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babygirlwolverine · 4 years

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Tinsel and Tourists - Chapter Ten

Word Count: 1,811 (another long chapter, I’m sorry)

Dean’s POV

Link to ao3 / Link to masterpost

“For God’s sake, Dean. Snap out of it, lover boy. We’ve got a real case here that’s far more complicated than a salt-n-burn. Could you quit staring at your phone with heart-eyes for five freaking seconds so we can actually do our jobs,” Sam said, crossing his arms and snapping his computer open with a poignant look thrown Dean’s way.

“You’re the one who set me up with him in the first place,” Dean shot back. “You’ve been deliberately pushing us together, and just when I’m about to kiss him, you had to interrupt.”

“Dead body showed up and we needed to check it out. Pretty damn important if you ask me,” Sam said.

“You couldn’t have waited one extra minute? You clearly saw I was milliseconds away from finally kissing him-”

Sam loudly slammed a book down onto the table, effectively cutting Dean off. “Five times, Dean. Five times tonight so far you’ve given me crap for interrupting. I’m sick of hearing about it. Go out there and find Cas and kiss him right now or shut the hell up and get to work, unless you want whatever this is to take Cas and kill him, too.”

Damn. That was a sobering thought. If any monster even so much as looked at Cas, Dean swore he was going to lose it. He couldn’t stop his mind from screaming mine; a protective streak burning inside his gut and wrapping up into his chest.

Placing his phone back down on the table, Dean opened his own laptop and sighed. “How do we even begin to start narrowing down what this thing is? Is there any connection between Callie and Oliver?”

Sam pushed both of the files across the table towards Dean. “Other than the fact they were roughly around the same age, 28 and 29, that’s all I’ve got. Callie worked at the local theater. Oliver was a second grade teacher. They live in different neighborhoods and run in completely different social circles. Oliver is well known in town and is one of the most popular teachers at the elementary school. Callie was quieter. Both of them have helped out with work around the town in different ways- Oliver volunteers at the local animal shelter and Callie helped out at the elderly home. As far as I can tell, both of them are pictures of model citizens, just in different ways.”

Flipping open the files, Dean scanned the contents as he listened to Sam rattle off the big details. “So either they’re both hiding something and that’s why they were targeted, or they both really were squeaky clean and that’s why they were taken.”

“This whole town is filled with good people, Dean. That doesn’t exactly narrow it down for who could potentially be taken next. And we can’t exactly protect an entire town,” Sam said. “Something about it still feels sacrificial.”

Dean sighed, dropping his head down to the table before muttering, “We’ve talked about this, though. No signs of a God in town. No happy success stories or flourishing town.”

They lapsed into silence for a few minutes, and all Dean could hear was the clacking of Sam’s keys as he typed. He let his eyes close, mind wandering back to Cas and their date tomorrow night. God, he was so freaking whipped it was unbelievable. How was he even supposed to tell Cas he’d never been ice skating in his entire life? He was going to look like a complete idiot falling on his ass on the ice tomorrow. And yet, despite the impending humiliation, Dean’s heart was hammering against his chest just at the mere thought of seeing Cas again.

He replayed the almost-kiss over again for probably the hundredth time that night, and he felt himself flush. Cas’ lips… God, even just the briefest brush had been enough to have Dean breathless. He’d been half tempted to walk out of the motel and find Cas when Sam suggested it, merely because he could barely get his brain to focus on anything except kissing Cas and how damn good those chapped lips would feel sliding against his own.

When his phone buzzed on the table, breaking his wandering thoughts, Dean all but hurled himself to pick it up, hoping it was another text from Cas. When he saw Bobby’s name, he scoffed and dropped the phone back down again; trying desperately to tamper down the disappointment that it wasn’t Cas.

“You’re like a lovesick teenager,” Sam muttered from the other side of the table.

“Shut up, no I’m not,” Dean snapped back instantly.

“Sure you’re not. That wasn’t a predictable reaction to thinking your crush has texted you only to find out it wasn’t him,” Sam said, raising an eyebrow.

“Go screw yourself. I don’t have a crush. I’m not twelve.”

Sam chuckled, rolling his eyes. “You’re so transparent you might as well be translucent, Dean.”

Pushing his chair back, Dean stood up. “I’m done having this conversation.”

“Where are you going?”

“To get a beer from the fridge because I’m way too sober to be dealing with your crap right now,” Dean muttered, storming off to the small fridge in the room.

Just as Dean got the cap off the beer, a thought flittered into his head. “You keep saying it feels sacrificial, right?”

Sam looked up from his laptop as Dean approached, taking the beer that Dean held out to him as a peace offering. “Yeah, but as you keep pointing out, there’s no signs of a God.”

“Right, but what if the sacrifices aren’t being done by a God, but being done to appease a God? Something that was protecting and serving the Gods. Almost a middle man between the Gods and the people.”

Sam thought about it for a second before nodding. “We are days away from the winter solstice. And all the patterning shows the sacrifices leading right up to that time frame. And you said it when we left the scene, the way her body was cut up, it was precise; extremely ritualistic.”

“No blood left in her, either. And no obvious signs of vamps draining people around here. A blood offering?”

Sam hummed, before he started typing with renewed interest. “You might be onto something. I’ve got a couple theories. Why don’t you put a call out to Bobby to see if he knows anything, and I’ll hit the lore.”

“Got it,” Dean said, grabbing his phone and taking his beer with him as he stepped outside to call Bobby. After explaining everything that was happening with the case and the details they’d picked up so far, Bobby promised he’d do some research of his own and call if he found anything useful.

By the time he’d finished his call with Bobby, Dean had finished his beer and he was pleasantly warm inside despite the cold wind.

In the morning, he’d blame it on the alcohol, which was a weak excuse when he’d only had the one beer. And yet, after he hung up with Bobby, his finger moved to hover over Cas’ contact. And before he could talk himself out of it, he pressed call.

The second the dialing tone rang in his ear, Dean panicked and went to hang up, but Cas answered on the second ring.

“Dean?”

Dean’s heart instantly kicked up in his chest, and he felt the air in his lungs stutter at just hearing Cas’ voice through the phone.

“Hey Cas,” Dean said.

“Did something happen? Is there- has there been another death?”

Dean shook his head, kicking a small bank of snow as he began to walk around the motel. “No. No, I just- I uh, I missed you.”

Shit. As soon as the words came out, Dean winced. What was wrong with him? He really was a lovesick teenager. One date and a botched first kiss and Dean was so smitten he could barely go five seconds without thinking about Cas. Just hearing Cas’ voice made Dean yearn, and the words had slipped out without his control. And yet, he meant them. Even the case was barely keeping his attention right now. He’d already began an internal countdown to their date tomorrow night, which was pathetic and desperate and yet he couldn’t stop himself.

“I’ve kept my phone with me all night since you texted me,” Cas said quietly, before he laughed softly.

Oh God. Was Cas waiting by the phone for him? Jesus. Why was that so cute that it made Dean’s chest ache?

“My witty humor just so good that you were waiting for more?” Dean said, automatically switching to teasing.

“Something like that,” Cas replied, and Dean could almost feel his smile through the phone.

“I um- I have absolutely no idea how to ice skate, by the way,” Dean admitted, reaching up to snap an icicle off the roof just to keep his hands busy.

“You’ve never ice skated before?” Cas asked, shock bouncing down the phone.

“Nope, never.”

“I’ll teach you,” Cas said earnestly.

“Only if you promise not to let me fall on my ass,” Dean said with a laugh.

“I promise I won’t take my hands off of you,” Cas replied instantly, before the weight of his words seemed to settle in the air. Dean swallowed thickly, his stomach twisting on itself at the thought of Cas’ hands lingering on him.

“And what if I can’t keep my hands to myself?” Dean said, words raw and yet filled with an emotion he couldn’t quite name.

“Is that a promise, Dean?” Cas asked, voice slipping an octave lower; sending a thrill down Dean’s spine.

“God, yes,” Dean found himself saying, words ripped from his throat as he was overcome with the urge to grab Cas right now and kiss him. “Swear to God, if you don’t bring mistletoe-”

Cas laughed and the sound made Dean’s chest feel tight. “As long as you don’t leave me standing underneath it alone again.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Dean said. Just as he was about to say something else, his phone buzzed in his hand and a text from Sam flickered across the screen. Time to get back to work. “Listen, Cas, I gotta get back to work. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“7 o’clock, Dean. Don’t you dare be late,” Cas said.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Dean replied, before handing up; heart racing from the call and his hands sweaty just from flirting with Cas again.

As he made his way back to the room, his eyes flickered to an oak tree near the motel; a clump of mistletoe hanging from one of the branches. Reaching up, Dean snagged a few pieces, smiling to himself as he slipped them into his pocket. Just a little bit of extra insurance to make sure he got that kiss with Cas tomorrow.

#destiel #dean winchester #castiel #christmas #long post

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itsmeevie01 · 4 years

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Before A Moment in Time

ok! this is a LOT of information, but i wanted to make it easier to understand whats going on in my head when i write over the next bit!

MASTERPOST

this is Before A Moment in Time. Enjoy!

Three years before A Moment in Time. One year after Hawkmoth appeared.

Marinette Dupain Cheng is sitting at her desk. Second row back left side. Making her way up the stairs is her friend Alya Césaire. The two girls have been practically inseparable for the last year.

Fuming one row down on the other side of the aisle is Chloé Bourgeoise. Her eyes are glued to where Marinette is smiling at Alya. Nino Lahiffe is sitting in front of Marinette. His headphones are on, and his hand is moving over a sheet of paper that has a music staff on it.

Adrien Agreste can be seen bounding up the stairs, his eyes alight with the joy of going to school, even a year after he started. Behind Marinette and Alya are Rose and Juleka. Across from them are Ivan and Nathaniel. Behind the boys are Alix and Kim, who are across from Mylene and Sabrina.

Max is sitting behind the two girls by himself. In the empty seat next to him, the tech genius has a computer running through a code that he is trying to double-check.

As their classmates greet each other during the first day of school, Madam Bustier can be seen enter into the room, one Lila Rossi walking behind her curiously.

As Bustier called the class to attention, Marinette shared one more smile with Alya before spinning around. When she was facing the front, the teen blinked.

Standing there was a girl who looked vaguely familiar. It took the teen a moment before she realized that this was Lila Rossi. This was the girl who had been sued by both Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. This was a gold digger that they had warned her about.

Chloé must have made the same connection because Marinette’s phone started to blow up.

Mariii + Chlo

Chlo- OH HELL NO

Chlo- M this chit cannot sit with me

Chlo- Dad sued her over the summer

Chlo- MARINETE

Mariii- Chlo

Mariii- hey chill

Mariii- I got this. If you can sit with Alya.

Chlo- anything

Chlo- MY WONDERFUL NONCOFFEE DEALER KEEP ME AWAY FROM THE FUCKING DEVIL

Mariii- on it, queenie

Marinette looked up as the bell rang. Alya gave her a concerned look. With a smile, the younger girl bumped her friend’s shoulder. “Hey, Als, since I’m class president, I think it would be best if I welcome the new girl. Could you go sit with Chloé today? I promise that we can go back to normal once we get her settled.” Alya flashed her friend a smile before giving the girl a side hug.

“of course, Mari! You have such a big heart!” the girls traded smiles before Alya packed her stuff up and moved to sit with the haughty blonde. The noirette saw her teacher give her an approving smile for diffusing the situation so easily, without conflict.

Inwardly, Marinette scoffed. Outwardly, the girl gave her teacher a glowing smile in return.

Marinette truly tried to be nice to Lila. Really, she did. Early on, the girl had learned that being nice was a better route when interacting with people who she didn’t know. Even if it was just a small smile, the noirette had always found success from kindness.

Lila was a sweet girl who had batted her eyes at her and given Marinette a small smile. The two had spent the first period of school passing notes and getting to know each other.

In all honesty, Marinette had no idea why the Italian girl next to her was branded a manipulative liar in her world. Then, during the break, Marinette saw what was going on.

When the rest of the class gathered to introduce themselves, Lila panicked. Then, Lila shifted her posture just slightly. She smiled a blinding smile that stood out to Marinette as obviously fake. She started interacting with the class, sickly sweet and subtly guiding them to beliefs.

Shaking her head, Marinette turned away. She had time during her break to call a certain someone. She needed more answers.

“Clara! Hey… do you have a moment?” through the phone, Clara Nightingale, giggled.

“Of course, Marinette! What is going on with my favorite little cousin? Is everything ok?” the young teen hesitated, before shaking her head.

“I need you to tell me more about Lila Rossi” the dark look that crossed the singer’s face confirmed many of Marinette’s worries.

When she sat down next to Chloé in the hotel restaurant for lunch, a look of pure disgust was dancing on her face. “this girl has filled a level of malice that I have never heard of. Chloé, she has manipulated every person of interest under the sun who doesn’t have the common sense to not listen to her bull shit. Chlo…this girl is vile. Clara told me what they had to do to sue her. One of the requirements of Lila not going to prison for a long time was getting a psych eval. Chloé…this girl is only fifteen! This is insane...” Chloé raised an eyebrow, surprised.

“Today it looked like you two were good friends. Or on the way there at least.” The noirette shook her head in disgust.

“she has some good traits, but as soon as she gets in front of the crowd…she abandons everything for power. I can't trust her, but it seems that she is under multiple restraining orders. I get the feeling that as long as we stay out of her webs, we should be fine. Jagged texted though. He said that Lila can be vicious if she is provoked.” Here, Marinette looked Chloé dead in the eye. “do not cause trouble. I don’t want you to have to go toe to toe with her, Chloé.”

Six months later.

Marinette is settled at her desk, the swivel chair reclined as she looked at the Blonde who was in her room, grinning.

“did she really ask you out?” Chloé’s excitement paired with her nosiness was making Marinette steadily turn Lady Tyche red. Turning back to her desk, Marinette tried to hide her flaming face.

“she asked me if I wanted to go out…like a date…before my birthday.” The noirette tugged slightly on her hair. Her anxiety that had been manifesting more and more at school was not helping her now. “I told Aurore yes. We haven’t set a date yet, but it’ll be soon.” Chloé raised an eyebrow.

“are you two going on your first date on Valentine’s day? Because Mari…I refuse to be best friends with someone so cliché.” The girl flamed a darker red if that was possible.

“I really like her Chlo. But…no. she asked about the 14th. I told her that I was going to spend time with my parents that day. Plus,” here, Marinette turned back to her friend with a Cheshire cat grin. “We,” She gestured between her best friend and herself, “have a standing date. we have for the last three years. Why would I break a pact we made when we were ten, over a girl I haven’t gone on one date with yet?” Chloé’s face broke into a matching grin.

“oh, hell yea. Then, I guess I could help you get ready for that first date of yours…” the friends broke down into giggles and started debating the merits of each of the outfits the young designer had in mind.

That night on patrol, Lady Tyche alighted on the roof of one of the local lycées.

Her blonde hair whipped in the wind that had been howling all afternoon. Across the streets, the spotted hero was able to see a pair of blue luminous eyes. Using her yoyo to pull herself over the street, the girl smiled at the younger miraculous wielder.

When her red boots hit the roof, Apate handed the girl an unmarked bag. Inside was a pastry and a hot chocolate. Both girls knew they were in for a long night.

Apate stood noiselessly and moved to the edge of the roof. As she stood there, profiled against the ridgeline, Lady Tyche smiled to herself. Her partner could be as vicious as she wanted when they were fighting Akumas, but the girl who stood in front of her was very kind.

The Cat vigilante, as she insisted she was no hero, had a pair of ears on her head.

They were flicking to and fro while she listened to the night below. Her hands were resting on her hips, one hand toying with the baton that was usually kept in a holster on her leg. The girl’s other hand was fiddling with a ring she had slid off her finger. The skintight black pants blended into the night. The black top she was wearing also seemed to disappear when Lady Tyche wasn’t looking for her partner.

Even now, with Apate being backlit by the city lights around them, the Tyche was the more visible of the two.

“She’s coming.” Apate’s voice broke her partner out of her thoughts. “Let’s hope tonight goes the way we want it to. Otherwise, we could be royally screwed.” The Hero nodded in agreement.

“I trust Alya. She has been a good fit for Trixx so far.” Apate hmmed in response.

“I fear that our…favorite Italian…may be too close to her. I don’t our fox’s head full of lies and manipulations if I can help it at all.” Lady Tyche winced. She had heard all about Lila’s renewed attack on the allegiances of the class that her crush was in. the past few weeks had not been pretty.

“No! That’s…you told Lila that I was going to be your first partner! Why did you lie to both me and your best friend! Everyone knows that Lady Tyche can’t do this alone anymore! She NEEDS Miss Vixen!” Lady Tyche closed her eyes and Alya’s rant ended with a yell. The anger simmering on the reporter’s face was worrying the hero.

“Alya. I have not told anyone about you. A few people have seen you training and on patrols. You ran the ‘exclusive’,” the disdain in Lady Tyche’s voice had Alya wincing. “but no one has confirmed anything. There is a good reason. The hope,” here, the Blonde teen’s voice turned cutting, “was that you could work in the shadows. There is only one visible member of this team, but I have never been alone. Tonight, and this attitude. Well, Alya, it has proven that you are not ready to be a holder of the miracle stones.”

The ladybug holder looked over to the roof next to where she and the trainee had been standing. There, in the shadows, were a pair of blue eyes. “go ahead, Apate. Wipe her memory of all of this.”

Seven months after Alya’s Miraculous is taken away. Two years after Hawkmoth started. Two years before A Moment in Time.

Aurore smiled at the girl holding her hand.

The two were walking home from their first day of Lycée. Aurore’s blonde hair fell around her shoulders as she turned to look at Marinette.

The 14-year-old, a certified genius, was glowing at the excitement that their first day of school had brought. Although she no longer was friends with Alya, there were no real hard feelings. The rift between the former classmates had made it easier to integrate Marinette and Aurore’s social circles. Claude, Allen, Chloé, Aurore, Mireille, Nino, Kim, Kagami, Felix.

Their group was full of laughter and life. They spent most of their weekends together, even over the summer. To everyone else, the group was the picture-perfect group of teens. Inseparable for life. Aurore had loved it for so long, had loved watching her girlfriend grow. Tonight, however, she had a feeling that the last half-year was going to be left in the past.

She and Marinette needed to have a talk.

Chloé held her best friend as the girl cried.

The two had been sitting on the floor of the heiress’s hotel suit for the last hour and a half. When the small girl had shown up, wearing an old pair of Chloé’s sweats that had disappeared years ago, sniffling into the sleeves of the hoodie she was swamped in, the older girl’s big sister senses had gone off.

Now, as her friend started to calm down, Chloé shoved a pile of clothes at her friend.

“put these on, we are leaving.” Marinette glanced at her friend in confusion, before taking the clothes and slowly changing into the skinny jeans and loose grey top. A moment later, a green corduroy jacket was being flung at her by the blonde 16-year-old who had changed as well.

Quickly catching the jacket and sliding on the matching converse that Chloé had given her, Marinette stood to join her friend. Chloé picked up her purse and looked over the two.

While she had given her best friend a simple outfit that be comfortable for the train ride that her friend didn’t know was coming, Chloé had taken a minute longer before deciding to match her friend. Her jeans were light wash as opposed to dark, and she wore a fitted white t-shirt with a cartoon spider hiding in a red chrysanthemum. The red corduroy jacket was the same color as both the embroidery and her own red converse.

“Let's go, Minette. We are going to the country house. You can truly cry there. Horses await.”

After Marinette and Aurore broke it off, the friends drifted apart. Kagami, Felix, Nino, and Kim refused to let the others blame the split on Marinette. Mireille, Claude, and Allen claimed that Marinette was more likely to be the cause. They couldn’t imagine Aurore doing anything to hurt the teen.

Chloé, Aurore, and Marinette kept their mouths shut over the whole debacle.

Chloé hadn’t heard the whole story, but she knew that Aurore had hurt her friend, and it had led to a discussion that led to the girls both walking away in tears.

It would only be years later that the girls would reveal that they had broken up because of the confusion around their secret identities.

A week after the fateful breakup, Adrien Agreste pulled Marinette off to the side after class.

“Adrien are you ok?” the girl asked, confused. while usually, the two didn’t interact, Marinette had noticed that all day Adrien had been pale and shaking.

“I need help Marinette. Usually, I would go to Chloé, but last time she almost got Akumatized and I just…I need help. Please.”

“what’s up?” he glanced over his shoulder, to where a group of their classmates stood gathered around Lila.

“Not here, she can't know.” Marinette blinked in shock before grabbing the model lightly on the arm. After glancing at him with a raised eyebrow, silently asking if it was ok to hold onto his arm, she took off through the halls.

By the time the two had made it to the home of one Gina Dupain just outside of what Marinette knew to be Hawkmoths reach, the blonde was bewildered. “you know the city so well. How?” she giggled slightly at the older boy before leading him to the kitchen and dropping her bag on one of the breakfast seats.

“I get stir crazy and spend a lot of my time exploring the city. Alix and I go and do Graffiti on the weekends sometimes. That means I’m pretty good at evading sight when I don’t want to be seen.” While her statements were technically true, Marinette had also left out a great deal of information in her response.

She had spent most of her time exploring the city as Apate. She grew up on the streets and would forever feel comfortable slipping into the shadows. She did go out with Alix to do graffiti, but the two also spent a good amount of time jumping into burrows to fix world-ending events.

“now, Adrien, what is going on? If it's bad enough that you don’t want Chloé upset, I expect it to be worth the trip out of the Akuma line.” Adrien nodded nervously, before going into an explanation of what had been happening in the Agreste family home.

Three years into Hawkmoth’s reign. Marinette’s 2nd year at Lycée

Adrien spent as much time as possible with Chloe and Marinette.

He had shown up more than once during their girls’ nights. Now, he was expected to be there.

When they had left for the weekend, Adrien had disappeared from the Agreste Manor. When had reappeared in time to get in the car that Monday, he learned that the only person who had noticed he was gone was his bodyguard. The man had called him, before joining the teens on the outing.

While the friends were getting Adrien out from his father’s thumb, Marinette was launching her brand.

She had a discussion during the branding process because the symbol that she had chosen, a chrysanthemum, was incredibly complex. Her grandmother thought it was too much. Marinette had told the older woman that she was going to use the flower because that was the one with meaning to her. She spent three weeks fending off the woman, who sent her a different flower every day, until the girl told the woman that she wasn’t going to change her mind.

Her Grandmother, her Nona, had laughed and told her that she was very stubborn, but that this time it had worked in her favor. The teen had come home that evening to a leather Jacket lying on her bed, with her named arching over the back where a chrysanthemum was embroidered in full bloom.

At the same time that Marinette was officially launching her brand and Adrien was embracing his teen rebellion, Chloé was becoming an influencer on social media. On any day that she wasn’t spending time with her friends, the blonde was working to cultivate her social media image. At 17, she started to model on the side. When she was gone, her friends would get calls during every free moment she had.

Fourth-year of Hawkmoth's Reign.

The three were friends with the other outcasts from their college class.

Kim and Nino were often seen with Marinette when she was out on a shopping spree or seeking inspiration.

Alix and Marinette were close, and after she became guardian at 14, Marinette had given the Pinkett and crash course on the miraculous, since she had inherited one. The two would always be fond of jumping through time and space to face world-ending events.

Kagami had insisted that Adrien and his cousin Felix make up, and now the three were a force to be reckoned with. As they entered their last year of Lycée, the friends felt like they were on top of the world.

There had been a project due that morning that Marinette had forgotten about until the night before.

She had been up all night and had gone through three different super coffees. She had been running late when she burst out the door of the apartment.

There was a mug of coffee that was clutched in her hands, and she wasn’t looking where she was going. The guy that she collided with looked how she felt.

While he was in a suit, they were both clutching coffee mugs that they had moved out of the way on instinct before throwing apologies over their shoulder and going on with their days.

Neither thought anything of it. They had other things to worry about.

Tim Drake and Marinette Dupain Cheng had no idea that their lives had changed permanently with that one interaction that had lasted less than a minute.

AND...3000+ words later, here we are! let me know if yall have any questions.

I wanted to get this out sooner rather than later so that I can start to build with other characters now. I had a lot of fun writing the backstory, and I have thrown Cannon out the window...obviously lol.

tag list!

@moonlitceleste @redscarlet95 @ultimatetornshipper @mochegato @liquid-luck-00 @maskedpainter @trippingovermyfeet @nathleigh @susiej1118 @t1dwarrior-of-earth @sassakitty @remy-289 @laurcad123 @iamabrownfox @m0chick0furan

#a moment in time fic #Bi!Marinette #mlb #miraculous ladybug #cat!Marinette #cannon? what is that?#pre-maribat #maribat

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btsqualityy · 4 years

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Scripted: Part 11

Namjoon x Reader; Jimin x Reader

Genre: Angst, fluff, President!Namjoon, Head of Security!Jimin

Warnings: (Reluctant) open relationship, mentions of cheating, oral sex, technically public oral because someone else comes in the room lol

Three weeks later, things around the Blue House had gone back to being about as normal as it was possible for them to. You and Namjoon were still keeping to the agreement and faking the persona of a happily married couple, but the two of you definitely were not on speaking terms.

In fact, you had barely been seeing Namjoon lately, as the multiple things going on in your country had taken him away and made him focus on his responsibilities as President. You couldn’t lie and say that you weren’t happy that he was busier these days, because you were. Ever since you’d caught him with Hyejin again, you could barley stand being in the same vicinity as the man if you didn’t have to be. Luckily though, you had Jimin to keep you company.

The two of you, along with Momo, had been busying yourselves with putting the finishing touches on the plans for the Children’s Benefit, which was in about two weeks. Seeing as though you had told Momo about the new developments between Jimin and yourself, she always happened to come up with an excuse as to why she couldn’t join you two when you had to go and do things such as picking dinner menus, performers, and other things, and you knew that she was doing it so that you and Jimin could spend more time together and it not be suspicious; which is something you were insanely thankful for.

Ever since you and Jimin kissed and confessed to liking each other, things had been different between the two of you, which you loved. He was more open with you now, talking to you about everything under the sun without the hesitation or shyness that he had previously. He was also more touchy now and you quickly found out that he was a stage 5 clinger, which surprised you seeing as though he was a big Navy man. Most of all, though, the thing that you loved the most was how often Jimin made it clear just how much he cared for you. He never hesitated to check on you, from bringing you food if you just so happened to mention being hungry to things as simple as asking you how your day was. He was the bright spot in your day, and you loved being around him.

Which is why you were currently walking down the long hallway on the West Wing of the Blue House, where Namjoon’s office, as well as the offices of several other top employees of the Blue House were. Once you got to the door that you were looking for, you knocked on the heavy wood and waited for a few seconds before the door opened and you were greeted with what was quickly becoming your favorite smile to see.

“Y/N-ah,” Jimin grinned.

“Hey,” you replied with a smile. Jimin reached out and grabbed your hand, all but pulling you into his office and shutting the door behind you. You let out a sudden squeak when he pushed you up against the door, smiling down at you as he looked you up and down.

“Baby bird,” he whispered again and you reached up, setting your hands on the sides of his neck.

“Hi,” you giggled, leaning forward and kissing him firmly.

“Missed you,” he mumbled against your lips and you pulled away in order to laugh.

“We saw each other two days ago.”

“Two days too long,” he teased and you just rolled your eyes playfully as he let go of your waist. You followed behind him as he walked over to sit back behind his desk and you hopped up on top of it, crossing one of your legs over the other.

“What are you up to?” You wondered as you watched him type some things onto the document that was pulled up on the monitor of his computer.

“Just outlining some new security procedures,” Jimin told you as he looked up at you and you raised an eyebrow.

“New security procedures?” You repeated. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah, just trying to see what works best and what doesn’t,” he shrugged.

“We’re not gonna have a JFK and Jackie O. situation on our hands, are we?” You asked and Jimin instantly shook his head.

“No, not if I have anything to do with it,” he chuckled. “Everything’s fine, though.”

“Alright,” you said, letting the topic drop.

“How was your day?” Jimin questioned as he looked back to his computer.

“It was good. I found my dress for the benefit,” you announced and Jimin looked back to you with renewed interest.

“Oh yeah? Is it sexy?” He wondered and you laughed as you shook your head.

“It’s a children’s benefit Jimin,” you replied. “I have to play the part of the respectable First Lady in order to get money for the kids.”

“It’ll be their loss then,” he smirked, standing up out of his chair and moving to stand in front of you, and you parted your legs to allow him to stand in between them. “I’m sure that whatever you chose, you’ll look absolutely gorgeous.”

“Yeah?” You murmured and Jimin nodded as you looped your arms around his neck. “I chose it with you in mind.”

“You’re killing me Y/N-ah,” he grumbled and you smiled, knowing the affect that you were having on him.

“Oh and by the way, I missed you too,” you confessed, which made him grin widely. Instead of saying anything, he just moved forward and kissed you. The kiss quickly became passionate, your lips parting in order to accommodate Jimin’s tongue as it pushed its’ way into your mouth. His hands gripped your waist tightly, dragging your butt closer to the edge of the desk so that he was able to push his pelvis against yours.

“Jimin,” you whispered, pulling away from the kiss to speak. “Not here.”

“When then, baby bird?” Jimin replied huskily as he trailed his lips downwards, suckling kisses against the skin of your neck. While the two of you had messed around a few times, you hadn’t actually had sex yet. There was no actual reason, though; it was all just a matter of finding a time where the both of you were absolutely free, which seemed damn near impossible.

“I don’t know. Definitely soon though,” you giggled as Jimin began licking wide stripes from the base of your neck up to your jaw. “I want to, I just think it’s too risky to do it here at 2:00 in the afternoon.”

“I hear you,” Jimin sighed as he lifted his head from your neck and looked at you. “Him though? Not so much.” You raised an eyebrow in confusion and Jimin motioned down with his head. When you looked down, you saw a bulge forming in Jimin’s slack.

“I could take care of that for you,” you offered and it was Jimin’s turn to raise his eyebrow at you.

“Here?”

“It’s less riskier than full blown sex,” you reasoned as you let your fingers stroke the hairs on the nape of Jimin’s neck. “You always take care of me, let me take care of you.”

“Ok. Fuck, ok,” Jimin nodded and he stepped back to give you some room as you hopped down off of the desk. Placing your palms on his chest, you gently pushed him back until he collapsed into his desk chair. You then got on your knees, wasting no time in putting your hands on the bulge in his pants. You undid his belt buckle and the button on his slacks, pulling them open afterwards and coming face to face with Jimin’s boxers.

“Wanna help me out a little here?” You requested innocently and Jimin numbly nodded as he lifted himself up, pulling down the band of the boxers and pulling them down just enough so that his cock had room to spring free before settling himself back down in the chair. You reached out and took ahold of him in both hands, almost marveling at how pretty his dick was, as crazy as that sounds. He was long enough that he fit with both of your hands stacked on top of each other, but he wasn’t so thick that you couldn’t wrap a hand around him.

“You’ve been hiding this from me,” you accused lightly, making Jimin smile down at you.

“Not hiding, just being respectful,” he corrected you and you rolled your eyes plafully as you lowered your head, moving your hands before licking a stripe from the base of his cock to the tip, taking him into your mouth after. He groaned deeply and you looked up at him, shooting him a light glare and he held his hands up in apology.

“Sorry, it felt good,” he defended himself. Shaking your head, you began to slowly move your mouth up and down on him, loving how heavy he felt on your tongue.

“God, that’s good,” Jimin murmured, looking down at you and cupping one of your cheeks in his hand. You brought your hand up, using it to stroke him as you also sucked him off. You could tell that he was getting pretty into it and you were too, which is why you almost jumped out of your skin when you heard the door to his office open as well as a familiar voice.

“Hi Jimin-ssi,” Taehyung greeted him and you glanced up at Jimin to see him straightening himself up as he turned the chair slightly to look at Taehyung. Since you still had his cock in your mouth, you had no choice but to shuffle with him.

“Hey Taehyung-ssi,” Jimin replied and you were surprised by how unaffected he sounded. “What’s up?”

“I just came to give you a copy of Namjoon’s upcoming schedule,” he said and you could hear the rustling of papers. “Also, he wanted to talk to you about security measures for the Children’s benefit, just to make sure everything’s in order.”

“I’ve been working on them so I’ll be ready,” Jimin said, clearing his throat in order to hide the groan that wanted him as you continued to slowly suck him off. “Do you know when he was gonna come in?”

“He’s having a meeting with the Prime Minister right now, but he should be done in about 10-ish minutes,” Taehyung replied. “Is it alright if I send him in once he’s ready?”

“Yeah, sure,” Jimin nodded and you were hoping and praying that Taehyung would just hurry up and leave. Instead, you heard him speak up again.

“If you don’t mind my asking Jimin-ssi, are you single?” Taehyung wondered.

“Uh, yeah I am,” Jimin responded.

“Great! I have this friend, Lee Taemin, and I think the two of you would be a good fit,” Taehyung smiled. “He’s a professional dancer so he doesn’t have the chance to get out much, but I think the two of you would mesh well.”

“Sorry Taehyung-ssi, but I’m not gay,” Jimin chuckled.

“You sure? Because you’re way too pretty to be completely straight,” Taehyung shot back and you had to do your best not to choke on Jimin’s cock from how much you wanted to laugh.

“I’m sure, but thanks for the compliment,” Jimin laughed. “And besides, I kind of already have my eyes on someone.”

“Well, I’ve bothered you enough so I’ll let you get back to your work,” Taehyung said and you listened intently as the door to Jimin’s office opened and then closed again. Jimin then let out a breath that you hadn’t realized that he was holding, sitting up and setting his hands on your cheeks as you popped him out of your mouth and used your hands to stroke him firmly.

“You’re a fucking minx, you know that?” He practically growled and you felt your lower half clench around nothing from the tone of his voice.

“Well, what was I supposed to do?” You questioned, looking up at him innocently. “I couldn’t just stand up.”

“You didn’t have to keep sucking me off either,” he countered and you just gave him a shy smile. “That turned you on, didn’t it?”

“Maybe,” you shrugged noncommittally.

“Fuck, if we had time, I’d lay you out on this desk,” he threatened and you just smirked before taking him into your mouth once again. You put extra vigor into it this time, Taehyung saying that Namjoon would be done with his meeting soon and coming to see Jimin ringing in the back of your mind. You quickly ran your hands up and down the length of his cock, sucking earnestly on the tip.

“God, where can I come?” He asked and you took him out of your mouth in order to answer.

“My mouth,” you replied before sucking him in again. He grumbled roughly and with a few more pumps of your hands and mouth, you felt ropes of cum land onto your tongue. You did your best to swallow it all as you took your mouth off of him, using your hands to still gently coax him through his orgasm. He opened his eyes and lifted his head from where it had fallen back against the chair, and he looked down at you with a lazy smile.

“Come here,” he whispered and you leaned up off your knees, meeting him for a passionate kiss.

“I just had your cum in my mouth,” you pointed out with a giggle.

“That’s not all you would have in you if I had the time,” he teased and you responded by smacking his thigh. You helped stuff him by inside his pants and you stood up and leaned against his desk as he buttoned and buckled his pants again, making sure that he looked put together.

“Do I look alright?” You wondered and Jimin nodded as he looked you over.

“Beautiful as always, baby bird,” he smiled and you felt yourself blush lightly. Just then, there was another knock on the door.

“Come in,” Jimin said and the door opened, Namjoon stepping inside.

“Hello Jimin-ssi, I just came to talk to you about-,” Namjoon started to say but his eyes widened when he saw you. “Y/N-ah, what are you doing here?”

“Jimin wanted to talk to me about some last minute details concerning the benefit,” you lied easily.

“Ah,” Namjoon nodded slowly. “Well, I came to talk to him about the security measures for the benefit as well.”

“I have them right here Sir,” Jimin said as he moved to grab some files that were sitting on his desk. You could see, out of the corner of your eye, that Namjoon was looking at you quizzically but you purposefully ignored him.

“I think I’m gonna head back to the other side of the House,” you announced after Jimin had gotten the files he needed and had handed them off to Namjoon. “Jimin, you can just call me if you have anymore questions about the benefit, ok?”

“Will do,” Jimin nodded and you gave him a smile.

“I’ll see you later,” you told him before turning to look at Namjoon. “Bye Joon,” you said coldly as you stepped around him and opened the door to Jimin’s office, stepping out into the hallway before shutting the door behind you. Both men watched you as you walked out, and Namjoon turned back to face Jimin once you were gone.

“So, do you have any more questions about the security?” Jimin asked Namjoon. “I’ve been working on some new procedures that I think will work well.”

“I see that’s not the only thing you’ve been working on,” Namjoon accused and Jimin rose an eyebrow in confusion.

“Excuse me Sir?”

“Keep your eyes to yourself, Park,” Namjoon demanded.

“Sir, I think you’re mistaken-.” Jimin tried to say but Namjoon cut him off.

“I’m no fool Park,” he snapped. “I saw the way that you were looking at her and I suggest you don’t let it happen again. Understood?”

“Yes Sir,” Jimin replied after hesitating for a few seconds. “Perfectly understood.”

“Good,” Namjoon. “I’ll get back to you on these plans later.” Namjoon then turned around and walked out the office, making sure to slam the door behind him, while Jimin stood there and started to think about what the hell he might’ve gotten himself into.

.........................................

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themockingcrows · 3 years

Text

Doki Doki Grist Panic Ch. 4

Another chapter of my Magical Boy fic, sorry for such a long wait while I got my brain in order!

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27802735/chapters/79562023

This chapter is sfw!

Soft, repetitive beeps were the first things Dave heard when he woke. The whirring of machinery, of a barely there fan spinning in a metal case. He’d know the sounds of technology anywhere, used to the hum and breath of his own computer tower in his room. Nothing was overheating, the room was a comfortable temperature, just warm enough to feel cozy where his skin touched itself at the crooks of his elbows and the backs of his legs. He was aware he was lying on his side, but it was so hard to wake up. Opening his eyes felt far too difficult, let alone moving his limbs. Dave settled for a fingertip stroking at what felt like a blanket or sheet beneath his body and sighed a breath exhaustedly.

It wasn’t fully dark in the room. He must have left his lamp on at the desk and taken a nap, or the door was open somewhat to let in light from the hallway and living room. He didn’t hear anything from the front room, Bro must be napping as well or doing something with his headphones on at his computer. Maybe dinner was cooking, or he was waiting for something to be delivered, indulging in his free time doing this or that. It was a comfortable silence. Dave blinked a few slow times before taking in the strange blue tone to the room’s light, cooler than his usual warm home light. Bulb change? Slowly he rubbed at his face and slid to his back, wanting to stare at the ceiling so he could come back to himself more and wake up properly.

This wasn’t his ceiling.

Instead of the textured white ceiling he was used to seeing for so many years, the ceiling was metallic and matte in color. The walls were matte as well, though at least they were white as his own were. Fat load of good it did him, considering the walls didn’t look familiar in the slightest either. Where WAS this place? This wasn’t his room, it wasn’t the living room for sure. Was it a friend’s house? A hospital?

Dave sat upright and lifted his hands to his throat, his face, a sudden feeling of breathlessness hitting him as he panicked. Breathless… It all came flooding back to him in a rush, mind swimming. The attack, the lack of air, choking, suffocating. But it still didn’t answer the question of where he was, nor what was happening. When he went to rock to his knees, Dave paused, feeling a tug of fabric at his waist and chest. That… didn’t make sense, his uniform wouldn’t do that, nor would his casual clothes. Instead of wearing either outfits, he was draped in a soft white material that was tied at the waist with a woven red cord, though he couldn’t guess what type of fabric it was. It was too soft to be linen, too sturdy to be cotton, and didn’t match anything he’d ever felt. Were it not such a mystery he’d probably even go to say it was quite comfortable.

… Where were his boxers?

Who had undressed him? Even the lack of transformation would be something of importance, he’d go back to his civilian clothes, not… whatever this was. When he finally managed to stand, the room span and he sank back down to sit for a moment on the edge of the bed with a grimace, taking it all in as his mind raced in circles like a penned dog. Dave realized that it wasn’t just the garment that was covering him either, but what looked and felt like strings of pearls and golden beads. They were settled around his neck as if wrapped specifically to make a draping effect over his chest and shoulders here and there, and clasped together at the ends behind his neck with what felt like a filigree hook. Someone had taken great care to dress him like this, but why? Who?

Panic rising in his throat like bitter bile, Dave stood slower this time and headed for the cracked doorway, surprised to find the room unguarded. Cameras? Or was there some other way he was being watched? Paranoia ate at him, but when he poked his head out into the blue toned hallway, he heard nothing but the same soft hum of machinery, felt the cool air blowing from unseen vents. Barefooted, he padded along down this hallway to the left of his room, prepared for any threat. ...Or. Well, as prepared as one could be while unarmed. Dave knew how to defend himself while unarmed well enough, but the desire to have a sword was strong. Maybe he should change before exploring further, get his powerup back and-

“You’re awake. I was wondering how long you were going to be unconscious for. So long as your brain waves were healthy and strong I wasn’t worried, at least. It’s fascinating how fragile humans are once you remove their air.”

Dave froze in place. He knew that voice, but the things it was saying weren’t making sense to his brain. John wouldn’t talk like that, but that was the first person that came to mind upon hearing that specific tone and cadence, the way it handled words as if they were fluid on one's tongue instead of just a thought. Swallowing and taking a deeper breath, he rolled his shoulders back and strode to the full end of the hallway and the room it opened into.

The space was massive. The hums were definitely computers, projecting screens and physical and digital keyboards everywhere, holograms and different moving charts and images dancing in the air. Each wall seemed to have some kind of a space background, stars and a moon, a view of the Earth like a peaceful screensaver. In the center of it all stood a figure with glowing eyes and gray skin, unfamiliar clothing and decoration adorning him, a serene look on his face. He looked calm, in control, but there was no hostility to be seen.

“You can come closer. I’m not interested in fighting you,” he said.

Dave frowned and strode closer, observing the different screens as he went, unable to read any of the angular text he saw. When he was a more reasonable distance from him, he finally talked.

“So you’re the one that brought me here.” It was John. Closer, he could see the shape of his eyes, his mouth, the way his hair sat on his head, his broad shoulders. The appearance had changed, but the core was definitely the same. His stomach churned sickly. He’d kissed this person. He’d been held by this person. He’d contemplated doing more with this person, and it was all a lie.

“You seem surprised and yet not surprised enough,” he said with a hint of a smile. It looked a little forced, stiff at the edges of his mouth as if the gesture were foreign to him. “Might I ask who you were expecting?”

“...Nobody specific,” Dave admitted, trying to keep his cool. “Where is here though? I assume you can at least tell me that.”

John lifted his foot and stomped downwards, forcing the ground to shimmer for a moment before it turned pitched black and then seemed to dissolve. The space pattern from the walls blended to the rest of the floor, leaving them seemingly free floating in space despite walking on solid ground.

“I’d thought it would be fairly obvious, but I suppose even someone like you might have been confused at first. Does this clarify things, then?”

Space. Dave knew Bro had gone before, he’d talked about it in the past, but never did he think he’d get to see it himself. Much less in a situation like this one. His fingers curled into the sides of the new draping clothing he wore, steeling himself as he stared directly down towards nothingness. If Earth was on the wall’s side, then they must be at an angle without even being able to feel it. Whatever technology was doing this was astounding.

A gray hand was suddenly touching his cheek, cold and lifeless feeling, and Dave jerked his head up and took a step backwards to put some distance between them again. The look in his eyes could peel paint, aggressively defiant as he’d been during battle, though this time with the added benefit of betrayal as well. This person had lied to him, led him on, played with his emotions. Made a fool of him. He was a moron. Of course he couldn’t have nice things like romance, they weren’t possible for someone with his kind of career. This just hammered that idea home even harder than before in a way that made tears sting in his eyes and threaten to show themselves.

He kept them down out of sheer spite.

“You hate me so much already,” John mused. “Not even a moment's hesitation before pulling back.”

“You’re not John.”

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re not my John.”

“We are one in the same, Dave. Open your eyes to reality,” John said with a flourish of his arms, displaying himself in his entirety as if he hadn’t been seen properly before. “It doesn’t have to be so bad. Think of the possibilities you’re being afforded.”

“Possibilities? Don’t make me laugh,” he nearly spat. “My John might as well be dead now. I don’t care if you’re the same person, the John I gave a shit about wouldn’t be my enemy. I fell in love with a lie, but it was a wonderful lie, don’t even pretend to act like you’re remotely the same thing.”

John sighed a little and rolled his head on his neck to stretch it before rubbing a few strands of hair behind his ear. “You’re really in denial, aren’t you. I’m the same John. I have the same feelings for you, those weren’t a lie. The only lie is that I’m not human. I’ve no intention of hurting you.”

“You fucking suffocated me!” Dave reminded him with a hiss.

“It was the quickest way to end the battle and sequester you away,” John shrugged. “Would you rather I have beaten you senseless with my hammer? It could be arranged now, if you’d prefer. But I’d dislike crushing your pretty face.”

Dave scowled and clenched his fists tight enough that he felt his nails cutting into his palms. “What do you want with me. Hurry this up, I’ve got places to be.”

“You talk as if you’re getting out of here easily,” John mused. “But since you’re here, I’ll go ahead and extend my offer formally.”

“Offer?”

“Yes,” John said, taking a step closer in an attempt to close the gap, though it renewed itself almost immediately when Dave backstepped again to keep distance between them. Frustrating, but fine, he’d deal with it. “I’d like for you to come back with me to my planet.”

“...Why.”

“Why? Because I like you, Dave. I enjoy your company. You are… special to me. I would enjoy keeping you by my side.”

“Cute words, but you still kidnapped my ass and dressed me up like some toy. You’re not exactly still on the boyfriend pedestal,” Dave pointed out. “Why not just find someone on your planet?”

“There’s nobody left for me there,” he said simply, flatly. “It’s why when I’m done here, I’d prefer to keep you with me. I’ve got the technology to make sure you adjust to our atmosphere once it’s restored, an-”

“Restored?”

John reached a practiced hand out to tap at a keyboard, bringing up a specific hologram of a ruined looking planet. Smaller screens lit up around it showing devastation, pollution, destruction both natural and man made. There was a distinct lack of life. “Restored. All it’ll take is enough grist, and my world can be restored to its former beauty. It’s not the same as Earth, there’s a lot different about it. But it’s beautiful in its own way, when it’s healthy and alive.”

“Why is it your job to fix your planet? If you’re the only one left, why not just live here? We have problems, yeah, but there’s plenty of roo-” Dave started, only to be interrupted.

“Because I’m it’s guardian,” John said simply. “I have a chance to save and restore it, to restore everything to how it was but better. I can fix things. I have that power, and I intend to use it. I just need grist from Earth, and my home will come back.”

“How much grist do you need…?” he asked, already having a sense before getting confirmation.

“All of it, preferably. I could work with less, but if I’m here already why not just drain the damned place and be done with it.”

Dave finally took a step forward aggressively.

“So that’s the entire plan? Destroy Earth, gain grist, revive a dead planet?”

“And have you at my side for the duration. You’d love my world, Dave. You’d be loved there. You wouldn’t have to risk your neck all the time as a guardian nobody is grateful to, either,” John explained, grin widening in an almost manic way. “Once I’m the one to restore things, everyone will realize they have a guardian with that power. That I’ll exist to them as more than a vague concept of right and wrong, that I’m a real person, and that I gave them their life back. It will be beautiful.”

The aggressive stance slackened somewhat as Dave shifted his weight back towards his heel.

“You’re crazy.”

“Am I? Or are you just not looking at the big picture clearly,” John said, pulling out his hammer from thin air with a shimmer. He was a guardian. They were the same, and yet, so obviously different in every way. John tossed the weapon easily in one hand, unbothered by its weight in the slightest, then pointed it at Dave before gesturing to the rest of the room. “I’m offering you a place by my side, an entire world. This is an easy choice, Dave. We were getting so close…”

“If I knew this side of you, I’d never have even called you a friend,” Dave said, trying not to flinch when the hammer swung down sharp enough it made stinging air snap against his face. “I’m a guardian of Earth, John. You know I’d never accept this kind of offer. I can’t let you do as you please. I’m offering you a hand again to join Earth, but that’s as far as this goes.”

“Fuck the Earth!” John shouted, eyes blazing. “It's time as the crown jewel of the milky way is over, Dave, open your eyes! Look at the writing on the wall! War, famine, pollution, greed. Your planet is going down the same path my planet did at first. It’s on its way out now. It’s dimming. Yet, it still has a chance to be useful. It can restart my planet, it can become a utopia, like it always had the potential to! A second chance!”

“And why the fuck should I let you kill my planet to restart yours? What makes all our lives inferior?” demanded Dave, jaw tense. This guy was crazy. Absolutely fucking crazy.

“It’s nothing personal, Dave. It’s just business. We can always work together to find another planet to restart yours the same way, another world chock full of grist for the taking. We could work together, even. Keep both our planets safe. It’d be great, it-”

“Isn’t going to ever happen.”

“Dave.”

“I’m not going to let you lay your fucking hands on anything of mine ever again. The Earth is off limits to your grist mining.”

“Dave, listen to me.”

“The offer to remain as a friend of the planet is on the table still, but from the sound of things you’re expecting more. It’s not going to happen. I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Dave,” John said again, sounding pained. The grip on his hammer tightened with every word, face desperate and tense.

“Not now, not ever. This planet is my responsibility.”

“Dave, listen!” John shouted.

“I DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN TO A FUCKING THING YOU SAY WHEN YOU’RE TALKING SO NONCHALANTLY ABOUT KILLING ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY!” Dave shouted right back, raising his fists into a fighting stance defensively, prepared for what might be coming from their outbursts.

John lifted his hammer high, eyes flaring like electricity. A dark breeze rushed through the room, jerking Dave’s clothes left and right, whipping his hair wildly. He prepared for breathlessness, he prepared for the hammer. For what may come.

“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST DO AS I SAY?” John yelled, slamming the hammer Dave’s direction. It was a mistake. An accident, he’d try to tell himself. He would never hurt Dave, he’d promised himself he wouldn’t, yet him talking back like this, him refusing him, him refusing him the chance of fixing his world… it was just too much to handle, and he’d done the first thing that came to mind with the darkness.

The hammer struck true, but not on Dave, much to John’s anger and relief. Instead, it was struck and currently straining against a sword that he hadn’t seen before. It was white as marble, with a strange, almost conical looking crossguard. Solid as anything, with a hum of vibrant energy as Dave held John’s strike at bay. Gone were the white clothes, the beads, the pearls, in its place the familiar uniform and white hair John had seen so many times. The flashy red, the gears ticking in the air as he stared with piercing red eyes directly into John’s. No sign of yielding.

He hated that look.

He loved that look.

They strained against each other for a moment before Dave made a move, gears spinning wildly behind him as he slowed things down and surged forwards, sliding the hammer along the edge of the sword till he could flip the balance and send it away from him. Quickly, he angled his body and struck a blow across John’s middle, though it was far from a kill strike. Even now, Dave hesitated to kill some of his enemies, something that he knew would come back to bite him in the future in one way or another. He hoped that, possibly, there would be some way to save John from himself. To clear his heart, his mind. Somehow.

Maybe he could ask Bro, call a favor in from Dirk. Anything. There had to be a way.

As time sped back up, however, Dave knew he was out of time, metaphorically. Instead of attacking again, or preparing to intercept a second hammer strike, he instead clenched his hand over his heart and focused as hard as he could on home. He could picture it in his mind, the futon with Bro’s legs dangling over the end, the television, the wires crisscrossing the floor, food on the counter, smuppets and swords everywhere. The moon from the rooftop, the faint hint of stars in the light polluted sky, the heat of midday sun on the treated surface, waves in the air bouncing off the metallic surfaces of the industrial air conditioners. He could feel it so intensely he could have drawn it with his eyes closed.

Chest warm, Dave heard his heart ticking in his chest, the steady beat of the clock that he worked with. It ticked louder, louder, harder till it was all he could feel, all he could hear… and he was gone. John struck the empty space Dave had been standing in mere seconds after he flashed and disappeared from view. Growling in rage, dark wind wildly thrashing, he threw his head back and yelled wordlessly to the digital sea of stars above him.

This wasn’t over.

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

Dave’s roof was exactly how he’d been imagining it. Comforting, welcoming, and entirely his own. Though relieved at his sudden arrival back on Earth, he couldn’t help but stare up at the sky to try and figure out which bright spot was a star and which might be John’s ship just beyond the atmosphere. He gripped his hand tight against his chest again, before finally glancing down towards his sword. This definitely was new, but what happened? Did he get gifted an upgrade, or had he unlocked it somehow on his own in a fit of panic? He gave it a twist swing, slicing the air cleanly with a vwip noise a few times before the door to the roof clanged open.

“Jesus fuck, kid, you’re gonna give me a heart attack. Where’ve you been? It’s like you disappeared!” Bro said, hurrying forward as Dave slowed his strikes to a halt. “I came soon as I felt it, but seriously, what gives?”

“Felt it? Felt what?” he asked, confused.

“The ping,” Bro said. At Dave’s continued look of confusion, he set a hand over his heart with a smirk. “I might not be a guardian anymore, but I’m sure as shit still tapped into the system somewhat, and just from bein’ who I am to you I’d feel it I’m sure. Felt when you disappeared… felt when you came back. Dirk no doubt felt it too, even if only a bit. Everyone must’ve felt somethin’, no matter how small, that changed.”

“Somethin’ sure as shit did change, did you see this thing?” Dave asked, hefting the sword up one handed to display to Bro lengthwise, offering it to him to hold and examine in the moonlight, white and all but glowing in its deadly way. “I don’t know what happened, one minute I was goin’ for my sword, the next this cropped out instead.”

“Nice. Solid as shit, too,” Bro judged by the weight. “This is a hell of an upgrade kid. ...I hope it didn’t cost you too much. You know how they are about their workers supplies.”

There was always a price. Be it in time, or be it in blood.

“I hope so too. I’ve got no idea, though. I didn’t hear Hephaestus at all, or see him or anything, just. New sword,” he explained as he took the weapon back, changing out of his uniform and into-

“What’s with the getup?” Bro asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Fucking-! Ugh. God damn creep changed my clothes while I was out cold. H- … Wait. Motherfucker, my phone!” he shouted, looking up towards the sky angrily. His phone was gone, his clothes, his everything was gone and it wasn’t like he could just ask for it back.

“There’s worse ways to lose a phone, kid. We’ll get you a new one,” Bro said with a shrug. “Come inside, already, before you get sucked back to space or wherever the fuck you were at. I’ll make Hot Pockets or somethin’ to celebrate.”

Dave smirked. “I survive a near death experience and you offer me Hot Pockets. My first time off-planet, and it’s Hot Pockets.”

“These are the garlic bread kind, and I’m willin’ to share.”

“...You drive a hard bargain.”

Bro clapped a hand on Dave’s shoulder. “We’ll try puzzlin’ out your powerup and talk while you eat. You can even change out of your weird drapey dress if you want.”

Dave shot another look at the sky as if daring John to react while he stood there more vulnerable, while he was with his guardian, but nothing came. He’d need to finish this. Maybe the Hot Pocket talk could include more strategy than anything else, a second head with more experience fighting off-planet threats to help him think of different options.

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

As they started walking, Bro chuckled. “If you wanna call your boyfriend I’ll lend you my phone for a bit if you ask real nice.”

Dave’s stomach churned as they headed through the door, mouth suddenly full of bitter spit. “No thanks. That’s. ...I’ll tell you while I eat.”

#johndave #homestuck #john egbert #dave strider #my fic #my fic writing

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captainmazzic · 4 years

Text

Happy Halloween.

So it’s about time I gave a real fucking update instead of just dicking around being cagey about shit. I’ve mentioned a new project repeatedly. So let’s sit down and actually talk about it, friends. Pull up a chair, grab yourself some hot cocoa and strap in. Welcome to Sarc’s emotional roller coaster.

Bear with me. This is hard to talk about for so many reasons, but mostly because I’ve been belittled and ridiculed so many times in my life for liking “cringy” things or wanting to do things that other people think are stupid or childish. I hear the voice of my father telling me to “make something of my life” and “don’t squander your talents”, I hear the voice of my mother telling me I have “so much potential” and “one day I hope you get some ambition”, I hear the voice of my ex telling me to “stop wasting time with stupid shit” and “nobody is interested in failures”. I hear old teachers telling me honor roll students should go to college and study high-demand majors and anything else would be lazy and detrimental and won’t contribute anything worthwhile to society.

It’s the same shit that prevented me for a long time from posting art online. From posting writing online. From making ocs and showing them to other people. And now it’s preventing me from starting this project, and I’m so, so tired of it.

My biggest fear right now is that once I start talking about this project I’ll lose this tiny little community of people vaguely interested in my stuff that have somehow stuck around. External validation and sharing the things I love are my primary motivations with everything I do online, and while screaming into the void is all well and good, I need feedback and interaction and community. I need it so, so badly. I wouldn’t post jack shit – ever – if I didn’t need that, to be honest.

So anyway.

When the pandemic kicked into high gear earlier this year I got laid off for a few months. It gave me a lot of time to think about who I am and where I wanted to be in life, what mattered to me, what dreams I still had and which ones had fallen by the wayside.

Some of them are huge – once upon a time I was very religious. I went through seminary, got my minister’s certification, and was slated to be an associate pastor in a mega-church and rake in a six-figure income within 3 years. But I lost my faith and couldn’t stand the idea of being disingenuous.

And there was also a time when I received a full-ride scholarship to a very prestigious university that would have spanned a 12-year program and resulted in me having several doctorates and masters degrees by the end of it, in the fields of geology, palaeontology, and cladistics. But the scholarship program that was supposed to sponsor me went bankrupt the very semester I was supposed to capitalize on it. I was still accepted into the school, but the $1.2 million price tag would have all been out of my own pocket. So obviously that didn’t happen.

Those were the “acceptable” dreams. Those were the ones that parents and teachers and the general outside world approved of and thought were worthy goals. But neither of them panned out, and all I have left are the cringy ones. Like homesteading and sustainable living (can’t start without land, can’t have land without money). Like making comic books and doing art commissions for a living (it has to be steady to support myself, and I’m far too slow an artist for things to be steady). And like… playing video games.

Ha.

What’s funny is I can already envision the eyerolls and hear the snorts of laughter. What kind of dream is that? Only a handful of famous youtubers and twitch celebrities play video games for a living, and breaking into a field like that is pretty much impossible unless you already have friends in famous places.

Yeah, but… it would be so much fun. Right?

It WOULD be fun. I don’t have to become a super popular celebrity for it to be fun, right?

I don’t have to make it my day job and rake in piles of cash for it to be fun, right?

… I don’t have to actually be successful for it to be fun… right?

… Right?

… I love video games.

I’ve loved them ever since I tried and failed so many times to win The Empire Strikes Back on Atari 2600. I’ve loved them ever since I played Mortal Kombat with my cousin in his basement with the sound down super low because it was ultra-violent and I would have been in so much trouble if mom caught me playing it. I’ve loved them ever since I tried and failed to finish Strife and Hexen and Heretic without the computer crashing and rebooting to DOS. I’ve loved them ever since I had to cheat-code my way through Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II just to get past the first boss fight but then no-clipped through the wall and died anyway. I still love that game.

But I stopped playing video games for a very long time. I was intimidated out of them by an ex and a somewhat toxic friend group who were Real Gamers™. I was brought to LAN parties but not allowed to play, because I slowed down the team and didn’t know the controls. I was banned from commenting on other people’s moves or cheering people on because it was distracting and I could cost them a win. I was even kicked out of their online D&D campaigns because I couldn’t be serious enough or roleplay well enough for their standards. Even if I was playing a game on my own, I couldn’t play with anyone else in the house because I’d be ridiculed for dying a lot, or for going the wrong way, or for picking the wrong game because only certain games are “good” and most of the ones I wanted to play were “stupid” or “trash” or a “waste of time”.

That kind of thing sits with me for a very, very long time. I didn’t really play games at all for over a decade. Even after I ended up on the opposite side of the country, with a new circle of friends, I couldn’t bring myself to play much of anything.

And then I had an extended visit with a friend of mine, and he introduced me to an early version of a ridiculous little game called Minecraft. My friend was an avid gamer but also a very kind one. In the ten years before this, I had told myself that I just preferred to watch other people play games instead of playing them myself (a lie. I mean, I absolutely adore watching other people play, but I also want to play too lol), my friend saw through that and very gently encouraged me to take a stab at playing Minecraft myself. He moved his laptop over to me, and I played a whole ten minutes with him watching before my nerves failed me and I promptly died. But miraculously it wasn’t a big deal to him. It was just a game. I might have cried in relief, I don’t remember.

After my visit I shelved playing video games for like another year, despite buying a whole mess of them because other friends online loved certain titles and wanted to talk about them with me. (I never played them, just bought them. I couldn’t even handle the thought of playing by myself in my own house). But for some reason I mentioned to my brother-in-law my old visit to my Minecraft-loving friend, and he just… up and bought the game for me. My brother-in-law is also an avid gamer with a lovely and patient disposition, and he suggested I just play in creative mode and build things to start. So I did that (behind a locked door in the RV that I lived in by myself, with the lights off and the sound down low) and Minecraft was my sole video game for another several years.

Then a couple years ago another friend of mine (hi Char) introduced me to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I fell in love. It sparked a renewed interest in video games that I thought I would never really have the opportunity to satisfy, because games were still intimidating.

Let me clarify: I… SUCK. At video games. I’m terrible at them. Learning controls is a nightmare and a tunicate evolving its own brain would learn faster than me. If I’m aiming, I can’t hit the broad side of a barn. I have the direction sense of a whirligig beetle on the back of a drunk pigeon. I die fast and I die often. I can count the number of games I’ve actually finished on one hand. Even less if we don’t count the ones I had to use cheat codes to get through. But none of that diminishes my love of experiencing them, and over this whole pandemic and quarantine thing I’ve had a lot of time to unpack and mull over my thoughts and feelings and passions about them.

… I moved my RV to a new spot literally the day before the lockdown in my state first initiated. Before this I was in a spot that had no internet other than what reception I could get on my phone, with severely limited bandwidth and patchy, unreliable service. The new spot has a steady wi-fi connection, and while upload speed is utter shit, downloading and streaming video are just this side of manageable. So I spent the first three months of the quarantine lockdown doing pretty much nothing other than watching Jacksepticeye, CrankGameplays, and Markiplier play video games on YouTube. (I honestly had no idea before this that people even did let’s plays. My internet access/speed has been shit for so long I’m totally out of the loop).

It… for fear of sounding utterly stupid yet again, it inspired me.

Like. These people really love what they’re doing. They just. Play video games and have fun with it, and I mean yeah they make money hand-over-fist doing it but the main thing is they HAVE FUN doing it. They have fun! Playing video games! In front of people! It’s wild. And the thing that REALLY got me was… they have feedback on it too. They have a COMMUNITY. They have people they can talk to about it. They have people that they can play games WITH, even, who don’t yell at them or tell them they suck every five minutes or tell them they can’t play with them because they’re worthless as teammates. They can fuck up in a game and their friends are laughing along with them on Discord instead of screaming at them to get it right or get out. They can play games by themselves in their house and then upload videos on the internet and then they can talk to other people about it! They have fun! It’s awesome! They have fun!!

I just. It meant so much to me. It meant so much to me to see these videos of these three, and then another dozen or so that I’ve followed since, play all these games and have such a good time and also be such a positive and kind and encouraging source of energy.

I know all of this is not exactly about video games specifically. It’s about coming to terms with how I’ve been treated as a person and as a friend, about how other people respect someone’s interests and passions, about how it’s okay to share your interests with other people and it’s okay to like things that other people might not care about or think are important.

And I’m so, so tired of not doing the things I love because I’m afraid of what other people will think.

So I, uh. I invested all of the stimulus money I had into a new rig and equipment like a camera, lighting, acoustic panels, all that shit. I dug out all the games I bought but never played, I made accounts on all the big gaming services like Steam and Itch.io and GoG, and I made a YouTube channel. And I’m going to be making my own let’s plays. And it will suck, and it will be cringy and awkward and badly done, and it won’t make me money or be a valid career option or be anything but another very expensive hobby, but it will be mine, and it will be something I can share with people and (hopefully) have fun with, and it will (hopefully) be an avenue for some of this positive social interaction I’m craving.

I know YouTube can be toxic and super negative and full of trolls and cancel culture fanatics and people just waiting to find something to tear you down for, but like. Come on, y’all. I’m posting this on tumblr dot com. Toxic is everywhere anyway. I just want to try, you know?

I just want to love video games again.

Someone famous that I look up to so, so much told me – without knowing that I was even listening, without even knowing that I even exist – that if I enjoy doing something, to just go for it. To just jump in and do it, and if it works then it works, and if it doesn’t, what have I actually lost?

And I’m lucky enough to have four whole offline friends that I’ve mentioned this idea to, and each of them has said encouraging things like I’d have a good voice and face and style for making let’s plays. I honestly don’t know how true that part is, but on my good days I believe them. And they also said that I should go for it, to just try.

So that’s… that’s what I’m doing, I guess. I just want to try.

I know it’s not Star Wars fanart. I know it’s not Star Wars fanfiction. I know it’s not Star Wars meta or essays or ranting about the Sith and the Jedi and the Force. I know it’s not what y’all want from me. And that’s utterly terrifying. I’m bracing myself to be alone on the internet again, because I know that when I dive headfirst into this thing, it’ll eat away into the time that I normally might be spending doing writing or art, and it’s going to be something no one else wants to see and no one signed up for. And that’s partly why it’s taken me so very, very long to get started.

The other part is more physical. Of course as soon as I decide that I’m going to put my face on a camera is when my entire face goes to shit. I’m currently waiting on a potential diagnosis for mouth cancer, while already dealing with a severe jaw infection that’s causing my teeth and gums to rot inside my mouth. They already took part of my jaw, I’m missing teeth, others are turning black, if I open my mouth even just a little it is so obvious and I look like a very, very literal zombie. I have never been more grateful that masks are socially acceptable. I have a series of twelve appointments scheduled to treat this shit now that I have dental and health insurance (goodbye paycheque), and I might qualify for reconstruction surgery too. But that doesn’t really help how I look right now.

So I just can’t bring myself to start this project just yet. I’ve been sitting on it for months now with all the other pieces in place, but I just. Can’t. Start. It’s driving me crazy, because I want to start so badly. I feel like I’m wasting time. I feel like I’ve already wasted so much time, because I haven’t even done anything else in the meantime. I haven’t done hardly any art or fanfic, nothing. My anxiety is spiking so high right now because I have all these expectations of myself, but I can’t do anything about it. I’ve been told that I could just start without a camera or wear a mask on screen, and I’ve actually done some recording doing exactly that, but I just… can’t seem to make anything I want to finalize.

It’s also frustrating because I have no way of uploading anything at home. I’ll have to go over to my partner’s house which is nearly an hour’s drive away in order to get internet good enough to upload videos, which means that upload schedules are going to be shiiiiiit and that’s also frustrating.

But. But. BUT. I want to do this.

I want to do this so badly. I want to share let’s plays and experience a love of video games with other people. I want to actually play games with other people too. I also just acquired a piano keyboard, and I want to play again on the regular because I miss it so much. I used to play piano for hours every single day, it’s so relaxing and fun, maybe I can post that too. Maybe I can post let’s draws or something, where I ask y’all what to draw and then make a video of me drawing it while bullshitting to the camera I don’t know it sounds like fun. Maybe I can post videos of my cooking because the shit I make seems to be everyone’s favourite thing on instagram, and maybe I can take my camera with me when I go to the ocean or hike up into the middle of nowhere in the mountains and film how beautiful everything is up there. Or maybe I can do none of that and just focus on one thing, I honestly have no idea what I’m doing or how to do it, but I just… I want to try. I just want to try.

I don’t know where any of this is going anymore. I’m sorry I haven’t responded to messages, or opened up commissions. I’m sorry that this isn’t what y’all wanted. I’m still going to continue drawing and writing, I’m still going to be around, I’m not going anywhere, but I have no idea how prolific I’m going to be and I have no idea even when I’ll start uploading videos, to be honest. But I just. I’m just gonna try. It might still take me a while but I’m gonna try. Wish me luck. I love y’all.

#long post #psa #sarc speaks #sarc speaks a LOT #3k words worth of a LOT #I'm so sorry #OTL

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melodious-madrigals · 4 years

Text

***

Steve knows what a television is, and how it works, okay?

Well, he understands it conceptually.

(In theory, anyways.)

It shows a moving picture; it’s one of the technological leaps that has happened since he ‘died’. He’s seen glimpses of what Diana’s computer and mobile phone can do, with their sleek lines and the way they light up and retrieve information faster than he can comprehend. He’s seen the display screens in the metros, and the streaming advertisements that flash by as the train speeds through the dark tunnels, the sequences of pictures that replicate people in motion, a little disjointed but just as good as the cutting edge moving pictures he saw in the 1910s. But in the month that he’s been in the 21st century, he’s never actually seen one of these movies that everyone talks about, or anything on the Tee-Vee, really.

To be clear, he doesn’t particularly feel like he’s missing out. Diana doesn’t have a television in her apartment, and even though Barry has scoffed at this fact all four (4) times Steve’s met him (time he pulled him a hundred years forward in history inclusive), there are plenty of other things for them to do.

(For one thing, Steve has yet to exhaust the new and creative ways in which he wants to worship Diana’s body, thank you very much.)

The point is, Steve does not care a whit about television or moving pictures beyond a cursory, isn’t-the-future-interesting sort of way.

And then Diana suggests that they go to the cinema on a date.

"I think you'd enjoy it," she says, and maybe he's an absolute sap, but the fact that she thinks he'll like it is all the convincing he needs.

He agrees immediately, and that's that.

“Do I need to get dressed up?” Steve asks the next afternoon as they’re getting ready to go to the cinema.

“Not even a little,” replies Diana from the bathroom, in the process of braiding back her hair. “The cinema is dark and traditionally one eats a lot of horribly sugary food.”

This suits Steve, who likes sugar and doesn’t particularly like suits. (It also doesn't hurt that the casual button-down he'd earmarked for the evening and now gets to wear is one that always makes Diana's eyes darken a little.)

When they arrive, Diana is the one who chooses their seats and pays for the tickets, while Steve looks around gamely at the bright posters, still a little unsure what to expect.

Next, she steers him to the concession stand.

“We could have just brought snacks from home,” says Steve, glancing warily over the prices on the overhead menu. He's still not used to modern pricing; it makes him itchy.

“Not for your first cinema experience,” says Diana. “That wouldn’t do.”

In front of them, a pair of bouncing children tug on their mother's sweater, pleading for the largest size possible of—

“Popcorn?” asks Steve, pleasantly surprised, and now examining the food displays with renewed interest. It’s something he remembers eating as a child, on cold autumn nights around the fireplace.

“It’s a cinema staple.”

"That, then."

Diana orders a bucket and a selection of candy to go with it. They're left with enough time that they can duck into their seats a few minutes early. The lights are still low and the screen blank, but they dig into their treats anyways.

“It’s got no substance to it,” Steve says of the popcorn, though he promptly shoves another handful into his mouth and then sends a lopsided grin her way, cheeks bulging. “More salt and butter, though,” he adds after a moment, and Diana smiles.

“Yes, humans got rather good at that.”

“I’m certainly not complaining.”

It’s just then that the lights go dark, and the screen comes alive.

As the opening scene plays, Diana watches Steve's eyes widen just a little, the way he jumps at the sound and leans forward, almost entranced by the screen.

"Wow," he breathes, more to himself than to her. "Motion pictures really do have sound now."

Diana bites back a smile, and has to force herself to look back at the screen.

(It doesn't work: the movie is passably interesting, but it doesn't hold a candle to expressions on Steve's face, and she spends most of the film watching him fondly instead. The way his eyes go so wide that she can see the flashing reflection of the movie mirrored across them. The way his lips part slightly and he sucks in a sharp breath as the action races towards its peak. The little expressions that flick across his features, one after another as he gets lost in the story. She doubts she'll be able to give nuanced commentary on the substance of the film, but it's worth it.)

“That was amazing,” Steve says breathlessly, as the credits roll. “That was amazing. I knew technology had come a long way, but it’s so lifelike and crisp. Like it was really happening in front of us."

Diana wonders briefly if this was what it was like for Steve when she first arrived, seeing bits of the world through fresh eyes, experiencing simple pleasures as something profound, revolutionary. For her, the progress happened so steadily that she never really stopped to marvel how far it’s truly come.

"It's extraordinary," she agrees, and he wastes no time in launching into an excited analysis of the film.

When he eventually gets to the special effects, Diana makes a mental note to show him some of the movies from the '80s to demonstrate just how quickly ‘cutting edge’ effects have changed. She also makes a mental note to invest in a television, and maybe reinstate her Netflix account, and to look up drive-in theaters.

"So," she says, when Steve takes a breath, "same time next week?"

His ensuing grin is all the answer she needs.

(Popcorn is nice and all, but there’s at least one other cinema tradition she’s looking forward to.)

#wondertrev #wonder woman #diana prince #steve trevor #lenci writes #lenci's tumblr ficlets #in honor of ww84 not coming out this month i am pretending that it doesn't exist #honestly i'm a little unsure of this ficlet too but i've just had such bad writer's block that anything seems like a win at this point #*looks out the window* when will my muse return from the war

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elianthvia · 3 years

Text

7 Reasons Why I Quit

(only for a little bit)

It has, alas, been another few weeks since I posted. I have an excuse for my unpunctuality: I've been spinning non-stop like a top. The conclusion of the last Zoomester and the start of summer are to blame. I have seven partners in crime.

Culprit 1: Puppetry Workshop

Towards the end of the year, DTI (Design Thinking Initiative), in collaboration with the Theatre Shop, hosted an in-person puppetry workshop where a small number of people could participate per covid protocols. In-person events were few and far between this semester, so of course I rushed to sign up. The workshop ran for about 2 hours on three consecutive Mondays. We met in the theatre shop inside Mendenhall Center for Performing Arts.

The first day we made shadow puppets (and mine was a bee); the second day we made hand puppets (mine was a ... cyclop ghost king?); the third day we made marionette or string puppets (I attempted to make a teru teru bōzu, but everyone thought it a ghost). I had a lot of fun trying different fabrics, re-learning how to use a bandsaw, and magically joining things together with the help of a hot glue gun. (Side note: Polymer chemistry is the magician behind the scene, and I will be learning more about the science of hot glue guns in the polymer class I am taking next semester!) The workshop was surprisingly not as popular as I anticipated, maybe because people were busy as the semester came to a close. The good news is that DTI will be running the workshop again in the fall so more people will get to participate.

(Is she a ghost or teru teru bōzu?)

Culprit 2: Spring Piano Recital

I did not expect to attend a live concert this semester, but I was invited to the spring piano recital as a "special guest." It is a habit I developed while working as a concert crew at Sage, to sit outside the Sweeney Concert Hall and listen to the rehearsals after I finished setting up the stage. That day I was going to do homework outside the concert hall while waiting for my performing friend to finish. The piano instructor spotted me and asked me if I wanted to join. Disbelieving in my good luck, I accepted the invite. About ten students were scattered in the almost empty concert that felt sad and lonesome, but soon music filled the air. I thoroughly enjoyed every performance. Lots of Chopin were played, but my favorite one is Rhapsody in Blue which just entered the public domain this year. All pieces are about or more than a century old, which is not a surprise, but refreshingly, there is a piece by a female composer, Amy Beach, whose granduncle co-founded Bates College. You can find the full program here.

Culprit 3: End of Classes

The end of classes was epitomized by professor-resembling pixels on our computer screens bidding us goodbye. Usually professors would plan something fun for the last day of classes, virtually as well.

I remember last semester my Multivariable Calculus professor changed his virtual background to a wall of donuts, explaining that during the pre-pandemic times he used to bring a box of donuts for students on the last day. This semester in Mathematical Methods for Physicists and Engineers, we explored the applications of Fourier Transform by looking at the velocity of a star and detecting the number of planets around it. Our last Circuit Theory lab was in person, where we got to listen to a song/piece of our own choice through the low pass filter and the high pass filter pictured below. The professor handed out prizes (cool items she accumulated in conferences) to students to reward them for their participation in the pre-class trivia games. I received a mini glow moon. In addition, our circuits professor left out end-of-class fun packs with origami papers and stickers outside her office. Our last Organic Chemistry lab was also in-person, where each lab group presented their experiments and findings (through a projector rather than Zoom screen share!) My presentation group decided to dress up for this special occasion after a long year of virtual school. Lastly, for Organic Chemistry, we played organic chemistry jeopardy in our last lecture.

With all the professors wishing you a happy summer, you start daydreaming about the sunny beach and breezy wind. Oh wait, you still have final exams to take. All in three days!

Culprit 4: Final Examinations

This semester we had a three-day final exam study period (or reading period) when professors are not allowed to assign any homework or set deadlines. Right after the reading period is our final exams. Smith is known for its flexibility when it comes to exams thanks to its Honor Code system. Many exams are self-scheduled. Some are open-notes, and some are untimed. In a normal year, students go to Seelye Hall to print out and take the exams when they feel prepared.

For the classes I am taking this semester, I had three hours to take my Math Methods final, a whole day to take the Circuits Theory final, and the entire finals period to take my Organic Chemistry I final. Besides the exams, I had several other writing assignments to turn in. I was very fatigued at the end of the semester, so even though I only had three exams, I struggled to muster up mental energy to study. To make things worse, I got my second Pfizer shot during the reading period and had a pretty bad reaction. As a result, I asked the class dean to give me an extension on an exam, which was generously granted, and I was gratefully less overwhelmed.

Culprit 5: SmithCycle

The finals are now over, but my vacation didn't start yet. I am staying on campus for a few extra weeks to work for SmithCycle. SmithCycle is a program that collects, sorts and redistributes gently used dorm items students donate in the move-out process at the end of each school year. It gives purpose to items of reusable value and creates a more sustainable campus. In the past week, we have collected hundreds of bags (no exaggerations!) of items. Besides clothes, books, school and dorm supplies, some of the unexpected items include coffee makers, brand new water filters, and a monitor. One of my coworkers commented that first-years shouldn't have to shop clothes hangers again while they were going through three boxes of donated hangers.

The winter clothes we collected are going to the International Students and Scholars Office. They have an event called Winter Clothes Closet every fall where international students "shop" for free to help them get accustomed to the New England weather. School supplies will be moved into the Common Goods Resources Center which CEEDS hopes to launch in Fall 2021 (very exciting!). I cannot plug SmithCycle enough. If you are an incoming first-year, visit the Common Goods Resources center before you head to Target!

I have always been interested in sustainability and renewable energy and want to get more involved. When I saw the SmithCycle worker position posted on Workday, I immediately applied. Every SmithCycle worker's job varies. I am mainly responsible for washing and drying the linens and blankets. When waiting for the washer and dryer, I help with unloading the van that circulates between houses to pick up bags of donations. I also help with sorting. Pictured below is the inside of Scott Gym where all the items are currently stored.

Culprit 7: Summer Housing

As college transitions into summer, students who are staying on campus for some part of the summer had to move out of their spring housing assignment into their summer housing. I moved from Chapin, the house in central campus, to Capen, which is on the periphery of Smith. I know Chapin and Capen sound alike, but they are very different houses location-wise and personality-wise! To make up for its distance to the academic buildings, Capen House has its own garden, Capen Garden. The garden a gorgeous place many current Smithies are missing out on. There is a mini fountain, hedges, a garden temple, a plant arch, and a bizarre owl statue. Look at the last picture of the garden in this blog, and you will agree with me that the Paradise Pond is overrated.

Built in 1825 and acquired by Smith in 1921, Capen House is named after Bessie Capen, the second woman to be admitted to MIT. She taught chemistry at Smith College. Fun fact: Bessie Capen was once the associate principal of the Mary A. Burnham School for Girls, now Stoneleigh-Burham School; I went there for horseback riding lessons during my first year at Smith. Small world, right?

Case Closed

Thanks for reading this long-ish explanation. I hope my tardiness in delivering this post may be justified by the causes above. To compensate, I will write about my other summer plans and updates in the next few weeks. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, enjoy your summer!

#puppetry #piano #music #finals #smithcycle #capen house #capen garden #summer #pfizer #college #Smith College

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1245

Serious question, peanut butter or nutella? Oh you are just mean. Nutella is amazing as a filling or icing, but when it comes down to it I guess I look for peanut butter more often. I love both though.

Do you prefer baked potatoes or mashed potatoes? Mashed. But baked potatoes are pretty good too; the only reason I didn’t pick it is that I don’t get to have it as often as I do mashed.

What is your oldest sibling’s middle name? I’m the eldest sibling, but my sister, who comes after me, has Beatrice as her second name if that’s what you mean by middle name.

Do you like breadsticks? Yes. The more cheesy-garlicky, the better.

What are your favorite things to spend money on? Merch or food.

Which would you rather have a new puppy or kitten? Puppy. Not the biggest fan of cats.

How old will you be on your next birthday? 24.

Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? If it’s the combination of having to be around people I’m not too close with, like workmates, and I’m eating something that tends to be messy, like jjajangmyeon, then yeah I can definitely feel conscious.

When you opened your eyes this morning, what were your first thoughts? I fell asleep from 11 PM to around 3 AM and when I woke up then I thought “ugh, I fell asleep early again?”

What is one thing in the room you’re in that reminds you of somebody? My vape pen constantly reminds me of Andi because they were the one who gave it to me.

Could you ever be friends with somebody who was homophobic? No.

Would you ever want to be a supermodel, or date one? I did want to be one, at one point. It was all a matter of being stuck with the wrong crowd at the time lol.

Honestly, have you ever made fun of somebody so bad they cried? Probably with my sister when we were very young.

Honestly, would you rather be complimented on your looks or intelligence? Intelligence.

Have you ever purchased a pregnancy test, for yourself or otherwise? I never have.

You can get one thing, anything, for free right now. What do you pick? Why? A 1 or 2 TB hard drive. My phone has reached the stage where I’m starting to have to constantly delete shit so I don’t reach the maximum storage, so I need someplace to dump all my photos and videos in to free up my phone.

Honestly, have you ever danced naked? Nope.

What was the first illegal thing that you did? Did you get caught? I dunno...buy pirated movies? I didn’t get ‘caught’ since pirated movie stalls are widespread here anyway, so for the most part I’ve always been more concerned for them than I am for myself.

What is the home page on the computer you’re on? Technically it’s supposed to be the Google home screen, but I have an extension that shows me my to-do list for the day.

Do you like to write poetry? Nah, that’s always been my Achilles’ heel when it comes to writing.

Are your ears pierced? Yup. Surprisingly enough they’ve never closed up despite never having worn earrings (clip-ons notwithstanding) in the last 13 years.

If so, were they pierced with a piercing gun, or with a sterile needle? I’m not sure, since my mom had them pierced when I was a baby. I would guess piercing gun, though.

Do you wear makeup regularly? I never wear makeup.

Did you eat cereal for breakfast today? I never have cereal unless I’m staying at hotels. It’s just never been something I look for.

When was the last time you tripped over something? A box that was lying around in my room.

Any obsessive-compulsive tendencies? I’ll sometimes get concerned with how many times I have to flick the switch of our hot water dispenser or open and close the refrigerator door before I feel completely satisfied...but I dunno if that counts.

Who was the last person you yelled at? Technically...Angela? I was filming an unboxing video for a gift she randomly got me and I loved the gift so much I was yelling my excitement through the screen.

Why did you yell at them? ^ That.

Favorite type of apple? I don’t like fruits.

Ever seen live horse racing? No, it’s not something that interests me.

How about live greyhound racing? I don’t even know what that looks like.

What’s one thing, besides the obvious, that you couldn’t live without? The arts, I guess. I need something to listen to, to watch, etc on a regular basis.

Have you ever touched a giraffe? I don’t think so.

What does your mom call you? Robyn, or the Filipino term parents use for their kids.

What stresses you out the most in life? A particular client at work. We have a million campaigns going on for them at any given point so my life virtually revolves around that brand these days.

Do you play any PC games? What is your favorite? Nope.

If you were pregnant, how would you tell the father? Well, that would depend on the circumstances. Did we want a baby? Was it a bad surprise, a happy surprise? I can't answer this with just one idea. < Yeah.

What’s the hardest level you can play on Guitar Hero? If I’m using a Playstation controller, I can go Hard or Expert. But my finger coordination with the actual guitar controller is terrible and I fail most songs even at Easy.

What ever happened with you and your first boyfriend? There was never any ‘boyfriend,’ but my first girlfriend and I have basically had a falling out and I haven’t talked to her in months, and I expect it to continue being that way.

What’s your favorite country song? I don’t have any.

What is the worst thing a former boyfriend/girlfriend has done to you? Putting her pride and anger first even when I’m obviously in a state of disstress or breakdown in front of her. That’s some emotional rollercoaster I’m glad I don’t have to deal with anymore.

What were you for Halloween last year? Just Dora the Explorer again, which was a repeat from the year before that.

Are you feeling guilty for something? I don’t think so; at least there isn’t anything I’m actively feeling guilty about at the moment.

Are you usually quiet or loud? I think I’m in between? I’m pretty loud but I can space out at the most random moments hahaha.

How many hours do you spend on the computer a day? This question always makes me wince at myself...I guess anywhere between 16-18 hours? The only time I put my laptop down is when I’m off to bed, but otherwise it’s constantly open.

What is the show that you watched when you were little, and you still do? I don’t think there is such a show.

Do your siblings text you? Nope. We live under the same roof 24/7 so there’s been little need to text.

Do you want a small or big wedding? Big.

Have you ever searched for your own house on Google Earth? Yes, but that was when Google Earth was still super bare so I wasn’t able to see the actual house anyway, but just the general area where we’re located. I haven’t used Google Earth in years.

Who is your ex dating/talking to? I don’t know and I hoooonestly could not care less.

Ever kissed someone who smokes? Yep.

Does it take a lot for someone to annoy you? Depends on my mood. I have my moments where it’s very easy for me to get irritated.

Do you own your own computer? I mean it was bought for me, but I didn’t get it with money I earned.

Did you ever have to share a room with one of your siblings? When my brother was starting to mature, my sister and I very very briefly experimented sharing a room, but it lasted like all of two weeks. My parents ultimately just transferred our balcony to a bedroom so that all three of us had our own rooms.

What noises in the room you’re in, do you hear at the moment? An airplane is flying above me at the moment so I can hear its engine. I can also hear some crickets chirping and the faint barking of dogs.

Have you ever dated someone with longer hair than yours? Yup.

What’s the biggest upcoming event for you? I guess my second vaccine dose is kinda big? It’s happening this Friday.

What do you typically order from Wendy’s? I rarely get Wendy’s tbh, but when I do I usually go for their Baconator.

Have you ever been given a lapdance by an actual stripper? No, it’s not something I would be into.

What do you love most about yourself? Continued the next day because I am terrible at taking a survey in one go. I like that I don’t hesitate to do or buy things for my loved ones, not even inwardly. I guess it’s because my family has always lived very practically, so I want to make up for that by spoiling my friends.

Have you ever received a hickey from the last person you kissed? Yes.

What are you doing right now? I am supposed to be at work but it’s a relatively quiet day, so I’m here. I do have my screen split between Tumblr and my emails though, so that I’d be able to see if new work will come in hahaha.

What’s bothering you right now? Quiet work days always make me anxious because it makes me think if I’m forgetting about something crucial.

What was the last thing you drank? I literally just took a sip of my coffee before moving on to this question.

Be honest, do you like people in general? Depends on the situation, I think. Like when I go to concerts, I know I’m around people I share the same interests with, so there’s a sense of solidarity that goes with that. But when I’m like...I dunno, lining up to get my license renewed at a government office, I know people there are in a rush and tend to get rude, and that makes me feel a little bit overwhelmed. I don’t think this is something I can generalize.

Do you want your tongue pierced? No. Lip I can consider, but I have to pass on tongue.

Do you change your phone background a lot? I do these days, yeah.

Have you ever made someone so mad that they broke something? Possibly.

Have you ever been strip searched? I’ve been searched, but was never asked to strip.

Do you have a funny last name? Does anyone make fun of it? No, it’s an ordinary surname.

Ever have a drug overdose? What did you OD on exactly? Never.

Do you get sick of people who call themselves bipolar all the time? I get sick of people who call themselves bipolar, and of people who use ‘bipolar’ to describe someone else who just has your typical mood swings.

Describe your day so far in three words: Business as usual.

What was the most stressful project you had so far/while in school? I was once designated as a leader for a science investigative project, which didn’t make sense because science was definitely not my strongest point. Needless to say it didn’t go well and I ended up being a terrible leader. Choose one- Butterfinger, Milky Way, Snickers: Butterfinger, even though they’re a bitch to eat and chew.

Have you ever stepped in dog poop? Maybe once or twice. It fortunately doesn’t happen a lot.

What was the last thing you spent money on? I got Angela and Reena cheese tarts. The reason behind it was Jin held a VLIve last Monday and he had been eating egg tarts during the stream; and because I was happy to have watched my first Jin live, I got my friends cheese tarts hahaha. I don’t know a lot of places that sells good egg tarts so I settled for cheese tarts instead, which I think are better anyway.

Have you ever slept in the same bed with the last person you kissed? Yeah.

Is there a guy that knows a lot about you? I guess Hans? We personally don’t get to have a lot of heart-to-heart exchanges, but considering how Angela’s my greatest confidante I’m sure she has shared bits of my life to him, which I don’t mind.

Is there someone you just can’t imagine your life without? I don’t really like answering this question anymore because the people that I’ve declared ‘for keeps’ have faded out of my life at some point. I’m a lot more guarded and self-preservation-y when it comes to this now.

Do you prefer Starbucks coffee or small cafe coffee? Ooooh, both. I love coffee.

Would you ever consider getting a piercing in your septum? No.

Do you enjoy being outdoors? If the weather is nice, yes.

Do people tell you that you have an accent? I mean I’ve been told my English is strong, but my accent in particular doesn’t really get noted.

Do you enjoy watching fireworks on the 4th of July? I don’t celebrate that.

What’re some unspeakable subjects for you? I don’t like talking about my brother. Otherwise I am pretty open about everything.

Is there anyone you would take a bullet for? Several people come to mind.

Do you enjoy tanning? If I’m at the beach, sure. It’s honestly not something I have to constantly keep up with, though, since I’m already naturally tan enough. Are you a virgin? No.

Who’s your celebrity crush? Taehyung :(

Did or do you get good grades in English class? I always got pretty good grades in English.

What part of your body are you self-conscious about? Teeth, and my legs sometimes.

Are you expected to help fix Thanksgiving dinner? I don’t celebrate that.

Have you ever lost anyone close to cancer? Yes.

Do you personally know anyone who is transgender? Yes.

When was the last time you got a shot? Last month, then I’m getting my second dose tomorrow.

#survey #surveys

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fizzingwizard · 4 years

Text

Alright and now for episode 23! Which was a lot more interesting. Still lacking in pertinent ways but at least it got some stuff moving, and there were a few small but very nice character moments.

I took a LOT of Taichi spam this week you guys. The animation was slightly better than normal and my boy was just so good.

At parkour. He’s good at parkour.

More below!

We pick up where we left off last week, with Devimon arriving in his true form and picking a fight over Poyomon. He’s so threatened by a wad of jelly.

He does seem a bit weird though. More on that later.

The quintessential Taichi picture.

And just a cute one.

So okay, Devimon makes mincemeat of MetalGreymon and WereGarurumon. Like he wipes the floor with them. Even though they should be a level above him. I was like what’s going on. Clearly dark powers are giving him extra strength, but this still seemed like too much...

Yamato yells for Takeru to go hide. Taichi then yells for Yamato to go hide xD However Devimon has no trouble destroying all their possible hiding spots and attacking them.

Takeru worries about his brother :’<

Taichi quickly tries to think of a strategy but yup “Hide” is all he can come up with.

They communicate via digivice and Yamato has something of a better strategy but... it still just amounts to hiding.

Meanwhile their partners continue to get their butts kicked.

MetalGreymon: Hey watch it I just got this painted!

WereGaurumon: My nails! I just had them done!

Taichi: Would you two stop fussing, you’re so vain!

Taichi: We’ve got more important things to worry about! Like my hair!

Meanwhile in the real world... the four are together and Koushirou updates Jou and Mimi on the situation, which boils down to Not Good. The tank ships are still on a collision course. On top of that, Koushirou notices that the data being absorbed by Calmaramon’s... idk what to call it, data collection tower? thing, is being sent directly to the digital world. He guesses it’s going to be used to power the creature whose name I forgot they fought before.

This guy.

Koushirou also guesses this probably means Taichi and Yamato are in some deep shit rn.

Taichi is pretty smart too... he’s able to tell that Devimon is able to manipulate the dark mists and that’s how he’s able to find their hiding spots and attack them so easily.

Here’s the evil crystal that I would have thought was from Sailor Moon. Ahhh evil is so beautiful. And purple. Hmmm, the Crest of Knowledge is also purple, and absorption of data is converted to power.... GUYS KOUSHIROU’S GOING TO GO DARK.

Kidding, kidding. I would totally watch it though.

So the others go to fight Calmaramon and destroy the tower to help Taichi and Yamato. But, uh, they didn’t count on Calamaramon’s tentaclesx ;D

Kabuterimon makes the classic amateur mistake of DRAMATICALLY ANNOUNCING HIMSELF when he swerves in to rescue the girls...

... and he gets his just desserts. :P

Meanwhile Taichi and Yamato... are still losing. So who steps up to the plate but...

Takeru and Poyomon! Lol!

No seriously, this scene SCREAMED of the one in 99 where Hikari sacrifices herself to protect Yamato and Sora. I was really expecting Takeru to do the same thing here. “Leave my brother alone! Take me instead!”

But, I guess, since he’s a boy, he’s less self-sacrificial and more just... irrationally strong...

His conviction results in evolution!

Poyomon becomes Tokomon! THANK GOODNESS. I could not handle another “poyo, poyo!”

Devimon takes one look at this pink-cheeked thing and FREEEEEEAKS OUUUUUT.

“You remind me... of someone I once knew... you have... the same eyes... GRRRRRRRRR!!!!”

he didn’t say that but he totally should have lol. Now someone please make an edit of Angemon where he takes off his helmet and he has Tokomon eyes underneath x’D

Data readings on Koushirou’s computer start going haywire! The data is being sent somewhere fast!

I was expecting some kind of power up but I wasn’t expecting full on evolution. Because yup. That’s what goes down. Devimon evolves.

And here’s where he gets weird. His evolution seems painful. Unnatural. He doesn’t seem exactly pleased with it, to be frank. He’s really agitated by Tokomon but he doesn’t do much in the way of monologuing and it’s not even clear that the evolution is by his own design. It just kind of seems to happen. Then, once he does evolve, he’s much less talkative. This is generally not the sign of sanity or even sentience. It’s like Devimon is imprisoned by his evolution, which goes on a rampage.

Neodevimon. Actually, original Devimon is scarier but :P

Lol and then Tokomon gets blown out of Takeru’s arms and goes for a tumble while Takeru runs frantically after him xD Great moment.

Rollin rollin rollin, though the streams are swollen...

NeoDevimon is very powerful but y’know... WereGarurumon just STOOD there. This... this is totally his fault that he gets hurt here x’D

Taichi is displeased with this development, and yet, still cute in his displeasure.

Finally Koushirou manages to get through! Taichi is too preoccupied to jump for joy or anything but you can see that he’s excited. “Koushirouuuuu please save us!!!” basically that’s what’s going on

However he’s right away blown over and his digivice scatters and the signal drops...

Yamato is very Stressed.

However, contact with Koushirou has rejuvenated Taichi.

LIKE THE PHOENIX HE RISES FROM THE ASHES

Taichi: “FUCK THIS SHIIIIIIIIIT!”

His renewed conviction becomes power. Yeah, that’s a thing, we know.

Meanwhile, in the human world, the others have worked out that Taichi and Yamato are fighting and need help, and they combine the powers of their own passionate hearts in a classic shonen anime trope.

Koushirou gets a special moment all to himself! It’s really fast but still, the episode makes a point of focusing on Koushirou’s desire to connect with his friends and help them. I choose to believe this a nod to Koushirou’s significant role in the show and a way of saying “Sorry they’re not all together right now but they will be soon and characters other than Taichi and Yamato will get to do cool things in the not so distant future!”

Their partners are then able to defeat Calmaramon and destroy the data collection tower.

BOOM, baby.

Meanwhile our heroes who never sleep manage to defeat Devimon. Which, I figured, meant he’d retreat for now, but...

He freaking dies! Yup, that’s right! Disintegrates!! I was like what the heck?? This was a Boss Battle???? It had none of the signs of being a boss battle other than the boss being present and it wasn’t even that hard...

However, it’s not over till it’s over...

... Tokomon looks on NeoDevimon’s death kind of creepily. Like, the episode makes a point of showing us Tokomon’s reaction, not just the group’s. So... I feel like this is gonna be relevant. I COULD BE WRONG. But I just personally wouldn’t stick this bit in without it meaning something. But that something could be pretty much anything so we still don’t know much.

The sailors aboard the tankers whose control systems are restored at the last second are pretty darn relieved anyway.

This was my favorite moment in epiosde, Mimi flinging herself over Koushirou and knocking Jou out of the way to hug Sora in her enthusiasm over their victory xD awww Mimi

Yamato wants to know what’s with Taichi. Taichi’s like, “The others helped us from afar, I just know it...” AND THAT’S WHY HE’S BEST BOY.

Yamato gives Takeru an adorable pat on the head and tells him good job. Only thing that could have made this moment cuter would have been if he also patted Tokomon’s head. BECAUSE HELLO. KID JUST EVOLVED. SAY HI AND TELL HIM YOUR NAMES AT LEAST.

But then! Darknightmon uses the dark crystal thingy and...!

Le gasp! NeoDevimon’s corpse emerges from the ground...

Taichi has a flashback to another time they thought they won only for their defeated opponent to be infused with dark energy and resurrect...

... uh I forgot this guy’s name too >_>

Taichi: “Wow I never saw this coming!”

Well, I did. :P Due to being over ten years old...

We end with NeoDevimon’s mask cracking off!

Creepy!

Final thoughts... it now kind of looks like Darknightmon is the one pulling Devimon’s strings rather than the other way around. But my guess is that’s not the case. It could also be that Devimon told Darknightmon to do this - after all, Devimon used the stone’s power to evolve Darknightmon before, and this is just the reverse of that. Or it could be they are equals and in cahoots with each other. I definitely think there’s an even greater, bigger Bad out there that they either work for or are afraid of etc something like that, I think we probably all feel sure of that at least. But Devimon in this episode really surprised me in the ways he seems to lack agency. He seemed like a pawn of evil rather than the chessmaster himself.

So next week! Looks lit!

Devimon’s new evolution? or power up? whatever is creepier than NeoDevimon so that’s a relief.

BUT THIS IS EVEN CREEPIER HOLY CRAP TAICHI! Get some sleep, your eyes are all red! (And he’s injured. His hand is where he got hurt two weeks ago fighting Splashmon right? He got hit with miasma. I wonder if this is the same wound and if it’s somehow controlling him due to the dark energy getting into his system... But everyone’s more or less been hit with the dark energy at this point so maybe not. Anyway, CREEPY EYES, CREEPY CREEPY EYES.)

Also Yamato DIES. He DIES y’all. *funeral march plays* Hmm, Tokomon looks hungry...

Then we got this bit which in case you can’t tell is Takeru being awesome. So I figured, ahh, THIS is the boss battle, and we’re gonna see Angemon again already... weird as that sounds :P

HOW-E-VER

We also get this???? Taichi silhouetted against a brilliant light????? What does it mean? I mean we know Takeru has healing powers so I’m fully expecting that to happen but uhh are we also going to canonize Taichi next week? lol. Saint Taichi. I love him the best but I will be a bit miffed if next week IS the big boss battle and Takeru’s role is “power up Taichi so he can kill it” and that’s it... But I guess we’ll have to see.

It does rather look like they saved the animation budget for next week, the preview was nuts x’D Can’t wait.

#digimon adventure:#digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure reboot #fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon

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writeyouin · 5 years

Note

May I then request female reader with TFP Megatron? He was fighting with Optimus (as usual), noticed the Autobots human allies and ordered Vehicons to destroy the pests. Fast movement caught his eye and with utter disbelief, he saw a new human ally shooting his men down with a miniature Energon gun and doing athletic maneuvers to dodge them and her beauty and ferocity smitten him. After defeat, he has Sounderwave look her up and decides to convince her to join their side and become his.

Megatron X Reader - Powerful

A/N – Now that I am safe in my den, I can proofread this.

Warnings – None.

Rating – T

“Ughhhh,” Miko groaned dramatically, much to Bulkhead’s chagrin. “Come on Bulk, it’s not fair. Why can’t I go?”

“Miko,” Bulkhead said warningly, not that it had much effect.

“It’s only a recovery mission. You’ll never even know I’m there.”

“We both know that’s not true.”

Miko clasped her hands together, “Please.”

Bulkhead turned to you, seeing that you were checking the computer console for Decepticon activity, “Uh (Y/N), a little help here?”

You sighed, wondering why you were stuck explaining your mission to Miko again. On one hand, she was right, it was a simple recovery mission. A Unit E surveillance drone that had been sent to monitor Decepticon activity had went offline in the middle of the Grand Canyon. All you had to do was recover the drone, repair it, and see what it had found before it went offline. However, on the other hand, you were sure it was a trap. A drone that expensive shouldn’t ever have crashed out of the blue; you had a sneaking suspicion that Laserbeak had something to do with the drone’s ‘malfunction.’ That was why you were taking an army truck and Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee would be escorting you. Should you be ambushed in the Canyon, you would be prepared.

You pinched the bridge of your nose exasperatedly, “Miko, we’ve been through this. When I’m not here, you are free to join whatever mission the bots will let you in on, but this is a Unit E mission. It will be my ass on the line if Fowler catches you out there.”

“What? Fowler’s coming? No fair.” Miko whined.

“Fair or not, he’s my boss. Sorry Miko, you can’t go this time.”

You went back to monitoring the computer, mapping out the route that would be taken to get to the drone. Another thing that bothered you about this job was that the ground bridge had recently started malfunctioning and couldn’t drop you off at the drone’s exact coordinates. You chewed the inside of your cheek; the mission hadn’t even started yet and it was already going wrong.

While you pondered the route to your goal, Miko was already concocting her own plan. Once she was away from Bulkhead, she planned on grabbing a blanket and sneaking into the back of your cargo truck; it was so simple that she wondered why she hadn’t thought of it sooner.

You glared at the rocky surroundings of the Grand Canyon, cursing that the drone had crashed right in the middle of it rather than somewhere more defendable. While Fowler drove the truck towards the drone, you surveyed the rocky outcrops that surrounded you.

“Give it a rest, (L/N),” Fowler said amiably, for once in a good mood since the mission was an easy one thus far. “We’ve only got to drive a little further and then we’re done. Easy as pie.”

You didn’t reply to the statement, instead asking Fowler a question, “Permission to end radio silence, Sir?”

“Permission granted.”

You nodded your thanks and commed the Autobots who were driving in formation around you to protect whatever was on the drone. “Everything clear, Optimus?”

“So far, Agent (L/N), however I have Ratchet running scans from the base as we speak.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

“You are welcome, Agent.”

Listening to you converse with Optimus from her position under a tarp in the back, Miko rolled her eyes, wondering why she’d even bothered to sneak aboard in the first place; this mission was a big dull dud. If only there had been a way to sneak into Bulkhead without him noticing; then she might have picked up some decent conversation at the very least.

In her head, she started a prayer to the only God that mattered; Jimi Hendrix, the God of rock. ‘Oh, Lizard King, great guitarist of Legend, please, for the love of your greatest fan Miko, make this mission more interesting, so I don’t die of boredom. Seriously dude! If I die of boredom before I’m the new God of ROCK, I will not be happy.’

After her impromptu prayer, Miko waited. Then she rolled her eyes when nothing happened. She tried again, mainly to give herself something to do. ‘Alright, so the Lizard King didn’t work… Guess I’ll have to go straight to the source of all the best music. Hey Freddie Mercury, it’s your gal, Miko. You didn’t like boredom either, so if you could do me a solid and-’

Miko was interrupted by the sound of screeching tyres. She lurched forward as the Land Rover came to an emergency stop. Something was finally happening and judging by the sound of Cybertronians transforming, and metal hitting metal, it was sure to be exciting.

‘All hail the QUEEN!’ Miko thought gleefully.

Forgetting any semblance of cover, she jumped out of the boot, eager to see what was going on. It was another trap, set by the Decepticons. Megatron, for once forgetting his usual flair for speeches had leapt down from the Canyon’s edge to battle with Optimus, who had clearly taken a bad hit.

Having not yet seen Miko, you breathed a sigh of relief once you were sure Optimus was okay and that he was going to fight back. Megatron was joined by a horde of Vehicons as well as Starscream and Soundwave. The rest of the Autobots transformed into bot mode, putting into play one of their battle strategies for such an occasion. Fowler was about to floor it, as was the plan; Optimus had made the two of you promise that you would leave should a battle occur, so the Autobots wouldn’t be distracted trying to protect you.

“STOP!” You screamed at him, grabbing his arm so he couldn’t put the truck into gear.

“AGENT!” Fowler bellowed back. “WHAT IN HELL DO YOU THINK-”

“Miko,” You pointed out the window. “She’s here!”

“Damn it!” Taking command of the situation, Fowler nodded towards the storage compartment on the passenger side, “Energon pistol there. Rescue that girl, Agent.”

You didn’t have to be told twice; this was exactly the kind of situation you had trained for. While Fowler was good at management, you were his top field agent, which was why he had introduced you to the Autobots in the first place. You grabbed your gun while Fowler drove away, employing evasive manoeuvres so the truck wouldn’t be destroyed; if it was, there would be no way to get Miko back to the base, should the Autobots fail.

You prayed that nobody would notice Miko; although you were fully prepared to fight a bot ten times your size to save her, you would rather get her out of any danger before the Decepticons took advantage of her human frailness. Unfortunately, your hope was dashed as Soundwave spotted Miko from his position above the canyon. It was rare he came on missions but Megatron had demanded his presence to record the demise of the accursed Autobots. Seeing you chasing aster Miko, he sent out Laserbeak.

“Laserbeak, capture the young organic.”

Eager to follow his master’s orders, Laserbeak swooped down into the fray, dodging and weaving between the warring Cybertronians.

“Soundwave, report,” Megatron commanded through his comm-link upon seeing Laserbeak flying behind Optimus.

“Yes, Lord Megatron,” Soundwave replied dutifully. “Laserbeak is to apprehend the Autobots’ organic allies.”

Megatron blocked a punch from Optimus, countering with one of his own. For the few seconds he was free from the fighting, he saw the pest that often travelled with the oaf, Bulkhead, being pursued by another human who he had never seen until today.

He growled, taking advantage of the situation to distract the Autobots, “SOUNDWAVE, DON’T WASTE TIME WITH THE HUMANS. RECALL LASERBEAK, NOW. VEHICONS, DESTROY THE HUMAN PESTS!”

Optimus’ optics widened in shock and he spun around to look at you. He reached out desperately, whispering a muted, “No.”

Using the distraction as an opening, Megatron leapt onto Optimus’ back and the two grappled with renewed vigour; Megatron eager to finally rid himself of his enemy, and Optimus struggling desperately to preserve all organic life, and his own.

“Bulkhead,” Miko cried, suddenly aware of the danger she was in now that six Vehicons were surrounding her, weapons raised.

Bulkhead roared angrily, and jumped in front of her. The Vehicons converged on him, and though he was fighting with all his might, he could not possibly last long against all of them. Avoiding a Vehicon on your own trail, you began shooting, never missing a target, which wasn’t much of an achievement, considering the Decepticons’ massive size. A normal pistol wouldn’t have done any good, but yours wasn’t any ordinary pistol; the weapon had been designed by the Autobots using a slither of their energon supplies. You were only ever supposed to use it in an emergency, since any more ammunition would cost your comrades more precious energon, so this was the first time you had used it, and it certainly packed one hell of a punch.

You almost went down from the recoil alone, though you soon got the hang of it. Employing years of training, you kept shooting until Bulkhead was free and the Vehicons attacking him weren’t getting up. There was no time for gratitude as the battle raged on, and you quickly realised that you were in this till the end.

With more Vehicons pursuing you, you had no choice but to keep moving, taking shots whenever you could.

Optimus managed to kick Megatron off him, though he had little time to follow up, needing a few more seconds to recover from Megatron’s ferocious beating. Megatron was about to finish off Optimus when one of his own soldiers fell on top of him. He was going to kill the fool for incompetence alone, until he noticed that the bot was already dead, a burning hole leaking energon close to where his spark was.

Megatron scanned the battlefield, wondering what had caused such a violent death, and then he saw you for a second time. Although he knew he should have crushed you where you stood while you were unaware of him lurking behind you, he simply couldn’t. He was fascinated by the way you moved. Throughout his long life, Megatron had seen the very best of Cybertronian fighters; he had never seen an organic of any form fight so effectively, especially against a Cybertronian.

Megatron wondered if you were afraid. If you were, you never hesitated to think about it, throwing yourself into the heart of the fight to protect the youngling Miko, who had foolishly run the wrong way. Your hair was plastered messily to your scalp, held in place by sweat and energon. Did you even know you were bleeding from your right thigh? Megatron doubted it; he had heard rumours that human adrenalin made the squishy organics forget their pain temporarily.

Unable to help himself, Megatron reached out for you. Afraid he was planning to kill you, Optimus pulled Megatron’s arm back, stretching it as far back as it would go, until the cables were taut and Megatron was grunting from the pain.

“(Y/N), RUN!” Optimus called to you, and you looked over to him. Instead of running, you snarled, aiming your pistol straight at Megatron’s spark while he was restrained. You pulled the trigger, but nothing happened; the pistol had finally run out of ammo.

Megatron broke free of Optimus’ restraint, then pretended to look around at his fallen soldiers, trying to find a reason to leave. You and the Autobots had taken out enough Decepticons for him to call a retreat. He would normally stay and fight till he was down to his last few bots, but if the fighting went on, he was afraid you might be killed, and you were far too valuable an asset to lose, even if you were an Autobot asset.

“This isn’t over Prime,” Megatron growled. “Decepticons, leave the fallen and retreat.”

His soldiers looked at him questioningly, but complied with his orders, afraid to receive a trip to Megatron’s worst torture devices if they didn’t. Not even Starscream dared argue with Megatron’s odd behaviour in case he put him to work with that brute Predaking again.

You looked around to the Autobots, checking they were alright. When you were sure they were, you glared at Miko.

She shrugged her shoulders awkwardly, “Heh… Guess we won this time?”

“Get in the car Miko, now.”

Miko’s shoulders slumped and she made her way over to Fowler, who had successfully kept the truck safe. Normally, she would have asked to ride with Bulkhead, but quite frankly, he looked disappointed in her too, and she didn’t want a lecture from him of all people; so much for an adventure, instead she had only caused more trouble than she was worth.

Once Miko was safe on her way to the ground bridge with Fowler, you approached Optimus who transformed, opening his truck door so the two of you could talk in private. Megatron’s behaviour was unsettling at best and the two of you would have to talk for quite some time about what might have caused it.

In his hab-suite aboard the Nemesis, Megatron sat in a chair, resting his servo over his spark. When he was retrained, you didn’t even hesitate about shooting him; it was glorious. Megatron found it ironic that you hadn’t managed to shoot his spark, yet you had still captured it all the same.

The second he had returned to the Nemesis he had sent Soundwave on a mission to locate you and bring you to him. All Megatron needed now was a way to turn your vivacious ferocity onto his enemies. Well, he had spent many a year using Deception to get what he wanted; he would most certainly use it again to make you his.

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#Megatron X Reader #Megatron #tfp #transformers prime #maccadam #miko #bulkhead #optimus prime #william fowler #agent fowler #soundwave #reader #reader insert #fanfiction #fanfic #powerful #landismorgenstern

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talesofafangirlwithadvr · 4 years

Text

APRIL PICKS!

And we’re back with new picks for the month!! Man, this has been some strange times we’re living in. I saw a post that said March felt like 300 days, while April feels like 3. I could not agree more. I’ve watched a lot this month, which isn’t a shocker due to our current circumstances. There’s a pretty big range, so there might be something here that you can check out during quarantine.

Here come the spoilers!

THE SOCIETY

I’m going to start with my latest watch from Netflix, The Society. Wow. I really enjoyed this one. Going into it I knew it would be like a Twilight Zone meets Lord of the Flies show, but there was so much unexpected stuff that occurred. Much like Degrassi the Next Generation, they went there. The students from New Ham, Connecticut go off on a field trip, but the buses don’t get too far due to the storm. This forces them back into town only (maybe) a couple hours from when they left. No one is home when they get back. No adults, kids, or others who were not on the school trip. The town is theirs and there is no way out. At first it’s all partying, but things take a dark turn fast and the teens must come up with laws for there to be some sort of order in this new world if they want to survive and find a way back to their real home. The 10 episodes go by really fast. It leaves a nice cliffhanger for season 2 (which is supposed to be in the works, but I don’t know if Corona affected that at all). This show definitely contains a lot of surprising twists including one very early on that is hard to predict. If you have watched this show previously or are interested in giving it a shot know one important thing.

This is the BEST character on the show.

I have not met one person who doesn’t love Grizz. He is the greatest. (The fan love for him really reminds me of the love for Stiles in Teen Wolf.)

DC’S TITANS- Season 2

At the start of April, I started the second season of Titans. As someone who does not have the DC streaming service I have to wait till the seasons are accessible on DVD. I watched the first season back in December and loved it, so I couldn’t wait to watch season 2. I was excited to see all the characters they were adding to the team. As someone who LOVES superheroes, but gets most of their knowledge through watching TV and movies rather than the comics, I went in not knowing a lot, which made it even more exciting. I would say my only main issue with this season was the staggering of plots. Because there were so many characters to follow and so much going on there were a lot of times when I was excited to start the next episode (because the previous one always ended on the BEST cliffhangers) only to have the episode involve a completely different story-line. While Deathstroke was the main villain for the season, sprinkling in CADMUS and finishing off Raven’s dad at the start felt like a lot for me. Most of the side conflicts added up to involving Slade, but looking back (because I did watch this at the beginning of April) it often felt like a lot in the moment. Some of the moments that were my favorite were finally getting the Nightwing reveal, seeing Bruce and Dick interact, being at Titans tower, hearing Hank sing and all of Connor. I think he was my favorite addition to the show. (I could be biased because I’m a Superman fan.) I’m upset with the ending and they better find a way to reverse it!! I would also like to see more of the team together next season because I really missed that too.

On a lighter note....

NAILED IT!

This is the PERFECT show for the crazy times we are in. It takes your mind off the repetitive news and is a great stress reliever, plus it is super funny and you will find yourself laughing uncontrollable. Maybe more in some episodes than others. Nailed it is the baking game show for people who strive to be better bakers in the kitchen, but are struggling when it comes to appearance (or taste...or both). In the half hour show there are two tasks for the three contestants to perform in order for a chance at the Nailed It trophy and $10,000. They are both often very difficult, with the second creation much harder than the first. Watching the contestants is hilarious as well as their reactions to baking and not having any clue what to do sometimes. I also love the judges. Nicole Byer is too funny and Jacques Torres is one of my new favorite people.

Plus Wes is just beautiful and I loved when Nicole called him the human form of Simba from the Lion King.

Continuing on with more comedy...

I know of several people who quote John Mulaney’s comedy specials on the regular, plus his gifs are EVERYWHERE. So it was about time I watched his specials and what better time than right now when I can use all the laughs I can get. I watched The Come Back Kid and New in Town and was laughing all the way through. If you’re already familiar with his stand-up you can enjoy some of these moments again below. If you aren’t then I HIGHLY suggest you check them out on Netflix or by simply YouTube-ing some of his best moments. (My computer cannot stop putting them in my suggested now.)

Returning to some of my past favorites this month....

(Some of these should not come as a shocker)

ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST

One of my February Picks is back (not that it ever really left). Zoey’s is the show that I can’t stop talking about and even if this past Sunday’s episode (not the one airing tonight because I obviously haven’t watched it yet-while he’s been bothering me I can’t wait to hear Max’s rendition of ‘Bye, Bye, Bye’) gave me issues because everyone was blowing up at each other and there were times I wanted to shout at the TV, I would still suggest this show to anyone. This dramedy has so much going on from captivating (and sometimes heartbreaking) plots, to realistic and lovable characters and songs you will quickly want to add to your personal playlist. It’s honestly just a feel good show that usually puts me in such a great mood (again, despite last week’s...) With only a few more to this season I cannot wait to see what happens next!! (If you enjoy the show check out my other posts on this page!)

NANCY DREW

The CW retelling of Nancy Drew is in the top 2 of shows that I currently cannot stop talking about. It’s still a little shocking to me that I have grown to like Nancy Drew SO MUCH. If you told me that at the start of the season I would have been like ‘really?’ But as this first season has progressed I really fell in love with the show and the characters. While we ended on an earlier cliffhanger than was intended it was still an AWESOME one that has left me with so many questions. I am so happy this show was renewed and I cannot wait till they can start filming the second season. Because I need more of these kinds of moments:

I’m pretty sure I ended my last post this way too. But come on these two are the cutest and deserve to be endgame!

Just like with Zoey’s check out this page for more detailed reviews if you are also a Nancy Drew fan!

I DIDN’T DO IT

I am SO HAPPY that this show is now on Disney Plus. I have talked about this show since it got canceled from Disney Channel far too soon (much like many of their great shows on that channel). But at least they had gotten 2 seasons and both are now available to watch on the streaming service as much as you’d like. (I think I already made it up to episode 12). In my personal opinion season 2 is stronger than season 1 mainly because it doesn’t follow the classic structure of the “I didn’t do it” episode. What I mean by this is starting the episode out with some sort of hi-jinks and having the 5 best friends exclaim they “didn’t do it” or this isn’t how they thought things would go. Then we flashback to events either earlier in the day or week, etc, leading up to the first scene’s events. This style can get very repetitious, but with funny plots and likable characters certain episodes work better than others. However, by season 2 this structure was gone completely and I think the show strongly benefited from it. I truly believe this group of friends felt like a teenage “Friends” sitcom. They had a hang out at a smoothie cafe, two of them were siblings (here twins) and each member of the group resembled a character from the classic NBC show. They even had the two that felt like Ross and Rachel like each other romantically. Who knows where the show would have gone if it wasn’t cancelled. Check it out and let me know if you find more comparisons.

And Last But Not Least...

WORLD ON FIRE

The most recent show I’ve started watching is currently airing on PBS after previously airing on the BBC. This drama throws us into the beginnings of WWII as we follow several characters from different parts of the globe, from England to Germany and Poland. I’m really loving the diverse cast and seeing through the eyes of so many characters during this turning point of history. While I have only watched 2 episodes so far, I already feel very invested in each of their lives and cannot wait to see what happens next. Already so many twists and turns have occurred in such a short amount of time. The episodes go by really fast and will have you thinking a lot after. If you are a fan of a lot of other Masterpiece’s Classics I would highly suggest checking it out.

I hope everyone is staying safe and well!

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embeanwrites · 4 years

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Finding Home Gavin Reed x Reader

Chapter 17

Masterlist

I took Gavin back to my office on the second floor. The building was still fairly quiet since classes hadn’t begun. Gavin had managed to calm down and now he was sitting on top of my desk leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. I had gotten him some ice for his hand, and I was working on my outline.

“So, what are you even going to do for your research?” I leaned back from my computer and looked at the ceiling.

“First, I need to conduct various interviews with androids, citizens, police officers, Cyberlife employees, and... well pretty much anyone who was in Detroit. Then I need to compile it, create the timeline as tight as possible, and then integrate theories with what happened.”

“That sounds like a lot of work.”

“Yeah, but I have three years on my contract, so I’m not too worried. As long as the dean sees I’m doing the work it shouldn’t be too difficult to get my contract extended.”

“What happens once your contract is up?”

“WSU decides if they want to keep me here as a professor and I have the option to leave this position for another one if I don’t want to renew my contract here.” I paused, thinking back to earlier. I still couldn’t shake what he said to me before I kissed him. “Hey, Gavin?” He hummed in response. I took my hands off my keyboard. “Earlier you said that I shouldn’t be with you because you’re a mess and you can’t do anything right…you know that’s wrong, right?” I waited to see if he would respond, but he didn’t. “I’m a mess too.” He snorted. “No, I am. I mean you’ve witnessed me have a full-blown anxiety meltdown and just lots of anxiety in general. That’s just one part of my baggage. I am in no way a perfect person and I would never expect you to be.”

“Yeah, but I have a whole list of problems, (Y/n). You’re gonna get tired of me.” I looked at him, his eyes were still closed.

“Gavin, you’ve got to trust me. I’m not going to hang you out to dry. I didn’t have to run after you earlier, but I did. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

“That you’re an idiot?” I grabbed a pen off my desk and flung it at his head. “Ow!”

“Oh, hush you baby. You know the real Batman would’ve caught that.” He groaned.

“I hate that nickname.”

“Then what am I supposed to call you?” He got quiet.

“Gav.” He murmured. I nodded and started typing again.

“Well, Gav. I probably need at least another hour to finish this rough draft of my plan. What do you want to do after?” I continued facing the computer, but out of the corner of my eye I saw him smirk.

“Go to my place and make out.” I snickered.

“Alright. Let me finish this and send it to the dean.”

It took me a little less than an hour to finish the draft and send it off, and I’m pretty sure Gavin had driven at least 15 miles over the speed limit the whole ride back to his place. I laughed, short but full heartedly.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a cop? Why are you speeding!” He flashed me a grin.

“Special privilege, babe. Even if I get pulled over all I have to do is show my badge.” I laughed again, a smile lingering on my face while I watched him drive. We hadn’t even gotten through the door and I was pulling his jacket while he was trying to unlock the door, standing on my tiptoes to kiss him. He finished unlocking it with one hand, the other wrapped around my waist and pulling me close, and then up, and I squealed, wrapping my legs around his waist and using this new angle to my advantage, taking control of the kiss. Gavin kicked the door open and then shut behind us, carrying me to his couch and dropping me down into it, pouncing on top of me, not wanting to be apart any longer than we had too. He was kissing me as if I was a lifeline. I gently pushed his chest up forcing a small space between us and smiled.

“What?” He asked, with a cocky smile.

“I haven’t made out with anyone like this since I was a teenager.” I laughed and leaned up to kiss the scar on his nose. He sat up and shifted so I was sitting on his lap. He mimicked me and kissed my nose. Suddenly we heard two of the cats yowling and hissing, causing Gavin groaned.

“Robin! Sassy! Knock it off!” I giggled and laid my head on his shoulder, he started kissing my neck. However, the cats kept fighting, so I hopped off his lap and walked towards the two cats, Gavin huffed and followed me. “What are you doing?” I picked Sassy up.

“Cuddling with Sassy.” She purred in my arms and Robin hissed at the two of us. Gavin laughed.

“You get ‘em, Robin.” I gasped and jumped up and down. Sassy started to claw at my arms. “What?”

“BATMAN AND ROBIN!!!” Gavin groaned.

“Alright this was nice while it lasted.” He gestured towards the door and I kissed his cheek.

“If I’m leaving, I’m taking Sassy.” I held her close to my chest, but she squirmed and jumped down. Gavin laughed.

“Looks like you’re not taking any of my cats.” He said, wrapping his arms around me. I rested my head on his chest and hugged him. I looked at the time on his microwave.

“Hey, I told Connor I would see him and my dad tonight.” He tensed in my arms. “Do you wanna come with me?”

“Your dad doesn’t like me.”

“Yeah and he’s not going to magically start liking you unless you try.” I looked up at him, through my lashes and pursed my lips, wrapping my arms around his neck and lifting my chest up, knowing it would pull my shirt down to reveal more cleavage. “Please?” He groaned.

“Fine.” I smiled, using my arms to pull him down to me for another kiss.

I texted Connor to tell him that both Gavin and I were coming over. He said that both he and Hank were home and that should be fine. He also asked me if we were going to watch another Muppets movie tonight. I told him we’d see.

Gavin parked in the driveway and didn’t move from his seat.

“It’ll be fine. Just be nice to Connor.” I unbuckled my seat belt and Gavin slowly followed. I walked into the house. Sumo ran up to me and wagged his tale. “Hi, Sumo.”

“Hello (Y/n), and Gavin.” Connor said from the kitchen table, my dad turned around from the couch to look at us.

“Uh hey Gavin whatcha doing here?” My dad asked his brow furrowed, before Gavin could answer I grabbed his hand and dragged him to the kitchen table and sat down.

“I invited him. Is that okay?” I looked down at the table to see what Connor was working on. I smiled; he was doing a puzzle…except all the pieces were the same color. He seemed to be having no problem with it all.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” My dad shifted, uncomfortably, and took a sip of his beer, turning back towards the tv.

“Is that last night's game?” Gavin asked, craning his neck to try to see the tv.

“Yup.” I nudged Gavin and nodded for him to go over there.

“Go watch the game with him!” I whispered. He nodded and got up to go sit next to my dad. I tried to read my dad's expression, but it seemed clouded. I looked at Connor who hadn’t looked up from his puzzle, but his LED was spinning yellow. “Con, are you okay?”

“Yes, all my systems are operational.” He nervously glanced up at me.

“Connor.” I tried again.

“(Y/n), how’s your proposal going?” My dad shouted over the tv. I looked over at him.

“I sent it off this afternoon. I’ll probably start arranging interviews next Monday, since my class is only on Tuesday and Thursday.”

“Have you decided if you will be interviewing me?” Connor asked. I smiled and put my hand on his shoulder.

“I hope so, I’m a little worried about interviewing you and dad. Since it technically is a conflict of interest. Hopefully my colleagues can overlook that considering how much you two did for the revolution.”

“You gonna write about your boyfriend pointing a gun at Connor?” My dad grunted, I looked at Connor and he looked back down at the puzzle.

“That’s taken out of context!” Gavin huffed.

“Is it, Reed?”

“He was interfering with Chris’ job!”

“So, you point a goddamn gun at him?” My dad yelled.

“You pointed a gun at me!”

“BECAUSE YOU WERE GOING TO SHOOT CONNOR!”

“YEAH, BUT I DIDN’T!”

“Dad! Gavin!” I shouted at them. Gavin looked at me, he was fuming. “My book will have the relevant information pertaining to the sociological explanation for the android revolution and whatever that includes. If I deem it to be relevant, it will be in my book.”

“I think it’s pretty relevant. He could’ve killed Connor.” I slammed my hands on the table, all three men jumped.

“Dad, can I talk to you in the other room.” He sat the beer down on the coffee table and followed me into his room. “Dad, what the fuck!” I aggressively whispered at him.

“What? I’m being honest!” He said right back.

“He’s a guest!”

“He’s an asshole!”

“You can be too sometimes, so can everyone! But I like him, doesn’t that mean anything?”

“Why did you even bring him here?”

“I brought him here because I like him, and I thought you wanted to be more in my life! Well, hello if I’m going to date Gavin that’s a part of my life, so get used to it!”

“(Y/n)! I’ve known Gavin way longer than you have. I know what he’s like, he won’t be good for you! You’re better off without him!” I glared at him.

“You’re not even giving him a chance!”

“I don’t have to! I’m your father and I’m telling you he’s no good for you!”

“You lost the chance to tell me what’s good for me when you decided you were done caring for me and mom. Ten fucking years I don’t hear from you and now you want to tell me how to live my goddamn life? No fucking way! You don’t have a say in who I date or who I like! I am a grown fucking woman, so even if you had been present in my life I’d still be pissed that you’re trying to control me. This is my life and if you want to be in it then you need to back off now, because I’m living it on my terms and no one else's!”

I quickly ran out of the room before he could notice the tears in my eyes. Gavin was standing at the end of the hallway and I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door after me.

#gavin reed x reader #gavin reed #detroit become human #hank anderson #rk800connor #dbh #fighting #x reader

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violetsystems · 4 years

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#personal

The holidays are quiet if not a little more restful than usual. I facetime’d my dad and his wife and talked to my mom on the phone. Since I left my job way back in July I haven’t had much video contact with anybody. Everybody is too busy baking banana bread on YouTube I guess to check in. The final days of my employment had devolved into a virtual SCRUM twice a day led by myself on camera. It was exhausting at times to lead but kept people focused. That is when they bothered to show up. One of my employees was off making music with my boss half the time I was trying to lead those discussions. I’m beginning to sense a theme. People saying they are there but not really. Maybe the mic is muted. Maybe you can’t see behind the screen. All I know is the follow through lately with people is missing entirely. I spent a good hour the last two days trying to decouple a credit card from my old job’s contact info. I’m locked out of both the phone number and the email attached to the account. I got the run around trying to provide a US passport to confirm my identity. It was good enough to enter China alone. The first call that ID was sufficient. They had said they sent an email to follow through with the process to two different emails I provided. The email never came most likely because neither had been tied to the account previously. I called back on Christmas eve and suddenly the passport wasn’t good enough. Neither was an expired driver’s license. The woman actually asked me why I hadn’t renewed my driver’s license. I told the truth. My ex girlfriend stole my car. That didn’t really help the situation. I sent a passport photo to unlock my facebook but they never followed through. I had an easier time unlocking my Fortnite account with it although that took a full week. I ended having to call the police on Christmas eve to explore filing a report for fraud and identity theft. The police officer on the phone pretty much gaslighted me at the end of the questioning. “Nothing criminal.” he stated plainly. I didn’t get mad. I didn’t even complain. I simply said Happy Holidays and hung up. Much like I’ve hung up on the last twenty years of my life at this point. Nobody seems to want to answer the video call. The opening introduction if they did would be something like “What exactly have you done with my life?” Maybe they’re afraid to confront the truth. The media, the government, and even the police seem to not want to believe evidence that contradicts their narrative. I guess you could throw up your hands and revolt. But the holidays have been peaceful and quiet enough to simply roll my eyes and move on. I’ve had years of failures to connect. COVID has taught me a lot of things. I heard the mantra in all the mandatory corporate webinars. This pandemic has brought to light structural problems we were never aware of before. Sexual harassment in the workplace. Check. Organizational corruption. Check. The fact everybody is full of bullshit and will just mute the mic and pretend it never happened. Check. People feel invincible behind a screen and think they know it all. Check. Now that we’re aware. What do we do? How do we move on with our life now that we have all this space? How do I even care about participating in a broken process when I have no debt and fiscal maturity? How can I go back to being the old me when I’ve been completely erased and conveniently forgot about? Why would I even bother?

Mostly I take the time with this process to make sure my identity is completely secure. Which is why it’s not really fun to be locked out of twenty years of your own information in the form of an email account and forgotten about for six months. But this is just the structural reality come to light. Much like the rest of America is waking up to the reality of what greed really does to people. That was my Christmas present this year aside from the coffee that never came and that Cyberpunk game that I don’t really have the time or the subpar computer setup to criticize. I’m guilty of tricking myself into thinking people care about me. I have statistical data from the last six months that proves otherwise. I also have financial data that points to whatever hustle I have been hustling during that time has paid off and will continue to. But I don’t really have an answer to anything. I’m in the worst kind of limbo. I don’t get the sense these days that I should even remotely worry until July. Which is kind of like saying fuck you to the world for the next six months. I spent the last six waking up from a nightmare. The only times I look back is to clean up the mess. And a Christmas Eve call to the police is kind of messy. But the result is more of the same for me. An extravagant “I told you so.” I’ve been telling myself for awhile now a lot of things. Some of them were kind of unbelievable. Now those very dreams are all I really take comfort in. The limbo I’m in is more pointed to the light at the end of the tunnel than the void. But I can’t say the same for everybody else. I work for myself for the time being. It looks really nice on paper. I can even pay myself if it fits into my organization’s financial outlook. But none of this matters when you or your struggles don’t even exist to people other than to mock or judge it. All the work we do to survive. All the work we do to create art and to be beautiful in the face of chaos. All of that is negated by a loud mouthed jerk who can bark you back into submission. A mob of dumb ass fraudsters that talk over and mute any opposition without any warrant or merit. The press follows this mentality pretty clearly. Everybody has a hot take and a theory. But nobody wants to sit down and listen to the culmination of lies spread about people and situations. Everyone is too emotionally interested in sharing their recipe for banana bread to an invisible audience. I guess I could be guilty of that too. Except that I share actual human emotion and care with a community of people who pay attention week to week. For a person like myself who has no real need to worry about money for the foreseeable future what’s the value of care and attention? A lot. I don’t feed myself with vapor or fake sentiments. I take it all at base level as real as it gets. You can’t build a future on speculation. You can technically if you are in the stock market. But risk is risk. And money is money. No one can be me at the end of the day. Sometimes I can’t even prove I’m myself. My mom reminded me I had to provide ten pieces of documentation to renew my passport ten years ago. The reasoning was simple. The government did not believe I existed. No bullshit. A decade later nothing really has changed. I’ve been to Shanghai by myself and eaten McDonald’s. I read all these Republicans talk about how you put your identity at risk just setting foot in that country.

And yet when does the rhetoric and brainwashing fall flat on it’s face? When you can’t pass economic stimulus to not only save your own people but the fragile stock market all this bullshit is built upon. I could keep telling you I told you so. Or I could save my own ass. And largely I did without really owing much to this country whatsoever except taxes in Q1. Taxes billionaires don’t have to pay because they offer us so much relevant employment and benefits that fit on their bottom line. The real truth is that America would rather not face the truth. It hasn’t for years. It’s built on this kind of thing. It always has been. And the world gets bigger and the excuses get worse. And so what does anyone expect a person like me to do after you openly admit that there’s nothing criminal going on here. How does that sound when you’ve been treated openly like a criminal in so many unsettling ways that you just don’t want to participate in society anymore? Not that anyone really asks me to participate. They’re too busy signaling or whispering secret messages. Is it suggestion or valid communication? I’m the one that has to shift through it all and detangle the mess from what is real and what is some sort of mass hallucination. An alternate reality hunger game that the rich have been playing for years without any punishment or oversight. When you get caught up in the crossfire they expect you to know the drill. Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you. None of this is good for me. You could argue it made me the beast that I am. But I am the one who had to actively make that choice to adapt and survive. But I’m not like any normal person these days. I refuse to admit it anymore. They say the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. I have a problem. One that it seems I cannot fix. And if you isolate and quarantine yourself from an entire twenty years of nostalgia what is left? Where are the texts of merry xmas from yesteryear. Probably pinging my old work number. I can’t access my facebook. Maybe that’s for the best. I can’t shut down lines of credit until I renew my state ID. I could jump on a plane and visit Shanghai Disney quicker than I could prove I’m alive to the US government. And when does the constant gaslighting break down? When do we realize that people gaslight to cover up an elaborate lie that has gotten out of control. That we are not all in this together. Not by a longshot. That the problem of connectedness is right there in front of our faces. We’re exhausted propping up entire infrastructures that keep a bloated empire alive. Family fortunes built on opioids and war strewn out across the landscape in trusts and elaborate tax schemes. Oligarchs that have generational wealth that buy our politicians and scam people into debt and forced labor. This is America. This is the systemic problem the pandemic brought to light. This shit was built this way. And like any fort constructed with shaky foundations, good luck hiding from the storm in that shit. At least I can still access my Epic account. What am I going to do for the next six months? Complain about something I can’t fix because everybody wants to consider me part of the problem? I don’t know what to do anymore except move forward and lead by example. There’s enough quality people who follow to keep me warm with those thoughts through the holidays alone. I won’t be drunk on a zoom call. I’ll be in bed watching Wonder Woman or something. When everyone you worshipped comes out of this looking fake, tired and exhausted you’ll know where to find me. Unlocking more accounts tied to an identity that doesn’t exist anymore. Nothing criminal. Hopefully people will stop treating me like one eventually. <3 Tim

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FEATURE: Why You Should Give The Original Mobile Suit Gundam A Shot

The original Mobile Suit Gundam series, one of the most famous and deeply foundational anime of all time, is now on Crunchyroll! However, if you haven't seen it yet, that's totally understandable. It was created back in 1979, and since then, there have been dozens of sequels, spin-offs, OVAs, films, and manga. So while it's easy to say, "Just start at the beginning! Duh!", it's also easy to look at the labyrinth of titles in the Gundam franchise and slowly back away in disbelief and anxious horror.

That said, you should watch the original Mobile Suit Gundam. And not just because it's a classic, but because of how much it's informed what we know of the anime medium today, its place in anime history, and just how entertaining it still is to watch. So here are five reasons to check out the original Mobile Suit Gundam:

It's Kind Of A Miracle That You're Even Watching It

When Mobile Suit Gundam first aired, people didn't exactly dig it to the extent that you'd think a long-running franchise would be enjoyed in its nascent period. In fact, it almost got abruptly canceled, with the production staff barely able to get one more month of episodes added just so they could wrap up the story. However, when Bandai bought the rights to create quality Gundam model toys, fans latched onto the idea that these big ol' robots were, indeed, pretty cool. And so, on the brink of disappearing into the swamp of forgettable '70s robot shows, it was instead revived and renewed and now Gundam pretty much sits on the Mt. Rushmore of anime franchises and is the closest thing the mech genre has to a worldwide household name.

Gundam Fandom Majorly Influenced The Anime Fandom Of Today

In 1981, an event was devised called Anime's New Century Declaration, and during its conception, it was mostly meant to be a promotional gathering for the 1981 Gundam movie. A few hundred or so people would gather, they'd listen to Gundam creator/director of the film Yoshiyuki Tomino talk about why you should check the movie out, and then they'd go home without much fuss. According to historian and author Matt Alt, something a little bit bigger occurred:

"What happened was 20,000 people descended on Shinjuku and the cops were called and people worried about trampling, and it kind of turned into Anime Woodstock. A bunch of young anime fans who'd been expected to grow up and leave the "silly" cartoon stuff behind. But this generation was like "Screw that. If we're productive members of society, then why is it a problem for us to read manga and watch anime?" It was a huge coming out for that demographic and really set off a trend.

Back in the '70s, anime pretty much existed to sell toys, and as long as you put the sponsored toys in the show, they gave you free creative reign. But in spite of it being a show that sponsors and producers were using to sell toys, Tomino ended up making this baroque, dramatic space opera that was a thinly veiled critique of war and post-war Japanese society. And the hero was, to be blunt, kind of a geek. He wasn't a muscle-bound superhero. He's introverted and shy and would rather be fooling around on his computer than going out to war, and I think that resonates with people who would rather be doing the stuff they love than being forced to fit into the world by older people who don't understand them.

It provided a platform for the maturation of anime into something that wasn't just primarily around to sell toys to kids."

3. The Protagonist Is Super Interesting

Alt's insight about Amuro brings me to my next point: A weirdly common claim is that Neon Genesis Evangelion was the first mech-centric anime "to be about the people, rather than the robots." And don't get me wrong - Neon Genesis Evangelion is good. It's SO good. But when it comes to characterization, Mobile Suit Gundam is no slouch. Protagonist Amuro Ray is stressed, y'all. Thoughout the series, the trauma of battle and war begin to weigh deeply on him, and he has a lot of trouble both fitting in and dealing with the fact that he might lose the people that he's trying to fit in with at any time. So while he is indeed the hero character, his internal struggles make him both relatable and very sympathetic.

4. CHAR AZNABLE, BAYBEEEE

Regardless of whether you've been introduced to him by a Mobile Suit Gundam series or a meme, there's a good chance that even if you don't know his name, you know the look of Char Aznable, the main antagonist of the series and one of the most iconic anime characters of all time. Full of pride, infinitely confident and the prize warrior of the Principality of Zeon, Char is a jerk and I love him. So many of the wonderful arrogant villains of modern anime are simply riding his stylish red shirttail.

5. You're Watching A Ton Of Great Talent At Work

Along with creator Tomino, the staff of Mobile Suit Gundam is pretty solid. You have writers like Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, who'd go on to work on Dirty Pair, Urusei Yatsura, and Osomatsu-kun, and Yu Yamamoto, who'd end up scripting the Mobile Suit Gundam movie trilogy and the J9 series. The anime studio Sunrise would eventually develop the anime series for Dirty Pair, City Hunter, Patlabor, The Vision of Escaflowne, The Big O, and, of course, Cowboy Bebop. Oh, and if the confidence in Shuichi Ikeda's role as Char sounds familiar, it might be because you've heard him as Shanks in One Piece. And if you can't quite put your finger on where you've heard Toru Furuya, who plays Amuro, you might know him better as Dragon Ball's Yamcha.

Anyway, Mobile Suit Gundam is fantastic and if you're curious about it, or just looking to rewatch it, it's now on Crunchyroll. Check it out!

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Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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