#every day we get closer to gear 5 being animated

[usopps-froggy-hat]

gear frames!

#every day we get closer to gear 5 being animated #one piece #luffy #monkey d. luffy #ep. 1069 #wano #wano arc #wano country saga #op aesthetic #impact frames #one piece screenshots #one piece screencaps #one piece anime #op anime spoilers #op spoilers

[creamypudding]

Getting Fit

I have a few passions in life: plants, animals, making my favourite fictional boys kiss, and exercise. 

The last one I’ve had a very on and off relationship with and this post is about my rediscovery of the passion for it.

I was a very typical teenage girl to whom sports was very uncool and I did it only because I had to as part of the school curriculum. I was never very good at anything in particular, except for running. I made it through to a regional cross country race once, though that didn’t eventuate in anything significant. Despite being good at running I didn’t care to pursue it and I didn’t gravitate toward anything else, so once I finished school my relationship with physical activity ended.

In my mid 20′s I connected with it in a big way. I had health issues caused by my weight and I was sick of taking medicine to manage it. I was convinced that losing weight would help me, even though (and I remember this vividly) my health professional scoffed when I told her I was coming off the meds and that I was going to get fit. Needless to say, I didn’t go back to her.

Anyway, back then I was blessed to live in a gorgeous place with ample nature so I went trail running. Though it was mostly walking interspersed with jogging. I did it almost every day for a solid two months during summer break. I reconnected with my enjoyment of running and I had goals to be able to run the full 7km (4.3miles) without stopping. I enjoyed lasting longer, needing to take fewer walking breaks, and cutting down the time it took. I did manage to reach my goal eventually. I also branched out to going to a gym and doing fitness classes which I really enjoyed. I got into a lot of weight training and managed to lose 14kg (30lb) over the course of a year.

I was happy. My body liked me for having shed the weight. I engaged in several obstacle courses over the years, and I wasn’t too fussed with what I ate because I kept up the exercise.

But then life changed. I moved away from my nature track and further away from the gym I liked. I was walking more to and from work but it wasn’t the same. Weight slowly crept up but it wasn’t a concern for me. I was still fit and in the range I deemed acceptable.

Then I got pregnant, which was a very deliberate choice. Inevitably I got heavier but it didn’t bother me because I was still active and I knew that weight wasn’t mine. Birth was the fastest weight loss I ever experienced 😂 and breast feeding helped lose the extra kilos.

Having to look after a small human left me with no time or energy for myself and over the past 5 years I’ve had several weight loss attempts that fell through. I tried going to a gym that was closer to me, but it was still far enough away to be a hassle and I didn’t connect with any of the classes or activities I tried.

I attempted to go running around my local area as there were parks but it was along busy roads and the vibe was never the same as running through nature along a river. COVID also happened, which gave me a bit more time to exercise, but as I started to get into some kind of routine I lost my job, got depressed, and moved house again.

This time it was even further away from a gym, though I now live in a nicer, less busy area, and there are walking and bike tracks. Yet I just haven’t had the courage or fortitude to go out and find a running route yet.

I did purchase a treadmill and started using that, but it was dull and can’t compare to going for runs out in nature. 

I knew I needed to exercise though. I have kept an eye on my weight and have been watching it steadily and slowly creep up. I’m now heavier than I ever was and I started becoming deeply uncomfortable with that reality. Not enough to get myself into gear though.

I’ve started being plagued again with health issues and decided to finally see a doctor about it. We tried several things but the issues persisted and then he decided that I was probably due for a blood test to check everything out. Turns out everything is fine, but my cholesterol is elevated. Nothing to be concerned about for my age, but it’s something I need to get on top of because I’m not getting younger.

That’s been the motivation I evidently needed because it’s been the catalyst that’s helped me get back into fitness. I tried running on the treadmill and while it’s been ok I didn’t like it. I still haven’t gone out for a run, as it’s so hot and I feel self-conscious. But I have armed myself with a handful of apps that I can follow along with at home. I have committed to HIIT exercises because I can’t stand the idea of exercising for longer than 20 minutes and, frankly, I don’t have the time for anything longer in the mornings. I know myself well enough to know that if I don’t exercise first thing in the morning there is no way I’ll do it in the evening after work and after having put the spud to bed.

So this is my routine now. Get up before 6am, get my workout clothes on, sweat up a storm between 6 and 6:30, sort out the child, shower, breakfast, go to work.

I’m now on week 3 of this and have been steadily ramping up how many days I’m exercising. The first week I started on Monday. Friday I took off, and I also rested on Sunday. Week 2 Friday came around. I was fully prepared to chillax but a tiny voice inside said ‘fuck it, let’s do it’ and I did and felt great for it, and I basically exercised every day that week, though I did take it easy on Sunday and did stretching and yoga instead of HIIT.

I’m feeling better. Less lethargic, though come the late afternoon I’m ready for a nap 😅 A pair of shorts I had that’s been growing steadily tighter is loose again and requires me to wear a belt.

Mind you, it’s not all exercise. I’ve started counting calories again, which is what I used to do when I first started over a decade ago. I think calorie counting gets a bad rep. It’s been very good for me to see what I’m eating. I’m more mindful of my food choices now. I’ve sought out new recipes to try out and I’m finding that I can tell the difference between genuine hunger and emotional hunger. Once I recognise that I want to eat my feelings or use food to soothe I can work through it with distractions. And if it keeps lingering I remind myself of the end game: my goal weight, reducing the cholesterol levels, being healthy and fitter, having more energy for my child.

That really helps.

I’ll hopefully have reached my goal weight by August and I’ll be 12kg (26lb) lighter. 🤞

I’m really proud of myself for having found something that’s working for me. I had to step out of my perceived comfort zone and challenge what my own expectations of fitness looked like to try something new. I’m really enjoying it and I’m shocked that even when I wake up tired there isn’t this voice inside that says ‘I don’t want to do this’. It just says ‘let’s get this over and done with’. Knowing I only need to spend a maximum 20 minutes on suffering in the morning to get to where I want to be is amazing. Anyway, I just wanted to get these thoughts out. If anyone wants to also get fit and reach their own goals, hit me up. Having a social network to help motivate and be accountable to is important. I’ve been chatting to my BFF who is also wanting to get back into a fitness routine and we’ve been sharing resources. She put me onto the current app I’m using, so I’d love to extend that out to others who want to get fit but lack motivation. I’ve got a discord server, which is empty at present but if people are interested I can invite you and we can use that space.

My Discord handle is Cream Pudding#7945

#personal #fitness

[illbedancingwithmyself]

I’m digitizing the journal from my TRT hike. It’s clippy and cynical so feel free to ignore 

Days 4-6

Day 4 Benwood Creek to Gilmore Lake

  Had the site to myself, no late night neighbors. Took my time with the morning routine since I get up so early now and Colt won’t be at Echo Lake until 11-ish. I ran into two backpackers I had crossed the day before. We hiked through the surreal Caldor fire burn area. Surreal because you can tell that this trail was built more meandering than it needed to be to afford hikers more time in a formerly beautiful area, but now it’s totally scorched. I crossed highway 50 and started toward Echo Lake. I got ice cream and other goodies at the chalet. Colt met me and brought the goods. My feet felt instant relief. We hiked the first lake together, and caught up. With my feet and heart lighter, I continued up the exceptionally rocky path and eventually hit lake Aloha. Truly a long ass lake! I stopped at the end for a break. I had planned on camping at Susie Lake, but none of the sites looked good. I met two friendly hikers who were experiencing the same dilemma, and we all decided on Gilmore. I forgot what a pain in the ass the approach to Gilmore is. At least now I’m closer to Dick’s pass: my morning challenge. Lots of people and dogs at Gilmore, which I’ve come to prefer. I get so paranoid at night! Today was my first 15 mile day

Day 5 Gilmore Lake to Richardson Lake

  Richardson Lake, with a view of Sourdough hill. Dick’s Pass in the morning was shady and enjoyable. The views were amaaazing. I stopped more for picture taking than I did for catching my breath. It’s wild to think that at one point this was the hardest hike of my life, and now it’s just a majestic way to start my day. There were lots of sooty grouse (forest chickens!) on Dick’s pass for me to stare at while I made use of the okay reception. Dick’s lake was a joy to see again, and Fontinellis was just as beautiful as I had imagined. The Velmas area was also pretty (surprisingly wooded) despite me being freaked out about mountain lions. The rest of Desolation tho? Dry and lame except for a few stretches of enchanted forest. The forest seems so unhealthy here. Every other tree is dead or dying, and the forest floor is completely obscured by mossy dead trees and undergrowth. I might have been a little extra cynical because I was running extremely low on water during this dry stretch. The next time a map labels a body of water as “stagnant pond”, I’ll take it to heart and plan accordingly. I made camp at Richardson Lake, and took a dip in the tannic water fully clothed. I came here afraid of the small population of green Mojave rattlesnakes, but it was a giant crawdad that I fell victim to in that lake! Little bastard got me right on the toe. I haven’t seen or heard any of the trouble making motorists this lake is known for either.

   I’m really not sure if I’ll try to push for Tahoe City tomorrow or not. It would be 22 miles... in any case I’m looking forward to the Barker Pass toilets. My brain is so desperate for stimuli that sometimes the only entertainment it can muster is hurting my own feelings. I should really get a psych eval. The vocal stimming shit I get up to on the trail is also buckwild. I’m just so fucking bored on the monotonous stretches

Day 6 Richardson to Ward Creek

  The walk to Barker Pass was more depressingly unhealthy forest, but it slowly got better. After a trip to the pit toilet there were seas of mule ears and very nice vistas. The final push up to Granite Chief Wilderness had some crazy switchbacks, but it was doable. I met a nice pair and their husky at the top. I got a lil dehydrated and made a rash camp choice. It seemed established but now I realize it’s very close to the creek and trail. I washed up in the creek with an audience of trout, but it’s hard for me to enjoy myself when I have to worry about my gear and animals as a solo hiker. The water I scooped for my ramen dinner had visible tiny creepy crawlies in it, but I just boiled that shit. Full of worry that’s keeping me from enjoying the present, but excited for tomorrow.

#tahoe rim trail #backpacking #hiking #camping #tahoe #desolation wilderness

[delicrieux]

☆ﾐ 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚢 "𝚘𝚑"

PART 8: CAT BOYS 

... it’s late into the night and y/n is streaming with one of her new friends, sykkuno. running on caffeine and redbull is apparently not enough because she falls asleep on his shoulder 45 minutes into their cyberpunk gameplay. at that exact moment, twitter goes up in flames.

─── corpse husband x reader, sykkuno x reader (because i was threatened by thirsty anons) ─── soc. media + written fiction!  ─── word count: 1.8k author’s note: here it is...what yall been asking for. literally had to add a new part for this but i loved this idea sm i couldnt just nOT NOT do it. i tried writing this with the same energy as the smau lmao so expect chaos as always. hope you enjoy it and as always lmk what u think! hopefully yall wont go too feral, but tbh thats prolly too much to ask for xx EDIT: srr for the fucky format tumbler dot com is being lame 

ultimate masterlist.  ҉  myso masterlist   ҉   previous.   ҉   next.

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Such a back and forth continues for the better part of the day as you get ready. Corpse only whines a bit when you forget to text him back - you are packing, and your prestigious cat ears you bought from Amazon for 10$ deserve exquisite care - which only fuels your seemingly bottomless hunger for mischief, leading to you sneakily ignoring him more. When your phone lights up with a message, you giggle, giddy with excitement. Your laughter only gets louder and more erratic, to the point where Rae had busted down your door and threw her Hello Kitty plush at you - one you’d gotten her, mind you! - and told you to just “Shut the fuck up!”

Ungrateful. You know not everyone can appreciate your sense of humor, or stand your hyena like cackle, but that was uncalled for and you told her as much. Noting the mess your room is in (more than usual, that’s for certain), she leans onto the door frame, crossing her arms over her chest, pretty brown eyes twinkling curiously, “Where you off to?”

“So I had this idea-” You start, but are promptly shut down with a raise of her palm.

“Already know it’s a bad one.”

Insulted, and hurt, you clutch your heart. As if she had not mocked you enough today, “Rae...The hell, that’s so mean...” You mutter, face scrunching into a soft frown, “I only wanted to tell you what me and Syk thought of.”

“Oh?” Intrigued, she raises a brow, “Continue.”

“Gee, thanks for letting me this time.” You mumble, rolling your eyes, “So. We thought we’d stream together. The catch? In the same room! We’ll be playing Cyberpunk. Gotta cash in while the hype is still up.” You add, making her snort, “And, ya know, the whole cat boy business...We’ll be wearing matching cat ears. Admit it, I’m a genius.”

She’s quiet for a moment, mulling over your words; you can practically see the gears in her head turning. She glances around the room, then briefly at you, strangely apprehensive. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

Well, that is definitely not what you expected her to say. You figured it’d be more along the lines of you’d be one ugly cat. “Huh?” Is all you manage to stutter, “What do you mean?”

She gives you a look, one all people give when something is so plainly obvious, “Y/n. You do know the stans will go wild, right? And you do remember our conversation involving Corp-”

“Nope!” You exclaim cheerily with a bright smile to match. You don’t want to think about that. The relationship between you and Corpse is strictly platonic, and besides, seeing Twitter loosing their shit is always funny, and you never miss an opportunity to mess with your fans. Sykkuno is also a good friend, albeit a new one. This supposed flirting from Corpse’s end Rae deduced was nothing more than her projecting her feelings onto the situation. She always liked shoujo anime and was probably thinking one was happening right in front of her. Not a chance. Corpse was just being a friendly crackhead. Your energies mesh beautifully.

Like, beautifully in a strictly friend way. Absolutely nothing more than that.

She gives up, naturally, arguing with a wall would be more productive than arguing with you. You’re such a (Zodiac sign).

“Well,” She mumbles, ticking her head to the side, leaning off of the door frame and turning to leave, “Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.”

Your grin melts as soon as she leaves. Glancing at your bag, you shove your last necessities in with newfound hesitance. 

Nothing bad will happen, right?

...Right?

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It is well past the generally set “appropriate” time to hang out, but since quarantine, what is appropriate anymore anyway? You’ve never been in Sykkuno’s apartment, but now that you’re here it’s...strangely him. Every corner seems tailored to his specific requirements. It’s cozy, and pleasantly warm - it’s a bit chilly in LA, as surprising as that is.

He’s even shyer than you remember him being. And a whole lot more awkward, but in an endearing way, a way that makes you want to laugh and try to reassure him that it’s just you and he has nothing to worry about. While you hung out only once, the history you share is rich and tender. From him following you on Twitter and subsequently prematurely ending your stream, to kidnapping a stray cat affectionately named Juan. His long lost brother, Juan (no the Second, just Juan), lives in your Minecraft server. 

His stream room is sadly bare. There’s an appalling lack of merch or fairy lights. Not even led-lights. It’s a good thing you brought your own. As you try to decided which color would be best - his signature lime green, reminiscent of his adorable Among Us astronaut, or, perhaps, mischievous violet? - he boots the game and tweets out a quick “streaming with y/n in ten mins! come one come all!” 

“You should probably tell your fans, too.” He mumbles, looking somewhere above your shoulder. You settle with cherry blossom pink. Glancing at him, you shrug.

“Ah, do it for me, please?”

“Oh!” He hiccups, “Uhm, I wouldn’t want to pry and I don’t know your password and-”

“It doesn’t have a password.” You had removed it, knowing something like this would happen. Bless your foresight, you did not want him to know it was demonspiitinmymouth. Before he could protest further, you rush to the nearest mirror to put on your cat ears and make sure they aren’t crooked. You look absolutely adorable. The cat boys in your dms will go feral. Hell, you might just go feral looking at yourself! Sykkuno is not ready. No one is. This will be a stream to remember.

When you return (with flourish of course), he’s anxiously fidgeting by his computer, his own little cat ears, one’s he wore for the Halloween stream, peaking out from his silky brown hair. You have to suppress a squeal. When he catches you gaze he gives the kindest, sweetest little smile.

“They, uh--” He points at you, then decides it’s rude to point, bringing his hand back to his lap, then clutching his mouse, lastly releasing a sound stuck between a chuckle and a wheeze, “suit you, uhm, a lot!” He finishes with a resolute nod, quickly spinning in his chair and away from you.

This is the reaction you desired. All is going according to plan. Is this what God feels like? If not, then you pity her. She’s missing out.

Taking a seat next to him - he had been gracious enough to haul you a spare chair from the kitchen - you draw closer, and he, instinctively, shrinks away with another nervous chuckle. 

“You have, uhm... I-I didn’t look!” He quickly chimes. You raise a brow, “Uhm, unopened messages? From Corpse? He texted you when I was tweeting! I didn’t mean to look, I’m sorry-”

Instantly, you recall the famous vine with the scandalous “daddy chill” line, though refrain from saying it aloud. You love havoc, but you’re not evil (Rae would ardently disagree with you, though). Instead, you just shrug, “’S fine, don’t worry. I’ll text him back later. Let’s start?”

He nods, but doesn’t look at you. Granted, you don’t think he glanced at you even once since you returned, “...Okay. Ready?”

“Ready!”

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You’re much too immersed into the game and Sykkuno’s twitch chat to even check what’s happening on Twitter, but your estimated guess is that everyone’s going crazy. The stream chat is unruly as well, but missing the signature Twitter spark. Most of the chaos is bravely lead by your fans. Sykkuno’s, much like the man himself, are too nice to scream so unabashedly.

Perhaps you excitement had been a bit too taxing, perhaps drinking 5 coffees and 2 energy drinks today and not enough water are to blame for the sudden drowsiness you’re feeling, but you can’t focus on the swimming chat or the abundance of cut-scenes at the starting point of the game. You steadily draw nearer and he, more composed in front of his audience, doesn’t react. About ten more minutes of hoovering by his shoulder and muttering soft commentary, and you feel yourself slipping.

The last coherent thought you have is a few choice words directed at caffeine itself for having the opposite effect of you at the worst time possible.

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You float in oblivion for perhaps ten minutes at best. Once you awake with a startle, you shower Sykkuno in shy apologies and he quickly reassures you that it’s fine and that he didn’t mind at all!

“Though,” He adds after a thoughtful pause, “not sure if it was very, uh, comfortable?”

His stream chat spams uwu and variations of similar kind. The stream continues for a few more hours before the both of you wish everyone a good night. 

While you planned on wreaking absolute havoc, this sudden falling asleep was unexpected. You pondered the consequences of such an innocent, unplanned act whilst ubering home, fearing to check your phone which by now was blowing up with not only Twitter notifications but also Rae’s angry messages that vaguely read “what the fuck y/n”. Within the past two hours she had left 57 messages on all platforms collectively, including 7 calls. 

Corpse’s last text was over three hours ago.

Now that’s strange. Worry festers quickly. Briefly glancing at your surroundings - the pretty glimmer of passing street lights, neon signs, familiar buildings - you decide that it’s time to check what kind of nuclear explosion you’ve caused.

Your heart drops to the bottom of your stomach as you scroll past the hundreds of tweets and mentions. Scan through Rae’s messages. 

You had failed to prepare ahead. Every explosion of such kind is followed by nuclear winter. And Corpse’s lack of messages feels especially cold.

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Not you smiling like a fucking idiot reading his last message! You shrink into the backseat, afraid the driver will accidentally look into the rear-view mirror and see you a bit too happy before asking questions. Good news? Yeah, but it’s not like it’s his any beeswax! In the words of Rihanna, just shut up and drive. 

This argument had not yet happened, but you’re preparing, just in case. 

As you think up of potential scenarios, your eyes drill into Corpse’s goodnight text. You’ve looked at it enough. Time to turn the phone screen off. Leave the app, at the very least. When the screen dims you instantly press on it to wake it up. This is embarrassing. Maybe the deadly amount of caffeine really did mess you up, big time. Your heart races in your chest, painfully almost. You feel a bit sick. Worst of all, you can’t stop smiling.

A notification from Rae makes you snap out of it. Ah, one more demon to deal with. 

However, before you talk to her, you really need to tell Twitter that you’re not with Sykkuno. And apologize to Sykkuno as well. 

At least Corpse doesn’t hate you.

Fucking hell, just exit the chat you idiot!

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tags (in italics is those i couldn’t tag! make sure all’s ok w your settings!) : @littlebabysandboxburritos - @fairywriter-oracle - @tsukishimawh0re - @ofstarsanddreams - @bbecc-a - @annshit - @leahh19 - @letsloveimagines - @bellomi-clarke - @wineandionysus - @guiltydols - @onephootinfrontoftheother - @liamakorn - @thirstyfangirl - @lilysdaydreams - @pan-ini - @mxqicshxp - @tanchosanke - @yoshinorecommends - @flightsandfantasy - @liljennyx3 - @slashersdream - @unknown-and-invisible - @sinister-sleep - @fivedicksinatrenchcoat - @mercury–moon - @peterparkerspjsuit - @unstableye - @simonsbluee - @shinyshimaagain - @ppopty - @siriuslystupid - @crapimahuman - @ofthedewthesunlight - @mythicalamphitrite - @artsyally - @corpsesimpp - @corpsewhitetee - @corpse-husbandsimp - @hyp-oh-critical - @roses-and-grasses - @rhyrhy462 - @sparklylandflaplawyer - @charbkgo - @airwaveee - @creativedogs - @kaitlyn2907 - @loxbbg - @afuckingunicornn - @fleurmoon - @yeolliedokai - @truly-dionysus - @multi-fandom-central707

more tags are in the comments bcs tumblr only allows me to tag 50 people max 💙

#corpse husband #corpse #corpse husband x reader #corpse husband fic #corpse husband imagine #corpse x reader #corpse husband social media au #social media au #corpse social media au #corpse husband x y/n #corpse x y/n #corpse husband fanfic #sykkuno #sykkuno x reader #sykkuno x y/n #myso #make you say oh #reader #xreader #imagine #imagines

[kittae]

Win-win

Pairing: Kim Taehyung x reader

Side characters: Min Yoongi

Summary: A drabble series where Taehyung is a successful artistic erotica actor but has to expand his areas of expertise in the rapidly evolving world of adult film. Lost and inexperienced in everything that doesn’t involve classy settings, flattering lighting and romantic scripts, he basically has to start from scratch to make it in the online porn community. As a highly demanded A-lister in that community, you take him under your wings (or better yet, between your legs).

Genre: Smut, fluff, a bit of comedy here and there. Maybe some angst, who knows.

words: 1256

Disclaimer: dialogue-heavy, foul language

A/N: things are being set in motion!

« previous — next »

— CHAPTER INDEX —

“–All I’m saying is that you’re not Paul Walker in Fast and Furious and you only drive like that when you’re really upset about something, so why can’t you just tell me? What happened? You missed that cat by a hair, by the way, you almost killed that poor animal.”

Yoongi sighs as he shuts the door to his apartment behind them, keys rattling when he pulls it out of the lock. “You’ll get it when you see it for yourself.”

“What could be so bad that you were ready to drive us to our deaths–”

“Taehyung, for the love of god, stop being dramatic and sit down. Please.” Yoongi groans, a hand coming up to press against his pounding temple, his mind going a hundred miles an hour.

“I’m being dramatic? Wow, okay then.” Taehyung complies but raises his eyebrows, mildly offended by the hypocrisy. “Aren’t you even gonna ask about the seminar?”

“Later. I need you to see this first.”

Taehyung frowns when he sees the website opened on his manager’s phone. “Hyung, i just came back from a three hour seminar, I think I’ve watched enough porn for–”

“Just watch it!”

“Okay, okay! fine…” Tae takes the phone in his two hands and lets the video play. “Oh, he’s cute! So handsome… woah, look at that body!” He whistles in appreciation.

Yoongi only grits his teeth in response.

Taehyung watches the entire video, adding some commentary and making acknowledging noises from time to time. “Cool! I don’t think I’ve seen this guy before, is he new?”

“Yeah, he’s new alright.” Yoongi answers, a pinch of bitterness lacing his tone.

“Okay... What was so urgent about this, though?” Tae wonders out loud, still clueless.

His manager sighs from deep inside his chest. “Tae… please, think. What could be urgent about a young, hot, talented newcomer in a very competitive industry?”

Taehyung snorts, waving away his friend’s concern. “Hyung, new people get into porn every day. Does that mean we have to panic like this every day?”

“No, you don’t get it. He’s going to be your direct rival.” Yoongi presses. “Remember why we’re trying to expand your horizons so you can take on more versatile scripts and different genres. We’re trying to get you as many jobs as possible to increase your online presence.”

“Before a rookie with a 7 inch dick comes along?” Taehyung cites the lecture he remembers.

“Exactly. This guy, this Jungkook, is that rookie. He doesn’t shy away from any trope or genre and is already well on his way on catching up to your following on OnlyFans when you’ve been in the industry for a longer time. Look at the number of subscriptions on his video platform, too. He’s massively popular at the moment.”

Taehyung swallows hard, the gravity of the situation sinking in. His face must be an open book, because Yoongi quickly adds some nuance.

“He’s not better than you, Tae. He’s new, interesting, maybe a little different but not better. You’re at least as talented as him, but we have to step up our game. You just need to level the playing field. We have to make sure you’re not old news by the time this guy hits his peak.”

“But how can we do it fast enough? I’m trying but… I can’t take hard core degradation scripts and BDSM stuff on yet, you saw what happened yesterday!”

Yoongi goes to sit beside his friend, wrapping a slender arm around his shoulders to pull him closer. “Listen, there’s no need to freak out yet– yes, I know how I reacted and that doesn’t help but I’m just thinking ahead. I need to think about every possible outcome, everything that could happen so we can be prepared. That’s my job. Your job is just being you and doing your best, alright? Got that?”

“What if that’s not enough?” Taehyung murmurs, sadness seeping through his words. “What if I’m not enough anymore, hyung?”

“Stop that. You’re doing great, you’re still in the top 5 of most popular adult actors. You just continue to do what we planned and I’ll take care of the rest. You’re going to be very busy the next couple weeks.”

Tae’s eyebrows crease questioningly. “Why?”

“We need to get our asses in gear. We’re too outdated, too old school. You need to be more active on social media and make a lot more content. People want instant gratification, the ones who want exclusive, luxurious stuff will still pay the right price for it. But we can’t rely on those customers alone anymore.”

Taehyung’s face twists with distaste. “Hyung, please don’t tell me I’ll have to be a camboy…”

“What? No, of course not. I know that’s not romantic enough for you.” Yoongi winks, the younger visibly relaxing. “No, we’re going to do something different. And I know the perfect person to help us with it.”

–––––––––––

“A miniseries? About what?” You squeeze your phone between your ear and your shoulder to prevent it from falling while you pour hot water into your favourite mug. “Yoongi, stop apologising. I can make time. Besides, things are a bit quiet since I’ve finished the Dom & Dommer series with Hoseok, so I could use something small and fun to keep me busy, actually.”

“Well, technically you’re not really asking me for a favour if I’m getting paid while doing it, right? So you can stop feeling bad for asking before you make me feel bad for accepting.” You chuckle, plopping down on your couch next to your cat, whom you absent-mindedly start petting as you listen to your old friend’s voice. You blow on your tea to cool it off while he speaks, Mochi purring happily underneath your fingers.

“No, I swear it’s no trouble at all. It sounds fun, I’m excited!” You shrug, a genuine smile playing on your lips. “Stop it! It’s a win-win situation. Um...what does Taehyung think? No! No, uh, you don’t have to put him through, I was just curious.”

Your cheeks feel hot and you catch yourself biting your nails for a second, an old habit you used to have when you felt nervous. “Okay, that’s good. Good to hear he’s looking forward to it, I’ll be too! Okay. Yeah, just send it to me or my agent when you’re done. Alright. Talk to you later! Bye, Yoongi.”

The call ends and you take a sip of your lavender tea. “Ow, fuck! Ugh…” You curse as the boiling hot water touches your tongue, simmering for a few seconds before the burn subsides. You weren’t paying attention, thoughts elsewhere.

Mochi meows, the sound somewhere between indignant and mocking.

“Watch it,” You warn him, your eyes narrowing to slits, which he only takes as a display of affection, returning the gesture before crawling into your lap.

Murmuring, you scratch Mochi behind his little ear. “A miniseries with Taehyung?”

Unaware of how your breathing becomes more shallow, or your heart beats a little faster than usual, you grab your phone to look him up online. Immediately, you’re met with an influx of images from the man you’ve only just seen yesterday. You don’t know why you’re doing this, but you find yourself browsing through his social media as well. It’s probably just because you haven’t done any new projects with a new co-star in a while.

“I should try to know more about him if we’re going to work together more often, right? I’m just being professional.” You mumble out loud, Mochi perking up questioningly.

#bts smut #bts fanfiction #bts #taehyung smut #bts scenarios #kim taehyung #kim taehyung fanfic #taehyung x reader #v #bts v #bts x reader #v fanfic #v smut #taehyung fic #taehyung fanfic #bts fanfic #pornstar!bts #bts au

[ooops-i-arted]

Din's morning routine: finding Yoditos in various inconvenient places while trying to get ready in AM. OR view frim inside of 'fresher door - dozens of tiny hands and "Dads?!" Happiest if Birthdays to you!

Thank you! Please enjoy this outline of Din's morning. And this was also inspired by your request.

-

3:38 AM

Din rolled over to check the chrono, or at least as much as he could with a snoring juvenile varactyl using half of him as a pillow. Twenty-two minutes still until his alarm went off. He lay back down and closed his eyes, hoping for a little bit more sleep.

3:57 AM

A wail started growing louder and Din’s dream of searching for his children in the ruins of Aq Vetina melted away as he sat up, struggling out from underneath Boga Jr. He knew that sound. The babies were awake early this morning.

Quickly he stumbled into the children’s room, finding that fortunately only Yod’ika 99 and Yod’ika 94 had woken each other up in the crib. He scooped them up and held them to his collarbone with one hand, humming softly and soothing them with the vibrations in his throat while he used his free hand to fix a bottle of formula for each of them and set it in the rack Kuiil had constructed to suspend over a matching line of customized infant seats, each labeled with the number of Yod’ika it was sized for. Once his two little ones were sufficiently soothed he set them in their seats and tilted the bottles into their reach, allowing them to drink while he started preparing another batch of breakfast for the others still asleep.

The infants were still being bottle-fed, so he fixed up those first and set them in the racks so they were ready for their recipients. Next were the older kids; the three jars of minced salamander had the closest expiration date so he set up bowls of those and stacked them in the fridge for when the older children woke up. A few servings he put through the food processor and mashed first, for the youngest toddlers who still had difficulty chewing as much.

4:25 AM

IG-11 always entered quietly enough not to wake the children but still with some familiar mechanical whirring of gears. He always claimed Kuiil had forgotten to oil them again, but Din had overheard Cara telling IG-11 not to be so quiet to not startle Din a few weeks ago. Din wasn’t quite to the point where he could thank IG-11 for the effort but he did appreciate it in silence.

“You’re early,” Din commented.

“My morning optimizing subroutines finished early,” the droid said in its flat voice. “I have been running some in the evening as well before shutting down, to be as efficient as possible.”

“These two are awake and fed,” Din said, removing the bottles from the racks and scooping up two of his smallest sons.

“I will engage tummy time routines.”

Din set the two in IG-11’s clawlike hands. “Try and stay quiet.”

IG-11 took the babies. Din could already hear a few more starting to stir, but let IG-11 handle them as he returned to his room. He hadn’t found time to shower yesterday so he definitely had to this morning.

Boga Jr. was awake and already rearranged the bedding into a bigger mess, looking proud of her efforts to reconstruct her “nest” as she usually did. Din scratched her head feathers before pulling out his jumpsuit and fresh underwear - dank ferrik, was he due for another load of laundry already? - and heading for the ’fresher.

4:45

He’d taken care of his bladder and brushed his teeth and was halfway into the shower when a bright voice said “Good morning, Buir!”

Din stared. “Yod’ika 18, what are you doing in the sink?”

“I’m cleaning myself,” said the little one as Din glanced at the definitely-locked door.

“Why?”

Yod’ika 18 looked down guiltily. “I had an accident…”

Din got a towel around his waist before going over to check on Yod’ika 18. “Yeah, looks like you did… you know you can get up in the night to go potty, right?”

Yod’ika 18 frowned and looked down. “It’s just so dark at night…”

“We’ll see about getting a night light in there, okay?” Din helped him out of the dirty clothes and threw them in the hamper before pulling out another tunic that passed the sniff test. “Wear this for a little bit and we’ll get you properly dressed after breakfast.”

“No!” said Yod’ika 18, shying away. “It’s stinky, Buir!”

Din sighed, but he was awake enough by now to remember what a neat freak Yod’ika 18 was. “Okay, okay, come here.”

Din scooped the little one up, making sure his towel stayed secure as he went to the closet and pulled out the first outfit he found. “Here you go.”

“It’s not my favorite color…”

“Yod’ika 18,” Din said sternly, and finally Yod’ika 18 submitted to being dressed in the yellow tunic. “Go see IG-11 and he can get you breakfast,” Din said, shooing the little one along.

“But I want to eat with you, Buir.”

“Then wait a little bit and I’ll join you when I get out of the shower.”

The pattering of oversized gangly varactyl feet was his only warning. Boga Jr. loved snatching up clothes and flinging them around and he just managed to get the closet door shut in time to remember that what she really loved was snatching things directly from him, and he only had one article of “clothing” on him right now.

Din barely grabbed the towel in time. “BOGA JR, NO!”

She tugged playfully on it with all her juvenile varactyl strength, encouraged by Yod’ika 18’s giggles. “Stop it!” Din ordered, barring her from getting closer with his leg; he needed both hands to keep his towel. “Sit, girl!” he said desperately, and luckily she followed the command, her tail thrashing proudly.

“Go tell IG-11 that Boga Jr. needs to be fed,” Din told Yod’ika 18.

He hurried off to perform the special chore, loudly saying, “Of course, Buir, I will help you!”

Boga Jr., knowing food was imminent, hurried after Yod’ika 18. But now Din could hear more stirring, more pattering feet and perking ears and chattering little voices.

He barely made it to the bathroom in time. As soon as he shut and locked the door there were already scratching noises and bustling little bodies and loud little voices. “Good morning Daddy!” “Papa I want to come in.” “Stop pushing me!” “Daddyyyyyyyyyy-” “Come eat breakfast with us Buir!” “Dada, food, I hungwy…”

The doorknob started moving all by itself. Din grabbed it and held fast. “Anyone who opens this door with the Force doesn’t get frogs for a week!” he yelled in desperation.

Suddenly the door stopped vibrating slightly and it was quiet on the other side.

“Go and tell IG-11 you’re awake,” Din said. “I’ll be out soon and I’ll eat with you.”

He listened for acknowledgment and to make sure the horde retreated before finally, finally getting into the shower. Just in time to find out IG-11 had used all the hot water on food prep and dishes.

5:10 AM

Din toweled his hair dry just enough to not make the inside of his helmet gross before leaving the bathroom and going to his bedroom to put it on. He didn’t bother with the rest of the armor yet, but even though IG-11 was the only person - thing, droid, whatever - there not a family member, he still didn’t like breaking the spirit of the Creed’s helmet rule anyway. And there was no telling whenever anyone else might come by.

He knew food had to be out and served since no one was swarming him, and he passed through the kids’ room to see how many were still asleep. Not many - once they were up, the horde usually swarmed like flies on a ronto.

“Dad?” asked a sleepy voice just as Din was about to step out, and he turned to see his eldest sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“Good morning, Yod’ika,” Din said. “You still sleepy or ready for breakfast?”

Yod’ika held out his arms in a plea to be held. “Breakfast.”

Din scooped him up obligingly; every child in his care needed individualized attention but Yod’ika was always extra hungry for it. He snuggled up under Din’s chin and Din smiled, rocking him a little. “Did you sleep well last night?”

“Yeah,” he said. “No bad dreams.”

“Good,” said Din, and he made sure the few remaining Yod’ike were fast asleep before carrying Yod’ika into the kitchen.

Most of the awake Yod’ike were sitting at the table but several were still crawling and toddling on the floor, too restless to eat yet or already finished, and the babies still in their feeding chairs were starting to cry. Din hurried over to get them out first, his helmet’s audio feed automatically adjusting to the volume.

“Buir, come eat with us!”

“Hold on, let me get the babies first,” he said without looking at who had called for him. He felt a stubborn, otherworldly pull on his hands. “No!” he told the babies firmly, and the sensation stopped. Din was glad they were responding better; the last thing he needed was an infant unexpectedly yanking him around. Carefully he extracted the infants from their feeding seats and passed them over into IG-11’s supervision, watching the droid as he carefully put them in the playpen he’d set up for them. Only the very youngest ones could still be counted on to stay where you put them, and Din knew he wasn’t going to have that luxury much longer. Even little Ika’ika was already squirming in protest in the playpen, rolling over repeatedly to try and make himself move.

More Yod’ike toddled in, calling for him, so Din told them good morning and started heating and setting out more bowls of minced salamander.

“I want frog,” whined Yod’ika 27.

“We’re eating the salamander today,” Din said. “We’ll have frog another day.”

“Can we go frog hunting today, Baba?” asked Yod’ika 14, quickly echoed by several of his brothers. “It’s been ages since we got to!” insisted Yod’ika 18.

Din knew “ages” meant “a week” but it was one of the clan’s favorite activities. “I need to look at the schedule and see if there’s a pond that’s been rotated long enough. If we go too soon, there won’t be enough frogs -”

“For us and for the animals,” chimed in multiple Yod’ike.

“Exactly,” said Din. Proudly, “Good job remembering.”

“We hafta take care of the en-vi-en-met,” added Yod’ika 33.

“You’re right,” Din said, finally getting his own bowl of human protein-fortified cereal and sitting down at the table, setting his helmet in his lap where it was safest from sticky hands.

“Can I try some, Buir?” asked Yod’ika 6, reaching out.

“No,” Din said, waving his spoon at his son’s hands. “Eat your own.”

6:00 AM

Everyone was awake - it was rare any of the Yod’ike slept through the din of their brothers - and everyone was fed, so now it was time to get ready for the day.

“You all know the drill,” Din told them. “Old clothes in the laundry, use the potty, IG-11 set out new clothes for you, and then brush your teeth.”

They all chattered agreeably and then the storm of pajamas flying through the air began. At this point Din was used to the commotion, so he pulled off the shirt that landed in his face off and went over to start changing the babies one by one, occasionally pausing to remind the others no laundry fights but otherwise going as fast as he could before -

“Buir, I need help,” said Yod’ika 44’s little voice at his ankle.

“Ask one of your brothers,” Din said, barely remembering to say it instead of automatically helping his son. “Right now I’m changing the babies.”

“But I want you to do it, Buir.”

“Then you need to wait.”

Sometimes it worked, but more often than not Din had a cluster of Yod’ike seeking help (and attention) sitting at his feet. Today Yod’ika 44 sat right on his foot, clutching his new outfit and underwear.

Din felt something wet on his foot and his stomach turned. “Did you wipe?”

“Oops!” Yod’ika 44 ran back to the bathroom.

Din didn’t look down. He just quickly grabbed a wipe and cleaned his foot very thoroughly before anyone else came over.

By the time he was working on Ika’ika - a delicate task, changing the smallest diaper in the galaxy and stuffing the squirming infant into the smallest custom mudhorn-patterned onesie Cara had brought back from her last trip into the Core - a whole cluster of children were at his feet, arguing who was first for help and shouting at Yod’ika for trying to force them to accept his help, Yod’ika the loudest as he yelled back that he was the oldest and his help was just as good as Dad’s.

Din knew if he let go of Ika’ika, even for a second, all his hard work making the wiggly baby get dressed would be undone, so he ignored the fuss until finally he could hand Ika’ika over to IG-11, who deposited him back into the playpen with his littlest brothers. “Okay,” Din said. “Who needs help?”

With at least thirty kids clamoring “Me! Me! Me!” it was impossible to tell who had really been first. Din had found the most success by making it into a game and randomizing it, so he said everyone with a blue outfit had to go see IG-11, everyone with a mythosaur on their clothes had to go ask Yod’ika for assistance, and anyone with a mudhorn should wait for him. They were used to the game so there wasn’t a lot of protest, and now Din had only five children waiting. He pulled on shirts and shorts, gently folded ears through a hat, and tucked Yod’ika 29’s malformed feet into their supportive shoes.

“Are we all ready?” Din asked his brood, all eagerly staring up at him.

“You’re not ready, Dad,” pointed out Yod’ika, and the others all nodded in agreement.

Din looked down. The flightsuit was on, and already stained by food and slobber from when he’d helped his sons eat and from when Boga Jr. had rested her head in his lap, trying to steal scraps. He suppressed a sigh. “No, I guess I’m not.”

7:02 AM

His armor was on, even polished a bit thanks to Yod’ika 3 sneaking into his room for some quiet time in Din’s room. (“But I was being an Armorer,” he’d said so sweetly, and he’d used the right polish, so he got out of any consequences.) He’d remade the bed so it wasn’t currently a varactyl’s nest. The kids were all awake, fed, and dressed, and ready to take on the day. And now, so was he.

“Dad, come on, let’s play!”

“I’m coming.” Din put his helmet on, and stepped outside, ready for anything the galaxy had to throw at him today.

#i did veer off the original request but i had fun #asks #anon #101 yoditos au #requests #fic #the mandalorian #din djarin #ika'ika #boga jr

[longingandheartacheandlust]

Roach is a Hereditary Title

Okay, so, I was thinking about Roach, as I do frequently.

Do any of y’all remember that scene in Lord of the Rings where Aragorn’s almost unconscious and his horse, Brego, lies down next to him to help him mount?  Given that Geralt spends a lot of time getting himself severely injured while alone, it makes a lot of sense for Roach to be trained to do something along those lines, also.  (That sorta thing is absolutely done IRL.  I knew a lady, for instance, who was 5 feet tall but rode a draft horse who was more than 6 feet tall at the shoulder.  She trained her horse to lower his head so she could hop on his neck and the horse would then lift his head back up so she’d slide down his neck to his back.)

And then I was thinking about what other training a Witcher’s horse would require.

(I have another huge point as well about Roach and Geralt and world-building that is what I’m actually working towards in this very long post.  The hint is in the big text up there.  Also, there are some fun gifs below you might wanna check out even if you don’t read the post.)

The most obvious is a ground tie, which we actually see used in the show.  That’s where a horse is trained to act as though they’re tied to something when they’re not - for instance, you might take a lead rope, let it dangle it down to the ground, and train the horse that they should act as though the lead rope is tied to the ground.  Cowboys use it to keep their horses still while they’re dealing with obstacles, working with cattle on foot, etcetera, when they’re out in the middle of a prairie with nothing to tie onto.  This would keep Roach put if Geralt needs to do something and there’s nothing to tie to, but also is great to keep her out of danger - she can be trained that if she’s actually being attacked she should GTFO.

Here she is, in fact, doing just that: she had been ground tied, but when the kikimora got closer, she calmly backed up out of range.  That calm backing, btw, is 100% a trained behavior.  If she were getting out of there of her own accord she’d be spinning around and going both forwards and much faster.

(From this post by @highevre​.)

Horses can be trained to track - their sense of smell is almost as good as a dog’s, and Mounted Search and Rescue using horses as trackers is a thing.  Not necessarily needed given Geralt’s own enhanced senses, but it might come in handy sometimes.

She’d probably want to be trained in extreme terrain, and you’d be amazed what horses can do with that.  Here’s a clip of part of the standard training for US Cavalry from around 1930:

(From here.)

A good trail horse can shift their own weight to keep an inexperienced, exhausted, or, in this case, injured rider in the saddle, so she’d definitely want to know that.

It’s unlikely, but she might even be trained in active combat.  Horses have in the past been trained not only to carry their riders into battle, but even to fight themselves.  Here’s a gif of one tactic:

That’s a pretty good way to get a drowner off your tail!  (It can absolutely be done with a rider on, I just didn’t find any nice gifs for that.)

This one could come in pretty handy too:

Even if she’s not kicking forward with those front hooves - which is, actually, an established move, it’s called “mezair” - if I were a monster I’d be a lot less eager to attack with a twelve foot tall wall of muscle coming at me.

(Look up videos of “haute ecole” or “airs above the ground” and you’ll see a whole lot of breathtaking stuff that Roach could do.)

There are some random fun tricks that might be useful, like picking things up and handing them to her rider.

The absolute number one thing, though, is that she would have to be completely, 100% bombproof, and that’s where I get to my main point.

(Please note for the rest of this post, in case you’re unaware, the name “Roach” refers to several horses, as horses aren’t generally immortal.  Geralt names all his horses Roach.)

I used to breed horses, and specifically the emerging breed Drum Horses.  They were originally bred to (and are still used to) carry kettle drums in parades.  Now, for that you need to be big, since the drums and gear can weigh more than 450lb.  But, most importantly, you need to be completely, entirely unshakeable, to a degree that shouldn’t frankly be possible in a prey animal.  You’ve got not only the insanity of a parade going on but also a huge loud noise right next to your head, the constant vibration from the drums, AND since the rider’s hands are busy playing the drums the horse is steered using only the feet.

So how the heck do you get a prey animal that’s specialized for millenia in Running the Fuck Away to do that?  Well, centuries of selective breeding.  Drums are derived from the Irish Cob, which was (and is) used by nomadic people in Europe to pull caravans.  They have to be steady, able to deal with kids running around their feet while they work, since the caravans were mobile homes they're very noisy, and, long story short, Irish Cobs spent centuries being bred to be bombproof.  The Drum Horses, then, were derived from that breed but with an even stronger focus on being 100% reliable and not-prey-like.

They’re also trained literally from birth; parade horses, police horses, and the like generally are.  Within minutes of birth, you start handling them, rubbing them all over so they’re never startled by a touch.  You put radios in their stalls playing rock music so they get used to sudden loud noises.  You tie brightly colored streamers in their pastures to wave in the wind, pop open umbrellas, toss beach balls at them.  Spray perfume and waft popcorn smell.  Rub them all over with any equipment you might use, including tack but also things like weapons (mounted target shooting is a sport still done today).  Have the equipment make whatever noise it’s gonna make.  (Clanging, firing, whatever.)

The POINT being, that for Roach to be able to handle dealing with a new terrifying monster every week, she’d pretty much have to be specifically bred for it.

Well... where do you get horses bred to handle monsters, you ask?  They might have had a small breeding operation at Kaer Morhen, but that doesn’t exactly help now.

My conclusion: Geralt must be breeding his own horses.

Roach is always a mare, after all.  Maybe that’s not just sentimentality.  Every so often, he finds a good, steady stallion - the very best on the Continent, of course, nothing else would do for his perfect girl.  She’d be able to keep working most of the 11 months of pregnancy, and then for the last few he’d let her rest, either leaving her with someone he trusts until she’s due or staying with her and only doing day trips on foot.

And when the foal’s born, he starts doing all that training above from birth.

Half of those foals are going to be boys, of course.  And he only uses mares as Roach.  So what about the colts?  Well, he sells them, once they’re old enough to leave their mother.  And those horses, damn, they’re bred and trained so incredibly carefully, they must be the most valuable, sought-after cavalry mounts on the Continent.  Kings and Queens bid for Roach’s sons to be their noble steeds.  Geralt wouldn’t need to take jobs for years after selling one of Roach’s foals, if he didn’t want to.

Sometimes bad things happen, so he’d need to have a spare Roach or two always around just in case his girl retires earlier than planned.  (She got a mild injury that keeps her from doing all that stuff above, she didn’t die, I promise!)  So there are always a few Roaches around the country on a sort of lease, not allowed to be taken into combat but still being the amazing, perfect horses they are until their Witcher comes back to get them.

Final Conclusion:

All of the most famous horses on the Continent are Roach’s descendants.   Royalty riding a horse that wasn’t from her is barely even worth being called royalty at all.  And Geralt has raised his girl, and her mother, and her mother’s mother, and her mother’s mother’s mother, and on back, from birth, the first face they ever see and the first hand in their manes.

(Source: me!  That’s one of my babies.)

#geralt is a horse girl #roach witcher #roach the horse #roach horse #mine

[lakesandquarries]

Baby Shoes - Chapter 5

Bubby has been a doctor at Black Mesa for 20 years, living there for 50. He’s been bouncing around from project to project, working on whatever needs most help. He doesn’t have any opinions on his work or his coworkers or anything like that, preferring to keep to himself.

Then he meets Black Mesa’s newest project.

AKA: Bubby is Benrey’s dad au.

title from “Baby Shoes” by Bad Books.

thank u to my friend gordon for beta reading even after i threatened to steal his blood <3 ilu bitch

AO3 Link

Bubby had forgotten about the tinfoil until he walks into Zeki’s office. She’s ripping it off her desk, a few hairs slipping from her careful bun, and Bubby has to hide his smile behind his hand.

“Did you have something to do with this?” she demands, throwing a ball of tinfoil on the floor. 

“I’ve been with the subject all day. You can check the cameras, if you want.”

“I just might,” Zeki warns. She pulls another sheet off her chair and collapses into it. “So. Where are we moving you? The tube is all ready.”

“B-22,” Bubby says. “Near the break room. The L-shaped one.”

“The storage room?”

“It’s been years since it’s stored anything but dust.”

Zeki frowns, ripping the tinfoil off a pen. “You don’t need to do this, you know.”

“You offered, didn’t you? A real scientist is willing to try new things.”

She grits her teeth. “I’ll get it cleared with -”

“Aren’t you the department head?”

There’s a pause. Bubby doesn’t look away from Zeki, pale blue eyes staring into green. 

“Fine,” she spits. “I’ll ask the cleaning crew to clear it out.”

Bubby smiles. “I’ll start packing my things.”

He turns on his heel, leaving Zeki to her paperwork and her tinfoil covered office.

Dekkard’s back in the breakroom, sat in the corner eating his doritos. “They are stale,” he informs Bubby as he sits down across from him.

“Zeki approved the room.”

Dekkard drops the bag. “She did?”

“Very begrudgingly, I might add. Though I think at least some of her frustration was due to the tinfoil covering every available surface.”

Dekkard beams at him. “Today has truly been a wonderful day.”

“I’ll miss you after she kills you.” Bubby reaches across the table, grabbing one of Dekkard’s doritos. They’re stale, and he doesn’t even like chips, but he hasn’t eaten since this morning. Dekkard nudges the bag closer to Bubby, and before he realizes it, the bag is empty. “Alright, well, I have other work to get back to.”

Dekkard frowns. “I think you mean you have lunch to get back to.”

“I don’t have time for that. I need-”

“To take a break.”

Bubby huffs. “I’m not going to let myself be lectured by someone half my age.”

“I’m not lecturing you! I’m just saying, you seem kinda stressed, and I was thinking of heading over to the cafeteria to get something more substantial. I thought maybe you’d wanna come with.”

“To the cafeteria? Absolutely not.”

“It’s not like there’s somewhere else we can get food,”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong. Come with me.” He doesn’t wait for Dekkard, standing up and leaving, though the sound of footsteps behind him means Dekkard must be following. “You know, cooking is a kind of science.”

“Is it?”

“I’d say so.” He leads Dekkard out of the Biological Research wing, down a flight of stairs. “And I think someone high up agreed with me, once.” The area they’re in was something, once, but now it’s abandoned. The lights burst years ago, the only illumination left coming from the level above.

“Did you bring me out here to kill me?” Dekkard asks, picking his way through the room. 

“If I wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead. Here, this way.” It takes Bubby a moment to pry the door open, the hinges stiff from disuse. “I have no idea what this used to be, but. No one ever comes here.”

It was likely a lab of some sort - of course it was, that’s what Black Mesa does - but it was surprisingly easy to turn it into a kitchen. There’s a makeshift stove, no source of fire since Bubby can make that himself but just something to hold the flames. Scales and flasks serve as something like measuring cups, and he’s stolen various blades from around the facilities, along with any else he can get his hands on. It’s messy, but it’s serviceable. 

“I try to keep it decently stocked here, but it can be tricky to find ingredients. But I’m sure you’ll find anything we can make down here leagues better than the garbage they serve in the cafeteria.”

“Did you make this?” Dekkard asks, poking at a burner. “Shit, maybe you really are the Ultimate Lifeform or whatever. This is - I’ll admit it, this is clever.”

“I’m glad someone recognizes my genius.” He crosses the room, over to the makeshift freezer and his stolen microwave. “Do not tell anyone about this, though. I will kill you.”

“Secret’s safe with me.” 

“I don’t have the ingredients for anything too complicated. How do you feel about pasta? I’ve got some frozen pasta sauce I can heat up.”

Dekkard has made his way to the table. It was about to be thrown out when Bubby stole and repaired it all on his own. There’s only two chairs, but they at least are in good shape. “That sounds incredible.” He collapses into a chair, laying his head on the table. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve eaten real food? Everything in the cafeteria tastes like cardboard.”

“I’m familiar,” Bubby says, getting out a pot. He lights the burner with a snap of his fingers, enjoying how Dekkard’s eyebrows raise up into his hairline.

He sits down across from Dekkard as he waits for the water to boil, drumming his fingers on the table. Dekkard keeps staring at the pot, then at Bubby.

“Is something wrong? You’re staring.”

“Have you really been here your whole life?” Dekkard asks. Bubby sighs.

“Yes.”

“You’ve never - I mean you’ve been outside, right?”

“Once or twice.”

“Sorry, that - that’s a rude question, huh?”

“A bit, yes.” The water sounds like it’s bubbling, so Bubby takes it as an excuse to get up. Dekkard remains seated. “Is there a reason you’re asking this?”

“Just thinking about - about Benrey.”

Bubby adds the pasta to the pot, stirring it. “Ah.”

“I’m not gonna try and say I get it, exactly, but I think I’ve got an idea of what’s going on here. And I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, or anything, but -”

“I know what I’m doing, Dekkard.” He doesn’t have to turn to imagine the look on Dekkard’s face, one eyebrow raised and the other flat. “Yes, I’ll admit, I might be...attached. But I’m not an idiot, alright? I’ve heard all the stories.”

“Zeki tell you about Dr. Tipton?”

“She was trying to scare me. I’ve had my fair share of encounters with him. Whatever Benrey did, I’m sure he deserved it.”

Dekkard’s quiet for a moment. When Bubby turns, he’s staring at the pasta, hand resting on his chin. 

“I can see the gears in your brain trying to work,” Bubby says, turning back.

“You think they’re like you.”

“They are like me.” He continues stirring, directing all his focus into the movements of his arm. “They didn’t even have a name. I can’t - I can do something, here. I can’t just sit by and ignore this when I can do something.”

No one ever did anything for him. He’d spent seventeen years in that god forsaken tube before anyone had even considered letting him out, and it was another twelve after that before he was allowed any scrap of freedom. Even now, his autonomy is challenged constantly, by scientists half his age with a fraction of his knowledge.

Benrey doesn’t even have the luxury of being a valued experiment. Based on what Zeki’s said, Benrey’s only kept around because nothing seems to kill them, and they’re interesting to study. 

If Bubby can do something - anything - then he has to. 

“Hey,” Dekkard says. “Uh. I think the pot is on fire.”

“Oh, motherfucker.” Bubby shuts his eyes, taking a deep breath, willing the flames to die down. “I was...distracted.”

“Can’t help but feel like that was my fault.”

“A little.”

“...sorry.”

It’s nothing unsalvageable, at least. The noodles are a bit too soft, but that’s fine. 

He grabs the jar of sauce out of the freezer, heating it in his hands. He can feel Dekkard watching him as he scoops the noodles into bowls, pouring sauce over each serving. The air’s gone tense.

“Sorry,” Dekkard mumbles again as Bubby passes him a fork. He sighs.

“It’s fine. Nothing I haven’t heard before.”

“But that’s the problem, isn’t it? Look, I might be underqualified, but I’m not stupid. I see how Zeki and all the other guys talk to you. I don’t wanna be like that.”

“I put this area together five years ago,” Bubby says, spinning his noodles around his fork. “You are the first person I’ve ever invited down here.”

“Is this your way of saying we’re friends?”

Bubby purses his lips. “I don’t think I’d go that far.”

Dekkard snorts. “Alright. Acquaintances.”

“Coworkers.”

“Oh, that’s harsh.”

“Shut up and eat your pasta.”

Dekkard does, for once, shut up. He eats like it’s the first meal he’s had in decades, like some kind of rabid animal, and then leans back against his chair.

“That was the best meal I’ve had since I started working here.”

“Well, if you behave, maybe there’ll be more in the future.”

“Can’t believe you’d stoop to bribes.”

It’s...nice, Bubby thinks. Sitting down here, eating and joking with someone. Maybe Dekkard was right when he called them friends.

Still won’t admit it out loud, though. He has some dignity left.

#hlvrai #bubby #bubby hlvrai #dr bubby #half life vr but the ai is self aware #cora writes #baby shoes au #i hope u all enjoy my favourite idiot <3 #adventures of cora

[duhragonball]

For the Ask Game: Son Goku

Give me a character and I will answer:

Why I like them: Goku is the main character in Dragon Ball Z, an anime that I have enjoyed tremendously for over 20 years.  He kicks aliens really fast and hard, and he eats wolves and bugs and clouds, and he’s very cool and good.   

That may sound kind of basic, maybe even borderline sarcastic, but I’m not sure how else to put it.    I’ve gotten so used to liking Goku that it’s hard to articulate why.   

Like, okay, you know that one episode during the Cell Games, where he’s gonna pick apples from his favorite apple tree?   And he does the special karate punch that makes the apples all fall out of the branches without really hurting the tree?    In the dub, he says to the tree “Ready for one more round, old timer?”  Or something like that, and then after he hits it, he’s like “See?  That didn’t hurt a bit.”  I’m not getting the lines right, but you get the idea.    That’s some choice Goku right there.    He’s friends with that tree!   

Why I don’t: hE gAvE mOrO a SeNzU bEaN-- ha ha just kidding, but can you imagine not liking Goku?   Because of something he did in some horseshit fancomic that doesn’t even count?

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of guff from people about Goku showing mercy to his enemies.   This is humorous to me, because I’d bet you dollars to donuts that they’re fans of Vegeta and/or Piccolo, and that only happened because Goku decided to have mercy on their stank asses.    “Well I like Vegeta because he kills people.”  He only gets to do that because Goku allowed him to live.    Best Green Dad doesn’t happen without Goku, period, end of sentence, new paragraph.   

I’m not a lore expert like that guy on Twitter who only watched DBZ Abridged, but here’s some cool trivia for you: Cell could have self-destructed and destroyed the Earth at any time.    It literally does not matter that Goku gave Cell a senzu bean before Gohan fought him, because Cell would have done the same thing no matter who beat him or how.     If Gohan had wiped him out quickly, that nucleus would have survived and regenerated, and he would come back even stronger.   The senzu bean just delayed the inevitable outcome, and not even by that much, because Cell wasn’t that worn out in the first place.   The whole thing with the senzu bean was Goku playing headgames with Cell and no one seems to understand that but me.   

But what about Moro, you ask?   Hey, come here.  

Closer.    No, closer.   

Listen to me.   I love you, okay?    But the Dragon Ball Super manga isn’t canon.   Hating Goku over something he did in Super is like hating Superman for something he did in a Mad Magazine bit.      

“Blargle blargle he doesn’t kiss his wife bad father, tournament of power--” I super mega don’t care about any of these ice cold takes.      Every day I go on YouTube and it recommends me the dirt worst Star Wars commentary videos.   “Maybe the SITH were actually the GOOD GUYS and the JEDI were the BAD GUYS!  Huh?  Did I just BLOW your MIND?   Be sure to like and subscribe!”  Every dope with a keyboard seems to think they can flip the script and pretend they’re some kind of genius.    “Thanos was right!”  “Magneto was right!” “Dr. Doom was right!” “Antifa are the real fascists when you stop and think about it!”  “Masks and vaccines are bullshit, COVID-19 is a hoax, but if it were real, maybe it’s the good guy in this situation!”

I didn’t mean to go off on a rant here, but the whole point of Goku is that he’s a pretty cool guy, and the hero of his particular adventure, and you see all these people trying to outsmart that somehow, like it’s not the premise of the character.   It’s like all those fan theories about how every show is really one character having a coma dream in the hospital.    It’s fake-deep, like when Will Smith’s kid goes on the internet and says something like “Water isn’t wet when you stop and think about it.”  

I’m not saying everyone has to like Goku, but I don’t get the hate-boner people have for him.    I don’t like cole slaw, it’s soggy and insipid and I don’t understand it, but I don’t go around trying to convince people it’s not made out of cabbage.  

Anyway, Goku’s awesome. 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): It’s hard to choose, but DBZ #248 always fucks me up.   I looked it up in my liveblog archive to get the episode number right, and the first line of that post: This one always fucks me up.

Moving on.

Favorite season/movie: In Dragon Ball terms, I guess this refers to the sagas, so I’ll go with Cell Games.    Goku goes into the battle with this flawed, touch-and-go plan, and it works.    He defeats perfection with imperfection, and it’s glorious.  

Favorite line: “What I represent can never be destroyed,” is one of the most metal lines ever uttered, anywhere.   It’s a threat and a moral lesson all in one.   

Favorite outfit: Two answers for this one.  

Shu’s outfit in the Fortuneteller Baba Saga was awesome.    I used to wear yellow T-shirts to work, so when I put on my blue labcoat I would see myself in the restroom mirror and think: yeaaaaahhhhhh.

I’m also big into Goku’s look during the Cell Games, classic orange outfit, blue shirt, with the Super Saiyan form ready to go.    That may sound obvious, since this is kind of Goku’s default look, but it takes a while to get all of this together.  For me, it was a big deal to see Goku in action as a Super Saiyan in his standard fighting gear, because the whole time he was SSJ on Namek his shirt was ruined.   Against Gero and 19 he was sick, but starting with the Cell Games, we get him fresh as a daisy, and it’s worth the wait.   Harder to stealth cosplay, though.

OTP: Gochi.   Come on.    I don’t even care that much about ships, but they’re adorable on the show, and the internet backlash against Gochi only intensifies my defiance.   

Brotp: I wrote a fanfic with Goku and Yamcha just joyriding in the desert, and that seemed pretty awesome, so maybe we need more of that.   

I dunno, maybe I’m giving this to Bulma.   They don’t get a ton of screen time together after a certain point in the show, but the bond between them is this really sublime thing.    In the same fanfic, I wrote Bulma and Goku interacting, and that was just a pleasure to write.

Head Canon: I think Goku being an alien orphan matters more to him than he lets on.   Early on, he knew he had parents but he didn’t know why they left him in the woods.   Pretty much every interaction he has with the outside world is about him being different.   Then he finds out he’s a Saiyan and all the Saiyans hate him for being weak and sentimental and so on.   He can kick all their asses, but that doesn’t make him any less of an outcast.   

I think becoming a Super Saiyan is a bigger deal to him than he lets on.   That moment kind of serves as this unspoken proof that there’s more to being a “true” Saiyan than Vegeta, Nappa, and Raditz ever knew.   That maybe, if his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great granny could see him, she might approve.

Unpopular opinion:

Yukio Ebisawa is underrated. 

A wish: I always wanted to see Goku style on Broly ‘93.   It seemed unfair to me that they kept bringing Broly back, and even teased a rematch with Goku in Movie 11, only to not deliver on it.    I wanted Goku to turn Super Saiyan 2 and Broly’d be all “oh noes!” and Goku would look at him and be all “Yeah.   What now, bitch?    That green shit won’t cut it anymore.”

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: I think my darkest fear about the Dragon Ball franchise is that it’ll get bastardized like Superman, where some giant multimedia corporation owns it, has no idea how to tell new stories with it, and refuses to let it lapse into the public domain.   I have no idea how public domain works in Japan, but “Disney Toei’s Dragon Ball KH” doesn’t sit well with me.    Hopefully I’ll be dead by the time that happens.  

Like, Rise of Skywalker wasn’t that bad.   But it did lead me to worry that they really have no idea how to make Star Wars work.    They got it right enough, but the part where Rose is going to stay and guard the base or whatever, it just made me realize they’re only guessing, and they just happen to guess right often enough to succeed.   And it’s not like you can jump over to some other studio and see how they handle a Star Wars movie.

5 words to best describe them: Ain’t nothin’ to fuck with.

My nickname for them: Geeko.    Ha ha, just kidding.  

#dragon ball #ask duhragonball #goku #son goku #jcogginsa

[justsmilestuffhappens]

March 28th - Day 6: “I won’t let you do this.” + angst @evanbuckleyweek

Hit Me with Your Best Shot, Fire Away

The team was bone tired. It had been a grueling first half of a 24 hour shift.

They were ready to nap if possible and get a small bite if they weren't too tired.

"Hen, how many kids were on that bus?" Buck asked while nursing a water bottle.

"Less than a dozen. Two future doctors and a nurse, one president, a couple of entrepreneurs, and two marines and a pilot." Hen smiled.

"Gotta love career day. Too bad none of them were gonna be joining us." Chim smirked laid out on the couch next to hen.

"Who knows, maybe one day they will. I didn't know I'd be here a few years ago. And I look forward to every day with y'all." Eddie smiled bumping buck's chair startling him and earning a glare back.

"That's good to hear Eddie. You've been a great addition to the 118." Bobby said while bringing over plates of food.

"Cap you spoil us." Buck laughed while digging in.

Bobby was just starting on his own plate when the alarm went off.

In seconds they were up and fully awake for the next situation as adrenaline pushed them on.

"Cap, what's the call about?" Eddie asked.

"Dispatch said it's a tinkerers junkyard."

"A what?" Buck asked.

"Something about a malfunctioning robot."

-

"What the hell is that?" Buck asked making a shocked face.

"Oh it's Barbra. She's my baby." The lady said while smiling with pride.

"And why did you make an automated crossbow turret again ma'am?" Eddie asked.

"Because I was bored and to keep them animals away from my reserves ." Melissa said with a shrug.

"Please help!" The person said.

"Alex we'll be with you in a bit. Stay calm and still where you are at." Bobby ordered while they asked and thought of what to do with Barbra.

"How did Alex get in without being shot?" He asked.

"Her night vision has been acting up. My guess is the thief there was trying to steal from my supplies before the morning light. I just found him after breakfast." Melissa said.

"And you haven't tried turning Barbra off?" Buck suggested.

"Oh gee. I hadn't thought of that. No, I gave her her own power supply in case of a power outage and her wireless connection is weak for range. I gotta be close enough to shut her off with my phone but her bolt is ready to fire at anything that's in her range though." Melissa explained.

"So. We gotta give her something to shoot at?" Eddie suggested.

"Yeah. But it's gotta be at least the size of a dog or a bear. I programmed her to only attack something big enough to be dangerous."

"Well that's great." Buck sighed and shook his head.

"Cap we don't have anything on us that could withstand a crossbow bolt do we?" Hen asked.

"Hmm." Bobby thought.

"Could a riot shield work. We could call athena and the police, or a bulletproof vest maybe two." Chim suggested.

"Ouch." Alex said drawing their attention.

"Alex, you okay?" Bobby asked along with Hen.

"I uh. I cut my hand."

"We can treat you after the police get here to help us out." Chim said.

"No. I'm hemophilic, please. Hurry!" Alex screamed.

Bucks and Hens eyes went wide as Eddie said "shit" and Bobby and chim said "no,".

"Guys, we're sitting in a junkyard. We can find something." Buck said while moving to get out of the blocked off shed they were in.

"Excuse you, recycling center for inventors." Melissa scoffed.

"Sorry ma'am!" He shouted back.

"Alright, let's move. Anything sturdy enough to work but light enough to carry." Bobby said while they moved to follow.

After a minute they had a sheet of metal from a broken roof.

"No. Too thin. Could go right through maybe," Chim said.

Another minute found both a manhole cover and a car door.

"Manhole cover's thicker. But a little heavier. It's our best shot." Eddie said while taking it to the entrance. "Melissa can I have your phone please. Open whatever we need."

"No! Eddie. I can't let you do this." Buck said grabbing his arm to hold him back.

"Buck, I've gotta get him out."

"But I'm faster." Buck shot back.

"You're still on the thinners though." Eddie countered.

"No. I'm not. I just got off them." Buck explained.

"Buck? Is that true?" Bobby asked, he knew buck had a checkup recently.

"I'm gonna draw it's fire. Follow in after me. Only get closer after I've got it to shoot." Buck said thinking about Alex's time passing by.

"Buck, remember it's got a hole, dead center," hen said.

"I know. I'll be careful. I'll try." Buck was already setting into a running stance.

"Melissa, how long does it take to reload?" Bobby asked.

"Umm. 5 to 7 seconds. I think."

"Okay. I'm gonna get it to fire. Ready Eddie?" Buck asked while holding the manhole cover up as a shield.

At Eddie's nod buck took a breath and started running at a steady pace.

Chim and Hen had their gear ready to follow once Eddie ensured it was neutralized.

Eddie ran as he saw it swivel back in buck's direction. Buck hoped that the others would forgive him for lying later but he had the least to lose and he knew he could do this. He had to, Alex's life was counting on him.

Just as it got a clear view of buck in its crosshairs a light indicator flashed red as it shot the bolt out.

The world slowed as buck brought it up to better cover him while being mindful of where the hole was located. Even if the bolt could go through it didn't hit him now.

It made contact and snapped in half from the force of the hit that buck felt push him back as Eddie was already near to Barbra.

With only a few seconds left Eddie brought the phone close enough to turn off Barbra. Her lights powering down.

The others quickly brought the backboard and set Alex down as Eddie grabbed the bolt that was to be loaded next and the spares ready to be used throwing them on the ground just in case.

Buck breathed a sigh of relief as he and Eddie let the others work making sure Barbra didn't disturb them by coming back online.

Back in the truck buck sensed the air change as Eddie sat down.

"Eddie."

"You lied didn't you?" He glared.

"I didn't have a choice. I couldn't let you risk your life and I was right, I am faster than you." Buck said with a frown.

"But what would we do if you got shot?"

"Treat both of us or call for a backup ambulance. I know what could have happened it was a calculated risk but it turned out okay. I'm sorry but I'd do it again. Christopher needs you Eddie." Buck was thankful Bobby was on radio with dispatch to check if there was another emergency for them to help as they were done.

"He needs you too. We need you buck. So you can't just risk your life like it's nothing. You're important."

"Well, I can't lie and promise I won't do anything like that again but I'll always try to do my best to come back in one piece. Who else has your back like I do Eddie." Buck smirked.

Eddie nodded. "Damn right."

Buck smiled back now as Bobby relayed their next stop, a fire.

Today was just getting started. No doubt by the end they'd be sore. But as long as buck had Eddie and the team beside him, he'd be good.

#buck Buckley #evan buck buckley #evan buckely #Eddie Diaz #buddie #911 #solo mio #my writing #ficlet #fic #long #buck week #evan buckley #evan Buckley week #buck Buckley week #evanbuckleyweek #firefam #fire fam #118 #hen Wilson #chimney han #bobby nash #ew2020 #evanweek2020

[jackiesarch]

i am...admittedly long overdue in posting this because i’m a nightmare, but in my defense i did forget i had written this. all that aside, this piece was written for the far cry 5 2020 fanzine! if you haven’t already checked it out, please do - it’s full of some incredible creators and creations they should all be proud of. 

i was paired with the wonderful @hawkfurze​ on this one, whose accompanying art can be found here and is absolutely incredible. thank you for being such a pleasure to work with! we made a great team!

and finally, a thank you to @unclefungusthegoat for putting this all together during such a crazy time - your hard work and dedication to making this happen is appreciated more than you know. 

Jacob doesn’t know who ordered a scouting mission in the middle of nowhere, but he’d like to get his hands on them to ask them what the hell kind of good they thought it would do. 

Whatever name was printed on the map when they set out that morning means nothing by the time they arrive, and Jacob suspects that it hasn’t for a while. It’s a small place, and if he had to wager a guess, it probably hadn’t been home to more than a hundred people at its prime. Now, it’s empty, a haunted blip in an otherwise solitary desert.

The rest of the squad stops ahead, just at the edge of the ruined, crumbling village, and Jacob’s eyes are drawn to Miller as he roots around his utility belt for his canteen. He doesn’t blame him – it’s hot, and sweat pricks at the back of his neck as he surveys the mess of crumbled brick and splintered wood that used to be homes. The place looks like it’s been through hell and back. He thinks it probably has. 

“Where now?” The man who speaks is young and cocky, full of himself like most of the guys Jacob has met fresh out of basic. 

Miller’s the one that speaks, in the end. 

“Through here, I guess,” he says, gesturing to the village. 

Jacob follows their lead, hiking his gear further up on his back and trudging forward through the desert. From the looks of it, the place hasn’t been home to anyone in a while. Sand accumulates in the corners of buildings and across what remains of stone steps.

Movement in the corner of his eye sets him on edge.  Noise follows it, and Jacob tenses, raising his weapon in the direction of the sound. His eyes flit from right to left and back again until he sees it - two small figures, crouched in the fragmented doorway of one of the houses on his left. From this far away, he can tell that one is older than the other, by a few years at the very least. 

Jacob looks around. Other than the kids in front of him and the squad wandering through the sand and rubble, the village is empty. There’s not another soul alive in this place. If they weren’t already before the city fell to ruin, these boys are orphans now.

They’re thin. It’s the first thing Jacob notices as he approaches, gun now lowered to his side. The younger of the two looks healthier, has more light in his eyes and more meat on his bones. The older one doesn't look like he’s eaten in days. It occurs to him that past the hollowed cheeks, past the visible ribs, there’s a resemblance that’s uncanny. They’re brothers, he thinks. 

The eldest pushes his sibling behind him, a move that Jacob is so familiar with that watching it feels like having whiplash. The memories hit him the same way he imagines a train might, and he recoils mentally at the images that flood into his brain. A starving baby, red-faced and screaming, his tiny fists waving in the air. A shy boy with messy hair, crying out for attention, his only friends in the world his two brothers. 

Jacob fights the urge to run, to bolt and scrub his mind clean with another day of blood and guts and fighting. Instead, he holds his hands up, palms facing the boys, a universal gesture of surrender. I come in peace, he wants to say, but forgoes it for the sake of not sounding like some kind of alien.

The boys are still, their eyes wide and nervous, unsure of where to go or what to do. Slowly, Jacob lowers his hands. He moves at a snail’s pace as he shrugs his pack from his shoulders, opens it, and rummages around inside, careful not to startle the boys. He’s not got much on him in the way of food, but his fingers close around an apple. He’d snatched it on his way out that morning, just out of habit. Now, he digs it out, sets his bag in the sand beside him, and crouches down in front of the children, holding the fruit out for them to take. 

“Here,” he says, jerking his head toward the apple. “You hungry?”

Their tentativeness makes a long-forgotten part of him ache with renewed fervor. Jacob stays crouched, pushing past memories of John and Joseph, of the apprehensive looks on their faces whenever he would bring them something good.

“’S alright,” he tries again, careful to make his voice come out as gentle as possible. “It’s for you.”

The older boy eyes the younger one, wariness evident in the depth of his gaze. Jacob knows that look. He’s afraid, but he’s desperate - desperate to keep his brother alive, desperate for help he doesn’t want to ask for. He knows the look because he remembers giving the same one to the elderly neighbours, to his teachers, to anyone who ever promised respite from the absence of his parents. 

Jacob pushes the apple closer to them, holding his hand out as far as he can. The older boy inches forward, one hand on his little brother’s shoulder, and Jacob stays absolutely still as he reaches for the apple and plucks it out of his palm. 

The younger brother’s eyes light up at the food in his brother’s hand, oblivious of the fact that it will barely be enough for one of them, let alone them both. 

From the not-so-distant edge of town, Jacob hears the harsh bark of his name being called. The rest of the squad is waiting for him, hot and tired and soaked to the bone. Around him, the wind whistles through the barren and broken ruins.

The oldest boy watches him carefully as he rises to full height. The apple is still clutched in his hands tightly, his fingers digging into the shiny, red skin of it.

Jacob nods at him. With his hands hanging limply at his sides, he’s not sure quite what he wants to say, or whether they even understand him – he just knows that he needs to say it. Eventually, he settles for simplicity.

“Take care of your brother,” he says. He tilts his head in the younger boy’s direction. He’s still staring, wide-eyed, looking at the apple like it’s the best thing he’s ever seen. “He needs you. Always will.”

If they know what he’s saying, neither of them shows it. The children stare at him, watching his every move like he’s a wild animal until another shout breaks the persistent howling of the wind.

“Seed!”

He gives the kids one last look before he turns, breaking into a jog once he sees the irritation on the faces of his squadmates. Miller is the only one that doesn’t look pissed, and as Jacob catches up with them and falls back into step, he feels an elbow dig into his ribs.

“That was good of you,” Miller says, voice low enough that none of the other men will hear them. 

Jacob doesn’t say anything. He’s never been one for small talk, and his brain is already trying desperately to wipe itself clean, to purge the memories of his brothers and send them back to wherever they came from before they can start to hurt again.

Still, despite his efforts, one echo of his past remains: John and Joseph, happy and fed, watching Jacob light off fireworks in a vacant lot not a mile away from their home. Their smiles. A sliver of happiness, shining through the cracks.

He doesn’t know where life will take the boys in the village. Wherever it does, he hopes they have each other. 

#jacob seed #far cry 5 #fc5 fic #far cry 5 fic #my writing

[lokis-lady-death]

Slither Pt 10

Loki x Reader

Reader is a museum curator that has been put in charge of a Viking/Norse exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum. While going through all the artifacts, she comes across a strange relic that seems to have a mind of it’s own. She accidentally stumbles into an ancient world of gods.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Recap:

As a museum curator, you have handled hundreds if not thousands of ancient artifacts for the Smithsonian Museum, yet none of them could have prepared you for the viking exibit’s newest attraction: the Chains of Sygn. Though they appeared to be just another trinket of a time long forgotten, the snake-like piece of jewelry sparked to life before your very eyes and transported you to the majestic kingdom of Asgard. 

That’s where you met Loki, the god of mischief. He certainly lived up to his title, his quick wit and ominous magic luring you in while his hidden agenda kept you on edge. After fighting some apprehension, as well as a possessed necklace with a mind of its own,there was finally a sense of trust building between the two of you. 

Perhaps even something a bit more. 

The only problem? Just you and Loki were beginning to see eye to eye, the original owner of the Chains of Sygn request their return, meaning you will be counting down the days until the god is no longer a part of your life. 

Facing an uncertain future with the god of mischief, you let yourself get talked into a night out with him along with your coworker Chris Evans and his friend, a handsome british actor whose motives are quite clear: Tom Hiddleston. 

Slither 10

Tom walked around the front of thee also  car, his eyes locked on yours while a playful smirk stayed on his face. After sliding in, he pulled up a menu on the touch screen built into the dashboard to enter in the club’s address. When he was finished, you heard the navigator’s calm, robotic tone confirm, “Setting your course.” 

Tightly wrapping your fingers around the steering wheel, once his seatbelt click into place, you shifted gears and laid down on the gas pedal. The tires spun excitedly under the Jaguar, Chris and Tom both grabbing hold of their seats as the car rushed out of the parking lot, while in the back seat a wild grin stretched across Loki’s face. 

You rolled out like a Nascar racer as AC/DC's Highway to Hell played through the stereo, the tires screeching down the road while the men had varying levels of eagerness and fear etched into their eyes. It wasn’t the sort of thing you would normally do, but something about tonight seemed to spark a fire in your belly. Perhaps it was the mystic allure and forbode of Loki, or the intensely attractive and flirtatious Tom, or even the hilarity of Chris’s horror. 

Whatever the cause, you knew this was going to be a night to remember. 

That is, until coming across one of the many intersections on your way down the main street. The light flashed from yellow to red before you could pass, making you slam to an abrupt halt and throw everyone forward with a thud.

“Those are some tight breaks,” you laughed innocently as the others recuperated from the jolt. 

Chris snapped from the back seat, “I’d like to get to the club in one piece, y/n!”

Rolling your eyes, you happened to see something that grabbed at your attention. “Oh, look, the zoo!” 

The street sign read overhead in large bold letters ZOO followed by a plethora of animal images stamped into the concrete wall along the walkway. The Smithsonian Zoo of Washington DC was always one of your favorite places to visit, though it was obviously closed at this time of night. 

"That's not where we're going." 

You cut your eyes at Chris in the rear view mirror. "Well, it would have been my choice. But that's fine, I'm enjoying driving anyway." 

“We’re doomed,” he groaned, sinking deeper into his seat. 

Loki leaned forward to see what you were referring to, taking a special interest in the banisters lining the light poles leading down the sidewalk. "Interesting. A place that houses animals in the middle of a city?"

You softly answered, “They’re not like out-out. It’s perfectly safe, they’re behind fences.” 

He huffed, “How disappointing.”

“What’ll be really disappointing is when y/n kills us and we don’t make it to the club,” Chris threw in. 

“She’s just having a bit of fun,” Tom argued weakly, his own voice holding a slight tremor. “Though as I’ve noticed driving through the city, there’s enough stops to keep speeding… Minimal.” 

“Oh, that doesn’t sound entertaining in the slightest,” Loki sighed, his hand coming up to your shoulder and giving it a light squeeze. He leaned up, whispering so only you could hear, “The lights need to be green for you to go,yes?” 

You nodded, feeling a flutter in your chest from the innocent touch. “Lights green for me, red for other lanes.” 

He gave a court nod and leaned back into his seat. Just before your light changed, you glanced at him in the rear view mirror, noticing a faint glow behind his gaze. 

And just like that, the light turned green and you were off. 

Tom and Chris stiffened as you gained speed, only having to move around someone a few times before the next light came. You were about to come up to a red light, but just before you pressed the brake, the light instantaneously flashed to green. Cars in oncoming lanes slammed brakes at the sudden light change as your lane received the right of way. 

You revved the engine and zoomed on through, ignoring the sideways glance from Tom. 

Every light in your way stayed green or changed just before you got to it, giving you a thrill that kept you slightly building speed. You knew Loki must be involved, though you couldn’t sort out just how he managed such a feat. Chris and Tom seemed just as entranced by it, neither commenting on the speed, rather staying wide eyed and agasped by the miraculous luck. The sound of the high powered engine mixed with the roar of tires and insane cackles from the others in the car as you zoomed down the street, turning when instructed, sending the car into a slight drift you managed to control. 

It felt like a scene out of a Fast and Furious movie, Loki sucking up the chaos like a psychotic sponge, Chris trembling in the back corner, and Tom sitting at your side with a mixture of enthusiasm and panic on his face until the saving words came out of the navigator once you settled into a parking space outside of the club. 

“You have arrived.”

“Oh thank god,” you heard Chris cry out while clinging to the back of Tom’s seat. Tom, on the other hand, calmly -though quite stiff- climbed out and lifted it up, letting Chris fall out to the safety of the ground. “That is NOT how I’m going back home!” 

You couldn’t help but ignore his pain, turning the car off and taking one last moment to run your fingers over the smooth leather of the steering wheel. 

That was possibly the most fun you had ever had driving a car, the rush of endorphins pushing you to go faster and faster was more invigorating than you had expected.

“You were quite magnificent,” Loki whispered to you just before brushing a hand down your arm and moving across the seat to get out. 

"It was a little reckless," you admitted, though you couldn't conceal how thrilled you had become. 

"Reckless looks good on you." 

Ignoring his comment and the rush of heat in your cheeks, you got out to Tom holding his hand to you for the keys. 

With a shrug of your shoulders you offered, “Guess it’s not too much car for me after all.” 

He narrowed his eyes while his smile grew. "It seems your godly friend has some tricks up his sleeves. Did you know he could do such a thing? Control traffic lights?" 

You glanced over to Loki as he was straightening his suit with Chris beside him still shaken from the drive. There was always denial: you could deny what was obvious to Tom like you had done before, or you could listen to your gut and realize it was a futile attempt. Chris might have been naive enough to think everything that happened was just extreme coincidences, but the quick witted brit seemed to immediately believe the unbelievable. After letting you nearly kill him in a borrowed Jaguar, you wondered if it was even worth bothering with anymore. 

"I didn't…" You finally got out, "He's just full of surprises."

For the briefest of moments, Tom's smile dissipated, leaving behind something much more serious that was quite recognizable. "Hopefully all his surprises will be that innocent."

Your brow furrowed at the comment, but you couldn't question it further as he waved an arm towards the brightly lit main entrance, announcing to everyone, “Our palace awaits!”

It was no Asgard, but for DC, it felt regal in its own right. The white stone walls of the club Ultrabar were brightly colored by the massive blue and white spotlights that beconned the young hip crowd to its doors. Dance music rang out every time the doors flew open, the sounds of a bass thumping to an irresistible dance beat echoing into an otherwise quiet night. Tom went on ahead, shimmying his hips as you all crossed over towards the sound, like he couldn’t contain his urge to move and was entranced by the tone. Loki came around to your other side, sliding a hand onto the small of your back and offering you a grin when you glanced up at him. 

“is this truly a palace? It's not exactly what I would have imagined… "

" No, Tom is just being theatrical. It's just a club." 

"And what does one do in this type of club?ust we join?” 

“No, ha, no. It's not that type of club, that's just a name for it. It's a bar with a dance floor. We’re going there,” you pointed across to the building you were all walking towards, “To do that,” you pointed to Tom who was now coercing Chris into side stepping with him. 

The god's nose wrinkled at the notion. “I don't believe I'll be doing… That.” 

You laughed, looping an arm around his and bringing him closer, much to his own surprise and pleasure. He relaxed under your touch and together the two of you followed the others up to the mass of people waiting to get inside. Once entrance fees were covered--all by courtesy of the ever gracious Tom- you went inside to the main dance floor. 

Despite the aged, elegant architect of the bar’s exterior, inside it was a stark modern style, mostly white marble with underglows of blue and white lights giving soft illumination under the bars and by the floor. Large glowing spheres lit up above the dance floor where several people were already moving against each other to the music the DJ pumped through the stereo system. 

It was so loud you could hardly hear yourself think, feeling a nerve pull inside of you at the mass amounts of bodies crashing into one another while they danced along to the techno beats. Chris and Tom moved on with ease while you and Loki stayed along the wall, watching as everyone else grooved along. It only took a second for them to disappear, leaving you and the god of mischief alone with hundreds of unsuspecting partiers. 

"Is this what Midgardians call dancing?" the god of mischief asked absurdly serious. "Because what they're doing is not dancing. They look to be possessed."

You chuckled to yourself, imagining how bizarre the latest bump and grind must look to someone who was most likely used to balls, waltzes, and etiquette. "Yeah, this is considered dancing. It's not all that bad…" 

His nose wrinkled in disgust as he watched a girl start to twerk on an unsuspecting victim, making you laugh even harder. "Is this something all Midgardians do?" 

"Ha, no, not all of us. This isn't exactly my scene." When Loki's brow raised at your verbiage, you elaborated, "What I mean is this is more of Chris's kind of fun. I personally don't care for partying."

"Partying," he echoed, the god turning back to gaze at the masses while his brow stayed furrowed deep in thought. 

He looked to be plotting something. 

Just as you went to break his concentration, Tom reappeared with drinks in each hand. 

"Oh, I don't really…" You started as Tom held a glass out to you, but his smile and raised brows pressed you to reach out to grab the cocktail. 

"Where did your friend go?" he asked, making you turn your head to find that, sure enough, Loki had disappeared just that quickly. Your head cut from side to side, certain he was there just a moment ago. 

"I don't know, he was just here!?"  

Taking a step forward, you were about to go search for him when Tom eased into your path to stop you. "Did the god already get bored with mortal dates?" You could hear a salty tone in his comment, but brushed it off, instead taking a large gulp of your overly strong, pineapple mixed drink before answering sharply. 

"First of all, this isn't a date. Second, he's less than impressed with your dance skills."

Tom scoffed, as if personally offended by the suggested notion. "Then perhaps we should show him real dancing."

The words hadn't the time to resonate over the still loud, thumping beats of the music that filled the now shrinking space between you. Tom took your free hand and started to lead you to the dance floor. 

"No, no, no, no, no!" you repeated, trying to pull against him without spilling your drunk. "I don't dance!"

"Everyone dances," Tom spoke in a low tone, bringing his mouth to your ear so you could hear him softly finish, "One just needs to find the right partner." 

At that you couldn't help but laugh, "And you think that's you?" 

"I don’t see why not," he answered slyly, turning his hand in yours so that your fingers laced. "If given a proper chance, who knows what I might could be to you. I’m certainly not going away anytime soon. If anything, I may could find a reason to stay here longer..." 

His blue eyes reflected you like the ocean, so calm and alluring. A small part of you was tempted to give into his charm and let him try to sweep you off your feet, yet a nagging feeling in the back of your mind kept you unswayed. 

"I need to find Loki," you reasoned, taking your hand from his. Though his disappointment was apparent, he offered a small smile and shrug as he went back onto the dance floor. 

You sipped your drink as you made your way along the outer edges of the crowd, imagining he wouldn't have wandered out into the chaos of dancers after his comment earlier. There was a pressure building in the back of your mind that build up just as you realized there was the real possibility that Loki was a momentary moment in your life. Knowing the Chains of Sygn were soon going to be out of your possession, it seemed that there was no real certainty to any relationship between you and the god of mischief. 

Not that there was a relationship, you reminded yourself, but all the same. 

The feelings beginning to form between you were apparent enough to a stranger like Tom, while the truth of the matter was this was all temporary. 

This wasn’t his world. 

He was only visiting. 

You had nearly circled back around when you found the restroom stalls and wondered if he had gone there. Setting your glass on the bartop, you wondered how long it could take to wait for he to just walk back out if he was in there. Looking around, it didn't seem like a bad idea at the time to just prop the door open and yell in. Pushing it just enough with your foot, you called out, "Hey, Loki? You in there? 

No answer. 

You were going to give up, but the nagging in the back of your mind wouldn't stop. Maybe he didn't hear you? Taking a tentative step in, you called out again.

From behind, a hand grabbed your shoulder, a smooth voice answering casually, "Yes?" You squealed, covered your mouth while turning on your heels to see Loki watching you with amusement. "Oh, pet, you look positively flustered. I didn't mean to startle you." 

You were about to shove him back out of the door when someone started to come in behind him. Panicked, you dragged him into an unoccupied stall and latched the door behind you. 

"Are we hiding?" Speaking in a whistler, he didn't sound confused, only curious. 

In a hushed tone, you quickly got out, "This is the men's bathroom! I'm not supposed to be in here!" 

"Then… Why are you?" 

Cutting your eyes up at him, disregarding the cramped quarters squishing the two of you together, you listened to the hurried footsteps of the bathroom patron as they used the urinal and then went back out to the door. Just when you thought you were in the clear, you heard the door open again to a new man coming in. 

"Dammit!" 

"If you're not supposed to be in here, then why are you and why have you dragged me into this ghastly place? I'm certain if this washroom is for men, I would be fine." To your horror, his hand went out to take the door latch. 

Narrowing your eyes, you poked him in the chest, arguing, "I'm in here because I was looking for you!" 

"Oh? Why is that?" he pressed, a mischievous smile curling at the edge of his lips. 

"Don't look at me like that, you disappeared and I was worried."

You knew by the widening of his grin that he was enjoying your anguish, even more so when another man came in. 

"Shit!" 

"I'm certain if we just walk out they won't be too concerned with what you were in here doing."

"I'm DEFINITELY not coming out of a bathroom stall at a club with a man I hardly know, no, no, no, that's not gonna happen, I am NOT a cliche, I didn't even get any, I'm not gonna be able to handle that level of embarrassment, I'm not even close to drunk enough for that," you rambled shaking your head, until Loki's finger pressed firmly against your lips to silence your sputtering. 

"I can get us out of here, but you'll need to calm down. It requires concentration and silence."

Your eyes widened at the sound of someone juggling the bathroom's latch, knowing you must have gotten too loud. "Yo, no shit, I think there's a girl in there," a man on the other side of the door loudly cackled. 

"Yes," you pleaded, turning to face him, "Get us out of here-" 

That was all he needed to hear, quickly wrapping his arms tightly around you to bring you close against his chest, the warmth of his body fulfilling a craving you had no idea you had. Without meaning to, you nuzzled into him at feeling the air being vacuumed out of your chest, but just that quickly returning to you like gasping after being iunder water. Your stomach, felt like it had undergone a series of loops in a rollercoaster when you felt Loki’s hands drop down to your sides. 

“Well?” he calmly announced, “We’re out of the bathroom. 

When you opened your eyes, it was immediately clear you were no longer in the bar. In fact, once you turned around, the sight it took your breath away. You both had reappeared on a cement pathway lined by vast greenery overlooking a small, cascading waterfall that twinkled in the moonlight. Bobbing up and down around the scene were several multicolored orbs of light that illuminated where you stood in different glows. Slightly twirling around to take a look at it all, you recognized exactly where he had brought you.. 

"Is this… the zoo?" 

It was so familiar and foreign at the same time, looking just as it had the many times you had come before, but at night with the added theatrics you could hardly recognize it as a place on earth. The orbs floated delicately in the air above your heads like illuminated soap bubbles. Loki watched as you took it all in, a childlike wonder in your eyes and a wide smile gracing your face with the enthusiasm you had shown his magic countless times. 

"You mentioned that the club wasn't in your taste. I thought since you mentioned it earlier, you'd prefer to be here instead." 

Moving out along the walkway, you could see the animal exhibits dimly lit by the moonlight, it's creatures of the day sleeping peacefully unaware of the zoo’s guests while the nocturnal beasts began to stir. 

"This...this is incredible, Loki," you spoke honestly, still taking in the reality of what he had done. "I can't believe you brought us here."

"Actually, that's not all I've done." His hand took yours and then he asked you to close your eyes. You did so, biting down on your lips to try and hide how eager you were when he led you a few steps away. There was a noticeable breeze and a warmth absorbed into your skin like rays of the sun burning through the night. Your heart thumped in your chest when his hands left you standing alone, still blind to the world. 

It was just another second until you felt him come from behind, his fingers gingerly wrapping around your hips as his body pressed against your back. He spoke slowly, his face beside yours when he instructed, "Alright, Lady y/n… I want you... to open your eyes."

Taking a deep breath, you followed his instruction, unsure of what exactly to expect.

Though it can be established that you certainly weren’t intending to encounter a large wild animal that looked to be sizing you up for it’s next dinner. 

The spots, the color, the build, all lit up by the lightning balls was enough to leave no question as to what you were looking at: a full grown cheetah, standing just a few feet away from you both. You were so stunned you couldn't even scream, instead leaning backwards into Loki to try and back away. 

He caught your shoulders and held you in place. 

"LOKI, THAT'S A CHEETAH!" you quietly yelled to him in panic, never taking your eyes off the hunter. 

"Yes, I read the name of the exhibit. Why are you so frightened, darling, she won't hurt you." Your heart was pounding in your chest while you tried to steady your breathing. "I wouldn't have brought you here if it wasn't safe, Lady y/n. I give you my word, you’re perfectly fine." 

His words did little to soothe your nerves, but looking over to the large cat, you realized she looked more complacent than ferocious. Feeling you start to relax, Loki took your hand in his and urged you down to your knees with him as he held your hand out. 

"No, no, no, no, no," you repeated, turning your face and trying to pull back your hand, "This is not a good idea." 

He never released his grip as he leaned you forward, "Lady y/n-" You felt a warm, moist nose press against your hand timidly, then pull back. Peaking up, you saw the cheetah had come much closer, walking past your hand to be nearly face to face with you. Feeling you tense, Loki wrapped his arms around you and brought you into his lap as he held out his own hand to the beast. You watched as the cheetah got even closer, her face barreling into Loki's hand to have him pet her. 

That's when you heard the steady pur come from the big cat's throat. Your jaw dropped and this time you offered no resistance when Loki urged your hand back onto her furry face. She nuzzled into your hand to have your fingers to dig behind her ear.

"I'm petting a cheetah."

"Yes, you are," he answered with a smile, watching you reach another hand out to stroke the spots along her back.

Glancing over your shoulder at him, there was no denying how comfortable you had been just laying across his lap on the ground. It was as if neither of you realized how intimate the moment had become, suddenly switching from the innocence of petting the cheetah only to be just now notice the feel of one another. His fingers traced down your arm only to intertwin his fingers with your own. You thought he would say something by the motion of his lips but just as quickly his mouth closed. Instead, Loki’s other hand came up to take your chin and slightly tilt your head up. 

“Y/n… There’s something I need to tell you...” His thumb slid over the very edge of your lip and you felt a quiver up your spine at the anticipation of what he could be about to say. 

Yet before he could go on, your eyes widened at the sight of something walking around behind him. 

An elephant was coming your way. 

“Loki!” It caused you to shift in your seat, innocently dragging your hand up the length of his thigh to turn your body around. The motion was awkward but you were too scared of being squished to care. Loki, in his normal unreasonably casual way, turned to see what had caused your uproar. “Darling, I told you, you’re perfectly safe.”

“You mean you knew the elephant was out walking around the zoo?” Saying it out loud, you felt a sour pit in your stomach. “Wait a minute, exactly what did you do?”

He shrugged, “I let a few of the animals out to wander a bit.” Before you could voice the unmistakable apprehension written all over your face, Loki hurried to his feet, holding a hand up to slow your thoughts. “Oh come now, surely you don’t think I would just release these creatures without any foresight?”

“Creatures? How many exactly-” 

“That’s irrelevant,” he cut you off, “The most consequential point is I enchanted the zoo so none may of them may leave the premises. They’ll all return to their cages by sun down.” 

“I’m much more concerned about something eating or trampling us!” His brow raised at your high pitched voice, making you add, “I guess that means you did an enchantment for that, too, huh?” 

Letting out a sigh, you glanced back out to where the elephant was, his trunk gently swaying as he wandered passed. A little further out you could make out a few zebra trotting passed a very bored lioness that lounged against the carousel. Just then, the lights of the grand carousel lit up, causing the animals to become alert. At the sound of the music beginning to play, the lioness scattered and the zebra hurried away. You smiled at the grandness of it, turning back to Loki in time to see his hand come out to you. One hand held yours out while the other was fixated to your lower back, him digging ever so slightly into the fabric of your dress.

You Inhaled sharply, trying to ignore the intense urges bubbling up from deep inside the pit of your stomach. It didn't help when he simultaneously pulled you against him, his lips briefly brushing across your fingers. 

“Lady y/n, may I have this dance?”

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[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

G’day everyone!

Thanks to the EA Game Changers Program, last Sunday SimGurus Jill, Morgan and Geoff hosted a super secret private live stream for those of us in the program who weren’t able to attend EA Play and I am so excited to finally be able to share all the information I learned about Island Living and the upcoming free patch with you guys!

I don’t have any new screenshots or gameplay to show you but I did take pages and pages of notes so I’ve spent the better part of today trying to condense those down and put them in order so that you guys can have a look over them and read about some of the amazing new stuff that’s coming in this pack.

Just be aware that because we weren’t able to take screenshots or record the stream, all I had to refer to while putting this all in a post is my own notes and while I did my best to simultaneously listen carefully, write everything down, fend off my cats, and stop myself falling asleep... I could have easily missed something or some information could be wrong because it was 4am in the morning and my cats get bitey when I don’t pay attention to them lol You should definitely check out some of the other Game Changers posts and videos to see if they have any information I missed too!

SO! All that being said, I’m going to put this all under a cut because it’s long and also because spoilers!

If you have any questions about Island Living, I can’t promise that I’ll know or be allowed to tell you the answer, but my inbox is always open and it never hurts to ask anyway 😊

ENJOY!

New World - Sulani

    🌴 The beautiful tropical Sulani contains 14 lots spread out over 3 island            neighbourhoods:                 - Ohan’Ali is a town/commercial area containing 6 lots.                     Festivals/Events take place every day in town, keep an eye out for                     balloons to find out where                 - Lani St. Taz is an upscale residential area containing 5 lots                 - Mua Pel’Am is a Natural Island containing 3 lots. There is also a                     beautiful (and useful) waterfall and possibly a hidden cave but                     shhh, it’s a secret!

    🌴 All lots are fully editable and can be changed to any lot type you want     🌴 There’s a new Beach venue type     🌴 The weather in Sulani is generally pretty mild, but if you have Seasons            installed you may get the occasional tropical storm

Traits + Aspirations

LOT TRAITS

    🌴 Volcanic activity               - Can be used on any lot               - Causes lava bombs to fall on the lot               - Lava bombs can catch your sim on fire if they touch them too much                   while they’re still hot               - Once cooled lava bombs can be broken open and looted or turned                    into decorative objects

    🌴 Off the Grid               - Free base game trait to be added in an upcoming patch               - Your sims bills will be lower BUT most electronics will not work on lots                   with this trait and you will have limited internet access               - Objects in the buy catalogue will display “Off the Grid Functionality” if                   they can be used on this lot. Eg there is a new sink in Island Living                   that looks like a sort of natural spring water pump, it’s perfect for off                   the grid lots

    🌴 Clothing optional               - Free base game trait to be added in an upcoming patch               - Sims will react differently depending on traits. Eg. Self-assured sims                   will be more willing to strip off than sims with other traits like Childish

ASPIRATION

    🌴 Beach Life               - This sim wants to take it slow and enjoy the beach life

SIM TRAITS

    🌴 Child of the Ocean               - Answer the call of the ocean! Sims with this trait will prefer water                   related activities and feel closer to their denizens of the sea.     🌴 Child of the Island               - These sims experience a spiritual connection to the islands of Sulani.                   Honor the islands by partaking in their culture, summon powerful                   elementals and reap the rewards of their blessings — or the                   consequences of their disfavour.     🌴 Sim trait randomization will also be added to the game in a free           upcoming patch!

Careers

   🌴 Fishing/Diving Career               - Fishing will also be getting a big update (I think in the upcoming free                   patch). There will be new fish to collect, a fish trap, a high skill cast,                   re-tuning and new fishing spots in lots of worlds

   🌴 Lifeguard

   🌴 In an upcoming patch, all teen part-time careers will be made available for          all ages

Gameplay + Activities

MERMAIDS!!!

   🌴 Sims can become mermaids via gameplay or you can make one in CAS           (they are under the occult life states menu)    🌴 There are a ton of new customization options for mermaids in CAS,           including eyes, tail shapes and textures, teeth, tops that match the tails.    🌴 Instead of a hygiene bar, mermaids have a hydration bar that will slowly           drop the longer they are out of water    🌴 Mermaids who spend too long out of water might get a cramp, or a           sudden chill, or get very tired if their hydration becomes too low    🌴 You can raise their hydration by having them drink a glass of water, take a           shower, go out in the rain, splash about under a waterfall, or have a bath    🌴 If your mermaid decides to have a bath (even a bubble bath) their tail will           reappear and hang over the side of the tub!    🌴 There was no mention of whether or not mermaids tails reappear when           they’re in a pool but I would assume so?    🌴 Mermaids can give birth to Merbabies!    🌴 While Merbabies can be born, Merchildren won’t manifest into their tales           and power until they’re teens    🌴 Mermaids have some pretty cool powers               - Siren Lullaby - Sing one of the four different siren songs to a                   human sim to provide them with a moodlet… for good or bad is up                   to you               - Summon Ocean Threat - Will drag a sim underwater and drain the                   needs of a human sim to a dangerously low level. If done on a sim                   with already low needs, this may lead to death               - If you have Seasons installed, your mermaid can summon a                   thunderstorm               - There are more but they didn’t have time to show us them all

   🌴 Using powers will drain your mermaids hydration quicker    🌴 Mermaids have their own cool little plumbob, similar to aliens and           vampires    🌴 If you’re sick of being a Mermaid (we can’t be friends anymore), you can          find some special kelp to help you with that

OCEAN SWIMMING

   🌴 Sims can now swim in the ocean!    🌴 Ocean swimming is only possible in Sulani, not other worlds BUT the           Gurus did say that extending ocean swimming to the rest of the worlds is           not off the table just yet and may come at a later date. They just really           wanted to nail it for Island Living before even thinking about making it           possible in other worlds.    🌴 Toddlers can’t swim (obviously) but there are little shallow areas of the           ocean they can sit in and splash around    🌴 If you have Cats & Dogs installed your pets will also be able to swim in the           ocean    🌴 Sims will receive moodlets depending on what’s happening while they           swim. Eg. If they see a shark, or a beautiful sunset    🌴 Sometimes while your sims are in the ocean, they might think they see a           shark… they might be right, they might not. Either way, I wouldn’t stick           around to find out!

SNORKELING + SCUBA DIVING

   🌴 Sims can snorkel around Sulani’s reefs and shallows    🌴 Snorkeling is fully animated    🌴 Sims can also scuba dive by clicking on a buoy and paying the fee for           scuba gear    🌴 Scuba diving is a rabbit hole activity, there a no animations    🌴 Sims can take photos underwater whilst snorkeling and diving and keep           them as souvenirs    🌴 There may be treasures and a secret area to be found whilst diving as           well but don’t quote me on that, I was distracted by my cat jumping on           my keyboard at the time lol

DOLPHINS

   🌴 Your sims can now befriend a dolphin!    🌴 Dolphins can be found playing around buoys (possibly only twice a day?)    🌴 Sims can work on friendship with dolphins by feeding them fish, playing           with them, and teaching them tricks.    🌴 They can even be renamed so you know exactly which dolphin is your           friend

BOATS

   🌴 Outrigger Canoe               - Sims can fish off the edge of them, nap in them, and they are able to                   be dragged into your sims inventory

   🌴 Aqua zip (jet ski)               - Sims can do tricks on the Aqua Zip. The higher your sims fitness skill,                   the better tricks they can do. Aqua Zips can also be dragged into                   your sims inventory

LOUNGERS + BEACH TOWELS

   🌴 Your sims can now relax and sunbathe on the beach (or at home) in           lounge chairs and on beach towels    🌴 One lounge chair will also be available for free in an upcoming base game           update    🌴 Floating loungers are also coming with Island Living. They have similar           interaction to regular lounge chairs but  sims can also sunbathe nude on           floating loungers and can be splashed by other sims in the water. They           can also be used in pools!    🌴 All loungers, floating and non, and towels are able to be dragged into           your sims inventory and taken with them

TANNING + SUNBURN

   🌴 Tanning and sunburns are exclusive to Island Living    🌴 You can “opt-in” to have your sim tan or sunburn using a float lounger,           lounge chair or beach towel    🌴 Tans and sunburns will take into account what your sim is wearing at the           time    🌴 Mischievous sims can also “sabotage” sims who fall asleep in the sun with           some strategically placed lotion. These “sabotaged” sunburn patterns           are completely random and there may be some funny little easter eggs in           there

VOLCANOES + WATERFALLS

   🌴 The natural island of Mua Pel’Am is home to an active volcano and your           most adventurous sims can even live right next to it if they want    🌴 There is also a gorgeous waterfall on the natural island of Mua Pel’Am           that is not only very romantic (wink wink), but also can be used as a           shower by sims living off the grid

CONSERVATION

   🌴 Your sims will be able to clean up the beaches of Sulani, which will impact           the rest of the islands    🌴 At max level conservation the scenery of the islands change to be more           beautiful, more wildlife (butterflies, turtles etc) will show up, and you           might even see some bio-luminescent algae floating around in the ocean    🌴 There was mention of a special turtle hatching event but I’m not sure if it           has to do with the conservation level or not

HARVESTABLES + COLLECTABLES

   🌴 Coconut    🌴 Pineapple    🌴 Taro    🌴 Kava    🌴 Several new fish

DEATHS

   🌴 Lava bombs are hot    🌴 Look out for sharks    🌴 Mermaids are beautiful but accidents happen

WOOHOO

   🌴 I hear the waterfall over on Mua Pel’Am is a very romantic spot…

FANS

   🌴 Coming soon with a free update, ceiling fans will now not only be able to           be switched on and off, but they will also cool things down on hot days           and dry off wet sims

Create-A-Sim

I think most of what’s in CAS was covered in the trailer and during the announcement from EA Play, and we really didn’t get much of a look at it during the private stream, but from what I did see there’s a lot of amazing stuff!

The only thing I can say for sure is that as per usual, the male options are lacking and a little lackluster compared to the female options. I also don’t think there’s much in the way of clothes and hairs for kids and toddlers either 😟

Build/Buy

There is TONS of beautiful new Polynesian and Pacific Island inspired build/buy stuff, some of which I’ve already listed above, so I can’t list them all but here’s a few that don’t really fit into any other category but were specifically mentioned by the Gurus during the stream or just plain caught my eye

   🌴 A beautiful new island-themed wedding arch made with palm leaves and           tropical flowers and urgh! Just trust me, it’s beautiful!    🌴 Sandcastles!    🌴 A grill pit, that gets covered with palm leaves while it’s cooking    🌴 So many new island plants (hopefully they’re in debug 🤞)    🌴 A new island speaker (for community lots I assume) with all new Island           Living music    🌴 Glass floors! They’re not actual flooring like carpets and tiles though,           they’re more like the Get Together dance floors where you just place           them on the floor and you can see through them.    🌴 Stilted foundations! FINALLY!! They can be placed on any lot, not just           ocean lots!    🌴 There was a ladder shown in the trailers that I know many people were           very excited about, however it acts more like a diving board than an           actual ladder you can use between house floors. If you place it on the           edge of a deck, your sims will jump off the deck straight into the water.           But that doesn’t stop you from pretending it’s an actual ladder 😉    🌴 This isn’t an object but I didn’t know where else to put it - Pools can’t be           built on the ground floor of lots built on the ocean. I didn’t catch why but           I’m assuming it would interfere too much with the ocean itself. I also           assume they can be built on any floors above the ground floor though.

Animations

This is probably not that interesting to a lot of people but I’m fascinated by a lot of the animations that are created for this game and with this pack it’s really clear the team put a lot of effort into even just the smallest of animations so I wanted to point out some of my favourites that I saw in the stream

   🌴 There is a new walk style/animation for when your sims are           entering/exiting the ocean. Just like real life they will slow down and kind           of struggle to move through the shallow water until they’re deep enough           to swim or walk up onto the sand    🌴 There are different swim styles if your sim needs to get somewhere faster           (similar to jogging instead of walking) that also use less energy than the           standard speed    🌴 There is a bunch of cool new animations added for when sims are           multitasking swimming with other things, like talking, flirting, and even           kissing in the ocean!    🌴 The mermaid tail animations in general are so smooth and organic, it’s           beautiful! Whether they’re swimming in the ocean, jumping in and out of           water, or just lounging in a bath tub; the team really outdid themselves           with the animations for the tails!    🌴 Speaking of mermaids, there’s an option whilst swimming to “Mermaid           Kiss”! I don’t know if it’s available for human sims but it looks very cute           and sweet when performed by two mermaids!    🌴 Not only do the floating loungers float, but they also drift! They slowly           move around and drift back and forth with the waves just like a real           floating lounger would!

#TS4 #The Sims 4 #The Sims 4 Island Living #EA Game Changers

[sugarysweetsprites]

ALL THIRTY OF MY ENTRIES FOR FAKEATHON 2020 COMPILED BELOW THE CUT

ROUND 1: HOMETOWN MONUMONK - Derived from monument, monk

did you know I like maybe four miles away from a field of 109 identical 7 foot corn statues

FAKEATHON ROUND 2: THE USA ROBINOX - Derived from robin, autumnal equinox

Round one was our hometown, and I did my current city. But my childhood belongs to Connecticut, so I wanted to do a connecticuter. The american robin is the state bird of Connecticut, and as a part of New England it has a colonial history, hence the style. A type of garnet is the state gemstone, hence the species name.

Mostly though, I associate Connecticut with the vibrant autumns. The falls of New England are magic.

FAKEATHON DAY 3: CANADA CURTLE - Derived from curling, turtle

Very simple this one. Canada has a lot of curling events, right? Put the CURLING STONE. On the TURTLE. and you get the CURTLE. Dudes in this other server I’m in really love this one

FAKEATHON DAY 4: MEXICO CASOLURO - Derived from first two letters of the cards it’s based on; el CAtrin, el SOl, la LUna, la ROsa

A very fun one to work on. These are based on those Loteria cards - Specifically, the sun, moon, rose, and the dandy. The 4x4 grid on the inside of its cape is a reference to the 4x4 grid of a loteria play mat. Just threw crap at the wall here and got this funky friend.

FAKEATHON DAY 5: BRAZIL CAPYERA, CAPOBARA - Derived from capoeira, capybara

Not new designs, so much as designs I really needed to give another go. Much happier with these. And frankly, couldn’t think of a concept more wholly Brazilian short of slapping the flag on them.

FAKEATHON DAY 6: FRANCE CHÈVAÇAY - Derived from chèvre (French for goat), Chevalier (French for knight), valençay (French variety of cheese)

F🥐R🎨A🍷N🚬C🥖H

I stole the grease type from someone in that fakemon server it fit this cheesy boy too well

FAKEATHON DAY 7: SPAIN POMEGRIA - Derived from pomegranate, bandurria

Typically tried to avoid the lady-in-dress motif, but felt too justified here. Spain is home to pomegranates, with the blossom being the national flower. The body shape was inspired by the instrument the bandurria, with the base of the body being a halved pomegranate, and her “earrings” being both the tuning pegs and pomegranate seeds.

FAKEATHON DAY 8: UNITED KINGDOM MEMORI - Derived from memento mori, memory

I could’ve uh. Had this idea at a better time huh :^)

FAKEATHON DAY 9: ITALY MEDITIVE - Derived from Mediterranean, olive

Tried going more off-the-wall, but it didn’t quite work. Based on olive branches clearly - olive oil was often used as lamp oil, hence the fire typing. I meant for it to resemble a nuns habit or monastery robes, a la Italy’s heavy catholicism, with the floating olive leaf circlet as a halo. It was… good ideas that didn’t come together perfectly. Probably my least favorite of the lot

FAKEATHON DAY 10: NORDICS MINKJAVIC - Derived from mink, Reykjavik

Look when I think Iceland I always think black metal. This is the second time I’ve done a heavy metal pokemon. The first one was more badass. This one’s instead uh A lot : )

FAKEATHON DAY 11: EGYPT DJEDLY - Derived from Djed, deadly

One of the easiest to draw for… obvious reasons. Based on a canopic jar, sort of like an off-brand yamask or cofagrigus. It’s meant to open up twice; If you take off the lid, you see the fleshy eyeball dude in the lower corner. And if you pull that like a handle, you see what’s inside… and die with that knowledge : )

FAKEATHON DAY 12: ETHIOPIA CAFFIEND - Derived from caffeine, fiend

Obviously hyenas live in Ethiopa. But moreover, Ethiopia is also known as pretty much the birthplace of coffee, and coffee drinking/making is important to the culture. So I thought, why not make a hyena that’s super happy cause it’s always super hyped up on caffeine? Dunno if the electric typing makes much sense, I just thought caffeine = energy = electricity

FAKEATHON DAY 13: MADAGASCAR TENROCK - Derived from tenrec, rock

Tenrecs are endemic, yeah, but this wasn’t just based on a native animal. It was based on the land of Madagascar - specifically, the gorgeous and incredibly sharp structures of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. I’ll post a photo above the art, when I saw Madagascar was a theme day I knew I had to base something on that park.

FAKEATHON DAY 14: SAUDI ARABIA MASQAREEN - Derived from masquerade, Qareen

This is based on the Islamic idea of the Qareen. People don’t 100% agree on what Qareens are, but they are consistantly considered to be spiritual doubles - Every person has a Qareen associated with they’re spirit. This is based on one idea, them as dark spirits who attempt to lead their companion-spirit astray. I chose them because even though they’re evil from the start - hence the dark typing - they can become good based on their companion - in this case, trainer’s - actions and whims.

Since they’re counterparts to humans, I thought having them mimic humans would be fitting. It’s body is ALMOST humanoid, it’s many pink extremeties ALMOST resemble clothes. It would be a zoroark like situation, where it could make illusions to resemble human.

FAKEATHON DAY 15: RUSSIA MATEESHKA - Derived from mastryoshka, tea SAMOSHKA - Derived from samovar, matryoshka

Fun fact, I actually used to collect matryoshka dolls. Have a whole box of them in the basement somewhere. So I felt I had to. I have a thing for designs that look a little snobby, Samoshka certainly fits that little niche of mine : D

FAKEATHON DAY 16: INDIA BOVIQUIN - Derived from bovine, palanquin

I like ride pokemon, and I like customizable pokemon. So I made one that’s both! It’s supposed to be based on the water buffalo. The simple colors are because it’s supposed to be customizable - As in, the fabrics hung from it (and maybe the markings painted on it) could be swapped out, so I wanted something simple as a base. Sort of like Furfrou, but the customization doesn’t wear off

FAKEATHON DAY 17: CHINA LONGRUSH - Derived from Long (chinese for dragon), brush, rush

I expect here will be a lot of chinese dragons this round, I wanted to avoid the obvious. But… this is one of the best concepts I’ve ever come up with. The second I had the mental image, I knew that was it

FAKEATHON DAY 18: JAPAN SPIROUS - Derived from spirit, cirrus, pious

This is a myth from both China and Japan, but I associate it with yokai primarily. This is based on Hangonkō, incense that brings forth the spirits of the dead. Hence it’s body obscured by the clouds - It’s literally being summoned by the incense it carries. In retrospect, this could have been an interesting pokeball mimic with different colors.

FAKEATHON DAY 19: INDONESIA WHALEEN - Derived from baleen whale

The Philippines are home to the coral triangle, a stretch of ocean  that’s home to a stupidly large amount of coral life. So I initially  wanted a coral mon… but it’s known for its reefs. So why not make the  whole reef?  

FAKEATHON DAY 20: AUSTRALIA OPALINE - Derived from opal, mine

One town in Australia I’ve loved since middle school is Coober Pedy. Known as the opal capital of the world, it’s a desert town that’s so hot, almost all the residents live in houses carved into the ground. Even many businesses and hotels are underground! Coloring was fun on this dude :3

FAKEATHON DAY 21: ANTARCTICA SOUTHAIR - derived from south, hairgrass.

I wanted to do something unexpected. So rather than do that obvious penguin or similar, I went with southern hairgrass, the south most flowering plant. Did it’s closer meant to loosely resemble any wet clothes, but since there are no Inuit populations to Antarctica, only loosely. It’s species, the 1000-to-1 pokemon, Refers to both its chances of survival and the fact of the body is comprised of many many blades of grass

FAKEATHON DAY 22: SOMEWHERE HOT - DEATH VALLEY HELINDRA - Derived from helios, indra

The reason I chose the Indra butterfly is because it's native to death valley. I figure, if death valley gets HELLA sun, why not instead of it living in spite of the harsh sun, living so well because of it?

FAKEATHON DAY 23: SOMEWHERE COLD - GREENLAND STUFFIN - Derived from storm, stun, puffin

I know there are myths that say puffins can bring thunderstorms, so I thought why not turn a puffin into a storm cloud? But uh. It kind of just. Is a puffin isn't it :/

FAKEATHON DAY 24: ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS KYTHURA - Derived from Antikythera, Urania

One of my favorite remnants of ancient times is the Antikythera Mechanism. It was an ancient Greek computer. With proper gears and mechanics and everything, that was used to plot the locations of the planets and the stars in stunning detail. This first go around turned out… not that great, I’ll be honest. But I wanna do something with the Antikythera Mechanism. It shouldn’t take TOO much tweaking to make this something I love

FAKEATHON DAY 25: FUTURE WORLDS COCOWATT - Derived from coconut, watt

One of my favorite images of the future is, instead of all streets having street lights, some having bioluminescent trees! I wanted to make something to that effect. Even though we have Exeggutor I chose palm trees cause they already have a street-lamp-like shape. Finally got to bust out my super neon pencils :3

FAKEATHON DAY 26: RANDOM COUNTRY - IRELAND AMANEELIE - Derived from amanita, unseelie

I have irish blood, so I wanted to do an irish mon. I took the idea of the fairie ring in a weird direction - when it extends its arms and the little purple "hands" touch, anything in the loop of its arm - the fairie's ring - will become hideously poisoned. Visually referenced the deathcap. Just like imagining these things in a secluded dense forest, floating along like swimming jellyfish

FAKEATHON DAY 27: THE OLYMPICS SYNCRA - Derived from synchronized, tetra

This is similar to wishiwashi, in that it's a schooling mon. But instead of it having a schooling form, it's ALWAYS in a school of five fish, constantly swimming in unison. Clearly based on synchronized swimming, I wanted the tails to be super long, so they'd flow all elegantly when they maneuver around. Kinda... power rangers in execution, innit

FAKEATHON DAY 28: THE OCEAN EXPLORB - Derived from explore, orb

The idea to turn the bathysphere into a pufferfish-like dude just came together really clearly in my head. I imagine their attack would be terrible but their defence would be amazing - basically, they aren't out to fight, they just wanna explore the oceans :3

FAKEATHON DAY 29: THE MOON MOOMOON - Derived from moomoo, moon

its the cow that jumped over the moon

FAKEATHON DAY 30: LEGENDARY CORRA - Derived from core, cor (latin for heart), terra

I figured, we’ve done every part of the earth this challenge… except the interior. So for the legendary representing the world, I based mine on the core of the earth. The body itself is meant to resemble the phylotypic stage of an embryo - the stage of development where most species are virtually identical. It cannot leave its lava bubble. At the center of its body is a heart glowing with all the colors of magma.

The FIRST person to make a legend of korra joke is getting slapped

#fakemon #fakeathon #fakeathon2020 #pokemon #My Art #Non Spritework

[loridrabbles]

Rally | Platonic 501st x Reader

Warning(s): Graphic depictions of violence and death.

     (Y/n) stood in front of thousands of people at a rally her and a small group of activists had started. It began small, but people walking by kept joining in the masses to listen to what she had to say. The crowd was growing so big, police began peppering in the crowds.

     She spent a lot of time with the 501st, 212th, and 104th. She often asked them about rights given to them by the Republic or what would happen to them after the war, but they all gave the same amswers: "I don't know," or "I don't think we have any." She even spoke to Padmé about her grievances and was told that as of the moment, they don't have any rights and after the war, they may even be sent back to Kamino since they are property of their government. (Y/n) was furious.

     "Where is their social security?" The crowd cheered as she shouted.

     "Where is their healtcare? Where are their stipends? Where are their fundamental human rights?"

     "The clones did not start this war! That's we are fighting for! The clones did not start this war! That's we are fighting for!" The crowd chanted as she lowered her megaphone to tale a breath, a bead of sweat dripping from her brow. After a moment of cheering and jeering, she brought it to her mouth again.

     "Did you know, soldiers accused of crimes and put on trial were not even appointed attorneys?"

     "Down with the system!" A few people shouted.

     "These men are slaves to the Republic! They are being forced to fight in a war they don't very well understand! They are being forced to live a life they didn't choose! Do you know what happens if they refuse to fight? They're executed!"

     "Put an end to slavery! No more clones! Put an end to slavery! No more clones!" The crowd chanted again. The chanting was starting to turn, as policemen pulled out their riot shields. People who agreed with (y/n) were getting assaulted for their beliefs and vice versa.

     "How many men have to die for us? For us! We should be fighting the war not them! Its not their responsibility!" She switched to a mocking tone. "But (y/n). The death of the clone troopers has no effect on the population of the Republic."

     Out of the corner of her eye, she could see policemen dressed in riot gear and droids moving towards her through the crowd.

     "Who gave you the right!" She shouted, making the crowd scream and cheer and riot.

     "That's enough." A policeman grabbed her arms and put them behind her back. "The crowd is getting out of control. You are not under arrest, but there are people here who want to hurt you. Admiral Kak would like to speak with you. Come with me."

           (Y/n) sat in front of a desk inside the Republic base on Coruscant. The building was massive and housed nearly eight hundred thousand clones. The Admirals office was drab. The uniform grey of the rest or the base, and his desk, empty. Time ticked by, and she pulled out her communicator to message Fives. After two of them had the most riveting conversations about clone rights. After waiting quite a while, a burly man stepped into the room. Medium tan skin, grey and white hair gently slicked back, a trim beard and a mustache.

     "Miss (y/n)." He said, sitting in front of her. "That was quite a performance you put on out there." He leaned forward and pulled the top of a cylindrical canister up and open. "Cigarette?"

     "Please." She took one, put it in her mouth for him to light, then leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms, puffing on the cigarette.

     "Of course, you can understand why I'm upset with how things happened and what you did."

     "I can imagine. I opened Pandora's box to people who have never even considered the lives of them fighting for us."

     "I'm sure they have. But they realize the clones are an asset to them an to us."

     "Did you know that just last month, twenty thousand men died taking over an outpost on T'bak. As I'm sure you know, that planet produces nearly 80% of the Republic's tobacco." She blew a puff of smoke on his direction. "What's your favorite blend, Admiral

 I'm sure you could have a platoon lay down their lives and have a bark expedited right to your office."

     The admiral stood up and put his cigarette in the ash tray, then pressed a button on his desk.

     "Let's go for a ride."

           She got in the back of his small speeder as he told the driver where to take them. They flew down and down to the lower level until they reached the doors to a massive warehouse guarded by at least twenty guards and (y/n) was sure they were surrounded by snipers.

     "I want to show you something. I want to show you that those clones you call friends are expendable tools of war. He entered an access code and the doors opened.

     Inside were huge floor to ceiling cages that looked like they were meant to house animals spanned either side of the room. Inside of them were thousands of clones, some older, some young, some were even children. They stood in nothing but their black leggings, some with shoes some without. They were packed into the damp, dirty, cages so tight they could barely move their arms from their sides. They were all silent. Some of them in the front had their hand up against the cage, their fingers intertwined I'm the chain links. She looked around, walking slowly down the dimly lit corridor, looking them in their barren, glossy eyes.

     "I know you." She said, walking closer to one side of the cage, linking in her fingers.  "Commander Colt."

     "Its CC-3734 now." He grumbled weakly as he brought his hand up to brush her fingers. It was clear he hadn't been given food or water in days.

     "You're going to kill them." She said solemnly.

     "They are no longer useful to us or underperformers. Kamino will give us 1 new clone for every 5 we dispose of. There are one hundred thousand here."

     "There's children." She spat, her voice trembling.

     "Their numbers don't look promising."'

     "T-this is wrong. This is murder. You can't do this.

     "I'm not. But you will." He said. "Five of them get to live. You get to choose which five. You can look at their records. Review their accomplishments and who they served under, their ranks and overall performance."

     "No!" She shouted, turning to face him after scanning their empty faces again. "I'm not going to be responsible for their deaths. I'm not!" She stormed for the door, stopping in her tracks when he spoke.

     "Then they all die." He said.

     "Its not my fault. It's your choice. Not mine!" She shouted her last words. She yanked the door to the speeder open and sat inside, crossing her arms. "Take me back."

       The 501st chartered in their bunker, almost ready for lights out. The door sliding open grabbed their attention and they all turned to watch (y/n) stumble in, her face red and eyes stinging with tears.

     "What's wrong ad'ika?" Fives said walking to her, putting a hand on her back. "What happened with the Admiral?"

     Rex, Kix, Hardcase, Jesse, and Echo listened in as she spoke.

     "It was horrible." She said through her sobs. "He took me to a warehouse filled with cages full of thousands of clones. He said he was going to kill them all."

     "What?" Rex asked, infuriated, almost shouting. 

     "Colt was there. And children. They were so young." She sobbed with her hands to her face, Fives' arms around her. "He said 5 could live, but I had to pick who. I couldn't do it. I couldn't."

     No one knew what to say. They didn't know whether to be furious or sad, or whether they could do something or not. No one spoke. The only sound filling the room was (y/n)'s sobs muffled by Fives' shoulder. Her communicator rang. Jesse answered it and up popped the Admiral.

     "Have you decided yet, little (y/n)?" He asked.

     "No." She spats wiping her tears.

     "Time is ticking." He said, watching her as she approached his hologram, her fists balled at her side.

     "I won't do it, you sick bastard!" Her voice was seething.

     "I know. I knew you never would. I already took care of things, my darling." His voice was soft, but rough and could comfort a dying man while making him hate him for watching him take his last breath with such indifference.

     The hologram transitioned to a wide screen, showcasing the cages lined up in the secret warehouse. Everyone in a different cage recieved a different fate. 

     In one cage, flames still trickled out of throwers on the wall and floor. Some had tried to climb the cages to escape the flames, but died in their efforts, frozen in a statue halfway up the wall.

     The next cage, blaster marks were prevalent on the walls, hot wounds still burning on the lifeless bodies as they lay on the ground.

     The next had wires dangling from the ceiling and several attached to the metal links of the cages. Wires still crackles with electricity.

     (Y/n)'s heart jumped to her throat and her stomach sank, then turned over making her want to vomit. Her shoulders went flush and she got lightheaded as she tried to sputter out her words.

     "You-you killed them." She whispered, the words cracking in the back of her throat.

     "Do remember, (y/n), that platoon of young cadets who visited the 501st just a short while ago? Do you remember that little boy with the red hair who said he wanted to be just like Captain Rex one day and you told him he could do anything if he put his mind to it?" The Admiral asked her. "If only you could have saved him. I bet you didn't even look at the list did you?"

     The screen changed to that little cadet, rope tight around his neck, his face still contorted in a scream and tear stains leaving tan streaks down his face where soot and sulfur was washed away.

     She felt faint and stumbled to a table where she braced herself up with her arms. Her breaths were shaky as she focused on staying awake.

    ��"If you had chosen the five, they would have all lived. Stop trying to make a difference. Stop trying to be important. Stop trying to be some renegade pathing the way for a new clone rights movement. You accomplish nothing with your foolishness. Stupid girl." He spat, evil dripping from his tongue. With that, he hung up.

     (Y/n)'s sobs turned to screams, as she dropped to her knees, trembling on the floor.

     "Its not your fault." Rex said, kneeling down to put a hand on her shoulder. "He's just playing games. He would have killed them all anyway."

     "You don't know that." She cried.

     "Yes I do. I know." He said putting his arm around her shoulders, resting his chin on her head. "He would have found any way could to turn this on you. It's not your fault." He plased with her. "None of us think its your fault."

#clone trooper echo #star wars fanfiction #swtcw #captain rex #the clone wars imagine #the clone wars fanfiction #the clone wars #501st #clone trooper x reader #clone trooper fives #arc troopers #arc trooper echo #arc trooper fives

[thankskenpenders]

TKP Reader Survey Results

So the other day I ran that survey to ask whether or not y’all wanna see me cover Archie’s Sonic X comics when the time comes (among other things). It ran for a couple days and I got 367 responses, so I’d say I’ve got enough data to go over the results

And the results are...

1. The Sonic X Comics

With a whopping 71.4% majority, y’all have made it very clear that you want to see me cover the Sonic X comics. Only 8.2% said they didn’t want to see me cover them, and 20.4% were indifferent

With that, I think it’s safe to say that yes, we will be taking a look at the Sonic X comics

2. Sonic X Coverage Schedule

The results of the scheduling question were much closer, but 50% of you approved of doing them chronologically alongside the main Archie Sonic series, while about 30% of you supported taking a hiatus from the main series to cover Sonic X or even doing them all at a later date.

Because of this, I’ll probably be jumping back and forth between the Sonic X comics and Archie Sonic in a little over 50 issues. I may, however, do them a little differently. With Sonic X being a lighthearted series of stories taking place between episodes of the anime, it doesn’t really have as much continuity or lore to dive into. Most of y’all are probably already at least vaguely familiar with the premise and cast of the show, which the comics hardly deviate from. And to be honest, I’ll probably skip a lot of stuff with Chris’s human friends

If this is the case and my Sonic X coverage ends up being lighter, I may cover multiple issues a day to get through them quickly

...

Now let’s talk about the questions I added just for fun!

3. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic platformers

Sonic Adventure 2 (75 votes)

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (56 votes)

Sonic Mania (52 votes)

Sonic Adventure (23 votes)

Sonic Generations (19 votes)

Sonic Unleashed (17 votes)

Sonic 2 (Genesis) (15 votes)

Sonic CD (14 votes)

Sonic Rush (14 votes)

Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog (tie) (11 votes)

This poll went pretty much how you’d expect, but still! A good variety of games here. Nice to see Sonic Adventure and Unleashed getting a lot of love even though people tend to rag on those games

Personally, seeing all three of the Advance games get a few votes makes me happy since those are the ones I played the most growing up. I spent so many bus rides in elementary school replaying the first few levels of Advance 1 and 2...

I am also genuinely surprised that one single person voted for Sonic Chaos for Game Gear

4. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic Cartoons

Sonic Mania Adventures/Team Sonic Racing Overdrive (65 votes)

Sonic: The Movie (The OVA) (63 votes)

SatAM (60 votes)

Sonic Boom (60 votes)

Sonic X (57 votes)

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (31 votes)

Sonic Underground (10 votes)

This was actually really close! We practically had a five-way tie for first. It seems like every Sonic cartoon gets its share of love (although Underground definitely gets less than others)

And finally:

5. TKP Readers’ Favorite Sonic Characters (only counting the major Sega characters to prevent the list from being 50 items long)

Blaze (49 votes)

Shadow (40 votes)

Rouge (33 votes)

Eggman (32 votes)

Tails (31 votes)

Big (24 votes)

Metal Sonic (24 votes)

Silver (24 votes)

Sonic (23 votes)

Knuckles (23 votes)

Amy (16 votes)

Omega (13 votes)

Cream (9 votes)

Charmy (4 votes)

Espio (4 votes)

Vector (3 votes)

This is a little surprising! But not the most surprising. Like two thirds of my audience is LGBT furries, and lord knows we all latched onto Shadow, Rouge, and Blaze HARD as kids. Blaze taking first is a little surprising, but she really does stand out in the games’ female cast and is just generally cool. Eggman being #4 (ahead of the entirety of Team Sonic!) is surprising, but I think in recent years Mike Pollock has been reminding everyone how great of a character he is

I think the biggest surprise here is that Amy is all the way down in 11th place. Everyone loves Amy! If I had to guess, I’d say there are two reasons for this. 1) Amy’s always been a very inconsistent character. Someone who loves Adventure Amy isn’t necessarily going to like her in Sonic X, Sonic Boom, Archie, Forces, etc. And two: a lot of people would probably rank Amy in their top 5, but when forced to vote for just one, less people would call her their absolute fave. I’m willing to bet a lot of y’all who voted for Blaze and Rouge would still put Amy in your top 5

...

Anyway, this survey was fun! Thanks for your feedback, everyone, and thank you for continuing to support this blog!

#tkp post