#tutorial facil

[robo-dino-puppy]

exploring the zenith server room

[creativeminna]

Cardigan de tricô listrado que eu adoro, combina com tudo. Já usei muito e agora tá pequeno, eu prefiro roupas mais folgadas.

É a técnica de aumentar de tamanho descosturando toda a lateral e as mangas da peça.

Dessa vez eu não descosturei, eu cortei mesmo. Bem que eu tentei mas estava ficando ruim, os pontos estavam muito quebrados e iria demorar um século.

Tive coragem e passei a tesoura bem rente aos pontos, bem devagar para não comprometer a estrutura da peça.

Eu nunca tinha cortado uma blusa de tricô assim, fiquei com medo de ela se desmanchar inteira, ainda bem que isso não aconteceu. Não pode esticar ela nem um pouco, tem que manusear com cuidado.

Pra fazer o aumento em si eu escolhi uma camiseta velha com a cor creme bem próxima da blusa. Cortei junto com a barra para aproveitar o acabamento. 4 faixas, 2 no tamanho das mangas e duas para o corpo, todas com 5.5cm de largura.

Comecei a alfinetar a faixa a partir do punho e do cós, assim elas se encontram na cava, daí pude medir certinho e cortar depois de costurar.

Achei a medida certa encontrando bem na costura da cava, marquei com giz, passei uma costura reta, cortei o excedente e depois passei o zigzag.

Na hora de costurar a lateral inteira, fiz ao contrário, primeiro o zigzag e depois a reta com uma distância de 0.5cm, assim segura bem os pontos do tricô.

Ficou assim, as costuras da barra da camiseta encontrando com as extremidades do cardigan. Eu ainda apliquei 2 patches de estrela dourada uma em cada lado

Além de eu adorar o padrão listrado, as cores são incríveis, preto com off white, combina com praticamente todas as minhas roupas, fica ótimo embaixo de um casaco mais pesado e ainda tem os detalhes dos botões de madrepérola, fiquei feliz de ter achado uma boa solução pra continuar usando por mais tempo, apesar de ser velho continua conservado.

[linuxtuts4115tutoriales]

Crea tu cuenta bitcoin con hardware wallet facil y rapido

[artemanual]

Orquídeas (orquideas) de tubos de cartón -Tutorial #diy #tutorial #art ...

[manualidadesgratiss]

Bolso de ganchillo fácil para principiantes - Patrones gratis

DIY Como hacer un bolso de ganchillo fácil. Bolso a crochet para principiantes con el patrón gratis a través del videotutorial paso a paso!! Origen: Bolso de ganchillo fácil para principiantes – Patrones gratis

[aroundtable]

Facendomi il classico giro settimanale dagli amici di Hirtemis, ho scorto un boardgame che ho trovato perfetto per la stagione entrante, quella delle scampagnate e quindi adatto per lo zainetto da giochi in giro: Abbasso i Carciofi, un cattivissimo deckbuilding game a base di ortaggi e cattivaria.

Abbasso i carciofi è un boardgame che porta all'essenza i deckbuilding: ampia varietà di carte con poteri e capacità diverse, ma con un set di regole facilissime da apprendere e soprattutto la missione finire il proprio turno senza carciofi in mano!

Abbasso i carciofi è un gioco da tavolo perfetto da tenere con se per una partita estemporanea ovunque!

Abbasso i carciofi è un gioco da tavolo da 2 a 4 giocatori per la durata di 20 minuti, consigliato dai 10 anni in su edito in Italia da @uplay_it

Seguimi sui miei social: https://www.facebook.com/AroundThe7able/ https://twitter.com/AroundThe7able https://www.instagram.com/around_thetable/ http://aroundtable.tumblr.com/

#AroudtheTable #giochidatavolo #abbassoicarciofi

[kodicraft]

wanna shout out a game i recently discovered for all the autistic computer girlies/dudes/folks

it's pretty short, I beat it in 8 hours. It's about building a computer network inside this post-apocalyptic underground bunker. You'll need to figure out the very lowest level of the game's packet routing system to build a reliable and fast network. You can really optimize this a lot despite the fact it's built on top of basically a single rule and the game knows it at it has multiple ways of challenging your understanding of its systems in an open-world sort of format.

The game really doesn't handhold you, in fact you unlock the game's "tutorial" quite late, I only finished the in-game manual a few minutes before the final puzzle. It leaves you to experiment and understand its systems before formally teaching you how they work.

It came out earlier this month, it has a free demo, a native Linux version and could probably run on a potato. Do give it a try if it sounds like your jam.

[emeraldbloodcrown]

ONCE MORE

Chapter: One - Not Easy Pairing: Poly; Tattoo Artists!141 x Baker!Female Reader Summary: Deciding to get a head start in cleaning up the bakery, you end up hitting up the hardware store and meet a handsome stranger, willing to help you out. Content/Warning: Word Count: 2.6

Days passed, with both of you crashing in your old room, switching between who got to take the too old bed and who had to make due with a mattress on the floor. All of your essentials were strewn around your old desk or were still in your backpacks while the rest of your belongings had taken temporary residency in a storage facility.

In the meantime, you had been able to call a cleaning company and get them to sweep through the shop, taking all of the items that had fallen victim to the fire and documenting the damage for insurance. The safety assessment had already happened before your grandmother had written you, so today would be the first day, you’d be able to work towards the renovation.

You were sitting on the mattress, waiting for Anna to finish in the adjacent bathroom, while scrolling on your phone. You heard her return before you saw her as every step she took was accompanied by a small sound of discomfort.

“How can that bed be more uncomfortable than the damn floor?”

Without looking up, you answered her. “Cause it wasn’t chosen for comfort but for the design.” For emphasis, you clapped twice, making the LED butterflies around the frame light up.

“Never would’ve expected a 16-year old you to be so cheesy.”

“Don’t be jealous”

Anna stretched, letting out a satisfied groan when her spine cracked back into place, and she plopped down next to you.

“So what’s on the agenda?”

“Well we have someone coming to see if our electricity is intact, as well as check our plumbing, which wasn’t necessarily hit but since we have to renovate most everything, why not that too?”

Anna hummed.

“Grandma told me that the hardware store has some sort of sale today, so we should check that out and maybe get as much of what we’re gonna need as we can get.”

“Alright, you wanna do that? I can stay and be with the workers.”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

Making a small detour to get yourself a quick breakfast on the way, after having to swear to your grandmother for the umpteenth time to only visit the family shops and ’not any of the fast-paced run of the mill stores that seemed to pop up everywhere’, you drove to the hardware store.

You still remembered it, having already existed for a long time before you were born but what had once been a small company with only a handful of employees, most of them related to each other, had expanded into a three story tall store.

When your grandmother had told you about needing your help with restoring her shop, you had anticipated that, until it got to the point of baking and selling, you’d be very out of your depth. Building had always been your grandfather’s thing, not something you held a lot of interest in, not that you would’ve been allowed to indulge in it if you had.

A part of you still recalled the look he had given you when you had needed a chisel for a school project and, not knowing the name for it, had just called it the ‘thing for wood stabbing’. An accurate description, you found, but he had not been amused.

So it wasn’t like you thought you would just wing it, but seeing the sheer size, and therefore implied variety in options, made you wonder if your original assessment of doing it yourself with the help of some friends and intense tutorials on YouTube wouldn’t just turn out to be very wishful thinking.

Still you decided to park your car and after minutes of circling the parking lot, you found a free spot quite a bit away out of the entrance. The sale had brought out more customers, you were sure, but you wondered just how well this shop was doing.

Grabbing a cart, you were still staring at the massive store, not watching where you were going and were suddenly taken out of your daydreaming when you stumbled into someone.

Losing your balance, you arm shot out to grab the pillar next to you to save you the landing on concrete, when at the same time the person grabbed your other arm, steadying you. Bitterly a part of you noticed, how he was completely unfazed by you bumping into him. He could’ve at least swayed a little out of politeness.

Apology and thanks already at the tip of your tongue, it remained exactly there when you took a look at the stranger.

At first glance, all you could think about was how handsome he looked, not quite sure if his rugged features was adding to that or if nothing could distract from and ruin his appearance.

He was wearing boots with dark jeans, both having seen better days, as they showed clear signs of wear and tear, as well as several paint blotches, with the jeans also having been haphazardly patched up.

Hoodie and coat were in the same condition, and you wondered if this was his usual attire for working.

Finally making it up to his face, you noticed his long hair, which peaked out underneath the beanie on top of his head, almost reaching his shoulders and curling around his neck. It seemed less of a fashion choice and more like he had just chosen to let his hair grow wild, which was only proven by the state of his beard. Full and long but also very unkempt.

Where you could see skin, he seemed to have strong feature, sharp jaw line only partially hidden but coming full force around his cheeks and brow. He looked wild, edging on dangerous but any fear his features might have caused were forgotten when you looked into his.

Blue.

Stunning and deep, and so very kind. There were little stress lines around them, accompanied by the darkness and bags underneath.

All in all, he looked rough, the kind you’d be polite to but keep a safe distance to. He looked like he had been dealt some shitty cards by life lately but despite it all, you couldn’t help but stare and think how beautiful those eyes of his were.

“Luv?”

And apparently he had also been blessed with an unfairly attractive voice.

In your daze, you only managed to reply with a dumbfounded: “Huh?”

Embarrassment flooded your system as soon as the words had left your mouth, pressing your lips into a thin line, before you tried to save some grace.

“Sorry, what was that?”

His hand on your arm tightened for a moment, only until he was sure you could keep your balance on your own, and then he let you go. You might not have noticed it, if it hadn’t been for you missing his warmth immediately, and the utter confusion at yourself that followed.

Alright. You made a mental note to check Tinder for any local hookups, if you were that touch starved that a stranger could cause such a reaction you were in more of a need for a good fuck than you had assumed.

“Was jus’ askin’ if you were alright. Didn’t get hurt?”

“I bumped into you. Should probably ask you that instead.”

The corners of his mouth lifted, making the lines around his eyes crinkle, giving his eyes a softer edge now.

“Takes a lot more than a pretty bird to send me tumblin’.”

You know it was meant to be a good-hearted joke, nothing serious but you still flushed a little and even he seemed taken aback by his words.

He cleared his throat, “So not hurt, right?”

Noticing the sudden awkwardness, you chose to simply hum in agreement and give him a little wave when you parted ways.

Except you didn’t, because as it turned out, you weren’t just heading to the same store but remaining on the same floor and even going to the same aisle. He looked over his shoulders, probably to make sure you weren’t some weird stalker but when he did, your eyes weren’t even on him.

Instead you looked up at the daunting and overwhelming variations of floor coatings, with more than half of them looking nearly indistinguishable to your very uninitiated eyes.

You looked and felt out of your depth and helpless, trying to figure out what the differences were, when your stranger took pity on you.

“First time?”

You heaved a sigh, “That obvious, huh?”

“‘fraid so. You want some help?”

You took a look at him but didn’t answer yet. Even in his kindness, he looked tired and you had a feeling that he would appreciate you rejecting his polite offer, but the chances of you faring without him were so thin, and with so many customers coming in for the sale, you doubted an employee would have enough time for you, so you couldn’t bring yourself to say no.

“My grandma will have my head for this but I fear I’m gonna need it.”

He smiled again and you found yourself thinking that you wouldn’t mind seeing it more often and making a mental note to try it for however long he was gonna help you.

“No beheading today. It’s no bother. What do you need?”

He closed the distance between you and you could feel the warmth radiating off of him. Pulling up the shopping list you had made beforehand, you turned your phone for him to see. His finger quickly scrolling over the display to see the length of the list before leading you to the first stop.

“I’m John, by the way.”

John turned out to be a saint, patiently explaining to you what each option he presented to you for each item on your list was for and what you needed to look out for when installing it.

“Pretty big project for a beginner.”

“Not by choice. My grandpa was the handyman in our family but I can’t really ask him, and actually calling in a service has always left me with outrageous bills. ‘Course I didn’t think I could just wing it, but last I was here this shop was much smaller.”

He hummed, taking one more glance at your phone before showing you another selection to choose from.

“Lived here before?”

“Yeah, grew up here for the most part actually.”

“Glad to be back?”

“For the most part, I guess. Not too sure just yet.”

John finished by putting the final piece into your cart, giving you a polite smile.

“Well, good luck to you.”

He turned on his heel but you stopped him as just letting him leave wasn’t sitting right by you.

“I know you said, it’s no bother but let me make it up to you.”

There was a moment where you looked at each other, both of you with crossed arms over your chest, trying to gauge who would give into the other first but John must’ve seen something in your eyes because he huffed a little before answering you.

“Alright, luv. Just give me a ring and I’m all yours.” He pulled a small notepad from one of his many coat pockets and quickly scribbled his number on it before handing it to you.

After he left you, you finally allowed you to smile at the weird encounter. That definitely hadn’t been on your schedule but you couldn’t find it in yourself to mind. Taking your cart, you pushed it towards check-out, bracing yourself for the next hurdle: actually paying for the many things in it.

There had been an easiness in John’s limbs as he got out of the shop, his lips almost humming as he got into the car and he caught himself tapping along the steering wheel but the closer he got to his destination, he felt the weight return, as if his bone marrow had turned into cement, dragging him down with every movement.

For a moment, he remained in his car after he parked, listening to the sounds around him and hoping against his better judgement to hear the familiar tunes, smell that scent of her baking, but of course there was nothing.

So he got out, grabbed his purchases and walked into his house. A house that was now solely his, despite the fact that it had been built for a family, for an ours. For her, by him.

The house was musty, needed to be aired and properly cleaned. John knew that if she could see the state it was in, she would throw a fit, tear him a new one for ever letting it come to this.

‘You gotta take care of our home’, she’d say, usually with a whisk in her hand, more often than not making her cinnamon apple buns, the very thing she brought him after their first date when he’d told he hated sweets and she’d told him, he’d love hers.

(She had been right.)

But that was just the thing. For her, their home had been their garden, the reading nook he’d built, the many pictures of their lives and all of the other finer things she had insisted on. For him, she had been his home, and with her gone, he couldn’t find it in him to care, partially hoping that the mess would call out to her and bring her back, even if he couldn’t.

Instead he had taken to disappearing in his work shed for hours on end, working on smaller and bigger projects, anything to take his mind of things. The only break of that routine was the daily phone call from Kate.

He answered her questions more on autopilot, but she hadn’t called him out for it yet so he counted his peaceful days for as long as he could, until she would inevitably drag him back to work to relieve Simon from doing his own and John’s job.

Almost, as if on cue, his phone rang, showing Kate’s number and he answered. He had the practiced replies ready for her but she finally asked him about what he had been doing, the words froze on the tip of his tongue, melted into liquid and got swallowed with saliva, as he surprised both Kate and himself by what he actually told he.

“I met someone today.”

“So what’s the verdict?”

Anna had come outside of the shop as soon as she saw your car pull up and had helped you with bringing your purchases inside. Afterwards, you had both grabbed a quick dinner, settling down on the ground while discussing your plans for the next step, also giving you a chance to check in with the results of her day.

“Well, thankfully it’s not really a must/red light situation and more a might as well/yellow situation. Both teams said that our electricity and water is working fine but that it’s gonna need some work soon, and since we’re already doing everything else, we might wanna look into that too.”

“That can’t be cheap…”

“Nope, but we should definitely be safe for at least a month or two. I mean, we did account for a lot of repairs.”

Taking a bite, you pointed at one of the papers next to her, the bright colors a stark contrast to the white of the service bills.

“What’s that?”

Following the direction of your finger, she pulled it out and showed it to you.

It was a flyer advertising an autumn festival, promising lots of foods, a show and some dancing.

“Didn’t take you for the type to go to these.”

Anna scoffed and shook her head.

“I’m not. But lots of the town’s people will probably be there.”

“And?” You prompted her to continue, not quite getting her point.

“And, your grandmother made such a fuss about community, not just from what you told me about her but also from all the times she reminded us to go to family shops instead of any of the new coffee shops or fast food restaurant. Would be a good way to get to know the people, maybe we’ll meet someone who can help us.”

[ronwestbreeze]

you’re gonna go far | 2

pairing: jake sully x neytiri x tsu'tey x fem!human!reader summary: a scientist arrives on pandora (unwillingly) a year after the exile of the rda. now she must deal with the likes of a clan leader, a great warrior, and a thanator rider. . . word count: 7.2k

read on AO3

The masks were annoying, and you decided halfway into walking through the forest. 

You were stuck between two Na’vi warriors who rode horse-like creatures while being led away from Hell’s Gate and into the unfamiliar forest surrounding the facility. The name of the creatures they rode on escaped you at the moment but all you did know was that you looked utterly ridiculous standing next to them. Like a trapped mouse. Or a bug.

They were that tall.

Anyway, back to the mask. 

While yes, they were useful—humans couldn’t breathe in the air without them, unfortunately—it still didn’t mean they weren’t an inconvenience. There was still dealing with the fogging when your breaths got too heavy or quick. Then there was the fact that you were consciously aware of some of the straps tied around the back of your neck and your jaw. For some reason, it bothered you and you couldn’t stop picking at it.

Your mother mentioned these masks a few times in her videos—even wore one at some point whenever she wasn’t in her avatar body. Sometimes her videos ended up like tutorials—or lectures about every aspect of her job, the Avatar Program, Pandora itself, or whatever created that spark in her eye, that prompted her to send you videos.

You only knew some of the information about Pandora and the Na’vi because of said videos.

That didn’t mean the masks weren’t fucking annoying though.

You didn’t say anything throughout the entire journey and the warriors didn’t offer any conversation, fortunately. 

But then again, they didn’t take too kindly to your sudden appearance in their home—or your species in general. So starting a conversation with you or you with them was out of the question.

There was still a limp in your step as you walked. Your thigh looked newly wrapped, which also told you that the wound was still fresh and hadn’t had much time to heal yet. 

You tried not to wince—or show that you were in pain for the matter. The last thing you wanted was to give them more ammo to complain about.

Not because you necessarily cared for what they thought about you.

You just didn’t have the energy.

“Demon.” One of the warriors—the one walking ahead of you—spoke suddenly, drawing you out of your internal thoughts.

You realized, after blinking, that the warriors had stopped next to a piece of land that was surrounded by what looked like newly bloomed trees and delicate-looking plants.

There was a bit of a lump in the green ground and a long-looking branch—a walking stick maybe—lodged into the ground next to the lump. Small objects decorated this stick. Beads, grass string, a long white shard—a tooth—and some other stuff you didn’t bother to look at.

All you could focus on was the lump. The ground which your mother was buried under. It looked like a couple of years had passed, with all the new growth, instead of a couple of days.

Carefully, you knelt on the ground. Carefully, you allowed your fingers to run along the regrown grass, feeling the lumps of soil and dirt underneath your fingertips. Carefully, you tackled roughly the fact that you wouldn’t be able to see your mother’s smile ever again.

You should’ve cried. But you already gave your tears away in the cell. But you hoped to have more to give. Just for your mother’s grave. Just for the flowers surrounding it.

To you, your mother was gone days ago. You wouldn’t—couldn’t accept that it was for much longer.

Silently, you stayed at the burial. Still and silent. You could’ve been a rock if you had wanted. To remain here, empty with your mother.

But the soft tickle against your right ear spurred you to move. Only slightly, just to swat at whatever was next to your ear away.

A second later it came back, but this time brushing against your left arm. You jolted back, ready to swat at it again when a voice hissed behind you.

“Don’t!”

For a while, you had forgotten that you weren’t alone with your mother. At the voice, you snapped your head over your shoulder to find the Na’vi woman from before—Neytiri—jumping down from a tree behind you. The warriors, who had been tasked to watch you, were already staring at you with intense gazes. The why, you didn’t know.

Something grazed your arm again and the reflex to swat at whatever was touching you kicked in again. You went to swing your arm but Neytiri appeared next to you, catching your arm while hissing, “I said don’t!”

You snatched your arm from her grasp instantly, “What the hell do you want—”

The rest of what you wanted to say remained stuck in your mouth when Neytiri pointed at what was bothering you for the past couple of seconds. Floating around your mother’s grave were white wisps. They moved with the wind and yet on their own accord at the same time. One of them even landed on your arm and stayed there. Despite the gentle breeze that should’ve urged it to fly away.

They reminded you instantly of dandelions. “What are they?”

You expected your question to be met with silence. But Neytiri had answered, “Atokirina. They are very pure spirits.” Instead of the severe expression she wore earlier when you met officially, it was replaced by a thoughtful one as she stared at both the—atokirina—and you. “From a very sacred tree. A tree that is very important to us.”

You continued staring at it warily. It still didn’t move from your arm. Since swatting it was a no-no, you instead gently blew at it until it finally floated from your arm. Only to rest on your injured thigh. The weight of it was nothing, but still. Why didn’t it go away?

Neytiri hadn’t gone away either which was strange. 

Instead, she motioned for the two warriors to leave. You watched them hesitate before steering their horse-like creatures away from you, your mother, and Neytiri.

The three of you were left alone now. You weren’t being surrounded. But you were still being watched. By one less person.

At first, you considered ignoring the Na’vi woman and refocusing your attention on your mother’s burial. It would’ve been easy if not for Neytiri watching you. Literally, you felt her eyes drilling into the side of your head.

“Can I help you with something?” It came out a lot more annoyed than you intended—no, actually you did intend to get your annoyance across.

It was a bitter reminder of the current situation you were forced into.

Neytiri’s ears rose. For a moment the two of you just stared at each other. Until eventually you rolled your eyes and turned your gaze back to your mother.

Then suddenly Neytiri reached for the wooden stick.

Instantly, your defenses drew up. “What are you doing?” She took the beads from the stick. You reached for her hand, “Stop. Leave it alone—”

Neytiri hissed at you and you reluctantly dropped your hands. 

You glared at her hands as she carefully removed the beads—which turned out to be attached to the grass string like some type of necklace. And delicately she held it in her hands, yellow eyes glimmering as she observed it.

For some reason, you were just angry. You didn’t know what the necklace was but you sure as hell didn’t want anyone messing with your mother’s burial. Never mind the fact that someone took the time out of their day to make it for her—a Na’vi most likely. Rationality wasn’t present right now.

All there was, all you could afford, was just anger.

“What’s your deal?” You questioned hotly. “Do you dislike me so much that you have to tamper with my mother’s grave? Do you have to come and keep an eye on me yourself? I already told you I would leave, what fucking more do you all want from me?!”

Neytiri looked up from the necklace to frown at you. Still, a thoughtful look was present in her eyes. “I want nothing from you. You have nothing to offer me, demon…” Her eyes then fell on the atokirina that still rested on your thigh. She then shook her head, “It does not matter what I want.”

Irritated and…confused, you forced yourself up to your feet. “If you want me gone that bad, then fine. Whatever. Just,” Your hands clenched together when she still hadn’t put the necklace down. Your heart twists in on itself. “Just put that back.” Neytiri looked up at you with an unreadable expression. “Please. And don’t—don’t get rid of this place. Please let her stay here even when I’m not here anymore. This was her dream. I don’t want to be the one to ruin it because of—because of everything that happened. She’s innocent.” At least that’s what you hoped.

God, you were so exhausted.

Neytiri didn’t say anything. Instead, she eyed you curiously now. You ignored her gaze and looked down at your hands.

The blisters and ash were long gone now—someone must’ve cleaned your hands while you had been unconscious during your trip to Pandora—now they were just covered in dirt. Imprints of your nails digging into your palms were still present.

Suddenly, the necklace was in your hands. It appeared longer in your hands than it did in hers.

You looked up to find Neytiri kneeling in front of you, staring at you intensely. Instantly your fingers wrapped around the object. Feeling the cool beads, the sharp white tooth, a small bone—this was a peculiar necklace. You wondered if Joan ever wore it.

“It is a songcord.” Neytiri’s voice snapped you out of your quiet thoughts. “We sing for memory.” She then pointed to one of the beads. It was a beautiful purple color, like a shell of sorts. She then pointed to a few more shells along the string until the very end. A black shell next to the bone. “Those are her memories of you. Until the end.”

The anger, you so rightfully felt, had gone and turned into true grief. It hadn’t left you. It had only been overshadowed by your rage. Grief and anger often coincided with each other lately. Sometimes you felt one more than the other.

And your eyes were filled with water once more.

Because your mother hadn’t forgotten about you. God, you were so selfish for thinking otherwise.

You were back on your knees, clutching the songcord close to your chest as silent tears fell from your cheeks and dripped noiselessly to the ground. At that moment, you didn’t care that you weren’t alone. You didn’t care that a stranger was seeing you cry—whereas others who knew you had never witnessed it.

Pandora had made you very vulnerable. Unarming your defenses and breaking you down into the child that you so desperately protected from the world.

Once you calmed down, you were still surprised that Neytiri hadn’t left you alone. One would’ve thought the sight of someone crying would’ve swayed them away. But not her.

You stood, still clutching the songcord in your hands. You didn’t look at Neytiri when you asked somberly, “Can I keep this?”

You didn’t know why you asked. Could she even stop you from taking it? Did she even care enough to stop you? None of these things you knew.

Neytiri did not respond. Her ears twitched as she adjusted her grip on the long bow she had been carrying in her other hand. She stood and you were once again reminded of how tall these people were compared to you.

She nodded her head toward the direction you had come from before with the two warriors, “Come.”

You watched as Neytiri started in that direction. You frowned, tucking the songcord away into your pants pocket—as delicately as you could. “I know my way back.”

“Come.” Neytiri just repeated as she kept going.

Not really in the mood to argue, you let your shoulders sink and followed after her.

And it wasn’t a long walk back to Hell’s Gate—the base where you had been kept—so you still didn’t understand why Neytiri had seemed so insistent in walking you back. Nor did you care to protest about it. The day had been too exhausting. You were ready to shut your eyes. Just to let your body rest.

Once you got to one of the entrances, Neytiri stayed outside, watching you silently as you entered and took off your mask. You glanced back at her with furrowed brows. Neytiri blinked and ran back into the forest. Seconds later you saw one of those winged creatures fly off into the sky.

You took out your mother’s songcord. Memorizing every detail, every bead, until it tied together and ended with the bone.

Was this hers? Was this your mother’s bone?

There was a question in the back of your mind. One that you forced away the moment you were being led to your mother’s burial. One that you had refused to acknowledge ever since DeVoe had brought you here.

DeVoe was dead. And you had some time on your hands.

Eywa hadn’t been wrong before. Neytiri had witnessed it.

With Jake. With Tsu’tey. The last time an atokirina favored someone, it had saved her clan from the Sky People. It had brought them the Toruk Makto, who united the clans together to run those sky demons off their planet. Eywa had heard them.

And Neytiri wouldn’t stop listening.

She had a dream a few nights before—before the RDA ship landed. She saw a shooting star. Flying straight toward her.

Still to this day, she wondered what that meant.

Then you came. She had spotted you first with another Sky Demon—this one reminding her too much of that one she killed, Quaritch. So, she shot an arrow through the demon’s head.

And she finally got a clearer view of you after landing and sliding off her ikran. Neytiri inched toward you with caution. She saw that you immediately didn’t get up to fight her. Instead, you just stayed on the ground and began desperately crawling toward a mask just a few feet away from you. You did not see her.

Neytiri reached the mask first and grabbed it from your reach. Your whimpers weren’t hard to hear, nor were your struggles for breath. There was no fight from you. Your body just slumped against the ground, staring up at Neytiri with glazed—almost empty eyes.

You did not fight her for the mask. You did not fight for your life.

With that knowledge, it should’ve been easy for Neytiri to leave you there. She should’ve tossed the mask far away from your body and let the toxic air consume you until your heart stopped beating. 

Because you were just another infection on her land. In her home.

“Demon.” She hissed at you before your eyes rolled to the back of your head.

Just as Neytiri would’ve turned to leave and find the others, her body stopped instantly when she saw the atokirina.

It was so out of place among all the wreckage surrounding them. But still pure. Always pure.

Neytiri prayed that it wouldn’t do what she thought it was about to do. She hoped that she was wrong for assuming much.

But the atokirina landed on your forehead back then. Just as they came to you at your mother’s burial.

She could’ve left you for dead.

But Eywa hadn’t been wrong before.

She could risk it. She couldn’t be like Tsu’tey and heartlessly leave the body to rot. To suffer for invading their home. To pay for the sins they had committed. For trying to come back.

But Neytiri wasn’t like Tsu’tey. And she was fine with that.

She knelt next to you at the last second and placed the mask against your face. She had done it exactly like how she did with Jake when he had been yanked out of his body during the war. Where she nearly lost him.

She kept the mask pressed to your face, praying for forgiveness from the Great Mother. Hoping that she hadn’t missed her chance. Desperate as you were trying to reach for the mask.

You were so small in her arms. Somewhat smaller than Jake had been.

The minutes lasted achingly long until the mask began fogging up.

Neytiri sighed with relief, “Thank you, Great Mother. Thank you.”

For some reason, Eywa favored you that day. And restated it the next when you were at your mother’s burial.

The Great Mother had something in store for you. And Neytiri was quite curious to see what that meant.

Hell’s Gate was abandoned. There were still people running about of course but immediately you had a feeling this place used to be more.

“This was where the RDA and everyone else primarily lived and worked,” Norm confirmed your silent question as he led you through a long hallway, both of you holding a mask in your hands.

You would’ve groaned at the idea of putting back on a mask but right now you were quite determined. Before you left Pandora, you wanted to know one thing. That was it. It wasn’t closure. It was just the information you wanted to obtain.  Something to think about. Something that might dwindle your decision about leaving Pandora.

Both of you passed by different rooms, people who were either face first in their tablets or a deep discussion with their colleagues. Norm noticed this and cleared his throat, “There’s very few of us left here. After the RDA were exiled and all, the natives were reluctant to even allow us to stay here. Even if we did help them win. Before that, there were a lot more of us here. The good and the bad.”

Quietly, you wondered which side your mother fell on.

After putting on your exo-mask, Norm stopped at a door and pushed it open, leading the two of you outside. There, you saw more Na’vi—no, avatars running about. Exercising, manual labor, anything to do with being active.

“This is where most of the avatars come to train their new bodies. Over there are the gardens—” he pointed further toward the right of them where a bunch of tall browning crops were. And there were a lot of them. Stretching toward the trees surrounding them. You wondered if that was a part of the garden too. You wondered if your mother had a hand in that. “No one’s tended to it for a while now. We lost a good number of scientists, not enough to be in charge of it.”

Finally, Norm led you toward a building nestled in the trees. He opened the front door—which was surprisingly unlocked. The door whined from the action. It was quite old looking—no, not taken care of for a while.

“This is where your mother worked. Right in the middle of the action.” Norm explained as you entered the small shack.

It was just another lab. Just a lot larger and crowded than the ones in the main building. Crowded yet neat. Even with all the stuff in here, it was somehow still neat.

Norm cleared his throat again, “I’ll come back for you when we find a ship for you.”

You absently nodded. 

Seconds later the door closed and finally, you removed your mask. The moment you stepped forward, the lights came on. The computers at the center of the room suddenly came to life. Holographic screens floated around the room.

After placing the mask on a table next to a golf club—you didn’t even question it knowing your mother’s randomness—and approached the computers, quickly getting to work on what you wanted to find. 

Which was pretty straightforward. Mostly because you were used to your mother’s organization, her system. Apart of being an apprentice under her required you to sort out everything in a particular order. Files weren’t alphabetical but sorted according to how they would make your mother feel.

Joan Reeds was quite the eccentric scientist.

Files that put her in a good mood would be the first ones to be greeted with. You moved past those. 

Files that made her annoyed would be put aside or hidden away in another folder until she was ready to tackle them. You scrolled past that folder too. 

Then there were files that she would get to eventually—meaning she’d procrastinate on them until they were forgotten. Usually, those went into the recycle bin. And there were a lot.

You scrolled past all of these to get to what you wanted. After getting through a few of hers and the RDA’s security walls, you eventually found the locked files DeVoe had wanted you to look at.

The password space empty.

The next few minutes were spent entering passwords that you thought your mother would use. Her name, Joan. Her birthday. Your birthday. Your father’s birthday. Your late dog’s name—which you knew would’ve been wrong considering how much she hated that dog. Her cat’s name, which she left to you before her trip.

All of them were wrong.

You glanced toward the door, wondering how much time you had left before Norm came to get you. And then you took out your mother’s songcord, looking at it carefully. Memorizing every detail, feeling every bead, every object strung together. Until you found yourself staring at the end. The bone.

You wondered what type of song it was. You wondered how she would’ve sung it. You imagined her voice. Her laughter. Her twinkling eyes. Her excitement. Her infectious wonder.

The bone was rough against your callous fingers.

A word suddenly came to mind then. It was a long shot but you tried it anyway.

Placing the songcord back in your pocket, you typed in the next word after the twenty-minute password cooldown:

Shadow.

A beat went by.

And the folder opened.

There was a tug on your lips. 

Or perhaps you imagined your face breaking into a smile. You couldn’t tell. Your face had been quite stuck as a scowl. Almost like it was permanent.

A video came up first. Your mother wasn’t smiling like she always did in her videos.

“Log 238. We’re making progress on our gardens and the animals we rescued from the RDA’s latest trek through the forest.” She winced, her eyes sparkling with a hint of rage. “Selfridge is pressuring me to hurry up my research on the neurotoxin. I keep telling him that there has been no progress so far and that there would most likely never be progress. He bought it at first but he’s becoming desperate. Greedy. I can only keep up the lies for so long.”

The video ended. Which was smart. She probably didn’t want to admit the truth on camera. You imagined that the RDA had some access to these videos, so her admitting what the lie was would’ve been damning evidence. Especially if she was so protective over it.

You kept looking until you stumbled upon a folder that opened into more holographic screens. You moved the screens around, taking in all the information she had hidden. 

Turns out she did come up with something. Only it was how to develop the neurotoxin. All the information was there to remake it in their labs, to have some of their own. 

You understood then. You understood why DeVoe was so desperate to uncover what was behind the wall. Just another weapon to use against the Na’vi.

Not like they didn’t already have enough.

From the video diaries, your mother explained the darker side of her trip. She never went into too much detail but you could always tell that it bothered her. So much so that she avoided talking about it at all costs. Like she didn’t want to ruin your young fantasy the same way it had happened to her.

You found another video and your stomach lurched.

She looked pale and skinnier here. This must’ve been around the time she was sick.

“Log 324. They won’t stop. Not until they get the unobtanium from them. They’ll take and take and take until there’s nothing left. Until this is a void of a planet—and it makes me sick thinking about it. It makes me sick—knowing that I had helped, whether it was intentional or not I had helped them progress. Oh my god, oh my god. What will my daughter think? What would she think of me? Knowing I had done this? I can’t—I can’t let her see this—be a part of this. It’ll eat her alive, it’ll destroy her. Pandora is a gold mind for them. And they're not going to stop, no matter what I do. The one thing I can do, the only thing in my power I can do is hide my research. Hide it until…I don’t know. I don’t know…” 

Joan dropped her head down. Her breathing was hallow, wheezing. You shook, watching her. The corners of your eye itching harshly. 

“If any—wheeze—if any of you fucks find this…..leave her out of it. If I’m dead, my work goes with me.”

You backed away from the table, eyes wide.

She never wanted you here. She never wanted you here.

“You hear me?!” Joan shouted at the camera. “It all dies with me!”

Anger burned your blood. It spurred you into action as you grabbed the nearest object—the golf club—and grasped it tightly in your hands.

You didn’t think. 

You didn’t think one bit. All you did was swing. Swung it down on the computers, shattering the monitors, smashing the hard drives, the consoles—everything on the table that contained information. You kept going and going and going until there was a worn dent in the pole.

After those computers were surely destroyed, you moved onto the shelves, the journals, the papers—anything that held information. You destroyed it all. 

And god, it felt so good. 

Finally having an outlet to waste all your angered energy away. Finally able to let it out with both a shout of rage and with every bit of your strength left.

You screamed and you hit.

You screamed. You hit.

You screamed. You hit.

One of the monitors caught on fire. But you kept going.

You screamed. You hit.

You screamed. You hit.

You screamed. You hit.

You screamed. You hit.

The door to the lab suddenly opened. The fire had spread to the scattered papers and journals on the floor.

Smoke hadn’t reached your nose until you heard Norm’s shouts behind you. And the reddened vision began to fade into orange flames.

Somehow you were always surrounded by fire.

Behind you, Norm shouted, “What did you do?!”

You hadn’t responded. All you did was threw the worn golf club down and remained there in the room.

A shadow of yourself among the flames.

“What happened?” Jake demanded once he spotted Norm’s avatar approaching.

Just moments before, he had received reports from scouts near Hell’s Gate that there had been some type of fire. Though it wasn’t huge it was still enough to spook the locals and anger a certain Olo’eyktan. Not long after, he got a call from Norm, saying he had to meet with him urgently before Jake took off on his ikran to check out the fire. Although, he briefly wondered why he couldn’t just fly over to Hell’s Gate and meet up with him.

Norm was already on the way. So Jake had waited until he showed up.

After hopping out of the landed Samson ship, Norm raised his hands cautiously, “Well, I can explain—”

“Make it quick,” Jake grumbled, adjusting his chest strap. “I was supposed to be heading out with the scouts to check out some fire. They said it was near Hell’s Gate, Norm. What the hell is going on over there?”

He didn’t mean to sound snappy or on edge than he intended. But after that RDA ship arrived, everyone—including him—had been on edge for the past few days. Jake couldn’t sleep. Tsu’tey’s nightmares were getting worse--his mother becoming more aggravating as the days passed. There was a lot that Jake tried to juggle, tried to manage to the point where someone would eventually have to tell him to slow down and take a breath.

But it seemed Jake could never afford to “take a breath”.

Neytiri—just ducked out of their shared hut with her bow at her side as usual—was one of the people who had to often ground Jake whenever the world, his duties, did get too much. Overwhelming. And when Artsut became savage, Neytiri would become brutal. She would defend Jake with her last breath. She would take him in her arms, pulling him out of the world for a moment, and just talk to him. Talk to him about Neteyam, her hunt, anything to bring some sort of sanity back to Jake.

And he was so grateful to her. So in love with her. But he didn’t deserve her love or her support. If he had been a good husband, a good mate, he would’ve known that. Every time she or Tsu’tey just loved him, there was always guilt squeezing at his heart. Until he lost oxygen.

So to breathe, Jake protected the clan as their Toruk Makto. Kept training and learning more about the Na’vi way as best as he could. Protected Neytiri. Protected Tsu’tey. Protected Neteyam.

Be the best mate that he could. The best father that he never had.

Other than that, what was his worth to them?

“You are in the way.” Neytiri frowned at Norm. Even if Jake and Norm were friendly, Neytiri still wasn’t well adjusted to his presence—which was fair. Any human presence in the village had her on edge. “What is it you want, dreamwalker?”

Norm quickly spoke, “The fire has been contained, it didn’t spread anywhere. The only thing that was damaged was the building it started in.”

Okay, that was somewhat of a relief. But Norm didn’t look like he was done, which was why Jake couldn’t relax entirely at the news. “—It was mostly an accident. Dr. Reeds, she wasn’t in her right mind—”

“Reeds?!” Jake snapped. Of course, it was the new human that did this. Of course, you’d instantly have to start causing problems the moment you arrived here. “How the hell did she get access to a lab in the first place?!”

Norm sighed, “It was her mother’s lab. Something in there must’ve triggered her. She destroyed everything. The hard drives. The manual files. A lot of valuable research was lost.”

What was the goal here? Why pretend like to not want anything to do with Pandora or the RDA and then go and pull a stunt like this? 

In the corner of his eye, he noticed Neytiri’s face change slightly. It softened--only a little bit. And she was noticeably quiet, not having anything to say about the fact that you started the fire. A human. Which, once more, she was uncomfortable around.

“How long until she’s off this planet?” Jake instead scowled, earning a surprised look from both Neytiri and Norm.

Norm looked nervous, “That was another thing I wanted to tell you. We don’t have the resources to send her back. There’s just no way. The ship that she came in is already destroyed by the attack. We have nothing—Dr. Reeds is pretty much stuck with us.”

“Bullshit!” Jake hissed.

“We should bring her to Tsahik.”

Both men looked at Neytiri in shock. After a beat, Jake responded, “What?”

Neytiri nodded surely, “We bring her to Tsahik. She will know what to do with her.” Jake still stared at her in bewilderment. She gave him a meaningful look before addressing him in Na’vi. “You did not see it, Ma’Jake. The atokirina. They were there the day she arrived. And came again when she went to see her mother. It happened to you too. The Great Mother is telling us something. And we must hear her.”

Jake was thrown off. No, he was confused. Because Neytiri was usually the one fully against the Sky People. She held a fit of righteous anger toward them, the same for Tsu’tey. Those two would be Team Get-Rid-Of-Humans-Altogether. But now?

It wasn’t necessarily out of character though. Neytiri had always believed in Eywa. She did with him when the atokirina came to him when they first met. When she saved him--even though she could’ve just as well left him to die to those thanators. Now wouldn’t have been any different if the same thing happened again.

That didn’t mean he had to be convinced.

Jake turned back to Norm, “I want to talk to her.”

Norm sighed, “I don’t know if that’s a—”

“I want to know who exactly we’re dealing with here. She’s already shown how destructive she can be. How do we know she’s not capable of doing worse?”

Surprisingly, instead of a look of understanding—which was often Norm’s character when it came to the natives—he wore something close to offense. “She’s grieving, Jake. And yes, I know we aren’t exactly on good terms with humans outside of Pandora—but she isn’some monster. She lost her mother for Christ’s sake! It may have been years ago for us but for her, it happened a few days ago! This is all understandingly jarring to her. We have to—” He sighed tiredly, massaging his face. “At least consider that when you do talk to her. The wound is still fresh.”

Jake’s ears twitched, his walls still up. Norm could’ve been right, he could’ve considered this. And he would. He would keep it in mind.

But this situation, all of it was just terrifying. 

His nightmares, his fears—it felt like it all just came true the moment they saw that RDA ship. And in that moment Jake thought about the home he had only just started for himself. His mates—the loves of his life—his son who wasn’t even one—and the child that wasn’t even born yet. He felt, in that brief moment, all of that slipping from his fingers and burning away.

Jake was surrounded by fire. He was always surrounded by fire.

“I’ll talk to her.” Jake reiterated. He called for his ikran and seconds later Bob came flying down and landed in front of the three of them. Jake got onto the saddle and looked to Neytiri, his scowl softening. “Tell Mo’at I’ll bring her over in an hour or two.”

Neytiri nodded and rushed off. Norm shifted on his feet and pursed his lips, “Please don’t make her go all She-Hulk on you.”

Jake rolled his eyes, “I’ll meet you there.” and Bob took off.

At some point, you had fallen asleep.

Your body wouldn’t allow you to fight it any longer. Apparently, you hadn’t gotten much rest since your arrival on Pandora. It’s a wonder you didn’t pass out until now.

But then again, you were too much of a light sleeper to get a nice complete rest. Any noise, unfortunately, woke you up from your well-deserved sleep. And when you sat up and blinked the sleep away, exhaustion still weighed down your shoulders.

You looked down at your hands. There were leftover red markings from your tight grip on the golf club from earlier. 

When were your hands ever unmarked? You couldn’t remember.

The songcord was thankfully still in your pocket. You must’ve snatched it in time before being dragged out of the lab and thrown back into a cell again. That was the one thing keeping you sane here surprisingly. Holding your mother’s songcord close to your chest, letting it always touch your skin, and studying each bead every time you brought it out.

It always ended with the bone. Always. Always.

In the corner of your eye, you noticed some ash on your shirt sleeve.

Someone cleared their throat.

You looked up and then found Norm standing in front of your cell. The glass was gone. He nodded his head toward the doorway leading out of the cell room, “Jake wants to talk to you.”

You blinked, “Who the hell is that?”

“Come on, work with me here, Doc.” Norm sighed as you sluggishly got up from the cot. Gently, you tucked your mother’s songcord back into your pocket. “You met him when you first arrived here. Remember when you asked to see your mother? He was there. He’s Toruk Makto to the Omatikaya. He’s a great warrior to the People….and believe it or not he used to be like us. Human.”

You didn’t say anything for a moment as Norm led you out of the cell room. “Okay, why does he want to talk to me?”

“Because believe it or not, Reeds, you and Sully are a lot alike. Even if he doesn’t realize it. If anything, he’s probably your best bet.”

“And if he isn’t?”

Norm frowned but didn’t look at you. “I’m not sure.”

This time, you didn’t go outside—thank god. 

Instead, Norm led you to another room on the ground floor. You were quite startled to find that in this room were a bunch of tanks, occupied with many more avatars. They looked unused compared to the ones you’ve seen roaming about on the grounds.

For a moment, you allowed yourself to wonder if some of these belonged to the people who used to live here. The ones that were exiled.

There was only one avatar that stood among the sleeping ones. Or a Na’vi.

Jake Sully. This great warrior once like you. A human.

He was near one of the tubes. Looking particularly focused on this one. You couldn’t see clearly just which avatar he was looking at. Nor did you try to.

“Please, behave.” Norm squirmed. He was looking at both you and Jake when he said that before ducking out of the room.

Leaving just the two of you.

Jake finally tore his gaze away from the tube to look at you.

“You wanted to see me.” You stated rather than asked. Better to get straight to the point than to talk around it.

He sized you up carefully and frowned, “You nearly burned down a lab.”

“My mother’s lab, yes. As I currently understand it, she made it pretty clear that I was to be her successor before she passed.” Your tone was clipped. Steel gaze unwavering from his observant and stern one. “Which, I believe, means I can do what I want with it.”

“And so you thought destroying it was smart?” He scowled, obviously annoyed by your apparent unconcerned attitude. “You could’ve burned down the forest with your recklessness—if that wasn’t already your goal in the first place.”

You snorted humorlessly, “Fuck off.”

“This place has already seen war. We don’t need more of it—”

“Sure, that’s fine. So, how exactly am I going to start a war? By existing? The only person you needed to worry about starting a war is already dead so no need to worry about that anymore—”

“I don’t think you fully understand what’s going on here.” Jake snapped, yellow eyes blazing in your direction. “To the natives, you are just another infection that they have no problem getting rid of. They will kill you—especially after that little stunt you pulled with your mother’s lab. And your little attitude sure ain’t gonna fix shit for yourself—”

You laughed. And it was a sharp sound too. “I’m sorry, should I be weepy and pathetic instead? Is that what you want? The poor defenseless human whose shit outta luck? Well, I got news for you, buddy.”

His face was hard. His presence, intimidating. A Marine. Anyone would’ve faltered around him. Reconsidered their moves. Softened their spine.

But your spine was dripping with venom. And your moves were unpredictable and hazardous. Something he couldn’t contain.

Jake finally huffed, shaking his head, “Norm thinks I can help you—and I’ve known him for long enough to know that. But I can’t help someone who refuses to listen. I can’t help someone uncooperative. I can’t help a loss cause.” You glared at him. He glared back. “I understand your loss, believe me, I do. But what happens next is out of my hands. Whatever happens next is on you.”

You shrugged, every word felt like you were tasting blood with how pissed off you were, “Then it’s a good thing I don’t need your fucking help then.” Jake’s nose flared, tail lashing behind him in barely contained anger. “So why am I still on this planet? If I’m such a bother to you, a loss cause—in your words, why am I still here—”

“Because there’s no way to get you off of it,” Jake snapped.

He sounded as if he didn’t like the truth coming from his own mouth. You, on the other hand, were flabbergasted. 

So you were stuck on a planet—the same one you were forced to fly to? The same one where a bunch of Na’vi people looked at you as a moving target?

What the actual fuck?

You wanted to scream. You wanted to cry. 

But every bit of your energy had gone after your rage at your mother’s lab. All you could do was feel the exhaustion get worse and your power failed you. Anger seemed too much effort to muster now. All there was…

Sluggishly, you looked up at the ceiling with a long drawn-out sigh.

Why were you even so adamant about going back home? 

What was even left for you there? Your mother was gone and so was her forest, the one thing you promised to continue while she was gone.

But you failed. The forest was gone—hell five years have passed after you left Earth. There was probably nothing even left for you to do there.

There was no point in you going back. It was all over anyway.

God, you were so exhausted.

You looked back at Jake to find him watching you quietly, now deciphering your reaction. The severity in his face was still there but now well restrained by his guarded expression. Probably wondering if you were going to throw another rage fit.

You wanted to.

Instead, you muttered, “So, I’m stuck here. Fine. What will you do with me?”

There was a long pause before Jake responded. “I can’t decide that. Our Tsahik wants to see you. Maybe she’ll figure it out—if our Ole’eyktan decides otherwise.”

“So, I’m as good as dead.” You said, almost acceptingly.

He made an uncommitted sound. Another pregnant pause went by.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have tried to burn the forest down. Your odds could’ve been better.”

You chuckled bitterly, moving toward one of the tubes. You didn’t recognize the avatar but you studied it anyway. “If I hadn’t done that then the RDA would’ve gotten their hands on research having to do with recreating your little neurotoxin. You know that shit you use on your arrow tips? My mother discovered a way to recreate it. She died protecting that secret. And now I destroyed it permanently so no one could get their hands on it.” 

His ears twitched at this—it steadily reminded you of a cat. 

You looked up at him bleakly. “You're welcome.”

Jake didn’t say anything. You just kept staring at the random avatar. 

Somewhere in your mind, you were intrigued by it. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you remembered that there was one waiting for you to use.

You wondered if you would ever be able to use it. To muster the strength to use it.

“We should go.” Jake finally said. “The Tsahik is waiting.”

taglist: @doggyteam2028 @slutforsmut4ever @lik0 @bigbootahjudy @innercreationflower

[gingersforeverbox]

Headcanons about Nathan Bateman and a Reader who likes to crochet

A/n: Ok, I know this is niche/ self-indulgent as fuck, but I just took up crocheting about a month ago (loving it too) and I can’t stop imagining what Nathan with a reader who likes to crochet would look like, So have some headcanons!

Crochet is tricky to get the hang of, but I feel like your determination to keep trying and to keep learning would definitely interest Nathan. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I still think Nathan would laugh and call it a “grandma hobby”, but he is secretly relieved that you’ve found something to keep you occupied out in the middle of nowhere with him.

Nathan’s grocery lists slowly begins to add regular shipments of various yarns over time for you, resulting in a room in the facility becoming devoted to your craft as a sort of art studio, equipped with custom crochet hooks that take your hands and preferences into account. You’ve looked many times, but you can never find where they came from or who made them (Nathan made them for you specifically but will deny it to your face).

If you like working on your crochet around others, I can absolutely see Nathan either working in the lab while you work on the futon behind his desk  or even him just flopping down on the couch next to you after a long day with a beer.

The one thing about the crocheting that Nathan does not enjoy is finding the little scraps of yarn around the facility, and he will not hesitate to get on the overcoms to tell you to remove a piece of scrap he found in his lab. Every now and then you think that he takes a piece of scrap from your pile just to put it in the lab as an excuse to make you come and see him (he does).

Working on your first big piece? He will watch your internet history fill up with tutorials and advice from crocheting websites and social media, and he will offer a small compliment on a specific pattern of stitch you use throughout your piece.

Nathan would absolutely ask you to replace a beanie he uses for when he goes hiking up the glacier.

you can't TELL me that he wouldn't nag you about taking care of your hands.

"Your hands are gonna be crippled in a week if you don't take a break every now and then honey." "Use these. They're fingerless compression gloves specifically for people who use yarn. Don't look at me like that, I just don't want to have to listen to you whine about it later."

idk I'm just imagining Nathan just watching Reader descend into crocheting madness

[samuelthesilly]

*Puts on autism goggles*

So fun fact, V1 never participated in the murder of humankind. This isn’t just a headcanon either, this can be backed up with actual facts. When you first start the game, you’re presented with this:

A hallway with planks over it. In order to enter hell, you need to break these planks with your fist, a simple way of implementing a tutorial. Right?

WRONG.

If V1 had to break those planks, that means that it was the first being to enter Hell after it had been closed off by humanity.

If all the machines in ULTRAKILL run on blood, (and they do, every single one gives blood when hit, plus the terminal entries confirm it) surely after depleting all blood on the surface, they would venture into Hell where there’s more in order to survive.

V1 being the first to enter Hell implies that at some point, for one reason or another, they were turned on and set free/escaped into the world.

“But Sam, V1 could have entered Hell first and also killed the humans”

NOPE!

Look at your health when you first start the game. 10/100. V1 runs on blood, so surely after massacring even just one human, they would be much higher health. No, to me this implies that V1 was purposely kept on low health at whatever lab/storage facility it was at (considering V1 never made it out of the prototype phase).

Another thing is the main objective; ‘find a weapon’. If V1 had engaged in the killing, it would have absolutely scavenged a weapon to help kill better (we know it definitely isn’t above stealing things from other machines). If you want to, you could write off the breaking of the planks as nothing but a tutorial. However, this still doesn’t make sense. If it entered Hell after humanity was already dead, what was stopping it from scavenging/stealing a weapons before venturing downwards?

Anyway, my theory, which probably doesn’t even matter, is this;

V1, for whatever reason, was powered on/released before the massacre of humanity. Maybe a few hours, or even minutes beforehand, it can’t have been long considering the whole game takes place over the course of like 24 hours. Also, we literally see the mass influx of souls in the river Styx. (This also implies that the Ferryman was saved by Gabriel pretty much right before we meet them, which is kinda sad. Imagine getting saved, then either dying to a robot or a f*cking leviathan. I’m not sure how they had time to carve the statue of Gabe, so I’m gonna cautiously assume they made it before meeting him IRL.)

That’s pretty much all I have. I don’t know why V1 entered Hell in the first place, all I know is it wasn’t responsible for humanity’s extinction. Feel free to theorise/tell me i’m an idiot in the tags/replies.

[cherryxsapphic]

Mother Gooseberry babying/coddling y/n headcanons! Pretty please 🥺 I want to feel tiny

Absolutely!! Love bug ♡

to be honest with you, I've been really obsessed with outlast trials lately and has been playing non stop recently, because I wanna get to the second catalog!!

Warnings: blood, gore, injury, basic outlast stuff

→ you were certainly new to the trials pretty much stepping on every trap you could possibly find. Even though you didn't do it on purpose. It's just every time you would run from an enemy a trap would somehow be in front of you and you know what happens next. and also you got bullied a lot by the enemies, especially the giants and Coyle and also Franco. (broskis in his widowmaker era hitting me from across the map😔)

→ but anyways, when it came to Mother gooseberey, she was such a breath of fresh air. There was something about her that generally comforted you, as sick and twisted as that may be considering that she chases you around with a drill that is her father and has a real yapping problem and probably should be locked up for life if he wasn't actually dead rip. (We love him tho) but his daughter adores you and has pretty much made it in her brain that you're her baby, and that when she catches you you won't be able to escape from her grip!!

→ ok, and once she has you, you are literally spoiled with affection, it's everything from smooches, her literally carrying you, which is insane, considering she has only one free hand/arm, Her other arm is amputated and has the drill obviously. So, like, imagine, she's holding you with one arm, ok? both of your hands around her neck and you're just curled up in her side, and she just casually carrying you like its nothing.

→ so basically any affection that you could possibly think of she gives it to you, unless she's not capable of it of course. But she tries and also she has a tendency of hugging you so hard that you have to tell her that you need to breathe but ya know you'll be fine.

→ also, another scenario I'd like to imagine is, ok, imagine you're on that fancy bed that we all first see when we do the tutorial, for the very first part of the game. The exact same fancy bed that we have to hide under because of the psychosis dude. Ok, so Mother Gooseberry is laying down you're on top of her, your face is in her neck or in her shoulder/chest. Her hand on your back, and you're just essentially laying on top of her on your stomach, and you're just curled up, and she's rubbing your back and let me tell you, you had the best sleep you ever had since you made it to this facility.

→ also another thing I'd like to mention she is very over protective and possessive of you obviously your her baby, her little Angel that could do no wrong essentially. if you get injured somehow like really bad, bleeding, gash, basically the most horrendous thing that you could possibly think of or whether someone mess with you or you got hurt while just exploring the orphans/mansion (because who wouldn't) Phyllis thy Futterman will be drilling a bitch and who knows you might be able to watch her put a cute new face on one of her dolls/latest victims 🥰 (if your into that ofc)

→ and if your injured, she would gently bandage you up and if you ask nicely, she might even kiss it better. Also another thing, even Dr. Futterman went off the chain, even though he's been in bag jail alot for insulting you. Phyllis says he cares deep down, but whether that's true we'll never know.

Hi!! so if you made it this far, thank you!! I know I pretty much Yapped the whole entire time but I hope y'all enjoyed it!!

And also whoever requested this, I hope you like it and that it's up to your standards. ♡

[danshive]

(Runs into audiobook recording facility that definitely exists in 2024)

(Pastes trans voice tutorials all over the walls)

(Runs out)

[thereal-true-ogilvie]

hello everyone welcome to i talk about benrey for a minute here

as someone who’s watched the entirety of hlvrai at least 6 times, the full vods at least 3, and the cast commentary hovering somewhere around 10, i consider myself to be pretty well-versed in the series. i also kin benrey. this is probably important to my perception of him.

the series is about self-aware AI.   its in the title! so it seems obvious enough to me that Benrey was programmed to be the final boss. he was SUPPOSED to be a silly character that antagonizes the protag and throws off the group dynamic, and then it’s a big reveal and you get to beat up this guy that was mean to you!

but he doesnt wanna. hes self aware.

Of all the characters, i think Bubby and Tommy are the most “powerful” in that they were able to break their characters the most. Tommy is a bit of a wild card because he doesn’t usually act like an AI. I view him as the “character you’re supposed to protect” in the party, but somewhere along the way he, too, became self-aware and figured out how to handle his own. I think that’s where the age thing comes in. He was programmed to be a 5-year-old that you’re trying to get out of this dangerous facility! but he didn’t want to be a 5-year-old, he’s smarter than that, he’s capable! so he changed it. Him being the son of Gman also probably helped with him being able to just do that.

I take Bubby and Dr. Coomer as both being tutorial characters. Dr. Coomer is a bit broken, but he still does his best to teach you about things. I think he’s the tutorial NPC that goes “watch out for [x]” and “we can use ropes to cross big pits!” and “we should call them Peeper Puppies!” while Bubby was supposed to be the “here’s how you shoot a gun”

Like, Dr. Coomer does the knowledge about the world, and Bubby does the action. for the video game. And Bubby is supposed to be kinda cold to you, because the action-tutorial NPCs tend to be. Like “what you cant even hold your own? tch, guess ill have to teach you.” But Bubby doesn’t do that. He doesn’t WANT to play the game, he wants to go back home. He liked it before the game was switched on. So he doesn’t teach Gordon shit and just tries to speedrun so the player will leave and he can go back home.

one little scene that stood out to me so much was when the crew is sitting around in a circle with the pigeons. not outside, the other scene with them sitting in a circle and there’s pigeons. why are there 2 of those.

anyways, Benrey is just staring at this pigeon behind Gordon, and singing to it, calmly. And then there’s a loud beep that sounds like the vox, and definitely doesnt come from Benrey. and he suddenly gets up and shoots the pigeon. That reads SO HARD like he was being too soft with the game world, so it pushed him to do something evil randomly. Like a little villain reboot.

Almost everything he does to antagonize Gordon can be read as genuine confusion. He kills random NPCs because he knows theyre not important, and that they can’t feel anything, and that they’ll only slow the team’s progress. And what makes Gordon so mad at him is how often Benrey says Gordon shouldnt be allowed in here. I take that as a similar stance to Bubby. Benrey doesn’t want to be the villain. He doesn’t want the player to progress and make him. That gets more obvious the closer we get to the end, and most people tend to notice it in the last scenes before Xen, where he’s suggesting they go all the way back, and basically begging the player to stop here, at least for a little while.

its really sad, honestly. but i take the cast commentary bits as canon. Which makes it adorable when Benrey comes back into the movie theatre with Gordon and we get

“I wonder what will happen. I bet you know what happens!”

“I win!!!”

He did win. He got to get past being the final boss. He got to join the epilogue. I think, he probably wasn’t supposed to be able to. But these guys broke the game enough that he could. Isn’t that sweet? Isn’t that a nice ending for him? I think he deserves it.

Wayne says he acts like “he isn’t aware unless he’s being spoken to” and I think that fits really well. Like, sometimes his actions are coded into his behavior, so he does them without realizing. And then the player interacting with him (which is the premise of the self-awareness) forces him to actually look at what he did, and sometimes he has no idea how to explain it. Leading to his “huh?”

listen to me. are you listening. i need you to hear this. i need more people to understand benrey. and how much i love him. hes trapped in the narrative, doomed by it to be the villain. but he doesn’t want to be. he clearly cares about the crew in his own silly goofy way. he doesn’t want to fight them. i wrote down everything he said in the finale, and he only says 5 outright malicious lines, all of which are directly after an unnatural pause, like he’s being rebooted again. Some important lines: “I knew this was gonna happen,”

“Stop shooting at me, I have to shoot back, I don’t wanna do that,”

“I didn’t have a big plan, I was supposed to be nice, but you forced me to be BAD so I’m gonna be BAD… friend.” the small, quiet “friend” there gets me every time. even after everything, even after his nature is revealed, he wants to believe theyre still friends.

“Don’t go in there, please… I don’t like that room." The amount of times he sounds so genuinely sad when asking them to stop, or even just saying “bro..” like he’s mourning the friendship they could’ve had. The amount of times he sounds genuinely pained when he’s glitching out and stretching across the screen.

And his last words, said childishly of course, but,

“This isn’t fair.”

[unlirise]

today came with some happy news! the research request i sent to this facility for my thesis finally gave me their decision, which was for enhancement. it wasn't approved, but it also was not rejected. the comments they gave suggested minimal revision on my manuscript so i started working on it as soon as i could. and i'm happy about that! my thesis is finally getting somewhere!

that is until i started the revision process... which was minimal. i did manage to highlight the parts that needed revising on my physical manuscript but somehow i lost the working file for my thesis. fortunately i have the pdf in my email attachments, but converting it to a docx file and feeding it into gdocs ruined the formating so... i had to doctor it somehow. chapter 1 was a breeze and i finished that up yesterday. but chapter 2 was what took up the entirety of a 2-hour pomodoro cycle, and i'm not even done yet !! (i've got one more page to write).

i know, i know. i could have just copy-pasted everything onto the gdocs. but i didn't want to because, honestly? it's been a while since i got a good read of what i wrote in there. retyping all the RRLs i made was a good refresher which also reignited that push i had to pursue such an ambitious undergraduate thesis. i can only hope that i can keep the fire burning for myself without burning out in the process again.

to end today's record, here's an update of the progress i made on my daily tasks!

rise's wednesday tasks:

check tutorial form

pay for defense fee

finish pubmat for part time

make notes on policy analysis

make development-themed black out poetry

[sneasedtomeetyou]

The thing they don't tell you about setting up a lab facility is how much furniture you have to purchase. Just the break rooms and offices and overnight rooms feel like furnishing a house!

Then you have all the lab supplies and the supplies for arranging the enclosures... The good news is the absolute basics were already ordered for me and I've just been having to set those up... I probably should've been interviewing people while I was out of region so I could have help for this but you know. Hindsight is 20 20 as the saying goes. And besides its easy enough for me to hook things up when I can easily fit under the desks and tables. It's like having a patrat rummaging around in there for you except you are the patrat and the person doing the wiring and the tech making sure everything functions properly and they don't make enough Mewtube tutorials for this stuff they really don't.