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hoshigray · 10 months

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Hi!! I love your Toji so much you write him so well 🙏🏼 I was wondering if you could write something smutty about motorcyclist toji or like something to do with a car 🙊

Tysm, noonieeeeee~♡ ;w; Not ppl actually liking how I write for this sly bastard!! And oooooo a motorcyclist!?? Lol, never thought I'd write something with this idea, but here we are!! Please enjoy~~~ Also!! Just announced a series that I'll be writing for the summer, so check it out if you're interested!

Cw: Toji x fem!reader - explicit content so minors DNI - oral (f!receiving) - the reader is in college studying for finals - Daddy kink - motorcyclist! Toji - sexual acts in a public space (at a park in the night) - pet names (baby, angel, pumpkin, sweetie) - pussy drunk! Toji - clitoral play (plus light bites to the clit) - fingering - overstimulation - it ends on a cute note bc I'm feeling soft. Wc: 1.7k

The time is 10:45 p.m. when you look up at your laptop. You look around to see the work-study employee come in your direction, and you smile with recognition since you know they're about to tell you it's time to go. They smile back, turn back to where they came from, and you stand up to gather up your things.

It was the beginning of finals week, and it's been downright abysmal. Not only do you have three papers to write (one being a minimum of eight pages), but you also have a group presentation and two in-person exams three hours long each. You and your roommates barely get enough time to hang out, especially when you're practically cooped up in the library all day like today. When library hours are over, you walk to another building where you spend more hours studying and writing. And by the time you get to your dorm, you go straight to sleep and repeat the process.

It doesn't take rocket science to know that you — and everyone on the campus — have absolutely abhorred exams. However, for the sake of your grades, you endure it and do what you can. As long as you have a proper place to study and stop by your campus café for some quick grub, so be it.

But now, you've been studying non-stop without wasting time on distractions. It's time to go; you'll probably call it a night and head for bad. Your productivity finally dwindled down to exhaustion. I'll jump onto Discord to chat with some friends and see what they've been up to. They're probably doing better than what I'm going through...And if he's still awake, I should definitely call—

As you put your bag on your shoulder, the sound of an engine catches your attention. A motorbike engine. At first, you figured it was coming from the main street until it started getting closer. Is someone ordering Doordash or something? Curiosity has you as you walk down the stairs to exit through the entrance, waving goodbye to the receptionist who's also getting ready to leave.

When you enter the chilly outside air, the owner of said noise is parked in front of the entrance, the vehicle stationed for him to lean back and briefly look at his phone before putting it away. They're wearing a dark denim jacket covering a black shirt and some jeans. And a jet-black helmet that shields them with their tinted visor. Their dark appearance fits the dreary, foggy atmosphere, the lampposts only making them visible to the eye.

You freeze for a second when the mysterious person turns to face you, and you offer an awkward smile and nod as a quick greeting before heading your way. But then the person removes their helmet to reveal themselves to you, and your eyes widen.

With slightly messy raven hair and green eyes that capture your figure, the man flashes a grin that pulls his scarred lip upwards. Toji Fushiguro, your boyfriend you haven't seen since Easter break, was here.

"Hey, baby." It feels like forever since you've heard his gruff voice, and it has you smiling hard in seconds.

"Toji!" You run up to him for a hug which is returned, sinking into his strong arms and warm chest while his cologne fills your nostrils. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I could come down here and surprise my lil' angel," he sways you in his arms, relishing having you in his embrace. "I texted you that I was gonna pull up."

You withdraw from the hug and look at him with mild confusion. "You did?" You quickly grab your phone from your pocket and go to your messages, only to see that he, in fact, texted you earlier. Two hours ago. "You did...Sorry, must've left my phone when I was heading out to grab something to eat."

He shrugs and slides his hands down your waist to pull you close again. "How're your exams goin'?"

"Terrible." He chuckles when you give him a faux pout. "I got one paper out the way, but the others...at least I've started on them."

"Mmm, I bet." He responds with a hand on your cheek and your forehead. "Gonna head home to study some more?"

His big warm palm nestles perfectly against your cheek as you lean to his touch. "Nah, I'm too exhausted, and I'm too stressed to think anymore. That's for tomorrow."

Toji hums with a smile. "Well, think y'r too stressed to hang with me for a while? Maybe I can relieve some tension."

You raise a brow at him and his smug grin. "Oh yeah? How're you gonna do that?"

"Hop on so you can find out." The man removes his hands from you to open the trunk of his motorcycle, handing you a helmet — your helmet as it's your favorite color.

You give your boyfriend a look. "This better not be like last time when you took me to some random ramen place where we ate super spicy ramen to the point of boogers running down from my nose."

He laughs. "No, it's not gonna be like that. Now get your cute ass on so we can go, pumpkin."You still study his face, yet don't try to argue while putting on your helmet and take your spot behind him after putting your bag in the trunk.

When he knows you're appropriately sitting in the passenger seat with your arms linked around his waist, he starts the engine and revs the vehicle before moving. The two of you drive away from the school premise. You can only wonder where the man is taking you, but your trust in him has no bounds. And you just watch the lights and people of the vicinity fly past as you rest against him.

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊✩₊‧˙⋆��｡⁺⋆

The two of you pulled up to a parking lot of a quiet park. No sign of children playing on the playground as it's way past their bedtimes, and not a single person on the basketball court playing a late game. Just the still park paired with the comforting silence and humid, cool air.

Nothing but quiet, minus your whimpers leaving evading your lips. "Haaaah—Ahhh! Daddy...'S too much, feel so—Hmmm!"

You're now lying on Toji's motorcycle, your back on the seats and your hands gripping the handlebars. Your lower half was completely exposed, with your bottoms and panties discarded around your leg. Your boyfriend was busy burying his face between your legs on his shoulders, his firm hands on your waist to keep you steady and close.

With the flick of his tongue on your clit, you bite your lip to repress a whine. But Toji wanted your cries. "Mmmm, don't do that, sweetie. No one's around, so lemme hear you."

His tongue goes back between your slick-coated vulva, sucking and lapping around the folds to have your essence in his mouth. His nose brushes up against your clitoris, resulting in a lovely moan from your swollen lips.

It's been about 10 minutes of just him ravishing your body outside this public park. You've already come three times, yet the man is relentless in having you again. He's so stubborn, so selfish. But God, it feels so good.

"Nnnmph! Hoooo—Ohhh! D-Daddy, please, your tongue, it's tew muuuch!" Your words are slurred, brain too foggy to properly speak with his tongue "Can't cumm anymore...Aaaahhhh!!"

Unbeknownst to you, Toji sneaks a hand down to your clitoris and swipes up and down with the sensitive button. Your body jerks upward from the surprise, but Toji's other hand keeps you grounded on the stationed vehicle so you and the motorbike don't go kissing the ground. "C'mon, sweetie. One more fr' me."

Before you could protest further, his tongue laves your clit again, sucking on the poor bud and lightly brushing it against his teeth. Eyes roll to the back of your head as your hips jolt to the abuse of your poor bud, and his free hand switches places to finger your leaky chasm with your fluids coating his digits.

Your release hits you hard for the fourth time that night, and your legs quake with a sharp shiver down your spine. Your cunt spasms around his fingers while the euphoric aftershocks send your body trembling.

Toji removes his face from you and looks down at your dazed expression from capitulating to your high. He whistles. "Damn, you're lookin' good lying on my bike all fucked out like this, angel."

Even in a haze, you send the man a glare. "I hope you brought a towel to clean me up."

"To clean my bike, actually." Your glare hardens, and it makes the older man snicker. "Relax, I got another one just for you."

It takes a few minutes for you to dry yourself up and for the bike to be clean of your essence and sweat. Once you pull up your bottoms, Toji has his eyes on you. "Did that help with y'r stress?"

"Mmmm, yeah, I think so." You give him a peck on the scar on his lips. "Thanks, Toji."

"No problem, kid." He pulls you by the waist to bring you close so he can rest his chin on your head. "Wanna spend the night at my place?"

"......Is that why you drove me like fifteen minutes away from my school?"

He doesn't answer.

"And I'm pretty sure we've been here before because isn't this the same park that Megumi and Tsumiki play at?"

"......"

You peer up to face the silent man. "Toji—"

The older man leans down to kiss your plump lips softly, silencing your words. With a heavy sigh, he puts his forehead atop yours. "I missed ya, kid."

The tiny confession takes you aback for a moment, but your smile appears for him to see. "Awww, did my big Toji miss having me all to himself~?"

"Shut up." He playfully bites your cheek, prompting giggles that sound like sweet music to his ears.

"I missed you too, Toji." You say with loving eyes. "Once I'm done with finals, take me on a nice long ride on your motorcycle, 'kay?"

He hums to your request and kisses you once more. "Sounds like a plan."

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yacinthemorning · 3 months

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Birdsongs

Chapter 4

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Summary: The Life Pilgrimage is the biggest music festival of the century, set to take place all across the continent. Small-time rock band, GIST, and the up-and-coming alternative band, Empire, are both lucky to be among the hundreds set to make appearances, but there's just one problem. Neither can afford the travel expenses on their own. For better or worse, they're stuck with each other for the next five weeks as they try to make their dreams come true.

And, perhaps, among the chaos and music, two unsuspecting souls find one another...

Ships: Jimmy/Tango (slow burn romantic), Joel/Lizzie (romantic), Jimmy & Scott (platonic)

Warnings: Alcohol, drugs, anxiety attack, public performance, singing

As it turned out, Jimmy and Tango were, in fact, especially bad at putting up a tent.

“Have you never set one up?” Tango asked in a huff while his companion detangled him from the collapsed structure.

Jimmy managed to finally yank it over his head, coming face to face with Tango as he shook his head. “No, the two times I ever went camping Scott set it up for me. Have you never…?”

“I’mma be honest with you, Jimbo.” He was interrupted by a grunt as he pushed himself up onto his feet. “The closest to camping I’ve ever done is when I lived outa my car for two weeks in college, and a couple tailgate parties.”

“You were homeless?” Jimmy seemed genuinely distressed, as if it weren’t over a decade ago.

To that, though, Tango had to cringe as the memory came back to him. He wavered his hand. “Well, kinda? Me and our old bandmate sorta got kicked out of the dorms until they could fix the damage we caused. Honestly, kinda amazed they let us back in.”

“What? What did you do?”

“I’ll spare you the details and leave it at the fact that homemade rocket fuel is illegal for a reason.”

Jimmy choked, then sputtered. “What!” It wasn’t the first time Tango got that specific face from that story, and was the main reason he avoided recounting it. A face usually followed by- “I thought you were going to say you punched the drywall or something!” Yep. Right as expected.

“Yeah, well, that would be a normal and boring reason to get kicked out. And me and Zed? Couldn’t let that happen. That’s college for ya.”

“I can’t say that was my college experience…”

“That’s probably because you didn’t know enough engineering majors!” Tango swung his arm out with one of the poles, “I knew a group o’ guys whose final project was smithing a historically accurate bronze age sword from scratch. Most of the project was spent tryna spell manganese for their paper, sword was the easy part.”

There was a pause where Jimmy seemed to consider the statement before he sighed in amusement and laid out the tent. “C’mon, Rocketman, Sixth time’s the charm.”

The two absentmindedly worked, mostly just trying to find which end went where. It figures Skizz would pack some old military surplus tent from the Napoleonic Wars he found in the back of his attic instead of just buying a nice easy setup tent from Big Box or something. Tango held the tarp steady while Jimmy triple checked the poles were slotted in place, backing away like it was a wild animal. At this rate, with how much attitude it was giving them, it might as well be.

“So, you went to college?” Tango asked as he tied the tarp down to a joint.

Jimmy ducked past him to pick up another pole. “Is that surprising?” His tone turned defensive, and Tango could imagine his hackles rising.

“No! No… Well, kinda?” He quickly yanked the tarp back just as Jimmy set the pole into the ground. “With the band stuff.”

“Gosh, imagine making a living wage off being in a band!”

“Fair, fair.” Tango conceded, “So what was it for?”

“Well…” Jimmy’s voice wavered, mulling over something. “I was hoping to be a teacher, but it didn’t really pan out. Probably for the best, I hear the pay isn’t very good.”

Tango listened as he gathered his thoughts, batting around the last pole in the general direction of the rambling man. It tapped the back of his hand and instantly was gripped tight enough to yank out of Tango’s hand while Jimmy continued, absently waving it. “It really sucked, actually. The classes were super difficult, I had to retake them a bunch. And that was if I got the class, which I didn’t several times. Scott and Lizzie wanted to go full-time when we were putting our first real album together and I got outa there pretty quick.”

“At least you got the experience?” Was the only lame sentiment that came to Tango.

Jimmy shrugged, unbothered and with a bit of a smile on his face. “Just wasn’t meant to be, but it was a nice experience. I just hop around now, and Lizzie barely asks for rent so I don’t need much.” He dismissed, spoken like a true upper-middle class kid. All Tango could think was how much money it must have been repeating classes.

“I mean that’s probably for the best.” He said instead. “Pretty sure Impy and Skizz are dipping into their sick days for this trip.”

“Oh, goodness me.”

Something about the way Jimmy said those words made Tango bowl over laughing. Despite being younger than Tango, he sounded like an elderly man who just heard something scandalous over the phone. Was it the accent? It probably was. Jimmy shuffled a bit, seemingly unsure if he should laugh along or be offended. He instead focused on the tent, driving the last pole through the loop and into the ground. Both men backed up cautiously, watching and waiting for the tent to suddenly collapse in on itself or maybe spontaneously combust.

It did neither. Though it scooched about in the breeze a bit from not being spiked down, it was built about as proper as could be told. They looked at each other with pure relief which melted into excitement. “I’ll get the mattress!” Tango sprinted off, catching Jimmy picking up his guitar and crawling inside. It suddenly hit him, how cozy it was going to be with the three of them in there. Oh well, at least he got his cuddle buddy. More important than that, getting to sleep outside instead of on that awful table.

It wasn’t until several hours later, after dinner had long since served, with the air already smoky with whatever Skizz and Fwhip were smoking around back, and the two laid staring at the roof of the tent shoulder to shoulder, that they spoke again. Tango honestly thought Jimmy had already fallen asleep. Then he shifted, shoulder rolling into Tango’s to catch his attention.

“Once we’re done tomorrow, can I come watch you guys?”

Tango blinked, “You can watch whatever shows you want.”

“R-right.” Jimmy shifted away.

God, he knew exactly what to say, didn’t he? Tango stuttered for a moment. “I wanna watch you guys too, then.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Too late. I’m gonna.”

Jimmy laughed, then winced as his knee banged into his guitar case. He was a long fellow, unable to sleep in the tent without either bending or sticking his feet out the front. Despite that he took up such a small space, even with his guitar. It wouldn’t do, Tango decided. He shuffled over until there was enough of a gap between them to catch Jimmy’s attention, and patted the space. “C’mon, don’t be a stranger.”

“Oh, it’s fine-”

“Nope, get over here.”

“I have plenty of room!”

“You look like a sardine. C’mon, I’m not a big guy, you take the space.”

Jimmy’s eyes darted from him to the gap between them. With the space now open, however, cold air flooded from outside, sending a shiver through both. It quickly became reoccupied by the guitarist. A bit too quickly, as he overshot the gap and pressed himself right up against Tango. How accidental it was seemed up in the air, but either way he made no move to… well, move. “I can’t wait to get to somewhere warmer.” He muttered, pulling his sleeping bag up to his chin.

“I’m afraid it’s probably not gonna be much warmer at night anywhere.” Tango laughed. He settled into the new warmth, still too awake. Why didn’t he try fixing his sleep schedule before they left?

Jimmy was quiet for another moment, then whispered. “If I get tangled in the cords trying to do some stupid dance move I wasn’t supposed to and fall off the stage, you can’t laugh at me, okay?”

Tango snorted in an attempt not to laugh too loud, sending a gust across Jimmy’s bangs. “That’s specific. I’ll be in the front row, so if you go down so’m’I.”

“Nooo…” Jimmy groaned.

“Don’t worry, I’ll try catching you. I think you’d crush me before I do, though.”

“We aren’t a mosh pit type of band, Tango, you shouldn’t be getting crushed.”

“Well you can return the favour at our show, ‘cause I will stage dive and I will aim for you.”

“I change my mind.”

This time Tango couldn’t stop the laugh, which Jimmy joined in on. “Get some sleep, partner, we got songs to mess up and stages to fall off.”

“Jimmy move back, you’re too close to the edge of the stage.”

The cords at their feet were a pit of vipers snapping at his ankles as he tried to move back as his sister asked. His guitar weighed thrice as much that day, threatening to tear his shoulder out of its socket in its ongoing mission to shatter at his feet. The notes of their first song had danced right out of his mind, then the page Scott shoved in front of him. They floated above him, indecipherable from the shadows of the rafters. Joel tried to console him, but it amounted to claiming ignorance to his failure that was not nearly as comforting at Joel seemed to believe.

Everyone scurried around him while he tried his best to keep out of their way. His finger tapped anxiously against the remnant scraps of the poppy sticker, situated at the topmost corner where his hand naturally rested. A panic button. Jimmy wasn’t sure if it made a particular sound or if the tapping itself was so obvious. Either way, like clockwork ten seconds into the action, there was a hand on his shoulder. Scott’s bow dug into his neck as he rubbed comforting circles. They were just as much for Jimmy as they were for Scott, even if he would never show it. It all felt a little too anxious to call a good luck routine, but a routine it was, all the same.

“This is crowd’s small compared to what we’ll be seeing at other venues.” Scott rambled, making Jimmy all too aware there was no curtain to hide behind on the open-air stage. “Think of it as a warm up, a taste of what to expect for the rest of the pilgrimage.”

“Yeah.” He said, curt.

“We’re starting with pescatarian. The easiest guitar, ‘kay?”

If Jimmy weren’t terrified out of his mind he’d roll his eyes at Scott’s use of the song title from their disc jacket, rather than the one they’d all used long before Jimmy officially joined them. “’Kay.”

“Just follow my lead and we’ll be fine.” Scott tried to assure. It was, if only slightly.

Their conversation was interrupted by the crack of fireworks and whirl of blades. Everyone looked up into the sky, right to where a neon pink helicopter hovered. Jimmy could pinpoint from where in the crowds the uproar rippled out from. The few large projectors dotted beside each stage zoomed in. Out stepped Arianna Griande, her feathered coat going wild from the winds around it. Just behind her was her two favourite backup dancers. She waved to the crowd, and then she jumped.

There was a chorus of gasps and screams. Jimmy felt his own heart jump into his throat, despite knowing what was most certain to follow. As she plunged towards the ground the wings on her back burst open, becoming a parachute just as glitter canons went off below her. The crowd cheered louder than ever as her feet hit the main stage, the camera not bothering to follow her back up dancers as they, too, leapt after her.

She bowed, then threw her hands up, “Welcome, Pilgrims, to the first stage of our lives!”

Jimmy thought his eardrums might burst from the crowds cheers alone. Griande’s grin was impossibly wide, dancing across the stage as if touching the ground was passé. “And what a stage it is, is it not? Open, borderless, the sky’s the limit. Everyone take your first breath into this world!”

Despite the cheesiness, Jimmy found himself taking a deep breath along with several in the crowd.

She, too, took a breath, hand over her chest. “This was where I saw my first concert, the place where I was reborn into who I am today. I’m sure every one of us has that place. Can you see it in your mind? Let us take your spirit there as you let in the very first notes of our pilgrimage this weekend. Today, right now, every one of us is reborn!” Her hands went up, unable to contain her own excitement, and the crowds fed from her. No music had begun to play and they were already jumping about like popcorn.

The distant vibrations of the main stage thrummed through their blood. “It’s almost our time.” Joel announced from his seat. Scott released Jimmy’s shoulder to get in position. Their crowd was beginning to get riled up, hundreds of eyes watching them expectantly and cheering as Lizzie stepped forward to introduce them. Jimmy thought he might throw up.

A small commotion was happening in the horde just left of Jimmy. Fiery blond hair pushed past two folks, slamming into the railing just in front of the stage hard enough to nearly knock his red tinted glasses straight off. Tango struggled to recover, grimacing as he righted himself. His eyes met Jimmy’s and it turned into a beaming grin, hands outstretched in a catching motion. His fingers curled in. once, twice, thrice. Amusement bubbled up in Jimmy’s throat.

Behind him, Joel was snickering. Lizzie’s hands dropped to her keyboard and Scott had placed his fiddle to his shoulder. It was time to play. Tango settled down against the railing, cool as a cucumber as he tapped along to Joel setting the pace.

In all their years of playing, the first note had never come so easy Jimmy. He thinks it might not have even been the right one, with the side eye Scott sent him, but if it wasn’t it left his mind by the second note.

Lizzie and Scott were always in their own distant world when playing, and maybe for the first time Jimmy was there also. Every time he felt himself become too aware once more, felt the vipers tense against his sneakers, he glanced back over to Tango. The way his nail tapped against the metal rail, how his eyes never met Jimmy’s but seemed laser focused on his guitar, mouthing notes a quarter second after they played. If Jimmy tripped and fell he wasn’t sure Tango wouldn’t also collapse to the ground, despite his claims to catch Jimmy the night before.

The song slowed to its conclusion, the crowd already cheering and Jimmy already wondering how he could thank Tango for something that was all in Jimmy’s head. Scott seemed pleased, taking the mic from Lizzie to speak to the crowds and introduce their next song.

They slipped into some sort of groove, Jimmy nearly forgetting Tango was there as he watched his bandmates carefully. Scott led them again, then Lizzie in the third. It was a song she’d written a few years ago. To an onlooker maybe it sounded deep, profound even, about an endless, unreachable longing. Only her bandmates had to hold back their laughter, knowing full well it was about her breaking her VHS of The Little Mermaid.

It was the charm of her poetry, though. Jimmy wished he could see the world as overwhelmingly vibrant as her. He almost could, when he played her songs. Lights seemed brighter, grass greener, feedback from the speakers too loud, every note reverberating through his bones. At the same time, it was hard to remember where he even stood or where the sounds came from. How could he separate the faces in the crowd in front of him when he could feel every microscopic fault along his guitar strings? It was the sort of combination of hyper awareness and total obliviousness Lizzie always existed in. It decided what notes she chose and how she played them.

It was about something silly and replaceable, as had been done the day after she shared the song with them. But why shouldn’t she have been so distraught that she wrote an entire song before she remembered she could get a new copy? It broke because it was the thousandth time she’d shoved it a little too hard into the player after a terrible day.

It was the same as when they were teenagers, the first time he played something they’d created instead of out of a book. He’d never felt he understood his sister as well as he did then, while playing a song she wrote. Scott may have been the reason he started playing, but Lizzie had been what kept him playing back then, if only to play her songs.

If only in hopes it wouldn’t be such a one-way street someday.

I’ve gone and upset myself again. He huffed while Lizzie faded out the song. Escaping from Lizzie’s trance, his eyes settled back into the crowd. Whatever internal collapse just happened had thankfully not shown, as they went wild. No one cheered quite as loud as Tango, though it may just be due to familiarity that his voice stood out. Jimmy chest puffed up with pride. Why was he psyching himself out even when things were going well? He could worry about existential things in the privacy of the tent. Jimmy took a deep breath and waited eagerly for the next song to begin.

The last two went by in a blur. He knows Lizzie and Scott finished off with their duet, a showtune with no show, overly flashy and fun. It stuck out like a sore thumb, but that was the point according to them. Some visions Jimmy would simply never get, but it was always a fun last song to play.

“Thank you so much, everyone! We’ll see you again in the valley!” Lizzie announced as the rest of them shuffled off the stage as swiftly as possible.

Fwhip was waiting for them, barely containing his excitement with thinnest veneer of professionalism. As soon as Jimmy was in range it shattered, and Jimmy was dragged through into a hug. “You guys did amazing!” He squealed.

“Of course we did!” Lizzie said, attempting casualness. It did little to cover up her smile and the shine in her eyes. Her makeup had begun to bleed under the hot lights of the stage, rubbing off on her towel. “Goodness, though, I need a nice bath, I was sweating buckets before we even started.”

“You can go take a shower first, we’ll take care of everything.” Scott promised, wiping away his own running makeup. Jimmy was glad he’d only let them smear a bit of glitter across his cheeks. It would have been in a puddle on the stage before their first song.

Lizzie threw her case over her shoulder, gave her husband a kiss and the other two hugs. Jimmy shuffled his guitar around to give her room but she pulled him down into a bear grip that knocked it right back off his shoulder. “You did great today, Jimmy.” She whispered. Then she was off. “Don’t go to the food trucks without me!”

On her way out she paused, speaking into the crowd before continuing. It was Tango, now joined by Gem and Pearl, waiting for them all to finish packing up. “Great show, guys!” Gem beamed. The two bands had seen little of each other once they began to get ready, Empire going first for their earlier show. Now, an hour out from GIST’s performance, Gem dressed much more in line with Tango and Skizz’s punkish appearance. Though her accents were still bright, they were much harsher, and she’d undone her pigtails. Her makeup and jewellery still needed to be put on, but even without them she’d completely transformed.

“Were you here?” Jimmy asked, then clammed up as he realized how it sounded. Gem didn’t seem to notice, however.

“Yeah, though Tango ran off without us!” She teased, punching the man in the shoulder. He yelped, then shrugged. “There were so many tall people, Pearl had to pick me up at one point.”

The group chattered all the way back to the trailer, where Skizz awaited with an open bag of kettle corn. The next hour was peaceful. The two bands switched back and forth between GIST putting on their costumes and Empire removing them. Scott packed it all away, only having one show scheduled for the venue. They were free for the rest of the weekend from the mortification of performing, and Jimmy couldn’t be happier.

Impulse popped out of the trailer last, somehow still rocking the ‘dad at a barbeque’ look despite the makeup and piercings and leather. He was the last puzzle piece, and as soon as Gem got her pictures, they were off for final setup.

“They’re quite energetic for their age.” Scott commented.

Pearl shrugged. “They aren’t that old... And I’m pretty sure skizz took something while Impulse was in the bathroom.”

“Gods, speaking of, I think I’m about ready to die from stress.” Scott slid onto his feet only to lean against the trailer and put a dramatic hand to his forehead.

After a good chuckle Pearl also stood, pointing past the trailer. “There’s a band called HHH next door. I know the drummer. They always got good stuff.”

“Great, let’s go.”

They walked off with barely a wave to Jimmy, arm in arm. He raised an eyebrow that would never be seen, then shook his head. If they were going to ditch him for some weed he wasn’t going to wait around. He slung his guitar over his shoulder and went on a slow exploration for GIST’s stage.

The number of bands was nearly overwhelming. A psychedelic band that left Jimmy feeling like a boat in a storm was followed by a single guy with a metal mask shredding solo on the fanciest guitar Jimmy had ever seen. It wasn’t clear if he was playing an actual song or just showing off.

The first act he actually recognized was In the Littlewood, a ska punk band whose tape had wound up in Empire’s collection with a box of others bought for five bucks from a friend of a friend. It saw much more play than the rest in no small part thanks to the strange, complicated cords the lead guitarist pulled off. Or rather, usually pulled off and happily fumbled his way through the rest of the time. The same song he’d heard hundreds of times before was nearly unrecognizable at parts for how the band rebuilt the tune on the fly. It was a blasé attitude Jimmy had neither the skill nor the confidence to pull off.

Some noise-heavy act was just wrapping up as Jimmy found the stage GIST was to play on next. They’d gathered near the edge, half-listening to the previous band and half-prepared to set up the second they stepped off stage.

Tango waved him over. “We saved you a spot.” He explained as he oriented the taller right at the front. “Gotta be able to find you easy when I stage dive.”

“Wait, you aren’t actually going to jump, are you?” Jimmy warbled, eyes wide.

“Guess you’ll have to find out!”

This was going to end poorly.

Soon they were up on stage. Even before their set had started they roused a friendly atmosphere with casual conversation, contrasting greatly their appearance. Tango’s hair had been properly gelled and temporarily dyed to be much more vibrant like flames. He’d switched to a tank top under his vest that properly showed off the half-sleeve tattoo of... Well, Jimmy wasn’t actually quite sure what it was. It almost look like a maze, leading up to an icy castle. The other arm sported a much simpler tattoo that simply said ‘ZITS’. Impulse and Skizz sported matching ones in the same place. Below it was a GIST tattoo, smaller and bit more creatively scrawled, for which Gem also sported. Considering how much of a baby she could be, it was a surprise she agreed to get it.

Or maybe it wasn’t so surprising. The redhead had always been bubbly and outgoing, but Jimmy had never seen her quite as giddy as she was now, wavering between nerves and excitement. She bounced between her bandmates, checking one last time that they were all ready, before she snatched up the mic.

“Hey! How’s it going everyone!” Gem screamed loud enough the mic seemed redundant. The crowd burst with excitement, Jimmy nearly getting pushed over the railing by their zeal. Gem was giggling with absolute glee, bouncing on her heels from the reception. It was a motion Jimmy couldn’t help mirror. “Oh my god I can’t believe we’re actually here! How is everyone feeling? Are we ready for the biggest trip of our lives!?”

Jimmy cupped his mouth and shouted, joining in the collective approval. They were whispers next to Skizz’s battle cry. “Okay, okay! So-” Gem cut herself off with a squeal, red faced and shaking her free hand of the excess energy keeping her on her toes. “Sorry, Oh my god. Ah! I’m Gem, and these geezers-”

“Hey!” Tango shouted.

“Sorry, these big babies are Impulse, Skizz, and Tango, and together we’re the GIST and we’re here to rock your socks off!”

“Well, what if I’m not wearing socks, huh, Gemstone?” Skizz asked, which she responded to by blowing a raspberry. Jimmy laughed along with the crowd while Gem tried to keep them on track. Her face was already flushed by the time she announced their first song, the name of which Jimmy never caught through the uproar around him.

Tango was the one to lead, swiping the first note before Gem had stopped talking. It was a long beginning of instrumentals, one Jimmy suspected wasn’t originally so long. Gem, however, had her eyes trained on her guitar, still reeling from the excitement. Once the poor girl could breathe she stepped forward and the rest of the band immediately switched gears so naturally Jimmy felt himself physically swept up alongside them, his feet stumbling.

It’d been a long time since he’d witnessed such energy in a live performance. Nothing complicated, nothing ground-breaking, except when the wild assault of colour felt like it really was breaking the ground beneath his feet. GIST were truly purely hard rock, unencumbered by propriety. The actual lyrics completely slipped in one ear and out the other until the chorus burst forth and Gem was singing too loudly, “... And if you come to your senses, I’ve got a rocket ready to take us back to space!”

The music dropped, Impulse taking up the mic under a muffled hand while Tango and Gem combined the sound. A count down, Jimmy realized. It was ridiculous how closely it came to sounding like the real thing. When Skizz joined in to create a noise not like but similarly overwhelming to a rocket launching it sunk in that he never was supposed to hear the lyrics. Tango looked positively giddy at whatever strange orchestral storytelling they smashed together with their otherwise basic spread of instruments. No one of their parts was impressive on its own, but they blended into a singular mass Jimmy found difficult to pinpoint the individual parts within, even while watching strings being plucked. By the time the song lulled to its end Jimmy’s own heart had joined the cacophony.

A few people in the crowd could sing along to their lyrics. Jimmy joined them in the chorus, tripping up when Gem switched up one of the lines and giggling his way through the rest when Tango noticed and turned his nose up in mock smugness. He’d have to ask Pearl to borrow one of their discs so he could learn the lyrics for next time.

The rest of the songs felt like walking through a kaleidoscope. Nothing Jimmy hadn’t heard before, one was even a cover of a country song he’d heard Impulse playing in the van. Their lyrics were nothing to write home about, downright corny at points. They didn’t need to be, not with grins as wide as theirs. It was overwhelming.

Gem nearly jumped off the stage as the last song came to a close, her wildly styled hair flying all over. Tango’s hair, too, had started to lose its structure but he looked like he’d only just warmed up. It bled into the crowd cheering them on, which bled back into GIST. If there weren’t already another band waiting Jimmy had no doubt they would have been happy to play every song they’ve ever written until they collapsed from exhaustion. Alas, someone off stage sent a signal to them, and Gem was forced to wrap it up. Jimmy was surprised to find he was just as disappointed as GIST it had come to an end.

“That was amazing!” Jimmy said, intercepting the band as they escaped.

Pearl pushed past him to replace each of their water bottles for refilled ones. Tango snatched his up and immediately pressed it against Jimmy’s face, laughing as he jumped away. “You’re nearly as red as we are.”

“Well, it was a good show!” He pouted, then swiftly put behind him. “Are you playing again this weekend?”

Impulse replied, “Nah, I don’t think so. I think only main stage bands get to play multiple times most places.”

“Which means we’re gonna probably head out early so we can get an extra day to make it to the next destination.” Pearl declared.

“Whu- but Horsehead Farms doesn’t play until Sunday night!” Tango whined.

“You’ll be able to catch them at the other venues. Besides, Gem needs to rest.”

Jimmy blinked at the singer, who looked sheepish while Impulse rubbed her back. “I’m totally fine.” Her voice cracked painfully leading to a coughing fit. A roll of halls appeared in front of her, waved until she begrudgingly snatched them up.

“Glitter Girl has a bad habit of going all out, start to finish.” Tango explained, which got him a silly face from his bandmate.

“Like you’re any better.”

“My instrument ain’t my amazing voice!”

“Either way, we can’t have your voice shot if we gotta play again in a few days.” Pearl ended the argument, pushing between the two to take Gem away with Impulse. “I’ll go make some lemon tea. You guys should go have fun before we start packing up in the morning.”

Jimmy nodded and turned to Tango, hoping to ask the man to join him. He never got a chance. Tango hopped the railing and wrapped an arm around Jimmy’s neck, dragging him off without request.

They waded into the muddy crowds, Tango’s heavy boots splashing through the muck. The air was thick with the most pungent mixture of smokes and Jimmy was sure they were starting to get to him. At the intersection of stages they could all faintly rang over the crowds cheers. “Got anyone you wanna check out, partner?” Shouted Tango, barely audible despite no particular noise in the vicinity.

“I don’t even know who’s playing.” Jimmy admitted.

“Then I guess we follow the sound we like best.”

So that was what they did. A tune caught one of their ears. Jimmy wasn’t even sure which, only that they had stumbled off towards the open stage with more excitement than what they found warranted. It was probably a sign when a can tossed haphazardly over someone’s shoulder bounced off Tango’s head and smacked Jimmy in the face. Slipping in the mud onto their butts when a wave swept through the crowd was most certainly one. The singer was off key from nerves. Jimmy’s eyes stung from the dust and smoke. Halfway through the next mediocre song they realized the can had cut his nose. There was a ringing in his ears from standing too close to the speaker. He had to cover them when everyone started screaming at the start of a done-to-death cover. At one point Jimmy felt himself go red from second hand embarrassment when the singer tried to get the crowd to sing along to a song nobody knew.

It was the most fun he’d had in years.

The lounges and bars they’d near-exclusively spent the last five years in were a distant nightmare. When was the last time they went to a big concert instead of just catching the act after them?

They didn’t even wait for the goodbyes to end before they moved on to another stage. The main stage, it seemed. Griande was still going, dancing her heart out. Lizzie adored her glitter, but even she’d balk at Griande now. She was on to one of her pop-ier songs, a silly love song, but Griande could make anything sound like the most romantic lyrics you’d ever heard.

While singing along with the rest of the crowd he caught sight of Tango from the corner of his vision. It wasn’t his jam, Jimmy could have guessed that the moment he met the guy, but he was still swaying, a big grin on him. Jimmy bounced on his heels, singing along with renewed vigour.

“You’re gonna shoot your voice, there, partner.” Tango joked as the next song began.

Jimmy could hardly stop to reply, “It’s not like I need it, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“I dunno, you start sounding like me?”

“Stop it, no I won’t! You take that back!”

“Ouch.” But there was no real hurt in Tango’s voice. He slung an arm around Jimmy’s shoulder, tearing his gaze away from the stage and onto a water bottle Tango offered up. “At least oil the pipes.”

The water bottle was snatched up, even as Jimmy gave him a raised eyebrow. “I feel like there were better ways you could have put that.”

“Reasons I write lyrics as often as I sing ‘em.” He shrugged. “We can’t all be pretty little canaries like you.”

Jimmy choked mid gulp, laughter turning to pained coughs as water came back up his nose. Tango made the most ridiculously inhuman noise as he jumped back, not helping Jimmy at all in remembering how to breathe.

“Not those pipes!” Tango chastised, though he’d begun to laugh as well while he helped Jimmy wipe his face off.

“That was one of the lamest thing I’ve ever heard.” Jimmy gasped. His face had gone red for too many reasons to count.

They wandered towards the back of the crowd until they found a spot to sit in the grass. “But not the lamest? I guess I gotta try harder next time.”

That’s what he cared about? Jimmy covered his eyes and tried not to start laugh again. His throat and nose stung but he croaked out, “Where to next?”

#tangotek #jimmy solidarity #solidaritek #team rancher #rancher duo #trafficshipping #traffic series #hermitpires #fanfiction #fanfic #mcyt #modern au #alternate universe #hurt/comfort #'fluff #sharing a slice of cake

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elbiotipo · 9 months

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The Mastropiero in Campoestela is, like I said, much like a cross between an Ilyushin II-76 and a Space Shuttle (Buran, if you will). It takes off and lands much like a airplane, and the engines are good enough to lift it up from an earthlike world in a single go.

While for the purposes of the story it might not matter much, since I already decided the level of technology in economics and handling is pretty much like modern or rather WWII airplanes, I AM putting a lot of thought on what the engines are like. Not only because it can help me draw plotlines (about half of Star Trek is "why did the engine stop this week") but also it helps me do LIMITATIONS, which are important in science fiction. Engines, especially, are absurdly powerful in science fiction. This Space Trucker Beto Dude is going to fly a nuclear plant, I need to keep in mind what's allowed to him and how, how fast can he get from here to there, how much delta-v and thrust and such. These are vital things to the story, not so much because of "realism" but because it tells me what my character can do, what he can't, and what's routine or extraordinary to him.

My main idea is the nuclear lightbulb engine concept, because it's powerful, allows takeoff and landing and has a cool almost retro name. While realistically, you could not see the "lightbulbs" without dying from radiation, there's something funny about "having to change a lightbulb". It must be very hard to keep it running, but Suisini the engineer is there for that, and the setting assumes the technology is mature enough for small scale ships. My only concern is how long it takes to turn it on and off, as it's basically a (totally safe honest) constantly melting down reactor. I don't want them to spend days turning the reactor on and off.

Fusion engines sound too complex for me for a rugged "bush plane" spaceship, antimatter and other exotic engines open a can of worms too. I could use some exotic materials such as metallic hydrogen as fuels (they do exist in the setting and I can vaguely justify them) that would make incredibly powerful chemical rockets... but I'm not sure.

As how the FTL drive works? Splendidly.

No really, he docks with a FTL ring thingy and just flies, don't ask any questions.

OKAY, FTL is, like always, THE impossible thing about all space settings. So, much like magic in fantasy, you can do what you want there, as long as, and this is key, keep it coherent. A top speed and how long and what does it take you to get there, and don't break those rules, don't go pulling off Holdo Manuevers. My idea is a vague "dark energy network" ships can ride, denser in some places than others, thus giving "terrain" to space (some routes are easier than others). The idea is also to call back to bush pilots and WWII airplanes, so there would be clouds and storms as the ships flies through "aetheric" space. The trip takes a few days, but it can take much longer or shorter depending on the currents: this also means that worlds in main currents will be more accessible, with lots of more remote worlds in harsher currents.

#cosas mias #science fiction #worldbuilding #campoestela #I post this in the worldbuilding tag for if anyone finds the whole process here interesting

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 1 year

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Space Engineers

Okay, there are some brutally clever designs in there.

I saw a couple people playing Space Engineers and they were hauling a big ol’ ship through space - They’d hooked another ship onto it to use as a kind of semi-separated cargo hold - and as they tried to get toward a nearby moon to restock on ice and minerals they got a mayday.

They pondered this for a few seconds and then decided to ignore it. Rather, they decided physics wouldn’t let them intervene because their ship had no proper brakes (that is, front-facing rockets), so at their current velocity they couldn’t stop and help. As they watched in the rear viewport, pirates descended on the ship they’d received the call from.

Then this happened again. Another mayday, then more pirates. They were starting to wonder whether the whole mayday thing was bait in the first place.

Then they passed by a pirate drone factory and it launched a drone after them.

Space Engineers does a really good job of making clear how ludicrously much space is in Space. Because they were moving faster than the drone started at, it couldn’t quite catch them, but they couldn’t quite lose it either because it had occasional recharging boosters. It chased them for maybe fifteen minutes until the captain decided to spend some rounds on taking potshots at it.

Then they realized it wasn’t the ordinary kind of hostile. They’d assumed, because of the guns on it. But its weapon was the front-mounted camera. It was keeping track of their movements and transmitting to the pirates.

The thrusters on the individual suits are quite powerful in Space Engineers. For a short sprint they can keep up with the ship at full speed, assuming it’s not making a jump. The problem is the local fuel supply, which gives out very quickly. Also collisions at that speed are often fatal to a squishy human in a suit. But with this speed and a few extra tanks of hydrogen, the captain decided to go out and deal with the drone in person.

Once he got close he saw the other weapon. The guns were purely ornamental; The drone was carrying a camera and a nuclear warhead. So the captain synced his speed to the drone, landed on the front of it, drilled the camera off of it, kicked off, and flew back to the ship. Without a camera the drone had no transmission but also no basic guidance, and just kind of flew away.

With the captain returned and no pirates immediately visible, the team found themselves...caught in the gravity well of the moon they’d been approaching all this time. Oops. They tried to land, but crashed pretty catastrophically...except not quite, because everyone lived. And most of the ship survived as well, caught on the top of a mountain. At the mountain’s base, the ship’s detachable mining vessel had detached and rolled but maintained integrity.

The team started to try and work out a) how to get their ship refitted to escape the gravity well, b) how to deal with the fact that, while only mildly damaged, their ship was now upside-down, and c) how to get their little miner properly unstuck and back up the mountain to reattach to their main ship.

Then zombies attacked.

This was so completely out of left field that the first two times people shouted about it, one of the crewmen flat-out didn’t believe them even though the ship’s automated turret had started firing shells into the dark.

The concept of the space zombies was scripted, certainly. Someone had to apply that shambling animation by hand. But so many of the particulars of the story were unique to the way the players were playing. The devs couldn’t count on the players crashing; There was no forced crash, just a regular ol’ physics engine and a team that had been playing in deep space with only the gravity they could turn on and off at a whim in their own ship.

The devs didn’t predict that the players would construct a net at the base of the mountain to catch all the zombie engineers’ bodies after they were slain, so they could go through them for quality science materials at their leisure.

This kind of thing is what sandbox games are for.

#space engineers #It's good!#review

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duhragonball · 1 year

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Jaco the Galactic Patrolman Ch. 6-11

Lets see if we can wrap this up.

Chapter 6. So last time, Jaco and Omori were shopping in East City, when Jaco rescued a girl from some hooligans. In the process, he ended up assaulting a couple of cops, which created a big enough commotion that he couldn’t just go back to acting inconspicuous. Fortunately, the girl, Tights, leads them away from the police. Unfortunately, Jaco does a bunch of dramatic poses while introducing himself, which gives away his position. So he grabs Omori and Tights and flies them back to the pier. They ask why he didn’t just do that in the first place, and he explains that he can only do it “once”. Like, once a week, or once ever?

Chapter 7: So Tights returns with them to Omori’s island, and she offers to head back to East City to fetch the groceries they missed out on in the incident. The East City authorities know Jaco and Omori’s faces, and they’ve even distributed a police sketch, which Jaco finds deeply offensive. So Tights heads out by herself, as she already knows how to pilot Omori’s boat.

Five hours later she finally returns, along with all her stuff, because she’s decided to move in. Omori informs her that she can’t live on the island, because even he can’t live on the island anymore. The government is kicking him out in a few days. Nonetheless, she crashes with him for a while.

As a token of her gratitude, Tights also gifts a bit of Sky Gold to Jaco, since he told her that he needs it to power his spaceship. They need 19 million yen worth of the stuff, and her gift is only 3 million, but she figures it’s still enough to power the communications equipment. Oh, okay, I thought the radio was damaged in the crash, but it turns out it just uses the same power source as the engines.

And it works. Jaco can’t fly all the way home, but he can still fly the ship, and he can use the radio. Unfortunately, he’s so excited to fly the thing that he wrecks the carport it’s parked under, and that damages the antenna, so he can’t send or receive transmissions. And unlike the power supply, Omori has no idea how to repair it.

Chapter 8: Tights makes plans to take the boat to Kiwi Island, and Omori thinks she’s going to watch the launch of Twinkle 8, the publicity stunt arranged for pop idol An Azuki. But no, Tights plans to board the rocket, because An’s people hired Tights to be An’s double. This way, if something happens to Twinkle 8 (RIP Twinkles 1, 2, and 5), the real An Azuki will still be alive, and they can just make up some gonzo story about her miraculous survival.

But Tights would be dead, which troubles Omori a great deal. And now we finally see the payoff to this Twinkle 8 business. All day, I’ve been looking forward to coming home and reading the second half of this story, and finding out how all this stuff ties together. I mean, Tights is one-third of the main cast, and Toriyama didn’t even introduce her to the others until halfway in. This manga has progressed a rather leisurely pace. It’s been good, but you’d expect things to get moving by chapter 5 of a ten-part series.

And the thought occurred to me: What if it doesn’t all tie in together at the end? What if Twinkle 8 has nothing to do with anything, and the whole story falls flat? What if Jaco the Galactic Patrolman sucks?

But here in Chapter 8, my fears are laid to rest. Omori cared very little about the Twinkle 8 launch, because he had no stake in the matter. He despised humanity, and decided to live in seclusion to avoid other people and their problems. But now he’s connected. He helped Jaco, who helped Tights, and now he’s finding out that it’s not just some stranger who’s risking her neck on a dangerous spaceflight.

And that’s why she spent all her money on that bit of Sky Gold. That was her payment for posing as An Azuki, and Tights knew it wouldn’t be of any use if she died before she could spend it, so she used it to help Jaco and Omori instead. Omori tries to talk her out of going, but her mind is made up. Tights dreams of being a science fiction author, and a chance to fly in outer space was too good to pass up.

So she leaves the island, and soon after, the same guy from Chapter 2 shows up. This is Tamagoro Katayude, the Chief of the Government Sea Police. He noticed Jaco on the island the first time he visited, and then he saw the reports of “Mask Man” in East Ctiy, and realized they were the same guy. So he organizes a squad to track down Jaco and arrest him. There four other guys on this team, and they got character profiles in the collected edition of this manga, but I see now that they were never important. They just got used because they wanted to have a character profile at the end of each chapter, and there were four extra slots.

Chapter 9: Omori tries to play dumb while Jaco stays out of sight, but Katayude calls out for “Mask Man” to show himself, and Jaco’s ego is too big to let that slide. He responds, giving away his presence on the island just to make sure everyone knows that his name isn’t “Mask Man”, and that he looks nothing like that ugly police sketch. Katayude says that he must be arrested, while Jaco demands that the police revise their sketch of him.

Then Jaco notices that the Twinkle 8 launch has failed, and the rocket has begun to fall. Omori calculates that it will crash in just two minutes. Jaco gets in his spaceship to save her, but he needs Omori’s assistance for that. And yet, Katayude doesn’t believe any of this, and he refuses to simply allow them to leave.

So Jaco defeats Katayude’s entire team in one panel. Unfortunately, that still took too long, so they won’t have enough time to rescue Tights. Then Jaco remembers Omori’s time machine.

Omori has been trying to build a working time machine ever since his wife’s tragic death, but the best he could manage after all these years was to simply slow time down to a virtual standstill. And even that effect only lasts for fifty seconds, but that should still be just enough time for them to get to Tights before Twinkle 8 crashes.

Chapter 10: From there, Jaco’s plan is pretty straightforward. He flies the ship alongside Twinkle 8... wait, how did they operate the ship while time was frozen? Well... never mind. Anyway, he has Omori take the controls and keep the ship flying parallel to Twinkle 8 while he goes inside to evacuate the crew.

Omori isn’t eager to take the wheel, but Jaco reassures him that he’s already shown him how to operate the controls of his ship. Wait, maybe that’s what they did with those fifty seconds.

The point is that it gives Omori a hefty share of the credit for this rescue. Jaco has the powers and technology to pull this off, but without Omori’s time machine and his willingness to pilot the ship, this never would have worked.

But even after getting the crew to safety, there’s still the matter of Twinkle 8 crashing into East City. Jaco doesn’t see the problem, since the city isn’t that impressive anyway, but Omori says “You’re Super Elite, aren’t you?!” So he jumps out of his own ship, bounces off a building, dropkicks the rocket to knock it away from the city, then destroys it with his sidearm. Not bad at all.

When they return to the island, they find Katayude and his crew saluting them. Katayude congratulates Omori and Jaco for their heroism and apologizes for trying to interfere. He also promises to arrange with the government to let Omori stay on the island. Oh, and Katayude also promises never to reveal the truth about Jaco being a robot. Yes, if such an amazing technology ever fell into the wrong hands, it could lead to disaster. Jaco is outraged, but Omori and Tights keep him quiet.

Also, Katayude asks to come visit the island some time, because I guess he likes the place too.

So all’s well that ends well, but all Jaco cares about is Katayude’s promise to have the police sketch corrected. He watches the news with great eagerness, but when they show the new sketch, he isn’t pleased.

Chapter 11: So that’s all, right? Wrong! Jaco still has a mission to complete, even if he can’t return home or call for help with his spaceship. He came to Earth to intercept a dangerously powerful alien invader. As he watches the skies, Tights asks about the alien, and Jaco admits that he can only hope to defeat it if it’s a juvenile. If it’s an adult, the Earth is doomed. Z stands for the end. Wait.

While they talk, Tights compliments Jaco’s bodysuit, but he reveals that he isn’t wearing a bodysuit. That’s his skin, and he’s been strutting around nude this whole time. Well, I guess the gloves, boots, and those ear things are clothes. And that vest he wears. Tights asks how he pees, since his crotch is smooth like a Ken doll, and Jaco squirts urine out of two holes in his forehead. Tights then shoves him off the cliff they’ve been standing on, and in all the commotion, Jaco misses the alien spacecraft as it passes through the atmosphere.

Anyway, Tights asks for a lift to Kiwi Island to pick up the rest of her stuff, and on the way, Jaco tells them more about the alien he was sent to stop. Some whackamaroo species of warriors that you’ve probably never heard of. Get this, they’re called... Saiyans, and they’re from the Planet Vegeta.

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNH!

Fortunately, the Saiyan who slipped past Jaco was a child after all, and the guy who found him just happened to be a martial arts expert, so he managed to tame the Saiyan boy with the power of karate. I love how banged up both of these guys are. Toei usually animates their first encounter with Son Gohan holding up a cute, cuddly baby, but Toriyama knows what’s up. Baby Kakarot came out of that ship ready to throw hands, and Gohan was like “Oh, you wanna go? You wanna go? Come on you adorable little jerk, let’s dance!” And then they became family.

Gohan names the boy “Goku” because “ku” sounds like the Japanese word for “sky”. Awwww.

Meanwhile, Tights finally decides that the best way to help Jaco is to put Omori in touch with Dr. Briefs the famous head of the Capsule Corporation. He could reverse-engineer the anti-gravity technology from Jaco’s ship, and pay well enough to afford the Sky Gold Jaco needs, and Dr. Briefs can be trusted not to reveal where the technology came from. Omori points out that no one can be trusted absolutely, to which Tights reveals that Dr. Briefs is her father.

So why did she take the job to ride Twinkle 8, and stay on the island with Omori, and so on? Because she needs experience to become a sci-fi novelist, and she’d never get it just living at home in luxury.

See, this was what I was talking about when I was complaining about the plot holes and general sloppiness of Dragon Ball GT. It’s not just the fact that GT often refused to explain a lot of its twists and turns. The bigger issue is that a major key to Toriyama’s talent as a storyteller is his ability to use the characters to ask questions and answer them. He uses it to provide information to the reader, but he also uses it to develop characters and advance the plot.

So when a series like GT tries to emulate Toriyama’s style, but without bothering to ask and answer questions, it leaves a lot of awkward gaps in the story. I’m not just talking about GT failing to explain stuff to the audience. I mean GT never adequately explored how Goku felt about being stuck in a child body, or how Gero and Mu built a replica of 17 in Hell. You can skip stuff like that, sure, but that’s kind of the meat of your story. If you skip that, what have you got left?

But Toriyama gets it, and I’m pretty sure that’s why Dragon Ball Super was over twice the length of GT, and why the last four Dragon Ball movies were bigger successes than Dragon Ball Evolution. It’s not enough to just say Tights wants to be a science fiction novelist. She chooses to go out into the world and experience different things to broaden her horizons. That’s how she plans to become a sci-fi novelist, and it also informs all the decisions she’s made in this story. At first glance, she seems to act on impulse, but there’s a purpose behind it all. In GT, Pan expresses a desire to be taken more seriously, but we never see her do anything to achieve that goal. In DBE, Bulma says she wants to become famous, but we never learn why that version of Bulma wants fame, or how she expects to get it.

Anyway, the Brief family comes to visit, and while they’re here, Jaco turns on the evening news. While Tights was moving her stuff from Kiwi Island, Jaco went to the news station and posed for them just so they would put it on TV, so everyone would know what he actually looks like. Because Jaco is one petty dude.

Meanwhile, Tights’ little sister Bulma has already repaired the antenna on Jaco’s ship. She noticed that the wrecked carport and deduced that Jaco’s ship had crashed into it, so she found the missing pieces of the antenna there, and managed to reassemble it.

Bulma also points out that the ship never actually needed Sky Gold at all. The component Omori found in the ship was made of Sky Gold, sure, but it wasn’t the power source. Bulma believes it was simply a containment device for storing the energy. A different metal with similar physical properties would work just as well, such as copper.

Okay, that’s a satisfying way to pay that off. I’m something of a scientist myself, and I was kind of irritated at the idea of “Sky Gold” being something you shoot with a laser to make a ship fly. It’s more like wiring than electricity, which is a lot easier for me to swallow. So it’s gratifying to see that I’m somewhere between Professor Omori and 5-year-old Bulma, at least in terms of metallurgy.

So they don’t even need the money now, but Jaco still goes ahead and gives Dr. Brief the anti-gravity tech. All he asks for in exchange is some money for Omori and Tights, since they helped him so much. Also, he radios HQ, and they agree to just give Dr. Brief the whole spaceship for free, since it’s an outdated model.

Wait, so how does this work? Jaco needs the ship to return home, so does he have to tow the thing back in a different spaceship to bring it to Dr. Briefs?

So I guess that wraps things up pretty well. Also Bulma’s ray gun actually works. Dr. Briefs asks Tights how college is going, even though Tights already graduated last year. And Bulma’s mom wants to get wasted.

With the money Dr. Briefs gives him, Omori buys the entire island, and he continues to live there, along with Katayude, who’s a much better cook than Tights. I dont’ want to read too much into this, but did Katayude and Omori hook up after he moved to the island?

I think Tights lives on the same island too? She had Jaco take her around some different planets, which helped her career in science fiction writing. Though highly successful, she had one dud novel, which was based on Jaco.

Anyway, Jaco comes by to visit sometimes, and he got a girlfriend at some point, although no one can tell them apart in the photos.

And about eleven years after Jaco’s first visit to Earth, Bulma drops by the island for a visit while on a journey to investigate a set of magic wishing balls, which she suspects may have originated in outer space.

... Which you can read about in Akira Toriyama’s other manga, which he plugs on the last page of this chapter. Well, I’m sold. I think I might just give this Dragon Ball thing a try.

And that’s it. Well, this was a treat to read. I’m not sure if Jaco being a prequel to Dragon Ball was much of surprise to the readers in 2013, but even though I knew about it going in, I found it enjoyable to watch everything build to the reveal.

There is one final chapter in the Jaco collection, but I’ll cover that in another post.

#jaco the galactic patrolman #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #jaco teirimentenpibosshi #tokunoshin omori #tights #tamagoro katayude #an azuki #goku #bulma #dr brief #bulma's mom

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nix-fics · 9 months

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Rocket's Little Girl

I don't think there's anything to mark as a tw-

Chapter Three

When the group had made it to their ship, each being had gone to their respective rooms and After getting the woman a change of clothes, Rocket took Phoenix to the main area.

He had then explained how his group had crashed on this planet after they forgot to make a pitstop for gas, How the crew was now looking for little jobs here and there and how they were the Guardians of the Galaxy.

“I got somethin’ I need to work on in the engine room and it gets hot as heck in there so you're welcome to check out everywhere else here on the ship. ” he stated, hopping off of his chair. “ It's good to have you back, Kid. ”

A small smile spread across the woman’s face, “ It's good to be back.” she admitted.

Rocket padded out the door, but not before Phoenix caught a toothy grin spread across his furry face.

“Oh, Yeah!” he stuck his head back in the room, “There's another person here, Nebula. She's a real charmer. Don't piss her off. And stay away from Quill. And if you need anythin’ let me know.”

Phoenix chuckled quietly, the racoon was never one for being sentimental.

Being alone now, Phoenix’s eyes swept over the messy room.

There was a layer of grime on many of the pipes. It also covered the walls and she didn't even look at the floors. The smell of alcohol and engine grease were the only smells she could distinguish.

“ Makes sense, It’s mostly a bunch of guys living on one small ship. Of course it was a disaster.” she snorted to herself.

Peeking out of the room she could hear a clunking and beeping coming from far below her feet. Taking a breath she stepped into the hallway. The ship wasn't as stuffy as she expected, cold oxygen filled her lungs. But the hallways were dark and small, putting her on edge slightly.

“Yeah, I'll just stick in here.” Phoenix mumbled to herself, not wanting to have a second episode today.

Turning back to the cockpit, the woman stepped back to the windows. Unfortunately because of her unawareness she didn't see the divot on the floor until it was too late.

Her ungraceful flailing resulted in a loud crash that rang through the ship, jarring her head and making her bite the tip of her tongue.

Phoenix winced at the flaring pain in her joints and mouth.

" I hope no one heard that." She muttered tersely at her ignorant exploration. Slowly standing up and rubbing her knees and elbows trying to soothe the sting, she kicked at the divot. As if to get payback on the inanimate object.

Looking around once more, she noticed a stack of crates along the wall next to her crash landing area, a flash of orange deep within caught her eye.

Crouching down, Phoenix placed her hand on the side of the bin. The metal chilled her scarred fingers. Despite how warm it was in the room, the woman felt a shiver run down her spine.

The orange object was hidden away under quite a bit of rubble. But soon enough, after moving the countless batteries, blasters, and miscellaneous out of the way, she could safely pull out the strange contraption.

It was some sort of foam piece attached to a few wires, the wires seemed to be buried deeper beneath more junk so, Phoenix kept digging. Her interest grew with every piece of trash moved from the crate.

Reaching her treasure she pulled out a blue box with buttons.

She sounded out the word, tracing her fingers over the letters printed by the little window.

“Saw-ney?” she sounded out, silently wondering how to pronounce the strange word.

" Actually, it's Sony. But good try." A voice from the doorway made the woman jump and drop the box on her lap.

Phoenix whipped her head around to see Quill leaning against the frame staring at her, she felt as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn't be doing. Until she realized he had spoken to her and was expecting a response.

" Right, thank you, Quill" She bowed her head hoping the man might go away.

Incoming footsteps shot that wish right out of the sky. Phoenix stayed completely silent as Quill sat down next to her.

" So, d'you know how to use that? "

The woman looked at the leather-clad space pirate in confusion " not really?" She said it as more of a question than an answer.

The man laughed. It wasn't a loud guffaw, it was warm and caring and Phoenix found herself becoming more and more entranced by it.

" well. if you want?" Quill was looking at her expectantly.

" Crap. What did he say" She thought wildly. She had gotten too lost in the sound of his voice to notice that he had been talking to her.

" Oh, um. I- sorry. Well, That sounds interesting… "

Quill's grin made her feel as if there were a hundred butterflies in her stomach but that wasn't the weirdest part.

The weirdest part was that she actually enjoyed them. That was, until, Quill breached into her personal space, she yanked her arm back ready to punch him while backing up in alarm.

……

Peter could tell the woman hadn't been paying full attention when he was talking, most females didn't and he was okay with that.

Unfortunately, this chick could kill at least three people in a matter of fifteen seconds and she now was very ready to make that list four, it seemed.

"WOAH, Listen!" Peter put his hands up, surrendering to not escalate the situation. " I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? I'm just showing you what these do."

He saw Phoenix's eyes flashing between him and the headphones

"Just put your hand down. I'm not in any condition to attack you sitting on the floor here anyways. Actually-" Peter put the headphones in front of Phoenix. " You can put those on yourself. "

Lowering the clenched fist, the woman glanced down at the speakers in suspicion,

" What do they do exactly?"

Peter stared at the brunette in disbelief. " They're headphones. You listen with 'em… Aren't you from Terra? "

The woman scoffed " I'm no longer from anywhere. I live where I chose, Quill. "

Peter rolls his eyes " God, are all Terran women this full of sass?" He quipped internally.

"Listen, just put the dang headphones on so I can show you the coolest thing literally ever. " He ordered, thrusting the headphones onto Phoenix's lap.

He grabbed his walkman and opened it up checking which one of his tapes were in.

Awesome Mix Vol. 2

"Perfect. She looks like she'll know these." He thought giddily.

It had been quite a bit of time since he met someone who appreciated music like he did and finally popping the tape in, he turned to Phoenix.

"You ready?" He asked, his eyes sparkling with joy.

……..

She held the headphones on her ears waiting for whatever it was Quill was going to do.

A quiet melody drifted through her ears before gaining volume and quickening its tempo.

' Listen baby, ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby-'

Phoenix's eyes widened with excitement, she knew this song. She had no idea how, but it was familiar. Every note was perfectly sung, the horns were surrounding her, the crash of the symbols gave her chills. she couldn't remember the words but the melody was embedded in her brain like concrete. The world slipped away, the smelly ship, the leather-clad man in front of her, even the sunlight through the window felt different as the song played.

Humming along quietly, the woman had forgotten that she wasn't alone and soon enough was brought back to reality. Glancing up, obviously embarrassed that she had completely spaced out

Phoenix's eyes caught Quill's and a small smile graced his face in response. She slowly removed the headphones.

"So… ?" The leather-clad man asked expectantly, as if daring her to say something against the song.

Phoenix let out a genuine chuckle "I really loved that song way back. I don't remember why exactly but thank you For sharing with me, Quill."

" Aw! Hell yeah. It's a classic. Of course I would show it to you! You're the only other human I've met for quite a long time out here-" Quill rambled on animatedly, waving his hands around for extra effects.

Phoenix couldn't help but be taken back at his openness. She was never that open with others and others were never that open with her. "It wasn't an issue, it was her lifestyle." She would repeat to herself. But then here came this music loving space man who completely turned her day upside-down.

Phoenix chewed the inside of her lip lost in thought.

A snap in front of her face bright her back to reality.

"So, spacing out seems to be a thing for you." Quill smirked at her rosy cheeks.

Phoenix fiddled with the headphones in front of her, setting them to the side she replied slowly

" Sorry… I'm honestly not used to having long conversations with anyone really. It can be a waste of time with a lot of people… " Phoenix looked down at her lap self-consciously. Playing with the hem of her shirt, her head was panicking.

"Why did I say that… I shouldn't have said that.. He probably thinks I'm talking about him.."

Quill got strangely quiet at her proclamation. He placed the walkman by his side and straightened his posture " It's not a waste of time. Everyone needs somebody." He stated firmly. Although his expression told a different story. It was almost as if he agreed with her.

Phoenix felt extremely guilty at this, she obviously brought up something he would rather not talk about and she barely knew the guy.

The atmosphere felt awkwardly quiet now. Phoenix fumbled with the headphones before setting them in front of Quill. He took them and messed with the contraption before opening his mouth.

But instead of Quill's cocky tone, a deep, sonorous voice cut off the leather-clad man.

“Oh! I do hope I'm not interrupting anything.” Thor chuckled, stepping into the room.

Phoenix breathed out a sigh of relief at the god's arrival. Hopefully she could find an excuse to get out of this embarrassing encounter.

“Nope, yeah. No. Of course not.” the woman rambled while stumbling to her feet.

Quill was still silent, as he stood he seemed to be weighed down. The change in personality was a complete difference, like day and night.

“Quail, I think the Rabbit is in need of assistance.” Thor announced while 'Quail' rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, well. First off, it's Quill. And second, Did he ask for help? ” Phoenix could feel the opposite energies from the men clashing like oil and water.

“Yes, that's what I said. And of course! That's why I came to find you! ” The god's cheer-y attitude seemed to agitate Quill even more and he stormed out of the room muttering curses under his breath.

Phoenix let out the breath of air she was holding and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. The god kept walking to the windows of the cockpit and slumped down in one of the seats.

“I hope he wasn’t making you uncomfortable, ah, feel free to take a seat,” he motioned to the seat across the aisle.

“Thank you. ” She quickly sat in the squishy leather seat “ No, I think I just said the wrong thing. He was being quite nice. ”

Thor gave the woman a look of concern, before hunching forwards to rest his elbow on his knees. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Don't judge Quill too quickly, he lost a great deal and-... You do know about Thanos and the saving the world thing..? ” he questioned tentatively.

Phoenix shook her head, confused at his hesitant tone. She hasn't heard of her old planet needing saving. “what's a Thanos? When was Terra or in danger?”

Thor froze, she could see the bears turning in his head. “Maybe trying to find a way to explain?” she thought to herself.

“Where to start… ” the god mumbled under his breath. “ Well, a huge purple guy came down to earth and he had these powerful stones, super powerful, and all together he could erase half of all living things. He wanted to balance the universe and he did, he beat all of us and some lost more than others. ” he took a breath, it seemed he was trying to keep control of his emotions which made Phoenix's heart ache, this poor man had lost a lot more than what he let on. She was sure of it.

“Everyone who was dusted came back in the end though, Those who didn't come back were killed by Thanos himself. Quill lost his partner, The earth lost three of its mightiest heroes, I lost my brother, and Nebula lost her sister. ” Thor had his head ducked to hide, what Phoenix assumed were, unfallen tears. The thought of these kind people losing so much made her eyes water, she sniffled slightly which seemed to remind Thor of what he was doing and he quickly wiped his eyes and straightened up.

“So! You know, a few people are gone but we're learning to live with it. They will always be here in our hearts.” He ended with a saddened tone, a tone that betrayed the loss and grief he had dealt with.

The man was in such a vulnerable state that Phoenix couldn't help but reach out to place a hand on his shoulder. The amount of emotion swirling through Phoenix's heart was overwhelming. She hurt for this man, she barely knew him but he immediately broke down her walls and was crying with her within hours of them meeting.

She knew what it was like to be alone, to wish someone were still there. How that heavy feeling pulls oneself down till you can't even imagine what happiness feels like.

“I'm so sorry,” she whispered, pacing her hands in her lap. “I have an idea of what you're feeling and I know it's draining and hollowing but it gets better. ”

Thor looked at her, with a bittersweet smile “Thank you. I'm sure it will, I'm sorry that you've had to bear the same weight. ”

Phoenix let out a small smile, before turning to the windows in front of them “Thank you.”

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, staring out the windshield at the planet in front of them. The dust and faint noise of the city was still noticeable through the glass.

The peaceful silence was broken by a question that made Phoenix tense.

“Do you mind if I ask what happened to you? ”

She swallowed thickly “I'd rather not talk about it. It's something I'd rather leave behind. I've been working on starting over again and thinking about it isn't going to make any changes in my life right now."

“Of course, you shouldn't feel pressured for something like that. ” he replied consolingly while nodding his head.

Phoenix let out the breath she was holding, She felt at ease with this man. He was pleasant to talk to and was extremely welcoming.

“Please God, higher power, source energy, whatever you want to be called. Please help me make this group work. I really would love to stay… ”

#peter quill #starlord x reader #gotg #guardians of the galaxy #rocket raccoon #groot #gotg3 #gotg vol 3 #gamora #nebula #space travel #drax the destroyer

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yourelessfast · 6 months

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Some Non-Rocket Stuff I've Been Working On

Some miscellaneous villains that can bother the heroes whenever Egg Head's gone rotten.

Princess Abby is, probably most obviously, our equivalent of Princess Sally from the Archie Sonic comics. Unlike Sally, though, Abby is less of a love interest and more of an embittered ex of Zip's that undertakes the occasional passive-aggressive, teetering between evil and not-evil scheme in order to get revenge on or otherwise just mess with the Pooch. Posie considers Abby her biggest rival.... and 2nd biggest crush.

Fake Zip is this world's Metal Sonic. Egg Head being more of a bio-engineer than a roboticist, she's not exactly building robot clones every day. Normal clones work fine. Fake Zip is the main antagonist of Zip the Pooch 2: Cease Deceit, and comes back again and again in increasingly esoteric forms and roles. Egg Head's longest and most loyal minion, he's one of the most dangerous Pooches around if you don't count the other 5.

Exotor is the living planet(?) (meteor? Asteroid?) that Dr. Egg Head creates in Zip the Pooch 1, but after his defeat at the hands of Zip, she kind of abandoned it as space junk. But he comes back for revenge, at first trying to crash into Planet Zip, and then spawning a more mobile copy of its consciousness into this alien body that can keep up with Zip and fight toe-to-weird-toe-like-tentacle. The secret final boss of Zip the Fighters, like what Akuma is to Street Fighter 2. Exotor is a combination of the Death Egg and Sonic.Exe, with a bit of Ego and Deoxys thrown in for good measure. Probably one of my favorite remakes of a character from the main series!

But that's not all!

My first set of characters in the Zip-verse that are NOT alternate universe clones of characters from Sonic! The Sonic series has been sorely missing out on some spooky-themed characters for far too long, and I'm not making the same mistake, so meet team Horror Show!

Ludlow is a zombie dog and the leader of the team. Some kind of a magic undertaker, he goes against both Zip and his friends AND the Egg Head Empire, much more of a loose canon in the world. It's unknown what his real final goals are, since I made him in the middle of a road trip and didn't consider that he needed goals until typing this sentence, but the gang won't let him send the land into spooky scary chaos any time soon.

Joining him are other scary characters, BooBoo the Witch, Vendetta the Spider, and Goops the Candy Snake, representing the occult, the horror, and the fun parts of the Halloween season respectively. They might be sowing chaos on Planet Zip, but they're intensely loyal to each other, so don't cross them!

Once I have reliable internet at my new place, I hope to be making a lot more content on here, so stay tuned! My current goals are to get the other teams in my head out as designs (mainly ones based on the classic-era baddies and the IDW Diamond Cutters) and to try my hand at making some landscapes of the various zones I came up with for this setting. All 8 zones of Zip the Pooch 1 are safe in my noggin, and I might try to draw a few silly comics based on the plot of it.

I'm not exactly a professional-grade artist or anything, but this project is fun, so I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, so I'll see you soon! I know I have a few people looking around here because of the sonic OC polls, and I hope some of you stick around for more! ^-^

#zip the pooch #fake zip the clone pooch #exotor the space matter #ludlow the zom-pooch #booboo the witch #vendetta the spider #goops the candy snake #princess abby ember

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noodleraptorr · 2 years

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ARCANE x TF2

aka the noodle try not to combine your interests challenge (gone wrong)

sooo guess what guys! a portal opened up in runeterra and some of the characters from arcane fell through it and… It led to TF2??!?? REAL!!!

So I’m just gonna write the main interactions I thought of. I didn’t think the lore of this through much, I just wanted to have fun with the characters. Jinx exists but also Vander and Silco are alive somehow… idk. Some of it is generally describing how they’d act, some of it is conversations. Also sorry for spelling mistakes or grammar issues. Anyway, here we go!

Caitlyn & Sniper

•Caitlyn being Caitlyn decided that she would single out the person who wasn’t talkative, who kept to themselves and seemed mysterious. People who stay silent usually have the most information, she thought. And the tall guy with the weird glasses certainly looked like he was hiding something. So, she pestered the Sniper for a while. “What is this place?” “How do I get home?” “Who are these people?” “Who are you?”

•It soon became clear that he wouldn’t give her any answers. So, Cait left Sniper alone for a while. Eventually, the first battle came around, and they teamed up. Mostly because of their similar weapon choice. At first, Sniper insisted on working alone, but after Caitlyn insisted, he gave up.

•Between not one, but two skilled marksmen, the other team could barely make it out of their base before their heads were blown off.

•The pair often sat together during dinner, an unspoken respect between them. Sometimes Cait would steal Sniper’s sunglasses, just to see if she could get him angry. It never worked! He always calmly ignored her thievery, and snatched them back when she wasn’t paying attention.

•When Vi asked Cait “So, Cupcake, who's your new friend with the shades?”

She replied simply; “I found someone who's almost as good a shot as me. Almost.”

•When the portal finally opened back up, and Cait was able to return to Piltover, she was actually a bit disappointed. These people were strange. They were certainly not dignified. Not a single one of them (besides maybe the engineer) had any manners, and their greasy outfits certainly wouldn’t pass in Piltover. Sometimes they were rude or callous, or even downright crazy… but Caitlyn had encountered far worse. This rag-tag group had been good to her and Vi, and she appreciated that.

•Sniper watched her step through the portal. He was leaning against the wall with a slight smile, arms crossed. He was never really a social guy; how could he be? He was surprised to meet another marksman, and even more so by how social she was. They had started, ever so slightly, to become friends. But then she had to leave. The loss wouldn’t tear him apart- he didn’t get emotionally attached to people that quickly. But still, he’d never forget the strange woman from another universe, who was almost as good with a rifle as he was. Almost!

Jinx & Scout

•I don’t think many people realize just how many weapons team RED has. It’s really, really concerning. Just the single base had guns, swords, knifes, flamethrowers, bombs, blunt objects, and many other dangerous weapons.

•Jinx was like a kid in a candy store!

•For the first couple of days, all she did was cause chaos. She played ‘pranks’ on her new friends, which, really, were too destructive to be called pranks. She blew up half of the Engineer’s tools. She cost the RED team many, MANY bullets as she wildly fired at seemingly nothing. She convinced the Soldier that bears were in the walls, to which he fired multiple rocket launchers inside, causing immense property damage. She snuck into the Medic’s lab and… stole a spine. Like some guy's entire spine that had been in the fridge. And she started to whack people with it, and chase them around.

•For a while, Jinx didn’t bond with one single merc- most of them saw her as an annoyance, except three.

•One: Soldier, who saw her as an equal- a fellow patriot, who was fighting for the good of America (even though she had no idea what America was) and who should be on the team permanently.

•Two: Pyro. They loved everyone, no matter how many horrific crimes the person has committed.

•Three: Scout. Now, scout wasn’t exactly relaxed around Jinx, like Pyro or Soldier. He quickly learned just how dangerous she could be, and was careful around her at first. But the more he spent time with her, the more he began to realize that she wasn’t too different from anyone else on the team. Throughout the weeks she was there, Scout managed to get some of the other mercenaries to see the good in her. Many began to actually like her, despite all the chaos she harbored.

•Despite this, the Scout was one of the few people who actually found Jinx’s pranks to be funny… and she quickly noticed. The two became partners in chaos. Sometimes, Jinx would take it just a liiiitle too far. But really, who could fault her! It was funny!

•Jinx and Scout on the battlefield was really something else. They left the enemy team completely blindsided every time, with their speed and tactics. So, most of the time they were able to chill in the base after winning so many matches.

•One time in particular, they were brainstorming more prank ideas, to liven the place up. Scout paced back and forth across the dusty ground, and Jinx hung upside down from a railing (they had been kicked out of the fort after everyone got fed up with them.) ”Oh, I got it! Ya know what would be funny?” Scout piped up, and turned to Jinx, who listened with intrigue. “We should take everyone’s stuff! They’ll never see it comin!”

•Jinx slipped off of the railing, and bounced back up enthusiastically when she landed. “Yea! And we should do it right before the battle, too, then they’ll be even MORE panicked!”

Scout wheezed and slapped his knee. “Dude, that’ll be hilarious!”

•”And then..” Jinx continued, eyes seeming to flicker with joy. “We BURN their stuff!”

”YEA- Wait, what?”

”Hm. No, that’s too boring. We EXPLODE their stuff!”

”Woah, Jinx, we can’t-“

“We explode THEM! And watch the fort CRUMBLE!”

“No!” Scout reasoned, very concerned. “No, why would we explode the people we’re tryin’ to prank- Why would we explode anything at all?!”

•Jinx frowned, and sighed, reaching out to tilt down Scout’s baseball cap. “You’re no fun.”

•Suddenly, Pyro opened a nearby door, motioning the two inside with a few muffled words. Jinx smiled at Scout, who was fumbling with his hat. “I guess it’s time to eat, see ya there!” With a quick motion, Jinx threw something on the ground, and the entire area erupted into pink smoke. Scout stood there, terrified and coughing, until the smoke cleared. Pyro and Jinx were gone, and the door was left ajar for him. He sighed to himself, and headed for the door. “God, that chick is crazy…”

Medic & Viktor

•Viktor was very confused when he fell through the portal. Such unfamiliar surroundings made him feel incredibly out of place. He was not the one to go on grand adventures such as this, no. Maybe Jayce would have been a better fit; he’d learn more about the world, speak to the people, and return to Piltover with a new wealth of knowledge for the city. That was not Viktors job. Viktor’s job was to stay in the lab and actually work out the new knowledge.

•Viktor found himself staying away from the others, after they had all figured out what happened. He found the whole ordeal truly fascinating. Alternative universes- who could have thought?

•Viktor walked the desolate hallways and began to realize just how alone he was. In this strange new world, this parallel universe, he had nothing. In Piltover, Viktor had his inventions- Hextech. As a boy, he didn’t have many friends, but he had his creations. His inventions were him, in a way. The body that trudged through the hallways had failed him time and time again, so he turned to the Hexcore. His magnum opus. The one thing that truly understood him, even if he didn’t fully understand it.

•But here, in this strange world, with these unfamiliar people, he was truly, truly alone. No friends. No Jayce. No Hextech. None of his inventions. Just… Viktor.

•He had stumbled upon a room labeled ‘laboratory’. Something familiar, at least. He stepped inside, and his eyes widened. There were all kinds of contraptions, but the one that caught his eye most was a large metal machine, with some sort of pale, red light at the end of it. Cautiously, he walked to it, and it was even more impressive close up. The red light was wispy and very faint, but something about the aura of it was powerful. Viktor had the sudden overwhelming feeling that he was not supposed to be here. Panic surged in his chest, and he turned to leave. It turned out that his premonition was correct, as the door opened before he could turn the handle. Viktor froze, and met the eyes of the Medic.

•Neither of them said anything at first. They were both deer caught in headlights, frozen in shock. Eventually Viktor spoke up, to try and save the situation.

•”This…” He took a few steps back and gestured to the device. “What is it?”

•Viktor half expected the Medic to laugh, tell him to leave, or maybe even attack him with one of the multiple bone-saws lying around. But instead, he answered.

•”It is a modified fire hose. I call it the Medigun. It is used to heal teammates…” The Medic paused, and took a step closer to Viktor, eyes narrowed. He didn’t seem upset, just curious.

•”Why are you in this lab, herr Viktor?” He asked. Viktor said nothing. He was kind of surprised that the strange doctor remembered his name; they had only met once.

•Viktor got closer to the machine again. Carefully, slowly, he reached out towards the red light. It seemed to become stronger, wrapping around his fingers, hands, and eventually his entire arm. At first, Viktor wasn’t sure what was going on. But then, he noticed something strange. Within his arm, his veins had begun to turn pale purple. The color got brighter and brighter the longer he stayed near the device. Medic was next to him in an instant, observing the phenomenon. “Incredible…” He whispered, voice barely audible over the hum of the machine. Eventually, Viktor stepped back, afraid of what might happen if he didn’t. His glowing veins instantly returned to normal, as did the strength of the Medigun.

•Medic spent the rest of his time experimenting on Viktor. The pair of scientists had explained to each other the extent of their knowledge. Viktor told Medic all about the Hexcore and how it had affected him. Medic told Viktor about the Respawn system and medical fluid.

•Viktor wanted to take a more methodical approach to the experiments by using the scientific method. However, Medic insisted that they should just try things and ‘see what happens’. They ended up just doing a mix of this, with Viktor doing much of the planning and Medic doing much of the actual experimentation.

•The first thing Medic tried was Übercharging Viktor, and seeing if the Hex shenanigans would change anything. It ended up making him invincible, as it did with other team members. However, the red metallic color that usually enveloped a subject was now purple, with hints of blue.

•They continued to experiment for days. Medic didn’t bother showing up to the battles, because his team would almost instantly win with their newfound members. Both him and Viktor ended up learning a lot about the two worlds, but still had no theory on how travel between them could have happened.

•Before the portal opened back up and Viktor had to leave, Medic took a sample of his blood for further experimentation. However, he found that when Viktor stepped through, and returned to his own dimension… the blood was gone. It was as though it left with him. Medic still had his notes, his scrawlings of Hextech mechanics, and everything Viktor had told him about Runeterra. But would anyone believe him without proof of the phenomenon? Most already considered him a madman, so he thought it unlikely. Maybe his fellow mercenaries would understand, but he doubted that anyone else could. He stored the notes away in a folder, and they’d gather dust until he’d remember them again and look them over, puzzled. He’d often wonder if travel between dimensions could ever be possible again.

•Viktor wondered the same thing. When he got back to Runeterra, and met up with Jayce again, he seemed worried.

“I thought you went missing.” Jayce said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yes, so am I…”

•Viktor knew immediately that Jayce didn’t care that he had gone missing, just that the progress on Hextech had halted. Nobody in the city of progress cared for Viktor. In fact, nobody in any universe cared for him. The Medic he had spent so much time with was only ever interested in what Viktor had done, not who he was.

Heavy & Vi

•At first, Vi stuck to her girlfriend like a barnacle. Once it became evident that they couldn’t get home right away, Caitlyn literally had to push Vi away, and tell her to go socialize.

•Of course, she would rather do anything than socialize with a bunch of mercenary freaks. So, she went to practice boxing. That’s when she met Heavy, who approached her with a big smile.

•”The hell do you want?” She had snarled, but the man only gestured to the punching bag.

“You good at punching thing. So am I.”

Silence fell between them, and Vi narrowed her eyes.

“And…?”

Heavy stomped over to a nearby locker, and took out some large red gloves.

“Boxing match!”

•It took a while for them to get used to each other's fighting styles, but every time the two of them stepped into a ring, they both got better. They taught each other, in a way. Many would say they were mindless brutes, but they knew that was wrong. Both Heavy and Vi were intelligent, reactionary, and protective people- two sides of the same coin.

•Their first battle together was legendary. Side by side they stood, punching through their enemies without even breaking a sweat.

•During dinner time, They were often the loudest. Vi would have arm wrestling contests with the Demoman, and Heavy cheered her on. She won a few times, lost a few others, but Heavy was proud of her all the same.

•When it was time for Vi to leave and return to her realm, Heavy had only a few things to say to her:

“You are strong woman. You just like sisters back in Siberia. You have problem to fix, you will punch it until is fixed!”

He then gave Vi a hardy slap on the back, to which she smiled proudly.

“Put on big metal boxing gloves! Go back to home and fight for good cause!” He bellowed. That was all the motivation Vi needed to step through the portal, waving goodbye to the mercenaries she had come to love.

•Heavy proceeded to cry for eight hours straight after she left. Pyro joined him.

Silco & Spy

•Silco was very out of his element. He had no idea what to do when he fell through that portal, and was greeted by several strangers. Everything he had worked for in the Undercity would have to be put on pause. What would happen while he was gone? What would happen when he returned? He didn’t know, and that was what scared him the most. He, like so many others, liked to be in control. It reassured him to know that things were working in his favor. But here? Even gravity worked in different ways than it did in Runeterra. Everything was new, like another planet. He had no control over anything here.

•Still, though, Silco pushed back his emotions, as he had learned to do his whole life. He would wait this out, go home, and forget it all happened. He stayed away from others, surveyed the area, and kept an eye out for any potential dangers.

•He didn’t find danger. He found a friend.

•Under any normal circumstances, Silco would not make ‘friends’. Every person he talks to is a part of a scheme, a cog in a wheel.

•These were not normal circumstances.

•Silco was leaning against a wall one day, listening to the distant chatter of everyone else in the dining hall. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a flicker of movement. He turned to look, but by then it was too late.

•A man in a suit materialized before him, cigar in hand. Silco, remarkably, stayed calm. He had seen this man before, lurking in the shadows, watching the newcomers.

•Silco tilted his head slightly. “You’re the Spy, is that right?”

•The man exhaled, smoke swirling in the air. “How did you know?” The Spy asked.

•Silco was amused to hear a strange accent. He thought about what he should say to someone like this. He looked the man up and down. Style. He has style, for sure. “No other mercenary here is classy enough to be a spy. You’re the only one with a suit.”

•This earned him a chuckle from the man. “You flatter me, stranger.” Promptly, the spy cloaked once more, and disappeared, leaving Silco alone again.

•They would meet more often. Spy became the only stranger Silco would actually speak to; everyone else seemed too eccentric and dangerous.

•When Silco left, he wasn’t upset like some of the others were. Sure, he had made his first casual friend in years, and now would never get to see him again. He would probably never feel comfortable just sitting down and talking to someone like he had with Spy. And maybe, deep down, some part of him grieved for that. But he could easily move on to better things in Zaun, and leave that strange world behind.

•As for Spy, he didn’t know how he felt about the newcomer. Silco had often told Spy about how Jinx was like a daughter to him. She was the crazy girl with blue braided hair, the sister to the pink-haired one. Spy would spot Jinx sometimes, when he was invisible in some corner or hiding spot. She hung out with Scout a lot, for the time that she was there. Jinx was very similar to Scout in many different ways, he had noticed. They would talk to each other as though they had known each other for years, smiling and laughing… If Jinx was Scout’s parallel… would that make Silco Spy’s? The thought of it brought him a deep pain in his chest, and he didn’t know why. He didn’t want to think about why, so he forced himself to forget, as he had time and time again.

Engineer & Vander

•The Engineer was playing a tune on his guitar, when Vander sat next to him, and complimented his skills. They talked for a while, and eventually Engi offered Vander a beer. He accepted, not wanting to seem rude.

•Vander used to be a bartender, so when he tasted cheap alcohol, he knew it. That beer was one of the most vile things he had ever had the misfortune of drinking. And yet, he downed the whole thing.

•The only reason he did this was to spend more time with Engi. In a way, it was like talking to someone who was on the same wavelength as he was. They were strangers, but it really did feel like talking to an old friend.

•”Yeap…” Engi sighed, watching the sun set. “Sometimes it feels like I’m the only one with any damn sense round’ here. It’s like babysittin’ eight kids.”

•Vander chucked, and pat Engi on the shoulder. “I know the feeling. Can’t live with em, can't live without em.”

“Ya got that right, partner…”

Engi chuckled lowly, plucking at his guitar strings to produce a soft melody. “…Ya got that right.”

Pyro & everyone

•The pyro literally just sees these newcomers as just. More friends. They dropped in from an entirely different universe with different scientific laws and history than this one? Okay and? This girl has blue hair. That’s fucking awesome and pyro is so excited about it. They don’t pick favorites, everyone is their favorite.

•When the new guys had to leave, it was a catastrophe. The world could literally end and it would be less devastating to Pyro. From their perspective, a bunch of cool new friends from another dimension showed up, helped them fight a bit, then suddenly left without so much as a “goodbye”. Heartbreak! Betrayal!

Soldier & everyone

•Upon meeting the new people, Soldier instantly began to interrogate all of them, then put each one of them through a lecture to induct them into the team, and gave them all military code names. Said codenames were as follows…

•Jinx was ‘Firework’, or sometimes ‘Braids’. Soldier held a firm belief that Jinx was a strong american patriot, which could be where the firework name came from.

•Caitlyn was ‘Ruffles’, probably because of the white frills she had on her Enforcer uniform. The uniform did not help his initial impression of her, as he was convinced that she was some sort of FBI agent or governmental official. Jinx did nothing but perpetuate this; he only stopped believing it after Demoman told him otherwise.

•Vi only really talked to the other mercenaries after Heavy introduced her. Soldier nicknamed her ‘Sargent Six’, as he assumed the VI tattooed on her cheek was the roman numeral for six, and not an abbreviation for Violet. Many of the mercenaries were surprised that he could think this critically.

•Vander earned the nickname ‘Nurse’, after Soldier’s arm was blown off and he came to help when Medic didn’t. Although it was very shoddy medical care, and Vander seemed to not know what he was doing (he was just trying to keep Soldier from bleeding out) Soldier insisted that he was the team’s new nurse. Eventually the Medic helped Soldier get his arm back, but Vander’s codename stuck.

•Silco didn't get a nickname, as Soldier was very distrustful of him, and assumed he was working for Merasmus.

•Viktor also didn't get a nickname, but when Soldier did see him, he’d yell and call him a filthy politician.

Demo & everyone

•Demo is similar to Pyro in that he doesn’t think of the newcomers differently. He doesn’t dislike them, he just sees them as a temporary addition to the team, really.

•He’s partial to Vi- he admires how tough she is, and how she never gives up on something she’s set her mind to.

•As well as Vander, who is a terrific drinking buddy, has great taste in drinks, and a good mediator for arguments.

•He thinks Silco is creepy, and often forgets he even exists.

•He liked how chill Caitlyn was; talking to her was like a calm oasis in a vast desert of craziness.

•At first, he found Jinx to be very annoying, but soon warmed up to her. They started a “Explosives Enjoyer” club together, and made very violent propaganda for it.

•Overall, Demo is just chilling with the new guys. He’s not devastated when the newcomers have to leave, but maybe he’d secretly hoped they’d stay a little longer.

BONUS: I didn’t write much of it but I think it would be funny if Mel also came through the portal and she hated everyone except Ms. Pauling.

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nix-rose · 1 year

Text

Rockets Little Girl (CHAPTER 3)

When the group had made it to their ship, each being had gone to their respective rooms and ater getting the woman a change of clothes, Rocket took Phoenix to the main area.

He then explained how his group had crashed on this planet after they forgot to make a pitstop for gas and how the crew was now looking for little jobs here and there and how they were the Guardians of the Galaxy.

“I got somethin’ I need to work on in the engine room and it gets hot as heck in there so you're welcome to check out everywhere else here on the ship,” he stated, hopping off of his chair. “It's good to have you back, Kid. ”

A small smile spread across the woman’s face. “It's good to be back,” she admitted.

Rocket padded out the door, but not before Phoenix caught a toothy grin spread across his furry face.

“Oh, yeah!” He stuck his head back in the room, “There's another person here, Nebula. She's a real charmer. Don't piss her off. And stay away from Quill. And if you need anythin’ let me know.”

The woman chuckled quietly, the racoon was never one for being sentimental.

A few minutes passed.

Being alone now, Phoenix’s eyes swept over the messy room.

There was a layer of grime on many of the pipes. It also covered the walls and she didn't even look at the floors. The smell of alcohol and engine grease were the only smells she could distinguish.

Makes sense, it’s mostly a bunch of guys living on one small ship. Of course it was a disaster. She snorted to herself.

Peeking out of the room she could hear a clunking and beeping coming from far below her feet. Taking a breath, she stepped into the hallway. The ship wasn't as stuffy as she expected, cold oxygen filled her lungs. But the hallways were dark and small, putting her on edge slightly.

“Yeah, I'll just stick in here.” Phoenix mumbled to herself, not wanting to have a second episode today.

Turning back to the cockpit, the woman stepped back to the windows. Unfortunately, because of her unawareness she didn't see the divot on the floor until it was too late.

Her ungraceful flailing resulted in a loud crash that rang through the ship, jarring her head and making her bite the tip of her tongue.

Phoenix winced at the flaring pain in her joints and mouth.

"I hope no one heard that," she muttered tersely at her ignorant exploration. Slowly standing up and rubbing her knees and elbows trying to soothe the sting, she kicked at the divot. As if to get payback on the inanimate object.

Looking around once more, she noticed a stack of crates along the wall next to her crash landing area, a flash of orange deep within caught her eye.

Crouching down, Phoenix placed her hand on the side of the bin. The metal chilled her scarred fingers. Despite how warm it was in the room, the woman felt a shiver run down her spine.

Reaching her treasure she pulled out a blue box with buttons.

She sounded out the word, tracing her fingers over the letters printed by the little window.

“Saw-ney?” she sounded out, silently wondering how to pronounce the strange word.

"Actually, it's Sony. But good try." A voice from the doorway made the woman jump and drop the box on her lap.

"Right, thank you, Quill." She bowed her head, hoping the man might go away.

Incoming footsteps shot that wish right out of the sky. Phoenix stayed completely silent as Quill sat down next to her.

"So, d'you know how to use that? "

The woman looked at the leather-clad space pirate in confusion. "Not really?" She said it as more of a question than an answer.

The man laughed. It wasn't a loud guffaw, it was warm and caring and Phoenix found herself becoming more and more entranced by it.

"Well, if you want?" Quill was looking at her expectantly.

Crap. What did he say, she thought wildly. She had gotten too lost in the sound of his voice to notice that he had been talking to her.

"Oh, um. I- sorry. Well, that sounds interesting… "

Quill's grin made her feel as if there were a hundred butterflies in her stomach but that wasn't the weirdest part.

The weirdest part was that she actually enjoyed them. That was, until, Quill breached into her personal space, she yanked her arm back ready to punch him while backing up in alarm.

……

Peter could tell the woman hadn't been paying full attention when he was talking, most women didn't and he was okay with that.

Unfortunately, this chick could kill at least three people in a matter of fifteen seconds and she now was very ready to make that list four, it seemed.

"WOAH, Listen!" Peter put his hands up, surrendering to not escalate the situation. "I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? I'm just showing you what these do."

He saw Phoenix's eyes flashing between him and the headphones

"Just put your hand down. I'm not in any condition to attack you sitting on the floor here anyways. Actually-" Peter put the headphones in front of Phoenix. "You can put those on yourself."

Lowering the clenched fist, the woman glanced down at the speakers in suspicion,

"What do they do exactly?"

Peter stared at the brunette in disbelief. "They're headphones. You listen with 'em… Aren't you from Terra? "

The woman scoffed. "I'm no longer from anywhere. I live where I chose, Quill."

Peter rolled his eyes. God, are all Terran women this full of sass? he quipped internally.

"Listen, just put the dang headphones on so I can show you the coolest thing literally ever." Quill ordered, thrusting the headphones onto Phoenix's lap.

He grabbed his walkman and opened it up checking which one of his tapes were in.

Awesome Mix Vol. 1

Perfect. She looks like she'll know these. He thought giddily.

It had been quite a bit of time since he met someone who appreciated music like he did and finally popping the tape in, he turned to Phoenix.

"You ready?" he asked, his eyes sparkling with joy.

……..

She held the headphones on her ears waiting for whatever it was Quill was going to do.

A quiet melody drifted through her ears before gaining volume and quickening its tempo.

'Listen baby, ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby-'

Phoenix's eyes widened with excitement, she knew this song. She had no idea how, but it was familiar. Every note was perfectly sung, the horns were surrounding her, the crash of the symbols gave her chills. She couldn't remember the words but the melody was embedded in her brain like concrete. The world slipped away, the smelly ship, the leather-clad man in front of her, even the sunlight through the window felt different as the song played.

Humming along quietly, the woman had forgotten that she wasn't alone and soon enough was brought back to reality. Glancing up, obviously embarrassed that she had completely spaced out

Phoenix's eyes caught Quill's and a small smile graced his face in response. She slowly removed the headphones.

"So…?" The leather-clad man asked expectantly, as if daring her to say something against the song.

Phoenix let out a genuine chuckle "I really loved that song way back. I don't remember why exactly. But thank you for sharing with me, Quill."

"Aw! Hell yeah. It's a classic. Of course I would show it to you! You're the only other human I've met for quite a long time out here-" Quill rambled on animatedly, waving his hands around for extra effects.

Phoenix couldn't help but be taken back at his openness. She was never that open with others and others were never that open with her. It wasn't an issue, it was her lifestyle. She would repeat to herself. But then here came this music loving space man who completely turned her day upside-down.

Phoenix chewed the inside of her lip lost in thought.

A snap in front of her face bright her back to reality.

"So, spacing out seems to be a thing for you." Quill smirked at her rosy cheeks.

Phoenix fiddled with the headphones in front of her, setting them to the side she replied slowly

"Sorry… I'm honestly not used to having long conversations with anyone really. It can be a waste of time with a lot of people…" Phoenix looked down at her lap self-consciously. Playing with the hem of her shirt, her head was panicking.

Why did I say that… I shouldn't have said that.. He probably thinks I'm talking about him…

Quill got strangely quiet at her proclamation. He placed the walkman by his side and straightened his posture. “It's not a waste of time. Everyone needs somebody." He stated firmly. Although his expression told a different story. It was almost as if he agreed with her.

Phoenix felt extremely guilty at this, she obviously brought up something he would rather not talk about and she barely knew the guy.

The atmosphere felt awkwardly quiet now. Phoenix fumbled with the headphones before setting them in front of Quill. He took them and messed with the contraption before opening his mouth.

But instead of Quill's cocky tone, a deep, sonorous voice cut off the leather-clad man.

“Oh! I do hope I'm not interrupting anything.” Thor chuckled, stepping into the room.

Phoenix breathed out a sigh of relief at the god's arrival. Hopefully she could find an excuse to get out of this embarrassing encounter.

“Nope, yeah. No. Of course not,” the woman rambled while stumbling to her feet.

Quill was still silent, as he stood he seemed to be weighed down. The change in personality was a complete difference, like day and night.

“Quail, I think the Rabbit is in need of assistance.” Thor announced while 'Quail' rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, well. First off, it's Quill. And second, did he ask for help?” Phoenix could feel the opposite energies from the men clashing like oil and water.

“Yes, that's what I said. And of course! That's why I came to find you!” The god's cheer-y attitude seemed to agitate Quill even more and he stormed out of the room muttering curses under his breath.

Phoenix let out the breath of air she was holding and fiddled with the hem of her shirt. The god kept walking to the windows of the cockpit and slumped down in one of the seats.

“I hope he wasn’t making you uncomfortable, ah, feel free to take a seat,” he motioned to the seat across the aisle.

“Thank you.” She quickly sat in the squishy leather seat. “No, I think I just said the wrong thing. He was being quite nice. ”

Thor gave the woman a look of concern, before hunching forwards to rest his elbow on his knees. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out.

“Don't judge Quill too quickly, he lost a great deal and-...You do know about Thanos and the saving the world thing..?” he questioned tentatively.

Phoenix shook her head, confused at his hesitant tone. She hasn't heard of her old planet needing saving. “What's a Thanos? When was Terra or in danger?”

Thor froze, she could see the gears turning in his head. Maybe trying to find a way to explain? she thought to herself.

“Where to start… ” the god mumbled under his breath. “Well, a huge purple guy came down to earth and he had these powerful stones, super powerful, and all together he could erase half of all living things. He wanted to balance the universe and he did, he beat all of us and some lost more than others“ He took a breath, it seemed he was trying to keep control of his emotions which made Phoenix's heart ache, this poor man had lost a lot more than what he let on. She was sure of it.

“Everyone who was dusted came back in the end though. Those who didn't come back were killed by Thanos himself. Quill lost his partner, the earth lost three of its mightiest heroes, I lost my brother, and Nebula lost her sister.” Thor had his head ducked to hide, what Phoenix assumed were, unfallen tears. The thought of these kind people losing so much made her eyes water, she sniffled slightly which seemed to remind Thor of what he was doing and he quickly wiped his eyes and straightened up.

She knew what it was like to be alone, to wish someone were still there. How that heavy feeling pulls oneself down till you can't even imagine what happiness feels like.

“I'm so sorry,” she whispered, placing her hands in her lap. “I have an idea of what you're feeling and I know it's draining and hollowing but it gets better. ”

Thor looked at her, with a bittersweet smile “Thank you. I'm sure it will. I'm sorry that you've had to bear the same weight. ”

Phoenix let out a small smile, before turning to the windows in front of them. “Thank you.”

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, staring out the windshield at the planet in front of them. The dust and faint noise of the city was still noticeable through the glass.

The peaceful silence was broken by a question that made Phoenix tense.

“Do you mind if I ask what happened to you? ”

She swallowed thickly. “I'd rather not talk about it. It's something I'd rather leave behind. I've been working on starting over again and thinking about it isn't going to make any changes in my life right now."

“Of course, you shouldn't feel pressured for something like that,” he replied consolingly while nodding his head.

Phoenix let out the breath she was holding. She felt at ease with this man. He was pleasant to talk to and was extremely welcoming.

Please God, higher power, source energy, whatever you want to be called. Please help me make this group work. I really would love to stay…

#star lord #gamora #guardians of the galaxy #drax the destroyer #rocket racoon and groot #rocket raccoon #peter quill #spoilers for gotg holiday special #part 3 #ocxpeter quill #thor #finnick odair #cinna #thg #marvel #mcu #rocket is a caring racoon #we love thor

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demonologistfucker · 3 years

Text

MC wants to meet some Creatures - Obey Me! Brother’s - Fluff

Gn!mc asks one of the brothers to take them to find a magical creature. This is for the main brothers, but if people want one for the newly datables just ask! I would love to do more <3

Lucifer

Is Cerberus not enough? We can go down and pet him if you like

It’s going to take some convincing to get this trip to happen. Needlessly risking the human's life just to see something neat? I think not

But your eyes were so big when you asked… fine. He’ll find something worthwhile that isn’t going to get you killed

Prep for the trip is Lucifer covering you in about 50 different protection spells.

Then you’ll be flying. Hold on tightly and try not to look directly into the wind. That’s not good for your human eyes. Lucifer’s arms are firm around you as his wings stretch out. With a push you’re off. Being lifted from the ground purely from the strength of his wings? It’s an undescribable feeling.

Soon you are out of the Devildom and flying above the Hell Wilds. A vast landscape of all sorts of terrors. From red grasses that could cut through bone, or the vast tar fields that bubble toxic gas. There is a beauty to it. Especially if you are safe above it all.

A large canyon comes into sight. “This canyon was cut by Lotan’s first rampage, and where Levi made Lotan his pet.” Lucifer begins to descend. Swooping down in a tight spiral to slip into the canyon.

It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Then you can see something glowing. Many somethings glowing. They crawl over the canyon sides. They are nothing like you’ve seen before, but if you were to pin down to something earth like… they are most similar to sea slugs? But they have legs and bright, piercing eyes. With beautiful fins running down their back. Each looks to be a droplet of a rainbow.

“Gems left in the earth can collect enough magic to come to life.” They have no name, but they could fit in the palm of your hand. Tho please don’t touch they are highly condensed magical creatures and could shred your human body without meaning too.

Mammon

“Can I trust you?” He looks at you with surprising serious. Though he’s scratching his chin which makes it a little hard to take him seriously. When you say Of Course, Mammon quickly cracks into a grin. “Alright, give me a day, but-” He just starts nodding and runs off. Delighted with his own idea too much to tell you more

The Next day you meet Mammon outside the house of lamentation. He is already in his demon form and has a large sack in his hands. Which appears to be full of weird trinkets and a whole lot of grimm.

Where are you going? The Hell Wilds. Which is… so unhelpful because the Hell wilds are nearly infinite.

Mammon scoops you up bridle style, and then you’re off into the air. Mammon cannot stop smiling, “I haven’t taken anyone here before.” He mainly says this too himself. But looks at you with so much delighted you can’t help but blush.

This would be a much longer flight if Mammon wasn’t so good at using the air currents to his advantage. Diving to catch the updraft that send you both rocketing through the air. You’re at not risk of danger. Mammon wouldn’t let that happen to you, but it does feel like a roller coaster. When you level out, you’re facing a dark mountain. It cuts into the air with jagged certainty. Mammon lands halfway up its sides.

“She doesn’t like it when I fly into the nest. So we’ll have to walk to the rest.” If you ask any questions about what is happening. His response is a grin. “You know how Crows and I get along? Well… this is where that started.”

The mountain is only partial rock. The rest is ash, twigs and mud stuck together to keep the mountain from falling apart. Crows and ravens sit perched along the cliff sides. Some crows come flying to the mountain with fresh mud to repair parts of the mountain. The dark birds watch you and Mammon with intense, unrelenting eyes. Mammon smiles to them, and carries on with ease.

The path winds up to a crack in the side of the mountain. Mammon gestures for you to wait outside while he walks in first. You can hear something massive stir. The rustle of feathers and the scratch of claws against stone. Then Mammon pokes his head out and beckons you in.

Curled within the mountain is a great beast. It’s hard to tell one part from another because she is massive, and her dark feathers blend into each other. Her head is stuffed into the bag Mammon brought. When she sits up, she has a golden cup in her maw. The Crow Drake is stunning and terrifying. Her eyes are molten red, and her teeth cut through the gold.

The Crow Drake is the matriarch from all the crows and ravens in Hell. When Mammon was young, he fled to this mountain and was given a drake’s comforts. As well as his first crow familiar.

She reaches up to get a good look at you. Her beak pressing against you. Nudging you around and bringing her eyes right up to yours. Then she sits back and let's out a satisfied sqwaks. Mammon is about to say something when the Crow Drake leans over and picks him up by the collar of his jacket. Mammon is plopped onto her soft back, and she begins preening his hair. Making little noises every once in a while. “I know I used too much conditioner, stop harassing me” Mammon is blushing fiercely.

Levi

“Gah! Why can’t Lotan be more gentle.” Levi really wants you to meet Lotan, but it’s highly likely that Lotan would try to kill you the moment you met. All the photos of Lotan have been just… blue scales, or a big eyeball.

But Lotan is one of many Sea serpents. Actually, there are all sorts of magical creatures in the sea, and Levi is going to tell you about All of them. While he tries to figure out how to make sure you can breathe underwater.

“I am not allowed near the merfolk palace though, so... Can’t take you there.” If pushed on the matter, he will turn red and stammer about how Lotan just wanted a snack.

He found a spell! He’ll need Solomon’s help, but it should give you 24 hours of breathing underwater. Now it’s time to go into his tank.

Did you assume that he just had a normal wall sized fish tank? Of course not. The back wall has been turned into a convenient portal to The Ocean. It’s not an earth ocean, and hell doesn’t actually have a lot of clean water. This Ocean is an in between realm that connects to the abstract of earth’s waters, and all the magic that one could possibly find in those depths.

At first Levi gets distracted showing you all the fish. Look at the coral! And the trigger Fish! Oh, what a pretty anemone. He’s so caught up in showing you around that he’s not even embarrassed to be holding your hand the whole time.

Levi is such a strong swimmer he barely even notices dragging you along with him. His tail easily propels you both forward, and with great agility he can swim through the coral reefs. Then you hit the edge. Suddenly there is a vast nothing below you. Light fades below.

Down you go! It would be more unsettling if you didn’t have leviathan right besides you. Who is practically vibrating with his excitement. Underwater Levi looks so much more comfortable. Moving with such ease and without any hesitation.

You can feel the water begin to shift as something Massive approaches. Levi pauses and let's out a trill. Which is met by a deep noise that rattles your bones.

Red is a hard color to see in the deep ocean. Not enough light in that wave length can reach that far down. So at first it’s just a dark dot in the distances. Then it’s brilliant red head comes surging towards you. The water rushes around as the sea serpent begins to swim in a spiral around you and Leviathan. Leviathan is beaming and spinning around to keep up with the Serpent’s face. Letting out happy trills sporadically.

Eventually the Sea Serpent settles down and lets its body relax out. The Serpent stretches out so far that it’s back fines look so small. Yet their face is larger than a bus. The Serpent looks at you for a long while, and then it flicks it head upward. Which makes Leviathan blush a vibrant red.

She approves

Satan

Satan needs two weeks to prepare! But he has an idea. How do you feel about sewers?

“The Devildom aqueducts are actually one of the cleanest places in hell. It’s really an astounding work of engineering-” he goes on for a while about all the intricate workings. Seems there is a lot of plant filtering the waters, as well as creatures that can digest what the plants can’t process.

Satan gives you one of his books of magic. “I am their friend, but if you want them to accept your presence, it’s best to provide a gift. To show you mean well.” Unlike the others, Satan will give you a heads-up on whom you’re about to meet. Though, he gives the explanation as you’re walking towards the sewer’s entrance.

“Their name is Elos, and they are one of the oldest chimera’s alive. They were created in less than stellar circumstances, but handled it rather well.” By eating their creator. “Now they used the leftover alchemical equipment to do their own studying, as well as keep the aqueduct ecosystem in balance.”

The entrance looks like any other sewer grate in a city. Satan can easily move the heavy cover off, and watches as you begin to climb down the ladder. Satan closes the cover as he starts his descent. The sewers are Massive. The tunnel is about 20 feet wide and 20 tall. A perfect circle, except for the walk ways going along the side. A sort of seaweed is growing at the bottom of the waterways. Little fish duck in and out of the waving reeds. Further in more plants grow along the side. Some areas have full banks that cover the waterways. You can also see long claw marks running along the sides of the tunnel. As well as the residue of a recent magical explosion. “Hmm, looks like Elos got annoying company.” Satan smirks at the blast marks.

One of the original designers of the sewers was the grand wizard who made Elos. So there is a laboratory at the dead center of the sewer system. If one were to look at the blueprints, you’d be able to see a magic circle drawn by the tunnels. Well almost one. Those plans were later worked over to fix the functionality of the sewer system for the devildom. Elos didn’t want to do any city wide magic, so they aren’t really upset about it.

Outside of Elos’s laboratory is a large blue door. Painted on it are bright yellow runes that start to shimmer green as Satan approaches. Satan knocks, and it’s a full three minutes before the sound of the door unlocking. With effort, it swings inwards, and the smell of chemicals and herbs assaults your nostrils.

Satan goes about the polite introduction. Leading you into the laboratory, but it’s hard to pay attention. There are so many strange machines littered across the room, and Elos themself is a feat to understand. Their face is divided into three parts, one of a bull, one of a woman, and the other of an ape. They have large arms with hands that drag across the floor. Their fingers are thin claws of a bird. Chest comes from some great lizard not from earth. Hide legs appear to be lion like, and its tail is an arched scorpion stinger. Elos looks at you with deep eyes.

When you present the spell book Satan gave you. Elos sneers at you but takes the book. “A gift provided from someone else is weaker… but will do.” her voice is a dry and raspy. Speaking with vocal cords never crafted for such intricate language.

Asmodeous

“Want to meet some of the lovelies that help me torment souls?!”

They’re the creature Asmodeous has easy access to, so I recommend saying yes if you want to go with him

“They’re for a very specific time of person. The sort who think their beauty makes up for all the harm they caused.” A dark look smolders in Asmo’s eyes, but when he looks at you, it softens. Back to his normal bright heart eyes.

Asmo summons a cab to drive you both to the outskirts of the devildom. To… a ranch? Soft green meadows stretch out as far as you can see. Wooden fences mark the edge of the road. When you look close, you can see sigils carved into the posts.

Out in the field you can see them. Powerful horses with glimmering spiraled horns. Some are pure white with long wavy mains, but they are as diverse as any herd of horses.

“My beautiful unicorns,” Asmo leans over the fences to get a better look at them. “You’ll get to have a closer look at those in the stables right now. They won’t be too happy about being locked up, but they’re so wonderful just to look at.”

These unicorns come from more of a… vicious tradition. Their diets are completely carnivorous and with a strong preference for humans.

While you enter the stables, Asmo explains that these stables are more for necessary check-ups, and not where the unicorns stayed. They had their own dens somewhere in the meadows. Asmo hadn’t cared to find it, but it is out there.

So the unicorns that are in are here to have a thorough cleaning by one of the stable works. No you cannot help I’m afraid. These Unicorns would not be able to tell you apart from the souls they are encouraged to feast upon. All the other folk who work at the stable are non-human, and they still get bite. What’s worse is when a Unicorn decided to charge.

To make sure none of that happens, you’ll be safely on the other side of the door. Even though you can’t get close. You still can see the Unicorns very well. They are beautiful creatures. The shortest is still taller than the average horses. With eyes set more forward on their skull, and sharp angular bodies. Their legs are less brittle. With hooves that are divined into three sharp angles.

While most of the unicorns with in the stable seem antsy to leave. They all give their own greeting to Asmo. A dappled gray is the most affectionate. Letting Asmo pet the sides of their face, and rubbing up against Asmo’s head. It looks at you with curiosity. Sniffs the air and whinnies. “I know,” Asmo coos. “They are very tasty looking, but you can’t have any. I want this human to stick around.” The Unicorn snorts and flicks it tail in annoyance.

Beelzebub

His eyes light up when you ask to meet some magical creatures. “We won’t have to go too far… but we should wait till the house is quiet.” Que Mammon sprinting through the hallways trying to out run Lucifer. “They don’t like the ruckus.”

Beel asks you to meet him in the kitchen once everyone else has gone to their rooms. When you enter you find him setting out a tray with a dish of milk, honey, and some crackers. He then hands you a block of cheese. “Cut up some cubes of this.” and so you do. Beel doesn’t take any food from the tray, but he does rummage in the fridge while you get the cheese ready.

Once it’s all ready, Beel sets the tray in the middle of the counter. He then pulls out a little golden bell, and rings it. There is a beat of silence, and then doors you had never seen before open. One door is tucked into the wall trim, another in the backspace, and a third underneath the cabinets. Who comes tumbling out are small fuzzy creatures. They walk on their hind legs, and have large flat faces. Almost like a bat, but their eyes are old and wise. They are dressed in hand stitched clothes made from old table clothes, towels, or other scraps of fabric they could steal without much fuss.

“Who is this?!” One of them points pocket knife at you. “My friend,” Beel says and when he looks at you he can’t help but smile. “Hmm… did your friend cut this cheese?” Beel nods. “Next time make them smaller. Our children will struggle to hold these.”

These are House Brownies. A type of fae that can be found in most loving homes. They are a people of high standards but with over whelming big hearts. Beel is the main reason the house brownies live within the house of lamentation. No one else remembers to set out food for them. So no one else gets the help of the Brownies. Beel however often finds that his chores have been done for him, and snacks are often left on his bed side table. Small snack since the brownies can’t carry too much, but he deeply appreciates it.

Brownies are some of the easiest fae to talk with. The worst you can do is hurt their pride, but they are quick to accept earnest apologies. Not the sort of fae who will steal your name and trick you into dancing yourself to death… well… There have been a couple brownies who have done that. But the people were true assholes.

One of the brownies who is dress in a floral dress comes up to you. They give you a once over, and then start to climb up the back of your shirt. Now on your shoulder, the Brownie sniffs your face and pokes your cheeks. The Brownie’s whiskers tickle, and it’s hard not to react. But their fur is so soft, and they smell like honey and clove.

“You should have brought this one sooner.” The floral Brownie says in a sing-song voice. “They can bring us human snacks, yes?” “I want a candy!” Another brownie cheers. “Are human homes as noisy as demon homes?” “What is a cat? We hear the mean one speak of them, but never have seen them.” “Is cat friend or foe to the brownie?” Another brownie is now climbing you. This one decided to perch on the top of your head. “Human smells nice. Keep them Beel.”

Belphegor

“Okay, but you’re paying for their snacks.”

Which turned out to be nearly ten pounds of red meat. You’re also the one who has to carry the bag as you walk into the properly sketchy parts of the Devildom city. Belphegor looks as nonchalant as normal. Except for when he needs to glare at any other Demon who might start making eyes at you.

Now it’s into the dark alleys you go. Winding past business and into tight brick alley ways. The surrounding buildings seem to tower up through the sky. Blocking the darkness above. There is even a hint of sulfur in the air.

“Alright, set the meat down.” Belphegor stops at the intersection of four alley ways. It makes a small circle in the middle. The ground is dark and stained from years of murk. Moss grows up the walls, and blooms in the cracks. You set the meat down and then back up next to Belphegor. “Are you nervous?” He grins a little and then brings his fingers to his lips and whistles Loud.

You can hear them running. Many heavy feet charging down the paths. They’re coming from every direction, and now hear their panting breath. Growling and snarls as they try to be the first to reach their meal.

If you thought earthly wolves are big. You are blown away by the size of hellhounds. They keep their heads low but still stand at least three feet tall. Their teeth are as black as their fur, and they have barbed tails that whip back and forth in a frenzy. The Hell hounds are at first completely distracted by the food left out for them.

“When they’re not hungry, they’re really sweet.” Belphegor crosses his arms and leans back against the wall. Patiently waiting for the Hell Hounds to calm down. “They’re in the city to hunt down pests. Lucifer see’s them as exterminators,” One of the Hell Hounds now trots over to Belphegor. It rams its head into his stomach, demanding attention. Belphie laughs a little and starts to scratch its ears. Now content that it’s getting love. The Hell Hound eyes you. First a sniff, and then it tries to bite your clothes. “Hey,” Belphie says in a stern voice, and that’s all the Hound needed. You’re not food? Well then you must be friend too.

The message is spread through the rest of the pack, and soon you are surrounded. The Hell Hounds breath is rancid, and they will not stop trying to give you kisses.

Two of the hounds manage to get Belphie on the ground, and sit on top of him. Belphie’s face is flushed, and he only tries to get them off half-heartedly. Then accepts their cuddles and closes his eyes. “They’re not allowed in the house. So I come here a lot… you can join me next time if you want.”

A/N: Thank you @squidubus for the great idea of Mama Crow Drake preening Mammon’s hair. I luuuv uuuu

#I had... so much fun with this #mammon's mom is a Crow Drake #Obey me!#Obey me! headcanon #Obey me! Lucifer #Obey me! Mammon #Obey me! Leviathan #Obey me! Satan #Obey me! Asmodeous #Obey me! Beelzebub #Obey me! Belphegor #my writing #creatures #fantasy #I just love magical creatures okAY?!#also you with MC powers Can befriend the man eating unicrons if you really want but you gotta Earn it

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animebw · 2 years

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Short Reflection: Space Dandy Season 1

There is no anime creator I struggle more with than Shinichiro Watanbe. Intellectually, I understand why his work is so acclaimed, and I respect the immense talent and craft that goes into everything he produces. But time and time again, his shows just fail to connect with me. Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, for all their impressive qualities, always seemed to keep me at a distance, admiring them like art pieces behind a thick glass window instead of welcoming me into their beating, bleeding heart. They’re whirlwind showcases of some of the most technically gifted artists working in this medium, yet very little of that talent struck a chord in me beyond “Well, that was interesting.” And when his work does capture something that speaks to me, like the fatalistic beauty of Zankyou no Terror or the heartfelt whimsy of Carole and Tuesday, it’s marred by a messy script that fails to do justice to such immaculate vibes. Watanabe is a man of many talents, but he’s never been able to truly win my heart. Maybe one of these days, he’ll finally make something I can wholly love the way I want to. But it’s not gonna happen today, and unless the second season is significantly better, it’s not gonna be with Space Dandy.

Okay, calling Space Dandy a Watanabe show may be a tad misleading. The actual director is Shingo Natsume, who would later become famous for the fantastic first season of One Punch Man and the immensely captivating art-house masterpiece Sonny Boy. Watanabe’s role on this show is more as a creative overseer, bringing together as many talented people as he possibly can and letting them loose to do whatever the hell they want. Which, yeah, that collaborative freedom has always been a big part of his creative process, but Space Dandy takes that concept farther than anything else he’s worked on. The only consistency is the premise and core cast: it’s the far reaches of outer space, humans and aliens live side by side, and our protagonists, similar to the Bebop crew are a bunch of down-on-their-luck bounty hunters, though in their case, they’re only hunting rare and undiscovered alien species. Dandy is a lecherous slacker who goes with the flow and wants to spend all his money and cash at a restaurant chain that’s essentially just Hooters in space. Meow is a cat-like alien loser who’s basically freeloading off Dandy’s ship. QT, the ship’s sentient robot vacuum and engineer, acts as the straight man to the other’s antics. There’s also some purposefully poorly defined big galactic war going on somewhere in the background, and a team of recurring villains from one of those armies are pursuing Dandy for reasons neither we nor he are aware of. I imagine this will become more relevant in season 2, but for now, it’s just an excuse to have a Team Rocket-style bumbling villain squad pop in every now and then to spice things up. They’re my favorite characters in the show, and I always enjoyed seeing them pop up.

Aside from that, though? The name of the game is freedom, baby. Each episode is helmed by a different creative team, and those teams are given free reign to take that cast, setting, and premise in whatever direction they damn well please. The first episode even ends with the main characters dying in a planetary explosion, only for them to show up next episode like it never happened. If nothing else, it’s a very effective way of setting expectations: this is not a show you come to for tight continuity or lasting consequences. This is a show you watch to see how each different team of talented anime artists chooses to interpret the broad strokes of Space Dandy as a concept. What kind of story will they tell? What animation style will they use? What kind of tone will they try to set? The universe is a big place, after all, and there’s no telling what kind of wild and imaginative situations this crew might find themselves in. The only limits are what the people behind each episode can dream up.

And to its credit, Space Dandy really does showcase that diverse creativity. No two episodes feel exactly the same, and each creator puts their own unique touch in ways both subtle and obvious. Some episodes lean into the goofier, cartoony side of Dandy’s world, all ridiculous alien designs and exaggerated character animation. Others lean harder into extraterrestrial awe and existentialism, with evocative camerawork and heavily stylized animation. Some are relatively normal affairs, while others are completely off the walls. At one point, Dandy literally surfs the dust of an exploding planet. At another, he and his entire crew, robot QT included, turn into zombies and grapple with the question of how to keep living once you’re dead. Then there’s episode 9, directed by future Science Saru producer Eun-Yeong Choi, which dives full-tilt into Masaaki-Yuasa-style abstraction in animation for one of my favorite episodes of the bunch. And just to drive that sense of diversity home, my other favorite episode, episode 10, is one of the series’ most grounded episodes, using the classic “stuck in a time loop“ trope as a metaphor to explore the apathy and wanderlust of growing up in some backwater town where every day is the same anyway. That willingness to experiment with mood and style is Watanabe’s strongest skill, and honestly, Space Dandy’s freeform world is probably the best fit for it yet. Unlike with Champloo and Bebop, no episodes feel tonally dissonant, because every episode is equally free from expectations of any sort. The creators can all just go in whatever direction they want, and the universe is easily big enough to handle all those different visions at once.

Unfortunately, this is also where the problems come on. Because with any anthology series, especially one with as loose continuity as Space Dandy, your enjoyment is gonna come down to how much you enjoy each episodic story on its own terms. And to be blunt, there’s a lot of episodes in Space Dandy that are just kinda “meh” at best. Episode 3 is a mostly uninteresting take on the “sexy alien lady is secretly a bloodthirsty monster” trope. Episode 5 is an even more paint-by-numbers “Dandy travels with a feisty kid and becomes her surrogate dad for a time” story. Episode 7 is about Dandy getting jealous over a narcissistic pretty boy getting all the girls and entering in a spaceship race to try and beat him. These storylines were already getting trite back in Bebop’s time, and they’ve only become less interesting since then. And that’s probably my biggest issue with Watanabe’s work as a whole: for all his visual and cinematic imagination, he rarely applies that same level of imagination to his actual storytelling. I’ve seen so many versions of the stories he chooses to tell, and he never tells them in an interesting enough way to make them fresh again. Maybe it reads less chiche to Japanese audiences who aren’t as familiar with the Western storytelling tropes Watanabe likes to draw on, but they mostly just leave me cold.

Of course, Champloo and Bebop at least had effortlessly cool main characters to try and pick up the slack where the storytelling fell short. Which brings me to Space Dandy’s other critical flaw: Dandy himself. Remember when I described him as lecherous a few paragraphs ago? Yeah, sadly, that comes with all the baggage you might imagine. He’s never an outright sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen, but my god, I didn’t even last two episodes before I wanted to slap the shit out of him. It is exhausting spending time in his meathead mind, listening to him wax poetic about boobs and butts while dreaming about going back to that titty restaurant again. it’s the equivalent of being stuck at some obnoxious college party with a drunk frat bro spewing chauvinistic slop at you like he thinks it’s “funny” and assumes you’ll find it funny too. Which maybe wouldn’t be as frustrating if there were some interesting female characters to offset Dandy’s piggishness, but nope. Basically every female character in this show is either a brainless bimbo, a walking pinup, a damseled maiden, or that one evil temptress who seduces men to kill and eat them I mentioned earlier. So the show basically treats women the same way Dandy thinks of women, and that’s just not a pleasant thought stream to be a part of. At least Faye Valentine and Fuu got to kick some ass every once in a while.

I don’t hate Space Dandy’s first season. Frankly, I don’t even dislike it. But it’s the weakest of Watanave’s work I’ve seen thus far, and it’s representative of why his stuff just keeps bouncing off me. Hopefully the second season, as with Bebop and Champloo, will bring it to a strong enough finish that I still find it an overall worthwhile experience. But until then, I give season 1 a score of:

5.5/10

Onward to season 2 I go. See you next time!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #space dandy #2014 aniwatch

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skyfire85 · 3 years

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-A Bell X-2 at Edwards AFB. A Boeing B-47 is visible in the background. | Photo: NACA/USAF

FLIGHTLINE: 159 - BELL X-2 STARBURSTER

The X-2 was built to investigate the "thermal thicket" at speeds above Mach 2, but the two examples completed had a short service life.

Building on the work of the Bell X-1 and Douglas D-558 aircraft, the X-2 (nicknamed Starburster, though it was rarely used) was designed to explore speeds in excess of Mach 2. Engineer calculations, backed up by flights of the former aircraft, indicated the existence of a "thermal thicket"; that is: escalating aerodynamic heating as speeds increased. As a result, Bell devoted extensive time to development of advanced materials, aerodynamics, and control systems all with the goal of creating an aircraft capable of flying faster and higher than any human had done previously.

-Orthograph of the X-2. | Illustration: NASA-DFRC

The X-2 incorporated numerous advances over the X-1, including a swept wing and horizontal stabilizer. The airframe was built from K-Monel, an alloy of coper and nickel, as well as stainless steel. An XLR-25 two-chamber throttleable rocket motor provided 2,500 to 15,000 pounds of thrust, burning a mix of liquid oxygen and alcohol. The XLR-25, produced by Curtiss-Wright, was actually based on a WWII RATO bottle developed by Robert Goddard for the US Navy. The aircraft were designed with a skid rather than main landing wheels, though a nose gear was equipped, as well as skids on the wingtips.

-An XLR-25 motor on display at the Aviation Hall of Fame in New Jersey. | Photo: Bill Maloney

In a worst-case scenario, the cockpit section of the X-2 could be ejected. With stability provided by a parachute, the pilot could then eject the canopy and bail out. Like the Skyrocket and X-1 before it, the X-2 would be carried aloft by a bomber (in this case a Boeing B-50), then dropped to begin its flight.

-One of the X-2s, its ground support personnel, the B-50 and its crew, F-86, F-80 and F-100 chase planes, and H-19 rescue helicopter. | Photo: NACA

FLIGHT TEST PROGRAM

X-2 number 1 was chosen to have the first engine installed, so ship #2 was sent to Edwards AFB for initial unpowered tests. The first glide test of the X-2 was on 27 June 1952, and ended rather inauspiciously. During the landing on Muroc dry lake bed, the aircraft pitched unexpectedly, forcing the right wingtip to contact the ground, breaking off the bumper. The nose gear collapsed as well, and the aircraft slid along the lakebed on its fuselage for some distance before coming to rest. The second flight was delayed while repairs were completed, and took place on 8 October, followed by the third flight two days later.

-Bell test pilot Jean Ziegler sits in the cockpit of the damaged X-2 #2 after the 1st rough landing. | Photo: NACA

X-2 number 2 was returned to Bell's factory in New York state afterwards, and the XLR-25 engine was installed. A captive carry flight over Lake Ontario on 12 May 1953 resulted in the loss of aircraft #2, Ziegler, and Frank Wolko from the B-50 crew. During a test of the liquid oxygen system, an explosion rocked the combined aircraft, jettisoning the Starburster, Ziegler and Wolko. The remains of the X-2 fell into Lake Ontario, and neither it, nor the bodies of the two men were recovered. The B-50 mother ship was able to return to the Bell facility, but was judged to be uneconomical to repair, and was scrapped. Similar explosions destroyed one of the X-1s, the X-1A and X-1D, and were eventually traced to Ulmer leather gaskets in the fuel system. The gaskets, treated with tricresyl phosphate (TCP), would react with liquid oxygen, making them explosive if sufficiently jarred. The Ulmer leather gaskets were replaced, and the explosions stopped.

-A Bell X-2 is loaded aboard the Boeing B-50A-5-BO Superfortress “mothership,” 46-011. | Photo: USAF

Modifications to the first X-2 and the engine delayed flights until 1955, with the first powered flight occurring on 18 November, reaching a speed of Mach 0.95. The test series began in earnest at this point, with the Starburster showing both its promise but also its limitations. On his final flight in July 1956, Lt. Col. Pete Everest was propelled to Mach 2.87, earning him (temporarily at least) the title of "Fastest Man Alive". Everest reported that the controls were only marginally effective at those speeds however, as the center of pressure for the aircraft changed at high speed, coupled with aeroelasticity of the empennage rendered the flight surfaces ineffective.

-Photo of the first X-2, showing shock diamonds in both exhaust plumes. | Photo: NACA

Testing continued however, with Captain Iven Kincheloe crossing 100,000 for the first time on 7 September 1956 and Captain Milburn Apt setting a new (unofficial) speed record of Mach 3.2. This mark came a grave cost however, as Apt, likely the victim of a lagging or miscalibrated instrument, attempted a banked turn above Mach 3, far in excess of what the X-2 could achieve. The aircraft tumbled out of control, with Apt unable to counter the control coupling, inertial roll coupling and supersonic spinning faced by the aircraft. Apt triggered the ejection of the nose, but was incapacitated by the forces he encountered, and was unable to release the canopy and free himself to activate his own parachute, and was killed when the capsule struck the lakebed. The nose-less X-2 continued on, eventually returning to Earth with little damage. A proposal was made to salvage the plane and modify it for hypersonic research, but was not funded, and the first X-2 was scrapped.

-Color photo of an X-2 still coupled to the B-50D mothership prior to launch. | Photo: USAF

LEGACY

The two X-2s completed 20 flights between 1952 and 1956, and although they set records in both altitude and speed, their contribution to the knowledge of high speed aerodynamics and heating was debatable. The unmanned X-7 and research variants of the Bomarc missile were capable of the same speeds, and the destruction of both X-2s meant that much of NACA's planned test program was left unflown. Manned exploration of hypersonic speeds and ultra-high altitudes would have to wait for the North American X-15, still several years off.

The X-2 was made a part of the 1956 film "Toward the Unknown", as the movie depicts several real and fictional test programs taking place at the USAF Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB. The climax of the movie depicts and accident roughly similar to Mel Apt's, although the pilot survives the crash.

-Film crews surround the X-2 during filming for Toward the Unknown. | Photo: Bob Rohrer

The plane was later included in the pilot movie "Genesis" for the NBC series "Quantum Leap", in which the main character time travels into the body of a fictional pilot for the aircraft. A full-scale mockup of the X-2 was created for the show, and was later acquired by the Planes of Fame Museum in California. The prop is still in the museum's collection, though years of exposure have not been kind to the faux-X plane, which was not built to last in the first place.

-Photo of the X-2 mockup at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CA, some time in 1994. | Photo: Jon Goto

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gofancyninjaworld · 3 years

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OPM Manga Chapter 147 Review: Toxic

Story: Preview to a catastrophe

I’m going to do something a little unusual. Rather than give a summary of what happened, I’m going to save everything else that happens that for the meta and focus the story itself on just one thing. Garou’s return.

For a guy of many many words, Garou here is wordless, a creature of instinct, rage, and an unstoppable desire to put down any hero he encounters. Social niceties be damned.

no, Fubuki, you don’t belong in this battle

Bomb realises very quickly that this isn’t going to be a fight that he can afford to not engage fully with. He wastes no time unleashing his trademark long-range offensive move, although he’s no slouch in close- up fighting either. I love how the panel below superimposes several snapshots in time in a single image, as if the cameraman hasn’t enough time to separate the action into individual frames. It sells the speed and fury of the fight better than many blurry images. Also Murata is flexing on us with regards to his portrayal of fight choreography, he’s allowed. :)

For his own part, Garou flows effortlessly from conventional to unconventional in his fighting, bending improbably out of the way one moment, parrying in an orthodox manner the next. Eventually the seeming balance between the two breaks inexorably in Garou’s favour, leaving Bomb marvelling at the former’s incredible evolution.

Nothing for it, there’s no choice but to kill Garou if possible. Bomb hides a hand behind his back as he readies his iron-cutting fist one last time. It’s unfortunate that Garou has long since intuited how to do the same when he faced off against the Monster King, half a day ago ( I know, it’s been years for us), and does exactly the same, matching up timing and intensity perfectly with Bomb’s, thus cancelling it out.

Bang finally catches up to where the two are fighting to find his elder brother defeated.

Just as at the end of chapter 83, master and disciple face off. But the atmosphere between the two could not be more different, and the stakes are about as high as they could possibly get.

What new awakening will come from the next fight? Portents are dire.

Meta: Elsewhere

What doesn’t kill me has made a tactical mistake

For a story whose big schtick is that surviving what should have killed one makes one stronger, it’s surprising the amount and variety of mileage it gets out of that idea.

Making light of the idea, we have Genos literally rocketing back to his feet and casually dusting himself off after being smashed into a hole in the ground by Black Sperm. After being thrown into or through so many bits of masonry and earth, getting up with elan is nothing to him. Damn, he’s become tough! Awesome.

On the opposite side, making dark of the idea, we have Fuhrer Ugly, whose strength of hatred and rage is such that he keeps continuously reforming despite being continually digested by Gums’ digestive fluids... and has turned that into a new ability, able to melt anyone who touches him, kill with his spit, and reform after being cut. Terrifying.

And on the other other side, a perfect hypotenuse of awesome and terrifying, we have Garou. He has disinterred himself from the remains of the Monster Association base and while apparently fighting more by instinct than reason, his moves reprise everything he’s learned to date through his life-and-death fights with incredible fluency.

And of course, there’s Tank Top Master whose tank top seems to have magically preserved his life. I wonder what Fubuki has in mind for Pig God to do to help her help Tank Top Master.

Anyway, talking about serious injury...

Let’s talk about gore, baby

I’ve said before that I’m tired of all injuries accruing to either Genos or Zombieman and wanted some flesh-and-blood to be mangled. I don’t take that back: share the pain, baby!

But even for my evil heart, hoo, the brutal suddenness with which Fuhrer Ugly ended Zambai’s life was yikes! Heroes may never die, but those next to them have no such protection. I’m sorry man. You paid the highest price for supporting a hero.

Heroes may never die but that doesn’t mean they can’t suffer horribly. If Tank Top Master being turned into a human patty wasn’t grisly enough, finding out that SuperAlloy’s famously resistant shine isn’t chemically resistant is enough to give one a shudder of horror/disgust: his hands have been defleshed down to tendon and bone.

Never mind fear; it’s going to be a while before SuperAlloy *can* fight at all. And with his chest being burned as well, I think that he will be lucky not to come away with disfiguring scars. He might start wearing a shirt after this...

ONE, have some mercy for your heroes or half of them will never work again. But not too much mercy, they’ve had it too easy for too long.

There’s more to help than rescue

If you’d told me that this day would see Genos earning the trust and respect of the heroes he has called the bitch and the witch respectively, and that feeling would be mutual, I’d have told you to stop fantasising. I’ve spent enough words talking about the unexpected compassion he showed to Fubuki when the latter was beside herself with worry for her sister.

Tatsumaki has internalised the advice Blast gave her so thoroughly that she’s come to think herself as being beyond help. But there’s more to help than haplessly accepting rescue. Help can also be someone intervening only when you most need it, respecting that you can generally take care of yourself. Help can be sharing the burden, enabling you to achieve more, more easily. Help can be having your back so you can fight without fear of ambush. All of these forms of help Genos has provided to Tatsumaki from the moment the battle pitched high into the sky. And she’s had his back too. Seeing her consciously acknowledge that and lean into it was an amazing gift I didn’t know I needed.

from allies in name only to comrades-in-arms, what a fearsome pair! Gambatte!

Of course it can get worse

The heroes’ situation seems to be getting worse and worse. Their number is being whittled down to size: Tank Top Master is out for the count, Bang is tied up, Superalloy Darkshine is maimed, Atomic is out of his main weapon, Child Emperor is lost somewhere and Puri Puri is looking for him, Zombieman and Amai Mask are still pulling themselves together, and Tatsumaki and Genos are standing more by spite than strength.

On the other hand, the monsters aren’t out of monster by any means. There’s still lots of Black Sperm, Evil Natural Water is surely sloshing around somewhere, Vomited Furher Ugly is a pungent threat, and Homeless Emperor is watching proceedings with an amused eye. I called the monsters the sundew monsters for a reason -- they waste heroes by outlasting their efforts.

The standing heroes are going to need respite, or a diversion, or reinforcements pretty soon or they’re going to all die for real. Preferably all three. We’ll take two out of three.

Further notes: The Cyborg is Listening

The first thing Kuseno says to Genos when the latter comes back after a bruising encounter with a monster is ‘are you alright?’ That we know. The second thing has to be ‘did you bring me good data?’ Everything that happens to Genos, everything he touches, everything he sees, everything he hears, all that information is recorded for later recall and distillation into useable data. We’ve been admiring how capable and tough this new upgrade has proven to be. It’s all hard-won insights, built one on the other. Does that mean I’m discounting what Genos does? Hell no. It’s his extreme courage and willingness to step into the most hopeless situations that has enabled this valuable data to be gathered in the first place. And it’s his using these wonderful upgrades to push as hard as he can despite the risk that makes it worth Kuseno’s while to stay up late to craft them. Now I’m super-interested in finding out what new insights the pair will glean from today’s fighting.

...polite engineer for ‘fuck you’

Sure, like many serious things in One-Punch Man, it initially appears as a gag, but if you’ve not been paying attention to date, hear this: good data is like gold dust in this world. And people will kill for it. As we watch the dissipating contrails where Drive Knight was as he carries his precious samples home, don’t way you weren’t warned.

#OPM #manga #review #Garou #but not as we know him #the free fight between hero and monster gets ever more intense #despite their cooperation and numbers the heroes are getting the worst of it #this is a fight where everything changes panel to panel on all fronts

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suspiciouslyheterosexualbehavior · 3 years

Text

TF2 classes rated by how well I’d do against them in a 1v1 fistfight

I woke up this morning feeling particularly arrogant and in my hubris I have decided to make a list where I completely accurately rate how well I’d do in a barehanded, no-weapons, classic caveman fisticuffs against the mercenaries. Let’s begin.

Scout: Were it not for Merasmus, this idiot would be the lowest on the food chain. He is spindly, and granted he is fast and can double jump, he probably weighs half as much as me. If I sat on this guy I’d win.

Final verdict: 0/10, I will break you like a biscuit, little boy

Soldier: This one’s all about strategy. There is no way I would win against a man that Rocket Jumps so regularly he probably uses it as a means to go to the grocery store in a completely fair fight. I seek to win, and so does he, and he might do it by snapping my neck like I’d snap Scout’s fragile ankles, and that means I’ll have to use my brain before he does so. If I tell him there’s something amazing behind him throughout the entire fight, he will fall for it every time, granting me victory.

Final verdict: 5/10, Really hope we’re gonna be wrestling around naked and covered in honey for this one

Pyro: Maybe I would avoid hurting a wonderful little frog like this if I wasn’t absolutely bathing in hubris as of right now, but since I am, I’ll tell you that I am looking at this one and I know I can win, so long I keep my language clean and don’t make fun of fire. Which is easy, since I love fire type Pokemon.

Final Verdict: 3/10, Just because everyone else is scared of you doesn’t mean I have to be

Demoman: Oh, this one might get tricky. Any idiot would think that as long as Demo is drunk, they can win, but Demo is always drunk, you fucking dumbass. Not a day goes by without him being absolutely wasted, and he has a canonically beautiful and romantic relationship with his liver, so waiting for him to die from liver failure won’t work either. Plus, this guy definitely has been in bar fights. He’s probably an expert on drunken fighting at this point. Though if I can make him fall asleep and forget why he was fighting me in the first place, I could probably win.

Final Verdict: 7/10, I can still win, especially if I also get wasted

Heavy: Yeah, listen. I’m pumped full of the kind of stuff that God-slaying anime protagonists bleed before the final boss battle. But Heavy? I can’t win. Sascha weighs several times my own weight, and this guy pulls her around all day like a fucking accessory bag. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll absolutely try to win, but my chances of Heavy continuously fucking up throughout the fight, as if God is rolling Nat 1s for his every check, are pretty low. He’s not even that stupid, so I can’t trick him more than once or twice. I’ll have one chance to go for his weak legs, because I know he skips leg day, but after that? If I haven’t felled him? I’m going to get thrown like a beach ball.

Final Verdict: 10/10, If I start crying maybe he’ll feel bad enough and let me win by default

Engineer: Now I am an Engineer main and simp, I really like this guy a lot, so entering a fight with nothing but out hands as weapons would, for most people, seem like a loss no matter what for me. Not so, idiots; I love fighting my beloved ones in an old-timey fashion, and it won’t change this time just because I happen to be in love with Mister Dell Cohnager. Engie is a laid-back nerd, so his strength, while heavily amplified by his mechanical hand, is lacking. On top of that, I’m 99% he’s a lot shorter than me, and since I’m a Jock, I will have a natural advantage over him in a fight. He unfortunately has an advantage over me by having a sexy Texan drawl and a deep voice, and if he smiles I might actually fucking die, so it’s a bit of a 50-50.

Final Verdict: 5/10, That helmet wont save you from these hands, but neither will my hands save me from that Cowboy Charm of yours

Sniper: While this man isn’t exactly incompetent, he’s still only right above Scout in regards to strength by my totally accurate calculations. He’s skinny, and most of the time he doesn’t even move around like Scout does, but pisses in a jar while waiting to shoot someone in the head from very far away. Since we’ll be going at it barehanded, I have an actual proper chance of decking this guy, and if I am feeling especially cruel, I can use his crippling depression against him to win by default. And I do feel cruel right now.

Final Verdict: 1/10, Get some therapy and come back to me for a rematch, buddy

Medic: As similar with Engineer, I do actually like this guy a bunch, but I don’t have a crush on him. Unfortunately, I’m a Tank main by heart, and while I don’t main Heavy, the urge to protect Healers from harm is stronger than my urge to hurt them. Should I somehow override this base instinct and become like those smelly little French backstabbers that feel no remorse at flaying Medics from behind, I might win against Medic in a fair fight. I wouldn’t know what to use against him psychologically, but I know he will be trying to do it to me. Whether it works or not is up to the unforgiving tides of fate.

Final Verdict: 4/10, I don’t know if I’ll feel great punching a guy with glasses, but Medic will be in Hell with me once we both die, so I can just apologize there

Spy: If I see a spy or suspect someone is one, I will maul them like a bear. I have something personal against them, yes, maybe because I’m an Engineer and Medic main, but that’s besides the point, really. I know I can absolutely win in a fight against this man, even if he had his watch and knife. Stab me in the back all you want, buddy, but I’m not stopping till either your kneecaps or your windpipe is crushed.

Final Verdict: 0/10, Fuck you I’m going to pee on your suit

#tf2

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yoditorian · 3 years

Text

lacuna- part 8

din/reader

SURPRISE DROP!!!!! there’s only one more part left after this can you bELIEVE???? i’ll leave the emotional spiel until then and for now i’ll just apologise for the pain you’re about to go through in such a short amount of time💛

series masterlist // main masterlist

word count: 2.3k

warnings: angst angst angst, some swears, no seriously this is just pain they don’t even bang, a confession

“Have you ever removed your helmet?”

“No.”

“Has it ever been removed by others?”

“Never.”

He’s lying.

Din has always been so careful with his words. Lying makes his voice tremble, it always has done. So he is careful, he never says more than he needs to, thinks on the phrasing of the promises he makes. He has only outright lied once in his adult life, to you. To protect you. Maybe that’s what keeps him steady now. Even with a blade at his throat and half the covert watching on. He does not falter.

You’d think they would make engine parts easier to clean.

You’re perched on a crate in the hangar at your old work station, legs crossed beneath you, as you scrub away at the dull metal of the second-hand hyperdrive motivator that some vendor in a backwater scrapyard had, frankly, swindled you for. The stupid thing isn’t worth the credits you’d paid for it, but it’s still a hell of a lot more useful than the one that sits completely dead in the transport’s engine. But this was your decision, and you have to live with it.

What’s the alternative? Spend the rest of your life working your way around the galaxy, flying for whoever’s paying? Settling down in the little house on the edge of the Damerons’ farm? Going back to the New Republic? None of your options sound appealing enough to move on. You know this place, you know how it works. That’s enough.

“Wasn’t just me who stuck around either,” Ran’s voice pulls you from a particularly stubborn lump of grease, “You remember this one?”

Your heart leaps into your throat, when he’d told you he was expecting company you’d assumed it was another one of his contacts. A black market buyer or seller, they usually are. Not him. You were expecting anybody but Din.

His armour shines under the lights, sparks reflecting off the unpainted beskar. It’s beautiful. But your stomach lurches at how new it is, that his old armour had somehow gotten damaged enough that he needed an entirely new set. Except one of his thigh plates, dented to hell and back but still usable. There’s something of the man you know, the man you thought you knew, under all that.

The way Ran talks about you like you’re not even there is enough to calm you. He has no idea about your history with Din. Good, one less thing he can hold over your head. It’s far from the most dangerous situation you’ve ever been in, but you’re not about to let your guard down. Not with the team you know is heading out alongside him. Although nobody’s told you where they’re heading off to, which alone is enough to confirm that you wouldn’t approve of whatever it is.

You’re grateful you’d tucked your old blanket into a drawer in your workstation, the hangar gets cold. Especially when the Crest returns and brings the chill of hyperspace with it. The knit of it loose with age now, but it’s the last of your life before. The last remnant of a time when you thought you knew who you were.

You don’t expect Qin to be the prisoner they’d gone to break out. Although, now that you look back, who else could it have been? Who else did enough people on the station give enough of a shit about to warrant sending a team after? The old team, specifically.

Nobody follows him out.

You’re moving towards the ship before you’re even really aware of yourself. Qin looks surprised to see you, but you bypass a greeting to glance into the Crest’s hull. Empty. Did no one make it out? Did Din-

He’s there, suddenly, walking down the ramp and catching the pouch of credits that Ran tosses him. You try to cover your sigh of relief with a cough, but you’re not sure how successful you are.

“Something the droid said, about the hyperdrive. Could you come take a look?” Din turns to face you, and for a second it’s like neither of you left the station. You’re rocketed right back to before everything as you nod and pull the blanket tighter around your shoulders. You don’t quite catch what Qin says when you disappear into the hull and unlatch the access panel, you’re not sure you really want to know, but you don’t miss the hatch closing up behind you.

“Mando?”

If Din hears you, he ignores your question, and the rumble of the engines lifting off almost takes you off your feet. You hurry to latch the access panel back up and wait until the ship steadies to shoot up the ladder and confront him.

Stars. Stars and three X-Wings dropping out of lightspeed right ahead of you.

Oh.

“Tracking beacon. They wouldn’t have let me leave alive.” So he did hear you.

He’s saved you. He risked precious seconds, ones he didn’t really have, just to make sure he got you out before the fighters got there. Something twinges in your chest when you think about your A-Wing sitting in the corner of the hangar, abandoned without a second thought and now blown to pieces. Suddenly your blanket feels a lot heavier around your shoulders.

You go to sink into a passenger seat, before you notice a pair of big brown eyes staring up at you. A child, not like any species you’ve seen before, but a child nonetheless.

“Who’s this?” You hate the way your voice comes out all squeaky, like you’re afraid of the answer. You are, there’s no doubt about that. But you don’t need either of them to know that.

“He’s a friend.”

There’s more to it than that, obviously, but you’re satisfied. One of your best friends is a six year old after all.

The child chirps as you take the other passenger seat, holding out a little metal ball in his three fingers. He waves it around, desperate to show it to you. It’s the knob from the landing gear shift. You’d know it anywhere, you were the one to screw it in the first time. Now that you glance out at the console, there’s not anything that’s changed about it at all. Even your A-Wing, in all it’s years of service, had had bits and pieces pulled out and replaced, and that had been brand new when you got it. So why hasn’t the Razor Crest?

“What were you doing back there?” He asks, and you’ve half a mind to tell him it’s none of his business. But you’re tired, and he’s using that soft tone that you only ever hear in the dark. You’re powerless against it.

“I went back after the war. It’s good money,” You frown, “It was, anyway.”

“You’ve been there since then?”

“Everybody belongs somewhere, Mando.” You don’t spit the nickname the way you might have wanted to in the past, but he recoils like you do.

But you don’t belong there, you never did. No, you belong in that little room at the inn in Mos Espa. You belong in the sky in a starfighter. You belong in some busy Yavin marketplace chatting with your friend, with the kid on your hip and Din by your side. You belong wherever you want to, he knows that’s not Ran’s station. And Din? He belongs with you. But it’s too late now.

He punches in the nav code for Yavin IV without even needing to ask where you want to go. It stabs the knife a little deeper, the way he knows you so well. The way he always has.

The child scrambles off of his seat and toddles over to yours, determined to pull himself up onto your lap by your bootlaces. Din doesn’t tell you not to let him up, so you haul the little green thing up and settle him on your thighs.

“Hi.” You introduce yourself, although it feels a little silly. You’re not sure how much he understands but he chirps in place of a reply before he gets distracted by the blanket around your shoulders. His little claws disappear into the wool and he drops his ball, utterly fascinated. You catch the discarded ball with your foot before it can roll too far and snap it up with your free hand. Din’s relieved you’re preoccupied with the little one, at least you don’t notice him staring.

“Is there a-?” The child snores softly in your lap, buried in the blanket he’d pulled off of you and wrapped himself in. You don’t mind. It should be used to comfort a kid again, the same way it’s provided for you all these years. Letting this baby borrow it is the least you can do for him. The kid has a history, if the way he twitches in his sleep is any indication, and you’re not about to deny him something he might never have had.

“In the hull, I’ll take him. You take the wheel?” Din easily, naturally, takes the child from you as you slide into the pilot’s seat. You don’t expect the easy domesticity to hurt quite so much. It feels like the galaxy is taunting you, forcing you to live a moment of a life you always knew you’d never get to have. You let yourself heave a shaky sigh when you hear Din’s feet hit the floor of the hull.

It’s been a long, long time since you sat in control of the Razor Crest, but it’s just as familiar as the day you told him to take it. You flick the autopilot switch off. Any idiot can fly in hyperspace, all you need to do is keep the ship straight, but you need to feel the controls under your hands. Anything to distract from the gaping hole in your chest.

Din doesn’t ask to swap back when he returns. He only settles in your abandoned seat, and you can feel his eyes heavy on your back. If he has anything to say, he keeps it to himself.

You hope he doesn’t notice how the house is exactly the same as when he was last here, when you were last here. There’s a fine layer of dust that’s settled over the furniture but two sets of footprints, one about your size and another smaller set, lead to the fridge. Several new drawings have been stuck up among the others. You might cry if you were in different company.

“Will he be alright?” You ask. Din had elected to leave the baby sleeping on the ship, as you’d touched down in a disused field across the track. He nods, trailing a gloved finger through the dust on the table.

“Will you?”

He’s not expecting that. But maybe he should have. You’ve never not been worried about him, not since the first time you let him touch you, but it takes him out at the knees every time. Even when he’s pushed you away, even when you’ve been suffering yourself, you have always opened your arms to him. He doesn’t deserve it.

“You could,” The words almost get stuck in your throat, but you know you’ll regret it if he leaves before you ask, “Stay.”

Din reels back. He can’t. You know he can’t, but you asked anyway. It’s enough to make his blood boil. He’s not angry with you, he never is, it’s his fault he can’t say yes. That’s all he wants. To stay.

“There’s schools, and other kids. You’d both have protection here. You’d be safe.”

The sun starts to disappear behind Yavin, plunging the kitchen into a red glow the way it did last time, but there’s none of the peace it brought before. It glints off his armour as the hope in your eyes starts to die.

“I love you.”

How can the words he’s always wanted to hear make him so angry?

“Please! Every time I think I’m over you, you come back and turn everything upside down again. Please just give me something.” You can’t hold back anymore. You can’t stand here and pour your heart and soul out to a man who says nothing.

“You already have far too much of me!” He’s never raised his voice at you before, that alone stuns you speechless. So you just stare, chest heaving, waiting for anything to break the tension. And Din does another thing he never has with you, he fills the silence.

“You have my name. You have my creed. I have nothing left to give you.”

He leaves without another word, for the last time, and you can’t help but heave a choking sob before he’s even shut the door. His absence is everywhere.

He hurts.

Hurts like nothing’s ever hurt before in his life. Walking away from you, disappearing out of the door and knowing it’s the last time. You won’t let him back in after this.

He can’t get back to the Crest fast enough.

Din practically falls through the side entrance of the hull, ripping his armour off before the door’s even fully closed. His guts twist and his lungs burn and he wrenches his helmet off, sends it scattering into a corner. He’ll find it later. Right now he needs to find the hole he knows is burned into his flight suit. A blaster bolt, a stab wound- something. But he only finds old scars and skin where your touch still lingers.

No smoking hole in his side. No blood or wound. Just the absence of something important in his chest. An unfilled space. A gap between his ribs, something missing. He knows what it is.

His veins are somehow filled with fire and empty at the same time, knowing that would be the last time. The last time he gets to see you. And even though the hatred was so clear on your face, even though you were merciless in the words you hurled at him, he still thought you were beautiful. He’ll always think you’re beautiful, no matter how angry you are.

Because he loves you. And now it’s too fucking late.

TAGLIST (add yourself here):

@brothersdrxke @rebloogggs @keeper0fthestars @remmysbounty @sirianisrock @thevoiceinyourheadx @firstofficerwiggles @1800-fight-me @ew-erin @chatterbean

#i wanna say i'm sorry but i'm not #lacuna #the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #star wars #fic #liz does words #sfw

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