#this is probably perhaps maybe the prequel to the other thing

[elbiotipo]

Worldbuilding: Galactic Empires

My only complaint about the Prequels is that they needed MORE politics

If you've watched Dune recently, you must have noticed the whole Emperor and space noble families thing. And yes, it's likely you heard that in WH40k too… and I HOPE you know that's where the God Emperor came from, since WH40k took "inspiration" from everywhere from Dune to Star Wars. Which also has a Galactic Empire. Like so many other science fiction franchises.

In fact, if you're a science fiction fan, it's very likely that you're familiar with space or galactic empires, they seem to be common as dragons in fantasy. Despite the fact that an empire doesn't sound very futuristic, does it?

Where did all these Galactic Empires come from? Are they just a narrative tool or are they an actual possibility? How would states and societies work in space? Let's find out, and maybe I can give you some ideas on how to write fun galactic "empires" from both a narrative and plausibility perspective.

This is going be a long post. Perhaps my longest yet. But I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Click down to continue.

First of all, where did these space emperors come from? In another post, I've talked about the influence of the idea of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire in English-language fiction. However, in science fiction, I would say the influence is more direct. The Foundation trilogy of Isaac Asimov, one of the foundational (lol) works of science fiction, was intended by the author, very explicitly, as a retelling of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon in a science fiction setting. He probably wasn't the first to think about a space empire, I'm very sure the term is older, but he certainly popularized it as a staple of science fiction. Now, if your contact with science fiction comes from movies, when you hear Galactic Empire you're of course thinking about Star Wars. But yes, Star Wars is also the same retelling, because Lucas was inspired in both Asimov AND Gibbon, even though I think we should appreciate Lucas' ability to bring it to life in the screen. Certainly, Isaac Asimov wasn't the first or the last to take inspiration in history to tell stories about the future.

The most influential science fiction work of all time.

At this point you're probably telling me (or not, I don't know you) about all other sorts of science fiction works that DON'T have galactic empires, or better yet, those that don't just transpose historical societies into the far future and imagine something entirely new (my personal recommendations on this area are Banks and LeGuin). And you'd be right. But the concept of a space empire seems popular and long-lived, much like feudalism in the fantasy genre, everyone has a picture of a sorts when a videogame or a book talks about a "galactic empire" or "galactic republic" or a "federation", an "empire" much like a shorthand name for "a country In Space", regardless of the presence of an actual Emperor or not. And so, it's worth exploring how this trope could, or not, work, so we can see the possible alternatives or more fun ways to approach it.

Besides, that's the title of the post. Galactic Empires.

So, let's approach this from the perspectives of Space, Time (or to keep with the theme, Spacetime) and Technology, and lastly, the most fun part, we'll explore some fun variations on this idea of galactic empires and societies.

Space:

Space is big, and I won't quote the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy here, it would be groanworthy at this point. Let's do a quick exercise instead. Let's image a "modest" space empire, not even galactic, 2000 light-years across. Sounds quite big, it encompasses most of the visible stars we can see from Earth… however, if you project it into a galactic map, it's actually a very small piece of sky, actually 2% of the entire galaxy which is about 100.000 ly across. Now, according to the Atlas of the Universe, there are 600 million stars in a 5000 ly radius from the Sun. Jesus Christ. This is actually hard to estimate accurately as the true number of red dwarfs and brown dwarfs, the dimmest stars, are hard to count, but we already know those have planetary systems as complex as our own Solar System, even planets that could bear life. Let's scale back to our 2000 ly across space empire, again, just a small cozy corner of the Milky Way Galaxy, something that would look like a small, even tiny, nation in any setting of a galactic scale. This gives us 240 million stars (from the estimated 200 billion stars of the galaxy) in this space, which is still completely insane but let's work with that.

From Atlas of the Universe, so you can compare and contrast, the stars 2000 ly from the sun (ONLY the brightest ones), and the entire Milky Way. Notice how small 2000 light years truly are at that scale.

Even if I just told you that all of those systems might be as complex and rich as the Solar System, let's rather arbitrarily say only 5% of those 240 million are worth of note. Not necessarily having life (no way I'm getting into that yet), just worth visiting or living in for the resources or the views or the cantinas… whatever. That's 12 million star systems. Okay, let's refine this further. Let's say of those 12 million, most of them are the equivalent of gas stations or farmsteads, a couple thousand people at most. The REAL places where the action happens are the systems or worlds where millions of people live, and those are few and far between (this makes both common and narrative sense, as people tend to cluster in population centers where trade, resources, etc. are). Let's say, and let's refine this further so I don't get outrageous numbers, the average population of those systems is 100 million (about the size of Mexico, Vietnam or Japan. Many sci-fi works throw worlds of billions like Earth like nothing). And those systems are… uh, like 2% of THOSE 5% 'systems of note' (a flimsly concept already but play along). That's 2% of 12 million. We got 240.000 systems or worlds the population size of entire countries, with all that implies (economy, culture, politics). Of course, 240.000 multiplied 100 million gives this speculative fictional empire a total population of… (Jesus Christ, not the scientific notations), 2.4e+13, or TWENTY FOUR TRILLION PEOPLE.

Let's wind back and remember I tried my best to make a "small" empire for a galactic-sized setting, 2000 light-years across, that's just from here to Orion's Nebula for Gagarin's sake! A trillion people is just outside the realm of my imagination, or pretty much anyone's. Can you imagine any kind of goverment system that would be enough to provide any kind of meaningful governance to 24 trillion people? In the case of a space empire, can you imagine a single space emperor, a single person, deciding over them? Keep in mind that emperors don't rule on their own (we'll talk about that), they need bureacrats to make their will done, and vassals to govern their territories in their stead. This would apply even in democratic systems, you need representatives and civil servants and more.

Let's scale back a bit before I go insane. Instead of assuming territory, let's go with population. Assume a spherical cow space empire of… 40 billion people, that's reasonable right? You can picture that in your head? Five times the population of current Earth, no biggie, we can work with that, it's all cool. Now, how big would a goverment for such a population would have to be? We actually have reasonable answers. China has about 10 million civil servants for a population of 1.4 billion people, but that's only the administrators, not including all the teachers, healthcare workers, security forces, laborers, etc. employed by the state. India has 6.4 million for about the same population. Okay, so easy math, let's say that this space empire has 6 million bureacrats for 1 billion people, for our empire of 40 billion people, that gives us a total of 240 million… just bureacrats, nothing else. Yes, you could reduce that with technology by say, half. It still means an entire Mexico-sized country of bureacrats. Imagine.

Entire worlds of this.

NOW I WILL STOP THROWING NUMBERS AT YOU, and let's just think about what this means. If we assume a space empire like the ones common in science fiction, or just any kind of… goverment at all, we're talking about, at the lowest estimates, entire countries worth of state employees, if not whole EARTHS of bureacrats. You can guess how things can get really weird fast. Current goverments as we know them just won't work at all it even if technology gets more powerful. Leaving aside, for now, things like god-like AI adminstration (yeah, have you seen what they are like now?)… to exhert ANY kind of control, FTL or not (more on that below) you would need a very, very autonomous empire, to the point it might as well not exist at all. Why take orders from A Guy who is not only far away but also has no hope at all of actually enforcing them in any meaningful sense? Why call yourself part of his "empire" that not only cannot enforce anything upon you, but also cannot benefit you in any way? Big question, of course, the benefit of a galactic or even smaller empire, but we'll discuss that later.

What could work, however, is that instead of a centralized state like we concieve it today, or even a loose confederation, even loose alliances, even pretty much anything… 'empires' (as in 'countries') In Space could be "united" by common ideas and culture instead of any institution. Perhaps not even a written delcration or constitution, but shared ideas: a culture, a religion, an ideology. Lots of different strong mini-states (that might mean billions of people…) that all claim to be part of the same "civilization", but share no goverment at all at all, just the same 'idea', in a looser way that even the most decentralized goverments you can think of. You can say "well all countries are made up" but these would barely qualify as even that. Not even the Holy Roman Empire was this fake.

Perhaps even a single person as a symbolic focus point of unity? Which would be actually a score for the proponents of galactic empires in the most literal sense. But at the same time, such an Emperor would be completely powerless to interact with the entire galaxy. His plans for, I don't fucking know, education reform or tax breaks, would have to be filtered by literal millions of bureaucrats and vassals that at that point might do whatever the hell on his name. Military-wise, his armies would count as nations of their own. However, the overall guidance of a single person (or constitution…) as a symbol might make otherwise disparate worlds to collaborate on the same causes, being part of the same greater whole no matter the distance. So maybe, instead of a Galactic Emperor, a Space Pope?

OH MY GOD-EMPEROR WAS THE IMPERIUM REALISTIC ALL ALONG? Probably not, but also yes, let's keep talking.

By the way, I'm sure you're tired of big numbers now, but I did one possible calculation for the whole galaxy, a true Galactic Empire. Asuming just 0.2% (400 million) of the 200 billion stars are populated, with an average population of one million, the size of the smallest countries that aren't micronations. The total galactic population would be 40 trillion, or 40,000,000,000,000. Five thousand Earth populations.

Time:

Or rather, space-time. We'll talk about both, because what concern us is the speed of information and trade, and that also limits the size of our empires.

I'm sure you know by now faster-than-light travel is impossible. Most of space based science fiction has it, of course, for narrative purposes. We don't want Our Heroes to spend two thousand years to get to the lair of the Evil Space Tyrant, I don't either, and I'll discuss FTL soon. But let's start with no-FTL here, just like in real life, and a smaller "empire", much, much smaller than my previous examples. A mere 250 light years across. Let's not even calculate population now.

This, quite logically, means that the fastest your communications would flow is at light speed. So if your emperor issues orders to a nearby world, say, 5 ly away, you will get an answer 5 years later. For a more reasonable distance of 60 ly, you would know the results 60 years from the descendants of those who recieved the order (now, assume however they keep in constant conversation, just with a 60 year delay), and by then, things there would have changed 60 years from the capital. You get the idea, Einstein sucks, don't need to elaborate more. At first glance, this might be another point for old-style feudal star empires, though. What better way to guarantee your empire is working well over centuries than by having an hereditary class of nobles loyal to you, no matter how much time passes (results may vary). Of course, how would you even enforce that? Rebels might overthrow them and you'll learn about it a century later, and you'll have to send ships to quash the rebellion… or would you?

Is there a point to send ships to conquer other worlds in such a situation? What kind of resources (ah, the lifeblood of empires) could you control with such an empire where transport takes decades and industry is so developed you could, theoretically, make manufactured goods yourself? I'm assuming you can, because you can build spaceships to get there in the first place (not unreasonable), but what would justify creating an interstellar goverment controlling people, trade, resources, over light-decades? Normally, it's at this point where sci-fi authors make up Something (what Atomic Rockets calls "McGuffinite") to justify interstellar trade. In Dune, for example, it's Spice, which is kind of like, to steal a joke, petroleum mixed with cocaine. But otherwise, in a no-FTL setting (so, real life as far as we know) there isn't really the incentive to conquer or even form a goverment of any but the looser kind with other worlds. Trade, maybe, but those are long-term investments, it's difficult to think what kind of good or service would be so in demand would justify it. Especially when you consider that light-speed is your upper limit, and ships might be actually way slower than that. And I'm not even gonna begin to touch relativistic effects.

I was going to make a joke about blowing a quarter of your GDP in Star Destroyers, but have you heard of the South American Dreadnought Race? One of our dumbest moments down here, surely.

Add FTL, and things change, of course. Even very slow ships, that would take months to transverse a dozen light years, would be able to justify trade in luxury goods and passengers, for instance. This is not too far from real-life either, after all, European colonial empires had travel times in the months, and they had to install local administrations such as viceroys because of this, yet rhose places they were considered part of the same empire (most European empires could be rather considered a collection of "countries" and colonies, look at all the divisions of the Spanish Empire for instance). Faster and cheaper ships would of course, mean even more trade (here, I'm using 'trade' as 'communication between worlds', not necessarily implying capitalism, it could be mercantilism or even a command economy) between worlds, even perhaps the classic trope of agrarian and mining worlds feeding the rich core worlds. The Open Veins of Latin America In Space. Fun.

The speed of your ships and communications not only determines trade, but the power projection of your state (we can discuss 'stateless' societies too, there's plenty of fun to be had). If, again, your Galactic Emperor makes a Galactic Proclamation from the Galactic Palace near the Galactic Core (let's roll with that) and he has no FTL communications of any kind, it means that his commanding voice would reach the outer edges of the galaxy 100.000 years after, that is, almost ten times the history of agriculture on Earth. If he, however, has access to ships that can cross the galaxy in say, months, yes, perhaps he can have a series of vassals all over the stars (perhaps, we'll see…), and the faster things are, the closer they resemble our current fast-paced society, but not quite, given the available resources and space in… SPACE and the possible population, as we discussed above. As you can see, the speed of your FTL or lack of it determines everything.

There is another, more *realistic* option. Instead of individual FTL ships, you could have wormhole portals connecting worlds. This is more realistic in the sense that it's theoretically possible (though we have no idea on how to make one), but it also has some interesting implications. First of all, there is an implication that such a wormhole network would be expensive to build and maintain, requiring highly complex technology, material (I'm not sure what the hell exotic matter really is) and production methods, well, more high than what you'd expect from the usual. Second, it would be something preferably fixed, with hubs, planned routes and regular transit (and for writers, it easily allows you to map your universe). Such networks would be vital pieces of infrastructure, built and maintained by central authorities, drawing routes and transport hubs in space. Yes, indeed, almost like… space railroads.

OH MY ASTRAL EXPRESS WAS HONKAI STAR RAIL REALISTIC ALL ALONG? (last joke I promise)

There is also a very strange effect about wormhole networks. Time is relative, as you know, and this is not a metaphor, it literally "flows" differently on how fast you're moving. The "universal" "speed" of "time" "seems" to be the speed at which matter moves in an expanding universe (red-shift and blue shift) as I understand it, but as you approach light-speed, time flows differently in your frame of reference. Wormholes are strange in the sense that they connect space AND time, the observable time in both sides of a wormhole would be the same, and as such, places connected by a wormhole network will "be" at the same "time". This has been talked about by some authors who have considered about wormholes in the context of space civilizations, and it's called (STOP!) Empire Time. So a space empire might not only imply a state ruling over a population and a territory, but also over a time. I have no idea how this works and it frankly makes my head hurt, but here is an analysis of transversable wormholes if you want to indulge or hit your head against a wall.

Technology:

As an extension from the previous section: Of course there is no working FTL method known in real life, as far as we know, light-speed is the upper limit for everything. Instead of constraining you as a writer, this can be one of your biggest assets.

Because if you're doing a space setting, the existence of faster-than-light travel and its speed is the most important decision you can take about it.

Got that? Did I emphasize that enough? You don't need to actually explain HOW your FTL system works, you can do some research and invent something, but you need to be clear, in your head, what it can DO: How far and how fast it can take you. A FTL system that takes months to go from star to star will be very different to one that takes hours to span the Galaxy like the hyperdrive of the Millenium Falcon. A FTL system that is cheap and can be installed in any tiny ship like in the Elite videogame would be different from the ones in Dune where interstellar travel requires enormous motherships and lots of drugs, or a wormhole network that needs massive infrastructure maintainment and probably a railway starway worker's union, or the case of no FTL at all. This is, again, the most important decision you could make for your setting, bar none. Got that? Let's continue.

FTL is perhaps the only place in science fiction where I don't care about how it works, only about how fast it goes

Now, technology. Space empires, are of course, not possible without space travel being cheap enough (not talking about FTL, just regular space travel): shipping stuff to space should be about the same as shipping stuff by airliner or, well, ships. This is not unreasonable. Efforts are being made right now to lower the cost to access space, and while space agencies like NASA might look expensive, they are not NEARLY as expensive as the money wasted in say, stealth jet fighters or fucking advertising (people who say 'why spend so much money in space when we could fix our problems on Earth' seem to forget about that all the time. But I digress.). A technologically advanced, wealthy (as in production, not literal dollars) society could easily afford as much space exploration as they wish with no real effect at all in their quality of life, indeed, it would improve it. Space isn't as expensive as it seems. At its very, very core, a spaceship is just steel and propellant.

And steel and propellant are very, very easy (once you got the technical research to do it) to get in space. Asteroids are MADE of iron and metals, a single asteroid is richer than all of Earth's mines combined. Hydrogen is literally the most abundant element in the universe, and water is on plentiful supply (no need to steal planets for water) on comets and icy asteroids and moons. Carbon is apparently widely available in carbonaceous asteroids, and in our own Solar System, Titan, the moon of Saturn, is basically covered in hydrocarbons (yes, OIL IN SPACE). All those resources could be very much in demand for manufacturing on a planet like for example, a future Earth that has taken its industry up to space. What's more, it's only bringing stuff up from Earth/an Earth-like or more massive planet (fun sci-fi term for you: "down the gravity well") that's really expensive. Once you get there, you can get anywhere with enough acceleration and propellant. Once there is space infrastructure and industry (and I get a feeling that it might get up fast, given that space technology would need to be very autonomous and reliable), it can sustain itself without a mother planet. In fact, if there's something I imagine would be considered a luxury in spacer life, it would be truly organic things; plants, wood, meat, wool, and so much more.

i am average astronaut man i work 15 hours in the asteroid mines to buy one burger

Which brings us to the big question; what kind of life would be out there? After all, I gave you numbers of millions and millions of worlds, it's hard to imagine at least a few of those don't have alien life. This is the biggest outstanding question in astrobiology currently and so I won't pretend to even try to answer it (my personal opinion, if you must, is that complex Earth life is extremely rare, but by sheer number of planets, it might exist by hundreds of thousands in our galaxy alone). Instead, let's try to see how science fiction looks at it.

Heinlein, another of the foundational writers of science fiction as a genre, saw alien worlds as just another frontier to be settled. Rich alien fruit, fertile arable lands, and huntable or tameable creatures just waiting to be exploited, and alien species to trade exotic goods with (or conquer). While Heinlein was not the only and probably not the first to write this subgenre, he certainly got it popular, and lots of works on his same vein follow this "frontier spirit" kind of writing, where space is seen as the last frontier to be tamed by hardy colonists in a very yeehaw cowboy western setting, and you can actually see this replicated in many modern science fiction like Firefly and the more cowboy-ish parts of Star Wars. And yes, this is balantly an expression of the 'manifest destiny' Usamerican imperialist worldview.

lots of Politics all over this Science Fiction Adventure

And yes, this idea of 'habitable' planets ready to be colonized like in a 4X videogame is also not very realistic either. We haven't found any alien ecosystems yet, but as a biologist I can tell you they would be very different from us in ways you probably won't expect. We can discuss how convergent evolution could be, a world with oceans would probably have equivalents of 'fish', 'algae' and 'worms' (I can GUARANTEE there will be A LOT of worms), we could even find very, very similar life to our own down to the body plan. However, we most probably could not eat them at all (which might sound silly at first glance but is needed to have you know. agriculture.), or perhaps even live in the same planet as them. We live in a society planet where most of the plants and animals which evolved with us can't be eaten, and many of them are toxic. It's possible, entirely likely, that the alien equivalents of carbohydrates (ever heard of L- and D-Glucose?), proteins and other substances would be indigestible to us, allergenics, or outright toxic, probably in ways we can't even think off. It's likely we won't catch alien diseases, but that's because our cells (if they even have cells) are completely incompatible with their diseases, just look at how different animal, plant and fungi cells are, now imagine whatever the fuck might evolve in a completely different biochemistry from us. There would be no farmsteads and cowboys like Heinlein wrote, living in Mars would probably be more pleasant that living in a world where everything might be toxic, not because life evolved to be toxic, just because it didn't evolve with you. If anything, these' habitable' worlds would be treated like giant nature preserves instead, you can look but don't touch.

(In one of my own settings, I sidestep this by proposing panspermia, that is, the idea that life spreads across the universe by means such as comets (or aliens) and thus shares similaritites and can eat the same stuff. A bit of a cop-out, but it does allow one to get with similar kinds of life.)

NOOO ANAKIN DON'T EAT THAT PEAR IT EVOLVED HIGHLY TOXIC ALKALOIDS IN A DIFFERENT EVOLUTIONARY CONTEXT NOOOO

But humans, if the biophilia hypothesis is right, will need nature in their lives. This is where orbital habitats come in. You know, like the ones in Gundam? Orbitals such as O'Neill Cylinders, Standford Torii (yeah, that's the plural for Torus) as well as bigger and more complex thingmajings I will write their own post about someday, have been proposed since the 1970s with technology available then, and there is no reason why a civilization with an advanced space infrastructure wouldn't try building them and even be better at it. What's very nifty about orbitals is that you can really make them your own personal custom miniworlds. Designs like the O'Neill cylinder are big, able to house hundreds of thousands, even millions of people if build to the top, but why do that? Mess with the lightining, the rotation, or the interior to make them a winter wonderland or a tropical paradise. I expect that they would be built to feed space communities at first with food that isn't imported from Earth or grown in hydroponics, and later as places to live and customize however you wish; perhaps a community would pool resources together and say, hey, we want to make an habitat that looks like a Colombian cloud forest, or the Okinawan Islands. Once they get cheap enough, and given how abundant resources are in space they might be not even as expensive as most engineering projects here on Earth, I expect actually many, many people would want to live in them, and it could be probably be very affordable, and just natural for the people who are born and raised and live and die in them. Another thing about habitats is that they are mobile. Like I said, as long as you got enough propellant and propulsion, you can move anything anywhere in space. Even whole habitats could move and cluster together depending on the local politics. Perhaps, much like city-states were the basic building block for countries in antiquity, in the future, the basic organization bloc would be the Orbital. You could have alliances of orbitals forming complex political intrigue inside a single solar system (yes, like in Gundam).

OH MY PLASTIC MODELS WAS GUNDAM REALISTIC ALL ALONG? (I lied)

This all might make space empires pretty much an unnecessary anachronism. Habitats can grow their own food and resources are plentiful once you have the right technology. They can also be mobile, so they could act like migrating cities at will, choosing to stay with like-minded "constellations" or strike out on their own without the dictates of a central state. It almost looks like an ideal anarchist society.

Or does it?

There is something very important to keep in mind about life in space. The technology, that is, habitats needed for life in space will require lots of maintainance and resource management, which implies there must be strong coordinating bodies with very, very strict rules so that shit doesn't blow up and you lose all your air into space, or the resources of an habitat are mismanaged and you end up with a food or water or even oxygen crisis. There is a reason why space exploration is done by state agencies or corporations with huge state backing. Another of Heinleins's favorite tropes, Libertarians in Space, would be impossible in such a situation. Actually, in ANY space situation, and this is why this section is in technology. Living in space requires you to be able to maintain complex technology and manage resources. None of this can be done ad-hoc or be left to individualism, you have to have Rules and follow them to the letter. And also, the effect of living in your 'own little world' would probably mean people have a strong indentity sense towards their home habitat. This will mean a more communitarian attitude. But before you think I'm waxing poetic about utopian habitat cultures, keep in mind that this also can mean an authoritarian mindset. After all, cults and authoritarian regimes do have "strong communities" too. An habitat could be everything from a well-managed place with responsible citizens who look for the welfare of all, to a closed society where everybody does as they're told as long as the tech works. On the other hand, I doubt habitats in a single star system would stay isolated. They'll probably trade and communicate with other habitats, forming constellations and power groups, that would prevent this 'closed system'. However, I doubt they would be too amenable to interstellar authority. Who the hell do those people from another freaking star think they are to tell us what to do in our habitat?

To be serious for a moment, habitats can be really cool places in science fiction. Especially if you imagine they could host all sorts of enviroments, from the tropical to the polar.

As an addenum… what if you really want to live in a planet? In places such as Mars or the Moon, things would be… pretty similar to orbitals actually. Habitats separated by vast expanses of barren nothingness, only now a planet instead of space (better for maps, at least). But that isn't what you're thinking, right? What if you wanted to feel the open wind and sky instead of a canned world? Well, this is where terraforming comes in. Transforming whole planets is something theoretically possible, but that would require massive investments of resources, more massive than anything we can imagine, and time, centuries at the very, very least. So stupid ideas like "terraform Mars to escape Earth", which as far as I know is only held by dumbasses like Musk, just don't make sense. It doesn't mean that terraforming itself is a worthless idea, it is a very appealing one. No matter how cool you can make your habitat, it won't ever be Earth. It won't ever be a self-sustaining biosphere with its own ecosystem that could last millions of years. For that reason, terraforming is attractive, it's something way more than an artificial "can" orbital, it's a new living world. There is a certain mystique into bringing lifeless worlds to life, but I expect that instead of the dumb Musk "ESCAPE EARTH" idea, the motivation for terraforming would be to recreate Earth, perhaps for conservation reasons (you could have whole planets as natural reserves), perhaps for tourist reasons, perhaps for spiritual reasons or even artistic reasons. On the other hand, the methods you can use to terraform a lifeless planet can also be used to 'terraform' living planets, as we've long seen in our own world… this could be done with hostile purposes. I would expect us to be better than that, but we simply don't know.

To close this section and give this post an conclusion, I think that, since there are no real borders in space, then empires, countries, polities, whatever you wish to call them, will be formed by stacking building blocs in loose alliances or confederations. The most basic would be habitats, then constellations of habitats, then inhabited planets (though I doubt any but the most populated ones would qualify), and then star systems, but little above that, and I expect up to a certain, difficult to calculate limit of population and area (though way, way below even a fraction of a speculated galaxy), things would be just impossible to manage. The effort in bureacracy, infrastructure and state control needed to project power out of a star system and the sheer scale of space probably won't ever justify empires, much less galactic empires, but you could have very interesting variations on the theme.

Fun Stuff!

So, let's play a little with what I've told you. I'm going to write a few short scenarios that might be fun takes on the "Galactic Empire" or "Space Empires" you might be familiar with already:

The Poleis Model

When the Greeks established their colonies around the Mediterranean, they didn't do it with the expectation they would be part of the same state or empire. They founded new poleis, new city-states, based on the constitution of the mother city (hence metropolis) but fully independent. The Phoenicians were much the same, with some of the daughter cities (Carthage means literally "new city") eventually becoming new cultures far from their home cities. Similarily, why should interstellar exploration mean the spread of a united state with a capital and all? Imagine that when interstellar ships depart, they do with the idea that they are going to create a completely new home, a new poleis, not an extension of the nations or organizations that sponsored them but rather more of a 'child' culture light years away from their motherland. As they develop in mostly isolation from each other, they will become new cultures on their own, while retaining ties to the ones most similar to them. This is, in my opinion, the most realistic scenario without FTL. With FTL, however, things get more interesting, as of course, Greek and Phoenician and other poleis didn't remain isolated light-years from each other, they had permanent contact. With FTL they could organize in leagues, perhaps even alliances for the ocassional military campaigns, trade and exchange of ideas, tourism and industry, and of course the Olympics.

The Wormholes Always Run In Time Model

As I've said, wormholes are pretty much like space railroads. Railroads, like other big infrastructure projects, need a centralized authority to be built and maintained. And once you are the central authority that does so, you're already in charge of the biggest arteries of trade and communication. Which makes you basically an empire, officially or not. In fact, this is the closest I imagine a space society would resemble the states we're familiar with here on Earth. If you have control over transport and the hubs of trade and politics, and that transport and communication network allows you to implent your policies, your rule might go very far indeed, and indeed, your main hub might be a great capital, the main station of known space. Now, perhaps you might be imagining a literal space empire with nobles and all that. Why not instead something else? The Socialist Interstellar, connecting the many worlds of the galaxy through a five hundred year plan of railroad wormhole construction in the path to communism... However, this would mean that people outside of the wormhole network might develop in different ways, perhaps the equivalent of nomads to the great settled empires of antiquity. And given what I've briefly touched on Empire Time (*breakdances*), the expression "the portals always run in time" might imply even more than just an aphorism.

The Civilization Cluster Model

I'll admit this is taken from Poul Anderson, as quoted in Atomic Rockets, to which I owe an inmense debt for this post and so much more. The idea is this; space is big, as is well established. Even with FTL to shorten the distances, even if you could cross the galaxy in a few weeks, the sheer number of stars is still insanely massive. Why should any civilization 'colonize' those stars dot by dot, what value is there in invading or colonizing planets with incompatible biochemistries? And how could even begin to think how to administer a thousand different worlds, each one as complex as Earth itself, let alone an entire galaxy? In this case, civilizations, instead of spreading across the galaxy, would mostly remain in their own 'civilization clusters'; even with FTL, there are so many issues closer to home that the idea of projecting power outside is ridiculous. There would be trade, exchange of ideas, and so much more between these clusters, but never constant enough and never with the authority necessary to create a "Galactic Empire"… the worlds are too many, too diverse, too populated and too far away for that. An interstellar traveller could roam the Galaxy for years exploring these clusters spread away from each other, with their own unique idiosyncracies and civilizations inside, and then a vast expanse of mostly nothing outside them. Basically, space is too big. I like to see them as constellations among the dark sky, hence the artwork.

The No Man's Sky Model

To live in space, you need complex technology, but also resilient and durable technology ready for any kind of situation, easy to repair and replace. So eventually, I believe designs would be standarized so much that every astronaut will carry or own a collection of standarized tools (somehow this reminds me of prehistoric tool cultures). Now, even with FTL, there's perhaps little material incentive for people to leave their comfortable homeworld or habitat to live in cold space. But some will, perhaps because of the sheer thrill of it, perhaps very small bands of families or friends. With a standarized tool kit for any ocassion, these small bands would spread across space, much like ancient humans spread across the world. But instead of creating space empires, without a fixed industrial base, they would be nomads. Which doesn't mean they would roam aimlessly, they would be seeking new biospheres, new resources and new cultures, and gathering in temporary or permanent market places, festivals and pilgrimages. Perhaps they could even be the majority of humans in space, while most others stay cozy on Earth.

...

This was a very long post and it took a lot work to make, so I hope you had as much fun reading it as it was for me to write it. If you did, and if you would like to see more, I would be very, very grateful if you donated to my Ko-Fi below. Anything helps a lot especially since my country is not doing great at this time governed by a libertarian idiot (not even the fun space kind), and even a little tip encourages me to post more, I'm always working on your suggestions! You can also contact me by DM or asks if you need any help with your worldbuilding or just want to rant with me a bit! See you next time, and thanks for reading.

#worldbuilding #science fiction #sci-fi #writing #writing advice #space #history #cosas mias

[brailsthesmolgurl]

RETRIBUTION

SEQUEL TO DAMNNATION. kindly read the prequel to get a better idea on the story's direction. I know I promised an alternate ending, where angst is not involved, but I want to prolong this pain for you masochists :> Enjoy this long, hefty, and incredibly hurtful read. But, it is okay my lovelies, I shall have a good-comforting parallel-universe ending written for you guys this week. SOOO pls do keep up with my profile :)

The legend goes on, with the God of the Sea failing to protect his beloved. His fate was decided for him by his people, but now, he shall take fate upon his own hands and remake his own endings. But, does fate falter? Even to a God?

Warnings: Angst Angst Angst Angst, Spoiler to Rafayel's Lore and I put in some of my own zesty twists to the lore, Deaths and Bloods and some okay maybe not some descriptive gore.

Rafayel walked across the sandy paths of Lemuria, in his human form, with his beloved laid peacefully in his arms. Rafayel did not even bothered to shift back into his merman form as he wanted to dedicate the mundane's death to his people. Or rather, to show how much he loves her, by being a shadow of her, a human, walking amongst Lemuria. A promise he had always given her.

"You promise to show me Lemuria someday right?" He remembered the way her face would light up when he tells her stories of Lemuria. From how Lemurians had sourced for various kinds of sea stones from different parts of the ocean to build their homes to how Lemurians were created, to what do their daily routines consists of and many other kinds of stories that a man could ever dream of hearing from an actual Lemurian.

There was not a moment that y/n was ever bored of it. Instead, whenever he visits, it naturally became a conversation starter. Y'n would ask him of the most random things. "So do Lemurians possess any gardrobes?" Rafayel nearly spat his tea out, snapping his head towards her when she mentioned about toilets as they were having snacks in the middle of the night within her chambers. "Or perhaps they just do their business wherever they are allowed to---" Before she could even finished, Rafayel would have his hand on her lips, to silence her before she continue ruining his appetite for the rest of the night.

The swipe of his fingers on her pale lips reminded him of those days. She is no longer smiling now, eyes and mouth closed, her skin looked ghoulish under the water, skin reflecting light whenever the lightning above struck the surface of the sea. Rafayel's face is a sheet of calm demeanour, but the soul that lays beneath the hunk of this man is a roaring sea, just like how he summoned for the storm before he stepped foot into the vast ocean.

Fishes and various kinds of sea creatures that used to swim along the pathways are not seen nor found within miles of Rafayel's sight. None of them were brave enough to be within his presence as they knew the aura that Rafayel had emitted. It is no doubt that sea creatures are much smarter than Lemurians. Every step he took made the sea creatures scattered further away, burying deeper into their hideouts, scared for their lives.

Rafayel stood in front of his kingdom, eyes pinned against the marble white towers that he calls home. Cheers and laughters could be heard from the banquet hall, where the Lemurians were probably herded, awaiting for his return for a grand celebration towards the revival of Lemuria. But Rafayel was far from a celebratory mood. "We have arrived, my love." His voice monotonous, no hints of happiness nor giddiness, nor sadness, nor disappointment. Just numbness. A man with feelings bears empathy and sympathy, but, a man without feelings bears emptiness, null and void of all emotions.

He continued his course, holding onto y/n tighter in his arms. He had the initial thought of wanting her body to rest within his chambers before he commits bloodshed. But, having an audience might not be a bad idea. Instead, Rafayel wanted this. He knew that she could not be able to tell nor see, nor to be there to stop him, but he wanted her soul to watch him commit this, to execute damnation upon his kind. All he wanted, was to show her how much he loves her, to the point he is willing to do this, to be a mad man.

The heavy doors leading to the banquet hall slowly opened with a chant of a spell. Rafayel's eyes staring straight ahead, his once two-toned irises had now dissolved to be a dark maroon colour. His guess was right, all of the Lemurians were gathered within this hall, laughters and conversations filled the environment. But, almost abruptly, the laughters and conversations seized, and Rafayel could care less about the whispers that started to take place within the silence.

It did not took long before some of the Lemurians sensed something was off and they started swimming towards the heavy doors. Rafayel chanted something under his breath and the doors slammed right in front of their faces. The ones who tried to escape were shocked, but none of them made their move to question why the God of the Sea had a dead girl with a gaping orifice on her chest within his arms and why did he chose to present himself in a miniature form of a mere mortal. Practically the size of an ant compared to the average 2m Lemurians surrounding him.

"Your highness!" Arvia was initially cheerful, emerging from the crowd before he spotted the girl the God was holding onto. He stopped in his tracks, wanting to turn back before he felt a strong force pulling him towards Rafayel. Arvia faced Rafayel, eyes bulging when the invisible force coiled around his neck. "Your highness.... please!" The young merman coughed, the crowd watching in horror.

"You were the messenger weren't you?" Rafayel asked, eyes looking past the young merman, not even sparing him any last bits of attention.

"I was only...executing...what...was being....told..." The merman replied, his breath getting more restricted by every passing second. "I did...not...know...of...the ceremony. Please...I just want to save---"

"Your highness, no!" A mermaid appeared from the crowd, with blonde hair curling like tendrils on land, hazel eyes staring at the young merman before darting over to Rafayel's figure. She happened to be Arvia's mother. "He did what he have to...To save us all." Her sentence made Rafayel's right eye twitched slightly, fueling the God's wrath even more. "Then," Rafayel turned his head and angled it upwards to stare at her right into her eyes. His dark eyes could quite literally burn a hole through her soul as she finds herself talking back to a God. Not just any God at this moment, for he has taken his stance as a vengeful God. "Should it be justified? That I am only doing this to save my beloved?" Before the mother could even say anything, Rafayel only exhaled his breath and Arvia's head immediately got cut off clean by the invisible force. The head's eyes blinked a couple of times, floating upwards towards the surface, while its body sank onto the sea floor, twitching as it goes down. Blood seeping out into the ocean waters, creating symbols guided by the waves.

Lemurians within the banquet hall went into immediate panic, screaming and screeching, wanting to leave the banquet to save themselves. Rafayel looked up, watching as the Lemurians tried to flee. Like a bunch of fishes trapped within a fisherman's net, pushing against one another and fighting for whatever that is left for their puny lives. His voice was hushed, but clear enough to be heard within the hall. "Don't worry my people, you shall only feel the hurt that I had felt." And all of the screams halted.

...

Amund dragged himself across the sea floor, a trail of blood painted by his very own body fluids. The man was in agonizing pain, nearly to the point of passing out. Just a while ago, he was getting all cozy within his own chambers before he heard loud screams that travelled through the sea rifts. But it did not took long before it stopped so he took no mind to it, figuring it was just another norm for those celebratory parties. Not segregating the mischievious ones from the docile ones, that is just an invitation for a mishap to happen at a party.

He heard a swoosh coming from the side of his house and his door slammed open to reveal the God of the Sea, in his mundane form, covered in splatters of blood from head to toe. Amund's jaw dropped when the screams finally registered into his head. The screams may just be caused by this man standing right in front of him. The very girl Amund had tortured set securely within Rafayel's arms. Rafayel's unusual calm demeanour is not part and parcel of his personality, which further solidified Amund's questions to himself.

"Your high---" Amund was literally smashed through the walls of his house and the merman landed roughly onto the sand pile behind his house. Rafayel walked through the hole, eyes still hollow and face expressionless. "Pleas---" Another slam through another wall. And this repeated for a couple of times, until Amund was laying on the sandy pathway in the village, blood pooling out of his mouth. He tried to escape, pushing himself up and trying his best to get his tail to wag so he could generate enough momentum to give him a boost off of the ocean floor.

"It was a fairly easy instruction." Rafayel spoke, finally. Maroon eyes boring into Amund's skull. "And yet, you failed." Rafayel knelt down, showing Amund the girl he was holding onto the whole time. "You had deeply failed me, Amund. And you had failed Lemuria." Rafayel stood back up on his feet, licking his lips and looking back towards the towers that he had walked out from. "For what you had done to her, death would only be the easy way out for you." Rafayel's eyes turned a darker shade and Amund let out a blood curdled scream, begging for his highness' mercy.

It has been a while, with Amund crawling on the sea floor. Dirt and rubble trapped under the old man's nails. Some of his nails however, were ripped off due to him being tossed around---his failure to hold onto anything to slow down the impact, caused some of his nails to be ripped right off of his fingertips during the impact---with Rafayel's invisible force whenever he tried to plead for the God's mercy.

Rafayel had managed to pluck out the merman's scale, piece by piece. Lemurians scale are used to make lethal weapons not only on land, but also in the waters. Yet, they are the hardest to harvest as pulling off ONE scale would equate to a human ripping off their whole scalp in one go. So, one could only imagine the pain Amund is going through currently. Amund could barely crawl, eyes swollen from the sand that had entered his tear duct and hoarse voices turned into silenced croaks.

If Rafayel was not holding onto his beloved, he would have easily been the one to pluck out Amund's scales one by one. Rafayel's blinding rage had deluded his mind, as he watched the merman who is the reason behind his lover's death. "She was going to be my mate, my lifetime mate, for this upcoming season, do you know that?" Rafayel scoffed, tears stinging at the back of his eyes.

"But you had to just test my patience, and my capabilities as the God of the Sea. Hence, what you had experienced today, shall never equate to the pain you made me go through. For you had taken my fate, my people's fate upon your own hands." He gave Amund a good kick and the guy groaned in agony, facing down as he regurgitated blood. "What I did today, was nothing but a mere taste of what I am capable of. AS A GOD." His last sentence carried a strong surge of disgust, his bloodlust psyche temporarily separated his status between Amund, an ordinary merman and himself, which is made to be a God.

"I curse...curse her." He managed to choke out and Rafayel's eyes widened, immediately leaping forward to grab the merman's head to face him. The merman croaked out his very last laugh, taunting Rafayel's actions and the last sentence of his was spoken in Lemurian, a rendition of a chant to curse y/n to be reincarnated into a sea witch.

Rafayel's blink of an eye sparked his evol, and he stood there, watching the eternal flames that was casted on Amund burn the merman from what was left of him into a pile of dust, waiting to be consumed by the planktons that lives within the sea water's ecosystem. Tears unknowingly flowed down his cheek and trickled onto his lover's face. The show is over and so is his wish to see her to be a mundane again in her next life. Rafayel held her corpse closely and tightly to his body, soft sobs finally leaving his lips as he faltered to the sea floor.

...

Hundreds of years has passed. And hundreds of years, Rafayel had travelled the seas to search for her. To at least sense any signs of her presence. Ever since the massacre, Rafayel was tied down by his own guilt, for not only failing to protect his lover, but also being the sole reason for the extinction of Lemurians. How uncanny, a legend that tells the tale of a God seeking vengeance upon his own kind just because they had killed his one and only lover. That tale would surely be pure nonsensical or would and could possibly generate pure hatred from anyone who hears it.

Rafayel could care less, like how he heard the screams of his people in their very last moments, the sound of blood and tears splattered across the once white and pristine walls that they were confined within. The sound of Amund begging not to be killed---with his throat slowly giving up on him---the last curse that he uttered and the last sounds that had bubbled from him when he was lit up with Rafayel's evol.

A hint of humming caught his ears and the man stopped his movements, ears twitching in directions to catch onto the tune. A tune only he has ever whistled. With a gesture, dolphins came surrounding the God in circles, by command. "Find out the source for me, yeah?" Rafayel asked and the circling dolphins chirped in return before they dispersed into all directions.

Rafayel's heart skipped a beat, out of nervousness? He had no idea, he still has not gotten used to the idea of his heart being whole again. Because his heart has only been whole only when he was with her. He does not need a whole heart, he only needs her to fill in for the whole of his heart. And for that moment, he shall forever await.

One of the dolphins returned, whistling back to catch the God's attention. Rafayel looked up, and without hesitation, grab ahold onto the dolphin's fin and he was led towards the source of the humming. The dolphins brought him through the kelp grounds, where his people would usually come by to forage for food when they migrate to the northern side for warmer waters during the changing in seasons.

The dolphin led him to the side of the cliff, where it plunges down to the deepest part of the ocean. Creatures beneath those waters are indespicable, and no Lemurians had ever dived that deep. And that includes the God of Sea himself. The humming came again, this time further confirming that the source of the sound came from down below. Rafayel turned around to look for the dolphin, but the poor creature had left him all alone the moment it dropped him off here.

With a deep breath and a puff of his chest, the purple haired God swam deep into the dark waters below. All of his senses heightened to the max as he himself would not expect what he might encounter. Legends were told that there lives a sea serpent so huge that it could engulf the whole world if it awakes. And that was the only legend that still kept Rafayel on edge till now.

His fear dissipated almost instantly when he spotted a faint light in the far distance within the dark. You see, Lemurians although are half-fish and half-man, they do not possess infrared vision that allows them to see in the depths. Within the depths, Rafayel's flames do not work as well as this is the place where Gods are not exactly welcomed. He sped up his swimming when he noticed the light bounces further down into the dark. Pause. Then the light comes back up, but this time, at a very high speed.

Noticing a huge shadow, Rafayel turned and immediately started charging full speed towards the cliff again. But due to the darkness of the waters around him, the God found himself entrapped in the darkness, bumping and hitting himself against the cliffside. The bone-crushing, chomping sounds that came from behind him made him not-one-bit curious to see what was actually chasing him. Right when he was about to be gnawed by a creature, he heard a voice calling out in a language he had not heard of and he blacked out.

...

"I think he is waking up." A voice whispered next to Rafayel. "His eyes are fluttering."

"Is it? Oh yeah, he does look like he is awakening." Another voice intruded, deeper, but not enough to be known as a man's voice.

Rafayel slowly opened his eyes, before he was met with two snailfishes. One with a red while another is tinted with a blue hue. His eyes darted in between the two fishes as he was trying to comprehend if they were the ones talking earlier.

"Good morning." The red one spoke and Rafayel gasped, moving away from the fish. His pupils blown out as he was shocked. He has seen fishes all of his life, but he had never encountered talking fishes. EVER. But making spells to make fishes talk is definitely a skill only a sea witch possesses. This gave Rafayel a thought, maybe she felt lonely down here so she made herself some friends.

"You scared him Red." The blue one spoke this time, and it swam closer towards Rafayel, using its spiny fins to mimic how a mundane would usually talk. Gestures, as what was taught to the snailfishes, is a common courtesy of good body language to humans. But given the snailfishes had never been in contact with any humans, they took the closest resemblance to what their highness looked like. Rafayel looked just like a human to them.

With parted hair and two eyes, a nose and a lip. He is obviously a human to their knowledge. "We are not going to hurt you." The blue fish gestured it's small fins in circles, speaking slowly for each word, afraid that the man before it would not understand them. "Our master ask us to care for you as she went out to gather some food."

"Who is your master?" Rafayel asked as he sat up, kindly hoping that it was the girl he had awaited for many years. "Where is she?" His excitement made him winced, his head still hurts, a side effect of a sea witch's spell.

The feel of the water temperature shifting made the two snailfishes swam off to one of the tunnels. Rafayel took this time to observe his surroundings. Contrast to the dark waters he was in just now, he is currently in a cave like structure, with huge seaweeds and some pebbles laid out beneath him and a sea lantern hung up at every corner of the cave to provide some decent lighting. For a moment, he did not believe that he is in a sea witch's abode.

The walls had paints on them, some forming artworks of the seas above, and some were writings written in what Rafayel assumed to be sea witch's language. Rafayel stopped at one of the drawings, it was a rough sketch of Lemuria. Seeing the sketch, his breath hitched in his throat. The past memories of his massacre surfacing again but he forced it down. Not willing to show weakness in such a foreign territory. Below the sketch, there were symbols that Rafayel could not read. But he decided not to further crack his head.

The fishes returned and Rafayel's heart dropped to the bottom of his tail when he was met with her. The girl who he had always been waiting, the girl he had committed massacre for, the girl that had made him suffer with loneliness for the past hundred years. Y/n is now in front of him, but other than human legs, it was swapped with a black and singular long tail, resembling one a Moray eel has. Her once brunette curls took on a much darker shade, the same as the waters below here. The curse happened after all, for she had became the sea witch of the depths.

"You are awake." Y/n spoke and oh how he missed her voice. The voice that produces the best laughters and asked the most silly questions. Yet, with this version of her, her voice held none of those characteristics he remembered. It was deadpanned, the lack of emotions nearly made Rafayel winced. With his lack of a response, the sea witch looked towards both of her friends. "Does he happen to be a mute?"

"He spoke to us just now, but more like engaged us in a question or two." The blue snailfish chirped, swimming back to the side of Rafayel. The same fin that used to make gestures came to give a pat onto Rafayel's cheek and the merman turned to look at the fish in question. Seeing Rafayel's reaction, the fish hurriedly swam back to its master. "He is a human as you described right? Right, master?"

"Not quite, Blue." Ironic, Rafayel thought. It is very ironic of her to name things exactly based on the way they looked. It has always been a habit of hers. She placed the seashells she had harvested neatly onto the floor and she swam over to have a closer look at Rafayel. "I think, his origins are of a mermaid." Her eyes are now a different shade of colour, black irises match the shade of her pupils. Another staple for a sea witch. "I apologise for the black out you had to experience earlier on. I had to cease the Angler Fish from rising towards the surface as I did not want it to disturb the ecosystem as of above."

"Do you know of my name?" Rafayel asked, a glimmer of hope shined in his eyes as he really wished for her to remember at least a slither of memory of him. For he had been her one and only lover in her past life. But with the way she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head, his hope got extinguished like a fire that could not be ignited.

"What do you seek for, Lemurian?" Y/n swam back towards the pile of sea shells she had collected and she grabbed one of the bottles from above her shelf. Examining the shells one by one before placing them into the bottle, only the ones that has spots on them would be chosen while the other would be tossed aside and the two snailfishes seem to be having a feast with the leftovers.

The turn of her head got her to look him right into his eyes. The warm glow emitting from the sea lantern casting a soft glow on her face. Just like the time when he held her in his arms, on top of the rock. He tore his eyes away from her, his cheeks burning from how affected he was from her gaze. But he answered her. "I came here for a potion. A potion to cure me from my wandering heart." ...

It took y/n 100 days, a cycle between 50 days and 50 nights to produce the potion that Rafayel had requested for. Shortly after the interaction, Rafayel had returned back to the shallow seas, as he could not bear to watch the love of his life not knowing him for who he is and who he was to her.

His last words to her before he departed to the shallows was, "Once the potion has been completed, I shall meet you at the sea stacks by dawn. The one far north." He said, index finger pointing towards the said direction. His eyes does not meet hers before he left. That was how heartbroken he was. His heart wearing him down day by day as he waited for the potion to be crafted.

During the 100 days of wait, he kept going back and forth between the waters and land to keep himself occupied. But the land served him better as the mourning of the princess had ended long ago. When the princess went missing, the King sent out every single one of his troops to search for the lost princess.

Rafayel purposely placed her back onto the sea stacks so she could be found easily. Knowing the God, he would have kept her by his side even if she were to be nothing but a bag of bones, but he knew, her people would want to know of her whereabouts. Even if it would only bring them to her corpse. He could not give himself anymore liberty to take her away from her people, like how he had singlehandedly perished the people of his kingdom. He did not turned his head back at all once he had left her there, swimming away in full speed so that he would not be discovered and caught, and to save himself from crying anymore.

The beloved princess' death was mourned by all. Every citizen within the Kingdom's grounds were in tears, regardless if its a man or a woman, an adult or a child. That was how loved she was. Her people mourned for her for nearly five decades, and that was how long Rafayel refused to surface and to walk on land. Every time he closed in to the shores of her kingdom, the sounds of the cries of her people would strike his ears. He became so used to it that he would visit the same place every day, by dusk, just to silently cry and mourn with the people of her kingdom.

He would not even go anywhere near his kingdom either. For it was filled with the bones of his people. The people that he used to cherish, that he would always go back to. But now, all he returns to, is a dead and eerie silence. The bloody stains of his people had now hardened, taken over by sea crustaceans as Lemurian blood offers a lot of benefits to the sea creatures. If any Lemurians lived past that day, Rafayal would definitely earn the title of 'The God Who Went Deranged'.

The day has finally came, where they shall rejoice by the sea stacks. Rafayel was already waiting there since dusk, body floating above the waters, facing up towards the bright skies painted in pastel yellows and reds. Blobs of clouds that seemed so edible Rafayel wished he could fly instead of swim. A bunch of bubbles surfaced next to him and he slightly turned his head, watching as she emerged from the waters, holding two vials in her hand. Her face expressionless and cold as the first time he had met her in this life.

"Here." She handed him one of the vials and he took it, repositioning himself from having to float, to facing her directly. "Are you sure this is what you desire?" Her question caught his attention, his mixture of lilac-lapis orbs stared into her obsidian ones. "Because your memories will be perished forever, do you know that?"

Rafayel looked at the vial, the contents of the fluid is watery, and takes on a sheen of coral-like pink. "My mind is set." His eyes caught her again. "This is what I had desired when I met you that day." His words although does not hold any meaning to the sea witch, but it held meanings that one could never fathom, within the God of Sea's memories.

"This is usually done between two, one to forget while the other to contain the forgotten memories." She explained, holding up the vial to her eye level as she continued. "And since you do not have anyone you want to consume this with, I shall be the one to contain your forgotten memories."

As expected, Rafayel knew she was going to say this. He had never once mentioned anything about the Lemurians being extinct. Neither did she asked. Always putting people ahead of herself, her nature still seeped through from her past life that it has easily become one of her core personalities even till now. Rafayel silently sighed in his own mind when he looked at this woman in front of him. The lover that he had sworn his life to, became the lover that was seemingly a stranger to him.

"We shall consume this together, and with a chant of a spell, hence the void of the memory shall take upon its place." Rafayel pulled the cap open, mirroring her actions and they drank the mixture together. Rafayel winced at how bitter the content tasted but y/n seemed unaffected, as sea witches are not equipped with a sense of taste as most of their potions tasted wicked as their personalities had always been portrayed to be. "Well enough to start?"

"Hu-Ayr-Tey Ta-Fa-Fu-Lei." Rafayel chanted and he watched as y/n's eyes widened. Finally, a reaction from her. Not in the way he had hoped for a reaction of course. You see, Rafayel, being God of the Sea, although had never travelled through the deep waters and had never knew of the Sea Witches' language, but the spells equipped by the sea witches were born out of a God's nature. Should there be benevolence, there shall be malevolence. Just like how Rafayel's massacre is a proof of a God's malevolent nature taking place physically, a sea witch's spells are born out of a God's mentally twisted nature.

"What have you done?!" She held onto her neck, feeling herself struggling to breathe as her neck is closing up on her. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" She raised her voice, looking at him with anger that starts to paint her face a shade of red. "How do you know of this spell?!" She was in disbelief, eyes shooting daggers into the merman in front of her. Rafayel showed no amusement though, his eyes although were entirely focused on her, his heart crushed.

Fate in general, creates thousands and millions of possibilities towards one's ending. For a God, fate should easily be nothing but a just another miniscule issue within their palms. But for Rafayel, the moment he fell for a mundane, was the moment he signed a blackmail for himself. He has to gamble with fate now, just like with any other mere mortal. The only advantage he got is that he could look into the near future to help him better plan out his upcoming course of actions.

This happening now, marks one of his course of actions. The fate he had chosen was to kill y/n with his own hands, so she could be reincarnated to be a human in her next life. Then, he could take place as a man, on the land, seeking for her love and attention, just like how a mere mortal would. Yes. Rafayel, the God of the Sea, would risk his status of being a God just to be a human, just to be with her. "This is the only way." He spoke to her, as he watched her slowly lose her memories to swim, her tail, now a pair of legs, flailing clumsily in an effort to save herself.

The spell that he had uttered, does not only make her forget her own identity, but it makes her forget everything, wiping everything off of her memory and giving her a clean slate. A reincarnated soul would always remember bits of their past lives, that is how deja-vu and realistic dreams come about. But this spell would wipe her memory of her past life as well. As bad as it sounds, Rafayel sees this as the only viable way for him to live his next life, having to protect her. All the other courses of action, would only lead to more bloodshed and he grew tired of it.

The tears came flowing again, watching his beloved struggle to breathe as she started to choke onto the seawater that is rapidly entering her lungs. Rafayel could only watch, he could not interfere as it would ruin the course of her next life. Heart wrenching, gut punching, every other word of torturous feeling would describe him perfectly at this moment.

Y/n reached out her hand to him, desperately looking at him and clawing for him, seeking for his help to drag her out and onto solid land. But his refusal seemingly made her accepted her fate. Her pupils then slowly stopped moving, her body slowly stopped thrashing and twitching as she continued descended deeper into the waters. A scene that reminded him deeply of Arvia during his last moments.

Once the bubbles had stopped surfacing out of her agape lips, Rafayel swam down as fast as he could, and he held her cold body in his arms again, closely studying her very last moments. Her eyes were opened, in a state of shock and acceptance, lips blue like the shade of his lapis-coloured eyes, tail had now taken form into two legs, her body stiff and hollow like how she was when he first found her in the past 100 years. The curse was finally broken, but it also broke Rafayel. With shaky breaths, he uttered. "In your next life, I promise you. I promise. You shall only ever hear of my name as to be Rafayel. I shall no longer...be the God of the Sea."

Parallel Universe Ending is Out: Salvation

I love doubling the damage sometimes, this one-shot had became somewhat of a small series. I enjoyed using a bit of my gore movie visual experiences within this piece of writing. Thank you for the ones who wished for a sequel. I hope this makes you bawl your eyes out.

But do not worry, I am already starting on a not-so-angsty ending that takes place in a parallel universe. I don't think this series would continue on as I think it is best to leave it to you lovelies' vast imagination.

As usual, any requests you want me to write? I can write it for ya :)

Have a good day and pls cry for me lovelies :)

#love and deepspace #love and deepspace x reader #rafayel love and deepspace #lnds #rafayel sfw #rafayel x reader #rafayel angst #zayne love and deepspace #xavier love and deepspace

[one-piece-aus]

Whumptober Day 17

Kid x Reader

Ahoy! Remember that angsty Kid story I wrote last year for Whumptober? I saw you guys wanted a sequel so I decided to write the prequel to that from Kid's POV! (I do have the idea of making this a series but I need more motivation) Anyway, if you can read the other part to this HERE

Enjoy the story! ^-^

"Kid, you've been acting different lately," Killer said as he stood beside his friend.

"You don't have to remind me," Kid growled, shifting his stance while keeping his arms folded as he leaned against the school's gate. His eyes were fixated on a group of friends walking by... no, he's only looking at one person, you.

"It's the girl, isn't it?" Killer stated, following Kid's gaze.

Kid grumbled in response and averted his eyes from the group to glare at the ground. Even with you out of sight, you weren't out of his mind. You haunted his mind and wouldn't leave, ironic because you didn't exist to him before Ms. Makino paired the two of you for an English project this year.

"When are you gonna tell her?" Killer asks turning back to the redhead.

"I don't plan to."

"Why not? She gets along with us just fine," Killer pointed out, which is seen as a good sign in the Kid Gang since most of the girls who try to run after them have a distaste for most of their members.

"She's probably already dating that goth freak."

"Who is?"

Kid and Killer turn to see Law approaching them.

"Fuck off Trafalgar!"

"I came to ask a favour, I thought I was going look for a way to bargain but it looks like you need information." Law smirks.

Killer glances at Kid who is already growling at Law, "Kid, if you don't want to ask her directly to find out, this is the next best thing."

"I know," Kid growls, loathing at the thought of asking Law for something. "Fine! Do you know if [Y/n] is with that freak Hawkins?"

Law shook his head. "I've seen Basil hang around [Y/n] but he's not dating anyone. He says romance is nothing but delusions and a distraction in high school, maybe you should heed his words Eustass."

"I don't ask for your opinion Trafalgar!" Kid flipped him off.

"Well you did ask for information, and now you gotta pay up."

"Like hell I will after-"

"Do you know if [Y/n] is with anyone?" Killer asked for Kid, figuring if they get more info Kid will help Law without a fuss.

"I don't, but if anyone in this school would know, it's probably Basil," Law shrugs. "He knows her the most, probably the only one who knows her. Not even Strawhat or his friends know about her, and that's hard to find these days."

"I know her."

"Sure you do Eustass, but I suggest talking to Basil."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You wish to know if [Y/n] is single?" Hawkins questioned, closing his locker door and turning to Kid.

"That's what I just asked."

"May I inquire why?"

"I just want to know," Kid told him, folding his arms.

"To answer your question, no, she is not with anyone at the moment," Hawkins stated. "However, if you're wanting to pursue her, I would advise against that."

"Let hell you'll stop me!" Kid shouted, side-punching the locker beside him.

"I'm not saying I will," Hawkins said. "But I think you should reconsider."

"What do you mean?" Kid asked narrowing his eyes at the blond.

"Knowing [Y/n]'s past, it's clear that you're not suited for her."

"And what? You are!?"

"No, our relationship is as she once stated 'loners who stick together', but you, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated now that you've developed feelings for her."

"That's none of your business!"

"Perhaps not, but it is [Y/n]'s business and as someone who has known [Y/n] for quite some time now, I can't help but be concerned about her well-being," Hawkins states while maintaining eye contact with Kid. When the redhead doesn't respond, Hawkins walks past him to go to his club when he stops. "There's more to [Y/n] that you haven't seen. If you're serious about this, I suggest you find out before you go any further."

Kid stood there, hearing Hawkins' footsteps echo further down the hall.

Did he really not know you? Sure, Kid might not know your childhood or the other schools you went to, but he didn't think that'd be a big deal. He hasn't been to your house yet either but most families wouldn't want a member of a gang in their house... No, that's not an excuse. If he's going to get to know this side he hasn't seen, he has to set that aside.

Kid decided that the next time he sees you he'll take you around town to see if he could take a step closer to knowing you. At least, that's what he wanted to do, but you were making it hard to do.

You no longer stayed in your shared English class, always asking to study somewhere else. He never saw you in the halls, not even when Hawkins walked by. You were nowhere to be found at lunch, and if you were in a club at the end of the day, Kid didn't see you in there because he checked every club meeting to find you.

Two weeks passed since this started, and Kid normally didn't like assuming these kinds of things, at least not when it comes to his friends, yet his mind couldn't stop whispering this thought to him.

You were avoiding him.

Tag: @gnarlycrys @roseoftrafalgar @bookandyarndragon

#Whumptober2023 #no. 17 #“You're the lump in my throat and the knot in my chest.” #touch aversion #one piece #whump fanfiction #whump fic #whump writing #one piece au #one piece scenario #one piece x reader #one piece x you #one piece x y/n #eustass kid x reader #eustass x reader #eustass kid #one piece kid #killer #kid x reader #trafalgar law #modern one piece au #one piece modern au #modern au #high school au #x reader #no 17

[skyward-floored]

Hello!!

Um…

I really loved that one fic you wrote called “caged” with fable and legend, and I also really liked the sequel. I love how you described the scenes, it was really fun to read!

I saw that you were talking with another user about how legend got into the castle, and you mentioned that he probably got in through the secret passage way that he knows from alttp

I was wondering if maybe you were thinking about writing a prequel to that fic?

Maybe about how the chain lands in Legends Hyrule and they see Hyrule castle looming in the distance, perhaps under a spell of some kind and legend immediately runs towards it to find he can’t enter normally and he tells the chain that he does know of a way in. So they enter through the secret passageway and perhaps legend gets some flashbacks to alttp as they’re fighting monsters (or maybe brainwashed guards) and looking for fable.

It’s just a suggestion tho! I’m aware you have other stuff to do, so…

Uh anyways, I really liked this years whumptober fics a Lot too, they were all amazing! You are really such a talented writer!

That’s all, hugs!!🫂🫂🫂

I hope you have a nice day

So I wasn’t really thinking about writing a prequel at all, and I don’t do requests really but... well. The idea intrigued me, and I sat down and started writing, and this came out 😅

It’s minimally edited and certainly not my best work, but hey, it’s something. I hope you enjoy the little prequel anon, and thank you for the kind words :)

Caged

The sequel (Aftermath)

———————————————————

Again.

Again.

It was all Legend could think of as he stared at the castle in the distance, dread and anger and too many emotions for him to name making his hands shake.

They’d just exited a portal, landing in his Kakariko, and the relief of being back in his own time was immediately overshadowed by the oppressive dark magic in the air. Impa had found them soon after, and explained with a worried look in her eyes about a wizard who had tricked them, and overtaken the castle.

With Zelda inside.

The blood had begun to roar in Legend’s ears as Impa explained further, but he was barely listening anymore, his head spinning and chest tight with anger.

She’s in danger again, the kingdom’s in trouble again, and I wasn’t here to protect—

“Legend, what should we—?”

He took off.

He ignored the shouts of the others, the calls for him to wait up, and booked it towards the castle, his pegasus boots making it impossible for the other heroes to keep up with him. Rain had begun to fall at some point, but Legend didn’t let it stop him, not even when he nearly wiped out in a puddle.

He reached the castle gates in mere minutes, and banged a fist on the doors. They were shut tight though, sealed with magic that Legend knew he wouldn’t be able to break. But he pounded against them anyway, took out one of his rods and blasted at it, tried his rings and items and all sorts of things before finally kicking at them with an angry yell.

The others had caught up to him by then, and they joined his side, split evenly between looking at him and looking up at the gates.

“How are we going to get in?” Wind asked a little hesitantly, and Legend sighed, swiping some drops of rain off his face.

“I know a way.”

He’d hoped he wouldn’t have to use it, but it looked like it was the only way they could get inside.

Legend led them all around to the east side of the castle, the group’s weapons drawn and eyes squinted through the rain for any enemies. It was only a passing shower, not a torrential thunderstorm like the last time he’d used this passage, but the similarities still made Legend tense.

History sure does love repeating itself.

More then one concerned look was shot his way as they went, but Legend ignored them, as well as the memories that were trying to claw their way to the forefront of his mind. He had a job to do and a princess to save, and he wasn’t going to get lost in his head.

Even though this was at least the fourth time he’d done this and he was so tired of evil striking at his kingdom and the people he loved and having to stop them again and again. He wasn’t going to think about it.

Not now.

They didn’t run into any monsters on the way to the other side of the castle, which made Legend suspicious, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He quickly revealed the secret passage that would lead them inside, and gestured the others in.

“That’s convenient,” Wild commented, and Warriors studied the passage in interest.

“Are you the only one who uses this tunnel? Seems like a security risk.”

“Only a few people know it exists,” Legend replied, then dropped in so he wouldn’t have to continue the conversation.

Legend took the lead as they began to walk down the tunnel, and kept himself several paces in front of the others, his shoulders slowly hitching upward.

Water dripped as they walked along the passage, running on the edges and making the floor damp. There weren’t any monsters in this spot either, which made it easy for Legend to stride as quickly as possible past the spot where his uncle had breathed his last.

He hated being down here. He hated the reason he was down here and the slimy feel of the floor under his boots, and the smell in the air and the squeak of rats he hated it.

And was it his imagination, or was he smelling blood?

“Legend?”

Legend breathed in sharply as a hand landed on his shoulder, and he looked over at Twilight, the older hero giving him a searching look. They were nearly to where the dungeons connected, he didn’t want to stop now.

“You alright?” Twilight asked, and Legend let out a bitter laugh.

“Sure, I love coming home to find out the kingdom got taken over in my absence. And nobody knows what happened to my Zelda, and getting to tromp around in the sewers, I’m having the time of my life, thanks,” he snapped. “What’s one more crisis for the kingdom of Hyrule?”

Twilight’s hand didn’t leave his shoulder. “Legend.”

Legend stopped in his tracks and glared back at Twilight, gripping his sword so tightly he was sure it was leaving lines in his palms. “What.”

“We’ll save her, Legend,” Twilight said firmly, and gave his shoulder a bracing squeeze. “You’re not alone. You’ve got us this time— whatever this wizard is capable of is no match for all nine of us. We’ll save Zelda, and the kingdom. We’ll stop this together.”

Legend stared, then looked behind Twilight to where the rest of the Links were standing, and they all gave him equally determined looks. Their eyes were bright and fierce, and full of just as much resolve to save Zelda as his own were.

Legend felt his eyes sting, but he forced himself to blink the tears back, and nodded at Twilight, breathing out as some of the emotions storming in his chest eased a bit.

Twilight released his shoulder, and Legend turned back around, waving them all onward.

“Only a bit further to the dungeons. We’ll check for Zelda there first, but if she’s not there, we’ll... we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Legend said firmly. “Finding her is our biggest objective. The wizard comes second.”

The others nodded as they crossed through a doorway, and Legend squared his shoulders, shoving away the rest of his anxiety and terror and digging up the courage in his chest that had gotten him through six adventures already.

We’re coming Zelda, hold on, he thought desperately, shouting a warning back to the others as they reached the dungeons, and an enemy’s sword nearly took his head off.

Please be okay.

#linkeduniverse #linked universe #linked universe fanfic #lu legend #lu chain #can be read as fable/legend :) #answers from the floor #anon #writing from the floor #I didn’t totally follow your idea but I hope you like it anon!

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

First off, don't watch the Ahsoka show and even if you do, it's immensely anti-Jedi so none of it should be considered worthwhile content in figuring out how relationships work between the Jedi normally, especially since Ahsoka herself doesn't consider herself OR Sabine Jedi (she doesn't even WANT Sabine to be a Jedi). The only other Master/Padawan relationship in the Ahsoka show is Baylan and Shin who also don't consider themselves to be Jedi.

Here's the thing with "found family" as a concept. A lot of people like putting people into certain labels and going for a basic nuclear family mom/dad/kids kind of set up. But it does not HAVE to be that way. A "found family" can be a bunch of people who consider each other friends, with no familial feelings at all. It can be literally anything.

Rebels does go for more of a sort-of mom/dad/kids deal, particularly with Kanan, Hera, Sabine, and Ezra. Zeb however lives in a somewhat more nebulous gray area where you COULD see him as a fellow "child" in the dynamic, but he doesn't really care for being considered a child during the episode where he and the other Lasat find Lira San and he's clearly older and more experienced than either Ezra or Sabine, so he could just as easily be considered an "uncle" of sorts if you wanted to, or an older cousin or something maybe.

The other thing to consider with Rebels is that, while the group does include two Jedi, none of these relationships would necessarily be typical representations of how Prequels Jedi relationships would have looked or how they would've thought of each other. Kanan and Ezra's relationships to the rest of Ghost crew is impacted by that difference, especially since Ezra specifically did not grow up in the Temple among other Jedi and spent most of his childhood and early teens in a very different situation. And Kanan, by Rebels, would've spent more time WITHOUT any relationships with other Jedi than he would've had WITH them.

So with all of that in mind, I think that the Jedi's relationships aren't NEARLY as clear cut as people seem to want them to be. They're a family, yes, but they're a family that is 10,000 strong at least. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time keeping like less than 50 members of my family straight, what their names are and who they're related to, much less ten thousand people. I think it's very likely that all Jedi would feel a kinship to fellow Jedi, but that they probably don't personally know every single Jedi. In TCW, Ahsoka seems to need to be introduced to Tera Sinube for the first time when she's 14 years old. So while she might see someone like Plo Koon as a closer parental figure, she's not going to feel the same way about Tera Sinube who she barely knows.

I think any Master/Padawan relationship is going to sort-of vary depending on the individuals involved. Some of them might be quite close, some might be more professional. Some might be pretty close in age and so their dynamic leans closer to friends and siblings than it would parent and child. Others might have a larger age gap and so the dynamic could lead closer to parent/child or even grandparent/grandchild. Some of them might shift over time, too, or have layers of more than one of these dynamics. For example, Anakin calls Obi-Wan "the closest thing he's ever had to a father" in AOTC, but Obi-Wan calls him a brother twice in ROTS. So their relationship may have had shades of both dynamics given the age difference, the relationship dynamic could have shifted over time from a more parent/child relationship to a more sibling relationship, or they each may have seen the relationship slightly differently with Anakin looking more for a parental dynamic while Obi-Wan is perhaps going more for a relationship of equals (at least by ROTS). It could be any of these three things combined, too.

There's a comic where Obi-Wan is asked whether Anakin is his son and Obi-Wan responds that no, Anakin is his Padawan, his student. While this isn't strictly canon, I think it fits quite nicely into my interpretation that the Master/Padawan relationship is its own specific kind of dynamic and while it can be SIMILAR to other kinds of relationships, it is very much its own thing. It's not a static relationship, it's not just the Jedi version of parents and children, it is a distinct relationship that changes and grows with the individuals. There is no 1:1 comparison for all Master/Padawan relationships.

As for Ezra and Jacen, you could apply a similar concept. Kanan, much like Obi-Wan with Anakin, fills a parental role for Ezra, but he's also growing and developing ALONGSIDE Ezra and could be considered a younger brother of sorts, too. Jacen is family to Ezra, but I don't think you HAVE to place a particular label on what that dynamic is, whether they'd consider each other like brothers or whether Ezra would be more of an uncle. And it doesn't even have to specifically be defined by their respective relationships to KANAN, either. Jacen and Ezra might come up with their own dynamic that has nothing to do with how they each feel about Kanan and is specific to their own relationship. I don't think you have to be super specific about saying that because Kanan was Ezra's Master, this automatically makes Ezra basically his son and so Ezra and Jacen should consider themselves like brothers and never have an uncle/nephew dynamic. I think Ezra and Jacen can be whatever you want them to be to each other.

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels #ezra bridger #jacen syndulla #kanan jarrus #jedi #jedi culture

[strayflowersstarsandlove]

Grey areas (leefelix)

DISCLAIMER: these longer writings can be read as both standalones or part 2's/prequels etc if you will.

IF you wish to imagine the characters following a chronological narration of events, this one can definitely be read after "Peaches and cream" as it could serve as a moment in time that happens after the events in the blurb mentioned above.

You had been staring at the ceiling for a bit now, floating in and out of sleep for a few hours until you finally decided to just stay awake while Felix was still fast asleep right next to you, with his bare arms clutching the duvet and his pouty lips and delicate side profile he looked so much younger and innocent you just didn't have the heart to wake him up. And so a few hours had already come and gone, you scrolled on your phone, counted up to 10.000 in your head, tried to fall back asleep a couple of times but in the end you just ended up awake and restless.

Your thoughts were nagging at you no matter how much you tried to ignore them. Admittedly, you had always been an overthinker but ever since your friendship with Felix started transitioning into something else you hadn't been able to stop your head from spinning and spinning. You two were in that awkward inbetween stage where you weren't just friends but you weren't in an official relationship either. You'd hang out all the time and hold hands and kiss an awful lot and he would often spend the night at your place, he would be walking around just in his boxer or cuddling you silly while still being respectful of your boundaries and calling you pet names all the time and that's probably what drove you insane: he acted like he was your boyfriend through and through but never outwardly said anything about you guys officialy dating.

It had been over two months since you decided you wanted to try it out and see if you were meant to be more than just best friends and it wasn't like you hated it or anything, you actually liked that there was a mutual understanding in taking things slow and not forcing something that perhaps wasn't there yet.

Problem was you were probably much more into him than he might have been into you. You yearned to spend all of your time with him, you desperately wanted him to introduce you to his friends as his girlfriend and not just by your name. You were almost getting too impatient for him to just want you as much as you wanted him.

"Mmmh ..whattimeisit?", Felix grumbles, his words coming out jumbled and muffled by sleep, his voice so cavernously low it sends shivers down your back still, no matter how many times you guys slept at each other's place, religiously only just slept. You roll over on your side so you're now facing him and force a smile on your face, "it's almost 1 pm", his eyes go wide and his expression adorably shocked, "OH", he exclaims, rubbing his eyes and cheeks, "why didn't you wake me up earlier?", he mumbles then, blinking sleepy eyes, pouty face and messy messy hair sticking out in all directions, "you looked too cute and peaceful, I didn't have the heart to", you admit shyly and he grins at you in that radiant way it makes you melt from the inside, "mmh c'me here",Felix pulls you close to him, nuzzling his face in the crook of your neck, cushiony lips pressing gentle kisses on the goosebumps covering your skin.

His hands slip beneath your shirt, palms running up your sides and your waist, fingers inching closer and closer up your torso. The feeling of his mouth opening and closing on your skin, his tongue caressing the pulsating vein next to your birthmark beneath your ear, his leg hooking around your lower body... It is all a bit too much for you.

You physically feel all your muscles giving in all at once as if you were actually melting into him. Melting for him. His teeth graze your skin and in a moment you know you're gonna get a purple flower blooming on the side of your neck, maybe even multiple ones, his breath is labored and hot as he sucks on your skin, and you just let him. You just let it all overwhelm you for a second cause it feels way too good to spoil it with the million thoughts currently spinning in your head, the inside of your brain now looking very much like a overheating blender.

Love bites soon turn into just kisses, long, sloppy kisses that leave a wet trail all over your face as soon as he redirects his lips back on your cheeks and your nose and your mouth and it feels heavenly and intoxicating and his hands move up to brush the sides of your boobs, and your fingers move on autopilot, finding their way through his wispy blonde locks which you pull at a little, making him groan against your mouth, grind against your lower abdomen. You are burning up now. Your cheeks aflame, your breath erratic when he suddenly grabs your hand and places it right on the crotch of his boxers-"stop stop, wait, Felix please wait".

And Felix immediately stops. He promptly removes your hand from him and his hands from you and just looks up at you with the most concerned eyes you've ever seen, "are you okay? Was that too - too much?", he stutters a little, his eyes going so wide and panicked, "I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry. I'm so incredibly sorry, Lix. But I can't".

You didn't expect it to come out like that, so suddenly, so strained, your eyes already getting teary, "what? What is it that you can't do anymore? Did I come on too strong? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry if I did", he apologises profusely, a frown taking over his whole face as his eyes run frantically all over your own, "no, no it's just... I can't be friends with benefits with you, I just can't. I'm not - I'm not comfortable with that. I'm falling for you, Felix. I cannot keep up with this pretense of us being simultaneously this close and this cool,almost cold, almost fuck buddies. I think I might need you more than you need me", you pause, taking a ragged breath in, trying to keep your composure even if you feel your eyes already brimming with tears, "but I need you as a boyfriend, or as a true friend. Just a friend. I'm sorry. We might just want different things and that's okay. I can't force you to be in a relationship with me, but please don't make me do this anymore".

Your heart feels a little lighter now. But with that lightness the floodgates open as copious amounts of tears start rolling down your cheeks, and in your overwhelmed state you barely register Felix tearing up as well, pulling you into his arms and sobbing in your hair as his desperate voice comes out croacky and broken, "I can't believe you've been feeling like this for this long, God I'm so sorry. I fucked up so bad, I fucked up so so bad". You cry in each other's arms, the both of you breaking down over and over, letting it all out.

You gradually calm down and after a little while, your tears are now dry and salty on your lips, you slowly peel yourself from him, tucking his hair away from his blotchy face, you force a bittersweet smile on your lips and brush your thumb underneath his swollen eyes, "are you going to be alright?", you ask quietly, tentaintevely almost, Felix shakes his head, "I don't think so. I can't lose you y/n, I never meant for any of this to happen, never wanted us to be friends with benefits, the thought of using you and making you feel trapped in something you hated never even crossed my mind", he replies quietly, you sigh softly, your heart breaking all over again as you listen to the little sobs still escaping his mouth.

"I wanted to be with you from day one. Remember that time at the park when we went biking and then we went for a walk and then we had a picnic and I told you I'd never felt that pure, blissful happiness with another person up until that point? I think it was our first date after we'd decided we wanted to see if we could be more than friends", Felix continues, and you nod your agreement, biting the inside of your lip out of nervousness, "I remember telling you I never wanted that feeling to end, that that one date was all I needed to know and that my best friend had been that one person I had been looking for all along, and I truly meant that. Every word. And you seemed so happy as well... ".

Felix reaches out and touches your cheekbone, his finger pads just gently brushing your skin," what went wrong? This whole time I thought we were going to be okay, I thought we were just getting closer… I had no idea you were in so much pain".

You blink away few random leftover tears and rest your hand on top oh his, still on your cheek, "Lixy I wanted to be with you from day one too, I wanted you to look at me and see your girlfriend cause I looked at you and saw everything I've ever wanted. But you introduced me to all of your friends like I was just another one of your girl friends, some days we barely talked, some others you'd camp out at my place and we'd sleep in the same bed but you wouldn't touch me with a stick. And then some other days you were all over me. And we started only seeing each other at night, went to no more dates. I thought you just… I don't know. I thought maybe you changed your mind and were reassessing whether you just wanted for us to be just friends with benefits".

Felix looks at you perplexed, frowning, with his eyebrows knitting together, "y/n that's the exact opposite of what I wanted. I didn't want rush into things, didn't want to push you. I guess my actions weren't very consistent and I'm sorry. Please forgive me", he pleads, shiny, kind eyes staring into yours and joined hands praying for your mercy.

You catch yourself tearing up again but this time you smile through your silent crying and nod, you nod until your necks starts hurting and launch yourself into his arms once again, "I'm sorry I misinterpreted your heart. You are such a kind person Felix, I should've never doubted you", you mumble into his hair and he tightens his grip around you, sniffling and kissing your head and your ears and your hair, "no, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I gave you a million reasons to. But no more",he reluctantly pulls away from you and kisses the tip of your nose, "no more doubts. No more grey areas. I'm yours, I'm fully, completely yours, I'd love to be your boyfriend and I'd love for you to be my girlfriend, officially".

#lee felix #lee know #hanjisung #hyunjin #lee minho #bang chan #changbin #jeongin #seungmin #stray kids #Skz #Stray kids x reader #Straykids #Stray kids blurbs #Stray kids fluff #Stray kids imagines #stray kids scenarios #skz x reader #stray kids x you #skz imagines

[moodymisty]

yoo I see requests are open 👀 Grievous is currently living in my head rent free so feel free to ignore the Star Wars if you're not feeling it or ya just don't write for him yes.

hhhh anywho goodness not sure what to ask. maybe some headcanons on what Grievous is like when he falls for someone. he strikes me as someone who would be majorly in denial for a long time lol. gentler (for him) actions and protectiveness not always matching harsh words. like a majorly burnt, kinda stale marshmallow, with a gooey, mostly edible center XD rambling aside or maybe some jealousy headcanons? those are always fun. whichever one might strike your fancy at all.

well I never know how to end these things lol hope you're doing well ✨

Who doesn't love the Angry Lung Cancer Robot? Not me for sure, I love that ugly thing since I first watched the prequels. I'll always be just a lil' spiteful that TCW turned him into a running gag. Sorry if these headcanons are a little less 'professional' than my usual, I couldn't form my thoughts in a way I liked so I figured you'd enjoy it more if I just vomited them out wholesale. And you've waited long enough :'3

---

He definitely strikes me as the 'affection is when I stand 3 centimeters closer' type of person. Like it's going to be just sort of an undertone throughout the ship of like 'yeah the General prefers them/asks for them to do things instead of anyone else, we don't talk about it'. It probably persists for months before anything comes of it.

If you somehow manage to notice it, it's probably a battle of deciding what in the galaxy to do about it if anything. (is getting the attention of a warmonger cyborg a good thing?) If anything you might not do anything about it just so you feel a little safer on the ship. It's not like Grievous has the lowest causality rate, though it's mostly droids.

I don't think he would have the emotional intelligence to really ever realize, someone would have to point it out to him. Perhaps like you said maybe months later he would, but that would be a pipe dream. He's not an easy guy, that's for sure.

Perhaps he'll realize, but he'll excuse it more so as he prefers you for your competency, rather than something a bit deeper. Droids get programmed to report nonemergency issues to you, because not only does he not get infuriated by them as much, he trusts your ability to solve issues just a modicum more than others aboard. A good thing? Maybe. You can deal the negotiations, he'll just stand behind you, menacingly. If things fall through, then he'll be there to make sure you don't get hurt. For strategical reasons, of course.

As for jealousy? Given the previous points I made and your own I think it would be pretty obvious that a jealous Grievous is a Grievous you want to be miles away from. He's more than likely the type that would use violence or threats of in order to keep people away.

He might also deliver things to your directly, or even make your office/barrack/personal quarters towards the bridge of the ship closer to his. It's a mix of both subtle, and horribly unsubtle things.

Anyways, Grevious is a mess. But we never said we could fix him, and that's the fun part. (give the killer cyborg a smooch and tell him he's the best general in the separatist army, he deserves it)

#mywriting #general grevious x reader #star wars x reader #reader insert #reader

[beevean]

I make a living knitting lace... I used to live somewhere else with my family, but we were attacked by a group of monsters... Was your place safe?

When you think about it, the implication that, in this version, Rosaly's family was killed by Hector's own Devils is chilling. Hector here seems to be considering the possibility.

Of course, it's not certain that it was him. It could have been Isaac. They most likely attacked so many villages that they all blur together. It took time for Hector to even realize the extent of the harm they were causing.

How the hell do you even admit something like that?

This is honestly something I wish both prequels had the time/courage to tackle. It's one thing to believe to be a demon because you were born with creepy powers: that's easy to dispel. How about being an instrument of mass slaughter? How about maybe causing the death of the loved ones of the woman who is selflessly helping you? Is it more forgivable if you had been groomed as a boy to believe it was just to pay eye for an eye because humans are hateful creatures? Is it more forgivable if you are genuinely remorseful and trying your best to turn a new page and repent?

Is it dishonest to keep the truth to yourself, or would admitting your sins cause nothing more than unnecessary pain?

I don't blame the other manga for going with a much simpler backstory of "my adoptive parents died of natural causes, so I'd like for you to live with me". Hell, in that version, Hector was waiting for the other shoe to drop, he wanted Rosaly to ask him about his past! This is some complex moral stuff that probably shouldn't have been relegated to a throwaway panel. Then again, perhaps it's better than feeding the reader a shallow lesson...

#castlevania #akumajou dracula #prelude to revenge #hector castlevania #thoughts i've been having because in my fic hector does admit to rosaly that he used to work for dracula #with all that it entails #and i was wondering if i could include this detail #... then i realized that not even rosaly would forgive hector if it turns out that he caused the death of her parents #like. it's a lot. and i ranted enough about badly written products that want you to forgive serious criminals #(ofc i'm assuming her parents died from the context. maybe they moved lol. but i doubt it)

[gffa]

I don't know if I'm being really cynical, and I probably don't have a leg to stand on since I haven't watched any SW content since Mando S2 (and never finished Rebels), but I am really side-eyeing the Dawn of the Jedi and Rey rebuilding the Jedi stuff cause I'm afraid they're going to show the new Jedi and the formation of the Jedi as having attachments and marriages and such and imply the prequels Jedi were doing things wrong and had lost their way cause they don't do attachment, and perhaps that's me being cynical cause from what I understand, The High Republic does not do that and shows the Jedi at their peak and they are a lot like prequels Jedi, but I do not trust Disney to adhere to that, not to mention after TOTJ focused on two Jedi who left the Order...

I don't know, my doubts probably don't have merit, but I just needed to address it to someone who is pro-Jedi might be able to address my worries. Sorry

It's a reasonable worry and it might happen, we won't know until we get those shows and they might be really good, they might be mediocre, they might be really bad. It can be tough not to let your thoughts spiral and worry! But you know what those movies can't do? They can't change the first six movies + the first season seasons of TCW. They can't change the foundation of George Lucas' Jedi Order. Would it suck to have to deal with a franchise that dropped the ball on the Jedi? Yeah, it would, but it still can't change that those movies exist, that those interviews with Lucas exist, that Rebels exists as it is, that the Obi-Wan Kenobi show exists as it is, that Padawan exists as it is, that the Age of Republic comics exists as they are. And even if we have to deal with a franchise dropping the ball and fandom talking about it, we have a large enough fandom that we Jedi fans have built here that we don't need anything outside of ourselves. What's the point of fandom? To talk about things we liked, to build up cute scenarios we liked, to read fic we liked--we can do that already! We can continue doing that in our own corner and have a perfectly great fandom experience, because that's what a fandom experience is when you get down to it. If we have to retreat to just Lucas' Star Wars and ignore any other content, so be it. That's still a big enough playground to play around in! And maybe they'll be good, maybe not, but at the end of the day, we still have the foundation of what we've already built and each other, we don't really need anything more. We can just sit back and have a good time with the things we have already and whatever else comes along that we don't like, we can ignore, and what we like, we can fold in with everything else.

#lumi.txt #jedi order

[kissitbttr]

PLEASEEEE IM BEGGING YOU NOTHING WOULD MAKE ME HAPPIER THAN A FRAT!TOJI CAMEO 🙏 or maybe..even toji’s own frat series..PLEASE <3

don’t worry baby!!! frat!toji will DEFINITELY make a cameo!!

wait please u got me thinking!!

should I probably make frat!toji a thing too?? maybe like some sort of a prequel of toji and muñeca dating before miguel?? during their sophomore year?? or a new idea of frat!toji?? perhaps where their fraternities are somehow rivals and the reader is a sorority girl and they hated each other at the beginning?? or where frat!toji is a notorious player who’s known to be doing the ‘use and toss’ method with girls?? who’s known to be so careless around girls because he sees no point in making them loved?? maybe player frat!toji finds no purpose in relationships at all because it’s a waste of time?? but the moment his eyes falls upon the reader and he gets truly humbled?? like she’s not easy like the rest, in fact she puts him in his place!! it pisses him off yet turn him on at the same time because fuck?! how could a girl look so cold and sexy by telling him to fuck off?! and that’s when he started to realize that shit don’t matter if he can’t have HER!! he’s doing everything he can to prove to her that she’s the only one!! and he’s now showing up to classes because she wants him to see that he’s trying too?? OH GOD SO MANYYYY THOUGHTSSSS

#hi its me ana #frat!toji

[swifty-fox]

yo you post your fics on AO3? if so please share your user babe

omg yes I do! you can check my swiftywrites tag but

Masters of the Air:

Kingdom for a Kiss - WIP (34k written, 19k Posted) Long-form Postwar exploration of Clegan's relationship and their trauma. Updates weeky. Mature rating will be bumped to Explicit later

“I wasn’t the one all but begging to be shot by the guards for months on end there Bucky.” Buck shakes his head, laughing sharply. His anger was a living thing now and he aches with it “Nah, nah, not me. No, I was the one dragging your crazy ass back from the brink time and time again. Trying to convince those fucking Germans your sorry carcass was of more use alive than dead, trying to keep the men busy and motivated while you fucked about. You're welcome by the way.” He jabs a finger in John's direction, who stares at him taken aback. “So’s I don’t see much of a reason why I should let you come up into my home and cast your judgments around.”

Bucks chest heaves, great gulps of air like he’s once again racing through snow-covered German trees. He can tell he’s shocked John into silence, the other man's eyes darting back and forth. Buck averts his gaze, brushing his hair back from his face. That’s twice now he’s lost himself at the people he cares about. Twice now he’s bitten a hand reached out in kindness.

Gale takes a deep breath to compose himself, tucks the jagged angry edges of himself back to face inwards. “You said you would write.”

Little Beast: Ongoing. Porn with a bit of Plot modern au of Burnout John and Priest Gale. 9k of them fucking and arguing. p2 is in the drafts and will be part of a series of stories. NSFW to the max

“It’s such a shame you’re cooped up in here like Rapunzel there Buck.” John drawls lazily. He makes a show of looking around “Is Mother Gothel nearby?” 

Buck has to fight back against another smile, wouldn't give him the satisfaction or the encouragement “Father Huglin is away at a conference today.”

“All alone without a chaperone.” 

press your tired hands against my lips darling: Finished. 3K word re-write of the Bucks final conversation in the cockpit. Loose prequel to KfaK but with some minor inaccuracies Mostly SFW

Gale takes John's hand, brings the scarred knuckles to his mouth and holds it there, turns their hands over til he can place his lips to the pulse point at John’s wrist. It’s not a kiss, there’s no press or pursing of lips, but tender nevertheless, intimate in a way that makes Gale shudder. Cautious of whether John will even allow this.  

“I ain’t prayed in a long time,” Gale says whisper-soft. He feels John’s pulse skip a beat, “but I prayed every day you were safe and alive and coming back to me. Every morning, and every night.”  He lets himself cry again, tears hidden against the scarred skin of John's hand. 

The Old Guard:

in another life maybe you and i would be walking down an aisle in white: Finished Joe/Nicky (18K) Art Professor Joe & Art Conservator Nicky reconnect after ten years. This one is uh. Sad. Mind the tags. It's an incredibly personal piece to me and probably one of my favorites .NSFW

Dear Joe, you have always been the brave one and I wished every moment for even a drop of that. Perhaps that is why I claimed you as mine, out of a desperate need to have even an ounce of what made you, you. I desired you but I would not, could not ever let you in. I loved you and kept you and hurt you, keelhauled you against the impenetrable ship that was my heart and when the ragged pieces were left behind I still asked of you your silence.  

It is no wonder our love was left in bloody tatters on that lawn. 

Make me a Saint: Finished (8k) Nicky and Nile mete out some justice to a corrupt priest. NSFW for violence. Mind the tags. As of right now, my most popular fic

“ I was a priest before your bible was even written old man ” Nickys voice thunders in the tiny room, crackling over the walls like fire. Even Nile flinches at the sudden volume. He takes another step forwards, bracketing Father Marcus’ arthritic twisted feet with his own.

His voice does not shake.

“I preached the word of God before your language was even invented . I have known the church for longer than you can comprehend. I have seen great men and evil men take up the word of the Lord and I have seen them all rendered dust. I have seen you and I have judged you, Father Marcus. The Church may practice restraint but I do not. The diocese may have turned a blind eye I but I do not. The courts may have found you innocent but I do not . 

Calcification of a God: Finished (4K) Nicky has a lil Menty B and then Joe gives him a bath. Mostly SFW if I recall correctly

“I think,” Nicky says “If I were God, it was you I modeled humanity after. I think if I were God I would have left my throne in heaven to walk beside you and I would have been richer for it”

Yusuf chuckles “Death makes you sentimental my darling.”

Wolfstar:

Oh Captain, My Captain!: Finished, 1.6k Drabble of Wolfstar cuddling and reciting poetry. SFW

He cups the back of Remus’s head, presses him further into the safety of his body with a hand on his mismatched, misaligned rib cage and rocks them slightly. Remus grunts slightly. Sirius hides the teeth of his smile against the follow of his own neck and allows the curtain of his hair to cover them both for a moment. He listens to the two of them breath, always slightly out of sync, out of rhythm. Remus quick and labored, Sirius racing to catch up only to find himself charging ahead only to drop back behind when he tries to slow down. 

“ If I vibrate with vibrations other than yours, must you conclude that my flesh is insensitive ” That doesn’t fit quite right, so he tries another, brow furrowed and fingers tracing the knobs of Remus’ spine like the knots on a tree, with reverence and a little hint of greed. 

#swiftytalks #swiftywrites #my fics #wolfstar #clegan #joe x nicky #the old guard #masters of the air #just thought i would take this chance to compile all the links

[dreamii-krybaby]

Hey so this might be a weird ask but this is something that's been plaguing me for a while.

I was wondering if you could give any writing tips for Yeva to me?

I'm currently writing a fic and it's at the prequel phase which obviously means I gotta include Yeva in it, already have, but I'm not really sure how to write her.

I'd also love to go more in depth with her husband and how she interacts with, both pre and post planet explosion.

Sorry if you can't really answer this ask, just figured I'd ask the #1 Yeva fan for ideas about it.

Also while I'm here, thank you for discovering that site 48 paper. I saw some stuff on that bulletin board I wanted to check out but I just couldn't read it so in a theory video I made I asked if anyone could look at it, obviously with only like 200 views no one did but I'm glad you checked it out. Super intriguing to me and something I def want to expand on in my fic.

Anyways, thanks for checking this out and keep doing what you're doing, someone's gotta be the #1 fan of my second favorite traumatized Russian robot and I'd say you're doing a damn good job.

*cracks necks and knuckles*

You came to the right place buddy.

Also, nice! Great seeing someone who likes Yeva a lot :3

Anyways now you gotta keep in mind this what I’ve gathered from Yeva, is a mix of my interpretation of what is shown off her in canon and my HCs

Yeva is also a character that can have many different interpretations which most of them IMO are valid and make sense

Now I assume you want me to help you developing her personality wise, correct?

I think Yeva is definitely someone that is the opposite of Nori, perhaps even a reflection of Nori.

Just like Uzi is a reflection of Doll, I’ve mentioned in one of my posts that each member of the Doorman’s and each member of Doll’s family could actually mirror to eachother!

So i think it’s pretty obvious that Yeva is a rather perhaps, a cold person. Doesn’t express much or isn’t the one to usually smile or be happy go lucky or interact with people all the time, that’s Nori’s thing

Doll could actually show off some characteristics she inherited from her mom apart from the looks and the AS

Probably she is aloof, brooding, speaks very little and only necessarily, her voice rarely showing much emotion. She isn’t the kind to approach or make the first move unless it is absolutely necessary, she is the kind of person to hang out by someone’s side, rather than taking the spotlight.

Of course that doesn’t mean she is devoid of emotion, she is just isn’t a very expressive and open person, normally.

Or maybe she does likes to sometimes show off some skills she has, maybe to make some of her colleagues to back off during her time at the labs/camps used her AS.

Her EP7 teaser appearance tbh screams to me “Idgaf about ur annoying ass” energy, like she will stare at you and judge everything wrong with you, I can see her definitely being snarky when she has too

Of EP4 and EP6 show that she is still able to feel intense emotions and express them even if it isn’t her thing. After all she is going through very traumatic situations in both EPs.

Maybe you could play with then idea of her showing different sides of her depending on who she interacts. Maybe she more emotional and slightly more open towards her husband and doll, and with nori (pre-core collapse) she is a bit more reserved but still somewhat sassy and snarky, like in a bestie way.

Now some people see her basically as an anxious wet cat and a bit paranoid. Which I can also see that, mostly due to the AS and after witnessing the horrors after the core collapse, I personally think she is aware on how dangerous the AS is, mostly by possibility witnessing Nori’s possession and she herself getting momentarily possessed causing the site-48 incident

She is clearly a traumatized woman who knows how badly the AS can be, and has probably developed certain coping mechanisms like other characters, maybe some of her stand-off-ish characteristics are a way for her to “shield” herself or to not feel so much pain.

She may be someone who is stuck in the past, or is having a hard time to moving on, which tbh I cannot blame her. This is mostly an inference from the fact she kept the exact same outfit she had at CFL, unlike Nori possibly.

I can also see her having a progressive change of character/personality the more shit she has to deal with, going from a cold, snarky, resting bitch face girlboss to an anxious, traumatized, low socializing woman.

Or again, these are different sides she shows in different moments or characters, maybe she sometimes “cracks” and shows how truly she subconsciously feels sometimes.

Its also worth mentioning that my theory, her dying outside possibly looking for answers or a cure for the AS or something that could stop the AS’s plans by going back to the labs truly shows she was willing to take the risk of death for the sake of her family and maybe the other WD’s.

I feel like she wanted to give Doll everything that she never had, giving her the best life, she could also be a sort of slightly reserved mom but like still cares for her kid.

I can also see her teaching her early on how to handle herself on her own and survive. Definitely see her as someone who taught Doll to keep herself as 1st priority.

#murder drones #murder drones yeva #yeva murder drones #md yeva #yeva md

[crazycookiecrumbles]

The One With the Sex in the Gym

A/N: This is a prequel series to my Stark!Readerverse series. Those are all my stories that start with “A” and have some other shit following it.

Masterlist

Stark!Verse Masterlist

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Stark!Reader,; [[Pre Shang-Chi x Stark!Reader]] Tony Stark x Daughter!Reader

Warnings: swearing, sexual themes, minors DNI, tony losing his mind, steve proving he is just a little shit from brooklyn

Summary:  Tony has been insufferable to deal with. As such, Steve feels it’s time to teach him a little lesson when it comes to your relationship.

Tony Stark was a lot of things. The man was a genius ,billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and according to some in the Tower, he was also an absolute overbearing and overprotective mess of a man. Well, at least according to some people. Apparently, since the rest of the team moved in after the events in D.C., Tony was seen as an overbearing, doting, nosy, invasive individual.

Sure, maybe he crashed one-too-many dinner dates between Y/N and Steve.

Yes, perhaps he did throw open her bedroom door a few times to make sure that they were decent and say that he was not hosting a brothel.

Okay, maybe he followed them to the movies but that was only one time.

Fine, the people that said he was too overbearing happened to be his own daughter and her boyfriend, but he had valid reasons. I mean, he was her father, right? This was his job to protect his little girl. Besides, how much did they really even know about the super soldier anatomy? Not enough, probably. Who knows what Steve was capable of? He could accidentally kill Tony’s kid, for all he knew or worse, get her pregnant and force a shotgun wedding to a man old enough to have seen the invention of sliced bread…….

Was he that old? Eh, who cares.

Well, Tony cares, but that’s about it.

So, on one of his many daily missions of finding out what his kid and her geriatric boyfriend were up to, Tony found himself navigating the tower. They weren’t in either of their rooms, nor the living room, the lab, nowhere. Everywhere he happened to look was a dead-end, so Tony had to rely on the work of Jarvis to spy on his kid.

“Sir, the two are currently in the gym.”

“The gym?” Tony raised an eyebrow as he set down his smoothie. “Cap trains in the mornings.”

“I’m aware, sir.”

“Y/N has to be dragged to the gym for combat training.”

“I’m also aware of this, sir.”

“Oh, god. They can’t defile the gym, those stains will never come out!”

“I’m curious to know what you think is exactly in super soldier sperm that it wouldn’t —“

“Ah, don’t say sperm!” Tony shouted as he leapt up from his seat and made his way to the gym. “That’s a hex upon this household, Jarvis, you know that.”

Jarvis would have sighed deeply if he thought it would help Tony to register how ridiculous this was, “Sir, need I remind you of the many conquests of yours I’ve witnessed and had to order particular cleanings for?”

“No.”

“Very well, sir.”

Tony was approaching the gym and he was horrified. He could hear a deep guttural groan and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“Oh, fuck, Steve! Right there.”

That son of a bitch.

“Yes, yes, yes, don’t stop.”

Tony wanted to die. Next, he heard a sharp squeal and an intake of air that made his heart drop to his ass. He quickly looked through the gym doors but could only see you, laying on a yoga mat, hands white-knuckling it as you lay on your stomach with a pained look on your face.

“Steve, you’re too deep! Stop, stop!”

“Come on, doll, if you want it to get better, you’ve gotta take it as deep as I can get.”

Tony Stark was officially going to kill Steve Rogers.

“Get off my daughter you wretched, geriatric, overage, disgusting old pervert!” Tony shouted as he threw open the gym doors and ran inside.

However, when he ran inside, he skidded to a halt.You were laying comfortably on your stomach and staring at him in surprise. You were also fully clothed, which he was surprised, given the sounds he heard and the fact he couldn’t see your bottom half from outside.

Behind you, Steve was sitting on a chair. Your knee was bent, your foot up in the air in front of Steve’s lap. The man’s thumb was pressing into your heel while his other hand held your ankle in place. Steve gave Tony a blank stare while your father stared right back at the two of you, red in the face, vein pulsating on his neck.

“What the hell is this,” he seethed.

“Doc said I have plantar fasciitis, so he’s murdering my heel for me,” you explained. “What did you think we were doing?”

Tony’s jaw tightened, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Really?” Steve raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you thought we were fonduing.”

Tony pointed a finger at him, “Don’t you dare make a funny right now. You have no right.”

You rolled your eyes, “You know, dad, we do have sex.”

“Stop it, Y/N.”

“It’s pretty crazy. With that strength of his, he can just hold me in the air and —“

“Enough — “

“I mean, gosh, I —“

“She’s kidding, Tony,” Steve said quickly. “I respect her too much to do such intimate acts in a public setting.”

“Good, good. As you should, you old fart,” Tony nodded and scratched the back of his head. “Well, I’m glad we got that settled. I will be in the lab if you need me.”

He left feeling more uncomfortable than he ever had in his entire life. Once he was gone, you two laughed uncontrollably. Steve held his side as you let your face fall to the mat and laugh. Eventually, you rolled onto your back and held your hands up. Steve leaned over, pulled you up, and sat you down right on his lap.

“I think he’ll leave us alone now, don’t you?” He hummed as he kissed your neck softly.

You snickered, “You are such a little shithead, Steve. I love it. Yeah, he’ll definitely give us some space. Which is good, I have a plan.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“He has a really beautiful red car I’ve always wanted to have a little fun in.”

Steve blushed, the tips of his ears turning red, “Doll, I meant it when I said — “

“Yes, yes I know. You’re so very respectful and a gentleman, but you have my full permission to defile me in my dad’s car.”

“Is this a late-stage act of rebellion?”

You blinked twice, “Yes.”

He sighed and shook his head, “Doll —“

“What? I’ve always wanted to do it in a car! Haven’t you? He’ll stay far away from us now because he’s traumatized. It’ll be fun,” you sang as you draped your arms around his shoulders. “Can really get that car rocking.”

He shook his head as he studied you, “You’re devious, Ms. Stark.”

You beamed, “That I am, Steve, that I am.”

#steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x stark!reader #steve rogers x avenger!reader #stark!verse #tony stark x reader #tony stark x stark!reader #tony stark x daughter!reader #crazycookiecrumbles #pre shang-chi #stark!readerverse

[lawlietscaramels]

I have a question about rie. I know she has a lot of alternate names/aliases, but I’m not really sure on who uses what name, if that makes sense? Like, do specific people call her certain things? Oh! And does L have any cute nicknames for her?

-🎲

Aliases ╾ Rie

YIPPEE!!!!?!!

Any excuse to drag Rie onto main 🩷 and to procrastinate on my other drafts...

　★━━─・‥…━━━☆

I'll organise by the basic rule: the main reason she has so many aliases is to help blend in – depending on the country. It won't work everywhere, of course. So, country - names - about the name - nicknames - about the nicknames.

╾ JAPAN

please note: the kanji in brackets are ordered last name - first name, as is typical in Japanese names. So Rie is not 高村 but rather 理恵.

Rie Takamura (高村理恵). I picked this because Rie is a fairly common name for girls meaning "reason". As for Takamura, it's like most common Japanese surnames in that it's somewhat geographical. Specifically, it means "high up village."

Hina Suzuki (鈴木陽菜). I actually don't know the exact meaning, but I didn't pick it for that: Hina and Suzuki are incredibly common names (think John Smith). It has the anonymity of Jane Doe.

Nicknames: Riri (by me; maybe by Matsuda and/or Misa). Miss Rie-san (by L. two honorifics...). Rie Pie (by "Matty Beef Patty" and "Mello Jello," because they got cross at her and decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. She's soooo pissed off that it doesn't rhyme).

╾ USA, UK, CANADA, AUSTRALIA etc...

Rue Dixon. I'm not sure if I ought to add a middle name. Rue I picked simply because it sounded similar to Rie (I didn't pick her real name, or even that she was French, until later. That probably sounds weird, but my creative process is too I guess..) and – come on. The meaning is so cool. Later, I learned BB uses it as an alias, which I'm just going to play into MWAHAHA (sobs). As for Dixon, it's after Elizabeth née Dixon, mother of Mary Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley.

Nicknames: um, Rue... (by Naomi. The "um" is a permanent fixture/hj). This is her name throughout Another Note.

╾ FRANCE

Reinette Rose Descôteaux (real name. how dramatic are her parents (me)). I struggled picking this name. I speak English (unbelievably) and I've been studying Japanese for a long time, but I've never really touched French up until developing Rie. I just picked something that sounded nice and didn't have an objectionable meaning for her first name. I kind of stomped over the fact middle names are uncommon in France and patched it up with the fact some kids have, like, dual first names (I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm thinking of things like Marie-Belle). As for Descôteaux, HOPEFULLY, it means something to do with gardens.

Aurélie Rousseau. I don't have any plans to use this one in RieCanon so far – perhaps in proLogue: 1429. Same process as above with the first name. Rousseau came up in my sociology class along with a couple of other white dead guys, and I thought the name sounded nice and Rie-ish.

Nicknames: Reine-Rose (L. He pronounces it wrong, pretty much just to annoy her. "Rainy rose" instead of "rehn rose"). Rosey (by L, about twice a year, when he feels cutesy). Pétalette (by her parents. I'm still figuring out Rie's childhood).

╾ INTERNATIONAL

1429 (fourteen twenty-nine). This is a real alias Rie goes by, even though it's not a name, and it's her main title throughout my fan made prequel arc. I don't remember how exactly I picked the number, but I like it.

Nicknames: Cat (by L, strictly once. She calls him mouse for a good while).

╾ OTHER

Rie goes by "L" a lot too. It's an agency more than a person. I feel like I read that somewhere, but there's an equal chance I made it up... Anyway, she does most of the PR stuff, and takes over if L gets sick or if she knocks him out to get some rest.

I'm trying to figure out if she went to Wammy's, or if there was time for her to meet the kids between 1429 and LABB, or something else. If she went, she'd go by Q or maybe X. I think different kids left at different times, so different letters opened up at different times. It's the simplest explanation I can think of, though I must admit it still doesn't answer everything. What is that again? Occam's razor?

#im giggling im so happy you asked #🎲 anon #desunorie #death note #l lawliet #dn #lei writes #death note headcanons #wammys house #lei's death note #lei chats #asks #anons #oc #original character #death note oc #oc x canon

[ferretrade]

but wait, there's more! how codywan started dating feat. satine: a probably grad student idk au (prequel to this drabble)

Tonight has been, perhaps, the best date in all of Cody's 28 years (or, more accurately, his 11 years of dating). It's been movie-perfect from the start, actually. Meeting eyes from opposite library carrels; exchanging smiles and polite hellos; sharing an extra coffee; making up reasons to talk until there was no reason to not admit that they should go out. And the date? All smiles and electricity. Perfectly flowing conversation. Shy touches of fingers across the table. 

So of course, it couldn't last.

"There's one more thing you should know. Before we… continue," Obi-Wan says at the end of the night, shifting with nervous energy. 

"What?" Cody asks, expecting Obi-Wan to tell him he doesn't have time for a dating life (neither does Cody, he's fine with that) or that he has a kid (probably not, he can't imagine Obi-Wan not talking about them with the way he waxed on about his siblings) or maybe even that he has an STI (not a deal breaker, certainly). He's not anticipating anything like what he gets. 

**

"He lives with his ex!" Cody tells Rex as he paces, arms waving with emphasis. "And not as a temporary thing. On purpose." 

"Yikes," Rex entones unenthusiastically. He's flipping through sports channels like the apathetic ingrate he is. 

"Are you even paying attention?" Cody gripes, stopping in his tracks. "You're the whole reason I went on this date. You keep telling me to 'get out there.'" 

"And?" Rex glances up at him from where he's sprawled on the couch. "The point is for you to get laid, not married. Hell, this is probably good for you, otherwise you'd be back in another three year relationship." 

Cody scowls. There's nothing wrong with long-term, committed relationships, as much as Rex is allergic to them. Sure, Cody's last two happened to be with emotionally manipulative assholes who he wasted years of his life on, but what were your early twenties for if not a series of bad boyfriends? 

"Just fuck the guy and move on, Codes. And thank his ex on the way out." 

"How am I related to you?" Cody asks with overblown disgust. There will be no fucking Obi-Wan Kenobi. In fact, there will be no more contact other than the strictest professional politeness when their paths cross—even if he smiles the smile that makes his eyes crinkle and his head duck, almost embarrassed. Even then. 

Rex sighs dramatically. "I ask myself that every day."

The one and only correct response is to plop down on the couch and (playfully) attempt to smother Rex with a pillow. So, deciding that all decisions about Obi-Wan Kenobi are done, he does.

**

"I need to meet her." 

Obi-Wan startles when Cody blurts this out, standing on the opposite side of the library desk Obi-Wan is occupying. He blinks up owlishly, tilting his head. His mouth even opens and closes once, as if he can't believe Cody is really here after ghosting him for a week. 

To be fair, neither can Cody. He swore to himself he'd leave well enough alone and yet…. Something about Obi-Wan Kenobi is too intoxicating and he spent the entire week thinking about him, craving his company, recounting how good their date was until the very end. Why shouldn't he overlook a tiny little detail like living with one's ex? Sure it's a red flag, but only a really tiny one. A dollhouse-sized red flag. He can manage that. 

"You need to meet whom, exactly?" Obi-Wan asks with his pretty, posh accent and Cody wants to kiss him and tell him to keep up. 

"The ex," he says, hinting that it should be obvious. "If we're going to go out again, I need to meet her first. That's my condition." 

The emotional journey that takes place on Obi-Wan's face is a thing of beauty. Surprise flickers into worry, followed by hope, and finally a lovely pinkening of his cheeks as his eyes scan Cody's face and land on his mouth. "Okay. That can be arranged." 

"Good." He's a bit stiff and awkward, having not quite expected to get to this point. "I like you," he admits, mostly because Obi-Wan already knows. "But I can't go into this without all the details." 

Obi-Wan nods. "I know. That's what I like about you, you're very… prepared." 

This is not a new fact. Cody's been praised—and teased by his brothers and cousins—for being a planner his whole life. But Obi-Wan is the first person who says it like I want to peel off every article of clothing and fuck you right here on the library table. 

Cody sucks at his bottom lip and watches Obi-Wan's eyes go dark. 

"Now?" He asks, hoarsely. 

Cody nods quickly. "Now is fantastic." 

**

She looks nothing like me, is the first thing Cody thinks upon seeing Satine Kryze sat on her living room couch with a cup of tea. It's a relief. Some very small part of Cody had worried he was part of a fetish Obi-Wan had because some small part of him always worries about that when he meets white men. But Satine is pale with fair blonde hair, nothing like the shades of brown that make up Cody's hair and eyes and skin. 

"So you're Cody," she says appraisingly, as if she called the meeting to judge him and not the other way around. "Obi-Wan has told me a lot about you." 

"Satine," Obi-Wan admonishes. "That's hardly—"

Cody shushes him and Satine gives a winning smile. 

"Leave us to chat, dear," Satine says with a dismissive wave. "I believe Cody and I have much to discuss." 

When she gestures for him to sit down, Cody takes the spot on the other end of the couch and gives a nod to Obi-Wan indicating that he's very much okay with the chain of events. Reluctantly, and with a deep frown, Obi-Wan finally walks away, deeper into the apartment. 

"So. Questions?" 

Satine hands him a cup of tea and cuts straight to the point; Cody appreciates that. She's confident, no-nonsense—and huh, maybe they're not as different personality-wise as they are physically. 

"Do you still love him?" Cody asks bluntly. Obi-Wan had told him, however briefly, about the basics of the relationship—the duration, the seriousness of it, how long they've been broken  up—but he needs Satine's side. 

"Yes." She answers without so much as blinking. "Not romantically anymore, but I'll always love him as a dear friend." 

Cody weighs that response for a moment, not quite sure how he feels about it. At least it's honest. "Why didn't it work?" 

Now she pauses, thoughtful. "It sounds like a cliche, but we simply weren't right for one another. Eventually it's too hard to try to stay with someone who just doesn't want the same things." 

And the big one: "Why live together, if you're so incompatible?" 

"He's neat enough, he pays the rent on time, he doesn't mind the chores I hate doing. Why not live together?" She shrugs. "It's not forever, but—well, who do you live with?" 

"My brothers," Cody answers, immediately understanding where she's going with this. 

"And do you always get along?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

Cody hums a negative. 

"Well, it's like that. You love them, I'm sure, and are happy to live with them as long as it's convenient, but you don't plan to have them as your lifelong partner." Satine pauses. "Besides, it's not as if we share a bedroom. We do have our own space." 

So far, Satine has been so sensible that Cody can't help liking her. He can map out in his mind exactly how she and Obi-Wan could break up amicably and actually stay friends, instead of doing that awkward dance most exes who 'stay friends' do. He can see exactly why Obi-Wan would want to.

"Are you seeing anyone?" He's fairly certain he's made up his mind already, but this question is on his mental list and it seems a shame to discard it. 

"No," Satine says, but there's a look in her eyes Cody reads easily. 

"Ah." He smiles slightly. "But there is someone." 

Satine smiles back, glowing with it. "Maybe. Does that help?"

Cody shrugs, figuring he owes her his own honesty. "It doesn't hurt." 

They sip their tea. Cody is satisfied but he's not done, not when his mind wanders to the fact that Obi-Wan has almost certainly been eavesdropping the whole time. 

"So, what has Obi-Wan had to say about me?" 

Cody hears something thunk, like an object being knocked over in a hurry, from the other room. 

Satine laughs. He's heard laughs described as tinkling bells, and that is very much not Satine Kryze. Her laugh is hearty and full. Her whole body moves with it, her head tilting back with pleasure. She's solid and real in a way Cody appreciates. 

"Oh, you and I are going to get along fabulously," Satine promises, a wicked gleam in her eyes. 

The noise from the other room is even louder this time. 

#codywan #obi wan kenobi #commander cody #satine kryze #sw fic #abp fic #unfortunately the drabble has grown somehow #maybe will move this to ao3 eventually idk idk

[inawearyworld]

another wren thought:

(regarding little details of the movie, more shakespeare nerdery, and the possible effects of the possibly-foregone conclusion)

it’s been noticed that, on wonka’s candy-making suitcase thing, when he presses a button to add lightning to noodle’s chocolate, there are some other buttons with little indicator pictures, and one of them has a heart on it. i think i saw a post here that wondered whether that meant he could make aphrodisiac chocolates. which could be VERY INTERESTING

i think that, at some point during the heist, as wren trailed the cartel and occasionally let herself be seen for half a second to throw them off, she overheard their conversation, part of which involved fickelgruber ranting to the others of how “that sickly sweet child stole my florence. i wouldn’t be surprised if it was one of his magic chocolates that did it. to dispose of a business threat is one thing, but wonka deserves what’s coming to him.” and the others are just “certainly, felix”, unsure how to feel abt the bombshell dropped yesterday re: his background but still sticking by him bc they’re in too deep now (and because i’ll die on the hill that, despite their nastiness, the cartel actually does care about each other, in their way).

so wren’s obv thinking a lot at this point. a) worried sick abt what exactly is “coming to him” b) realizing that, if willy is a “child” in felix’s eyes, so is she c) about the magic chocolate thing…he wouldn’t. he wouldn’t. would he? either way, i’ve known long before he came to town that something needed to change.

so she kicks her spying into high gear, trying to stop whatever’s about to happen from happening, but winds up losing the cartel at some point. then she and lofty rescue the pair and the story goes on. she does bring up later what she heard, and willy is stunned by felix’s implication, in the same way he’s shocked by any immorality through a lot of the movie.

he says simply that, in his travels through greece, he did come across a little purple flower in a field of white ones. remembering how his mom’s voice danced across shakespeare’s curious poetry of fairy magic and love-in-idleness, he bottled a bit of the flower’s juice (along with that of its antidote), but never used it.

and he’s telling the truth, of course, so her worry is put to rest. they’d probably think of it as something funny; she’d swoon, overact, wax poetic as if she had been taken over, and he’d laugh, because he’d never want her to be anything but herself. and something inside her would warm to know she’d made him laugh, because she loves him. she loves him, because there is a meadow in his eyes and a sky in his voice, because he is compassionate and creative and honest.

it isn’t until he gets older and jaded that he takes on wilder’s Core Wonka Thing™️ of wanting the outside world to never be sure whether he’s lying or in earnest at any given point.

…and then the question is how long wren stayed when that did happen.

presumably, the cartel didn’t face enough consequences when they landed to be truly ruined, if the plot sticks and they were able to rebuild their businesses and send spies. the worrying thing is that there is canonically a massive gulf of twenty-five years between the end of the prequel and the start of what everyone knows. apparently paul king said once that a sequel to the prequel would be much darker.

and where does that leave wren? maybe willy, as he became paranoid as described at the start of catcf, started to mistrust her. maybe her heart broke as she watched the kind young man who’d helped to set her free become everything that he swore not to be. maybe as he became more of the morally grey willy wonka that the world’s always known, more isolated and fearful, he made another emerald-wrapped heart-shaped almond milk chocolate, but he did press that button for the first time. maybe she realized it before it was too late and left, not knowing-perhaps not caring-that the second he pressed the button he immediately regretted it. of course he’d go back to the initial suitcase, of course he’d want things to be as they were when he first defeated the cartel and he was young and hopeful and kind and the world was full of possibility, bc even in the prequel one of his main motivations is nostalgia. “i just wanted it to feel the way that it did when i was a kid.” the first chapter of charlie and the great glass elevator is called “mr wonka goes too far”, which is a solid summation of just about all of his post-prequel characterization.

catcf as a story demands that willy wonka begin it alone. and of course wren would refuse to be manipulated by yet another chocolatier, to be kept in yet another cage. she is the songbird and she must fly.

she will get out if she has to.

…but maybe, just maybe, she won’t have to. maybe, to bring it back to midsummer, “the story shall be changed”. maybe the foregone conclusion isn’t so foregone. maybe he’ll keep his integrity and things will be okay in this universe. maybe she won’t have to be in a constant state of leaving in order to preserve her freedom. i do hope so.

#ah the probably-unintended tragedy inherent in this movie if you think about it for more than three seconds #i did not intend to go that deep in this post #just to talk about the heart button thing and funny misunderstanding and possible msnd reference #but whoopsie daisy TIME FOR ANGST #*POTENTIAL* ANGST #bc i really don’t want their story to end badly #fiytwtb #wonka 2023 #wonka fanfiction #willy wonka and the chocolate factory #charlie and the chocolate factory #catcf #willy wonka #timothée chalamet #gene wilder #felix fickelgruber #mathew baynton #arthur slugworth #gerald prodnose #wonka