#we have more in common with the ant already.

[ms-scarletwings]

This Single Oversight Will Bring Irken-Kind to Its Knees

I have a little riddle for you.

What does an ant nest, a computer, and the ancient city of Troy have in common?

While you ponder the significance of this question and consider your answer, there’s a few things I want to analyze about the worldbuilding of Invader Zim.

We may have heard it said before, least I have (and agree), that the fate of the IZ universe appears to be a rather bleak picture.

Through our lens of focus, being upon Earth and an oh-so specific nutball waging his battle upon humanity, we often don’t do as much thinking about the larger cosmic war taking place meanwhile. Not between the Meekrob and Tenn, not between the Tallest and every dumb luck threat they are thrown against, but between the Irken Armada and all life in the entire universe, sentient or not.

Their intentions will not be made any more clear, between outright eradication or eventual enslavement of every lifeform they set their sights on. While they have alliances and neutral treaties, those agreements seem few and far between, as well as born from temporary conveniences. The cards have already been dealt, and all available evidence has indicated that every planet they are aware of is doomed from the moment The Massive was operational.

Though littered with inefficiencies and incompetency that could suggest an empire in internal decline, the development of the control brains and other centralized command crutches of the species suggests the Irkens can still keep a well oiled machine running, no matter how many mishaps happen along the way. At least, that machine and their plundered resources will definitely outlast the survival of their enemies, for sure.

To speak of their enemies, there has not been a single competitive race within the show that demonstrates any credible threat to Operation Impending Doom II- only those that can resist the conquest a little bit longer than others, or those who survive by appeasing Irk (or evading its detection). The fall of Vort, which stood as the homeworld of the only aliens with the technological ability to match the armada’s firepower is…. Really bad news. That’s to say the least of comparatively primitive, TINY planets like Earth or Blorch, standing zero chance in the way of what’s eventually coming. This is a war that has continued despite the death of two.. FOUR Almighty Tallests if you follow the movie’s events… and Irkens wholly are still thriving for it across the Galaxy.

So, given all of these facts, and the perception that the Irkens (like any invasive species or colonial force) don’t seem to be a society that will make responsible and/or sustainable use of their ill-gotten territory… it seems like this is how life across the universe ends in Invader Zim one day: Not with a bang, not with the whimper of heat death, but through screams muffled under the bloody boots of a dominant predator- a predator that is, itself, doomed to cannibalize its own once it hits the carrying capacity of all existence.

Bleak, concrete, and horrific as that may sound, there’s still a “however” here to consider!

Yep, that’s me about to point one of my big fat fingers to the sky and protest- Irk just might be,

Not so Undefeatable, after all!

And not only have I figured out exactly what sort of countermeasure you need to destroy these invaders, I have reason to suspect it’s a plan already long ago set into motion.

Let’s break it down,

An Irksome Achilles’ Heel

True, individually, the bug bastards are irritatingly tough to kill through conventional means. True, collectively, they are nigh impossible to outmatch. And more than most anything else, they owe this tenacity to two things: numbers, and R&D. Possessing some of most state of the art pinnacles in transportation, communications, and military equipment, the Armada found a knack for being able to steamroll most lesser planets before it.

The genius of the individual PAK unit grants each and any one Irken a theoretical path to partial immortality itself, by route of consciousness archiving. I strongly believe that kind of cybernetic progress was also one of the stepping stones that led to the creation of the Control Brains. Nonetheless, this very same strength of the Irkens’ has also proven to be the source of their greatest vulnerability.

Paks, Paks… Oh Paks. The entire race’s civilization revolves around such technology the way we do around our own brains, our own hearts, and our communicative network. For all intents and purposes, and as I’ve gone on about ad nauseum in my other spills about the show, a PAK is all and at once

• Synonymous with the holder of their soul, consciousness, being, whatever you want to call their personhood.

• Able to have their data repurposed by future generations, in the result of an Irken’s permanent death.

• A universal necessity shared by the entire population.

• Susceptible to alterations, sometimes by intelligent enough individuals (as demonstrated by the Zimvoid comic arc), but usually by a Control Brain, directly.

In addition to that last quality, there’s another way the code in a PAK can be changed, for better or worse- Via evolution. Though I am talking about digitized neurology, the actual data in a PAK is a lot more comparable to biological DNA or a “self-learning” AI than it is a rigid computer program. By this, I mean that its code is subject to certain changes over time, perhaps both directed and completely random, particularly during the recycling of its information back into the Smeeteries.

And this is actually good design on the control brains’ part, the same way not reproducing Irkens as genetically identical clones was. Genetic and digital diversity are desirable goals to keep in mind if you want a healthy and versatile stock of workers, engineers, soldiers, and everything in between. We’re talking about highly sentient, highly intelligent, and emotional organisms here. A static drone mindset is going to offer them inadequate ability to adapt to their lengthy life experiences or be unique persons. How else would social mobility have purpose in their world? How else could the cream of the crop rise so far above their peers? That positive was deemed worthy of an obvious risk, however: computational errors.

When the Bugs Get Bugs

 IZ does not clearly lay out what it means for an Irken to be defective, but it gives us a general idea. Defectiveness is not something diagnosed from a code scan for this missing value or that incorrect variable. It’s not judged by one specific character trait or quality that’s abnormal for an Irken to display. “Defective” is a judgement stamp, wielded by the Control Brains when they gauge the total sum value of a life’s contribution to the species. And it’s not one given to Irkens which are merely incompetent, no. Anyone proven to be unfit for their standing is given generous opportunity for redemption or simply reassigned a more suitable occupation. If it were based on likability, we’d have seen Skoodge sent to Judgementia years ago.

Rather, it’s given to those who are viewed as so twisted that they are proven to be an existential danger to their brethren. Irkens that are so destructive to the essence of the collective that their memory must be purged from the record and their identity erased.

I adore the enthusiasm behind fans who want to view this as an analogy for disability or neurodivergence against a conformist society, but the metaphor I’m seeing is one of extreme antisocial behavior. A defective Irken screams less “adhd/autism” to me than they do serial murderers (of their own) or outright traitors. Pardon the use of a gross phrase, but it’d seem we were talking about an Irken equivalent of what the outdated gens would have dubbed the “criminally insane”. No one on screen has ever shown Skoodge or Tak the sort of concern that would get them sent to the Spike of Judgement, but when Zim was in that hot seat? NO one was doubting what his verdict would be.

^ courtesy of “The Trial’s” transcript

I think about the 40 shmillion mistakes a lot.

It’s such a vague quantity. But it sure sounds like a hell of a big one. And what mistakes… what did the lil squirt even have to compare them to? There’s no standard one person an Irken can be. Every presentation of the flaws in that code to the control brains hasn’t ended up a flaw to him.

I only started writing this because I really couldn’t stop thinking about the 40 shmillion. There’s no chronological room for bad self-modding to add up to that so quickly.  DNA replication, nature’s own sloppy and random process of creating new life, can be excused around 120,000 hiccups when duplicating with a 6 billion pair-long protein. But this kind of shuffling is under a futuristic AI’s precise eye. Yes, defects happen, but as bad as him? From birth??? How could you possibly get that many detrimental deviations from the mechanical fucking god-queen(s) of their entire homeworld?

And then it hit me.

You don’t. Not from Irk.

The hot take I’ve been charging for this entire time is thus.

Zim is not defective by any random accident. In fact, I smell the tampering of foreign sabotage.

Not only is this guy the thing his kind fears more than any else, they have every right to be shaking in their stance.

That puzzle i posed at the beginning of this journey, have you seen what I’ve seen yet?

Because the answer I was looking for as to what similarity connects an anthill, a PC, and a city from Greek legend was a most effective tactic for taking them down.

Do you know the best way to deal with a bad ant infestation? Cuz you can lay down all the raid and crushing action you want, but you won’t really be getting anywhere unless you target the pests directly at their queen. To that end, liquid ant baits are marvelous inventions- a sweet substance hiding a small amount of slow acting poison. Poison to be peacefully delivered by the stomach of an ant to the rest of her colony, poisoning her kin, who sicken more members, on and on until the queen is destroyed and the entire nest perishes. An insidious toxin to do all the work while its user never lifts a finger, pretty ingenious.

And when it comes to computers, we also have ways to attack entire networks at source, from quietly and far away. “Trojan” was a category of malware responsible for 64.31% of all cyber attacks on Windows systems in 2022, and they still make up a majority of active malware hits today. The concept is deviously simple. The malicious code is hidden within an innocent looking program, maybe even within a legitimate software that does what it’s supposed to. Once the stowaway is invited into the system, it can get down to it some sneaky, nasty, destructive work on your device. As for what those acts could look like, well, malware exists to do all kinds of things. Mostly something involving trying to get money/information from you or hijacking your computer for whatever its creator wants to use it for. And some of them will just up and wreck your shit, disable your antivirus software to open you up to more infections, disable important operations, wipe your data. Use your imagination.

And as for Troy.. well, where do you think Trojan programs got their name? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So, Irkens have their Armada, bionic drones, and homeworld- in other words, the thriving swarm of army ants, the billions to trillions of computers they so rely on, and their nigh untouchable fortress, always at war.

And some damn crafty bastard(s) in the stars said

“Here is their sugar-bait,”

“Here is their cyber attack,”

“Here is their wooden horse.”

And one particular race is going to be getting the last laugh before long.

Nerds That Are GOATed With the Sauce

That’s right, I thought about this all the way through to finding our prime suspect. And let me tell you, NO ONE in the Galaxy reeked of fish like the Vortians did. Get over here and lemme show you my whiteboard with all the red circles and polaroids on it.

- The Means

In a way of tragic irony, Vort has contributed more than any else to the same Irken conquest that turned on them in the end. A natural talent for cutting edge engineering and technical development actually does not seem to be what Irk already came into the ring with. For how mighty and superior they view themselves, the greatest achievements of their military can actually be owed to Vortian outsourcing. When we would have gotten a look at Tallest Miyuki’s very own “finest minds” during her reign, notice something interesting about these guys below,

Zim there is the ONLY Irken to be found! Yes, transferred there because of the punchline explanation of ‘he breaks everything he touches so maybe he’ll have an affinity for weapons research’ but damn right he actually did! And still does; I don’t want it to go unsaid that Zim has shown MUCH more technological skill and innovation than near any other Irken we’ve seen.

Another fun thing to note about this is that Lard Nar was also part of this lineup, and in the transcript he was in the process of working on the blueprints for The Massive. (which leaves you with the cursed knowledge that Zim, Prisoner 777, and Lard were all familiar coworkers long before the events of the show) And that brings me back to what I’m saying about the real reason the Vort natives were enslaved and imprisoned instead of outright sweeped after conquering. The Armada needs their skills, because Vortian advancement is something their own scientists couldn’t come close to. Left to their own devices, Vort could have easily outmatched them at an earlier point in history. It’s a people that figured out infinite power sources and potentially wormhole technology, while PAKs were something a disfigured human tween with a lot of time on his hands was able to crack. If anyone could outpace and outsmart the defensive measures of the Control Brains, it’s going to be them. And what better, cleaner way to sabotage the enemy than from within. 

The very same strings of inserted code that cursed Zim with his delusions, paranoia, lust for destruction, and horrible tactics may also have blessed him with a determination and intellect higher than almost any creature alive. The saboteur gave Irk the most powerful racecar in history, and then fitted it with bicycle brakes. No matter how hard Zim tries to conform to what will give him admiration, no matter how competent he is at keeping himself alive, it’s as if he is instinctually compelled toward whatever actions will cause the MOST damage to his allies in the process. Dib may think he’s the bulwark against the invasion when, ironically, he’s fighting against the one being that’s predetermined to be the arrow that strikes Irken leadership right in their dumb, green heels. (There is also an instance in the comics where Dib figures out that Zim is the ace in the hole for total Irken eradication but that’s another fun story.)

Oh, oh HO HO, and that’s only what he’s capable of doing before the empire’s actual immune system against defects like him wakes up and notices!

Three planetary blackouts, two dead generals, and a whole swath of dead invaders was just the fucking warm up, babey! All that is merely the kind of loud disruption that you need in order to fulfil the real thing this Trojan horse exists for in the first place.

What a celebration of hubris the Spike of Judgement was. Yeah, let’s take our method of filtering the corrupted data from the hive mind, and completely centralize it on a single planet! As well, let’s have the very purging agents also be the same ones to perform the evaluations themselves, I’m sure that it would be unthinkable for any outsider to design a worm that could make it through the brains’ firewalls. Goddamn spectacular. Like inserting an infected USB into your laptop, the Tallest never realized what kind of beast they woke up by plugging that PAK into the Spike’s mainframes. Those brains were meant to handle an expected spectrum of deviation when it came to defective Irkens, never a sleeper virus of this complexity.

From here it probably won’t even matter if Zim survives much longer on Earth, his virus has already spread to the very thing relied upon to keep things like him out of the data pool in the first place. With the Judgementia brains corrupted and no higher authority to overrule them, the firewall is effectively broken, and you know what that means? Bigger cracks for future defectives to start trickling through, both spontaneous and artificial. The ideal scenario is one where a degenerating and glitched population accelerates the incompetency of the empire to the point where it just implodes on itself; nevertheless, even a disease that only slows down Operation Doom could be a game changer, by giving the rest of the little guys more time to band together a coalition strong enough to strike back when the time is right.

- The Motive

The history of these two races’ alliance is something I lament us not having more lore to pull from- how far back it goes, what the character of the Vort was like during that time, what the Irkens had offered in return- a few among dozens of questions it rears.  The implication behind how it ended lies in Zim’s creation that slayed Tallest Miyuki. Interestingly, the Empire never received the memo of what exactly went down, or, perhaps, stubbornly denied the account of the other scientists who were there that day. Neither Red/Purple nor the Judgmentia Brains had any idea that Zim’s actions led to the death of a Tallest. So, makes sense that the Vortians became the unintentional scapegoat (no pun intended) for the incident, and the rest is history.

Note: It’s also in the realm of possibility that Vort was actually the one to withdraw from the alliance instead, given that the same blob that devoured Miyuki (purely the fault of their Irken transfer) also went on to cause untold amounts of devastation. Red’s reaction to the real story stuck out to me as more telling, although.

But why am I even talking about this? Zim was decades old before war was declared on them, and either people’s regard to each other seemed strangely… respectful, if anything.

But, was Vort really a monolithic bunch? Irk was already an empire by this point, and diplomacy with those they needed something from did not mean they weren’t otherwise an aggressive force in the universe. For all we know, the alliance itself might have been coerced, or result of depraved leadership among the Vortians.  Any citizen with a conscience who could see the writing on the walls would be disgusted by giving so much aid and brown nosing to such a menace, no? I know who would have seen that writing before anyone else. Brainiacs who are smart enough to build something like The Massive and all its bells and whistles would know better than anyone just what it was all capable of in the wrong hands. The collateral damage against your own people might be a sacrifice worth making in the face of the alternative.

- The Oppurtunity

So.. that’s all well and good, yeah? A why, and a what, yet this is actually the tricky part of saving the galaxy,

Sneaking your StupidifyIrk.exe file onto the assholes’ homeworld without alerting either them or your own treacherous, weak, collaborator superiors to your actions. Infecting and releasing a random Irken alive would be far too dangerous, far too noticeable to the point where they could just be destroyed outright before given a chance to wreak real havoc.

But what about releasing a dead Irken? 🤔

PAKs are only screened for criminal flaws when errors begin to affect their body’s behaviors in destructive ways. A fully competent scientist, or soldier, or navigator performing a lifetime of loyal service to the empire and then meeting an unfortunate end? Their minds’ shadows can be accepted back into the data pool no questions asked. That’s only business as usual.

That almost makes new smeets something of a reincarnation of their ancestors. Personally, I see it kind of like replaying a video game and re-rolling your stats, even if you’re reusing your character’s name and general play style.

Either way, we come full circle to my theory about Zim’s actual origin. Maybe not “our” Zim, but the previous iteration of data that was shuffled to create his person. Whoever they were, I’m convinced that they were also an exceptional individual. They were probably pretty arrogant, but it was a more earned confidence, and they were a prodigy genius, the likes of which that was drawn to work alongside Vortian allies, as another researcher. Then, an untimely demise befell them. I couldn’t say they fell victim to some unfortunate accident, considering the cockroach durability of their body. No, I find it a lot easier to imagine they met their end in one of the more embarrassing ways for an Irken to die- A PAK stolen, disabled or forcefully detached by an assailant they might have allowed a little closer than they should have. To the homeworld, it’s a small matter. One more PAK recovered by the natives of the friendly planet, brought back home to be repurposed by the smeeteries, right?

Well, that’s what one smartass might have been hoping for.

And they really were a clever cookie, because that scheming seed is fruiting beautifully.

#invader zim #iz #vortian #irkens #invader zim headcanon #iz headcanons #planet Vort #scarlet talks about things #sci fi #long post #absolute ramblings i mean holy crap #longass post

[tparker48]

Lionfield looked through shorts on the media as their fans sent them videos of people eating food, known for their reactions as they both stared at the screen. The heinous were instantaneous, videos of italian cuisine succumbed to the carelessness of commoners. Have they no shame for showing their traditional dishes in such a way. It wouldn’t stand. The two fumed at the videos as their inbox continued to flow, folders leading to pizzas as others led to spaghetti. But an idea popped into their heads: if they want to besmirch italian foods with such humiliation, then why shouldn’t they do the same?

That following weekend, invitation were mailed out to all of people in the videos. The size wasn’t as much as the thousands of submissions, but they believed it was enough to get the point across. Picking them up from the airport, their escorts.brought their hometown to a house just a few blocks away from the city, the two waiting for them at the door with big smiles upon their faces. They guided them through the hallways, bringing them to the yoga room where they told them to wait.

"We'll fetch ya in a few, we just gotta get things ready" Matteo said, him and Emiliano entering another set of doors while the rest of their guests waited in the room.

They made their way through the corridors, entering a room where a screen window lead to the yoga room. Looks like they got quite the size for their game, they thought to themselves, Matteo flicking at a monitor as they pressed a button. The light in the yoga room flickered, confusion building among the crowd as they raced to the doors. The floor began to glow, illuminating the dark space before members began to vanish, turning into small dots along the yoga mats. When the glow vanished, the two entered back into the room and gazed at the floor. The people were now the size of a thumbtack, no more bigger than their toes as the two smirked at each other. Scooping them into sacks, the two carried them into a controlled vent along the wall, dumping them inside as they all fell into the basement.

**********************************************

The day was spent filling in the participants, sending them to their designated spots in the basement where cameras watched over them. They were to act like they were having normal lives, if they passed the weekend, they were allowed to return to civilization with their sizes intact. They were nothing if not fair for shrinking, it allowed them more time to enjoy the fun while the little guests scurried through the structures like ants. Italian food was the start of the issue, so not make things more tempting than for them to dine on it. Chef rush was already in town, he would be the perfect cook to set them astray.

And a valiant obstacle he was. By Saturday afternoon, several tinies failed the game, extracted from the basement and into their palms. They weren’t getting their sizes back, but there was something else they would receive, a good weekend trip to the very meatballs that swung between their legs, added with a dab of secret sauce for pleasure. They jammed them into their cocks, huffing as lumps slid through their organs to their low hangers below. To think shoving them inside would turn out to be so thrilling, their scrotums hopping around like jumping beans as they laughed and ate at their dismay. It was a blissful feeling, but it unfortunately fell limp as the tinies inside grew tired. Within those hours, their eyes glued to the screen, scanning for anymore that would crack.

"How many do we have now?" Matteo asked, flicking at the cameras to check in on them.

Emiliano sat along the sofa, his shaft in hand as he stroked against the girth of his flesh. He pinched at the piss slit, bringing a tiny action to the center as his head clamped over it. "About twenty last I checked."

"Nah, you would think they'd be panicking by now, but not a single one has broken the Italian code since this morning."

Emiliano stalked the stiff legs like a shark in water, stomping onto their behind with a flick of his tip as it bobbed inside. He fondled his balls, his testicles plonking over one another as muffled yells came from them. He sighed lightly, flexing as seed coated the action figure.

They pouted, glaring at his own sack that laid still. “Come on you bunch��a peas, wiggle for papa Matteo."

"It's not their fault you tired them out. Shaking your balls like a bag of fish.." Emiliano said, swirling his swollen testicle.. "You should’ve taken it nice and slow. Like fresh pasta."

"Don't remind me, I swear if I see another grape pasta i'm gonna..oop,"

He zoomed into the camera in section one of the basement, a dining room table set just along the miniature boxes where tinies scattered around the tables. Amongst the line, A female caught his eye, standing near the pastas as she scooped the noodles onto her plate, but didn't put any sauce as she returned to her table. Matteo's finger fiddled at the handle on the monitor, a tube floating over the tiny household like a saucer as it floated toward the tiny. The small female was yanked from the group, pulled through the gray funnel before landing in his waiting palm.

"Pasta without sauce, what are ya basic?" He said. The tiny pounded at his fist, prying at his thumb that pinned her down. He placed a palm at their cheek, listening to their wails. "What a horrible way to use that siren voice of yours."

He flipped them to the bottom of his palm, jamming them into his urethra with a sickening squelch. Muffles vibrated hid cockhead, gumming its way to her shoulders as they slipped to her elbow. He flexed the slit around her ankles, leaving nothing behind while a bulge formed beneath its underbelly. Swallowing its meal, the orifice sucked air to aid in their prey's descent, his left nut swelling in his pants to accomodate for the added load.

"That's what I'm talking about." Matteo said, rubbing along his skinny jeans. Watery screams reached his ears, startling for a moment before he scooped them into his crotch. It didn't last long, before a flex hushed them, their prison tossed around while he spun against their chair.

"Glad to see your having fun now." Emiliano said.

"Oh I'm just getting started, let's see if we can catch some more."

The two of them scrolled through the cameras to the cardboard houses below, the digital feedback flashing with each click as they surveyed the room. They caught 10 in those splitting moments, insulting an Italian styled pizza with pineapples on top. They couldn't stomach such a sully of tradition, slamming upon the button as the tubes scooped every one of them. But they supposed they should thank them for their misdeeds, they were going to make their balls juicy and fat. By the evening, they both had a hefty catch. Emiliano resting along the sofa, a leg over the edge to let their balls sag into the gaps of the couch. Matteo sat along the computer chair, their skinny jeans stripped to spread their own legs, their balls sagging over the edge like a pendulum.

"And that's 18, 18 I've stashed in there.." Matteo said. He fondled at the swollen nuts between his legs, hand and footprints bulging beneath the soft skin for freedom. "How many do we got in there now."

"5, they're all huddling together inside a box." Emiliano said. "Should we move them?"

"Nah, let them be for now, my nuts are as full as it is. Mmm, all their squirmers are getting me riled up." He messaged at his balls like a sponge full of water, squishing against the tender testicles to tease the unfortunate tinies inside. Their faint screams were decent, but dull as they absorbed into his clammed skin. Though he supposed it was for the best.

He grabbed a tube from the corner table, shoving his cock inside while he turned it on. Wet suctions filled the corner of the room, the tube milking his cock as if it were an utter to retrieve the seed inside. His balls lifted towards his crotch, lumps traveling up the lengths of his scrotum before they dragged through his thin shaft. Extracted, seed spilled into a plastic bag along a crease in a wall, tinies squeezing milky pools inside before a zip tie sealed it. Matteo Smiled,holding one of the bags in his palm.

"Pfft, it's like holding a goldfish" He said, see-sawing the bag with his wrist as tides dragged the unfortunate littles around the plastic space. It was a sight to behold as they spun around the bag. He'd fill it with more just to entertain himself, but he didn't want to risk their return home to come with lawsuits. At least not from the country of course.

More tinies filled the bags, deposited into a tray that stacked them on top of each other. Looking at the one in hand, Matteo winked before tossing them into the pile, a trolly pulling from the wall as the tinies disappeared behind it. He slumped into his chair moaning as the tube around him plucked more from his balls.

"Why do they always feel so.good when I send them inside, but sour when I have to let them out?" He said.

"Sounds like you're getting attached to the tinies."

"Them? Nahh, I'd say it's the concept that really gets me going, like a good egg "

Emiliano snorted, "You mean meatballs."

"Not just any meatballs, spicy hot meatballs." He Cupped his balls in one hand.

The last of the tinies were extracted, pulled to the final bag as it wrapped its lining along it. They pulled the dripping tube off their shafts, tossing it to the floor before they stood to the window. "On one thing, I sympathize with what you're saying, it does feel hard when it comes to letting them go. Like a part of yourself leaving.

"True, though I suppose it has its merits, makes for a good jerk off session."

A bell rung from the alarm in the room, the two looking to the cameras where activity began to rise. The cardboard boxes lifted from along the walls, revealing the remaining tinies that huddled together. Amongst their confusing stares, the floor began to glow, filling the room as a pulse ran through the lining of the mats. With each beat, an inch of their size was returned, restoring them to their full height as they stood bare. They began to cheer, Matteo and Emiliano looking into the window as the participants celebrated.

"Huh, they survived the weekend." Matteo said.

"Bummer, I was looking forward to more. I suppose we should reward them for enduring." Emiliano hit a button along the door, a a padded lock opening as it presented to the people in the room. They grabbed their clothes, scampering out the door where a Microphone hovered in the next room.

"Congratulations you lucky few that survived, you get your size back and a VIP ride home back to your countries."

The participants looked at each other, grabbing brochures as they scurried to the vans awaiting for them.

"Say, now that I think about it, shouldn't we get the shrunkees a prize too? Like a loser's compensation?"

"You got a point there. Hmm, give them a cook book, perhaps then they'll learn to appreciate the cuisine of italian food."

#cock vore #shrink

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Multiple Choice - a Callum and Aaravos theory

Not to be all Han Solo or anything, but when it comes to Aaravos and magic in Xadia, I Have A Bad Feeling About This.

If there's one thing I love more than corrupt systems, it's breaking them, so let's get to it: please enjoy yet another way that Callum's pursuit of magic could potentially go very wrong for him - and how he can still fix it.

The system, in this case, isn't a monarchy (on either side of the border), wartime tensions reaching forward from the cycle, or a Xadia-wide racial hierarchy.

It's magic itself.

We don't know where it came from, magic. Was deep magic always here? Did one of the Star Touch elves create it, or perhaps choose to make it his bailiwick while others chose things like Justice and Mercy?

Aaravos, I mean Aaravos. If he's basically the god of magic (feel free to view him through a Loki-esque lens here, I am), then of course he's an archmage, and of course he's the only one among the Star Touch elves. Magic is His Thing.

And according to Zubeia, the Dragon Queen, its mages are his prey. We don't know yet what his full intent has been. We only have her millennia-long view from the surface of the planet. There's definitely more to the story, but which direction that story takes us is anyone's guess at this point. However, it seems clear that Aaravos's history during his time in Xadia does show a pattern of him targeting and influencing mages. He certainly has been during the years the show has covered.

What all he did with these mages, besides the manipulation, is also still unknown. But even if all he ever did was pull their strings, he's still choosing magic-imbued beings as his favorite puppets. The most likely explanation for this is that mages and Aaravos have something in common, making them easier for him to work with. Is it just magic? Does their ambition count too? Is there more to it?

I think there's more. I feel there is some deep dangerous secret Aaravos has managed to hide from everyone so far - including us. But just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it's evil, or even ill-intentioned. Do we consider the threat to anthills when we begin construction on a new apartment complex? Usually no. We're busy doing human-level tasks. The ants' welfare is truly not our concern. And most of them will probably be fine... right?

So. What's Aaravos really up to, and what does it have to do with Callum?

Something Rayla believes about Callum made me wonder: in the short story Chasing Shadows, she believes that he, and all humans, can change their destiny (and it's super annoying!). Why is that a human thing only, though?

Arcanums, perhaps. We've all seen the elven peoples get uptight about their own rules and the options they can choose for themselves. It's not just the Moonshadows. Sunfire elves can absolutely be sticklers for tradition - look at my disaster boy Karim over here, willing to go to war against his own people because his sister wants to marry a human.

Bruh.

So here's part one of the theory:

Having an arcanum in you forces your destiny into a certain path.

If you're born with it, you know the path of your whole life - and I don't just mean "serve your people" or "be a warrior" or "be one with nature." There is a very dark side to being locked into your destiny. It means you cannot escape it even if you desperately want to.

*wordlessly points to Runaan and his overly honorbound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Rayla and her overly sacrificial decisions*

*wordlessly points to Finnegrin and his overly fear-driven decisions*

*wordlessly points to Janai and her overly dutybound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Karim and his overly traditional decisions*

I don't need to say anything here, do I? Thought not.

But it's one thing to be born with an arcanum - maybe they know and accept this part of their destiny already. Maybe it's just a subconscious thing they... know.

It's another thing entirely to opt into an arcanum as a free choice. And here's where we get to part two:

Callum thinks he chose his destiny. He doesn't know he just gave it away.

If he just handed his fate to Aaravos by embracing an arcanum (and then one more), his destiny isn't currently in his hands at all. It's in Aaravos's. And the archmage has proven that he, at least, knows that, since he's been pulling at Callum's strings and toying with him for a while now. He wouldn't flex like that unless he was supremely confident - which he is, he always is - he wouldn't show that hand early on like this unless he knew Callum didn't understand what he'd done or how to reverse it.

This theory is about more than dark magic. It's about all magic. Even if Callum could cleanse himself from dark magic and never let Aaravos puppet him again, is he really free? He still has an arcanum. Where did that come from? He's walking around with a couple of magical bona fides stamped on his brain, and I just want to know...

Who crafted the stamps?

If all Xadian magic is some kind of... creation, or spill, or experiment... and Aaravos needs that power back for himself in order to be who he used to be and/or re-ascend to the stars, he's got more than one way to harness it again:

dark magic consumes primal magic - but matter and energy are never destroyed, so... where does that power go? Aaravos has a very convenient black hole symbol right on his chest. Maybe every spell dark mages have ever cast sends him some of his precious primal magic again. It would be a very convenient way of getting desperate humans to do his cleanup for him. And he has all the time in the world.

primal magic won't save anyone from his will - it just harnesses the elves to Aaravos's magic rules and binds their destiny to a predetermined outcome. They've become, in a word... predictable.

There's no way to beat a Star Touch Archmage at his own game. He literally wrote its rules. So what's a bright young kid like Callum to do?

To quote War Games, "the only way to win is not to play."

Callum's in a unique position, in that he knows who he was before he had an arcanum. Back when he could choose his destiny every day, without binding him to some powerful force he doesn't fully understand yet. This might lead him to a very difficult and dangerous choice, and it could break the game, and the world, wide open.

If Callum can choose to learn an arcanum, maybe he can choose to forget one.

If he can un-know the things that bound him to that magic destiny, he'd be free again, of Aaravos's reach and of his influence.

And that's just for him, but if everyone else is trapped too, how can he help them and hurt Aaravos's power grab at the same time? No idea, beyond "someone hand him a powerful magical artifact and wait," at this point, but I'm sure he'll find a way to break something important eventually! Something vital to the structure and distribution of magic itself, preferably.

If he manages to find a way to destroy magic itself, then everyone would be free. There would be no rules binding anyone to Aaravos. There would be no dark magic feeding off its fumes, either. It's theoretically possible that destroying primal magic would undo the taint of dark magic, all in one go.

And we all know how Callum loves to go around ruining ancient and powerful magical objects. Kid's got quite a track record by now!

Maybe he's not done yet. Maybe Callum's true destiny will be both Savior and Destroyer. But he'll have to play his own game to do it - he can't play Aaravos's game and win. He'll have to fight outside of magic itself. And if he's going to put down his most powerful weapon, forged by someone else - by the mastermind himself - and try without it, then he'll need help, just like always.

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #callum #aaravos #primal magic #dark magic

[lost-spoons]

I have a question for others who also have POTS and EDS. Is it common to get long lasting migraines? Cause I've gad the same one going kn 3 weeks. This is a verg neq symptom/medical condition for me. The worst part if it js the light sensitivity. Lights caue my brain to be stabbed very sharply in the front kf my head. It's horrible and has made jt so I ant actually look at any electronics for more then a quick glance on the dimmest setting. I've never been do happy to have the keyboard memorized. It means i cab write stuff like this with my eyes clsoe after I get to the webpage I need to be kn.

Is there anything to get rid of the migraine? Or at the very least to get rid if the sensitivity issue, cause I already have enough issues with my vision, and the additional one is make me unable to do anything not ro mention that it's making my brain not functioning properly. I do sudoku to hell my brain stay focus and cause it's fun, j like minding the patterns, but since week 2 started of the migraine. I can't thing enough to do any of the puzzles.

Thatvs not even mentioning the other new medical thing that I've been trying to ignore. A lot of the shadows in the conor kf my eye or in the black spots that invalid my vison, have been Turing into monsters. It's like I'm hallucinating or gone insane but thats not right. It doesn't line up for the family history. There not much else to aff update wise as my appointment with my neurological specialist isn't until April so we shall see how this goesa

#chronic illness #postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome #disabled #ehlers danlos syndrome #chronic pain #hypermobile ehlers danlos #pots syndrome #chronically ill #disability #spoonie #migraine #light sensitivity #headache #chronic headaches

[clumsyexpression]

One Piece Men needing a Blue Sky Holiday

Here's some One Piece guys having a bad day and here's how you ruined it (͡• ͜໒ ͡• )

Ace:

You just wanted a cool drink from the gas station but the door read ‘No shirt, no service’ and you had a lengthy discussion on what  classified as a shirt and him covering his nipples with his hands upon entry wouldn’t cut it

Aokiji:

After explaining how he had such a long day of reluctantly doing paperwork and what not, he also  had to explain how he ate the Chilly-Chilly Fruit and not the Chili-Chili Fruit and you two had a very lengthy talk about his devil fruit being somewhat of a misnomer since he couldn’t spontaneously generate bowls of chili, and when he disagreed with you, you decided to file a complaint to Fleet Admiral Sengoku and now he has to read it over the next day he goes in to work and sign all 73 pages that outline your argument

Crocodile:

You reasoned that if he ate the kinetic version of the Sand-Sand fruit, his powers would be a lot more cooler since sandcastles would be easier to build and he would be a lot more ASMR friendlier, which might help with his attitude problems

Franky:

Waitress: “Hmm, Coke, no, but we do have Pepsi – is that okay?” Franky: "No-" You: "Yeah, that will be fine – pretty much the same thing, right?”

Katakuri:

He saw you coming with your bullshit but wasn’t rude enough to turn you away. He is now forcing himself to consume end-of-the-shift Dunkin donuts and watered down Dunkin Refreshers that had its ice melt more than 45 minutes ago but at least your company makes up for it but you were still on that bullshit to get him old Dunkins lmao

Kid:

You were goading him into thinking he couldn’t do this cool trick you discovered and while he was clouded over in anger and being super competitive, you managed to trick him into ‘drawing’ a dick on your new widescreen tablet with his magnetic devil fruit powers - which was actually the the 65” TV that belonged in the common area and now everyone is mad at the both of you

Law:

You discovered his Squishmallow collection that he swore up and down was Bepo’s until you threatened to punch them all. Bepo still cried that you would even think to do that, you monster

Lucci:

You asked him to smell this really cool but very dubious plant that was on clearance at Lowe’s that had no label besides a barely legible cat silhouette on it. Now he’s been rolling around all over the floor while making really weird screeching sounds and  clawing the shit out of anything to that dares to move for the past 3 hours.

Luffy:

You set up a bunch of those faux food soaps with the hopes that he would use it to bathe, but instead he proceeded to break into your edible looking wax melts that smelled deliciously like food since you kept them in close proximity in the bathroom and now he has  a very bad tummy ache

Mihawk:

You accidentally broke the bottle of wine he intended to share with you in 5 minutes – not having enough time to look through his extensive wine cellar, you knew exactly where his red wine vinegar was and poured him a glass. He then started to choke exactly like this.

Rosinante:

You warned him that the food was a little spicy as a joke and he still caught on fire

Sanji:

You told him that you knew a great bar to unwind at with plenty of exotic dancers that are topless the whole time but was not at all entertained when the Chippendales was on stage the entire night

Smoker:

You gifted him some really nice cigars while yall were at a party but he got really buzzed and he thought he was eating some ants on a log but didn’t realize that he was actually eating his cigars until he was already 4 sticks in

X Drake:

You keep preparing to tell him about the details of this really cool, super top secret mission that nobody can know about except him and if you so much get a whiff of him thinking about snitching you out, you will open the door and get on the floor so everybody walk the dinosaur. You never explain the details btw

Zoro:

You two were in the middle of arguing and he says something that really rubs you the wrong way; you turn to look behind you to see who the fuck he’s talking to and when you turn back to face him, he’s gone. Now he’s big mad since you put him on search to find who he was talking to and he can’t find his way back to you to give a proper answer

#one piece #one piece x reader #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #vinsmoke sanji #eustass kid #trafalgar law #charlotte katakuri #cyborg franky #x drake #white chase smoker #kuzan #aokiji #donquixote rosinante #dracule mihawk #rob lucci #portgas d ace #sir crocodile #pink thread of fate

[cordycepsbian]

a bunch of mostly unrelated bug fables headcanons

becaudse we keep Thinking while trying to sleep

the ancient crown does not have inherent mind controlling abilities, all it does is amplify the abilities that its wearer already has. in hoaxe's case, along with his fire magic, it boosted his species' mimicry from "make everyone think you're a wasp" to "make everyone think you're the king of the wasps"

zasp comes from a mixed hive of different paper wasp species in the attic/rafters of the giant's lair, which had access to a lot of giant devices that required electricity. his old job in his hive was using his electric magic to power these devices and he left both because of the danger and he was tired of being a battery

vi thinks of "violet" as a sort of Special Sister Name that only jaune is allowed to call her, hence why jaune is the only bug to ever mention it. if anyone else called vi that she would either not respond or try to fight them, or both

ants, bees, wasps, termites, mantis, and roaches all have thumbs but everybody else has just two fingers. this is just more of an art style thing though

zombugs need to eat more than regular bugs or else the fungus will start to eat more of the host body to get its Nutrience. since leif was sort of preserved by the spiderweb and has more access to food, their body is still mostly intact, but the rest of them are more mushroomy because they can't get as much to eat

spiders are awakened, but their social structure and general life is very, very different from bugs, and they just don't care enough to think of bugs as anything other than food. the one spider in the forsaken lands is only an outlier in letting a termite teach her to write, all the others are just as intelligent but show it way differently

the hologram roach in the cave of trials is sapient and is mostly putting on a Customer Service Voice for everyone who uses the training program. when the crystal that turns the program on is removed the hologram is basically asleep, but when it's awake it can hold conversations and entertain itself with the data it stores

before becoming an explorer, leif practically lived at the ant kingdom's theater. they were a cast member of some of the first shows ever put on there and that's how they met muse! in the present day they still like to come back and help with productions when they have the time

jayde is a hornet, not a yellowjacket, and she and fuff are close siblings even though they're different species of hornet (some of the yellowjackets are different species too, there's both the common and aerial kinds in the hive)

yin chews on Everything. she's like the very hungry caterpillar if it continued to be very hungry after growing up. she will put anything in her mouth: crayons. sand. maki's sword. most of the time she chews on her own neck fluff

#this got super long we're not making it shorter #look at our headcanons boy #some of these aren't even headcanons they are just the things we know to be true #bug fables #bug fables spoilers

[mooshkat]

Rules: Post your favorite line or passage from as many of your published works as you’d like. Let yourself feel proud of your creations! Tag as many people as you post snippets, so your fellow fic friends can be proud, too.

thank you @chaotictarlos for tagging me ♡♡ we're gonna ignore that it's saturday now i haven't been on tumblr much today

for if i'm going down, i'm taking you with me | John Wick with a splash of Romeo and Juliet AU | written together with the beloved @thebumblecee ♡

Do it, TK wants to tell him. He wants Carlos to make the first move again, to prove that everything from that night wasn’t a mistake he regrets. Please, just do it.

There’s a stutter in Carlos’ breath as he glances down at TK’s lips before looking into his eyes again. Even before, when they were more up close and personal than they’d ever been, he’s never seen Carlos this vulnerable.

The candlelight flickers and glows around the spiked halo TK put on Carlos’ head, making him look truly as Holy as a Saint. TK feels like he’s temptation personified, ready to make this angel in front of him fall from grace and into sin.

This moment is one he doesn’t want to break. It’s something to hold and cherish, a fragile thing that can shatter with one wrong move.

oh, take me back to the night we met | A tragedy puts a halt on TK's wedding, and things aren't exactly as they seem with Carlos.

"TK? What's wrong?"

His husband grabs his face gently with both hands and pulls him close to press their foreheads together, his bottom lip trembling. He looks devastated, like something terrible has happened.

Carlos grabs onto one of TK's wrists, the ache in his chest growing, getting sharper by the minute. "Tyler, you're scaring me."

A broken sob shatters from TK's chest, and the tears in his eyes finally slip down his face. "I wish you would wake up, baby. I miss you so much. I can't—I can't do this without you. I don't want to live in a world without you."

Carlos freezes. It feels like someone has dumped a bucket full of ice water over him, chilling him to the bone.

"...What?"

each brave step forward, i take three behind | A temporary firefighter at the 118 brings chaos down on Buck and Ravi.

The alpha’s rage slams into Buck like a brick wall. He stands firm, barely holding onto the control it takes to not flinch, fists clenched at his sides. “Look, man. Whatever issue you have with them, take it up with their insurance company.” The man tries to go around him, but Buck steps into his path again. “Buddy. Don’t do anything stupid that would get the cops involved.”

As he looks toward where Athena is already watching and ready to make her way over, Buck is grabbed. He rips his arm out of the man’s grasp and tries to take a step back, but a heavy, calloused hand lands on the back of his neck and squeezes.

A yelp tears itself from his throat as his knees threaten to buckle underneath him. The rage practically soaks into his skin, surrounding him and leaving him feeling like fire ants are crawling all over his body. His heart pounds in his chest as he fights back against the instinct to cower.

“Get the fuck out of my way, you omega cunt.” The man shoves him away and tries to continue on his warpath to the ambulance, but he is quickly restrained. He thrashes against Bobby, Athena, and another cop, who suddenly have a hold on him, still shouting obscenities.

desire's burning (your hands are sweating) | Buck steals Tommy's hoodie and finds out just how much Tommy likes seeing him wear it.

Buck goes to take the easy way out, his hand reaching for his cock to jerk himself off, but Tommy's hand is lightning fast at snatching his wrist.

“Uh-uh,” he tuts, raising a brow. “You get off on my thigh or nothing else, baby.”

He pouts but doesn't try to pull out of his grip. Buck can't help but stare at the way Tommy's hand wraps around his wrist, his fingertips almost touching. “Is this punishment for the picture?”

Both of Tommy's brows raise this time, a common look when Buck says something that surprises him. He licks his lips before answering. “Do you want it to be?”

“I…” Buck can't stop taking in every part of his boyfriend. His heart is racing in his chest, and he swears his cock is throbbing with need in time with it. “I think that's something we should talk about when I'm not horny out of my mind.”

The corners of Tommy's eyes crinkle when he smiles. “Deal.” He squeezes Buck's wrist lightly before letting it go and masking his face in indifference again. “Try again. You can brace yourself on my shoulders if you need to.”

tagging: @thebumblecee @cowlos-reyes @birdclowns @brasscacti @prettyboybuckley @paperstorm @safeaswrites @blessedbucky @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut and you 🫵

#katie.txt #moosh worbs #fic pride friday #look at me making a whole ass banner. wow. i almost fist fought picsart to do it

[aromancy]

On Gendered Storytelling

Okay, so.

For the purposes of this discussion, I'll be basing my arguments on the two most prevalent genders; those being cis men and cis women. There are other genders, and any time anybody tells me there aren't, we'll add another, but this is going to be a broad-strokes analysis which such nuances won't really assist in dissecting, so I'm going to gloss over that stuff. Know that when I say "men" and "women" for the purposes of this mini-essay, I'm referring to the "average" man and the "average" woman. I'll be making plenty of generalizations in the proceeding text, but every rule has exceptions aplenty, especially when discussing gender, and nothing I say is going to be universally applicable.

Okay? Okay.

My household consisted of four men (myself, my two brothers, and my father) and one woman (my mother) for the majority of the 2000s-2010s. During that time, our family got very much into the Marvel Cinematic Universe; or at least, most of us did. Despite repeated attempts to engage our mother in the universe, my brothers and I failed to capture her interest. More than once during trips to the theater to view installments of the films, she fell asleep halfway through. This made sense during Thor: the Dark World, but less so during our viewing of Ant-Man, which, despite several notable plotholes, was overall an engaging experience for 15-year-old Aro.

More recently, mom has been trying to connect with us through communal viewing of reality TV based on our interests; LEGO Masters is commonly playing, due to my brother's interest in legos, and ever since I got more into cooking, we've also added Chopped and Master Chef to our repertoire.

And it's all boring as sin.

Oh, we watch it. It's nice to see mom happy, and to spend time with her; she spends so much time at church nowadays, and given how the rest of the family has stopped attending mass since the youngest turned 18, that means that the reality shows are about the only social time we get with her. And I do like spending time with her, but I frankly couldn't give a 15-minute ice cream sundae who wins this episode of Chopped.

So I got to thinking why that is. I voiced some of this to my parents, wondering if it had something to do with the culture in which we are raised; men are typically seen as active participants in society, expected to be breadwinners for their families and more involved with social progress; while women are typically put in a more passive role, as the caretakers and raisers of the next generation.

My father pointed out that you can't knock the biological component; men, generally having higher levels of testosterone than women, are typically more aggressive and competitive than the fairer sex. As such, they'd be more receptive to action-heavy films that otherwise lack substance, a la the Transformers franchise. I don't love to reduce things to biological essentialism, but I do think he's got a point; we know that testosterone, like all hormones, has a significant impact on mood and behavior.

That said, I don't think it's purely a matter of people with more testosterone finding action more engaging; the shows I mentioned above are all competitions, after all, which you would expect to resonate well with competitive people (generally men). I also know for a fact that many action films, made poorly, fail to resonate with audiences of either gender. Green Lantern comes to mind as an example of a superhero show that nobody liked, and I already mentioned Thor: the Dark World above, just to solidify my point.

I think the main difference is in the stakes. In a lot of action movies, the stakes are extremely high; the stability of nations, the power of an organized crime syndicate, the world at large are all common stakes in such films. Meanwhile, a lot of reality shows have much more personal stakes; the relationship between family and friends, the love between two strangers, the bereavement of a widow. Both stakes have their place; I want to get along well with my family, but I also want the planet to not explode. But for some reason, media targeted towards men seems to focus mainly on the former, while media targeted towards women often focuses on the latter.

And I don't think it has to be this way. There are action movies, for instance, which focus a lot on lower, interpersonal stakes. I seem to recall that Venom was a lot more popular among female audiences than expected, and conversely a lot less popular among male audiences than expected, for basically telling the story of a man and his symbiote like it was a romantic comedy. John Wick has a dark order of assassins operating in the background, but the debut film is just a story about a man getting revenge for the death of his dog. Women love John Wick! (Here I'll remind you of the notes about generalization back in paragraph one.)

Meanwhile, there are stories with very high stakes and not a whole lot of action. Interstellar threatens the extinction of the human race, but only due to a global famine, with nary a punch thrown throughout the entire film. Yet it seems to resonate with men just as well as with women, perhaps even moreso.

I would assert, therefore, that it is the difference in stakes which resonate more with one gender or the other, and that men typically prefer situations with grander stakes, while women typically prefer situations with more personal stakes. I'm still not sure precisely why that is, but I'd love to get the input of others, if anyone wants to contribute their two cents! Or maybe you think I'm wrong! I'd love to hear about that, too! Leave a reply and let me know why I have no idea what I'm talking about! Thanks!

#film #movies #gender #media analysis #tropes #demographics

[flecks-of-stardust]

i don’t have enough evidence to make this an actual big post but i still wanted to put it out into the wild, but honestly ever since approaching (some of) bug fables’ world from the perspective of underspecification, i’ve been much less frustrated with it. it’s also fun to contrast the underspecification of bug fables’ world with the inference heavy world of hollow knight.

what i mean by underspecification is the deliberate act of saying something while leaving out certain aspects that are assumed to be common knowledge. one of the more prominent examples i can think of is eggs; when you say ‘egg,’ it’s almost always understood that you mean chicken eggs, and not duck eggs, goose eggs, quail eggs, or even turtle eggs. this is because of the high prevalence of using chicken eggs in recipes due to the domestication of chickens, and so saying ‘chicken egg’ is redundant unless more than one type of egg is used. in contrast, inference is when there is no shared knowledge, but there are clues in what is said or in the environment that point to a certain fact.

in the context of bug fables, i find the idea of underspecification to be particularly useful with the world of the four kingdoms. i’ve wondered for a while now why the ant kingdom is so catered to what team snakemouth needs as an explorer team, while none of the rest of the ant kingdom is shown; for a kingdom supposedly as great and as prosperous as the ant kingdom is, we do not see any sprawling residential areas, nor a schooling area (ann isn’t even in school, and apparently never is), nor even a graveyard to bury the dead. none of the hallmarks of settlements seem to be accessible to team snakemouth. but when i look at this from the perspective of underspecification, it both makes more sense and is more interesting than criticizing an indie dev team for what they likely did not have the time and budget to make. we do not have access to the broader residential area, the schoolyard, the graveyard, and other parts of the ant kingdom because team snakemouth already knows where they are, and there is no need to point it out. they have no need to wander in the residential area because there is nothing they need there. they have no need to go to the schoolyard because it’s not relevant to their mission. it would be nice to have that option as a player, but to team snakemouth, everyone already knows where all of these locations are, so why point them out? it would be redundant and weird.

conversely, in hollow knight, the knight is not presented as a local resident of the area. they do not know hallownest or anything about the general area. though not all information is freely given to them, there are aspects of the environment that do allow them to piece together the history of hallownest, particularly with areas like the white palace. so underspecification isn’t particularly useful here since there’s no shared knowledge, but there is a lot you can infer from.

this is messy but idk, the concept of underspecification is fascinating. i think it’s more fun to work with than the alternative.

#bug fables #hollow knight #i still stand by the fact that moonsprout should have put way more work into building the world #particularly with the contradictions #but this satisfies my worldbuilding itch

[guardian-rocket]

Who are your top 10 favorite muns to write with and why? If a mun is a multimuse also tell which are your favorite characters to write with and why?

(The order in which you list the people doesn't matter unless you want to assign them specific places.)

Question Master

Top 10, here we go... @antvnger Puppy-Mun is the first I am putting on this list first because of all the threads and ideas I've ever had on here the thread I've been doing with them (Space Heist) is the largest single run I've had so far. We actually had an entire 4 part mission and went to Knowhere. I feel like Rocket and Scott made some real progress in becoming friends and I love that. Every post they make is gold. They're nice to their anons and I generally enjoy interacting with them OOC and hijacking their random posts. They're also genuinely funny, which I feel is very important for someone portraying Scott. I already loved Ant-Man but Puppy-Mun makes me adore him even more! They also often tag me and I love that 💕

@byondtheveil Rei-Mun (Birb-Queen) is #1 OC in Rocket's world and my Rocket muse simply adores her. I always look forward to reading her replies and she's a great person to talk to and shoot the breeze OOC. We both love thrifting IRL so it's fun to just spam her DMs about my latest finds. Her character Rei is literally one of the most endearing original characters I've ever come across. She's well thought out and has connected with Rocket in a way most muses can't do. With her I have been able to explore Rocket's comfortability just popping on and off Earth and get some much deserved down time. @papetoonfox Papetoonfox was a RP partner I had many years ago. We haven't interacted much on tumblr but we got a RP going on Discord that I am fully engrossed in. Our conversations OOC often puts me in stitches and we have so much common interest it's so easy to just get lost in our own little nostalgic world of Y2K aesthetics and retrowave vibes. They're also very encouraging with me about my art and they produce some of the coolest music I've heard from anyone I know. I love their portrayal of Fox and so does my muse.

@stripesofbrooklyn They were one of the first to interact with me OOC when I started getting more active again and I feel we check in on eachother both ways pretty regularly I am confident to call them a friend. Our muses have great chemistry together and Rocket always loves hearing from them no matter what strange shenanigan they might be getting into. Rocket fully admires and trusts their Steve and is someone Rocket would go out of his way for.

@spidermanxnoir / @jeff-the-gnome-king First they get super points just for playing my favorite version of Spider-Man (Noir) and our thread which started off without any plotting has turned into one of the most epic adventures my Rocket has ever had. I think Rocket's gotten pretty attached to him as they've gone along and genuinely think he's cool. Looking forward to them retaining an ongoing friendship. Being able to tie or franchises together has been a ton of fun and I think we write beautifully together. Also they're super chill OOC and I love bugging them with my latest ideas. @the-mjolnir-owner This Thor is one of my best friends on Tumblr. They are often sending me posts in my DMs to see about Rocket and Thor and I just love their characterization. We also have a lot of fun discussions about Thor and the Guardians and I feel they capture Thor very well in their writing. Just in general they're an absolute joy.

@butwithmoreme I know our thread is fairly new/short but I literally hear Tony's voice in their writing, it's so damn good. As Rocket's mun I will hold a special place in my heart for anyone who doesn't just write him off for being a little shit. The fact they're being science bros together makes me so happy. @spideymn A big stand-out as a great writer. Sounding repetitive here, but I hear Tom Holland in their dialog and they feel very in character. A shining standout, and my muse likes him because he's a helpful kiddo. Happy to see them interacting together. @beatfreesmysoul They're my #1 music buddy right now, and I enjoy dropping into their DMs to be annoying lol. It's so great to have someone here to talk tunes with because I genuinely am a big music nerd. I love that they send me memes/tag me for that stuff too. As a Rocket RPer I often feel a bit sidelined so they make me feel included on things which I super appreciate. Our thread taking place earlier in the storyline is great too, kinda fun to undo all my muse's character development and let him have 'issues' he needs to work through and I love that we can explore or character's developing friendship.

@gctbusydying I am pretty sure they're my first Kitty Pryde and honestly, worth the wait. Interacting with them feels like we're jumping right out of the comics. I think that Kitty is canonly one of Rocket's favorite ladies and their friendship is important to me. I know I MOSTLY adhere to MCU canon but I've read the comics too (albeit a long time ago) but when it comes to Kitty I'm like -slams fist on desk- FRIENDS. I know we haven't had a TON of interaction but I hope it keeps going.

#ooc #mun thoughts

[pascalisporn]

The recent sexual harassment discourse around Pedro Pascal is important, and I don't want to take away from that. But I think we also need to talk about the 24/7 content beast.

As someone who finds a lot of sexually based things funny, I do find the "internet daddy" thing funny. And for a millisecond, I think he did too. The problem is in doing so he fed the beast. Since it got clicks, now EVERYONE wants to use it to get clicks. If I were him (and I'm very much not) I'd find the joke funny for maybe a month or two. But for every clip I've seen of him addressing the whole daddy thing, there are a dozen more I haven't seen. The only common denominator to all of these clips is HIM. He is the one who has to respond to being called daddy. Every. Single. Time. And that has to wear on him.

In the olden days, you'd talk to maybe a dozen publications with journalistic standards of varying degrees. Now it's every asshole with a smartphone. It used to be you'd go on Howard Stern and know exactly what you were getting into. Now it's the wild west. At least with BuzzFeed thirst tweets you agreed to do them. Now everyone everywhere is mining him for the best clickbait in the worst possible way.

Imagine going down a line at a red carpet and every effing interviewer is like "Hey Pedro, or should I say daddy?" "Look everyone, it's the Internet's daddy, Pedro Pascal." "Hey daddy, ready to read some thirst tweets?" And they hand you a phone that says "bratboy764 says - I want to dress up in a minions costume and fuck you from behind." At that point I'd just go into the theater and call it a day. I'm sure he has many interesting things to say, but the media is absolutely fixated on this daddy joke.

He addressed being "daddy" in an entire skit on SNL. That should have been where the joke ended. The idea had become so ubiquitous that one of the biggest comedy outlets covered it.

But not only does everyone and their dog want to run an already dead, inappropriate to begin with, joke into the ground. They want to up the ante by saying things no one who participates in society would say to anyone's face. When everyone tries to be subversive, it results in no one being subversive. Move on, get creative with your questions, get sincere with your questions, get interesting with your questions. But for the love of crap.

Daddy is done.

#pedro pascal #pedrophile #this #daddy #crap has to stop

[kurisus]

Link Click Season 2: Thoughts

Just a post of everything that's been going through my head over the course of this season. First reflections, then theories for next time. Spoilers for all episodes under the cut, obviously. This is also so long Tumblr started glitching out on me, so I hope it reads well~

LU GUANG TIME TRAVELER THEORY REAL BITCHESSSSSS

I know literally everyone had figured this out already but the execution of it was sooooo satisfying. It was to the point where if that wasn't where they were going with him, I wasn't sure what their plans were, and then everything fell into place just perfectly.

I genuinely don't have anything bad to say about that last episode. It was perfectly done in every way, and I'm super excited to see the next season play out--after we get some much-needed conflict establishment in that prequel, whatever it is.

As for the rest of the season though...I agree with the stuff I've seen about the pacing being a sore spot. It didn't ruin the season for me, but the constant recapping of scenes we've already seen + long fight scenes that didn't advance the plot was just kind of frustrating especially watching this weekly as I did and knowing I wasn't going to get answers this time. Episode 2 was the weakest for this, imo, since it felt like half of the episode was made of scenes from the first and the CXS + QL fight, while cool, didn't really do much for me. It felt like I was watching the chimera ant arc from HXH all over again, sometimes.

I've also seen takes that they forced the length of each episode to end on a cliffhanger but I kinda disagree? Season 1 had cliffhangers too, and the episodes were a little shorter. They could have shortened the episodes (to not repeat scenes and not draw out the fights) and still ended on cliffhangers, and I kind of expected those since again they were common in the first season. If I expect anything from Link Click, it's that they'll find a way to make a cliffhanger out of it.

I don't really have an issue with most of the season taking place in a single day either (again...chimera ant arc...literal peak fiction, but holy shit it took like 10 episodes to cover 1 minute in real-time but it wouldn't have been so effective if it didn't take its time), although it is a bit of a change from the first season, which was spread out over months. I rationalize it as the cases themselves happened within 12 hours, so this was kind of just one longer and more detailed case.

The director said he was going for a suspense angle this season rather than heartwrenching, and in that regard I think he succeeded. I didn't cry this season, but I did feel very stressed out the whole time, and the middle chunk of episodes simply flew by every week. They felt 5 minutes long. I have a feeling the next season will balance the best of both worlds--plot-relevant suspense with heartwrenching moments, kind of like the final scene of this season.

So yeah, a sore spot, not really a dealbreaker. I did read the interview with Li Haolin where he acknowledged the pacing issues and said he'll try to do better next season, which I really appreciated. I've seen it happen too often where the following season is too far into production or the showrunner thinks they're above criticism, and the show drops in quality as a result. I think season 3 will be the best yet, but I'm also scared by him saying the main story and ending are set in stone--what are they gonna do to us? How many seasons will they go on? I'd rather have the story come to its natural conclusion than be dragged on because it's popular.

Moving on, I liked the way they used the time travel powers this season to figure out more about the people chasing them, and to give Chen Bin some closure. Basically in a way that was plot relevant as opposed to exposition, although I wish they'd used their powers more in the back half. I thought it was a cool utilization of what we already know.

I liked the new characters we got this season, esp the parts revolving around the twins (and episode 9!!! it was so artsy!!!!). They made for very compelling characters, and I think Qian Jin will be back for more. Though I feel like the Li Tianchen we got was a bit different than his presentation last season where he was a childish, but highly intelligent, serial killer who is single-minded in his ruthlessness. This version seems to be struggling with his own motivations, mainly because his sister didn't follow him down the same path and he doesn't trust the guy giving him orders. It's a more rounded character, but not as compelling of a villain. I'm excited to see what happens when he teams up with Liu Xiao, though, since I have a feeling LX is going to be like my original interpretation of LTC. Redemption arc for LTC? Or will he get worse?

And what was up with Captain Xiao telling the main characters he was planning to resign once he caught Chen Bin's killer, then announcing he was promoted at the end? I know technically Tianchen is still at large, but cmon, he got a promotion for getting his colleagues killed? They should have just omitted the line about him resigning, tbh.

In terms of expectations vs reality for this season, I tried not to have expectations because I didn't want to be let down, but I sort of developed them anyway. My sole expectation was "challenge the idea that death is unchangeable" which they did get to--but only at the very beginning with LG's flashback, and then again in the last episode when they gave more context to it, so it wasn't the focus. This is because my vision for the season was one in which CXS experiences LG's death, then rewinds time to try to fix it, each time getting a step closer to solving the mystery. We didn't end up getting that because he remembered his character development, but I do kind of wonder what that would have been like. Maybe a little too close to Steins;Gate, and then I'd have been disappointed that they did the same thing as another time travel show I love, lol.

In any case, it seems they're going to do that next season. Or the following. However long it takes for them to elaborate on whatever the hell it is that Lu Guang did.

I also felt like they were going to go back in time to when CXS thought LG was dead and absolutely broke down, and how much of that was just a miscommunication, except this time he would be dead for real. But the more I think about it, the more it seems unlikely with the direction the story has been heading. Instead, LAN was simply trolling us with LG's fate for 2 years and pulled a switcharoo that CXS was the one we should fear for next? idk I want them to go back to the absolute despair of thinking your partner/best friend/boyfriend died while you were separated, but not hit the brakes on it so quickly.

Which brings me to my next concern--because of how everything happened so close together, the main characters didn't have much time to process everything that happened to them since last time. Qiao Ling didn't reflect much on her being possessed and stabbing someone she thinks of as a friend (remember how she screamed when she saw the blood on her hands? I wanted more of that), CXS and LG didn't get to talk about LG being stabbed, almost dying, and then kidnapped, also while thinking he was dead for a few hours there; and CXS didn't get a breather after being thrown into an extremely intense domestic violence situation unexpectedly, and coming out of it nearly collapsing. Because of the short timeskip at the end of the season, it seems like they may just skip over this and leave these conversations between seasons. Or the trauma they endured may come back up in new and spicy ways. I'll be interested to see what they do, but I'm going to be kind of bummed if they don't talk about any of what happened to each other, since that was such a big part of season 1.

So from reflections, on to theories...After watching episode 2, I developed a theory that I will lay out here because of how much I got right. Yes, I'm gonna brag a bit:

I was right about Cheng Xiaoshi dying originally and Lu Guang apparently having both sets of powers, as seen when he clapped back in time, but the rest I have a few questions about.

First, the matter of the powers. I've seen a lot of people saying powers are passed when their user dies, but I don't think they are because I don't know how CXS would have powers in the present day unless a whole character we don't know about died in his arms before he even met LG. I also don't believe that Tianxi is dead either (they didn't show me a body and I won't believe it until I see one), so while I think it's possible QL has her powers and doesn't realize it, she didn't transfer them with death.

Next, how many times has LG rewound time? My gut feeling was that this is his first time because of how much has changed this time around. He didn't know about Tianchen and vice versa, so either CXS died before the twins came into the picture or the timeline has changed enough that now other people with powers are involved when they weren't before. Then again, he leapt so far back in the timeline (that basketball game) it wouldn't surprise me if none of the show's canon was part of the original timeline.

Third, how did CXS die? And who killed him? Maybe it was LX, maybe it was QJ (thinking of how LG's first instinct when meeting the guy was to try to LITERALLY PUNCH HIM TO DEATH), maybe it was someone we haven't met yet...I think we can agree he was murdered, though, and it wasn't an accidental death. Perhaps he was shot, perhaps stabbed, but more than anything I'm interested to see how that unfolds since LG seems to feel responsible and I have to wonder how much is survivor's guilt and how much is because he caused it.

Fourth, if death is a node that can be changed, would it have saved CXS's life if LG had died there? The times we've seen the timeline change, the same person still died at roughly the same time, but the circumstances got altered. I'm thinking here of Emma's death changing from suicide to murder (? I haven't rewatched season 1 since before season 2 started so I could be wrong), and Chen Bin going from jumping off the roof while possessed to losing the possession but being pushed (we saw the door closing on him originally). If someone else had killed themselves at that time, would he still be alive? It seems strange the laws would work as "someone has to die, it doesn't matter who." The only way I can think of this idea working in the context of our main duo is if CXS and LG are somehow the same person and all I can say is, god I hope not lmao, but then what was up with LG thinking "better me than him"?

Fifth, CXS apparently died on September 13 (or September 12, since LG leaped 5 minutes after midnight), but season 1 skipped right over that date and the end and this whole season took place in late October (going by the dates. I have seen the posts about time being broken, though, so let's see if that was stuff changing in the writing process without being fixed or something intentional). Was LG really able to delay his death by a whole month (causing a major timeline shift), or do we still have most of a year left before it happens? CXS was wearing his season 1 outfit when he died, but that could very well be a red herring.

Sixth, does LX have powers? I think he must, but what are they? How much does he know (ie just that the timeline is being fucked with, or does he know who is doing it?), and is he working for a higher power to "fix" time or simply himself? How will Tianchen help him achieve his goals? To me it seems likely LX is aware of other people with powers since he appeared to give advice to Tianchen in a crucial hour, then was in the same foreign country as our main two. Maybe he keeps tabs on all power users, or maybe he actually knows the main two personally but they don't know he's the one after them. He's certainly wise beyond his years is all I can say for now.

My post got so long Tumblr is yelling at me about a character limit, so that's why there's a break here. To the next text block~

I'm curious to see how much of what happened this season will be changed, nullified, or otherwise wiggled around in the timeline. Since it seems like a lot of this didn't happen in the original timeline, what of CXS possessing LG? Were those inconsistencies (how the window was broken, the phone being faceup/facedown, the password knowledge being only incidental) a result of animation errors or small shifts in the timeline? Will these things be important later? Until they say otherwise, my resting theory is that LG took that photo and used his power to read forward into time, see the boat's location, and send it to QL, and the actual hospital breakout was him originally. We have seen now that he can fight.

Link Click's time travel has always been less rules more vibes to me so I don't mind if these inconsistencies don't end up being important after all, but all the same it will he cool if they are.

That scene of CXS and QL as little kids is very precious to me, but it just occurred to me that took place before they knew LG and thus before he started fucking with the timeline. How much of pre-series canon will be changed as a result, ie those memories QL has? We still don't know anything about CXS's parents either, so both of these things may get overwritten in the timeline. Imagine a timeline where CXS was completely lonely...

QJ was built up as a villain a lot this season so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he busted out of prison in the second half or the end of next season. Another one for LX to manipulate? Will he be the one getting him out?

Does QL have powers now? It seems like Tianxi gave her powers at the end there, but she hasn't realized it yet. I was kinda hoping she doesn't since I'd prefer one of the three remains "normal," but if that's the direction they're taking, I trust they'll do something interesting with it, especially since that power is required for Tianchen to kill people.

Speaking of, I'm super excited to find out what will happen when CXS inevitably discovers what LG has been keeping from him. Maybe QL will confront LG first and the two of them will try to figure things out, only for CXS to feel doubly betrayed that the two closest friends he has in his life know he's died and haven't said anything about it to him, and have been actively trying to prevent his death again. The angst fallout with that will be delicious. I'm also thinking of the shot in the season 2 OP of QL turning her back on him once the song reverses, hmmm.

LTC only became aware of CXS in the first place because when he was talking to Emma on the bridge, he said he's a time traveler and gave his name. So, it's a loop, but we have yet to see how LTC figured out where CXS worked and learned who his friends are to go after Xu Shanshan. Will LG reach the same conclusion and somehow cause that action to be undone, and will that in turn affect LX's perception of events?

All in all, despite some issues with the pacing of season 2 dragging it down and making it not quite as good as season 1, I still really enjoyed it and thought the music especially was a big upgrade from what was already so good (VORTEX, Until It Dies, and Mastermind will be on loop for a while longer). I also had a great time checking the tags regularly for fanart, gifsets, and theories, and I'm excited to see what unhinged theories we'll develop by the time season 3 rolls around. Until then, see ya in the prequel!

#Link Click #shiguang daili ren #时光代理人 #this is so LONG hdkjfhkjd sorry but POV you're my friend on Discord and waking up to these half-baked thoughts every morning #these are at least more formulated than that #shoutout to my friends for supporting my insanity tho. yall are real ones #live update

[embraceyourfandom]

[DISCLAIMER: this post contains strong language and cannot be recommended for anyone]

On the  journey to a new language it helps to have themes one works with. Because I’m a biologist, one theme when trying to expand my vocabulary is of course nature and especially animal names. Oh my, what fun things I learned on the side.

Interestingly, the word animal (สัตว์, saht /sat̚˨˩/) itself is an insult. As such, when directed at a person, it translates to something like asshole, shithead or bastard, but especially when combined with a super rude pronoun อี / ไอ้  (ee / âi  = you for woman and for man respectively, please never use these), it really conveys contempt.   

Porsche calls Kinn สัตว์ already in the first episode, (not with badterrible pronouns at least, but the pronouns he uses are lacking common decency, even if they are not in-your-face offensive)

(I have to say that the more I learn Thai, the more I am rolling my eyes at these two being total jerks to each other in the beginning. I mean… I was told about this, but still… Seriously guys, where are your manners? Your mums would be so ashamed of you!)

Anyhow, back to animals.

Animal names are fun to learn because living things are a good conversational topic (that also happens to interest me a great deal), but also because many Thai people are named after animals.

Thai nicknames (ชื่อเล่น chuu len, literally name play) are unofficial, but they are the names people use the most and it is normal that for example at school or workplace this is the only name people know of a person. Usually the nickname is given by parents and it can be short for the official first name (Kinn, Khun), but way more often it is a descriptive word or food or animal or (especially for girls) a plant, flower or fruit, but it can be anything. And I mean anything. It is very popular to give a child an English nickname that just sounds nice. So we get Barcode, Bible,  Job and so on… 

Self evident amongst animal names are the fluffycute or big and strong, like: cat แมว (maew - yes it's meow-sound), deer กวาง (kwaang), bird นก (nók), baby chicken เจี๊ยบ (jíap), tiger เสือ (sĕua) etc

[sidenote: เสือ is also a common name for the whole genus Panthera - “big cats”, so name for most of them in Thai starts with เสือ - for example leopard is เสือดาว (sĕua dow - star tiger), animals in Thai in general have a lot of names like this: bird this, bird that, fish this, fish that, which is familiar to English speakers, but somewhat special to my Finnish ear.]

More interesting animals people are named after:

pig หมู (mŏo) — pigs are considered very nice and valuable animals in Thailand, so this is not at all a bad name, but a cute one given to a much loved boy. To be fair, หมู  can be used to call someone chubby, or gently scolding them for eating too much, but it isn’t offensive, really, unless combined with expletives.

Mouse/rat หนู (nŏo), frog กบ (gòp), tadpole อ๊อด (ót), shrimp กุ้ง (gûng), ant มด (mót)... all of these being obviously suitable names for a tiny, adorable child.

----

I decided to save you (for now) from my terribly rambly, long ethnozoological ponderings I've had while digging into the creepy crawly nomenclature. It is pretty fascinating, though. No wonder - Thailand is a tropical country and consequently the invertebrate diversity there is breathtaking. I’m so jealous.

----

In my opinion a very misunderstood animal is Asian water monitor Varanus salvator. Its name is เหี้ย (hîia /hia̯˥˩/), which is also one of the most vulgar, profane, insulting thing you can say to anybody in Thai. DO NOT USE. 

How did this poor animal end up being a terrible insult? Asian water monitor, like most members of Varanidae, is a generalist predator that eats whatever it can catch or find, including carcasses. But instead of being praised as a valuable, free cleaning aid, it is seen as a dirty animal because of this (fine, they also can predate on farm animals – a monitor in a chicken coop equals bloodbath). Them living in the murky, muddy places isn’t helping their public image. Historically, they are considered bad luck and that killing them definitely causes bad things to happen. Even saying the name is considered unlucky, so many people call them ตัวเงินตัวทอง - “silver and gold” instead.

Sure, water monitors are big, surprisingly fast and they can give nasty, easily infected bites, and claw and hit hard with their tails, but they are also important, interesting and kinda derpy animals. Asian water monitors are kept as pets even, although they require a lot of room as they can grow up to 3 metres long (in average 1,5 m). They can be tamed and they learn all kinds of things. I think they are cute and I would love to meet a pet monitor someday and give it belly scratches (wild animals I prefer to observe from a respectful distance away, but it would be supercool to see one).

Regardless, เหี้ย is a Profanity. Linguistically, it can be used pretty flexibly much like ‘fuсk’ as a noun, adjective, adverb, comma, full stop, exclamation mark… But do not use it - it really is much worse word than even 'сunt', especially combined with  อี / ไอ้ ( ee/âi). 

And that is exactly how Kinn uses it here, calling Vegas a water monitor.

He continues here. Now adverbial use, so not directed at person. Less offensive, still pretty mean tone.

(I cannot believe this man had the audacity to tell Porsche off for his language...)

There are my uncivilised musing for now.

#Lea learns stuff #thai language #kinnporsche #because I know some of you are definitely interested #TW: terrible terrible language #language #I can't believe I have to censor words for Tmblr to show this post - thanks big bro for treating us like we are five #Well with several keyboards ready at hand this is not a problem - lets just substitute some letters with cyrillics

[lassieposting]

Alrighty things I'm emotional about today: Eskel and the fucking leshen

This leshen is parasitic. It infects Eskel, makes him increasingly unlike himself over an incubation period, and then mutates him completely. I'm gonna suggest that this leshen is based on some variant of cordyceps, an endoparasitic fungus that preys on insects, zombifying them. This sounds a lot like what happened to Eskel, right?

Let's have a look at Eskel's timeline in this episode.

When Geralt finds him fully-transformed, he grits out that he knew something was wrong after his fight with the leshen, but he decided to return to Kaer Morhen anyway, because he believed Geralt/Vesemir could help him.

At this point, Eskel is still almost entirely in control. He made the sensible choice his usual self would make. If anyone will know what to do about his injury, it's Vesemir.

So Eskel goes back to Kaer Morhen. We don't know how long this takes him, but we can make a vague guess. He fought the leshen for six hours, so he probably rested and tried to tend to his own wound before heading home. He's had time to get to the castle, stop to extend an invitation to all the prostitutes, and make it up the Killer. A day or two, maybe?

If you look at him in his very first scene, he doesn't look injured. In any fight, a Witcher will get small injuries. Bruises, split lip, scratches, etc. When Geralt gets these injuries, he tends to keep them for the rest of the episode. There's not a mark on Eskel. All these other little injuries have already healed. So the leshen has had time to start exerting control over him; he's now in a deadly fight for his own body.

Eskel shows up at Kaer Morhen, and Geralt immediately notices that something is off with him. As we see from Geralt's flashback, the "loud, aggressive, fighty" energy Eskel has in most of this episode is not normal for him. He's normally, like game!Eskel, a thoroughly nice dude. They hug, and he asks if Eskel is okay. Eskel hesitates...then pulls away and says that he's fine.

Now, the whole reason he returned to Kaer Morhen in the first place was to get help. Even if he didn't want to publicly announce his injury, Geralt asks him this question quietly and in a way that Eskel could very easily keep it between them. He even looks like he wants to tell Geralt the truth - but ultimately he says nothing. This goes against all common sense for Eskel, but not for the leshen, whose best interests demand that it stay hidden until it has the best opportunity to infect the maximum amount of hosts/spread the optimal amount of infectious spores.

The leshen isn't letting Eskel tell Geralt. He's like a rabid creature who's desperate for water, but his body won't let him drink.

Notably, right after this, Eskel does actually make a reference to his injury. It's said in a jokey way, that the other Witchers should be glad they aren't feeling "the sting of one of those fucking roots", and he reaches for his shoulder when he says it.

So he's wrestling for control right here. He reveals his injury - that's Eskel - and then immediately downplays it, laughing it off - that's the leshen. He's got all this aggressive energy* when he bursts through the doors, then he seems himself again when he greets Geralt, and then goes back into Intimidation Mode when he spots Ciri. He's all over the place in this scene, because for half of it he's not in control of his own body.

(*Notably, from what I read - I am not a botanist, just a nerd - cordyceps does not usually make insects aggressive - to manage population balance, only a few ants from any one colony are infected at any given time. And we see from Geralt's flashback that Eskel is usually pretty chilled and easy-going, so his aggressive energy in this episode is highly OOC. Three possible theories on this:

Cordyceps kills its hosts eventually. Witchers make more resilient/more durable hosts. Making Eskel aggressive is intended to maximise the number of infected Witchers

The leshen is in Eskel's head, so it knows Eskel has brought it to Monster Hunter Central in the middle of fucking nowhere, and it's scared. Eskel is acting out because it knows that the one place it's most likely to be discovered is here.

Eskel is scared. He's a nice guy, but he's still a Witcher, capable of immense violence. Years of experience have taught him to get fighty when threatened, and now he's fighting for his life. Fully conscious, fully aware, while something takes over his body. Anyone would be terrified. )

We see later that Vesemir actually followed up on the hint Eskel dropped. He references that Eskel has "drunk too much for that sting", so he knows that one of his boys is hurt.

But he's like, highkey casual about it, so I don't believe he realises how bad it is, and I don't think Eskel has actually let him look at it. After making it all the way back to Kaer Morhen to get help from Vesemir, the leshen makes him deny he needs it. Interference from Vesemir is the most likely thing to get it discovered, and it can't risk that. Imagine being Eskel, hearing the monster using your mouth to tell the old man that you're fine, to leave you alone, stop fussing, while you're trapped in your own head screaming for help.

By the time the party** happens, he's deteriorating fast. He's practically begging for a fight with Geralt, and ultimately swings for him. He's snappish and short-tempered with the prostitute, especially when she brings up leshens, and even though he backs down from Geralt in the end, something still triggers his transformation and he kills the woman.

By this point, the leshen*** is almost completely in control. Eskel is shut away in his own head, unable to move his own body.

Still, he manages to speak to Geralt. He tells him he knew something was wrong, and he thought Geralt could help him. But this is, like, the last vestige of his ability to hold the monster back. By the time Vesemir arrives, the leshen has swallowed him up completely

** Now, I've seen posts criticising the decision to have this happen at all, when Kaer Morhen is supposed to be a closely guarded secret, which, fair. 1000% Eskel - the real Eskel - knows that stopping enroute to invite a bunch of hookers up to the keep is Not Okay. But it also works, in this scenario? Because what most benefits the leshen is infecting as many hosts as possible, and it would know from Eskel's memories that there won't be many people up at the castle. Just Witchers, a handful of them at best. Inviting more people to come and party fills the castle with potential hosts - and what's more, if it had infected the prostitutes, they'd all go back down the mountain and continue work for a few days unnoticed. Prostitutes meet a lot of people. If the Witchers had been more drunk, or less effective, or if Geralt had actually gone to protect Ciri and Vesemir had faced Eskel alone, the infection would have broken out and spread. The Continent dodged a fucking nuclear bomb here.

** It's also worth a thought that like. This leshen is vaguely implied to be a monolith monster, a new type of leshen. But it's probably not? It's a regular leshen who's also infected by the same parasite it passed on to Eskel. It's not in control either. It's wandered through a monolith into the world of the Aen Seidhe, but it's still just a slave to its parasite, and it's coming to the end of its time as a useful host. Infecting someone or something else is its top priority. That's...quite sad, too.

Anyway yeah I don't think the Netflix writers actually thought about all this or cared about doing his character justice/how OOC they wrote him, and I wish we'd gotten more of him, but. This is my theory and I'm sticking to it

#the witcher #eskel #kaer morons #i actually liked the casting here #happy flashback eskel was a nice counterpoint to geralt's. Everything #the witcher meta #the witcher headcanons

[findafight]

Ask game; 1, 16, 18, 25. LET’S GOOOOO!

from the choose violence asks

1. the character everyody gets wrong?

so many lol. idk i said this in the last ask but so many people get Nancy wrong. But also people get Robin so incredibly wrong that isometimes I scream. and also s1/pre series steve. what are yall doing to my blorbos?!

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing.

oooo idk. i guess i don't get why there are a fair few fics where steve cheats on his partner?? like personally infidelity fics where the ship i like is the cheater aren't for me BUT I do get where they come from in some fandoms for some characters, and it can be an interesting way to explore character reactions...but STEVE?? One of the first things we learn about him is that his mom doesn't trust his dad and leaves him alone! and then we see him flip hen he thinks nancy may have cheated on him when heir relatinon ship wasn't super official yet! he's incredibly touchy about infidelity and I simply cannot see him finding any pleasure in participating in it. it just don't make sense.

18. Absolutely criminal the fandom's been sleeping on...

uh I already answered this but also. Vickie and steve friendship. I cannot wait until we see them interact they're going to annoy Robin so much i think hehe. (fandom sleeps on vickie a lot tbh)

25. Common fandom complaint that you're sick of?

"Vickie is just a copy of robin!" tell me you just want an excuse to not like her without telling me... fools and cowards vickie is more like Steve!! just because she rambles around a cute girl she likes and has a shared activity (band)with doesn't mean she's an exact copy of her! my goodness!!!! she broke up with her bf because 1) hated on her fave movie 2) didn't ant to stick around to help their natural disaster stricken town. BI ICON.

#anonasaurus #findaanswers #stranger things #ask meme answer

[jimblejamblewritings]

little situation | part 11.

Summary: For years, HYDRA had been trying to use the samples of Steve’s DNA to make another super-soldier. They finally succeed and when S.H.I.E.L.D. breaks her out, Cap is forced to come face to face with his kid and figure out parenting on an Avengers’ lifestyle.

Warnings: maybe potential childhood trauma but nothing really

Pairing: Steve Rogers x blackdaughter!reader, avengers x child!reader

Word Count: 4.2k

Previous Part | (Series Masterlist) 

Sam and Bucky rushed back the minute Steve called. They were relieved because their latest lead included something called an Ant-man and after meeting the guy they knew he was of no help. The apartment was massive when they entered late at night. Steve showed them around and let them pick their rooms, like Sam suggested you took the biggest room— kicking Steve out of the master bedroom. You were already asleep so they decided to just say hi in the morning.

You didn’t put your new hearing aids in when you got up to get water in the middle of the night. While you figured that you guys would probably spend more time in the common room than anything, you were glad to have your own kitchen for moments like this. You shuffled to the kitchen in one of Steve’s too big shirts and socks, having not much of your own currently. Aside from the small box of your stuff that he took when he moved into the Tower, it was too painful for Steve to keep a lot of your things physically in the house. He had to get what wasn’t damaged in DC out from storage which was his plan to do first thing tomorrow. You didn’t even have a bonnet, stealing one of Tony’s fancy scarfs as a headscarf— not that the billionaire really minded.

You reached up for a cup of water when you felt the footsteps. They were heavy and off balance, one side stepping harder than the other producing a heavier vibration. Not your dad. You grabbed for the knife in the little knife rack on the counter and threw it.

“Woah.” Bucky’s eyes went wide as he grabbed the knife in his metal hand before it had hit him.

You gasped in surprise and ran to hug him.

“Hey, kid,” Bucky said as he held the back of your head.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you we—”

“No harm, no foul. Wasn’t trying to sneak up on you, just got thirsty.”

You and Bucky got your waters and sat down on the couch. You held the cup up to your face, not stopping your drinking, when Bucky turned his head to look at you. He was analyzing you and you knew it. You could always tell when he was doing it. Bucky took the cup from you and moved your head around as if he were looking for any injuries.

“Why did you get up for water?”

“I just got thirsty.”

“You still lick your top lip when you lie.”

You looked down. One to try and find a better answer and two because you couldn’t see what Bucky was saying if you weren’t looking. He turned your face towards him again.

“How many times did they wipe you?”

“Every morning,” you confessed.

Bucky’s metal fist clenched at his side. He was hoping you getting up was because you actually just needed water. It was the same thing he did when a nightmare of being wiped appeared. It felt like a dry burning in your mouth that could only be subdued by cold water.

But he was less worried about the wiping and more about the implications. They wiped you every few months to keep you scared when he was under their control. Wiping every morning? They wanted you to forget things, things you did. And Bucky was worried that you’d eventually remember and it would drive you insane like it was threatening to do to him.

“I’m tired, Uncle Jamie.”

Uncle? That was new. He didn’t know that you were already aware of his connection to Steve. Well at least that wasn’t something they’d have to go over later. It felt weird. Jamie, James. Being called anything other than Barnes or Bucky. He couldn’t even remember when he had become cognizant enough once to tell you his first name. It wasn’t much but you had stuck to it.

“Okay, little doll. I won’t keep you up. We’ll talk about this later.”

“Okay.”

You strolled in later at a more reasonable time of morning seeing the others already gathered in the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Sam, Steve, and Bucky said at the same time.

“Morning…” you remembered the question you had been meaning to ask yesterday.

“Uncle Jamie, why does Uncle Tony call you the Manchurian Candidate?”

Bucky rolled his eyes while the other two men laughed. He set down a cup of orange juice for you.

“Because your Uncle Tony’s a dick.”

“Woah, Buck, language!” Steve didn’t miss a beat.

You laughed when Bucky winked at you before giving Steve a weak apology. You took a sip of the orange juice when Sam came around with two plates. He sat down and pushed one towards you while Steve and Bucky loaded up theirs— the two 100% super soldiers of the house insatiable.

“Thanks Un— Sa— thank you.”

The three men looked at each other.

“Should we ask?” Steve looked at you.

You and him? You asked.

Bucky and Sam sat back, not understanding the silent communication taking place between you and Steve.

Yes?

Together?

Kind of.

Kind of?

We haven’t talked… this is adult stuff, I don’t need to discuss this with you.

Together?

Steve sighed. Yes.

Then I can’t call him uncle… weird.

Steve laughed. “Okay, Babydoll. Fair enough.”

Sam looked over but Steve shook his head.

“Nothing bad. I promise you.”

Most of the breakfast conversation was taken up by the three adults. You didn’t have much to share from the past year— and there wasn’t much you wanted to share. You laughed here and there but mainly just looked out the window as they talked about some mission that Bucky missed out on. It had gone sour before it really started, their one lead missing.

“What was his name?” Bucky asked.

“Torren. What the hell kind of name was that?” Sam asked, making them laugh.

Steve caught it first and then Bucky picked up on it immediately after. Your breathing had gone shallow as you looked out the window. Steve knocked on the table causing the fork to drop from your hand. You jumped when you heard it hit the ground.

“Sarah?” Steve asked.

You finally tore your gaze away from the window and looked at the three concerned faces in front of you.

“I killed him,” you whispered.

You suddenly stood up from the table and ran to your bathroom. Steve shot up after you, Bucky and Sam slowly behind thinking it’d be best to give you two space but wanting to make sure everything was okay. Steve could hear the running water of the sink and your muttering before he got close.

“I killed him, I killed him, I killed him…”

You muttered over and over again as you scrubbed at your hands. The blurry memory was playing in your head. He wasn’t much of a fighter, grabbing his neck and snapping it was easy. You had taken out his security guard and pulled him from out of the car still parked in the parking garage. You had just left him there on the ground. His kill was technically clean, after the first three times you discovered you liked to snap necks more.

It was easier to forget with less blood, the wipings weren’t as harsh when there was no blood. But the guard was too big for you to effectively wrap your hands around so you had to slit his throat. And now you could see that blood on your hands and a dead Torren at your feet, neither image leaving no matter how hard you scrubbed. They watched you switch back and forth from the soap pump to the steady stream of water.

“Sarah!” Steve called but you kept muttering. “Sarah, Sarah!”

He walked over and pulled you away from the faucet and to him towards the ground. Steve rocked back and forth, cradling your head and trying to shush you. The tears on your face didn’t register to you as you kept muttering ‘I killed him’ like they were the only words you knew.

Sam called Dr. Cho up and you were given medicine to knock you out. Steve had taken you to the common room couch, needing to be close in case you woke up again while the rest of the team talked. Everyone had gathered in the living room, Steve sitting on the floor in front of your couch. They turned to Bucky who seemed to have the most experience with anything HYDRA related out of them all, even if he couldn’t remember some chunks of it.

“If she can remember that even with daily wiping, she’ll remember everything eventually.”

“How could they do that?” Thor asked, looking over to where you were. Even in sleep you didn’t seem at rest.

Bucky sighed. He felt you might not have wanted to talk about it but he didn’t have a choice now.

“Do you know why I call her little doll?”

“Doll, it’s 40s slang,” Tony said. “Like Steve calling her babydoll.”

“I wish. I didn’t remember it was from the 40s. I called her that because doll was the guards’ nickname for her. Everyone called her 001 to her face but doll behind her back. Because she was easy to break like a porcelain doll. She was everything HYDRA wanted but emotional, moral…”

“Still somebody,” Nat finished for him, remembering the Red Room motto.

“So they broke her down almost every day in hopes that it would either harden her to be someone like me or that she wouldn’t be able to fix herself again and they would rebuild her. That’s when they killed Elise and it still didn’t work.”

“Did you know about the diamond skin?” Steve asked.

He wasn’t sure if it was a new development or it just wasn’t in your file. It wasn’t like he had ever thought that would be something he needed to test for.

“Third birthday present. She’s been designed since birth to be the perfect weapon. After they killed Elise they brainwashed Sarah, same trigger words as me. It was the only way to get her to do anything, but it never lasted long and they’d have to wipe her otherwise she’d remember and stop functioning.”

“Why does she not stay a soldier as long as you?” Bruce was curious.

That Bucky didn’t have an answer to. But you did as you woke up. Steve felt the shift on the couch and turned to see you had popped open an eye.

“Hey, Babydoll,” he cooed.

You sat up straight.

“Because they did it in the wrong order.”

“Wrong order?”

“Diamond then brainwash, it should be the other way around. It’s not just my outer skin that can harden on impact. If they wanted the electrocutions to be fully effective they should’ve done it first… it’s just science,” you whispered gently.

That made Tony and Bruce smile at you. That’s right, you were a little scientist. Bruce had suggested to Tony that maybe they make you a tiny workstation and that’s what he spent all night doing.

“Sarah?” Steve asked gently. “When Bucky says they tried to break you?”

You hugged your knees.

“It was the Red Room but worse. And because I couldn’t be cut, it went on for hours. I could only feel the pain but never be fully hurt, so they’d go till I passed out and then they woke me up and went again.”

The Avengers got quiet. HYDRA was always a sensitive topic and one you never liked to talk about. This was the most detail they had gotten from you ever. The twins were instantly by your side to the shock of the other Avengers. You were their little sister, they couldn’t help it. Wanda put her hand in front of you, palm up, the red dancing at her fingertips.

“Nothing recent, nothing from after I met you, please.”

Wanda nodded and touched your temple. Your eyes closed and your head rolled back. Her other hand produced a large ball of red that she moved to the center of the room so the rest of the team could see what she was seeing.

“Is it at all possible to see her? Place a timeline?” Clint asked.

“It’s her memories, it’s in… Sarah, can you try to picture yourself?”

Wanda moved her fingertips against your temple a little more:

Elise (L/N) was kept in a surprisingly nice room. It was plain, only filled with books truly. But it was better than a prison cell. Elise strolled the room, reading the title of each book. She grabbed one and turned it back to a two year old you with a very excited face, hair not yet long and still blonde.

“How about this one? Does that sound good, Babydoll?” She asked very loudly.

Elise walked back to the bed and pulled you into her lap. Your chubby little fingers traced the letters that read out Pride and Prejudice.

~~

“Where’s my mom?” you asked as you were pushed down the hall.

“You’ll see her after.”

Those were the only words the guards said while they escorted you down the hall, the concrete was cold against your bare feet. You were led to a room and saw a bunch of scientists and a cake. You sat in the chair they gestured to and took the slice of cake.

“It’s your birthday,” the nurse said.

She took the fork and poked it into the cake before giving you a bite. You went for another when the cake was taken from you and you were pushed back into the chair. The straps tightened. You watched the scientists pull out multiple syringes while the nurse hooked monitors to you. You winced as the first syringe was poked into your skin. The first blade ran across your skin and you cried in pain as the drops of blood formed.

“Two more milliliters,” the scientist said before accepting another syringe.

It continued like that three more times until the fourth run produced a result they liked. You cried but no blood appeared. They tested it again and each time you felt the cut but your skin looked like nothing even touched you. The straps were untied and you were set on your feet, the guards sandwiching you as they led you back to your room.

~~

You looked in the mirror as your mom stood behind you with the large box of dye in her hands. She gingerly ran it over your head and you watched the honey blonde turn a patchy black.

“Why do I have to change it?”

“Because blonde hair on girls that look like you isn’t common. HYDRA wants you to blend in with all the other brown and black girls, be another face in the crowd.”

“Another face.”

“We call you Babydoll,” Elise started. “I’m your mom, Elise (L/N). Your father is Steve Grant Rogers. Captain America. You have his super soldier abilities and you’re a genius like me. HYDRA is bad, don’t forget that.”

“And Captain America?”

“He was lost a long time ago.”

“So he’s not coming to save us?”

“No. No one’s coming to save us. We’re all alone”

Elise turned you around and bent down to look at you. She pulled at a now black curl.

So pretty, my babydoll, Elise signed.

~~

The metal arm was terrifying. It was all you focused on as he came into the room with two guards. You were taken from breakfast with your mother and walked down the hall with them. The room you entered was bare except for all the mats on the floor. The man stood looking down at you before turning to the guards.

“She’s a baby.”

“Has that stopped you before. She starts training now.”

You couldn’t move from your spot. Even after they held at you, you wouldn’t move. The guard pushed you down and another grabbed your hand, taking out a knife and running it against your skin.

“Soldat. You take her back when the hour is over.”

You looked at the floor in tears for what felt like forever. Bucky leaned down and grabbed your face roughly in his metal hand.

“Did you hear me?”

“I’m sorry. My right is worse than my left but— I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“Hey, stop crying, you’re fine okay. Don’t give them an excuse to hurt you. Let’s go.”

He stood back up and looked down at you, deliberately speaking in a way for you to read his lips. You hit him like instructed. He laughed and you knew it was because you were weak.

~~

You smiled when you saw Bucky. He was the one good part of your day when you weren’t with your mother. It was after dinner and you quickly got up to follow him. You were surprised when your mother was forced to follow with you. It wasn’t just the normal training room you went to. This one was packed with scientists and guards and other people, including other young girls. Some that you recognized from your day visits to the Red Room. A pocket knife was put in your hands. You looked at it and looked at all the people in front of you.

“001, pick one of them.”

You didn’t move.

“Soldat.”

He moved you in front of a girl he knew you could take. The girl assumed a fighting stance but you didn’t move.

“Can she not hear us?”

Bucky moved in front of you. “He said to fight.”

“We don’t kill people,” you whispered.

“What did I tell you, little doll?”

“Don’t give them a reason to hurt me.”

Bucky grabbed your shoulders, a move too parent-like. He knew it the minute he heard one of the scientists speak up again.

“Wipe him. He’s growing attached, showing emotion.”

The words triggered and you saw no warmth in his eyes. He stood back up and pushed you roughly into the middle of the floor with the other girl. You gripped the pocket knife tighter and timidly walked towards the girl. She hit you first. You made one measly move but the girl pulled the pocket knife from you and tackled you to the floor. You cried as you blocked your face while she stabbed and cut, growing more frustrated that she wasn’t making marks on you. They pulled her off and escorted her and the rest of the girls away.

“Consequences, 001. You don’t comply, there will be consequences. Soldat.”

You were turned to face your mother. Bucky’s arm grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off of the ground. You scrambled to her before being pushed down.

“No! No, please, please, please.”

You screamed as he adjusted his grip and brought up the metal arm to snap her neck. Your mother dropped to the floor. You couldn’t see past your own tears as they pulled you to your feet and took you back to the cell. You crawled onto the bed, now too big and too empty.

“They call me 001. My mom calls me Babydoll. My mom was Elise (L/N). My dad was Steven Grant Rogers. HYDRA is bad… No one’s coming to save me. I’m all alone,” you whispered.

Clutching the pillow, you rocked until you just passed out.

~~

You were pushed into the room where the technicians were. And so was Bucky sitting in the chair. The panels on his arm were open.

“You think she knows what her mother does?”

“The bitch read her engineering manuals as a bedtime story.”

A toolbox was shoved into your hands and you were moved onto the stool next to Bucky’s metal arm. Bucky staring straight ahead the entire time. You looked at the technician, unsure of what he wanted.

“Elise worked out the mechanisms, 001. The hand is stiff.”

You opened up the panel by his wrist and saw four wires. A red, green, and two you couldn’t distinguish. You looked back at them.

“I can’t tell the difference between blue and purple.”

It was the simplest explanation and you didn’t feel like explaining more. They understood you well enough. They informed you what the purple wire was connected to and switched the covering for the blue one to a yellow covering. You took out the smallest gears and replaced them before rewiring the red wire to a different connection point.

As you closed the panels, Bucky finally looked over at you. When he made eye contact, you felt a hitch in your throat and you ran— the guards laughing but not following because they all knew you were headed back to your room.

You didn’t look up from the bed as you heard the footsteps come in. The cold metal on your knee made you flinch and you scooted all the back into the corner as much as you could. Bucky looked at you with a tilt of his head. Something flashed across his face.

“I hurt you?”

You didn’t say anything but looked at him with tears. Bucky reached out but you shook your head fiercely. He pulled back.

“I’m sorry.”

~~

Bucky came back with the guards and you followed timidly. You were back in the room with more girls and another pocket knife was placed in your hand. Once again, you still couldn’t do it and allowed the other girl to try and beat you to a pulp.

“001. Consequences. Hold her down.”

Something in Bucky snapped. It was one thing if it was other children or anyone close to your age. But he wasn’t going to watch guards hold you while one pulled out a knife. Bucky had hit maybe two guards before the others trained their guns on him and multiple on you.

“Move and we’ll shoot her in the same spot until she drops,” one of the guards yelled.

Bucky stopped.

“Wipe him.”

“No, wait,” the head scientist stood up. “Soldat, report to cryo. Touch anyone and we kill her.”

Bucky walked away and you were ushered to your feet.

“We use her. It’s innate emotional attachment, we’ll never fully get rid of it. So we use it. He wants to protect her, Soldat will do whatever we say… however actions or inaction still have consequences, 001.”

You cried as the first bullet hit your arm.

~~

It had been days since you had seen anyone. And days since you had eaten. The door opened and you set down the book. You were tense as Bucky walked in but didn’t cower. He set down your food and sat as far away as possible in the room.

Hungry? he signed.

You looked at him with a blank stare.

They said you were American. ASL?

You nodded timidly.

I’m sorry. I know I hurt you and I’m sorry.

~~

“James,” he said suddenly as soon as you looked up from working on the metal arm.

You two were alone.

“What?”

“I think my name was James, once.”

“James,” you said and then returned to working on the panels. “HYDRA hurt you? They made you hurt me?”

“I’m sorry, little doll. I can’t promise it won’t happen again. But I don’t want to hurt you.”

You looked back down at the panels.

“They call me 001, my mom called me Babydoll, you say little doll. My mother was Elise (L/N) and my father was Steven Grant Rogers. HYDRA is bad and I won’t forget. No one’s coming to save me… but I’m not alone. There’s one person in HYDRA I trust, James.”

~~

You had finally done what they wanted as you stabbed the girl in the shoulder. You couldn’t end her though. And they couldn’t get you to kill her as you started shaking when you looked at the blood on your hand. Bucky growled as one of the guards approached you.

“We’ve seen enough. She can do it, 001 is just weak. Prep her to be wiped. Don’t think about moving, Soldat… I want her on the same triggers as him. They work as a team.”

Bucky and you were on a mission. It wasn’t that hard to play the lost little girl role. You led the couple, leading scientists on a biomed case, into the alleyway— Bucky taking the man while you killed the woman. The brainwash slipped away and you looked at the bodies on the ground. Bucky clamped a hand over your mouth before you could scream.

“She doesn’t go on missions,” he said once he had led you to the technicians. “She’s scared and won’t make it.”

“Mission report?” the guard asked.

“We handled it. Did you not hear me? She doesn’t go on missions.”

“That’s not your call, Soldat. Prep them both. Wipe him just enough.”

Bucky had to be pushed into his chair, aggressively taking the mouth guard— almost biting off the scientist’s hand. You opened your mouth and they placed the mouth guard in for you. Both you and Bucky screamed around the guards.

Wanda’s fingers left your temple. The Avengers looked around avoiding eye contact with you.

“Sarah?”

“May I be alone?”

“Of course, Babydoll.”

“Uncle Tony, you said the training room had a studio?”

“Off to the side.”

“Sarah.” Sam placed a hand on your shoulder when he saw you reach up for your hearing aids.

“Don’t leave yourself in your head, okay? It’s worse when you shut off from the rest of the world.”

“Okay,” you whispered before sneaking away.

(Part 12)...

#steve rogers x teen!reader #steve rogers x reader #peter parker x reader #peter parker x black!reader #avengers x teen!reader #avengers fic #marvel fic