#Funky Battle Months

[mightybeck]

Funky Battle Months

(the story of Beck arriving in the world of Friday Night Funkin' Minus)

3 months have already passed and the Multiversal Sword is already charged "it seems that it is time to go to a new world" Beck said so he opened a new portal and quickly entered for his new adventure and arrived at the new world, the first thing he saw It is his body that now his fur had a lime green tone, he also had a black scarf and his headphones were gray that on the sides had a prohibited symbol but what called attention was a city that was at night but the streets were illuminated and there were people Beck had met before like Meat Boy and Henry Stickmin "wait that's what they are. ." beck was shocked to see them realizing that this world was interconnected with other worlds, "this reminds me of my world Multiland" beck was impressed by this great world so he went to explore the city called Newgrounds City, on the tour beck saw in a big screen to a canine girl named Hatsune Miku sponsoring a device called the Music Bracelet, which is a bracelet that allowed the user to sing, improving their characteristics through the melodies and working in the dances. Beck was interested but continued with his tour and was He went to a park and saw a blue boy with a cap doing a rap battle against a reptilian in dinosaur pajamas until the reptilian named Pico defeated the blue boy with a cap "that was a waste of time with you" said Pico mocking him but beck defended him "you're not too big to wear pajamas in public" beck returned the offense Pico was about to take out his pistols but his friend Dar Nell stopped him "let's go dino it's not worth it with them" Pico listened to him and they left "hey thanks for defending me. ." Said the blue boy whose name was Blue "if my name isn't very original" Blue said very embarrassed but Beck didn't think that name was bad suddenly some bullets almost hit him but Beck dodges them realizing it was Pico with his Two pistols "This is for the offense!" Pico said very angrily, Beck and Pico were fighting Beck realized that he was fighting agilely and in sync with the music since Blue's boombox was on giving Pico a beating until when he took off the hood of his pajamas caught sight of his hairstyle and beck looked at him as if he had seen it before "this isn't over yet" Pico said and left again very angry with Darnell, "Wow how did you do all this?!" Blue asked impressed by Beck's movements "I learned it from someone" Beck responded to Blue, after the conflict the two became friends "hey do you want to be my Rap Battles partner?" Beck accepted it, reinforcing the new friendship and being a duo for the battles Blue's rap song "is the Funky Rap time!" Beck said enthusiastically in his new adventure next to his new friend

The End

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

SUPER BELATED Spring Cleaning 2024 Sale

okok the whole starting a separate part time job kinda threw me for a while but I've GOT MY SHIT TOGETHER!!! IT'S STILL SPRING!!!!

Basically, I have way too many print designs, and I've selected 9 of the older/less popular ones to phase out. I've put the following listings on sale for 25% off, and when they're out, they're OUT (unless people years down the line ask for a reprint batch or two). I updated the inventory quantity in each listing to accurately reflect how many of each print is left

this sale is gonna last a month, whatever's left over after the sale ends I'll just end up recycling. And from there on I'll be looking into creating funky NEW print designs for yall!

This sale doesn't affect the remaining 20-odd designs I have in the shop at the moment, you can still buy those whenever

1) why do they call it oven when you of in the cold food

2) Smashed Mouthe: Put Thy Show On

3) I may not know my flowers....

4) Born in a Graveyard Raised by a witch...

5) The only thing better than collecting BOG MUMMIES is BECOMING one! it's NATURAL, it's ORGANIC, and it's COMPLETELY FREE OF CHARGE!!!

6) Pinpath: A poem I wrote about my cross stitch needle, available in uncial and italic hands

7) Gaymer House (this one does well actually but I could have designed it nicer. Might just be selling out these old ones and come up with a new design for June)

8) Dummy Thicc Telltale Heart

9) Yeah, I'm into Battles Dragons Swords and Magic

The sale should be live! clicking those links should take you to the discounted listings, have fun yall!

I'll be boosting this a few times in the next day or two and then i'll limit boosts to once every few days or so in order to not fuck up anyone's dash

[gallusrostromegalus]

Funky Muguruma Kensei AEIWAM headcanons? Spare serotonins with the blorbos? /j Also what's AEIWAM Mashiro like? She's one of the only characters I genuinely get annoyed by in the canon oof

:)

So the friendship between Kaname and Mashiro is one of my favorite things in the fic so far. Have a spoilerific Scene (Part 1 of ?)

Crickets and Grasshoppers

Scene One of ??? Approximately 7K words Fluff that goes South and won't get (sort of ) better until part 2, warnings for body horror, referenced torture and Emotionally Devastating Betrayal

:)

It was Tuesday November 5th, 1901, Scheduling Day in the Ninth Division and Mashiro was standing in front of the vending machine just down the street from the Ninth, choosing her armaments for the coming battle. 

In other divisions, the actual drawing up of rosters was the job of lower-seated officers and the specific parts of the Division they were responsible for.  Tousen’s friend Komamura has told her once that the 7th Division’s schedule was so predictable, they only looked at the roster once a year when people retired or were hired. A fascinating concept to Mashiro, who listened to Komamura’s tales of the 7th with the rapt fascination of an anthropologist privileged to hear the folklore of distant and largely unknown people. 

The Ninth was… complicated for the sake of simplicity.  Information did not move the same way people did, and while the seventh could pass an inbound soul from the Intake Team to Queue Management to the Registry Office, passing an information project from one subdivision to another was a great way to lose said project. So instead of projects moving from subdivision to subdivision as they reached different stages, subdivisions went from stage to stage, following projects. 

This meant scheduling had to be done every month, but it beat the hell out of a major archive loss or communications failure. 

And it meant that Snackage was in order. 

Mashiro surreptitiously glanced over her shoulder to make sure Captain Muguruma was still overseeing drills in the courtyard, then selected 37 cookies, chips, snack cakes, bottles of pop and juice and other goodies from the machine and paid out of the Division Purse.  

Kensei, bless him, was a deeply honorable man who was so reliable you could set a watch by him and would probably cross actual Hell to help a friend, but he did not understand scheduling, much less the kind of caloric requirements it held. 

-- “You’re just sitting there!  What do you need all that for?” He’d asked her once.

“The brain’s the most expensive organ to run in terms of calories.” She’d explained, rolling her eyes and opening a bag of Barbecue-flavored corn chips. “-I know your brain is a plodding cart horse, but you can’t do scheduling.  You need my thoroughbred racehorse brain, and it needs snacks!”

He’d given up with a disgusted groan of defeat, which was good, because the other reason she needed the snacks would have actually made him snap.  -- Mashiro shoved the snacks into her backpack, checked that Kensei was still distracted by drills, darted back across the street where he might spot her, ran around the back of the division, and jumped up to the third-floor window that had been left open for her. 

“The level of subterfuge this perfectly normal administrative process requires…” Fifth-seat Kaname Tousen groaned from where he was lying on the floor, partially under his traditional low desk. 

“-Is half the fun, you dork!” Mashiro giggled, closing the window after her as she climbed in. “All the autumn stuff is in the shops and vending machines now, and I made sure to get every persimmon-flavored thing they had just for you!” She grinned down at her chosen assistant for scheduling. 

The other purpose for the snacks was Bribery. 

Kaname Tousen was, by Mashiro’s estimation, definitely the smartest person in the Ninth Division, and possibly in the entire Soul Society.  If the world was a fair place, he’d be lieutenant and she’d be fifth seat, but the world wasn’t a fair place and in the week between Graduation with every honor Shin’o academy had and starting as the 9th Division’s 20th seat, Kaname had been struck down with some sort of horrible spinal infection that damn near killed him, made him miss his entire first month and a half of work, and left him with occasional bouts of crippling pain, like today, when he’d decided to risk worsening Kensei’s already low opinion of him by doing his work lying flat on his back on a hot pad. 

Kaname’s services as a Brainiac were much in demand and his availability highly limited, so Mashiro guaranteed her place on his schedule with confection-based compensation.

“I mean, Kensei’s a mean old sack and that’s not great for the division too, but the spy shenanigans and scheduling snacktime really is like, The Highlight Of The Month sometimes.” Mashiro shrugged, flopping down on the floor beside him and  dumping the snacks out between them. 

“Captain Muguruma’s sense of discipline is intense but very necess- ow. Yeah, that’s not happening.” Kaname sighed, laying back down from trying to sit up. “-He’s a good man.  Difficult, sometimes, but a good man.”

“You’re way too nice for your own good. Here’s the Persimmon castella cakes.” Mashiro grunted, handing Kaname the small package and the payroll notes to read. 

Kaname groped across his desk for a clipboard, attached the payroll notes to it, propped them up on his stomach so they were balanced on the edge of his desk, and laid all the way back down, face pointed at the ceiling rather than the notes.  Mashiro opened up a packet of Amakara rice crackers, watching him with interest as Kaname took off his goggles. 

The goggles were what convinced Mashiro he was the smartest man in the Soul Society.  Kaname had been born totally blind, but he had figured out how to mount a pair of tiny cameras in the frame of a pair of safety goggles, which were connected to… he’d explained that the little bricks behind the opaque white lenses of his goggles contained something like an obscenely long and complicated Kido spell that spotted readable characters, ‘read’ them, and turned the resulting text into words that played out of the tiny “Microphonogram Speech Players or ‘speakers’ “ hidden in the legs of the goggles.  So he could read pretty much anything printed with enough contrast (and decent enough handwriting, Captain Urahara) because his goggles would read it aloud for him.  They were much slower than most people read, and sometimes he had to stop work to “charge” the spell that made them work, but they worked a damn treat, and had the added advantage that Kaname himself did not need to be looking at the thing he was trying to read, only the goggles.

So now he unwound the coil of wire that connected the Kido brick to the microphonogram, placed the ‘speaker’ back in his ear, and set the glasses on his chest so he could read the notes while keeping his back and neck pressed to the hotpad. 

True Genius, that.

“I love how the cameras wiggle.” Mashiro grinned, watching the two lenses shift and dilate as they focused on the notes. “They move the same way cicadas and grasshoppers shift their eyes independently to focus. It’s so clever to have them operate like that.”

“Hm.  That was Kakiyo’s design, not mine.” Kaname smiled.  Kakiyo was his adopted and now-deceased sister.  “She was always more of an entomologist than me.”

“Weird that you ended up with Suzumushi the cricket for a Zanpaktou then.” Mashiro pondered.  She liked Suzumushi- that sword, and her own Musabori Kuu Batta (Devouring Locust) were two of less than One Hundred insect-type Zanpaktou in the court guard, and fewer still that weren’t butterflies. She couldn’t really see Suzumushi- no shinigami could perceive another’s Zanpaktou Spirit- but she could hear Batta’s half of the conversation the two would chirp to each other sometimes.

Kaname paused from opening the persimmon cake packaging with his teeth. “...Yes. Bizarre.” he said, with a rueful finality that Mashiro took as her cue to change the subject.

“Right. Where are we on the Agricultural Practices census?” She sighed, pulling the active projects list and next month’s calendar out in front of her. 

“Maegawa-san has requested travel permissions to-” Kaname replied, flipping through the pages, the goggles faintly reading off names as he tracked them with his fingertip. “Ah, ‘pull the damn report out through the East 36th Daimyo’s nose if I have to’, which I think we can call a requisitions expense rather than reconnaissance. Unless you think Lieutenant Fon would enjoy the catharsis as well.”

“She WOULD, actually, that girl is wound tighter than my grandpa’s pocketwatch.”  Mashiro nodded, placing the card for “3rd Seat Maegawa” in the “Out Of Office” Pile. 

And so it went for a pleasant hour, eating snacks and solving the five-dimensional time, space and payroll puzzle of scheduling, with Kaname helping her keep track of the process and who was not supposed to be doing overtime or couldn’t be trusted to work with someone else or on maternity leave or whatever. 

“Alright, I think that’s nearly everyone sorted…” Mashiro muttered, going down the list of all 200 division members to make sure they’d made it onto the roster. “Oh wait, we didn’t put you down!” She giggled. 

“I believe my schedule should be identical to last months while we are still doing data entry into the archives, but I do have a request- May I have this coming Friday off?” he asked. “I have an engagement.”

“Who’s getting engaged?” Mashiro teased, erasing him from the roster that day.

Kaname tilted his head a bit, pointing his ear at her with a conspiratorial smirk. “...Can you keep a secret?”

Mashiro blinked at him in surprise, then gasped with delight and leaned in  “Cross my heart and hope to die!” She whispered back, giggling. 

Kaname regarded her for a moment, teasing. “Love- Captain Aikawa has finally worked up the nerve to propose to Lieutenant Yadomaru.”

Mashiro made a noise like an asthmatic teakettle as she tried to not shriek with delight and deafen Kaname as well, rolling onto her back and kicking her legs in the air with excitement.

“-He wants it to be a surprise though, and Lisa is always going through his bag for his water bottle or whatever at kendo practice and she will notice if his schedule changes, so I need to duck out during lunch today and pick up the ring for him to propose with on Friday.” Kaname elaborated.

“A conspiracy!” Mashiro balled her fists with excitement. “When? Where? Can I come?”

“You got an invitation to Captain Kyoraku’s next moon-viewing party, right?”  Kaname asked and she nodded.  “It’s then.”

“EEEK!” Mashiro giggled with delight. 

“What’re you two giggling about?” Kensei grunted from the doorway, still sweaty from training. 

“It’s a SECRET!” Mashiro glared imperiously, sweeping the snack wrappers out of sight off the desk as Kaname sat up with a small grunt of pain and bowed his head in salute.

“Whatever.” Kensei rolled his eyes. “Tousen. Read your report on the dodgy census statistics and possible disappearances in West 66 and I think you’re right.  Something stinks on ice out there.”

Kaname gasped sharply with relief and bowed his head in gratitude. “Thank you, Sir.”

“I gotta attend a captain’s meeting this afternoon because Urahara has some harebrained new project to show and tell-” Kensei continued, glaring at his battered fingertips where he’d caught a bokto the wrong way during training. “-Saw that Maegawa is gonna be in East 36 and Fukuda’s on maternity leave, so I’m sending every seated officer from you to 15th seat Shizawa out there to investigate and deal with it.  You all need to be at the Kido Corps for teleportation at three. Mashiro, don’t burn the place down.”

“OH COME ON!” Mashiro shouted with disappointment. 

“HEY! No backtalk!  I know you wanna go but someone’s gotta hold the fort-” Kensei glared down at her. 

“It’s not me!  Kaname has to- I mean-” She sputtered, abruptly remembering his request for secrecy.

“It’s alright!” Kaname tried to smile but ended up grimacing at her as he got up. “I’ll just go get it now and it’ll be in my pocket when I get back!” 

Mashiro glared at him for a moment, but sat back down. “Okay. I guess.” She pouted. 

“Get what?” Asked Kensei. 

“A surprise for Captain Kyoraku’s moon-veiwing party!” Kaname grinned at him as he collected his belongings into his satchel by touch.

Kensei pondered that for a long moment, glaring at Kaname. “...How’d you score an invite?”

“Captain Aikawa invited me along.” Kaname explained over Mashiro’s offended scoff. “We were roommates when we were at the academy and he has very kindly kept inviting me along to things despite my not really being able to keep up with him anymore.” 

Kensei regarded him a moment longer. “Huh.” he eventually decided. “Well, see you when you get back from the investigation.” He waved, dismissing Tousen.

“Thank you Sir.  Lieutenant Kuna.” Kaname bowed before jogging off. 

“See you later Kaname-kun!” Mashiro called after him.

“-Even if he won’t technically see yo- OW!” Kensei yelped as Mashiro clipped him sharply under the ear. 

“Why are you so MEAN to him!?” Mashiro glared up at her captain as he rubbed his jaw. 

“I’m not mean! I’m just- it’s just office banter!” Kensei growled back. “I can just not like a guy and still be colleagues with him, okay?”

“No, apparently you can’t!” Mashiro “You’ve been really hard on him and getting on his case and teasing him since day one!”

“-More like day thirty-two, he missed the first six weeks of his appointment.” Kensei grumbled.

“That was literally FIFTY years ago and he was in the HOSPITAL. BECAUSE HE NEARLY DIED!”  She bellowed, probably loud enough for Kaname to hear in the street but it didn’t matter. “Yeah, it sucked, but it wasn’t his fault! I don’t get why you were mad at him back then, and I really don’t get why you’re still mad about it NOW!”

“I’M NOT MAD ABOUT THAT, I JUST-” Kensei bellowed back but then stopped, hand over his mouth. “...He keeps secrets.”

Mashiro stared at him blankly for a moment, face slowly collapsing from bewilderment into disgust. “OH. MY GOD. You’re the one always going on about operational security!  He’s just careful- all the details are in his summarial reports, if you ever read them…”

“I do!” Kensei barked. “And they’re-  I mean, All the information he’s required to fill out is there, and then some.” He sputtered, deflating. 

Mashiro leaned in close, eyebrow cocked at him. 

“...But I keep getting this feeling it’s not the whole picture.” Kensei muttered. 

“Ugh!” Mashiro shouted, throwing her hands up and turning away. “So you don’t like him because you have bad reading comprehension?”

“Shut up! I don’t- there’s just something off about that guy! He’s always taking weird days off-” Kensei started, ticking off a list on his fingers. 

“You mean the sick days from his spinal infection?” Mashiro glared, arms folded across her chest.

Kensei continued to count his grievances “-and taking secret calls in weird corners-!”

“You mean privately scheduling his medical treatment? For his spinal infection?” Mashiro continued to glare.

“-And getting him to go to the fifth or third division is like pulling teeth! What the hell is up with that?” Kensei demanded.

“You mean the divisions that have A) Lieutenant Iba, the woman who has a weird horoscope-based personal grudge against him-” Mashiro asked, mimicking Kensei’s earlier counting, “-and B) Lieutenant Aizen, who also keeps forgetting he has a spinal injury and slaps Kaname across the shoulders every time they meet?  Yeah, I don’t blame him for wanting to avoid two of the most annoying people in the whole court guard!”

“Whatever.” Kensei waved her off. “I’m still right. There’s something off with him. Now get that roster updated and posted!”

“Yes, sir.” Mashiro groaned, rolling her eyes at him and stomping back to Kaname’s office for the Roster.

***

Kaname hadn’t felt this light in years. 

Oh god.

Oh, GOD!

Please, please, please please let this be happening?

He sprinted down the road, back towards the apartment that he and Sajin shared, the small box with Love’s ring in his chest pocket.  He allowed himself an ounce of elation- After all, I am just a young man who has picked up the engagement ring of one of his best friends!  It is exactly what anyone would expect to see-

That was the tricky part of The Curse. 

He couldn’t talk about it, like many curses, but it had the added complication that anyone who looked at him- or listened to him, or put their hands on him, or- 

Well, they’d only find what they expected to find. 

Certainly not a curse. 

But curses cut both ways- The broader and less specific a command for someone bearing a curse was, the harder it was to enforce, and it was harder to come up with a command broader and more open to interpretation than “Help Me Kill God”. So as long as Kaname could argue to the curse that an action did “help” some aspect of Aizen’s plans, he could be inefficient, neglect to mention something important, do an assigned task sloppily, fail to cover his tracks and so on-  Sometimes Other times, the curse would take effect and cripple him until he relented and obeyed Aizen’s command again. Or at least, managed to convince Aizen he was doing what Aizen wanted. 

Aizen hadn’t quite realized it, but he was also subject to his own illusions, and there was a gap- a mirror image, if Kaname understood mirrors correctly- so long as he appeared as Aizen expected, Aizen wouldn’t notice him sabotaging Aizen’s machinations. So for the last three years, Kaname had done his best to appear tired and overworked and failing from exhaustion rather than malice, or like he was starting to agree with Aizen, which is exactly what the narcissist expected after fifty years of mental, physical and spiritual torture. 

It was finally  paying off. 

He’d managed to make the kidnappings Aizen and Gin had been conducting on the villagers of West 56 appear by conducting a census that showed the discrepancy of expected versus actual population.  -And made sure the increased hollow activity in the area from Aizen’s experiments showed up in the 10th Division’s monitoring statistics. - And the weird waves of reiatsu visible on the 12th’s monitoring equipment- not what people expected to see, but by keeping all the evidence noticed by unrelated parties, he kept it out of the scope of Aizen’s Illusions. 

Kyoga Suigetsu took a lot of energy to operate, and Tousen was pretty sure Aizen could only passively fool about 150 at a time- he chose mostly his own division and people he saw daily, like his neighbors and cross-division colleagues, and could only actively alter the reality of maybe 20 people at once- the other captains and a few key would-be witnesses.   So a rural census-taker, and two members at the bottom ranks of other divisions weren’t actively subject to the illusion. 

He had to do it on faith, that someone would notice-

Kaname felt like he’d been holding his breath for weeks now, doing his best to tell Aizen and the constantly-itching nails in his spine that this was a Perfectly Normal Database Cross-referencing project- very boring, but it will be missed if it’s not done, Lord Aizen- and nothing to draw attention to the horrible Laboratory…

…By some miracle, Mugurama had read the report, understood and believed it- Kensei had a naturally suspicious mind, so Kaname made sure the report was full of “It's entirely possible this is all a weird coincidence!” to make him suspicious.  The curse only showed people what they expected to see, and for once, Kensei’s natural pessimistic expectations allowed him to see the truth. 

24 hours.  That’s all I have left.

The only people in the Ninth Aizen had under his Active Influence were Kensei and Mashiro, so he wouldn’t be able to hide the nature of the laboratory from the investigation team without dropping the Active Illusion on someone else and risk discovery- and so long as Aizen didn’t find out about the expedition, he wouldn’t know to make that shift in time.

24 hours. I only need to keep Aizen distracted for 24 hours. 

In Aizen’s personal quarters, The Distraction Apparatus waited.

Aizen was mistaken to force Kaname to do his lab work for him- Kaname understood it better than him now, and had pulled aside a little trick to confuse him. The Hogyoku bonded with its user, almost like a zanpaktou, and communicated with them- it purred when Aizen fed it, and whined when it was hungry.  Aizen knew about Suzumushi’s Bankai- he’d insisted Kaname develop it under his supervision, so he would know of all Kaname’s abilities.  But he only knew it from the inside, and hadn’t realized that not only was anyone inside blind, deaf and without any form of sensory input, neither could anyone on the outside sense anyone within. It was worth it to break Suzumushi like that. It was actually her idea, to break the guard of his Zanpaktou and separate the ring from it.  That’s where the Bankai was stored, and with a hell of a lot of practice, he’d learned to cast it remotely.

It had been months before he had an opportunity-  Kaname would never forgive what had been done to that poor angel, but during one of the The Sessions where Aizen was using the Hogyoku to change the angel, Kaname was able to get ahold of the little Illusion box Aizen kept the infernal device in, Secure Suzumushi’s ring to the floor, disguise the tampering with a false floor, and return the box to it’s place without Aizen’s notice. The Ring had been waiting there for months.

24 hours, and the secret will be out. 

He’d memorized Aizen’s schedule- in 22 minutes Aizen would be entering the reiatsu-locked laboratory of the 12th with his own Captain Shinji for Kisuke’s Demonstration, and would not be able to feel Kaname activate his Bankai. When he came back out, it would seem like the Hogyoku had vanished. And for all Aizen would be able to tell, it had- he wouldn’t be able to perceive the Hogyoku or it’s illusion box until Kaname released his Bankai. 

So for now, Kaname acted exactly like Aizen would expect him to act- a little tired, a lot in pain, but elated that two of his best friends were getting engaged, and that he’d be able to help. That was a natural source of excitement, and definitely not any kind of counter conspiracy-

Kaname jogged down the stairs to the apartment, ring box in his pocket, heart hammering, hands shaking a bit as he took out the keys to unlock his door, grabbed the knob that was not there and was suddenly off balance and falling- Into something soft and steady that carefully picked him up like a child’s doll and set him back on his feet, gently taking his hands.

“Are you alright?” Sajin asked, soft, deep voice tinged with concern. “My apologies, I was just trying to do some house cleaning while the weather is mild and had the door open for ventilation.”

“Y- yeah! I’m. I’m alright. Just- distracted. I’ve had some good news!”  He grinned up at his friend. 

“Oh?” Sajin asked, tugging lightly at Kaname’s fingertips to indicate he should step inside.  “Mind your way, I have all the chairs out in the living room so I can sweep.”

They had been living in this garden-level apartment for the forty years since Sajin had followed Kaname into the court guard, and under the same roof at the Akaido City Library for many years before that, and their domestic arrangements settled into a comfortable and comforting routine- Kaname was incapable of seeing grime, so Sajin did the housekeeping, and Sajin would eat raw, expired meat if left unattended, so Kaname did the cooking and shopping. 

Kaname followed his lead, hand reflexively on Sajin’s instinctively proffered arm to keep balance while he unbuckled and took off his boots- the gestures of proximal intimacy had calcified into a secret language between them.

“Thanks-” Kaname stood up and stepped in with a guiding hand on the wall. He could normally navigate the apartment by memory alone. “-I’m only here for a few minutes, I’ve also got a deployment I need to pack for.”

“Deployment?” Sajin asked, following after him, voice slightly muffled from the cloth mask he wore over his face- at least when the door was open.  Being mostly underground had it’s advantages- Kaname didn’t need much light and Sajin possessed almost superhuman darkvision, and the small, high windows that were obscured by bushes gave them enough Privacy that Sajin could relax and keep his face bare at home. 

24 hours.  

Maybe. Maybe when it all came out, and the dust settled--Assuming they don’t hang me alongside Aizen, which was a big If--But once it was all said and done and I still draw breath- Maybe I will have the courage to ask Sajin what it is he feels he needs to hide.Surely, he is far too gentle to be half so monstrous as he claims.

“Kaname?”  Sajin prompted, and Kaname realized he’d been silent for nearly a minute. “S-sorry. I just. Captain Muguruma finally read my report on West 66 and ordered and immediate investigation, so I have to be at the Kido corps by three-” “Kaname.” “Ah, No don’t worry,  I’ll get dinner prepared so you only have to put it under the broiler, and There’s um-” “Kaname.” 

“-I’ll be back by Friday for Love and Lisa’s- Right- Here, I need you to-”  He sputtered, dozens of ideas baying for his attention at once, patting his chest for the ring box- “Kaname!” Sajin snapped, and his giant hands were on Kaname’s shoulders again, turning him around in place to face his friend, gloved hand suddenly under his chin, holding his face up for Sajin to glare at. “...When was the last time you slept?”

“I’m fine!” Kaname tried to jerk back, laughing defensively. 

“You’ve gone to bed after me and gotten up before me, if you went to bed at all for at least a week, and I’m doing maximum overtime. You don't have bags so much as matched luggage under your eyes and can’t finish a sentence coherently.  You’re not touching anything in the kitchen.” Sajin rattled off, giving Kaname’s chin a light shake. “...it’s not yet eleven, and the Kido Corps is less than ten minutes from here. I’ll see to your packing. Lie down. Please.”  

Kaname sighed, shoulders slumping. “Sajin, I- I need to-”

“You need. To sleep.” Sajin rumbled, no room in his voice for argument.

Kaname panted for a moment, realizing that if Sajin wasn’t holding him in place he’d be swaying with exhaustion. 

24 hours.

…I can spend one or two of them resting. 

If I don’t manage to prove my innocence, I’ll want to have at least this to think about on the gallows.

“...Stay with me until I fall asleep?” Kaname asked, voice soft. “It’s just. It’s been a lot.” “Of course.” Sajin hummed, rubbing his cheek. “I also need to, ah- use facilities, first.” he grimaced, and Sajin let him go. 

“I’m coming in after you if I think you’ve passed out on the floor.” Sajin threatened. 

“That happened ONE TIME-!” Kaname protested, following the wall to the bathroom.

Once inside, he checked the time again. 

If the meeting had stuck to schedule, they should be inside the 12th’s labs now.  

Kaname sent Aizen a test message to his Soul Pager. 

> Mandatory Status Report: Muguruma handed me a sudden assignment. Won’t be back until Friday.

If he was outside the Reiatsu-locked lab, that missive would have Aizen furiously calling him in under five minutes. He timed it, relieving himself and washing his hands as he waited-

Nothing.

“Here goes…” he muttered, hoping the sound of the bathroom fan and the running water would cover his voice. He focused, feeling the silver ring start to rotate in his mind, the way it multiplied and stretched, the rings dancing a circle on that which needed to be concealed-

“-Bankai.” He whispered, skin tingling- 

-And suddenly he was keenly aware of the hogyoku and it’s illusion box, as though he were holding it, both wholly contained and hidden by his Bankai.  

It is done The distraction is set. In a few hours, all will be revealed to the rest of the court guard. There. All I need  to do now was follow the assignment like I was told and investigate the- the-

-He suddenly he felt the Bankai’s draw on his power and he collapsed over the sink, retching and knees shaking with how weak he felt. The skin on the back of his neck prickled and almost tasted like vinegar in the back of his mind,  high-pitched ringing between his ears. 

The nails sizzled ominously but there was no power behind it- It’s alright- I can- I can deal with this. Just breathe, come on dumbass, you just need to keep breathing for another 24 hours.

“Kaname? Sajin called.

“Nothing broke!” Kaname called back, forcing himself to his feet and stumbling back against the wall.  He tested the Bankai again- It holds. Very convenient of you Suzumushi, that I only need to cast and feed it, rather than concentrate…

Suzumushi chriped distractedly, her focus on maintaining the Bankai. With her concentration, the illusion would hold even as he slept. Cold water on his face and neck, trying to make himself vaguely presentable and the room stop spinning as he stumbled out- oh, Sajin is right here, how thoughtful of him…

“It’s alright, just follow me…” Sajin soothed, guiding him along to the Thick Futon and large collection of pillows they used as a couch- nothing with legs would bear Sajin’s weight for long. He allowed Sajin to pull him down, settling beside Kaname until he was wedged between Sajin’s giant body and the collection of cushions, head on his friend’s chest, listening to his heartbeat- A little slower than mine, and steady- always so steady- so- 

Kaname was asleep before he completed the thought. 

---

Scene two: 23 hours later

“It’s just up this way Mister Shinigami!”  The boy said, his hot little hand pulling Kaname along. 

They’d gotten to West 66 and Kaname had realized he’d been wrong to worry about looking like he already knew the way to the Laboratory- Iruka Village had taken some fairly extreme defensive measures against the kidnappings since the last time he’d been forced out here- Barricades errected, bridges taken out, and even the road torn up and replanted to hide the route to the village. Kaname was entirely turned around before they even set foot in the Village and started asking the peasants if there was anything unusual nearby.

Fortunately for the expediency of the investigation, one Young Shuuhei Hisagi was extremely eager to help, giving them a detailed accounting of the strange activities at the old foundry, where someone had turned one of the kiln’s back on and there was “An ‘lectric” generator and it smelled a lot like someone was cooking rancid pork but he’d never seen anybody there, even when he went into the basement because he wasn’t ascared of it, weird that there’s a basement, nobody makes basements here as it’s a swamp-

Kaname felt his skin go cold when he realized the boy had somehow gotten inside and made notes and even poked some of the machinery, but given he hadn’t tried to actually chew Kaname’s arm off as he lead the Ninth Division Investigation team to the Lab, he was probably uncontaminated…

“There’s a hill an’ it’s on the other side- mind the branch.” Young Shuuhei was one of the great tragedies of the poor parts of the Rukongai- whip-smart and observant and thoughtful, but illiterate from the lack of teachers, and likely destined for an early grave if the statistical average lifespan out here held true.  His Reiryoku shimmered at the edges- with a little training and a better diet he might even make for a good Shinigami. 

Maybe if I live through this I can get him a scholarship.  Kaname mused, trying to think about literally anything but the nauseating familiarity of the smell creeping over the hill. 

“Mr. Hisagi?” he asked in the polite voice he’d cultivated as the Head Librarian to indicate to children he was taking them very seriously.

The Boy snapped to attention. “Sir?”

“Thank you for leading us here, but I absolutely cannot allow you any closer. It’s extremely dangerous here-”  he started to explain.

“I been in before! An’ the door’s trickylike you gotta pull the handle up and in and rattle it to get in and then prop somethin’ in the gap or it locks back behind you-”  Shuuhei explained, gesturing  like Kaname could see him demonstrating. 

“-And you were lucky to get out in one piece! I also need you to do a very important job.”  Kaname sighed, familiar with this kind of kid- slightly too bright and kind-hearted for his own good, but reliable at a task- “-I can hear that some of your friends have followed us from the village.  They’re about a quarter mile behind us-”

“Dangit Suichi-!” Shuuhei muttered under his breath. “-Yeah that’s probably my little brother and his friends. You want me to go chase him back home?”

“Precisely. Also, tell everyone to get indoors and stay put until they get an all-clear.  Just in case something goes wrong, I need everyone to stay safe until re-enforcements arrive.  So go get everyone back home and inside, alright?” “Yessir!” Shuuhei snapped a salute and Kaname heard some of the other Shinigami giggle behind him.

“I’m glad I can rely on you.” He nodded, and shooed Shuuhei down the road. The boy took off, hollering for his brother.

“I didn’t know you were so good with kids.” Laughed Sixth Seat Todo Izaemon. “Cute little thing too-”

“Being in charge of the West 51 Children’s Intensive Literacy School teaches you how to get along with them.”  He shrugged. “Alright, I can’t sense anything, but that doesn’t mean danger is not present.  Even numbered seats- go west and approach from the north. Odd numbers, we go east and approach from the south.”

“Sir!” Izaemon nodded, the next ranked officer. 

Kaname approached the building at a crouch, straining to hear- the brief nap Sajin had insisted on and six-pack of illicitly acquired 4th Division “Stamina Supplements” were doing what they could for him, but everything  hurt and Suzumushi’s Bankai was even more draining than he’d anticipated and he could barely sense more than a few feet around him. But he found the door- Shuuhei was right, the Handle was starting to go out of alignment- Up and in, right? Yeah- and when nothing behind it exploded, he cautiously stepped in. 

“Nobody ran out our side Sir!” Izaemon called and Kaname acknowledged him with a nod. 

“What the hell IS this place?” Seventh-seat Akishita asked, looking around the room.  This was the main floor of the laboratory, where the bulk of Aizen’s butchery was done- the whole place reeked of rotting flesh and sulfur- byproducts of the ‘Hollowfication Process’, and Kaname very nearly tripped on a groove gashed into the floor that hadn’t been there last time. 

“That looks like an office or control room up there-” Kaname said, pointing to the partial second story that took up the west third of the building that he REALLY hoped was still there. “-Akishita, with me. Lets see if there’s a schematic or something.”

“Sir!” She agreed. 

Oh good, it is still there. He thought, trying to not pant with pain- oh god, his eyes were burning and spine felt like it was actively dissolving he was so TIRED- He touched his watch, checking the time again. 

24 minutes.  Come on, just a little more-

He got to the door at the top of the stairs, Akishita behind him. 

“Are you alright Sir?”  She asked.

“What?” He jerked towards her. 

“You seem… really off today.”  She frowned. He could sense the shape of her this close, and the way her hand on the hilt of her Zanpaktou. Maybe just resting, maybe not. 

“I- I haven’t been sleeping well. Nightmares.” He gulped. That was actually entirely true.  Still the nails sizzled louder and he winced. “-I -I might need to put in for sick leave when we get back.”

“You really should.  You look awful.”  She nodded, hand off the hilt. 

Kaname nodded, and carefully opened the door into the control room. He felt Akishita turn, making sure nothing unexpected followed them as he stepped in- no traps, but a strange sort of coldness- not a draft, like a there was a block of ice in here-

The door slammed shut behind him. 

“Heya Goggles!” a boy’s voice drawled behind him. 

-Or a snake. 

Kaname froze, skin going cold as Akishita called for him from the other side of the door.

“Gin?” He asked, trying to keep his voice even.

“She’s right, you look like shit!” the boy laughed, activating a Kido seal that barricaded them in the room.  “-Boss sent me to talk to you because the CRAZIEST thing happened at the Captain’s meeting this morning!”

“-Please tell me Urahara’s latest crime against nature maimed him?  I could use some good news.”  Kaname groaned, complaining like usual, like nothing was wrong. There was more shouting from the main floor. He braced himself, feet under his shoulders, feeling Gin’s aura twist as he decided on an angle to strike from.

“Oh nah, Aizen-sama is wrapping things up and planting evidence over at the 12th right now, that’s why I’m here!” Gin laughed. “No, Your Boss Muguruma stopped everyone before Urahara’s demonstration to tell everyone about this report you submitted sayin’ several hundred people had vanished in West 66!  The other haoris were all horrified, I tell ya- Captain Hirako just about shit bricks!  Hollerin’ Aizen-sama’s ear off about it the whole way back to the fifth!”

Kaname gripped Suzumushi’s hilt.

“Oh now don’t be unfriendly!  I even got somethin’ for ya!” Gin laughed, and tossed something his way. Knowing better than to catch anything he threw, Kaname waited for it to hit the floor-

PING!

-Stomach turning over as he recognized the metallic chime of Suzumishi’s ring. 

“Neat trick by the way- Aizen must have spent ten hours turning over the fifth looking for the Hogyoku!!” Gin laughed. “-He didn’t actually find it neither, if it’s any consolation. But he has me, and I got…Abilities.” The boy leered as Kaname Swiped the ring from the ground- Suzumushi had been strangely quiet, and only now did he realize that at some point the sensory illusion of his Bankai had been reversed. Louder yelling from the main floor and the sound of Akishita preparing a Hakudo Kido to blow the door in on the other side. 

“-Shit.”  Kaname growled, reconnecting the ring to the hilt, Suzumushi whimpering in pain. 

“Madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory he is!” Gin chuckled, then surged forward. Even on a good day, Gin was nearly impossible to block and tonight-

“-Sorry goggles, but I got orders. Rikujokoru!” he hissed fingertips on kaname's sternum, and Kanane was slammed to the ground, six beams of Kido energy hitting his middle, paralyzing him completely. “Aizen-sama says if you can get outta this and get home you can live, but if I’m honest, I don’t really like your odds-” Gin explained, walking over to the control panel and flicking it on, the machines whirring to life and something rumbling beneath them. 

…Basement. Kaname realized. The boy said there was a basement- there wasn’t one last time?

There was a loud hissing as vents opened and gas streamed out of the floor into the main room, the sickening scent of rotting fruit comingled with melting plastic- The Hollowfication Compound? It’s a gas now!?

The shouting turned to screaming.

Oh God.

The screaming turned to roaring. 

Oh god, no. Please-

“- 'Specially not now.” Gin leered, patting him on the shoulder as he turned to leave. “Bye-Bye!  See you tomorrow-! …Maybe.”

Kaname could hear Gin leaving out the small fire window up at the roofline and he struggled, concentrating his reiatsu in his mouth to speak the counterspell- “-Horses of wind and gale, river of thread- 

-Akishita screamed in the hall, and there was the terrible wet sound of tearing flesh and breaking bones-

“- By Shadow and storm, unbind me!” He hissed, and the spell dissipated with the loud sound of shattering glass. Kaname scrambled to his feet, standing up in time to feel the gaze of ten newly-turned hollows fall upon him. His watch pulsed against his wrist, the timer for 24 hours Going off. 

“Well. I did say it would be over one way or another, didn’t I?” He grimaced, drawing Suzumushi as his former colleagues charged the plate glass that separated them. 

---

Part two approximately whenever I finish it :)

[cawsceries]

your ocs 🔫 tell me everything and anything you wanna share

HI CRYPT i have a lot :]

so i have four main guys with an actual storyline (avry arlo rass rocks). technically five but the fifth doesn't have a name yet so we're not talking about her. and then i have funky little guys (moth, some other clones who i havent posted, and my newest guys cobra and lio!!)

avry is in her early twenties! she was knighted roughly a month before the clone wars began and wasn't supposed to lead a battalion at first. the jedi master who was going to lead the 409th battalion was several weeks away from kamino as the clone wars started, though, and avry was temporarily assigned to the 409th because she's closer and there isn't time to wait.

this temporary assignment is when she first met arlo, who at the time was a captain. in their third or fourth battle, the LAAT/i that was carrying arlo was shot down and his helmet was knocked off in the crash. avry lifted the rubble of the LAAT/i off of the survivors of the crash using the force-- if she hadn't been there, arlo probably would've bled out from his head injury before anyone managed to get to him.

shortly after this, the jedi master in charge of the 409th finally arrives! she's an older rodian training her second padawan, rass. she and avry's master are padawan siblings. avry leaves the 409th in the jedi master's capable hands and is assigned on several small relief missions.

of course, a few months later the 409th has an encounter with general grievous. the jedi master does not survive, but she does make sure rass will make it out alive.

avry is in the area, so she returns to the 409th. rass is supposed to go back to the jedi temple but they can't fathom leaving all of the clones they've befriended and fought beside-- they've already lost their master. so avry (impulsively) offers to take rass on as her own padawan.

and. well. this solves some problems. this also creates more problems. avry is already absolutely terrified about being responsible for a battalion. now she's also responsible for rass as well, who's basically her little sibling. she's not prepared for either of these things, but she's good enough at faking it so she's not going to think about it too much because she might break down and there isn't time for that. she can process everything when the war is over and everything goes back to normal.

she's very good at convincing herself that things will go back to normal.

arlo is doing better overall-- he's been promoted to commander (the original commander died a few weeks after avry left). he has a lot of confidence in avry. between avry saving his life early on, and the jedi master's competence and poise, he's a little ridiculously loyal to the jedi.

he's also a little bit blind to avry's flaws.

hold on. about arlo's pronouns: she is not thinking about her gender in universe until pretty late in the clone wars. i swap between she and he because she will end up using she/he pronouns.

rass meets rocks when their first master is still alive, while scouting out a droid factory. rass is leading rocks' squad and there are droids coming their direction. rass asks the clones if any of them have something that rass can throw to distract the droids. rocks hands over a rock. a few minutes later rass asks for another object. rocks hands over another rock. he has at least ten more.

rass nearly compromises the mission by laughing at the fifth rock produced. after this rass and rocks are inseparable. rocks, who is about an inch and a half shorter than the average clone, is delighted that he's no longer the shortest person he knows.

rass and rocks are my beloveds i love them dearly.

i also have a fair amount of info about avry here and some assorted info about all of these guys here

beyond my "main" four, i have moth (can be summed up by this and this) and cobra (very new guy. hes living his best life. having an affair with lio.) and lio (full name lio veniid. senator. a bit pretentious. not very significant politically. extremely disappointed by cobra's lack of appreciation for wine, has made it his goal in life to change this. its not working very well so far but they're both having a great time)

also fun fact: i have a curse in which i am incapable of drawing arlo's scar correct on any full piece. it's on the left side of her head. (forgot it) (flipped the canvas too many times)

[karnaca78]

speaking of which Karna, I wanted to hear about your Rom too !! If i understand/remember correctly, she was Micolash' supervisor of sorts ? Would you mind telling us more, and what other ideas you have for her ? 👀

Oh! Yes, I suppose I've shared very little about her even though she's always been a favourite. Thank you for giving me an excuse to yap about her 😭

In my timeline, Rom (1830-1869) is a fairly reputable anatomist at Byrgenwerth, as well as Willem's niece (extremely strained relationship, the vibes are rancid like you wouldn't believe).

She is very close friends with Caryll, one of the college's archaeologists and later self-appointed Runesmith who makes it his life's purpose to translate the word of the Great Ones.

With Laurence she is cordial at best— her dislike for him probably motivates her not to join the Choir, even though she is involved with Ebrietas (as an anatomist, she mostly studies her physicality).

Her relationship with Micolash is so far the most significant. In 1859, she hires him as her assistant during the Fishing Hamlet beach party because of his upbringing as a surgeon's son, and they do funky experiments with the villagers' remains. All in all she takes it rather better than him, but they both see their scientific worldview tilted on its axis.

(There's a whole fic I've been struggling to write for months on this topic... Hopefully I'll finally decide how I want to write it, but today is not that day)

After that, they work together to try and make sense of Kos and what her existence implies. Micolash, who is first and foremost a physicist, finishes in 1863 his doctoral thesis on the influence of the Great Ones on the laws of matter (which ends up being an odd jumble of mathematical theory, philosophical conjecture and whatever music he's managed to put into it). Rom has to battle Willem for him to give Micolash his doctoral title and keep him at Byrgenwerth, considering the rather abstract nature of his work, so they can pursue their research.

When Laurence and Micolash decide to research the blood they've found during one of their expeditions to the tombs under Yharnam, she doesn't get much involved. She sort of works with the Healing Church (founded 1867) from the sidelines but keeps her post at Byrgenwerth— Willem allegedly wants her to be elected in his place as head of the college. It turns out to be a ruse for him to use her for an attempt at ascension.

Rom and Micolash essentially remain friends but their relationship is rather ambiguous. She's 7 years older than him but after he gets his doctoral title, they interact as equals and have a brief romantic thing going on before Micolash leaves Byrgenwerth to join the Church (to rekindle his yaoi flame with Laurence no doubt).

(I'm at the moment writing a short Micolash/Rom fic. I'm still debating if it's worth finishing.)

She gets turned into the "Vacuous Spider" at age 39 following Willem's failed experiment. Micolash learns of it after the fact and will mourn her for the rest of his life. She spends about 20 years in the lake before the Good Hunter finally puts her to rest.

References:

this comic hints at whatever the hell these two were up to in the Fishing Hamlet

and this one hints that they are quite close (definitely enough for her to touch him which rather says a lot about it, I mean what)

[asgore-mp3]

Pokemon au's popping up just as I regained a Pokemon hyperfixation, fantastic!

Anyways

1st gym - Ghost - Badboyhalo

He's a strong trainer, his gym just happens to be the first many go to. Some say he can even speak to the spirits beyond simply pokemon.

2nd gym - Water - Foolish

The gossip among the region. He's incredibly popular for many things, varying from architecture skills or babysitting, yet he's always had a soft spot for a certain elite four member.

3rd gym - Normal - Cellbit

While normal may not have been the route many would go for, The lead detective of the police department seems it's a fine type if used correctly, due to the simple fact of only having one weakness.

4th gym - Electric - Tazercraft

Pac and Mike, Better known as Tazercraft, lead production for many of the big-city if the region's power (Sorta like Anime Clemont in X and Y) They give the doubles challenge to trainers.

5th gym - Fighting - Fit

Coming from many years in the shadows, documenting events from past wars throughout history, Fit now acts as gym leader, both for trainers and like.. actual use. Some have seen his and Tazercraft's, particularly Pac's, closeness in recent months and wonder what may be happening.

6th gym - Psychic - Antoine

A mysterious guy who walks the towns, yet friendly in conversation. He used to DJ at large parties, apparently.

7th gym - Ice - Nihachu

The sweetest baker around, she works to make both warm delicacies and chill treats for people and pokemon alike.

8th gym - Dragon - Ironmouse

Her dragons are her little babies... even if they're thrice her size <33 She's known for her energetic personality, bring a social media personality is hard but she keeps her appearance up while being as true as she can!!

(debating how to write her CVID if I make this a bigger thing)

-------

Elite Four

Rock - Vegetta

Recently he's been away for buisness trips... Running things like that are hard! More often then not now, They have to bring a replacement for him :/

Steel - Tubbo

A great inventor with grand factories, he may be the youngest of any high-ranking trainers but he climbed to the top quickly through his skill. He serves as Vegetta's replacement, yet he recognized as an official member.

Flying - Phil

A simple family man, He always seemed to become friends with strong trainers, and for good reason! In large tournaments, he almost always won. Except in one, Where a kid with green hair and a few ghost types won. That's how he really got known in the first place...

Poison - Bagi

A private detective, working to solve what her brother couldn't, She only recently joined the Elite Four after their previous member, Maximus, passed away due to unknown reasons.

Dark - Roier

Just a guy, a very silly guy. Idrk how to describe him just a very funky guy. He's shown to be one of few people who could even DEFEAT the champion, even thpugh everyone thought he wasn't as strong as he was. Sometimes thats the best strategy?

Champion - Étoiles

Known as 'The Kalosian Beast' (that sounds so bad...) He's climbed up since the day he arrived to the region, defeating people one by one and now sitting on top. Despite the fame this may bring, he's actually a pretty casual guy! Talking to people and watching gym battles are some things outside of battling he enjoys.

Idk. The urges hit me as I pulled out my 3ds

[dramarising-replacement]

Not salt, nice story! Some months ago during the big ice/water dom battle, fodder floor prices were CRAZY, over 10kt at points, and dragons would get exalted real fast by folks pushing for dom, so sometimes I'd just be on the AH looking for oldies/pretties/G1's to rescue to keep/resell/etc. At one point I found a G1 Nocturne with a GOOFY ass name, I would say what it is but for the sake of keeping it anonymous, I'll just say it was a silly name that included the name of a social media site with a meme phrase. It wasn't the most hideous colors for a G1 but definitely an acquired taste of a combo lol. But I grabbed her in the few seconds there was to grab the LAH fodder, because she was just too funny, not knowing what to do with her.

Later on I decided I'd use her in a dragon swap game, in the "ugly dragon swap" thread, to a user I felt might find it funny and maybe appreciate her since they're a Plague member who breeds funky looking dragons. Iirc I did say she was an exalt rescue with the silly name and clashing colors, but a G1 so maybe she has potential to the right person. When they accepted the CR they said they actually really like that color combo and thanked me.

I kinda forgot all about it until suddenly remembering [dragon name] existing and checking the user's lair, and she still had her silly name, except she was breed changed, fully gene'd up, with 2 gem genes even! has had some offspring too!

Whenever I go check out that user's latest hatches to see if there's anything I can use for my breeding projects, I like to pay my rescue a visit and I feel happy seeing she ended up with such a loving home ;w;

[venomous-ragno]

Writing advice...

... About military things by a soldier :)

Disclaimer: My experiences and knowledge are mostly based on the German military, the Bundeswehr. They may differ from those of other countries.

Happy writing y'all :)

Pt. 6 / ?: Combat wounds (Pt.1)

Before we get into this, let me make one thing clear:

Most people imagine battle hardened soldiers to be terribly scarred, but that is most often not the case. If something gets close enough to scar you, it's close enough to kill you. In war it's either death or not; if it can kill you, it will. Having lots of scars could also just be an indicator that they're unskilled enough to let themself almost get killed one too many times, so think good and hard what scars your character has and how they came to be.

What are scars and how do they come to be?

Whenever your tissue gets damaged, your body tries to fix the loss by releasing this funky lil protein you may know from skin- or haircare: Collagen. It builds up where the tissue got damaged and helps heal and build up fresh new skin, hence why scars are lighter in colour. As collagen builds up for several months the blood supply to that new tissue increases, which is what causes scars to protrude.

But scars aren't just scars: They come in different types.

1. We have contracture scars for one, which are typically burn scars. They cause the skin to tighten and may possibly restrict movement, which can be quite frustrating if the scar is big in size. This comes from the underlying tissue healing by pulling together. Contracture scars can impact the muscles, joints and tendons.

2. Next up are atrophic scars. Fancy word that you may not know, but I bet you've heard of acne scars before. When the skin is unable to form new tissue, a little dent will appear, and that's an atrophic scar.

3. Flat scars are pretty boring. They're called flaz scars cause they flatten down over time, and go from a pinkish red colour to one that somewhat resembles your skin tone.

4. The nastiest ones in my opinion are keloid scars. These lil shits are basically clumps of tissue that grow near the wound, but can also expand past it. They're thick and look somewhat misshapen. Keloids are the result of excessive healing, which means they can pop up anywhere. Perhaps you've seen a friend w an infected piercing that didn't heal well, and they have these dark bumps around it. Yep, those are keloids.

5. Conversely to the atrophic scars we have hyperthropic scars. Sounds fancy, but when medicine names one thing with a- in the beggining, hyper- is usually the exact opposite. Whereas a- indicates too little, hyper- indicates too much of smth. In this case, hypertrophic scars are raised scars. They come to be when too much collagen builds up around a wound, which makes them similar to keloids, which but one decisive difference: Hypertrophic scars don't grow past the wound. Thank god.

6. My favourite scar of all are definitely stretch marks. I have 'em, you have 'em, they're absolutely normal. Stretch marks occur when the skin shrinks or grows too quickly for your body to catch up, thus causing tissues underneath the skin to become damaged.

Anything can happen in war - what are the most common combat injuries?

If I tried listing every possible injury I'd never finish this post, so I'm starting with the most common ones: Second and third degree burns, broken bones, shrapnel wounds, nerve damage, paralysis, loss of sight and / or hearing, PTSD and limb loss.

Sounds scary? Well, it is. But the best weapon against fear is information, which is why I'll break down the first four of those injuries in this post, and the rest in a second part.

Burns

What is a burn? A burn is an injury to the skin (or other organic tissue) caused by heat, radiation, radioactivity, electricity, friction or chemicals.

Burns are classified in four degrees, whereas one is the lightest and six the most serious type of burn.

First degree: Superficial burns, like a sunburn. Red, dry, and ouch but without blisters. Temporary change in skin colour but heals well.

Second degree: Red, swollen and blistered skin. May cause an increase in skin thickness but heals well.

Third degree: White and charred skin. Extensive skin damage. Will heal in (possibly) thick scars.

Fourth degree: Charred skin. Possibly exposing bone or organs. Probably causes permanent damage; may require an amputation.

Fifth degree: Charred skin. Will definitely expose bones etc. Definite permanent damage; amputation required.

Sixth degree: Loss of skin. Damage extends to the bones. Definite permanent damage that requires an amputation, but can lead to fatalities.

Broken bones

A broken bone, or fracture, happens when pressure is exerted unto a bone that it cannot withstand, because of which the bone can break partially or completely. A fracture has to be immobilised with a cast or surgically inserted metal rods / plates. The exact treatment method depends on what bone is fractured and how severe the fracture is.

Are broken bones fatal? Well, they certainly can have severe impacts on your health if not properly treated. Infections, permanent deformities or long-term joint problems are all feasible consequences to a botched treatment.

Luckily for us tho, bones are really good at healing. Doesn't mean a fracture ain't painful tho - the most painful bones to break are the femur, tailbone and the ribs.

If you wanna be mean but not fatally mean, I'd recommend giving your character a cracked rib or two. It's a serious injury that'll put 'em out of commission for a good two months, but they will most certainly recover; be careful of breaking them tho, as the jagged edges can puncture major blood vessels or internal organs, such as the lung. The two lower ribs rarely fracture as they are more flexible than the upper and middle ribs, which are anchored to the breastbone. If you break them however, they can cause serious damage to the spleen, liver or kidney.

Symptoms of a cracked / broken rib include strong pain in your chest area that worsens when breathing or bending the body, swelling and / or tenderness surrounding the ribs, eventual bruising on the skin, and quite literally hearing your ribs crack as they break.

Cracked / broken ribs cannot be as easily supported as other bones, so they're left to heal by themselves.

Shrapnel wounds

When the metal of an explosive pierces the skin, that's when it's called a shrapnel wound. The type of wound depends on whatever caused the injury; most often though they stem from so called IED's - Improvised Explosive Devices. In other words: Bombs, mines, bullets, or even shrapnel bombs and ammo, which are specifically made to cause as much damage to the human body as possible.

Some of these can contain uranium, which makes them poisonous to life forms.

Shrapnel is a nightmare to deal with. The pieces can travel within the body, making them harder to find and remove. You definitely wanna remove them cause they can be hot zones for infections; contrary to what you may have heard though, shrapnel is a relatively rare cause for lead poisoning. I'm gonna focus on gunshot wounds, but if you have any questions concerning other types of shrapnel wounds feel free to shoot me an ask!

Gunshot wounds

Gunshot wounds are caused when a bullet is shot into, or through, the body. They can cause serious injuries such as: Severe bleeding, damage to tissues and organs, broken bones, wound infections, and paralysis.

The exact damage depends on the location of the injury as well as speed and type of the bullet, though wounds to the head or torso are likey to cause more damage. Someone who's been shot has probably had surgery to do either of these:

Stop the bleeding

Clean the wound

Find and remove bullet pieces

Place drains / tubes for bodily fluids

Remove portions of organs (or even whole organs)

There may however be bullet pieces that remain in the body. Often these cannot be removed without causing more damage. Scar tissue will form around these remaining pieces, which may cause ongoing pain or other discomfort. In case of worsening pain, bleeding that won't stop even after applying pressure, increased drainage from the wound, rising body temperature (fever), or red streaks leading away from the wound, paying the doc a visit is a must. This means the wound isn't healing well and needs medical attention.

It will take months, perhaps even years, for a gunshot wound to heal properly - and that's if the victim is lucky enough that the bullet didn't shatter bone, or pass through arteries and nerves. Loss of limbs is also a very possible outcome. Skin-deep cuts and abrasions don't pose much of a problem in terms of healing. Following that would be muscle groups, which may heal in weeks. Tendons and bone can take months. Organ damage will take just as long, or they may be permanently damaged and never heal.

Remember that people heal differently. Especially when it comes to wounds so dependant on the exact caliber and loading of the gun; The size of a bullet and the energy it carries affect the size of the wound channel and cavity. Low powered rounds would not do as much damage as higher powered rounds (e.g. .22 LR vs .223 Rem), and smaller calibers will do less than larger calibers (eg. 9mm vs .45 ACP).

Combat knives

They weren't mentioned above, but seeing as this is supposed to be helpful to writers, oc creators and rp players, I decided to include knife wounds as well.

What is a combat knife?

It's a military issued knife that every soldier is required to carry on them at all times. It is designed with hand to hand combat in mind, thus functioning in a way that the blade can be flipped open and wielded with one hand. The blade is made to 'stand' on its own, aka two hands are needed to fold the blade back into the knife. These two criteria may put the military combat knife under assault weapons law in some countries (e.g. Germany). They are also designed to for utility use, e.g. cutting through shrubbery, thick ropes or opening ammunition crates. Now, I don't know what combat knives look like around the world, but our German one is embossed with the Bundesadler, the eagle that's our national emblem, and it's also a Swiss army knife - meaning that it has additional gadgets like a screwdriver built in.

What are knive wounds and how do they work?

The overall shape of the wound mimics that of the blade being used. Generally speaking, combat knives are meant to stab and slash, although stabbing has a greater possibility of internal organ damage. A well placed slash may sever an artery tho, so your character would do best not to let a knife get close at all.

Most often, a person doesn't die from the wound itself but from shock - not the emotional kind of shock, but the kind that your body goes into when it loses 20% of its blood in volume. In other words, the victim is more likely to die due to bleeding out rather than the wound itself.

That being said however: A stab and some blood loss won't be stopping someone powered by adrenaline and the need for survival. It's quite possible the brain simply drowns the wound out until the body collapses from cumulative blood loss. Every second counts in a real self defense situation. The assailant may be mortally wounded, but as long as they're able to do the same to you, you'll still die.

A trained fighter won't go or the head or neck, but the attacker's weapon wielding arm. Think of it like pulling the fangs out of a snake: By severing the tendons or the muscles that power them, the hand can no longer close and grip anything. A well placed slash can and will have more stopping power than a stab.

How and if a knife wound heals depends on the type of knife used, wether it stabbed or slashed and how deep, as well as the location of the wound. Much like gunshot wounds it can take years to fully recover, if the victim even recovers at all.

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

new sea glass gardens fan here! ✋🏻 happy to see such so much ask activity but i cant really go thru them all.

SO

what is one thing thats not in the fic but related to the universe that you would like ur readers to know?

Welcome!!

It’s that we won’t get to season 1 but if we did yuuji would be violently jealous of yuuta, who is living his best life and is obviously gods perfect man who has somehow locked down fushiguro megumi as his boy.

Probably just how badly it went when megumi was a kid.

There’s been a lot of asks about what happened when the zenin had shared custody. Most of what happened is never making it into sea glass gardens, because I don’t think it would ever come out in yuuta’s pov. I do have one shots from Megumi’s perspective and Gojo’s perspective that I’ve half written that may go up one day, but for right now, it’s a lot of backstory that you won’t ever get from sea glass itself.

If you don’t want to pick through a million asks, here’s a loose outline of what happened:

Gojo found Megumi and decided to adopt him. He then immediately decided he was in over his head and that he would be dragging Nanami and Shoko in with him. It takes a village and he’ll conscript one of his own.

Nanami and Shoko asked him “where the fuck did you get children” and he Did Not Answer That Question

During this time, Gojo, Nanami, and Shoko were sort of falling apart. They were all grieving. Everyone was completely overworked. Nanami had one foot out the door and wasn’t even hiding it. He was isolating himself and blatantly about to leave them all and not leave a number to reach him at. Shoko was abusing alcohol and cigarettes. Gojo was constantly in missions. They were all on the brink of losing each other for good when gojo brought megumi and tsumiki home.

Then he told the Zenin that he has discovered the magic of teenaged fatherhood with Zenin Toji’s kid and would be keeping him, xoxoxo. Hugs and kisses, peace and love, would not be giving this funky little dude back.

The Zenin replied “fuck you, thats our blood, give him back” and Gojo replied “fuck you, I called dibs.” Which the Zenin Did Not Like.

But the thing is that none of the Zenin knew that Megumi had the Ten Shadows yet, and the Zenin knew that if they went to war with Gojo, they’d lose. And they did not want to fucking admit that one member of the Gojo clan could kick all their asses at once, especially over the son of the Zenin clan’s biggest failure, especially when that guy just fucked them all over by killing the star plasma vessel. To save face, they decided to let Gojo keep him and called it a peace offering between their clans… then turned around and spread rumors about how Gojo just liked little kids and that’s why he wanted Zenin Toji’s son.

There’s a roughly nine months period after that where everyone was genuinely happy. Like, it was far from perfect, but they were finally healing a little? They were finally a real group again. They were all simply enchanted with Megumi and Tsumiki. They were happy. They felt like they could really, really be a family one day.

Then the Zenin found out Megumi had the ten shadows.

Cue the most aggressive custody battle of all time. The Zenin wanted full and unconditional custody of Megumi. They wanted Gojo to never have contact with him again. They did not want Tsumiki. Megumi would be theirs and he was never to be allowed contact with his sister or anyone from their group again.

At this point, the higher ups were mostly content to let them duke it out privately. They thought Gojo would lose, is the thing. He was committing the ultimate taboo by taking the ten shadows from the Zenin. They figured he’d eventually cave after he burned up all his good will and he’d be easier to control after this.

Instead it got to the point where Gojo said “actually, fuck this,” and just fucking. Quit. So did Nanami and Shoko. They formed a union and took the kids with them. The Zenin had decided that taking Megumi was an act of war they would answer in kind. It was either kill the entire Zenin clan or fuck off with their family and they chose the latter.

Megumi and Tsumiki think they were just on vacation but actually the custody dispute had escalated to the point of physical violence and the Teen Parenting Trio were hiding out with them to keep them safe.

This made the higher ups freak out, because all of a sudden, they had lost their only working special grade curse user and their only healer. They put pressure on Yaga to fix it.

Yaga was the one who brokered the custody agreement.

He convinced Gojo that what was best for Megumi and for everyone was to negotiate with the Zenin. The Zenin would have partial custody, and Gojo would have him the rest of the time. Megumi would get training in his technique from the people with the best knowledge of it, the Zenin would get time with the Ten Shadows, and they’d avoid war. Yaga thought it was the best deal they’d get.

This is when it all goes to shit.

The Zenin start abusing Megumi. They wouldn’t call it abuse if you asked them, but it was. They forced him to train constantly. No one would call him by his actual name no matter how much he begged. The bit where Megumi was forcibly bathed in sgg? It was an everyday thing when he was a kid. Every single aspect of his life was controlled when he was on the compound, down to what he wore and how his hair was styled. He was getting beaten pretty badly on the daily. The Zenin consider learning how to manage pain a part of training, and Megumi was not exempt from that. He was their heir. He was meant to withstand the most intense training without complaint.

Zenin Naoya was made one of his primary trainers, and he did purposefully abuse Megumi. Everyone else was obsessed with Megumi, only cared about the idea of him, and discarded anything that didnt fit their image about who they wanted him to be. But Naoya hated him. He saw Megumi as usurping his place in the clan. He liked hurting him. He beat him as often as he could.

Megumi starts acting out at home because of how bad things are with the Zenin. He gets in more and more fights at school and shuts down constantly. He's hurting and it's making him struggle, hard.

Eventually, Megumi goes to Gojo and begs him to stop making him go back to the Zenin Compound.

Gojo doesn't save him.

When they come back and make the custody deal, the higher ups basically go after the Teen Parenting Trio with everything they've got. The thing is that they almost lost some of their most valuable members of their society. They realized that they needed new ways to control them. So they introduced Shoko to harder drugs and got her addicted. They worked Gojo constantly. They isolated Nanami. When Megumi goes to Gojo, Gojo's at the absolute end of his rope, fully exhausted, and cannot take a single thing more.

He's also biased out of his mind as to what he thinks is going on. See, he thinks Megumi is being treated how Gojo was treated when he was a kid, which is like a little prince. The issue he's worried about is Megumi being pampered and put on a pedestal to the point it becomes dehumanizing. He's working double time to make sure that the rest of the time, Megumi gets to be a kid the way he didn't get to be growing up. But he never in a million years thought that the Zenin would ever lay a hand on the Ten Shadows, because the Gojo never in a million years would have laid a hand on their Six Eyes.

The other thing is that he sort of just. Thought he knew what was going on? Megumi had been pissed he had to be separated from his sister from the start. He had started to fight incessantly at school (because he was being abused and lashing out), and the Zenin were explaining away his bruises by saying he was starting fights with the other children. It fully fit with his behavior, in their mind. They blamed Maki more than once for his bruises, ironically enough. They said she was jealous of his technique.

Megumi was itty bitty and so fucking hurt, and he sort of stumbles through asking for help, and a lot is lost in communication. Gojo thinks he's just sick of going back there because his family's fucking weird and treats him like he's magic Jesus and he wants to be with his sister full time again. He also thinks that the only options are keeping this going or killing all the Zenin, because that's what Yaga told him. As much as he fucking hates it, he'd rather Megumi put up with spending two days a month with some fucking weirdos over murdering an entire clan or giving up custody entirely. So he basically cuts Megumi off and tells him that they have to make this work if he wants to stay with his sister the rest of the time.

Megumi now thinks that his family knows about the abuse and that they'll take away his sister if he doesn't just shut up and take it.

Megumi gets more hopeless and desperate, but he doesn't ask for help again. He thinks they already know. And he's not going to beg someone to help who never will. The abuse gets worse.

The Zenin start pushing their luck. They don't want partial custody--they want full custody. They start refusing to turn Megumi over to them unless Gojo personally comes to retrieve him, because Gojo's the only one who can actually make them turn him over. Megumi thinks his family is just fucking abandoning to his abusers and becomes more despondent in his situation. It doesn't help that the Zenin are telling him that he's staying later than he has to because his family didn't care enough to come get him.

Nanami gets increasingly frustrated with the situation because he keeps showing up to pick up Megumi at the very first second he can, and the Zenin keep turning him away at the door, and he keeps having to call Gojo in only for them to suddenly cooperate without complaint. He feels useless and angry.

Gojo feels frustrated because he's got every single second of the day scheduled with missions, and he's having to leave them to knock on the door of the Zenin compound and walk Megumi to Nanami's car. During all of this, Shoko has been escalating her drug use due to the higher ups pressure, and it's starting to show, but she refuses to get clean because she can just heal any damage the drugs do to her. Their previously happy family dynamic starts breaking.

Eventually, the situation at the Zenin compound hits its breaking point. If you're interested in what makes the situation hit a new extreme, the post is here, but I'll refrain from saying it here in case anyone wants to wait and see if I'll post the one shots and have it be revealed in-universe.

Naoya almost kills Megumi that time around, and they're all so emboldened by the liberties they've been taking with the custody agreement that they don't even try to hide it this time. They don't think Gojo actually loves Megumi, is the thing. They think Megumi is just a pawn to him, and that he won't care if they hurt him.

Nanami is the one that finds Megumi like that, and it fucking destroys him. He is never able to forget what Megumi looked like then. He carried him to the car, held him the entire time that Ijichi gunned it back to the school, rushed him to Shoko for treatment, and has never been able to forget what it felt like to hold him and not know if he'd survive the drive. He has never been able to forget it.

Anyway, he went back to kick Naoya's fucking ass.

Gojo showed up halfway through their throw down, drag out fight, so furious the ground shook with it. That's the part that Maki remembers of what happened. He told them that it was over, that they'd never be allowed near Megumi again, and he kept his word.

Yaga tried to talk them out of it. It's not that he wanted Megumi to be hurt. He just genuinely thought they didn't have any other options. He didn't think they could actually take the Ten Shadows from the Zenin. He thought the best they could do would be to try to force them into a binding vow not to hurt him. He told them they had to give Megumi back to the Zenin.

The Teen Parenting Trio cut him out of raising the kids completely after that. It broke their trust in him. They no longer thought he'd actually protect them.

Nanami broke down. He couldn't do it anymore. It was Haibara all over again. He told Gojo he was done, that he couldn't do it anymore. He wanted equal custody of the kids. They could work out a schedule. But he couldn't do this anymore.

Gojo realized that Megumi thought that he knew the entire time, and swore up and down that he'd never compromise on his or Tsumiki's wellbeing again. Their family was never the same, and it sort of haunts Gojo as to what they could have been. He always wonders if they could have had something closer if he had just refused to let the Zenin near his kid.

These events are in greater detail in the asks, but that's the general backstory underlying the events right now.

[creativechaos1020]

So not that long ago the group that I take part in writing workshops with did a workshop on Haiku and Haibun, and I went a little off the deep end and wrote a funky sci-fi short story Haibun thing. Anyway, here you go. *Note: I might end up editing and changing it later. ------------------------------

The docking bays stand tall over the promenade, a pier of iron and steel beneath which roam hundreds of arriving faces. Shuttlecrafts slowly empty themselves of scavengers and refugees, survivors who have seen their homes destroyed. Around me every face has been marred by desperation and every arrival is heralded with relief.

Sea of brown and gray Hungry mouths, aching bodies Safe for the first time

Legends stalk through the crowd, saviors from a bygone age. A steel-suited force once thought forgotten. Staves, swords, knives, guns, all equally deadly in their iron grip. It is hard not to notice the breaks and dents in their once exquisite armor.

Warriors of Old Leaving their worlds behind Battle among stars

Through the translucent sheen of the docking bay’s energy shield we watch as our once blue and green home is overtaken by a swath of shining red. The promenade’s steel booths, once dedicated to trade and commerce, are repurposed and used to distribute food among the starving crowd. A violent plague sweeps across the planet below, and we know we will never return.

Eating at long last A first night among many Watching our world burn

Days become weeks, weeks become months as our would be saviours repeatedly plunge to the planet below. Whispers of small victories spread through the station’s corridors, rumors of safe havens and thriving populations feeding desperate hopes. It would be easy to miss that our saviours’ numbers seem smaller with each return they make.

Battling the plague Plunging Heroes Fall Beneath The Hope of Masses

The station slumbers, its people adhering to their anachronous routines, small comfort for the displaced. My footfalls ring out among reticent corridors, the night quiet giving its own familiar ease. Reprieve is broken as metal clashes. Nearly hidden, two legends quarrel.

A knife is fumbled Shining steel shears armor Sword slides between ribs

Hasty, heavy footfalls rush from the secluded battlefield before fading into obscurity. Unseen, I approach the fallen champion, unprepared to give the aid I offer. Their wound does not bleed, streaks of red splayed beneath steel skin. Trembling hands open damaged armor, as I make my greatest mistake.

Plague engulfing me Tendrils through body and mind It’s taking control

My world becomes red. All consuming Rage. All Consuming Hunger. No Me, only Us. One body perishing, the other still weak. The enemy’s strength lies ready before us. Our forming corpse drags itself from the wreckage. Our weakling slides inside. We are weak no longer.

Wielder unwell Infestation levels high Simply will not do

WE CANNOT BE PURGED. Pain runs through our body, lightning through my bones. THERE IS NO YOU, THERE IS US. Screaming assaults my ears, my mouth dry from the exertion. YOUR TIME IS LIMITED. THERE IS STILL ANOTHER. Vision grows black, consiousness fades.

Recover, wearer. Infection levels dropping, You will be alright

An electronic voice speaks into my ear as my eyes slowly open. A steel second skin covers me, though I do not feel it’s weight. I begin to sit, to stand, slow careful movements made easier on my aching body by armored systems I do not understand. My eyes catch sight of the corpse beside me and it is made clear, plague has reached us.

Carrier running Searching for the next victim To give to the plague

Screaming pulls me from my stupor and I begin to run. As I near the sound, I find three survivors laying before me, red streaks running from superficial wounds. ‘They have been infected,’ the voice informs me moments before they begin to stand. They lunge, but I am armored and they are not.

Blood now on my hands Refugees become corpses I do what I must

Running. Fighting. Running. Fighting. I pour through the hallway, my steel steps echoing just behind my mark’s. Each moment his steps seem closer. Each moment my armored hands are stained with more of the blood of fellow survivors. I see him turn a corner and he is mine at last.

Nowhere left to run I must bring this to an end Lest he doom us all

His rust-red sword lashes out, skilled, but worn. Expert strikes slowed by fatigue are easily dodged. He pulls back and begins to circle, I cannot let him recover.

Fist stands against sword A sharp pain through my belly I cannot fail here

YOU COULD HAVE BEEN US. My arms wraps around him, pinning his in place. NOW YOU SHALL PERISH. My head impacts his again and again. WE SHALL BECOME ALL. He struggles, but despite my wound he cannot escape. YOUR EFFORTS ARE FUTILE. His body goes limp, but I continue until my own sight grows dark.

Neophyte Legend Dying alongside first foe Fate has other plans

Bright light in my eyes awakens me. Rage, Hunger within my mind. Deep breaths keep it calm as my body recovers. Months pass, armor and body are both repaired but my mind is not the same. I will learn to manage. Soon I take my first plunge.

Fighting planetside I can sense its location A boon from my curse

Armored warriors, we battle the plague below. An unexpected boon becomes our greatest strength. We gain ground, make progress, and our numbers remain strong. In moments of reprieve my mind turns to the station above.

Watchers from above Spots of blue on a red sphere Fueling their hopes

[andreisvechnikov]

tagged by some incredible artists: @18minutemajor @jonasiegenthaler and @krakenbait ✨✨✨ thank you friends!!!

rules: post your first ever hockey art, your latest hockey art, and your favourite hockey art, then tag three hockey artists.

tagging: another set of favs @turbolainen @adelphenium @nhlportraits

first ever hockey art: three years I started messing around on canva and did a little poster series. It was completely brand new territory for me and I'm super proud of my journey since then. These were simple and cute and finding specific details for the other teams were a challenge but I think it was a good place to start.

my latest hockey art: from last month - knowing some of these guys would be traded and I had to use some pics fast - I really wanted to make a piece focused on both eyes and brotherhood. The battle hymn came to mind first so I adjust the lyrics to fit. I had a lot of fun choosing the funky shapes and playing with texture! I really really like this one - it highlights the great photographers we have!! With every person looking at something different, it creates variety while still being tied together by the theme.

my favorite hockey art: this is super difficult because I have a few, but I think my favs are my sets. Like puzzle pieces they all have to be unique while fitting together and making sense. here are my top three:

one - the colors!!! the vibes!!! I loved making these!!

two - my most popular one and a super fun challenge to step out of the canes and try different styles. the canes color palette can be limiting at times and minimalism is all about making things pop and utilizing your empty spaces. I also liked the upside down/mirror text in 3/4 pieces - it creates a trend to follow

three (a) - I love love love scrapbooking and that style. This was the first time I experimented with it and these still hold a special place in my heart. Finding those quotes for each person was fun for me too!

three (b) - Again, color!! Plus, thinking out the box in terms of making each moment in this saga funny/creative graphically was a great test. Taking the simple phrases and moments and playing on that etc.

also a special shout out to my chess set

in solo graphic terms this one from last year is still a fav. Digging through getty images for recent pictures to match the position Teuvo and Esa had from their junior picture together was tough but I think it came out great and the flash between past and future pops

:))

[coffeebanana]

for the director’s cut ask game:

It was hard to recall much aside from how he'd awoken a few hours earlier to find his father's body splayed unnaturally across the floor, his vacant stare somehow still bearing traces of disappointment.

The ambulance had pulled away maybe an hour ago, with no sirens to accompany its departure.

Adrien only realized Ladybug was probably waiting for a response when she grabbed his hand, pulling him back to the present with a gentle squeeze. His stomach swirled. Couldn't she have reached for his other side?

She deserved better than the hand he'd used to destroy his own father.

When he finally managed to look up, he only felt worse seeing the sympathy in her eyes. He quickly looked back to his feet, panic drowning out any response he tried to cobble together in his head.

"Has anyone told you what happened?" she asked.

Adrien almost said no—which would be the truth, technically. Nobody had told him, unless he counted the clarifications Plagg had provided after the fact, details of what occurred after Ladybug and Chat Noir fell victim to Monarch's Akuma. Part of him wondered how Ladybug would tell the story, which parts would she soften or leave out. He wondered what she really thought.

But maybe it was better not to know.

Adrien cleared his throat. "I...ran into Chat Noir outside. He said he had to go, but he told me..." He took a deep breath, continuing in a whisper. "I know my father's dead."

It was the first time he'd said it out loud, and the words came out surprisingly clear. It was only afterwards, when they hung in the awkward silence following Ladybug's sharp intake of air, that he felt like they were eating him from the inside out.

Ladybug's grip tightened. "I'm sorry, Adrien. I'm so sorry."

His gut coiled tightly with some unbearable emotion. He tried to think up something else to say, lips parting as he raised his head to look at her. But the second he met her eyes—so wide and blue and sad—speaking was a lost cause.

His lips quivered. A sob clawed its way up his throat, tugging another one up behind it before the first had even broken free. Ladybug's hand rubbed up and down his arm, and that was all the encouragement he needed to finally release the tsunami inside him.

Adrien had killed his own father.

For months he'd been suffering. Adrien had assumed, when Monarch reappeared from his brief hiatus, that he was okay. That the Cataclysm hadn't been fatal. Instead he'd had a front row seat to his demise—to all the times he cried out in pain while cooking breakfast, trying to pretend everything was fine whenever Adrien noticed.

But if it weren't for that Cataclysm, if Monarch's health hadn't been weakened, then the world might have ended a few hours ago, torn apart and rebuilt in his father’s image. With his parents and Nathalie still alive.

Fic link, if anyone's interested: Pull Me From The Embers

This is already long, so I'll put the rest under the cut 😂

Man, okay. I tried to pull up past versions of google docs to see if I had anything interesting there to inspire my commentary but nope. Either I did not rewrite this part 20 billion times, or it simply wasn't immortalized mid-edit. But I did figure out that I wrote this fic in a funky colour scheme, so that's something:

OKAY about the excerpt then. I think this is one example where I'm very proud of like...how naturally I weaved the backstory in without oversharing? Like, I feel like that's something that's always so hard to get right and I definitely trend towards overexplaining. Less is more is SUCH A HARD LESSON TO LEARN ahahaha.

But here like. My slightly more fleshed out idea of what had happened is basically that Monarch's Akuma--whose power is irrelevant because I didn't think about that part--overtook both LB and CN in this. Which is why there's a chunk of the battle Chat doesn't remember here that Plagg filled him in on. And then Monarch was dying so he didn't manage to finish casting the wish, and yeah. But since LB and CN didn't wake up in the same place in the house, they don't know identities still. I imagine they both woke up, realized the place was destroyed, and immediately transformed because they really didn't know if the Akuma was still at large. And then...Adrien probably was alone when he found Gabe's body and just sort of stood there until Ladybug showed up. And Ladybug would have been too busy freaking out to realize how out of it he's been 😭😭😭

The ambulance had pulled away maybe an hour ago, with no sirens to accompany its departure. -- this is a line I was really proud of I think. idk, in my obviously biased opinion i think it conveys what it's supposed to very efficiently.

omg ADRIEN HAS SO MUCH GUILT HERE!!! this is making me want to play with that in one of my post-s5 fics, because I haven't let him piece together after how it went down in canon yet... (there's at least one WIP I have that's gonna touch on it though if i remember correctly)

huh this ask game just feels like a lot of me rambling kjbdfkbj i sincerely hope it's actually interesting LOL

Adrien having complicated feelings about his father's death is MMMMMM SO GOOD though. I could read and write a million versions of that aaaaaaaaah.

On a less serious note, the part where Adrien tells LB that Chat basically just dipped is so funny to me because like. In my mind Marinette absolutely does not question that. Because yeah okay, for one, she's more focused on Adrien, byt FOR TWO, it's absolutely normal and reasonable for her to think Chat just had some normal civilian obligation he had to get back to. He could have just showed up to patrol two days later like "Sorry LB that I didn't say bye after we literally defeated the dude we've been fighting all year! Had to get home for breakfast yk how it is!", and she wold not have questioned it at all. ajbfksdjbf love her <3

uh........i don't think i have anything else to say at this time. But I really enjoyed writing this fic!! ladrien after adrinette's gotten together is something that has become so special to me 💞

thanks for the ask!! 💜

[vivitalks]

🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favorite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨

HELLO! here are 5 songs i like to listen to, as per your request. these are songs that i'm liking listening to At The Moment, which is different from Just Generally, but i still highly recommend them:

Danny Phantom by Spencer Jordan - i saw him open for knox last year (this year?? maybe) and had never heard of him before but was immediately obsessed with his vibe. this song is so much fun.

Lie Lie Lie by Joshua Bassett - late to the lie lie lie party but this is just such a fun vindictive bop and i love how joshua bassett riffs on it

Thx 4 Nothin' by Meet Me @ The Altar - been listening to their new album since i'm seeing them open for champs in a few months and wow i am lovingggg it. this is one of my favorites but honestly the whole album rocks

Come On Colors by Sawyer - i!! love!! sawyer!! such a funky fun lil band and this tune is such a bright, aggressively optimistic battle cry for things to get better than they are, and it's awesome and it's delightful and i love it

I CAN'T HELP MYSELF by Kelsea Ballerini - got to listening to this album a couple months back when i was trying to listen to more kelsea, and this song came up enough times on shuffle afterwards that it really stuck. the lady writes a good fuckin bop

thaaaanks bestie honored to be a favorite follower of yours. i can't insert the salute emoji on desktop for whatever reason but imagine it here: xoxo

[aerialworms]

My fics!

Supernatural

Watching Over You 12,986 words

Time slips past, and Castiel feels calm settle over him for the first time in months. He loses himself in the rise and fall of Dean’s chest, the soft flickering of his eyelids as he dreams. Against all odds, he finds it peaceful here. Cars rush past on the freeway outside, but Dean’s steady breathing fills Castiel’s ears until he forgets the outside world, forgets Dean’s destiny, forgets their impending doom.

How Cas learned to want, and then realized he could have what he wants.

Or; Five times Cas watches over Dean, and one time Dean watches over him instead. Told in snapshots spanning the whole of their canon relationship and ending with a post-confession fix-it.

Who are you? 500 words

Written for Whumptober 2021 prompt #9: "RUMORS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED"

Dean, Jack, and Sam get Cas back from the Empty, but there's a hitch.

Going Under 500 words

Written for Whumptober 2021 prompt #11: Drowning.

Dean's been under for so long. Set during Dean’s possession in s14.

Beaten 500 words

Written for Whumptober 2021 prompt #14: Beaten.

Dean's unhealthy coping mechanisms strike again. Set during the s13 Widower Arc.

Watch 100 words

Set in S5. Cas learns to cope with life on Earth.

Fill for the PB100 prompt "Watch".

One Year 100 words

Just past midnight, Dean and Cas celebrate their anniversary.

(100 words of fluff to celebrate Dean and Cas' one-year wedding anniversary. You go you funky little husbands!)

Hold Me Tight 699 words

Set during S9 E6 Heaven Can't Wait, the morning after Cas and Dean have defeated the Rit Zien.

Of course, they decided to share a bed, but things look different in the morning light.

~~~

BBC Merlin

Autumn Brings A Change 1,002 words

“Get away from me, Merlin!”

“Arthur, please! Just trust me! Please!”  

Arthur crawled backward, dragging his leg over the ground, sword raised to point at Merlin. “How can I trust you? You lied to me, for years, about everything!”

Arthur finds out about Merlin's magic in the middle of a battle, but once it's over, he can't threaten or get away from Merlin due to a broken leg...

After All This Time 2,661 words

"A thousand?” Arthur’s voice took on a steely edge. “What, days? Weeks? You've hardly changed, Merlin, don't exaggerate.”

"Years.” Merlin gasped. He pushed himself back to stare at Arthur, to run his hands through his damp hair, keep his eyes fixed on Arthur's shocked face, as though he was just a trick of the light that would disappear as soon as Merlin looked away.

"Years." Arthur said, flatly.

"Y-yeah." Merlin's teeth began to chatter. "A thousand, five hundred, and-" a particularly violent shiver ran through him and he stumbled on the muddy lake-bed, but Arthur caught his arm and steadied him again.

"Alright, Merlin, let's get out of the water before we both freeze to death."

 Merlin has waited by the lake for more than a thousand years. Finally, his patience is rewarded.

~~~

Good Omens

Three Things Crowley Can Do With His Tongue 1,048 words

A Nice and Accurate Account of the three ways the demon Crowley – a wily old Serpent – uses his tongue.

~~~

BBC Sherlock

Five Times John and Sherlock Slept Together and One Time They 'Slept' Together ;) 9,830 words

Five times John and Sherlock slept innocently together due to various circumstances and one time they *wink wink nudge nudge* slept together. Contains a bit of pining, a bit of misunderstanding, and a happy ending, if ya know what I mean... ;)

[duckapus]

On a lighter note, Splatoon Stuff! More or less.

As I've mentioned before, after Inkopolis glitched out of existence in the Emulator Arc many of the survivors settled in the Mushroom Kingdom, and of course brought much of their culture with them. Most notably, Inksports. By the point we're currently at in the AU timeline, enough of a Profreshional Inksports Scene has developed that a part of New Donk City called Blooper Heights has become a Splatoon Hub Area, and several parts of the city and out into the kingdom as a whole have been seeing use as Stages, both of which got the Royal Stamp of Approval and Official Splatoon League recognition after being in use for a few months.

Also, thanks to E. Gadd perfecting his Inkboi technology Inksports are now fully accessible to non-Splatoon characters as well. The new versions, rather than being boards (and board equivalents) that need to be pulled out and ridden through ink, are instead much smaller add-ons for the Ink Tank that give the user their own proper Swim Form.

Anyway, as you'd expect Blooper Heights has the usual Hub features.

The Battle Lobby is in a central tower (as expected) that has a large statue of a Blooper on top, which a Great Zapfish has decided to perch around. Though it hasn't been seen lately...

The weapons shop is the Funky Shack, run by Funky Kong (he is a weapons dealer after all), who's entered a business partnership with Sheldon of Ammo Knights.

The Crazy Cap store, run by Soldier and a Bonneter named Derby, is the headgear shop.

Stomp Zone is the shoe shop, and is run by a Goomba with really cool sneakers named Kicks.

The clothing shop is called Fresh Wraps, and is run by a Chum Salmonid who goes by Tortilla. I say goes by because Salmonids actually use titles instead of names but she needed something that would fit in a dialogue indicator.

The local branch of The Shoal is owned and operated by the Grid.

The local Shroom Mart carries Locker customization items, and Karen just so happens to work there as one of her many jobs.

Ever since the Haltmann War there's been a Salmonid problem off the Mushroom Kingdom coast, even without A.S.Swipe leading them, so the BattleToads Justice Crew has been on the case on Peach's orders, and has been recruiting part-time members to help with the large workload. It's basically GrizzCo with a different aesthetic.

Waluigi's Taco Stand is now much more official looking (aka it's an actual purposely built stand instead of a random table with a paper sign) and has a specialty menu that functions similarly to the Crust Bucket and Crab-n-Go.

There's a Pianta Gangster who's figured out the secret to Ability Chunks and is doing back-alley deals

And of course, there's an oddly-dressed Inkling people-watching near a Warp Pipe...

[tmgefan]

Even more details about Zlatt’s design (process)

As a tailor Zlatt takes his looks quite seriously. But as a mercenary he also cares about the function of his clothes and how they can help him through the battle or any other challenging situation. There was a lot things to consider.

His first ever design when I didn’t even know what his personality would be was this: 

His design was and still is inspired by D2 corvo. He used to have chains, many golden patterns that didn’t make any sense and I can say this for each peace of this design from 2021. The desing that I managed to create in the end still looks like one of Corvo’s concept artworks and I realised it only after searching for the artbook :D

Back to the process of creating it. It was awful. The clothes didn’t make sense, there was no functionality and I didn’t know how to fix it. I think I was struglling with his design for about a month of constant redrawing.

I tried to save his resemblance from earlier artworks of him where I painted him in details. But it didn’t work well for me. However, maybe I’ll use the jacket idea for the future, it’s still one of my favourite things about Zlatah’s old design. He kind of looks like a hunter, which I simply love.

I couldn’t figure out his silhouette. Sometimes it looked like Rohan or sometimes it would look like... Well

Yeah. My main goal for the design was to put an interesting mix of biker style clothing and tech wear. Here in the corner you can see the first idea for Zlatt’s design in this project:

He was supposed to have a naked shoulder where you could see an engraving tattoo of a snake. He was also supposed to have a cape and a corset. Alas, I couldn’t put it together. And I struggled further for weeks to still save this idea with the shoulder tattoo. I failed. I got stuck in this position where I didn’t know what to design for him. Until I decided to go into my old sketches folder and find this.

It’s a very old sketch of Zlatt that I forgot I had. It was a wholde different design that I’ve never used for him again. Then when I saw it I knew it was it. It felt like him, the silhouette was his, style was his. So, I got back to working on his reference sheet.

Everything was layed in front of me. I knew what to do and what I finally wanted. 

I had biker tech wear and that one sketch as my final direction for the design. Then, this looks was finally born.

In game I tend to use lighter shaders and I also had these cowboy pants that I took inspro for the final design with what was above.

There are buckles and clips, two belts, shoes that could take you through many battles and you could rely on them, pretty gloves that Zlatt never changes because they’re cool and he won them on a bet, there’s funky cowboy pants. Zlatt finally has his silhoutte and style.

What just as important as the story these clothes tell = it’s all functional and the viewer can actually tell how the hell the character fits in the outfit. That was a win.

There’s another topic about his design that I’d like to address later, but for now - thank you for reading.