#'prof. (name) and I KNOW about her and how difficult she is

[tardis--dreams]

For the first time ever, i failed a term paper. The lecturer opened the conversation with the words "you handed in an excellent term paper. Really, A+!" And then continued to point out to me what she liked most. And then told me that that one bitch that was tormenting me last semester had copied all of the notes i shared with her for our presentation. Which is why she can't let me pass because while she Knows it's not my fault she couldn't prove it to anyone if questioned about it. So we both fail. But luckily for me, i get another chance. The 15 minutes i talked to her were truly refreshing

[priceyprice]

Prof!Price

"Do you think the professor's hot?"

She stopped writing in her notebook, trying to process the question her friend asked. It was late at night, and everything was quiet around her. She was on a call with one of her friends from class, trying to do an assignment together since it was difficult doing it alone. They found out it was more efficient calling each other because they could share their notes and answers.

"Who are you talking about?"

"Who else? The professor from literature." She tensed, chest tightening with that familiar but obnoxious feeling at the seductive tone she used to say professor from literature.

She dropped her pen in the middle of her notebook to pay full attention to her friend's words. "The professor from literature?"

"Yes! Have you seen him?"

She cleared her throat. Of course she's seen him. In fact, she has seen every part of him.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh my gosh!" Her friend said in an annoyance tone, feeling frustrated she wasn't getting the point. But, she was obviously getting the fucking point. She just can't admit it out of the blue. "He's so hot. I know he's a serious man inside and outside the classroom, but hey, his face and his body... oh my, my... I would totally fuck a man like that."

Her face frowned upon the last words, looking at her friend's name from her phone —since the call was on speaker— as if she's in front of her. That uncomfortable feeling rose throughout all her body like a fountain.

Her friend was looking at the professor with other eyes than the academic figure.

She's pretty sure her friend is not the only girl with her panties wet for the professor from literature. Professor Price is a man who has charisma. His big bulk of a body and his electrifying blue eyes possess an aura that can either intimidate you or make you flustered. The way he talks with people with his low and calm voice, as if he's going to sing the most romantic tune, ever existed. Also, the way he walks, the way he dresses, the way he styles his beard... Everything from Professor Price screams perfection.

It's not difficult for someone to get attracted to the professor.

But still.

She didn't like how other girls looked at him like he was the most expensive dish served on a silver plate, ready to be devoured. Even though his eyes only stayed on her, she was the only one who could look at him like that.

She was the only one who could actually devour that expensive dish.

She was jealous.

The phantom touch of rough hands around her ankles made her throw a little gasp while pushing the rolling chair backward. "Shh..." Her heart skipped a beat when she hears that low and rough voice beneath her. She looked down at her desk, just to find the protagonist of her conversation with her friend kneeling in front of her;

Professor Price.

He was wearing his usual attire for work. The only difference was his white long-sleeved shirt unbuttoned by the first few buttons, leaving a glimpse of his hairy chest and making him look like some sexy star magazine. His hair was slightly disheveled, probably by all the times he passed his fingers through it. His icy blue eyes were accompanied by some eyebags under it, revealing the tiredness he was accumulating within these days that had passed thanks to the amount of work and reunions he was receiving.

"What are you doing?!" She whispered-yelled taking a rebel strand of hair that went in front of her face when she moved her chair. His thumb caressed softly the skin of her ankles before pulling her to him again, earning a soft gasp from her parted lips. His face ended up resting on her right thigh, eyes closing to the warm feeling her skin radiates.

"'Missed you." He said, placing a soft kiss to her thigh, making her wriggle a bit at the sensation his lips left. "'Missed you so much." He started to leave a trail of soft kisses on her thigh as his hands worked its way to the back of her knees, opening her legs so he could have more room between them. His hands traveled to either side of her hips, taking the waistband of her shorts trying to pull them down.

Her eyebrows raised all the way up, almost comically, ignoring the burning feeling he was making inside of her and focusing on the panic when she realized what he was doing, quickly stopping him. "Wait, Price, we can't do that here." She said, placing her hands on either side of his head trying to separate his lips from her skin, but it was in vain. He was much stronger than her.

Price's hands grasped hers in a soft motion. His thumb caressed her delicate fingers. "Why not? We are in my home. Nobody's watching."

"I'm talking with someone, Price."

"Then be quiet, love." He said before continuing where he left, placing his hands on the waistband of her shorts, his fingers curling the fabric before tugging it down her legs.

Truth be told, Price doesn't give a fuck who is she talking to. He's too tired and consumed by all the work he had these past days, that he's left with nothing but the thought of her beautiful face bringing him the peace he needs.

They couldn't almost see each other within the university halls besides his classroom. His home too, where he'd often find her asleep on his couch or his bed because he was leaving late from the university's office. In the early mornings, he just kissed her a soft goodbye waking her up just for her to see his silhouette leaving the room to go and finish more paperwork he had left the day before.

A sigh could be heard from the other line of the call. "Too bad he isn't open enough to know his relationship status."

A little gasp escaped from her lips when she felt his hot lips put pressure on the wet patch that was starting to form in her soft underwear. A jolt of electricity passed through all her body when he placed another kiss in the same spot, making her jump slightly.

His lips turned into a smile. His hands started caressing the soft flesh of her thighs. "Answer her, love." he said before placing an open-mouthed kiss on the wet spot, passing his tongue through the fabric, feeling the rapid pulses of her pearl. She opened her mouth with a low moan as her hands found a way into his hair.

"Y-Yes... he doesn't... he doesn't let... anyone know."

She tried to calm her frenetic breathing from giving away what was happening on her side of the phone, but it was too difficult. Her back arched when his warm tongue put pressure on her sensitive bud, feeling the wet fabric caress it.

"P-Price, p-please." Her words were shaking in her throat along with a few moans. "What?" He asked, looking up at her beautiful face contorted in nothing but pleasure. Her hand puts a little bit more pressure on the crown of his head, as if inviting him to keep going. "T-Take it off."

"Your underwear?"

She nodded.

"No. I'll take it off when I want to."

He grasped her legs with both hands and threw them over his shoulder, now completely open to him. He rested his hands on her hips, looking at the —big—wet patch, now transparent where he could slightly see through her white underwear the outlines and the color of her folds and her pearl, pulsating against the fabric with desire. Price started at it as if he were a starved man with his last meal in front of him, waiting, inviting him to taste it.

That sent him goosebumps all over his body. His mind glowing with sinful thoughts made him almost blind from the desire.

"Keep talking with her, love. You don't want to let her know that the professor you guys are talking about is the same one between your legs." He said before diving his head again between her thighs.

His tongue made its way with her, taking big laps from her folds to her clothed bud, making her gasps now with full force on his short hair. "F-Fuck..."

"You know, sometimes I think he's married."

She opened her mouth to only let out a soft whimper. His tongue now moving easily with saliva and arousal pooled between her underwear.

"Y-You think so?" She threw her head back into the chair in a blinding pleasure. He was literally making out with her intimate area as if it was her mouth. Opened kisses and pressed his tongue all over her, caging her between his large hands like a lion with a bone between his paws.

He wanted to take her underwear off. Oh, he's been craving to see her bare since the second he stepped into his home. But he knows how loud they can be. He knows how loud the obscene sounds her sweet area makes. He knows the high-pitched moans she does when she's close. He knows everything from head to toe. And he can't risk the other person hearing those sweet sounds coming from her mouth and body.

Of course, he knows her very well.

She's his lover.

"Yeah! I mean, he doesn't look at the other female professors with other eyes than work." His tongue started to draw circles around her bud, sending shock waves through her stomach. Even with the underwear in the middle, she could feel his soft tongue in contrast with the hairs of his beard and mustache tickling her sensitive zone, along with the hairs of his cheeks grazing her inner thighs up and down everytime he licks her.

It was driving her crazy.

"But, there was a rumor."

She bit her lip, trying to stop a whimper rolling from her tongue before speaking; "R-Really? W-what rumor?"

"That him and the professor from marketing were dating." Before she even had the time to think those words and let that jealousy feeling rise up her chest, a chocked moan escaped her lips when she felt his tongue and underwear entering her entrance. Her hips buckled so fast to his face that the chair made a loud squealing sound.

"Is everything okay?"

"Y-Yes!" She said, sounding a little bit more high-pitched than normal. "I almost... fell from my ch-chair. D-Don't worry..."

"Oh, be careful... So, someone who's studying marketing told me that their professor was looking at him like..." Her friend really wanted to spill some kind of false tea, but unfortunately she lost the topic of the conversation the second his tongue was in her entrance, not even caring what was happening around her, only the man and the skillful tongue between her legs.

"Price..." She said when he returned to her now puffy bud giving circles around it. She opened her eyes to stare down just to find his blue ones already looking at her.

Beautiful, he thought. Her hair was in a few directions, while her forehead was glistening with a few droplets of sweat and a few strands plastered on her skin. Her cheeks were red, and her mouth was opened, letting out soft and low noises.

"J-Just fuck me."

"No. After you finish your call, I promise to fuck you like the goddess you are." He continued to circling her bud now putting a little bit more pressure.

She was starting to feel that familiar knot in her stomach. Unconsciously, her hips started to buckle from the chair and getting closer to his face continuously to make that release faster.

"I know you're close, love. Come on, give yourself to me."

He started going faster with his tongue as she started to go faster with her hips, almost making a rhythm to match each other. Her fingers were so secured in his hair, giving painful stings to his scalp, but he didn't mind.

Not when his lover is a mess and he's the cause of it.

She felt all her muscles tense at the same time her legs started to tremble. Her hips worked faster and faster each second, trying desperately to get that release.

Only one last suck to her sensitive bud was all it took to unleash what she was searching for.

Every fiber exploded at the same time her orgasm clashed down in powerful waves. Her mouth hanged open, chocking back a scream that was forming on the depths of her throat. "John...!" She looked at the ceiling, her vision getting blurry for a second.

All the strength was leaving her body and soul as she collapsed back on the chair. Her legs dropped from his shoulders, and her hand left his now totally disheveled hair. Her chest was rapid with her unsteady breathing, her blood pleading for some oxygen. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying not to make a loud noise and raise suspicion on her friend. Although that wasn't necessary since her friend was rambling about the rumor without taking a break to breathe.

He separate a little from between her thighs, noticing how her arousal made all her underwear drenched and a few droplets falling in the leather cushion of the chair. His muscles tensed at the very erotic sight in front of him.

His hands made way to the waistband of her panties, slowly taking it off her legs and securing them in his pockets. He could see her glistening folds and puffy pearl now bare and open to him, inviting him for another round. And as almost tantalizing that view was for him, he kept his composure and was going to wait until she finished her call as he promised.

He gave a chaste kiss to her bud, her hips bucking as she hissed at the hypersensitivity she was feeling. He trailed kisses down her thighs to her legs, and then he ended with a final kiss on her ankles before caressing them one last time and muttering an 'I love you' without her hearing it.

A few minutes passed, and she opened her eyes only to find herself alone again, as if he didn't take a step into his home office where she was.

"So, what do you think?"

She tried to compose herself, wincing when she felt parts of her arousal that was left in the chair in contact with her sensitive area. She looked down, seeing all the mess she had made.

I'm blaming this on him.

She's pretty sure if he was still there, he would've said, "You were not complaining when you made that mess."

She could hear the faint noise of the shower running from his room that was two doors down the hall , maybe preparing himself before actually having his way with her.

She straightened herself, passing her hands through her hair, taking a few wet strands plasted on her forehead behind her ears. She accommodated her shirt, not bothering to look for her underwear since it was all ruined now. She was going to take a shower after this or join him.

She cleared her throat. "About the rumor...?"

She already heard that rumor. That took surface, and after a few days, everyone was talking about it. That caused a few problems between her and her lover, but he cleared everything and told her it was just her having a crush on him since he can remember, but she has been with other men to take money from them. Of course, since she knows Price is a man with a few dollars on his account, she wanted to have her way with him. But that didn't happen.

While a few professors and students find her like someone sexy and secure, Professor Price finds her disgusting.

Nothing like my little love, he thinks.

"No, silly! About the professor."

Her lips curled into a small smile, feeling tired about the way her soul almost leaves her body in that orgasm caused by the very one Professor Price.

"Yeah... He's not that bad."

part 2 here

: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

I apologize for the shitty writing. I'm not good at writing these types of scenes + my first language it's not english.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated 🫶🏻.

[natsaffection]

Hello baby, are u good? i saw someone requestin “prof nat x student reader” and i LOVE IT. For real, pls do it.

BUT i also love prof nat x prof reader, could you pls do that too? Like they both teach diferent languages in the same school and nat is super rough and feared by the students, and r is the cool teacher everyone loves, so they keep flirting at work and its cute and funny??

I would really love to see that please my love 🫶

‎

A/n: Okay, so first of all, HELLOUUU IM SORRY FOR NOT POSTING ANYTHINGG 🏃🏻‍♀️ Second. I’m blushing, blushing and blushing. Too many “pet”names in this request, urgh 🫣🥸

Also, it was fun to write something in my first language, soo🌚 Have funnnn

warnings: a little anxious student, flirting, mention of oral

Word count: 1045

pairing: Teacher!Natasha x Teacher!Reader

‎

‎

‎

It was fifth period today and everything went according to plan. You were well on time and the students were doing perfectly as well. That's what convinced you to become a teacher. To give your knowledge to the next generation and do something good. 

You used to hate school, though. But later you found out that it was simply because of the teachers. What's the point of yelling at students and giving them bad grades if they have a bad day? After all, they are not machines, they are human beings...

And that's what brought you forward. You wanted to be a great role model to your students. A person to talk to when things went wrong in life. And they could do that with you. Your students were grateful that they had you in this particular subject. 

German. 

Many have the mindset that it is one of the most difficult languages in the world. For you, it was relatively okay to speak and especially to learn. You had good prospects.

It was near the end of class when you noticed a student of yours couldn't stop wiggling her legs under the table. You panicked that it was your stuff and saved for yourself to talk to the person about it at the end, and when the time came, you did,

"Hey Sarah, do you have a minute?" The girl stopped and looked frantically at the clock hanging on the wall. "S-Shure!" She walked up, and you addressed it, "So..is something too heavy for you?" The girl could barely hold focus as she kept looking at her watch, "It's not really! I Just..I.." You notice, "Am I keeping you up? Are you about to write a exam?" The girl became more nervous, "N-No..I just have to go, you know?" She said quickly,

"What class do you have now?"

"Russian..." Ah, there it is. It was generally a mystery to you why you would pack two languages after each other. But it wasn't that. You knew who the person teaching Russian was, and you had a suspicion.

"Is it because Ms. Romanoff has the class?" You see an eye movement, "Yes..."

"Does she scare you?" She looks down, "Not scared, just...She's so strict...The complete opposite part of you..." You continue to look at her and realize she's not the first to say that about Natasha. However, you couldn't understand it since you only know her soft and caring.

"I'm sure things will be different today, really." Heh, and you know why too..

"Really?" You notice how her demeanor got better, and she stands up straight, "Yes and now let's go, it's almost time after all." The girl smiled and headed off, "Thanks Y/n!"

You sat down, appeased and went through the next few hours. When you were done and the end of the day knocked on the door, you make your way to your colleague. The bell rang for the end of class and you walked in. You immediately noticed the change in atmosphere,

"And don't forget the homework until next week, I don't want to have to tell you everything again, so do it thoroughly!"

Okay wow..you knew Natasha could get a little stubborn sometimes, but like this? You stopped at the door and saw the expressions on the students' faces. Most of them had their eyes on the floor as they walked past Natasha. Then, when everyone was outside, you close the door and Natasha looked to you, "Oh, hey Kotenok, How long have you been here?" You cross your arms and lean against the door frame, "A while..What was today's topic?" Natasha sits down at her table, "General debate...Only some get it right, the others don't." You hear that she was annoyed by this, "I just don't get it! Why do people sign up for classes and do nothing?"

You drop your arms and go to her, "Maybe it's not them but you..." Any other person would be headless right now, "Oh yeah, and why do you think that Detka, hmm?" You sit down on her lap, "I don't know, you think I'm great..." Natasha looked up at you, "You can only think you're great too..."

"Ha..ha, stop it. Now let's be honest, I had a conversation with a student of yours earlier and she was totally intimidated by you!" Natasha sat back, "Sarah, right? So that's why she was late. I think, Ms. L/n, you're a bad role model." That made you laugh,

"Me? A bad role model? Who doesn't want to tell the kids about the stuff a second time?" You look at her table to see what it is in detail, "Перестань смотреть на мою работу, милая.” (stop looking at my work, sweet.)

You look back at her, "Is it weird if I say I think it's hot when you talk to me in Russian? Weil ich kann das auch.” (Because I can do that too) Natasha had to restrain herself from jumping on you right away, "Fuck, that sounds so evil coming from you..." You lean closer to her, "Well..you know what else can come out of me?" 

"Oh hoh, Y/n you dirty girl..The exemplary one wants to be taken in a classroom, huh? Sorry to disappoint you there." She averts her gaze from you and is now sorting through the sheets on her desk, "I have work to do." You put a hand over hers, stand up and kneeling down.

"We can do that later..."

Before you could put your plan into action, though, Steve walked in. You pretend you dropped something and stand up. However, Steve knew what was going on, "I'm just going to ignore what I saw." You had to stifle a laugh and Natasha simply asked, "What do you think you saw, Rogers?" He walked up to the two of you, "Too much. Here, one of your students left this with me in the hall." He put a list on the table. Natasha looked at it for a moment and then back at him. The situation was relatively awkward..For all of you. "Soo?"

"It's okay, I'm going, god..." You both look as he goes to the door and before he closes it, looks at you again, "Have f-fun..." And the door closed.

-

-

-

-

I HOPE ITS NOT TO MUCH RUSHED😭

[ruiyuki]

Aight folks, I went to watch Providence with Japanese subs TWICE in three days now and after the initial emotional anechoic chamber it put me through, I can finally recount the movie and make sense of its plot and themes. So here is a ⚠️‼️ VERY SPOILER HEAVY RECAP ‼️⚠️ of the whole movie (literally very long, scene-by-scene of everything I can rmbr) & some commentary under cut.

The movie opens with a group of assailants raiding a cargo ship. Seems like their target is a woman aboard named Professor Stronskaya who's accosted in her room by a man with red dreads and a blond man. Over the ship we see Kougami flying on a plane with Frederica over the radio. They're there to rescue the Professor. Kougami drops down to the ship (in only what I can call, a flying squirrel suit) and there's a shoot out. He finds the Professor's room but she's dead. He's attacked again and hears somebody speaking to him an excerpt of the bible. Things are exploding on the ship and Kougami escapes to safety by jumping into the ocean.

Cut to Nona tower after the OP credits. Akane is speaking at a meeting of Directors about Japan's upcoming decision to abolish the legal system now that judicial proceedings are more or less moot with Sybil in place. We meet Atsushi Shindou, Director of Welfare who tries to keep the peace among the members and he says a guest was suppose to join them but did not make it to the meeting. Akane gets an urgent call from Mika and excuses herself from the meeting.

Mika tells Akane about the attacked cargo ship that's sailed up to Japan's port and tells her to "stop playing politician and get back here already" lol. Shindou approaches Akane and accompanies her to the cargo ship. Turns out it was Shindou that invited Professor Stronskaya as the guest for the meeting and that she is a global researcher who wrote a document called "The Stronskaya Papers". They have a discussion in the car ride where Shindou tells Akane he has high hopes for her, but also, maybe she shouldn't piss off people that could help her in the long run. Big oops mood but also, nice to see our classic Akane still, haha.

Akane and Shindou arrive at the site of the cargo ship where we find Mika being difficult to Frederica to say the least lol. Frederica is with the Director of Foreign Affairs (who I honestly forgot his name so I'll just refer to him as "DFA"). Shindou calls up Kasei and she instructs Division 1 to hand over the case to Foreign Affairs. There's a funny moment after of Mika badmouthing the situation and Shindou sneaks up on her telling her to watch what she says cuz the DFA has a really special hearing aid LMAO.

Division 1 recaps to Akane what they could find on the ship in the short amount of time while Akane also fills in her team abt Professor Stronskaya. Gino mentions they found the Professor dead but confirming it would be difficult bc she was decapitated. Hinakawa says the Professor sent one last message out before she died and it was to Jouji Saiga (👀‼️).

Akane calls Saiga-sensei in the privacy of the MWPSB car. Shindou knocks on the window and joins in on the call. Turns out Shindou and Saiga-sensei know each other from their university days where Shindou was Saiga's senpai (again another 👀‼️). They talk abt Prof Stronskaya but Saiga says he wants to speak to Akane alone about it.

Akane meets Saiga-sensei in his isolation unit and they talk abt how he knows Shindou, Prof Stronskaya and the Stronskaya Papers. Saiga tells Akane the papers are about Sybil and its impact on society and that they could very well change the stability of the world and Japan. He confirms the last message he got from Prof Stronskaya is the location to a P.O. box in Dejima, Kyushu where the papers are kept. Akane asks if Saiga would help her retrieve the papers, ofc Saiga agrees.

Before they head out to Dejima, Akane meets with Kasei alongside Mika, Frederica, and the DFA. They debrief on the assailant group and its here we learn of the main baddie of our movie: a man call Tonami who was part of the Japanese military group, the "Peacebreakers" formed by the MOFA. The Peacebreakers were active overseas 5 years ago on behalf of the MOFA, but all its members including Tonami went rogue. Now that they're back in Japan, its decided this will be a joint operation to reign them in. Kasei says smth along the lines of "you cant hunt feral animals with dogs so what better way but with bloodhounds, make good use of him" referring to you know who !!!!

Cut to Division 1's office. Gino's livid and ready to start a fight at the sight of Kougami back in Japan (he's really yelling "how dare you show your face here again"). Sugo breaks them up as Akane, Mika, and Frederica enter the office. Kougami greets Akane with calling her "Inspector" (🥺) while Akane (tries to?) keeps a poker face.

Akane, Gino, Sugo escort Saiga with Frederica and Kou to Dejima while Mika, Yayoi, Hinakawa and Shion stay in Tokyo as support. They discuss Tonami again on the plane where Gino asks a question and Kou tried to answer but Gino retorts a petty "I wasn't asking you" LMAO. They arrive at one of the MOFA buildings for their stay and it's noted that Dejima is where all the refugees/immigrants live in Japan while they await naturalization.

Saiga looks into profiling Tonami and the Peacebreakers. He and Kou discuss it over liquor and Saiga-sensei gives some more dad advice to Kougami (he tells Kou to apologize to Akane while he still can 😂). Kou calls up Akane on the balcony a while later and they talk about why he's returned. Akane hangs up on him when he says he doesnt regret his decision (and his face is priceless 😂😂😂) cuz she was also hoping he would apologize but he didnt. Frederica meets with DFA for something and he tells her dont let Kougami or Saiga know of their plan.

The next morning the team goes to retrieve the papers at the P.O. box and there's another Saiga-dad moment where he teases Kougami for "[he] couldnt do it, huh" while Kou plays dumb (😂). The P.O box address was a fake, Prof Stronskaya didnt leave the document in there to be safe. Turns out DFA also planned Saiga to be a setup: there was a leak in the MOFA to lure the Peacebreakers targeting Saiga-sensei for the papers. Now the Peacebreakers—including the dreads guy and blond guy (now named Kai) from before—are attacking, and its a matter of keeping Saiga safe.

Akane, Kou, and Frederica try to evacuate Saiga to the extraction point while Gino and Sugo fend off Peacebreakers on their own. They find out the Dominators dont work on Peacebreaker soldiers bc of (artifically) low Crime Coefficients and have to resort to brute force or guns. Kou's group is attacked by the man with red dreads shortly after walking past some bodies with bomb traps (where Kougami FUCKING RAN to protect his wife shield Akane from one that set off... gouchisousama deshita 🙏). Kou gets trapped in a shoot out with other Peacebreakers while Frederica engages the red dreads guy but gets overpowered. The red dreads guy ends up holding Saiga hostage at knife point but Kou manages to shoot the dreads guy in the head (literally mere inches from Saiga-sensei, Kou that's insane. Saiga calls him out on it lol).

But the red dreads guys isnt down yet (?!?!) Or at least, he is suppose to be very dead but his body still moves and talks like he's possessed by something. Kou engages him again but Saiga gets slashed and starts to fall off a ledge of the atrium they're at. Akane runs to catch him but she can't pull him up. Saiga-sensei looks up to Akane and puts his faith in her, tells her smth along the lines of "justice and truth can be seen by those high above and he believes she is capable of reaching there". He lets himself slip out of her grasp and falls to his death, crashing into the fountain under the atrium.

I asked where was Saiga-sensei in S3 but I didnt want the answer to be he fucking DIES 😭😭😭

Akane runs down to the fountain as Kou still tries to handle the dreads guy. Eventually Frederica takes over as Kai and the Peacebreakers make their retreat now that their target expired and Kou chases after Kai. There's a Kougami vs Kai 1v1 in a holo room while Frederica, now with Gino, fights the possessed dreads guy (there's a lot of hand-to-hand combat sequences in this movie) also Sugo got shot but he's ok. Kai manages to escape from Kougami, but not before monologuing at him another excerpt from a book and leaving Kou a dagger with a tassle stuck in his shoulder. Gino punches a hole through the dread guy's torso with his prosthetic arm just as the dreads guy sets off a grenade in suicide. Gino thankfully disconnects his prosthetic in time and jumps back to safety.

In the aftermath, Frederica finds out the DFA is missing bc of the Peacebreaker attack (he was initially observing their whole decoy plan from a surveillance room). Akane chews her out, but Shindou suddenly appears in Dejima and says he'll handle the clean up. Akane starts to get suspicious of Shindou at this point but there is nothing she can do since no one wanted Saiga-sensei to die. Kougami and Akane share an elevator ride where Akane's starting to cry over losing Saiga-sensei, and Kou gives her a pep talk of "keeping calm, she can cry after the case is over" (a callback to the pep talk he gave her after Yuki died by Makishima in S1 🥺).

Once Kou is back in his room, he thinks about the monologue Kai gave him and runs a search. The excerpt was from a book called the "Great Aso". He calls up Shion for the forensics result from the tassled dagger and she says the tassle was made of horse hair. He asks her to do a search of horses location restricted to Aso, Japan while the conversation moves to cognitive and scientific theory of body possession (makes sense given that Shion is a physician), and more specifically—possession of a body by a god?

By morning we get a scene of Shindou meeting with Arata, Kei, and Maiko in Dejima. If you've been paying attention to the names you'll realize Maiko is Prof Stronskaya's daughter. Shindou is there delivering the news of her death to the young'uns. On top of that, he mentions Kei's older brother—Akira—might be able to return for Kei and Maiko's wedding happening shortly after Lunar New Year. Shindou and Arata leave and stroll through Dejima as the immigrant residents prepare Lunar New Year festivities in the district.

There's a scene change to now watch the Peacebreaker side of things. We follow Kai as he walks through their secret base. He stops to observe Tonami speaking to Peacebreaker soldiers like a religious cult leader and it is revealed they kidnapped the DFA and are water torturing him. We follow Kai for a bit longer to his quarters where he struggles with body convulsions, takes some pills, then smash his reflection in the mirror (looking hot doing it). He gets a call from Tonami telling him to handle the DFA again as Tonami is now leaving to meet with their leader called The General.

Back to Akane's crew: Mika, Akane, Frederica have now found the Peacebreaker's secret base located in Aso, Kyushu thanks to Kougami's search. They request a raid with the use of traditional guns from Kasei who allows it. There's a really nice sequence of Kou and Gino partnered up being the vanguard of their raid. They get stuck in a gun fight against turret drones though and have to hide behind stone pillars until the drones are suddenly disabled. But by whom?

Surprise! It's Kai, who has extracted the DFA. Turns out Kai is an undercover agent for the DFA and Shindou, and his real name is ‼️ Akira Vasily Ignatov ‼️ Kei's brother!!!! Now it all makes sense—dropping the monologue and tassle dagger as clues.

Akira tells Kougami and Ginoza to restrain him and take him in before Tonami finds out about the base. DFA is recovered but needs medical attention, so Akane, Frederica, and Kou escort them both by heliplane back to Dejima while Akane leaves investigation of the Peacebreaker base to Gino. Aboard the plane, Akira reveals the details of the Stronskaya Papers: its actually a formula for a simulation using Sybil's Crime Coefficient concept to calculate society's likelihood of disagreement and unrest—a Conflict Coefficient. The Conflict Coefficient could be used to settle wars or elevate them which is why Tonami wants the papers. Akira reveals the data is stored in a chip implant in his brain, but also says there's a second implant in his brain from the Peacebreakers called "The Divider". The Divider can negate negative thoughts and emotions by sharing it to another entity, which is how they fake Crime Coefficients read by Dominators, and it's also how Tonami possesses a soldier's body.

When they reach Dejima, they're greeted by Shindou. Shindou thanks Akira saying it must have been hard on him. Akane requests to talk with Shindou, Frederica tends to DFA and Kou takes Akira in for his statement. Akira reveals he was the one that killed Prof Stronskaya to protect the mission (and it hurt him to do so now knowing their familial ties 😔) and that Tonami can possess members of the MOFA bc each MOFA agent already has a brain implant for translation, while Shindou explains why Akira was undercover in the first place. Akane questions Shindou on why everything he does seems to have no flaws, like things are perfectly laid out for him; he's about to answer when they're interrupted by Kougami's urgent call. Kou's and Akira's questioning was interrupted by Tonami possessing DFA who locked Frederica in the elevator and shot Kou in the leg. He's hijacked Akira's body and making a run for it, trying to escape with the Stronskaya data.

When Akane and Shindou catch up to the Tonami-possessed Akira, Akira tries to overcome the body possession and struggles pointing a gun at himself to suicide. He manages to shoot himself in the chest and chucks the gun at Shindou, pleading to be killed so Tonami can't get the Stronskaya data. Shindou obliges (but not before Akira asks him to look after Kei) and shoots Akira dead as Lunar New Year fireworks go off in the background and Akane and team watches on. Kasei arrives in Dejima to speak to Shindou.

We get to the interlude before Act 3 of the movie now. Akane visits Kougami in hospital bed recovering from the leg injury regretful that he couldnt prevent the loss of Akira. Akane reminds him that they're a team, and they'll get Tonami next time (🥺 again, it's a nice call back to S1). Kasei meets with Shindou in his car in the middle of Dejima's Lunar New Year festivities, where Shindou addresses Kasei as "Sybil System". They discuss the events and Shindou taking responsibility for it. Kasei leaves Shindou with "a parting gift" and exits the car. Not long after, Shindou calls Akane to meet him, still in the midst of festivities and explains Kei is getting married very soon and he requests for Akane that news of Akira's dead not made public til after the wedding. He then invites Akane to attend the wedding too.

Shindou and Akane arrive for the wedding where they're greeted by Arata. Arata walks Maiko down the aisle and Kei and Maiko are really cute at the altar. Shindou gives a speech at the reception (that really is more cryptically directed to Akane and Arata, I think 👀) then immediately disappears after the speech. Arata and Akane notice Shindou's gone and go searching. He's in his car, looking at a photo of him with his wife and a child Arata. The parting gift from Kasei is a gun. He shoots himself. Arata and Akane find him.

At the morgue, Arata, Kei and Maiko mourn Shindou. Arata, distressed, tries to get answers from Akane to make sense of the events but Akane doesnt know either. The joint investigation between MOFA and Division 1 is called off and Division 1 is ordered back to Tokyo. Akane meets with Kasei who shows her a video message from Tonami. The Peacebreakers have relocated to the northernmost islands (the Kumail Islands? Or smth, I forgot the name) of Japan declaring independence with The General as their leader. Apparently Sybil has conversed with this General of theirs and agreed on the terms, and wants Akane to deliver the Stronskaya Papers to Tonami (as a peace offering I guess?). Kasei basically tells Akane to shut up and go with it, Akane will be out of MWPSB soon anyway as Sybil will have her take Shindou's place as the new Director of Welfare.

Ofc, Akane's never gonna "just shut up and go with it" lol. She reviews the notes Saiga-sensei came up while profiling Tonami that concludes with "God?" and calls up Kougami asking him to join her in solving this case. He says he was going to go with her regardless if she asked (🥺). Frederica overhears Akane's call and she agrees too to "finish the job their boss failed to do".

So the team assembles at the office. The plan is for Kou, Frederica and Gino to arrive at the islands to take down as many Peacebreaker soldiers before Akane arrives via MWPSB heli as the decoy for Tonami with the Stronskaya Papers. Sugo takes care of the transportation issue, and Mika, Shion, Yayoi again work logistisical support. We learn that the Peacebreakers have a satellite in the stratosphere which is how they do jamming and control The Divider devices, so Sugo will fly a drone within its airspace after dropping Kou's team off for Hinakawa to hack it. Akane makes a point that they'll operate by MWPSB standards and by that will mean use of Dominators, and she's already arranged for Kou and Frederica as temporary users.

I really like her speech of "if we are going to enforce the law, we will do so as MWPSB detectives" 🥺 bc that brings me back to her learning what it means to be a detective in S1 from Kou and Masaoka.

Everyone divides into their assignments. Kou's team loads onto the boat Sugo has arranged with the JDF submarine. There's a snarky tsundere-Mika moment as she gives Gino a new Dominator she's had R&D work on. Akane sees Kougami & co. off, though not without Kou tell her to not do anything reckless as the decoy and she replies "I can't guarantee that.." / Kougami: "Oi. 😑" / "So make sure you get there (to me) quickly".

On the boat, Gino and Kou have a heart-to-heart finally with Gino asking again why Kougami's come back. He says he's trying to do the responsible thing and Gino think it's at least an improvement. They share the thought that they are the reason for Akane tying herself down to her job as an inspector, and want to protect her for it.

I really loved this part bc you can feel the friendship is still there between Gino and Kou, and although they now see each other in different roles with respect to Akane (metaphorically, Gino being a "shield" for her, and Kougami as her "sword"), the shared guilt and understanding of their motivation ever since end of S1 is there which is what makes the team so great.

Kougami & co. get to the islands, setup, and start infiltrating the Peacebreaker base. Sugo flies the drone to the satellite after but is met with laser defences trying to shoot it down. (There's a whole CGI sequence for this part and the jury's still out on whether I like it or not 😂). Akane arrives at the base where Tonami greets her. She says the Stronskaya Papers are now in her brain from Akira's implant and that she wants to meet the General before handing them over. It's revealed that the General is a medical AI (the Bifrost in S3) that was initially created to support latent criminal rehabilitation within the Sybil System, but the project was scrapped and later repurposed by the MOFA for the Peacebreakers. Essentially (for what I can interpret at least), the Peacebreakers were created to do the MOFA's overseas dirty work where the implant in their brain would transmit negative thoughts & emotion to the medical AI as a sinkhole for the soldiers to stay.. unburdened (is the best word I can describe? Somebody pls correct me if I understood this wrong lol). Tonami and fellows resented that, the hypocrisy of them being used like that, which prompted their defection and subsequently trying to claim the medical AI as their own system to elevate world conflict through the addition of the Stronskaya Paper's simulation algorithm with religious rhetoric. Tonami tried to added Prof Stronskaya's decapitated brain to The General in place of the papers, but it didnt work which is why he's still after them. Akane debates that AI systems like Sybil and The General cannot replace the will of humanity but Tonami will have none of that and shoots her in the thigh.

Outside, Kougami's team is fending off Peacebreakers while Sugo drone-piloting is trying to hold out long enough for Hinakawa to hack the satellite. They cut it very close with Hinakawa excitedly exclaiming when they're finally hacked in. (I am so proud of him this whole movie cuz there were small moments where Hinakawa openly voices his thoughts on the case and his hacking capabilities: "if the enemy is using this type of thing, then I should be able to hack it"... it's a mile growth from the meek enforcer we met in S2!!). Shion & Yayoi use the hacking to shut down the Dividers creating fake Crime Coefficients and to put the Dominators online for Kou, Gino, and Frederica. The next bit is a nice sequence of Kougami initializing the Dominator's start up UI with the PSYCHO-PASS theme playing (more callbacks to S1, god I missed these moments). Gino's new Dominator from Mika is apparently a multi-target lock on Dominator, and Frederica's gets a new railgun Dominator with a multi-shot Destroy Decomposer. Once they get mostly control of the battle, Gino shouts at Kougami to "get to Tsunemori!" (he actually says "Tsunemori ō mamoru!" in Japanese which made me keel over cuz that can be translated as "go protect Tsunemori" 🥹), and Kou bolts.

Things are looking alright until Shion, Yayoi & Hinakawa realize the satellite isnt stopping its motion and is actually on course to crash into the Peacebreaker base as a fail-safe for being hacked. At this point, Mika actually suddenly left the operations room to go to Kasei. She argues to Sybil that Akane is too valuable to let die, so Sybil pulls the strings to get the JDF to shoot down the satellite before it crashes into the base. (I do appreciate that for all her attitude, Mika does respect Akane and see the importance she has in her role. We see another moment of this later on too. This movie finally moved me from negative opinion of Mika to neutral lol). The debris from the shot down satellite fall onto the base where Gino & Frederica are fending off the last of the Peacebreakers and they take cover. We finally catch up with Akane and Tonami.

Akane's handcuffed by Tonami and bleeding from her leg profusely but she's still fighting back. She crawls far enough to reach her Dominator that has fallen on the ground and chucks it to the terminal that controls The General. Seems like she actually hid the Stronskaya data in her Dominator and the contact with the terminal updates The General's AI. Akane says she places faith in the system that The General's AI will choose to opposite outcome that Tonami wants, where the AI will choose reducing conflict with the peace Sybil brings to society. The AI does just that and assimilates itself once again with Sybil, updating itself to remove Tonami's influence within its system and shutting the base down. Tonami is ofc, livid at Akane's ideologies and shoots her again in the abdomen. She gets held at gunpoint with Tonami standing over her just as Kougami arrives. There's more debate between Tonami and Akane about the nature of using AI systems in society, with Kougami listening on, gun in hand (honestly his facial expression looks really unimpressed with what Tonami is saying during this part, I couldn't help but laugh LMAO). At the end of Tonami's spiel, Kougami shoots him in the head just when it looked like Tonami would shoot Akane again, and Kougami says that its true, he agrees with what Tonami is saying. Akane deflates saying she "promised she wouldnt let Kougami do that (kill/break the law) again" but Kougami explains that although he agreed with Tonami, he believes in Akane's sense of righteousness, and for that he also needs to be judged (by her and the laws upheld by their society with the Sybil system). He unlocks Akane's handcuffs (and there was someone that posted about him cuffing himself to Akane as they get up, symbolic of her arresting him, but I didnt catch that 😔) and bridal carries Akane out.

The case's aftermath is a recovered Akane meeting in Sybil's brain room. Gino and Sugo had gotten approvals to transfer from Division 1 to MOFA, while Kougami was placed in a cell as his punishment for breaking the law (I guess), but he's not there for long since Sybil deems him useful enough so he'll be approved to go back to MOFA soon. Sybil reveals the roles DFA and Shindou had with the case and that it will be buried with their deaths as Akane soon accepts her new position as Shindou's replacement. Sybil says Akane will walk the path of Atsushi Shindou as they've prescribed as Akane leaves the room (which didnt click to me until my second watching here that the reason there were never any flaws in Shindou's "moves" was bc Atsushi Shindou knew the truth about Sybil, considering that Arata is criminally asymptomatic. Shindou went along with everything he did with no flaws bc it was already arranged by Sybil.. in order to protect his son..). Shion, Yayoi, and Hinakawa comment that things will be different in Division 1 now that so many members have left, but now it's time to watch Akane's promotion ceremony broadcasted on live TV.

While the broadcast is happening, Kougami reads a letter from Akane in his cell. She writes about her thoughts on the case and tells him she now knows what she needs to do to question the nature of justice in their society, and its something that only she can do. Kougami realizes immediately what she intends and responds to that with a pained expression calling her an idiot (mirroring his letter to her in S1). At the ceremony, Akane dressed in uniform goes through the delegation, but when she's about to accept the promotion from Kasei, she pulls out a gun and shoots Kasei on stage with a blank expression. Mika, running security at the event points her Dominator at Akane where it reads her Crime Coefficient at 60. Akane leaves Mika with a bittersweet "please take care of Division 1" and Mika angrily says she cannot accept this. The news broadcasts that Akane committed a crime live on air in public but her Hue remained clear, bringing forth public questioning on the Dominator's judgement and that the dissolution of the legal system that was in dicussion at the beginning of the film is now halted. Akane is arrested and converses with Sybil in the MWPSB paddywagon, resolute in her decision. The film ends with Akane brought into her isolation cell where she can finally breakdown crying while Kougami leaves his cell promising to get Akane out.

👏👏👏 and that's it. Hopefully this will help anyone having trouble following the film (or aren't able to watch) bc I certainly missed a lot on first watch. Personally, I loved this film as a cumulation and celebration of the 10 years of this franchise. I have a few extra thoughts on how themes in this movie would fit with the rest of the franchise, but I actually haven't watched First Inspector yet and feel the need to rewatch S3 with a new perspective now. Hopefully enough people will get to see the film with international release now so maybe we'll get a S4. Prayer circles in the meantime I guess 😔🙏

[piffcreations]

The Great Hall was nothing like Serena had imagined. There she stood in the doorway with eyes wide at the magical spectacle that was before her. There were four long rows of tables, one for each house. As Serena looked up she saw banners above each table representing each house at Hogwarts. There were candles lit and were floating in the air, dancing around the banners. Where the ceiling should have been, was what looked like a starry night sky. Serena was in so much awe she almost didn't notice that other students started to file into the hall. She quickly scurried to the other end of the hall and stood along the wall, hoping to stay out of sight until it was time to be sorted.

Once all 4 row of tables were full of students, a professor at Hogwarts who had introduced herself as Prof. McGonagall earlier that day to Serena, ushered in the first year students. Serena could see the look on all the new students' faces’ were just as amazed at the Great Hall as she was just moments ago. As the reach the end of the hall, Prof. McGonagall explained to the first years that once she announced your name, to step forward and take a seat. She would then place the Sorting Hat upon their head and they would then be sorted to one of the 4 houses.

With each first year being called and the group standing grew smaller, Serena grew more nervous. Ever since her 10th birthday, she had never been one to want to be the center of attention. She took some deep breaths and told herself all she had to do was sit down then get up and sit at the table with her house, nothing too difficult.

The last first year was heading to their table and Serena knew it was her turn. Just as she went to walk forward, Serena saw Prof. Dumbledore stepped from his chair and spoke. He welcomed the first years and returning students to Hogwarts. He gave updates to the staff including the new Defense Against the Arts professor, Prof. Lockhart. A fairly well dressed and swoopy hair stood up with a large smile. Serena wasn’t sure what to think of this one. He didn't really seem to be someone who knew how to fight evil but you never know. Prof. Dumbledore continued with his speech, discussing other changes, announcing the Prefects, and the Head boy and girl.

As he was finishing up, Prof. Dumbledore turned and gave Serena a nod and spoke. “ Last but not least, I would like everyone to give a warm welcome to a new student to Hogwarts, she will be joining the second year all the way from New York City in America. Serenity Pearl, will you please step forward to be placed into your house.”

Suddenly the whole room had turned to look at Serena. Never had there been so many eyes on her before. The butterflies in her stomach felt as if they were on fire at this point, but she took a deep breath, and told herself it will be over before you know it. Not making eye contact with anyone on her way up, Serena sat down facing all the students, then she felt the hat be placed on her head.

“Ahh what an interesting head on this one”, said the hat, ���Lots of history in Slytherin, many generations in fact.” Serena was shocked that an old hat could know something like that, could it know who her parents are? She wanted to ask but her nerves were getting the best of her. “Power too! So much potential! Slytherin would be a good fit, however…”

Serena thought she could hear someone whispering her name. Looking over to her left slightly, Serena saw the girl from the book shop, Hermione, waving at her from the Gryffindor table. A small smile grew on Serena’s face, making her feel a bit at ease.

“Though this mind shows signs of bravery! You might just be a great bet for Gryfi…” The Sorting Hat seemed to have made up his mind but then froze, not that Serena had noticed. Her attention had been taken by a blonde boy sitting on the far right of the room at the Slytherin table. There was Draco talking to his friends and raising his eyebrows up and down at Serena. She thought he was talking about her to his friends but he was just a bit too far away to hear clearly. Serena could feel her face getting warm and quickly looked down at her feet.

“Malfoy ehh?” The hat started to speak again. “Yes… yes… well in that case…better be… SLYTHERIN!!!”

[clay-cuttlefish]

Turns out it's difficult to read comics and type while a cat is rubbing her face on your hands.

Question #10

I'm so annoyed that Vic hating hallucinogens gets ignored later. Disliking not knowing what's real is an interesting aspect of his early characterization where he's very set about knowing right from wrong, and a more general distaste for not being himself makes a lot of sense for someone with anger and dissociation issues.

It's sort of a shame that we don't get a lot of Tot's perspective on the things we learn about him but it works. Tot knows exactly who he is and has moved on with his life, it's Vic who's chasing pasts.

Oh hey, Batman lore.

This fucking guy. I think he's probably my favourite villain in the run because of how weird his motives are.

#11

Particle accelerator alchemy rules. Of course you have to insert a prime number sequence to accelerate particles fast enough to purify the human soul.

Vic seems to have been taking care of Tot for a while in that end sequence, it's very sweet.

#12

Always funny to me when I'm reminded that Vic is canonically extremely hot. I don't disagree, but he spends a lot of this run as a grittily-inked brick with a mullet, so.

The letters about this issue include a) O'Neil getting annoyed at the implication that Myra and Vic are at risk of getting AIDS and telling the letter writer to go learn about safe sex and b) Vic hotness opinions. Comic book fandom has always been Like This.

I have so much respect for people who had the confidence to write to an author to get their full name and address included in a thirst post about design changes.

Much as I like particle accelerator alchemy, these mundane industrial evils are where the series is at its best.

#13

Drowning motif spotted 👁️👁️

I particularly love this use of it, highlighting Vic's impulse to save people against both his former self's harshness and the apathy of most of the city.

Myra's political career is one of the best parts of the run. Yes! Have opinions about engineering neglect!

Tot's stupid "PROF" mug <3

#14

I'm not totally sold on the soldier plot, but Myra stepping into politics and learning to take the pressure is excellent, and the back-and-forth is very well paced.

#15

This one is incredibly racist. Don't bother.

Some of the pages are swapped in my copy. It's the only issue I have with this problem.

#16

The cop-punching montage is such an opener.

Myra's iconic in this. She looks great, she's hitting her stride, great stuff.

COWBOY TIME.

#17

The only good Watchmen crossover and I will die on this hill.

He just like me fr (having a comic book induced meltdown)

There's a Lot this issue, huh. Cowboys, helicopter murder, Alan Moore is a person in the DC universe, Green Arrow is there.

It's going to be so hard not to just use the "Rorschach sucks" panel as commentary for some of the later comics on my list. Clearly the compare and contrast was necessary, and it should be required for anyone who's writing the Question to keep it in mind.

[islaytonlost]

What have I done? LB;MR Fic

First Part, Previous Part, Next Part

Disclamer: Please do not base Alfrendi on any system in the real world. He's not real nor based on anyone real.

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

Recovery. They’d forgotten how awful recovery was. Hilda stuck by their side the entire time, all snarky comments and concern anytime the more calm of the two found himself in control. They’d fallen into the habit of calling the one Lucy dubbed “Placid” Al and “Potty” Fendi no particular reason other than if they also used Lucy’s nickname of Prof they would be turning into their father.

Neither of them wanted that. Besides, they had no right to Lucy’s nicknames when they had messed up her life so bad.

It wasn't worth it Al was back, Why was Al back?

I can hear you. Would it have been worth it without me?

Now Al sounded dejected, sad and annoyingly disapproving. Okay yes, Fendi missed being alone in his head. It’d been nice to be alone again in his head. No conflicting feelings on things or having to try to clear it with the other, or worse, pretending Al was him.

At least I don’t think we’re a killer anymore.

If that wasn’t here… He didn't know. He liked Lucy, but an endlessly supporting friend was not worth the cost of his mind. Making Lucy a criminal was not worth him getting his old life back. Never meeting he probably would have been fine.

Thanks,

Fendi ignores Al. Trying instead to work though the feeling of immense guilt. Al was nice, despite everything Fendi liked him. It’d been so hard to get past the whole Al literally suppressing him, being wrestled into the recesses of his own mind and forced to hear his own voice lie.

It’d taken him an unfair amount of time to see Al as the victim too, arguments they’d had, Fendi always blaming Al until one offhand comment by Lucy, “you know, in that castle, you acted so much better as a team.” She smiled at them, “I think you’re both amazing Prof! More when you work together.” 

He then realised his mistake. They had their differences, Fendi could spend forever on their differences but they had similarities too. They both hated Justin Lawson and the Makepeace’s. They both liked Lucy and they both wanted to be the best detective.

Al wasn’t a bad detective either even if he had bungled his first case so badly he named them as the killer. He was so much better at making people feel safe too, safe enough to spoil secrets but also safe when it came to helping.

Now Al was quiet, probably upset.

Why was this so difficult? Frustration builds up within him, he balls his fingers in the hospital sheets.

What about if I was just in a different body? Would you have accepted that?

Without Al he would never have made friends with Lucy, Fendi was aware of his short temper, it had startled her when she;d first came across it. Without Al to sort of soften the blow their friendship would never have happened.

He needed Al now to save Lucy. She thought they were crazy and was possibly the only person who had decided that not based on Fendi’s temper, Al’s occasional lack of emotion or even the whole they were two people in one body thing. Instead his bungled introduction.

It would have gone better if he hadn’t been shot.

Why couldn’t you have been nicer? She was planning on hurting us.

Al was right. Damnit he needed Al. He felt the other smile somewhat internally and frowned externally in response. 

At least we know she doesn’t want us dead. Maybe she isn’t the killer?

Some would call that foolishly nieve to believe that their friend could not be pushed to be murderous but Al was right. Lucy could have killed him just like Justin could have but decided not to.

She had no reason to want them alive, she’d never met them and they were an inconvenience. She’d said it herself she’d much prefer playing with Hilda than him. Diane had much preferred playing games with Lucy too. Maybe they were similar?

Similar enough to put up with you.

“Oi! I am a pleasure to be around!” Fendi snaps back, but there was no real anger behind the words.

If DIane had somehow gotten to Lucy, and she must have. She had to have been planning the copycat jigsaw puzzle killings for a while.

We need help.

Hilda could help, she’d researched through this before. Al seemed to sigh at that, upset he’d have to pretend to be Fendi. He’d never quite managed it, they’d never hid before. Fendi didn’t even want Al to hide but they were both terrified what people would think.

They couldn't lose everything again.

Where is Hilda? We need her to make the calls.

We can make the calls, we just need to get back to the station.

[martin-jordan]

End of year review 2023

It’s been over 2 years since the last note. That’s a while. In between, a few things have happened, including me moving to Berlin again and joining the German government’s Digital Service as the first Head of Design. I’ve managed to write notes about the work I do there almost every week. So do have a look there, if you’re interested in any of that.

Following a question format developed by Prof. Dr. Molly Steenson, which I discovered on Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino’s blog, I am answering her list of questions to reflect my 2023.

What did you do in 2023 that you’d never done before? I have never led such a big team. The design and user research team at Digital Service is now 20 people strong. By the end of this year, 2024, we might get closer to 30. I’m still getting used to that responsibility.

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn’t bother to make any promises to myself for 2023. So there was nothing to keep. I intended to run, eat well – primarily vegan – and do public speaking and writing, though. I failed miserably at running. The rest was alright.

Did anyone close to you give birth? Some people I work with gave birth, but I don’t feel close to them.

Did anyone close to you die? Luckily not.

What countries did you visit? Only a few. I did not fly at all, which I am proud of. I visited the UK several times, including Scotland �� a 19-hour non-stop train journey from Berlin. I visited France (Paris) once and Switzerland twice for leisure, including skiing in Saas-Fee, close to Zermatt. 2024 will be different. I will travel internationally again.

What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023? A better work-life balance. I worked seriously long hours in 2024 – at a level that even I don’t find sustainable.

What date from 2023 will remain etched upon your memory? My own and another birthday. I know that I did then. There is no other specific date that I remember – maybe that’s even a good thing.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? I find it difficult to name one. I am proud of what the team is doing; I wrote and delivered an all-new talk on the ‘long slog of public service design’ with Kara that was well-received at 2 conferences. I also co-ran a 24-hour remote conference, which was a success.

What was your biggest failure? I didn’t get anyone else in the German public sector to embrace the Service Standard or any senior person to embrace it publicly.

Did you suffer illness or injury? I fell in the first 5 minutes of skiing in December – straight on my skier's thumb from 2001. I am still recovering from that several weeks later. Apart from that, I was fine.

What was the best thing you bought? A Vitsœ 606 shelf for my living room. I installed it for my birthday, and it brings joy every day. It took me over 15 years to convert from a clueless design student to a customer. That’s when I worked for Thomas Manss & Company, which did all the design and branding for Vitsœ.

Whose behaviour merited celebration? Countless anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-fossil fuel activists. More closely, I admire and respect our CEO, Christina and how she is navigating the growing Digital Service through a tricky political and stakeholder landscape.

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? The behaviour of a few German ministers that actively block the progress they set out in their party manifestos and coalition treaty from 2021.

Where did most of your money go? To food, in general. I visited some nice restaurants. It was still no outrageous amount, though.

What did you get really, really, really excited about? The Vitra Campus in Weill am Rhein was quite spectacular. I am not sure it was a 3x ‘really’ level of excitement, though.

What song/album will always remind you of 2023? I discovered Philip Glass’ ‘Dance Pieces’ and listened to them extensively. It was played as part of ‘Age of Content’ (LA)HORDE’s performance at the Berliner Festspiele in August. It was marvellous.

Compared to this time last year, are you: Unsure how I was or felt last year. I think I was less exhausted in mid-December 2022, though. 2023 was dense. I did a lot.

What do you wish you’d done more of? More exercise. More breaks and holidays.

What do you wish you’d done less of? Even though not everything was fruitful, I think everything I’ve done was worth it.

How will you be spending Christmas? As it’s already after Christmas, I answer this retrospectively. I went to my sister’s family place and celebrated there – right after the pre-holiday ski trip.

Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? My mother, even though she thinks I could call her more often.

Did you fall in love in 2023? No need. All good and stable.

What was your favourite TV programme? ‘The Last of Us’ on HBO stood out. Great drama, themes, storytelling, actors. While not the greatest show, ‘Extrapolations’ on Apple TV+ will be on my mind for the years to come as it shows snapshots of human existence dealing with a changing climate between 2037 and 2070.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Such a strong word, no. But I do have much less respect for certain people. That includes several men in charge of driving digitalisation in the German public sector. Their performance is weak and deeply disappointing.

What was the best book(s) you read? At the end of the year, I started reading ‘Baustellen der Nation’ (‘Construction Sites of the Nation’ in English) – an analytical and progressive book outlining what needs work in Germany and how to do it. I like it goes deep and broad and covers problems and potential solutions, enriched with a lot of data and strong narratives.

What was your greatest musical discovery? I discovered Oskar Sala at an architecture exhibition in the Berlinische Galerie. I watched a documentary about the construction of the ICC building from the early 70s and waited until the end titles to see who composed the music. I have been listening to Oskar Sala’s music for various hours since then.

What did you want and get? The mentioned Vitsœ 606 shelf.

What did you want and not get? Some upgraded camera equipment. I did not prioritise it enough in my budget.

What were your favourite films of this year? It was neither ‘Oppenheimer’ nor ‘Barbie’ – the blockbusters and most discussed movies of the year. I missed a few films I still like to watch when they are streaming. ‘Decision to Leave’ by Park Chan-wook stood out for me. And Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ was powerful in its message, especially when watching the documentary with director Peter Sohn telling about his family’s immigration story that inspired the movie.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 41 in April. We wanted to take a canoe trip to the Spreewald, but the weather wasn’t great. So my parents came around, we went to the ‘Futurium’ exhibition about science and democracy and had cake afterwards. In the evening, I got invited for dinner at the Korean fine dining restaurant ‘CHOI’. That was a very pleasant and intimate food experience.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More significant progress in driving user-centred design approaches in the German public sector. I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done. Too many actors are following their own agendas instead.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? Adding a bright colour to my navy blue – beyond the colourful socks. I got two new RÆBURN jumpers in 2023. I like the brand’s regenerative design approach and some of their designs.

What kept you sane? Focussing on the things that I can influence and that give me a sense of progress.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? No idea. Not my thing.

What political issue stirred you the most? So many. It’s hard to pick a single one. The wars, the inequality, the rise of the far-right. It is remarkable how terrible communication from politicians around policies to prevent climate breakdown is – globally. So, global inaction regarding climate change is the one that stirs me the most – as too many democratic politicians don’t even address it regularly.

Who did you miss? My grandmother, especially around Christmas.

Who was the best new person you met? I built a good relationship with Stephanie, our Chief Product Officer. I first met her in 2022 when I started at Digital Service, but we only had a few overlaps and encounters last year. That changed in spring. She is smart and driven, and we share views, values and attitudes.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2023. Take things step by step. There might still be countless steps missing from your goal, but you got a bit closer, at least.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? I am bad with song lyrics – as I mostly listen to instrumental music. So, I need to pass on this one.

[miloucomehome]

man is finding a place to work in my own department ever difficult.

i'm a little frazzled from my typography class earlier this afternoon -- had to stick around until one of the last two people there finished because he had my self-healing board and a board my prof lent him that she wanted me to take with me and give her tomorrow at visual communications class. Only ate a few moments ago, so waiting for everything to kick in so I'll have some energy.

I was working in a faculty's little workspace they had opened but someone came to close it since it apparently has closing hours (nooo). I'm too tired to look for any other spots in the entirety of this 10 storey building so I just went down a floor to the department office's floor and I'm just sitting on a bench trying to get something started. once I calm down, I might move to the computer lab until 10pm.

The issue (and it's my fault, of course) is that I have to print out my designs for these cards and then place somewhere where people interact enough to record (see: photograph) what I observed. I should've pushed myself to go out Sunday while the weather was good, but I didn't get out until much later in the day and I had other things due. I'm also getting mixed directions from this prof -- there seems to be a huge insistence on going outdoors but there's quite a few people doing indoor stuff (but I've been stopped a few times from doing indoor anything, do I don't even get it. I'm making little cards with words/phrases of encouragement that I'm hoping people will pick up. The project has sociological elements to it that I know the best spot (one of) would be indoors on a campus where students are more likely to interact with some scraps of paper or be curious about what they say before resuming their work. outdoors presents a few interesting factors, but less chance of interaction I think.)

(While I think it would go against my good conscience, and my old ethics as a former sociology student, I have half a mind to print these, place them, do some observations and "make up" results in the name of being able to have something to present tomorrow and when it comes to photographing people interacting with my stuff, state that I was not comfortable taking photos of people from a distance without their consent.)*

*I mean, I probably would do it, but the guilt would weigh on me really badly. I don't need any ore reasons to hate myself more ^^;

** That said, I think some people jokingly mentioned how they were going to get family and friends to pretend to be strangers and have them genuinely interact with their thing.

I feel like such a mess right now that I have half a mind to drop my other two classes and give up. or even drop culture and img. I also think I'm letting the culture-img's weird comments get to me when they shouldn't have because it's been having such an awful effect on my workflow -- I don't just design and evaluate, I filter my ideas before they have a chance to even develop because I'm worried they might be "too commercial" now. This final project has been a pain to take from drafts in figma and create in illustrator because I'm just afraid to flop now (which sucks because I worked hard to overcome this a few years ago).

I suppose my main issue is being crit'd "harshly" but not told how I could improve--and I'm not looking for the 5-step plan (that'd be nice though), I just want to be told "This doesn't work, but how about using warmer hues and gradients" "it feels too commercial. what you should perhaps focus on is ___" or something.

I'm sorry I'm such a ball of stress and negativity right now. I think the fact that some of my profs interact with me happily after giving directionless crit feels so weird that I have no idea how to process everything.

Here's hoping I can get things done.

[transgenderlabrat]

I'm actually livid about this and I've lost a lot of respect for this prof, which makes me sad because I liked her a lot up to now. But this was just malicious and terrible test design. Like I get that tests are difficult sometimes and as a student, it's my responsibility to ensure I'm familiar with all the content, which I know I hadn't totally done and I expected there to be a few questions I couldn't answer and I'd just take that L. But reasonable and good test design would suggest that if you spend 20% of class time on this particular topic, it should make up roughly 20% of a test. It should definitely at least be on the test. Moreover, if you explicitly tell your students "you need to know all the names and structures for intermediates and all the enzyme names for glycolysis," and you spend so much time talking about the specifics of glycolysis, you, as a prof, should know that students are going to focus on studying that. Because that's scary and overwhelming, that's a lot of names and structures and you have to get them in the right order. Same goes for naming everything in the TCA. Those are HUGE topics and hugely important to metabolism and we talked about them extensively. If you tell students to know all the names, they're going to focus on that hugely daunting task. To then not include anything about those processes and instead ask strange questions about NAD+ precursors and the name of a transport protein and to have the big, long answer question not involve discussion of those processes isn't making a difficult test, it's genuinely cruel. Like that is quite literally some "ha ha gotcha" shit.

On top of that, we were explicitly told "you don't need to memorize numbers except these ones." And then she asked about a different number. That was just straight up lying. Like. You lied. What the fuck.

I'm not mad that I lost a couple marks on detail questions I didn't study well enough. I expected that. I'm mad that the prof hit us with a bait-and-switch. I cannot fathom how you can possibly think it's ok to do something like that. It's disrespectful and it's bad teaching and I'm actually really really mad about it.

It also makes the test an even worse assessment of our understanding of the course. Tests are already flawed to begin with but when your test excludes literally at least half of the content up to that point, you're not even giving us an opportunity to demonstrate the full range of our knowledge, especially when you mislead us as to what parts are going to be most important. This was a test out of 34.5 marks. Each mark is worth 2.89%. Fair and effective ("effective") test design would dictate that something worth 2.89% should cover about that much course content. Instead, something that was on literally one slide was worth this 2.89% and content on dozens of slides was worth 0%. That is not assessing my knowledge of the course content, that's assessing whether or not I committed every single slide to memory. This test is even less reflective of my knowledge and understanding than tests usually are and that's horribly unfair.

Biochem midterm this morning. 😬

[aveegrex]

PROFESSOR ROBIN

genre: smut pairing: prof!Robin x afab!reader (no gendered pronouns used but reader wears skirts and has a pussy) word count: 0,5k cw: fingering, oral (f!receiving), age gap (implied), student-professor relationship, semi-public sex, panty-stealing (more like taking away since Robin's not really shy about it)

author's note: I'm at the writer's block right now and I have about five stories that I'm working on atm that I just cannot call good enough to post here. This one might actually get taken down too, I'm just feeling too guilty to haven't posted in a while.

professor Robin, whose class on Monday morning is the only one that's perceived as a blessing and not a curse, full attendance guaranteed at any point in the semester.

professor Robin, who has even the slackest of the slackers studying hard, every single student eager to show her their attention to her subject.

professor Robin, whose sultry voice and tight dresses leave everyone pondering their sexuality.

professor Robin, who’s always so kind to those in need, helping the struggling students at ungodly hours.

professor Robin, who being at the top of the gossip topics pool, stays a total enigma, leaving everyone even more tantalized with her persona.

professor Robin who always gives you a soft knowing look in class, calling your name out ever so gently to ask you a particularly difficult question, chuckling lightly when you stumble over your words.

professor Robin who asks you to stay behind after one of the lectures, mentioning your deteriorating performance.

professor Robin who grins eloquently when you stutter over the lamest excuse, failing to cover the pathetic truth that it’s her voice that’s making something much lower than your ears receptive to whatever she’s saying.

professor Robin who tells you to have a seat at her desk and settles beside you, her dewy floral perfume not helping you focus in the slightest.

professor Robin, whose gentle hand slides a textbook in front of you, long fingers barely brushing against your own hand.

professor Robin who’s watching you closely as you read the paragraphs out loud, voice shaking to her excitement.

professor Robin who motions you to continue as you almost let out a yelp when her hand glides up your thigh to the hem of your skirt, fingertips peeking under the flimsy fabric to just lightly press on your clothed core.

professor Robin who moves your panties aside, your arousal soiling her soft skin.

professor Robin whose lips ghost over your neck, a tiny whisper of “go on” teasing your ear as her fingers plunge inside you, reaching the spots you could never touch herself.

professor Robin who catches your lips with hers, the lewdest open mouthed make-out session leaving you clamping your thighs around her wrist.

professor Robin who slides under the table, opening your legs to nuzzle her face into your shy little pussy and have your juices smeared over her red lips

professor Robin who’s snatching your panties from your grasp and tells you you’d only get them after your private study session this evening.

professor Robin who leaves you unable to close your legs the next morning, body buzzing of multiple orgasms she has put you through.

professor Robin who promises to help you with your studies her own way, and you’re surprised to learn how experienced of a tutor her tongue is.

professor Robin whose enigmatic persona and only increasing sex appeal make you forego all clumsy same-age crushes and land you in the bed with an experienced woman. The bed that you oh so hate to leave for classes other than hers. MDNI, reblogs and comments are welcome, I'm off to findng hot meelf$ in my area

© 2022 AVEEGREX, all rights reserved. reposting and copying my works without my consent is forbidden.

[fieldsofbone]

i just had this epiphany while i was journaling about how lately as i’ve been pushing myself to be more active and present in my phd program / academia at large (like going to social functions and conferences, hanging around campus longer than just driving out to teach and leaving, getting this new job) i’ve been feeling reenergized and have been rediscovering my love for this field and the reason i chose to devote my life to it, and i’m realizing that it’s made me feel so good and solid and… complete? almost? because since i took a mental health leave last winter i’ve felt so disconnected from, forgotten by, and invisible to my friends and professors. i was keeping my distance because it was too triggering and emotionally difficult to be on campus and around so many of the people — and it’s still a constant battle that’s easier some days than others — and i assumed that everyone had forgotten about me and moved on and when i came back it seemed too overwhelming so i was protecting myself by staying away.

but tonight i went to a happy hour event we hosted for a visiting professor and i hung out with my friends and got to formally meet and chat with some profs i’ve known of but never spoken to, and when i introduced myself both professors were like “oh, bea-sim! i know you! i’ve seen your name on so many things and heard such good things!” and even while i was on leave in the winter, my friends would tell me that my professors were asking after me and saying they hoped i didn’t leave the program because they thought i’d be such a good scholar and would contribute so much to the discipline and i was just like 🥺 people have still been talking about me even when i’ve been gone? 🥺

anyway. some days are still hard and i’m trying to be gentle with myself and not force myself into anything that might be too much too soon and will stall my recovery, but i’m also proud of myself for and happy that i’ve been able to lovingly push myself to be brave and take leaps and that they’ve been so rewarded so far. i feel like 2017 bea-sim who was dreaming of phd programs and obsessing over following in the steps of her mentor would be ECSTATIC to know where she is now and to know that the professor she idolized is now one of her biggest support systems and that she has a co-authored paper with him in a prestigious journal!!! we’re doing it all for the inner child 🫶🏼

[moonbaby26]

Title: The Past

Pairing: Peter Maximoff x Reader, and past references to Peter x Crystal (from The Inhumans).

Summary: Continuation from previous chapter. Set after the battle with Apocalypse, you and the others are still biding your time while waiting to get back home. After touching base with Xavier to see where everything stands, you get to spend some more alone time with Peter and learn more about his fears and his past.

Notes: Please don’t @ me Inhumans fans! 🥺 I have zero problem with Crystal. And for those that don’t follow the comics, Crystal and comics!Quicksilver were once married, even having a daughter together named Luna. But the two weren’t compatible, and things went sour. Crystal cheated on him (Pietro was shitty to her too) and their marriage was eventually annulled. She remarried later, but he never did.

Warnings: Some cursing, a bit more necking. Talk of past unhealthy relationships, mention of sex.

Chapters: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Taglist: @drikawinchester , @n0obmaster69 , @alexloveskili , @what-a-silver-lining , @bluesprings18 , @weakmoony-stuff , @slytherinsi-mp , @wintwrsoldiwr , @tommy-braccoli , @amourtentiaa , @cringingmemeries , @bi-panicatthe-disco , @himbos-are-my-lifeblood , @simp4mcuwomen

Peter Maximoff x Reader Masterlist

—————————

“Charles!” You heard Hank’s relieved surprise from somewhere nearby, yourself immediately trying to get back out of the bunk at the commotion.

Peter had no choice but to let go of you then, albeit still somewhat reluctantly before he sat up himself, grabbing his crutches off the floor to follow you.

“Well it’s about time. We were starting to wonder if we needed to mount another rescue,” Raven chimed in, one hand on her hip as she looked Xavier over. “Rough night?”

You could see the Professor then, seated tiredly in the wheelchair they’d given him with the rest of the group now standing around as you joined them.

“It was quite a strenuous night, yes,” Xavier responded, evidently having just come into the barracks as the door still hung open behind him.

Peter chuckled oddly beside you at the Professor’s choice of words. Though not all that loud to really have been intended for the group.

You wouldn’t have thought much of it, except for the funny look that came over Xavier’s face as he chided him instantly. “Peter, that is entirely inappropriate.”

But the others, save maybe Jean, looked just as confused as you at the seemingly random exchange, before Xavier kept on.

“Yes, Peter...Moira did accompany me all night. We had a lot to catch up on, even after the officials were done with their lengthy interrogations. But she and I talked. Please do keep your mind from the gutter. The strenuous activity I was referring to was the constant mental blocking and redirecting I imposed to those doing the questioning as to spare you all from being put in a poor light, or even remembered too well as significant players in this at all to keep you out of their future investigations.”

For his own part though, Peter didn’t look too embarrassed, or put off any really from the abrupt admonishment. Even as the Professor had just given details on the lengths he’d gone through to protect everyone, Peter only smiled, raising both hands as if to feign innocence, the crutches propped under his arms. “Hey now. No judgement here, Prof. And I didn’t say it out loud, right?”

“You didn’t have to.” Xavier sighed. “When something strikes you as funny, especially something sophomoric, you transmit it like a beacon.”

Peter looked both curious and amused at that new concept, but said nothing more.

A sly look was starting to glean behind Raven’s eyes though before she interceded instead. “You know, I don’t think I fully believe you, Charles.”

“Pardon?” There was a little surprise as Xavier glanced up to her.

But she just tilted her head, smirking slightly. “For as much crap as you always gave me about staying ‘professional’ with teammates back in the day, you think I’d just offer no comment now? Don’t lie to them. You didn’t only talk. Knowing your past with her, I’m sure of it actually.”

Peter just whistled then as Hank stared in helpless silence.

“Raven...” The Professor warned, but already knowing it was likely futile. “Is this really the time?”

“These might be your new X-Men, Charles.” She motioned to you all. “After all they’ve been through in the last 48 hours, I promise you they aren’t just kids anymore. Just like we weren’t.” She glanced to Hank briefly, then back to the Professor. “Don’t make them think we all walked around like robots back then, or that we would now. I always hated when you did that.”

Xavier closed his eyes a moment, taking a breath before looking back to everyone. “Admittedly, there has been much self sacrifice recently, and I am extremely proud of you all for how you rose up to help defend one another when everything was at stake. And there is nothing shameful in forming more personal bonds, of course. Raven is correct in that regard, though her delivery and sense of timing may leave something to be desired.”

Raven still shook her head. “You use so many words to still say nothing sometimes.”

“Hank, feel free to speak up any time now really.” Xavier deadpanned.

“Um, well...” Hank stammered a bit. “Did they say anything about when we might get to leave?”

The awkwardness was lessened somewhat at that as you all perked up at the question, equally ready to move on from this ship.

“Yes in fact, thank you, Hank.” The Professor was visibly relieved to get back to a more practical subject. “We will sleep here again tonight, but tomorrow they’re taking us to Kasteli airport on the island. It’s just a single runway, but large enough for the government flight they’re chartering to come here. It will be making multiple stops to pickup as many stranded U.S. targets as possible in the European region before crossing the Atlantic to deliver us to McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey.”

“Really...Jersey?” Peter commented flippantly. “Better than nothing I guess.”

But Xavier just ignored the interruption this time, “Moira’s contacts will furnish us all with I.D.’s and passports to get back into the country. For those of us that already had one, but may have lost it in all the recent events, it will be a reprint from previous government record. For those that never had one, they will create them for you.” He looked to Ororo and Kurt particularly there.

“What about the school?” Scott asked, “And all the other students? Are they okay?”

It was true that after you’d all been taken by Stryker and his men, you couldn’t know what had happened to anyone else after. Where they’d gone now with no place to stay, and if they’d remained safe with Magneto’s previous lashing out on the world.

The Professor nodded, clearly approving of that concern. “It was very difficult to get in contact with anyone directly. But again, Moira pressured her agency for assistance there. I’m told they were finally able to reach some of the staff who had taken the students to nearby hotels while trying to inform their families of their whereabouts. The explosion has been officially deemed due to a ‘gas leak’ however.”

He looked to Scott directly then though before continuing solemnly. “Of course for your family, Scott, an agent went personally to inform them of the truth. I’m so sorry. I know there hasn’t been any time to mourn Alex yet. His sacrifice will not be forgotten. He was only trying to protect me. We will have a proper ceremony for him as soon as we are able.”

You saw Jean take a hold of Scott’s hand as he only nodded rather than reply, seemingly unwilling to talk much more on that subject right now.

Xavier understood, keeping on. “As for the school itself, it will take time to rebuild of course. For those that do have safe homes to return to with family, that will have to be where they stay for now.” Yet the look in his eyes said how surely he knew that that would not be the case for many. A very common thread in so many of your histories was rejection by your own families.

“And for those who do not have anywhere else safe to go, I’m going to see what we can rent or lease in the interim once we’re back in the states. Hopefully something a bit more comfortable than the local motels.”

“And Stryker?” Raven interjected again, a little coldness to her voice though. “Did you call your ‘interviewers’ out on that bullshit?”

The Professor ruffled slightly at the language, but did not argue with it. “They claimed ignorance on those operations entirely. Looking into their minds, they did believe those facilities existed, but it was completely above their security clearance to know anything of what went on inside them. I think Stryker had partnered more with a private firm to be honest.”

Hank sighed. “Wonderful, more secret organizations bent on using us for experimentation and weaponry.”

Xavier agreed. “Yes, that will remain an ongoing threat I’m afraid. But all the more reason for us to keep training the youth. We will not be helpless in this world as long as we continue to grow our strengths together, and protect one another.”

Raven raised her eyebrows at those words. “Hmm. That almost sounds like the need for some kind of team again, doesn’t it, Charles? Fighters instead of pacifists? Maybe you should actually listen to the things I say for once.”

He didn’t rise to her baiting though, only starting to back his chair away then. “In due time, Raven. We shall see where this all ends up. But as for the present, now that everyone is caught up on what we know, I believe several of you were wishing for some time above deck.”

“That is an understatement,” Ororo answered, looking surprisingly uncomfortable the more you actually looked at her then. “The longer we’ve been here the more it feels like a tomb.” She added.

“She has claustrophobia.” Jean replied only in your mind, likely seeing the puzzlement on your face. “But she’s been hiding it well.”

You felt a bit guilty for not having noticed regardless, immediately glad for Jean sharing so that you could end that obliviousness. That was just the basics of being friends, knowing what the others were going through, to be of help whenever you could.

“Yes, absolutely!” You spoke up too. “Will they let us walk around a while up there?” The whole Mediterranean was outside, the sky and the water. And anything would be better than this endless grey metal, bulkheads, and compartments all in artificial lighting.

“I don’t know that I’m going to give them much choice,” Xavier smiled, fully exiting back out of the doorway then. “Come along all of you. We’ll see what we can do.”

—————————

You were certain that the Professor had indeed used a good bit of mental persuasion to grant you all full access to the flight deck. But as no planes were taking off, landing, or anything at all really, it was fairly safe to wander as you pleased right now.

Scott had wanted to get a closer look at some of those jets regardless though. Himself, Jean, Kurt, and Ororo going over to check out those that were still parked near the center of the deck.

Raven and Hank had wandered off somewhere near the bow, while Moira had reappeared and you’d seen her sit down in the shade under the ship’s bridge tower with Xavier. You could see them still talking as you and Peter had walked off towards the stern.

The air did feel as good as you’d hoped. It was cool, with that distinct smell of salt, dancing both you and Peter’s hair around lightly in the breeze.

But you wished you could really be at the water’s edge, to touch it, or even swim in it. It’d been such a long time since you’d gotten to be at the ocean.

It made you wonder too though where Peter had spent his time as a child. Had his family travelled to the beach much during his summers growing up?

“So you lived near Washington D.C.?” You asked, looking upward though as you now walked under a fighter jet’s wing, many more left waiting here at the aft of the ship. You remembered his words to Magneto, about the Pentagon being so close to their home at some point. Even if Peter had never known his father had been imprisoned there all along.

“Still do.” Peter answered, reaching out to grab your hand before you walked back out of the shade from under the jet. “Want to sit down?”

You glanced back at him, already wondering if he was being purposeful in this location or not. You were now as far from the others as could be after all. And even from the bridge, the sailors wouldn’t be able to see you now beneath this jet.

He smirked, maybe knowingly even as he responded crassly. “What? These things are killing my armpits.”

You smiled, still wondering, but helped him sit down anyway as you set the crutches beside you before joining him.

“So you still live by the Capitol....” You continued, gently prodding to try and hear more about him.

“Yeah,” He snaked one arm around your waist. “Suburbs just outside of D.C. Still in my Mom’s basement, same as always.”

You did recall him joking about that on the ride to Egypt, about still living with his mother. But what kind of woman was she though? Bold enough to flee from Magneto to a whole new country to raise her children at least. “Is she...” You weren’t quite sure the polite way to ask. Or actually if you even should, but it was already out of your mouth, so you continued hesitantly. “Is she like us?”

“Nah. She’s not a mutant.” He responded easily. “But my sister is.”

You looked back to him at that. He hadn’t told you much about Wanda yet, besides the fact that they were twins and that maybe she’d had some struggles with depression. Which was so common for your kind as well as you tried to learn to accept yourselves and the world’s sometimes cruel view of you.

The reminder of him being a twin was of course fuel for your imagination too as you tried to picture what any twin sister of Peter’s could really be like.

But he was getting surprisingly good at reading your expressions it seemed as he just laughed. “No, Wanda’s not just a female version of me if that’s what you’re thinking. I doubt the world could handle that, right?”

“Probably not.” You admitted. Trying not to get distracted with the mental image of a much more feminine Peter zipping around.

When you felt him tug you closer to him, you came back to attention. His fingertips were messing with one pocket of your pants idly now.

“She’s way smarter. More powerful for sure.” He then continued after a moment, with a little more consideration. “A little scary too actually. A lot more like our Dad I guess.”

“More powerful than you?” You asked honestly. Of course his powers might not be as in your face as something like Scott’s eye beams, or Ororo’s lightning bolts and their destructive power. But he’d already impressed you, no question.

“Well yeah. I’m just a jerk that runs fast.” He replied, looking a little surprised by your sincere look. “You think that’s powerful?”

“Peter, you can practically stop time on a whim. That’s way more than just running fast.” And that was no exaggeration to you. There was no other way to explain how he’d cleared the whole mansion even faster than the explosion could take it.

“I mean it’s saved my ass a few times yeah.” He conceded. “But...” He quieted, still watching you.

That serious look had come into his eyes again, like a cloud crossing over the light. He wanted to say something more and couldn’t.

“What?” You finally asked gently. It was just the two of you now. “You can say whatever you want, Peter.”

It was so evident that he wasn’t yet used to the freedom of expression that many of the rest of you were. He hadn’t had those years worth of safety net within the school, getting to air your thoughts with one another as almost second nature after so long.

He took a breath before eventually trying though. “Well...when I first started figuring out what I could do, it was such a rush, definitely. I could skip class whenever, take anything I knew Mom couldn’t or wouldn’t buy me. The dickheads that used to try to push me around couldn’t even touch me anymore.”

Yet he shifted, some unease still building in him even as you just listened quietly. “But, eventually you realize the people who barely gave you any notice before, that then they can’t even see you at all any longer.”

He was looking in your eyes again, as if he was still waiting to see some judgement there, but he’d already said too much to stop now. He couldn’t reel it back in, even if he may have wanted to. “And when I got older, I finally started having these nightmares...that everything got stuck like that you know. More and more, that I was going to do it too long one day, too many times one day and everything was going to finally stick that way for good. That no one would ever hear or see me again. Like this super shitty purgatory, of frozen people all around, and you’re just some ghost moving through them.”

You were surprised at first, yes. But maybe not so much the more you really considered it. What he spoke of was a horrible fate to consider to be sure. But for someone you already knew could actually be very self conscious at his core, there was even another layer to it. Was it really that much of a stretch that he could also worry about feeling even more unseen? More invisible, to the point that that could be his life forever?

The flashy jackets and clothing tied in a bit more now to that overall profile you were putting together here. But it meant so much to you that he was willing to share this at all, when it clearly was something very deep for him.

“I still dream that sometimes.” He admitted. “Freaking sucks.” He raised his bare left wrist then, looking at it with some regret. “It’s normally why I always wear a watch too. If nobody’s around for me to judge what speed I’m moving at, I have to look at the second hand to make sure it’s still trying to move. Freaks me the hell out if I can’t check it.”

You knew he’d left all his other things in the jet when everyone had changed into those flight suits before heading to Egypt. And all that was gone now. “You are powerful.” You insisted softly though. “And I don’t think I’ve ever met one of us yet that didn’t fear losing control, of becoming a victim to our own abilities in the end...”

Without thinking you turned then, getting up on your knees so you could wrap your arms around him. You felt him tense only for a moment, surprised but then quickly accepting the tight hug for what it was as he relaxed into it.

You spoke into his ear as he slid his arms back around you in return. “You don’t have to hold any of these things in any longer either though. You’re with friends now.”

But when your grip eventually loosened, he just pulled you around so that you were then seated nearly in his lap before he hugged you around your waist again.

“But for how long?” He asked seriously. “You and the others will go back to New York won’t you once we’re back in the U.S.? And I’ll have to go back to D.C. to show Mom I’m not dead, I’m sure she’s tripping out right now.”

“Well...” You understood he’d certainly have to go home for at least a while. But the school would be rebuilt eventually. “Have you thought about, once the school is established again I mean, maybe joining us?”

That did get a slight chuckle from him. “I’m already a dropout, babe. I never even finished high school. Not really a good candidate for higher learning.”

But you weren’t so easily dissuaded. “It’s more than just math and science classes, Peter. The younger kids always need mentors. And there’s the chance of working with the Professor and the other staff too, learning to unlock your full potential. You don’t have to hold back there, or hide anymore.”

He caught you by the bottom of your chin then though, tilting your head back as he seemed to consider kissing you again. “You want me to come there then?”

“Yes.” You agreed, the word at least sounding confident despite your heart rate increasing again.

“And are we going to share a bunk again tonight?” He smirked, knowing full well he was now derailing a previously serious conversation.

“I guess that depends on you.” You tried to counter, but he really had too unfair of an advantage in how easily he could still fluster you. And you weren’t sure when that was ever going to fade.

You waited for him to continue the banter though. To do anything really. But for several long moments he only watched you instead.

“Well?” He finally said.

“Well what?” You answered.

“You want to make out under this fighter jet before they call off mutant recess? The bell’s probably going to ring soon to send us all back to being out of sight, out of mind on the U.S.S buzzkill.”

Sometimes you wondered if he was actually the older of you two at all. “Don’t enjoy your own jokes too much now. You know what Xavier said about you transmitting your thoughts.” You were at least able to taunt back a little.

“Ah, he’s all about that CIA chick right now. I mean, more power to him, nothing wrong with it. She seemed pretty badass. But he should have just taken the compliment earlier instead of trying to drag me about it. But not bad for an old dude you know? Especially now that he looks a little more like Mr. Clean.”

“Peter.” The Professor wasn’t even that old, but it was by and large beside the point. “You’re trying to make me kiss you again so that you’ll stop talking aren’t you?”

“Maybe.” He grinned. “But hey, I never thought I’d get this far, I’m going to enjoy this every chance we get.”

The newness hadn’t worn off at all, that much was true. But wouldn’t it eventually? And would he still think so much of you then? You couldn’t know the answer to that.

It was probably best to actually agree with his viewpoint for the time being. To just appreciate the chances given in the here and now. None of you could know what the future had in store for anyone or anything, not anymore.

You were already right in front of him as you ran your fingers along the back of his neck. You held him there briefly, then pulling him in to initiate the first kiss, before he met you eagerly with another.

One of your hands stayed in his hair, the other splayed down onto his chest. After a moment, you realized you could feel his own heartbeat through the thin t-shirt. So very fast, like everything else about him before you felt him grabbing at your hips.

He was trying to get you pulled more into his lap as he shifted his legs to make room. You let him, but there was something slightly funny as you still had to help to not knock into his broken leg when he had trouble moving it in the way he really wanted.

But he could feel your smile against his lips. He pulled back enough to respond, your foreheads touching. “You just wait until that damn thing is off. I’ll be ten times as suave then.”

“I’m not complaining.” You laughed softly. Maybe even a little glad that he did have that handicap to slow him down right now. Though you quieted again when you felt him move down to nip at your neck, before he kissed it a little more roughly.

When you tensed a little, he paused. You could hear the tease in his voice. “Don’t worry, I won’t leave any hickies. Scout’s honor.” He knew you still cared about appearances to some degree, that and the privacy to not show off all of what you’d done in front of the others. “But you ever had one?” He asked anyway.

“No.” You answered without hesitation. You didn’t feel any need to pretend with him.

He pulled back a little again at that though, enough that you could look at each other and you wondered if he was finding this hard to believe.

“But you’ve had boyfriends right?” He asked, before considering a little more. “Or maybe girlfriends? I mean, I’m cool with either just for the record. We get discriminated on enough as it is to bother being worried about what side of the fence anybody is playing on.” He smiled, rubbing his hand down your side. “If I’m going to like someone, I’m going to like them for them. Everything else is just bonus.”

You’d never really thought about it to be honest. If you were attracted to someone, you just were. But it sounded like he was of similar thinking, which was nice. “I haven’t really had anybody.” You answered. “I’ve been at the school since I was pretty young. And you just end up seeing them all as family I guess.”

His eyebrows raised and he hesitated a while, before finally speaking again a little bit carefully. “So...please don’t punch me, but um, does that mean you haven’t...you know?” He didn’t seem like he could say it. Or that maybe he was actually afraid of offending you all of the sudden. Which would be a first.

But just because you were inexperienced, that didn’t mean you were naive. And it was awkward, but not frightening. You weren’t afraid to talk to him this way. “I haven’t had sex, no.” You responded plainly, but did have a little concern on him possibly panicking as you made sure to clarify. “And I’m not a minor. This would have been my senior year and then some I guess if you compare our class levels to normal high school grades.” But Xavier’s school was still a little different. “Or maybe it’d be more like freshman year of college.”

Peter took a breath. “I mean, yeah I figured you were legal. Good to confirm, but um, you realize this means you have no idea if you should have waited for someone better or not?”

He was getting self conscious again. You’d already been through this before. Where he acted as if you were making a mistake just to choose him. You tried to turn this back around. “It doesn’t matter to me who you’ve already been with. And yes, I might be inexperienced, but you’ve got to trust me that I’m capable of choosing who I want now.”

You could still sense him wavering, but he at least didn’t lock up to the point of not answering. He was trying to fall back on a little humor, his go to. “Well it’s not like I’ve been all around either. It was really just one, but you know, a good bit of practice there.” Though as soon as he said it that way, he seemed to regret it, trying to explain further. “I mean, she didn’t give two shits about me in the end. I thought she did. But I didn’t use her, it was more the other way around. At least in my view.”

You quieted, that new spill of information you felt signaling a much deeper story under the surface. And he seemed really nervous as if he hadn’t intended to bring up this subject at all. “It’s okay.” You answered quickly. “Like I said, the past is the past. It doesn’t affect what I feel about you. But if you want to get something else off your chest right now, my time is yours.”

And he did want to talk. You could tell he did. Like this was something he never could speak of normally. He seemed surprised at his own self as the name finally did come out. “Her name was Crystal.” But he still tightened his grip on you even as he kept on. “Back when I was still in high school outside D.C., she’d started there. Her family was always moving, I don’t know why. But I guess because she was new she didn’t know the whole hierarchy shit, where I was on the bottom with the other weirdos always in detention. And she figured out I had powers, she did too. I’d never met anyone my age that did. We started hanging out, and before you know it I’d be speeding to her house and all at night. My Mom never knew. Wanda did, but I think she saw the fuck up coming and decided to let me figure it out for myself.”

You felt no jealousy to the confession. Genuinely you were only listening, knowing these details only gave you a more complete picture of him. Who he was now and why.

“I’d never gotten attention like that before you know? You start thinking it’s real and you get carried away. And I’m not saying she was manipulative or any stupid crap like that. She wasn’t. She just wanted to fool around with somebody, wanted to feel good. But it probably shouldn’t have been with me is what I mean. Not for that long anyway just to cut me off at the knees when she was ready to move on again.”

So she’d just wanted a physical relationship. While Peter had misunderstood it to be more, and had had to suffer for it when the truth finally showed. You could understand how that would be extremely painful. Especially if it was the first real intimacy he’d ever had.

He kept on though, likely something very cathartic in finally getting to let go of all this. “And we had a huge blow up in the end. When she’d started sleeping with someone else. I probably said some stuff I shouldn’t have, I mean she was never mine to be mad about I guess. But she was no pushover. She told me to fuck right off, and I never went back. I quit going to school and they moved away again eventually. So that was the end of that.”

Then that was likely the real reason he never finished school you realized, not just because of boredom with it or any lack of ability on his own part. It was sad, but you didn’t see him as anyone to be pitied. He’d survived that negative experience to still be here with you now.

And you couldn’t take those old scars away, but you could at least make sure you didn’t leave any room for miscommunication now. You could let him know exactly what he had in you, to take or leave as he wished. Because nothing could work here either unless you both were on the same page.

“Well I can tell you that you will never just be a hookup for me. I mean, yes, I might not be as satisfying I guess, not knowing all about this. But, I’m attracted to you. Not your body, not your powers, just you. I want to be together until you decide otherwise.” You smiled, calling back a bit to his words in Egypt. “Together exclusively until I annoy you or you get bored of me.”

He laughed, unable to help himself. “And I still don’t deserve it.” He insisted, but agreed anyway. “Exclusive is good, no other guys or girls. Just us annoying the hell out of each other until the end.” He then nuzzled his head back against your neck, continuing. “I’ll be slightly more behaved too I guess. Now that I know it’ll be your first time, it can’t just be in an aircraft carrier broom closet or some crap after all. I’ll try to think of something a little more romantic in the meantime.”

“Gee thanks.” You smirked, before kissing him lightly again. There was still oh so much trouble to look forward to it sounded like.

He leaned into the kiss, trying to taste you as much as you’d let him. But you thought you could still feel him smiling a little too, before another sound went off in your brains.

“All of you, they’re asking us to clear the flight deck as they have a pair of helicopters trying to come back in from patrol.” The Professor’s voice was a bit impersonal, the way it could be when he was essentially copying the same message to multiple minds one after the other.

“And that would be the bell,” Peter sighed. “Recess over.”

You were a little disappointed too, but there was still tonight after all. “There’s still the bunk later,” You reminded at that, standing up and offering him your hand.

He grabbed it, quickly pulling himself up before leaning in to kiss you one more time. “That a promise?”

“Maybe.” You answered, handing him his crutches.

“Tease.” He countered with a smirk, before you both started walking back towards the others.

It’d be one more night in close quarters, and then on to the long trip home tomorrow.

——————————

(Continued in next chapter here)

[levihantrash]

Shitty Comics and Their Shitty Artists

Levi’s pragmatism pulled the brakes. “I’m not about to dedicate my life to become a broke comic artist.”

Levi Ackerman, a gruff cleaner with an appetite for toilet humour meets the unabashedly friendly creative writing professor, Hange Zoë, who somehow ropes Levi into working on a comic with them. While the comic’s title remains undecided, Hange knows that it’s going to be set in a world where giant, human-like creatures devour other humans. Erwin Smith, the comic’s self-appointed editor, unironically thinks it’s going to be a hit. All Levi knows is that he wants to indulge in drawing this comic while hanging out with a certain writer who just won’t stop talking to him.

Where Hange, Levi, and Erwin are the creators of Attack on Titan.

Chapter 1:

“The sweets are really good here, huh?” A kind, bespectacled face appeared beside him, peering at the bulging of his shirt.

Levi had stolen from the pantry plenty of times. He had never gotten caught, so his gradual boldness could have been the problem. He had seen Mikasa, his younger sister, whenever she passed by the snacks section in the grocery store. Her gaping mouth at the sight of the colourful assortment of sweets was enough to let him know.

“I just like looking!” Mikasa said hastily. He hadn’t said anything either.

To be caught now, when he had overheard a staff member mentioning that most of the professors would be taking their leave during the summer break, was just his bad, bad luck. Objectively, he was risking his month-old job, but stealing from the pantry was much less risky than stealing from the grocery store. He began doing it weekly. Every Monday, right before the professors came streaming in, he would take a quick survey of his surroundings, and snatch two chocolate bars, sometimes a banana—only a handful. He would glance at the security camera hanging in the corner, willing it to catch him. Nobody would be petty enough to arrest a cleaner for swiping staff snacks in the pantry, right?

Levi stared back at the unfamiliar person. He recognised most of the staff by now. Only the English Literature professor, Erwin Smith, would greet him in the mornings.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Hange Zoë, the new creative writing professor. Nice to meet you!” They extended out a hand, which he felt obliged to shake, albeit warily. The hand was sweaty, and the handshake, vigorous.

“I was setting up my table and I wanted to meet everyone. Turns out most of them are on vacation,” Hange said absent-mindedly, scratching their head. The two buttons of their shirt had been mixed up, scrunching up the dress shirt's already lopsided collar. Levi resisted the urge to rebutton it for them. Today was not the day to scare off what seemed to be a genuinely welcoming person. Hange, on the other hand, found the firm handshake hilarious. What made this person so uptight?

Hange, realising that he wasn’t saying anything, breezily went, “what’s your name?”

“Levi,” he said, pushing his hands back into his pockets.

“You don’t prefer Dr. Levi?” Hange asked curiously.

“I’m not a professor. Just the cleaner,” Levi said shortly.

“Oh? Is that why you’re so secretive about the snacks?” Hange teased him, much to his chagrin.

“You rich profs have enough to eat,” Levi spat out.

Hange didn’t even blink, nodding calmly, “you’re right, it’s certainly good to make full use of the school’s resources.” Levi, sensitive to any hint of condescension, found none, though not regretting his overdose of sarcasm.

“Also,” Hange added, “I’m not going to tell anyone, I promise! So could you not look like you want to kill me and leave my dead body in the cleaning closet?”

Levi scoffed, relaxing the fists that had formed naturally by his side.

“Do you like bread?” Hange asked suddenly, scanning him for signs of the affirmative. He shrugged.

“I passed by a bakery this morning and it had the most delicious smell,” they sighed, “I was running late so I couldn’t get anything.”

“It seems like you’re kind of a mess.”

Hange laughed—this person could literally laugh at everything, Levi thought. They lifted their shoulders with their arms in the air, in a manner of “I was born like this, what do you want me to do?”

As the conversation subsided, Hange saw Levi’s eyes dart towards the neglected mop and bucket, finding it oddly endearing.

“Well then! I won’t disturb you any longer!” Hange announced. Levi wanted to tell them that they weren’t disturbing him at all, before stopping himself. His initial plan was to escape from useless small talk. Uttering such absurdity would be counterintuitive.

“Since you’re here,” Hange grabbed the last few packets of chips in the basket and stuffed them into his gigantic apron pockets, “you might as well take the rest!”

“Are you pitying me?”

“Those snacks aren’t for you,” Hange merely said cheerfully, before tentatively asking, “or am I wrong?”

“Don’t expect any favours,” Levi said begrudgingly.

He looked awkwardly at the distracted professor, who had chosen to open a chocolate bar themselves.

“Thanks…” he said, and Hange only grins, bits of chocolate and almond stuck to their teeth.

----------

Routine, that’s how it all began. Levi and Hange were seeing each other every day. In each encounter, Hange would tug out a new bread or pastry from the depths of a green, bottomless leather bag that they carried around everywhere.

Initially, Levi felt offended. “You think I can’t afford bread?” He asked, narrowing his eyes.

Hange’s eyes widened, “of course not! I want to share the joy of this bread, if you remember that bakery I was craving for,” they poked at the loaf, leaving a small dent in the middle.

With their hand still extended out, Hange scoured for words, “and you look like someone who doesn’t often indulge in little joys.”

“I didn’t ask you to psychoanalyze me.” Levi grabbed the bread, tore it into two, and pushed one entire piece into his mouth. A muffled word of thanks came out. The other half was planted back onto Hange’s palm.

“You said you wanted to share, didn’t you?”

Hange glowed in acknowledgement. They stuffed the warm bread into their mouth, cheeks full, incoherently raving about its texture. The sight of Levi chewing the bread contentedly after unexpectedly cramming it into his mouth; Hange wanted to preserve it, to immortalise this tentative pleasure. If fresh bread was what it took to achieve that, it was perfectly doable.

Levi saw it as what it was. An offering. There was really no reason to reject free bread, and if this were Hange’s version of bribery, it was innocent enough.

“Why don’t I get bread?” Erwin asked Hange, pouring himself a cup of coffee. Levi’s nose wrinkled at the overly strong aroma.

“Sorry Erwin!” Hange patted him on the back, not sounding apologetic at all, “I only have money for one friend and since Levi is my first friend here, it’s only fair, don’t you think?”

“Certainly,” Erwin said, sipping on his black coffee, eyeing a certain stony-faced individual’s violent coughing at Hange’s mention of “friend.”

“What?” Levi asked, clearing his throat one more time.

“Good day to you both,” Erwin said, sweeping past Levi to return to his desk.

Following the end of summer break, Hange became relatively friendly with their colleagues in the staffroom, who had never greeted Levi. Unbothered by the lack of formalities, Levi found himself getting along best with living things that discarded general rules of propriety. Like children, animals… and Hange. Still, when Levi trailed back to the staffroom, wet mop in hand, he found himself at a hearing distance behind Hange’s conversation with a group of colleagues.

Hange got to the point, smiling sweetly. “Why do you all pretend Levi doesn’t exist?”

There were awkward, feeble words of justification. Something about Levi being too scary. Something about Levi not greeting them first. Hange listened, eyebrows furrowing.

“You could at least say hi, right? He doesn’t bite,” Hange said coolly. Their colleagues felt the faintest chill up their spine. Levi sloshed the mop onto the floor, making his presence known. Hange barely flinched, as though expectant of his company.

“Are you talking about me behind my back?”

Hange slung an arm around Levi’s shoulders and whispered, “no, I’m telling everyone right now that you don’t get enough sleep and that’s why you’re glaring at everyone.”

Levi elbowed them away. “Who cares what people think?”

Unwrapping the bread Hange gave him, he took one significant, large bite while everyone squirmed in silence. Hange, strangely amused by the scene playing out before them, ushered Levi towards Erwin’s cubicle.

“Levi! What are your plans for today?”

“Cleaning.”

Hange clapped their hands together, “I invite you to have lunch with me and Erwin!”

“Why should I go?” Levi said, not unkindly.

“Why not?” Levi couldn’t give a good reason. Hange, latching on to Levi’s lack of refusal, took the mop away from his hands.

“You can finish cleaning later. Everyone has to eat, right?”

“Not you, apparently,” Levi muttered, remembering how Hange had straight-up not left their desk for a whole ten hours—the sun shining on their sleep deprivation at dawn until the desktop screen illuminated their exhaustion at dusk.

“That was one deadline, Levi.”

“Sure.” Regardless, he wasn’t about to decline Hange. Somehow, Hange had grown attached to Erwin, and had endless discussions with him. Conversations about writing, mostly. He didn’t participate much outside of jabbing at Hange’s ribs when the volume of their voice went over the publicly acceptable range. Otherwise, he would be shooting glares at Erwin whenever he tried to probe into Levi’s personal life. Erwin had an intensity that was difficult, near impossible to ignore.

Incidentally, the topic of comics cropped up.

“Comics?”

Hange picked up on the rare tonal shift of Levi’s voice, studying him. Erwin’s fork elegantly pierced a French fry, the screech of the fork’s contact with the plate prompting Levi to speak over it. He was positive that Erwin was trying to get him to talk. On purpose.

“Yes, I like them,” Levi conceded, draining the tea from his cup.

“I learn something new about you every day!” Hange exclaimed, as Levi gripped the edge of the cup harder.

Seemingly catching on to Levi’s discomfort, Erwin asked Hange for recommendations, telling them how he had never read any comics.

“How predictable of a literature professor,” Hange said, sitting up straighter to mock the poise of a scholar, glasses perched at the tip of their nose for the intended effect.

“You look like a fart with a stick up their ass,” Levi commented, leaving Hange howling. Erwin, the consistent gentleman, remained at ease with these disparaging jokes.

While Hange listed out their favourite comics, Levi noted that none of their top choices was marginally close to any of his preferences: in genre, in plot, and in art style.

“I like horror.”

“I don’t,” Levi countered. Hange grinned wider.

“Well, you’re scary enough as you are,” Hange considered, taking in his aloof disposition and the way he sat stiffly on the chair. Nonchalant, and could possibly decimate you.

“Look,” Hange said, thrusting an open book into Levi’s hands. “This comic is so good. It keeps me up at night.”

Levi leafed through the pages, absorbed by the clean black and white lines. That was, until he flipped a page and winced at the image of empty eye sockets, gouged out, spurting inked blood.

“You don’t like blood,” Hange said this matter-of-factly, promptly closing the book.

“I don’t like unnecessary death.”

“How do you know those deaths were unnecessary?” Erwin asked, pushing back his blonde hair in an effortlessly charismatic manner.

Levi could picture it. Erwin, a fearless leader, bringing people to greater heights.

Hange had less noble thoughts. Erwin was definitely the protagonist in a teen movie who looked older than high school age and was starring as a blonde jock whose embarrassingly lacklustre coming-of-age arc was spurred by a shy, beautiful nerd. For good reason, Hange kept their mouth shut.

“I don’t,” Levi answered, “but is any death really necessary?”

Erwin smiled, “perhaps not.” The seed of doubt grew in Levi.

Hange leaned forward across the table towards Levi, a hand covering one side of their smirking face.

“Erwin’s a lot more calculative than you think.”

Levi swatted away Hange’s strands of hair tickling his cheek, “I know,” he said half-heartedly, not wishing to contemplate the extent of its truthfulness.

Carving the last piece of meat on his plate into two, Erwin shrugged.

“So, you would say that some deaths are necessary?” Levi asked. The question blurted out on its own, slicing through the amicable atmosphere like a stray bullet. For some reason, he wanted a proper answer. Hange was busy flipping through the same horror comic book, their eyes trained on the page.

“Do you like bugs, Levi?” Erwin asked.

Levi visibly scowled. “No.”

Erwin’s fork scraped the plate insistently.  “Do you kill them?”

“Obviously.”

Erwin’s collectedness seemed impenetrable. “Would you say their deaths are necessary?”

“Necessary enough as a cleaner.”

“There, you have your answer,” Erwin said, with finality.

“I’m talking about human lives, not some insects,” Levi said, frustrated.

“Some lives matter more than others, am I right?”

“Yeah…” Levi said, struggling to grasp Erwin’s logic.

“It’s the same for us,” Erwin said cryptically.

Hange stood up, snapping the book shut. “Shit, I have to teach a class in ten!” Levi naturally stood up as well. Erwin gave a friendly wave, undeterred by the abruptness of their departure.

“See you, Erwin!” Hange called out, rushing back to the staffroom.

“Why does Erwin have to be so ambiguous?” Levi griped.

“You’re not very telling, yourself,” Hange said blithely, grabbing their laptop before marching out of the door.

Armed with constant smiles and warm words, Levi would classify Hange as someone just as enigmatic. Their discussions about writing were arguably personal, but they weren’t exactly close to the heart.

The two people Levi was becoming acquainted with in the past few weeks were a slate full of words in a language he understood, but couldn’t decipher. For the rest of the day, he compromised on these doubts by making sure the windows had not a speck of dust on them. Every moving insect was stamped out under his supervision. He thought about Erwin’s words, turning them over and over in his head. He thought about Hange’s nonchalance towards Erwin’s questions.

----------

After locking up his cleaning supplies, Levi peeled the sweaty gloves off his arms, untying the bandana on his head that kept his long fringe away, and removed his apron. Hearing a friendly shout in the otherwise deserted school building, he caught Hange coming to a stop behind him.

“You’re still here,” he said, frowning.

“Had a lot of work,” they said, armed with this reasoning every day.

“Were you listening during lunch?”

“Hmm, kind of,” Hange stated obliquely, “you know how literature people are.”

Levi was bewildered, his passive expression cracking slightly. “I don’t. As you might have realised, I don’t talk to a lot of people.”

“Literature people,” Hange rubbed their chin, eyes looking upwards in deep thought, “enjoy discussing morality in a mostly abstract, hypothetical way.”

“That’s annoying.”

Hange fell in step with Levi, who was headed to the exit, “Erwin’s one of the better ones. He’s pragmatic, and he’s not just all talk.”

“Yeah, so what’s his grand plan…” Levi said, finding the right words, “for humanity?”

“He wants to create a comic.”

Levi blinked.

“Huh? What does that have to do with morality?”

Hange looked unperturbed by Levi’s confusion, as though it were commonplace for them to defend the importance of the comic genre.

“Think of texts as a philosophical question waiting to be answered. And the questions of morality being narrativized makes their conclusions more believable. More influential. Erwin has a vision for comics to be the source of truth.”

“What truth?”

Hange grinned, “if we knew, would we need to write the comic?”

“You talk like it’s more revolutionary than it actually is…” Levi said, pushing open the door to step out of the school building.

“A comic can be life-changing,” Hange mused, admiring how the sunset decorated everything in watercolour splashes of orange and pink; a distinct nostalgic hue.

Levi remembered that Hange was, after all, a creative writing professor. “Yeah, you would say that.”

“It’s not because I’m a creative writing professor!” Hange said, impassioned. He gave them a dry look.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Besides, Erwin wants to be the editor of the comic that I am writing,” Hange said proudly.

Levi felt that his head might explode. “Since when were you writing a comic?”

“Since last week!” Hange said, remarkably animated.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Isn’t that what friends are for? To share things with?” Hange asked, hopeful.

That word—Levi figured that that was what they were by now. Friends. He didn’t hate the sound of it.

“You’re not going to ask what it’s about?”

“You’ll tell me if I just waited.”

“You’re right! But you see,” Hange exhaled, shaking their head despondently, “my problem is that I don’t have someone who can draw out my writing.” Levi’s hands twitched. He interlocked them into a prayer, hoping Hange didn’t notice.

“Why not just write a novel?”

Hange was unconvinced, “I’m tired of just the written word, Levi! The versatility and multimodal form of the comic are incomparable to a novel!”

Levi had to agree. “Have you been trying to find artists?”

“Yes, but none of them seemed very keen on drawing the story,” Hange said, recalling the number of people who became increasingly disconcerted upon hearing the gist of the story.

“So, what’s the story?” Levi asked.

Hange was hesitant. Levi waited.

“It’s horror, isn’t it?”

“The premise includes giant naked human beings running around eating people,” Hange said. Levi grimaced. They expected this, but it didn’t make their disappointment at his very reasonable reaction any less jarring.

“It also has a lot of blood,” Hange said. Sensing that they were one sentence away from diving into a world-building sermon, they paused.

“Do you want to hear more?”

“Maybe tomorrow,” Levi said honestly. It had been a long day.

“Of course! I’ll see you tomorrow!” Hange said, giving him a reassuring pat on the back.

“I’ll see you,” Levi said belatedly. Hange was already brisk walking towards the crowded street.

Instinctively, he called out, “Four-eyes!”

Turning back, Hange stood where they were, surprised.

“Tell me the story tomorrow.”

A gradual look of appreciation spread across Hange’s face, as their eyes arched downwards into thin curves.

“Thank you, Levi!”

Levi sidestepped Hange’s thanks with a disgruntled “tch. Whatever.”

I finally did it! I posted the first chap of the fic I've been working on for the past month *_* if you read till here... thank you!!! hearing your thoughts/comments would be nice heheh

[captains-writing-desk]

From Heaven and Hell

Universe: Harry Potter

Character: Severus Snape

Type: F!Reader insert

Words: 2,724

Prompt: Dude, Dude- I love your Snape works! ❤❤ Could you please do a Snape x Prof Reader where she is the hot new teacher and everyone gossips about her or sum? She's like a major flirt too so she flirts with Snape a lot. Eventually with the gossip and flirting he finally admits he likes her? Can end smutty or fluffy- surprise us! Thank you! Keep being awesome!

Note: I’ve done my best to research locations, layouts etc. But I’ve discovered a lot of contradictory information, so this is all going to go how I want it to go. No nit picking please

Guys. I’ve been gone for so long. I’m in such a rut, I feel so uninspired all the time. Sorry for the LONG wait. 💔

-

Something was happening and if anyone could find out, it would be one Professor Severus Snape. He had a nose for sniffing out trouble like a bloodhound and boy what a nose it was. He made a sweep of all the corridors on his lunch time stroll but everything seemed to be in relative order until he noticed the regular bustling noise that filled the corridors and the sound of the outdoors seemed to dissipate and compress into whispers. Then he noticed students had started to lean over the sides of the stone bannisters and other students on the grounds were looking in the same direction. How curious. He tried to peer over their heads but he was unsuccessful so headed to one of the sets of steps down to the grounds. He made it precisely 2.3 steps down when his purposeful stride immediately dissipated and the last 0.7 steps was spent holding onto the stone wall to balance himself as his body somewhat stuttered and moved itself to one side.

“Thank you.” You smiled and brushed lightly against him as you ascended the steps he had just taken. Severus’ gaze followed you lazily until you disappeared up the corridor, then his body snapped into action and went to catch up with you which proved more difficult with students blocking his path after they cleared space for you.

When he finally had caught up to you, you were being ushered away by Minerva and he had to leave it at that for now. Though he could not see you anymore, you certainly were fresh in his mind and did a good job occupying it for the rest of the day and apparently most of the students’ too. Severus had to interrupt no end of conversations and gossip about who this mysterious stranger was and how ‘easy on the eyes’ you were.

-

Severus had lost his train of thought so much that day that it never even crossed his mind that you were the new Arithmancy professor until the headmaster was announcing it to the students. He stared for a moment with his mouth slightly agape and clapped slowly, off beat with anybody else’s applause. He despised the fact that you had him stumbling over himself, well before even knowing your name.

Once dinner was over he watched you leave the hall before making his own move. The eyes that followed you did not go unnoticed by him either as he grit his teeth and walked faster, despite wanting to make sure you left first so he would not encounter you again.

“..No, no. It’s not important to our studies, just a preference but it can’t be helped!” He heard your voice then the headmaster bidding you goodnight as he approached the large doors out to the entrance hall. He peered around the frame and all seemed clear so he confidently strode to the dungeons entrance only he came to pause at the top of the steps and felt the need to look up the stairs, something was different which made his eyes narrow instinctively as he crept quietly to the bottom of the ascending stairs. He almost jumped when your own narrowed eyes appeared from the darkness.

“You.” He stated in no particular manner which amused you a little.

“It is me, yes.” You folded your arms and leant against the wall for a moment, “..and you are?”

“Severus Snape.” He remained fairly neutral in expression and tone until you started descending towards him, then he seemed a little startled as you held your hand out to him, repeating the name he had already committed to memory.

“So, Severus. You’re the reason I can’t have the dungeons for myself.” You resumed your stance leaning on the wall again.

“I suppose I am.” He responded in a more Snape friendly tone as the edge had been taken off.

“I was rather looking forwards to all the devilish little things I could get away with down there. Dancing with the devil perhaps.” Severus was too busy processing what any of that could insinuate to respond. “Well, I’ll try not to bother you too much but I may need some local knowledge from you at some point. Feel free to visit me in heaven sometime.” You winked then laughed at yourself, a terrible joke really but the tease of it worked enough.

“Of course.” He raised his brow, wondering what was with all the biblical crap, though judging by the smirk on your face, his expression had meant something else to.

“I look forward to your visit, Goodnight for now, Severus.” Shit. It meant acceptance of the invitation.

“Good night.” He mumbled back and watched you disappear up the stairs as you lit your way with your wand. He couldn’t help but notice how literal your heaven and hell joke seemed as he watched the white light fade, then glanced down his own set of steps before him, taking in the reddish hue of candles and torches. He shook himself from his thoughts and descended the steps to hell.

The next morning after breakfast, Severus found himself once again stood at the bottom of your stairs just being captivated by you and the conversation you were both having.

“Sir-” one of his students attempted to speak to him as they walked by but was cut off by the famous glare.

“Wait downstairs.” He instructed and returned to you with a softer gaze.

“Have I distracted you?” You laughed at his little interaction.

“I wouldn’t say so. I’ll be on time.” He reassured himself more than anyone.

“I shall try harder next time then.” You raised a brow suggestively then bid him a good morning and left him to go to his class.

-

Your little chats happened on a daily basis now, making good on your word to try harder to distract him and in the evenings they would run at great lengths and would always end when you asked if he wanted to come up rather than just sit around in the stairwell but he would always decline and retreat to his little cave. You wanted to make it your mission to get him into your room or vice versa, mainly for comfort but also it was just a more intimate setting but you weren’t going to force it. You enjoyed flirting with him and he never told you to stop or that he was uncomfortable but you weren’t just going to push through his boundaries like that.

Unbeknownst to you, he was rather hoping you would push his boundaries, although he didn’t quite realise that himself either, he would soon though. He would tell himself that you initiated everything and he merely listened and tolerated your company but he would now come face to face with the reality of the part he played.

It was after dinner one evening when you both walked back to those fateful stairs and he leant against the wall, preparing for a long conversation but you took a step up the stairs and turned to him.

“I’m afraid I’ve got a student coming in a moment so I can’t stay and chat tonight, you can always come knocking later if you want a late night chat though.” You winked at him, briefly noticing the disappointment in his eyes, then a glint of something like panic before he mumbled that it was alright and that he would speak to you soon then he left. The panic was very odd, but the rest was a sign to you that he enjoyed your company at least.

Once he got back to the dungeons he sat himself at his desk and thought for a moment. He had panicked a little when he had left but it wasn’t necessarily bad but it was certainly new. The reason being was that he realised you had both been speaking for weeks, almost never missing a day but only for things you were both required to attend. As a result he hadn’t given any detentions or anything which was fairly unusual for him. No, it must be that the students finally learned how to behave. That’s what he told himself anyway but his students were going to make him think again the next day.

-

He was running late after talking to you that morning, not that he would admit to it but he took his time getting to his classroom, especially when he heard the mention of your name from inside so he paused to listen.

“Merlin, what I wouldn’t do for that woman!” He heard one student say.

“Arithmancy is easy-ish right? I could get into that class.” Another asked but was scoffed at and told it wasn’t exactly easy.

“You seen the way she flirts with Snape? Not only is she stunning but she flirts- albeit questionable- with Snape which keeps him out of our hair.”

“You’re right! None of us have had detention in weeks, he’s the late one now AND if you ask me, I think he doesn’t want to give us detention because he wants his evening free for her. I bet you anything that those two are fuc-“ That conversation came to an abrupt end when Severus practically flew into the room which stunned everyone into silence. He had to put an end to what he was hearing for his own sake but he was too embarrassed about it to confront them so went about his lesson but he knew as soon as it was over he had a lot of mulling over to do. In fact, he barely left his room all day which didn’t worry you but it wasn’t half boring without him to talk to all day.

Almost a week it had lasted. His little phase of barely leaving his room and any chats you usually had had come to a stop. Maybe you’d pushed him too far, or perhaps he had come to realise he couldn’t be bothered to put up with your incessant chatting anymore.

You watched one morning as he walked in front of you yet again rather than beside you then disappeared down into his dungeons, You sighed and went to ascend your own staircase.

“Professor.” The voice of a student behind you interrupted your thoughts rather abruptly, he was no student of yours.

“Yes?” You smiled welcomingly, opening yourself up to any conversation this child wanted to have with you as they shifted nervously before you.

“Do you think you could start talking to Professor Snape again? I know I’m out of line here but he isn’t the same and when you did speak to him he was much nicer than before but now he just seems... off. It’s unsettling to tell you the truth.” You almost laughed at the cheek of the child but they said it so innocently and with genuine concern that you stifled a laugh and chuckled lightly instead.

“I’ll do my best. Now hurry along or you’ll be late.” You continued chuckling to yourself as you carried on up the stairs, wondering if you should take his advice.

-

Later that evening you stood at the top of the stairs, staring down into the darkness before forcing yourself down them. You reached his door and knocked before you could even contemplate doing it. You waited longer than you should have before trying again after there was no response but once again, nothing. You turned to leave and thought perhaps you should wait for him for a few minutes in case he was preoccupied somewhere else for a moment so you made yourself comfortable on the bottom step.

Still, he never returned and you gave up, thinking you would try again tomorrow. Walking back up you were consumed with just how boring everything was without him to help occupy your time. Sure, you had things to get on with but there were little gaps in the day now that felt so empty. Just before you reached the ground between the two staircases, purgatory if you were to run with the biblical themes you had going on for some reason, he came into view. He was coming down from the tower you resided in and for a moment, you both just stared at eachother, frozen.

“Just the man I was looking for.” You broke silence first, opting for your usual flirtatious inflection.

“I am?” He forced in a innocence to his tone.

“Yes. What were you doing up there?” You addressed the elephant in the room.

“I was looking for you. I waited a little while. What were you looking for me for?” He folded his arms and raised his brows, pushing the interrogation back onto you.

“Well,” So he wanted to play that game huh, “I’ve been awfully bored as of recent and you’ve been avoiding me all week. So, I thought why not entertain myself with bothering you for a while.” Alright, that was the real elephant in the room and he knew it.

“Ah,” His eyes were downcast for a moment as he briefly contemplated, “Why don’t you come down with me then and bother me for the evening.” He closed the gap between you and paused just before you with his arm gesturing down the stairs as an invitation.

“I just bloody climbed these stairs.” You groaned but turned around and started walking anyway.

-

Once inside, he got you both a drink and sat with you to have one of those conversations he was so used to having with you but before that could start, you had to know whether he even wanted to.

“Severus.”

“Yes?” He shifted uncomfortably at the seriousness of your tone.

“Don’t misunderstand me when I say I do enjoy bothering you and talking to you but do you tolerate my babbling or do you actually enjoy my company?” You found yourself unable to look at him as he took a moment to think, despite how direct the question was.

“I suppose I tolerate your babbling BECAUSE I enjoy your company. Although I wouldn’t call it babbling really.” That was a start.

“So you’ve just been busy this week and I’ve foolishly thought I’d done something?” You looked at him now, apologetically with what you had insinuated.

“Well, I’ve been busy thinking about something you’ve done.” He put a great deal of thought into what he was saying and it still came out like that? Your eyes narrowed.

“You’re being very cryptic.” You stated plainly and he sighed lightly.

“Truthfully, I’ve been thinking about you. You’ve managed to keep this hold over me which I’m not totally unfamiliar with but it’s still new to me, especially with the way it affects me. It’s been... difficult to come to terms with.” He took a shaky breath and waited for your response as he stared at your hands. He watched them reach out to his own hands before looking you in the eye.

“I know exactly how you feel.” You smiled reassuringly.

“However, I do need to take things slow. In regards to processing what it all is.” He was still on edge.

“It doesn’t have to be anything you know, just see what happens.” You offered.

“I know, but it is something. I’m just in unfamiliar territory.” He had colour in his cheeks now as he waited for your delayed response.

“So no dancing with the devil yet then?” You cocked your brow and he visibly relaxed.

“Well.. I wouldn’t say that.”

[lucky-sevens]

mechs deep lore compilation post

so! maybe you’ve read the other compilation post i made of basic lore/how to get into the mechs! maybe you want to know more! or maybe you’re a fan already and want to see how deep down this rabbit hole you can get!

well, good news for you: i have gone down the rabbit hole and hit bedrock only to find maki yamazaki standing by my side with a pickaxe! it is time for mechs lore part 2: electric boogaloo also known as ‘wow blue have you considered sleep’

rest under the cut!

i’ve tried to organize this, but given how many random facts there are, it’s hard! decided to start off with lore for each character (in order of them joining the mechs in-universe), including all the carmilla lore at the end; then move into general world lore/a bit of album lore, and finally more obscure/unknown facts, such as explaining the whole scuzz thing! also, citing the sources has been difficult, as a lot of things are from, say, old twitter posts and the like. there might be less links here than you all would like, but bear with me- compiling all this lore is quite difficult!

disclaimer: unlike stuff like the wiki, this includes a lot of my own theories and red stringing, and while i’m noting if something’s fanon or canon, the fanon may occasionally make its way into my theories!

links to the songs will be mostly TheVoidSings’ youtube lyric videos, as i don’t want to find the links to all the different platforms they’re on and the videos are lovely and accessible!

also- i’ve done some significant editing on the mechanisms wiki, as have other talented people- go check it out! it’s a good source of lore!

now on w/ the actual post!

crew

jonny d’ville

his lore is fairly concrete, but since he’s an unreliable narrator, we don’t know what bits can be trusted! his backstory song is one eyed jacks, which gives a pretty clear picture of events, but here in his crew bio he says that he made up new texas, and doesn’t have a very good memory of events in general. (it’s implied that he didn’t lie about killing his father, but we don’t even know that for sure.) a note: unlike the others, we don’t know what happened to his heart in order for him to be mechanized.

the aurora

the aurora’s lore is a mess. here’s what we know for sure, which is an edited version of what i have on her wiki page, (where i have also given a list of her known physical attributes);

she started off as a moon, but was weaponized and turned into a ship. she initially was a navy ship, but mutinied and joined the rebellion, participating in the october revolution, in which nastya died and was mechanized. this may have been her choice, but it is more likely that carmilla and/or jonny forced her into it, as they are the ones who won her from the cyberian navy.

when they stormed the ship, a woman was trapped inside- specialist 278 tereshkova, presumably aurora's programmer. What her and aurora's relationship was like is unknown, but aurora did not make any attempt to save her, so it may have not been positive. before dying, tereshkova managed to program a final distress message into aurora, as well as coding the mechanisms' blog.

she’s likely to be based off of the historical battleship aurora, like nastya is based off of the historical russian princess anastasia.

now, it’s time to get into the main theory about her: that aurora used to be briar rose! i’m collecting all the evidence on it, as well as all the evidence that can disprove it.

here’s a refresher on briar rose’s whole deal, taken from ‘the aurora strikes’-

The Rose Reds were the most effective of the soldiers created from Rose's genetic material, but they were not the first. Rumours spoke of an early prototype, known as the Briar Rose, that had malfunctioned and slain everyone on the desert moon of Briar, where she was being grown. But she was not dead. As the Mechanisms discovered, instead, she slept, at the heart of the defence grid that surrounded New Constantinople. The grid was composed of Thorn-class gun emplacements and was virtually impenetrable. And in its centre, the Briar Rose slumbered, plugged into the system, her anger, her rage, her hatred and her fear, fueling the machines, and focusing their gun turrets.

the main support for the theory here is that over time, briar rose could have fused to the moon, which is one of the very few conditions in which a biomechanical weaponized moon seems plausible and not just like a collection of vaguely cursed words. however, in the fiction ‘by any other name’, which is some collected lab research on briar rose, there’s this line- “During transportation and integration of the specimen, take all precaution and care.”- key word here being transportation. so she must have been moved off the moon.

the fiction i cited to disprove the theory actually has something that further supports it, though- the presence of a mysterious woman in king cole’s lab, who could be carmilla. hood, the revolution’s hacker, notes on a picture of her ‘[No idea. The others I’ve been able to find evidence of, but she’s a fucking ghost]‘. the description is a bit off, though, as she’s described as a short, pale, woman with hair long enough to be pulled back and carmilla is quite tall and has short hair- as well, in a later part of the fiction, the woman is killed and does not revive. however, there’s also another who could plausibly be her, noted here- ‘A tall woman sits opposite Prof. Root with a tray of her own. From her stature, it is conceivable she was one of the figures in the chemical suits. They talk sporadically, but the audio is heavily corrupted.’ she isn’t one of the ones killed later on, either, so that’s possible.

we know carmilla knew aurora when she was a very young moon and raised her practically from birth, so if she is one of those two people, it would make sense.

in ‘the aurora strikes’, aurora pushes to save briar rose- nastya explains this as ‘she can not bear to see another biomechanical organism in pain’. in my own writing about aurora, i interpret that as her having very high empathy, but there could be a more personal connection here. this is also notable as the only time aurora is mentioned in-album beyond jonny calling the mechanisms ‘the crew of the starship aurora’.

nastya rasputina

nastya’s backstory song (cyberian demons) was only performed when they were still dr. carmilla and the mechanisms, so it’s harder to find! thevoidsings has made a lyric video of it here, though, and it gives another very clear picture of her backstory! there’s also the fiction of the same name, which i didn’t understand upon first read-through but is basically a nastya character study, covering different points in her immortal life.

her performer went on hiatus for a while, and as an in-universe explanation, the cyberian sequence was written! in which nastya flies aurora to cyberia, infects herself with a computer virus, and transmits it to the entire planet, causing it to explode. this is all in the cyberian demons fiction i linked above, and with it are two other tangential fictions- one presumably just before those events, and one that’s an outsider pov.

there’s also out, which i’d suggest reading rather than just looking at my summary; basically, nastya has a crisis over aurora changing so that it’s harder to recognize her love, and ends up leaving the ship to float away into deep space- this is presumed to be her death, but that is never confirmed and nastya seems to assume she will wake up at some point.

ashes o’reilly

ashes’ whole deal is quite straightforward, which is a nice break from aurora and (to a lesser extent) nastya! their backstory song is lucky sevens, and it’s elaborated on further in their crew bio; interestingly, ashes was the one most into the idea of immortality at first, and also gave clear consent to carmilla.

ivy alexandria

we don’t know that much about ivy, which is fitting, as she doesn’t either! the most clear information we can find about her is in her crew bio, which can be summarized as: she grew up in a library!

archive footage explains more about her memory situation. she has no memories of anything before she was mechanized, according to this line ‘[...] she can tell you dates, and places, and body counts, she can list for you the exact circumstances of each event of her long, long life (at least, every event since that time, long ago, among a maze of bookshelves in a library that, awake, she can no longer describe to you, though once she knew its every turn by heart, when a woman stood over her and offered her eternity: before that, there is nothing at all).’ she also processes her memories differently than most people- they’re more like records, instead of things that affect her emotionally. (archive footage is also beautifully written and very much worth reading!)

the toy soldier

would say it has concrete lore, but it’s also almost solely responsible for fucking up my timeline and the album lore, so i’m rather angry at it. nevertheless, its entire backstory can be found in the fiction ‘the story of the toy soldier’. additionally, there’s a short story about its time fighting in the revolution of once upon a time (in space); presumably, this is the first time it did so, though it was likely in the war at least twice and possibly even three times. the mechanisms were only watching the second time, though it’s not out of character for it to have participated in the war again, and there’s also the dr. carmilla song, eleven, (which is about a war and uses a lot of rose symbology so it’s likely the revolution) where it is present. notably, carmilla had left the mechanisms by the time once upon a time (in space) takes place on their timeline, and the toy soldier is the only one there. at first, i interpreted that as carmilla meeting the toy soldier before it had met the mechanisms, but there’s two inconsistencies there: firstly, it doesn’t recognize her when it joins the band, and secondly, in the song they leave together. this increases the likelihood of it having been in the war three times.

we actually have a recording of the toy soldier’s first time joining the band- the mechanisms @ lashings! (part one / part two / transcript) there’s also a note of that show in the story of the toy soldier! they bought it because jonny was in jail (x). interestingly, that show is the first recording of rose red, and it’s later noted jonny was in a rose red prison!

now it’s time to get into the main theory regarding it, which also will factor into the write-up of ulysses dies at dawn later! i personally subscribe to this theory, or at least, most of it.

here is frankie @byron-von-raum‘s post- the theory here is that the toy soldier is the rebodied mind of the widow’s fiance. i’m not going to get too into that part, as i don’t personally incorporate it into my lore and more importantly frankie already has a post on it! read that if you’re more interested!

the most important bit here is the evidence it collects regarding the toy soldier living near labyrinth; in one of the pictures from the toy soldier’s backstory, there’s a dionysus brand wine bottle. the consensus he comes to is that the toy soldier lives in a colony of earth that trades with labyrinth, and while i think that’s possible, the all-encompassing nature of the city makes it more likely that they would have a minimum of outside communication, so the toy soldier would just be from the city proper. i will get into the impacts of this/expand on it more in the world lore section!

another thing: the angel has an out of character explanation! if you look at photos of old mechs gigs, jessica law looks similar to the drawing of the angel in the story of the toy soldier! their voice being stolen was most likely a reference to that.

drumbot brian

brian’s backstory is laid out in his crew bio! i’d summarize it, but to be honest, it’s already a summary, so i’d suggest just taking a second to read that! sadly, this is all of what we know about it. the priest from his backstory was apparently made almost immortal in some twisted form of mechanization, and has never forgiven brian for it/is still trying to hunt him down (x).

his bio is also where his morality switch is introduced! (interestingly, it takes a far lower role/is mentioned far less in canon than in fanworks.)

there was originally going to be a backstory album about him called indistinguishable from magic. this never happened, but ben below is working on a new one called the wanderings of drumbot brian! no more knowledge on this currently. 

the main theory about him is that he had some kind of alliance/is lying about something to do with carmilla! we know from maki that carmilla didn’t go out of the airlock (more on that in her section), and when brian is questioned on what happened to her, he doesn’t give a concrete answer. this is in contrast to all the other mechanisms, who assume she fell out an airlock. here’s what he said:

I will not point fingers and lay blame. I do not know how it came to pass that Dr. Carmilla left this vessel, whether by fair means or foul, and so I will not engage in this painful discussion. I hope she did not suffer, and that we may forgive the perpetrator of this deed.

he’s speaking very formally here. (fucking nerd). well, no; legitimately, this is not the normal way he speaks in other contexts. he could be masking something. we know that even when he’s lying, he’s not good at it, and this comes off as clearly odd. in support of this, i believe one of the songs on his unwritten backstory album was called ‘the doctor’s demise’ (though i could be remembering incorrectly).

there’s not much more evidence we can draw on here to come to a consensus, though!

something else to note- i’ve written this other meta about his prophetic powers! feel free to read if you’re interested in that aspect of his character!

gunpowder tim

of course, tim already has a whole mini-album to himself (gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser), but there’s a couple more niche things about him, though not as much as aurora and ts!

mainly, the implications that he destroyed the sun. there’s an old mechanisms tweet that states he 'was floating in the wake of a detonated star’. additionally, there’s this old blog post, which turned into a bit of a fiction! the figure speaking is not named, but given the other mechanisms who speak (therefore knocking them off the possibilities list) and the fact that the post was made around the time tim joined, it’s likely that it’s him. now, he says this:

“It wasn’t the deep space that drove me crazy,” he said, his voice low, calm and polite.  “It was the sudden realisation that I was entirely responsible for the destruction of my entire civilisation, and happy for it.”

though destroying the moon and his other actions in gptvtmk could possibly count for this, it would fit more if he had destroyed the sun.

both those posts also imply that he was floating in space for an incredibly long time. i don’t know how he survived if so, but it seems very likely that’s what happened.

i considered these posts being too early/having a changed canon now, like the odd use of different pronouns for some characters in the earlier fiction, but they seemed to have gunpowder tim vs the moon kaiser mostly worked out by the time tim ledsam officially joined, as they perform it at the only recorded gig from that year with him (port mahon 2011), which was around when the second blog post was made!

marius von raum

we don’t have a written backstory or backstory song to go on for him, but kofi young (his performer) is working on a full album about him called ‘the death of byron von raum’!

the blog post kofi made about it as a summary is the main source of marius lore that we have! i’d highly suggest reading it, but the main points are:

1. it’s going to be very dark and tragic, and shows that marius at heart isn’t really the kind of comedic figure that he comes off as in the band! ruth @thedreadvampy (the mechanisms’ official artist, as well as morgan’s sister and kofi’s partner) has also made a tumblr post that connects to this!

2. the world he’s from used to be high-tech, but has devolved over time into 18th century levels of technology! what this boils down to is; what we assume is marius and an unknown friend (more on this in raphaella’s part) manage to discover ancient technology and attempt to use it! all we have here is this quote om the blog post- ‘In the middle of this, two kids hiding from the soldiers discover an army of ancient mecha and use them to fight back, but only end up plunging the world into further chaos.’.

3. anime protagonist marius!

we also have this small piece of writing, screenshotted here (monogoggle...)-

[image id: a screenshot of writing, most of it out of view/hard to make out. it’s also in the middle of the line, so the breaks are off. however, it looks to say ‘at the controls of RISML/cockpit is cramped and d[...]/has his monogoggle over his/controls are uncomplicated/the neural interface. They [...]’ end id.]

raphaella la cognizi

i’ve been very deep down the mechs rabbit hole for over a month now, and yet i’ve found hardly anything about her!

there’s a small theory i have, though it doesn’t have too much supporting evidence! in marius’ backstory, it mentions two kids, and raphaella and marius joined together (first mention of either of them is together, in this facebook post!) when questioned about marius and raphaella, nastya says a story instead of stories (x). (that post also clarifies that carmilla was not involved in either raphaella or marius’ backstories!) this could potentially point to raphaella being the other person from marius’ backstory. the evidence against it is that if raphaella featured that heavily, r. l. hughes would have said something about the album as well instead of it just being kofi talking about marius, but it’s still interesting to think about!

there’s also a theory that she was the preacher’s daughter from brian’s backstory, but the only real evidence there is that she could have used his tech to mechanize herself (which her doing is only fanon!) and that she performs ‘lost in the cosmos’.

dr carmilla

this is most likely going to be the shortest section, as it’s basically another crew member; that being said, there’s a lot of lore here!

if you haven’t listened to the carmilla albums, i’d really suggest doing that! there’s two- exhumed and (un)plugged and ageha prototype edition! the story there is harder to put together than in the mechs backstories, especially because the songs are mostly out of order, so i’ve decided to just straight up summarize my interpretation, along with what we have to go on from maki, instead of framing it like a theory, as that’s the easiest way! still, please bear all this with a grain of salt- it’s most likely to be contradicted in the new album maki is working on.

carmilla and her girlfriend loreli lived on a planet called terra. for their childhoods, it was a fairly okay place to live (though i elaborate on this a bit in the world lore section!) however, it was bombed; most likely taking the role of an alternate universe hiroshima, as the blurb on her bandcamp says ‘Dr. Carmilla tells the twisted tales of a dystopian future following WWII having ended very differently.‘ after this, the planet sunk into a nuclear winter.

loreli got sick and died; or, she should have, but carmilla saved her by turning her into a vampire as well. this resulted in loreli losing her morals and becoming abusive towards carmilla. carmilla was too deep in love to see this, and stayed in the relationship for several years.

we don’t know what happened to make her strike out on her own, but eventually she did, and created the mechanisms. while with them, she recognized her own failures with loreli, and left the mechanisms (which they all believe was caused by jonny d’ville pushing her out an airlock, rather than her own volition.)

from there, she traveled back in time to the point where loreli was dying, and let it happen- potentially burying herself and loreli alive, which she survived due to her immortality and loreli did not.

however, she was trapped underground for a hundred years. when she is finally found and dug out, she starts enjoying herself (i.e. committing murder). for some unknown reason, she clones herself multiple times, creating the in-universe version of maki yamazaki.

the mechanisms assume she pursued them after she was pushed out of the airlock, and that that was what eleven was about, but i’m not sure why she would do that, given that she left them of her own volition. because of time shenanigans, it could have been far later on her personal timeline; maybe she simply wished to reconnect with them after all those years.

that’s all we have; we don’t know if she died, or anything like that!

world lore

all the folktales and normal history the irl mechs work off of also exist in-universe! (for an example- the toy soldier and ivy start reciting the walrus and the carpenter together in lashings, and the mechs also do alice in wonderland as a song.)

we know the alternate universe theory is correct, mostly because of this piece in the fiction on kofi’s blog-

In those burning instants, he’d feel the weight of it all, and know it was true. The golden age that never came; the city that stood at the dawn of a world instead of in its dying embers. And beyond – to a myriad of Camelots and a thousand thousand Arthurs, unfathomable worlds apart, each different, each fighting the same hopeless battle.

He’d feel the burden of that task pressing down until it felt like it’d crush his chest, and he’d wake every day gasping for breath, feeling older than he ever had, older even than Ector.

And as he screamed inwardly, Galahad would meet his gaze with those crazed eyes of his and grin, and Arthur would know again that whatever had spoken to Galahad was moving him too.

the mechanisms are most likely traveling between several alternate universe versions of folktales, and occasionally alternate versions of earth! (cyberia, tim’s earth, terra...) this is likely why everyone in their stories is human, and is actually low-key evidence against drawing them as aliens (though ofc feel free to have fun!)

i was initially going to put all the album lore in its own separate sections, but a large amount of it is how it intersects with other pieces of lore, and the rest isn’t necessarily niche enough to cite here? my personal advice is that if you want to learn more about the albums, read the fiction! i have a compilation post of all the fiction up on this blog, and you can find it on the website here!

let’s start with the mechanisms’ roles in ulysses dies at dawn, though! we know for sure ashes is hades, brian is the oracle of delphi, and the toy soldier was a nymph (which is actually quite worrying, considering what that means and the inherent issues with consent there, but i digress.) tim most likely took on the role of achilles (more on that here). then, we know some of the mechanisms’ activities and can guess their roles from that. raphaella was helping athena on her research, marius was psychoanalyzing the olympians, and jonny was committing mass murder. it’s a common theory that one (or three) of the mechanisms was cerberus, but sadly i couldn’t find any evidence towards or against that.

i said in the toy soldier’s section that i would talk more about the implications of it being from labyrinth here! the main thing is the fact that, for it to join the rose red war, the city must have interacted with king cole at some point. it’s a risky thing to pose a theory on the toy soldier’s allegiance towards a certain group, but the fact that it seemed to stick with the rose reds here might also mean that the city was, in fact, under king cole’s power. this fits in nicely with the greek mythology aspect of it all; king cole, in that universe, could have been a stand-in for the figure of kronos/saturn!

a few other theories on how the lore intersects:

1. high noon over camelot takes place after the bifrost incident! in terminus, we see communication breaking down, and that could have been the reason the station was isolated. the mechanisms go from it to the bifrost incident, but as they canonically travel in time, that’s not enough to disprove the theory!

2. arthur becomes king cole eventually! this is mostly going off of the fact he’s called ‘the once and future king’, but also the fact that cole used to be considered a good king.

a few loose pieces of worldbuilding:

people from new constantinople seem to be longer lived, and their culture is built around age as a concept. the older you are, the more wise and important you are. specifically, in this fiction, snow is dismissively noted as ‘barely fifty’ and king cole’s age is held up as evidence to why he’s a good ruler.

terra, carmilla’s planet, has two major languages; high terran and low terran! high terran is a more regulated, formal way of speaking, specifically something that only the rich and privileged tend to know. there are many dialects, but the grammar is dictated by the capital. low terran is a creole language formed from several others, including high terran, that most children are taught in school as the baseline. (though they might speak a completely different, less widely spoken language at home!) carmilla speaks low terran but not high terran (although she pretends to know the latter.)

the mechanisms were all (or mostly all) at fort galfridean at one point; don’t have the source to hand, but marius apparently became a prophet to the saxons for staring into the sun for a very long time.

if you’re looking to draw album fanart, there are a few things i know aren’t as widely known; the ones i can think of off the top of my head is orpheus having a ‘foppish haircut’ (the type of thing that falls under that definition is narcissus’ undercut), and snow’s disfiguring scar. there is also official album art; i, personally, have not seen much of it, and i’d encourage coming up with your own character interpretations.

one last theory- it’s highly likely carmilla was involved in the events of the bifrost incident. in the mechscord (sadly, invites are closed due to the difficulty with handling the boom in the fanbase) maki yamazaki has mentioned that part of the criteria for picking a mechanism is ‘good friend for lyf’. at first, i assumed that she meant good friend for life, but when asked on that she was worryingly cryptic (as tends to happen), and she made a joke earlier in character as doc c about accidentally calling odin. though immortal lyfrassier edda most likely became fanon just so they could become a mechanism, this is a piece of evidence towards them actually becoming immortal.

my personal headcanon is that to gain true immortality (which maki has said king cole and the olympians do not have) you have to have some kind of eldritch component, so carmilla had to go to odin for aid. this is supported by the fact that in drive the cold winter away and cyberian demons, their mechanisms are noted as having a rainbow sheen to them!

other lore

scuzz nishimura

scuzz has built up a bit of a reputation for being the ‘cryptid mech’, but her lore is really quite simple! she was a member of the band back when they were doctor carmilla and the mechanisms, but left before they became more popular, so there’s not too much knowledge about her. she appears in this fiction and the only two recorded gigs from that era (lashings and homesick). she’s also visible in several photos!

i know i’ll get people in the notes asking for photos of her if i don’t include any, so have this;

[image id: a cropped picture of scuzz nishimura, looking tired and resting her head on her hand. she looks to be wearing white gloves and some kind of sweater or waistcoat, and her hair is cut short. her cello is also visible, as is someone else’s hand. end id.]

we don’t know too much about her; all we really have is that she was their cello player!

assorted things with no explanation

there’s this old piece from the wayback machine-

[image id: a screenshot of what looks to be the fiction page from a old site for dr carmilla and the mechs. the writing reads;

Writing

( The Aldwich Horror } A short story in which Dr. Carmilla attempts to solve the mysteries of the Aldwich Horror, the strange appearance of a new crew memeber and several zoologically dubious pets.

( Disinterration } A cautionary tale about exhuming corpses.

end id.]

‘disinterration’ is most likely a reference to the carmilla song exhumed, but i’m unsure about ‘the aldwich horror’. the most intriguing bit there is ‘the strange appearance of a new crew member’. i’ve researched the other aspects in an attempt to figure this out. aldwych is a closed london tube station- it served as a bomb shelter during the blitz, which is interesting as both carmilla and tim have backstories involving the world wars (though only carmilla’s is world war ii specifically; tim’s is wwi). the zoologically dubious pets are most likely the octokittens, which we know the toy soldier brought on board, so it would have to be in a place on the timeline after ts joined and before carmilla left. the only mechanism that joins in that space is gunpowder tim, so it’s possible that he is the new crew member.

the mechanisms blogs have a lot of incidental lore, so if you’re this deep in i’d suggest looking at my compilation post of some of my favorite posts of theirs!

and that’s it! we did it! i can finally go to sleep now. i’m so tired. please. i am going to die. i have homework. thank you all so much. please consider coming to my funeral service.