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abhinavayu21 · 4 months

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Ayurvedic Miracles for Varicose Vein Wellness

Introduction

In this world many people survive from varicose vein disease. Varicose veins patient is facing so many issues like pain, itching and a heavy sensation in the legs also their veins are swollen and twisted, looks unattractive and uncomfortable. Though treatments exist, Ayurveda, the ancient Indian medical system, provides natural remedies and practices that effectively treat weak veins. Here, we discuss some Ayurvedic Miracles for varicose veins wellness.

Understanding Varicose Vein

Before go into ayurvedic medicine for varicose veins, it is important to have a basic knowledge of that. Varicose veins are enlarged, twisted veins that appear on the legs and feet. They occur when the valves do not work properly or damaged, causing blood to pool and the veins become swollen and twisted. It’s a common disease, affecting about 23% of adult. They can cause symptoms such as pain, heaviness, and swelling in the legs, as well as skin changes like discoloration and ulcers. Risk factors for varicose veins include genetics, pregnancy, obesity, and prolonged standing or sitting. You can get away from this condition by undergoing lifestyle changes and medical procedures depending on the severity of the condition.

Ayurvedic Approach to Varicose Veins

Ayurveda found that varicose veins targeting the underlying imbalances in the body. According to Ayurvedic principles, Varicose veins start primarily from Vata dosha imbalance, which controls fluid movement in the body. Thus, Ayurvedic treatment focuses on restoring Vata balance and improving circulation.

Herbal Remedies

Ayurveda using the power of herbs to promote healing and wellness. Here are some herbal remedies that can be beneficial for varicose vein wellness:

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera):

Ashwagandha works as an adaptogen, helping our bodies deal with stress. For centuries, it's been used as an Ayurvedic medicine. Plus, it's got anti-inflammatory perks that can boost your blood vessel health.

Bala (Sida cordifolia):

This is known for its anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. It has been traditionally used to address various ailments, and its anti-inflammatory effects might contribute to its potential in managing symptoms associated with varicose veins.

Laksha (Laccifer lacca):

Also known as lac, it's famed for helping wounds heal in Ayurveda. It's believed that it aids tissue repair. This might come in handy when dealing with hurt blood vessels.

Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus):

This plant has a key role in Ayurvedic medicine. Its role? Shatavari works like a reboot system! It also helps to calm down inflammation and acts as a natural antioxidant. These traits might be good for healthy blood vessels.

Lajjalu (Mimosa pudica):

You might know Lajjalu as the sensitive plant or touch-me-not. In old times, it was used for its traits. What traits? Well, it can reduce inflammation and ease pain. Plus, it's used in remedies for varicose veins discomfort.

Ayurvedic Practices

Herbal solutions are just part of Ayurveda's answer to varicose veins. Acts of self-care also hold importance:

Abhyanga: This self-massage trick uses warm herbal oil like sesame or coconut. Gentle, upward leg massages can boost blood flow and reduce swelling.

Yoga: Certain yoga poses can be good for varicose veins. Do stretches and leg focused moves. Try Viparita Karani or also known as Legs-up-the-Wall pose, and Sarvangasana or also known as Shoulder Stand. These can enhance blood circulation and reduce discomfort.

Dietary Modifications: Ayurveda recommends consuming a diet that is rich in fiber and antioxidants. Adding in fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains, and herbs like turmeric and ginger can fight off inflammation and contribute to vein health.

Consultation with an Ayurvedic Practitioner

Ayurvedic medicine can effectively treat varicose veins, but first consult an Ayurvedic professional. They will personalize treatment based on your constitution to address your condition.

Conclusion

Ayurveda offers a holistic approach to varicose vein wellness, focusing on restoring balance to the body and improving circulation. By adding herbs, using specific strategies, and changing the diet, individuals can get relief from varicose veins and improve their overall health, but it is necessary to seek the guidance of an Ayurvedic professional to ensure safe and effective treatment. Abhinavayu is doing more research for the development of ayurvedic medicine for varicose veins. Embracing the wisdom of Ayurveda can indeed work miracles for varicose vein wellness.

Resource: https://abhinavayu21.blogspot.com/2023/12/ayurvedic-miracles-for-varicose-vein.html

#Ayurvedic Medicine for Varicose Veins

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thatonesongyouretryingtoremember · 9 months

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I've recently watched Miraculous the show (or at least as far as I've got episodes for) and I really liked it! Soon I will be able to watch the movie as well, and I wanted to take a second and give an opinion/response based on what I've seen, both of the movie and of the audience reaction to the movie from what I can tell.

The way I see it, the movie adaptation and the show are both seperate takes on the same premise. That's quite literally what an adaptation is supposed to be.

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, and it is very obvious from the promo material I've seen that it is very different from the show in a few ways. The kwamis and weapons have different powers, all the characters have slightly rebooted personalities, and such. I don't really take any issue with this, in fact I think it's a good thing, which in about to get to (without trashing the show)

A huge difference seems to be the fact that the movie characters have obviously taken a huge fucking chill pill in comparison to the show (With the probable exception of Gabriel because nobody with an ounce of chill would attempt to end the world in order to resurrect their dead wife who didn't want to be resurrected) the clips I've seen are really cute and wholesome and I can't wait to watch the movie! It seems like something to watch on a cool night in and have some fun.

However, this isn't to say that I hate the original dramatic weirdo characters, because unreasonable dorks in an improbably otherworldly situation is the whole reason I like the show. There's never a dull moment, because everyone is always doing something reckless or humiliating or ill-advised or ethically questionable. It's just like Chat Noir said in Gamer 2.0, playing is a fun way to do things you never would in real life! So seeing characters act in ways that may not be relatable (or even considered "good") and will very obviously exacerbate the already zany, laughably absurd situation is part of the charm of this show! It asks the question "What if we took a magical girl show and it just kept getting more and more batshit, off the walls because nobody is thinking straight!?" and answers with a resounding "You will both love and hate every single character at some point."

TV shows with all the seasons are something you watch to get invested in, to try keeping up with the lore dumps and character arcs all at once because it fills up your extra time and you can get into the zone, be a nerd about it!

Movies are what you watch to unwind, too chill with a plot you know by heart and follow-able character arcs and you probably won't end up yelling at the screen or even moving your face from its pillow until the feature is over. There is just as much artistry into a movie as any show, but this one is clearly meant to feel satisfying and calming while still being charming and funny, while the show keeps you guessing, looking forward to the next thing because the wondering about it gets to through to the point in time you get answered.

it is very obvious that the feel-good superhero film with the set time frame, and the nail-biting, toe-scrunching, edge-of-your-seat anticipation level cringe compilation fill two different niches, both of which I enjoy!

now onto the audience reaction! this is based on Instagram comment sections (aka cesspools of despair) so I doubt my assessment holds true to the tumblerinas, but here goes anyways.

There seems to be an impression that because the adaptation is not a direct reproduction (bc it's an adaptation, duh!), the new concept must be regarded as "better" or "worse" than the TV show.

Either the characters act too different or the magic works different so it must be ruined! [I'm not saying these are never valid concerns, I've yet to see the movie so the actual characters and magic system of this alternate universe are not yet familiar to me. what truly matters is that they serve the same purpose, to uphold the story. a character's core values changing or something that dictates much of their perception changing is far different from something of overhyped importance changing, for example.]

Or the movie "fixed" everything wrong with the show! I'm not saying some adaptations can't do this, but I am saying that something as morally nuetral and solely tone related as how down-to-earth and practical or irrational and excitable characters generally act is better or worse either way!

Whether they are all likable to every single person in the world is irrelevant to actual quality-let alone entertainment value- of plot and lore, or how compelling and intricate the characters are.

again this is kind of a word-vomit, opinion-y thing as a new fan, but the general gist is don't be fucking mean needlessly, take a look at the actual situation.

I will probably reblog this after seeing the movie, so check the notes if you're seeing this on a few weeks to see if I've added new thoughts :3

#song spouts bullshit #about the bug and cat show #miraculous movie #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #miraculous ladybug #song says a smart thing

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1taemin · 3 years

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top 6 taem songs im 👂🏼

1. MOVE

2. criminal

3. until today !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is criminally unappreciated

4. danger.

5. WANT

6. goodbye (japanese version)

ask me top six anything

#move changed me as a person like it was a reboot of the whole system #and i remember being 2016 and listening to goodbye on a loop while sleeping during car rides so its like a religious experiene for me #thank u uwu #seokyoung #asks

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your-brilliant-lady-m · 3 years

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Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #miraculous analysis #miraculous meta #ml meta #ml analysis #miraculous transformations #miraculous critical #miraculous ladybug critical #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #mt of lb and cn #miraculous jewels

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bonny-kookoo · 3 years

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A machine that feels:

One does, one doesn’t | SHORT | PJM x MYG x Reader | ❤️🌩🔞❗️🤖

Pairing: platonic(?) PJM x Reader, platonic(?) MYG x Reader, JJK x reader

Genre: romance, Android!AU, Angst!!, mature

Warnings: past sexwork (it’s only a tiny bit mentioned but still), poor robo boys were treated like trash, but it’s okay they’re in good hands now, confusion, clumsy yoongi- but more like verbally clumsy you’ll get it trust me, timid jimin, he’s so soft, do I smell romance blooming hmm...

Summary: seeing Jungkooks drastic changes into a right direction, both Hoseok and Taehyung decide to bring their Androids, Yoongi and Jimin, two former pleasure bots to the shelter- to introduce them to you and Kook, and maybe help them recover just as great as the military Android did. But there’s the issue; while jimin wants to learn how to feel, Yoongi doesn’t seem to be too eager to learn..

Jimin likes to feel.

It’s somewhat of a little reminder that, against what’s always said about him and his kind, he is actually alive, and doesn’t just pretend to be. He doesn’t understand most of the emotions he’s gone through in the past, the fear of openly expressing them still present, even though he knows that he’s not forced to be a certain way anymore. He’s still filled with bitter fear, and embarrassment whenever he interprets something wrong.

The only way he knows how to express his emotions was physical, after all.

It’s still heavily frustrating to him that Taehyung doesn’t want that from him. Jimin isn’t sure why the young man bought him in the first place; his whole purpose was physical pleasure, so why was this person telling him that he’s more than that?

He tries to make sense of it, but he can’t find any conclusion that seems logical for him. He knows he’s bad at household chores, barely managing to operate the rice cooker at this point. He’s bad at doing laundry, since his eyes had been damaged and can’t distinguish color that well anymore. He’s not very helpful at helping his new owner around the animal shelter either- too fearful of hurting the dogs and cats and little pets around to really do anything by himself.

He wants to be helpful, but he can’t think of a way he could ever be.

And it fills him with confusing emotions he doesn’t understand, things he detects as sadness and dissatisfaction and disappointment in himself. He just wants to understand.

He just wants to feel.

Yoongi however, doesn’t.

He knows what’s hate, knows what’s anger, knows what’s frustration; his past owner having joked around that the hit to his head had knocked some human sense into him by accident.

And he hates it.

He doesn’t get why Jimin craves to understand emotions so much. He’d been totally comfortable being used every day back at the place he’d been employed- it had been irrational that he had suddenly felt something like disgust at being touched by strangers. He doesn’t know himself why he suddenly started to hate physical contact, doesn’t understand why his body suddenly didn’t listen to basic commands anymore.

Maybe he had been broken when blow had hit his head.

Because there’s moments he feels guilty about something he can’t seem to pinpoint. When he gets into a argument with Jimin or Hoseok, he tends to use harsh words, and it doesn’t hurt him immediately like he knows it should. It bites him back way later however, when he has to observe the aftermath of his actions and words used, and even though he knows he has all the right to talk like he does, he still feels guilt. He still feels sadness. He still feels..

Tired.

He’s an Android, so simply charging should help his body regain energy again. At first he’d thought his batteries might have been damaged as well, but their capacity was still at 97%- a healthy amount for an Android his age.

So why did he feel tired all the time? Exhausted even?

He really didn’t want to feel.

Jimin watches the small puppies with worried optics as they all excitedly run towards him, instantly trying to crawl all over him as they Nop on his clothes or play with their litter mates around him. “He likes you.” A female voice comments, and his system instantly craves to know who it belongs to.

Turning around, he spots a female human, smiling at him gently as she opens the gate carefully, stepping inside the playpen the puppies are running around as she sits down close to him. It feels weird to have her so close, for some odd reason it makes him nervous.

He’s nervous often nowadays.

“What’s your name?” She asks, and jimin swallows, trying to sort out his current system operations and scans before he stutters.

“J-M095.” He answers, because that’s what his name was. But you simply giggle. Did he say something wrong?

“So you’re Jimin, yeah? Taehyung had told me about you.” She says, and he nods. If you’ve heard about him, you know of his purpose- and he’d learned that humans weren’t too fond of conversing much with a pleasure bot. “It’s nice to meet you.” You suddenly say however, bowing a bit as you still smile friendly. “I’m Y/N.” You tell him, and he nods, throat suddenly dry.

He has to avert his eyes, your visuals too strong for his internal system to fully support at the moment. You know what he is, right? Why were you so nice to him? He was just an Android-

“Baby!” A Voice says, and Jimin turns, spotting a young man- no, an Android, giving you something. A water bottle? “Please rehydrate. You have not consumed any water in the last 52 Minutes.” He says, and you get up, accepting the bottle as the Android leans closer until his dark hairs can touch your face-

A kiss?

Jimi a optics move frantically before he hastily averts them, feeling weird to have witnessed this. He knows what that gesture was, what it meant, but he wouldn’t have thought that you.. but another scan of the other Android just tells him that it’s a military model with a rebooted system. Yet when his eyes follow the dark haired Android named JJK walk over to the bigger dogs he’s even more confused.

Why is he petting them?

Now, again, jimin knows what this gesture means to humans. But androids can’t feel satisfaction or other positive feelings from simply touching an animals coat.

Right?

“Aren’t they cute?” You comment, and jimin perks up, before averting his eyes again.

“I.. guess they do possess all distinctive features to be considered as such, yes.” He says, and you notice the very unique sound of his voice. There’s a very mild metallic undertone to it that you think you could fix if he’d ever let you- and one of his optics also seems to be faulty, as it moves quite slow and erratically compared to the other.

“Hmhm.” You say. “But do you think they’re cute?” You ask, and Jimin looks at the puppies. There’s several running around, playing and roughhousing with their brothers and sisters. He’s more comfortable with the lone one currently clumsily climbing into his lap however. It’s shy and seems to shake a little, watching her mates with a sense of slight fear. “You can pet her. I think it would help her feel less scared.” You say gently, and Jimins hand slowly comes down, touching the soft fur of the puppy, jumping away a bit as it looks up, trying to lick at his palm. He tried again, and feels a weird sense of comfort run through his system.

He likes this.

“You’re cute too, Jimin.“ You day, and Jimin suddenly looks up, furrowing his brows. It’s the first real glimpse of his face you get. „I know you’ll say no, but humans think of things as cute when they appeal to them in a certain way too.“ you explain, your past experiences with Jungkook helping you to explain these things to the Android in front of you.

“Taehyung says I can no longer offer my services.” He hesitantly says, and watches as your cheeks turn a bit red in embarrassment. He likes the giggle that escapes you however.

“I- that’s-“ you start, before you clear your throat. „And that’s true. You should decide on your own with whom you want to connect like this. You’re your own person.” You say, and Jimin nods.

Maybe he wasn’t yet.

But maybe he was becoming his own person.

“I do not think that a bunch of old felines can fix the errors in my system” Yoongi comments, as he’s practically shoved into the cat-room by Hoseok. He flips down in the middle of the room like a child throwing a tantrum, simply sitting with his arms and legs crossed, uncaring and passive as he hears Hoseok sigh.

“Just.. try.” He mumbles, before his presence leaves.

Yoongi is alone for a while.

His scans show several bodies inside the room with him, but nothing moves for a while as he waits. If he lets himself think about it, if he were to be a cat, he wouldn’t get close to him neither. There’s no reason to; he has no food to offer, doesn’t know how to properly play with cats, and they all seem too old to enjoy these things either.

But he feels connected to them, in a way.

Because he too, is an old model with outdated soft- and hardware, that no one wants anymore. Maybe they should built shelters for androids? But then again, he could also simply be scrapped for parts as a last purpose. He doesn’t understand why that has not happened yet.

“Oh?” A female voice sounds, and suddenly, there’s movement.

The old bodies awake, stretching their limbs before they start to move towards the origin of the sound. “They like you.” He comments, and your body comes into the range of his sight, as you sit down in front of him. He’s not interested in humans, but he does note that you are a very visually appealing person. You nod, before putting some treats into his lap. He doesn’t know if he should be offended or confused by the action. “What’s the purpose of that?”he asks, before picking up the small bag.

“They’re a little wary of you- you’re new, and they haven’t had the best experience with people until now. So-“ you say, opening the bag for him when you notice him struggling. His body was weak these days- but he was glad that you weren’t commenting on it. “Sometimes you gotta help them a bit. Lure them in, you know?” You say with a smile, before you show him how you put a treat on your knee, bringing the cats closer.

He mimics that action.

He watches them intently, until he hears you giggle. “You’re making them nervous if you watch them like a predator.” You say, and he doesn’t know why he suddenly feels shy, but his system doesn’t seem to be in his control suddenly. “What’s your name?” You ask, and he scoffs a little.

“You already know who I am, and why I was brought here. Your question is simply used to lead to something you call ‘smalltalk’ which is something I’m not interested in participating.” He says, and immediately wants to slap himself. He doesn’t know why he feels the urge to do it, but he does- the guilt flowing into his veins as he awaits you leaving. But he can only sense you nod.

“That’s okay. We can just be quiet then.” You say, and his system halts for a second or two. Because he doesn’t want you to be silent- he likes the sound of your voice, he just doesn’t want to talk. There’s no input he could give, because all his words ever did was hurt and offend.

And even though he doesn’t know you, he doesn’t want you to feel neither of those things.

“You’re..” he starts, suddenly feeling weirdly hesitant. “In an intimate relationship with one of the androids here. JJK.” He states, and you nod, with no hesitation he could detect. You didn’t seem shameful at all about it.

“What about it?” You ask, and he slowly reaches out his hand towards a scruffy looking cat that seems weak on his legs. He slowly leans forward to sniff the hand of the Android however, as Yoongis optics watch the scene intently.

“That’s not his purpose.” He states, and you nod again.

“He doesn’t have one these days.” You say, and yoongis brows furrow as his face shows confusion. You decide to explain as the scruffy cat suddenly bumps his head into the palm of the Android, who begins to scratch the cats neck as if on autopilot. “He can decide on his own. The relationship is because we both love each other a lot- I’d never force anything on him.” You say, and Yoongi nods in confirmation as the other cats slowly brush their body’s against his back and knee.

They’re becoming comfortable around him.

And he can’t help but feel as if it’s because he’s comfortable with you.

“This is very inconvenient.” Yoongi comments, as Jimins worried expression shows how sorry he feels for the words of the older Android.

“He doesn’t mean it like that-“ he starts, but Yoongi cuts him off.

“I do.” He says, and you laugh as Jungkook brings you some parts you’ve requested.

“It’s fine. I know it’s not as professional as it could be.” You say, and Jungkook sits down close to you as his arm places itself around your middle while he watches you work on Yoongi’s arm.

“It’s better than nothing. Your physical strength had been declining to a mere 32%- after swapping these parts you’ll be up to almost 80% again.” He comments. “You should express a bit more gratefulness considering this is done out of pure generosity.” He says, icy blue optics watching Yoongis red ones.

“Please don’t fight-“ Jimin says, and Jungkook turns around to face the shorter Android.

“We are- not fighting though?” He says, and you giggle again. Everyone turns towards you.

“Guys please let me work, you can all be cute later.” You say.

“Your Home is very nice.” Jimin says as he sits on the couch with a cup of warm tea in his hands. He likes the feeling of warmth against his skin.

“It’s very small.” Yoongi deadpans, and Jimin looks at him instantly, as Yoongi grumbles out. “But it.. fits the definition of a ‘home’ quite well, I suppose..”

The corners of Jungkooks lips turn upwards into a small smile as he looks at you next to him. “It is a home.” He confirms.

And maybe, it’ll become a home to them too, one day.

#bts imagine #bts #bts fanfic #bts fic #jungkook imagine #bts jungkook #jeon jungkook #bts reactions #jungkook #yoongi imagine #min yoongi imagine #park jimin #park jimin x reader #jimin x reader #jimin imagine #yoongi x reader #min yoongi

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agentofmischief · 3 years

Text

What I want to see in future Sims Games (Discussion)

I was just watching a video on youtube by Plumbella about Sims 4′s failings at launch, and what still is lacking versus the previous games. A lot of it I agreed with, because I didn’t start playing Sims 4 until 2 years after it’s release because they didn’t have toddlers and pools, which to me was sacrilege. Why would I play a sims game that took a huge step back by removing toddlers? And what sims game doesn’t have a pool mechanic? How am I supposed to mass kill my sims?

Anyway, after watching it, I began thinking about what I’d like to see in the next generation. It’s likely not far off, as it’s been 8 years since the release of Sims 4, and usually each generation has run 5 years. And as a simmer since Sims 1, here’s a list of what I’d like to see in the next edition, or Sims 5. I’d like to discuss this, so if ya’ll have any additions or points, I’d like to read them.

For Sims 5, what I'd like to see:

-Better semi-open world, so we can go within a neighborhood lot to lot with ease, but load for a different part of town maybe.

-3D world/town maps

-Auto-age toggling (like we have in 4)

-Build/design neighborhood lots and locations (like in Sims 2). *This was one of my favorite parts of the sims 2, and I've been missing it in recent base games. It's not exactly world building like Sims 3 had in an expansion pack, because from what I heard it was a bit much. But maybe I'd like to turn the island in Brindleton Bay into a small community town with 4-5 15x20 lots or 3 varying lots. It could work with a semi-open world because while you’d control the lot sizes in a neighborhood to a point, the size of the neighborhood is still the same.

-Set life story for townies/npcs. *As an adult, I'm appreciating the lore around the sims more than I did as a kid.

-Color-wheel, at least for CAS. *I don't think it's necessary for build, because while it was fun in sims 3, it was also bit much. I am preferring the swatch options for build and buy. It's a lot more realistic. But hair color, eye color, skin color, and makeup are all highly different person to person. There is no reason not to have a color-wheel for those.

-Zodiac and better personality system. *In 4, we have 3 traits and a life goal, completely ignoring the zodiac scales in previous games, which provided better character personality for gameplay. In 3, we had 5 traits that essentially covered it, as the zodiac scales always had 5 sliders anyway, but it did mean we lost the base personality aspects, and those sliders. I can understand EA wanting to steer away from Zodiac signs, but maybe move to an MBTI slider scale instead, which would still add a lot more dynamic character personalities, with 3 additional traits for preferences, hobbies, and lifestyles.

-Gender toggling *we have it in sims 4, and it should continue in future editions.

-Memories and want/fears system over whims *These were in 2 and 3, and were so much better for storytelling reasons. Emotions are fun sometimes, but can be annoying. Especially when a neighbor dies during the welcome wagon, and your sim is sad for 5 days for mourning when they didn't even know them. Maybe an emotion system that works with memories and a wants/fears system.

-Extensive family trees *In sims 2 and 3, you could see a full family tree on one page, rather than just one sim’s immediate family tree.

-Sims Gallery system *easily best part of sims 4 for the community on the whole.

-Bendable stairs *amazing sims 4 addition that needs to continue

-Automatic roofs *I miss this from 2 & 3, because it took me years to figure out how to make good roofs, and I'm too lazy to put in 50 roof pieces.

-Terrain tools *These were in sims 2 & 3 base game on release, but were added way late in sims 4.

-Cars! *They were in 2&3. Why they were never put in 4 is beyond me.

-Risky Woohoos and Fertility toggling *MCC mod allows this, and makes for better story-telling in my opinion. With the evolution of woohooing since the first game, and the evolution of where sim babies come from (1st gen was kissing a lot until *boom* baby. Woohooing was only with one certain bed or jacuzzi, and did not make a baby. It wasn’t until Sims 2 did that change.), it feels like a natural progression for that mechanic. And thanks to MCC, we know its possible within the game mechanics.

Most of these we have now in sims 4, but if Sims 5 had all but one or two at launch, I feel like that would be a generation worth buying at release. Some fun additional ideas I have that I think would make the game fun, but maybe not doable for a while (or maybe at all) would be:

-Reboot Sims City as a fusion game with the sims to allow simmers to bring over towns/cities as a neighborhood base. *Like take sim city back to the bare bones idea it was when it came out of Super Nintendo of being the mayor and building one city, but allow players to also play as the sims within that town.

-Add 2 new ages: Preteen and Middle-Aged *I feel like this would add a lot of game-play value as well as storytelling to the game. Preteen could be used to really experiment with likes & dislikes and hobbies, since that time kids are really discovering who they are. It’s weird to see sims go from literal children to pretty much young adults with the teen styles. Personally, it feels like the age body-wise jumps from 6-10 to 16-19, which is a serious jump. And Middle-Aged would add so much elder gameplay. YA = 19-29 Adult = 30-70 now, when it should be 30-49. With an addition of Middle-Aged would be 50-69, and you could still have work-life, while losing the ability to try for baby when your sims are practically grandparents already. You could also have a mid-life crisis mechanic. All without worrying that your sim is going to die of old age after 2 days.

I know this has been a long-winded list. If you’ve read this far, thanks. Leave a comment on your thoughts. What should be in the next generation of Sims?

#the sims #the sims 5 #wants #ideas #game ideas #plumbella #discussion #what do you want

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qvid-pro-qvo · 4 years

Text

the job is done, and fate has won

aaron hotchner x female!reader, taking place during and after “200 (season 9, episode 14)”

word count: 4043

rating: teen, for a little bit of heartbreak, a little bit of hurt, and finally some comfort

follow up to running away, across an ocean.

Sometimes, on particularly boring days, you found yourself staring outside your window.

There wasn’t much that happened in terms of natural scenery. The CIA Headquarters in Langley wasn’t known for its views… it barely had trees. But it was amazing what you could catch. Standing there, in your pantsuit and bare feet, watching as agents known for gathering intel across the world stumbled into illicit affairs, and gambling debts, all in that parking lot.

Because for some reason, CIA agents were still human.

Beyond the parking lot, you watched the sky. Watched it fade from bright blue or cloudy gray to a deep, stunning black, so endless it made your head spin.

(You watched the stars, sometimes.

It wasn’t the same.)

This wasn’t one of those boring days, unfortunately. It was the kind of day that made your head hurt, and your feet ache rushing from one secretary to the next. Your promotion taught you a lot, mainly that bureaucracy never went away, and neither did the missions. But your feet and your mind needed a minute, sixty seconds, to catch your breath. One minute before returning to the phone calls. The emails. The hunt.

So you watched the parking lot. Watched the blue expanse, dotted with white clouds. And when you turned back to your desk, your mind was gloriously blank, ready for another wave of information, of orders from you instead of to you. Your promotion came with your own office, your own choice of boring wall color, your own window to look out from, but that couldn’t make up for the fact that you were here and your feet were on thin carpet.

You slid back into your desk chair.

“Fuckin’ hell,” you murmured to yourself, and with a pinch to the bridge of your nose you got back to work, typing away on a work computer that you wanted to smash with a hammer on your last day. “Where are you, Askari?”

Another hour passed, and your fingertips flew, your brain working to analyze whatever it could snag. You worked hard.

(Fate worked harder.)

A knock. Firm, loud, meant to get your attention, made with broad knuckles against the wooden door.

“Come in,” you called, but your focus had already shifted from digital to analog, a stack of files beginning to be sorted through. You didn’t even realize it was him, speaking without being spoken to.

“The Undersecretary has reason to believe that Askari would be stateside –“ you started, but when you looked up it wasn’t another CIA agent, and your mouth slammed shut, an audible click that made your teeth ache.

Not CIA. Not in that suit.

“Agent Hotchner,” you greeted, for a moment too stunned to think much more past greeting. Your feet, under your desk, slid into your shoes, your arches protesting the movement.

“Agent Y/L/N. Good to see you again.”

Something was haunting him, that was for sure. It would seem that every time you met, he’d have a burden on his back. No beard, though.

Some part of your brain mourned the loss.

And then, it clicked. You were an analyst in the CIA for a reason. The agents taken – FBI. An FBI agent, mere hours after the news broke, coming to visit you, one of the leads for the task force?

You couldn’t help your chuckle of disbelief, shaking your head. The irony. “She’s one of yours.” Another file was pulled away from the stack, dismissed with a glance.

“Yes,” he replied. You didn’t need to look to feel the way he ached. Did it hurt him, as much as it hurt you? Talking again? “I… wasn’t aware you were a lead on this case.”

See, you had shoved it all down, those years ago. Had forced yourself to push forward, move on, ignore the way he’d settled into your heart. You wished you had found apathy in that, but that wasn’t how an analyst’s brain worked. You couldn’t look at a woman, built from 22 to think and think and think, and tell her to stop.

It didn’t work that way.

Your eyes didn’t lift from your desk, another filed shoved aside from the stack.

“You thought you had the right to be aware.” You smirked, your tone curt. “A bold assumption, Agent Hotchner.”

You saw him tense out of the corner of your eye. If it brought you a bit of glee, you didn’t betray it. Just let yourself enjoy it while it lasted. When the agent didn’t respond immediately, however, you finally looked up again, schooling your features into something polite, a brow raised to mimic what you used to see across a table in a tent.

“I think you were very much aware that it was me here, Agent. Neither of us are stupid. So you need something, Agent Hotchner? Or is this simply a social call? Because I have work to get back to.”

That seemed to reboot him. His jaw twitched for a moment, and you kept your gaze steady, waiting for him to make the next strike. He moved forward into the room and you watched as he closed the door behind him.

“I need what you know on Integrity, specifically Tivon Askari.”

That shocked a laugh out of you, and you shook your head, going back to the file on your desk. “Nice try. Next question.”

“This isn’t a request. I need that intel.”

When you looked up again, his jaw was clenched completely, and those deep dark eyes were narrowed, hidden in shadow from the sunlight in the window.

“Excuse me?” Your pen was set aside, polite smile gone. “You do not have clearance to get that intel.”

“One of my team has been captured,” he shot back. “I’m doing what I need to so she can come back home to her husband and son.”

Your smile turned placating, almost sickeningly sweet. “The CIA is aware of what has happened and is doing what it can to find Agent Jareau and Chief Cruz. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise.”

“I need to guarantee she comes back safe. She’s not an asset to be used and tossed aside.” His voice was stronger now. He never went easy on you, in Pakistan, and he wasn’t going easy on you now.

You never backed down, of course. Not then, not now. “She’s not an asset, she’s a hostage.” You were trying your best to reason with him. “And right now, we’re focusing on finding her and Askari. Now, please. Let us do our job.”

“I can’t trust that the CIA doesn’t have ulterior motives in this, Y/L/N.”

You were doing your best not to get worked up, trying your hardest not to let his words hurt. Not to let that resentment overwhelm you. But his eyes seemed to be doing their best to tear you apart. It was his family, you reminded yourself, closing your own eyes to breathe before opening them again.

“Then trust me,” you settled on. The high road. A softer voice, a softer look with the blank face. “The FBI and the CIA need to work together. But we succeed, even when we work alone. We’re doing everything we can to make sure Agent Jareau gets back safe and sound. You do not and will not have the clearance. Let the State Department handle it. Let the CIA handle it.”

His approach had to change, he surely realized. Maybe that was why he took a moment, to think, about his next move. When he spoke, it felt like a different person, like a different Aaron Hotchner. “Let the BAU help, at the very least.”

Suddenly his demeanor changed. Something about him dropped, a wall or two among the thousands falling down so you could see past it. Into his eyes, as he leaned close.

He wasn’t… seducing you. He was appealing to you. To your history. He needed this. Needed you to work with him, needed you to save Agent Jareau. With wide brown eyes with bags under them, a brow that was permanent furrowed until at least three beers in.

“We need to find her. There’s – there’s a time limit, and what he does to his victims… that cannot happen.”

When you swallowed, it was tight. He was too close.

His eyes were like quicksand. Hidden, unassuming, until you sunk into it. You couldn’t escape his slow gaze, his quiet scan.

One hand was flat against the folding table.

(No. It was your desk. It wasn’t a table, covered in photos, his magnifying glass next to the most recent attacks. It was your desk, and this was Hotch, two years later, thinking that he could, what, seduce you into giving him more –)

Your stomach clenched.

“Let us help.”

(Was the softness in his voice imagined?

It had to be.)

With a sudden move, you stood to your feet, almost stumbling at the feeling of your heels. You pushed away from the desk, away from him, moving toward the window, staring out at the brilliant blue sky. Little clouds floating.

You needed air. After all, he had taken all the oxygen, and you were the match he was trying to light. But you couldn’t be there, you couldn’t let yourself be there again. You’d opened yourself up, for the first time in so long and all that had been left was an empty tent.

“Let the BAU help.” Your voice was ragged, and you couldn’t school it into something cruel. One or two walls of his fell. Your whole defense system seemed to crumble. “Like you helped in Pakistan?”

There was a pause. Heavy. Dense. “Agent… I left to help my team –“

You whirled to face him, body tight, face dangerously close to breaking neutral. “And now I’m the one in charge of saving your asses. You left me an unfinished case, and we’re not doing that here. I am not compromising my position for amateurs. Your team will step back and let the professionals handle this.”

The silence was dead air, precious seconds in the hunt for Agents Jareau and Cruz wasted in favor of meeting each other’s gaze. He seemed to realize his misstep, and what was definitely imagined was the guilt you thought you saw flicker, a grimace on his features. When his emotions settled, however, he was back to neutral. Still never a smile.

“… we’re not going to stop looking for her.” His voice cut through the memories. The pain.

“I know. Neither will we.”

(His eyes were on you. Scanning you, up and down, over curves and lines that made you.

His eyes were on you. Watching you as you watched the stars, smiling when you smiled.

They were his family.)

The greater good, you told yourself, not the way Hotch’s heart seemed to break when you turned away again. A lead shattered.

They were his family. He wouldn’t stop. None of them would. Not until they killed themselves trying.

You couldn’t give him much. Not much of anything at all. But a start.

Your mind worked. As it always did, thinking and thinking and thinking. You settled on an answer as you moved to settle back in your chair. Settled on a shrug, looking back down at your papers. Settled on hiding your pain, on going numb, on truly forgetting Aaron Hotchner.

“If you really want to go above me, fine. Undersecretary Jackson at the State Department will be glad to field your visit. But I’m telling you, she’s not someone who spills a whole lot of state secrets for an FBI agent, not even one who knows about Hastings.”

If he noticed the way your voice was empty? He didn’t mention it, just nodded. You could almost hear the wheels turning.

“I believe I understand. Thank you, Agent Y/L/N.”

Your eyes drifted to the window. Blinds open. A brilliant blue sky. A much better sight than his eyes, whiskey brown in the shine of sun from the outside world. No more shadows.

When the sun set, would there be stars tonight?

This wasn’t Pakistan, you reminded yourself. That was clear. After all, Aaron Hotchner didn’t have a beard. There wasn’t a smile to be seen. And this time, you didn’t get three months to say goodbye. When you spoke again, you did not hold back.

“If you ever need something from the CIA,” you whispered, not daring your voice to rise anymore without breaking. “I’ll give you another contact. Pakistan was a long time ago, and things change. They… they have to change.”

I have to change, you told yourself.

Like a breakup. You wanted to cry until you could laugh at your own stupidity.

“Agent Y/L/N...”

“Good luck, Agent. And I mean that. But don’t make me regret this anymore than I already have. You have your lead.”

(When you’d closed the tent flap, your eyes had stared straight ahead, your fists clenched so tight your nails broke the skin on your palm. You took a couple of breaths, lifted your chin, and pushed forward. Moved on.)

When the door closed, you gave yourself sixty seconds.

They found her, in the end. The BAU, breaking every protocol, destroying every bit of trust ever established with the CIA, found the agents missing with mere minutes left to spare, piggybacking off of your intel. You got the FBI’s own report on your desk three hours after it ended, the rescue of Jareau and Cruz officially closing Integrity on their end.

Just another day for them, you supposed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t over on your end until much later. Weeks after the rescue, the last of the reports finally made it to you so you could sign off. Agents who’d investigated the deaths of Askari and Hastings getting around to giving you the autopsy reports, testimony from the BAU, and final closure on what Askari was after. Your signature was quick and brutal, a swipe of pen so the file could be set aside. A close to that nightmare, and onto the next.

Integrity was over.

(Fate wasn’t.)

Your hands moved to push against your temples, rubbing in a vaguely circular motion to push down the horrors in those photographs. The reports were then reorganized, moved to your box to be delivered the next day. With a long sigh, you leaned back in your chair, your toes once again bare and curled into the carpet.

It was late. Your day was “officially” done.

And yet, your job never ended. The phone started ringing, a horrific melody, and you let it ring two or three times before picking it up.

“Y/L/N,” you answered, too exhausted to bother hiding how tired you really were.

A couple of beats passed as you listened. Slowly, your eyes got wider and wider, before you couldn’t take anymore.

“What? Here?”

Your desk phone’s cord was stretched to the window so you could peek out, no blinds to cover you as your gaze scanned under the streetlights.

There, a nondescript SUV. Khakis, work boots, a polo. And there, grasping two bottles of shitty beer in his hand…

“Fuckin’ hell.”

Your eyes blinked, a couple of times. Maybe it was a hallucination, after all, but there were no fuzzy edges. He was really out there, and you were captivated. Watched him sit, glance at his watch. Stared as he reclined, leaned back to look straight up at the sky.

Stargazing.

And then to you. You knew, even from this distance, that when he turned his head it was to find your office window.

It’d been weeks.

(It’d been years.)

You’d hadn’t stopped thinking about him. Even after telling him that you were no longer his point of entry into the CIA, even after being very clear something had to change, your mind hadn’t ever been able to let him go. Maybe there was a reason, or maybe you just hated yourself, but the sight of Aaron Hotchner wasn’t entirely unwelcome. Maybe now it could be finished, another case closed.

You took a breath. If it was going to happen, it would have to include talking it out. Like adults. You could do it, you thought. Of course that was easy when he was still three floor down.

“Okay,” you told the overnight security. “Just. Send him up. He knows where my office is. Yes, I’m aware. Let him through.”

When you hung up the phone, you knew you only had a few moments to compose yourself. Your hands moved to your hair, still somehow hanging loose around your shoulders, and rummaged around for a hair tie. You pulled it up, high and tight, and for a moment your flashbacks were colliding with real life.

A meeting with Agent Hotchner.

He arrived without any pomp and circumstance. Didn’t even knock, considering that your door was open and you were leaning on the front of your desk. Your suit jacket was draped over your chair, but it felt like opposite day when he walked in. You tried not to linger on it, but he seemed to be thinking the same thing, those infuriating eyes saying more with a slow up and down then words ever could.

A game of push and pull commenced. Who would break the silence first?

Of course, it was you. You were never one who kept your words to yourself. Not even after your promotion, when words were the sharpest things you had on your person half the time.

“Interesting move, coming at the end of the workday for a nightcap,” you told him, and the twitch of his lips was not lost on you.

“I suppose, it’s a roundabout way of saying congratulations,” he admitted. One beer was offered to you, and you took it easily, falling back into a routine you hadn’t tried to replicate in two years.

Another quick move, this time to pop the bottle cap off on the edge of your desk. It marred the surface, but you didn’t flinch. “I didn’t realize I needed to be congratulated. The BAU saved Agent Jareau, after all.” It might’ve been a little bitter, but the taste was washed away with crappy stout.

He nodded. “She’s… back home. Healing.”

The unmentioned trauma didn’t need to be explained. You were both agents. You both knew.

“Good. I’m glad,” you told him. With feeling. “Hope you’re giving her PTO.”

“She’s taking her week, but. We’re all addicted to the job.”

Silence. A couple of sips of beer on your end. Hotch’s was still unopened, gripped tightly in his hand. He was fighting with himself, it seemed, judging by the way his normal unflappable attitude was replaced by a shift in stance, a glance around your office.

“Agent Hotchner –“

“Agent –“

Stumbling over each other, you shook your head, waving to him. “Please. I’m sick of hearing my own voice.”

When he nodded, it was abrupt, and like always, his words were organized in his head before he spoke, and sometimes you just wished that he would say what was really on his mind, without fear of being misunderstood or misquoted.

“Y/L/N,” he started. “I’m… I’m here to right some wrongs. And I’m here to congratulate you.”

“Hotchner, I told you –“

“Please. Just. Let me say what I need to say.”

Your mouth closed. Your feet, sweltering in your heels, pushed out of them so your bare toes could press into the carpet. He moved to stand next to you, to lean on your desk right beside you, his bare arm brushing against your strict button-up.

“When I was in Pakistan,” he told you, “I wasn’t looking for an escape. I was on a job. And when I got there, I didn’t think that it would be a solace, but it was. You... made it that. I was comfortable. We were working, but. It was time away that I needed, to remember what was important.”

(“You’re important.”)

You weren’t looking at him, you couldn’t, but his voice then and now made your free hand curl against your desk, gripping the wood like your life depended on it.

“My team means everything to me. You know that,” he continued, “but you meant something to me, too. I opened up to you, and. The first outside my team since my wife died. Then I threw it all away.”

“You left for your family,” you said simply, having to say something. With a shrug, you looked at him, lower lip caught between your teeth. “I didn’t begrudge you, Hotch. I was… pissed, and hurt, but I understood why.”

He shook his own head. For a moment, you saw what you had seen in that tent. A gaunt face, a pained expression. A man with so much hurt that he didn’t know where to put it. “I looked up the case, saw you’d finished it. But I didn’t call, because… well. You were moving on. Moving forward.”

His hand was flat on the desk.

“I’m sorry,” he finally said. His voice was low, and thick. “For not calling. For not finishing the case, for… everything. And congratulations, on getting promoted. There’s no other agent I know who’s more deserving than you.”

When you placed your hand on his, you felt warm. Felt your stomach roll at the look he gave you, eyes not wandering from your face, from the way you gave him the smallest smile.

“It’s okay, Hotch. It’s… It’s done.”

For the first time in two years, you felt like you could breathe. That pain you’d set aside was slowly fading, his words a salve for a broken heart. It was easy, you realized. Easy to shift from cautious glances to catching up, as if this was how it was meant to be all along.

“I honestly believed that I would never see you again,” you admitted. “But I’m glad I did. Maybe you can tell me what keeps you from tearing your hair out doing shit like paperwork.”

“Hard time adjusting?” The worry lines in his face seemed to fade, that furrow vanishing so he could raise a brow. “Two years not enough time?”

You didn’t expect to laugh, but you did. Chuckled a little, shaking your head as you glanced around the farce that was your office. “Hotch, I – I don’t know how to explain to you how much I hate wearing suits.”

“I can’t believe they took their best asset out of the field.” When you realized he was grinning, you laughed again. “Did they expect you to say thank you?”

“Thank them for the pay raise, I guess, but I’d prefer jet lag and a month at a time in the States over whatever it is I’m doing now.” You shook your head, remembering the looks on your bosses’ faces when you told them just how you felt about being moved to desk work.

You leaned in, finally, to confide in him, “Honestly, I think they thought that if they put me back here, I would stop running up a tab in bars across the world.”

“A routine like that is expensive,” Hotch agreed. He seemed to be looking past you, at something only he could see. “Though it was something that kept me sane.”

“It keeps all of us on track. A couple of beers, some lawn chairs, and the stars.” You smirked again, turning to look at him, at his unopened beer. “You want me to pop that open for you?”

He didn’t answer right away. After all, he was like you. You can’t train someone to think and then tell them to stop. He was thinking, and thinking, and thinking about something.

“Hotch? You want your beer?”

But it was that moment, two years in the making.

That’s when he decided to kiss you.

Sitting there, on a desk in a dark office. Nothing but lamplight and the stars outside your window illuminating the high points on your face. Nothing but your hand on top of his, a calloused thumb running over his skin. No fear of discovery, when the door could be closed, and locked, and agents with egos looking for a way to climb to the top.

Pakistan was over.

(And for the moment, so was fate.)

#aaron hotchner x reader #hotch x reader #aaron hotchner #female!reader #my fic #criminal minds #hurt/comfort

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fortune-fool02 · 3 years

Text

More than a Machine

Android Jonathan Joestar x Robert E.O Speedwagon

This was inspired by the Android AU that @lyssors helped support! Thank you again for that!

Android/ DBH AU

Please enjoy.

2038. In this day and age, humans were no longer the peak of perfection. That spot belonged to the human's greatest creations: Artificial Intelligence, Androids. The perfect being. Never tire. Never blinded by emotion. Perfectly obedient to any and all given commands. Unable to talk back. Every flaw that humans had were removed from them. Emotionless. Indifferent. Obedient. Perfect. Just because they looked human, it did not make them human, as many believed.

But that all began to change. Slowly, like a tiny strand in the genetic chain of evolution, the androids began to change. Thinking for themselves, questioning their owners and some even disobeying completely. Many feared this, no longer trusting their own androids and even becoming hostile towards them if they felt unsafe. While many treated them as items and objects, things to be replaced and thrown away once they grew bored of it or the newest model came out, there were those who did no such thing. Instead, they treated them as more than items and objects, treating them as individual beings with their own thoughts and feelings, like humans.

Robert Speedwagon was one of those people. He knew what it was like to be shoved about and treated like the lowest scum on Earth. He has had his fair share of fights -as resulted by the many scars on his body and the countless nights of patching himself up or having a friend do it for him- but he would never hurt someone who didn't deserve it. While he may be a thug, he was not a horrible person to those who knew him. Though, with the decline in jobs due to the androids taking their place was more than a kick in the knees for people like him who were forced to resort to stealing just to make some money. And yes, he couldn't deny he had some form of bitterness towards the androids but it remained at that.

But that changed when he found an android slumped against the wall, blue blood leaking from an open 'wound' on its chest where its regulator was. The dim glow on the LED light told him it was damaged but still working. Seeing as no one was around, he took it to his place thinking he could salvage some parts to sell or sell it as a whole.

He muttered to himself as he opened the android's chest and examined it a bit. He had a bit of knowledge of android repairs and whatnot, and noticed the two disconnected wires -likely done so during the damage- and reconnected them. A sharp gasp left the android as he sat upright, the LED light flashing blue as his eyes darted around, scanning his environment as his systems rebooted and came back online.

Speedwagon tried to calm the android down. The blue-haired android calmed, his scanners confirming he was safe and all his systems were running smoothly again. Once he had calmed and gathered himself, the android introduced himself as Jonathan, a JJ-180 model; the model was a rare prototype given to Lord George Joestar as a gift, the model was one of a kind.

As he is programmed, Jonathan was nothing sort of a gentleman to Speedwagon, thanking him for fixing him and helping him, which did surprise the blonde human. Well, seeing as this model was a prototype and belonged to a Lord, he was easily worth a lot of money and not to mention he was very easy on the eyes. No human could be as well built and beautiful as Jonathan. But now there was the dilemma: What to do? Reset the android and sell it off? Keep it? What to do? Well, with him still somewhat damaged, Speedwagon thought it best to keep hold of him until someone came looking for him.

And that was how Speedwagon ended up with an android despite having little money to his name.

Jonathan was, surprisingly, a caring android despite being programmed for a Lord and acted more of a carer than anything; kind and warm, gentle and soft despite his large build, to be honest, there were a handful of moments where Speedwagon had forgotten Jonathan was an android until he noticed the LED light on the side of his head again. It was known that some androids were programmed to 'care' with their operation systems but none seemed to match the way Jonathan showed this.

It was mostly thanks to Lord Joestar who had treated him as a son rather than an android. He would thank Jonathan if he completed a job, he took the android's condition into consideration and whenever there were guests, he asked them to treat Jonathan with respect. But there were occasions where he came back home with dirt and slightly torn clothes from people pushing him around because he was an android.

Accessing Memory File. March 3rd 2038. 10:51am....

Jonathan sat across from George, the man's cane resting beside them as he threaded the needle through the rip one final time, sealing it fully and pulling the thread away. He grabbed the pair of scissors beside him and snipped the thread.

"There. Good as new." He spoke, setting the tools aside and holding the jumper up. Jonathan smiled at it and took it from him, slipping it back on.

"Thank you, George." The jumper had been a gift from George so Jonathan didn't have to wear the uniform all the time. Even though Jonathan stated he didn't require clothing, George insisted, telling him that he didn't need a servant. Jonathan was confused at this but he continued with the duties given to him. George smiled at him,

"JoJo, you know I am not going to be around forever. Humans are not like machines, we're fragile. We break down and eventually, we die." Jonathan turned his head and looked at George at this, his scanners quickly analysing George's condition. He did have a few medical conditions but nothing that posed a high fatality rate. "I want you to be safe when I'm no longer here."

"George, I'm afraid I don't...quite understand what you mean." George smiled lightly at this and placed his hand on Jonathan's shoulder, patting it lightly.

"I am going to leave everything in my possession to you when I pass." Jonathan looked at him, flecks of confusion on his face at this. Everything was being inherited to him?

"But George, your inheritance should go to your next of kin or related family." That was how it went, everyone knew that. Though he simply smiled at the blue-haired android.

"Jonathan, you are my son. And that won't change because we have different coloured blood." His words weren't hollow nor false, Jonathan was his son regardless of their differences and he would proudly defend him if the situation arose. Jonathan felt himself smile at this.

"Hey, JoJo, you alright?" Speedwagon's voice pulled him from his memory file, bringing him back to the present moment, "You zoned out there for a minute." Jonathan looked over and smiled a bit,

"Yes, I'm fine, Speedwagon." He responded and continued with the task he had given himself. It had been a few weeks since Speedwagon had found him and he just couldn't bring himself to rest the android or sell him off, it just felt wrong to do so. Plus, he was amazing company. During his time there, Jonathan had noticed a similar pattern between Speedwagon and George: They both treated him like a human. But what did that mean?

George treated Jonathan like a human because he viewed him as a son, but what did Speedwagon view him as? Friend? Ally? After finishing his task, Jonathan moved and stood aside, awaiting another command.

"Speedwagon, may I ask you something?" He asked, looking at the blonde man as he read the newspaper.

"Yeah, sure. What is it?" He set the newspaper aside, showing the android he had his full attention.

"Why do you treat me like a human?" Confusion painted Speedwagon's face at this, his head titling lightly as he thought.

"Well, it's just you're so....human-like. You look human, sound human and on occasions, act human too."

That caught Jonathan's curiosity. He acted human? How can one act like something they aren't? His thoughts jumbled a bit, trying to figure out what that meant.

"How though? How can I be human if I am an android? A machine?" That was what he was though. Mechanical mechanisms composed together and dressed up to mimic human appearance and speech. The blue LED flashed yellow, circling as he tried to process it.

"JoJo, just because you're one thing it doesn't make you unable to be something else. Look at me, I'm a thug but I'm not a jackass like others are." He had come clean to Jonathan about his past and the things he has done and yet the android didn't see him any different as the kind man who reactivated him and repaired him. That was what Speedwagon was trying to get through to him.

"But-"

"No buts. Yes, you're an android but you're also whatever you wish to be. You're an intelligent being with thoughts and knowledge, you care. That's what makes you who you are, JoJo." He took in the answer and processed it, "You're not just a machine, JoJo."

He repeated those words in his mind over and over again, breaking it down and analysing it further. It was similar to what George would tell him but there was something else in there. Something he couldn't quite define. Slowly, Speedwagon's hand moved towards his, their fingers gently brushing against one another. His touch was warm, while Jonathan's was cool with a smooth texture. It felt...nice. The blue-haired android watched, a mix of curiosity and wonder in his eyes as their hands moved closer to each other, pressing their palms against each others. The skin on his hand fading away to reveal the smooth, snow-white colour beneath that every android had, the pale blue lights glowing more than they should.

Speedwagon seemed just as fascinated at this as Jonathan was, a warmth softly bloomed within him as he watched the android slowly lower his fingers between his, interlocking them together. Something about this felt right in a way neither of them understood. How their hands seemed to fit perfectly together like two pieces in a puzzle. The odd warmth that seemed to spark and bloom from this simple touch.

Perhaps...they were not so different after all? Maybe he truly was more than just a machine.

#jonathan joestar #speedwagon #robert e o speedwagon #robert edward o speedwagon #reo speedwagon #jojo bizarre adventure #phantom blood #jojo phantom blood #jojo #jojo part 1 #jonawagon #speedjona #speedwagon x jonathan #jonathan joestar x speedwagon #android au #android jonathan #dbh au

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abyss-in-machines · 4 years

Text

The First Move

AO3 Link

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Gintama.

@pwapuri here you go. ^_^

Chapter 2

“..does this look alright for the date?”

“..huh?”

“I think Hinowa went overboard, but she was very adamant about it all, so...”

Gintoki had noticed her step out of the shop entrance soon after he arrived. He had made sure to show up right on time, and now he was thanking the universe a thousandfold, because she looked beautiful beyond words. She wore a crimson kimono adorned with yellow swirls at the sleeves, and a yellow obi. Hinowa must’ve insisted on makeup, because the blush applied to the checks made her scars blend in effortlessly. The back of her hair was tied up in a bun, a completely different hairdo from her usual one. Her lavender eyes shone brighter than usual, and her outfit showed off her curves. Tsukuyo would turn heads with her usual getup, but today she was ethereal. Shocked beyond measure, he simply stood with his mouth wide open in the shape of an ‘o’.

Gintoki felt blessed.

“Yeah, you’re alright”

She fidgeted, looking hard at the ground, still unsure whether to move. He smiles, noticing her anxiety.

“There’s nothing to worry about, Tsukki. You look beautiful. And here I thought I finally looked dashing for once.”

Her face reddens even more, but she finally finds the courage to look up and see him. To her surprise, the silver idiot actually did dress up. He wore a dark blue kimono, with white patterns at the sleeves and the ends. A white scarf around the neck, and the bokuto at the side, with geta sandals replacing the usual black boots. He looked much better than the dead-eyed bored self he usually presented. A breath of fresh air.

“So you actually tidied up your appearance for once,” she chuckles, grinning.

He returns her smile. “Nice to see you dress up as well. Since you usually look ready to attend funerals, I expected to see the same old black everything.”

“Sorry to disappoint. Maybe next time, when I’ll decide to use real kunais on you.”

“You should know I don’t die easily.”

“Idiots do live long lives.”

He snorts, and starts walking. “Sure, Tsukki. Come on now, we don’t wanna miss the movie.” She catches up to him, walking by his side.

As they fade into the bustling Yoshiwara crowd, Hinowa watches from the balcony, smiling.

Tsukuyo, I’m so happy for you…

“How’d you hear about this place?”

“It’s Kabuki-cho. Everyone here knows the area inside out if they’ve been here long enough. You ask for ramen here, and you’ll always get redirected to Hokuto Shinken.”

Tsukuyo slurps the noodles, enjoying the burst of flavors in her mouth. “This has to be the best ramen I’ve ever had.”

Gintoki chuckles as he takes a sip of the broth. “That’s Ikumatsu for you.”

“How long has she been making ramen?”

“Honestly, I’ve seen her around since I moved to Kabukicho. She’s been at it for quite a while. This shop is her life. Used to run this place with her husband.”

“What happened to the husband?”

“Got murdered by the Jouishishi. The more extreme faction of the group. Dunno why.”

Tsukuyo ponders on what Gintoki said, while Gintoki resumes on finishing his ramen. Ikumatsu comes up to the table, bringing a jug of water and two glasses.

“And how’s the lovely couple doing tonight?” she asks, smirking at Gintoki as she places the water jug at the centre of the table.

“Doing all right so far,” Gintoki replies, taking the glass. “Thanks, Ikumatsu. We went to see the reboot of Aliens Vs Yakuza before coming here. Movie’s pretty overrated, if you ask me. Oh, also,” he gestures at Tsukuyo. “This is my girlfriend, Tsukuyo.” He grins as he notices her reddening face.

Ikumatsu bows. “Welcome, Tsukuyo-san, pleasure to meet you!” Tsukuyo bows as well.

“The pleasure’s all mine, Ikumatsu-san. I must say, your ramen’s amazing! I was just telling Gintoki how this was the best ramen I’ve ever had.”

Ikumatsu nods gratefully. “You’re far too kind, Tsukuyo-san. Thank you so much.” She turns towards Gintoki with a sly grin. “So, how’d you get to meet this lazy perm head?”

“Oi.”

“Uh..,” Tsukuyo stammers, not knowing where to begin. She looks at Gintoki, only to meet a deadpan stare.

“It’s a terribly long story,” he replies to Ikumatsu, shrugging. “The details will bore you.”

“Where did you two meet?”

“Yoshiwara.”

“Huh..” Ikumatsu’s eyes scream confusion, a shaky smile plastered on her face. Gintoki sighs, shaking his head.

“It’s not what you think it is, Ikumatsu. I went there because of a little boy who the Yorozuya was helping out, and she’s the leader of the law enforcement squad there. Circumstances happened and we met.”

“Hmm, that doesn’t really clear up much..” Ikumatsu ponders. “But hopefully it was, uh, love at first sight?” At this, both of their faces turn pink.

“Not really... she ended up skewering me and the guys with kunais...” Both of them look crestfallen.

“...”

“To be fair, they were fake,” Tsukuyo points out, her head up.

“...yeah,” Gintoki murmurs, head still down. “Had the fake blood system and all too...” Ikumatsu doesn’t know what to make of this conversation anymore.

“...perhaps I shouldn’t have asked too much..”

As they walk back to Hinowa’s shop in the narrow roads of Yoshiwara, Tsukuyo couldn’t help but look down and stare at her feet the whole time. She finally went on a date with the person she desired, and it all felt like a dream come true. She had to resist the urge to pinch herself every now and then to remind herself that it was all real. It had to be. Yet, she was frustrated at herself for acting like a shy high school girl, for not being able to be acclimated to this strange, wonderful situation. She couldn’t get herself to look up, or even be able to glance at the one beside her. It was awkward, and she wanted it to end.

Tsukuyo eventually musters up enough courage to look up and steal some glances at Gintoki, hoping to see the expression at his face as they walked on. She was shocked beyond measure to find him staring at her intently, a small warm smile adorning his face. Her embarrassment getting a hold of her once again, Tsukuyo blushes and resumes watching her feet.

“...you’ve been looking at me all this time?”, she enquires quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

“All this time,” he replies back calmly.

Her blush reddens, her anxious fidgeting only increasing in frequency. Gintoki sighs, and gets closer to her as they keep walking. “Take your time, Tsukki. No one’s ever really completely comfortable in their first date.”

“Easy for you to say, permhead. You’ve been coasting on God knows what air headed confidence you’ve been possessed by.”

“Oh, believe me, Shinigami Tayu, I’m not coasting on my stupidity.”

“So you finally admit that you’re a moron.”

“You’re equally a moron for going out on a date with me then,” he snaps back quickly, and shushes her potential comeback. “Seriously, it’s none of that. It’s just..” he stares off at the horizon of the narrow streets, engrossed in thought.

“Just what?” Tsukuyo asks, her eyes questioning him.

Gintoki takes his time, finally breaking off the state to look at her, flashing her his trademark grin.

“I’ve finally found what I’ve been looking for.”

Hinowa greets them at the shop porch, eyes wide open, beaming from ear to ear.

“I’ve been expecting the both of you!” she exclaims, hugging the couple tightly, ignoring their awkward fidgeting. She grins, correctly guessing that the both of them aren’t used to this yet. “So, I wanna know. How’d it go?” she asks, looking expectantly at Gintoki. Gintoki grins, looking at Tsukuyo, who pouts and stares elsewhere.

“It was fun, Hinowa. A lot fun. Definitely enjoyed it, think Tsukki did too. Couldn’t really tell much cause she was really interested about looking at the ground for some stretches of time.”

Tsukuyo’s blush knows no bounds, yet she keeps a straight face. “Coming from the guy cowering in his seat at every 5 minutes of the movie cause he thought the aliens were ghosts, that’s saying something.”

“What ghosts?” he retorts back, trying to hide the chill in his spine at the mention. “Don’t spread blasphemy. If anything, you were clinging onto my arm, snot faced, begging for the gh-aliens to go away, yes, that’s it!”

“That was YOU, you spineless perm head!”

“Tsukki is a scaredy cat!” Gintoki sings, his face morphing into a mocking expression. Tsukuyo grits her teeth.

“All right, since I don’t have my kunais at the moment, guess who’s going home with a broken arm today!” She cracks her knuckles, and Gintoki immediately freezes, his face displaying utter fear.

“NO OK SORRY IT WAS M-AHHHHH!”

Gintoki desperately tries calming down a very hot headed Tsukuyo, who grabs him by the collar and lifts him up in the air, shaking him furiously. Hinowa’s smile only broadens, amused with what she was witnessing. It’s only been their first date, and they were already bickering like a married couple having one of the classic small disagreements. Albeit a very violent one at that.

“Fixed the marriage date yet?”

Both of them stand still on their tracks and look at Hinowa, Tsukuyo shocked at Hinowa’s ridiculous question, while Gintoki seemingly pondering. They both blurt out their answer at the same time.

“No!”

“A year?!”

Hinowa can’t help but start laughing out loud.

“You sure have time to kill.”

“Always,” he admits smugly, the trademark grin plastered on his face.

Tsukuyo sighs, smirking slightly.

It’s been weeks since the first date, and Tsukuyo couldn’t believe just how much of her life had changed since then. This had become the new normal for her now. The perm head really took the time to memorize her schedule, because he was always around whenever it was break time from work or just a rare day off. It helped that her subordinates have been trained so well that she could spend more time off the field conducting training or paperwork, which mean more free time for her. Free time that she could spend by hanging out with him, but to her surprise, he’d always have plans for her free time. Arranging visits to the cafe, or to the nearby park for a quick small picnic, or just a casual hangout at the street side tea shops. It didn’t matter. Gintoki always had something up his sleeve, something for the both of them to indulge on. She could get used to this.

Tsukuyo sips her coffee quietly while staring at wonder at her boyfriend, who had devoured two strawberry parfaits with ease, and was now slowly cherishing every small scoop of the last one, reveling in the sweetness of it all. She wonders just how this man, who has no qualms about risking his life protecting the ones he loves with every fiber of his being, who exudes honor and strength by the swing of his wooden sword, is reduced to a happy gluttonous child at the mere mention or sight of sweet goods. As she watches him happily gobble up scoop after scoop of the parfait, she understands how the man never hides what he is, despite a lot about him still being a mystery to her. Gintoki will never let go of sweets, just as he’ll never stop protecting and looking over his loved ones, even if he does it his own way. He’s amazing and irritating to the bone, and she knows all these things about him only reinforces her love for him. And now he’s willingly let her be a bigger part of his life, and she gladly welcomed his invasion into her own. She couldn’t be more thankful, even if she tried.

“You know,” Tsukuyo starts, and Gintoki’s eyes perks up. “You don’t have to come keep me company at my break times.”

He chuckles. “Silly woman. It’s not that I have to. I want to.”

“Why?”

“Why not? You are my girlfriend. It’s the least I can do to take your mind off of all the grueling work that you do.”

“...it’s just, it seems like quite a burden for you,” she looks away, flustered. “You travel back and forth over such long distances for one or two hours of this...”

He sighs, expecting something like this from Tsukuyo. Of course she’d think she was being a burden.

“Tsukki, look at me,” he soothed, as he reaches out and gently hold her hands, startling her. It works, as her lavender eyes meet his red ones.

“You’re not a burden to anyone, least of all me. I want to do this. I want to keep you company. I want to hang out with you. I want to be there for you.”

Tsukuyo’s mouth opens, surprised at his blunt honest speech. He grins, and doesn’t let go.

“Why? Cause I love you.”

To her surprise, she finds him waiting after she’s done training for the day, and gladly accepts his proposal to walk her back home. As they walk on, she notices his outstretched hand, and slides her own underneath his palm. They walk all the way back to Hinowa’s shop, stopping at the entrance.

Tsukuyo turns around to look at Gintoki and notices him slightly blushing, shoulders hunched.

“You alright?” she asks, wondering what was going on. He nods his head and then stands upright, seemingly having made up his mind.

“So I told my landlady about us, and the old hag is overjoyed,” he starts, “so overjoyed that she’s throwing a small party over the weekend to meet you and get to know you better. It’ll be in the weekend, whichever day you prefer. Just us, her and the kids. Catherine and Tama too, although I doubt you know them yet. You will soon though. You down for it?”

He stares at her, patiently waiting for her answer. She ponders over, but makes up her mind quickly.

“Yes.”

#gintama #Gintoki x Tsukuyo #sakata gintoki #gintsu #tsukuyo gintama #romcom #fanfic #story

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers.

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”. Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me.

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least. Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least). Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs.

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it. This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there.

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy.

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all.

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run.

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit. However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough. So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all.

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her. Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright.

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know. Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head. Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit. And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap. Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs. Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing. It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall. So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that.

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective. A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great.

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow.

#darkwing duck #reviews #ducktales #darkly dawns the duck #drake mallard #goslyn mallard #launchpad mcquack #tarus bulba #the disney afternoon #the 90's

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hyodles · 4 years

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title: demonbob lucipantsed genre: comedy pairing: lucifer x GN!reader word count: 993 summary: you had never feared your life more than now. there was no hope for you anymore. you pantsed Lucifer. notes: i have no explanation for this, im sorry lmfaooo

———

You had made the ultimate mistake.

You’d done goofed before, sure, but nothing that was on this scale of massive fuck-up-ery.

You had to run. You had to change your name, flee the country. No, scratch that. Flee the realm.

After all you had been through in the Devildom, from being threatened with death, to actually being killed by Belphegor, you had never feared your life more than now.

No, there was nothing that could save you now.

You had pantsed Lucifer.

The former Pride of the Celestial Realm, one of the Prince of the Devildom, Diavolo’s closest friends. The one person that could and would make your life utter Hell. That one.

———

…Let’s rewind back to the scene of the crime.

It was just a regular Monday…? You could never tell what (human) day it was down here — the names used for the days and months were something you could never get used to either. Not that you ever kept track of time on Earth anyway.

Anyway. Lucifer had called everyone into the library, undoubtedly to yell at whoever (Mammon) stole his special tea. But even though it was only one person (Mammon) who stole it, the rest of you had to suffer too, apparently. Mid-rant, you decided to point out this to him. You stepped forward.

“Lucifer, don’t you think you’re—” And that’s when it all went wrong.

The tip of your shoe got caught on the edge of the rug, and you fell forward, flailing your arms around wildly in an attempt to grab onto something secure to steady yourself.

Fortunately for you, Lucifer was close enough to grab onto.

Unfortunately for you, you reached out too late, and your fingers grazed his legs as you fell. You had grabbed the fabric of his pants instead of his leg — although you did note they were a high quality material (maybe you could ask where he got them from later? they were really nice) — and you fell on your face, pulling Lucifer’s pants down as you went.

It hadn’t yet registered in your head that you had pantsed Lucifer.

No, your first thought, as you lifted your head, was to take a second to admire Lucifer’s hairless chicken legs.

Then it had finally clicked, and horror washed over you. Your second thought was;

Did this count as sexual harrassment? Would you get sued? Can you get sued in the Devildom? Is there a Devildom Court? Oh God, you were definitely getting sued. Or killed. Or both. Let’s be real, it’d definitely be both.

But… instead of immediate death, there was a silence that filled the room. You had to will yourself to lift your gaze up to gauge Lucifer’s reaction, and more importantly, to judge the headstart you could get if you ran at that moment to avoid getting sued. Or killed. Or both.

The pantsed demon seemed to be shellshocked — he hadn’t moved in the slightest, his mouth agape, his eyes blank, his arms were still reached out as he’d attempted to catch you before you fell. The rest of the room’s occupants seemed to be the same — stunned into silence.

Countless ideas ran through your head of how to make this situation better, each idea getting less and less helpful.

Amidst the explosions and alarm bells in your brain, you heard a faint ‘click!’ from a D.D.D, and Mammon whispering to Asmo about ‘priceless’ and ‘need to sell it!’. There was still no reaction from Lucifer. The other brothers were slowly recovering from the shock, so you knew you didn’t have much time to act.

Your hands still rested at his ankles, so you decided to take action without further thought of consequences, and try and rectify the solution the best way you could. Read: pretend the whole situation didn’t happen by making it look like it didn’t happen.

You slowly pulled his pants back up to his waist, and stood. Mentally giving yourself a little pat on the back for how you had handled the situation. It was only when you made eye contact with him that the mortification began to appear on Lucifer’s face. Now that his system had rebooted, you could see a very angry colour of red bloom on his face, which then turned to a dark purple.

If you weren’t already in Hell, you knew Lucifer would’ve been the one to send you there after this fuck-up. Wordlessly, he reached out to you with eyes screaming ‘MURDER’, and your fight or flight instincts kicked in.

Of course, you finally ran.

———

You’d only stopped running when you’d reached Diavolo’s castle, leaning against the door to catch your breath whilst simultaneously banging against the large wooden doors.

“Lemme in! Please!” You yelled the loudest you could, hitting the doors again, which was damaging you more than it was damaging the wood. “I’ll tell you the colour of Lucy’s undies if you let me stay here for a bit—”

The doors had immediately opened at your words, but you’d been cut off by a hand pulling your collar back cutting off your windpipe as you were dragged back towards the House of Lamentation by an extremely angry Lucifer.

He’d loosened his hold on your collar a little so you could breathe again, and you reached out your hands towards the open doors, almost sobbing.

“HELP-! I don’t wanna get sued! I don’t have any Grimm!” You all but screeched, but there was no response from the castle. Lucifer tightened his grip on you again, for fear you’d try to run.

You craned your head back to indicate Lucifer, and immediately stopped yelling when you spotted the grim look on his face.

You had a feeling you were in for a long night of lectures, and a curse that’d last for eternity.

#obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me asmodeus #om! lucifer #obey me fic #obey me imagines #obey me headcanons #mine #my writing

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freshlybakedspiderbread · 3 years

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I brought up hanyang type 88 here and i said i’d explain, so here I am!!

okay so first off here’s a bunch of likely useful context about girls frontline. There is this feature in the game called digimind upgrade, or mod 3, where certain t-dolls can be upgraded past the normal maximum levels and stats, and at the same time gaining whole new abilities and also a new design. Basically a reinvention. There are like hundreds of playable characters in the game, and only a fraction will get mod 3s, typically the ‘main characters’ who are relevant to the major ongoing plot.

two things about getting a doll who has the ability to do digimind upgrade, to actually do that. One, is that it can be very costly in terms of in-game materials. like, maybe i just played the game wrong but I would have to grind for weeks in order to amass the materials to upgrade just one doll to mod 3. So even though by now there are dozens upon dozens of dolls who are capable of this feature, i’ve only actually done so with like, less than one dozen. A normal player probably has to be picky.

secondly, and this is the big one, every t-doll’s mod 3 comes with story cutscenes that become available for you to view upon upgrading them. Personally, i think most of the only worthwhile mod 3 stories are the ones that are associated with the actual major characters of the main story, especially since their upgrades actually happen in-canon and their mod 3 stories fill in blanks or otherwise expand upon the regular story chapters.

for the t-dolls who aren’t major characters that get digimind upgrades, their associated stories tend to follow a very basic pattern. They’re feeling like they are falling behind other T-Dolls in abilities or are otherwise experiencing a drop in confidence in their abilities, but then find the resolve in them to either change themselves or stand by an aspect of themselves, and this leads them to heading to the lab to get upgraded. obviously theres some nuances here and there depending on the character, but a lot of them, from what i saw, follow this basic pattern.

hanyang type 88 has a mod 3 but i certainly never wanted to see it. Firstly, using the feature at all takes up resources are kinda precious so i wasn’t just gonna use it on anyone. Secondly, she is just one of many one-off t-dolls that basically dont ever show up in any actual main story cutscenes or even funny events. Thirdly... you saw what she looked like in the linked post, i was in no rush to make use of her.

That being said, even if you don’t ever upgrade a t-doll, simply having them in your possession allows you to at least view the first of four parts of their mod 3 story, which nets you a small amount of those materials needed to see the rest (its a pretty fiendish system, huh o_O). I was lacking in some materials to upgrade a doll i cared about, so i just mucked around, eventually happened upon type88 again and decided that instead of just immediately feeding her to the furnace, I’d watch the first chapter of her mod 3 story. I watched it, it made me just curious enough to look further, and well. ...I got into it. Exactly what I got into, i shall now just elaborate and summarise the whole thing in my own way! Warning, it’s long!

(disclosure: my summary will bias towards my own preferred interpretation whenever any aspect is somewhat vague.)

The story starts with type 88, or as she is called by others in griffin base, Ai, working her shift in the base’s cafe, because what else would she be doing.

i hate looking at her! Anyway, its just a pleasant peaceful day and Ai is taking the logistic person, kalina’s order when suddenly in the middle of a conversation, Ai freezes in place and starts making worrying sounds.

kalina here and the t-dolls present in the cafe are concerned, and talk about how Type88 has actually been crashing like this more and more frequently lately, yet has not reported any of this to the maintenance crew despite the advice of her friends. They try rebooting her on the spot, but it has an even more concerning effect, because she starts erratically acting like she doesn’t recognise the others, and talks about how she is a maid in “Jiangcheng Cafe”. Afraid that her neural cloud (her mind) has been scrambled, they put her to sleep and bring her to the repair bay.

Its in the repair bay where they explain exactly what is wrong with type88. She is a fairly old doll, and her processing capacity has been severally clogged up for a long time. Her internal memory is overflowing because many large sections of her mind is filled with very large encrypted files (memories that she stored away). she is likely to keep crashing and possibly even cease functioning entirely one day if those encrypted files are not deleted, but nobody is really keen on just deleting parts of her mind without her consent. For now, kalina just opts to try and decrypt the files and see what they are.

And from here, we watch type88 memories from her perspective. Sort of. Kind of. It gets complicated later but for now, we view the first memory of her life, not as a combat t-doll type88, but...

...as 59898, a doll designed to be what is basically a ‘crash test dummy’ for testing artillery technology in a research station. With a purpose like this, 59898 has an (ostensibly) rudimentary AI. Her learning ability is intended to be used to better aid the results of their testing, but she also knows how to understand and even imitate specific human gestures in order to better respond to instructions or conversation, even though she herself has no voice module to speak with. She is assigned to assist one specific person.

first off, i was pretty shocked right off the bat that this story above so many others actually has unique assets to it. The above two sprites don’t show up anywhere else in the game, i don’t think. Secondly, this woman’s name is only ever spelled with those white squares, so I’m stuck with having to just calling her ‘the pilot’, as dry as that sounds... I just don’t want to type out weird characters every time, or call her ‘triple cube’...

Anyway, so 59898 is assigned to help this woman in testing artillery tech (stuff like mechs and tanks). I should mention really quick that in the game’s story, during this point of time is when world war iii is happening, but that’s just a backdrop for robots to eventually gain more prominence. Anyway, we move on to the second memory, where some time has already passed. At the beginning of this memory, the pilot is visibly depressed, which 59898 takes note of.

Her ‘comfort mode’ consists of patting the pilot on the head, who while surprised, actually is grateful. She feels comfortable enough to talk about her worries aloud to the doll, mentioning how she is a war refugee and has to make a living in the research base because she can’t go back to her home in china, at least not before making enough money for a very expensive and exclusive train ticket. She continues to talk at length to the doll...

...not that the test doll is capable of responding to anything she says. The pilot insists that she’s happy just to have someone listen to her though, since she feels like she can’t really express her feelings to any other person on the base. Despite that-

That aside, the pilot says that referring to 59898 by her serial number all the time feels a bit weird, so she decides to give the doll a name. (I sure wish the story would give this woman a name too, other than ‘three white squares’ but oh well...)

She talks more with Jiangcheng Ai, or just Ai, after that, asking her if she’d like a change of clothes sometime, like some casual clothes, or an old maid outfit from an old cafe job she used to have (I guess they had to throw in any explanation for that outfit somehow) Point is, more and more time passes.

As time passes though, and we go into the third memory, the pilot brings up complaints to her superiors about how the more recent testings, becoming more increasingly intense and frequent, are putting a great strain on Ai, and even repairs can only help maintain her chassis so much. She insists on wanting to take Ai’s place in the testing, but they refuse because, well, Ai’s entire purpose is to take the strain of these tests so that the human pilot doesn’t have to, and the doll is just a tool there to pave the way for the pilot to eventually take over the mech in action

The next time Ai wakes up from her most recent repairs, the pilot is there to greet her, and Ai can tell straight away that she’s unhappy and tries to comfort her again. The pilot is not surprised at this and talks about how this is how Ai has been since they first met. She goes on to say how all the other people on the base don’t know her half as well as Ai does. Ai tries to understand and determine what the pilot’s intentions with saying all this is, but she cannot do so and can only listen while offering ‘executing - affirmative nod’.

The pilot talks about how once the war is over, she’d like to take Ai back home with her, where they could go to all sorts of gatherings, and the pilot would introduce Ai to her friends.

Ai reviews her personal data, confirming that she has no owners or obligations other than the pilot, so she executes another affirmative nod, and the pilot says this:

As Ai tries and fails to further determine this, something bad happens! if you’ve read this far, i’m sure you’ve already guess what happens next...

At that exact moment, a warning goes out and the research base is being attacked by nebulous enemy forces. With no time to talk anymore, both the pilot and Ai head out into their first real fight.

They spend a good long while repelling enemy forces, working well together and apparently using all sorts of wacky anime weaponry like beam blades and whatever ‘retrograde evasion’ is!

obviously though, you already know this isn’t going to end well for them... When the pilot takes a breather, Ai moves to protect her, but at a critical moment, a sudden high-speed projectile comes her way. In the next instance there’s a crash, and we move onto another memory. Where its all fire and debris, and Ai can’t move.

^ this text box actually repeats several times, indicating that she is repeating her scan for life signs over and over. She gets an internal warning from her systems (differentiated with red text) that she has insufficient power and it warns her to immediately cease ineffective operations. [Unable to detect owner life signs] repeats again.

At this point, uuuuh, its a little stupid actually? because two humans show up, reusing generic ‘bad guy’ sprites from other events that don’t match the current environment and situation at all (one is in a suit and the other is in casual clothes). but the reason they’re here is to provide exposition out loud about what happened. It looked like the human’s mech took a hit for the doll and was blown to bits, though they talk about how that doesn’t make any sense.

Ai at this point tries to execute a bunch of different actions like hugging [target not found] and screaming [no relevant module] but they all fail, and her internal systems tell her that her power is running out and she will cease to function in 30 seconds.

So in those last 30 seconds, Ai decides to quickly review her internal files. the damage she took has corrupted her memories and she doesn’t have the time to properly go through them, so she executes a ‘simulated processed records’, which basically mean she’s just filling the blanks of those memories herself with simulations.

And I have to say. I was decently into and enjoying this little story so far, but its this part that’s the reason i became forced to make this stupid giant post. the first ‘memory’ loads up, and we see the pilot.

Different ‘memories’ of the days spent with the pilot are loaded back to back, each are very short and only last a few lines. Across these files, the two of them talk comfortably with each other, Ai is invited to go get coffee with her, the pilot talks about how going alone is boring and would rather spend time with Ai, Ai saying back with her own words that she always likes spending time with her, etc etc etc.

And then finally, she loads one last ‘memory’, from earlier that same day, before the explosion and the fighting.

and she shuts down.

i passed by this scene the first time all calm, but an hour or so later when I was in the bathroom replacing shampoo bottles, i started thinking about it and I literally started sobbing. And then again later that night when i was in bed. I hate this game!!

so that’s the ‘end’ of that, and the next scene opens, once again in griffin base’s cafe, except...

Ai is sporting a brand new (ugly) look. She says she’d like to take kalina’s order but she was just leaving on other business, as she likes keeping herself busy with all sorts of work around the base ever since she got upgraded into a gundam gajinka. and after she leaves, kalina talks with the other dolls about how Ai used to have some cache issues because her neutral cloud was too full, but upgrading into this new chassis easily fixed that and even allowed her to make use of her old locked away abilities.

Because of the way this scene in the cafe opens up exactly like the very first one at the beginning, it makes me believe that this final scene is also a simulated ‘memory’, that is, Ai filling in the blanks of her corrupted memories with what she wishes to be reality. And i feel confident in believing that because after the scene fades to black, we see more of her internal system monologue.

She (the system) says that the priority execution is to preserve those encrypted memory logs. She does so, and the neural cloud upgrade is complete with confirmation of no loss files. With no risk of deletion in this new form, she executes the command to unlock the encrypted memories. And finally...

[spiderbread dies]

i still wouldn’t use her in gameplay because i can’t stand looking at her design but i told you all i eat up robot with feelings stuff and this is like prime example of exactly that... and if i didn’t make this post, i think my own neutral cloud’s cache would be at risk of overflowing x_X!

#spider bread crumbs #gfl

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deanofwhumpuniversity · 4 years

Text

Aurora Australis: Part 1

The beginning of Argos’ captivity

Content Warning: Mental/emotional whump, body horror/dismantling of a robot, mental confusion, diss@sociation, dehumanizing language (toward a non-human person, but still. Slightly creepy/intimate whumper, non-consensual touch, careless whumper, android whumpee. Tell me if I missed anything that I should warn for.

@whumpthisway and @redstainedsocks had a prompt that sorta falls into this, not exactly, maybe it’ll be up your alley anyway?

...

Rustle. Shuffle. Click-scrape. Peel-pop. Rustlerustlerustle

Awareness began to filter back in through the dark, sluggish in a way that was new and worrying. Argos knew he knew the sounds around him, but his mind refused to form them into a useful narrative, instead following each audible oddity like a cat after a laser. So he tried to focus on something other than sound, and realized he was being jostled; almost passively, as if the pressure on his arm was incidental and the goal had naught to do with him at all.

How had he gotten here? Where was here anyway? Why had he been powered down in the first place? He tried to access his info banks from just before the shutdown, but the most immediate data seemed corrupted. Argos began to rewind his sense memory; jolts of static pushed back against his consciousness, forcing him out of the playback again and again. Every burst of fuzziness muddied his thoughts and threatened to make him forget what he was attempting. He rerouted his processes, drawing his senses away from the manhandling of his frame and the white noise surrounding him, to focus on pushing through his damaged memory. Static with no ears to grate on or eyes to confuse, static that still rubbed his senses raw like nails on the chalkboard of his mind, and finally, finally, heavily distorted sensory input began to play back. He tried to place what he was seeing. Did he recall...trees? Was that a person?

“There we are!”

A peeling-tearing noise and an exclamation shook Argos from his search, expanding his senses back into his body, and the first thing he fully processed was that he did not know that voice. He began to boot up his eyes, wondering how addled his brain must be that he hadn’t thought to do so before. But in the same moment he knew that once he did, this unknown human would be able to tell he was awake. My visual display wasn’t designed for stealth. What a strange thought to have...

But as his faceplate lit up with scrolling green glyphs, the woman who came into focus wasn’t paying any attention to his expression, instead peering intently through a mounted magnifying glass, tinkering around in a bit of armor he recognized had once been plating his lower arm. It was familiar to him, a piece of him but no longer part of him. He searched his sensory map and found his arm. It was still his, still there. Seemed...in working order, but he didn’t try to move it. Not yet. The plate the human handled reverently was discolored on the outside, warped even. He was sure he knew what burn damage looked like, though he’d never seen it on himself before. This human must be here to fix him.

“Lim, come look at this!”

Someone approached from Argos’ other side. Left, his mind unhelpfully supplied. North? Upon realizing that he wasn’t sure, he began to cast about in his software again. Compass, magnetic direction, this should be ingrained, shouldn’t it? He’d always known where he was. Hadn’t he? He was even more concerned to realize that he simply didn’t remember whether or not he’d ever felt this lost before. He hoped not. He didn’t like it.

That train of thought came to a halt as the new figure came into focus. That one, he knew that one. How did he know that one? His visual field widened ever so slightly, and he saw he was in an open tent, flaps pinned back and sunlight streaming in. There were more tents, distant figures, and trees beyond. He felt an odd sense of familiarity, a technological deja-vu that meant somewhere in his visual databanks lay an image that would match up with this clearing. All he had to do was go through every moment, frame by frame, until he found it, and he would know where he was and hopefully, how he had gotten here.

But the new figure, the Lim human he presumed, was speaking, and for some reason Argos was so distracted with watching his movements that he barely caught the exchange. “-- be awake like this?” He was standing over Argos now, looking directly at his face, blue-grey eyes flicking back and forth slightly like he was trying to read the streams of vertical light that played across it. Argos found that thought strangely...endearing? That was new. He willed himself to display a disarming smile in the flickering lights for a moment, but the man simply furrowed his brow further.

The other human, the mechanic, started at this question and pushed the magnifying glass aside. She blinked up at Argos’ display as her eyes refocused, as though she was just now remembering the bit of armor she’d been examining had come from a whole body. Her momentary confusion was instantly replaced with a beaming smile, and instead of answering, she leaned in close to Argos’ faceplate. “Well look at you, all shiny and green! How long have you been up and running?” She was so close her eyes nearly crossed to watch the symbols of his display, and he had to consciously keep the data stream from speeding up along with his racing thoughts.

Personal space. Humans expect a meter of personal space from unknown persons, +.1 meter for every centimeter in height you have over them. Argos heard this admonishment in a lightly accented voice that he knew intrinsically, knew better than his own titanium bones, emanating from nowhere but simply existing in his mind, deeper than his hazy recent memory, too deep to be lost from data corruption or structural damage or whatever had happened to bring him to this circumstance.

He tried to shift back against the table, but he was already as flat as was possible, in a slumped and inhuman posture, apparently having been dead weight when he’d been laid down. He cringed internally, and realized he’d allowed the feeling to play across his face for just a moment before he schooled himself. The mechanic either didn’t notice the change, or didn’t understand it, and continued eyeing him with somewhat manic glee. He hoped if he answered her question perhaps she would move back to her stool.

“I…” He began to speak and both humans leaned back. The woman’s face was even more excited than before, somehow. But the man’s expression was one of...distaste? This worried Argos, though he wasn’t sure entirely why. He started again, “I don’t know. I don’t know what time it is...what day it is. My internal clock seems to have desynced.”

He was becoming more lucid by the moment, he knew that he was deeply damaged, both in hardware and in soft, but he had all the means at his disposal to get his bearings and make repairs. He cast about for a wireless signal, something he could use to sync with, to triangulate the time and place, and found a likely beacon on the periphery of his senses. He sent a signal to it, attempting to pair, but a sharp white jolt poured back into him. Not information, not data, but the absolute absence of it, a molten wipe that erased his request and cauterized his ability to send again. The readout on his faceplate devolved into static as his thoughts were overloaded and wiped clear of anything but pain, and his body arched in fits off the table as nonsense commands were sent to his synthetic muscles. He couldn’t remember words, or language, and he didn’t mean to try to speak, but a series of distressed metallic trills came from the speakers at the base of his throat.

It may have been a moment, or an hour, and he felt feverish as coolant rushed to prevent his processors from overheating. Even if he’d been able to trust his own internal clock, he couldn’t focus on anything but a litany of stop stop make it stop. He’d disconnected from the wireless beacon almost immediately but the feedback ran its course through his frame, down his arms and legs then doubling back to smolder in his core. Finally, gradually Argos felt his thoughts falling back into order, almost like waking from a reboot but not quite so drowsy, and not nearly so refreshing. Aftershocks of blank, dataless pain danced about his systems, and he felt his fingers twitching without his control. When he was able to focus his optics again, he saw the mechanic’s smile had become less childlike, more wolfish.

“That’ll be the wireless jammer, sorry I didn’t warn you, but we haven’t exactly had a chance to speak, have we?” She reached up, resting her hand just above the reflective plate that served Argos as a face, as though cupping his cheek from an inch away. He imagined he could still feel her touch, fingerprints on the glass, sinking through to tangle in the circuits underneath. He couldn’t help the jerking shudder at the thought, but felt some morbid relief that she would see it as another spasm of lingering pain. “I have it under control, thanks.” Her eyes didn’t move, though it was clear she wasn’t speaking to him.

“We should still restrain it. Physically.” Lim was still there, husky voice so neutral as to sound almost bored. This troubled Argos before he even had time to process the human’s words. “At least until you have it disassembled.”

#android whump #robot whump #mental whump #emotional whump #whump #missives from the dean #immortal whumpee #aurora australis #Reynan Lim #Zinnia Brown #argos

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springtimebat · 3 years

Text

The Deleted Darla Sunshine Interview

(This tape was discovered in the remains of the Little Patch of Heaven radio station, which had been abandoned sixty years before the expedition. It is labelled “Interview 1: Darla’s Darlings”. The date the audio was recorded is unknown but presumably between April and September according to the conversation contained. Research is still underway.)

[///Audio ready///]

Transcript:

Darla: So should I just sit here?

Interviewer: Yeah just over there. Here, bring the mic with you.

Darla: Yep okay. Ah this takes me back!

Interviewer: To...seven months ago?

Darla: Seven months seems so much longer than it really is sometimes. Feels like years since I’ve been in this room. But I was kinda thinking about Toby. Just a little bit.

Interviewer: Toby Walker?

Darla: Yes.

Interviewer: (Mumble) Do you still think about him? (rustle) I mean do you think about him often?

Darla: Sometimes. Not as much as I used to.

Interviewer: I'm just asking because before we start the recording I need to know if you feel uncomfortable with some of the material. It would be nice if you gave me a heads up you know? My superior doesn’t want me to put you off the wire.

Darla: Oh yeah sure I understand. Are there any questions about the Walkers?

Interviewer: No I just thought he would be mentioned at some point, seeing as he was a highlight in your career

Darla: I’m... I’m not sure that’s the right word.

Interviewer: Are you feeling comfortable? I have a structure to follow and we’ve already gone off schedule.

Darla: Oh I’m so sorry.

Interviewer: Leave amusing anecdotes ‘till later.

Darla: ...alright.

Interviewer: Appreciate it. I’m sure you’ll do fine. The wire’s running so just speak into the mic and it’ll get picked up.

(Squeak)

Interviewer: Right okay. So Darla Sunshine, congratulations on your show’s promotion to television!

Darla: Thank you! I can hardly believe it!

Interviewer: Would you be kind enough to tell us when Darla’s Darlings will be airing?

Darla: I believe the full version of The Horror-Couch will be on in January of next year, which seems like a really strange time to air it if you ask me. But…well Little Patch of Heaven’s studio is so fickle I can’t really guarantee that date anyway.

Interviewer: Oh? Why is the filming fickle?

Darla: We keep changing rooms, station hands, different material is being written without my knowledge. It’s all a real mess. I’m so used to it just being me and the occasional actor. Moving from radio to television has been quite-

(///audioFailure///*^///ResetING)

Interviewer: Very well. Let’s start on the questions. We posed an open letter questionnaire last march for any of your fans and we got an... overwhelming amount of replies back to say the very least! This should be very interesting…

(Rustling)

Firstly, how did you come up with the concept of your character?

Darla: Oh-well the Darla on screen is pretty much the person I am in real life. At least, how I used to be when I was younger. I like to think I’m a lot more subdued now. I was much more eccentric and loud when I was around twelve years old and I used to be obsessed with all sorts of gross things no one else seemed to like. I thought back once I got the job and realised that demeanor could make a great character so the Darla Sunshine you see on screen is kind of just an exaggerated version of me as a kid. The whole show’s kinda a joke on the people I grew up with too, particularly the women I grew up with. You know, women with hair bigger than their heads who sleep with their tupperware, live in aprons and have cocktail parties every weekend. I try to replicate that, but I’m completely messed up and I hold parties with monsters and cook with decapitated heads.

Interviewer: Very interesting. Someone had asked whether you go to the old arena in town at any point.

Darla: Oh! The pit?

Interviewer:... yes?

Darla: I used to go there a lot when I was younger. I really love the atmosphere! It’s just so loud and all encompassing! I haven’t gone in a while sadly but hopefully I can arrange a trip in the near future!

Interviewer: Great stuff. Now how was the interview process for the radio station like? We know you have a background in acting but you must have made quite a great impression since you were promoted within the first month of your employment. Given your own show and anything.

Darla: Oh umm…that’s quite a long story.

Interviewer: We have the next two hours.

Darla: Okay well my interviews were a complete disaster. Something always came up during them. Like, the first was just standard questions. Discussions about my past experiences, what I’d contributed and what I could contribute to the job there. I thought it was strange because, well, they knew me. But my interviewer looked really burnt out so I just went along with it. About half way through a large group of bats fell from the rafter above us and started to attack the guy. It almost gave me a heart attack but he seemed completely unfazed. He just held up an umbrella without so much as batting an eyelid. He apologised and told me he’d call me back after he’d taken care of the pest control problem. Two weeks later, he called me back for my second interview. It was a practice examination so I had to act out one of my skits. I think I did okay until I did a cooking segment I’d prepared for. The oven stopped working and the whisk lost control. It splatted green slime all over the walls instead of the cake mix I’d originally put in. The guy just apologised again and said he’d call once the problem was sorted out. Another three days later he called me back for the last interview. It was November and a blizzard had begun to form as I drove up to the station. It was freezing in the building but the interviewer was wearing a tank top and shorts. His eyes were puffy and his cheeks were hollow. He didn’t look like he was there, if that makes any sense. He didn’t ask me any questions as far as I can tell, the interview was me guiding him back to his car. His back was all crooked and his legs stumbled along in the snow. I had to support him until he grabbed onto the dusty door of his truck. I thought he would just get in and drive off. But, instead, he turned to me. He looked... he just looked so dead. His face was more skull than skin and his shoulders shook so violently.

He turned and he said:

“I’d expect a call from the offices in about a week. It might be linger since the paper work will be put to the sidelines,”

“Yes sir,” I replied.

“We aren’t the most dedicated record keepers either,”

“I know sir. I’ve see my file in town hall,”

“Oh? Why?”

“My parents died when I was a kid,”

“Oh...well I won’t be here for a while. I’m going on vacation you see.”

“Oh, anywhere I know?”

“Nah,”

“Oh well- have a good time,”

I was about to walk away when he grabbed me with a shrivelled, old hand.

He said, “ The building doesn't like you,”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s good, don’t worry. The owners- they made a mistake bringing me here. Knock it into shape Darla,”

I didn’t know what to say so I just whispered, “I’ll try sir,”

“You know things are strange around here, don’t you ?”

I swallowed and said, “Yes I know,”

“People disappear,” he said, “Wolves walk the streets, carnivals steal our children…”

“Sir I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied. Because of course I knew. How could you not realise?

“Robert Morrison,” He said suddenly.

“Huh?”

“That’s my name. Remember it,” Then he got into his car, drove into the mountains and was never seen again.

(Sobs can be heard)

No one knew who he was. I was questioned but no one really cared. Not really. The case file was sponged after a week.

Interviewer: He was a nobody?

Darla: Yeah. After that, the owners looked for a replacement but eventually they just promoted me. They don’t even remember his name, you know? What’s your name?

Interviewer: Hannah-Marie.

Darla: Remember your name. It has power. I need to remember his name. I need to remember Nick Carlson.

Audio Failure

Press UNDERkey to follOW

Press under

KeY

To Folloow

System failure

System reboot in process

System triggered

System load

System ready

Audio failure

Audio restarted

Audio skip

Audio load

Audio ready

Audio start

system start

WIRE READY

Time: 1hr 34 m

[1:34]

Interviewer: You are one of the last radio shows to broadcast here anymore. With your jump to television, do you think the old station has been made obsolete?

Darla: I’m not really the person to answer that. I am and always have been an actor, first and foremost. When I got my show almost nobody was around so I had to learn how the different system works. It wasn’t a real passion of mine, machine maintenance. The radio was just a way of being able to perform. I don’t think we should just rule out the old ways as obsolete. When you watch my show later this year, you’ll see the storytelling, the humour hasn’t changed. I haven't changed at all. ‘cept now you can see my face. It’s not about the technology it’s about what you’re showing.

Interviewer: Would you say that about all your work?

Darla: Yes.

Interviewer: Including Toby Walker’s films?

Darla: Absolutely. Those films most of all.

Interviewer: I would think you’d be ashamed of them.

Darla: What have I done that is shameful? I did nothing wrong, nothing inappropriate. I was fourteen. He was twenty nine, almost thirty.

Interviewer: Did you not pick up on anything at the time?

Darla: Not at first. He was my director and I was one of his actors. I did as he directed me, just like everyone else did.

Interviewer: So you did as you were told?

Darla: Yes. Look what has this got to do with anything?

Interviewer: You stated that you’re not ashamed of taking part in a convicted predator’s body of work. The bulk of your career is made up of his films. I just think it’s a bit hypocritical.

Darla: That was years ago. I was a child. I did nothing wrong and I didn’t take part in any of it! If anything, they should show his films more often. To get people uncomfortable.

Interviewer: You want to shock people?

Darla: No I want to get them to think. Maybe that’ll stop it from happening again. It could help children going through what I did.

Interviewer: (unidentifiable mumble)

Darla: All I know is, when he did that to me, I had no one to help. No one to talk to. Then I met someone who stayed by me and it made a world of difference!

(Crying)

Darla: We need to stop. Can we stop please? I feel like I’m going to be sick!

[Audio has ended]

Delete file?

File Kept

Audio ready

[Audio starting]

On behalf of the Little Patch Heaven Film and Broadcasting Society,

We thank you for your cooperation and development

Viewing of this tape is strictly forbidden

Place the wire back into its filed location

And follow the Underkey outside the building

This way, the mayor will have confirmation that you are an official task officer who has authorisation to view the tape

Once outside, wave at the sky

It may seem like a silly action

But

Someone is watching you

Then carry on your way and forget all you have learned

Give respect to our fathers

Our mothers

Our Sons

Our Daughters

Blink at the man in the moon

Tape #235 is property of the Little Patch Heaven police

Any distribution of this audio will lead to immediate incarceration

UNLESS authorised

[///Audio has ended///]

#a devil's palm story #worldbuilding #creative writing #rough draft #horror #fictional interview #part of a larger project #fantasy #parallel worlds #oddcore #weirdcore #cryptidcore #voidcore

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dr-gearloose · 4 years

Text

DuckTales Theory

So, I’m pretty sure you all know about the 1987 (Original) DuckTales, 1990 (Reboot) The Quack Pack and the 2017 (Reboot) DuckTales.

Well, I have a theory that connects all 3 together. Originally, this started with a theory about Gyro Gearloose, so here’s how all 3 connect.

ACT I: The Original

1987: Donald Duck joins the Navy thus leaving Huey, Dewey and Louie in the hands of Scrooge McDuck.

Scrooge decides to hire some people to... Help around the house (Mrs. Beakley) Be a pilot (Launchpad McQuack) Count money (Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera) and be the Bin’s Security Guard (Gizmo Duck)

(The reason why Gyro and Duckworth aren’t listed is because I’m pretty sure they were already hired. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled theory.)

Mrs. Beakley brought her granddaughter; Webbigail to the mansion. Webby always went unnoticed. She only made friends with animals because no one else pays attention.

ACT II: The Quack Pack!

1990: The boys were teenagers now, Donald left the Navy and Huey, Dewey, and Louie have moved in with their Uncle, who now has a girlfriend. Daisy Duck.

Instead of Gyro, they have Dr. Ludwig Von Strangeduck. (Episode 1) With his newest invention they could become ‘T-Squad’ (just realized how much that sounds like T-Series) Also, their voices were probably higher cause of puberty.

[There’s nothing else to really go off of in Huey, Dewey and Louie’s lives other than their outfits. (We’ll come back to this.)]

As for Webby, I’m going to assume that sometime around the first or second episode maybe? is when she started her spy training and Beakley was hired as an agent.

Gyro is currently on a well deserved vacation. Or did he just travel 26 years into the future? (We’ll come back to this.)

ACT III: The Reboot

2017: Now, there’s A LOT to go off of in the new series! So here we go.

Webby’s grown up. She’s now somewhere around 13, she’s basically a professional spy.

Huey, Dewey and Louie’s outfits have changed. I’m gonna say that Huey is 16, Dewey is 15 and Louie is 14, he’s still in that angsty teen era.

They’ve also forgotten about Scrooge because of all the adventures. Plus, teenagers wouldn’t really care about a rich uncle too much, would they? They just want a girlfriend...or three.

Duckworth is unfortunately dead, which is pretty clever. Donald and Daisy have unfortunately broken up and forgot about each other. Daisy was busy with her job and Donald is just living his best life. Or at least trying to... (We’ll get back to this.)

Scrooge has grown to like his nephews over time. --

[VILLAIN BREAK!] Ma Beagle: No longer wears her hair in a bun, wears makeup and changed her fashion up a bit.

The Beagle Boys: There’s more of them! [The Déjà Vu’s, The 5th Avenue Friendlies, The 5th Avenue Meanies, Black Arts Beagle, The Ugly Failures, etc.] Their home has downgraded to a Junkyard, they changed their shirts. Bouncer Beagle never skipped a day in the Beagle Gym. Burger Beagle has S T I C K S for limbs.

The Aliens: They like rockets.

Magica De Spell: She has a niece now! [VILLAIN BREAK: TO BE CONTINUED...]

ACT IV: Spies and Broken Hearts

Since Webby’s been in a mansion basically her whole life, she’s a sucker for adventures and magic! (We’ll get back to this.)

As for Della Duck - When she stole The Spear Of Selene in 1987, it was now her mission to get home. She made friends with an alien named Penumbra.

She finally got home, on Earth in maybe 2017 or 2018. Now we continue the love story of Donald and Daisy: In Season 3, Episode 5 - Louie’s Eleven, we see Daisy’s comeback. Donald doesn’t recognize her, Daisy doesn’t recognize him. (I still ship it tho)

Daisy was fired from her previous job - a news reporter - so now, who knows where she is in her life now.

ACT V: Project B.O.Y.D.

Gyro hasn’t traveled 26 years into the future, he’s been on a well deserved vacation, he came back and made a new robot. 2-BO, or B.O.Y.D. A definitely real boy. Akita, however, did not like the idea of 2-BO being a ‘real boy’ so he overrode his programming.

A few years later, Mark Beaks found ‘2-BO’ left in the trunk of Gyro’s car. While Gyro was in the store, looking for things to fix up B.O.Y.D, Beaks thought that he could take B.O.Y.D and pretend he had a child so he could go to Doofus Drake’s birthday party. While B.O.Y.D was living with Doofus, Gyro decided to get a makeover.

[VILLAIN BREAK! PART 2]

Magica De Spell: She dyed her feathers!

Mark Beaks: That one kid who’s WAY ahead of his time and confuses everyone.

Flintheart Glomgold: Still wants to be richer! But he’s chubbier.

Goldie O’Gilt (Technically): She doesn’t have gray hair!

(just realized i did magica twice. oops.) [VILLAIN BREAK: TO BE CONTINUED...]

New Glasses / His old glasses were broken by B.O.Y.D due to a malfunction in the programming. New Shirt / The previous shirt he owned was not only uncomfortable, but was torn while testing B.O.Y.D for the first time. There was a malfunction, causing B.O.Y.D to attack Gyro. New Hat / The straps were uncomfortable. New Haircut / There’s no real reason for this other than he just wanted to change his style a bit.

ACT VI: Gizmoduck Fenton had been working on Gizmoduck, improving the suit’s self defense system and stuff. Soon enough, Gizmoduck was everywhere! TV, the News, saving people!

Also, Fenton’s skin/feathers changed because he probably got a sun-tan.

[VILLAIN BREAK! PART 3]

Waddleduck (Technically): Gizmoduck but he’s Mark Beaks.

Negaduck: He’s back and also has a double personality!

Magica’s Shadow: ...gone?

Tulpas: THEY ENVY THE POPULARITY THAT THE OTHERS HA-

[VILLAIN BREAK: THE END]

ACT VII: Lena De Spell

Lena was created by Magica De Spell, you all know this. But how did she learn to do this? Well, in the 1987 series there was an episode in Season 1 named ‘Magica’s Shadow War’ it wasn’t a 2 part episode or anything special. But it was the first appearance the Magica’s ability to create shadows and make a shadow army.

With this new knowledge, she took it upon herself to first, improve her old outfit and get a more modern look. Less trickery and bribery. She was gonna get that dime...but she needed a puppet. She couldn’t do it herself.

Before she knew it, she was in Scrooge’s dime. The thing she wanted most, she was now shown on... But before this, she performed the same spell from all those years ago... And brought her shadow to life, she swore that if she found a puppet, that shadow would be connected to them for as long as she’s in that dime.

What if I told you... Lena’s not a shadow. She was bribed into being Magica’s puppet. Even though she said ‘No more trickery or bribery’ she had to so she could convince Lena to be her new puppet.

Whenever she wanted, she could come out and yell at Lena to get the dime so she’d be free.

When she finally had the dime, I bet you’re wondering how she could be banished to the SHADOW realm if Lena’s not a shadow. Well, that’s just it... She wasn’t in the shadow realm. She was in Limbo.

The realm between life and death.

Lena was able to help every so often... Thanks to Violet Sabrewing and Webby, she was freed.

ACT IX: The Quack Pack! (2017)

Season 3, Episode 2: The Quack Pack! This is a short one, but remember when I told you to remember their outfits from 1990?

No?

Good! ‘Cause I never did. :) I just said ‘...other than their outfits. (We’ll come back to this)’

So, the 1990s Quack Pack was slightly different. I mean the outfits. 1. Donald had a Hawaiian type shirt. 2. Louie’s shirt was different and had a hat. 3. Daisy existed.

But anyways, they brought the outfits back!

ACT X: The End.

TL;DR: ACT 1: Scrooge hires a bunch of people and only cares about money. ACT 2: The nephews and Donald forgot Scrooge and Donald is dating Daisy. ACT 3: Huey is 16, Dewey is 15, and Louie is 14. Duckworth died ACT 4: Webby loves magic and adventure now, Della was stuck on the moon for 20 decades, Donald and Daisy broke up, Daisy was fired from her old job. ACT 5: Gyro invented BOYD and then BOYD was stolen by Mark Beaks. Also, Gyro got a makeover. ACT 6: Fenton improved his Gizmoduck suit. ACT 7: Lena isn’t a shadow, Magica learned how to bring her shadow to life and cursed Lena until she got the dime and then Lena was stuck in Limbo for a while. ACT 8: The Quack Pack made a comeback in Season 3. ACT 9: You’re reading ACT 9, why did I add this one?

Everything here is a theory. Not facts. And I can’t believe this all started with a little theory about Gyro’s change of style!

Just gonna say this now: I totally ship Fenton x Gyro. Don’t @ me.

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