#ejected cast out to the sea

[geriatric-millenial]

So Ed and Stede are basically AWOL. And the second Badminton is dead—his body is bound to be found eventually, right?

I’m thinking with S2 there will be a big bounty on their heads (but then again as I’m typing this I realize there’s probably bounty on their heads already, at least for Blackbeard anyway). So my headcanon for S2 is:

- Ed is raising hell across the seven seas but gets captured where he learns he and Stede are wanted for the murder of another Badminton and reneging on their Act of Grace ofc

- Stede puts on some art of fuckery to save Ed. And it goes pretty well, Stede in slow-motion leading his crew, sunlight illuminating his slicked back hair and tattered-but-rugged look, Ed gazing on with his bewildered bambi eyes

- … until things inevitably stop going according to plan and Stede fails spectacularly and also gets captured

- at which point Ed has to bust not only himself out but also this bizarre little man (and the crew he marooned) he hates but also loves but also hates and

- ah, whatever, he’ll think it through later

- they manage to get away. And Stede tries to explain but Ed decides no, Ed does not want anything to do with Stede. The only reason you’re alive is what you used to mean to me

- rejeeecteed, Stede leaves Ed be, but some circumstance requires them to work together whether Ed likes it not

- cue some third party (ahem Jemaine Clement as another dashing pirate ahem) taking a liking to Stede and Stede being oblivious to it while Ed notices from day 1 but no, he’s not jealous, fuck off

- ???

- and they lived happily ever after

- or not. We need season 3. David Jenkins said he can envision 3 seasons. Then they can sail off to China

#ofmd #stede bonnet #edward teach #blackbeard #blackbonnet #don’t forget izzy #our flag means death #brainrot is real #i’m too old for this #actually nah idc #what has this show done to me #ejected cast out to the sea

[theleetoalerandalertoalee]

I don’t have time to write my fic for today’s tickletober prompt *cries* but this is a plot that’s been on my mind for a while, so i wrote this instead to make up for it.

Wriothesley x Furina

Enjoy^^

“Well, well, well, what brings you to the underworld?”

“Aha~ just browsing around, of course.”

“Browsing around the abandoned production zone, then?”

“Well, it’s only natural for a visitor to be curious.”

“That’s where you’re out of line. See, we don’t get visitors, Miss Furina. And, frankly, the only reason why I can’t eject you into the sea to swim back to the surface is because of your relationship with Neuvillette.”

”My word, that’s no way to treat a guest.”

“People here don’t often get ‘guests’ or ‘visitors’, and if anything most people here probably aren’t too fond of you.

“Tut tut, and why is that?”

“Well, with you as their witness, you’ve casted them into this secluded palace…so, do you think they’d like you?”

“Ah…fair point…”

“Now,” Wriothesley pours himself a cup of tea, “I’m sure you’re wondering how you ended up in my office. After all, the last thing you remember is having your own private ‘tour’ of the abandoned production zone, no?”

“I was just waiting for you to share.”

“So you’re telling me that being tied down to a table isn’t common for you?”

“Wha-? Of course, not! Let this be known! This is an extremely cold and uncomfortable table-!”

“Relax, I’m joking. Anyway, I sent a little friend of mine to retrieve you. She had thought you got yourself lost,” he shakes his head with a small smile, “she was worried about your wellbeing, after all.”

“Who’s she?”

“Our head nurse, Sigewinne, she’s always watching the other prisoners as they work, so you must’ve caught her eye since it’s your first visit and you’re already in places you shouldn’t be.”

“Sigewinne…that’s a Melusine, yes?”

“Yes, she’s very special.”

“Oh, I remember now…it felt like I got shot.”

“Of course, I gave her a little tool for help.”

“Does Neuvillette know about this?”

“No- not yet, at least.”

“Hm, how curious. I thought you two were close.”

“Nobody is close to the Iudex, Focalors.”

“True.”

There’s a moment of silence as Wriothesley takes a sip from his teacup.

Furina clears her throat, “so, why am I restrained to this table?”

“Well, to show you that you can’t simply wander to restricted areas without my blessing- to say the least.”

“As the archon of Fontaine-”

“The Fortress of Meropide hardly counts as a part of Fontaine. We even use a different currency here. If Fonta wasn’t allowed in here, a newbie wouldn’t even make a connection with this place and the Overworld.”

“Hm…”

“So, if anything, at least down here, you should call me ‘Your Grace’,” Wriothesley smirks, taking a second sip from his cup.

“What-? Absolutely not!”

“Oh, why? Not used to being told ‘no’?”

“You- that’s irrelevant.”

“Maybe, but I’m making it relevant.”

“Hmph, you have no right to address me that way!”

“In the Overworld, maybe not, but here you’re going to have to recognize the shift in power, Furina.”

“Tsk, let this be known as my last visit down here, then!”

“Oh, no, what would we ever do without the loving gaze of Focalors? I can’t imagine a crueler fate, “Wriothesley’s voice was filled with sarcasm, “oh…wait, I actually think I can.”

Furina rolls her eyes, “do enlighten me, why don’t you?”

“Well, I think the imminent future of someone caught snooping around my palace…is much more daunting than that.”

“Aha~ um,” Furina’s carefree voice suddenly sounds a bit less so, “r-really?”

Wriothesley drags his fingertips up Furina’s thighs, starting at the top of her knees.

“Wah-?! What is the meaning of this?!”

“Oh, was I doing something? Pardon me,” Wriothesley drags his fingers back downwards.

“W-wait don’t do this!”

“Huh? Don’t tell me the hydro archon is already faltering. Besides, why shouldn’t I do this? You’re in my domain, after all.”

“This- this is unnecessary!”

“You’re under my jurisdiction, and I think it’s very necessary. Hm, what about right…here?”

Wriothesley squeezes Furina’s leg just above the knee and the archon lets out a screech.

“Ow, is it really that intense? It’d be a shame if I just went like this, hm?”

Wriothesley suddenly squeezes that spot over and over in quick succession.

“Wrioth- hahahahaha!! H-help! Hahahahaha!”

“Help? Aw, I’ll help you. Tell you what, I’ll go to this place instead, okay?”

Furina’s wide-eyed stare of horror relaxes, “aha...hahaha…th-thank you…”

He suddenly starts kneading her inner thighs.

“Nahahahaha!! Aaaah! Wait- hahahahaha! I can’t- hahahahahaha!”

“What’s wrong? I’m trying to help you, after all.”

“Hahahahaha! You-! Hahahahahaha!”

“Just when I thought you couldn’t get any louder, wow.”

“P-please! Hahahahahahaha!!”

Wriothesley stops for a moment, “hold on,” he takes a sip of tea, “now. Where was I?”

He slowly walks towards Furina.

“Wait! Ah-haha- we can talk about this, Wriothesley?!”

“What would you like to talk about? Hurry~”

Furina feels fingers caressing her kneecaps, slowly inching behind them, “ah- ah! Wait- I’m sorry! I’ll never sneak down here again I- gah!”

Wriothesley suddenly swirls his fingertips on the backs of Furina’s knees, “no, no, don’t stop. I’m listening. Go right ahead.”

“I- hahahahaha! Aaah! Hahahahaha!!”

“Hm? What was that?”

Furina’s knees buckle and straighten as she tries to wiggle as much as she can in her restraints, “st-stop it! Hahahahaha! I can’t take it- hahahahahaha!”

“I say you can, so you will.”

“Nahahahaha! No please- hahahahaha!”

“This isn’t even that bad. If anything, I’m going easy on you, Miss Furina.”

“No more- hahahahaha! I’m sorry- aaah! I’m sorry!!”

“Heh, I’m sure you are.”

He pulls Furina’s shoes off, teasing at her toes from behind her socks. Furina screams and curls her toes up, trying to fend off the incoming onslaught.

“If you don’t behave, I’ll take off the socks.”

“Nohoho- hahahaha! That’s unfair- aah!”

Wriothesley attacks Furina’s thighs again, forcing her to bend her knee and arch her foot.

“I’ll admit that, yeah.”

The Duke uses this opportunity to take off the archon’s socks and Furina lets out a scream when she realizes what’s happened.

“No! Don’t! Stop! Please,” she was panicking.

“‘Don’t stop please’? If you say so, princess.”

Wriothesley suddenly goes at Furina’s soles with both hands.

“Waah!! Wrioth- hahahahahaha!! St- hahahahahaha!!”

The archon’s eyes were wide as they started to tear up, the Duke’s office walls verberated the sounds of the archon’s laughter.

“I’m just doing what you asked.”

“N- hahahahahaha! I- hahahahaha- didn’t- hahahahaha!!”

Furina couldn’t get any words out because her screams drowned out her own protests.

“You seem to be having a lot of fun.”

“I’m n- hahahahahahaha!!”

“It’s okay. Your secret is safe with me.”

Furina continues screaming, shaking her fists in her restraints, “stahahahahahap!”

The archon’s breath gets shallow as she struggles to breathe.

“Oh? Is this all you can take, really?”

“Please…” Furina’s laughs were wheezing as she pleaded, “I’m sorry…n-no more…”

Wriothesley smirks, backing off, “that’s better.”

The Duke unties Furina and calls Sigewinne to the scene.

“Sigewinne, can you come take Miss Furina? She seems to be a bit worn out.”

“Hm?” Sigewinne looks at Furina, “what happened?”

“Oh, nothing. The effects from your stun gun seem to linger more than what I anticipated.”

“Then…why are her socks removed?”

“Ah, we thought the coldness of the ground would shock her to her senses.”

“Interesting. Well, I’ll take it from here, Your Grace!”

“Thank you, Sigewinne.”

“Of course!”

Sigewinne carries Furina off and Wriothesley watches as the two leave his office.

“She’ll be back. But until then,” he refills his teacup, “I’ll be here, as always.”

#tickle content #tickle thoughts #tword community #tickle scenarios #tickle tickle #tword post #tword blog #sfw twords #tickle fic #genshin impact tickling #furina #wriothesley

[dozing-marshmallow]

WATCHING THE MEG 2: TRENCH WITH CHRIS MCLEAN (X READER)

(Spoiler warning for those who haven’t seen it! Let me know what other movies you’d like to see with Chris, etc- I’ll be releasing a request blog soon! <3)

Chris was a complicated man. He was picky, yet laid back about all sorts of things. But if there’s one thing he loves, is a good laugh. Where does a good laugh come from? Entertainment. And what kind of entertainment gives Chris a good laugh? The pain of others. So what movie would be better to sit to with him other than the newly released Meg 2?

“Ooooo a shark movie! If I’m lucky, I might get some inspo from this for next season!” He laughed, gleefully rubbing his hands together.

“Did you...not see the first one?” (Y/N) blinked, setting it up.

“I’m a busy man, (Y/N).” He snapped elegantly.

“Fair enough.” It was ready to play,“You want popcorn or soda?”

“Yes please.”

So the entire room settled into darkness, with the only source of light illuminating from the large screen and the two next to each other, already stuffing themselves with cinema snacks.

The opening played a dragonfly, getting swallowed by a lizard, which got picked up by the mouth of a snapper dinosaur that rapidly got locked in the roaring jaw of a t-rex. Already, Chris had things to say.

“I thought this was a shark movie.” He snarked, turning to (Y/N), which she found no sense in.

“Why are you looking at me like I made it!?”

“You were the one that told me it was a shark movie.”

“Because that’s what it is!”

“Noo. It’s a prehistoric shark movie. Get it right.”

She couldn’t be bothered to correct him when he was going to see for himself,“Chris man, just watch the movie!”

“Fine!”

“I’ve been training Haiqi since she was a pup. We have a special bond.”

“Between her jaw and you, yes.” His voice cute.

“I’m surprised you didn’t train a shark like that to be your pet.” (Y/N) thought aloud, now curious of how Chris spent all that time surrounded by sharks and never tried domesticating one.

“When you already have a Venus flytrap that can partake in a marathon, who needs a shark?”

Ah. Right.“Touché.”

“Why doesn’t that shark go crazy and eat them? They’re vulnerable, they’re all on the boat like shrimp!” He complained, watching the crowd of well dressed guests at the party watching in awe at the spotlight the meg was in.

“That’s true, but I guess it’s a good shark.”

“They’re all good, (Y/N).” He firmly affirmed otherwise.

“Huh... I like her.” Chris spoke about Meiying,“Did we ever had anyone who jinxed like that on the show?”

“I think so...” She trailed off, seeing the characters lose control of the submarines.

He began cracking up again,“This about to get a whole lot more interesting.”

Chris groans when the sharks started spawning and failed to catch the cast(apart from two adults) who were currently navigating on the sea floor after their submarines crashed.

“Everyone make it to the station!” Jonas ordered.

“Yeah...” Chris yawned,“Make it to the station.”

After they did, one of the women, Curtis, had her skull implode just in time as a result of her cracked helmet and water pressure- her remains violently sprayed on the ground. Chris’ reaction? Chortling. Told you. Sadist. You shake your head as the characters easily move on from the disturbing tragedy and continued their search to flee.

“So, are they safe now or something?” Chris asked.

“Not really. They’re still at the depths of the ocean.”

“Just like Julia’s phones.”

“Uh...so they’re all bad guys?” Chris processed in a questioning tone, watching Driscoll demanding orders from her luxurious accommodation to Jess, the mole who suddenly switched up on Jonas’ team.

“Yep.”

He groaned in annoyance,”Came out of nowhere, but I can deal with that.” He kept quiet to watch her eject two escape pods and hearing how if Jonas was to get killed,”She’d at least let the kid take an escape pod?”

“Yeah. Unlike some people.” She made sure to add that sharply, intentionally making it obvious to who she directed it to.

“Unlike some people who have a hosting job on the hottest reality show and more, you mean?” It’s never not funny whenever he takes these things personally.

“Hey awesome! That man’s name was DJ!” Chris announced in enthusiasm. For someone who shared the same name of one of his earlier contestants, he seemed intrigued to watch how this DJ was; the DJ in the movie put his training claims to action as he successfully knocked out some of the mercenaries he and Mac encountered on the base swaying on the salty water.

Fast forward to when the group managed to get up to the surface and were currently embarking their way on a defenceless dinghy away from the Mana One.

“I still think we look like fools” said man remarked.

“Darn right.” Chris agreed,“Unlike our DJ, this DJ knows how to fight!”

“Doesn’t our DJ also know how to fight?”

“What, you ever seen it?” He snorted,“He wouldn’t even hurt a fly!”

“Aw man. I remember when I used to cuss like that.” Chris laments, watching a scene where the adults were using vulgar language,“Had to stop though because the network wanted to keep Total Drama family friendly.”

“Really?” No way that’s where television standards drew the line,“The shot of Heather’s top being ripped off and Duncan flipping off the cameras could make the cut, but it’d be problematic if you swore? A lot of people swore on that show but had the good old pixels over their mouths and bleeps.”

“In case you haven’t realised, (Y/N), I’m grown.” He glared,”I don’t do outbursts like teenagers, nor should I, so it’d be really unprofessional, and awkward for the editors to have to go through that for a host who shoulda known better.” Really? He doesn’t do outbursts?,“Besides, it wouldn’t be fair reality tv to cut everything out. It’s scenes like that that really keep the ratings high and their self esteem low.”

What a Chris thing to say,“No comment.”

“Good, cuz we’re in the middle of watching a film. Hush.” He put his finger to his lips in attempt to shush her.

She could only kiss her teeth in disbelief.

“Hey (Y/N), are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Chris asked after a tense while of silence of keeping thoughts to themselves, ironic that it’s he who broke it given 

What happened to we’re in the middle of watching a film?

“Anyways, you’re telling me those sharks escaped the trench and the first thing all of them do is approach the same island?” He asked, completely deflecting the thing he was so-called against.

“Looks like it.” It’s easier to go along with it.

He sighed,“I’m starting to think the writers were swapping cassettes whilst writing this.”

How does that...whatever.

The movie then focused on a young couple out of many on a boat, with the man proposing to his girlfriend. He accidentally drops the ring, to which his now fiancé scolds him into finding. Just when he found it, his girl was gone. He looked around in confusion and called for her name, but nothing. Except from the tentacles that terrorised everyone into capsizing.

“Let me guess,” she started, throwing a handful of popcorn in her mouth,”This is your new ideal way to propose to me.”

“Nah. Normally I wouldn’t mind the thought of you dying during our engagement, but a shark wouldn’t return me your finger to keep the ring on.” He didn’t even take his eyes of the screen to admit that.

She slowly turned to him, trying to register what he said,”So what you’re saying is, you wouldn’t care if I died this entire time just as long as you still had my body?”

“Something like that. Take that as compliment, I actually care about you.” Just as he said that, the movie cuts to Jonas and his allies arriving to the island, urgently alerting the tourists in raised voices to get out of the water.

...In a way, I guess that was sweet? I don’t know, maybe it’s one of those things he says with his chest yet still doesn’t mean all the way.

There was a scene of another couple, where this time, they were in a paddle boat of their own. This time around, the shark made itself known earlier, so they were naturally screaming and pedalling for their lives out of the water, just to get swallowed whole by the shark. Needless to say, Chris’ laugh was the only thing she could hear, even past the scene. It had never been so loud before.

What did I say?

“(Y/N)! Why...didn’t you tell me we were watching a comedy?” He chocked out as a scene of megs bite through boardwalks and running tourists flashed on the screen.

“Because Chris, it’s actually not that funny. Imagine if they were your parents.” She dragged out to guilt trip him.

Which of course, backfired,“Like my parents would have ever done something as  stupid as going on whatever that thing was when they have the ocean to go in.”

She shrugged,“Well since that couple were wearing clothes, I could only assume they  either didn’t want to swim or simply couldn’t.”

“Okay, that’s just being generous,” He giggled, wiping his eyes,”But you can’t tell me you didn’t think they were annoying. Shark did us a favour!” He took a slurp from his soda,“If they really couldn’t swim, they woulda worn life jackets.”

“What, and inflate them as they’re getting swallowed by the shark?”

“Exactly! It’ll be like popping candy!”

Nah man.

“Where did those things come from!?” Chris exclaimed confused as the dinosaur looking animals chased the mercenaries that managed to arrive to the island.

“From the trench as well, I think?” Or else they wouldn’t have allowed people to come there, but she thought back to Chris’ observation about how it was strange all these marine creatures decided to go to the same place.

“Really.” He ignored the fact he remembered seeing them swimming earlier in a collective.

“Yeah, that’s why that lady was shocked that they could walk!”

“Y’know, I see a bit of myself in Jiuming.” Chris confesses, witnessing said man distracting the nearby giant lizard by banging a shovel and hammer together whilst Mac ran for the helicopter,“Always expected to do the impossible things, always doing life risky activities for the sake of other people, always having to be up to the task to not let down those around you...”

“Are you sure you’re not just describing your interns?” She put out bluntly, Jiuming now having to hold the pressure of getting the helicopter gas whilst having a batch of those giant lizards chasing him, savagely.

“What’s your point? You say that as if they have dignity written in their DNA.” Chris shot back in that remorseless manner.

She’s speechless,“Chris... That was a bit far, don’t you think?”

He rolled his eyes,“Just the truth, ma’am.”

“Where did the octopus come from!?” (Y/N) exclaimed, in profound puzzlement as the rubbery strands for legs shot up from the ocean and zigzagged through the beach.

“It’s a Kraken actually.” There Chris was, having more concern over her misuse of classification, clearly less surprised than she was,”And it was actually there from when the gang tried walking in the ocean. And Chef says I need glasses!”

“Alright...” she scoffs, and now that he brought that up,”Hey, hey Chris.”

“Yeah?” 

“The lady whose helmet imploded.”

He started chortling again, too busy to pay attention to the creep getting swung forcefully into the ocean by one of the lengthy tentacles of the Kraken.

“Euuugh good, I’m glad that weirdo’s gone.” She remarks spitefully.

“Which weirdo?” He asked, laughter stopping.

“The one that was hitting on those ladies then had the audacity to try hide behind them.”

“Ohh...” He breathed in through his teeth,”Not cool dude.”

Now the helicopter was deconstructed, Jiuming was thrown into the ocean, fighting for his life as the kraken sprung a tentacle around him. Just as it seemed that all hope was lost, the meg came in and saved the day. As Jiuming found his new chance to escape, the kraken was busy wrapping its massive tentacles tight around the shark, resulting Chris to give (Y/N) a suggestive look.

“Come on Chris, you know that’s not the type of inspo you wanted.”

He snickered,”Suit yourself.” and put his view back on the movie.

Fast forward to when Haiqi approached over and her owner attempted the sound activity that failed in the beginning.

“Yes, finally! Attack him! Bite him! Eat him! Eat him!” Chris clearly wanting it to fail again, through his whooping for the impending jaw snapping death. This behaviour was all too familiar.

Fortunately (not for Chris), Haiqi must’ve appeared to recognise Jiuming because she sheered right away from him. Chris’ ambition immediately turned into a fit.

“No no no, what are you doing!? The guy was right there! Boooooo! Worst shark ever!” He shouted at the screen, sitting back down in disgust, watching Haiqi chase after dolphins,“Are you kidding me right now? The one time this movie wants to be scientifically accurate is for this scene?”

“Chris chiiiill. You’ve already seen it and its friends eat dozens of people. Poor innocent unsuspecting annoying people. Your favouriiiite.” She sang.

“...True.” He grumbled,“I liked him anyway.”

“Yay! Happy ending! All the best guys survived and enjoy the beach whilst all the hoes got eaten by the shark and more along the way!” (Y/N) cheered, throwing her popcorn box in the air, unintentionally stretching. Ah, just what she needed after an hour of sitting!

“...Hm.” Chris on the other hand had his thumb under his chin, as though he was deep in thought to realise the movie had ended.

“What’s the matter, Chris?” It was going to be something only he would be preoccupied with.

“I’m wondering if I could get the legal rights to rewrite this...and rename Camp Wawanakwa to Fun Island...”

Joke thing. “Oh come onnnnn. You know you liked it.”

“...Okay, that lady who thought she was safe inside that chamber before she died...” he chuckled,”That made up for it. It was so funny how that guy was so devastated by it. And that other witch who got dragged by those Slappers. A well deserved death for a well dressed idiot, who goes into those kinds of situations in party clothes!?”

“I think they were called Snappers... And you can’t tell me those were the only scenes you liked! How about the way that annoying guy died?”

“Which one? There were plenty.”

She laughed,“Y’know Montes? The one that was devastated over that lady on the phone? The one that was trying to shoot up Jonas when he was doing the Lord’s work, and fell into the Meg’s mouth?”

“Ohhhhh yeaaaaah! It was so clean, I’m gutted I didn’t come up with it!”

She momentarily rested her head on his shoulder,“My favourite part is knowing the dog survived.”

“Only exception. It’d be lazy if they killed the dog off.”

She suddenly remembered what Chris said and takes her head off to look at him,”Did you get your inspo?”

A sinister smile crawled onto his face as he proudly took out a notebook, with bold words scribbled at the top “TDI future ideas”. “Absolutely.”

...(Y/N) says her condolences for those poor contestants.

#td chris #total drama #chris mclean #chris mclean x reader #td chris mclean x reader #total drama chris mclean #tdi x reader #total drama island chris #total drama one shot #meg 2: the trench #total drama scenarios #tdi

[fictionalmenownmyheart]

Baby Teller (Part 2) • miles teller

Requested by: @nickie-amore

This is part 2 to my other fic, which I will leave linked here.

I first want to start off by saying thank you for all the likes Baby Teller has received, it means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy this one just as much. I would suggest reading the other one first before reading this, however I’ll leave that entirely up to you. Like I said in part 1, I don’t have the knowledge about the US Military or Air Force, I’ve tried to do some research especially about ejecting but it is vague in some areas. It’s not going to be completely accurate, I know that, but I still hope you enjoy reading this. I will also say that I haven’t followed the request entirely, the majority of it is the same but there are some bits that I have changed. Just wanted to include also that Bradley’s speech (I suppose he’s my OC in this) won’t be speaking like an adult and I’ve done that intentionally for what he says in this because he’s suppose to be three so realistically wouldn’t be speaking perfectly.

Gif is not mine, belongs to the owner.

Warnings: mention of ejecting, reader gets injured, vague and inaccuracy towards the US Air Force/Military (I apologise), some sadness, fluff is sprinkled in throughout

Miles Teller x fem!reader

Word count: 2.6k

(Y/M/N) - Your Mum’s Name

It was hard to believe, Miles thinks to himself, but Bradley is now three. It just seemed like yesterday when he found out the news he was going to be a dad. How time goes by so quickly.

Ever since filming ended for Top Gun: Maverick and the whole cast pranked him with the news of (Y/N)’s pregnancy with Bradley at the time, he and all of the actors had stayed in touch and had managed to form a bond with each other even with everyone’s hectic schedules sending them to all parts of the world for filming and interviews and premieres.

Miles was currently watching over Bradley, as he sat beside him, at the dining table with his colouring books placed all around him with an array of colourful crayons and pens practically taking up the entire space.

“What are you drawing, buddy?” Miles asks as he peers over his sons shoulder, watching Bradley’s fist hold onto a red crayon tightly, as he scribbles over the page with an image of a rooster. This specific book had cartoon animals; from sea animals to farm animals to jungle animals. Miles huffed out a breath in amusement, going unnoticed by Bradley who currently had his tongue poking out to the side of his mouth in concentration, as he thought what a coincidence it was for him to pick this specific page.

“For mummy, when she come home.” Bradley replies, swapping his red crayon for a blue one. Miles wasn’t going to even ask, he didn’t understand the workings of a three year olds mind, especially his sons idea of a blue rooster, but he wasn’t going to judge.

“She’s going to love it.” Miles places his hand on his sons back and leans in to place a kiss on the crown of his brown locks.

With each day he grew, the more he was turning into Miles’ mini me. He loved spending this time with his son, but always had a shadow of guilt playing at the back of his mind. He knew he shouldn’t and that (Y/N) wouldn’t want him to feel like that but he felt like she should be here watching Bradley do all these great things, experiencing them right beside him. Just the other day Bradley had managed to do a ‘handstand’ and ‘cartwheel’ which Miles had thankfully thought to video it to show his wife the next time he saw her so he could capture the first look on her face with his own eyes.

Bradley didn’t completely understand why (Y/N) wasn’t always home, Miles tried to explain it to him as best he could saying that mummy had a very important job that involved her keeping everyone safe but meant she had to be away from home a lot. Bradley made the connection of (Y/N) being a hero saving the day as the reasoning for her being away so often. This became the easiest way for Miles to explain it to Bradley.

“When mummy coming home?” Bradley asks, his hand halting from colouring in the rooster, his head turning to Miles with unshed tears in his eyes. It broke Miles’ heart to see him like this. He loves his son and seeing him as anything other than his happy and bubbly self broke him.

“Not long now, buddy.” Miles tried to reassure him, keeping it vague with the time in which (Y/N) would finally be home. How could he lie to his son when he wasn’t entirely sure when she was coming home yet, either?

“I miss her.” The tears that had began to form were now running down his chubby cheeks as he leans against Miles’ shoulder, his little body shaking from the onslaught of emotions that suddenly racked up.

Miles picks Bradley up from under his armpits, scraping his own dining chair back, creating more room, as he places him in his lap and tries to soothe him with a rocking motion against his chest. “I miss her too, baby. I know she’ll be missing you like crazy right now.”

“Really?” A gleam lit up his eyes once he had leaned up straight, and focused on Miles’ face, after having his face pressed against his dad’s chest for comfort.

Miles nods, a small smile finally turning up his lips at the sign of Bradley’s curious excitement. “Really, I bet right now she’s doing whatever it is she’s doing with the thought of you on her mind and wanting to come home to us as soon as she possibly can.”

While Miles was with Bradley at home, (Y/N) was currently in her plane doing some training exercises. (Y/N)’s role in the US Air Force was being a specialist in all the mechanics of the planes, that meant when ever a part needed repairing or replacing, she was the woman for the job. Right now however she was actually in a plane, a place she wasn’t as confident with but something that was not completely alien to her. What would be the point of looking after a plane so closely if you couldn’t even fly the thing?

She breathed deeply as she took to the sky, looking out the windows at the beautiful views around her. Her friend and colleague was flying beside her along with two other fellow airmen behind them.

The training exercises were going well, she had felt confident going into this and wouldn’t have guessed something could go wrong.

She doesn’t even remember what it was that set it off, but the beeping suddenly warns her of danger in the cockpit.

“(Y/N)? Can you hear me? (Y/N)! Eject! Eject now! Bailout!” A voice screams, worry clear in every word spoken, but it doesn’t completely register.

The last thing (Y/N) remembers is the sound of voices calling out to her and her thumb hitting the button, not knowing whether that is going to be enough. A vision of Bradley and Miles enters her thoughts, of them smiling and laughing, waiting for her to come back to them. She tucks in her knees and elbows, remembering it from briefing that left her feeling sick — if anything touches the sides of the cockpit as a person comes out from above then it’s most likely coming off — before everything turns black.

Miles had had a vague idea of when (Y/N) was suppose to be home and had planned a get together with the cast of Top Gun to honour their continued friendship.

Miles currently sat on the sofa in the living room and had his head in his hands, not completely believing the news he had just received. His phone had been ringing all morning and afternoon, Miles chose to ignore it but when his ring tone started up again he was surprised to hear his mother-in-law’s voice on the other end of the line.

(Y/N)’s mum, (Y/M/N), didn’t have time for pleasantries before relaying what little news she knew. “Miles, (Y/N) has been injured, she’s currently in the hospital and stable but they won’t tell me anything else or what actually happened. They told me that they have been trying to get through to you but couldn’t so rang me after.”

Miles didn’t even know if the words were fully processing in his head, all he could think was, (Y/N), injured, hospital, stable. His voice caught in his throat, struggling to find the words to say.

(Y/M/N), having heard the noise leave Miles’ mouth and no sound following, takes it upon herself to fill in the deathly silence. “She’s going to be okay Miles, she has to be. Focus on Bradley for now, he needs you to be strong for him and reassure him that everything will be alright. I’ll call you if I find out anything else, let me know if you hear of anything as well. I’ll talk to you soon, bye love.”

Miles stared at the screen of his phone, the Lock Screen staring back at him with a photo taken of all three of them when Bradley had first been born. They looked so happy there, (Y/N) glowing after delivery or just looking sweaty as she more often called it, him cradling the little bundle in his arms remembering feeling scared of dropping him because of how tiny he was.

Please (Y/N), Miles thinks to himself, come home to me soon.

When (Y/N) wakes up she notices the unfamiliar room she is in, confusion settling in as she views the white walls surrounding her and she suddenly realises where she is. Currently lying in a bed in a military hospital, she slowly eases her body up with a lot of strain from her weak muscles in her arms. She hisses as her biceps strain in pain, managing to move into an upright position.

“Take it easy.” (Y/N) looks up and sees her friend hovering above her, plumping her pillows and patting them into place.

“What… What happened?” (Y/N) asks, her throat feeling dry. Her friend, noticing her struggle, pours some water into a cup and slowly brings it to her cracked, dry lips, placing her hand behind (Y/N)’s head holding supportively to take the strain off. (Y/N) takes a greedy gulp, the fresh cool water going down her throat steadily.

Her friend sighs, placing the cup on the bedside table before taking a seat in the chair beside (Y/N). “You had to eject. You’re okay, thank God, but you have got some nasty bruises on your shoulders from the harness straps that held you in place, but you should be alright in a couple of days.”

Memories start flooding back as (Y/N) thinks back to the previous incident. The screaming and dizziness, the thought of Bradley and Miles, worrying about never seeing them again and wanting to just be back home with them, everything from after that becomes a haze of darkness.

Because ejecting is so dangerous, the process of putting pilots at a serious risk of an injury or even worse, it’s the last thing anyone wants to do, essentially the last resort.

Of course she’s trained for this, doing her own VR-styled simulation where you pretend to parachute down to the ground and go through the checklist.

It hits (Y/N) all at once, she could have died if she didn’t manage to eject in time before it was too late, the idea of never seeing her family, her friends, her boys again was too painful to even think about.

A couple of days after Miles had received the phone call from (Y/N)’s mum there was still no news about her whereabouts or how badly she was injured or when it was that she would be coming home.

Miles has been in a state, the constant worry of his wife being on his mind and Bradley who just wants to know when his mummy was going to be home, was hard to placate at times. All he wanted was his mothers comfort and Miles’ reassurance that everything would be okay and that it wouldn’t be long now until she would finally be home.

Due to all of the individual schedules of all of the cast of Top Gun since the end of filming almost four years ago, they decided to postpone when everyone was originally planning on stopping by at Miles house, they had to make a rain check and have only been able to do some quick FaceTime calls with everyone checking in on him, sending their best wishes and love and support to the both of them telling him they would try to get time off work all at the same time to visit him and Bradley.

As (Y/N) made her way through the front door trying to be as quiet at she possibly could, not wanting to give her arrival away, she heard an echoing noise that was coming from the entertainment room just off the living room that sounded like a piano and singing was coming from.

“Kiss me, baby. Mmm, it feels good.”

She creeps in, heading in the direction of the music and pokes her head around the door that’s slightly ajar to try and see what is going on without getting noticed.

“Hold me, baby. Well, I’m off to love you like a lover should.”

She spots Miles straight away at the piano, hitting the keys perfectly in time with everyone else singing the chorus to Great Balls of Fire. (Y/N) is surprised to see who is here, Monica, Lewis, Glen, Danny, Jay and Greg all gathered around the grand piano dancing and singing. Glen has a hold of Bradley, swinging him around, the sweet giggles showing his enjoyment of the entire situation.

“Oh! You’re fine, so kind. Got to tell this world that you’re mine, mine, mine, mine.”

(Y/N) walks into the room, her entrance drawing the attention of her son once Glen twirled him a certain way.

“Mummy.” Bradley calls out, practically jumping out of Glen’s arms and into (Y/N)’s who manages to catch him but can’t help but scrunch her face up from the still slightly bruised areas that are healing nicely but are still a bit tender even though she tries to disguise it.

Miles, catching on to the pain on her face, gently comes over and pulls her close to him, drawing her near by her hip. “What’s wrong baby? Are you okay? They told us you were injured but didn’t go into detail of the severity of it.”

“I had to eject.” (Y/N) states, still coming to terms herself with that sentence even after many days of recovering well in the hospital.

Miles’ arm tightens around her waist, drawing her closer as his other holds Bradley close to them both making their own little protective bubble. Miles’ mind goes crazy, the thought of nearly losing his wife is not something that’s easy to process or have to experience, the fact that she’s well and in his arms and with him calms him slightly, the worry not entirely ebbing away.

Everyone was shocked, they all knew what that word meant after having been on set of one of the biggest anticipated sequel film ever. They of course knew what it was, knew that it could be highly dangerous, some of them even having to ‘eject’ in the film but nothing prepared them for the words that left (Y/N)’s mouth. Having someone close to them have to go through that, a close friend and someone they consider family was hard to imagine.

“Please let’s just carry on having a good time, I’ll tell you all about it some other time. For now, can we continue singing and dancing and enjoying each other’s company.” (Y/N) declares, breaking everyone out of their somber thoughts, hoping to bring back some of the joy she previously witnessed.

Everyone readily agrees, Miles takes ahold of Bradley and sets him on the ground before taking (Y/N)’s smaller hand in his and leads her to the piano where he places her on one of his knees. He wraps his arms around her and starts playing the notes to the song again from the beginning. As everyone around them sings along to the tune, (Y/N) has her arms secured around his neck and leans in keeping eye contact with Miles who manages to play without looking at the keys from plenty of practice over the years, and presses her lips softly to his before placing her head in the crook of his neck closing her eyes and doing exactly as she said, enjoying everyone’s company and being in her husbands arms where she feels the most safe.

#miles teller #miles teller x reader #miles teller x wife!reader #top gun maverick #monica barbaro #glen powell #lewis pullman #danny ramirez #jay ellis #greg tarzan davis #masterlist

[solalunar-eclipse]

(Avocado) Horizon Line

Chapter 1: A Heart of Logic and Empathy

AO3 Link

Summary: Due to an unfortunate accident, Avelyn finds herself injured and stuck in a stranger's house in the middle of nowhere. Eco, meanwhile, is just trying to deal with having another person living in their home. Under other circumstances, neither of them would have guessed that they'd get along so well, but maybe with time, they'll find out that this accident wasn't so unfortunate after all...?

(The world of Deltarune belongs to Toby Fox, Avelyn and Link belong to @pukeseven, and Eco and Click belong to @brightgoat.)

High above the dark sea, a biplane weaves amongst the green light cast by the grid that stretches across the sky. The plane’s pilot steers it through a series of increasingly complex maneuvers, showing off the fact that she is extremely skilled. (She knows it, too.)

However, all the skill in the world isn’t enough to help her when a critical component in the engine, weakened from all of the back to back long-distance flights across the water, stops working entirely.

As the plane begins to lose altitude at dangerously high speeds, the pilot struggles to eject, only to discover that this is one of the systems that has failed her. Left with no other options, she works to maneuver her aircraft into a glide, fighting to bring it closer to the faint lights of the shore in the distance in hopes that someone will see her.

Clinging to the yoke with all her remaining strength, she braces for impact—

…

“NEMMUY…”

“Good night to you too, Flash.” 

Eco smiled at the pod of poppups that lived in the channel of water by their house, taking their time to give each one their own special good night. This was one of the few routines of theirs that they maintained with each new pod of poppups that passed through their house, and they liked to think that it made each member of the pod feel special and loved. To be fair, it also helped them to grow up into healthy and friendly advertisement companions, but they’d be lying if they said that was the only reason they did this each and every evening.

They waved at the entire group one last time, before walking away somewhat reluctantly. It was always sad for them to say goodbye to their beloved creatures, even just for a night.

Suddenly, a loud crash resounded nearby, startling some of the younger poppups out of their sleep and making the scientist’s fins shoot up in surprise.

“Really?!” Eco hissed to themselves, their heart racing. “I just got the little ones to settle down!”

They hurried back over to the channel once again. “Flash, Ink, Escape, you three take care of the little ones, alright? Everybody, behave yourselves while I’m gone.” As much as they would have liked to stay and comfort their poppups, they had to make sure that…whatever that was…didn’t pose a threat to anyone.

The ad-creatures were abnormally silent and wide-eyed, clearly frightened by this unexpected occurrence. Eco offered up a small, sharp grin in response. “Hey, don’t worry! I’ve got this under control!” they insisted.

Then, they raced off to go see who or what had dared to disturb their pod. Sand wasn’t generally the best surface to run on, but Eco was used to it enough that even in their high-tops, it hardly slowed them down at all.

Once they saw the smoke rising in the distance, however, their speed only increased, but now fueled by fear instead of frustration. No matter how annoying the noise had been, the scientist could never stand to see anyone get hurt. They’d always been that way for as long as they could remember—it was part of why they were so good at caring for poppups.

As Eco skidded to a stop in front of the wreckage littering their beach (their poor beach!), they offhandedly noted that it resembled a modified amphibious plane, retrofitted for light cargo flights. The scientist didn’t know much about airplanes, but they did at least know that light cargo transports…were still required to have pilots.

And at that very moment, they noticed the one thing that definitely didn’t match the rest of the wreck—a flash of reddish-orange amongst the twisted metal. Quickly making their way over and around the broken remains, they found an unfortunate Addison trapped inside what had most likely once been the pilot’s seat.  

With a decent amount of effort on their part, they managed to shift the broken pieces enough to get the Addi free, lifting them up in their arms. The pilot was completely unconscious, but thankfully seemed to have been protected from the brunt of the crash by their cockpit and flight gear. Their ankle did seem to be swelling slightly, though, and Eco knew they’d have to take a look at that once they got back to their house.

Once they were sure that the other was secure, they rushed back the way they’d come, slipping slightly more on the sand now that they carried an extra weight. Careful not to jostle the mysterious pilot, they called for another member of the pod, Tracker, to come and help open the door to their house as they approached.

“What are you even doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Eco muttered to the unconscious Addison.

Gently laying them down on the sofa, the scientist began to heal what injuries she could, switching to her first aid kit once her magic began to falter. There was only so much she could do, anyhow, given that the pilot had some nasty scrapes plus a twisted ankle. Quite frankly, they’d been extraordinarily lucky as it was.

Once she’d done all she could, Eco ran out quickly to settle her pod down once more before they slept. “Don’t worry, guys!” she reassured them. “It’s all going to be okay. I’ve fixed everything up, I promise.”

They seemed plenty reassured by that, given that one or two had even fallen asleep by the time she’d finished checking on them. For that, at least, she was grateful.

Then, she came back and sat down on the couch next to her unexpected guest, keeping watch over them until they woke up.

She didn’t have to wait long, as it turned out—only half an hour. In a fraction of a second, the pilot jolted from sleep intto full awareness, gasping. Their eyes darted around, and they began to push themselves upright…only to be startled again by the sight of Eco. This time, they glared directly at her, scrambling into an upright position (and wincing as their injuries clearly flared up).

“Hey, take it easy!” Eco cried. “You’re going to hurt yourself all over again!”

The other Addison simply continued to glower. “And why do you care?” they snapped. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll leave me and my plane alone.

Eco sighed, rubbing her forehead tiredly. She really didn’t have time for all of this—she had enough on her plate with this pilot’s presence alone, without also having to convince them that she wasn’t the bad guy in this scenario. “Listen, if you want to be like that, could you just go do it to someone else who didn’t save your life? I literally just finished patching you up after you crash-landed on my beach.”

“Crash-landed? I—” The Addison sprang up off the couch. “Oh, god! Airdr—owwww…” They winced, lifting their twisted ankle off the ground.

“Didn’t you hear me earlier?” Eco said, giving them a stern look as they sank back down onto the sofa. “You’re going to hurt yourself more if you keep acting like that!”

“Fine…” they muttered. 

Eco folded her arms, not ready to let up just yet. “You have sustained severe bruises across your entire body, mild lacerations on your arms and side, and damaged your ankle. I would not recommend doing any kind of strenuous physical activity whatsoever for the near future.”

“Geez, not pulling any punches with that, huh?” the pilot said. They sat there in silence for a moment, but then sighed. “Sorry. I was just rushing home after a massive delivery job, looking forward to resting…and now I wake up in a stranger’s house with a busted ankle and an even more busted plane. Not exactly the way I was hoping to spend my night, but none of that’s your fault.”

The pilot cracked their first smile since waking up—a small one, seeming slightly embarrassed now. “I’m Avelyn, she/her. Nice to meet ya. And, uh, sorry again for snapping earlier.”

“Eco, she/they. You too, and thank you.” the teal Addi replied, feeling some of the tension in the room dissipate.

A moment of mildly uncomfortable silence passed before Eco remembered what hosts were typically supposed to do. “Can I…I don’t know, get you anything?” they asked awkwardly.

“Some water’d be nice. I feel drier than a desert right now.” Avelyn sighed, sinking back into the couch.

Quickly, Eco darted off into the kitchen and returned with a glass of water, which the pilot downed in one go. It was only after they’d come back again with a refill that they thought of another question to ask.

“Hey, is the couch comfortable enough for you to sleep on? If not, I have an air mattress…or I could take the air mattress, and you could take the bed…”

“The air mattress oughta be enough for me, thanks.” Avelyn said, smiling again. “Damn, you’re being awfully nice to someone who just smashed up your beach, yelled at you, and basically pushed her way into your house, aren’t ya?”

Eco grinned sheepishly, not having expected a compliment like that. “Oh, really? I’m actually surprised you think so! My friend always says I don’t know the first thing about having people in my house. He’s kind of been giving me tips…in between the sass.” They rolled their eyes, recalling the numerous choice words said friend had had for them over the years. “And the fact that you got hurt wasn’t your fault, after all, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t be decent, you know?”

“Well, maybe because I wasn’t exactly decent to you? But, uh, I appreciate that you’re not takin’ it out on me. And by the way, that guy sounds like a real charmer.” the reddish Addison muttered, rolling her eyes. 

“He likes to think he is, but I would personally beg to differ.” Eco elaborated. “He wouldn’t like me saying this, but he’s actually a dork most of the time.”

Avelyn snickered. “You roast all your other friends like this?”

The scientist frowned, genuinely confused. “Other…friends? I mean, I have my pod, but he’s the only Addison I spend time with.”

The pilot’s eyes widened. “Oh! Oh geez, I’m sorry!”

“What for?” Eco asked, not bothered in the slightest. “I don’t need that many people in my life—I have him, and now you’re here to stay for a while…honestly, I think that’s about as many Addis as I can handle at a time!”

Avelyn tilted her head. “Well, you don’t need to worry about me, really. I can take care of myself!”

Suddenly, a distinct growling noise came from the general area of her stomach, and she visibly cringed. “That is, if you happen to have a kitchen ‘round here somewhere…”

Eco perked up at the sight of a distinct goal once more. “Indeed I do! Why don’t I make you something and show you around?”

Avelyn made a valiant effort to stand up, but couldn’t rest any weight on her left ankle at all. Eco frowned for a moment, before their fins shot straight up. “I almost forgot! Hang on, wait right there!”

“Not like I can really go anywhere…” the pilot muttered, but Eco had already dashed out of the room. 

They rushed up the stairs to their room, dug their old crutch out of the closet, and then raced back into the living room, before pushing the crutch on Avelyn eagerly. “There! Now you should be able to walk just fine.”

“…should I be concerned that you just happen to have this on hand?” she asked, raising one eyebrow warily.

“Oh, not at all!” Eco chirped, already heading towards the doorway they’d previously used. “I just got mauled by a sidebar shark once, had to use that for a week or two until my leg healed up. But now I have a really neat scar, so it was all fine in the end.”

Avelyn just stared for a second, dumbstruck, before following the scientist through the door. 

“So, this is my little kitchen-slash-dining room, and over there’s my medbay. It’s mostly for my poppups in case they get hurt or sick, but I’ve used it once or twice myself.” they explained. 

“Oh, so you’re a poppup breeder?” Avelyn asked.

Eco grimaced. “I don’t love the term breeder…I’m more of a caretaker, personally. I let them do what they need to do, teach them what they don’t know, give them a safe place to live until they’re needed. That kind of thing.”

The reddish-orange Addi smiled briefly. “That does sound nicer than most breeders I’ve heard of.”

Their wince switched abruptly to a beaming smile. “And I’m proud of it!” they declared, thinking happily on all the poppups they’d helped raise to maturity over the years.

“Oh, right, back to the tour.” Eco continued, gesturing towards the stairs. “I don’t want to make you go up and down those any more than you have to, so just know that up there’s my bedroom and office. I’ll run up and get you the air mattress so you don’t have to climb the stairs every night and morning.”

“Hang on, didn’t you say you had food in this house?” Avelyn interrupted.

“Oh! The food!” Eco slapped a hand to her forehead, eyes wide. “Here, let me see—” she began rummaging around in her cabinets—“would you be…partial to…some soup? I have a can or two of that…”

“Sounds good to me.” Avelyn said.

“Excellent!” Eco cheered, attempting to sit up and promptly knocking her head into the top of the cabinet, given that she hadn’t gotten fully out yet. “Oh, damn…don’t want two of us injured here.” she muttered.

“Are you alright?” Avelyn asked, stifling a giggle. 

“Yeah, I just don’t go down there very often.” Eco said, shuffling a few more things around in order to gather up what she needed. “Oof, I really need to organize this place sometime…” she added, mildly embarrassed now that she actually had a relative stranger over and looking at the moderate mess of her house. 

As soon as she’d gotten out, she shot upright, putting a pan on her small stove and setting everything up. “Yeah, but soup’s good, actually,” she said, half to herself, “not a lot of work…”

“You talkin’ to me?” the pilot asked, sounding more than a little bewildered.

“Oh! No, sorry, I just talk to myself sometimes.” Eco explained, shrugging. “Comes with the territory when you live out by yourself, you know?”

Avelyn blinked. “You sure you’re not a…mad scientist, by any chance?”

“I…don’t think so.” Eco said, answering the question completely seriously. “Click calls me that as a joke sometimes, but I have too many morals and ethical constraints to be a true mad scientist.”

“…Click? Wait, is your friend from earlier Click?!”

“You know him? How?” Eco exclaimed. 

“He and I hang out when I’m in town sometimes—how did you meet him?”

“He heard me talking about Addison code at some conference-type thing and wouldn’t leave me alone until I talked to him about it.” Eco laughed at the memory. “After that, we just…never stopped talking, I guess!”

“Who would’ve thought?” Avelyn muttered, shaking her head. “I guess you’re not such a stranger after all.”

“Soup’s all heated up!” the scientist declared, before replying, “He might come over while you’re here. Or he might not! He’s been pretty busy lately with that new partner of his.”

“Ooh, a partner?” Avelyn asked, sitting down as Eco poured the soup into two bowls. “I haven’t heard about that!”

“He refuses to tell me much of anything over text.” they said, before adding, “But I do know it’s his boss.” They accentuated the last word with a smirk, and Avelyn gasped appropriately.

“No! Link?!” she cried. “I’ve been away for ages on work, I didn’t even know they were into each other! How have I missed this?”

Eco grinned. “I did know Click had the hots for Link—he would not shut up about them the last couple times we talked! It was kind of annoying, but also a little cute, if I’m being honest.”

“Oh, they’re definitely going to be super cute together!” Avelyn added, grinning. “Please tell me he at least told you how they got together.”

“Yeah, he did do that. He actually panic-texted me the same night it happened…” the teal Addison began, launching into the story as the two sat down to eat.

They talked for hours, but eventually the two began to grow exhausted, and headed off to set up Avelyn’s bed and then to sleep.

After Eco had gotten her new guest all set up, she turned to leave, but was stopped by the sound of Avelyn’s voice. “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You let a total stranger into your home…bandaged me up, got me food, made me feel welcome…and I haven’t even had the decency to say thank you. I guess I’m not used to this kind of hospitality, but that’s still no excuse. So, thank you. For all of this.”

Eco blushed slightly, equally unused to this level of attention and thoughtfulness. “Oh! Of—of course! I’m happy to help!”

“I appreciate it.” Avelyn replied warmly. “And…I hope you sleep well.”

“You too!” Eco replied, before leaving the room herself to (at last, several hours later than expected) go to sleep.

#deltarune #deltarune addisons #addison oc #econ o addison #avelyn addison #sol's fanfiction #how did it take me until NOW to realize that i don't know avi's middle initial???? #wow...anyway #this is my first time writing both of these addis so i hope i did them justice! #also a question for anyone who feels up to responding: #the poppups are going to appear a lot more in the next chapter #do they have gendered pronouns #use they/them #or use it/its? #i have literally no idea what the fandom consensus is here #so any advice would be much appreciated #okay that's all #thanks for reading!!

[usafphantom2]

'Top Gun: Maverick' studio paid the U.S. Navy more than $11,000 per hour on tours in the Super Hornets

But the Navy did not let Tom Cruise pilot the fighters during filming.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/27/22 - 11:46 PM in Military

The U.S. Navy lent the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets fighters for the new movie "Top Gun: Maverick" that officially premiered in theaters today. But Paramount studio paid $11,374 per hour to use the advanced combat planes — and Cruise was unable to touch the controls.

The star of Top Gun, famous for performing her own stunts and dangerous scenes in her films, insisted that all the actors who portray pilots in the long-back-awaited film "Top Gun: Maverick" fly in one of the fighters built by Boeing so that they could understand what it's like to be a pilot operating under the tension of immense gravitational forces. Cruise, 59, also flew in a jet to the original "Top Gun", a great success in 1986.

Cruise ended up doing more than a dozen missions for the new film, but a Pentagon regulation prohibits non-military people from controlling a Department of Defense asset other than small weapons in training scenarios, according to Glen Roberts, head of the Pentagon entertainment media office. Instead, the actors flew after pilots in the F/A-18F after completing the necessary training on how to eject from the plane in case of emergency and how to survive at sea.

Roberts said that the Navy allowed the production to use airplanes, aircraft carriers and military bases, although he said that the real Top Gun pilots are not the arrogant rule benders portrayed in the film, people who "would never exist in naval aviation". Instead, they are studious aerial nerds who work for hours in the classroom and participate in intense training flights at Fallon Naval Air Station in Nevada, the site of the real Top Gun school.

A film "does not have to be a love letter to the military" to win the Pentagon's cooperation, Roberts said. But "you need to defend the integrity of the military". Filmmakers need to have funding and distribution for their project and be willing to submit their script for military review. Although the Pentagon may request changes, Roberts said he was not aware of any in "Top Gun: Maverick".

Paramount Pictures said in the film's production notes that Cruise created his own demanding flight training program for the film's young actors, so that they could withstand the nausea-inducing rigors of air maneuvers and play their roles with "real Navy pilots taking them to the ride of their lives".

The film was officially released today in theaters, after delays due to the coronavirus pandemic. The scenes were filmed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in August 2018 during a training exercise involving the service's F-35C Lightning II fighter, Roberts said. The production also filmed at Lemoore Naval Air Station in Central California.

The Super Hornet, a jet known as "Rhino", receives the best revenue in the film compared to the most advanced F-35C built by Lockheed Martin, because that's what the film's script required, Roberts said. He also noted that the F-35 is a single-seat plane, so the actors could not fly on them.

The filmmakers reimburse the Pentagon for any aircraft, unless they are already being used in a previously scheduled training exercise or the flight can be counted towards the pilot's necessary time at the controls. In 2018, when much of the filming of "Top Gun: Maverick" was carried out, the current flight time rate of the jets was $11,374.

Top Gun: Maverick is the sequel to Top Gun: Indomitable Aces (1986). In the plot, Cruise's character is called to be the mentor of a new generation of Navy pilots, including Rooster (Teller), son of Goose (Anthony Edwards), Maverick's companion killed in the original film. The film also features Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer in the cast.

Source: Fortune

Tags: Military AviationF/A-18E/F Super HornetTop Gun: MaverickUSN - United States Navy/U.S. NAVY

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation

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Cavok Brasil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

[caveiratimida]

IDEA BASED ON FOURTH OF JULY BY SUFJAN STEVENS

The evil it spread like a fever ahead

- Carole on a hospital bed with Maverick being told there is nothing more they can do and Bradley waiting outside with Iceman. He’s clutching a toy plane.

It was night when you died, my firefly

- Carole grabs Maverick’s hands and makes him promise he won’t let Bradley die like Goose.

What could I have said to raise you from the dead?

- Maverick looks defeated as he calls Bradley in and leaves the two of them.

Oh could I be the sky on the Fourth of July?

- Bradley laying down next to his mother. He drops his toy.

Well you do enough talk

- Carole tries to smile at her son and hug him.

My little hawk, why do you cry?

- Bradley starts to cry whilst she caresses his face.

Tell me what did you learn from the Tillamook burn?

- Flashback to Goose’s death.

Or the Fourth of July?

- Fade away as Carole soothes Bradley.

We're all gonna die

- Carole’s funeral. Maverick is gripping Bradley so tightly like he’s afraid to lose him.

Sitting at the bed with the halo at your head

- Bradley holding the rejected naval papers.

Was it all a disguise, like Junior High

- Bradley waiting for Maverick by the door as he arrives home.

Where everything was fiction, future, and prediction

- Flashback to Maverick flying with Iceman holding Bradley.

Now, where am I?

- Bradley having a face-off with Maverick by the door.

My fading supply

- Maverick just seeing Carole’s desperate sickly face.

Did you get enough love, my little dove

- Bradley grabbing Maverick by the collar in disbelief. Maverick doesn’t resist.

Why do you cry?

- He gets no answers and storms out of the house.

And I'm sorry I left, but it was for the best

- Maverick lets Bradley leave.

Though it never felt right

- Iceman finds Maverick on the floor as he comes in.

My little Versailles

- He’s clutching a photo of all of them together. Iceman just let’s him cry it out.

The hospital asked should the body be cast

- Maverick and Iceman are hugging, but it’s the present and Iceman looks tired.

Before I say goodbye, my star in the sky

- The image pans to the photo nearby Iceman’s casket.

Such a funny thought to wrap you up in cloth

- Maverick is clutching a small ring and the small child’s plane.

Do you find it all right, my dragonfly?

- He throws them both in as the casket is lowered.

Shall we look at the moon, my little loon

- Bradley recognises the small toy as his own.

Why do you cry?

- Bradley and Maverick make eye contact, Maverick looks old and frail.

Make the most of your life, while it is rife

- Bradley tries to talk to Maverick before the mission.

While it is light

- Maverick hugs Bradley after he ejected.

Well you do enough talk

- Maverick and Bradley celebrate having made it to sea.

My little hawk, why do you cry?

- Bradley’s smile starts to turn.

Tell me what did you learn from the Tillamook burn?

- Warning signs of enemy aircraft nearby.

Or the Fourth of July?

- Zooming away to the photo of Maverick, Bradley, Carole and Goose together.

We're all gonna die

- The photograph starts to burn.

We're all gonna die

- The missile coming from the front.

We're all gonna die

- Maverick’s worried face.

We're all gonna die

- Maverick turning to look at Bradley in the jet.

We're all gonna die

- Hallucinates Goose’s scared face before the crash.

We're all gonna die

- Bradley’s actually scared face.

We're all gonna die

- Young Bradley’s crying face.

We're all gonna die

- Black.

#I can’t sleep so here’s an animatic idea I had #top gun 1986 #top gun maverick #maverick #iceman #goose #rooster #nick bradshaw #tom kazansky #carole bradshaw #bradley bradshaw #cav ideas #fourth of july #sufjan stevens #cavs animatics

[incubabe]

   Riley is not immediately identifiable as demonic; it is not as simple as casting a magic spell. (Any such attempts have inevitably been subverted by the caster’s own preconceived notions of what ‘evil’ and ‘demonic’ imply.) They live among us, after all. Her pointed ears call to mind more elven traits than infernal, and a decade of tucking has made it so the only means by which someone might uncover her tail is by grabbing her butt -- an uncommon occurrence except among paramours, and fortunately they tend to be already under her spell. 

Skills:

   Fanning The Flame Of Passion -- A more proper term for what Riley considers The Charm. Through an unconscious sense, Riley is able to intuit the emotional balance of others around her, and tweak them through conversation. A subtle attraction can become an overwhelming crush, slight discomfort accelerated into crushing anxiety. Someone completely devoted or overcome by a single emotion is beyond Riley’s reach, but such clarity/derangement of purpose is thankfully vanishingly rare. People are fickle and imperfect creatures. Stuffing one’s ears or not sharing a language with Riley are easy ways to avoid falling under the charm, the former more effective than the latter owing to rhythm and cadence of her words being as important as the words themselves in fanning the flame.

   Memory Of Your Tongue Still On Mine  -- In repeatedly feeding on an individual, a demon can obtain the skills that define them. Language is the easiest to pick up, but learning bartending from a waiter, stick-shift from a cabbie, and Shiatsu from a masseur are all tricks this hellspawn’s subconsciously acquired. Riley speaks English, Spanish, Italian, German, Hindi, Arabic, Greek, Tagalog, Japanese, and Chinese at least fluently, though she can read and write only in the first two. It’s more muscle-memory than knowledge -- overthinking can lead to a tied-tongue.

   Straying Beyond The Reverie Sea -- True teleportation is impossible, of course, and brings up that old Star Trek chestnut about it killing you and rebuilding you out of local atoms anyway. What Riley does is to force herself through the barrier to the -- otherplace, the Astral Plane, the Realm of Thought -- to physically exist in the latter, to be spat out with force more or less where she wants to be. Opening this rift is possible and fine -- shoving the physical into the theoretical, less so, sort of ejecting her. This appears to not be how proper magicians, demons... anyone approximates teleportation. It is, seemingly, a Riley-exclusive trick. 

[tillerman1]

THE WOLF HOUR (Alma's Story & Afterword)

19

ALMAS STORY.

Some light is gray as ash and flies from some fen stinger her sweaty arms and face. Somewhat saying her name per was the sorrow's voice. She looks them around, smites for the insects, saying yes, self is here. Several times. A bird wobbles screaming above her head. So get her sight of him.

He sitter sic crouched behind a wood rot, for looking conceal himself, only is still visible. His eyes are misty with pain and fear cum the mouth trembles. He extends sobbing outward hands. Multiple fingers are broken cum his arms hurt. She crouches herself down at his side. In this manner become those sitting together helpless to come on. Twilight comes fast. The shadows between trees blackness till thick dark. The grey sky becomes with one's spotted with red and burning yellow. The seas swell heard as kind of a low clock. A nightingale begins singing sharp and persistent. Then and then a flutter of invisible bird wings. She sleeps or slumbers may. Then she äwakens are he no longer there. She takes herself in among the trees and wrongs at random. [Neutral with very strong intensity?] In a clear, dimly lit by the night light touch one a horde of shadows, wandering, vacillating, silent, suddenly engulfed by darkness, again condensed. [Neutral with very strong intensity?] They springer, crawl, dance, hooks, lifting the arms over their heads, inaudibly talking, gesturing, are again gone, sometimes is the meadow almost extinct, sometimes teeming. All colorless, trembling, floating. A stank of rotten water rises from some swamp. All the time sings a nightingale swirling sharp. She may view away him. He is approximately middle of the meadow. His white shirt and bright pants are stained and torn asunder. He stands about some head bent down and hanging arms. A big humanoid bird, mostly cadaver a pheasant, rises forward and hacks him in the throat. A big humanoid bird, mostly cadaver a pheasant, rises forward and hacks him in the throat. It goes like a slightly jingling laugh through the floating, flowing crowd. Cast, weak, floating but clear start sound.

– So long thou is may you live.

– When thou falling is it out with you.

– So long you strength be upright.

– Stand remaining!

– Each isn't afraid.

A meager woman with thick up-comb black hair and brown parchment-large hide braces herself fast to his back and begins toil to his shirt. The large pheasant related itself against him in small circles with the sharp bill open and the eyeballs rigidly directed at the sides. In and then eject him a slight hissing. Again sound the voices. – Lay you down as going it faster.

– Add thee down escape you suffer.

– Stand remaining as maybe we tired.

– Stand remaining, stand remaining, standing left.

– Attack us and toil us in paragraphs.

– Have you no humor.

– Understand you none jokes.

– Have thou don't goals on Monday.

Jingle, whispering laughter.

– He can none speak for me have made hack-sausage of his tongue.

– He can not consult for me have demolished apart his ears and plugged yes with a spike.

– He can not see for me have printed broken his eyes.

– He can not wee for me have the prick him on edge cum now is he sure little swollen.

– He may not sit for it has a pebble in the buttocks.

– But he is there and thinking!

– Thinking you or lazy you only?

The pheasant gurgles with laughter. Then beats it together the beak with a small bang and chops. The votes again:

– He falls, he falls.

The old lady raises the pipe. Her red dress shimmers weakly in all the gray, its facial under the large, broadened hat is a white bobbing spot on the narrow neck. The shadows expiry to move oneself, disintegrate as if they haven't endured the immobility, others groping for tree branches and large flowers. Some sinking together into grey piles. Archivist Lindhorst has wide outside its wings and hovers up in a low tree with mist branches and thin foliage. The man in the meadow seems now alone. In the clearing, in the night-light, in the woods, at some sea. The nightingale's drilling, muddling sound all the time. He sways forth and back, breathing roaring, turning his disfigured face at a different hold. She tries a running forward till it, but can none concern her, she attempts a cry, but some scream penetrates silently from her throat. Simultaneously start it sink to the ground, slow folds themselves his knees, the back curved, head pushed forward for that amuse body in balance. He fumbles for support. So down on knees, as plows the chin through the moss, the arms flapping helplessly, legs kicking. At like trice breaks tumult loose. The shadows condensed, the will clock darkness, from the air, the night sky, the trees, the stones, the trees, the wind. The white body swirls in the air, cast high up, sinking back down in the effervescent moss. Clothes flutter and torn, bright limbs glue mare cum extinguishes. On any while is on small the meadow empty and quiet, washed clean in dawn's light. No trace. Not even a bloodstain. Only a mild swindled and one silent stroking autumn rain. She is at turns till the cabin. On the way finds she the shoulder bag with the diary.

20The house. Evening light. Alma sitter heavily bent forward with arms against the tabletop. ALMA: Well(,) one thing has I considered in. Have you hurry now. I have interrogatory to one thing. It is so this. Can it not be thus, that a woman, who lives long along with a man, can so not become then, how she finally becomes like the man. I mean, she loves him and for searching think what he cum sees like him. It says seven that such can change people. Where that because, which I started seeing those where others? Or were they in all fall? I mean that if I had loved him less and not broken me so much about it there, what he had around about himself, had I possible protect him better in that fall? Or was it that I none loved him ENOUGH, which made how I became jealous? Was it why that those there the flesh-eating, as he called them? Was it so, which it went so awful evil for us. About me not had - about me hate could - indeed I may the not express what I mean. I thought that I was so close adjacent him. Sometimes told him that he also was near me - one walk said it that firmly. If I those have could be with him THE WHOLE TIME? There is so very, that man walks around and thinks across. It is about such mass questions. Sometimes vet man neither out nor in, and man becomes all ...

Djursholm August 1964

april 1966

Afterword by Jan Holmberg

One of the first notes till "The Eating Human," gradually THE WOLF HOUR, wrote Bergman for December 1962: "I think still that there must be an ambiguous cleavage in desires and dreams. WHOLE SERIES OF INTRIGUING PERSONALITIES. They come and disappear - very surprising. But this here is clear: He keeps well don't track out of their figures particularly well. He careless well deleted them small occasionally." Yes, enough is THE WOLF HOUR full of interesting personalities. [Neutral with strong intensity]And the ambiguous splitting is still strong at the reading of the film story: I would say that the book THE WOLF HOUR is better than the film, much in reason from that the text more than the film resides itself in an ambivalent zone between desires and dreams, sense and madness, sleep and vigil. Somehow it hesitates about whom that is subject. [Neutral with strong intensity] The "he" that Bergman talks about in the note, he that isn't keeping track of their figures, aims assuredly on the main character Johan and his spook gallery, but also on the author, at him himself. [Neutral with strong intensity] The figures that populate THE WOLF HOUR are properly quite unclear, and not only the demons that haunt Johan (of those expected well isn't rather as sharp contours); Johan himself is contradictory and elusive - as if his author doesn't hold proper track of him. THE WOLF HOUR was ready 1964 hurt a hospital stay, a psychic crisis cum PERSONA came between cum movie had no premiere until 1968.

[seekerpsycho]

The ACME Special

Do you enjoy derailing your DnD campaign with bonkers overpowered combos? Well let me tell you about a maneuver I created called The ACME Special, and how it worked a little TOO well in my campaign. STRAP IN! So, you’re going to need four items to pull this off: 1. A Bag of Holding 2. A heavy object no more than 500lbs which can fit in the Bag of Holding, such as a safe filled with cannonballs. 3. An intelligent creature which obeys your commands and can fly (a Homunculus is ideal. Mine is a steampunk spider-robot named Bobbert. [art pending. Bobbert substitute from “Meet The Robinsons” below])

4. A Ring of Spell Storing or lesser-powered equivalent.

Now, if you’re an Artificer, you can instantly build your own Bag of Holding and the Homunculus yourself at level 2. Getting an object of nearly 500lbs is easy enough; find a rock, or chunk of a pillar (though a safe is the best option, for comedic value). Ring of Spell Storing is trickier, but you might persuade your DM to give you the opportunity to buy one from a magic vendor or such. You don’t even need a fully functional Ring of Spell Storing as written: you just need something that can store and release a level 2 spell (specifically, Enlarge, which an Artificer can learn at level 5) (Also, the Artificer can build an equivalent Ring at level 11, but the earlier you pull this off, the more epic). Now, how do you unleash the ACME Special? 1. Put heavy thing in Bag. Heavy thing is light while in Bag. 2. Charge Ring with a casting of Enlarge. 3. Give Bag and Ring to Homunculus. 4. Instruct Homunculus to fly 200ft above target you wish to absolutely obliterate. 5. Instruct Homunculus to flip Bag inside out, ejecting the safe, 6. and as it’s falling, have the Homunculus use the Ring to cast Enlarge on the safe, doubling its size in every dimension, and more importantly OCTUPLING ITS WEIGHT, to 4000lbs! 7. Argue with the DM that as per falling damage rules, a falling hero takes 1d6 damage for every 10ft they fall, to a max of 20d6 (which I interpret as terminal velocity after falling 200ft), and surely whatever the hero hits will take equal damage, so off the bat, the falling safe will deal 20d6. BUT, I argue that heavier objects should naturally deal more damage, surely that makes sense? So let’s assume that the 5e falling damage rules were built around the “average” hero weight of, oh, let’s say, 300lbs. Given our Enlarged safe weighs 4000lbs, it should deal (rounding down) 13 times the normal damage a falling hero would, meaning that The ACME Special should deal 260d6 falling damage to whatever player, monster, or other poor unfortunate soul it lands on!!! 8. Watch target magically lose its 3rd dimension. Now, have I unleashed The ACME Special in game? Yes I have. Did the DM let it play out as I designed it? Yes, but no. So, the scene: I’m a level 7 goblin Artificer working with a band of stoned misfits on a mission to assassinate a king to stop a war. Along the way we manage to charm a giant sea serpent, which we later cast Enlarge on to basically turn it into a kaiju.

We attack the capital city, leading with the kaiju. I instruct my Homunculus Bobbert thusly: “Bobbert! Guard dog mode! Follow kaiju! If encounter Omega-level-threat, deploy... The ACME Special.” Bobbert flies off with the Ring and the Bag and hovers a comfortable 200ft above our kaiju, ready to obliterate anything that might threaten our beastie.

The kaiju wrecks merry havoc, distracting the king’s army and citizens, and we break into the castle and begin searching for the king. We run into two boss monsters, but they would quickly become irrelevant.

Outside the castle, very much in a Godzilla vs Kong type encounter, a second kaiju has emerged from the sea to challenge our kaiju. The enemy kaiju is a beast we had encountered previously, and was well established as this universe’s version of Godzilla, and this is a territory / alpha male dispute type thing. The kaiju immediately clash, with the poor city citizens caught in the crossfire. The battle is fierce and epic, so huge that it’s changing weather patterns. In any case, this definitely qualifies as an Omega-level-threat, and so Bobbert diligently unleashes The ACME Special, which I’m confident will one-shot the enemy kaiju.

As I explained the mechanics of The ACME Special to our DM, there were a couple things I did not factor in, all stemming from our DM liking my clever idea a little TOO much. I failed to factor in: 1. The DM decided the “max of 200ft” rule of terminal velocity was silly. The higher the fall, the more damage, period. 2. Unbeknownst to me (that is, my goblin, currently in the castle), Bobbert had been swept up by a tornado and lifted to the whopping height of LOW ORBIT.

Bobbert unleashes The ACME Special.

A 4000lb safe, the likes of which would make The Looney Toons themselves weep at its beauty, plummets from the sky, catching fire and melting into a molten ball of slag and kinetic death as it does so.

The DM has me roll my original damage calculation, from which he would multiply his own numbers.

834 damage.

This number is meaningless.

The safe lands; it misses both kaiju but strikes the ground between them. The shockwave manifests as both a kinetic blast and heat, knocking behemoths across the city. Buildings are obliterated. Streets buckle, shatter, and are blown away. Once nigh insurmountable defensive walls are reduced to so much gravel. The king’s castle is blasted apart as if it were made of glass.

Through a combination of accidentally taking shelter in the castle basement and plot armor, my goblin and the rest of the team survive by the skin of our teeth.

One-point-five million civilians are not so lucky. There are zero other survivors within the city limits (other than the boss monsters, who wisely surrender immediately).

Bobbert hath become death, destroyer of worlds.

My character is now a mostly-accidental terrorist who has committed a war crime of magnitude never before seen in this universe. He is trying to keep this under wraps, which is thankfully possible due to the very limited pool of surviving witnesses.

But hey! The king (and the rest of his bloodline) is dead! Mission accomplished! I guess!

So,

take with you this forbidden knowledge, the DnD blueprints for a tungsten-rod-drop. Use it wisely.

The wisest move might be to never use it at all.

#DnD #D&D #The ACME Special #Tungsten rod #Artificer #Dungeons and Dragons

[aisla229]

Finished the first arc of the tabletop rpg game I’m GMing, I can finally post all the art! More about the worldbuilding under the cut:

Sauris is a white moon who’s visible surface is mostly composed of clouds. It orbeting around a gas giant, Caelophy. Millenias ago one of the pieces of the crust rolled over in the sea, exposing its side to the sunlight above, past the violent chemically active (and colorful) clouds inbetween. Life boomed on the continent, giving birth to complexe lifeforms such as plants and animals. Currently, civilisation is on the verge of an industrialisation, with a wide and diverse range of trades, for the first time spanning the massive and entire continent.

The active Inner Cloud layer, in an event called the Cloud’s Shift, can burst outwards. When it touches the continent it is believed to be the cause of creation of magic, causing all kinds of odds events as well, like making felines walk on two legs, plants change color, or give mysterious abilities to hidden creatures.

Any magic needs to be cast with a magic circle, each categorised by naturally occuring sigils at the centers. There is 13 known sigils, each named and tide to the planets and moons of Sauro. However tides are about to move, with a few wary travellers coming across a 14th unknown sigil, with the only proof of it being a reserved kid and a suspicious necklace.

Dinosaurs are the prominent life form on Sauris, with only a few mammals (mostly rodents and our beloved humanoids), fish in the rivers, and giant insects in the bogs. Here is a world where dinosaurs are found as locomotion, pets, food, and terrifying predators. It being very cold on Sauris, all year round, they also all rock some fluffy feather/proto-feathers coats.

The seasons no Sauris, are divided into two summers and two winters, spending a large portion of the year partially obscured of Sauro by Caelophy. The highest temperature is around 10°C , and the lowest -30°C

Here on the continent:

- The Tower of Almonious: A distant land discovered by a great sorcerer who has constructed a massive tower on top. Not much is known to the common people of Sauris, and stays inaccessible even today.

- Pol Malleo: An Active volcano, that unlike the ones on Earth does not eject lava, but a hot water-like liquid. Said liquid, named Azura, has a bright blue-turquoise color that glows a powerful green when it comes in contact with certain gases. The jets can go as high as 50 km high in the sky, forming a long colorful trail as it floats away.When an eruption occurs during Altieme, the droplets of liquid tend to freeze instantly in contact with the cold air, forming icicles that drop on the land below, often causing great problems as they bullet the surface.

- Tiacus Mire: It is currently the land in which resides the biggest city of Sauris; Aegyp. It also has the biggest lake: Great Ophora. During Primaestas, the majority of its land gets flooded, creating humid bogs, prospice to massive creatures, such as insects, Spinosaurus, and water dwellers like the massive mosasaurus.

- The Isles of Breviq: It probably has the most unique land shapes of the entire Continent. Long, relatively thin pillars of land have slowly come apart from the main land mass over many centuries, resulting in its numerous islands appearing to float between the clouds. The people of Breviq are known for having tamed the difficult beasts of the sky; riding pterosaurs.

- Pol Incus: The tallest mountain of Sauris, and so the tallest point of the entire moon. Its difficult climb has challenged many minds to reach its freezing top where the air grows thin. Temples and even old artefacts lie across the peaks or hidden under it’s rocks, proving the curiosity this mountain has always inspired.

- Thyreophor: The biggest land of Sauris. Thyreophor is most defined by its lush forests with massive trees and year-long colorful plants capable of holding under massive amounts of snow. It still holds the title of largest population in total.

- The Sdomorphia Wild Plains: Long stretches of grass and brush-like plants extend for as far as the eye can see. Sdomorphia is the land of nomads and the biggest of the animal kingdom: the Sauropods. It might not contain many streams or lakes, but it’s vast stretches borrow perfectly for herd hunting.

- The Austro Tundra: Unlike the other more South lands of Sauris, the Austro Tundra’s soil never melts away. Its rock-solid earth and ice makes it difficult to build houses on, but it has not stopped villages from sprouting even on the coldest land.The Austro Tundra is the land of Theropods, having the biggest number of raptors alike, many of which have prized feather coats.

- The Coelorus Coast: It has some of the biggest rate of precipitation of Sauris, standing on the right side of Pol Malleo against the strong air currents brushing the clouds below. Perhaps from the warmth created by Pol Malleo, the snow in Coelorus tends to melt a lot quicker than the other lands, and with the high amount of rivers and streams lining the soils, it also is one of the most fertile places. The steep sides of the volcano create perfect ranges for step agriculture, and primarily corn and rice.

- Cephalia: It currently has the title of the land with the biggest number of farm-land. Cephalia is often defined as the most friendly populace. With its loudest voices being farmers and workers, it has a particular streak of freedom and carelessness attached to its name.

- The Shantung Sway: A land carrying its own ecosphere, the people of Shantung have remained centuries without connection to the rest of Sauris. The current path to its land is extremely recent and trades have yet to be initiated. Apart from a very few explorers that have left Shantung to see the lands, and all described as fairly eccentric, interactions have been minimal so far.Shantung has been described as odd and fairy tale-like. With plants that glow in the dark, upside-down trees that prevent snow from reaching the ground, and weird spiky structured rocks. With bizarre animals, dinosaurs naked without feathers, small floating octopus creatures, and long leg-less organisms that slithered like tree branches.

- The Tenonto Canyon: The great divider between Malleo and Incus, the canyon expands down as far as can see, battered with wild winds and dangerous looking tornadoes beneath the clouds. A single bridge has been built on the closest edges, where the trade route quickly bustled with life, and ultimately created Mer, an unique city split in two across each side, one in the Tiacus Mire and the other in Thyreophor.

I’d like to say a big thank you to the players for being so patient and being so invested in this world i created, I love you guys. And thanks to anyone who actually read this!

#long post #doodles #dinosaur #austroraptor #protoceratops #avaceratops #worldbuilding #fantasy world #fantasy #DnD #dungeons and dragons #tabletop rpg #my art #I'm trying to make a summary of this 35+ pages doc OH BOI

[drarrily-we-row-along]

Day 125: Accidental Bonding (Part One)

When Harry woke up, his head was pounding and his heart was racing, he thought he might vomit. He staggered over to the floo to firecall in to work.

Robards answered, "Junior Auror Potter, good morning."

"Hello, sir," he said before his stomach heaved and he had to turn away and take a few deep breaths to steady himself. "I need to call in sick, sir. I think I've got a virus."

"What are your symptoms?" he asked curiously.

"Really bad headache, it feels like my eyes are going to pop out of my head; elevated pulse; and nausea."

His brow furrowed, "Who was your training partner yesterday?"

"Malfoy, sir," he said, his gut twisting uncomfortably.

"Where did you go?"

"Excuse me-" he broke off and held up a hand, turning away from the fireplace to try to get his bearings as his stomach tried to eject itself through his esophagus. After a moment he turned back, "We were sent to that old antique shop, sir," he said as quickly as he could manage.

"You're going to need to go to St. Mungo's."

"I don't-"

"That's not a request, Potter. Go there now and I'll be sending Junior Auror Malfoy right along."

"But-" Harry started.

"No buts, Malfoy called in with the same symptoms and I'm not taking any chances," and without another word he ended their connection.

With a sigh and one more longing look at his bed, Harry headed to St. Mungos.

(Read more below the cut)

They ended up putting Malfoy in the same room as him since they were there at the Ministry's behest and with the same symptoms. Harry tried not to look at him, imagining that getting irritated would only worsen his ever growing headache. Malfoy must have felt the same because he was less annoying that usual.

Healer Kenner, a stern looking woman who reminded Harry very much of Professor McGonagall, ran diagnostic test after diagnostic test and then finally said, "Well, you're bonded."

"What?" Harry yelped.

Malfoy groaned, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"Language, Auror Malfoy," she tsked.

"Apologies."

With a short nod, she continued, "The good news is that most of your discomfort can be alleviate by simple physical contact."

"And the bad news?" Harry asked wryly.

"There's nothing we can do to break the bond."

"What?" Malfoy spat.

"Surely, there's something-" Harry started.

She shook her head, "I'm afraid not. But it's not permanent," Healer Kenner added. "It'll only last a month."

"A month?!" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well it's certainly better than forever," Malfoy snarked, rubbing his hands over his face.

Harry wondered if Malfoy's head hurt as much as his did. He certainly hoped so.

But before he could say anything, Healer Kenner raised her wand and cast a spell the dragged their beds across the floor to the other. "Hold hands," she instructed.

He crossed his arms over his chest and Malfoy let out a pitiful groan.

"The sooner you do it, the sooner you'll start to feel better," she chided. "Just be glad that this particular bond only wants prolonged physical contact."

Harry shuddered, he'd heard the stories about some of the more archaic bonds.

"Oh, for Circe's sake," Malfoy grumbled as he reached across the space between them and clasped Harry's forearm in his hand.

A sense of relief hit immediately, Harry groaned as a weight lifted off his chest and the headache started receding.

"It will be faster if you both actively participate."

At this point, as the waves of relief were rolling through him, Harry was willing to do anything. He flipped over his hand, offering it to Malfoy.

The other man slid his hand down Harry's arm, as though he was afraid to break contact with him, and clasped Harry's hand in his.

She was right, his world seemed to right itself as they sat there holding hands and he let his head drop back against the bed as he took full, deep breaths for what felt like the first time in ages.

"How long do we have before it starts to feel like that again?" Malfoy asked, which Harry could admit was a good question.

She hummed, "I'd say two hours maximum before the discomfort starts affecting the way you function." After a short pause, Healer Kenner added, "You're going to probably want to spend nights together."

"Can't we just see each other in the morning?" Malfoy asked.

And Harry couldn't help but agree, "This wasn't that bad," he added. "And now that we know-"

She shook her head, "Now that your bodies are acknowledging the bond, the effects will set in quicker."

"Great," Harry grumbled. "Just bloody fantastic."

This day just kept going from bad to worse. He had no idea how he was going to tell everyone that he had an accidental bonding with Draco sodding Malfoy.

----------------

They argued about whose house to stay in overnight and finally decided to flip a coin for it. Draco won.

And that was how Harry found himself standing with a duffel bag outside of a surprisingly cute little house, knocking and waiting to be let in.

"Potter," Malfoy greeted as he opened the door to let him in.

And Harry wondered if he was feeling the bond tugging at his skin, too, if the bond was making his gut clench and making him feel irritable and like there was something crawling under his skin. "Can I-?" he started through gritted teeth, reaching a hand toward Malfoy but stopping a few inches away.

Malfoy nodded and closed the distance between them.

The moment he touched the other man his body sagged with relief, swaying back against the doorway.

After a moment, Malfoy released his hand and gestured toward the rest of his house, "Come in," he said. "It's nothing fancy," Malfoy said, "But it's home and it's not something that my family owned."

Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of that statement, so he just focused on looking around the house as Malfoy gave him the tour. Malfoy was right, it wasn't anything fancy but it was surprisingly cozy. It was nothing like Harry had expected; he'd imagined black leather and green decor, dark and broody. But the house was the opposite, the closest anything got to Slytherin green was the sea form green accents in the bathroom. "You have a nice house," Harry said.

"You needn't sound surprised," Malfoy said with a sniff, "I have excellent taste," he added as he opened the door to the bedroom.

The bedroom had pale blue walls and cream bedding, the dresser and wardrobe were both a dark wood that Harry couldn't identify. All in all, it was a nice room, very relaxing.

"You can use this drawer," Malfoy said, flicking his wand at the second drawer to open it, "And I cleared a space for you in the closet."

"Err, thanks," Harry said.

He rolled his eyes, "Don't mention it. I know it's hard for you to believe but I can actually be considerate when the mood strikes."

Before Harry could reply, Malfoy left the room, calling over his shoulder, "I'm making salmon and rice for dinner. If you don't like it you can make something for yourself."

This wasn't quite what he'd expected, Malfoy wasn't quite what he expected, he thought as he put his clothes away. Maybe Malfoy wasn't who Harry thought he was.

------------

Nope. Malfoy was precisely who Harry thought he was. The two of them had spent the entire night arguing about literally everything: about using coasters (when they were wizards and removing water stains was no big deal), about which clothes Harry should have hung or left folded, about the proper way to do the dishes, about their friends and the kind of people they were, and dozens of other things that made Harry want to tear his hair out.

They were still bickering when they went to bed because Malfoy had the nerve to critique the way Harry brushed his teeth and to demand that Harry wash his face before he get into bed.

"I'm not letting the oil in your skin damage my pillowcases!"

"My skin doesn't damage pillowcases," Harry snapped. "I have pillowcases too, you know, and none of them have oil stains."

"Potter wash your fucking face or I am covering your pillow with a paper bag," Malfoy threatened. "It's not a fucking hard request. It will take you literally two minutes."

"Fine!" Harry shouted, throwing his hands in the air and returning to the bathroom.

When he came out, Malfoy was already on the left side of the bed, sitting with his back against the headboard, reading a book. "Was that so hard?" he drawled.

"Oh fuck off," Harry grumbled as took off his glasses and he threw himself down on the right side of the bed, punching a pillow for the sheer pleasure of punching something.

"You're such a bloody neanderthal," Malfoy grumbled without looking up at Harry.

"Shut up!" Harry finally erupted. "For Merlin's sake just shut up and I will, too."

Malfoy glanced over at him, looking unperturbed which honestly made Harry even more frustrated.

"It's going to take me ages to fall asleep because I'm so fucking irritated."

After a moment, Malfoy reached over and put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "It's the bond," he said quietly. "We're not touching often enough and it's making us lash out."

"I don't think we need any help in that department," Harry grumbled but he could admit that he was feeling better already.

Malfoy chuckled, "You're right about that, I suppose."

He shook his head and reached up to cover Malfoy's hand with his own and expedite the process. "This does help though," he said with a yawn.

The other man hummed, "I think we should agree now that whenever either of us wakes up over night that we'll reach out and touch the other so we can get as much sleep as possible."

Through a yawn Harry murmured, "Sounds reasonable." He closed his eyes, surprised at how tired he was feeling all of the sudden. "Merlin, I'm knackered."

"Do you mind if I leave the light on to read for a while?" Malfoy asked.

He opened one eye to look at Malfoy's blurry face, "That's nice of you to ask," he said. "I don't mind."

"Are you certain?"

He nodded. "Night."

"Good night," Malfoy replied, going back to his book but leaving his hand on Harry's shoulder.

Harry drifted off, asleep in minutes.

------------

When Harry woke up again, the sun was peaking in through the curtains and he felt fantastic. He blinked open his eyes and realized that at some point during the night he and Malfoy had shifted, drifting until Harry's front was pressed tight against Malfoy's back, his body curled around the other man's.

He really ought to move.

But he was just so comfortable and his body was warm and loose and he just couldn't bring himself to move away.

It wasn't long before Malfoy started to shift, waking up slowly and Harry panicked. He did the only thing that he could think of and feigned sleep.

Malfoy arched and stretched, pressing his body back against Harry's for a long, delicious moment before he jumped, seeming to realize what he was doing. Then he held very still like he was waiting for something and Harry wondered if he was waiting for him to say something. When Harry didn't move and continued pretending to sleep Malfoy carefully withdrew himself and climbed out of bed to head to the loo.

Harry laid there for a long moment, missing the warmth of the other man's body, missing the way they'd seemed to fit together already.

Just the bond, he assured himself. This was all just the bond.

Right?

-----------------

Ahhh friends, I'm sorry. I hate to leave you like this but this one's going to need a part two. This girl is exhausted and this fic(let) is taking way longer than anticipated to write. I'll get part two written and posted tomorrow. <3 Lots of love, C

Part 2

Day 124: Joke | Day 126: Arranged Marriage

#100 drarry drabbles in 100 days #Accidental Bonding Part 1 #sorry friends #I'll get the second part up tomorrow #drarry #aurors #auror harry #auror draco malfoy #enemies to friends #friends to lovers #check back for part 2 tomorrow

[nicknellie]

Anonymous requested: Alex gets hurt and ends up breaking his arm, and Willie takes care of him. It really gets Alex down because he can’t drum and feels like he let the band down and he can’t use drumming to help with his anxiety and he feels useless because he can’t do much himself. Willie helps him with stuff he can’t do and tries to help him use other ways to cope with his anxiety. Lots of overprotective and soft caring Willie.

Snap

Alex had known it was a bad idea from the very beginning. Maybe it was the glint in Reggie’s eye, or the mischievous way Luke was biting his lip as he grinned, or the way they introduced the idea with, “You’re probably going to say no,” that had tipped him off. The point was, Alex had known that it was the worst plan his bandmates had ever come up with right from the get-go.

What he didn’t know was why he agreed to go through with it.

“You’re probably going to say no,” Luke had said when he and Reggie had entered the studio that morning. Alex had been trying to set up his drum kit, but looked up as they came in. He was immediately wary of the grin on Luke’s face. “But at least hear us out.”

“I’m worried,” Alex told them, glancing between each of them.

Luke waved a dismissive hand. “You’re always worried. Listen, it’s a great idea, I promise.”

“And,” Reggie added, “we’ve already got everything set up so it’ll be a total bummer if you say no now.”

Alex frowned. “What is it?” he asked warily.

“Just come with us, bro, I swear it’s awesome!”

Luke’s enthusiasm was hard to say no to, so Alex sighed and reluctantly stood to follow them out of the studio. He didn’t like the way his friends kept giggling at each other, then glancing back at him, and giggling even more. He didn’t like how this was a spontaneous adventure that he hadn’t had any time to prepare for. He didn’t like how he had no idea what the boys were planning.

But that didn’t stop him from following them.

They walked for a while, Luke and Reggie a few steps ahead of Alex, muttering conspiratorially between themselves. Eventually, they came to the top of a hill from which Alex could see the beach in one direction and the city in the other. Luke and Reggie stood side by side, then slid apart from each other in a grand reveal, announcing, “Ta-da!”

They moved apart to uncover a shopping trolley. A rusty, grimy shopping trolley that was missing a front wheel and looked as if it wouldn’t even be safe to push around a supermarket - somehow, Alex doubted that was what Luke and Reggie wanted to use it for in any case.

“Where did you get that?” Alex asked, eyeing the trolley.

“Washed up on the beach by my house,” Reggie said excitedly. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“You could say that,” Alex muttered. “You two seriously pushed it all the way up this hill?”

“Yep,” Luke said brightly, popping the ‘p’. “It took, like, three hours because the missing wheel kept making it turn and roll back down. We got it here though!”

He and Reggie high-fived.

“Uh-huh.” Alex had a dreadful sense in his stomach that he knew exactly where this was going. “And, uh... why did you want to show it to me?”

Luke grinned. He pointed to the trolley and said, “You’re gonna get in and we’re going to push you down the hill.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on!” Luke whined. “It’ll be fun!”

“I’m not concerned about it being fun, I’m concerned about it being dangerous!”

Luke scoffed and Reggie made a ‘pfffft’ sound. He slapped the side of the trolley. “This thing is perfectly safe! It’s sturdy - it survived being in the sea, remember?”

“It didn’t survive, it’s missing a wheel, which is the very thing that makes it dangerous,” Alex countered. “I’m not getting in that death-trap.”

“What if either Reggie or I go first?” Luke suggested. “You’ll see it’s safe, we can push it back up the hill, and you can have your turn.”

Alex shook his head. “You just said it took three hours to get this up here, I’m not waiting that long just to meet my certain doom.”

“There’s no doom,” Luke said.

“Alex, please,” Reggie said, breaking out the puppy-dog eyes. Alex felt his defences weaken.

And then Luke had to go and join in. BAM! Double puppy-dog eyes, both of his bandmates silently begging him to do that one simple task that would make them happy.

He sighed begrudgingly. “Fine. But if I die, you need to make sure my drum kit goes to someone who will appreciate it.”

“Gotcha,” Luke said, grinning from ear to ear. He slapped Alex’s shoulder. “Thanks, buddy.”

Against his better judgement and his choice, Alex steeled himself and clambered into the trolley. He felt the metal groan against his body weight, the cold rust digging into his bottom and back. It was probably staining his favourite pink hoodie, he thought with a grimace.

“Did you bring a helmet?” he asked, a nervous hitch in his voice. Now that he was in the trolley the hill looked a whole lot steeper.

Luke and Reggie laughed, readying themselves on either side of the trolley. Reggie said, “No. You won’t need one - we told you, it’s totally safe.”

“Are you ready?” Luke asked.

“Will it even matter if I say no?” Alex deadpanned.

“No. Okay, Reg, let’s do this. Three, two, one, go!”

Luke and Reggie, both clutching the trolley, took a great running start across the hill. As they gained momentum, Alex began feeling less and less steady and secure. He gripped the bars of the trolley for dear life; his eyes were open as they neared the edge, but only because it was an “I don’t want to look but I can’t not look” situation. As they drew ever closer to the drop, Alex felt the need to eject himself from the trolley but couldn’t make himself move.

And all of a sudden he was hurtling down the side of the hill, the trolley swerving unpredictably beneath him, running smoothly for a moment but then shooting off to the left or right with sharp turns that flipped Alex’s stomach. He collided with rocks, roots, and tree stumps that sent him and the trolley flying through the air for just a second before they landed without grace and sped down the hill once more.

Alex saw the main hazard long before he reached it but by that point it was about three minutes too late to do anything about it. As he gathered yet more speed, he found that he was headed directly towards a high barbed-wire fence. His mouth opened to scream but no noise came out.

Alex and the trolley smacked into the fence. In what Alex could only assume had looked like a spectacular acrobatic display, he was launched from the trolley and pinwheeled through the air, arms and legs star-fished around him. He landed in a heap on the other side of the fence, awkwardly jarring his arm on an unfortunately placed rock and then, because luck was not on his side, landed with the rest of his body weight on it.

Snap.

That didn’t sound good.

It didn’t feel good either. Immediately, Alex was aware that he couldn’t feel his right arm - the only sensation was a faint buzzing in it as if he had pins and needles.

He sat himself up, using his other hand for leverage, and looked at his arm. It was... not the shape an arm was supposed to be.

He had known this was a bad idea.

*

Six hours later, most of which had been spent in a hospital with a frantic Luke and an inconsolable Reggie, Alex had made his way to Willie’s place. The two of them were on the couch, Alex laying with his head on Willie’s lap and his face buried in Willie’s t-shirt, Willie gently carding his fingers through Alex’s hair. Alex’s right arm was wrapped in a pink plaster cast and hoisted up against his chest with a sling.

“This sucks,” he mumbled into the fabric of Willie’s shirt for what had to be the twentieth time that day.

Willie sighed. “I know, hotdog. Broken bones are never fun. But it’s only six weeks, right?”

“Six to eight,” Alex groaned. “That’s six to eight weeks where I can do pretty much nothing.”

“Hey,” Willie said gently. “Don’t give up so easily, it’s only been a few hours. I’ve broken a ton of bones skateboarding, and I know a whole bunch of fun things we can do while you’re all bandaged up.”

Alex harrumphed. “I can’t drum. So no band.”

“No playing with the band. That doesn’t mean you can’t hang out with them or go to rehearsals.”

“Great,” Alex said sarcastically. “That’s one really fun and exciting thing I can do - watch my friends have fun without me.”

“Stop it,” Willie said, voice a little firmer. Alex stopped. “They won’t be having fun without you because you’ll be there. A broken arm doesn’t stop you being their friend.”

Alex muttered to himself, “It’s stops me being useful.”

“What did you say?” Willie prompted.

Alex sighed haggardly and sat up, shuffling around to face Willie. “I said it stops me being useful. To them, to the band. I’ve let them down! We had three gigs lined up next week and now we don’t have a drummer so those will all be off. And what really sucks is that all of those gigs had managers and record execs coming to watch them, now they’re not going to see us. It’s my fault!”

Willie took his hand, the one that wasn’t strapped up to his chest with the sling. Alex felt him thread their fingers together and told himself to breathe. Breathe and look into Willie’s eyes. Calm.

“It’s not your fault, Alex,” Willie said, and as always whatever he said immediately made sense in Alex’s mind. Of course it wasn’t his fault - why would it be? “It’s nobody’s fault. The guys pressured you into getting in, you did, Julie wasn’t there to tell you all how stupid you were being, and I wasn’t there to at least offer you my helmet. We’re all a little to blame, but it’s not anybody’s fault, least of all yours.”

“I’m still letting them down,” Alex said quietly, struggling to maintain eye contact.

Willie shook his head. “You know that isn’t true. You’re Julie and the Phantoms - none of you have the ability to be disappointed in each other or let each other down. You’re like one person; if one of you is down, you all are.”

Alex was unconvinced, and it must have shown on his face because Willie sighed and continued.

“Remember last year when Reggie tried to fix his amp in the rain, got electrocuted, and then couldn’t play that school dance? So instead of getting mad at him you all took turns staying by his bedside, fetching him whatever he needed, keeping an eye on him, even helping him to the toilet and stuff like that?”

Alex rolled his eyes. “That was different. He could have died.”

“You could have died today,” Willie pointed out. Alex shuddered at the thought. “But okay. What about when Julie had a throat infection? You all started learning sign language to try and communicate with her. Sure, you all remembered that she could still hear you and that she could just write down what she wanted to say, but you were willing to learn a new language for her.”

“That’s still different!” Alex protested. He tried to throw his arms up in the air in frustration, but one was tied to his chest, so his left arm just flopped pathetically by itself.

“Why?”

“Because it’s Julie. We’d do anything for her.”

Willie fixed him with a glare full of love, unnerving and endearing at the same time.

“And they would all do anything for you too,” he said. “You know that. Tell me you know that, Alex.”

Alex swallowed thickly. “I know that,” he admitted quietly.

“And I would too,” Willie added, still gazing at Alex. “We’ve got this, hotdog.”

Finally, Alex felt the barest beginnings of a smile creeping onto his face. He squeezed Willie’s hand.

“We’ve got this.”

*

It was all well and good saying “we’ve got this” but the actual “getting this” part was easier said than done. It hadn’t been a day and Alex had already caved.

It had started that morning. He had woken up and been hyper aware of the cast on his arm. He could feel it like a hand clasped around his forearm, a sensation that couldn’t be shaken off or rubbed away. It had made his head tingle and he couldn’t seem to focus on much of anything.

When he’d gone downstairs, his father had tried to clap him genially on the shoulder, but being touched had felt like being suffocated. Alex hadn’t said anything, just tried to shrink away.

Then, inevitably and despite the nice greeting he had attempted to give, his father had launched into a spiel about why it was so awful that Alex had chosen to have a pink cast. It had sent his mind reeling, made his legs numb, and started his eyes watering.

So he had been feeling stressed. He had needed to get out of the house so he had gone on a walk - the nice breeze and the warm summer sun had been helpful, but there were so many noises outside. Birds chirped, bees buzzed, car horns honked, people laughed, footsteps echoed, leaves crunched, wind whistled, dogs barked, and every other noise the outside world created seemed stuck on an endless, repetitive, painful loop that attacked Alex’s ears and brain.

He could feel his anxiety beginning to spike. If one more thing touched him (in the metaphorical or literal sense) he was sure he would break.

He got a text from Willie: Going to be late but will bring a fun surprise!

Snap.

The floodgates opened and Alex began to cry. All he wanted was for things to be normal - he wanted his arm out of the cast, he wanted to drum with his band, and he wanted to see his boyfriend right now like they had planned.

So he did something stupid. He went to the Molinas’ house, let himself into the studio as he and the other boys regularly did, sat himself down beside his drum kit, slipped his cast-covered arm from the sling and began to drum.

It wasn’t the easy release it always was. It just hurt even more. Alex should have expected it; using a broken arm to whack a drum didn’t sound fun when put bluntly. But usually drumming helped so much, usually it made the tight feeling in Alex’s mind loosen. Not today.

Still, he kept drumming, because now it almost felt like he couldn’t stop.

It hurt.

He didn’t know how long he’d been there when the doors to the studio opened and Julie popped her head in. “Alex?”

Finally he let his arms fall to his sides, knackered and aching. His right arm was throbbing and there were tears running down his cheeks.

“Hey,” Julie said gently, hurrying towards him. She held her hand out, an offering for him to take it, but Alex shook his head and she withdrew it.

“Alex,” she continued. “I need you to put your broken arm back in the sling. Here, give me your drumsticks.”

He did as she said, grateful for order and instruction. He handed her his sticks, then winced as he manoeuvred his arm back into its sling.

“Is there anything you want me to do?” Julie asked softly.

Alex shrugged. How was he supposed to know?

Julie made the decision for him. “I’ll see if I can get hold of Willie.”

As she left the studio, Alex couldn’t help but laugh. Of course that would help and of course Julie knew that.

It wasn’t five minutes before Willie pushed the doors to the studio open and skated inside in one smooth move that Alex might have found impressive another time. He propped his board up against the wall and headed straight in Alex’s direction, crouching down beside him.

Alex fumbled to take Willie’s hand.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Willie said quietly. “Julie said you were drumming?”

Alex nodded.

Willie huffed an affectionate laugh. “That was a dumb thing to do.”

Alex felt a smile tug at his lips. “I know,” he croaked. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise,” Willie said soothingly. “I know how hard this is for your. But, when your anxiety spikes we’re going to have to find other things to do in the meantime. Drumming isn’t going to do you any good.”

Alex nodded again. “I know. It hurt.”

“Do you want to head up to the hospital?” Willie asked, gently touching Alex’s broken arm where it was safely in its sling. He was probably imagining it, but Alex could have sworn that the pain went away when Willie touched it. “Make sure you’ve not done any more damage?”

“I think it’s fine,” Alex told him. Willie looked up at him, disbelieving. “I didn’t go hard, I’m not that stupid.”

“Okay then. I believe you. I’ve got something planned, but is there anything you want to do first? Or do you still need a little time to calm down?”

Alex squeezed his hand. “Can we just... I don’t know. Can you just sit with me for a while?”

Willie smiled and Alex felt his heart burst. “Of course, hotdog. Whatever you need.”

They moved to the couch and cuddled up together. Willie positioned himself so that he could easily press gentle kisses to Alex’s forehead - Alex didn’t know whether Willie had done that for his own enjoyment or for Alex’s, but he didn’t mind either way. Just having Willie there, holding him, supporting him, made him feel a whole lot better than he had before.

*

Alex hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but he found himself yawning as he woke up. He tried to stretch his arms, then remembered one of them was bound to his chest, and awkwardly let the one arm that had moved fall to his side. He heard Willie giggle and turned to face him where he was cuddled practically beneath Alex.

“Tired, sleeping beauty?” Willie teased, brushing hair out of Alex’s face.

Alex felt his face flush. “I’m not sleeping beauty,” he said. “I’m not any princess.”

“You got that right,” Willie said, pointing to a wet patch on his own shirt. “Princesses don’t drool on their boyfriend’s shirts.”

Alex rolled his eyes and laughed a little, pushing himself into a sitting position. Willie sat up too, and pressed a quick kiss to Alex’s cheek.

“Right,” Willie said, pulling Alex to his feet. “Ready to do what I had planned?”

“Okay,” Alex said, grinning.

Willie tugged on his arm and led him out of the studio. They walked together for a while, Willie talking his ear off about this and that and everything in between. Alex was grateful for Willie all the time, but especially in times like this - times when Alex was struggling for words and wasn’t feeling quite up to talking at all, and Willie would simply know when he felt like that and do all the talking for him.

Eventually, Willie came to a stop so sudden that Alex walked straight into him. Willie laughed and clutched Alex’s hand, pointing to the building they’d stopped outside.

It was a museum, one that Willie had taken Alex to many a time before. Alex knew how much Willie loved this place - the way his face lit up when he talked about all the different exhibits was endearing and downright beautiful. Alex didn’t ‘get’ art himself, but he would never pass up an opportunity to visit the gallery with Willie.

“What are we doing here?” he asked.

Willie shrugged. “I was brainstorming ways to help you combat your anxiety while drumming isn’t an option, and I remembered that they just opened a new temporary feature here. It’s all about noise being its own form of art and they’ve added an area where you can make your own.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Your own noise or art?”

“The point is that it’s both,” Willie explained, leading him inside. “And I think the way they’ve designed it could be a very effective stress-reliever. Come on.”

Willie led him through all the exhibits, wending his way through the bustling crowds with ease. He didn’t stop to talk about all the paintings and sculptures like he usually would, so Alex’s curiosity was piqued.

Willie pulled him into a room. Which was really all it was - just a room. It was relatively large with a plain white ceiling, floor, and walls (except for one which was entirely glass and showed the bright spring sunshine outside). Alex looked around for some instruction of what to do; Willie had said the exhibit was all about noise, but there was literally nothing in the room that could be used to make a sound.

“So... what do we do?” Alex asked.

Willie grinned. “You make your own noise.”

And then he screamed.

It was a long, loud, sustained note and when Willie finally finished he was grinning from ear to ear, looking absolutely exhilarated. Alex (impressed that Willie had held the note so long and now weirdly curious about his lung capacity) stared at him, dumb-founded.

“This is really what we’re supposed to do?” he asked sceptically.

Willie nodded vigorously. “Yeah, man, and it’s awesome! You just... let go! Shout all your worries away. Now you try!”

Alex nervously let out a weak little, “Ahhhhh.”

Willie laughed loudly and took hold of Alex’s shoulders. “Come on, bro, you’ve got to put some effort in. Come on, like this, ready?”

He screamed again.

Alex screamed back.

And for god knows how long, the two of them stayed together, screaming into each other’s faces, competing to see who could scream longest and loudest, and Alex hardly noticed that his worries were dissipating as he let himself be confident and have fun with Willie. The minutes ticked by into hours and they only stopped screaming when they were totally out of breath.

Willie blew his hair out of his face, eyes shining hopefully. “Feels good, right?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, pulling him into an awkward one-armed hug. “It does.”

*

Alex spent the night at Willie’s, not feeling up to going home. When they woke up to Alex’s alarm the next morning, Alex felt Willie shuffle into his side, head on Alex’s shoulder, clearly not wanting to get up.

“It’s, like, five o’clock in the morning,” Willie grumbled, throwing an arm across Alex’s midriff. “I want to stay in bed.”

“We’ve hit snooze a dozen times and it’s nearly eleven a.m.,” Alex returned, smiling fondly. “I’m very sorry but it’s time to get up.”

Willie sighed and rolled himself out of bed, grumbling about Alex interrupting his dream. Alex just laughed and sat up too, automatically looking for his own wardrobe and then remembering he was at Willie’s and had nothing to wear.

“I should have headed home and grabbed some clean clothes,” he thought out loud. A moment later he was struck in the back of the head by one of Willie’s t-shirts and a pair of trousers.

“Put those on,” Willie said as he pulled on a tricolour jumper. “I’m pretty sure they’ll fit.”

Alex picked up the clothes (a tie-dye crop-top and a pair of acid wash ripped jeans) and began his attempt at getting dressed. There were many things Alex had found that were hard to do one-armed, but putting clothes on was the biggest challenge, bordering on impossible. How was he supposed to get his arm through the hole if he wasn’t supposed to use his arm?

He heard Willie giggle somewhere in front of him and was glad that the shirt jammed over his head covered up his blush.

“Need any help, hotdog?” Willie teased.

“No, no, I’ve got this,” Alex lied. He shimmied a little, trying to get the shirt to fall down over his face.

There was another quiet little chuckle, and a moment later Alex felt Willie’s cold hands on his skin as he gently maneuvered Alex’s arms and head to go through the right holes. When the shirt finally was on properly and Alex’s eyes were uncovered again, he was greeted with the lovely sight of Willie smiling down at him affectionately, eyes bright and smile wide.

Willie finished helping Alex dress, ignoring Alex’s insistence that he really could do it by himself (”I think you’ve just proved that you can’t, hotdog.”) and the two of them left the house. Willie told Alex that he had planned another something to take Alex’s mind off the cast, this time down at the beach; Alex had no idea what it could be, but didn’t find himself stressing out at the thought of not knowing.

It was strange, but it made sense. After all, having Willie there to help him over the past few days had made Alex’s life a whole lot easier. Having Willie in his life at all made it that much more enjoyable. With Willie, Alex felt safe and able to trust himself and his boyfriend. He felt free, even though he was trapped by the cast.

He was certain that whatever Willie had thought up would help him get through the pain and the anxiety, and he couldn’t wait.

#willex #willie x alex #alex x willie #willie jatp #alex mercer #julie molina #luke patterson #reggie peters #julie and the phantoms #julie and the himbos #willex fic #jatp #jatp fic #fanfiction #request #hurt/comfort #sunset curve #writing #fic

[nasa]

Tournament Earth: The Earthly Eight

To celebrate Earth Observatory’s 20th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we asked readers to pick our all-time best image. We have already completed two rounds of voting, which led to two rounds of stunning upsets. As we head into round 3, only two of the top eight seeds (#1s and #2s) remain. It is time now to cast your votes for the best of the Earthly 8. Voting ends on April 13 at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time.

The nominees are separated into four groups: Past Winners, Home Planet, Land & Ice, and Sea & Sky. Check out the contenders still in the game:

Past Winners: Ocean Sand, Bahamas (#5 seed) vs. A View from Saturn (#2 seed)

Though the above image may resemble a new age painting straight out of an art gallery in Venice Beach, California, it is in fact a satellite image of the sands and seaweed in the Bahamas. The image was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) instrument aboard the Landsat 7 satellite. Tides and ocean currents in the Bahamas sculpted the sand and seaweed beds into these multicolored, fluted patterns in much the same way that winds sculpted the vast sand dunes in the Sahara Desert.

This beautiful image of Saturn and its rings looks more like an artist’s creation than a real image, but in fact, the image is a composite (layered image) made from 165 images taken by the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006. Scientists created the color in the image by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared, and clear-filter images and then adjusting the final image to resemble natural color. (A clear filter is one that allows in all the wavelengths of light the sensor is capable of detecting.) This image is a closeup view of the upper left quadrant of the rings, through which Earth is visible in the far, far distance. The full image can be seen here.

Home Planet: Twin Marbles (#1 seed) vs. Fire in the Sky and on the Ground (#7 seed)

A day’s clouds. The shape and texture of the land. The living ocean. City lights as a beacon of human presence across the globe. This amazingly beautiful view of Earth from space is a fusion of science and art, a showcase for the remote-sensing technology that makes such views possible, and a testament to the passion and creativity of the scientists who devote their careers to understanding how land, ocean, and atmosphere—even life itself—interact to generate Earth’s unique (as far as we know!) life-sustaining environment.

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) used a digital camera to capture several hundred photographs of the aurora australis, or “southern lights,” while passing over the Indian Ocean on September 17, 2011. If you click on this movie, you can see the flowing ribbons and rays below as the ISS passed from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia between 17:22 and 17:45 Universal Time. Solar panels and other sections of the ISS fill some of the upper right side of the photograph.

Auroras are a spectacular sign that our planet is electrically and magnetically connected to the Sun. These light shows are provoked by energy from the Sun and fueled by electrically charged particles trapped in Earth’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere. In this case, the space around Earth was stirred up by an explosion of hot, ionized gas from the Sun—a coronal mass ejection—that left the Sun on September 14, 2011.

Ice and Land: Sand Dunes (#8 seed) vs. Retreat of Columbia Glacier (#6 seed)

Mountains of sand, some as tall as 300 meters (1000 feet), reach from the floor of Africa’s Namib Desert toward the sky. Driven by wind, these dunes march across the desert, bordered to the west by the Atlantic Ocean and in other directions by solid, rocky land.

The abrupt transition from sand to land is visible in this image, acquired on November 13, 2019, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. They show the northern extent of the Namib Sand Sea—a field of sand dunes spanning more than 3 million hectares (more than 10,000 square miles) within the Namib-Naukluft Park, which was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2013. Sand appears red, painted by a layer of iron oxide.

Scientists have long studied Alaska's fast-moving Columbia Glacier, a tidewater glacier that descends through the Chugach Mountains into Prince William Sound. Yet the river of ice continues to deliver new surprises.

The image series begins in July 1986 (bottom image) with a false-color image captured by the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor on the Landsat 5 satellite. The false-color image from July 2014 (top image), acquired by the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite, shows the extent of retreat after 28 years. Use the image comparison tool to better see the details.

Sea and Sky: Atafu Atoll, Tokelau (#8 seed) vs. Raikoke Erupts (#6 seed)

At roughly eight kilometers wide, Atafu Atoll is the smallest of three atolls and one island (Nukunonu and Fakaofo Atolls to the southeast and Swains Island to the south are not shown) comprising the Tokelau Islands group located in the southern Pacific Ocean. The primary settlement on Atafu is a village located at the northwestern corner of the atoll. The typical ring shape of the atoll is the result of coral reefs building up around a former volcanic island.

Unlike some of its perpetually active neighbors on the Kamchatka Peninsula, Raikoke Volcano on the Kuril Islands rarely erupts. The small, oval-shaped island most recently exploded in 1924 and in 1778.

The dormant period ended around 4:00 a.m. local time on June 22, 2019, when a vast plume of ash and volcanic gases shot up from its 700-meter-wide crater. Several satellites—as well as astronauts on the International Space Station—observed as a thick plume rose and then streamed east as it was pulled into the circulation of a storm in the North Pacific.

On the morning of June 22, astronauts shot this photograph of the volcanic plume rising in a narrow column and then spreading out in a part of the plume known as the umbrella region. That is the area where the density of the plume and the surrounding air equalize and the plume stops rising. The ring of clouds at the base of the column appears to be water vapor.

See all of the images and vote now HERE. 

 Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

#NASA #Earth #photography #Earth photography

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Trieste Venture but with the MC added (Part One)

How the Trieste adventure should have gone in the game.

"They ...... they're coming!" Lu Mingfei said hoarsely.

You and Chu Zihang looked out from the observation window below. Scarlet water mist gushed out of the ruined ground. The dragon blood flowing from it rushed up, and from the cracks in the ground crawled slender living creatures, their bodies glowing with a metallic sheen, their pupils a hideous gold. Because they had slumbered so long, they couldn’t swim up yet. They creeped on the sea bed, crawling, wriggling their slender lower body. But after being nourished by the dragon's blood, their bodies immediately regained the strength of the ancient era. As they crawled they sprang up, swinging their long tails to float upwards rapidly. They passed by the side of the Trieste, but did not cast even a glance at the metal object with the lights on. Their eyes were on the endless darkness above. Hundreds and thousands of them finally broke free from the seal of bondage and were about to return to the human world.

"Snake tail people. Mermaids." Chu Zihang said softly, "This is not a pureblood dragon species. They were also human-dragon hybrids. This is not the city of the dragon race, it was built by the ancestors of the hybrids!"

"It's like a dragon ascending to heaven." Lu Mingfei murmured.

In the upper view, countless slender shadows were striving to swing their long tails, and the lava illuminated their bodies as they came together like golden whirlpools.

"When they rise all the way to the surface, this will get tricky. If even one of things were captured by the media, tomorrow every newspaper in the world will make it a headline." Caesar said, "But it's not our business anymore. Leave it to those Japanese. It's time for their support team to come into play. Our job is just to level the place. Whether it's the Lenin, the Embryo or Takamagahara. The very existence of such things is trouble."

"The deep-sea walking suits can only support five minutes at most." Chu Zihang said, "I'll have the Trieste lowered a bit."

"That's enough time." Caesar squeezed himself into the pressurized compartment on the side of the cockpit, swiveled around and snapped the 10 meter thick hatch shut.

Outside is an incredibly ultra-high pressure environment, and Caesar couldn’t use a diving suit without being crushed. So instead he was in another robotic submersible made of thick metal, spherical and pressurized. But even with this, his time is quite limited. Caesar gripped the operating handle of the metal arm firmly and blew into the microphone in the helmet: "Chu Zihang, try the communication device."

"I can hear you very clearly here, can you hear me?" Chu Zihang tapped the microphone in the cockpit.

"The call works well," Caesar paused, "Aren't you also a proud man?"

Chu Zihang froze.

"It's just that you're proud in a different way than I am." Caesar added, "Although you're uncomfortable when you're proud, if you weren't proud, you wouldn't deserve to be seen as an opponent by me at all. Those old guys in my family want to target you, but that matter has nothing to do with me. Don't think I would use those kinds of underhanded tactics against you. If it's my death and your life, just keep living so proudly … don't be defeated by the bastards I despise."

You’re not sure what they’re referring to exactly so you ask Zihang directly. “You were targeted by Caesar’s family?”

“It’s a long story.” Chu Zihang muttered, still focused on the device.

“MC! You’re not crying! That’s a good sign!” Caesar’s teasing voice came through in your ears.

You scowl at the monitor. “I never cry for any of my friends.”

“You do it when you sleep.”

Your jaw clenched and your hands balled into fists.

Lu Mingfei audibly gasped. If his head swiveled on his neck any faster, it might snap. “No way! You two… No way!”

“Nothing happened between us!” You growl at Lu Mingfei, before turning back to the image of Caesar in the monitor. “Why are you listening outside my bedroom, you creep? I’ll try not to cry for you then. I should be out there. You’re responsible for your own death.” You didn’t mean to speak so bitterly. But you never really had time to mourn, so your grief rapidly progressed from shock to denial to anger. But Caesar only chuckled, amused to get a rise out of you even at a time like this.

　　The moment the pressurized nozzle spewed out the zeppelin gear, Chu Zihang saw Caesar in the gear put his hand into the spherical helmet and gave him a thumbs up, not knowing it meant "victory".

Caesar slowly descended in the water, occasionally brushing by newborn mermaids. The ruin was like a gateway to Hell. Now that door to the underworld is open, the souls are desperate to escape. The mermaids are no longer in their right mind, but they still retain their beastly instincts, as if all of them have a premonition of destruction, and they are desperately fleeing from this desperate situation, not attacking anything along the way. Caesar couldn't figure out how the guardians could have sensed that Takamagahara would be destroyed by a nuclear explosion. That’s obviously not something they would be able to do.

Some of these long-dead hybrid species were intact, others were mutilated. Their preservation was similar to the mummification process but used more powerful alchemical techniques that sealed their vitality in immortal bodies. Some of them were missing half of their heads, others had pierced abdominal cavities, seemingly the remains left after a brutal battlefield, which the alchemists of the ancient world used as raw material. Caesar thought of the battlefield carvings he had seen on a birdhouse, as if that battle had really happened in history, and perhaps it was what finally destroyed the city.

In the light of gas mines and lava, the nuclear powerhouse that would be used to blow up the ruin and the Lenin were in clear view. The narrow nuclear powerhouse pitched in a pile of lung snails not far from the Lenin, millions of them writhing beside it. Caesar dropped into the pile of lung snails, and the tiny creatures were steadily dislodging themselves from the Lenin, hitting the zeppelin suit with a dull thud. Struggling to maneuver his awkward prosthetic limbs back to a standing position, Caesar trudged through the pile of lung snails, inching closer to the nuclear powerhouse. The currents were too chaotic for him to float forward, so he didn't dare release the lead weight on his zeppelin rig, and had to stick to the seabed like this, somewhere between walking and crawling. There was a constant stream of mermaids passing above his head. How many of them had been revived, a few thousand or tens of thousands? Caesar could not count them. In this underworld at the height of the day countless undead were buried underground. These mermaid hybrids seem to have directly inherited the civilization of the dragon, completely unlike humans.

The Zeppelin suit is already working over-capacity -- the pressure is overloaded, the output is overloaded, and the lighting inside the helmet keeps flashing out. If not protected by the ultra-high-pressure saline inside the suit, Caesar would have been bleeding internally, but the ultra-high-pressure saline also made his eyes bloodshot and made it difficult to breathe. He had eyes only for the nuclear powerhouse less than ten meters away, but to crawl through ten meters in the waist-deep pile of lung snails, he gradually wondered if he could do it.

His vision was getting blurry. The effects of high pressure are the most obvious on vision. The target in his sight began to appear ghostly. He started to feel a severe headache. His metal prosthetic limbs were slipping in the pile of lung snails, as if he was struggling in a mudslide and could be swallowed up at any moment.

Caesar closed his eyes and released the Scythe Itachi. Few people know that his hearing ability is not an aid. It’s a sixth sense even more effective than vision. The scythes hovered and danced in the sea, and Caesar was surprised to find the field expanded to an unprecedented extent. The sea was an excellent conductor of sound, and the loss of sonic transmission was less than in the air. Caesar could now see that the ancient buildings that had collapsed had thousands of black bells hanging from them. In the days when Takamagahara stood on the earth, the wind must have drowned the whole city in bells.

But in the sea, the bells emitted sound is beyond the range of normal human hearing ultra-low frequency. If he had not released the scythe then Caesar would not have been able to hear this magical music. Heavy ancient ultra-low frequency sound with the sea current through the ruins, Caesar immersed in the ancient music, imagining that the Takamagahara was on dry land. Thousands of bells were turning in the wind, and the tide of sound was ebbing and flowing in the city, tidal wave after tidal wave. He had never "heard" such a vast city.

"Come in, Caesar! Come in, Caesar! Answer! Answer!" Chu yelled.

Three minutes after ejecting from the deep submersible, Caesar lay in a pile of lung snails. His last action was to cling to a pile of lung snails, and from the camera inside his helmet, look at the pleasant smile remaining on his face.

No answer. Life monitoring equipment showed that he still has a heartbeat, but he had completely lost consciousness. You turn your eyes from the monitor. You can’t bear to look. Renata… Anton… Vera…

Did you have to watch Caesar die too?

Chu Zihang muted the microphone, took off the headset and handed it to you, staring into your eyes: "Remember, since the nuclear power module is detached, Sumeru can no longer monitor the data of its  operation, underwater communication must rely on the cable."

You refuse to accept it. “What are you doing? You’re not going to go out there and die too, are you? Caesar said we all have to stay here!”

"What do you mean? I don't understand!" Lu Mingfei shook his head in bewilderment.

Chu Zihang doesn’t respond to you but presses the device into your hand. "It means that if you don't tell Gen-kun about what’s happening, he doesn't know if the nuclear power module has been ignited again. If I fail to bring Caesar back, you tell Gen-kun that the ignition has been successful, but not that you cannot recover me and Caesar, so that he can recover you immediately. Gen-kun cannot verify the result of the ignition, he can only choose to bring you back. If he knows you’re still here and the nuclear module is not ignited, he will ask one of you to stay in the deep submersible and the other to get out of the cabin." 

“Zihang, let me go out there. H-hey!”

Chu Zihang put the headset on your head, "Don't say too much, and don't argue with me out of embarrassment. Just like Caesar does not want to sacrifice himself to save you and me out of the cabin, Chisei’s pride does not allow him to drive us out of the cabin."

You pull the headset off. “This is bullshit! Did you hear anything I said before to Caesar? Why aren’t you listening to me?”

"My pride also does not allow me to let a lower grade out of the cabin." Chu Zihang ignored the headset you held out, "If we don't make it back, you're the leader of the dive team."

“Isn’t Lu Mingfei my senior?” Your gaze shifts from Chu Zihang to Lu Mingfei.

Lu Mingfei sat limp on the chair, eyes innocent like a small raccoon, and you realize that Chu Zihang was right. Never once had you ever seen Lu Mingfei ever fend for himself in a pinch. He always seemed lost with the eyes of a small raccoon. If anything happened to Chu Zihang and you, Lu Mingfei would be fish bait.

The Dark-haired senior turned to Lu Mingfei. "Answer me sincerely, are you still unable to forget Nono?"

“Huh?” You asked.

Lu Mingfei lowered his head: "Yes, but I can't do anything about it, I just try not to think about it."

"If you're the only one of the three of us to escape, don't feel guilty about it. It's not your fault that Caesar and I had an accident. Try again to see if you can impress Nono. I always think she's actually a very weak girl inside. Losing Caesar will be very sad, right?" Chu Zihang walked towards the pressurized cabin, "You still have a goal to achieve, unlike me, I have nothing to aim for."

Your eyes returned to Lu Mingfei with a brand new sense of disgust. Was he seriously lusting after Caesar’s fiancée, planning to take his place at her side now that he’s going to die? If you knew that was the case, then you would have been happy to let Lu Mingfei out there to get eaten by lung snails!

"Brother, did you like the little dragon lady?" Lu Mingfei asked in a numb voice.

"So you call her the Little Dragon Lady?" He turned to you and said, “I know there��s a lot you don’t understand, but you will in time. Thank you for caring for him.”  Chu Zihang snapped the door of the pressure chamber shut behind him.

When Lu Mingfei turns to look at you, he doesn’t even react to the deep despising look you’re giving him. He just sighs. 

“You’re an asshole.” You snarl at him, biting the words out.

“I know…” He grumbles. “You don’t have to tell me.

#Dragon Raja

[ehyeh-joshua]

God of Dragons

@greater-than-the-sword - rather than dragging your post further off-topic, I decided to finally get around to writing this up.

If you honestly want to grapple with the Bible, it becomes essential to consider our ancient scaled friend/enemy the dragon. The Scriptures leave no alternative but to declare that man walked with dinosaurs.

The Hebrew word that we translate as “dragon” is Tannin, and like all ancient Hebrew thought, is not a specific species, but a genera – to us, we categorise things by qualities – we use “pencil” and “pen” and “quill” to describe specific classes of objects; to the mindset of Biblical Hebrew, they are all the same; you write with them.

What Tannin refers to is any large, dangerous reptile, whether on land, at sea or in the air, and while it would include them, it doesn't actually mean our modern understanding of dragon, which having being split from it's roots in historical creatures, is now mythical. (although such creatures are mentioned)

In the Septuagint – the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was considered the Old Testament for the Greek-speaking early church – the word Tannin is translated by “Drakkon” which is the root for our word “dragon”.

The word Tannin is used 23 times in Scripture:(note-all the citations are quoted in full at the end, truncated here for brevity)

Singular form:

Nehemiah 2:13; Psalm 91:13; Isaiah 27:1 and 51:9; Jeremiah 51:34; Ezekiel 29:3,  Exodus 7:9, 7:10 and 7:12,  and Genesis 1:21.

Plural form:

Deuteronomy 32:33,  Job 7:12 and Job 30:29, Psalms 44:19, 74:13; and 148:7, Isaiah 13:22 Jeremiah 9:11, 10:22, 14:6, 49:33 and 51:37 and Ezekiel 32:2.

The second word we need to have in mind is Leviatan – this is the creature we think of when we think of dragon. This word is used five times in four verses:  Job 41:1, Psalm 74:14 and 104:26, and twice in Isaiah 27:1. Like Tannin, Leviatan is translated in the Septuagint by “drakkon”.

Leviatan has the longest description, having nearly a whole chapter devoted to describing it at the end of Job – this is the strongest evidence, as this is God Himself describing this creature as an example of His own power.

One of the reasons I like Dragons so much is that God has set them as a testimony to Himself.

Sadly, this is perhaps the most mistranslated word in modern English Bibles; most English Bibles insert jackals into these verses wherever the Scriptures undeniably mean literal creatures, doing so because of the wrong belief that dragons are mythical.

The thing is, Hebrew has a word that actually means jackal; it is the same as that for “fox”, and for good reason, as they are known to be able to interbreed, and are therefore the same baramin. That word is “sha’ul”.

Nehemiah 4:3 for example; 'Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!”'

He’s trying to say that despite the fact that the fox/jackal is such a small and weak animal, it could crush the walls the Jews were building; he’s insulting them. By contrast, a dragon smashing down a wall is kind of what you would expect to happen, and throughout the Prophets, the threat of dragons overwhelming a city is used to express judgement.

Compiling all these references gives us a huge amount of information about these creatures, some of it (most of it in fact) directly from God describing what we would understand as a water drake.

Firstly, that the purpose of these creatures is to give glory to God.

Secondly, it tells us that these are huge reptiles that are very dangerous; enough that the mere threat of them is enough to put a city of people to fleeing for safety – a quarter of the times Tannin is used, it is referring to this terror.

If a city got overrun with jackals, a single person could chase them out; a decent thickness stick as a club, and they scatter. A host of people working together could do it easily. They are mildly dangerous, but they have absolutely nothing on levyatan, which the Scriptures equate to Tannin. A Dragon however? An armoured, fire breathing dragon?

That is dangerous; one dragon is enough to be a risk to an entire region, they are apex predators, there is absolutely no shortage of stories of the danger dragons possess.

Now, if you had an entire city overrun by dragons? You’re not going to reclaim that. Not on the Bronze/Iron age technology possessed by Ancient Israel. Roman Ballistae might have a chance, and a Macedonian Phalanx could make a melee fight in the open stick, but I wouldn’t want to try that kind of a battle without at least trebuchet, if not cannon. And this is from a guy who knows how to solo a T-Rex; T-Rex has one primary weapon, the bite. The solution is a fuck-off amount of three feet long spikes covering your whole body, that way it can’t bite you without facing it’s own mortal peril. You could probably win with a spear, but I’d rather have the spikes.

Dragons? Fire. The accounts of dragons possessing fire-breathing capability are nearly universal, and it is far more reasonable than you might think; using the Bombardier Beetle as a baseline, to breath fire a dragon needs the reaction of hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone, catalysed by catalase and peroxidase; the reactants are ejected from separated storage areas into the front of the open mouth, where the reaction begins in conjunction with the rush of oxygen from heavy breathing out, causing both the reaction and the expellation of the reactants. Range could be comfortably over ten metres and still sufficient to cause burns and scalding on the victim.

Coincidentally, but rather obvious when you think about it, dragon stories generally stop after the invention of cannon, and by the 1800s, almost stop completely outside of Native American tribes.

It is therefore plain that reading the text and allowing the text to explain itself leads to the conclusion that Tannin/Levyatan are a race of immense and dangerous monsters, usually serpent-like but again not always, who’s presence is like the judgement of God, and which God Himself uses to say how awesome He is that He made them and controls their fates. Note also the contrast - the Babylonians had their gods being scared of these monsters, but right from the beginning God takes ownership of them.

The Bible tells us how these creatures lived, where they lived, their diet, their habitat, to an extent their way of life; and it exists as part of material from all over the world that shows that man and dinosaur coexisted. And if humans and dinosaurs coexisted, evolutionary beliefs about ages collapse.

----

Nehemiah 2:13;  “I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire.”- presumably, the Dragon spring was a well or spring that was named for a resident/visitor dragon.

Psalm 91:13; “You will tread on lion and viper; you will trample young lion and dragon.” - the point is to talk about the protection of God; the claim about jackals makes no sense, and using serpent instead has already been covered. Further, the Septuagint uses Drakkon here.

Isaiah 27:1; “In that day GOD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent with His fierce, great, strong sword, Leviathan the twisted serpent! He will slay the dragon in the sea.” Again, entirely pointless unless it refers to either a real animal, or a mythologised version of a real animal. 

Isaiah 51:9; “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of GOD, awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not You who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?” Again, a pointless exercise if not referring to an actual event.

Jeremiah 51:34; “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, crushed me, set me aside like an empty dish, swallowed me up like a dragon, filled his belly with my delicacies, rinsed me away.” Jackals cannot eat even a whole arm, and certainly cannot swallow a whole man as the similie depends on; whereas plenty of large carnivorous dinosaurs could.

Ezekiel 29:3, “Speak and say, thus says the LORD GOD: ‘Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon lying in his rivers, who says: “My Nile is my own—I made it for myself.” The idea is to convey that Egypt believes itself to be extremely powerful, before it is cast down in judgement.

Exodus 7:9, 7:10 and 7:12; “So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and did as Adonai had commanded. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a dragon. Then Pharaoh called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they too, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each man threw down his staff, and they became dragons. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” Not much to say here, although the Septuagint again uses drakkon both times, instead of one of the words that means a snake.

Genesis 1:21; “And God created the great dragons and every living soul that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their nature, and every winged fowl after its nature; and God saw that it was good.” This is one of the few times the Septuagint uses keytos (whale) to translate Tannin, however, dragons are traditionally associated with the sea and sky, so it makes sense that they are created on day 5.

Plural form:

Deuteronomy 32:33: “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” This also informs us that some dragons were poisonous, a feature noted of certain dinosaurs, and never with jackals.

Job 7:12; “Am I a sea, or a dragon, that you set a watch over me?” Again linking dragons to the sea.

Job 30:29; “I am a brother to the dragons, & a companion to the ostriches.” By this, he is continuing his theme, and he means he is alone, ostracised from the community. Jackals however, operate in packs. 

Psalms 44:19; “Though you have broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.” Doesn’t tell us much this one, as it’s relying on the nature of tanninim to convey the situation.

Psalms 74:13; “You split open the sea by your strength; You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.” Possibly a reference to the Flood.

Psalms 148:7; “Praise the LORD from the earth, you dragons, and all deeps:” An intriguing statement, given extra-Biblical documentation of dragon intelligence, which some sources put as near-Human.

Isaiah 13:21; “But wild animals will lie down there, and their houses will be full of howling creatures; there ostriches will dwell, and there wild goats will dance.” while it doesn’t say dragon, it says howling creatures, Wycliffe was happy to write dragouns as his translation solely from the sound identified, and it has to be inquired why he did so if humans could not have encountered dragons to record the sound.

Isaiah 13:22; " And the wild beasts shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.” Given the reference is about animals being used as tools for judgement, it’s no surprise that dragons are mentioned.

Jeremiah 9:11; “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.” Again, a judgement making the city uninhabitable.

Jeremiah 10:22;  “Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.“ again, dragons used as a symbol of judgement.

Jeremiah 14:6; 2and the wild asses stood in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed because there was no grass.“ This gives us information about how dragons breathed, which is something very difficult to know unless you either witnessed it or heard from someone who had.

Jeremiah 49:33; “And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.“ Again, using dragons as a symbol of judgement.

Jeremiah 51:37; “And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.” Jeremiah again uses the presence of dragons as a judgement.

 Ezekiel 32:2 “ “Son of man, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: “You consider yourself a lion of the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you burst forth in your rivers, trouble the waters with your feet, and foul their rivers.”Not much to say here.