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monsterenergysimp · 3 years

Text

M.I.M.A.L.

sykkuno x male! reader // platonic au

summary: you’re insecure about your looks but sykkuno’s audience finds out just how handsome you actually are

request: The reader is the editor of Sykkuno & offline tv and is referred as M.I.M.A.L. Offline always shutouts the reader. However the reader keeps their identity as a secret (to the fans) because they're insecure about how they looked. That's until a party at Offline TV house happens and the reader pops in to sykkuno room to get something and the reader face is shown and they're very very VERY attractive and their voice is to. So next stream they're asking who was the reader. The ending can be up to you @lunchawx

warnings: alcohol and drinking mention

word count: 867

notes: This is proof read but I could have missed some stuff. Sorry it took so long but I hope you like it and I hope everyone enjoys :)

main blog: @itsmysleepover

You were sitting in your office cutting together some footage for a new Offline TV video. You were also rewatching Sykkuno’s most recent Rust stream in the background. You wanted to get the highlights so you could edit a video for his youtube channel as well. You had been overworking yourself recently editing OTV videos as well as videos for some other YouTubers you worked with.

You stopped editing for a second to focus on Sykkuno's past stream. He had just read a question from a super chat asking who you were since he's mentioned you a couple of times. You were curious about what he would say about you. "Yeah, M.I.M.A.L., he's super cool. He's my friend and the editor for Offline TV and also my YouTube videos and some other YouTubers too, I'm not sure who." He went back to his game looking at the chat everyone in a while. "Does he have his own channel? No, he doesn't like being on camera. He's a shy guy that M.I.M.A.L."

You are, in Sykkuno’s words, a shy guy. You weren't fond of the camera because you weren't fond of your looks.

You shifted your focus to work again. Listening to the Offline TV video, making sure the audio quality was good so far. You chuckled when they shouted you out for what seemed to be the millionth time. Realistically it was probably the second or third time. “Again shout out to M.I.M.A.L., our editor, for having to go through all this footage of Toast acting stupid,” Poki said. Lily chuckled, nodding her head and agreeing with Poki.

“Shout out to M.I.M.A.L. for being the best editor out there; also putting an explosion here would be cool,” Scarra said. You sighed. He’s right it could be cool. You did the easiest edit you could and just downloaded a short video of an explosion and stitched it into the video. You don't know how long you had sat there but your eyes burned from dryness and your head pounded. You continued to edit until your phone blinked drawing you out of your work trance. You looked over and read a text from Sykkuno.

"Hey, dude! Wanna come over for a small party here at the otv house??"

You were tempted. You needed to get away from work but it felt like you were trapped at your desk. You looked at the text unsure whether to accept or not. Against your instinct and against every toxic fiber in your being telling you to keep working. You texted him back saying you'd be there soon. You got ready, took a pain killer, and headed out.

When you arrived you were glad you decided to go. It was just some friends hanging out and drinking, while light music played in the background. Some people were playing board games, other people were playing on the console. Everything was super chill. There couldn’t be more than 30 people here. Sykkuno spotted you and from his place on the couch and called you over.

“Hey Y/N, I’m happy you came, you want something to drink?” Sykkuno asked you holding a cup of his own.

“I can use a beer or something.”

You followed Sykkuno into the kitchen where a few people were having a conversation. Sykkuno handed you a beer from the fridge. You opened it and took a sip. You made your way to the living room where people were playing Mario Kart. You sat in one of the chairs and watched. You continued drinking through the night and when you were ready to go home. You went up to Sykkuno’s room and ordered yourself an Uber.

When the car arrived you left, went home, and fell asleep. The next day you woke up, surprised you weren’t hungover and searched for your phone. You couldn’t find it. Thankfully since you could still remember the night before you recalled last having your phone in the OTV house. After breakfast, you eventually got ready and drove there. You greeted Lily who was watching some TV from the couch.

You walked into his room not expecting Sykkuno to be streaming. You froze when you realized you had interrupted him. “Uh, sorry I think I left my phone here. If I didn’t this is embarrassing.”

“No worries, here’s your phone.” He picked it up from his desk and held it out to you. You walked into frame and took your phone from him. Unsure what to do you nervously waved at the camera and walked out of frame.

“Thanks.”

“No problem man,” Sykuuno said turning to his game, “Also everyone in the chat is talking about how handsome and hot you are,” he added nonchalantly.

You stopped and looked at him, “No they’re not, why would they say that?”

“Because you are a very handsome man Y/N.”

“Maybe I should start a twitch channel of my own,” you joked. You said your goodbyes before leaving and going back home so you could finish up work. You saved everything and closed it before opening a tab and searching twitch.tv.

tag list: @watermelon-mess @oldblackandwhitetown @maat-the-prescriptive @gday5sos @ashanti-granville @03ohj @djxrin @grapewish @crapimahuman @saturn2000 @whatawonderfulusername @johnjacobjingleheimerschmidt @lauramacch @socialdesires @teaspill8 @whathasateezdonetome @seutarose @whiteblacknothingpanda @save-the-sky @chrysanthykios

#sykkuno #sykkuno x reader #sykkuno imagine #sykkuno imagines #sykkuno x y/n #sykkuno x you #male reader #platonic reader #streamers #youtubers #caffeinated ramblings

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sleep-i-ness · 4 years

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My Saviour (Tony Stark x reader)

Blurb: Y/N is going to die. That she’s sure of. Now is the wait, ten feet under a collapsed building, waiting for it to finally give way.

Prompts: “I am being extremely clever up here and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed. What’s the point in having you all?”

CW: Mentions of death and dying, injury

A/N: This is my entry for @thefanficfaerie‘s writing challenge, I am so sorry it’s late! Back to school and all that

The ceiling’s about to go. You need to get out of there NOW. Everything changes the mission Y/N thinks she’s going to die. Sure, there had been a few close calls every now and then but never like this. Trapped under a collapsed 7-storey building, with dust still settling around her and ominous creaks echoing around the small space. And, how could she forget, with the team’s biggest ego for company.

The day started early, if she could even say ‘started’ when Stark had kept her up in the labs with him, well past her usual bedtime. Cap had tried to insist, yet again, that she joined him on his ‘invigorating’ morning jog, despite the fact that she had nowhere near the stamina of a super soldier and that she was running on eleven cups of black coffee (adding milk had ended up taking too much time when the exhaustion was kicking in again) and spite. Her spite, she decided, was what was going to get her out of this mess.

At the bright and early time of 10am, Stark had stumbled out of his bedroom, having actually gone to bed instead of being pressured into joining a training session. Well, he didn’t really need to train; the suit was his manpower. Unlike the rest of them, he didn’t need to keep in shape, other than to pick up women at whatever posh event he went to. Which was unfortunately never kept a secret from her, as for some reason, whilst her floor (why did she need a whole bloody floor?) was being decorated/renovated, she was in a room directly adjacent to Stark’s. One thing he’d apparently forgotten to invest in was soundproofing.

Soon after Stark had deigned to join them at their Team Breakfast, which, according to Rogers, was an Important Bonding Session, Fury had decided to give them a call. And with Fury it was never a catch-up call, which would be nice, once in a while, now that she thought about it. Or maybe not, she dreaded seeing the man for mission briefings, she wasn’t sure if he had the capability of acting like a normal human. Oh God. Imagine Fury having brunch. She wasn’t sure if her hysterical thought stream was due to the dust fumes, lack of oxygen, undiagnosed claustrophobia kicking in, or perhaps a torturous combination of all three.

Anyway, this impromptu call was due to a SHIELD mission that had gone sideways and so the Avengers were being called in to clean up the mess. Well, considering their track record, she had been betting that more mess would be made than sorted out. It was meant to be a smallish HYDRA base with few soldiers, but more than the agents already sent in were able to handle. All she could say was that wherever Fury got his information from was seriously wrong and he needed to reconsider his sources.

Stark had groaned when the mission had come up, already complaining that they weren’t the clean-up team. He had waved at the mission file onscreen, gestured again for dramatic effect and then settled into making snide remarks for the rest of the briefing. As usual. She had an inkling that Stark just really liked the sound of his own voice or was compensating for something with sarcastic comments.

At least Steve got to use his catchphrase, yet again. ‘Avengers Assemble!’ Which was quickly wearing old and she had tried to suggest something else. Like “Let’s Get Dressed!” or “Mission Muster!”, but neither had quite the ring and, to be honest, she’d just run the original through a synonym generator. God, if any of their fans heard her complaints, she was sure she’d be butchered alive in a riveting ‘debate’ on Twitter. Apparently, they liked the cheesiness.

The first spot of bother they’d gotten into, or, well, Y/N had gotten into, was when she’d found out that her suit hadn’t finished downloading the upgrades so she would have to use her original. Her original consisted of a latex and Kevlar suit that she’d hand-stitched together. That had been back when she’d first realised that she could actually make a difference in the shitty area of town she lived in. Spares weren’t a thing for the Avengers and Stark had made sure to mock its ‘home-made chic’ feel. Well, not everyone headed a multimillion-dollar corporation when they decided to become a ‘hero’.

She still wouldn’t describe herself as a hero. She was just a girl who, instead of getting a prison sentence for aggravated assault and destruction of property, had been picked up by SHIELD. They’d seen something in her that she’d never once seen looking back at her in the mirror. After months of training and little missions, she’d been chucked headfirst into the dark stuff, fucked up a psych eval and ended up being pulled from field duty. Barton had trained with her while they were both out of active duty and vouched for her once he’d been cleared, jeopardising his job as an agent and an Avenger, for her, which she couldn’t thank him more for. Fury, not knowing what to do for once, had shoved her into a team that was only just starting to bond with each other. They hadn’t needed a barely-adult, not psych-cleared agent pushed into their hands. But they’d taken her in without complaint all the same.

The second spot of bother was the hundred or so men who had been firing at them from all angles, not the expected twenty or thirty. Stark had flown in and gunned ten or so down in his bulletproof suit, but even that hadn’t been enough to make the fight easy. Barton was perched up a tree, true to his nickname as usual, and was taking out man after man, but one replaced the other as soon as they fell.

And because all things come in threes, there had been a third spot of bother. It had been when the control room collapsed due to an exploding arrow that Barton had refused to admit to, and the central structure’s integrity had been compromised. She had gone in on the intelligence gathering mission and the stupid program had completed 84% of the download. So, she had assured her teammates that she’d wait for it to finish and then get the fuck out of there. But she hadn’t had time. And so that brought her up to now, in a tiny space, feeling more and more squashed by the minute. Rubble clattered down above her every so often and the space would gradually shift as the weight on top of it increased. She just hoped SHIELD found her before she was completely crushed. If they were even looking for them.

“Y/N?” Stark’s voice was hoarse from the dust, even his suit must’ve been unable to filter it all out. She frowned; she was sure that it had its own oxygen supply. Perhaps it had been damaged when he’d zoomed in as the building collapsed around them, professing that he would save her. Fat lot of good he’d been. As the floor had caved in beneath her feet and the ceiling collapsed simultaneously, he hadn’t even reached her before she’d fallen in the sinkhole that had opened up. She’d always said that constructing a tall building on top of earth riddled with secret passages was just asking for trouble.

“Yes?” Irritation bled through as she tried to keep her tone civil and sweet, but the circumstances were definitely not ideal for her mood. And she’d had barely any sleep. Which was arguably thanks to him, and no, she still hadn’t forgiven him for it.

“Okay, good, just checking you were alive.”

She rolled her eyes at that answer. What if she’d been unconscious? She’d still be alive. No need to pester her just for that. “Well, how are you going to get us out of here?”

Stark was silent. For once in his life, he finally had nothing to say. She would applaud herself on such an accomplishment, but she was busy trying not to lose her temper. He was meant to be the genius, the one with a plan for everything, and she knew that was a lot of pressure to put on him. But she’d really like to believe that she wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for him.

“I’m…” He hesitated, light flickering feebly through the rocks between them. “Having some difficulties with the suit. JARVIS, why don’t you tell her?”

The monotonous voice came through clearly, albeit a bit tinny over the speakers. Although she’d read plenty about the AI when creating her own suit and then promptly dismissed the idea that she would ever be able to do the same, it was still weird how omniscient he seemed. It made her skin crawl, the idea that she had no privacy, even in her own bedroom. “Suit’s capabilities are down by 62%. Weapons status – missiles offline, repulsors limited power. Damage has been sustained severely on the chest piece as well as the helmet and left shin pieces.”

Her mouth dropped; she hadn’t expected it to be this bad. Sure, a damaged chest piece she could’ve guessed, because that would have affected the suit’s oxygen supply, but the power source must have also been damaged. “Can you clear some more space, or get us into the same area? Maybe if we can access the equipment that was in the control room…”

“On it. JARVIS, scan the rubble for equipment and structurally sound areas.”

From where she was sat, nothing seemed to be happening. Even the lights from his suit had dimmed considerably, causing her to squint to try and make out various shapes in the fallen rock. The almost silent creaking around her were amplified in the darkness and she shivered, a cold trickle of dread running down her spine. She’d always hated just waiting for something to happen, knowing that it was going to but not when or how.

The raspy static of comms was incessant in her ear as she strained to hear of any movement or updates on their situation from Stark’s position. Nothing. God, she hoped he hadn’t been physically injured. She forgot that he was just a man beneath all that metal. Nothing superhuman or enhanced or specially trained from too sheng of an age.

“Y/N.” Stark’s voice was urgent and low, a light hiss through the dust filled air. “There’s someone else down here. JARVIS is detecting enough of a heat signature for them to still be alive.”

A gentle groan made her freeze, hair prickling on the back of her neck. She turned her head ever so slightly to the left, peering into the pitch-black darkness. Blinking furiously, she soon realised that there was no difference between when her eyes were shut and open.

“Hello?” A familiar voice called out and she sighed, face relaxing from its grimace.

“Barton?”

“Y/N? I thought you got out?” He coughed, wheezing dust and she winced at the harsh sound, chest clenching painfully in sympathy.

She chuckled bitterly, “Yeah, nope, Tony also got stuck down here.”

A loud thump startled her, rubble tumbling down as a metal support beam snapped under the strain of the weight. Inhaling and exhaling slowly to calm her mounting nerves, she curled her arms over her head, hoping that she’d survive this. Time seemed to slow as the seconds, minutes, possibly even hours ticked by. Nothing more to do than ponder the situation and any and every scenario that could come of it.

Crash. She jolted as the ground beneath her trembled, sucking in a quick breath. This was it. This was the end. Closing her eyes, she sent out a prayer to whatever god was out there, anyone who could help her. Hoping it would be swift and painless.

Cool metal brushed against her face, and her eyes flashed open. The icy white glow lit up the dust-filled air in front of her and she choked back a sob of relief, pressing a hand over her mouth. Tony shushed her softly as he heaved a large slab of stone out of the way, sending tiny particles of rock down onto her. They bounced off her face and she whimpered, biting down hard enough on her bottom lip to draw blood.

The shredded metal of his arms slid under her, catching at her clothes as he pulled her into his chest. Cradling her in his arms, he plodded into a spacious cavern, each step followed by creaking joints. The stone was cold against her back as he propped her against the central mound, her head lolling back.

He popped his visor open, eyes lit by a blue glow as he stared at her intently, a flicker of worry dancing behind his eyes. “Are you okay?”

She was sure that he’d already asked her that but couldn’t find it in herself to bite a remark at him. In fact, she couldn’t even remember why she’d been so pissed off at him before, her annoyance swept away by the pure elation of still being alive.

“I’m fine.” At his sceptical look, she sighed. Nothing was broken or injured too badly, although she hadn’t really had time to think hard enough about it. That was all that was necessary. “Don’t worry about me, Tin Man, focus on getting us out of here. You need to help Barton out first.”

Before too long, Tony had returned, placing Clint down beside her. She knelt over him, guided by the light from Tony’s suit and held back a gasp. Brushing hair off of his pale and sweaty face, her nimble fingers ran over the bruised and battered flesh of his leg and she grimaced. He hissed at the sharp stabbing pain, the ghostly touch still too much pressure.

“Is that what heaven’s like? What did I do right to get a girl as pretty as you looking after me?” Clint’s words were slurred as he tried to crack a grin and ease her worries. She chuckled, as Tony clomped round to see what was happening.

“Don’t be getting too comfortable, Barton. Anyone can get a squashed leg.” Tony’s words were snide, and she clicked her tongue in disapproval.

“Stop it.”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Tony protested. She could hear the pout in his voice.

“Go work on getting us out of here.” For the first time since the beginning of the mission, she felt hope. She knew it was a dangerous emotion. It had been ingrained deep into her mind that hope was dangerous, that it should be stifled. But she wanted to believe that Tony would find them a way out, that they wouldn’t die with only each other for company in a deep, dark cavern, waiting for the ceiling to collapse on them.

The sharp scraping of metal against metal as he moved away was painful and she winced. His suit was in a bad state, but she hoped it would last the whole ordeal.

Clint’s rambling startled her from her thoughts. “You really look like an angel, Y/N. Maybe this is God’s gift for this injury.”

“Yeah, well, next time you want my attention, you don’t have to go this far,” she laughed, wiping the grime that had settled into his skin. “My standards aren’t so high that I need a guy to have injuries severe enough to possibly warrant amputation.”

Clint groaned painfully, before trying to play it off. “You mean, I didn’t have to do all this. Well, darn it.” She laughed again, giving him a sympathetic grin as he winced yet again. His leg was a blotchy mess of colours and she swallowed harshly.

She jumped as Tony’s voice echoed around the cavern. “I am being extremely clever up here and there’s no one to stand around looking impressed. What’s the point in having you all?” She grinned up at where he stood. Under his blindingly-fast fingers was what had turned out to be the main console, and she assumed he was rerouting message signals and finding a secure escape route. “Well, I’ve found us a way out. But I’ll only take you if you promise not to flirt so sickeningly.”

“Stark, are you jealous?” Clint’s incredulous voice came from beside her, tinged with agony.

Tony scoffed, his face disappearing into darkness as the blue light from the screens shut off. “No. As if.”

“Well,” she piped up, noting with delight how Tony’s head snapped towards her. “Tony, let me just warn you that you don’t need to get your leg squashed if you want my attention. I don’t need another injury on my conscience.”

“Aw, no, there goes my plan on how to win you over. Come on, I’ll carry Robin Hood and you follow me.”

The route was a dingy corridor that was lit by flickering electric bulbs that looked as if they hadn’t been replaced since the 40s. “Soft light incandescent bulbs.” Tony had noted as she passed under the first ones.

By the time she had reached the manhole cover that signalled the exit of the seemingly-endless tunnel, she weren’t sure if her legs would be able to support her much further. The startlingly bright light streaming into the tunnel made her smile, a great beaming grin as she felt the sun on her face after what had felt like days.

“Come on, sweetheart. Up you come. I’ve already signalled the team, and they’re on their way. We just need to sit tight for a bit.” Tony hauled her up, next to where Clint lay, leg even more gruesome in the light. She stumbled on the uneven ground, falling forward as her foot caught on a loose stone.

Strong arms wrapped around her waist, hugging her into him. She grinned up at Tony and leant against his chest plate, relaxing into the arm that he slung around her.

“My saviour,” she giggled, suddenly anxious at their close proximity. She didn’t know why. She’d never felt so antsy in his presence before, but something about the way he was looking at her made her heart beat faster and her breath stop.

“So,” Tony let out a nervous breath. “I know I didn’t get injured for you, but how about we still go on a date at some point?”

She smiled softly. “I’d love that.”

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wizardofrozz · 3 years

Text

The Perfect Pair

Warnings: swearing, I think that’s it

Pairing: Loki x OFC

A/N: This chapter is on the short side but after this chapter things start to pick up. This is more of a filler chapter so please bare with me 😬❤

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Chapter 12: Surprise

I leaned against Bea’s apartment building, picking at my nails, and decided to check on Loki. I reached out, finding him easier than I expect; he must be close. I was wondering where you ran off to, darling. Loki’s thoughts were light, happy. I’ve been dealing with your brother. I rolled my eyes, knowing Loki couldn’t see it, but I could feel him laugh anyway. Don’t roll your eyes at me. Loki paused for a few seconds. I think I know how we can get out of here. Thank god. I glanced up, seeing Bea, Thor, and Bruce pushing out of the crowd. I’ll see you soon, dear. Sooner than you think. I was taken back by Loki’s last thought, but Bea was approaching fast. “Sorry, rounding up these two is worse than herding cats,” Bea complains, rolling her eyes. “Hi Bruce,” I offered a soft smile. “Thor,” Bruce panicked, his eyes bugging out as he repeatedly hit Thor’s arm. “She’s on our side,” Thor sighed, clapping Bruce on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Hulk seemed to like me,” I smiled, winking at Bruce. Bruce swallowed loudly, his eyes still wide open; I raised an eyebrow when he reached down, adjusting the crotch of his pants. “Would you stop doing that!” Thor scolded, smacking at Bruce’s arm. “Tony wears his pants so tight!” Bruce whispers harshly. Bea dramatically rolled her eyes, pushing me towards the door. She stopped in the hallway before her apartment, turning to face Thor and Bruce, who are still going back and forth. “Look, I spent most of my time here in a haze, trying to forget my past. Sakaar seemed like a good place to drink, forget, and one day die,” Bea took a deep breath, obviously struggling with her confession. “I was thinking you drink too much, and it would probably kill you,” Thor cut in; Bea and I shot him death glares, shutting him up instantly. “I don’t want to stop drinking, but I don’t want to forget anymore. I can’t turn away anymore. So if I’m going to die, might as well be driving a sword into that murderous hag,” Bea smiled, knocking shoulders with me. “We appreciate it, Bea,” I beamed, gripping her shoulder before heading towards her door. “So I’m saying I wanna be part of this team. Has it got a name?” she asked, eyeing Thor. “Yeah, it’s called the...Revengers,” Thor stutters, trying to cover it with a smile. “Revengers?” Bea and I say together. Real original. “Because we’re getting revenge.” -Thor turns to Bruce- “Do you want revenge?” “I’m undecided,” Bruce mumbles, his eyes fixated on Bea. “I do have a peace offering,” Bea smirks, gesturing to her door. I shot her a confused look, but all she did was smile, gesturing Thor and Bruce inside. “Surprise,” a familiar, monotone voice traveled from the apartment. I watched Thor pick up a discarded bottle, throwing it at his brother. “Ow.” “Had to be sure,” Thor grunted, glaring at his brother. “Hello Bruce,” I heard Loki chirp; Bruce tensed as he stepped into the room. “So, last time I saw you, you were trying to kill everybody. Where are you these days?” Bruce managed to squeak. “It varies from moment to moment,” Loki offers, a sly smile on his face. “Who is this guy?” Bea asks, eyeing Bruce cautiously. “I’ll explain later,” I sighed. “Loki,” I called, finally making it into the apartment. I watched Loki’s body language shift; he relaxed into the chain holding him still. “Hello, my love,” Loki greeted. “Really, Bea!” I shouted, shooting her a dirty look over my shoulder. “He attacked me. Better to be safe than sorry,” she stated, shrugging as she drank from a random bottle. “Assholes, both of you,” I mumbled, kneeling in front of Loki. “That’s what you meant when you said, ‘sooner than you think.’” “I knew she’d bring you here,” Loki said with a soft smile. I shook my head, reaching out to cup his cheek, angling his face up to connect our lips. “I’ve missed you,” Loki hummed against my lips. “This is weird,” I heard Bruce whisper. “What?” Thor asked. I glanced over my shoulder, watching Bruce lean closer to Thor. “Loki,” Bruce whispered, visibly shivering. “Married life has changed him some,” Thor chuckled, turning away from us. “Married?” Bruce squeaked. Bruce turned his gaze towards us again, only to find Loki and I watching him with bored looks. “S-sorry,” he mumbled. I glanced at Thor and Bea, catching Thor admiring her Dragonfang; Loki rolled his eyes but smiled softly. “Behave,” I warned, patting Loki’s leg before making my way towards Bea, Thor, and Bruce. “Sakaar and Asgard are about as far apart as any two known systems. Our best bet is a wormhole just outside the city limits,” Bea took another pull from the bottle in her hand. “Refuel on Xandar and be back in Asgard in 18 months.” “Nope, we’re going through that one,” Thor pointed to the giant, violent wormhole over the ocean. “The Devil’s Anus?” Bea said, trying to keep a straight face. “Wait, who’s anus are we going through?” Bruce chimes in. “For the record, I didn’t know it was called that when I picked it,” Thor stammered. “That looks like a collapsing neutron star inside of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” Bruce babbled. “We need another ship that’ll tear yours apart, Bea,” I huffed, rubbing the bridge of my nose. “She's right. We need one that can withstand the geodetic strain from the singularity,” Thor added. “Who the fuck are you, and what have you done with the God of Thunder?” I gaped, staring at Thor like he had three heads. Thor glared at me before turning back to Bruce, waiting for his input; Bruce was staring dumbfounded at Thor too but quickly shook it off. “And has an offline power steering system that could also function without the onboard computer,” Bruce added. “And cup holders because we’re gonna die. So, drinks!” Bea cheered. I glanced over at Loki, quickly sending my magic towards him. Can you kill me now? I rolled my eyes. Sorry, not today, darling. Loki smiled at me, looking back at the floor. I caught the tail end of Thor and Bruce’s awkward fist bump/ high five. “We need a ship,” Thor and Bruce said together. “I don’t mean to impose, but the Grandmaster has a great many ships. I may even have stolen the access codes to his security system,” Loki interjects. I didn’t see her throw it, but the bottle Bea was holding exploded behind Loki, causing him to flinch. “Bea, what the hell!” I shouted. “He tried to kill me; he’s only alive because of you,” she snapped. “So what, you have the sudden urge to do the right thing?” “Heavens no. I’ve run out of favors” -Loki’s gaze fell on me- “and we need off this planet.” “You're telling us you can get us access into the garage without setting off any alarms?” Thor asked, raising an eyebrow at Loki. “Yes, brother, I can.” “If we're boosting a ship, we're gonna need to draw some guards away from the palace,” Bea points out. “Why not set the beast loose?” Loki proposed with a devilish grin. “Shut up,” Thor snapped. “You guys have a beast?” Bea asked, her eyes darting around the room for an answer. “No, there’s no beast. He’s just being stupid. We’re going to start a revolution,” Thor smiled. “Revolution?” Bruce mumbled. “I’ll explain later,” Thor reassured him. “Who is this guy?” Bea asked again. “I’ll explain later,” I reassured her. “Violet, darling. Can you let me out now?” Loki called from across the room. I made my way over to Loki, unlocking the chains, letting them fall to the floor with a loud clatter. “Thank you, my queen,” Loki purred, pulling me into a hug. “Be careful,” I mumbled into his shoulder, squeezing him. “Of course. I’ll meet you in the hanger,” Loki confirmed against my hair. Loki pulled away slightly, gently gripping my chin to turn my face up towards him. “I love you,” he whispered, his breath puffing against my lips as he spoke. “And I you,” I whispered, closing the space. “Yeah, this is super weird,” Bruce blurted; I laughed against Loki’s lips. “Come on, let’s go,” Thor grumbled, pulling Loki away from me.

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Series Masterlist | Chapter 13

Taglist:

@criminalyetminimal @marvelfansworld

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whatyoufish4 · 3 years

Note

I don't think I sent you any of these already? If I did...lol sorry for bombarding you. iron man 2, doctor strange, loki for the mcu asks 😊

Yay, thank you for the prompts! :)

iron man 2 - are you a secret fan or does everyone know you love marvel?

It's pretty widely known amongst my family, friends, and even co-workers that I'm a comic book/superhero movie fan -- and if they know Marvel well enough to know the characters, they do know I'm a fan of Loki specifically. Even at work -- I'll wear (more subtle) Loki t-shirts to the office, and I've used the Loki helmet cut-out as my user icon on more than a few work accounts, among other things.

I do think that the *degree* of my fandom is something that is a little more under wraps. Only two of my non-internet friends know I write Loki fanfic, for instance (and one of those two is my mum!); and I've talked about why I love the character with good friends, but never with casual friends or co-workers. I tend to be a bit shy about delving into why or how much I love the Stories I love in offline situations.

In this regard, it's odd to have the "Loki" series on the horizon. I've chatted with co-workers for years about Marvel releases, because a fair few of said co-workers at least casually enjoy the films -- but because Loki has always been a secondary character, there's never been much to say about the character specifically when conversing with casual fans. It's so WEIRD to me to think that we are a month away from co-worker acquaintances coming up to me to ask me what I think about the new Loki episode, lol.

doctor strange - describe the process that leads up to publishing your fics. do you outline the whole thing? obsessively edit it? create moodboards?

I discovered early on that I am a writer who needs to outline. How I outline, or how much, tends to vary; for short fics, it's often just a mental outline of what specific scenes will unfold.

With In Time -- the longest complete story I've ever written -- I had a half-a-page written outline that covered the story’s set-up, the three tasks, and the ending scene. This almost got me into trouble; it took me four or six weeks to get the second task written, because my only outline notes were, "Loki loses his memories of the past four years and has regressed to his TDW personality" and I went from being SUPER EXCITED to get to write that version of the character, to really struggling to figure out what, y'know, should HAPPEN. (But it all worked out; I ended up really liking that section. ;-D)

For longer stories (especially multi-installment chapter fics), I’ll vacillate between written outlines (The Call) and just a sort of “each chapter will deal with this problem” mental outline (I'm Here). But there's always some kind of pre-decided framework, because otherwise I just sit and write dialogue that doesn't advance the plot and leaves me spinning my wheels.

I've been really struggling for the past year to finish projects; I'm having trouble shutting up my Internal Critic long enough to ever finish anything. At my mum's suggestion, I've started working on projects for just my own enjoyment, without worrying about it one day seeing the light of day. (If nothing else, this is allowing me to have fun letting my angst flag fly. XD) Doing so has seen me fall back on my old RPing writing style, which is to plot out and visualize the next scene in my head before writing it down, but otherwise letting the story take me where it will, a section at a time. It'll be interesting if that turns out to result in coherent plot lines, because dang, I’m having a lot of fun with it. :)

(P.S. I really love the idea of doing a moodboard for my fics; I oughtta try that sometime ...)

loki - what’s the most outlandish (or it could just be your favorite) au you’ve ever read/wanted to write/thought of?

I suspect my "Loki and Thor become vampires" fic is probably my most outlandish AU (I’m still not 100% convinced it’s a sensible story; but man, would the idea not leave me alone) ... but my personal favorite is definitely my "Loki and Thor become pirates" AU. I toy every once in awhile with doing another installment to that one. ;D

MCU Fanfiction Ask Game!

#this was super fun to work on thank you #on board the loki bus #fanfic #fanfiction #i am a writer #ask box

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years

Text

Do you sit on the couch or the floor? I’d definitely choose the couch over the floor.

How many different colleges have you gone to? Two-- a community college and a UC. How much stress can you handle? It doesn’t take much at all before I get overwhelmed.

What is something you have to do before you go to sleep every night? I like to listen to ASMR.

How confident are you in achieving your dreams? Sigh. I’m a mess. I don’t even really have any dreams I want to achieve right now. I don’t have the motivation or the energy. I don’t have any confidence in myself. I really need to get my shit together.

What is one thing you thought you’d never do but have done or are doing? I didn’t think I’d end up like this. I didn’t have a definite plan with what I wanted to do after college, but I can assure you this wasn’t it.

Have you ever disowned a friend or family member for their beliefs? No.

At what point in your life do you think you will be truly happy? I don’t know. :(

Do you ever make pictures or shapes out of the markings in the ceiling? I did that as a kid sometimes.

Do you ever feel like your life is too boring or predictable? It most definitely is.

Do you really think money will buy your, or anyone else’s, happiness? It can certainly help. I think it could bring some happiness, like happy moments and things that bring joy, but it wouldn’t cure my depression and the other stuff I’m dealing with. It wouldn’t just go away. At the end of the day, I’d still be left with those things. The thoughts and feelings would still be there. Those feelings and thoughts hit me in the middle of doing something I like or if I’m having a good time now and I don’t see that changing if I became financially better off.

Is shopping a form of therapy for you? No.

Do you have to take medication for any mental illness? I’m not currently taking anything for it.

Do you believe it is possible for someone to change? Yes, of course.

What is your favorite food to snack on when watching t.v.? I’m not a big snacker, but lately I have been into sourdough bread and spinach and artichoke dip.

Do you like looking at pictures? Yeah.

Have you ever set 2 people up and it actually worked out? It did for a little while.

Are you good at persuading? Uhh. Depends.

How do you feel about tattoos and piercings? I’m not super into them for myself, but I think they can be cool.

Do you care what people think? Yes and no. Not as much as I used to. I wish it was because I’m now this happy and confident person, but no.

How many dirty looks have you received today? None.

If a loved one who’d died showed up at your door, what would you do? Uh, I’d be scared and freaked out to say the least and extremely confused. I honestly don’t know what I would do or say. I think it’d be a roller coaster of emotions. If it really were them then I’d be overwhelmed and cry and want to hug them and talk to them and omg I’d be a mess. It would feel so surreal. I’d also have a lot of questions.

Do you believe the dead can have connections with the living? I like to believe they give us little signs.

How many times have you looked at a picture and wished you were there? Many times.

And your name is? Stephanie.

How do you like your coffee? With flavored creamer or cream and sugar.

Do you have a job? If so, what do you do? No.

If unemployed, what do you do to keep yourself busy? My days consist of rest, social media, TV, YouTube, Tumblr, reading, playing Animal Crossing, surveys, and spending time with family.

Top 3 favorite foods, go: Wingstop’s garlic parm and lemon pepper boneless wings, ramen, and breakfast sandwiches.

What does the person who texted you last mean to you? My mom means everything to me.

How do you feel about polyamory? Not something I would be okay with.

When did you last have sex? Was it good? Never.

Which apps on your phone do you use the most? YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Kindle.

Do you go through phases when it comes to music genres, or are you pretty consistent in what you listen to? I’m consistent.

Does death scare you? Yes.

If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? I’d have good health, mentally and physically.

Which family member do you get along with the most? My mom and brother..

Do you like horror movies? Why or why not? Yesss.

Do you play video games? If so, what are some of your favorites? I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the past year.

How often do you eat fast food? Quite often.

Do you like sushi? Nooo.

Would you ever be able to become a vegan? No.

How often do you drink alcohol? I don’t. I haven’t drank going on 8 years now.

What was your favorite toy as a child? I was obsessed with Barbies.

Who was your first best friend? What is your favorite memory of/with them? Are you two still friends? These two girls, Crystal and Starr, in preschool. I remember they came to my birthday party at Chuck E Cheese; that was fun. No, we lost touch after preschool.

If you could see anyone in concert, living or dead, who would it be? I wish I could have seen Linkin Park with Chester. :(

If you were to get married, would you rather have a big extravagant wedding or a small private affair? Explain your answer. I don’t plan on getting married. I really just don’t see it in the cards for me.

Do you want kids? Why or why not? No.

How did you meet your newest friend? I don’t have any friends.

Have you ever watched the show Teen Mom? What did you think about it? Yeah, I watch Teen Mom OG and Teen Mom 2.

Are you old enough to remember MySpace? Yeah, of course. I’m old.

Where is the boy you want most? There isn’t one.

Where will you be 2 hours from now? Right here.

How old is the last person you kissed? He just turned 30.

Who was the last person of the opposite sex to text you? My brother.

Can you make yourself sneeze? No. Tilting my head back and looking at a bright light doesn’t seem to work for me.

What is your current mood? Blah.

What are you doing tomorrow? Same stuff, different day.

Who was the last person to sleep in your bed besides yourself? I’m the only one.

Do you think you would make a good boyfriend/girlfriend? Not at this time, no.

Where were you at 9am this morning? I was in bed, asleep.

Whose bedroom were you in last? I’m in mine. Do you think you’ll be a good mother/father? I don’t want to have kids.

Do you talk to the person you like everyday? I’m not interested in anyone right now.

Do you have trouble deleting your text messages? I’ve never had a reason to delete them.

Is there something that you haven’t told anyone that you actually would like to tell someone? Ehhhh.

Would you rather rent or buy movies? I like watching them through a streaming service.

What is the best part of your own body? Nothing.

Would you rather watch a full season of American Idol, or So You Think You Can Dance? American Idol, I guess.

Do you like to take walks? No.

Have you ever gone anywhere for spring break? Yeah, my former best friend and I took a few small trips.

Do you worry a lot? Yeppp.

Would you rather have big or small dogs? Medium dog.

Do you mind being cold? I much prefer it to being hot. I like wrapping up in a blanket or lounging around in a sweatshirt or drinking a warm drink.

What is your favorite sports drink? I don’t drink any sports drinks.

Do you keep a diary or journal (offline or online)? This is it.

What is your favorite candy? White chocolate.

Do you document everything in pictures? Not everything, but I do like taking pictures of things I want to remember and having those memories.

Have you ever waited for something for so long and then had it snatched from right underneath you when it seemed so close to grasp? Yes.

Choose one: being able to teleport yourself anywhere in the world at any given time or being able to fly? Teleport, hands down.

Do you feel more comfortable in public wearing jeans or sweatpants? I’m a leggings gal.

What is something that most people wouldn’t know about you from simply looking at you? I take surveys. <<< Ha, true.

Do you fear growing older? Yes.

Have you ever been called a tease? Yes and I was like wtf? I wasn’t the one leading them on or playing with their emotions like they were.

Is there something that reminds you of someone every time you see or hear it? Yeah, many things like that with different people.

Do you trust all of your friends? I don’t have any friends.

Does The X-Files theme song give you the goosebumps? It did when I was a kid.

Have you ever taken the batteries out of a Ferbie only to have it come alive in the middle of the night? Omg, that did happen once! Those things were freaky.

Don't you find those black cat clocks with the moving eyes and tail just a little creepy? lol yeah they kinda are.

When things get bad, are you more likely to blame yourself or somebody else? Myself.

Are most of your friends' biological parents married or divorced? Do you remember those commercials that scared kids into not playing around railroad tracks? No?

Do you ever wish your life was a sitcom, just so all your problems could be solved in thirty minutes? That would be nice.

Have you ever noticed how different everybody's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases are? I feel like it’s the same general idea.

Do you tend to set yourself up for disappointment? I’m always expecting the worst case scenarios, so.

Would you ever call a guy back and say, "Oh, sorry. I was taking a hot shower"? No.

Who do you get most of relationship advice from: guys or girls? I used to get it from both. Although, oddly, I was the one people came to for relationship more often and I had none.

Have you ever put your all into someone and got nothing back? Yes.

Do you think that you, personally, have been more shaped by experiences or by people? Experiences.

Do people ever make fun of your religion or lack thereof? Not to me, personally, but yes people do make fun of Christianity.

Have you ever put the television on mute and tried dubbing in new dialogue? No.

Do you say/do things a lot for shock effect? No.

If you were in an iPod commercial, what would you want your background color to be? They don’t make those commercials anymore, but rose gold.

What was the last compliment you gave a guy? I don't know.

Do you usually follow your head, instincts, or heart more? They all play a role, it just depends. I suppose my emotions do probably play a bigger role.

Where do you spend most of your waking time at home? In my room.

Does your jaw ever crack, pop, or lock? It pops sometimes.

With just your life, are you more optimistic, realistic, or pessimistic? Definitely pessimistic.

Is it hard for you to ask for help? Yes.

Have you ever thought of how you would give your kids "the talk"? No. I don’t want to have kids.

Do you ever feel like you're missing out on something? Yeah, life.

Is your high school ANYTHING like the ones in the movies? My high school experience was nothing like that, but I feared it would be going in. Movies never paint high school in a good light.

Are you going to be totally screwed if pigs start flying tomorrow? I don’t recall ever really saying I’d do something if pigs fly or anything like that. I don’t think...

Have you ever finished taking a shower and realize that there are no dry towels? I always grab a towel beforehand.

Do you love listening to sad piano solos? Sometimes.

Was one of your grandpas in a war? My paternal grandpa was.

Did you ever actually try to find the end of a rainbow? As a kid, I’m sure.

Are you afraid of jinxing things? Sometimes.

Do you ever write/draw on windows that are fogged up? I did that as a kid.

If you were married, and your spouse's parents became ill, would you let them move into your home? I’m very close with my family so I would certainly understand and would want to do what we could to help.

Have you screamed in a pillow before? For sure.

If a guy put his jacket on a puddle for you, would you actually walk on it or just look at him like he was crazy? lol aww I would be like you really didn’t have to do that now your jacket is all wet and dirty. We can just go around. I’m in a wheelchair, so that wouldn’t do much good anyway lol.

Would any of your friends dress up like a cow for a free chicken sandwich from Chikfila?

What do you like more, acoustic or electric? Acoustic.

Have you ever ordered something off a commercial on television? Nope.

What do you notice more, somebody's eyes or smile? Smile.

Did you actually have a cookie jar? We did when I was little.

Have you ever put on a shirt that came straight out of the dryer? Yessss. I love that.

Sometimes, does it feel like your life isn't going anywhere? That’s exactly how I’ve felt these past few years.

You've reach a fork in the road, do you go left or right? Hm. Right.

Do you ignore people when you're mad/upset with them? Not flat out ignore, but I become distant and short. I don’t initiate conversation with them.

What's worse, having someone mad or disappointed in you? Disappointed, definitely.

Have you ever gotten up early the next morning to do homework or study? Yes, but I usually just stayed up late and finished instead. I didn’t want to risk waking up late or running out of time and stressing about it.

Do you still consider Pluto a planet? I always still include it.

Right now, are you at a high, leveled, or low point? “And I’m at an all time low low low low low low low....”

When things go from bad to worse, have you ever been afraid of what kind of person you would be when it was all over? These past few years have made be become someone I absolutely do not want to be. :/

Do you honestly believe that good things come to those who wait? It can for some. Sometimes it seems like people are really just handed stuff with minimal to no effort, but generally speaking you have to work at it. I don’t think you can just sit around waiting, you have to get up and do it. And that’s something I need to do. I go on about how each year nothing changes and I’m worried about wasting away and doing nothing with my life, but I am doing anything to try and change that? Am I taking any steps?

What do you bite on more, your tongue, lip, or nails? I’m always biting my lips. I pick at my nails constantly, but I don’t bite them.

Have you ever wanted to fast forward your life so you could see if it was worth it? Sometimes, but I’d be afraid to actually do that if given the chance.

Do you think that knowing when and how you're going to die would ruin your life? I really don’t want to know.

Did you ever feel bad for Tom and Sylvester? Jerry and Tweety did often tease and provoke. You can’t help but feel kinda bad for Tom and Sylvester sometimes.

#personal #text #survey #surveys

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lordmegadumb · 4 years

Text

A Visit with Grief || TFP Megatron x Femme! Reader

Summary: Megatron finally reads the Reader’s suicide note that she left behind for him.

⚠️ Warning: Mention of suicide, dead reader, suicide note, angst(?)

He stood there, silently, unmoving. His helm was faced downwards, his red optics staring intently at the old dusty datapad in his servos. His rust tinged armor gleamed in the sunlight in the middle of the gladiator pit of Kaon.

The war had ended for quite some time, the Autobots already starting on repairing Cybertron. They had been sitting around glooming over the loss of their Prime, but they eventually began being productive. But Megatron, he wandered Kaon, visiting his past grievances following them around like a cyber-puppy.

He had then walked to the place where everything started before he had even realized it.

Megatron knew he couldn’t run from it anymore. He was too tired and battleworn to even try now. He could own up to all the crimes he did in the best, he was ready for that, except one thing. And this datapad was the last crime he needed to pay a visit. He didn’t want to. He had to admit, he was scared of the little tablet, fearful of what it contained inside.

This was the note his long dead conjunx endura, (Y/n), left behind. The datapad has been found near her body, having slit her arms downwards and bled to death. He still remembered coming to her room, worried that she hadn’t replied back to him about having a meeting over the Senate attacking, seeing her on the floor with offline optics and energon pooled around you. His optics had met hers before he had to look away, horrified by her dead expression. This was the only time he cried over the loss of a loved one.

Megatron shivered at the memory. He sighed deeply. He needed to do this. Besides, he didn’t have anything to distract him from this note anymore. No demands from his soldiers, no pesky Seeker to bother him, and no TIC to get reports from.

Slowly, he sat on the ground, not caring it was going to get his armor dirty. His sharp digits weakly turned the datapad on, using one servo to wipe the dust off the screen.

There was no password to get access into the pad, just a picture of (Y/n) and himself smiling at Megatron. His spark constricted at the memory. She had suddenly jumped onto the back, swinging her servo up in the air with a camera with a huge grin. Megatron had laughed, smiling away with no worries. It had been the same day you had died.

With a few swipes and taps, he found a document with his old designation on it. He hesitated to open it, but he forced himself to do so.

Inside was a poem.

She had loved poetry, had taught him how to do it as well. It wasn’t surprising to see your final words would been written as a poem.

Megatron began reading the note.

I’ll be nothing more than a fleeting memory that invades your mind in the dead of night- a passive thought you reminisce back on years from now.

Maybe with sorrow

Hopefully with a smile

Don’t worry, I’ll still be here- existing forever within the memories and experiences we once shared.

All of which I’m eternally grateful for.

Grateful to you and the rest of the world for letting me experience.

Some moments of pure bliss filled with laughter that echoed throughout the night as time flew from our grasps.

Others of darkness that seemed to go on endlessly, turning mere seconds into an eternity.

It was in those moments that I found life.

A constant reminder that I still existed.

But it’s becoming too much for me now.

Those nights full of despair became days, then months, and slowly years. The same despair that served as a reminder that I was alive now taunts me with life.

It sounds like I’m being ungrateful.

Just a whiny little glitch complaining about something so minute compared to all the other problems of the world.

I guess I am.

How can my sadness stack up against the harsh realities of life elsewhere- where people are being slaughtered endlessly, dying of disease and famine.

No homes.

No family.

I have no right to complain.

I guess I’m just not as strong as you are.

It’s said only the strongest, most adaptable survive.

So it’s only fitting that you live to carry on this legacy.

I hope one day you forgive me for being such a burden.

For running away from all the mistakes I’ve made, problems I created- leaving you to take care of them.

It’s very selfish of me.

But I know you’ll be able to handle it.

You’re stronger than I ever was.

Strong enough to shoulder the weight of the world

And keep moving forward.

By the time you finish reading this I’ll be gone, but you’ll still be here.

You’ll still have a chance to create the life you want to live.

I know it’s asking for a lot but I have a final wish.

I wish you keep living for both of us.

I wish you continue this life and don’t succumb to the circumstances of it.

Love and give infinitely.

Experience all there is to.

Chase after your dreams and wishes.

Live a fulfilling life for the both of us.

Live.

Every second we’re alive, we have the chance to recreate ourselves.

From the second our optics open and witness the sun radiating above us, we’re given a new opportunity to live the life we want to- to become the person we wish to be.

We can shed off our old armor and become shells of our former selves.

It’ll be hard.

But you’re strong.

Kill the part of yourself that you despise.

Let the part of you that wants to thrive be born.

Do this everyday till your former self is nothing but a memory you reminisce back on with gratitude for helping you become a better version of yourself.

Live.

Megatron had to stop multiple times to not burst out sobbing. He felt like he had failed her, and in a way, he had. She wanted him to become someone great, the bot Megatron- no, Megatronus had said he would become, yet he hadn’t. He became far worse than what it had initially begun as.

However, now, he had a chance to change things. It wouldn’t be easy of course, but he was going to try until he died.

When he finally got his emotions under control, he looked up to see night had fallen and the stars shined brightly.

My dear (Y/n), I may have failed you once, but not again. I vow that I will be better. I swear it upon my life and sword. And under your name, Cybertron will be the best it had ever been.

Original Poem

Sorry I haven’t been posting! School is crazy and I’m packing to move houses so I ended up getting super busy! I’ll try to post requests soon, but I can’t make any promises. This was my own request, so I hope you enjoyed my idea!

#tfp megatron #transformerprime #transformers #megatronxreader #megatron #reader #reader insert #suicidewarning

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whumphoarder · 6 years

Text

You Broke Tony

Summary: Peter stumbles into the tower one evening, clearly injured and in need of assistance. Cue a very agitated and sleep deprived Tony trying to make sense of what happened.

Word count: 2,180

Genre: Fluffy angst

A/N: This is set sometime between Homecoming and Infinity War, but my head canon is that Tony buys back Avenger’s Tower because he is a fickle man and also someone has to keep an eye on Spider-Man.

Link to read on Ao3

Tony had been holed up in his workshop non-stop for the past three days. He had just begun his newest project—a massive overhaul for the Iron Man armor in which he would finally integrate nanotechnology to create a fully retractable suit. It had been a difficult and tedious process thus far, evidenced by the bags under his eyes and borderline-dangerous levels of caffeine flowing through his system.

So when FRIDAY first interrupted the AC/DC album blasting over the speakers that evening to report that Peter Parker was standing in the tower’s entryway, Tony was confused.

“Huh? What day is it?” he asked the AI stupidly.

“It’s Thursday,” the female voice replied. “Peter is inquiring if you’re home.”

Okay, good. So at least he hadn’t lost complete track of time and skipped to the weekend. He glanced up at the clock and saw it was half-past eight. Peter had likely just stopped in during a patrol—a rare occurrence, but not completely unprecedented. The tower had free WiFi after all.

Unfortunately, Tony wasn’t in the mood for visitors. “Tell him I’m busy working on something right now but he can let himself in. There are those pudding cups he likes in the fridge—butterscotch, since he’s sixteen going on eighty.”

Tony resumed his work, switching out wires and adjusting settings. After a moment, the AI relayed, “He says thank you, and also wonders if you have any old towels he can borrow, preferably ones that can get stained."

“Direct him to the linen closet,” Tony said distractedly. With pliers, he tugged at a wire inside one of the suit’s gauntlets. It sparked at him, causing him to jerk his hand back. “Rude,” he remarked at the armor.

After another pause, FRIDAY reported, “He is unable to make it to the closet and is requesting assistance.”

Another attempt to adjust the wires only caused more sparks, this time with one flying off and igniting an oily rag on the workstation. Dum-E whirred to life, ready to douse it. “Hey, no! You stand down!” Tony commanded the robot. He quickly smothered the small flame with a metal pan to extinguish it.

The bot whirred at a lower pitch, sounding disappointed.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he quipped back. “If I have to clean that foam off one more time, I’m powering you down.” To FRIDAY, he replied, “So send Happy.”

“Mr. Hogan is off for the evening, Boss,” the AI responded.

“Send Pepper then,” he said, annoyed.

“Ms. Potts is currently still in Japan on business. Peter is also wondering if you have any ibuprofen.”

That finally got Tony’s attention. He sighed deeply and put down his instruments. “Tell him I’m on my way.”

“Right away, Boss. Though you should know he seems quite distressed at this information and is insisting he’ll clean everything up himself.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet he is,” Tony muttered back.

A few minutes later, a rather grimy-looking Tony stepped out of the elevator, carrying several towels and a bottle of painkillers. “Not sure why you think I’m your butler now,” he grumbled as he approached, “but FRIDAY said you needed…” Tony froze mid-step. His eyes went wide as he took in the scene before him. “Aw, shit! What did you do?!"

Peter startled at the exclamation. He’d been sitting on the floor near the building’s entrance, one leg extended out in front of him and the other bent so he could rest his head against his knee. He still wore the Spider-Man suit—except for the mask, which was clutched in one hand—and appeared dazed.

But by far the most concerning observation was the fact that the teenager was completely covered in blood.

“Oh, hey Mr. Stark,” he said, his voice a bit slurred. “I’m really sorry to bother you, I just wasn’t sure where to go...”

In an instant, Tony had closed the distance between them. Dropping to his knees beside Peter, he threw the towels down and grabbed the kid by the shoulders. “Karen, report!”

“She’s offline,” Peter muttered. “That’s why I couldn’t call. I’m really sorry, Mr. Stark, I’ll clean everything up, I swear.” He reached out for a towel, but Tony swatted his hand away.

“Oh no you don’t. You’re gonna hold still and explain why my lobby looks like the set of a student-directed slasher film,” Tony commanded. He was running his hands over Peter’s limbs urgently, checking for entry wounds or damage to the suit that would indicate where the blood was coming from.

Peter seemed nervous now. “I’m really sorry, I don’t think it will stain, I just - ah!” He let out a hiss of pain as Tony’s hand brushed against a lump on the back of his head.

Tony’s brow furrowed. “That hurts?”

Peter gave a slight nod. “But it’s not so bad…"

Tony scoffed as he pulled his hand away to get a closer look. Amazingly, that part of his head was one area of Peter not covered in blood. Deciding this would be easier if he could see actual flesh, he pressed the spider insignia on the front of the suit. The fabric immediately loosened.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Peter panicked.

Tony was already working to free the boy’s shoulders and upper body from the material. “Getting this off,” he answered simply.

“What? No!” Peter cried. His words ran together as he begged. “No please don’t take the suit! I’m really sorry, Mr. Stark, I didn’t mean to mess up, I’ll do better, I promise!”

The suit only half removed, Tony stopped. “Hey, hey, look at me,” he said urgently. He tilted Peter’s chin up to him and saw there were tears welling up in the corners of the kid’s eyes. “I’m not taking the suit away and I don’t give a single shit about the floor,” Tony said firmly. “But I need to know where you’re hurt. So either you tell me right now, or I figure it out myself.”

Sniffing, Peter blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. “It-It’s not too bad. I just hit my head and I think I sprained my ankle or something—”

That was when Tony’s patience ran out. “The blood, Peter!” he interrupted. “Talk about the blood! Like where is it coming from?”

Peter frowned, looking confused. Then suddenly something seemed to click in his addled brain.

"Oh, no Mr. Stark. This isn’t my blood,” he said simply.

Of all the things Tony had expected to hear from the young hero, that was definitely not one of them. He stiffened, the feeling of icy horror flowing through him. “Whose is it?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Oh, no, sorry! I mean it’s not anyone’s! It’s not real.” Seeing as Tony looked unconvinced, he dragged his finger across one of the crimson splotches on his suit and licked it. “See? It’s like red-dyed corn syrup and glycerin or something.”

Tony’s head was swimming. “So you’re not bleeding? Not anywhere?”

“I’m not bleeding,” Peter confirmed.

Letting out a massive exhale, Tony shifted his weight until he was sitting back on his butt rather than his knees. He used his jeans to wipe the crimson liquid off his hands before balling them into fists and pressing them to his eyes in exasperation. “Alright, start talking, kid. Why in god’s name are you sitting on the floor of my building covered in fake blood? Because if this is some kind of prank, allow me to remind you I have a heart condition, and so help me I will—”

“It’s not a prank.” Peter squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh almost as big as his mentor’s. “Alright. I was on patrol,” he began, “and I noticed this mugging going down—it was in an alleyway between a CVS and… Uh, you know those temporary stores that pop up around October and sell costumes and decorations and stuff? But then they’re gone again in November?”

“Yeah, I know what you’re talking about. Go on,” Tony prompted with a hand wave.

“One of those. I yelled at the mugger guy to get his attention and when he spun around I tried to web him up like usual. But my web-shooter jammed. I think it’s because of this new web fluid formula I’ve been using,” Peter rambled. “Actually, Mr. Stark, I was gonna ask you about that because it seemed awesome in all the lab tests but it’s been clumping sometimes now and I can’t figure out exactly why...”

“We’ll work on it later. Keep talking, kid."

“Right. Uh, I had to hit the web-shooter a couple times and finally got it unclogged, but by then he had already run off. But the lady he was mugging—she was real nice by the way, told me thank you like a hundred times—she said she saw him duck into that costume store.”

“And you went after him?” Tony guessed.

“Yeah. It was kinda funny actually.” Peter gave a lopsided grin. “He had a wig on and was like, trying to get into this giant bumblebee costume, like he thought he could blend in or something. But he was the only person in the store except for one middle-aged Asian lady at the register, so it was super obvious. Then I shot a web at his feet to trip him, and that worked, but uh, turns out he had a knife and—”

“Did he hurt you?” Tony interrupted.

“Well, he tried but—”

Immediately, Tony started trying to pull the rest of the suit off again and find whatever injury Peter was hiding.

“No, no Mr. Stark, he missed!” Peter said quickly. Tony relaxed again as Peter continued his recount. “He threw the knife at me and I jumped out of the way, no problem. But then I sorta crashed into this display shelf, and that knocked a bin over which was full of these little plastic bags. And then I landed on them, so a bunch of them burst open...”

“Let me guess.” Tony sighed exasperatedly. “Fake blood.”

“It was everywhere,” Peter said miserably. “I sorta smacked my head on the counter too…” He ran his fingers over the lump on his skull, wincing.

Tony frowned. “Okay. We’ll get that checked in a minute. What about the ankle?”

Peter’s cheeks flushed red. “Uh, the guy got back up and was starting to run again, so I shot another web at him, but now my head hurt and I couldn’t really see straight and I missed. I tried to get up so I could try again and I sorta, uh… slipped.”

Tony blinked at him. “You slipped.”

Peter’s voice was barely audible as he muttered, “...I slipped on the blood.”

Perhaps it was sleep deprivation from too many consecutive hours in the lab that caused what happened next, or maybe it was simply the relief that his young charge was not actively dying combined with the ludicrous image of a spandex-clad teenage superhero wiping out in a pool of fake blood in the props section of a Halloween City. But whatever it was, this particular piece of information suddenly caused the billionaire to do something he almost never did.

Tony Stark giggled.

Not just laughed, but actually giggled. And once he had started, he couldn’t seem to stop. To Peter’s absolute horror, Tony giggled and giggled until his shoulders shook and tears streamed down and no sound was coming out of his mouth anymore.

The kid was at a total loss. “Mr. Stark…? Are you okay?”

“I’m s-sorry, k-kid!” Tony choked out between gasps. “It’s n-not funny - it’s really not! But you - you fucking slipped on the blood that you spilled!” He dissolved into yet more giggles. “That’s downright poetic, is what it is.”

Peter wasn’t seeing the humor. He hung his head in shame. “The mugger, um - he got away after that.”

Eventually, Tony managed to pull it together. He wiped the tears out of his eyes with his sleeve and took a few deep breaths. “Alright, I’m sorry.” In a serious tone, he asked, “This happened in on patrol, right? How did you end up here?”

Peter shrugged. “I didn’t know where else to go. Karen was offline so I couldn’t call—I think some of the blood got inside and shorted something out? I’m not sure—and I knew I needed to clean the suit, but it’s not like I could put it in my Aunt’s washing machine.” He sighed deeply and admitted, “Plus my head hurt a lot and I couldn’t walk very well so it was hard to think of other options.”

“Wait a minute,” Tony said, frowning. They might have a serious PR problem on their hands. “Are you telling me you swung the whole way from Queens to Manhattan, dripping in blood?”

“No, of course not!” Peter looked offended at the accusation. After a beat he said, “I took the subway.”

Tony let out yet another massive exhale. “Of course you did, kiddo. Of course.”

Fic Masterlist

#irondad #irondad fic #mcu #spider-man fic #spider-man #i rewrote this story so many times #originally it had Steve in it #and Bruce #and Happy #and it was from peter's POV #but i'm much happier with it now as a stripped down version #my fic

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weeniitze · 5 years

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Activism and Protest

Meaning of "Activism" and "Protest" Activism: the use of straight and conspicuous action to attain a result, normally a social or political one ("ACTIVISM | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary", 2019). Protest: a sturdy complaint expressing disapproval, disagreement, or opposition ("PROTEST | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary", 2019).

The first time I saw the words "Activism" and "Protest", my first impression was that a large group of people, some of them might be holding cards, shouting, using violence, angry and even unreasonable. But after in-depth understanding, slowly with some online news readings related to activism and protest, I get to know that activists and protests can be divided into online and offline, or people can also do other activities besides violence to run a protest or activism, for example, street art, singing, playing music. For this post, I would like to talk about an activist which happened in London and Australia in a few weeks ago, called "Extinction Rebellion".

What is Extinction Rebellion and who are they? Extinction Rebellion (XR) hopes that the government will announce “climate and ecological emergency” and take immediate action to deal with climate change. It describes itself as an international "non-violent civil disobedience activist movement".

The central idea of this activity is mainly to protest against climate change, ecological collapse, and the crisis of biological and human extinction in the world today, through non-violent resistance.

It was launched in 2018 and organizers say it now has agencies inclined to take action in dozens of nations. They use an hourglass inside a circle as its logo, to symbolize time running out for many species in the world ("What does Extinction Rebellion want?", 2019).

Three Demands List In XR's propaganda description, the truth facing the world today: We are in the midst of an unprecedented world crisis, and life on Earth is facing disaster. Many scientists agree that we are experiencing severe climate degradation and that our actions are triggering a huge extinction. And in terms of the story, XR also has its own "three demands list" which are: 1: Tell the truth -Governments must inform the public about the global climate and ecological crisis and highlight the extent of its serious crisis.

2: Act now -Reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 0 by 2025 and immediately start saving the biodiversity that has died.

3: Beyond politics -Governments need to establish citizens' conferences and accept their leadership in the context of climate change and ecological equity.

What did they do? Most of the activities in the past, they blocked some of the city's busiest routes and traffics, some of them glued themselves to trains, some of the German protesters chained themselves outside Angela Merkel's Chancellery.

This October in London and Australia, They also blocked the busiest roads again at peak.

The Protesters said "find out more about the severity of the ecological and climate crisis" to the people who angered by the protests, and some of them causing criminal damage like smashing windows, then they said they are "super careful" to not injure anyone around("What does Extinction Rebellion want?", 2019).

Why Are they Doing this? "I’m an environmental scientist. I am a marine ecologist. I have studied this for all my adult life. And intellectually, I understand that we are at the very brink. And that is enough. I had to do something." --Martin Wolterding, 75, Environmental Scientist

“I am pretty much fairly new to activism. I’m not an extroverted person, it’s out of my comfort zone, but my confidence is building with it. Of course I’d rather be doing other things, like anyone else." --Ben Burdett, 40, Carpenter

“We know it can work. For 30 years the government hasn’t listened to scientists so we need them to start listening, telling the truth, and start acting on the truth.” -- Reem Ramadan, 41, clinical psychologist

(Taylor, Zhou & Smee, 2019)

youtube

Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOW9gLHLyKI

As we can see, most of the protesters joined the organization to stand for the next generation, to ask the government to tell the truth, to announce people about climate emergencies and take action to improve it.

Selfish Actions

Even that the starting point and the reason for protests is good no wrong, but the actions are seriously affected some others’ lives,

On 7th October in London, terrified Londoners have dismayed by the chaos caused, including Adeline Adjei, who was forced to abandon her car walk through the crowds with a friend with cancer to the hospital for 20 minutes (Hawker, 2019).

According to Chung (2019), In Melbourne, A woman, Sally, said that her mother died at her home in Spring Street on Sunday. She wanted to go there on Monday to collect her mother's belongings, but when she heard about the protests on Monday, she switched to Tuesday.

But she didn't expect that when she went yesterday, she caught up with the intersection of Spring Street and was blocked. Unfortunately, she couldn't walk past because of a knee injury. She tried to explain to those people that her mother had died after 12 years of fighting cancer and that she needed to visit her mother's house in the hope that they would let it go. But those people simply replied, "If we don't protest here, more people will die."

After the reporter tried to explain to some of the protesters about Sally's situation, ask if they can let her pass, but when she drive through the crowd slowly, but there is a protester who suddenly jumped in front of her car not to let her go.

"They think it’s so important but what is important is the everyday, good Australian people just trying to go about their everyday lives. It’s not fair.” She said.

The activity by XR makes the intersection is blocked every day, the tram is delayed, traffic is paralyzed from time to time, be late to work and school, a group of police in a state of disarray, everyone's life has been seriously affected!

But then this group of people still said that they are no wrong, with a righteous look, they say they wanted to save the earth because they care! Care about the Earth, care about the next generation, care about humans' future!

Sorry to say this, but they don't even care about the lives of others now, they even sit back and ignore the grief of others now, and they don't care about the lives of others now, and what's the future?

In my opinion, I think it is important to stand out and tell our voice to the government or others because if we don't tell, the government might just ignore and continue on what they are doing, that is why activism and protest are important. However, I think that we can try to choose a non-violent action because it might not 100% effective even we used violence, then those people who were injured or sacrificed are not worth it. The next and important thing is I hope the protesters can think of others, even the reason and starting point of protesting are good, but I hope they run the activities in a way that won't disturb others' life, at least not causing the irrelevant person to get seriously disturbed even they are not injured.

Reference list:

ACTIVISM | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (2019). Retrieved 26 October 2019, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/activism

Chung, F. (2019). Climate protesters block woman from dead mother’s home. Retrieved 15 October 2019, from https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/its-just-disgusting-woman-breaks-down-as-climate-protesters-block-her-from-reaching-late-mothers-home/news-story/96e2bc2aeba0510da8371a8531779006

Hawker, L. (2019). Extinction Rebellion: Fury as cancer victim forced to WALK to hospital ‘selfish bast**ds'. Retrieved 22 October 2019, from https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1187912/extinction-rebellion-news-latest-protests-london-climate-change-hospital-westminster

Home - Extinction Rebellion. (2019). Retrieved 25 October 2019, from https://rebellion.earth/

PROTEST | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (2019). Retrieved 15 October 2019, from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/protest

Taylor, J., Zhou, N., & Smee, B. (2019). Extinction Rebellion: who are the protesters, and why are they doing it?. Retrieved 22 October 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/12/extinction-rebellion-who-are-the-protesters-and-why-are-they-doing-it

Taylor, M. (2019). The Extinction Rebellion scorecard: what did it achieve?. Retrieved 21 October 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/extinction-rebellion-assessing-the-impact

#MDA20006 #week 6 #Activism and Protest

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fissart · 5 years

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More Valar and Maiar headcannons no one asked for

Dumber then ever. Here we go. I'm sorry. (I found some internet so imma posting this real quick but I'll be offline again soon sooooooooooo).

Sorry if this is all poorly worded, it's 1am and I'm exhausted, but take it anyway!

~~~~~~~

-Mandos and Irmo courted before they married Vaire and Este. They spent a lot of time together and grew an incredibly close bond, which eventually became a brief love. They fell apart on the realisation they are far better friends then they are romantically, so resumed their old ways and courted Vaire and Este instead!

- the only Valar Melkor feels awkward around is Neinna, simply because he doesn't know how to talk to a person that's constantly crying.

- Mairon and Melkor's first kiss was initiated by a drunk Mairon. Himself and the other Maiar in Aulë's forge were indulging in some time off and having a celebration, Melkor snuck in and stood at the door (purely out of boredom and watched them have fun). When Mairon had drunk too much he stumbled around the room, haphazardly dancing, before tripping and launching himself into Melkor. Melkor caught him easily enough, but a dazed Mairon grabbed Melkor's face and gave him a full on passionate kiss, followed by him breaking away with a giggle and falling on his face- past out from drinking far too much. Melkor took Mairon back to him room and left, speaking nothing of this occasion.

- Olórin and Mairon were really good friends at one point. They'd have long talks about all sorts and were very fond of eachother company.

- on one occasion, Manwë saw Melkor eating a rather large "chicken" leg. Melkor joked it was one of the great eagles and Manwë threw up. (Varda said nothing and low key thought Melkor's joke was actually rather funny and Manwë was being a drama king)

- Mairon is gay. Change my mind.

- one time Ulmo got a cold and every time he sneezed he caused massive storms. The other Valar joked that the destruction he is causing could rival that of Melkor's. (pulling his leg over this, obviously).

- Tulkas is a very animated individual, so sometimes he forgets his own size and waves his arms about as he speaks, he has been known to knock a few of his Maiar (and on one occasion Nessa) out cold.

- Eönwë is the kind of person who will give you the dirtiest look if you so much as sneeze or cough in his presence, while he was in the middle of speaking.

- Curumo is constantly chatting to Mairon, who doesn't listen half the time, about all sorts of things. However, one topic in particular that comes up a lot is "romance and courtship". Curumo assumes Mairon knows the best ways to court someone because of how old and wise he seems, where in actual fact Mairon is a bashful man who has never courted anyone. So often shuts Curumo down on these topics simply because he can't help him and it makes him feel awkward. (Curumo starts to think he's constantly being shut down because Mairon is hiding something from him. So keeps probing him to tell him if he has any past lovers).

- Melkor and Varda definitely did see eachother romantically very early on. Varda thought Melkor's ideas were so different and wonderous that she felt so keen to help him see his grand ambitions through to the end. While Melkor was in utter awe of her intelligence, skills and beauty. They were both naturally drawn together, on the same wavelength of thought at all times and were very happy and at peace together. Melkor came very close to proposing before loosing Varda to Manwë after a lot of "persuading".

-Vana had a crush on Nessa before marrying Oromë. Although, she never confessed or told anyone about it!

- Mairon sleeps all curled up in a ball. (you know when Mairon is in a deep sleep as he ONLY does this when he's knocked out cold. Otherwise, if he's sleeping lightly, he sleeps on his belly).

- Yavanna and Aulë love to dance together when ever they can. Both silly fast paced dance's around their Maiar, and more private slow dance's with just the two of them.

- the Valar having a "girls night" and a "guys night" always ends horribly wrong. During girls night, everybody gossips about everybody else (including their husbands), but always ends in tears and getting over emotional. While guys night starts off as a fun night of drinking and chatting, but will always end in a fight (both pathetic and a little dangerous).

- Melkor is actually quite a "touchy" person. He likes people, who are very close to him, to be physically close to him. For example, when him and Varda were seeing one another, he loved her playing with his hair, holding hands and even just cuddling. The closeness of it brings him great comfort and warmth which he naturally lacks and is unable to sooth himself.

- Olórin once surprised hugged Mairon and received an elbow to the stomach because he panicked he was being murdered. (Olórin never did anything of the sort again go Mairon and Curumo suddenly became extremely cautious to never walk behind Mairon).

- Alive flora and fawner is one of the few things that can make Mandos cry. why? Because he's constantly surrounded by dead things, so when he actually sees something alive he's reminded how beautiful life is and that it will be dead one day. So he gets a bit emotional sometimes.

- Mairon, Curumo and Aiwendil are like 3 brothers (in that order of age). Mairon is the old grumpy sod who's too impatient to deal with others. Curumo is the super curious one who won't shut up and breaks everything he touches. Aiwendil is the super shy one who barely speaks and just hides within Yavanna's cloak half the time.

~~~~~~

Ok I'm so tired, good night.

#silmarillion #tolkien #headcannon #melkor #mairon #manwe #varda #aulë #yavanna #ulmo #tulkas #nessa #vana #orome #nienna #mandos #vaire #lorien #este #curumo #olórin #aiwendil #eönwë

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lokidiabolus · 5 years

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Offline Age - Chapter 2

Fandom: Dragon Age Origins

Pairing: Alistair Theirin x Elissa Cousland

Summary: Alistair was never really a lone wolf or anything, but having a place only for himself had its appeal. He didn’t plan on taking responsibility for anybody in upcoming years, until one fateful night his doorbell decided to wake him up at 2 AM and show him he was so, so wrong.

How Alistair subconsciously harbored mother hen tendencies towards completely unknown person in five minutes and then fell in love so hard it almost broke all bones in his body.

Warnings: Slow Burn, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Tons of overused tropes, Prequel to Online Age

Can be found on Ao3.

Elissa had very little personal belongings to begin with, it made Alistair concerned. His amount of clothes exceeded hers (not to mention lots of her shirts stayed in the flat, soaking the water) and he considered himself fairly uninterested in clothes shopping. It was like she bagpacked into Redcliffe instead of moving in and quite frankly her bag actually looked that way (kind of dirty and battered). She didn’t even have a bed in her flat, she slept on raggedy sofa previous tenants left there and Alistair had so many questions he had no idea where to start.

“I guess you don’t really need a tour in here,” he commented when she entered his home, stopped in the living room and looked around. They had the same layout of the flat but Alistair had to admit his was much more furnished, which definitely raised even more questions.

“I’m good, thanks,” she replied without moving from the spot. She still held the bag and the suitcase and Alistair watched her with worry, because this looked like a speedily approaching meltdown if he ever saw one. He approached her cautiously and when no reaction came, he tugged on her bag and it easily slid off her shoulder to his hand, so he could put it on the floor. He repeated the same thing with the suitcase, leaving her just standing there, looking lost.

“You okay?” he tried. Her eyes had that distant look in them, like she was lost in thought. “Elissa?”

“Huh?” she snapped out of it, blinked few times, and then slowly nodded. “Yeah, sure. Sorry, spaced out.”

“Wanna catch some zees?” he pointed towards the bedroom. The clock showed something past four and if she didn’t sleep either, she must have been exhausted. He knew he was. “You can use the bedroom-,”

“I’ll take the couch,” she interrupted him quickly. “Thanks.”

He had no time to actually say anything else, since she flopped on the sofa like a sack of potatoes and was out cold in three seconds.

“Sure,” he mumbled in aftermath, grabbed the blanket from the armchair and put it over her. He had a feeling she was so far the strangest thing he had ever picked up.

***

He woke up to silence. It was strange how his brain thought it must have been a mistake when up until today there was nothing else but silence every day, but somehow the unusual quiet was wrong, he just couldn’t point a finger on the reason why. He tossed around in the bed for a while, and then reached for the alarm clock to check the time.

Half past seven. Not that bad.

His stomach was rumbling and his head hurt a little when he was crawling from under covers, and when he entered the living room, the why is it so silent hit him in full force. Elissa was sitting in the corner of the couch, awake, and with a notepad on her lap on which she was scribbling something. The blanket was twisted around her legs and waist to keep her warm and her hair was loose from the bun, falling down her face and over her shoulders. Everything else was completely silent, only the pencil movement over the paper made a slight noise.

“Oh, you’re up,” she glanced at him from under long eyelashes and then focused back on the paper. “Thanks for the blanket.”

“No problem,” he shrugged, his mind slowly fitting her into his life like a slot in Tetris. She still weirdly stuck out, but hey, he only knew her for a day – not even that actually. “Feeling any better?”

“Well, at least not like passing out anymore,” she smiled into the scribble, or whatever she was creating there. “I guess we both needed to sleep a bit, huh.”

“Well, I normally don’t hear my bed calling my name so loudly, so I’d say so,” he agreed and walked through the flat until he reached her unpacked bag again. He stared at it for a while, taking in the holes and obvious over usage, and then tilted his head to the side. “So what’s your story?”

“My flat got flooded,” she answered flatly. “It was pretty bad, you know.”

“Wow, really,” he left the bag alone – bad topic, obviously – and continued towards the fridge to feed himself. “Flooding is the worst, isn’t it.”

“Can totally ruin your day. And home.”

The fridge was basically empty, and it shouldn’t have surprised him. He wasn’t grocery shopping for at least two weeks now, basically living on take outs or food he grabbed on the way to or from work, and at this moment he hated his past self so much.

“Chinese it is,” he turned around to find his phone and when he reached the middle of the living room, he couldn’t help but try to fit Elissa sitting curled up on the couch into his life again.

“What?” she raised her head, staring back at him, and then made a face. “Wait. What’s your name again?”

“Again?” he made a face back at her. “How rude.”

“Should I call you Theirin then?” she shot back and the cringe that passed Alistair’s face must have looked pretty out of place. Wait, how did she even know his last name?

“You mean you know my last name but not my first name?” he crossed arms on his chest. “That’s it. We are breaking up.”

The eye roll didn’t come as a surprise. He got lots of those during his life.

“Was on your doorbell,” she gestured vaguely towards the main door to the flat. “Not my fault you didn’t put your whole name on it.”

“Not enough space,” he offered and when she still looked expectant, he lay off the jokes for the moment. “Fine, fair point. It’s Alistair.”

“Alistair,” she repeated thoughtfully. “Kind of a knightly name.”

“I wanted to be a Templar when I was a kid but my nanny didn’t approve, said math comes first,” he sighed dramatically and continued to his bedroom for the phone. “I still feel like it would serve me well. I was never big on studying, but hitting people over the head could have been my true calling.”

“I can tell,” she smirked when he reappeared in the room. “Brawns over brains, hm.”

“Ouch.”

“It’s fine, we all excel in something,” she told him sweetly and returned back to her scribbling. Alistair thought of a retort, but nothing came, so he left her victorious for now, just made a mental note to get back to it later with revenge.

“Going to order take out,” he announced instead while searching for the right number in his contacts. He should have put it in his favourites; they already knew him by his name there. “You want something?”

“Which take out?” It caught her interest. He wondered if she even ate today with all that happened to her or if she fussed around the flat the whole time. It would make sense if she did.

“Chinese.” Her eyes lit up, so it must have been a good choice. “Anything special you want?”

“As long as it’s edible, I’m game,” she put the notepad away and tiptoed towards her bag where she started to dig. “Oh god, now when you’re talking about it, I’m so hungry. Haven’t eaten since yesterday.”

“Figures,” he commented under his breath and the restaurant picked up on second ring. He ordered twice the usual and by the corner of his eye caught Elissa pulling out a wallet from the bag. Somehow it made him uneasy, so when he was answering questions about his health to the lady on the phone that spoke broken but super adorable English, he put a hand on the wallet and pushed it back to the bag, shaking his head. Elissa looked confused and tried to take it out again, which met with his resistance.

Why? She mimicked at him. Let me pay.

No way. He mimicked back. My treat.

She pouted and it looked so stupid he barked out a laugh, which made her pout even harder. He had to refuse the money two more times after the food arrived.

***

Elissa insisted on sleeping on the couch. He was ready to make the sacrifice and let her use the bed, but she refused so vehemently he began to suspect she was either allergic to beds or maybe traumatized by pillows. Either way her loss, his bed was nice and comfortable and the couch was not.

Well, it wasn’t that bad, but still not the ideal sleeping arrangement, even though she made it look like it was the best thing to lie on. He refused to believe it (since he got the couch, he maybe sat on it twice. He had no idea why he let Anora talk him into buying it). She had her own pillow and a blanket that apparently escaped the water catastrophe but her Pooh bear shirt and plaid pants were in worse condition and Alistair took a pity on her and lent her his own shirt with a Griffon on it (but she had to solemnly swear not to drool on it which apparently offended her, since she threw it at him and then demanded it back).

They went to sleep early, despite napping over the day and Alistair somehow managed to completely forget about her in only few deep breaths once he closed his eyes. His unconscious self still remembered to be quiet in the morning the next day, but it didn’t supply why or any other context, so when he staggered outside of the bedroom in his briefs, he was quiet but also oblivious, up until he finally properly woke up in the bathroom and promptly facepalmed with a loud smack.

He was not surprised when he got out of there that Elissa was staring at him from the couch, still bundled up under the blanket but perfectly awake, and he never felt more naked than now (even though he still had the briefs, which offered little comfort. Or cover. Or dignity).

“Let’s forget this happened,” he offered into the rainy morning and Elissa’s lips widened in a grin. “Please.”

“Mkay,” she just told him, which roughly translated to nope, and went back to sleep.

***

“So?”

“I’m sorry, it’s probably on my chair in the bedroom.”

He already knew how disappointment on Duncan’s face looked like, and this was spitting image of it. The unhappy downturn of his mouth and the curve of his eyebrows haunted Alistair’s dreams when he got into the firefighter training at least for a month after he first saw it.

“Why did you even go home in your uniform?” Duncan sighed in obvious defeat and Alistair felt even worse. “Actually, what’s going on with you since yesterday in overall? Is there a problem?”

“Problem? What problem.” In retrospect that really did sound suspicious when Alistair’s voice cracked in the middle of it. But there was no problem, no sir. No problem at all! He expected this week to carry in similar fashion, sure, but that’d be normal with the getting used to period of the new cohabitation. But nobody needed to know about it. Or about Elissa. Or about anything, really, it’s just Alistair’s private matter. The fact he left his uniform at home – or basically even that he went home in it in the first place – was only an unfortunate accident. He blamed the morning’s briefs faux pas for it.

“Is something going on with the house?” Duncan, that good old man, didn’t buy it. Of course. When did he ever. “Or the piping?”

“Nope!” Another not exactly believable response, Alistair was aware. “I was just curious.”

“About the piping,” Duncan’s eyes narrowed and Alistair had an urge to avoid his eyes. But that would mean he had something to hide, so he could not. The battle with his instincts was killing him.

“Yeah, about the piping,” he nodded in frantic search for a viable excuse, but no bright ideas came when he needed them. Just Elissa grinning at him from the couch, obviously ready to serve him the incident in the face when he was going to expect it the least. He knew her only for a day but he could already see she was a worthy opponent.

On the other side, Duncan’s face told him he didn’t believe a single word. That was fine. Alistair was sure he was going to come up with something before another press for answers comes.

“Desk duty,” the older man announced flatly, making Alistair groan. “You brought it on yourself, boy. Now get to it. Bring your uniform tomorrow.”

“I can totally borrow another, why are you doing this to me,” Alistair protested and stubbornly followed Duncan out of the office like a dog. “Duncan, come on.”

“You obviously need to clear your head,” Duncan told him over his shoulder. He was so not getting swayed by Alistair’s puppy eyes anymore, that was not fair. “So you can start there.”

He didn’t need to say end of debate for Alistair to know he lost.

***

The only bright side of desk duty was an earlier leave while not needing to clean up or help with anything in the base. Sadly, for Alistair it was more of a punishment not to busy his hands with anything, rather than taking a breather, so at the end of the shift he was sucked dry of any motivation to even lift the pen for more than abstract sketches in the corner of the paper.

On his leave Duncan still managed to send him a disapproving look and that held onto him all the way to the store, during the grocery shopping and even through the ride in the elevator. It would probably stick longer if after entering his flat he didn’t find Elissa sitting on the floor, surrounded by papers with various pencil sketches on them, looking back at him with a grin.

Oh no, he thought.

“Didn’t lose your pants today, did ya?” she delivered without mercy. Alistair was afraid to look at her work in fear he would find one sketch to depict his morning lemme just saunter through the flat in my undies situation, because quite frankly she was obviously capable of doing that.

“You’re never going to let me live it down, are you,” he groaned and her grin widened even more. One day and she was already on a high horse? Good grief, since when he was such a pushover.

“Could have been worse,” she offered while he finally took his shoes off and brought groceries to the kitchen. The kitchen that never looked so… empty as it did now. Like half of things were missing.

“Did something happen in the kitchen?” he walked back to the living room with confused expression and Elissa was just stacking the papers together from the floor. There was another pile next to her consisting of pencils of all shapes and a case she probably carried them in.

“Not in few years, I wager,” she replied.

Well, yeah, Alistair wasn’t very big on cooking, true. But still. He watched her gently putting the stacked papers in a prepared folder and closing it with a click and his brows furrowed.

“It looks like stuff is like. Gone?” he glanced back towards the kitchen. “Or something. Like, things that used to be there and I usually just pushed them further when I needed space. Those are gone.”

“They are not gone,” she finished with her cleaning and stood up, still in his Griffon shirt and some loose pants of hers. Looked funny. And weirdly domestic, like in those movies about pillow wars. “I washed them and put them in a cupboard.”

“You cleaned my kitchen?” he blinked in surprise and she passed him and entered the incriminated place herself, just to open one of the cupboard doors, showing the mugs and plates neatly sorted inside.

“Somebody had to do it,” she shrugged. “I’ve wanted to make tea but… I thought the kettle was going to walk away from me, obviously alive.”

“Fair enough,” Alistair cleared his throat and she started going through the groceries, putting them on the table, and then carried them to the fridge. Was weird seeing that. Actually, the whole flat was weird seeing right now, because things were neatly put on their places, the floors clean and the pillows on the couch fluffed, and he had never seen anybody doing this in his home before, it made it feel alien. He couldn’t point a finger on the exact emotion, bad or good, it just hovered in grey area, making him nervous.

“Oh,” he heard her suddenly in the hallway and before he could ask what happened, she was back with him. “I shouldn’t have done that, should I.”

“Done the-“

“The cleaning,” she added quickly, her face showing uncertainty. “I should’ve asked first. Oh man, I’m sorry if I overstepped the boundaries or something.”

Alistair had no idea what to say. He looked around again, at the small touches she left over the place he never really thought of doing, and the Tetris pieces in his mind shuffled slightly, making the shapes still stick out, but… less.

“Sorry,” she said again in much graver tone and hung down her head. She looked like a kicked puppy and Alistair couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. It apparently confused her, since she looked back up with raised eyebrows and he couldn’t blame her.

“Let’s make a deal, you minx,” he pointed at her without any power over his smiling face. “You forget about this morning and I will forget about your obvious lack of sense for privacy. How about that?”

“I didn’t go to your bedroom,” she opposed, catching up on his brightening mood, since her face cleared. “I’m not that brave.”

“Oho,” he crossed his arms on his chest. “Afraid of the pillows, are you. I knew that.”

“The pillows?” she waved her hand. “My dear Alistair, I saw the mess in here, where you don’t sleep. I know what you’re capable of. The bedroom should have a biohazard sign on it, I’m sure.”

“Excuse me, my bedroom is a sacred place,” he shot back.

“When was the last time you changed the sheets?” she mirrored his pose and crossed her arms on her chest as well.

“Last week, actually,” he smirked in victory and she smirked back.

“After how long?”

He took a breath to answer, but then he realized it would only prove her point, so he just let the air out again.

“That’s what I thought,” she scored another point, smiled at him sweetly and left him standing in the kitchen.

Alright, he thought, chuckling. Alright. I can work with that.

#dragon age origins #alistair x cousland #offline age #alistair theirin #female cousland #female warden #modern setting au

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mowseries · 6 years

Text

Allies Obstruct

=INTRO B: COLLAPSING PEACE=

((Courtesy of @codedhopes & @super-tired-robot))

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

{June 20th, 20XX}

[The Mighty Numbers had spent months abroad.]

“-Whines- Won’t this dumb car go any faaaaaasterrrrr?”

“Not in traffic, it won’t, and you know it.”

[But now, at last, they were home.]

“Hey, is someone gonna wake snipebro up, or—“

“Ah’ AM awake, ya bunch a’ yappers…”

“Temper, Eight! Don’t get snappy at your sister!”

[They’d gone out to tournaments time and time again, but the saying held true: “there’s no place like home.” It was always a relief to come back… and this time, more than usual.

After a near solid month of time in recovery dodging questions from the press, INTERPOL, MI6, VIN, and other agencies, everyone was ready to be back in their own beds and eating a home-cooked meal.]

“EEEYYYYY I CAN SEE OUR HOUSE FROM HERE!”

“No duh, planebrain! It’s one of the taller buildings in the city!”

[Unfortunately, being cooped up in airplane rides for the past few days and then cramped into a travel vehicle had left them a bit…

…restless.]

Avi: I mean I can see the front door now! :D -Freedommmmmmm—-

Pyro: Don’t open up the roof— No flying out of the car—

Avi: D^: But—but awwwww, come onnnn! It’s right over theeeerrrrrre— only a little hover awayyy…

Bat: We return home as a unit, Six, not in pieces!

Mic: Give Six break. -W- Happy to be home.

Avi: YEEAAAHHH it’s so good to be home—gosh I can’t WAIT to get back to my radio tower—

Cryo: I’m sure you have some ICE stories to tell the viewers, kyaha~

Shade: -Growls at the pun-

Avi: DON’T YOU KNOW IT—

Pyro: Inside voice, Avi.

Avi: —buuuuut it’s too bad I can’t explain what happened…. Did we, uh, ever decide on a story of what to say if they asked about Toby?

Dyna: -Haughty hairflick- Juszzzt szzay that I fried that naszzty biker to a core. Completely true, after all. They can aszzzume the reszzt. -Sparks briefly-

Shade: -Flinches at this- (Ugh, can ya not while we’re cramped in the car, Sis…)

[The smallest of the Mighty Numbers was distracted, pressing his face against the window. It was good to be home: to see the familiar sights, to be where he belonged…

…Well, at least when it came to his family. He wasn’t much of a fighter, so he always felt out of place. Especially considering Pyro had him benched for the time being…]

Beck: (I hope she’s okay…. There weren’t any more “accidents,” so she kept her promise, but…)

Brand: …Are you okay there, otouto?

Beck: ! O-oh, yeah, I, uh…

Beck: I-I was just thinking about Tobias. He… he was really out of it for a while, huh…

Avi: -Thumbs up- Don’t you worry about Toby, bro! He’s up and running now, and he’ll be right as rain! That’s what Doc C said, at any rate…

Pyro: … When did you talk to Mikhail? -Confused-

Avi: Oh, just the other day! He was asking about the watch, actually, but I didn’t exactly have the instructions…

Bat: Watch?

Mic: Birthday present. Missed birthday, Shade sent present. E|

Shade: Mnnrgh. …Glad it got through.

Cryo: -Poooookes at her little brother with her nozzle arm-

Shade: | [

[The sniper remained in a grumpy mood as they finally pulled into the parking lot of Sanda Enterprises.]

Avi: WOOOOOOOO WE’RE HOME

Cryo: LAST ONE IN’S A FROZEN PUDDLE

Shade: Will y’all shut it fer just two minutes—

Cryo: Oh, stop being such a wash-out, Shadey!

Shade: Ain’t in the mood fer puns—‘m gonna go sleep through Sunday, thank yew—

Pyro: -Grabs him by the shoulder before he vanishes, keeping a firm grip- Oh no you aren’t. You’re carrying in your luggage, same as everyone else.

Shade: -Grumpy data- -Grumbles about something under his breath-

Pyro: What was that? | /

Shade: …Ah’ said, all that work an’ this is the thanks Ah’ get…

Cryo: Quit being a drama llama, Shadebro! We’re home now! -Grabs at luggage, gimme-

Dyna: Ugh, I’m too fabulouszz for thiszz. -Grinning, obviously not 100% serious- Earthbro iszz more than capable of carrying in everybody’szz luggage, right~?

Mic: OWO

Shade: …What she said—

Pyro: Enough, you two. <_<

Shade: … -Nah Imma go nap an’ ya can’t stop me— -

Pyro: -Not if my grip has anything to say about it-

Cryo: -Flings herself at Pyro, eager to get in on the conflict- FIGHT ME—

Brand: Cryo—! Now’s not the time!

Shade: Fer Xel’s sake, just give it a rest—

Avi: EYYYYY good one—

[The sniper had reached the end of his patience.]

Shade: -DAMMIT Ah’ did NOT mean t’ pun—- Avi, Ah’ swear if there’s one more pun outta yew…

“You want a hand with that? BJ”

Shade: !

[The commotion stopped momentarily, with the sniper looking down in surprise.]

[Sure enough, there he was: the one and only songbird. He was grinning up at his taller friend, giving off unfiltered gleeful data.

And just like that—]

Shade: -nEVERMIND, NAP CAN WAIT— -

[Cardinal laughed and gave his friend a proper hug. He didn’t even care that he was letting someone that close to him, or that he was showing such a strong sign of friendship.]

[It had been a long two months since they had last seen one another, and it had felt like ages. The old prototype Robot Master had done a lot of waiting in his time, but very rarely had he ever felt the sense of separation so poignantly.

He’d made an effort to drown out his sorrows by keeping busy, and had much to tell them… but that could wait.

For now, he was happy just to see his best friend alive and well again.]

Beck: Cardinal! :DDD You’re here!

[He ran in for a hug, and Cardinal pulled him in. Each of the three of them seemed to be savoring the moment.]

Bat: What are you doing here, Private? It’s 0400 local!

Cardinal: -Gleeful pings as he messes with Shade, the latter using him as an armrest- I had to come in person, Major! I failed to be up in time to see you off—it took all my self-control not to meet up with you at the airport in New York, instead!

Brand: That would have raised more questions, yes. -.-; Might I suggest that we continue this inside?

Shade: If you say so, ya stick-in-the-mud. B]

Cardinal: B]

[He broke into chuckles at that, though, shoving Shade off before going over to pick up his bags.]

Pyro: -Oh, you were being serious—- There’s no need for that, Cardinal. You’re our guest. Shade can carry his own bags in. ¬_¬

Cardinal: Nah, it’s fine— watch this!

[Cardinal used SUPER ARM!]

[And just like that, he’d grabbed all of Shade’s luggage effortlessly. Bat gave a whistle of appreciation.]

Cryo: NICE, Looks like he LIFTS, bros—

Cardinal: -Laughs- It does come in handy! C’mon, let’s head inside.

[Once all the Mighties were inside, the luggage was put to the side and everyone headed for the kitchen. It may be 4AM local, but they were still suffering from jet lag: it was about lunchtime in London. Even though he was a bit worn out from the travels, Pyro set about to preparing a proper meal for the family.

There was the usual chaos around the kitchen as Cardinal also prepared some coffee for himself and Countershade. When the prototype sat down, however… he immediately became subject to questioning.]

Avi: So what have you been up to, Cards? Got any new songs for us?

Cardinal: Ha, I wish… -Something of an empty half-smirk as he slides a mug of coffee over to Shade- It’s all run together a bit for me, actually. It… hasn’t been easy, to be honest.

Brand: …? What do you mean?

[Shade sipped at his coffee silently as his friend explained himself.

Despite the distance and the time difference—not to mention the risk on Cardinal’s end—the songbird had kept in touch with him and buzzed in every so often. So he was in the know on most of it.]

Cardinal: Well…

Cardinal: When days don’t have any specific value of importance assigned to them, multiple days of memory that are much the same usually cause identical cross-reference creation redundancy, and it becomes difficult to differentiate one day from another. It all becomes a blur….

Brand: …That’s not the only reason, is it.

Cardinal: Heh.

[He gave something of a wry grin, leaning against the table. The data he gave off was subtly more tired than before… and just as tense.]

Cardinal: You noticed, huh? Not much gets by you.

Beck: Nii-san is really good at that!

Cardinal: -Long sip of coffee- Yeah… I’ll admit that we didn’t take it very well at all, first. And me most of all.

Avi: Aw, we missed you too, buddy!

Bat: You seem to have held up well, soldier. You’re being too hard on yourself, as usual!

Cardinal: -Shakes his head- I was upset. I stayed Offline for a while, and then, well…

Cardinal: Tried to busy myself in work. Had to… do something, just keep moving forward. -Looks off into the distance- Figured we should make progress with repairs… needed certain resources. We had to go out and raid a lot for them: it really was rather hard.

Pyro: That would explain that one series of alerts we got…

Cardinal: Yeah, they’d brought more firepower than I had bargained for. I made it out alright, but I wouldn’t want any of you to go to such places, that’s for sure. There wasn’t much to find as it was.

Beck: Sorry I wasn’t there to help…

[Cardinal grinned and patted Beck’s shoulder.]

Cardinal: Nah, we really just needed more of specific metals, and any source of certain energies we could find. I got my hands on more E-tanks—which is good, but there still aren’t very many. Siamini’s been trying, but we haven’t made that breakthrough just yet. He thinks he might be getting close, having run the search on the database for months now.

Cryo: Uuugh, don’t tell me it was all work and no play! -Pbbbtth-

Cardinal: Sorry there, Ice Queen, but without you guys around, we didn’t have many people to play with, to be honest. Snow was often off doing his own thing, but he’s the only one who really gets out and about.

Dyna: Well, we’ll fix that now that we’re baaack~

Mic: Why need special metals? ?W? Ones Mic and Felix mine not enough?

Cardinal: -Gives a relaxed sigh, running his fingers through his hair- …Well, we needed to get samples from stuff related to the Second Generation. The only place that has that is that one old lab that’s been completely trashed several times over. It was time for us to strip that place to the bone anyway, before— well, before what happened… would happen.

Cardinal: Only it DID happen.

Bat: You’re referring to the WMD that got pointed at you?

Cardinal: -Grim expression- Mmm… it was more than that. There was… someone a bit like Mic, and definitely someone like Avi… though we were shot at long-range from someone like you, Major. The compound was destroyed.

Pyro: -Places some bacon aside- But no one was injured, right?

Cardinal: Most everyone got out of there in time, but I had to draw them off. Needless to say, that place won’t be offering up any more resources, and that’s one mainframe down. Luckily we have the one in the Meadow—and here, since the two are synched.

Cardinal: Though—it would still be putting you in danger to use your mainframe for our own devices. -Looks up- We don’t want to subject you to that if it can be helped.

Shade: -Puts his coffee down- M’ sure Dad would be fahn lettin’ ya use the mainframe if y’all really needed to, Cards.

Beck: Yeah! We’ll all help! ouo

Cardinal: Heh…. Thanks, but… -Trails off- …

Cardinal: …Well, at least we got some important data and schematics.

Brand: … -Raises an eyebrow- Such as?

Cardinal: I know what you’re thinking, Brand, but we didn’t find anything related to Shadow in there. Sorry.

[The Xel ninja said nothing, but it wasn’t hard to see (by his VISIBLY mildly unamused expression) that he was slightly disappointed to hear this.]

Shade: -Quiet ping of sympathy to his older brother- Ya woulda thought that somethin’ like that’d be in there.

Cardinal: You'd think a lot of things would be in there, but I’m pretty sure that Wily must have kept stuff like that written down on notepads, not stored in the RMD.

Beck: Why?

Cardinal: He lost things that were really important to him due to serious problems with the database once, you know—and he always was really, REALLY old school.

Cardinal: -Leans back in his chair a bit- Maybe it WAS in there once, but—y’know, it’s been a long time since the end of the Gamma incident. (Like, what… nine months or so?) He’s had time to delete that stuff, and he was really adamant about making sure Shadow was… quote-unquote taken care of, if you catch my drift.

[Brand clenched the knife he was holding a bit harder at this.]

Avi: -Aaaaaand distraction time—- So… what WERE you able to get?

Cardinal: Good question, Avs; we haven’t reviewed it in full as of yet. I think it was retrieval of the blueprints for the Second Generation, at least. I know that I went out and managed to get my hands on 020’s data.

Shade: -Nice-

Pyro: -Hopeful data- That’s the boxer, correct?

Cardinal: Yup.

Bat: Ha! Good work, soldier! No man left behind!

Beck: That must have been awfully scary, though! ono

Cardinal: -Grins- Well, it wasn’t easy! And yeah, it was a pretty big risk. But hopefully it’ll be worth it, in the long run.

[His smile fades.]

Cardinal: Tobias, though…

[The murmur of conversation died down at that. Avi fidgeted.]

Avi: Mikhail said he was okay, right…?

Cardinal: He’s… he’s alright.

[The Robot Master in question had been Offline for quite some time following the scene in the sands. And what a scene it had been…]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

SKLLLKTTKRRRSHHHLLLRRRKKT—

[Oil and cooling fluids spattered all over Bladeblaster’s hands and weapon, as if they were blood….]

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Cardinal: We never did explain what happened, did we…

[He presses a hand to his face and yawns.]

Cardinal: Well, maybe Mikhail can explain it tomorrow or something.

Beck: What is there to explain? :c He’s… he’s okay, right?

Cardinal: Yeah. He was asleep for a while, but that’s pretty common for any Robot Master after they get sent Offline in a traumatic fashion. Especially if they blame themselves. That data is really difficult to process, you know.

Dyna: -Awww, Tobyyyy…-

Beck: Sorry we couldn’t help out. D:

Cardinal: You guys had your own worries. We pulled through alright.

Cardinal: Besides, you’ve done a lot of good work with those molds you made for us! The new coolant systems make all the difference in the heat of battle.

Shade: -Snorts into his coffee despite himself-

Avi: EEEEYYY nice one :^D

[Cardinal gave a brief soft laugh.]

Cardinal: It’s good to be like… like this again.

Cryo: SOOOOooooo… now that you're home… what do you want to do next?

Brand: Something that doesn't end up in the headlines. -~-;;

Cardinal: -Laughs at this-

Shade: -Devilish grin, worth it-

Pyro: Are you kidding, Seven? I swear those two could go out for groceries and end up in trouble.

[The two in question snicker at this.]

Brand: -Mildly annoyed glare at Cardinal-

Cardinal: -Amused- You really need to chill out, Sev.

Cardinal: You should try meditation, I hear it works wonders~

Shade: -Almost chokes on his coffee at this-

[Brand narrowed his eyes coldly at his younger brother as the cowboy coughed briefly, grinning as he sat shaking in silent laughter.]

Shade: -Error X04: srs not found, BWAHAHA-

Cardinal: -Just gives a cheeky grin- ~~~

Bat: We could deploy him to Kalos. Maybe some training there will get him to clean up his act!

Shade: -Aw, not you too, bro— Ah’ trusted ya…-

Cardinal: -Laughs a little- Actually, that's not that bad of an idea, Major. I taught Baron some new tricks by utilizing the moves he has in expressive ways.

Pyro: >_>;

Cardinal: Don’t suppose you can come with?

Shade: -Pings and sighs, nostalgic about their previous adventures- Ah’d love to, but—

Pyro: -Brings pancakes over to the table- We have a match tomorrow morning. We have to rest, I’m afraid.

Cardinal: Aw, come onnn…. Not even for half an hour?

Brand: Cardinal, the last time you and Shade went there, you got chased by a swarm of BEES. -____-;;

Shade: -Pokes at the songbird sharply- Ah' still blame yew—

Cardinal: That was BARON'S idea, not mine!

Pyro: Alright, alright! Settle down!

Shade: -Fine, fine…-

[Everyone started chowing down as Pyro divvied out the food.]

Cardinal: I’m just glad you guys are back. We really missed you.

Shade: S’ good to be back. B]

Avi: By the way, did our gifts ever reach you guys—

Cardinal: -Cutting designs into his pancakes- Yeah, and Mikhail was very happy you all got him the watch. Just one thing, though…

Shade: Hmm?

Cardinal: …You didn't include any instructions, so you're going to have to show him how it works.

Shade: Ah, right—there are several functions, heh…

Mic: -Going through an entire stack of pancakes all to himself- How is Felix?

Cardinal: -Smile fades- …Sick.

Brand: … -Concerned- Sick?

Cardinal: Yeah.

Beck: What happened? D:

Cardinal: As he would put it, “It’s A Long Story”…. Something to do with visions and high energy things. That's what Piers said, anyway.

Dyna: Who iszzz that, again?

Cardinal: Mmm. That would be the captain from Lemuria; he’s Felix’s best friend. He came over to help monitor Felix after he fell ill. Echo probably asked him to do so.

Bat: Any idea as to what caused it? That man is as sturdy as they get. Haven’t ever heard of him being under the weather since we’ve known him.

[Cardinal lowered his utensils for a moment, frowning.]

Cardinal: He was doing research into what might have happened with those stupid crosses, from what I understand. B/

Pyro: Mmmnnngh…

Mic: :c Mic not get it. Felix not a ‘bot?

Cardinal: He was researching something similar from his world. Pretty dangerous material, from what I understand. He was either careless or else underestimated the potency he could reach by refining the material…

Beck: But he’ll be okay, right? D:

Cardinal: …

Cardinal: -Slowly- He’s bounced back from worse before. He’ll be fine.

Beck: -Whew…-

Cardinal: Enough about us, though. What about you guys? We barely got to see any of the matches—

Avi: NOT TO WORRY, we recorded everything in HD! :^D

Cardinal: Fair enough, but. Tell me about England. -Pours syrup onto more pancakes, only to find Beck had taken most of the syrup already- Tell me about what it was like for you guys.

Shade: Hmm…

Shade: It was… rainy.

Cardinal: -Snrk-

Cryo: -Flails- We’ve been there before, you know! Came back champs, natch. Those guys couldn’t hold a candle or a hose to the team SUPREME!

Brandish: The teams were very good. They were simply outmatched, that is all. I’m sure Speedy would have enjoyed seeing some of them… were you really unable to watch any of the matches?

Cardinal: We picked up a few radio broadcasts, but the only one we got to see was the last one. And we all know how THAT went…

Shade: Tsk… real shame. ‘least Avi got the content t’ show after the fact…

Cardinal: Oh, dude, I’d love to marathon watch the whooooole thing. B]

Bat: For your analysis program?

Cardinal: -Smirks- Maaaybe.

Pyro: Heh.

Dyna: -Points and cackles- Don’t think you can pull a faszzzt one on uszz, Card-i-nalll~! Analyszzisz didn’t help them much, after all~

Cardinal: -Amused- Fair enough point.

[Shade twitched an amused smile, before privately pinging his friend.]

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: You’ve got more to say, don’t you?

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: >Let’s just say that you haven’t seen what I can really do when I’m serious.

[His grin faded after a moment, and he gave off tired data again.]

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > …Though… I hope you never have to…

[Shade used what was left of his right arm to swish his cloak a little, brushing it against the short prototype. This served to distract him out of the grim cross-references of recent battles—not matches, but true clashes of machines of war.]

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: S’ok. Things will be fine now.

Cardinal: -Blinks a little bit, coming out of his private thoughts to Avi’s ongoing description of the lunch with the Queen- …

Cardinal: … -Decides to zone back out, focusing on his breakfast-

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > What about you, Shade? Did… did we make things rather hard for you?

Shade: …

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: …The whole thing was a mess. S’ not y’all’s fault. Got hammered pretty hard with demands from just about every agency you can think of, all wantin’ answers for what Bladeblaster was up to…

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > …And how Tobias got past security?

Shade: | / -Sighs and nods-

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > Geez, that sounds rough. What were they expecting, that just because you guys were both assassins that you knew what he was up to?

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Mnn. Somethin’ like that, I guess. More like they expected me specifically t’ have been keepin’ an eye on him… since he was a competitive threat and not publicly on good terms…

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > …

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Ah’ know, right?

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > Man… if they were that hard on you, I can only imagine what they put Jack through…

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Nah, don’t worry ‘bout him. Kate’s got his case.

[Cardinal smiled softly at that.

“Kate”—also known as Shade’s distaff counterpart—had developed a fast friendship with the unfortunate CherryDyn fighter. It came as little surprise that she had managed to find a backdoor to the system that allowed her to protect the still-recovering victim.]

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: >How’d she manage to pull that off?

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Heh heh… God only knows; haven’t had a chance t’ compare notes yet. She was real careful about not being seen communicating with us much. She kept a tight patrol ‘round the hospital when she wasn’t actin’ as his case handler. She even wrote a report to submit to the CAL: managed to take off with some of my blank documents while I was nappin’ r’ somethang, y’know.

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: >Well, as long as she’s looking out for him. I’ve got a bad feeling about what could happen to him now…. He surely knows too much, and as for his boss…

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Rumor has it that he’s dead.

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > …

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > What?

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Kate thinks it’s a cover story. Kinda inclined t’ believe her.

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > …

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > -MnnnNNNnng-

Cardinal: -Pokes at his pancakes, deciding to change to subject-

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > How… how bad was it, with them asking about Tobias?

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Eh. That was the easy part. Just said that he wasn’t a Xelbot I’d ever seen in the ring before, must be some fan a’ Dyna’s. B]

[Cardinal grins at that, biting down onto his fork.]

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > Nice. Technical, misleading truths are my absolute favorite.

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Heh. Figured you’d get a kick outta that. Thankfully, they really didn’t press the point, ‘cause they were havin’ trouble finding him in any of the databases to begin with… making it even less likely that a star family like us would know him.

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: >Yeah… thanks for putting him as an Industrial. He really isn’t developed for Combat.

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Maybe not, but—

Shade: -Whistle of appreciation-

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: After seein’ him in action, can’t say he wouldn’t fit in.

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > You could say he—

[MNN-008 to DLN-000] //: Aw c’mon, don’t—

<DLN-000 to MNN-008>: > —punched BB’s lights out—

Shade: -Snickers and thwacks Cardinal with his cape-

Cardinal: -CHEEKIEST GRIN-

Pyro: What’s going on down there?

Cardinal: Oh, nothing~

Shade: Just enjoyin’ a jest, heh heh…

[The two share a laugh, and Pyro lets the matter drop. It was good to see Shade back in a good mood again, and neither were out causing trouble, after all—at least, not yet.]

Pyro: (I don’t doubt that they’ll find plenty of mischief to do as time goes on.) -Shakes his head slightly- (Truly as “thick as thieves”, those two….)

[Cardinal, for his part, seemed to slip back into a weary melancholy. He’d stopped just short of finishing off his pancakes.]

Shade: …? Oi—you full, or…?

Cardinal: Hmm?

[He looked up, coming out of his thoughts. His eyes glowed slightly brighter for a moment before they dulled again: though it was hard to tell behind his sunglasses.]

Cardinal: Oh, I…

Cardinal: -Looks down at his plate- …I guess it’s more that I don’t want to leave.

Cryo: What’s THAT got to do with breakfast?

Cardinal: Well… you guys said you have a match tomorrow, and you’ll have to sleep most of the day to truly rest while readjusting your internal clocks to fix jet lag…

Cardinal: -Clearly reluctant- I really should get out of your way.

Brand: Nonsense.

Beck: We do have to rest up, but! Maybe Dad will let us have a sleepover!

Cardinal: -Looks up hopefully- You think so?

Bat: Affirmative, provided you don’t cause any trouble.

Cardinal: -Gives a slight smile at that- I’ve just returned from active combat, sir. Led my men in battle and brought us all home alive. I have enough thrills from the enemies at my heels; right now I just want some peace and quiet before they carry out the brunt of the storm.

Shade: … (Haven’t seen him like this in a long time. Gotta be something I can do t’ help keep him outta that sea of hopelessness…)

Shade: -Gets a sudden idea- !

Shade: -Slowly grins- Gee. That’s too bad.

Cardinal: -Looks up- I’m sorry, Shade. I’m just really tired right now. You know how that is.

Shade: Yeah.

Shade: Was just thinkin’ maybe…

Shade: Maybe after spendin’ the night, y’ could come to watch the match tomorrow?

Cardinal: !

[The others immediately chimed in.]

Mic: -Deep PING of approval- ^W^ As Digger say, “yes good!”

Bat: Solid idea!

Beck: Yeah! That would be great!

Avi: Now why didn’t I think of that?

Dyna: Yee, you’ll get to szzee a FABULOUS diszzplay!

Brand: You really ARE overdue to see a match in person…

Cryo: Hell yeah, [glitches]! Watch us totally DOMINATE those losers!

Pyro: We’d love to have you come. Why don’t you go ask?

Cardinal: -Warm smile- …Thanks, guys. You’re the best.

[Beck beamed as the prototype wandered off to go find the Doctors. Best friends, reunited! What a wonderful thing!]

Beck: -Hums a little, licking syrup off his plate while Pyro isn’t looking- (I can’t slip away tonight, but maybe tomorrow I can go see her, too…. I should see if I can get extra Xel ready for her. Maybe I could say it’s stuff for the molds…)

Beck: (I really hope she's been doing well since I left—I know! I'll make a nice gift for her too, maybe add some chocolate—a gift basket! That'll cheer her up. And maybe…)

Beck: (Maybe after the match, I can finally talk to her about some important things…)

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

#Allies Obstruct #Mighty No. 9 #Mighty 9 #Mega Man #MegaMan #cje #codedhopes #mowseries #sirensniper #unluckyadept

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survivoraqualand · 3 years

Text

Jessica’s Jury Statement

Both of you at the end and me in eighth place... where have we seen this before! Having hosted you in your first games, being hosted by Jenna, then playing with you both a couple of times, and now playing together again... it's great to look back on the last ~6 years and know that we are still friends!

Jenna, there's a perception on jury that you were playing in a way that didn't vibe with the tone of this game. A lot of us openly said we were here for a good time, not a long time. With you it felt like the opposite. It didn't seem like you were having fun, to be honest! I know you can get stressed in these games and it can override the fun. Don't get me wrong, I think wanting to win is great! But I think having fun should always come first. If you win but have a bad time, why sign up?

My biggest confusion is why didn't you mix things up this time? Why not try and play in a way that's unexpected to see what kind of fun you can have with new strategies? Nothing I said against you in this game was personal or even from a desire to vote you out; I just saw where this game was going and I wanted to see an ending other than "Jenna befriends everyone, cuts them, and then is a F2 with Logan".

My questions for you are did you have fun in this game or were you stressed most of the time? If you were to play again, what choices do you think you could make to have a more fun, less emotionally draining experience?

Logan, I was super excited to see you in this game! I feel like where Jenna plays to win, you play for fun. That isn't to say you don't play well, just that every time I've played with you I feel like you've put your heart into the game and you're okay with taking risks to win.

At the start, you said you wanted to play a fun and wild game. You said that you don't like games where one side just dominates another. But a lot of people felt very boxed off by you (and Jenna) and ended up not having great experiences. Personally I came into merge and felt like you two kind of ganged up on me, decided I was going home, and then that was that. It didn't feel like it was based on the game so it left me feeling like y'all had grudges for past games or something which isn't like you! And for other jurors, they've been voted out and felt very personally upset and emotionally drained in ways that just don't seem to match the fun Logan I usually see.

My question for you is at what point did you decide to play a more cutthroat/strategic game instead of one that was your usual silly self? Does knowing that a lot of the jury ended up not having a great time in their final days make you have any regrets or are you still pretty happy with how things ended up?

Good luck to you both! I look forward to casting my vote for Matt Summers one of you tomorrow!

JENNA’S RESPONSE

Hi Jessica! First I wanna say I’m really sorry you felt ganged up on and that really was not my intention at all. I honestly thought you were trying super hard to get me out from what I was hearing from other people so I figured we were just going after each other. I now realize there was definitely some miscommunication going on and I think the longer the game went on the more I was convinced you were against me for no reason other than my past games. I really do wish I would have just addressed it with you because it clearly wasn’t the reality and it definitely would have helped clear up a lot that was going on during the first few votes and I apologize for that.

Now, I do wanna say that I actually had a ton of fun in this game. Don’t get my wrong, I still got stressed out at points, but I get stressed out deciding what to eat some days, so that’s just something I am working on as a grow. I really enjoyed doing all of the challenges, and talking to people, and figuring out all the secrets of the hotel. It did take me a bit to find my zone of fun though because when I started I definitely was way too stressed out. As the game went on, I just started to enjoy the strategic aspect of the game and leaned in to that! I’ve never been the type of person who enjoys really over the top, out there, things (in real life or in these games). Big moves are cool to look back on, but they really make my anxiety 10x’s worse. I tried my all in this game, in every challenge, in the hotel, because that’s what’s fun to me! Figuring out the best way to get to the end is one of my favorite things to do in these games. I get that it didn’t seem to fit the vibe of what other people were doing, but I also didn’t want to not be true to myself just because of that. That’s not to say I couldn’t have mixed up my game, but I think a lot of it was since I hadn’t played in so long I wanted to find the joy in my strategic game that I lost when I was 17 in my past games. I really felt like I found a good balance this game between the fun and the stress, but I also know that’s not what some people consider fun either. I will say with everything going on in the world I wanted to stick to my comfort zone of what I know I enjoy. It’s definitely good to push yourself and grow, but I think I was doing that in my own subtle ways with how I was treating this game in my own life, rather than pushing myself really far just for the sake of trying to shake things up since I knew that wouldn’t make the game enjoyable for me at this moment in time. I also got pretty sick in the middle of merge so that made me stick a lot more to just doing the easier thing because it was hard for me too focus on too many things and I wanted to prioritize my health a bit at that point. I do agree though that I definitely can have more fun in these games in the future, but this is the game I felt like I needed to play to have fun and grow for myself.

If I were to play again something I think would be beneficial is being online less. Especially at the beginning of the game I was so worried that no one on my tribe was telling the truth because they weren’t on a lot, but in reality they were just living life. I had a realization around swap that that’s really not important and that’s when the game started becoming fun for me. Marg and I talked a lot about having a good balance of real life things to go along with these games, and I didn’t really have that so I think that would help a lot. I also would always say that when I had immunity I was just gonna go offline and randomly vote, and I think that would be something fun to try as well. I do agree you can grow through new experiences, so I think I would want to go into a game not trying to win and see what that experience brings, but I don’t necessarily know if that would be fun for me or cause me more stress. It’d definitely be a learning experience and I could possibly come out on the other side having a better time than even in this game, but I won’t say I know I’ll definitely enjoy it, because I don’t really find my fun in things like that. Overall, I really had a lot of fun with everything Ari threw at us, but I would be interested to experiment with some things that maybe don’t seem very fun to me, but could possibly be great and I just am too afraid to try.

LOGAN’S RESPONSE

I apologize, Jessica. It was a lot of fun working together in the beginning. I wanted to continue that at merge, but I was worried about Linden because she told everyone about the idol and note I’d given her. I knew you and Linden were close, so I didn’t tell you about the 3-3-3 that I thought was happening. After Linden left, I had no intention of writing your name down, but then I heard you weren’t voting the way that we’d talked about at the next Sea Council. I found out like ten minutes before Sea Council, so I didn’t have enough time to ask you about it. There was confusion about where your vote was landing, and I wasn’t sure if you were going to be voting Marg or me. We promised each other that we wouldn’t vote one another, but I had just played a part in Linden’s elimination. I had also just voted for you the past round, so I wasn’t sure whether you were just humoring me by saying we were good.

I try to not come into a game with grudges. These are just for fun. Whatever happens, happens. You’ve always been lovely to play with, and I admire you as a player. I never had anything personal against you, and I truly wanted to play with you. Before everything went downhill, I was hoping to go far with you. I enjoyed talking to you about wild plans and bonding over the wackiness of everything going on. You’re really supportive and just all around a great person.

I don’t know when my game shifted from silly to cutthroat. I made cutthroat plays, but I also tried to make things interesting and fun. That’s why I threw in some luck-based things to my game like letting out the monster on Proteus, giving Linden my immunity idol, and spinning a wheel to give away my immunity necklace. I put myself in the forefront to see what would happen. I acknowledge that I should’ve done things with more tact. It sucks that people didn’t enjoy themselves, and I’m sorry I played a part in that for some of you. I feel like everything could’ve been avoided with more communication on my part, and that’s definitely on me.

#survivoraqualand #jury

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theoddcatlady · 7 years

Text

Online Dating

“His name should be… Augustus Payne…”

“Holy shit, Mike.”

I covered my mouth to muffle my laughter as my friend typed in the name. He grinned as he contemplated what to put next. “We’re a millionaire…”

“Mike!”

“We own a houseboat…”

“Mike!”

“We love walks on the beach…”

“Holy shit Mike, you are putting way too much effort into this!”

Mike laughed and sat back in the desk chair, steepling his fingers. “Hey man. If this gets us nudes, it’s worth it,” He said.

I had to agree. I took a sip of my soda and thought for a second. “Augustus also writes poetry. He’s looking to get published,” I offered up.

“Chase, you beautiful bastard. I could kiss you.”

I grinned before I went back to looking through profiles on a modeling website. This was probably one of the stupider ideas Mike has ever come up with, pretend to be this hot guy to get some hot girls to talk to us, but there were stupider ways to spend a Friday night.

I stopped scrolling when I saw this model with some European name I couldn’t pronounce. Generic hot white guy, high cheek bones, ruffled dark brown hair, light stubble. Perfect for what we needed. “Hey man, I found a face for Augustus.” I turned my phone so Mike could look.

Mike nodded. “Got it, gimme a sec to play in photoshop though. Just to touch him up.”

“He’s a fucking model, Mike, what kind of touching up does he need?”

Apparently ‘touching up’ meant changing a few backgrounds, adding a small scar under ‘Augustus’ lip, and turning his dark brown eyes very bright blue. I had to admit, Mike was good. If I didn’t know better I’d say I was looking at a real person.

Mike added the pics to the profile and sat back.

“And now, we wait.”

We didn’t have to wait long. One round of Overwatch later and Mike was shouting, “We got a girl! Holy shit she’s hot!”

I had to disagree. ‘Justine’ could afford to lose a few pounds and had a bit of a lazy eye, but Mike was focusing on one thing… er, two things if you get the hint of my drift.

“So, Justine…” Mike spoke aloud as he typed. “What do you think about sailing?”

I snorted. The poor girl ate every line up. Mike wasn’t exactly a looker, given he was thirty pounds overweight and had a serious case of pizza face, but he had one thing on me and that was he knew how to schmooze. Meanwhile I looked okay, but I was terrible with the ladies. I’d get this terrible stutter and forget my own name.

An hour in and I was already bored, wanting to go kick some more ass as Genji, but Mike was just getting started.

“Here.”

He had jotted down the password for the account. He pressed it into my hand and grinned.

“Get some practice talking to chicks. It might do you some good.”

The next morning I picked out Janette. She was a little older, past forty, but I figured a hot guy like Augustus would get her attention. Plus, I like them mature. I sent off a message telling her hello and complimented her necklace.

Aren’t I a little old for you, sweetie?

The best part about online messaging, I found out super quickly? I could take my time formulating a decent response.

I don’t think the age difference is a big deal, really. You’re like what, thirty two?

I patted myself on the back for that one. And Janette’s response declared me the winner.

We’ll go with that. Feel like sharing your poetry with me, Augustus dear?

I thought I’d drop this within a day, maybe two or three. But as days went on, I met more and more amazing girls. There was Janette of course. We’d sext at around three AM, which I was a bit clumsy with at first but thankfully she seemed to brush it off. Valarie was a cheerleader at a nearby college, very perky and I didn’t have to ask twice for boob pics. She sent me a lot more than that. Patti was a starving artist who liked to smoke weed and talk about her newest vision with me.

It was so much fun.

Mike had a few girls I noticed he’d talk to frequently, Lauren, Heidi, Mallory, but as an unspoken rule to each other we never looked at each other’s conversations. Some things were best left to the imagination.

Course when stuff really got good I got fucking mono. Yup. Mister ‘never kissed a girl’ clearly drank from the wrong water fountain and was out for the count for three weeks. I was in no mood to talk to girls or even look at nudes. I was just not up for it. I told Mike he better have fun without me and he laughed.

When I finally felt better, I decided to see if I could repair any of the relationships I’d let grow cold. I logged onto quite the surprise though.

My conversations had seemingly continued on at normal.

I snapped out of feeling sorry for myself to read through the conversations. It was like nothing had changed. ‘Augustus’ conversed with these women as normal, sharing new poetry and sending body shots from new modeling shoots.

I got annoyed. Mike had gone through my convos, which is something I hadn’t specified he not do, but it was a little uncomfortable to say the least. I was practicing my dirty talk on these chicks! Not cool man. Not cool.

Then I read the last messages sent to Valarie.

I’ll meet you on the lakeshore. We can take a swim.

hehehe! maybe a lil skinny dipping ;)

We’ll have to see, my pixie. I imagine you look even more ravishing in person. I can’t wait to meet you.

I slammed my laptop shut and picked up my phone. Furiously I punched in Mike’s number and waited for him to pick up.

A few rings and he answered, “What’s up my man? Still dead?”

“Dude, are you serious?”

I could hear Mike pause what he was doing. “Serious about what?” He asked.

I wanted to pitch my phone across the room. “You’re meeting Valarie? I don’t think she’s gonna not notice that you’re not six foot six with washboard abs!”

Mike paused. “Dude, the fuck you talking about?”

“The dating website, you moron!”

He was quiet for a bit before he laughed. “Seriously? Chase I’ve not been on there in days. Too busy trying to find a new roommate. You up for that by the way? I know you’re kinda jobless but we could make it work!”

Too irritated to play games, I hung up and went to bed. I still felt pretty fucked up and I wasn’t in the mood to be awake anymore.

The next morning I scrolled through my Facebook feed to be barraged with news of a murder.

“Isn’t it terrible? She was only twenty one!”

“She had so much to live for.”

“She had a FULL RIDE through college! Who could do this to her?”

I was confused. We might’ve lived in a college town, but other than the vandalism during pledge week it was pretty quiet. Murder was unheard of. I clicked to an article where the victim was named.

It was Valarie. But not quite the Valarie I knew.

She had the same smile, but she was a little chubbier, wore glasses, had not as shiny and full hair… and she was in a wheelchair.

I scrolled through the photos she’d sent me, I’d never realized I hadn’t ever seen her standing up before. I was more focused on other body parts… which were a little touched up. Something I hadn’t bothered to notice.

And yeah, it was murder. She was dragged into the lake and drowned. She didn’t stand a chance.

I looked up news from the past few weeks. Although another murder hadn’t rocked my town, there were quite a few missing girls and dead bodies in cities surrounding us. And I began to piece together who each one was.

Patti wasn’t a stoner, she was a meth addict and apparently got more money for drugs by whoring herself out. Mallory, one of Mike’s girls, didn’t have a yacht, she was apparently an avid canoe lover though. Lauren was ten years older than the pictures she posted. I could go on and on.

My best friend had gone serial killer on me. All these girls we’d talked to, they were maybe as fake as we were, but Mike had apparently taken personal offense to that.

I was wondering what the hell I could do when I realized that I was getting messaged by Janette… and I was apparently messaging her back.

“So, tonight? At the docks?”

“I cannot wait, Augustus. I’m going to be honest with you though.”

“Oh?”

“I’m... working on separating with my husband. It’s a very tough process, given our kids and all, so it isn’t legal yet.”

“Ah. I see. You omitted the truth… some might call that lying.”

“Is our date still on?”

“Sure.”

My heart was pounding in my ears. I had to stop this. Janette was actually a great person, I couldn’t let her get killed by my friend turned psycho.

I hurriedly began to type out a warning.

Janette don’t go it’s a trap!

When I hit send, my stomach dropped as the message didn’t go through. No matter how many times I tried, over and over, the message wouldn’t send. I must’ve sent a dozen warnings before I realized that Janette had gone offline.

Not sure what else to do, I got on my bike and began pedaling.

It was dark by the time I got to the docks, where Augustus supposedly kept his boat. I figured this is where Mike meant. I knew Mike was seriously out of shape, so I had the advantage. All I had to do was get him away from Janette and she could run and call the cops.

Foolproof.

I ran down the dock. Where the hell was Mike? I knew he didn’t own a boat, the guy worked at McDonald’s. Did he borrow someone’s? Heck, was he even on a boat?

I skidded to a stop when I read the name off of one of them.

Narcissus.

I don’t know why that name caught my eye, but then I heard the water splashing. Not just the soft splashes of it washing on the dock. The kind where someone’s thrashing about and trying to escape.

I ran down the docks, searching for the source, when I caught a figure kneeling out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and flashed the light on my phone on him.

The man was leaned over the edge of the deck, pushing someone’s head below the water. Someone who was no longer struggling. I could make out a dark blue jacket, I recognized it as Janette’s from her profile picture. The man stood, kicked her body into the ocean, and faced me.

I dropped my phone when I saw his face. It smash and the dock and the light went dead.

We were quiet. Then he walked forward. I couldn’t move. My legs were frozen. I could only make out his muscled silhouette in the dim moonlight. He was ten feet away. Then five. Then he was right in front of me.

I recognized that face, those eerily blue eyes. He leaned in close to me, smiling.

“Hello, father.”

He clapped a hand on my shoulder. His grip was like iron.

“I got rid of another liar for you. Don’t worry, you won’t have to deal with it. Keep trying, I’m sure you’ll find me a mother soon.”

And with that, Augustus hopped onto the Narcissus and sailed away into the night.

#horror stories #scary stories #online dating #creative writing #writers on tumblr #my stories

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renaroo · 7 years

Text

Day 12 Present: Just for You

Disclaimer: RWBY and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence Rating: T Pairings: PennyxRuby Synopsis: It’s been many years, but Ruby never forgot. And she’s hoping, with her present, that Penny hasn’t either. RubyxPenny. Sapphic September: Present

A/N: I realized just recently that I related to Ruby so much because I, too, am robosexual. hence the Transformers addiction and so on. So here’s to the fellow robosexuals of the world.

Ruby walked down the cold halls of Atlas’ premiere institution and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of why Weiss had made the choice of coming to Beacon all that time ago instead of staying true to her family’s traditions. It was certainly a decision that wouldn’t have been hard for Ruby herself to make under the same conditions.

But she was there for a reason, and she had more determination with each step she took behind the former stalwart soldier.

“It will be just a little bit further from here,” Ironwood informed her, looking back just enough to meet Ruby’s eyes and looking away again. “I’m sorry that it took us so long to track you down to tell you what progress had been made. It’s my understanding that you two are incredibly close.”

Are, Ruby thought on the word, on the sound of it in her own ears. It felt… so right. It felt so good to think of someone in the present tense again after so long of thinking o so many in the past tense.

She took a deep breath and rubbed at her neck. “Well, that’s the difficulties of having a mobile lifestyle I guess! My dad’s been trying to convince me to get a mailbox in one of the cities but… heh, it’s hard enough to imagine me staying in the same district long enough to check it, let alone cities.” She realized a moment too late she was babbling and lowered her arm back down to her side.

Ironwood was still walking stiff as a rod. It reminded her of Weiss and Winter.

“Um, Mister Ironwood,” Ruby spoke out. “Is it just like… an Atlas thing for everyone to be so stiff all the time? Not that you’re stiff. I mean. Unless in Atlas that’s a good thing. In which case cool. But. Um. Obviously I don’t go north very often. Even when Weiss and I hunt together it’s mostly in the south…”

“You can call me James, Ruby,” he assured her without even breaking his stride. “I am a friend of your uncle, after all. And you’re more than my equal by this point in your career.”

Ruby looked to the side, pursing her lips. “You wouldn’t think that of Uncle Qrow if you heard him talking about you…” she muttered, only all too late realizing it was still loud enough for Ironwood to glance back at her again. “Oh! Uh… Sorry. I mean. I’m sure you’re actually friends and all! You run around with the same people and… shutting up.”

“I’m not offended,” he assured her. “The fact that he talks about me at all is proof to me. After all, have you ever heard him speak kindly about anyone he considers a friend?”

“Me,” Ruby answered, almost preening.

“Yes, well, you’re special,” Ironwood agreed, coming to a stop at a large, ominous looking metal door. “Well, this is the laboratory. You’ll find Penelope.”

Taken off guard, Ruby slowed to a stop and looked with wide, gray eyes toward the door of this supposed laboratory. She blinked a few times, feeling a rare wave of intimidation she hadn’t felt since she was a child. She swallowed and then looked back to Ironwood, swallowing down her nervousness. “Really? Just… behind that door. Like that? I don’t have… some weird trial I have to complete in order to… I don’t know, earn the right? Swear allegiance to some military effort first? Anything like that? I just… walk in and there’s a Penny?”

Ironwood’s eyes belied some slight amusement at Ruby’s expense. “There’s no grand effort against you here that I’m aware of, Ruby. And you’ve more than earned any privilege Atlas or any other continent could afford you by this point.”

Looking to the door again, Ruby couldn’t help but hold her hands together, like some sort of whispered prayer.

There were so many that she had lost in her life already. She was young, but in experience she was older than most seasoned Hunters. And as defeatist and against Ruby’s disposition as it may have seemed, she had long ago gotten used to the sensation of not expecting others to come back after they were gone.

Then there was Penny… And there was what Ruby lost when she lost Penny too young.

Those questions of what could have been, unlike waiting for someone coming back, was a sensation she had never really quite gotten over. Because she had only really experienced it the once.

“Also, just for clarification, it’s the Penny,” Ironwood corrected her. “One of a kind.”

“No one like her,” Ruby agreed. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, focusing on her calm and waiting… waiting for it to not be real. But the door was still there when she opened her eyes. And immediately, all the determination she had built up during the long walk down the hall came back in full. “Okay. Open it up, James!”

He blinked at her, confusion written all across his face. “It’s… not locked… but… Okay,” he said before awkwardly crossing to the other side of the door in front of Ruby and pulling the door open for her, as if it was some grand prize on the other side. Like she didn’t know exactly what she was about to see.

Both things were not entire inaccurate.

Because the moment she saw the cropped red hair, the tall physique, those bright green eyes, those speckles of freckles on porcelain skin — the moment she took it all in, Ruby hadn’t been ready. Nothing could have prepared her for what it was like to see Penny again, to see Penny grown up. To see Penny smiling at her again in that way only Penny had ever smiled.

“Ruby!” Penny called out, stepping forward.

“Penny,” Ruby replied breathlessly. “It’s… It’s really you! I knew it was… I knew they said. But. But…”

Before she could bumble through an even less acceptable reply, Penny was on her, pulling her into the largest of hugs and squeezing so tightly with that monstrous strength only Penny could have. But she wasn’t the only one hugging for long. Because the moment Ruby pulled her arms free, she wrapped them around Penny as well and squeezed Penny as tightly as her human body could.

“I was so worried when it was taking so long to find you!” Penny exclaimed. “I wanted you to be the first one to know besides my father and James. It was super important that I got to see you again first because… You were the first person I thought of when I woke up.”

Ruby had a thousand things she could thing to say to that. There were probably a hundred more that were more appropriate, but none of them came out as she uncharacteristically crumbled against Penny and hung onto her for dear life. “I wasn’t ready to lose you forever,” Ruby managed to get out instead. “You’re so pure, Penny. You’re so good. And I never… I never wanted to believe that you could love someone so much and them be gone. But you were. You were the first to go and…”

“Oh, Ruby, I’m so sorry,” Penny answered, letting go of Ruby enough to brush hair from her eyes and tears from her cheeks. “I was damaged and offline long enough that it took a lot of creative innovations from my father to recover my exact memories and data. I know that it sounds like I’m dismissing how you felt, but it’s not… I could have been in perfect working order a year ago. But I kept them working on me.”

Sniffing, Ruby looked into Penny’s face, confused. “W-what? Why would you do that?”

“Because my memories and personality weren’t complete yet, and I needed to remember everything from before,” Penny explained, smiling at Ruby. “Because all I could remember from before was you, and I knew that, no matter how long or hard it was for me to remember you, I wanted to. Because remembering how special you were and how much love you made me feel for the first time, I knew it was all worth it. Just for you.”

At that, Ruby broke down into tears and just stepped forward to brace herself against the matured Penny’s body, feeling the hum of life across all her parts. And letting Penny wrap her arms around once again.

This was the great love they had been missing, but Ruby was more than ready to start making up for lost time.

#SaphSep2017 #writing #rwby fic #Ruby Rose #Penny Polendina

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