#which then justified her new outfit change

[cryo-lily]

New default outfit for Issie going into 7.5 on Wednesday ^-^

Reasons for it? Totally not because of character development major injuries... honest 😇

I love Issie I swear guys.

[ablobwhowrites]

Baker y/n shenanigans

(some silly stuff I wanted to write for baker y/n as this office worker who's underpaid and overworked needed to be written again.)

I imagine when baker y/n was put into the new world. They thought it was a dream at first until later on realizing it wasn't as they where happy that it wasn't then the panic set in on that y/n's body changed into a cookie and that everything they own is now in this world and their pets as well but turned into animals that fit the cookie world. Y/n wonders why they didn't just leave back to their world without taking them and the cookies just keeping making excuses to try and justify taking y/n to their world and they definitely didn't have a whole plan that y/n is now declared dead in the human world so that they have no problem of keeping y/n here forever. Baker y/n is basically powerless in the cookie world as like they were just a regular ass human and they haven't gotten any magic or special movies like all the other cookies but rye cookie gave y/n a gun for protection but every cookie was against it but rye didn't want y/n walking around defenseless plus they have something of hers to keep so she sees it as a win win and y/n comes over to have the cookie help the use it.

Y/n cookies palette also changed as the jelly's now taste like meat which freaked out y/n because certain sugary foods that would be absurdly sweet and absolutely horrible to eat now just taste like regular meals y/n has eaten and y/n finds this very weird and off putting sometimes but y/n can't get away with eating like how they use to as the health cookies are bascially horrified and concerned on how y/n was able to scarf down 3 cup noodles and call that dinner and no water but a sugary drink!? That won't go unchecked any longer as y/n is forced to have three healthy meals or side dishes every day and if y/n decides not to eat sometimes like they use to back in their world to save money. They will sit down with y/n to watch them eat and the plate will be clean.

Y/n also had their office uniform on when coming into the cookie world so they wanted to have comfy clothes but didn't want to burden the cookie with a meaningless task but every fashion making cookie saw that y/n had one outfit and that is a absolute no go for them. The baker should have outfits that would make them absolutely stunning, so y/n was forced to go to every fashion boutique, tailor shop, ect, that the cookies had to fill this wardrobe and now y/n has punk rock styles from Currant Cream Cookie, the trade mark [A.C.I.D] clothes from Sour Belt Cookie, Hand made, hand embroidered suits, gowns and anything she sees that will be absolutely stunning on the baker from Chocolate Bonbon Cookie, Y/n then has outfits that are absolutely amazing but are more in the area of the brand Romantic Sugar by Pastel Meringue Cookie and y/n wears it sometimes by is scared of accident tearing it or getting something on it and staining it, the only fashion cookie who would listen to y/n's requests was Mont Blanc Cookie listened with the utmost attention and made some casual clothes for y/n but she couldn't resist and made some of her extravagant outfits for y/n but she still keeps her sketches of y/n around her shop. Y/n's closet is filled with clothes and y/n always has to choose carefully or else they'd have the fashion cookies argue amongst eachother of which of their clothes is the best (and in the cookie cities, y/n gets swarmed by paparazzi because well they are the baker and that makes them oddly famous somehow. Y/n doesn't understand it.)

Y/n doesn't have a car anymore or any way to have quick transportation and the kingdoms aren't very walking distance friendly as many go for horses and carriages or other means of transportation but one cookie always offers, Street Urchin Cookie as she does carry a helmet now because of y/n and sometimes drives a bit more fast on purpose cause y/n being terrified of going so fast will cling to her for dear life.

Y/n gets invited to hollyberry's celebrations a lot and y/n once tried berry juice and then ended up them getting drunk and basically shit talking their boss then ended up getting emotional because they never felt so nice at a place before then passed out later into the night. Thats the night y/n slept over at the kingdom cause bro wasn't making it back to their house.

The beast also tried to kidnap y/n when they first came to the cookie world but where unsuccessful but will try again.

(that's it for my yap session today! Hopefully you guys enjoyed but if you want more please don't be shy and request any ideas for stories or y/n's you have! But for now please stay safe and drink water!)

[blu3haw4]

Happy Clexaweek everyone! I bring to you today a new idea born from... such a random post. An anon sent me a prompt for introvert college gamer Clarke and Lexa and I couldn't resist. I build up their characters through asks and I've been having a lot of fun with it, So

Here's... (already on AO3)

The Sex Life Of Gamer Girls

Summary: Clarke and Lexa are introvert college student who unknowingly attend the same school. They both love gaming and they meet online, they love chatting with each other, and there's lots of flirting online as well. After learning they attend the same school -and a little awkward silence- they make plans to meet up.

“You’re still in your underwear!” Octavia groans, closing the bathroom door forcefully behind her.

Lexa turns to frown at her, despite knowing that attitude is more than justified. She’s changed too many times to count, and they don’t really have that much time until they must be at the theater for sound check with the rest of the orchestra.

It’s just… that she has a few options. Three pairs of pants and three blouses give her room to try them all a few times in different combinations, and that’s not even adding the jackets, which may change the outfit completely-

“Why are you so worried, I though Sky was just a friend”

“She is! And it’s Clarke-”

“Not the point” Octavia rolls her eyes; she knows Clarke and Sky are the same person.

“That she’s my friend doesn’t mean I don’t want to impress her” Lexa deadpans.

“Okay, and you don’t think the master solo you’re playing tonight will do the trick?” Lexa just huffs at her and turns to examine her clothes again.

Octavia groans again.

“Just tell me what’s up” She rolls her eyes falling into her bed. They both know what’s up, they’ve been best friends for too long and roommates for what feels like even longer to not know what is up.

Still, neither would say it.

“You’ve never cared about your looks other than the prize and brand of your clothes-“

“That’s not true”

“Yes, it is”

“No it’s not”

“And understatement then”

“Overstatement”

“Whatever!” Octavia growls and Lexa can’t help the triumphant smirk “If she’s really just a friend go black dress-pants, black shirt and the grey vest. You look cool, you dick”

Lexa’s smirk falls, she utters a response about the word sounding like dyke just to keep Octavia talking as she turns back to her clothes with a frown.

She knows she looks cool with the vest, profession even, some might say. The colors, or rather shades, are fitting for the play and she knows it’s going to be comfortable on her seat. And she knows Clarke is just her friend, her online friend that she’s going to meet in real life for the very first time. After a year of playing together and recently after an awkward couple of months since they found out they go to the same school, but ultimately, just her friend,

But she might be more, closer than expected, they flirt a lot, or at least Lexa thinks they do, sometimes, not that she has ever asked or acknowledge it with her, she doesn’t want to or would admit it -right now-…

“What if…” She sighs through her mouth, sitting down on Octavia’s bed and avoiding eye contact with her “cool… is not… what I’m going for”

A second goes by, then another. She counts to three before gazing over to Octavia. She’s narrowing her eyes and it’s clear she’s trying to tame the smirk raising, Lexa can’t help but join her.

“If… you would rather, let’s say, look… hot. Go with the leather pants and the green knitted sweater with the… big crunch turtleneck” Octavia hums “Your figure does “Woop!” She says, making an hourglass silhouette with her hands and winking at her.

“I don’t have an hourglass figure” Lexa rolls her eyes at Octavia’s defiant laugh. She stands to get the sweater regardless. It wasn’t within her first options, but it should work, she can envision the outfit in her head and… yeah, she does look hot in that.

“The tight ones?”

“No, the others. With the belt. You could also do heels.”

“I’m not doing heels” Lexa rolls her eyes, putting on an undershirt before grabbing the sweater.

“Your ass pops with heels. Sexy as fuck”

Lexa pauses, with the turtleneck half over her face, considers for a second and turns to look at Octavia. She’s already smirking, Lexa huffs as she pulls the sweater the rest of the way down revealing her own smirk.

“I’m just saying, Sky is going to love it, she would have to be blind to not want to kiss you”

“It’s Clarke” Lexa corrects as she slides the pants up and bounces to get them past her hips. She ignores most of the sentence and refuses to acknowledge the blush rising to her cheeks.

“It’s the same person! We both know who I mean”

“But I need us to get used to calling her Clarke”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been calling her Sky since we met, and she asked me to please call her Clarke when we see each other”

“Okay… but why?”

“Because it’s her name!” Lexa rolls her eyes. And okay, that is maybe a bullshit answer, but she doesn’t have to explain everything to Octavia.

---

There’s no need to, really, when Octavia has heard it all already. From the first time Lexa realized they never addressed each other by any names, through teasing when she heard ‘princess’ coming out of Lexa’s mouth for the first time, all the way to a few days ago when Clarke asked to "please, for the love of god, don't you dare call me Sky.”

It was a funny thing, a few memories that Lexa held dearly, close to her heart.

The first time they talked they greeted each other with ‘hi there’s and ‘hello’s and continued to talk directly about the game, they told each other coordinates and gave each other directions, they were the only two playing so there wasn’t any real need to clarify who they were talking to.

It went like that the first few times they played together, just greeting each other with ‘hi’s and ‘hey there’s while Lexa started to realize there were only two ways she could think of to call her new duo and one of them was ‘Princess’.

The first time she called her Sky wasn’t even talking to her, Lexa was telling Octavia all about her new online friend and she went with it and it just kinda… stuck. She still didn’t bring it up to Clarke for another while, Clarke hadn’t brought it up either, but they’ve talked once about potentially playing in teams of four which would inevitably force them to talk about it.

“We were just talking the other day that it would be fun to play squad but” Lexa tasked, she didn’t know why she felt so nervous “I mean, I would have to ask her a name or something, right? If we’re going to be talking with more people, I mean… But her username is SkyPrincess… and I’m not about to call her Princess”

Octavia eyed her suspiciously, because of course she noticed Lexa’s nervousness, she could’ve brought it up directly to this Sky, but instead she asked her best friend for advice.

So, it was her job… to tease her.

"I mean if you wanted to” she said suggestively.

"Octavia! No" Lexa blushed, because… maybe she did. A little. Secretly.

"Okay, but keep it in mind" Octavia winked at her before tasking and turning more serious “Just ask her. I mean it’s not like GaHeda gives any indication of your name. It translates to Girl Commander”

“She could think of calling me Heda”

“Didn’t you already tell her what it means? She would be having the same argument we’re having with her friends”

Which might as well be the case, she didn’t ask, but she got a better grip on her emotions by the time the subject of playing squads was brought up again.

“Should we play with open mic?” She asked.

“I mean… sure, it would be   fun. Does it matter?”

“Uhm not really I just… I would need to know... how to call you, so we can communicate better.” Lexa paused. “Cause I’m not gonna call you Princess"

“What if I am an actual princess?”

“I... you aren’t- are you?” Lexa stutters, not that she believed so, but… could it-

Clarke snorts, unable to keep up her own lie “no… but I could've been” she joked, oh so pleased with herself.

Lexa snorted and rolled her eyes “Can't imagine a princess using Fornite’s open mic”

“Are you a princess? How would you know?”

“I could be. And that's the reason I wouldn't call you a princess”

“…You just stepped on your own lies” Clarke giggled out after a second.

“Whatever!” Lexa rolled her eyes again, she was smiling though, Clarke always made her laugh whether she was trying or not “Can I call you Sky or are you going to tell me your name?” She tried, smiling through it, no longer nervous.

“Will you tell me yours? Because I don't want to call you "Heda" now that I know it means commander... even though you are bossy” Clarke started laughing,

“You are bossy!” Lexa laughed with her.

They calmed into a few giggles “Okay, okay. I must admit I do like sky…” Clarke chewed her lip and considered for a second before adding “but uhm, my name is Clarke”

“Klark” Lexa tried out, and it made her smile.

“Mmh, sure, click the K however you'd like” She couldn’t help but murmur, trying to tame her smile.

“I'll stick with Sky then” It’s the tasked respond she gets, making her laugh a full belly laugh. She could almost imagine the eyeroll that accompanied it, if only she knew how Lexa looked.

“I should make you call me Heda just for that” Lexa huffed while she was still laughing.

“I'll call you Gabe if you don't tell me your name” She shot back, still giggling when she answered, not missing a beat.

“Noo! Iugh, that's awful” Lexa sounded truly disgusted “It's G-AH not G-ei-b. You're not trying to say g-ei-m. It's like g-ah-m-ah” she clarified, it was a different language after all.

Before Clarke could come up with a joke she added “aaand! My name is Lexa”

It paused Clarke. It’s pretty, it fits her in a way that she can’t fully understand. She tested it in her head for a second, mouthing it as her eyes roamed her screen, dreaming of putting a face to the name.

“Lex-ah” She smiled, unable to be serious for too long “... not lex-ei?”

“I’m disconnecting” Lexa sighed immediately through what Clarke simply knew to be a tamed smile.

“No wait!” She called out anyways, giving the seriousness Lexa was surely looking for… only for a little bit “Lex-aH is fine, Lex-aH is perfect, beautiful even"

She said without thinking, not realizing she put no filter in her words. She didn’t take it back, not embarrassed, no regrets. She hoped Lexa liked it… or at least didn’t hate it.

“You done?” Lexa asked in a dry tone that was just so… her. So used to be serious but hiding laughter behind it.

Clarke couldn’t help but smile knowing that she had got to know Lexa enough at that point to be able to tell those little details.

“If you forgive me, yeah” She tried with her brightest smile, knowing that even if Lexa couldn’t see it, she could surely hear it.

“Let's play then Sky”

“You're really not going to say my name again?”

“Noup” and there was laughter, slipping through a single word and making Clarke smile and giggle.

Clarke didn’t argue, she did laugh the first twenty times Lexa called her Sky, not caring that their different teammates couldn’t understand what was so funny.

Lexa continued to call her Sky every time after that day, and Clarke did end up calling Lexa Heda sometimes, mostly as a way to mock her bossy-ness, laughing at her -and maybe flirting a little- after Lexa described exactly what she needed to do.

Lexa got her turn as well, when Clarke was feeling serious and she took it upon herself to boss her around about weapon load-out and heals and locations, she would just throw in a “yess, princess!” not only making her blush but immediately disarming her.

It was annoying that she liked it so much.

Annoying that she liked Sky just as much, because no one else called her that, it was their thing, Lexa’s names only for her. There was always a specific tone that came with it as well, a tone to shifted and morphed through the months, when there used to be a teasing tilt now there was a softness to it, an affectionate tilt to the word, maybe a flirtatious one as well… or maybe Clarke was projecting.

There have been other names recently, proposedly thrown in there to test the waters on what exactly their relationship was about. It was a constant state of doubt, of overthinking and questioning if what she was doing was okay, if Lexa liked it or was just been polite, of whether she was actually clueless, and Clarke wouldn’t -couldn’t- blame her, she didn’t know what exactly she was doing either.

She couldn’t say that it had started recently, but it definitely felt like there had been a pause when they found out they went to the same school, and then they were back to it even stronger after the holidays.

It was a little over a year since the first time they played together when they talked about it for real. They both knew the other was a college student, but they didn’t know much else about it. They hadn’t really talked about it in depth, just the classic ‘oh I need to study for a class’ or ‘I have this group assignment’ and then they were back to talking about the game.

The only reason Lexa started asking more questions that time was because Clarke had joined the game three hours later than they had agreed, she was three hours late because a group meeting for a class she didn’t even like had run that late because everyone was knee on arguing with each other and they couldn’t agree on anything. Clarke was so tired and so pissed, Raven was out at a party with Nyilah and Echo had a terrible headache and Clarke just needed to complain about it to someone.

That night was the first time she shared about her career choice -by complaining about the classes that didn’t fit with it anymore- how she had only truly realized what she wanted mid semester and now she was stressing with a pair of classes that she didn’t like or care for, and it felt good to share with Lexa this new part of herself one she was really and recently excited about.

In turn, Lexa shared a little about her life as well, she told Clarke about the classes she was learning were not what she wanted, those subjects she learned she only liked as extracurriculars, she told her about her extracurriculars, and that it was very likely that anytime she said she couldn’t make it after class it was probably due to them, much more probable than her needing to study.

They talked about the different courses their schools offered and were surprised to realized they offered pretty much the same ones, they got suspicious when Lexa mentioned a science fair she attended a few day prior and Clarke remembered there had been one at her school as well. Neither of them really wanted to ask because they were afraid to be right; Clarke had never pondered the idea of actually meeting Lexa in real life, but suddenly it became all too possible when Lexa cleared her throat and reluctantly asked.

“Hey uhm… Clarke?” and that was already a change, Lexa calling her by her name always meant serious, though until this point nothing had ever been truly serious “are you… attending *Polaris University*?”

“I… am. Are you as well?”

“…Yeah”

They were in the middle of a game, so it wasn’t hard to shift subject and ignore the awkwardness, one that was born from… very confusing feelings. Because they both knew that if this was anyone else, they would close the game and block the person to never have to worry about it again, instead, because they liked each other so much they were caught in this limbo of what the fuck to do.

When they ended second place in their game and the options’ screen loaded in, Lexa asked “Ready up?”

“Yep, let’s go” Clarke answered, and they played for another hour before saying goodnight like any other time, only difference been not asking when they would get on again.

It was around the end of November so it wasn’t hard to use Thanksgiving as a self-told excuse to not play much -Lexa lying more than Clarke about not having the time, she retired back to other, offline, games since she wasn’t spending it with her family, and there's only so much time you can spend talking with your best friend when only one of you has a social life and you live together-

After Thanksgiving is finals time so it’s the same thing, neither ask the other to play and they don’t really chat over discord, but it still feels like they are giving out excuses even when they’re only in their heads. It’s around this time that Clarke finally tells her roommate and college best friend, Raven, about Lexa. Over the past year Raven has heard her name a few times, she’s never bother asking more though since Clarke also played with other people including her childhood best friends.

Clarke has no filter that day, she sits on Raven’s bed and asks for her help on her dilemma, she explains how she met Lexa and how great she is and how much she likes playing with her and how good it felt to tell her about her life and feel like real friends -she didn’t mentioned the flirting- but how that had led to finding out they were in the same school which then led to the awkward thanksgiving break that made Clarke realize she didn’t want to lose her but didn’t know how to move forward. Ultimately the answer was giving it time and Raven promised not to tease her about it… in front of their roommates.

Finals roll out and then winter break and they finally calm down a bit, Lexa has been playing on her own since Clarke hasn’t even started the launcher, but then a day before Christmas she gets on.

They’re both in their hometowns, it’s late at night for both and it’s easy to send a group request and play together, blaming their quietness on tiredness and just chilling in every game. Just like that, they start playing regularly again, Lexa confesses to being practically free all break long and Clarke jokes -and means it- that she’s going to use her as an excuse to get aways from too much family time.

They go back to school, and they go a few weeks playing without mentioning it, each pondering in their heads the chances of running into each other, of whether they would recognize the other and whether they would want that to happen.

It feels like they get to the same conclusion at the same time when they start tiptoeing around the subject. The flirting turns ON for real, silly still because that's who they are but oh so clearly there. It’s fun, and it’s easy to forget they were troubled by about a month with this when now it felt so easy.

Clarke starts very consciously saying "sorry, babe" and "babe, c'mon" during fights, Lexa leans much more into calling Clarke Princess, either while watching her clutch a 1v2, or when she's found her favorite gun and she’s bringing it over to her - Clarke misses snipers this season but will settle for the hunting rifle recently added- Lexa also sneaks a little "goodnight princess" every so often, that makes it impossible for Clarke to sleep those night, blushing and smiling like a fool while trying not to imagine other scenarios where Lexa could call her that.

The nagging feeling that it can all fall apart if she pushed too far is still there, and then Lexa brings up meeting up, very casually mentioning she’s going to be playing with the orchestra -because yes, she plays the piano- and she would like if Clarke could assists “I think you could like it, it’s quiet an epic set”

---

The doubts and questioning and overthinking only increased after they had agreed to meet up. And they are right there as Clarke changes outfits so many times, not deciding on color palette or style, and what she’s supposed to do for her make up, and her hair-

She tried to do all this freaking out during the week, preparing beforehand was a smart move, even though she wasn’t supposed to be stressing; Lexa was her friend… had to be, at least until they met for real and she figured out her feelings.

Hiding away from Raven … wasn’t her smarted decision. She Is, after all the only person who knows about Lexa, or how Clarke feels about her. She already knew her so well - sharing a dorm and a room together for a year and a half does that- of course she clocks Clarke’s internal struggle the minute she walks into their room, dressed and ready to be Clarke’s plus-one, and finds her in front of the mirror with three different tops on her hands, and none of them on her.

“Girl, really?”

Clarke turns straddled, wide eyes pressing the tops close to her body and blinks.

Raven closes her eyes and sighs, if she wants to laugh, she covers it perfectly, she drops her bags and massages her forehead before getting to work.

“Did you pick the bottoms?”

“Uhm-”

“Cargos, then, you look good, you’ll feel comfortable and they’re easy to match” Raven grabs one of the tops from her hands and throws it back to her bed “That one doesn’t. Are you going light or dark?”

“I… was thinking light” she swallows, she’s not intimidated… at all, it’s just that Raven is weirdly this serious and she’s unsure how to react. That’s all.

“Light blue one, I love those. These two don’t match though” Raven says as she grabs the remaining two tops and throws them as well. She finds Clarke’s cargos and throws them at her “Put them on” She says as she starts rummaging through Clarke’s closet.

“Ohhh look at you! you’re perfect” Raven gasps after a second “Listen I know you love cleavage” she says turning to face Clarke “but you don’t own this top for no reason” she smirks showing her a knitted, sleeveless crop-top color cream.

She doesn’t wait for an answer before she’s throwing it at her, she throws herself to her bed with a satisfied sigh and lets Clarke get dressed.

“I think you know you need to go with the combat boots, and for coats, just pick any of the high-end long-ass ones, I know you own a bunch but just don’t take forever. Actually, just go with the cappuccino one”

Clarke simply nods, going over her large selection of coats in her head as she finished dressing, confirming that, yeah, the cappuccino one is perfect. She’s a bit surprised at how… honest Raven’s help seems to be, she know Raven is a good friend and cares about her, it’s just that her help is usually accompanied by-

“I don’t know why you’re so worried about this- Scratch that I know why” Raven interrupts her thoughts, turning to her with a smirk.

Oh, there it comes.

The teasing.

“Obviously you’re like in love with this girl or something-

“I’m not!”

“-but I mean come on, you already know each other, she already likes you!”

“I’m not worried”

“And I’m not a genius, Griffin don’t lie to me!” She rolls her eyes “if you weren’t worried you wouldn’t have told me about her when you found out she was studying here” she raises her eyebrows, giving her time to say something even when they both know she won’t.

“You say she’s your friend, and you think she’s inviting you to this thing as a friend… but you don’t know if you want her to be more -Your words, not mine-”

“I know! Can you just… forget it, just today. Just be there, don’t mention it” Clarke pouts and then spins in place showing off her outfit to Raven.

“Hot” Raven nods and winks, and as Clarke walks to her closet to grab her coat and boots Raven sighs, long and tired “Fiiine, but only because I love you. And only today, I want all the details tomorrow. No gatekeeping!”

“Some gatekeeping”

“Only if you get lucky. I’ll forgive you wanting to keep the details of some gross love making”

“Raven!” Clarke scowls, blushing.

“Do we have a deal?”

“Ugh!” Clarke simply groans and walks out with her purse and phone.

It’s nerve wrecking, to stand backstage knowing Sk-Clarke!- is out there and will be able to tell who Lexa is immediately. It’s a little ridiculous that she’s not nervous about playing but about Octavia getting recognized by Clarke while popping her head out of the curtain to try and see if she finds her.

“How do you not know how she looks?” Octavia huffs as she closes the curtains for a third time.

“I told you, she just said she’s blonde” Lexa shrugs, she doesn’t want to stress out -more than she already is- trying to find Clarke in the audience, the chances of recognizing her were practically zero, she had no description, no picture, nothing.

“How will you meet up then?”

“I told her I play the piano, and that we can meet after at the… one of the exits, I don’t remember now” Lexa shook her head. Octavia rolled her eyes painfully and returned to her position between the curtains trying to see if she could spot Clarke.

She gets scowled at by their maestro and sent to her seat behind her drums a minute later and Lexa follows suit sitting behind the piano. She tries to focus on the sheets of music written in front of her, but her head is already running over any possible place Clarke could be sitting and how she might look from there.

‘So much for not stressing’ She scowls at herself, but it doesn’t stop her from spotting every blonde in the audience as soon as the curtains open. She closes her eyes a minute later as the greeting applauses quiet down and she takes a deep breath, focusing, tuning everything else out.

The music’s start with the piano and Clarke can’t comprehend how incredible Lexa looks leading the group. Raven asks which one is Lexa as soon as the curtains open and Clarke has to pause for a second, realizing she’s going to need a minute -or an hour- to process seen Lexa for the first time, so she lies, she tells Raven she doesn’t know. She’s honest when she tells her that they’ve never shared any social media or pictures of each other, but the reality is that there’s only one piano, and the pianist fits the description perfectly.

Lexa looks… majestic. The sweater is very feminine, the crunch turtleneck softens her broad shoulder, the light behind her accentuates her waist, as does the thick belt attached to the high wait of her pants that have no right making her legs look that good while sitting down. Clarke can’t tell from this far, but she wonders if the color of the blouse is a choice to accentuate that of her eyes. Her hair is tied back at the top by a few braids and the rest falls like a cascade over her back, her posture is pristine and relaxed, she moves with the music naturally and graciously.

Clarke can’t imagine how she’s supposed to stay friends with this girl.

The set ends with an explosive assembly, Lexa meets eyes with Octavia, both sighing heavily out before smiling brightly. As usual the standing ovation and exit of the stage is a blur, Lexa find Octavia out of the shared changing room, and they hug the rest of the adrenaline out.

And while still high on that feeling, on that excitement that is amplified by the thought of meeting Clarke, her stomach still crunches when she spots a blonde girl walking towards her with purpose at their agree exit. She’s looking at her, a smile growing bigger with each step, because of course she already knew who Lexa was, she had to have known from the moment the curtains opened and must’ve been watching her the entire set.

Lexa is breathless before Clarke can even reach her, because not even all the excitement in her body can make her heart cartwheel the way seen Clarke for the first time does.

Clarke is… gorgeous, she looks like a model striding towards her, the cappuccino coat gives her an air of confidence that matches her steps, the cargo jeans frame her hips perfectly, giving a teas of her tummy before the crop-top covers her from and reveals the slightest bit of cleavage. Her hair is loose, and her waves bounce with her steps. She’s wearing eyeliner, a simple strip of black line makes the blue of her eyes shine, or maybe that’s just the excitement.

When she’s finally withing reach, Clarke goes in for a hug; she lifts her arms before the distance is gone, shrugging a little as a warning to Lexa, barely missteps, cautions for only a fraction of a second, before she goes fully into it, deciding that it’s fine, because they’re friends, they have been for over a year now and it might be the first time they see each other in person, but this is how Clarke greets her friends, and she won’t apologize unless Lexa complains.

She doesn’t, she actually likes it, so much that it feels unreal. Lexa’s not a hugger, she only ever hugs Octavia but other than that she keeps physical contact to a minimum, and yet, she melts into the feeling of Clarke’s body fitting into hers. Clarke pulls her close and Lexa wraps her arms around her waist over the coat, she closes her eyes against Clarke’s shoulder and squeezes back when Clarke pulls her even tighter against her and sighs into her neck.

It's definitely a little too long before they pull apart and Lexa spares a thought to Octavia before she’s looking at Clarke again and all thoughts evaporate.

“Hey there!” Clarke breathes out as her eyes jump all over Lexa’s face, trying to take it all in at the same time.

They haven’t let go at all when Lexa laughs a little nervous “Hi”

---

It takes them both right back to the first few times playing together, all the excitement and nervousness to get to hang out again, the comfort of having fun with someone new, the insecurity of sounding cool that faded through time as they learned to be goofy with each other.

The very first time they played together was in the early morning of November first, Lexa had dropped Octavia off at the custom party of one of their soccer teammates before getting back home to play fornite -with her spookiest skins- She decided to play duos a few hours in and opened her microphone.

Meanwhile, Clarke came back from a frat party she went to with her friends -who all remained there or migrated to other parties- a little tipsy and knee on continuing to have fun she immediately opens the voice chat and starts playing duos.

Lexa is the first person to join the voice chat since Clarke started.

Clarke is the first match since Lexa opened her microphone.

They greet each other and Clarke is very excited to talk to someone, Lexa isn’t sure if she finds it endearing yet, but she plays along. At first all they say are technical stuff; where the other likes to land, with what strategies the other plays, which are you chosen weapons and such, better at shooting or building and such.

They communicate well during fights, and they actually win their first game. From then Lexa gets more friendly, she asks more specific questions about the game and preference whiting it, she laughs and tags along to Clarke’s idea of switching skins anytime they lose, Clarke asks her which are her favorite and they spend an entire game discussing old ones and new ones, Lexa can’t believe she agrees to put on the Christmas ones nor can she understand how Clarke convinced her to ‘go festive’ to ‘call for the Christmas spirit’

They learn through games and games what better strategies fit them better, Lexa is less coy -and maybe a little flirty, Clarke has a pretty voice- when admitting to feeling like a pro at building and editing them. In turn, Clarke’s confidence turns up as well going over the top to prove that her aim is unmatched.

They win countless games, and they go on for hours until the sun rises and they’re both shocked that they’ve been up so long. Joking and laughing they promise to get on another time and try playing ranked since “Clearly we’ve found ourselves the wining duo”. They disconnect with quiet goodbyes and go to sleep with untamed smiles.

For months to come they play together often, they get each other’s discords to be able to invite each other more often and the audio is often better as well.  They keep playing for months and months, through winter, spring and summer all the way back to fall.

---

Octavia, who has known about Clarke all along, and is casually standing behind Lexa, can’t help but think “Friends’ my ass” as she tries not to react at Lexa’s very unusual response to a hug. She stands there for even longer than she expects after they part from the hug and just hold each other.

Eventually they seem to remember they’re not the only people in the world and Lexa turns to look at her, finally -and maybe reluctantly- letting go of Clarke.

“Uhm, Sk-Clarke” Lexa slips for a second and Clarke’s eyes widen even while her smile seem to grow “This is Octavia, my best friend” she finishes, turning to Octavia with a blush raising from her chest up to her cheeks.

“Hey, I’ve heard a lot about you… and heard you a lot” Octavia winks as she extends a hand.

“Sorry about that” Clarke breath a laugh while Lexa frowns at her. Before they can fall into some awkward argument or silence Clarke continues “Well, I would love to introduce you to my roommate, who so kindly joined me” she give Lexa a look, a smirk is there and Lexa’s eyes shine with hers “But she has abandoned me as soon as we stepped out”

“Oh no, were we that bad?” Lexa jokes, still smiling, unable to stop. She can’t explain it and doesn’t want to think about how Clarke’s mare presence makes her so happy.

“Oh no, god, you guys were amazing! It was honestly so enchanting, it felt magical”

“Thank you” Lexa and Octavia answered automatically, they could both hear the genuine tilt of happiness in Lexa’s voice though.

“Raven’s probably off trying to find a party” Clarke added after a beat of smiling at Lexa.

She just couldn’t help it, Lexa was… so pretty. Beautiful, and hot and just- so attractive, but specifically pretty, her gaze had a softness that complimented the sharp angles of her jaw, and her smile? The way her eyes lit up with it and her nose seemed to crunch a bit as if she was used to taming it down, she was just so pretty, and Clarke didn’t even want to pretend. She was sure that after a few more conversations she would say it to her, just like she told her she liked listening to her voice after only a few times playing together.

“I’m uhm-” Lexa turned only for a second to look at Octavia “I’m pretty sure some of the boys are from a frat house, they surely have a party or something planned”

Lexa finds herself saying, unsure why and not really bothered by the implication that she would go to something like that. She doesn’t get the chance to clarify anything or for Clarke to ask her because Raven joins them, all cheerful jumping into Clarke’s back and shouting a ‘hey-yoo’ as a greeting.

Lexa’s eyebrows raise up to her hairline, her smile is too bright to fully fall, but there’s definitely a different feeling in her gut now.

“I landed us an invite to the celebration with the musicians! I already texted the girls. Did you find your chick?”

And now she is blushing -she’s not sure which is responsible, the implication that ‘your chick’ is more, is different, not necessarily a friend or that ‘your chick’ is said with familiarity, like Clarke talks about her like she’s… hers.

“Raven!” Clarke hisses, blushing as she pushes her off her “Don’t jump on me” she says trying to cover up for the phrasing. Because she’s not ready to process any part of that sentence, even when it’s only two words “Be nice This is Lexa, and her best friend Octavia. This is my roommate Raven”

“I’ve been denigrated to ‘roommate’!? You’re repaying me with extra shots tonight. Hi! It’s nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you. Great play back there, by the way, gave me chills, for real!”

Clarke sighs, she tries her best at not closing her eyes -or rolling them- at Raven’s extra extrovert greeting. Lexa remains still, smile frozen and eyebrows still raised. She looks like a deer caught in headlights.

Clarke moves to try and say something, salvage the situation, but it seems to be all Lexa needs to recover.

“Hi. All good thing I hope and… thanks, we’ve been practicing a lot, it was very exciting. The crowd’s reaction was great” she says fluidly. Strongly, confident.

Clarke swallows, she sounds different than she’s even heard her, natural but also monotone like she’s used to it, like she knows how to handle it, she sounds… very sexy. And her smile is still there, her eyes don’t shine as much until she glances at her briefly, and maybe Clarke is protecting, but she smiles again, even if Lexa isn’t looking at her anymore.

Lexa sees her smile in the corner of her eye as Octavia greets Raven and they start talking about the party, sure that she’s no longer needed in the conversation she turns back to Clarke. She’s smiling, wide like she can’t be bothered to tone it down and it makes Lexa feel validated, because she’s so happy, she’s so excited to get to be with Clarke in person and she’s still too stunned to know what to do with herself.

“Y’know…” Clake stars, needing to stop the racing thought in her head “when you told me you played the piano, I didn’t imagine you would pull a solo like that, it was truly incredible”

“Thanks…” Lexa blushes, it’s not that she doesn’t know she’s amazing in her solo, it’s just that Clarke… noticed- “I mean you’ve seen my skill building and editing…” She adds, smirking a little, leaning closer “Did you really think I don’t explode this talent”

She doesn’t mean to flirt -or so she tells herself- but the implication of how far her talent extended wasn’t lost to her once the sentence left her mouth, and she won’t bother with clarifications.

Before they can gather their thoughts, their friends tell them to start moving. There’s a slight pause after Clarke asks where they’re going, and Raven rolls her eyes “Obviously to the party I just mentioned”

Octavia looks at Lexa and she doesn’t know what to say or do so, she looks at Clarke instead, who’s already looking at her with a questioning gaze. She doesn’t look hopeful nor disappointed, a little worried maybe but Lexa doesn’t even question it when the next sentence out of her mouth is “Sure, let’s go”

Her hopes of not making it a big deal go out the window when Octavia jumps on her back, letting out a strangled “Really?” before she’s squeezing her tight and vibrating with excitement.

“Okay, people this is not a drill! Let’s get going before she changes her mind!” Octavia says as soon as she jumps off her, she grabs her hand in the process and pulls at her while Lexa blushes furiously.

Raven turns to Clarke with raised eyebrows and all Clarke can do is shake her head with a shrug. She laughs when Raven grabs her hand with a shrug of her own and pulls at her in a similar manner.

She doesn’t let her anxiety take over, it starts pushing her to wonder if Lexa doesn’t actually want to go to this party, instead, Clarke takes a deep breath and waits until she’s alone with Lexa again -it happens fairly quickly, they catch up and Raven replaces her with Octavia, before they resume their own conversation.

“I take it frat parties aren’t your usual?” She asks even while Lexa still isn’t looking at her, she does smile at the question though.

“Not really” Lexa concedes and braves a look at Clarke “Parties in general are not… my usual- but hey! Neither is making friends online and yet here we are” She smiles bright, renew excitement over the topic.

Clarke smiles with her, likes the way Lexa shrugs and lifts a conspiratory eyebrow, still she can’t help but worry “We don’t…” she swallows “We don’t have to go, if you don’t want to- we can do something else or… go somewhere else” it’s Clarke’s time to shrug.

Lexa’s smile softens, and she has to look away from Clarke because really, quit it with the blushing! “It’s fine, really” she reassures “It’s not that I’m not a fan of parties per se” she smirks just thinking about it “I just… don’t particularly like people” she grimaces but her smile is too bright for it to look genuine.

Clarke snorts, like she doesn’t mean to laugh but can’t help it “You and me both” she hushes leaning closer as they giggle “I’ve heard… that alcohol helps a lot with it though” she says after a bit and it’s Lexa’s turn to snort.

“Oh I know” she nods her head, leaning into Clarke as well, because she can, and it feels good and Clarke isn’t complaining “I do know it tends to... become a problem later on as well”

“Touché” Clarke nods “Good thing we can leave whenever we want” she winks, reassuringly, she thinks, she wants Lexa to know that she can be honest anytime she’s not comfortable. And so what if it’s also a little flirty? It’s harmless.

They make good use of that statement in the end.

When they arrive at the party, the frat house is packed, there isn’t a line yet, but a couple of boys are out talking, planning a head of that moment. One of them is the guy Raven talked to, he shamelessly flirts with her and looks shocked to realize Octavia and Lexa are coming with her, he invites them in and promises to find Raven later.

All throughout Lexa eyes Clarke with a slight frown, she just keeps shrugging and shaking her head lightly, it’s a normal thing, typical Raven behavior.

Octavia grabs Lexa’s arm inside and they make it to the bar. Her best friend is giddy she gladly takes two shots from Raven, Lexa doesn’t even look at Clarke as she dedicates the first of whatever is in the tiny plastic cup to Octavia.

Lexa turns to Clarke when Raven places a second round and Clarke smiles, she leans in to be heard over the music and tells Lexa that she’ll take hers if she doesn’t want it. Lexa in turn raises a challenging eyebrow clinks it with Raven’s before taking it.

Octavia hugs her again once their grimaces are gone and Raven offers to pour them a mixed drink to last them a while, Clarke wants vodka and Octavia asks for rum for her and Lexa, she winks at her discreetly and then hugs her again.

“You’re not even drunk, stop being so clingy”

“I’m just excited that you’re here!”

“And I’m excited that you’re both here!” Raven cheers downing her drink quickly and pouring another “Which one of you is going to introduce me to the rest of the music bros?”

Clarke tries not to laugh as Lexa turns to her alarmed, she shrugs just for the sake of it and then Octavia is speaking, Clarke can’t hear it very well over the music, but she assumes she’s offering because a minute later they’re both gone.

The butterflies come swinging back to her stomach and a smile rises without her consent when Lexa turns to her again.

“Do you wanna go somewhere quieter?” Lexa leans in, a smile of her own adorning her face.

It takes them a minute to move around the packed house and then some to find a pocket of air with less noise. They end up sitting in the nook of a window by the corner of the huge lounge room, they’re farther from the dance floor than they were in the kitchen, and they both sigh a sigh of relief followed by giggles as they lean back.

They sip their drinks, suddenly a little awkward, not sure how to start a conversation and afraid to keep on just looking at each other. Clarke is the brave one at first, asking about Lexa’s drink choice and how Octavia answered for her.

“I’m don’t usually drink so… I tend to not care what I am drinking” Lexa shrugs, she takes another sip and braves a look at Clarke “Is Vodka your usual?”

“Yeah” Clarke smiles “It’s… tasteless enough, I think it makes it easier to mix. I’ve learned to drink tequila in mixed drinks with Raven, though, and there’s just… nothing like it”

“In a good way?”

“Yeah, it’s so much better. Specially with sweet drinks… but it’s more expensive and it’s quick to give a hangover”

Lexa laughs “Oh yeah, I’ve had my fair share of tequila hung overs”

It’s easy to move the conversation around, it feels nice to ask the questions they avoided before, those that felt too person for two friends that only talked about the game they were playing. Lexa shared about her friendship with Octavia going all the way back to sophomore year of high school, Clarke tells her how Raven quickly scaled from roommate to best friend and how her childhood friend met her the summer before, and they were so jealous.

They talk about all their classes and possible majors, Clarke just about figured out before break that she’s really interested in biochemistry, and she’s excited to see where it might lead her, Lexa joins in excitedly to talk about science since one of her many extracurricular is focused on chemical experimentation, she explains to Clarke that she has a lot of extracurriculars, always has had, from sports to chess, to science and music, all her passions have led her to a variety of classes, but she’s mostly find them boring or overly specific.

They talk a little bit about high school and how each of them moved around the bizarre social hierarchy of it, they maybe throw in a little hint about their dating game and maybe it’s a little flirty, maybe it’s a bit of a joke but so easily not.

Throughout their conversation Raven comes over a few times to check in on them and Octavia comes over to hug Lexa anytime she sees her, Lexa accidentally calls Clarke Sky a couple of times and it may become a little less intentional once she realizes Clarke blushes every time.

They’re constantly leaning on each other and talking closely, and giggling all the time.

They refill their drinks and ‘babe’ enters Clarke’s vocabulary full force, she ignores Raven’s looks from across the room and can’t help but blush any time she catches Octavia winking at Lexa, for her part Lexa downs her drinking faster than Clarke, too happy and too comfortable to care about any of it.

Their friends drag them into a game of beer-pong with shots -warm beer is gross and it’s not like most people here aren’t rich- appealing to their competitiveness to lure them. Octavia and Raven team up against them, swearing that they’re the sober ones and thus will win. Clarke and Lexa are content to stay glued to each other, leaning into the other as they wait for their friends to shoot, holding the other as they drink their shots and calling out sweet encouragements before every shot.

They end up winning against their friends, barely, and as celebration the crowd makes them down the remaining of their shots. They chose to grab some water next and return to their little nook. With liquid courage they get even more comfortable in each other’s personal space, they flirt a lot, smirking every other sentence and talking about anything that comes to mind.

Clarke calls Lexa Heda jokingly making her drop a few Princess’ in between, they’re not blushing as much anymore, just enjoying it and leaning into it, so much that they don’t mind Octavia’s side eyes and Raven’s raised eyebrows, they just keep trying to find ways to make the other call them pretty names.

They start talking about fornite at some point, they recall Winterfest and how they sped through levels to get every reward possible, they agreed, now that it was over, that it was kinda… ‘meh’, the year before had been better and it mostly had to do with the addition of the OG maps and all the hype about that taking away the attention of the holidays.

“The collaborations were insane though!” Lexa rolled her head back and the sideways to rest on Clarke’s shoulder.

“Right?!” Clarke turns to her even when she knows she won’t be able to see her, it’s nice to have their faces so close together “Like what do you mean Snoop Dog, The Shack and Marya fucking Carey all have matching Santa skins?”

They both break into laughs and Lexa leans heavily into her. They sigh in unison with smiles on their faces, content to watch the party for a minute- that is until a group of frat boys not too far from them start… barking?

Lexa quickly lifts her head off Clarke’s shoulder and turns to frown at her, Clarke shrugs with a shake of her head and it’s not long until they start laughing again. They giggle the remnants of their cringe out while looking at each other and then Clarke smirks a mischievous little smirk.

Lexa tilts her head, and Clarke does the same in the direction of the exit, she doesn’t take her eyes off Lexa and her smirk grows when Lexa imitates her, they continued tilting their heads and nodding them until they can’t keep from laughing anymore.

The frat boys are still barking when they stand up and start looking for their friends, they tell them they’re heading out and make a quick job of leaving, they both take deep breaths a block down the house and sigh out giggles.

“Where should we go?” Lexa asks, and she doesn’t care that she still hasn’t let go of Clarke’s hand.

“Don’t call me crazy-” Clarke uses their joined hands to pull Lexa closer and whisper conspiratorially “but… we could… go… play”

“Oh, this is why we get along!” Lexa throws her head back and Clarke reigns her back in when she loses her balance for a second.

“Let’s go then Heda”

“Lead the way Princess”

They agree to go to Clarke’s place first, Octavia will be staying with a friend so they can have the room to themselves, thus they’re going to pick up Clarke’s laptop and go. The walk is full of talking and laughing and flirting, it’s silly, so unserious but so… them.

“This’ me” Clarke nods to their right as they approach the dorms wing of campus.

“Really?” Lexa huffs “I’m right over there!” she points to their left, two buildings down from Clarke’s.

“For real? That is so crazy!” they laugh and decide to ignore that before today -okay maybe form a month ago- that information would’ve been scary as fuck.

They enter Clarke’s dorm quietly, not remembering that her roommates were all at the party they just left, Clarke hesitates before letting Lexa into her room, but it’s hard to think when she turns her head and Lexa is right there, practically glued to her and so giddy.

They’re a little drunk, so Clarke is stumbling a little, throwing her coat over her bed and trying to get her laptop, she’s also trying to make sure her -half- of the room is presentable or close enough to Raven's to pretend. And Lexa is all excited for apparently no reason other than being in Clarke's room, and the flirting hasn’t stopped and it’s making them both a little dizzier.

So when Clarke stands up and Lexa is standing too close, neither of them move.

They're breathing unevenly and they stare at each other for a long moment, trying to decipher what's going on, looking for the answer in each other’s eyes.

Lexa is all too happy to stay right where she is, she knows in a few minutes or less she’s going to want to touch Clarke in some way, grab her hand or her wait, kiss her or worse, lean her forehead to hers, but she can’t be bothered right now, because Clarke is really pretty and she’s really happy that she was brave enough to invite Clarke to her orchestra, because she’s really happy to be there with her.

Clarke is a bit more antsy; she’s looking up because Lexa us wearing a bit of heel, and she was already a bit taller than her and her lips are right. There. So Clarke has enough. She leans up and touches her lips to Lexa’s softly. She doesn’t mean to capture her lower lip in hers, she’s just a little clumsy, at the moment, and Lexa-

Lexa is kissing her back.

Lexa’s hands move quickly to hold her -uncovered- waist, and sighs into Clarke’s mouth at the contact, she doesn’t question anything, doesn’t even think about it when she stars leaning into her, chasing her lips and that tongue that ever so softly teases her bottom lip.

Clarke sneaks a hand up to Lexa’s jaw and holds onto her -very… vert strong- bicep with the other, she takes half a step back and her ass meets the side of her bed, she has to sort of sit on it when Lexa keeps leaning because the bed is a little lofted for storage. She doesn’t move her hands from Lexa, which makes it so she can feel her bicep flexing when Lexa takes a larger step closer and pulls at her waist lifting her so she’s sitting fully on the bed.

The kiss is teasing and tight, but the moment Lexa wiggles her way between Clarke’s legs, parting them just enough to fit and pull her close, the kiss turns deep, Clarke doesn’t think twice when the new angle and closeness allows her to comfortably slide her arm around Lexa’s neck and swipe her tongue confidently into Lexa’s mouth.

Lexa moans in turn, chases her tongue and sucks on her bottom lip, she’s still leaning on Clarke, pushing her onto the bed. She extends a hand for leverage and snakes the other one around Clarke’s waits, leaning more fully into her. Clarke’s hand on her bicep flies back to hold herself as well when Lexa keeps on leaning until she’s practically on top of Clarke even with her feet still on the ground.

It’s outrageously long before they break for air, and when they do, they don’t part if anything they hold each other closer as if to make sure the other won’t leave. They press their foreheads together, but neither is brave enough to open their eyes, they breath heavily, drunkenly.

Lexa moves slightly, bumping her nose with Clarke and huffing a giggle at Clarke’s answering bump, she opens her eyes just in time to see Clarke open hers and the smirk adorning her lips reaches up to her eyes.

Over all the noise in Clarke’s head, questions and desires and also just mush, she can’t help but high-five herself in her head, she was right Lexa’s sweater do compliment her eyes, it’s a deeper shade of green than her grey-ish green eyes, but green all-the-same.

“Hi” Clarke’s giggle drunkenly.

Lexa smiles dopily “Hey there”

“You didn’t tell me you were such good kisser”

“I’m good at a lot of things” Lexa giggles, and she really doesn’t mean it flirty this time, but then Clarke’s pupils dilate and she’s thankful to her subconscious.

“Yeah?” Clarke bites her lip “Will you show me?”

Oh hell! She’s got game!

Lexa kisses her, she kisses her deeply and dirty because that was really hot, and oh so smooth and she doesn’t know what to say, she’s always been better with actions anyways-

She can’t help the smirk that gets kissed off by Clarke at her next idea; Lexa sneaks a hand under Clarke’s top and feels around the clap of her bra, she pulls away from the kiss with a wet sound and smirks at Clarke’s frown before she’s snapping the claps open with a simple twist of her wrist.

“Example number one” She giggles again and Clarke gasps at her with a smile.

“You should get my top off next” Clarke winks, recovering quickly.

It takes Lexa a second to swallow down before nodding her head “yep, great idea”

They make quick work with the crop top, and Clarke throws her bra to the side enjoying the way Lexa completely stops at the sight of her boobs.

“Like what you see” she bites her lips, one hand back behind Lexa’s neck and the other planted back on her bed, her back arches in such way and she knows she’s an spectacular view.

Lexa gapes, blinks once and then not for a long while which makes Clarke chuckle, she pulls slightly at Lexa’s neck, urging her to lean on her again and Lexa can only brace herself on the bed, still transfixed.

“Can I-” She clears her throat, her voice is hoarse, eyes dark with want as she looks up to her eyes. Clarke shudders a breath as Lexa swallows and tries again “Can I touch you?” she breath out.

Clarke could moan at the sound of Lexa’s desire, she bites her lip harder instead, takes a shuddering breath and nods her head.

Lexa’s eyes are back down to Clarke’s breaths, it’s not that she hadn’t realized Clarka had… such voluminous rack, she just thought she wasn’t supposed to care. And there’s a very big difference between clothed and enclosure boobs and… this.

She moves her hands to Clarke’s hips, enjoys the way her breath catches when she moves them to her waist and they make contact with her bare skin. Lexa licks her lips as her hands travel up Clarke’s ribs and move accordingly to fit the underside of Clarke’s breast in the cup of her hand.

They both sigh when Lexa presses up and squeezes the full weight of Clarke’s boobs.

“Fuck”

Clarke smirks, and Lexa can’t be bothered to recognize that she said that out loud, she plays with Clarke’s nipples for only a second before Clarke is pulling her forward into a kiss. She pauses her ministration, if only to moan into Clarke’s mouth as their tongues meet.

A hand snakes down her neck groping her tits over the sweater on its way down to her waist when Clarke pushes the sweater up to pull her closer still. She quickly pushes it higher util Lexa has to lift her arms to take it off, she does so reluctantly, not happy to let go of Clarke’s breast.

Clarke laughs at her when they kiss again, having regained her balance she kisses Lexa more comfortably, now sitting up, while making a quick job of Lexa’s belt, and consequently, her pants.

Lexa steps back to step off them and Clarke takes the chance to slide off the bed, ready to comfortably kiss all over Lexa’s body when she freezes. Lexa’s is wearing a matching set of linger. A dark shade of green, it’s not see-through but the artist in Clarke can recognize the work of the beautiful design over the lace.

She blinks when Lexa huffs a smirk at her, her gaze breaks the patter of bra-abs-panties to look at Lexa in the eye; she gives her a smirk of her own and pulls her closer by the hips, bending down to drop a kiss under Lexa’s sternum and dropping down to her abs.

While Lexa shudders at Clarke’s lips on her skin she can’t help the smile on her lips, it feel good to have this effect on Clarke, it makes her feel sexy and desired and she likes it. Clarke moves up her body grabbing a handful of Lexa’s ass to drag her closer and kisses her again, she’s still leaning on her bed and Lexa happily steps into her again, holding Clarke’s shoulder as they kiss and taking the chance to kick off her heel.

The first step down leaves her eye level with Clarke and their lips part at the change angle. Lexa moves her hands down to Clarke’s knees consciously through the holes in Clarke’s cargos, and Clarke wraps her arms around Lexa’s waist. She kicks her second heel off while they look at each other smiling.

“Come here” Clarke breaths into her leaning forward for a kiss and then back to pull Lexa on the bed.

They giggle and adjust so Lexa can climb on the bed, they kiss and tickle each other trying to get Clarke’s shoes and pants off. Clarke lays flat on her back and encourages Lexa to straddle her.

The sight of Lexa fluidly sliding down to kiss her is one Clarke’s sure she’ll never forget, she moans into the kiss and holds Lexa’s waits, she arches her back at the feeling of the linger gracing her nipples and she suddenly can’t wait to her Lexa’s bra off.

She’s a little distracted though, Lexa moves to kiss her jaw and down her neck, and Clarke’s hands travel up to Lexa’s ribs and then down to her hips and back to grab a handful of her butt.

They moan and sigh and they pull at each other for kisses while molding their bodies together. Lexa sits back to flick her hair, and Clarke follows her halfway up, chasing her lips, but stopping at the gorgeous view of Lexa straddling her. Clarke absently traces her hand up Lexa’s tight and while leaning on her elbows she sneaks her hand to cup Lexa’s cover core.

Lexa bites her lip to contain a groan as she rocks her hips into Clarke’s hand. She keeps going like that rolling her hips sensually, her hand holding her hair as she watches Clarke watch her.

“Fuck… I want to touch you”

“You are touching me, Clarke” Lexa smirks, enjoying the effect she’s having on Clarke.

Clarke pushes herself up and ghosts a kiss over Lexa’s lips “I’ll be more specific. I want to be inside you” her voice huskier than a second ago “Can I do that?”

The little whimper that crawls out of Lexa’s throat is not something she’s proud of, but she can’t ignore the glow of pure want the fill Clarke’s eyes after hearing it. She bites her lip, nodding her head and moves her hands into Clarke’s hair to draw her into a kiss that is all tongue and teeth.

Clarke wastes no time moving her underwear aside and making room for her fingers to explore. Lexa resists the urge to roll her hips into every touch while smirking at every one of Clarke’s gasps.

Clarke teases her entrance repeatedly, rubbing around her clit but never truly touching it, she bites Lexa’s bottom lip and licks into her mouth while using her free hand to encourage her rolling hips.

It’s not long before they both know Lexa is ready and Clarke enters her with a singular digit. They moan into each other’s mouths as Lexa stills and gasps, adjusting to the feeling, she moans again when she starts moving and Clarke follows suit, calmly going in and curling out. A second finger is added, and Lexa turns her head to hide in the hollow between Clarke’s neck and shoulder, she nibs and kisses the skin available as her arms go around Clarke’s shoulders, giving her more leverage to rock into her fingers.

Clarke sucks her neck and bites her earlobe as they move in sink and she gasps every so often, adjusting her hand to give Lexa a better angle to rub her clit over Clarke’s palm. It’s only the third time Lexa’s open mouth kiss turns into a shuffled moan that Clarke speaks to her.

“Lexa… you know we’re completely alone right? You don’t… need to keep quiet” she says, blushing. Because they concept of wanting to hear Lexa feels way more intimate than the position, they’re in, specifically since it’s an addition to it.

Lexa grunts lifting her head, she doesn’t stop the rolling of her hips and Clarke doesn’t stop the movement of her hand “These are paper-thin walls Clarke!” She scowls, heaving the words out, her face is flushed, and the crown of her head is damp from forming sweat -Clarke didn’t know she could get even more beautiful- “of course I have to keep quiet!” She groans.

Clarke kisses her instead of arguing, because she can, and she looks so pretty, and she can feel the moan she heaves into her mouth and it’s good enough for now. They continue kissing and huffing and moaning into each other until a particularly perfect moan from Lexa cuts off by her biting her own lip.

“Hey. Listen” Clarke huffs “quick floor plan description, behind me is the common room, currently empty. Behind you there’s a laundry room that is obviously closed right now, past my closet is the hallway, also empty, and out the window… you saw it was also quite empty”

Lexa closed her eyes hallway through the sentence, frowning and she kept moving and conflicted as to how Clarke could form such an elaborate sentence when all Lexa could think was-

“Fuck!”

She feels the smirk Clarke presses onto her neck, she bites her lip again and assumes her brain understood beyond her consciousness.

“That’s it, let me hear you, Heda”

She moans a filthy moan, Clarke smirks is wider, she bites Lexa’s neck, and she huffs in mild annoyance.

“Make me, Princess” she shoots between hoarse breaths.

She smirks when she opens her eyes to a gapping Clarke staring at her with lust, she closes her eyes quickly after when Clarke moves to lean one hand back fuck her harder with the other.

“Sky!” Lexa moans and immediately blushes.

It was loud, very loud. And the wrong name-

“Say that again” Clarke hushes, nibbing her jaw, thrusting up to meet her rocking hips.

“Sky…” Lexa… whimpers, she wishes she could call it something else, but it is what it is.

Clarke kisses her and they rock against each other in sync, Lexa moans and Clarke gasps and they’re both panting. Lexa closes her eyes, throws her head back, Clarke can’t keep staring. Their rhythm is thrown off for a second when they hear a creaking sound, they both blink and quickly realize it’s the bed protesting from the motion.

They smirk at each other.

They kiss messily while still smiling and pick up the pace, Lexa throws her head back again, moaning freely and Clarke latches her mouth to her neck. She moves her arm from behind her all the way around Lexa’s torso and pulls her close.

Lexa adjusts in Clarke lap, making her lean on her hand again and she takes the chance to push her by the shoulders back to the bed. Clarke lands with a huff and her hand flies to pull pillows behind her head when Lexa presses her hand over Clarke’s ribs, almost cupping the underside of her boob and starts rocking her hips firmly into Clarke’s hand.

Her moans grow louder, her eyes close and her breath heaves even more, her hips eventually start stuttering, moving erratically and Clarke holds her hip while thrusting up, helping her hand reach deeper.

“Fuck! Sk-mmhh, Clarke!”

They both know she’s close, she’s riding Clarke’s fingers with purpose, sighing and moaning and huffing heavily, all it takes is Clarke moving her free hand to press her thumb to Lexa’s clit and one singular undulating thrust for Lexa to frees in pleasure, strangled moan caught in her thought before she comes undone, shaking screaming out the end of her moan.

She leans heavily on her hand over Clarke’s ribs through her orgasm and eventually flops forward, laying half on top of Clarke with both pairs of hand trapped between them.

As Lexa lays there, completely spent, Clarke can't help but smile and move to kiss the side of her forehead. Her fingers are still wrapped around Lexa's warm walls and her hand is folded with her release. She leans to kiss her shoulder as well as she moves her hand out of Lexa and from between their bodies, she grabs Lexa's hand to move out from between them as well and can't resist the chance to kiss the back of it.

Lexa huffs a laugh and what feels like an audible eye roll. She lifts her head slowly and deliberately leans in to kiss Clarke. The kiss is soft and so deep, Lexa is fully leaning on her now and her weight make the kiss harder.

Lexa moves her kisses to Clarke's jaw, she bites her earlobe and sucks on her pulse point, she moves down to kiss her collarbone as Clarke huffs a shig, her breaths fastening. It is with only one slurry look, that Clarke arches her back, and Lexa starst devouring Clarke’s nipples expertly.

“Can I go down on you?”

“You, uhm- you don’t have to” Clarke breaths, heavily.

“I-" Lexa bites her lip, looks down and they slowly sensually up "I want to”

"Mh-mhh?" Clarke hums, high pitched affected not only by Lexa's work on her tits but also the look of pure desire on Lexa's face.

At Lexa's nod, Clarke nods as well and Lexa smirks as she starts making her way down to her core.

Lexa takes only a short moment to admire the glistening heat of Clarke's heat before diving in. Clarke moans loudly at the first swipe of Lexa's tongue, throwing her head back and grabbing onto her sheets. It spurs Lexa on, each new movement, new swipe or kiss to Clarke's can't grants her a series of different sounds and reaction out of Clarke that are simply too hot.

A thought of where and with how may people Lexa might've learn to be that good crosses Clarke's mind, but before she can get jealous of upset she remembers she's no one to judge. She doesn't dwell on it for too long either, Lexa is far too talented with her tongue for Clarke to be able to hold any thought for longer that two swipes of Lexa's tongue.

Eventually Lexa enters her with one finger and then quickly a second one when it goes in too easily. She looks up as she attaches her mouth to Clarke's clit a second later, smirking as Clarke whimpers a shudders below her.

"Fuck! God Lexa yes!" Clarke throws her head back, a hand jumping to Lexa's hair when she starts moving; both her fingers inside her and her tongue over her clit, circling it expertly..

It doesn't take too long before Clarke is coming apart, shaking and shouting out Lexa's name, shuddering away and up into Lexa's mouth, overwhelmed with pleasure.

She taps Lexa's head tiredly to signal her that she can't take anymore and still whispers when Lexa removes her mouth from her. Lexa smirks and moved to kissing her tight, pulling her fingers in and out slowly to draw out the last of her orgasm.

Lexa kisses her hip next, leaving a mark as her fingers continue moving and Clarke jerks and moan with the aftershoks, she moves to the other hip and pulls out slowly when Clarke taps her head again, she takes a long deliberate path up Clarke's body, kissing any skin aviable and diving right into a kiss to her lips once she reaches them.

Clarke moans at the taste of herself on Lexa's tongue and enjoys the way Lexa deepens the kiss and rolls her hips on top of her as a response. They make out for a bit, smiling and huffing at each other, bumping noses and rolling into each other as their hands roam mindlessly.

That is until Clarke slides a thigh between Lexa's and feels her wetness rub on her. She presses up, moaning as Lexa bites her lips and cants her hips mote firmly into her. Clarke leans up to kiss Lexa and in a swift and impressive move turns them around in the small bed to lay on top of Lexa.

"Fucking me turned you on, didn't it?" Clarke whispers against Lexa's ear, snaking a hand down her abdomen and bitting her earlobe.

Lexa breaths out, swallowing a whimper as Clarke grazes her fingers over her folds finding her freshly wet.

"You're very vocal" she eventually breaths out, her eyes are closed and Clarke is sucking a bruise into her neck as she toys with her can't lazily.

Clarke smiles into her neck, hums in agreement and bites her lightly. She moves her fingers as though she's going to enter her and lifts her head.

"Do you like that? That I'm vocal?"

Lexa opens her eyes while blushing, she bites her lip and nods slightly, she then throws her head back with a moan as Clarke enters her with two fingers easily.

"Good... because i want to talk you through this one okay?" She huffs a chuckle into her lips, and Lexa moans as Clarke pulls out hooking her finger on the way.

"Skyy!"

Clarke thrust into her with the help of her thigh and starts a rhythm, one that Lexa matches with her huffs and moans and curses and calls of her name, all the while Clarke prises her, and tells her how good she feels, how good she sounds, how beautiful she looks and how she can't wait to see her come undone again.

"Fu-fuck! Like that-SKY!"

"I love it when you call me that, fuck"

"Yeah...? Fuck-" Lexa bites her lip.

The bed is creaking again, knocking against the wall as Clarke pounds her fingers into her cunt.

"Yeah, but... fuck. I want you tl say my name when you come. I want to hear you clicking that K like you always do-

"Fuck- ah! you" Lexa huffs a laughs and Clarke laughs with her, kissing her cheek and making her blush.

Becasue of course something like a kiss to the cheek after a joke would make her laugh, never mind that she's but naked, legs spread open and Clarke fingering her into an orgasm.

A kiss to the cheek is too much.

"Fuck Lex, you're so tight" Clarke hushes against her collarbone.

Lexa moans, because she likes the nickname, it's nothing special, but she likes it. And Clarke is doing ungodly things to her pussy, caressing her sides, saying all the right things and sucking on that specific spot right on top of her collarbone that drives her crazy, because she has her all figured out already.

And she is tight, she can feel it, she's so close, she can feel that familiar feeling in her lower belly, tugging at her, making her moan-

"Cla-ahrke!"

She comes so hard, for so long and Clarke keeps taking to her, she can't tell what she's saying because her brain is mush, but it's dragging her climax on and on until she can't take it anymore.

Still shaking she grabs at Clarke's bicep, squezing and whimpering, moving her hips away.

"No more?" Clarke whispers soflty. Lexa can't only shake her head "Okay baby" she kisses her jaw and if Lexa's face wasn't already red from coming, she sure as well would be blushing.

Clarke kisses Lexa's shoulders soflty, trying to keep her weight off her as she still breaths heavily. Lexa's eyes are closed and Clarke takes the chance to look at her. Her faced flushed a pretty fading shade of red, her lips parted sightly as she huffs her breaths out, her hair is a mess, sprawled around the pillow under her. Her collar bones and chest are red as well, adorned with a couple hickeys she can't help but to be proud of.

And then Lexa blinks her eyes open, heavy eyelids drop a couple of time before she can keep her eyes fully open. And then a smile raises slowly, and Clarke realizes as she tries to smile, that she was already smiling brightly.

"Hi" Lexa chuckles.

"Hey there" Clarke leans in to kiss her and Lexa moves her hands to hold her close.

They move a little messily, laughing as Lexa refuses to separate their lips, Clarke lays on her side and Lexa turns with her.

The kiss turns lazy when Lexa has no strengths to even coordinate her lips, her eyes close permanently. Clarke smiles and pulls back, kissing Lexa's nose just because and watching a smile rise slowly with a slow huffed laugh.

"Sweet dreams, Heda"

"Mmhh, g'night Princess"

-

...To be continued 😉😌

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA? I tried to ruin a small business's reputation.

[20F] I went to a clothing store in which they sew the clothes themselves. There is a number of designs and colors you could choose from and if your size isn't available or you wanted to add your own spin on it, they can make one on request but it's basically 40% more expensive. And you're supposed to pay percentage of the price as a down payment in case they make the dress and you fail to pick it up.

Such businesses are common in my country and it was my first time going to this particular place. I'm plus size and tend to have the clothes tailored to my specific size because my size is rare.

Anyway, there was a very killer design that I loved for an outfit that was basically a skirt and a lab coat sorta look. I tried the available size but it was too tight on me so I asked them make one with my measurements and while I was at it, I chose the blue color which is my favorite. 💙 I clearly said blue and nodded when they grabbed the blue fabric. The outfit costs what would be about 120$ and I foolishly chose to pay around 80$ because I didn't have change on me and down payments are cash only, they don't accept credit cards. And by the way, that's a LOT of money in our currency but I thought nothing of it as I was never let down before by these businesses and I needed the outfit to be more comfortable at work.

Not sure what happened but when I came to pick it up, the outfit was gray. 👎 I said that wasn't what I ordered and the cashier gaslighted me into believing I chose gray and for a split second I started believing I somehow chose gray because the blue fabric was kinda pale, then I noticed the pale blue fabric right behind the gray one and pointed at it telling them it was my order and I stood my ground and insisted my order was blue. We kept arguing back and fourth and I told her to make another one. She refused because "the business will lose if they do that." I said that's not my problem and I want the blue outfit, they can put this one for sale to mitigate the loss. She refused because they will have to sell it for a cheaper price plus I was too fat and nobody will probably look for this specific size and once again said it wasn't my problem. She said it was criminal of me to deny "a perfectly great outfit" just based on its color and I told her blue was my favorite color and I refuse to leave without them agreeing to make a new order order, I certainly would have just left if I haven't paid that down payment.

Then she decided to pin the blame of her mistake (she was the one who took my order) on the expat tailor and tried to make him responsible for paying for the difference. I was unsure of what to do and I didn't want the poor overworked guy to pick the slack for someone else but at the same time I wanted the blue outfit. Seeing that I was firm she basically said she would give me a discount. I refused multiple times while she insisted.

Honestly I'm a socially anxious weak pushover that only very recently started learning and practicing to stand on my own that I was surprised I had stayed firm during this whole ordeal, but I was reaching a limit and the employee was clearly stronger than me. She wore me out and basically got me to accept the discount against my will. The discount was only about 15$ and I left very unsatisfied and upset. I complained go my sister who was with me when I made the order and she told me I was absolutely scammed and she wished she was there when I picked it up to stand up for me. I felt upset and taken advantage of, I was too disgusted by the outfit and I ended up only wearing it twice. I have no problem with gray by itself but this whole experience absolutely ruined it for me and I relapsed into feeling absolutely weak and useless like I used to be my whole life.

Apologies if I had done any AH move so far but if there was, I think I was justified but here's the AITA part of the story: in my frustration I opened their Google page to write a bad review but was shocked the page didn't even exist so I turned to their Anstagram page and I wrote several bad reviews and complains ON EVERY SINGLE POST THEY MADE. I wanted people to be aware of the problem. I also told everyone I knew. I say "tried" in the title because my attempt didn't even impact them, they didn't bother contacting me after I spammed their page with probably 40 negative comments and the business is still going strong.

AITA?

[veteranfangirl]

the Rayearth OVA

a lot of people didn't like it. I don't see it discussed very much anymore at all (not sure if newer fans know about it or even have any interest), but I'm a big fan.

I love alternate universes, and this isn't a bad one, it's just not fleshed-out very well in its three episodes. I think if the world-building had been more justified and the girls' relationships given a bit more love, maybe more people would have liked it.

the art style is really well-adapted from the anime and manga and I love the darker tones on everyone. everyone has new outfits (though the Knights don't get new, cool armor for some terrible reason, and they're stuck piloting the Mashin in magical-girl-nude.

I very much enjoy the angsty tone and character changes. cmon, how many of us write our own angsty AUs vaguely mirroring canon? this OVA is like an AU fanfic that got animated, and I, for one, eat it up.

Emeraude and Eagle as siblings is a lovely idea, and she is still so haunted by Zagato in a way that rings true to her character from the series. evil Ferio? big fan. feral little Ascot? love it, rip. the Mashin are very fucking cool in this OVA.

Cephiro's world breaking over into Earth's?! excellent!! Windam residing in an enormous empty stadium? absolutely love it. Hikaru does gynmastics and Fuu plays the piano? hell yeah! Alcyone's cat Mashin? all the Cephirans getting Mashin!!!??! why don't more people love this, honestly! Hikaru's Mashin is renamed to Lexus which rocks, I love it.

and we get to see the Knights' canon relationships in a new way: Fuu and Ferio are enemies that come to respect each other. Umi and Ascot fight again, but this time, he doesn't see it her way. Umi and Clef have a bond, and Hikaru and Lantis spend a lot of time together brooding (okay, that's close to canon). I really enjoy the changes, it's something fresh and different from the series. the series canon-aligned ships still sail in the end (Hikaru/Lantis, Umi/Clef, Fuu/Ferio) and it ends bittersweetly.

the Magic Knight Rayearth OVA (simply called RAYEARTH) has been called confusing, but if you think of it as an AU fic, it might be more accessible.

and there is an album of image songs that are really fantastic and should not be missed if you're a fan of those!!!

it doesn't seem to be available on streaming, including CrunchyRoll, but as of this posting the dub is on Youtube in three parts (1, 2, 3). it gets taken down and posted fairly often, so try a search if these links are broken

[swiftsaltsweet]

The Hunt for Kyoshi: Chapter 14: Kyoshi- The Cave of Two Lovers Pt. 1

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (plus whoever appears in Rok)

Pairing: Rangshi

Summary:  

“What are we going to do?” She asked steely, still not looking up from the ground. She was ready to uphold her duty, or at least, what remained of it. “We need you to capture Kyoshi,” Jianzhu instructed. “Capture?” “Yes, we need to set an example of an Avatar murderer,” Jianzhu responded, oh so matter of factly again.

(Canon Divergent AU- “What if Rangi wasn’t there when Kyoshi ran away, and Rangi had to hunt her down?)

Other Sites: AO3 

A/N: Me: I fear there will be not a lot of comedy for awhile Also me: *opens up this chapter with SOME humor at Kyoshi’s expense*

I fear I am a filthy liar. uwu (listennnnnnn characters are going to character, I’m merely an instrument to their tomfoolery!) But at this point we should know this jfaskfja TT0TT

Ok ok ok, tbf I wrote the beginning well before I even finished the Kirima scene in the last chapter, let alone the fight and ending scene. But I did come back to somber it up just a tad (at least with Kyoshi), keep in mind that the FoC have NO IDEA the depth of real drama that’s going on between Rangshi hence I feel justified in allowing them to be funny uwu

And yes, I’m a shippy bitch we’re doing this. No one can stop me! Not when I have the power of anime and gay ladies at my side! uwu

Anyway, anyone watch the Netflix ATLA show? No? Oh...there's a reference to in here, IYKYK, if not I'll explain at the end. 8U

Notes: -Haori: I think the first layer of Kyoshi’s iconic green robes is called a “haori” -thinking emoji- Not sure if that’s how you’re supposed to wear them but it’s better than me just saying “robes” multiple times (esp when they have layers) TT0TT So haori it is! (Note: lol I know I just posted this chapter but....upon further inspection.....I think Kyoshi's top robe might be more of a kataginu rather than a Haori... so I will try to make that change at some point, sorry for any confusion u_u kataginu has shorter sleeves than a haori and yeah....)

-Kataginu: So that thing about a Haori? Ignore it~! uwu Both are a robe that goes over a Kimono. Haori has longer sleeves, while Kataginu (something samurais wore iirc) lack the sleeves. Which I think fits Kyoshi's outfit more!

Kimono: If you look at the Generation’s art for Hei-Ran (both her casual and battle attire) and Rangi. Hei-Ran is wearing robes in her casual, but when she puts the battle armor on she still has the same robe but the armor is over it (and sleeve tucked into the gauntlets). I’ve deduced that Rangi has the same getup but we just never see the robes by themselves. It looks closer to a Kimono than a Hanbok because of the sleeves (I try to stay consistent and give Rangi/Hei-Ran Korean assigned things but we’re going with Japanese here since that’s what it looks like)

____

Kyoshi clutched Rangi’s hairpin and held it flat to her chest, just above her heart, and continued sobbing as Kirima used her waterbending to heal her thigh. It was the worst wound Kyoshi had on her physically at the moment, though it looked a lot better since they took off hours earlier. However, the pain still paled in comparison to what her heart was experiencing.

Now that she was away from the fighting, the adrenaline, she could finally process it all. Rangi wanted her gone. The last person Kyoshi cared about in this accursed world, didn’t want her to exist. 

And the worst part? Rangi didn’t even want to continue living onward once Kyoshi was dead. In her mind, Kyoshi’s existence had ruined her life beyond repair and it was better to not continue on at all.

This was all Jianzhu’s fault. Forget killing him. She was going to something far worse. She didn’t know what it would be, but he wasn’t getting off easy with a swift death…

Kyoshi curled in on herself more as she cursed Jianzhu’s name, as her mind relived her previous moments with Rangi. She let out a choking sob of a scream as a new wave of pain hit her heart.

“The hell is your problem?!” Lek called from the reins. “I get it hurts, but you’re being way too dramatic!”

“Can it, Lek!” Kirima shouted back. “I’m trying to concentrate!”

“Have some humanity, Lek! She was just stabbed by her girlfriend!” Wong added to the conversation. 

“Ex-girlfriend!” Lek countered. “What’s so different from the past few times she tried to getcha? She’s already headbutted you before!”

“No shit! Anyone would be an ‘ex’ after an attempted stabbing,” Wong rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe she used her hairpin to do it, though. No Fire National would treat their hair, or their ornaments like that. It must’ve been really personal…”

“I–I gave her this pin,” Kyoshi explained through sobs, having to hear the words ‘girlfriend’ and ‘Rangi’ in the same sentence felt like a stake was driving into her heart over and over again.

Oh, it was personal alright, she’d been stabbed with her very own present. What a hell of a way to return a gift. That reality just cemented the finality of it all the more to her. There was no going back, her friendship was damaged beyond all repair.

“WHAT?!” Kirima yelled in shock, her arm movements ceasing as a result, and causing the water she was bending to drench Kyoshi.

Kyoshi would’ve complained, if it wasn’t for the metaphorical hole in her chest distracting her from the pain in her leg. Well, the pain all over her body, really.

“What?” Kyoshi sniffed.

“What do you mean you ‘gave her this pin’?!”

Kyoshi blinked and finally looked at Kirima. “For her birthday. I got it for her for her birthday.”

“And she accepted it?!” Kirima looked at her incredulously. “You–you–! You’ve completely undersold how serious your relationship was!”

Undersold? No, no… I think I oversold it. We aren’t even dating… 

“Y–yeah, she’s worn it since then. For like, almost the past year?,” Kyoshi could only look at Kirima dumbly. Why was the waterbender getting so riled up? “Is there an issue?”

Kirima closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You do know what that means, right? What that present means? To a Fire National? What you did?”

Kyoshi just stared back. Afraid to confirm or deny. 

“You had that kind of relationship and then just up and left!” Kirima scoffed. “Spirits, no wonder she stabbed you. I’d stab you!”

Well now she was just being rude. Kyoshi was suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable, and here was Kirima being the worst big sister anyone could ask for. 

“Why?! And what do you mean ‘that kind’ you knew we were dating!” Again, they weren’t despite Kyoshi wishing it was true but, again, that’s what the Flying Opera Company had convinced themselves of. Still, it didn’t make her heart hurt any less when she had to keep the lie up like this…

“Oh spirits help us all! You proposed, you daft idiot! That’s way more serious than just dating!”

There was a beat of silence as Kirima’s words sunk in.

“Proposed what?” Kyoshi asked, still lost. However, this time it was on purpose. She really hoped it wasn’t what she thought Kirima meant. Kyoshi didn’t know how much more she could take today. 

Kirima grabbed at her head and pulled at her own hair as she yelled towards the heavens. “Are you KIDDING ME?! Girl! C’mon! You got your Fire Nation girlfriend a hairpin without realizing what that meant in her country?!”

“I–I asked the other servants at the estate if it was a good idea, though!” Kyoshi tried to defend.

“Were they Fire Nationals?” Kirima asked, calmly.

There was another long beat of silence. “...no,” Kyoshi finally muttered.

Kirima responded by taking a nearby rucksack and throwing it at Kyoshi’s head. Kyoshi let the hard object hit her. She deserved it. 

“Why the hell are you so pissed,” Lek yelled at Kirima.

“Someone’s gotta be!”

“I think Topknot’s got plenty of pissed off working for her as is,” Wong grumbled.

“Y’all really don’t get it just– Oh Tui and La and all of the water on this damned planet!” Kirima whirled back to Kyoshi. “And she accepted it?!” 

“Y–yeah?”

“And she wasn’t even mad you gave it to her?”

“S–she said it was the best present anyone had ever given her,” Kyoshi mumbled. “And that she’d treasure it always…”

Obviously not anymore… Another wave of pain rolled through Kyoshi. For her. For Rangi. Had this present, this constant reminder weighed her down the entire time? Was that why she returned it the way she did?  

Kirima’s mouth unhinged itself to such a severe angle, Kyoshi wondered if it was at risk of falling off. Then the woman somehow rehinged her jaw, and put a hand to her eyes. Like she was trying to protect herself from all the bull pigshit that was happening around her.

“Onyourknees,” Kirima said way too quickly.

Kyoshi blinked at Kirima, surely she heard Kirima wrong. “I’m sorry, what?” Kyoshi wasn’t exactly in the condition to get into a seiza pose.

“On. Your. Knees,” she repeated.

“R–right now–?”

“GET ON YOUR DAMN KNEES!” Kirima shouted.

Kyoshi jumped and scrambled to her knees, ignoring the flaring pain in her thigh.

“NOT TO ME! TO THE PSYCHO!” Kirima yelled hysterically as she removed her hand. “I shouldn’t even call her that! No wonder she’s going crazy! I’d be going crazy too!”

“I’m just saying, I’m not turning this bison around,” Lek quipped. 

Kirima pointed at Kyoshi. “You get on your knees and deliver your best apology ever and then tell her how much you love her. Maybe then she’ll stop trying to stab you!”

Kyoshi’s eyes were spinning. She was still reeling from her encounter with Rangi, and now the revelation that she had basically committed a big faux pas and proposed to her best friend almost a year earlier. She hadn’t the energy or ability to connect the dots Kirima was giving her just yet. 

“S–suuuure,” Kyoshi agreed. “Can I ask… why? What makes you so sure that’ll work?”

She’d already tried convincing Rangi that Jianzhu was the killer, and that blew up horribly in her face. Even tried to appeal to their past friendship and that still didn’t work! While she wasn’t against what Kirima was suggesting (she’d take anything at this point!), she also wasn’t exactly confident a sudden love confession could convince her friend of anything. She’d probably end up getting stabbed again…

“Hey Rangi! Listen, I know you didn’t listen to any of the other times I’ve been talking, but I totally think you’ll hear me out this time! I’m in love with you! And also, sorry about accidentally proposing all those months ago. Didn’t know what I was doing. Anyway, you want the hairpin back?” Oh yeah, that’ll really go over well. Kyoshi mentally eye rolled to herself. 

Kirima gave her a deadpan stare. “You're shitting me, right? How the hell did you two even date if you’re this thick in the head?”

Well we weren’t dating but you guys didn’t believe me when I–Oh never mind… Neutral jing. Neutral jing. If there was one positive about being with the Flying Opera Company, they knew how to take one’s mind off of things.

“Only family members and spouses give each other hair accessories in the Fire Nation! It’s even used as a means of proposal!”

Yes we’ve established that, it was a real guff on my end…

“It’s not some light faux pas you can trespass on, it’s a very serious thing! She should’ve set you on fire for what you gave her back then!” Kirima was waving her arms around. “But she didn’t, she accepted your hairpin! She didn’t even get mad! She–she– that girl is obviously and hopelessly in love with you, Kyoshi!”

A beat of silence followed Kirima’s tirade.

“Rangi’s… in love…with me?” Kyoshi repeated. The words hit her like honey and molasses, and tasted just as sweet too.

“Yes! How are you this blind and dense?! This isn’t some cute-puppy-love-teen-dating-thing, this is serious!” Kirima yelled back at her, and she continued on her tirade but Kyoshi couldn’t hear her. Her mind was full throttle, absolutely preoccupied with this new revelation.

Rangi’s in love with me? Kyoshi repeated the words in her mind. They slowly seeped in like honey filling in cracks in her being. Rangi’s in love with me… Rangi’s in love with me! 

This was the best thing she’d hear in a while–no, ever! She was fluttering with euphoria. Hell, she would’ve been thrilled with just puppy love, but the idea Rangi truly loved her? She felt like she could jump over the moon itself! This entire time, Kyoshi’s feelings were reciprocated, and she never realized! She really was dense. She really did have rocks-for-brains like Rangi had once said. 

If Kirima’s right, then maybe what she said earlier could work! Kyoshi grinned to herself. 

Then, in the midst of her high, the last look Rangi gave her as Kyoshi was pulled away flashed in her mind. The anger, the desperation, the sadness…

And a part of her being came crashing back down to Earth. The duet of joy and despair that sung in her heart created the saddest choir known to man. 

“Using words I want to hear to manipulate me into doing what you want!” Rangi’s words echoed in her mind. It didn’t make any sense to Kyoshi when she first heard it, and if she was being honest, a part of it still confused her. But she did understand one thing now… She knew what Rangi meant, what words she wanted to hear…

Care… Love… That was what Kyoshi had said to Rangi earlier. And if Kirima was right then…

Kyoshi closed her eyes and curled in on herself again. “I’m such an idiot,” she whispered.

She must’ve sounded really pathetic, because Kirima stopped her tirade and drew the water she splashed on Kyoshi out of her clothes and back into the air. 

“Yeah, you are, kid,” she sighed and began healing Kyoshi again.

_________________________________

“Are we sure we should be stopping?” Kyoshi asked, helping set up camp. 

“Pengpeng seems a little worn down,” Lek said sullenly, stroking the bison’s nose. 

Pengpeng growled appreciatively, and Kyoshi couldn’t help but feel bad. She’d been working the poor thing to the bone, but she was happy Lek was there to treat her right. He had been there to defend Pengpeng from the shirshu attack as well. 

Apparently the second shirshu had gone after Pengpeng. Luckily, Lek had been on duty and valiantly defended her. It didn’t take long for Lao Ge and Wong to come to his defense and help fend off not only the shirshu, but the group of researchers that had followed the beast. The resulting battle ended with all the researchers unconscious, and a dead shirshu. Courtesy of Lek’s bullet.

Once they secured their safety, they made their way to the village. They ran into Kirima who was fighting the other shirshu, unfortunately it appeared to have gotten away before they could finish it off. After that, they hunted Kyoshi down and the rest was history. 

Kyoshi was grateful for their save, and expressed her gratitude once her leg was more or less healed up (Kirima needed a break before she could heal the rest of Kyoshi). 

Still, she wasn’t entirely sure about the place they’d touched down on. It was far away, but with how fast Rangi was…Kyoshi couldn’t help but think it wasn’t far enough. 

“But are we sure this place is safe?” she asked. 

They had touched down in a small gorge, nestled between two mountains. It looked like stairs and alters had been set up, leading to a cave that was up ahead. Something about the place felt special somehow. A memorial? A place of worship? 

“Yeah, it’ll be fine,” Kirima waved at her. “If anyone comes running, we’ll run into the cave and lose them in the tunnel.”

Kyoshi put her hand on her hip and quirked an eyebrow. “And how would that work exactly?”

Did they have a map or something?

“There’s an ancient and vast tunnel system in that there cave. More of a labyrinth than just a normal tunnel to be honest,” Lao Ge grinned as he pointed at the entrance. Kyoshi followed his finger and squinted. It was dark out, but looking at the cave once again, it looked like there was writing on the top entrance of the cave. “Easy to get lost in.”

“But doesn’t that mean we could easily get lost?” Kyoshi asked, exasperated. How were they all just fine and dandy with that sort of plan?

“Maybe,” Wong grunted. “But I don’t think we’ll get attacked. We’ll be fine.”

Kyoshi sighed, that didn’t exactly answer her question, but was too tired to push it. Instead she wandered up to the cave to get a better look at the writing. The inscription on top read ‘The Lovers’ Cave.’

“The hell is ‘The Lovers’ Cave?’” she asked, walking back. The word ‘lover’ wasn’t exactly what she wanted to think about at the moment. 

“You don’t know about ‘The Lovers’ Cave’?!” Wong said aghast. 

Lek shook his head mournfully. “Can you even call yourself an Earth Kingdom Citizen if you don’t know it?”

Kyoshi looked over at Lao Ge, hoping he’d give her some insight. 

“It’s a popular children’s bedtime story,” he clarified. The knowing look he gave Kyoshi made it apparent that he didn’t need to explain any further, and that he knew a bomb was about to go off.

“Oh, well, no, I don’t,” Kyoshi didn’t bother to keep the bitterness out of her voice. She didn’t have the strength, and if she could channel her anger of the day at her dead parents then so be it. “I was abandoned at five years old and was treated as an outcast by the villagers. So, no. I was a little lacking in the bedtime story department!”

The Flying Opera Company rode her heated fury out like it was nothing. Well, except for Lek. He always made it apparent he didn’t like her talking ill of her parents. But to his credit, he held his tongue.

“Did that monk who raised you not tell you any stories growing up?” Kirima asked lazily. Her devil-may-care attitude had a way of defusing a situation. 

“He did when he was around, but he only told me ones with happy endings,” Kyoshi wilted, remembering Kelsang. “I’m guessing this one doesn’t have a happy ending?”

“Spoiler: One of the lovers dies,” Lek said. 

“Well there you have it,” Kyoshi sighed. That story was definitely not on Kelsang’s ‘pre-approved bedtime stories for Kyoshi’ list.

Lek shot to his feet. “Tell me you at least know the song!” 

“If I wasn’t told a story because it had a sad ending, what makes you think I learnt the song?!”

Lek screamed like a possum rat just crawled near him. “No way! We need to change that! The dramyin! Where’s the dramyin?!”

Kirima pulled him back down to sit on the ground. “Don’t you dare touch that! You broke the strings last time!”

“Plus, your voice is horrible,” Wong sighed.

“How about we tell the story first? Then we can indulge ourselves with a song,” Lao Ge smiled at the group.

Kirima sighed and got up. “I can do it, but let’s rearrange some things. I want to get in the mood.”

The group rearranged themselves around a fire they started. Kirima sat up straight, ready to project her voice the way a professional storyteller would.

“Long ago there were two lovers from rival villages. A woman named Oma, and another woman named Shu–”

“It’s not two women!” Lek protested. 

Kirima frowned. “They were in the stories I was told…”

“Well it’s wrong! Oma’s the lady, and Shu’s the guy!”

“No, they’re both women!”

Wong leaned towards Kirima and whispered, “Kirima, what other differences are in your version?”

“Well for starters, Oma–” the rest of their conversation was too hushed to make out.

Kyoshi leaned over to Lao Ge. “So…who’s right?”

Lao Ge just smirked at her. “Who’s to say?” 

Kyoshi frowned, she wanted answers not more questions. “If this story is connected to the cave and there’s a memorial here, that means there might be truth to it, right?”

“You’d be correct, girl.”

“So, shouldn’t you know? Aren’t you super old? Were you around during that time?”

Lao Ge grinned at her. “Yes, but I’m not going to tell you~”

Kyoshi wanted to punch her sifu, but she refrained when she heard Kirima clear her throat. Apparently she and Wong were done discussing the discrepancies in the story. She straightened up to give the women her full attention.

“I decided to tell the story how the Earth Kingdom Citizens are told… Instead of how the Fire Nation and Water Tribe are told.” She rolled her eyes. “Even though they’re wrong.”

“How are we wrong?! It’s our founding earthbending story! You’re the ones appropriating our lore! Where the hell did you think the phrase ‘Oma’s bastard children’ came from?!” Wong smacked the ground passionately. 

Kirima waved her hand unperturbed. “Misogyny, I would know. I’m Water Tribe.”

“Wait, people from other Nations know this but I don’t?!” Kyoshi threw her hands up in the air. She figured it was because Kirima just spent time in the Earth Kingdom, that’s why she knew the story. This wasn’t fair. Kyoshi had heard so many things on the piers of Yokoya, but never this! She felt cheated somehow. 

Kirima clapped her hands. “Anyway, let’s continue!”

Kirima cleared her throat and got in the zone again. 

“Long ago there were two lovers from rival villages. A woman named Oma, and a man named Shu.” She gave a pointed look to Lek and Wong. “They’d meet on top of the mountain that divided their two villages. Their villages were enemies at war, which kept them from being together, but their love was strong and they found a way.”

Kirima motioned to the cave’s entrance. “The two lovers learned earthbending from the badgermoles, and became the first earthbenders. They built tunnels in the mountain so they could meet secretly without being followed, and anyone that did would be lost forever in the labyrinth.”

Kirima’s face grew grave in the firelight. “But one day, the man didn’t come. He died in the war between the two villages. Devastated, the woman unleashed a terrible display of her earthbending power. She split the warzone and raised new mountains from the earth’s depths.”

Kyoshi couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu, like how she raised the seafloor back at the iceberg many weeks ago. And that was just because Yun was in danger… And then she remembered how she cratered a mountain when Kelsang and Yun had died… She didn’t want to think of what kind of power she’d unleashed if Rangi met a similar fate. 

“She could have destroyed them all,” Kirima continued, pulling Kyoshi from her thoughts. “But instead she declared the war over. Both villages helped her build a new city, where they would live in peace together.”

She turned to Kyoshi. “They named the city after them, can you tell me which one?”

“Omashu?” Kyoshi answered after a brief moment. It was pretty obvious. 

Kirima snapped her finger at Kyoshi in appreciation. “Correct~! The great city was named Omashu as a monument to their love. And that’s about it.”

Kyoshi gave a clap, followed by the rest of the Flying Opera Company, Kirima even got up and gave a small bow. 

“So what else differed? Between the two stories, I mean.” She wanted to think about something else at the moment, beside dead lovers. 

Kirima shrugged. “Oma’s the one that dies in my version. I’ll be honest, narratively, I prefer her living. Her name is derived from ‘mother,’ which is fitting for an origin story about the ‘mother of earthbending.’ Meanwhile Shu–”

“Shu’s name just stands for being a stinky old smelly shoe!” Lek interjected, laughing.

Kirima gave him a deadpanned look. “I don’t think that’s it, but I don’t care enough to oppose nor correct you.”

“It’s because I’m right!”

Kirima waved him away. “That being said, I don’t see why they can’t be two women. Ups the stakes, and makes even more sense they’d want to keep it hidden. Earth Kingdom and all.”

Wong shrugged. “Can’t be helped. Anyway, scooch over. It’s my turn.” He pulled out the dramyin and started strumming it. Guess it was time for the song portion of the night.

Two lovers,  forbidden from one another  A war divides their people,  and a mountain divides them apart,  Built a path to be together With love as their guide (love as their guide) Beware all who may enter For the labyrinth will devour All of those who want scour Their secret hiding place Be sure to use love as your guide (as your guide) Or you may get lost And die Secret Tunnel Secret Tunnel Through the mountain!  Secret Tunnel~

Kyoshi and the group clapped, enraptured by Wong’s deep beautiful voice. It would take a while before the meaning of the lyrics hit Kyoshi.

“It’s a little longer than that, but most of the verses repeat, and I thought to just keep it short,” he coughed. 

“What did you mean by ‘Love as their guide?’” Kyoshi asked. It felt important somehow, it did come up twice in the song.

Wong shrugged. “Who knows? Exactly what it says?”

“It’s part of the legend, that’s how the Lovers made their way through the cave. Their love guided them,” Kirima added.

Kyoshi couldn’t help but grimace. All this love talk was really making her feel even worse. “So…is that how you all intend to get through the cave if we have to run into it?”

The entire Flying Opera Company burst out into laughter. 

“Kyoshi, we have four earthbenders here, I think we’ll be fine,” Kirima said through jovial tears.

“Oh please! More like three and a wannabe baby earthbender,” Lek heckled. 

Kyohsi puffed her cheeks out in embarrassment but didn’t retort. She wouldn’t know what to do in the damn cave, so it must’ve been a higher level skill of earthbending he was hinting at.

“Ok ok, I think it’s time for bed. We all need to rest up,” Wong announced.

“Before everyone goes to bed, take a pack. I made it just in case we have to go into the mountains and we get separated,” Lao Ge said. He handed Kyoshi a pack while the others grabbed their own packs from his little pile. Kyoshi wondered how he got these all together so fast. Was it during the story? Or maybe he had these made back in Hongcun? 

Kyoshi raised an eyebrow at him, he must be planning something. He was never this helpful. She took a peek inside her sack. It had a handful of spare torches that could be lit by friction, a spare blanket, a waterskin and some dried fruit. She frowned. 

“Are you going to throw me into the cave for training or something?”

Lao Ge chuckled. “Well it’s never a bad thing to be prepared. Let’s just say that.”

Well that’s not ominous. She rolled her eyes.

“Before you go to bed, I do want to talk with you about something. You could think of it as training,” Lao Ge said as they walked away from the group and sat down.

Kyoshi eyed him suspiciously. “So what did you want to talk about?”

Lao Ge gave her a knowing smile. “I think I remembered something important about firebending. It may help you.”

Kyoshi instantly became enamoured with this conversation, she leaned forward enthusiastically. “That’s fantastic! What is it?”

“Remember what I said before? When I first told you to study that firebending scroll?”

Kyoshi remembered. 

“As you've probably heard before, firebending is the one element that’s influenced the most by one’s emotions. Partially because it comes from within.” Lao Ge’s voice from not so long ago continued in her mind. “Sometimes, those emotions cause problems. Inner turmoil or stressful events can harm them. It’s all spiritual and mental, but it can cause their flame to not produce, which in extreme cases, can put their life at risk.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good, good,” Lao Ge nodded, satisfied. “Tell me, have you thought about what could be causing that for you?”

Kyoshi felt herself deflate. “Not…really…” In all fairness, there had been a lot on her mind, and a lot of things she’d been trying to absorb.

Lao Ge looked disappointed. “Well, I suppose I can’t be too surprised.”

“Is this all?” She was hoping for new information…

“No no, I have more to say,” he said, returning to his cheery demeanor. He grabbed a stick on the ground and started drawing the earth and fire element into the ground. ”’Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong. They are persistent and enduring.’ In other words: stubborn!” He looked up at Kyoshi and grinned. “And I dare say, you are one stubborn girl! Hard to move, even when you need to heal.”

Kyoshi frowned down at him. This wasn’t making her feel better, but, then again, maybe she was a fool to think that’s what she’d get out of this conversation?

“So, because I’m so unyielding and stubborn, that’s what’s keeping me from accessing the other elements?”

“Possibly?” he grinned.

“Possibly?! Can’t you give me a straight answer?”

“I can’t give you any answers Kyoshi, I can only guide you,” he said, then pointed at the fire symbol. “Now let me continue. ‘Fire is the element of power. The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will, and the energy and drive to achieve what they want.’”

“Well I have plenty of that! Power, desire, drive…all to take Jianzhu down!” Kyoshi scowled, clenching her fists. This felt like he was spitting in her face, as if telling her she had none of that!

Lao Ge didn’t let her temper tantrum phase him. “I know you do, child. But…that’s not the only thing that fire represents.” He took the stick in his hand and poked her chest with it, right in the middle, where her heart would be. “It’s life.”

At the word, Kyoshi felt something resonate within her. Longing, sadness, and pain rippled through her.

Lao Ge pulled the stick away from her, a sad but knowing expression on his face. “Your life has been full of hardships. And now what you had left of it has been uprooted. Your inner fire is going through intense inner turmoil. Perhaps these two factors are what’s keeping you from moving forward?”

Kyoshi felt tears prickling at the sides of her eyes, then she wiped away from them. “I thought you said you weren’t going to give me answers?”

The old man shrugged. “Maybe I’m softening in my old age? Or maybe that’s just a step towards the greater answer you’ve yet to uncover.”

Kyoshi rolled her eyes and groaned goodnaturedly.

“Now run along to bed, girl. You need your rest. I’ll take the first watch,” Lao Ge said, a small twinkle in his eye.

Kyoshi could only nod, too tired to even offer to stay up with him. She bowed gratefully, and made her way back to the ground she claimed as her own.

Before going to bed, Kyoshi decided to take stock of herself. She had the rucksack that Lao Ge had given her, filled with all the supplies he said it would have. She put it down where she’d be laying her head, to use as a pillow.

She turned her attention to her attire. She was missing one of her fans (Wong nearly shat a brick when he found out), and the outfit Jianzhu had given her was damaged. The skirt was cut down in a four inch jagged line, that would be relatively easy to mend, the real issue were her pants and obviously body parts.

The side where she was stabbed was darkened with blood (a pain to clean but doable). Understandable, when you’re stabbed fairly deep and then the same object is dragged four inches across, it would be weirder if blood didn’t spill. She was pretty sure her leg was dripping with blood within seconds of the horrific incident.

As for her pants, they didn’t have a similar hole as her skirt, instead, when Rangi had stabbed her and hung off of Kyoshi for the brief moment she could, she’d end up tearing and taking a piece of Kyoshi’s pant leg with her. 

Kyoshi’s free hand went to the wound, now a pink raised scar accompanied by a giant bruise on her thigh. Kirima may not have been the best healer, but she did a pretty amazing job for someone that’s not talented in the art. At the very least, Kyoshi wasn’t left bleeding out on the bison floor…

Once satisfied with her inspection, Kyoshi laid down to go to bed, rolling onto her good side. She held Rangi’s hairpin in both hands, pressed up to her mouth. Almost like an Air Nomad would do with prayer beads. Or, perhaps, it looked more like she was holding a stake, one to ward off an evil spirit?

_____

When Kyoshi opened her eyes, she was back in Yokoya. Standing on the nearby beach, letting the water lap at her toes. Though panic thrummed through her, her body moved very calmly. She looked down at herself.

She wore the familiar sun damaged blue robes that most Yokoyans wore, patched up and all. Something Kyoshi used to don before she became a maid. But what also stood out to her was that she was skinny. So very skinny. Like before her employment at the mansion, when hunger used to ravage her every day. But what was odd was…she was as tall as she was now at the fresh age of sixteen, not thirteen or fourteen… The math did not add up… 

Strange… All of this was so strange. Why would she still be a homeless orphan at this age? Wait, is the mansion not–

She looked away from the sea, towards the big hill and– Yes, it was there. Still there. So why…

Wait… where is everyone? Kyoshi realized there were no boats, no fishermen. Even in the immediate distance she couldn’t even see the farmers. 

Her eyes drifted towards the mansion, as if it was calling to her. Despite her panic, her feet started to move towards the building. She didn’t want to face Jianzhu yet, she wasn’t ready, but it didn’t stop her body from heading towards certain doom. 

As she approached the end of the main path to the estate, she saw it. The Yokoyans were gathered outside the mansion gates, farming tools in hand raised above their heads. Obviously they didn’t seem pleased. Grumbles and shouts seemed to be calling for Jianzhu to take responsibility for…something, or that they had some complaints they wanted to share with him.

Get in line… Kyoshi thought sarcastically as she made her way through the crowd. 

She was about to push past the guards when they stopped her.

“Halt! Where do you think you’re going?”

Kyoshi looked at them like they were daft. “Um, I work here?” Well I got fired, but I am the Avatar… Oh, does it really matter?

The man snorted. “You? Please. Why would we have trash like you work here?”

Well he didn’t need to be so rude about it.

It probably would’ve stung, but Kyoshi had heard worse. Instead of fighting with the man, she decided her energy was worth someplace else. Like sneaking in! Or…something.

She quickly got away from the crowd and made her way around the back of the mansion. 

If I remember correctly, a secret servant’s entrance should be–

She stopped in her tracks, stopped looking for the secret compartment, and turned away from the wall. As she looked out she saw a mountain, and had the intense urge to climb it. 

She tried to shake the urge away, turned back to the wall… Only to see it the wall growing smaller. Her feet had yet again decided things for her. 

Ok, ok. You want me to go this way. Fine, I will. But after this I’m breaking in!

If any place was going to have answers, it’d be the mansion! And if not answers! Then Rangi! She would surely be there!

It surprisingly didn’t take that long to climb the mountain, nor did Kyoshi find herself very winded…at all in fact! Which didn’t add up, like everything so far, if she was as skinny as before she got the job at the estate she wouldn’t be able to make this hike…

As she approached the crest of the hill, she heard something. Crying… Familiar crying. Sharp inhalations she’d only heard a few times, but there could be no mistaking it. Kyoshi quickly sprinted up the rest of the hill and saw a familiar figure sitting on a nearby boulder. Hunched over with their head in their hands. 

“Rangi!” Kyoshi yelled. She hadn’t expected her friend to be here, nevermind seeing her so distressed. 

Rangi’s head shot up and whipped around towards Kyoshi’s voice. “Kyoshi!”

The firebender got up and ran at her in a full sprint, for the briefest second Kyoshi remembered their fight and a voice deep down told her to run. But her feet kept moving forward regardless of her thoughts. The two girls collided in a tight embrace, gripping ferociously at each other. Kyoshi almost erupted into pure joy, not expecting this kind of welcome after their previous trials. 

When they pulled away, it was only just enough so they could see each other’s faces. Rangi’s face was woefully tearstained, like she’d been crying for hours. 

Kyoshi cupped her cheek, and wiped at the tears with her thumb. “Rangi, what’s the matter? Are you ok? What’s going on–”

Rangi grabbed both sides of Kyoshi’s face and pulled her down into a fierce kiss. Kyoshi’s eyes widened and body still for only a moment, surprised by the action, then quickly melted into the kiss. She felt Rangi’s warm tongue graze her bottom lip, and Kyoshi eagerly let her in. Rangi was as warm and as soft as she had fantasized about. 

They kissed for spirits know how long, but all Kyoshi knew was that it wasn’t enough. She could stay in that moment forever in fact.

Rangi was the first to speak, “Thank the spirits, you’re alive! I–I thought…” Her voice cracked as she nestled her face into Kyoshi’s chest.

Kyoshi hugged her back fiercely. “Rangi, what’s going on around here? I–”

The entire experience since she’d woken up had been strange. Nothing in Yokoya was adding up, Jianzhu wasn’t after her (in fact his estate turned her away!), the Flying Opera Company was nowhere to be seen… And Rangi was acting like the past few weeks hadn’t happened.

Oh. Kyoshi realized, slightly disheartened. This is a dream.

That would explain the anomalies, the fuzziness, the inability to control her body. But after the realization hit her, she couldn’t help but wish she could take it back. She wanted to live in this bliss for just a little longer. 

She felt Rangi grip her arms and shake her. “Kyoshi! You need to get out of here, it’s not safe!”

Kyoshi blinked at her. Of course it was safe, it was just a dream after all. “What do you mean?”

“Have you forgotten? A war is about to break out!”

War?! There was no wa– No, that didn’t matter. This was a dream, Kyoshi needed to remember that. Especially if she was going to be aware she was in a dream, no need to add more stress to her life. Even the unconscious one. 

“What war? With who?” Kyoshi asked. 

“Between the Avatar’s estate and the Yokoyans,” Rangi looked at her disheartened. 

Despite it not being real, it set Kyoshi’s teeth on edge. She wanted to question why it was happening, but remembered. Dream. It was happening because her brain wanted it to happen. 

Fine, if her mind wanted there to be a war, Kyoshi would rebel against this. She clasped Rangi’s hand between her own, and told her the words she wished she could’ve spoken when she ran from the mansion all those weeks ago.

“Run away with me.”

“What?!” Rangi looked at her, shocked.

“Let’s get out of here! Let’s run away together, just you and me. We don’t need to be a part of this damn war!”

Conflicted warred on Rangi’s face, Kyoshi could tell she desperately wanted to but something was holding her back. Then Rangi’s head turned back, to look at the mansion off in the distance.

“But… My mother…”

“She can come too! We’ll sneak her out,” Kyoshi said without missing a beat. She wouldn’t make the same mistake here like she did in the real world. It also did not elude Kyoshi that Rangi was on the estate side of the conflict while she was on the Yokoyan’s side.

Why does this sound so familiar? She tried racking her brain to recall the familiar memory, but the dreamy daze kept it at bay. 

She took Rangi’s face into her hands and kissed her one more time. “I’m not leaving you behind again, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you both out. So, please, run away with me.”

Rangi looked up at her, eyes shining and smiled. “Ok, we’ll meet you here tonight, when the moon is high.”

“Ok, I’ll see you then–” Kyoshi cut herself off as Rangi disappeared from her arms like dust in the wind. The scene quickly changed into night. “What–”

There was a loud bang followed by yells and clanging. She quickly turned around and saw the mansion and all of Yokoya on fire. The battle must’ve started, but Rangi and Hei-Ran were nowhere to be seen!

Kyoshi found herself sprinting down the mountain, ready to jump into the heat of battle. Fearing that Rangi got caught up in the fight. When she got down to the beach, it was a bloodbath. Spears, swords, shovels and rakes were scattered about with bodies from both sides. On top of that, the entire battlefield had been completely terraformed with earthbending. 

Kyoshi felt herself being pulled to the middle of the chaos, like an invisible cord was leading her to where she needed to go. 

Uphead, she could see a battle, Jianzhu was fighting hordes of Yokoyans, slaughtering them with ease. But what stole her attention was the figure that laid much closer to her. In the middle of all the chaos, framed by the moon’s spotlight, as if in some sick play, lay Rangi suspended just slightly into the air. Drenched in blood, and a stone spike piercing her chest from behind. 

“NO!” Kyoshi screamed, sprinting towards where Rangi was, waving her arms to earthbend the spike away.

Kyoshi caught Rangi’s body as it fell back to the ground, her head lulling to the side. She was ice cold. Kyoshi stared down into Rangi’s glassy eyes. Dulled bronze, the fire snuffed out. Lifeless.

Kyoshi held Rangi’s body close to her, and let the white light take over her vision. 

____

“Wake up! We have to move!” Wong screamed, jostling Kyoshi awake. Kyoshi jolted upright, from the nightmare, and from the loud noises around her. The earth was shaking. “To the cave! Quickly! Just run! Go!”

Kyoshi didn’t bother to ask, she grabbed the rucksack beneath her and started booking it to the cave entrance. She stumbled, feeling the earth shake beneath her, but was steadied by Lek who helped pull her along.

“C’mon, slowpoke! That demon is back!” he yelled. 

There was a cry and Kyoshi chanced to turn back and saw the black mass of the remaining shirshu charging at them. Kyoshi realized the ground was rumbling because of its burrowing, Wong and Lao Ge’s earthbending, and Pengpeng’s own stumbling feet as they barreled into the cave. 

Wong threw a few large boulders and pushed the beast back before sealing the cave off. Kyoshi quickly reached into her bag and struck a torch off the ground, lighting it.

“What the hell is going on?!” she panted, looking around.

“That damn monster followed us! That’s what!” Lek yelled over his shoulder, his hands were busy at Pengpeng’s leg.

“What’s going on? Is Pengpeng alright?” Kyoshi asked, fear for her furry friend welling up inside  her.

“I–I dunno, that thing hit two of her legs with its tongue– She tried getting up in the air, but I think those legs are numb and–” 

“No offense, but we need to keep moving!” Kirima interrupted them. Kyoshi and Lek turned on their elders, offended that they wanted to make Pengpeng move in this condition. But Kirima continued before they had a chance to retaliate. “She can still move a bit, right? That’s good, because that damn thing can burrow, remember?”

That lit a fire under their ass. Kyoshi helped Lek push Pengpeng further into the cave, Kyoshi on Pengpeng’s right and Lek on her left. The poor creature seemed to hate being underground, and Kyoshi couldn’t blame her. Despite being an earthbender, despite being the Earth Avatar, she couldn’t help but find this whole place suffocating.

She fought to keep the lyrics of the Cave’s song out of her head, fearing she really would be devoured. 

As they approached a diverting path, they heard a loud crashing sound. It must’ve been the shirshu! It dug itself through the cave entrance’s blockade! Then, the whole cave started to rumble, like they were in the middle of an earthquake!

“Which way do we take?!” Kyoshi yelled at the boys, unsure of which of the two paths would help lead them out. 

“To the left,” Lao Ge indicated after tapping his foot on the ground. 

Kyoshi and Lek started pushing Pengpeng to the left when a high pitch screeching could be heard. Something slammed into Kyoshi’s back and knocked her over. She kept her hand glued to her torch, not wanting to lose the little light she had. As she tried to scramble back up to her feet, she felt something sink its claws into her robes, claws hooking over her rucksack and into the armor beneath them, and yanked her up.

“Wolf bats!” She heard Kirima yell.

The next few things happened in a blur, she could hear sounds of fighting happening on the other side of Pengpeng. People screaming out each other’s names including her own. She felt something fluffy and strong slam into her and the wolfbat, sending her flying to the other side of the cave. The cave and Kyoshi groaned on impact. The impact smacked the wolfbat off of her, but it also put a lot of difference between her and her team…and put a lot of wolfbat obstacles between them as well. The animals seemed to be spawning by the dozens.

Kyoshi took out her lone fan and earthbent a boulder at a few wolfbats that looked like they were about to sneak up on Lek. Worried more about his safety, she threw the boulders at them with all her might.

The boulders slammed the four wolfbats into the side of the cave, causing the cave to groan again. In that instant, Kyoshi found herself slammed back into the cavern floor, the earth rumbling beneath her and how its quake assaulted her ears. She looked up to see Lek’s shocked face.

“Kyoshi!” he cried. And then he was gone.

Everyone was gone.

Kyoshi stared in horror as she comprehended what just happened. She caused the cave to cave in. Did her actions accidentally kill her allies?!

“Kyoshi!” She heard muffled voices through both the ringing in her ears and through the rocks that separated her. 

“I–I’m here I’m–” 

A screeching around her cut her off short. A new form of terror thrummed through her as she realized she was alone with the wolfbats. She turned around wide eyes and saw their glowing eyes gleaming at her through the torchlight. They were beginning to surround her.

“Wolfbats! I have to– I’ll see you outside!” she screamed before booking it down the pathway.

____

When Kyoshi was younger, she didn’t have a lot of access to food. She spent more time eating garbage, roots and tree bark, and other foliage she could get her hands on.

One day when she was six, while skulking around the fishing docks, she overheard and watched fishermen teach each other survival skills the other didn’t know. One of the fishermen showed how to make snares to catch animals on land. Kyoshi absorbed the lesson like a sponge, and went about collecting sticks and whatever she needed to twist a small rope. Driven by the desire to eat meat once again.

She set a few snares in the forest, imagining the feast she was sure to have. She just had to be patient.

It took three days for one of her snares to entrap an animal. A small lop-eared rabbit, its leg was caught in the trap, squealing hoping for something to come and save it.

Kyoshi watched the thing struggle, she realized in horror that the snare didn’t kill the animal while she was away. She’d have to kill it herself. 

Driven by hunger, she grabbed a rock nearby and raised it above her head. Her mental image of herself resembled Aoma, and how she liked to hit Kyoshi with rocks for fun. But just then the animal looked her dead in the eyes, its glassy eyes gleaming in terror. A will of fire still burning strong within its being.

Kyoshi dropped the rock in yet another realization (six year olds weren’t known for thoroughly thinking out their plans after all). 

“I don’t know how to make a fire,” she whispered to the rabbit sadly. She wouldn’t know how to make a fire for a good while, but she knew if she wanted to safely eat this rabbit, she’d need a fire. And perhaps a knife. Tears started to fall as she realized she caused the animal harm for no reason. “I’m sorry.”

I wish I was a firebender.

____

Kyoshi felt horrible. From the lack of sleep. From her weird dream. From her memory of her first almost kill, possibly her first assisted kill. She’d let the rabbit go, but she was pretty sure another animal ate it later due to the limp in its leg.

But what made her stomach churn was the splotches of wolfbat blood she was still wiping off her face. She’d outrun most of the animals, but a few caught up to her. They were not deterred by the torch in her hand, so she had to use her fan to…take care of them so to speak. Some of the creatures' remains happened to splatter on parts of her. Well her clothes were already soaked in her own blood, what’s some more?

She fought the urge to throw up.

No! Think of this as your training! She chided herself. If you can’t handle killing animals attacking you, what makes you think you’ll be able to kill Jianzhu?! Suck it up!

The threat of puking washed over her, but it didn’t stop how horrible she felt. 

I need to get back to the other’s but how? She’d been wondering for hours, but hadn’t seen a soul in sight. She’d gone through most of her stock of strike torches. She was now only down to three. That’s only three hours, and then she’ll be wandering lost and in the dark.

I’ll die at this rate. Might as well. My legacy is already in the gutter. Might be better for people to have remembered what Yun had done than to know about my own shortcomings. 

“Look out Kuruk, I’m coming to beat your record,” she joked dryly. Maybe if she died here, Rangi wouldn’t be able to find her body? So she’d keep up the game of chase for another sixteen years until the next Fire Avatar was announced. Maybe then Rangi may rethink her ideas of dying? 

Kyoshi sighed and banished the thought from her head. No, she needed to get out of here. Someone needed to stop Jianzhu. And it would be easier for her to keep tabs on Rangi and keep her alive if Kyoshi was also alive. 

She smacked her cheeks trying to hype herself up. “Ok Kyoshi, you got this. You’re an earthbender! You’re surrounded by your element! You just gotta bust your way out of here!”

She walked over to a nearby wall, with her fan hand she brought her arm down and watched as the wall of the cave sunk down into the earth. Kyoshi grinned and started walking through the opening, when her face suddenly slammed into a solid wall. 

She let out a string of curses as she grabbed at her nose. It was only bruised, thankfully. After the pain subsided she looked up and saw the cave wall had returned to its original position!

Now I know I’m not that shitty of an earthbender. Kyoshi grumbled, throwing her arms down again. The wall disappeared again and she took a step to walk through it. But as soon as her foot hit the ground the wall shot back up! Kyoshi's eye twitched as she threw her arms and the wall down again, only to shoot right back up yet again. She did this about five more times until she yelled in frustration. 

“Fine! I won’t go that way!” she yelled. She must’ve been going insane, she was talking as if someone was there. Maybe the cave itself was alive? Whatever, she’d find a different wall.

Kyoshi walked for a few minutes until she decided to try again. She got close to the wall, ready to dive through in case it decided to shoot back up on its own accord. She brought her arm down, and the wall came with it. When she picked up her head, her face was met with a fleshy pink mass snorting at her. Kyoshi raised her torch up higher and paled as she realized she came face to face with the missing shirshu.

Kyoshi’s arms shot up instantly, pulling the earthen wall back up between her and the beast! Then she turned around, took stock of where she was, and sprinted down the path she’d yet to take, screaming the whole way.

______

An hour later, Kyoshi finally calmed down as she struck another torch off the ground, only two more hours remaining. The shirshu hadn’t followed her, but it still didn’t set her at ease; she was trapped in this damn place with the thing. 

“Oh it’ll be fine! We’ll use earthbending to find our way through the labyrinth! You worry too much Kyoshi, we'll lead the way no problem! Just trust in love!” Kyoshi said to herself, imitating each of the Flying Opera Company’s voices. “Damn assholes, I’m gonna make them pay if we all get out of here alive!”

Kyoshi stopped her long walk to face another wall of earth. She stared at it hard. “Ok, I’m going to try this again. There better not be a damn shirshu behind it!”

She threw her arms down and brought the earth with it. It wasn't a shirshu. A shirshu wouldn't be able to hold a torch or fire. For the briefest second, she thought she had reunited with her team. But when her eyes finally refocused from the new light, it wasn't the Flying Opera Company Kyoshi had reunited with.

It was Rangi.

The two stared at each other with widened eyes, then Kyoshi raised her arms up to put the earth between them. The wall did not return. Kyoshi tried it a few times, but she might as well have been trying to lift a house sized stone slab with her bare hands.

Why! Won't! You! Cooperate?! She yelled in her mind as the earth failed to yield to her demands. 

She swore, and turned her attention back to Rangi (should’ve never taken it off of her to begin with). “Let’s not do anything hasty–”

She barely dodged the fireball that Rangi threw, Kyoshi’s hands flew up to her face, dropping her torch as she caught Rangi’s flying knee kick. She saw through Rangi’s feint, and now Rangi was going to pay for it. 

While she was still airborne, Kyoshi kept one hand on Rangi’s knee, and used the other to grab her by the collar. Then, using Rangi’s momentum, twisted her body downwards. Slamming Rangi into the ground onto her back. 

Rangi slapped her arms out and down to the side and small jets of fire poured out beneath her, weakening the momentum and thus softening the blow. Her foot jutted up and out at Kyoshi’s face, and Kyoshi rolled to the side just in time to avoid a small stream of fire. 

Kyoshi remembered she was an earthbender, and attempted to…do something. Either bring a part of a wall or ceiling down on Rangi, or encase her in earth. But the earth didn’t yield yet again.

Oh, come on! 

Now was not the time for what little bending she had to completely go haywire! But apparently it was, and she’d have to brute force her way through this fight.

Rangi charged at her with a flurry of punches and kicks, Kyoshi fell back, trying to keep enough distance between them as she blocked what hits came her way. She was doing a fine job, almost too fine. Each blow that did manage to collide didn’t feel nearly as powerful as previous matchups.

Is she pulling her punches? Kyoshi thought, as she fell for a feign, and Rangi slammed kick into Kyoshi’s injured thigh. The impact caused a ripple of pain to shoot up through her as she yelped. She was distracted enough that she couldn’t even block Rangi’s next kick to her solar plexus, causing Kyoshi to slam into the wall behind her. 

Rangi grabbed her by her kataginu and had a fist raised, probably to slam a fire fist or an explosion fist through her skull. Kyoshi gasped, she was having a hard time breathing thanks to the two hits. She wasn’t sure if she could dodge this next attack. Kyoshi looked deep into Rangi’s eyes, they were unfocused. She looked even worse for wear than before. Sicker somehow. But it could’ve been a trick of the torch light. 

“I got…you…” Rangi panted. “It’s over… Nowhere…left…to…ru–”

Rangi’s fist dropped and hold slacked as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, then she fell to the side. 

“R–Rangi!” Kyoshi overcame her pain and grabbed Rangi as they fell to the ground, protecting her from hitting her head. 

After Kyoshi recovered from the pain, she sat up, cradling Rangi's body in her hands, shaking her. “Rangi? Rangi! Hey!” Kyoshi continued to shake her, her voice becoming louder and more frantic as time went on, trying to suppress the memory rising inside her. “Come on, wake up! This isn’t funny! Rangi!”

 Rangi’s head bobbled side to side, breathing shallow, eyes closed with dark shadows under them. She was ice cold.

Terror ran through Kyoshi faster than a tsunami taking out a town. Crashing into her being and drowning all other thoughts and emotions in its wake. The memory of her dream, of Rangi’s lifeless body in her arms. The ending to the Lover’s story… It was becoming a living nightmare.

Was Rangi dying? Why? 

She bit back the threat of the light in her eyes coming full force. No, Rangi was breathing, she was still alive. Kyoshi had to figure something out while she had time. Not lose it.

She took a shaky hand and felt for a pulse on Rangi’s neck. It was there, but it was weak. 

“Why? Why is this happening?!” 

This was the worst possible scenario. Kyoshi wasn’t a healer! She hadn't learnt any other element besides earth, how was she going to help Rangi?

And that’s not even working right, right now. She grimaced. Her bending was a mess, they were trapped in this cave, nay, tomb. Only able to cradle the girl she loved in her arms as she took her last breaths.

Damn it! Damn it all! What do you want me to do?! Kyoshi cried in her head. Damning all the Avatars and sages and spirits and everyone that put them into this position. At this rate Rangi was going to…

Rangi let out a weak cough, and it snapped Kyoshi out of her spiral. “Rangi? Rangi are you awake?” 

Rangi didn’t respond, and Kyoshi caressed the back of her hand against Rangi’s sickly pale skin. Ice cold, more fitting for a waterbender than a firebender.

If only I could bend fire… She thought. Her brow wrinkled, confused why she thought that. The earlier memory was about food not about… Rangi being cold. She shook her head, trying To find reason in her jumbled thoughts.

Because I could keep her warm? She tried offered to herself.

Because if I could light a fire, I could keep her warm. I could…light… Ignite? Kyoshi’s eyes widened, her training, her lessons flooding back to her. I could reignite her inner fire!

Kyoshi didn't waste any time. Even if she couldn't firebend now, she would make the damn flames appear! Rangi’s life depended on it.

She took the rucksack off of Rangi’s shoulders and deftly untied the armor, then opened the top half of Rangi’s kimono so there was only one layer between Kyoshi and the chi pathways. With almost all barriers out of her way, she started on her task at hand. 

“The first step was to follow the pathways…” Kyoshi mumbled to herself, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. She couldn’t get her hands to glow like in the scroll, but it wasn’t going to stop her. Kyoshi ran her hands an inch over Rangi’s body, following the pathways starting at her stomach. “I do this and then– I’m supposed to exhale fire into her mouth I think? But I don’t feel any flame…”

Kyoshi bit her lip, and decided to avoid the last step for now, her instincts told her it wasn’t the right time yet. Her fingers moved in the same pattern. Once, twice. A dozen times. But still…nothing. No spark. No warmth.

Kyoshi was taking short shallow breaths as her panic continued. “Please,” she whispered, pleading to any spirit who would take pity on her. “I don’t care what happens to me. I don’t care if I lock myself from firebending forever. I don’t care if I have to give up my own inner fire and life, just– If she dies, I don’t see any point in–”

Kyoshi choked on another sob as tears fell from her eyes. A few droplets landed on Rangi’s face, she twitched and murmured something incomprehensible but didn’t wake. Kyoshi gently wiped the tears from Rangi’s face, and felt a new wave of determination flow through her.  

As she started at Rangi’s stomach again, she felt it. Like spring to ice, she felt a thaw start to take place. Kyoshi’s hands did not glow, there was no fire, but she could feel a heat. And she clung to it so it wouldn’t escape. 

Her fingers traced the pathways yet again, feeling them warm under her movements, until one hand led up to Rangi’s throat, tilting it back. Kyoshi knew now was the time. As Kyoshi let one hand trail back down the pathways to Rangi’s stomach, where the inner fire was stored, she dipped her head down and captured Rangi’s lips with her own. And breathed out pure heat. 

A pulse. What felt like a little heartbeat fluttered under the palm of Kyoshi’s hand where it hovered over Rangi. Kyoshi only pulled away when she ran out of air, and noticed Rangi’s ice cold lips felt a little warmer. 

I did it! But she didn’t let herself celebrate too soon, she repeated the process a few more times. Rangi got a little warmer each time. Kyoshi kept at it until she exhausted herself, it felt as if she just overused a muscle she never knew she had. 

After the last breath, Kyoshi caressed Rangi’s cheek and put her ear up to her lips. Rangi’s breathing was even, growing stronger by the second. Remnants of familiar heat coming back to her skin, pinking instead of green like before. Kyoshi let out a shuddering breath of relief and pressed her forehead to Rangi’s, weeping happily. She was ok! Rangi was going to be ok!

She quickly folded Rangi’s kimono closed, she needed to keep the new heat insulated. Kyoshi wondered if she could carry Rangi through the cave, but decided to have them rest and try to keep Rangi warm instead. Looking around the cave, she saw the torch just a yard or two away and got up to grab it. It still had an hour or so left on it. She didn’t think there was a way to douse it then reignite it later, nor did she want to tempt fate. It was best to just leave it burning. Maybe she or Rangi could make a hand torch later?

She gathered their things and placed them up against the wall. Kyoshi made a move to start putting Rangi’s spiked armor back on when a memory tugged at her.

“You can’t sleep in that getup. Especially not the armor,” Rangi’s voice echoed in her mind. Back when they spent a night under the same sheets, floating on an iceberg in the middle of nowhere. Rangi had been so warm then, like a little glowing coal in the hearth. But it was Kyoshi’s turn to keep her warm now. 

Kyoshi quickly placed Rangi’s armor and rucksack next to the wall. Then she readjusted her clothes, removing her hidden layer of armor and keeping her long kataginu tucked out of her belt. They didn’t have any blankets so she’d have to make due with this.

Kyoshi sat herself next to Rangi, leaning against the wall. She moved Rangi’s body so she was sitting in her lap, cradled in her arms, making sure to place her inside her kataginu. The right side of her head resting against Kyoshi’s left shoulder. Once settled, she wrapped the robe around them, making sure Rangi was secure and the heat was trapped between them. Almost instantly, Kyoshi could feel it working, and breathed a sigh of relief. 

Kyoshi looked around the cave, the events of the day and her being rudely woken up were finally hitting her. She made a good call choosing to take a moment to rest. 

Just a few minutes, I just need to close my eyes for a few minutes…

She stole one more glance down at Rangi. She was sleeping soundly, her top knot-less hair cascading down her face, unrestrained for once. Kyoshi could feel her heart clenching, happy that Rangi was only sleeping and not worse. 

Then a storm cloud washed over her, the memory of her dream hitting her full force. The danger Jianzhu had put her and Rangi in…

Don’t worry, I’ll protect you. Kyoshi held Rangi even tighter as she made her declaration, then she kissed the sleeping girl’s temple. 

Spirits help anyone who would take Rangi from her.

___

Map (source/explanation):

___

A/N: Ahem. I told you it was time for their N-A-P! uwu

Actually, as of this chapter right now, I can safely assure everyone that the girls are going to have a better sleep sched. uwu Unless something happens in the future, then I’m a big fat liar. (but fr fr I don’t really have any intent on any more sleep deprivation, we’re past that now. uwu but if something like that happens later despite what I just said… well…then characters and plot will just….character and plot 8U)

Also, if you couldn’t tell, I was trying to expand on what happened with Zuko during his “metamorphosis.” I mean I was putting Rangi through a similar dilemma that messed with her sense of self so. 8U Weee~! (him and Azula's breakdowns are the big inspos for Rangi's so yeah)

“Man you sure do like your dream sequences” I want them to kiss god damnit TT0TT Sue me! It’s hard slow burning sometimes, lemme indulge. u_u *cough* Anyway….

*inhales* SECRET TUNNEL! I’m not a lyricist, I apologize if I’ve offended anyone trying to expand the songs lyrics and did a poor job of it u_u I know Chong says “and die” is "the rest of the song" but he legit can’t remember anything so I’mma pretend there was more between those two lyric lines~! (and ones that incorporate the tale into it more) Anyway, I like to think this song originated eons ago and has been passed down throughout the years and has expanded to other nations. Tbf a Fire nation soldier in ATLA mentions knowing the song, but it doesn’t HAVE to mean they only heard it cause they’re colonizing the EK…they could’ve just heard it because it’s a well known song/story~!…. I’d say there’s some wiggle room~! :3c

Oh right… the Netflix thing. Anyway, if you watched it you’d see they changed aspects of The Cave of Two Lovers episode between the Cartoon and LA. BESIDES it not being in the right season, and it focusing on Katara/Sokka sibling stuff instead of the ship tease of Kataang (well that’s a choice!). They changed the tale of Oma and Shu. In the LA ver, Shu is now a woman and so they are a wlw couple. Also, OMA is the one who dies and SHU is the one who stops the war. Completely opposite of the cartoon. Not sure why they changed who lived and died but… ok. O_o

Anyway, because of this discrepancy… I thought it would be cool to play with it. Hence the inconsistent tale of the lovers. :’D (something I also noticed was that, in both versions, Oma is usually red, and Shu is blue. Which means… in the wlw/NATLA version it’d mean Rangi was Oma/red and Kyoshi is Shu/blue. >:3c Interesting~! nyehehehe~)

Fun fact: If you’re a Persona fan and have played Persona 5 Scramble, then I’ll have you know. Kirima’s “On your knees” bit was inspired by Ryuji saying “Send the effin’ thing back!” scene. She says it in the same tone of voice. (not sure how many fans here overlap with Persona but.... yeah 8U)

[itsjuststardust]

Heaven In Hiding - Chapter 1: The Bounty

Story Synopsis: Five years before the Mandalorian even met the Child, Mando took what he thought was going to be the easiest bounty with the highest payout of his career thus far. Capturing a runaway dancer—a ballerina versus a Mandalorian—was laughable.

Until it wasn’t.

The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter. His job is to collect a quarry and then return it for a profit. It doesn’t matter what happens to said quarry once he has returned it and collected the credits. So, then, why can he not forget about a sad pair of emerald green eyes after he turned her in? And when their paths cross again five years later, and he sees the condition his former quarry is in, how can he justify returning the Child to them? He is a bounty hunter. It doesn’t matter what happens to them… right?

Word Count: 5,814

Author's Note/Chapter Warnings: Long time Tumblr lurker. First time Tumblr poster. This is a multi-chapter fic that is also posted on AO3. Din Djarin/OFC. Slooooowwwwwwww buuuuurrrrrrnnnnnn. Rated Mature for Mature themes (PTSD, slight sexual content, descriptions of torture), but will eventually become explicit (Officially 🌶️explicit🌶️ Chapter 8 and beyond)... So - 18+ only. Minors DNI. Welcome interaction with others and constructive criticism. Bear with me while I figure out this whole Tumblr thing 🩶

Chapter 1: The Bounty

“Alaina! What have you done?”

Alaina frowned as she pried the pointe shoes off her aching feet. Only the third time she’d worn this pair, she shook her head as she examined the flimsy pair of shoes. They were already fraying and splitting. It looked like she’d need to start breaking in a new pair. She dropped the shoes to the floor and brought her hands to the right foot, which she had propped on her knee, and rubbed at her sore foot. It was her third performance in a row, and she found herself greatly looking forward to a few days off to rest and soak her feet.

“What are you talking about?” she asked the young dancer who barged into her dressing room at the end of her performance.

“There’s a Mandalorian here," she said with a pleading look. "A Mandalorian is here looking for you,” the girl finished, looking nervously behind her as if she expected this person to appear magically behind her.

“What’s a Mandalorian?” she asked, wiggling her toes before she slipped back into comfortable slip-on shoes.

The younger ballerina stared at her as if she’d committed an unforgivable sin.

“Use your words,” Alaina prodded as she rose from her seat to stretch. “What is a Mandalorian, and why do you look so terrified?”

Thunder could be heard as it rumbled loudly outside, and Alaina smiled. She had already changed out of her costume and was wearing her typical outfit of tights and a baggy green sweater, but she had forgotten a jacket. Hopefully, she wouldn’t get too wet on the walk home.

“Alaina, there is a bounty hunter here for you,” her younger protege explained.

She frowned. A bounty hunter? What would a bounty hunter want with a ballerina…

Her eyes fluttered closed when she connected the dots inside her mind. Surely, that insufferable man wouldn’t be so bold as to send a bounty hunter after her.

“You’ll come with me one way or another.”

Her former friend’s words from their last meeting rang clear in her mind. Months had passed since their argument, and she had put it all behind her. Unfortunately, it appeared as if he had not been able to put it behind him.

“I need to leave,” Alaina whispered, gathering whatever belongings she could to hastily throw them into a bag. There wasn’t much here: her pointe shoes, a small purse of credits, a dagger she carried on her for protection, and a protein bar. She would just have to make do with what she had. She couldn’t risk going to her home, at least right now.

She slung her black canvas bag of belongings over her shoulder as the young dancer she’d been mentoring ducked into the hall and returned with a dark green velvet cloak that was from her dance troupe’s wardrobe. It would have to do for now.

“What did you do?” her protege asked her nervously as she helped her put on the overly large green cloak. She pulled the hood up to cover her blonde hair, which was still pinned back into a tight bun from her earlier performance.

“Would you believe me if I told you an evil scientist wants to perform experiments on me?”

The younger girl looked at her skeptically, and Alaina shrugged her shoulders. Honestly, she even had a hard time believing that herself, but here she was, getting ready to run for the second time in a year - all because of what her mind could do.

She sidestepped the shocked girl and darted into the hall. Alaina looked in both directions, and her eyes locked on an intimidating-looking silver helmet, staring her down from the end of the hall to the right. Other dancers and crew members seemed just as shocked to see the armored man. People seemed to part, allowing her a clear view down the hall.

So, that’s a Mandalorian, she thought as she took in the gleaming silver helmet and dull brown armor that adorned the very large man.

She schooled her features and squared her shoulders, preparing for the race of her life. If she could make it through the forest, she could make it to the river, which bordered a mountain with a chain of caves that would be perfect to hide in. Hopefully, she’d find a good enough hiding spot to wait out the man until he gave up. In the worst-case scenario, she could follow the river to the ship docks and try to score herself a spot with a cargo vessel or something and go with them to their next destination. Starting over on a new planet was hard, but she’d done it once when she came here. She could do it again.

Mind decided, Alaina turned to her left and sprinted out of the backstage door, not giving another look behind her.

The weather had turned atrocious during her performance, and her shoes slipped in the mud as she ran from the auditorium. Rain poured from the sky, and lightning cracked overhead, followed by loud, rumbling thunder. When Alaina had overheard the predictions of a storm this evening, she found herself looking forward to enjoying the springtime storm from her home with a cup of warm tea, watching the weather roll through from her bedroom window. 

Her evening plans had not included running for her life from a bounty hunter in the middle of a storm.

But she had no other choice. She needed to run. If this Mandalorian caught her and turned her in… 

Warm tears tracked down her face, mingling with the cold rain that pelted her despite the cloak’s hood. She couldn’t allow herself to be captured. That was that. If she ended up in his hands, Alaina shuddered at the thought. She’d never see her life again.

She’d never dance again.

She’d never be able to enjoy a springtime storm again.

There was no telling the things she’d never get to experience if her deranged former friend got his hands on her.

So she ran.

The tree line of the dense forest came into view, and Alaina tried to push herself faster. Adrenaline coursed through her, allowing her to ignore the pain in her feet or the way her lungs burned with every inhale. She just needed to make it to the forest, and then she could work on hiding her tracks by weaving through the trees.

She broke through the tree line, and the forest’s canopy slightly shielded the downpour of rain, which meant the forest floor was not as muddy, allowing her slightly better traction. 

She risked a look behind her, and her heart sank when she saw the foreboding outline of the Mandalorian standing at the treeline. Lightning cracked, illuminating the landscape around the broad-shouldered man and making him appear to be made of shadow and darkness.

“Please,” she begged the bounty hunter. “Please don’t do this.”

The only response she received was the rumbling of thunder as the bounty hunter took a single step toward her.

Alaina’s chest constricted, and she turned to run further into the forest. She did her best to make her tracks as erratic as possible as she wove through the dense trees. A root snagged her foot, and she stumbled but caught herself just before she fell to the ground. All those years of dancing suddenly seemed to come in handy for an entirely different reason.

The sound of water could be heard in the distance. Alaina smiled. That was not just the sound of rain. That was the sound of the river roaring. Which meant that the cave system that followed the river would be nearby.

Just a little further.

There would be a stretch of nothing when the forest would end, as the terrain changed from dirt to stone, as the scenery transitioned from forest to mountain and its caves that lined the river. That expanse would leave her exposed. Alaina slightly slowed her pace to conserve some of her energy. She would need to sprint to make it there once she no longer had the dense forest to use to her advantage.

She looked behind her just as lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the forest behind her. She slowed when she saw nothing there behind her. Good. Hopefully, she lost the man. Or, at least, she had given herself enough leeway to sprint across the vacant stretch of land between the forest and the rocky, cavernous mountain by the river.

She stopped at the forest’s edge, hugging a particularly large, red tree trunk. The river roared to her left, and Alaina watched the rapids crash into the grey stone banks. She gulped at the powerful sight. The river was normally full on a good day, but with the rain from the storm, it was almost overflowing the banks. If the river rose any higher, it could possibly flood the caves she was counting on hiding in. Or worse, one wrong step or slip, and she could fall into the rushing waters. Although, she’d rather meet the Maker in the river than she would at the hands of…

A branch snapped behind her, and she spun, expecting to find the armored man stalking behind her out of the darkened forest, but no one was there. She let out a shaky breath. She couldn’t waste any more time. It was time to run again.

Alaina turned to push off the tree to begin her mad sprint to the caves in the distance, briefly closing her eyes to say a prayer to anyone who was listening to give her the speed to make it to her destination. Only when she pushed off the tree did she come to an abrupt stop when she ran into something.

Lightning cracked across the sky, and Alaina’s heart caught in her chest when she realized it wasn’t something she ran into but rather someone.

The Mandalorian.

The man’s larger, gloved hands reached out and latched onto her shoulders, trapping her in his powerful grip. 

“Please, sir, I know you don’t know me, but you can’t send me to him,” she begged, tears welling in her eyes as she stared up into the helmet in sheer terror.

The helmet stayed unmoving, and Alaina felt the slightest spark of hope. Maybe she’d be able to talk herself out of this. Surely, the man wouldn’t turn her in if he knew what would happen to her.

“My—my name is Alaina,” she stuttered. “I’m a dancer. I just want to be a dancer. I’ve never stolen from anyone or hurt anyone,” she tried to plead her case. “If you turn me in, he’s just going to experiment on me. He’s obsessed with me and what I’m capable of.”

“Sorry, kid,” he said. The digitized voice was flat and uncaring as he spoke. 

Alaina watched in slow motion as one of his hands dropped from her shoulder to grab a pair of shackles from his waist. With all the strength she could muster, she dropped and twisted her body in an attempt to escape his grasp. And then— 

She was free.

Alaina blinked in shock when she realized she was just out of arm’s length of the Mandalorian. The helmet gave nothing away, but judging how the bounty hunter looked from his empty hand to her, she assumed he was just as shocked to see that Alaina had managed to escape him. 

With another blink, Alaina remembered where she was.

And then she remembered who she was.

Alaina knew that people usually looked over her. She had a dancer’s typical slender build, but people usually assumed that she was weak and underestimated the lithe muscles she’d built over the years from hours and hours of daily training she’d done. She was the awkward height of being shorter than most women and missed out on parts because she didn’t fit what some directors pictured for their leading dancer. She knew she was pretty but not beautiful. Her looks were plain, and men’s gazes never stayed on her pale face for long. Alaina could go on for days. Her green eyes were too large for her face. She found herself wishing her blonde hair would be brighter and would just make a decision to be either curly or straight and not whatever unmanageable wavy thing her locks dried to. People looked at her, and they underestimated her.

The Mandalorian underestimated her, and she escaped from his grasp.

She had a gift - a gift that not many knew of. Her mother had the gift and did her best to teach Alaina how to manage it. Her former best friend turned evil scientist, knew of her gift. It had torn their relationship apart when he discovered the things Alaina could do. Her mother had warned her that people would use her, but Alaina had trusted her closest friend with her secret.

And he sent a bounty hunter after her.

After how everything ended between her and her former best friend, she vowed she’d never reveal her gift to anyone again.

However, as she stared down the bounty hunter who had been sent to capture her, Alaina decided it was time to use her gift to save her life.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply through her nose. When she opened them, the Mandalorian was taking a step closer to her, and she brought her hands up between them and watched as the man froze.

“What the hell?” came a modified voice under the silver helmet.

Alaina held her ground and raised her hands, letting her powers flow through her to freeze the Mandalorian in place.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked, and his body could only flinch as he struggled to regain control of his body from her.

Alaina smirked in response before her face hardened, and she flung her hands off to the right, sending the armored man airborne. A wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she doubled over, resting her hands on her knees as she panted. Using her powers took a lot out of her, but she couldn’t rest. Not yet. She’d only bought herself a little time.

She looked back, and when the Mandalorian’s body crashed against the ground, she took in a deep breath. Lightning lit up the sky, lighting up the bank of caves in the distance.

“Run,” she whispered and nodded to psych herself up.

“Shit!” the Mandalorian spat as he tried to get up after she had tossed him.

That was all the encouragement she needed. 

She sprinted as fast as she could against the slick stone that lined the expanse between the forest behind her and the caves before her. The sound of the river roared in her ears, and she tried to use it as a meditative sound. A sound to encourage her. She used the sound of the rushing water to drown out the sound of the Mandalorian’s boots pounding against the stone as he chased her down.

Alaina gritted her teeth as she pushed herself further, asking more from her body than she ever had before. She was so close. Just a little more, and she could jump to a ledge that had an entrance to one of the caves. Once she was in there, she could get lost—so lost that it would take her days to find her way out of the intricate caverns. Surely, the Mandalorian couldn’t find her if she didn’t even know where she was herself.

A gloved hand grabbed her cloak, knocking the hood down, and yanked her back.

Alaina screamed in rage and twisted until she freed herself from the velvet garment. Unfortunately, her dancer’s grace did not hold a second time. A combination of the slick stone, her speed, and the twist it took to escape the cloak caused her feet to trip over themselves, and the stone was too wet to correct herself. She tumbled forward. Hard.

The ledge she had been aiming for rushed at her, and she crashed into it.

The last thing she saw was a bolt of lightning strike the ground in the distance before her head collided with the mountain’s ledge, and her world went dark. 

 Five years later...

Stormtroopers.

Of course, Karga led him into the belly of an Imp snake pit.

The Mandalorian squared his shoulders at the sight of the white armored imperial remnants staring him down. The payout better be as impressive as Karga implied it would be, he thought as the door slid closed behind him.

“This way,” the trooper closest to him said, pointing to a door on the left side toward the end of the hallway.

Mando stepped forward, keeping his eyes open for even a hint of trouble.

“Stop her!” a voice yelled from somewhere further down the hall, and Mando tensed, grabbing his blaster.

The other troopers in the hall all swiveled their heads just as a blur of yellow and white came barreling out of a door on the right side.

A frail-looking girl with honey-blonde hair, wearing what appeared to be a white hospital gown, elegantly twisted and outmaneuvered each of the troopers, who looked too stunned to stop her. Unfortunately, the woman was so occupied with looking behind her that she didn’t notice him in front of her.

She collided with his breastplate, and Mando instinctively grabbed her arms to prevent her from falling over. Brilliant emerald green eyes stared up at her, wide with fear. 

But he knew those green eyes. Those large emerald orbs had haunted his dreams for the last five years.

“Tin Man?” Alaina whispered, her eyes blowing wide in disbelief. 

Mando took her in. Her eyes hadn’t changed in five years. They were still that brilliant shade of emerald that had followed him all these years later.

“Save me,” she pleaded, grabbing onto the top of his chestpiece. “Please,” she begged again.

“Don’t move!” one of the troopers ordered.

He was frozen in shock, not expecting ever to see the emerald-eyed woman again. 

Tears welled in her green eyes, and she surprisingly slipped from his grasp. Again. 

Mando watched as she spun and twisted around him. Her movements captivated him. If this were his first time meeting her, he never would have pegged her to be a classically trained dancer. It was clear she lacked the muscle of a trained fighter, but the way she could maneuver out of his grasp spoke of someone highly skilled.

His former bounty didn’t make it far. Mando watched, too stunned to do anything, as electricity wrapped around her. He watched on helplessly as she screamed and writhed in pain, falling to her knees while she was being electrocuted. When the electricity seemed to stop, she turned back to him with pleading eyes before another wave washed over her.

“Stop!” 

Mando turned to see a small, weasel of a looking man with glasses come running out of the same room as the woman had.

“Stop!” he ordered again, and Mando watched as one of the Stormtroopers released a remote that he hadn’t noticed before.

When he let the button up, the girl stopped convulsing and collapsed to the floor.

The smaller man, who appeared to be an officer of some kind, gave Mando a quick glance but sidestepped him to go to the woman. He pressed his fingers to her neck and nodded, apparently relieved to find a pulse there. He forced Alaina’s eyes open, shining a light into them. Alaina’s face scrunched in pain at the light, and she weakly shoved the doctor away.

“You have to be careful,” he scolded the trooper with the remote. “All of this will be for nothing if you fry her brain. Come, Lainey,” he whispered, helping the woman up off the ground.

“Don’t call me that,” she growled, shoving the doctor away from her. She swiped at her face and frowned when she discovered a slow trickle of blood that came from her nose.

“I'm sorry you had to see that,” the nervous officer apologized, keeping his eye on the blonde woman as she tried to stop bleeding from her nose. “We were expecting you.”

The past came back to him as he was finally able to place the man in front of him.

This was the man who had come to him about the bounty on Alaina all those years ago.

“Doctor Pershing,” the man greeted him with an outstretched hand.

Mando looked at the doctor’s hand without taking it before looking back at the nervous man’s face.

“Right, straight to business. Just like last time,” the doctor nodded and dropped his hand.

Alaina’s eyes moved to his helmet, and her emerald green eyes sparked with rage as she looked at him. Pershing moved to stand next to her and forcefully clamped a hand around her elbow. Alaina tried to yank her arm out of his grasp, but the man clung to her tightly.

Pershing gave him a tight smile. “Follow me,” he directed, turning to move down the hall. When Alaina dug her feet in, the doctor aggressively pulled her to his side, almost causing her to stumble again. “You will be punished for your escape attempt, Lainey,” Pershing whispered into her ear.

It was still loud enough for Mando to hear the man, and he felt his hands subconsciously clench into tight fists at his sides.

It’d been five years since the first time he saw her. She’d been a bounty. 

She was the last puck of four he’d taken off Karga. The Guild leader tempted him with the high payout that was attached to the girl. He’d been told that the woman had fled from her husband with his fortune. There was an odd list of specifications for her return—no brute force, no head trauma, no carbonite. He just shrugged, not caring about the list of demands. It would be an easy job. A ballerina versus a Mandalorian… It was laughable to even think about.

Until it wasn’t.

He learned quickly that the story he’d gotten from Karga didn’t quite add up. Then, he was stuck with her for the three days it took to get back to Nevarro. She’d pleaded and begged him, called him a karking Imp, and told him he was working for the Empire. He held firm. She was the job. Bounties lied. It wasn’t his job to be the judge and jury…

“But you are my executioner,” she’d accused him. “If you’re going to deliver me to my death, I want to know your name. Or is your heart also made of tin, Tin Man? ”

He hadn’t forgotten her emerald green eyes in five years.

Pershing motioned for him to take a seat across from an older man in dark robes as he pulled Alaina to stand by the back wall. Alaina ripped her arm from the doctor’s hold and went to stand a couple of steps away from the man.

Now, those green eyes were staring back at him. Instead of tears or terror engulfing her wide green eyes, tears of hate, complete ire, and disgust swam in them. 

It seemed the girl had been right. He’d practically gift-wrapped her for the Empire. The outcome wasn’t supposed to matter. She was his bounty. He had turned her in. That was that. She had done something to deserve to be where she was. Well, maybe she did not deserve to be with the Empire, but that had been out of his control. He’d been hired to return her to her husband… so that’s what he did… Or so he thought.

So, why did the girl’s green eyes still find a way to haunt his dreams? Not every night. Not even every month. Usually, after a difficult bounty or something that was more emotionally taxing than usual. Her green eyes and long honey-blonde hair would show up in his dreams. Which only made him feel worse.

He could still remember her name after all these years—Alaina. And here she was, on Nevarro, right where he had left her, in the possession of her new owner, the Empire. 

She was thinner than he remembered. Her cheekbones were more prominent than he remembered, and her face had a hallowed, sunken look. She had a scar on her left temple from when she tripped and crashed head-first into that mountain when he chased her down. Her blonde hair was duller than he remembered it being. It was done in a single braid and fell to her lower back, but her hair had lost some of that sheen it had. Now, it looked more like straw—dull, frizzy, and dirty. She was wearing what was basically a white hospital gown that fell to her knees and looked more like a sack hanging off her frail form. The last accessory of note was the thick collar that clung tightly around her neck. A slave's collar. It was what they had used to electrocute her in the hallway earlier.

Mando felt a wave of guilt swell in his chest. Her green, emerald eyes still held that spark he remembered, though. At least the Empire hadn’t taken that from her.

Not yet, his treacherous mind whispered.

Now, he sat across from the Client in the middle of his clandestine meeting Karga had offered. Karga had said this was a client with deep pockets; he just wasn’t expecting to deal with Imps. Mando had half a mind to walk out of the meeting, that was until his former bounty with emerald eyes crashed into him in the hallway. He didn’t know what came over him to make him stay. He rarely ran into quarries after turning them in. In fact, he’d only ever stumbled upon one one other time before now. Maybe it was intrigue. Maybe it was guilt. Either way, she was the only reason he decided to stay and hear the Client out.

Mando’s helmet was directed at the Client, but he kept his eyes on the girl, Alaina, while the Imp spoke.

The Client snapped his fingers, and Mando’s former bounty stepped to the table to stand next to the older Imp. The Client reached under the table, and when he brought his hand back up, he dropped a silver, molded object on the table.

“Beskar?” Mando asked, surprised to see the rare metal brick with the Imperial stamp prominent on it.

“Go ahead, it’s real,” the Client encouraged him with a smug smile. Mando picked up the brick to inspect it closer. “This is only a down payment,” the man continued. “I have a whole camtono of beskar waiting for you upon delivery of the asset.”

Kriff, an entire camtono…

“Alive!” Dr. Pershing spoke up anxiously from behind the table.

“Yes, alive,” the Client confirmed. The man took a deep, annoyed breath before continuing, “Although I acknowledge that bounty hunting is a complicated profession. This being the case, proof of termination is also acceptable at a lower fee.”

“That is not what we agreed upon!” Pershing argued, obviously upset by the suggestion.

Mando glanced up from the beskar and observed the client and Pershing for a moment before turning his gaze to the woman on the other side of the Client. Her green eyes gave nothing away other than obvious disgust directed at him.

Mando should have left, should have walked out. He already had a bad feeling about whatever bounty they had, and besides, a deal with the Imps was not what he had planned. In fact, Mando had made it a point to avoid them at all costs. 

However… the camtono of beskar was too good a deal to turn down. The covert needed supplies and Mando had a duty to provide for his people.

“Let’s see the puck,” Mando said in agreement to take the job.

The Client raised his hand, and the emerald-eyed woman took a step forward to stand next to him at the table. She looked back at the client, who nodded to her. The woman, Alaina, turned her gaze back to his helmet and stared at him so deeply that Mando felt as if she could see past the beskar and view his face.

Mando held his breath while she continued her silent examination, not exactly sure what was happening.

“I sense no ill will,” she finally spoke, breaking the strained silence. “He is…” she faded off, and her face became sorrowful, pained even, before she finished with, “he is a man of his word.”

Mando clenched his fists on top of the table. So, that’s why the Imps had wanted her. Hadn’t Alaina called herself gifted? Her words from years ago rang through his head. Mando had even been on the receiving end of her powers a couple of times. It was one of the many offers she had begged him to take her up on instead of basically gift-wrapping her for the Empire. She'd warned him about this, but he hadn't wanted to believe her. Who knew the kinds of things someone like her could help them achieve? What other powers did she possess that the Empire was using her for?

The Client nodded and flicked his hand back, dismissing Alaina to the back of the room again.

The woman didn’t move, though. Curiously, he watched as a subtle change took over the blonde woman. A blank, unseeing look washed over her face. The woman brought a finger up to trace the transparisteel T of his helmet, and Mando sat there frozen as he watched her fingertip glide down the front of his helmet. “He’s drowning in seas of green,” she murmured, tilting her head curiously to the side. It was almost as if she could see something that the rest of them in the room could not.

The Client sighed. “You’ll have to forgive her,” he told Mando as a way of apologizing. “She’s useful, but sometimes not all there,” he finished, tapping his finger to his temple, silently suggesting that Alaina was crazy. 

Then, without warning, the Client pressed something under the table, sending a shock through the collar that was secured around her neck, bringing the girl crashing to the ground with a scream.

Mando was out of his chair in an instant, ignoring the troopers who snapped their weapons back to him. He shook his head and knelt down to offer the woman a hand. She looked around, disoriented, before her gaze landed on his outstretched hand. Cautiously, the woman slid her hand into his palm and allowed him to help her back up.

The girl had been right after all...

“I am surprised to see a Mandalorian such as yourself so upset over a little electrical stimulation. Surely, you’ve done worse to a bounty to receive the desired outcome.”

At the Client’s words, the woman’s face changed from curiosity back to fury, directed entirely at him. She ripped her hand from his with a snarl.

The girl had been right, and now her blood was on his hands.

The Client snapped again, and he watched her walk back to her spot on the back wall.

He needed to fix his mistake. He needed to make it right.

“It’s not the method you used,” Mando told the client, bringing his helmet back to glare at the older man. He hoped he sounded halfway menacing so he didn’t blow his… Blow whatever inkling of a plan that was beginning to take shape in his head. “It’s the collar.”

The Client nodded and motioned for him to retake his seat. “Sometimes, things must be done to ensure the safety of others,” he explained with a smile.

Mando crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair. “The safety of others?” he questioned, trying to use the opportunity to pry information from the man. “What is a waif of a girl like her gonna do?”

He didn’t miss how Dr. Pershing’s demeanor became even more uncomfortable than it already was or how the Client’s smile turned from passive to dark.

“Things you couldn’t even imagine, Mandalorian,” the Client answered ominously. “But, we aren’t here to discuss the girl. We’re here to discuss your next bounty,” he reminded Mando.

Mando gave a single nod, “Right, you were about to show me the puck.” He didn’t care about the next bounty. He cared about the one standing in front of him from five years ago.

It was time to right his wrongs from all those years ago.

“I’m afraid discretion dictates a less traditional agreement,” the Client began, leveling a look at his helmet. “We can only offer you a tracking fob.”

Mando sighed and raised his vambrace to enter the code. “What’s the chain code?” he asked.

“We can only provide you with the last four digits,” the client informed him.

Mando dropped his arm and tilted his helmet at the information—or, more accurately, the lack of information. “Their age? That’s all you can give me?” he asked, putting out with the answer.

“Yes,” the old man nodded. “They’re fifty years old. We can also give you last positional data. Between that and the fob, a man of your skill should make quick work of this.”

Mando stayed quiet, contemplating the bounty, weighing how he was going to pull off the bounty, the beskar, and the girl. Part of him wanted to go back to the original plan of killing them all and taking the girl. Chances were the beskar was hiding here somewhere, too. His eyes flicked back to the girl standing against the wall at the back of the room. Mando ground his teeth. No, if he needed a chance at freeing her, he needed to play into their game. At least for now.

“The beskar belongs back into the hands of the Mandalorians,” the client continued when he didn’t get an immediate response from Mando. “It is good to restore the natural order of things after a period of such disarray, don’t you agree?”

Mando’s helmet moved on its own toward the green-eyed woman clinging to the wall in the back, staring at him with large, mournful eyes. He let out a huff but nodded his head, agreeing to take the job.

I’m sorry, Mando thought, looking back at his former bounty. Alaina’s eyes widened even further, almost as if she had heard him apologize. The look of surprise only lasted a moment before the hard exterior returned to the green orbs. Had she somehow heard his apology? Did her gifts allow her to somehow communicate telepathically?

Mando rose from the table, turning his back to the Imps and Alaina. The job would give him time to come up with a plan for getting the beskar and the girl.

Everything had already turned upside down on him once. What else could go wrong?

Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Next chapter in series: Chapter 2: Judge, Jury, and...

[artemistalkstoomuch]

All of My Opinions on the Mean Girls Musical Movie

Firstly, loved all the original film references. Of course the obvious ones like having the same lines, the thing about fetch being slang from an old movie, but also!!

. Janis' suit being purple for spring fling!! and omg let's not even talk about how pretty Aul'il Cravalho was throughout the entire film. Her eye make-up was so impressive

. that part in Sexy where they're cycling through potential outfits and one of them is the white shirt with the purple bra holes cut out !!

Slightly upset about the fact they cut out Meet the Plastics and it ended up being more like, Meet Regina, but I get that. On the topic of songs, I understand a lot of them were cut out because they were "too theatrical" but I can still miss em!! Truthfully when I heard the new Stupid With Love I was devastated because it's one of my favourite songs and they fucking tiktokified it, but I actually think it works really well in the film- it gets the "cringy first proper love" aspect across, which is its purpose, so I'm happy.

THEY GOT RID OF "WHO HERE HAS EVER FELT PERSONALLY VICTIMISED BY REGINA GEORGE" which was absolutely criminal

AND THE PRINCIPAL AND MS NORBURY ARE TOGETHER which was actually adorable, and I didn't think about the fact that could be something that happened, but I'm very happy it did.

The bus at the end of Rather Be Me was such a jumpscare but also so funny. THEY MISSED OUT THE DIALOGUE TO DO IT THOUGH SADD. Plus she was so goofy that entire song?? Why was she running in and out of all of those random rooms.

The rumours spreading via phones looked half cool, but it's dated the film imo, which is what Tina Fey originally set out to avoid! Like "fetch" was made up slang so in years to come the film wouldn't seem cringy for having slang teens actually used to use at the time.

Big drum-roll: We did not see enough of Regina's meanness to actually justify her being a mean girl. A lot of it got filtered out through songs, and the majority of stuff was just her, like, responding badly to sexism?? Also tell me how I'm gonna villanise Renee Rapp she fucking SLAYED what a queen.

Also WHERE IS COACH CARR'S SEXUAL ASSAULT. THAT'S THE WHOLE REASON MS NORBURY GETS ARRESTED!!?? That, to me, is one of the biggest indicators in the original film of just how powerful the "Mean Girls" are, they know about this, and the other teachers don't. Not only that, but it highlights just how immature they are, because they don't do anything about it. They're girls who run the school, without having any sympathy or context to do something about bad stuff they know happens. It's just "a funny thing to write". Not having that made me sad tbh.

Changing the line to "you wrote this" in World Burn was clever but I wish we got to see more of the girls turning on each other, rather than direct fighting.

KEVIN G BEST SONG IN THE MUSICAL

Where was the 4 way phone call, DEVASTATING. We literally did not see the plastics actually interact with each other. There was no meanness, no impact, all we got were the "events" when OTHER THINGS HAPPEN. You could say it lost a lot of filler, but the filler was actually context! And part of what makes the film so good!

Devastated she doesn't say "damn you're mine" in Someone Gets Hurt. I do think it's hilarious they just didn't make the actor guy for Aaron sing at all lol

"That filter you use looks just like me" WHY. I appreciate the change from the line about weight but like, this DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. at least say "that filter you use has nothing on me" THE WHOLE POINT IS SHE'S ABOVE IT

I didn't like the extended version of Revenge Party, sorry, too used to the old version

And I did not like the girlbossification of Sexy. I get it's supposed to be powerful like "watch me as I run the world in shoes I cannot walk in" but I feel like the whole point of "I expect to run the world in shoes I cannot walk in" is supposed to point out the irony, like, being slightly critical of "modern feminism". I will say though that the wobble from avantika as she says that is superb.

Overall I thought the film was enjoyable and a nice blend of the original film and the musical, but I think both ended up losing individual meaning because of how much they intersect. You don't have time to appreciate the lyrics and power of the musical because you don't hear them all, and some of them get cut, and you can't follow the plot in a meaningful way because the songs are happening, and they skip a lot of context to fit them in.

Would totally watch it again though, if only to see Renee Rapp say "get in loser" cos she actually nailed that

[cptn-m]

One Piece chapter 1135 review

New year, new Piece, let's go! We kick off with a pleasant surprise of Tama taking charge in the cover story. Good for her. Holdem's dropped sword taking out the lion on the way down is a fun detail.

There's a mix of highs and lows in this first week of the year, Oda doubling down on some of his more offputting ways of handling children, but also some gorgeous art and character design, and the threat of not-Shanks and his friend ramping up.

As a reader, I'm not quite seeing the vision for this thread about Elbaph's youths yet. On one hand, we have Luffy and Usopp reinforcing again that this isn't what they wanted to see in Elbaph and treating it like a let-down or a broken promise. On the other, we've yet to see any giants object to or lament the state of their youngsters, even the members of the old warrior groups - even the ones who've been offshore for most of the time this reform was happening. But then we have Collun being portrayed as closer to Luffy's ideal, teased by the other kids for being a brute and encouraged only by Miss Ripley, who by her own admission teaches by negative example. Well, I asked for nuance, didn't I?

The one point I will outright dock at this stage is for the repetition of the pervy brat gag, which wore out its welcome with Momo several arcs ago.

For plot build-up that is coming together cleanly, I'm liking what Oda's done with Collun so far, the way he storms in and makes an impression on Luffy, establishing just the kind of outsider status to his society that just about all the Strawhats have experienced at some point. Add on Shanks' interest in him and his mysterious (but apparently locally based) human father and you've got a recipe for a character to keep an eye on.

All story stuff aside, the art here is awesome from start to finish. The scenes in the Owl Library are marked with a persistent wood grain detail, and Oda uses a bunch of creative perspective shots to emphasise the scale of the setting, whether we're looking down from Biblo's perch or the end of the swing's arc, or looking up from among the furniture or between blades of grass to see humans, giant children and giant adults each towering over the other in turn. I hope Oda's able to keep up this change in framing for the whole arc.

There's also a new batch of Elbaph outfits for the crew that just arrived. I think the Elbaph designs are a much more consistently good set than the Egghead ones. Now that everyone's got one, I can say with confidence there's no losers this time around.

I'm unsure what to make of the revelation that there's multiple Adam trees. You would think, given the crazy scale of it and the magnitude of the reveal that Oda would want to keep the Elbaph one feeling as special as possible. Does this mean there's more than one Eve tree as well? There has to be something more here he's setting up to circle back to.

The structure of the back half of the chapter feels a little odd to me. Jarul's reveal is a funny bit, but not the kind of cliffhanger panel Oda usually likes to go out on. It feels like the cutaway to the invaders in the castle might have been intended as the final scene, but moved to the middle after Oda realised it was too similar to the last chapter's end point; or it was moved up because he decided he wanted a scene break to justify the amount of time that passes between the Owl Library and feast scene.

Regardless, the scene serves to set up the newcomers as threats, as if there was any doubt. Oda likes to treat new powers with a bit of mystery when they're first used, hiding the details so that things just seem to happen. Go back to the early chapters and watch how the framing suggests Buggy is lifting an underling with his mind before the Chop Chop reveal, or Robin seeming to telekinetically steal the hat off Luffy's head at Wiskey Peak before the Flower Flower explanation. Look at how Haki was portrayed before the timeskip. At a glance, you might think the same thing is happening here as the giant guard collapses in agony, but a closer inspection shows ribbons or bandages like the ones covering the stranger's face appear to constrict his arms and legs between frames. Some kind of fabric manipulation power then? But is it a Devil Fruit, or like the Five Elders can we guess the ability comes from another source?

The last scene does a good job reminding us just how much of the series has been pointing toward Elbaph. So many giants with reasons to celebrate the Strawhats already, and this is before the actual arc plays out and gives them the chance to save the whole island. I don't think we've ever seen a welcome like this before. I'm as surprised as anyone that Luffy actually recognises Stansen, but I love the detail of his arm stretching through the background of the refresher panel to punch Charloss. Top notch.

[storygirl000]

okay genuinely what is with some of the complaints for mh g3 because at this point it just sounds like y’all hate it for existing and nothing else.

"ewwww the outfits are so ugly!!" gee, it’s almost like popular fashion trends have changed over the years. there’s a difference between "this outfit is ugly" and "i greatly dislike this outfit"; i personally think a lot of the outfits look pretty cool, but i’m not gonna default to calling the ones i don’t like "ugly" just because i don’t like the style.

"everyone’s personality has changed for the worse!!" because it’s a reboot of the franchise; of course they’re gonna change things to keep things "fresh". besides, i honestly think the personality changes got me more invested in certain characters compared to g1 – frankie and lagoona in particular are characters i didn’t care all that much about in g1, but i’ve loved their g3 characterizations so far.

"it’s racist because they toned down clawdeen’s blackness!!" i am admittedly as white as can be so i don’t know how well i can comment on this, but i feel like people who use this argument have a tendency to sound more bigoted than they claim mattel is. i have both g1 and g3 clawdeen dolls; they have pretty much the exact same skin tone, so that complaint only really applies to the live-action movie. the arguments about her personality being "less black" sound like they’re turning into "clawdeen is less of a sassy black woman stereotype and i hate that". and all the complaints about her being mixed race (and thus "less black") now just sound bigoted against actual afro-latina people. and that’s without getting into how this old argument keeps being used while they ignore that there’s a wider degree of racial diversity in the line, that clawdeen actually has a black va now (light-skinned black, sure, but still an improvement over having a white va do a "black" voice), and that some of y’all made fun of the new venus for looking different when they gave her implicitly black facial features.

and on that note, "you’re just sucking mattel’s dick and ignoring everything bad because there’s more diversity now!!" so people aren’t allowed to be happy that they’re being properly represented in their favorite doll line now? so plus-sized people aren’t allowed to be happy about plus-sized catty? so south asian people can’t be happy that abbey is now properly south asian-coded instead of weirdly russian? so i can’t be happy that one of the characters is explicitly autistic? sure, a story should have more than good diversity if it wants to be truly good, but every time i see this complaint get brought up it’s phrased like we shouldn’t be happy about the increased diversity at all.

"this is just as bad as g2!! why don’t you hate it like g2?!" because it’s not like g2 at all. g2 suffered from a combination of budget cuts that led to cheaper doll designs and marketing unsure of whether or not it was connected to the original g1 continuity; g3, while not perfect, definitely has a better budget and marketers who’ve learned from their mistakes and made it more clear that this is a full reboot.

and all of these complaints seem to carry an undercurrent of "g3 is the only option available and it’s bad" which...just isn’t true. g1 fans still have stuff like the boo-riginal creeproductions, the reel drama dolls, and so many special dolls that hearken back to g1 aesthetics and designs. mattel’s still paying attention to them.

tl;dr stop using increasingly flimsy arguments to justify complaining about people liking something.

[tenaciouschronicler]

April 26-29 2025 2010

Hey look another meteor!

On this one is a building with another Sburb spirograph. Here we find John as well as a connecting item to each gaurdian we have seen so far: Sassacres book, Dads hat, Maplehoof and, tragically, Lil Cal. Deeper in is a crazy looking platform with large jars holding white and black figures. They surround gigantic Jars holding traditional chess pieces floating and attatched by wires. Above each jar is some sort of tube that encompases the jar opening.

John takes a moment to ride the pony before continuing to question and explore the area. He finds a JUNIOR ECTOBIOLOGIST'S LAB SUIT on a mannequin "almost as if it was tailor made for you". I know this is supposed to be some more loop shenanigans but something about the color reminds me a lot of the Felt. I dont know what that says but it was just something I noticed. As well he finds "another one of those four monitored house-shaped terminal thingies". This one seems a lot larger than the others we've seen with cables connected to who knows what.

Theres also something about the narration here. Johns been asking 'aloud' "what in the hell is going on in here" as he explores. When he finds the terminal its in all caps really conveying his confusion. He also gets a response.

Of course it's obvious what's going on in here. It's another one of those four monitored house-shaped terminal thingies.

Now obviously John probably isnt getting this info but we are. Even so I find it almost funny that, while yes, we have an inkling on what a house terminal should do, whose to say this one is gonna work the same.

Just from the small glimpse it looks like this one has more than just a keyboard on it. So yeah no, I dont think its obvious.

You know what is? How cool AR? is.

These hops are unreal. Shit this flagrant should be illegal. It probably is.

But you don't care.

Its nice seeing this other side. We only got a glimps of it when hes exiled but seeing this bit of rule bending helps show his less rigid stance on rules. I feel like AR?, once exiled, might have doubled down on following the laws as a way to cope where as PM? never had the feeling that what she was doing was wrong. So she still has the same intense passion for the mail and feels justified in her actions. Im also wondering if AR? and John are gonna meet seeing as AR? is literally just outside on the meteor.

Speaking of, we go back to Prospit to find PM? about to board a shuttle to the BATTLEFIELD. Which is kinda nice I guess, you know having a shuttle, but also why is there a direct shuttle people can just get on? Behind her a giant hat starts slowly appearing. I really like the seperate panel pages verses a gif for this, it adds an extra layer of humor.

Under the hat is the "nefarious COURTYARD DROLL", completing our Midnight Crew alt life set. His outfit comes complete with a fake stabbed sword. CD? here is very good at his job which spells trouble as he steals the WHITE QUEEN'S RING from PM? before she takes off. He reports to DRACONIAN DIGNITARY who is waiting for HEGEMONIC BRUTE to report from the battlefield all under orders from the SOVEREIGN SLAYER.

With that we get all the names in one fell swoop. I do have questions though. Im assuming Jack has picked out this "new" name given certain events and its probably in part from when we tried entering Spades Slick on first meeting him. But! I did also get thrown for a loop. According to the recap notes 'In CG's session, his version of Jack Noir became exiled along the way, and took on the name Spades Slick' and the other three also get exiled. So aside from being exiled, it seems theres other reasons why an agent would choose to change their name. Does that mean in Carcinos session their instances of our exiles might also have different names? Its also important to note CD? also has a question mark at the end of their command name which so far has been used to denote the past character and future character. Im kinda wondering if theres some deeper reason for this or if Im just reading too much.

Dream Jade comes in with a flying kick to knock the ring free and pummels CD? successfully retrieving the ring and sending the hat to another chess person in the background. Unfortunately, shes too late to get the ring to PM?. For safe keeping, she dons the ring as a reminder.

The kicker? "the ring doesn't work like that on humans." On one hand, good to know. On the other, damn could you imagine how OP she would be if it did?

[thefloatingstone]

After looking into the writers predicament and how it all led to the strike it made me realize that perhaps one of the reasons for the decline in quality media is becuase writers have been given less and less incentives to create good content, do you have any thoughts?

I don't think it would be exactly incentive. I would think in a certain amount of cases it would be down more to demotivation. Generally, writers for film and TV and such genuinely WANT to make a good story and, much like fanfic writers and fanartists, will do their best for very little thanks simply because it's what they DO. But not ever show or movie is going to be a passion project, in fact most of them won't. And if you're working for Disney especially, who owns 38% of all film (not counting TV and other media) so you most likely WILL end up wroking for Disney, you are going to have a TON of studio meddling on every level of writing.

As I mentioned in the other post, Mr Rick And Morty (sorry I don't know his name and I'm too lazy to check) wrote the story for the Dr Strange and the Multiverse of madness at LEAST twice when the movie's FIRST story and script was scrapped by a previous writer. The first script he wrote was heavily rewritten and changed and reworked by the studio. and then the studio just THREW OUT that script and he had write a brand NEW script 2 weeks before shooting started using all the props, sets, outfits and CG segments they had already made. And the thing is this is now STANDARD PRACTICE in working on a big budget Disney film.

Part of the reason the Barbie movie is written as well as it is, is because Mattel were almost completely hands off with the film's writing. (the only changes I heard about was them censoring one Barbie saying the word "Motherfucker" which they censored in the film by putting a Mattel sticker over her mouth) and various other things like the removal of a narration in one scene and one or two jokes were cut. You know! NORMAL screenwriting practices!

But Disney is so paranoid and controlling with literally everything they put out it is a death sentence for any kind of creativity. Even ignoring the fact that they hire brand new writers who they can control and push around easier, I imagine even if you were NOT a new writer just happy for a big break, it must be extremely demotivating to try and write a good story when you know Disney is just gonna shred it to ribbons.

This is absolutely not the ONLY reason of course. Velma's writing is so godawful because people who had only worked in live action cable comedy thought they could do the exact same thing for an animated show and it would work without knowing anything about the medium they were working in because they were arrogant, lacked restraint, and had gotten where they were thanks to being friends with the right people. HGS is so badly written because Raye Rodriquez had shopped around his story idea to EVERYONE and got rejected by all of them until Crunchyroll needed fodder to justify opening up its own studio to create "originals". Many times modern cartoons are badly written because the actual people writing the show are animators who haven't had any formal training or education in creative writing.

There are a thousand and one reasons for WHY something ends up badly written. But as for why we have gotten SO MUCH that is badly written recently I would chalk up to studio execs and the business side of Hollywood choking the creativity out of the writing process in an attempt to maximize profits in the short term.

That's an EXTREME simplification but that would be my opinion. Hell the only reason AI writing is even a conversation regarding film and TV is because it's the kind of thing these studio execs are SALIVATING over the thought of. A writer they have 100% control over that they don't have to pay and don't have to deal with all that "creative vision" or "artistic expression" bullshit which they don't like because it represents risk to sure fire income.

because most Studio Execs are businessmen who have no concept of creativity whatsoever, have no idea what being creative even means, and yet they think because they know how to make money in a corporate sense, they know how to monetise creativity to maximum efficiency.

It's like a fisherman getting rid of all the fish in the sea because they're getting in the way of him monetising the ocean.

Anyway this ask is a mess because this is a complex issue I am trying to express a simplified opinion on. But I hope you get what I mean.

[hidingoutbackstage]

If you don't mind, how exactly is Ashley in the remake a perfect victim? Also, I think you mentioned something about her being oddly patriotic in the remake once. Could you elaborate on that also, if you did?

Of course I will take any excuse to talk abt Ashley at length (and any excuse to criticize re4make lmao) Long meta under the cut

Basically when I say that remake Ashley is a “perfect victim” I mean that she is written in such a way that she is exactly sympathetic to the audience without anything negative about her for maximum sympathy points. This is especially true when you compare her to her characterization in the original.

In og re4 Ashley is a scared, kidnapped 20 year old. She screams for help when she gets kidnapped because that’s a game mechanic and the whole point of the game is to rescue and keep Ashley safe. But her scream was “annoying” or “obnoxious” to a lot of players (which, like, skill issue? I played 4 and would only hear her scream once or twice per action scene she was present for, because keeping her safe was my priority. That’s literally the point) Ashley also feels and looks young in the original, which is true. She’s 20 years old. That’s not that much time to be an adult, especially for a girl who’s likely been very sheltered since she was at least 16 (when her dad became president) if not her entire life. She’s scared. She’s going to react to her feelings of fear when she sees herself coughing up blood, or hesitate before jumping off a ledge. But fans saw that as her being childish (again, she is only 20) She’s also sexualized by Luis (and the player if they decide to be a creep) and rightfully has an angry/disturbed reaction to it. But fans saw that as her being “bitchy” instead of a justified reaction. You’re supposed to fear for Ashley’s safety. She’s vulnerable. Your purpose is to protect her. But people would talk at length about how much they wanted to harm and kill her because she was annoying, or had poorly written dialogue they didn’t like, or because she was childish, or she got in the way of the gameplay (again, skill issue) or, above all, she didn’t “deserve” to get rescued.

So for the remake, they decided to adjust her. And I do think adjustments were necessary! They could’ve made her outfit more practical (they didn’t) they could’ve reworked some of her mechanics for the new style of gameplay (they did) and they could change moments of dialogue and game mechanics to be less creepy towards her (they did thank fucking gd) but the other changes? Were unnecessary and actively focused solely on endearing her to the player, which left her a shell of a character and a perfect victim with nothing to her as a person. She’s a textbook prop character.

Starting with her appearance, they did my girl so fucking dirty in the remake. In the original she’s clearly meant to be young, with her soft, makeup-less face and outfit that looks pulled out of a Tiger Beat issue (I’ve compared her outfit to 2000s Ashley Tisdale, which I think might’ve been inspiration for her but I can’t say for certain) but the remake ignores that. Instead they decide to make her look much older, and it blows. They give her a full face of makeup (like they do for all their women nowadays but w/e) and a hairstyle that covers her ears (because apparently people found her ears in the original unattractive???) they give her fucking BLUE EYES which makes no gd damn sense as she had brown eyes in the original, they give her an ugly orange blazer to wear overtop of her classic outfit which is something a 20 year old college student in the early 2000s would never wear to a party, I don’t care who she is, they give her tights under her plaid skirt when they could’ve just given her pants (they should’ve given her her beta outfit, honestly, but they didn’t) and an eagle pin and eagle necklace because get it? She’s Baby Eagle, she’s the daughter of the president. That’s her only fucking character trait, “President’s Daughter” (that kinda bleeds into my “she’s annoyingly patriotic now” thing but I’ll get back to that) So Ashley looks way older than 20 now, which is disappointing. They could’ve really leaned into how young and innocent and scared she looks if they wanted her to look like an actual 20 year old in 2004 instead of a 20 year old Instagram influencer in 2022 (who they actually based her face on)

But not only does she look more mature, she acts like it too. She’s quieter now, doesn’t scream for you every time she gets kidnapped, instead there’s an on-screen visual indicator as to how Ashley’s doing, which I do think is a better game mechanic (I might just be a very visual person lol) but the only reason they did that was because fans of the original wouldn’t shut up about how annoying her screaming was. In the remake, aside from some of the darker cutscenes, the only time Ashley cries out in genuine sounding fear is when Leon himself gets critically injured. The only time she’s allowed to show real fear is when she’s caring about you, the player. It rubs me the wrong way. She also doesn’t kick and scream as much when being picked up, and instead of dying, mostly, she just gets knocked to the ground and you have to pick her up, and when you ask her if she’s okay, she meekly says yes.

She’s also “more useful” when she Does Not Need To Be. She puts out the fire on Leon after the Mendez fight. She helps Leon turn cranks in the castle. She doesn’t need to be given herbs for healing anymore, so she’s less of a “burden” to you and your limited resources. She takes the Plaga out of Leon’s chest (like she did in the original) (but it’s offscreen for some reason?) She’s also your hype man! She’s constantly telling you how cool you are and how impressed with you she is and how great you’re doing in the gun range and how she wishes she could be like you. Like okay I guess, but if you pay attention, her dialogue almost never talks about herself, it’s about Leon or the situation they’re in. She, like the game itself, never considers herself first. Which is ridiculous, since she’s the focus of the entire gd damn game.

They amp up the torture she and Leon go through, which I honestly like, I think the og was lacking some in the horror department with the concept of an infection that slowly takes over the mind and body of those infected, it at times felt more silly than scary, like their irises physically turning red. So I think the changes to make it more terrifying are welcome, and man are they terrifying. Ashley is stripped of her coat and scarf and has that black goop stuff forced down her throat with symbols painted on her face. It’s tough to watch. But the scene makes you feel more for her so it did its job.

Ashley being separated from Leon also isn’t her fault this time around, so you can be more sympathetic towards her. Instead of panicking and running away and being separated from Leon, this time her mind is taken over by Saddler, which separates her from Leon. See, it’s not her fault! Her mind was taken over! So there’s nothing to angrily blame her for <3

The reason I’m so furious that remake Ashley is a perfect victim is because they felt the need to make her a perfect victim. Plenty of people, myself included, played the og and LOVED Ashley, she was a cute character with some funny lines and moments and she was endearing, like a little sister to Leon. But because of the toxic male gamer space at the time and the large distaste for victims who are imperfect, those who yell and get angry and are too loud or obnoxious, the makers of the remake felt obligated to make her more endearing to the player, so you would have a REASON to sympathize with Ashley. Which we didn’t need! She’s a 20 year old whose been kidnapped! That itself should be enough of a reason to feel for her! But the remake has to play up her endearment to the player, make her not scream too much, not make her imperfect or too loud or too angry or too obnoxious, just a prop character who’s here to make you feel good about what a good job you’re doing and who’s physically attractive and thus you’re programmed to like her. It’s fucking exhausting and annoying is what it is.

Despite how it looks, I’m not a 100% re4make Ashley hater. I think they DID improve upon things that needed to be improved, mainly how she was treated by the narrative. Now she hides in lockers instead of dumpsters (it doesn’t happen much but still) and the game doesn’t grossly sexualize her, and the devs were clear that they wanted nothing romantic between her and Leon, and they did improve upon some mechanics, like I said I like the visual indicator that Ashley’s been kidnapped because it actually shows you where she is instead of you having to listen for where she is or look around a group of 10 enemies to find the one carrying her. There was just SO much potential to have Ashley be a really good CHARACTER, but the team was so focused on making her palatable, they forgot to give her any semblance of a personality.

(Oh and while we’re here, another reason I hate her lack of character/personality is because they WERE able to give character and personality to other characters, i.e. Luis, Krauser, and fucking Salazar, but not to the woman who’s the main focus of the fucking game. Beats me)

Okay now for the patriotic stuff. I fucking hate it lol. Og RE4 was willing to talk negatively about the American government, which was interesting! This game came out during Bush’s presidency and the war on Terror. There was a genuine disdain for America from other countries, hence why the villains in the original were so anti-American and their plan revolves around making sure “America won’t think they can control the rest of the world” and all that. It’s INTERESTING. The problem is that America is so far up its own ass now, that people would likely boycott or dislike a game with an anti-American sentiment in it. Which is actually such bullshit for RE4, by the way? The VILLAINS are the anti-American foreigners, you play as an American hero. If they were so worried about the game coming across as anti-American, just point out that it’s the VILLAINS who have that point of view, and you’re good. There was no reason to hide the anti-American sentiment the villains have as much as they did in the remake.

Ashley furthers this idea that the game can’t be mean to America by being annoyingly patriotic. There was NONE of this in the original, btw. Her father was the president, and she wanted to go home. That was it. Now, she has a line where she tells Leon she would like to become an agent like him, saying “We can protect the U.S. from any and all threats” like boooooo that’s so lame. Like I said, her necklace and pin are both eagles. There’s no character reason for that, it’s just because she’s the president’s daughter, and an eagle is a symbol of America. Also Leon later jokingly says to her, “keep this up and I’ll be out of a job,” furthering the idea that Ashley, upon seeing a cool badass American soldier, is just smitten with the idea of becoming one herself. She’s an insert for all the people watching/playing who are the reason Call of Duty keeps making games, hoping it’s username will sign up for the military. It’s a tool for propaganda. ASHLEY is a tool for propaganda. It’s completely stupid

[ilovescaredysquirrel2]

Disney's going downhill again (kinda happy ngl)

Should I really be happy about this? I mean, people are going to start turning to the underrated non-Disney media now that the world's most overrated company is going downhill again after Inside Out 2 brought them back up with a few months of hype.

First, let's talk about the live action Snow White remake. As someone who hates the "original" movie from 1937 (I say original in quotation marks because there's so many Snow white adaptations throughout the years). I just don't like the old animated Disney version, no matter how much someone will argue with me. Yes, I seen it but I have not grown up with it. I understand it's hard for someone to hate it if they grew up enjoying it, which I don't understand how they could because there's so many things in it that would scare the kids, and also... Snow white is a teen and the prince is a grown man! You can clearly tell just by looking at the designs. Nothing wrong with Snow white as a character but I heard they were originally going to make her look different but changed it to her current design because they didn't want her looking "too mature" which is freaking gross. I mean, it's from 1937 and it was legal and apparently normal for grown men to be attracted to underage girls and marry them... but doesn't that make you want to watch the movie less? Like, it's not the Victorian era anymore so why are we watching movies from back then? I don't mind that they remade Snow White and the seven dwarves, it doesn't look that good anyway. However I'm still not hating on the live action remake as much as I hate on the original. Who needs the problematic Disney versions when we have Red Shoes & the seven dwarves, and Mirror Mirror? Heck, I'd even watch the Super Why version over the 90 year old cartoon Disney one.

Now my rant on Disney's Snow white is done, let's get Decendants (or is it Decendents? whatever) out of the way. The Decendants franchise is basically an Ever After High knock off, just as the first Toy Story is a Knock off of Raggedy Ann & Andy Musical Adventure. Regardless if you like Decendants or Toy Story, we can still acknowledge that originals existed before the Disney versions. Disney DOES make knock offs, you know. The Wild is an obvious knock off of the first Madagascar movie. Everybody's saying how bad the "Jaladdin" song is in the new Decendants movie but I saw a video by The Artistic Aloubell on YouTube and she explained how another song in the movie had a very bad message (I'm not sure if I should post a link to her video in post, but I'll post it in the comments if someone asks for it). The song was basically about how being evil is justified if you have a good reason to? I don't know honestly, I'm an adult and I had trouble figuring it out, imagine the children who the movie is meant for, trying to figure out the message. The kids watching Decendants probably think like "Oh the outfits are cool! I like her outfit and her blue hair!" not about the message, but still! At first glance the song seems cute but when that YouTube artist broke down the lyrics and explained it, it wasn't so cute. Everybody was hating on the "Jaladdin" song, though. The Jaladdin song actually made me laugh a little, when I saw the clip. Also, I haven't actually seen any of the Decendants movies so I don't know every single detail, I just know it's basically like Ever After High, they're the sons and daughters of Fairytale characters, that's why they had a goofy song with Aladdin. Also, I thought the "Rise of Red" was going to be Little Red Riding hood's daughter or something, but it's the Queen of Hearts? Wow, what a missed opportunity! (btw I like how they had a tribute to Cameron Boyce, may he rest in peace).

Now let's get to the sequels, after you probably read enough already. Disney doesn't need to make live actions of every movie, but I'm fine with the Snow white one, as i said before (I just wish they didn't cast Rachel Zegler). I think the fact that they're making sequels of everything is worse than live action remakes (however I don't think that Lilo & Stitch or Tangle need live action remakes, since they're not as outdated as Snow White or Cinderella). The Moana sequel doesn't look bad, but it doesn't beat the original movie (even though I think Maui's "You're Welcome" song is so annoying). I can tell that some of the animation doesn't look as detailed and well-rendered as the original did, plus they got the culture down to the T in the original. The sequel doesn't really display that, plus it looks like there's more action and less heart warming story than the original. Something about the trailer felt a bit off, but it doesn't look bad. Zootopia, sequel is where I get really pissed off though. Disney's like "Oh no! we're losing all our gay furry audience now that Zootopia is old news! Let's bring it back so they can fall back in love with their dream crush, Nick Wilde!" and yes, this is coming from someone who hates the original Zootopia for a multitude of reasons. In fact, Zootopia is the only modern Disney movie that I truly despise! Also, why are they making a Toy Story 5? We don't need a 5th Raggedy Ann & Andy knock off!

Anyway, if you came this far, thank you! If you don't agree with me on everything I said, that's fine but I hope I gave valid points. If not, feel free to argue with me in the comments! You don't have to always agree with me, let me know if you do or don't. PLEASE CHAT WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS!

[synthient]

Do you think the Exile club scene changed in any noticeable way between the original trilogy and Resurrections?

As a matter of fact. It just so happens that I have a year-old abandoned fic fragment. which was supposed to be about Berg having a one night stand with Smith. and then having to justify to Morpheus 2.0 why he fucked his dad (1 of 3) (probably the worst one to find out your shipmate just fucked). Anyway I only got as far as sketching out the Io club scene where they meet:

“Okay,” said Morpheus, “I feel like you guys are hyping this place up way too much.”

“Yeah, no, I’ve been to a lot of clubs—like, a lot,” Berg assured him, ignoring Lexy’s eye roll and the elbow she dug into his side. “This one really is on another level.”

“Sure, sure, I’ve watched the cutscenes, I know about the cave orgies—”

“Eh,” said Seq, whose avatar moved across the Construct City sidewalk with just a subtle sense of weightlessness and lack of friction, compared to the program and the podborns in the group. “I like to think we’ve come a little farther in sixty years than ‘cave orgies.’”

“It’s like they say,” Bugs said, as she slung a companionable arm over Morpheus’s shoulders. “No one can be told what the Rabbit Hole is.” Her eyebrows waggled. “You have to see it for yourself.”

Morpheus laughed, and Berg drank in the sound: hard won, over weeks of the Mnemosyne crew coaxing the program out of his shell, showing him it was safe to let down his stoic façade and be himself. Berg let himself admire the ease in Morpheus’s posture. The crinkles at the corners of his eyes as he bantered with his crewmates. The personality packed into his latest outfit—okay, and the well-tailored way it hugged his waist. Berg couldn’t pretend he didn’t appreciate that. Morpheus had chosen a suit in a deep shade of violet for tonight. In the darkness, it looked like one solid color, but as they passed under a streetlamp, a silvery floral print shimmered under the surface.

Around them, the streets thronged with people. The humans and programs were outfitted in a dizzying array of styles, and the synthients had taken every digital shape imaginable: from the roughly humanoid, to a giant metal manta ray who was floating tentacle-in-hand with their human date.  The IO nightlife offered plenty of destinations to choose from, but a good chunk of the crowd seemed to be headed the same direction as the Mnem crew.

On the building up ahead, a set of animated neon signs flicked through their tableau: a rabbit, legs outstretched in a sleek, bullet-shaped pose, leaping sideways into a hole (Lexy’s eyes traveled far enough back in her skull that, for a second, only the whites showed). Their crew joined the press of bodies surging toward the entrance. After a minute or two of amicable jostling, the bouncer waved them through, and they were in.

“Woah,” said Morpheus, eyes shining. The first time Bugs had loaded up an infinitely-stretching rack of clothes for him in the Mnem’s Construct, he’d had the same look of awe. “Yeah. Okay.”

The music, the rainbow lights, the dancing and drinking and making out: all of that could have been found in any decent nightclub in the Matrix. The free intermingling of humans and machines was different, of course. But the real show was happening on the ceiling. Several stories above their heads, the Construct’s physics engines had been modded to completely ignore the law of gravity. The clubbers danced in midair. They were oriented in any and all directions: right-side up, upside down, horizontal, vertical. As their crew watched from below, one couple floated toward the center of the room, drifting slowly like astronauts, locked in a passionate embrace.  

With a tour guide’s flourish, Bugs took Morpheus by the arm and led him forward. Morpheus cast one last disbelieving grin back at the others, and then the two of them vanished into the crowd.

“Welp,” Lexy deadpanned, looking over at Berg. “Guess we both have to find a new date for tonight.”

“You two have it easy.” Seq shifted so that his hip wasn’t clipping through a barstool. “Some of us have to meet someone in here, jack back out, and then walk twenty minutes to their apartment complex.”

“You poor thing,” said Lexy. “Will it make you too jealous if we get drinks?”

“I’ll live somehow.”

The three of them made their way over to the bartender. As Lexy ordered, and as Seq stared longingly at the lineup of fancy liqueurs, Berg scoped out the room. Most of the clubgoers tonight were strangers to him. But hey, there was Facsimile, from the Horus’s crew. There was someone who he was pretty sure lived a couple doors down from Hano. And over there, across the bar, was…

“Ohh my god,” Berg found himself saying aloud.

“What?” Lexy followed his gaze, and sucked in a sharp hiss of breath.

“Oh, shit,” said Seq, mildly.

[duckapus]

The first five MRU universes

So again, gonna be a while before these actually happen because I want to actually write out the process of Piper stealing the HMG research, some of the preparations for Launch Day, and the actual First Activation, and I'm waiting until after I finish the Wonder Arc to write those so I don't end up abandoning it half-finished for months. But I at least wanted to list them out.

Again, universe 1 is basically the Test Universe, while 2-5 are in one batch that gets activated all at once.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Anchor: Link

Supervisor: Trinity

MRUs: 0 and 1

To justify having references to every game (because why wouldn’t it) Time Portals appeared basically everywhere at the same time the Memes did. Also, the Internet Graveyard got merged with the Wild-Era Sacred Realm (which was obviously never visited and is at the current End of the timeline so it doesn’t mess anything up and I can do whatever I want with its aesthetic). Yes, whoever did the setup had to get every Korok seed so the Key Items menu couldn’t canonically update and potentially break something. They did, in fact, get a raise for that.

Hamtor Tubez

Anchor: Doc the Hamtor

Supervisor: GIF

MRUs: 2 and 3

A puzzle game about leading Hamster-like creatures called Hamtors through elaborate tube mazes. Doc is a Mad Scientist and the leader of the Hamtors and is training them for when he will one day TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!!, and there’s other unique Hamtors with special abilities that get introduced throughout the game as new puzzle elements.

Beneath the Faerie Mound

Anchor: Frida

Supervisor: Quazar

MRUs: 4 and 5

A metroidvania about a Changeling who gets Taken Back and has to fight her way out of Faery Country so she can return home. She initially thinks that MRU5 is another faerie who's come to try Taking her again.

The Fairly Oddparents!

Anchor: Timmy Turner

Supervisor: Spreadsheet

MRUs: 6 and 7

Look, making the Pokemon Anime universe part of the AU has set the precedent for also being able to use cartoons as SMG/MRU universes instead of just Games.

Interestingly, the Memes changing things to make the universe more entertaining undid a lot of the later season retcons, especially the Season 9 ones, so a lot of the characters are actually less Mean and Stupid than before. I'm using kid Timmy because he's the Real One so the live action movies and That One Spinoff aren't canon outside of memes, but Nicktoons Unite and its sequels are. So are seasons 9 and 10, 10 because I happen to like Chloe (or at least what she had the potential to be) and 9 because I think it would be funny to have Sparky be The Thing We Never Speak Of among the characters who would know about him.

Janitor of Heart: Stain Rising

Anchor: Rodney Teegan (Champion Form only)

Supervisor: Connectivity

MRUs: 8 and 9

A Magical Girl Beat-'em-Up that's actually a tie-in to an in-universe comic series called Rodney Teegan: Janitor of Heart.

The premise of the comic series is that a girl named Mina Reynolds who is Exactly the sort of person you'd expect to be a Magical Girl Protagonist gets her chance to when her school is attacked by a goop monster (part of an eldritch being known as The Stain) and she finds a magic bracelet containing the Spirit of Heart, Harmony, who chooses her as the Champion of Heart. But, when she tries to transform, some wires get crossed somewhere and the bracelet's power instead flows into Rodney Teegan, a 57-year-old janitor who Mina considers a close friend and who was with her when she found the bracelet. And because the transformation is based on what Mina wanted to look like as a magical superhero, he ends up in the body of a teenage girl with a cute poofy pink outfit. Whoops.

In his Champion form, Rodney has the expected enhanced strength, and can heal very quickly, but his main power is being able to turn cleaning supplies into weapons. It can be something as simple as a broom (in fact his signature weapon is a spear made from a push broom) or as massive and complex as a street sweeper truck. Also, Harmony isn't just a Cute Mascot Character and actually joins in fighting, mainly using super-strong punches and kicks and acting as a healer. Mina still has the bracelet (it actually can't come off at all) and needs to be nearby in order for Rodney and Harmony's powers to work. I have not come up with what Rodney's hero name would be.

Anyway, the game depicts the events of a particularly large Stain attack, this one being an invasion of the whole city, but other than the larger workload it'd be a fairly normal day (since by this point the three of them are more-or-less used to this since it's been a few months) if not for someone new joining the fray. It turns out that Harmony isn't the only Spirit in town, because we're introduced to the Champion of Storms, Thunderbird, and her Spirit partner Zap. Thunderbird has weather control powers, usually favoring lightning, and has a strange transforming mechanical construct that she uses both as a weapon and mobility aid, usually mechanical wings, giant electrified gauntlets, or supersonic skates. She's fighting the stain too, but has apparently decided to start a rivalry with Rodney's team instead of working with them just 'cause. Also, when her machine isn't in Skate Mode it's revealed that she has a translucent magical construct in place of her right leg.

She's eventually revealed to be Hazel O'Brien, one of Mina's classmates. The machine is her wheelchair, which transformed along with her because why wouldn't it?

Interestingly, Connected Cosmos Company were the ones who made the game, and also the ones who came up with Hazel and her Thunderbird persona. However, due to the terms of the licensing agreement the comic's creator owns the rights to the character, and has made sure that the specific designer in CCC who made her gets the royalties for the character being used in the comic (because the game is canon to the comic and Hazel's now a major character), rather than the company as a whole. She's the one character created by CCC that Jayin doesn't own, and I like to think that grates on her, especially because she can't do anything about it without damaging her company's carefully cultivated reputation.

Anyway, as far as the MRU stuff goes, there is one odd quirk about Rodney's Anchor Status: due to only his Champion Form being playable, his Anchor code is dormant in his normal form. Thankfully this doesn't cause problems for the Meme Cycle or the universe's stability, and it doesn't have the same negative effects as actively suppressing his Anchor Tendencies would. It does, however, make it so his Champion form has a different personality (bubbly airhead with occasional violent tendencies) than his normal form, which is very much Not A Thing in canon.