#I do not want to mislead
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lurking-latinist · 1 year ago
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🐈
#ooh I have a lot of thoughts about Six and Charley and her mysteriousness and how he responds to it#but they intersect with my Six's Mental Health Thoughts which are extremely headcanony#and I know a lot of the fandom would rather just kind of wall off Twin Dilemma and assume Six's proper characterization doesn't include it#and I don't know that I blame them for that#but I like trying to make things fit together#and also there's no way to do that without probably misusing real-world mental health terminology#because (watsonian) the doctor is an alien with an alien brain and (doylist) the writers do not know all that much about psychiatry#but. at least for a bit after his regeneration he deals with paranoia right?#like that's the term the narrative uses. (and it clearly explains his attack on peri - he's perceiving her as a threat due to delusion)#& she says 'I'm not letting a manic depressive paranoid personality like you shut me up' & he objects specifically to 'manic depressive'#later in uhhhh revelation of the daleks? he doesn't tell her about a real danger#and he says 'I didn't want to burden you with what might have been a piece of paranoid speculation on my part'#again I cannot emphasize enough how much I am talking about a fictional character with fictional problems. I do not know psychiatry either!#I do not want to mislead#but one of this character's problems is that he has a badly calibrated sense of danger. sometimes he sees things as threatening that aren't#and sometimes he overcompensates for that#and I think when he first meets Charley he is really not very sure whether he should trust the alarm bells he's hearing or not#she seems deeply suspicious! but also nice? he wants to like her? but deeply suspicious!#'or am I just being crazy?' he asks himself#and so he just kind of... keeps watching her#also unrelatedly to all that I think he kind of likes having the excuse of Mystery for doing what he does anyway which is orbiting her#just slightly obsessing over his companion at the time even if he also occasionally forgets they're there#(he's just very all or nothing in everything all the time)#but yeah. you know how 11 gets about Clara and her Mystery Plotline? 6 is like that about every companion in turn anyway#so he doesn't actually mind having the excuse of Mystery with Charley#this is also why 6 and Clara is so compelling#(this was a tag essay in response to lrb but I decided it was opening too many cans of worms and needed its own post)
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heynhay · 2 years ago
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i love everybody because i love you
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elenagoeslightly · 3 months ago
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How can the simple act of applying sunscreen lead to this kind of convo is beyond me.
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Girl if a man, pixel or not, ever said something like that to me I'd kick his ass in the water and watch the dolphin eat him. Also there was a sound of something like a slap and given the context I think he slapped her butt which screams murder unprovoked (sylus you are on THIN ice)
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boughclan-clangen · 3 months ago
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BoughClan Naming System
boughclan and its neighbors along the coast abide by a strict naming system which is simple, but effective for cats of the clans to quickly identify each others' skills and life stories. naming ceremonies are not only held for major life transitions, but also for cats who display new proclivities for skills they hadn't shown before, such as cats who retire and become particularly adept at telling stories. name changes are celebrated not only within the clan, but also at each gathering as part of clan news.
as such, most suffixes have specific meanings, and many are reserved only for cats who take up specific roles. for cats who are generalists, or who have not yet displayed a particular proclivity for a specific skill, there are generalist suffixes which usually serve to affirm the cat's given prefix. attitude toward generalist suffixes varies between clans and individuals; some find these prefixes to be an honor and a sign of a dependable cat, while others find them boring and uncreative.
prefixes are generally given at birth based on the color of the kit's fur. in exceptional circumstances, such as an outsider joining the clan, they can also be based on other striking features such as eye color, body size, or, very rarely, scarring.
name changes are never issued on the basis of disability, nor are cats ever forced to retire if they have a disability.
below the cut is a list of suffixes the clans of the coast use and their meanings, separated by the role they are reserved for.
Doctor Suffixes
-feather : receives many omens, adept at dream interpretation
-leaf : especially good with herb & berry mixtures, superb healers
-pool : great memory for lore-keeping, rely on their knowledge of clan history to give personal advice
-sight : forward-thinker, reliable advisor for leaders & deputies making decisions affecting the future of the clan
Mediator Suffixes
-tail : good at carefully navigating delicate political situations
-whisker : good-natured and light-hearted demeanor
-shine : charismatic and easy to like
-face : unbreakable composure
Warrior Suffixes
-heart : true to oneself, especially strong ideals
-fern : especially thoughtful
-moss : especially thoughtful
-stream : good swimmer
-belly : good swimmer/diver
-fall : playful, mischievous
-claw : strong, good fighter
-fang : strong, good fighter
-eye : excellent hunter
-nose : excellent hunter
-ear : excellent hunter
-leg : great climber
-foot : great climber
-swoop : great climber
-wing : especially fleet of foot
-flight : especially fleet of foot
-cloud : introspective
-storm : ambitious
-flower : generous, kind-hearted, selfless
-dawn : generous, kind-hearted, selfless
-shade : good at stealth, sneaky
-dusk : good at stealth, sneaky
-ghost : tends to be visited by StarClan or the Dark Forest frequently
-spirit : tends to be visited by StarClan or the Dark Forest frequently
Elder Suffixes
-song : good storyteller
Generalist Suffixes
-pelt : affirmation of given prefix
-fur : affirmation of given prefix
-stripe : a tabby cat or a cat who has one bold stripe
-blaze : a tabby cat or a cat who has one bold stripe
-dapple : a spotted, marbled, mottled, or tortoiseshell cat
-spot : a spotted, mottled, or tortoiseshell cat
-speckle : a spotted, mottled, or tortoiseshell cat
-swarm : a spotted, mottled, or tortoiseshell cat
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fallinglikemagic · 8 months ago
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Okay, I've gone back and forth on this a bit but I think I've made a decision and I wanted to properly make a statement on it real quick - I'm not going to be responding to any asks I get asking me to boost fundraiser/donation posts. I've gotten a few from people in Palestine as of late, but this does also apply to fundraisers for other matters as well.
The reason for this is that I am very gullible and bad at telling when somebody is lying or unreliable, and I tend to take things at face value. I don't trust myself not to fall for a scam, and while I might be willing to take that risk on my main blog that only has like 30 active followers (still undecided on that one honestly), I'm not willing to take that risk on this blog where I have a much larger following.
WITH THAT BEING SAID, I am happy to share any masterposts or lists of fundraisers that have been 100% vetted and confirmed to be real by a reliable source. Feel free to put some in my inbox or the replies/reblogs on this post if y'all want, I'll gladly reblog them :)
EDIT: Going to pin this post and add some links at the bottom to some of the biggest masterposts of fundraisers and other ways people can help. Feel free to send me any posts that I should add here.
Vetted Evacuation Fundraisers List
Daily Click To Help Palestine (arab.org)
Gazafunds.com
Operation Olive Branch
RWBY Gotcha4Gaza Donor Sign-Ups
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ya-boi-joule · 1 year ago
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messy self-indulgent doodles with inconsistent proportions time
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bojan and jure dressed in 1780s fancy coats woo
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kris dressed in regency clothing
thank you for listening
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static-radio-ao3 · 2 months ago
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mariah carey, mistletoe, and other christmas clichés
Regulus Black is in middle-of-nowhere Godric's Hollow to find his brother. He isn't expecting to find anything else there, least of all love. But well, maybe there is such a thing as a Christmas miracle.
chapter one out now!
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bonefall · 1 year ago
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what’s up with BB! Puddleshine? been having thoughts about him recently lol. i find it funny that rowanstar grabbed this random child from the nursery and was like ‘bam here’s our brand new doctor and spiritual leader everyone’
(*shaking twelve year old in the background*)
You know what's pretty cool about AVoS, buried underneath the slog of it all? The thing I keep going back to about this arc, in spite of how annoying it is to be forced to say in ThunderClan as everything interesting happens off-screen?
The way that so, so many young warriors are horrifically traumatized by both the structure of the Clans, and the Kin that they turn to.
It's a shame that the Erins were so committed to the idea of the Clan social structure NOT being the problem, because this whole arc is a perfect time to show how flawed it structurally is. LET these kids have a point, that maybe they were rebelling against something broken, but Darktail was a malicious actor who exploited their naivety to serve HIS ends.
A recap of what's happening in BB!AvoS before I explain my intentions with the Puddy Boy;
The big problem that I want Rowanstar to display is a problem that ALL the leaders of this time period also have. Commitment to Clan rivalry.
After Firestar was killed in AVoS by Dark Forest warriors, Bramblestar considers diplomacy secondary as a tactic. "ThunderClan will not be bullied any longer. We have been too soft with the other Clans for too long; and they have humiliated us by taking advantage of our kindness." (Note: Harespring and Breezepelt being part of the assassination patrol is not revealed until TBC. For MAXIMUM drama reveal.)
He escalated a border dispute that Firestar had worked closely and intimately with ShadowClan to resolve; a fight for a knoutberry patch on their border, just before Winter.
After Russetfur died in this painful battle, Blackstar backslid hard from his redemption arc. This caused the Thunder/Shadow alliance to dissolve towards the end of OotS, ending a friendship between the two Clans that had lasted through all of Po3.
He was open to Sol's manipulation, and while Tawnypelt was trying to fight the Dark Forest trainees who took over ShadowClan in the meantime... Rowanclaw became deputy by organizing a patrol of cats to remind Blackstar how much he means to them.
So Rowanstar inherits the Clan with this in mind. ShadowClan solves SHADOWCLAN'S problems. "ThunderClan had a quarrel with WindClan, but decided that we were their enemy. Leaving ourselves open for betrayal was a mistake; if we cannot handle our own problems, we will inevitably succumb to them when our so-called 'allies' don't come to help." (Note: he isn't completely wrong. His words are borderline prophetic for what's about to happen.)
Onestar has a smug chuckle at this. Since taking leadership, he's been appealing to the strongest, hardest members of his Clan. Those who once tried to kill him for his "weakness" in the Civil War. The "lesson" ShadowClan learned is one that he's known since the day Onewhisker died and Onestar was born, on the night of that sabotaged muirburn. "That so-called peace was always a farce. We are warriors of the four Clans; it was always going to come down to honor, and putting ourselves first. My WindClan isn't foolish enough to pretend like ThunderClan ever acted in anything but their own, hidden self-interest."
And Mistystar respects the direction Bramblestar has taken his Clan in, and approves of the "honesty" that the Clans are now showing. "As the branches of the honeysuckle fight and win the light for themselves, sometimes there are beautiful flowers that die in the shade. We can mourn the end of an era, and prepare for a future that will be made all the sweeter for our shared struggle. This is the way of the Clans, and StarClan's solemn light shines upon us all." (Note: god I love writing Misty's speeches)
In the family tree reworkings, Rowanstar is now the brother of Littlecloud. Sons of Brokenstar, honor-sired for Newtspeck.
Littlecloud... is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's.
He didn't want to choose an apprentice after Flametail's horrible death, heartbroken and stressed out, especially when he couldn't reach his nephew through contact with StarClan.
He can't remember, anymore, that Flametail was freed. He keeps forgetting this, over and over
He keeps ending up in different times of his life, where he's best friends with Cinderpelt and still calling Leafpool by her pre-Honor Title name, where he's inventing a mobility device for Wildfur, where he's still escaping the plague and before he knew his mentor caused it, where he's on the Great Journey...
Rowanstar is in a lot of pain, watching his brother forget so many things, scared and confused half the time. He doesn't want to believe that this is really the end, or that... many of these cats are now so young they can't recognize the various eras that Littlecloud is finding himself in.
Puddleshine and Slatefur are going to remain in Pinenose's litter. Either Lion or Birch MIGHT get shuffled to another one; and ALSO the shuffler might survive the Kin. (SO voice which one you want to survive, if you have a preference!)
SO, Violetshine has either two or three adopted siblings... plus another.
Pinenose's oldest surviving child is Happypaw. Happy is the half-sibling of Puddle/Slate-- the death of Weaselkit in the Great Battle caused his parents (Pinenose and Owlclaw) to break up.
(this is why I'm thinking about just reducing the litter to Puddle/Slate, so Violet has three major adoption-siblings to remember instead of four.)
And now we're ready to talk about Puddleshine.
He isn't the first young cat to be shoved into an extremely high-pressure position because of a Cleric becoming incapacitated. Kestrelflight was also forced to become the holy speaker of his people when he was far, far too young, after Barkface died in TNP. He dealt with this obediently, with only Jayfeather ever really being able to get him to think about it in a different light.
Unlike Kestrel, Puddlekit did voice that he was interested in becoming a Cleric, in BB. But he was too young to be properly making that choice, to know what he was getting into. He mentioned it practically offhandedly, and BOOM Rowanstar had rolled him into the position.
But Puddlepaw has a deep sense of responsibility. "Wise beyond his years"-- likely because of how tumultuous his home life was.
His mother's oldest child, Happypaw, was openly a bully of his half-siblings. Pinenose distanced herself from him as a result, causing Happy to be closer to Owlclaw, who was still not over Weaselkit's death.
But Puddle's Ba Spikefur is not a cat who handles his kit's emotions well. Instead, he encourages ambition, tells him to get back at his half-sibling by being more influential than that twerp could ever be.
Puddle will often go to Violet, the new POV, to vent about these things.
And one thing he mentions to her is how amazing Kestrelflight is, when he gets to meet him at the half-moon conferences. He learns SO MUCH from him, it's like he GETS what he's going through...
Puddle doesn't even feel sure that Littlecloud knows what he's doing anymore. If he's learning the right information at all.
But Rowanstar won't DO anything about Littlecloud-- and he CERTAINLY isn't about to let Puddlepaw go train under someone else's Cleric.
As a result of this, Puddlepaw becomes a VERY important member of Sleekpaw's little group. He wasn't one of their friends to begin with, buuuuut...
When he sits to chat with Sleekpaw and Needlepaw, with Happypaw good and far out of earshot, she makes a lot of sense.
A LOT of it.
ShadowClan is run by old men who don't know what they're doing. Rowanstar is too emotional to make good choices. Puddlepaw, barely even old enough to begin apprenticeship, is running all the medicine for an entire Clan.
And, sure, he doesn't have much in the way of a connection to StarClan, no, just a little more spiritual than the average cat...
But who can point this out? If Littlecloud is slowly losing his mind anyway?
"It's not right, how much pressure's on you," Sleekpaw growls, "And it wouldn't be this way if we could challenge Rowanstar. You should be training with Kestrelflight right now."
"But we're dealing with the shells StarClan dealt, and the Clan is looking to you now," Needlepaw points out on behalf of her friend, "You have much more sway than you know."
This time around for BB, Sleekpaw starts as a young hero. She's right. Rowanstar should be challenged, his emotions are affecting the ENTIRE Clan, and Puddlepaw is in a bad position because of it. Needlepaw is like her best diplomat, surely to become her deputy someday.
They would have made an excellent set of leaders for ShadowClan. But they trusted the wrong person, and were exploited. When Darktail and The Kin came to the lake, they were swept up by it, and WindClan began an embargo.
Puddlepaw eventually oversees the Yellowcough Outbreak, and at first just thinks it's Greencough. He has no idea about strains, or the special types of Color Cough that Clan cats have historically dealt with. Even when he finally does learn it's not JUST Greencough, he's powerless to do anything about it. A lot of cats die because of the lack of mullein.
After that, with ShadowClan so weak and the Kin so strong... he's one of the cats who calls for the merge. The most important one, in fact, leveraging his position to say that this is StarClan's will.
Sleekwhisker and Needletail were right all along, and he's happy to stick it right into everyone's faces. Onestar's tantrum of an embargo killed his Clanmates, Rowanstar stopped him from properly training, he's been under pressure from the time he was small with Littlecloud not fit to be a mentor, and he's ready to welcome in ShadowClan's new era as something that is not a Clan.
...unfortunately, it turned out to be the wrong choice. Not because his thought process was wrong. But because Darktail had other plans in-mind.
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camgoloud · 8 months ago
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he still has his tonsils. by the way if you even care
#sorry this is fucking UNINTELLIGIBLE but unfortunately i’m still on my bullshit about dr. daddyissues. yeah it’s gonna be all month#i am rotating episode 2.8 ‘the mistake’ in my head at breakneck speed. i am gnawing on it i want to swallow it#oh he’s such a lying liar who lies. charming little bastard. would rather die/lose his license than express one wholly unaffected emotion#‘he thinks not giving a crap makes him like house. like it’s something to aspire to’ quick question HOW serious do the daddy issues have to#be before you start latching on to fucking GREGORY HOUSE as a paternal figure and role model. really#even cameron is not down this bad. even WILSON is not down this bad.#the daddy issues of it all are very understandable though because even setting aside whatever went down back in childhood that shit his#father did to him in seasons 1-2 is SO messed up. jesus#imagine traveling all the way across the world to the hospital your son works in for a consult which confirms what you already knew: you’re#going to die of cancer in like 2 months. making a whole point out of stopping by to visit your son. not telling him what’s going on.#letting him spend a whole episode’s worth of time gradually coming to terms with his complicated feelings towards you (complicated on#account of a whole childhood of objectively awful parenting). the kid finally is able to try reaching back out to you. after YOU initiated#the contact in the first place. how do you react? well obviously by telling him ‘oh sorry i actually have to get in a taxi right now’ and#fucking back off to the other side of the world without giving him a chance to actually talk to you at all and resolve any of the emotions#you just dredged up. oh by the way you still haven’t fucking told him you’re about to die and in fact actively mislead him into thinking#he’s going to have the chance to try meeting with you again next time he visits your home country.#especially fucked up given that the whole reason it DID take your son so long to come around THIS time is that he feels like every time#he’s tried reaching out to you in the past you’ve just disappointed him by refusing to put in the effort to meet him there.#And Now Here We Are Again.#rowan what the FUCK is wrong with you. i want to dig you up and kill you again#house md#robert chase#caseyposting
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technikki · 2 years ago
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sweet dreams
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indigovigilance · 1 year ago
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This application's optional diversity section gives me 100 characters to describe my sexual orientation and I have so many conflicting feelings on how to address this. My top choices are:
You know how if you live in a small town and someone asks you where you live, you just give them the name of the nearest city? That's what I mean by gay.
I can explain to you why other people are attracted to David Tennant and I cannot explain to you why Michael Sheen's smile turns my brain into goo. That's my sexuality.
Queer.
Edit: these are law school apps so I’m going to throw in a SCOTUS reference:
In the words of Justice Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it.
Vavoom, sorted.
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silviakundera · 8 months ago
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another snippet from the Grand Princess novel. I am going to be SO ANNOYING about this. (spoilers for their first life! )
Although he didn’t want to admit it, Pei Wenxuan still remembered that at the beginning of their marriage, when he lifted Li Rong’s veil, she raised her head and looked up at him with embarrassment and curiosity. Then, when they exchanged cups of wine, she said in a frank manner: “Wenxuan, no matter how we came to be together, having become husband and wife, I still want to live with you for the rest of my life.” At that time, he also seriously thought that he would live with Li Rong, have children and live peacefully for the rest of their lives.
That was, until Li Rong found out that he liked Qin Zhenzhen.
In truth, he didn’t even know what kind of feelings there were between him and Qin Zhenzhen, whether it was love or merely responsibility. They grew up together as children, and he only had her in his heart and hoped to live with Qin Zhenzhen for the rest of his life, but he could not do so.
Later on, Qin Zhenzhen married Li Rong’s brother, Crown Prince Li Chuan.
As Crown Prince, Li Chuan was a good Crown Prince but not a good husband. He married for political reasons, so although he was just the Crown Prince at the time, he already had a Princess Consort and four concubines. Qin Zhenzhen had a mild temperament and was unfamiliar with Palace affairs. If not for the Crown Prince’s favor and Pei Wenxuan’s help, she would have been long buried in the schemes of the Eastern Palace.
He helped her. Li Rong naturally knew about it, but she didn’t mention it at first. Later on, when he secretly rescued Qin Zhenzhen at a palace banquet and almost was exposed, Li Rong could only step in and help him with arrangements.
That day, they were sitting in the carriage on their way home, and Li Rong was silent. He was a little panicked at that time and wanted to explain, but he didn’t know what to explain because he felt that no matter what Li Rong said, she would be right.
Then, Li Rong returned home and after entering the bedchambers, she walked to the table and poured tea for herself. She turned her back to him and asked: “Do you like her?”
Pei Wenxuan stood at the door. He actually intended to say no, but he felt that it would not be completely truthful, so he replied honestly: “I can’t forget her.”
“What is your relationship with her?”
Li Rong held the cup of tea and looked very calm. Pei Wenxuan still told her the truth, their engagement when they were young because they were childhood sweethearts. After his family had fallen, the Qin family annulled the engagement, and Qin Zhenzhen was forced to marry into the Eastern Palace…
“I just wanted to help her,” He said in a low voice, “No other intentions. She’s the Crown Prince’s Side Consort now. There’s nothing else I can do.”
After he had spoken, Li Rong didn’t speak for a long time. That silence became a deeply engraved impression of that night for Pei Wenxuan.
He saw that Li Rong kept drinking water, one cup after another. After a while, Li Rong seemed to calm down. She turned her head, stared at him and only asked: “Will you betray me?”
“No.” He answered immediately. He looked at her, “You’re my wife.”
“I’m not your wife.”
Li Rong looked at him with a serious expression: “I’m just your ally.”
These words stunned Pei Wenxuan. Li Rong turned and looked out the window and calmly continued: “In this marriage, you and I had no choice and only did it for power. Truthfully speaking, there’s not one bit of love between us. You have someone in your heart, and I have someone in my heart. It’s just that we didn’t make it clear before and had some misunderstandings. Now that it’s clear, it doesn’t matter.”
“It’s not a big deal either,” Li Rong laughed, her tears seemed like they could fall at any time, “Why didn’t you say so sooner?”
Pei Wenxuan stared blankly at her. He wanted to deny it, but he felt that Li Rong wasn’t wrong either. There was no such love between him and Li Rong because it was impossible for a person to truly love two people at the same time. He already had Qin Zhenzhen in his heart, so how could he make room for Li Rong?
Seeing that he still had not spoken, Li Rong lowered her head and softly said: “If you make it clear, then it won’t be a problem. We will live as we have in the future, but I hope Pei daren remembers this in his heart:
I’m not your wife, and you’re not my husband. I don’t care who is in your heart, and you don’t need to care about who I am with. You and I will have our own lives, and we will each have our own happiness.”
“As long as Pei daren promises me,” Li Rong looked at him, her eyes sharp as a hawk, “You and I are allies, so we must never betray one another.”
That evening, it also rained.
Just like now, the rain was pouring down.
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plangentia · 2 months ago
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oh my god i hate being at home
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corellianhounds · 2 months ago
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My Brother’s Keeper
TBB Body Swap AU
Chapter 4: Complications II
Words: 1.6k
Warnings: None
Summary: Things never go the way they’re planned.
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“Wrecker for the last time, stop trying to dig it up, it’s not going anywhere.”
“Says you. Come give me a hand here, I need the muscle.”
Hunter pinched the bridge of his nose, joining Wrecker where he was straining to lift the outer ring on the ground by the one divot he’d been able to make in the stone with his knife. Hunter didn’t know how deep the rings ran but so far Wrecker was the only one who’d made any progress. There were no handholds or notches to tease the idea of a solution, and eventually Hunter had to stand back up and stretch his back.
Wandering around the temple and scanning the walls with his flashlight, Hunter again took stock of his team.
Echo was in control of himself, which (as much as Hunter felt guilty to think of it like this) was an improvement for Echo. He wasn’t having to adapt to anything he didn’t know, and he had more experience and could help the rest of the squad keep a level head.
That being said, he could see Echo’s irritated expression drifting back to where Wrecker was grating his knife against stone, so maybe Hunter’s senses would take some getting used to. Hunter had long since tempered his reflexive irritation at annoying or persistent background noises, of which Wrecker was rarely in short supply. So much of Hunter’s training had involved figuring out how to tone out extraneous information and by now it was second nature for him to be able to tell which sounds or scents or visuals weren’t pertinent to his assessment of a situation, but that had taken training. He made a mental note to adjust the audio settings on his helmet to help block some of the input for Echo.
Wrecker seemed relatively unbothered once the initial shock wore off. He was understandably frustrated at the change in physicality, but he of all of them rolled with the punches best. Tech was still largely built like a standard clone and could shoulder more weight than the average person, but he was more lean and compact compared to the rest of them. It made him fast and evasive in the field, but his fighting style was patently different from Wrecker’s battering ram approach. Hunter was more worried Wrecker’s tendency to bulldoze through multiple opponents and leap onto or into the fray was going to get Tech’s body trampled. Wrecker had always pushed himself to find what eventual limits and thresholds would restrict him, and his personality was one geared towards learning from experience and experimentation. He’d always operated on empirical knowledge, and if that meant charging headlong into danger, so be it.
On the plus side though, Hunter figured he’d only make that mistake once while he was stuck as Tech before realizing he was no longer nigh-invincible. Wrecker may be foolhardy, but he wasn’t stupid.
Tech, though familiar with Echo’s disabilities and prostheses, was still having to make constant micro-adjustments to how he worked. He couldn’t hold his datapad and type at the same time, and the pressure sensors in each of his limbs relayed the sensation differently than organic limbs, enough to the point Tech had had to make a focused effort to steady himself on his feet and work through the change in balance and mobility. He didn’t begrudge anybody for his luck of the draw; he could still move and shoot, and he had plenty of tools still at his disposal, and Hunter knew he’d also be able to keep track of what Echo’s body would need at any given time.
What did concern him though was Tech’s earlier revelation at not being able to recall information the same way as before. He’d gone very still and quiet in the middle of a thought, prompting a sense of unease to worm its way under Hunter’s skin; Tech’s hesitance as he voiced his theory was incredibly out of character and it worried him to even theorize that switching consciousness wasn’t a clean lateral move; what parts of their minds were they unable to take with them because they were tied to their actual bodies, and how would that affect each of them moving forward? How much, if any, would be lost or seep into them the longer they were in somebody else’s head?
And then when it came to Crosshair and Omega…
Hunter didn’t even know where to start with them. There were issues of both age and physiology at play, to say nothing of their respective personalities and skill sets. Any problems either of them had would have to be handled delicately, and thinking about it made him supremely uncomfortable.
If they could just solve whatever puzzle this was and reverse the effects of the switch, he wouldn’t have to deal with any further complications.
Hunter sighed, aimlessly scanning for anything he might have missed. Wrecker had moved on to another ring trying the same thing he had before in chiseling out a larger gap in the cut stone. Hunter jammed one of the pry bars into the first crevice Wrecker had asked him for help with, forcing it down into the ground, but when he leveraged his weight against it he heard a *k-chunk*.
Everybody froze at the mechanical reverberation, silence filling the cavern as they came to a standstill. Wrecker stared at Hunter. Hunter stared at the crevice.
“Uh, Sarge…?”
The ground shook. Hunter’s stomach dropped.
The earth shuddered again, fissures lancing through stone. Hunter stumbled back and Wrecker darted over the colliding floor plates to the outside rings. The floor cracked and began to shear against itself like waves. Stalactites trembled above them. Their eyes widened and the groaning, trembling cavern started to shake in earnest, the cacophonous sound of stone on stone forcing all of them into action.
Hunter barked orders over the din as they grabbed their gear and booked it for the exit. He saw Omega stumble and pulled her out of the way as a stalactite shattered on impact with the ground and sent rocks flying outward in a spray of dust. The rest of the squad was yelling and clamoring for the outer hall, and he scooped her up as he ran, one arm shielding her head from the falling rocks.
Five sets of boots pounded against sandstone as the outer temple walls collapsed behind them. Echo was in the lead, but when he turned right at the first junction he skidded to a halt, Tech and Wrecker colliding with his back as they all hit the dead end.
“What are you doin’—?!” Wrecker yelled.
“This was the turn to get out!” Echo hollered back, swiftly turning and looking wildly around before racing the opposite direction. The earthquake shuddered through the temple again, more fissures slivering between their footfalls and catching up to them. “Other parts of the temple must have changed while we were unconscious!”
The crew raced onward, hitting two more dead ends and an unfamiliar stairway. Echo and Tech argued as they ran, Wrecker yelling at every close call with falling rocks, and when they reached a blocked fork in the tunnels Wrecker reflexively tried with all his might to lift the boulders out of the way, but to no avail.
Hunter raced to keep up, ducking beneath another column that fell and bridged itself overhead. Despite the danger, something nagged at the back of his mind. The temple, the torches, the runes, the rings…
Hunter’s eyes widened. He shouted up to the rest of the men, getting their attention.
“Echo! About-face! One-eighty for each turn we made coming in!”
The squad hesitated but Hunter was already backtracking the way they came and they scrambled to catch up. The temple structure groaned again, crashing walls and columns raining down around them. Hunter wracked his brain for the path they took on the way in, muttering to himself as he took each turn opposite of what they should have been for the way out. He saw a leftward tunnel that split off into two more and he banked right, adjusting his grip on Omega as he rounded the corner and felt a wave of relief when he saw light up ahead.
All of the clones broke from the mouth of the cave system into warm daylight, a shuddering crash of dust and stone bringing up the back of their party. Hunter kept running a good forty paces through the scrub brush before turning back, relieved to see all of his team catching up to him.
“Let go of me,” Omega growled, shoving fruitlessly at him and wriggling out of his grip, falling to the ground and out of reach. She stumbled away spitting curses under her breath, wiping the debris from her clothes.
… Right, Hunter thought. Not Omega anymore.
Wrecker hooted in victory, entreating a high-five from anybody who’d indulge him, but turning to Omega-as-Crosshair sobered some of that good humor; Omega was bent with her hands on her knees, coughing and having a hard time catching her breath. Wrecker felt a pang of sympathy, striding over to slap her on the back and offer his canteen, which she took gratefully, still occasionally coughing.
Echo righted himself, taking deep breaths and trying to slow his heart rate out of habit before realizing he felt… okay. Better than okay, really. The dying adrenaline didn’t make him feel like he was crashing, just coming down from the high like a hang glider skimming down to level ground. He felt alert, focused, senses buzzing from the input of information every sight and smell gave him. With that came two more realizations of the day:
One: His own body had apparently not been keeping up as well as he thought it had this past year.
And two: This was not the same planet they landed on twelve hours ago.
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morn-yvri-winters · 3 months ago
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So i've been working some things.
got some of these sprites I have are rather ugly looking, hopefully i get around to making tilesets, once i learn how to do that so i can make even more uglier sprites /j
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You know, as a stutterer, I could actually familiarize myself with all the characters that have been submitted so far and maybe share my thoughts on whether they’re good representation or not really
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