#I’m trying to figure out how my little wire bug guys could control a person by affecting neuron activation

[oasisofgalaxies]

Anyone with a neuroscience degree or some level of experience want to help me with a genloss conundrum

[babyjamiebarnes]

Build-A-Bear

Part Eight

Featuring: Bucky x Stark!reader, Steve, Sam, OC Monique, Tony

Warnings: language, implied smut, talk of pregnancy/children, pregnancy scare

Chapter Summary: Sam finds out about Reader and Bucky’s secret. Reader has a scare that helps Reader and Bucky have a very important conversation.

Author’s Note: This was originally going to be longer but in light of recent events in America, I decided to postpone a violent scene (so warning for the next part: violence). It’s kinda short and I’m so sorry but I wanted to give you something. As always, feel free to buy me a coffee!

Tags: @amourmarvel @fangirlvoice @kennedywxlsh @devilswaldorf @what-the-hap-is-fuckning @alyispunk @fredweasleysbitchh @wearegroot @sunflowerbebe107 @prestigious-tea

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six) (Part Seven)

Despite his frustration with finding out he was breaking way more than just company protocol, Bucky’s attitude simmered and eventually fizzled out as the day went on. You’d bet seeing you uncomfortably directing security where to put your lab equipment while Bucky’s cum stuck to the inside of your thighs had an impact on his mood.

The rest of the day went by surprisingly well, all things considered. You took the day to set up your at-home lab while Steve got groceries and cooked, Sam installed security cameras in all the common areas, and Bucky searched your place for any bugs or wires. No one was weird about things, aside from Bucky when you first arrived. Sam was his usual goofy self and Steve was a dad stereotype.

That night, however, Steve sat everyone down in your living room for a little chat. Steve and Sam sat on the sofa across from you and Bucky, almost like they were concerned parents talking to you before sending you to prom.

“Okay, time to address the elephant in the room. Who knew about who you are before it was leaked?” Steve asked, elbows propped on his knees and that signature crease between his brows.

“Other than dad, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy, just Monique,” you shrugged. “But it wasn’t her. She has nothing to gain from telling anyone.”

“Well, unfortunately we’ll have to look into her anyway,” Steve sighed. “But if it’s not her, it won’t be a problem. And you’re sure there’s no one else?”

“What about that boyfriend of yours?” Sam asked.

“It’s not him,” you said meekly. “I never told him.”

“Are you sure he couldn’t have found out?” Sam pressed.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Sam nodded but added, “We should still talk to the guy —”

“I didn’t know,” Bucky interrupted from beside you.

Sam looked confused, but Steve next to him was smirking, clearly trying to hold back a laugh.

“What?” Sam asked.

Bucky leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his stance wide and fingers intertwined in the middle. If the situation wasn’t so serious, you’d be even more turned on.

“I didn’t know,” he repeated with a forced, tight-lipped smile. “I found out this morning and I was just as shocked as you were.”

“I said I was sorry!” you groaned, tossing your arms in the air in exasperation.

Bucky leaned back to wrap an arm around your shoulders and pull you into his side. When he slid his arm over your neck, you instinctively gripped his forearm but the giggle you let out showed you weren’t trying to pry him off you.

While you wiggled in Bucky’s grasp to get comfortable, Sam’s eyes darted between the two of you in a mix of shock and curiosity.

“Man, how the hell did you get a girl like that?!”

Steve finally let his laugh out at this. Bucky just tightened his arm around your throat, making you moan quietly, just barely loud enough for him to hear.

“Trust me, she’s a pain in the ass,” Bucky teased. You giggled again and squirmed out of his grasp to straddle his legs, now that everyone in the room knew your secret.

“You can always be a pain in my ass,” you smirked as you draped your arms over his shoulders and scooted forward so your pelvis was pressed against him. He groaned in frustration and tossed his head back, gripping your ass cheeks in an attempt to ground himself.

“You better watch your mouth before I fuck you right here, right now, princess,” he practically growled. You bit your lip to tease him just a little bit more. He had only called you ‘princess’ twice but it was definitely doing something for you.

“I hate to be a buzzkill,” Sam started, “but her dad would skin you alive if he heard you saying that.”

“And then filet what’s left if he saw this,” Steve added.

“Bucky’d probably taste pretty good though,” Sam shrugged. “Especially if we got to the thighs.”

“Yeah, I’d go for the thighs,” Steve agreed, making Bucky roll his eyes.

“I’d go for something else,” you piped in.

“Okay, let’s end this before it gets out of hand,” Steve said. You frowned but plopped back onto the couch next to Bucky instead of on top of him.

The rest of the night was spent mapping out who knew about you, who might’ve figured it out, and what any of those people would’ve gotten out of leaking your secret. You adamantly ruled Monique out; she didn’t need the money or the attention and already knew the type of stress your secret put on you. And her concerned texts begging you to believe it wasn’t her and vowing to castrate whoever told the media helped support your case. Unfortunately, it led to a lot of dead ends. You knew it couldn’t have been Happy, Rhodey, or Pepper, but that left literally no one as a suspect.

Halfway across town, your dad, Rhodey, Happy, Pepper, and Bruce were going over their own documents and information to get to the bottom of it. None of the news stations were willing to divulge their source, claiming it was “anonymous” so they didn’t know who said it, but Tony wasn’t convinced. He was worried about you, but he also knew your temporary roommates were solid protection for you.

He just didn’t know the additional protection you’d need with one of those roommates.

•

Bucky was always great about your period. It usually only lasted a few days because of your birth control and was on the light side, but he had no issue with laying down one of his “safety towels” before laying you down during those three days. He even set reminders in his phone so he knew to be prepared. So when his reminder popped up on what was usually your final day, he walked in with a towel while you lounged in bed, but he was confused at your own confusion.

“Why do you have a towel?” you laughed.

“Babe,” he whined. It amused you to no end when the big bad Winter Soldier whined at you. “I’m horny.”

You laughed again as he tossed the towel onto the bed beside you and settled his weight between your legs.

“Okay? Why does that involve a towel?”

Bucky furrowed his eyebrows at you.

“Aren’t you on your period?”

It only took one second for the realization to make your breath catch in your throat. It took one more second for Bucky’s entire body to grow tense.

“You’re on your period, right?” he asked. The urgency in his voice did nothing but stress you out more. You pulled your body out from under his and ran into your bathroom, rummaging through the drawers looking for an old test you were sure you had lying around somewhere. You had personally only ever taken one as a joke, but you knew Britt had panicked and taken more than a couple at your place before she got married.

“[Y/N].” Bucky’s voice behind you as you crouched on your bathroom floor made you pause your searching. “Talk to me,” he pressed.

You didn’t look at him as you spoke.

“I’m late.”

He let out a huff behind you but quickly crouched beside you, wrapping an arm around your shoulders because if he thought he was scared, he couldn’t imagine what you were feeling.

“Okay. We’ll go pick up a test and cross our fingers in the meantime,” he said quietly.

“How are we supposed to get a pregnancy test, James? Everyone knows who I am now,” you snapped.

You hated how easily you could tear up because you didn’t want to cry over your situation, but the stress hit you too quickly for any other reaction to kick in first.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you muttered quickly, pawing at your face to wipe away stray tears. “I’ll call Monique and have her pick one up.”

“Okay.” Bucky was treading lightly, you could tell. “Do you want to be alone or do you want me to stay with you?”

You bit your lip and took a deep, shaky breath to push more tears back.

“I think I want you to stay.”

Bucky let you sit between his legs while you called Monique.

“Hey, what’s up?” she answered almost immediately.

“I need you to come over,” you said, trying and failing to cover the panic in your voice.

“What’s going on? Are you okay?” You could hear rustling in the background and knew she was already sliding on shoes to rush over.

“I kind of need you to pick something up for me.”

“Anything.”

“Um… I need you to grab a pregnancy test.”

“A preg—” she paused. “A… okay, yeah, I’ll pick that up and swing by soon.”

“Thanks, Momo,” you replied quietly, tossing out the nickname you gave her after you two rewatched Avatar: The Last Airbender a couple years prior.

“See you soon, love you,” she said as you heard the slam of her door.

“Love you.”

True to her word, Monique knocked on your front door less than 20 minutes later. Since Steve and Sam practically interrogated her just a couple days before, they didn’t hesitate to let her in. She proved she wasn’t one to just let them toss around unsubstantiated accusations.

“Hey booboo,” she cooed as she stepped into your room. “I grabbed three different brands just to be safe and threw in a bottle of sparkling grape juice and a bottle of champagne, depending on what results we get.”

You couldn’t help but finally laugh at the cross between a cringe and a smile on her face. You practically lunged off the bed to give her a hug. She held you a second longer than usual and started leading you to your bathroom. When Bucky started to follow, she turned sharply.

“Uh-uh. You stay put. You’re the whole reason this is happening.”

“Monique, it takes two,” you chuckled behind her.

“And he’s the one who ejaculated in you.” You scoffed and grabbed her arm to tug her into the bathroom with you.

“We’ll be out in a few minutes.”

Bucky loved seeing how easily your best friend could immediately lift your spirits, but hated being sequestered in the bedroom.

The minutes ticked by even slower for you. Monique tried to keep you occupied as your phone and her phone counted down until the results would appear. One only took three minutes but the other two took five, so you anxiously stared at the three-minute test lying face-down on the sink until Monique’s phone beeped.

You breathed out an early sigh of relief at the test that read “NOT PREGNANT.”

“Two more,” Monique reminded you.

Those last two minutes felt even longer than the first three. But once your phone dinged, you and Monique each grabbed one of the two remaining tests. Judging by Monique’s squeal, you had the same results. You peeked over just to make sure and barreled through the bathroom door, startling Bucky as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Not pregnant!” you screamed in excitement.

You ran and tackled him, sending him onto his back on the bed.

“Do I need to remind you two what caused this in the first place?” Monique laughed behind you two.

All of your heads turned when your bedroom door swung open to reveal both Steve and Sam looking even more concerned than usual.

“Did you just say what I think you said?!” Steve asked.

“What do you think I said?” you asked, sitting up onto Bucky’s lap.

“We heard ‘I’m pregnant’!” Sam shouted.

“Not pregnant!” you clarified and held up the test you were still gripping. “No babies yet.”

“Yet?” Bucky parroted.

“Uh… yeah…?” you replied hesitantly.

It was something that seemed so far into the future for you two that you never discussed it, but you did want a kid or two someday. And judging by the scare you just had, it was something you should probably discuss soon, just in case.

But Bucky’s reaction pretty much answered your unspoken question. He moved a hand to the back of your neck and pulled you down for a forceful, heated kiss. He easily slid his tongue into your mouth and squeezed your ass — until Monique cleared her throat.

“You should probably use these next time,” she said as she tossed a box of condoms at you.

Bucky pulled away quick enough to catch the box before it hit you, but the rest of the room still laughed at your expense.

“You really like giving Stark a reason to kill you, don’t you?” Sam asked Bucky, who groaned out loud and collapsed back on the bed.

“I didn’t know!”

•

That night as you and Bucky were lying in bed — just a couple hours after your period finally started — you forced your nerves away and asked the big question.

“Hey, what were you feeling today? Before I took the tests, I mean.”

Bucky continued to stroke your arm, unfazed by the topic.

“Initially, fear. And then the more time passed, the more that fear turned into... excitement, I guess? I mean, I always wanted kids back in the day, but now I’m kind of worried, you know?”

“Why?” you prodded, propping yourself up on Bucky’s chest so you could look directly at him. He propped his head up with his hand to look back at you.

“Do I need to remind you that I was the deadliest assassin in the world 10 years ago?” he smirked.

“Well yeah, but not anymore!” you smiled back. “You’re my Bucky Bear now.”

“Mm, keep saying cute shit like that and I’ll actually get you pregnant next time.”

You giggled at this but shook your head.

“Monique got us condoms for a reason.”

“Do you want to use one now?” Bucky smirked.

“I gotta be totally honest,” you started slowly. You felt weird saying this but, “I don’t think I want to use them at all.” That cute little wrinkle popped up between Bucky’s eyebrows as he silently questioned your answer. “I just… I like feeling you.”

You swung a leg over his body to straddle him and pressed your body to his. Your lips attached to his neck before trailing up to his ear.

“I’m not against them if you want to use them,” you said softly. “But you should make that decision soon.”

He made up his mind real quick.

[britishassistant]

But I Like One Piece (13)

There’s a lot of adults outside the compound.

There’s Ino’s dad, who’s fussing over her a lot, and Chouji’s dad, who waves at her, and a guy with spiky hair and a white chevron on his nose who leaps down from the roofs with Kiba, Akamaru and Sakura under his arms, placing them down before leaping away again.

Bigger Shikamaru then makes a face and pulls the hand on her back away to reveal spots of blood. “What happened here?”

“A trap got set off.” She says. “It was gonna hurt Chouji, so me and Ino got in the way.”

Bigger Shikamaru glances at her suspiciously. “Right. And how did this trap get set off?”

She decides discretion is the better part of valor and shrugs, wincing at the movement. “Lots of tripwires. Hard to tell.”

Bigger Shikamaru gives a slow nod, like he doesn’t quite believe her. “Uh huh. And why were there so many tripwires?”

“Because Uchiha’s scared.” She says, looking the man dead in the eye. “He’s really, really scared of that man coming back to finish the job. And he has no one to look after him, so he’s trying to protect himself. And us. By fighting us to make us stronger, or something. He didn’t explain it well.”

Bigger Shikamaru appears inscrutable during her tirade, but he looks away when she keeps staring pointedly at him, with another muttered “Troublesome.”

The click of a camera shutter has her looking over to see Lee taking pictures of the spiky haired guy and another guy with floppy hair, who are posing dramatically for photos. Kiba’s attempting to photobomb them with little success as Shikamaru watches.

“Right.” Bigger Shikamaru hitches her higher on his hip, raising his voice. “Chouza, can you get the rest of them home? Inoichi and I need to get these two to the hospital.”

Lee insists on coming along with them.

Once they realize what’s going on, Sakura and Chouji beg to come along too. It sort of snowballs from there, so they end up with a gaggle of children and Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji’s dads causing a bit of a stir when they all enter the hospital’s reception area.

She sees the same nice doctor from when she bit her lip last time, with the blond hair and pink eyes.

The nurse is nowhere to be seen.

She tells the nice doctor she didn’t bite her lip at all, even when it really hurt, while he’s doing something with the green glow to her shoulders that makes them stop hurting.

He pats her head and gives her a lollipop, and then gives extra ones to Kiba, Hinata, Shino, and Sakura with a wink and vague compliments to the mysterious medical experts for their good work.

Kiba doesn’t stop grinning for the rest of the afternoon, Shino’s insects buzz gently which she thinks means he’s happy, and even Hinata seems quietly pleased.

Chouji’s dad walks her, Lee and Sakura home after they get the confirmation that Ino’s going to be fine, while Shikamaru’s dad takes Hinata, Kiba, Shino, and Uchiha.

Sakura’s quiet and subdued the whole way home, lollipop in her cheek, rubbing her fingers together every so often. She gives a weak little “bye” when they drop her off at her house.

Okaa-san looks particularly harried when she opens the door and takes note of the newly-healed marks on her back and the state of her blood-stained and dusty dress.

Her mother sends her upstairs to have a wash and get changed while Chouji’s dad has a talk with her and Otou-san.

By the time she comes back down, Chouji’s dad has gone home and her parents are sitting around the dinner table as Lee shows them his photos.

“Mayu-chan.” Otou-san says, holding up a picture of her and Ino crouched over Chouji with silver streaks soaring past them like deadly shooting stars. “Not that we aren’t proud of you for looking after your friends, but could you work a little harder to avoid getting hurt too please?”

“I’ll try, Otou-san.” She choruses guiltily.

It seems like what happened has become the talk of the village by dinner time.

Though she could be biased because that happens to be the time Gai-sensei bursts in, babbling on about explosions and grievous wounds and youth and her being sick on Anko’s shoes.

This earns her another week-long cooking ban, on the grounds that it might be a bug and not evil chakra that made her throw up.

Even Iruka-sensei brings it up at Ichiraku’s the following night.

“I heard you had an eventful day yesterday.” He says politely while they’re waiting for their noodles. He seems a bit more at ease now Naruto and Lee aren’t there.

“Yeah.” She sighs, tracing the woodgrain with her finger. “It’s just—ugh.”

Iruka-sensei is nice, so he doesn’t chuckle at her little exclamation of disgust and waits for her to explain herself.

“It’s just—” She throws her hands up at not knowing what it “just” is and decides to start over from what she does know. “Uchiha is not a bad person. He’s dumb and awkward and— whatever, but he’s not bad. He’s just scared. And alone. And everyone thinks he knows what he’s doing because the teacher keeps saying he’s a prodigy and that he’s the best at everything—but he has no shi–blooming clue.”

Iruka-sensei nods seriously, brows furrowing, so she continues. “But he doesn’t know that he doesn’t—or he thinks that since everyone’s calling him a prodigy that he’s supposed to. So when he got scared about the man who murdered his clan coming back because of the thieves, he tried to protect himself with the wires and traps, because there’s no adults who’ll defend him. And then he tried to have everyone over to defend us too, because he’s not a bad person, he’s just kinda dumb and paranoid, y’know?”

“I...think I do know, yes.” Iruka-sensei says slowly, like he’s realizing something.

“Yeah—and before me and Naruto went over and cleaned his kitchen, his kitchen was a tip, because he had no idea what to do with all this food people were giving him!” She turns to Teuchi-sama. “I mean, he was just eating white rice and uncooked tomatoes everyday! It was like when I met Naruto, except he had all this food when Naruto had nothing, but he didn’t know what to do with it, so it was all rotting and going to waste!”

Teuchi-sama winces.

“That must’ve stunk something awful!” Ayame-sama chirps.

“Sanji as my witness it did.” She groans, covering her face while Otou-san carefully pats her back.

“Nobody was feeding Naruto?” Iruka-sensei interrupts, brows drawn down.

“Not from what we could see.” Okaa-san replies, daintily sipping at her water. “He’d be chased out of the market. I think Ichiraku’s was the only place he could get a square meal, until Mayu-chan started feeding him.”

Teuchi-sama nods. “He was our favorite customer. Still is, in fact.”

“Mayu with her little lunchboxes.” Otou-sama smiles nostalgically. “Up at the crack of dawn, carrying around those sheets of paper with what he liked and didn’t like on them.”

She squirms, cheeks heating up. “I didn’t know him then.” She complains. “But he was hungry. I couldn’t leave him hungry.”

Teuchi-sama nods approvingly as he slides a bowl of miso ramen in front of her.

Iruka-sensei is quiet while he eats.

“What did you tell him.” Uchiha growls at lunch on Monday.

She blinks in confusion, about to bite into her onigiri. “What did I tell who?”

Uchiha looks pained, his grilled sandwich leaking tomato juice and pesto in his grip.

“The Hokage,” He grits out. “Has determined that I am not suited to living on my own because of something one of you said. So I now have this chunin living in my house and leaving his stupid porn everywhere.”

She winces. “But I haven’t seen the Hokage all weekend. He was with Naruto, and Naruto wasn’t with us.”

“We did hear the explosion.” Naruto pipes up unhelpfully. “It really freaked his mask guys out—we thought the village was under attack or something when we heard it, believe it!”

Sasuke glares at them all, taking a mutinous bite of his sandwich.

“Mayu.” Shikamaru says. “Do you know what my dad does?”

She frowns as she swallows and takes another bite. “Tactician?”

Shikamaru’s smile is slow and spiteful. “He’s the Jounin Squad Leader of Konoha. Second only to the Hokage himself.”

She stops chewing.

Oh. Oh.

Whoops.

Uchiha looks between the two of them, growing redder and redder with each passing second.

“TRAITORS!!!” He howls finally, and flings himself across the table at Shikamaru.

They all get detention again.

She’s really not sure how long the teacher expects to keep justifying things with “you’re friends and supposed to control each other” when he’s the authority figure here.

Though maybe her telling him this wasn’t the best idea.

“Well, you weren’t wrong.” Chouji says loyally.

“Thank you Chouji.” She replies.

“Still a dumb thing to say.” Naruto adds.

She places her hand over his mouth. “Sssh.”

He licks it again.

While they’re wrestling, she hears Sakura ask Uchiha, “Are you gonna be okay, Sasuke-kun?”

Uchiha snorts. “I’ll be fine. I just have to convince the Hokage that I’m strong enough to live on my own. And to do that, I need to get rid of the trespasser in my home.”

“...How are you gonna do that?” Ino asks, sounding a lot more wary than she has in previous Uchiha conversations.

He grunts in a way that conveys indecision, or maybe constipation.

“What if you pranked him?” Naruto suggests from where she’s almost managed to force her spit-contaminated arm to touch his cheek. “I know some pretty good ones that the jerks in the market never saw coming!”

Uchiha pauses.

His lips curl into a slow, cruel smirk.

She’s not privy to all the details, because Naruto is sworn to solemn secrecy by the prankster’s code.

What she does know is that the chunin who leaves his porn everywhere is subjected to potent itching powder in every fabric item he attempts to use, and somehow becomes convinced that the ghosts of the Uchiha clan would curse his family with pimply skin for every generation thereafter if he did not vacate the premises immediately.

Sasuke’s victorious mood is dampened when the Hokage apparently sends a new chunin to live with him the very next day.

This chunin apparently has a bad habit of talking down to children, no matter whether they’re the last remnants of their clan or not, and abusing his new position to bring home “friends”.

Uchiha takes this as a declaration of war.

He ends up mobbed by every cat from here to Kusagakure thanks to a potent mixture of valerian, catnip, and a secret ingredient that Uchiha refuses to divulge which was mixed into his shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in small enough increments to be unnoticeable until it was too late.

The Hokage sends a jounin.

Kiba ends up recruited to the cause.

The jounin somehow ends up ingesting enough laxatives to put a small monkey out of commission, and then has his all-black ensemble and glasses forcibly dyed many colors thanks to the liberal application of industrial-strength paint.

The Hokage sends Anko.

The ensuing carnage results in the statue of the Niidaime losing its nose and has Uchiha lying low for three weeks, alternating between hiding in her and Sakura’s houses and Naruto’s apartment.

A few days before their finals, Uchiha comes in looking oddly...defeated.

“The Hokage and the Council say that unless I accept the next caretaker they provide for me, I’m going to go into the Orphanage and the Uchiha lands will be forfeit.”

Hinata covers her mouth with her hands. Ino and Kiba sit there, silent and slack-jawed. Chouji pushes away his food and Shikamaru actually sits up. Shino’s insects stop buzzing altogether.

“They can’t do that, can they?” Naruto says, looking around for confirmation. “I mean, that’s your home, right? It’s yours.”

“But Sasuke-kun’s technically a ward of state and has to do what they say.” Sakura says slowly. “Until he becomes a genin or comes of age as a civilian.”

“And that’s eighteen or something, right?” She adds with a heavy heart.

Uchiha puts his head down on the table.

“Hey, that’s rough man.” Kiba says, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

Akamaru strides down the table and settles himself next to Uchiha’s head, gently licking his cheek until the boy turns and buries his hand in the puppy’s soft fur.

“Did they say who it’ll be?” She asks gently, pushing her BLT over to him.

He shakes his head slowly, lifting the sandwich and taking a bite. “The Hokage only said they’ll be there to greet me after school.”

“Well, whoever they are, they can’t be worse than Anko, right?” Ino says, trying to be upbeat.

Everybody at the table shudders.

They stand with him in solidarity at the end of the Academy day.

The other parents and children look at them strangely, a group of clan kids and a few civilians bunched together around the last Uchiha like a protective barrier, but no one comes forward to try and take him.

It isn’t until the last of them are leaving that someone arrives.

Iruka-sensei comes out of the Academy building, carrying a suitcase.

“Ah, Ketsugi-chan, Lee-kun, Uzumaki-kun!” He says, smiling brightly. “How are you doing?”

“We are well, thank you Iruka-sensei!” Lee says. “We are waiting with Uchiha-kun for his new guardian!”

Iruka-sensei’s eyes soften and he kneels down. “So you’re Sasuke-kun, huh? My name is Umino Iruka. It’s nice to meet you.”

Uchiha averts his eyes and stares stubbornly at the floor.

“I don’t want you in my house.” He says. “But the Hokage says if I don’t I have to go to the Orphanage.”

Iruka-sensei winces. “I heard about that. Do you want me to stay in one of the branch houses then? I just cancelled my apartment contract with my landlord, but I’m sure if I begged hard enough, she’d let me stay there for longer until we sort out what you’re comfortable with.”

Uchiha peers at him suspiciously. “...Okay. Do that.”

Suddenly Iruka-sensei’s stomach gurgles.

He blushes. “Ah, do you mind if we get some food first? There’s a pretty good ramen place I know.”

“Ichiraku’s?” Naruto bursts in eagerly.

“We’re not feeding you.” Uchiha says dismissively, ignoring Naruto’s cry of betrayal.

He begins to stride off down the path, only to turn when the teacher doesn’t follow. “Well? It’s annoying if you’re hungry.”

Iruka-sensei’s mouth quirks into a smile.

Somehow, she thinks as the teacher and boy disappear down the path, discussing one of the pranks that befell his hapless predecessor, this might turn out alright.

It’ll certainly be better than Anko.

[believe-in-alderaan]

Extended Drama

The Arena

believe_in_alderaan

Summary: At the center of the arena, Cal was forced to his knees. He was too weak to fight back, and knew that even if he tried, he was outnumbered. He was looking down at his hands and watched a small drop of blood land on his palm. Rough hands grabbed his hair and forced him to look up, where a large hologram was looming over him.

Drawing out the happenings when Cal is faced with a bounty hunter on Zeffo, and eventually brought to the arena at Ordo Eris.

Notes: Needs more drama in the arena, I'd say. Needed more... whump.

Comment if you think of a scene that you'd like expanded.

Work Text:

Cal tried to run away from the bounty hunter. Zeffo was already an annoying planet to navigate, and now he was trapped in some sort of shield and trying to defend himself against a maniac.

“Ha! Got ya!” the man growled after landing a shot at Cal’s shoulder. The hit stung, but Cal kept his focus. A burst of flames from the man’s flamethrower made Cal lose his balance.

“Who are you?!” Cal yelled angrily, deflecting another shot. The man didn’t answer. Cal tried to search his appearance for any familiar sign, but he couldn’t place him. All he could tell was that this man had nothing to do with the empire, not that it was any comfort.

Cal made another run to escape, but was forced back by the field the hunter had rigged. He swung around and dodged another blow from the flame thrower. He then force-pushed the man as far away from him as possible.

With a devious smirk, the bounty hunter raised his wrist and shot a stinging binding around Cal’s arms, causing him to drop his saber. “Auuugh!!” Cal growled through his teeth, the electric pulses bringing him to his knees. He looked up and saw the butt of a blaster at his face. Then, darkness.

---

The ground was ice cold. Cal shivered, waiting for his head to stop spinning before opening his eyes. He tasted blood. His mind was foggy as he tried to piece together what had happened. The air around him felt stale and cold, and his shoulder ached angrily from the blaster bolt that had grazed it.

Slowly he raised his head and opened his eyes. Everything was blurry at first, and even as things focused, Cal had no idea what he was looking at. He fully sat up and looked around.

“BD… where are we…” he groaned. He was met with silence. Panic began to creep into his heart. “BD-1?” He stood frantically and whipped around, searching every corner of the small room he had woken up in. “Little buddy??” His calls became more desperate. Fear gripped him as he slowly realized he was completely and utterly alone. “Where are you?” He reached for his lightsaber. Nothing.

Cal was in full panic mode now. He searched the room once more. “BD?” he croaked. He began force-pulling panels off the walls, searching for a way out of his prison. He knew he had limited time to escape. Whomever had brought him here could come back at any time.

If I had my lightsaber, I could just cut my way out, Cal thought bitterly. He pulled at another panel revealing a bundle of wires. Behind him he found the panel that controlled the door to his cell. Carefully he selected what wires he knew would be powered and pulled them across the room to plug them into the socket. Sure enough, the door shorted out and opened. Cal breathed a sigh of relief. Being a scrapper had had its benefits.

Around him were more cells, most occupied with creatures from different planets. Some were obviously dead. Cal swallowed hard as he made his way, peering into each cell in search of his droid companion.

One cell contained a person. Cal approached cautiously “Hey,” he half-whispered. “Someone in there?”

“HI CHUBA DA NAGO?” the figure demanded.

Cal didn’t understand, but pressed on. “Where are we?” he asked carefully.

“Hopa!? Sorc Tormo KILLEE uba, shag poodoo!” The angered man lashed out and caught Cal by the collar, slamming his face against the bars with a loud CLANG. “Stuta karkina tonta! BWAHAHAA!”

Cal instinctively force-pushed the man back. He hit the wall with a crunch. Not waiting to see if he’d actually hurt the guy, Cal ran down the damp corridor. His steps echoed awkwardly off of the rock and metal walls. Cal feared he’d be noticed, but his urgency kept him going. He approached another cell. A familiar chirp reached his ears.

“BD-1, is that you?” Cal yelped in relief. His droid beeped back happily. “I found you! Are you okay? Let’s get you out of there!”

Cal searched around the edges of the door for something to pull at, but found nothing. He backed up a bit and looked up, noticing a platform going to a chute that lead back into the cell that BD-1 was stuck in. Cal forced a wireconnection out of the wall to use as a rope to swing up to the platform. He then dropped down and rushed over to BD-1.

“Hey! Oh, I’m happy to see you too,” Cal put his hands on BD’s head and searched him over, making sure he was in one piece. He noticed a restraining bolt, which explained why BD wasn’t moving from where he stood. “Let’s get his off you. Those jerks.” Cal pulled one of his tools from his belt and managed to pry off the bolt with no damage to his friend.

“Boop boop!” BD chirped happily. He hopped on to Cal’s back. Cal looked back at him fondly. The tightness in his chest was starting to loosen. Now he just needed to locate his lightsaber and a way out of wherever he was.

BD-1 managed to slice open the cell door. Cal cautiously stepped out. “Nobody’s come down yet. I’m starting to wonder if anybody is even around,” he breathed. He set out looking for an exit. His teeth were chattering again and he realized he was starving. How long was he unconscious?

Rounding a corner, he spotted an elevator. “Well, up is better than down at this point,” he commented. BD chirped in agreement. They stepped on to the platform and it began to rise. A low rumble from above began to sound more and more like music. “Well, sounds like somebody’s home after all.”

Cal stepped off the lift. The music that greeted him was familiar. Suddenly he was assaulted from both sides and his wrists were forced into tight rusty binders. “What the..” His assailants pushed him out toward an open arena, where deafening cheers made Cal’s heart pound in his throat. What is this? Cal pushed back toward one of his masked captors. The man struck back sharply on his head with the butt of a knife. A small trickle of blood fell down the left side of his face.

At the center of the arena, Cal was forced to his knees. He was too weak to fight back, and knew that even if he tried, he was outnumbered. He was looking down at his hands and watched a small drop of blood land on his palm. Rough hands grabbed his hair and forced him to look up, where a large hologram was looming over him.

“Ugh FINALLY he ariiiiives!” a booming voice filled the stadium. “We had action on how long it would take you to get here.”

Cal was brought to his feet, still facing the large hologram. “And who are you?” he spat.

“Hahahaaa!” the man in the hologram raised his arms, playing up the showman vibes. “I’m Sorc Tormo, baby! I’m the boss of this operation!” He gestured his arms wide toward the audience, which were protected by laser gates. “You have Greezy Four-Arms to thank for bringing us together.”

The men holding Cal released their grip. His knees felt weak, but he remained standing, looking up at his captor. “I will thank him as soon as I get out of here,” he yelled.

“We have a special challenger for you tonight,” Sorc continued to the audience. “An enforcer from a bygone era. A jedi!” His arms were raised once more as the crowd went crazy. “Let’s see what he’s got!”

Cal’s wrists were released from their bindings. The two masked guards skulked away, leaving Cal standing in the arena alone. The noise was deafening and he had to squint in the bright lights. He was in big, big trouble.

“Oh, somebody get baby his toy.” Cal knew what that meant, and raised his arm. Sure enough, his saber was thrown into his midst. He called it to him with the force, gaining strength from holding it once more. BD squealed with joy.

“You want a show?” Cal growled as he pushed away his doubts. “I’ll give you a show.”

A large door opened to his left. A large three-eyed creature, one Cal had encountered already back on Bogano, lumbered toward him. This creature had obviously been starved, and was making its move toward Cal. He dodged a few strikes, but the creature caught his arm. Teeth found flesh, and Cal cried out in pain. He brought his other arm around and ran his blade through the creature’s throat.

“I smell blood and MONEYYY” Sorc Tormo’s voice bounced off the walls. “Tonight we celebrate those fallen challengers of the past and the great sacrifice they’ve made… to make us all... RICH.”

Cal ignored him and focused on the creatures that were spilling from new corridors around the arena. Some nasty bugs were closing in on him, and he sliced them with ease. His fatigue was nagging at the back of his consciousness, but adrenaline intervened and kept him alert. His injured arm was now soaked with blood and sweat.

A large behemoth of a creature charged from the rear of the arena. Cal dodged and hid behind one of the few raised platforms on the floor. His ears were ringing and he was panting hard, his chest on fire. BD whirred behind him, encouraging him to keep going. He jumped to the top of the platform before diving at the creature with a deadly blow. Creature after creature was sent at him and he ended them all, though it felt almost too easy.

Cal stood in the center of the ring, his chest heaving. He still hadn’t figured out how he was going to actually get out of this mess, and he was losing energy fast. His stomach twisted and growled in protest.

“The best is yet to come,” Sorc Tormo sang. “I believe you know our next challengers… the Haxion Brood is gunning for ya!”

The bounty hunter that had taken him down on Zeffo flew into the ring via jet pack. Cal furrowed his brow, anger pulsing. He motioned to BD for a stim vial, hoping the boost would give him what he needed to stay alive and also help the bleeding.

The hunter released his flamethrower toward Cal. He dodged as best he could, but still felt a slight singe on his skin. “Why you running?” the man howled, followed by a laugh. “How do you like this?” Cal turned just in time to see a rocket launcher pointed at him. He dove out of the way, the blast hitting the ground near him. He flew several feet and landed on the hard ground, the wind knocked out of him.

The world was spinning again. I can’t do this, Cal thought helplessly. He rolled over and began to vomit up bile, the only thing left in his stomach. BD watched helplessly as Cal’s face lost most of its color. He was on his knees, looking up at his enemy.

The huntsman was approaching, blaster raised. Cal feebly raised his saber and deflected the first shot, and the second, but the third managed to strike his thigh.

“AUGH,” Cal cried out and rolled backward, as far away as he could manage to get. He shakily got to his feet, then lunged at the attacker, fire in his eyes. He managed to slice the man’s jet pack on one side, sending him flying into the side of the wall. He landed in an unmoving heap.

Cal fell to his knees, deaf to the arena’s raucous chants and jeers. His hands were shaking, still holding up his lightsaber in defence. He waited, but Sorc Tormo seemed distracted.

“What do you mean INCOMING?”

A loud crash took over the crowd’s cheers. Spectators began running and screaming as a familiar ship touched down near Cal.

“It’s the Mantis!” Sorc shrieked. “BLAST IT!”

Cal stumbled, catching himself hard on one knee, before scrambling to the now waiting Mantis. Cere stood at the doorway, waiting for him, blaster in hand. He breathlessly climbed the ramp and collapsed just inside the door. “I will chase you across the galaxy if I have to!” was the last thing Cal heard before closing his eyes.

Cere and Greez maneuvered the ship out of the system and well out of harm’s way. Cere was furious at Greez and the danger he had put Cal in. Greez refused to make eye contact with her. Once the ship was steady, Cere went to check on the young Jedi.

Cal was out cold, his droid by his side. Cere knew he’d been through hell, and hoped it wouldn’t prove to be a huge setback for the mission. Cal had been missing for almost a full rotation. It was enough time for Cere to sincerely worry that they’d never see him again.

Cal stirred slightly, a small moan escaping his lips. He looked up at Cere with a pained expression. “Sorry, I uhh…”

Cere smiled at him. “No, it’s okay. I’m glad we found you. Can you stand?”

Cal nodded and sat up. Cere held one of his arms and steadied him. “You need rest. I…”

“No,” Cal cut her off. He pulled his arm away and slowly made his way to the front of the ship toward Greez. Cere knew that Cal felt betrayed, and she didn’t blame him one bit.

“Hey Greez,” Cal croaked. “You’re famous down there.”

Greez stiffened and turned to Cal. “Yeah they’re and… ugly group huh?” he stammered. “They smell like used droid oil heh heh… at least you’re okay.”

Cal didn’t respond. He looked to Cere standing in the doorway, who responded for him. “A complication we could have avoided,” she replied slowly.

Cal ignored both of them and carefully found his way to the couch. He pulled at his now-torn poncho until a strip long and wide enough was in his hand. He began binding his injured arm.

[aka-willow]

What I Lost

gif

Words: 1419

Characters: Willow Wren, Fanisimo

Prompt/Tag:

“great. perfect. nice. fuck this.”

“I just needed to hear your voice.”

Summary: Willow finds herself homeless again

Timeline: December 2015

Song: Wake Me Up When September Ends - Green Day

A/N: thanks again for reading!!!!!! i’m :D

—————————————————————————–

Remember that building I mentioned, the one with the water tower on the roof? The one I said if I ever needed a place to hide out, this would be it?

Well.

I bought a tent and space heater and set up camp underneath the water tower, which shielded the tent from most of the elements. Inside, I snaked in an extension cord and siphoned off the building’s electricity to charge my phone and laptop, and power the heater and cheap Christmas lights I bought from Walmart. Marty’s “bail money” had come in handy. Homeless again. This fucking sucks.

I showered in the locker room before school and got ready in the bathroom. I skimmed change from the coin returns at the row of vending machines near the cafeteria and used that to pay for the laundromat. I made friends with the guy who sold grilled cheese from his truck a few blocks away, and he gave me free grilled cheese when I helped him deliver sandwiches to the old lady that lived down the street and didn’t leave her apartment.

It was a precarious setup, but it got me through my first week back on my own, though the wind never stopped. It seemed like all most every night my powers spiraled out of control at least once, causing me to have to sit out on the roof, hoping I wouldn’t destroy anything. It was even worse at school, and I felt as if I were constantly sitting on a rigged bomb.

Between juggling homework and my new living situation, I spent my time trying to crack the file Marty left on the flash drive. I hadn’t heard from Detective Dunphee, and I was starting to think that they had run into a dead end. Of course they did. Both you and Kate lied to them.

I tried using Marty’s favorite books and stories as passwords, but nothing was clicking. calvinandhobbes. theodyssey. thelightningthief.

I called Fanisimo one night, sitting out on the rooftop, far away from the tent where I spent most of my evenings. It was a clear night, and I was exhausted from spending the day revamping the space and rigging up everything I needed to survive. “Hey, everything all right?” he asked, picking up.

“I just needed to hear your voice,” I said. “What’s up?”

He shrugged over Facetime, the image pixelated and distorted. “I’m still working on something to… uh… contain whatever you have going on. I have a prototype that should be ready by the time we have our meetup.”

“What is it?”

Fanisimo walked around his workshop and flipped his camera around to show me a device sitting on his workbench. “I’m hoping this will dampen it, or maybe stop it completely.” It was a small chip, barely visible on my small phone screen. “I based it off old HYDRA tech. They’ve used it to restrict powers before.”

“How does it work?”

Fanisimo flipped the camera back around. “Inserted right here,” he said, pointing at the back of his neck. “Like the ones we had when we were kids when we were adjusting to our new abilities.”

“Right,” I said, swallowing uncomfortably. “Is that the only option?”

“I mean, I’m going off of whatever I have,” Fanisimo said. “And it’s not a lot. If you could figure out what you were hit with…”

“It was blue,” I said. “A big blue beam. And then kaput.” I paused. “My friend Kate said the person had a HYDRA patch on their jacket. I think it was supposed to kill me. But it didn’t. It just totally fucked up my powers.”

Fanisimo frowned. “So… HYDRA weaponry. Possibly a prototype. And instead of killing you…”

“Best guess?”

“My guess is it was a weapons malfunction,” he said. “Did you have anything else on you at the time? Something could have shorted—I don’t know.”

I walk back to the tent to look through my things, embracing the space heater’s warmth. “I had my phone on me. Jacket. Backpack.”

“Yeah, that wouldn’t do it,” he said.

I flipped my backpack upside down and sorted through its contents. “I had Marty’s flash drive?”

“Nah. Never mind. It was just a thought.” We talked a little longer, mostly just talking about old memories, as we usually did, comparing our notes and trying to get a little more back. It had become a habit to share our dreams and random déjà vu, even if most of the time it amounted to nothing new and we trod over the same few memories.

“I remember snow in woods,” Fanisimo said. “Is that weird?”

“A little,” I said. “We never went outside beyond the wall at that training facility that one time.”

“I remember it,” he said again, quieter. “I remember being in the woods and being so cold. And there was… like… this house. All broken down and stuff.”

“I remember there was a rabbit in one of the gardens,” I said. “I tried to catch it and they stopped me.”

“Cheerios,” added Fanisimo. “I remember eating Cheerios.”

“I remember Dr. Turner always wore high heels,” I said. “When they sent me into isolation those times, I remember the points sunk into the cushioned floor.”

“I remember acid.”

“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” I said. “Or did they always say vengeance? I don’t remember.”

“I remember you guys. And the meds they had us on. I hated feeling like that.”

“I remember Monster. And sumerkey.”

“I remember that chair.”

“I remember the electricity.”

We sat in silence as we tried to make sense of it all, find some reason that we went through all of it. All of us had been tracking down old scientists and leaking their information, but I was the only one who had confronted them, and I barely had any leads to show for it. You have to find Dr. Turner. She’ll know. And if there’s a book involved, find that too.

“Hold on,” said Fanisimo, his tone changing. “What’s that thing on the bottom of your backpack? The shiny thing. You didn’t mention that.”

I look over at the backpack next to me on my sleeping bag. “Where? I don’t see it.”

“Hold on,” said Fanisimo. “The light has to hit it right.”

I angled the backpack a little, and sure enough, I found a thin sliver of something reflective affixed to the material on the base of my backpack. Wordlessly, I gave it a tug and pulled it off. It had the texture of a thin wire and was about the width of a string. “That’s weird,” I said. “Probably got stuck to it when I had my backpack on the floor or something.”

“I don’t think so,” said Fanisimo, and when I looked back at his face, his mouth was creased into a grimace. “Can you send me a picture?”

I did so, and while I waited to respond, I studied the object in my hand, turning it over, noticing that the surface of it seemed burnt in places, and now that I looked, the space where it had been on my backpack was also singed. I started backtracking, realizing that there was so much I hadn’t told the Lab Rats about my activities in New York and—

“Hey,” said Fanisimo, returning. “How long has that been there?”

“No idea.”

“Well… uh… I think that’s a tracker.”

“What?”

“A tracker. Like the kind SHIELD might use. It could also be a bug, but I’m not sure, it’s hard to say. Have you had any contact with someone from… I don’t know… anyone who could plant it?” I remembered the day at the apartment when those agents arrived, but my backpack had been in my bedroom and no one had gone near it. I could have been followed after the fact.

“No,” I said. “No idea.” Great. Perfect. Nice. Fuck this.

“I’d bet anything that’s what caused the malfunction. Heckergal, you gotta get rid of that. This is bad.”

“I know that!” I snapped. “I know it’s bad!”

“Jeez, okay,” said Fanisimo. “I just—”

“I gotta go,” I said, and left the call. I stepped back out of the tent and the wind swirled around the rooftop in a vortex as I struggled to keep control, loose bits of gravel and debris stinging my face as I tried to calm down. It was as if the walls were slowly closing in, and I was running out of time.

I need to find Dr. Turner.

[wlw-solidarity]

The Mysterious Case of the Free Day Secret

This is the Voltron Secret Santa gift I made for @longleggyblueintheback! I hope you enjoy it.

Summary: It’s a free day for the paladins so Lance decides the best way to spend it is hanging out with his friends. However, when all his friends seem to be busy he begins to suspect that they might be planning something.

Lance knew the minute he woke up that it was going to be a good day. He hadn’t been jarred awake at the brink of dawn, or er, well the space equivalent at least, by Coran’s voice yelling that they were under enemy fire with the words only being true about once every seven times.

Throwing back the covers he took his time getting ready, just in case his happiness was shattered by Allura coming over the com and calling for all of them to show up in training room to run morning drills. He figured he was safe once he had gone through his entire morning routine without so much as a peep from the coms. He was free, baby.

Once he had finished getting dressed he headed out to go look for Hunk. If they were going to have a free day he might as well spend it with his best buddy. He checked all the usual places Hunk would be; the common room, his room, the kitchen, yellow’s hanger, but he was just nowhere to be found! How had Hunk managed to disappear? Yeah it was a pretty big castle but no one ever really ventured far from the normal living areas.

Lance eventually found Hunk, thought it was in one of the last places he would’ve looked. Hunk had been down in the castle’s mainframe, slid under one of the panels with an array of weird space tools littered around him.

“Hey buddy, you look like you’re concentrating pretty hard down there,” Lance said with a chuckle as he crouched down next to Hunk.

“Hey Lance, I’m guessing you slept in,” Hunk said as pulled down two different colored wires from the panel. Were they actually supposed to be doing something, should Lance be upstairs helping Coran clean the healing pods or something?

“Heh, yeah, I’m guessing we have the day off since I got to sleep in so late.” Now he could figure out for sure if they had the day off.

“Yeah, if only my internal clock wasn’t so used to waking up at the same time I’m sure I would’ve slept in as well,” Hunk said with a chuckle as he reached down and fumbled for a tool.

“So we do have a free day then?” Lance asked as he handed Hunk one of the tools. It must’ve been the one he wanted since he didn’t give it immediately back to Lance.

“Yep,” Hunk said, popping the p, “Allura told us yesterday before we all went to bed. You were dragging pretty low though so I’m guessing you just didn’t hear her.”

“Huh, yeah I guess I was pretty beat after yesterday’s mission,” Lance said as he rocked back on his heels. “But I gotta ask, why are you messing around with the castle if we have a free day?”

“Oh, uh, well, you see,” Hunk stammered, and oh, now he had Lance’s full attention, what was Hunk hiding? “I wanted to try and work on the castle’s defensives. It’s so hard to work on when we’re going on missions or recruiting for the coalition. So I’m using my free time now to, uh, help us out later.”

“Uh huh,” Lance said as he leaned down a little. After twelve years of friendship Lance could tell when Hunk was lying to him, and this time was no exception. “So you’d rather mess around with the castle than hang out with me on our free day?”

“Wha-no of course not,” Hunk sputtered. “You can always hang out with me down here you know, like, multitask.”

Lance sighed and leaned up against one of the panels. “I guess, but it’s boring down here.”

“It’s not that boring.”

“Hunk, you’re the one who enjoys tinkering in his free time and apparently thinks that a good way to spend their free day is to work on the castle.”

“This is important,” Hunk said. “Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be working on this all day, I’ll be done by lunch-ish.”

Lance perked up at that as he began to formulate a plan. While he would love to spend his free time with his best friend he wouldn’t mind hanging out with one of his other friends. He and Pidge hadn’t hung out too much since she had found her brother. They were due for some hang out time.

“Okay then, I’ll just leave you here to do your tinkering then so you can finish even faster,” Lance said as he pushed himself from off the ground and shoving his hands into his pocket. “Then we can hang out for the rest of the day and not have to worry about you being too focused on the computer here.” Lance gave it a pat before he went to turn around.

“That sounds like a great plan,” Hunk said. “I’ll see you in a bit than.”

“Okay but you better remember that I expect us to finish that cheesy movie series we started last time we had a free day.”

“I don’t know if it will be the same without Keith popping in at random times and then just watching about half of the movie before realizing he had come in there to ask me where I put the leftovers from dinner,” Hunk said with a sigh. “But at least we won’t have any interruptions.”

“Yeah, you got that right, see you later big guy,” Lance called back before walking out of the room, hearing the doors swish shut behind him. Well that hadn’t worked out the exact way Lance had wanted, but at least he was freed up to spend some time with Pidge. He wondered what she had been up to since the last time they really had time to sit down and talk, he’s pretty sure she was working on a Rover 2.0.

Pidge ended up being in the first place he went looking for, the little room she had claimed as her workshop a long time ago. There were materials and random junk laying all over the place, Lance had learned long ago that Pidge wasn’t a very tidy person. Despite that she always knew where something was in her pile of stuff so maybe she was more organized than the rest of them combined.

“Hey Pidge, what’cha doing?” Lance asked as he draped himself onto the only clear chair in the room. “Working on anything new?”

Pidge glanced up at him for a second before turning back to her computer screen. “No nothing much,” she said as her fingers flew across the keyboard. She was certainly working on something. “Just working on some of Rover 2.0’s programing, I have a bug that’s making so that whenever someone says the word milkshake Rover shuts down.”

“Oh man, that’s…definitely a bug,” Lance said with a nod.

“It probably wouldn’t affect us much in battle but I don’t really want to reboot him whenever someone asks Hunk for a milkshake,” Pidge said as she paused in her typing and looked up at him. “What about you Lance? I’m sure you’ve been enjoying this free day by sleeping in a whole extra three hours.”

“I didn’t sleep in that much,” Lance said as he crossed his arm, besides he had only slept in like two hours longer than normal. “I decided I wanna spend some time with my good ol’ pals on this day off.”

“Oh is that so? Are you own your way to see Hunk or something?”

“Wha-of course not Pidge, do you really think I don’t want to hang out with you, one of my best friends?”

“Is Hunk busy?”

“Yes.”

“Well I’m going to warn you that I’m kinda busy too,” Pidge said. “This bug is a bit trickier that I thought so I might not be able to help fill into the conversation too much.”

“Oh come on Pidge, it’s a free day,” Lance said with a groan as he let his head fall back over the side of the chair. “Let’s go do something fun! Like put food goo into Coran’s shoes or turn all the furniture in the dining hall upside down to mess around with Shiro again.”

“As much as I would love to prank our friends, I really need to fix this bug first,” Pidge said, pausing for a second to look up at Lance with an apologetic smile. “But I’m all for it once I’m finished. Just give me like half an hour and I’ll be good to go.”

“Ugh fine,” Lance said, throwing his arms up into the air. How could two of his friends be busy on their free day?! He could always just go hang out on his own until Pidge was finished with her computer stuff, but he did plenty of that on a normal day. He supposed he could go and hang out with Allura. She was a girl who could appreciate pampering oneself. Maybe he could just go hang with her for a bit, surely she was using this time to destress herself.

“Hey Katie, I got the lights you asked me-“

“Matt, hey, just, uh, put that box right over there,” Pidge said, shooting up in her chair and pushing her computer off her lap.

“Uh, okay,” Matt said with a shrug as Pidge hopped out of her chair and grabbed one of the boxes out of his arms. Lance tried to sneak a peak of what was inside but was sad to see that the boxes were closed up. Whatever was in those boxes was either something Pidge didn’t want Lance to see or something that embarrassed her.

“Well, bye Lance, see you later,” Pidge said as she looked over at him with the promise to push him out the door if he didn’t leave in her eyes.

“Okay, I’ll stop by in a bit then,” Lance said, giving the siblings a weak wave before disappearing into the hallway before Pidge could push him out. Oh she was definitely planning something, but what? Was this some big extravagant prank to get back at him for that one time at the Garrison?

Well if it was he was totally prepared for it, now that he knew to keep an eye out for anything suspicious there was no way Pidge could get the jump on him. However, he wasn’t prepared for his two closest friends to be too busy to hang out with him. Well, it looked like it was time for him to find Allura.

During his hunt to find Allura, who he knew was probably on the control deck, he passed through the kitchen and saw a….rather odd sight.

“Crap, crap, crap,” Shiro muttered from where he crouched on the floor in front of the weird space oven. “I knew that this was a bad idea.”

“What’s a bad idea?” Lance asked as he tried to bend his body some way to see whatever Shiro was doing. The kitchen was a mess so he had to be trying to cook something, though he’s sure he’s heard Shiro tell them on numerous occasions that he couldn’t cook anything to save himself.

“Oh, uh,” Shiro said as he glanced between Lance and whatever disaster was in the oven. “Nothing?” Shiro said, though it came more out as a wheeze, as he tried to drape his body over the oven.

“Uh huh,” Lance said as he kept staring at the oven. “Then what’s all that smoke.”

“Oh crap!” Shiro cried as he sprung back from the oven and began to fan the gray smoke with his hand. “Bad idea, bad idea,” he muttered under his breath as Lance tried his best not to laugh at the whole scene.

“Do you need any help Shiro?” Lance offered, hoping that the answer would be yes so he’d have something to do before Pidge was done with her work.

“No, no, nope I’m a-okay,” Shiro said, offering Lance a feeble smile and thumbs up.

“Oooookay,” Lance said as he gave the smoking oven one last glance. “Do you happen to know where Allura is?”

“On the deck,” Shiro mumbled as he opened the door to the oven and even more smoke billowed out. Lance ran off before he could end up getting involved in whatever cleaning would need to happen to that oven and set off for the observation deck. Good thing he had stopped by and asked Shiro where Allura was or else it could’ve been like the search for Hunk all over again.

He ended up hearing Allura before he so much as stepped foot into the observation deck. She sounded like she was trying to fight something in there.

“Hey Allura,” he called out as he stepped into the doorframe, “Is everything alright-“

He was cut off by Allura sliding in front of him and blocking his way into the room. “Lance, how nice to see you. Are you enjoying your free day?”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Lance said with a shrug as he tried to look into the room to see if he could figure out what had been happening in there. Allura however seemed very intent on blocking his view, moving her body along with his to block his vison, plus he’s pretty sure she even gave herself a few inches to have an even better advantage of hiding whatever was in the room. Had she captured some animal and just didn’t want to show them?

“That’s good,” Allura said with a wide smile. He could tell that she wanted him gone so he decided the best thing to do was to try and stick around a little longer, maybe just to bug her and maybe because he was getting bored with no one to talk.

“So is everything okay in there? I heard a lot of noise earlier,” Lance said as he tried to sneak another peak. This time he was a bit more successful and caught a glimpse of some weird looking plant that was decorated with some weird looking metal things, but before he could get a better look Allura moved herself again to block his view.

“Oh yes, just discussing the coalition with a nearby planet, you know, just trying to make those connections,” Allura said as she swung her arm, once again blocking one of the possible peepholes for Lance. Oh it was on now.

“Oh really?” Lance said as he tilted his head and tried to get a look past the blockade Allura had created. “It sounded like you might’ve been arguing with them? Is everything going okay?”

“Oh it’s going splendidly,” Allura said as she leaned down to get in Lance’s way.

“Sure you don’t need any back-up,” Lance said as he began to stand on his tiptoes in hopes of getting a peek over her shoulder.

“Oh I’m fine, they’re just very passionate about the cause,” Allura said as she retaliated the same way.

“Uh huh, and what is the planet your talking to exactly?” Lance asked as he bent down a little to peek through her elbow.

“Oh, um,” Allura stuttered, yes he had got her! While she was caught off guard Lance was able to finally get another peak into the room. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking at but he was guessing it was supposed to be a tree. A very metallic looking tree…..that looked like it had been haphazardly made of pipes and seemed to have those weird cookies Hunk had made one time, which had actually turned out to be able to be used for the teludav, seemed to be put on the weird metal tree as well.

“It’s the Trinites,” Allura said, quickly moving her arm to block Lance’s view once again.

“Uh huh,” Lance said as he narrowed his eyes at her, only for Allura to narrow them right back. At least they were both onto the other’s plan.

“Well, as you can see Lance I’m a little busy right now,” Allura said as she began to slide the door to the room shut. “I’ll come find you when I’m done with this important conference call that is currently on hold right now, okay bye!”

The door fully shut in Lance’s face and at the same time the theory cemented in his head that his friends were most definitely up to something. What, he didn’t know but with four of the castle inhabitants acting weird and suspicious he knew they were planning something without him.

It couldn’t be his birthday, and he couldn’t think of anyone else’s birthday being around this time. Though if he was being perfectly honest he hadn’t looked at the Earth calendar in a while since it made him a little sad to think about what his family might be doing at home.

Was there maybe a space holiday he didn’t know about? Or was this specifically a surprise for him that the others were planning for him? Or what if Keith was stopping by for a visit and everyone was making a surprise for Keith and Lance just hadn’t gotten the memo? He hadn’t checked his space phone yet.

So he pulled it out and felt his hopeful smile turn to a frown when he saw no new messages. What could his friends possibly be up to? Maybe, maybe Keith knew? Okay Lance almost laughed at that idea, Keith called the group maybe every twenty quintents, but it wouldn’t hurt to check. Cover all his bases, since Keith was pretty horrible at keeping secrets.

He hit the call button for Keith and waited, and waited, and waited only for Keith to not pick up.

“What the heck,” Lance mumbled as he stared down at the failed connection blinking on the screen. “I didn’t think the Blade was on a mission right now.”

Okay, so maybe he couldn’t figure out what was going on from Keith, but there was someone else that he knew who couldn’t keep a secret.

////

“Ah Lance, I was looking for you,” Coran said, clapping his hands together. “I was hoping you might want to help me clean out the healing pods. I know you have a free day but-”

“Oh of course Coran, it’s not like I’m doing anything better,” Lance said as he mentally rubbed his hands together. He was totally going to get Coran to spill what their friends were up to.

“Well than, come along my lad,” Coran said, turning around and putting his hands behind his back before heading down the hall.

“Yeah, so uh, Coran,” Lance said as he followed after Coran, doing his best to seem nonchalant as he posed his question. “What exactly are the others up to?”

“Oh, uh, nothing, just normal maintenance and their hobbies I suppose.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t think Shiro bakes for fun,” Lance said with a shrug.

“I think he’s taken it up to get better at it.”

“While in space?”

“He’s very dedicated to learning new things?” Oh Coran had totally presented that as a question. Lance definitely had him.  

“So it’s not for, just throwing around some ideas, a party?” Lance smiled as Coran about came to a halt.

“Wh-what of course not, why-why would you think that?” Coran stuttered before hurrying off down the hallway forcing Lance to jog after him.

Lance was about to call out Coran’s stuttering when the man came to a sudden stop.

“Here we are,” Coran said as he stepped off to the side to get out of the doorway.

Lance looked at the closed door and realized that it wasn’t the pod room but rather the observation deck.

“Coran, I don’t know how to tell you this but this isn’t the pod room,” Lance said as he glanced over at Coran who seemed to be gesturing for him to go into the room.

“No, I’m sure it’s the right room,” Coran said and Lance kinda gave up and opened up the door chalking this up as part of the secret plans of his friends.

“Okay then Coran, where are these pods I need to-“ Lance began before his remark died on his lips once he really looked inside the room.

“Surprise,” his friends all cried as they stood around the metallic tree Lance had caught a glimpse of earlier. It was only now that he realized what it was mimicking, in a weird almost modern looking way, a Christmas tree.

“Merry Chrisnes Lance,” Allura said as she did jazz hands at the tree.

“Christmas,” Pidge whispered next to her.

“Christmas,” Allura corrected before gesturing towards the tree. “So what do you think? I think I was able to make a great replicate of this tree you celebrate around, and all I had to work on was what Pidge and Hunk told me.”

“It’s-it’s great Allura,” Lance said and it was the honest truth. Yeah it didn’t look exactly like the evergreens from home but Lance could definitely see the resemblance and-wait a second…

“Wait, it’s Christmas?” Lance asked as it finally hit him what this meant.

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Hunk asked with wide eyes. “Oh god we thought it was going to be so hard to hide this from you, and we thought maybe you were planning something since you hadn’t mentioned it!”

“What, no, I haven’t looked at the Earth calendar in, like, forever,” Lance said as he finally noticed there was a familiar face in the room he hadn’t even noticed when he first walked in. “You even got Keith to take some time off from the Blade?!”

Keith seemed to laugh at Lance’s surprise before saying, “It’s not like I’m always off on missions, plus everyone needs a break once in a while…I guess.”

“Oh man now it really feels like Christmas, it’s like when the workaholic uncle actually took off from work to celebrate Christmas with the entire family,” Lance said as he pretended to tear up.

“You might want to save those tears for later,” Pidge said with a chuckle as she jerked her thumb over to a plate of what appeared to be very burnt cookies. “Someone actually thought putting Shiro on baking was a good idea.”

“I warned you guys!” Shiro cried as he glared at his cookies. “But Hunk had to set up Christmas music into the castle’s system-“

“Wait, Hunk rigged the castle to play Christmas music,” Lance said, holding up his hands because this was something that was very important to him.

“Oh yeah, I had to do a lot of finagling and use a few CDs I found at that Earth store at the mall to actually create some kind of playlist,” Hunk said as he held up a controller. “I figured we’d wait for you to show up before playing it.”

“Well what are you waiting for buddy, let’s get the cheer going,” Lance said as Hunk pressed play and an instrumental version of some classic Christmas song came on.

“I was the one who set up the lights,” Pidge said as she pointed to the odd string of lights that adorned the tree. It certainly did look like she had made it of whatever odds and ends she could find.

“I can’t believe you guys did all of this,” Lance said with a smile before it dropped into a playful scowl, “And you all didn’t even tell me.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Allura said, crossing her arms. “Pidge claims that this holiday is all about surprises.”

“Well it wasn’t like you were exactly subtle about the fact that you were all hiding something, especially you Allura.”

“I think I did a great job at keeping your peeping nose out of here so you couldn’t see the tree,” Allura said.

“I mean, I had no idea what I was even looking at when I first saw it,” Lance said with a shrug before he let his smile soften. “But really, thanks for doing all of this guys. It-it’s really nice.”

“Awww Lance, come here,” Hunk said, holding his arms out. “Group hug.”

Lance let Hunk drag him into a hug and felt Pidge glomp herself between Hunk and him. The rest followed in suit and as Lance was wrapped up in a hug by all his friends, it almost reminded him of home. Almost.

[star-trekkin-across-theuniverse]

Human Resources, pt10

Word Count: 3578 Tags: @supermoonpanda @rayleyanns @sistasarah-sallysaidso @feelmyroarrrr @anyakinamidala @dirajunara @anotherotter @little-study-bug @rampant-salamander @goodnightwife @samaxraph99 @anotherotter  @outside-the-government @kingarthurscat @coyote-in-space @originalpottervengerlock @dolamrothianlady @curiositywillbethedeathofme

Coulson had walked me back to the dorms after our lunch date, and it was everything I had in me to not just drag him into my room. I was not used to men who were so at ease discussing sex, so when he’d said his piece while we were at the sound, it threw my libido into overdrive. I was distracted and unfocused for the rest of the time we were away from the academy. Coulson could tell, and his amusement was obvious. He took great delight in ‘accidentally’ brushing against me in the snug confines of Lola, or pushing the stray curl that always popped out of my ponytail off my face. It was torture. And he knew it. I felt like a horny teenager and very much envied Coulson’s self-control.

Kate and I met for dinner, as usual, and she looked much better for having napped the morning away, but she had the beginnings of a black eye, and her knuckles were raw.

“What the hell happened in hand-to-hand?” I asked, my eyes wide. She laughed.

“So, embarrassing story,” she began. “I was sparring with one of the other women in my group, and I tripped on the cuff of her yoga pants and took her elbow to my face. And then, when I was headed to the change room, I walked into the wall, knuckles first. Needless to say, I am the most hopeless person in hand-to-hand.”

“Are you at the Hub or the Triskelion, Kate?” I asked.

“I was transferred back to the Triskelion about three weeks ago.” Which explained why she was constantly talking about the Hub. She wasn’t used to being back at headquarters.

“I’ll help you. When we get home. We can go to the gym at lunch,” I offered. Her face lit up.

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I suspect I’m going to need some distraction when I get back,” I laughed. She raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t get you,” she shook her head.

“What’s there to get?” I shrugged.

“He’s not my type, but you’re obviously into him. Just jump him already.” She took a big bite of her burger and I wondered if she’d been excused from running because of her injury. I still didn’t risk anything heavier than a salad before our evening run, or I worried I would barf.

“It’s not really that easy, Kate. He’s an S.O.”

“And? So is Rick.”

“Coulson is a little more by the book,” I explained.

“I’ve seen the way that man looks at you. You know how I told you Rick was into you a couple days ago? This is a totally different look. Coulson sees you. He’d tear that whole section out of the book if you were so inclined.”

“Really?” I didn’t think he was so attracted to me that he would disregard SHIELD protocols. And Coulson was a hard guy to read, with a fantastic poker face. I mean, it was clear to me he was interested when we were alone. I just didn’t see it when we were around other people.

“Yeah, any time he thinks you aren’t looking. It’s in his eyes. He can’t hide it.” She started on her french fries while I picked at my salad. I looked across the cafeteria, wondering where he was, but quickly realized he was probably out on the bus with his team. I wondered if he and his bottle of scotch would arrive after my run, or if the rumoured ‘war games’ would put a damper on our evening visit.

“So I got to head out for a drive today.” I changed the subject, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

“Yeah? Is there anything near here? I’ve been trying to figure out where we are. I keep smelling the ocean. Do you suppose we’re on the west or east coast?” Kate pondered.

“We saw the ocean. It was beautiful. Otherwise there’s really nothing around here,” I admitted.

“Which ocean though?” She asked. I smiled and shook my head.

“No idea.” It was a little white lie, but I didn’t want to share it, despite her clearance. Not because of some SHIELD code of silence, but because it was my discovery, a gift from Coulson that was just for me. I was selfish.

We headed out to the track, but I was lousy company. I was lost in my thoughts. Knowing I was so close to home had been jarring to me, and I was torn between wanting to get back to work and my life, and staying at the academy, taking comfort from the clean air and nourishing land of my childhood. It was ridiculous. Up until seeing that cove, I’d had no idea we were near anything familiar, and now I was desperately homesick. It was a completely unfamiliar emotion, and it was intensifying everything else I was feeling. I’d never been homesick, and was unaccustomed to the tightness in my chest and the pull towards the interior.

I stood on the track and faced east, imagining the highway and backroads that would lead to the city where I grew up. I shook my head and gave myself a stern talking to. There was nothing there for me, and I’d left for a reason. I was obviously exhausted, which was governing my emotions more than I realized. Rick signaled for us to start running and I forced the press of feeling back down into my stomach, hoping to digest it with my salad.

“You’re slower this afternoon, Ellis!” Rick called on my fourth lap. “Pick it up or you’ll be doing extra!”

I fought the urge to flip him the finger and picked up my pace. Kate was dragging too, and I could see she really didn’t have any extra in her. I kept pace with her, deciding if we both had extra laps at the end, at least we wouldn’t be alone. Once we were in the grass, I waited to see if Rick was going to come and give us grief. He didn’t. Instead he called us together to discuss the evening’s plan.

“I know you’ve all been hearing rumours, and I’m going to confirm we’re going to do some night exercises tonight. You can break for now and go have showers, get dried off. Go to bed if you want. Later on, we’ll be mustering you for the exercise. It’s a pretty simple exercise, but it’s tactical. You will need to evacuate your dorm to the airstrip tarmac. Each dorm floor will have a leader, and if you have been selected the floor leader, there will be a red flag on your door when you get back. If you are the floor leader, you need to muster the floor, and make sure you get to the airstrip without losing anyone,” He started. I looked at Kate. The disgust on her face was so obvious that I had to stop myself from laughing at it.

“Will we get any defensive weapons?” One of the guys asked. Jackson chose that moment to arrive, and he stepped up beside Rick to finish orienting us to the task.

“We debated arming you, and have opted not to at this time. If you come in contact with a hostile, you will be dependent on your hand-to-hand to take them out. However, if you are overpowered, you are out, and will be removed to containment for the night,” Jackson explained. Kate groaned.

“Containment for the night?” One of the older women echoed.

“Just until the exercise is over, you will be removed from the playing field. Nothing to be alarmed about,” Jackson reassured her. “There are no off-limits areas, but be forewarned, if you use your personal identification to access passcode restricted areas, you will be caught. Stealth is the most important part of this exercise.”

Kate and I looked at each other and sighed, almost in unison. This was going to suck. Jackson dismissed us and we made our way back to the dorms. I was totally dreading the evening. We stomped up the stairs and turned the corner onto our floor. I could see the red flag through the small glass window of the fire door and sighed heavily.

“Fuck,” I breathed out. Kate opened the door and gave me a sympathetic smile.

“It makes sense, Annie,” she said with familiarity. “You’re the only one on our floor who tested out of hand-to-hand. Go have a shower and get to bed. Who knows how long we have.”

I collected my shower kit and headed off to clean up and get ready. I took the time to make sure my hair was dry. Now that I knew where we were, the erratic early spring weather made more sense, and I didn’t want to risk needing to be outside if it was going to be really cold. And the mist on the sound earlier in the day suggested it might be a cool night. I headed back to my room in my towel and was genuinely surprised to see Coulson lying on my bed reading a book, nerdy glasses on. He looked up and looked back down at his book.

“Do you have something against clothing?” He asked.

“Do you have something against waiting outside?” I replied, and pulled my pyjamas out of the drawer. I pulled them on without disrupting my towel. Coulson clapped when I pulled it off. I hung the towel and my wet gym things up so they could dry before I had to pack them in the morning.

“I see you were marked a team leader,” he commented, snapping his book shut.

“Try to convince me you had nothing to do with that.” I rolled my eyes. He stood up and stepped in close.

“Once your team gets to the checkpoint, you get to go back to bed,” he spoke quietly. “I want to show you something.”

He led me back into the hallway and down the stairs to the basement of the building. Using a similar series of bangs and knocks on the utility room door that he had on the roof door, he jimmied the door open, and led me in by the hand. He turned on a tiny flashlight and latched the door quietly behind us, then led me to the back of the room. It was filled with junk, and cleaning supplies, and furniture parts from the rooms. He pushed aside a wire shelving unit that was covering a door, and jiggled the handle. It squeaked a little, but finally gave way and opened out into the tunnels. I saw the blue line that traced the path to the fitness building. I looked at him in surprise.

“There is a black line on the ceiling. That will lead you to the small hangar, and you can come out up there, and then around the back of the main hangar to check in.” He flashed the light up to the black line. I stared at him, speechless. “What?”

“Are you seriously condoning cheating?” I was incredulous.

“This is a waste of time, personnel and resources. The reality is that if non-operatives are ever imperiled, it is wise to have taught you basic self-defense and weapons literacy, and so I support the objective of these training sessions. But expecting you to be able to move with stealth across a half mile of open terrain is unrealistic and illogical. You will, in a crisis, be expected to find a safe place to hide and only engage with hostiles if necessary,” he explained. “I’m going to help you win so you can help me finish my bottle of scotch tonight.”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

“You are just not what I thought you were, Phil Coulson.”

“I’ve changed,” he said. “Since I –“

“I like the change,” I interrupted him with a kiss on the cheek. He nodded toward the utility closet, and we headed back up to my room. He stepped inside and kissed me goodnight.

“The alarm will go off in an hour. I’ll see you back here at 2345.” His voice was low so it couldn’t be heard past my door. I nodded as he departed, and once he’d headed down the stairs, I shut my door and lay down with a book. I knew if I tried to sleep, I’d only wake up groggy and useless.

The alarm was shrill and disorienting, even wide awake. I swung open my door, and waited as the other residents mustered themselves. One by one, they trickled into my room, and when I counted ten of us, I shut the door. Kate looked at me expectantly.

“I went exploring tonight. And I found our winning ticket,” I started. Everyone started talking at once. Kate shushed them all so I could continue. “I can get us into the tunnels without having to key in. Now, I’m sure there will be at least one person prowling down there trying to catch us, but it’s dark and there are nooks and crannies everywhere. We’ll pair off and leap frog past each other from corner to corner. Each pair is going to need a flashlight.”

“Won’t flashlights give away our location?” A woman whose name I thought might be Amanda asked.

“Potentially, but here’s the thing. The tunnels are a labyrinth, so the path to each location is marked with a colour-coded line. We need to follow the black line that runs along the ceiling. And you can’t see it in the dark without a flashlight.” I explained.

“How do you know all this?” She demanded, hands on her hips.

“Like I said, I went exploring,” I lied. Kate raised an eyebrow at me but I just gave her a bland look. “Shall we? You have ten minutes. Pair off, go to the bathroom, grab a flashlight, change into dark clothes, grab a sweatshirt if you have one. Kate and I will be just past the basement door.”

Kate looked relieved as the other women trailed back out of my room, murmuring amongst themselves. She was already suitably dressed, which was a relief. We dashed down to the toilets then made our way down the stairs. I looked out the fire window in the door when we got to the main floor, and saw a steady stream of people heading outside. Perfect. No one would notice ten missing women.

When everyone had gathered again, I led us to the utility closet and went through the series of shoves and pushes that unstuck the door. I held the door open while everyone filed in, and then pushed my way through the cramped space to the shelves and got Kate to help me move them. I yarded the hidden door open and slipped out into the dark corridor. There was no one waiting right there, so I was guessing there weren’t many people that knew about our secret exit. It made me think that Coulson had some serious depths that no one was aware of. He must have spent half his time in the academy tracking down places to be away from everyone.

I waved the group forward, and quickly flashed my light up on the ceiling, illuminating the black trail marker. Kate and I headed down the corridor, the rest of the pairs trailing behind. We made it to what appeared to be the turn off to the fitness centre before we saw anyone, but then our luck ran out. There was a pair of agents just off the junction leading to the hangar, and they weren’t moving. I gestured to the group to hide and tucked into a crevice with Kate.

“Okay, this is a huge maze down here. Can you think of anywhere that we might bypass these guys? If we backtrack? Any idea what the red line runs to?” I whispered. Kate nodded.

“The red line leads to the cafeteria. I noticed the day we went to the fitness centre,” she whispered back. I tried to map the tunnels in my head, but couldn’t think of whether the red line would come out after the junction we were at or not.

“What about the yellow one?”

“No idea. Should we risk it?” She responded. I nodded, and we backtracked and collected our group. We found the yellow line and started following it. It snaked across the blue line leading to the pool almost parallel to the black line, and then turned ninety degrees and intersected with the black line. I peered around the corner to see if anyone was nearby. The two agents were less than 100 feet away. I made my way back to the other pairs and explained that they would have to cross the path completely silently, and we would try to trail back later. I was more than impressed when we all made it across without being caught. One of the older women picked up a pebble and leaned back out. I grabbed her arm.

“I play softball. Let me try to distract them,” She whispered. I let go and let her throw the rock. It flew over their heads and landed with a skitter back where we’d been when we first saw them. The two agents looked at one another and took off toward where they’d heard the sound. When we couldn’t see them in the darkness, we streamed out in a long line and ran as quickly as we could down the black line corridor. When I was sure we wouldn’t be spotted, I flashed the light on the ceiling and saw a turn off. It felt as though we’d made it across the track field, so we were probably pretty close to the stairs up to the small hangar. We scuttled down the hall and in a few minutes came to a door. I tried the knob. It was stuck. I checked the hinges and determined it would open away from me, so I leaned on the door hard. It still didn’t budge. Kate leaned against it as well and it made a loud crack before screeching open.

“Well, we’re fucking caught now.” One of the women grumbled from behind me. I hated to agree, but I figured we were screwed. I pushed the door the rest of the way open and looked up the dark staircase. It ran up the outside wall of a building. Just as I was about to lead Kate up, I heard voices.

“Did you hear that?” An unfamiliar male voice asked. I held my breath.

“Hear what?” It sounded like Agent May. We were completely screwed. There were some footsteps, but they stopped short of the corner of the building.

“It sounded like metal on metal. Could someone have got into the tunnels?” He asked. May made a scoffing sound.

“Not without alerting us. There’s no way into the tunnels without keying through,” she said. More footsteps, but they stopped short of the corner too.

“I just want to check that do –“ The guy started.

“Look over by the tarmac fence. There’s someone there!” May interrupted, and I heard them run off. I scrambled up the stairs to check, and they were running toward the fence surrounding the airstrip. I waved everyone up to the top of the stairs.

“Okay, ladies. This is it. The hangar is about 200 feet away. You’re going to have to run for it. I’m no longer responsible for you. Your partner is no longer responsible for you. I’ll make the sacrifice play and run first. If I don’t get caught and it looks clear, run like hell.” I spoke quickly and quietly before turning away and surveying the tarmac. I couldn’t see past the hangar we were hiding behind but there was such a commotion going on at the fence that I didn’t think there was anyone near us. I looked at Kate and she nodded. We crept around the corner and then ran like hell. I thought my lungs were going to explode. We were running as fast as we could toward that hangar, and we hadn’t been doing a lot of ‘running as fast as you can’. I slowed as we got close to the hangar, and turned the corner into the broad airplane opening. I stopped just inside the door, and put my hands on my knees, wheezing. Kate was right beside me, and we gave each other a feeble high five. One by one, the other eight women came gasping through the doors. I looked up and saw Jackson staring at us in amazement. Coulson was beside him smirking.

I walked over to Agent Jackson and smiled.

“Dorm D, third floor. All accounted for,” I gasped. He nodded, still speechless.

“Now what?” Kate asked.

“You could start by telling us how you got here,” Jackson retorted. I laughed.

“We took the tunnels.”

“How the hell did you get in this time?” He asked.

“Utility closet. Are we dismissed?” I was feeling sassy. Jackson was looking pissed off. It made me feel more sassy.

“Fuck. Yeah, go.” He waved me away. I winked at Coulson and turned back to my team. We tromped back out into the night and headed across the tarmac. Agent May approached me and separated me from the group.

“You’re welcome,” she said. I smiled.

“I thought as much. Thanks.” I jogged to catch up to Kate and we made our way back to the dorms.

[traviswsoul]

Day 28 Brook's Memorial Park to Sunnyside RV Resort 50 miles

July 31, 3:49 time, 2,044 caloires, 13.2 avg mph, 1,014; climbed After so many days resting up I was ready to ride. The campsite was great, I went to sleep at sunset reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, which is blowing my mind, and then was at with the sun at 5:30. This was a great execution of the morning routine so I was able to run through the breakfast and packing like a pro. This was greatly assisted by having a dry tent, I think I’m learning something about dew, I believe dew doesn’t settle through the night as much as it settles in the morning after the sun comes up. It makes sense, if the air around a colder thing heats up then the surface of the thing gathers dew, it’s just condensation I’m thinking. This lines up with my observation and is encouraging me to get up as soon as its light, I really hate packing a wet tent! Adapting my body to routine of the sun is really exciting for me, I have always been a morning person and believed this to be the best way to make the most of the day. I hope that I can keep it up when I get off the road. It makes me think about how much time I have been outside, and sleeping and waking without a roof over my head that normally allows my controlling of light, and so many other things. I am enjoying an learning a lot from the simplicity of a narrow realm of control and adapting myself to nature instead of trying to force all the elements to adapt to my lifestyle. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m also looking forward to sleeping in when this is all over and I’m back in my bed, I need some black out curtains. ;) However this morning I had almost pedaled out of the park before realizing I didn’t have my Garmin computer in its place, I turned around and dug it out of some pocket it didn’t belong in, I’ve got to unpack and reorganize everything soon. Because I am no longer on the coast I no longer have maps and planned routes, instead I downloaded a route on the Ride With GPS app and when I was setting it up I checked avoid highways. This was a bad move. I rode for a couple hours, the last few miles down the same road, I knew I had a right turn coming up and that it was going to take eight miles toward the next town. This road was deep grey gravel with some packed spots from driving but like cars do to roads like this the packed spots were rippled and a nightmare to ride over. I had a little hope that it might turn into a paved road so I went almost a half mile before throwing in the towel and turning around. The way back was downhill and there were several times I was certain I as going to crash as I drifted through the loose surface. Somehow I managed to not though and arrived back to where I started. I happened to just get phone service at this same time so despite the chaos I called mom right away because she hadn’t heard from me in a couple days, and I promised her that wouldn’t happen. She was at a computer and helped find my way, as she has always done so well, even before computers. I’m actually really grateful for this mixup because I ended up cycling through the Yakima Valley hop farms. Eighty percent of America’s hops come from here, they grow all different varieties, the ones hop fans are familiar with as well as ones they developed and cultivated ones found wild. I am a huge hop fan myself and have in the last year become for intrigued about how they grow. My local brew supply store had some for sale in the shop one day that you could grow at home, then I talked with a friend of mine that farms hay about them and we wondered if they’d grow in the Texas hillcountry, surely local Texas beer brewers would pay a lot more for Texas hops than what whoever pays for hay. The field is covered with a grid of rope and wire suspended twenty feet up in the air. Ropes are run from it to the ground, one for each hop vine in the rows. They grow tall wrapping up the vine and reaching for the sun, it’s a beautiful sight to see. I stopped as soon as I did, parked my bike and walked in to inspect what this was. It was a young plot and none of the plants had mature hops on them so I didn’t recognize them right away. I did have a feeling it was hops from the baby buds I found on them, I took a sample to ask someone later but I didn’t have to, down the road was a mature field with towering vines and fully developed fat hops. I was beside myself, my ideas were confirmed and they had been on my mind for such long time so to see it in person felt like the coolest culmination of my ongoing farming lesson that has been this trip. I continued to ride turn after turn through hop farms all at different stages of growth approaching harvest and delivering those delicious betters flavoring my favorite hopy IPAs. All day I had been riding through or along the Yakima Nation Indian Reservation and the Yakima River. I will take this moment to not start ranting about the genocide that created the foundation for our sprawling across this “great” nation and the irony and conflict that I feel about national pride because we collectively choose to ignore this fact……If you stole someone’s TransAm you wouldn’t go blasting around town, blaring Metallica, yelling about it with your mulleted head hangin out the window, flying a flag with you name on it would you? How long after it’s been stolen and passed down to your kids does it become appropriate behavior? This is why I have a hard time with the braggadocios pride on Independence day, why I’ll always bring up smallpox at Thanksgiving, and could only wear an American branded article ironically. Budweiser beer has the word America in the place the brand name used to be, it’s way out of hand. People keep realizing the truth in the line Not all Donald Trump supporters are racist, but all racists are Donald Trump supporters, and they also see them selves as the greatest patriots as well, only adding to my resistance to align where I’m supposed to, patriotism, its a no brainer right? You go all gung ho about where ever your from and allow ideas that’s it’s the best actually hold water. That’s insane, It’s like religions knowing that all the others are wrong and mine is right. Clinging to nationalism, hyper patriotism and rejecting things foreign or different are blatant signs of insecurity and self doubt, in some cases, in my opinion. But since I’m not ranting about the patriotic forgetfulness of the blood on our hands after “founding” our country I’ll move on to my next flat tire. The Yakima river took me into Granger, there are dinosaurs in Granger, all over the town, apparently its a ancient river bed and some of the first fossils were found there. There really cling to there dino identity in Granger, theres not much really to be honest. I needed to eat and managed to find the only restaurant in town that was inside a little Mexican market and meat shop. I had a great time visiting with the three woman sitting next to me at the second of the only three tables there. I drank a bottle of appeared to be Mexican version of pedialite, that stuff you give to babies when they are sick and need electrolites, which I sure did, it was hot outside. The bonus was it was Horchatta flavored! I love Horchata and used to order the cinnamon rice milk drink at Magie’s, my favorite Mexican joint in my home town. I hope I find that again some day! It wasn’t much further to the next town, I had options, I could have stopped there or gone on but I was in no rush and then my tire popped a quarter mile from the first gas station of the town so it was decided, Sunnyside Washington would be home for the night. I had a hell of a time changing this tire. The one tube I tried to replace it with ended up have a bad valve in it and wouldn’t take air, I only realized this after wasting a buck in quarters and a CO2 figuring it out. When I the bike was finally ridable and put back together I spent a while riding around this big little town. I checked the Big 5 Sports store and the Walmart. Little air guns and pellet guns use CO2 but they don’t screw in so they don’t have threads to use with my tire inflator. So knowing there was nothing left to do I cruised around eyes for a spot to camp. The back of the Walmart had a line of overhead bushes and right behind them was 8 foot lane before a huge endless corn field, it would have been perfect but it was still early, I could use a shower, and didn’t want to not be able to leave my stuff to go eat or get water. Sunnyside RV Resort was a much better option for twenty bucks. I met some wonderful kids too there that were really interested in me, my stuff, harmonica and had all kinds of random ass stories to tell me like, about the bug at school, the treasure he buried in the yard, and the youngest just mumbled stuff constantly. They were are dirty from playing outside all day and not afraid of their curiosity. The six year old gave me a blue magic stone which was one of the half glass marbles from a fish tank, I’m keeping it forever. The guy who ran the place sent me to El Valle for the Lamb Shank and Cadillac Margarita. The lamb was delicious covered in enchilada sauce served with rice and cheesy refried beans, I didn’t need any liquor though so I passed on the Cadillac. I went to bed full and happy I was back on the road and in the full swing of things.

PS. The encouragement from strangers and drivers everyday is amazing, powerful and really helps me push on sometimes when it’s slow. Please take note, If you want to express your excitement about seeing a cyclist on the road and cheer him on, be sure not to begin honking until after you have passed him and he can identify you as an ally by your fist pumping out the window. Ally’s honks don’t sound any different than Asshole’s

[mst3kproject]

Killers from Space

Oh, look. Peter Graves, Frank Gerstle (Dr. Frank from The Atomic Brain), stock footage of atomic tests, and some stupid-looking aliens.  Let’s do this!

A deep-voiced 50's narrator (old friend!  We've missed you!) tells us about an upcoming bomb test, and it's a good thing he uses the phrase 'tension mounts' or we wouldn't be able to tell.  After the test, scientist Dr. Doug Martin circles in closer to get readings – but then his pilot suddenly loses control of the plane!  Somehow Martin survives the crash, reappearing out of the desert a few days later without a mark on him except a weirdly right-angled scar on his chest.  At first he seems all right, but then he begins acting very oddly, which culminates in him stealing data from his lab and delivering it to a drop point in the desert, then crashing his car as he tries to flee.  Under the influence of truth serum, Martin reveals that he was kidnapped and experimented on by aliens, who are using the radiation of the atomic tests to create an army of monsters with which they will conquer the Earth!

This one hits a lot of notes: alien abductions, hypnotic regression, and superimposed footage of small creatures made to look big – including a giant gila monster! Considering the cast, the themes, the use of stock footage, and the fact that it appeared on The Film Crew, I'm honestly shocked that Killers from Space never made it to MST3K proper.  Our old pals New Petitions Against Tax and Building Code Under Fire even make appearances!  If Joel hadn't already promised us us widescreen-only, I'd fully expect to see it in the new season somewhere.

Killers from Space is a remarkably ambitious movie, actually.  It's got an interesting premise and tries to show us a lot of things – it fails rather spectacularly but damn, it tries.  For starters, consider Dr. Martin's curious dual role.  In the first half of the film, before we find out what happened to him while he was missing, he comes across as a possible villain. ��His colleagues don't want him returning to work because he's a security risk, and their fears turn out to be well-founded as he steals data and turns it over to the aliens.  Then he remembers what happened during his abduction, and turns into the movie's hero as he desperately tries to undo the damage he helped to cause.

The idea of Martin becoming an agent for the aliens against his own will is a truly creepy one.  It is even implied that they intended he should die once he was no longer useful to them – having delivered the information they wanted, he quickly crashes his car.  I think we're supposed to believe it was pure luck that he survived with their hold on him now broken, rather than expiring in the wreck (although this would have been a lot clearer if he'd been at all injured in the accident).  There's an undertone here similar to that of It Conquered the World, with its fear that seditious elements could be anyone, anywhere – indeed, you may be a traitor and not even know it!

I also gotta say, I don't remember the last time I saw a movie that gave such a good, clear reason for why the ending is a chase scene in a power plant.  A lot of movies seem to randomly end up at power plants somehow.  This one goes there on purpose and the plant itself plays an important role in the climax.

Besides a paranoid spy thriller, the other thing Killers from Space really wants to be is a special effects extravaganza.  I mean, we've got planes flying perilously close to atomic explosions.  We've got aliens doing weird medical procedures using unimaginable technologies.  We've got cockroaches the size of rhinos, for crying out loud.  It is to the movie's credit that it does make an effort to show us all these things.  We actually see the aliens and their cities, we see Martin's heart being worked on outside of his body, we see the plane spiral out of control.  Unfortuantely, the movie's budget was in no way equal to its ambitions, and all of these things look stupid.

Martin's heart operation is seen only for a moment with the organ itself in silhouette.  That much is pretty good: it tells us just enough that we can imagine the rest, and doesn't over-reach itself.  Then we get a wider shot of a room full of random electronics and guys dressed as aliens, and the creepy factor simply implodes in a shower of giggles. We're in a cave. There's oscilloscopes and ham radios.  A set of calculations are presented to us that turn out to be high school algebra written on tinfoil.  And most memorable of all – indeed, probably the only thing anybody really remembers about this movie – the 'aliens' have ping-pong balls for eyes.

What, you thought I was exaggerating?  Look at that.  They literally took ping-pong balls, cut them in half, and drew eyes on them, and the actors had to talk while keeping their faces scrunched up to wedge the balls between their cheeks and eyebrows.  It looks ridiculous and the poor bastards can't move around much or interact with anything because all they can see are the insides of the ping-pong balls.  The guy playing the alien leader also has tremendous furry eyebrows.  He looks like a comedy interpretation of one of those Japanese demon masks.

The rest of the effects suck, too – not so vastly as the aliens, true, but they're still bad.  The plane circling the nuclear explosion is superimposed and transparent, which is at least amusing.  So are the flying saucers and alien cities, which are cartoons, and not even particularly well-animated ones.  The giant bugs and reptiles Martin encounters in the cavern are back-projected and never look remotely like they're in the same space as he is.  Some interesting things are done with the sound here in an attempt to make the creatures feel big and sometimes it kinda works, but mostly it just gives us Bert I. Gordon flashbacks.  The animals never look like they're aware of Martin's presence, and the scene just goes on and on and ON.  I got bored, went to the bathroom, came back, and it was still happening.

See if you can count how many times Martin rounds the same damn corner in this sequence.  Also, I think they actually set a cockroach on fire for the bit where the aliens zap it with gamma rays.  Cockroaches don't figure very highly in anybody's sympathy lists but come on, that was just unnecessary.  For one final failure before the credits roll, the nuclear explosion visible out the window at the end suggests that the power plant is several thousand feet in the air and at a sixty-degree angle.  Nope.  Sorry.  Doesn't work.  Looks dumb.  Goodnight.

I could end the review here, but instead I'm gonna start talking about flying saucers again.  Like This Island Earth, Killers from Space also has a bit to say about the UFO mythology – and much of it is astonishingly prescient.  Martin loses consciousness and awakens on a table, where humanoid beings with large, frightening eyes are performing medical procedures on him.  Afterwards, however, he remembers nothing.  Time has passed that he cannot account for, and he keeps having inexplicable nightmares, but the reason why remains a mystery until an artificial way of getting at the truth is imposed on him.  Then the story comes out, only for anyone who hears it to dismiss him as a madman.

The first proper 'alien abduction' is considered to be that of Betty and Barney Hill.  They arrived home from a trip and realized it had taken longer than it should have.  After having nightmares, they went and saw a psychologist who hypnotized them both, and got from them a story about how they'd been taken away by large-eyed humanoids who'd experimented on them.  The hypnotist himself never believed this was anything but an account of their nightmares, but other people have been more credulous and alien abductions went on to become a big thing.  My junior high school library had a copy of Whitley Strieber's Communion in one of those spinning wire stands... I hated going in there because I'd try to browse for books and there was that nasty little alien staring at me from the cover.

One would be tempted to conclude that Killers from Space took elements of its narrative from this story, the way I speculated This Island Earth borrowed from the death of Thomas Mantell and Not of This Earth drew on the stories of Men in Black.  To do so would be wrong, however, because the Hills' experience didn't happen until 1961!  Self-proclaimed 'UFOlogists' have argued that there is nothing in the popular culture of the time to have given people the idea for 'alien abductions', and so this must be something that actually happens.  Killers from Space proves that this is simply not true, and I would bet my socks the Hills had seen this movie.

(You may be wondering why the hell I keep talking about the UFO mythology. Or you may not, because if you've been following this blog for a while, you will have realized I have a crippling addiction to trash television.  I know way too much about bigfoot, the ancient astronaut theory, and how to dispose of a body, among other things.  You have probably also got some inkling of my complicated love-hate relationship with the movie Avatar, but that's less relevant to this review.)

So that's Killers from Space. It's got some interesting stuff in it, but fails at almost everything it tries to do.  I do gotta give it one more thing, though.  The title Killers from Space sounds like it's probably ridiculous hyperbole, if it has anything to do with the film at all – but no, the bad guys definitely are from space, and they kill at least one person (Martin's pilot)!  So while no, It didn't Conquer the World, the Monster wasn't particularly Mad, and The Thing that Couldn't,Died... this movie really was about Killers from Space.

[actutrends]

The DeanBeat: My favorite games of 2019

Games grew to a $148.8 billion market in 2019, up 9.6% from 2018 and reaching over 2.5 billion people across the globe. Console games, the lion’s share of the industry a decade earlier, were smaller than mobile games in 2019, a continuation of a multi-year trend, according to research firm Newzoo.

We watched the further growth of esports and game watching expand this year, and we saw the introduction of subscription gaming for Apple Arcade, Google Play, and Google Stadia’s cloud gaming service. Hyper-casual mobile games that last 30 seconds emerged, but big mobile titles like Call of Duty: Mobile emerged to hold their own against the nanosecond attention spans.

I didn’t think we could match last year’s brilliant titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, and Marvel’s Spider-Man. For me, last year was the triumph of traditional narrative triple-A games that blended open worlds with deep narratives.

But the highest end of the industry didn’t rest on its laurels in 2019. As usual, I didn’t have enough time to play it all. But I enjoyed everything across the board, from Sandbox VR’s Star Trek: Discovery — Away Mission virtual reality experience to episodic games like Life is Strange 2 to mobile titles like Call of Duty: Mobile and Apple Arcade’s Where Cards Fall. I re-engaged with favorite maps from years past in Call of Duty: Mobile and plunged into battle royale maps with squadmates in the multiplayer action of Apex Legends. And I was scared out of my wits playing titles like The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan.

It felt like I had less time to explore indie experiences that my peers played, so I wasn’t the first to stumble on titles like Untitled Goose Game. But I enjoyed delving into my own passions, such as the World War II real-time strategy game Steel Battalion 2 from Eugen Systems, where I could zoom in on a single tank in a battle or pan out to see an entire division marching across the Russian landscapes. Toward the end of the year, I rushed to finish titles such as Remedy’s Control and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

For the sake of comparison, here are my favorites from 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011. In each story below, the links go to our full reviews or major stories about the games. And be sure to check out the GamesBeat staff’s own votes for Game of the Year and the best individual favorites of the staff soon.

Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews.

10) Sayonara Wild Hearts

Above: Sayonara Wild Hearts takes you on an impossibly fast ride.

Image Credit: Annapurna

Developer: Simogo Publisher: Annapuana Interactive, iam8bit Platforms: Apple Arcade/iOS, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Windows, MacOS, tvOS

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this dream-like game, as music games don’t usually get me dancing. But Sayonara Wild Hearts has an artsy combination of dance-fighting, pop music, and high-speed motorcycle chases that clicked for me. I played it on an iPhone with Apple Arcade‘s $5 a month subscription platform, and I used a Rotor Riot wired game controller to play it rather than brave the untrustworthy touchscreen. You can also play it on an iPad or Apple TV.

It’s a high-adrenaline game where you tap, jump, and maneuver to collect little hearts in a beautiful neon-and-black landscape. And it isn’t that long with 23 levels. The neon-on-black art is beautiful. It’s hard to believe a small game studio put it together, because the art is so well-crafted. There isn’t much of a story, but the developers tell you what you need to know.

In Sayonara Wild Hearts, you play as a young woman who suffers a heartbreak. A tarot card pops up and dubs her The Fool, transporting her into an alternate universe. She sets out to restore the harmony of the universe hidden away in the hearts of her enemies. As you take control of The Fool, you speed along on a motorcycle within a tunnel-like view of the horizon.

The fusion of music and gameplay reminds me of music games like Rez from 2001 or that wacky and artistic “Take On Me” music video by A-Ha in 1985. The gameplay in Sayonara Wild Hearts seems impossible, and it takes a lot of skill to avoid crashing. But it’s whimsical and forgiving at the same time, as you can start up right where you crashed to try again. I thought songs like Begin Again were catchy and hard to get out of my head. I’m not going to say that this was far better than many of the triple-A games that debuted this year, but this is my nod in the direction of creativity, fun, and the indie spirit on mobile devices.

9) Rage 2

Above: Rage 2 couldn’t fight the dying of the light.

Image Credit: Bethesda

Developer: Avalanche Studios and id Software Publisher: Bethesda Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows

When id Software’s Tim Willits visited Avalanche Studios in Stockholm, he told his new compadres to ignore constraints. “When I met with the team in Stockholm on the whiteboard, “More crazy than Rage” That was the first pillar of this game,” Willits said.

And he got what he asked for. Rage 2 didn’t get the best reviews, but I thought it was underrated, as I played it through the end of the single-player campaign and played a lot of silly side missions as well. Rage 2 had a lot of environments, ranging from the Mad Max-style desert to jungles and cities. The script was a bit weak, but the enemies were tough and the weapons were glorious. The “nanotrite” capabilities that you discovered along the way are critical to defeating the biggest bosses. The art style was absolutely wild, with plenty of bright pink and yellow colors splashed across the punk habitats. And I enjoyed reuniting with my old friend, the Wingstick, which is like a boomerang that could slice an enemy’s head off.

If it had flaws, it was that it wasn’t Red Dead Redemption 2. It often littered the landscape with side missions and enemies to kill, to no purpose. You could get damaged on your way to an important mission, and then have to figure out a way to recover. It’s good if you stayed on track, built your capabilities up, and stuck to the good stuff.

The final part of the game lasted a lot longer for me because I had trouble taking down General Cross, the bad guy, and his pet monster. But to me, it was a thrill when I finally succeeded.

8) Days Gone

Above: A horde of Freakers chases Deacon St. John in Days Gone.

Image Credit: Sony

Developer: Sony Bend Studio Publisher: Sony Platforms: PlayStation 4

The amazing success of its first Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) hampered this game, as did a couple of years of delays. By the time it came out, many were sick of it, and it suffered from having some of the worst bugs I’ve ever seen in a triple-A game. Others wrong wrote it off as a copycat of The Walking Dead, World War Z, and The Last of Us.

But I admired Sony’s guts in standing by Bend Studio, and I stuck by it too as my colleagues ragged on it. I played it for perhaps 50 hours over several weeks, and I was quite possibly the last critic to review the game. I rated it only as a 75, because of the bugs. But without them, it would have been more like a 90, based on the quality of its story and the thrill of fighting the hordes of zombies, or Freakers.

I was drawn to the story of Deacon St. John, a bounty hunter in the Oregon woods and a broken man in a fallen world. He had a death wish and could ride a motorcycle through a horde of zombies just to get them to chase him. But Bend Studio delivered on the big scene where a few hundred zombies chased the biker through an abandoned lumber mill. It was a thrill to figure out how to beat that challenge, and I was hooked on the story of how Deacon was haunted by the memory of his lost love Sarah.

The adventure took me across the beautiful Oregon landscape into horrifying creature battles, motorcycle chases, infected crows, memorable horde battles, stealth missions tracking the secretive government agency, and just plain-old surviving in the wilderness. It was kind of an art to orchestrate your escape from several hundred Freakers. And it was good to see Deacon change and become the person that Sarah would have wanted him to be.

7) Steel Division 2

Above: Your forces appear as icons when you zoom out in Steel Division 2.

Image Credit: Eugen Systems

Developer: Eugen Systems Publisher: Eugen Systems Platforms: Windows 

There are no Metacritic reviews for Steel Battalion 2. I may have been the only one who played it. But I saw the game being played on YouTube by some dedicated influencers with tiny audiences. And I was fascinated. I’ve been playing the Total War series of real-time strategy games since they first debuted more than 15 years ago, and I played Total War: Attila for hundreds of hours in 2015.

And I was glad to pour scores of hours into it this summer into Eugen Systems’ real-time strategy World War II games, which are a niche within a niche. It dwells on a bit of war history I didn’t know much about, Operation Bagration. It was the Soviet Union’s huge summer offensive in Belarus to take back big chunks of Eastern Europe from the Nazis, as the Allied invasion of Normandy was gathering steam in 1944. It was a massive set of tank, infantry, and air battles that left the German Wehrmacht in full retreat on the Eastern Front.

It has a steep learning curve. The game has more than 600 historically accurate units, 18 divisions, and an astounding level of detail in its graphics. You can focus in on an individual scene, such as above, or zoom out to get a birds’ eye view of an entire battle with thousands of soldiers. Your job as general is to constantly feed the right kind of troops into the fray to make the enemy’s forces melt away from you. This is easier said than done, as you can dislodge well-trained enemy squads from a forest trench, even if you’ve got superior armor. The enemy AI is smart, taking out your anti-tank guns on a hill with artillery or air power.

I lost dozens of skirmish matches against the AI before I figured out how to win. On top of the tactical battles, I also got hooked on the Army General mode, where you moved around divisions like chess pieces on a map. But you can still choose to play those huge campaigns, one tactical battle at a time. That’s what is amazing about the title.

6) Gears of War 5

Above: Kait gets here close-up.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Developer: The Coalition Publisher: Microsoft Platforms: Windows, Xbox One

Coalition head Rod Fergusson humbly said that Gears 5 was the best entry yet in the Gears saga. And he wasn’t making that up. I was gratified to see the developer get the balance right when it came to creating a wild action game with an emotional story with strong characters such as the hero, Kait Diaz.

Gears 4 got pretty goofy at certain points in its narrative about the human race losing its battle for survival against the Swarm in a world gone mad. But this story balanced that goofiness that brought us chainsaw bayonets with the moments where you mourn the death of a lost friend. These are tough moments because the cast of characters has survived some very tough times, and they’re a close-knit group. When you rip a character out of that group, it leaves deep wounds.

The campaign’s longer than usual, and it features cool features such as a skiff that sails across both the desert and ice. shoot out the ice under the feet of the Scions, the heavy tank bosses that carry a heavy weapon and are often shielded from attack by flying drones. This was very different from past Gears games. I remember spending an hour battling a blind boss, slowly figuring out a kind of choreography to stay out of its way, replenish my ammo, grab new weapons, and spray it with the frosty freeze guns. The title also had some cool additions to multiplayer and co-op play.

Gears 5 delivers a sense that you’re losing a big war at the same time it delivers the blow of a personal loss. And it generates a resolve to hit back. I like how this team outgrew its urges to be goofy and shocking and instead opted for something closer to fine art.

The post The DeanBeat: My favorite games of 2019 appeared first on Actu Trends.

[almostprotagonist-antagonist]

Buck

GENERAL

Name: Buck I could imagine that this isn’t his real name or at least not “really his name”. One idea is that he’s in fact called Adrian de Buck but noone uses this name anymore. There was also a real guy named Adriaan de Buck of whom I try to find out more to see if this would be a cool telling name or something.

Alias(es): Bug, Bugboy Not quite sure about this. But since my acc is named amdukiasthebugboy and yours is named voidfan we could have a nice little backstory here

Gender: Male (Cis) I simply see no reason in making him trans or nonbinary or anything like that. He just doesn’t feel like a LGBT* character.

Age: 28 In fact he could be anything between 20 and 35 but I think making him close to thirty is the best in between solution

Place of birth: The town in which the story takes place I’d say we make up a fictive town which only exists in the future?

Spoken languages: A future form of english I think language will develop until then so I’d say there is a new language but it’s based on english. Maybe we could see if we find some kind of slang just as the one used in “Clockwork Orange”.

Sexual orientation: Asexual (Heterosexual but no sex-drive) As said he doesn’t feel like a LGBT* character. I don’t see a point in starting an ace-discourse here, fact is Buck doesn’t count himself as LGBT* he just noticed that his sex-drive vanished after some time of living as a cyborg.

Romantic orientation: Aromantic (Heteroromantic) Same as which sexual orientation. But I think he didn’t even notice until know.

Occupation: Technician Assisstant In Fact he’s something like an humanoid syntheziser or something like that. I feel like he’s also able to control spotlights and stuff like that but only if he got connected with them before (with something like bluetooth etc.)

APPEARANCE

Eye color: Yellow As a red haired person he most likely had light eyes before his surgery and I’d like to stick to green or grey. The yellow is some kind of sulfur-like and his eyes most likely glow a little.

Hair color: Dark Red/Brownish Red He has really long dread locks which hide most of the wires who are connected with his head. He didn’t cut his hair since the age of 12 or something and wears them as dreads since about 5-10 years. Also he really likes his hair color and never died his hair.

Height: 175 centimetres His height is something he really hates. Most of his family are about 10 centimetres taller I guess and he has some insecurities about being that short but thanks to his big mouth most people won’t comment on his height too much.

Scars: Several Scars I have to think about where they are and why he got them. I think he has no huge ones but some have to be there.

Burns: Maybe I’d really like the thought of him having a burn but I still need to think about that.

Overweight: No I think he’s not a body builder or anything but he has some muscles and his BMI is a little close to overweight than to underweight.

Underweight: No Look above

FAVOURITE

Color: Yellow, Orange, Red He loves bright and burning colors but he would never wear them

Hair color: Dark Red / Blonde On himself he loves his own haircolor but he used to have a thing for blonde women

Eye color: Green & Blue He might really likes his yellow eyes but he’d sometimes prever his old color again

Entertainment: Raves, Parties, Concert He is noone who would go to a bar to sit down and have a drink, he always needs a dance floor and even if he seems to be a really calm person he’s absolutely into Rave parties and aggressive dance styles

Pastime: Smoking, messing around with technical stuff Boredom turned him into a terrible chain smoker. Also he always has to touch everything that has to do with sound or light technics. He has no idea what he’s doing exactly but he loves to figure out how things work.

Food: Anything pistachio flavoured Honestly, he lives of that kinda stuff. No matter if salted & roasted or in form of icecream.

Drink: Beer with Coke Not quite sure about that but I think it suits him

Books: // He always hated books

HAVE THEY

Passed university: No I’m pretty sure he stopped after high school because he just doesn’t gave a fuck

Had sex: Yes He actually was some kind of a fuckboy or something I guess. Well not really fuckboy he never lied to any of the girls he had sex with. He only never was into relationships or something

Had sex in public: Yes If parties count as public places. May he had even sex in school but I doubt that

Gotten pregnant: No Obviously not lol

Kissed a man: Yes I think he sometimes kissed a friend of his when he was drunk but it was just for fun and they never assumed there would be more

Kissed a woman: Yes Several actually

Gotten tattoos: Yes He has several in his face and his joints. I don’t think they have a huge meaning but he thinks they are cool and most of them only visible in black light

Gotten piercings: Yes I think is hands are pierced. Also I think of giving him a septum or one or twoo piercings in one eyebrow but I’m not sure about that

Had a broken heart: No Also I think he never really broke one

Been in love: Yes But only as a young teen and only twice

Stayed up for more than 24 hours: Yes I think this happens at least once every two weeks, maybe even more often since he’s a cyborg now

ARE THEY

A virgin: No He lost his virginity at the age or 15-16 I guess

A cuddler: Rarely I think he never really gave a fuck about that until he lost his sexdrive. Now he sometimes wants to cuddle someone but never does. Or maybe he cuddles cats.

A kisser: Rarely He never was the typical kisser but did it when he hooked up with someone. Nowadays the thought of kissing someone without having sex with them disgusts him somehow.

A smoker: Yes As said he’s a chain smoker. I think he sometimes smokes a package a day when he has nothing to do.

Scared easily: No He isn’t extremely brave but he also doesn’t jump at the slightest sound and can deal with the everyday horror of life

Jealous easily: Sometimes He isn’t the typical jealous person but sometimes he feels like he would miss out on something that others have

Trustworthy: Mostly He doesn’t really gossip but when something makes a good story he tells it. But he’s aware of that and doesn’t lie about his trustworthyness

Dominant: A little He isn’t into kinky stuff but he used to have an outgoing personality and even if he got quieter at the moment it’s still a part of him

Submissive: Rarely He is more used to hold his head down now than he was a few years before but he will never be a submissive person

Single: Yes Also he isn’t interested in having a relationship. As a human he described himself as a relationship anarchist.

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No At least not intentional

Thought of suicide: Maybe I’m not really sure about that but maybe he thought of killing himself after the law got changed and he was no longer human

Attempted suicide: No He’s not the kind of person who would actually try to kill themselves

Wanted to kill someone: No Of course he played with that in his mind but he knew he never really wanted to do that

Actually killed someone: No I’m not sure if he actually could kill someone. Maybe with the help of someone else but most likely not on his own.

Ridden a horse: No Why should he?

Have/had a job: Yes As said he’s a technician assisstant. Aka part of the job of someone else.

Have any fears: Yes Getting sold like a thing because he’s no longer human, getting attacked or killed because he’s a cyborg, getting hacked,...

FAMILY

Sibling(s): Yes I think he has one brother and one half brother, both older than him. And maybe a younger half sister.

Parents: Alive I think he has just no contact with them anymore

Children: No He never wanted some and now he’ll never have some

Pets: Part Time Cat and Part Time Dog The two don’t actually belong to him but they visit him at home (cat) and at his work place (dog).