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masterofcarrots · 2 years

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Lead me not into temptation

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Teo Rakan concentrated on the sound of the clock in the hallway. That was how fighters did things. The outside world disappeared down to your immediate surroundings, nothing in the world mattered beside the there and the then, that was all there was and all there could be, because if you didn't zero in your focus on that, there would be nothing else afterwards, you'd meet your end because you'd been too distracted about what was beyond the present participle to make sure you survived now to get to later.

Present participle? she thought to herself. Where had that come from? It was some grammar term she'd heard a long time ago in school, probably, because she couldn't think of where else she'd have heard it. Parr? No. Clari? It was kind of surprising Clari had gone to school and was literate. Elwin?

Yes. Elwin. Helping Elwin with homework, watching while she sat there listening to him and-

Him.

Yeah, it was no wonder she hadn't suspected he was a nastika king. Why in the fucking fuck did a nastika king know what present participle tense was and Teo didn't? What it because he was around when grammar rules were invented? How had that even happened? Had all the original beings just sat there in a circle speaking gibberish at each other until it started making sense? Was the hatred between gods and nastikas something that started over a fight on expressing themselves and just gotten misunderstood from there?

And anyway, assuming maybe the Primeval Gods had just blessed them with language, was there nastika school? Or younger-sura school? Had he helped his daughter with her homework? Were suras really a lot more like humans than they thought? They stressed about their kids getting good grades on homework about present participles?

Agh. She had a lot of questions to ask. So many of them unrelated to what people must have expected. Anyone guessing those included grammar tenses must have had an oracle from Visnu himself. Because apparently, Visnu had known Gandharva pretty well, back in the day, which really begged the question of whether Visnu knew she'd be sitting here thinking about-

The sounds of the clock. She wasn't thinking about anything else. The sounds of the clock. Her feet were on the floor, her fingers were curling into the skin of her thighs...and by that she meant her hands were resting on her knees. She was in the Temple of Chaos, outside a room they were using as a jail cell for a man...creature...thing who'd once tamely stayed put in her home. There was frost on the nearest window panes she could see. Beyond them there was a sun peaking over the horizon. There were worn out cushions on the bench. She'd replace them when the temple got more donations. It was no wonder the temple was in such disrepair when the priestess herself-

Tick, tock, tick tock.

No. The priestess had her act entirely together. She had a plan. She had a piece of paper with that plan. In her pocket. Which she was going to take out. And look at.

Step 1: Lock door Step 2: Ask why not on his knees (if applicable) Step 3: Remove pants

Out in the margins there were some notes: doesn't like seafood? Moral objection? Taste? His pants? Real pants? Body part? Take off/disappear?

It was known throughout the city that Teo had terrible handwriting. She was reading what it looked like it said on the page. But due to the terrible handwriting, there was a lot more there, a way better plan, and it was just illegible, that was all. She'd been pretty drunk when she wrote it which meant her handwriting was even harder to read than usual.

All she was saying was that if clothing was a body part of suras, she'd probably find it pretty distracting if someone removed her pinky finger and threw it in the corner or something, so she was curious whether that was how you were supposed to do things, maybe they liked that because they were super into fighting anyway so it was like a bit of a hurt me so good thing or maybe you were just supposed to wait until the clothes went away on their own...?

The clock. The clock was ticking. Yes. That was what she was thinking about. She was fine. She could do this. It would not be the first time she'd walked up to a man, said "I bet you look good naked," and then seen where the conversation went from there. Typically, where it went didn't involve a lot of conversation.

It would not even be the fifth time she'd done that. She'd stopped two years into her role as priestess once she started taking the job a bit seriously. Clearly, resisting temptation for so many years had been a mistake. She'd used up all her willpower for it.

Besides that, she'd stared down a blue-haired nastika in the face once and told them where they could shove it. Which had promptly resulted in a sword to the throat.

Ah hah, there was a joke there that it hadn't been the sword to the throat she'd been intending. That was a great pickup line. She should use it. She was going to write it down.

"Ms Teo," she heard, coming from her left, followed shortly by Brilith's hand on her shoulder. "What are you writing?"

Gahhhh. If she'd been thinking like a fighter and concentrating on the world around her like she'd promised, she'd have heard Brilith way before the other woman had potentially seen what was on her paper.

Thank Kali for her terrible handwriting.

"Ha, umm, just..." Teo quickly crumpled it into her hand. "I felt like I was going to forget what I wanted to say after I walked through the door."

The bench beneath Teo groaned as Brilith put her weight on the old thing. All of about a hundred twenty kilograms together and it was on the verge of collapse. For personal reasons, as the priestess who'd have to replace it if it was faulty, obviously, she was hoping the rest of their furniture was in better shape. Sturdy furniture was a must.

"Good luck," Brilith sighed, hand squeezing in sympathy. She must have woken up early just to come find Teo before she went and spoke with Gandharva for real for the first time since...since. "I know the next few hours will be rough on you."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"...Ms. Teo?"

Crap. Had she said that out loud? Teo cleared her throat.

"I mean, like, if it's not hard, that'll mean there's something wrong with me, and-"

Gahh!

Teo cleared her throat again. She was too excited. Her mouth wasn't obeying her brain.

Actually, her brain was the problem here. It was about ninety-five percent occupied with hoping that even though nastikas didn't need sleep, for some reason the gods had seen fit to put a bed in the room they'd locked Gandharva up in. Or at least like, a couch or something.

Honestly, who was she kidding? A table would do just fine.

"You're a good person, Ms. Teo," Brilith sighed. "Too good for him. I'm glad you've decided to sit in judgement on that mon...man yourself and not take the easy way out. I'm sure it's tempting to think that if the gods decide to spare him, a divine pardon's reason enough to ignore the past over a pretty face. But the gods only have their own best interests at heart. They won't ask the same kinds of questions you will."

Not trusting herself to speak, Teo nodded. And coughed again. Brilith had it so, so wrong. Except that last bit. She just wasn't right in the way she thought she was.

"Are you coming down with something?" Brilith asked.

"No, no," Teo said, waving her hand in front of her face. "Just...anxious."

Brilith heaved a heavier sigh than her last. "I hate to put more pressure on you," she said, pulling a sheet of paper out of her robe and passing it into Teo's hands. "But I think you have the best chance of getting honest answers out of him. I have some items of personal interest I'd like to ask, and since you already have a list..."

Teo took a glance down at the far more competently written list than hers. It didn't begin in a promising fashion.

Are you ever going to apologize to me properly? [1 point] With a yes and a no written underneath. Which of my children was I holding in my arms when you destroyed Gresvan? [100 points] Followed by a blank line. Do you see human beings as ants? [2 points] Another yes-no.

Okay, so, those would definitely ruin the mood. Brilith hadn't left much room for nuance.

Teo shifted on the bench, feeling it rock perilously beneath her while she acted as though she was considering Brilith's request and reading her questions carefully.

She was, just...mostly what came to mind were excuses for someone she wasn't supposed to be excusing.

To start with, suras and humans might have different definitions of proper apologies. Maybe Brilith didn't want a proper apology from Gandharva. His race was less of a talk-things-out one. It was entirely possible that when his kind were serious about making a proper apology, they got down on their knees and stayed there at the other's service until the wronged party was satisfied and the penitence had been paid and sorry rolled off their tongues in a way that wasn't necessarily out loud, since most suras couldn't vocalize speech anyway.

After Teo determined whether that was the case, which she was betting it was, because she'd thought about it a lot, maybe more than anyone on the planet, after she figured that out, she'd determine whether she needed to tell Gandharva that humans meant something different by "proper apology," but it was fine, Teo fully appreciated that in his own mind he'd been doing his best to repent for the past few days - or hours, it would have to be hours this time, at least, because he might not need to eat actual food or sleep but she did, so someone would come to check on them at some point.

Anyway, she'd let him know if trying that type of apology on Brilith would create more problems than it would solve.

Getting back to the list, Teo had forgotten the names of more people's kids than she'd remembered by a factor of ten, and that was just in the past thirty years. Like, if Gandharva had known it was Brilith and not some random woman he'd probably have asked, but - but that was probably kind of the point, and why he got to pass the whole test if he got it right.

On the subject of ants, like, it was totally possible to think humans were ants in a good way. It wasn't a simple yes-no question. Maybe you used to think that, but didn't anymore. Maybe you still thought it but had learned that ants had thoughts and feelings and lives that weren't that different than yours except in length and that the one ant that kept crawling all over you was kind of cute and since you had the ability to be in ant form and live with them it would be fun for the next century or so.

Teo tried to look at Brilith out of the corner of her eye. The other woman was sitting like she was carved of ice, totally different than you'd think given her element, all stoic and thousand-yard-stare and not at all like the girl Teo had met years back.

Suffice to say, she didn't think Brilith was very open to criticism about what she'd written. But Teo couldn't just say no. Not after she'd been informed about why Brilith had started staring at gods and suras like they were equal amounts of trash to her and they could go ahead and kill her if that offended them.

The woman had valid questions. To be answered at a time when Gandharva was in a good mood, which now that Teo thought about it, men were predictably in a receptive mood if they didn't fall asleep right after the good part and this one didn't need to sleep, which was possibly because he wasn't subject to the same rules as humans about when they were in their best moods, but, whatever.

"After...umm...after I'm done with him, if there's time, I'll definitely..."

"That's fine," Brilith said, smiling for the first time Teo had seen it in a week. "It's your right to go first. Even I wouldn't have had the bravery to interrupt a private meeting between four summoned gods to tell them they couldn't do anything with Gandharva until I'd gotten some closure."

Teo winced. Right. That.

Teo wasn't the smartest woman in a room of magicians, there was no doubt about it. No need for shame. She could still beat most of them in a fight. Plus, she was really smart at doing stupid things. There was a reason she had an affinity with Kali, after all.

Humans lowering their heads and being unable to meet the eyes of a god was a sign of respect. Fear. Awe. Not a sign that the human was imagining some weird opposites-attract scenario between a big, broad-shouldered god of fire and a delicate-looking water-attribute sura.

Nobody would suspect that. Nope. What kind of insane woman would you have to be to dream that up?

Here was a hint: the type of woman who was linked to primordial chaos and had been killed twice, so had a few boxes to check off before it happened a third time.

Teo had been told on good authority that blasphemy wasn't a sin. Still, you had to think. There was Chandra has a very slappable face sort of forgivable, we've all felt that way blasphemy and hey, Gandharva, let me tell you what Teo's imagining and I think we can all agree we need to use that soul annihilation power of yours again blasphemy.

"How do you think Agni feels about men?" popped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

Gahh! Double gahh! She'd spent too long being single and reading weird books.

"...Ms...Teo?" Brilith asked, retreating a touch.

"Umm, like, I was just curious what happens if you got reincarnated as a guy."

"Indra said he'd love his soulmate even if they were a speck of dust," Brilith shrugged. "So I guess gender can't be that relevant. But Indra's messed up even for a god, so..."

Teo was going to take that as a yes, Agni would absolutely get with a cute guy. Even if the cute guy could just change into a girl if he wanted.

She shook her head to clear it. That definitely wouldn't work. Thumbs down. Cute girls and cute girly-looking guys were basically in separate dimensions as far as Teo's opinion went. And cute, girly-looking guys who were actually super strong and could throw her over their shoulder like she was just a cute girl and not a super badass were simply on a higher plane of existence.

"I guess you aren't planning on trying to see if you want to forgive Maruna," Brilith sighed, relaxing her posture and leaning her head against the cool stone of the wall behind them. "Since you didn't request to hear his side of the story. I know he seems more directly responsible for hurting people you know. But in the grand scheme of things, he isn't near so bad as Gandharva."

His actions seven years ago were one problem with Maruna. Another problem with Maruna was he wasn't Teo's type. He was Brilith's type. The tall, buff, red-themed Agni type.

For the purposes of today's conversation, she only had one question for Maruna. Visiting him to ask if back when he'd killed those fighters threatening Gandharva, it was maybe, possibly motivated by highly indecent feelings for his boss, seemed like it would end with Maruna having to explain another murder.

He might not have been her type, but Teo wasn't going to screw Maruna over that badly in a figurative way just because she didn't want to do it in a literal way.

"Well, good luck again," Brilith said, looking at the clock. The hour of creation was almost upon them. "I'll be here for you to lean on after you're out."

Good. That was good. If all went to plan, Teo would need some help walking back to her place. The plan being, approximately, quiz Gandharva over previous highlights of inappropriate experiences, figure out what he liked, then move on to creating some new ones. It was a great plan. No one could miss hints that obvious.

Brilith would get it, after Teo explained. It didn't mean everything was forgiven. All it meant was that Teo was more of a take-anonymous-and-shirtless-hottie-home-from-checkpoint first, figure-out-name later type of girl. Which had worked out so well it was like a three-for-one hot guy special, counting shapeshifting abilities.

Brilith had lived a lot of lives. One of them would sympathize.

Had picking up guys from bars and sorting her feelings out in the morning ever worked for Teo before? It had not. However, healthy relationships were built on mutual understanding, so it wouldn't be good to leave Gandharva as the only one trying to turn things around after a string of failures in the past.

Plus, she had approval from the dead wife. Nay, it was her dying wish. You had to do everything in your power to complete people's dying wishes, especially when they were people everyone agreed were the best and had deserved happiness. It was a rule. Sometimes you received an oracle like hey, you need to save the world, here's how to do it. Sometimes you received an oracle like hey, you should totally get wrecked by this guy and not stop for as long as inhumanly, known-for-insane-regenerative-capacity possible. It was what Menaka would have wanted.

Sometimes it was really confusing and those oracles might be the same thing.

Gandharva had, reportedly, been laughing happily about the fact he'd regained some vigor and whatever penalty he'd paid for taking sura form had disappeared. It hadn't, just, it had switched to killing the love of his life and sticking him with some random human kind of penalty. Teo wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel about counting as a penalty.

Anyway, she'd tell him one day. When he was happy and delirious and never left the house because he was either attending to her or their fifteen children and counting. That sounded like approximately the right number to be fully invested in a relationship.

She didn't know what was wrong with him, or her, maybe it was her that had changed, a twist in her mind to justify the unjustifiable or simply Kali twisting a leftover piece of another woman around in her, it was like she loved him so much she couldn't bear it that the world didn't love him just as much as her, and at the same time wanted to keep it so no one else could possibly love him and he had no one else to love but her.

But no matter, one day, one day she'd make it so he'd be able to accept he'd gotten the worst trade in the universe without making Clari get all upset again, since if that happened Clari would come to her house and be all overcome and seek comfort in the arms of her king and then they'd have even more kids to worry about, since Clari would be a terrible mother. Clari had denied that kind of emotional resonance happened but Agni had said it was true.

Anyway. Teo's hand was on the doorknob, and she finally had a future to look forward to. If the gods were as cruel as Brilith said, and were expecting her to walk away from the happiness she deserved just to deny it from the undeserving man on the other side, they'd placed their bets on the wrong card.

Too bad for them.

#one last god kubera #kubera #shameless #both me and the character

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su-univeralai · 3 years

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GOOODDDD MORRNNNNIINNNGGGGG SUU 💛

I am here for your essay. Or yknow, just any dunebaby facts that you can spare.

*heavy breathing* oh no, she's come for my OCs exactly like she said she would.

lolol Ok, I've got bios on 9 out of 10 of my kids so far, but I wrote a quick blurb about them so hopefully you can't figure out who I didn't start until now lol. The older 4 (which 3/4 are legit characters in LOK, but tweaked to my liking) are grown-ass adults while the other 6 are probably between 14-21. So, our beloved Taang parents have been popping kids out from when they were 18 or 19 to 39 or 40 years old.

At some point I'll make a family tree for you, since most of the older dunebabies have their own families and that can be confusing. Some have more information than others, but more will be added on each of them as time goes on. I just haven't figured them out yet.

Also, gonna put a cut here, because it's a long post and I know not everyone wants to see my OCs lol.

Ok Onto the Dunebabies from oldest to youngest:

Gyatso (M) Airbender, 35: Named after Aang’s father figure, Gyatso is Toph and Aang’s first born and first of several airbending children. He has a knack for the art and excelled quickly with mastering it, narrowly falling short of beating Aang’s record of mastering airbending at 13. As he got older and his parents continued having children, he became like a father figure to the younger ones. That’s the best part about having tons of kids, right? At some point the older ones raise the younger ones and the parents can just have fun. Once Tiao Wu turned 13, Gyatso and his own wife, boyfriend, and kids moved away from home and resided in the Western Air Temple with some Air Acolytes.

Lin (F) Earthbender, 32: Lin is a straight arrow, always following the rules. Sometimes Toph’s jokes that her first born daughter is actually Katara’s because wasn’t as goofy as Gyatso and Tenzin. As kids, Lin and Tenzin butted heads like no other. They may have had a year or two when they got along, but that was when Lin was training to be a police officer and Tenzin was always out because he was dating Pema. They constantly bicker at family gatherings, but make a mean team when they spar against the other next gen kids. Their twin telepathy (yes, they are twins in my universe) comes into play and they are undefeatable. That is until the triplets becomes masters in their own right. While Lin is a talented earthbender and metalbender, she struggled with picking it up (perhaps because of Toph’s hardcore teaching style). She responded to a “more gentle approach” as Katara would say, and Aang helped her learn the basics until she was ready to take on Toph’s more intense lessons. Lin is definitely closer with Aang than she is with Toph, but goes to mom if something needs to be done quickly and under wraps. Lin works long hours as chief of the police force in republic city, so she doesn’t have much time for romance. When she finds a spare moment for intimacy, she frequents a bar that accepts everyone. She brought Songa with her before her little sis fell in love with (insert steambaby daughter name here).

Tenzin (M) Airbender, 32: Tbh Tenzin still marries Pema and has his four kids, like in LOK. Lol. Unlike the show, with the weight of the whole air nation not on his shoulders, Tenzin was not a serious kid. He played pai sho with the white lotus members and roughed it up with Lin. Tenzin had a difficult time mastering airbending, though. He lacked the spiritual connection that his father and brother easily had. He blamed being stuck with an earthbender in the womb for 9 months at his lack of skill with airbending. His masters airbending at 21 and is pumped to finally get his tattoos. Since Pema is an air acolyte, I'm saying that her parents were also acolytes, and she and Tenzin met as kids and got along really well. They started dating at 16. Tenzin wanted to wait to get his arrows before proposing to her, so they date for 5 long years as Pema cheered him on in the grueling training. Tenzin and Pema eventually move to the Northern Air Temple and kept Teo company.

Suyin (F) Earthbender, 26: Suyin was a troublemaker when she was a kid, always pranking her siblings. She spent way too much time with Sokka. At least that’s what Toph says. Her teenage years, that’s when things became dicey. With Lin on the streets as a cop and Su committing petty crimes, the two were bound to cross paths. After Lin brought her in for whay must have been the thousandth time and Toph had to bail her out, Toph sent her to the her old stomping ground: the Earth Rumble 6. Toph still had her ear in the stadium and stayed in touch with The Boulder, and she thought it’d do her some good to get beat up by other earthbenders. Su stayed with her grandparents and got the structure she needed and got her act together. She got pounded by her opponents the first few years, but she slowly moved her way up the food chain and eventually held her mother’s old title as champion. Once she turned 18, she left to travel the world, meeting up with Kya (can't decide if Kya will be a steambaby or a Sukka baby. Is there a cut name for Sukka babies?). Along the way she met Bataar and fell in love with him and together build zaofu and have all their kids from LOK.

Songa (F) Airbender, 21: The oldest of the triplets to be born. Songa is a calm spirit, she reminds Aang of Yangchen with her way of keeping the peace in their large family. She’s a true romantic like her father and catches the attention of a lot of men, but alas, her heart is won over by one of Katara and Zuko’s daughters, (insert steambaby name here lol). She sees the best in everyone and trusts a little too easily. Watch out though, if you get on her bad side or betray her trust one too many times, her mother’s sass and tongue come out and no one wants to be hit by her earthbending styled airbending. Songa is a talented bender and has a tendency to use her airbending like an earthbender, facing things head on. She can seemlessly switch between styles, but she'd prefer to take her opponents on directly.

Kera (F) Nonbender, 21: Kera is the heart of the triplets. She’s passionate like a firebender and meets conflict head-on like her mom. Being the first non-bender didn’t feel great coming from the lineage of the Avatar and Toph Beifond, strongest earthbender in the world and metalbender originator, but she found peace in being a non-bender when hearing all the stories of Sokka, Suki, Mai, Ty Lee, Teo, and their many other friends taking down bender and non-benders alike. Kera begged her parents to live in the Fire Nation to study under Mai and Ty Lee. Aang and Toph didn’t have any problems with her going, but Zuko and Katara did, fearing she (being a dunebaby) would cause mayhem in the palace. Only after swearing to Zuko that she wouldn’t make a mess did the Fire Lord allow her stay with them. During her time there, she mastered Mai and Ty Lee’s techniques and trained under the Yuyan archers. When she came home, she could beat the other two thirds of her triplets easily. Only when she teams up with the other two, can they take down Lin and Tenzin.

Choekyi (M) Airbender, 21: The last of the triplets to come be birthed. Choekyi is a free spirit, much like his father. He enjoys traveling and meeting new people. As a child (and an adult) he is easily excited and is a very charismatic guy, which gets him far with the ladies in his teens and early twenties. He’s never scared of trying new things, sometimes to his detriment, as he gets hurt a lot for someone light on his toes. His preferred method of transportation is air scooter. Choekyi gets along with Uncle Sokka the most, with his never ending jokes and letting him learn how to throw a boomerang even though he’s a bender. Choekyi spends some time in the swamp with the swamp benders just because he finds them to be hilarious and interesting. This is where he connects with his spirituality and returns to excel in airbending, and earns his tattoos.

Songa and Kera are idenitcal twins, so no one (beside Toph and Choekyi) can tell them apart until Songa earns her arrows. Choekyi looks similar to them, as he is their triplet, but since he came from a different egg, he turns out to be much taller than his sisters. Just imagine Toph's face when she feels three freakin' heartbeats along with hers. Idk if that's scientifically sound, but it's my universe, so I can say what I want lol.

Gyun (M) Nonbender, 18: He's a very musical guy. Gyun means music, but it can also mean germ or bacteria. So his older siblings make fun of him when he’s young. While his bending siblings practice and spar, he masters most musical instruments and even becomes a skilled singer. He’s a favorite of Uncle Iroh’s and spends time with him playing music and perfecting his tea making when he’s not training with Master Piandao and mastering different types of sword fighting styles. Gyun is a lover, not a fighter, and is recruited as the youngest member of the national opera company. He rises in fame, without having to reveal his high ranking connections to his family members. Gyun is a true renaissance man (you know if the renaissance existed back then). He looks up to all of his siblings and soaks in all the stories and advice his can get to perfect the art of storytelling and acting.

MeiLin (F) Nonbender, 17: MeiLin may be one of the youngest, but she’s definitely the sassiest of the bunch. With the personality like her mother, it’s no wonder she’s a bosslady even from a young age. She doesn’t take shit from anyone. While she’s the beauty of the dunebabies (but who really isn’t attractive in this family?) and can hold her poise better than any royal, from the tender age of three, she’s wanted to become the fiercest fighter in the world. After a lot of convincing, Toph and Aang let her train with Aunt Suki and learn how to fight like a Kyoshi Warrior. After she masters that, She begs her parents to send her to the Fire Nation to study under Mai and Ty Lee. By the time she’s 14, she’s already mastered the art of dagger throwing, chi blocking, and the Kyoshi warriors fighting style. Aang isn’t too pleased that she fights in tournaments like Toph did, but Toph watches every match she can get! MeiLin asks her to bet on her and they split the wealth at the end. Lin wants her youngest sister to join the police force when she turns 18, but MeiLin isn't sure she wants to enforce the law like Lin.

Tiao Wu (M) Earthbender, 14: The baby of the family, and loves it. Unlike MeiLin, Tiao Wu is a homebody and a huge mama’s boy, though really isn’t a mama’s boy in the Beifong Family? Like his name suggests, he’s a great dancer and for an earthbender, he sure is light on his toes. While Gyatso is called Twinkletoes Jr, Tiao Wu is known as the Fancy Dancer. Literally. That’s the stage name he chose for his bending dance competitions. When he’s not dancing or hanging out with Toph, he’s studying his cousin’s bending forms, wanting to incorporate it into his repertoire. Tiao Wu is also close to Aang, as he showed an early talent to be one with the spirits. As a six year old, he would meditate next to Aang and beat the freakin’ Avatar, master of all four elements and bridge between the physical and spiritual world, to the Spirit World. He’s also known to be the only human who is allowed to visit Wong Si Tong’s library there.

ALRIGHT Joy, here are some basic facts about my dunebabies universe. If you or anyone else wants to send me asks so I can more deeply construct their personalities, feel free!

#I did it Joy!!#thanks for the ask #my asks are open #ask me about my dunebabies #eventually i'll create steambabies and other next gen #but her now only dunebabies #who's your favorite?#can you guess who I didn't have a backstory for yet?#you and stitch should be proud of me #ignore the fact that I haven't looked at my wips in months #i mean what?#I definitely am working my wips #👀

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doctorwhoandfairytaillover · 4 years

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Part 6C - Vikings: Kissed by Fire

Summary: (Y/N) discovers more of what could have been and fights for her happiness.

Pairings: Ragnarssons x stepmom reader (platonic), Ragnar x reader (romantic), Tristan (OC) x reader (platonic?)

A/N: Please let me know your thoughts about this chapter, I seriously hope it turned out okay.

The following morning, (Y/N) awoke with a tired sigh as she stretched out on her bed feeling refreshed after a night of celebration. Unlike most in attendance, she had paced the number of drinks that she had and would pass off some to other people to avoid waking up with a hangover. Considering that Ragnar had stormed off from the room the previous night, she wasn’t necessarily worried as they rarely ever managed to stay angry at one another for very long. Both felt it a waste of time to hold onto their anger from arguments and would likely have another conversation later in the day.

She readied herself for the day and stepped out to see her brothers off for their hunt on behalf of Bjarke’s name day. All nine of her brothers, Ragnar, Ubbe, Hvitserk, Bjorn and many of the men were making last minute preparations for their hunt. Antonius the eldest spotted her and called her forward.

“Come to see us off, dear sister?” Antonius asked.

“Something like that” she said as she looked amongst the group. “Are Tristan and Matteo not joining the rest of you?”

“Tristan has fallen ill and Matteo had too much to drink apparently wishing to sleep it off” he said.

Before she could ask him more, her other brothers rowdily tussled and caught her attention.

“(Y/N)!” Bjarke called out. “Are you prepared for the dishes that you will be making for my name day?”

“No need to worry, I will have it done by the time you all return and bring the meat from the hunt.”

At this her brothers cheered along with Ubbe and Hvitserk. While Ragnar kept quiet, his back turned to her. It was obvious that some of his anger still lingered, but she ignored it and stepped forward to kiss his cheek fondly.

“Watch out for our boys Ragnar, make sure they come back without a scratch” she warned.

“You know I will” he responded gruffly. “I shall see you later this evening.”

With that, the men headed out and the boys cheerfully following as it would be their first major hunt with the older men until they received their arm ring. She waved them off and went back inside to wake up Sigurd, Agnar, and Kari to eat their breakfast.

She casually went about her day; taking care of the children, leaving various dishes to simmer and cook slowly over the fire as she waited for the day’s hunt, and going into town for some of the ingredients that she was running low on. It was some time after mid-day that things began to shift. Her lithe hands making quick work of hanging laundry to dry out in the sun, and out of the corner of her eye could spot a hunched figure near the bushes.

Rather than make it obvious that she had spotted the man, she leaned down to reach into her basket and inconspicuously reach for the dagger that she had hidden beneath the sheets. She picked up another sheet with the dagger underneath it as the man snuck up behind her. As he reached to grab her arm, she threw the sheet over him to block his sight and quickly stabbed the dagger between his ribs as she twisted it in deeper.

With a gurgle, the man’s lungs slowly filled with blood and he fell to his knees as he struggled for breath. A scream from Kari grabbed her attention that were followed by the cries of Sigurd and Agnar calling for their mother. (Y/N) quickly removed the dagger and pushed him aside as she rushed inside her home to look for her children.

“Enar!” she growled for one of her men. “Check everywhere and apprehend everyone that does not live here!”

The man was swift to carry out her orders as she rushed toward her children’s room. The sounds of battle could be heard outside and this only urged her even more to reach her children, only slowing down when she stood in front of the door to the room. Inside she could hear Agnar growling in frustration as Sigurd was shouting angrily to the trespasser to let their sister go.

She pushed open the door slowly as the man had his back turned to her and stealthily pulled out the sword that she had placed beneath their box of toys. Upon spotting his mother, Agnar went silent and it alerted the man of her presence as he turned with his sword at Kari’s throat.

“Release my daughter this instant Matteo!” (Y/N) scowled.

“You are in no place to make demands (Y/N),” Matteo sneered. “I could easily slit her throat if you make me so inclined by making demands.”

Both Sigurd and Agnar scurried to (Y/N)’s side, holding onto her skirts as she kept some distance away from the man all the while making sure that no harm fell on Kari. Her daughter whimpered in fear, tears streaming down her face and gripping tightly onto the hand that held her back from rushing toward her mother.

“You will move out of my way (Y/N) and no harm comes to the girl” Matteo said.

“You must swear on your mother’s grave that no harm comes to her” she said.

“On my mother’s grave, your daughter will not come to any harm” he swore.

Hesitantly, she moved aside as she kept her sword in front of her defensively as Matteo kept his eyes on her while he moved out of the room and into the throne room. (Y/N) along with Sigurd and Agnar followed after him, where Aslaug was seated on her throne with Ivar held protectively in her arms.

“Siggy, Agnar! Go stand by Aslaug!” (Y/N) ordered as she rushed forward.

Matteo was swift to move Kari away from him and his sword clashed against his own, strong and quick blows between the two.

“Give up (Y/N), you have no hope of beating me. Soon enough my men will have overpowered the men that stayed!” he taunted.

“This is my home and children that you threatened! Do not think that I will let you get away from me that easily without paying the price for your actions!” she growled.

In the midst of their battle, Matteo impatiently rushed forward as she continued to keep him at bay. His swing was too wide and she ducked beneath the blade, turning on her heel and kicking him behind the knees making him buckle briefly.

(Y/N) wasted no time in striking him from the side, but Matteo blocked her as he attempted to regain his footing under her relentless attacks. He grunted in pain as a particular blow from above twisted his wrist awkwardly. It was in the next strike that his sword flew from his hand with a harsh clang and had her sword an inch from his neck.

He swallowed harshly nearly nicking his throat with the blade and the doors of the grand hall burst open to (Y/N)’s men flinging in a small number of Matteo’s own onto the floor with their arms behind their backs. As the burly men were swift to apprehend Matteo similarly to the few that they had spared.

Matteo scowled even as he was forced onto his knees by the men that served (Y/N), lazily she swung the sword in her hand as she walked up the steps to her throne beside Aslaug. She tilted her head as an amused smirk graced her lips, she bent down to look at him in the eye.

“You’re a rather stupid man, Teo. I had hoped that during these years, you would have become a smarter man but you proved me wrong” she snickered. “Did you sincerely believe that I wouldn’t remember how you treated me and take precautions? How ambitious of a man is your father that he would risk his bastard son to have all blame placed on him and have you try to take over in the absence of some of our men?”

“You had always been a frail and ignorant woman, unable to hurt a thing. Your father had spent the majority of your life keeping you naïve and away from men” Matteo scowled.

“Although it is true that my father kept me away from certain things, my Nana most certainly did not. She taught me a valuable lesson early in life; never trust men. She said, a father will protect his daughter and instill it into his sons to protect their sister but to never trust any man that the only thing they will ever be loyal to is their coin.”

“I do not trust the men under my employment, but they are loyal to the coin that I provide for them. I supply them with coin and they in turn make sure that my children and I are safe, should anything happen to us. Those men know that they will lose the one that feeds them if any harm came to us” she said.

Motioning for her men to open the doors, they were quick to bring in a confused Tristan who was also brought to his knees before his former lover.

“What is the meaning of this (Y/N)? I was harshly woken up by these brutes without explanation” said Tristan.

“Perhaps you can ask your brother, the one that placed my children’s lives in danger” she hissed.

Matteo turned away from his younger brother’s expression of bewilderment, preferring to remain silent.

“You were going to have Tristan take the blame, weren’t you? I knew things were off when my brother said you had too much to drink and Tristan was ill” she said. “Even in illness, Tristan would have pushed to join the hunt and you drank the same that I did last night. I kept track of the drinks.”

“You were supposed to be m-“ Matteo muttered.

“Speak up!” she hissed.

“You were supposed to be mine!” Matteo growled. “All those years ago, you were supposed to marry me and this bastard went behind our backs to court you. He completely wrecked our father’s plans by being with you and Tristan was almost disowned if he had asked to marry you.”

“Is this true?” (Y/N) as a look of sadness washed over her features.

“Yes,” Tristan admitted. “The day that you told me to ask your father for permission, my own father threatened to disown me as it interfered with his plans to have an arranged marriage between you and Matteo. He knew that your father would give you the final say on your marriage and our relationship ruined that.”

“I loved you Tristan and my father didn’t care that you were the bastard son, yet you couldn’t fight for us. You broke my heart and only cared about yourself.”

“I loved you and I still love you (Y/N)” Tristan cried.

“But I don’t” (Y/N) said roughly. “I married a great man, and will be with him until one of us dies. What once was, can no longer be. All because you were too weak willed.”

Tristan at least had the decency to look ashamed, while Matteo merely glared at her bitterly.

“When my brothers, sons, and husband return I will have them decide whether to give you mercy because I won’t have your blood on my hands.”

----------------------------

It was later that evening, that her family returned with the meat from their hunt and were surprised to find Matteo tied up alongside his men with Tristan seated beside them in shame. (Y/N) was quick to inform them of the events that occurred while they were away, and Ragnar would have chopped off Matteo’s head clean off his shoulders when he heard about how he threatened the life of his children, Kari in particular.

"Despite the previous years of friendship between our families, this betrayal cannot go unpunished" said Gunnar. "Perhaps you can chop off the harm that held the blade instead, long will be his suffering."

Heeding his brother in laws words, Matteo had his right arm chopped off and thr same punishment was dealt to the men that were spared in battle. It would be the following morning after the bountiful feast that (Y/N) had made for Bjarke's name day. That Matteo and his men were forced onto a boat that would take them back to Iberia.

Tristan lingered on the dock and stood before Ragnar and (Y/N) as well as the children with hesitancy.

"Perhaps I have no right Ragnar, but take good care of (Y/N). I was not man enough to fight for the woman I loved, and you have the great privilege of calling her your wife. Cherish as I should have done" said Tristan with a watery smile as he turned to (Y/N). "I am sorry that it took me this long to ask forgiveness for my mistake, but know that I shall always care for you even if you do not."

(Y/N) took Tristan's hands in her own and squeezed them tenderly, "I will always look back on our time together fondly. But it is in the past and it must now be put behind us, because I have found my happiness here."

She proceeded to let his hands go and gently lean into Ragnar as all the children huddled closer to her.

"This is where my happiness is Tristan. I crossed an ocean of misery to find it" she said.

"That is all I could hope for (Y/N)" Tristan said. "Farewell what could have been."

"Farewell" she whispered, holding her family tighter.

----‐--------------

Tag list:

@heavenly1927

@princesscornbread

@ivarthebloodyking

#vikings #vikings fanfic #ragnarssons x reader #ragnar x reader #bjorn x reader #ubbe x reader #hvitserk x reader #sigurd x reader #ivar x reader #x reader #x reader insert #kissed by fire #x stepmom reader

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triptychexe · 4 years

Text

TITLE: 100 Hours

SUMMARY: The TROMME boys have exactly 100 hours to make their own self-directed b-side music video. Eli finds some old videos that strike up old feelings.

GENRE: nostalgia, very very subtle hurt/comfort if you squint. PAIRING: TROMME OT3, subtle OT6, mentions of Eli x Soyeon WORD COUNT: 0.8k WARNINGS: one joke about a creepy uncle who hits on younger women. other than that there may be some swearing? please let me know if you see anything else that might be triggering/worth warning.

WINTER 2015

Eli counted his paces to the number five before turning around, giving the camera what was meant to be a cool and confident gaze.

“Ew.” Asa commented from behind Teo, who was squatting on the sidewalk with the camera in his hands, the focus trained on Eli. Eli slumped his posture a little. “What’s ‘ew’?”

“You looked at Teo like how my divorced uncle looks at nineteen year olds at bars.” Asahiko shared, shaking his head.

“Now that’s ‘ew’.” Eli wrinkled up his nose in distaste, but a laugh bubbled up in his chest at the crude joke.

“We’ll be cutting that part out.” Their manager, Hyunjung, stated to the professional camera man. Around the three boys was a small production crew, shooting footage for an episode of their reality VLive show, Triptych TV. They were given 100 hours by the company to make a music video for their b-side song, POLAROID. They were shooting solo shots now while the sun went down, as Teo decided that golden hour would look great in their video.

Teo pulled himself up to full height, replaying the footage that he just recorded. The other two gathered around, observing the shot. Eli didn’t think it was so bad, but Teo deleted it the moment it was finished.

“Yeah, Asa’s right. That was a little too seductive.” Teo critiqued. “I’m looking for more like… Wistful and reflective energy.” “Like… Like I’m in a drama?” Eli clarified. “Exactly. I want you to look effortlessly cool and sentimental.” Teo explained with excitement in his tone. Eli nodded, fighting back his own complaints. He wasn’t as excited about filming this video as Teo was, but he didn’t want to rain on his friend’s parade. There are very few things that Teo talks about non-sarcastically, and photography and videography were two of those things. In fact, if it was up to Eli, they wouldn’t be shooting their own music video at all.

While Teo was shooting footage, Eli looked off into the distance fondly, thinking of other episodes Triptych TV could have come up with. Like going indoor rock climbing, or zip-lining, or going to an amusement park.

“Perfect!” Teo’s exclamation scared Eli out of his daydream. “That was exactly the look I was going for! Perfect!” The vocalist repeated, rewatching the footage with pride.

“Alright, that’s a wrap here, then.” Asa clapped his hands together. “For the rest of the video, we just need to dig up some old videos from our trainee days, and we’re golden!”

The rest of the night, the boys searched through their old videos from when they were trainees. Eli scrolled through his camera roll, occasionally stopping to look at old photos of him and his trainee friends.

One specific video caught his eye. He didn’t even need to click on the video to know which one it was. In the thumbnail was Soyeon, smiling up at the camera. It was the day they went to the beach with the other trainees.

“Soyeon-ah,” Daehyun’s voice called out, walking over to the girl crouching next to a tidepool. Soyeon looked up, her eyes sparkling in the sunlight, a smile stretching over her face. “You look pretty right now.” Daehyun from the past complimented her. Soyeon wrinkled her nose and shook her head, a chuckle escaping her lips. “What about us, hyung! Do we look pretty?” A voice called from far away. The camera angled upward, revealing Calvin and Yeetai posing dramatically on top of some rocks. Daehyun’s laugh got cut off as the video ended.

“Dude.” Asa’s voice critiqued from over Eli’s shoulder. The leader jumped, not expecting the younger boy to be directly behind him. The Japanese member shook his head sympathetically. “You’re still not over her, huh?”

Daehyun exhaled, looking down at the paused video. Asa sighed too before gripping the elder’s shoulder in comfort. “Hey man, don’t force yourself to move on. It never works out, trust me.” Asa advised, the melancholy in his tone made the young man seem weathered.

Daehyun let out a short chuckle. “What do you know about love, huh?” Asahiko rolled his eyes and shoved Daehyun’s shoulder playfully. “Hey, I’ve been around the block a few times.” “You’re a virgin, Asahiko.” Teo called from the hallway. “You’re a bigger virgin!” Asahiko hollered back. “You both are massive virgins.” Daehyun settled, shaking his head, laughing at his groupmates.

The boys had finally put together a collection of videos that they felt were sentimental to them. Daehyun decided on keeping the video of Soyeon in. Nearly all of Teo’s videos included Nia and Zim, as they were basically attached to each other’s hips during their trainee days. Most of Asa’s included Saito and, to no one's surprise, Yen.

They pieced together their new footage with the old footage, weaving their past and present together in one 3-minute music video. When the boys had finally completed editing, they uploaded it to YouTube, waiting for their fans to react to the surprise video.

While they watched the comments and likes roll in, Eli relaxed back in his chair, looking at both of the boys on either side of him. “You know, even though you guys drive me up the wall sometimes,” Eli grins. “We’ve come a long way.” The boys nodded in agreement, a sentimental air had settled over the group that no one wanted to puncture.

#aeskocnet #kumokocnet #pikurin #mochikocnet #kocsociety #era.simonsays #asa.txt #eli.txt #teo.txt #kpop addition #kpop additions #kpop au #kpop oc #oc kpop #oc kpop idol #kpop idol oc #fake kpop group #fake kpop idol #gen1.txt

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tysukis · 3 years

Note

Okay hello I am back to get way too into this au! Also I do technically write, in that I love to outline the hell out of something and then never put real stories together. This is my favorite part, and the compliments from you and @zukkau have made my day. :)

I think it was @procrastinatingqueen who mentioned Sokka dating Suki in a Zuko-Left timeline and it got me thinking about the band situation. Let's say the band is three members at first - Sokka, Suki, and Jet. (He's a shit but he deserved better....) Sokka lands them the gig, Suki is adrift and immediately on board to bounce. I like the fanon that the modern Kyoshi Warriors are a roller derby team, but regardless they're not quite an anchor for her and might even push her to take the opportunity. Sokka is the same. I imagine he and Katara are navy brats, they're used to moving and his sister just demands tickets and facetime calls, "No I don't care how tired you'll be."

Jet, though. He's not the primary caretaker on paper for Smellerbee and Longshot but he's the de facto caretaker. He can't just *do* that. So they replace him - Haru? Teo? Jin? I'm not picky, a handful of canon folks would work. So newly single Sokka goes off with Suki and their new bandmate, and Zuko is simmering on the fact that he's touring with his ex and probably always wanted her anyway. (Probably not, I imagine Suki has at least one supportive partner in their hometown, but maybe also yes for drama?) And Jet, who understands commitment to passionate goals and hard-won family, who now also understands the anger of being abandoned by Sokka in some way, is just so conveniently there. Like, they're not healthy together for sure. But Jet would be chill with Zuko keeping his emotional distance (whether real or just perceived) because Jet also does that?

I promised myself I wasn't going to send you a novel and here we are. But I haven't nailed down why they come back - end of tour? Do they piggyback onto another tour immediately or is this a relatively short separation and the aftermath is still messy?

[context]

Hello! Okay, yes, let’s run with this.

(I like that we now definitively have both a Zuko-Leaves Timeline and a Sokka-Leaves Timeline lmao)

I am proposing: front man and lead guitar Sokka, punk drummer Suki, Haru on bass. (If you wanna make it 4 - Teo on keys.) Of course Zuko would assume the worst, what with Sokka and Suki touring together (and probably misjudged Suki’s reasons for how eager and down she was to just up and leave) but we, the audience, know that she has a covert thing going on with fellow-roller-derby-skater Ty Lee; it’s probably pretty low key for the professional sake of the team.

Sokka and Katara growing up being moved from place to place, and therefore Sokka going on a new adventure with minimal reservations makes sense, I approve. Also Katara and Aang would definitely tag along for at least one leg of it for fun until they have to return to whatever careers/education they persue in their own lives.

I LOVE the idea of Jet and Zuko being brought together by scorn (and I love the way you phrased it - seriously dude I know you said you rarely go further in writing than an outline but that’s a tragedy) it slots in nicely with the canon. I’m a big believer that Jet was a traumatised child in the show and I think translating that into him being A Massive Shithead in fics can be a bit of a played out trope. It’s high time for Complex Character But Not Terrible Person Jet™️. I think they’d bond nicely and, in addition, I think because Zuko never got that whole older/younger sibling dynamic growing up he would adapt and be really good with the freedom fighters.

Whilst we’re looking into how the other characters slot in; Toph? Mai? Azula? What are our thoughts for them? I like to think Toph would be the one to set Zuko straight in the end with his constant moping and pining (I think their friendship was and is chronically under-utilised in both canon and fanon) but I can really see it being any of them.

Dw about not sending a novel, I’m happy to talk about this au all day frankly. I can see them being gone for a while, long enough for Sokka to assume Zuko has moved on etc. I’ve had multiple suggestions for why they come back but a common one is the good ol’ visiting the family excuse. Galaxy brain rachel @zukkababey immediately suggested tis the damn season by taylor swift as a fitting song and I think that works really well - idk if they’d celebrate Christmas per se but I can deffo see them coming back for at least some holiday or celebration. (perhaps an important birthday or graduation?)

#musician au #for anyone who missed it last night I am Still Thinking About This #thank u anon u know ur welcome any time #answered

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loverichardarmitage · 4 years

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A whole new life ( 3 )

In the meantime Adam was on his way to work when he got a call from Martin Killane. Sighing he rubbed his fingers over his chin before he picked up his phone and answered the call. Throughout the phone call Adam was tense and what her learned from that call made him even more tense and he felt anger and frustration come up inside him.

He stopped the car and turned of the engine. Then he let out a scream of anger and slammed his hands onto the wheel before he slumbed back into his seat and buried his head into his hands. After a short while he pulled himself back together again, took a straight position in and began driving again.

He pulled up at Killane’s house, the street he grew up in. A smile slowly began to form on his face and he walked up to the house, pushing the bell, then he waited. He only had to wait a few seconds as the door opened slowly and he saw the face of the old man. Killane opened the door wider and Adam walked in. The next few hours they searched for Corinne after Adam told him that his wife was missing.

When they were done but had found nothing, Adam made his way back out. He had a few minutes time before he had to be home, so he took out his phone and saw that he had gotten a message. A smile came to his lips, subconsciously when he read the message Mary had send him. He didn’t have to work longer and had gotten off now so he send her a quick message.

‘ Don’t worry it’s fine. Gotta pick the kids up. Danny will be with us.’ It read. With a smile he got into his car and drove to the Hoy’s. When he got there he saw another car standing in the drive way, a car he new good enough now and the smile on his face deepened. ‘ Damn, what did she do with me? Did she enchent me or why am I thinking all this stuff recently.’ Adam thought to himself.

He turned off the car and got out, locking it behind him. He walked up to the door and pushed the bell. After a few minutes of waiting the door opened and to his surprise it wasn’t Vicky who opened the door, but Mary. The young woman looked surprised as well before she asked. “ What are you doing here Adam? I thought you were still at work.”

The smile on his face only deepened when he saw the blush on Mary’s face and a low chuckle left his lips before he replied. “ Well I was finished earlier today and had nothing else to do, so I decided to pick the boys up, but I send you a message.” At his words she fished out her phone to take a look and it was true, he did send her a message.

The blush on the young woman’s face only deepened by the deep chuckle which slipped past Adam’s lips. “ Well don’t you want to let me inside at least.” Mary quickly shook her head and said. “ Uh yeah, of course. Come in.” She opened the door further and stepped to the side so Adam was able to get inside, but not without giving the young woman in front of her a soft smile, which she returned shyly.

Adam walked inside while Mary closed the door behind him and together they walked towards the living room, when Vicky came out of it and stopped in front of them, making them stop as well. “ It’s good to see you Adam.” She said, while Adam smiled at her and aswered. “ It’s good to see you, too. Did my boy’s behave?” “ Oh the boy’s have been great, don’t worry. I just made supper, would you two like to join us?”

Vicky asked the two of them. Adam and Mary looked at each other puzzeled and then the male looked into the kitchen, where the where their Kids sat with Vicky’s younger two daughters and then looked back at Mary before he responded. “ Well uhm. Yes, yes we would like to stay over for supper.” Mary only nodded at Adams words, before she went back into the kitchen to sit beside her son.

Adam watched the young woman carefully while he stood in the doorway, a small smile visible on his face. Then he let his eyes wander around the kitchen but stopped on Mary again and he smiled at the sight of his sons so happy and the smile on the younger woman’s face. Then he walked into the kitchen as well and sat down between Ryan and Mary.

Mary and Adam shot each other a few glances from time to time, during supper and Thomas and Daisy shot each other knowing looks while the rest was just eating away at their food. Everytime Mary felt Adam’s eyes on her, she blushed a deeper shade of red and the small smile on her face grew. When they had finished dinner Mary stood up and indicated to Danny to stand up.

At the same time Adam and Vicky stood up as well, a smile on the other woman’s face. Mary walked over to Vicky and gave her a hug, a smile on her face as well, before she said. “ Thank you Vicky, for watching the Kids and for that wonderful evening and the amazing food.” “Oh it was no Problem dear, you know when something happens I’m here.”

The smile on the young woman’s face deepened and she hugged Vicky one again before she pulled away and turned around to Danny, saying, “ It’s time to get going, love. Put your shoes on, I’ll be waiting down here for you.” The young boy smiled and nodded his knowing, his mom was stressed and he didn’t want her to get stressed any more than she already was, so he did what she said.

“ Of course mommy. But can Ryan spent the night at our place tonight?” The young boy asked his mother. A small chuckle left her lips, then she turned around to her son and to the Price’s, before she said. “ Well then you have to talk to Mr. Price first. It’s not only my descision, but Ryan’s fathers, too.” Both Boys turned to Adam, giving him their best puppy eyes.

Adam let out a groan, making everybody, but the boys who were stil giving him their puppy eyes, laugh, even Thomas was now laughing again, before he shook his head at his younger brother and their shared friend. After thinking quickly Thomas also turned to his father and asked. “ May I stay here?” Adam sighed quietly and rubbed his temples.

Mary bit her lips before she walked up and stopped behind Ryan and Danny, placing her hands on the boy’s shoulders. Then she turned to Adam and said in a somewhat small but still confident voice. “ It’s okay Adam, Ryan can spend the night at my place and let Thomas stay here if he wants to. And you go get home and get some sleep. I’ve heard you’ve got quite the busy day ahead of you.”

Adam looked at the young woman in front of him intently and thoughtfully before he gave up and nodded his head, saying. “ Okay okay, boys. Ryan you go with Mary and Thomas you’ll stay here. I’ll get you tomorrow after work but please don’t overdo and you’ll listen what Mary and Vicky tell you.”

Ryan and Thomas beamed at their father, while Ryan and Danny grinned at each other, Thomas smiled at Adam and hugged him tightly which the elder of the two returned happily, before he pulled away and pat his elder’s shoulder, Shooting Mary a soft smile as well, which she returned happily.

Vicky smiled at the view in front of her and said. “ Alright but Thomas, you and Daisy will sleep in different rooms.” Daisy and Thomas blushed while Ryan sent his older brother a wide grin and Mary and Adam both chuckled at the teenagers misery. “ Yeah yeah mom. We’ll do, don’t worry.” Daisy interverned, before it could get too embarrassing for the two of them.

Adam, Vicky and Mary chuckled again, but after a short while Mary turned to Danny and Ryan and said. “ Okay boys. Go get your stuff, put on your shoes and we can go.” The both of them nodded excitedly and went to grab their thing, when they had they returned and put their shoes on. Just as they were About to leave the house, Mary coughed slightly and the Danny and Ryan stopped dead in their tracks.

Mary nodded her head in the directon of Vicky and they seemed to understand, for they put on their most innocent smile and said in unsion. “ Thank you letting us stay this afternoon Mrs. Hoy.” “ It was no problem boys and now see to that you get home safely.” Vicky said smiling. Mary placed her hands on her son’s shoulders and gave him her car keys.

“ Danny Ryan get into the car, I’ll be with you shortly.” “ Yes momma. Come on Ryan.” Together and giggling the two went out of the house and went to the car, Opening and getting inside. Mary and Adam watched the teo Boys with small smiles on each of their faces, then Mary turned around and hugged Vicky tightly, whispering. “ Thank you for watching them.”

“ Yeah, thanks Vicky.” Adam replied with a smile on his face. She looked at the both of them and said. “ Like I said before, it was absolutely no Problem and you would’ve done the same.” “ Yeah we would’ve.” Adam and Mary said at the same time, which brought a blush on the young woman’s face and Adam just chuckled lowly, while Vicky eyed them carefully.

“ Well, we’ll see each other soon. Good night Vicky.” Mary said and turned around, but stopped when she felt a big warm hand at the small of her back. “ Good night Vicky and thank you again.” Adam said before he gave my back a soft push, making me walk forwards and together we walked to our cars. “ Ryan do you want to say good night to your Father?”

The young woman asked the boy. He nodded and opened the back door of the car and quickly got out and jumped into his father’s arms. Adam let out a small groan at the unexpected hug, but smiled and held his son tight in his arms, kissing the top of his head slightly, then he whispered. “ Good night Ryan, see you tomorrow and be a good boy to Mary.”

Ryan hugged his father ever tighter, before he replied. “ Good night dad, see you tomorrow. Of course I’ll be a good boy and dad?” “ Yes Ryan?” Adam asked softly, smiling down at his son. “ I love you dad.” Adam gave him a wide smile and said. “ I love you too, Ryan.” All the while Mary was watching that happy moment between father and son, a soft smile on her face.

After a Little while Ryan and Adam parted and Adam stroked over his son’s head before Ryan turned around and got back into the car. Just as he was About to get into his car as well he heard a soft whisper behind. “ Good night, Adam.” A smile came upon the man’s lips and he replied “ Good night, Mary.”

#Adam Price #Adam Price x oc #richard armitage #Richardxoc #thestranger #oneshot #oneshotseries

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kittybennett · 4 years

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your choice | anti-soulmate au where they weren't born with soul-mates and they meet in a group where other people who don't have them meet-up. and they come to the conclusion that they're not weirdos for not having them. cause they have the group and each other jhskfjksdf - @malcolmbrights

ok i’m sorry this turned REALLY long but here we go.

aka: five times ev didn’t go to support group and one time she did

Evelyn Reyes spends much of her sixteenth year of life staring into reflective surfaces in the vain hope that she will find a soulmark has bloomed on her skin while she wasn’t looking. Most people are born within them, though it isn’t entirely unheard of for the matching tattoos to make themselves known in the years between childhood and adolescence. A teenager already, Evelyn is a rarity, late even by the most generous of time frames, and this makes her a repository for her peers’ pity. She takes to wearing long sleeves even in the sweltering heat of summer to avoid questions, but finds that it’s all people want to talk to her about. No matter how they phrase their comforting platitudes or prying questions, it all sounds the same to her.

Are you scared that you might be utterly alone? How relieved I am that it’s you and not me.

Evelyn hates them all, but most of all she hates the guidance counselor who calls her into her office to offer ‘support’ and gives Evelyn a flyer for a group of people with deceased soulmates. It’s not the same, the counselor explains, but those in the group might understand what Evelyn is going through. They can sympathize on how horrible it is to not have a soulmate.

Her cheeks burn hot. She shoves the flyer into the pocket of her hoodie and begs to be excused. On her way home she tears the flyer into little pieces and throws it over a bridge, watching the pieces of paper flutter and land on the river below while angry, shameful tears prick at her eyes.

After that, she stops checking her body for new marks.

ii. The first man that Evelyn loves also takes pains to keep covered up. Unlike Evelyn, he actually has something to hide: a bright blue tattoo of a bird in flight. The space where it adorns his forearm is usually bandaged lest Jamie’s eager admirers find a way to replicate it and render the mark useless.

When they lie together at night, Evelyn traces the mark. It’s the closest she’s ever been to one that didn’t belong to either of her parents, and even at a young age she knew not to ask questions about theirs.

“They weren’t soulmates.” Evelyn tells her lover one night. “His died when they were little — childhood sweethearts. And my mom has never talked about hers, but I know he’s gone too. She wouldn’t have married my father or had me if she thought he was still out there.”

What she doesn’t confess hangs in the air. Jamie addresses it anyway.

“You know that’s not the reason you’re like this, right?”

Evelyn is silent but the finger that was tracing his mark stills.

“Evelyn. It’s just bad luck. Seriously.” He tilts her face so he can stare into her eyes. Jamie is rarely serious, so this sudden sobriety makes it difficult for Evelyn to hold his gaze, but she does. “Bad things happen to lots of people, and it’s not the end of the world. My cousin is widowed, and he remarried and—“

Before he can finish his story, Evelyn kisses him. And kisses him. Her distraction works.

That night Evelyn prays for the first time in well over a decade: asking for a blue bird on her forearm. ( She breaks up with Jamie a week later. Better to get out with her heart mostly intact. She never does find out what happened to that cousin of his, though sometimes she wonders if she should have let Jamie finish. )

iii.

“Would it kill you to write something happy for once? Just one ballad about summer love, or getting dicked down?”

Evelyn frowns. “You know I’m not the bubblegum pop type.”

“That’s for sure.” Her producer sighs. “Listen, you’re good. But can’t you just write a love song that isn’t super … intense and depressing? Give us something fun and light-hearted for once.”

“What if I haven’t felt that?”

“Then pretend, or talk to someone who has.” The producer fixes her with a look between pity and sternness. “Seriously, Evie. Don’t come back here without a love song. And get a therapist.”

Evelyn returns in a week with a song about the thrill of a first glance and the intense flush of devotion that follows it. The song spends several weeks on the charts and goes viral after someone creates a Tik Tok dance for it, though none of that matters to sole inspiration for the song: Evelyn’s new cat.

iv.

Her second-ever happy love song is not as commercially successful, but it is inspired by a human being this time. Naomi is brilliant, and funny, and the most talented actress of her generation (according to a Vanity Fair correspondent but Evelyn is inclined to agree). The first time she refers to Evelyn as “the love of my life”, Evelyn spends the better part of a week repeating the moment in her mind.

Naomi really should have thought to mention the caveat.

Three years later, Evelyn laughs at something a precocious child on a television program says and asks, “What would you do if your child asked you that?”

Naomi shakes her head. “Pour myself some scotch and direct them towards their other mom, or dad.”

Evelyn is frozen.

Other mom or dad. Not you. Not the love of her life. Because Evelyn is only the love of Naomi’s life … for now.

Evelyn turns off the television program. “You don’t think we’ll raise children together?”

Naomi looks sheepish. To her credit, she picks her words more carefully this time. “Evelyn … be realistic. I love you so much but - someday I’m going to meet the real thing. You can’t ask me to say no to them for you.”

Evelyn feels the same hot shame she did when she was sixteen and finally accepting that she had no soulmate and never would. This time she won’t cry, not in front of Naomi. “I’m a person. Not your training wheels.”

She moves out the next day.

Dating apps aren’t much different, as it turns out. She has way too many messages from people who assume that being bisexual means she wants nothing more than to fulfill the threesome fantasies of heterosexual couples, and even more messages from people who think that because she is “unmarked”, she isn’t looking for anything serious. To be unmarked is to be written off entirely as a romantic partner, or at least as a serious one.

She deletes the dating app, but not before she posts a screenshot of her DMs to her Instagram with a caption finally addressing the rumors that she is unmarked.

I've always been private regarding the subject, but I owe it to anyone else like me to be more candid about my experiences as someone without a soulmark. Yes — I am unmarked, but not unworthy.

That night she’s flooded with messages from others like her, who thank her and repost her message. It’s humbling and uplifting all at once and Evelyn is guilty that she didn’t do it sooner. She responds to as many as she possibly can.

( One message stands out among the rest:

@ teorror: hey @reyevie - if you’re in nyc, my support group would love to have you! we meet at [ …. ] )

vi.

In the end, it’s not another rejection or loneliness or even solidarity that leads Evelyn to finally try talking to others like her.

It’s pettiness, and a lot of annoyance.

A former classmate posts a soulmate announcement on Facebook in which the caption describes meeting her soulmate for the first time as the single most important day of anyone’s life, the center of the human experience.

It makes Evelyn grit her teeth.

She is indignant that anyone would not consider the pain and feelings of inadequacy those words might cause for unmarked youth like the ones she’s received messages from, or her younger self. And she realizes with a pang of regret: it’s not just social media, or dating apps. It’s also the songs that people like Evelyn have written, the films and books that saturate the market that convince everyone that no other kind of love or measure of happiness matters when compared to romantic love.

As much as Evelyn craves it, she refuses to accept that it should overshadow every other aspect of her life.

She scrolls through her messages until she finds the one from @teorror again, inviting her to join his group and decides to show up and prove her point, even if she’s the only one who knows it.

To her initial horror, the group is small. There are only three people there, and Evelyn is just about ready to turn on her heel and walk away rather than join such an intimate gathering when a man bolts from his chair with an overjoyed expression on his face.

“Hey! You actually came!” He goes to her, and offers his hand to be shaked. “Can I call you Ev? Guys! This is Ev! The singer I was telling you guys about? Come on, sit down.”

The man she’s guessing is Teorror (Teo, she’ll later learn) guides her towards the others and the other man produces a chair for her and introduces himself as Rico.

Mercifully, they don’t ask her to introduce herself first or talk first. The woman next to her (Claudia) does, then Rico and Teo. Eventually they all turn to Evelyn.

“You don’t have to share if you’re not ready, Ev.” Claudia says, adopting Teo’s nickname for Evelyn. “The first time can be overwhelming.”

Ev nods, but feels she should try anyway. “I’m Evelyn — and as I guess you’ve figured, I’m also an unmarked.”

Immediately, a shadow crosses over the faces of the others. Evelyn stops.

“We try not to use that word.” Rico says gently and Evelyn can tell he’s taking care to not embarrass her. “It isn’t good to define ourselves by what we don’t have, rather than what we do.”

“Tell us about you. Teo says you’re a singer?” Claudia coaxes helpfully.

Teo offers Evelyn another wide smile. “I used to call myself leftovers. Or spare parts. I thought it was really funny, you know? But they’re right: focusing on what you lack just sets you up for more pain.”

It’s something to think about. She’s back for the session next week.

As the months go by, she sees the group outside of meetings too, starting with a potluck at Teo’s and leading to drinks and mechanical bull rides with Rico, or sightseeing with Claudia. At first she wonders what it might be like to share a soulmark with one of them … to find a soulmate after all … but eventually, she nearly stops thinking of the marks altogether.

Those fantasies end entirely after another night of dancing, as they’re having greasy fast food and Teo slings his arm around her as he tells a story that requires exaggerated facial expressions and wild hand gestures. She laughs and almost misses the moment where Claudia returns to the table with her order and slides her a crispy taco (Ev’s favorite) and Rico picks at the tomato (which Ev’s hates) and places it beside his own burger so that Evelyn won’t have to. They know her well, she realizes, better than anyone. They love her better than anyone …and suddenly Evelyn feels overwhelmed with her love for them in return.

Here is the intimacy she’s been craving her whole life: a love that doesn’t ask her to define herself by it, or insist upon its sole importance. It simply accepts, and gives.

Evelyn can only wonder why she ever thought this wouldn’t be enough.

#long post for ts #bc i dont remember if readmores show up on mobile #evelyn reyes*#tag later #mw*

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ipseitys · 5 years

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Morning shift. In his time at the coffee shop, Mateo had found his fair share of constants in the day-to-day routine. The faint splash as a beverage was poured into a new container was punctuated by the ringing of the bell by the door, an unspoken signal for him to work at a faster pace. The same impatient customers awaiting their caffeine fix, and the same customers with their oddly specific requests for drinks. There were many more constants than variables, to say the least. But over time Mateo had found a sense of comfort in it, and this only made the new occurrences even more amusing in contrast.

Mateo was leaned over the bar area, a small, not-quite white towel draped over one shoulder. The brunet’s hands moved out of habit, an act of muscle memory that he had found himself shocked to develop despite having spent a year in this very spot. The chatter of customers faded into the background as he worked to fill the orders, and it wasn’t until a plastic cup with a familiar order caught his attention that he glanced upwards. “Senora González,” He smiled, making contact with a petite, middle-aged woman in scrubs. “buenos días. ¿Largo día por delante? La última vez que obtuvo un americano grande f-uh,” He paused for a brief moment, using the time to catch the words before they stumbled from his lips. “fue cuando su hija dio a luz después de su doble turno.” She chuckled, nodding at the younger male before launching into her own tale of sorts. Mateo smiled, conversing alongside her as he continued to finish the next set of orders. Some constants were positive, familiar and friendly customers being one of the highlights. As he was mid-sentence however, a familiar voice called out from behind the counter.

“Aye, Teo! When you’re done flirting, I have someone new for you to meet.” Mateo rolled his eyes as he registered the words, continuing to pour one of the drinks. “Lo siento, Señora González, er-- mi amigo está muy... solitario.” He raised his voice when uttering the last word, a faint smirk settling across his features as the echo of a ‘Hey, I heard that!’ resonated from behind him. Mateo leaned over slightly to hand her the coffee cup. “Está un poco celoso.” The woman eyed the male behind him earnestly, asking for Mateo to send him her well wishes. It wasn’t long before she was gone, however, and a chuckle slipped from the brunet’s lips as the footsteps grew closer. “I know I’m a hot commodity around here man, but you can’t go setting me up with grandmas. Otherwise, this’ll become grandma central when they hear I’m here.”

Mateo rolled his eyes again, shaking his head at the thought. Typical. “I uh -- don’t think you’re her type. She did tell me she hopes you find god soon, though.” Mateo grabbed the small towel on his shoulder, using it to clean up a small spill on the counter. “Oh shit, by the way -- Teo, meet our newest hire.” Mateo’s brow quirked as the other male’s words registered. Right! New person. The brunet turned his gaze, shifting slightly to face the pair stood a few feet behind him. His eyes widened slightly, however, once they rested upon the new hire. “This is-” Before his friend could have finished his sentence though, Mateo had already interjected.

“Uh -- Alaina?” Holy shit.

“Damn dude, we’re completely in sync. It’s like you read my mind.” The male beside her called out, his remark flying over Mateo’s head once the realization of who was standing before him finally hit.

So much for a day of constants.

#p: 001 #this is long af pls do not match length i am just too wordy for my own good tbh #the spanish at first is him going 'have a long day ahead of you huh? last time your ordered this your daughter was in labor'#and the second part is him messing around and going 'sorry miss my friend here is lonely. he gets jealous.'

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dinviataunuitiptrans · 4 years

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#dinviataunuitiptrans

It's 2020 and my only resolution is to take it easy on me and go walk whenever I feel the sadness circling my soul, so this day I do just that.

I woke up freezing because the heater got broken and I know that if I stay indoors I'm gonna fall into some sort of despair so I go and brew some few cups of tea, purr them in bottles, roll up my last blunt from the stash, eat some pasta left overs from new years eve, dress myself in pretty colors and head out. It's been one hour of walking therapy so I stop by McD. to pee and then head out to the small park to have a smoke and rest my legs.

"- Futu-ți morții mă-tii de adiere băşită" is the best my brain could think of when the wind blowed away the tobacco from my rizla while trying to roll, so I start all over.

"- Futu-ți morții mă-tii...", this is my second attempt, the tobacco is all over my pants so I take a deep breath and keep on trying.

"- Futu-ți morții mă-tiiiii!!!!"

That was my 3d attempt to roll but the wind had other plans for my lungs. But then you came bye amused by the words you didn't understand, holding a pack of cigarettes and inviting me to stop fighting the wind and have a smoke from your pack. So I take one and you take a seat next to me and we lit up the cancer tubes, I say thanks and you say I'm very cute and smile. To scare the shyness away I pretend to flip my hair in the gayest way possible:

- Oh, just cute? and I thought I was beautiful, now you destroyed my dreams to ever be an instagram sensation.

You start laughing and tell me I'm actually beautiful and we start playing this game where we kinda make fun of how dumb we as humans are, I'm cracking up silly jokes and you do the same, I tell you I find you very cute also and I apologise for shattering your dreams of being an insta model, you laugh and you give me another cigarette and then move a bit closer to me.

- You're very smart for such a young guy...are you seeing someone?

- Love, you're sweet but I'm not that young...

Then you touch my hand and tell me you already like me and that I don't have to lie to impress you because you have been with guys younger than my age. That's how I find out that I'm most likely 22 or 23 and that you're just few years older than me, you're 25. I tell you lies are not my sexy kink and that I'm born in 1984, on the 31st of May. You laugh but I see the awe on your face so I tell you the good looks run in my family and that if you see my brothers you'll know what I'm talking about.

- Show me

You say that and then cuddled so close to me that you give me no option but put my arm around you while I start pulling out pictures from the phone.

- Here is Patrick, he's the love of my life and one of the sweetest man the Universe has given us. He's gonna be 35 this year.

You say we look alike but that I'm prettier than him so I turn a bit red and start feeling kind of uncomfortable so I swipe away.

- In this picture he's with Max, they are at a court hearing. Max is the oldest one, he is in his 40s and he lives here in UK but up north. I haven't seen him for ages and I miss him and his signature paranoia very much. This is Andrei, I have tons of pictures with him, we live together and he is so sweet that every time I think of him my heart melts. Probably the reason I take secret pictures of him while sleeping.

I show you more pictures with him and tell you the story when I had to sleep in his room and how he cuddled close to me when we were sleeping and you press yourself against my body and tell me you get it why. This makes me feel even more uncomfortable cuz you kinda took up every cm of my personal space but I don't know what to do so I brush it off.

- He's 22 and he might be one of the sexiest of us but he's not the youngest, Gherman is. See? This is Gabi but I call him Gherman, this is a screenshot from one of our chats, I always do this pictures when we talk so that I have them to look at when I miss them. You would say he's 14 but actually he just turned 18. He's an adorable pain in the ass but with the soul in the right place. And this is Chriss, look how gorgeous this guy is and his heart is pure gold. He's such a talented artist but unfortunately he wasn't discovered yet, he draws nudes and erotic art and it's mind fucking blowing. This is a photo with Chriss, Rami and Teo, I almost cried when I got these pictures of them. Rami represents the whole notion of humanness and he's shy just like me.

- This guy is blonde... is he also your brother?

You pointed out to Teo so I show you more pictures with him and then pull up pictures with Andreas also.

- Yeah, we have few blondes in our family but we decided to love them nonetheless. This is Andreas, not only that he's blond but he's also a very wise man. It's always such a pleasure talking to him. He's in Germany now. Just like Leo.

I'm looking for pictures with Leo so I start scrolling for the screenshots from the last whatsapp conversation and you decide to take a break from your cuddle and have a smoke. Now I feel more comfortable even though you're still resting your body next to mine.

- Here is my adorable Leo.

- He looks alot like the first guy without the beard..

- Like Patrick?

- Yeah

You see the pictures with me and Vlăduț and you like him.

- This is your brother also, I can tell. Is he old like you?

- No, actually he's young like you. And also an amazing musician and sound therapist. He makes sounds with weird instruments and then you feel a bit better. But he's not in London anymore, he returned home, he wasn't feeling very good here.

I feel you're a bit disappointed and probably thinking that you'll have to settle with me but once you get me started with my brothers it's very hard to make me stop.

- And this is Aris, he looks like an artist because he is one, he's a painter and a tattoo artist. And this is Elias, if you're ever looking for a smart conversation then he's the guy to go to. Him or Alexander. The difference is the sarcasm of Alex versus the warmth of Elias.

Then I show you Alexander and you smile and ask me if Elias and Alex are twins but I have no chance to answer because now you're handing me your phone and ask me to pull up my fb and I do just that so you start looking around while I'm getting even more nostalgic going through the pictures in my phone. I'm looking for a picture with Abel but I have no more time to show it to you

- You're transgendered?

- Oh love, there's no such thing as being "transgendered", nobody can transgender me, I am transgender because this is how I am.

- You mean you're not a real man?

- I'm just as a real human as you are love, and for sure am a man. Just that I'm a trans man

- And you're proud of this sickness...

And then you show me my cover photo.

I felt your disgust even since you said "Trasgendered" and I know very well that look in your eyes, I once had a crazy girlfriend who used to look at me just like that and somehow it feels so fucking familiar that I sense what is going to happen next so I try my best to avoid it. I tell you that each of us has its own life to live and that people must learn to accept and embrace diversity if we want to heal this human race. I tell you that body parts are just that, body parts and that gender identity is not defined by sexual anatomy. I want to tell you more but I was right and you snap into rage mode, slap the shit out of me almost poking my eye out with your nails.

- Fucking disgusting predator, man with pussy, you should be burned alive.

You walk away in anger showing the middle finger, shouting "fuck you", so I shout back that you wish to have the luck to get fucked by such a proud trans man but that I don't fuck crazy bitches anymore so you turned around and you were fuming so I told you that if you come back to hit me again I'm gonna punch you in the face. You left. I start rolling one and feel sorry I got angry and yelled back but somehow so relieved that you went away.

Dear L.,

You have my FB now and somehow I hope this message gets to you: please get some medical help you are in desperate need, and you won't get to meet nice guys like me everywhere.

I know you have serious mental issues cuz a healthy mind wouldn't let you go to total strangers looking for their attention and affection on a bench in a park, you don't cuddle with strange men and expose yourself like that.

I lived with a girl like you, extremely violent and unstable that is, for a whole year and I know that you were just looking to meet somebody that looks like a nice guy but actually hoping to get an asshole so you can have an excuse to violently manifest your pain. Been there through that already so I know the drill. The fact that you discovered I'm transgender was just the trigger you were looking for, and I didn't feel you hated me but I did feel that you wanted to make someone suffer and you found me, so it was just a matter of time until something would have triggered you.

PS: I'm sorry I threatened you but I don't like being hit. I wouldn't have hit you back but I would have called the ambulance because I learned that being a sweet person doesn't help when somebody suffers like you do.

#trans guy #trans man #transform #transition #transgender #unicorn #trans pride #trans is beautiful #trans is valid #trans and proud #dinviataunuitiptrans

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gmicahb-blogs · 5 years

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Next Hawaii Superstar?

With stars like Tua Tagoviloa, Marcus Mariota, and Manti Te’o, who will be the next stud to represent the 808?

Taulia Tagovailoa, Class of 2019, Thompson High School of Alabama / Kapolei High School (University of Alabama)

Living in the lights of his older brother Tua, Taulia shows no fear in taking his brothers place once he leaves Alabama. Taulia isn’t as big as Tua, but however more athletic than his older brother. he shows more mobility to move outside the pocket and extend plays with his feet, to follow up with amazing arm strength, Taulia has the makings of being that next man up for Alabama, and here’s why.

During his time at Thompson High School, he thrown for nearly 3700 yards, five interceptions, and 35 touchdowns all-year. Clearly, those numbers tell you that he can get the job done when it comes to moving the ball down-field. Even with being a little under-sized at the quarterback position, he has all the tools into becoming the next-generation quarterback out of Hawaii to mesmerize all of football.

Dillon Gabriel, Class of 2019, Millilani High School (University of Central Florida)

Surprised? So Am I! Dillon Gabriel has shown the college football world why he should be considered one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He has not only lead UCF to the second-best offense in all of college football, but has UCF ranked 13 in all total offense in his first year as a starter.

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He is in the top 15 in all quarterback ratings, and did I mention he is a true-freshman? How about also putting up 347 yards against a Stanford defense that is supposed to be one of the best in the Pac-12 this year. When you watch Gabriel connect with his receivers, it’s almost like every throw is on the money. He has great understanding of where to throw in any coverage thrown at him, and knows how to manage the clock.

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UCF’s offense kind of reminds me of the old Oregon Ducks offense back when Marcus Mariota was the starting quarterback. Too have that kind of command on an offense that is built to score in less than 2 minutes, there is no room for mistakes. Do not be surprised if Gabriel takes UCF to another New Years Six Bowl this season.

Jordan Botelho, Class of 2020, Saint Louis School in Hawaii (Committed to Notre Dame 4/18/19)

The best defensive linebacker to come out of Hawaii since Manti Teo in 2009, and here’s why. 95 rating on 24/7 sports (sixth best in all linebackers in the country), weighs 230 pounds, standing about 6 foot 2 inches. He is built to become a potential defensive standout once he enters college.

Watching him live against Bishop Gorman, he was calling out defensive audibles to his teammates, he showed tremendous awareness on the field, and more importantly, he made it look easy. Jordan lead the team in tackles with 4, and also a couple plays where he broken up short passes towards the sidelines. He was the big reason why Bishop Gorman only scored one touchdown in the first half. Whether it be just to break up a pass, or outside pressure to the quarterback, he can do it all. Which is why he is on my watch list for the next upcoming college football season.

Faatui Tuitele, Class of 2019, Saint Louis School of Hawaii (University of Washington)

Hawaii high school football players have recently been getting attention thanks to the lights of Tua, Gabriel, Milton, and many others. But since this past couple of years, it’s actually the defensive players that have been getting the attention of these big name schools to come down and recruit them.

Tuitele, according to his scouting reports all highlighted the word “Legit,” as saying he is the real deal.

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In his games at Saint Louis, no other offensive lineman in the State of Hawaii could contain this guy. Double team him all you want, and he will still find a way to come with a sack. Ranked 83rd in the country coming out of high school, and ninth in his position, a lot of schools including Ohio State, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss wanted this guy to play for them. When watching some of his highlights against teams like Punahou and Kahuku, he would easily run over 300-pound lineman to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks.

Scouts say he is like a younger Justin Jones. Very physical upfront, has the size and strength to shed off blockers and finish tackles in the gaps for loss, and has great footwork on the inside to create lots of room for linebackers to get at the quarterback. I wouldn’t be surprised, with the talent and size he bring to the table, Tuitele gets his degree, and enters the NFL Draft sometime around 2022.

#hawaii hawaiisports hawaiihighschoolsports sports UCF Hawaiifootball Washingtonfootball Washington USCfootball Georgiafootball

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doctorwhoandfairytaillover · 4 years

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Part 6A: Vikings - Kissed by Fire

Summary: On the celebration of (Y/N)’s name day, her brothers come with an old flame from her past. But is he truly an old flame?

Pairings: Ragnarssons x Stepmom reader (platonic), Ragnar x reader (romantic), OC x reader (romantic?)

A/N: I really hope y’all like this part, it is merely the beginning of the drama that is to come.

As her father’s only daughter, the celebrations done in honor of her name day were usually grand events that lasted several days and went well into the night even if she had already gone to sleep for the night. It was not strange for her then, when her dear husband Ragnar decided to hold grand festivities for her name day as well.

For many, it was simply an excuse to drink and feast to their hearts content but for Ragnar it was a display of the love and affection that he held for his second wife. There was no question that the man favored his second wife, (Y/N). When he returned from his raids; it was her that he gave the finest of dresses, it was her that he gave rare jewels, and it was her that he greeted first. So for the man to throw a feast of this magnitude, it was no surprise that he would do so for his favored wife and told her to dress elegantly for the celebration.

Without question; she dressed in a finely made gown of blue, the golden necklace she wore her first day in Kattegat, and had lined her eyes with kohl to make the (e/c) hues stand out. It was when she looked down to sift through her box of accessories that she jumped in surprise to feel the prickle of Ragnar’s beard when he kissed her neck.

“How is it that you only become more beautiful?” he said lovingly.

“Flatterer” she giggled. “I won’t lay with you tonight that easily.”

“Can a husband not worship the ground his wife walks on merely because he remains as infatuated with her as the day he met her?” he asked as he continued to pepper her with kisses.

She turned around and wrapped her arms around him, bringing him into a soft and tender kiss. A short lived moment, when giggles caught their attention to spot the majority of the children at the door.

“Perhaps I should be selfish and keep you solely to myself” Ragnar teased.

“There is enough of me to be shared, now move” she said with a playful shove as she reached into her box and pulled out a delicate anklet.

Gently, Ragnar took the anklet from her hand and kneeled in front of her as the children impatiently jumped on their bed. He clasped the anklet onto her ankle with care, holding onto her foot in thought as he let go and turned his bright blue eyes to her.

“When we first met, you wore this every day and never took it off. On our journey, you wore it frequently but not as often as you did before. The last time that I ever saw you wear this was the day before our wedding and that night saw you put it away” he said. “Does this hold any meaning to you?”

(Y/N) nodded, “It was given to me by someone I held dear. It was a gift that I may always remember them and the time we spent together fondly.”

“After the celebration, would you mind telling me the story behind it?”

“I would love nothing more.”

---------------

The men and women cheered in excitement upon the arrival of their king and his favored wife, closely followed by the older children as they carried the younger ones in their arms.

When he was handed a horn of ale, Ragnar lifted it up for a toast.

“Let us feast and be merry, to celebrate the name day of my beloved wife (Y/N). A woman kissed by fire, who caught my eye so many years ago in the land of Iberia. The woman that is now mother of my children and companion in life. For (Y/N)! Skol!”

“Skol!” everyone cheered.

“Salud!” cried out several others voices.

To the utter surprise and glee of (Y/N), her nine brothers along with their entourage had entered into the hall with casks of wine under their arms. Setting the casks down, all of the men did not hesitate to smother their sister with affection.

“It is so good to see all of you, especially you Bjarke. Your name day is tomorrow” she said. “Perhaps you can all go on a hunt with the other men and I can cook your favorites.”

“Can you?!” all her brothers gasped.

“No one else’s cooking can compare to Nana’s and yours” said Antonius.

“Our wives can cook well enough and the servants are alright, it is your cooking that has always been the best” said Cole.

“That’s right!” said Hvisterk. “Mama makes everything tasty.”

“Even the things that are yucky taste good when Mama cooks” said Sigurd with a lisp.

“I already said that I would, there is no need for sweet words when I have offered” (Y/N) giggled.

“Surely we can give you a gift in return” said Athel.

“Your presence is enough, I can ask for no greater gift than to be with my loved ones on my name day” she said.

“What if we were to tell you that our gift is exactly that?” said Endre.

“Did father come along as well?” (Y/N) asked, looking around the room in hopes of spotting the man.

“Not father, but someone that you certainly remember fondly” said Gunnar.

The tallest of her brother’s smirked as he stepped aside; revealing a man around the same age as (Y/N). He was of lithe build, messy brown hair fell onto his forehead, his blue green eyes gleamed, and scruff lined his jaw.

“Tristan?” she gasped.

He smiled in a manner that made the green of his eyes seem brighter.

“Is it really you? My goodness, I haven’t seen you in years Tris” (Y/N) said as she pulled him into a tight hug.

“(Y/N)! It seems that the years have been good to you, more beautiful than the last day that I saw you” he chuckled, taking her hand to bring her into a spin. “You have blossomed into the woman that I knew you would.”

She laughed, “I was a girl of seventeen last you saw me. In that time I have married and become a mother, Tris. I would imagine that I am not the girl that you knew.”

“That is true. Your brother’s didn’t tell me on the journey, but tell me do you have a son or daughter?”

“Both. I have a daughter and five sons.”

His eyes widened, “Did you truly have that many?”

“I birthed one son and a daughter, but in marrying now have an additional four sons.”

His features softened as he held onto her hands, “I had known you to be a kind and loving person but to take on the care of children not of your womb. I can tell those boys will be well loved.”

“Oh,” she gasped in realization. “I was so caught up that I didn’t introduce you to the rest of my family.”

Leading him by the hand, she stepped to stand by a disgruntled looking Ragnar and pouty children beside them.

“My love and stars of my life, this is my good friend Tristan. His father was a merchant very close to my father and we grew up together” (Y/N) said. “Tris, this is my husband Ragnar the man that took me away and stole my heart in the process. These are my children; Ubbe, Hvitserk, Sigurd, Agnar, Ivar, and Kari.”

Ragnar scoffed when Tristan went to shake his hand, ignoring the man in favor of drinking his ale. The boys pouted but conceded in giving the man a swift handshake, as they knew that (Y/N) would scold them later if they did not greet her friend.

A slight glimmer caught his eye and Tristan spotted the anklet on (Y/N).

“You still kept it after all these years?” he asked softly.

(Y/N) smiled sadly, “It was the last gift that you gave me. I hold it quite dear.”

At her words, Ragnar’s jaw clenched but stayed quiet as Tristan practically leaped to embrace her tightly.

“Oh!” Tristan gasped, knocking his hand against his head. “I almost forgot, my brother Matteo also came along and should be here.”

Looking around the room, he brought his fingers to his lips and let out a sharp whistle. “Matteo! Get over here!”

Almost like a shadow, Tristan turned to spot his older brother Matteo beside him.

“Teo, introduce yourself. We haven’t seen (Y/N) in a number of years and it would be impolite.”

(Y/N) held back a grimace when Matteo’s blue eyes raked down her figure. He bowed at the waist and smirked, “I am Matteo Federico De Valle Aldrete an old friend of (Y/N) and older brother to Tristan but you may all call me Teo.”

“I thought your father left you in charge of trading with the Franks” (Y/N) stated plainly.

“He did, but called me back as he felt my talents were needed elsewhere” Matteo chuckled.

(Y/N) took two horns of ale from a passing thrall and handed them to the two men.

“Have a drink, I am sure that you have yet to partake in the festivities” she said.

“Thank you, that is very kind of you Conejito” Matteo chuckled.

“I will do my best to drink with all of you, but I cannot hold my drink very well” said Tristan nervously.

“That is alright” (Y/N) said as she sipped from her own drink. “It is a time to make merry. To old times!”

“To old times!” the two men cheered.

Drinking heavily from their horns, unaware of the (e/c) eyes that peered at them as they drank.

____________________________

Tag list:

@heavenly1927

@princesscornbread

@ivarthebloodyking

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typegripe-blog · 7 years

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Character Study #4:

Name: Gremio Game: Suikoden MBTI: ISFJ

So here is my favourite character, and to a lot of you who played the game when you were younger I’m sure he’s a fan favourite too. While there are other characters I think have incredible design and seem interesting (Fu Su Lu and Crowley come to mind) the problem is those characters don’t have enough about them in the game. Even if these characters had more info, I’d probably still prefer Gremio.

Gremio is a sweetheart. There’s no other way to put it. He can be a bit of a worried soul but in the end he is nothing more than a kind and caring soul.

When Gremio was young he lost his parents in war. He spent many years wandering but was eventually taken in by Teo McDohl. He worked under McDohl as a servant and soldier to repay Teo for his generosity.

Teo McDohl was a busy soldier and was constantly traveling. When Teo’s wife gave birth to a son but died during childbirth, Gremio was charged with nurturing and raising the boy while Teo was out fighting.

Teo could not have picked a better soul. Gremio was the greatest ‘mama bear’, Tir could ask for. Gremio cooked and cleaned and always made sure to keep Tir safe. When Tir was young he was kidnapped in an effort to use him as bait against Teo. Gremio went and saved Tir but gained the scar on his face. From that moment on he swore to protect his young master no matter what.

This became problematic, however, when Tir became an outlaw. Gremio was torn between trying to protect Tir and stay loyal to Teo. At every turn Gremio tried to convince Tir to leave the rebels alone and find Teo to ask for forgiveness. He never abandoned Tir though, and Gremio quickly realised that his loyalty had shifted from Teo to Tir; and that he would be willing to give his life in order to protect Tir.

Gremio is sometimes clouded by his fear, but it’s never fear for his own life. He worries about Tir, the boy he had raised who wasn’t even his own son. That’s not to say he is not an intelligent man either.

When their plan to fake their identities at the Fortress Kwaba is put at jeopardy when a high ranking official almost recognises Tir, Gremio’s quick thinking pulls them through. Gremio freaks out at Tir, accusing him of always causing trouble and threatening to cut his head off if the Imperials would prefer that. The Imperials become very awkward and kind of scared by this show of abuse and let the group through.

More than just intelligent though, he is a man who believes in hope. He is sympathetic and is quick to understand the suffering of the Liberation Army. He doesn’t want to join Odessa for Tir’s safety but is more than willing to help save the bandits they had wrongfully imprisoned.

Another time he shows his kindness is to Kirkis, the elf. When the elf village is destroyed and Kirkis believes everyone is dead, including his love Sylvia, he throws the ring he planned to give her away. He gives up hope. Gremio picks up the ring though, and helps console Kirkis. Sylvia turns out not to be dead and Gremio gives Kirkis back his ring.

Of course, his greatest show of heart is when he sacrifices himself so the others can live. In the prison Soniere, General Milich released Spores of Agony, flesh eating microorganisms which devour a person whole. Gremio locked himself within to prevent the spores from escaping and harming the others. Gremio died and gave Tir even more reason to fight against the vicious Empire.

Luckily you can bring him back by the end of the game! Yeah! And it’s lucky too because the lonesome path Tir takes after the war would be much less exciting without his mentor, guardian and friend by his side.

Gremio is an incredible character, and his death had a pretty big impact on me as a kid. With his overprotective nature and his constant worrying, Gremio often becomes the butt of a lot of jokes. You can pull his ear when he’s making soup, Viktor steals his wallet, the list goes on and on. So when I was young I saw him as comic relief and at times a nuisance.

The game is notorious for its fake choices where you’re forced a certain direction (“Not if it’s bitter.”) and one of those moments I distinctly remember is when Gremio forces to come with you when you are discovering a way to beat Milich Oppenheimer. As a kid I remember wanting to try all the new characters I was getting and I didn’t want to be forced to have a 4 of the 6 slots taken up by Tir, Flik, Viktor and then Gremio on top of it. But I really learned the lessen that you don’t know what you truly have until it’s gone. All of his nurturing, loving personality just disappeared and all that remained was his green cloak and his axe. I was devastated.

And that being said, learning that I could bring him back was one of my happiest moments. There are honestly too many parts where Gremio is awesome and I don’t want to just list them all off. So I didn’t even touch on his friendships with Pahn, Cleo and Viktor. As well as all the other fun interactions and comments he makes to other characters. It’s really better to see for yourself than to read it from me.

Overall Suikoden is an incredible game, and if you enjoy story driven RPGs and nice sprite styles then I definitely recommend playing the game.

Thanks for reading!

#gremio #suikoden #tir #tir mcdohl #mcdohl #tea #not if it's bitter #gate rune wars #teo #pahn #cleo #character #character study #mbti #myers briggs #isfj

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crystalelemental · 7 years

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Atelier Shallie Plus Opinions

Anyone paying attention to the overall rankings, and more importantly paid attention to each of the other run-downs, has noticed I am a Dusk Trilogy fanboy in the extreme. The series has had such a wonderful shift in art direction, and the emphasis on the environmental impact and history for the setting has been nothing short of divine. The series also boasts some of the best casts of characters, and have changed the battle and alchemy systems to be far more engaging. And yet, Shallie is among my least-favorites in the series. It's still an excellent game, like all Atelier games, but it ranks near the bottom for a single reason: disappointment. For all the excellent buildup of this trilogy has to offer, boy is the conclusion just...among the worst this trilogy could've had.

CHARACTERS On the whole, I think the characters of Shallie are good. I wouldn't necessarily say that they're on par with the previous Dusk games, but they're still solid, and the returning characters are, once again, some of the best possible picks.

Shallistera - The better Shallie, I say. She's your more down-to-earth character, whose village is suffering from the water drying up. She comes to Stellard to find a way to save her village. She's definitely the more serious of the two, but she has some charming quirks as well.

Shallotte - Shallotte is the goofier of the two, and is high energy and kind of a dunce. I'm reminded slightly of Rorona, just in terms of those qualities. She works out as a character, and has her own thing going on with her sick mother. I just have a preference for mostly serious with quirks over quirk master supreme only calm in certain situations.

Kortes - I was on board for Kortes initially. But he's an idiot. His general stance is that, after being in the city and learning other customs, some of the things the village does seem odd or unnecessary to him. It's fine as a character, but the reason I don't like him is one scene with Wilbell, in which she mentions spirits, and he's like "Yeah, too bad those aren't real." Like...Kortes, buddy...we have fought spirits. Constantly. What are you talking about? I just hate that character in high-fantasy that's "science-minded" but rejects easily observable facts because they wouldn't exist in our reality. That's not how science works, asshole.

Jurie - Jurie is a treasure hunter who is out to make a lot of money, mostly for her younger sister. Jurie is also quite the writer, apparently, and uses her adventures to create stories for others about them.

Miruca - Miruca is Jurie's younger sister, and the best girl of this game. Miruca is flat-affect and very direct with her thoughts, particularly in regards to Central. She hated it there. Education in Central seems to be based largely on connection and conformity rather than development of new ideas or creativity, and as a result she never really fit in and was bullied by many in the program. Central itself is thus something she hates for their philosophy on how things should work, and with good reason. Miruca's storyline is also one of the reasons I came away not liking Shallotte that much. Miruca clearly disdains Central and what it's like there, and Shallotte spends most scenes with her talking about how great Central is and how Miruca's dream was once to go there to become a great alchemist. I know Shallotte's all about quirk and being gung-ho, but she kinda comes across as the type who is energetic to the point she's oblivious to the feelings of others, and that is something I really don't like. Not to mention, it’s one thing to support your friend’s dreams, and entirely another to ignore their very clear current stance and change in life goals to keep prattling on about what they wanted to do in the past.

Wilbell - Return of the best witch. Wilbell gets a lot in this. She has a vulnerable moment with her attempts at contracting with the Lord of Water, takes on Shallotte as an apprentice to help in what way she can, and is finally accepted as a proper witch by her great grandmother. It's a nice resolution for her character all-around.

Homura - Homura is a homunculus. Homura, unlike the other homunculi, has a taste for adventure and a desire to be a great treasure hunter, instead of being...more of a follower. When it comes to his attention that homunculi are all man-made, the little guy has a crisis of identity, and has a really striking scene with Solle and the Shallies about whether his quirks are because he was made that way, or if there's something unique to him as an individual. Honestly, he's the most emotionally significant character in the crew, I feel. I guess the name "Homura" is one just destined to be associated with emotional devastation.

Solle - Solle comes back, and continues to be his deadpan snarker self. I love this guy. He's actually playable this time, and apparently his attacks are based on using the Homunculi. Which is neat. Most of his best moments are in him becoming more like Marion with his disdain for protocol, and his interactions with Homura which are really sweet.

Escha - Alchemist return #1. Escha continues to be bubbly and fun, and is just great to have around. There isn't a whole lot of development for her character, unfortunately. She's just here to help out Solle as he establishes the new branch in this town, and to bring the seed entrusted to her by Flameu, as Flameu has stated this is where the seed should go. Mysterious.

Logy - Similarly, he doesn't get a lot of development, he's just around to help out Solle. I really have nothing significant to comment on, though I hear he's really good in combat.

Ayesha - BEST ALCHEMIST RETURNS! Ayesha comes back, and is as delightful as ever. My only real complaint is that, given her actions before she's officially added and the fact that her ultimate attack is effectively summoning the Yggdrasil monster she defeated, I had hoped this meant she took over the powers of Yggdrasil as sort of a manager of the cradle of life. She did not. She's just eccentric. Which still works, but you know. Mild letdown.

Keithgriff - He's not as critical as he was in Ayesha, unfortunately, and is part of the reason the ending is so dull. He really just doesn't shine like in Ayesha, where his role was more solidified and significant. Here, they kinda just use his character in the same role, but with no real deviations. He just shows the Shallies the dark past of alchemy and already seems to know everything, even though the emphasis on finding a solution to the Dusk should mean he’s roughly as clueless as the others. It was nice to see the scenes of how he's responding to traveling with Ayesha, and how he's changing the things he smokes to maintain good health like Ayesha wants. The game kinda implies a romance thing at one point, which I'm not a fan of, but the scenes are sweet.

Odelia - Actual best girl. She's back, and as wonderful as ever. She's just not playable, which is a sin. She gets one scene with Homura that's pretty good, as both of them have a moment about being man-made entities. But really, Odelia stands out in comedy. Her role in the sweets-eating contest as the eater of the sweets is great, and her shooting down Albert is just about the best thing.

Raoul - This guy is the head of the organization that manages the lower classes, essentially. He's a bit rough around the edges, but cares deeply for the town, and feels the government is only looking out for the wealthy while the poor immigrants from villages where water is disappearing are left to fend for themselves. He attempts to create order by establishing a system where people can find work through him to manage their needs. He's pretty swell, and works with Solle and Central to ensure things are going well in the city.

Perriend - By comparison, the guy in charge of the government cares significantly for the city's autonomy, and refuses to cooperate with Central. He's not a bad person, he just feels very strongly that sacrifices need to be made for the common good, and sometimes those sacrifices mean that not everyone is happy. He can come off as really abrasive, way more so than Raoul, but he does care for the city itself. I'm not a fan of his.

Linca - A different one this time. We meet Linca Seven, whereas the one with Marion is Linca Eight. This Linca works as a secretary for Perriend, and in terms of personality, is fairly similar to Linca 8, if a bit more serious and better at paperwork.

Nady - Shallotte's mom. She's apparently the former secretary of Perriend, and generally sweet. She's just also apparently really bad with money. She spends a virtual fuckton on literal garbage that Katla sells, making Katla look awful and Nady look like an idiot. She's cute, but eh.

Albert - This guy is a robot-fucker with excellent taste. He gets a look at Odelia, is instantly smitten, and starts collecting automatons to figure out how they work. He's a complete doofus who doesn't do his job, but gets away with things by being the rich son of Perriend. As a result, I am not the biggest fan of this guy, but boy does he have good taste in robots.

Teo - The older one from Shallistera's village. He's an occasionally helpful source of knowledge for some of the major events around town when you're looking for alchemy information, but otherwise doesn't do a whole lot. He does call Kortes out on being a know-it-all who doesn't know anything at one point, which I adored. But otherwise, kinda forgettable.

Rosemia - If ever there were a time I was disappointed in not having DLC for a new playable shopkeep character, it is now. Rosemia is awesome. She’s a former witch who was shunned largely by society, but found love with a man who cared for her despite her status as a witch. Unfortunately, he was a sea-faring man and wound up dying at sea, leaving her alone. She continues to travel, scavenging items from the dead to sell off. I really wish she was a playable character...

Katla - Oh, and Katla’s here. Hooray.

STORY Let's first review the past two games. In Ayesha, the background setting is all about the Dusk, and how humans used alchemy for bad purposes that messed up the world really badly. The devastation was so significant that oceans dried up, and the beings that were created with alchemy were let loose in the collapse of civilization, with the slags running haywire more as weapons than entities for work. The devastation was so extreme that locations like the Zweiteturm and the Cradle of Life were established to re-build the entirety of society and the world's ecosystem if they couldn't turn things around. It establishes the problem of the Dusk as something that has a global impact, and introduces the idea that there's a cyclic problem that people just have to endure.

In Escha and Logy, the problem is further explored as we learn that humans banded together to confront the threat, but ultimately came up short-handed. Even with the establishment of Geosis and its centuries-long study of the environmental impact the Dusk had, they still came up with little more than a single seed that offers a presumably temporary solution to an environmental problem. We're also given more indication that the Dusk may have been a human-created problem, and that the suggestion for certain farming techniques from Flameu may have caused problems for the soil's ability to sustain production until it all collapsed. It introduces a somewhat alternative theory for how humans responded to the crisis, but even with the implication that civilizations worked together, they still all died out and were unable to sufficiently fix the problem the world faced.

In Atelier Shallie, the basic plot concept was bringing in a resolution and solution to the problem of the Dusk. Already, I hope what you see wrong. "Solution." This should have been a band-aid at best; something that allows humans to consistently survive the Dusk, but not fix it. But it's super fixable in ways it should not be. You see, apparently the cause of the Dusk here is that a machine made ages ago for water purification broke down, and is now taking in a bunch of drinking water, failing to purify it, and instead spitting out contaminated water, which removes the water supply from the world. This is the Dusk. Now, it fits with "humans did this to themselves," but if it's a broken down machine, how exactly is this a re-occurring cycle? But to make matters worse, when you defeat the administrator of this facility, the machine turns off then back on again, and Keith just adjusts the intake a bit and the problem is immediately solved. They talk about "oh, not everything will go back to normal right away," but there's drinking water in the smaller villages again, so problem is literally solved entirely, with no adverse effects. It's too clean, and conflicts with so much we know about the Dusk. You really mean to tell me the ancient civilization was so incapable of figuring out the most basic of technology rules to turn it off and on again that they all died from it? You really mean to tell me that a machine breaking down was the cause of them building an entire facility to store all knowledge, another to preserve all life, and a third to study the phenomenon and develop countermeasures? No one saw the water drying up and went "Hey, maybe we should check the machine that monitors this stuff?" None of it fits with the elements that have come before, and considering we've spent so much time expressing that the ancient civilization was far more technologically advanced than the current era, there's no excuse for the problem to just be a faulty machine.

Then there's the issue of the Lord of Water, whose memories showcase that humans were in fact at war with each other as part of the reason she's so pissed about things. But that directly conflicts with Threia's findings, so either war happened prior to the Dusk and humans banded together to confront a larger problem after their own conflicts, or this game just forgot about that tidbit and did whatever it wanted. Personally, I kinda wonder if it's the latter, though I'm accepting the former. There are just pieces that do not tie together well, and considering how well Escha & Logy fit together with Ayesha despite having almost no connections in geography or characters, this is a little sad.

SETTING I feel like the discussion above is sufficient. The locations in this area are all drying up from the Dusk, and it all feels very connected to the rest of the trilogy up until they make the reveal of the answer. It really just knocks both the story and the setting components flat on their ass, and turns something with an incredible amount of potential into a massive disappointment.

ALCHEMY SYSTEM There have been changes. Many changes. For instance, quality goes up to 999. There's also a chaining process, where you can put skills on materials. Some skills are one slot, some are two, and materials all have different amounts of slots, up to 4 at a time. Your goal now is to improve materials to apply traits, and if you use the same element skills in a row on items that share that elemental trait, your chain bonus goes up, and this is entirely irrelevant barring Chain Attribute and Chain Effect, both of which are Earth skills. Earth and Wind skills are the only ones that can chain up to 9999 chain value, and if this is done, Chain Effect will bring your final product up to effect 999. It's honestly a little roundabout, and while I don't inherently dislike it, it doesn't feel as organic as Escha & Logy's system did. This game also does a super cool thing where a lot of optimal effects exist as the middle value, rather than the highest, so a lot of times your attribute-increasing skills aren't that necessary, so Fire and Water are barely ever used late-game. It just feels like an incredibly wasted aspect of the game when half your skills are never used, and the remainder are used almost exclusively to build up the Chain gauge without any regard to their effect.

Synthesis level has also been upgraded to 99, which is way higher than 50. So high that it's honestly hard to reach. You definitely want to, as you get more Cost involved for being higher level, which reduces the number of needed Water skills, which is great because now you can get back to just spamming Earth or Wind skills like you ought to be. The best way is to just gather a ton of Clay and Junk, and just synthesize 200 Brother Call items. It's a little slow, but manageable.

Ultimately though, I think it's an interesting idea that didn't play out too well. Synthesis is fun for most of the game, as it always is, but the conclusion kinda falls flat as everything becomes about optimizing quality by chaining skills. Because skills don't matter anymore beyond just keeping the same element going and ending with Chain Effect, your skills just feel irrelevant and the whole system becomes less complex. It would have made chaining to maximum easier, but I almost wish chain just built solely through matching an element skill to an element the material had. That way, you can apply a bunch of different traits as needed, while still getting a good chain together. Instead, it spends a majority of the game allowing for a bunch of traits as needed, but ends with "Just chain what you need and be done with it."

BATTLE SYSTEM Damage is really high in this game. HP values are also really high. Moreso than any other game, I think. I really don't know how I feel about it. The result is that you spend a lot of time just trying to implement a system where your characters will instantly get to do follow up attacks, because that's the basis of all damage. Equipment is significant, and you maintain the equip items from Escha and Logy, though items are apparently very nerfed from Escha & Logy, and the alchemists play a support and healing role more than anything. Which is odd. Shallistera's ability lets her duplicate items, which is completely worthless in this kind of setup where you equip items and they re-stock when you return to town. Shallotte's ability is to mix two items together to have effects, and I hear it's really good, but the damage options I worked with don't seem to be even remotely on par with the damage output of follow-up attacks. The combat isn't bad. It is a lot more difficult in the early-game, I feel, but very simple with late-game equipment, considering I beat the DLC boss on accident.

Fortunately, equipment continues the way it did in Escha & Logy, allowing you to use previous phases of equipment to transfer up. The difference is, you may want to use smaller items at some point, because a weaker item may get more skill slots, which is way more vital than anything else. Nothing matters like the ability to chain skills. Sadly.

In actual combat, there's a new Break mechanic. If you keep up the offense, enemies will reach a "Break" state, where they lose their turn and cannot act. This is a valuable mechanic, in that relentless offense can cause enemies to lose turns, but your characters also suffer from it. It's not a bad inclusion, I just am not its biggest fan. I'd rather we play combat as simple as possible, and this extra layer feels wholly unnecessary.

Then there's your Burst Gauge. Not gonna lie, I don't even understand all the mechanics of this. When you attack or use skills, your burst gauge goes up. When it reaches 100% or more, you enter the burst state. During this time, you can gain a boost to damage output, and even more depending on the skills on your weapon. The damage can be as significant as like 5-10x damage from the non-burst state. It also allows you to perform consistent chain attacks. Outside of burst, you can get one follow-up. In Burst, you can get all three reserve characters, but I guess you need all three of your front-line fighters alive to use all three back-row members? Which is honestly a stupid limitation. If you activate the burst under certain, very mysterious conditions, you can activate field effects based on your back row units. Some will allow for HP regen, some increase damage output, etc. They all have different effects, and it can be really helpful, I just have no idea what the rules are for activation, if I'm being entirely honest. Sometimes I can enter burst state right away in a match and get three field effects automatically, and other times it takes the entire match to get there and I only get one. I couldn't find an indication of where on the battle screen this information was, either. Some may say I should've paid more attention during the tutorial piece. I, however, say that this is an unnecessary layer of complexity.

OTHER MECHANICS When I started this game, I was convinced it would be the best, because there was no time limit anymore. This is fantastic, and definitely great to make sure you have time to make all the items and catch all events, even in one playthrough. However, this game attempts to keep some sort of fire lit by introducing motivation. When you complete life tasks (which is your indirect way of having ideas of what to work on), your motivation goes up, which in turns allows you to move faster on the map and gather more materials. However, if you putz around and don't accomplish things, motivation goes down, and you move slower and get fewer materials at gathering points. It's...honestly just a frustrating and irrelevant system, I think. I have all the time in the world and can gather as much as I want, you're just slowing down the process for the sake of trying to keep things moving. It's not a terrible idea, but I don't think it was implemented very effectively.

There's also the weather patterns. Certain environmental conditions will result in more or less of enemies or materials in certain areas. Again, it's an interesting idea, but it ultimately doesn't really change a whole lot. Reduced material gathering just becomes frustrating, while increased gathering is just great to unlock a lot of extra life tasks. More or less enemies is also irrelevant because...well...

Experience gained in this game is meaningless from battle. You will almost always be gaining shit for XP, and the real benefit is from the bonuses for completed life events. When you complete most of the goals around synthesizing specific items, you can get around 2500 XP. This can happen incredibly early in the game, resulting in a weird difficulty curve where the game is incredibly hard at the outset due to low XP, then incredibly easy mid-game when you can make better equipment and are like 25 levels above the enemies in the areas, followed by it getting really difficult again late-game as levels even out and you struggle to get the best equipment traits. I really am not a big fan of how the experience system works in this game at all. I guess the idea is, again, to keep that fire lit under your ass so you work hard at accomplishing tasks, but it's just a really awkward way to handle combat.

There is, however, one mechanic that I absolutely adore: skill points. When you hit level 40, you start gaining one skill point every level. Points are allocated to different skills for your character, such as improving their special attacks, or increasing stats. I am all about skill points, so I absolutely adore this system's inclusion...I just don't think it's all that interesting in how it's handled. Every character is essentially a carbon copy. You have the skill to increase attack, defense, speed, all stats, crit rate, crit damage, and the few to improve attacks to different forms. There isn't a whole ton of variance between them. I think one character (Escha, I think?) got two copies of boost all stats, which is great, and Ayesha got something to reduce the amount of break gauge damage you take. There's just not enough differentiation for my taste. I know that's kind of asking a lot, but that's the entire point of a skill point system; hyper-customization of characters. Having everything be so similar feels like it invalidates a lot of the purpose of such a system. The increase in stat points especially could just as easily be done through increasing the amount you gain at level ups. It's also hard to truly appreciate when you carry over accumulated skill points to NG+, so at the end of your second playthrough getting to level 99 (which is really easy), you can max out all skills instantly upon reaching level 40, so there's nothing left to work for. I do like the inclusion, and I hope they keep a similar system in upcoming games, but I would really like more specialization for characters, and for skill points to not carry over in NG+ so there's still something to work for.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS Okay, remember in Escha and Logy, how the ultimate traits were found pretty much through luck in relic searches with a boost Relic rarity effect on and the Dowsing Rod improving traits? Their solution to this was to instead make them based on random drops from boss enemies. I hope you see the issue. While Escha and Logy is a little stressful in that it's hard to actually know where to find things without incredible luck or fore-knowledge, Shallie's method is WAY more obnoxious to farm for. Relics have all the properties, and with a quick building of the gauge and use of Dowsing rod, you get three searches in like 15 seconds. It's incredibly quick to get what you need. When getting traits off of drops, though, it's completely random, there are like ten billion traits in the pool to choose from, and they seem to only show up consistently on higher difficulties. Add to it, the base game has the optimal farming option through the Silver Dragon, while in Shallie Plus there was a minor change that makes it so Silver Dragon doesn't drop anything of value, and you have to wait for it to transform into a way stronger version to drop anything worthwhile. This creates a system where the best farming method for non-weapon traits (the first DLC boss drops two weapons, generally with excellent traits) takes a solid 5 minutes per run, with low trait drop chance, on a difficulty that may result in your death when you start out. It's the first time that I've looked at what was happening in an Atelier game and said it wasn't fun, which was devastating.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS If I had to think of a word to describe the entirety of this game, it would be "Experimental." Atelier Shallie introduces a ton of new mechanics, and while some are interesting in theory, very little feels like it's handled well in practice. I've cleared the game in its entirety, and I'm still not sure how some of the battle mechanics work. Alchemy, while different from previous games, seems to invalidate a lot of the creative process when all you ever do late-game is spam Wind or Earth skills to get chain effect maxed to then maximize the effect meter of your item, making it feel very mechanical and, honestly, not particularly fun. The story is a mess, and actively harms the setup from the previous two games that made this trilogy stand out so significantly from Arland's games. The characters can be engaging and fun, and for the majority of the game things are generally great, but it really feels like the ending of the game dropped the ball for both itself and for the trilogy as a whole.

I made a mention back in the review of Rorona, that a game doesn't necessarily need a good, complex plot. Something simple yet serviceable can be just as effective, if played correctly. However, if you go for a plot, you really have to make it count, because nothing will hinder the impact of a game quite like having a plot that's either nonsense or just poorly constructed. Atelier Shallie is the perfect example of this. Between the poor conclusion for the trilogy and the game mechanics that are interesting but not implemented particularly well...it's hard to say Shallie shouldn't be the least favorite. The only thing really saving it from being at the bottom is that Totori's problems feel so much more significant, and the fact that, until the last chapter, Shallie was doing extremely well. By virtue of a strong and engaging beginning and middle, and the fact that I think there's a flat 0 in terms of really uncomfortable scenes, Shallie manages to barely outrank Totori on personal preference alone.

If you enjoyed this (for some reason), consider checking out the write-ups for the other games in the series as well!

Atelier Rorona Plus Atelier Totori Plus Atelier Meruru Plus Atelier Ayesha Plus Atelier Escha and Logy Plus Atelier Shallie Plus Atelier Sophie Atelier Firis

#atelier shallie #atelier shallie plus #atelier series #atelier opinions #it's been a month and I'm still salty

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notapaladin · 3 years

Text

harmonic orchestra, teocatl edition (pt 3)

yeah i have a problem & the problem is ancient aztec gays

ao3

1 (teomitl/acatl - “I don’t feel so good”)

"I'm sorry," Acatl muttered. "I'm afraid I'm not...feeling well…"

He didn't look well. Teomitl took a step forward, about to suggest he see a healer, and so he was in position to catch the man when his knees buckled and he slid to the ground like so much dead weight. At least there was no question of a healer not being summoned after that, with diagnosis of a high fever, a prescription of medicines and bed rest, and an offhand comment of "it was lucky that he collapsed in your courtyard, Teomitl-tzin, or who knows how long this might have gone unchecked?"

Right, Teomitl thought shakily. Lucky. He didn't feel lucky, not with Acatl drifting in and out of consciousness on his mat and him sitting by helpless and powerless, unable to do anything but hold his hand and press cold cloths to his forehead.

Acatl mumbled something incoherent. He sucked in a breath and gave his too-cold fingers a squeeze. "Please wake up," he whispered. "I can't lose you, too."

2 (acatl/teomitl – loyalty)

It is a slow thing, this love, and it begins like this. The temple of Mictlantecuhtli at sunset, when Tonatiuh's descent turns the air to gold and all the little hairs on Teomitl's skin to fire, when Acatl looks at him—looks at him and sees him, radiant in the light, and thinks Ah. There, there is my future Emperor.

The foundation builds from there. From looks to touches (casual, friendly, lingering); from a hand on Teomitl's arm to an arm slung around Acatl's shoulder; from the unthinking snap of an order to apologies and What would you suggest, Acatl? (He doesn't address him with the -tzin honorific anymore, doesn't put that distance between them, and each time it makes something melt and flow in Acatl's chest.) And each time Acatl thinks, My Emperor and does not let himself think I love you.

The night before Teomitl is due to begin the ceremonies of his ascension, he comes to Acatl's house alone. "There's something I should tell you," he says.

And kisses him.

When Acatl kneels before him four full days later, he pledges his undying loyalty with all the joy in his heart. Teomitl—the Emperor Ahuitzotl, now—raises him up with his own hands and a smile. "Get up, Acatl. You of all people never need to bow to me."

"You deserve it," he says simply, and his Emperor (his lover) beams like the sun.

3 (acatl/teomitl – honeycomb)

Raw honey is dripping down Teomitl's bare arm, rich and messy and golden as sunlight, and all Acatl can do is stare. Teomitl (innocent, careless Teomitl, his student) hums happily to himself and takes another bite. "Mmph." He chews, swallows, and holds the rest of the comb out with a smile. "Want some?"

He's speechless. (There's honey oozing slowly over the bone of Teomitl's wrist. He wants to lick it off.)

"I." He says intelligently. "Um."

Teomitl's eyes are dark and hot and hungry. He presses the comb to Acatl's mouth, and as Acatl's lips part he starts to grin. It's not careless anymore. "You deserve good things in your life, Acatl-tzin. Eat."

He eats. It’s good.

Teomitl’s mouth is better.

4 (teomitl/acatl – pour a little love into my lonely soul)

Teomitl would be the first one to insist he doesn't need people. Sure, he likes them—he has dozens of friendly acquaintances—but he can count the number of real friends he has on one hand and still have fingers left over. That's the way he likes it, he tells himself. He doesn't need to be enmeshed with other peoples' lives. It doesn't matter that he wakes with tears in his eyes and a searing ache in his chest, that he flinches away from casual touches because he craves them to a degree that frightens him.

Then he meets Acatl, who's ready and willing to take him under his wing, teach him the magic of living blood, share food and hopes and fears, put his life in Teomitl's hands and trust that he won't crush it. Acatl, who trusts him to one day lead them all to glory.

The first time Acatl pulls him into his arms—huddling for warmth on a freezing desert night outside Texcoco, with him still so shaken from the nightmare he's had that all dignity is a lost cause—he melts. And he knows, then, that here is where he belongs. That it will be this, forever, for as long as Acatl will have him.

He's not sure who initiates that first kiss, but they do stay much warmer after that.

5 (acatl/teomitl – take my hand, wreck my plans, that’s my man)

Acatl's life had been set for him. He was a priest for the Dead, and that was all he'd ever be. His life would be sacrifices and chants and funerals, a sympathetic hand to grieving families and a knife to monsters clawing their way out from the underworld. He'd never find love, never have children or know the glory of warriors, but he was content with that. He'd chosen his vocation knowing what he was giving up.

Then Teomitl smiled at him, and in a hundred different ways—

("I came for you.")

("Acatl-tzin, you don't look—")

("You'll find us a way out of this.")

("You said things as one man to another, Acatl. That won't change.")

("I'll think of something.")

—in a thousand different ways, his carefully laid plans were shattered. There were no rules anymore; there was only the song of his own beating heart, and what it said as Teomitl clasped his hand with that bold and reckless grin (and a blush, which was frankly so adorable that he wanted to pinch the man's cheeks) was yes.

6 (acatl/teomitl – beginnings are just endings in reverse)

The first time they'd stood on these temple steps together, Teomitl had been callow and impatient and almost savage in his desire to learn (to grow, to prove himself), and Acatl had felt himself pulled slowly out of sync, shaped and molded into this new world where he, the son of peasants, had an Emperor's brother for an apprentice. He'd had an apprentice once. He hadn't wanted another one, had wanted even less a chance to tie his life with another's—but Teomitl had asked, and he'd accepted. He'd never in a thousand years imagined where it would lead him.

Where it led him now, in fact, years later. Oh, Teomitl still had some patience to learn—the entire attempt to wrest the throne from his brother's grasp proved that—but he had changed more than Acatl had ever dreamed, and Acatl's feelings had changed too. (Deeper, now. Deeper, and yet brighter.)

Teomitl didn't need a teacher. That was over. The future ahead of them was a terrifying blank, dizzy with possibilities, and Acatl didn't know where it would take them.

But Teomitl was smiling at him, and he knew he wanted to find out.

7 (mihmatini, nezahual, & teomitl – high school au)

If Nezahual kept poking her between the shoulderblades with his pencil, Mihmatini was going to rip it out of his hand and shove it right in his fucking eye. He was a year younger than her and shouldn't even have been there, but he was in all advanced classes, set to graduate in a few months just like the rest of them, and never let anyone forget it for a second.

"Hey," came the hiss from behind her. "Hey."

Without turning around, she muttered, "What?"

"Your brother. Is he single?"

She didn't have to ask which brother he meant, even when Nezahual jerked his chin forward as though she could possibly miss Acatl setting up another slide on the overhead projector and launching into the next part of the lecture on pre-conquest history that they were all supposed to be taking notes on. "...Yeah. Why?"

"Oh, no reason."

And because he sat behind her, she missed him turning to where Teomitl sat in order to flash him a shit-eating grin and a thumbs'-up—but when Teomitl flipped him off in response, she had a pretty good idea why. She felt like doing the same thing; just because Teo's crush was doomed didn't mean he had to rub it in.

8 (acatl/teomitl – wingfic)

When you are loved, you grow wings. They're white when you're born, but after that...well, they can be any color. Bright red for a first lover, green for an auntie down the road who pinches your cheeks and cooks you tamales, blue for a husband. And those who are truly adored...well, they have so many feathers in so many colors that nobody can count them all.

Acatl's are a deep slate gray shading to black, with no other color—the mark of a man beloved by Lord Death, true, but by no one else. Even the pale greens and browns of his parents' regard have long since fallen out. He can't let himself miss them, but it's fine. He's fine. He doesn't need anyone else.

Then he meets Teomitl—Teomitl the warrior, Teomitl the Emperor's brother, Teomitl whose wings are the flat unrelieved brown of someone who truly has no one else to love him—and something in him shifts. Stone cracks, and the first green shoot of something living pushes its way up into the sunlight.

When his primaries are tipped with sun-gold and jade and Teomitl's coverts swirl with silver and ink-black, he knows he's not alone anymore.

9 (acatl/teomitl – plum, orange, melon, berry)

"You don't take good enough care of yourself, love."

Acatl is leaning back against Teomitl's well-muscled chest, a platter of fruit resting on his knees. They're from all over the Empire, starfruit and cherimoya and some he can't even name, and seeing them spread out for his perusal makes him feel absurdly fond. But he still has his pride, and so he elbows his lover in the rib and huffs, "I take perfectly adequate care of myself. This...this is luxury I can't possibly have done anything to deserve."

Teomitl pokes his side, just where he's ticklish. "You deserve it just by being who you are. Eat. Enjoy."

And then his hand snakes around to snatch up the freshest, juiciest-looking slice of papaya. "Or I will, if you're not hungry."

"I didn't say that!"

10 (teomitl/acatl – let’s all raise a glass)

"Are you drunk," Acatl said. He sounded scandalized. Good.

Teomitl raised his half-full gourd of pulque—pulque he definitely was not allowed to drink yet, and most certainly not in public—and grinned wickedly at him. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Come and join me, hm? I know you could use this after the day we've had."

Acatl wasn't allowed to drink either, but if spending the day with the other High Priests without killing them both with his bare hands didn't mean he deserved it, nothing would. Then again, his stubborn lover was terrible at accepting the basic fact that he ought to have the best of everything life had to offer, and before he'd started on the pulque Teomitl had come up with a whole list of reasons why he should.

He didn't need to use them. Acatl sat down next to him with a sigh, gesturing for the rest of the gourd. "...Pass it over."

11 (acatl/teomitl & mihmatini – the best day ever)

"You should name her," Mihmatini tells him. She's sweaty, exhausted, and red-faced after having labored for most of a day to bring her and Teomitl's first daughter into the world, but she's radiant.

Acatl stares at her. This is his twelfth time meeting a new niece or nephew—no, thirteenth, he's forgotten their sister Nelli had another just last week—but he can't have heard her right. Naming a child is something reserved for parents. For the father, in fact, which he most decidedly is not.

He throws a pleading look at his beloved and opinionated Teomitl, who is. And who's sitting on the now-clean bench in the steam bath watching Acatl hold his sleeping newborn as though there's nowhere else he'd rather be in the world. "You should," he says simply. "You would be a wonderful father."

He's not crying. He isn't. But he's definitely a little choked up as he looks down at the wrinkly little girl in his arms. He already knows what her name will be, in honor of the woman who died giving Teomitl life. "Welcome to the world, Huitzilxochtin."

He's still not crying, but now Teomitl's scrubbing furiously at his face with the back of a hand. "Shut up," he says at his wife's raised eyebrow. "I have had a very long twenty-four hours and this is the greatest day of my life."

"You've had a long day?!"

Mihmatini's a little too loud, and now her daughter's woken up and started wailing. It derails any more potential shouting as they all rush to calm her, but not even her fussing can erase the smile from Acatl's face.

12 (teomitl/acatl – brave, I hope, not foolish)

"You're a brave man," Acatl says, and the way he smiles lets Teomitl know the words come straight from his heart.

His own hammers so hard against his ribs he thinks it's about to escape entirely. They're all alone on the darkened steps of Acatl's temple, only the moon as witness to this encounter, and Acatl is looking at him so softly and smiling like that and oh, he prays the man is right. "Brave, I hope, not foolish."

There's a moment's sweet confusion in Acatl's face. "Why would you say that?"

Teomitl leans in, cups his cheek—watching the way his face flushes, eyes going wide and dark and oh, he could drown in them—and kisses him on the mouth.

13 (acatl & mihmatini/teomitl – “i’m the other woman”)

“And I’m the First Imperial Concubine,” Acatl mutters sarcastically.

Sarcastically, mind you, but now Mihmatini’s raised her head and is just looking at him, long and level. As he watches, one eyebrow goes up. She keeps looking.

He blinks back at her. “What?”

“Well,” she says, and grins at him.

All at once it hits him, and he wants to curl up and die from sheer embarrassment. Of course he’s known what he’s doing—it would be impossible not to, given just who his sister and his lover are as people—but it’s one thing to be intellectually aware of what that makes him in regards to their marriage and another to put words on it. He’s accepted gifts from Teomitl, broken his vow of chastity to pieces for him, tangled their hands and their hearts together. Though he doesn’t live in the palace, there’s no question that he’s accepted his essentially subordinate position in regards to the man’s primary wife, just as she’s accepted that he’s first in her husband’s heart.

“Oh gods,” he groans, voice cracking. “I am the First Imperial Concubine.”

14 (acatl/teomitl – king and lionheart)

He’s not a warrior. But there are things he can fight, and when Teomitl leads...well, what else can he do but follow?

Tizoc’s death weakens the wards again, and someone starts summoning star-demons. Acatl’s not surprised. What is surprising is how vicious they are; true, they can’t manage to enter the palace this time, but one appears in an ordinary farmer’s field and slaughters the whole family, and Teomitl of course can’t let that stand. So he takes his warriors, and Acatl takes his priests, and together they row out to the Floating Gardens—to the very same patch of land where they once fought a beast of shadows.

The star-demon sees them and strikes, meeting Teomitl and his warriors head-on in a clash of obsidian and rage. Acatl stands back, eyes narrowed and all his priest-senses flung wide. The right strike will end this. It will only take one blow. But he has to be strategic, he has to think—

Teomitl’s flung halfway across the field, bleeding heavily, and he stops thinking entirely.

He throws his knife, misses, and the demon is on him. He stabs with his other knife, and the demon falls—but he was too slow, and now pure, icy agony is spreading through him from far too deep of a wound.

Teomitl is at his side in an instant, screaming for bandages, for a healer. He makes himself smile. “Had to avenge you. Last thing I do.”

“Shut up!” Teomitl snaps. Hot tears land on Acatl’s face. “You’re not dying—I love you, you are not allowed to die—“

Darkness descends, and he knows nothing more.

(He’s very surprised to wake up. He’s less surprised when it involves Teomitl glaring at him through his tears and ordering him to never do that to him again.)

15 (acatl/teomitl – barely even friends/then somebody bends/unexpectedly)

They’re teacher and student, master and apprentice. Teomitl is prickly and proud and stubborn. Are they friends? Well, as much as you can be friends with a cactus, Acatl thinks sourly. He’s sure Teomitl must feel the same way about him; it’s not like he’s ever had much practice making or keeping friends, not with how much time and focus his vocation demands, and even if he did, they’re both too conscious of the gap in their stations. (No, he can’t lie to himself. He’s the one that’s too aware of it; Teomitl treats him as though it doesn’t matter at all, and it makes an embarrassed sort of pleasure squirm in his chest every time.)

So they’re friendly, yes, but no more than that. The walls he’s set up won’t fall down overnight.

But they erode, little by little. Teomitl’s edges polish smooth; his smiles turn sweet. Acatl smiles back and the squirming in his chest turns to warmth. Respectful distance (his) and the occasional pat on the back or hand on the arm (Teomitl’s) become gentle, lingering touches.

The first time Teomitl hugs him is a revelation, and he never wants to let go.

16 (acatl/teomitl – if your parents weren’t dead already, i’d kill them for what they did to you)

When Mihmatini mentions her parents are dead, Teomitl's first reaction is sympathy. He's an orphan too, after all, and he knows how it is.

And then she tells him more, and his second and third reactions are anger. By the time she finishes telling him how they'd reacted to Acatl becoming a priest instead of a warrior—all but throwing him out of the house, his mother unwilling to reconcile even on her deathbed, when anyone with eyes and good common sense could see that Acatl is simply the best priest for the Dead anyone could ever ask for—he's actually shaking with suppressed rage.

The next time he sees Acatl, it's all he can do not to pull him into his arms and snarl something heartfelt and useless about how much he wants to kill the man's parents all over again.

...It comes out eventually, of course, when Acatl's woken trembling on the anniversary of his father's death, and for a moment Teomitl hates himself for even voicing the thought when it can't do anything to help—but then Acatl chuckles damply and murmurs, "Sweet, but unnecessary," and he feels much more validated in his fury.

17 (acatl/teomitl – daemon au)

Itzli is just as proud and abrasive as his human is, not that Acatl expects anything else from a young black jaguar whose coat gleams like midnight fire—but where Teomitl does his very best to maintain his dignity, his daemon can never quite seem to manage the same gravitas. Itzli pouts. He flops over onto his back, showing his spotted belly. He chews on the end of his tail when he’s agitated in the same way Teomitl chews on the inside of his lip plug.

And every time he sees Acatl and Yoltzin, he purrs. Teomitl is almost incandescently embarrassed, but Acatl can’t help but soften at the knowledge that he’s appreciated. Cared for. Liked. Yoltzin licks Itzli’s ears, curls up next to the great black bulk of him, and it feels right.

When he escapes death by the skin of his teeth and Itzli nearly bowls him over in relief, dragging his rough pink tongue across his face and making Teomitl gasp behind him, that feels right too.

18 (teomitl/acatl– you are worth the work it takes to love you)

“I’m surprised you’re here,” Teomitl mutters, and hates the way his voice cracks and his eyes sting. They’ve had another fight, one where his pride and Acatl’s bluntness had collided in spectacular devastation, and he’d stormed off in a huff. He knows it’s his fault again, knows he should apologize, but the words are stuck in his throat and won’t come out. I’m sorry, I’m sorry—he says that a lot, says that too much, is always being too sharp and too rough and soon Acatl has to get fed up with him and just decide they’re too different to keep—

Cool, dry hands enfold his, and he meets Acatl’s calm and serious eyes. “Where else could I be?”

“With your priests,” he spits out. “With your temple. With someone easy to love, someone who’s not so...so…” Someone who’s not far too much like his namesake, he thinks, and remembers the ahuitzotls. They bite too.

“...So much work?” Like all he’s doing is stating a fact and not ripping the heart from Teomitl’s chest. At his stiff nod, Acatl’s grip tightens. “Teomitl. When have I ever shied away from hard work, when the reward is so great?”

He sucks in a breath. “Acatl,” he begins, “I’m sorry—“

Acatl kisses him. You don’t have to apologize, says that kiss. You are work, says that kiss, but it’s work I take on gladly, because I love you.

He does cry a little, but they’re tears of joy.

19 (teomitl & acatl – bloody fluff)

After their lessons and the necessary bloodletting, Acatl always bandaged his wounds. It wasn’t necessary—he was a warrior, he knew his way around the results of sharp knives on thin skin—but Acatl insisted, and he...well. Sometimes it was nice to be taken care of, to have Acatl gently press herb poultices on his cuts and wrap the wounds so that all he had to do was occasionally hold a knot in place while his teacher tied it off. And it let them talk—about what Teomitl had just learned, and about other things.

Today it was one of the ‘other things.’ “You never even played ball in the calmecac? Really?”

Acatl snorted and sponged away a bit more blood. “Peasant’s son, remember? They would never have let me.”

He made a face. True, the game could be rough, and he hated the idea of Acatl risking himself, but it was also fun. Acatl deserved fun in his life. “There’s going to be a small match next week—my cousins are setting it up. You should come watch!” Then he thought he’d probably been a bit too eager, and added, “If you’re free.”

“Will you be playing?”

He hadn’t planned on it, but...he flexed his injured arm. Yes, it would be healed by then, and he’d be able to put on a proper showing. He nodded. “Mm.”

Acatl smiled at him. “Then I’ll come.”

20 (acatl/teomitl – competence kink)

If it was regular magic, Teomitl could help—if nothing else, he would gladly pour all his power into whatever spell Acatl cast, letting it blaze until the blood and light illuminated an approving glint in Acatl’s eyes. But the monster that the Tlaxcalans had torn a hole in the world to summon could only be banished by the High Priest of the Dead, and even though he’d been able to help set the ritual up—clearing the room, fetching the sacrifices—he was firmly dissuaded from attempting to take on some of the burden of channeling all that power. Ezamahual had had the nerve to comment that “it’s alright, Teomitl-tzin, we aren’t even allowed to help,” and he’d fought the urge to snarl at him. You’re his priests, he’d wanted to say, but I’m the one that loves him. So instead of doing anything actually useful, he stood on the sidelines and seethed.

And then Acatl begun his chant, and all he could do was stare.

He’d seen Acatl perform devastating feats of magic plenty of times. He’d known, intellectually, that this was the man’s element. But knowing and seeing were two different things; Acatl’s skin was black glass, his bones moonlight on water, his flesh smoke, his hair a cloud of midnight. There was blood up to his elbows. He’d never looked more untouchable, cold and remote as the moon above. He’d never looked more beautiful.

Finally, after an eternity, the spell was over, and even Teomitl felt the snap in the air as the world mended. Acatl wasn’t even breathing hard as the color rushed into his face, but his eyes still looked a little lost. “...It’s done.”

“Acatl.” He swallowed roughly. Wreck me, came the breathless thought. Sate yourself in me until you know you’re alive again.

And now Acatl was looking concerned. “Maybe you should have waited outside—”

“No.” The spell was over. It was safe to cross the circle. There was nothing stopping him from striding over and pulling Acatl down into a hard, messy kiss.

So he did.

21 (acatl/teomitl – not an end, but the start of all things that are left to do)

Tonight, he is burying Tizoc. The man, unworthy as he was to be Emperor, should have died long ago; as it was, his death took years, and Acatl confirmed it with a certain amount of joy. No longer will he and Teomitl have to skulk in the shadows, fearing his wrath and hatred. He can walk with silver and jade in his hair and on his sandals, and when Teomitl smiles at him in public he can smile back. Within a week, his beloved will be crowned, and he will lead them all to glory.

But tonight, he looks at the shrunken corpse of the man he hated beyond words when he'd been alive and takes a long, deep breath. Tizoc's body has already been bathed and wrapped, with jade piercing his lips and every inch of his cotton shroud covered over with magic to keep him safe on his one-way journey to the underworld, but there's one last thing Acatl has to do.

He sacrifices to Mictlantecuhtli and begins the funeral prayers he knows by heart. This time, Tizoc is damn well going to stay dead.

22 (teomitl/acatl – forehead kisses)

He woke with flailing limbs and a strangled scream, and from Acatl’s grunt he knew he’d hit him at least once. It instantly made him feel worse, even though it was hard to feel anything through the residual flood of grief and terror that had swamped his nightmares. He should say something—he should apologize—but it was all he could do to keep his eyes shut and focus on his breathing.

“Teomitl?” His lover wasn’t quite panicked, but there was a definite edge of concern in his voice.

He took one deep breath. Another. Another. One night. I couldn’t even have a single night by his side. And he’d felt so safe when he’d fallen asleep, secure in the knowledge that Acatl cared for him. “Sorry,” he managed shakily. “I—nightmare.” It was one of the bad ones, too—the one where he held out his heart and his convictions, begged Acatl to accept them, and the man spat on them and turned away. Even knowing that it was a dream, that the real thing was stroking his back soothingly, didn’t help much.

Acatl was still looking at him cautiously. “...Do you want to talk about it?”

He didn’t. But if he kept it to himself the way he’d once kept much more important things, it would only fester. He was sick of letting that happen. So he took another breath, stared at his own lap in the darkness, and whispered, “You turned away from me. Forever.”

Acatl made a sound and cupped his face in his hands, turning him so that Teomitl had to look at him. He closed his eyes again, unable to bear whatever expression was on his face, but he felt it with a liquid rush of warmth when soft lips pressed to his forehead. “I would never do that.” Another kiss, this time to his nose. “I’ve made my decision, haven’t I? You were there. You know I’m yours, and you are mine.”

Yes, he thought breathlessly. Yours.

When Acatl kissed his mouth, he melted into it.

#obsidian and blood #acatl #teomitl #teocatl #mihmatini #paladin writes stuff

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