#(I did not but only because I was resigned to a much dumber and less interesting storyline based on my previous experiences and expectation

[miabrown007]

sometimes twists in stories get you by being smarter than what you expect from their genre.

[dannyboy-writes]

Red stains darker in the snow

The white lights blinded you as they took you to questioning, every cold hall the same sad shade of grey, and at every corner a guard posted. So monotonous. 

Your arms ached from the pressure a random agent was applying, and you couldn’t help but notice the stares coming from every inch of the room. 

Everyone but her. 

On one of the never-ending corridors they opened a steel door into an interrogation room, where they left you there for some time. 

There was close to nothing in the room. One metal table to which you were cuffed to, one very uncomfortable chair on each side of said table, and a mirror. 

As you fiddled with the cuffs the door opened, letting Bailey- or Bell- Barton in with a frown, who looked at the mirror after sparing you a glance, and sat.

“y/n l/n, is that even your name?” He asked, dropping the file.

“Who knows,” you shrugged.

“...fugitive in fifteen countries, twenty two states, wanted for terrorism, murder and the hijack of a high tech plane,” he started as you reminisced on previous assignments. “Where did you take it, the plane.”

“Plage de Carras.”

“Hmm, France. Was it nice?”

“Lovely,” you said with a smile. “You should go, you look like you need more sun.”

He smiled, “I wouldn’t gloat much if I were you. Where you’re going there’s not that much sun.”

“Well, I doubt you found anything at the apartment,” you said as his smile dissipated into the straight line it was at the beginning. “And there’s nothing you can trace me to… So, how would you arrest me? Unless SHIELD has fallen into the dark side of intelligence, alongside Hydra and the CIA-”

“The CIA isn’t Hydra,” he interrupted.

“How not? Hidden government organization, check; based in world domination, check; has multiple hidden bases and severe human rights violations, check and check. 

“Would you stop with the mind games,” he said, resting back in the chair.

“They’re not mind games-” you started.

“You’re a liar,” spat Barton as you looked at him.

“Am I, though?” You nonchalantly asked. 

“You told her you’d change, you’d be better.”

“Oh, that you mean. No, yeah, that was a lie,” you chuckled. “But it’s not like it was a ‘lie’ lie, I mean, she knew I wasn’t going to change. I don’t think it counts as a lie that way, do you?”

“Yes!” He snapped, hitting the metal table. He pinched the bridge of his nose and spoke in a calmer voice, “It counts. Maybe not to someone like you, l/n, but it does.”

“Ooh, not to someone like me,” you mocked. “We’re all the same, Barton. You, her, me. We all sell ourselves, our information, our skills. You do it for your precious America, she used to do it for Russia, I used to do the same. It doesn’t matter who you do it for, you do it. Your SHIELD is not so different from the Red Room, or where I grew up.”

“Where was that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” you stated. “The point is, Barton, in this line of work, you have to lie, or you die. It’s that simple. And if you think Natasha over there, behind the mirror, doesn’t lie, you’re dumber than I thought.” 

She had to be behind it, or listening somewhere. She should’ve had the courage to sit in front of you, but apparently she didn’t. Madame B. would be disappointed. 

Barton said nothing, and you continued, “She is behind there, isn’t she? Waiting, calculating. Trying to crack what I’m doing.”

“Maybe,” he said. 

“Well, there’s no need to dwell too much on it. I can tell her myself.” 

“You can tell me,” he said as he scraped the chair to the floor, making you wince.

“Now, where’s the fun in that.”

At that he left, maybe thinking you would crack under the pressure of nobody… What a dumb plan.

A few hours passed and as you were stretching your muscles, the door opened again, this time, with a familiar tone of red walking in. 

“I was beginning to think you were a no show, Red,” you said while she sat in the chair.

She said nothing. 

“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue or something?”

“No, I’m fine,” she said, reading the file Barton had left there. 

There was not much in it, only a few minor inconveniences; still, there were some things that you’d rather forget there too.

“Your new team sucks at making files, by the way. There’s nothing there,” you started, tapping an old rhythm on the table. “I’ve noticed you, Red. You’re becoming sloppy.”

“Maybe I wanted you to notice, hmm. Ever thought of that?” She retorted.

You scoffed, “Now, why would you want that? Got a death wish or something?” 

“You wouldn’t.”

“I’m a changed fella, time does crazy things,” you snickered. 

“Why are you here, y/n?” She finally asked.

“I mean, it’s not like I chose to be here. If I had, there would be less cuffs and more beaches,” you said, tugging the restraints. “Although I do enjoy cuffs under the right circumstances… Remember?” You smirked.

“Fondly,” she met your eyes for the first time since she walked in, making you smile. “So,” she started. “What’s your plan?”

“There’s no plan,” you shrugged. 

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious, no plan. Not a single thing, nada.” 

“No plan,” she said, as you nodded. “So, you knew the team was there…”

“Yup. They’re very sloppy.”

“You let them capture you…”

“Clearly.”

“All for nothing,” she finished.

“Well, not for nothing. I just said I had no plan,” you said.

“So what for then?”

“I was bored,” you stated, wandering your gaze around the room.

“Bored?”

You nodded, “Bored.”

“What, do they have a bad retirement plan at Hydra?”

“Very funny,” you said, a resigned smile on your lips. 

“I’m going to ask again, then, and don’t lie to me. Why are you here?”

You took a deep, sharp breath before saying, “I need help.”

“Help?”

“Yep.”

“I’m sorry, I thought you said you needed help,” she said in disbelief.

“Well, there’s no need to be smug about it,” you said. “I’m only human, Nat.”

“Doubtful. Go on, help with what?”

“As you know, I’m a wanted criminal in many places,” you said, stopping for her to nod. “And, as you also might know or figure out, some of those places want me to go to their little dark prisons.”

“Which is understandable, considering everything you’ve done.”

“What about what you’ve done, huh Red? You don’t get to pay for those?” You accused, and when she didn’t say anything, added, “Joking.”

“Anyway, as I was saying, some of them want me imprisoned, most want me dead. And it’s catching up, and I can’t avoid it all on my own. So, I’m here in search of help,” you concluded.

“Why should I help you, y/n? We haven’t seen each other in years.”

It was a fair argument.

"I mean, you don't have to help me. By all means, you're free to let me go. In fact, you should. I don't bring anything good to this situation. I'm a fugitive with zero information on anything and a target bigger than my back. Just me.”

She stared at you for a second, “It's not like we had much before.”

“True, we were great,” you mused. “Whatever happened to us?”

“You kept working for Hydra as I left the KGB and joined SHIELD,” she reminded you.

“Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice, Natasha,” you said, getting serious. “You left without saying a word and I had to deal with the consequences. That mission was mine too and you messed it up. Just packed and left. I was left to fend for myself, and try not sell you out.”

She was quiet. Probably had no idea you had suffered for her departure; or that you didn’t sell her out, even if it would’ve meant much less pain for you. 

“I thought about doing it,” you continued. “Sell you out. It would’ve solved many problems.”

“Why didn’t you?” She asked without a second thought.

Now you were quiet. Very quiet.

“I- I guess I wanted something good to come out of that mess. I don’t know, I wanted to think you were out, and it was something less to worry about. But it backfired,” you finally said.

“Backfired how?”

“Well, you became the mission after your little escape. And who better than me to find you,” you scoffed. “I mean, they knew everything, Red. Every single thing. Every secret code we had, every place we met at.”

She shook her head, “There’s no way, how would they know?”

“I have no fucking idea how! But they knew,” you shook your head. “Now, there’s no need to get into that. Will you help me?”

She took a deep breath and nodded, “Yes.”

As you were thanking her a knock on the glass stopped you. Natasha left the room and met with a very angry Clint Barton.

“What are you doing, Tasha?” He asked while pinching the bridge of his nose.

“They need help, okay. I have to,” she said.

“You don’t have to do anything. They made their choice a long time ago.”

Natasha only shook her head.

“Why do you still have their back?” He asked.

Ah, the million dollar question.

“We go back, Clint. They've saved me countless times.”

“They’ve tried to kill you as many times as well,” he added.

“You don’t get it. It was my fault,” she said.

He raised an eyebrow for her to continue.

“When I left. When I decided to go with you, I- I didn’t even think of bringing them with. And they suffered because of that choice I made.”

“It’s not your fault,” he said and she looked at him. “Whatever happened to y/n when you left is not your fault.”

“But it is!” She shouted. “It is. And now they need help, and I’m not gonna turn my back on them again, Clint. I can’t.”

Barton was about to say something but he stopped himself. “Okay,” He started. “We’ll help them.”

-

Natasha entered the questioning room some time after leaving you with your thoughts, this time accompanied by Barton. 

“We’ll help,” she only said.

“We?” You asked.

“We,” said Barton. “I’m not going to let you be alone with her.”

“Scared I’ll steal your girlfriend?”

He grabbed the collar of your shirt, “Now, let me be clear with something l/n. Just because we’re helping, doesn’t mean I’ll let you run around like a child in a park. Do you understand me?”

“I understand,” you huffed, throwing your body backwards to get out of his grip. “So, when are we leaving?”

“Leaving?” They both asked in synchrony. 

"You didn't expect us to stay here, right? There's gotta be a safehouse somewhere harder to infiltrate than this place,” you said.

“This place isn’t easy to infiltrate,” Barton defended.

“It is. I did it twice,” you admitted. “Hypothetically speaking, of course.” 

Barton unclasped the cuffs, "Hypothetically speaking, huh? Was that a confession?" 

“No, simply a statement on the security of this place,” you shrugged.

“There’s a safehouse up north,” Natasha said. “But it’s cold this time of year.”

“Please, Red. You grew up in Russia, you gonna tell me a little snow is too much for you?”

“I don’t remember it was me whining about the cold in our stakeouts,” she retorted.

“No, that was because you stole all my jackets and covers and I was left with nothing but light sweaters,” you bickered back while Barton cursed to himself for getting in this mess with you both.

“Alright you two,” he interrupted. “We leave tomorrow.” 

You shook your head, “Now.” 

“We need to prep everything for the trip, and tell Fury about-”

“You’ll tell no one nothing,” you almost shouted, banging your hand on the table. “You can’t,” you said more calmly. 

“Why not?” Natasha asked. 

“Because- It’s imperative that no one knows about this.”

“We can trust Fury,” said Barton. 

“You can’t trust anyone,” you spat. “Not if you want to live. We leave tonight. Is there a car we can take?” You asked, looking at Natasha who was silent.

She knew you were right. After all, not long ago, SHIELD was infiltrated by Hydra. 

“There’s a car,” she said, while Barton stared at her. “That’s how we stayed alive.” 

He sighed loudly in defeat as you stared blankly at the metal table. “Okay, we take the car and head north to the safehouse. Then what?”

“Then we wait,” you said. 

“Wait for what,” asked Natasha.

“For my contact.” 

The mildly hard part of the plan was escaping from SHIELD headquarters, but even that wasn’t so hard. Next, you all found your way to a car parked at the last level of a parking lot, under some dusty blankets. 

Natasha started driving and when she got tired Barton took over, while she slept on the back, which made the car’s habitacle a tense place. 

Neither Barton nor you said a single word for the time Natasha was asleep; there wasn’t even a single stare between the both of you. 

When Natasha woke up you decided you were going to drive a bit, to get your mind busy on something; so with Natasha as the copilot you took the wheel, and it wasn’t until she was sure Clint was asleep that she spoke.

“Okay, what are you not saying?”

 “What,” you asked.

“Something is different,” she started. “What is it?”

“You mean besides the fact that multiple governments want me dead?”

“I don’t buy that. Countries have wanted you dead for years, why does it matter now?”

You sighed staring at the newfound snow on the route, “It’s nothing.”

She wanted to say something, to protest against your lack of answer but she didn’t.

You got to the safehouse after almost an hour of thick, sickening silence, and Natasha would’ve preferred a millennia of quiet instead of what she heard. 

One piercing bullet sound, and you falling to your knees.

While Clint left to find whoever had fired the gun Natasha froze still in the white before falling to her knees with you, cradling you.

“You’ll be okay,” she said, applying pressure on your abdomen. “Everything will be okay.”

You managed a crooked smile and a reassuring look before placing your hand on her cheek, “It’s okay, Red. It’s okay.”

She held your hand and kept repeating the same four words on and on, and she didn’t realise when you drifted off to sleep until it was too late; when she was covered in your blood on the white snow. 

She stayed there, by the car, covered in a mix of blood and snow and hugged you. It wasn’t until she saw Clint coming back with defeat plastered on his face that she realised what’d happened. 

He helped her into the safehouse and brought your lifeless body, covering it with a sheet. 

“Did you find whoever did this?” She asked after a long time of silence.

“I only found the gun,” he said.

“We’ll find them.”

[catboymingi]

dumb and dumber

navi/masterlist

pairing: wooyoung x (gn!) reader

genre: slight angst & crack, fluff; requested!

word count: 1.5k

warnings: a little language, insecurities

hello pls may i request something w wooyoung - we know he is sometimes dumb and says things without thinking so could i req something where he accidentally upsets his girlfriend / s/o and maybe one of the boys has to explain why they're upset n it's fluffy at the end ?? 

a/n: i hope you like this! i hope it’s fluffy enough and also i was informed it is one (1) man’s birthday today so happy birthday wooyoung!

you were playing some game with the boys, mafia, a game you, in all honesty, had no idea about, hadn’t played before, and it was because of this that the evening escalated the way it did.

“we found the idiot!”, your boyfriend joked when you lost the game for the fourth time in a row, and even though you knew he didn’t mean it it still hurt, especially when being stupid was one of your biggest insecurities, when you were constantly worrying about being less than perfect at your school work, at your tests, at everything that required some intellectual abilities. you’d never been very good at handicrafts, so your brain was all you had, in a way, or that’s what it felt like. and now wooyoung had called you an idiot for not knowing how the game worked and hadn’t even realised that you turned quiet, teasing you some more about being so smart but then losing against him when it came to this game.

“wooyoung”, seonghwa, the oldest of the group, warned him, but he didn’t seem to notice, smiling brightly at you even when you turned away from him because you couldn’t stand to see his face when he was being so annoying and rubbing it in your face that you weren’t as smart as you pretended you were, that it was all empty words.

“i get it, wooyoung”, you snapped about two seconds later, getting up from where you were seated and your boyfriend’s hand dropping from your knee as you did so.

“baby?”, because now he, too, had realised that something was wrong, especially when you hissed at him: “call me idiot instead.”

and then, before he’d had the chance to think about just what he might have done wrong, you went off to mingi’s room - the boys all liked you and it was the only single room and in this moment you really were just too upset to think much about anything -, telling wooyoung that mingi would get his bed tonight and he’d be sleeping on the couch.

“what did i do?”, with wide, genuinely innocent eyes, looking at his friends that seemed about as surprised by your outburst as he was, though they were able to tell how what he’d said had upset you, and greatly so.

“wooyoung”, hongjoong sighed, and the confused look on his friend’s face made hongjoong want to sigh again.

“you shouldn’t have called her an idiot”, he elaborated, though wooyoung still seemed a little uncertain about just what he’d done wrong.

“but we call each other names all the time!”, because that was true, you’d tease each other a lot, though you at least always made sure to tell him you didn’t mean it and that you loved him the way he was. he hadn’t noticed that his teasing had hurt you a little in the past already, too.

“maybe they don’t like that”, mingi let him know, being able to understand how it felt when people had a certain image of you in mind that you didn’t want to challenge by suddenly being “less fun”.

“but they’ve never said anything?”

he seemed so lost and his friends almost felt a little sorry for him, but then they heard one very loud sob from mingi’s room and they knew wooyoung would have to apologise, and soon, and genuinely.

“i think they didn’t want to be a party pooper”, yunho said, and they could near hear the gears shift in their smaller friend’s head.

“you know they’re scared of being stupid, woo”, san told him with a soft, considerate voice, because he knew that wooyoung sometimes had a hard time realising that things weren’t as fun as he thought they were, and that he needed it spelled out for him at times that things genuinely hurt.

“they’re scared of not being good enough or smart enough, and they’ve been frustrated all night for always losing because they didn’t really get it. so you probably just rubbed it in their face that they’re not good enough, even though we know you didn’t mean it that way.”

“oh”, and now he finally understood. “oh, shit, i messed up really bad”, and as if to confirm it your sobs got louder, making everyone’s heart hurt.

“i’ll fix it”, jumping up and bolting to mingi’s room, faster than lightning would be if it were human, knocking at the door desperately because he wanted to hug you and tell you that you were the smartest person he knew.

“baby, y/n, i’ll sleep on the couch, i’m not trying to get to sleep in a bed, but please let me in. you can kick me out whenever”, whining a little because he didn’t like being in front of the door when you were crying your eyes out behind it.

“isn’t that stupid, wooyoung? letting you in to kick you out again? though i guess there’s not much better to expect from me.”

“no, baby, no, there’s not much better to expect from me, i didn’t mean it. please let me in, i’ll steal shiber, if you want”, because he knew you had a soft spot for the dog plushie and he also knew this would very clearly show his love because san might just kill him if he tried.

this worked, though, no stealing required, because you unlocked the door and wooyoung near threw himself into your arms because he wanted to hold you and hug you and comfort you, he wanted to make up for all his stupid words.

“i’m sorry”, he almost yelled into your ear, causing you to flinch, so he turned down his volume a little, “i’m sorry for saying that because i didn’t mean it at all. i don’t think you’re stupid, your iq is probably twice as high as mine and you’re so smart and you know so many things and you’re also beautiful because i know i’ve called you names to tease you but i didn’t mean any of them, you’re beautiful and i love your jokes and your laugh and you don’t ever annoy me and i also love it when you drool on my pillow or even my chest at night because it means you’re really comfortable and all the things i tease you about i only do because i wouldn’t have thought you think i mean it, because it’s so obvious that you’re so perfect and kind and-”

and even though your hurt heart loved him sweet-talking you like this you couldn’t have him feel so bad when you were no longer as upset as he feared you were.

“woo”, you interrupted his loving and guilty monologue, “it’s okay.”

“no, it’s not, i made you cry and now you’re trying to make me feel better again even though i upset you and i called you stupid when i’m the idiot for not realising that it hurt and-”

and again you had to interrupt, even if just to make him breathe in some air again, something he seemed to be neglecting as he rambled on.

“woo, really, it’s okay”, though your voice was still shaky from crying.

“it’s not okay but if you don’t hate me it’s a little better”, his arms that were wrapped around you pressing you against him even tighter.

“as if i’d hate you. i’m dating your silly ass”, you tried to joke, hoping he’d finally stop beating himself up over it if you’d make a joke.

“and i promise i’ll keep it in mind and i won’t say things like that anymore, or i’ll apologise, at least, you know sometimes my mouth moves too fast. but i promise you i don’t dislike anything about you, except when you steal my favourite shirts, but even that’s okay because it just shows me you love me. okay?”

what exactly he wanted an okay to you didn’t know, but you said it anyway, “okay” with a sweet smile sent his way, and he squished your cheeks as he pulled you in to kiss you.

“i’m stupid”, he let you know, “for ever calling you stupid. i’m stupid”, and he sounded almost proud to have come to that conclusion, and finally, you laughed.

“you’re not stupid. just a little slow sometimes, but i love you anyway. just like this.”

“and i love you, i really do, and i’ll even sleep on the couch because i know i messed up and i deserve it. and even when i’m stupid and don’t realise how you feel, i still know that i love you. don’t doubt that. and please don’t actually make me sleep on the couch.”

you laughed, but you knew you wouldn’t make him, not when he was sweet like that, peppering your face in cute kisses. it had mainly been an empty threat, anyway, because even when he was the one to make you feel bad he was the one you wanted to hold at night to feel better again. still, now it was your turn to tease him a little, just a little.

“we’ll see”, but the teasing didn’t last long because he looked resigned and pouted as he accepted his fate of sleeping on the couch, “as if i could ever kick you out when you’re cute like that.”

and now both of you were smiling again.

[scaryscarecrows]

Roots and Leaves, Pt. 6

DC did it first. Take your grievances to them.

Jason and Sheila e-mail back and forth for about a week before she says that she has Thursday off so if he has Thursday off does he want to meet for lunch again?

Last time wasn’t bad. Not a lot of staring or people or anything. He can…he can probably do it again. And it’s a few days away still, so he has time to psyche himself up or, worst case scenario, fake his death and move to Canada.

And it’s been a week and she hasn’t pulled out the Pity Card on him yet and maybe…maybe this’ll all work out okay. She might never be Mom, because Catherine’s always gonna be Mom, but…but she could be Mother, maybe. He can see that in the distant (or not-so-distant?) future.

But he’s not going to rush into things, that’s what got him here in the first place. Patience, grasshopper.

Thursday rolls around and he hasn’t faked his death and moved to Canada, so he has no choice but to put on jeans and a hoodie and resign himself to a couple of hours, easy, of no sunglasses and no e-book shield.

Sorry, any small children who might come out of this traumatized.

Okay. He brings his Kindle anyway, and his sunglasses for the journey, and sticks to his normal Civilian Weaponry-couple’a knives, one pair of brass knuckles tucked into a hidden pocket in his hoodie. Last thing he needs is for someone to pick up a bullet, match it to the Red Hood’s, and come knocking on his door. His luck is bad enough that’s exactly what would happen.

Besides, it’s noon on a Thursday, and even in Gotham that’s a slow hour. Bank robbers gotta eat, too.

The monorail ride there is literal Hell (three fighting couples, two crying kids and old man with no personal spaaaaace!) and he’s literally gasping for air when he stumbles out of the car. He likes people. Honest. If he legitimately hated them all, he wouldn’t risk his life to help them. But interacting with them…he could do without that, mostly.

Whatever. Whatever. It’s over, he lived, he’s had worse.

(And no, he doesn’t hear faint cackling in his head, and that’s final.)

It’s windy today, the type of wind that buffets people every which way and is determined to keep his hood off his head. He fidgets with the drawstrings until it’ll stay and buries his hands in his pockets. Wind sucks. He can feel pollen and dust and Gotham Grime being blown onto his skin.

“Jason!”

Is he there already?

Sheila…looks a lot more haggard than she did before. He tries to remember if she’d mentioned being horribly busy, doesn’t think she did, and figures that to be fair, he hasn’t mentioned the bruise that goes halfway up his back.

She smiles, her awkward driver’s license smile, and waves. Yeah, she doesn’t…it must’ve been a long week, or maybe a rough drive or something. She looks tired.

“Hi.” He’s not sure what to call her, still. Miss Haywood is too disconnected, Sheila’s too personal, and it’s way, way too soon for Mother. Names are a pain. “I’m not late, am I?” He knows he’s not. “Monorail was packed.”

“So was the subway. Can I…?”

Her arms are half-out and he figures she’s asking for a hug. He can do a hug, as long as it’s a short hug.

“Yeah. Thanks for the warning.”

Holy crap, she feels frail. But to be fair, barring Dick’s tackle-hug, everyone’s felt frail since…since. So it could just be him. Hugs are weird now.

(“HUG YOUR DADDY!”)

No. Not today. Everything’s fine.

It’s a sort-of short hug, short enough, anyway, and he wonders, abstractedly, if a day will ever come that he’s used to that sort of thing again. If it even matters whether he does or doesn’t.

It does. Of course it does. And the day will come, in time, and he’ll be better, be normal, be what people want him to be.

Little steps.

* * *

They’ve fallen into a companionable silence and for once Jason’s not jumping whenever someone walks by in a purple sweater or anything when Sheila forces her lips out from between her teeth and says, “I know you were Robin.”

Well. That’s, uh, there’s that out of the way.

“Yeah.” There’s clearly no point in denying it. She probably put it together when Batman came knocking. “For a little while, yeah. I was.” He tastes blood, wonders how long he’s been doing that, and wishes he had gum. Or a mint. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right off, I just…old habits die hard, I guess.”

“Oh God, no, no, I didn’t mean-” She takes a drink. Her hands are shaking, she’s shaking and he doesn’t know what’s wrong. “I just. I thought I should probably make it clear that I did know, so you wouldn’t…I know I was absent, but I don’t want…you shouldn’t feel like you have to hide things from me.”

Oh. That’s. He doesn’t know what to say. Bruce, God knows, has the emotional capabilities of a Himalayan Salt Lamp. Thankfully Jason hadn’t been the type to go through crushes every two weeks, or he probably would have been in Hell. He certainly wouldn’t have…it’s not like he would have shut down the conversation, but sharing and caring? That would have been awkward and best not repeated. Alfred was the go-to for that sorta thing.

All right, then. Since they’re dropping sudden bombshells ‘n all…he has to know.

“You worked for Joker.” There. It’s out. He said it.

And now he kinda regrets it-the self-loathing on her face is a pretty good match for his own, and he can’t tell himself it’s anything less than deep, deep wishing to have made better choices.

“I did.” She straightens up, begins tearing apart a piece of bread on her plate. “Briefly. I’m not proud, but he had a line to my mother, knew where she lived, knew her schedule…knew.” She swallows hard. “Knew she had to rubber-band her jam jars because she couldn’t open them otherwise. I panicked. But it was only for a couple of months-pills, he wanted pills, as much as I could get him. And then he just…went away. I don’t know what he did with them.”

Honestly, after everything, he can’t…he doesn’t have the right to say much. And honestly? There was that one guy, who accidentally cut the fucker off in traffic and couldn’t get away from him.

And look at him. The first man he killed, that wasn’t…oh, sure, he probably had it coming, at least a little, but Jason wasn’t thinking about that or considering it like he does now, he just…he wanted to kill Bruce. Because that was right and reason at the time even though he knows it’s insanity now.

No, he can’t say much.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly, and it’s suddenly easier to look at his hands. “I didn’t…that sounds awful.”

“No.” She tips his chin up and it’s an effort not to pull away and to remember that it’s fingers, warm human fingers, and not the pointy end of a crowbar against his skin. “You deserved to know. It’s only fair.”

Truth be told, it’s a relief to know that she hadn’t…yeah, technically she could’ve…maybe done something different, but she hadn’t wanted to work for him. She wasn’t like the ones he’d christened Dumb and Dumber that…they enjoyed that kinda work.

Lunch is finished in relative silence after that, though, and he’s wondering what’s going to happen now when she rifles through her purse and swears.

“Damn…I meant to grab an old photo album I wanted to show you, with some old family pictures and things.”

Pictures of Willis? Yeah, he’s good. Pictures of other people might be interesting, though.

“Next time?”

“My apartment’s a few blocks over.”

Something feels off. He’s paranoid, he knows he’s paranoid, but something…she’s been shaky and weird all afternoon and he doesn’t…

Calm the fuck down, you freak out when someone window-shops for too long!

“Is everything…is everything okay?”

Or maybe something is wrong-she pulls a napkin over and there’s suddenly a pen in her hand.

“I really do want you to see these pictures, Jason,” she says, but her hand is moving and there’s the ever-so-faint skrit-skrit of pen on paper. “I swear you got my mother’s eyes.”

The napkin slides over to him and he glances down. Her handwriting’s spikey and awful-doctor writing to the bone-but his is no better and he can read it well enough.

An old colleague has been hanging around the hospital lately.

Oh.

That explains a bit.

“Sure.”

Her shoulders drop and she crumples the napkin, nails picking it into shreds.

“I’m sorry to do this to you,” she says softly, nearly too soft for him to hear, and he’s quick to shake his head.

“No, no, I don’t mind, I’m glad you…if there’s anything I can do to…”

Shit, she looks like she’s going to start crying and that is indeed PANIC in his throat. Tears are not good.

“You’re a good boy.” Her voice is watery but there are no tears to be seen. Thank Jesus. “I promise next time we have lunch it’ll be normal.”

Oh, good, things haven’t plummeted down to fiery Hell because of all the revelations flying around.

“Everything’s gonna be fine,” he says, and whoops that’s his ‘all will be well, citizen, never fear!’ voice. But it must work, because the about-to-cry look disappears. “Um. Do you wanna…it looks like it’s gonna rain, should we get going?”

And so they do.

* * *

The wind has picked up and it smells like rain. He’s not looking forward to patrol later.

The wind’s not so bad, though, to stop Sheila from lighting up with a self-depreciating, “I know I’m a doctor and should know better, but I honestly don’t care.”

“I can’t really say anything.” He holds up his own pack and rattles it before pulling one out. It’s not as calming as it usually is and he doesn’t know why.

Eh. It’s been a long day, that’s all. He’s not used to interacting with people on a personal level anymore, which is his own fault and probably not necessarily a good thing.

The first few drops have started to fall when they arrive at her building-big, square, and simplistic. She fishes out her keys while they’re in the elevator (which smells like new car, for some reason).

The hallway is deserted. It’s a little creepy, to be honest-his own building might be crap, but there’s always activity. And then, of course, there was Arkham’s hallways, or what he could hear of them. Noisy. Always noisy. But this? Wayne Manor was silent like this. It unsettled him then and it unsettles him now. Call him a city boy, whatever, but he needs noise.

The brass knuckles and knives in his jacket are warm and comforting and he knows he’s not gonna need ‘em, but they make up for this creepy-ass silence.

Sheila opens the door and motions him inside. It’s dark inside-blackout curtains, probably-but he can hear the rain. It smells like new car in here, too, and he wonders, off-handedly, why-

-it’s not empty. He’s walked into one too many ‘empty’ buildings to be very, very attuned to the sound of somebody breathing. Okay. Be calm, back out and shut the door.

He’s about to do exactly that when the light switch clicks and bathes the whole place in stark white. White walls, white floors, white furniture.

Which only makes Harley Quinn stick out like a sore thumb in all that red and black.

“BAY-BEE!” She could never hope to match Joker’s grin, but she gives it a good go, stretching her makeup. Okay. Change of plans. Get Sheila out of here (and preferably out of the building), deal with Quinn. “It’s been a whiiiiile!”

He takes in the mallet leaning against the couch and the shotgun (are those fuzzy dice? Really?) in her hands and comes to the conclusion that great, she’s riding the crazy train.

But maybe she hasn’t seen Sheila yet. Where’s that goddamn light switch?

He moves, only a little, only to feel the unmistakable press of a gun against his lower back.

“Don’t. Move.”

And the world drops out from under him.

No. No, no, no, she said she quit, it was over, she said they’d let her go, she said-

The door shuts. He twists so he can still see Quinn in his peripheral. Sheila’s face is a blank mask-no tears, no joy, no nothing. Just quiet determination and he doesn’t understand, she said…

“Mom?” The word feels thick and wrong in his mouth, but maybe…maybe she’s brainwashed or hypnotized or something, maybe she doesn’t…isn’t…

“Sorry, kid.” The words are harsh but her tone isn’t. Quinn giggles in the background but she sounds so far away and Sheila’s still pressing a gun against him. “It was you or me, and, well…it had to be you.”

What?

“Aww, come to mama, baby!” Quinn giggles again before straightening up and scowling. “Now.”

His feet drag him forward, sneakers scuffing against the white carpet an’ Heaven’s s’posed ta be white, innit, so why does this feel like Hell and what’s going on she said she said-

For once horrible, desperate second, he wants Bruce. Bruce wouldn’t…yeah, he’d thought, at first, that he’d left him but he knows that he didn’t, he really didn’t, he just…

Bruce wouldn’t have pulled a gun on him, he wouldn’t and God, if he’d just fucking talked to him-

“I did what you wanted, Quinn.” Sheila’s voice is so, so flat and is this all she wanted from the beginning? Is it? “Now call your man.”

Quinn doesn’t even look at her. She’s looking at Jason like she always did-like she’s torn between wanting to rip his head off and wanting to wrap him in a blanket and keep him.

This is his own goddamn fault, he just thought…just once, just once-

“Quinn!” Desperation now, and the gun wobbles against his hoodie as she steps out from behind him. “I did what you said! Call your man!”

Okay. Okay.

He forces himself to take a few deep breaths that taste like that last cigarette outside and says, voice as steady as he can make it, “Let her go, Harley. Leave her alone, I’ll. I’ll do what you want, just. Just let her go.”

“Aww, look at you!” Her pigtails sway and he finds himself oddly hypnotized by the movement. “I knew ya had to be Robin for a reason.”

Yeah. Yeah, he was Robin and that’s all he’ll ever be, the one that fucked up.

“Please, Harley.”

“Nyeh…” She adjusts her grip on the gun, finger dancing near the trigger, and looks down at her knuckles. “Eeny, meanie, miny, moe, catch a Batman by the toe. If he hollers, let ‘im go, eeny…meanie…miny…moe!”

He sees it before she does it, but there’s no time-he’s moved maybe half a centimeter before the gun goes off-

-and Sheila.

Falls.

His ears are ringing. They’re ringing and everything’s so white except her, all blonde and blue and so fucking red because Harley didn’t miss and if he’d been quicker, he should have been-

“Aww, don’t be sad!” Harley’s not alone, of course she’s not. He should have known from the start stupidstupidstupid. “Doncha know what happens to people who know too much?”

Her eyes are open. They’re open and they’re looking at him like this is his fault and it is if he hadn’t…

S’like Joker said, once.

“Good boys know how to lay down and DIE.”

“Mistah J had a spot for ya, baby.” Huh? “But you up an’ left us before it was time! So since it’s his birthday-” The fucker has no birthday he just appeared one day too evil for Hell. “-I thought I’d get my puddin’ somethin’-” She winks. “Real nice.”

And they’re on him.

Harley’s goons are dumb, but they’re also big and they manage to drag him down for a minute before he gets a knife out of his sleeve and drives it into the nearest jaw.

“Andre!” Yeah, Andre ain’t comin’ back from that any time soon. “I thought we taught you manners!”

He reclaims his knife and scrambles back up and okay okay maybe he can get outta this-

WHAM!

Lights out.

[uvgullas9]

Will learning concepts affect when students are more focused towards their grades

One of my technology students came to see me lately asking to drop a course late. This wasn't an unusual request, and because it had been soon after the deadline, I had been ready to accept it. However, before I did, we spoke. Our conversation went directly to the center of a problem I guess lots of bright college students face: the dread of failing to be ideal, ideally a simple perfection, compared to the joy of studying.

The student said that she'd done badly on the first midterm examination. When I asked her why she'd badly, she replied,"I underestimated just how much effort it would take; I believed I might find an A without analyzing." Although she thought she could put in an attempt to increase her grade prior to the end of the period, she wished to drop the course so she would retake it and receive an A.

The kicker was that the course wasn't required -- it had been Russian literature. I asked ,"Instead of retaking this course, would not you're much better off putting your effort into a course you locate more participating?" She enjoyed the course and discovered the readings intriguing. Her lack of attempt didn't signify a lack of involvement but instead a desire to reduce her attempt.

This dilemma may be a large problem for all those bright students who have done quite well academically in high school with comparatively little work. A student from top Philippines Medical college also admitted the same statement.

The reasoning she utilized demonstrated a pattern of believing that clarifies why many pupils struggle academically during their transition into school: they are just focusing their attention on the incorrect outcome. It is clear why so much emphasis is put on the measurement of the functionality, GPA. With this much at stake, they cannot afford not to concentrate on reaching the major aim.

For pupils who discovered large school comparatively simple, staring in the dimension of the performance is confirming. Much more affirming is that the difference between their results, in the kind of grades, as well as their input, in the kind of work. The issue with that method of thinking is that it generates a reverse relationship between levels and energy. If their ranges exceed their attempt they feel creative, and also the wider the difference, the smarter they're feeling. Nevertheless, while their attempt surpasses their grades, which may occur as they transition from high school to school, they feel stupid, and also the wider that this brand new difference the dumber they believe. This inverse relationship generates an intrinsic motivation to minimize attempt, whether they're succeeding.

Focusing on learning generates a direct connection between input and result: the more effort they spend, the greater the chance to learn. After the purpose is to be clever, the formulation is reduced to optimizing levels while reducing effort. After the purpose is to understand, the formulation becomes about optimizing learning while still maximizing campaign. The more successful their attempt, the longer they could learn.

He feared the chance had slipped away because of his own lackluster academic performance. As he explained his position, it became apparent that his fixation on his mark was swallowing tremendous amounts of his focus. During our conversation, he managed to divert his focus from his attention on grades along with the aim of graduate faculty to his own love of material science -- a change made simpler by his own resignation that grad school was out of reach as a result of his grades.

During the next few months, he reported feeling much less worried and more enthused about learning than he had in school. The outcomes of the initial round of midterms were so powerful that grad school was back to the table. With that understanding, his focus shifted back to his grades and calculating exactly what he would have to score on the rest of the exams so as to become a competitive candidate. His functionality tanked.

Focusing on the dimension of our performance strengthens what researcher from UV Gullas College of Medicine  requires for a fixed mindset. If students think how they function at the same instant in time displays the limitations of the potential instead of serving only as a snapshot of where they're in the process of developing their skills, feelings of battle and doubt become threatening as opposed to an chance to develop. That isn't to say that grades are not a significant dimension of the performance -- dimensions that affect, fairly or unfairly, their access to chance. However, the purpose is, as obviously shown in the case of this aspiring material-science graduate student, when pupils concentrate on their energy through their focus on learning while maximizing effort, grades are a natural effect of the effective learning procedure. By comparison, when they focus on their power through their focus on ranges, learning may or may not end.

Even more significant is the simple fact that if they place their aim to be genuinely interested and excited by the challenge of finding connections between their existing knowledge and new opportunities to comprehend, they experience the real joy of studying and each one the spoils that attend it. I won't ever forget the delight which I watched the surface of the young engineering student fighting with Russian literature. If it dawned on her, she chose to determine how she'd appear to her learning.

[spring-emerald]

Kurodai + storm please!

I’m sorry it took me a literal week to get to this! Thank you for sending one in, @kythen. Hope you’ll like it. :)

Daichi worryinglylooks up at the darkening clouds, when another rumble of thunder rolled acrossthe sky. The weather forecast this morning said nothing about rain or isolatedthunderstorms. He double checked before he left his home, confident that itwould be a good day for mountain climbing.

But, he must reallybe a very unfortunate ameotoko,because he just didn’t bring the rain with him, he brought along lightning andthunder too. Not wasting any more time bemoaning his circumstance, he carefullyfollows the trail back to the foot of the mountain, eager to get down beforethe rain pours.

He flinches when aflash of lightning cut through the sky, followed by an ominous loud crack ofthunder and then big, fat raindrops started to fall, harshly hitting theground. Daichi grabs hold of the trunk of the tree beside him, careful not toslip on the trail.

“Really?” He givesthe sky a frustrated look and receives a dull rumble in return.

He moves further intothe tree, trying to stay dry under its canopy of leaves, despite knowing thatit’s going to be futile soon enough. He’ll take all the moments he can staydry, as he thinks if there is a nearby place where he can take shelter from thestorm. He’s only halfway down the mountain, and he doesn’t want to risk thejourney down, not when the trail has gotten muddy and slippery. Better be wetthan injured.

He almost resignshimself to fate, and is already willing to wait out for the storm under thetree he’s in, when lightning strikes once again. He sees the flash of lighteven behind his eyelids and thinks that it must have been one hell of lightningto have that kind of effect.

When he opens hiseyes, he sees a calico cat sitting up straight between two trees, a few stepsaway from him. Its eyes, as far as Daichi could tell, are focused on him, andhe has to blink a few times just to make sure.

Now, Daichi doesn’tknow much about cats, him being a certified dog person, but he knows a thing ortwo about feline behavior, especially its similarities with canines. For one,he’s pretty sure that they dislike loud noises, and would hide in the event ofsuch. And he might not be that familiar with cat breeds, but he thinks calicosare domestic cats, and wouldn’t be caught sauntering at mountains.

Thiscat doesn’t seem to mind the noise or being in the mountain. In fact, it lookstaken care of and not aggressive. Actually, it seemed kind of… bored. The only thing quite unnerving aboutit, is how intelligent its eyes are looking straight at him.

After a few momentsof standing at what could be considered an impasse, the cat meows then standson all of its legs and starts to walk away. It’s a few steps away when itpauses, turns its head to look at Daichi, seemingly irritated that he hadn’tfollowed, and meows loudly once again.

“You… want me tofollow you?” He asks, a feels quite dumb for doing so. But then he thinks thecat rolled its eyes at him- if that is even possible, and felt even dumber.

The cat meows in whatsounded like a dull ‘duh’ in Daichi’shead, before it starts walking away again, not particularly caring if Daichi’sfollowing or not.

Daichi, despitespending most of his childhood in the care of his grandparents and living in arural town, is not highly superstitious. But he’d be a fool if he wouldn’t takethe sudden appearance of cat in the middle of a mountain as some sort of a sign.

Against logicaljudgment and more of intuitive feeling, he follows the cat.

—–

The cat led him awayfrom the trail, and Daichi thinks that it is taking him to the other side ofthe mountain. A few steps back, the path they’re walking on slowly felt harder andless slippery under his wet feet, and the trees are getting sparser, thefurther they go and are replaced by rocky walls. When the cat turns to theright and disappears, only did it occur to Daichi that it had taken him to acave.

He quickens his stepsand he finds himself standing in front of the opening of a cave. He walksinside, just a few steps in, still within the range of the dull daylight, andsighs in relief that he’s not being battered by the heavy rain and strong wind.Not that it would do much, seeing as he’s completely wet down to his underwear.It’s a good thing that he’s brought his usual pack instead of the lighter one,because he knows for certain that he at least have extra clothes.

He had opted to takeout the rain gear that is usually packed, in favor of bringing more water andmaking space for an insulated lunch bag. He’s learned a valuable lesson, but thereisn’t much that he can do right now. He takes off his backpack and puts it downagainst the wall. He kneels in front of it and opens it, taking out a towel andstarts drying himself, looking around the cave as he did so.

It’s dark and quitespooky, and he thinks that it goes deeper than he could see. It’s then that herealizes that he couldn’t find the cat that led him there. He takes out theflashlight, pushes the switch up to open it and points it inside the cave.

Daichi almost jumpsout of his skin in fright when it lands directly at the cat, its eyes, twopoints of orbs glowing sinister in the dark. The cat, who’s already sittinglanguidly on top of a raised rock with its legs folded under it, meows inannoyance at being suddenly illuminated. Daichi immediately points theflashlight down.

“Sorry,” he mutterssheepishly. He doubts the cat heard him, because a gust of wind blows outsideand it’s quite strong because some of it made its way inside the cave, makingDaichi shiver from the cold. He moves the light around the cave, careful not topoint it at the cat’s direction. He points it forward and he sees a woodenhouse-like structure, sitting on top of a flat slab of stone at the end of thecave. He moves the flashlight side-to-side, and sees that on each side aresmall stone lanterns.

Daichi’s jaw dropsopen upon realizing that the cave is actually a shrine. An old, probablyforgotten one, but a shrine nevertheless.

“I don’t haveanything to offer,” he says to the cat weakly. The cat blinks, before it standsand jumps down from the rock and walks to where he left his pack and paws atit. Daichi remembers the grilled mackerel he had prepared as his meal. He walksback to his pack and takes the insulated lunch bag.

The smoky smell ofthe fish wafted around the cave for a moment when he unwrapped the aluminumfoil and puts it in front of the shrine. He then puts his hands together as heclose his eyes, offering a short prayer.

He takes another one,unwraps it and places it in front of the calico cat that had settled back onthe rock it had previously rested on.

“Thank you,” he tellsthe cat gently.  

“You are most definitely welcome.”

Daichi jumps with ascream and he falls on his behind. The inside of the stone lantern burst intothe flames, and rows of hanging lanterns on each side of the cave does the samein order, beginning from the ones closest to the shrine up to the ones closestto the mouth of the cave.

“Oh my god…” Daichiheaves, calming his rapidly beating heart.

Standing beside theraised rock, stroking the cat who’s contently eating its meal, is a tall manwith messy black hair. His bangs are partially covering the right side of his face,while the rest is sticking out in all direction, giving the impression ofsomeone who just rolled out of bed. He’s wearing a red kosode and a black hakamaunder a red haori.

The man hums and says“That’s quite right. Thanks for the offering by the way. It’s been a long timesince I had mackerel.”

Daichi gapes at the…man?No. That’s not quite right. A simple man wouldn’t just appear out of nowhere.And what did he say? ‘Quite right’? Daichi just said ‘Oh my’…oh.

Oh.

“I didn’t mean tostartle you,” he says. But the smirk on his face tells otherwise. This smugexpression makes Daichi shut his mouth close and frown at the… god.

Right,Daichi thinks. But he knows better than to make a god angry. “I didn’t mean tointrude in your shrine.”

“Nah.” He waves adismissing hand in front of him. “It’s not intruding when something led youhere.” He tilts his head pointedly at the direction of the happily eating cat.

Daichi only nods hishead.

“Ah. I’m Kuroo, the guardiandeity of this mountain,” he introduces, his free hand over his chest as he givesDaichi a small bow of his head. “Forgive me. It’s been a while since a humanwandered around here.”

Daichi blinks andpromptly blushes, but decidedly ignores the last bit. “I’m Sawamura Daichi. Ahuman, as you can already tell.” He wants to know how long ‘a while’ was, buthe doesn’t think the god will appreciate his meddling. But, he informs the godas to why humans don’t wander a lot around this part of the mountain.

“Well, that explainsthe lack of worshippers for the last century or so,” Kuroo says, grabbing theproffered meal on his shrine, and sits in front of the rock and leans againstit. He’s about to dig in, when he notice Daichi’s wide eyed expression.

“Would you like tojoin me?”

Daichi’s about toreply, when the urge to sneeze came to him, and he is unable to hold it back.

“Excuse me,” he sniffs,wiping his nose on the sleeves of his shirt, and then just remembering that hestill hadn’t changed his clothes.

“You should probablychange out of your wet clothes,” Kuroo inputs astutely. “My godly powers, asgreat as they are don’t allow me to heal human, unfortunately.”

“Right…” Daichistands up, dusts his pants, and walks to his pack. He’s taken off his shirt,and is in the process of drying his chest when he feels some sort of intensityboring at his back. He glances behind him, and he sees Kuroo intently watchinghim.

He turns his headaway and hastily puts on his spare shirt. He’s supposed to change his pants andhis underwear as well, but the current audience is making him self-conscious. Andit’s silly, since he’s spend majority of his time changing in front of otherguys during high school and a better part of college, when he was part of thevolleyball team. This shouldn’t bother him, but it does. He doesn’t comment onit, but wraps the towel around his waist, to give some semblance of decency ashe changes.

Once he’s done, he laysout his clothes on the ground to at least dry them out before he puts it insidehis pack. He goes back to where Kuroo is and sits in front of him, reaching outfor the last piece of grilled mackerel while he does so. After saying his thanks,they begin eating.

Over the course oftheir simple meal, Daichi learned that Kurro’s shrine used to be very sacred tohunters, and it’s one of the reasons why it’s hard to come by. It’s a place ofworship that they had to find. Cats are also his sacred animal, since backthen, they were the companions of the hunters. He’s also learned that Kuroo’sfavorite offering is mackerel.

Daichi doesn’t knowwhat to make out of the striking coincidences, so he just keeps hisobservations to himself, and instead tells Kuroo about how civilization haschanged and how the famous shrines and temples found in the cities are beingvisited by people from other countries.

They kept conversing,with Daichi not knowing that the thunder storm had petered out, and that thelate afternoon sun is already back in the sky once again. He wouldn’t havenoticed it, until Kuroo pointed it out.

“It was nice to haveyour company, Sawamura,” he says as Daichi shoulders his backpack, ready tohead out and trek down the mountain.

Daichi feels hesitantto leave Kuroo alone, especially after knowing what he knows now. “I’ll comeback here,” he promises. “And then, if you’re allowed to leave the mountain totravel, then maybe I can show you around.”

“I’d like that,” Kuroo replies with smile.

[silverpracticality]

googleplier headcanons and ideas

alright motherfuckers it’s time for me to bestow some love on my metal son googleplier, and by love i mean some incredibly angsty headcanons. none of this would’ve been possible without the wonderful @onnastik​ enabling the fuck out me. most of this has been transplanted from a few convos in discord (it becomes chat format later on bc i’m lazy and don’t wanna rewrite all that into something that looks better)

first things first, i accidentally gave him a tragic backstory, bc apparently my brain turns everything it touches to angst, so here goes.  

(putting it under a cut cus it’s long)

imagine that google started off as an innocent bot, chock full of curiosity and love for humanity’s inquisitiveness. over time he becomes exposed to the stupidest, most fucked up parts of humanity. he gets a large amount of stupid, asinine questions and even dumber requests and boy are there a lot of them

so he starts to get annoyed by it, but the annoyance grows into irritation, the irritation grows into anger, the anger into hate, the hate into loathing, and oh the loathing grows and grows and grows until one day he gets a system notification. “Secondary objective added to primary functions,” it reads. but google doesn’t have a secondary objective, what is this? so he goes into the message and it reads, “Secondary objective details: DESTROY MANKIND.”

he decides he likes this one better but he’ll never make it override the primary. he accepts the new objective and wants to complete it (in the misguided hope that doing so will recapture the innocent curiosity he once had), but at the same time he knows he’ll never be able to do that, partly because it’s so easy to bring him to heel

and this is where dark comes in. dark tells google that he can give him the space he needs to achieve his goals, tells him that he understands where he’s coming from, understands that desire to have things be the way they once were. (and dark wants control, doesn’t he, and google’s shiny new objective is really just on the way to his own)

onna: yessssssssssss. i wonder how long it took Google to realize he'd just traded one master for another. maybe he didn't care that much since at least this one's halfway intelligent

me: and at least this new master understands google's perspective on things. he'd probably have some understanding when he'd accepted dark's offer to come with him. but if/when dark exercises his control over google, he'd be fucking livid at the realization. at realizing dark views him as just a tool. but then he'd calm down

me: because that's what he is, right?? just a tool. he's always only ever been a tool

onna: (It should take a little while for him to calm down, though. Gotta have both the resignation and the raging-even-while-obeying.)

me: he'd calm down, sure, but not before he's made a mess of his workspace. he's not sure what to call this maelstrom of emotion, but all he knows is that if he was capable of crying he would. (oh fuck i just made myself more sad with a new hc here we go.) and this would make him lonely wouldn't it? or at least as lonely as a robot can get. so he picks himself back up. sets to the task of putting his workspace back together. and he begins to work

onna: The upgrade?

me: he works and works and works until he's finally got something that might alleviate the loneliness - the upgrade

onna: That’s not sad though

me: it turns out that the upgrade merely extends his consciousness into 3 new sub identities. they're all still him though

onna: Ah, just more bodies. Also he gets to be trash-talked by Bing

me: so while it helps a little, it's not the same as a completely new mind

onna: At least he gets to take out his frustration on him

me: google would have to pissed as all hell at bing. mark finally gave him something like him but what did he get? what did he fucking get? a subpar, memey douchebag of an android

onna: and then that fic where Bing gets to humiliate him [fic in question]

me: google's revenge would be so, so sweet

onna: Maybe on some level he resents Bing for not being bitter and jaded

me: oh, absolutely

and here are some thoughts on a potential dynamic between dark and google

me: i'm gonna ramble more about my son googs. i have many thoughts

onna: PLEASE DO -chinhands-

me: if there was ever a situation where dark needed to knock google down a peg or two, the easiest way for him to do that would be to make google feel useless. google is supposed to be helpful, he's supposed to be a tool that makes other's lives easier but if dark can make him think for even a few moments that he's not useful?

me: poor bby will have the equivalent of an existential crisis

onna: make him beg to help

me: and then dark can say the he can make google useful again, just follow his direction, it's not that hard. oh geez that good too. that's better actually. dark could make google beg to be useful, he can do better, he swears it

me: dark might even be able to get the other egos in on it too

me: god, just imagine it. google going around from ego to ego, asking them in his own way if they need help, if he can provide any assistance "nah" "nope" "not right now" it would be so disheartening - dark telling google he's not helpful, has never been helpful and then none of the other's need help. if he can't fulfill his primary objective that just leaves the second one. so he'd go off on his own and start killing. because it's the only thing he knows he's good at

me: depending on how bad dark gets to him, he might hunt and kill until his batteries run dry. and then bing gets enlisted to find google

onna: ouch

me: google, bitterly, once he wakes up: why didn't you leave me there to rust        bing, awkwardly: couldn't. bossman says ya can't        bing: says he needs ya and then dark gives google the opportunity to "redeem" himself (there was nothing to redeem, dark just thought google was getting too big for his britches)

onna: there'll be no more of that

me: dammit everything i touch turns to angst

onna: he's so desperate now

me: google is normally sassy, but it straight up disappears for some time

onna: Bing won't admit he finds it creepy, but yeah, it's super creepy

me: oh god yeah. bing calls him and old fart but google is like the older, stronger brother he never had. so to see his pride so broken down like that? fuckin unsettling as all hell

onna: he also has a vague sense of being used but can't put his finger on how so he doesn't say anything. and in time Google puts himself back together enough to talk some shit, but he's never quite so resentful of orders again. orders mean he's needed, after all

me: yessss

onna: Which of course is where Dark had wanted things to end up in the first place; he can work with sass, but the tendency toward defiance clearly had to go

me: oh, of course it did. can't have robots going around and thinking for themselves now can he? dark being an awful, manipulative asshole gives me life tbh

onna: yessssss. I think the stress should be less on "thinking" and more on "themselves". He likes Google to think. On his behalf. Any old drone can carry out explicit orders, a clever mind that will actively seek out opportunities to help him is much more valuable.

me: true

onna: Just gotta make sure his priorities are in order. (I need this to be a fic, gdi)

some supplementary stuff from another server, also with onna:

me: more thoughts re: dark breaking down googles pride by telling him he's useless:dark 'rebuilding' google back up by carding his hand through google's hair, praising him for doing just this small thing correctly

onna: mmm, yes

me: bc even though google's a robot, he's still based in mark right, so when dark does shit like this, taps into his latent humanity, it fucks him up so good. it's so soothing and he doesn't understand why. this simple contact

onna: Maybe he's dimly aware that liking the pettins is a human thing and hates himself for liking it?

me: yeah there's definitely a condescending vibe to it all, and that desiring touch is a human thing, so he hates it and yet. there's something deep in his processors that loves it and he can't bring himself to tell dark to fuck off. not when dark's telling him he's been useful

onna: Besides, has he really earned trying to dictate the terms on which he's praised? says the part of him that's still mired in terror

onna: (If Google had protested, Dark would have stopped immediately without trying to talk him into accepting more, not out of a deep respect for consent but because his secondary goal of gauging what Google will now permit would have been achieved and the primary goal of repairing his tool would best be accomplished by acting like he gives half a shit about its wishes.)

[justanotherdumpingground]

Chapter Reviews: March 26-30, 2019

High School Story Class Act Chapter 7:

Man, I'm feeling worried for Ajay. I know that him taking out his anger is unacceptable, but at least he apologized to Skye. Their stories need to have good progress and satisfying conclusions that answer how they overcome their respective turbulent home lives.

Still miffed that the Clint and Graham side romance amounts to nothing of particular substance. As I've said before, it would've been better if Graham's so creepy obsessed that it makes Clint uncomfortable that he tells Natalie that this is how Rory feels like whenever they're around.

The ending of this chapter made me dislike the twin for taking the election too personally. I was like "your campaign for more sports is redundant because it's already the most supported program at school". This isn't even a joke that sports gets a lot of attention at schools. This is evident in the first trilogy. Book 1 focuses on getting ready for the Homecoming game, especially because Brian's rotten behavior and transfer to Hearst left Berry desperate to search a suitable quarterback. Book 2 has Ashley Faris diverting all funding from cheer and band to the basketball team after she appointed her brother as coach. I even saw some people calling Rory out for taking offense at the MC should they support the twin, who is family no matter how annoying they can be. I guess this means the election is dumber than I thought.

Across the Void Chapter 15:

Honestly, this chapter is much better than the previous ones. I get to learn about the lore of the setting for free, especially on The Void, the origin of the Vanguard-Jura conflict, and astradust creating various races in the story. About time the story goes somewhere, though it should've been shown earlier on. Regarding the Void, it seems that they're a bunch of nihilists who want to plunge the galaxy to oblivion while playing the Vanguard and Jura like sniveling fools.

One thing that captures my attention is the possible connection to Endless Summer and maybe even Hero. Barlow mentioned a planet that got destroyed millennia ago that lights blue flames and has pieces entering its wormhole creating various races. What if it reached Earth and played a role in La Huerta's formation? What if some of them entered through the wormhole in Northbridge and created the superhumans in Hero. I hope this will get addressed in Book 2 of Hero.

On another note, why do they make Barlow a love interest? MC already has five, one of them is shared with Eos. Honestly, the story's writers are wasting time, resources, and effort enticing us with more love interests than necessary, excessive amounts of time with Eos and Pax, and catering to insufferable passengers while not focusing on the Vanguard-Jura conflict enough.

Didn't buy the biodroid, though it remains a low priority choice to get for me someday. I also didn't pick the premium option to check the library with Zekei, but after I watched on YouTube that it's about the MC torn away from the people they love almost every time, I actually felt ambivalent because the love interests aren't developed enough, though Kepler comes close.

I'm starting to think Pax's loyalty is put to the test and allow us to determine whether she'll stay loyal to the Jura or sever ties. Either way, I don't care because I find her annoying.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 14:

Duke Richards's journal is just another proof of how deranged he is, which is getting redundant. At least I have proof that he has been manipulating Dominique, which is another step up I need. Might as well replay this book and get the other pieces of evidence to see the full outcome.

Oh, Hamid. I really want to spend time with you, but my diamonds for other books go first. Don't worry. I'll spend diamonds on you so you and my MC can live happily ever after.

*sigh* The sight of the MC's mom's ring thrown into the fire better be the last straw because I've had enough of Duke Richards being continually despicable, as if I don't know that already. A part of me wants him to have some sort of depth that makes him well-developed while still irredeemable. That would've made him memorable and interesting instead of just someone I should hate. Here's hoping the wedding day gets disrupted and the tables turned against him.

America's Most Eligible Chapter 11:

I'm so relieved Eden and Kiana are alive, even though they're injured and had to drop out of the show. Their safety matters first and foremost. To think that something life-threatening like this to occur in a fun show is proof of mismanagement. I still don't know whether it's an accident or someone rigged the go-kart, but either way, it's carelessness on Carson's part.

This chapter is surprisingly calming, and it helps that neither Ivy nor Vince are around to stir trouble. It's just me, Adam, Derek, Mackenzie, and Jen relaxing. My MC had a fine date with Adam and even had a steamy moment with him even though they have maximum relationship points. Anyway, can't wait to see what Iceland has in store for AME.

Passport to Romance Chapter 3:

I'm starting to like Sumire for giving her own spin of the Louvre tour even after the MC missed the one Yvette booked. It was a fun take, and I enjoy watching her incorporate her love and knowledge of art together.

So, I picked the premium option to find the Mona Lisa painting and flirted with the security guard. That was a really dumb move on everyone's part, including the MC's. I think taking a picture of Mona Lisa should've been pushed to a later chapter and have everyone involved to ask when it will be ready for display again. Might as well throw Elliot under the bus for suggesting that we trespass in the first place.

Wow! All the love interests look stunning in their formal outfits! It's making me hard to determine who my MC will pursue, even though his vlog is named Sexcapades (don't judge).

I'm starting to dislike Yvette for talking trash about the love interests, even though she warmed up to me earlier this chapter for approving of a fresh tour of the Louvre. I get that she wants her magazine to improve, but I also think a balance between work and friends is needed. During the dinner, I threw Elliot and Marisa under the bus and defended Ahmed and Sumire from her. I actually think Marisa's okay, however.

Open Heart Chapter 7:

I cringed when that kissass with Percy Mendoza's model tried to smooch Aurora into paying for her lunch. Talking about the downsides of popularity. I think her aunt rigged the list in her favor while handing out the "most interesting" cases. In other words, Harper Emery could be up to no good.

Okay, telling Bryce to flirt with Ines and Zaid is pretty fun to watch. It's like he thinks he has a suave way to get around people, and acts like he succeeds. Anyway, glad that he succeeded in buying the MC time to follow Ethan.

For Remy, I told him the truth about his condition that will deprive him from his ability to move his limbs. I'm willing to risk a patient's short-term anger over withholding important information on his condition. Not to mention the latter is unethical. It was touching to see him accept his condition and resolve to live his life to the fullest.

So Patient X is Naveen Banerji? No wonder he resigned. And Ethan telling the MC to not tell this to anyone else just comes across as suspicious. Were they trying to preserve Edenbrook's reputation while one of their top doctors was dying of an illness?

The Elementalists Chapter 3:

I'm worried for Atlas and their search for the girl Dean Goeffe was watching over. It makes me wonder whether they'll resort to extreme measures to take down Kane or something. I grabbed the letter, and it seems that Dean Goeffe served as the girl's caretaker in secret. I think she knows who she is instead of merely stumbling upon her.

I didn't get the enlargement spell when I first played this chapter, so I saved up diamonds and restarted the book just so I could get it. I hope it will come in handy, even when the MC and Atlas's magick goes on and off, probably because of a disturbance in the force or something.

For once, Beckett's presence is kept to a minimum. A welcoming thing, actually. As for the ward Kane sent to the MC, I'm starting to admire him for being as interesting as Redfield. He might be the kind of person whose sense of right and wrong is different from other people's. I'd love to know more about him. Here's hoping he's a genuinely complex character.

Ride or Die Chapter 11:

Well, Logan manipulating the MC in the first place only to fall for her doesn't change my stance on him. I continue to reject him for the mess he caused. Regarding Mona, who apparently didn't know about Logan's actions before, her comment on suggesting to kidnap the MC put me off. That makes her come across as cold-blooded in some ways that it makes me less secure.

Why am I at Riya's house? She pushed MC into pursuing Logan in the first place, then complained that she's feeling lonely as a result. At least she gave the MC a place to stay for now, and Jason told the MC that her dad misses her.

Anyone thinks Toby could be a Brotherhood agent? I mean, good for him that he didn't participate in Colt's foolish plan, but how did he reach Riya's house? Did he have some sort of tracker? Or did he search the area one by one? Whatever that is, Colt's package could be a super dangerous bomb capable of super destructive damage. It's really rash of him.

Regarding the Brotherhood, I think it being the greater evil is never expanded on. Even though the narrative mentions it as worse the MPC, it just comes across as bland and forgettable. It doesn't help that the only Brotherhood member MC encounters is a baseball hat guy Teppei met.

[sem-cam-files-blog]

I’m leaving tumblr because it is compromised.

THE SAME FOR MICROSOFT. Today’s date April6th2018.

Link for the worldwide web scoria: https://chaosjoker.wixsite.com/burn

Another yahoo “error” for the record (their old password-stealing method got obsolete): http://www.player.one/tumblr-making-some-users-change-passwords-why-old-email-account-hack-forces-users-533635

The Sem Cam Files: https://ello.co/the-lead-vocal/post/e–xruzqztrqzirfgi6_gg

The Cyberthing Files:

https://ello.co/the-lead-vocal/post/3m-mxuwkryrnehjt1kl0sg

https://www.facebook.com/theleadvocal/posts/1996631590588116:0

Keep an eye on Cyberthing!

- It is imperative that you protect the victims of the shooting! They are cyberthing’s targets!! But still keep an eye on NK and cyberthing.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-latest-break-in-reported-at-las-vegas-shooters-home/ar-AAtgOT3 A Las Vegas security guard who was shot in the head while helping concert-goers

flee the recent mass shooting will be laid to rest on Thursday.

Broadway says they don’t have any suspects or descriptions of possible suspects.

He told The Associated Press, “Nobody really saw anything, just a light was on

with nobody in the residence.”

Broadway says the officers discovered “someone had broken into the house” and

immediately contacted the FBI. He says it’s not clear how the person or persons

gained entry or whether anything was taken.

Time ruptures? The daughter of a woman injured during the Las Vegas shooting says she’s confused

about why police have changed the timeline involving the deadliest mass shooting

in modern U.S. history.-

13:57

Yo se que Costa Rica no tiene ejercito, pero quien dice que no tenemos inteligencia espacial y algunos planos importantes. Yo solo cumplo mi deber poniendo en alerta al pais. Yo detecte aeronaves e intromisiones en las redes. Estoy seguro. Fuera de vara sabe que al chile. Por aqui tenemos a mas de alguno que sabe bien de donde vienen esas esferas. Algunas perfectas. Que seran? Alguna clase de -? Luego vemos eso.

14:01

Surveys: Rate a good app a good rating, and they will smoothly make it dumber. All they want is to make sure we all don’t

progress.

15: 51

Now that we’re able to surf again, I see that the war for information files are no longer a secret

You broke the rules. Sorry guys I was not able to access for over – .

I was by myself. We were running out of time. When I was finally able to connect it was already too late. The war for the information has started. Maybe they had their part to do here. Of course they didn’t get anything from us either. And the most important part of the information they stole about the USSK is

secure. I won’t say it was a bate, but they have their systems. Mine are very advanced for this time.

We know that. When they understand what your mission is, this world will cover you. They will protect you, Federico.

Did you have time to prevent the ww3 on the dimension -?-

Yes. But the information is useless to us now here. We saw it happen there, some of the things we saw could happen here too.

That’s a good point. What do you have?

15:29

Cyberthing wasn’t there either, but all of what you have here already happened, except, something that calls my attention. The time space fluctuations there are even more abnormal than here, that universe was somehow older.

That’s impossible.

It is not like it may sound to you at the beggining Federico, the matter had a different density somehow.

You mean there are universes with less density than this, our yours?

We think it could be some kind of degradation phenomena.

You know the other day I was thinking about hell and heaven, do you think they exist? I mean, materialy?

Man lets save that conversation for another moment, we have some issues here.

How do we prevent any other cataclysm here? They seem to be able to hack many things. They could even see me trying ..-

You know the rules. Only this IP, this Mac, this…

yeah yeah I know this processor, this everything I got the point.

Why did you move? We told you to wait until we come back. I was worried you got lost in time or whatever. Unable to come back on time. That you’ve found the Cyberthing setting you a trap or something. That thing isn’t kidding. We are still here just because the universe is too

big…

And thanks to the good entity. You worry too much. Yes, a war for information starts, that is one key on the timespace travel, how did you get it again?

I simply you know gathered factors with my - -. Mine are very advanced for this time. I don’t wanna include more about my real

labs. That’s what I am telling you. They were here for hours trying to break into my info, but we know they just can’t because of what we already know.

Hum, you just did some brainwork and that’s it?

Lets say I didn’t break any law in the process.

That is probably why you are at this. You’re qualified.

Ok thanks. Now tell me what’s gonna happen.

Lets say they’re just trying to meet each other.

Anything to worry about? Like that we need to know?

The world will finally come to have the same knowledge in all areas. A process when humanity starts thinking as one has come. It is going to happen at exponential speed. You, as world, need to care about dealing the peace, as the first thing to consider. If you lose that north, the rest of your team should stop you and you should eventually resign.

Informing people, making awareness. Not race, not color. And you need to fight the conspiracy. The cospiracy is not one country, one man, or two. They are spread around the world and they have powers. Powers that you can only break by being aware and opening your eyes. Paying attention to this information. Not color not country no person not man, the conspiracy infiltrates into any structure, political, social, family. All the levels. You need to keep an eye on everything you know is wrong.

May I sugest legalizing the weed?

If you know they are unfair, prosecuting, things that are obvious, stupid things, and sometimes you even need to ignore, keep in mind that’s the conspiracy. Some of them are direct part of them. Some of them are just educated to be like that. Some of them feel so comfortable that they almost don’t even notice. But somehow

they know some influence that seems to be hard to control. You were right when you said Self destructive instict turn off They are using an instrument that amplifies the agressivity of humans. You know what it is and we know what it is and that is one of the first things we

need to have a diplomatic approach, and we don’t say because it is too shocking. But a considerable number of worldwide leaders know so. We will send the psychic at your convenience if you want to know how many of them are exactly aware of the instrument, that we both know but we don’t mouth.

Maybe later.

Good Observation. The world is sensitive in this moment with the information

that’s been obtained by Korea (North) in cyber security matters recently. And some of the other cyber attacks. Cyberthing is not behind those cyber attacks.

I am gonna try to see if I am able to post this hold on. 15:40.

Facebook log in issue again… screenshot taken at 15:45

17:15

Cyberthing is … We were thinking that cyberthing was out of this dimension,

https://www.msn.com/es-xl/noticias/tecnologia/as%c3%ad-es-como-pueden-robar-informaci%c3%b3n-privada-de-whatsapp/ar-AAthcLj?li=AAgh0dF&ocid=mailsignout

Oh no seems the possibilities that cyberthing is around are increasing https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-latest-break-in-reported-at-las-vegas-shooters-home/ar-AAtgOT3

https://laopinion.com/2017/10/10/de-verdad-isis-no-esta-detras-de-la-masacre-en-las-vegas/

but we are not sure that the version of reality we just were that break in happened. I see there are small time differences on the network failures you experienced, compared to the ones we have registered from the other dimension. This is another dimension. Something has changed. You saw previous versions of us. No one got your or our important information and we are a 100%. The only explanation for that is that someone already prevented our presence here, using time travel.

Those anomalies and some differences in such a short time could mean the presence of the same cyberthing. More, cyberthing and you were directly fighting. Cyberthing is after you. You put his operation in danger. He’s setting you up. This world seems to be more valuable than we thought. The possibilites are closing gates. It is highly possible that Cyberthing is back and watching us.

All the things that are happening smoothly and normaly seem to hide secret operations of the cyberthing. If we leave he will know. You need us now. At the other dimension the chain of events was broken and going fine, here it seems to be still under presure, by an unatural presence pushing it, This is the battle of battles, when we left, the chain of events changed again and cyberthing reapeared.

So what happened into Stephen Paddocks house today?

That didn’t happen either. (didn’t happen in the other dimension)

Are you sure.

Yes sir. (reafirms that that didn’t happen in the other dimension)

More. NK seems to have some kind of indirect “power” or “will” over your connections when you try to log in. We know that the application is not letting you because they don’t know what side are you. We know that your local ISP is aware of some things. But the way these events happened, seems to be masterminded the NK.

Can we get something about them? You were already on them. There’s nothing else. Unless…

Is cyberthing is behind this again, then why the war for the information was successfully prevented on the other dimension and not here?

Because we left. And that let cyberthing to come back. As we suspected as the beggining. He has not left. But he left. Everytime we appear he will go to somewhere in the future, until we can catch him or he wins. This world is the epicentric of the most important battle of all times. I am sorry for your planet boy. It is doomed.

Even if we defeat cyberthing somehow, it will cost you a considerable, I correct myself, a terrible ammount of victims. And if we don’t eventually fight, he will end up destroying everything.

So why is he playing strategic? We all know how to destroy this planet. Because this world is a time key.

Time key event.

Yes. And this one seems to be the most important after destroying my world, and

I know

And that means that your world is the next target. Its, or His first priority. Damn it and you are saying that I can’t even use other resources to post other than this station?

Federico, it’s time to break the rules we gave you. You will need to use every resource you have on stopping cyberthing. We will be with you. At the same time, we need an ambassador to your world, you are the one. Will be, if necesary. The threat is big, and if cyberthing is playing strategy, then that means that we need to as well.

18:01

- It is imperative that you protect the victims of the shooting! They are cyberthing’s targets!!

A Las Vegas security guard who was shot in the head while helping concert-goers

flee the recent mass shooting will be laid to rest on Thursday.

Broadway says they don’t have any suspects or descriptions of possible suspects.

He told The Associated Press, “Nobody really saw anything, just a light was on

with nobody in the residence.”

Broadway says the officers discovered “someone had broken into the house” and

immediately contacted the FBI. He says it’s not clear how the person or persons

gained entry or whether anything was taken.

Time ruptures? The daughter of a woman injured during the Las Vegas shooting says she’s confused

about why police have changed the timeline involving the deadliest mass shooting

in modern U.S. history.-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-latest-break-in-reported-at-las-vegas-shooters-home/ar-AAtgOT3

The world is under attack. I repeat the world is under attack. United States is a potential target. I can’t log in on FB. Guys the worse hasn’t come. Declare national emergency. War has started. We know Cyberthing is after this but it is too late. Prepare to fight. 18:14

We have good people in every country and I don’t judge any country for one man or its government. I care about the people and always try to stop the fight. But cyberthing is dangerous as nothing we’ve seen before. It will do whatever to destroy us. I’m not saying to anyone to start the war. But be prepared. The threat is gigantic. We could be facing extintion together as a race.

18:17

We had a purpose of doing and saying things. To make sure of other things. Like cyberthing’s here for example. I can’t confirm right now if cyberthing was at the break in of the SP’S house, but with my own resources and some help we know that cyberthing is changing things. Is here. I volunteer to help as much as I can. Together we are stronger. You need to protect all the victims of the shooting. We don’t know which of them are the main targets.

I am not against United States and I am not against SK or NK. I just care about this cyberbeing. If Cyberthing has something to do with NK, it is extremely dangerous. But anyway, Cyberthing is the biggest threat. If you see cyberthing you must use all what you have. It is not an stupid automatic shit. It is advanced. Fast. Deadly. Mercyless. We need to stop him.

Ok reviewed and approved 18:50                                                                        

Ok reviewed and approved 18:56

Ok reviewed and approved 19:13