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daydreaming-nerd · 3 months

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Hey, I saw that you are writing to Rhys and I have been asking, I just ask that you be patient because I don't know how to explain it very well

Anyway, would you like a fic, like, with two scenarios? where Rhys and the reader LITERALLY love each other with the same intensity? like, a scenario where Rhys defends and protects the reader, and another where the reader defends and protects him?

Thanks!

Unconditionally (Rhysand x Female! Reader)

Summary: you and Rhysand are fiercely protective of each other no matter what the situation is.

AN: I hope this is kinda what you were looking for!

Warnings: fluff, mentions of abuse, Amarantha sighting (brotha ew), blood, death, mentions of rape, SA.

When I found the High Lord of the Night Court I was nothing but a weapon crafted and created from birth by Keir. Chosen for my impeccable beauty, Keir had molded me to be an assassin that could rival Azirel himself. Keir had long sought to own the entirety of the Night Court and he had every intention of using me to do it. My beauty allowed me to seduce any man within an inch of his life. But my sleight of hand and dexterity made me nearly lethal. When Keir wasn’t using me I was locked away deep within the Hewn City, forced to train with men who were much bigger and stronger than me. Oftentimes I thought to run, escape, but I was always beaten into submission.

The night I met Rhys was the mission I had been bred to complete for many years. I walked into Rita’s dressed to the nines and blended in perfectly. The second the devilishly handsome High Lord made to leave I followed him, waiting in the shadows until it was my time to strike, the second I got the blade under his neck he winnowed out from under me and returned the favor with a blade of his own. I’ll never forget his first words to me...

“Now what’s a pretty thing like you doing with such a dangerous weapon?” he drawled.

He could've killed me that night, but he didn’t, he showed me mercy and maybe pity too. It turned out he knew much more of me than Keir thought he did. He saw how scared I was offered me sanctuary. At the time I didn’t have a clue who he was to me, but looking back, I think he knew all along. Through months of getting to know each other despite my fear of him at first, we grew to like each other. Soon we grew to have witty banter that kept me on my toes, and intelligent conversation about anything and everything that would surpass the long hours after dinner. After a few months he started sending me on missions with Azriel, and eventually after a year or so he sent me on missions of my own, his way of saying he trusted me.

One fateful mission I was sent on to an Illiryan camp left me battered and bruised. It seemed the Illyrian generals sought to teach me what happens when a woman comes into their camp and causes problems, even if it is at the request of their High Lord. I never would’ve made it home if Cassain hadn’t found my frozen body in the ditch they had left me in. Looking back I was almost thankful for the event, it was how Rhys and I realized we were mates. Ever since then we had been truly inseparable.

“Rhysand, I won’t ask nicely again,” purred that clearly female voice.

Amarantha had been after Rhys since he escaped from under the mountain, but I had never seen her in the flesh. She would send letters and emissaries asking for Rhysand to be her whore, promising him riches and luxuries beyond his wildest beliefs. Yet now she stood in the townhouse, auburn hair cascading down her bare shoulders, her black off the shoulder dress squeezing her tightly. How she got here? I don’t know, but I do know that from where I sat in the shadows she wouldn’t see me drive a knife through her skull.

“Amarantha, I'm a mated male. The answer is no,” Rhysand drawled trying to keep up appearances, but down the bond I could feel a sense of fear.

“She can watch if she likes,” Amarantha mused, and it was my last straw.

I snuck up behind her with the stealth and dexterity that had been bred into me from a young age. I hardly needed to use it anymore, being Rhysand’s mate gave me ample immunity across Prythian. But god if there was ever a time. I press my dagger to Amarantha’s throat and I feel her body try to move but she's far too late.

“Sorry Amarantha I don’t like to share,” I growl, pressing the edge of the blade even deeper.

“Did I mention that my mate is lethal?” Rhysand boasts with pride.

“I’m s-sorry,” she pleads and a tear falls on my black dagger.

“Now mate,” Rhysand smirks. “We wouldn’t want to get blood on the new rug.”

I roll my eyes at his snarky remark. It was little comments and that effortless swagger that had made me fall in love with him in the first place.

“Beg,” I utter in her ear. My voice filled with absolute authority.

“P-please I’ll leave. I-I’ll never come back,” she says through her sobs.

I yank her hair back further, “Why should I let you go?” I smirk.

“Because I’m s-sorry. I-I’m so sorry.” she cries even harder.

“Sorry for what?” I ask condescendingly.

“For what I d-did to R-Rhysand,” she says, like she’s too afraid to reveal the whole truth.

I felt Rhysand tense through the bond but it only made me see red even more, knowing that her presence still affected him.

“What did you do to my mate?” I ask like I don’t already know the answer. She stays silent, choosing to cower. “Tell me!” I shout.

“I’m sorry I f-forced him into my b-bed.” she admits and her knees go weak at her admission the only thing keeping her up is my hand in her hair and my dagger to her neck.

I couldn’t help but see the image of him and her. Rhysand helpless below her as she rode his cock, the reason he still was too scared to let me take him that way. Images of him cumming inside her, his body's natural reaction to what she was forcing him to do. I remember how he told me the stories of him crying himself to sleep while she slept soundly and happily.

“You touched my mate, and for that you’ll pay the ultimate price,” I sentence her. “He’s fucking mine.” I growl before slitting her throat.

Her body falls to the floor in a heaping pile of dress skirts and her own blood and I toss my bloodied dagger over her dead body. I check my hands for blood, but like a trained assassin should have it, not a drop is on me.

“Well so much for the rug,” Rhysand drawls, standing from his chair.

I walk over to him, the rage the mating bond caused me to see drifting away at the sight of him. He wraps his arms around my waist.

“I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “But she was a dead woman the second she stepped in this court. Thinking about what she did to you still makes me sick to my stomach.”

“Shhh,” Rhys coos, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’m not mad at you. If you didn’t kill her I was going to.”

“Sorry I kind went all deadly assassin on you, but-”

“The mating bond was provoked,” he cuts in, tipping my chin up to meet his gaze. “Trust me I know the feeling. How do you think I feel when you come home injured from a mission?”

“Holy shit y/n!” Cassian drawls from behind me. I turn to find him nudging Amarantha’s limp foot with his boot. “Mating bond chafing a bit?” he chuckles.

“More than a little bit,” Rhys laughs with male pride.

I simply raise my eyebrows at the Illyrian in a challenge and pull Rhys down to kiss me.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Rhys asks me for the millionth time.

“Yes Rhys I’ll be fine! I promise!” I reply but I wasn’t too sure of my answer.

I had never been back to The Hewn City since I left on that mission to kill Rhys all those years ago. But today I finally made my return. I had avoided the city as much as possible and Rhys never so much as asked me to come along with him. Returning would mean the torture, the assault and every nightmare I faced here, I would have to face again. Today I had decided I was done hiding, I wanted to face my fear, show Keir that I was more than just what he made me. I knew I would be more vulnerable down here, most likely off my game. But Rhys had assured me we would only be making a quick appearance at the party and then leaving, so I felt now was as good a time as ever.

“Alight, but if you want to leave at any time you let me know okay?” he says, kissing my brow.

“I will,” I smile.

We walk through the large doors to find the people of The Hewn City already kneeling. The second I come into view their gasps reverberate throughout the room. Everyone knew I was Keir’s pet, but now I stood dressed in black with a crown atop my head, beside the one man I was bred to kill. The High Lord.

We take our seats on the twin thrones at the end of the room. Keir bows to us both and I don’t miss the shock in his eyes as he sees what became of his pet. It becomes clear to me that he thought I was dead for all these years, and now I walk into his city once more with a crown on top of my head.

“Let there be music and dancing!” Rhys proclaims and the room fills with a beautiful orchestra as the festivities begin.

“Welcome Rhysand, who have you brought with you tonight?” Keir asks, faking his innocence.

“My mate of course,” Rhys says, pressing a kiss to my hand. “I must thank you for introducing us. She is without a doubt the most delectable creature I’ve ever known.” he continues nibbling my palm.

“I- uh. Well” Keir stumbles over his words.

“Leave us,” Rhysand orders.

Keir scrambles down the steps to wherever he thinks he might be safe from Rhysand’s death stare. I knew this place always put him on edge, no doubt with me here tonight he was fuming.

“How are you feeling?” Rhys asks, fondling my hand.

“Good, considering I’ve never seen Keir show true fear before,” I laugh replaying the image in my head.

“Maybe next time I’ll have him juggle and sing you a song then too mate,” Rhys chuckles.

I watched as people danced and sang and were generally happy. I never knew this side of the Hewn City. The normal side I should say. Keir always kept me locked in the dungeons, the only time I was ever allowed out was on missions and when he chose to parade me around like his little pet. His way of striking fear into the hearts of his subjects. Seeing the people act like, well, people was almost jarring. They were monsters, but they were still fae just like me.

“I’m thirsty darling, I'm going to grab a glass of wine, would you like one?” I ask Rhys.

“Yes but let me fetch a servant or come with you.” he replies and I can sense his unease.

“No, I want to show them all I’m not afraid of them,” I say quietly so only Rhys can hear. He nods his head and I feel him tug on the bond as if to say ‘be safe’.

I waltz down the dias steps and over to the corner where wine is held in large barrels. I don’t miss the shocked looks from those around me followed by hushed whispers. No doubt all of them were talking about how I used to be Keir’s pet. I keep my head held high and reach for a glass to fill up.

“Well hello beautiful,” a deep voice drawls from behind me and I whip around

My shoulders tense up. I would recognize that voice anywhere. Dante. The man who helped to “train me” in the art of seduction. He would come into my cell and teach me how to seduce a man, which of course led to him taking advantage of me. He was one of Keir’s favorites.

“Remember all the fun we used to have little one?” he grins wickedly stepping towards me.

“Normal people would call that rape,” I snipe at him, trying to act like I’m not terrified.

“Oh but you used to make such pretty sounds for me,” he teases, stepping closer and I feel my back hit the wall. “Lets see if you still do.”

In a second his body presses me to the wall and his hands are hiking up my skirts. I try to push him off or look for help, but here in the Hewn City it wasn’t uncommon for males to take what they want when they want it.

Dante’s motions stop and his eyes go wide, like his brain is about to explode. He falls to his knees before me and every vein in his head and neck look like it’s about to burst. I look up to see Rhys standing behind him, nothing but pure murder in his eyes.

“I would think twice before touching another male’s mate,” Rhys grits out standing in front of me so he can look down on Dante. “Especially your High Lord’s.”

“I’m sorry Rhysand I didn’t know,” Dante wheezes.

“Have you touched my mate before?” Rhys asks and Dante neglects to answer. “Very well then I’ll just have to find out for myself.”

Dante screams in agony writhing on the floor, Rhys no doubt tearing into his mind to find out what he wants to know. I look around at the stunned faces watching one of their own lose his mind in the middle of the ballroom, even the orchestra had stopped. I felt shame fall over me as I realized what Rhys was seeing. Images of me, dirty, bruised and helpless being forced to seduce and please the man writing on the ground. Rhysand’s shoulders tensed and suddenly Dante stopped writhing.

“So you have touched her before,” Rhysand drawls. “What a pity, I almost considered letting you off with a warning.”

Within moments Dante’s screams echoed off the walls and I knew what Rhys was doing, he had done it to the Illyrain who threw me in a ditch all those years ago. He was melting his mind from the inside out. He didn’t even have to lift a finger.

“Let it be known that whoever disrespects my mate again shall meet the same fate!” Rhysand’s voice booms, addressing the crowd now. “Maestro you may continue!” he finishes, turning to me.

Rhysand’s shadows shield us from the rest of the onlooking crowd and the second I look into his eyes I’m immediately comforted.

“Are you okay?” he asks me, taking me in his arms.

“Yeah I’m fine, you got here before anything happened.” I sigh, melting into his touch. “I’m sorry you had to see that, you know, the things he did to me. I hoped you’d never know” I say, casting my head down in shame.

“Hey don’t you dare be ashamed,” he says tilting my chin up. “What he did to you was unforgivable. If I had known earlier I would’ve had his head on a pike.”

“I love you Rhys,” I say, burrowing my head into his chest.

“I love you too mate,” he smiles stroking my hair. “Let’s go home.”

#rhys acotar #rhysand #rhysand x reader #rhysand angst #rhysand fluff #rhysand x reader smut #rhysand smut #rhysand acotar

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welldonekhushi · 7 months

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Okay guys, I'm back and.. I needed a short break after what happened in the MWIII campaign. Words can't express how shocked I was when I reached the end of the campaign and.. it left me in confusion, denial, depression and anger.

I'm putting a "read more" below because, if there are people who still haven't played MWIII, I'll keep ya guys safe.

Our theories before were constantly revolving that who's gonna die and what worse is going to happen.. it first pointed towards the fate of Price or Gaz. But, turns out we were jinxed. JINXED.

The campaign was.. okay but at the same time I felt it was small. Quite rushed. I did have a light of concern over their release date when MWII was currently trending. I was reading others reviews of how they felt about the game and yes, I agree with the same. But I wanna talk about Soap's fate this time..

Soap, who JUST started his journey, like, the one who only appeared in MWII and hoped we would see him more develop in the further games to be just.. killed off? When were they moments away from achieving victory?

So only because it's called MW3 ✌🏻 and you wanted to give us all a nostalgic experience you'll.. give them the original plot treatment? Both Soaps in the Modern Warfare universes.. died under the hands of Vladimir Makarov but in different circumstances.

This is where I got a bit angry at Price because, why didn't you kill Makarov instead of taking him in custody in Verdansk?! That guy is a walking grim reaper, and if Price took that action before, not just Soap but MANY more lives would have been saved. Soap was a man who was ready to take immediate action but always got backed off because of being bound to orders.

The end scene when they took out his ashes.. it broke me. Like, how unexpected this can be? Well, though I know Makarov already gave a warning that he was going to kill him off in the heli scene, but.. it's just not it? Like, honestly, I was hopeful Soap would survive.. it's disappointing for me, as someone who loves him so much, like anything.

So ScarSoap's now an angsty ship? Because let it be for both universes — OG and Reboot, Scarlet's going to be left behind? Welp, I'm more sad now, lol.

Otherwise, the expectations I had for the campaign were somehow, not met to the fullest but let's talk about the good things.

Price killing off Shepherd. YES, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I freaking knew that he was going to die and my prediction called itself right. But, now that Price killed a 4-star General, he's gonna go rogue. You mean, batshit, crazy and unhinged Price on the move?!

Julian Kostov. The man. Bro, like, when he was featured in the reveal trailer, I was just hoping that he'd play the role of Makarov well and guess what? He did! I absolutely loved how he portrayed the man and he looked intimidating and twisted like a true psychopath. Truly, he could compete with the OG!Makarov and it's proven! Hats off to the actor, really <3

Price DOESN'T die. Neither in my beliefs, Farah and Alex. A relief. A pure relief, for real. The trailers showed him passing out but glad he's good in one piece. But, did that happen for the cost of killing Soap? :')

Graves and Shepherd betray each other in the conference, LMFAO! Who knew they were going to turn their backs on each other. Graves really had nothing to do with this, he was just a man following orders.. the problem lies with Shepherd, and always has.

Now, these guys said we're gonna release the "full campaign" on November 10. You mean.. the early access didn't show much of the story? So there's hope? OR NOT? Sigh, I don't want to think about it.. I just don't. I've been delulu, haha

Anyways, these are my thoughts for Modern Warfare III! What do you feel about it, let me know in the comments!

#mw3 spoilers #cod #call of duty #cod mw #call of duty modern warfare #cod mw23 #call of duty modern warfare 2023 #call of duty modern warfare iii #call of duty modern warfare 3

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wordsinhaled · 1 month

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a little snippet of the one where merlin never ends up at camelot and goes off to live alone in the woods instead. he and gwaine meet by chance anyway, and honestly your honor, i don't know what to tell you—they've got it bad. i can't help it, i just feel like they need their own romance novel plot

Truthfully, Merlin had not expected to see Gwaine again, and certainly not so soon since they'd last parted.

Gwaine was not the sort of person who would linger—Merlin could sense wanderlust in a man, just as he could see into the secret, labyrinthine lives of animals or plants or sense the paths of the faraway stars. And Merlin himself was not someone people wanted to tarry long with, generally speaking. Perhaps it was his gold-glimmering irises, which they had chalked up to a ploy of the torchlight one too many times for their own comfort. He had a way about him. A way of scaring folk off.

And yet... not so with Gwaine, it seemed. For here he stood once more at Merlin's door, like a trick of the night. His crooked smile caught Merlin's heart sidewise and held fast.

It was as though he'd never left.

"Come in out of the rain," Merlin told him, at the same time as Gwaine said, "I couldn't stop thinking about you."

"I'd bet you try that on every man whose home you happen upon in a storm," Merlin said, but a grin tugged at the corner of his mouth nevertheless.

"Only when it's true," Gwaine countered, one part contrite to three parts earnest. That was one of Gwaine's gifts.

Merlin busied himself with banking the fire to keep from staring. He didn't need to, after all; Gwaine's presence was a tangible thing, it filled the little room, pressed all the air out of it and Merlin's lungs both. It would have taken half a thought to add more kindling with magic. Instead Merlin did the task by hand, because his errant fingers itched to reach for Gwaine. To unfold him like a weathered map there before the hearth, and learn where he'd been journeying, and take his cares from him.

After weeks of customary solitude, Merlin found it jarringly easy to slip back into what was there between the two of them: the banter, the laughter, the warmth. The feeling that Gwaine caused to well up from the untapped depths of him, no less fierce for being syrup-slow and sun-bright. Merlin tried not to name it love, because his fate had spoken of many things and never made mention of this.

Maybe, he thought, when he allowed himself to muse on it—maybe destiny was fallible, after all. For how could it grasp such a one as Gwaine?

#bbc merlin #merwaine #it's loooove. sorry merlin it just is #in my mind in this verse merlin is a bit jaded. a bit hardened by loneliness. and gwaine just gets through all of that like it's snowmelt #fuck him on the cottage floor saturday?#lmaooo

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nostalgebraist · 1 year

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@oakfern replied to your post “it's going to be fun to watch the realization...”:

i feel like this is going to play out very similarly to voice assistants. there was a huge boom in ASR research, the products got a lot of hype, and they actually sold decently (at least alexa did). but 10 years on, they've been a massive failure, costing way more than they ever made back. even if ppl do think chatbot search engines are exciting and cool, it's not going to bring in more users or sell more products, and in the end it will just be a financial loss

(Responding to this a week late)

I don't know much about the history of voice assistants. Are there any articles you recommend on the topic? Sounds interesting.

ETA: Iater, I found and read this article from Nov 2022, which reports that Alexa and co. still can't turn a profit after many years of trying.

But anyway, yeah... this is why I don't have a strong sense of how widespread/popular these "generative AI" products will be a year or two from now. Or even five years from now.

(Ten years from now? Maybe we can trust the verdict will be in at that point... but the tech landscape of 2033 is going to be so different from ours that the question "did 'generative AI' take off or not?" will no doubt sound quaint and irrelevant.)

Remember when self-driving cars were supposed to be right around the corner? Lots of people took this imminent self-driving future seriously.

And I looked at it, and thought "I don't get it, this problem seems way harder than people are giving it credit for. And these companies show no signs of having discovered some clever proprietary way forward." If people asked me about it, that's what I would say.

But even if I was sure that self-driving cars wouldn't arrive on schedule, that didn't give me much insight into the fate of "self-driving cars," the tech sector meme. It wasn't like there was some specific deadline, and when we crossed it everyone was going to look up and say "oh, I guess that didn't work, time to stop investing."

The influx of capital -- and everything downstream from it, the trusting news stories, the prominence of the "self-driving car future" in the public mind, the seriousness which it was talked about -- these things went on, heedless of anything except their own mysterious internal logic.

They went on until . . . what? The pandemic, probably? I actually still don't know.

Something definitely happened:

In 2018 analysts put the market value of Waymo LLC, then a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., at $175 billion. Its most recent funding round gave the company an estimated valuation of $30 billion, roughly the same as Cruise. Aurora Innovation Inc., a startup co-founded by Chris Urmson, Google’s former autonomous-vehicle chief, has lost more than 85% since last year [i.e. 2021] and is now worth less than $3 billion. This September a leaked memo from Urmson summed up Aurora’s cash-flow struggles and suggested it might have to sell out to a larger company. Many of the industry’s most promising efforts have met the same fate in recent years, including Drive.ai, Voyage, Zoox, and Uber’s self-driving division. “Long term, I think we will have autonomous vehicles that you and I can buy,” says Mike Ramsey, an analyst at market researcher Gartner Inc. “But we’re going to be old.”

Whatever killed the "self-driving car" meme, though, it wasn't some newly definitive article of proof that the underlying ideas were flawed. The ideas never made sense in the first place. The phenomenon was not really about the ideas making sense.

Some investors -- with enough capital, between them, to exert noticable distortionary effects on entire business sectors -- decided that "self-driving cars" were, like, A Thing now. And so they were, for a number of years. Huge numbers of people worked very hard trying to make "self-driving cars" into a viable product. They were paid very well to do. Talent was diverted away from other projects, en masse, into this effort. This went on as long as the investors felt like sustaining it, and they were in no danger of running out of money.

Often the "tech sector" feels less like a product of free-market incentives than it does like a massive, weird, and opaque public works product, orchestrated by eccentrics like Masayoshi Son, and ultimately organized according to the aesthetic proclivities and changing moods of its architects, not for the purpose of "doing business" in the conventional sense.

Gig economy delivery apps (Uber Eats, Doordash, etc.) have been ubiquitous for years, and have reported huge losses in every one of those years.

This entertaining post from 2020 about "pizza arbitrage" asks:

Which brings us to the question - what is the point of all this? These platforms are all losing money. Just think of all the meetings and lines of code and phone calls to make all of these nefarious things happen which just continue to bleed money. Why go through all this trouble?

Grubhub just lost $33 million on $360 million of revenue in Q1.

Doordash reportedly lost an insane $450 million off $900 million in revenue in 2019 (which does make me wonder if my dream of a decentralized network of pizza arbitrageurs does exist).

Uber Eats is Uber's "most profitable division” 😂😂. Uber Eats lost $461 million in Q4 2019 off of revenue of $734 million. Sometimes I need to write this out to remind myself. Uber Eats spent $1.2 billion to make $734 million. In one quarter.

And now, in February 2023?

DoorDash's total orders grew 27% to 467 million in the fourth quarter. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of 459 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Fourth quarter revenue jumped 40% to $1.82 billion, also ahead of analysts’ forecast of $1.77 billion.

But profits remain elusive for the 10-year-old company. DoorDash said its net loss widened to $640 million, or $1.65 per share, in the fourth quarter as it expanded into new categories and integrated Wolt into its operations.

Do their investors really believe these companies are going somewhere, and just taking their time to get there? Or is this more like a subsidy? The lost money (a predictable loss in the long term) merely the price paid for a desired good -- for an intoxicating exercise of godlike power, for the chance to reshape reality to one's whims on a large scale -- collapsing the usual boundary between self and outside, dream and reality? "The gig economy is A Thing, now," you say, and wave your hand -- and so it is.

Some people would pay a lot of money to be a god, I would think.

Anyway, "generative AI" is A Thing now. It wasn't A Thing a year ago, but now it is. How long will it remain one? The best I can say is: as long as the gods are feeling it.

#oakfern #ai tag

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yahoodarling · 5 months

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Ayato/Thoma x SelfAware Gn Reader part 1 6.5k words

General warnings (not all themes are present in this post): yandere themes, mentions of suicide(in theory and enacted) and major spoilers for Inazumas quest line including character stories.

Author note here: I understand the narrative style of this fic is going to be a little bit different than usual. This fic highlights a lot of internal thoughts and justifications so the description of things isn't as ‘fluid’ as normal. I hope you enjoy it anyway. I want to post this as a ‘teaser’ of sorts but mainly to see how it gets received. The next update would be the completed fic. I see it potentially reaching 17/20k words but if people don't like the style then i'll just have to see.

It's disgusting. It is discomfort incarnate to have such foresight into the fate of the world and yet be bound to its own laws of destiny, especially when what you were sure was to take place is altered. You no longer have any ground of understanding except the uncanny feeling that things are not as they should be, to be so similar and yet be so changed. You knew things will end up alright, as long as you do not interfere then Inazumas political warfare will reach a peaceful end and it did. You watched, noted those ‘special’ to the world, those who have a story, a life, a reason and you took the responsibility of not getting involved and it worked. You became an npc, avoided any confrontation with those deemed ‘special’, avoided any influence in the ‘plot’, watched as a hero came, a nation saved and a people newly united. It worked. Your foresight was correct yet… things changed. With no base to rely on, how were you to know what the ‘future’ must be, how were you to know what to avoid, who to avoid and what minor choice may change a future?

The hero has left, gone to Sumeru you guess, no, you know, you know the hero leaves for a new nation but so has your foresight and with that comes the change.

The one day gathering supplies, one day speaking to a fellow npc to fill some sort of social need, one day being in the ‘dark’ and you've caused a spark.

“Oh Aoi, good morning to you!”

He didn't speak to you, it was directed to the npc shopkeep you were chatting with and yet it grabbed your attention. Thoma is ‘special’, Thoma is relevant and so he must be avoided and you failed.

Thoma spoke of how lovely the nights have been, of the soft whistles of sea, even to npcs Thoma was a gentleman starting conversation. He then noted how ‘unique’ your eyes are, a depth to them hes never seen before. That comment frightened you, made you rush to leave, to stop the change. Quickly you felt a hand on your shoulder,

“Please excuse my rudeness but how about we have a stroll? I know its unfair of me to ask a stranger such a thing but… you remind me of a home away from home, if you would grant me such a pleasure that is.” he ended with a chuckle.

You have been so realistic up to this point, so good at avoiding ‘change’ but you have a heart and knew all too well that whatever feeling Thoma is experiencing is something important to him. You have a heart and so you accept.

A single light hearted stroll became a weekly meet at the shop front, ‘coincidentally’, which became a personal relationship which became a friend. It's alright though, Thomas is a social guy, he's close with many npcs who never impacted the ‘plot’, you can be one such npc, that's fine. Change is fine.

It's not fine. Meeting with Thoma you eventually met with other ‘special’ individuals you knew by name before they even knew of your existence. It's a weird feeling to know a person before getting to meet them, all the private details, their worries, their joys and yet to remain oblivious.

“A formal greeting from the Kamisato Clan, I am glad to see Thoma has a new friend. Do treat him well, sadly I must make short of this meet.” and the man who is most likely the most influential to whatever ‘plot’ is to come of Inazuma greeted. Kamisato Ayato was amongst your top ‘DO NOT ENGAGE’ list other than the archon herself and yet somehow naive bliss and a VERY convincing plea(almost suspiciously good) from Thoma to have lunch by the beaches near the residence of the Kamisato Clan lead you right into his ‘life’.

You have no ‘life’, you are meant to have no ‘life’, no value or effect and yet by each interaction with those deemed ‘special’ by the world your plans crumble.

Ayato then promptly bowed and walked out the residents gate, a body guard joining him as he started his track along the path you had just taken towards the city.

“ah right, he has that meeting. A pity, if his schedule was more open id have asked for him to join us.” Thoma turned to you with a quick hesitant smile, “he's really not as imposing as you may think he is. ah well… maybe he still is but just in a different way then what the people expect. If you'd like, maybe I could let you know when my lord and I are doing something casual, if you would be comfortable with that of course. I forget just how intimidating the idea of being casual with a clan lord can be to someone who doesn't know him as well as I do.”

“Thank you for the offer Thoma but i'd like it if we just kept it the two of us. You are right, the idea is a little frightening right now.”

You knew what Thoma meant by all that, he means that Ayato is a genuine person underneath his political mask. Ayato is a brother, a friend and a man caring for those deemed under his protection and to those lucky enough to see under his mask they may be met with the unlucky fate of becoming a target to his mischievous nature.

Still, the idea of getting involved with someone so influential is nauseating even if just for something ‘casual' as Thoma has in mind. In truth you shouldn't even be here, here near the Kamisato Clan, here near someone like Thoma, here in Teyvat in the first place. You shouldn't be here.

“I see, that's expected haha.” Thoma smiled at you wildly, reaffirmed at the idea of something going on in his mind (if only knowing what said idea was was as easy as opening a character profile and reading a line directly out of his thoughts) “Well we are still here for a good time. Let me get that blanket and pillows for the beach quickly. You are going to love it!” Thoma quickly skipped into the yard of the clans walls while you waited outside and watched as the npcs you recognized pattered around the area.

That one person at the commission board, you had forgotten his name by now after fulfilling Inazumas reputation months ago. There was the old lady sweeping in the yard, what did she comment on again? … … it never came to you, it was all forgetful anyway.

A sudden feeling of envy hit you. They were forgetful, oh how lovely that would be to ease your nerves. To know that each day the sun rises you can follow your coded script without fear of altering the fate of the very universe by the time the sun goes down. Wow, you've messed up haha.

Thoma returned quickly as promised, a blanket and two pillows clutched under one arm as a basket was held in another but probably most heavy of all was the giant smile on his face, wrinkling his cheeks with a sense of genuine happiness. No wonder you messed up, it would be impossible to say no to him. It's all his fault and yet you felt you could never put the blame on him.

“Well, sorry to have starved you of your lunch for so long, we are nearly there and I can't wait to see your reaction.” Thoma then lead you through a short path of the surrounding forest and down towards the beach.

Perhaps your recollection of the game isn't accurate, you could have sworn a group of enemies should be nearby the beach here but all along the coast line was just gentle laps of the waves apon white sand. Thoma layed out the blanket with little worries evident on his face, he placed both pillows down then removed his shoes, each unclad foot stepping on the blanket to avoid spreading sand all over it, you promptly did the same, sitting down and placing the basket you had down next to his.

“This place is lovely at any time of the day but especially during sunset, I would have asked for you to join then but I feared it would make things inconvenient for you but still, spending the afternoon here is just lovely nonetheless.” he criss crossed his legs and then beamed at you.

“Come on then, don't keep me waiting, i'm dying to try out one of your baked goods.”

Right. One of the first things you did when you realized you were now living in the game was (panic, cry, internally scream in confusion as to how this has happened and if your world will keep on going and you aren't in it) actually to set up an identity for yourself. Running around and claiming to have come from another world and how you somehow know very personal details of select people and the future fate of the nation would lead to either your banishment or a future altered and possibly worse where peace was not founded, the resistance killed off and the entire plot of the ‘game’ thrown off. Not a good idea. Instead you tried to incorporate yourself into the ‘npc lifestyle’ as quickly as possible. You came up with a backstory that befit this world, you are a failed Sumeru scholar who has come to Inazuma to lead a new simple life outside of your failures. (In truth you stole inspiration for the backstory from some npc you think was on Sangonomiya Island.) It makes sense, people you tell won't ask you more about your past details in fear of being insensitive and Sumeru scholars are sometimes brought to Inazuma. You explained your (fake) predicament to a shop vendor who referenced you to the local baker who took you on. Now you bake goods behind the walls, don't face any customers and have a very npc-like backstory and job. You set yourself up well which was helped by all the knowledge you have of this world. Too bad you messed up all that work and are sat in front of someone ‘special’. Maybe you can salvage the situation, maybe it's not as bad as you think it is, you only have ‘maybes’ which isn't helpful since you had a ‘definitely’ to rely on before Inazumas ‘quest’ was finished by the hero.

You just smile at Thoma and reach your basket. “I made some simple bread rolls and brought some butter and jam but I also made some black sesame biscuits before leaving work. Thanks again for convincing my boss to let me off early today, things get busy there.”

“Not a problem, I don't often take days off either but I think I just needed a break today and imagined it would be a nice chance to get to know you more. How about you pass me one of your rolls in exchange for a serving of okonomiyaki? Sorry it's probably cold by now but should still be good.” He reached into his basket taking out some wooden containers as well as some cloths, likely for cleaning any spillages, and handed you one with you exchanging and giving him a roll and butter from your pack.

You both nibbled at each other's creations, the bread rolls were still slightly warm on the inside since you had baked them before leaving, which Thoma commented on how lovely it is with the butter. The okonomiyaki you took pieces out of was cold but packed with various spices and toppings which really highlighted Thomas skills.

“I just love that we can do this!” Thoma announced after his last bite. “I love getting to make and share things with friends, it's touching the combined effort put into it as well as the delicious outcome we get to enjoy. Haha, my lord and I do a similar thing but its outcome is not as enjoyable as warmed bread and butter, if anything it's concerning haha. Remember how earlier I said how he can be a little intimidating, our little cook outs are one such example. I really have to steel myself for those.” he chuckled and then leaned down on his elbows.

Once again, what he's trying to explain is something you already know of but need to act oblivious to. You have to convince yourself to be unaware and yet need to be aware enough to avoid ‘changing’ anything, this task has grown rather wearing but is essential to keep up your act.

“Oh? How could cooking together turn out so threatening? You two are close though.”

He laughed

“It's because we are close that he feels he can torment me with his cooking. I swear, i'm surprised i haven't kneeled over and died yet. Worst part is he knows its tomenting, it's the best part to him! Agh- i've had so many of my own treats i've made be ruined by whatever his plan is. Haha, its amusing to look back on but just so daunting in the moment. When I said we could do something ‘casual’ with him I do not mean having one of these cook outs haha, I could never subject you to that.”

The nature of the conversation stayed light hearted, you both exchanging from your baskets while sharing stories or light hearted moments, you had altered your side of things a little, you spoke truth of personal events but under the filter to fit with your backstory, that way lies couldn't catch up with you or forgetting lots of little made up details. The outing was rather pressuring in concept, so much could go wrong since you are involved, but in reality it was very nice. You had kept yourself back a lot when it comes to building relationships with the people around you in fear of your influence potentially changing something important but you are still human and still have social needs but even people like your boss, coworkers and the shop vendors you chat with in passing never fit what it meant to have a friend, to have someone to sit next to and simply have a good time with.

Maybe you've been in this world for too long, you fear you may slip into making a ‘normal’ life here now that you've had a taste of what it means to ‘live’.

The sun started moving, waves became more rash upon the shore and the signs of the afternoon turning to evening became evident. You started packing up your basket and containers, lightly chatting on with Thoma about the seaside. To the side you heard footsteps and Thoma sat himself up straight to look at the oncomer.

“Oh! Done with the meeting my lord?”

Your hand slipped in fright, the container lid clattering as you tried to put it with its matching box. Shit, why is he here? Shouldn't Ayato be too busy? Isn't that one of his whole character points? Not once was ‘strolls on the beach’ mentioned in any of his character lines. You looked up and smiled at him in greeting, your face tugged up tensely and trying very hard to look at ease. You decided it would be easier to let Thoma handle him and just got back to packing your things away.

“Good evening to you too,” he chuckled softly and shifted his gloves, “the meet is done without any problems. When I got back home I wondered if you were still out here, seems I was right. I can now also fix a prominent mistake of mine.”

Even though you tried your hardest to avoid eye contact and look busy it's not like you had mountains to put away, you were left empty handed with a pair of well polished shoes in front of you, their sheen contrasted with the speaks of sand now defiling them. You took a breath in and looked up properly to meet his gaze.

“I do apologize for being so rash earlier, I would have liked a proper introduction. As you can surmise i am Ayato, Thoma has mentioned of you before and I am glad to have the honor of meeting you in person.” he smiled in greeting, no doubt he would have offered a hand or a bow if you both were at the same height but for now a smile would do.

“Right, it is truly an honour Lord Ayato. Thank you for extending your welcome to me.” you bowed slightly.

He laughed slightly, deeply amused.

“Do just call me Ayato in private like this and last I recall, yes my property is in the area but that doesn't warrant me the entire beach side. In truth I have not welcomed you at all.”

Thoma sighed slightly, “My lord please don't tease them so readily, I would like to eventually re invite them here but I can't do that if you've scared them away.”

“Of course, maybe then I can truly offer my welcome and they may join us to tea in the confines of the clan.”

Thoma sighed again at the slight continuation of Ayato's mischief. You took the opportunity of their exchange as an opening and stood up.

“Thank you for the food today Thoma and for bringing me to such a lovely place. I'll get going before it gets too late.”

“Oh, let me walk you back then.”

You shook your head in defiance, “No need, I know the way and it doesn't make sense for you to walk all the way just to have to return. Bringing me here was amazing in itself.”

You turned to Ayato and bowed again, less in respect and more so to keep away from eye contact.

“Thank you again Lord Ayato. Stay well.” and quickly you make your way off the sands of the beach and towards the trek back home into the outer city.

Thoma and Ayato stayed still, simply watching you go in silence until you were out of eyesight. It was Ayato that broke the silence.

“You are sure they do not carry any ill intent?” he said monotonously, still looking at the spot you disappeared to.

“I am sure. They are a decent person and I double checked, they don't have a past linked to any organization. Sure they are rather anxious, I see it often, a little skittish at times and slightly paranoid but it's not at the prospect of the clan. Haha, if you've taught me anything it's to be aware of people's intentions, if anything they are trying to run away rather than to get close. I can assure you, they don't have an agenda against the clan.”

Ayato breathed out, then turned himself to properly look at Thoma, his face relieved. “If that's your judgment it must be true then.”

…

An odd moment of silence spread between the two of them on the beach, both looking out as the sky took on warmer hues of yellow and orange clashing with its deeper blues.

“You've been coming here a lot more recently and to have invited a friend here as well, has your mind been on your homeland?”

Thoma chuckled and leaned back out on the blanket, now dusted with sand and corners crinkled after the day's events, “I have. Thinking about the mountains of Mondstadt and all the memories just out there across the ocean. It's not in a sad sense, not at all, it's just that recently-,” he paused, looking away from the ocean and down to his lap, slightly gnawing on his lip in thought, “recently i've felt more… connected with myself. It's a nice feeling if not slightly concerning. I feel i'm getting to know myself better but it also just clearly shows how much i have yet to discover.” He sighed, closed his eyes and fully laid down on his back.

Ayato looked down on his friend, doing as he does best and figuring out just what was going on in his mind, his feelings, the reasons for such feelings and the potential catalysts that brought them about. He kneeled down onto the blanket beside his friend, form straight from a lifetime of practice.

“Does your new friend have anything to do with it?” he asks only to be met with silence, Ayato doesn't need an answer, he already knows it's true but just why that is so is still unknown.

“It isn't that you have fallen for them have you? I didn't think of you as one for love to occur after a reasonably short time.”

Thoma opened his eyes languidly and responded this time.

“I don't think it is love. Not yet but… i'd say i've definitely fallen for them haha, in whatever way that is i'm not sure but it feels… unbridled in nature.” he closed his eyes once more and shook his head at his own emotions. He tugged on a smile and relieved himself of his weighing thoughts, “So i'd appreciate it if you don't chase them away okay? I look forward to figuring out what's going on with both myself and with them.”

Ayato nodded wordlessly, not needing to disturb the quiet with a response.

…

“Ayato, did you notice the look in their eyes? It truly just- it just instantly made me feel like i was reliving my home town but also… not. It was familiar but also so foreign.”

“I hadn't gotten a good look at them in truth. They seemed rather determined in keeping their eyesight on anything but me.”

Thoma nodded in acknowledgement, “Makes sense. I do hope they warm up to the idea of the three of us doing something together eventually. Haha, once they've settled their nerves they are very comforting to talk with, I think you'd like them.”

Comfortable silence stretched along the two, the shades of yellow and orange in the sky deepening to reds and purples.

In time Ayato stood up, no doubt with the intent of work to finish. He turned to leave before side glancing at Thoma.

“The nobushi that often occupy these beaches, you've disposed of them correct?”

“Did it just this morning to make sure the beach was safe for today as well as to clear out the threat they bring.”

Ayato sighed in annoyance.

“I still can't understand how those ruffians believe they outwit us, thinking being close to the clan means they may spot our vulnerabilities.” he shook his head slightly, like the ‘danger’ the oathless samurai possessed was nothing but a pesky fly.

He then made his way back to the clan home leaving Thoma to steep in his own thoughts.

It was after this interaction that you decided to cut things down. At first you imagined Thoma to be the safest ‘special’ person to come across, given how social he is and loved by many you could become a face in the crowd while also tending to your social needs and appeasing Thoma who, and you still wonder why, wanted to get closer to you. Following the path you've taken recently, of course you were wrong, infact Thoma should have been on that list of ‘DO NOT ENGAGE’ for the very reason you thought it was safe to, he's social. Very quickly you had realized in your time meeting with him that he would smile and wave to many walking by, one such instance was panic inducing when you noticed Yoimiya come over to greet him. Before she had fully skipped up to the both of you you had promptly dismissed yourself and ran back to the confines of your walls to avoid meeting someone so ‘special’.

This was Thomas' problem, he is the network that is connected to so many ‘characters’ that by staying by his side means undoubtedly meeting with the others. Today's incident was clearly that, you met Ayato, you were right there at the clan bordering the line of stepping into the grounds of one of the most impactful places of Inazuma and it was Thoma that had convinced you to do so. You had been too lenient on your rules recently, too selfish. You don't follow these rules you've written up for yourself because you want to but because you know it's for the better of the future and altering such a future because you can't stay inline is selfish to every being in Teyvat that could possibly be influenced by your choices.

To live means to influence your environment, to live means to leave an impression that proves your existence. You wish for nothing right now other than to ‘die’, be void of life and find comfort in that, to finally release the stress of what it means to have all this information of the world and not belong in it but you are still human, you have needs to fulfill and ‘dying’ is not one of them.

It was time to cut Thoma off, it hurt because you knew it would hurt him but it would be better this way. That night you closed your eyes to rest, determined on your new path but gut wrenching in a myriad of emotions, fear, pressure, uncertainty, sadness. You haven't slept well ever since coming to this world and that night was no different. You fell asleep cursing the ground you walk on, cursing the details that swamped your mind, cursing your very existence and the trouble it causes to both this world and yourself.

Seperating yourself from Thoma was simple, firstly you changed your shopping time, no longer ‘coincidentally’ meeting with him like you had these last few weeks. Secondly, you asked your boss for more work, that way you have an excuse. You aren't a ‘bad guy’ for just leaving Thoma, no its because work has been busy and you just don't have the time. This system worked, you hadn't stumbled on him while in the city and the few times he did come to your workplace you simply told him that you were busy and needed to get back to work. This system went on for weeks and was perfect for devoiding your existence of ‘live’, which yes was depressive, you could feel yourself go mad at the amount of work you put on yourself and lack of outlet, but it worked. The extra work did help with the issue of mora as well (the value of mora being confusing ingame where how a single egg was 400 mora and yet 1 mora is represented as a single coin but you realized quickly it was just the ingame market system) which lightened the financial strain a little. You worked from early mornings to late nights, arms dead by the end of the day. In truth you know it isn't a healthy cycle, often coming home and skipping meals just to bathe and sleep, but it was necessary.

Inazumas rains soaked the land, luckily no thunder was present but the trek from the city to nearby village was still made difficult in the wet weather. Your eyes focusing and unfocusing, legs on autodrive walking you towards a particular customer of your workplace who the boss is very fond of. The old lady you were delivering to had been coming to the bakery for years but in her age can no longer make the walk to the city. Your boss found it mandatory to provide for such a loyal customer and so your weekly walk to deliver her breads was on the way.

In the rain was silence, just the sound of your wet shoes on the mud and the rhythmic clank of the wooden box you carried and its latch. The world began to blur, shapes and colours combining as the rain obscure your vision and the melody of your steps, the rain's patter and the wooden latch soothed your mind. Peaceful, a sleepwalk yet not unconscious.

Peace is never retained.

“Look, a stray lamb. Ha! The rain brings fortune indeed.” a swallowed out voice but a few steps away from you got you out of your daze. A wandering samurai, perhaps 3 all together, walked from the side of the path towards you from the river. If this had been ingame the confrontation would be nothing more but an annoyance, 4 ‘characters’ to choose from to easily snuff them out or the option to just run away until they gave up chase. In reality this confrontation means little less than a deathly denouement. Heavily armed, well trained men with seemingly no morals and a thirst for sick entertainment against a human bering no vision, a basket of bread and a fatigued body leaves little wonder as to how this will end. Panic arose at the realization, the very human phenomenon of ‘fight or flight’ kicking in, and as a baby bird strives to the air you push off your feet, adrenaline quickly awakening your senses and urged your body to a change of direction and just as a fledgling's first flight you fall. Hard. Your mind may have awoken but your body had not caught the message, instead you lay your head in the dirt, all motive diminished, just your sad existence lay bare for a bunch of hostile mobs, stupid coding of copy paste enemies, to take your life. In all honesty this is perfect, you wish to retain as accurate to an npc life as possible? What better way than to die a meaningless death. That brought enough comfort to you to allow yourself to close your eyes (disregarding the other factors such as shock, exhaustion and most likely a concussion from the fall)

Perhaps a few of your questions will be answered now, if you die here will you reawaken into your own world? Will the months of lifetime in this fictitious game be nothing but a dream or will you truly die and merely sink into the mud as nothing more than a mistake upon this world? Neither as it seems the feeling of the rain pelting on your body ended, the sounds of swords being drawn and clashing washed away and your head, though still paining, layed on something far more welcoming than wet earth.

“Are you regaining consciousness then?” you feel hands lean your body up, a hand moving you face side to side prompting your eyes to open. They are met with the analytically eyes of Ayato still looking over your features for whatever wear and tear you may have gathered.

“To have fallen so gracefully in such a life threatening moment, truly your abilities are unmatched to any I have seen before. I am surprised you garner such mud and bruising, I had expected you to be dressed in only the most comfortable of clothing by the way you so effortlessly went to rest.” Oh for fucks sake-

You properly awaken, now relying on your own balance to stay sitting upright and Ayato moving his hands away only to have his eyes peering closer to you. You swipe at your face, lumps of mud clinging to your hand in turn. You heave a sigh just to gather yourself for a moment before speaking.

“What happened? Why would you be here if it means I'm not dead? Ah- sorry,” you jumped into accusations before even giving thanks, not suspicious in the slightest, “my head is still sore. Sorry, I must thank you for rescuing me, I would be dead if not for you.”

Ayato hummed and nodded his head. “To answer your question, I was on my way to the city before the rain started, not wanting to get wet I waited here under this shelter until I saw you stumble right into that group of noboshira and now we are sat here. As for your apology, it's accepted, you are welcome.”

Why was he acting like this? Mischievous sure but with a slight hint of pride or cockiness in vulgar terms. Sure he's a noble but usually he adores the ‘polite lord’ act rather than ‘cocky aristocrat’. His attitude reminded you of how he interacts with those he deems ‘close’ rather than a stranger he's met only once. Yes you are close with Thoma which may influence how he sees you but surely not to the extent of you two being ‘close’ in turn.

And still you must play the fool, be gracious and oblivious like you could never tell between his mask and his true face.

“Thank you so much Lord Ayato, truly you've saved my life.”

You stand to bow, to leave but he holds your wrist at the movement.

“Do not move so hastily now, the rain is still ongoing and I would not like to see a recurrence of you laying in the mud, no matter how amusing the first time may have been. Do sit back down.”

No denying that, no matter how much you wanted to make distance between the two of you, trying to run away would only cause more problems. You sit back down on the bench, a rickety structure just outside the village with hardly enough space for two.

You look to the ground at your feet, watching as rain drops just a few inches away. Ayato sighs, made clear you have no intent of starting a conversation. Perhaps his political side kicks back in, going blunt and straight to the point.

“You have been avoiding Thoma these last weeks, he's become distressed at the idea he's done something wrong.” you do not reply.

“Is it because of my involvement? I understand you may be pressured by our difference in class but both Thoma and I have made it clear that should not be a problem when in private so why is it you fear me? I have seen those intimidated by my title but your anxiety runs deeper than that. I personally don't care as much but if it distracts your relation with Thoma then I suggest it should be dealt with.”

This questioning is unnerving, it is tearing right to the point where the only truth is to reveal the true origin of your situation. That cannot happen so you reply with what you usually do, not exactly a lie but a truth wrapped along with missing context.

You fake a sigh, “My Lord I am… I am an introverted person by nature. When Thoma approached me I- I accepted his conversations not to be rude and i do genuinely enjoy being with him but i- he's a social person, I knew he was and it was uncomfortable for me to get involved but I tried it's just the moment I met with someone such as yourself, someone so… powerful I realized just how large his social circle is. I can't keep it up, being with him means being with others and I cant handle that.” it was the truth, yes you played it up a bit but hopefully it's an explanation Ayato would accept.

“So you do not consider your friendship special enough to warrant such efforts?”

“No!” you lift your head to him, for once properly looking at him, “It is, he is special, he is special beyond your understanding it's just that… I don't fit in, I don't belong by his side and meeting you and others just proves that.”

Ayato looked at you for a moment, seemingly lost in your words, perhaps not understanding the phrasing you used but he quickly morphed back into his usual laid back but self assured look.

“Was that your decision to make?” He let out a soft huff of air and looked forward to the oncoming rain. Why did he wish to avoid the rain? Given his character trailer where he casually accepts it, his skills being water based and summoning quite literal rain not to mention the casual manner his attacks have him kneeling right into it, how could he act so off put by walking along when the storm was hardly harsh, a summer spray in truth, you wouldn't have accepted going on this delivery if the weather was any worse.

“It's comforting. Something I can appreciate both from a distance and up close. Water has a tendency of being both stubborn and flexible, it moves as it wishes and chips away at that it deems in its way. When in motion it is hard to stop, when stagnate it proves hard to move.”

Ayato turned back to you, eyes alight with something more than just his blue hues, they appeared with a sheen, not from the gloss of tears but of something you couldn't exactly tell what it embodied. Without a character profile to read it actually is very hard to tell what goes on in his mind.

“Such waters remind me of you. So stubborn in some label you've put yourself under and yet so quick to wash away when it is threatened. You call such a label as being ‘introverted’ but I imagine it's something more isn't it? Perhaps it is insensitive of me to get into, from Thoma I hear you've had an unfortunate past in your time as a scholar and the depths of your reason may lay there but if you truly wish to integrate into a life in Inazuma then avoiding the people you come across, myself and especially Thoma, all under the pretext of being ‘introverted’, then you will find your burdens much heavier.”

In a very storylike fashion the rains seemed to ease, droplets turning to drizzle. Ayato stood up and readjusted his coat cuffs, “At the very least explain to Thoma your reasons, I did not exaggerate when I said he has become distraught.”

You stood in turn, head buzzing but no longer in the previous pain. You nodded to Ayato, your anxieties haven't shown any actual proof and yet you hurt someone who has shown nothing but kindness and acceptance to you, it is wrong.

“I will, you are right.”

Ayato offered his hand to you for a hand shake, both as an untold promise to explain yourself to Thoma and as a simple goodbye gesture, you shook it with a strong resolve.

“I look forward to hearing more about you in the future. Do keep yourself well and avoid potential naps in the mud, it's not the most comfortable of places.” he smiled at you with a cheeky glint of amusement before turning his back and walking to the direction of the city.

You sat back down on the bench, intent on waiting out the remaining drizzle, and leaned against its wooden pillars. It's all so conflicting, when you try to do right for this world you hurt and confuse those around you, if you try to appease the people around you you risk threatening their future. You bare a cursed mind of information, a cursed existence upon this plane, it isn't right to affect others by the curse you bare but it also isn't right to devoid someone so giving as Thoma. You sit and contemplate until the drizzle gives way, your carry box placed by your feet filled with breads untouched by dirt and still awaiting their destination.

Ayato strolls along the path to the city, it is not his usual reasoning for taking the trip but still a reason worth doing so. Along his path all threats had been eliminated, you should arrive just fine but it wasn't that which plagued his mind, rather it was a soft sense of amusement, a sense of glee that left him softly chuckling to himself. He adjusted the cuffs of his gloves, a sign to his Shuumatsuban in hiding that they are to leave him for a moment, once the soft shuffling of unseen ninja pass he turns is view to your direction, the distance hindering the sight, he needed a moment to himself, to gather all possible elements at play to give reason to his unspoken questions.

“As expected, Thoma was right, they do hold some degree of depth.”.

#yahooworks #yandere ayato x reader #yandere thoma x reader #genshin impact ayato #genshin impact thoma #genshin impact x gender neutral reader #x gender neutral reader #yandere male #x gn reader

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universitysunflowers · 2 months

Text

So how are we feeling right now? (TBB Spoilers)

Episodes 10 & 11 may be some of the darkest we've seen this season. We all knew the storm was coming but wow that was such a dramatic shift. I definitely had some thoughts and realizations after watching the latest release.

Okay first off lets talk about the elephant in the room: Tech. A lot of people thought that Identity Crisis would be about Tech and his struggle with having been made into the shadow clone CX-2, but it was actually about Emerie (I'll get back to her in a bit). Even though we don't know exactly who that shadow clone is yet, I do think it could still be Tech. In episode 11 (plus 6 and 7) we saw a lot of hints towards Tech as we knew him in seasons 1 and 2; things like the way he spoke, his leg getting crushed, his flying, and his use of Cid and Phee to get to the others on Pabu. One thing that really stood out to me when he was on Phee's ship is the way he put his hands on the flight controls while downloading her data, almost like it was second nature to him, something familiar he did without thinking (I know this is a stretch but it really jumped out at me as a parallel to the countless scenes of Tech flying the Marauder, it just felt like him again). However there is a dark side to all of this. If CX-2 is Tech that means that:

Tech destroyed the Marauder; the ship that was a home and refuge for CF 99, both during the war and after the Empire took over. It was the one real constant they had in their lives and he would be the reason it's gone.

Tech destroyed peace on Pabu; a place where he and the others felt safe and grounded for the first time since Kamino. It also means he would be at least partly responsible for destroying the lives of everyone who helped and supported them in season 2 (CX-2 was ruthless in ep 11, they made that very clear).

Tech used Phee to accomplish all of this; a friend who trusted and cared about him and rest of the batch.

Tech would be the one who hunted down and eventually captured Omega, whatever that may mean in the future.

There are a lot of people who think that bringing Tech back would make his death meaningless, which I completely understand. Some characters should die and stay dead as a way of furthering the story and development of other characters. However, in this case I do think that revealing CX-2 to be a brainwashed Tech would have huge implications for the narrative. It would mean that one of their own was responsible for so much of the destruction we have seen this season, and that just because Crosshair resisted imperial experiments, does not mean that the others have similar abilities/plot protection. It would also bring immense emotional conflict into the rest of the season (however they might do it) and could be a deciding factor in the rest of the batch's fate; would they realize what he's done and treat him as the enemy, or would they see him and hesitate, possibly losing even more than they already have. Revealing Tech as the shadow clone would be incredibly dark, especially after all of the cruel and deliberate things he has done this season that contrast to the mild tempered and caring persona we previously knew (even if he didn't always show his feelings outright). While I do think there is a possibility that he is dead and not coming back, I definitely would not put it past the writers to do something so drastic as a way of adding to the season's narrative value with a conflicting and completely jarring revelation that would have so many significant implications for so many main characters. I did not mean for this post to be so long but let's keep going anyway.

Some other more general realizations I had:

As of right now, Hunter and Wrecker don't know that Omega was taken again. That said, we might not see them finding out and the next episode could definitely jump ahead like they have done with other significant moments like Crosshair's return.

Crosshair could be blamed for letting Omega give herself up and missing the shot to put a tracker on the ship, especially if they never see her again (but I'm choosing to believe that won't happen). There is no way Hunter wouldn't have something to say about that, even after they have mostly patched things up over the last few episodes. This also contributed to the tone of the episode 11 ending; he missed the shot, meaning they have no way of tracking her and are no closer to finding Tantiss. It was a very bleak note to end on in general, not at all like some hopeful purpose driven endings we have seen previously.

Just because Omega gave herself up does not mean that the Empire is going to leave Pabu intact. She distracted CX-2 by letting him take her back to Tantiss but the other troopers were still there, and I doubt they will just pack up and leave without a fight now that Omega is back in their control.

There are only 4 episodes left; what if they don't reveal CX-2's identity at all, and just leave us guessing (I still think there could be merit to the possibility of it being Cody or a Crosshair clone but that gets less likely every time we see him). Or worse, what if they keep hinting at it to make sure we know who he is, but never give us proof; instead just leaving us with the knowledge of what happened to Tech, and what he has done, without any other closure.

Ok let's talk about Emerie. I was definitely not expecting her to be the focus of Identity Crisis, but I thought that was a really interesting twist. We haven't seen her in a while so it was nice to get her perspective, and to get a better idea of what project Necromancer is all about (though I am still not totally sure where they are going with that so I'm reserving my judgments until later). As the title implies, she is definitely starting to question her place with Hemlock and the Empire, and I am also wondering how she is going to react to Omega being captured again, especially knowing what she knows now. I definitely think Emerie will be more sympathetic towards Omega's independence and desire to help the other clones. We might even see the two of them working together on a future escape attempt? Overall I enjoyed episode 10 and I am glad Emerie is finally getting her moment to contribute to the plot, especially after her importance was so obiously revealed in Crosshair's escape attempt during season 2.

I'm sorry this got so depressing but unfortunately I think that is what we can expect for the rest of the season unless something really unexpected happens. Also if you read that entire novel then thank you I swear I didn't think this post would be so long when I was writing down my thoughts earlier but here we are.

#the bad batch #star wars #tbb spoilers #the bad batch season 3 #tbb #clone force 99 #tbb tech #tbb emerie #tbb omega #star wars the bad batch

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molsno · 4 months

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minecraft would need a lot of changes in order to be less colonialist, and I don't think it would even really be possible to completely strip the game of all colonialism (it still fundamentally is a terra nullius fantasy at its core) but I've been thinking a lot about how I personally would redesign it as a developer, and I have so many thoughts that if I were to list them all, this post would go on forever. so I think for now, I'll focus on one particular aspect: villagers and illagers.

as a disclaimer, these are just my personal thoughts. I wouldn't consider myself an expert on decolonization, so my analysis may very well be limited. I have a strong passion for storytelling through the use of game mechanics, and that's the angle I'm approaching this from. if I were planning to make any changes to minecraft (which I'm not), I would consult with people who know more than me about this topic first and involve them in the process. anyway, since this post turned out way longer than I expected, I've put the rest under a read more.

the primary critique leveled against villagers and illagers is that they're antisemitic caricatures. a lot has already been said about this, and I'm not jewish myself, so I don't particularly have anything novel to contribute to that conversation. I think that their models should be changed, and all forms of golems should be renamed. I believe there's a mod that renames them to constructs, so I'll be using that to refer to them here.

I think that overall, the biggest problem that villagers have is that you are not incentivized in any way to engage with their mechanics. the most productive and rewarding way of engaging with villagers is to ravage their homes and steal all of their valuable resources, then build slums so that you can shove a villager of each career into a 1x1 hole. to further benefit from this, you can make a zombie effectively kill them, then bring them back to life using a splash potion of weakness and a golden apple. they will then have discounted prices on all of their trades.

there are so many problems with this I don't even know where to begin. to put it simply, you are not incentivized to treat them as inhabitants of the world that are equal to you; you're rewarded for essentially turning them into slaves. this is a fate far more cruel, far more evil, than anything the pillagers do to them (which I'll get to later).

if I were designing the villager system, then the first thing I would do is make them less useful to you if you treat them like this. if you steal the resources from their village, including the items in their chests, then I think that should affect the trades they offer you. think about it: why would they have anything to trade with you if they don't have any resources in their village? if you completely restrict their movement, then they shouldn't trade with you at all; how could they? on top of that, they should fight back! if you start mistreating them, then nearby villages should start taking defensive measures, like building walls around their villages to keep you out and iron constructs to fight you if you attempt to enter. I think this would further humanize the villagers by conveying that they communicate with each other, that they have thoughts and feelings beyond just desiring emeralds. and indeed, having other villages respond to your behavior would demonstrate that they communicate with other villages, not just as trading partners, but as allies.

speaking of trading, it desperately needs to be overhauled. I think one of the reasons people tend not to engage with trades is because villager trades are generally terrible deals, and that's mostly because emeralds are an extremely rare ore. yes, you can obtain emeralds through trading, but the quantity is never enough. the minimum number of emeralds an armorer who hasn't been zombified and healed will ask for in exchange for an enchanted diamond chestplate is 21. given that emeralds are quite literally more rare than diamonds, it makes far more sense to spend your time mining diamonds than mining emeralds to take advantage of that trade. you will likely find 21 diamonds far quicker than you would find 21 emeralds, and with 21 diamonds, you could create 2 chestplates and 2 enchanting tables, and still have 1 diamond left to spare. and most villager trades are similarly worthless! I think that increasing the generation rate of emeralds would help assuage this problem.

another issue I have with villagers is that they're generally depicted as "primitive". they live harmoniously with nature, which is good; considering the fact that the main audience for minecraft is children, I think encouraging kids to see value in protecting the natural world is a good idea. however, the villagers as they are don't really demonstrate this idea, and many of minecraft's game mechanics actually encourage you to destroy nature in order to extract more resources. I think that showing the villagers using more sophisticated technology would demonstrate that it's possible to collect resources more efficiently and sustainably without destroying the environment.

the main way that I would go about demonstrating this is adding redstone devices to villages. perhaps they could have farms that use pistons to release water that automatically harvests the grown crops and delivers them into a chest using hoppers. or maybe they could have houses that are lit automatically at night using daylight sensors and redstone lamps. maybe armorers' houses could have automatic smelting mechanisms. perhaps they could have a redstone clock that rings the village bell at set intervals to indicate the time of day. not only would all of this demonstrate that the villagers are capable of using technology, it would also teach the player what redstone does and how it can be used, which is something that minecraft sorely needs; as it stands, there are almost no uses of redstone in natural world generation. I think this would additionally demonstrate that technology is a very effective tool in making the lives of people easier, without destroying the environment through extractionist practices.

I think this is a good segue to talk about illagers. it seems to me that the primary purpose of illagers is to contrast them with villagers by making them more violent, and in many ways, colonialist. I think that expanding on this would be a great idea!

if villagers had redstone devices, for example, then illagers could have more complex redstone devices that are more destructive and unethical. while these would undoubtedly produce more resources, their negative effects would be made more apparent. for example, they could have automatic chicken cooking farms that produce enormous amounts of pre-cooked chicken, but the meat is of a lower quality - perhaps restoring fewer hunger points and with a lower saturation value, and has a noticeable chance to make you sick when you eat it. perhaps they can have tnt dupers that are used for tree farming, but leave giant ugly craters in the landscape. perhaps pillagers could construct large rail networks that disrupt the landscape and make those areas spawn fewer wild animals. they could have giant, ugly farms for resources like wheat, pumpkins, and iron that produce low quality items in an obviously unethical way.

further, I think that illagers need to be more destructive. they're already an unpleasant sight due to their hostility, but I think that their presence in an area should be felt even when they're not physically there. for example, abandoned mineshafts should have ominous banners hanging at the entrances, and all of the ores that were in them should have been mined out. there should be large, barren fields with empty canals for water where nothing grows anymore, indicating they used it for farmland until the soil was no longer useful. there should be giant holes in the ground that go deep into the stone layer, indicating they used to mine there until they extracted all of the ores they could.

on top of that, I think that making the world more responsive to the players' actions by changing the appearance rate of illagers would do wonders to encourage the player to take care of the world. if the player frequently raids villages, then nearby villages should become more and more hostile until they eventually decide to compete with the player by engaging in more extractivist colonialist methods themselves, thereby turning them into illagers.

essentially, if the player chooses to play the game as a colonizer, then the inhabitants of the world will respond in turn, and begin acting in the same ways to secure power for themselves. pillager patrols would become more common the more destructive the player becomes, and they would become more destructive and powerful themselves, acting as a real threat! if the player has fully enchanted netherite armore and tools and engages with the world in a destructive way, then illagers should do the same and gang up on them in order to take over their home and steal their resources. in effect, colonizing the world would be extremely punishing, as it would make minecraft a more frustrating experience.

it's disappointing that minecraft doesn't have any of these mechanics, because without them, I struggle to see how the message minecraft communicates is anything other than "colonialism and extractionism are good and rewarding". mojang seemingly wants to portray the world of minecraft as a beautiful world of nature, but the game is not at all designed to encourage you to view it that way. every feature in minecraft is treated first and foremost as a resource to be extracted in the most efficient way possible, and it's really troubling. it's not at all surprising, given that the game was initially designed by a white supremacist, but while mojang has attempted to distance themselves from him publicly, his philosophy is still central to the game's mechanics. minecraft is by no means unique in this regard, as many video games are built around these ideals, but as one of the most popular games of all time, I feel it's a grave mistake to reinforce these philosophies, especially in the minds of children. I don't necessarily think my ideas are perfect solutions, but I think that at the very least, it's worth acknowledging the problem and trying to come up with alternatives.

#my writing #minecraft

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sharksandjays · 11 months

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I've been seeing the drama about how the ninjago fandom thinks that Wu is abusive for raising "child soldiers" and all. But to me, personally, I've always seen it as, like, the equivalent of my 9yo brother going to kickboxing class? Wu didn't shove elemental powers onto them immediatley, he just trained them in general martial arts and probably lots of mental training as well. It wasn't until they were in their teens, probably about 15-16, when he actually revealed about their elemental powers and their fate to fight Garmadon/the green ninja. Some people may look at this as child soldiers, but keep in mind that in Nazi Germany/The Netherlands kids THAT AGE were fighting and killing Nazi soldiers. In the end, it was their choice to stay and fight, just like with the ninja. Besides, Wu was--for the most part--there right beside them until they started to get older. This is talked about in Season 13!

He cares about them like a father would. He knew most of their parents really well and was probably a designated godfather for all of them! He would only do what he thought was best for them, and would not force them into anything. If they wanted to leave, they could leave.

I feel like what they were meant to do was something that they needed to be trained for since they were kids anyways. As many people talked about, elemental powers are apart of them, not just weapon. He probably had to train each ninja differently so that the adjustments to their powers would not hurt them. Without as much training, we don't know what the powers would have done to them, or if they would have been able to reach their true potential.

Is Wu a perfect person? No. But I think he loves his kids like a father and would do absolutely anything for them. They trust him. So I trust him. Thank you for listening to my TED Talk

#ninjago #ninjago thoughts #ninjago hc #ninjago wu #wu garmadon #sharkanalysis

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akystaracer22 · 8 months

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So my older sibling started playing Hollow Knight again in anticipation for Silksong so I think it's now time for me to spill my personal feelings for how goddamn tragic the Pale King and the Pure Vessel both are.

With the Pure Vessel, it's clear what that tragedy is. Their story is one of a child desperately trying to prove themself to their father in the only way they know how. By being hollow, by being empty. Except it was always just a guise and at the end of the day, a guise just wasn't enough.

It's the story of a child who abandoned their sibling to an unknown fate, only to later see that same sibling return, nail in hand. And the Pure Vessel, now The Hollow Knight, doesn't want them to take their place (At least in my mind). But somewhere in the fight they realise they also don't want to be the one to kill their sibling, not again, not after they though that sibling was killed by them already. So that nail, the one made at their father's orders, the one that stayed with them in their sealing, it turned on them. An act of rebellion in the face of the Radiance. They will not hurt their sibling again.

And then the path split's, it's the player's choice. But that doesn't make it any less tragic for The Hollow Knight. If the player chooses the seal the infection within The Knight, the Pure Vessel dies, released from their sworn duty in the only way possible. A mercy, but not a kind one because they still failed. If you kill the Radiance, they still die, but at least it's with the knowledge that with them the Radiance ends, they completed their mission. It's probably the kindest of the endings for The Hollow Knight. With the Embrace The Void ending though, that's probably the cruellest for them. They live, their sibling died because of them but they now have to live with their failure, in a ruined kingdom they failed to save with only the Gendered Child for company, however well that company may be.

And then there's the Pale King.

His story is one of grief and sorrow and misery and desperation. The Hollow Knight plan would have never been gone through, would have never been started if not for his desperation. He had to go through with the vessel's because he didn't know he had a choice. He likely didn't know about the possibility of the vessels ascending or even the Dream Nail in general. And he was shown to have loved the Pure Vessel which made it worse. By his own hand he ruined his kingdom because he couldn't help but love his child. His child that in his mind was the only survivor of the thousand's, maybe million's that had died in the abyss. His Root left him, he sacrificed his own child. And for what?

His kingdom, the kingdom that he knew since his child wasn't pure would rot anyway. All he did was buy them time, time they couldn't use because the Hollow Knight was the last desperate effort of a king who couldn't save his kingdom.

So he locks himself away, he hides and he punishes himself. He places himself in a cage he can't escape, left with nothing but his own thoughts and the void that even then effects his dreams.

And he dies, alone, and forgotten by almost everyone.

There's something about the Pale King I love. The desperation, and the humanity of his actions. He's not perfect, he's not a good person. He's a desperate one, and that doesn't make him evil, it just makes him alive.

And the Pure Vessel, that burning desire to be something impossible just to earn the adoration of those you desire it from the most is a familiar feeling to many people.

And this is why they are both my favourite Hollow Knight characters.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

#hollow knight #pure vessel #the pale king #the hollow knight #character study #probably not 100% canon #take this with a grain of salt

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hesitationss · 1 year

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i hate that there is like zero room for anything in shipping other than "they like eachother and should be together" because when i say gin and rangiku drive me to madness, i don't want them to be together! he treated her horribly and kept her in the dark in some twisted act of love that he has been set on since he was a child.

(spoilers ahead!)

when i say they drive me to madness, i mean the way in which they love each other is driving me to madness... like that man... witnessed something extremely traumatic happen to ran, we don't even know if they knew eachother before that (i headcanon that they do), but it was so traumatic that she doesn't remember it and doesn't remember her past. then we find out that part of her soul was extracted from her. frankly, this is a clearly a metaphor for sexual assault. anyway, gin witnessed this, was there for her afterward and took care of her. as 2 people with high spiritual pressure, they still need food and water to live, but even with the care and mundane life together, he has decided that he has to kill aizen, his hatred and vengeance overruled staying by rangiku's side. so he distances himself from rangiku so that when he is able to become a shinigami, aizen would not associate them together. his plan from the start was to leave rangiku behind and become a so called "snake", one who becomes evil for his goals, for his revenge. probably assuming that she would find ways to be happy without him, but he never considered that in the process, he was hurting her deeply. and even still, when the betrayal happened, rangiku never fully gave up on trying to understand gin. even at the end she desperately asks him, "WHY" and all we get are flashbacks of those two while rangiku cries over his dead body... like i'm sick omg... the thing is though, rangiku has such an open heart! sure she has many vices, but no doubt she is able to form connections easily and is able to fill her heart with more connections, but she loves hard as well (as seen with her dedication to her captains as well as her seeing it more fit that aizen's letter make it to momo rather than the investigation in the soul society arc). and in bleach in general, the story is motivated by the pain and trauma women experience (rukia, momo, orihime, rangiku). rangiku and momo aren't touched upon as much by virtue of being side characters, but the suffering they went through really set the stage for the main characters, especially since they experienced aizen's terror because aizen's proximity to them plus their white haired childhood friends... i still think about when the reveal happened and gin let himself be caught by rangiku, how before leaving he says he would have liked to be held by her a little while longer, and apologizes to rangiku. ...like that is maddening !!! years of on and off radio silence after deciding to leave your childhood friend that you take care of after witnessing her experience severe trauma, planning to kill the man who hurt her, dedicating your life to that goal despite the pain, not seeing yourself as worthy of her love and resigned to the fate you have chosen for yourself, and when you are revealed as being evil, you say "i would have liked to be held by you a little longer" even thought it was just her grabbing his wrist... but you know it's the turning point and those two will probably never get see eachother again without emotional pain or violence or death..... like yeah yeah that's what i mean when i say gin and rangiku drive me to madness. sorry i am still thinking about gin's wrist being held while rangiku has a sword against his throat and his response is that he loves being held by her.... HELLO? the intensity of love you have to feel while walking the path of vengeance that being threatened with a sword is loving gesture oh my god...

#gin ichimaru #rangiku #matsumoto rangiku #bleach #gin x rangiku #ginran

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stillcarmine · 3 months

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While I still think that Esperanza would laugh at the thought of dating a guy like Tristan... there are many ways to take a mortal step siblings Leo & Piper au....

so:

Tia Callida??

How would the addition of another seemingly unimportant demigod impact her dynamic with Leo?

She probably would have wormed her way into their new place, being like, 'damn, now I gotta gaslight TWICE as many mortals?'

Depending on where in his career Tristan was at any given point, they could hire actual babysitters and nannies, in which case, Hera would either need to lay the magic trickery on heavier or get a new disguise.

I think Piper says that his King of Sparta role was like his break out hit, even though he had success before that, and she helped him study up on Greek mythos, so she must not have been super young at that point.

Then again, it'd been long enough that the McLean’s had fallen into a bad cycle of Piper getting into trouble for attention and Tristan not giving it to her and having Jane deal with her, not to mention the whole 'any three questions' thing.

So let's just assume that Tristan was mildly successful from when Piper was relatively young, like 6 or 7.

Anyway, yeah, so like, Piper would have a LOT of complicated feelings about her dad remarrying and having someone else take his time and attention, even though Esperanza would absolutely be loving and supportive to Piper.

So like, part of her wants to lean into having a maternal figure, but she's GOT a mom, one that she's desperate to know more about, one that her father will never tell her about. And it feels like Tristan is just replacing this mom Piper's been yearning for, and no matter how great and kind this lady may be, she ISN'T Piper's mom.

And then there's Leo. I don't think they'd get along at first. Piper likely thinks he's odd and isn't interested in what he likes. At this point though, Leo doesn't go out of his way to be loud and make people laugh or hide his feelings, because he doesn't yet have anything to run or hide from.

Leo's got a more healthy view of his birth father, because his mother has always told him that they'll meet one day and that he'll understand more when that happens. Leo sees his father less as part of his mother and he's less curious about him than Piper is about her mom.

Leo would be pretty uninterested in Tristan as a person at first, but he'd be glad that his mom has more help and more time for herself and that she doesn't have to struggle as much.

While Esperanza wouldn't let Tristan use his fame to get her a job, he DOES know a lot of rich and influential people who know people and basically, he creates opportunities for the right people to see how intelligent and valuable Esperanza is as an engineer, and gives her some breathing room to develop that screw design she was working on and trying to get patented when she died in canon.

She eventually DOES get her design patented and sets Leo up for the future.

Both parents seem like they'd be generous with each other and their kids, but both have known struggle and idk, it'd probably be something they have to talk about, I'm not sure what outcome it'd be.

Either way, they of course DO consider their step children as family and WOULD take care of them if something happened to their spouse.

Which leads us to the Gaea of it all.

So she sets up Esperanza's death because her employee Madea got a premonition while in the Fields of Punishment that Leo was fated to cause Gaea issues. Gaea couldn't outright kill Leo, but she does say that she can make him suffer.

Piper being in the picture could go a few ways:

Either, Madea also sees that Piper is a threat, which would be interesting since she and Piper have that whole charmspeak/ magic struggle in TLH and in TBM.

It could be more personal for Madea that way, she might highlight Piper's role over Leo's which, if it's only one parent to die, might make it Tristan.

But considering that in canon Piper still existed at the time that Leo did, and Gaea decided to set him up to suffer and not Piper? But then that might have been because of Hera paying attention to him and training him to be a hero.

But if Hera was still around when Piper came into the picture...

Idk what Hera and Aphrodite's relationship is like. I'd like to believe that it's one of the more positive ones, since love and marriage go together (ideally) and I don't think Aphrodite ever had an affair with Zeus, so there's a point in her favor to Hera.

It WOULD be something to have the whole lost trio be coached/ favored by Juno/Hera...

If that's the case, then yes, Piper might have been on both Madea and Gaea's radar, in which case, Gaea might have targeted both Tristan and Esperanza.

Which just leads to a whole other mess:

Things could go a lot of different ways depending on whether or not Leo and Piper considered each other siblings, or if they got along or were friends.

As much as I like the idea of their friendship, I don't think it was really as strong in canon as it's made out to be by readers. Piper has a selfish streak, and I'm not saying that to be hateful. It's an important and interesting element of her character, and it could be really integral in this situation.

Piper was like, the first person to have positive feelings about Leo's fire and to praise him for it in canon.

Can you imagine the reverse of that, if Gaea manipulates him into killing both his mother and Piper's father?

Piper MIGHT hold on to Leo because he's the only family she has left, and she's terrified to be alone. Or she might lash out and hurt him more deeply than he's ever been hurt.

That also depends on whether Hera trained Piper as well, and if Piper was jealous of the preference that the 'babysitter' showed to Leo over her.

Also, Piper would have become attached to Esperanza eventually, even if she didn't want to admit it. And that, the loss of another mother, of never getting to show her that she did consider her a mom, that she's gone, and Piper made her think that she didn't want her, that she pushed her away and now doesn't get the chance to fix that?

And that, I think, could get Leo to fight back, because he spent the whole time watching Piper outwardly reject his mother, who he loved so much and now Piper wants to act like her death is about Piper's loss?

They could very well implode.

And they go their separate ways, Piper to whatever guardian her father had appointed for her, and Leo running from that same guardian, because of course their parents wanted them to stay together.

So Piper's just trying to live her life but she's always haunted by the knowledge that her brother is somewhere out there, alone and probably in danger and she has no idea what happened to him or where he is or if he's thinking about her.

Oh, and when they meet up again for the Prophecy of Seven bullshit?? Woooooooo!!

Or maybe she runs off too, but in the opposite direction of Leo, and they go through they're own shit, learning and getting stronger and getting knocked down and getting back up again, but always seem to run into each other over and over again, and it's like, 'ugh, you again' but also 'oh thank god you're okay' but also 'get out of my face i never want to see you again' but 'if you touch my sister/ my brother again you'll be on your way to the Underworld WAY early'.

And maybe one of them gets into a scrape they can't get out of and the other HAS to help, they HAVE to, and that leads to some kind of reconciliation even though there are all these bitter feelings of grief and blame and abandonment, but beneath that, they just miss each other, god, they miss each other.

Or, Piper might not blame Leo, whether because Hera did train her too and she knew about Leo's abilities already and knew that he wouldn't have hurt their parents and saw that Gaea was manipulating him.

In that case, then, yay, a little runaway team of two.

Doubtful that Gaea would let the two of them end up anywhere good, even though Tristan would have had better options for a guardian than Esperanza would have with her judgmental family.

Or maybe they might have ended up someone fine, but they're both traumatized and terrified and grieving and can't trust anyone but themselves and run from any decent situation to make it on their own.

And you know, maybe they end up in the Labyrinth, or the Lotus Casino, or get found by the Titan army. Maybe they stumble into the Waystation, maybe a random god takes them under wing and guides them along to camp, lots of stuff could happen.

Because the world is terrible, they would need to develop their abilities much sooner to keep themselves safe.

They've probably killed some people.

Like, Piper would scream in blind terror at some man following her to leave her alone and he'd walk out into traffic and calmly get hit by a truck, that kind of thing.

Well, Piper probably kills people, accidentally and then intentionally when needed, but Leo might not be able to bring himself to repeat what he did to their parents. It's okay, though, Piper understands and takes care of that part.

Oh, and by the time they get to the giant war, they are just so done.

#the bolded words are mainly to break up the text #leo valdez #piper mclean #esperanza valdez #tristan mclean #ohhh the thought of piper and Esperanza hurts now #heroes of olympus #the lost hero #hera pjo #juno pjo #hoo #tlh #liper #platonic liper #?? not sure how to tag that

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