palia hell

We are so back

I'm doing another round of preorders on my Palia romance/shepp buttons! This time with Eshelon <3 and I knowww he isn't technically romancable yet but I couldn't help myself.

Okay, okay, okay. So, Reth is my man, my heart and soul, so I have a few headcanons. I feel like Reth has been in his "hustel mode" for so long that he probably falls back into his schedule out of sheer desperation. He has no idea what he likes doing, has no idea what to do with his freedom and yeah, he has some things he would want to achieve someday but ha, those are silly dreams, right? He's just a dude? He can actually DO things????

I feel like he goes back to bartending because that is the only thing he know he can do. He's good at that. He doesn't mind doing that. Also, I can see him feeling a kind of debt towards Zeki because he paid his cartel debt. And yeah, Zeki did that out of the good of his heart but Reth can't believe that. Noone just does something like that right? And also, now that Zeki helped him, he needs to help Zeki in return. So that's how he ends up spending much of his time trying to figure out how to put an end to cartel business with Zeki. It takes him months to actually start using his time for himself. It takes all of Tish's effort to get him to let go of his rigid schedule and relax for once in his life. He starts working on his recipe book, he experiments in the kitchen. He actually plans a date with his crush and makes it there. Reth starts living slowly, tentatively, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Nai'o had something fall on his back! Someone is helping him get it off!

minors dont look because its a bad fall

i immediately got this

They released an album too! I don't think this song is on it but the rest of their stuff is SO GOOD !!

then randomly remember he does work for a cartel and it’s very possible that under that all self loathing flirty sweetness he’s actually capable of being dangerous.

Like I understand he’s very low man in the cartel but in criminal organizations like that even low level guys are still dangerous. Maybe not outright “I’ll kill you without a second thought and enjoy it” kinda dangerous but I would still bet money Reth is capable of killing if it came down to it. Not that he’d ever WANT TO but I think he’s at least capable of doing so.

I mean he’s very aware how dangerous the people he works for are. I don’t have a doubt that if someone made a credible threat against Tish (or the player if the relationship is strong enough), that Reth wouldn’t be out for blood.

That being said. I think Reth can fight. And not in the "going to self-defense class"- way but in the "fighting in the back of a dirty alley"- way.

I have had this scene in my head for the longest time where (for reasons I can not share right now because it probably will still be used for Fuel) Reth and Hassian do fight training together. Hassian is very clinical about it, very precise and focused on choosing the right moment, the right posture. He's a fighter in the more traditional sense, skilled with a weapon but slow and methodical. So he absolutely pesters Reth about it, like we all know he would because Hassian takes this seriously but Hassian has never really had to fight before. It's a sport to him, a training method. "Your footwork is off." "You need to widen your stance." "Your blows are messy."

Until Reth finally snaps and just clocks him. Reth explodes under the pressure of everything happening, of being buried under the heavy cloak of responsabilities for years and years on end with no way out. The first hit is an absolute fight or flight response because he feels cornered. The second one is frustration that just pours out of him while he shouts at Hassian that he can stick all his methods up his arse if it ever comes to a real fight. Because out there, noone waits for you to adjust your stance. You either hit them before they hit you or you're gonna pay the price for being too slow.

It takes Hassian a moment to understand what's happening, that this outburst Reth shows is a needed outlet for him and he has the chance to show Reth that after all the bad blood between them, he is capable of listening and learning. That they have moved forward from being enemies into a territory that is somewhere along the lines of being friends.

So he studies Reth's movements, copies them, blocks him, pushes back and lets Reth put all his frustrations into the fight until he collapses into a heaving, fragile lump of a person and finally breathes for the first time in years. And that's when Hassian puts his hand on his shoulder, reassures him that he understands and tells him that he doesn't have to carry those burdens on his own anymore.

Uhm...yeah...idk...I have a lot of feelings about Reth. And a lot of thoughts of how a friendship between Hassian and him could look like apart from the obvious reality of Reth chewing his ear off all day long. I will stop lamenting now.