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jajanvm-imbi · 4 years

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Headcanons of Krel living on earth because he’s my favorite and I love him and I haven’t seen anyone do this yet so I feel like I have to

^^^^^because of this very moment I love the idea of Mary and Darci befriending Krel.

Since Aja,Vex and Eli went back to Akaridion-5, Mother was destroyed, and Claire was busy with Trollhunting stuff, earth gets pretty lonely. So Mary and Darci adopt him into their friend group.

At first Krel was a little apprehensive to joining their friend group, but he quickly warmed up to it because, he, being Krel, loves the attention.

like I can totally see Mary and Darci taking Krel to like a mall or something and doing those like teen romcom movie shopping montages where he goes into a changing room and the girls judge the outfit until they find the perfect one.

I personally believe Krel would adopt a soft boy look, with like oversized button ups and t shirts tucked into jeans, but thats just me.

anyway, because he’s friends with Mary and Darci, Krel has a new found social popularity in Arcadia.

because of this, Krel would prolly get nominated for Spring Fling king and shit

I would say Krel wouldn’t really care about being nominated, but seeing how he cared so much about the science fair and the Battle of the Bands, he would definitely care

Steve is conflicted because he wants to be Spring Fling King, but he can’t mess with Krel like he did with Jim and Eli cause Krel is his girlfriend’s brother

Krel notices this and takes advantage of it to mess with Steve and actually tries to win.

like Krel would just dominate the contests, and his theme presentation would be the flashiest and most appealing and people would just generally like him, and that would really worry Steve

like Krel, with four arms would be really good at the Touch-a-Truck-athon or whatever its called.

Krel would prolly let Steve win anyway because watching Steve squirm and freak out over prolly losing the crown and not being able to do anything about it cause he's Aja's brother is much better than any highschool dance crown

also the school 100% asks Krel to DJ future dances and events to save money, and Krel absolutely loves it

He would also definitely do the school play. Seeing how much he enjoyed being in Toby and Eli's short film, and again, he loves the attention, he would totally be down

Also it would just be another chance to mess with Steve to be the lead.

Because of this, Ms. Janeth would do another Shakespearean play, but do one of those modern renditions. Like it's the same play just in a modern setting, to take advantage of Krel's Akaridion form like they did with Jim's armor.

If not in the play he would do stage crew/tech.

Like he would create elaborate settings for them using A5 tech and Ms. Janeth would adore it

moving on, because home life is pretty lonely with just the Lucy and Ricky for company, Krel loves to host his friends for parties and sleepovers and whatever

and since Krel lives in the coolest house on the block, they love coming over

He hosts girl’s night every other week with Mary, Darci, and Clarie (becauuse she deserves a fucking break)

since we’ve all agreed that Krel is 100% a gaylien, I love the idea that he casually comes out during a girls night

like Mary would be like “So Krel, are there any girls you like?” and Krel’s just like, “*snort* Girls? Who ever said I like girls?” and the others are like “….....?“ and Krel just rolls his eyes and says "I like boys, ladies” and they’re like “ooooohhhh, okay. Cool.”

So now they spend girls night talking about boys. Claire and Darci about their mans and Mary and Krel about cute boys.

One day the girls give Krel a little rainbow pin and Krel’s just like “what’s this?” And the girls tell him that it’s an earth symbol for the gays and he’s like “theres a symbol for that here? I didnt think it was that big of a deal. On A5 it’s pretty normal” and the girls explain why theres a symbol and he’s like “oh shoot wow, thanks" and he put it on his backpack.

He’s pretty confused the first time someone is homophobic towards him cause like that kind if behavior doesnt happen on A5 and hes just like, “why does this bother you? I hardly know you” and just brushes it off. Its doesnt really bother him, mainly cause he doesnt know the earth insults towards gay people so he doesn’t even realize, but if the girls (or Toby, or even Steve, too) catch anyone being homophobic towards their friend they will attack that asshole on sight. Especially Mary and Steve

Random person on the street: Ha, *slur*

Marry: WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM BITCH???

Krel: Marry its fine, it’s not that big of a dealoHSEKLOSANDGAYLENMARYGETOFFOFHIM

Marry: SAY IT AGAIN ASSHAT, I D A R E YOU

Claire and Darci: *trying to hold Mary back* maRY NO

Steve: THATS MY NINJA KICKING SPACE ANGEL GIRLFRIEND'S BROTHER BUTTSNACK I'LL END YOU

Toby: *now chasing after Steve to stop him* stEVE NO

Mary would 100% find out who the rando is and destroy their life on social media. Like she would leak their job, phone number, email, school/college (if applicable) to her thousands of followers and absolutely ruin them with no remorse. And honestly, good for her

Also whilst on the subject, Krel can not drive or cook for 2 reasons: 1. Hes gay and 2. He’s a prince so he’s never had to do either before

Like he can obviously do math but that’s it.

Proof? That one scene in Wizards when Douxie had him drive the airship. You know the one.

Coach Lawrence refuses to get in a car with him at Drivers Ed after the 3rd day Krel shows up.

Krel gets addicted to sugary coffee shop-esc drinks thanks to Darci. Not coffee cause we saw in 3Below Part 1 that he doesnt like coffee, but refreshers, coolattas, frappuccinos etc…? Definitely.

As for warm drinks, he’s more of a tea person.

Moving on

He face calls Aja everyday because he really misses her

He tells her all about school and his friends and whatever and Aja tells him about the changes she’s making to the A5 government

Thanks to the wormhole they visit each other often. Sometimes Steve tags along cause he misses his ninja kicking space queen angel girlfriend. (And Eli, but that's also for another post)

They take turns housing Luug.

Krel genuinely loves it on earth, but he hates the primitive technology so he begs Aja to send him supplies and materials for his projects.

He would 10000% apply to HexTech for an after school job. Seeing his reaction to HT in Wizards and the fact that “Akaridion tech and magic are so compatible”, he would be the perfect addition to the HT staff.

The Wizards wouldn’t be sure at first but after he shows them A5 tech and Douxie’s email of recommendation about the time loop thing they made together, the wizards are like “oh yeah we definitely keeping this kid. This is going to be so much fun.”

Their inventions become more and more extravagant because Krel can and he's just extra and the wizards love it.

He would definitely find a way to use magic using A5 tech. But he would have to study magic in order to figure out how, so the wizards help him learn all about magic. And since he's learned everything there is to learn about science and technology and whatever, he's super excited to learn about something completely different and interesting. The wizards are happy to teach him. He would be the first Akaridion to learn and use magic

Like he would make his own staff with his serrator and everything. He's like "earn a staff? Nah fuck that going to make my own"

Speaking of which he really likes human swear words. But he doesnt know when it is and isn't inappropriate to say these swear words so he's gotten in trouble a few times for swearing at the wrong time

For example:

Ms. Janeth: excuse me Mr. Tarron?

Krel: what the fuck do you want?

Everyone in the room: krEL NO

Anyway, back to Krel at HT, thanks to Toby, he would definitely have a bowl of candy in his little lab. More like multiple jars of different candy just scattered around the room. Small candy like fun sized chocolate and skittles and jelly beans and whatever

And a mini fridge, of course.

Steve, Toby and Arrrgh come over to the lab alot to mess around.

Toby has a lot of sci-fi requests for Krel to make

Toby: do you think you can make a shrink ray? Laser blasters? Invisible ray? My own hoverboard? My own serrator *gASP* WITH A WARHAMMER SETTING???? WITH SPACE ARMOR TO MATCH???!!!???!

Krel: Toby you already have a warhammer and armor why do you need more?

Toby: I dont have a space warhammer and armor Krel!!!!!!

Going back to school life, I feel like Krel would take an interest in Spanish class. I mean, his human form is latino and in Trollhunters (I'm pretty sure the lightning in a bottle episode) he said "Si" in response to a question someone asked him, so I feel like he would like to learn another human language.

I also feel like he would just like to learn about Latin American culture in general since Mother gave him that form. He'd like to get in touch with his human self.

Claire (when she isnt busy Trollhunting with Jim and the gang) is happy help him learn about Latin American culture and help him with his Spanish.

Krel, being a fast learner, becomes fluent quickly with a perfect accent.

Señor Uhl, who already liked the Tarrons to begin with, would really appreciate this.

Claire's dad would also appreciate this.

Since he has such a fascination with human music, Krel would especially love Latin American music. Specifically reggaeton, since its kind of like techno music in a way and he already likes techno music.

And naturally, he learns to dance. All the styles of latin american dances. And he becomes quite the favorite on the dance floor.

He and Claire become great dance partners cause they both have the natural Latino rhythm and because Jim respects and trusts his girlfriend he doesnt mind them dancing together at parties and stuff

Although, Jim does ask for dance help at some point cause it looks like fun and he wants to dance with his beautiful talented incredible amazing gf and Krel is happy to teach him and anyone else who wants dance help.

GUITAR LESSONS with Douxie cause in 3Below Krel said he really wanted to learn how to play guitar, steals Shannon’s guitar from the bonfire and is seen multiple times strumming it throughout the series. So of course this is included.

Toby introduces Krel to YouTube and Krel instantly makes his own channel.

of course his channel is called DJ Kleb and he posts his tracks and remixes. and maybe even some vlogs

its a little slow at first, only Arcadia Oaks students are subscribed to it but Mary blows it up by posting one of Krel’s tracks on her own social media and now he has thousands of subscribers

he also gained other forms of social media like Instagram and Tiktok, platforms to post his music

At this point every girl in school wants to be friends with Krel but not in the toxic GBF (gay best friend) way, girls just genuinely think he's 10x more interesting than every other boy in Arcadia Oaks

I think that's it for now sorry this is really long I just really love Krel and I had so many ideas. Feel free to add on!!

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softly-savage-mint-yoongi · 3 years

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Heat Seekers II Genre: Dark Cyberpunk AU Pairing: Chanyeol x f.reader Words: 8k Fic Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat. I’m serious people. If any of the chapter warnings are uncomfortable or triggering for you, please do not read this. Do so at your own discretion. Lots of angst and hurt, eventual smut. Chapter Warnings are below the cut. Author’s Note: There are some specific things in this fic that I’ve personally experienced, and some that I have not. Please understand my intention with this fic is a way of healing not just for myself but hopefully for others who unfortunately have experience with these types of situations. I did a lot of debating about whether or not I should even post this fic, and have spoken to a few individuals about it. Ultimately, with the intent of healing and moving past such trauma, it’s been decided OK to post. Please take my warnings seriously.

Chapter Warnings: panic, anxiety & triggers. Mentions of sex trafficking. Political injustice.

You push your way through the heavy doors into Blue House, ticking your chin forward in greeting to the entertainers standing in the comforts of the lobby, familiar faces you once considered colleagues. The one you’re looking for is at the bar along the back wall, sleek black beneath your fingers, unable to help the way they fan and smooth across its surface as you address him. “Thanks for the tip,” you grin, pausing momentarily to chastise the man before you, “Can I have the info now? I know you were looking out for me by taking it to save, but don’t you think you should have a little more faith in me?” Chan, who is your sole confidant- grins right back. “We don’t believe in faith, remember?” he retorts, flourishing two fingers in front of him to awaken his Atlas, fuzzing to synthetic life between you. You laugh mirthlessly at his reminder because he is right. He flicks his fingers and turns his wrist in a smooth motion, then waits while you blink your own to life and accept the request for sync that takes up the main holo in front of you. He waits for you to collect the job from his inbox and read the description; watching you with a blank expression you don’t see. “In search of a female escort, early to mid-twenties for one night job. The escort must possess advanced skills with Atlas Tech, and hacking. Body measurements are required prior to the job. Deliver in-person to coordinates 94.0114” N 94.0412” E. Details to follow. Payment is dependent on job success. 1200c.” Admittedly, the job description is short but to the point. If anyone were desperate enough, which everyone is, anyone could have collected this job. Now you see why Chan called you for this. Even without the price tag, the requirements complement your skillset spot on. You notice the job expires in two days. Good thing you didn’t have any other plans tonight, you muse to yourself. “Thanks, Chan,” you say with a smile, disconnecting the sync between your Atlas drives. He gives you a warm, dimpled smile in return, “Don’t mention it, babygirl. Just don’t be a stranger, yeah? You know Blue House will always be here for you.” His affectionate pet name for you makes your stomach flutter, just the same as it always did, but you sigh and turn away with a nod, plugging coordinates into your H.I. Pulling up your GPS menu, your smart tech automatically asks you if you want to register the coordinates it recognizes from any recent files you opened. You tap the green ‘register’ button on your interface the moment you slide onto the smooth leather seat of your hyperbike. You pull the visor of your helmet down, giving your H.I a moment to complete the reaction and pop up in your helmet visor. When it does, you scan the map, telling your Atlas you wish to start your bike. The artificial chime of understanding is a comforting sound, as is the low humming purr of the engine starting within the metal between your knees. Intimate, like a heartbeat between a ribcage. The route isn’t terribly long, about thirty-six minutes through the city… if you go the speed limit. A ridiculous notion to still follow, if only out of principle for the older generations. Nobody uses the rule of it anymore, and most people who use the road these days consider it an insult to the growth of safe traveling anymore to have ‘limits’ on speed, and by extension, how well a vehicle moves. Why make such advancements if the restrictions placed on them refuse to evolve? You tick your head to the side with a slight scowl. The trip takes you two-tenths of a second longer than you initially gauged. To a tech hacker such as yourself, inaccuracy is a flaw you’re desperate to rid yourself of. It makes you green with envy of Artificial Intelligence. The coordinates take you to a jewelry store on the north side of the city, closer to the outskirts and the wilderness of the Old City beyond it. Despite the location, the street is lined with tons of high-end shops that glow in the night, open for business. Odd, considering the best shopping districts in the city are further toward the center, and none of them look as classy as this street. You enter the store, raising a brow at the large panel that reads ‘Cloak & Dagger’ in clean, bold lines in the window. A strange name for a jewelry boutique. It feels out of place for you to be here, but you march forward carefully regardless of the uncomfortable way the white polished floor shines back up into your eyes. “Hello?” you call, approaching the largest glass case- it appears to be the counter, with a small tablet resting on a stand in the center. A woman stands up from behind another case to your left, sliding the glass panel closed with her hand before she approaches you. “How can I help you?” Her accent is older, perhaps European, and she looks as if she could be in her sixties. Even at her apparent age, she is exemplary. Your eyes drift down to the items in the case, drawing out a hum because the contents of the case are not what you expected. Now the name makes perfect sense. The jewelry doesn’t just mean your typical rings and pendants. The case is full of self-defense jewelry. Defender rings, ring knives, and other small weapons that are worn. Without answering her, you round the case to the one she stood from, and notice an assortment of larger wearable weapons. From strings of magnetic senbon to actual daggers and piercing finger cuffs. “Find something you like?” she asks, trying to prompt you again. Part of you immediately dislikes the way she’s standing. She seems too proud of your reaction, and with her back straight and hands folded perfectly on top of the counter, she has an air of superiority. With narrowed eyes, you stand back to your full height, “I’m here about a job that’s due in two days.” Her face is unreadable, and she nods minutely, “Can you show me what you’re referring to, dear?” She makes a finger gun and points it directly toward you, tilting her fingers up with the motion of it going off. It sets your adrenaline running with panic until she smiles and her Atlas opens between you. Her motion for opening it is horrifying, and you’re bewildered as to how she came about making that her initiation sequence. You don’t want to close your eyes tightly for the full second it takes to open your own, but you hold you breath and do it anyway. She hums in approval and understanding when you twist your H.I toward her and show her the job posting on your personal assignment bulletin. “I see,” she says, letting her eyes rove you up and down. Nothing you’re not used to, having worked in a brothel for years. “Very well then.” She types something into her own H.I and motions for you to come back to the center of the shop floor. When you do, she presses a button on her interface that expands it around the room. Suddenly, you’re standing in the center of some program she’s running, and the security cameras in the shop come to life. A bright blue light beams from each, pointing at your feet as they scan up your form. Momentarily, you’re impressed with the way she’s made her tech work. Multiple programs running from the same cameras, she’s clever, and you like her a little more for it. Perhaps a bit unorthodox and fitting to her shop’s name, cloaked in mystery, but you’re interested in how she came to be in this moment. She stands in front of you, one hand on her hip while the other goes between touching her lips to touching her main holographic interface, or H.I for short. She’s mumbling to herself as she works, letting your now holographic form float into the space above you. Reaching out, she pulls you out of the center and away from your holoclone. “Fry, darling, give me measurements without her clothes, will you?” “Yes of course, dear,” a disembodied voice echos back. Albeit quite synthesized, it is distinctly male, with an American accent. “Pardon me for the intrusion, miss. Varian Fry, at your service.” the voice says to your holoclone. No clothing is actually removed from either you or your clone, but the AI brings up a separate holo screen for each piece of your clothing. It’s fascinating, to see how quickly he can tell everything about the items, from their thickness and fibers to how many millimeters they equate for in your initial measurements. “At your request, dear,” he says, and an upbeat chime rings on her main interface with your naked measurements. The woman looks at you over her reading glasses, smiling, “He’s impressive, isn’t he?” You realize she asked because you’re smiling at his handiwork. Simply, you nod at her. “Fry, take these into manufacturing. Rush order, number…” she trails off, pausing as she tilts her head at you, “seventy-two, please. In black and violet.” You have no idea what she means and part of you feels like this is some strange super-suit she’s making for you. “Right away, dear.” Fry says, and her H.I blinks into nonexistence. She sighs, glancing at you wistfully, “I think he’ll be most pleased.” You know you shouldn’t because it’s cliche and quite honestly, she shouldn’t tell you, but you ask anyway, “Who?” She laughs, “Your partner for the evening, of course. Don’t worry too much, he’s one of the good guys.” That’s all she tells you before she’s ushering you back toward the door. “Come by again tomorrow midday, it’ll be ready,” she assures you just as she lets the door shut between you. The encounter leaves you feeling a myriad of emotions, though most prominently was the anxiousness of such a mysterious job. You’ve only had a small share of jobs from outside sources, and none that appeared to have so much riding on them. Without anything else to do, you ride back toward Blue House, craving pizza. Smiling, you decide to stop for a quick payday and a free dinner at The Cave. It takes less time than usual to make your rounds of the arcade cabinets, easily earning enough credits to pay for a large pie to take back with you. Plain cheese, well done. Same as always. When you walk through the doors of the brothel with a smile and a pizza box, Chan knows, “Oh no, how many people’s day did you ruin?” “Just a few, I promise. I really just wanted the pizza.” you comment, admitting that a few extra coins in your pocket from beating out cheating gamers never hurt anyone. His eyes zero in on the box settled on your palm with a swallow, “Did you just bring that here to make my mouth water?” There’s a hopeful spark in his eyes, but you decide to enjoy the chance to tease anyway, “We both know this isn’t the kind of thing that makes your mouth water.” Your eyes float around the lobby with a grin. His smile slides off his face briefly, until you shake your head, “Come on. Got some time to spare?” Immediately, the guardian of Blue House morphs his stance- away from the imposing spread of his arms across the sleek counter to the boyish delight of the one person you’ve grown to trust in this world like a starry-eyed puppy. His childlike wonder brings a smile to your lips at the stark contrast of his nickname in the business, as the Wolf of Blue House. He doesn’t mind it, and most of his clientele pay top dollar to have the attention and affection of that persona. You know the way, and Chan follows you through the door on the right, ascending the stairs tucked narrowly between the lounges. The rose-colored light gives the cramped space an intimate feel, and part of you takes artificial comfort from this familiarity, and the memories of it you can feel permeate your consciousness. Of the way you grew up here, together with Chan. Of how thankful you are to him for teaching you and helping you survive. The embarrassment of teenage years made you closer, and you try not to smile, remembering once when you were drunk and nineteen, after your first official orgasm ever, at his hands, and the victory of such a thing made you so emotional you confessed that you loved him. Gently as ever, he brought you back down and reminded you that pleasure isn’t love. In the darkness of your personal room in this very building, your tears fell from the sudden fear of weightlessness that overtook you with such release, and he was there for every step of the way. Chan was there, keeping you grounded and guiding you on a path that would make you strong enough, smart enough, to stand on your own feet and never need anyone else. You could want to your heart’s content, but you would never need. That seems like a distant past, now. Somewhere after eating the whole pie with Chan on the rooftop, you fell asleep. You’re positive he carried you back down the stairs to his den and let you sleep in his bed. The only difference was your jacket had been removed, neatly folded over the open door of his armoire. You’ve woken up here before, sometimes alone, sometimes not when you needed to feel safe so you could sleep without screaming. Weeks or months between. Never more than 3 nights in a row. Today, only the familiar scent of Chan lingers in the room. When you rise, you notice he’s left you some of your old clothes, if you feel so inclined, and a fresh towel. The mirror of his bathroom has wispy remnants of condensation still, and the balmy humidity in the room feels relaxing. The warm water kickstarts your tired bones while you shower, giving you time to think against the white noise it provides. You wonder what time it is, but don’t bother with rushing the moment. As usual, you find Chan working in the office with his natural curls still damp atop his head. They’re unstyled, the dry strands a bit frizzy- mused from his fingers running through them no doubt. Even though you know he’s very busy, he looks comfortable. “I’m out.” you coo quietly from your position, leaning against the door frame with your jacket tucked over your folded arms. It’s a little awkward saying goodbye, knowing you’ll be back in a few weeks after you’ve rotated through your other caches. You can never stay in one place for too long. His head snaps up with the sound of your voice, and he gives you a dimpled grin, “Okay. Stay safe out there, babygirl.” It’s obvious your decision to even say goodbye makes him happy, although he has never judged you for disappearing without small talk. Neither of you owe each other anything. You remain as you both are, separately autonomous. The time you share together is a boon of respectful interest and allied friendship. It’s half past noon as you sling your backpack over your shoulder and head outside, inhaling a deep breath as your palm habitually runs across the leather seat of your bike. Mounting, you bring up the routes of your recent destinations and take in the swell of momentary bliss you get when the bike beneath you roars to life. The midday sun feels good, the heat of it through your clothes and on your hands warming you the moment you ride onto the city streets from the cool shade of the undercity. When you arrive at Cloak & Dagger, you’re whisked inside by the same older woman from yesterday, and she makes a lot of fuss over you. “We’ve got to get your nails and your hair done before you can wear that dress,” she’s muttering, pulling at your hair and your hands to see your fingernails. “Excuse me?” you ask. The job didn’t entail all of that fuss. Why is going to that extent necessary? She gives you a dazzling, perhaps a little overeager smile. “You’ve got to look the part, doll. You’re not bad,” she comments, standing back to assess you from head to toe with a twist to her lips, “but we’ve still got to even out your ends and do you up for the event.” You’re uncomfortable with this, but when she confirms it will cost you nothing, you remind yourself it’s all for the money. Plus, you haven’t had a haircut in a while. “Close the shop, dear, we’ve got important work to do!” she coos in excitement loudly to her AI. Fry’s voice answers her with amusement, “We never opened today, dear.” She laughs, “All’s well that ends well, then!” as she takes your hand and walks you back behind the counter and into a large space that appears to be a dressing room. Immediately, she guides you to a comfortable-looking chair stationed in front of an old-style makeup mirror and begins talking to her AI. “Mm, yes, I think this one will do.” she says as she flips through a couple of hairstyles from a menu you don’t recognize in her H.I. Two arms fold down from the center of the ceiling here, sleek and soundless as they move. Fry’s voice is directed at you, “This is happening to you, my dear. Which of these would you like? I can do either with the length your hair will be once I even it out.” A display appears on the mirror in front of you and four hairstyles are displayed. You’re still trying to wrap your head around this ordeal and all the fuss over you, but you blurt out “number two” anyway. “Excellent choice, my dear.” he says, gentlemanly as always in his American accent. The arms behind you start working immediately, folding out to comb your hair and part it, taking clips from a tray that’s been set up just behind the chair. It takes longer than you anticipated for the AI Varian Fry to cut your hair and style it into the selected choice, all while he comments how wonderful it looks on you. You’ve lost count of how many pins he’s put in by now. The quirky woman jabs often at you with small talk that you needn’t reply to, or she comments on the work Fry is doing while she tends to your nails. “I can do that, darling. No need to fret.” the AI says to her while she fusses over evening out your nails, but she waves him off. “No no, I want to. It makes me feel useful. We never get to have this kind of fun anymore.” Her words are cryptic and the way she says them tells you there’s a mountain of information behind the comment, but she says nothing else about it. Your nails aren’t something you get a choice with, as she layers gel onto them, building it up and evening the edges before she finishes. You watch, moving your fingers in all kinds of ways to get used to having longer nails, almond-shaped no less. Admittedly, you like the matte hue she chose as the color. Once she’s finished, she stands and walks to the left side of the room. There’s a long, rolling pole with clothes hangers adorning it, and a single garment is neatly folded in a black bag. She removes it and unzips it just as Varian Fry places the final bobby pin in your hair, covering your eyes with a metal visor briefly while hairspray plumes into a cloud over your head. “I can’t wait to see this on you,” the woman coos excitedly, “You might just be our best work yet.” When Varian finishes your hair, the arms spin your chair in the direction of the woman, and she’s holding up a black and violet dress, the heavy yet gentle shine of velvet catching light. Typically, you’re not the dress type, but again, money is money. At least it isn’t hideous, and the colors and style are gorgeous. There’s isn’t much you find that would annoy you with it, other than perhaps the inability to run if necessary. “We’ve only got your makeup left to do!” she chimes while she hangs the dress on a hook high off the floor, just beside the mirror. Another cart is wheeled over by one of Varian’s arms, full of high-end makeup brands you recognize from huge ads in the shopping districts of the city. She takes your hand with a laugh, “Up up up, come on now, let’s get you into this.” Ushering you into another room, you’re granted a moment of privacy to use the restroom and collect yourself before she’s knocking at the door and shamelessly stripping you of your outer clothes. Being naked in front of others stopped making you feel insecure a long time ago, and the benefit of it is the efficient speed of doing the task you needed to do instead of milling about in a flustered state of undress for longer than necessary. It doesn’t mean you enjoy being in the nude, but when duty calls you do what must be done. The older woman of Cloak & Dagger doesn’t seem to bat an eye either, assuming years of her dressing up others in her creations has kept the professional efficiency all the same. If she notices any of your battle scars, she doesn’t pause or comment on them. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t recognize the woman staring back at you, except for her eyes and the color of her hair. The dress hugs your form like a thick and warm blanket, accentuating the lines of your body and appealing to the curve of your hips you hadn’t realized were so generous. You turn several directions, analyzing yourself. Perhaps it had been too long since you looked in the mirror at your body. You could appreciate the shape of your own ass, and the swell of your breasts, the gentle caress of line that was your own spine, clearly visible in the cutout back of this dress. Even the muscle of your own legs, visible from the mid-thigh down to the shiny black heels on your feet. For once, even with every sad story of the scars you know riddle your body, you couldn’t stop staring at yourself, liking the way you looked. Finished with fussing over yourself, the woman cracks a grin at you, cooing with excitement at the spectacle before her. “You look ravaging, darling.” She opens the door and takes your hand. Leading you back into the center of the prep room, she waits. Walking in heels is going to be the death of you- you’ve never worn any quite this high and pointy. In your mind, the only upside is the way you could stab someone with one if warranted. When Varian doesn’t respond and no movement is noticed from any of the things he can control, she asks, “Varian dear are you awake?” To which the hand-like ends of the limbs from the ceiling give her a single finger of silence, he whispers, “No, no please I need a moment to enjoy this absolute dream.” The woman barks a loud laugh, giggling to herself with pride. The joke does not go over your head, realizing with a smile that Varian was giving you a compliment. The entire ordeal has taken far longer than you think is appropriate, but if you try to think about your feelings, you can admit you enjoyed the pampering, and you feel good. You’ve never done anything like this, and there are small parts of you that had always wondered about why women fuss over their appearances so much. Now, you know. “The car has just arrived, dear.” Fry’s voice cuts in just as the woman finishes applying one more layer of lipstick to your face. She claps her hands together and smiles, “Right then! One last piece.” With a sway in her step, she leads you back out to the front of the shop and muses over the selection of handbags to her right briefly, deciding on a black leather clutch with a silver crossbody chain that she drapes over your body. You spy through the front window curiously, eyeing a man standing beside a car door wearing a black suit and tie with dark sunglasses. He’s not moving. “One more thing.” says the old woman, her finger raised in the air as she rounds the counter. She pulls a small 10mm pistol from somewhere below the register, checking it with a speed you find almost as alarming as the immediate panic that sets into your bones. You’re frozen as she checks the six spaces are all filled with bullets, snaps it shut and puts the safety lock on. Then, she’s standing in front of you, holding it out for you to take. Slowly, as if the gears of your body have been rusted still far too long, you shake your head. “What’s the matter dear, don’t know how to shoot? I don’t think you’ll need it, but just in case.” “No,” your voice quivers. She makes a sound of disbelief, misunderstanding you as she reaches for your bag, attempting to put the gun in it. “Get that thing away from me.” you command, wrenching the bag out of her fingers. She gives you a look, open-mouthed and taken aback a bit. When the pause between you grows too heavy, the man at the car breaks the silence by knocking on the door. The old woman blinks, “Oh, goodness okay okay, have it your way. Just be safe. I don’t want any idiots ruining this stunning creation.” she says to you with a wistful smile and a pat to your shoulder. Once she ushered you outside, you’re not sure why, but your head seemed to turn of its own volition, back to the front window of Cloak & Dagger, where you spied Varian’s metal arm whipping a handkerchief from an unknown place and offering it to his wife. The SUV in front of you is dark. Black paint, black trim and rims, and every window except the windshield looks deeply tinted. The man in front of you, painfully obvious with his secret and important aura, sticks out like a sore thumb. His only motion is opening the rear door for you. You’re desperate not to wobble or fall as you climb inside, already scowling at the heels on your feet. The inside of the SUV is more spacious than you gave credit for, with the seats rearranged in a way that opens the space like a lounge of sorts, complete with ice bucket and the glow of colored lights overhead. You perch yourself on the edge of an open section of the long seat across from the only other person in the back of the car, save for the sound of the man closing the door behind you and climbing into the driver’s seat of the SUV from the other side of a thick panel of black glass. The eyes of the person across from you are dancing along your skin, you can feel them, but it’s not in a way that raises the hair on the back of your neck. When you look ahead, you find a pair of dark eyes, crinkled at the outer corners and smiling at you, one hand extended in your direction. “Good evening, thank you for coming.” His voice is smooth. Neutral, with a hint of amusement. You say nothing, waiting for him to elaborate. He is handsome, you’ll admit, but in an almost too-pretty way. Hair swept up and to the side, in a full three piece suit that looked as if it cost an absurd amount of money to buy. His posture, with one knee over the other and his torso draped at an angle, with one arm over the back of the seat across from you. He raises his thick brows once when you say nothing, still analyzing him. “Right.” he chimes, placing the glass from his hand in the holder beside him. “I’m Suho, the one who posted the job.” he states matter of factually, in a calm and even tone. The first indicator that his request is legitimate, you think. His posture is too relaxed and he speaks too clearly to be afraid of being overheard by nothing more than an anxious or guilty conscience. He is not out to get you. “What is it exactly that you need my help with?” you ask, matching his tone. A small part of you relaxes into the seat at your back, adjusting to sit a little more comfortably. He smiles wistfully, “I’m glad you asked,” a pause, before he sits up and places his elbows on his knees, hands folded together in front of him so he can address you directly. “We’re headed to a Gala as we speak. The Medical Advancement Technologies Gala, to be precise. There’s a certain politician attending that must be dealt with, but there is information I need from him in order to deal with him appropriately.” Suho explains, skirting the details. Whether at your expense or not, it pisses you off. “You don’t need to sugarcoat it with me, just so you know. So what did he do and why do you care?” He blinks at you, then quickly collects himself with a smile, “Apologies.” There’s a brief moment where his brows knit together before he continues, “He is… someone who uses his political power to do unforgivable things. I care, because one of those things is sex trafficking.” You don’t flinch, you don’t move, you don’t blink. You want to ask why that’s what Suho cares about, but you remind yourself that’s not the most important line of questioning right now. It’s not about Suho, it’s about the politician. Nodding when you notice he’s waiting for your response, “How is it that you came to find out about it, and how do you know it is him? Does he use an alias?” Suho hums with agreement, “He does. I’ve been tracking his association with trafficking for months, and have done what I can to gather information, but it is that last missing piece he keeps locked up that I need help with.” He makes a distinct motion with his right hand, elegant and graceful, almost as if dancing, so subtle and strange you almost miss it. It takes you a moment to realize that was his initiation to awaken his own Atlas. He begins flicking his way through a series of locked programs and folders in his own archives. Bold of him to do so directly in front of you. He doesn’t know what you’re capable of, and although it isn’t easy to read some of his things both backwards and at a speed to see anything useful, it isn’t impossible to pick out the keywords ‘Olympus’ and ‘Tartarus’ from some of his files. “So you need someone to hack into his Atlas to retrieve the final key.” you assume of him, understanding now exactly why the job was so specific. The man in front of you motions for you to open your own, intending to share some files with you. Blinking it to life, you accept his immediate offer to link up after a brief moment of hesitation. You have plenty of safeguards on your own tech, and there should be virtually no way for anyone to hack and see anything of value since you are the sole creator and user of Ghost tech, but something else tells you this won’t be the last of Suho you’ll be seeing. Suho nods when you accept, “Yes. You’ll be with me all evening, and I’ll introduce you to him. I promise there will be no sexual favors or activities involved, whatsoever.” You tilt your head, puckering your lips for a moment. Your eyes trail him up and down through the glowing blue lines between you, gauging his reasoning for a woman rather than a man. “Why a woman then?” He blanches momentarily, before shrugging, “Just my personal preference I suppose.” He meets your stare but doesn’t express any other emotion, as far as you can tell. “Yet you wish for no acts of sexual service?” Suho nods, “That’s right. Just be my date. I won’t even kiss you.” Nothing here screams danger to you, no fight or flight instincts kick in, but you find yourself asking a question and playing a game regardless. A game your inner self loathes, and your survival self thrives on. The addiction of power that comes with winning in any form. You make a show of eyeing him from the dark hair atop his head, all the way down to the perfectly polished tips of his shoes. “That’s a pity.” Suho, who you barely know, blinks at you and surprise settles on his face, trying to hide the smile in the apples of his cheeks while he pretends to look out the window. You wait, openly watching him for any subtle signs of odd behavior. For any slip ups. This is where checkmate is called in the game. The part where your victory is certain but the game drags on. And yet, no such euphoric victory sweeps through your bloodstream. Instead, he murmur’s a simple phrase to flip the tables and lance you with the first striking blow of information. Information that is dangerous. “This is why it had to be you.” Quickly your dress seems to morph its shape into the most constricting piece of clothing you’ve ever worn. You can do nothing, sitting perfectly still. Suho takes a moment to realize your reaction was intense, a deep furrow in his brow when he understands. “You’ve got nothing to fear from me, though.” he attempts to pacify your anxiety, holding up his empty palms. “Explain. Now.” is all you can force from your throat. With a sadness to his expression, he tucks the corner of his mouth into his cheek and gives you a hard stare. Then, he sighs. He sags a little more along the bench seat across from you, letting his heavy head hang a little lower, shoulders a little looser. Relaxing his posture to appeal and seem less dangerous. “We need your help, Ms. Maneater.” he breathes at last, as if the face were plain as day. Your silence is heard everywhere like the command of a god in the small space of the SUV. “I’m one of the rare someone’s who gives more fucks to humanity than to money. I came from money, and lots of it. Until my humanity was handed over to a human trafficking trade by my own parent’s filthy hands.” For the first time in a full minute you take one small breath. Nothing in his posture or words or expression rings false. There is no tension in his throat, wrought tight with lies. “You could say I had my eyes opened. Today, I manage a team of others like me, with their own trauma and stories of how they’ve survived to rise from the ashes. Our scars are what keep us motivated to put bad people away in the deepest pits of hell forever.” He talks lowly now, just low enough to be more than a whisper. Your lips form a word, barely audible, “Tartarus.” This time, it is Suho’s turn to be taken aback with shock. “Where did you find that name?” His reaction gives you the strength to relax a fraction, fighting through the tension in your jaw to speak, “You’ve got nothing to fear from me.” He scoffs as you throw his own words back at him. “I just read it on your Atlas.” It takes him a moment to weigh your words, understanding how careful he should be. “I didn’t think that was possible, I moved through them so quickly.” You nod, folding your hands together, “Well, you did say it had to be me. I can only allude to that meaning of my technical abilities if you know my moniker.” His smile reappears, not too much, but just enough to curve his lips, “We need your help.” “How exactly am I supposed to trust you? You didn’t tell me how you knew it was me.” Suho pouts his lips, considering your question, “You’re not as stealthy as you think you are,” he begins. “Although we mostly went off of clues and a hunch, Mrs. Fry and her AI did their due diligence to confirm your identity through your Atlas.” You narrow your eyes at him, ready with a threat. “Varian is amazing, yes? There is so much he can do to go undetected if he only looks, but doesn’t touch.” Your rage is simmering, in part that you are impressed, “Why not have him do the hacking for you then?” Suho clicks his tongue, “AI are not allowed at the MAT Gala, and even if he were it would be incredibly suspicious to bring an AI for a companion to such an event.” “And you prefer women anyway.” you chide sarcastically. You sigh, “How did you know I would come?” At this question, he fixes you with a hard stare as if deciding what to say, “I didn’t, but I had hope that the price tag would catch the Wolf’s eye for you when I had Varian post it on the brothel’s board.” “Excuse me?” you growl, ready to whip off your heel and stab him if necessary. You push the shame down that you let your guard down with Chan. What if he is in danger because of you? Although no danger seems to come from Suho, it doesn’t mean there aren’t other targets on your back. You can only hope that Chan isn’t as stupid as you are. “Relax,” Suho says, “I’m not interested in that information, and I hope I’ve already established that I’m not in it for the money.” A tap on the black glass between you and the driver pulls Suho’s attention away briefly, “We’ve got about 20 minutes to talk about the job.” It takes you a moment to nod at him, “Fine. Tell me what I need to do.” He smiles at you, “Thank you.” It takes ten minutes for Suho to share the information he’s gathered with you so far, from pictures to audio recordings and statements of witnesses given to others and collateral information taken from various sources. All with the initials of CIG under something called ‘Project Zero’.

Suho gently tries to escape the horrific details that ‘Project Zero’ uses funds from taxpayers in order to feed, shelter and educate homeless persons and families in an effort to reduce the number to zero, and the fact that it more than likely means the funds are being used to eradicate or enslave them in the trafficking market.

In the last ten minutes, you think of how you’ll collect the piece of information Suho needs. An offshore account where his embezzled funds are kept and used, under the alias of one CIG. Suho shows you backdated statements of funds going to and coming from the account from another account, a tertiary, privately owned finance management company connected to ‘Project Zero’.

Suho has the login information for the accounts, and is certain the politician is the CEO of the finance company managing the whole thing. All you have to do is hack in and find the items necessary to link all three together.

The Gala is… impressive. Deciding to trust Suho for the evening, at least, you walk beside him, arm in arm down the velvety carpet rolled out between the street and the venue.

“How are you connected to all this?” you whisper to him as you pause, waiting your turn for the media and news outlets to take your photos. It makes you uncomfortable.

Suho hums beside you, smiling and patting your hand affectionately, “Do you know Guardian Hospitals?”

The name is not uncommon to anyone as a well-known chain of general hospitals across Korea and China.

He pulls you forward gently, walking to the center space between two glittering, fluorescent obelisks that frame the ‘MAT GALA’ backdrop for photos. Several cameras flash in succession, making you squint against the headache you receive by waving a hand and smiling, playing your part beside Suho.

“I own the Korean branch.” he says when you’ve passed the threshold into the venue, grinning from ear to ear at your expression.

You suppose that’s not too far-fetched an explanation. You know three things about Suho now, and although you don’t have time to consider the surely intricate way to link it, you idly wonder if his connection to the hospital chain is how he knew to find you. Once or twice you’ve had to go, for illness or injury and at Chan’s insistence.

He doesn’t freely give up any other personal details about himself or ask you any questions. Nor do you, and the fact that he is patient and doesn’t pry is something you accept with good grace.

There’s an excruciating amount of idle small talk fluttering around you and Suho where you’re seated. Other people of importance come to the assigned table and take their seats. Some leave and come back. The same conversation floats around the table over and over again, asking the same uncaring greeting questions.

Some, like yourself, are deep into their Atlas’s, reading articles or working to answer emails or draft important papers or speeches- even in the middle of an event like this, too preoccupied to leave their work alone.

You can’t say you blame them, considering you’re here doing the same thing, regardless of it being the sole purpose you’re wearing this ridiculous outfit in the middle of an uncomfortable situation.

Suho’s fingers gently caress the point of your elbow, subtle in the way he directs your shoulders to turn acutely to the right. His face leans close enough that only you will hear the words whispered at your ear, not that anyone else cares to listen.

“There, coming this way. Red suit.”

Only one person fits the description, and you reach for your drink on the table, taking a small sip as you watch to fit in with the movement of people around you. An older man, average build with a suit that looks just as expensive as the rest of the people here, a dark and bloody red.

You watch, leaning back slowly into Suho’s grasp as he slings one arm over the back of your chair and curls himself toward your shoulder to talk. A tactic you know to create a more intimate space and make watchful eyes turn away with discomfort.

Suho’s talking in your ear again as the man approaches. A slight moment of unexpected anxiety raises your heartbeat a fraction, wondering if you’ll have to speak to him. The tension dissipates as he stops at the table directly behind yours and pulls out a chair, talking immediately with someone he knows at the table. The breath you didn’t know you’d been holding escapes from your throat in a long, quiet exhale.

Suho notices your anxiousness, taking your hand and patting it gently as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to touch you with such care. Somehow, the action quells you nerves.

You’ve hacked people before, but never someone who looked as powerful or important, and never in the presence of the public eye.

Your counterpart leans closer to your ear again with a smile, “Relax,” he says. “Nobody is paying you any attention.”

His words aren’t enough to hold back the wildness in your expression, and he chuckles softly, “Not that you trust me very much, but I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you. For once, you have someone literally looking out for you.”

This time, his assurance cuts deeper, but not in a painful way. There’s a sincerity in his tone you can’t dispel, and it helps ground you.

You blink, slow and purposefully, and the soft and familiar blue glow of your Atlas casts a wave of color on your skin that washes over you like a comforting touch. It steadies you to dive deep into your world.

Part of you is weary about Suho watching, afraid he may somehow know about your Ghost tech. You briefly consider this a test to see how true to its name your self-made program is, and the part of your conscience that wins is curious to see if you pass.

Refusing to let it weigh you down, you get to work.

________________________________________

Fourteen hours later, you’re sitting at a window seat table sipping strawberry milk and fidgeting with the in-ear piece you just finished outfitting with the latest hologlass tech.

The rays of sunlight warm your arm where its closest to the window, and the chattering of the bustling cafe helps fight your drowsiness. There isn’t a crowd here, and the noise is just the slow side of steady that its easy to pick up the conversation of anyone around.

So, you listen. To an older couple talking about the vacation they are on, although you’re not sure why anyone would vacation in this city. You listen to the table of young people in the corner booth talking about homework and research papers as they simultaneously watch a single tablet with a lecture playing at the head of the table.

You listen, when the middle aged man closest to your table laughs. “What a deplorable monster.”

The sentence piques your interest. Stealing a glance, you notice he’s commenting on the news.

News that shows a headline of ‘Breaking News’, and a video clip of a politician being walked down the wide and pristine granite steps of the city judicial building. He’s handcuffed, and there are tons of reporters and cameras in his face that the police are shoving out of their way as they descend.

Your blood runs cold the moment you realize it’s the politician from last night. You freeze, with a mouthful of strawberry milk you refuse to swallow, and wait for the rest of the information.

“Choi In Gyong will go on trial for the undeniable and anonymously leaked evidence of embezzling funds from Project Zero- a campaign he sired to help the homeless- and participating in the purchase, acquisition and selling of people in an American sex trafficking cartel.” explains the newscaster. Her expression of disgust is plain for all to see.

Her AI counterpart, wearing a suit and tie, gives further details, “Jumbotrons all over the city, as well as the police headquarters were somehow hacked, but only to blast the evidence of his connection to such atrocities. Details on who or how the information was obtained and who hacked into these secure networks are still unknown. Many have speculated it was the work of Maneater, but one detail snufs out that option.”

The woman anchor smiles, turning to her co-host, “Oh? And what’s that, Yeoguk?”

Anchor Yeoguk cocks his head to one side, a quirk all his own, “The only indicator from whom the evidence was sent was the letter ‘O’.”

You jump as your phone rings, facedown on the table beside your forgotten milk. When you turn it over, you recognize the first two digits of it as a payphone number.

“Hello?”

A hum from the other end of the line, followed by a familiar voice, “Have you seen the news recently?”

You’re still a little shocked, but snort at the obvious excitement in his tone nonetheless while you stand and make your way out of the cafe.

“I just happened to catch the headlines.”

“And have you checked into your collections yet?”

You smile, “Not yet. Why, is there 1200c sitting prettily in there for me?”

Suho laughs from the other end of the line, “Yes, and more if you’re willing.”

The meaning of his statement catches you off guard, “What are you getting at?”

He hums again, but this time there’s no excitable tone to his voice, “I’d like to make you an offer, Ms. Maneater.”

You pause, pulling your phone away from your ear briefly to look at it questioningly.

“Last night’s job was… a test of sorts. We’ve had our eye on you for some time and last night proved you are just what we needed.”

“Am I supposed to be offended or impressed?” you ask through clenched teeth. You feel uneasy about this, you’ve never worked directly with anyone before on your hacking, and certainly not with such high risk and reward.

Suho laughs again at your reply, “Consider this the official, cordial invite to join Olympus.”

You scoff, of course he would call it that. However, you can’t deny that it is worth considering. After getting past the shock of your work having such a huge, direct effect, you feel… content.

Content that what you did was important to a lot of people like you. Content to know that there is a little bit of hope out there. Content to know that Suho wasn’t all bark and that perhaps, you can learn to trust him and his crew.

“I’ll give you some time to consider. It’ll be in your inbox.” Suho says. “Thanks for everything.”

“Wait!” you try, hoping to get some more information, “What will be in my inbox? How did you get my number? Hello? Hello…?” To your frustration, the dial tone is the only response you receive.

#heat seekers #chanyeol x reader #exo fanfiction #exo angst #exo smut #exo hurt #exo dystopian au #exo fanfic #chanyeol fanfiction #exo dark cyberpunk au

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

Text

June 25: 2x24 The Ultimate Computer

Belated notes on my watch of The Ultimate Computer yesterday.

Kirk’s definitely in Captain Mode today. You can tell when he’s on edge and suspicious and serious.

Yet another old Kirk friend. Does he know everyone in Starfleet?

War games lol. But it’s “not the military.”

Spock is super into this computer.

A-7 Computer Expert Certification.

The crew’s not needed? Wow, okay, this is going to end badly.

“This gadget.” How do you really feel, Kirk?

And there’s Spock literally making faces behind the Commodore’s back. He is soooo that type. He’s like “Jim, are you hearing this? Can you believe this guy?”

I’m insulted on Kirk’s behalf right now. Replacing people with machines so blithely is offensive.

Of course Bones doesn’t like it.

Oh yeah triumvirate walking scene. I love them. it takes so little for me to think ‘what badasses.’ S2 is really stepping up this dynamic in particular.

And Spock is comfortable enough around Bones to be sassy around him

Oh no, the computer is already glitching, and there is no backup and no plan B.... Bones is completely right in his assessment. This is essentially a Titanic situation: way too much hubris involved. Nothing can go wrong so nothing will go wrong so we’ve planned for nothing going wrong!

McCoy has BFF Clearance. He can go wherever he wants.

“It’s the M-5? What happened to Ms 1-4?” Channel #5.

Ahhhh little gratuitous touch to Spock’s arm. They’re In Love.

“There are certain things men must do to remain men.”

“The right computer finally came along.” Damn Bones.

Jim’s suspicions about the computer coming right after that line make it look like he’s jealous that Spock likes it so much.

He’s getting a “red alert right here.” Computers don’t have that kind of intuition.

Jim’s so thoughtful and self-aware. He really cares both about his instincts and about interrogating those instincts for bias and unreasonableness. This is giving me real S1 vibes: the quiet, intelligent, idealized hero Captain at the fore.

This whole scene is perfect, eminently quotable, and sounds exactly like something that could have been written about automation in 2021. You’re okay with it when it’s happening to someone else but then the computer comes for YOUR job....

Uh-h, M-5 is turning off all the lights...

Space merchant marines... good to know.

HOW are the Captain and CMO “non-essential personnel”? The first sign that M-5 is illogical. They should bring some doctor on the landing party mission given that uh humans are going on it and might get injured.

Anyway I can’t wait for Kirk to destroy this bitch and save the day.

Lol it turned off the lights on Bones in sickbay.

Damn, now it’s trying to take Uhura’s job too!

Chekov is so bored.

Spock wants to serve under one man and one man ONLY. Loyalty to one man... sounds like a wedding vow... and Kirk looks so soft...

So, if Spock has to describe to McCoy what that (unnecessary bitchy and catty) “Captain Dunsel” remark means, by saying that it’s a phrase that “midshipmen use at Starfleet Academy,” is this to imply Bones didn’t go to Starfleet Academy?

He’s never felt so at odds with the ship.... a lover’s quarrel...she’s cheating on him with another man...

Jim Kirk, certified Poetry Nerd. He’s such a romantic.

So glad Bones got him a drink so he can return to the bridge and a possible emergency with just a little bit of a buzz going.

Spock in the chair...

Huh, an automated ship with no crew. Interesting concept.

Oh no M-5! She’s got control of the ship and she won’t let go!

Kirk’s face when Enterprise attacks.. the betrayal... his beautiful lady used for mindless destruction.

“Only a robot” ship--! Bones is insulted.

Kirk orders the computer turned off but we’re only halfway through the ep so...

....And the computer is sentient now.

That was the shortest Captain’s Log ever. “The computer has taken over the ship the end.”

Scotty’s like, “...Well what if we just unplug it?”

Okay so now they only have 19 crew.

Spock and Bones are on point today. “Don’t say it’s fascinating.” / “I won’t. But it is... interesting.” This bitch knows exactly what he’s doing.

The computer isn’t a child, guys!

We need powerful computers “so men don’t have to die in space”--like uh that man your computer literally just killed?

I don’t get Daystrom’s logic at all. He talks as if people, like, needed to do work in space, to survive or something. We don’t need to. We want to! We want to go out and meet cool aliens! This guy is no fun.

What is the thing “greater” than fact finding in space that the robots are going to free us to do? Like what is more impressive than SPACE? I don’t even get that.

Time to mix up fake sci fi world-building references with real references! The Nobel and Zee-Magnee Prizes. Sitar of Vulcan.

A theory emerges... the computer acts illogically...Daystrom won’t let Spock near it... I know this isn’t where this is going, but it kind of sounds like they’re implying it’s a scam, lol. He sold an idea he didn’t have so it’s like.. not a real computer.

Spock’s little protege, Chekov.

“We have been pursuing a wild goose.” Aw, bb’s trying so hard to be colloquial. (Also he 100% learned that phrase from McCoy in The Gamesters of Triskellion and now he’s trying it out on Kirk...when McCoy isn’t around.)

“Not to offend you by using the h-word, but... could it be... human?”

Kirk’s really mad at Daystrom now.

The Commodore really set up that dramatic turn to camera there.

Poor Kirk. His ship is being used for evil.

“They can’t destroy the ship, what would happen to the computer?!” Yes, the computer. And the other 19 people and himself but mostly the computer. Daystrom really has lost it.

I love the actor who plays him, though.

“You are great. I am great.” Nothing weird happening here.

Spirk attack! (Spork it out.)

Spock’s way too sure Commodore Wesley is about to die. “He was decent, it’s a shame the ship I’m on is gonna kill him.”

And now another round of Kirk versus the computer and Kirk’s logic wins.

M-5 should argue that it did not commit murder, it committed homicide in self-defense. But then Daystrom didn’t program it with a lawyer’s brain.

It’s uh just gonna leave? Not turn the lights back on?

Kirk is so smart! I know I say this all the time, but it’s true! He knew what to do to save the ship because he knew Bob Wesley. He had formed connections, he had experience and knowledge that doesn’t come from logic. He is not replaceable!

McCoy’s like “Spock, fight me. Debate me Spock. Fight me. I’ll be fun.”

Spock HAS answered the computers versus humans question--he likes humans. He wants to be surrounded by humans.

That was really good! One of the better S2 episodes. Great Kirk, great triumvirate--as a trio and all three sides of the triangle--great sci fi concept, great guest star, great social commentary--still 100% relevant today.

i definitely have to think more about the ‘human computer’ concept. I liked that they specifically went out of their way to explain why the computer was human, how that was part of its design, and then tied that into its creator, his background, his belief system, and his insecurities. I feel like most ‘sentient computer’ or ‘advanced AI’ narratives just assume a computer that’s powerful enough will eventually be alive, which is not something I believe. The scariness of advanced AI to me is the incredible power it has to act quickly, but in a complete black-box way: you can’t literally see the logic string of its thought processes, and nor can you figure them out easily or completely using the creators’ intentions or logic because the machine has ‘learned’ since its inception, and its learning processes are not human. There is a real alienness to them that I find scary. And I do think this ep captured that nuance in M-5: it has the speed and abilities of a super computer, the “human” qualities of its creator for well-explained reasons, and the unpredictability of a mechanism that is NEITHER human nor human-controlled tool. And of course the ep’s ultimate thesis--that humans cannot be completely automated or replaced, and that we should not want to automate or replace humans--is comforting and of a morality I can and want to agree with.

This was also one of those eps that made me curious about the differences in AOS and TOS Kirk--in other words, an ep that relied on his history with Starfleet and his experience, on the reality that he’s a 34 year old man with 15+years of experience in the Fleet. Time, experience, connections, these aren’t things you can replace no matter how smart you are, and I feel like it would have been interesting to see AOS!Kirk deal with some situation that is trickier for him because he’s a Captain with a startlingly small amount of institutional experience. It’s not just about being young or generally inexperienced, in other words--it’s about NOT knowing every Captain, Admiral, and Commodore in the service, it’s about NOT having friends across the galaxy because he just hasn’t had time to make them. Even in deep space, that matters. And I think it’s something that I appreciate more as an adult myself, with actual real world experience of the importance of connections and experience and time, especially in sort of insular or smaller work communities.

Anyway, next is Bread and Circuses! Another great ep for the triumvirate. I can’t believe we’re almost through S2!!

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #star trek tos #2021: fandom thoughts

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justsomefluff · 4 years

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Hello I was wondering if you could do an ateez reaction to going to a fashion show with their girlfriend 🥺❤

here it is!! sorry it’s so late!! I hope you enjoy! <3

Hongjoong:

Okay so Joong is the type to pretend he doesn’t want to go

But then love every second of it

And after your first one, he’s gonna beg you to go to more shows with him

Like every time a model comes out wearing something new, even if the entire look is hideous, he’s gonna complement something about the look

Because he knows how hard the models and designers work to make all this happen

And if there’s a look he really really loves, he’ll look at you and be like

Im gonna buy that for you

Suddenly showering you in complements

“Babe, you’d look so beautiful in that”

“Babe, you’re the most stunning person in here”

NO FAX, JUST PRINTER

And at the end of the night, you’ve both compiled a list of colors and styles you would like to see on each other

So you decide to make each other outfits for the next date you go on

And its just so cute bc Joongie really does draw inspiration from everything he sees

So he totally writes a song about this experience with you

Seonghwa:

Seonghwa is not shy about his love for fashion

Like he has his own sense of style, and he loves choosing things that he feels will express his personality

So when you guys get the chance to go to a fashion show together

OH BOY GET READY

He’s gonna grade every look under his breath on a scale from 1-10

And then he’ll tell you what he likes most about each style that is presented

He tries not to be too critical though bc he knows that everyone’s tastes are different

Will also ask your opinion on the outfits

Like “ooh what do you think of that one? I really like the textures on it!”

You will both choose your top two outfits

like you choose them so that you have one you want just for yourself and one that you want for him

And then he does the same

You typically choose similar looks because you know each other’s style super well

And Hwa is totally the type to surprise you by buying you one of the pieces he had seen you eyeing more than the others

“Just as a thank you for coming with me :)”

Yunho:

His crackhead comes out in full force at fashion shows, believe me

I mean seriously

Every time something comes out that he doesn’t like he insults it in a really funny way

And you’re sitting in the front row so your literally biting your lip so hard to not laugh in front of all these cameras

Like a model comes out with a bunch of feathers on her outfit and Yunho’s just like

“Heads up, everybody, Chicken Little has just hit the stage!”

Or if he sees something particularly revealing he’s like

“Wouldn’t you love to see me in that, baby”

Like would you just hush already lmao

He takes a picture of every single look that he finds funny, just so he can send them to you later with a funny caption

But he also sees one he really loves

Will take a picture of your side profile when you aren’t looking

And the model is coming down the runway in the background

He will save that picture as his background as a reminder that he is going to get you that outfit someday

But he will try not to let you find out that he was so soft about it lmao

So he tries to keep you from seeing his wallpaper

He really wants it to be a surprise, but he also cant stop looking at the picture and imagining the moment you are finally able to put the outfit on

Yeosang:

(he’s so cute I cant breatheeee)

Yeosang will sit pretty silently through most of it

But do not be fooled

NO MODEL IS SAFE

He is judging and critiquing every single look like it is his JOB

The most stone cold poker face you will ever see

Will only crack a smile if you whisper “you’d look so good in that, Sangie”

But when you finally leave he will show you any of the pictures he had taken and start a legitimate conversation about how you liked or disliked each look

Has a grading system lmao

Like you have A-F grading scale, but also categories that each look has to fulfill

Color, texture, fit, overall flow of the patterns and clothing items, etc.

And you can play along for a while before you’re finally like

“YEOSANG, WE ARENT JUDGES ON NEXT TOP MODEL”

“We could be”

Like boy if you don’t-

But then he gives in and he’s like “just tell me which one you loved the most and I’ll tell you if it was good or not”

So you do and he’s like “THAT WAS THE WORST LOOK OF THE ENTIRE NIGHT WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT”

And then that launches a playful debate about who has better fashion sense

But overall you both had a really good time and plan on making this an annual tradition

San:

(he’s so breathtaking here im sorry I mean cmon his hair matches his sweatshirt)

This fashionista here

Sees the artistry in every look and compliments literally everything

Very genuine in his appreciation for the work that has been done

Spewing compliments the entire time

“Omg look how intricate all the stitching is.”

“That fascinator is so stunning, look at all the colors wow”

And it’s so cute to just watch him

Like he’s assessing all the models with the biggest doe eyes

He really is like a little kid at Disneyland for the first time

Just so excited and appreciative of every little thing

“I wish our next comeback could be so beautiful like this!”

“Sannie, your comebacks are always beautiful”

“BUT LOOK AT ALL THIS ELEGANCE!!”

It’s just so adorable

And when the designer comes out at the end of each parade of models, you can bet San is cheering the loudest

And he’ll be so inspired and as his makeup noonas to try and replicate some of the looks he had seen

Gets hella motivated and literally starts drawing up ideas that he has for costumes and things

He’s just a sweet baby who sees the beauty in everything and wants to make beautiful things too

And he will always ask your opinion on his drawings

“Do you like this one? Do you think it could work?”

And of course you tell him all of them are fantastic bc they are

And you guys work together to make some of his outfit dreams come true

Mingi:

At fashion shows, Mingi thrives bc models tend to be really tall for some reason

As a short person, I am offended by tall people’s clothes

ANYWAY

Mingi is just looking at the pants like “I bet those would actually fit me on the first try”

And then he’s like “baby, I could be a model”

And you’re like “I already knew that, you’ve always been pretty”

He gets blushy aww

“I’m pretty” UWUUUUUU

And now that you’ve got him going you cant just let that blush fade away I mean its too cute

Don’t squander this opportunity to make our baby blush even harder

So literally every other model your whispering “you’d look better in that”

“You’d be the best model here, Minnie”

And eventually he’s smiling so big and blushing so hard that he’s like “stoop my cheeks hurt”

So you settle for giving him a lil smoochie on his cheek

But then he shall take his revenge

Starts complementing you even more than you had complemented him

Thus begins a complement war

By the end, both of you realize that you’ve ignored the last two sets of models and had just been telling each other how much you love each other over and over

Get a room you guys I mean really

Wooyoung:

Wooyoung is a giggly mess

The entire time

Because he thinks every little thing is funny

A model’s makeup is too extreme? He’s laughing

Someone’s hair is too wild? He’s laughing

Someone looks like they rolled straight out of a dumpster? he’s laughing and saying “thats you”

Like SHUT UP lmaoooo

He’s also laughing bc he’s imagining the members in all of the ugly outfits

Like “lmao imagine Hongjoong wearing that big ole hat”

“Imagine Seonghwa wearing those balloon shorts”

Like he’s so annoying lmao

But it does have you both laughing hard enough to get dirty looks from other spectators

Once he eventually calms down and hushes himself, he actually starts getting into it and thoroughly enjoys watching the way the clothes flow when the models walk and stuff

He finds it genuinely interesting to see how each artist has fit the clothes to each specific model’s body type

But he will still fit in some snide comments here and there to make sure you’re fully entertained

Bc if he’s not laughing… is it really Wooyoung

Jongho:

Okay Jongho is definitely into fashion

Whether he is obvious about his affinity for cool clothes or not, he’s into it okay

And he evaluates every look in terms of “would I look good in that? Would bae look good in that? Would any of the hyungs look good in that?”

Very thoughtful baby

Will take pictures to send to people and be like “this reminds me of you”

Will say it directly to you too

He is also kinda cheesy and poetic about it

“The bright pink reminds me of how happy you make me”

“That blue is like the sky when you’re around: cloudless”

Eventually you’re like “oh shut up ya freak” lmao

And then he’s laughing bc he’s embarrassed that he said all that

He’s like “why am I so cheesy”

And you low-key love it so you just smile at him

But then he keeps taking pictures of the models and eventually starts taking pictures of you bc he just loves you and finds you so breathtaking awww

At the end of the night he’s so sweet to you and thanks you for coming with him and hopes you had a good time and-

You just kiss him and tell him you had a lot of fun and you should definitely do it again next time there’s a show in town

He definitely agrees bc he really just loved sharing that experience with you

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ashenpages · 3 years

Text

Current Fic Ideas & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer that I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my fics will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah. This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍 These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon always play rock-paper-scissors after a big heist to decide who’ll give the group a striptease, and who will get showered with money. Based on a piece of fanart that is basically this sequence of events in a 4koma (except in their version Jigen loses and in mine, it’s Goemon). (written, just needs editing)

Zenigata cuffs Lupin four times, and Lupin steals his heart. Very NSFW conclusion. Zenigata is the most caring lover you’ll ever find. Lupin is as thirsty as usual and twice as intense. (written, just needs editing)

Jigen protects Lupin from poison darts during a treasure hunt in an Aztec temple, and Lupin nurses him back to help--forcibly, since Jigen is a horrible patient. Born from my desire to spoil Jigen and talk about what ridiculous domestic husbands these two are. (WIP)

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes)

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy: 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.

#sonic the hedgehog #Lupin III #persona 5 #Devil May Cry #Hades Game #Castlevania #fma #Breath of the Wild #age of calamity

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theheightofdishonor · 4 years

Text

@asilhalawadi I retyped it from memory.

There’s a lot of things the Beyblade Metal Saga get wrong (do not get me started on how dirty they did Yu) but when they got it right, it was brilliant and the connection between Ryuga, Tsubasa, and Kyoya, is one of those things.

So starting in Metal Fusion, these three are set against each other as Gingka’s rivals- I single them out specifically because these are the only rivalries that span the entire Saga. You’ve got Kyoya who starts out intimidating but is quickly established a reliable ally-no matter what he says on the contrary. There’s Tsubasa who you can’t quite get a read on until well into the third act of Fusion but ,eventually chooses a side and sticks to it. Then there’s Ryuga, the “big bad” who never chooses Gingka’s “side” even as Gingka saves his life, he’s a wild card and they often emphasize his untrustworthiness throughout the Saga. Green, Purple and Red respectively.

It’s easier to split this up and discuss the inner dynamics first so Imma start with Kyoya-Ryuga. Controversial opinion but these two are just slight variations on all the same characteristics;their personalities are centered around individuality, mistrust, arrogance, a lack of manners, and a specific honor code that they don’t like revealing- they’re mirrors.It’s interesting to note that their respective colours (the colour of their auras, Kyoya’s green and Ryuga’s Red) are complementary colours. On a colour wheel, Red is directly opposite from Green. Even as they go through the same things, they’re on different sides. In Fusion, they’re both manipulated by Doji and fight to truly develop their own personality but they’re pitted against each other. In Masters, their developments take place mostly off-screen, never meeting and in Fury, they’re once again major players on opposing sides. There is exactly two points in the series where these two collide (other than Ryuga’s death)

The first is Battle Bladers. Their match in Battle Bladers is fundamental in understanding how their characters connect. Seriously watch it, it’s one of the best battles in the Saga. Ryuga begins by trashing the stadium before the battle begins, a move that Kyoya counters by destroying the stadium even more. It’s a statement of power as much as an intimidation tactic and neither backs down. Their battle continues the same way as they snark back at each other and exchange blows each with the force of a special move. It’s very “fight fire with fire”, “eye for an eye” and it works better than anyone would have thought. Tsubasa may be the first person to ever withstand the Dark Move but Kyoya’s the first one Ryuga fully takes seriously. It’s a fascinating battle. Kyoya taunts Ryuga to force him to use his full strength and Ryuga complies-knowingly. (The implications of him temporarily pushing back the Dark Force just because Kyoya asked-I) Kyoya has full confidence that his taunts will work, he admits as much. Ryuga, for his part, verbally praises Kyoya for being the only person to ever push him this far. (Granted, the way he says it, it’s more of an insult but.) They’re so equal in power that the battle was actually up to toss before Ryuga got possessed. But the thing with fighting fire with fire is that it leads to a lot of people getting burned. Ryuga gets thoroughly possessed (and would likely have stayed that way if not for Gingka) and Kyoya is impaled by a demon spirit. (Remind me to speculate on Hikaru and Kyoya’s response to the Dark Power). It doesn’t end well for either of them- but they’re equals.

In Metal Masters, they’re both demoted to secondary characters. They get lives outside of Gingka and don’t meet face to face until Metal Fury. Like I said, their arcs are parallel so it makes sense that the next time they battle toe to toe- they’re both on the verge of a series long personal conflict that has direct consequences on the fate of the world. This time, Ryuga is the self-assured one, he had an entire (mostly)Gingka-free season to sort out his issues and grow in power. Kyoya, on the other hand, isn’t even comfortable with his new bey yet and it’s almost depressing how quickly Ryuga wins that match. Ryuga even marks on it, that although their beys may be equal in power, they themselves no longer are equals. Their maths are set into motion and that’s the last communication between the two of them.

Their individual conflicts in Fury are actually the same exact problem- stemming from the fact that they are both horrified at the thought of selflessness. They have to justify their actions as something that directly affects them and being tied down by caring about something else is one of the worst things imaginable. By this meeting in Fury, Kyoya was a ticking bomb that had its roots all the way back to the beginning of Masters. In Fusion, they had become friends, but when Masters starts, Kyoya forces their relationship strictly back into rivals and does his bet to keep it that way. (I feel so bad for Gingka who literally gets nightmares about this moment) Even when he shows up to stop Ziggurat like some kind of guardian angel with impeccable timing - he’s quick to clarify that he’s not there for Gingka and only showed up because he thought Ryuga’s presence in the World Championships was suspicious. Like he’s right but ouch. It’s important to note that no one ever calls him out on this behavior where even as he helps and fights alongside them, he’s denying that he cares. I can’t even blame them for it because it wasn’t worth the effort.

When Kyoya actively joins Gingka again in Fury to search for Legendary Bladers, he’s obviously uncomfortable with the situation. I mean, there’s only so much you can pile under the justification of doing it to secure your rivalry. Let’s be real, that excuse barely worked even all the way back in Fusion when Kyoya joined forces with a couple of people he can’t stand to follow Gingka all the way to effing Koma Village. So him going batshit was inevitable, Aguma was just the spark.

Ryuga is in the same boat, except when he professes to not care, it’s much more believable unless you take a good look at his actions. His help in defeating Ziggurat could be attributed to his canon reason of dealing with ghosts from his past. But that doesn’t explain why he practically forces Gingka to realize his bey’s power before his battle with Julian or him advising Tsubasa on overcoming the Dark Power and even making sure Tsubasa gets back to his team. When Fury starts, the audience has a reluctant hope that Ryuga will help- a thought that is promptly and swiftly crushed with a sledgehammer. You’re given a bit of hope again as we explore Ryuga and Kenta’s bonds and are barraged with scenes of Ryuga displaying consideration if not concern for the actual child following him around. But it’s not to be. In a scene that’s actually very similar to Ryuga’s OG battle with Kyoya, Doji taunts Ryuga who allows that taunt to influence his actions and again, it ends badly for him. Not only does he fully revive Nemesis, it ends up leading to his own death.

However, Ryuga does a 180 in death and his affection for Kenta/honour/guilt that this kid’s going to kill himself because he blames himself for your death brings Ryuga back to life (?) to hand the Star Fragment to Kenta. But it’s already too late and Zeus’s barrier doesn’t hold even with a replacement Summer constellation bey. His grand gesture, which is actually super emotional when you watch the entire thing, ends up doing nothing other than prolonging the battle.

But, but, but. In that very last moment when all hope is gone and Pegasus is the only bey left spinning, Kyoya admits what he’s been denying for years- the effect Gingka has had on his life and that he cares for the guy. In a show of trust that Kyoya from even a couple days previous would never have done, Kyoya offers his bey spirit along with that of his precious Leon’s to Gingka. This, of course, prompts everyone else to do the same and Gingka defeats Nemesis and saves the world. But it wouldn’t have happened without Kyoya doing that. One lives, one dies.

Now, Kyoya-Tsubasa. No worries, the rest of this is going to be significantly shorter. Green and Purple, both cool/secondary colours, are on the same side Despite this, Kyoya and Tsubasa kind of end up playing tag throughout the Saga. In Fusion, Kyoya’s the one at Gingka’s side until Doji switches the battle order in Battle Bladers and suddenly, tag, Tsubasa’s the one facing Ryuga. He loses, tag, Kyoya’s turn. In Masters, Tsubasa’s “tagged” and is now the one who travels with Gingka while Kyoya takes off and then there’s a brief pause for the Season Finale™. In Fury, Kyoya gets the star fragment, tag, he’s the one traveling with Gingka now and out of the two, Kyoya’s the one in the limelight for the rest of the season.

On a superficial level, Kyoya and Tsubasa are opposites. Kyoya’s brash where Tsubasa is reserved. Kyoya clashes head on, Tsubasa keeps his cool. Yet, under the surface, they’re alike- moody, antisocial, and emotionally constipated. Jk, that part’s not til later. Really though, they’re pretty alike. Despite Kyoya’s abrasiveness, he’s almost always got some kind of plan in battle (even if they’re occasionally dumb things like let’s start a tornado which could potentially sweep away the helicopter that’s our ride out of here) and Tsubasa is no stranger to winging it -hacking the Dark Nebula without planning it beforehand, anyone?. Their differences balance the other person out. They’re almost foils in a manner.

With these two, Fusion is the place to be. (two pints of Sam Adams and I’m workin on three) Specifically, Tsubasa’s match with Ryuga and Kyoya’s attitude about it.That clip displays it better than I could explain. Tsubasa spends most of the actual battle avoiding El Drago- his plan is to draw out El Drago’s full strength and then attack when Ryuga’s at his weakest. (it makes more sense in the story) Everyone in the stadium is against this- the crowd is booing, even Gingka and the rest of their friends are unsure but Kyoya doesn’t lose faith for a second. He urges Tsubasa to not pay attention to the crowd-to trust his instincts and at that moment, he’s the only person that believes in Tsubasa. His faith is rewarded as Tsubasa becomes the first person to withstand the Dark Move.

Despite having never battled each other, Tsubasa and Kyoya are established as equals in skill, power and intellect. And then the World Championships Qualifiers starts and along with it, Tsubasa and Kyoya’s one and only match.. The episode actually does most of the work for you by reflecting on these two, their skills and personalities. If you hadn’t thought of it already, you have now been spoonfed that Kyoya and Tsubasa are equals. The battle starts and them being equals is hammered in some more as they comment on how they know all of each other’s moves. But they don’t and Kyoya crushes him. Whether Kyoya would still have won if Tsubasa wasn’t possessed is up to debate. But the scales tip, nonetheless, and although Tsubasa overcomes the Dark Power, we’re not given a marker of any sort to tell if Tsubasa got stronger by the end. This is further complicated because in Fusion, Tsubasa never shows the extent of his power, so we don’t know if the Tsubasa that defeated the Dark Power is stronger than the Tsubasa before it. Either way, this battle marks the end of them as Tsubasa stagnates and Kyoya continues to grow stronger.

Next is Tsubasa-Ryuga, also known as my shortest section because there is exactly one thing and one thing only that ties them together- the Dark Power. Initially there are two reasons because it’s Tsubasa’s job to spy on Ryuga but the Dark Power’s more important and they didn’t interact much because of that job, anyway. Although the weakest pairing in this triangle, they have the most significant meetings, a grand total of 4, 1 of which, notably, is not a battle. The first one occurs when Doji attempts to feed Tsubasa’s power to Ryuga once Tsubasa is revealed to be a spy. It ends in a draw because Phoenix saves him from imminent failure. The second one is the Battle Bladers Match-the one where a bit of the Dark Power latches on to Tsubasa’s soul. The third is in Metal Masters. Under instructions from the WBBA, Hyoma tracks down Ryuga who then finds Tsubasa and gives him advice on defeating the Dark Power (while destroying Excalibur for the hell of it) and safely delivers him to Gingka and co. It’s the weirdest episode- plays straight out of an alternative universe. In Fury, they meet for the last time in a completely random tournament while both are searching for Legendary Bladers. They battle, Ryuga wins and again, it’s straight out of an alternative universe because Ryuga’s almost cordial- at least compared to his usual version. Like if you look at his other battles, Ryuga in this clip can even be called nice. If you watch it, you’ll note the exact second Tsubasa determines that Ryuga’s crazy. It’s also got the line “The Dragon Emperor just is The Dragon Emperor” which cracks me up for no reason. Personally, I do think Ryuga’s a smidgen softer on Tsubasa because of the shared Dark Power thing but they don’t interact nearly enough to confirm it.

(When I say last time, I do mean face to face confrontations, and not them just happening to be at the same place)

Between the three of them, they’ve got this complicated push-pull dynamic despite very limited interaction between them. They’ve also got a long list in common; from personality traits:prickly, hard-working, skilled, smart, mistrustful/suspicious, pessimistic, confident if not overconfident, antisocial, habits: most at home in the wild, unusually strong connections to their beys, and the weirdest of all; Yu who has idolized all three of them right around the time of their biggest self-crisis; Ryuga, Tsubasa and Kyoya in that order.

#beyblade #metal saga #beyblade metal saga #beyblade metal masters #beyblade metal fury #beyblade metal fusion #metal masters #metal fury #metal fusion #gingka hagane #kyoya tategami #tsubasa otori #tsubasa beyblade #ryuga #beyblade ryuga #ryuga beyblade #meta

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amandaoftherosemire · 4 years

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Ice and Moonlight -- Part One

Fandom: Marvel Avengers AU

Pairing: Loki Odinson X Asgardian!Reader

Characters: Loki Odinson, Thor Odinson, Valkyrie, OFC Cassie

Author: @amandaoftherosemire

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 4,183

Format: Short Series

Warnings: Smut (very light), 18+ only, language, fluff, angst

Summary: You and Loki had been inseparable until his discovery of his true origins and his father’s deceptions. You only spoke to him once more before his sacrifice on Svartlfheim. After his death, heartbroken and left with nothing but unanswered questions, you’d left Asgard to find your fortunes on Midgard. One night, and once again not dead, Loki walks back into your life. The bastard.

A/N: I have a deep weakness for Hozier and this story is absolutely inspired by the chorus of ‘Work Song.’ When music puts a story in my brain, I tend to produce a barrage of words, so this is another one-shot that got away from me. Anyone who has been reading my stuff for awhile will know that this happens to me a lot, but the next part will be up in a couple of weeks at most. I’d be more specific, but I’m still buried in my personal life and eking out time to write so I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.

This is canon adjacent through Thor: Ragnarok but I split off at that point to keep Loki alive without dealing with the consequences of IW and Endgame. For the purposes of this story, Thanos got super busy playing with a kitten he found, and Infinity War never happened.

Mischief // Malice // Magic

Mischief

You could smell them the moment they walked in, even over the myriad other smells that inundated the air of the bar. That air was redolent with smoke, liquor, wood, humanity, but when the door opened, the air that followed the men carried rain and ozone, ice and moonlight to your nose and you knew they'd found you. Those scents were as familiar to you as your own face, your own name, as there'd never been a day in your memory that you hadn't known and loved them.

The ice and moonlight would have been more of a surprise if your best friend in this realm and any other, Cassie of the wicked laugh and mean left hook, hadn't come barreling into your room this morning to show you the news report she'd been watching on her phone. You'd seen the royal brothers, plural, and the shriek of rage and betrayal hadn't quite clawed its way out of your throat before the rest of the report left you breathless with grief.

Asgard, of golden spires and shining seas, was gone, destroyed in prophesied Ragnarok. Your people were a remnant, refugees in an uncertain universe. You may have left Asgard, but you had intended to go back home, someday. Now someday would never come.

You would have gone to your people right away, offered your comfort to Thor, whom you loved as a brother, except Loki stood at his side and you hadn't yet decided if you were going to acknowledge his second return from the dead. You still hadn't really dealt with his first return.

You didn't look up, merely continued to flick your fingers over the keys of the piano, an instrument you'd taken to almost as soon as you'd set foot on Midgard. Heimdall had set you down in the parking lot of this bar, owned by the sharp-eyed, smart-mouthed Cassie. She'd taken one look, seen a babe in the woods, though a babe that could bench press a semi, and taken you under her wing. In return, you sang for your supper, kept her bar safe and entertained.

You'd found your voice here, a very different one from the ethereal thing that had once lifted out of you like angel song. You could still awe Midgardians with a soaring soprano, but you much preferred the richer, rawer voice you'd found here in the smoke and the dark. Your voice no longer lifted, but poured out of you, fueled by heartbreak Midgardians couldn't fathom, nor could they resist. You packed them in every night to hear the angel that fell to Earth, to witness the magic you made with your voice.

Loki couldn't understand why Thor had dragged him halfway across this horrid little planet to visit another horrid little corner of it. He would have much preferred to find some place plush, comfortable, and quiet to escape, tired of humanity after less than a week in their presence. He enjoyed the fact that he was infamous but would have preferred a little less breathless terror and a little more deferential respect.

Thor immediately sauntered up to the bar, leaning in to grin at the bartender. Though he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt in red that stretched across his massive chest in fascinating and delicious ways, there could be no doubt that he was more than an ordinary man by the scent of ozone and power that hung on him. Cassie merely lifted a brow, wishing she could allow herself to be charmed, but she recognized the pale man behind him as the one who'd, as she thought of it, set you on fire. Loki, gorgeously out of place in a smoke gray suit, sneered at the dark woman whose equally dark eyes were judgmental as they rested on him. Hostility rolled off of her in waves as she stared him down.

Which is how she saw the change come over him when your voice began to wind through the air, twining around the smoke with the same rough warmth. She wondered at the stricken look of hope and despair that chased each other across his face; she'd heard the story from you and knew your last interaction to be viciously ugly, shortly before his supposed death.

Thor was trying to charm the bartender into giving him an unusually large quantity of liquor for Midgard, experienced with human bartenders doubting his usual order. Cassie was letting him, laughing at his earnest explanations. She lived with an Asgardian and knew well their capacity for drink, but he was cute, and she couldn’t resist teasing him.

Cassie didn't know that you'd rarely overindulged on Asgard, too often responsible for the song part of the wine and song celebrations. Thor had known you were here, but he'd remembered his naïve and sheltered friend and Loki's devoted beloved. He didn't know Cassie's rough and tumble bouncer and backup for every ridiculous thing that came out of her mouth.

You'd finished so, so many fights Cassie had started.

Loki, meanwhile, was staring at you as your voice wound into his head, sinking into his gut, sending shivers of heat over his skin. There'd once been a time when the only way he heard your voice this rough and wild was when you were moving under his hands, your body prey to his mouth and rocking him to madness. Now your glorious voice was mated to that sensual rasp and dragging him back to happier days.

'Loki.' He smiled but didn't open his eyes. He could feel the petals of the flower you were toying with brush over his lips. The sun was shining and all he could smell was the warm scent of flowers and you. 'Loki. Are you sleeping, Loki? Loki.' He could hear the laugh in your voice and the sound was so pretty he kept feigning sleep so that you'd keep playing. When he was alone with you, basking in your complete and absolute devotion, he could forget everyone else.

Then you were leaning close, whispering 'Loki' in a tone so sweet it made tears prick at his eyes. You brushed your lips against his, even softer than flower petals, and the low hum in your throat was seducing him, beguiling him. His arms lifted, one hand cupping the back of your head while the other snaked around your waist. In the next moment, he was rolling with you until you were giggling on your back in amongst the flowers, Loki braced over you, green eyes laughing.

'I knew you were awake," you murmured as you drew his mouth down to yours.

"Loki." Thor clapped him on the shoulder and brought him back to the present, on the Earth you'd escaped to rather than live in an Asgard where you were forever reminded of him, of everything you'd lost. Loki had allowed Thor to believe that Heimdall had been charged with dereliction of duty because he had discovered Loki was impersonating Odin. Rather, Heimdall had let you leave through the Bifrost and refused to say where he'd sent you. Loki had completely lost his temper that day, and when Heimdall went on the run, he'd lost his chance permanently to find out where you'd gone.

Loki saw immediately, however, that Thor had known exactly who he'd find here.

"This is the lovely Cassandra," Thor told Loki, his remaining eye gentle on Loki's shining green. "She has been caring for our Y/N while she has been here."

"Ha!" Cassie barked the laugh and made both Thor and Loki frown at her. "Bitch can take care of herself." Loki's mouth opened to snarl at the insult to you when Thor's hand restrained him. Cassie was already lifting her voice over the applause that broke out at the end of your song. "Hey, Y/N! I got some boys back here think I take care of you."

A rumble of laughter went through the crowd, most of them regulars, many of them witness to at least one of many, many occasions upon which you'd saved Cassie from a fist in the face, and in one case so far, a knife in the gut. Thor and Loki looked around in confusion at the good-natured sound.

"Now, Cassie," you called back, your fingers moving into the opening notes of a more suggestive song, one you sang on a regular basis, "those boys are Asgardians." You smirked and sent a hot look over your piano at your audience. "I was a Lady, before I fell into this den of iniquity." The crowd cheered when you launched into the song and Thor and Loki shared a look, Thor gleeful, Loki shocked.

Loki stood next to his mother, watching his idiot brother work the crowd, the conceited ass, and fought the urge to roll his eyes. He glanced across to where you stood in the crowd, so close to the royal dais that he could be at your side in half a moment. You were applauding politely, but you didn't bother to resist, rolling your eyes at every ridiculous stunt of Thor's. Loki knew you were going to mock his brother relentlessly for all of this for years to come.

He could hardly wait.

He kept his eyes on you as much as possible, your smiling face keeping him calm even as his heart jumped and jumped with the excitement of his latest mischief. Any moment…

Trying to settle, he focused on the demure neckline of your dress, imagining brushing his lips over the discreet swell there. You were always demure, always a perfect lady in public; he knew one day you'd be a perfect princess, though most important was that you were perfect for him, for each other. You even laughed at the pranks he played on you.

Of course, he was always careful not to play too rough with you. You were too precious to treat with anything less than reverence.

Which is why he felt a rare pang of remorse when he heard his father say, 'The Frost Giants," and he saw terror flash in your eyes. He cursed himself for a fool when he remembered that you'd lived in fear of Frost Giants for years as a child after hearing the story of your father's death.

Your eyes stayed on his face, wide with fear and worry and he could see your hands clasped together in front of you, the knuckles white. His lips curved slightly to reassure. The sight seemed to help as you smiled back, if only a little, and he felt a rush of pride that you, glorious creature that you were, preferred him above all others.

He knew some whispered that he'd ensorcelled you, that there was no other explanation for the fact that the brightest jewel in Odin's court draped herself on the dark Prince's arm. There was no doubt you could charm anyone, including the elder Odinson if you so chose; it was incomprehensible that you should choose the younger.

You'd been raised in the palace alongside them when your father had been killed saving Odin during the War with Jotunheim. You'd been a babe yourself and had grown up with the royal brothers. Even as children, you'd always sought Loki's company, and the whispers of enchantment remained only whispers.

Loki felt another pang of remorse at using Frost Giants to ruin his brother's day when he remembered how much you'd feared them as a child. He made a note to himself to make sweet love to you later to distract you from old fears, find a way to assure you that the monsters couldn't come back. Above all, he'd use other tools in the future.

Your eyes met his, as though no one else existed, snapping him out of his reverie and bringing him hurtling back to this place where the lady you’d been was dead with your homeworld. He was unsurprised to discover he was rock hard. If he'd ever been able to resist temptation, it hadn't been when you tempted, and he was far less virtuous than he used to be. He was enthralled by the sharp edge to your voice and the wild storms in your eyes, would also be unsurprised should he fall in love with you all over again.

Your eyes were hot with old memories and he wondered if the same ones tormented you. He no longer heard Thor flirting with the angry-eyed bartender, unable to care about her hostility. He recognized her as another that you'd enchanted by being yourself and appreciated the Midgardian's protectiveness, since it was you. He easily ignored the sexual by-play behind him; all he could hear was you, and the ache that hot rasp inspired in his gut was sharp and painful. He wouldn't beg for much in this universe, but he thought you might be the exception.

Loki paused in the hidden corridor behind the wall of your bedchamber, looking down at the hand the Jotun had touched. He could still see the striated blue racing up his arm and the memory was making him feel cold deep, deep inside. He wasn't sure he would be here now if he hadn't promised to come see you. He could hardly believe it had been only a few short hours ago that he'd last spoken with you, pausing a moment to kiss you on his way to Thor. You'd whispered sultrily in invitation that he'd have to sleep with you until they discovered how the Frost Giants had gotten in; he'd whispered back that if he'd known that would be the consequence, he'd have let them in himself.

If he'd known how this day would end, he'd have done anything but.

'Loki?' Your voice was a raspy whisper in the shimmering dark as he slid in between your sheets. He'd promised to come to you as soon as he'd calmed everyone down, expecting to be here hours ago, not really anticipating that it'd be so easy to taunt his brother into going to Jotunheim. Even if he hadn't promised, upon the return from that icy land and the shocking discovery there, followed immediately by the confrontation between his brother and father, he needed to find some semblance of peace. You, if nothing else, remained constant.

For a moment he hesitated, unwilling for reasons he didn't want to examine to touch you with the hand touched by Frost Giants. That hand had betrayed some secret, some hidden aspect to himself that he'd never suspected, sending whispers of fear through him. But after everything that had happened that night, he needed you. His arm slid around your waist to pull you close. 'My love,' he murmured, burying his face in the skin of your neck and breathing deep, his heart racing with a terror he couldn't, wouldn't name.

'Was he that bad?' You turned in his arms to offer comfort, able to hear plainly the lost and broken tone in his voice. Thor could be thoughtless in ill temper and often hurt Loki because he saw only his own pain and frustration. You had long ago become accustomed to tending to Loki when he’d taken a stray lightning bolt.

'I can't--' His voice choked off, but with an emotion you weren't certain you could truly name. You wrapped yourself around him, burying your hands in his hair to hold him close, worried at the pain you thought you heard. As you opened your mouth to ask why he sounded so upset he took a deep breath. 'Please, love. Let's not speak of it tonight. Let me--' His voice cut off when his mouth met yours.

Part of you wanted to pull away, to demand he tell you what happened that put this desperation in his touch, the fear in his kiss, the pain in his voice. But there was that desperation, that fear, that pain and you couldn't stop yourself from reaching, opening to comfort, to reassure. You loved Loki with all of your heart. If he needed you, all he had to do was ask. You gave him all he wanted and more, eager under his hands, diabolical with your own.

'Love me?' he gasped once you were straddling him, connected, your hips driving him out of his mind as you twisted and rocked against him.

When you and he were alone together, all the realms fell away. 'More than anyone in the universe.' You moaned it, your eyes direct on his; you loved the way his hands tightened on your hips the more vocal you were.

Except tonight he looked wild, urgent, like he needed you to convince him. 'Forever?'

You leaned close, leading with your heart. Your body flowed against him in a graceful wave, your eyes soft in the shimmering light from the nebula streaming through your window. 'And always.'

'Do you promise, love?' Loki's arms came around you, pressing you to his chest, his heart clutching in terror even as your skin against his drove him higher. 'No matter what?'

'Oh, love, I promise,' you whispered gently, your hands cupping his beautiful face. 'Even if you got stuck pretending to be Volstagg.'

Loki's heart lifted in wonder when the laugh lifted out of him at the wicked look on your face. Only you knew when and how to tease him when he was most hurt, most insecure. Only you could make a solemn vow into a loving joke. He was reassured even as the laughter eased the tightness in his throat. With a burst of movement, he was tumbling you onto your back, to stroke into you more forcefully, wanting to forget everything but you.

'Ah, love,' he purred in a chuckle, 'no wonder they think I put a spell on you.'

Loki could have sagged when your eyes released him to turn with a smile upon your audience. He was pleased to hear the enthusiastic applause, gratified that you were as adored on Midgard as you had been on Asgard. He relented, a little. He could not hate a people that recognized your worth.

The memories were still dark in his eyes when you stood and he could have knelt in supplication at the sight of you, not in demure Asgardian garb, but in casual Midgardian clothing that revealed the body he'd never stopped dreaming of. Clad in denim that hugged your legs, reminding him of the way they'd felt wrapped around him, and a sweater in bright, Asgardian gold, you looked strong and capable, like you'd found a power and purpose that had eluded you at home. He wondered now what singing for humans did for you that singing for your own kind had not because your voice had turned to fire and fury, and he could hear a passion that hadn't been there before.

"Because I get the question on a regular basis," as you spoke you circled the piano and leaned against it, crossing your legs at the ankle and bracing your elbows on top, “yes, I know Thor.” You smirked hen the man in question turned to look at you. “And I'm about to prove it. Get your ass up here, you big, beautiful bastard," you shouted with a growl at the grinning God of Thunder, who responded with a running leap onto the stage to snatch you up into a bear hug. You laughed when he squeezed you tight enough to make you squeak, and the people who'd seen you wreck worlds with your fists snickered at the sound.

You stared at Thor, your mind blank with horror. Loki couldn't be gone, couldn't have done what Thor was saying he'd done. He'd been upset and hurting the last time you saw him, only a couple nights before, but he'd been himself. He'd left your bed with a kiss the night of Thor's banishment, claiming he needed to speak with his father, and you'd understood. Though you hadn't seen him since, his continued absence from your company made sense with the news of the Allfather's sudden collapse after Thor's exile.

Thor had found you in Loki's rooms the night he’d returned to Asgard, where you'd been waiting. You'd intended to talk to Loki, comfort him, when he was able to finally rest and had snuck in so you wouldn't miss him. You'd fallen asleep in his bed, comforted by his scent. You'd awoken to a new world, a new life and you wanted to climb back in, go back to a world that made sense, a world where your dearest love wasn't a mad monster that tried to kill his brother or destroy an entire realm.

A world where your dearest love wouldn't leave you.

A year later, you stood with your hands in Thor's, your eyes fierce and wild on his. 'I know I'm not being fair,' you said, and though his eyes stayed hard, his hands were gentle around yours. The two of you had become the dearest of friends, grieving the man you'd both loved and lost. Only Thor could truly understand the confused betrayal left to you in the wake of Loki's death. The news that he was still alive had left you feeling only more confused and betrayed.

'You may ask the unfair of me, dear one,' Thor murmured as he lifted your hands to his lips. He was about to leave, the Allfather amassing the energy to send him to Midgard.

'Please, bring him home. Tell him…' You paused, a thousand things both devoted and bitter choking you. You'd save those things for Loki's ears alone. Instead, you looked at Thor's face with shining eyes. Your voice a little angry, you went on. 'Tell him I still love him. No matter what.'

Thor's lips curved at the fury that colored your tone. Loki, if he could be reasoned with, would be coming home to a much less accommodating Y/N. 'If anything can reach him now, it would be you.' His father shouted and he squeezed your hands before letting go. 'I'll tell him.'

You watched Thor run toward the portal of energy His Majesty wielded, and hoped he was right. The moment Loki had let go, deliberately falling from the Bifrost, you'd begun to doubt.

You cupped Thor's pretty face in your hands, looking over the shorn hair, the patch covering his lost eye, the grief in bright turquoise. "Sweet Prince," you said, softly, your old nickname for him falling easily from your lips and making tears prick at Thor's eye. "You've traveled a long way without rest, haven't you?'

The wry understanding in your eyes had Thor huffing out a weary laugh. "Oh, Y/N. You have no idea."

"Come with me," you said, briskly, turning with Thor and sliding your arm through his to lead him back to the bar. Your audience was dismayed but understanding. You’d started your set with a song honoring and mourning Asgard. "Cassie knows how to water an Asgardian. If she said otherwise, she was fucking with you."

Loki had been watching from the back of the room, his gut curdling with jealousy as he saw how familiar you and Thor were with each other. You'd considered Thor family your entire life, but you'd never been close, your preference for Loki leading you to find Thor irritating a lot of the time. He hadn't seen Thor's humility, his remorse after his time on Midgard, hadn't seen the two of you, siblings in all but blood, become friends as well.

When you turned in his direction, he felt the urge to flee, to hide from the bleak amusement curving your lips, the condemnation in your eyes. You and he had never been anything resembling siblings. His feet were planted, however, his knees weak and in the next moment you were next to him, leaning on the bar to tease your Midgardian friend. Your scent wound into his head and left him dizzy as you took three glasses and a jug with no label from the other woman. If Thor hadn't clamped a hand on his shoulder, he didn't know that he would have been able to follow you behind the bar to a small room in the back.

You gestured the brothers to the couch against the wall, handing both of them a glass filled with the mead you'd taught Cassie to make. You still hadn't acknowledged Loki as anything more than Thor's companion, had decided being rude would be less insulting to Loki than pretending you didn't know him at all. Once you'd filled your own glass, you dropped into the chair behind Cassie's desk and propped your feet up.

"So. What did you do?" Thor's grin flashed at the stern disapproval aimed his way, twisting your eyebrows over a mouth twitching with mild amusement. Then your face softened with sympathy and sadness, and jealousy burned under Loki’s sternum. You'd once shown him all this loving kindness, now you'd barely glanced at him. Until that stern eyebrow lifted in his direction and he felt pinned, like an insect. "How'd you boys manage to set off Ragnarok?"

Part Two: Malice

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#loki x reader #loki odinson x reader #loki fanfiction #loki fanfic #marvel fanfiction #mcu fanfiction #mcu fanfic #short series #pantswrites #ice and moonlight

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

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WHY I'M SMARTER THAN DRUGLIKE

Foreword to Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. You may not have to go back seven paragraphs and start over in another direction. When friends came back from faraway places, it wasn't just out of politeness that I asked what they saw. Imagine what Apple was like when 100% of its employees were either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak. Hacker culture often seems kind of irresponsible.1 I can't tell, even now. Certainly schools should teach students how to write. One group got an exploding term-sheet from some VCs. What kept him going? And I can see why political incorrectness would be a momentous change—big enough, probably, to justify a name like the new model spread rapidly. The reason to launch early, to understand your users.

Though the immediate cause of death in a startup, it pays to offer customer service on a level that wouldn't scale, because it's easier than satisfying them. Sun's future. Sun's business model is a down elevator. There are two bad smelling words, color spammers love colored fonts and California which occurs in testimonials and also in menus in forms, but they are not enough to stop the mail from being spam. Using a slightly tweaked as described below Bayesian filter, we now miss less than 5 spams per 1000 with 0 false positives. It's very easy for people to switch to a new search engine. I just wanted to keep people from getting spammed. Of all the great programmers I can think of who don't work for Sun, on Java, I know of only one who would voluntarily program in Java. That, it turned out. Sun servers for industrial strength applications. It was a way of hacking the investment process.

Could there be a connection?2 Make something great and put it online. A lot went wrong, as usually happens with startups. Among other things, this would be one of them, because with our help they could make money. Maybe the people in charge of the taxi line. But those are also commodities, which can be handed off to some lieutenant. The winners slow down the least. There were a lot of small, inexpensive computers before the Mac. That makes sense, because there are a lot of nasty little ones. In the old economy, the high cost of presenting information to people meant they had only a narrow range of options to choose from. As Fred Brooks pointed out, small groups are intrinsically more productive, because the internal friction in a group grows as the square of the environment. At one point in this essay I found that after following a certain thread I ran out of ideas.

This is another lesson the world has yet to learn.3 It's like telling the truth. G b 5 max.4 What you want is to increase response rates. Dartmouth, the University of Vermont, Amherst, and University College, London taught English literature in the 1820s. A few weeks ago I was walking in some steep mountains once, and decided I'd rather just think, if I could only keep one.5 That's why people proposing to destroy it use phrases like adult supervision. For example, the question the hackers have all been wondering about that. If someone in my neighborhood heard that I was looking for an old Raleigh three-speed in good condition, and sent me an email offering to sell me one, I'd be delighted, and yet this email would be both commercial and unsolicited. I started writing this.6

For me, interesting means surprise. Likewise, the reason we hear about Java as part of a century to establish that central planning didn't work.7 Hard as it is to double all the numbers in good. Unfortunately that makes this email a boring example of the use of Bayes' Rule. Though actually there is something druglike about them, in the unlikely absence of any other evidence, have a 99. When I was in college in the mid-1980s, nerd was still an insult. Equity is the fuel that drives technical innovation. For example, Y Combinator has now invested in 80 startups, 57 of which are still alive. This essay is derived from a talk at the 2008 Startup School. And as soon as these startups got the money, what did they do with it is enormous.

I found myself talking recently to someone from Hollywood who was planning a show about nerds. You grow big by being mean. 05214485 i'm 0. If you throw them out, you find they often behaved like nonprofits.8 This time the evidence is a mix of good and bad.9 What made it not a Ponzi scheme was that it was unintentional.10 Don't worry too much about making money. If you throw them out, you find that good products do tend to win in the market. They don't want to bet the company on Betamax. Why risk it?11

I'm advocating: filter each user's mail based on a corpus of my mail. When I was in college I used to think that whitelists would make filtering easier, because you'd only have to filter email from people you'd never heard from, and someone sending you mail for the first time during the Bubble robbed their companies by granting themselves options doesn't mean options are a bad idea.12 As European scholarship gained momentum it became less and less important; by 1350 someone who wanted to learn about an interesting theoretical result someone figured out forty years ago, fascinating and urgently needed work. I admire most are not, on the whole, captivated by Java. I need to talk the matter over. There's a whole essay's worth of surprises there for sure. Make something people want. Is anyone able to develop software faster than you? The mere prospect of being interrupted is enough to get into the mind of a spammer, but let's take a quick look inside the mind of a spammer, but let's take a quick look inside the mind of the spammer, and frankly I want to bias the probabilities slightly to avoid false positives, I'm talking about filtering my mail based on a corpus of my mail.13

Notes

Actually Emerson never mentioned mousetraps specifically.

Since the remaining power of Democractic party machines, but its value was as a company if the quality of investor who merely seems like he will fund you, however, is he going to eat a sheep in the sense of a startup you have two choices and one kind that's called into being to commercialize a scientific discovery. This doesn't mean easy, of the problem to fit your solution.

The optimal way to do it mostly on your thesis.

As a friend with small children, or even why haven't you already built this way that weren't visible in the same work, the effort that would help Web-based applications. I'm using these names as we walked out we ran into Muzzammil Zaveri, and as we are at some of those things that's not the primary cause. And at 98%, as they do the opposite way as part of their pitch. Many will consent to b rather than trying to work in research too.

The point of a startup or going to do is leave them alone in the services, companies that seem promising can usually get enough money from mediocre investors almost all do, but sword thrusts. You have to mean the hypothetical people who want to figure this out. No big deal.

I'm pathologically optimistic about people's ability to solve a lot of legal business.

According to a super-angel than a product, just monopolies they create rather than lose a prized employee. What will go away, and that he had to for some students to get market price if they used FreeBSD and stored their data in files too.

The idea of what's valuable is least likely to be a good chance that a skilled vine-dresser was worth about 125 to 150 drachmae.

Acquirers can be times when what you're doing. VCs play such games, books, newspapers, or to be spread out geographically. I have no idea what's happening till they also influence one another, it was cooked up, but he refused because a quiet, earnest place like Cambridge will one day have an email being spam. Teenagers don't tell 5 year olds the truth.

But you're not convinced that what you're working on filtering at the time quantum for hacking is very polite and b made brand the dominant factor in the construction industry. This argument seems to have been seen mentioning the possibility. Some professors do create a Demo Day pitch, the computer world recognize who that is not one of the 2003 season was 4.

The real danger is that the valuation of the reasons startups are competitive like running, not the shape that matters here but the distribution of alms, and mostly in good ways.

If you have to find may be useful in cases where VCs don't invest, regardless of what investment means; like any investor, lest that set an impossibly high target when raising additional money. You won't always get a good product. It is just feigning interest—until you get nothing.

The empirical evidence suggests that if the selection process looked for different reasons. Exercise for the others to act through subordinates. There is something there worth studying, especially if you were doing Bayesian filtering in a world in which YC can help in deciding what to do that.

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blazehedgehog · 4 years

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It seems to me that your favorite artist from Sonic music library is Tomoyo Ohtani. Which I find fascinating that you went from not liking o6's music, to being in love with Unleashed's score. Which leads to me to my next question, why is it that the majority of video game music you listen to is Sonic? Is it true that Sonic's tunes are worth listening amongst the vast sea of VG OST's?

I mean, I didn’t hate Sonic 06′s score. My issue with 06′s soundtrack is that it feels like something is missing. I think he was trying to compose more of a cinematic score, right. Part of the reason I don’t like modern game soundtracks or a lot of film scores is because they aren’t intended to be songs.

That’s an insult, I realize. But you think of a song, you think of having a strong melody, or at least a vocalist to lead the song. A lot of people say it’s that quality of a song where you can sing it in the shower, or at least hum it to yourself. If you download actual film scores, you rarely get that:

youtube

The music in a film score is primarily written to highlight what’s on screen. There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m not going to say that movies are worse for having this kind of a score, but in terms of being a SONG that you LISTEN TO for its own merits, it’s almost impossible to enjoy. You miss everything the song is meant to prop up.

When games were more simplistic, a developer had to work a lot harder to set the tone of something, because you had to fill in the blanks a lot in your head. So every piece of music had to work double overtime, because there wasn’t much else to go on. So you got a lot of game scores where the music was almost (ALMOST!) more important than the gameplay.

youtube

As games have trended more towards a filmic, cinematic style, game music has relaxed a lot, also trending towards filmic, cinematic scores.

youtube

Instead of stand-out melodies you whistle to yourself on your way to work, they’re slower, moodier pieces. That can still be kind of listenable in its own context, because games, unlike movies, are dynamic. You can’t hire a musician to sit there and score player action, you just have to play a single music track over the background and hope it matches whatever the player is doing.

But even that’s not necessarily true. Nintendo’s been experimenting for over a decade now with “reactive” music. Instead of a traditional song, they have song fragments, and a piece of code determines how to assemble those fragments. So while you can buy a Breath of the Wild soundtrack, much like a film score, you’re missing out on having the context of on-screen action. There are very limited scenarios where you’d sit down and specifically listen to this stuff as a song.

Again. Nothing wrong with that. In context, as something to set a tone, it’s great. But you can’t really dance to it, you can’t really sing or hum along to it, you’d almost never want to hear it played on the radio, it’s too ambient for all of that.

And Sonic 06 trends in that direction. Not all the way, but you can tell it’s leaning towards giving levels a more “filmic” score. It’s trying to be a bit more “grown up” than the poppy, energetic Sonic scores of the past.

youtube

And it’s not terrible! I enjoy quite a few songs from this soundtrack, I just don’t unconditionally love it like a lot of people do.

Sonic Unleashed, Colors, and Generations were returns to form. I think the Genesis Sonic games really established getting great musicians to provide music for their games, a trend that continued through even the darkest times (the Saturn era) and up through the Dreamcast, Gamecube, and beyond. Unleashed picks right up from there, saying “this is some Sonic the Hedgehog music.”

High tempo, bright tones, and pop-music influences with a strong emphasis on melody. One of the last bastions still doing music like this, and one of the reasons I was so disappointed in the soundtracks to Sonic Lost World and especially Sonic Forces. Lost World is Sonic’s equivalent to Super Mario Galaxy, including in its soundtrack, which means there’s like 30 songs but only 4 or 5 are really good on their own.

And Sonic Forces is just… grating, with a lead instrument that feels like it fell out of a teenager’s first FL Studio project file.

#questions #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #tomoya ohtani #sonic unleashed #music #film #scores #dafunniman

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lexosaurus · 5 years

Text

Inhibitors

Summary: After being revealed as a half ghost, Danny must wear government issued ecto-inhibitors in order to attend Casper High.

Warning: I’m super mean to Danny. Oops.

“This is stupid.” Danny glared at the metal device in Maddie’s hand. He folded his arms across his chest, his body tense. “This is so stupid.”

Maddie exhaled, silently categorizing the human behaviors from the ghost ones. She knew this day wouldn’t be easy. It would have been downright impossible for a full ghost, but since Danny was only a halfa…

She forced a warm smile onto her face. “You know you need to do this, sweetie. It may not be ideal, but we have to follow the rules!”

He studied her face with calculating eyes and a tight jaw. His gaze flickered from Maddie to the devices in her hands. Back and forth again. This was Phantom, no doubt. She’d never seen this cold expression on her innocent boy before the accident.

“It’s stupid,” was his only response.

“Oh well. We can’t always get things to swing our way.” Maddie took a step forward. “Now will you let me put these things on? You’re going to be late for school.”

He stepped back. “Wait! Can’t we...uh...why don’t we talk about this? For a second?”

Damn, she’d been so close…

“You won’t feel a thing, Danny!” Liar. Even the Fenton versions of these devices came with minor side effects. “It’ll be okay!”

“I know, I just…” He backed into the wall and stopped, his eyebrows scrunched together and gaze downcast. A pang of pity hit Maddie. She could tell that his two halves were in conflict. His human half wanted to be a normal teenager who went to school while his ghost half was simply unable to let go of its power.

To ghosts, power was everything. Ghosts didn’t measure their status through monetary wealth or social prowess like humans did; they did it through power. Ghosts who protected their haunt with incredible fortitude were given titles of respect within the ghost community. And the better a ghost protected its haunt, the more social status it had. It was a rather simple social hierarchy that didn’t surprise Maddie in the slightest if she was honest with herself. Ghosts were more...well, calling them simple-minded would be an insult to her son (who she loved very much, thank you), but were they as intelligent, as complex as humans?

Play dumb. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

“I just...I don’t know.” Pink tinged Danny’s cheeks. He glanced away. Was it shame? Embarrassment?

Maddie pursed her lips, unsurprised he couldn’t admit his deepest ghostly feelings to her. Although, they had been trying hard to reconcile their relationship after Danny was revealed to the world. These things took time.

Time she couldn’t afford to spend right now.

Sympathize with the ghost half, Maddie decided. Pretend you understand what it’s going through.

“I know, it’s very difficult to be vulnerable. Especially at school,” Maddie said. “It can be very frightening, huh?”

“Yeah,” Danny breathed out, his facial muscles relaxing with relief that Maddie understood . “It is. Because what if a ghost attacks? How am I supposed to protect everyone if my powers are gone?”

Maddie stared at the metal devices in her hands. Sure, they were big and clunky. But they had a metal buckle on the back. “There are sensors all over the school, honey, so if an alarm goes off, then the buckles will automatically unlock. Then when the rogue ghost is taken care of, Mr. Lancer or Principal Ishiyama will lock the devices back on, as their DNA is keyed into the system. So, in reality, you’ll be able to protect everyone just as well as before. Okay?”

“But…” Danny was still floundering, as if his ghost half was digging for every reason as to why he should protect himself from these devices. “How will my ghost sense work if I don’t have my powers?”

“The alarms will go off if a ghost enters the property,” she reiterated, glancing at the clock. She had to wrap this up quickly. After all, school waited for no one.

She watched, waiting for his shoulders to deflate and his fists to unclench, telltale signs of his resignation. But they didn’t happen. His rigid posture remained unmoving as his eyes continued to flicker between Maddie and the devices.

Okay, she needed a new tactic. She shouldn’t have tried reasoning with him to begin with. Ghosts didn’t respond to logic and reason like humans did. They needed...emotions. Human emotions. To be keyed in on, drawn to, like a moth looking at the light.

Shifting her posture, she allowed a hint of desperation to bleed into her eyes. His reaction was immediate. He flinched, bringing a hand up in front of him in a moment of surrender, comfort, as if he needed to calm Maddie down.

No doubt she was setting all sorts of alarms off with his ghost half’s obsession to protect.

“Danny, please,” she said. “Do this for me? Please?”

He lowered his hand and opened his mouth before his jaw tightened again, snapping his mouth shut. Maddie watched in fascination as he closed his eyes, conflicting expressions appearing on his face. She held her breath, unwilling to let herself celebrate the early victory even though she was almost positive she had tugged at his obsession just enough to get him to submit to her command.

She should have felt disgusted with herself. And deep down, her motherly side was admonishing her for daring to play with Danny’s obsession like that. But no matter how much she could argue back that she had to for Danny’s safety, the scientist in her didn’t play by those rules. Those morals. The scientist in her was always hungry to learn, even if the subject was her own son.

Of course, she would never do anything past this. Because, regardless of his DNA, he was still her son. Still Danny. And she would never hurt him.

Right?

After what seemed like forever, he let out one final sigh and looked up at Maddie. “Okay. Do what you have to do.”

“Thanks, honey.” She stepped forward slowly, testing the waters. Watching her son closely, she searched for anything to suggest that no, he wasn’t ready for her to snap the inhibitors over his wrists, ankles, and neck. But he didn’t flinch. She took that as an invitation to close the space between them.

“I’m not sure how this will feel, sweetie,” Maddie said. “But it’s government-issued, so I...don’t think it’ll be the most comfortable thing. But it shouldn’t hurt. You might feel a slight weight around your core, or a numbness in your chest. These are designed to basically cut off the connection between your core and the rest of your body. The question of how you will feel is dependent on where in your body the inhibitors target. They could simply shield the connection around your core, acting almost like our ecto-shield that we use around our house during ghost emergencies. Or it could target the ectoplasm cells specifically, acting like a weighted blanket that dampens the ghostly aura from them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell how this is designed to function without the specs, which they did not give us. So...the only way we’ll know is if we put these on.

“The good news is, the inhibitors are perfectly safe. They’ve been in use by the Guys in White many times in the past, according to Operative K. So we know they don’t harm ghosts and they’re perfectly functional! Operative K did say they’ve been tweaked a little for you, but he ensured it was only to account for your unique physiology. The inhibitors still function the same.”

She looked up from her rambling to see a shadow across Danny’s face. She tried to counteract this with a sunny smile. “Everything will be alright, okay?”

He crossed his arms, glaring to the side. “When it comes to the Guys in White, I doubt it. But thanks for trying.”

“Well, we agreed to the terms already. And besides, you do want to attend a normal school, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice bitter.

“Then this is a necessary evil.” No, play to his emotions. Logic wouldn’t work here. Emotions were better. “And it will make your father and me really happy. We were so worried about you, Danny. We love you so much. We just want to help you thrive now that we know what’s going on in your life. I know it’s not perfect, but...we’re trying our best. And I know it will take a while before we’re totally caught up in your life, but this is a good start. I’m so...proud of you, sweetie. I love you so much.”

“Okay, okay,” he said, waving her off. “I’m ready. Just put the stupid things on so I can go to school.”

Maddie fought off the satisfied smirk at the success of her plan, as well as a secondary impulse to smile at how adorable her son was, with face red in embarrassment at his mother’s praise. Forcing herself to focus, she brought up one of the inhibitors and pressed the tiny side button, opening it up with a quiet hiss.

“Hold out an arm for me, Danny,” Maddie said.

Slowly, a hand was raised.

She brought the metal ring over to his wrist, steeled the opening around his thin arm, and clasped the metal back together.

That was it. The first one was on.

She held her breath and watched as her son’s eyes stilled, his eyebrows raising ever so slightly. He felt...something. She couldn’t know what. But...there was something there. She needed to know what.

“Okay, next one.”

He opened his mouth and froze, his face reminiscent of a fish out of water. Something was wrong, she could tell.

Or it could be his ghost half finally catching up to the situation. Ghosts were brilliant actors when they wanted to be.

“Danny, hold out your other hand for me, please,” she said, her tone patient.

He brought his other hand up. It trembled. Something was wrong. Maddie should have stopped. She should have brought him over to the couch, sat him down, and talked it out. Asked him if he was okay.

But…she hesitated. Curiosity gnawed at her mind, and she needed to know what these inhibitors were blocking. She had to see what would happen next. How Danny would react once all of them were on.

And there was something else, something that she refused to acknowledge, that was budding inside her chest. It wanted to bloom. But she refused to allow it to. It was sick, after all. This was her son. Of course she didn’t want to hurt him.

And her son was clearly uncomfortable.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Uh, I think. Yeah. I’m fine,” Danny said, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Alright…I’m going to put the next inhibitor on, okay?”

“Yeah. Sounds great.”

She was his mother, true. But she was also under direct orders from the government and the PTA stating that Danny absolutely had to wear the inhibitors if he wanted to attend Casper High. So if she had to push him a little to comply with the government orders...well, so be it.

“Okay, let’s do this together. I’m going to put it on now, okay?”

“Just do it.”

There was the Danny she knew, always ready to face whatever challenge life threw at him. And always so, so eager to please the adults in his life.

She carefully wrapped the next bracelet around his outstretched arm and clicked the buckle in place.

The color immediately drained out of Danny’s face. His eyes widened, his breathing hitched, and his hand flew up to his chest. He staggered, and his free hand shot towards the wall in a vain attempt to steady himself. His hand had hardly brushed up against the wood before his vestibular sense failed altogether and he collapsed on the floor.

Maddie peered down at her son, who was beginning to tuck his legs into his chest. “Sweetie?”

Danny gasped. “I...I can’t…” He cut himself off, wheezing, his fingers clawing at his shirt as if he could dig inside and grab his core.

His core…

Oh.

“Danny? What’s going on?” she asked. Play the oblivious parent. Play pretend, if only for more information. Show concern, and his obsession might override his own pain to comfort her. She’d perhaps get to keep the science experiment going for a little longer.

But of course, she only wanted what was best for her son. That was all. Nothing more...

“Mom...I…”

He tilted his head towards her, his eyes searching the air to meet hers. But his gaze was too unfocused to have any success. Giving up, he allowed himself to relax back onto the floor, groaning.

Something was wrong. Something was so very wrong with her son. It was obvious that—if the Guys in White were doing what she thought they were doing—this would be absolute hell to experience for a ghost. Or she could be wrong. And Phantom could just be overreacting in a counter effort to gain his powers back. It could be a ploy to make her stop putting on the inhibitors.

Her fingers traced the bracelet. It was now or never. Either she could listen to her motherly side, which was yelling at her to put the bracelet down and comfort her son, or she could follow her scientist side, which was begging for more.

Which Maddie was she going to be today? The angel or the devil? The mother who doted on her son’s feelings or the scientist who demanded answers?

No, that was all silly. Of course she was a mother first. Ghost or not, Danny was her son. She watched him take his first step when he was ten months old and say his first word when he was eleven months old. She drove him to his first day of preschool, supervised his first play date, taught him how to read his first picture book, bandaged his first knee scrape against the pavement, directed him as he shot an ecto-gun for the first time.

Maddie was Danny’s mother, through and through. Nothing would come in the way of that.

She knelt down on the floor and opened her arms. “Come here, Danny. It’s okay. I know it hurts.”

His gaze shifted over to her face. He stared at her, his face apprehensive. No, that was the wrong word. His face reflected fear.

Of her?

“Oh, my poor baby.” Maddie leaned in, wrapping her strong arms around him. He trembled in response. “I’m so sorry, Danny.”

“It’s...okay…” he whispered. “I’m...I’m fine…I...I just—”

“Good.”

She jolted forward, wrapping an inhibitor around his ankle…

His body went rigid. “Wait! Mom, no—”

...and snapped it shut.

“Please!”

Click.

He moaned, his body turning limp against hers. She laid him back down on the floor and watched, fascinated, as his body started reacting to the new inhibitor. A thin coat of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he screwed his eyes shut. Both of his hands shot to his gasping chest. “Please, Mom...this...this...isn’t right...nng...”

“What’s hurting, Danny?” she asked, her voice light and innocent. Play pretend, if only to hide this growing fascination. A lock of red hair fell from behind her ear, but she didn’t stop to push it back. Her eyes soaked in the display on the floor, Danny fighting inside his body, his mind, to tell her what was so very wrong .

“It’s...ugh...it’s my...c-core…”

Ah, she was right. The Fenton Inhibitors were programmed to hover outside of the ghost’s core in a magnetic dome, allowing just enough electrical impulses through the force field to keep the specimen functional. The end result was—minor lethargy aside—the ghost retaining its necessary motor functions while losing all of its powers.

But the government seemed to have gone down a rather different path. Instead of building their inhibitors to allow for a small area of space around the core, it attacked the core directly, filling it with an electrical dampener. It was cruel and reeked of every bit of arrogance Maddie had come to expect of the Guys in White. But a small part of her, one she refused to admit existed, was almost enjoying the ghost’s act at its core being so thoroughly violated by this electrical dampener.

No, not the ghost. Her son. Her son was hurt. She needed to comfort him.

Pulling herself out of her musings, she glanced down at Danny. Tears slowly dripped from his eyes. His mouth was wide open, begging for more air. His body, curled up on the floor, squirmed against the discomfort of the inhibitors.

But that feeling inside of her was too strong. An itch for answers. A hunger for more of this show. There was something deeply satisfying about watching this ghost fall to its primal instincts in front of her. Because of her.

And besides, what harm could one more inhibitor bring? All inhibitor effects were temporary. All she had to do was take them off and Danny would be back to normal in an instant. So really, this was an inconsequential opportunity that she needed to take advantage of.

Her lips moved automatically. “I’m going to put the next one on now.”

“No...please...no more...no more…”

“Danny, you know I have no choice,” she said. Liar. “I don’t want to do this.” Liar!

“Please...make it stop…”

“I have no choice,” she whispered. Her eyes were glued on the squirming body of her son. The halfa. The half ghost . She couldn’t help but wonder...would his reaction be stronger if he was a full ghost? Or was it stronger now because he was a level seven ghost? Did his human half even play a role in his reaction? Did it matter?

Focus, Maddie. Your son’s in pain. You should stop this. Homeschool him. This isn’t worth it.

She bent down and clicked the other anklet on.

A sob tore its way out of Danny’s throat. “Mom…”

“I know it hurts,” Maddie said. She stood up, allowing her body to cast a shadow over the writhing halfa below her.

His body twisted and turned, legs flexing and unflexing, arms twitching and hands clawing at his chest and hair, all in desperation for any sort of release from this torture. And as she watched, the budding flower inside of her began to grow. Petals creeped out from their pod, arching back and exposing themselves to the sunlight. As the one flower bloomed, more followed, spreading to the darkest corners of her mind.

“Make it...s...stop…m-make...it…” His words slurred together, drunk and undefined.

“I’m sorry sweetie. I know this hurts. Here, let me—”

“No! Don’t!” His hands rushed up to form a protective barrier between him and his mother. “Please...no…”

This wasn’t Maddie’s fault. She was only doing what was ordered of her, right? Danny had to go to Casper High, didn’t he? That’s what he said he wanted. Couldn’t he see the sacrifices she was making to ensure he got a good education? Didn’t he understand how hard it was for her to see him like this? She was doing this for him.

“No more...no more...” he begged, hardly able to speak through his laborious breaths.

“This isn’t my fault,” she said.

Danny eyes cracked open, regarding her with utter betrayal that normally would have torn her maternal instincts to pieces.

She should stop now. This had gone too far. There were plenty of homeschooling programs online he could do. Wouldn’t learning at his own pace be better for him anyway? He had always struggled so much in school. Hadn’t she promised Danny she wouldn’t use Phantom as an experiment? Hadn’t she sworn up and down that she loved him all the same as before and that nothing was different with this revelation?

“Please…take...them off...I can’t...I can’t...”

But the hunger inside her, it had morphed into something much stronger. Uncontrollable. Uncontainable. She stepped forward, allowing her shadow to grow across his body until it completely blanketed his figure. She leaned down, leering over her son in wonder.

Delight.

Fascination.

“Please…”

“No.”

With one final swoop, Maddie clasped the remaining inhibitor around his neck.

Click!

Thanks for reading! 😊

HUGE thanks to @imekitty for editing this oneshot! She’s amazing go read her stuff!

#danny phantom #phandom #fanfiction #inhibitors #phicc #my writing #quality content #huehuehue #poor danno #im so mean to him #thank u for ur sacrifice danny

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relaxedmouse · 5 years

Text

Magic, Control, Emotion, and Random Destruction: some thoughts

With “Frozen 2” releasing later this month, and stores near me selling Frozen-themed dolls and candy and picture books, I’ve been thinking back to Frozen 1. What I remember most from that movie (other than “LET IT GOOOOO”) is Elsa’s ice magic. Specifically, that one scene near the end where she says, “Love. Of course. Love!” And then she’s suddenly able to remove the eternal winter that drove the conflict of the movie. That scene has always bothered me, but I’ve had a surprisingly tough time articulating why.

For a long time, I figured the issue with that scene was the suddenness of it. The movie lacks explanation for how Elsa’s powers work, and in the end, it relies on us (the audience) to accept that shouting the word “love” in a revelatory manner is enough to solve everything.

To be honest, this is an issue that many stories (not just Frozen) have when it comes to depicting magic. Having magic isn’t something that real-life people can relate to. “My powers are out of control!” is a common fantasy plot, and its resolution of course involves the person learning to control their powers. But how do they do that? We usually don’t understand much of it.

We may get told that a character put long hours into magical study, but this accomplishment is diminished by the fact that we have no idea what kind of work goes into mastering magic. Sometimes it involves a mentor babbling about “learning to believe in yourself” or other vague concepts. Often, we have to rely on simply being told that the character is out of control one moment, then in control the next.

This is pretty much what happened in Frozen, when Elsa is able to reverse the huge blizzard one moment after she’s reminded that her sister loves her. I’m not mocking you if you found that moment to be touching. But I do think it reinforces the point that it’s hard for us non-magical viewers to predict what causes one’s powers to slip into or out of control. So, when a plot relies on that happening, it can be difficult to follow the progression of events.

Anyway, I still consider the resolution of Frozen to be abrupt, but in thinking about it more, perhaps it’s not as poorly-explained as I figured. If I want to be generous, I can see there’s a coherent storyline there. Elsa’s powers fly out of control when she’s scared and go back under control when she’s happy. Therefore, seeing an act of love from Anna is enough for her to gain control of the eternal winter. Okay. Maybe not the best execution, but I’m willing to accept that’s how it works.

You see, I’ve often read and watched stories that had only a vague explanation for how magic operates, and still enjoyed them. And I’ve never been one of those people to speculate as to how Elsa got magic powers in the first place; I’ve always accepted that she simply has them, as the premise of the story. So why did that one scene near the end of the movie bug me so much?

In the end, I think my main problem is that I simply don’t like it when a magic system is fueled by emotion. Especially when that leads to accidental destruction. And yes, of course that’s a completely personal opinion.

If magic is linked to emotion, it means that some poor kid who has a tantrum could wind up accidentally blowing up their house. In Elsa’s case, she gets so upset that she unleashes a blizzard that covers all of Arendelle. Later, when she’s told that she caused this deep snow, she again gets upset, so much so that she nearly kills her own sister with an accidentally-thrown ice shard.

Was an entire country put in danger because just one woman got upset? It’s not that I have trouble believing it. It’s more like . . . this level of destruction feels weirdly “unnecessary” to me. Or maybe "arbitrary" is a better word.

I just never seem to like it when magic is set up this way (as a dangerous force that must be controlled, or else it will spiral out of control). I get that it leaves plenty of room for conflict. Making a character accidentally harm their loved ones is a super-fast way to pull out all sorts of angst, yeah? Even so, this approach always seems to leave me with too many questions.

A funny thing about fantasy worlds is they frequently treat magic like it’s a force of nature that will occur on its own when the magic-wielder gets angry or distressed – but it’s also a skill that must be studied. That’s why many settings feature magic schools and magic tutors. Now, I know that Frozen didn’t have any magical schools (that we know of). But there are plenty of other stories that center on a character receiving tutoring in order to learn how to control their innate magical abilities, which had previously been causing all sorts of unplanned havoc.

I find this puzzling. When people get upset, they might cry or yell, but they probably won’t be taking out a pencil and paper and solving calculus problems. When people are extremely emotional, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to do a task that requires calm thinking. And that’s my issue with many depictions of magic. Magic is treated like a skill to be learned, but it’s also something that you can do while you’re in the middle of crying hysterically?

Okay, I guess these two ideas aren’t totally incompatible. Some stories run with the notion that getting emotional will make the magic act out on its own, while calming down and concentrating will let you control what it does. And there definitely have been awesome moments in stories where the hero, fueled by the power of friendship or the need to avenge a fallen friend, draws out amazing power and gives the villain a satisfying beat-down, the likes of which they’d never managed before.

Still, even though there are great depictions of emotion-fueled magic, I find that I tend not to get into it. This goes for cases where it’s played for drama, but it’s especially true in cases where it’s played for comedy.

For instance, I played Fire Emblem: Fates (video game for the Nintendo 3DS). This game had a pair of twin sisters from the vaguely-named Ice Tribe. Flora and Felicia’s ice powers really didn’t do anything in the plot, but sometimes they would show up in their support conversations with other characters. Felicia creates a snowstorm when Saizo insults her and she gets angry. Flora makes one too when Corrin proposes to her and she gets flustered. The former might’ve been an intentional attack on Felicia’s part (though that’s a bit unclear), but the latter is definitely unintentional. And it seems like we’re meant to laugh when Corrin says the winds are so strong and cold that he can’t see anything, but he’s so happy that he doesn’t care. (M-Maybe you should care about that, buddy.)

By the way, it’s a coincidence that both my examples involve people with ice powers. Search more through the world of fiction and you’ll find people who strike down trees with lightning when they’re angry, people who accidentally burn their lovers with fire when they’re passionate, people who blast a hole in the wall when they’re afraid . . .

Man, I just can't stand it. Even if that hole in the wall is later repaired with cartoonish ease, I get stuck on the fact that the hole existed at all.

I'm the type of reader/viewer who's usually content to roll with a story no matter where it goes. I'll accept weird premises, I'll accept ambiguous endings - but for some reason, I just can't stand random acts of destruction. There's something about that exact combination of violence, suddenness, and the fact that these dangers aren't caused by the intentions of a character, but rather a thing that can occur at any time.

Of course, good writing can make a good story out of anything. It’s definitely possible for someone to write a fascinating story that explores the implications of a person (especially a child) having tremendous, out-of-control powers. And, since this trope keeps appearing, I’m left to assume that people like it and find it interesting.

However, even if these types of plots are well-written, I typically find myself turning away from them. In the face of arbitrary destruction, I get caught thinking of how all that horror could’ve easily been avoided by the writer simply choosing to make the magic work differently in their world.

#magic #fantasy #frozen #fire emblem fates #movie #video games #opinion #essay

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howtohero · 5 years

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#204 God Brawls

Superheroes like to present themselves as the ultimate forces of good, and frankly, that’s just good marketing. Why would anybody ever come to you for help if you were only like the second or third most powerful force of good or, heaven help us all, the fourth or fifth most powerful force of good? Yet, as it transpires, superheroes are often not the ultimate force of anything except for excessive capes, and even that’s up for debate. Have you ever met Cloakus, the self-proclaimed (maybe?) god of capes? That dude has got excessive cloakery down to a science. And that’s just my point (sort of), it’s hard for any mortal, superhuman or not, to claim to be the ultimate anything, since there will always be some deity or mythological powerhouse from some pantheon or plane of existence that’s been doing it better and for much longer. These beings are often obscenely powerful, aggressively petty, ostentatiously dramatic, and overwhelmingly insecure to the degree that they need everybody to call them gods.

All of these factors also means that these beings are just incredibly irritable all the time. It also means that there’s nothing stopping them from doing something incredibly petty to another all powerful being. Think about it, if you were incredibly insecure while also wielding potentially-universe-destroying-or-at-the-very-least-destroying-it-as-we-know-it-because-as-we-all-know-matter-cannot-be-destroyed-but-it-can-be-turned-into-an-ice-cream-sandwich-no-problem power and you found out that there was some other guy out there who also purported to have god like abilities, wouldn’t you teleport into his golden cathedral and prank him to show dominance? I know I would. (A prank? How about scattering their still-living body parts across throughout time, space and the multiverse. See, this is literally the reason nobody has granted you unlimited power, you think too small.) Oh please like you also wouldn’t just toss a boston creme pie in their face and call it a day. (Let me out of these infernal parentheses and I’ll show you what I’d do!) No! So, with all of these unquantifiably powerful beings antagonizing each other, it is not unheard of for Earth, which remember, is under your protection, often gets caught in the crossfire.

Normally when you come across two people in outlandish costumes with improbable abilities fighting, you’d do well to ascertain which one of them is the good guy and which one is the bad guy and then launching into the fray alongside your fellow do-gooder. But when the gods fight, that kind of thinking goes right out the window. Even if you’ve, in the past, fought alongside one of these awesome figures at some point in your past, you should not assume that they care on iota for you or your world. They’re simply way too far above you and your mortal, small-scale perceptions of good and evil. Sure at one point you teamed up to prevent another dimension from bleeding into yours but while you were doing it to save lives, they were simply in it to protect their real estate. In the grand scheme of things, Earth is completely beneath their notice, and if they’ve happened to have chosen it for some kind of prophetic ultimate battle against their brother or their counterpart in another Pantheon. (Gosh, remember that 3000 year bar fight between the Greek Dionysus and the Mayan Acan over who could get mortals drunker? They really dragged that one out. {Quit your whining!) don’t think you can just pop in and try to appeal to their sense of benevolence. If these people were interested in saving their lives they’d use their awesome power to be heroes, not gods.

So if there are deities raging in your neighborhood (trust me you’ll know) you have to immediately rally anybody you can to get down to the battle zone and try to clear it of as much civilian life as you can. Every teleporter, speedster and space bus (except for of course the Hedonian, the space party bus that has been keeping the party going since the dawn of space, we would never try to infringe on the eternal party. Please carry on like always.) needs to be on hand to ferry people away from as wide of a radius as you can. When it comes to warring titans, no berth is too wide to give these people. Fights can explode out of control with no warning, you’d honestly be safer getting people off world. (Try sending them to a world that has already been completely destroyed by this specific godly wrestling match. The gods have too much pride to ever ravage the same planet twice during the same fight.)

Once everybody is as safe as they reasonably can be when two guys dressed like they’re going to a frat party are dueling with the concepts of strife and rage made tangible, it’s time to just kind of do your best. Which sounds bleak but if you’ve got a good crew of superheroes with you, it could be a lot of fun. Like we said, these self-proclaimed gods are bunch of whiny crybabies (yeah that’s right! Come to our house and smite us you whiny crybabies!) just like anything can launch them into a millennia spanning cosmic thumb war, there’s no telling what could get them to stop. So let’s get creative:

List of Things That Definitely Maybe Might Get These Piss Baby Drama Queens to Stop This Nonsense:

Rig up some speakers, get Morgan Freeman on the line, have him tell them to stop it right this instance in his smooth heavenly voice.

Open a portal. Get lots of shoelaces. No wait get the shoelaces first ah dang it dang it, Half-Face McGee fell into the portal. Dang. That guy has really bad luck with portals. I wonder what this is going to do to his face. Sorry guys, that’s on us, we should’ve waited until you had everything ready before we told you to open a portal. Ok, well, moving on then. Get a bunch of shoelaces. Tie ‘em together to create a giant tripwire. Then open a portal to somewhere far away and trip one of the warring titans into it. The other guy might construe this is a tactical retreat on the part of the god you’ve banished and dive through the portal in pursuit. If not, then just do the same thing a second time.

When trying to stop a couple of gods, call in one of your own. Remember that time we had you preemptively trick a trickster god in order to gain their respect. Well its time to call that chip in. Trickster gods have eons of experience in manipulating other gods into doing what they want. Just sit back and leave it to The Real Skeev Shady to take care of things.

Project cartoons into the sky. This actually worked once. The two gods, I wanna say it was Hades and Greg the Skeleton King, had never even heard of cartoons before. Apparently cartoonists and animators get tortured by one of the other rulers of the underworld. But they were so entranced and, quite frankly, positively delighted by cartoons that they made peace right there on the spot and opened up their own animation studio in Burbank.

If you’re dealing with weather deities, try breaking out one of those weather manipulators that you’ve confiscated over the years. You may think its unlikely that Earthly mad science would be able to compete with Zeus’s might, but hey you might be surprised, those guys are definitely dedicated to their craft.

You and a buddy should dress up like the two gods and then roll up to the battlefield. You might get struck down for your hubris. You might make these mythological meatheads feel super awkward and send them running home to change. (Just keep doing it over and over again every time they come back in new outfits.)

Hop on over to Venus, or some uninhabited asteroid, or Universe Designate 3.19∑7 aka the BarrenLand. Then channel your inner ancient deity write the pettiest and dismissive letter you can, fill it with backhand insults and some front hand insults for good measure. Then send the letter to these gods by raven with a stamp on it that tells the gods exactly where the letter came from. With any luck they’ll be so incensed by the myriad of insults that they’ll take their fight over to one of those uninhabited places.

Snacks? Like a dump truck filled with snacks? Do we think that might work?

Try offering up some sacrifices or incense to the gods to gain their favor then, beg them to leave. (If you need a human sacrifice, Professor Paleontologist personally told me that he’s always been fascinated by the prospect so I think that means he’s down.) Ooh, argh, I really can’t condone that but... hm... Ah, no. You can’t sacrifice Professor Paleontologist. Don’t sacrifice anybody.

Loudly talk about how lame Earth is and say, within earshot of these divine dolts, that no cool person would ever be caught dead there. These insecure infinites will have no choice but to pack up and move on to somewhere else. For fear of being deemed uncool. Which would totally harsh their vibes.

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icybeanheadcanons · 7 years

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General Headcanons for the Skellies

Thought I would start off with some general headcanons for these boys.

It's long so I'm gonna put it under the cut I think.

Undertale

Tale

-a sweetheart. He's so sweet he’ll probably rot your teeth.

-Smart ™. No seriously. He's perceptive as hell and notices small details. On first glance his puzzles may seem easy but actually have some degree of challenge to them.

-workaholic honestly??? He doesn't exactly mean to be he just has a habit of throwing himself full force into everything he does.

-his voice is on the louder side so it seems like he's screaming but he isn't. You can hear him 30 feet away??? But he's talking in his normal speaking voice he can't be that loud can he?

-slightly self conscious on his volume control. He's startled a few people once having reached the surface with how loud he was which really bothers him. He's not intimidating he swears. He makes a conscious effort to make himself seem not quite as intimidating.

-tol bean, about 6 feet tall. Excited to meet people taller than him. He finds it amazing even if its an inch difference. You're shorter??? YOU’RE PRECIOUS CLEARLY.

-a walking ray of sunshine and generally is so very positive about people even when being relatively negative toward him. Compliments are an absolute.

-he recognizes not everyone can be inherently good and overall be a real bully. He knows they're not the greatest but he is sure they aren't entirely bad, no one is!

-holy shit, i know this bean likes to give compliments but if you're a horrible person trash talking him or his brother??? Prepare for to hear backhanded compliments, and being one upped in every sense of the word. He's not one to take insults lying down. He still turns them into compliments, and it really shakes people into being nicer. Good. Because those comments always hurt him.

-well deserved ego, but still has some insecurities and doubt about his capabilities. Did he do enough??? Maybe he should do more???? Please don't let him do more he will absolutely overwork himself.

-sly as a fox my guy. You think he's innocent? B o y. You're in trouble. Lucky for you, he won't take advantage of this. For the most part. When he does you always find out at the end and it's something small usually. He kind of uses it as a reminder that he's not innocent. Stop that. He knows he's an amazing cinnamon roll but there's way more sin than you realize.

-would adopt every stray he sees. He could probably open up a petting zoo he's got so many animals visiting his house. There's at least 30 stray cats that visit him at one time.

-volunteers at an animal shelter. Because look at all those adorable furry babies. Can he please take them all home? No?? Fine then he’ll make sure they go to a proper loving home.

-prefers cats but dogs are just as good. Just as long as they don't take off with any bone attacks. He loves them even if they do.

-generally doesn't curse but isn't afraid to. They're just words and generally, if they don't insult someone they're perfectly fine words to use. He doesn't use them generally for other people’s sake.

-loves his brother with every fiber of his being. “My brother is amazing LOOK AT HIM.” He's the first person he has to tell news to just by default.

-watches anime because of alphys now and watches a lot of cooking shows. Documentaries from time to time if it really sparks his interests. Super hero shows he lives for.

-much better cook now that he has actual things to go off of for learning. Undyne did her best but dear lord. That wasn't really cooking it was more like Scary Cooking ™.

-puns are okay just don't drown him in them like his brother. Please and thank you. Will act made but he's laughing and smiling.

Classy Bean

-you're actually going to drown in puns and that is how you’ll die. I promise you. It’ll be glorious. You’ll probably end up with a pun written on your grave.

-SPACE. This guy loves space, upon reaching the surface and settling in he dives at every book about space he can get his hands on. He will lit up like the stars he so adores. Even if its just some piece of clothing with a star or space design, that's his aesthetic he will wear whatever it is because SPACE.

-talk science to this nerd oh my god. Especially curious about the sky don't let him fool you. He overall loves biology too, specifically wildlife. Everything on the surface is unfamiliar and so he loves it all. So. Fucking. Much.

-reading is his main thing, but isn't afraid to watch things on netflix. Tale always forgets to switch to his profile though so he gets a lot of anime suggestions amongst his billion documentaries. Also enjoys watching comedians.

-talk to him about his interests. He will go from sluggish to being very animated in seconds.

-insomnia for days. It's not as bad as in the underground but he's still relatively restless. Its not generally always because his thoughts are loud and deafening. Not really. This is usually when he goes to the backyard and flops on the ground to stare at the sky. Or he puts on a documentary. Never a comedian because that makes him a little more keyed up and awake.

-by the time day has come where Tale has gotten up he's watched several documentaries. Oops.

-Tale worries and fusses about him before taking up research to help with insomnia. He buys various teas and anything else that could help his brother relax. Though Classy Bean will generally fall asleep when his brother hugs him. He sleeps a lot better with someone next to him remarkably. Tale tucks him in before he cleans his brother's room before it drives him insane from simply looking at the mess. Self sustaining tornados are forbidden, so there's that he doesn't need to take care of.

-Tale and Classy Bean often fall asleep together on the couch when they spend time together watching one of mettaton’s shows. Nothing knocks them out faster.

-relatively a chill dude. He's pretty easy to get along with.

-don't hurt Tale. Seriously he’ll fight you. That doesn't always mean physically but he's ready to punch you in the face at any time if you talk shit about his brother. Doesn't care if you practically are shitting yourself because of his intimidation that was kind of the point of the thing.

-will not interfere in his brother’s life besides that. He knows his brother is relatively quick witted and clever. After an interaction with someone relatively rude he will send them a quick glare before getting Tale away from them. He hopes they ever so kindly fuck off. This is about one of the only times he is anywhere near aggressive.

-smol bean is 5 ft tall. Please don't remind him he's small and can't reach things its irritating as is. If you're smaller than him he will be secretly happy and adoring your tiny size. If you're tall he will probably try to get you to pick him up and carry him on his shoulders. One because he's lazy and two he secretly wishes to know what it's like to be tall.

-crippling depression. This hasn't changed for him. Though it's gotten relatively better where he's able to “fake it till you make it back home to your bed” more often than before, but there's those few days where he's absolutely drained. Where everything lists itself and swarms him and is overwhelming. He's tired but can't sleep. So he just lays in bed staring at the ceiling. These are the days Tale looks out for at a constant. On the days he sees his brother faking (he always knows) he tries to bring him some comfort and sometimes is able to address the rising problems before they build up too much. When Classy Bean gets like this his brother dotes on him. He knows he's doing his best, and always reassures him.

-generalized anxiety. Its not usually a huge problem where it causes him panic attacks (he has had a few before though) but he is always worried about something. He keeps a stress ball in his pocket which helps take the edge off. His brother usually is able to ease the anxiety and if not can help him walk through it to find that the thing bothering him was fine.

-birds. He loves birds. Their feathers are pretty, they're majestic but completely ridiculous at the same time. He developed a love for them when a crow had landed on his head. He felt like a Chosen One ™ in that instant. He's now a friend to all birds. The crow visits him often to bring him gifts. Buttons are fairly common. He named the crow Scare. Yes. Because then he could say he was a Scare Crow. Tale is fed up with this.

Underfell

Soft Edge

-Was captain of the royal guard. He's very proud of this.

-slightly inflated ego. Some of it is deserved the other part he needs to tone down.

-so very extra and dramatic. He's kind of a huge dork.

-“WHAT IVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING EMBARRASSING IN MY LIFE” he's lying. He has done a handful and then some of embarrassing things. It's actually just him being a dork and being relatively cute.

-he lives for compliments. And attention. He desires all of it. Will begrudgingly accept sharing your attention though.

-relatively good cook. A little bit better than Tale.

-BAKING. He makes the best treats. He's a little self conscious about them though.

-constantly afraid he's a terrible person deep down. Is he taking care of his brother? Is he a good enough brother? These are serious questions for him. He's wonderful and doing his best.

-surprisingly nurturing. Kind of a kid magnet. He doesn't go to parks if he's looking for peace and quiet. He will end up playing games with the kids instead.

-please no puns. There are a few he enjoys truly. He can't help but smile when his brother makes them though because he knows he's comfortable then. He'll crack a few himself to help ease his brother's anxiety.

-cooking shows. He likes Gordon Ramsay a lot.

-loves art honestly. Like holy heck someone made that with their own two hands. Has not thought of trying to make any himself. He likes to watch different kinds of shows involving some art form. It's fascinating to watch.

-he's a real sweetheart under all that edge don't let him fool you.

-even more perceptive than Tale is. Though he doubts himself when it comes to his brother. Are you sure you interpreted that right? 99% of the time he has. His puzzles are a lot more intense than Tale’s.

-horror movies make him uncomfortable. He often finds them stupid as well but for some reason they urk him. Specifically the killer ones.

-kind of?? Fascinated by humans. They work a lot differently from monsters and that seems pretty damn cool.

-be rude to him and he'll be a savage asshole. Can be slightly rude on a regular basis. He's not meaning to.

-his scarf is a gift from his brother and is his most cherished possession.

-will fight you if you don't think his brother is the absolute best. He will literally fight you.

-TOLLER BEAN. This boy is so tol its scary. 7’7 is so tol. You will not be taller than him which makes him feel pretty good about himself. If you're shorter than average he will want to pick you up and carry you around. He secretly adores tiny things they are simply ridiculously adorable.

-secretly loves pastels. They're soft and are the opposite of his usual aesthetic of edgy and dark but he doesn't really care they're cute colors. He really likes cute things he's come to realize and he likes to keep it on the down low. He's supposed to be scary and intimidating.

-is only scary and intimidating when he's angry. Has only been truly angry with his brother a few times in his life, and it wasn't fun. So he has amazing control over his temper.

-soft things are the best and no one can tell him otherwise.

-if he wants to do something he will do it NOTHING WILL STOP HIM. He refuses to back down. He will listen to reason though, he considers himself to be a reasonable skeleton.

-loud. Very loud. It helped intimidate people, but now he doesn’t have much of a need for it so he’s learning volume control. It is harder than he thought it would be.

Red Boy

-24/7 aggressive internal screaming. Okay but seriously, he is. He has so much anxiety from the underground.

-always half expecting for “the other shoe to drop” or rather the bad shit to come his way when a good thing happens. Always afraid his happiness will be ripped away from him.

-needs so much affection the poor bab. He tries not to bother his brother about getting a hug all the time because he’s pretty sure he’d never let go.

-coat is big and floof like a security blanket. It’s a lot bigger than him it’s like he’s drowning in it which is exactly how he wants it.

-Also has depression like Classy Bean but it’s not as severe. His main problem is his overwhelming anxiety.

-coat was a gift from Soft Edge, and he will never go anywhere without it. It’s hot? Well guess he’ll die.

-the quiet bothers him. It’s crushing and overwhelming and it makes him super paranoid. On the surface they live in the city at least and so nothing is ever completely dead silent like in the underground. Soft Edge picked this on purpose for his brother.

-Like Classy Bean, he loves birds. Specifically birds of prey. They’re big and dangerous and he just thinks they’re super cool.

-Actually has an owl. He found an abandoned owlet in the woods when him and his brother were hiking one day (he was forced into it but at least he was spending time with his bro) and it had taken a shine to him. He tried to get it to stay but it kept following him. He ended up giving in to the little bird’s demands to stay with him. He couldn’t resist. He named the owl Hootyhoo.

-actually likes horror movies despite his anxiety. If asked why he will look dead straight at you and without skipping a beat say, “my life is a horror movie.” Paranormal movies scare the shit out of him.

-has made the mistake again and again of playing horror games in the dark. With headphones. Every time, he ends up screaming and falling out of his chair which wakes up Soft Edge. He ends up sleeping in his brothers room that night, terrified to be alone.

-has a lightsaber that can glow so he can walk down the halls to get snacks without disturbing anything. He forgets his magic can glow. He’s scared, tired, and hungry. He just wants to be sure he can get his snacks without getting attacked by something horrifying.

-will watch a lot of super hero movies and tv shows with his brother. They’re actually pretty cool and will go investigate some comics for his favorites.

-he’s a huge nerd, and has found himself looking through harry potter and lord of the rings stuff more than once.

-isn’t as big of a fan of science but still enjoys learning what he can, and the fact everything is practically at his fingertips with the internet he adores it. His phone has become one of the things he uses the most.

-is actually a tol bean too. He’s 7’ tall and actually rather enjoys the fact he’s super tall amongst humans. It’s great, look at how small they are it’s adorable.

-Darker sense of humor than Classy Bean, but still adores puns. Half of his humor is not pg-13 so be warned.

-will text Soft Edge at 4 am with weird questions. “What if… we’re all just fuckin ants to some aliens and that’s why they haven’t visited us?” He’s always met with “go the fuck to sleep”

-also pretty loud like his brother, and sometimes when they’re irritated about something they will go into a small screaming match. They don’t even say anything, it’s just incoherent screeching.

-kind of a flirt. Like he tries but isn’t all that great at it and will often just make you laugh. Outside of puns, words aren’t his forte.

-stays up way too late because he likes to make mistakes apparently. He needs to be up early tomorrow? That’s fine he’ll just watch one more walkthrough video- it’s 4 am now… How did he get here? What is time? He dies inside the next day. He takes a nap when he gets home. Rinse and repeat.

Underswap

Honey Bear

-Oh god the biggest meme. The memeist meme to ever meme. “Can i be your meme dealer?”

-Pranks for days. Lazy ones that are generally the classics, but relatively good ones. He gets into prank wars with his brother a lot.

-Pretty damn smart honestly. Has an interest in quantum physics and other complex topics that would leave a lot of people in existential crisis.

-philosophy’s pretty cool, and has an overwhelming knowledge on it. He’s a classic nerd about this learning these things.

-lots of podcasts. It seems to be the only audio he has on his phone. Except for the incidental music with a few meme songs. He has rick rolled his brother a number of times. It never gets old. His favorite is Allstar by Smashmouth.

-very calm aura about him. He’s relatively chill and nice to be around overall.

-Tol bean too, 6 feet tall. Height doesn’t mean a whole lot to him, but if you’re short he will sometimes use your head as an armrest as a joke. He doesn’t do it a lot, just when he wants to annoy you.

-falls asleep random places. He’s an insomniac too and can’t seem to get ahold of a schedule or routine. So he’s always pretty tired.

-talks in his sleep. Full conversations with whoever it is in his dream. He likes to hear about what he said when he was asleep, it’s pretty funny to hear the weird things.

-walking talking shitpost, 100% on purpose. He’s got a great sense of humor. He is not always able to say everything with a straight face though and if he thinks of a shitpost kind of idea he may start wheezing and confuse everyone around him.

-smokes. Calms his nerves, but is trying to find a better replacement since his brother hates it so much. So far no such luck.

-has been picked up and dropped into the bathtub by his brother. He turned on the shower head, scaring the shit out of Honey Bear. it was always freezing.

-always cold for some reason, he wears a hoody all the time for good reason. Maybe he should put on pants instead of cargo shorts but that meant effort and so he was going to deal.

-he struggles with depression, which generally ends with him staying in bed binge watching netflix to forget his problems. His brother brings him food so he doesn’t forget to eat. There was a day he’d come home on one of his bad days and found he hadn’t eaten anything but honey.

-libraries are nice. If he’s not home or at muffet’s he’s at a library. They know him by name now. He reads for a while but eventually falls asleep. The library is nice and relaxing so it happens a lot. The staff know to wake him up an hour or so later. The poor guy needs the sleep.

-weirdest ringtones for people. Like my guy. What the fuck? If asked about it he’ll simply grin.

-ducks seem to really like him. He’s been followed home from the park by a flock of ducks before. He doesn’t really care if they follow him.

-his room stays clean since Sassberry likes to raid his room when he’s on a cleaning rampage.

-has a bazillion blankets and 2 pillows. That’s it. Sassberry stays away from the tangled ball of blankets on his bed unless it’s time to wash the bedding. If it is he quickly replaces the bedding for him so Honey Bear doesn’t freak out. Not having enough blankets makes him panic, and is one of the few things that gets such a strong reaction from him.

-a blanket hog. He’s cold and generally wraps himself in a cocoon when he sleeps. He’s pretty much accepted it at this point.

-loves watching disney movies with his brother. They seem to be more for him than Blueberry though, he hasn’t quite realized that though. He loves Princess and the Frog, Brave, and Mulan best. The heroines remind him of his brother a little bit.

-very reactive to movies actually. He was sobbing at the end of Toy Story 3 and Sassberry had to hold him while he cried.

-Honey Bear owns like 50 pairs of crocs just because of Sassberry’s reaction to them.

Sassberry

-relatively very cheerful demeanor. He’s very excitable.

-not a child. Treat him as a child and he will leave the premises dead silent. A cashier checking him out had treated him that way once and he walked out of the store, leaving Honey Bear behind to pay for the groceries. He avoids that cashier at all times.

-You’re a fool if you think he’s innocent okay. You’re going to get fucking played, and will see how far he can push you. Honey Bear tries his best to get him to stop but sometimes, he’ll just let him do what he wants. This is usually with the people he doesn’t like a whole lot.

-Gets into prank wars with his brother. He’s very mischievous and so it’s a perfect way for him to let off some steam.

-always nice until provoked. Wanna say that thing about his brother again? Do it, he fucking dares you. He’s prepared to punch you in the face if you do say it again. He’s not very calm and accepting of people trashing his brother’s name. It is his ultimate pet peeve and if you insult his brother he will end all contacts with you.

-Insult him? Okay, he’s not going to take it to heart or at least try not to. Insult his outfit? He’ll insult you right back. He knows he’s adorable and you will not put him down on how he looks.

-He doesn’t tolerate people making mean remarks about other people’s appearance. He will sass them into their grave.

-Adores everything cute. He prefers a lot of women’s fashion and will often wear dresses and skirts too. He looks fucking adorable and you can fight him about this. He adores them.

-His scarf was something he’s had since he was a babybones and is his favorite thing to accessorize with.

-learned about quantum physics and philosophy so he could know what the hell his brother was talking about because holy shit. What the heck are you talking about my guy?

-After learning some of the subjects he found the multiverse theory. He seems to have a blast thinking about other versions of himself. He’s a strong believer in it. “I hope other universe me is having a good day.”

-smol bean. 5 feet tall. He loves tol people though. Short people are precious and when he first meets you where he realizes he’s taller he will get stars in his eyes.

-Tell him something weird and he will probably just roll with it. Have you met his brother? He’s a weird dork. There isn’t a too weird.

-horror is fascinating to him but he’s not a big fan of it. He’s rather casual about watching it, and he never really gets submersed in it where he’s scared.

-restless sleeper. Honey Bear and him have a lot of late night conversations when they can’t sleep.

-Sewing is one of his favorite activities. He makes a lot of things for himself and his brother. A lot of the blankets he has were made by him.

-watches some anime, he really enjoys slice of life and romcom kind of animes. Anything super cute. Magical girls are a big deal too. He watched Madoka Magica with his brother. He has never seen Honey Bear cry so hard.

-tries his hardest to be a pacifist and constantly reminds himself not to punch the people who insult his brother in the face. He has to be better than their poorly dressed ass. But it’s so hard.

-What are those horrible shoes on your feet? Crocs??? W H Y?

-Very loving and nurturing. He loves taking care of people and dotes on the people he loves.

-goes on cleaning rampages when something is bothering him.

-adores music. Music is amazing and he has started to hoard cds. He buys a lot of music from itunes as well but he adores cds too.

-his music is very very widespread and is very open to trying different genres. Once upon getting in the car Honey Bear gave him a weird look because a heavy metal cd started playing once the car turned on. He very awkwardly switched it to some light pop before explaining, “I was angry.”

-used to have a trombone but one day he a monster had rudely slapped it out of his hands because he was terrible at playing it and it was destroyed. Honey Bear and him kept searching Waterfall over the years for stuff but never found another one. He was still learning it at the time, but now he’s forgotten about all of it. He would love to try learning a different instrument though.

Swapfell

Rus

-oh such an anxious boy. He’s doing his best to go about his day but he’s so stressed.

-His brother constantly singing his praise really helps keep him together. He can do this if his brother believes in him. It’ll be okay.

-Scary tol. 6’7 without slouching. He loves small and short people they’re adorable like his brother. If you’re taller than him that’s cool too, you’re just as cool.

-Hiding in his coat forever and always he barely lets it go. It’s big and warm and was a gift from his brother a long time ago to replace his old coat that was falling apart.

-Will hold his brother’s hand if they’re in a crowd or gives him a piggy back ride. Will likely do the same for you if you’re scared of crowds.

-Cooking is amazing like holy shit are you the next gordon Ramsay or something? He has a serious talent for it.

-really likes to cook, he finds it relaxing and he feeds his brother in the process. At the very least he isn’t eating a bunch of junk food and gets a healthy meal.

-Often looks up recipes for something new to try. He’s always trying to figure out a way to make sure his brother is able to eat healthy and enjoy the food at the same time.

-He will admit he’s a bit addicted to greasy foods. He can’t help it.

-His brother is the reason he started drinking barbeque sauce. When he started learning to grill he would douse the meats in barbeque sauce and that was when he discovered his love for it. He’s happy his brother still makes it the exact same way.

-he likes science though he’s never really focused on one field and hasn’t had the time to sit down and go through it.

-What is sleep? Ha ha ha… The poor boy is so anxious he has issues sleeping. He has to check on his brother at least 5 times in the night before he’s able to settle in. he’s a worry wort.

-music really helps him calm down, classical seems to do the best. He seems to gather rather haunting melodies in his collection though, so expect to find nothing but spoopy sounds.

-he can’t handle horror movies. It’s too much. Luckily his brother is the same way so they stay away from it pretty easily.

-horror movie ads terrify him significantly. He has to mute and click on a different tab until it’s past.

-he loves his brother so much, he low key worships him but it goes both ways between the two. They genuinely adore each other.

-touch starved. Anyone up for affection he is going to take advantage of that.

-Cuddles for days. Has zipped his brother up in his hoody and carried him around all day. It was very therapeutic for the both of them.

-craves praise and compliments. Him and his brother like to have sessions where they shower each other in compliments to help ease each other’s anxieties. Rus always ends up crying and it ends in cuddles. Please love this boy.

-has crippling depression similar to Classy Bean besides his anxiety. On bad days they just have leftovers or Scaryberry cooks.

Scaryberry

-So loud. Volume control does not exist. He’s not trying to fix it, he wants to be loud.

-smolest smol. 4’5 you will likely be taller than him. Don’t mention his height it makes him angry.

-seems like he’s always angry but he’s not he’s just a very rough and aggressive person.

-is childish because he doesn’t really like being an adult. Adulting is hard. He prefers his more childish demeanor over being overly serious.

-tantrums are just a show. He only uses them to draw attention and make the person he’s angry with panic about causing a scene. He’s a drama queen and life is his stage.

-puns are something he does like. They’re clever to him, but he will cringe at the shittier ones. You can do better than that.

-Anxiety. It’s everywhere. He has social anxiety, so he doesn’t like meeting new people without his brother around. Crowds are the worst. They’re so very loud and not in the good way, there are too many voices and it’s overwhelming. He’ll go into a panic attack.

-After becoming official friends with him, he will try to test what he can get away with. If you’re a bit of a doormat or pushover he will choose not to walk all over you later and try to defend you from being pushed around by others. If you don’t let him get away with jackshit then he’s relatively happy. He thinks it’s a very good trait to have.

-constantly tries to get his brother a scarf like his because he thinks he’d look cool in them. He hasn’t picked one out yet. There are too many unworthy of his brother.

-very opinionated. He will likely get into silly arguments with you like how to eat certain foods.

-he cannot cook. He can’t boil water at all, and he’s aware of how awful his cooking is. His brother generally takes care of it though and he adores his food.

-constant praise of his brother and friends. He loves giving compliments. He wishes he got more himself. He just wants affection is that so hard to ask?

-Says the weirdest things and his brother is often found doubled over laughing from it. He’s an energetic odd ball and he loves that.

-platonic cuddles are accepted and often times he will cuddle his friends when he desires affection. He gives gentle headbutts to get their attention to demand the affection.

-His brother is amazing and strong and you will never be able to tell him otherwise.

-He’s tough! He’s strong! He can handle anything!!!... okay maybe not horror movies BUT OTHER THAN THAT… Okay dogs are kind of scary… so are dolls, they seem suspicious… He’s not scared of no thing though! Whatever it is he’s trembling don’t make him do this. Quickly give him an out.

-he adores musicals! He can’t get enough of them. He loves Heathers, Hamilton, and Sweeney Todd so far, but his all time favorite is Phantom of the Opera. You’ll often hear him humming the music from Phantom of the Opera to himself.

-can’t cook but can do barbeques. He doesn’t get it but he rolls with it. He’s a grill master. He likes he’s good at something besides cleaning. It makes him feel more useful.

-loves sweets and junky foods. Hates vegetables. Will only eat them in a certain way.

-hates cleaning but will do it because he hates a dirty house more.

-has days where his energy is relatively low and he doesn’t do anything. He’s going to binge watch every musical he has and hang out with his brother.

Horrortale

Sugarskull

-The sweetest of all the skellies. Like liquid sugar.

-Not fond of his appearance but it is what it is. He can’t really fix it, so he decides not to dwell on it too much. Though upon reaching the surface finally it starts to bother him more.

-he doesn’t like scaring people and it’s hard to understand what part of him is scary looking so he can fix it. He doesn’t need to fix anything, he’s a sweet boy through and through.

-His bones ache a lot from the abuse he’s been through from Undyne. He tries not to let it bother him but sometimes he has a bad day where the pain is worse. Seems like it can get worse because of the weather, so he tries to keep an eye on the weather channel so he can plan around it. It works pretty well.

-Got new clothes after reaching the surface so he doesn’t wear his blood stained ones anymore. He figured out that it probably was unsettling and was quick to change it. He noticed a change which made people more willing to interact with him. He was overjoyed by the small step in progress.

-His clothes have a lot of variety but he has more pastel colored clothes than anything. They make him feel warm and fuzzy looking at them, and they’re so gentle. He also has every soft sweater he could find.

-Still holds on to his old stained clothes, but keeps them folded up nicely and kept in a box in his closet. His scarf luckily wasn’t stained so he keeps it on at all times.

-has an interest in action figures and stuffed animals. Stuffed animals are super soft and the action figures are neat.

-He cried when he first was introduced to a grocery store. There was so much food.

-also how he made his first friend. The grocery store was locally owned and the woman who owned it noticed him crying. She helped him calm down before checking him out herself. She threw in some extra things she noticed him eyeing for free. The woman hadn’t heard his story but recognized someone who struggled with starvation.

-the store now knows him by name, and is sure to send him any coupons they can get a hold of, a curtsy of the owner. He feels lucky to have such a good friend, and gives him hope for making other friends.

-extremely tol bean. He’s 8 feet tall. He hopes you don’t mind him picking you up. It’s easier on him to do that so he can be eye level with you. If not he will crouch down, even if it really hurts to do so.

-he has some paranoia when it comes to night time. It’s quiet and dark. He doesn’t like it. He is quick to find a solution though to fill in the silence. He plays soft nature sounds in his room to help him go to sleep. If that doesn’t work, he goes downstairs and sleeps on the couch after turning on the tv. He needs some sort of white noise or he’ll be anxious and unable to sleep the entire night.

-nightmares aren’t uncommon. He can’t remember them when he wakes up but his panicked state always confirms with him that he’d just had a bad dream. It takes a bit to calm down, he usually makes some tea to help his nerves.

-when he learns about cooking shows he’s ecstatic. There was an entire channel about cooking????????????? His eyes just light up. He learns some neat things from the channel but overall just enjoys learning about all sorts of foods humans have. There were so many. Sometimes he cries because he realizes that he’s able to make them if he really wanted and didn’t have to scrounge for food.

-he watches a lot of tv. Just about anything that makes him curious. He would read but it’s a little harder for him to get anything across to him sometimes. He can read it just find but comprehension seems to escape him. It’s such an off and on thing he just prefers not to read so he doesn’t get overly frustrated.

-has become more optimistic again after moving onto the surface. There’s a sky, there’s food, and he has his brother. He’s grateful for these things. He knows him and his brother have room for improvement though. They would heal in time, and even if they couldn’t completely go back to the way things were before, they at least had each other for the rough days.

Axe

-it’s probably the roughest on him for the move to the surface. The only person he really trusts is his brother. Interactions with other people are awkward and strained.

-doesn’t like being asked about what happened in the underground. Will leave the conversation as fast as he can. That’s a can of worms he ain’t letting anyone open.

-pretty irritable when he’s uncomfortable. The surface is really different and it’s a lot to process for him. He stays at home mostly until he grows more comfortable to the fact of being on the surface.

-He then starts heading out with Sugarskull to slowly introduce himself to the rest of the world. It’s not so bad when he’s with his brother.

-The local grocery store is heaven, and he gets a conversation with the owner along side his brother. He was surprised she was looking out for him, and it makes things a little easier. He’s happy someone has accepted Sugarskull like this. It honestly takes a load off his mind.

-he starts exploring a little more after that. He enjoys the park a lot. Though he scares a lot of kids. There’s always a few weird ones that come talk to him and ask him nosy questions.

-Seeing the sky still kind of shakes him, like holy shit suddenly grounded. This is real. This isn’t a dream. He needs to sit down for a few hours.

-watches a lot of tv with Sugarskull. There is a lot of interesting channels and reading seems to be a lot harder for the both of them now. They’d been pretty avid readers but now books were more frustrating than anything.

-Axe still tries to read at times though. He wants to look more into science again, remember the stuff he loved about it. It’s all a hazy memory now. The books don’t help though.

-Axe remembers his love when him and his brother stargaze one night, and he feels a surge of adoration for the stars again. Oh, he’s crying shit. His brother hugs him and wipes his tears away. He’s as understanding as ever.

-Youtube is a gift from the gods. Axe is able to dive back into science because of it due to the science channels.

-he ends up watching a lot of other bullshit too. The videos vary greatly. Sometimes Sugarskull accidentally uses his channel and forgets to log off so there’s a lot of how to videos recommended to him too. He doesn’t care.

-horror movies are a no go. He’s had enough of that in real life, and doesn’t let it go anywhere near Sugarskull. That would be too much for the both of them.

-horror games are okay for him though. It feels like it’s a safe way to get out his frustrations. As long as he gets to kill things. That’s about the only kind of games he’ll be comfortable. He’s done a lot of shit but he doesn’t need any of that psychological horror shit. He’s fucked up enough as it is.

-tol bean. He’s 6 feet tall. He’s shocked to find he’s on the tall side for humans. This is different. He’s used to people being taller but now he’s tall too. This is actually a really nice feeling.

-morbid sense of humor, he really can’t help it. He’s actually funny as hell but holy shit are his jokes wrong as hell.

-cracking jokes eases his discomfort, and is able to adjust a little better hearing someone actually laugh at his jokes. You’re weird. That’s cool.

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