#ipc hsr

"Let me make you an offer, Friend"

Tags: Aventurine x Teen!Reader, Platonic, Mentor-Apprentice Relationship, Found Family, Protective Aventurine, Gambling Metaphors, Debt Repayment, Strategic Mind Games, Subtle Bonding, Hidden Emotions, Survival Tactics.

A/N: Why does this sound like me...? 😕 I need an Aventurine in my life to pay debts fr

Aventurine met you in a rather unconventional way—caught in a game of your own, albeit one where the stakes were dangerously high. You were attempting to negotiate your debt with some questionable IPC associates when he happened to stroll by. He watched the interaction with mild curiosity, and when you caught his eye, he gave a knowing smirk and intervened with his characteristic smoothness.

He’s intrigued by your situation, partly amused by the audacity of someone so young to get mixed up with IPC debts. He decides to help you—not out of pure kindness, but because he sees a bit of himself in your resilience and audacity. He “pays” off your debt as an investment, but he makes it clear this is not charity. His favor comes with strings, and he subtly suggests that you “owe him” now. But there’s something protective in the way he delivers this message, almost as if he's warding off others who might take advantage.

Despite his initial aloofness, Aventurine takes a strange liking to you and becomes a bit of a mentor, though he would never call himself that. Instead of lecturing, he offers advice in cryptic phrases, urging you to think five steps ahead in every decision. He teaches you the art of reading people, gauging their motives, and knowing when to bluff and when to hold back. There’s a thrill in the way he demonstrates this, turning ordinary interactions into high-stakes “games.”

Aventurine provides you with occasional tasks, small errands that allow him to gauge your talents. He lets you accompany him to upscale IPC events, knowing that exposure to this world of high-stakes deals and strategy is the best teacher. He’s a sharp observer, quickly noting your strengths and weaknesses, and he offers blunt advice when needed. While he maintains his enigmatic aura, he never allows you to get too close, reminding you in his own way that trust is earned—and rarely granted freely.

With time, Aventurine drops subtle hints about his own life philosophies. He talks about taking risks but always with a hidden safety net, teaching you how to survive in a world that might otherwise devour you. He tells you, with a shadow of seriousness, to never let anyone see how deeply they’ve cut you, reminding you that even vulnerability is a weapon when wielded correctly.

Aventurine’s protective side reveals itself whenever he suspects someone might try to exploit you. Though he doesn’t make a show of it, he’ll quietly “rearrange” circumstances to keep certain people away or to ensure you’re not drawn into IPC’s darker undercurrents. He’ll offer a calm warning with a smile, his eyes glinting, as he reminds you of the “price of trust.” You know that, while he claims your debt as his own, he’d sooner see you free from it than bound tighter.

Over time, your bond with Aventurine becomes something close to friendship, even if he’d never label it that way. While he maintains his air of mystery, there’s a camaraderie in the way he smirks when you catch onto his tricks or in the rare instances when he actually praises your progress. You share jokes—most at others' expense—and a silent understanding grows. Though his motives may remain unclear, you realize Aventurine has become an unexpected ally, guiding you with a peculiar mix of mentorship and care that only he could offer.

I just did the Chadwick Adventure Mission and I’m so. Just horrified. When you’re trying to resist and say no no I won’t do this and they shoot you? And then the countdown as the screen gets more and more fuzzy and Dudley is talking and as you watch 24 planets that the IPC see as a good enough collateral for their means are obliterated he’s just standing there and going “Hey at least you’ll have a legacy. The rest of us? We won’t even be remembered” because in an organization as big as the IPC being remembered as a monster is better than being forgotten at all.

There is no identity in the IPC. Everyone is a pretty stone that is only worth something when polished and worn like an accessory. Sure the rarer ones are hard to come by but they’re still able to be replaced with a bigger, prettier version. Aventurine and Topaz, how quick they were to jump to the morally dubious answer. How quick Dudley was to jump to leaving 24 planets unremembered and sneering at the idea that he himself will also be left as such.

Aventurine has a serial number because he’s a product to the IPC. Without his identifying stone he’s just the IPC’s spare body. He’s a gambler because all he can do is gamble, it’s the only way he can gain agency and power. It’s so hard to not like him because everyone else doesn’t like him for a very different reason and are being derogatory to him. Like god no wonder he places no value in friendship as far as he’s concerned he’s completely on his own. I don’t like him that much, make no mistake, but I do like him more than Topaz because at least he doesn’t seem to have a choice in serving the IPC while Topaz does. Rewatching her trailer and seeing her bask in the roars of a crowd chanting “Interastral Peace!” in an almost religious way it’s horrifying. Adding to that, Dr Ratio is involved with the IPC and he’s literally based on Rome and if you know anything about the history of Rome that feels intentional.

Not to mention Penacony used to be a prison planet of the IPC and now we know they were using the planet to try and pry out the knowledge of a weapon of mass destruction by stripping away his body and memories and leaving him to wander aimlessly in a pretty dream until they can harvest husk of a consciousness to hurt more people?

They were so ready to steamroll over Aurum Alley at any costs knowing the ramifications it’d have on the people of the Luofu. They were ready to reclaim Jarilo-VI and try to “revive” it knowing the failure rate was higher and they could very easily leave the place a husk. It’s honestly hilarious that they claim to serve Qlipoth because they never actually protect anything, they destroy. Every time the IPC is involved with something the people they’re against are the ones protecting, Sushang protecting Aurum Alley, Bronya protecting Jarilo-VI, Chadwick protecting anyone who could be a victim of his hubris by passing his knowledge to Herta to make a counter against it, the Genius Society protecting their work from being misused by refusing to collaborate with the IPC… it’s never been the IPC who protect.