaldo Schneider.

But even I have to admit that there's currently no evidence for this at all in the story.

For one, we have no confirmation in-game that Aventurine actually knows Schneider's direct role in the Avgin extinction. Aventurine clearly knows that the IPC could have intervened (he was there; he saw they didn't do anything), but we have no actual confirmation in the game's text that Aventurine knows Schneider told his people not to get involved, leading to the massacre. The only reason we players know of this is relic text, which isn't available canonically to characters in the game.

It is very likely that Aventurine is smart enough to figure this out or do the research to learn it, but as of right now, we don't have that confirmation in game.

Similarly, we players are given no access to Aventurine's actual conversations with Boothill. We have no idea what they talked about other than this one statement:

It seems likely, based on this, that Aventurine did say something to Boothill about being willing to go after Oswaldo Schneider, but we won't know for sure until the game reveals more.

What we do know is that even if Aventurine does give Boothill information on Oswaldo, it might not really be because Aventurine wants personal revenge.

Oswaldo's Marketing Development Department is basically the sworn enemy of the Stonehearts' Strategic Investment Department. The two groups are in an internal cold war, vying for "votes" from the seven board members who are actually leading the IPC.

So even if we see Aventurine taking actions against Oswaldo, it might not be because of a personal grudge, but because literally Aventurine's entire department hates Oswaldo Schneider's guts on principle in the first place.

So it's very difficult to say what is going on with Aventurine and Oswaldo Schneider at this point, and in the end, we just need to wait for more information.

Phew, all right! That was definitely long enough. I've gotten it all off my chest. I hope I've managed to give people some more canon material to chew on for another look at Aventurine's character, which is rich and complex and definitely cannot be reduced to simply "pure innocent victim babygirl."

Maybe now I'll be a little less salty when I see misinformation spreading like a wildfire again on Twitter.

Maybe.

Ha ha, who am I kidding.

[loganspr1ncess]

everyday without shame