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studyinspectrum · 2 months ago

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The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz, an "official" Sherlock Holmes novel, published 2011

anytime there's a person that has a considerable creative library of works, their family and descendants often take over the copyright ownership of their work until it enters the public domain, which is typically 70 years after the creator's death. you can see this happen with musicians, authors, artists etc. i mentioned in my review of The Red Demon that the Conan Doyle Estate tried to sue the Enola Holmes movie over it's writing of Holmes's character that a compassionate Holmes violated the existing copyright on his character. it was summarily dismissed.

well a couple of years before that the Conan Doyle estate authorized "The House of Silk" as the first new "official Sherlock Holmes novel"… whatever that means. it seems to feel more like a marketing effect, intended to promote the book as something that could be accepted into the "canon" but so far it's a pretty superficial title. a new author cannot technically add to an existing canon in this regard, but it would feel really nice to know that the people that are in control of the copyright of the character you wrote about believe it's so good it could sit alongside the original canon.

so the content warnings for this book contain massive spoilers, more so than they have been in the past. i believe it's fully important to know that this is a massive hinge point of the story and i will have to discuss it, i will have untangle what this means for the story, and i will try to address it with the tact it deserves.

the content warnings for The House of Silk are as follows: Murder, Child physical abuse, Child sexual abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, and Drug use

ok if you're reading this now, i'm guessing you read the content warnings and are ok with continuing with the rest of my review. there's no easy way to talk about those topics, especially in the context that they are presented. thankfully, the majority of those elements are kept to be revealed toward the end, but nonetheless, everything happening in the book paints a grim picture in hindsight.

the summary

the book begins in typical pastiche fashion, a note from Watson stating that this was written around the time it occurred but the publication had to be withheld until a certain time, due to the players that are involved and how it could've altered society if these facts came to light. nicely sets up the intrigue for the book.

the narrative starts amidst another case, in which an art dealer believes that a man has followed him from America and has connections to an Irish gang. Holmes employs the use of the Baker Street Irregulars, his band of street urchins, to collect information for him and track down the whereabouts of this "man in a flat cap" that is terrorizing this art dealer. his home is burgled and Holmes meets the art dealer's wife and sister as they contribute information about what could've happened.

There's a new member of the Irregulars, a boy named Ross, who's been being "trained" by other members to be able to survive on the streets and be able to help Holmes when he comes calling. Ross keeps watch on the hotel where this gang member might be staying and disappears after a murder takes place in that very hotel in connection to the aforementioned case. Holmes takes it upon himself to locate Ross, and discovers he was living at an orphanage up until recently. upon visiting it, they discover he has a sister working at a pub in London named Sally.

when Holmes and Watson come to question Sally about his whereabouts, she thinks that they're thugs from "The House of Silk" intending to take Ross back or… "take care of him". she attempts to flee the scene before Holmes and Watson can try to explain that they intend to only help him, however they never gain Sally's trust in the matter.

Ross is found but is found brutally murdered. Holmes determines that that the people that perpetrated the crime were members, or rather enforcers, of "The House of Silk". Holmes feels in part responsible for the murder of Ross and resolves to solve it.

thus begins a trend that follows Holmes and Watson everywhere they go: either people don't know anything about the "House of Silk" or they do, but refuse to talk about it even at the threat of arrest or their own life. Holmes receives warnings that he should drop the case if he values his safety and the safety of his loved ones. this just spurs Holmes on further, if people want to bury something, he's always there with a shovel to uncover it. even Holmes' brother Mycroft appears at a point to tell Holmes to drop the matter.

things turn for the worse though when Holmes is arrested for a murder he obviously didn't commit. he believes it to be the work of HoS members pulling the strings to stop him. this puts even more evidence indirectly into his hands that the HoS has considerable power, even that over the police.

while Holmes is indisposed Watson takes up the reigns of the case. Watson is contacted by a party that says he can help him, which turns out to be Moriarty! in the original canon Watson never met or even saw Moriarty, so Watson has no clue who he's talking to in this scene, other than understanding he's a man of massive intellect that has an antagonistic respect for Holmes in some way. Moriarty says that he wants the House of Silk dealt with too, finding their activities vile, and even provides Watson with the physical keys to break Holmes out of jail.

(it is of my own opinion that at this point, i think the reader should start having an inkling of a clue of what the "House of Silk" is. i was starting to get tipped off after the sister's reaction very early in the book, but the Moriarty scene more or less confirmed it for me.)

so Watson goes to break Holmes out of jail before HoS members try to assassinate him there. turns out Holmes already broke himself out of jail because people in a jail, both criminals and police alike, owe him some favors.

the pair follow their leads to a traveling circus where Holmes believes one of the members of the HoS is. they look for anyone suspicious and actually see the man they've been looking for in the art dealer's case there. following him leads them into an ambush by both the Irish gang and the HoS, but Lestrade manages to arrive at the right time to save them. i forget the specifics of this scene and no other synopsis online is providing me with any more information about it.

through the conversation before the ambush, Holmes realize then where the House of Silk actually is. the group return to the orphanage they visited earlier in the case. there, they pose as "clients" at a building that's placed on the property. they are led inside under false pretenses while Lestrade gets back up.

while there, Holmes and Watson catch in the act multiple high ranking men in British society that have rented out boys from the orphanage to torture, assault, and rape.

people are arrested, obviously including that of the pastor and wife who run the orphanage. the House of Silk as is is obviously disbanded, but the pastor says that he will do the same thing again in a different country under a different name where Holmes can't touch him. nothing ever comes to trial for House of Silk members because they were members of the British government and even implied to be members of the royal family.

the art dealer's case is also wrapped up at the end where it comes out that the art dealer's wife is actually the leader of the Irish gang. go figure.

ok now let's take a breath and think about things

right so. how do we begin to unpack all of that.

i can start my analysis with the fact that this book is quite well written. a pastiche is only ever as good as how close it can emulate character voice and behaviors and i think Horowitz does that extremely well. the way his writing flows feels unique to him still but conveys the feeling and tone of ACD. by that measure, i did enjoy this book.

by the measure of the actual content within, i don't know if i can say that i like this book nor would i recommend it.

i will preempt anything i say further with this qualifier: i have never been a victim of the type of abuse outlined in this book, so if i speak out of line please inform me and i will rectify the language and the way that i discuss these matters.

i think this book fucking sucks for including sexual abuse as the reason for the plot to exist. it is by no means gratuitous as it is presented in the text and leaves a lot more to the reader's imagination when it is actually discussed, but to have an entire novel that leads up to this as it's conclusion infuriates the hell out of me.

if the book had instead created the circumstance where the boys in the orphanage were instead being put into a sweatshop situation, where their lives were at threat via the work they were being forced to do, that would still be a historically accurate possibility and eliminate the sexual abuse element from existing. sure there would need to be plot adjustments for how obtuse literally everyone Holmes talks to the case with in terms of the need for secrecy, but it would be achievable and probably would be a more interesting book for it.

i can't recall a moment in the book where Holmes nor Watson realized what happened to Ross at the House of Silk. even though i didn't suspect that the orphanage we visited earlier in the book was the location at which the abuse was perpetrated, as i mentioned in the middle of my summary, i had a pretty good idea that abuse and even more likely sexual abuse was the cause of the reactions everyone was having. Holmes never vocalized this possibility, maybe he didn't want to consider it as much as i did, but more likely the way it's portrayed in the text he had no idea that this was even a possibility.

i think that media should be allowed to address problematic aspects of culture and discuss it within the realms of it's narrative. individuals need to deem for themselves whether the content that deals with difficult subject matter is presenting it critically and objectively or just adding fuel to the fire of perpetuating the abuse that it intended to criticize. shying away from content that is uncomfortable creates a type of mindset in which anything that could be troubling is deemed "problematic" and engaging with it or supporting it makes you as evil as the subject itself.

this being said, the House of Silk presents the abuse of minors and the actions of the pastor that perpetuated them as evil, but it takes an entirely defeatist stance on the matter. not every mystery or story needs to end in triumph, there's a plethora of stories in the original canon where Holmes makes a mistake and rightfully admits defeat. the ending of this story is a defeat on a magnitude that just feels bitter. of course no retribution happened, of course no justice was served, there's people in power that have prevented these things from being revealed for years and they know that they can keep perpetuating their abuse forever until they die because they're too untouchable. there's no closure to this story. the cycle of abuse continues. not even "The Great Sherlock Holmes" can stop this from happening or effecting any change. it's defeatist. it's ugly. it's true. and it fucking sucks.

i can't be the only one that grew up in the 2000s experiencing church and being inundated with the news from all sides about sexual abuse within the clergy. i feel like by the early 2010s i was old enough to have the cognitive functions to process what all of these news stories meant. in all honesty, this did have a part in me making a more considered effort of moving away from organized religion when my parents recognized my autonomy in making that decision. i feel like the volume of these stories only expanded due to the nature of mass accessible media starting from the early 2000s due to the internet, but as that infamous report from NPR in 2018 reveals, sexual abuse allegations against the clergy have been happening for decades and have often been covered up by the leaders of the church and members of power involved in the government. the parallels are not lost upon me.

maybe it would've hurt less 11 years ago when this book first released. or maybe i wouldn't have been able to stomach it at all if i experienced any similar kind of abuse. the nature of which this "twist" is revealed at the end of the book is callous at best and thoughtless at worst of using something that is still perpetuated today as the shocking reveal. i knew what i was probably walking into before the final chapters of the book and it still hurt in a way that it really really didn't have to. it leaves a terrible stain on an otherwise well written book, attempting to leave an impression via dark shock value rather than the merit of a mystery solved and case closed.

which brings me back to what i was talking about at the beginning of this post: the Conan Doyle estate authorized this book as being accepted into the canon of Sherlock Holmes. someone read this book, "accepted" this book into the canon, and heartily advertised this book, knowing that that was the ending. maybe it speaks to the change in our tolerance for violence and abuse in the 21st century versus the late 19th and early 20th, but in my opinion, this is not a story that would've been published by ACD in his era. ACD wrote about the crimes and troubles of the late Victorian but he would've never touched subjects that were gratuitously heinous like this. he wrote stories for people of all ages, interested in mystery and crime. this book is deftly for adults only and those that do not have any triggers regarding abuse or assault. in any stories remotely similar to this level of severity (which i will say, there aren't none, murder and blackmail is usually the worst people get), the perpetrators of crimes got their just desserts in the end in some shape or form. no one in House of Silk is ever punished for their crimes.

and so after all of that, where does that leave us?

truth is, i don't know where this leaves us

after all of that, the book House of Silk still exists, i still hate it, and it still is the first in a line of books authorized by the Conan Doyle estate. the full list of those books can be seen on the Conan Doyle estate's website. so far only two other authors besides Horowitz have produced authorized books. Horowitz himself went on to write another book authorized by the estate simply titled "Moriarty" and published in 2014.

reading other reviews about this book again seems puts me in the minority. reviews from larger publications such as The Washington Post, and The Guardian point to this book as being very well written, very faithful to the characterizations of Holmes and Watson, and a well constructed mystery. reviews from Goodreads trend to point that way as well.

but there are a lot of people like me that find that this book pushes a darker tone a little too gratuitously, where the content warnings are necessary to prevent triggering its readers unnecessarily, and the resolution being the most critical aspect of the novel.

a review from Goodreads user Terry states:

[…] Rather than trying to surpass the cleverness of Doyle's plots, Horowitz plays up the emotional side of the case. Except that it doesn't quite work. The plot takes a turn for the lurid in a way that is meant to engage the reader's sympathy; instead, however, it left me feeling emotionally manipulated. Without a truly clever payoff, the plot's sensationalism feels gratuitous, and I left the novel wanting to reread the originals.

a review from Storygraph user elzmri states:

Horowitz portrays Holmes and Watson brilliantly, and I really like his writing style. However the content of the crimes that they were investigating, which were revealed towards the end, was really difficult to read and I wish I had seen the content trigger warnings beforehand. As a review on the front cover notes, Horowitz certainly does explore the “capital’s dark underbelly [more] than Conan Doyle ever did”, but I found this to be a bit too triggering and shocking for me and I was close to having to put the book down, but I tried and managed to read it to the end. Nevertheless, I hope for Horowitz to write more Holmes pastiches in the future.

a review from Storygraph user eairwin echoes everything i have stated earlier in this essay in two very short sentences:

I like Anthony Horowitz and he does a good job capturing the voice of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The final reveal, however, was so dark that my enjoyment of the book plummeted and tainted my entire experience.

to not include the content warnings of the book despite their nature of being a spoiler is doing a massive disservice and almost downright deceitful to anyone that wants to read a book that's being lauded as "a new addition" to the Sherlock Holmes canon.

compared to my feelings about Sherlock Holmes and The Red Demon, i had respect for that story for attempting to do something different with it's style of pastiche. i didn't enjoy the story but i value it as a creative work contributing to the discussion of how to interpret the characters of Holmes and Watson in the modern day. i don't enjoy The House of Silk nor do i respect it as a creative work for relying on shocking content in order to drive it's mystery. i don't even know if i want to read the other book penned by Horowitz in the Holmesian canon if this is what he did with it the first time.

my personal review on Storygraph when i finished the book was 3/5. i don't know if it deserves that rating anymore, especially now that i've had time to digest and consider its contents. i don't know what rating i would give it otherwise, but my flat review of this book is that i do not recommend it. read literally anything else.

if you want a bit of levity after all of this, as i was browsing the Conan Doyle Estate website i found that they licensed ACD's likeness and name to a series of Montblanc writing pens. for some reason. there are 8 pens in this collection, the cheapest of the pens starting at £ 735.

the pen pictured here is £ 32,000.00 as listed on the Montblanc website. free shipping on all orders over £ 25 too. what a steal.

(crossposted on my bearblog)

#sherlock holmes #media review #the house of silk

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a-tale-of-legends · 2 months ago

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I'm. Thinking of a potential new idea for Jude? They work for the international police- wait wait wait, don't go, don't go-

The idea was that they started out working for the IP....it's why they're in Kalos in the first place. They were sent to Kalos to further investigate this "Team Flare" at the request of Diantha, who is struggling to sniff out the team with her e4, since 1) their status would gain attention from both the team and the public and 2) even as disguised, they aren't really getting anywhere. Team Flare always seems to just evade them, so they don't even have a lick of an idea of what they're doing. So Diantha, and just Diantha only she knows this, decided to call the aid of the International Police for a spy. It took some convincing. Despite all the previous evil teams, IP was hesitant to do something bc "This " Team Flare" hasn't really done anything of note to warrant our investigation", but Diantha managed to convince them. What she got was.....a rather rude teenager who seemed more annoyed than anything. Huh?

Jude was trained under the International Police for a long time- ever since she was a kid. His father was someone on the organization's wanted list, as he was a father prevalent bounty hunter, and taking him in ( or out. Either works) would prove useful. The organization never caught the guy, but what they did find....was a child. Old enough to know what's going on, but young - quite young - to look hurt when her father left him for dead. The organization took Jude in hoping for some answers...and that's when they learned they were an aura user. That's when they decided Jude could be very useful. So they trained them to be a spy. Be able to gather Intel with and without aura. I don't think there's a lot of aura users in IP, so despite their teachings, Jude can only really scratch the surface of what she can really do- not that it matters. Being an aura user was simply enough to be a skilled spy. Though, uh. Jude did not make these lessons easy. It is not above Jude to blatantly disobey the command of their superiors. It would lead to punishment, yes, but 1) Jude didn't fucking care and 2) Jude knew that she was special. Jude knew that IP wouldn't do shit bc how often are you going to get a child aura user that you can manipulate into your very whim? None, they'd bet! So they wouldn't do anything rash with him. Outside of training, I think IP did put Jude in school in Kanto ( where they were from), mainly to keep up the story that Jude is just a normal kid with a normal life ( I might change this of course). The Team Flare mission is arguably the most important one of their career.... they're still annoyed by it though. Way to ruin his peaceful tranquility.

Grace isn't a part of the international police. She's still just a regular ol rhyhorn racer, but was chosen to be Jude's foster parent for this mission. Though, I think people would find it suspicious that Grace, who has no husband and no kids prior, just up and have this teenaged kid with her. So maybe I'll have it where Jude was assigned to Grace early on, maybe some years prior. Again, Grace isn't an IP member, but is simply used as a cover. It helps that she, as a racer, travels almost all over the place, meaning IP can order Jude to do various missions ( much to their annoyance). I feel like both options work: If Jude is recently "adopted" by Grace, it would cause suspicion, which could lead to drama. It would also give Jude a bit of shell shock to have an actually good adult in their life ( Looker too I guess but like. I'll be honest, she doesn't care for him LMAO). But if Jude was with Grace for a while, it would still give Jude a taste of her own freedom, and slowly make him see Grace as their actual mom. It would still keep the " I don't know how to interact with people" cause Jude is constantly moving.

Speaking of which: Jude being mean. Before, I struggled with the reason why, but in this context, it's a bit more simple! Jude being mean, arrogant, crass, are all ways that help her feel like he's in control. They were never in control with their father. Definitely not with IP. The only thing they could do to ensure their own autonomy was to act out! Be mean, be dominating! Grace, if Jude has been with her for a while, managed to shake off some of that crassness, but it's still there. Because Jude isn't really free. And naturally, this affects the Kalos gang.

So. Yeah! Thouuuuuuughts?

#r rambles #legendverse #oc: jude bellrose

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tarisilmarwen · 1 year ago

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Rebels Rewatch: “Droids In Distress”

Wacky droid hijinks and nostalgia abound, let’s get into it.

Now, this is an episode that for a different show would have been used as the pilot. It’s got all the earmarks of a weekly serial testing out its tone and character dynamics, while acting with confidence like those are already established.

Note that this isn’t a bad thing. It reminds me most of Teen Titans’s early Season One, there’s a certain kind of charm and innocence and an earnest attempt at convincing you, “Don’t worry, this will be a FUN show! :D”

Frankly starting off lighter eases you better into the world and characters so when things do get more serious and dramatic later you’re more invested because you’ve had more time to get endeared to the characters.

See also, Star Trek: Lower Decks, which had the audacity to end its Season Two on a cliffhanger, YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY SILLY COMFORT SHOW, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO HAVE STAKES!

Anyway we open rather appropriately In Media Res with the notes of the TIE Fighter Attack track from A New Hope, which auditorily puts us right into that OT headspace. :)

Once again the tight writing very quickly establishes the situation: The Ghost is on the run from the Empire, in need of cash flow and supplies, they have to occasionally run weapons for someone shady, Ezra is Force Sensitive, and--perhaps most importantly for the later story arc--Kanan has been avoiding training him.

Boy I miss concise exposition like this. So much story is already set up in some densely-worded dialogue. (Not just Kanan’s reluctance to teach Ezra but also Zeb’s misgivings with working for Vizago given the uncertain nature of the weapons he deals in.)

Also don’t think I missed Ezra being most concerned with the fact that they are running out of food.

RIGHT SO I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW GIDDY I WAS THE FIRST TIME I WATCHED THIS BECAUSE ICKLE MINI TARI LOVED THE STAR TOURS RIDE AT DISNEYWORLD. Seriously it was one of my top favorites. Never rode the updated version (haven’t been back to DW in years) but the classic version was iconic for me.

And this is a cameo/Easter Egg that actually works in context because you don’t need to know anything about this droid pilot, he works organically in the story as he is without any background knowledge required.

Unlike many of the other cameos we could name in certain other Star Wars shows *COUGH*.

Threepio and Artoo on the flipside... Okay, I’m not quite sure how to articulate that it still works better than in aforementioned other shows but it does. Again Imma chalk it up to, they just fit more organically into the plot and around these characters and also advance the bigger plot by introducing a thread that suggests the crew is going to be connected to the larger Rebellion, which pays off this Season Finale... instead of being a sideshow diversion disconnected from the main characters that may or may not make another appearance down the line sometime. Maybe.

Side note of appreciation for Chopper gleefully taking right to his role of Public Nuisance Annoying Everyone (But Especially Ezra). I don’t think there was much acting involved for either of them lol.

Still love how bouncy and dynamic the character animation was these early episodes.

Has that fun kid-friendly feel that lures you into a false sense of security lol.

Our first hint at Sabine’s backstory, cleverly hidden as part of her cover story.

I kinda like that Garel is close enough to Lothal that a very small shuttle is able to just ferry people back and forth in like twenty minutes.

Lol Zeb whapping Sabine because she’s laying it on too much.

One of the nice things about having low-stakes plots in the beginning is it allows room for lovely little breathing scenes like this one with Ezra leaping across the rooftops. It’s not plot necessary, we could have easily just cut to him arriving at the other hanger, but it’s just... pleasant.

There’s some nice mood music (a very slowed down mellow Main Titles theme), some very mild action, and we feel a satisfied little thrill along with Ezra seeing just what he’s capable of already just knowing that he’s Force Sensitive. This is the first time he’s consciously tapped into the Force and it’s just a little bit exciting.

Just look at his face gkjhgkjh I’m so proud of him and all he did was some parkour.

Subtle animation detail appreciation: Zeb visibly shudders backing away from the crates.

I love Threepio throwing some indignant shade Sabine’s way with his “[...] if she is an amateur.” line.

We know Zeb is the muscle of the group, that’s already established, but it’s still obvious in the voice acting and Zeb’s intense tossing of the Stormtroopers that he’s more agitated than normal.

Threepio being oblivious and fussy as per usual.

Please enjoy the Fridge Horror of knowing that the Empire was planning to mass-produce T7 ion disruptors and probably not for their starship-crippling properties. :)

Ezra immediately backing off the hostility once he knows why Zeb’s upset. <333 He’s such an empath I love him.

See this is why I don’t understand people who hate Ezra. Was he a little bratty this episode? Sure, but also see how he lets that drop out of compassion once he understands the situation.

Also Ahsoka came onto the stage waaaaaaaaay brattier and a smug know-it-all to boot, just admit y’all hate the kid-appeal characters and refuse to let them be stupid and dumb in order to have some character growth.

Hera’s frustration when she hears that Kanan hasn’t been training Ezra. <333

Lol and love how there’s an immediate follow-up in the next scene. I want to see the beginning of that conversation.

Pryce gets name-dropped here for the first time. Predictably Threepio is making a muck of things. See, this is why no one tells you anything or trusts you with the mission Threepio.

Ezra has clearly dealt with underworld figures like Vizago before lol.

I do wonder if all of this is just a massive Batman Gambit by Artoo, because he seems to be completely unfazed by anything that’s happening.

The AT-DPs get quite a bit of focus in this series and I think their ubiquitous presence in the first season preps us mentally for the heavy upgrade that is the AT-ATs.

Love this shot tracking Hera as she shoots at the AT-DP, very frenetic with the blocking and the camera movements.

The duel between Kallus and Zeb is honestly better than some of the lightsaber fights don’t @ me you know it’s true.

This music cue when they launch the disruptors is a unique one, particular to only this moment I think, but I like it.

Aaaaaaand the first of many times Kallus gets yeeted with the Force. Lol.

See Sequel Trilogy, this is the general powerset of someone who only just learned they were Force Sensitive and hasn’t had any training. /salt

Kanan seems very surprised and amazed by what Ezra can already do without any formal guidance. This’ll play into his insecurities later, his whole thing about how Ezra’s powers are growing faster than he can teach.

I think it’s safe to assume Ezra had a lot of latent natural talent that he’d been unconsciously using this whole time that just needed a tiny push to begin manifesting in earnest.

Again, though, Sequel Trilogy, all we unlock is basic shit like Force Sense, Force Jump, and Force Push.

Not surprising Kanan went to fetch Zeb, he’s about the only one even close to Zeb’s height lol.

Kanan looks so proud of Ezra, aww.

More lovely work with the subtle expressions; Kanan’s smile fades and his eyes drop a bit. Like he realizes, “Oh boy, now I gotta face all my inadequacies and problems.” Love it. Love that it’s episode two and we’ve already established so many of the upcoming character arcs.

Hi Bail!

Luke’s theme closing us out once again, apropos given where we are and who we’re with.

For our first “official” non-pilot episode, this is a solid entry. As I said, establishes a whole bunch about the characters and their relationship dynamics and upcoming arcs and plot points. It’s also very fun, sets the general early tone of “Adventure and excitement but not too much... yet.” and the animation continues to impress in small ways, mostly the dynamic shot choices, camera angles and movements and the subtlety of emotion displayed on faces.

Coming back to this one always just leaves me with a warm feeling like, “Aahhh yes, back when everything was innocent.” It definitely plays up the nostalgic feeling of the OT, which was always one of Rebels’ strengths as a show.

Next time, one of the many “filler” episodes that come back in an important and unexpected way in the finale. You’d think, given the number of Avatar: The Last Airbender alums on the project, fandom would know better than to discount the seemingly light-hearted low-stakes disconnected episodes. XD

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels rewatch #liveblog #ezra bridger #space dad and his precious pumpkin child #agent kallus #soundtracks #music

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courtana · 4 months ago

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Those are fair points, and it is reminiscent of the hoops that people have to go through proving themselves applicable for aid. Though some of it is still weird to me from a decision standpoint - knowing what the vetting guidelines are can only increase trust when they are difficult, or ideally impossible, for scammers to replicate - speaking Palestinian dialect arabic or having proper records. I still think the UNRWA is the ideal choice for giving aid out to people trapped in this. The benefit of a dedicated team whose sole work is providing aid through the difficulties of the system.

As I stated, there is not enough aid and supplies entering Gaza for us to put all of our faith and all of our organizing solely on UNRWA. UNRWA was de-funded recently by various of their partners, and they are a target for the IOF in their bombings and killings. UNRWA themselves have stated this in their public communications. These are recent images of what their Gaza City offices looks like:

Furthermore, they've stated that they are not able to meet all the demands for basic necessities among displaced Palestinians in Gaza:

Most importantly, you totally seem to misunderstand the goals of these GoFundMe campaigns versus the goals of UNRWA.

UNRWA was the backbone for Gaza's social services & healthcare prior to the acceleration of Israel's genocide in the region in Oct 2023. It operated as a "substitute" for the state, providing education, food aid, health care and relief services. In short, the purpose of UNRWA in the new & different context of the genocide is to relieve the suffering of Palestinians by providing them basic goods and some protection (if possible) from Israeli aggression. However, UNRWA themselves have been attacked and killed by the IOF, they do not have enough basic goods to circulate, and they do not have the resources nor capacity to treat people with severe illnesses since most medical systems have collapsed. Even if they did, there are various new epidemics gaining ground in parts of southern Gaza and just recently their solid waste management system has collapsed. UNRWA at its current state—especially with frequent evacuation orders and airstrikes—does not have the power to address that type of violence. Which is another key point: UNRWA cannot stop the snipers piercing children's heads nor can they stop the Israeli bombs raining in from the sky. Fear of death from IOF themselves—not just from illness or starvation—is one of the many common themes you can see in Palestinian testimonies.

Meanwhile, the goal of these GoFundMe campaigns is for families who have vulnerable members (e.g., sick children, people with chronic illnesses, people with mental & physical disabilities, pregnant or nursing mothers, elderly parents & grandparents) to leave Gaza. I've seen hundreds of these campaigns, read them all carefully, and have internalized many of these people's stories. They cannot live any longer in the tents that UNRWA themselves are giving them. They are trying to evacuate via the Rafah crossing to Egypt, a trek that can cost thousands upon thousands of USD dollars. It is not to buy flour or water or maybe a new tent. It's so they can rebuild their lives outside of Gaza with dignity, since conditions will only grow harsher and the war is not slowing down; it is only getting worse. Knowing this, people across the world (including on tumblr), in solidarity with Palestinians, are donating to their evacuation funds. Note that UNRWA is not evacuating people, nor are they funding their evacuations. They are only trying their best to relieve suffering at the most basic level in Gaza with some basic goods and some bare-bones education programs in the midst of a genocide. But they cannot do much more than that.

If you really are so concerned about scammers taking advantage of tumblr users' sense of humanitarianism, there are ways to prudently parse through accounts to see if they're legitimate or not. One way is to look at whether it's verified by 90-ghost, el-shab-hussein, nabulsi, etc. Another way is to look up the tips by actual dedicated scam-busters on tumblr, like: @anonthescambuster, @kyra45, and @azalea-alter, among others. Note how they can spot scammers without being an asshole harassing Palestinians.

I'll leave some of their tips here:

And lastly, subjectnamemissing, if you're not sure if they're a scammer or not, stop start spreading disbelief and suspicion publicly on a Palestinians' text posts in the name of trying to be some tumblr vigilante. This can actually slow down their donations and have people take back their donations, as it happened recently to Shahed and Shaima and Muhammad's campaigns. You'll notice the person @/javert that was also chiming in on Heba's post with you has a notorious track record of just smearing Palestinians' campaigns:

#messages #subjectnamemissing #gofundme #palestine #gaza #free gaza #free palestine #donate if you can #mutual aid #gaza funds #funds for gaza #gaza fundraiser #operation olive branch #donations #signal boost

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deepspacedukat · 2 years ago

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Praetor’s Pride - Part 4

This is a busy chapter! There’s a lot of stuff! I don’t want to risk spoiling it by saying too much, but uh...it goes in a direction I didn’t initially intend. When I wrote chapter 1, I didn’t plan on this development, but by the time I posted chapter 2 I couldn’t imagine this story going any other way while still making me happy. Also, this chapter is longer than the earlier ones. Anyway, enjoy! 😇

Oh, and credit for the idea about Romulans and lingerie (though in a slightly different context) goes to @bigblissandlove1! That was a very enlightening convo we had, friend! 👀

Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here.

Cross-posted to AO3 here.

~*~

Praetor Hiren (ST:Nemesis) x Reader; Senator Letant (ST:DS9) x Reader

[A/N: This chapter contains smut, so 18+ ONLY, MINORS DNI!!!]

Warnings: Arguments, confession of feelings, misunderstandings, interspecies sex, human/Romulan sex, Romulan hand play, emotional vulnerability, innuendo, dirty talk, mild praise kink.

~*~

Letant felt like a trapped animal pacing back and forth in his study. He’d had a feeling that Hiren would keep her longer than she anticipated, so he left a note for her in her quarters asking her to come to his home when she returned. He left transport coordinates and then settled in to pace the length of the room.

He had hoped to approach the next step of their relationship with a bit more delicacy, but her teasing question earlier had sent a jolt of fear through him. He’d been so careful about how he expressed his interest in her. All those months of regulating the level of flirtation he revealed to her and behaving as a gentlemanly yet solicitous prospective mate had been wiped away as soon as she walked out of her bathroom wearing that damnably sexy dress earlier that afternoon.

It was as if he’d been watching their interactions from the outside. He’d pulled her into his arms, practically danced her over to the mirror, then selfishly indulged in a moment of very close physical contact as he practically drowned himself in her scent. Hell, he’d even allowed himself to fantasize about her riding his lok with her dress all bunched up around her waist. Where had his restraint gone?

Likely the same place it had flitted off to when he’d indulged her questions a few months back on Romulan intimacy. They’d both attended a banquet on a Starbase near the Neutral Zone, and two junior adjutants had been caught in a dark alcove doing something that she’d called ‘making out.’ He’d mentioned offhandedly that Romulans didn’t use their mouths for such things, which had only piqued her curiosity.

Letant had deflected her questions for a while claiming that it wasn’t proper to discuss such a topic in public. Once he’d gotten her back to her quarters, however, she pulled him inside quite easily - not that he was resisting, of course - and asked him what Romulans did if they didn’t kiss. By the Elements, he should’ve stopped simply at a verbal answer, but he’d had just enough ale to make him believe that a short demonstration would be a good idea.

Fool.

He’d lifted her hands carefully in his and looked deep into those beautiful, bright, curious eyes of hers as he skimmed his fingertips over her palms. Pouring intention into his every movement, Letant’s breathing sped up considerably when she let out a gasp at the sensation. She must have been able to both see and feel his hunger for her as he spread her fingers gently and traced the length of each one in turn.

The scent of her growing arousal had shaken him back to reality just enough for him to cup her cheeks softly and murmur a rather raspy wish for her to have sweet dreams. After all, they’d both been slightly inebriated. Intoxicated fumbling wasn’t at all how he wanted her to find out that he cared for her.

Letant had thought that his momentary lapse in judgment would have been enough for her to realize his intentions toward her, but when she’d asked why he hadn’t tried to take her for himself, he felt his blood turn to ice. Had she not seen any of his flirtations after all? He’d thought he was being rather obvious as it was, but apparently his actions weren’t obvious enough for her to see how utterly devoted he was to her. All of those months spent protecting her and laughing with her, curing her hangovers and holding her close... He wouldn’t change his past behavior for anything, but did she truly not realize he was trying to court her and find them a worthy third?

As things stood, however, he was left with no alternative but to cut his plan short, lay all his cards on the table, and hope that she wouldn’t reject him. He had to ensure that she didn’t believe that he would simply give her away to some other Romulan when she was perfect for him. The two of them fit together so naturally that the thought of her no longer being a part of his life made his stomach turn.

“Idiot. You should’ve taken the differences in your cultures into account when this began,” he muttered to himself as he walked to the sideboard and poured himself a glass of water. He’d have opted for kali-fal if this wasn’t such an important topic, but he didn’t want his judgment clouded even a fraction. As he took a large swallow and set his glass back on the tray, the familiar hum of a transporter beam broke the silence.

Turning his head, he saw her standing in his study facing the bookshelves and his desk. His moment of truth had arrived.

He allowed himself only a moment to admire the sight of her in his home - in his private space. If she did reject him, he wanted to remember the feeling of joy suffusing him at the image of her in his home. Surrounded by the dark shelves and plush, square furniture, she looked like a spark in an otherwise terrifyingly dull universe.

With a small, nervous smile on his lips, he cleared his throat, and she turned to face him. Was it his imagination, or did she look as nervous as he felt?

“A Federation Ambassador in a Romulan Senator’s home? That’s got to be a first,” she stated as she took a few small steps closer to him. The way her dress clung to her figure only reinforced his opinion from earlier in the day: she was a walking temptation.

Silently, he berated himself for his lack of focus. Clasping his hands behind his back so that he wouldn’t do anything foolish, Letant drew himself up to his full height and took a step closer to her.

“Your opinion on the space?”

“I can’t speak to the rest of the house, but this room is very comfortable...very you. I like it. I dare say I could lose track of time here,” she replied as she stopped directly in front of him. Her expression changed to one of concern as she looked up him. She couldn’t seem to hold his gaze, though, because she looked down and fiddled with one of her fingernails. “Are you alright? I didn’t mean to...I mean, I just feel like I said something wrong earlier, and I want to apologize.”

“You have no reason to,” he said reaching out and tilting her chin up with just the tips of his fingers. “You asked a question that you had every right to ask. I will answer it, but, please, hear my explanation in its entirety before making up your mind. If, afterwards, you wish to leave and never see me again, I swear to you upon all I hold dear that I will respect your wishes and never darken your doorstep as long as I live.”

She looked genuinely worried at that last statement, but she nodded her head, regardless. Thus reassured that she wouldn’t go sprinting from the room, Letant took a deep breath and tried to order his thoughts.

“I’ve been attempting to ascertain where I should begin, but I don’t think there’s any perfect point. I apologize if this sounds poorly organized.”

“Since when do you need to present your thoughts perfectly to talk to me?” She asked giving him one of those gentle smiles that he loved so much. Her hand grasped his as he released her chin, drawing a smile from him.

“This matter is one of the utmost importance to me. It warrants extra care and attention,” Letant stated, and she gave him an encouraging nod of her head. “Our cultures are very different, but we’ve both learned from each other over time. I fear, though, that I have not learned nearly enough to navigate this sort of interaction in a way that would lend any sort of delicacy to the sentiment that I’m attempting to express.”

He’d begun, and after being restrained for so long, all his passion roared at him that it was now or never. There was no turning back now that he’d started down the path.

“I have no idea how to properly romance a Human, but Romulan methods seem not to have been entirely effective. Instead of continuing to attempt to insert Romulan courting cues into the matter, I shall be entirely honest with you,” he said grasping both her hands lightly. Her eyes were wide as she listened to him. Letant knew she was aware of how highly Romulans valued honesty despite not often receiving it. “After all my years as a soldier and a politician, a solitary life is all I ever expected to have. I’d grown jaded and cynical, but when I met you, you challenged every opinion I’ve ever held about non-Romulans. You met my wit, you made me laugh, and most importantly you filled a gap in my life and my heart that I hadn’t even been aware of.”

He cupped her cheeks and skimmed his thumbs over her delicate features.

“What’s worse is that you are so beautiful that you’re constantly stuck in my thoughts. From the first time you laughed at one of comments during a staff meeting, I knew I was in trouble. You tried to cover it with a cough, but I heard you. The sound of your laughter has echoed through my dreams more times than I can count.”

Letant paused to take a steadying breath before continuing.

“The day you shared a drink with me was when I knew for certain the nature of the hold you had over me. What I’m trying to say, e’lev, is that I love you, and I humbly offer myself as your mate, if you’ll have me,” he confessed, and she looked almost too stunned to speak.

“But...B-But if you love me, then why would you try to match me up with other Romulans?” Her voice came out small and confused when she found it, and he took a shaky breath. She hadn’t outright rejected him, but the difficult part was yet to come.

“I believe this is where our cultures differ substantially. I admit, I haven’t communicated my intentions very well, and for that I sincerely apologize. I know I have mentioned traditional Romulan marriages to you before...” He trailed off looking for confirmation.

“You have, but I have no idea what the distinction actually is between a traditional and non-traditional marriage,” she said, and he mentally acknowledged that perhaps that was where his mistake had been.

“A traditional marriage in my culture involves three people. Usually, there is an established pair to begin with, and they, in turn, incorporate someone else as a third. That person is usually already acquainted with at least one member of the pair,” he explained. “As I was already familiar with Hiren, I believed he would make a good candidate.”

Instead of answering, the Ambassador was silent for a long moment as she processed the information she’d been given. Letant’s heart sank when she took a step away from him. Instead of leaving, though, she walked a few steps toward his bookshelves then a few back in his direction.

“Are you trying to tell me that you wanted to share me with the Praetor?” Her question was deadly quiet.

“...Essentially, yes, but–”

“Does Hiren know?”

“Yes, of course, b–”

“And were either of you planning on telling me? Does the one being shared have any say in the matter, or am I just some pawn you were using to curry political favor with the head of the Romulan government?” She was practically trembling with anger, and Letant understood why. He realized that his earlier statement about poor communication was a drastic understatement. As he started to answer her, her eyes widened at a thought. “Hiren said something earlier about my ‘status’ with you. Does he think we’re already together?”

“Why would I need to garner his political favor when he and I have been allies for years? No, I swear to you that you are not a pawn, political or otherwise. I would never disrespect you in such a manner. I...might have implied that we were already mates, but it was only to illustrate to him that you were far superior to the stereotypes that Romulans believe about your people,” he explained.

“You realize that doesn’t help either your case or his, don’t you?” Letant had never heard her that irate. “How dare you behave so presumptuously about me of all people? I have been your friend. I have trusted you with my safety and even my life on several occasions, and this is how you repay that trust? It’s bad enough that you assumed you’d be right about Hiren being a match and preemptively told him I was coming to dinner with you tomorrow night, but to assume I’d say yes to being shared...to being used as some brainless bedwarmer–”

“That is not at all what I want, nor is that what a traditional Romulan marriage entails,” he said hardening his voice. “I admit that I have handled this situation poorly, but I would never disrespect you, and I would certainly never ask you to enter into a situation in which you would be used, degraded, or mistreated.”

Putting all his conviction into his tone, Letant strode over to her and grasped her shoulders lightly.

“You are more important to me than anything in this universe. Whether you wish to continue with Hiren or never see him again is entirely up to you. If you don’t wish for a more intimate relationship to develop between the two of us, I assure you, I will content myself with whatever level of familiarity that you are most comfortable with, even if that means you want me permanently out of your sight,” he assured her looking into her eyes. “E’lev, all I want...all I’ve ever wanted since we met was to ensure your happiness. I know that I’ve gone about this in an idiotic way, but I beg your forgiveness.”

She stared at him - presumably attempting to determine how truthful he was being - for a long enough stretch to make Letant nervous.

“I have never met a more infuriating person than you in all my life, Senator Letant,” she stated, but the acidity was gone from her voice. He blinked and opened his mouth to respond, but he was silenced by her lips meeting his. The kiss was brief, gentle, and almost hesitant on her part, but Letant didn’t dare take more than she was offering. His presumptions had gotten him into trouble already, and he didn’t want to compound that. “You realize, of course, that I expect you to make this up to me?”

“You mean...? Does that mean you forgive me?” He was almost afraid to ask, but he needed to know for certain.

“Just this once.” With a cheeky little smile, she tossed his words back at him from the night before. Letant let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. As she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, all of his emotions rolled through him at once. He swept her up in his arms and carried her to his desk. The little yelp she let out against his lips turned into a giggle that sent Letant’s heart thudding in his side as she clutched him tighter.

This was exactly what he’d imagined for so long. She was in his home, in his arms, and he was finally, finally able to show her his devotion in some small way. He stepped between her legs, keeping one arm around her waist and lifting the other to cup the back of her head as they each explored the other’s lips. Human affection, he mused, was exhilarating.

“I take it you don’t want to leave?” He asked between kisses, and she pulled back just far enough to look into his eyes.

“How could I leave a part of myself?” Her whispered inquiry nearly bowled him over. Letant rested his forehead against hers and barely managed to keep himself from sobbing in relief. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do, though. If you’d been honest with me from the start, we could’ve been doing a lot more than just drinking and laughing together.”

Giving her a mischievous smirk, Letant grasped her waist lightly and nudged her nose with his.

“Is that so?” Pleasure bled through him at the blush that darkened her cheeks. She tried to look away, but he caught her lips with his again. She practically melted into him. One of her legs wrapped around him, pulling him closer as she returned his passion more ardently than he’d ever expected her to. Gone was his hesitation and his fear of losing her. All he could think about was giving his lover all the pleasure she could handle.

“Wait,” she breathed just as his fingers began searching for the closure at the back of her dress. He stopped immediately and pulled back to look at her. Had she changed her mind? “Letant, I...I’ve never considered the possibility of having more than one partner. I can’t promise I’ll be able to give you the traditional Romulan triad that you were hoping for, but I will keep an open mind. I want to give it a try. Regardless of what happens between myself and Hiren, though, you and I have something that I feel is worth exploring.”

“Then I truly am the most fortunate of beings.”

“Talking about luck twice in one day? Are you sure you’re alright?” She asked burying one of her hands in his hair. Letting out a moan, he nipped playfully at her lips.

“E’lev, I am better than alright,” he crooned grinding himself slowly against her center. She gasped against his mouth, and he trailed his lips down her neck. Letant could smell where Hiren had scented her earlier; the knowledge sent a thrum of pleasure through him. He’d have to ask her later about how their date went, but first, he wanted to make sure she stopped thinking altogether.

Allowing his consciousness to brush against hers, he tried to show her how much he desired her - how much he’d always desired her. Flashes of fantasies and glimpses into his imagination floated from his mind to hers, and the moan that came from her pulled an answering growl from his throat.

“That’s my good girl.” At his praise, her hips gave a small buck against his. “Don’t fret. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”

He slipped his hand beneath the skirt of her dress and paused at the feeling of lace covering her modesty. The Senator leaned back just far enough to look at her curiously.

“What have we here?”

“They’re just panties,” she replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Noticing that his confusion hadn’t cleared, she blinked. “Do Romulans not wear underwear?”

Now he was excessively interested.

“We have undershirts for when we venture into cooler temperatures, but this seems entirely different. Let’s have a look, shall we?” Gathering the fabric of her dress in his fingers, he pulled it slowly up and glanced down to see a small, purple garment made of lace hugging her hips and shrouding the softness between her legs in an enticing swath of delicate embellishment. Letant’s jaw dropped at the sight. Every time he thought his little Human had reached the limit of how much she could possibly tease him, he was proved wrong. As if in a trance, he ran his fingertips up the length of her covered cleft. The obscene dampness that had seeped through the thin material practically coated his skin in an intoxicating gush of pheromone-filled arousal. “Fuck...”

At his whispered oath, she spread her legs further in invitation. Her lips trailed down his forehead as he nudged the flimsy fabric aside and slipped a finger through her folds, moaning at the squelching sound that followed. His love’s eyes were molten pools of desire as she watched his exploration of Human sexuality.

“Like it?” How did she manage to sound so innocent when she was leaking all over his fingers like a harlot?

“You are not returning to your ship tonight. I don’t care if you were scheduled for a conference with the President of the Federation himself. Cancel everything. Use me as an excuse. I don’t care what you tell your superiors, but they are not getting you back tonight, do I make myself clear?” Her pupils blew wider at Letant’s firmness, and she rolled her crotch against his hand.

“Yes, Senator. How do you want m–oh!” She broke off with a surprised moan when he thrust two fingers inside her and buried his face in the crook of her neck to start leaving marks.

“Oh, e’lev...I want you just. Like. This,” he rasped, punctuating each word with a curl of his fingers. Letant had researched Human anatomy extensively in preparation for a moment like this. He wanted to be the best mate he could be for her, and that included knowing what places would make her scream for him. “Desperate, dripping...mine.”

Her slick dripped from his palm as he put his dexterous fingers to use stirring her arousal to the breaking point. His thumb found the little bundle of nerves he’d been searching for, and as she mewled in his arms, Letant sped his movements up until she gushed onto his palm. He imagined her convulsing around his lok as she had on his fingers, and he was forced to breathe deeply to regain some semblance of his control.

While she was catching her breath, she started tugging at his clothing. Letting out a small laugh at her eagerness, he gave her a little help finding the closure to his tunic.

“Beautiful girl,” the Senator murmured as he shrugged off his tunic and unzipped her dress. Maybe he could make that little fantasy of his come true after all. Letant unfastened his pants and snapped the delicate lace undergarment with a flick of his wrist.

The Ambassador caught one of his hands in hers and started mimicking the motions he’d showed her all those months ago. Resting his forehead against hers, he slipped his length inside her, moaning her name as she stretched around his intrusion.

From there, he lost himself in her passion. He’d waited so long to make her his, and after such restraint, he craved more: more of her sounds, her lips, her pleasure, more of her. As her shouts mingled with his and filled the study, Letant was determined to give her as many bouts of pleasure as he could before her occupation pulled her away again.

“Ah, I nearly forgot to ask,” Letant murmured a few hours later when they were snuggled up together on the small loveseat near the study window. The sun was just beginning to set, casting majestic warm hues over the whole room and the tangle of nude limbs that constituted their bodies. “How was your time with Hiren? Did he sweep you off your feet?”

His lover had been tracing little patterns on his chest, but at his question, she sighed rather heavily and got to her feet. Without a word, she pulled his tunic over her head and walked toward the sideboard.

Oh dear. He knew that look, and it wasn’t a good one. Surely he hadn’t been that wrong about Hiren of all people? As she poured herself a glass of water, he donned his trousers once more and wrapped his arms carefully around her from behind. Nuzzling into her hair, he adopted the gentlest tone he could muster.

“Tell me everything.”

Hiren strode down the hall in Letant’s home that evening, feeling almost giddy about the prospect of his upcoming nightcap with the beautiful Ambassador the next day. He rolled his shoulders and straightened his tunic as he approached the door to Letant’s study. He paused, though, when he heard voices.

“...as if he thought of it as some sort of sick experiment!” That was the Ambassador’s voice. She sounded irritated and more than a little hurt. Protectiveness simmered deep in his chest. Whoever had done this to her would be sure to feel his wrath. “Oh, he was seductive and very complimentary, to be sure, but he shouldn’t need to insult my entire species to flatter me!”

Whoever she was referring to, he sounded dreadful. Why, when Hiren got his hands on him, he’d–

“I’m sure Hiren didn’t mean it that way. I happen to know he’s deeply fond of you,” Letant soothed, and from outside the door, the man in question deflated somewhat. He’d offended her? “E’lev, he is one of the most courteous men on the entirety of my planet, and he’s taken quite a shine to you. He’s reasonable. I’m certain if you explain how he made you feel, he’ll make an effort to learn from his mistakes. After all, you were able to show me how much of ass I’d been, and I’m more arrogant than Hiren by a long shot.”

“I’m certainly not arguing that point, but I hope you’re right. He’s charming, handsome, intelligent...I really do like him. I can see myself falling hard for him, but...” he heard her let out a sigh, “I don’t know if I can handle him thinking of me as some...empty-headed lower lifeform.”

“I don’t,” Hiren said emphatically as he stepped through the door. Both the Senator and the Ambassador turned to face him. He did his best to ignore how heavily the room smelled of sex and pheromones – how much of her surrounded him as he walked. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to listen in. I was coming to speak to Letant, and...well, I couldn’t help but hear what you said, lhhei.”

Hiren took a few slow steps toward her, noting how nervous she looked as he approached. Fear wasn’t what he wanted to inspire in her at all. He kept his voice as gentle as he could when he spoke.

“I don’t think of you as an experiment, nor did I intend to insult your people. I offer you my sincerest apologies, my lady,” he stated as he stopped just in front of her. “You said that I seemed to be the kind of person who didn’t stop at merely surface level when seeking understanding. I realize I’ve already fallen short of your expectations by allowing outdated, xenophobic stereotypes to cloud my thinking, but if you grant me the mercy of a second chance, I swear to you I will do my best to grow. I’ll broaden my knowledge of your people and try very hard not to allow my preconceived notions of Humanity to get in the way. I...”

He reached carefully, gently out and traced the apple of her cheek with the backs of his knuckles. She was already so important to him. He didn’t want to risk losing her.

“I don’t want my foolishness to endanger the bond we’ve begun to form,” he murmured looking into her eyes. The hesitance he found there slowly melted into a small smile.

“I suppose I can give you a second chance, but only on one condition,” she said narrowing her eyes.

“Anything. You have only to name it and I’ll make sure it’s done.” He didn’t hesitate in his promise. He’d pluck the stars from the sky one-by-one and lay them at her feet if he could.

She gestured to a bare-chested Letant to come closer, and once he was within range, she caught one of each man’s hands. Caressing their fingers carefully, she gave them a mischievous smirk. Her expression coupled with her sensual touch made Hiren acutely aware of her state of dress - or undress, rather. A tunic, which the Praetor assumed was Letant’s, reached just barely far enough down her thighs to cover her modesty.

“We were going to meet late tomorrow night, but instead, I want you to join us for dinner, Hiren. Since both of you were in on this little plan to create a romantic triad, yet neither of you saw fit to inform me before today, think of this as a way for you both to make it up to me. After all, if there’s a possibility that the three of us might be bonded someday, it might be a good idea if we become accustomed to spending time together,” she said, and Hiren glanced at Letant. The Senator was already watching him for a reaction.

“That’s a reasonable condition - an easy penance that I am more than willing to pay,” he said taking a small step closer to her and trying his hardest not to think about how soft her skin looked where Letant’s tunic ended. It was practically large enough to be a dress on her, but when she reached up, the fabric would obviously lift past the point of decency. Had he been a less honorable man - or at least a younger version of himself - he would have attempted to provoke such an action. As it was, though, all he did was lift her fingers to his chest and give a respectful bow of his head. “Khlinae arhem, lhhei. I promise I won’t squander this opportunity to redeem myself.”

The pleasantly surprised look on her face was worth his deferential expression of gratitude. Attempting to seem less affected than she was, she lifted her chin.

“You better not, my Lord Praetor,” she emphasized before kissing Letant’s cheek and taking a few steps toward the study door. Hiren tried to tamp down his longing. He’d feel the gentle caress of her lips eventually. He just had to be patient and earn the privilege. “You came to speak with the Senator, so I’ll leave you boys be. Mind if I freshen up, darling?”

“Not at all. What’s mine is yours, e’lev,” Letant replied with a smile. “Down the hall. Third door on the left. Oh, and Ambassador?”

She lifted an eyebrow curiously.

“Now which one of us is disguised as a couch?”

She let out a bark of laughter at the Senator’s question, and as Hiren watched her walk out, he released a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“She’s something else, isn’t she, old friend?” Letant asked handing him a glass of kali-fal.

“Indeed, she is. She makes me feel as if I’m a young man falling in love for the first time all over again. She’s remarkable! My heart hasn’t raced like this since the day I met T’Shara. I was a more volatile man back then. Perhaps it’s for the best that my temper has subsided somewhat. I want to give her all the gentleness and all the passion I’m capable of. I don’t know how you restrained yourself for so long,” Hiren said as his shirtless friend lounged in the chair behind his desk. A lump of familiar purple fabric was on one end of the long, polished, wooden surface. “By the way, what did she mean earlier when she said we were both making amends?”

“I...may have neglected to clearly state my romantic intentions prior to this afternoon...”

Hiren’s eyebrows shot upward.

“She must’ve been thoroughly confused, then. You must have offered her a very...fervent apology to be able to end the day with her kissing you. That was your clothing she was wearing just now, wasn’t it?” he asked, and at Letant’s affirmative answer, Hiren mused that at least he wasn’t the only one to make a sizable mistake. All he had to do now was make the proper atonement and hope that she would accept him as readily as she had Letant.

~*~*~

Romulan Words:

e’lev = darling

lhhei = madam

khlinae arhem = thank you (formal, inferior to superior)

#deepspacedukat fic #Praetor Hiren x Reader #Hiren x Reader #Senator Letant x Reader #Letant x Reader

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asksythe · 2 years ago

Note

Thanks for your translation and the footnotes explaining things. Those were a godsend!

If I may ask, you said you had been on the Chinese (and Vietnamese?) side of the fandom up until now, that you've been in MDZS fandom for a few years. I see that you have some MDZS English fics up recently. I love them too! The ideas are so new and fun! Do you have any favorites English fics? Why aren't you on the international side until now? You learned Mandarin just to read MDZS? That's amazing. Is it very hard? How did you do it? What gave you the idea of writing the footnotes? Are there any Chinese MDZS fics that you really like?

Thank you. I'm glad the notes were helpful to you.

Ehh... it's a lot of questions, huh.

1/ I don't have any true favorites on the international side. It's a matter of cultural differences, not the quality of the stories. MDZS... was not written with an international audience in mind. So there are a lot of tiny but deeply impactful details that just... fly over a lot of the international reader base's head. It doesn't help that Chinese is a high-context culture, the polar opposite of most Western cultures (low-context culture). So a tiny detail that doesn't mean anything to English speaking audience can be a really big deal for the Sinosphere audience.

So the English fics are written based on this foundation of cultural value mismatch and thousands of little things that don't quite line up. The result is... really weird and really jarring. So for me, I have tried reading English fics before. But usually, what happened is that I would get distracted by this thing or that thing in the story that didn't fit with the cultural setting, and I would not be able to enjoy the story at all. I'm not quite sure how else to explain this. It's like... if someone in the Sinosphere who only has a very vague understanding of say... modern American culture takes a glance at American media and equates popularity with actual governmental authority (which kinda is true in a way but not all the way) and they write a story with the premise of.. say... a young American with big dreams of becoming the president so this person starts out their career by writing long, thousand-word essays and post them on twitter to gain credibility and followers so they can then stage a coup like Jan 6th and become president, and then they use their position as president to order Amazon be the new headquarter of government and all of this is written super seriously and realistically... Like that, probably...

2/ Why aren't I on the international side of the fandom until now? Well, the reason above plus my work is hectic. I'm perpetually buried in works, scripts, drafts for books, magazine publication schedules, game publication schedules, media projects, client interviews, chasing down clients, etc... that's on top of family and my not-so-great health. This year though, I have made it my resolution to write more stuff for myself (and not paid by someone else). So that's why I'm here now.

3/ Yes, I did start to seriously learn Mandarin to read MDZS in its native language. I can't say it's easy. It's not an easy language by any stretch of the word. But it's probably fair to say it's significantly easier for me to learn it compared to a lot of other people. I'm Vietnamese. Vietnamese is a derivative of traditional Mandarin, even though our modern language is now written in the Latin alphabet. We also have a bridge language between Hanyu (Mandarin) and Vietnamese called Han Viet. This makes it much easier for a Vietnamese to learn Mandarin than most other nationalities (with the exception of Japanese and Korean, probably). Before I even learned Mandarin, with the right tool, I could already understand about 50-60 percent of Mandarin writings, provided it's not ancient writing (which goes by different rules). It also helps that modern Vietnam has really good access to Chinese media, both modern and old.

I practice by translating Chinese MDZS fics into Vietnamese. I translated 10 series in total last year, with each series averaging around 50-80k words. I recently dabbled in translating Chinese poems into English (There's no use translating Chinese poems into Vietnamese. Han Viet is built for that express purpose already.)

4/ There are a ton of Chinese fics that are really good. I can't even begin to list them. I have seen some of the first-generation MDZS fics that were so good they ended up influencing MXTX herself, ending with her accepting the details posited in those stories as part of MDZS canon. They are all on the Chinese side of the internet though, mostly on lofter and weibo.

5/ The idea of the footnotes came from a friend, really. I sometimes spontaneously rant at @erimies about MDZS. Haha, I should thank her for being so patient. Back then, she wasn't even in MDZS. Well, even now, she's only started to read a little. But basically, during my fairly one-sided ranting (or gushing), we would stumble into cultural concepts that she didn't understand and had no basis for. So I would explain these things to her, which sometimes would become entire essays in our chat box. So when I translated, I remembered this point, that international fans probably miss a lot of cultural concepts and references, so I made sure to add in explanations.

#ask sythe #mdzs #fanfic

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quill-of-thoth · 2 years ago

Text

Letters from Watson: The Adventure of the Yellow Face

Crimes in Context

Holmes' first, incorrect but entirely understandable, conclusion was of blackmail, which has been a bit of a theme in these stories, so I won't go over it again. Likewise, we have covered how the easiest way to leave a marriage was to just pick up and walk away, and we've touched on the political landscape of the American south in the post civil war decades. Instead, I want to focus on my impression that this case was much earlier in Holmes' career than Baring Gould gives it credit for, and how interesting it is that we have so few other cases set in the early 1880's.

Almost all of the cases we've looked at so far, with the notable exceptions of A Study in Scarlet and The Speckled Band, have occurred during or after the fall of 1886. By Baring Gould's count there are three cases in that year, and eight the next, with five in 1888 and seven in 1889... partially, I believe, so he can conform with Watson's assertion that there were only three cases of interest in 1890. (Which doesn't preclude him digging up more details for publishable cases later.) However, due to the fact that Watson is evidently still living with Holmes (evident in that he doesn't mention visiting, and that Holmes is getting ready for bed when he requests that Watson remember to tell him if he's reaching too far,) this case could have theoretically occurred at any time between the events of A Study in Scarlet (March 1881) and Watson's marriage (Late 1888 or the winter months of 1889.) Personally, I would like to put it somewhere between '83 and '85, and take this as evidence that some time in '85 or '86, Watson's health improved drastically.

Watson, in 1881 and 1882, is confined indoors most of the winters due to chronic pain from his war wound, and, though he never writes of it directly after A Study in Scarlet, he's suffering from PTSD, or 'shattered nerves.' Although the glimpses we see in The Speckled Band and The Yellow Face show that he's settled into life with Holmes and happy to assist on cases, his ideas of documenting Holmes' cases won't take off until around 1886, which is when he most likely would have been writing the bulk of A Study in Scarlet. Either he's getting roundly rejected when attempting to publish, or he's not actually attempting to publish often, if at all. Given how difficult PTSD can make creative endeavors when it's at it's height, that second one is pretty plausible. Especially since he seldom seems to find anything he deems worthy of publication from this period in his notes.

However, after his marriage to Mary, Watson is able to go into practice again. And during The Resident Patient he commiserates with Dr. Trevelyan about how much money is needed to start a career as a doctor. If Watson is feeling more or less recovered by '86, a sudden rush of activity - such as writing a novel, properly documenting Holmes' cases, or longing to return to his career - makes a lot of sense.

We could slot The Adventure of the Yellow Face into this period handily, with Holmes relying more on his friend, and Watson taking a greater interest, or we could speculate that it's earlier (Say, '83 or '84) and surmise that it stood out as being a case with an extremely happy ending, something that would have stuck with Watson because he is, at heart, a romantic. After all, at the end of the story a loving couple is reunited, and a little girl is returned to her family.

#Letters from Watson #The Adventure of the Yellow Face #no actual crimes this time #More context for where I decided to put it in the timeline

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yeowangies · 2 years ago

Text

Close Encounter

Chapter l | Chapter ll: Human Emotions | Chapter lll | Chapter lV | Chapter V

❧

PAIRING: Raditz/Reader RATING: T CONTENTS: Little Angst (blink and you miss it), Canon Divergence AU, Romance WORDCOUNT: 4855

Summary:

“So you’re telling that guy- the alien I had sex with, kidnapped his nephew? And tried to kill his own brother?”

“Yes!” Bulma yelled, exasperated because you asked that question several times already.

“And you want ME to help you bring him back to health?!”

Notes:

me: I'm just gonna write a sequel chapter, nothing too complicated me, over 15k words later: goddamnit

So yeah, there's three more chapter after this. I already wrote 90% of the whole story, so I'll update every two or three days.

I read Raditz' scenes in the manga like ten times, trying to somehow analyze his character, even if he is in the story for two minutes. I TRIED to not be a little ooc with him but then again, we never see him outside a battle context so... I tried my best.

I didn't go into detail about Raditz's fight with Goku and Piccolo, but what I imagined happened is inspired by JsCandyHell's Rademption comic, the first chapter. It's public if you're curious, you can look it up on his twitter account.

Raditz woke up on a bed in a room so bright it seemed surreal.

The next thing he saw was your face, staring right at him.

“Am I dead…?”

You arched an eyebrow, smiling faintly.

“You’re not dead. Not for lack of trying.” You replied.

He remembered you. That girl who was there when he got to Earth. That girl he fucked almost as soon as he stepped out of his pod. If he wasn’t dead (he knew he wasn’t meant for heaven or anything, but your face was a pleasant sight that left him bewildered), why were you there?

The vague smile on your face quickly disappeared, and you walked away from him. He scanned the room quickly; it seemed like some kind of medical bay, similar to the ones at homebase, full of machines and screens that seemed connected to him. The next thing he noticed, or rather, felt, was a pain in his torso. He grunted through gritted teeth, and realized he was bandaged all over his upper body. He recoiled instinctively, only making the pain worse.

“Don’t move too much,” You told him with a surprisingly cold voice. “You’re gonna open your wounds.”

Raditz narrowed his eyes at you, still feeling like he was impaled in the stomach quite literally. Your voice sounded different than the last time he heard it. Albeit it was under very different circumstances, but he didn’t understand why you talked to him that way. He didn’t even understand what you were doing there, or where there even was.

“I’ll have food brought in, I assume you’re hungry.” You said while pressing some numbers on some kind of panel and holding a tube to your ear.

He looked at you warily. It’s not like he could do much in the state he was in. If you wanted to kill him or something like that, he supposed he wouldn’t be able to fight back, even if you were a mere human.

While you talked to someone through that tube, ordering things to be brought there, Raditz tried to recall what exactly happened. He obviously remembered you, it was impossible not to. He also remembered taking his brother’s son, his nephew, and subsequently fighting Kakarot and that green guy. Everything after that was blurry.

He groaned, in pain, and because he remembered that that brat, Kakarot’ son, had destroyed his pod. He was stranded on that miserable planet for all he knew, a planet that had such ancient technology, he knew for sure earthlings had not discovered how to travel in space.

“Woman,” Raditz called you, and you turned to look at him. “What the fuck is going on?”

“You don’t remember?” You asked him with furrowed brows.

“Where is this place?” He saw your face hardened when he ignored your question, but he went on. “And what are you doing here?”

“I happen to be close with one of your brother’s friends. Remember? The brother you tried to kill?”

There was bitterness in your voice. He understood you were offended by his actions but he didn’t really get why, and he didn’t want to bother thinking about it.

“For some reason, he wanted you to live despite what you did. So we are helping you heal. Everyone else was too afraid of you, and I already knew you, so I was basically left in charge to look after you.”

He raised an eyebrow. You had some guts for sure. Though he supposed it was the fact that he was too injured to even try to hurt you. He could still taunt you though.

“Do your friends know what we did then?” Raditz smirked.

You scowled, the tips of your ears getting red.

“I would have never done that with you if I had known you were-!” You didn’t finish your sentence, and you turned your back to him.

“‘Were’ what? If I remember correctly, you enjoyed what we did quite a lot, if your screams were enough proof.” He sneered at you, amused by your reaction. “No point in action so righteous now.”

“Having sex and trying to kill your family is not nearly the same thing.”

He chuckled, and you turned your face to the side to look at him.

“Do you not see anything wrong in what you did?”

“No,” He replied immediately, the smirk never leaving his lips. “I asked my brother to join us. He said he would rather stay here than help us. He is a disgrace to our race.”

Raditz wouldn’t admit it, but he didn’t want to kill his own brother. Not for any sentimental reason, but simply because he was one of the four Saiyans left. It would not have done any good to reduce the race even more. They still needed him nonetheless, but if he wasn’t going to cooperate then he had no other choice.

Your eyes were bewildered when he answered.

“I would have never had sex with you if I knew you were a monster.”

He glared at you. Your words stung. Apparently attraction had a moral stipulation on that planet.

“You still did it, however.”

It was your turn to glare at him.

Neither of you spoke until the food arrived.

“So you’re telling that guy- the alien I had sex with, kidnapped his nephew? And tried to kill his own brother?”

“Yes!” Bulma yelled, exasperated because you asked that question several times already.

“And you want ME to help you bring him back to health?!”

“Uh… yes.”

“Why?!”

“I think the answer is obvious.”

You groaned, rubbing your temples.

“We fucked, we are not married!”

“I know that, but…” Bulma sighed. You knew she understood perfectly well why you were in disbelief of the whole conversation. “The guy is ruthless. And you actually formed some kind of bond with him.”

“I would barely call that a ‘bond’. And I don’t know how much that would matter to him if he attacked his own brother…”

“Well, Goku did ask us to let him live. Before he died.”

You pursed your lips. That Goku guy must have been something else if he forgave his own brother like that, especially after what he did to his son. Bulma told you he could come back to life once they gathered the ‘Dragon Balls’, some magical wish-granting orbs. You believed her because she had told you stories about it before.

“I think maybe this guy… would soften with you.” Bulma went on.

“You’re putting too much faith in me.” You sighed and paused, considering it for a moment. “Fine.”

Bulma pumped her fist in the air at your positive answer.

“I’m staying at Capsule Corp. until he heals.”

“Yeah, about that. He can’t stay here.”

“What?!”

“I mean, he is staying here! But once he is strong enough to move… I don’t want him around.”

“What the fuck are you telling me? That he is gonna have to stay with me in my house?”

“Yes! I’m so glad you understand!” Bulma smiled cheerfully.

“Bulma, what the fuck?! You just told me this man is violent and you want me to keep him around, at my place?!”

“I’m sorry! It wouldn’t be any different if he stayed here. I mean, Goku died and Piccolo almost killed him, but without Goku, he wouldn’t be able to do much! So we are all doomed if you can’t somehow mellow this guy out.”

“So that’s your brilliant plan? You want me to influence him somehow?”

“Well yeah.”

How the fuck were you gonna do that? Bulma was insane for suggesting such a thing. It’s not like you were some kind of preacher. What would you even say to Raditz that could possibly change his mind about attacking Earth and all that stuff?

For what you knew, the two other aliens, the Saiyans, were already on their way to Earth, and they will arrive in less than a year. There was no way to put that off. What everyone was worried about is Raditz taking revenge on the damage he took while he was trying to recruit his brother, which would be fairly easy, according to what Bulma told you. That Piccolo guy (the same Piccolo Daimao that threatened to conquer the world some years ago, you remembered that event well from the news and again, from what Bulma had told you since she had been a witness of it all) was strong but he wouldn’t stand a chance against him.

And the only reason Raditz was alive was because Goku asked them not to kill him. Because he was strong and he wanted to fight him again.

Bulma’s other friends were strange.

Compassion wasn’t a bad way to go about things, however. You just doubted if it would affect someone who had done what Raditz did.

It made shivers run up your spine. Yes, you had sex with the man. It was insanely good. Out-of-this-world good. But after learning everything that had happened, you weren’t so sure about how you felt. You didn’t know if you regretted it or not, despite what you had told Raditz when he woke up. You were angry he didn’t seem to show a pinch of remorse. And if you thought about the fact that there was blood on his hands, your stomach would sink.

You barely talked to him after that day, too angry and confused to twist your arm and show him any kind of emotion. But the ‘plan’ (if one could even call it a plan) Bulma had wasn’t going to end well if you didn’t get along with him. Since he didn’t seem to show any guilt for his actions, you would have to move around it and take a different approach. Somehow.

“How are you feeling?” You asked Raditz one morning, as soon as you walked into the medical room he was staying in.

He had recovered pretty fast for someone who had a literal hole in his body, and you figured it was the alien genes that helped him heal.

Raditz narrowed his eyes on you. You hadn’t really asked him anything in the last couple of weeks, he must have been disoriented, you figured.

“What do you want?” He asked after a moment of silence.

“What?”

“You haven’t spoken to me unless you had to. Why are you asking me how I feel?”

You blinked, confused.

“I genuinely want to know how you are feeling. Your injuries were pretty bad.”

“Is that a human thing? Asking me how I feel?”

You rubbed your temples, feeling put off by his skepticism.

“I don’t know. Nevermind.”

You wanted to turn around and walk out, the awkward silence that followed made you feel stupid since it was your idea to start a conversation. You didn’t leave though, taking a seat across the room where you always sat, near the only window in the room. It was so tiny you could barely see Bulma’s garden from there, but it kept you distracted every time you sat there, especially those last few days, when you got tired of reading through some magazines you brought with you to make the time go faster.

“What made you change your mind?” Raditz asked you, and you turned to look at him.

“What?”

“You seemed pretty angry when I said I didn’t regret what I did.” The tone in his voice was even, and he had a blank expression on his face. “So why are you talking to me now?”

“I’m tired of being angry,” You said genuinely. “We should… try to get along.”

“Why?” He squinted at you.

“Well, you are gonna be here for a while, and I’m looking after you so…”

“I don’t understand.” He practically growled. You probably should have been afraid of him (and maybe deep down you were a little), but something told you he wasn’t going to hurt you. “Why are you even helping me?”

“Your brother told us to let you live. I wasn’t there, but from what I was told, he said something about fighting you again.”

“Is that it? Because Kakarot told you to let me go?”

You were confused for a second until you realized ‘Kakarot’ was Goku.

“Yeah…” You carefully considered your next words so as not to make him angry. Or angrier. “He was compassionate even after what you did.”

“You humans are disgusting.” Raditz snorted.

Staring at his face, you could tell he wasn’t as infuriated as he seemed. He definitely was surprised though.

“Yeah, well, you are still stuck here with me.”

He looked at you up and down. As confused as you were about your feelings towards him, you still had to fight your own body so as not to blush under his gaze.

“I guess I could do worse.” He said.

“Gee, thanks.”

“And I would hate it if our thing got ruined because of a tiny mistake.” He smirked at you.

“A tiny mistake? Our thing?!” You really couldn’t help flushing by then.

“I did say I was going to come to you. Seems like I didn’t even have to do that since you are here on your own accord.”

“I- It’s not- No!” You balked.

He laughed mockingly and you glared at him.

“You’re gonna be staying at my place from now on, so be careful! I don’t want you breaking anything.” You told Raditz once you arrived at your house.

It wasn’t big, but it was enough for you. With Raditz staying there now, you were worried it was a little cramped.

“Yeah, you already told me that.” He rolled his eyes, looking around curiously.

The living room and kitchen were spacious, and so was the bathroom. Your bedroom and the extra room weren’t as wide, but you managed to have a queen size bed for yourself. The extra room had a single bed, and you were considering sleeping there and offering him your own bed since he was so big.

Raditz still had to change the bandages on his torso, but he could move around by then. You still had to learn how to properly bind him up on your own. Any human would get an infection easily if you didn’t know how to do it right, but witnessing how fast Raditz had healed, you doubt he would even be affected by the things humans were weak to.

“I’ll start dinner. You can hang around here or you can even go outside if you want, just don’t go too far.” You paused, eyes widening. “Wait, no, don’t go outside.”

“What, think I’ll run away?” He chuckled, and you gulped, facepalming yourself in your head. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me, is there?”

“Well you haven’t tried my cooking yet! I wouldn’t leave without a proper meal.”

It was a stupid way to convince him if he truly wanted to leave, but there was really nothing you could do, or anyone else for that matter, except persuade him with words.

But the way he was looking at you reminded you of how he stared at you the moment you met.

“You’re right, I could eat something.”

He sat down by the kitchen table the entire time you were cooking. You could feel his eyes on you the whole time; it made you feel incredibly self-conscious, especially since you had your back to him most of the time. It was silly you felt that way after everything that had happened between you two, but you still weren’t sure about how you felt about him. Or more like you weren’t sure you accepted how you felt.

At least physically, you were still attracted to him. You saw him shirtless a bunch of times ever since you met him, and you still let your eyes roam over his body. His muscles were impressive to say the least. And he was just so big. You were too weak for his looks, which was literally why you were in that situation in the first place. If only you had a little self-control.

His stares never went beyond that the first few days. Raditz never tried anything, and only roamed around the house or in the yard, where you watched him work out, doing things that he shouldn’t be doing in his condition. Yet when you went to change his bandages, he was healing just fine. You were amazed, he would probably be completely healed in four or five months at most. And considering how he was close to dying, you simply couldn’t believe it.

It was then, when you were almost done binding him up, that his eyes lingered on you long enough for you to be bothered by them. You could feel him staring intensely at you at random moments during the day, but when you were so close to him, it affected you, even your hands started shaking.

“Stop staring at me!” You told him a week after you had both moved back to your place.

You were getting tired of his lingering gaze, especially when you were holding scissors in your hands, ready to get rid of his old bandages. He was sitting on the couch next to you, your knees touching one of his thighs, as he remained as still as possible while you tried to do the simple work of helping him recover. Which was hard to do when he would not stop staring at you.

“You keep looking at me ever since we got here, why?”

“Are you still upset?” Raditz asked you with an emotionless voice.

“Huh?”

“With me, are you still upset?”

You were taken aback as you stared right back at him. You couldn’t read him at all. But you knew he was referring to your first conversation when you practically told him you regretted ever meeting him.

“‘Upset’ is not the right word.” You finally said after some time.

“What is it then?”

You fidgeted and remained silent. You were confused and reluctant to accept that you still found him attractive. Especially after spending so much time with him.

Raditz was actually nice to have around, which was confusing. Though most of your conversations were superficial, he teased you and you could give back as much as you got (most of the time, if he didn’t say anything that would make you blush). But you never asked him about anything regarding his life prior to what happened once he got here. And he never questioned you about your own either.

When you felt one of his hands on your thigh, you flinched. When he slid his fingers upwards, you grabbed his wrist instantly to stop him.

You knew he could keep going if he wanted to. While you weren’t afraid of him anymore, you were still aware of the fact that Raditz could overpower you if he so wished. So you were surprised when he didn’t yank off your hand, but he pulled away from you altogether instead.

“Sorry…” You murmured after a while, resuming your work on his bandages once more.

Raditz ran one of his hands through his hair, visibly a little nervous.

“You don’t have to apologize.”

The silence that followed afterwards was awkward, and he avoided your eyes for the rest of the day.

Raditz didn’t understand you. He didn’t understand humans.

He knew you were upset (you said that wasn’t the right word, but you didn’t offer any other variant) about what he had done, but he still didn’t understand why. His actions did not affect you directly.

The more time he spent in your house, he began to see that family was important to Earthlings, or at least to you it was. You had a picture of your mother and father in the living room, he didn’t ask you about them but he knew because they simply looked so much like you. He overheard you on the phone one day too, talking to your mother and even telling her you loved her.

There was this big device called TV that you would watch sometimes that also gave him an insight of how humans lived and worked. Apparently other people’s actions affected them when they were close to one another.

Raditz remembered his parents very well. His mother and father were not exactly normal compared to other Saiyan. For once, they seemed to hold a lot of affection for each other. They also cared for him and Kakarot. Other Saiyan parents didn’t exactly mistreat their children, but once in the incubators, they would simply leave them to go on a mission, not seeing them for years even.

After planet Vegeta was destroyed, he only had Nappa and Vegeta. Nappa told him that most Saiyans didn’t stay together after mating, and sex was a common thing among allies, not necessarily intended for reproduction. Vegeta, being royalty and proud as heck about it, was more reserved, so he almost never commented on that matter.

He grew up like that, and since there weren’t any females to hang around with for a long time, he just fucked for fun. Which, he learnt, was also what most males did in the Frieza army. Women were scarce there, so fucking random females in far away planets was actually a common occurrence. He never formed any kind of bond with anyone. And if he thought about it, neither Nappa nor Vegeta were exactly close to him.

He heard them say they wouldn’t wish him back to life when he was dying after the fight with Kakarot and that other guy. And he was infuriated, but he didn’t know exactly what to do about it. There was actually nothing he could do about it in his condition to begin with either.

Humans were the opposite of how he was raised. But not the opposite of how his parents used to be. He remembered his father hugging his mother when he arrived home from a mission, even kissing her like he missed her. For what the TV had shown him, humans did that too. And while casual sex was also a thing on Earth, most of those movies, or whatever they were called, made it seem more important than what it appeared to be.

You had told him not to take anything he saw on TV ‘too seriously’. So he was confused. But he wanted to understand. Mostly so he could understand you.

Even though it had been a while since you two had sex, Raditz still wanted you. He wanted to taste you again, to have you again. It was making it difficult to see you every single day; he had to watch you in the morning, when you tried to look somehow put together but he could see that your hair was out of place and your eyes were a little puffy, and he had to see you after you took a shower, walking to your room in just a towel, and it was killing him because he could simply smell you all the time, and everywhere on that house. But he could not touch you because your demeanor showed that you didn’t feel the same way. And he wanted to know and understand why.

“That woman said she only wanted casual sex, but now she is crying. Why?”

It was a rare occasion that Raditz sat down with you when you chose to watch a movie. You didn’t exactly invite him to join, but he did anyway.

A man and a woman met and agreed to just fuck. And now she was going back to her hometown and she was upset about not seeing that man again. But they had an arrangement that it was only sex. He didn’t get it, what changed?

“She is in love with him, she doesn’t want to leave.”

“In love?”

“Yeah,” You eyed him curiously. “You know, like feelings? She cares about him and she grew to like him.”

“Wasn’t it just a fuck?”

You laughed, which startled him.

“That sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn’t. People who sleep together regularly usually grow to like each other. Even if they end up just liking each other as friends.”

“Weird…” Raditz squinted his eyes, thinking.

“What do you mean?” You giggled, obviously amused at the fact that he didn’t get human emotions.

He debated internally whether or not to tell you what his first impression of that planet had been. He didn’t see anything wrong with sharing, so he spoke.

“When you offered yourself to me when we met, I assumed this planet was all about easy sex.”

“W- What?”

Raditz noticed your surprise, but he went on.

“I’m not used to women being so loose. So I figured humans must fuck on a daily basis with just anyone. Didn’t consider anything like what you just said.”

He noticed your face getting slightly red, though not out of embarrassment.

“Are you calling me a slut?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You used the words ‘easy’ and ‘loose’ in two sentences. Are you saying I have sex with just anyone I meet?”

He wasn’t sure exactly what had offended you, but he knew you were angry for whatever reason. He frowned, considering his words carefully.

“...No? Not exactly?”

“Then what do you mean?!”

“What I said! Humans seem highly hedonistic and simple, I suppose that’s why you never evolve past the power level of a fly.” He noticed your glare, but he snorted, amused. “It’s not everyday that I arrive on a planet and a female throws herself at me. I’m pretty sure Nappa and even Vegeta were surprised.”

“Who?”

“The Saiyans that are coming here.”

“Wait, ‘were surprised’? How would they even know about what we did?”

“The scouter.” He said, signaling to the side of his face where his scouter used to be when he arrived. “I’m sure you remember I was talking to someone through it.”

“Yeah, but what does that-”

“They were on the other side of the line, they probably heard everything.”

Your eyes opened wide, and you stared at him for a minute before talking again.

“W-what? You mean to tell me they listened to us… having sex?”

“Obviously.” He replied, unaware of the things going through your head, though he did notice your cheeks slowly flushing. “I don’t know about Vegeta, he seems like more of a prude, but I’m sure Nappa heard everything.”

Your entire face turned red up to the tip of your ears in an instant, and Raditz looked at you with one eyebrow raised. You were embarrassed now, but about what?

“I- They heard… everything?”

“Yes?”

“And you’re not bothered by that?!”

“Why would I be?” He shrugged, aloof. “I spent most of my life with them, we all have seen everything by now.”

You didn’t reply for a while, but the color on your face didn’t go away. Raditz looked at you for a minute, studying your expression, but when you didn’t talk anymore, he assumed the conversation was over. Until you spoke again.

“You… you let them hear me say all those things I said and you didn’t tell me!”

He looked at you as you stood up and grabbed him by his shirt.

“Get the hell out!”

“Woman, what the fuck are you doing?!”

Your grip on his shirt could probably rip the fabric, but it was nothing compared to his strength. Raditz still let you drag him towards the entrance, out of morbid curiosity.

Opening the front door, you dragged him almost all the way out the threshold, finally pushing him in the chest.

“Get out! Now!” He opened his mouth to yell right back at you, but you didn’t give him time. “I said GET OUT!”

Raditz couldn’t believe you had actually pushed him hard enough to make him fall back onto the ground. He wasn’t exactly prepared for any kind of confrontation, so his guard was down. But he was still startled, and he stared at you with eyes wide open as you slammed the door shut in his face.

You had actually successfully thrown him out. With just your hands.

That was the wrong time to have an erection, but he couldn’t control it.

That look in your eyes, the way you grabbed him and pushed him, like you weren’t even afraid of him (which you probably weren’t anymore after all the time you two spent together). It was arousing.

However, he was still annoyed that you pushed him out like that. He was still trying to understand some things regarding human emotions, and when he asked, you got angry, and not only did you manage to turn him on, but also irritate him in less than a minute after that. He was confused, horny and annoyed all in one minute, and because of you.

For once, he wished his brother wasn’t dead. Kakarot was married to a human woman, the mother of his child. Maybe he would know what to do. He would have to figure this out on his own.

Raditz cursed under his breath, standing up and rearranging his pants to best accommodate his hard-on before walking away.

#dbz fics #dbz fanfiction #dbz imagine #raditz x reader #raditz x you #dbz #dragon ball z #raditz #my writing #ce*

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