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mapileonxputellas · 27 days

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Beckham II: 3 Nerves

The third part is finally here! I hope you enjoy.

Masterlist can be found here.

9th February 2023

“Breaking news this lunch time, Sarina Weigman had named her squad for the Arnold Clark cup and included in the squad for the first time in nearly 4 years is Y/N Beckham.” England squads weren’t typically breaking news on the main news channels but this was no ordinary squad announcement. “Widely considered as one of the best players on the planet, Beckham has not been including in an England squad since the 2019 World Cup and her return dominated the press conference.”

Squad announcement press conferences are usually comminated by a few stories, the surprise inclusions, the ones who don’t quite make the cut. However when the list was read out it was immediately clear what all the questions would be about today as the eyes of world football turned to Sarina.

“Sarina can you tell us more about Beckham’s inclusion? Why has this decision been taken now after 4 years?”

“I know you’re all probably very interested in that so I’ll try and answer all of your questions. This hasn’t been a simple process for either party, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been watching her since I became England manager but it’s not that simple and we had to respect the fact that Y/N did not want to be called up. Over the past few weeks I’ve been working closer with her and we’ve agreed that now is the right time to see if we can make progress.”

“The squad has changed a lot since then but there are still players who would were in the squad in 2019, have you spoken to them about this?”

“I have not, I’d like to think that all players support each other and I know my players well enough to know that they will do all they can to make Y/N feel welcome in this environment both on and off the pitch.”

“Do you have any concerns around her desire to play for England and play for the badge. Will she have lost that fight in the past four years?”

“I can not prove that to you and I guess none of us will know the answer until she plays for England again but I would not pick any player I had those concerns about. I’ve watcher her play a lot for Barcelona and over this past year especially I’ve seen a freedom to her play. I just hope that we can all see that side of her in an England shirt.”

“David, were you shocked when the announcement was made?”

“I mean obviously we spoke about prior to the announcement but when she told me I wasn’t exactly shocked. It just annoyed me that people questioned her mentally because she is so strong now.”

…..

Everyone could tell you were anxious. Since the announcement on Thursday you’d been quieter than usual in training, your usual sweet laughter which your teammates loved had been replaced by a strained giggle and they could see you’d been putting pressure on yourself in every department.

Everything had to be perfect.

In the four days since your decision had been made public you’d received support from all your teammates but you could see they were also worried. Many of them had been here when you joined, they’d seen the aftermath and many of them had been your shoulder to lean on for months after.

Many of them watched on now as you retreated into your room, barely giving a second glance to the games currently taking place in the dining room, a tradition you were a usual member of the night before an away game.

Alexia and Mapi had noticed the changes just like everyone else, the three of you had a strong connection both on and off the pitch. Alexia had become an older sister figure to you and Mapi was your platonic soul mate. They knew your habits unlike anyone else and when the notebook you used for anxious tattoo scribblings had been out the entire journey to Mallorca it was clear your mind was elsewhere.

“You grab the pillows.”

“I’ll grab the blankets.”

The two of them scurried off to their own rooms, finding their entrusted items before meeting back at the door which they knew you would be behind. You wouldn’t have gone outside, your shy nature meant you struggled to have confidence in new cities, preferring to explore with others rather than alone as the sun went down.

Alexia knocked on the door, a moment of panic striking as they thought you weren’t going to answer before the door creaked open. Your wide-eyed figure stood in the crack, still in the tracksuit you’d travelled in rather than pyjamas.

“What’s going on?” The tree of you quite often spent the nights in each other’s hotel rooms, though those meetings were usually pre-planned.

Only you knew from the worried expressions on their faces this wasn’t a call to watch the latest film that had been released. “We’re worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

You should have known that answer was never going to satisfy them. “Please can we come in.”

It wasn’t even worth trying to persuade them, not really. “Sure.” They couldn’t miss the sigh you let out as the door swung open. “Make yourself comfy.”

In the matter of minutes you’d gone from sprawling over the double bed alone to shuffling between the two players, being welcomed into the arms of Alexia as the three of you shuffled under the duvet.

“We’re worried about you.” MarÍa admitted, smoothing down the hair draped around your face. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you sure because I bet if we looked in that notepad we’d find more anxious doodles than before. You’ve barely spoken two words to anyone since the news broke out.”

“I read an article-“

“Didn’t I tell you to stop that.” Alexia scolded you. “Those journalists don’t know anything about you.”

“But they don’t know that.” You argued back. “They’ll be reading about how ‘cocky’ I am on and off the pitch, how I flaunt my money, how I think I ‘own the team’.”

“If they believe that then they really have no eyes. Then they’ll see how you’re one of the shiest players on the team, they’ll learn how you could live in mansion but donate so much money to charity, they’ll see how much you work on the team as a whole. You do everything for football and they need to see that.”

“If they don’t love the person they’ll come to know then that’s on them.” Alexia agreed with her.

“Are you sure this isn’t about a certain blonde centre back?” MarÍa teasingly questioned you. “Maybe this isn’t about you being nervous about the articles and more about going into gay panic around Miss Williamson.”

“I told you that in confidence that you’d never bring it up again.” It was true, a few years ago you had confided in the two of them that you used to have a small (very large) crush on Leah at the time.

“And I’m tired of you being the third wheel in our flat, you’ve rejected every opportunity for me to set you up with one of my friends so now I have to think that it’s because you’re still pining for the girl.”

“I’m not pining for anyone, it was a stupid crush which has gone in the four years that I haven’t spoken to the girl.”

“Would you like to speak to her again?” Alexia asked.

“I mean obviously I’m going to have to, she’s the captain of the team.”

“Message her now.”

“No.”

“Why not?” I could only think of a million reasons why I wasn’t about to do that.

“Because like I said, I haven’t spoken to her in nearly four years and it would be weird for me to just message her the night before we see each other again.”

“So lets role play it then, you walk into the hotel tomorrow and she’s there, what are you going to say?” Alexia asked the question you’ve been asking yourself all week.

“Hi.”

Both of them looked like they wanted to tear out both their own and your hair. “Ok you can’t just say that.”

“What else do you want me to say?”

“How are you? Ask her about her life?”

“You want me to speak to the girl for the first time in years and ask her basically how she’s been since we went from speaking every day to unfollowing each other on social media and avoiding any chance of meeting since then.” You needed better friends in situations like this. “I’m not going heavy on our first conversation.”

“You will need to talk about.”

“I know but it’s not just her I need to have that conversation with, I was close with a lot of them and now I’m not. They should be just as involved in that conversation as Leah is.”

“Maybe you could design her a little tattoo, something like ‘I love Y/N’ on her forehead.” MarÍa teased you. “Matches your ‘I love Leah’ on your chest.”

“Shut up, just so you know I’ll never stop cockblocking you and Ingrid, I’ll be round for tea when I get back.”

“Bonnie told me she wants to live with me all the time by the way, said something about her mum abandoning her.”

“Fuck off MarÍa.”

….

The first person to reach out to you wasn’t exactly someone you expected. Mary Earps wasn’t exactly in your friendship group back in 2019, though because she was a part of that squad she was one of the players who you unfollowed in the following unfortunate events. You definitely therefore were not expecting to see her name pop up as you made your way through the airport, heading out to the car which would take you back to your parents’ house before you headed to the team hotel later on in the evening.

@1maryearps: See you later mate, we can’t wait to have you back x

Your emotions were so all over the place that maybe you should have expected this simple message to bring tears to your eyes. Maybe that meant you’d have at least one person on your side tonight.

You spent most of the meal with parents and siblings trying to do anything to avoid the thoughts about what was happening tonight coming back. You spoke to Harper about her homework, Cruze about his latest holiday and Romeo about his girlfriend. Brooklyn could almost sense your nervousness and kept up the conversation, which was all fine until you had to leave.

They knew how big this moment was and each gave you an individual goodbye before you got back into the car. As much as you would have liked to have taken your dad’s offer to drive you, this was all about being normal and being drove by David Beckham didn’t really give off that vibe.

You’d made this drive a million times before, only this time it seemed to take half the time and before you knew it the doors to St George’s Park were in view.

The only person in view was a single man holding a video camera, obviously preparing for the players’ arrivals This was hard and yet you knew this was probably the easiest step, he didn’t know you. You got out from the car, flashing a small smile to the camera as it trained on your every move, making sure to say a thank you to the driver, you turned to head inside.

“How are you feeling Y/N?” The camera man asked.

“Excited.” You couldn’t exactly tell him you were shaking inside. “I can’t wait to be back with this amazing team.”

“Two goals from you today….”

“All thanks to my teammates.” It was only the truth, you were basically set up for both goals by Aitana, you couldn’t do anything but put them in the back of the net.

“Good luck.”

“Thank you very much.”

If you were known for one thing it would be your punctuality, in fact you almost had a fear of being late. Maybe you’d done it on purpose this time to avoid greeting teammates in front of the camera but you were the first here judging by the table in the reception area being full of keys.

“Y/N it’s good to finally meet you in person.” Anja, one of the members of the England management team greeted you. “I hope you’re feeling well.”

“I’m glad to be here,” You settled for that. “I can’t wait to get back on that pitch now.”

“Well we’re glad to have you here. Here’s your key, we’ll meet in the dining area for a quick debrief at 8 and then you’ll have the night to yourself. Training schedules for the week are in your key pack.”

“Thank you.”

This place hadn’t changed one bit, from the entrance all the way up to your rooms you could trace the steps without even looking. You could hear noise out in the corridor but you stayed put, waiting for the clock to tick to 7:50 before making your way downstairs. With it being ten minutes early no one was there but Sarina and the coaching staff. Could this technically count as your first impression to them?

Their eyes trained on you as you entered the room. “Hey, thank you once again.”

“Stop saying thank you, this is all on you.” Sarina instructed, giving you a firm yet welcoming hug, an action which was repeated by the others. “Go and take a seat.”

“Thank-“ Maybe not. “Ok Sarina.”

You didn’t really know what to expect from the others, the squad was definitely a mixture of youth and experience. However even some of the more established players like Alessia and Ella were unknown to you on a personal level.

Thankfully maybe the first ones in were some of the younger players, Jess Park and Ebony Salmon were both the epitome of excitement as they entered the room saying a quick hello to the staff before slightly pausing when they found me sat on the first row.

“Hi.” You knew it was on you to make the effort. “It’s nice to meet you both.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Jess said taking the seat next to me. “You’re killing it at Barcelona.”

“Thank you, I’ve enjoyed watching you play this season. You’ll be an asset at city when you return.” You loved studying young players and watching their development. Jess was no difference in that, plus it helped to build up that connection on the team.

The volume in the room increased as more players entered. Some like Laura Coombs and Katie Zelem gave you a quick smile before taking their seats, other youngsters gave you a quick welcome.

The first real re-introduction you had was when Millie and Rachel entered, your eyes instantly connecting and it was Rachel who led the two of them over. You had always loved the two of them and almost let out a sigh of relief when they both greeted you with hugs, repeating how glad they were to see you. Lucy and Jordan followed suit, the two of them messing about and pulling you into a tight hug before taking their seats.

It was however the final people to enter the room that you were the most nervous about. Maybe you should have been thankful that when Keira, Georgia and Leah entered the room the meeting was about to start and all you could do was send a glancing look their way before Sarina had eyes on her.

She went through the logistics, just like happens every time before she got into the depths of the squad. “It would seem like this is the squad for reintroducing yourself. Laura hasn’t been with us since 2020 and Y/N in 2019. We just want everyone to remember that they’re here for a reason and we all play for England, we’re all a team.”

You blocked everything else out, vaguely scribbling down on your phone some notes about the timings and rooms you were needed in but it was all a bit of a blur. You took your time at the end speaking to some of the other girls, no-one seemed to be making a huge fuss about the situation but the trio had disappeared again and you knew you had to speak to them tonight before this started to interfere with the rest of the camp.

Thankfully you managed to find them, the three of them tucked away in the corner of the dining room, huddled around a laptop playing something in German.

“Hey.” Your voice almost cracked as you broke through the silence. “It’s good to see you all.”

You should have predicted really that Keira and Georgia would be your road in, though the two of them were fierce on the pitch they really were softies off it and you were almost knocked off your feet when they bounded up to you, both their arms wrapping around you in a hug.

“We can’t believe you’re actually here.” Georgia said. “This is just crazy.”

“It’s definitely different.” Leah finally joined in and that was the moment you knew even as she joined in the hug, she was the one who would be the toughest to crack. She wasn’t going to let you in just as easy but the captain part of her probably forced her to not let it show around others. “Glad to have you back on the team.”

“Thank you.”

“Take a seat.” Keira glanced to the free chair next to Leah. “We were just watching Georgia make a fool of herself, want to join?”

“Yeah I’d like that, I’d like that a lot.”

#woso #woso imagines #woso imagine #woso x reader #beckham #barcelona femeni #lionesses #woso fanfics #woso community #leah williamson #engwnt #lionesses x reader #lionesses imagine

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loveemagicpeace · 5 months

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💕Astro notes🏹

☁️Capricorns and Taurus always set limits for themselves in the sense that when they decide something, they stick to it and that's how it is. They stick to certain things because they are determined.

✨Mars in fire sign in 12th -u do so many risky and fearful things but this is good for you. The more you do the things you fear, the better you feel. Many times I also notice that people who have mars in the 12th house can manifest pain or something about their appearance, in the sense that they go to get tattooed and they won't be in pain.

🥂You truly got to know someone who has Capricorn rising when you see them like three,four maybe five times. They are very secretive people and do not like to share many things about themselves. Intimacy it's a big thing for them they will not get intimate with people who they are not comfortable with.

🍸People who has pluto in their 3rd house are obsseded with cars. Also because pluto shows your obsession you can also have obsessive thoughts or obsessively thinking about someone.

⚡️People who has capricorn placements in particular (mercury, venus & mars) are big car lovers. They know a lot about them and talk a lot about them. They always have some business of their own, which includes some things related to cars. I don't know why but a lot of people with these signs drive or love BMWs haha.

❤️‍🔥People who have Venus in Leo or Sagittarius are very passionate people. They do everything they do with passion. They cannot imagine love without passion.

🌙Chiron Sextile Ascendant-you can easily find support in comunuty. Your tramums can be public or you share them with public.

🦋Uranus in 1st house makes people very special, different and interesting. And people always remember you even if they only see you once. Many times I notice that these people cannot be compared to anyone because their beauty is so unique. Many times I notice that people are jealous of them because of this.

💘The sign you have in the 8th house is the sign that will stalk you the most on social networks or in general. And it's also the sign that's most obsessed with you. All the planets that the person has in this sign will indicate that the person is obsessed with you or wants to have you for themselves.

🐚The most spiritual connection u will have with the sign in your 12th house. You can receive the most empathy and warm advice from this sign.

🍦Zodiac signs that love to eat are cancer, taurus, leos, sagittarius( they will really enjoy the food). They will always make time for good things. Meanwhile, I notice that people who have Virgo, Capricorn, Aries, Libra, Aquarius don't take time to eat or eat something small. They don't put much on food or things like that. Especially if they are surrounded by work.

🌌Having a north node in Scorpio means your life journey is all about learning to accept that change is constant. North node in virgo represents a point in your natal chart that signifies your soul's evolutionary path and the lessons you are meant to learn in this lifetime. These people are creative, artistic, sensitive, spiritual. North node in sagittarius means that in your lifetime you're meant to find your fate ,your believing system & your true meaning in this life and also growth.

📀The most healthy sign to hang out with is sign u have in your 9th house. Because the sign in this house represents everything you can learn, how you can grow into a better person. You will always have an honest and direct relationship with this person.

💡You would only understand people with first house placements if you also have them. Because if you don't have 1st house placements you will have hard time being with these people cuz people with first house placements have this confidence, can be little selfish or do things in a more selfish way. They are unbothered about a lot of things. And they can easily express themselves. And when you don't have 1st first placements it is harder for you to find compatibility with them.

🫧People with second house placements know their true value. Always when I'm around with these people it feels like I know that they value themselves & things around them. When I'm with them, I feel that they really appreciate me and somehow they will never invite me to some cheap place, but there will always be something beautiful and luxurious. I feel appreciated by them.

🌊🔥People with fire/water placements are very passionate, emotional, intense. Water is always getting into emotions seeing things for emotional side & they can quickly feel things through emotions. And fire is a about passion,anger and about doing. They will not be just emotional ,they will be angry emotional(crying out of anger) also they can do some really crazy things -sometimes I feel like they black out and when they are angry they are completely different person is like they got blinded by the anger. They can also be emotionally impulsive.

-Rebekah📀☁️🫧💘

#astrology #energy #zodiac signs #my notes #astrological houses #astrology observations

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forever--darling · 1 year

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iknimaya | neteyam x avatar!reader

summary: half a year later and it was finally time for you to make the trip to the hallelujah mountains and claim your ikran. one step closer to completing your training, you can't help but think about the future - specifically your future with neteyam. it's hard to get anywhere though with lo'ak trying to make plans of his own.

pairings: neteyam x avatar!reader

word count: 10.9k

warnings/notes: swearing, less enemies but not quite lovers, still very slow burn, a lot more angst to come -- fair warning, lo'ak x avatar!reader (one-sided), mutual secret pining, ikran flying, fluff

series masterlist | one of us: part four | requests are currently open for now

When a person becomes one of the people, or in other words, when they are born twice, the clan puts on a ceremony for them. It consists of dancing, feasting, and telling stories to one another — it’s all about connection. A connection between the people, their culture, and the new person who has become one of them. Kiri had been telling you about it nonstop, trying to install some confidence in you.

You would be covered in paint and stand before the clan asking them for their acceptance. The Olo’eyktan would approach you and in his eyes from Eywa, you would either be accepted or denied. If he accepts you, he will place his hands upon your shoulders, above your heart, and in turn, the rest of the clan would follow until they form a large circle around you. Interconnected as one, before Ewya. It’s there where you’d earn your place among the people, forever.

That isn’t the final test that decides your place among the Omatikaya, but only the ceremony. The final test is the hardest thing asked of a person; a journey, filled with an act fueled by the need to prove oneself. A journey into the Hallelujah Mountains where the individual would walk among the floating island of banshees. The most dangerous creature to fly within the sky, aside from the great leonopteryx, the last shadow. You must look one in the eye and if it tries to kill you, it means you have been chosen as a rider.

After that, it's up to you. Live or die. Walk among the people forever or become an outsider. Stay or be exiled. It all comes down to that final test. After spending six months training, learning, and integrating your entire life onto the planet you had once only seen from a glass window, you were about to face the final test. It all came down to that moment after perfecting the language, understanding the orders of energy transfers under Eywa, practicing Tsaheylu, and consummating the skill of hunting. It all came down to sealing the bond with the second deadliest creature of the sky.

It was the morning before you were set to make the trek toward the mountains with Neteyam, Jake, and a few other young Na’vi prospects looking to prove that they should be accepted among the clan as adults. Before the village, they were hoping to be seen and accepted by their parents and other adults alike that they were no longer incompetent children, but well-working individuals of society. You had more to prove than them and everyone knew it.

For you it was everything and that thought alone had you retreating into the forest just before sunrise, the foliage illuminating under your feet, as you found yourself among the only spot you could find peace to think. The river and the waterfall that Neteyam had shown you five months ago — the night you had called a truce to the immature behavior and sharp tension.

From that night on, that place had become his spot and yours. Most of the time, the two of you went together at night. It was a place where you could talk, swim, and whisper to one another about the inevitable future that was approaching the both of you far too quickly. Where yours hung in the balance, unknown about what was to come, his was certain.

When you finished your training, he would be close to completing his own. If you did this, completed this, he would no longer be the Olo’eyktan in training but the future Olo’eyktan of the Omatikaya. He would work alongside Jake until one day the title would be bestowed on him when needed. He would no longer be seen as a boy but a man, and with that came making his bow from what was left of the wood of Home Tree, finishing a song bead for his songchord, and having a woman chosen for him.

Neteyam would be old enough and prove himself to have the ability to choose a woman within the village. However, where it would be any other man’s choice, you quickly realized for the future Olo’eyktan the privilege would not be the same. He would need a Tsahik to lead alongside him and his choice couldn’t withstand being wrong. The clan could suffer and Mo’at and Neytiri would work in their power to prevent that from happening.

As soon as his training was over, they would look to Eywa and choose his mate. From that moment on, they would be engaged, and as soon as he turned eighteen he was expected to consummate their marriage and their courtship. But then eighteen came and went and he had pushed it off. He had just turned nineteen and there was chatter going around, that they were already praying and looking to Eywa to guide them to an answer, and suddenly you couldn’t bear it.

It bothered you to no end, on top of the fear of not passing your final test. The thought of Neteyam being mated with another clan woman left the worst feeling in your stomach and made you so sick, but you shoved it down deep. So deep that no one else could possibly know about how you felt.

The very feelings that started to develop the first evening you met were later masked as dislike during that first month when you refused to listen to one another. It was seen as anger and hatred but after the night when he brought you here, to the river, that feeling still remained. The rage and the resentment were gone but the feelings deep within your stomach were still there, their grip tightly wrapped around your very being.

You knew though that once, or rather if accepted, traditionally one day you would have been able to be matched with someone. Asked by Eywa to be someone’s mate for the rest of your life but even if accepted, not all wishes and traditions are granted to dream walkers. Neytiri had expressed to you multiple times that you would still be a dream walker, a soul belonging to two bodies after the ceremony. It wouldn’t be fair to be mated with someone during the day but separate from them at night. She had lived that life once and she wouldn’t wish that upon any of the young men of their village, let alone one of her sons, who both seemed to have a strong connection with you. Mo’at agreed and therefore forbade you from being promised or even mated to a man of the village unless you became fully Na’vi.

That wouldn’t be happening anytime soon either because the more you wished to become full Na’vi, the more you began to separate from your former life. But Mo’at forbade that too. The transfer consisted of a ritual where the consciousness of a single being was transferred from one body to another. It had only been done twice and before that, no one knew for sure. After thousands of years, some things became more and more like folk tales. Out of those two rituals, only one survived. The one was Toruk Makto, Jake Sully.

With that case in point, Mo’at didn’t believe in your odds and she hadn’t asked Eywa enough about it to grant your request. It had been days ago when you had appeared in her hut, in a state of distress. After the whispers became louder about Neteyam’s future mate and the talk about your Iknimaya seemed to circulate the village.

It all was getting to you, not to mention the more connected you felt to this body, your avatar the body, the less you connected to your own. The original body you had spent almost ninteen prior years in, seemed to be failing you the longer you stayed in the link pod and with the Omatikaya.

The truth was your immune system was shot and somehow months ago you had contracted a virus and from there, things began to spiral. You were taking care of yourself less; by this time, you had become far too weak. Norm and Max had been trying to treat you with everything they had but with their resources limited they could only do so much. It had become worse just a few days prior when you for the first time ever delivered a successful clean kill. The testament of whether you were ready to complete the final test.

That night you had barely made it back to your own room by yourself as you had lost probably close to twenty pounds and had no strength left in your legs. Max had advised you or rather ordered you to take a few days off away from the link pod and lay in bed. You needed to rest and both he and Norm agreed that the strain on your body from the link process wasn’t helping you in the slightest, but you refused. You were too close, after so many long months, you were so close.

Not to mention that in this body, in this form, you couldn’t feel it — the weakness, the limitations, the way you felt yourself losing all hope of a normal life. In this body, you weren’t that and you refused to give it all up to become that version of yourself when you were this close. You suspected that Jake knew, that Norm had gotten in contact with him and told him about your human state but he hadn’t brought it up to you yet. Instead, he communicated it through lingering stares and the sudden extra attention you seemed to be getting from both his wife and his daughters.

On this day of all days though, that couldn’t have your attention, not when you were about to partake in the most important moment of your life. Sat at the edge of the river, you stared forward at the water, your arms wrapped tightly around your legs. Your chin leaned against your knees, deep in thought about all of the worst possible scenarios that occurred if you couldn’t do this.

You heard him before you saw him, he approached you from behind, his footsteps quiet as he stepped past low-hanging foliage like so many times before. How did you know it was him? Because it always was.

“Y/N?” The sound of your name fell from his lips like woodsprites on skin, softly, gently as if he didn’t want to scare you away. He stood behind you for a moment, staring forward matching where you were looking almost in uncertainty at your quietness. “Hey, what are you doing? You do realize we have to start making our way towards the mountains in about an hour.”

Silence was all he got in response as you continued to look forward at the water and the ripples that formed from a fish kissing the surface. His voice broke through your fears and worries with ease but it wasn’t enough to overpower them completely. You felt him sit next to you, close enough that his leg pressed against yours. He stared at the side of your face, those gold irises of his taking in every part of it and analyzing every one of your emotions. You felt his fingers brush against your skin as his hand delicately clasped around your forearm.

As if broken from your spell, you turned towards him, eyes swimming with every doubt in your body, “What if I can’t do this, Neteyam?”

“What?” his brows furrowed “How could you ask that?”

“What if I can’t claim an Ikran? Is that it? I just don’t become one of the people and then your parents exile me? I once again am nothing but an outsider? I don’t think I can do that. A life where I am not here every day in the village, or running through the forest. I don’t think I could stand it.”

He pulled you closer to him, a light chuckle falling from his lips, “Y/N. Woah, slow down.”

“And not being able to see everyone; your sisters, or Lo’ak, or Jake. I mean I don’t think I could ever live with never seeing any of them again. Not seeing you again…”

His hand tightened as if your words registered in his ears, the possibility of that flashing through his mind. He shook his head and focused instead on your widened eyes and how they refused to look away from him. “That won’t happen. You have this. We have trained for months and I know that—”

“But what if—”

“No, but anything, because you have this,” he said, tone solid, not bothering to let you finish your previous thought. A smile broke out across his lips then, “I thought you were tougher than this, Y/L/N.”

Usually, you would defy him, and argue with him but not like the two of you once did. Now those disagreements seemed to always be interlaced with teasing tones and sly smiles. You usually gave him a look filled with smugness just asking for him to try and regain control over you. This look on your face though didn’t appear anything like that though. Instead, you were deflated and falling apart at the seams.

“Me too,” you agreed.

“Y/N—” he started but his voice died quickly as you spoke again.

“If I do this, do you think the people will accept me?”

There was no hesitation on his part, “Of course, they will. Why would you ask me that?”

You looked away from him, pulling your arm away and scooting closer toward the edge of the river, disconnecting from him completely. He felt the warmth from his side disappear altogether as he watched you dip your legs into the water, your head hung low staring at your reflection.

“Pivlltxe’u (speak up)!” his voice was commanding of you then while he watched as you lifted your hands to look down at them.

“I can hear them, you know. After all this time the whispers still follow me around. My alien blood. That I am in a false body. That I am nothing like you but still in every way like them — the enemies, the sky people,” you admitted with a furrow in your brows.

Neteyam wasn’t quite sure what to say as even after the countless amount of nights the two of you had spent in that exact spot, you had never talked about something so serious. Something that was your past life, who you were, or what would be expected of you after this. Most of the time, you talked about him, and his future rather than your own.

“My father was like you.”

You laughed dryly, your hands dropping in your lap as your head lulled back slightly, “Jake Sully was not like me.”

“Except that he was,” Neteyam argued, glancing down at his own hands. His four-fingered hands didn’t resemble his father’s or his two siblings but something that still was deeply a part of his family.

“No,” you said, the harshness evident in your voice as your ears flattened back and your gaze fell back to your ten fingers, “Jake Sully was Toruk Makto. He led the clan to victory against the sky people. The very people who killed hundreds of innocent Omatikaya and refuse to leave this place in peace. He is not one of them.”

“And neither are you.”

He slid closer to you so that you could feel his warmth across your back and side. His chest pressed against your shoulder as he reached forward, his hand ghosting under yours. He took it and held it within his, the back of your hand pressed against his palm.

“You know what I see when I look at these hands?” he asked, voice soft, eyes locked on the side of your face, “It’s not the sky people or aliens in false bodies as everyone else calls them. No, I see my dad coming here and falling in love with my mom. I see him becoming one of the people, leading them to victory, and being appointed Olo’eyktan. I see my sister being born and then my brother.”

His breath slid across the side of your face, and you turned to look at him. The warmth of it then spread to your lips as he sat so close, stare already locked onto your own. Those gold eyes filled with specs of yellow and green haunted you at night every time you fell asleep; this was the first time you witnessed them so up close and personal in months. His gaze flickered down to your parted lips before darting back up to your eyes. You then felt his fingers curl around the back of your hand, slotting in between yours and intertwining them together.

You looked down at them and that warm feeling inside of you began to spread, like wildfire all throughout your entire body. He smiled as he continued, “When I look at these hands, I see you.”

Your own breath hitched in your throat and your eyes snapped back up to his, unsure if he really said those three words to you. Words you had been trying to earn from him for months. Though often used as a greeting, to some it meant so much more. It was said out of respect and in rare cases out of love.

“You can do this,” he said and you swore your heart stopped then and there.

You felt as if any words got stripped from your tongue and yanked back into your throat. You could only stare at him in disbelief taking note of the kindness in his eyes and how gentle his voice was. Five months ago things were so different, the way he looked at you was so different. Even if he still lectured you once in a while or hated how you sometimes did run off with Lo’ak, he was different. Ever since that night in the very same spot where he apologized and opened up himself to you, he wasn’t the same Neteyam Te Suli Tsyeyk’itan. From then on it was like he promised himself and his people that he wouldn’t be that person again. It started with you.

His hand tightened around yours, but before you could say anything else, the sound of footsteps and brush being pulled aside was heard. Your eyes broke away from Neteyam’s and he followed where your attention had drifted to.

Lo’ak stood just a few feet away, frozen at the sight of his brother’s hand tightly clasped around yours. When he noticed how close the two of you were sitting his hands tightened at his sides and his eyebrows raised almost in shock. You noticed the way a lump formed in his throat as his gold eyes, appearing so much like Neteyam’s, locked onto his older brother.

It was almost as if they were having a silent conversation through their matched stares and rigid statues. Lo’ak shifted uncomfortably on his feet as he hadn’t seen the two of you like this. He thought he had known how the two of you felt about one another. His brother hated you and you couldn’t stand the attitude you got from the oldest Sully. You two never acted like this, let alone felt any certain way to justify why you sat so close, holding hands.

Suddenly, it felt like so much more than two people casually comforting one another. Because you and Neteyam were at each other’s throats for months, even if things weren’t entirely the same, the two of you never publicly acknowledged one another outside of lessons. Lo’ak wondered if it had all gone over his head. Were their stolen glances? Light touches anytime you walked by one another in the village? At night would Neteyam sneak out of their tent just to come to find you?

He was overthinking it, evident in how his eyes flickered from you to his older brother and then down to your joined hands. But how could he not when he felt like he was getting slapped across the face?

Neteyam able to read his brother’s expression sighed and released your hand from his — almost as if it was the easiest thing in the world, almost like he needed to. You scooted back from him, putting more distance between the two of you as Lo’ak’s eyes zoned in on you, lips still parted in shock.

“Uh what is going on? You two are friends now?” his voice was spiteful and you couldn’t help but let your mouth part in shock.

Neteyam’s eyebrows knitted together and he suddenly became annoyed with his brother’s attitude, “Lo’ak, don’t!”

“What, I was just asking,” he rolled his eyes as he rubbed the back of his neck, “Dad says they’re ready. We should get going.”

You felt yourself inhale, your breath hitching as Lo’ak nodded his head in the direction of the village, refusing to make eye contact with his older brother. You looked over at Neteyam despite Lo’ak’s glare on your back, needing his reassurance one last time. He nodded at you approvingly, another reminder that you had this. His words ring in your ears and it was like suddenly his opinion was the only one that mattered. That whatever happened, what he thought about you was all that mattered.

Standing up, you approached Lo’ak as every moment of training seemed to flash before your eyes from beginning to end. It all led to this moment. Win or lose? That was up to you. He watched his brother stand too to follow the two of you as he wrapped his hand gently around your elbow.

You didn’t even question the touch from Lo’ak as over the course of the last six months he usually found some way to be touching you. Whether it was his palm on your lower back, legs brushing against one another during dinner, or his fingers trailing across the back of your hand while standing next to one another.

His physical touch had increased since you had gotten your avatar, but his flirting still remained the same. He was still the same Lo’ak you had met when you were a child and though Kiri had a lot to say about it, you constantly reminded her that things had not changed for either of you — especially for you.

The two of you walked alongside one another with Neteyam trailing back just enough to hear your conversation but not enough to be right on your heels. Something else that had lessened too, his need to hover over you and Lo’ak. With you spending so much more time with Neteyam, there was less time to be with his siblings so when Lo’ak did manage to swoop you away or convince you to sneak off somewhere, Neteyam turned a blind eye to it.

A part of you ignored the way your stomach dropped every time he let you go even when Lo’ak was asking you to leave early during a lesson. Neteyam would stare over at his brother and simply shrug and then just like that, you were being swept away in the opposite direction.

“You ready?” Lo’ak asked, his hand slipping down from your elbow to his side, but still close enough where you could feel his pinky bumping into yours.

It was something that had surely caught Neteyam’s eye. The way Lo’ak’s hand so clearly matched yours and even with the two of you walking side by side, he knew that your hand fit perfectly into his younger brother’s — five fingers and all. Just as he had noticed the certain way his younger brother had been looking at you lately as well as constantly trying to get your attention.

It plagued Neteyam with the worst feeling he had yet to encounter, one that stuck to him worse than the rage he had once pushed down so far. The frustration he once held for you didn’t match the way he felt now watching the two of you interact. A green monster their father had called it when he told his sons about it a few years ago — jealousy. It was a feeling that masked all others and slowly drove you mad if you let it.

“Yeah, I think so,” you replied softly, unable to look away from the forest before you as if you were taking it all in, in case it would be the last time.

“You think?” Lo’ak raised a single brow, “Please tell me you are more sure than that.”

Neteyam had heard the accusatory tone in his younger brother’s voice and he felt like scolding him for it as he noticed the way your ears twitched uneasily. What you needed right now was someone to reassure you not question you.

“I am…” your voice trailed off, your hand pulling away from where it hung by your side next to Lo’ak’s.

“Hey,” Lo’ak stopped, his hand grabbing your shoulder This made Neteyam pause too, a couple of feet behind the two of you. You glanced up at Lo’ak, hesitantly, gaze glancing from him and where the village sat just behind the tree line.

Lo’ak squeezed your shoulder in his, a smile forming across his lips, “You’re going to be fine.”

You nodded, but you seemed even less convinced now than you had been moments ago near the river, hand locked within Neteyam’s grasp. The older Sully boy cursed under his breath at his brother’s obliviousness, not able to read your feelings as easily as he could. He felt his whole body stiffen worse as he watched Lo’ak’s hand drift to your lower back and continue to guide you towards the village where their father was waiting with the other initiates.

“My dad and Neteyam will be with you the whole time and lead you up the mountain, okay? Then I’ll meet you up there as soon as I can,” Lo’ak explained even though you hadn’t asked, already aware of how the process would go from Neteyam explaining it thoroughly the night before.

“You’re not going with?” you asked, cautiously.

Lo’ak smiled at the question as the three of you broke through the brush and back into the village, “I have to do some things for my mom but I’ll fly to you when I am done. I’ll be there by the time you guys reach the top.”

You barely made a sound at his words, just continuing to walk through the village as a clear spectacle for everyone to look at. A show for them to whisper about and place bets on if you would manage to pass the final test or not. Their whispers were low and you folded into yourself as you observed the children pointing and the mumbling of the adults.

Lo’ak hadn’t spared a glance in your direction, but your frame relaxed briefly at the feeling of another person on your other side. It was Neteyam. He noticed the shift in your body language faster than anyone else. The way he walked overshadowed your figure slightly from others as if part of him wanted to protect you from everyone else and their loud mouths.

He as well as anyone else couldn’t deny how this day had proven to be a huge deal not just for every other Na’vi attempting it but because there was a dream walker among them attempting it too. It had been nearly nineteen years since the last dream walker climbed the Hallelujah Mountains and claimed his Ikran. The legend of Jake Sully was still talked about fondly by adults to their children as he was the first sky person to ever attempt it. As he went on to become Toruk Makto, those who had been too young to witness any of it at the time found their eyes forever focused on you — the next dream walker. The next sky person to try and live among them.

Neteyam could see it on all of their faces; the excitement, the curiosity that came when they saw you. Sure there were other young Omatikaya hoping to claim their Iknimaya but all eyes were on you. Especially considering it wasn’t just a test for you, but a test for the man who had taught you everything you knew. It was a testament to the future Olo’eyktan and if he had the capability to lead his people. Evident in the way all of the gold eyes would drift from you to him and how close he was walking next to you.

Now add in the fact that you were walking in between both of Toruk Makto’s sons, that sure also had an effect on people, noticeable in the way they would lower their hands to whisper to one another. He heard his name float in around his ears, accompanied by his younger brother’s. It was like adding that into consideration, you were shrinking further into his side.

As you approached the small group of young hunters just at the edge of the forest, you all found Jake standing proudly, speaking to all of them. Suddenly then as you stood just a few feet away, Lo’ak turned to you, his hand drifting down to yours. He squeezed it and wished you luck before he slipped away in the opposite direction towards his family’s tent.

Jake turned on his heels to see you standing there with his oldest son and he had to withhold the smile that was threatening to form on his face; one of pride almost even though you hadn’t done anything to have earned it. His eyes flickered to Neteyam and then back to you as the other four hunters, all many years younger than you, stared at you in wonder.

“You ready?” he asked, the same exact words Lo’ak had said only moments before and it brought on another wave of anxiety into your stomach.

You opened your mouth, lips parted slightly as if you were going to respond but no words emerged as you could feel all of their eyes burning holes into you. Neteyam’s gold eyes looked from his father to you but noticing your expression, he leaned closer to you, his hand ghosting over your back as he caught Jake’s gaze.

“She’s ready,” he said, without a question as his hand dropped from where it had hung in the air just over your shoulder blades. The warmth of it still ghosted across your skin though he hadn’t actually touched you.

Your fingers were digging into the ground above you, upper arms aching as you hung over the side of the mountain, feet barely hanging onto the side. Short of breath, you attempted to pull yourself up but grunted out of distress as your arms seemed to pop and ache at the attempt. You had felt weaker lately and you had a horrible suspicion why. Cursing under your breath, you glanced to your side, watching as each young hunter easily pulled themselves up. The nerves in your stomach increased again though Neteyam had spent the whole ride over on his direhorse, at your side sneaking you reassuring looks. It was like every few moments, his gold irises would drift back to you almost as if something about you guided him back.

You had thought no one would have noticed the small interaction but it was clear Jake Sully, and Toruk Makto had. He had been stealing his own glances in your direction having once been in your position and he was not surprised to find you riding in silence, chewing a hole into the bottom of your lip. His look was just as protective as his son’s and the pressure of their lingering gazes felt heavy on your chest.

Not to mention, every time the Olo’eyktan looked over his shoulder, he found his son already looking at you. The corner of Jake’s mouth lifted curiously as he watched the interaction between the two of you. The stolen glances how you would nod over to the older boy to assure him that you were alright. It had completely shifted, almost like a 180 from how the two of you interacted five months prior.

Just as you were about to try and swing your body up for the third time, a hand extended out to you. Neteyam stood on the edge, leaning forward, his arm out as any strong protector would. Jake watched closely as you shook your head at his son, eyes threatening him to back up and let you do this on your own. Neteyam sighed but took two steps back giving you a little more space.

The ache at this point was barely tolerable as you felt the rock scratching into your knees and your side. Sucking in a deep breath, you tightened your core and pulled yourself up. Arms bent at a ninety-degree angle, you swung one leg up and stood up with ease, slightly out of breath. Jake nodded approvingly and Neteyam held his hands up in defeat. You had this.

You followed the group across the floating mountain until you came across a waterfall, a small path hidden behind it that would lead to the other side. To the other side where all the Ikrans were, evident by the sounds of their flapping wings, and screeches. It made your ears twitch hesitantly as beads of sweat formed along your hairline.

You walked closely behind Jake, his tail flicking your leg as Neteyam stood behind you, his hand wrapping around your side to press along your hip as if to keep you from getting too close to the edge. You felt your breath hitch at the action but didn’t react to him, too nervous at the sight of the waterfall opening. Jake stopped right near the edge, looking over his shoulder to where you stood behind him

“Y/N, you okay going first?” he asked, cautiously, lowering his voice as he reached out to take your shoulder in his hand.

You nodded, but that didn’t feel like enough as you glanced past him to the crowd of creatures stalking around. All creatures with razor-sharp teeth and large claws. As your eyes met his again, there was a different look about you, “Yes.”

He smiled, squeezing your shoulder. You felt Neteyam lean closer from behind you, his chest meeting your back as his hand shifted upwards from your hip to your chest, his fingers pressed along your collarbone. His mouth opened softly to speak but they closed at the sound of a screech from behind you all on the other side of the waterfall. All heads turned and within seconds, another person emerged. Lo’ak appeared, his riding headpiece pulled down across his forehead, eyes finding yours immediately.

A grin occupied his face, “Hey, I told you I’d make it.”

As he looked past you though, he found his father giving him an unimpressed look, eyes settled into a blank look. He clicked his tongue back as if telling his younger son not to interfere as nine out of the ten times he would probably do something to cost this for you.

Lo’ak held his hands up defensively as he wedged his way between the other hunters and his brother, “Got it. I’ll be good.”

Sighing, you shifted your gaze back to Neteyam as his breath fanned across your face, “You can do this, okay? This you must feel inside. If it chooses you, move quickly just like we’ve practiced. You will have one chance.”

His words absorbed into you, your attention shifting from him back to the mountain ledge before you. You scanned the area, the banshees' colors reverberating off your eyes, like a reflection upon glass. You took one last deep breath, puffing your chest out as you stepped by Jake out from behind the waterfall. Confidence filled your statue as the Toruk Makto called your name.

Jake’s stare matched yours, flooded with determination interlaced with assurance, “Trust your instincts and trust your reflexes. Let your mind go blank and listen to your strong heart.”

You smiled for a moment before it fell away, a tight line taking its place. With your rope in hand, you unraveled it, able to hear the shuffling of the group of people stepping out from behind the waterfall. All were eager to watch the prospect, the dream walker, the sky person take on their Iknimaya. With the rope interlaced between your fingers, you swung it around as you stalked forward, slowly, the edges of the rocks digging into the bottoms of your feet.

Jake and Neteyam followed slowly as you stepped forward, eyes meeting each banshee you passed. A few flew off the large rock and with each one that disappeared from view, you felt the base of your stomach form into knots. The groups began to lessen as you moved forward near the edge of the mountain, saliva settling into the back of your throat.

None had shown an interest in killing you. None had shown an interest in your gold stare and sharp fangs. Not a single one could look you in the eye and bare its teeth. It was as if they could smell your alien blood, and see you as an unworthy rider, nothing like one of the Omatikaya. Your heart clenched as you slowly approached a third group of Ikrans. A bead of sweat slipped down from your forehead as you met all of their eyes, a small noise erupting from your throat resembling a yell.

Three of them flew off, their tails practically stuck in between their legs. Your anxiety spiked again until you found one Ikran still standing in front of you, its head turning towards you as it noticed you out of the corner of its eye. Its large yellow eyes zoned in on your predatory stance. You felt your ears flatten for a moment as you took in the creature. The large creature seemed to have the widest wingspan you had yet to have seen on an Ikran. Its skin was dark blue, so dark, it was almost black, resembling the night sky with bright purple and neon green markings.

“Shit,” you could hear Lo’ak from a few feet behind you as everyone else took in the Ikran’s large fangs and sharp talons.

You stood there, eyes widening in shock, tail flicking wildly behind you as the sound filtered over to you of someone smacking Lo’ak across the head. It was Neteyam no doubt. Shuffling awkwardly on your heels, you swung the rope around in your hand as the creature’s claws scratched at the ground beneath it. Its jaws were razor sharp and you felt something spark in you as it leaned its head back and opened its mouth wide revealing them. The hiss that erupted in your ears snapped you out of your daze and you watched as it stood up on its hind legs, snarling nonstop.

Tilting your head to the side, you felt all doubt, all fear be ripped free from your body. All that was left in its place was confidence in the form of adrenaline coursing through your veins. A small smirk formed across your face and Neteyam watched swelling with both pride and admiration, his eyes flicking back and forth from you to the beast before you. As the Ikran let out another loud screech, your ears flattened across your head, nose wrinkling as you revealed your fangs and hissed — a challenge you were displaying to the Ikran.

“You gotta move, Y/N,” Jake said, lowly under his breath, but you heard it, as your entire body broke free from the hold the Ikran’s gaze had on it.

“Let’s do this,” you mumbled, swinging the rope around in your hand as you stepped forward toward the Ikran.

Just as you took another step forward, the creature jumped forward, its mouth opening revealing its teeth again. It chomped trying to get a hold of you but your reflexes were too fast. You dodged it by leaping to the side and swinging the rope over the Ikran’s snout. It yelled, the scream high pitched, as the rope wrapped completely around its jaw locking it shut. You swung a leg over the creature, wrapping yourself around its neck. Arms locked around its head you struggled as the Ikran began to panic.

It stood upon its hind legs, wings flapping rapidly as its head thrashed back against you. Your grip kept slipping from around the Ikran, leaving strings of noises to slip from your mouth as it flapped around obnoxiously. Neteyam moved closer but still kept a reasonable distance between you and the beast. He hissed under his breath as he felt your window closing.

“Make the bond!” he yelled.

With one arm banded across the Ikran’s snout, you groaned as you reached for its queue, all strength leaving your body slowly as you continued to battle the large animal. As you felt the smooth skin of the queue within your fingers, the Ikran growled and threw its head back. Connecting with your body, you felt your grip loosen from the animal and disappear completely.

A yell erupted from your throat as you bounced off the back of the Ikran and collided with the hard ground. Your side hit the harsh material with a thud and you hissed out in pain as you felt it scratch against your skin. Legs limply on the ground and chest heaving up and down, you peered up at the Ikran as it slowly turned around to face you.

The rope was still tightly bound around its mouth but it was clear that your attempts had only pissed it off. It tried to break free from the constriction around its jaw but stopped for a moment when the cable didn’t snap. Its eyes found your frame on the ground, laying on your back, leaning upon your elbows. Body shaking, you were trying to catch your breath as the Ikran stalked forward, claws ripping holes into the ground. Remaining completely still, you peered up at it, eyes narrowed and a glare reflected across your face. This was the moment, the challenge at hand, the turning point of your entire life.

Win or lose?

Live or die?

Lo’ak bounded forward, trying to get to you, but he was stopped by his brother throwing an arm across his chest. Neteyam’s eyes had never left you and though his heart was clenching within his chest, a greater feeling had appeared within him. One that felt as if it had been sent from Eywa. A reminder of your strength, your fierceness, and the warrior that had formed deep within your bones. A smirk formed on his face as he watched the intensity in your eyes increase.

Your gold eyes hadn’t moved from the Ikran and as you looked deep into its black pupils, you saw your whole life flash across your eyes like a movie. Your father’s death. The great war, that convinced your mother to flee back to Earth. A newborn baby unable to travel within Cryo. A childhood stolen in replace of living in the confines of a lab. Spider’s resentment towards you. A human body you refused to accept as a reflection of who you were as a person. Arriving at the village, the constant judgments and fear sent your way from the villagers. The word alien being branded across your forehead.

It all had led to that moment and it all reflected back at you as you were able to see your reflection within the Ikran’s eyes. Smooth blue skin, gold eyes, white freckles, and a challenging curl to your lips. You, this was the real you.

One of the people or an outsider?

Ears twitching, your stare became deadly as you pushed out another hiss from your throat, the sound igniting your whole body with all of the energy and trust you had left. Just as the Ikran bounded forward, lifting its body, claws glistening in the sunlight. You tucked and rolled to the side out of the way just as the beast slammed its feet down into the spot you initially had been.

Moving quickly, you jumped up upon a rock and leaped for the Ikran. With a huff, you grabbed onto the animal, hand locking around its queue. Your legs folded across the Ikran’s head, tucking it in closer to its body as the creature flopped down onto its side. With your shoulder digging into the ground, you yelled out in pain as you reached behind for your own queue. Tilting the Ikran’s queue upwards, you moved yours towards it and felt your whole body relax as the pink nerve endings finally connected.

Chest still heaving up and down, your body collapsed for a moment as the Ikran’s pupils widened dilating. It convulsed again, as your hands wrapped tightly around the rope, “Stop!”

The Ikran’s body fell limp, relaxing at your words, and within a matter of seconds, its breathing leveled out. Staring down at the creature, a smile appeared across your lips, as it stared back at you and you were able to feel the way your heartbeats moved in sync with one another. Its breath you could feel within your lungs and it relaxed under your touch.

Kneeling over the Ikran’s neck, you felt the dirt sticking to your legs as you reached for the rope locked around its jaw. It loosened and slowly the Ikran rose from the ground, stretching out its mouth. It purred underneath your palms as the Ikran slowly stood up, taking you with it. Your feet were lifted off the ground, and you settled back against the base of the creature’s back, readjusting your grip.

Cheers were heard and as you looked up, you found the young hunters pumping their fists in the air and yelling your name. Jake was grinning from ear to ear, a look of pride swelling on his face. The same look both of his sons got when they completed their Iknimaya. Neteyam stood, shoulders pulled back, chest puffed out with the same look that his father displayed but somehow his tugged at your heart more.

He stepped forward as if he was going to approach you, but he stopped as Lo’ak blew past him. A large smile occupied his face, but you couldn’t stop yourself from glancing over his shoulder to his brother instead.

“First flight seals the bond," Lo’ak let out a yell and in an instant, there was a flash of blue and green and his Ikran was landing right beside yours. He hopped on, connecting his queue to the animal, before flying off into the sky, “Y/N, come on.”

You waited for a moment, stuck in a place where you weren’t sure where to go — almost as if your heart was split in half. Neteyam stood in the same spot, his eyes having never left yours and from where he stood he could practically feel the anticipation buzzing through your skin.

He wanted more than anything for it to be him — to be the one you would fly through the sky with on your first flight. After so many months of teaching you and spending endless nights under the trees by the river, he hoped it could be him. But at that moment it wasn’t; even though it was Lo’ak he couldn’t steal this experience from you. He wouldn’t, especially since he knew what it was like to be in your position.

Even when a part of you wanted him to give you a reason to stay and wait for him and his Ikran, you also couldn’t deny how restless you felt there on that rock. He could see it on your face, clear as day, like how he had seemed to learn every other one of your mannerisms in the last half of the year. Biting onto your lower lip, you couldn’t stop the way your eyes had softened over time as you had gotten to know this young man, who somehow had snuck up behind you and stole your heart.

It was something you hadn’t fully realized until that moment when he smiled over at you, his fangs poking out just past his lips. It wasn’t until he looked up after his brother and nodded his head in the direction, clicking his tongue softly in the air as if he was giving you permission.

Curling your fingers, you brought your hand up near your forehead and extended it out towards him. I see you.

With that you called out to your Ikran, the word fly falling from the tip of your tongue. It took off into the sky, wings extended out to their full length, as it dove straight down off of the mountain. Neteyam ran forwards towards the edge and peered down into the clouds where you and your Ikran had disappeared. But then in a matter of seconds, the clouds broke apart and you appeared again. Soaring through the sky, he watched as the Ikran leveled out, the image of your last action leaving an imprint in his mind and a permanent smile on his face.

Jake had been right once, in his video log. A direhorse was one thing but flying an Ikran, a person was made for this. You were made for this. With your feet perched along the Ikran’s sides, your hands clutched around its queues, giving quiet commands — it was as if you were at peace, completely free from the cage that your human body had turned into, free from the past that had plagued your memories, and the expectations that a dream walker held.

Feeling the wind on your face and the sun soaking into your skin, you were brought back to that first day with the avatar, when you first walked out of the lab. It felt just like this, able to take a deep breath without the need for an oxygen mask. It was a freedom and a privilege, just as this was.

As you looked around at the floating mountains, and the other banshees floating around you, you knew it then at that moment that you belonged there. You were a warrior, a rider, an Omatikaya, and in one way or another you were going to convince Mo’at of that and every other Na’vi. She was going to approve your request for the transfer ritual if it was the last thing you would ever do.

You had heard him before you saw him. A yell and then an echo across the sky followed by a shadow above you. Looking up, you found Lo’ak smiling down at you, the same look in his eye that you knew filled yours. The look of an Omatikaya rider. He veered left and then swooped down, his Ikran bumping into yours lightly. You gasped, hands instinctively tightening around your Ikran’s queues as your balance shifted.

Looking back over to Lo’ak, you found him laughing, a devious expression the only way you could describe it on his face. Withholding your own smile, silently you advised your Ikran to lean to the right, straight into Lo’ak’s lane. Your Ikran’s wings bumped into his lightly causing him to bank off to avoid the two of you colliding. When he looked over at you, you couldn’t help but let your head lean back as your sweet laugh escaped your throat.

You flew like that for a while, him casually bumping into you just to either get on your nerves or hear your laugh again. And somehow even though you wished Neteyam was still there to share that moment with you, you couldn’t help but indulge in the happiness you felt to be with Lo’ak — your long-time friend, the boy who had been flirting with you senselessly, but someone who would never once give up on you. He was loyal and even with your heart wishing for something else entirely, you knew it was a special moment to share with him.

Hours had gone by and finally, as the sun began to fall from the sky, Lo’ak had gotten your attention. You thought maybe he would lead you home, back to the village, but instead, he nodded his head in another direction, back into the floating mountains. Even with your lack of direction, you knew it wasn’t the right way, but you followed him anyway. He landed on one that had seemed so random to you, but you followed, commanding your Ikran to land.

Listening, it came to a stop near his, and for a moment before you got down from the creature, you looked over to Lo’ak still sitting upon his, and the largest smile formed across your face. Giggling, you shook your head in utter disbelief at the events that had happened the last few hours that were real and now engraved within your memory and soul forever. A look of his own formed across his face as both of your laughter faded.

He tilted his head to the side, something in his eyes completely different than anything you had seen before, a fondness of sorts, “Look at you, girl! You’re a natural already.”

His gaze was soft, too soft, you knew that. You looked away suddenly dismounting from the Ikran, letting your queue disconnect for the first time in hours. Letting out a soft breath, Lo’ak followed suit and he approached you to find you already staring over the edge at the fast-setting sun.

He chuckled, “This was where Neteyam and I both went when we each completed our Iknimaya. We flew for hours unable to convince one another to return home to the village. Even when he had completed his a few years before I did, he always flew like it was his first time — like we both could stay up here forever.”

You slowly turned your head to face him, his words drawing you in. He smiled at the memory, “Then even after we had been flying for hours unend we would come here, to this spot, and watch the sunset, the evening eclipse. Shit, you should have seen how mad our mom used to get at us when we would return home after dark. It was scary, honestly.”

“You still do that?” you asked suddenly, your own voice surprising you, “Fly together long after dark.”

Lo’ak shook his head, his smile slipping from his face just as quickly as it had appeared, “No, at least not with Neteyam. For the last year or so, he's been too busy with training. His focus is entirely put on our father and the role of being the future Olo’eyktan. Dad has him on a tight schedule.”

“But what about now? He is done training me. Shouldn't he have some extra time now?”

“No, because even if he won't be spending all day every day with you, he'll have other things to worry about. Olo'eyktan things with my father; raids, runs, lookouts, spotting.”

You nodded, his words making you once again realize, that this was it. Neteyam had done his job and no longer would you be spending days with him in the forest learning the language, hunting, or about the energies of the world. No more nights sneaking off into the forest just to breathe, away from the pressures the adults presented. He had done what was asked of him — teach you the ways of the Omatikaya.

“Yeah, I guess that would make sense,” you replied, unable to stop the ache that appeared in your chest or the need to pull on the tips of your fingers.

He examined the expression on your face and the disappointment that seemed to flood your system. He couldn’t help his next statement from slipping out of his mouth. “Yeah, so it's a good thing my mom and grandmother are choosing his mate for him? Because I don't know if he would ever have the time to do it himself."

“Hm, the next Tsahik, right? It’s an important role and an important choice. That will be happening soon then?”

“Yes, I think so, at least announced soon anyway. Mo'at has been looking for quite a while,” Lo’ak agreed, suddenly leaning closer to you as the thought once again plagued his mind of what he had overheard days ago. “Have you thought about it at all?”

Your brows knitted together as his question filtered through your ears. Looking away from the eclipse, you matched his stare, a questioning look filling your eyes as an unsure chuckle rumbled within your throat, “Thought about what?”

He was quiet then, eyes narrowing as they suddenly scanned your face, unsure if he should clarify what he had asked. Lo’ak turned to you fully, reaching out as if he was going to take your hands in his but then after a moment, they dropped back to his sides, a defeated sigh falling from his lips.

“Are you asking me about—”

“A mate?” he cut you off, “Yes.”

“What?” You sputtered out, eyes widening suddenly as your stomach tightened at the sudden shift in conversation. “Lo’ak—”

“I am asking you about whether or not you’ve thought about it,” he clarified, voice once again silencing yours as his bright eyes never seemed to leave yours, “You’re already eighteen and—”

“Lo’ak, stop,” you said, lifting a hand and sure enough his voice fell silent with the rest of his thought driting away to the back of his mind. “You and I both know that I can’t be mated with anyone. It is wrong.”

“But not impossible. You can. It’s just frowned upon.”

Your mouth fell open agape, afraid of where he was going with the words he had so clearly admitted to you. The way he was looking at you as he said it left a feeling in your stomach, almost as if it was dread, twisting away at your insides.

Yes, it wasn’t impossible, but Neytiri had explicitly warned you how wrong it was and what kinds of problems it would cause. Especially, considering Mo’at had denied your request, it would be even worse if you mated with someone without any of their blessings, defying their direct set rules.

It also wasn't Lo’ak that came to mind when you put in the request. Sure a large part of you could always say you went to Mo'at for yourself, for the health you were currently lacking when you left the village at night and returned to the lab, but there was another reason — another person. It had never been and would never be Lo’ak.

“I mean it clearly has crossed your mind if you went and saw Mo’at. You asked her about the transfer ritual, right?”

Eyes narrowing in his direction, you held your ground, body tensing as he revealed that he somehow had known. Known that you had gone to see the Tsahik and asked her about the consciousness transfer. He knew and suddenly a panic filled your body. What else could he have known? The reality is there's so much he doesn't know, so that plagued you with the question.

You shook your head, annoyance evident in your tone, “Lo’ak, how did you…”

“I heard you,” he admitted without a moment of hesitation, “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but when I heard your voice with Mo’at I was curious. Then you mentioned the transfer ritual, and I couldn’t help myself but listen.”

You exhaled, somewhat frustrated, a sudden notion to get back on your Ikran and escape back into the forest and to the village. Your body had already used up its stored energy for the day and you knew the night would be hell when you returned to your human body. But as annoyed as you were that he had heard the request you had put in with Mo’at, you were interested in why he had brought this up. Why he had chosen to mention it to you — let alone the part about mates?

“What are you trying to say?”

He smirked then as if he had come up with the most brilliant plan but it only left your body feeling cold and slightly worried, “All I am trying to say is that you will become full Na’vi and that means you will be able to be chosen as someone’s mate.”

“Lo’ak,” you warned suddenly, able to follow his thinking after having known him for so many years, “Please.”

He ignored your quiet plea for him to be careful with his words as your eyes fluttered to a close. His hands taking a hold of your arms bought your gaze back to his. A small smile appeared on his lips, “What if we became mates? What if we chose each other?”

A pin dropped as well as your stomach, as if you were back on your Ikran diving down within the sky, waiting for the air to shift. This didn’t feel like it was going to level out like the air or register in your ears anytime soon. You stared forward at him, scared to look away, scared to break the hope that filled his eyes.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I mean the idea is kind of all over the place, but think of it this way. My parents can’t choose my mate for me and you don’t have to deal with all of the assholes in the village that obviously aren’t good enough for you,” he explained, his hand drifting up to cup your face, “Plus, you want to stay, don’t you? No matter what happens you want to stay here with us, right? Like this, in this form?”

“Lo’ak.”

He was quiet for a moment, thumb softly bruising along your temple, gaze staring deep into yours. “We could be happy, Y/N. Just you and me.”

You found yourself studying the ground, suddenly feeling sick and like a complete mess as your mind somehow wandered to the one person that seemed to never leave it. Neteyam, the future Olo’eyktan. The very man who would have his Tsahik chosen for him by Mo’at and Eywa herself. The very man who would have the perfect match — a woman who was strong, incredibly smart, and a gifted healer. A Tsahik that was selfless and would provide for her people. That wasn’t you. You knew it. Lo’ak knew it. He hadn’t brought up Neteyam again but the hesitancy in your eyes, the anxious thoughts that had slipped from your tongue, he knew was because of his older brother. His older brother who was already spoken for.

“Lo’ak, where is this coming from?” you asked, hand reaching up to hold his wrist in your hand, a confused look on your face.

He was hesitant to answer, seen in the way, his eyes shifted to the sky behind you. You made a displeased noise and his eyes found yours again, a smile forming because you knew him all too well after so many years.

“We have been friends for a long time now. For seven years I've always been used to it being us and Kiri and Spider. But somehow even with everyone, we found time just for us. I don’t know, I guess I just feel like I don’t see you as much as I used to.”

“Yeah, well a couple of things are different now. Huge things,” You chuckled, hand reaching up to take his hand from your face, interlacing it in yours.

His eyes followed your movement and stared down at your large blue hand that fit suddenly so perfectly in his compared to your human one that had always felt so awkward. He had never been great at communicating the hard stuff or admitting when something was bothering him, so you knew this was his way of saying that he missed you. With all of the sudden changes, he was struggling with accepting them.

“I’m also not locked away in a lab anymore, I am here with you. Things are going to be different, Lo’ak but it doesn’t mean our friendship is going to change.”

“I guess I just am not used to sharing you,” he admitted, a flush appearing on his face and it made you realize exactly who he was referring to. Neteyam. “What, outsider and outcast together, you don't want that?"

You sighed, his joke not pulling enough strings in your heart to change your initial apparent feelings. You knew what Lo'ak thought and you knew that he wasn’t going to willingly drop this without you taking the time to fully contemplate it even if his intentions weren’t romantic. You inhaled, the depth enough to reach your core, as his warmly coated stare seemed to engulf you whole.

His attempts were not poorly identified, casted by his loyalty to you but his execution was suffocating you. Where he could be a consolation prize, you be only an entrapment for him. He deserved more than you. “Lo'ak wouldn’t you want to be mates with someone that you love though? I mean do you even feel that way about me?”

He ignored your question and somehow that was an answer in itself.

“Look, I am not worried about spending the rest of my life with someone I may not feel for as my parents do with each other. Because I know this, us — we could make it work. Do you know why I am so sure about that? Because we have been friends for so long and it wouldn’t be so bad. We could take care of each other, be just as we are now, and build a future for ourselves. And if that's what settling for a life with you, looks like, then I’ll take it,” he paused, voice lowering as a smile fell across his lips, “I would rather settle for that than go along with whoever my parents choose for me. Plus I want you to stay, Y/N.”

His words hit you like a ton of bricks and suddenly just as you thought everything had become so clear, so free from the downfalls of life, reality hit you again. It shifted and all of your problems returned led by an entirety of new ones. Because there's always a choice that has to be made; choose other people, choose to make them happy, or choose yourself even if there is no assurance that it'll all work out for you. Do you decide to take that risk?

Staring in the face of that question, it felt as if thousands of arrows were coming straight for you, its toxicity was inevitable and it would pierce into you, refusing to ever be pulled free from your skin. Yet, everything he said was so true, so undeniably true, but it all left you feeling uneasy for one reason only, one person only.

It was supposed to be a moment of relief, a moment where you were swelling with pride as you had completed Iknimaya. You were hours away from your ceremony with the people. The most important day of your entire life and one you had been thinking about for years. An accomplishment that would be encased in the back of your mind, as you were only the second dream walker to have ever done it.

It was supposed to be your moment but now because of this eclipse, this mountain, this ride — your moment would remain bittersweet, overclouded by Lo’ak’s proposal.

#avatar #avatarimagine #avatar way of water #neteyam x reader #writing #fanfiction #neteyam imagine #avatar imagine #avatar fanfiction #lo'ak imagine #lo'ak x reader #lo'ak fanfiction #neteyam fanfiction

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beardedmrbean · 9 months

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NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is alone drifting through interstellar space after a communications breakdown left it unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Communications with Voyager 2, which is currently around 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, were severed as a result of planned commands. These commands rotated the spacecraft's antenna two degrees away from our planet, enough to cut its links to the ground antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN).

As a result, Voyager 2 is no longer sending data back to the DSN, and mission control on Earth can't send any commands back to the interstellar spacecraft.

Not all is lost, however. Voyager 2, launched in 1977, is programmed to reset its orientation several times a year to keep its antenna directed at Earth. Another reset is scheduled for Oct. 15 this year, and this should result in Voyager 2 resuming contact with its ground control. Until that time, operators expect the spacecraft to stick to its planned trajectory.

Voyager 2 was launched from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 20, 1977. It made history on Dec. 10, 2018, when it became the second spacecraft to leave the solar system and enter interstellar space.

Six years prior to this, its sister craft Voyager 1 became the first man-made craft to journey beyond the influence of our star, the sun. Voyager 1 is currently around 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth and remains in contact with our planet.

Both Voyager 1 and 2 were designed to find and study objects at the edge of the solar system, according to NASA. In the course of doing this, Voyager 2 has been responsible for a number of scientific firsts. It is the only spacecraft that has conducted close-up studies of all four giant planets of the solar system — the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Neptune and Uranus.

In Jan. 1986, Voyager 2 became the first human-made object to fly past Uranus. During that trip, Voyager 2 discovered 10 new moons and two new rings around the ice giant. In Aug. 1989, it also became the first spacecraft to buzz past Neptune, and while there, it discovered five moons and four rings. While studying Neptune, Voyager 2 also discovered an 8,100-mile by 4,100-mile (13,036 km by 6,600 km) cyclonic storm with winds of up to 1,300 miles per hour (2,092 km/h) raging on the ice giant, which has been dubbed the Great Dark Spot.

In April 2023, NASA announced that Voyager 2 would postpone a planned instrument shutdown by at least three years, continuing to gather valuable deep space data until at least 2026.

"We are definitely interested in keeping as many science instruments operating as long as possible," Voyager project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California, Linda Spilker, said in a statement issued on Wednesday, April 26.

#nasa #voyager 2

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meroif · 6 months

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A Hundred Years of Sleep

Far, far away from home, you awake to a world changed. Everyone had their time to grief, with the exception of you. Then I ask, what would you give to fix what is broken?

DEMO ; PATREON

A Hundred Years of Sleep is an interactive fiction novel taking place in a universe of magic and machinery. It aims to guide you through a journey through the stars, one that begins and ends with your very home.

The Story

You come from Vaeravel, a small and peaceful planet orbiting around an even smaller star in a corner of the universe. You live with your aunts in your quaint neighborhood until you're considered a young adult by the standards of your long-lived species.

Then without fanfare, everything ends.

The Collapse is a terrible accident that completely destroys your planet and most of its inhabitants. You manage to survive, taken to one of the few emergency vessels fleeing disaster, but slip away into a deep sleep.

You wake up again, in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar galaxy, alone. Everywhere you look, life has gone on without you.

So when you hear rumors of a ship departing for what is now called The Collapsed you can't help but embark on the journey home, so that maybe by the end of it you'd be granted peace, or at least instructed on what to do with all your loss.

Features

Character customization. Choose name, pronouns, appearance, personality and ambitions of your character.

Moral compass. Be bad, play nice, decide how you want to interact with the world at large and see for yourself where your actions take you.

Romance. Meet and fall in love with four different characters, all gender selectable, or don't, if you prefer to the take the romanceless path.

Flirt options with various NPCs, with future extra side-stories to give them the space they deserve.

Multiple endings, good and bad, once you reach the end of your journey.

Romantic Options

Riel Rosenquartz (he/him, or she/her, or they/them), the heir of the Rosen Crown, lost monarchy of Vaeravel. Elegant, kind and diplomatic, they're overjoyed to meet another survivor of the disaster. Although you're not sure why they'd wait for so long before making the journey back home.

Khael (he/him, or she/her), the Captain of the Chrysa, the ship travelling to reach The Collapsed. Highly perceptive and infuriatingly charming, Khael is undoubtedly the person in charge. But what could they possibly stand to gain in embarking on such a dangerous journey?

Nathaniel (he/him, or she/her), allegedly a researcher hailing from afar, they seem to be unfamiliar with how the entire galaxy works. Mysterious, reserved and stubborn to a fault, it's undeniable they're hiding something big. Yet as complete strangers, you have no idea why they'd be so opposed to your presence onboard.

Aelinor (he/him or she/her), your old neighbor and childhood friend, miraculously found again in the mists of the ship's crew. Although they're just as sweet as you remember them, you can't help but wonder...where were they as you slept?

Portraits (1, 2); Aesthetics (1, 2, 3, 4); Playlists ; ROs Introductions (1, 2)

A Hundred Years of Sleep is currently in development and will be released episodically, the current build includes the Prologue and the entirety of Chapter One.

If you've enjoyed the story so far, please consider supporting me on Patreon, it really does make a difference in the time I'm able to dedicate to the project.

Patrons receive access to the alpha demo, which currently adds the first part of Chapter Two to the public build, as well as side and themed stories, polls, and other exclusive benefits.

Thank you for your support, and for playing A Hundred Years of Sleep. 🌙

#ahundredyearsofsleepif #AHYSif #interactive fiction #interactive novel #itch.io #twine game #choice of games #romance #adventure #twine if #if game #if wip #twine wip #interactive game

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venusiancharisma · 23 days

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Ancient Astrology & The 3rd House

The 3rd house in astrology is a fascinating and complex area of the birth chart, representing communication, learning, short trips, and immediate environment. This house is associated with Gemini and is ruled by Mercury, the planet of intellect and communication.

In ancient Babylonian astrology, the 3rd house was known as the "House of Brothers," and it was believed to govern siblings, neighbors, and short journeys. The ancient Babylonians also associated this house with messages, writing, and education.

In Hellenistic astrology, the 3rd house was known as the "Place of the Goddess," and it was associated with the goddess Hecate, who was believed to rule over crossroads, magic, and communication. The Hellenistic astrologers also believed that the 3rd house governed mental abilities, early education, and the native's ability to communicate effectively.

In medieval astrology, the 3rd house was known as the "House of Journeys," and it was believed to govern short trips, transportation, and communication. Medieval astrologers also associated this house with siblings, neighbors, and the native's immediate environment.

In modern Western astrology, the 3rd house is associated with communication, learning, and short trips. It governs the native's ability to express themselves, both verbally and in writing, as well as their ability to learn and process information. This house also represents the native's relationship with their siblings, neighbors, and immediate community.

The 3rd house is divided into three decans, each with its own unique symbolism and meaning. The first decan of the 3rd house (0-10 degrees) is associated with the Three of Swords tarot card, which represents heartbreak, sorrow, and emotional pain. In the context of the 3rd house, this decan may indicate difficulties in communication, misunderstandings, or challenges in learning.

The second decan of the 3rd house (10-20 degrees) is associated with the Four of Cups tarot card, which represents apathy, discontent, and a lack of motivation. In the context of the 3rd house, this decan may indicate a lack of interest in learning or communication, or a feeling of being stuck in one's immediate environment.

The third decan of the 3rd house (20-30 degrees) is associated with the Five of Wands tarot card, which represents competition, conflict, and a struggle for power. In the context of the 3rd house, this decan may indicate a competitive or combative approach to communication, or a desire to assert oneself in one's immediate environment.

In addition to the decans, there are several other important aspects of the 3rd house to consider. One of these is the planet that rules the sign on the cusp of the 3rd house. For example, if Gemini is on the cusp of the 3rd house, Mercury will be the ruling planet, and the native's communication style and learning abilities will be influenced by Mercury's placement and aspects in the chart.

Another important consideration is the placement of any planets within the 3rd house. Planets in the 3rd house can provide additional insight into the native's communication style, learning abilities, and relationships with siblings and neighbors. For example, if Mars is placed in the 3rd house, the native may have a more assertive or aggressive communication style, and may be more prone to arguments or conflicts with siblings or neighbors.

The aspects that planets in the 3rd house make to other planets in the chart can also provide important insights. For example, if Mercury in the 3rd house makes a harmonious aspect to Jupiter in the 9th house, the native may have a strong ability to learn and communicate about philosophical or spiritual topics.

In Vedic astrology, the 3rd house is known as the "Bhratru Bhava," which means "House of Siblings." In addition to governing communication and short trips, the 3rd house in Vedic astrology is also associated with courage, self-effort, and the ability to overcome obstacles. The placement of the moon in the 3rd house is considered particularly significant in Vedic astrology, as it can indicate a strong bond with siblings or a tendency to be emotionally expressive in communication.

In Chinese astrology, the 3rd house is associated with the Rabbit, which is known for its quick wit, adaptability, and ability to navigate social situations with ease. The Rabbit is also associated with the element of Wood, which represents growth, flexibility, and the ability to overcome challenges.

In addition to the astrological associations, the 3rd house is also connected to several mythological and archetypal themes. In Greek mythology, the god Hermes (known as Mercury in Roman mythology) was the messenger of the gods and the patron of communication, commerce, and travel. Hermes was known for his quick wit, adaptability, and ability to navigate between the realms of the gods and mortals.

The 3rd house is also associated with the archetype of the Trickster, a figure who uses cleverness, humor, and deception to challenge the status quo and bring about change. The Trickster archetype is often associated with the planet Mercury and the sign of Gemini, both of which are connected to the 3rd house.

In terms of the physical body, the 3rd house is associated with the lungs, respiratory system, and nervous system. It is believed that any health issues related to these areas of the body may be connected to challenges or imbalances in the 3rd house.

Finally, the 3rd house is also connected to the concept of early childhood education and the development of language skills. The experiences and influences that a child has during their early years can have a significant impact on their ability to communicate and learn later in life, and the 3rd house can provide insight into these early experiences and their long-term effects.

In conclusion, the 3rd house in astrology is a complex and multifaceted area of the birth chart, representing communication, learning, short trips, and immediate environment. By understanding the symbolism and associations of this house, as well as its connection to mythology, archetypes, and the physical body, astrologers can gain valuable insight into an individual's communication style, learning abilities, and relationships with siblings and neighbors.

#astrology #zodiac #natal chart #sagittarius #astro notes #libra #love #capricorn #astro observations #virgo #3rd house #sidereal astrology #vedic astro notes

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deep-space-netwerk · 7 months

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So I wanna tell y'all about something very near and dear to my heart.

This is the Psyche asteroid, or, at least an artist's representation - we don't know what it actually looks like yet, but this is a fair enough guess. It's a roughly 200 mile wide asteroid in the asteroid belt, and it's made almost entirely out of metal. Its composition makes it unique; it’s the only large metallic body we know of in the entire solar system.

We think it might be the core of what used to be a planet.

When solar systems form, they start out as disks made of interstellar gas and dust, called protoplanetary disks. Here's a picture of HL Tauri, one of the best images of a protoplanetary disk we have.

That dust globs together into larger and larger pieces, and eventually forms hundreds of "planetesimals", which are rocky bodies about a kilometer across. Planetesimals had very erratic orbits compared to the modern planets - the dust of the protoplanetary disk caused friction and drag, which threw them off course.

They frequently collided with each other, and either broke apart or stuck together and grew even larger. Arrokoth is actually a leftover planetesimal, a time capsule from the early solar system, and we were able to visit it wayyy out in the Kuiper belt with the New Horizons probe!

Once planetesimals get to be about the size of the moon, we call them "protoplanets". Protoplanets were fundamentally different from their planetesimal siblings - we believe they were differentiated. When an object in space gets big enough, a combination of radioactive decay, impacts, and gravitational pressure causes them to heat up and melt. Denser materials like iron and nickel sink towards their centers, while the lighter materials rise to the surface. The differentiation process is why Earth's core is made of iron, while the surface is primarily rock.

While protoplanet orbits were much more stable than those of planetesimals, they still eventually collided with each other until everything settled into the planets we see today (though gas giants had a few extra steps - that's a different post!).

We think the Psyche asteroid was a protoplanet, well on its way to becoming a bona fide planet, when an impact struck it hard enough to strip away its rocky layers, leaving behind the dense, metallic core - like in this illustration.

More and more, we think the properties of a planet's core are fundamental to its long-term evolution. Venus, Earth, and Mars are all roughly the same size and roughly the same distance from the sun, cosmically speaking, yet they're so different! Venus has hell death clouds, Earth is home, and Mars is dry and dead - why?

The Psyche asteroid gives us the unique opportunity to actually observe a planetary core directly - it's much harder to dig to the center of a planet than it is to go to space, so that's exactly what we're going to do!

On Thursday October 12th at 10:16am Eastern, the Psyche spacecraft will launch and begin its journey to the asteroid belt! You can watch at https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv/!

I've been a part of this mission for over four years now, and I can't speak highly enough of the team that made it happen through all of the ups and downs. Good luck out there, buddy. We're all rooting for you :')

#space #NASA #psyche #asteroid #planet #psyche mission #long post #get home safe friend #you're gonna see some amazing things #For real y'all this mission has been my every single day for the past four years #I grew up with this project #end of an era but beginning of something new!#spost

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rinixo · 1 year

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someday

Din Djarin/Reader | 4.5k | Rated E | afab reader, no y/n, smut, oral sex, vaginal fingering, resolved sexual tension

After a wedding, desires they have kept at bay spill forth. There's no coming back from this.

read on ao3

After three days of trekking through a misty, muddy forest, you were looking forward to a hot shower and a meal. Your feet hurt from stumbling down rocky hillsides and your back hurt from carrying your pack, now filled to the brim with artifacts from the ruins you had plundered.

You, Din, and Grogu had landed on this outer rim planet just about four days ago, seeking some ruins that your sources told you may be connected to the Jedi. Initially, the three of you were going to explore the ruins together but Din had been wrangled into helping a local settlement with a problem.

As you disembarked the ship days earlier, a young woman had hurried towards your small party, a frantic look on her face. She had explained that her fiancée had been recently kidnapped and was being held for ransom by a local crime lord, and she begged for assistance. The town had pooled together the ransom funds, but past experiences with the criminals had shown that they most likely would not have honored their terms. Thus, the woman’s plea for the armored Mandalorian to rescue her fiancée and deal with the crime lord and his goons once and for all.

Din had been hesitant at first, but at your insistence had agreed to help. You felt bad for the young woman – named Tineke, you later found out – and knew you wouldn’t have been able to alleviate your guilt if you or Din had refused. Privately, the two of you decided that Din would go after the criminals while you journeyed to the ruins to find what you could. Tineke had offered to keep an eye on Grogu while you were out.

According to your maps, the ruins were about a two-day hike from your current location, hidden in caves the Crest would not have been able to land near. Similarly, the crime lord’s hideout was two days in the opposite direction. The locals had told you that the ruins were considered haunted and were thus rarely ever approached by sentient beings. That suited you just fine – you were not particularly superstitious and knew the rumors would only help ensure a safe journey there and back. Din was less than enthused at the prospect of you wandering off on your own, but the promise of the ransom funds as a reward helped to sweeten the deal and convince him to let you go. The Crest needed some repairs, and fuel was expensive and hard to come by out here in the outer rim. Credits were always welcome.

Thankfully, you were right and your journey was uneventful. The most exciting thing that happened was you scaring yourself with your own shadow while in the caves and slipping in mud after a rainstorm. Now, as you approached the town, you were eager to clean up and see Din and Grogu. The thick forests and rocky cliffs had made your short-range communicators mostly ineffective, but you had remained in contact in what ways you could over the last few nights. Din had installed a mod onto your wrist comm that allowed the two of you to send pulses that vibrated when you touched them. The two of you had come up with a kind of secret code, where around the same time each night you would send an ‘I’m ok’ pulse and he would send one in return. If either of you failed to respond, it would signal something was wrong. Thankfully nothing had yet to go wrong, and it was nice to have a reminder that you weren’t alone during the dark nights.

You had expected Din would have finished his task and returned faster than you had – benefits of having a jetpack – and based on the excited chattering you could hear from the town center you guessed right. Before you had left the locals had skittered from place to place nervously, always looking over their shoulders. Now there were people out everywhere, and it looked like they were planning some kind of celebration. Lights and streamers hung from building to building, wrapped around trees, and you could smell something delicious cooking. It was quite the sight.

Squeezing through the crowd, you murmured apologies as you searched for Din or Tineke. You quickly found them both, along with Grogu and another young woman held close at Tineke’s side. All four of them turned towards you as you approached, and you smiled at Grogu’s pleased squeal at your arrival.

“You’re back!” Tineke exclaimed. She came forward and surprised you with a tight embrace. You looked over her shoulder at Din, who offered a half-shrug in response. Tineke then let you go and pulled the other young woman towards you.

“This is Galina, my beloved,” she introduced the two of you. Galina proffered a shy smile, hand clasped tightly in Tineke’s. “The bounty hunter rescued her and banished the crime lord and his people.”

“Banished?” You mused, mouth curving into a half-smile. Din sighed. You were enjoying the young woman’s excited if not somewhat exaggerated enthusiasm, even if he was not.

“Yes!” Tineke said, eyes shining. “And I’m so glad you’re back – we were just talking and I just insist that you stay for our wedding celebrations. It’s the least we can do to repay you.”

“Oh?” You raised a brow, intrigued. Behind the excited couple, you could see Din shake his head ‘no’. Attending any kind of celebration wasn’t exactly up his alley, but you were tired, and muddy, and it was getting late.

“I’m sure we can spare a few hours,” you agreed, and the two young women squealed with happiness. Din sighed again, and you cast him a reproachful look.

“Is there somewhere I can clean up?” You asked. Galina explained that her family was already setting aside rooms for your small party in thanks for her rescue and that you could bathe and change into clean clothes there before joining the celebration. She led you towards her home, and you stepped tiredly behind her, Din joining you shortly after.

“Really?” He asked, and you scoffed.

“Just for a few hours?” You asked. “I haven’t showered in three days and having a real ‘fresher sounds great. Plus free food, Din, you can’t argue with that.”

Another sigh was your response, and you knew you had won the argument. You pulled your pack to your front and opened it up to show him what you had found.

“Besides, it’ll take me a bit to decipher these,” you explained. Din took the pack from you and carefully looked over your findings.

“Very well,” he conceded.

An hour or so later, you were drying your hair as Galina’s sister – a heavily pregnant woman named Lin – laid out several outfit options for you. She chatted excitedly the whole time, about her husband, her sister’s wedding, and what color of gown would match your eyes best.

“How long have you and the Mandalorian been together?” Lin asked as you allowed her to help you wrap the simple yet elegant fabric around your body. You coughed awkwardly.

“Oh, no, we’re not together, not like that,” you corrected, and Lin threw you a knowing glance. “We’re…just friends. Traveling companions.”

Lin huffed out a short laugh. “Oh of course,” she replied. “My Nilo and I were just friends once, and well –“ She patted her swollen belly, and you tried not to flush at her insinuation.

“He has a creed,” you tried to explain, but she was quite sure of herself and merely cast you more knowing looks as you finished dressing. You decided not to argue with her, as the truth of your relationship with Din was complicated even for you.

There was something there, you’d bet on it. Though you had never seen his face, you could sometimes feel his stare on you. There were moments when the two of you were closer than just traveling companions would be, though he always seemed to pull back at the last moment. A gloved hand on your back that would creep just a little too low, a prolonged tap on your thigh to get your attention. Once, on the edge of sleep, you had just been barely aware of him standing near your cot before he pulled your blanket up to cover your bare shoulder, and the brush of his hand still made you shiver.

It was driving you wild, and yet you could not summon the bravery needed to breach the gap. You were so sure there was something there, but the fear of rejection stayed your own hand. Part of you knew that you’d never really know unless that gap was bridged, but out of respect and a desire to not make living together on the cramped ship awkward you always hesitated.

Lin declared you dressed and ready, bringing you out of your solemn thoughts. You looked at your reflection in the mirror, pleased with how the fabric clung to your curves. Patting your hair, Lin instructed you to go downstairs to join the celebrations.

You trounced down the stairs and made your way out into the cool evening air. All around you lights glittered, the air heavy with the smell of incense. It was quite the change from the fearful first impression the town had given three days ago.

You looked around for Din and found him off to the side of the main plaza. He was leaning up against the side of the building, arms crossed as he watched Grogu run around with some local children. As you approached, you appreciated the way his armor caught the light, noticing not for the first time that he cut quite the figure.

“He seems to be enjoying himself,” you said in greeting as you joined the bounty hunter. His helmet dipped in acknowledgment, and you stood in an easy silence as you watched Grogu play. Further ahead, the wedding party was settling under a large tree that marked the center of town. The sound of strings and bells started, and the crowd let out a series of cheers as music beckoned people out to dance.

The newly wedded couple were the first to venture out. Even from this distance you could see the adoration in how Tineke and Galina circled each other. Gradually others joined them in the dance, and you looked over toward Din.

“Do Mandalorians dance?” You asked, half-teasing.

Din shook his head. “My covert never did,” he said shortly. “Not much cause for celebration.”

You hmm’d in response. “That’s too bad.”

A pause, before Din spoke again. “Do you?”

“Do I dance?” You asked, and he nodded. You smiled and twirled in response. He turned his head slightly to watch you and the way the fabric swirled around your hips and legs.

“A little, and not well,” you laughed. “But it’s fun, when I do get the chance.”

His gaze lingered on you for half a breath longer before he tipped his head toward the crowd. “You should go. Have fun.”

You glanced in that direction, heart sinking just a little. “A-alright,” you replied. “See…see you later?”

He nodded again in response, and you let yourself wander into the crowd and sink into the rhythm of the sound and movement, and tried to forget your aching heart for a few moments.

Din’s gaze wandered between the child playing in the dirt and the girl dancing under the twinkling lights. Even in the crowd, he could pick her out easily – the way her hair looked in the warm light, the way her gown hugged her waist. All things he hoped to imprint into his mind.

He had thought you beautiful for a while, but you were truly breathtaking here, under the stars. He watched as you spun around, that easy grin on your lips. A local man – a boy, truly – came forward to take your hands and he could hear your laugh as you let him twirl you. He clenched his fists, not used to needing an outlet for the feelings in his chest. Jealousy, desire – all fairly foreign to him until you had entered his life.

Din almost wondered if you could tell how he felt towards you. He often found himself staring at you, studying the way your brow furled in confusion at some complicated equation. He had begun to memorize the way it felt to pass his hand along your back, to the curve of your waist, and the way you’d look up at him as he did so. He liked how the refresher smelled like your soap after you finished bathing.

This was the first time the two of you had been separated by different objectives, and the entire time you were apart he had fought the urge to constantly check in to make sure you were safe. He knew you were smart and resourceful, but the idea of you being hurt or lost made him almost sick with worry. Each night he would send you a pulse through your communicator, and his heart would pound each second it took to feel your response.

Seeing you again in town, safe and successful, had made a weight slide off his shoulders. If it were anyone else he would have insisted on not staying for this party, but he was becoming increasingly susceptible to your desires. A year ago he would have scoffed in the face of the Mando that would agree to attend a backwater town’s wedding celebration – but the Mando from a year ago didn’t know you.

“Having fun?” A cheery voice snapped him out of his reverie. The pregnant woman from earlier, he didn’t catch her name, had come out of the crowd to join him. She fanned herself with a paper fan, one hand caressing her stomach gently.

Din grunted in response, not feeling particularly chatty. The woman sent him a gleaming smile, and a tinge of mischief was in her eye.

“That’s a pretty girl you’ve got,” she pointed her fan in the direction of the crowd where you continued to dance. “Surprised you’d let other men get so close.”

“She’s not mine,” Din bit back. “She is free to dance with whomever she wishes.”

“She wishes it was you,” the woman challenged. She pursed her lips, a tone of authority in her voice.

“You rescued my sister, and gave us this night,” she continued. “So let me give you some advice in return, bounty hunter. If you don’t take the chance, someone else will. A beautiful young girl like that…you’ll run out of chances sooner or later.” With that, she snapped her fan shut and bid him farewell before wandering back into the crowd.

Din watched her go, throat dry, knowing she was right. He had deluded himself into feeling content with what he felt, but he knew that it was only a matter of time before you would move on and he’d be left with the ‘what-ifs.’

Hours later, you stumbled into the small but comfortable room set aside for you, cheeks flushed from the dancing and feasting. You hummed to yourself softly as you began to prepare for bed, the low light of a lamp casting dancing shadows across the walls.

You hadn’t seen Din since you had left to join the crowd earlier. You guessed he had dipped out early with Grogu, and while you were somewhat disappointed you understood. His room was directly across from yours, and you had knocked softly as you returned to let him know you were back as well. There had been no answer, and so you resigned yourself to rest until daylight. No doubt Din would want to be off as soon as dawn arrived.

The soft ‘click’ of the door opening and closing made you turn, and you saw Din standing just inside your doorway. His bulk took up most of the entrance, and you cast him a small frown.

“Oh, did I wake you?” You apologized, hands dropping from where they had started to undo the fabric of your gown. “I didn’t mean to. I’m fine.”

“You didn’t,” Din replied, and then was silent again. You raised a brow, confusion apparent on your face.

“Oh.” You waited for a few heartbeats for him to say why he was here. If he was just checking on you, he would have left by now, right?

“Do you…need something?” You asked, and in response, he stepped slowly towards you. You didn’t know why you felt so nervous. He stopped just in front of you, hands twitching nervously at his side.

“Your gown,” he stated. “It looks – you look good.” Din’s voice was soft, and so was the touch he gave you as he raised a gloved hand to brush over your shoulder. Your breath hitched in your throat.

“Din?” You whispered. His hand stayed hovering over your shoulder, and there was a tension in the air – between the two of you, and in the way he seemed to both want to pull away and move in closer.

Slowly, as if you were trying not to startle a wild animal, your hand come up to touch his. He watched as you gently pulled off his glove and set it to the side. Your bare skin brushed against his, and you smiled at the softness of it.

You pressed your palm against his and wondered at how neatly they fit together. You knew your hands were smaller than his, but seeing them like this honed in on the difference.

Gently, you folded his fingers down and brought them to your lips. You both heard and felt how Din’s voice hitched at the touch, and you closed your eyes as you directed his hand to your shoulder where the clasp of your gown was.

Understanding, Din began to undress you. He carefully unwound the fabric, a sort of measured hesitation in his movements. His hand drifted from one shoulder over your collarbone to the other and guided the cloth down over your breasts. Eyes still closed, you huffed out a small sigh as he grazed soft fingers over the peak of your breast, hardening nipples brushing over his palm as he let the gown drop to your hips.

You let yourself move closer as he pushed the fabric all the way down so that it pooled around your legs. Even through the helmet the feeling of him staring at your bare form burned deliciously. You fought the urge to cover yourself – not out of embarrassment, but from the pure blaze of attention you felt from him.

Taking his other hand, you pulled off the glove and brought it to the center of your chest. You held it there, looking up into the T of his visor, wondering if he could feel the way your heart pounded under your ribcage.

“What are you thinking?” Din asked you softly. You blinked up at him through your lashes.

“I wish I could kiss you,” you admitted, and heard his answering sigh and felt his fingers graze softly against your skin. He tilted his head forward and you followed so that your forehead and the front of his helmet met gently.

“I know,” he husked. Taking your hand, he tugged you towards the low bed in the corner of the room, turning out the light on the way. The room was plunged into darkness until your eyes settled a few moments later. You couldn’t see more than the vague outline of his figure as the two of you settled down onto the soft blankets.

He laid you out there, hands stroking softly up and down your body. You wondered if he could see you clearly through his helmet.

“Someday,” he promised.His hand stroked your cheek gently before it came down over your neck and collarbone. You relaxed into the sheets and let out a pleased sigh as his hand brushed over the plush weight of your breasts. He rolled your nipples in his fingers, and you arched sweetly into the tug of it. While one hand continued to tease you there, the other crested down your stomach, dipping briefly into your belly button before spreading wide over your lower pelvis.

“Open,” he commanded breathlessly, and you obeyed without question. Parting your trembling thighs, you keened softly as the hand not occupied with your breasts slid down to cup your center. Two fingers slid between your lips to find you wet and wanting, and they rolled over your clit slowly.

“Very good,” Din praised, and you smiled. His fingers dipped into the wetness dripping from your pussy, coming back up to slick over your slowly swelling clit. Biting your lip, you resisted the urge to roll your hips into his touch.

He stroked you methodically, purposefully. Wholly interested in your pleasure, he delighted in the way your breath left you in soft gasps. He spread your thighs a little wider and slid two fingers up into you so that you had no choice but to arch up and roll into it.

You scrunched up your face at the stretch of it paired with the firm pressure he was applying to your clit. Din grasped the leg closest to him and brought it to lay over his thigh so that you were spread even more, your hips lifted at an angle. He fucked you with his fingers and you reached out, grasping at what armor you could reach.

“Yes,” you groaned, and he answered you with a particularly rough push of his fingers. “Just-just there, please –“

“Anything for you,” he answered. “Anything you want, beautiful, wet, tight girl –“

His fingers curve, poking at that spot inside you that made you feel bottomless. You wanted more, wanted to feel your cunt stretch around him. You didn’t realize that your fevered thoughts were spilling out into nearly incoherent rambling until you heard him answering.

“I know, I know,” he placated, the hand not playing with your slit coming up to brush over your parted mouth. “I want it too, sweet girl, I want you so badly – you have no idea what you’re doing to me –“

You dart your tongue out to meet his fingers and your stomach coils at the sound that comes from him when you suck on them.

“Fuck me, Din,” you beg, and he groans.

“Not yet,” he crooned, hand not once letting up from its intense pace. “Someday, not yet, come on baby – “

You arch further as your stomach curls and your leg goes numb. You are on the precipice of orgasm, pleading with voice and body for Din to let you fall over the edge.

He obliges you, like he said he would, and murmurs filthy praise as you shake and clench on his hand. Your legs snap close before he forces them open again, the pad of his thumb rubbing over your puffy clit to prolong your release.

You lose your voice in the height of it and come crashing back down on waves of liquid heat. Your eyes flutter open, eyesight blurred, and you look down your body at where his large hand is still cupped over your aching cunt.

“Din,” you plead, and his head snaps from where it was focused on his hand to your face. You blink wetly at him, propping yourself up on your elbows.

He wasn’t going to. He was pleased enough with being able to touch you, feel you, and have you come undone at his hands. Maker, he could die happy having done that. But the way your eyes begged, blown dark and wide with pleasure, made that last rope of resistance snap.

“Fuck,” he groaned, and rolled so he was covering your body with his. You molded yourself up against his, rolling your hips to feel where his cock lay – hard and throbbing for you. Your hands came up to tug on his shoulders, and he dipped his head down next to your neck as he ground his hips into yours.

“L-let me touch you,” you begged. “Please –“ you pushed against his shoulders to roll him back over, switching places so that you were in between his thighs. His helmeted head leaned up to look at you, cock twitching as your shaking hands went to his belt.

You wasted no time in undoing the clasp and pulling down his trousers enough to pull his cock out. It was heavy and hot in your hands, and a throb of pleasure shot through you at the size of it, the thought of how well it would fill you up.

Someday, you echoed his earlier promise before dipping your head to lathe your tongue over him. Din groaned in response, head falling back to hit the mattress. His cock jumped in your hand and you hummed around him as you began to work to take him as deep into your mouth as you could.

You could feel how his thighs trembled. His cock leaked pre-spend, the salty taste of it coating your tongue as you ran it up and down his length.

“Fuck,” Din cried hoarsely. The number of times he had imagined your lips around his cock failed to compare to the feeling of you wet and hot between his legs. He wanted to taste you in turn, and told you so through gritted teeth.

You moaned at his words, the vibration of it adding to the man’s cresting pleasure. One hand came down to tangle at your hair, tugging and stroking in time with your own pace. The other he used to prop himself up on one elbow – he wanted to see you there, between his thighs, taking his cock in your mouth.

“Maker you look so fucking good,” he rasped. “Fuck, gonna come down your throat, pretty girl – fuck –

Your hands squeezed him at his base as you lowered your mouth further, spittle dripping out from where your lips were wrapped around him. The sound of it was filthy – his groans, your choked moans around his length, the slick of your hand stroking him hard and fast.

His hips twitched as he edged closer – not quite fucking your face, but enough to signal his desperation. You loved the way his hands tightened on your scalp, loved the way he was coming undone underneath you.

Din pulsed in your mouth, and you hollowed your cheeks to suck once more before he husked out a series of curses, coming down your throat. His hips bucking, his abdomen tight as he groaned all the way through it. You swallowed it all, hand and mouth not leaving him until you lapped up the last of his spend

You looked up at him. His hand was still your hair, your lips and chin soaked from your own spit and his release. Both of you were panting – soft gasps in the cool air of the dark room

He rasped your name, hand coming down from your scalp to trace the curve of your cheekbone. You closed your eyes and leaned into it, climbing up his body to lay against him, skin prickling where it touched cold beskar. He stroked your head and face as you laid a flushed cheek against his chest. His other hand stroked down your bare back, tracing imperceptible patterns.

The dam had been breached. Both of you were satisfied, but both wanted more.

“Someday,” he murmured again as if he could read your mind. “I promise.”

a/n: part 2??... perhaps（´∀`)

#din djarin x reader #mando x reader #the mandalorian x reader #din djarin smut #mando smut #mandalorian smut #the mandalorian #din djarin #din x reader

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maeve-on-mustafar · 1 year

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This is another Mace & Anakin scene that doesn't seem to be remembered by anyone except for me and maybe five other people, so I want to take a moment and actually discuss what's going on here.

Three important things are established in this scene, and I'm going to go through them one by one.

Mace trusts Anakin, a nineteen-year-old Padawan, to protect a Senator who's actively being pursued by assassins.

Whenever anyone tries to argue that Mace always hated/distrusted Anakin from the very beginning, this is a good scene to point to. Because this scene demonstrates that Mace trusts Anakin, and that he actually trusts him a lot.

Consider the situation: Padme has had two attempts on her life in the past twenty-four hours. And the person Mace appoints to protect her is Anakin, a Jedi trainee who's six years younger than Obi-Wan was in TPM and who's never been off on his own before.

The decision to appoint a Padawan to protect Padme rather than a full-fledged Knight demonstrates that Mace, and at least a majority of the Council, have the utmost faith in Anakin's abilities. They know Padme's assassins are determined and willing to try again and again without stopping--and yet, Anakin is the person they trust to stop/prevent the assassination from actually occurring. To me, that shows they think Anakin is not only prepared for solo missions as a Padawan, but that they think he could be Knighted soon. And they wouldn't believe either if they didn't think he could be trusted or if they hated him this whole time.

So, I can only conclude that to have given him this assignment and believe he would succeed with it, Mace both trusted Anakin and thought he was a capable and strong Jedi.

2. Anakin trusts Mace enough to reveal his misgivings.

I feel like this part gets overlooked most of all, but it's also important. When Mace instructs Anakin on his mission (his first solo assignment!) and Anakin immediately foresees an obstacle, he points out that obstacle to Mace. He doesn't think he has to hide any of his doubts and pretend like he's already got it all figured out, he doesn't have insecurity or anxiety that if he reveals any difficulties, he's going to lose Mace's trust or faith or even the assignment entirely.

What this line tells me is that as much as Mace trusted Anakin in order to give him this assignment, Anakin trusted Mace enough to ask for his advice. He doesn't say it in those exact words, but that's what he's doing with his statement, and that's exactly what happens. He trusts Mace enough to ask for his help when he spots difficulty on the horizon, and I think that speaks to their relationship in this film.

3. Mace is willing to advise Anakin on his next steps in order to accomplish his mission.

At first glance, this aspect might seem obvious, but I still don't think Mace gets the recognition he's due here. So I think it's important to acknowledge what is actually happening with this line.

When Anakin implicitly asks for advice, Mace advises. He doesn't ridicule Anakin, he doesn't act like Anakin's suddenly incapable of the assignment given to him (and he will later defend Anakin to Obi-Wan when Obi-Wan argues this very point), and he doesn't leave Anakin to work it out on his own. Mace goes ahead and helps Anakin when Anakin needs to know what he should do next. He trusts Anakin, he supports him in getting to go off on his own coming-of-age journey, and he advises Anakin when Anakin recognizes Padme won't be willing to leave the planet.

What Mace is doing here is, essentially, being a mentor. And it's very noticeable to me that both he and Anakin seem very comfortable for him to hold that role in this scene. There's no hint of dislike or resentment or stubbornness that we get from scenes of Anakin and Obi-Wan, where they're both sniping at each other and behind one another's backs. Mace seems to be a person Anakin holds in high regard, and for a Padawan Anakin's age, Mace seems to regard him fairly favorably as well.

What we see, in its totality, is a functional relationship of mutual trust and respect. Mace gives Anakin a potentially difficult and dangerous mission despite his young age, Anakin expresses that Padme might be unwilling to leave to go into hiding, and then Mace offers a suggestion about who could convince Padme to go. These are two individuals who believe in each other and have faith in each other's judgement.

This isn't Mace hating Anakin, this isn't Anakin hating Mace, this isn't Mace being unfair in some way. This is a scene that actively shows that Mace believed in Anakin more than Obi-Wan did at this point. It might not seem like that big of deal that it conveniently gets forgotten by almost everyone, but I just want at least a fraction of fandom to acknowledge its existence, and for the "Mace was always mean and unreasonable" misconception to finally fade away into nonexistence, where it always should have remained.

#mace windu #mace windu appreciation #anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #yoda #jedi council #star wars prequels #my meta

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captainjacklyn · 4 months

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We all know of Genshin Impact's Sagau, right? I mean come on, I sure do considering the number of posts I like about it and the number of times I've had maladaptive daydreams about the whole isekai happening to me-

But we won't focus on that, what if we imagine that the reader, the almighty primordial is literally a god. They're not a random human from our world, they're the embodiment of all both non-living and living. They come from the same realm, basically giant coming together of all fields of the universe. Boom, Primordial.

How the game introduces them to us is through the eyes of the traveler (whichever twin I genuinely don't give a fuck who it is, just one of the very hardworking blondes somebody please get them a cookie) who was chosen to be their vessel by the Primordial themself. The thing is, the entirety of Teyvat worship this deity but they have no idea what they look like. HOWEVER! Aether/Lumine does know because whenever they look up at the sky, the fuck do they see? YOU-

A BOMBASTICALLY ENORMOUS ENTITY LOOKING DOWN AT THEM. YOU. THE FORCE THAT LEADS THEM THROUGH THEIR JOURNEY, CAN BE MOTHERFUCKING SEEN IN THE SKY JUST:

My meme btw.

We got a little sidetracked there but that's okay, what I mean to say is yeah, they're exactly what the people of Teyvat believe them to be. A whole ass god that just...stands as the definition of everything.

Moving on, you're not the only big primordial.

No.

You have..

A CHILD.

Actually.

You have..

SEVERAL OF THESE FUCKING KIDS-

Just four or so, maybe three minimum. Whatever you think is best, but basically they are a fragment of your being who were originally created as realms exactly like Teyvat. You could picture it as Earth, but then the Primordial descended upon that planet and then everyone went to war, Earth exploded and giant god baby made an appearance. HOORAY-

Part 2 is here, have fun.

#genshin impact #sagau #genshin impact sagau #gender neutral reader #genshin impact cult au #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact traveler #genshin impact aether #genshin impact lumine #genshin impact x you #genshin

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timberwind · 1 year

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Yarragardee Basin, Mangala, 7995 A.D.

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Accompanying music: You’re On Fire by They Might Be Giants. Summer road trip music of all time, in my opinion.

Here’s a little expository write-up on the history and geography of the worlds shown here. Someday I’ll have more to show of the personal story of these two critters and their travels; until then, a more macro-level description.

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Mangala and its sister world Kahira (visible in the background) are binary planets, orbiting one another in a manner not entirely unlike that of Pluto and Charon in the Solar System. Mangala is a relatively small world - just about twenty percent the mass of the Earth, something like if you took two copies of Mars and smushed them together; it was a frozen, dusty, and arid place when transhumanity first established a permanent presence in the Tahoka system some four hundred years ago. Since those early days, terraforming using a Birchian soletta system (a huge but foil-thin Fresnel lens of mirrors, with a secondary focal lens for burning atmospheric gasses out of the regolith) has rendered it shirtsleeve habitable to baseline humans across much of the surface, although the global water inventory remains low* and the air in the “continental” uplands is stratospheric, with only the hardiest lichens establishing a foothold. Most of Mangala’s major metropolitan areas are located in the deep rift valleys and basins, where air pressure is highest.

Kahira, on the other hand, is arguably** too small for effective terraforming, having only a third the mass of its sister world (a little over the mass of Mercury). Some of its larger rift valleys and craters have been tented over, aerated, and planted with tall low-gravity forest and grassland, a style of habitat construction dating back to the first Mars colonists almost six thousand years ago. Industrial complexes and underground cities sprawl out across the bare surface of the moon, with huge low-gravity lava tubes seeing extensive urban development.

The Yarragardee Basin, pictured above, is a graben basin in Mangala’s northern hemisphere, notable for the historic industrial city of Tirupati - here we see two road-trippers between cities on the basin’s great plain, taking a break in the long late afternoon of a sunset-day***. Having stopped for a night at a motel near Tirupati’s aerospace complex, they’re now continuing their journey to the city of Redmond-Tonasket, located in the Woronora Valles trench system about two thousand kilometers to the southwest.

* While plenty of water could have been imported from Tiandonias’s cometary halo, it was decided not to do so in order to avoid inundating pre-existing cities in the valleys and deep basins. The extremely humid hothouse conditions that come after slamming dismantled ice moons through the stratosphere at over six kilometers a second were also broadly considered unacceptable.

** Smaller worlds have been terraformed in transhuman space, both by worldhouse and more open-air methods, but it’s largely the kind of thing that much more energy-rich systems do as a vanity project. Kahira may someday see blue skies, but likely not for a thousand years at least. (edit, one year later: I actually changed up some of this while simulating this system for stability. I’ll be posting more about this soon.)

*** Mangala and Kahira, being tidally locked to each other such that they always show one another the same face as they orbit their common center of mass, both have days exactly as long as their orbital periods - 403 kiloseconds, or roughly 112 hours. This is for convenience divided into month-weeks comprising four “circadian days” of 100 kiloseconds (~26 hours), with the remaining three kiloseconds added on to the last day of a month-week to keep synchronization.

#cazart #deep blue #<- new tag for my sf worldbuilding project :0)

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weirdmarioenemies · 6 months

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Name: Dubior

Debut: Kirby's Return to Dream Land

Kirby's Return to Dream Land is very realistic, because it accurately depicts the phenomenon that, when you go to space, you will encounter funny robots flying about! What is their purpose? We don't know! There is, however, a sort of controversy or misunderstanding revolving Dubior.

You see, Dubior grants the Spark ability. Because it is a robot that runs on electricity, and uses all sorts of electric attacks! However, many people do not like this, and think it should instead give the UFO ability.

Perhaps I am in the minority here, but I disagree! Dubior may be a flying machine in space, but at least to me, it does not seem all that much like a UFO! It is just a funny robot. The UFOs in this series have all had a very distinct design trend, which Dubior does not follow. Besides...

What is a UFO? An Unidentified Flying Object. Dubior is not unidentified. It's Dubior! It says it right there on its health bar! Objectively, Dubior is not a UFO. It is just a FO. And nobody says FO.

What Dubior HAS always reminded me of is those little handheld vibrating massagers! You know, the ones with a central round part and three or four orbs that vibrate and you rub it on your back? It is a fun thing to be reminded of!

Anyway, Dubior is a mid-boss, and a very special one! As Kirby and friends journey across Popstar, they will encounter various mid-bosses as usual, culminating in a classic Mid-Boss Tower Level in which they are fought one after another, each fight taking place higher in the tower.

This tower is so high that it pierces the atmosphere, and Dubior is fought last, on nearly the top floor! It is no coincidence that the most alien of foes is only on the closest point of this planet to outer space. This foreshadows that it will reappear, and more often, on the distant planet Halcandra! This seems to be where it was created, but for what reason? We don't know!

What we do know is that in Planet Robobot, the Haltmann Works Company uses Dubiors as part of their invasion! I assume they reprogrammed or recreated ones they found on Halcandra, since we know they have been there. It is the only of their returning mid-boss arsenal to not be mechanized, which is amusing. How are you going to mechanize a robot? You're not!

Geez. I can't believe I've said so much about Dubior and I have not even gotten to its wonderful antenna thing! It's clear by now I find Dubior delightful, but to me, the antenna is its best feature. When it first appears and sees Kirby, the three weird floating rectangles seem to freak out, growing and flashing red and white, as if it would be saying INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT.

Dubior is also a parent! Happy birthday to Dubior Jr.! I love love looove when things are named like that. This is a machine! You would think it would be named something like Dubior Lite or Dubior Micro, but no! This was Born, and Named, after its proud robot parent. As were its many siblings, because many Dubior Jr.s can be spawned! Mollusc Fans may notice that Dubior Jr. looks quite like a nautilus, with a body like a curved shell, and a brim above its eyes like the leathery "hood" of a nautilus! It is a strange decision, since Dubior's design does not appear to draw from any real creature, but of course I am very happy about it. I'm Mollusc Fans!

Finally, we have Dubior EX, who I do not have much to say about, but am including because it would be wrong not to. This one is pink, and with only one eye, positioned to appear slightly menacing as opposed to regular Dubior's wide-eyed innocence! I prefer regular Dubior, but EX is very cool on its own merits, too.

If after all this you still consider Dubior to be UFO-like, I'm not upset with you.

#dubior #dubior jr #dubior ex #kirby #kirby's return to dream land #kirby enemies #not mario #funky friday #mod chikako

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niqhtlord01 · 11 days

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Humans are weird: Poop Crystals

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

The pace in which human technology progressed over the millennia was rather standard for a class 4 species. Even when accounting the periods of scientific degradation which resulted from natural plagues or religious persecution; it was expected that humans would not achieve advanced space travel until another 2-3 thousand years had passed.

Scientifically speaking human scientists were well more advanced than the society they lived in, but due to the technological limitations of the human race they were held back from implementing their designs. A primary limitation was the lack of a sufficiently powerful power source. They did have many different forms of power generators ranging from solar to nuclear, but to power larger machines often required equally large energy sources. To power their ships alone around a third of their vessels were dedicated to the power cores.

With these restrictions in place travel between stars for humans often relied on decade long journeys in cryo sleep; which ironically required even more power generators to maintain. Their large size made them easy targets for natural disasters such as space debris or prowling space pirates seeking an easy profit margin at the slave markets. These dangers became a standard for human travel until the Terran civilization encountered the planet Nolla 987 and the species that called it home.

During a long duration colonization trip the human ship “Midas” was struck by the trail debris of a rogue comet and knocked off course. The robotic caretakers tried their best to maintain the course, but with the damage done to the ship their primary programming to maintain the lives of the crew kicked in and diverted the ship to the nearest habitable planet for debarkation. Nolla 987 was the closest planet with a stable atmosphere. Originally charted several years earlier but deemed unsuitable for colonization or industrial expansion, it was not ear marked for either and left alone; until the Midas incident that is.

The landing was not a smooth one. Several engines had been damaged and multiple hull breaches resulted in portions of the ship being shredded away during the entry process. It would be safer to say that the Midas crash landed during the final stretch of the maneuver, but with a 73% survival rate of the crew a rather acceptable crash landing.

One by one the crew and colonists were unfrozen to find the ship a burning wreck and only a handful of robotic assistants still functioning. The industrial printing machines were relatively undamaged but without the ships power core they could not be used to print components or tools needed to make the necessary repairs. The crew was then forced to ration its remaining power supply and divided into two teams. The first team would comb through the wreckage and salvage what they could of the wreck while also building shelter. The second group would scout the surrounding area for anything of use and then report back.

It did not take long for the second team to stumble upon a nest of the dominant species of the planet. An insectoid called the “Sectar” which ranged from the size of a house cat to as large as a two story building. These insects digested their food and excreted the waste into a dense crystalian substance that they then used to build massive hive like complexes.

The occupants of the hive had been driven from the hive by the crash landing of the Midas leaving it almost completely empty save for a few eggs and new hatchlings who were not strong enough to flee on their own. Several of the second team members had been scanning the crystal structures while interacting with the newborn Sectar’s. To quote a journal entry of one of them, “They were like insect golden retrievers. Extremely derpy with at least four times as many sets of eyes. They followed us around on their legs like we were their mothers and clung to our legs when we began to return to our ship for the night.”

At least one of the second team was confirmed to have brought a hatchling back to their camp. There was a debate amongst the survivors on if they should try and eat it, but the notion was quickly squashed as they still had food reserves and no one was brave enough to see how the alien’s bio matter would react inside the human digestive system.

The same human who had brought the hatchling back offered it a portion of food which it eagerly ate. Not long after the hatchling excreted a hardened crystal roughly the size of a thimble. When the human made to pick up the seemingly beautiful gem they recoiled as an electrical discharge shocked their hand. This immediately drew the attention of the rest of the crew who began carefully examining the crystal substance. After some rather rough jury-rigging, the crystal was wired into one of the printer machines and to the surprise of everyone powered the machine. The crew quickly learned that the older Sectar’s would produce larger crystal excrements but were extremely hostile and territorial. Smaller Sectar’s were deemed more desirable for the time being as they were easier to train and harvest crystals from.

Within a matter of days the crew had not only collected enough crystals to power all of their machines and send out a distress signal, but also used the new found crystal power to create a full settlement on the planet complete with water filtration, crop fields, and a sizeable wall to keep out the native wildlife.

It would not be for another thirty years before a passing human shipped picked up their distress signal and went to investigate the planet. When they arrived on Nolla 987 they were astonished to find a fully functioning colony complete with limited orbital facilities. Nearly every human settler and their descendants had a Sectar in their household that they would take care of and feed and in exchange use their crystal excrement to power nearly everything they needed to live.

From there it was only a matter of time before the entirety of human space was aware of the events of Nolla 987 and the Sectar species. Within the decade the colony on Nolla 987 became the capital for a fully settled world with dozens of cities and communities. The Sectar species were transported throughout human space and began being implemented in all aspects of society.

There was initial resistance to the new power source by existing power blocks which realized Sectar power would be far more efficient than nuclear powered engines, but unlike other power sources they had squashed in development the Sectar power option had thirty years of trial and error to back it up with research as well as a fully functioning model with the planet of Nolla 987.

Sectar’s became a common sight on every human planet and were treated like common pets. It was even studied that when introduced to different food sources the energy output of crystal excrement could be increased resulting in certain food industries booming overnight. The composition of spices, cooking technique, and flavoring became an entirely new and highly prestigious academic field with the most successful of its practitioners being highly sought after by companies.

The technological capabilities of humanity experienced a massive surge in advancement within fifty years to the point humans no longer needed cryo ships to travel between stars. Those who had been studying humanity found themselves now being introduced to them as humans winded up on their doorstep with a Sectar on their shoulder and a perverse obsession with collecting its bodily waste.

#humans are insane #humans are weird #humans are space oddities #humans are space orcs #scifi #story #writing #original writing #niqhtlord01 #funny

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legitalicat · 20 days

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Too Sweet - Modern!Aegon Targaryen ii x reader

AN: Hello my beautiful people! I hope you enjoy this story. It started as a little love note to the song "Too Sweet" by Hozier because I feel it's very Aegon coded. It then became kind of an amalgamation of a few different stories. My own story and journey with alcoholism and recovery played a big part in this, and as I wrote it parts of my feelings about my older brother, who is in active addiction, came into play. Please know that this is not everyone's story. Recovery from addiction looks different for most everyone. I truly overcame my addiction through building community and connections. I know many people who have to work a program to succeed. I know a person who actually did get a degree after a near lifetime of addiction and now he does a lot of things to help our local community in treating addiction. So really, this is a love letter to people like me and my brother. There is hope and I believe in every one of you.

Link to the TED Talk mentioned.

TW: blatant talks of alcoholism and substance abuse, talks of rehab, family issues, abusive family subtext yet never explicitly stated, gonna say it's kinda angsty, FLUFF

Pairings: Aegon Targaryen ii x reader

Word count: almost 3k

The soft pads of her feet made barely any noise as she walked into his bedroom, carrying a mug in each hand and wearing nothing but his MCR tee-shirt. Technically, they should both be in a deep sleep by now. It was fast approaching four in the morning and neither of them had bothered to close their eyes once. It was all he could to not hold her close in bed and stare at her captivating beauty.

When Aegon first saw her, weeks ago, he was stunned. It was the first time he had gone to the new bar right down the road from his apartment and it just so happened it was karaoke night. He had been tempted to turn around when he heard a horrendous rendition of his favorite Hozier song. But then she took the mic from her drunken friend, and it was as if the heavens parted and the gods showed him the future Mrs. Aegon Targaryen.

“Your coffee, sir,” she said to him as she handed him a mug. “No worries, it’s as black as your soul,” she added with a teasing grin.

“Thank you, beautiful,” he said as he took the mug from her.

She was truly a lesson in divinity for him. Aegon didn’t truly believe she was the most gorgeous woman on the planet. There would be people who would think she was average looks, maybe even less than that, but he didn’t need her to be more beautiful than anyone else. He wanted her exactly as she was. Beautiful like a spring day, teeming with beauty in the most natural of ways. Like one would think of a cherry blossom tree, or their favorite flower. Simple and breathtaking, a reminder of life and truth on a fundamental level.

He knew it the moment they locked eyes in that bar. Her voice shook from nerves as she sang in front of the crowd of strangers. When she looked at him, and he at her, he felt joyful for the first time in years. All of the stupid shit with his family, the years of drowning his sorrows in whiskey and wine and any other drug, none of it mattered.

If he were honest, he couldn’t remember how he got so lucky. He knew he approached her once she was done singing and complimented her. By the end of the night she was nestled beside him in bed, and he’d be damned if he ever let her leave.

“Gods, you’re amazing,” he muttered as he watched her. He knew she was drinking hot chocolate, finding the taste of coffee much too bitter.

“What was that?” she asked him when she pulled the mug away from her face. She had a bit of whipped cream on her upper lip, making his heart feel like it was on the brim of exploding.

He leaned forward, just barely, and lifted his hand to wipe the cream away with his thumb. She gave him a cute little smile when it brushed against her lips, puckering them to press a kiss to his skin. When he pulled his hand away and sucked the cream off, he heard her giggle.

“This is why you’re so sweet. Where most people drink whiskey and coffee, you put sugar in your sugar and drink it until the sun comes up,” he told her. Of course, he was teasing her.

“Because unlike you, Mr. Listen to Sad Music Even When I’m Happy, I like to enjoy things. The good things. The sweet things, like whipped cream and hot chocolate and fruit loops in bed on Saturday mornings. I just think I live a better life than you,” she told him. She was grinning from ear to ear.

If Aegon wasn’t so afraid of rejection, he would tell her how he loved her. He loved that she wanted to eat sweets at all times. He loved that she teased him for listening to My Chemical Romance or Asking Alexandria, calling it all sad music, even when she would listen right alongside him. He loved that she would start crying at the Wonka movie near the end, unashamed about feeling overwhelmed by the backstory.

If he weren’t so afraid she didn’t love him, he would tell her. He knew it had only been a few weeks, that all logic points to love at first sight being nothing more than him just getting turned on by her appearance. But how could he not love her when she sat in bed with him like this after making him a cup of coffee before the sun had even risen? How could one resist the gentleness of her touch when they watched TV together and she insisted on holding his hand? How could he be expected to watch her hyper fixate on a book or a video game, talking about it for hours on end with so much passion she always ended up wound up and breathless?

“You’re too sweet for me,” he told her as he laid back against the head board. He gently pulled her into his side, wanting to have her as close as humanly possible.

His words were met with an amused chuckle. She didn’t fight his hold on her, instead melting into him as though it was where she had always been.

“Tell me about your family,” she said quietly. “I mean, I’ve not been further than ten feet from you for weeks and you haven’t said the first word about them.”

He could feel his jaw clench as she asked him. His family was a complicated and sensitive subject. Even though he wished he never had to speak to her about them, he knew he had to if he had any hopes of them becoming more than just a passion fueled fling.

“Not much to really say. Dad ran Draconic Industries. My older sister, Rhaenyra, is my dad’s daughter with his first wife. He made her next in line to take over the business. Me, my younger siblings, even my mom, we never really mattered much to dear old dad. He died when I was nineteen. I don’t really matter much to any of the rest of them,” he told her, tracing shapes on her bare thigh as he spoke.

“I’m sure that’s not true,” she said quickly.

“It is,” he told her without any uncertainty. “Helaena, my younger sister, hasn’t spoken to me in a few years either. I haven’t spoke to my youngest brother Daeron since we were kids. And my brother Aemond…he was the last to hold out hope for me and I burned that to the ground a long time ago. I think it’s been at least a year. My mom completely disowned me about four years ago, when I was around twenty-two, cause I refused to go to rehab again.”

She frowned softly but said nothing. He could only imagine what was going through her head at this point. If roles were reversed, he would probably be planning his exit strategy. All it felt like he told her was a sob story about a poor rich kid who can’t live off mommy and daddy anymore. He felt pathetic.

“What did you go to rehab for?” she asked him.

“Started partying when I was like twelve. Alcoholic by age fourteen. Lead to worse shit, as it does, and I overdosed when I was eighteen on some coke. My mom and grandfather checked me into rehab the following week. Have done two more stints since. Never really stuck, and I haven’t been sober for more than a few days since I was like fifteen.”

He was laying in all our there for her. He wanted her to know so she could decide if she thought he was worth the trouble. He couldn’t blame her if she ran away from him. Why would she stick around? All of his family had washed their hands of him and they were family. She was just someone he met in a bar a few weeks before.

She stayed quiet for a long time. Longer than he would’ve liked. The silence weighed on his heart like an elephant pressing against his chest. He wanted to beg her to say something, anything, just so he knew where her head was at.

Though, he noticed, she didn’t move away from him. She stayed right there, comfortable tucked into his side, occasionally sipping her hot chocolate. His own mug, still filled with coffee, had gone near forgotten in his hand. He was too focused on her.

“You know, the opposite of addiction is connection. Watched a TED Talk one time about it. They found when addicts are treated like people instead of criminals, integrating them into society instead of isolating them, they show less of a struggle with addictions. Allow their basic needs to be met, give them a community, and they thrive,” she said softly after several moments.

She sat up, her warmth leaving him. He felt lonely without her touching him even though she was still well within arm’s reach. She was all he wanted, all he needed.

“I’m not saying I can fix you. I’m not saying the cure to all your problems is me giving my heart to you. I am, however, telling you that I haven’t once seen you drunk or high or anything and we basically haven’t been apart in weeks. If you want to develop healthy connections, create a community, be a person, I am more than willing to be part of it,” she said.

His heart started beating rapidly against his chest. He knew she was right. Since being with her, he hadn’t really felt the need for anything. He had physical cravings, sure, but no mental desire. Aegon didn’t want a moment with her to be a hazy memory that he may be able to recall when he's older.

“Why?” he asked her.

“Because I love you,” she said.

The weeks and months following that night, Aegon really put in the work. Y/N had made it clear to him that she was not going to just give him everything. If he wanted this, it was on him. She was only helping him.

Together, they had found a group therapy program for him. It was ran by a man who had gotten his psychology degree a few years before, but had struggled with addiction for most of his life. That was the first step, a step Aegon felt proud he had taken once he realized he didn’t feel so alone anymore.

The next step, he decided on by himself. The group program was all well and good, but he felt a need to find a deeper explanation into himself. Once a week he found himself sitting in a therapist’s office, talking about everything and nothing all at once. They spoke about his family, his self imposed isolation from them and how that lead to them cutting off, his hopes and dreams for the future.

Through this, he found out about opportunities for volunteer work in the community. He realized he quite liked working at the local secondhand store that helped people in need. He even brought her with him on the Saturdays he worked a shift, turning it into something they enjoyed together.

Even at work, he began reaching out more. If the opposite of addiction was connection, then by the gods he was going to make connections. His coworkers were enough to give him a good laugh. All of them were extremely proud of the progress he made, always encouraging him. He found that little bit alone made it easier for him to be more himself. In the conversations he was able to have with his coworkers, he talked about shows, movies, and music he liked and became friends with a few of them.

It was with this progress, along with the support Y/N provided, that Aegon found himself at the door of his family’s estate. He hadn’t been here in years. He knew all of his younger siblings still lived here. Helaena’s bright yellow VW Beetle sat parked in the driveway, Aemond’s motorcycle probably laid in parts in the garage, and Daeron had always been more content taking a town car than actually driving himself anywhere.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” Y/N told him as she held his hand tightly. He had asked her to come with him so she could at least meet them. They needed to see how he had changed.

“I do have to. If for no other reason than to show them I’m not who they remember me to be,” he told her.

“Did you talk to Dr. Wilson about this? I mean, I just, I don’t want you to,” she said, trying desperately to find the right words. He silenced her with a kiss to her forehead.

“And I love you for it,” he said to her, holding her hand as tightly as she held his. “I’m okay with whatever happens in there.”

He knocked hard on the door. It wasn’t long before his mother answered. The ever looming presence of Alicent Hightower, never Targaryen, filled the entire space of the door frame. Her auburn curls were tied neatly back into a bun, her brown eyes widened in surprise.

The woman before him, despite being in her forties, showed no true signs of aging. There were no gray hairs scattered around her head, no fine lines or wrinkles. The only indication of a less than flawless appearance were the almost invisible lines that came from the outer corners of her eyes, put there by the fact that just like Aegon, her eyes would always squint up whenever she smiled.

“Aegon,” she said quietly. She looked at him like she saw a ghost.

“Hi, mom. Can we come in?” he asked her, biting his lip. Y/N gave his hand a small squeeze as if to remind him she was with him. He had her support every step of the way.

Alicent nodded silently and stepped to the side, allowing them entrance. The house was the same as the last time he was here. All of the old family photos hung on the walls of the hallway to the living room. The air smelled of cedar wood and spiced apples, giving it the perpetual scent of fall. It was warm and inviting, the plush couch so comfortable beneath him it was almost indicative of how much money his mother spent on it.

In a lot of ways, the house felt like his family. It was the epitome of warmth and love on first glance. When you looked closer, you could see how some of the picture frames were void of glass, having been broken in one family argument or another. There was a coat the hung on the same rack, day in and day out, hiding the hole where his head went through the wall in a drunken stupor. The paint on the walls were beginning to chip away, revealing the yellowing walls that proved how much his dad had liked to smoke. It was haunted, irreversibly scarred by the past.

A maid came around and asked the three of them if they wanted a drink. Alicent requested a glass of wine. Aegon noticed how surprised she looked when he just asked for a soda, like Y/N was having. He also noticed how she kept looking at his hand that held Y/N’s.

“And who is this?” She asked, nodding her head to Y/N.

“This is the woman I’m going to marry, Y/N,” he said confidently.

They hadn’t spoken about it, there wasn’t a ring on her finger. But he had no doubt in his mind that he would marry her. He was certain that she was who he was made for. The gods had her in mind when they designed him, knowing how much he would love her. She truly was his soulmate.

“And so you came to show her how terrible we all are?” she asked him, eyebrow raised. “Or did you come for money? Because you’re not getting a dime.”

“Neither,” he said firmly. “I just wanted you to see me, mom. I wanted to see you.”

She was surprised at his words. The last time he had spoken to her, he had been begging for money. Crying, begging. When she refused, trying to help him in the best way she knew how, he screamed at her about all of her faults. The last words he spoke to her was how he could only hope that he had the courage to kill himself before he turned into her.

“I’m sorry for…for everything,” he told her. “It wasn’t fair of me to blame everything on you.” Y/N squeezed his hand again. He looked down at their hands and he knew he was okay. He would be okay. “I’m like, eight months sober from everything. Not a drop of booze, no drugs. I have a full time job, I volunteer on the weekends at a secondhand store. I’m doing good, mom.”

Tears flooded to her eyes as she looked at him. Her oldest son, the first person she ever truly loved in a selfless manner. She had thought he was completely lost to her. The vicious creature he had been when they last saw each other had melted away entirely.

“Do you want to stay for dinner?” she asked him. He could only wordlessly nod, allowing her the time to stand from her chair and walk over to him. She hugged him tighter than she ever had.

He looked over Alicent’s shoulder at Y/N. The woman he loved was watching him with tears of her own, a smile on his face. She was good, too good, for him. She had opened his eyes to a reality he had been scared to face. But she had never once made him face it alone.

And that made all the difference.

#dividers by benkeibear #aegon targaryen ii #aegon targaryen x reader #mental health #recovery

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