#cant teach kids those skills without SHOWING them that YOU use them first

[timeisacephalopod]

On a lighter not family drama note I've actually gotten quite good (for me anyway) with kids thanks to my sister having 3 (and the other four from Void who will never be in my life again because I have standards) so I figured maybe I don't dislike kids so much now.

Enter my poor youngest niece, she's about a year and a half old, and I can't blame the poor lil thing for being cranky after a long week of I think 4 or 5 different Christmas celebrations at my sister's family on her dad's side, her fiancee's family Christmas, my sister's Christmas with just the kids, and then our family Christmas and I know I'm missing one. But poor girl was BOUND to cry a bunch and be whiney, I mean I would be at nearly 30 if I had to do all that in a week even if I DIDNT have to work so I get why she was a cranky bug. But I did learn I am not any more equipped to deal with small children than I ever have been the poor kid was driving me NUTS and my sister was so patient and good with her and I was like yeah. No kid deserves me as a parent lmao, I'll continue with my cats 😂😂

#winters ramblings #shes such a cute lil stinker of a bug shes ADORABLE #but omg she was so cranky and i was like ok remove this child from my presence i cannot with this its ANNOYING #and whats WORSE is that this child is just bring NORMAL its not at all unusual for a kid to be that pooped of celebrations #but god damn if i had to live with that i would DIE i dont even like when my one cat meows constantly at me #just walk over and ask for pets gemma SCREAMING at me from across the room will not result in a pet!! #let alone a whole human child lmao. no thank you no kid deserves whatever horrible parenting id shit out when theyre a toddler #if kids came out 12 id be fine but that would be uh. deadly lmao #my “good with kids” point of pride is when my middle niece from Void realized i was ACTUALLY listening to her talk #i watched her whole face light up when she saw i was ACTUALLY paying attention to what she was saying #she was SO excited. i dont remember what ut was because i didnt care but SHE did and im very happy #that i was able to see such a beautiful moment of a kid realizing someone was ACTUALLY listening to them #and then got my ear chatted off about whatever it was and i listened and engaged the whole time #cant teach kids those skills without SHOWING them that YOU use them first

[kiwikipedia]

Cin Drallig didn’t have Clones under his command. We know this, he wasn’t a General, he was the Battlemaster and head of the Temple Guard Security. But I propose an AU.

It starts with a small choice. After a long day of standing and doing quite literally nothing for hours on end, the Temple Guards who were on the day shift disperse into Coruscant. Technically not against the Jedi Way but going to get inebriated or just bar hopping for the fun of it— or worse, getting into the semi-illegal, underground, lower level fighting rings— wasn’t exactly something that the Jedi looked favorably upon.

But the Jedi Temple Guard get restless after standing still for so long, especially the newer Guards, and Cin pretends he doesn’t see when a group of his kids Guards come stumbling back in the early morning hours with credits won from a gambling match and wide grins.

Anyhow, like any other Jedi, the Guard do have friends among the rest of the Temple, so they know of the Clones and have obviously seen them when Jedi arrive and leave the temple with their Battalions, Companies, Platoons— you know, the usual. After a while, the Guards just... start showing up at 79s and interact with the Clones while there. Which is weird because, first of all, when dressed in civvie clothing, the Guard are practically unrecognizable as very few see their faces, but secondly these are just random Jedi coming up to Clones and buying them drinks, playing card games with them, or thanking them for their efforts on the Front.

Several ask for stories about the time on the Front because “We’re stuck on Coruscant and sure, the duty to protect the Temple is really important but we were all trained by Master Drallig beyond our own Padawan training. I’m pretty sure Master Drallig is just as restless as we are too” and they want to know about what they’re not allowed to go and see themselves. Of course, War is horrible, and more than one Guard is horrified about whats going on— especially when a certain Jedi’s battalion gets back Krell you bitc h im talking about you— and they all learn about the casualty numbers.

The Guard does talk in their free time, their masks have coms built into them— and Cin has an earpiece to keep in contact with the Guard as well. Though they seem to forget that he’s on their group link and they all start talking during shifts while they stand outside the doors or in the halls about the War and the Clones and, whoops, one of them lets it slip that they cant believe that the Clones are supposed to fight Darksiders without Lightsabers. Like sure, Blasters do damage, and certainly more than one Jedi has been gunned down ( “Rest in the Force, Master Di” is echoed through the link ) but really! Theres only so much their Armor can do for them! A lightsaber would cut through it like flimsi.

Cin, of course, startles them all by asking for confirmation that the Clones— who he had been told were all trained to be very skilled in combat— had no Saber training because remember, Cin and the Temple Guard knew very little about the Clones because they were told that “it’s not I mportant to tell you all, as you won’t be working with the Clones”

Once he has confirmation that no, the Clones didn’t have any Saber training and were expected to go up against Darksiders like Ventress and Dooku with just blasters and their bodies, he just sighs.

The next day he brings three of the Guard and also Bene with him down to the Barracks— and a shit ton of practice Sabers. And who else was there but the Clone Dad ™ we all know and love? That’s right, and guess who thinks training the Clones to use lightsabers is a great idea and “Well, now I wonder why I hadn’t thought of it first, Master Drallig”? 

Plo fucking Koon.

So of course, the 104th is put through what the Padawans had called “Training Hell”— especially since the Clones don’t have years between deployments like the Initiates had before becoming padawans. The Six forms are taught, Cin brings in more of the Guard who have mastered their respective Forms and Bene has fun with the Boys ™ as well because she goes through katas with them, wipes the floor in practice duels with others, and now the Guard has to compete with the 104th (and Plo) spoiling Bene.

( ”You’re spoiling my Padawan, Master Koon” “[laughter] your padawan? I think you mean ours” “If that’s the case then our men should know not to spoil her so much. The Guard do a fantastic job on their own.” )

( This is, of course, without even bothering to ask the Council or the GAR’s higher ups, this is all on his and the Guard’s own actions— its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. But hey, if Plo Koon was on board than Cin has a leg up if it get brought to the Council anyways. )

When the 104th leaves for the Front again, guess whose Clones are next— the 501st. This time the rumors are going around that the 104th is suddenly more vicious than before and the 501st is eager to know what happened while they were on shore-leave. They soon regret it, because Training Hell is— well— Hell. Anakin and Ahsoka have flashbacks to when they went through Training Hell and Bene laughs at them.

Slowly, each Clone battalion, platoon, company and so on are being trained by a near constant rotation of the Temple Guard, Bene, and Cin— and their own Jedi as well. A few knights that Cin personally trained— like Serra Keto— as well join in when they can. Cin puts in a request to go to Illum and gather more Kyber Crystals for more “training sabers” but half the Council who know and approve of Cin’s actions already know— the man’s planning on making at least a thousand lightsabers for the Vode to pass around.

The Temple Guard have a Lightsaber Building Night where they assemble the “training sabers” together and talk about their Clones because the Vode might have their Jedi Generals, but the Guard have claimed all of the ones they’ve trained as theirs too. Especially the Coruscant Guard.

Bene happily gives Fox, Thorn, Thire, Stone, and Hound their lightsabers first, having assembled all of them with Serra.

(And now for the angst)

It’s all well and good— the GAR starts gaining more ground, less Clones are dying.

And then Operation Knightfall and Order 66 hit.

The Jedi on the ground cannot possibly raise their sabers to these men that they helped train, cant possibly defend from blaster shots while also blocking lightsaber strikes that were taught under the Battlemaster’s strict teaching because he taught them to keep them alive—

And in the Temple?

Well, after Grand Inquisitor murdered all the Guard he could find, even after everything, those that remain are just horrified as they are forced into battle with their vode. Certainly, Cin’s job of protecting the Temple from the Clones is much harder than before, now that they’re armed with Lightsabers and it hurts because “by gods what have I done, I’ve given them the means to kill us all—” but also “I trained these men, they were like the Guard, like my sons—”

Instead of Vader, Cin’s murdered by six lightsaber wielding clones after a split second of faltering because gods he can’t.

And for a split second, when the sabers enter his body, the Clones behind them jolt awake— horrified as they realize that it’s Teacher Drallig on the other end, face twisted in pain as he falls and it’s little Bene’s choking gasps that are behind them as Vader strangles her to death.

But that split second is over too soon, and the Sabers are removed and the Clones move on— good soldiers follow orders, after all, and Teacher Drallig and Little Bene the Jedi Battlemaster and his student were just Traitors, after all. Good soldiers follow orders.

#I had a thought and it sorta vanished but the general idea made it in #Cin Drallig #Bene (Star Wars) #Serra Keto #Plo Koon #Anakin Skywalker #Jedi Temple Guards #Coruscant Guard #Commander Fox #Commander Thorn #Commander Thire #Commander Stone #Commander Hound #104th battalion #Star Wars #star wars: the clone wars #star wars: the expanded universe #Star Wars: EU #star wars the prequel trilogy #AU #Star Wars AU #penguinkiwi talks about writing #alternative universe #Order 66 #Lightsaber Clones

[einsk8rot]

man i really did just realize (a lot after looking at @emmiewtf 's posts and @//animemindset on tik tok they are so cool) why the last episode really did overall feel so much more unsatisfactory and didnt have like. as much oomf as it could've. (tiny tl:dr at the end if you cant read through this all this do be long)

despite having some really cool ass scenes and little things and some cute ass renga stuff. it was so much more focused and around adam than usual? and being genuinely uncomfortable and still not really liking adam because he's still. super creepy. its really just kinda disappointing to see how focused it was on him and how he literally didn't get like any consequences for any of the shit he pulled? like cool clown man you like skateboarding again, are we like gonna acknowledge the constant assault of skaters you went against, one being reki why is obviously just a minor trying to have fun while you literally traumatized him? like so much of the shit that happened to reki. adam inadvertently or not caused that and the fear of him getting left behind by langa and stuff because of how adam skated with reki. like i don't know if this makes sense and im super happy reki is happy with skating again but that shit and trauma still happened and led reki to that downward spiral and i feel like we don't talk about that enough. and adam still like. never got any consequences for that. if not for weird ass behavior around people that are literally minors, especially knowing how adam acts and that adam had some sort of connection with miya who's like. hardly 13-14 or so. you had a fucked family life and childhood and it's understandable to change because of that but just because your past is shit doesnt mean you commit assault for fun and act like that to kids. and innocent people just watching like when he used bystanders when he raced. that wasn't fun that was just. concerning. and he got no punishments, he like, as i understand practically got away free

he genuinely is not a character i like. and many people probably feel the same. the last episode was more focused on him and redeeming him compared to others and it really just didn't feel right. more focus on the protagonists, reki and langa, ESPECIALLY reki just would've made it better i think? more about their relationship, cherry, joe, MIYA. miya like, got so pushed on the back burner in the more recent episodes? didn't even get an on screen apology or proper explanation of reki's situation and as someone who genuinely loves miya that was. pretty disappointing please give miya more appreciation. but despite that uh. reki and langa's relationship was like, practically used to give adam a reason to skate for fun again. which is. like alright i guess? i just really didnt like it. it was fucking amazing to see langa break out of 'the zone' type thing because of reki and him putting fun in his skateboard but the focus on teaching adam thats its fun. it makes sense, it was practically expected considering how focused the show is on skateboarding being fun but after all the stuff adam did it wasn't satisfying seeing him get away with everything and suddenly be sort of friends? like ok with the rest of the cast. (ALSO TADASHI WHY WERE YOU OK WITH THE DOG THING???? DUDE???????? his like. love for skating once again is back i guess? but bro that. alright if he's into that im not judgin)

episodes like episode 6, 10, and 11 were my favorites and that's solely based on it being more centric on the actual protagonists and the cast genuinely having fun. and adam getting what he deserves. or adam must not being there HEHAHAHEJHFV so. in episode 6 there was like no adam and it was just the main 6 having fun! it was a genuinely great episode to watch with the cutest moments, plus some good ass foreshadowing? okay just more subtle buildup of reki's insecurities with some really nice moments while also being funny and fun! and that was really nice to watch! i think episodes 10 and 11, moreso 10 are my favorites because they're reki-centric. episode 10, we got to see so many intense character moments, shadow literally getting fucking bonked by that dude with his manager (STILL SAD OVER HER GETTING WITH SOMEONE ELSE WHERE IS THE HIROMI APPRECIATION HE TOOK A BAT. LIKE MULTIPLE HITS TO THE HEAD FOR HER???), i think that was the episode with the matchablossom carry? MANAGER OKA MOMENTS WE LOVE TO SEE IT HELL YES GET IT MAN WE LOVE TO SEE THE SUPPORT AND ADVICE TO REKI. TADASHI TAKING REKI TO A LOVE HOTEL?? THAT WAS SO OUT OF NOWHERE BUT ACTUALLY SO FUNNY TO ME (kinda creepy when he asked have you never been here before like. tadashi he's like, 17, please) and HOO BOY. LIKE ALL OF THE REKI MOMENTS IN THE EPISODE. GETTING MORE INSIGHT IN REKIS PAST (WHO IS!!! THE GANG HE WAS WITH!!!!!!!) AND SEEING HIM SLOWLY START TO REGAIN HIS LOVE FOR SKATING AND APOLOGIZE TO LANGA???? LITERALLY THE WHOLE SCENE WHEN HE RECONNECTED WITH LANGA. NOW THAT WAS SATISFYING. SEEING THE WAY THAT REKI LIT UP AGAIN WHEN HE REALIZED SKATING WAS FUN. HIS CONFIDENCE COMING BACK. SKATING WITH LANGA BECAUSE SKATING IS PRACTICALLY LOVE AND THEIR LOVE LANGUAGE SO THAT WAS ENOUGH. THE WAY LANGA WAS FOCUSED ON REKI. HIS BOARD WAS BROKEN BUT HIS TOP PRIORITY ISN'T JUST SKATING, IT WAS REKI. IT WASN'T FUN WITHOUT REKI AND HE LOVES IT BECAUSE ITS WITH REKI. AND EPISODE TEN JUST REALLY SHOWED REKI AND LANGA'S RELATIONSHIP PERFECTLY AND THE MAKE UP WAS SO GENUINELY SATISFYING WITH THE CUTEST FUCKING MOMENTS. THAT COMBINED WITH HOW GOOD THE PROGRESSION OF REKI WAS THROUGHOUT THE EPISODE REALLY JUST MADE IT HIT TO ME. it actually focused on the protagonists. and it was. so good. i will give anything to feel the same way i did watching episode ten for the first time again. it was a rollercoaster in all the perfect ways and it was just so genuinely fun and satisfying. and episode 11? was the perfect continuation of that for me.

episode 11. was so good. as i've seen many people say, its like reki reclaiming his spot as the main character and one of the main protagonists. he took a chance on the rain, he went against adam again and this time showed he wasn't afraid. he was just having fun and he was overcoming adam because of it. it wasn't just the board he made. this was emphasis on reki's own skills and confidence and how it got him to, even with not actually winning the race, he fuckin won. he showed adam who the hell he was. he showed EVERYONE what he was capable of despite of how much everyone doubted him. and do you know what makes that doubt people had in him even better? okay that wasn't worded really well but the doubt people had in him made the payoff of his success even better. but its the way that langa didn't fucking doubt him for a moment. he had his FULL TRUST in reki the entire time even when pretty much everyone else wanted him to give up. expected him and wanted him to stand down against adam. but langa believed and trusted reki. and even when he didn't win his first thought was to check on him and protect him from adam. renga's relationship, platonic or not is just. so amazing. so fucking beautiful despite the ups and downs because of how much care. the amount of trust they have in eachother, how they just know and understand eachother. its fun and okay because its the two of them. and that showed throughout the episode and i loved that. BUT ENOUGH RENGA. THE FOCUS ON REKI IN THE EPISODE. i believe in reki supremacy and that he needs more appreciation as the main character, the protagonist, and hoo boy. eleven was THE most satisfying shit. ARE WE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT REKI EFFECTIVELY, DESPITE TALENT, COPIED LANGA'S TRICK? HOW HE SORTA REVERSE LOVE HUGGED ADAM? HOW HE USED AND LEARNED THE THINGY MIYA TAUGHT HIM yes i forgot the name IN THE FIRST RACE WITH ADAM. HOW REKI IS SO GOOD AT LEARNING THAT SHIT JUST BECAUSE ITS FUN. HE JUST DID IT BECAUSE IT SEEMED MORE FUN AND THATS SO AMAZING. PLUS THE CONFIDENCE REKI HAS? THE RESILIENCE HE HOLDS? HOW HE KEPT STANDING UP? TAKING EVERY THROW SPIN AND PUNCH once again fuck adam thats just a kid having fun and you were punching him until he was bleeding. if he didn't pull away, adam had those spiky things on his elbows. he would've genuinely hurt reki AGAIN. PLUS HIM PULLING THE FULL SWING KISS ON REKI???????? WHAT THE FUCK MAN. LIKE THE WAY REKI EVADED IT WAS SO COOL GO OFF REKI BABY YOU'RE DOING AMAZING BUT ADAM WHAT THE FUCK. but on the note of reki being amazing again, this episode really did show that. it had so much focus on reki and showed how him being reki, his confidence, the skills he developed himself, his love for skating is what makes him amazing. him being reki. thats what made people like him. thats what gave him everyone's support. thats what made him practically win and show that he IS the main character. that was reki at his BEST. the satisfaction of proving everyone wrong. his found skating family being so hyped and proud of him. AND HOO. FUCKING, BOY, ANOTHER ONE OF THE BESTS PART OF ELEVEN WAS ADAM EATING SHIT. WHAT HE FUCKING DESERVED. the mentality of the s goers and fans is kinda dumb with them not really caring about reki until this and literally bashing him still sorta at the start of the race. then immediately clowning adam, but adam like actually deserves the clowning hah. bitch. the best part of episode 11 was not only reki, but how they treated adam. he was GETTING what he deserved. seeing adam on the ground and fallen. people booing him and focusing on reki being cool as shit instead of adam winning. that was so fucking satisfying. taking the 'king' away from his throne after all the fuckery he's done, him being shunned. now that was beautiful. that was what i liked and adored. 11 once again, reki-centric, and adam getting some punishment for his actions. that was amazing. that was what i liked. i watched sk8 for reki and seeing that made me scream in delight.

episodes 10 and 11 were just, yeah. the focus on the main characters and adam getting what he deserved. the renga relationship moments were just. something about them both was just perfect and i hope i conveyed that right. episode 12 just . didn't make me feel all that much. at least compared to those 2. and that's pretty much completely because of adam. and because after 10 and 11, 12 really was just. kinda underwhelming i guess? the adam-centricness of it. the use of langa's love for reki and skateboarding for adam's sake really was just kinda. eh. THE ENDING AND ACTUAL MOMENTS THAT HIGHLIGHTED REKI AND LANGA WERE BEAUTIFUL AS ALWAYS but the adamness was just. yeah. it was. mm. all of my rant juice is like running out ive been typing this for like an hour so

TL;DR: the focus on and redemption of adam and not our mains was what made 12 so eh. the characters and their relationships is what makes sk8 so good and the sudden focus on adam was just. mm if you read all of that i hope that made sense and please feel to add on and respond!! i love seeing people's insight on things and i tend to forget about stuff when i rant!

#ein screams #like really scrwams #SCREAMS. HELP #ive though ab this so much ok #sk8 the infinity #sk8 #sk8 spoilers #langa hasegawa #kyan reki #renga #sk8 the infinity spoilers #kaoru sakurayashiki #kojiro nanjo #hiromi higa #chinen miya #matcha blossom #shindo ainosuke #tadashi kikuchi #long post #adam hate club

[keenmarvellover]

POSTS FOR YOU - 1

Some links to posts with valuable content you want in one place.(BASICALLY EVERYTHING IS THERE)

Suggestions and Recommendations are appreciated and accepted.

Last Updated : 16/10/2020

NOTE: Some of these post are written in a crude and unruly fashion. But they contain valuable tips, guidance and information. If you can't/don't want to read such posts, then don't read.

Mental Health

Do you need a Hug?

Maybe you’re having a stressful day. Maybe you just need a deep breath. Maybe you just didn’t realize how stressed you are. You can get your comfort here.

Some stuff to help you sleep

This is definitely not a google drive full of the sleep stuff from the Headspace app, including sleepcasts, music, and wind down meditation, that normally costs 17.99 a month, no siree and you definitely shouldnt share this with people

Anti-Anxiety Tools

Some tools to help you before, during or after an anxiety attack

100 Reasons NOT To Kill Yourself

READ IT. SHARE IT. REBLOG IT. Save a Life.

HOBBIES MASTERPOST!!!!!!!!

A really excellent way to reduce anxiety is to pick up a new hobby. Find something you’re interested in, learn it, then use it as a healthy and productive way to cope.

Health

Some very Important Lists for Rating PAIN, FATIQUE AND MENTAL HEALTH

It is MUST share

PSA Rregarding Hospital bills

Also how to pay hospital bills when you are broke.

How to differentiate between COVID-19, FLU AND COMMON COLD

Anyway, as we enter cold & flu season in the YEAR of corona, this will come in very handy.

Treatment for HIV

VERY IMPORTANT. Please Read and Share.

What does the Color of your Period mean?

A must read for individuals who get periods.

How to differentiate between Period Cramps and Appendicitis

A MUST READ

From a Person who is Hard of Hearing

Types and levels of deafness

General Tips for Vagina Health

Some stuff they don't teach in sex-ed.

Undo the damage of Sitting

Are you always sitting down? Then these are some exercise you should probably try out for better health.

Guide to Proper Bra Fitting

Guide to Proper Bra Fit and Measuring. Please Read and Share.

Washable, Reusable Menstrual Pads

(Part II)

Reusable menstrual hygiene product, and are an alternative to disposable sanitary napkins or to menstrual cups.

Artists

Art Masterpost

How to draw *insert whatever you want, its there in the list*?

Book Binding

Some video links to different types of DIY Bookbinding

For Artists who Need Photoshop

If youre an artist who cant afford photoshop, definitely DO NOT go to this google drive to pirate the program, that would be so bad!!!

Do’s and Don'ts of Designing for Accessibility

Please consider this when designing for ANYTHING. For BUSINESSES and ARTISTS.

Writers

Color Synonyms

For both ARTISTS and WRITERS

How to make a Masterlist

Simple but efficient instructions to make a masterlist

ULTIMATE NOVEL WRITING RESOURCE MASTERLIST

This is an ultimate masterlist of many resources that could be helpful for writers.

List of AUs and Ship Tropes

For when you run out of ideas.

AUs

Ship Tropes

Legal sites to get some much needed Info

If there was only a way to find out all of this rather edgy information without getting yourself in trouble…

Resources for Describing Characters

For writing about physical appearances, character traits, talents,and skills and other related stuff of your characters, here is a comprehensive list.

Resources for Describing Emotions

Having trouble writing jealousy, happiness, motivation. Here you go!!

Some Resources for your Writing

Body Language

Reverse Dictionary

Character Traits

Things to Keep in mind when naming Characters

Valuable advice. Trust me

Words to Use when Writing Smut/Romance

This is for smut/romance writers. Kinda like a thesaurus.

Tips to write Pain

How are you supposed to write about pain you’ve never experienced before?

References for Greek Mythology Characters

Link to an extensive site every single detail of Greek Mythology from Gods to Family Trees.

Tips to write Blind Characters

Some tips that might be invaluable when writing character that are near-blind or blind

Things to Remember when writing a Highly Emotional Scene

Just small things that could make a great difference

How to write with Multiple POVs

Tips on how to write multiple POVs with diverse characters

Synonyms and Antonyms

The person who made this list is a blessing to writers. Just saying.

Good Qualities for Female Characters

Females don't always need to be protected and be weak. Make them more realistic.

Words to Use instead of ‘Said’

Every single situation is listed. Check it out.

Limits of the Human Body

All extremities listed

Readers

Legal Sites to Download Literature

From children’s books to rare books, from philosophy and religion to nonfiction. I guess you can find anything here.

The Rights of the Reader

And some (lots of) bashing of Helicopter Parents.(You want to read only the rights. Here it is)

Wet Book Rescue : Steps to save a Wet Book

Valuable information if some of your prized books were affected by recent flooding. The video even shows you what to do if you can’t dry the book out right away.

Cheatsheet to Navigate AO3

Makes your time on AO3 a little more easier and interesting

How to trick Writers into giving you More Fanfic to read

Works for Comics and Art as well.

Get a Book Suggestion

This book website gives you the first page of a random book without the title or author so that you can read it with no preconceptions

Books written by POC Writers

Only POC authors included in the list.

Students

Basic ASL (American Sign Language) Movements

ASL Hand Movements for beginners.

Tips for studying with ADHD/a>

Made by a person with ADHD themself.

Resources to Learn New Languages

Ten fairly useful general language resources

How to properly take notes

It helps. It really helps.

FREE ONLINE LANGUAGE COURSES

Here is a masterpost of MOOCs (massive open online courses) that are available, archived, or starting soon. I think they will help those that like to learn with a teacher or with videos.

A Thread of Tips

A thread of tips to help High School and College students academically

LEARN THINGS FOR FREE

FREE ONLINE COURSES (here are listed websites that provide huge variety of courses)

Google like a BOSS

Some life hacks which make student's lives easier.

625 words to know in your Target Language

If your learning a new language, these words will help you build a strong foundation.(Some tips and sites are include too)

Miscellaneous/Life Hacks

How to add music to your Blog

How to add your very own, custom homemade playlist to your blog?

How to Walk with Purpose?

Some tips on how to hold yourself in public and why.

Cheatsheet for Laundry Rooms

Saves a lot of money in the Laundry Room

How to Gird up your Loins?

A lesson in how to gird your loins.

How to Disappear Online

Please read and spread for the sake of abuse victims or stalker victims.

What to do during a Nuclear Attack

I hope you never have to use it but here are some guidelines to follow in the event of a nuclear attack

How to pull an All-Nighter.

A to-do list

Write a Thank You letter after your Interview

It leaves a good impression on your interviewer and increase your chances of passing the interview.

Laundry Tags: Meanings

A life hack that you’ll definitely need at some point.

Where to find free Movies and Series Online

Lots of sites. Lots and Lots of sites. I am not Kidding. Now go and chill without netflix. (Part II)

How to get a Refund?

Get your stuff or a refund.

HOW TO DO EVERYTHING FROM SCRATCH

This starts at the most absolute basics of gardening and planting, provides definitions, and hopefully is easily understandable. This is a MUST-READ. (Farming)

Discuss your wages

It’s your right to share your salary, not doing so could be holding you back.

Youtube Tutorials for Basically EVERYTHING

This is a big, giant list of Youtube tutorials that will teach you all the basic life skills you need to know in order to be a functional adult.

Safety

Emergency Evacuation - Items to Gather

A text list of suggested items to acquire in the event of an emergency.

If someone you know is in an abusive relationship

AN ABBREVIATED GUIDE TO ‘Holy shit!!! My friend is in an abusive relationship what do I do’ and what not to do.

Defense Tips for Women

Defense and Safety tips a woman MUST know. (Part II)

An app that informs your Emergency contacts if you are inactive in a set period of time.(Could prevent rape attempts if used correctly)

If a Man gets Physical

How to check if a mirror is one way or two-way

If you are trapped in a smoke-filled apartment: What to Do

How to get out of Hand-binds

How to get out of the bunker of a Car

How to track Anonymous asks.

How to pick a Lock

Traits and Warning signs of an Abuser

What to do if a bigot pulls your Hijab (from behind)

What to do if someone pulls of a Muslim Woman's Hijab? (To do List for both Men and Women)

#safety #health #mental health #writers #readers #micellaneous

[missmungoe]

So I'm very very soft for parental Makino and Shanks and recently heard the songs Sleepsong and Song of the Sea which made me wonder if you had any particular song in mind that they'd sing their kids to sleep with? I may also be extremely ridiculously soft for their kids (all of them even the honorary ones)

Oh these are both lovely!! ‘Song of the Sea’ is a favourite of mine, perhaps unsurprisingly (and I may have a little fic in mind for the selkie-verse with Makino and Shanks and their seal-babies). I don’t have a specific song in mind for my stories, I just imagine they sing a lot to their kids, but thinking about this ask inspired this soft, silly thing, so...

pirate lullabies

He’d claimed once, wholly serious although with a twinkle in his eyes, that his singing voice had been deemed so dangerous by the World Government, it had been outlawed in several countries. Among the many outrageous tales he’d told her over the years, it was the only one Makino had no trouble believing.

She was working when the song reached her through the floorboards, carried to her first by the rhythm of their boots, before she picked out his voice, the deep timbre with the raw, laughing lilt that needed no instruments to accompany it, and that probably warranted its reputation, given how many times it had stolen away her good sense, her hair tousled and her laughter faint as he spun her, the polished bar-top under her feet a canting deck: a unique kind of magic he had that could transform even the most ordinary things, gentle-natured barmaids included.

She followed it now, up from the cellar where the casks were stacked floor to ceiling, ageing apple wine and whiskey, the spellbinding sound taking shape into a melody she knew as she hoisted herself up the ladder, although had to pause just to check that she’d heard right, but―no, it was the one she thought, down to the rough, stirring pitch of his voice as he performed it.

Her startled blush recalled the last occasion he’d belted out this particular shanty in her presence, but then he’d been naked at the time, a private rendition she still couldn’t think about with a straight face, which begged the slightly shrill but laughing question now―

“What are you singing to our children?”

It saw him turning around, mid-performance, but he took the interruption in stride, at ease at the centre of attention, the common room of their bar full and every pair of eyes trained on him where he stood, their youngest in her sling across his back and their three-year old on his arm. The former refused to go to sleep without her sister, who could never be compelled to sit still long enough to fall asleep; an alliance that had necessitated some creative strategising. A tiny Scylla and Charybdis, and most captains would have steered clear of the challenge altogether. This one had set his course right through the strait.

“You know this one,” Shanks said, his innocent grin as though she’d asked out of ignorance. “You were the one who taught it to me.”

“One hell of a performance, too,” Yasopp supplied, to loud hoots of approval, their tankards raised to her, frothing at the rim with their latest batch from the brewery. Makino accepted the praise with demure dignity, as Yasopp added, “You nearly fell off the bar. Good thing Boss was there to catch you.”

“He’s the reason I was up there in the first place,” Makino parried primly, and with a pointed glance at the culprit, who didn’t look the least bit chagrined. “I’m just relieved you opted out of the acrobatics this time. You’re not as limber as you used to be.”

“Do you know what ‘savage’ means, swallow?” Shanks asked their three-year-old, who repeated the word, if not exactly with the correct pronunciation, but her father’s adoring grin promised many more attempts.

Turning the grin on Makino, a glint of familiar challenge in his eyes where they curved at the corners, “I’d make you eat those words if I wasn’t carrying precious cargo. Or I could always prove you wrong later, if you’ll join me for an encore. Show you just how limber I am.”

“No cartwheels!” called a voice from the back, to laughing agreement. Shanks stuck his tongue out; the girl on his arm responded in turn, to his delight.

Walking up to where he was standing at the centre of the room, Makino tucked an errant lock back into their daughter’s kerchief, sleek and dark as a swallow’s wing; the only one in their brood whose colouring was like her own. A gentle touch to their youngest’s head saw her looking up, snug in her sling, her cheek pressed between his shoulder blades.

“What happened to putting them to bed?” she asked, a teasing tug adjusting his shirt where the sling had pulled the open front even wider than usual, her fingers smoothing through the hair climbing up his chest. Father of three, but some things hadn’t changed. Not that she was complaining.

“What did it look like I was doing?” Shanks asked, with a grin that said her distraction hadn’t missed him, the cheeky flex of a pectoral catching her in the act, but instead of pulling her hand away, Makino only flattened her palm over the hard expanse.

“From where I was standing? Teaching entirely inappropriate bedtime songs to impressionable little ears.” The ones belonging to the girl on his arm missed nothing, to Makino’s continued horror.

“Oh that? Don’t worry,” Shanks said, his wide mouth stretched in a roguish smile she was tempted to remind him was usually cause to do just that. “I censored it.”

Before she could ask if she even wanted to know what he meant by that, a tiny hand gave an impatient tug at his shirt. “Sing about the rusty sailor!”

Brows arching gently with her smile, “Rusty?” Makino asked, as Shanks pressed a sloppy, bearded kiss to a soft little cheek, eliciting an infectious giggle.

The last time she’d seen that grin, he’d had her thighs over his ears. “What?” Shanks asked, his eyes unsheathed steel. “Certain skills need maintenance, to leave all parties satisfied.”

“It’s just hard to imagine he’d ever get that designation, with his infamous appetite,” Makino mused.

“He has a big rock!” their daughter announced.

From the crowded room, a startled cough sounded, from one of the hundred accomplices to this creative rewriting. In the corner of her eye, Ben’s smile curled around his toothpick.

“Oh does he?” Makino asked her, giving a playful tug at her little kerchief, the fawn-like freckles across the tiny bridge of her nose wrinkling with her giggles, before sharing a look with the man who’d given her that laugh, and while she wasn’t sure she wanted to know, “And what exactly does the rusty sailor do with his big rock?”

Shanks grinned, all pride, as their daughter declared, “He sticks it in the hole!”

Her hand flew to cover her startled grin, as several laughs were smothered unsuccessfully, but, “Not the back one,” Shanks assured her, his grin so wide now, she wondered if that wasn’t what warranted censoring. “At least not without asking first.”

“Classy guy,” Makino murmured, and when he wagged his brows, promptly failed to keep a straight face, to the delight of the room.

His eyes danced, the warm look in them compelling the words from her mouth, “So what else does the song say about this rusty sailor?”

A look was exchanged with the girl on his arm, that cheeky little grin his own legacy, and unsuccessfully supporting his claim to innocence, before Shanks said, “That he can usually be found face-up under a tavern bench?”

A round of hollering toasts rose to punctuate the line, the last of a filthy refrain, before he picked it up from the top, his voice raised as he sang to their daughter on her perch:

“Under skirts and petticoats, he’s never hard to ask, a wink and a slap and he’s ready to go, rising to every task. You’ll find him with the portside boars, he knows them all by name, and if he’s got no coin to spend, he’ll charm them all the same. And at the local tavern, well, he’s known to every lass, and every time he visits there, he hopes he’ll get some―”

“GRASS!” shouted a voice from across the room, to hiccuping laughter from the crowd and a bow of approval from the captain, and the loud delight of the girl on his arm, clutching his shirt as he spun her.

“―and if you’re looking for him, know that this is where he’ll be: a sailor with a thirst to quench, you’ll find him on his back beneath a squatting tavern bench!”

This tavern bench was having a hard time maintaining an appropriately chastising expression, hearing the shrieking laughter of the girl on his arm as Shanks spun her, dancing to the song they’d spurred to life like a storm, and with nothing but the rhythm of their boots on the planks. And she might have reminded them that the goal was to get their daughters to sleep, but their children were used to the noise, had all three learned to fall asleep to the sounds of their bar, tucked in their crates, between the shelves of the pantry and the kegs behind the counter, and in the crooks of a hundred arms, coaxed by the wordless lullabies of creaking floorboards and the clink of glasses, ale tapped into tankards and bottles uncorked invoking the sea rushing across the deck and pistols firing, and the muted chatter of a retired crew of pirates that was as effective as any bedtime story, for hungry little ears.

And of course, the songs they’d learned while still in her belly, sung under her breath as she worked, or with his cheek to the swollen curve, his voice reverberating through her, the words pressed with bearded kisses to the movements beneath her skin, as though responding to the sound. They’d known his voice before anything else in this world; had known the songs before they could speak the words, the many in his vast repertoire from a long life at sea, and he’d brought it ashore, to her deck that remained steady underfoot but that didn’t need more than his voice transform to something else; a wild storm brewing and warships on the horizon, and a daring captain at the helm.

He caught her gaze now, a familiar grin flashed like the bare edge of a blade, offering a duel, and it had been a while since he’d proffered his actual sword, his one arm occupied but no regret in the exchange, but Makino answered him as she would with steel, their eyes tethered and her voice raised to join his, her gentler cadence claiming its due amidst the rougher timbres filling their bar:

“And if you’re looking for him, know that this is where he’ll be: a sailor with a thirst to quench, you’ll find him on his back beneath a squatting tavern bench!”

Roaring applause shook the rafters, sending the bottles on their shelves chiming, the kind that would have made her shrink back once, but she’d learned to claim more than just her due, and accepted it now, and the tender look regarding her from over their daughter’s head, and when he bent down to kiss the top of hers, the rough promise kissed into the skin below her ear was uncensored, and had her laughter flinging out, loud and startled.

The noise settled down, their voices taking on a softer pitch, like the sea after a storm, but then this was a familiar routine, performed many times with each of their children, the oldest of whom had claimed the armchair by the hearth, a book in his lap and his father’s cloak around him, and sound asleep, for all his bold claims that he didn’t need a bedtime.

“That’s three out of three,” Shanks said, drawing her eyes back from Ace. His voice was pitched low, to not disturb the girl on his arm, her head tucked against his throat, one small hand still gripping his shirt where she’d nodded off. The one on his back was following suit, her fingers in her mouth and her lashes kissing her soft cheeks. “Questionable methods aside, you’ve got to admit it’s effective.”

Smiling, Makino helped relieve him of the sling, the girl within reaching for her sleepily, a soft breath sighed against her throat as she pressed a kiss to the top of her head, smoothing her fingers over the red down of her hair.

Meeting his eyes, the tender look in them somehow always a little new, “Portside boars?” she asked.

Shanks grinned. “Not to be approached without caution, at least if you value your life.”

“Sound advice.”

“Isn’t it?”

Her soft laugh followed him to the storeroom. The spacious pantry was bigger than Party’s had been, replete with liquors and foodstuffs, crates and barrels and sacks all neatly organised, and all of it written in the leather-bound ledger lying open on the middle shelf. The smells recalled her own childhood, the sound of her mother’s heeled boots across the creaking doorstep, and the bottles chiming in their crates, stacked high above her head. A rough hand smoothing her hair from her brow, before she'd be gone, leaving the door ajar and a sliver of light, the laughter spilling through and into her dreams.

She watched him tuck them in, snug within their makeshift bunks, a different song sung in low, soothing tones, a lullaby for gentler waters that sang of two clever little seals outwitting the fearsome lord of the coast, a longtime favourite that saw two big brown eyes struggling in vain to stay open. Their youngest had already surrendered, even as her sister persevered, but his voice didn’t waver, coaxing until tiny fingers released his shirt, although even asleep, he lingered a moment longer, to finish the verse.

Watching him from the doorway, the sweat of a long evening making his shirt cling to his back, straining over the wide shoulders that didn’t carry the same burdens they had once, she followed the sight to an old memory; a busy galley on a gentler sea, and the rowdy court of pirates with its rakish king that had swept her off her feet. “Do you remember the first time you sang to me?”

Looking over his shoulder at her, his smile held her answer, even before Shanks said, “Don’t know how I could forget, although it’s not my singing I remember. Why do you ask?”

“I was just thinking,” Makino said, smile soft with the memory, her eyes on the little shapes sleeping amidst the liquor crates, “that they’ll remember this when they’re older.” The years had blurred it at the edges, but some things stood out: his hand lifting her atop the table, and of feeling fearless. A long time ago now, but while the course of their lives had shifted, some things hadn’t changed, their marriage always writing new verses, even as the refrains were her favourite―the lines she knew by heart, and while he could still catch her off guard, a few words altered here and there, the melody was always the same.

“Hopefully they won’t find it too mortifying,” Shanks chuckled, lifting back to his feet, before adding, with a look, “That’s not me saying I’d ever stop. As if!”

Smiling, she didn’t say she doubted they’d ever want him to, although wondered how long until it wouldn’t be him holding the room captive with his singing, but two small successors, who knew songs from every deck of the world, questionable rewritings included.

She watched him make a note in the ledger, a once-cheeky habit that had grown tender over the years, no longer noting her missing innocence but two small additions, currently in stock. Makino wondered if it was a way for him to keep them while he could, and might have felt similarly inclined, but the sea had given her more than it had ever taken, and she didn’t fear trusting it with their children.

She lifted her head as he came towards her, bending down to steal a kiss from her lips, his hand raised to tuck her hair back into her scarf, the long length of silk where it brushed her spine, his thumb catching on the gold in her ears, because he might have brought the sea ashore with him, but she had claimed her own parts.

“So, Captain,” Makino said, head tipped back to look up at him, and saw his brows quirking at her gentle challenge, tugging playfully at his scars.

“Join me for an encore?”

#Shanks/Makino #Shanks x Makino #One Piece #Shanks #Red-Haired Shanks #Akagami no Shanks #Makino #fanfic #fanfiction #mungoe writes #I'm so happy you're soft for their kids<3 #it's been a while since I wrote anything about their family and I just realised how much I've missed it

[shelli-gator]

Hi, so I've been reading your many marvelous headcannons lately , and I have a headcannons request. (And yes, as usual with me it is Ted related.) So in my general Ted headcannons ask from awhile ago, you gave a summary of Ted's childhood. I loved your ideas on this, but was wondering if you had extra headcannons specifically about Ted in his childhood and adolescence. I'm not really looking for anything specific, so any ideas you have would be wonderful to hear!

WHDKSHD thank you! I'm really glad you like them! <3 I love sharing headcanons, it's just really fun to build stories around the characters, especially the side ones!

I've been thinking about Ted a fair bit, and I've adjusted some of my prior headcanons so let's start with those!

Edit: rewrote a lot of this to include more specific things Ted did as a teen/kid.

- I mentioned before that Ted's mom is a quiet but caring woman. I want to build on it because I think that her caring for Julien and Maurice as infants and running around after the royal family would have actually left very little time for poor little Ted. She loved him with her whole heart, and doted on him whenever she did get to spend time with him.

- A lot of the time he did get to spend with her was when she got to take him with her to work, and while he liked getting to play with Julien and Maurice, and any of the other little ones that got brought along by their mothers, Ted very early on felt lonely. He felt like he was competing with others for his mother's love and attention, and leads into him wanting to be liked by everyone. He never blamed Julien for it though, he figured that without their parents Julien and Maurice are lonely too.

- His mother working for royalty meant that she made extra sure to teach Ted manners and politeness. But her generally kind and tender nature rubbed off on him for sure, and he takes a lot after her.

- She cooked really well, and would often prepare food for the royals. Ted learnt some of his cooking skills from her as a kid/teen, and learnt more in his free time so he could either cook for her or cook with her to spend more time with her.

- Ted's parents were never affectionate with one another. And in comparison, Ted's marriage to Dorothy has more love in it than what his parents had. His mother was even more timid and soft spoken with his father than with others, harboring a lot of resentment towards him. They strongly disagreed with how Ted should be raised, but she stuck to raising him with kindness and understanding.

- he loves acting, dancing, and performing for a number of reasons. Dancing and acting gives him a chance to express himself and take on different roles outside of what has been assigned to him by himself or others. He gets to be whatever he wants to be, and its fun to be someone else for a change. In a way as well, he loves the spotlight of the stage because it means he gets to be seen and heard.

-He craves the love and approval of others. His fear of being alone forever started at an early age, and resulted in the unhappy marriage he's in today. Julien not listening to him at the prom and taking his prom king crown didn't help that either.

- I originally headcanonned Ted's dad passed away at a young age, but it might have been more in his late teens to enforce the military career.

- Ted's performances extend well beyond the stage. To me, it seems like his whole life is a stage play that he's put himself in. He came up with this story that he tried to make a reality, performing the role of the popular lad who married his long time best friend. Now he cant get out of it, or at least he's stopping himself from doing so, so he takes it out on Dorothy. History repeats itself, especially in our relationships. :( (Ironic then as well that Ted and Dorothy use his parents' wedding rings)

- Ted had lots of toys that his mom would bring for him, often things Julien got bored with. She also made him whatever outfits he wanted, including dresses, but his father almost popped a blood vessel when he saw his son dancing around in a dress. Ted dresses up his toys and uses them as co actors in plays and make believe, and he sometimes teaches them all about being nice to people.

- Ted and Julien both went to music classes together, and while they weren't in the same band, they both play guitar/keytar. His dad taught him a lot of that, and the guitar he has in the show was his.

-Little ted often put on plays for his mom, which he would practice for when he was alone. He sometimes roped the other kids into play acting while their parents worked, and him spending a lot of time with them is how he became as endearingly charismatic as he is, even if awkwardly clumsy. It all made for a very likable lad.

- Before Julien took over and could introduce the kingdom's very own parties, he would often go to parties held outside the kingdom by neighboring kingdom's. (It's a bit confusing because in the first episode its implied they don't really know much about parties, but Julien's flashbacks all point to parties that have happened before). Ted would sneak out to go along with him to these parties, with a few of the other lads in tow. Dorothy wouldn't accompany him, as it was against the rules and she wasn't big into parties.

Ted: *covers bags 'ears'* HORST, not in front of the baby!

- I love to imagine in lemur school they all had to partner up to look after a bag of flour or something as parents. Dorothy wanted to be partnered with Ted, but he ends up with Julien because Julien sees some easy marks. It would be hilarious too as Horst or Pancho.

Horst: I-it's a BAG, Ted! It's LEAKING flour!

Ted: he just needs changing is all! <3

- His grades were really good in school to give his mom one less thing to worry about, and because he was genuinely passionate about the subjects he chose. I used to hc he wasn't super good at biology or maths, but he would at least do well at them, and biology is how he took up interest in other animals like birds.

- As much as he clearly wants it, I don't think he's ever had the opportunity to kiss a boy before.

Anyway, sorry I've been rambling on this for long enough haldhskdh.

These headcanons also feed wonderfully into my Sugarbuns headcanons hehe, y e s.

#asks #ahkj ted #ahkj headcanons #sorry its so long #poor ted ;^; #i imagine little pup ted just watching his mom tending to Julien and he just wants more time to spend with her

[paradigmsofbrittaperry]

long rambly band thing under the cut lol

okay so I cant remember how much I’ve talked about this on here, but I’ve had a lot of Not Great Experiences over the past two years when it comes to band, despite the activity being my favorite in the whole entire world. the tl;dr is that my beloved director left my school after my junior year and left me in charge as drum major, but his replacement was awful and a bunch of bullshit happened and many of my close friends stabbed me in the back and then I went on to have a pretty bad season of indoor drumline that got cut short b/c of covid. that summary glossed over A LOT and the outcome of everything was that a lot of personal progress I’d made got undone and I was left with incredible amounts of baggage and lots of trauma to work through. this past year and a half has been HARD as fuck and I’ve swung wildly between trying to ignore everything and burying myself in trying to figure out what went wrong. problem has been that its infected every part of my life; I panic when I run into anyone who hurt me and my friends during that time, the most innocuous things remind me of the worst of these years and can send me into fits of crying, I’m plagued by thoughts of inadequacy and blaming myself for everything that happened, the works. ALL OF THIS EXPLANATION TO SAY yesterday was the start of a new chapter. it was the final competition of my first season teaching cymbals. it’s been a great experience and I’ve had the best students in the world, so I was really sad to see it end. over the second half of the day, I had three separate emotional conversations with my kids that honestly have given me the inner peace that I’ve been dreaming of since this bullshit started in the winter of 2019. before their final run, I wished them luck, told them I was proud of them, and thanked them for being such great students. they thanked me in return for being a great tech. after the awards ceremony, I got to bestow each of them with third place medals and reiterated how grateful I was for our time together. one of my kids went right for my tear ducts and told me that in their five years of marching, I was the tech that had taught them the most practical cymbal skills. another who joined after the start of the season said they hadn’t been sure if they were going to stay the whole season, but now, they planned on coming back for another. they all thanked me again and told me that I’d been an amazing tech after I gave them their medals and one of them gave me mine. our final conversation took place after our final goodbye meeting, and the two kids who aren’t graduating made sure that I would be back and said they’d be sad if I wasn’t their tech next year. I start crying after they left, which left the other two to find me crying in a corner of the room and hug me so that I would start crying even harder lol. 

so the takeaway of these conversations and how they gave me peace. for the past year and a half, there’s been some part of me constantly questioning if I’m actually a good person or not; the logic being that half a dozen of my closest friends wouldn’t have turned on me for no good reason, that I had to have done something to hurt them for them to try so hard to destroy my reputation and tear me off an imagined pedestal. at the end of my junior year of high school, I was comfortably in a place where I liked myself and saw my value and hardly questioned my character. the events of the next marching season changed all of that and nothing had fixed it since. but in these conversations, these kids told me that I was good. that I had made a positive impact on their lives. that I had changed their lives to an extent, that I had broken a pattern of shitty techs for them, that despite most of MY past techs letting me down, that only made me work twice as hard to show my kids that I cared and put my all into never letting them down the way I have been. that the people who worked so hard to tear me down were wrong; I CAN do good and I DON’T deserve to be in a constant state of hating myself for things that were entirely out of my control because I proved over the course of several months that in the right circumstances, I can thrive. I can do good. the little voice in my head telling me that I’m a bad person has quieted over the past 24 hours. telling people how much they mean to you is difficult, terrifying, near impossible sometimes. but I did enough good for these kids that they all were incredibly open and honest with me about how much they appreciated me and how much they wanted to see me again and how I had made their season better. and it was overwhelming!! after a season of being told I was responsible for every bad thing followed by one where I was largely ignored and underestimated? this was so, SO healing. I was able to look kids in the eye and tell them I loved them without fear of judgement. they did the same. it’s not forgiveness or an apology from the people that hurt me, but it’s closure. I was able to move past the past and use it as motivation to do good. I hate the idea that trauma makes us grow, because I’m still mourning the me that I lost due to mine. I used to value the fact that I was so gentle and kind, but those two seasons made me shed much of that. I don’t think I’ll ever be that kind again, but a kid told me yesterday that I was the sweetest staff member they’d ever known. I almost cried on the spot, because it means I’m healing!! these kids brought my soft side out of retirement!! and I didn’t fear getting hurt again when I was being gentler!! and my attitude came entirely from treating these kids the way I wasn’t, the way I wished I had been. I finally found a shred of joy and a positive outcome from all that I was put through. and it feels so fucking good that I’m crying writing this. my bitterness has largely dissolved, because I have proof that I’ve grown past everyone and everything that hurt me. not everything will get better overnight. but I know for a fact that my past won’t continue to consume me as much as it has.

this is a rambly mess, so props to you if you made it to the end!! I just. I remembered why the fuck I love band at all and I’m grateful beyond words to have found closure and made peace with events that have chased me around for almost two years now. it’s like letting out a breath that I’ve been holding for that long with no reprieve. I miss my kids so fucking much already.

#bri speaks

[that-gt-and-vore-stuffs]

What about Davey messing with spot?

I like your style, Anon. Let’s see what I can do with this >:)

As always, Vore under the cut

Going full momma bear for his boys wasn’t something new to Davey. The last time it had gotten this bad though the Delanceys had avoided him out flat for a whole month. Even now he could scare them off with just a toothy grin or “absentmindedly” tracing a path down his throat. Seeing them pale and back away never failed to bring a smile to his face. He earned quite a bit of respect for that too. Not many Newsies could do that. Only two that he could think of in all honesty: himself and Spot Conlon.

He and Spot weren’t on bad terms at all. At least, that’s how it seemed. They talked on occasion, could get along better then Spot and Jack, and both had the brains to keep their respective gangs in line. Not too long ago though he had an exchange with the leader of Brooklyn he never expected. One that stuck with him.

————

“So how’d you do it?”

“Huh?”

“Scare Th’ Delanceys that damn bad. How?”

Davey looked at the leader of Brooklyn with an expression that seemed a mix of conflicted and embarrassed. Oh boy. A nervous laugh sounded in his throat as he pulled at his tie with a finger like he was suffocating because of it. “Oh it wasn’t anything all that special.”

“To scare the Delanceys that bad? Bullshit. It takes a lot t’be able t’make those two pale like ghosts. So how’d ya do it?”

Oh boy. Spot seemed serious. That wasn’t good for him. He knew the shorter boy wouldn’t stop until he got an answer and he wanted to walk out of this without a bruise or a broken limb. Wasn’t this perfect? “Y-you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah. It sounds cra-“

“Then show me.”

Davey pales a bit. Oh. Oh no. That was a bad idea. “I-I don’t think I should-“

“They wasn’t physically hurt at all. I can take it. So show me.”

His throat bobs as Davey gulps. Spot really....this wasn’t going to end good for him. No sir. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t do it here at least. I-It takes preparation and such. About a d-day or so.”

“I didn’t peg you as one for such elaborate plans, Dave. Though, I suppose I should ‘ave. You ain’t like Jack-Be-Nimble Jack-Be-Quick after all.”

Davey laughs, the nervous undertones sticking out like a sore thumb. “No, I’m not.”

“Well then, think you’ll be able t’show me tomorrow? Seein’ as ya ain’t got that school shit or whatever over th’ weekend.”

Oh perfect. He isn’t going to drop it. Just his luck. “I.....I suppose so. But, I should warn you now, anything that I say or do is solely acting. So please don’t take anything personally.”

“Why? Insultin’ part of it?”

“Yeah. And some other things I wouldn’t do to anyone if they didn’t deserve it. But....you’re asking and I’m not going to deny you.”

“Good choice, Dave.”

“Heh. So I’ve heard.”

One spit shake later and Davey was practically put on the execution list. The clock was ticking....

————

His time was up. Shit. Shitshitshit. This seemed like an even worse idea now that he was here, looming over a unconscious and tied up Spot Conlon in the dark of the night, in the abandoned warehouse, with an empty stomach and a death wish for doing this. One he was certain was going to be fufiled thanks to this.

The first sign of movement and consciousness he slipps into character. “Well....looks like someone’s finally awake. Took you long enough.”

The last thing Spot expected was to wake up shrunken and tied with seeming expertise. Or for Davey to be over him in such a manner. “What Th’ hell is you talkin’ about David?! What’d you do to me?!”

“Oh don’t act suprised. You asked for this. I thought it was obvious what you were getting into when you decided to do what you did.” The sickeningly sweet tone and smile fit almost too well on his face. Like he was designed for this.

For a minute Spot is ready to try and fight the taller boy, despite his size. Then it all comes flodding back. Right. He did ask to see this. Davey was acting. Damn, kid could act. He seemed like a completely different person. Guess it seemed fair he only threw his hat in the ring with this acting show. To fully understand what this was about. How bad could it get after all? He made sure to flash Davey a look of understanding before starting to fight his bindings. “What th’ hell do you mean?! I didn’t ask for shit!”

That look....Spot remembered. Thank god. Davey doesn’t dare drop his act though. That same psychotic laugh from that night weeks ago rings through the room. “Oh sure you didn’t. Then why do I remember what you did so vividly? I am simply....teaching you a lesson.”

Holy shit. Now Spot was staring to see why the Delanceys were so scared. Davey seemed straight insane! He was more then grateful for it only being acting. “I ain’t in need of no lesson, nutjob! Let me the fuck go!”

A hand slammed down next to him, making him jump. He really was small...

“Oh I don’t think I will. Not for a while....” As he talks, keeping his tone sweet and speed slow, he brings his other hand up behind the leader of Brooklyn. When all seemed calm he quickly took hold of the boy and hoisted him into the air. “My my, and I thought you were short before.”

“Thats low.” Spot can’t help the little out of character comment that escapes him with a smirk before he drops it and starts to squirm in the seemingly giant boy’s grasp. “What‘s that supposed t’mean?! You’s is gonna let me go, that clear?!”

“Oh I don’t think you want me to do that now, Spot. Not when a drop this far could break one of your legs. Or snap your spine. But enough talk. I’ll get to my point.” Here’s where his improv skills were going to get put to the test. He wasn’t excited about it. “I have a offer for you. A deal if you will. You agree to leave me and my boys alone and I’ll spare you. Disagree.....well I am very creative when it comes to fun executions.”

Spot feels his blood chill. Davey was acting, but damn did this feel real. “Prove it.”

“Oh? Much feistier then those brothers, I see. Well....I could snap each of your limbs one by one and leave you to die. I could crush you under a hand or foot. I could strangle you like a snake with my hand. Need I go on?”

Oh. Those.....he could actually do those. That. That made him uncomfortable. More aware of his size. “N-no. You don’t haf’ta. So I just have t’leave Manhattan alone?”

“Yes. That’s all I ask.” Davey shoots the boy a borderline insane toothy grin. “Do we have a deal?”

Silence. You could hear a pin drop.

Tension. You could cut it with a knife.

“Deal.”

“Goodie! Now do stay still. This will only take a moment.” Davey doesnt wait for a response before he snaps off the bindings with his teeth. He sets Spot on the ground. Just like with the Delanceys when the boy tries to back up he slams a hand down.

“Now where are you going?”

This wasn’t done? Oh boy. Just what did Davey do to the Delanceys? “Leavin’. I agreed t’ya deal.”

“Oh...why are all who I shrink so naïve?” Davey doesn’t wait to snatch the tiny back up. “I’m not done yet. I just like to see my captives have hope, only for it to be crushed.”

“W-What th’ hell is that supposed t’mean?! What else could ya want wit’ me?!”

Davey doesn’t have to say a word, his stomach growling seemingly on cue. “Well...you see, setting this whole thing up and caring for a bunch of Newsies is enough to make you forget the simple things. I’m just...so hungry and you look, dare I say, absolutely delicious~”

Spot freezes. Oh. So that’s what Davey did. What he ment when he said he wouldn’t believe him. And he was too far to turn back. Oh no. “I....I’m not some meal for you, ya psychopath!!”

“Oh don’t look so down. It’s not like it’ll hurt you. I just need something to fill my poor stomach for a while until I can get something to eat.”

“How Th’ hell is EATIN’ ME ALIVE not gonna hurt me?!”

“Well the Delanceys are still walking around, aren’t they? What I used to shrink you...see, it makes you immune to things like stomach acids. Convenient, isn’t it?”

Another insane laugh rings out in the warehouse as Spot processes this. “Oh Spot. I tried to warn you. Tried to tell you not to poke the bear. Now you can deal with the consequences. So do me a favor and don’t fight until you get to the bottom like a good meal, alright?”

Spot isn’t allowed to get a thought out before he’s dangling over Davey’s maw. A yelp of alarm sounds from the throat of the shrunken Newsie. This....Davey was right, but....this was bad. He wants to fight, he really does, but for the first time in years he’s frozen in fear.

Davey’s grip steadily loosens until the boy is plummeting strait onto his awaiting tongue. The jaws around Spot snap shut, trapping him as the tongue underneath him starts to lick him over and toy with his frozen body. He can’t move. He’s paralyzed and it’s scary. No. Terrifying.

Satisfied with his work, Davey brings a hand to his throat. A soft yet strong gulp tugs the leader of Brooklyn down, his hand tracing the path all the way with each swallow until he feels him drop into his stomach. His tongue snakes out over his lips, ending with a satisfied sigh. “Ah~ Now that is much better.”

Spot isn’t ready to be met with a pleased gurgle as he drops into the chamber. Finally he can move and he’s able to start to fight. The hitch in the breathing of the giant lungs above him signals something. Something he’s so very glad to hear.

“S-Spot?! Are you ok in there? I didn’t hurt you right? Did I go overboard? I’m sorry if I did I just get too into character and I can’t-“ Davey cant help but drop the act and start to ask the shrunken boy in his gut a million and ten questions and the presses against his form.

Spot yelps as he’s pushed back by the pressure of Davey’s hand from the outside. At least Davey was back to himself. “I’m fine Dave. Physically fine. I....I now see why you didn’t want to show me. And why the Delanceys are scared stiff of you.”

Davey’s usual nervous laugh sounds deafening as it shakes the chamber holding Spot. “Yeah....that. And could you speak up a bit? You’re really muffled.”

Spot’s fighting calms down, him relaxing against the wall that’s oddly comfortable. The only thing that’s strained at the moment is his voice but he can take that. “O-Ok....so, you’s is gonna spit me up, unshrink me, an’ then we go our separate ways, yeah?”

“Uh.....” Davey knows he should but...it’s so nice to be full again after a day of not eating and he doesn’t really want to go to bed on a empty stomach. It wouldn’t hurt to just... “not yet.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Well, I wasn’t lying when I said I was really hungry. Missing a day’s worth of meals then also running around with the boys does a number on a empty stomach. “It’s not like you aren’t safe after all.”

“Dave, are you tryna say you ain’t gonna let me out?”

“Um....y-yeah. Sorry...?”

This is where the fighting picks up again. Davey’d be lying worse then Pinocchio if he said he didn’t miss it. A hand started to rub at his belly again, almost like he was trying to get Spot to move.

“Lemme guess. You’s wasn’t lyin’ bout the squirmin’ thing either?” Spot’s tone is somewhere between annoyance, anger, and amusement. This was certainly something.

“They....it feels nice....” Davey sheepishly admits. It does feel nice to have a squirming meal under his skin.

“Well ain’t that good for my case!”

“It really isn’t.”

“Oh trust me, I know!”

They talk for a while more, Spot having to constantly yell at the top of his lungs for Davey to hear him. After a while a yawn echoes around Spot, followed by the swaying of the chamber hes in as Davey stands up.

The taller teen forces himself to his feet, a hand rubbing at his gut all the while. Boy is he lucky that his prey never seems to make a bump in his flat stomach. Makes it easier for him to hide his special “punishment,” though he’s certain the boys of Manhattan know. “Hey Spot? I’m getting pretty tired and am gonna head back to the lodging house for the night. Do you think you could keep it down?”

Spot seems silent. He’s not but after so much shouting he needs a break. The fighting says all he has to though.

“Alright then, as long as you don’t manage to wake up any of the boys.”

Slowly Davey stumbles through the sleeping city, a hand over his stomach at all times. Back at the lodging house, trying to get through the mess of boys and to his shared bed for the night with a squirming meal in his stomach again. He really couldn’t think of a better way to end his night. With a few pats to Spot he snuggles down for the night, leaning into Jack’s sleeping presence without thinking. Once he’s drifted off he leaves Spot to himself. It’s awkward but eventually he tires out. Not long after, the leader of Brooklyn finds himself unconscious listening to the sounds of the boy’s body around him.

/Note to self: If David tries to avoid a topic, don’t press him on it./

#safe vore #soft vore #g/t newsies #fearplay #Jesus Davey #calm down

[halorocks1214]

the law of relativity

AO3 Link

Word Count: 9963

Summary: The Law of Relativity states that each person will receive a series of problems (‘tests of initiation’) for the purpose of strengthening the ‘light’ within. We must consider each of these tests to be a challenge and remain connected to our hearts when proceeding to solve the problems. This law also teaches us to compare our problems to others’ problems and put everything into its proper perspective. No matter how bad we perceive our situation to be, there is always someone who is in a worse position. It is all relative

Previous Parts (in order): Alan | Virgil | You are here! | Gordon

WHY 👏🏼 CANT 👏🏼 I 👏🏼 WRITE 👏🏼 FICS 👏🏼 IN 👏🏼 MO 👏🏼 DER 👏🏼 RATION 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 also just bluuuergh. dont ask about this fic. part of it was written in a dark auditorium, another was written in a different state, another was written on a frickin bus, this fic has been places ill tell you what. half the time i think this is hot garbage and the other half i think its actually decent so im posting this while my head is in a good headspace and then promptly yeeting myself off the internet for a few hours to wait and see what happens. this series is becoming less of a canon divergence AU and more of a straight-up AU because of certain details im trying to worm in there buT IM TRYING MY BEST

thanks once more to @gumnut-logic, because of the length, this time i used three prompts, them being "What do you mean?", crease, and dream (and they werent even used that much sksksksk)

Warnings for both graphic and non-graphic depictions of violence, as well as mentions of torture and other PTSD/panic attack related stuff. I went deep with this one fellas

Orphan.

The word tasted dirty in his mouth.

He can still see the footage in the backs of his eyelids from when he watched it exactly one year ago. He was the only other (living) adult at the time in the family outside of Grandma, so he was permitted to see it. He remembered they originally didn’t want to show him, mainly because of his age, but Grandma was fierce, and she put one hell of an argument on the table.

One Scott refused to let fall through the cracks by breaking down. If only Grandma knew how he cried his eyes out and screamed to high heaven that night in the hotel room after essentially watching his father be blown to bloody smithereens then she was a goddamn saint for keeping it a secret. It made sense, she was the mother to his father. She had quite the line up of stories from Jeff’s childhood. Scott sensed the early-greying of his hair came from her, heh.

The rest of his family eventually saw it, of course, they did. Scott couldn’t shield them forever. What he will protect, selfishly he might add, was how angry he was at how much better they took it than he did. They cried, yes they did, but they never fully broke down like Scott did. Later in life, he wondered if it was jealousy: jealousy at not truly being able to let go. Whatever it was, he made sure to swallow it along with whatever alcohol he chose for the weekend.

Just add it to the ever-growing pile of shit he had to deal with. Nothing new.

Suddenly he’s 20 again and seated in a plane to be taken to his first stint in the Air Force. He said his goodbyes to Virgil, Gordon, and Alan back at home while Grandma and John metaphorically held his hand all the way to the airport. John was… quiet, more so than usual, but Grandma was stuck right in the middle between being a sobbing mess and ecstatic at the fine young man he’s become.

You’re just like your father. He would be proud.

Scott was secretly glad she never physically said it. It gave him plausible deniability in thinking that those words weren’t laced behind her big, bright, prideful eyes.

The first time went well, maybe even great. He stayed for a couple of months, did some flight tests, and while the training was brutal, boy did he learn a lot. When he came back home it was to a family slowly stitching itself back together. Grandma was a full-time house member, Virgil had taken up painting, Gordon talked about potentially going back to his swim meets, and while Alan was still as silent as ever, he was perkier than when Scott last saw him.

It would be on and off for the next few years: a couple of months at home, slowly and painfully taking over the role their father had (he can’t remember when he essentially received joint custody of his younger siblings with Grandma, but hey, he’s not complaining), then a couple of months out at the Air Force base where he slowly climbed up the ranking platform. He became skillful, perhaps too skillful. When he got his rank of Captain he felt it was less of an honor and more of something they owed him.

He was getting cocky. Never enough to be a danger to his fellow men, but enough to be somewhat of an occasional annoyance. Charles smacked him upside the head more than once. It felt like the world was right-side-up for once. Scott made many-a-calls to John and Virgil, the former enjoying his first few rotations up in space and the latter squarely in the middle of college. Gordon was being offered sponsorships to hell and back, and Alan was quietly getting along with the other kids at his school. Grandma was on welcoming duty for Kayo, who was taking her slot in the Tracy family with grace, though, a warning that their family would take custody of her if something were to happen to her parents would have been nice, Dad.

Of course, nothing ever goes right for their family for too long.

Orphan.

Age 24, it was supposed to be a simple retrieval mission of civilians. Scott was put in charge of his squad and then some. At night, they rolled-- well, flew out to get the job done. Scott can’t even remember the country anymore when minding his own business. Australia? Finland? Perhaps Bangladesh? There was a place John was insistent Scott never do rescues in, Virgil tended to agree, and the eldest unhealthily let them banish him from ever stepping foot there without argument. He could never remember the name off the top of his head until John’s familiar International Rescue, we have a situation rung out in the living room followed by the name of the country.

He would immediately forget it later, trauma too strong, too volatile, but the way his heart stopped and his head shattered and the way he felt ice water rush down his back was a good enough reason to quietly leave the room and let John delegate the job to one of his brothers. Sometimes John found him retching in the toilet halfway through the mission. He made sure to always mute Scott’s wrist communicator, even if it was never turned on in the first place.

The plane touched down. Orders sent the ground team out. But then the ground team took longer than estimated. Scott tensely waited where he was told to. It wasn’t the first mission that took a little longer than predicted and knowing humans, it surely wouldn’t be the last. Then, words mixed with heavy static came over the radio. H--p. Co-- ---7--. --nd ba---p --me--at--y.

Scott sat tensely in his seat, remembering his orders and suddenly hating them. Radio back to home if the mission goes south. Well, it didn’t look like they had the radio anymore. Still didn’t hurt to try at least. Scott spoke the familiar protocol that was ingrained into him when trying to call base. Dammit. Nothing. Probably some kind of blocker of sorts. Sitting up straight as a board, Scott looked through his options.

… He was in charge here. If something happened to his team the fault would lie squarely on his shoulders. Going against everything but his gut, he went out to help his squad. He can’t really remember what he exactly did anymore, but he does remember that it made a noise. Like a Looney Tunes scene: he flinched, froze, waited to see if anything or one heard, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued.

He eventually stumbled across one of his closest comrades, Arnold Brigeets. Yes, the name was ironic and half the reason he joined the force in the first place. The guy was one of the people that actually trained Scott and also seemed to be one of the few that was genuinely proud when Scott became a higher rank. It’s why Scott was more appreciative of Arnold than others, that, and well… Scott thought his fatherly abilities were good. The guy did have three kids back home.

Orphan.

Ducking down behind the cover his older friend was semi-situated behind, Scott watched as Arnold jumped at the intrusion before sighing. Scott had run into some enemies that he swiftly took down-- nothing too serious, he didn’t have the time or weapons for such an act, but they definitely would be out of it for a while-- so Arnold must have too on his way to find cover as well, hence why he was so on edge.

“Thank God,” Arnold wiped his forehead, “Glad to see you join us, kid.”

Scott was breathing heavily, but the grin he attempted was still there, “Y-Yeah, so what happened? More threats than we thought?”

Arnold shook his head, “Yes and no. There were a lot more baddies than we thought, but that’s because the civilians weren’t civilians. It’s a tr--”

Boom. The familiar sound of a gunshot.

Arnold fell over. Never got back up. Dropped like a rock in a lake, never to come up to the surface again.

Scott was so caught off guard he couldn’t react to the gun that swiftly beat him over the head, knocking him out cold. The only thing on his mind was oh fuck oh fuck I messed up I shouldn’t have come I wouldn’t have made any noise that way why did I--

They had him for roughly two weeks. Scott always thought the plotline in movies where the villain vehemently denied knowing any important information was dumb as hell. We’re not stupid. We wouldn’t go after someone if they didn’t know something.

The things they did hurt and no amount of I don’t fucking know anything! would help. Those two weeks were lost to Scott in a sea of pain and torment. The only thing he remembered was being captured, then waking up in a hospital drugged up to his gills with his superiors staring at him like he cured cancer.

“You saved the rest of your squad from sharing the same fate as the first half.”

“I-I did?”

“You betcha, son. I only wish I was there to see it! People be saying you were like an animal in how you took ‘em all down.”

Scott’s never remembered, and he wanted to keep it that way.

He was given the highest honors, even the chance to skip a couple of ranks to be at the same level as the big boys, but the night they were going to share the news to the golden boy himself, they found him in one of the bathrooms with a bloody hand and a mirror shattered with no hope of fixing it.

He was honorably discharged to a family that was so thankful he was home. Words like missing in action and POA never stopped haunting their nightmares. Scott was too, God, of course, he was, but sitting around and doing nothing was the last thing his traumatized mind wanted or maybe even needed. After doing what he considered to be the biggest fuck-up of his life, he needed to feel important.

This isn’t the first time he’ll say this and it surely won’t be the last: thank Christ for Grandma.

“You want me to take over?...”

“Yep, it’s about time Tracy Industries received a new pair of eyes. The Board certainly thinks so.”

“But… they’d rather have a crazy, PTSD-infected veteran over you?”

A rough pinch to his ear, “Hey now, don’t call yourself that,” the gentle motherly tone was back as soon as it left, “Besides, that crazy might exactly be what they want. Half of their argument is that I “don’t take enough risks.” They’re getting tired of listening to an old fart like me.”

A moment of contemplation, followed by the cheeky raise of an eyebrow, “So you’re saying you want me to take so many risks they have no choice but to take you back?”

A bark of laughter, “Damn straight.”

He learned the ropes faster than normal (healthy, is probably the correct term), and he immediately won the hearts of both young and old in the company. Instead of flying planes every few months, he worked on business reports and vetoed new ideas every couple of weeks. It felt satisfying for the most part, and his family was just happy he was still alive to enjoy it.

However, there was a slight roadblock on his way to becoming a somewhat stable person.

He became prone to violent blackouts. It had to have started when he blacked out and saved himself from those two weeks of hell, which made the most sense. Something was always destroyed when he came back to life. John was the best at calming him down due to his own experience with panic attacks, however, John couldn’t always be there, and the next rotation for NASA was coming swiftly. Scott swore up and down he would be fine, he could figure something out. John went back into space with an eyebrow permanently raised.

It was just him and Virgil home (Grandma had taken Alan and Kayo to watch Gordon swim) when he, unfortunately, proved John right. Scott wasn’t sure what triggered it, but he vividly remembered coming back in Virgil’s extremely tight hold. The first thing Scott thought to say was damn, beanstalk, when did you get so strong? but then he laid his eyes upon the forming bruise on his younger bro’s face and hasn’t recovered since.

Virgil swore he never held it against Scott. Scott definitely thought he should have.

That night brought sudden clarity to Scott that he was doing this horribly wrong. He was a ticking time bomb, and it wouldn’t be long before something was damaged in a way that couldn’t be fixed. Scott needed an anchor. Something to ground him before he took it too far. John wasn’t going to be earthside forever, Grandma was busy with Kayo, Alan was just a kid, and Gordon was living the dream. None of them were viable.

Then, as he was thinking, he was suddenly aware of how calming Virgil’s arms were around him, how they were preventing the growing panic attack in his chest from getting even bigger.

It was easy.

For once in Scott’s life, his eyes were big and young as he asked Virgil, “Help me, please.”

After a few brief seconds, Virgil gulped, “Okay.”

From then on, Virgil was Stone Number One. Scott’s admiration for Virgil outweighed the guilt of putting the black-haired man in that position in the first place. Virgil was glad to follow his older brother’s leadership, but just as qualified to bring him the hell back when he went too far. From getting too sacrificial to preventing a good punching-out some of the idiots they dealt with, Virgil made sure Scott knocked that shit off.

Time went on, Scott was a top-notch CEO at Tracy Industries, John was having one hell of a time up in space, Virgil was graduated and had so many life opportunities to pick from, Alan was thriving at being a (mostly) stable kid, Kayo was 100% acclimated to the family, and Gordon--

Scott found himself gripping the wooden desk very abruptly. He was shocked he didn’t snap a chunk off in the process. Why was he thinking about this right after a giant business conference? Who knows at this point. If this giant origin story seemed jagged and jumpy, maybe even somewhat vague, good, that’s how it fucking felt.

Back to said story.

Scott always thought he and Gordon would have the least amount in common.

They do, but out of all the things they could have picked to be similar, why did it have to be the PTSD caused by military-related jobs? Scott was 24 when he got his, Gordon was just under 20. It may have been a few years since their respective accidents, but they’re never going to go another day without it feeling like it was just yesterday.

At this point, Gordon was up and walking again, mainly thanks to John and Alan while Virgil and Scott helped in their own ways. Grandma’s cooking was what probably motivated him the most though, ha, the need to get away from it… Scott smiled. Grandma was always a constant. Honestly, if it weren’t for her, the family might have fallen apart. Literally.

What has he been saying throughout this whole shindig? Thank Christ for Grandma.

One day out of the blue, Grandma reserved the entire family (yes, even Kayo and Alan) private plane tickets so they could spend some time on the mainland for a few days. Honestly, even if the island wasn’t getting major renovations, you hooligans need to get out more. Have some fun. Try not to kill anything, especially each other, she all told them while creepily grinning. John and Virgil smacked Gordon more than once on the plane for insisting that she finally snapped, dudes, she’s gonna kill us.

Most of the time during their little vacation, Scott heavily focused on his breathing. He was pretty sure he knew what she was doing. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, but the same went for his excitement.

Dad showed him these plans the day after his 18th birthday. You’re a man now, Scotty, I need your help making this big boy decision with me.

As soon as they reset foot down on the island, Scott took a deep breath and felt relaxed at the salty taste in the air. It was weird, nothing on the outside was changed, and yet… it still felt different.

“Guys!” Virgil yelled out, “Stop playing in the water! We just got back, aren’t you two tired?!”

Blinking back to reality, Scott looked over to see his two youngest brothers doing exactly what Virgil was yelling at them for. Poor Johnny was a little damp too, which is what probably caused Virgil to shout at them in the first place. The blondes didn’t care. They continued to prance around in the shallow waves with their pants legs rolled up, acting as if they didn’t hear anything outside of their laughter. Gordon shoved his hands down into the liquid and threw some directly at Alan, nailing him right in the face.

Scott exhaled slowly. He couldn’t imagine them doing this 8 years ago.

Regardless, the artist was right, and they couldn’t waste too much time. Kayo was swift in grabbing both gentlemen by the ears and dragging them onto dry land. They all painstakingly trekked their way up to the-- what would you call Tracy Island? Mansion? Over-blown cabin? Well, whatever it was, Scott would always be willing to call it home.

Stepping inside, each brother took in the view, which was underwhelmingly not that much different, except for one tiny thing. John suddenly noticed a figure already standing in the living room and blinked, “No way… it’s--”

Gordon jumped in, both with his body and his words, “Brains?! Dude, how’s it hanging?!”

The scientist in question jumped at the voices before clearing his throat and readjusting his glasses, “O-Oh, hello again, T-Tracys. It’s good to see you all once more.”

Virgil slung an arm around his shoulder, ignoring the blatant squawk, “Man, how long has it been?! What made you finally decide to crawl out of your hole?”

Snickers came from all corners of the house. Brains stood up straighter, “W-Well, I was contacted b-by Mrs. Tracy over here with an offer I c-couldn’t turn down.”

Eyebrows tilted in all shapes and sizes. Someone cleared their throat. Everyone turned to look at Grandma once again, “I think if you all follow me, you’ll swiftly understand what I’m talking about.”

I already do, Scott thought matter-of-factly. John seemed to be understanding it now, Virgil was on the cusp of remembering what his father was hinting at for him, and Gordon was just as lost as Alan. It made sense, Jeff talked to all of them about it, but the oldest had seniority. The two youngest not remembering just by words was expected, especially since that was going to be rectified very quickly.

The hangar under the island was beautiful. Point blank. It smelt of iron and steel and grease and engine and that was the first time since Scott had been in the Air Force that he didn’t gag or flinch at the thought of flying something again. Scott had seen the plans his father drew. He assumed Jeff finished building it, but he never got to physically see it since…

In some ways, he was glad he didn’t. Now he got to experience it with (most of) his family, and that made it ten times better.

After letting them absorb the scenery, Grandma slowly turned around to look at them all, “You remember that dream your father had?”

The four oldest blinked, Kayo simply raised her eyebrows, meanwhile, Alan, being the teenager he was, didn’t read the emotion in the room, “Oh, yeah! Aunt Casey always talked about how he was going to “change the world” and stuff. What did he call it again?”

Scott felt way more confident than he had in a while, “International Rescue.”

Grandma nodded, gleeful at the happy look on her oldest and youngest grandsons’ faces, “Well, I’ve been thinking about some things. I know we don’t exactly worry about money, but after everything your father put into these girls… I’d hate for them to go to waste.”

The Tracy family jumped at that. John’s mouth was wide open in shock, yes, shock, “That station is still up there?”

Grandma sighed, “You mean ‘Five? Not for long. Not if we don’t send someone up there within the next few days.”

John blushed at the grin Grandma gave him. Clearing his throat, his big brain came to a startling conclusion, “Wait… you brought Alan along?”

The other big brothers in the room jumped at that. Kayo was the only one with enough balls to say the truth out loud, “Mrs. Tracy, I mean no offense, but he’s--”

“Just a kid?” Grandma smirked, “A kid that’s topped the VR charts for Intergalactic Fury for weeks straight while simultaneously getting nothing but A’s in his classes?”

Scott nodded slowly in comprehension. He remembered Alan talking about that game for a while. It was some kind of online racing simulator of sorts. Scott caught the prettiest string of words from Alan when going to bed one night. Nearly made him shit his pants. He made the kid promise to keep it PG-13 if he wanted to keep playing.

Still, the elders in the family slowly turned to look at the freckled boy with both shock and pride. Alan blinked with wide-eyed innocence, “But my English class is only at a B--”

“Shh, kiddo, I’m making a point,” Grandma rolled her eyes. The other brothers snickered. Yep, still Alan. Grandma sighed, “Now before you point out that video games are different, I know, but the difference between them and this is that video games don’t have some of the most talented older brothers in the world to guide him.”

Said older brothers jumped at the idea. Before any objection could be made, Grandma continued, “Besides, the GDF seemed to be okay with it. The Colonel was willing to oversee some of his training too.”

John flinched at that, “But IR is supposed to be independent!”

Grandma slightly frowned. She didn’t exactly like it either, “It still is, but in the world of business, compromises have to be made.”

Virgil huffed and crossed his arms, “Well, that’s… rough. Here I thought only Scott would have to deal with the bullshit of business.”

Grandma chuckled at the somewhat un-Virgil-like behavior, “It really is, Virgil. But about that Scott part,” she slowly turned to look at him and him only, “I hate to give you more work to do, but if you want to work within their restrictions?”

Suddenly every pair of eyes in the room was on the head of the family. Gulping, Scott looked down at his feet to think. It was a tense few moments, nobody sure what he was going to decide, least of all him, before the brunette cleared his throat and brought his face back up with a grin.

“Well then,” Scott turned to look at the bright tip of ‘One, chest fluttering with a feeling that became unfamiliar to him over the past few years, “I guess now it’s time to state the obvious.”

From then on, every time he loaded into that cockpit of his girl, he felt lighter than air.

“Thunderbirds are GO!”

Everything was okay again.

Mostly.

Orphan.

Scott took another sip of his whiskey and refocused on his reports.

---

Scott was in some kind of dissociative state the whole way home.

Alan doesn’t deserve this. He’s still a kid, barely an adult, and he’s going to go through utter hell because you screwed up. You were 24, Gordon was just under 20, Alan was barely 18. Alan’s going to get fucked up like you and it’s all your fault.

His movements were robotic and rigid. Anyone with a working eye could tell he was deep in shock and running on autopilot. Mostly Jeff. Especially Jeff. The rest of the brothers all noticed too, but they were also running on their own empty fuel tanks, so the only thing they could do was guilty send their older brother the occasional glance of pity and concern.

Jeff was going to need to talk to them about that. Somehow. Maybe he shouldn’t be the one to point it out since he feels just as bad. His sons were too much like him, sometimes, and that made his guilt burn all the same. He should’ve been there to warn his sons about the dangers of unnecessary guilt. Having that kind of guilt was a parent’s job, dammit, and maybe grandparents only occasionally.

But then he remembered where he’s been for the past 8 years and… who really was Alan’s parents anymore? His gut was screaming it sure as hell isn’t you, but he knew his sons would want him to step back into the role as soon as he was physically fit to do so, not just for Alan, but for themselves as well. They would deny it, but they probably just wanted to be kids again too, even if it was only brief, fleeting moments.

Who was to tell the protective, fatherly side of Jeff no to that? No better time to fix things like the present after all.

He saw Scott go up the stairs when they first stepped into the living room, so that’s where Jeff was going to go too. Footsteps light, Jeff retraced his eldest’s pathway to his bedroom. Only, he stopped before said bedroom. Unfavorable noises were coming from the closed bathroom door, and Jeff could only swallow whatever emotion it made him feel. Taking a deep breath, he slowly opened the (unlocked) door to the bathroom and laid his eyes upon the incriminating scene.

Jeff was met with the sight of Scott retching his entire stomach into the toilet, hands aggressively grabbing his sticky, hair-gelled hair and trying to make himself bald from the strain.

Jeff’s reaction was always based on autopilot, and it will never stop being so.

Ignoring his protesting body, Jeff kneeled and placed a hand on his son’s back, only to abruptly pull back like he touched a hot stove when Scott only got more hysterical at the contact. The brunette clenched his eyes shut even more (and they were already shut as much as possible) while his head became a special kind of crease. Like he was in pain, “God, I wanna go home. Why won’t they listen I swear I’m telling the truth! Please, I just want Dad--”

Jeff was frozen on the spot, heart stopping in the process. His brain shut down while he watched his son continue to mindlessly ramble and panic. His freaked-out mind barely registered footsteps from behind in the hallway, followed by a voice going what’s going-- holy--

Something thundered past him. Blinking once, Jeff guiltily watched as Virgil kneeled behind the eldest and wrapped his arms around the thin man’s shoulders while taking Scott’s hands in his in a protective blanket, “Scott! Jesus-- we’re at home, you’re safe and it’s June 14th, 2--”

Scott only struggled more, panicking at the fact he could no longer yank his hair out. Dammit, it was the only way he could feel in control, don’t take that away too! “No! I swear I’ve said everything! Please--”

Virgil immediately knew that this was one of those attacks that Scott wasn’t coming back down from with pure human intervention. Add-on the sight of his father’s big eyes signifying the man was at a loss at what to do, Virgil had no choice. He snapped loudly, remembering the comms were still on and only feeling slightly bad at the way Scott flinched in his arms, “Shit-- John! It’s Scott! Get the stuff! We’re in the upstairs bathroom!”

Muffled footsteps through a few walls in the house could be heard. Jeff’s mind was only starting to catch up when the brother Virgil called for came rushing into the bathroom (Jeff never remembered it being big enough to hold four of them) and ignoring Jeff (practically shoving him out of the way too, man, this was bad) on his way to the main problem at hand. Landing on his knees in a way that made Jeff wince, John gently grabbed one of Scott’s arms from Virgil’s hold and subsequently pulled a needle from nowhere and injected something into Scott.

The response was instantaneous.

Scott’s breathing, while still labored, got slower. He stopped struggling as well, and the way he sagged reminded Jeff of ice melting into a puddle. The two other brothers’ shoulders also sagged, relieved at the crisis averted. John stood up, knees cracking as he rubbed the back of his neck. Then, he froze at the sight of something in the doorway, “G-Gordon…”

Virgil snapped his head up from where he was looking at Scott. Jeff did something similar. Yup, in the doorway was the strawberry blonde, eyes wide, making him younger by about 10 years. The ex-Olympian in question inhaled, closed his eyes, and soon speed-walked his way out of the entrance to the bathroom. Dammit, neither Gordon or Alan have seen something like that and it probably spooked him more than anything. He’d understand with his own PTSD-related issues, but still, seeing the “never weak” big brother freak out in such a scary way...

John combed a hand through his hair, shaking his head. As he started walking out of the room, he whispered to himself, probably hoping no one heard him, “Dammit, this is all so fucked…”

Unfortunately, Jeff did hear, and the dirty language made the father flinch. John was always the best about making sure Grandma didn’t wash his mouth out with soap, and the fact that he so willingly didn’t care meant that everyone was at the end of their rope. Still reeling at the sight, Jeff couldn’t react to the gentle arms that picked him up off the floor and slowly led him out of the suddenly stuffy room.

With the click of the door shutting, Jeff realized what Virgil did, “W-Wait, Scott--”

“Will be okay for a few seconds,” Virgil finished for his dad, “I know it’s nearly been a decade, but the one part of you I definitely know hasn’t changed is the need to comfort us, just like we hoped.” The small grin that fell over the middle child’s face put Jeff a little bit at ease, but Virgil wasn’t completely done, “So, I’m going to let you take care of this, but I just want to make sure you’ll handle it with grace. Take this slowly, okay? Scott might be doped up, but he’s still… volatile, in a sense.”

Jeff cleared his throat, suddenly choking on the unneeded tension, “Okay, Virgil, I promise, just… what happened? That was… bad, and really bad at that too. I know Scott would never let something that severe willingly come out in front of his family.”

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, clearly not ready for this conversation, “Listen, Dad,” he inhaled sharply, cutting himself off before sighing in a way that said fuck it, might as well get this over with, “As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living. We all have lives and stories now, and this is Scott’s story to tell.”

Jeff was getting misty-eyed again. Back when he was just a kid, Virgil couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, mainly in part due to his insomnia-related issues (Jeff has to wonder if he still has them, more problems for the future) and general lack of filter because of sleep-deprivation. Now Jeff knew there was a starch difference between a kid who couldn’t keep his mouth shut and a man who genuinely knew how to respect another man’s privacy, but…

It just hammers home how much he’s missed with his boys. Gulping, Jeff made a mental note to talk with his mom about certain things he’s missed. She’ll know a lot more than he would, “Okay, Virge. Thank you, for stepping up there.”

Virgil’s shoulders relaxed at Jeff’s words, as well as his father’s hand patting him on the shoulder, “Thanks, Dad. Just… go easy on him. I know it’s a little late for this but none of us ever properly talked about things. It was very unhealthy, deep down we all knew that, but…”

“You just couldn’t get the proper emotions out?” Jeff finished for his son. At Virgil’s soft nod, Jeff exhaled, “I’m not going to say that it was a smart decision, but we’re all here now. We can move forward with this.” Jeff squeezed where his hand laid.

Virgil blinked before curtly going, “Yeah. Goodnight, Dad. Take care of Scott.”

Virgil stepped around his father and walked to where his bedroom most definitely was not, but Jeff could deal with that in a little bit. He had another son who he was pretty sure just had a violent PTSD attack of some kind, plus, Virgil seemed to sour at something Jeff said. The ex-astronaut wasn’t sure what it was, so he didn’t chase after him out of worry that--

Wait.

We’re all here now.

Dammit, Jeff. Out of all the sentences you could’ve picked...

Alrighty, just add that to the ever-growing pile of things that need to be talked about later. No biggie. Jeff found himself sighing and rubbing the back of his neck much like Virgil did a few minutes ago. Turning around, he was met with the bathroom door once more. Shaking his head, Jeff slowly crept into the room and saw that not much was different, especially with Scott.

His heart softly cracked, but, again, he can deal with it later.

Sitting down on the ground and grimacing at the way his body ached (was gravity always this rough?), Jeff leaned against the floor cabinets about 2-3 feet away from Scott, who made himself into a nice comfortable ball in the corner next to the toilet, his palm smushed against his forehead. Jeff waited a few seconds. Then minutes. Then he realized he would have to be the one to initiate the conversation. He probably should’ve realized that right when he came back in. He opened his mouth, but his wasn’t the one that words came out of.

“It was… Zambia.”

Jeff’s heart stopped and his mouth snapped shut. He couldn’t stop the way his eyes clearly showed his panic, but hopefully, he guiltily thought, Scott was a little too doped up to not realize it, “Scotty, what do you mean?”

Scott shrugged in a way that spoke he thought what he was admitting wasn’t a big deal. Yep, clearly not with it, “Mission went bad… caught for a couple of weeks.”

Jeff was hoping his first fuck back on Earth, spoken to himself like right now or otherwise, would have been a comedic thing, but the way nausea rose in his throat said this was anything but funny.

Scott wanted to be in the Air Force. Badly. Who was a father to deny his son’s want to be part of such a noble cause? He gave him tips, took him to meet friends in high places, sometimes even sparred with him when he turned 18, but then Jeff was suddenly thousands of miles away with no hope of ever having the chance of sparring with his eldest again. Despite it, Jeff hoped Scott went on to become the best pilot the world has ever seen.

Part of this looks like he did, but at what cost?

As much as it felt like it did, the world didn’t stop spinning because you… well, we had lives we somehow wanted to continue living.

Aw hell, “Jesus, Scott…” Jeff couldn’t tell if it was the brashness or the lack of a nickname that made Scott flinch and he hated it. He immediately softened his tone and brought his 27-year-old child into his arms, “Shh, shh, we’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out.”

Like father like son, old habits die hard, and as easy as it was to still be able to comfort his children, Scott seemed to just as easily take it as he used to 8 years ago, “Alan doesn’t deserve this kind of hell, God, he’s barely not a kid anymore! Why--”

Jeff tightened his hold to keep his son in reality, and because he didn’t like the tone behind those words, “Hey, you didn’t either--”

Scott somehow managed to fling himself out of the hug, focus incredibly on point for someone who was doped up to his eyelids five seconds ago, “But I fucked up! I made the wrong call and then suddenly Arnold was dead and he had a wife and kids-- shit, what the hell did I do?”

Okay.

First of all: way to put him back in that headspace when that’s the exact opposite you were going for, Jeff, father of the year. Second: dammit. Just… dammit. This was a big fat hand grenade in a giant handbasket that they didn’t have time to gently get out while simultaneously not yanking the pin clean off with the grace of a drunk elephant. Jeff was no stranger to Survivor’s Guilt, but there was a whole untapped pile of metaphorical C4 within his son’s head that was ready for someone to push the goddamn button.

He wanted it to be him, desperately, because it sounded like he already failed his family enough, it was all he could do at this point, but he absolutely hated that he couldn’t do it right now. This was going to take a lot of time, which they didn’t have, plus, Jeff thought he had a pretty good understanding of this new Scott and the rest of his kids. Jeff was aware that if he didn’t help his sons find their baby as fast as possible over everything else it’ll lead to a fate nobody wanted.

A shaky sigh, “Okay, Scotty, let’s get you to bed. We’ll talk strategy in the morning.”

Scott simply nodded as his father flung Scott’s arm around his broader shoulders and picked him up. Slowly and painfully but surely, father and son meandered their way to Scott’s room. With a thump a little harder than Jeff wanted, Scott flopped down on top of his sheets and immediately started snoring. Despite everything that just happened, the father couldn’t help but grin at the sight. Well, there was another thing Jeff gracefully passed onto his son.

Jeff only took Scott’s shoes off. He would’ve loved to pull the sheets up around him too, but the father didn’t want to take any chances at waking him up. Slowly tip-toeing out of the room, Jeff gave one last glance back at his son before finally letting him be and gently shutting the door. He had three other sons he needed to console, but his tired joints told him to selfishly take a moment for himself for right now unless he wanted to collapse and give his family more to deal with.

Jeff eventually made his way to his room-- which was sadly unkempt, he noticed-- and sat down on the edge of his unfamiliar bed to think.

He’ll figure something out. If he had to crawl through images of his son being brutally and bloodily tortured then by God he would with the fury of a thousand suns.

He was back and he wasn’t going to throw away any second or even third chance he was given.

---

“I got him.”

Virgil turned his comms back on, and with it, Scott’s heart restarted for the first time in a few weeks. Taking a moment for a breather, Scott leaned against the wall while practically wheezing. They have him back, holy shit, they have him back. Scott vaguely heard Gordon cry in pure relief and joy. He saw John’s side of the comms flutter for a bit before a bright flash happened. Blinking away the white spots, Scott looked at his wrist to see a fully detailed map of the compound.

Gordon spoke what they were all thinking, “Woohoo! First Allie comes back, then Johnny-boy gets us a free ticket out of here! We’re winning this race, baby!”

A very loud moment of silence. John cleared his throat, “Actually, I was going to say glad to see you in one piece, you little shit,” a playful gasp came from Virgil’s side. It was too high pitched to be from the pianist’s mouth. Scott chuckled, but the paranoid part of his brain said John wasn’t done. His brain was right, ‘“But guys… that wasn’t me. Or EOS. We still haven’t found a way to get past the metal they made these walls out of.”

That silence was even more deafening than the last, and before Virgil could utter out his typical what the fuck, a small logo appeared at the corner of their new map. One that was all too familiar. The Chaos Crew wasn’t the only one who could brand their awful deeds.

Son of a bitch.

Virgil’s order over the radio was meant for Alan, but Scott couldn’t help but listen to it too.

“Shit, Alan, you need to run.”

Making quick work of the compound once more, Scott, while booking it even quicker than last time, opened a private line between him and Gordon, “Hey, how would you feel if I said go help Virgil while I cover Alan?”

The first response was stuttering, which Scott expected, but then it was followed up by something completely out of left field for Gordon, “... Okay, just as long as you promise to bring Alan back in one piece.”

Part of Scott wanted to console Gordon, another was questioning why Gordon was so quick to give up, another wanted to say of course, I will, idiot, but the first part that made itself verbal was easy, “You know I will, buddy.”

Scott could physically picture Gordon’s tiny, little, somber nod clear as day, “Sounds good, captain. See you on the other side.”

With a click, Scott was back on the group comm. Suddenly remembering what exactly his job was, he pulled out the map so graciously given to them by The Hood. Looking at all the dots, one was heading towards a prone one (oh if that asshole did anything to Virgil…) while another one was heading right for Scott himself. Actually, in just a few seconds, right as Scott rounded the corner he would--

“Woah, look out there, Tigger!”

Yes, you heard that correctly: not tiger, Tigger. Tigger hadn’t been used since Alan was itty bitty. It always seemed like the kid had endless energy with the way he wouldn’t stop bounding off the walls and furniture. Even as a baby, Lucy had to sit with him for a few hours while he slept in his crib to make sure he would stay there. In fact, their mother gave Alan that nickname herself. She was quite the Winnie the Pooh fan, and the rest of the family figured it would be one of the ways they could keep her legacy alive for the tiny potato.

Wrapping his arms around said flailing potato, albeit much bigger than a baby, Scott thought he would collapse then and there. Alan was here, in his arms, and yeah, the sight of his dirty and somewhat ripped up IR uniform made him mad, but Scott, for once in his life, decided to focus on the here-and-now, aka his precious, alive little brother, who finally stopped struggling at the realization that hey, the person holding you is a good guy, time to turn off fight mode.

Smushing their foreheads together as much as possible, Scott desperately fought to keep the waterworks back, a smile from ear to ear hopefully taking whatever energy his tear ducts had, “You are getting such an ass beating when we get home, little bro.”

Alan jumped back with a look of What the hell?! What did I do now?!

Scott simply rolled his eyes, “Really? “Not important”? You graduated high school, tiny dude! That’s huge! You remember Gordon’s party, right?”

Alan’s mouth gaped before he closed it with slightly puffy cheeks. Those same cheeks tinged with a small blush. Alan wasn’t exactly expecting to be smothered so soon (well, he did cry his eyes out on Virgil’s shoulder, but that was different!). Shaking it off, Alan moved his hands rhythmically and rapidly, To be fair, we weren’t sure he was going to get one for a while.

Scott faltered a little bit at the ASL. Darn, he should’ve seen Alan’s lack of talking from a mile away. Scott carefully hid his disappointment from Alan. Lord knew what the kid would take it as, “Yeah, that’s what he got for barely making it. Imagine what you’re going to get!”

Scott assumed his semi-fake charm worked, as Alan seemed to play along without any kind of suspicion, Oh yeah. Fair enough.

This kid, man.

Then, slow clapping came from a dark corner, making Scott’s heart leap out of his throat as well as push Alan behind himself. Glaring as much as he could towards the invisible evil-doer, Scott didn’t have to think twice, “Alan, take my map and find Virgil and Gordon.”

The youngest looked like he was going to object.

“Go.”

He no longer did. Good.

Listening to the field commander’s orders, Scott felt his wristband slip off his wrist and a warm body leave his vicinity. An inhale. Also good. An exhale, followed by an even darker glare, “What more do you want?”

Short and straight-to-the-point and angry, two things Scott typically wasn’t. Regardless, like a cold gust of wind, footsteps started approaching him from the shadow. Once Scott saw the outline of a body, he tensed even more. Virgil would snap at him for clenching his jaw so much.

A dark chuckle reminded him of what was important. The voice that spoke reminded him of something completely different, “Now then, brother, let’s not be rude to each other!”

Scott’s pupils shrunk at the familiar sight of Gordon stepping towards him. Except it wasn’t Gordon, because Scott knew that Gordon knew better. He also knew Gordon didn’t cheekily smile like that, even after a prank, nor did he walk that straight. He always had a funny walk after WASP, and Gordon wore that fact like a badge of honor.

Oh no, Scott definitely knew who this was, “What the hell are you playing at?”

Fake-Gordon rolled his eyes, like it wasn’t obvious, “I mean if we want to go that route, why did kid insist you being in the military was the coolest thing he’d ever heard you do? Maybe I wouldn’t have been pressured into joining a branch myself in the end.”

Scott’s nostrils flared, and by God, his pupils might have actually slitted like a snake’s, or possibly even a dragon’s, “Excuse me?”

Scott blinked, and suddenly he was met by not-Virgil, “Plus, why was our conclusion after hearing a three-year-old wanting to see snow to go to a ski resort? It had to have been those big, selfish, beady eyes, right?”

“C’mon, Scotty, we gotta give you some kind of calming exercise. There’s going to come a time when neither me or John are going to be there.”

“Hmm… does yoga work?”

A snort, “Well, that’s not too bad of an idea. Maybe the person pissing you off will stop whatever they’re doing at the sight of you spontaneously doing downward dog.”

Laughter, an unfamiliar action, “Yeah, okay, but for real, those breathing exercises I’ve seen you do look okay. Let’s start there.”

Scott was not a liar by heart. He had to admit that those exercises were doing jack shit right about now.

Another blink, another brother. Familiar ginger hair was all Scott could see, “To continue that previous point, why did Dad start International Rescue again? And what led to his demise?”

“Sounds like a piece of work. Why do you keep dealing with these people again?”

“Someone has to pay the bills, Johnny. Grandma’s too focused on making the perfect poison for us.”

A roll of eyes, “Right, because the billions we have saved wouldn’t be enough to last a couple of families a few lifetimes. Glad to see your calming exercises are working at least. How’s that going for you, by the way?”

A pause. A flicker of vision around the room. Someone cleared their throat, probably himself, “It’s probably not as bad as whatever space is throwing at you. You handling it okay up there?”

Another pause, followed by a sigh, “Well, since you asked so nicely…”

Scott wanted to deflect the truth so badly right now more than anything else. Telling him he couldn’t pilot ‘One anymore would be a much more enticing option than what he was hearing.

Suddenly, Scott was looking in a mirror, “Besides, I know more than anybody that he wasn’t wanted. A mistake. I thought we Tracys hated being imperfect?”

The Hood must have known their backstories from internet articles, and being the mastermind he was, it probably took him all of three seconds to see Alan had some hidden self-worth issues. By playing the biggest Guess Who? game of all time, The Hood was most likely able to figure out some less-than-positive ideals Alan thought about himself throughout his childhood and danced circles around his already weakened mind to string together some spineless blame to put on the kid by sheer evilness alone.

Knowing his kid brother, it worked.

Scott wasn’t thinking straight-- maybe even at all when the first punch was thrown.

Just like that, Scott blacked out and was running on terminator mode. John would be disappointed. Virgil would be horrified. Gordon might find it funny. Alan wasn’t here, and thank God for that. Scott wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. All his mind was telling him was make lots of pain hard and fast. His brain also blocked out any hit The Hood was giving him in return. Pain flared for a few seconds, then it was swept away in the puddle of rage his mind was currently being consumed in.

Soon, his out-of-it mind found its target and gripped his-- The Hood’s arm, no disguise would make him have an identity crisis, thank you very much-- nice and rough.

Scott heard the familiar snap of cartilage and felt only partially bad. If he was thinking more clearly, he would be disgusted with himself. Yes, even The Hood didn’t deserve this level of Scott’s fury. Oh, he definitely deserved to be hit by a truck, but not by Scott. It was mostly due to Scott’s sanity. If he could be this graphic and violent at all, even to the worse possible criminals, that meant he could be that way during other moments, and that was not a territory he wanted to cross into.

Welp, he was here now, and he’ll hate to admit it in the future, but the only thing that brought him out of it was a tiny gasp from a few feet away. Snapping his head up, Scott’s eyes landed squarely on a smaller-than-normal Alan, who was currently clutching his arm to his chest in an emotion Scott didn’t want to figure out at the moment. So much for going and finding Virgil and Gordon.

“Allie, help…” fake him grunted out, only making real Scott growl and tighten his hold (and probably making his case worse). Looking up from the person in his arms, Scott felt his heart split in two at the sight. There was fear and uncertainty in Alan’s blue eyes and boy did it hurt. Scott couldn’t tell if it was because even seeing a potentially-fake Scott being beaten up was bad or if it was because he’d never seen big brother be this brutal, even towards their enemies. Whatever the reason, it involved Scott being the main root of the problem.

Wait, that was The Hood’s plan. Shit… make Scott act past the point of no return in a way that was unfamiliar to Alan so the kid couldn’t be fully sure who was who, and Scott fell right into his trap, hook, line, and sinker.

Fuck.

Bloody well done, Scott, you absolute moron.

Scott faltered a little bit, “A-Alan, I--”

That falter was enough for The Hood to break an arm out of his grip and elbow him in the face. In the brief second of freedom he had, he tried dashing towards Alan, but Scott was too quick for everyone’s good and soon had the imposter back in his arms, both of them struggling in a way that made them look like they were tied into the weirdest knot in existence.

Then, an earthquake struck.

No, literally.

A big shake of the abandoned compound threw the look-a-likes about and subsequently off the platform they were on. The place was old; it didn’t take a lot of weight for that guard rail they made their way over towards while fighting to snap right off. With a yelp, the two of them gripped the edge as much as they could and held on. Crap, I know we talked with Fuse about potentially setting some stuff off, but--

Blinking, Scott saw a familiar mop of blonde hair come into view. Alan was rather panicked, clearly not sure which Scott was the real Scott. Not only that, he had little time to decide which one to save. Goodie, another reason to despise The Hood: not only has he put Alan through weeks of torment, now he’s forcing the kid to decide to either save his oldest brother and biggest hero or his personal torturer.

And Alan won’t know until he picks.

Holy hell, this was getting worse by the second. Hopefully, big brother charm can work its magic and get them the hell out of there.

“Alan, quickly, over here!”

“I can’t hold on for much longer, Alan, hurry!”

The two Scotts glared at one another in the exact same way, not making Alan’s job much easier. Another shake, another slip down the metal cliff, more screams, and Alan looked ready to tear his hair out. Scott watched as the kid looked around rapidly, probably praying for a miracle in the process. Suddenly, the kid jumped when he must have spotted something important. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone and out of their range of visions to retrieve it.

Whatever the hell he noticed better be important, because if just ended up wasting precious time then--

Another shake, probably the last one. Still, it was enough.

Both their grips gave away at the same time, screams identical (God, did he always sound that wimpy?) as they plummeted to their demises. Scott was briefly able to look up to see his brother pop his head over the cliff like a chipmunk again and grab the (albeit broken) arm of The Hood and save him. Dammit, Scott should have expected that, though, that display of anger was uncharacteristic to Alan. Probably terrified him even more than he already was. Fuck, Scott deser--

Suddenly, a rope wrapped itself around Scott’s left arm and stopped his descent. Hard. Hopefully, it was only torn stuff, they didn’t have time to deal with dislocation--

Wait.

Scott wasn’t dead if he could think about these kinds of things.

Blinking, he looked at his arm to see the familiar rope of his grappling hook around his forearm. Moving his eyesight to look past that, he saw the wide, blue eyes of his baby brother struggling to stay on top. The Hood was using his non-broken side to try and climb his way back up to safety. Huh, that’s weird. When did Alan get ahold of that? Scott must have dropped it during his scuffle with--

That’s when it hit Scott.

Alan saved them both.

Alan saved them both.

And it would be all for jack shit if Scott didn’t get his ass up there to help.

Panicking, Scott gripped the rope and started to ascend. He had two working arms and a smother complex to boot; it wasn’t long before he overtook a struggling Hood, who could only use one arm and a weakened brother (that bastard was so lucky Alan had a literal heart of gold).

Flinging his arms over the edge and pulling himself up-- and shrugging off the extra help Alan offered. Save your strength, baby bro-- Scott was in a much calmer search-and-destroy mode. He yanked his evil look-a-like up, turned him on his stomach, pinned him down, and before he could even watch Alan blink, “Sign something.”

There, now he watched Alan blink.

Scott pulled out one of his best ‘big brother’ smiles ever, “Tell me something in ASL. I don’t think The Hood learned that kind of etiquette.”

The body beneath him growled, making Alan jump and Scott tighten not only his hold but his glare. Further prove big brother’s point, why don’t cha? He lost the angry look immediately to grin at Alan once more, who seemed to be slowly getting the picture. With a gulp, the blonde slowly strung together a sentence that Scott had to laugh at, just a little bit.

Damn, could you teach me to fight like that, Scooter?

Nodding his head, Scott had to concede, “Sure. Consider it a graduation present.”

Alan blinked again, and the immense relief that washed over the boy’s shoulders would be enough to banish nightmares for at least a couple of days. Suddenly, The Hood’s disguise blinked out of existence, making both brothers jump that time. Scott didn’t falter in his grip, however. This man was going down right here and now, Scott thought darkly, staring at the prone body beneath his.

Scott saw Alan continue to sign out of the corner of his eye, You know you look like shit, right?

Scott chuckled. Alan was always able to put a smile on his face no matter the circumstances, “Yeah, well, kindred spirits, little bro.”

Scott was probably as pale as Alan was with such lack of sleep and food. Running on what was essentially a prolonged PTSD attack wasn’t healthy in the slightest, and no doubt whatever kind of bruises and scratches The Hood gave him didn’t help, however, seeing hope fill those deep-blue eyes when Alan learned he was truly being saved drowned everything out, including the way those freckles were getting lost in those eye bags.

Yeah, their entire family probably looked like shit, and the recovery process was going to be even shittier, but they were going to suffer through it together as a family would.

That made it all worth it.

Shuffling himself so one arm was free while the other kept The Hood pinned, Scott held it out towards Alan. The flinch the youngest made tore a hole in Scott’s heart that was only slightly patched when Alan leaned into the warmth and safety of his biggest bro. Long recovery process, remember? Regardless, Alan still took to the hug like a dehydrated zebra did a pond, and that was good enough for Scott.

The Hood groaned underneath them.

Yep, good enough.

#fabfivefeb #fabfivefeb2020 #thunderbirds #thunderbirds are go #scott tracy #alan tracy #jeff tracy #grandma tracy #the hood #virgil tracy #john tracy #gordon tracy #my post #my fic #series: rules of alchemy

[gothamstreetcat]

okay, now im curious, you can go off here, i dont mind! (if you want to, of course)

VLAD! oh my gosh, okay.

*tw if you totally like barbara. please don’t read this. contains mild mentions of child abuse*

i’m not sure i know the best way to begin this semi-long rant. first off, i never really liked barbara (which is kind of a rant for another time) and this falls into one of the reasons why: 

(this is taking me so long to even start this because i’m not sure exactly what i’m trying to say, I’m so sorry...)

in many ways barbara clearly makes selina uncomfortable during this scene. in addition she comes off as rude, out of line, and little inappropriate and even manipulative if i’m being totally honest. to me, selina clearly seems off-put by barbara’s drinking habits (in what seems to be the start off the day) while she’s expressing wanting to leave. and while i don’t completely think the two things are connected, it is interesting to have them both in the same scene as such. this being linked to barbara (in-current) going through a hard time and dabbling a little back into past addictions--something i do not think selina is unfamiliar with (i’d get into it but it involves a lot of talk on my own brain/thoughts and feeling but doesn't necessarily go with the show).

the second issue i have here is the way barbara spoke to selina. i’m sure barbara said what she said with a decent heart but i almost feel like she has no business telling selina “she’s growing into quite the young women.” she shouldn’t really be saying that to someone she just met and yes, perhaps i am going off the rails just slightly but the things she proceeded to say following that makes me feel uncomfortable. think (if you would) if it were a grown man to tell selina that? or clyde? because he really came off to me like a child predator or someone that had pictures of young kids stashed away in a drawer somewhere--but hi, i’m getting off topic.

when she told selina “removed the dirt, that old hood, those ratty clothes... i bet we find a princess underneath..” it truly burns me to my core because on one hand, you’re telling selina she’s a pretty face but then picking apart everything she is. almost as if barbara could only see the same street girl that other people saw and maybe see some bit of potential in her yet it felt like barbara only saw the potential of a pretty face. telling her, her appearance could be a weapon that ‘no man could refuse” that is something pimps say. 

perhaps, it would be something different if it was barabra speaking to her own child however, selina is not her child. selina is someone she just met. selina is a homeless girl who spent many years learning to survive on the streets. and selina is a pretty girl who has probably be told so by many kinds of people... so please forgive me when i say barbara’s world make me uncomfortable. because i start to remember this scene and i remember a grown woman who was down on her luck and trying to manipulate these young kids into something she wishes she could be. trying to make them what she missed out on, or maybe she lacked, perhaps trying to teach them a “skill” but going about it the entire wrong way--because at the end of it all barabra was the adult in the situation and selina and ivy were just young kids. and there were so many cases in this show where the adults failed the children, and yes, selina is not perfect yet she was a child who was lost and confused and forced to grow up too quick and the adults who knew better used that as a way to benefit them. 

(now, lucky for me selina told barbara to take her sequence dress and shove it)

in addition to this, barbara twice reached out and touched selina without permission. first, she reached out to touch selina’s hair which is a little creepy but you could also see how uncomfortable selina was by it (**which is why your grey-ish gifs of this moment hit me hard). and this may just be me but when i see that bit i can’t help but feel there is a deeper meaning behind it. secondly, she removes her hood in front of the mirror and is telling her all this stuff (and to keep it on the light side i want to crack a joke here, if that’s cool with you and say that looks can’t actually kill, but a knife or gun definitely can--but okay barbara)

i mean, not to be a bitch but ivy could have been a nice girl sailing with other nice girls but she really had to take advice from this one...

now, i’m not trying to be biased but i do want to point out the difference’s between how bruce see’s selina vs how barbara see’s selina. i’ve already talked how barbara clearly see’s selina but let’s remember bruce’s reaction when seeing selina for the first time.

first, he was clearly taken by her (love a first sight, if you will). he even looked at her from her head to her toes and you could tell he thought she was the most beautiful girl he ever saw--dirt and all. he then proceeded to put out his hand for her to take if she wanted to. something no one had probably done before that day, and not only that but bruce was interested in knowing who she was following that initial encounter (i made a little post about it here i wasn’t sure if i should share because the gifs are ugly but i love seeing bruce play with his fingers when he’s nervous)(he was so dead-ass excited when he was asking her questions about herself like living on the street because it was for science and not because he was totally in love with her or anything, he swears). i also want to point out the many times selina asked for his consent before she kissed him--something i was not initially in favor of however, i think it is so important that it be said for both bruce and selina; as i believe that knowledge in selina potentially comes from someplace and i think it is just as important for males to give content as much as females. 

lastly, bruce could always see selina’s protential and he always made that clear. he saw her potential to be a good person and a better version of herself and it’s one of the things i love about him because he believes so deeply in this other human being when no one else would, or they just saw her as a pretty face. bruce didn’t point out her ratty clothes, he merely pointed out how she didn’t come with much and if she wanted he’d be happy to help her get more. he mentioned it was ‘strange’ her comment about his academics which (again, i could be going off the rails) tells me he sees her potential and finds it odd that she wouldn’t want to develop it--if that makes sense?

*full disclaimer that it is not my intentions to take away from anyones gifs by saying all these things. i think you all are amazing and i love your gifs and i will totally reblog them. his is just how i feel and sometimes it’s hard because i think i shouldn’t speak the way i feel and i have to hold my hand over my mouth to keep myself from screaming. i feel like i’m holding onto this dark secret that i just cant tell anyone but this is honestly something that has been weighing on me for a very long time. i don’t feel as though i’m wrong in the things i said and i believe there is more to unpack. 

regardless, thank you for letting me share. 

p.s i think i got lost in talking about bruce. the wheels are still running but the train is down. i am so sorry. love you

#link to the video i kept referencing is in the source #let it be known i think that blue in your gif set is on fire #and no one better hurry to put it out #she gorgeous #also. i'm super sorry if this is messy #i have a hard time speaking about intense topics #thanks for coming to my ted-talk #i don't think i need to add this but just in case for when i feel guilty about it later #this is not a criticism At All over your gifset #i think it is gorgeous and i will never shut up over that blue #i wish i was that gorgeous #this is honestly kinda hard for me to talk about it's crazy #and do know i'm really glad you made that set #asks #asks: vlad #shout-out to all the asks i've gotten lately. i love you all and i'll see you soon

[geeky-roleplayer]

My friend @ruinvevo wrote a Voltron fic.

She was having some problems with Tumblr and asked that I just post it onto my account, crediting her, of course.

So here it is! - Kay.

🌹🌹🌹

title: champion

fandom: voltron: legendary defender

word count: 3,421

notes: see bottom of page for that

song: champion - carrie underwood ft ludacris

two hands in the air, i will be the last one standing

i am a champion

Theodore Kai could recall almost anything you asked him about. Rather it be the first time he knew he loved his boyfriend Takashi Shirogane, or Shiro. Or maybe its the first time his hope was completely twisted out of his grip by the Galra, as they mercilessly attacked his sister and mother right infront of him, before taking him prisoner. He was no stranger to pain, no stranger to the battle scars that came from war, as most weren't now. Especially not anyone on the Atlas, the war ship from earth that was changing the world with the Paladins of Voltron on board. 

Even now, he recalled past memories. The quietness of the world was never able to echo louder then his thoughts, because he has been doing this ever since he was a child. Fighting, losing, winning. But this would be different. It had to be, the fate of everyone was depending on it. 

you'll be looking at me when its over. 

i live for the battle, im a soldier, yeah. 

Theo recalled back to the time he stood infront of the crowd, infront of the stage. Not even a mere month ago, before they were leaving. Everyone was cheering, screaming, urging the people on that stage to go and save lives like they have done countless times before. It was truly chilling, awe inspiring, and it reminded him just exactly what he had to lose. 

That day, he didn't want to stand on that stage. It wasn't his to stand on, not when he was no paladin. Nor was he a Garrison soldier. Looking over in this vision of the past, he could see his little sister at his side, chin high up in the air, proud to know that while they weren't standing up there, they were cheering for them as well. The scars of their past battles, almost losing Shiro twice, it never would truly leave Theodore. Not even as he glanced down to flex the muscles on his hand, pale pastel blue markings peeking out from underneath like a reminder of his pain. 

His attention was returning to Riley, and then he was looking up at the stage. Where Shiro stood, where the other paladins stood, the ones he considered family. And it reminded him of how he almost lost them. 

Im a fighter like rocky, Put you flat on your back like Ali,

Yeah im the greatest, im stronger, 

Paid my dues, cant lose, Imma own ya, ay

Theo could remember the screaming and echoing pain in his muscles that day. When they reclaimed earth so many months ago, and the lions were plummeting straight down back towards the blue and green planet, and the only thing you could see was the coloured streaks flying across the sky. 

It was likely the stress of that situation, that caused his marks to suddenly go into overdrive. And before he knew it, he was crying out in pain, unable to handle it. He could hear Shiro in his ear, in those comms that were built into his helmet, yelling at someone, or something. And then silence for a moment, before he was whispering words of encouragement, trying to soothe his pain though he was unable to get there, to see him. To help him. He couldn't lose his kids, not now. No, not after all that Theo had been through. 

And when he was flying straight for the ground, he was unsurprised. Unable to do anything, to fly, because his whole body was cramping, spasming, all of his muscles attacking him for simply existing and caring. 

and then it was quiet, except for the exploding noise of the engine blowing.

i've been working my whole life, and now its do or die. 

i am invincible, unbreakable, unstoppable, unshakeable.

they knock me down, i get up again. I am the champion

​​​​​

"Theo? Hello? Earth to Theo?"

Theodore was stirring from his little flash back of the past, as he found a hand waving infront of his face. It was his little sister, Riley Savannah, who was dressed and ready to impress even though they were heading into battle. A black suit version of what Griffin and the other MFE fighters wore. He could only offer a smile, and a murmur of apology for spacing out. 

"Are you alright?"

Theo was then nodding. 

"Yeah. Come on, lets go. The sooner we get home, the faster we can come back to Hunk's amazing cooking."

His words were followed up by a brighter smile of reassurance, though Riley clearly was still skeptical of him, given the way she furrowed her brows in confusion at the way he was acting. So spacy, so odd. 

Turning to the side before he began to climb into the back of Griffin's MFE who would be dropping him off, while Riley headed off towards Laith's, he saw Shiro standing in the door way. Watching to make sure he got in safely, and even now, Theo found his heart pounding at the sight of him. 

you're gonna know my name, you cant hurt me now, i cant feel the pain, i was made for this, yeah. 

yeah i was born to win, i am the champion. 

Adam was standing there, inbetween the pair. Looking down at his tablet, as he was the one to moniter this mission. He no longer payed any mind when people stared at him for the many scars upon his face, or really anything else. They no longer mattered, not when he had people to fight for, more information and stories to teach to those younger generations before he finally would retire from the mantle of teaching. Glancing up, he saw Theo standing there, unmoving, despite one hand on the step to get into the ship. 

Then he was following his gaze, towards the door way, where their captain leaned against it. One another watching each other, completely in love. 

While it bothered him, seeing it now, it no longer pained him as much as it used to. Shiro was happy, and that was all that mattered to him, though he still swore Theo was out to get him, threatening him in dark corners of the ship when it was only the pair. 

Not that it mattered now, of course. 

Theo was going off into battle. Risking himself just for the sake of the mission to finally create peace in the universe. 

"Can you two please stop staring so Theo can leave, before we get behind on schedule?" 

When they write my story, they are gonna say i did it for the glory, yeah. But dont think i did it for the fame, i did it for the love of the game, yeah. 

And this is my chance im taking, all those old records im breaking.

"Yeah yeah yeah, im going, Adam." 

Came the quiet rumble from Theo, before he had a sly smirk on his face, directed at his lover. Saluting casually, before he was stepping in and sitting down. Glass shutting over, as he began to prep himself. Griffin in the front was running last minute checks, as the rest of the crew began to vacate the hangar. 

Adam and Shiro included, who had a direct passage to the bridge, so that they could lead this battle. The Lions had left a few minutes prior, and now Riley and Theo had to do their part. 

Get in the Galra cruiser, get all the information they could, and get out of there. 

​​​​​​Without getting hurt, though missions like these, they never always go according to plan, do they? That was something Theo had began to expect, ever since he joined the Paladins all that long ago. As a Galra soldier, nothing more then a toy for the commander of that ship, a previous labor worker and prisoner. But had it not been for that moment, the others showing up, he wouldn't be here, so he could only count his blessings as they took off. 

All you people watching on the tv, go ahead and put your bets on me, ay. I've been waiting my whole life, to see my name in lights. I am invinsible, unshakable, unbreakable, unstoppable. They knock me down i get up again. I am the champion. 

"Comms check, Fighters." 

"Riley here! Comms are working in my helmet." 

"Theo checking in, blessing you all with my precious voice."

Theo could only scowl, when the pilot of this ship, Griffin, snorted in amusement at his words. Clearly there was disbelief there, when Theo's voice was precious. Maybe not to everyone, but certainly to Shiro, who only sighed in annoyance at the bright orange screen infront of him that showed the others. 

The comms would work like so. Adam would moniter them on his tablet, hearing them in his headset. And if it was extremely important, they would switch channels to communicate directly with the Atlas and its commander. 

"Please! Like anybody finds that voice nice." 

"Sounds just like your piloting skills. Dont kill me, please."

"Hell of a lot better then you, Kai." 

"Once we get back to the hangar, be prepared for me to kick your ass and make you eat your words, Griffin." 

Theodore could only laugh when he heard Shiro over the comms, sighing angrily, and even louder then previously. It sounded like Adam and him were arguing about something, though what he couldn't quite tell. It didn't seem to matter however, as it was time for him to be dropped off, along with Riley. 

"This is your stop."

"Riley, Theo. Make sure you come home safe." 

Shiro's words were not to be taken in vain, because they were said with every ounce of caring in his body he could muster because it was true. If Theo didn't come home safe, he didn't know what he would do. 

"We will." 

Came the chorus of reply from Theo and Riley both, before they were dropping in. 

You are going to know my name, you can't hurt me now, i cant feel the pain, i was made for this, yeah i was born to win. I am the champion.

When they dropped into that Galra cruiser, it didn't take long for them to infiltrate it, finding a weak spot on the outside. Riley was the one to speak out, to inform Adam of their progress update since they were no longer on the main channel connected to the Atlas Command room, or Bridge as it was commonly called. 

They had a few moments of peace, as Theo stepped out from the vents they had just crawled out of. 

"It is oddly quiet.. something is wrong." 

It turns out they weren't wrong about that, or atleast Theo wasn't, because moments later he was being shot at by dozens of Sentries. A quick cry escaped his mouth, as he pulled Riley back into the vent, hurrying her along. Taking many twists and turns that almost made him dizzy and sick. And almost lost, as well. But then they were dropping out only a few halls away from the command room's doors, and Theo let out a sigh of relief. 

And then it began again. 

Sentries, soldiers, coming up to shoot at them. He and Riley pressed themselves against the wall for a few moments, before they began to attack. Theo was pulling his twin axes out from his waist, just as Riley pulled her large sword from its sheith on her back. 

Turning to each other with a nod, before they attacked. 

Running forward with war cries and to their credit, they did manage to fight their way through until they reached the command room. But that was as far as their luck went, because Riley let out a sharp cry. Sword almost being dropped, as one of their bullets grazed her side. Energy burning away the suit that was left there, leaving exposed and burning flesh, bleeding and terrible pain. 

Theo was not happy in the slightest at this. And he took the others out, before noticing the command room doors shutting. 

And he barely managed to slide through with one last look at Riley, before he was leaving her alone in the dark hallway. 

Born champion, Luda. The C is for the courage i possess through the drama. H is for the hurt but its all for the honor. A is for my attitude, working through the patience, Money comes and goes, so M is for the motivation. Gotta stay consistent, the P is for the persevere. I is for the integrity, for the innovative career. The O is for optimistic, open and never shut. The N is necessary cause im never giving up.

When Theo reemerged with the information required to fully end this mission, he was staggering forward. Command doors opening, and he was left forward to walk towards his sister. Taking her sword to place it back in its holder on her back, before he was using his shoulders to support her weight. 

She was tired, that much was evident by the way her weight pressed against him. In pain, losing blood. And it hurt him to see. The adrenaline of the situation was causing him to ignore the pain in his side, where you might not see it at first glance due to the black fabric, but he was heavily bleeding with a wound to his side. A sharp one at that, a cut due to a blade. Sticky from the blood in the suit, and he thought it felt terrible, but he ignored it. 

Instead switching his comm channels to the Atlas. Instead of Adam's little monitering chat.

"Wounded soldier, we need pick up now. Get your asses in gear and get over here." 

His tone left no room for argument, as he carried Riley to the hangar. When they got there, he was left to stare angrily at the sentries waiting for him and her, before gently setting her down. 

Whispering words of encouragement to stay awake. She just had too, he could not lose her. 

And then he was attacking, growing weaker by the moment. When the others arrived, he rushed over to Riley, before opening the hangar doors. Sucking both of them into space, where both MFE's were waiting to grab them, glass tops open. 

See, they ask me how i did it, i just did it from the heart. Crushing the competition, been doing it from the start. 

they say every champion is about their principles, Carrie!

When they arrived back at the Atlas, no one payed Theodore any mind, simply because they did not know he was hurt. Or how heavily he was actually bleeding, or anything. Instead, everyone flocked to his sister, who needed more medical attention then he did anyway. 

Taking a step out of the ship, to stand on the ground, it felt nice. When they rushed out, everyone in the hangar followed. Shiro was nowhere to be found, though that was expected, much like Adam still being gone. 

The Lions also required their attention, with their mission as well. 

And so, he was left to sway for a few moments, before he turned away from the hanger doors, and the ship he was leaning against unknowningly. Leaving behind a red bloody print. Glancing around the room, until he could stumble over to a pile of crates. 

Then he was dropping beside them, out of sight from the whole room where he could close his eyes and rest. Helmet abandoned off by the ship, though his orange phone was on him. 

That was ultimately how they found him. 

I am invinsible, unshakeable, unbreakable, unstoppable. They knock me down, i get up again. I am the champion. You're gonna know my name, You cant hurt me now, cant feel the pain. Yeah, i was made for this, i was born to win. I am the champion.

Theodore was far gone betime Shiro was able to leave the bridge. Having to stay for the lions, but assuming that Theo would join them not long after arriving, as he couldn't stay with his sisters for a few hours. And besides, once the lions would arrive, Lance would arrive like a hell storm and Theo would be set in his sights for letting his girlfriend get hurt.

Griffin had said he was in the hangar, before they took Riley away. That echoed in Shiro's mind, before he entered the hangar, glancing around. Most crew members were still away, doing their own things. 

And at first glance, he didn't notice the red bloody print upon the white and orange design of the MFE that belonged to Griffin. 

His phone was being pulled from his pocket, so that he could dial Theo's phone. 

And he froze when it began to ring, inside the hangar. He could only follow the sound, and it sounded so loud compared to anything else. Even his heart beating loudly in his ears, or the footsteps he was loudly making, or the slight buzzing from his arm. And it was like ice water was running through Shiro's veins, being chilled to the core as he made it around the corner to look into the pile of crates. 

And his heart broke. 

"Someone! Please, please get help! Anyone, please!"

Shiro was crying out loudly into the empty hangar, and it took a few moments for anyone to appear to see the commotion. Shiro lifting up his boyfriend, holding him close to his chest as he stumbled forward with him in his arms bridal style. Blood was soaking Shiro's outfit, and Theo looked deathly pale, and in a way he was. 

And Shiro never thought he would forget that sight, as someone took Theo from his arms. 

i'm the champion, yeah. Surpassed all the rivals, its all about who wants it the most. Fight for what we believe in, thats what champions are made of. 

When Theodore woke up the next day, his throat was dry. Scratchy, and he felt the pain in his side, along with a tightness there. Bandages wrapped up tightly, when he managed to lift his head far enough up to peak underneath the blanket. Weak, certainly. 

And when he glanced to his side, his heart broke because there sat his boyfriend, laying with his head down against the bed. Black circles already in his eyes, no doubt he stayed awake this whole time hoping Theo would pull through. Hand gripping Theo's, and he found himself smiling at that. 

And so, gently, he poked him. In the head, where all of his newly found grey hairs sat. 

Shiro was springing up a moment later, glancing around quickly in a panic, before Theodore caught his attention. He could only stare at him, in shock. Fear was in his eyes, terror. Happiness, sadness, so many mixed emotions, and he didn't know what to say or think. Only he could stare. When Theo made a motion for some water, only then did Shiro stir from his staring, getting up to hand him a glass before he was sitting back down. 

Tears were in his eyes, as he watched Theo take a drink. 

"How could you do that? Be so reckless? I almost lost you, Theo. I.. i dont know what i would have done without you."

Theo didn't know what to say at first, as he watched Shiro sob as he finally was able to release his emotions out from the whole event, because Theo was awake. His Theo. His lover, his boyfriend, his partner, his best friend. Space dad number two. 

And really, Theo didn't say anything. Instead pulling Shiro up with the little bit of strength he had, using his hand to pull Shiro's. Though he didn't fight it, so it was easier for him anyhow. Not aggravating the stitches on his side, wrapped in bandages. 

A kiss was placed on Shiro's lips, holding him there, hands coming up to be placed on his cheeks, to wipe away those tears that were breaking Theo's heart. 

When he pulled away, he pressed his forehead against Shiro's. 

"I am so sorry, my love. I have no intentions of going anywhere. I can't leave you with all those kids and recruits, now can i?" 

Shiro's only reply was a mix of a sob of terror, and a choking of laughter as he brought Theo in for another grateful kiss. 

I am the champion. okay yeah so here are the notes. 

originally this was just an idea, but then i thought of Theo sliding underneath a door, with Riley looking at him in terror and realized i needed to expsnd further on this. 

The champion song by Carrie Underwood has reminded me of all of the Paladins, and that is why i used it here. 

lmao despite knowing that none of them will see it, i do hope that josh keaton, bex taylor, kimberly brooks, steven yeun, jeremy shada, all of them know just what these characters mean to me. and what they inspire me to do. 

so yeah. 

hope you liked it. ~ @ruinvevo

#voltron legendary defender #voltron shiro #OC insert #Voltron #Lance McClain (mention) #takashi shirogane #James Griffin #voltron adam #Personally #I really love Theo

[savage-rhi]

Can you do another HiggsxReader? The reader is cooking something and Higgs pops in. It's the first time in ages that he ate something other than takeout or rations. Thank you

Some cute shit right off the grill :D!

Higgs groaned as his eyes began to stir. He had been sleeping for hours now, and his body rejoiced in it up until his nostrils caught a whiff of something good. He slowly rose up from Y/N’s couch and stretched his arms. Various pops escaped his body as he winced and let out a yawn. Higgs tried to be mindful of the injury he had on his upper chest, not wanting to make it worse than it was, but as he became more awake and could hear Y/N rummaging around the kitchen, his curiosity had been piqued. 

Higgs slowly approached the kitchen area of Y/N’s bunker, looking around until he spotted them moving around some pans and throwing things onto a skillet. The aroma of smells and spices got to him, making his stomach flop over itself. It was loud enough to where Y/N turned around and faced him, giving a small wave as they smiled. 

“Surprised you’re awake. You must be hungry.” Y/N said as Higgs let out a scoff and made his way more into the dwelling. He was still cautious of getting too close to Y/N, fearing that they were gonna turn around and backstab him much like Homo Demens did when they found out their plans for extinction didn’t go the way they wanted, hence why Higgs had the chest injury. He could still feel the knife being used to carve out his flesh as he shuddered at the memory. 

“How do I know you didn’t poison the meal?” Higgs countered teasingly as Y/N sighed and shook their head. Yeah, he had been an insufferable idiot since Y/N had taken them in, but Higgs felt he had good reason considering all the people that had betrayed his trust. 

“If I had any intention of killing you, you’d already been dead with the drinks I gave you. I put a lot of medicine into those.” Y/N said in their defense as Higgs made a face and nodded. 

“Point taken. Always knew you were a soft heart. ” He replied and came over to Y/N’s side. His eyes were fixated on the food and the hot steam from the frying pan blowing on his face. It felt good. 

“Whatcha making?” Higgs asked, surprised at how calm he sounded then as Y/N used a fork to gesture. 

“Steak, potatoes, some veggies. I had leftovers.” Y/N said casually with a shrug as they looked up at Higgs, seeing he looked confused. “Why you ask?” 

“I never---” Higgs paused, not knowing what to say. Sure, he had some decent meals in his time but nothing like this. Daddy never taught him how to cook, and given the life he lead as a porter, Higgs didn’t have time to teach himself the skill. Ordering out was practically all he knew when it came to food. It was convenient, cheap, and it beat the hell out of ration packs when he couldn’t stand them. 

“You never had real food?” Y/N asked with a laugh, getting Higgs to snap his attention back to them as he rolled his eyes. He was beating himself up for sharing his diet details with them earlier on in the week. 

“Of course I’ve had real food you stupid fuck” He muttered bitterly with a sigh. “I never had steak though. Looks good.” 

“It’s almost ready. You can sit down and I’ll bring it to you.” Y/N offered, ignoring his insult as Higgs nodded and went over to the table. He took a moment to look around. There wasn’t much in Y/N’s bunker, save for the necessaries but he did appreciate some of the plants they had all throughout the residence. It added some color, something he wasn’t used to seeing often. 

“Hey, how’s your wound doing?” Y/N asked as Higgs perked up a little, chuckling with sarcasm. 

“I feel like an asshole tried to carve me into a jack-o-lanturn,” Higgs replied.  “Other than that bullshit, I’m doing better.” He was sincere about that. Whatever Y/N had rubbed on his chest was doing a great job of taking the pain away.

“I hope it doesn’t scar.” Y/N said. 

“Scars are no biggie to me darlin’.” Higgs said. He was indifferent to them after suffering at the hands of his daddy during childhood. It was just another notch on his belt as far as he was concerned, another testament to his will to survive.

The conversation died down and Higgs watched as Y/N came over with a steaming plate of food. They put it in front of him, handing a fork and spoon to Higgs while they got themselves a plate and sat across from him. 

Higgs played around with the meat for a bit before stabbing the fork into it and bringing it to his mouth. After a few munches, the flavors burst along his tongue and it took strong willpower not to eat everything in one go. Nonetheless, his appetite didn’t go unnoticed as Y/N’s eyes widened, looking up from their own plate to see Higgs had cleared more than half of it when they were less than a few minutes into their own food. 

“Shit, you eat faster than my garbage disposal.” Y/N said as Higgs looked up briefly, his cheeks stuffed to the brim with potatoes as Y/N snorted and tried to stifle a laugh. He could feel himself getting red in the cheeks as he swallowed. 

“It’s really good.” Higgs said honestly, trying to hide his excitement as he gestured at Y/N’s plate. 

“Do you have any more?” He asked as Y/N shook their head, but then pushed their plate towards him. Higgs furrowed his brows, glancing between the food and them a couple of times. Higgs normally wasn’t one to care about another's wellbeing, but when it came to food, he understood what it was like to go without for long periods of time. 

“You sure?” He asked as Y/N nodded and smiled. 

“You’re way hungrier than I am and you haven’t been well. Besides, I can make myself something later.” 

Higgs didn’t need to hear anything else. As soon as he got the okay, he scarfed down whatever was left on his plate and started going to town on Y/N’s portion of the meal. Y/N couldn’t help but watch him, finding it kind of cute how he ate. Watching Higgs eat was like observing a kid try out something for the first time and getting to see the awe in their eyes at having a new experience. 

“Do you think you could show me sometime?” Higgs piped up as Y/N canted their head curiously. 

“How to cook.” Higgs said bliuntly as Y/N nodded. 

“Yeah, if that means you’re planning on staying longer.” 

Higgs contemplated on Y/N’s words for a time. He had no intention of hunkering down any longer than he needed to. After the shit that happened with Amelie, and having Homo Demens nearly kill him, Higgs wasn’t in the position to be around people. He only allowed Y/N to help with his injuries because they had been so damn insistent after helping him getting away from the terrorists. He still wondered if they were aware of who he was. 

Furrowing his brows, Higgs let out a deep breath as he stared at his plate before answering. 

“I’ll stay if you want me too.” Higgs said, looking up at Y/N to see that they looked happy to hear that. It was probably another stupid decision on his part, but after this last week, Y/N was starting to grow on Higgs. He also didn’t want to miss out on another round of steak and potatoes. Pizza was already starting to take a backseat when it came to his favorite meal. 

**A link to my ko-fi account. If you enjoy my content and want to support me getting my monthly medication for fibromyalgia and arthritis, I would be eternally grateful. It is NOT a requirement however! All my work is free to read!**

#higgs monaghan #reader #reader x higgs #higgs x reader #self insert #boy #girl #nonbinary #don't matter have fun #death stranding higgs #ds higgs #death stranding #death stranding fandom #higgs thirst tag #higgs hoes #writing #drabble #prompt #oneshot #slice of life #slight angst #help #homo demens #fictional #hope this is good for ya honey bunches #please enjoy :D! #cute shit #food #Anonymous

[haikyuu-scenarios-drabbles]

anonymous asked:  How would you feel about an Avatar AU? I’d love to see what element, or if a character is a non-bender, you feel would match your favourite characters in HQ!

oh-HO. i am unsure if you know that Avatar is one of my all-time favorite shows so when i saw this ask i was pumped!!! without further ado: i finally had some inspiration. i took this a bit farther than just my fav characters (i did as many as i could think of) and although i say in my rules i don’t do hc’s i felt this ask was best answered in that format so i did my best! i hope you enjoy 😁 im nervous as hell about headcanons 😬 some i have reasons for (serious or funny) and others i just...have a feeling 

special shoutout to my discord fam that i love so dearly and especially to @animelake13 and @justoverseas for helping me out 💕💕

Karasuno:

Daichi:

Alright with those thighs and that dependability?? Earthbender through and through

He is a rock solid, all-around player that holds Karasuno all together

he is their BASE, stable as fuck

he didn’t get those thighs from nothing he got them kicking around some boulders

didnt get those arms from nothing either, punching rocks out of mountainsides

Suga:

Waterbender for sure

Hello? Mr. Refreshing

Very calm and level-headed, but like Katara: DO NOT. FUCK WITH HIM.

He’ll fuck you up

again like Katara, mom friend, supporting the whole team, caring a lot about them and getting ready to fight and ready to jump in and help at a moments notice

Asahi: (Thanks Louie!)

ok so this boy was hard to decide bc, he’s a nervous bean but also the motherfuckin ace so he ain’t playin around

so i decided on earthbender because, he’s a big boi; a powerful and all-around player that has the respect of his teammates

and although he’s nervous, so maybe he doesn’t use earthbending to the extent of other benders but when he needs to, he will

and when he does it has impact and he is a pretty strong earthbender to boot

he can move fucking mountains when he wants to

member of the white lotus bc he only uses his immense power when he absolutely has to

noya: “asahi!! show us your bending”

asahi: “oh im not much of a bender”

MOVES A CONTINENT

Noya:

While my first instinct was firebender

the more i thought about it the more airbender made sense

air is the element of freedom and Noya is the definition of wild and free

not only that but his position too! airbending is almost purely defensive

sounds like our guardian diety to me

also can u imagine

Noya and Hinata racing like maniacs on air scooters

Daichi throwing up barriers all over the place to stop them but they just nyoom around them like obstacles

airbending is all about circles too and roooooolllliiiinnnng (hehe) thunder!!!

Tanaka:

alrighty well here is Karasuno’s firebender

Firebending is known for its intense and aggressive attacking style and literally

Tanaka yells like a maniac anytime he goes in for a spike

and firebenders can be hotheaded (dont have to be, Iroh for example) BUT say anything about Kiyoko, Karasuno or really anything and he’s ready to throw down

it might be all talk but he still gets fucking triggered

he fires up two flames in his palms and makes that face “ehhh what did you say about our lovely Kiyoko-san?!?”

Enno:

airbender

he has such patience and probably mediates or something 

or else he’d go crazy from Tanaka and Noya doing stupid airbender/firebender shit and burning down the entire town 

deals it out when he needs to, sometimes blowing Tanaka and Noya to opposite sides of the room and pinning them there until they calm the fuck down

anytime Tanaka gets too heated, Enno just shows up and blows out his fire 

Hinata:

ok so i kinda spoiled earlier

but airbender

i know airbending is defensive and Hinata sucks at that aspect, but his personality man, airbender all the way

again imagine him and Noya zooming on air scooters around

they would be a MENANCE

but also in the same sense, airbending is all about finding a way around the “normal” way of fighting (they refuse to harm anything is what i mean)

Hinata had to find his own way of fighting in volleyball and yeah…airbender  

possibly bc he’s a bit of an airhead too  

Kageyama:

WATERBENDER BUT WITH BLOODBENDING BACKGROUND

ok hear me out

he used to want to control people and make them do what he wants, otherwise get rid of them bc they’re useless and who needs ‘em

but then he meets this stupid, bounce off the walls, airbender who he doesn’t need to control bc this kid already does what he couldnt find in anyone else

and he slowly learns to stop using bloodbending, sometimes slips and lapses, but for the most part has left that part of him behind

also water is the element of change and Kageyama certainly goes through a major change in character throughout Haikyuu

everytime Hina and him fight, they make a snowstorm that nobody can stop and it pisses Tsukki off bc he can’t do anything about it

Tsukki: (props to Lake for this one)

tsukki why are you an enigma

nonbender and is a sword master 

with his ability to analyze and control, he would heckin destroy 

sword fights are a lot about watching your opponent and being able to make a quick decision to block or counter attack 

he can definitely make decisions at the drop of a hat and his strategies work and work well 

Yamaguchi:

THIS BOY

IS A WATERBENDER BUT SPECIALIZES IN HEALING

when Karasuno needs him most!!! he’s there!! ready to help and get his team back on his feet, in this sense by healing them

and also like Suga, mirroring Katara, don’t fuck with him. especially when it comes to Tsukki

AGAIN like Katara/Suga, mom friend, there to support all the time and bust in and help when needed

More teams under the cut!

Aoba Johsai:

Oikawa:

so there’s a bit of a trend here i see

but Oikawa would also be a waterbender, i guess it’s a setter thing

water is the element of change and Oikawa adjusts his setting style and approach for each of his team members to bring out the best of them

waterbenders let their defense become their offense turning their opponents own forces against them which i think fits Oikawa to a T

can make ice spikes he can throw long distances with scary accurate precision

like, one can just zip past your ear, and you dont see him anywhere where tf is he?!

Iwaizumi: 

i couldn’t decide between firebender and earthbender

so i went with the lovely mix, lavabender 

just like Toph, Iwa shows his affection through some sort of violence, but thats just cause he cares a lot

oikawa has mastered the art of distinguishing flaming hunks of smoldering rock thrown at his face

also stubborn unmoving like a rock

and when he gets heated, he is fired up

and finally, arms. where did he get ‘em? throwing boulders around. 

Shiratorizawa:

Ushijima:

metalbender, bc he’s definitely an earth bender but there’s something special about him

he’s a little dense (ok maybe not a little)

Earthbenders are generally muscular, tough and direct AND HELLO. thats Ushijima in a nutshell 

Tendou:

our guess monster is definitely a non-bender

like ty lee specializes in chi-blocking 

he can disrupt someones chi pretty easily making them completely helpless 

sometimes he does it to be funny 

like make Ushi’s right arm useless for a day 

and Ushi is like “Tendou. I don’t use that arm anyways.” 

“i knoooooooow Wakatoshi thats the point!”

which for some reason Tendou thinks is hilarious cause now he really cant use it 

Semi:

firebender

mainly bc of his hotheaded and competitive behavior 

his desire to show his abilities in his words is “uncontainable” and that kind of made me think of Azula 

wants to show off and be the best 

Shirabu:

so although Shirabu is also extremely hot-headed, he hits me as a waterbender too 

maybe just because every single setter so far has been a waterbender but its just my gut feeling 🤷

Nekoma:

Kuroo:

firebender but can lightning bend

dont ask me why it just seems right

he has the concentration and flow it takes to lightning bend, i mean he has that whole speech he gives to his team before every game 

“We're like the blood in our veins. We must flow without stopping. Keep the oxygen moving and your mind working.” 

and while this may lead to possibly thinking he could be a waterbender, he uses his knack for fluid motion and deceptive strength for a different purpose

not only can he lightning bend, he can redirect lightning which takes an immense amount of skill and is drawn from waterbending techniques

maybe its also the hair cause it looks like he got hit by lightning

Kenma:

ill be honest, i dont think Kenma would be a bender

what he would be ilike is Sokka, super smart, the strategizer, the man with the plan

who people look to for the next step, the brain of the operation

and i dont think he’d necessarily have a speciality besides overwhelming ability to observe and make decisions

so basically…he’d be the same LOL

Yaku:

earthbender

being small (dont kick me Yaku) means nothing (uhh have you seen Toph?)

super dependable and not gunna take anyone’s shit

Yamamoto:

Tanaka’s counterpart

his homeboy

his fellow firebender

both ready to throwdown at a moments notice

Fukurodani: (wow i suck i dont know anyone well enough but these two)

Bokuto:

did someone say airbender??

i just keep imagining he was the one to teach Hinata the air scooter and they fuckin zoom around while Bokuto is hollering at the top of his lungs

his hair already looks winblown, like he just stepped off his glider and doesn’t bother to fix it

also im cackling bc airbenders prefer evasive manuevers and…i keep thinking about that time he ran away from a block and Akaashi called him out for it

Akaashi: (ily Lake for helping)

so apparently setters are waterbenders

bc this boy is definitely one

he has nice fingers (weird i know) but i can see him just making these beautiful hand motions to bend water and hnngg yes

ok but in a more real way, waterbenders have strong fluid motion and understand those around them, they believe in very strong connections between individuals 

so even when Bo is out of the game, Fukurodani doesn’t fall apart because they have strong connections and can survive without him 

#haikyuu avatar!au #haikyuu #haikyuu!! #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu writing #haikyuu blog

[nitrosw7-blog]

A Shattered Dream Baltimore Artist and small business owner finds new beginning

Baltimore,MD April 9,2020 Local business owner Dianna Byers created a stained glass art studio in May of 2019 .  After just getting on her feet, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now her doors are closed and she stays at home sewing masks for those who need them.

Dianna Byers sits in her kitchen. Seated at her table sewing cloth masks for neighbors, relatives, hospital workers, social workers, and pretty much any one else who needs one. If she can, Dianna custom designs them so they fit well. A lot of care goes into each mask. “I've tried not to have a set price. A few dollars here and there to cover the costs. Some people have even donated materials to me. Some I give away. Pay me what you can.”

Dianna is no longer at work like many of us. But Dianna doesn't get to apply for unemployment.  Matter of fact she might have been better off if she had a 9 to 5 and lost it. As the months go by the bills soar. Dianna is one of our own local business owners.  As many small business owners are finding out the bills just keep coming.

And a wonderful unique business it was. Dianna was the sole owner of Terraza Stained Glass Classes. And More. The “and more” added later as the business grew. Terraza Classes is the accumulation of a life's work  and love of crafts, art, and gluing things together. Located near the volunteer fire station right in Arbutus. A small town in south west Baltimore county.

Having just spent a good part of her savings on her dream, Dianna took the leap and opened the  art studio in Arbutus, Maryland, where people come and  can unwind, enjoy life, laugh, and create. Dianna is often heard saying “ leave your stress and anxieties at home. We're all about unicorns, rainbows, and kittens. The shop mascot is a Beta fish named Kokomo. He gets regularly uploaded to Facebook so fans can watch Kokomo the fish.

“People come here to make glass art. Stained glass, mosaics, glass fusing, a little painting, a little arbitrage of many crafts.  She add a little comedy, 80s classics, and silly dance all rolled together for a unique happy experience. The most popular piece people make? “Mosaic crab, of course. It's number one. People love Baltimore and crabs. We even travel to other towns and bring the workshops to them.”

Building the new business was slow at first.  Especially since there was no business models like hers.  Dianna cheers “Some of my friends pitched in some time and elbow grease during the building phase. My husband Steve hand built the work benches. We hang out and make crafts all day.”  Dianna even had her mom come in to teach a crochet class.

Not making a profit at first but then, it began to grow. First a few more here and there, but then they started coming. Many from far away. They came in couples... They came with families... They came with friends.  They brought their wedding parties. They brought their moms, kids, and partners.

They all came together to make art, laugh, and learn. And quite a diverse crowd it was. People from all ages, races, origins, social classes. “We have had rock and roll bands, roller derby girls, firefighters, old, young, LGTBQ, you name it. We all hang out.  One big happy family.” Dianna is a big fan of equality.  

In stark contrast, there's no laughter and art there any more. The shop is dark. The lot is empty. “ We had to go raid my shop for toilet paper and cleaning supplies. As I stood in the quiet darkness that was just several weeks ago filled joy and laughter, I locked up in tears” So Dianna does all that she can do. While waiting and watching as history unfolds a pandemic that shook the world. She sews.

Dianna started learning stained glass as an art form 5 years back. It all started with a giift certificate for a beginner class at Terraza Stained Glass, owned by Donna Terraza in downtown Baltimore. Right away she had to sign up for another class then another. After developing the skills of both old world restoration and modern design, Dianna soon started working for Terraza. Donna Terraza and Dianna became good friends.

Dianna worked many huge projects. She even has one of her creations hanging in the Walters Art Museum. They commissioned her for a piece to be featured at the family center in the Walters. Its a skyscape of the Baltimore skyline in glass. Titled simply “Donna's Sky” after her good friend and mentor. After some time Dianna decided to start her own studio. While Terraza in Baltimore focused on restoration and custom orders, Terraza Classes, a sister company,  wanted to focus more on teaching.

She then saw an opportunity  to reach out to the local community. Next she joined several local organizations such as the Greater Arbutus Business Association and participating in several events and art shows. Within a few more short months , Terraza started supporting charities like BARCS animal shelter. Classes continued for weeks with all proceeds going to charity. Noticing several less fortunate families going without at Christmas time, she organized a fundraiser for local residents so every child would receive toys and stockings.

Dianna's sister Karen is nurse at Veterans Hospital. She was recently transferred to an ICU from internal medicine. “ Karen works with the sick and dying. She's on the front lines and they don't have enough equipment. Karen had to move out of her own home as to not possibly infect her family members who are at high risk. Dianna's says “ no, I'm not a doctor or nurse, and can no way compare to brave frontliners, but there's got to being something I can do . So I”m sewing masks.

Maybe I'll get to open again. I don't thinks bailout funds and small business loans are going to be enough. On top of that I have a daughter in college who lives in an apartment in Chicago. and those bills are adding too. And she doesn't even get to go to class. Were paying for college she cant' go to.

Dianna says her masks are made with 100 percent flannel lined  cotton so that wearers can wash and reuse them. They have several layers and suggests fit is important too. I know they're not as good as the N95 masks, but I have people begging me for masks. I now have trouble keeping up with the orders. Dianna adds her artistic flare to masks. Often asking if its for a man or woman, boy or girl. “Maybe they would feel less conscientious, and wear it more often when it suits them.”

“We're all scared, I sometimes can't watch the news. It makes me angry to see some people with an 'o well ' attitude. Most of us are trying real hard, but some are not. They don't cover their faces when coughing and sneezing. The grab and handle everything, without thinking about others.  Some people are still going about their business ' la di da'  without thinking of all the ramifications of not protecting us all.  “I just wanna help protect  myself and protect others.”

Dianna is keeping her chin up and hoping to be back one day. It is tough making a new business a success. And even tougher if you are struggling artist. Dianna asks for every one to stay in touch by visiting Terraza Stained Glass  Classes on Facebook. Send mask request and donations to Facbook messenger. https://www.facebook.com/Terraza-Stained-Glass-Classes-and-More-403820520216143/ . In the future classes can be booked at the website. http://www.terrazaclasses.com. There you can also visit Kokomo the beta fish and her cats who she refers to as her coworkers.  Students and friends are all there to help keep a smile and a ear to bend when needed.

###

[roseamongroses]

Antithesis: “what do you have? “ I have a kNIFE” “NO”

[Specific-Summary]: They should expect growing pains. For not everything to feel right or make sense. That doesn't mean it'll always hurt, nor does it mean they can't have fun along the way. It's senior year. Everything may be different. It won't be senior year for long. Everything will be okay.

[General Warnings]: Implied Emotional Abuse, Implied Physical Abuse, Bad Parents are Bad Parents, Mild Sexual Content/jokes,Mentioned Homophobia, Mentions of underage drinking (backround), Some Catcalling,Cursing , Self Hate,implied pregnancy talk/inability to become pregnant, adults arguing where the “kid” can hear it, adults drinking,

[Tags/mood:] highschool au,  fluff and angst but its all good, chat fic, teen stress, its flordia no snow we die like men [Pairing:] Roceit (Roman Sanders/ Deceit Sanders), hinted future/possible logince/roloceit/loceit [Characters]Roman Sanders/Deceit (Dmitri) Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Logan Sanders, Patton Sanders, Remy (Sleep) Sanders, Nate Sanders, Dragon Witch (Diana) Remus “The Duke” Sanders (minor/brief)

(Ao3) (Previously)

(8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15)

(16) (17) (18) 

L: I May Have Lost Roman

V: nice

P: not nice :)

V: i feel vaguely threatened

Rem:@L how the fuck did you manage that Rem: nvm i know how just give me details

L:I don’t know ? One second we were at check out L: Next minute he was Gone and Nieve is looking suspicious

L:Hold on lemme ask Dmitri

V: why is he there

L: I mean he’s actually pretty chill L: But he dropped Roman off and Nieve got attached L:I’m...not sure if she’s planning on letting him go?

V:logan, my friend, my buddy, V:the only person in this chat with basic reading comprehension

Rem: that’s pretty fair

P: it really is tbh

V: Send. Pictures.

L: Okay L: Slight Issue

V: you lost the snake too

L: I lost Dmitri too and Nieve is not spilling

Rem: oh they’re defeinately fucking

L:...Where? The bathroom?

Rem: Don’t knock it till you try it ;)

V: not to be that guy but im vetoing this discussion V: cause thats a Yikes even for you Remy

L: Alright time to find them

Rem: check ;))) the;))) bathrooms ;;))))

L: Remy.

Rem: alrighlright too far ill stop

L: Thank you.

V: keep me updated V: i only have silence and physics homework as company

L:Huh L:Found them

L: Roman….found a katanna…

V: im sorry WHAT V: Why The Fuck Does He Have A Sword

Rem: drop the location of that store man

L: 1) It’s a Katanna L: 2)I will certainly Not. L: 3) He’s trying to convince Dmitri why he should have it

L…..and Dmitri looks more amused then concerned

V: if I can't have a tarantula he sure as hell cant have a sword

L:I told him it was probably fake/ poorly made and that he should take the time to invest the proper skill in money in a real one

V: goddamit logan you cant logic roman.

L: It worked. He put it back. L: So I say I can do what I want with roman

Rem: some spicy takes from the chats only brain cell ;)

---

“So you’re turning eighteen, in a few months. ” His aunt said, dabbing her cheeks with a napkin. She still managed to hold an air of prestige despite getting utterly shitfaced the night before. Her appointments have been going well.

Dmitri looked up, masking his surprise and holding his tongue.

Dr. Montag looked over, quieting the running water and placing the dish was he was cleaning down, “Really?” he said, brushing his hands, “You got any plans?” he asked, Dmitri.

“Oh we usually do something small,” His aunt interjected, “But seeing as he’s my father’s favorite grandchild,” Only grandchild, “He’s is flying from Paris to join us. And he was never a man of modesty so I’ve been thinking about doing something special for the occasion.”

Oh.

Dmitri fought the smile creeping on his face, ducking his head. He shouldn’t be surprised that she remembered after all if his grandfather was visiting. It’s how he got his phone, laptop, his car.

It’s probably why she puts up with him, to begin with. Cause it wasn’t guilt.

“--We should get your hair cut,” She continued, and Dmitri snapped out of his thoughts, “Maybe invite Diana--he’d like her,” she murmured.

“Diana and I a-” He closed his mouth, and his aunt’s eyes shot over.

“You broke up?” She narrowed her eyes, examining her nails, “Huh, makes sense seeing as...” she gestured at him vaguely, “So who have you been sneaking around with?”

“I’m not sneaking around with anyone,” Dmitri said, meeting her gaze. And technically he was right, it’s not sneaking if she just hasn’t been asking. And he’s given up on telling.

Dr. Montag’s eyebrows knitted together confused,” Well that isn’t true,”

Dmitri’s eyes went wide, stomach sinking.

His Aunt’s grin spread, “Oh really?”

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck--

“He’s been helping me out, hon,” Dr. Montag set down a glass of water and pills beside her plate, “You’ve been so stressed lately,” he looked guilty and produced some tickets, “I thought I’d surprise you.”

Her face softened and like that the tension left the room. Those two got to linger in whatever lovey-dovey spell had taken hold of them in the last few months, but Dmitri was still on edge.

She still kept him on edge, but he could get her back. Even the playing field. Anytime he could leave this—Anytime he could flip this switch and put her on edge and make her—

He stopped eating, setting his plate aside.

He felt sick.

---

R:helllloooo R:anyone up R: sigh R: allll by mySELLLLF

L: Roman?

R: the one and lonely yes hello human contact???

L: Are you alright? It’s 3 am why are you still awake?

R: why are YOU up mm????

L: My parents have newborn twins. What’s your excuse?

R: well fuck got me there

R: i was texting dee but he was rlly tired and i stILL can’t sleep

L: Any particular reason?

R: u m

L: Private chat?

R: please

- [TheTruthAboutTheMoon]

TheWalkingMouth: Okay shoot

Cowboy:it's stupid

TheWalkingMouth: I’ll tell you if it's stupid or not just say it

Cowboy: i just….like Cowboy: it's all kinda….hitting me a ll at once and i Really don’t like thinking about it but i cant bottle shit up either like you bastards so i feel like the human equivelent og a washing machine with too much laundry in it

TheWalkingMouth: Then don’t? TheWalkingMouth: Even if it's too ‘stupid’ for me I’m sure Dmitri wouldn’t mind

Cowboy: yeah but i feel like im going to say something shitty to him i Cowboy: like we should talk about it Cowboy: and i will Cowboy: but not now--later when it's not too stressful for either of us

TheWalkingMouth: Why would you say something shitty?

Cowboy: idk id jst get frustrated trying to explain it Cowboy: like hes smart as hell and probbaly get it without me saying anything but like Cowboy: I have neither the patience nor articulation right now to explain like a civil person and he doesnt need me being shitty about it

Cowboy:like,,,,,for example,,,,, if he fucks up in school, he’ll get recommended a tutor and teachers would assume hes doing his best and hes such a sweet and quiet boy

Cowboy: like he is sweet!!but hes a little shit too!! And gets away with it!!! Half those pranks he pulled on virgil, as Iconic as they were he never got in trouble for them!!!

Cowboy: when i fuck up i

Cowboy: god it's stupid

TheWalkingMouth: Might not get a second chance? Yeah I get it.

TheWalkingMouth:Remember when I first transferred here? None of the teachers would take me seriously bc of my accent and if they did, they were afraid of me. I could repeat something another kid said word for word and still be told I had an attitude.

Cowboy: god i remembered that Cowboy: you answered his yes or no questions in a fuckin montone, quiet ass voice and he legit called in the office cause he got scared of a goddamn freshman

Cowboy: But ye when i fuck up Cowboy: im suddenly the lazy ass brown kid who should spend less time corrupting youth with my feminine hips and curls Cowboy: like it's not like a lot of them say it outright but it feels like if im not perfect im fufilling all the stereotypes

TheWalkingMouth: Ah okay, rant away

Cowboy: OK like like like im not like virgil right?? in a lot of ways and it fuckin shows

Cowboy: he’s been planning on going into engineering since sixth grade meanwhile i only got my shit together in highschool

Cowboy: and like now that im here/???what now??? My mother expects me to have my shit together meanwhile im over here freaking the fuck out over whether not it's worth it to even try Cowboy: like yes mother i want to go to an art/or librel arts school that may or may not accept me that we may or may not afford to find a career in who the hell knows because if i have to sit in a healthcare class or a applied mathmatics class like you did i miight actually shank the professor????

Cowboy: that i dread the thought of not trying to explore my options outside of this fucking state but i dread the thought of going bc i cant stand the thought of being away from home but i cant fucking find a reason to stay cause everyone i love is leaving or planning their own life anyway???

Cowboy: like remys gunna fuck off to who knows where regardless of whether or not he has a plans or money, pattons gunna take care of his grandmother whereever the fuck a canada ,moms moving in with tia, virgils already mentally flipping me off ready to fuck nasa , and i only fucking hope dmitri even getss the chance to choose where he goes but hes g o n e and i die from yearning behind a screen like the gay victorian i am , and you….i actually dont know

TheWalkingMouth: Teaching for either biology or physics

Cowboy: huh it fits but what about chemistry??

TheWalkingMouth: Fuck chemistry.

Cowboy: oh thank god we’re on the same page

TheWalkingMouth: Anyway, I assume you’re more worried about whether you should apply rather then if you could get in?

Cowboy: i think so

TheWalkingMouth: Well if my opinion means anything to you

Cowboy: more than you’re assuming but yeah continue

TheWalkinMouth: Wait

Cowboy: nothing nothing continue

TheWalkingMouth: Okay-- I think you should go for it but you don’t need to dive head first into it and commit to everything 100% like virgil did.

TheWalkingMouth: You’re allowed to keep your options open, to have backup plans for back up plans

TheWalkingMouth: It doesn’t mean you’re not passionate about your art. Doesn’t mean you’re inevitably going to get a office job and abandon all your dreams. It means you’re being smart and not backing yourself into a corner

TheWalkingMouth:It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay not to have it all figured out

TheWalkingMouth: Nobody does.

TheWalkingMouth: Even if no one else gives you a second chance at least give yourself a second chance.

TheWalkingMouth: It’s perfectly normal to be afraid to fuck up and get fucked over TheWalkingMouth: That doesn’t mean you will everytime TheWalkingMouth: And it certainly doesn’t mean it's the end

Cowboy:

Cowboy:

Cowboy:

[...Cowboy is typing…]

---

@daflangstlairde

@ace-anx

@cataclysm-al

#Roman sanders #Deceit Sanders #Roceit #ts sides #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #ts virgil #ts logan #ts remy #Antithesis

[tumblunni]

Wow i had such a weird dream?? The story itself wasnt too unusual, just an emotional moment of an anime that doesnt exist, but the way the dream delivered it was really confusing!

The plot of this apparant anime was that there was some sort of ragtag group of monster people wandering the earth looking for a place they could belong without being hated. And i got the feeling here that they'd just found a place where things were going good, but the show's recurring villains appeared and revealed their secret to the town and now they had to flee again as everyone they thought was a friend took up pitchforks against them.

And the main focus character was really interesting? I dont think he was actually the protagonist but he got the focal role in this episode. Cos the monsters had to disguise themselves as humans to live in this town, and this was the youngest monster who didnt know how to do that yet. He had a really emotional struggle of pushing himself so hard to try and master this skill, because he was actually unique amoung the group for being a monster that was actually once human. So it was a combination of frustration at being a burden to his new friends, with desperation to finally see his own face in the mirror again.

And I feel like maybe before he became a monster he was bigoted against them and scared of them? Within the dream i recalled watching that other episode some other day, and apparantly it was super emotional. It started off just seeming like another 'we find the town of the day along our journey and meet some friends and/or solve a conflict' type thing. And this kid was mostly antagonistic through the episode, a dumb naive kid who believed everything negative about monsters and now struggled with the situation of being the only one who knew the truth that these guys are monsters but also now theyre doubting whether they should reveal it because these people seem so..normal?? And scared?? Starts to doubt whether all the other monsters executed by the corrupt church in their town were fully sentient too, and every time the 'nice' priest was teaching them how to spot liars he was really teaching them how to kill innocent monster people who were just as scared as the humans are of them. But the roots of gaslighting and abuse from this priest ran deep, so the kid struggled with the choice and ultimately made the wrong decision. Also i think maybe theres a reveal that the priest was actually their biological dad too, just for even more levels of why theyd make that wrong decision. And more reasons why its horrifying that the priest dad just treats his kid like shit once they outlived their usefulness. Im thinking something like the kid tries to make up for their mistake and save the protagonists but they get captured by their dad and like.. Ok holy fuck this dude is outright willing to murder his son and he's eminantly aware that these monster people are 100% sentiebt because he's using the threat of killing his son as a way to get them to lay down their weapons and agree to be recaptured. And then i think there was something super messed up when it was revealed all the monster attacks that happened to the town to get them so scared and paranoid were actually orchestrated by the priest as a form of control over his citizens. He had some sort of Ominous Doom Science to both turn people into monsters and control them to do his bidding. And like the predictable asshole he is, even after the protagonists gave up in order to save the kid he still killed him anyway. And after snapping his neck he threw him down into the prison cell with the protagonists and was like 'lets torment them by making them fight the kid they wanted to save'. Because it turned out he'd been doping the kid with a special dose of the monster formula ever since birth, and he was his 'secret weapon' all along without knowing it. Ultra super mega concentrated doom form of the artifical monsters he uses in his army, activated upon the moment of the kid's death. But then it turns out the ultimate experiment was too much for him to control and the kid was able to keep their mind in their new form, and turn against him to save their new friends. But when they realized what had happened to them, they broke down in fear. And everything was super depressing cos the protagonists knew this poor kid was now doomed to share their fate as monsters, and theyd have to take them away fron everythung theyd ever known in order to keep them safe. But also heartwarming at the same time because the kid had never known a truly loving family before, and as they passed out in the arms of main protagonist mom friend werewolf they felt like maybe this is what having a real family is like...

So anyway that led to a bit of an angsty team dynamic with this new recruit? The kid was obviously all new to monsterness and terrified of everything. But also even now they were struggling with that 'what if my abusive dad is right' instinct drilled into them from all those years. They still struggled with really believing that monsters arent evil, and like 'no i must have only disobeyed him because i was infected and i didnt know it, monsters are evil and i became one because i'm evil too'. Unwilling to believe that their dad did that to them and trying to find excuses where it would be their own fault. Maybe the kid was even tricked by another villain at some point who lied about having a cure? Like even whenthey became more able to trust their new monster friends they were still like 'theyd be happier if they became normal right?' Lots of angst and messing up and this poor kid feeling not only weak and useless to the team but also outright toxic to them.

So all of this led to this situation where disguising yourself as a human is a skill all the other team members already mastered and this kid is struggling real hard to accomplish it in order to save the day. Ans its extra depressing cos they havent seen their original human face in months, and theyre trying to cling onto the memories but scared they migjt forget what it was like to be human. And then i cant really recall all the details but i feel like the writing and cinematography were just super amazing emotional on this scene of the kid struggling to Do The Thing in time to save their friends, and like.. Atone for all their mistakes.

Also i think like the kid had this big super kaiju ultimate chimera form which was what their dad designed them to be, but also most of the time they were poofed into a tiny mascot sized version of that. And theycd never actually managed to control their powers enough to turn into their battle form willingly until now. Just this super depressing and also uplifting scene of this fuckin tiny monster kid being pinned to the ground underneath the villain's heel, trying desperately to turn human again to save their friends. And i think it was an awesome moment where they did manage to regain their old face for just a few seconds, but instead of actually learning to master the human transformation they learned to master their battle form instead. Like, accepting that that old face isnt who they are anymore, and it wont help like they thought it would. What they really need now is their REAL face! Some sort of dramatic badass speech about this that cuts the villain's philosophy right in half, and then a badass scene of tiny kid finally being able to control (and not be scared of!) their beast form, and fight the whole damn army singlehandedly to save their friends!

Also i think there was an extra emotional moment somewhere along the way where one of yhe villain generals was like 'no, stop, i want to see if they can do this', and actually started motivating the kid. Like i think they were a brainwashed soldier of the old priest bastatd who was sent to kill these monsters supposedly to avenge the priest's dead kid but they were actually starting to have doubts when this terrifying monster that 'killed them' seemed to act so much like a child. So this was the big moment of them finall believing the kid, and getting to see proof it really was them and the priest really was a manipulative evil bastard all along. So i think they switched sides and joined super powered up kiddo in fighting their fellow knights, giving them the keys to go free their friends. And possibly this knight person also joined the team after this and was the first proper human ally theyd ever had? And probably had loads of emotional plots of atoning

ANYWAY that was the cool really engaging story of my dream that i wish i could watch a real anime about!

But the weird part was that this was all delivered really fragmented cos of how little sleep ive had lately. I was seeing it in the form of (for some reason) laying down on the stairs at my abusive father's old house, listening to it playing on the tiny tv he had in his room. And you may have noticed i kept mixing up the kid's pronouns, thats because everyone in the dream was represented visually by a character from some other franchise and it was REALLY confusing! The kid was like an amalgamation of all the dudes from Wolf's Rain which i guess is where the concept of wandering monsters in human illusion came from. (Tho they werent all reverse werewolves like in that show) It was weird cos i knew this character was meant to be a child but they looked like five ripped teenagers smooshed together? Cos i havent seen that show in ages and couldnt even remember the protagonist's name. (Was someone called Hide or is that a guy from tokyo ghoul? I think they had the outfit of the tokyo ghoul guy.) And then predictably the evil priest dad was cornello from full metal alchemist mixed with my old doctor who had the same name. But less predictably the redeemed villain holy paladin knight guy was replica riku from kingdom hearts?? Ans specifically his medal from the app game, like he came with a floating medal attatched to his waist like a mermaid who was also a coffee table.

Also it just ended with a floating box of hair dye that turned to face the camera and it was actually coffee in a hair dye package. Like an exact replica of the blonding bleach i usually use, right down to every detail, but all the text was replaced with coffee info. I..i dont know what that has to do with anything else that just happened...

Oh also i think maybe one of the other teammates was a big cuddly 50-something circus ringleader type guy? He was the friendly comic relief but actually deep downn the most tormented of all of them. He'd been imprisoned as a circus attraction for most of his entire life and dressing up like a ringleader now he was free was kinda a way of coping? But yeh i think he bonded well with the kid cos they both didnt have much experience with being free and everything seemed new and scary. This guy also didnt have much experience of monster society either cos he'd been enslaved since he was a child. Man this anime sounds so fuckin intense and dark and emotional but also full of powerful friendship!! Why cant i watch any more episodes!! give me a sequel dream!!

#weird dream tag