#Fascinating science - now stop it

[mvncesa]

just realized earlier, after literal fucking years, that decker uses not only his own military training but also the way wolves hunt/fight in the wild during the fight scene of his episode and I’m going to scream

[yandere-romanticaa]

An idea that I really like is Ratio falling for someone who is his complete and total opposite in every way imaginable.

He is the kind of person that operates on pure cold logic and facts. He believes in what he sees in front of him with his own two eyes and yes, while it may be fascinating, perhaps even a little entertaining, to philosophize about various unimaginable concepts they are all indeed just that.

Concepts. Ideas. Things made up from the bottom of the bored human psyche.

Veritas Ratio is a man who is able to grasp many, dare he say, possibly every concept he has ever encountered. He loves a challenge but hardly anything is challenging to him because he is such a genius. He devours books that are over a thousand pages long, the most complicated equations of any science are finished by his hand with such ease that many people might mistake him for a machine rather than a man of flesh and blood.

That's what makes it so fun to see him fall for an airhead. A person who probably doesn't care, or doesn't have the mental capacity to care about such things. This person would rather spend their days dallying away, picking flowers, baking, just doing things that are so mundane and plain (to him). If they do decide to read, it is some trashy romance model, maybe even just straight up written porn if they're just that shameless.

And this is the person who has Ratio grabbing his head in frustration.

He's shaking with anger in his room, golden eyes wobbly as he watches you walk up and down the space ship. You got lost, again. How much of an imbecile are you? Do you truly need someone to guide you through everything? With a huff, the scientist grabs his head made of plaster and makes his exist. He puts the mask on and in no time finds you, all lost in the hallways. You hear his upcoming footsteps before you see him and once you turn around, you are greeted with that bizarre mask you've grown so accustomed to.

You greet the man cheerfully, to which he just huffs. With his arms crossed, Ratio gives you a long and detailed lesson on how you ought to be more careful and aware of your surroundings, that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. You are not a child and should stop acting like one.

Tears swell in your eyes but none are shed as the two of you turn back, him being a few steps ahead of you. Two pairs of footprints sound incredibly loud in this long and dark corridor. Veritas hears you quietly weeping and he feels the slight inkling of guilt pulling his heartstrings.

... Perhaps he was a smidge too harsh with you.

You are a clueless creature, sure. But maybe, he sometimes reveled in that fact. It was wrong and he would never admit it out loud but his heart whispered it clearly to him - you like this.

Veritas watched you carefully through the reflection of the window, the plaster head concealing the expression on his face. With your lips in a full pout and eyes watery like fresh morning dew, he couldn't help but to be just slightly charmed.

He scoffed to himself as he pressed onwards. He figured he had better standards for himself but that was not the case, clearly.

And just like that, he had escorted you back to your room. He could hear you mumble out a quiet thank you, which he acknowledged with a polite nod with his head.

He's not that cruel. Or rude for that matter!

With the situation now swiftly dealt with, Ratio figured it was high time he went back to his studies. He has already wasted far too much precious time on this, he isn't even sure when he'll finish that -

His train of thought is broken when he feels a pair of arms gently embrace him from behind, the warmth welcoming and dare he say sweet.

Veritas stilled, his body like the statue which some saw him to be. You still could not see his face but his anger could still be felt.

"Just what do you think you are doing?" he spat at you, his tone cold but venomous.

He felt your face being pressed against his broad back, fat tears caking his fine clothing. Just as he was about to pry your hands off him, he heard you finally speak:

"Thank you for helping me. Really..."

Your tone was soft and remorseful. You did not want to disturb him but despite that, you did just that. He was willing to accept your apology and have this situation be over with but what you said next simply knocked all of the air out of his lungs.

"You see, I... I wasn't sure how I could get your attention. I just wanted you to notice me, to talk to me..."

.... Goodness.

He was used to people trying to get his attention but to act like such a pathetic damsel in distress was new. He had to give you credit for your creativity, at the very least.

"I want to be your friend. I also want you to teach me all sorts of things-"

Ratio stopped listening to you mid sentence, his mind running hundreds of laps in thought. Perhaps you weren't the idiot he saw you as. Your little ploy worked, clearly. And if he took you under his wing, who knew what would become of you.

He could turn you into a diamond with his own two hands.

It was embarrassing just how giddy the thought made him.

The shadows of curiosity and some other emotions took over his mind as he analyzed the situation. There really was no harm in taking you all for himself.

Besides, if you were capable of this deceitful plan, who knew what else you could do?

He was eager to find out.

[thanergetic-hyperlinks]

Tamsyn Muir's writing beyond The Locked Tomb

Y'all, turns out there's lots of imagery and themes in TLT that Muir was already playing with in her earlier fiction. A lot of it is easily available online, in which case I'll link to it. (The short stories that aren't can also be easily read if googled, to be quite honest—that's how I read The Deepwater Bride and Why the Mermaids Left Boralus). • The House That Made the Sixteen Loops of Time (2011)

5K. Short sort-of-cozy romance (?) with (you guessed it) a time travel loop. Explores a very queer potential relationship. CamPal enjoyers might find a similar sweetness.

• The Magician's Apprentice (2012, Lightspeed Magazine)

5K. This is the one that stopped me dead on my tracks. It features an older, male mentor figure called John (a “very ordinary man” with “dark eyes”) who introduces the young, female main character to magic that has a terrible cost—and to literature such as Lolita. This excellent post by @familyabolisher does an incredible job of analyzing the very deliberate intertextual links between TLT and Lolita.

• The Woman in the Hill (2015, Lightspeed Magazine, originally for Dreams From the Witch House anthology of Lovecraftian horror by women)

4K. Possibly my favorite! It's a straightforward Lovecraftian horror, centered on the image of the woman (is it human though?) trapped in an unnatural pool inside a cursed cave. Chain imagery too. It does something different from Alecto, mind, but you can see links, ways of playing with facets of a strong central image. It's fun to consider how reliable the two narrators are. Here's an analysis and afterthought from Reactor Mag.

• Chew (2013) 4K. Zombie abuse and cannibalistic revenge story ft. an uncanny woman revenant, told from the eyes of a traumatized German boy. I was strongly reminded of Harrow's conversations with the Body. Tamsyn gave an interview on the themes and her intentions. Interesting to read in light of Alecto, I think, although I don't think she's going the same route in TLT: “the idea of post-war rebuilding connecting to rebuilding the body of the zombie; a Frankenstein who once rebuilt doesn’t act as planned or desired. […] I love cannibalism […] it’s innately spiritual […] any afterlife she goes to, he’s going too.”

• Apothecia (2014, published on Tumblr and tapas.io)

Short webcomic where an alien monster tries to corrupt the ruthless human girl who holds it captive. Musings on responsibility and murder, mention of child abuse. The alien's speech patterns remind me of a Resurrection Beast. You get wonderful dialogue like “Murder is a profession. Job. Employment, you tiny leg dog. There you are, walking along. Walk walk walk. Now you are a walker. Good job. Special child. Murder is like this.” Art by Shelby Cragg.

• The Deepwater Bride (2015, Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine)

The opening line is: “In the time of our crawling Night Lord's ascendancy, foretold by exodus of starlight into his sucking astral wounds, I turned sixteen and received Barbie's Dream Car.” Need I say more? Extremely fun. A novelette where a young queer girl from a clairvoyant family struggles with an apocalyptic event while being annoyed by another very plucky girl. Lots of descriptions with nerdy marine zoology terms. Close in tone to Gideon. In the background, someone dies EXACTLY like that one death at the end of Gideon, which makes me wonder what happened to make Tamsyn interested in this particular image. I also liked that Tamsyn is aware of Nightwish. No link, but you'll get a PDF immediately if you Google.

• Union (2015, Clarkesworld Magazine)

5.5K. Very weird, extremely Kiwi story about a town that gets sent lab-grown wives by the government, but they're not made the usual way so they're Weird and people have feelings about it. Fascinating and eerie description of non-human (in some people's eyes, sub-human) women (?) who cannot be observed to have recognizable feelings or thoughts, yet have some sort of inner life. Quite touching, very uncanny.

• Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower (2020)

Short novel (~200 pages). Very funny. I was reminded of Coronabeth because the whole plot is “princess finds herself branching out into decidedly non-princess-like activities”, but other than that—this is a fairytale for adults about people who make eachother worse. No particular links to TLT but a very fun read with some gut punches. Extremely Tamsyn through and through, what with the dubious morality and all.

• Why the Mermaids Left Boralus (2021, in Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth by Blizzard Entertainment)

Set in the World of Warcraft universe. Haven't read this one yet, will report back lmao. As with The Deepwater Bride, no link but I easily found a PDF of the entire compilation. It's illustrated!

• Undercover (2022, from Into Shadow, Amazon Original Collection)

Haven't read it either. Will edit once I do.

[yasmindifference]

Cheer up prompt #27

An anon and @this-was-a-terrible-idea also requested #27! A popular number apparently lol. I hope you all enjoy! ♡

"--and then Mr. Browsten said that with all the, um, the hullabaloo that it wasn't fair to make us take a test, so he cancelled it."

Tim pauses for breath and Mom hums an encouraging noise. When Dad makes that sound, it means he's not really listening, but he knows Mom's paying attention, even though she hasn't stopped curling her hair. From where he's lying on her bed, he can see her reflection in the vanity mirror, and she's frowning just like he knew she would.

Mom doesn't approve of canceling tests, which means she doesn't approve of Mr. Browsten, because he cancels them all the time.

(Mom says tests are important to know where improvement is necessary. Mr. Browsten doesn't seem to agree.)

"So we watched a documentary instead and it was pretty interesting, it was about puffer fish! Sarah asked what puffer fish have to do with grammar and Mr. Browsten said that learning is its own reward, but I think he just didn't have anything else ready so he took something from Ms. Cappola instead. She's the fifth grade science teacher and I heard her classes watch movies at least twice a week."

Mom tuts, which Tim was expecting, and sets down her curling iron.

"Ridiculous," she mutters. "I don't know why we're paying that school so much in tuition when they can't be bothered to teach you anything. It's a miracle you ever learned to read."

"It's because I'm smart," Tim informs her helpfully, and Mom smiles her special just-for-Tim smile.

"You are," she agrees. "And thank goodness for that. Now, would my smart boy do me a favor?"

Because Tim's smart, he already knows what she's going to ask. He rolls off the bed to his feet. "Curling iron?"

"Yes, please." Mom rolls her chair away from the vanity so he can crawl under it to unplug the curling iron. She plugged it in herself, but that was before she was all dressed up in her expensive dress. "Thank you, Timmy."

"You're welcome," he chirps, crawling back out.

Mom rolls back in front of the vanity, but Tim stays where he is, kneeling next to it so he can watch her put her makeup on. There are a lot of different bottles and brushes and powders involved, but Mom never hesitates. Tim doesn't know how she keeps it all straight.

He likes watching Mom get ready to go out. Sometimes--like tonight--she lets him pick out the jewelry she's gonna wear, and then she chooses her dress and hair and makeup all based on what he picked. Even when the colors don't match, it all fits together like a puzzle...a puzzle she pieces together in seconds after Tim's impulsive choice.

It's really cool.

Tonight, Tim picked pretty, dangly earrings with some kind of red stone (ruby, Mom said when he asked), so Mom picked a black dress. She said it would make the earrings pop, which he didn't get until he saw her wearing it.

Now, he watches her choose lipstick as red as the earrings and asks, "Does the lipstick make the earrings pop, too?"

Mom finishes smoothing it on before she smiles at him. "You tell me."

Tim studies her. The lipstick matches the earrings, but it doesn't draw attention to them the way the plain dress does. He already watched her do her eye stuff, and her eyes look bigger somehow, but they're not colorful like they were when they all went to the opera last week.

"No," he decides. "You went new...neutral?" He waits for her slight nod of confirmation, then continues, encouraged, "You went neutral with your eye stuff and red with your lipstick to make your lips pop."

"Very good," Mom says, smiling. She cups his cheek briefly before turning back to the vanity. "Clever boy."

Tim beams and watches in fascinated silence as she uses some kind of powder. Even though he's staring right at her, he can't tell what the powder actually does. All he knows is that when she's done, her face looks...different. Still pretty, but kinda sharper somehow.

Makeup is like magic, he decides. No matter how many times he watches her get ready, he can never figure it out.

"Can I try?" he asks impulsively.

"Try what?" Mom asks, a little distracted. The cap on one of her bottles is stuck and she's struggling to open it.

"Your makeup!" Tim takes the bottle from her and opens it by using the hem of his shirt to grip it better. Mom can't do that, her dress is all shiny and slippery. "You look pretty, I wanna try."

Mom pauses and then smiles.

"I don't have long before I have to leave," she warns him, "but I don't see why not. Do you want to pick out some lipstick?"

Tim absolutely does. He levers to his feet as, across the room, Dad finally stirs. He's been reading some stuff his assistant from Drake Industries brought by earlier, ignoring them both, but now he says, "Janet" in a weird tone.

"Jack?" Mom asks, even as she directs Tim's attention to the little circles on the bottom of her lipstick tubes that show what color they are. She has a lot of options.

"Janie, really," Dad says. He sounds unhappy, and Tim looks up from comparing two different shades of pink to find him frowning. "You can't mean to let our son--"

He stops mid-sentence and Tim bites back a wince. Dad's in trouble; Tim hasn't seen that look on Mom's face since he told her about his last nanny giving him whiskey to help him sleep when he woke up from bad dreams.

"My son," Mom says very deliberately, "is welcome to express himself however he likes."

Is trying makeup expressing himself? Tim just wants to see if it makes him as pretty as it does Mom.

Either way, that's not a good tone. Tim looks down and concentrates really hard on picking out a lipstick.

"Janet," Dad tries again, weakly. He obviously knows he's in Big Trouble, but for some reason he hasn't apologized yet. Tim tries to psychically tell him to cut his losses and back down, but his telepathy apparently still hasn't kicked in, because Dad says, "It's just that--"

"Do you know what you want to try, sweetheart?" Mom asks, completely ignoring Dad.

Tim looks between his parents, decides to let Dad dig his own grave, and hands Mom the red he settled on.

(If it's the red that most closely resembles the red in Robin's uniform...well, it's not like Mom has any way of knowing that.)

"Excellent choice!" Mom says. She stands up from the vanity and pats her chair. "Take a seat."

Tim does, excited. He's not usually allowed to sit at Mom's vanity.

Lipstick, he learns quickly, feels really weird. He has to sit super still while Mom puts it on him, and it makes his lips feel weirdly heavy, like there's something on them.

Which there is, actually, so...he doesn't know what he was expecting.

Mom hands him a tissue so he can "blot" his lips, just like he's seen her do a million times, and then steps aside so he can see his reflection in the mirror.

"Whoa," Tim says, leaning closer. He makes a few faces, pushing his lips together and out, transfixed by how bright and noticeable they are. It doesn't make him pretty like Mom, but he likes how it looks anyway. "Cool."

Behind him, Dad throws up his hands and leaves the room. He's angry, Tim can tell, but Mom is smiling down at him, so Tim's not worried.

"Do you want to pick eyeshadow next?" she asks.

"Yes, please!"

Prompt #27 was experimentation! Well selected! ♡♡

[wren-of-the-woods]

Yes!! This! And I love that they have such dramatic names, too — the Oxygen Catastrophe is great, and the End-Permian Mass Extinctions is colloquially known as the Great Dying.

end permian mass extinction...at least we don't have to deal with "Lava sea the size of Saudi Arabia"

[nicestgirlonline]

dumb dumb

Pairing: Bucky x Dumbass!Reader

Warnings: none! lots of fluff ahead!!! 

Summary: Everyone can see the huge crush Bucky has on you...everyone except you of course.

Word Count: 3.7k and counting because I truly am incapable of being brief

A/N: This is for week one’s writer activity for  @the-slumberparty  the I Spy Challenge! I included all three of the items they shouldn’t be too hard to spot! I hope you enjoy it! Unbetaed, forgive me! Feedback is always appreciated :)

Update 2/17: You guys asked and now there's a Part 2

Typically it was Team Cap that were the first people awake in the Avengers Compound. Steve, Sam and Bucky were still on a soldier's schedule, usually getting up at 5 to work out before getting breakfast. 

So it was a bit of a surprise when they entered the kitchen to see the coffee was already brewed and you were helping yourself to a bowl of cornflakes. You were a Stark Industries biochemical engineer and judging  from your lopsided ponytail and your rumpled clothes, you had ended up sleeping in the lab. Again. Steve checked his watch, it was barely past 6. 

“Good morning! Another late night?” Steve asked.

“Morning Cap! Yeah, the thing about stomach acid is it's so fascinating I lost track of my time while studying it.” You cover your mouth to hide a yawn.  

“I think maybe only you think that.” Sam said, making you giggle a bit. Bucky entered the kitchen slightly later than the other two. His hair was damp and he had a towel wrapped around his neck, freshly showered. Steve definitely noticed that Bucky had started to insist on showering before breakfast right after the first time they discovered Y/N in the kitchen. 

“Good morning Bucky!” You greeted, internally cringing at how loud you were. He was taken aback each time he saw her in the morning. The usually coordinated assassin bumped into the side of the breakfast bar with his hip and winced. 

“Morning.” he mumbled and gave a little wave before immediately heading to get some coffee, walking off the bump. Sam and Steve both glanced at each other. 

“You should kick Bucky’s ass, it’s his samples keeping you up at night,” Sam joked. You blushed and filled your mouth with more cornflakes. You’d specifically been studying well, all of Bucky? The effects of Dr. Erskine’s serum on his body mixed with the cryosleep and the other HYDRA experiments was a vast array of knowledge to tap into.

“It's not his fault I’m bad at time management. I really should stop doing this though. I'm sure my apartment misses me.” You say quickly as Bucky silently fixes himself breakfast. He pulls out the bagels and cream cheese with a bit more anger than usual. He sent Sam a glare but didn’t say anything. 

“Well if you’re here less, we’ll start missing you, won’t we Buck?” Steve asked. Both of them knew about Bucky’s soft spot for the scientist, too bad he didn’t seem like he was ever going to do anything about it. 

Bucky didn’t really answer, just sort of muttered something. You tucked a piece of your hair behind your ear trying to hide a blush.

“I'm sure Bucky won’t miss me. He’s gotten enough of me poking and prodding him.” You said hoping it came off as a light joke. While Bucky had been very willing to provide all of the samples you’d asked for, you secretly were starting to feel like you were no better than HYDRA in his eyes…

“And stealing my blood for science?” Bucky asked, his tone still grim. “‘S’not so bad when you do it.” He gave a small smile that he hid behind a sip of coffee. Steve remained quiet a moment, hoping either of you would make a move but both of you stayed blushing and looking in other directions. 

“Say, I was wondering to get your opinion on something. If there was a fella who was trying to get something nice for a lady friend, are flowers too old fashioned?”

“A lady friend? Steve, are you dating someone?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny. But humor a hundred year old guy for a second here. If someone were trying to catch the eye of a modern woman such as yourself, would he have to buy you flowers, chocolates, diamond necklace?” He asked. You thought about it for a moment tapping your chin. 

“Gosh, not diamonds for me! I can’t wear any jewelry in the lab. I think flowers are nice! Everyone likes getting flowers sometimes. Maybe I should get some flowers for the whole lab, with Valentine's Day coming up and all.”  

Bucky smiled to himself. You were just the sweetest person he’d ever met. Always thinking about others. Steve of course caught the face and Bucky quickly turned away, trying to go back to neutral. It was such a stupid little crush, nothing more. 

x

You felt like your back might snap in half, that lab cot was really not optimal. You’d ended up staying in the lab past midnight and at that point it was easier to just crash than bother driving home.  You’d had to redo nearly all of your samples from yesterday, after your acid experiment melted nearly all the pipettes in the lab. You were probably going to have to get some more cheek swabs from Bucky too. 

You bit your lip. It was nice to have him in the lab so much. He didn’t talk a lot but he was always awfully sweet when he did. He also didn’t seem to mind your science babble. It was safe to say you’d developed a bit of a crush over the past few months. Too bad there was absolutely no way he felt the same way about you. He was a gorgeous Avengers for chrissake, he wasn’t going to date a dorky scientist who was studying the acid in his stomach. 

Speaking of the devil, when you got up to stretch a bit you were taken back by a face full of flowers, you leaped back in surprise. 

Bucky, wearing his sweatsuit like he had just gotten back from a run, was carrying a huge bouquet of pink and purple flowers. His face as usual was unreadable. You placed your hand on your now racing heart. 

“Bucky! I didn’t hear you come in!” You said as you regained your footing. 

“Uh sorry about that. Kind of a habit. Assassin.” He said with a shrug. The two of you stood in silence with the beautiful flowers separating you. Both of you  taking in the other. 

Can’t believe he looks so handsome while I’m sitting here looking like an absolute wreck

Can’t believe she looks so cute in the mornings while I’m in here looking like a creep. 

“These are beautiful!” You gesture to the flowers snapping the two of you back to reality. He half smiled and took a deep breath, ready for the little speech he'd prepared to go along with the ridiculous bouquet. 

“Yeah uh, I was just thinking about what you and Steve were talking about yesterday, with Valentine’s Day and all—“ He began. 

“It’s so nice that you got these for the lab!” You cried out taking them from his hands. Yesterday you had mentioned getting flowers for the whole lab, that must be what Bucky was referencing. 

“I…did. I did get these for the lab.” He said the smile now disappearing and back to his usual grumpy/ neutral expression. Some people found it a bit off putting but you had grown accustomed to it. 

“The techs are gonna flip, an avenger bringing us flowers! This is gonna brighten up the break room.” You squealed happily. It broke your heart a little, secretly hoping they had been for you. The gesture was really appreciated. Maybe he really didn’t mind all of your little experiments so much!

“I’m glad you like them.” He said. He sounded genuine but he looked so sad. You quirked your eyebrows, hoping that you’d be able to cheer him up if he stayed.  “Yeah so I’m gonna go now.” 

He quickly turned his hands in his pockets. 

“Oh you can stay—” You called after him but he was basically out the door. 

 “I’ve got to go on a run.” he called back.

“Oh.” you said to yourself as the door shut behind him. You clearly had been wrong, no way did Bucky like you at all. 

X

“Hey there I got a huge bunch of flowers for the lab. Because I think the lab is beautiful. And the lab is smart and funny. I really like talking to the lab even though I have no idea what the fuck to even say half the time.” 

“Talking to yourself again?” Steve asked, finally catching up with Bucky who had taken off at a mad man’s pace. 

“Eavesdropping again punk?”

“Flowers didn’t go over too well? I take it?”

“Not talking about it.” Bucky said picking up speed. Steve easily matched his pace, refusing to let his friend get away. 

“Maybe you should just ask her out. You used to be pretty good at that. Being charming.” Steve suggested. Bucky picked up speed again and Steve followed, the two of them now pushing hard. Nearly too hard for conversation. 

“Will you drop it?” Bucky grunted. There was no way she liked him. Why would she anyway? She was a beautiful, brilliant scientist and he was the grumpy old meanie avenger. 

“Just trying to help.” Now Steve was pissed, he pushed harder trying to pass his best friend. 

“Stay out of it.”  The two super soldiers ran on, lapping poor Sam a shameful amount of times. 

Used to be charming. Used to be? Bucky scoffed. He’d show them. He was present day charming. 

X

You really needed to work on your time management, you checked your watch and it was already 3 o clock and you hadn’t even had lunch yet. You were out of lab snacks too, so you decided to break for a quick lunch. 

You assumed you’d be in the kitchen on your own but entered to see Bucky with a cup of instant noodles. He was mid slurp when you waved hello. You went straight to the pantry to grab the basics for a PBJ. You could hear lots of coughing as you turned. 

“You’re not choking right? Do you need the heimlich?” You asked only half jokingly. You’d certainly do whatever you could to help him.

You turned back and Bucky was a bit red in the face but breathing normally again. 

“No. S’fine. Went down the wrong pipe.” He grumbled waving his hand as you went back to your sandwich.  

“Everyone loves the flowers. By the way, really made our week.” You took a seat across from him. Bucky straightened up a big and cleared his throat for the final time. 

“Glad to hear it.” He smiled. You smiled back. 

There was a beat of silence. You looked down at your food, then back to Bucky only to discover he had done the same. You were looking into each other's eyes. 

“It was really so thoughtful.” You hoped you didn’t sound as breathless as you felt. 

“Well I was thinking of you when I saw them.” He said softly. Your heart soared. That was the sort of softness that you only heard from him in a few special moments. 

“Tony is having a screening of The Princess Bride. For Valentine's Day. As a treat to the company. Great movie, if you haven’t seen it.” You said very quickly. Not sure what was compelling you to tell him about it. It was one of your favorite movies and you were really excited to go to the screening until another scientist in your lab had asked you if you were bringing a date. It hadn’t occurred to you that the romance movie screening on Valentine's Day was going to be a mostly couples event. 

“I haven’t.” Bucky said. You were about to suggest he check it out when he continued “We should go. Together.” 

“Ok! Yeah! Yes we should go! Wow, that will be so much fun!” You could hardly believe it! Had your gambit worked? Subtly bringing up the movie with the hopes he’d come with you? 

“Uh cool, should I uh pick you up at the lab?” He seemed just as excited as you. You don’t think you’d ever seen him so smiley actually. 

“Yeah, I’ll have to bring my duffle bag so I have a change of clothes. I have this dress that looks like Buttercup’s — she’s a character in the movie. I should have more clothes here anyway. I hate my work clothes. And maybe a blanket too since the screening room is always so cold. We could bring snacks even though they’re usually provided. That might be overdoing it. ” You had started to ramble while Bucky rested his chin on his hand, contently listening. 

“You’re not planning on sleeping in the lab again are you?” He asked, concerned. 

“Well, I want to watch the movie and it's a bit silly to drive all the way home when I'm tired.” You said with a shrug. You really should stop sleeping at the lab so much, it seemed like you were starting to get a reputation. 

“Very true, you should not be driving while sleepy. But uh we could go to my place afterwards. It’s a much nicer commute. Probably a bit more comfortable than the lab.” He offered. 

“But Bucky, where would you sleep?” You asked, cocking your head to the side. The avengers apartments were nice but you were certain he didn’t have a guest bedroom. 

“I’ll take the floor. It’s actually not an issue.” 

“Bucky Barnes, I am not kicking you out of your own bed. No way. End of discussion.” You put your foot down. He let out a sigh looking up at the ceiling lights and then back to you. His whole demeanor changed 

“Well. I was trying to be a gentleman here but it is a pretty big bed. We probably could both fit. Since it seems like there are no other options. ”  He practically purred at you. You blinked, taken aback. You couldn’t remember a time where he had seemed more charming to you! But no, that couldn’t be right. Bucky Barnes was not actually offering to cuddle up with you on Valentine’s Day. This was you misreading the situation with him as usual. 

“Oh. You mean that as friends right?” You asked. Bucky looked pained and sucked his teeth for a moment. 

“Totally. As friends.”

X

“So let me get this straight. You are going to be going to see the romance movie The Princess Bride together. On Valentines day. As friends. Then you are going back to his apartment. Where you’ve planned on sharing his bed. As friends.”Nat asked.  You sat across from Nat on the long L shaped couch in the TV room. You were a little surprised with how well you had ended up getting along with all the Avengers since you got hired for the lab. Nat and Bucky especially were famously unfriendly to newbies and yet, you seemed to click with them faster than anyone. 

“Exactly. What's so hard to get about that?” You gave a shrug and sipped some more of your afternoon coffee.  She let out a groan and massaged her temples. 

“Are you dumb? Like has this whole brilliant scientist thing been like an Elizabeth Holmes scam? Geez Einstein, Bucky is head over heels for you and you spend all of your time thinking about smooching his stupid grumpy little face!” She cried and you winced. You only thought about smooching sometimes.

“His face isn’t stupid.” You muttered and Natasha rolled her eyes so hard you feared they may get stuck. “And he doesn’t like me like that.”

“Why would he ask you out to a movie? Then offer his place afterwards, if not because he’s totally into you!” 

“I asked him if he meant as friends then he said yes he meant as friends.” You cried back. She let out an exasperated sigh. 

“Honestly at this point, I think I may have to hang up my wing woman hat. Can’t get you a date, can’t get Steve a date, I’ve lost my touch.”  She groaned. 

“Doesn’t Steve have someone he’s seeing?” You asked. 

“Uh absolutely not. No way he could keep that from me. Unless you have some intel I don’t know about.”

“He was asking me all these questions a few weeks ago. About getting a girl flowers to show you’re interested in her.” You explained. Why would he bring that up if not for the girl he’s dating? She nodded along knowingly. 

“Quick question, was Bucky also there by chance?” She asked, her wry smirk returning to her face. 

“Yeah he was…how did you know that?”

“And was this before or after Bucky showed up with flowers for ‘the lab’ ?” She asked using finger quotes around the lab. The gears in your head usually reserved for science and math started to turn. “Please, I’m begging you. Use that big powerful brain that’s supposedly between your ears.” 

You trusted Nat, she was much better at reading people than you were. Could she be right? You hoped she was right. 

X

You had changed into your flowy blue dress, you had always thought it looked a bit like Princess Buttercup's wedding dress with its long sleeves and high cinched waist. You took your hair out of its usual ponytail and let it tumble down your shoulders. This was a date. You told yourself. This was a date, Bucky was taking you out on a date. 

It didn’t seem real. How could it be? You had crushes all the time but they never actually liked you back, that just wasn’t how life worked out. But Natasha could read people like no one you’d ever known before. Could she be wrong?

Bucky showed up at the lab door, lightly knocking on the door frame as he let himself in. He was wearing a black dress shirt with black dress pants. The black on black was his usual MO but god did he look so handsome in it. He had stayed his hair a bit too, you could see the gel he had combed in to keep it neat. 

“Hey are you ready for the mo-” you cut him off by pressing your lips to his. The two of you stayed frozen for a minute neither sure what to do. 

He pulled you away looking confused. Oh fuck I just sexually harrassed an avenger oh god I’m fired, I’m dead, Bucky is never going to speak to me again!

“What are you doing?” He whispered, his hands on your shoulders keeping you at a distance. 

“I’m so sorry! God I knew Nat was wrong, I’m sorry I’m sorry, I just thought that maybe…god I’m so dumb.” You started to blubber, humiliated. You wanted to melt into the floor. 

“Hey, hey slow down. Now I’m really mixed up here, you said we should go as friends and now you’re kissing me. Can you just tell me what’s going on?” He asked, his voice very measured, his face unreadable. 

You took a deep breath. 

“I like you. I like you a lot. And I always thought that…there’s no way you liked me back. I wished the flowers you brought to the lab were for me but of course they weren’t and I hoped we were going to the movie as a date but of course we aren’t. Nat said she thought you liked me back but I should have never listened to her. I’m sorry.” You covered your face and turned away. You couldn't believe you’d messed this up so bad. 

“You keep apologizing but I’m not exactly complaining here.”  He said his voice low. 

“Huh?”

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to let you know, but every time I tried  it didn’t seem like you were interested in me!” He cried out. You just blinked at him, dumbfounded. 

“Why would you be into me, you're like the savior of the galaxy and I’m a nerd who practically lives in her lab.”

“Why would you be into me, you're a beautiful brilliant scientist  and I'm just some grumpy dope that’s also a  pardoned war criminal?”

You couldn’t take it anymore, you threw your arms around his neck and kissed him again. Bye god this was the second time you kissed Bucky today! Only this time when your lips met he eagerly returned the kiss. His soft lips moving feverishly against yours. His hands went to your hips and you tried not to let out a gasp as he pulled you flush against his body.  

“Wait, wait, are we going to miss the movie?” He asked you with such genuine sincerity you wanted to scream. How was he so cute?

“We can catch it another time.”

X

The two of you, barely able to keep yourself off each other, somehow managed to get in an elevator, go up all the way to Bucky's floor and get into his apartment. All while still remaining lip locked in a daze. 

He was kissing you silly, you almost felt drunk. With a bit of a flourish he tossed you on to the bed (which was quite big, easily room for the two of you like he had said). 

“Uh Bucky, what are these for?” You held up the leather cuffs that were chained across the back of the bed. He frowned, suddenly panicking. 

“I was going to move those, I’m sorry you had to see that. I just, I get nightmares sometimes and it um, it helps to chain myself to the bed so I don't um hurt myself. I’m on meds now and I never need to use them anymore.” He was rambling, quickly trying to sooth the situation. 

“Oh.”

“Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. I know I’m a whole lot of baggage on top of baggage. I really am totally fine sleeping on the floor if that makes you feel safer or--”

“Don’t say that about yourself. You’re the smartest woman I know. ” He insisted. He sat back down on the bed. He took you in his arms. You pecked him lightly on his lips.

“I just…I thought maybe these were going to be for me.” You fluttered your eyelashes as

Bucky's eyes grew wide. He cleared his throat.

“They can be. They absolutely can be.”

[i-like-blue-eyed-robots]

Wheatley has ADHD

It’s a common enough occurrence that it probably deserves its own trope — aliens, robots and any other nonhuman character almost always end up with autistic traits. It’s because writers take a nonhuman character and go ‘well, how do I make this character register as nonhuman, but still human enough that audiences will like them?’ And the answer is making them neurodivergent. I’m not personally inclined to say that this is a good or a bad thing, though I can see how it might be taken that way.

However, some authors like myself do it intentionally, to demonstrate how neurodivergent people can end up ostracized.

Some examples of common traits that are autistic-coded and writers give to nonhuman characters are as follows:

-difficulty understanding metaphor, sarcasm or exaggeration

-overly blunt in communication

-unawareness of others emotions/incorrect reaction to said emotions

-difficulty realizing their own emotions

-need for a strict schedule in order to be happy

Of course, there’s more out there, but I’ve seen these pop up quite a lot.

However, the Portal series’ fantastic writing team did not follow these stereotypes with their robots, and that’s what I would like to cover today.

I would go over GLaDOS in relation to this idea, like she clearly understands sarcasm, but she doesn’t quite fit for reasons that would be obvious to anyone who’s played through Portal 2. I’m here to talk about Wheatley, the other main robot we get to know in Portal 2.

Wheatley is not autistic coded. He has no problem speaking to strangers or making eye contact. He enjoys sarcasm almost as much as GLaDOs, and so on and so forth.

However, Wheatley is most definitely neurodivergent-coded, and it’s fascinating because for once, maybe for the only time ever in popular media that I’ve ever noticed, a robot is adhd-coded instead of being autistic-coded.

What do I mean by that? First of all, if you haven’t finished Portal 2 go do it now. It’s relatively cheap on Steam and it’s amazing. Moving on — it all stems from what we’re told Wheatley is, during the betrayal scene with GLaDOS. Now to preface this, GLaDOS is a liar. You can take most of what she says with a grain of salt. But, what she says is all we have officially to go off of.

To add further context to this line, the personality cores or “Aperture Science Personality Constructs” (the line of robots that Wheatley is a part of) were specifically built in order to be plugged into GLaDOS’ systems to slow her down and to keep her from killing everyone in Aperture. In the first Portal game, Chell, the player character, incinerates the four ‘successful’ cores that supposedly were the last ones needed to stop GLaDOS. However, given that the character has to travel through an empty facility to do so, it’s clear that they weren’t nearly as successful as the engineers had thought. Later, as core after core was built and none of them worked to stop GLaDOS, Aperture was needing robot maintenance of some kind since all of their human faculty were being killed, fired due to financial ruin, and/or quitting, and so the personality constructs were repurposed to try and keep the facility from falling apart.

Aside from GlaDOS and Wheatley, we don’t see any “non-corrupted” cores. And even both of them are corrupted, with GLaDOS being 80% corrupted and Wheatley assumedly 25%, after doing some quick math of the boss fight. This would normally affect my ability for confident analysis, but luckily in this case I don’t need them to prove that good ol Wheatley is adhd-coded.

Because right from the get-go, “generating an endless stream of terrible ideas” sounds pretty damn adhd to me, as someone who has both inattentive and hyperactive adhd myself. Now, that’s not to say every idea a person with adhd has is a bad one. That’s not even the case with Wheatley, despite it being what we’re told, because again, GLaDOS is an unreliable narrator. It’s Wheatley’s ideas that keep her from killing Chell with turrets or neurotoxin. He’s the one who gets Chell to dismantle those systems. Those are clearly not bad ideas.

But what about other adhd traits? Having an endless stream of ideas isn’t even on a symptom list of being adhd, it’s usually just a side effect of everything else going on. Well, Wheatley has plenty of them.

Hyperactive-type adhd symptoms include but are not limited to;

-fidgeting

-excessive physical movement

-excessive talking

-impulsive behavior

-restlessness/impatience

Oh but how can a robot ball fidget or have excessive physical movement, you may ask. Well. This is the most expressive ball I have ever seen in my life. Wheatley is constantly moving, shifting panels, popping his eye out, spinning in his casing and so forth. The excessive talking one is easy, my younger brother (also an adhd yapper, who has no room to talk) was trying to throw Wheatley over the railing into the bottomless pit beneath Aperture “because he was yapping” too much. This is unusual for a robot character (outside of the Portal series) whereas they tend to speak when spoken to. Wheatley is generally impulsive, but this is especially noticeable when he’s hooked up to the facility in the GLaDOS chassis. After PotatOS calls him a moron, he proceeds to punch her and Chell into the abyss below without thinking about it, reacting out of anger until he realizes they’re about to drop, right before they do. Interestingly, that sort of impulsive rage reaction is more often seen in monster characters, like perhaps a werewolf situation. It sort of adds to the framing that now Wheatley is in control of the facility, he has become something monstrous. Now, judging his patience level accurately is difficult, given that in the beginning he’s in a high-stress, deadly situation and later, when he’s in the chassis, he’s being affected by symptoms of drug withdrawal. However, he is impatient, such as when he’s playing the recorded sound of knocking on a door at the beginning. Granted, he’ll go on ‘knocking’ forever because it’s necessary for the story, but he speaks up every couple of minutes asking if you/Chell are going to open the door already. Again, this is unique for a robot character, as they tend to wait on a player or another character’s actions before responding to it, rather than initiating.

Impressively, these are not all the symptoms Wheatley demonstrates. There is another form of adhd, known as Inattentive-type adhd. The symptoms can include the following;

-Short attention span

-Overlooking details

-Careless mistakes

-Inability to stick to tedious tasks

-Difficulty organizing tasks

-Constantly changing tasks

-Difficulty listening to and carrying out instructions

For having a short attention span, this is again, difficult to determine for Wheatley in a normal setting. In the beginning he’s mostly able to focus, but he’s in a life-or-death scenario. However, he does ramble on about things that have no relevance to what he and the player character are doing, such as when he’s telling the player character about the many jobs he’s had around Aperture and been subsequently released from. He definitely has issues overlooking details, such as when he and Chell are supposed to be dismantling the neurotoxin facilities. While he’s busy ‘hacking’ a computer that may or may not even regulate the facility in the first place, Chell dismantles the generator and he doesn’t even realize she’s doing it at first, because he’s distracted listing off the hardware of the computer. As for careless mistakes, again, this could be simply the situation he’s in, but he definitely makes them. Like when he’s transporting the relaxation chamber in the first chapter, he runs into an unbelievable amount of other relaxation chambers, tearing Chell’s apart. Or even when he’s supposed to be guiding her around Aperture but he dips into wrong corners and has to recorrect. He most visibly has difficulty with tedious tasks when he’s in the chassis, as the facility is literally falling apart because he didn’t bother reading the manual or taking care of the massive amount of upkeep the facility requires. But again, he’s suffering symptoms of drug withdrawal as well that could be affecting his ability to do that. However, given his descriptions of his job loss, mentioned above, we can gather that this is likely an issue he had before ever being a part of the core transfer. This also is in line with difficulty organizing tasks. As for constantly changing tasks, again, he has somewhat better focus in the beginning because if he doesn’t he’ll die, and later he’s exceptionally distracted by a need to test. But even when he should be consumed with the need to test, and he does watch Chell for most of it, he does stop watching randomly at times to do… Who knows what. When it should be the only thing he can focus on. As for difficulty listening to and carrying out instructions, again, the facility falls apart and Wheatley kept being fired for similar, if not the same reasons.

So. That covers basic symptoms and how Wheatley fits pretty much all of them. But, a lesser known side effect of adhd is that it can easily lead to the development of other neurodivergent disorders such as anxiety and depression. Adhd is also linked to something known as emotional dysregulation. Wheatley clearly exhibits signs of anxiety. He’s terrified of dying, and says as much at several points. Not only is he especially scared of dying, but he’s scared of judgment, too. He’s constantly trying to seem more important or smarter than he is, and even though Chell is a silent protagonist, when he takes over the facility before being affected by the testing withdrawals, he assumes she’s been secretly plotting against him the entire time. Depression is more difficult to spot in Wheatley, as he’s not lethargic, but, again, a high-stakes situation can allow a person to mask their symptoms for a brief period out of self-preservation.

However, I do want to point out he clearly displays emotional dysregulation, and not in the way one might expect from a robot character. Wheatley is exceptionally sensitive to criticism. When GLaDOS begins her spiel about him being an intelligence dampening sphere, he moves as far away he can from her, turning his back so he doesn’t have to look at her. He even goes so far as to say “Not listening!” while she’s saying it. Then when she calls him a moron, he reacts violently, in a way he hadn’t so far in the game before that moment. He smashes her through the glass of the elevator and then, when she proceeds to call him a moron again, is when he smashes PotatOS and Chell into the pit. However, he doesn’t even need to even be actively insulted to react to perceived insults as just as much of a threat to his psyche. As mentioned earlier, despite Chell being a silent protagonist, and in some ways because Chell is a silent protagonist, Wheatley assumes that she’s been plotting against him from the start. Her perceived attacks against him are most especially notable during the boss fight. He points out that she’s always quiet, assuming that she’s “silently judging” him. He points out that she didn’t catch him when he fell off of his management rail in the beginning, and that she didn’t warn him that she was the one who killed GLaDOS.

All in all, Wheatley is a beautifully three-dimensional character, not in spite of being a robot, but rather, in some ways, because of it.

[forcedagere]

I personally really like the idea of Bill x Reader x Ford. This one kinda ties into my previous post, but it’s not required reading. I suppose this would be an AU where Ford accepted Bill’s offer during Weirdmaggedon, or something else went wrong resulting in Bill staying in power :)

Contents: forced age regression, yandere, implied mental manipulation

Whereas Bill is far from the best caretaker (though he tries, in his own way), Ford takes care to create a semblance of structure in your life. He doesn’t have tons of practical experience with children or little ones such as you, but he makes up for it with dedication. He takes to caring for you as if it were a newly discovered, fascinating field of study. In other words… He reads many, many books, and tries all kinds of things to figure out what you like best.

Ford is not entirely fond of the kind of dynamic you have with Bill. It's not because he doesn't want to be referred to with parental terms, that's simply a matter of preference, but that he insists on you being friends above anything else. Considering the dynamics at play here, Ford cannot help but view it…

"As simply pedagogically irresponsible, Bill." The triangle in question rolls his eye. "Oh, boohoo! Fancy McFancypants over here knows what’s up!” Bill glances at you from the corner of his eye. Seeing you crack a smile while you’re sketching away with your crayons, he’s encouraged. “You read one book on how to raise a kid, and now you wanna tell me what to do? Get lost. Kid, c'mon, prove him wrong-- I'm your favourite, right?" You look up from your latest piece of art. You are drawing all three of you, in fact. You're usually deaf to their arguments, it's such a constant that you've grown used to the noise and stopped viewing it as a threat. (Your daddy calls it 'bickering'; Billy, when daddy isn't listening, calls it 'flirting'. That makes you giggle.) But you don't like getting involved in it yourself! So you firmly shake your head, and drop the pacifier attached to your necklace to speak. "No favourites… I love you both," you say with the confidence only someone as little as you could have. Billy's eyelid flutters, and your daddy smiles.

To put it simply, Bill is the ‘fun, rule-breaking parent’ and Ford is… A little less that. One should not take Bill Cipher as the benchmark of taking good care of a human, though.

Ford will make sure your meals are more varied than the endless stream of candy that Bill feeds you, and get you tucked in for sleep at regular times, too. Compared to Bill, who enjoys playing games with you and ‘roughhousing’, Ford prefers calmer activities. He’s definitely up for the occasional board game, but, most of the time, he’ll read to you, make drawings upon requests (or give you lessons!), or toy around with science experiments safe for someone who gets the urge to put anything that looks interesting inside their mouth.

He might’ve taken you for an adventure or two outside, but… The world hasn’t been the same since Bill got his hands all over it. He may be technically immortal now. You decidedly are not, as far as he knows. Either way, he doubts that Bill would let you out of this room to begin with. He doesn’t have to ask to be able to know that. If there is any reason he would keep someone locked up the way he does with you, it must be because you have some form of special connection to him. Ford does not believe he would risk that.

Really, Ford isn’t stupid or blind. It’s not that he’s going along with all of this because he is ignorant of Bill’s manipulation of your mental state. Bill can call it a ‘nudge in the right direction’ all he wants. He’s keeping you regressed. But everything has changed. He has changed, and Ford doesn’t know if he made the right decision. He fears he hasn’t. (Somewhere out there, in an alternate universe, a Stanford must live who made a difference decision. Ford hopes he’s happy.)

Spending time in this little contained room, with something dependent on him and eager to be looked after by him, who doesn’t know better and never will… It’s not good, it’s the very definition of selfish, but it’s comforting to him. Grounding, in a sense. With an eternity of time left ahead of him and the foundations of his previous life all but crumbled, he has something steady to return to. It doesn’t matter how much he rationalizes it. It’s twisted and fucked up, plain and simple.

…He supposes he can understand why Bill finds him so amusing, even now.

A little whimper snaps him from the spiral of his thoughts. Your bottle is empty. He should get youa refill, then pull you back on his lap.

[exhaslo]

Corruption

(Villain!Miguel x F!Hero!Reader)

Warning: Minors DNI, smut, mentions of sex, violence, blood, murder, twisted thoughts, experimentation, language, wannabe fluff, established friendship?

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

Five months before D-Day

It was quiet. Something nearly unheard of in the city of Nueva York. Not even a whoosh of wind or a click of a heel could bring noise to this silent room. Especially not after the vulture of the lab had demanded everyone's silence.

You sat in the corner of the lab, quietly tapping against your tablet. You could not even hear another's breathing. That is how powerful the lead of this lab was when he demanded silence. That was how powerful-

"Miguel?" You whispered lowly.

Miguel O'Hara, otherwise known as Mike, due to his father's pestering nicknaming. Miguel O'Hara was the son of Alchemax's CEO, Tyler Stone, and the smartest scientist in the corporation. He was a man of power, and a man to be feared.

"This better be good, (Y/N)" He said with a hiss.

Oh, how you loved it when your name rolled off his tongue. If only he would have said it a little nicer. You raised your head from your tablet, looking ahead at the scene before you. A man, strapped onto a metal table with lights and strange liquid being entered into his blood. A twisted science experiment that never ended well.

Sometimes you questioned your job. You questioned how you found yourself seated as a secretary, recording each horrible experiment Miguel did. This was not for the faint of heart. You started working for Alchemax about two years ago thanks to a friend who helped you out of college.

You met Miguel a year ago, when you were assigned to be his personal assistant. Since, apparently, everyone else refused to take the job. Once you did your first report with him, you immediately found out why, but that wasn't going to stop you.

"According to my report, the subject purposely ate a peach before agreeing to this test." You explained.

"So?"

"So, the patient is allergic to peaches and is about to go into shock in a matter of minutes now." You huffed.

"Shouldn't affect the procedure."

Oh, how sometimes you wished you could enter Miguel's head and wonder what sick and twisted mind worked in there. Miguel was fascinated with genetic splicing. He always had a new test subject on his table once a week. He wanted to learn how to manipulate their DNA.

However, each experiment always ended in failure and death. The body count Miguel had was enough to lock him up a hundred times over. The man had not a single shred of humanity in him. It was always about the experiment.

"Begin,"

You rolled your eyes, wishing you could stop all of this. You had begged for a way to find the light in Miguel. How could someone so handsome be so evil? It almost made you sick the amount of times you had wet dreams about your monster of a boss.

"Another failure, sir. Perhaps we made a mistake-"

"I never make mistakes." Miguel hissed as he watched his now deformed monster patient lie dead on his table, "Get him out of my sight! Now!"

Right as you started to fill out your report, you noticed the patient's stomach start to inflate. You furrowed your brows before yelling out to everyone that the body was going to pop.

Your efforts were for not. Within the second, everyone in the room was covering in disgusting blood and body parts. You had wanted to throw up, but you did your best to hold it all in. Miguel was already throwing a fit about his lab being dirty, you didn't want to add to the mess.

----------

Once you were all cleaned, you made your way back to your office. You still had to finish your reports and send them over to Miguel for review. Miguel always demanded perfection. It was amazing how long you even lasted as his assistant. According to everyone, you were the more insane one.

"Oh, Miguel," You muttered, spotting the tall man in your office. Miguel lazily looked at you,

"Took you long enough," He spat. You placed your tablet down,

"Remember that time I told you that being a female requires more shower time?" You said with a smirk. Miguel scoffed as he placed himself onto your work couch, "Not even a smile," You huffed.

"Get working,"

"Yes, yes, oh chosen one." You teased once more.

The only thing that you could collectively agree on was that you were in love with the mad scientist. Giving Miguel a head massage, you stared down at his gorgeous face. You had been working with Miguel for a year. You knew what he liked, what he didn't like and how he worked.

It was safe to say that you were probably the only person in this whole building who understood Miguel. If only he wasn't evil. You would totally asked him out on a date long ago. Each passing day, you hoped that these feelings would go away.

"(Y/N), do my shoulders too," Miguel whispered in a low and sweet voice.

You folded far too easily. Doing what he asked, you knew that Miguel was using you. You had to be blind not to see that, but shit, you couldn't help it. That, and you physically could not quit your job. Both Miguel and his father made sure that no one would quit.

If you'd try, you'd be drugged.

Perhaps one day, you could bring this place to justice. You wanted Miguel to see the error of his ways. If there was any way to change Miguel to see the light, you would. Of course, taking Alchemax down was going to have to be the first step.

But, that was just a fleeting dream.

--------

Miguel inhaled deeply as you worked on his tense muscles. The only thoughts coursing through his mind were his experiments. How they could have been done differently. Perhaps he needed a different breed of test subjects.

"Let's resume our experiments with spiders," Miguel said with a low groan as you pinched just the right spot. He heard your small whine and scoffed, "We do this every other month."

"I know and you still torture me with it!" You cried softly, moving his to hair. Miguel closed his eyes, enjoying the massage,

"And as usual, I let you pick the next creature to study."

"A seahorse?"

Miguel resisted a chuckle since his first thought was getting males pregnant. How amusing that experiment would be, yet also horrifying. If he were to do that, then he would truly live up to his name as a mad scientist.

You had some dumb and ridiculous ideas. You weren't as smart as the rest of them and Miguel liked that. You were good for him to have around. Someone to remind him that there were those who were just dumb naturally. Of course, he could never say that to your face, or you would start crying.

"Like last time," He whispered ever so softly.

"Hm? Are you thinking rude things again?" You asked with a huff, gently pulling against his hair, "I can always stop this."

"But you won't." Miguel hummed and lazily opened his eyes, "Just be ready for tomorrow. I don't want another disappointment."

Getting himself ready to leave, Miguel fixed up his lab coat before giving you one last glance. He knew that you were attractive. Hell, he had to force his ignorant coworkers to get back to work since all they did was talk about wanting to date you.

Perhaps in another universe, where Miguel wasn't obsessed with his experiments, he would date you. Stepping out of your office, Miguel knew full well what he was doing. He got a rise knowing that he was keeping you all to himself.

Call it villainous, but Miguel enjoyed being selfish. That's how he always got what he wanted. Entering his private office, Miguel's eyes sparkled as he saw a case full of spiders.

"I'll make the perfect specimen, this I swear." He said with a wicked smirk.

----------

You squirmed in place, not ready to deal with today's experiment. You hated spiders. You wanted nothing to do with them, but Miguel loved them. He was so fascinated about the great hero age and about Spiderman.

Slowly making your way inside the lab, you gasped as scientists dashed past you. Everyone was running around in a panicked frenzy. Wondering what was happening, you gasped as you saw Miguel shaking with anger.

His spider enclosure was knocked over.

You wanted to jump and scream, but you knew that would only anger Miguel more. Hesitantly, you approached Miguel to try and distract him. As you did so, you felt something bite the back of your neck. You flinched and slapped your neck, praying that it was a mosquito.

You bit your lower lip, spotting a spider and nearly cried. Quickly shaking the foul creature away, you hurried to Miguel's side and gently tugged on his sleeve. Miguel hissed as he turned towards you violently,

"WHY AREN'T Y-Oh, (Y/N)," He growled. You were still biting your lower lip, glancing away from him,

"I know now isn't the best time, but why don't we-"

"Whatever it is, let's go while these fucking IDIOTS find my spiders," Miguel roared in anger.

You just nodded, leading Miguel out of the room as you quietly prayed for your fellow coworkers. Miguel was not going to let them rest until all of his spiders were found...including the one you just murdered.

"Why don't you tell me what you were going to work on while we go to lunch? I think a meal break would help," You suggested, tapping away on your tablet. Miguel stroked his hand through his hair, cussing lowly in Spanish,

"Sounds like a plan."

You smiled as you led Miguel to your lunch destination. You were proud to say that whenever Miguel was going to have a meltdown, you were able to calm him down someway or another. Call it talent, but you loved being reliable.

However, that talent seemed to be failing you now. You couldn't keep focus during lunch and Miguel seemed to be getting annoyed. You weren't sure what was happening to you, but your body felt like it was on fire. Could it have been from the spider bite?

"Sorry, Miguel...I just...need to..." You whispered before collapsing.

-----------

Miguel was growing irritated as he watched you waver in place. You were fine just a moment ago. If there was one thing Miguel hated, it was when someone lost interest in his conversation. This had never happened to you, so why now?

Right as you stood, you immediately came tumbling down. Like instinct, Miguel caught you and noticed that you had a fever. A small scoff escaped his lips as he carried you out of the restaurant and back into his company car.

"Take us to (Y/N)'s apartment. Fool got herself sick,"

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

Next Chapter

@tojishugetiddies @miguelsfavwife @foulsharkheart @club-danger-zone @ivkygirly @jollystrawberrycycle @amber-content

[secondbeatsongs]

alright my friends.

it’s time.

look! the wall I always take my pictures in front of is blue now! so much has changed. aeons have passed.

this looks unsettling

ohhhh this is dry milk powder! I’d know that taste anywhere - I used to love the stuff, and it’s pretty flammable.

hmm. tastes like there’s a bit of salt in this, and definitely some poppy seeds. fascinating.

I was gonna just go right to cooking it but hahaha holy shit this looks so gross now that I've added water to it

look at it! it looks like a really scummy pond with dead bugs floating in it!

okay. waiting-four-minutes time

Jackie why are you squeaking at me. I’m not letting you climb in the dishwasher again

(look at all the claw marks on the woodwork! she's a menace)

hmmm.

it doesn’t have a strong smell - it smells mostly of noodles with just a hint of garlic and caraway underneath

oh! all the sauce sank to the bottom, but stirring it up there’s definitely some creaminess in the texture of the sauce

hmm. now that it’s stirred up and there’s steam coming off of it, it smells mostly like hot milk, but specifically the instant kind. unsurprising.

okay, I’ve put this off for long enough.

oh the noodle texture is particularly slimy. and...huh.

on their own, the noodles taste like nothing. maybe some milk taste, but not much otherwise. but when I get a bite that has lots of seeds in it, I definitely taste them! and some bits of onion, too.

it’s not outright disgusting though, so that’s something

does it taste like an everything bagel? no. it tastes like noodles with caraway, poppy, sesame, onion, and salt.

does the sauce taste like cream cheese? disappointingly, no! it’s got a milky creaminess, but no sour tang to it at all!

weirdly, I feel like if it did have that sourness, it might taste more like an everything bagel.

speaking of...

it’s time for some science

so the first thing I have is popcorn that’s supposed to be everything-bagel-and-cream-cheese flavored. my sibling gave me this specifically for this experiment, so everyone say thank you to them for enabling me.

interesting! this doesn’t taste bad. it still doesn’t taste like bagel (and actually hold on...no, the popcorn on its own doesn’t taste like bagel either, just garlic) but I think the flavoring on the popcorn has added some much-needed taste to the noodles, and so it mildly improves it. three stars

next for the cream cheese

oh, significantly improved! ...or maybe I just love cream cheese. it adds such a nice tangy creaminess to it, and balances out the spices and seeds. four stars.

still tastes nothing like a bagel, though.

and so we try: packaged everything bagel seasoning!

ah. this was a lateral move. the seasoning on its own tastes good, but when added to the noodles it does nothing but make it a bit more salty. one star.

so now, I have to reveal to you. that I have one final trick. one last thing I can do to attempt to make these noodles taste like an everything bagel.

behold: an everything bagel

(and it’s a fancy one too! not a pre-packaged one! it’s even got sunflower seeds on it!)

I’m going to try a couple bites without cream cheese, and then I’m gonna add cream cheese and try that

...

hmm...

conclusion: this was a waste of a good everything bagel

I liked the cream cheese variation better, simply because I stopped being able to taste the noodles at all. five stars!

so when I started out I said the noodles themselves were not outright disgusting, but I’ve changed my mind. after tasting this really good actual everything bagel, these noodles do disgust me. partially because of their flavor, but more because of their (and Nissin's) moral integrity.

how dare they claim that this is what an everything bagel tastes like. this is an insult to bagels everywhere, and I find it truly offensive.

...anyway I guess I’m gonna go eat the rest of this now, because this is my actual breakfast today.

welp.

oh god. and I still have two more of these cup noodles! I forgot; I bought extras just in case!

wish me luck -_-

[son1c]

hi, this is something i wrote for my sonic x dunmeshi crossover. in my mind i've been calling it SATBK 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO because i think it's funny. thanks and enjoy 💜

Sonic the Hedgehog was having a good day. In fact, it was a great day! The sun was shining and there were no ugly robots in sight. He was also hanging out with his best buddy, Tails the Fox. Tails was telling him about some new techno-thingamajig that he'd invented, and Sonic was bobbing his head along, listening but not really understanding as Tails rambled on and on about slicers or splicers or splinters.

"...But that's not even the best part!" Tails was saying now. "With just the press of a button, this device should be able to undo the damage caused by..."

Suddenly, Sonic's ear twitched. He was still listening to Tails' spiel, but now he was distracted.

Tails noticed Sonic's lack of attention and turned pink with embarrassment. "A-And that's pretty much it!" he said in a rush, hoping he hadn't lost Sonic to whatever white rabbit had caught his fascination this time.

Unfortunately for Tails, Sonic's quills were tense. "Something's up," he said cryptically as he scanned the horizon. But even with a hand placed across his brow and a strategic lean forward, he couldn't make out any rotten eggs in the distance; the only things he could see were grass, trees, and other people's houses.

Still, Sonic's eyes narrowed.

Tails stuffed his new invention into his backpack and hurried to Sonic's side. He thought about all of the things he could do to help--Maybe he could run inside and grab a pair of binoculars from his workshop?--but just when he opened his mouth to suggest something, Sonic snatched him up and held him over his head.

"Woah!" Tails said in surprise, his eyes huge.

"Check it out!" Sonic said, gesturing with his foot at the place where Tails had just been standing.

Tails looked, and saw a small... Well, he wasn't really sure what it was, exactly. It was round, so bright it was glowing, and growing larger every second. Not only that, but when Sonic took a step back, it seemed to move and chase after him, too!

With Sonic still holding onto him, Tails began to spin his namesakes so the two of them could lift off and escape the strange glowing circle. At first, that seemed to do the trick, but then the thing peeled itself off the ground and rose up into the air. Yikes!

"Hang on, Sonic!" Tails said as he flew up higher. But no matter how high he climbed, the mysterious circle followed them. "I think it's a portal!"

"That's no good," Sonic said, not sounding particularly worried. If anything, he sounded a little excited.

Typical.

Then, the portal swallowed them up, leaving Tails' backyard empty. It spat them out in an unfamiliar place--at least, it was unfamiliar to Tails. The dirt path they landed on was well worn, the sky was painted a dazzling blue, and the forest to their left was lush with life. In front of them was a lake with water so clear and still it could be mistaken for a mirror. Tails took a closer look and couldn't help but think that if he wasn't a boy of science, he might say the place had an almost magical feel to it.

Sonic rubbed his nose. "Y'know," he said, "I'm not usually one for return trips. What gives?"

Tails reluctantly tore his gaze away from the water so he could look back at Sonic. "You recognize this place, Sonic?"

Sonic stopped rubbing his nose. "Yeah, there's no doubt about it." He put his hands on his hips and then took a slow, sweeping look around. "This is the same place from the storybook!"

If this was an anime, Tails probably would've turned monochrome as a glass breaking sound effect played in the background. Unfortunately, it's just a fanfiction, so that can't happen. But the sentiment remained the same: Tails was shocked.

Sonic shrugged. "I guess someone wrote a sequel," he said, like that was normal. Then, his expression turned sly as he side-eyed Tails. "Unless you think we're both dreaming this time?"

Before Tails could reply, someone walked out of the forest. They were riding a black horse and their face was covered by a dark hood, casting their face in shadow. However, not even their cloak could hide the shining armor they wore, as it twinkled brilliantly when they stepped out into the sunlight.

When the stranger spotted Sonic and Tails, they pulled on the horse's reins and stopped dead in their tracks.

This made Sonic quirk an eyebrow.

Tails asked, "Is that a friend of yours?"

The stranger removed their hood and revealed their face. Or, what could be seen of it through the helmet they wore. The intricately engraved metal was accented with red, which matched the stripes on his quills. Then, the dark hedgehog pushed up his visor so he could get a better look at Sonic and Tails.

In a quiet, disbelieving voice, the stranger asked, "My king?"

"You haven't changed a bit, huh?" Sonic chuckled. "Still dramatic as ever!" With a shake of his head, Sonic's mouth quirked up in a grin. "Hey, Lancelot. Long time no see."

Lancelot quickly got down from his horse so he could kneel to Sonic. Sonic, of course, just waved his hand dismissively. "Let's skip all that royal stuff, okay?" Sonic said, acutely aware of Tails' huge, disbelieving stare as it flicked between him and the knight. "There's someone I want you to meet."

Lancelot looked up and was dazzled by Sonic's grin. The blue hedgehog then motioned to Tails, his hands practically radiating sparkles as he showed off the small fox. "This is Tails. My little bro. Whatever world-ending problem brought me here this time, he'll be sure to help us fix it!"

While Lancelot processed this information, Tails barely stopped himself from spouting off a million questions. The first and most pressing of which was: Why does this guy look exactly like Shadow the Hedgehog?

Sonic offered his hand to Lancelot. Tails watched as Lancelot froze in place, but he didn't smack Sonic's hand away like Shadow would've. In fact, he seemed almost flustered at the friendly offer. He pulled his visor down to cover his expression before eventually accepting Sonic's hand and pulling himself up onto his feet. Maybe he thought it would've been rude to refuse? After all, he did refer to Sonic as his "king"...

Tails' head was spinning. He felt like he was going to burst with all his unanswered questions, so he finally voiced one. "Since when are you a king?"

Sonic grimaced. Tails pretended not to notice when Lancelot bristled at the question. Instead, he stubbornly kept his eyes locked on Sonic so the hedgehog couldn't run away from his question.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Sonic said, "Since I caught that cold a few months back? I dunno, dude. To be honest, I kinda thought..." 

None of it was real.

Sonic trailed off as his eyes drifted over to Lancelot. Then, he cleared his throat. "What's it matter, anyway? We're here now! There's gotta be a reason. Isn't that more important?"

Tails frowned. It was clear that Sonic was uncomfortable, if his anxious foot tapping was any indication. Tails knew his big bro hated the limelight, so it made sense that he'd hate being someone as important as the king. But that still didn't answer his question: how did this even happen?

Thinking back, Tails could indeed remember when Sonic had caught that cold. It was hard to forget, since he'd gone through approximately twenty boxes of tissues in the span of about a week. But... "Amy said you just made all that up."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Does this look made up to you?"

Tails looked around at the very real-looking fantasy land they'd found themselves in, and he had to admit that it didn't.

"Great," Sonic said. "Now that that's outta the way..." He turned back toward Lancelot. "Any dragons in need of slaying? Or not-so-evil wizards who need a talking-to?"

Lancelot shook his head. "I'm afraid not, King Sonic. Your appearance is--"

"Just Sonic."

Lancelot stiffened. Sonic looked at him expectantly. Like he was waiting for the knight to challenge him, like Shadow would've back in their own world. Tails almost laughed at the absurdity of it all, but thought better of it.

"...You've earned my respect, my king. I cannot simply refuse you your title."

Sonic's eyes twinkled. "Oh, yeah? Then how 'bout I cut you a deal?"

Lancelot was wary, but he waited for Sonic to explain.

Sonic jerked his thumb at the forest. Tails realized he was pointing at the treetops--no, at what was beyond them. Barely visible, the top of a grand castle could be seen peeking out from the distance.

"Let's race. If you win, you can call me your king. But if I win, you drop it. Sound good?"

Under the visor, Lancelot's eyes hardened. "I won't lose."

"I'm countin' on it," Sonic replied easily, but there was an undercurrent of excitement running through his words. Then, he turned to Tails. "You take care of the horse, okay, pal? We'll meet you there!"

Before Tails could object, the two hedgehogs were off. In their wake, they left a cloud of dust, and Tails sighed a long-suffering-but-fond sigh. No matter where they were, Sonic would always be Sonic, he supposed.

Taking the reins of Lancelot's horse, Tails began to head toward the distant castle. However, when he was about halfway through the forest, he stopped. The fur on the back of his neck stood up. Looking around, he couldn't see much amongst the thick foliage--just a mass of homogenous green.

Tails forced himself to relax and keep walking. Maybe a little faster than before.

Eventually, Tails made it to the front steps of the castle. It was even bigger up close; the massive structure towered over him, its tall stone spires piercing the sky. Lavish tapestries fluttered from the windows and golden ornaments glinted in the light of the setting sun. It even had a moat!

Lancelot stood proudly in front of the grand doors, his smile visible even with the visor shadowing his face. Sonic rolled his eyes as he stood next to him, but he was smiling too.

"I would've won if that frog hadn't been there," Sonic said.

"Of course, King Sonic," Lancelot replied, emphasizing Sonic's title a little more than necessary.

"C'mon, dude," Sonic said, exasperated, "you saw it! It was in trouble. If I hadn't jumped in, something bad would've happened!"

Lancelot nodded. "Yes, my king," he said again. "Helping the frog was much more important than claiming victory."

Sonic groaned.

Tails cleared his throat.

Sonic perked up immediately. "Buddy! You made it."

Taking the steps two at a time, Sonic joined Tails at the foot of the stairs. Lancelot joined him shortly afterward and gratefully took his horse from him. "My sincerest thanks for guiding Dark Rider, young Tails," Lancelot said.

Tails offered Lancelot a small smile. Dark Rider, huh? That sounded familiar. "You're welcome," Tails said. Then, after Lancelot disappeared around the corner to return the horse to her stable, he shot Sonic a pointed look. "I still have questions," he said seriously.

"Yeah, I figured," Sonic replied.

"A lot of questions," Tails added.

"Just you wait," Sonic said mysteriously. "There's more where that came from."

Lancelot returned. "They won't be expecting me so soon," he told Sonic and Tails. "When I discovered you on the outskirts of the forest, I had only just left in search of the mad mages."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "The mad mages?" he asked.

Lancelot's face darkened. "Yes," he confirmed. "There's much you don't yet know, King Sonic. Things have changed since you were here last... and not all for the better. But this is no place for conversation, let's head inside."

The three of them did so. Once the giant wooden doors closed behind them, Tails had to try his hardest to keep his eyes from popping out of his skull. There was just so much to look at: the mounted suits of armor, the stained glass windows, and even the wonderfully detailed carpet. The whole castle also had a unique smell, like that of a delicately scented candle. It really was like something straight out of a storybook!

Lancelot led Sonic and Tails through the halls of the castle. Occasionally, Tails could catch bits of whispers as the staff noticed who exactly it was that was wandering the halls. Their excited chatter made Tails feel excited too--excited to learn exactly what was going on here.

Finally, they arrived before a set of important-looking double doors. Lancelot went to push them open, but then stopped.

"What's up, Lance?" Sonic asked.

"There's no telling how the Round Table will react to your return," Lancelot said slowly. "We've remained together despite some... differing opinions."

Sonic tilted his head. "Trouble in paradise, huh?"

"It's far from that."

Tails bit his lip. "What's going on here, Sh... Lancelot? Really?"

Lancelot looked from Tails to Sonic.

Sonic snorted. "Anything you tell me, you tell him. He's with me no matter what."

Lancelot gave a small nod of acknowledgement. "Very well," he said. "In truth, your departure left us in a bad state. I had faith you would return, but the wounds of the false king were still fresh for many. Sir Gawain, among others, couldn't move on so easily. To say nothing of the wizard's sudden betrayal..."

Sonic held up his hands. "Woah, wait. You mean Merlina?"

Lancelot replied in a grave voice, "The very same."

Suddenly, the doors were pulled open. From inside the room, a purple cat poked out her head. "Ah! Sir Lancelot, I thought I heard your voice. Was there something...?" she started to ask, but her question was forgotten when she saw Sonic and Tails.

Sonic waved. "Hi, Percival."

Percival covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a gasp. Then, she snapped to face Lancelot. "Swear to me that the mad mages aren't behind this. I have no time for trickery now, Sir Lancelot!"

"I swear, what you see is true," Lancelot replied. "Our king has returned along with his brother, the fox."

Immediately, Percival dropped into a respectful kneel. Tails cringed in sympathy for Sonic, sensing that this would become a trend. But Sonic just ignored it, saying, "Yeah, yeah. Nice to see you too. You know, we were just talking about Gawain. Is he in there with you?"

Percival tensed, then stood. After not-so-subtly pulling the door shut, she said, a little tightly, "Yes. However, it might be best to return later. Sir Gawain has become somewhat... prickly... since your departure, my lord."

"So I've heard," Sonic said, sounding bored. "Look, I know he's a knucklehead. That's not news to me. But from the sound of it, things are a bit rocky here. I'd like to be able to count on everyone if things get tough."

"'Rocky'...?" Percival repeated. Her face softened somewhat as she made a realization. "Oh, well, yes. They have been. But now that you've returned, King Sonic, the political unrest will surely resolve."

Sonic tapped his foot. "I'm not talking about politics," he said, irritated, "I'm talking about Merlina. I thought we'd buried the hatchet last time, but I guess some people need a Round 2."

Percival glanced at Lancelot, whose expression remained hard. She clasped her hands tightly in front of her. "If only it were that simple," she sighed. Then, she explained what had happened in Camelot since Sonic's departure.

Sonic struggled to pay attention through it all. Mostly because it involved a bunch of complicated political stuff that he couldn't care less about. Basically, the void of power left by Sonic returning to his own world had fractured the kingdom. Cool. Personally, he thought these prim-and-proper types should've been able to figure that out on their own, but maybe he was being insensitive. 

...Had there always been this many flowers in the castle? The vases were a little gaudy for Sonic's taste, but the flowers were nice...

When Percival finally brought up Merlina's name, Sonic started listening again. Apparently, she had disappeared without a trace not too long ago. But recently there had been sightings of her alongside another magic user. They weren't pleasant reports, though; wherever they went, destruction was sure to follow. So, that explained the whole "mad mages" thing. Sonic's expression soured. Something about this whole thing didn't sit right with him.

Last time he was here, he'd been called by Merlina. So, how'd he and Tails get here this time?

By the time Percival finished speaking, Sonic was deep in thought. Tails, too, was pensive.

"I understand it's a lot to take in," Percival said sympathetically. "But we need not worry ourselves over it all at once. After all, you've returned! The tide of Camelot's misfortune will turn, I'm sure of it."

With that, the doors behind them opened. "I've heard enough," Gawain said as he appeared in the doorway. "So, you're back, are ya? Had enough of running away, huh?"

"Sir Gawain..." Lancelot warned, his hand moving to the sword sheathed at his hip.

Sonic stepped between the two of them, facing Gawain. "I missed you too, Gawain," Sonic said. When Gawain just growled, Sonic held up his hands placatingly. "Look," he continued, "I get it. You're mad. So, let's cut to the chase, alright? Meet me out front and we'll duke it out like old times. Cool?"

Gawain glowered at Sonic. "A deserter is hardly worth the effort," he spat.

"Even if I let you pick the terms?" Sonic asked.

Lancelot and Percival's eyes widened.

Gawain considered this. After a moment, he said, "Your defeat ends in banishment. And your victory..." Gawain leaned fully into Sonic's space, attempting to intimidate him with his cold stare and bared teeth. "...It shall not come to pass."

Sonic crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to back down. "Uh huh. Deal."

"M-My lord!"

"King Sonic!"

Sonic waved his hand. He didn't look away from Gawain. "I'm looking forward to a real challenge. It's more fun that way. So don't let me down, got it?"

The preparations for the duel were carried out quickly. That was good, because Sonic didn't want to wait--he was practically buzzing with anticipation. One of the castle staff had brought him his old gauntlet, but Caliburn was nowhere to be found. Sonic didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed to be given a non-talking replacement sword instead.

By the time the knights, Sonic, and Tails had gathered in the front courtyard, the news of the king's return had spread through the whole castle as well as the town. Spectators ringed the courtyard, whispering to themselves about who would win.

Sonic and Gawain stood opposite each other. The crowd hushed when Gawain shifted, his gaze intense. "I'm Sir Gawain of the Round Table," he stated. "My duty is to protect this kingdom and its people."

Sonic leaned on his sword, a small smile playing at his lips. "Yup, that sounds just like you. But where's the rest? C'mon, I'm waiting."

Gawain's nose twitched. It was obvious he wanted to curl his lip in disdain, but instead he settled for setting his mouth into a hard line. "You call yourself king, but you abandoned your own people. I refuse to bow to a deserter!"

Sonic sighed. He couldn't argue, because Gawain was right: he did leave. Instead, he said, "I don't want you to bow, Gawain. Don't you get it? Your kingdom's in trouble!"

"And what of you, knave?" Gawain hissed, and the crowd gasped. "Could you be an omen yourself?"

Shaking his head, Sonic replied, "I'm here to help."

"Enough!" Gawain snapped. He raised one of his swords, and with that, the duel officially began.

Gawain was faster than Sonic remembered--had he been training since he'd last seen him? The red knight crossed the courtyard in the blink of an eye, slashing at Sonic with what must've been months of pent-up frustration. Sonic raised his own sword to block Gawain's attack, and the subsequent clang of steel resounded throughout the whole courtyard.

Then, Sonic tried to knock Gawain's feet out from under him, but the knight blocked his kick with his other sword. Dang! That was annoying. Even so, Sonic couldn't help but grin. After all, he did say he'd wanted a challenge.

Flipping backwards, Sonic freed himself from the stalemate. From the relative safety of a few feet away, he taunted Gawain with a wink. The red knight grew angry and charged at Sonic again, not unlike a bull.

This time, Sonic dodged Gawain's attack with a simple side-step, but he quickly realized that Gawain wasn't as nimble as him; while Sonic could stop on a dime, Gawain, being taller and heavier, could not. If their fight was happening in the middle of an empty field, then that wouldn't be a problem, but there were people surrounding the arena!

In a flash, Sonic spun around on his heel, and with his super speed, he managed to catch the back of Gawain's metal collar before he could barrel into the crowd.

Gawain blinked in surprise, but quickly recovered. "You won't be so lucky a second time," he told Sonic.

Sonic let go of Gawain's collar and replied, "Prove it!"

They clashed for a while longer, a blur of blue and red across the cobblestone courtyard. Gawain managed to graze Sonic with the business end of his blade a few times, but so did Sonic. Maybe if Gawain didn't want to look like he was covered in paper cuts, he should've designed his armor more effectively! At least, that's what Sonic thought, anyway.

Finally, Sonic managed to knock one of Gawain's swords out of his hand with a well-timed kick. His second sword was soon to follow. Then, Sonic slammed into him, sending him to the ground. With one shoe, Sonic pinned Gawain to the ground, his sword held against the red knight's neck.

"I win," Sonic announced.

The crowd cheered while Lancelot and Percival let out a sigh of relief. Tails, on the other hand, just snorted. Leave it to his big bro to be a drama king!

Sonic sheathed his sword and stepped off of Gawain. Then, he extended a hand to him. "We're stronger together. Will you help us keep Camelot safe?"

Gawain glared up at Sonic. When Lancelot and Percival appeared at his sides, he glared at them too. But eventually, he let out a sharp breath. "Yes, but not for you." He accepted Sonic's hand and said with conviction, "For the kingdom."

Sonic grinned.

Afterward, there was a party. The threat of the mad mages had brought unease to the kingdom, but with Sonic's arrival, it seemed as though a beacon of hope had appeared in Camelot. So, the townsfolk decided to celebrate. As night fell, the castle and its surrounding town became aglow with lantern light. Upbeat music drifted through the streets while people danced. The warm smells of street food wafted from stalls, making Sonic's stomach growl.

"Man, I'm starving!" Sonic said to no one in particular.

In response, approximately twenty vendors suddenly appeared with their freshly baked bread, meats, and cheeses. Sonic blinked in surprise before graciously taking what he could carry, then enlisting Tails' help to grab the rest.

The three knights were there as well, although Gawain was keeping his distance. Sonic offered a spiced bread roll to Lancelot and a sticky pastry to Percival. They accepted with their heads bowed. Sonic also offered pieces of his mountain of goodies to the townsfolk he passed, which eventually left him with a much more manageable hill of treats that he happily stuffed into his mouth.

Tomorrow, he and the knights would need to make a plan for dealing with the mad mages. But for right now, Sonic was content to fill his belly and enjoy the party.

Tails bit into a meat-and-cheese-something-or-other and chewed it thoughtfully. It tasted good, and it was still hot, which made the flavors pop out and swim across his tongue. No food he'd ever eaten in a dream had tasted like this, so he had to accept that it was real. Even though it was hard to believe, he and Sonic had been transported to another world. A world of knights and mages.

Tails' expression soured. He thought about the invention in his backpack, the same one he'd been showing off to Sonic earlier back in their own world. It seemed so small in comparison to this bizarre place filled with magic and mystery.

Speaking of which...

Tails was wrenched out of his reverie when he heard someone scream.

"Monsters!"

Tails dropped the rest of the food he was holding. It all tumbled to the ground dramatically, and the narrator urges you to mourn the loss of such delicious food. Especially since things are about to get much, much worse.

A flight of winged, human-faced monsters had arrived. They swooped down to crash the party, their wicked talons swiping this way and that. People shouted and ran for cover, but not everyone was fast enough to avoid their grasp; a small child was plucked from the street by the arm and lifted into the sky by the harpy.

"Hold it!" Sonic shouted. Then, he took a running leap at the kidnapper, using a nearby food stall to bounce off of and gain height. In midair, he tackled the monster, which then released the young girl in its grasp.

She shrieked as she fell through the air, but luckily Lancelot was there to catch her, his armored skates sparking from use.

The streets were chaotic. Townsfolk continued to scream and run, ducking into buildings and slamming the doors shut behind them as harpies terrorized them. The knights fought valiantly, their swords slicing through flesh and feathers. Despite the large number of winged monsters, they fell quickly, and so it wasn't long before their ranks thinned to almost nothing.

But that wasn't the end of it.

After spin dashing into a group of harpies and knocking them over like bowling pins, Sonic froze. He realized the ground was shaking beneath his feet, and looked around wildly to find out why. It wasn't long before he spotted the source: a giant red dragon. Or, what appeared to be a red dragon. Upon closer inspection, it actually looked like it was part dragon, part bird, and part human. And it had just crashed through the town’s protective wall.

Percival gasped. "A chimera?"

Sonic shook the monster blood off his sword before rushing over to where the knights were gathered. "You guys keep these birdbrains busy," he said. "I'll handle the big guy."

"Sonic, wait!" Tails said, grabbing Sonic's wrist before he could run off.

"No time, buddy. Tall, Red, and Ugly over there is big trouble. I'm countin' on you to back me up!"

Tails pressed his lips into a thin line, but nodded. Then, he let Sonic go.

With his super speed, Sonic was able to dodge fleeing townsfolk, hop over toppled food carts, and run along the roofs of buildings. He stopped on a tiled roof not far from the chimera, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted. "Heeey! Over here!"

The chimera ignored him. It bulldozed its way through the town, crushing stalls and carts underfoot. Sonic chased after it, jumping across rooftops like he was in Assassin's Creed, careful to keep his soles from slipping on the inclined surfaces. Where are you going? he wondered as he watched the chimera squeeze through a narrow alleyway, smashing in windows with its huge scaly tail as it did so.

Sonic's eyes moved in front of the chimera. Up ahead was the courtyard and beyond that, the castle. That must be it!

But, wait, that was bad. Like, really bad! Because that was where the townsfolk were headed! The strong stone walls of the castle offered the best protection from monsters. That was, until a huge chimera came knocking at their door!

Sonic zoomed across the rooftops until he got close enough to the chimera to leap onto its back. He nearly slipped when he landed on the slick red scales, but stubbornly held on by grabbing a fistful of feathers. By now, the chimera had burst out into the open courtyard. Sonic didn't have a lot of time to redirect it before people got hurt.

Setting his jaw, Sonic crawled up to the chimera's head like a little blue bug. It only noticed him once he was face to face with it--or, maybe it was a her? She bared her teeth at Sonic and swiped at him with her big dragon claws, but Sonic was too agile for her to catch.

With his feet planted firmly on her shoulders, he leaned upside down in front of her face and blew a raspberry. His hand made the L-shape as he held it against his forehead, the moonlight glinting off his gauntlet.

In response, the chimera's eyes snapped to the gauntlet. She no longer attempted to swat Sonic like a pesky fly, but rather, she tried to snatch the gauntlet. Sonic flipped off her shoulders, landed on the ground in the courtyard, and then looked from his gauntlet to the chimera.

"You want this?" he asked.

Her yellow eyes seared against the darkness, never looking away from Sonic's hand.

The blue hedgehog grinned wildly. "Then come and take it!"

Sonic led the chimera away from the castle and into the nearby forest. He didn't stop running until he could no longer hear any sounds from the town, and then he kept running for a little while longer, just for good measure. He deliberately slowed his pace so the chimera wouldn't lose him in the tangled mess of foliage, where the darkness blended together with the roughage.

When he finally stopped, he skidded in the dirt. The chimera wasn't far behind, so he had to think fast: what was the best way to slay a dragon?

The chimera burst out from the bushes as Sonic unsheathed his sword. It lunged at him immediately, but was still too slow to catch him. Instead, Sonic ran underneath her scaly arm, only stopping once he was directly underneath her. Before she had time to react, he plunged the sword upward into her chest... or, he tried to.

The chimera's super tough scales broke the sword when it made contact. Sonic dropped it and hurried back out into the forest. So, that didn't work. Now what?

Suddenly, Sonic heard someone's voice. He looked around, worried someone from the town had wandered out here and was now in danger, but quickly realized it was actually the chimera. She had her hand raised in front of her as she spoke--no, chanted.

Uh oh.

Spikes shot up from the earth, and Sonic narrowly avoided being skewered. The forest floor was now a mess of jagged spikes, leaving very little room for Sonic to run. He had to navigate between the closely-packed spikes, which took precious time and attention, and it didn't help that the chimera was shooting fireballs at him now.

"Sorry, lady! Hedgehog's not on the menu tonight!" he quipped as he ducked under a particularly large fireball. "These quills weren't meant to be barbecued!"

Eventually, the fireballs stopped flying.

A drop of sweat slid down Sonic's face, but he didn't stop moving. He couldn't afford to. This monster was full of surprises, and one wrong move could land him six feet under.

Unfortunately, Sonic had gotten so fixated on her human half that he didn't notice when her dragon tail arced through the night until it was too late. It slammed into his side, knocking him off the top of the spike he'd been perched on. He soared through the air, stunned, until he landed in the palm of the chimera's huge draconic hand.

Oof!

Sonic tried to wriggle out of her grasp, but without a running start, he couldn't overpower her. Black spots swam across his vision, but he just gritted his teeth. If it was the gauntlet she wanted, then he wasn't going to let her have it, no matter what. Using the last of his strength, Sonic removed his gauntlet and buried it deep inside his un-barbecue-able, super sharp quills.

Then, a sickening crunch echoed through the forest, and Sonic drooped in the chimera's grasp.

Without a word, she brought Sonic's body up to her face, searching for the gauntlet. When she realized it was no longer on his hand, she almost dropped him--but then she caught sight of the silvery prize between the hedgehog's quills. With her soft human hands, she reached for it... only to immediately recoil, because she'd been poked!

Scowling, the chimera tried again, only to be poked a second time. Ouch! She sniffed, a single cartoon tear dripping from her eye. Then, she tried to get the gauntlet with her dragon hands... but they were way too big. There was no way she'd be able to finagle that tiny gauntlet out of Sonic's quills when her claws were the same size as his head!

Pouting, the chimera resigned herself to just taking Sonic's entire body back to the Dungeon Master. She'd gotten what he’d wanted, anyway--surely, he could figure out the rest?

So, that was what she did. With Sonic's body held in her arms, she trampled through the forest, back to Thistle.

He was waiting for her along with the female wizard, Merlina, at the lake where Lancelot had originally encountered Sonic and Tails. The two mages were discussing something in hushed tones, but stopped once they heard the booming footsteps of Thistle's chimera approach. Then, they turned toward the forest to watch as the dragon with a human head emerged from the shadow of the trees.

Merlina’s heart dropped when she saw what the chimera was carrying.

Thistle had no reaction to Sonic's body. Once the chimera was close, he simply asked, "Well? Did you get it?"

The chimera knelt down so she could show Thistle the gauntlet trapped in Sonic's quills. When Thistle reached for it, the chimera pulled Sonic's body against her chest and said with difficulty, "Sh... arp..."

Thistle lowered his hand.

It was then that Merlina stepped forward. Her face revealed none of her true feelings, but when she placed her hand on Sonic's head, her fingers trembled slightly. "I sense a great power within this creature," she said cryptically. "Perhaps he could be of use to us?"

Thistle frowned. He looked closer at Sonic, but he didn't see whatever it was that Merlina saw.

"Some artifacts are protected by narrow passages," Merlina added. "In that case, a... smaller... creature would be valuable."

The chimera puffed up her cheeks indignantly. How rude!

Thistle considered this. Then, he looked down. His arms were overloaded with two large books. Carrying them both this far had been a hassle, but he couldn't leave either one behind. They both had to stay where he could see them. But, maybe...

"Dragon," Thistle said, causing the chimera to snap to attention. "Set it down here."

The chimera did as she was told. Now, Sonic's body laid flat in the grass at Thistle's feet.

After rummaging around in his pocket for a moment, Thistle pulled out a glass vial with a single drop of blood inside. While Merlina watched, he popped the lid off the vial before turning it upside down and letting the droplet stain Sonic's chest red. Lastly, he moved one of his books under his arm, then opened the other one and began to read.

Sonic's body glowed as the droplet of blood soaked into his fur and disappeared. Then, he gasped and sat up, clutching his chest. Life had returned to his body, but his head was spinning, and when he looked up and saw Merlina, his head hurt even more.

"What--?"

Thistle didn't let him finish. He transformed the book into a pulsing ball of light that squirmed and twitched as if it was alive. Before the strange orb could escape the mage's grasp, he shoved it into Sonic's open mouth.

Sonic, startled, swallowed it.

Merlina was glad Thistle couldn't see her expression as Sonic transformed before her eyes, his whole body burning with the fierceness of a small star. Feathers grew from his fur and his legs twisted into the body of a lion, all the while Merlina looked on in horror.

When the light finally faded, signaling the end of the transformation, the dragon chimera cocked her head curiously at the newly made lion chimera.

Sonic shivered in the grass, his long tail flicking back and forth.

Thistle gave him no time to acclimate to his new body. "Lion," he said. "Give me the gauntlet."

Sonic growled.

Thistle held out one of his hands expectantly. "Now, Lion," he repeated, more firmly this time. "The gauntlet."

Sonic looked up at Thistle. When their eyes met, Sonic's stiff, defensive posture evaporated. With his strange new eyes, the lion chimera could see something floating just above Thistle's hand. It was about the size of a blueberry and just as round, but glowing with the warmth of a freshly baked biscuit. It looked delicious.

Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out the gauntlet. Now, he offered it to Thistle without hesitation, his head bowed slightly. But his eyes remained locked on that strange magic blueberry.

Thistle nodded, pleased. "Good," he said. And then he took the gauntlet from Sonic.

When he did, Sonic was able to taste that strange blueberry. And it tasted better than anything he'd ever eaten in his entire life--including chili dogs! His wings fluttered in delight as his eyes filled with sparkles. Now, there was only one thing on his mind: how could he get more of those blueberries?

[kamodofilez]

Hellou!~

Could I ask about the other Shittens? What are your names? What is Penelope's relationship with them like? I loved her, she looked so much like the lamb, I also wonder what the goat is like with them...

Thank you, your art and your text, it rented an apartment in my head and now I can't stop thinking about what they would be like and about Penélope, I loved that she was inspired by a character from my favorite cartoon

Omg thank you so much!! I’m so glad you love Penelope! Hopefully you’ll like her siblings as well!

Okay so, as mentioned before, Penelope is the youngest out of her siblings:

Eldest - Scylla:

Works as the head enforcer of the cult, changing enforcer from simply making sure people were loyal to the cause to protecting the cult from any heretics that possibly find their way into the campground and wish to seek harm. This was implemented by the first enforcer Gremar, who was Scylla’s teacher, and Heket (she just seems like the type who would definitely do that, despite her being the ex-diety of Famine).

The responsibility of keeping the Cult and her family safe weighs heavily on Scylla’s shoulders. Especially when you’re at war with another cult who just so happens to have one of the crowns that went missing.

Middle - Thanatos:

Works as the Undertaker of the Cult, but he would tap into medicine (and possibly learn more about science, fascinating over things that have yet to have been solved). His mentor was probably Kallamar In this sense, since he’d probably be the cults medic around this time. Thanatos also deals with harvesting the corpses whenever they are needed for rituals.

Death isn’t uncommon, especially if you’re the son of its Deity. However, ever since the Lamb’s ascension, there hasn’t been a resurrection since Penelope became Preistess. The morgue has started getting fuller than usual.

Youngest - Penelope

Penelope is the Priestess of the Cult, being appointed after the Lamb’s ascension and leaving the cult to Death’s domain (which imma start referring to as the underworld). This position was previously taken by Narinder as head Priest, but when the Lamb left, he followed. She often tries connecting to the Underworld, to try talking to them again, but her prayers have yet to be answered. But she knows they still watch over them, via rituals, so there is some semblance of hope she’ll be able to make contact.

But that needs to wait, for now Penelope needs to catch the new crown bearer up to speed, and help them however possible. Though it is a bit harder when the due date is near.

(Thank you for reading my bullshit ideas that I have for the shittens, and I have some stuff planned out for NariLamb as well so stay tuned for that ;])

[welcometomypersonalhell098]

Don’t Imagine with Jade Leech…

Warning: None! As far as I’m aware. Some weird mushroom? It does “bleed” but not much detail

author’s note: this is my first ficpost!! planning on a floyd ver for suresies >:) (god no one is gonna see this this is so self indulgent)

1.3k words, fluff, pre-relationship

DON’T Imagine…that for once you didn’t have to worry about overblots or whatever latest shenanigans your friends had gotten up to. Everyone was in their own little bubbles, even Grim who had pounced on the chance to attend a Heartslabyul tea party. For once, there was only peace and you couldn’t be more relieved. You decide to take a leisurely stroll through the halls of NRC. Why not? You could stand to learn more about the place that you call home now. (You wonder if it will be that way indefinitely.)

Don’t think about peering into the science classroom while being sucked into the vortex that was your own thoughts and finding Jade shouldering on hiking gear. The equipment was bulky yet swung across his back effortlessly as he took stock of his stuff. You spot a lantern peeking from the side of his overcoat and a compass on a backpack strap. You blink and realize this must be the “Mountain Lovers” Club that Jade himself had told you about in passing. You recall that conversation with a weird fondness. Jade Leech was most certainly a man to be wary of—that was a fact without question. But, in the moment you showed interest in his little club: you saw his eyes shine with a wholesome joy. That is not a passion a person could fake, you were sure of it.

“Prefect? Can I help you?”

Oh, certainly do not think about how you were caught staring. Jade’s eyebrow crooks upward with the beginnings of a crooked smirk creeping up his face. You clear your throat and ask where he was going. Try not to think about how you feel like you walked in on something intimate. Don’t, because your face is warm. You don’t miss the way his face brightens ever so slightly under the usual mask of cunning.

“Ah. I am heading to the mountains. It is a little ways from the school gate, and yet I have yet to scale it. I wish to correct that today.” You hum in response. It wasn’t like you had much else to do today, and Jade wasn’t bad company—to you at least. It was hard to tell with him; like any day now could be the day the other shoe drops. You know that. And yet, you ask to join him.

“You…Want to?” He says, the shock written all over his face. It shifts back just as quickly as it came into the Jade’s usual polite expression. “Fuhuhu…I would not want to turn you away after you asked so nicely after all. “

In a few hours, you and Jade were well on your way up the mountain. The journey was mostly quiet as the two of you walk side by side absorbing the peacefulness into your very bones. Sunlight streams through leaves above you and warm your skin, the chittering of woodland birds becomes the soundtrack, and the crunching of sticks accent your footfalls. Interspersed among beats of comfortable silence was Jade’s stops to examine mushroom specimens for his terrariums.

He halts you with a hand on your wrist for one of these stops(don’t think about how it stops your heart singlehandedly) and crouches to a mushroom though it looks to you much more like an open pomegranate. “A ‘Bleeding Tooth’,” Jade says with a hushed awe in his voice, “It secretes a thick red liquid—hence the name. Despite that, it is completely nonpoisonous. What a most fascinating specimen.” The name was indeed scary sounding. You crouch down next to Jade for a better look, and you can’t help but agree with wonder.

There is a pause. As you look at this most strange looking growth, Jade peers at you. “Creepy. Is it not?” He says nonchalantly. You blink up at him. He looks back with a glint in his eye that you feel as familiar. You just can’t quite recall from where. But it makes you feel wrong inside. “Mushrooms are a particularly extraordinary part of land ecosystems,” He continues, “They do not hunt or hide. But they will be the ones to dispose of all life eventually and make it anew. And if something, or someone, were to stop them…well there’s been enough proof of its power.”

Ah. You remember now. His yellow eye draws you in like an angler fish draws in prey. You cannot help but liken this scene to when you first met Jade in the Coral Sea—when he was swimming circles around you and merely toying with his food.

“It is a little scary, is it not?” Jade Leech says again. You stare. And Jade stares back. Something in the back of your mind supplies the nature of Jade’s unique magic to you. It does nothing to stifle the tension in the air that threatens to suffocate you. You wonder, if there was any part of Jade that wanted to make you bleed like the mushroom he so admired.

“Not really.” You reply as you turn back to the fungi. Jade makes a tilt of his head. “Really, now?” You nod. “I mean, that’s how they survive, right? They grow in bright colors and weird shapes to make sure they can live. It’s not like we can fault them for that,” You point to the oozing mass in front of you both, “Isn’t that what every living thing wants? And it’s pretty important that they decompose stuff, since it recycles nutrients. If anything, doesn’t it make them pretty essential?”

You look over at Jade again: “They don’t tend to hurt the living unless somebody decides to mess with it. And some don’t have any effects at all. It’d be weird to lump them all together like that.”

Jade stares. And you stare back. Something imperceivable happens within his mind and you find yourself wishing you could peer inside. He smiles. “I knew bringing you along would be most fruitful.” And he stoops down to take the Bleeding Tooth with him.

You’ve been walking for a few hours at this point. The two of you chat more freely now after that little pitstop. You find yourself slowing as you hike higher and higher up the mountain: apparently you severely misjudged the fitness and experience required for such a journey. Your hiking partner’s mirth in his eyes cannot be overstated and you shoot him a look. He plays it off masterfully with a faux offended look that you would even say such a thing. You nudge his side. He laughs. Despite his ribbing, he lends you his hand to pass the rougher terrain. Do not think about how your fingers lace perfectly against each other. Do not think about how when you make it across the felled tree in the way; Jade takes a few seconds longer than necessary to pull away.

At last, the you two make it to the top and the view was worth your pain and more. It was gorgeous: the sun casting hues of orange, yellow, and pink as it sets across the vastness of the mountain below you. Every tree and bush looked like strokes of a paintbrush on the ethereal work of art. You turn excitedly to Jade at your side to point out the way the clouds frame the scene—and are met with his expression examining your own. You dared not put a name to it, but it made your heart race in a way you didn’t know it could. Do not even think about classifying Jade’s expression as “fond” or god forbid “admiring.”

Because then, it would mean your heart would be as good as his.

[fanfictionismyaddiction]

So could you do a Star Trek one with Spock (or whoever you write for as I can’t find that post now😭) with an SO who is visiting home on earth and keeps on bringing him interesting rocks she finds?

Stones and Stars

word count: 940

Pairing: Spock x human!reader

Summary: Y/n visits her home on Earth with Spock, enthusiastically collecting interesting rocks and sharing them with him, while Spock patiently admires her fascination and offers scientific insights, deepening their bond.

______________________________________________________________

Y/n stood on the quiet shore of her family’s lake house on Earth, her bare feet sinking into the soft sand. The sun was setting, casting a warm, amber glow over the still waters, and the air carried the scent of pine trees from the nearby forest. It was a moment of peace, of home, far away from the busy corridors of the Enterprise.

Behind her, Spock stood observing the surroundings, his hands clasped behind his back. He had agreed to accompany Y/n on her visit to Earth, a rare chance for her to reconnect with her roots and for him to experience the human world outside of Starfleet’s structured environment.

Y/n bent down, running her fingers over a small, smooth stone nestled in the sand. She smiled, picking it up and turning it over in her palm. Its surface was streaked with tiny veins of quartz, glimmering faintly in the fading light. She approached Spock, holding it up for him to see.

“Look at this one, Spock,” she said, a playful grin spreading across her face. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Spock raised an eyebrow, taking the stone from her hand with the precision of a scientist inspecting a specimen. “Indeed,” he remarked, turning it over slowly. “The mineral composition appears to contain a significant amount of quartz, likely formed by years of pressure beneath the Earth’s surface.”

Y/n chuckled softly. “You always know how to make things sound so... scientific.” She watched him closely, enjoying the subtle curiosity that flickered in his dark eyes as he studied the rock. It was a small thing, but seeing Spock’s fascination with something as simple as a stone warmed her heart.

After a moment, Spock handed the rock back to her, inclining his head. “It is an interesting specimen. However, I do not believe it holds particular significance beyond its geological properties.”

Y/n laughed again, more at the formality of his response than the words themselves. “It’s not about the science, Spock. It’s about the beauty of it. Sometimes, things are worth appreciating just because they’re nice to look at.”

Spock’s expression softened, a subtle shift that only Y/n had learned to recognize after all their time together. “I see,” he replied, his voice thoughtful. “You derive pleasure from observing the aesthetics of natural formations.”

“Exactly.” She beamed, slipping the stone into her pocket. “It’s a little piece of home.”

They continued walking along the shoreline, Y/n occasionally stopping to inspect another rock or shell. She collected a small handful of them, showing each one to Spock with the same enthusiasm as the first. Though he did not share her penchant for collecting seemingly random objects, he never dismissed her excitement, responding to each discovery with patient interest.

As they reached the edge of the forest, Y/n bent down again, this time retrieving a larger, rougher stone. Its surface was jagged, unlike the smooth pebbles from the beach, and it seemed to carry the weight of ancient time within its weathered surface.

“This one feels different,” she murmured, brushing off the dirt. “It’s heavier… older, maybe?”

Spock took the stone from her, his long fingers tracing the irregular contours. His eyes narrowed in contemplation, and for a moment, he said nothing.

“You are correct,” he finally said, his voice low and thoughtful. “This rock likely originates from deeper beneath the Earth’s surface, perhaps pushed upward by tectonic activity.”

Y/n leaned in closer, intrigued. “Do you think it’s volcanic?”

Spock’s lips quirked, the closest he ever came to a smile. “It is possible. The rough texture suggests it may have been exposed to intense heat.”

Y/n couldn’t help but marvel at the way Spock could transform an ordinary rock into something extraordinary with his explanations. She rested her head against his shoulder, content in the silence that followed.

“You know,” she began softly, “I used to collect rocks like these when I was a kid. I’d bring them back to my room and pretend they were treasures from some distant planet.”

Spock turned his head slightly to look at her, his gaze thoughtful. “Your fascination with these objects seems to persist.”

Y/n smiled up at him. “Maybe it’s just nostalgia. Or maybe it’s because now, with you, it feels like I really am collecting treasures from other worlds.”

Spock raised an eyebrow, his expression softening further. “An intriguing perspective.”

They stood there for a moment, the quiet of the forest around them, the distant sound of water lapping at the shore. Y/n reached for Spock’s hand, intertwining her fingers with his.

“I’m glad you came with me,” she whispered. “It’s nice to share this part of my world with you.”

Spock squeezed her hand gently. “I find it… agreeable to observe Earth through your eyes, Y/n.”

She laughed softly, knowing that was as close to romantic as Spock would get. And that was more than enough for her.

As they walked back toward the house, the last light of day fading into twilight, Y/n tucked another rock into her pocket. This one was small and round, polished smooth by the water, and it sparkled faintly in the moonlight.

“I think I’ll keep this one,” she said, holding it up for Spock to see. “A souvenir of today.”

Spock tilted his head, his dark eyes reflecting the silver of the moon. “You seem to have acquired quite the collection.”

Y/n grinned. “I’m just getting started.”

And as they walked hand in hand beneath the stars, Y/n couldn’t help but feel that every rock, every moment, was a little treasure they shared in their own universe, one that Spock, in his own unique way, understood perfectly.

[httpvomitello]

I love your hc and the way you write them, can I ask for a hc about bay turtles becoming human and something like that, and what would the s/o do?

Hello, hello. Hope you like it! ♡♡♡♡

When Leo first realizes he’s human, he doesn’t believe it.

The feel of his pulse, his smaller hands, the air on his skin, it’s too much

His first instinct is to calm himself, to breathe and take control, but you can see his tension in every line of his body

You approach him gently, touching his shoulder and telling him, “Leo… just breathe. I’m here.”

He starts to steady himself, your calming voice bringing him back to center

He lets you guide him to sit, his hand finding yours, and for a moment, he’s simply quiet, absorbing this new sensation of holding you close, of actually feeling your touch against his skin

When he finally speaks, his voice is low and vulnerable. “I… I don’t know if I can protect you like this.”

You can tell he feels exposed and insecure, and that for Leo, that’s terrifying

You squeeze his hand and reassure him, “You’ve always been more than just what you can do. You’re enough, Leo.”

You share a slow, tender kiss, feeling his tension ease as he finally lets himself relax into this new version of him

He pulls you close, hands still a little unsteady, his forehead resting against yours as he realizes that maybe turning into a human isn't such a bad thing.

Raph’s immediate reaction is shock, bordering on denial

He stares at his reflection, flexing his arms and tensing up

He feels almost small in this new form, and he’s frustrated, feeling like he’s lost the strength he was so used to

When you enter the room, he quickly looks away, almost like he’s ashamed, but you step forward anyway, gently reaching for his hand

At first, he’s silent, and when he finally glances your way, you can see the doubt in his eyes

“Do you still… want me like this?” he mutters, his voice uncharacteristically soft

You gently lift his hand to your face, pressing it to your cheek and reassuring him

“You’re still you, Raph. That’s all that matters to me.” You lean in, placing a tender kiss on his forehead, feeling his shoulders relax as he lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding

He pulls you close, his arms a bit more gentle than usual, and rests his forehead against yours

There’s a soft vulnerability to him now that he’s never let you see before

But one thing you are sure of

Raph is still hot in his human form.

When Donnie first discovers he’s human, he’s half fascinated, half overwhelmed

He’s caught up in analyzing every little detail, his heartbeat, the texture of his skin, the way his fingers work now, and he barely notices how worried you look

You place your hand over his to steady him, pulling him out of his thoughts long enough for him to really see you

He stares at your hand on his, and his face softens, realizing that he’s actually feeling this

You smile softly, bringing his hand up to your face and guiding him to focus on you, not just the science of it

“How does this feel?” you ask, hoping he’ll stop overthinking and just experience the moment

He blushes, his usual stream of scientific jargon failing him, and for a moment, he’s speechless

Slowly, you lean in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips, and he lets out a shaky breath, letting himself enjoy the feeling of being human with you

As he pulls you closer, he realizes how intensely he feels everything now, and it’s… wonderful

His hands linger on your waist, holding you like he’s afraid you’ll vanish, and for the first time, he’s truly in the moment, his analytical mind quiet for once.

Mikey’s reaction to being human is pure joy at first

He’s excitedly flexing his arms, feeling his hair, and looking at himself in any reflection he can find

You can’t help but laugh as he marvels at every little thing about his new form

He immediately grabs your hand, pulling you along as he dives headfirst into the human experience, eagerly trying to figure out every sensation he’s missed

He’s so energetic that you have to gently slow him down, catching his hand and grounding him for a moment

“Hey, Mikey… how do you really feel about all this?” you ask, noticing his flicker of uncertainty beneath all the excitement

He looks at you, a bit of nervousness showing for the first time

“What if… I don't stay like this? Would you still…” He trails off, suddenly shy, not sure how to ask

You gently lift his chin, smiling reassuringly, “I cared about you before, and nothing’s going to change that.”

You lean in, pressing a soft kiss to his lips, feeling him relax into you

Mikey pulls you into a warm, tight hug, his smile soft as he holds you close, and you can feel his heartbeat racing against yours

For once, he’s quiet, completely content just to hold you like this, his excitement shifting to a deep sense of joy that he gets to experience this moment, with you, as human.

[howtofightwrite]

Was reading through your torture tag and noticed a lot of stuff that was being said seemed to contradict things that were said on the scripttorture blog... do you have any suggestions on how to clear things up? Im not sure which things to trust

And you're asking us, because they've posted once in the last two years?

I'll admit, I have a fairly low opinion of them, and that's not directly their fault. For years, one of their fans, would regularly send some pretty incendiary asks our way. In fact, some of the less hostile ones were answered, and may be the posts you were looking at. Understandably, the ones simply accusing us of being torture apologists, demanding we redirect all our asks to their blog, or insisted that we should sit down and shut up, did not make the cut. With that in mind, please understand, I'm not going to go digging through their blog to refresh my memory, so some of this might be slightly skewed by the aforementioned deranged fan.

Look for the blog that does not constantly contradict or misrepresent their authoritative sources. Which is to say, if you actually pay attention to Shane O'Mara's work, it's basically what we've been saying all along.

If you're unfamiliar, O'Mara is a Neurologist who was (last I time I checked) working at Trinity College Dublin. He published a, frankly fascinating piece, called, Why Torture Doesn't Work, in which, he set about trying to answer why torture is an ineffective tool for intelligence gathering. O'Mara also had the misfortune of being the only expert who said anything close to the perspective Scripttorture wanted on torture.

An open secret about torture is that it is completely worthless for getting accurate information. This has been widely understood for centuries, if not millennia. O'Mara's question was, “why?”

It turns out, that the neurochemical trauma associated with torture, seriously interferes with your ability to accurately access information. For example: If you're being tortured, you can't tell your torturer where you planted the ticking bomb, because your brain literally can't access those memories.

Torture is evil. Yeah. No shit.

And, this is where ScriptTorture stops. “Torture is bad,” and Jack Bauer is an incredibly unrealistic fantasy, end of story.

Except, this is not the end of this.

Now, generally speaking, I don't blame anyone who wants to get off the ride here. Torture is an unpleasant subject, and wanting to stop at, “oh, it's evil,” is entirely reasonable... unless you want to write on the subject, or if you do political analysis and need to understand why people break out the torture implements.

More than that, this is where my academic background in political science actually comes into play. I'm not saying this as an Eagle Scout who had a couple overly enthusiastic hand to hand instructors when I was a kid. This is (part of) what I studied in college, and I have kept an eye on it since then.

If torture didn't work, you wouldn't see state-sponsored torture pop up repeatedly throughout history. It would not be one of the favorite tools of dictators and despots. However, because it does, and it is, simply saying, “it doesn't work,” isn't instructive or meaningful because it's clearly untrue. Someone is finding value in this, so it becomes important to understand what they are doing, and why they are doing it.

When you torture someone, the information they provide is basically madlibs of whatever leaked through their brain. They want the pain and stress to stop, and they'll say anything they can to make that happen. That often takes the form of what they think their torturer wants to hear. O'Mara's research does explain why they don't simply cough up the truth.

So, why do it?

Torture is a very labor intensive process. You (as an individual) can't, realistically, torture multiple victims at a time, and it is a very drawn out process. Some elements can be automated, your torturer doesn't need to be present at every moment, but they're going to spend hours, if not days, working on one victim. Worse, this is actually a technical profession. It's not like you can just pull in anyone off the street and get the results you want. (Though, technically, this doesn't seem to be as true, however, amateurs do have a shocking capacity to screw up torture. So, the point remains valid.)

The value of torture has almost nothing to do with the victim. It's about the message it sends to everyone else.

Torture is about mass coercion of the population. When you are the state (meaning, the government), and you torture someone, you are telling your citizens that you are willing to do the same to them, if they oppose you.

State-sponsored torture is specifically a tool to suppress political engagement. It is, quite literally, state-sponsored, domestic terrorism.

This even holds true in cases where the state employs torture to extract confessions from criminal suspects. The message sent into the general population is that dissent of any kind will not be tolerated, and that the state has the willingness and power to turn these tools on you if you draw their ire.

I get that this is outside of ScriptTorture's area of expertise, and in fairness, I probably would not have studied this with any intensity, if I hadn't taken multiple classes on revolutionary theory.

Torture from private organizations (which is to say, organized crime, and religious institutions, though cults and some other groups might fit this description as well), follows roughly similar patterns. These tend to do the same things, discouraging dissent, and establishing the organization as having power over the population (or community.) (The technical term would be to “establish capacity.” Which is to say, the organization's capacity to enforce its will. The same term applies to states, though in those cases, the state's capacity is often overestimated by its population. It's only when it starts to falter, for example through military defeats or serious civil unrest, that they really need the capacity boosting part of this equation.)

Zealotry or stupidity can create situations where you have a torturer (or, more likely, someone in a position of power ordering the torture) who believes that it is effectively compelling the truth from the victim. This (or amateurs) can easily lead into a distinct problem, which is that all of this has diminishing returns. Torture one person, and you send a loud, clear message. Torture ten, and all you've added to it is that you're willing to keep going. However, as you start stacking up the victims, you do start sending a new message to your enemies, that being, you're going to get to them sooner or later so it's in their best interest to respond now, mobilize and retaliate proactively, before you get to them. This means that a state which leans heavily on torture can easily instigate the civil unrest that exposes their limited capacity leading to a political death spiral. Alternately, if the state does have the capacity to put down the resulting unrest, it further reinforces their position (which does happen with depressing frequency in the real world.)

You're also going to create new enemies in the friends, family, and loved ones, of the people you tortured. This means that any organization that relies on extensive use of torture will, eventually, start tying a noose around its own neck. (Granted, there are a lot of social dynamics that I'm skimming over here, so it's not exactly as simple as “if the state tortures lots of people, it will result in increasing unrest.”)

If you want a partial citation for the above, you can (ironically) find it in a podcast interview with Shane O'Mara, when he explained why torture has been employed repeatedly through history. (Specifically I think it was episode 15 of Your Welcome, by Michael Malice. Though, I'm not 100% sure off hand.) Though that doesn't cover some of the more in depth elements I just discussed. Some of this is coming from a textbook on revolutionary theory I can't locate (it disappeared in a move a few years back.) Though that was more interested in the general structure of a state destabilizing into internecine conflict. Ironically, my preferred citation on torture, Fear up Harsh by Tony Lagouranis is mostly uninformative in this case, because his experiences were on the ground, rather than from a structural understanding of what his job was really doing. However, he does illustrate my comment about amateurs making even more of a mess, both through personal experiences with a few, and also through the eventual trajectory of the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

But of course, torture is evil... again, no shit. Was that really a question? And, I'm apparently a torture apologist for having a structural understanding of why evil people do evil things. Cool. Evil people don't do evil things because they're evil, they do them because they gain some tangible benefit from those acts, and they do not care about the consequences to anyone else. If you ask someone, “why do people do this?” and their answer is, “it's simple; they're evil,” that person is lying. They may be lying to themselves, but they are lying to you.

Why do people use torture? It's a lot more complicated, and unpleasant, than you'd expect at a simple overview.

-Starke

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