#I want to make an animation to the audio this is based off of so bad but I suck ass

[hikarry]

(ADHD fueled post ahead. Progress at your own caution)

I don't talk about it much here, but one of my favorite franchises is Sherlock Holmes

The books, the movies, the bbc series, the audio books, the animes, you name it

I eat it all up like a very starved dog

And, yes. Sherlock and Watson? A classic. Gorgeous, really

While the BBC series was airing, a lot of people used to ship Sherlock and Moriarty, but I never really saw it

Until

I found one of the animes that would quickly become one of my favourites: Moriarty, The Patriot

Don't know it? Watch it. Trust uncle Spencer. It's gonna knock your socks off

For real, just look at the trailer. Also, the soundtrack in this anime? Absolutely delicious. The intro of both seasons are still my favorite anime intros of all time - as in, both of them still rank somewhere in my spotify wrapped every year after 4 years. If you are a soundtrack nerd like yours truly, this anime is a fucking masterpiece

Anyway, that's season 1 trailer. The anime isn't Sherlock-focused, clearly. So much so, if I'm not mistaken, Moriarty and Sherlock only interact in season 2. And, that season also brings the best character of the whole show: My gorgeous perfect unapologetic genderfluid Irene Adler aka James Bond. Right, yeah. Jack the Ripper is also there but, are you going to pay any mind to some serial killer when you got a gorgeous beauty like Irene/James in your visage? Absolutely not

Here, look at the trailer. Look at how fucking horny they made Sherlock. It's gorgeous. The guy is so turned on by Moriarty's brain that it should be illegal. They flirt by playing smart mind games with each other and comitting crimes so the other can solve them? Please

Quick side note: The "Catch me if you can, Mr. Holmes." line drove not only Sherlock absolutely insane, but the whole fandom back then and, honestly, can you blame us?

With that said, Sherlock and Moriarty? Yes

And, of course, all this talk of Sherlock just to end up on Good Omens again

I've got my little list of AUs I want to write, yes? One of them is Sherlock based, with Crowley as Sherlock and Aziraphale as Watson but...

Am I going to, technically, add a second Sherlock AU to my list just so I can explore how the dynamic between a Crowley Moriarty and a Aziraphale Holmes would work? ...Oh yeah, absolutely. I can smell the enemies to lovers from here

Picture this

That, but make it hatred and madness turned into flirty mind games and lust

[duncans-idahoe]

In another universe….

Rando Journalist (for some reason): What are your thoughts on the former flame hashira, Rengoku Shinjuro?

Me: I respect him as a pillar and swordsman but not as a person!

Rando: What about the rumor that if you couldn’t marry Kyojuro you would’ve been his stepmom?

Me, while aggressively covering Kyo’s ears: WHO THE FUCK SAID THAT

[echoekhi]

I’m Declaring War Against “What If” Videos: Project Copy-Knight

What Are “What If” Videos?

These videos follow a common recipe: A narrator, given a fandom (usually anime ones like My Hero Academia and Naruto), explores an alternative timeline where something is different. Maybe the main character has extra powers, maybe a key plot point goes differently. They then go on and make up a whole new story, detailing the conflicts and romance between characters, much like an ordinary fanfic.

Except, they are fanfics. Actual fanfics, pulled off AO3, FFN and Wattpad, given a different title, with random thumbnail and background images added to them, narrated by computer text-to-speech synthesizers.

They are very easy to make: pick a fanfic, copy all the text into a text-to-speech generator, mix the resulting audio file with some generic art from the fandom as the background, give it a snappy title like “What if Deku had the Power of Ten Rings”, photoshop an attention-grabbing thumbnail, dump it onto YouTube and get thousands of views.

In fact, the process is so straightforward and requires so little effort, it’s pretty clear some of these channels have automated pipelines to pump these out en-masse. They don’t bother with asking the fic authors for permission. Sometimes they don’t even bother with putting the fic’s link in the description or crediting the author. These content-farms then monetise these videos, so they get a cut from YouTube’s ads.

In short, an industry has emerged from the systematic copyright theft of fanfiction, for profit.

Project Copy-Knight

Since the adversaries almost certainly have automated systems set up for this, the only realistic countermeasure is with another automated system. Identifying fanfics manually by listening to the videos and searching them up with tags is just too slow and impractical.

And so, I came up with a simple automated pipeline to identify the original authors of “What If” videos.

It would go download these videos, run speech recognition on it, search the text through a database full of AO3 fics, and identify which work it came from. After manual confirmation, the original authors will be notified that their works have been subject to copyright theft, and instructions provided on how to DMCA-strike the channel out of existence.

I built a prototype over the weekend, and it works surprisingly well:

On a randomly-selected YouTube channel (in this case Infinite Paradox Fanfic), the toolchain was able to identify the origin of half of the content. The raw output, after manual verification, turned out to be extremely accurate. The time taken to identify the source of a video was about 5 minutes, most of those were spent running Whisper, and the actual full-text-search query and Levenshtein analysis was less than 5 seconds.

The other videos probably came from fanfiction websites other than AO3, like fanfiction.net or Wattpad. As I do not have access to archives of those websites, I cannot identify the other ones, but they are almost certainly not original.

Armed with this fantastic proof-of-concept, I’m officially declaring war against “What If” videos. The mission statement of Project Copy-Knight will be the elimination of “What If” videos based on the theft of AO3 content on YouTube.

I Need Your Help

I am acutely aware that I cannot accomplish this on my own. There are many moving parts in this system that simply cannot be completely automated – like the selection of YouTube channels to feed into the toolchain, the manual verification step to prevent false-positives being sent to authors, the reaching-out to authors who have comments disabled, etc, etc.

So, if you are interested in helping to defend fanworks, or just want to have a chat or ask about the technical details of the toolchain, please consider joining my Discord server. I could really use your help.

------

See full blog article and acknowledgements here: https://echoekhi.com/2023/11/25/project-copy-knight/

[phoebejaysims]

Boutique Mod - DOWNLOAD

Inspired by the sims 2 shopping for clothes system, I present a sims 3 take on buying clothes, accessories and running a thriving boutique! Set up shifts, keep the racks stocked, and you might find yourself in profit!

Required:

Ambitions

NRAAS Master Controller + Integration Module

Optional:

ITF if you want to use the clothes mannequin and some visual effects.

Late Night if you want the animations for the security guard.

Seasons for extra interactions on the mannequin.

Savvy Seller Set for some visual and audio effects.

Full Documentation is included in the download. I spent a while writing it out, so please read thoroughly!

How Stores Work:

Set up a shift

Hire Employees (bosses count as employees so stores are fully functional with only one sim!)

Link at least one rack to the register

Open for business!

Employees:

Store employees can be given three types of roles: register attendant, sales attendant and security guard.

Employees will do their jobs automatically but you can always manually tell them to do things too like: restocking, dressing up mannequins, helping customers, among other things.

Customers:

Inactive and active sims can browse through the racks and have the ability to purchase items. They'll interact differently depending on if they are shopping at a clothes rack, accessory rack, or at a mannequin.

Inactives won't purchase outfits from mannequins unless you direct them to (or you enable auto-purchasing in the XML). However, they may "fake" buy clothes.

Once finished shopping, customers hold their bags and wait to be rung up! Take too long and they may abandon their purchase.

Shopping:

Adjust prices and restrict customers by age and gender to customise your store!

Clothes Racks:

Buy Clothes for your own sim, sims in your household, or (if you're an employee) suggest clothes for customers.

Employees that suggest clothes for customers can fulfil Ambition Stylist jobs this way.

Accessories Racks:

Choose accessories to be sold by adding them to the XML in the package file. The XML comes loaded with a few base game items already plus a couple modded items (Arsil's Sunglasses and lipstick - that won't be loaded unless you have them installed).

Sell buy-mode items as well as CAS items!

Make your CAS items wearable from your sim's inventory using your own meshes or my dummy accessory (see Documentation and XML for details).

Blacklist certain categories from being shown. If you want a dedicated shoe shop or an opticians, you can have it!

Try on products before buying them to see if they suit your sim. If there's a mirror in the room, they'll check themselves out in it.

Clothing Mannequin:

Try on the mannequin outfits to see if they suit your sim.

Plan different outfits to display and even set them to be rotated through seasonally.

Let your employees be creative and choose a random outfit for the mannequin to wear.

Buy clothes for your own sim, household members, or customers.

Allow or disallow inactives from automatically purchasing display outfits.

Security Gates:

Give your security guards something to stand and look threatening by.

You can try your luck at stealing from the shop. If you're caught, you'll have to pay up. If you get past the gates (or if there are no gates), enjoy your bounty!

Boutique Door:

Cloned from the Savvy Seller doors without the annoying 'kick-every-last-person-out-the-building-come-closing-time' feature.

Link this to a register and let the open and close sign automatically flip itself. Also, close the store or rename it, straight from the door.

Phone Interactions:

Ask for time off work (paid or unpaid).

Call in sick.

Cancel vacation days.

Credits and Thanks:

@dhalsims for adding geostates to the ITF rack for me. Modders, I really recommend her if you need any 3D models made also!

DouglasVeiga for the BG rack with the geostates.

@aroundthesims for allowing me to use her objects in my mod as always!

Sims 4 for all the animations that I converted.

Simstate & merchant mods for the idea to go into a mode to link racks to the register.

The OG shop for clothes mod and pedestal by @anitmb.

Arsil and @zoeoe-sims for wearable CAS items idea that I adapted.

Ani's Candle mod & Amb. Makeover XML which I looked at for inspo on how to do accessory rack xml.

Compatibility:

All new objects so shouldn't conflict with anything really.

Removes the 'plan outfit' interaction from dressers.

Made on version 1.67.

If you would like to donate as thanks, please feel free to do so at: my kofi! I don't take your generosity for granted!

Download: - Simblr.cc - 2t3 Boutique Mod Suggested Extra CC: - Lyralei's TS2 Conversions (incl. clothes changing booth) - More ATS3 Security Gates - ATS3 Friperie Set

Known issues, prop information and the full feature breakdown are all in the documentation.

Please be patient with me if there are bugs to fix. Also, anyone who DMs me "I don't know how to create a new shift" will be immediately fined £150.

With that said, please enjoy the mod and tag me in your beautiful boutiques,

Phoebe :)

[achenetype]

Hihi can you please do a Luke x reader where it’s basically an unrequited love like reader is so in love with Luke and he has no idea so she moves on and years later she’s over him and confesses to him like a oh I thought you should know and the whole time Luke had been in love with her, kinda base it off that one TikTok audio where it’s like “I’m not in love with you anymore” “I never knew you were” 🩷🩷

OHH YOURE FEEDING MY ANGST BRAIN WITH THIS ONE. buckle up lets break some hearts

edit: this ended up being WAY sadder than i originally intended. i am so sorry anon oh my god

i gave you a rare gift (but you didn't want it) — luke castellan

pairing: luke castellan x fem!reader

word count: 2.8k

content: angst, major character/reader death, unrequited love, mutual pining, reader is part of kronos' army, luke and reader are doomed by the narrative, [Y/N] used (sparingly), alcohol mention, description of injury

listening to: bloodfest (from mizumono) by brian reitzell

You are twenty-two years old, sitting on the rocky beach of a lake somewhere in the forests of upstate New York. Light, gentle fog hangs in the air around you, and the only sound is the tap-tap-tap of Luke skipping rocks across the water.

Come dawn, the world will burn. The gods will be dethroned. Every demigod will either be free, or dead.

But now, at midnight, you are twenty-three and Luke turns to you. He's holding a small, squashed cupcake in one hand. "Happy birthday," he says, "to my right-hand man." He pauses. "Woman. Right-hand woman."

He holds the pastry out to you and smiles, but something behind his eyes is empty. Hollow. He hadn't been sleeping recently. As much as he tried to hide it, he couldn't stop you from seeing when he came to you every morning for a cup of coffee and to debrief for the day.

Perks of being the revolution leader's best friend, you think. His right-hand woman.

Luke's eyes flick from the cake to your face. "Do you like it?" He asks, and for a split second, you swear there's a note of hope in his voice. "I wanted to do something, y'know," he says. "Twenty-three is huge. It's a monumental age."

You nod, but stay quiet.

He pauses for a second. "You remember how you always said you wished you never had a birthday?"

When you were twelve, nearly thirteen, your mother drove you across the country to go to summer camp.

"It'll be like a road trip," she said, tossing your duffel bag into the back seat of her battered car. "And then, hey, you'll only stay at camp until the end of August, and then you can come back and go to school. See all your friends again." She squeezed your shoulder and pushed the car door closed. "How about that?"

"Sure," you said. "Super fun."

And it was; you were actually kind of excited. You'd never been to New York. It seemed a million universes away.

And it was your birthday tomorrow. Maybe this was a gift, something that your mother had put together to make up for the years of being too tired and too drunk to make a cake, or get presents, or anything.

Your mother put her hands on her hips and sighed. "You know how I feel about the attitude, yeah? Let's not do this today."

"I wasn't even trying to—" You cut off as your mother glared at you, her face tense. You knew that look: the biting-the-inside-of-her-cheek, trying-to-be-understanding, trying-to-be-a-good-mom-despite-it-all look.

You hated that look.

"Just..." She sighed. "Just get in the damn car, [Y/N]."

You did, fighting back the tears building in the corners of your eyes, and the slam of the car door closing was as loud as thunder.

Twenty silent minutes of city streets and highway merge ramps and cold, empty stretches of asphalt and concrete passed before either of you spoke.

"Mom," you said, thirty-three seconds into minute twenty-one, "I'm sorry for talking back earlier." Your voice was quiet, shaking, cupped in your throat like a scared animal.

She didn't answer, keeping her eyes fixed on the road.

"I don't like being like this, Mom," you said, looking over at her. The silhouette of her through the driver's side window, backlit by the streetlights, was shapeless. Impassive. "I don't like doing this with you all the time."

She scoffed.

You pulled your legs to your chest, tucking your head between your knees, and tried to find sleep.

You weren't sure how long you slept, but you woke up to the sound of music playing softly over the speakers. Exit signs whizzed past you at what felt like breakneck speed. You wondered, briefly, if you would break your neck if you jumped out of the car right now.

Ultimately you decided against it. You didn't want your mother's last words to you to be, get in the damn car.

That would make her feel guilty, you thought, and that guilt would make her hate me even more.

"I don't wanna fight," you tried instead, picking at a loose thread in the cuff of your jacket sleeve. "Mom, I'm sorry, okay? I don't want us to be mad at each other anymore," you said. A sob caught in your throat, heavy and wet and choking.

Your mother sighed and reached one hand from the wheel to tuck your hair behind your ear. "I know you don't, sweetie," she said. "I don't want to be mad at you either."

"Then why do you do it," you asked.

When she turned to look at you, her eyes were wet. She smiled, or tried to. "Sometimes, certain people just…can't help but fight," she said. "It's just part of who we are, I think."

"Did you fight with Dad?"

Your mother inhaled, quick and sharp through her nose, as she flicked the turn signal to right and guided the car down the exit ramp from the highway, her eyes locked ahead. "Yes," she said. "Sometimes. Sometimes I think that's where we get it."

You swallowed. "Do you ever miss him?"

She doesn't peel her gaze away from the road. "Every day."

The two of you made your way through bustling streets and across too many bridges to count. You thought you fell asleep again, for a minute or maybe a year. Maybe it was all a dream.

"Mom," you asked as she turned onto a worn dirt road, the sunrise barely stretching over the horizon, "why are you bringing me here?"

She didn't answer for a moment. Two moments, then three. Through the leaves, you saw one tree standing impossibly tall. A pine tree.

Your mother parked the car and turned to you. "Because I don't know what to do with you, [Y/N]," she said. "I don't know how I can keep you," she paused, "safe. How I could do this, on my own, in any normal way."

She got out of the car and grabbed your bag, shoving it against your chest. "Camp is just up that hill there," she said, gesturing in the direction of the large tree you'd seen earlier. "They’ve got people up there waiting for you."

"Mom," you said. "Wait, I—I wanted to talk to you—"

She shook her head. "I can't come with you, sweetie." She smiled, the curve of her mouth falling just short of her eyes. "You just remember that I love you, okay?"

At that moment, you knew: she was going to leave you here.

“No,” you said, tears rolling down your face. “No, no—Mom. Mom, please.”

“Before you go,” she said, her voice tight and sharp, “I wanted to give you this.” She reached into the back seat and pulled out a jacket, worn leather with patched elbows. “It was mine in college,” she explained, not meeting your eyes. Like she was reading from a play or book, and you were the unfortunate audience. “I figure, it doesn’t fit me anymore.” 

She pressed a kiss to your forehead. “Happy birthday, baby.”

It was the first time you had ever felt like your mother loved you. You knew she liked you, sometimes. But you were never quite sure if she loved you until that moment. 

And then she got back into the car with one final, teary nod. 

And you never saw her again.

“Yeah,” you tell Luke, shrugging. “I think I’ve got a pretty good reason, though.” Your lips curve into a smile.

He laughs and tilts his head. It’s a habit of his; he’ll say something and twist his neck just a fraction, narrow his eyes. A nervous tic that not even years of training and fighting and killing could stamp out.

You used to think about kissing his neck when he did it, but now you’re not sure whether you would know the difference between kissing and ripping his throat out. 

“True,” Luke concedes. You laugh, too, unrestrained and loud. “Gods, your sense of humor is dark.”

“You laughed first,” you remind him. He grins.

The cupcake he offers you, despite its lumps and smears of frosting, is pretty good. You split it apart with careful fingers and hand half of it back to him.

“You’re celebrating with me,” you laugh, “so you get half. That’s the rule.”

Luke simply smiles at you and takes the crumbling cake from your hand. “Whatever you say.”

You roll your eyes, grinning back. “Damn right.”

Luke’s laugh rings out again, sharp and bright against the night sky. Firelight flickers across his face, painting him in brilliant streaks of orange and gold. 

“After tomorrow,” Luke murmurs, pulling his knees up to his chest, “we can do this whenever we want.” The wind ruffles his hair almost fondly, floppy brown curls stirring and settling back against his skull.

You raise an eyebrow. “This?”

He gestures in a wide arc. “Be here, like this. Just be people, instead of demigods or heroes or revolutionaries.” Luke’s voice picks up, conviction surging into his words. “I mean, seriously—when was the last time you thought you would ever have a normal life?”

You’d never understood the demigods who joined Luke’s cause without knowing him. The plan itself seemed crazy—the only way anyone would follow it was if they knew their leader could pull it off. 

You have to know Luke to know he was capable of that, you think.

Until now. Now, you see what you think everyone else sees—a real leader, a revolutionary. A force for change with a silver tongue.

He makes it all seem so possible. You almost think he might pull it off.

Luke looks over to you. “We’re going to change everything,” he says. 

Almost.

“We’re going to change the rules,” Luke said, spreading the map over an empty cot in his cabin. “If we want to win, we need to be thinking six steps ahead of the enemy.”

A few of the campers huddled around the makeshift table shuffled and coughed awkwardly. 

“Every strategy’s been done before,” a tall girl with bubblegum-pink hair and an eyebrow piercing shouted from the back of the group. “How are we going to out-war the god of war’s kids?” 

Murmurs rushed around the table, soft and susurrant. There’s no way we’re going anywhere here. We’ve gotten our asses beat six weeks in a row. What are we even doing?

Luke smiled. “Ares is the god of war,” he said, “not strategy.” He slung his arm around one of the campers next to him and inclined his head in the direction of the map.

Quietly, almost too quiet for you to hear, he murmured into the girl’s ear. “Don’t doubt yourself, Bethy,” he whispered.

You learned three things in the ten minutes that she spent explaining your team’s new strategy—

—one, your team was going to kick some major ass—

—two, your strategist’s name was Annabeth Chase, and she was the smartest eight-year-old you have ever met—

—and three, Luke was right.

Annabeth’s plan took the rules of Capture the Flag and threw them out the window. She split the team into four subgroups, each with a delegated leader. Luke nodded along as she talked, marking the map with a stubby pencil. 

When Annabeth’s eyes, dark and piercing, searched the crowd and landed on you, you felt your heart stop.

“You,” she said, “are you good with a sword?”

You raised your eyebrow, pointing to yourself—just to confirm this genius child was speaking to you—and Annabeth nodded. 

“I guess?” You said, shrugging. “I know some basic stuff, and I’m good at disarming.”

Annabeth’s face broke into a smile. “Work with Luke on the first wave of offense.” She gestured to the map. “You two will take points B and B-one,” she explained. “My group will take the A-points. You wait for our signal to move in.”

You met Luke’s eyes across the table. Hey, you mouthed. 

His eyes flicked up and down your form. Hey, he mouthed back. You ready to win?

You smiled and nodded.

Good, Luke said, all teeth. Let’s go.

He stood and grabbed his helmet. You did the same.

“I’m [Y/N],” you said as you followed Luke through the forest. “We, uh—we met when I first got here, like, a year ago.” I was sobbing my eyes out because my mother abandoned me, you didn’t add. It was kind of pathetic. I think I threw up from crying so hard.

You suddenly hoped Luke didn’t remember meeting you, actually. That would be less embarrassing.

He turned and caught your eye. “You live in the same cabin as me. ‘Course I know you.” 

Of course he remembers.

You laughed, flushing red. “Oh. Yeah. Of course.”

The silence was so thick, you could have cut it with the sleek bronze of your sword.

In the end, it was Luke who broke the silence. “You wanna play a game while we wait out here?”

You shrugged. “Sure,” you said. 

“Twenty questions,” Luke replied. “So we can learn enough about each other to actually work together.” He smiled. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Low-hanging fruit,” you said, your voice just barely taking on a teasing tone. “It’s green.” 

Luke laughed, loud and full and bright. “Apologies,” he said; mirth crept into his words, staining everything with a tinge of that laughter. “I’ll go for the more gut-wrenching, intimate questions next time.”

You flushed red again. Intimate questions. What the hell does he mean by that?

“My turn,” you said instead. “What do you want to be when you get older?”

“We’ll be heroes,” Luke whispers. “Real heroes. Not figureheads propped up by the gods.”

You wish you could believe him. He’s lying on the beach next to you, his head resting in the junction between your shoulder and your neck. Over the treetops, the stars are beginning to fade from the sky.

It’s almost time.

Your throat feels like someone has sanded it down to expose your vocal cords. This is a bad idea, you want to say. We shouldn’t do this. Tell me we can still not do this. 

“Wanna play twenty questions?” You say, crackling and hoarse.

Luke turns to look at you. “Yeah,” he murmurs. 

“My turn first,” you whisper. Luke nods.

You take a deep breath, in and out. “Are we going to die doing this?”

Luke inhales sharply. “Maybe,” he says. Slowly. Deliberately. “But we’ll do everything we can to make sure we don’t.”

“I got another question,” you say. Luke raises an eyebrow. His knuckles brush yours as you sit up.

“Are you scared?”

It’s your birthday. 

You think you’re going to die. 

Luke is kneeling over you, the palm of his hand pressed against the wet opening in your stomach where someone had caught you with a spear. The shaft of it is still sticking out of you, you think. You’re afraid to look down, afraid to see it. 

“No,” Luke gasps, “no, no, no.”

You watch as the gold fades from his eye, leaving behind the honey-dark brown you remember. His hands are slick with blood—most of it’s probably yours, it has to be yours. You’re bleeding out, after all. 

You tug on Luke’s sleeve weakly. “Hey,” you breathe. “Luke. It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

“No,” he says. “You’re—you’re hurt.”

“I know,” you rasp. “I know it hurts. I’m the one—” 

You break off as a cough sticks in your throat. It feels wet. Oily. Desperate to get out. You taste the blood in the back of your throat before you can even take another breath.

“—I’m the one who’s feeling it,” you finish, your voice tilting up at the end. A joke. Gods, your sense of humor is dark.

Luke laughs weakly. “Don’t talk,” he says. “You’re gonna be just fine, [Y/N], just fine.”

He meets your eyes. You see him realize it in slow motion.

Tell him. Tell him now. He’s never going to know otherwise—he could die any minute—

“Luke,” you murmur. “Luke, did you know I loved you?”

He freezes. “What?”

You cough again. Blood spills over your lips. “I loved you,” you repeat. “Since we were campers. Had the…the biggest, stupidest crush on you.”

Luke shakes his head. “No, no,” he says. “You—”

“You’re my best friend,” you continue. “Whatever feelings were there, you’re my best friend.”

Luke’s palm against your stomach is warm. It feels safe. It feels like sleeping side-by-side in the cabin, like shared meals and shared secrets. 

“Why are you telling me this?” Luke says, “why are you—why?”

You blink, just once, but it takes everything you have to open your eyes again after closing them. “Because I’m going to die,” you whisper. “And even if—even though I moved on, I wanted you to…to know.”

Luke bows over your body, pressing his forehead to yours. Tears slip from his cheeks and fall onto yours, driving little rivers through the blood smeared there.

He’s crying. Why is he—

“You idiot,” Luke says brokenly. “I loved you too. I loved you too.” He cradles your head in his lap, brushing your hair away from your face. “[Y/N], I’m so sorry.”

Your eyes slip shut.

I loved you too, Luke’s voice echoes. I loved you too.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

I'm an A-Level student and so many of my classmates use ChatGPT for essays in Law and RS and stuff - like, they sound proud of themselves, as if they're cheating the system and being clever? Just makes me feel very bleak. What are we doing man

Well, the unfortunate news for them is that they are going to struggle if they make it to uni.

This is the big problem with AI - it cannot analyse a single thing. If I were to say to you "What are the features Tumblr users would most want and why?", you are a human being with a brain and experiences and decision-making skills, and you could probably sit and come up with an answer. You would base that answer on things you personally find lacking, or want to see; you would also base it in things you have seen others bemoaning on the site.

For example, I reckon I'd say something like:

The permanent ability to boop people with a cat paw, which is implemented as opt-in. Also customisable, so you can choose whether you want a random cat paw to appear on your screen each time it happens to you. Also a different animation for super boop/evil boop, and maybe more boop options than those two, and maybe also different paw colours.

Actual enforcement of hate speech rules. We all agree to them when we join, so it's perfectly legal to delete someone for spouting Nazi shit AND YET.

No more banning or censoring queer folks' accounts

More ability to adjust the interface for disabled bloggers, e.g. colour and contrast, font, layout, switching off moving GIFs or other animations by default, etc.

Tag editing, it's frustrating having to delete whole tags.

Tag memory! Where have my tags gone??? For a year now I have slightly better luck on desktop, but for the most part, which of my tags are remembered by autofill and which are never, ever offered to me has been wholly divorced from how often I've used them. And my tags are often lengthy and odd, so it's become much harder to use mobile.

No data scraping. This is the anti-cap site thank you. Also on that note, get rid of the For You section and any other algorithmic tracking, because it's just as likely to show you a Nazi blog as an anti-Nazi one as long as you have spent any time at all discussing Nazism.

Better blocking ability, on that note.

Better search function

I could go on, but you get the idea. That's analysis that I've done, based on discussions I have seen and taken part in, and my own experiences.

I just asked ChatGPT. Here's what it had to say:

"Tumblr users have diverse preferences, but there are several features that many users would likely appreciate: 1. Improved Content Discovery: Tumblr is known for its vast array of content, so improving content discovery mechanisms such as personalized recommendations, trending topics, and enhanced search functionality can help users find more of the content they enjoy. 2. Enhanced Customization Options: Tumblr users value the ability to customize their blogs extensively. Providing more themes, layout options, and customization tools can empower users to express themselves creatively and make their blogs unique. 3. Integration of Multimedia Formats: Tumblr is a platform where users share various types of multimedia content, including images, GIFs, videos, and audio. Enhancing support for different media formats, improving media upload and management features, and optimizing the viewing experience can enhance user engagement. 4. Improved Mobile Experience: Many Tumblr users access the platform via mobile devices. Therefore, optimizing the mobile app for better performance, usability, and feature parity with the desktop version can greatly enhance the user experience. 5. Community Engagement Features: Tumblr has a vibrant community, so features that facilitate interaction among users, such as improved messaging, reblogging, tagging, and commenting functionalities, can foster a sense of community and increase user engagement. 6. Content Moderation Tools: Given the diverse content on Tumblr, providing users with robust content moderation tools, including options for filtering, blocking, and reporting inappropriate content, can help ensure a safer and more enjoyable experience for all users. 7. Monetization Options for Creators: Many Tumblr users are content creators who would appreciate opportunities to monetize their content. Introducing features such as ad revenue sharing, subscription-based content, or integrated e-commerce capabilities can incentivize creators to produce high-quality content and invest more in their Tumblr presence. 8. Accessibility Features: Improving accessibility features such as alt text support for images, screen reader compatibility, and customizable text sizes and color schemes can make Tumblr more inclusive and accessible to users with disabilities. 9. Privacy and Security Enhancements: Enhancing privacy controls, data protection measures, and account security features can help users feel more confident and secure when using the platform, which is especially important given concerns about online privacy and security. 10. API and Third-Party Integration: Opening up Tumblr's API and allowing for easier integration with third-party services and apps can encourage innovation and development within the Tumblr ecosystem, providing users with more options and flexibility in how they use the platform. Overall, focusing on improving content discovery, customization options, community engagement, and user safety while also providing opportunities for creators to monetize their content can help Tumblr retain and attract users in a competitive social media landscape."

It's possible that feels alright, on first glance. But take a closer look.

Every point made is vague, and disconnected from any real life examples. In the very first point, it thinks we want better search functions (yes!) but also more algorithmic recommendations (no!). It wants us to have personalised recommendations AND better security, in fact, which are incompatible - but an LLM doesn't and can't know that. Monetisation of the platform is something that has historically faced appalling backlash from users, and this thing is suggesting ad revenue sharing and subscription services.

Because, its suggestions are generic suggestions. These are not Tumblr-specific. No mention of queerphobia, no mention of Nazis, and absolutely zero understanding of what the specific users on this site actually want.

... all of which is to say...

It's what is academically known as descriptive work. It lays out some facts, but there's no depth, no analysis, no interpretation of those facts at all. Why would we want third party integration? What apps are we calling for? Give examples. Would that aid ad-blocking? Search functions? In that case, wouldn't third-party integration be tackling the symptoms and not the cause? Shouldn't we work better ad-blocking and search functions into Tumblr at a base level?

And in school - even up to A Level - that's okay. You won't get top marks for that, because it's all too vague and too descriptive, but it's fine. School-level assignments tend to be more broad and less applied, too, which LLMs fare better with.

But in university, you start with descriptive facts, and then you are expected to analyse. If you cannot analyse, you run a very real risk of failing. Which means if you've spent your GCSEs and A Levels not bothering to learn those analytical skills and letting ChatGPT do the work for you, you are going to face an extremely uphill struggle when the expectations of study increase.

So, to round off, try not to get too discouraged. You know you aren't doing it, which means you are the one actually learning and developing and growing. Others will learn eventually, and probably more painfully. You do you!

[gigabyte-flare]

Animals

Summary: Leon comes back home to you with one thing on his mind.

Pairing: Vendetta or ID!Leon Kennedy x fem!reader (afab)

Word Count: 889

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. You are solely responsible for your own content consumption. This work is not for minors, 18+ only

Warnings: breeding kink, rough sex, Leon's very aggressive in this but like the good kind of aggressive, impregnation, swearing, light choking

A/N: Decided to write up a one shot to hopefully jump start my brain so I can finish part 4 of There's No Escape. This is purely self indulgent but I hope you all enjoy it anyway! This is not proof read so please excuse any and all grammatical errors! This is lightly based on an audio by Nowhere Eternity!

It’s late in the evening, the sun just below the horizon as you stand over your kitchen sink and do the dishes from making dinner. Your boyfriend should hopefully be home soon, having just returned from some assignment for the D.S.O.. It’s been weeks since he’s last been home; you couldn’t wait to see him.

You hear him suddenly come through the door, “Babe, I’m home!”

Normally, he takes his time taking off his shoes and jacket, but you hear his heavy footsteps approach the kitchen at an alarming rate.

“There you are,” he growls, “c’mere.”

“Leon what are you--” you are suddenly cut off as his powerful arms wrap around your waist, burying his face into your neck.

“I’ve been thinking about you all fucking day,” he moans into your neck as he begins kissing up your neck.

“Leon, I’m trying to do the dishes…” you reply, still holding a pan in your hand.

“Put the fucking thing down,” Leon growls, his hands gripping onto your waist almost to the point that it was painful.

You immediately drop the pan into the sink, unsure and concerned about what on earth has gotten into Leon.

“Sweetheart.. Are you ok?” you ask hesitantly.

“I’ve decided…” Leon starts, you can hear him starting to undo his belt on his pants, “that you’re going to give me a baby.”

“I’m sorry, what?!” you reply, flabbergasted.

“I know you don’t think you’re ready, but I promise you… you are, baby.” he continues before burying his face back into your neck.

You arch your back into him, feeling his hard cock on your ass as you push yourself into him. You can hear him still undoing his belt.

“This… stupid FUCKING belt!” he growls before finally getting his belt off, “your turn, get these fucking pants down.”

Your wet fingers struggle to get your button undone on your pants when Leon’s fingers suddenly reach around, helping you get your pants undone, “there you go, baby, I got you.”

As soon as your pants are undone, he pulls them down along with your underwear. You can hear him stroking himself. He pushes you into the counter, forcing you to lean forward and push your hips back towards him as you feel his cock push against your drenched pussy. 

“Look at how wet you are, you want me to fuck a baby into you, I know you do…”

With one, hard thrust, he sheathes himself completely inside of you, causing you to yelp. You grip the counter as Leon fucks you relentlessly.

“I can’t wait to see your belly swollen with my baby inside you…” Leon purrs, his hands gripping your hips so tight that his fingers are leaving bruises on you, “you’re going to look so fucking beautiful…”

Unconsciously, you reach down to your clit and start to rub it, causing your legs to twitch as you let out soft moans. Leon’s hand grabs your wrist aggressively, pulling your hand away from your needy clit.

“Don’t you fucking dare, I want you to cum on my dick when I pump you full of my cum, sweetheart,” he growls. 

He picks up his pace, all you hear is the sound of his hips slapping against your ass along with his animalistic growls. Your eyes roll into your head as you moan his name like a prayer, begging for release. 

“Are you ready to be a mommy?” Leon asks, his right hand reaches up to grasp your throat, pulling you back towards him as he bites your ear.

“Y-Yes…!” you manage to cry out as Leon puts pressure on your throat.

“I can’t wait to kiss your growing belly…” he moans into your ear as he continues pounding into you, “on my way down to eat your pussy.”

You cry out again, tears streaming down your face from the overstimulation and raw emotion of it all. 

“Leon… I-I’m close…!”

“Cum with me baby, go ahead and rub that clit, sweetheart.”

You didn’t have to be told twice. You reach back down and rub circles into your aching core. After a few moments, you come completely undone in a mess of cries and moans with Leon’s name sprinkled here and there. You feel the hot sensation of Leon’s own release as he pushes himself deep inside you. You feel the head of his cock pressing into your cervix. He holds himself there, breathing heavily as his cock continues to twitch inside of you.

You start to shift your hips to have him slip out of you, but Leon stops you, “No. Let me stay inside you just a little longer…”

You both simply stand there, Leon’s arms wrapped protectively around your waist as you lean back, nuzzling into him, telling him how much you love and missed him when he was gone. Leon does eventually pull out, you can hear his seed drip out of you onto the kitchen floor. He pulls his pants back up, giving you a kiss on your cheek.

“Go ahead and finish up the dishes and meet me in the bedroom, sweetheart,” Leon says as he begins to walk away.

“The bedroom?” you reply, raising an eyebrow at him as you put your own pants back on.

Leon stops, turning to you to give you a devious smirk, “Yes. The bedroom. Because we have to do it again.”

[dice-sociation]

AP Review: Reckless Attack - Main Campaign

Listen Here: https://www.recklessattack.com/episodes/

Quick info:

Audio Quality: High Quality and Edited, Effects, Music. Vibes: Lord of the Rings, Ghibli, Never Ending Story, Avatar the Last Airbender, Frogs Extras: Discord and Patreon rewards. System: 5e DnD Average Episode time: 1 hour Uploads 1 Episode per week. Campaign/ Show Length: Long Term Campaign Platforms: Podcast, Audio Only. Accessibility: Content Warnings Language available: English Diversity: AAPI/BIPOC Number of Episodes Review is based on: 100 (This is my first review so I decided to start with a Podcast I’m already caught up on) ** If you want the TLDR, scroll to the bottom of the post **

Why Reckless Attack?

I honestly believe that part of the draw of listening to people play a TTRPG is not just the story telling but an assurance that adults can somehow actually and consistently come together, in person, to pull off a full long term game. Reckless Attack is one such podcast. They are a small indie podcast with excellent audio quality and editing. 

But, why should you listen to another high fantasy podcast? Well, have you ever wanted to see what a post-apocalyptic High Fantasy world would look like? The deeper you delve into Reckless Attack, the deeper the lore gets, and we have barely scratched the surface a hundred episodes in. You’ll join the players as they explore a world recovering from an apocalyptic event, ripe with magic and unstable artifacts, an undead army, and frogs.

Starting The Pod

Right out the gate, the listeners are greeted by a Lord of the Rings style opening monologue, giving relevant history and context to the kind of place the characters live in. I personally get the feeling a lot of the world was established in a previous game or between the DM and players prior to the start of this campaign. If, as a listener, it feels like you're missing something, don't worry; you'll get a lot more context down the road, especially once the players make it to the city of Agmar (Episode 15). The first 15 episodes are a nice slow build up. 

Conveniently, the first recap episode covers Episode 1-14! (Though I really enjoyed the first 14 episodes, I know not everyone has the amount of listening time I have). If you are so inclined to start from the first episode, you'll get nicely eased into the characters and their relationships with one another before a lot of the bigger world building really starts to soar.

(My one caveat is that I listen to this podcast at 1.3-1.4 speed since the players and Nathan speak with a good amount of pauses, and that can be a little too slow for me.)

About the Team

Nathan, the DM for the main campaign, paints some amazing pictures of his homebrew world. He has a real talent for creating larger than life NPCs and Big Baddies for his players to interact with. They all have clear motivations, flaws, and personalities that truly rounds out the overall story. When it comes to plot, Nathan kept me on my toes with plot twists that would literally snap me out of whatever multitasking I was doing. And I must recognize how often Nathan opens the floor for the players to build parts of the story and describe longer stretches of downtime. Those moments are like the equivalent of cinematic montages to represent the passing of time.

The players, Sophie, Steve, David, and Jonathan, deliver wonderful descriptions and leave plenty of space for each other to speak, balanced with just the right amount of crosstalk. Each character has a very unique voice which is helpful for listeners (especially because David and Jonathan are twins and have similar voices).

Sophie plays Valeska Carter, the Human * Cleric. "Valeska is a young woman in search of answers. Like, compulsively."* I quickly fell in love with Val, an exhausted nerd who can never have enough notes and organization. If you're the kind of person who is always rescuing animals, you will love her too. 

Steve plays Selv Asterlin, the Dragonborn Monk. "Selv’s years at his town’s icy mountain monastery has trained not just his body, but also his mind and emotions. The large dragonborn seeks to be a peacemaker in conflicts, exuding strength, calm and serenity while straying away from violence and lethal force when possible."* But don't be fooled, Selv is often one for the occasional good prank, and I always appreciate Steve's references even when the rest of the group don't understand them. (I got you Steve) 

David plays Kascorin "Kass" Brightmane, the Dwarven Warlock. "Tomorrow (Kass leaves) this city for the Golden Tree adventuring guild, and in leaving this city, (He leaves his) friends, (his) family, and (his) comfortable life behind."* Kass is very grounded, serious, and focused, until he runs into tasty dried meats. Kass has all the charm of a warlock and the grit of a soldier. 

Jonathan plays Checkers, the Gung Druid, with his trusty pals Mango and Junior. "Joining the Golden Tree adventuring guild on a dare, Checkers and his frog pal Mango are here to prove that it’s better to find your own path than to follow someone else’s. After all, where’s the fun in looking before you leap?"* Checkers is a lot like the characters I personally play. Someone who doesn't stand around for too much planning and prefers to "leap" into action. In my very humble opinion, every group needs an instigator. 

I have also come to really admire the level of trust and respect the group has for one another. They handle both wonderful whimsical beats as well as solemn moments with great care (Episode 108 was magnificent.)

*Quoted from the official Reckless Attack website. You can find this and more at their website www.recklessattack.com. (Be aware, reading the available character sheets may contain spoilers)

About the World

Ryxia is built on a world where long ago, the Gods walked among mortals, but one day they left. As if in consequence, magic in this world seems to ebb and flow, and monsters roam the wilds. Until, the "second of Ryxia’s twin suns disappeared from the sky, the Ultragiants appeared, and the Pentarchy’s great capital city of Narhasur was turned into a smoldering crater." *

You can think of the Ultra Giants as the Titans of this world, being elemental and colossal. These Ultra Giants terrorized mortals until one day, the mortals managed to kill one " wielding their city’s Object of Focus… The object was destroyed, as was much of the army. But strangely, within days, the Ultragiants no longer stalked Ryxia."*

As the mortals re-emerged, they started to rebuild despite the incredible amount of monsters who now roam the lands. 

*Quoted from the official Reckless Attack website. You can find this and more at their website www.recklessattack.com. (Be aware, reading the available character sheets may contain spoilers)

Extras

Aside from the main campaign Nathan has his own series called Reckless A-Talk. This series Nathan or others on the team interview incredible people from all over the TTRPG space. Nathan's style of interviewing is mostly allowing his guest to speak more than he does, followed by the wonderful lightning round questions. I highly recommend listening to these (as a little treat) if you are interested in learning other perspectives and other aspects of the industry. 

Bonus one shots are another part of Reckless Attack, allowing the players to take the reigns.  They serve as fun filler for when you just can't wait for the next episode to drop. 

And if that's still not enough content for you, you can always subscribe to their Patreon for even more content, including the very relaxed Reckless A-Snack.

TLDR

High Fantasy world rebuilding the world after mortals were nearly wiped out.

Listeners will get a good feel of the world within the first 14 episodes. (IMO, the pacing starts to pick up after Episode 14)

Here are "Tale Til Now," recap episodes for those who want to catch up faster. (Episodes 1-14, 14-42, 42-66, 67-84)

Non Player Characters are larger than life, with clear motives and personalities.

The Dungeon Master and Players share a lot of world building and you can feel the love and trust they have for each other.

Recommended listening at 1.3x-1.5x speed if you are one of those people (you know who you are).

Find more details about the world and characters at www.recklessattack.com.

Lots of extra content for those who just need more, including; interviews, one-shots run by the players, and patreon bonus content. https://www.patreon.com/recklessattack/home

Do you have ideas or suggestions? Please feel free to comment!

Special thanks to Artax of Who's Taking Watch for helping with editing!

No Context Spoilers:

[diioonysus]

creepy/messed-up history facts

the man in the booth across from lincoln was named major henry rathbone, and after booth fired the shot, rathbone tried to tackle him to the ground, but booth sliced rathbone in the arm with a dagger. after that night, rathbone was never free of guilt. he suffered from stomach ailments to heart palpitations, and on december 23rd 1883, he attacked and killed his wife clara, and attempted to kill himself. he spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.

in 1494, sailors returning from the new world brought with them massive outbreak of syphilis, which spread through an entire french army, and with no antibiotics to counteract it, the disease spread unchecked. the skin on victims' faces would essentially rot away from the grisly ulcers. in some cases, the noses, lips and other body parts of the affected people were essentially gone.

in 1890, thomas edison, using wax cylinder, produced a line of baby dolls. they had wooden bodies, procelain heads, and miniature phonographs in their chests. the phonographs would play back recordings of young women reciting nursery rhymes like "hictory dickory dock," and "now i lay me down to sleep." (here's the audio of them x)

dentures used to be made from the teeth of dead soldiers. they were ivory base plates with real human teeth attached, a lot of these were sold to dentists by scavengers looting corpses from the battle of waterloo. the dentists would boil the them down, cut off the roots, attach them to ivory plates, and sell them.

in 1929, a pair of scientists at princeton university wanted to test and understand how the auditory nerve percieves sound, and their test subject was an alive cat. they cut out part of its brain and attached one end of a telephone wire to its auditory nerve and the other end to a reciever. weirdly enough, many researchers think this helped lead to the development of cochlear implants. but the cat was killed after the scientists wanted to see if it worked on a dead cat.

in 1726, mary toft told doctors that she gave birth to rabbits, and doctors were fully convinced until they found pieces of corn inside the stomach of one of the rabbits, proving that it hadn't developed inside her womb. she instead was manually inserting the rabbits to make the delivery look as realistic as possible.

it was believed that babies under the age of 15 months couldn't feel pain, so doctors would instead use muscle relaxers that had a paralytic effect to stop the baby from moving. this essentially meant they couldn't move or cry but they could still hear, see, and feel everything that was done to them. this was accepted up until 1980s

there was a tiger in india named man-eater of champawat who became dependent on human flesh, which at the turn of the 20th century inflicted a seven-year reign, killing 436 men, women, and children. she was eventually killed in 1907.

there was a book called "how the mail steamer went down in mid atlantic, by a survivor," which tells the story of an unnamed ocean liner that sinks in the atlantic. the protagonist is a sailor named thompson, who grows concerned over the lifeboat shortage, and sure enough the liners collides with a small sailing ship in a fog. as the ship sinks, only 200 of the 700 people on board survive. the second novella "the wreck of the titan: or, futility" by morgan robertson, follows the fictional ocean liner titan, which hits an iceberg in the north atlantic and sinks. like the titanic, the titan was described as the largest ship afloat at the time, both ships had a shortage of lifeboats, and the titan was dubbed "unsinkable." when the accident occurred, roberston simply said he was knowledgabe about maritime operations, saying "i know what i'm writing about, that's all."

some books created in the 18th and 19th century were bound in real human skin which was called anthropodermic bibliopegy. most of these books that were bound with human skin instead of animal skin were mostly based on anatomy or erotica.

during the battle of ramree island, which was fought between january and february 1945, japanese soldiers were cornered by english troops seeking to conquer burmese island of ramree, forcing japanese troops to cross 10 miles of swamp. the japanese soon began to suffer the effects of tropical diseases, but the presence of large numbers of scorpions, tropical mosquitoes and thousands of saltwater crocodiles, the world's largest reptiles, was even worse. In its genre. very aggressive beasts that can reach 8 meters in length and weigh more than a ton. according to some survivors, during the night, they were hunted one by one, in which the crocodiles would ambush them from underneath. and the survivors said the worst part was hearing the screams and the breaking of bones in the dark.

there is a cocodile named gustave (or was if you believe he's dead), a large nile crocodile in burundi who has been rumored to have killed 200-300 people. he's never been captured, but it has been stated that he could be "easily more than 20 feet, and weigh more than 2,000 pounds." he was/is estimated to be over 100 years old, and was/is described as having bullet wounds over his body, and his right shoulder blade was found to be deeply wounded, but they don't know what could have caused it. it's been rumored that he would leave the corpses he killed behind. in 2019, an article revealed he was killed, but there's no photographic evidence which leaves people doubting it's true.

[accirax]

wait the altdrdt characters have names? who's who? which one is xf?

oh, sorry, i forgot that folks who either weren't around when the characters were first introduced or just forgot might not know which altdrdt cast member is which! i'll clarify for you.

so, to be clear, none of the altdrdt characters have official names. this is (currently) stated on the FAQ page. however, to make talking about the characters easier, DRDT fans on Tumblr (at least) came up with some code names with which to refer to the characters. there were a lot of them floating around, but i think the ones that most people settled on were made by xmicrophonyx and pastelclownkitty. you can find all of the basic info you need in that linked post, but i'm going to keep talking to go into a little more detail as to why the names were chosen, and show the updated cast photo with the few sprite changes.

so, from left to right:

Swirl: this is because of the swirls in her hair.

Soundwave: this is because of the audio level-like decal on his shirt.

XF: this is because of the logo on their jacket and the pin on their tie, which matches with Min's-- symbols of the XF-Ture Tech company.

Dandelion: this is because of the dandelion in his hair.

Scale: this is because of the scale pattern on his shirt.

Teacher: this is because his talent is all but confirmed to be the Ultimate Teacher. in fact, as of the Christmas 2023 comics, this codename may be canon*.

Bullet: this is because of his belt buckle, which is reminiscent of a truth bullet. the dog tags also imply that he may have a connection with the military.

Ram: this is because of her goat-like pupil design and hair arranged to look like a sheep's horns.

Fire: this is because of the fire pattern on her shirt, her apparently fiery personality, and to match with who we assume to be her twin brother, Ice.

Ice: this is because of the snowflake pattern on his shirt, his apparently cold personality, and to match with who we assume to be his twin sister, Fire.

Crown: this is because of the crown pin in her hair.

*although not confirmed to be canon, there's a decent chance that the characters in this fangan will canonically be referred to by code names, as opposed to their real names. this is because two of our prior attempts, naming the characters "one" through "eleven" and naming the characters by Greek alphabet letters, were shot down. the Greek alphabet may have just been due to personal distaste (DRDTdev said he found the names "arbitrary"), but the numbers were vetoed because one of the characters' names was confirmed to be a number (here's wist-eri's screenshot of DRDTdev's comment). combined with the fact that Teacher refers to himself as, well, Teacher in that comic, if one character goes by a number and one goes by Teacher, it's possible that everyone will be using words in place of names. however, it's also possible that someone goes by a number name for separate reasons, and Teacher was just referring to himself as that for the sake of not giving us spoilers/in the same way that anime characters sometimes just call a character "sensei."

anyways, if you want some additional reading about the altDRDT cast, you can check out my initial guesses as to what their talents might be, and/or gleamingtempest's super cool theory that the characters will be based off of the 12 animals of the lunar calendar zodiac (which i also hijacked 😅). there are plenty of other great speculations and pieces of art in either the #altdrdt or #drdtalt hashtags, too!

[inkdemonapologist]

Thoughts on the BatIM books not being canon?

Originally typed up an answer based on the one TheMeatly tweet about creators being given “freedom to make things their own” when telling stories in their world, and that the games decide the canon. I thought that “the books aren’t canon” would be a bit of a reductive takeaway from that – like, I read it as the idea that the books don’t determine the canon, and aren’t beholden to some grand future plan to make sure they fit with the games, so they aren’t a trustworthy predictor of what’s going on in the games and in the case of contradictions, the games win. Like, the books can’t be counted on for theorycrafting, but that doesn’t mean Buddy or Abby are “noncanon” Bendy characters – just that they’ll never intersect with the games. But recently Mike Mood tweeted that “if it’s in a book, it’s not canon” pretty directly, so I guess Adrienne has just been writing a Bendy AU all this time??? Lmao.

I still think this is sort of not surprising after BatDR. Before BatDR actually came out, I was advocating pretty enthusiastically for little references to book characters – I know this was sort of controversial at the time, because people were worried about the idea of making the books “required reading” and references you don’t get if you don’t READ UP ON THE LORE – but I don’t think this would be necessary. If you give Dot an audiolog that’s like “I may just be an intern here in the writing department, but even I can tell there’s something fishy going on. I’ve got to investigate. Wally’s always losing his keys in [hint for the player], I bet I can find them” then if you’ve never read the books, that audiolog tells you everything you need to know, isn’t tangled up in any Book Lore, introduces the character as if she’s new, while also being a fun chance for the book readers to be like YOOOO MY GIRL IS HERE. Even just a schedule that says Joey has a meeting with Abby Lambert, or Ms. Lambert’s name on a desk somewhere in the art department, or a couple of animation cells on desks with characters from Crack-Up Comics, would be a fun wink to the book readers EVEN IF you want the canon to not be tied up with the books. Heck, you’ve got the non-audio-log memos in this game, you wouldn’t even have to give book characters a canon voice.

But, when BatDR had NOT ONLY no acknowledgement of the books, but also….didn’t even seem to be going in the same direction? I think the writing was sort of on the wall --

-- the people writing the games aren’t taking the books into account and the books aren’t going to be referenced here. The only question was whether the books were written with the plans of the games in mind and… I’m gonna be real. The idea that the Bendy franchise doesn’t really have Plans as such and so the books are just guessing and theorising, but the games reserve the right to go off in a completely different direction if they want to is, uh, not that surprising either. Bendy and the Ink Machine has never really seemed like a thing that had a grand plan, to me, it was just fun to pretend that it did – and then when the books were actually GOOD, it sold the idea of trying to puzzle that world together even more.

So there’s a cynical part of me that’s annoyed about this being mentioned now, you know, after 3-4 different books have been purchased by fans who were interested in learning some lore while waiting for BatDR, and now that BatDR’s out it’s like “oh, well, we’ve never felt this was CANON canon” when before it wasn’t really sold that way. If this has “always” been true, then all the “is Joey gay” questions could’ve been so easily dodged by admitting that the books were doing their own take rather than determining canon, but that fans are free to accept that interpretation. Adrienne answered one AMA question about what would become of Dot in a way that implied she didn’t know, as if she’d created this character who now existed in the world and it was up to the creators of that world to determine her fate. All of this combined with that one clarifying tweet about how EVERYTHING IN THE ORIGINAL BATIM IS STILL CANON before BatDR’s release creates the picture of intentionally selling on original BatIM’s love of theorycrafting and lore-collecting because that’s what would keep fans engaged. Either they were carefully Not Mentioning that the books aren’t canon during a time when they needed the books to sell, or the decision to treat books as “noncanon” is more recent than TheMeatly claims.

But despite my complaining, I do think this is like… wise. BatDR makes it clear that writing a Mystery With Deep Lore isn’t really what they want to do with this franchise now, if it ever was, and so now that BatDR has done reasonably well they can go ahead and admit it. If they want to be able to just hand a comic project to some comics people and not have to collaboratively run every design through their own art department to make sure it’s one they’d be willing to use in the games if that character ever appears, then it’s nice to go ahead and tell fans point blank that these designs are an interpretation by a third party, not The Canon, and should be treated as such. I think it’s not a bad way to run things, to give these other creators freedom to do their own thing with the material.

But, well, as for me and my feelings… I liked the books. I got into this franchise backwards, from a fansong and fanfiction that made me care about characters from a game I’d neither played nor watched, and then finding the concept of Sammy’s ink addiction in DCTL compelling even if I’d only heard bad things about DCTL at the time – I started writing Taste of Ink in hopes of getting this out of my system so I could move on, haha. And then Illusion Of Living came out, this incredible picture of everything I wanted from the franchise, and unfortunately nothing else has ever quite measured up. Maybe that makes sense; a lot of Bendy fans had a hard time getting through TIOL. I think I wanted a different franchise all along, and back when there wasn’t any new content in the True Game Canon, it was easier to play out the thing I wanted in the leftover ruins of this one. But then the original creators came to restore those ruins, and it was a cool thing they built, but it wasn’t anything like the ruins I’d had so much fun in anymore. I’m… genuinely proud of how much I contributed to this fandom, and so thrilled that people have enjoyed what I made here. If you weren’t following me a couple of years ago I really do recommend looking back through my blog because I made A LOT OF CONTENT………. Early on I got an ask of “does ur back hurt from carrying the entire bendy fandom,” which obviously I couldn’t post because there were definitely other creators carrying it with me, but tbh there were very few of us back when I fell face-first into this obsession and I have to admit that ask gives me some warm fuzzies to this day, haha. Like, there was a little stretch of time when the version of BatIM that I imagined helped to keep the fandom afloat! But it, like the books, was never the direction that the franchise was going to go. The BatIM I loved was was collectively dreamed into existence by people who found that game’s premise compelling.

I still love Bendy. I don’t think I ever will stop. This franchise made such a huge impact on me for reasons that are still KIND OF MYSTERIOUS LMAO. I still care a LOT about this world and these characters, but I don’t know if I’ll make much more canon-adjacent fanstuff here. Cthulhu AU is giving me the human batim content I crave and several of the AUs I’m involved in have sort of become their own thing. Maybe someday I’ll figure out how to capture whatever it was in BatIM that took over my brain so intensely for more than 3 years, but I don’t know if I’ll find it in the franchise anymore.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not having a job despite having time for it?

🍏🥝🍏🥝 <- to keep track of this when it posts,

My family really loves talking about me(20) when they think I'm not listening. I've heard them on multiple occasions say that I need a job and that I should just start working part-time while I'm going to college. The issue with that is that while other people can do both pretty decently, I dont feel like I'm capable of doing both part time and college without one of them suffering a lot because of the other.

My family is pretty financially stable, and the fees I owe never go over 900 dollars and sometimes I even make my own money off of commissions to help pay for things. I actually did have an actual job during my classes for a while filing things and remote video editing work (for the same job) but one of my family members worked with me there as my boss and I decided to quit after they decided to ask if my mom would've rather died than had me after I told him she called trans people abominations (I am trans, I'm only out to that family member and my brother). I haven't found a consistent thing to do to earn money since but I've been trying really hard to advertise my commissions since then.

The part where I feel really guilty though is the fact that I've been going to a community college for almost 3 years now (with my family supporting me money wise) and know I'm only going to come out with a one year certificate because of how fucked my schedule got in my first year. I didn't meet some prerequisites , and despite the course I wanted being a 2 year degree it was worth almost 80 credits, which felt insane as I went into it. 5 classes a term, some 5 minutes after the other, all based on pouring hours and hours into artsy projects (video, audio, 3d modelling, painting, 2d animation, ect...). I broke down within my third term after I started failing some of my classes. I was still trying for my 2 year degree up until 2023 where I decided that getting a certificate that was similar and getting a job after would probably be better for me at this point rather than spending ANOTHER 2 years struggling OR straight up giving up and dropping out with nothing.

I'm also home a lot when I'm not in class (I'm only taking 2-3 classes a term now). I do little things sometimes like take out the trash and pull dishes from out the washer and so on but it's all only when no one is home because the place where things generally need to be cleaned up is all in our very small kitchen AND the fact that I'm scared of them poking fun at me for "finally doing something for once" because it makes me feel terrible when they do. I end up chilling out in my room completing work and desperately finding work arounds for projects to only ever really need done in my room or on campus- generally anywhere that's not going to worry my grandma too much.

I've told my family that their teasing doesn't make me feel good but it just gets responded with "that's just how we show love!" when I know it doesn't have to be that way! My boyfriend teases me pretty often but the difference is that he actually listens to me when I tell him something he said didn't feel very good to me and we talk it through, and then he doesn't make that joke again or i feel better after knowing the context of it!!! A lot of my family members will bicker until another one ends up crying and it's horrible to watch how petty and bitter everyone can be.

Don't really know what else to write, AITA guys? I know I could be doing a lot more around the house instead of working but I'm scared of being touched (my aunt randomly spanked me as hard as she could one time last year) and scared of more mean comments being thrown my way. I already have a plan to leave this home and have been open about it to them, but I don't want to rush it if I don't have to and want to spend a few years saving money up so that I'm not in a horrible situation if things go awry.

What are these acronyms?

[fabricated-misslieness]

ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: earth 42 & earth 1610 miles morales x gn reader (platonic)

ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴀʀʏ: spider miles (millas) has an idea and he ropes you and prowler miles (miles) into it.

ʀᴇ𝐐: yes ~ ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 798 ~ the tiktok

ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢꜱ: swearing

ᴍᴀʏʙ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇ: this is set in earth 42. also, i'm going to assume spider miles doesn't have tiktok, but another version with different audios and trends, based off the fact his coca cola is "koca soda"

☾⋆☆⋆☽

"Guys!" Spider Miles bursts into the living room with great energy, waving his phone around.

"Ugh, what?" Prowler Miles groans in response.

"What do you mean "ugh"??" Spider Miles imitates the groan, annoyingly flicking one of his counterpart's braids.

"I meant, "ugh, you're so annoying", Millas." Prowler Miles responds without hesitation, making Spider Miles pout.

"Look, I just have something to show you." He hands you his phone and you unpause the TikTok on it to see.

Prowler Miles leans over your shoulder to look, but not before teasing his counterpart. "Didn't deny the "Millas" nickname?"

"You guys call me "Millas" so much, it's–"

"Practically your name?" You pipe up.

"Tsk," Millas clicks his tongue, "just shut up and watch the tiktok."

...

"You want to try that?" Miles asks.

"Why not?" Millas replies, blissfully unaware.. or maybe he was aware, and he was just trying to fool you so he could get a laugh out of it. Either way, he wanted to do this, and he certainly wouldn't back down.

You and Miles let out a simultaneous sigh. "Fine." Miles says.

In surprise, Millas let's out a "That easy?"

And Miles won't let that slide. "Would you rather we not play this fuckin' game or what?"

"Wow, my bad," Millas backs off, raising his hands in the air as surrender. "sorry."

And it's really damn funny, but you had to take pity on the guy. "Do you want me to spell it out for you, Millas?"

"Spell what?" Okay, so he really was clueless.

As you're about to tell him, Miles speaks first. "Let him cook."

Millas can only respond with confusion.

☾⋆☆⋆☽

"He's not on that side of TikTok?"

"If he's seeing these bottle fan thing videos, I don't think so."

Millas finishes taping the bottle to the fan, which you don't notice, and turns to you. "What did you say?"

"Nothing." You stand, bringing Miles up with you. Millas hands the both of you a sleeping mask, and you cringe. Both masks were pink, covered in fake fluffy hair; the front was decorated with two closed eyes with luscious, full eyelashes. "Did you buy these just because of the video?"

"No..?" He tilts his head in confusion, "Do you guys not own sleep masks?"

"You own three?"

He shakes his head, like he's disappointed, "Forget it." He places the mask atop his forehead and reaches for the remote, but Miles has something to say first.

"Wait, why do you get the cool mask?" His eyes are narrowed, accusing.

In contrast to your pretty pink masks, Millas had an animal one. It depicted a sleeping panda, though the panda's nose was over the section above the wearer's nose. Anatomical inconsistencies aside, Miles totally thought it was much better than his.

"Cause I came up with the idea." Millas simply retorts. He doesn't leave any room for arguing as he places the mask over his eyes and turns on the fan.

Though he didn't make sure that you two had put on your masks yet, you follow through obediently, maybe just because it makes Millas happy.

It's a slow speed, but you're blinded and have the coffee table, couch, and various messy knickknacks on the floor to maneuver. Also, the TV is behind you and Rio would definitely kill you if it fell.

"OW!" You hear Miles, followed by a smack. "We don't fucking own Lego, what the hell!" Seems he stepped on a Lego brick.

While you're busy laughing, you forget about the bottle. "Fuck!"

Millas laughs at the both of you, and the same fate as yours doesn't befall him. He dodges, and you wouldn't be able to tell if he wasn't so boastful. "How'd you guys get hit?"

"Millas–"

"Let him cook." Why did Miles insist on letting him figure it out himself? Smack! "Ow, pinga!"

Smack! "Motherfucker."

Miles dodges again, and you can tell because you don't hear a smack.

The bottle spins and spins around in a predictable circle, but you don't know where you are in the circle, so and again and again you are hit and hit. Your cheek starts hurting, so you turn so that the other cheek feels the same abuse. Each cycle, there are only two smacks, several curses, and Millas's bragging.

"You guys just suck at this."

Okay, Miles had enough of Millas's stupidity. "You have–" He begins, but the smack that follows tears a yelp from his mouth, " 'cha madre!"

Trying to not get hit by the bottle, you back up and accidentally trip over the table leg, falling backwards and into Millas. He catches you by the shoulders, but before he can toss you away, he finally gets smacked.

"OUCH!" He yells, which prompts laughter from Miles.

The two of you laugh together, like hyenas, even if it is interrupted by the bottle smacking on Miles's head. Speaking of, Millas had pushed you away, and though you didn't know where you were now, you just knew you weren't at the mercy of a bottle taped to a fan.

Miles dodges the bottle coming at him, though he still clutches his cheek. "See? It's only 'cuz you got on me, you little shit, that I got hit!"

"Miles," You say with finality, "you have spider-sense, you idiot."

"Oh."

One final smack resounds as the bottle hits Miles's face before Millas turns the fan off, prompting all of you to take your masks off. "Well, it's not fun anymore."

"It never was." Miles plops himself onto the couch, rubbing at his burning cheeks.

"It was kinda funny." You admit, hopping onto the spot next to him.

"Yeah, you gotta admit it was funny, Miles." Millas snickers, so Miles throws his mask at him. Used to his counterpart's unnecessary aggressiveness, Millas simply collects the masks and piles them onto the table.

"Okay," Miles rolls his eyes, "it was a little bit funny."

Millas smiles at his victory, sitting down next to you ceremoniously. "See? You don't always have to be a–"

"But only when you guys got hit." Miles cuts him off.

Millas reaches behind you to smack Miles on the back of the head. "Grumpy ass."

"You little–"

[rileyclaw]

Hii! First off i just want to I'm such a big fan of your art and animatics! Your art is just so expressive and unique its addicting to look at 💞💞

I was wondering if you could go over how your process or tutorial in making an animatic? Whenever I try to start to make one, I get jumbled up and end up ditching it lol

I'm sorry if you get this question a lot 😭

So sorry it took me so long to answer this- I was in a Busy time (diseaseridden with covid and being punched by finals) when I got the ask and wanted to answer it with some stuff Im using for my next TOH animatic!!

I'll say one thing first: I get jumbled up and ditch so many animatics. For every one animatic I release, there are three to five more I have that have NEVER seen the light of day (yet). And that's okay!! It's fun just to make them for me, and I hope it is for you too!! Animatics are scary because if you're working on it alone, it can be really hard to be your own cheerleader to keep up the mojo to keep going. So that makes it really special when there is that project that makes it to the finish line- cuz you can look at it and go "holy crap I made this. holy crap i MADE that look how SICK that is dude!! all that work and look at the turnout!!"

The following stuffh is just my personal process and is by no means representative of a professional animation pipeline, but this works for me as a Lonely Artist! It all begins with the idea - whether it's a song, or just a story you wanna tell. In the case of the one I'm gonna demo here with , I wanted to animate Hunter's first day as Del's apprentice!

The first thing I did was write a script. Not fancy or AO3-quality, but enough that I understand the pacing and the visuals of each shot. I usually just put this in a doc or put it in a script format, if I feel fancy.

Then, I take that script and find music that I think would fit for it- and remix it (if needed) to fit the pacing/mood/etc! This is what this new animatic looked like before I began ANY artwork- this is a me thing because I'm super inspired by audio as opposed to visuals first. But you might be different- this is just how I like working personally!

Then begins the research! I find references for characters, background layouts, and create a style guide for the animatic that tells me how thick lines will be for characters, backgrounds, if there'll be tons of value or no. I make a turnaround for each character so I can refer to them because Im gonna be drawing them over and over a LOT and want to be consistent! Luckily TOH has no shortage of references, so I based my work off them.

THEN, I can begin drawing. I'm a little,,, (a lot) ADHD and may not always do this process, but if you're new to animatics or daunted by the task at hand, make beat boards of the entire project.

This is just a page of rough thumbnails that get your visual idea down - look how rough and quick these are!! I try not to spend over a minute on each beat board if I dont have to, unless it's a particularly complex shot.

When it gets to the stage where you're ready to begin the actual scenes, I personally tend to do backgrounds first because I like to set characters into backgrounds - and for every animatic, I have the Awkward Blue Sketch Stage which is basically my beat boards timed out as an animatic.

I used Storyboard Pro for this (Toonboom, not free ): icky), but the process can be replicated across most art platforms in whichever way you feel most comfy with! This is so I can time the drawings before I devote time cleaning them up-- which can make for some Pretty Funny looking little guys but theyre important!! trust!!

Once a big sequence of shots is cleaned up (I usually do 40-60 second chunks at a time), I export the .mov and send it to my editing program (which in this case is still Premiere Pro) - and then repeat this process again and again until.. it's done??

Here's like a TL;DR list of basically everything I said summed up:

• Make a loose script or bulletin of the idea! Do your research!

• Depending on what kind of animatic you're making, time it to music!

• Make a beat board of very loose gestures for your shots, and time them - then move on to refinement & cleanup!

• Combine all shots, refine music cues and timings, add any last needed VFX, and export!

There's no secret recipe or anything, it's just learning a pipeline that best suits you, whether it is for something professional or something you want to make for fun because you just love to make!!

[stellar-constellations]

An Alliance (Part 8)

        

        Fem! Spy! (Y/N) x Yuri Briar

        Parts: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, current part, nine, ten (to be continued when Spy x Family has more Yuri content!)

        (Y/N) is given her own backstory that is important for the story!

        The setting for this story is based off West and East Germany's (because Spy x Family is heavily based off Germany in the 1940-1950) laws (or at least replicated to the best of my abilities since it's unknown what time period Spy x Family is exactly in, we'll go with 1950 for the sake of this story). 

        Historically-accurate women misogyny and mistreatment! Only small comments and historically-accurate laws (replicated to the best of my ability). 

        The story, plot, and settings might not match up to the Spy x Family manga as it's not completed and the manga is still being crafted.

        This series contains spoilers for the manga and anime!

        Even more weeks passed as Yuri and I began to know each other more and more. Eventually, we started to figure out each other's likes and interests.

        I used to hate Yuri for many things, like how he's extremely strict with work, a morning-person, extremely family-oriented (and I swear he has some weird thing with sisters. Would he date a girl if she was an older sister? 'Cause I am). I also hated him cause he's so bossy and stuck-up, not allowing me to even walk outside for a breath of air without him walking beside me.

        Meanwhile, he hated me for a lot of reasons too. Like how I was seen as playful and tired a lot, seeming to have no clear goal of what I want in life. He also didn't like me because I'm carefree and love to tease him. 

        It's not that good of a match when we're both stubborn and opinionated, stuck in the same apartment for hours on end, not even having a break from work, but we eventually decided to put aside our differences. 

        Yuri allowed me to sleep in on our days off, and in return I'd lay back on my teasing. Yuri and I agreed on the groceries and dinners we made, deciding to work together to make dinner. I learned that Yuri likes his eggs sunny side up, and he learned I like mine (egg choice). I showed him how to make my family recipes, and Yuri showed me how to make recipes he's stumbled across and adapted (he admitted he doesn't like cooking Yor's dishes, but he eats what she makes anyways because he admires her).

        Yuri doesn't care for horror movies as he never gets scared, but he's scared of porcelain dolls (just as I am) so we get scared when watching "The Invisible Man" (even though Yuri swears up and down he isn't scared, he agrees to hold me since I forced him to otherwise I'd have nightmares and talk about it in my sleep, effectively scaring him from my sleep-talk of demons and dolls). 

        We learned how to co-exist and work together, helping with interrogations and asking for each other's second-opinions. I tried to listen to bugged audios and such, but I end up falling asleep each time as I have to try and wait for something incriminating, so Yuri takes over that part.

        Our co-workers are extremely convinced that we're a couple, and it really doesn't seem that off. It feels like as more and more time passes, we get used to having to call each other "wife" and "husband". 

        We took the bus since the traffic was way too crowded on the road today, that, and me and Yuri felt exhausted after working long hours for so long. We eventually fell asleep on the bus, leaning onto a each as the train peacefully cradled us.

        "Yuri? (Y/N)?"

        Yuri shot awake, causing me to way up from his harsh movement. 

        "Whu? Yor?" Yuri questioned.

        "You two don't usually ride this train." Yor spoke.        

        "Oh, uh, just on our way back from a little work trip." Yuri spoke.

        I nodded, agreeing before eventually dosing off on Yuri's shoulder, their conversation being alienated in my ears. 

        Yuri soon woke me up. I mumbled out a "bye" once I realized Yor was still onboard. Yuri grabbed my hand as he led me out.         

        "What did you and Yor talk about while I was asleep?" I muttered, keeping my eyes low on the ground.

        It was too bright outside for me now, and I'm really too tired to keep walking yet I went.

        "Nothing really, just small talk." Yuri hummed, he turned to look at me. "Are you okay? You're dragging your feet." Yuri pointed out.

        "Yeah, yeah. I'm just tired. I don't like having to do the interrogations so much. I'm still mad that guy tried punching me when I caught him lying." I sighed.

        "Yeah. That was a quick punch..." Yuri spoke, recalling the memories.

        I'm really glad Yuri was there to catch that punch and hold him down, since I was sitting down, there really wasn't enough time for me to move away from it.

        "Yuri. Can you carry me?" I questioned.

        "No." He immediately responded. 

        "Why?" I sighed, slightly whining. 

        "You're acting like a child." Yuri sighed.

        "But I'm tired." I groaned, then paused, thinking. "You should carry me. It'll make us seem more like a couple to others."

        "You're really trying to use that against me?" Yuri deadpanned.        

        "...Please?" I questioned, causing him to sigh.

        "Whatever, hurry up and get on." Yuri groaned, rolling his eyes as he crouched down.

        "Thank you, love~" I singed, not much energy into it.

        "Whatever." He huffed, grabbed my thighs and placing his arms under them to get a firm grip.

        "You're the best~" I praised, resting my head on his shoulder and sighing happily.

        "I know I am." He snarked, hiding his face to hide his painfully obvious smile. 

        I decided not to fight back on it, resting my eyes again.        

        .

        .

        Mission after mission, I swear I'm going to go insane. I thought. 

        We were chasing after a suspect who ran, my legs were tired as I mentally cussed out the man we're chasing. I never ran as much in WISE as I do here! Usually I'd get escorted to my missions or at least have a motorcycle (well, at least in WISE I would)!

        "The suspect fled to the back alley! Go around and cut him off, you two!" the Lieutenant ordered.

        "Yes, sir!" Yuri responded. 

        I followed Yuri, not bothering to responded back to the Lieutenant in case I accidentally project my unprofessional thoughts to my higher-up. We chased in an empty alley, desperate to cut him off, but Yuri suddenly fell. He didn't trip, no, he just fell, plopped down face first into the ground.

        "Yuri? Are you okay?!" I questioned, immediately stopping and checking Yuri's pulse to make sure it wasn't heart failure or a stroke. 

        "Yuri, what happened? Did he get the drop on you?!" the Lieutenant questioned, running to us.

        "He just suddenly collapsed!" I spoke.

        "Nngh... Captain... I think I..." Yuri paused, "caught a cold..." 

        "So suddenly?!" the Lieutenant exclaimed. 

        "No wonder you were sneezing and coughing today when you woke up. Sheesh, Yuri, if you felt bad, you could've called in sick." I sighed, putting his arm around my shoulder and picking him up with the help of the Lieutenant.

        "Evil never waits..." Yuri responded.

        I signed me and Yuri out early, the Lieutenant going to the Director to tell what happened and to excuse our absences. I took Yuri's car keys and drove us back to our apartment, resting him on the couch.

        "You know, you really worried me, stupid. I thought you inhaled some poisonous gas or went into cardiac arrest. Tell me when you're feeling unwell, jerk..." I muttered, ignoring the tears swelling up in my eyes.

        I thought I was gonna lose you, just like everyone else...

        "Sorry..." Yuri mumbled. 

        "Don't worry, love. Just don't scare me like that again..." I sighed. 

        "Whenever I remember that... my sister's away... my immune system... breaks down." Yuri explained. 

        Woah. Sounds serious... seriously stupid. I thought. 

        "Right, business trip on a cruise." I commented. "I'll go get you some medicine at the pharmacy." I spoke.

        "W-wait, you can't go alone!" Yuri spoke.

        "I'll be fine, don't worry." I reassured.

        "No... It's in the... contract... for me to not... leave you alone... in case you... leave..." Yuri huffed.

        "Jerk!" I scoffed. "I wanted to make sure you heal up and you believe I'll abandon you while you're vulnerable! Besides, I've already left your sight before and I returned, did I not?!"

        "Sorry..." Yuri sighed. "If you go... could you get some herbal tea? The kind with the bear on it..." He huffed.

        "...Whatever..." I huffed, rolling my eyes. 

        I’ll get him it anyways since he’s sick. I thought.

        I hurried to the pharmacy, buying the box and noticing the box’s bear it's the same herbal tea that taste like absolute shit.

        Well, maybe he loses his tastes when he’s sick? So he doesn’t realize it’s bad? Maybe he likes the dirt-like texture. I thought, walking out of the pharmacy with the box and medication in hand.

        I walked back into the apartment, unlocking the door with the key I borrowed (stole) from Yuri’s pocket. I walked back to the bedroom and noticed Yuri sleeping, moving around a lot in his sleep.

        I decided I’d make the tea for him, getting a kettle of hot water brewing. I waited for the tea to boil, then placed a packet in a mug, pouring the water into it.

        I’m not a fan of Japanese tea, I prefer American tea better, but maybe my sense of taste changed? I thought, taking a drink of the tea from the mug.

        “BLEGH!” I immediately spit it in the sink, coughing profusely as the taste lingered in my mouth. “Hell no!” I exclaimed.

        How could he willing choose something like that?!

        I grumbled, muttering complaints and insults of the cartoon bear on the box as I carried Yuri’s mug of disgusting tea and a box of medicine for his cold.

        I walked in, setting the stuff down on the drawer and looked at Yuri. He was awake, shooting up from his sleep rather quickly.

        “Nightmare?” I questioned.

        “No. Just some past memories.” He sighed, his voice hoarse from his cold.

        “Ah.” I hummed. “I got you the tea you wanted, though it tastes like shit.” 

        “Thanks. It’s the one that works the best. And also the one that tastes most like what Yor used to make.” Yuri spoke, sipping his tea.

        He immediately threw up, but seemed re-energized. 

        “Gross! Yuri!” I wailed.

        “Blarf! Now let’s go catch us some criminals! I’m back to 100 percent! We gotta purify the world before my sister returns!” Yuri shouted.

        “Go back to bed, stupid!” I screamed.         .         .

        More weeks passed as me and Yuri learned to fall into the husband and wife role perfectly. We can go anywhere and be seen as a couple—almost, which will be explained soon enough. But I realized a new problem arose…

        It’s all fake.

        All the hugs, all the handholding, all the “see you soon”s, all the kisses, we had to fake it all. We had to fake every compliment, every gift, everything we did outside, was fake. But all the insults, all the teasing, all the “I hate you’s", all the nagging, all of that was real. 

        And the problem was, I’ve begun to enjoy Yuri’s company too much. 

        I’ve begun to enjoy waking up next to him and complaining about not wanting to get up. I’ve begun to enjoy walking to the nearest cafe for breakfast or just skipping and deciding to eat a big lunch later. I’ve begun to enjoy our handholding sessions and hugs and kisses to prove that we’re a "couple". I’ve begun to enjoy being able to see Yuri everyday; but he doesn’t.

        He doesn’t look forward to see me in the morning. He doesn’t look forward to our breakfasts, lunches, dinners, or desserts. He especially doesn’t enjoy the fake affection we had to broadcast to others. 

        I never expected to start wanting to fall in love, to start entertaining the idea of what life would be like with kids, to start a new chapter. I never wanted to leave someone with the fact that I was a bad-doer and that I’ll be at fault for making them cry—if they could even still think of me as their lover after knowing all I’ve done. All I've killed and sacrificed to be what I am today.

        I don’t like to hold regrets, but I am just as human as the next, even if Yuri doesn’t believe it since I was once a Westalis citizen. 

        I regret that I killed people with no thought. That I’ve broken families in just a second, shattered them so they could never be mended back together. I regret stealing information, turning my back on people, and never once listening to my heart and feelings.

        That’s for the best. I thought to myself. If I allow myself to get attached, then I’ll surely never be able to leave. I told myself.

        But do I really want to leave him? I thought. I'm going to have to. I've read the Handler's message: 

        Hello, Agent Vixen. To ensure your alliance with WISE, we need you to gather information on what they know about WISE, who the members are, what our missions are; I want information such as this and more reported to us as soon as you can—without letting any of them know you're still working with us. We also need you to figure out what are their affiliations with the National Unity Party. What do they discuss about? What is said about Westalis? Anything and everything involving the war, our agents, Westalis, and Ostania, we need you to report without being found out. Don't worry about covering for WISE agents, if they were caught; they're no longer a WISE agent in our books. And if you're discovered, we will do our best to recruit you back to us as long as you're proven to be reliable and trustworthy for a second chance. 

         The Handler.

        I'm a failure of a person. I can't even choose a side to back up; I'm a terrible wife too. I sighed, watching as a girl in the coffee line chatted with Yuri. And I’m not jealous. I thought, staring at them socialize. 

        Why would I be jealous? It’s all fake. I shouldn’t care if Yuri decides to leave with a girl. I shouldn’t care if I get kicked out and a new girl moves in. I shouldn’t care if the contract gets breached and I die (it really already has). I shouldn’t care at all, it’s Yuri’s life.

        But what if he starts loving someone? I don’t think I could watch the stages of him slowly falling head over heels in love with someone. If that happens, I’ll be gone. I'll be forced to go back to Westalis; if WISE even deem me worthy enough to be kept alive, that is (but I bet the SSS would kill me before then).

        But it’s not what I want, it’s what Yuri wants. I’ve been nothing but a nuisance ever since I was caught. I really started slacking, and I've been doing even worse now that I'm with Yuri; I'm losing my spark. 

        I stood up from the seat, deciding I was tired of waiting (and not because Yuri was talking with a girl) and walked up to them.

        “Hey! You remember my order, right?” I questioned Yuri, budding into the conversation.

        I don’t care if I’m being rude, it’s about time I start being selfish with my own feelings (haven't I been?)

        “(Favorite coffee/drink), right?” Yuri questioned, looking down.

        “Yep.” I smiled.

        “Is this your girlfriend?” the girl questioned, smiling.

        "Wife, actually." Yuri confirmed, grabbing my hand and holding it.

        A wave of shock hit me. I was expecting Yuri to get mad at me budding in, potentially ruining his chances with a hot girl. I was expecting him to be bummed out, mad, shocked, sad, anything but supportive and proud.

        I felt my heart race as my face heated up. 

        Wow. Wasn't what I was expecting. I thought. 

        "Really?" the girl spoke, shocked. "I didn't see a ring, sorry." 

        Me and Yuri looked down at our hands at the same time, noticing our fingers. 

        Ah, we still don't have rings, actually. I thought. 

        "We're engaged and saving up for rings." Yuri explained quickly. 

        "I see..." the girl went quiet. "Sorry for disturbing." 

        Yeah... I thought. Don't be a home-wrecker. 

        I decided to stay with Yuri in case she decides to change her mind about being a home-wrecker. The girl left and I sighed, feeling relieved, like I overcame a serious obstacle. Yuri is pretty attractive, but I've watched as girls quickly leave once he starts his obsessive rants about his sister.

        Maybe I was a little jealous. I thought to myself. I think I got a little insecure… I’ll keep that in mind so it doesn’t happen again.

        If Yuri noticed it, he decided not to question it. We ordered our drinks, waiting before receiving it. We walked into Yuri’s car, deciding today we’d drive instead of taking the bus. Yuri drives as I thought to myself intensely.

        “Yuri.” I spoke up.

        “Hm?” he acknowledged.

        “Let’s get wedding rings.” I boldly spoke.

        Yuri swerved the car, almost hitting another car before parking to the right side of the road.

        “The hell’s your problem?!” I screamed, scared as I held my chest. 

        Did I just lose my heart? Is it gone? Am I dead?

        “My problem?! What’s your problem?!” Yuri declared. “You don’t just go randomly asking that! Do you even know how much money rings cost?! We’re not married married!” 

        “Of course I know. We can go to a pawnshop and get them!” I hissed. “But it’s been pointed out that we don’t have rings! Usually when people engage, they at least have a engagement ring before a wedding ring! It’ll make our act look more believable.” 

        “People already believe us! Who do we need to coax?” Yuri questioned.

        “Our coworkers! We work with detectives, Yuri, they’re bound to get suspicious about us when there’s no ring and we’re regularly visiting the Director.” I pointed out.

        “Is this because of that girl?” Yuri questioned suddenly.

        “No!” I immediately declared, determined to shut down that idea. “I’m just thinking about our contract!” 

        “Ugh… (Y/N)…” Yuri sighed, hitting his head against the steering wheel.

        "My life is on the line, you know?! It all relies on this relationship!" I exclaimed. 

        The car horn honked as he did, but we both chose to ignore that as he raised his head.

        “I don’t plan on falling in love or whatever you’re thinking of in that pretty little head of yours.” He sighed, flicking my forehead.

        “Hey!” I yelped, offended that he flicked my forehead and called me stupid indirectly.

        “You don’t have to worry. I never planned on having a wife or anything.” Yuri spoke.

        “Why? Are you gay?” I immediately spoke.

        “NO!” Yuri screamed, angry. “I just never saw the point of it. I decided to dedicate my life to helping Yor.” 

        Pathetic. I immediately thought.

        “But what if you do fall in love?” I questioned. “What are you gonna do then?” 

        “I won’t.” Yuri sighed.

        “But what if you do?” I questioned, determined for an answer.

        “I’ll ignore them.” He groaned, hitting his head on the steering wheel once more.

        “But what about the rings and our contract?” I questioned.

        “What about them?” Yuri questioned.

        “My life is literally held together by a paper packet and our relationship.” I spoke.

        “And?” Yuri muttered.

        “You’re not gonna care if I die...?” I questioned, tears welling up in my eyes.

        “N-no! Of course I’d care. I’d—would you stop crying already?!” Yuri spoke, freaking out as tears started streaming down my face. 

        “I can’t help it!” I cried.

        “No! Help it! Help it, damn it!” Yuri groaned.

        “I just said I can’t!” I huffed.

        “I didn’t mean it! I don’t want you to die, geez!” he sighed.

        “Prove it…” I muttered.

        “How am I gonna do that? I’m not going to kiss you.” He spoke bluntly.

        “That wasn’t on the table!” I huffed, ignoring my offended and dejected feelings. “And to prove it…” I muttered, raising my left hand and holding it in the air as I pointed to my ring finger with the help of my other hand.

        “I’ll think about it.” Yuri sighed almost rolling his eyes at me. “Are you happy now?” 

        “Not yet.” I spoke, causing Yuri to groan. “Would you cheat in our marriage?” 

        “Have you no trust in me?!” Yuri cried out.

        “Since you didn’t mind if I died or not, yeah!” I immediately retorted.

        “I said I would mind!” Yuri clarified quick. “And besides. If I actually did did get married, which would never happen, but hypothetically, I wouldn’t. That’s treason to the relationship, and I don’t support treason. Just think back to our interrogation with Jim Hayward.” 

        I don’t think it’d be that serious, but good job on being a decent person, Yuri. I thought.

        “Why am I answering these questions and you’re not giving any information back?! This is trickery!” Yuri shouted, angry as he hit the gas pedal and drove back into the road, speeding a little off the appropriate speed limit to make it to work on time. 

        "You willing answered my questioned; I used no form of deception." I spoke, raising my hand up like I was testifying in court to prove innocence. 

        "Yeah right..." he grumbled. "What are you going to do when you fall in love?" he questioned. "And don't say you won't; I already used that." 

        "Hm." I hummed, thinking. "I'd wait and see if they recuperate. If they don't, I keep the feelings to myself, if they do, I won't do anything either. I have a marriage license with you, and I refuse to be a cheater, even in a fake relationship." 

        "Okay. And what about actual marriage?" Yuri questioned.

        "I want to have a husband and kids one day, but I'm not going to settle for just anyone. They'll be put through a test to make sure they're the one." I stated.

        "Pfft." Yuri scoffed, smiling. "What's this? Are you suddenly Cinderella waiting for Prince Charming?" Yuri joked.

        "Ugh." I scoffed back. "As if! I meant that they need to follow my dad's expectations of my husband, with a few exceptions from me, of course. Plus, Cinderella sought out the Prince first, I'd be offended if the guy I danced with didn't recognize my face!"

        "What's your dad's exceptions? And yours?" Yuri spoke. "Some buff guy who can lift 200 pounds?" 

        "Why? You been rejected for guys like that?" I questioned.

        "I told you, I've never fallen in love and never will..." Yuri grumbled.

        "My expectation of a lover is someone whose stable with a good sense of morals. I could care less about looks or the sex-drive, but I'd want a partner whose honest, loyal, responsible, and no one-sided expectations; like they can go out with friends but I can't, you know?" I spoke.

        "I'm genuinely surprised; that's achievable." Yuri commented. 

        "Oh? Are you going to be a suitor for this bachelorette?" I joked. 

        "Like there's others." Yuri scoffed. 

        "Oi!" I exclaimed. "Of course there's others! I'm not as unlikable as you."

        "Whatever floats your love boat." Yuri sighed.

        "Your boat is Titanic." I retorted.

        Titanic because it's a sunken ship...

        Yuri grumbled under his breath, before speaking up. 

        “I couldn’t ever see you being a real wife.” Yuri claimed.

        “Why?” I questioned, side-eyeing him.

        “Cause you don’t act very sophisticated, I’d be surprised if you even find a guy interested in you.” Yuri stated as if it was a fact.

        “Their loss; they don’t know what they’re missing.” I spoke.

        “What? Like constant nagging about nothing and everything? Constant clumsily and running into still doors and still wall? Constant clinging onto them as you drag your feet about not wanting to get out of bed, or to work, or to the store, or to the doctors? Constant crying? Constant—“ 

        “Say one more thing and I’ll turn that steering wheel so fast off that bridge we’re about to cross.” I spoke, pointing at the bridge we’re stalking towards.

        "...Constant baking at three A.M.?" he shot me a dirty glare.

        "You can't talk bad about my brownies! I love them and I know you love them too!" I shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

        I can deal with a lot of things, but disrespecting my brownies is a no no.

        "As if." He spoke, rolling his eyes.

        "Why do you wake up whenever I cook them, then eat them 0.2 seconds after they get out of the oven?" I spoke, crossing my arms. "I barely get two pieces!"

        "I wake up because I don't feel you in bed, so I think you escaped." Yuri stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

        "Why do you eat the brownies then?" I questioned.

        "...Because they are in my line of sight and we do not waste food in our house." He stated.

        "Or, you just love me and my cooking." I smiled.

        Yuri jumped up, startled as his eyes blew wide and he looked at me with a red face.

         "AS IF!" he shouted.

        "Woah! Such a strong reaction! Maybe you do love me!" I laughed as he glared at me.

        "Did you not catch the 'I’d be surprised if you even find a guy interested in you' earlier?" he questioned, his face showing he was unamused.

        "I think I'm very pretty and interesting." I smirked, looking into the car's rear mirror for a second before focusing my attention back to Yuri. "Besides, people in love always like to give each other a hard time. Just ask Donnie and his wife." I smirked.

        "...You're a brat." He muttered.               

        "Aw! You're the light of my day and stars of the night. You're my honey bunch sugar' plum gum drop pumpkin wumpkin lemon sundae swirl little love bug-" I gushed, smirking before he cut me off.

        "STOP THAT!" he screamed, his face red. 

        "Sorry..." I muttered, acting sad before smiling brightly again. "My little cherry pie dandelion angel dove swan cupid baby cutie sweetie blackberry muffin lemon glaze chocolate-"

        I went on until Yuri blasted the music on the radio until I shut up.

        .

        .

        We made it to work, stepping out of the car and noticing our vans being loaded up with equipment.

        Must be a big raid. I thought to myself as we walked into the building.

        “Ah, Lieutenant, Mrs. Lieutenant.” A lieutenant greeted us as we walked down the hallway. “I heard your niece’s bus is being held hostage right now, are you aware?” 

        “Niece?” I questioned before my eyes widened. “You mean my niece?!” I exclaimed.

        Little pink girl, Anya! I liked her! The first time I met her, I didn’t get to know her well. But the second time I saw her, I kept thinking of what she likes since me and Yuri had to watch her. She answered all my questions without me evening having to ask (she has perfect intuition! I like her!) and she even called me pretty and that’s why she kept staring at me!

        “Chihuahua girl’s bus got hijacked?” Yuri questioned, shocked. “Let’s get to the scene!” Yuri exclaimed, grabbing my hand and dragging me down the hallway.

        We ran down the hallways, finding the Lieutenant followed by a small squad with him.  

        "Captain! We heard Chihuahua Girl's bus got hijacked!" Yuri shouted as we both ran up to the scarred-face lieutenant.

        "Hey, who told them that? And Chihuahua girl...?" he questioned. "You know I can't have you showing your face at the crime scene. Your sister's kid might recognize you both. And don't even think of telling city hall." 

        "Urk... Understood, sir." Yuri spoke, deep in thought.

        "Like hell!" I shouted boisterously. "You have two options, but both of them will end up with me and Yuri ending up at that scene! Either you let us go with, or I'm hijacking one of those damn vans and driving there myself." 

        "You don't even have any information on the assignment. And you're too low of a level to participate." The Lieutenant informed.

        "I have my ways. Watch me." I glared, then swiftly grabbed the paper packet out of one of the lieutenant's hand in the squad.

        "Hey!" he exclaimed, reaching for it.

        I took a step back and read the short packet. Not much information, two Eden Academy buses hijacked by the Red Circus, no straight motive on why they did so.

        The Red Circus? I thought, shuddering. They used to be a peaceful student movement protest group, but their good ways turned sour once their movement for peace and equality for the weakest members of society. The state turned violent to them, causing the Red Circus to resort to an extreme methods, seeking revenge and justice after many of the students died. 

        I've done gigs to spy on the Red Circus to distribute peace in the country, as well as having to spoil their plans because they affected Westalis' and almost inflicted some serious protocols Ostania would've taken. Because of my interference, they have a target on me and other spies. If there's one thing I know, they're not friendly people.

        Please be safe, Anya. I thought to myself, mentally panicking every second we're stuck here.

        "Red Circus, two Eden Academy buses hijacked, motivations unknown." I spoke, dropping the papers down onto the desk. "Now that we know about the situation, we can go. We don't have to be right there, but we should be in a good distance for back up. You'd worry about your daughter and wife too, would you not?" I questioned, crossing my arms.

        The Lieutenant sighed, not seeing to have much battle spirit in himself. 

        "Fine. But hurry to the vans otherwise you'll chase dust." He commanded, exiting the office.

        "Yes, sir!" me and Yuri both saluted.

        "Sometimes, your stubbornness is a blessing, but other times, it's a curse." Yuri sighed, smiling. 

        We ran out into the van, hopping in and taking off instantly as we closed the door.

        "We'll go to the bus where your niece isn't present, that way we won't risk any exposure." Lieutenant spoke. 

        I resisted the urge to scream and kick the seats. 

        BUT IS ANYA SAFE?!        

        "Alright." Yuri acknowledged, nodding.

        We made quick haste to the scene, scoping out the surroundings to make sure none of the members were outside. 

        "Here, take these earpieces so we can communicate." Lieutenant spoke. "Mrs. Lieutenant, you go with your husband to infiltrate. Take these." He handed both me and Yuri gas masks along with the ear pieces.        

        Me and Yuri nodded, moving into one of the entrances into the base.

        "Hey." Yuri spoke, grabbing my arm. "You're not infiltrating. I'm not having you go into danger." 

        "What? Why?" I questioned.

        "We can't risk it. Yor would get suspicious if you're hurt." Yuri spoke.

        "She'll get even more suspicious if you're hurt. I can serve as backup to watch your back." I spoke.

        "No. You can be backup from afar, but you're not going into battle." Yuri spoke sternly.

        I glared at him, before huffing. "Fine. Whatever. But if you get hurt, then I told you so." 

        "Thanks." He smiled, placing the earpiece into his ear.

        "Be safe, love." I spoke, leaning up and kissing his cheek before running away, to the side of the building and up one of the ladders.

        I climbed up the ladder, listening to the conversation in my ear as I placed my gas mask on my face, just in case.

        "I see six targets. They're total amateurs. They have to know the other bus is surrounded, but they're not being cautious at all." A man spoke into the earpiece. "Wait till all six are outside the bus. That's our opening. The guy with the beard seems to be their leader. Deal with the others." 

        I made it to the top, putting up the gas mask to wear and grabbed the gun from my belt. 

        If they have the audacity to even try something to those kids, I'll aim for the head instead of their legs... I thought, propping myself on the pillar cliff. 

        I took a quick look around, seeing as I'm probably the only sniper here. It wasn't the captain's orders, but honestly I could care less about what that man tells me. These are Yuri's orders, and as his coworker and "wife", I have to fulfill them.

        "Do not give anyone a chance to radio out anything." The lookout ordered.

        "Berta team, ready." One informed.

        "Cäsar team, ready." Another informed. 

        "All teams ready. Prepare the tear gas." The captain commanded. "Execute!" 

        Two cans rolled into the way, causing the men to freak out.

        "The cops?!" one shouted, confused.

        "Koff! Retreat to the bus! Use the kids as-" I heard a man shout, but I didn't allow the man to finish his sentence as I locked my gun onto him, shooting straight into his head.

        "Resistance confirmed." I spoke.

        "Who the hell just did that?" the captain questioned.

        "Me. I figured you needed backup." I smirked, following the battle with my gunsight. 

        "You didn't follow orders." He grumbled.

        I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, instead opting watching the scene play out. 

        "A 'thank you' would've been appreciated." I spoke sarcastically. 

        "Aw! Damn it!" the supposed leader shouted. 

        He ran to the bus and gripped on the door handle. I was about to shoot before remembering how it could harm the kids if I miss my shot, and I redirected my gun.

        One of the SSS agents quickly grabbed his arm and punched the leader in the face. 

        "A man your age, hiding behind a bunch of kids..." he spat.

        Gunfire went off that wasn't mine, and the agent got shot in the shoulder by the leader.

        "Ngh, yeah..." the lieutenant huffed. "Real mature!" he shouted, kicking him hard on the stomach. 

        The leader fell down and I watched a different agent fighting. I redirected my attention back to the leader and shot his leg, keeping him down as he tried to get back inside the bus. 

        Stay down, stubborn bitch... I thought. 

        I eyed the agent who got shot in their shoulder, making sure no remaining members of the Red Circus tried to harm them or see him pass out. 

        "Safety of the hostages confirmed. Berta team, do an area sweep as a precaution. We have one wounded." The captain spoke. 

        I climbed down from the ladder just in time to see Team Cäsar walking out, dragging the wounded one out of the building and taking off the mask. The agent shot turned out to be Yuri.

        "Yuri!" I exclaimed, running over to him.

        "He should be fine." One of them said. 

        "Fucking move!" I ordered, roughly slamming my shoulder on his and effectively pushing him out of the way.

        "Ow! She's rude..." he muttered, rubbing his sore shoulder. 

        I observed Yuri's shoulder carefully as he groaned in pain.

        "No major arteries damaged. Only one bullet. It didn't go out the other way, so the bullet is still lodged into his shoulder. Is there a first aid with forceps inside of any of the vans?" I questioned, doing my best to stay calm.

        In actuality, I was freaking out. My hands were shaking along with my bottom lip as I took a deep breath, doing my best to stop myself from showing fear. If the patient (Yuri) notices I'm scared, he might get scared too, it'll speed up the pulse and the blood will pour out quicker.

        Get a grip, it's not the first time you've seen someone shot. I thought to myself, hiding the vision of Rancher, or Hujo, or Net in my mind. 

        I'm not alone. I don't have a huge gun. I'm fine. Help is here. He'll be fine. I thought, my ears starting to ring from my blood quickening. 

        "No. We don't have forceps, but there's bandages." They spoke.

        "We can get the bullet with this pocket knife?" another one questioned.

        I shot them a look. "Are. You. Fucking. Stupid?" I spat. "Digging around in his wound will only cause even more damage. The bullet has done enough damage as it is, it's not harmful anymore. Just get the fucking first aid and bring it here." 

        "S-sorry, ma'am..." he stuttered, looking down. "I-I'll get that first aid, ma'am!" 

        "How you feeling, Yuri? You see any white or black lights? You feel overheated or too cold?" I questioned, looking down at his face.

        "I'm dying!" he shouted.        

        "No, you're not!" I hissed, my tone harsher than I wanted it to.

        Don't say stuff like that. I'm not going to lose another person like this. 

        "Here, ma'am!" the soldier came back.

        I ripped open the first-aid, grabbing the bandages, dressing, and wipes.  I cleaned off most of the blood I could manage with disposable wipes, and gently plugged the wound with foam dressing.

        "YOWCH! IT HUUUUUURTS!" he screamed.

        Where was that pain resistance while fighting earlier? I thought.

        "Calm down, love. I'm trying my best, so stop moving." I spoke softly, hoping he'd copy my volume. 

        "Um, ma'am. I apologize for being clueless, but aren't you supposed to remove the bullet? I'm sure we could find a way without hurting him. Wouldn't keeping the bullet in get infected?" the soldier from earlier spoke.

        "INFECTED?!" Yuri shouted. "Damn my luck! Why must I suffer like this for chihuahua girl, of all people?!" he screamed.

        I rolled my eyes, quickly leaning down and kissing his lips. 

        "Shut it, Yuri!" I scolded. "You'll increase blood flow!"

        He went quiet, dazed as he stared at me plugging the wound.

         "As for your question. It's fine, it wouldn't get infected unless dirt or dust got into the wound, which is why I'm covering it so no debris gets in and infects it, along with stopping blood flow too. The bullet is sterile, meaning it's no threat to being infected since the gun's blast heated the bullet hot enough to where it flies in the air at the target, the heat cures the metal, therefore the metal won't be a threat. Plus, to be extra safe, the bullet is plugging the wound from bleeding out excessively, and it didn't go completely through his body, so that's good (for the most part)." I explained.

        "Wow. You're smart, ma'am." The soldier gushed.

        "I didn't even know that... damn..." the other soldier spoke, looking down depressingly.

        Well, no shit. You aren't a part of the medical squad, and you don't seem to have been apart of the military. I thought.

        I noticed the two medical personnel that are supposed to be taking care of Yuri instead watching from the sidelines away from the two rookie second-lieutenants and us. They must believe I'm doing the job good enough to where they don't need to step in.

        "Hey! That's my wife so watch what you're saying!" Yuri declared, snapping out of his hypnosis.

        I wrapped his wound with triangle bandage, (which is also good for filtering water, I learned when I was in the military!)

        "There, done." I spoke as tears welled up in his eyes.

        "It still hurts!" he complained, quieter then before.

        "Want a kiss to make it better?" I teased, rolling my eyes.

        He immediately directed his attention to the side, going quiet. 

        "Up," I commanded. "Let's get you to a private hospital." I commented. "And you two." I spoke, turning my head to the two men who watched the procedure.

        "Y-yes, ma'am!" they both saluted, a little scared.

        What the hell are they scared for? I thought, confused. 

        "Grab hydrogen peroxide and scrub the blood off the floors in there, really good. It'll lose all of his DNA in the scene, that way there will be no evidence of us here in case the Red Circus or WISE decide to snoop out the place after we leave." I ordered.

        "Yes, ma'am!" they spoke.        

        "And good work today, men." I acknowledged, bowing my head and grabbing Yuri's hand that had his uninjured shoulder. 

        I dragged Yuri into the van, seeing that the captain was already there waiting for us.

        "Hop in." He spoke.

        I opened the door for Yuri (since chivalry is dead, I thought jokingly) and had him sit down. I got in and closely watched Yuri, making sure that he was okay.

        "You disobeyed my commands." The captain spoke.

        "Yes, sir. I did." I spoke. 

        "I told her to." Yuri admitted, panting. "I didn't want her getting hurt." 

        "It's part of the job to take bullets, literally..." the Lieutenant spoke. "However, because you disobeyed me, not only did you save the kids from a second stunt he pulled, but you also immobilized him to where we can arrest him. You also saved another solider from getting shot. And you're experienced in first aid as you've helped Yuri when other experienced agents couldn't get there in time or didn't know how." He sighed. "I really hate admitting this, but throughout the time we've worked together, you've exceeded my expectations; however, I am officially impressed in your abilities. I should've never doubted your position here as a SSS officer and lieutenant just because you are a lady." 

        "Thanks. I don't think you're that ugly." I admitted without second thought.

        "Thanks— wait what?" he questioned.

        "Hm?" I hummed.

        "What did you— ...never mind." He sighed. "I'll write the report for the Director. I'll inform him of your vacations from work since I figure you'll help him heal." I was about to speak, before he answered. "Yes, you'll get paid while on vacation."

        "Sweet..." I muttered. 

        "However, next time, please tell me if you disagree with your position in a plan or if you believe there's a better solution. If we're confused in action, we could die." The lieutenant spoke.

        "Yes, sir." I acknowledged, feeling a slight pit of guilt inside of my stomach.

        "And good job, Yuri. You never fail to impress me, as always." The lieutenant spoke.

        "Thanks... can we just hurry up and get to the hospital?" he questioned.

        "You heard him. Step on it, grandma." I gruffed to the male driver. 

        .

        .

        The hospital told me that the SSS would take care of the paper work and medical costs since it's apart of the job's perks. They gave me instructions on how to care for Yuri in his state. I led Yuri out of the hospital, taking the bus to the SSS building so we can go get our car.

        Yuri was quiet the whole time, not that I don't mind. I understand with rethinking your choices and wondering how you got to getting shot since I've experienced it before.

        I got Yuri into the passenger seat of the car and had Yuri toss me the keys, allowing me to start the engine. By now, us being alone in the car started to unease my nerves.

        "Penny for your thoughts?" I suggested.

        "How'd you know what to do?" he questioned. 

        "Dress your wounds?" I questioned.

        "Yeah." He confirmed.

        "I told you I was in the Westalis military when I was seven, did I not?" I spoke.

        "You did, but how did you know exactly that?" he questioned.

        "I studied up on first aid when I was seven, so I'd be prepared when they let me into the military after pestering them over and over to let me join. When I was in the military, they gave us first aid classes. Then, during battle, I lost two of my soldiers and friends in the battle, those two saved me when the bombings in Luwen, Westalis. If it wasn't for them, I would've died, and yet I couldn't save them because I froze up." I admitted.

        "Then, I was assigned to another rescue mission a few weeks later, and my friend who was there to help save me with the other two, was shot. That time, I refused to leave. I was too close to enemy territory so the military refused to come aid us, I was low on ammo, and I wasn't strong enough to carry or drag him away without injuring him or making it in time. By a miracle, one of the soldier's heard my coordinates over the radio and retrieved me, but we had to leave because the enemy found us, and I had to leave my friend." I explained.

        "After that, I left the military after some time, no longer wanting to watch those I love die or unknowingly step into another landmine, then I was sought out to be a spy, and I learned more medical shit there. And voilà, here we are." I smiled.

        "Huh." Yuri commented. 

        "I also got shot twice in that last battle." I smirked. 

        "Twice? At seven? I can barely handle this!" Yuri exclaimed.         

        "I was just hella lucky I didn't die." I chuckled. "Now, what do you want for dinner?" 

        "I still have another question." Yuri spoke.

        "Is it about dinner?" I asked.

        "No." He admitted. 

        "I guess I can entertain you." I spoke, letting out a yawn.

        "Why'd you kiss me? Twice?" Yuri questioned.

        "That's what's so important?" I smiled. "Well, first was a good luck kiss. I was worried you'd be hurt, and look where we are. Besides, that helped our act." I explained. "And second, it was to shut you up so you didn't kill yourself. To calm you down." 

        Yuri hummed. "Do you want to keep our act fake?" 

        "What do you mean?" I questioned, turning my head to him before looking back at the road. 

        "I mean, earlier you were talking about getting rings, and I'll be honest, I've thought about it before." Yuri admitted, turning his head to the window. "I thought about it a lot, to where I planned to go through with it." He spoke, opening the car's storage port and pulling out a black case.

        "...Yuri?" I questioned, surprised and pulling over to avoid crashing in my dazed surprise (I did it way better and more smoothly than Yuri did earlier that day, might I add).

        "I figured... I'd make it official, especially if we're going to be living together for who knows how long. And... I might've caught something for you, and I was a jerk because I was afraid of falling in love with what I thought was the enemy, because I convinced myself that you'd leave; but you've proven more than once that you'd stay." Yuri smiled, opening the box.

        "I know it ain't nothing fancy, no candlelight dinner or something. I would've planned something, but after today, I realized how easy it is to die, and I'd rather die knowing that I tried to be someone good for you rather than be some jerk." He chuckled.

        I felt tears well up in my eyes as I started crying. 

        "Hey! What's wrong? If you don't feel the same, you can just reject!" Yuri spluttered, looking at me concerned.

        "Today's been such a roller coaster. First, I get all mad about you and some random chick because I was jealous of her taking you away. Then, I almost have a heart attack that my niece is in danger. After that, I swear I was going to die because I almost lost you to the reaper. And now, I'm being proposed to." I laughed. 

        "Yeah, I guess I could've waited later." Yuri smiled.

        "No. I'm glad you did now. I was thinking about sneaking out tonight and running to the nearest jewelry store to find a ring." I joked.

        Yuri placed the ring on my ring finger and I smiled observing it. 

        Of course it has Yuri's touch. A ruby jewel and silver banding. I thought, swooning over the ring.

        "Turn it over." Yuri spoke.

        I took it off and turned it over, seeing that underneath, the wording "Mrs. Briar" was welded into it.

        "I love it." I admitted. "I love you too." 

        "I mean, I'm hoping so." Yuri joked, causing me to laugh. "I love you too. Thank you for being with someone stubborn like me."

        "That's my line." I smiled.

        I'm happy, extremely, but I remembered what I have to do. As part of WISE and the SSS, relationships don't come first; work does. If Yuri found out, could he still love me? Would he still look at his (now-official) wife the same way again?

        Something tells me if I told him, the only thing I'd receive from him is a bullet in my head. But I guess that's a story for later, huh?

        Parts: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, current part, nine, ten (to be continued when Spy x Family has more Yuri content!)

        Want more Yuri content? Check out these headcannons and one shots!

        Yuri Briar x Sick! Fem! Reader

        Slightly mean! Yuri Briar x Fem! Reader

Yuri Briar x Fem! Reader headcannons + other fandoms!

        Have any requests? Check my masterlist to see the characters I write for: Masterlist (Please request, I have too much free time and too little fics).

[hairupintheair]

Trolls Band Together Commentary Notes Part 1/4

Just bought the TBT dvd which comes with audio commentary so I gotta write out some of the fun stuff I learned!

- Originally they had a couple different ideas for opening. At one point they were going to start with V&V's backstory, then they tried an opening where JD breaks in to Mount Rageous to try to free Floyd, but eventually they wanted the audience to care about the brothers before any attempts to save them, so they went with the concert opening. - Commentary quote: "So many meetings about Funderdrawers..." - BroZone's young designs were purposely made to look all very similar to each other, and then as adults they get more unique looks as they all grew to find their own individuality. - Commentary quote: "I love to see the Trolls hugging. Just because I know much of a challenge that is. To get their big heads next to each other, that close. Man." - Branch and Poppy talking together in grandma's old pod was one of the first scenes animated. - There was an early scene where Poppy is trying on wedding dresses to model for Bridget (probably to make a joke where Branch sees her in one) but it got scrapped. - Eric André, JD's voice actor, was hilarious and gave hours and hours of recorded material, most of which unfortunately couldn't make it into the movie. - Originally they wanted JD to be much more similar to Branch; at a point they were even going to have a scene where he appears and the audience thinks he is Branch at first. They gave JD short hair and similar colors to Branch for that reason. His design started out as "What if Branch never met Poppy, and just went off and did his own thing alone for years." In his intro scene, he interrupts the wedding without thinking about it because he's been living alone so long, he has no idea of basic social cues. - Poppy's headband for the wedding is supposed to make you think of a friendship bracelet. - Rhonda was incredibly hard to design and animate, she's one of the most complicated characters in the movie. - Rhonda has an armadillo design because originally JD was exploring and living/camping out in the desert, before they switched it to the forest. Her coloring is based on the old RV's from the 70's.