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[purplecritter]

Hey uhm. Remember when they said that companions that you don't romance in The Veilguard could end up in a relationship with someone else, NPCs as well?

Lucanis The Mage Killer who demolishes magisters / blood mages. Has no people skills. Raised specifically to be a lethal weapon for (one of) the most powerful families in Antiva. He's been altered by the whims of someone powerful (likely a Magister), which he leaned to use as part of his combat skills. He glows purple as a result. Bisexual disaster. + Fenris The Blue Wraith who hunts down Tevinter slavers and blood mages. Has trouble interacting with people sometimes. Trained to be a novelty weapon by one of the most influential families in Tevinter. He's been altered by the whims of the same Magister, which he uses as part of his combat skills. He glows blue as a result. Bisexual disaster.

[bg-brainrot]

"Hugs for a Vampire" - Astarion x GN!Reader - Series Masterlist

Pairing: Astarion x GN!Reader (Rogue!Tav)

Genre: Fluffy, Filling in Canon

Rating: Teen

Tags: Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, cw: Alcohol, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, POV Second Person, Canon-Typical Violence, cw: blood, cw: Astarion's entire backstory, cw: mentions of nudity, discussions about consent, spoilers for the whole game

Series WC: 36k words, 18 chapters

Summary: Following the course and growth of Tav x Astarion's relationship through a serious of off-screen hugs (and one on-screen hug). Covering awkward, happy, sad, and angsty hugs including After the House of Healing, Before the Assault on Moonrise, Before Reaching Baldur's Gate, and more!

Each chapter can be read as a standalone hug.

Author’s Notes: I'm bringing over some of my multi-chapter fics from AO3, so if you've already read this, ty I love you and appreciate you so much! This was my first long!fic, and remains very near and dear to me because, by the gods, does Astarion need a hug (or 18). I will continue to add chapters as I format them, but the full fic is available on AO3 here if you're feeling like a binge.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: After Raiding the Goblin Camp

This hug takes place during the party with the tieflings, after raiding the Goblin Camp. Both Tav and Astarion are interested in each other, but love isn't in the air yet. Welcome to the awkward, uncomfortable first hug.

Chapter 2: After Fighting Grym

Their second hug takes place after a tough battle. A painful hug, but comforting nonetheless.

Chapter 3: After the House of Healing

Tav has realized their feelings (covered in Failed a Dex Save and Fell for You) and Astarion has caught them. We're looking at a cautious little half hug, where Tav knows more about him, but isn't quite sure how to comfort him yet.

Chapter 4: After Encountering Araj

Set in Act 2 after infiltrating Moonrise and meeting Araj, a retelling of the Act 2 romance with some extra dialogue. The only canon-hug!

Chapter 5: After the Self-Same Trial

After their mutual feelings are shared, Astarion and Rogue!Tav are relearning how to act around each other. A kiss-hug combo!

Chapter 6: Before the Assault on Moonrise

A feeding-hug for Rogue!Tav and Astarion. They're still working out how to act around each other, with Astarion setting the boundaries.

Chapter 7: Before Chasing Ketheric Thorm

Rogue!Tav is feeling the stress of Moonrise Towers, meanwhile Astarion has realized how nice cuddling is.

Chapter 8: After Defeating Ketheric

After defeating Ketheric and learning the truth of the Absolute, Tav feels a lot of feelings.

Chapter 9: Before Reaching Baldur's Gate

Set during that one rest between Act 2 and Act 3 -- they talk about consent a bit, establishing their hug-boundaries.

Chapter 10: After a Love Test

Set at the start of Act 3, time with a dyrad leads to some jealousy and some fluff.

Chapter 11: After Meeting Petras and Dal

Set in early Act 3, Rogue!Tav and Astarion encounter Astarion's siblings.

Chapter 12: After Entering Baldur’s Gate

Set in early Act 3, the group finally arrives in the city! Astarion marvels at its sight.

Chapter 13: Before Facing Cazador

Set in Act 3, set prior to facing Cazador (part of the Pale Elf questline). Rogue!Tav and Astarion face some of the his past.

Chapter 14: After Defeating Cazador

Set in Act 3, the conclusion of the Pale Elf questline, Rogue!Tav needs to find just the right moment to support Astarion.

Chapter 15: After Visiting Astarion’s Grave

After the Act 3 romance scene, Rogue!Tav and Astarion enjoy a soft moment together.

Chapter 16: Before the End

Set right before the end, Rogue!Tav and Astarion discuss their future. Rogue!Tav is determined to not make Astarion's decision for him.

Chapter 17: After Your Victory

Less canon-compliant than the rest, timeline shifting was needed here, but set after defeating the brain. Astarion realizes that he's not alone, not when Rogue!Tav and his companions are there for him.

Bonus Hug Chapter 18: At Withers' Party

An epilogue hug! Astarion sees Rogue!Tav giving out hugs and wants one of his own.

[theinsanecrayonbox]

Sabretooth War part 3

Well…it’s better than the first two, and you know why I think that is

Lavalle seems to be helming this one. I went back to check Part 2 and yeah

Percy helmed the first two (and they had a diff artist interesting). So I’m wondering if they’re just gonna switch off issues.

Also

Arkady is once again Sir Not Appearing. Then again, almost all of these characters don’t appear in this issue, so idk what to make of this section anymore. But it’s weird right, that the rest of the X-Force cast AND the guest characters are here, but not him.

Anyways, story time. Geeze let’s see if I can remember because I read it last night but my phone refused to let me post about it, and this story does not have particularly great staying power…

We open on the Team X flashbacks as the previews told us. Savage and Camo call Vic out on not being a good leader

Wait he’s got metal bones again?? Would’ve been nice to have SEEN that happen instead of being TOLD about it. Also Savage knows Weapon X? I would’ve thought being Savageland lady her works might not have had one…huh. But wait, this is alternate reality adamantium; does it work the same, have the same poisoning effects, is that why Vic isn’t using his brain because the metals are rotting it away?? Is that where the adamantium coils came from? Did you melt some of alternate Red’s coils for your bones?? Boy what an uninteresting line of questions glad we skipped that story beat /sarcasm

Uh…what happened next…I think we followed Victor to bed?? Quinten’s head is in the jar like Headpool; it’s Orchis tech that apparently took a long time to learn how to use properly (again great job not showing us a good story). Vic takes a nap…Quinten makes a psychic call…to the Pit Gang

ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I was again JOKING about the whale jumping!! WHY is this a thing??? And oh look I was right, it doesn’t save the story.

Wait you guys had reality hopping too? HOW? WHY?? Yeah ok, we got screwed out of a whole miniseries for this gorefest didn’t we. Two boats reality hopping, earning character development, screwing up so many timelines, THAT’S an Exiles storyline, not…this. Argh.

Pit Gang is annoyed that they have to go back to work, but decide to do it anyways in a scene after the next bit, but I’m just summarizing it now because really, I don’t wanna focus on these guys longer than needed, they really are a distraction from the main focus.

Back with the SabreSquad, Savage and Camo are conspiring

Uhg gross. 1) that’s still a terrible retcon for Laura. 2) you actually are a clone because the respawn team made a second you (you) when the original you (Talon) was thought dead in the Vault, plus you have metal bones. 3) oh geeze they’re using alpha/beta/omega language, uh…not my fault (please don’t be my fault) (*I know it’s not really just laugh at the bit*)

Savage rips Laura’s jaw off, because we needed some ***sExY vIoLeNcE**{tm}. But hey, this and ripping into Camo earlier were the only gore fights this time, so it isn’t as bad as the others (so…Percy is the pointless gorehound…that seems to track). Oh and as a lady who suffers from scruff, Savage having some works fine for me; it was weird she was so smooth before, but I agree some with the tags that she needs some more muscle bulk and a bit of height.

Anyways, after torturing Laura it’s more conspiring to overthrow Victor time

1) No Camo you weren’t there when they fought Graydon, we have no idea where you came from. You might’ve been on the ship awaiting decapitation sure, but you didn’t escape and help beat up Graydon with the others. Lavalle wrote that part, how’d he forget?? 2) well we know from April solicits how this subplot will end, thanks marketing spoilers! 3) Pretty Boy really did have the braincell huh, cause this isn’t a good plan

We kinda bookend the issue with another Team X flashback as Vic is dreaming. He wakes up, Quinten head is also dreaming? It plays some sort of a map that Logan doesn’t like? Idk, but Vic is all “haha lemme derail what little plot there is and go do that instead next time” The End

Overall this issue was better than the previous 2, but it’s still not good. It very much feels like we cut out an important storyline just to do this, and yet now we are already bored of this and are cutting it short to switch to something else completely (gee I feel Ike I’ve said that about Percy storylines before). The flashbacks, though nice and will probably have a forced pay off eventually, feel out of place in this story format. There was less over the top gore and more focus on characterization so that’s good. But then we cut away focus for the Pit Gang and that kinda stalled things out; we already have too large of a cast of characters not getting enough focus (some completely forgotten) and this just adds yet another group that we’re not really gonna care about because they aren’t either of the title characters.

This whole thing is just confuzzling. Still gonna keep with it, but man, it’s still not going good.

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Loki’s Line About Betraying Everyone

I need to talk about this line (spoiler: I’m not happy about it). I was going to just include this in the full episode response post I’m working on, but it got long enough that I decided to make it its own.

First of all, here’s the full quote: "I betrayed everyone who ever loved me. I betrayed my father, my brother, my home. I know what I did. And I know why I did it. And that's not who I am anymore."

Y'all, I'm less emotional about it now but this line fucked me up when I first heard it. It hit me like a ton of bricks while watching the episode for the first time because I was actually doing fine and wasn't significantly bothered by anything up until that point, and then came that line and I suddenly almost felt physically ill. I actually wrote up a post about it that night but never posted it because it was essentially just a lot of screaming, so I've now taken pieces of that and formed a hopefully more coherent post (though it still contains a good amount of screaming). So, I get that the idea that Loki’s betrayed Thor over and over is a Commonly Accepted Thing. It's really a lot more complicated than that, and there are a lot of gray areas involved, but fine, I'll give them that one. But - when did Loki betray his father? When did Loki betray his home?? I’m not just mad about it, this is...a legitimate question. I mean with the father thing, I guess the only thing could be the nursing home in Ragnarok/taking the throne from him? Which is irrelevant anyway because this Loki didn’t do that and doesn't even know it happened in the main timeline?? And besides, it PALES, like, hilariously, in comparison to any one of multiple things Odin did to him before that (not counting any fanon here - just the canon things that we know of!) I am just so confused, especially about the betraying Asgard thing. WHEN? LITERALLY WHEN? Guys, there is no film in which that took place.

If I trusted the narrative, I would say the most logical thing to conclude - at least about the betraying Asgard part - is that this is a setup for Loki to later realize he actually saved Asgard by causing Ragnarok (because that's the closest thing I can think of to "betraying his home"), which could even tie into something about, idk, helping him realize he’s capable of being a hero? (or something) and it would be a good follow-up to the moment he found out about Ragnarok in episode 2, but...fuck, the way these lines were framed it really doesn't feel like anything like that is going to happen. I could be wrong, but these just didn't strike me as lines that are at any point going to be contradicted or even revisited.

And moving onto another part of the quote - "I know why I did it." Uh, I guess good for Loki for apparently knowing that...but the audience sure doesn't?? This is something we're just now being told and have not been shown at all?? I have a feeling Loki thinks he knows why but it unfortunately doesn't have anything to do with some of the biggest actual reasons, which are the abuses done to him that helped make him who he is. Even more unfortunately, I also have a feeling the creators are on roughly the same page as Loki here. So yeah, that's a real shame.

The core problem here seems to be where the writers are coming from, and @iamanartichoke worded it really well here, so I’m just going to quote her: “either the writing is being lazy by oversimplifying Loki’s motives, or it’s being deliberately misleading in order to retcon the character, or the writers genuinely believe that’s what happened, which implies a misunderstanding of Loki’s character kinda from the get-go - at least on what drives his villainy and what fuels his anger, which are pretty significant things.” I do think there’s a slight chance they were using Loki as an unreliable narrator here and the audience was supposed to pick up on the subtext (more on that at the end of this post), but I doubt it, and I think it’s very likely one or more of the options listed in the quote. 

Honestly, I can explain Loki's line about betrayal (and his general lack of acknowledgement of his own trauma/legit grievances against his family) pretty easily in-universe. It makes sense that Loki himself would frame things as him betraying everyone who's ever loved him as if they never did anything to wrong him first, or that he would try to ignore what Thanos did to him in favor of putting all the blame on himself (coping with his trauma and loss of control by denying it). Or hell, maybe he would even straight up subconsciously invent a betrayal that never even happened, like the one about his home. I can totally understand Loki seeing the events of his life that way! That all lines up with his complete lack of self-worth, and to have him 1) recognize his mistakes and take responsibility for them (which has happened at this point in the show), but then progress on to 2) realize he isn't solely to blame for literally everything, and 3) recognize the role of his family and others in understanding why he is the way he is - that would be a very satisfying arc and is the natural direction that the story should take in episode 6. The problem is, I don't think the show is going that way. I think we're either supposed to take it at face value that Loki did in fact betray everybody who ever loved him (as if Loki is a reliable narrator when he's most certainly an unreliable one), or the audience is supposed to figure out that Loki's an unreliable narrator here - but the latter won't work, because the creators have to follow through on that subtext at some point and actually do something to indicate that what Loki said wasn't 100% true, and it doesn't feel like they're going to. You can't expect your audience to put any weight on subtext or even pick up on it in the first place if you never actually confirm anything, and your audience won't know your narrator is unreliable unless you tell them. If Loki being an unreliable narrator in that specific moment was their intention, only a small subset of fans are going to pick up on it. So the way they're framing it so far, the audience is simply going to see it the same way Loki does and not realize it's incorrect. 

Unfortunately, as stated earlier, I think the most likely explanation is that the writers either don’t understand Loki, are being lazy, or are deliberately retconning. So while I take a degree of comfort in the in-universe explanation, it’s pretty damn infuriating to consider where the writer’s minds were probably at in reality, and how this set of lines is presenting Loki to the casual audience. 

Tagging @iamanartichoke and @delyth88 if you guys have any thoughts?

[seokiloquy]

Game Cartridges - Kenma Kozume

Au: Regular/Gaming

Requested

Tags/Warnings:  GN! Reader, short and fluffy, Time Skip spoilers

Word Count: 2.1k+

"Lev, are you almost done?"

A deep raspy voice echoed into the gym, loud and authoritative, startling the volleyball players. Once all eyes turned your way, you laughed, letting your natural voice still the silent atmosphere. Your hand smacked the metal door as you hunched over, gasping for air between each series of laughs. 

Lev, who had just landed from a spike, opened his mouth in a loud cheer at the sight of your slumped form in the door. “(Y/N)!”

You straightened your spine, sighing as you watched Lev’s nose get caught on the mesh net as he tried to limbo under it. He looked like a pig for a moment, before the bottom of the net snapped and Lev ungracefully fell on his face.

“Ow.”

As he laid flatly on the gym floor, Kuroo —who you managed to identify based on Lev’s description (though you did expect a comical beak to be attached to his muzzle)— walked over, thumbs playing with the waistband of his shorts. Before he started to talk, you leaned over, looking behind him to see a partially blond boy dig the toe of his shoe into your tall friend’s side. Kozume Kenma.

The rooster in front of you started to speak. “You sure gave us all a shock. Thought you were a janitor coming to kick us out,” he chuckled, lifting a hand off his hip to scratch the back of his head.

“Ya sorry, Lev just finds that voice creepy so I use it every now and then to scare him.”

Kuroo sidestepped as his hand moved to gesture you inside. “So, you’re a voice actor?”

“That’s the plan at least.” You bowed and walked to the bench that was pressed against the wall, a small bag swinging over your shoulder. The old man, Nekomata, gave you a wrinkly grin as you sat next to him, watching your hands as you pulled out a DS from your small bag.

Kuroo smiled, snapping his head to the clock before looking over his teammates.“Nekomata, should we start cleaning up?”

The couch hummed thoughtfully, turning his attention away from you and onto the team captain. “We still have a half-hour before our practice is officially over. How about we do 3 vs 3, to, ah, 7 points?” He then turned his attention to Lev, who was rubbing his nose as he got to his feet. “Pair up evenly for the beginning, the odd player out will be keeping track of scores and rotate into the next team. Got it?”

Lev raised his hand. “Can you explain the rotation again?”

You looked up from your handheld console to give your friend a deadpan look. Nekomata laughed before answering, “The odd player will take out a player of the next team and so on to keep teams fresh. Got it?”

The Silver hair boy hummed, standing to his full height. “Got it.”

As players dispersed randomly, not selecting any teammates, in particular, to play with, you were vaguely aware of the new bodies that came to sit alongside you on the bench. Instead of looking up to whichever boy had chosen to take the spot next to you, you kept your head down as you played on your DS.

“Ah.” Quiet

“Um.” Again.

Sighing you turned your head on a swivel to the blond boy who sat next to you. His head was downcast but through the dyed strands, you could see his eyes flicker from his fidgeting fingers to the device in your hands. His eyes shot up to meet yours before quickly turning away.

You wore a kind smirk. “Need something?”

Kozume turned his head slowly, pointing to your small bag that was laid open, exposing the variety of games you owned. In a calm voice, “You have lots of games, why are you playing Nintendogs?”

You laughed looking back down at your small virtual pet. “Well, a lot of those I haven’t started yet, Lev gave them to me yesterday as a gift. And well, I’m only going to be waiting for about 30 minutes for you guys to finish before we leave, so I don’t really want to start something new.”

You heard the clicking of the plastic game cartridges as Kozume riffled through them. He pulled out one, a Pokemon game you had yet to touch. “Play this.”

“But my dogs.” 

“They aren’t real. Play this, it’s fun.”

Nekoma called for the teams to switch. Kozume stood up but waited for you to take the game out of his hand before he left for the court.

You sighed, pulling Nintendogs out of the DS and putting the Pokemon game in, Pearl, apparently. 

“Your name is (Y/N), right?”

“(L/N) (Y/N), ya.”

Kozume hummed, before stepping onto the court, letting a sweaty Lev fall into the spot he had previously occupied.

Another day, another practice and you were back to sitting next to Nekomata, waiting. Occasionally, you looked up from your DS to see the two setters toss a ball up for the players to hit, watching as the players ducked under the net to collect their balls. 

Once their final water break came around, Kozume, who had been eyeing your DS since you sat down, shuffled to sit beside you. “Ah, use the water attack.”

“Are you sure?” you asked, head tilting as you showed him your progress.

“Hmm, gym battles are mostly element-based, you want to use mostly water attacks for this one.”

Nodding, you clicked the option Kozume had so helpfully pointed out. “I know nothing about how to play this.” The battle ended, giving you a pretty badge, to which you realized there were more empty slots to fill. “Damn it.” You turned to see partially bleached blond chugging back his water. “Kozume, could you help me with the other gyms?”

“Kenma is fine. And I could, but you’d probably have to be here for that, you have to find the other gyms after all.”

The wince you wore caught his attention. Hissing you dropped your hands into your lap, still holding the sides of your plastic game. “I’m not sure how possible that would be. My luck is just running out isn’t it.” He kept watching, half-listening to Nekomata as he explained the cooldown drill before practice ended. You pulled out your little red flip phone from the side pocket of your back. “Put in your email. I’ll message you and give you my contact.”

Taking the device from your hand he quickly typed out his address before dropping it unceremoniously into your bag and running onto the court with his teammates. You smiled at the sight of his hair bouncing before your smile dropped and your head lowered to look back down at the game in your lap. The colours on the screen seemed a bit dimmer.

Where did the Pokemon go?

Kenma had quickly become your go-to Pokemon consultant. Always there in your time of need.

Which one?

He responded quickly, which helped.

Uh, one of the three ones? I was trying to catch it but it’s not there anymore. I tried dropping revival items and stuff but it’s not there.

(Y/N) did you kill it?

….Maybe?

Reload the game.

I’ve done that.

Did you save after you defeated it?

Messages with Kenma typically surrounded classes and videogames, more so the latter. With that though, came a sense of consistency with messages outside of active school hours and giving your mind a constant timeline to follow throughout the chaos that surrounded you.

Ya, I had to save my progress.

It took a minute for him to respond, but you could feel the sorrow radiating off him through the screen.

You’re going to need to restart the game if you want to continue.

Shit. Well then, got any other recommended games? Ideally RPGs.

Plenty.

After many practices with your presence sitting silently against the wall, Kenma was surprised when the end of practice came around, and you were nowhere in sight. Kenma pushed the rolling basket of volleyballs up next to Lev as they gathered up all the equipment.

“Where’s (Y/N)?” he asked, crouching down to pick up a stray ball.

Lev lowered his chin to see the setter clearly. He hummed, “Ah, I think it was called, New York?”

Kenma paused, dropping the volleyball into the basket with cold hands. “What?”

“They moved to the USA. I don’t think that they’re going to be there forever though. But Mr. (L/N) got a job there from what I remember. They were staying with my family before they moved.”

Kenma’s nose scrunched. “Why did I have to make friends with someone who was moving away? You’re terrible, Lev.” He gripped the blue fabric of the basket a bit tighter and began pushing it into the storage closet, grumbling.

“What did I do?”

After practice, Kenma quickly got to his phone, typing away as he walked home alongside Kuroo.

Your response, despite being in a different time zone, was quick.

IM SO SORRY I TOTALLY FORGOT!!! I just liked talking to you and it slipped my mind whenever you were around

Kenma sighed, washing away the anxious feeling in his chest. 

Another email came through.

I’m only going to be here for a couple years, then I’m going to come back. Messages may be slow because of time and all, but I’ll always respond.

You didn’t lie that day. You were always quick to send a message back, but over time those messages stopped coming and you didn’t have the heart to send anything in return.

You’d ponder on it occasionally, hoping that all it was, was forgetfulness, or a changed contact. But after a couple years, it was easier not to think about it, and go on with life and pursuing your passion.

“Stop spamming the chat guys, please,” Kenma grumbled, wincing at the repetitive notifications that rang in his ear. Turning to look at the live responses, he paused the stream of messages to read over a few. “You’ll stop once I start playing? Fine, fine. Let me get it booted up.”

As he pulled up the Japan-made open-world RPG that had been released for Beta earlier that week, the chat went into a flurry of excitement, with various images and repetitive cheers rolling by.

Kenma turned to face his main screen as The main intro to the game played with a flurry of colour. The chat increased in speed as the two-player options appeared on screen, ready to be selected. When his mouth moved over one of the characters they moved, reciting a line.

“Oh they’re voices are nice.”

The chat exploded again.

(Y/N)

(Y/N)’s voice is great!

They do both of the MCs voices

All the talent 

Selecting the male character, Kenma listened to the boyish tone, furrowing his boy as he caught sight of the name being repeated over and over again in the chat.

“(Y/N)? That sounds familiar, are they in an anime?”

The chat responded with a list. 

Tilting his head, Kenma pulled out his phone as the game began to load, talking out loud for the viewers of his stream.

“(Y/N). that sounds familiar.” He entered the search for the game’s voice cast. Immediately seeing a familiar portrait at the top of the list.

The chat quickly caught on to Kenma’s look of surprise and started spamming again.

“(Y/N)?! Ah! I know them! It’s been years!”

Ignoring the chat and fully loaded game for a moment, Kenma smiled at the image of an older you on his phone screen. Putting down his phone and sitting straighter, he looked at the camera that was focused on his face.

“Hmm, this makes me want to play Pokemon. Maybe later. Time to start this.”

I was going to write a full-length fic with this au but…. You know how it goes.

Short and fluffy cause I have to get back into the groove of writing after 2 months. Ahaha. I finished all of One Piece this week (when I wrote this), 966(now 971) episodes thus far and all the movies. Makes me want to write for it. Maybe If Kiwi watches it I will. 

….If I do, it’ll probably go on Ao3… but if you’re reading this and want me to…. Let me know… I’m tempted.

Kiwi. Watch One Piece so you can edit One Piece fanfiction that I’ll probably never write…. Unless. - Bacon

Maybeeee I can still edit without watching it thoughhhh. I’d edit whatever you’d me too - Kiwi

Unless!- Bacon

Posted: 25/04/2021

[miharus-fics]

A truth or a Lie

Notes:

This may include spoilers?

This is not canon, it is a fic written by me with some aspects based on what is provided in game

If you are looking for a part of the fic in game and you cannot find it, then it was written by me.

The start of the fic is based on the timeline before episode 3 of the main chapter

Chapter 2

Giann arrived at the place they discovered the package and looked around. Nothing but a shelf of mail in the dimly lit road somewhere to the back of the disguised laboratory. He looked at the two way radio that he held in his cold, shivering hand, and thought of signaling to Neil, or at least just sending a beep to see if he could get a reply. However, he decided not to, in case Neil took it as a signal that he was in danger. The last thing Giann wanted to do was make Neil rush over without preparing properly just because of a false alarm, so he waited a little longer.

About 5 minutes later, Giann was about to send a signal over the two way radio, when Neil suddenly showed up. 

“Sorry if I worried you,” Neil whispered, “I was making sure we would be heading into the right area of the lab. We wouldn’t want to go in to find out that we were in the wrong area the whole time.”

Giann was about to respond, but was hushed by Neil. “Save your words for later. Let’s go.” Giann followed along as they walked behind cargo trucks that were parked in a line. There were few lights around the warehouse, but they were all bright, with at least 2 security cameras around each. One step into the light and they would instantly be discovered by the lab workers. 

There was an emergency exit door with a bright red sticker that was even visible in the almost dead night, and the two crept through that door to get in the lab. Though it seemed that nobody was in the warehouse from the outside, it was clear that people were in there. The lights in the lab were a cool white, shelves of chemicals in neat rows of 5 with each being labeled alphabetically. There seemed to be an ‘experiment’ going on then and there, as there were a couple of Bunsen burners with bubbling beakers placed above them. 

Neil took one look at the bench that a few people were working on. A look of surprise could be seen on his face. “Professor? You seem to recognize something there?” exclaimed Giann as he looked at Neil. Neil calmed himself down a bit before replying, “Those pink tablets on the bench, something similar was in the package we found earlier today. From my conclusion, the tablets’ purpose was to have an anti-aging effect. But if they are here making a similar, but different version of the tablets, it is either the ones we got a hold of were defective, or had an extreme side effect they wish to try remove.”

The two quietened down to hopefully catch a bit of the lab workers’ conversations. “Anti-aging effect but decelerates mental and physical growth…” “We could give this batch to Gordan to test…” “To disguise the taste of the drugs in this…” 

It was obvious now that they were making a drug with NXX that had partially succeeded in their major goal, and had to be stopped. But the shelves were in plain sight, as soon as they stepped out of that little dark zone they were currently standing in, they would be caught and all this would be in naught. 

About to lose hope, one of the workers gave a suggestion to the others, “why don’t we get a sample of the X034 that was sent to us today from the other lab, and compare the quality differences? It would benefit us to not make the same mistake as them, and to end up using all our remaining samples for nothing is a waste of our time.” The other workers agreed, and the 4 walked out through the main back door, towards where Giann and Neil had found the package. 

They took this chance to rush to the shelves to retrieve the NXX samples, and instantly ran to the shelf holding chemicals starting with the letter N. Some stands were tilted over as they hurriedly looked through all the tags: Nickel(II) Cyanide, Nickel(II) Fluoride, Noxious X Xeno-gene. There it was: the only chemical on that shelf stored in a locked box with a 6 digit code. Not that the code was the most important thing right now, they could find a way to pry the box open. All they had to do was take the box and get out of the warehouse without being caught. 

After confirming that nobody was at the emergency exit door, Neil and Giann rushed out with the box. But as soon as they stepped outside, they felt a sharp pang in their back. Hearts beating rapidly, they turned around to see the same workers as before. “We already knew you were coming, but didn’t expect to see ya so soon. Only just realised you’s were here cos’ we heard footsteps in here after we left the warehouse. Mind going to sleep for us?” And with that, Neil and Giann were down on the ground unconscious. The two way radios slipped out of their hands as they fell down, and the workers carried them into separate test rooms.

Each room was like a prison cell, there was a single bed, a toilet and a sink. The only way in or out was through the door of the room, which required a keycard or fingerprint to open. Giann and Neil were in their own rooms, still unconscious from the tranquilizer dart from before.

[loiskane]

Shadow and Bone thoughts, random notes eps 7-8

Book spoilers! (no Rule of Wolves spoilers)

Ep7

His haiiir

Where have I seen this actress before (imdb doesn’t list her so I guess i’ll never know

I don't want a Darkling backstory, he doesn't deserve one, and a dead woman being his backstory come on

Well oops

Zoe is a fantastic Baghra

Darkling, never done a good thing is his life

Seeing the creation of the Fold is cool but I'm not going to feel bad for the Darkling

She's going to sew up her wound on her own shit

I love Jesper

and I love their friendship

look at them hugging in the snow

Nooo the stag

Oh Zoya's face was interesting she clearly didn't like the Darkling doing that to the stag

Tell him Alina, he IS a monster

You say you want to protect all Grisha but then they will also have to obey you

Watch people still ship them after this, and this is even more disturbing to see on screen than reading it in the books (honestly i thought i was over shipping wars but the Malina vs Darlkina thing might be what brings me back to them).

It does NOT clash with her hair

She looks amazing

Oh this sucks :((

Make no mistake if I see anyone hating on Genya, it's on sight

He doesn't care Darkling he does not care about Alina not ageing, stop being a manipulative asshole (He won't as that will mean ceasing to exist)

He does look more than fine

Is that Milo???

What is it with the goat

Milo saves the day!!!

It is the same as lying!!! Open a dictionary once in a while Darkling maybe

To be fair it's not like the King doesn't deserve a little poison

Alina telling so many truths

YOU COULD'VE MADE ME YOUR EQUAL BUT INSTEAD YOU MADE ME THIS

Yes exactly

Tell me again that he respects her

You don't care who suffers as long as you win

Not a single lie that's who he is

He literally chains her but it’s Mal who's abusive ofc

They said the thing

Only 1 ep left aaahh

Ep 8

This markers thing is good for the tension

Oh we're still doing Nina and Matthias stuff right

Matthias is easy on the eyes for sure

None of the things they are talking about will happen I hate it here

Kiss interrupted by stomach gurgling loll

She's getting him waffles?

She did!

Is this supposed to be sweet or savory? Yes!

Yes we get it, they can hear heartbeats there's no need to say that EVERY time heartrenders

Oh no

"Your power is mine now" the way I hate the Darkling, you have no idea

That reminds me it's time to blacklist the darklina tag, i don't want to see any of that

Noooo Zoya :((

It's interesting she specifically highlights that her family's Ravkan, we know why that is

The collar looks painful and so invasive

I also don't think David looked sorry enough. He was uncomfortable, sure but that's kind of default for him, it's not the actor, Luke is great but maybe the direction. And he has like 3 short scenes.

Kaz don't be mean to Inej i don't care about the circumstances

"Never said I was smart" :DD

This is true shit like this is what makes people fear Grisha

It took aprox 0.2 seconds for Zoya to turn against him

It's also a massive oversight for the Darkling to not know she has family there did he think she'll stay loyal after they die because of his power demonstration

But i guess he doesn't care, which is why most people only follow him out of fear and because there's nobody else who can protect them from persecution

She doesn't need you, asshat

Then it's exactly what she says!!

So I guess the collar is going away??

Yes Jesper shoot him

fuck him up Mal fuck him uuuup

Aww look at them all together

I wonder were will things go after this

It was a nice kefta though despite everything

"It's dangerous looking for the dead" oof he's speaking from experience

Zoya didn't like that hug lol

I like she gets to have a scene with Alina so when we'll see her it's not so jarring

and they gave her great lines

Shit they are so tragic (Nina & Matthias)

Jesper!! (I know I say this a lot but I love him)

The Crows are coming together!!

I wonder when we'll start the Six of Crows storyline

Matthias was in prison for like 6 months??

But obviously the whole thing is after Ruin and Rising but clearly not in this timeline

He's not dead come on, i wish

There he is with his shadows ://

Nooo it's over

season 2 when

[gumnut-logic]

We’ll Be Home For Christmas 4.6

Title: We’ll be home for Christmas

Day Four – Five Billionaires and No Wives – Part 6 Prologue | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.6

Author: Gumnut

24 May 2020

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: The boys can’t fly home for Christmas, so they have to find another way.

Word count: 3495

Spoilers & warnings: language and so, so much fluff. Science!Gordon. Artist!Virgil, Minor various ships, mostly background. A little angst in this one along with a little minor sexual reference.

Timeline: Christmas Season 3, I have also kinda ignored the main storyline of Season 3. The boys needed a break, so I gave them one. Post season 3B, before Season 3C cos I started this fic before we saw it.

Author’s note: For @scattergraph​​​​. This is my 2019 TAG Secret Santa fic :D

Wow, written all in one day. I’ve been rereading the fic and running out of it and wanting more. Unfortunately, for there to be more I had to write more. I checked my archive and the last bit went up on May 11 right before everything at work went to hell, so I’m guessing that was the cause of the delay of this bit. I hope it was worth waiting for. This fic is nearly finished. A few threads to tie up in the next chapter, which, depending on what the characters do (cos they’ve thrown me two curve balls in this ::glares at both Grandma and Virgil:: so who knows what else they will do). i hope you enjoy it.

Many thanks to @i-am-chidorixblossom​​ @scribbles97​​​​ and @onereyofstarlight​​​​ for reading through various bits, fielding my many wibblies, and for all their wonderful support.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

Scott stared as his home crawled over the horizon. Lit from the west, the peaks of Tracy Island were sculpted in gold, the water surrounding her sparkling in the dying sun.

It was a beautiful sight.

Virgil shifted against him, snorting softly in sleep.

Scott had been out on the bow of the boat for hours. First talking to Virgil, working through some of the events of the day until his exhausted brother slowly tipped sideways, falling asleep despite the breeze and the soft toss of the boat.

Scott just wrapped an arm around him and held him while his brother slept.

His butt was numb from lack of circulation, but he didn’t care.

John had approached at one point and quietly handed him a tablet full of information about whales. It was full of data he didn’t understand and he desperately needed to talk to his genius brother about what it all meant.

But for the moment, he was content to listen to Virgil’s breathing, the wind and watch their home inch closer and closer.

He was aware of Gordon keeping an eye on both of them, the pilot adding more speed to the journey today than he had any other day. There had been relaxation, but all of that had disappeared with recent events.

Hell, it had disappeared the moment they had discovered the trapped calf.

Fire ignited in his belly at the thought. He needed to speak with Penelope and follow up on what had happened to those responsible.

His father’s desk lay waiting on the Island.

Relief and dread waited with it.

He closed his eyes and evened out his breathing. It had been such a relief to let go last night. Mel had met his energy with her own, her hands in his hair, a pardon on her lips. No ties, no obligation, just a moment to be himself, find comfort in her arms and let go.

He was ever so grateful. His brothers may laugh, but it was the only way he could truly release everything that built up day after day. Life was a challenge and he was willing to take it on, but everyone needed a moment.

Mel had given him that moment...and a little more.

Virgil shifted against him as Gordon turned the boat slightly and began to slow on approach.

Scott opened his eyes to watch Mateo shift to starboard. The bow dropped a little as their speed lessened, the background noise of the engine changing pitch.

Virgil muttered something and shifted again.

Scott held him that little bit tighter.

A Little Lightning arced around the smaller island that protected their caldera from the open ocean and the yacht entered the sheltered lagoon smoothly.

The petrel colony raised a ruckus and squawked like crazy as they motored past, Gordon cutting their speed to almost nothing as the yacht coasted over coral.

There were two docks on Tracy Island. One on either side of the villa. Gordon chose the one adjacent to Two’s runway for obvious reasons. It was harder to dock such a large vessel, but it would be easier to get Virgil onto land, and, via the hangars, up to the villa. The other dock, near the beach huts, required a hike up to the house that Virgil was in no shape to make. Scott had checked his brother’s incisions earlier in the day and they were well into healing, but...it had been a weird day and Virgil was still asleep.

Gordon nudged the yacht ever so slowly up to the little used dock. It had been designed for supply delivery early on in the venture, but once the runway had been built, it had been used for little other than the occasional Thunderbird Four testing regime and a little recreational boating.

Nothing as big as A Little Lightning.

Gordon had mentioned early on that they would likely use the inflatable when they reached home, but the aquanaut had obviously changed his mind.

Virgil was definitely the reason.

John darted past Scott and Virgil, docking pole in hand, turquoise eyes targeting both of them. He didn’t say anything, but the concerned frown shot at Scott said everything.

Ropes were launched at the wharf bollards and the engine dropped down to a bare rumble. Alan yelled an acknowledgement at the back of the boat and John held up a hand to signal to Gordon. A slight shift sideways and A Little Lightning nudged up against Tracy Island and was secured.

Gordon cut the engine and its absence was profound.

John turned and smiled at him.

They were home.

-o-o-o-

Soft fingers touched his cheek.

“Honey, it’s time to wake up.”

He screwed up his face. He was in that pleasant warm place just below consciousness and he didn’t want to leave it.

But his pillow rumbled just a little with quiet laughter. Cotton moved against his temple and an arm tightened gently around him.

“You’re going to have to be more direct than that, Grandma.”

Those words, said in his brother’s voice, and enough neurons came online to recognise that he was curled up on something hard, leaning against...the warm cotton shifted and a breath was drawn in. A heartbeat pulsed against his ear, slow and sure.

The whirr of a scanner made him frown.

Light flickered under his eyelids and he clenched his eyes shut.

“C’mon, Virgil, we’re home. You can’t sleep out here all night and my butt is going to drop off if it doesn’t get circulation soon.”

Another voice piped up. “And then you’ll have to face Mel for the loss of that perfect butt.”

“What do you know about Scott’s butt?” Higher pitched. Alan?

“Remember number twenty-nine? Or was it twenty-eight? The one that worked in that circus we saved from the flood? She wrote letters about it.”

His pillow shifted sharply. “What the hell, Gordon?”

“Hey, you’re the one who left your email open for all to see.”

“It is encrypted!”

“Only to those who don’t know the encryption code, Scotty.”

“Boys, keep it down. Give Virgil a chance to wake up properly.”

He found his mouth. “Too late.” A groan and he was pushing himself upright. Everything complained.

Everything. His gut, his back, the numb leg that had somehow been denied blood when he leant on it.

Several hands helped him sit up and he found himself blinking against the golden light of sunset.

Sunset?

What the hell?

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Long enough.” His eldest brother was standing up, stretching his limbs and obviously rubbing blood back into his extremities. “You’re heavy.” But the smile Scott sent him was fond and happy. “We’re home, Virg.”

John, Alan and Gordon were arrayed beyond Scott, but as he turned his head, two other presences made themselves known. Grandma was in front of him, scanner in hand, blue eyes frowning at him in concern.

And on the dock, beyond the railing, stood Kayo.

Her frown vanished the moment she realised he was looking at her and was replaced with a small smile. “Welcome home.”

It was addressed to all of them, but she was looking at him when she said it.

“Let’s get you off this boat, young man.”

Yes! He was home. His ‘bird’s runway stretched along the cliff above them and the whole purpose of the boat trip came home to rest in his heart. As he stood, Scott helping him to his feet, he turned to his brothers. “Thank you.” He could claim that his voice was rough from his half drowning a few hours ago. “Thank you for taking me home. You didn’t have to, but you did anyway.” Okay, now he was getting emotional. “Thank you.”

An arm slung about his shoulders. “Anytime, Virgil, anytime.” Scott’s eyes flashed almost green in the evening light.

Alan muttered something and darted past Gordon to wrap his arms around Virgil. “Don’t do that again.”

Virgil blinked. “Not planning on it.” He wasn’t sure whether Alan was referring to his appendix or the whale thing, but whatever. His arm came around his brother and held him tight.

John’s smile was soft, but full of enough to swell Virgil’s heart.

Gordon...

A moment and Virgil untangled himself from Scott and Alan, took those few steps to his fish brother and smothered him in a massive hug. As expected, Gordon squawked and struggled just enough to make his protest shown, but Virgil hung on.

“Thank you, Gordon. Best idea ever.”

Arms encircled his waist, but his brother didn’t answer.

The moment was broken by Grandma placing a gentle hand on his arm. “Virgil, I would like to do a full medscan. John reported that you’ve been rather active today.” Virgil shot a look at his younger brother. John just smiled a little more and shrugged.

It was to be expected. Virgil would have done the same thing under the circumstances.

He sighed and let Gordon go.

Russet brown stared up at him a moment before Gordon stepped aside and gestured Virgil towards the gangplank that connected A Little Lightning to the dock.

Scott materialised on one side and John on the other and he had to force himself not to roll his eyes in exasperation.

Between the two of them, they made sure he stepped securely onto solid ground, ghosted him up the hill to the runway and to one of the little runabouts they used to transport cargo about the Island. It was clear that he was the cargo.

Well, at least it wasn’t a hoverstretcher.

He let out a sigh as Scott drove him into Two’s hangar and his ‘bird loomed over him.

Home.

It was a matter of elevators and examinations after that. Grandma was very thorough. The word ‘pneumonia’ was bandied about as a possibility if he didn’t look after himself properly. Apparently, he had breathed in a little too much seawater.

Fortunately, his incisions were quite happy and well on the mend despite the two dunkings for the day. Grandma didn’t frown at him, but the firm line of her lips was enough to keep him quiet.

You did not mess around with Grandma regarding medical matters.

Hell, when cornering his brothers as a medic himself, often the only threat that kept them corralled was that he would bring in Grandma if they didn’t behave.

When Virgil was ill, there was no-one else. Grandma was always the one who looked after him. She always had.

And, in turn, he now looked after her.

“What happened out there, Virgil?” Her voice was soft. They were alone and his grandmother was putting away her instruments. She had run him through everything, even a brain scan. She was obviously concerned.

“I don’t know, Grandma.”

“John says you spoke to whales.”

He shook his head and let it drop. “I don’t know.”

A finger caught his chin and drew his head up to look into her eyes. “You keep yourself safe, Virgil. You hear me? You have family who need you. Family who love you.”

“I’m okay, Grandma.”

She stared at him a moment longer before letting out a breath and turning back to her instruments. “You’re off rescues for another week, but I suspect you knew that.”

He did, but part of him had hoped he could shorten it. One glance at Grandma and he knew he didn’t have a hope. “Yes, standard recovery period for an operation of this type.”

Blue eyes shot a suspicious glare at him, but he didn’t respond.

“Lots of bed rest. None of your heavy lifting. No gym until next week.”

Damn. “Yes, Grandma.”

She turned back and he was in her arms. “Welcome home, Virgil.”

He blinked and returned the hug. “I’m fine, Grandma.”

Those arms tightened just a fraction.

He frowned. “Grandma?”

She let him go and turned away. “You better go downstairs. Kayo has dinner ready for all of us. It’s Christmas Eve.” She straightened up and looked at him, her eyes saying something he couldn’t quite decipher. “We should celebrate as a family.”

“Okay.”

Her hand landed on his arm and squeezed gently before letting go. He took that as a dismissal, slid off the bed and grabbed his shirt. “Thank you, Grandma.”

She didn’t turn. “I’ll see you down there shortly.”

He frowned, but did as she asked and headed off to the comms room.

-o-o-o-

Scott stared at John and Gordon. “You think he is actually communicating with the whales.”

A pair of copper eyebrows rose. “We think so.”

“But Virgil told me himself that he doesn’t understand it.”

Eos’ voice was deceptively wise. “Commander, he may not understand consciously, but subconsciously.”

“Explain.” Scott glared at the simulacrum of spinning lights on the holoprojector.

“His brain is at least partly processing the information, enough to receive an impression of the content, but not enough to clarify it. He has processed enough to produce a vocalisation that connects with the whales despite the lack of range in his vocal cords. Humans cannot produce the sound required to emulate whale song without electronic enhancement. Virgil’s physical contact appears to have amplified his emissions enough for the whale to recognise his voice as a form of communication.” A graphic appeared on the ‘projector. A small portion was set aside and fit into the larger like a puzzle piece. “The whale was able to clarify his vocalisation into something that could be understood.”

“What did Virgil say?”

John answered him. “We don’t know.”

“We should ask him.” Gordon stood up. “And I think he should be part of this conversation.”

Scott bit back a retort. Every bone in his body wanted to protect Virgil from this.

But he knew he couldn’t.

Sagging, he sat down on the couch behind him and nodded.

Gordon stepped around the ‘projector and perched beside him. “Sam and I will find out more. I promise, Scott. This is a major breakthrough, you know that.”

Scott turned slowly to look at his little brother. “You saw what it did to him.”

“Do you trust me, Scott?” Russet brown bared his little brother’s soul.

He stared into those eyes. Little rapscallion Gordy, the prankster of the family. The ray of sunshine on moments so dark Scott feared his own survival. Did he trust Gordon? Trust him with Virgil’s life?

All the time.

“Yes, I do.”

Gordon swallowed. “Then trust me with this. I’ll keep him safe. I promise. We’ll work this out. Discover what it means. What exactly is going on.”

John cleared his throat. “Perhaps you should both speak to Virgil first?”

Scott turned to find his engineer brother standing by the kitchen stairs, staring at them.

-o-o-o-

“Virgil-“

“No!” His older brother threw his hands up and Gordon took a step back. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

So, of course, Scott took a step forward. “Vir-“

“No, Scott! Not now. Just leave it. I need to work this out for myself. I...I thank you for the information, John, Eos.” He nodded to the ‘projector. “Gordon, I understand the interest and I...empathise.” He sighed. “I just need time, guys, okay?”

“Okay.” It was parched and apparently his voice. The frown creasing Gordon’s forehead was deep enough to hurt. Why wasn’t Virgil letting him help?

His brother reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Just some time, Gords, please.”

“Okay.”

“Then I’ll come to you.” Eyes a deeper brown than his own were pleading for understanding. “I promise.”

“Okay.” Gordon swallowed and cleared his throat. “Well, in that case, I vote we go eat before Alan inhales everything.” It was a simple distraction, but it worked.

Virgil squeezed his shoulder, his expression flashing thanks before turning away. The tension in the man’s back was pulling his shirt tight.

Maybe he was right. Maybe they should wait.

A blink and another swallow and Gordon followed Virgil from the room, Scott and John behind him.

-o-o-o-

The evening was a quiet one. All five brothers were tired after the day’s events, even Virgil who, despite having slept a few hours in the morning and afternoon, still looked like he was going to fall on his face at any moment.

Even Grandma was more reserved than usual, her gaze landing on Virgil repeatedly, her eyes distant as if in thought.

It was unnerving.

Kayo served dinner. A buffet of Asian dishes accompanied by rice and noodles. Most were purchased, but she had also made her own stir fry, a family favourite with just the right amount of chilli and cilantro. An appropriate welcome back feast, but none of them had the energy to truly appreciate it as much as it deserved.

After dinner saw them stocking presents under the massive Christmas tree in the comms room. Alan made various comments, especially when Virgil lugged out what was likely a painting wrapped in several layers of wrapping paper.

The fact he lugged it by himself led to words from Scott and the present being confiscated. Virgil’s protest that it wasn’t heavy was followed up by John stepping between the two of them and declaring he was going to help Virgil with his load. The two of them disappeared upstairs and Gordon was left with a grumpy Scott.

The whole lack of spirit finally cracked the aquanaut and he grabbed some tinsel off the tree, wrapped it into a ball and threw it at Scott’s head.

The astonishment on his big brother’s face was worth it.

Scott carefully placed the painting-shaped present down beside the tree and turned to verbally retaliate only to have his face muffled by a lounge cushion thrown by Alan.

“Bullseye!”

Gordon idly noted Brains taking one look at the resultant expression on Scott’s face and, grabbing Max, making a beeline for the elevator.

“Alan!”

“Yes, Scott?”

Gordon threw another ball of tinsel, silvery strands fluttering in the air as it flew.

“Gordon!”

Another couch cushion whacked Scott in the face.”

“Ala-“

More tinsel to the head.

Hmm, this tree really did have a lot of tinsel on it, but just in case, Gordon darted in and grabbed two of the balls he had already thrown.

He was not surprised when the remaining tinsel ball retaliated and hit him between the eyes.

Alan was landed by a return cushion volley. Scott really was a good shot.

“Oh, you are going down, bro.” Alan was positively gleeful and before they knew it, cushions, tinsel, several Christmas baubles and a pile of tribbles were hurtling back and forth across the room.

Kayo stood to one side and just rolled her eyes. Grandma joined in and was the likely source of the tribbles.

When John and Virgil returned, it was to utter chaos and not a small amount of laughter. Both got tribbles stuffed down their shirts and tinsel bounced off their heads.

John protested loudly at the use of his tribble stash, but Grandma told him to lighten up...right before she bounced one off his nose.

What followed that was a free for all.

The night got better, much to Gordon’s relief. His brothers loosened up, a little alcohol was dragged out and moods mellowed.

Of course, Alan was the first to nod off, curled up beside Gordon. He was fast followed by Virgil who yet again fell asleep on Scott. The worry that appeared on Scott’s face only made Gordon’s heart sink.

Grandma called it then, sending them all off to bed.

Virgil was nudged awake enough for Scott and John to get him on his feet and guide him to his bed. Gordon shouldered Alan and dragged him to the elevator.

“Thans, Gords.”

“Not a problem, bro.” The elevator was taking forever to return.

Alan turned into Gordon’s shoulder and slumped against it, half snoring.

“C’mon, Allie.” The elevator arrived and he helped his little brother aboard. If there was one thing Alan had in common with Virgil it was his ability to sleep.

Some complaints about the boat still rocking and Gordon tumbled his little brother into his bed. Shoes off, covers on. Gordon sat down beside his sleeping brother.

It had been one hell of a trip and now it was over. It was less than a week since Virgil folded in his pilot’s seat, yet it seemed years ago. One boat, four days and five brothers.

Alan rolled over and snorted in his sleep.

Gordon reached out and placed his hand on his arm.

“I’m gonna getcha, John.” It was quiet and mumbled into Alan’s pillow, but it was enough to push Gordon to his feet.

Blimey.

A blink that lasted longer than it should have and Gordon realised he was exhausted. One more glance at his little brother who was now muttering something about space resources and was no doubt plotting his brother’s video game demise, and Gordon made his way to the door.

One boat, four days, five brothers...and tomorrow.

Gordon went to bed.

-o-o-o-

End Day Four.

[stevebuckyfics]

Endgame Fix-it Fics

Hello! So, it’s about a week in and I’ve read some fantastic post-endgame fix its, and I thought I’d share them. I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones I loved. I might make another post later on, when I’ve read more :)

Please heed author notes and tags for specific warnings, I will just link the fics with their summary! 

born in fire (again and again) by defcontwo

Natasha lands, in dust and sand and light, in the middle of a great landscape of nothingness. She sits up, and touches one hand to the back of her head, and it comes away wet and sticky with blood.

There’s copper in the back of her mouth, and she spits it out into the sand, watching with satisfaction as the blood splatters into the otherwise pristine surface.

“Huh,” Natasha says. “So this is death.”

when we came home by augustbird ( @augustbird )

Fighting is hard. Rebuilding is harder. Post-Endgame AU.

like heaven stood up in you by napricot

“You said you were gonna miss him,” says Bruce slowly. “He was supposed to be back in five seconds, but you hugged him and said ‘I’m gonna miss you.’”

Bucky’s face is serene again now, and gives nothing away. “I know Steve,” he repeats. “You think you can hand him a time machine and some rocks of unspeakable power and he’s just gonna go put ‘em right back where they belong?”

Steve does put the Infinity Stones right back where they belong. He just does a couple other things too. Or: three timelines and a Reverse Time Heist.

picture it soft by midnightroom

When Steve lurches awake, his heart is pounding in his chest. His shirt, soaked in sweat, clings damply to his skin. One fist is clutching the sheets of the bed, and the other is clenched so hard he can feel his fingernails making little half-moons in his palm.

Thanos—

The Stones. Dust drifting through the air, ash so thick you could choke on it. Five endless, aching years of white noise. His team. The lunacy of time travel, the mind-bending, fuse-blowing reality of hand-to-hand combat with himself. The bruise blooming across his cheek to serve as proof. A soft jazz song playing on a record, a crackling hearth, red lipstick. Death, death, death—

Beside him, Bucky shifts in his sleep, turns over so he's facing Steve. His eyes are closed and his mouth is parted, and Steve can see the dark shadow of his hair spread across the pillow like an ink-stain.

(or, Steve and Bucky in the aftermath of Endgame, picking memories apart.)

Ever Mine, Ever Ours by hitlikehammers

Steve goes back to return the Stones, for the sake of the universe.

The extra Pym Particles he palms when Bruce isn't looking, though? Those are for the heart he has now and the heart he took into the ice; those are for the loves he's known and held and lost and found, those—

Those are for the sake of his soul.

Avengers: Endgame Fix-It.

Lichtenberg Figures by rustywrites

Spoilers for Avengers: Endgame

The scars take some getting used to.

(An ending re-work where everybody lives)

When People See Us by Brokenpitchpipe

Rumlow knocks his shoulder good-naturedly. “Hail HYDRA.” “Thanks,” Steve says automatically, “you too.”

Hearing “Bucky’s still alive” in his own voice might have been a little unexpected, sure. But Steve’s definitely not prepared for the entirety of STRIKE to suddenly and inexplicably think he’s a secret Nazi. (He’s not prepared to learn there are secret Nazis either, for the record.)

the epitaph of an old record player by celestialfics ( @liquidsaints )

Peggy, intelligent and adaptable as ever, takes the entirety of his story and mulls over it in her head for a time, sitting across from Steve and studying his face. Her eyes are set, eyebrows furrowed, chin sitting in her hands.

After a long while, she speaks.

“Go home, Steve,” she says, voice sure; she’s determined as she’s always been.

found a place to rest my head (never let me go) by bulletsandbutterflies 

ENDGAME SPOILERS.

He tries not to dwell on the unfairness of it. How they had only just been reunited before he was taken away from Steve again. Dwelling makes it harder to move on.

But it’s hard to forget him when he comes to Steve in his dreams. Sometimes, they’re sixteen again, drinking glass after glass of cheap beer to forget the harsh reality that they were struggling to meet ends meet. Other times, they’re in the war, huddled together in the trenches to keep themselves warm from the unforgiving chills of winter.

And there are nights where Steve feels hands on his skin, warm and metal, soft lips against his own.

In which, Endgame decided to ignore Stucky completely so I've come here to fix it.

Part 3 of been waiting a hundred years (and I'd wait a million more)

I Drew a Line for You by Brokenpitchpipe

"What are you doing here, Steve?" Peggy asks.

"I'm," Steve says. "Living."

Peggy smiles. But it's a smile he recognizes, a smile that means she's guessed at the truth and she's guessed right. "No," she says, "you're not."

kingdoms have fallen, angels are calling (none of that could ever make me leave) by bornes

It’s been a long day. It’s been a long five years.

stay by birdjay

The platform buzzes, and suddenly goes quiet. The cycle has finished. Bucky doesn’t bother to look. There’s no way Steve’s coming back when he has the chance to stay. He moves to walk away, to move on with his life, somehow.

“Buck -- ?”

Bucky whirls around, hair flying.

Who I really am (not who I’m supposed to be) by JayPendragon

[SPOILER WARNING for Endgame]

“Don’t tell me it’s not what you want, buddy. I remember you talking about her. You still got her picture in your pocket. You saved the world, you’re supposed to get the girl.”

Yeah, that’s how it goes, isn’t it? Steve thinks but doesn’t say. Once upon a time, before he saw the changes he only ever dreamed of in the thirties come to life in all the colors of the rainbow, before learning that Bucky survived… Back then, he would have agreed.

The Rest of Our Lives by cleo4u2 

SPOILERS STOP READING CHRIST

Fix if fic, picking up when Steve hops into the time machine at the end of the movie and telling what Steve really did for the rest of his life. Hint, it's not a she.

There's Only Now, There's Only Here by stevergrsno  ( @stevergrsno )

“Steve,” Peggy says when she reaches him with quick, steady steps, her- husband and friend? friends? partners? following behind at a more sedate pace.

“Uh,” Steve says, and “Hi?” and “Would you mind telling me what the date is?”

1951. Steve aimed for home and ended up in fucking 1951.

Jesus christ.

---

In which Steve not showing up on the time pad wasn't exactly on purpose and we ignore 95% of that ending.

kiss me twice by espinosas

ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!

Hey. Still Endgame spoilers.

AU where Steve comes back for Bucky.

You'll see him soon. by JDHD

"Go," Bucky said to Sam, because the thought of having to face the man in front of him - the man he no longer knew - was so much more than Bucky could handle. He was like tinfoil, and he was being crushed gently in a fist, and he just wanted to come out without any rips.

He met Sam's eye, and the other man shook his head for a moment. "No. He looked for you for years, Barnes. Maybe he can explain."

----

BIG OL' ENDGAME SPOILERS.

End of Endgame fix it because we deserve better.

Kiss me once, then kiss me twice by obsessivereader ( @yetanotherobsessivereader )

Staring at the empty platform where Steve had stood just a moment ago, Bucky experiences one of the longest five seconds of his life. Steve’s not coming back, he thinks, over and over, Steve’s not coming back.

“…two, one.”

A weird distortion shimmers in the air as Steve materializes on the platform. Bucky lets out his breath in a quiet rush. He was so sure. He said his goodbyes and convinced himself that he’d get by just fine, that he was happy that Steve could finally have the life he’d always wanted with Peggy. He knew enough about the machine to know that Steve had a chance to go back to the 40s and pick up the life that was lost to him when he crashed the Valkyrie. And yet, here’s Steve back again, looking tired, dusty, disheveled. Bucky can’t tell what Steve’s thinking as their eyes meet. He’s never seen Steve’s eyes look so blue.

Part 2 of Fix-its that my heart needed

i say your name by rohkeutta ( @rohkeutta )

Bucky’s sitting on the back porch steps, curled up against the chill, when the door opens and closes behind him. Sam, perhaps, awoken by Bucky’s nightmares that lurk in the corners of the rooms: shadows that no longer stand up, ghosts who have laid their rifles down.

Bucky doesn't turn. If it's Sam, he can stay. If it's someone else, they can keep the ghosts.

whatever a sun will always sing is you by onibi ( @canobic )

Steve comes back.

It's Been a Long, Long Time (Coming) by bangyababy ( @bangyababy )

He says it'll take five seconds.

Bucky hopes that he's made the right decision.

He counts.

Five.

lighting up in the shadows by buckyjerkbarnes ( @fypoedameron )

"Don't you know by now there's nothing in the world that could make me walk away from you?"

[Or: a fix-it for Endgame because it would seem I have to do everything around here.]

Another Life by Palebluedot ( @brightbluedot )

"Hey, you," he says as he sits.

~~~

Or, it's been a long, long time, indeed.

(ENDGAME SPOILERS)

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

An Explanation of Why Louis and Violet are Both Terrific Love Interests [1/5]

+Why both romantic routes are not only amazing but better than other games I’ve personally played in the past. 

+Why some people are idiots and get off on picking stupid fights. 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Grab a beverage and sit down, I’m about to weave you a tale. 

A long time ago, I made an Instagram account. I did this so that I could have another place to intake TWDG content. I got to see lots of artwork and watch fun little videos and edits and it was all great. 

For about an hour before everything went downhill far too quickly. You see, I rarely go on that Instagram account anymore because no matter what tag I look under to search for content, a good 60% of it is all the same: hateful. 

Hateful towards Violet, hateful towards Louis, hateful towards each other. I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve scrolled past with the title “TELLTALE AND SKYBOUND HATE LOUIS AND HERE’S WHY” or “VIOLET IS THE WORST AND HERE’S WHY” or “WHY VIOLENTINE IS CANON AND CLOUIS IS NOT” or any other nonsense along those lines. 

After that, I quit going on Instagram. 

Until one day, I thought to myself, “Well, maybe now that the game is over, those dingdongs have moved on and I can look at the twdg tag in peace!”

And to be fair, it wasn’t as bad, but it’s still actively being made. Along with other questionable content that I think has taken hours off of my life just by witnessing it but we’re not going to dive down that rabbit hole right now. 

Anyway, after glancing over another “SKYBOUND HATES LOUIS” post, I couldn’t help but think, “Y’know, either y’all don’t realize how lucky we were to have gotten a bisexual lead with not only one great romantic option but two amazing romantic options, or y’all are just a bunch of idiots who get off on fighting. Maybe even both. I mean, sure, they’re not equal in every single way possible and there are a lot of things that I wanted, but it’s a helluva lot better than what we’ve been given in the past with other games.”

The thoughts kept building up as I recalled previous games that had optional romances that left me underwhelmed or downright disappointed. Neither Louis nor Violet have perfect romance routes, each with things that we wish we had more of, but we’re lucky to have gotten what we did, and because I haven’t written a post like this in a long time, allow me to break it down for you. 

Keep in mind that this is just my opinion and how I see things. I’m sure there’ll be a point where you say “Well, CJ, I beg to differ on this particular topic and/or idea-” and that’s fine. 

Hell, maybe you have a game with a disappointing romance that I didn’t list here because I’ve yet to play it. That’s great, feel free to share! This post is for fun but also because I need to vent some frustrations towards a fight that is 100% unnecessary but continues regardless. 

Beware of spoilers for the following games:

Life is Strange Persona 4 TWDG: A New Frontier King’s Quest [2015] Catherine

[both Louis and Violet are great!]

all y’all on instagram are just idiots

Now, in case you couldn’t tell from my blog, I love Louis. When it comes to my personal canon of TWDG, clouis is my endgame. Louis is my favorite non-playable character of the entire series, if not my absolute favorite. I love him. 

You know who else I love? Violet. She’s great. I found myself relating a lot to her character and I wanted to see her make it to the end okay. I was pissed when she was pissed at me, but in the end, I was more pissed about her treatment regarding her blinding and how easily she and Clementine made up. 

But you know what I really, truly love? A great bisexual protagonist: Clementine. 

Clementine’s the lucky one here in that she has the choice between sweet, charming, loyal Louis and witty, strong yet sensitive Violet. This is the definition of “bi panic” because really

I do want to add that I haven’t played Violet’s romance route, but I don’t need to to know that it’s great. There are a thousand and one blogs who can explain her romance with Clementine 100% better than I can, but I will try my best within this section and my conclusion since I’m mostly talking about them together.

Now, why is it great that Clementine is a bisexual protagonist? Well, there’s obviously the representation which was more than welcome in this case, regardless of what some idiots will say. 

Not only that, but it allows the player to romance a boy or a girl, which again, is obvious but I have some points about this that I’ll bring up when I talk about other games, like Life is Strange and Persona 4, so put a little pin in that for later. 

Both Louis and Violet are presented as loving partners for Clementine, and they’re both people who Clementine cares about. Based on your choices and how you play her, you can be as affectionate with them as possible and help them better themselves over the course of the game. 

Louis and Violet have different but interesting backstories, they have different ways of communicating their feelings, they both deal with their own struggles [internal and external] and open up to Clementine in different ways. 

Yes, there was plenty to be desired within the routes. We’ve talked about that before so I won’t go into great detail about it, but in conclusion: Louis and Violet are great. 

So why do people argue about it?

My scientific conclusion states that they’re idiots who get off on picking fights over the internet. 

And that they don’t know how good they got it because we could’ve gotten so, SO much worse. 

At this point, I will be comparing the Louis/Violet romance to romances found in other games I’ve played, starting with a game that I liked very much, but was ultimately disappointed with, well.... everything. 

[life is strange and imbalance]

every choice matters except not really until we hit episode 5: bae vs bay

Life is Strange is an episodic game that released in 2015. It follows Max Caulfied, a young, aspiring photographer attending Blackwell Academy who learns that she can rewind time after witnessing a girl being shot in the bathrooms. 

I was pretty into this when it first came out. I played each episode as it came out, I read stuff on Tumblr and watched every theory video on youtube I could find. It had a likable and relatable protagonist, a pretty cool missing person mystery, cringy dialogue, and cool rewind powers. 

Let’s talk about Max, our playable protagonist. 

She’s shy, awkward, nosy, and she wants to be a photographer but lacks confidence when it comes to putting herself out there despite having the talent. She goes through a lot of grief and betrayal through the game, but ultimately learns more about herself and how her choices affect everything around her. 

She’s also bisexual, and like Clementine, she can romance a girl or a boy. 

Love Interest #1: Chloe Price

Chloe is the deuteragonist [secondary main character] of Life is Strange, and Max’s old childhood friend. She’s also the girl who gets shot in the bathroom, and the girl whose [girl]friend, Rachel Amber, is missing. 

Over the course of the story, Max and Chloe reconnect and grow closer as they try and find Rachel while also trying to figure out Max’s powers. We spend most of our time with Chloe, going to diner’s and junkyards and what have you. 

We learn a lot about Chloe’s home life: Her father died in a car accident, her mom owns a diner and remarried an asshole who smacks Chloe around when she smokes weed in her bedroom. We see Chloe as her most vulnerable, we save her life numerous times because she just won’t stop getting herself killed. 

Hell, we do this to the point where it begins to physically hurt Max and makes her bleed. We do this because Max claims that Chloe is the most important person to her. 

The most important person in Max’s life. 

Now, spoilers for the ending, but it turns out that the storm that’s come to destroy Arcadia Bay is all because of Chloe. So, the final choice Max has to make is to either go back and let Chloe die in the bathroom or let the storm destroy a town and kill nearly everyone there. 

Either you sacrifice an entire town of people or you sacrifice Chloe. 

Bay vs Bae, as the kids dubbed it.

Romancing Chloe isn’t exactly full of fluffy smooches, though. You’d think it would, but considering that the girl we’re looking for is Chloe’s girlfriend who Chloe loved very much, it’s mostly Max saying how much she cares about Chloe and then Chloe turning around like “Boy, I wish Rachel was here...”

Then we find out Rachel’s fucking dead and that’s a real romance killer if I’ve ever seen one. 

Hell, the only time you get a real smooch from her [that we see] is if you sacrifice her! If you sacrifice the town, the game’s like “Really? Okay....” and you watch Max and Chloe drive through a wrecked town and into the sunset together. 

There’s a lot of different factors to it that you don’t get unless you’ve played it, but for me, it was disappointing. I didn’t even romance Chloe the first time because I didn’t even really like her, but when I did romance her, I felt cheated!

I only get to be happy with my girlfriend if I can live with the blood of an entire town on my hands?? And odds are, fate’s gonna keep trying to kill her, so I also have to hurt myself and numerous timelines to keep her alive until I eventually explode????

Man, I don’t know if I want to commit to that, y’know? Thankfully, there’s another romance option I can look at, right?

....Right?

Continued in Part 2

[meredithsreadingchallenge]

Books 1 & 2 of the 2020 Reading Challenge: “The Sisters Grimm”

Welcome to the first blog review of my 2020 Reading Challenge! Today, I will be sharing with you two books from one of my favorite series, “The Sisters Grimm”.

There are going to be spoilers. You have been warned!

“The Sisters Grimm” Books 2 & 3: “The Unusual Suspects” and “The Problem Child”

Author: Michael Buckley

Book Type: Novel

Page Length: 292 pages (Book 2) and 296 (Book 3)

Genre:  Children’s Fiction, Fantasy, potentially Fan Fiction.

Reading Level (estimated by opinion, grade level, and content): 6th or 7th grade+

How Many Days Did It Take to read?

Book 2: Jan. 3-Jan. 5 (2 days).

Book 3: Jan. 6-Jan.7 (1 day).

 A Brief Summary of the books: MORE SPOILERS

Book 2: Sabrina and Daphne enroll in a new school three weeks after the events of book 1, but soon find trouble tagging along the way. A series of murders in her school lead the Grimms to believe the Scarlet Hand is influencing a new Everafter to attack the humans, so it’s up to the family to find the culprit before anyone else is in danger.

Book 3: After using the Match Girl’s matches to teleport to her parents, Sabrina learns that Little Red Riding Hood, typically one of the good guys, has been keeping her parents hostage with her new pet kitty, the Jabberwocky. She must then find a way to use magic to save them from the little girl, for it’s hard to fight a magical person without it. With the help of her sister, Puck, and her Uncle Jack, the family searches for the pieces of the Vorpal blade to make sure Little Red doesn’t add Granny Relda or Mr. Canis to her make-believe family.

Spoiler Summary of the series:

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are sisters who recently move in with a relative they never heard of in their life. Their parents disappeared over a year ago, and the girls had been exchanging foster homes faster than returning items at your local Walmart. When Sabrina learns that she is a descendant of the Brothers Grimm, her parents were kidnapped by the Scarlet Hand (an organization of Everafters that want to hurt humans and rule the world), and that all the fairytale characters—called Everafters—live in a little town by the name of Ferryport Landing, her world is turned upside down. She and her sister must solve mysteries on her new home so that they can find their parents again and stop the Scarlet Hand from hurting anyone ever again.

Review Questions:

 1.     Did Both Books Have a Compelling Plot?

Yes, these books do have compelling plots. I will address this down the line in question 6, but the plot is simple for readers to understand. I could write the major plot points on a timeline and still understand where the stories are going.

2.     Did Both Books Have Consistent and Believable Dialogue?

Yes, indeed. Buckley keeps the characters’ tone, motivations, and vocabulary into account, so the reader understands who’s talking and why. I find the dialogue to be quite entertaining.

3.     Did I Care About the Characters?

This is more of a yes and no question. I do care about what happens to Sabrina, Daphne, Mr. Canis, Puck, and Relda Grimm in the stories. However, I don’t feel sympathy for most of the Everafters in the town because the point of view is from Sabrina. She is a very tense person and doesn’t trust anyone easily. I don’t get attached immediately to other characters unless she approves of them.

4.     Are the Illustrations Engaging?

Yes! I love Peter Ferguson’s sketches! The style is consistent, cartoonish, and unique alongside the text. I think they add great details to the book as well since they’re about fairytale characters.

5.     Is there an index or bibliography included at the end?

Yes, the first three books include a short guide in the back of the book about a brief history of the fairytale, short questions to test your knowledge, a couple of questions to write your own fairytales, and a section of the resources for writing the book.

6.     What Did I Learn While Reading? [spoilers!]

I think two of the most important concepts I could understand as an adult is prejudice and addiction from the two books. The main plot point, if I’m not mistaken, from each book is Sabrina learns a significant lesson in growing up while interacting with the mysteries and Everafters. In book two, she understood that she did not need to prejudice towards every Everaftre in town based on the actions of one bad group, and she also learned how to control her anger. In book three, she struggled with becoming addicted to using magic because she was insecure about her capabilities as a powerful person. It took a lot of strength to turn away magic so she did not suffer the consequences, for magic always has a price to pay to use it.

7.     Why is do I consider this series a fanfiction?

I consider this series a fanfiction because it elaborates on the fairytale world established by authors, like the Grimms, but it’s pretty good to read. It includes original characters with their own motivations, an extended point of view from the fairytale characters, and it has its own plot for readers to follow. The genre, technically, is mystery and fantasy, but because it concerns fairytales from different authors in history, I would also categorize it as a fanfiction, too.

8.     Have I read these books before?

Yes, I read this series when I was in middle school. I was the intended audience for reading the books, and I enjoy reading and watching fantasy stories. There’s nothing sweeter than a happily ever after!

9.     How Many Stars Do I Give it?

I give both books 5 stars.

10.  Would I recommend this book/mini-series/series to other readers?

Yes, I would definitely recommend this series for anyone to at least read the first 3 books. In my opinion, books 1-3 establish a great connection with the world of Ferryport Landing as well as determine if the reader would like to continue following Sabrina’s journey. I also say age doesn’t matter much when it comes to reading this series. There were a lot of jokes, themes, and plot points that I understood better as an adult versus a teenager.  

What else am I currently reading?

“It”: no current update.

“Girl, Stop Apologizing”:no current update yet, as well. I will post Excuse 3 and 4 hopefully next week.

“The Sisters Grimm: Once Upon a Crime”: I will start the fourth book in the series when I get my reviews done! :)

[jiminthestreets-bonesinthesheets]

The Way We Were Supposed To Be - Ch Two

HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS!!!!!

Title: The Way We Were Supposed To Be

Fandom: Avengers

Pairing: Stucky

Rating: Lemon

Tags: minor character death, there will be smut, slow burn… I think that’s it really.

Summary:

    Two years after defeating Thanos, Steve finds himself faced with a harsh reality. Because of his decision to stay in the past with Peggy and finally give himself the life he thought he had always wanted, Nick Fury returns to face him with a daunting truth. With the world’s timeline in disarray, it’s up to Steve to return to the past and restore the world to its natural order. Unfortunately it means that the all American hero has to sacrifice his heart and soul to save the world once again. And although Steve thinks that his one chance at a happy life had passed, who knows what the new future holds, perhaps… everything he had been searching for was right there all along.

AO3 Link

Masterlist 

A/N: Soooooo yeah, like it says at the top, HUGE ENDGAME SPOILERS!!! So if you haven’t seen the movie yet turn back now and read this later!!

    And for those of you that have seen the movie already and who are reading this, you're awesome and I hope you like it. This is just my way of getting the satisfying stucky ending that I was really hoping for that the movie didn’t quite deliver for me.

    So yeah, if you do like this I would be so so so grateful if you gave this a reblog or even a comment, and if you want to be tagged for this or future works let me know!! Love you guys and enjoy <3 <3 <3

Chapter two:

    Not exactly knowing where to go, Steve drove aimlessly through the streets of New York, eventually finding himself making the all too familiar hike down to Washington. By mid day he made it to the bustling city and parked his car in a mostly empty parking lot. Following the path up the small hill, he weaved his way through the seemingly endless grave stones before coming to the one he was looking for. For the second time in three days he was staring down at Peggy’s grave.

    “Oh, Peggy,” he whispered into the breeze now picking up, “I'm sorry we could never truly be together, but it has to be this way. I couldn’t let the world run an unnatural course and I know that if you knew the consequences you would have done the same.”

    The wind chose that moment to blow through at a fierce strength and he smiled to himself as he continued, “Exactly what I thought.” He knelt down and placed a hand on the stone, closing his eyes for a moment before whispering, “I wish with everything I have that I could have kept that life with you, Peggy. It’s the only thing I have ever wanted, but I know that you had a happy life with your husband, and your kids, and I can only hope that someday I’ll find that happiness too. I know it’s what you’d want me to do, to move on. And maybe Fury’s right, maybe I’ll find happily ever after this time around. Third times the charm, right?”

    Steve laughed wholeheartedly this time as the wind blew through the cemetery again, this time hard enough to slightly push him off balance and away from Peggy's grave. “Alright, I'm going!” He stood and gave her grave one last look, “But no matter what, Peggy, don’t you forget that I’ll always love you no matter what.”

    Before he left he blew a kiss to her grave and followed the now gentle breeze out of the cemetery and got back in his car.

~~~~~~~~~~~     With no where else to go Steve made the trek back to New York and eventually made it to the compound gates. It took a year after Thanos destroyed it for the land to be levelled out and the building to be rebuilt, all thanks to Pepper who funded it all in Tony's honour. “He would have wanted it this way,” she had said back then, “for you all to have a place to call home no matter what. This was always his dream, and I want to make sure it stays alive.”

    For the year while the compound was being rebuilt, Bruce was working on a different project of his own, rebuilding the time travel device. And for that year while Steve waited, he and Bucky had rented a two bedroom apartment downtown. At this point, he wasn’t quite sure where he belonged right now. Since he changed the time line and now changed it back his house with Peggy no longer belonged to him, and he wasn’t sure if he still had a place with Bucky after leaving him behind for another life. Till the end of the line had once seemed so true and so final to them both, yet Steve was realizing now that he had been quick to throw it away, without even considering Bucky’s feelings on the matter. Steve couldn’t exactly expect Bucky to welcome him back with open arms. And as for the compound, he wasn’t sure if he would even be granted access after two years away, but what else could he do.

    When he pulled up to the security pad by the gates, he held his breath, and reached a hand out his window. Luckily his prints seemed to still be in the database and the gates opened letting him inside. He parked in his old space and walked inside. It was quiet, he seemed to be the only one there. He walked through, peeking into the rooms he knew some of his fellow Avengers had once occupied, and it seemed as though they hadn’t been lived in for a long time. Dust had settled in most of the rooms and some seemed to have even been emptied of all personal belongings.

    Wandering a bit further in he finds himself in the main control room. He slips himself behind the desk and pulls up a screen in front of him. He taps on the light blue hologram a few times and eventually finds what he wants. He's happy on one hand to see that the avengers still check in with updates on their GPS locations, but on the other hand is also quiet disappointed to see that over the last two years everyone seems to have once again gone their separate ways.

    Clint remains on his family farm, though that one doesn’t surprise him. Wanda seemed to have made her way into Europe, Banner was still at his lab, the kid was back in Queens, T’Challa home in Wakanda, Thor wasn’t even on the map, Sam still remained close to the compound, but the one person he wanted to find he can’t. Bucky has no location on the map, and even searching his name brings up nothing on the screens.

    With a hard sigh Steve pushes back in the chair running a hand through his hair. How could he blame him though? Steve left. He left Bucky without so much as a warning or a promise to return. Steve remembered how he had felt back in their time when Bucky was leaving for the war. He knew there was always a chance Bucky wouldn’t come back, but there was always the promise and the hope of a safe return for his best friend. He hadn’t even granted Bucky that much when he decided stay back with Peggy. So, if Bucky had gone off the rails and erased himself from the grid once again, Steve would only have himself to blame for that.

    Not wanting anymore disappointment for the day he turns the screens off and leaves the room. He heads out to the common room and sits himself on the couch in front of the TV. He takes up the remote and absently thinks to himself that he's alone here, no one lives here or has lived here in a long time, so at the very least he should be fine to stay since he currently has no where else to go. The place belongs to Pepper now anyways, so if anyone does show up and has a problem he can always talk to her. And if she decides that it’s time for him to move on, then so be it, he did this to himself after all.

    Trying to push the idea of loneliness out of his mind for the time being he decides to just watch a movie, but before he can turn the TV on he hears the whoosh of the front doors and a familiar excited voice travelling through the halls.

    With a slight burst of excitement rushing through his chest at the possibility of maybe not being so alone after all, he pushes himself off the couch and rushes to the front doors, and his eyes widen as he sees who just walked in.

~~~~~~~~~~~

    “Man, that assassin didn’t know what hit him!”

    Sam was nearly bouncing as he followed Bucky back into the compound. When the doors closed behind them Sam jumped forwards and shook Bucky’s shoulders, “Come on, Bucky, at least show a little emotion here. We just saved the god damn president.”

    “Did you properly park the jet this time?” he instead asked Sam without looking at him.

    “You know I did,” he answered as he released his shoulders, “it was one time man, and I only ruined one flower bed before we stopped it.”

    Bucky managed to let go a small almost inaudible chuckle, “Yeah, and when Pepper got the alert she nearly killed you. Quite frankly I'm surprised she didn’t.”

    “Yeah, me too…” he cringed thinking back to the pure rage on her face, then took a few quick steps to catch up to Bucky, “Where you going? Wanna hit the gym and burn off some of this adrenaline?”

    “Naw,” he still refused to turn back, “I'm going to bed. Wake me up if someone else is about to die.”

    With a sigh and a shake of his head Sam decided enough was enough. This had been going on for too long and he had already vowed to himself that he would not lose another friend. “Bucky, stop!” He did, but remained still with his back to Sam, “When is this gunna end man? You sleep all day, barely come out of your room except for an emergency, I don’t think you're eating… he's been gone for two years Bucky. He wouldn’t want this from you-”

    Sam’s stopped dead when Bucky suddenly turned and violently stormed into his space, gritting through clenched teeth, “Shut up! You have no idea! You have no idea how this feels, what I’ve lost!”

    “I think I know more then you think I do,” Sam answers with a sad knowing look.

    “Then you know I can’t just move on like you did!” Bucky backs up slightly, out of his face, “After everything we’ve been through now he's just gone, lived a life without me and I can’t ever get him back. It wasn’t the job, it wasn’t death that took him from me, it was worse, it was time and age. There’s a lifetime between us now and I wasn’t in it!”

    “Bucky…” Sam breathes.

    “Just stop,” Bucky shakes his head, “I just… I can’t do this without Steve. I want him back but I can’t… I can’t have that.”

    “I'm sorry man,” Sam sighs, knowing there’s really nothing he can do or say to help.

    “Whatever, I'm going to bed, so just leave me alone.”

    Sam watches as Bucky turns slowly with his eyes glued to the ground at his feet before something catches his eye. The shape of a man coming around the corner, and at the thought of the compound being empty for nearly a year and a half now, he instinctively reaches for his gun but stops when he sees who it is.

    “Bucky!” he calls out.

    “I said let me go, Sam.”

    “No, Bucky stop!” he calls with more desperation this time.

    Bucky stops and turns on his heel, annoyance etched clearly on his face when he looks up at Sam and shouts, “What, Sam?!”

    Sam shoots him a winning smile which confuses the hell out of Bucky, and if anything else makes him more angry. He's about to completely snap when Sam just looks around him. Bucky scrunches his brow at the odd movement but slowly follows Sam’s eyes as he turns, stopping dead when they land on the target.

    He feels like his whole world has stopped spinning, his hears are ringing, and his eyes are so watery he can barely see. He wants to move his feet and surge forwards but he can’t, they suddenly feel like lead bricks weighing him down, and his voice seems to have suddenly betrayed him too.

    It feels like a lifetime of standing there before he's finally able to croak out one single word past the extremely large lump in his throat, “Steve…” barely comes out in a whisper.

    It seemed that Steve was having the same symptoms as Bucky since all he could do was nod, eyes just as wide and wet as his own. But that simple gesture seemed to awaken something in Bucky, as if the response was proof that this wasn’t another dream turned nightmare when he woke up and realized Steve wasn’t really there. But when Steve answered him, even though no words were exchanged, it was enough for Bucky to finally move his shaking legs and run full speed the rest of the way down the hall, a desperate, “Steve!” leaving his lips as Steve too began to run at him.

    The two crashed together where they met in the middle of the hallway, both immediately tucking their heads into the others shoulder. When he finally had his arms around him, pressing him as tightly to his body as he could no matter how much it hurt, Bucky knew this was real. Steve was here, in his arms, back where he belonged. And when Steve was finally able to whisper into his ear, “Bucky,” he closed his eyes and sobbed into Steve's shoulder.

    Sam watched it all unfold before his eyes and couldn’t express in words how truly happy he was in that moment. Steve was back, he didn’t know how and quite frankly didn’t really care at the moment, but he was back and he knew that Bucky would finally be okay. He was grateful for that. This would be the end of his worrying over his friend, the last one he really had left after everything went down, and as a plus he got Steve back as well.

    When he realized the two weren’t going to let go of one another any time soon, he gave a nod and started walking past them. He stopped briefly to give Steve's shoulder a pat, Steve's arm reaching out briefly to grab at his as well, before it was quickly returned to Bucky’s back, Steve not wanting to let him go any time soon. With one last look at them, Sam continued into the compound and towards his room, leaving them in the privacy they deserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 A/N: So thats chapter two, finally we see Bucky!! More to come, let me know what you think XD

Tags: @goingknowherewastaken @kdcollinsauthor @pessoaslily @tiffyfromtw @acrushedrosestillwins @wizzardhowl @buckybarnes-is-my-child-help-him @julie130201 @kittycattycatherine @meanoldmomma @fabinapercabeth4179 @butterflymess @lucaimboreddd

 If any one else wants to be tagged just let me know!!

[i-am-the-entertainer]

RevieWBY: Volume 6, Chapter 1 “Argus Limited”

Spoilers for Volume 6, Chapter 1

This is the first of what I hope are gonna be regular RWBY review posts. It’s hard, nay almost difficult to review individual episodes of RWBY considering each part is only a single piece of an overall product, but I think there’s value in giving special attention to what the show gets right in its individual episodes.

I want to emphasize a bulk of this was written in response to the premiere screenings, which is a significantly different experience from watching it on RoosterTeeth.com, considering everything is in your face and you’re watching it with fellow fans, which makes it a more visceral experience I think. I have edited this here and there after watching it again on the website, but since my first experience with the episode will always be from a giant screen, take what I say with a grain of salt.

As I suspected, it looks like the trailer is made up of footage from the first few episodes. About 50% of what we saw in the trailer came from this episode, mostly the stuff involving the action sequences. Two possible explanations for this:

The pipeline for production hasn’t changed: they’re still producing the episodes as they come out.

The pipeline has in fact changed but they don’t want to spoil stuff.

If it’s 1, I’m worried because I and several other people felt a rushed production timeline was why Volumes 4 and 5 had major storytelling issues. The thing is, it’s clear from the BTS stuff they showed that the general production pipeline has changed: the studio has gotten bigger, and I think production on gen:LOCK has forced them to fix the problems they already had: meaning, they’re spending more time on the finished product. And it makes sense not to spoil the latter half of the season in the trailer: considering it’s serialized storytelling, it’s a big no-no to give that kind of thing away before the show even comes out.

And this episode? They clearly had a lot of time to work on it. This is the best animation-wise the show has looked: there’s a lot of attention paid to minute details in the show. Character movements are more fluid, the choice to turn to more anime-like gags is making the show feel more like RWBY that we’re used to (which to be fair the first episodes of the last two volumes also did and did nothing with so take that with a grain of salt), and during our first big battle sequence minute things like firing effects and visuals are so much better than they’ve been: the show looks more like a cartoon/anime now more than ever before, which is coming down to the movements just as much as the visuals. But it even comes down to the little details, like how Weiss’s mouth is at a certain angle when she’s complaining about having to go back to Atlas, and how it seems like characters’ faces use more than just the mouth and eyebrows to convey emotions.

Characterization was, as usual, excellent––let’s be honest, the characters have always been at least the second best part of the show, next to the fights. The dynamic between team RWBY, despite their long separation, is the same as ever. And appropriate for what’s happened, there’s definite tension between Yang and Blake over what happened back in Vale in Volume 3. Considering this fandom’s seeming inability to accurately predict story direction (which I myself am guilty of), I don’t want to make too many calls about where I see the story go, but I think it’s safe to say they’re not going to gloss over a firm reconciliation between Yang and Blake: we get a strong hint of that in the opening.

The humor in this episode was a lot better as well: jokes didn’t seem forced, and at my screening the laughs really came from entertaining character interaction. They’re definitely trying to lean back into the anime vibe from the earlier seasons, but the jury’s out on whether that’s gonna be consistent for the rest of the season.

I don’t have much to say about how Ilia and Sun were removed from the plot other than, “Yeah, that’s a good call.” Let’s be honest, having too many characters doing too many things was a problem even during the so-called “golden age” of the show, so removing them from the equation would have had to happen or we all would have been moaning for the Volume to end sooner. And I think they got proper send-offs: Ilia’s been redeemed and gone off to her own adventures, and SSSN is back together (Neptune had everyone at my screening doubled over in laughter).

The choice to start the episode with the fight, then cut to earlier, then show a small portion of the fight before continuing the story was an interesting one, one I enjoyed. For one thing, it gives us a chance to see the whole Team RWBY in action right off the bat, and definitely sates everyone’s desire to see an action scene: we don’t need any context as to why they’re fighting, we just know for sure that they are once again a team. Honestly? After two seasons of waiting, the fan in me is relieved they didn’t waste any more time for that. Plus it would have saved the fight sequence from going on longer than it needed to with a weird pause to have Oscar tell Dudley to turn off the turrets.

So, uh, speaking of the fight...

Regarding the big battle sequence: it’s an improvement, there is absolutely no denying it. But on first viewing I didn’t think it was particularly memorable.

There was a lot going on, sure, and after watching it a few times I think we can all agree they’ve definitely improved the fight animation: characters are once again on the move constantly, they’re using their weapons in the way they were designed to, no more awkward pauses, etc. But it felt like a battle that was inserted specifically to give the show a reason to set team RWBY on its own path. Which, granted, it was, but the problem was bigger than just it didn’t have very high stakes (and I applaud them for trying by having Dee get killed off almost immediately, but killing off a character we weren’t given much time to appreciate or even given the chance to like isn’t very high stakes––same reason why Sienna Khan’s abrupt death felt more annoying than shocking). The problem was the fight scene had too much going on.

Let me explain. If you’ve seen Lindsay Ellis’s Transformers film theory series, you might have seen her video essay about why it’s so hard to remember what happens in Michael Bay’s Transformers series. Basically, the Transformers films have a whole lot going on in terms of visual: explosions! Guns! Robots that transform into cars! Cars that transform into robots! Yeah yeah, lot of spectacle, but because the action is non-stop, you don’t have the mental power to retain it all.

One could argue that madcap fight sequences have always been part of RWBY’s charm. But the thing about previous fight sequences, especially Monty’s (look, I know it’s been some years now, but it’s an inevitable comparison, he set the bar), is that nonstop visual spectacle was never really all they were: in terms of pacing, shots of action were followed by moments that gave characters time to breathe: the separation of actions would then lead to a new way of shooting the fight. For reference, look at the gunchuck fight from Volume 1: camera angles and movements changed based on what portion of the fight is happening, with appropriate breathers in between. This contrast gives the fight maximum impact: it’s why the gunchucks’ introduction was so cool. For one of the best examples from Volumes 4 and 5, look at the Qrow v. Tyrian fight for a similar rhythm.

And while the shots in Volume 6′s premiere certainly showed off the movements well, the pacing was fast, the characters’ actions made sense, I wasn’t snoozing during the fight––basically covering a lot of the problems I’ve had with the post-Monty era of fight animation––because there wasn’t a whole lot of room to breathe in the fight, I didn’t get a very big impression from it. And it’s a pity, because there are some genuinely creative things going on that I couldn’t recall after the premiere and had to actually be reminded: I especially love the split screen of Qrow and Ruby using their scythes to to attack the Grimm, and I’m guessing based on the splitscreen’s presence in the opening that we’ll be seeing it used more (once again adding a more anime-feel to the show). Last volume’s Cinder vs. Raven fight actually got the right contrast down in terms of giving the battle time to breathe, but again it was still mostly non-stop visual explosion. I’m hoping we’ll see some improvement on this front. Plus, I can understand why they may have felt obligated to do this, as they wanted to make sure the season premiere was telling you “You want action? Here’s some action!” And this was a shitton better than the Volume 4 premiere fight and basically every fight that wasn’t Qrow v. Tyrian, Yang v. Bandits, and Cinder v. Raven (...damn. They haven’t had very good fights for a while, huh?). We’ll just have to see how the other fights hold up.

So overall verdict? Genuinely optimistic. They definitely seem to be taking viewer feedback into account with the little stuff I picked up in this episode (it helps that some of the relentlessly positive RWBY reviewers that I’m sure Rooster Teeth follows got so annoyed with the last volume I think they finally realized “Huh. Maybe we aren’t doing so great after all”). I can’t make a call on whether that logic applies to the whole Volume. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

Nitpicks/Observations

The relic is inexplicably smaller. Why is the relic inexplicably smaller? Look, I get it, maybe you made it too big in Volume 5, and ultimately I can’t bring myself to care that much about it, but don’t just retcon it. Either just keep it that size and try to work the story around it, or show some sort of explanation as early as possible.

An accusation was made in the rwde tag shortly after the film screenings that claimed the shot of Ilia’s feet as she walks over to hug Blake was queerbaiting because the shot is framed as though she is going to kiss her. Look, that wasn’t the impression I got at all on first viewing, I’m still doubtful about it after rewatching the scene a few times, but the fact is queerbaiting is not an accusation that is leveled lightly. Representation is important, and I would hope the team understands that and that someone in the CRWBY would call out any moment of concern. That said, I also don’t think queerbaiting is an accusation that should just be made without some thought put into it (lest we forget the whole Lapidot thing on a show known for representation), and the thing is we haven’t gotten any signs from the show that Ilia and Blake are in any way meant to become a couple and the fact that both she and Sun (one of the characters most shipped with Blake) are leaving the show for now was enough for me to not interpret that show as romantic. But I think it’s important that the queerbaiting accusation not be just tossed aside. Have thoughts? Comment.

Look, as dramatic as “don’t let anyone else die” may have seemed, I really didn’t care that Dee died, and probably could not have been made to care.

Yet I should add––they weren’t gonna kill off a major character in the premiere. At this point I think they’ve learned deaths and major character injuries should only be done for emotional impact, if they’re done in the way where it’s just shock value (like Weiss getting impaled), it’s going to be very hard to get people to care (like everyone being like “Oh, that’s just stupid” when Weiss got impaled and there was a cliffhanger).

Like, I dunno, maybe just have the Grimm cause a significant amount of damage? That still gives them a reason to separate the relic from the rest of the car, and still gives RNJ something to do in the name of removing them from the plot.

The shot of the train crash was a little awkward. I think there was an issue with the framerate, or maybe the physics of it didn’t seem to work. I remember seeing it in theaters and thinking “Oh. That doesn’t look that great...”

Good intro to the mystery lady, who we now know is named Maria Calavera. So...when do we learn more?

Predictions

All the posts seem to be saying “Oh that hooded figure is Neo because of Torchwick’s hat floating nearby and she’s the only one without a parasol” or “Oh, that hooded figure is Cinder because of the Grimm arm and Cinder’s sword.” And the thing is: they’re two separate shots, and the latter is really darkened to hide their identity, moreso than the other. I am almost positive they’re two different people...

A note: Cinder’s return to the series is basically guaranteed. Unlike Torchwick, in public statements the writers have avoided outright confirming she’s dead. It would make sense for her survival to be revealed a couple episodes in, with her shot in the opening then brightened.

As for Neo, it’s been 3 years. If they don’t bring her back now, what exactly is the point of the character continuing to exist?

Whoever our mystery person is...they are probably the one whom Kerry claimed in the BTS bit would be the one we’d sympathize with. I don’t think he’s referring to Adam: it doesn’t feel as though Adam is being set up for a redemption arc, especially given his characterization in the character short.

The moon is whole...and then it shatters. Symbolism? Could this be another Volume 3?

Judging by the trailer and the intro, we might finally get some “Ozpin is not what he seems” explanation...

Death flags for Qrow: he already had the major injury in Volume 4. If a major character is going to die this Volume, it’s him.

[eloarei]

WIP Game

List the things you’re excited to work on this year in as little or as much detail as you like, and then tag some friends!

Tagged by @enchantedtalisman (and again it won’t tag you. Tch. Sorry. But thanks for the tag!)

(Behind a cut, because you don’t want to read all that. ...Or maybe you do?)

In no particular order, because my level of excitement changes at the drop of a hat: 6 BNHA fics, and one each FFXV and FO4. 1700 words of synopses and babbling.  (Friends who read my stuff: if you wanna skim through these and tell me which one(s) (if any) you’d most want to read, that’d be rad. =D Will it influence what I work on? Who knows? My inspiration is fickle as shit. But it couldn’t hurt.) 

1. “Touch2” -- current WIP, 10k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k?      Picking up right where “Touch” left off, this fic is a slightly more detailed/slow/slice-of-life story than its predecessor. The 10k I’ve written so far takes place over the course of only 2 days, and it’s mostly Toshi and Izuku getting to know each other, and Toshi being yelled at by his manager (an OC called Suzuki). The general plot of the story doesn’t deviate very far from canon, as far as I’ve planned. “Touch2” will probably cover at least up to the entrance exam, but I’m not entirely sure. Given that leisurely pace, there’ll probably have to be a Touch3 and 4 as well, if not even more.       I’ve been slowly hacking away at this one since the start of December, just in between whatever else I might be working on. Kind of got to a point where I need to actually think about what happens next? ^^; Also, it’s gotten too long to be a one-shot, I think, but I’m going to have to be careful how I split it up. It’s not written for splitting… Well, I’ll figure it out. Just gotta keep writing first.

2. “Make the Most sequel, and side stories” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: lots???      I’m lumping these all together, but this includes quite a few stories, some of which I have plans/notes for, some only ideas. One of the first is a fic that might be, at most, half the length of MtM, which is the events of MtM from Toshi’s POV. This was actually requested by a friend, but it was something I kind of already wanted to do, which is cool. Other side stories include perspectives from other characters, some things like dates and vacations, Izuku learning to use his powers, and some extra NSFW scenes, because why not? After all of those, I intend for there to be an ‘official sequel’, taking place towards the end of Izuku’s college run, which might function as more of an epilogue than a sequel, due to the potential lack of actual plot.      Geez there is just so much potential for this series to go on in side-stories and extras and etc. I actually get a little mad at myself whenever I neglect to continue it, because it’s sort of my main, well, IP, I guess you’d say. It’s my kudos breadwinner. XD I should just do it!

3. “Loveless epilogue” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 7k?      A short...er sequel/epilogue, taking place roughly a year (I might change that) after the main story, revolving (spoiler alert) around Toshi figuring out if/when/how to propose to Izuku, and summing up how things have gone in the past year. Mushy because I love marriage, okay guys, I just love it so much, and also a little bit morbid because of an in-universe tradition that could be considered either romantic or creepy, depending on your views. =D      I actually ought to write this one like… immediately, while the main fic is still fresh in my mind. It’s extremely self-indulgent, maybe more than just, y’know, my normal writing. But I think at least some of the people who read LOVELESS will like it. ^^ And I will, I think. And that’s all that really matters, right?! *shakes head ‘no’*

4. “Waste” -- current WIP, 1k + notes. BNHA. Dekumight(-ish?), and Deku+friends. Estimated total: 15k???? No. Probably more.      A Fallout fusion. Vault 211 (21-1 or twenty-one one) has been carefully breeding superpowers into its population for the past 200 years, but if yours doesn’t show up by your 18th birthday, prepare to be kicked out on your ass into the unforgiving wasteland. Guess who’s the newest resident of the wastes? Lucky for Izuku, he meets a frightening creature who takes to looking out for him. ‘Human’ under some description, he’s sure, this guy has radiation levels through the roof. Burly super-mutant by day, gangly rotting ghoul by night, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of friends, but boy is he good at surviving in the hellscape that the world has become.      I freaking love Fallout a whole lot, and look, Toshi/All Might is so very much a ghoul/super mutant, and vaults just give you so much free reign to give people powers and etc etc, look, it just seemed like something that would work. Not sure really how it’s going to go, but we’ll see. =]

5. “Nana/Toshi darkfic” -- only notes. BNHA. Nana/Toshi (probably NSFW) and Dekumight. Estimated total: 20k???       His mentor was beautiful, kind, strong-- perfect. He didn’t realize she was being eaten away by a dark pit in her heart. He didn’t know if leaving her alone would help it. He just wanted to be with her so badly, to please her, to make that smile real, and she lacked the fortitude to refuse him anything that would make him happy. A fic about Nana and Toshi becoming perhaps too close, and Nana struggling with depression. Following the canon timeline moderately closely, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it will include a major character death, and the fallout surrounding it.      Hoo boy did the desire to write this fic just hit me like a ton of bricks a few weeks ago. This is going to be a dark, sad, uncomfortable story, most likely. And although it will end with Dekumight, the large part of the plot will still revolve around Nana/Toshi, so I’m not sure most of my normal readers will want to touch it. XD;;; I think the inspiration to write this came somewhat from the feeling that the ending to LOVELESS was not nearly as dark as it could have been, haha. Every so often I just want to challenge myself and see how many boundaries I can push. ^^;

6. “Feed” -- only notes. BNHA. Dekumight. Estimated total: 15k?      In a world ruled by a vampiric shadow known as All for One, Izuku’s group has been trying to find ways to fight him. Nearly everyone is of this man’s blood now, since he started handing out powers to gain followers. But it’s said that an artifact of some sort exists still which can give the power to defeat him. Izuku, with the purest blood of his group, is chosen to seek it out. But the artifact is a vampire, the last of AfO’s first ‘children’, frozen and starving after failing to defeat his ‘father’, and Izuku almost doesn’t survive the encounter.      I want to write this fic, and I think I should do it while it’s still cold and gloomy, because that’s the feel of the setting, but if I get distracted and don’t get around to it, I probably won’t be too upset.

7. “Parents AU” -- current WIP, 6k + notes. FFXV. Gladnis + Ignis&Noctis. Estimated total: 40k?       Teenage Ignis and Gladio happen to be babysitting the toddler prince when the Empire attacks, and in the chaos they manage to get safely mixed into the crowd of civilians fleeing the city. They decide to treat him as their own until they can be sure it’s safe to return him to someone with more seniority. But will it ever be safe? Fifteen years in hiding says no, and even when Noct is old  enough to be asked to save the world, there’s no way in hell his parents are going to let him go it alone.       I tried to continue writing this the other day and it was terrible. Painful. I almost cried. Literally every word of the 30 or so I managed before I gave up were the hardest things I’ve ever written. I think if I go back and play the game again (which I’d like to, since there’ve been updates and DLC), I think it will be easier. Honestly though, this is one of my favorite things I’ve yet written, so if I don’t see it to fruition, I will be moderately pissed.

8. “Same Heart” -- current WIP, 30k + notes. FO4. Estimated total: 90k (35k for act 1)      The great synth detective Nick Valentine is recaptured by the Institute, remade and reset. He awakes to his new life underground, unaware that he ever roamed the wasteland-- except for the rare moments when they plug in his old memories so they can grill him for info. Though the memories are gone again after every session, they leave an aftertaste of distrust for the people he’s working with, until it’s too much to ignore. Meanwhile, he finds himself as the only person who seems to truly care about the little boy they’re all calling their savior, doing his best to help him grow up with some modicum of love in this sterile environment. When Nick finally decides to break out of their fancy little prison, it’s not a question whether he’ll take Shaun with him, and it’s obvious where they’ll go: to find the parents the Institute stole him from.      This one haunts me, because I spent like 3 months doing practically nothing but writing this last year. I got almost, almost all the way through the first act (out of 3), and then… stopped. Now I know it’s going to be impossible to get back into. And this is already a very different story for me, because it’s essentially a gen fic. The intention is for acts 2 and 3 to focus on Nick and the ‘sole survivor’ Nora, but the whole first act is about him half-raising her son, Shaun. I really want to finish this, or geez, at least the first act! Because it is painful having 30k sitting around that nobody has ever seen. And it’s pretty decent! But even though I have 6 chapters done, I don’t want to start posting it until it has a halfway decent ‘conclusion’, so I need to finish the act. I have to.

And I’ll tag… uh… @oldseablues, @braincoins, @thenightisdarkandfullofbooty, @orionskingdom, @animeuzumaki7, @blessedblooduniverse, @rangrids, and anyone else who’s reading this and is also a writer. =] Tag me back so I can see it, please! ^^

[gumnut-logic]

Thunderbird XL (Part Three)

Title: Thunderbird XL

Sequel to Thunderbird X

Thunderbird X | Thunderbird XL Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Author: Gumnut

Feb – 11 Mar 2020

Fandom: Thunderbirds Are Go 2015/ Thunderbirds TOS

Rating: Teen

Summary: “I’ve got you, son.”

Word count: 1572

Spoilers & warnings: SPOILERS FOR SEASON 3 EPISODE 25 & EPISODE 26

Timeline: Episode Tag, written episode

Author’s note: Sequel to Thunderbird X. so much is asking to be written about the last episode of the series. This one just happened and in a way I didn’t plan. Many thanks to the Thundernerds on Tumblr for all their support and especially @scribbles97​ for the readthrough.

I’m having the strongest feeling that ‘Need’ might be the sequel to this, so it is probably a good idea for me to actually finish it. Also, for some reason, I was drawn to it today. So we have Part Three.

Disclaimer: Mine? You’ve got to be kidding. Money? Don’t have any, don’t bother.

-o-o-o-

 Hate wasn’t really a word for what he felt for Gaat. Pity was closer, but considering Jeff was a man who had been stuck alone for eight years, that was saying something.

When Brains entered and Gaat was flung across the room to be caught by Gordon and Alan, Jeff had a moment to greet his old friend, the man who had managed to save him yet again.

And still be completely socially awkward about it.

He could only love him for it.

Scott grabbed Gaat from Alan, stepping between his little brother and the pest who had hurt them so much, and he and Gordon rough housed the criminal below decks.

That left Jeff with Virgil, Alan and Brains.

“That was some pretty hot shot flying there, Allie.”

His youngest son flushed a little red, his hand going to the back of his neck. “Aww, thanks, Dad.”

An awkward silence fell after that. Virgil shifted to a work station off to the right. His hand hitting his comms. “Thunderbird Five, cockpit is secure, what is our flight status?”

“Eos is running a damage report. The EMP did have some impact and we will need to make some repairs.”

“Point me where you need me.”

“FAB.”

Virgil looked over to his fellow engineer who was on the opposite side of the cockpit, running his own assessments. “Brains?”

“J-John is c-correct. I also want to r-run a s-systems check. T-to m-make sure there is n-no sabotage.”

Jeff’s stomach tightened. Gaat had been alone for who knew how long and when foiled, he could have done anything out of spite.

“Brains, timeframe?”

He was aware of his two boys and Brains both suddenly staring at him.

“I am unsure, M-Mr Tracy.”

“Keep me apprised.”

“FAB.”

“Dad, you should be resting.” Virgil appeared beside him, a gloved hand gently touching his arm.

“I am. There is no gravity in space, Virgil.”

“Dad-“

“Virgil, I need you in the aft computer core. I’m reading a series of faulty processors and I have some concerns about the air circulation system in the secondary life support hub.” John’s voice demanded immediate attention.

Virgil hit his comms. “FAB, John. I’m on it.” He turned to his little brother. “Alan.” An indrawn breath, worried eyes cast over Jeff. “Look after Dad.”

“Sure.” His youngest son propelled himself closer.

Virgil’s fingers brushed across Jeff’s forearm as he pushed himself towards the exit.

Brains muttered to himself absently at his console, but that awkward silence returned.

A glance at Alan and he caught his son’s profile. As the young man turned towards the front of the cockpit, Jeff was struck at the contrast yet again between the child he had left behind and the man who had flown this ship all the way out here.

“Dad, I should probably give you a quick orientation for safety’s sake.”

Jeff nodded once and there followed a very professional systems report. Within five minutes he knew the location of all the main controls, the functions of each of the stations, and he was pretty sure that he could give a good go at piloting the craft himself.

Not that he had any intention of trying.

But it was reassuring to hear familiar terms and watch his son, ever so confident, speak the language of astronaut.

He had been eleven when Jeff left on that rescue. All starry eyed and rocket obsessed. And now…

A competent young man flying rockets into the unknown.

He had so many questions.

But they would have to wait as Scott burst back into the room. His comms were lit up. “Eos, yes, thank you for your assistance, and no, I have no intentions of letting anyone shoot you with an EMP ever again.”

“Good!” That high-pitched voice again. “John is on his way down to the cockpit. We are showing green on all systems except those Virgil is currently attending to. Thunderbird Five is prepared for the jump, deflectors are at one hundred percent. Navigational data is being prepared.”

“Thank you, Eos. Couldn’t do this without you.” The frown on Scott’s brow got just that little bit deeper.

Gordon floated in behind his older brother, a frown equally severe on his face. It looked alien on those features as he turned to Jeff. “The Hood’s stowed in his ‘cabin’. Rope and all.” There was some satisfaction at that announcement. “We will now return to our scheduled inflight entertainment. Due to the lack of a movie, MAX will be providing juggling for your amusement.” The robot on the ceiling squawked. That was MAX?! “Alan will be providing the rollercoaster effects.” A hand up to Gordon’s face as he shifted to a not-quite whisper in an aside to Jeff. “He really has been playing far too many video games.”

“Hey!”

“Yes, Dad, you may have to curb his screen time when we get home.”

The youngest turned back from the helm. “Fine, Gordon. I’m sure Dad will love to hear about Corfu while I’m not playing those games.” The glare in those blue eyes was furious.

“Woah, Allie! Hold on the big guns, it was a joke.” Gordon reacted enough to float backwards.

Jeff held up a hand. “Boys?”

Two pairs of eyes darted at him. Alan pointed at his brother. “He started it.”

Jeff stared at them both and was suddenly struck at the familiarity. His boys were bigger, yes, but they were still his boys.

He opened his arms. “C’mere.”

Neither hesitated and he once again was able to wrap himself around dreams-become-reality. He kissed two golden heads.

Scott floated into his vision, a small smile on his face.

Jeff had to squeeze his eyes shut for just a moment before he let his two youngest go.

His eldest’s voice was gentle. “Alan, we need pre-flight. Gordon, Eos is about to relay navigational data for your approval.”

Chorus of two. “FAB.” And his two boys moved.

Scott approached Jeff. “Dad, we have a seat for you.” He reached down into the centre hub of the cockpit, just behind the two forward seats and unfolded a chair. It clicked solidly into place as if it had always been there.

“S-Scott, I can f-find no trace of sabotage.” Brains’ hands were dancing over his controls. “Eos, have you c-completed the d-data and programming checks?”

“I have, Hiram. There is no sign of interference of any kind. I find it highly doubtful that the criminal would sabotage his only way back to Earth.”

John sailed in through the rear hatch. “Eos, we’ve spoken about human idiocy, particularly regarding the Hood.” His middle boy smiled gently at him as he passed smoothly to his place in the cockpit.

“Oh, I thought you were joking.”

Those turquoise eyes that had kept Jeff company for all those long years, blinked. “What gave you that idea?”

“The illogic of it all. Why would the Hood be so stupid? Also, you swore in six different languages at the time.”

Another blink and a darted glance at his father. “Well, I wasn’t joking. The Hood is an idiot.”

Jeff couldn’t help himself. “Only six?”

John’s eyes widened just a little. “I was distracted trying to keep Thunderbird Two airborne.”

“What?”

Said Thunderbird’s pilot chose that moment to return. “John, processors replaced and the air circulation system is patched. I wouldn’t give it long, but it should survive enough to get us home.” A nudge off the ceiling and Virgil was once again beside him. “We should get you strapped in, Dad. The ride out here was rough.”

Scott’s hand landed on his brother’s shoulder and squeezed as he turned back to the helm where Alan was taking his seat.

That left Jeff to Virgil again, who gently urged him into the chair and buckled him in.

He stared at his boy as he let him do the simple task. It wasn’t as if Jeff was incapable of strapping himself in, it was just…

“Virgil?” He tipped his head down, trying to catch those worried eyes.

His son continued to fiddle with the belt, not acknowledging him at all.

“I’m going to be okay.”

At that Virgil did look up and the love in his son’s eyes pierced his heart. “I know, Dad.”

It was said with such finality, such determination…come whatever, Virgil was going to make sure he was okay.

Jeff opened his mouth to respond, but he didn’t have a chance as Scott began launch preparations and Virgil spun himself away to his station.

Jeff followed him with his eyes, his heart thudding in his chest.

God, it was hard to believe this was all happening.

Lucy, our boys.

Our boys!

“Alright.” Scott’s accent always made itself known when in command. That at least hadn’t changed. “Go / no go for launch.” He turned towards John. “Telemetry?”

“Go.”

To Gordon. “Navigation?”

Again with that serious expression on the aquanaut’s face. “Go.”

To Virgil. “Airframe?”

“Go.”

To Brains. “Propulsion?”

“Go!”

To Alan. “Helm?”

“Go!”

“Then let’s go home!” His eldest turned around to Jeff. “Wanna count us down?” Those blue eyes flashed.

There was no question. “I was hoping you would ask.”

With a heart so tied into his family and the wonders they were capable of, he counted down from five, each number thrown into fate’s face as he took that last step home.

And the ultimate in defiance.

“Thunderbirds are go!”

Alan moved.

The ship blinked.

-o-o-o-

End Part Three.

[starfleetorbust]

The Story Of T’Ling

Aka: Jen’s theory of red matter, multi-universes, and Spock.

Boring explanation on Red Matter TheoryTM  :

So Red Matter, as we see it in the film 2009, is shown four times (though only used three). This is seen in the containment of a supernova, the loss of the Kelvin, destruction of Vulcan, and the collision and subsequent disappearance of the Narada.

The first time we see it, Spock Prime uses it to contain the Supernova that was caused by the destruction of Romulus. The red matter created a black hole that Nero and Spock were both pulled through and sent back in time. However, both of their ships were pulled through the black hole unharmed, Nero’s enough so to attack Kirk’s ship.

There is no indication that the red matter would not work similarly in the other cases. This is the theory I go on.

I’m operating on the idea that objects can be displaced forwards as well as back. If this is true and the red matter creates a wormhole (or a black hole if you’d like to see it that way) that displaces objects in time, then that means four things things.

A supernova will appear randomly somewhere in the timeline from Romulus’s destruction (similarly to Spock Prime and Nero’s ships)

George Kirk and the Kelvin are alive and will be displaced now given the spoilers we’ve heard about the next star trek movie this could prove to be canon!

Nero and the Narada (however damaged) are alive (which I would need to make a whole other post about because I write Nero and have a lot of thoughts on this)

And perhaps most importantly, the remains of Vulcan are displaced somewhere in time. It’s important to note that Romulus was destroyed by the supernova before it was displaced, leaving nothing behind that wouldn’t be burned up, but Vulcan imploded as it was pulled into the black hole.

Now with all these disturbances, each will in turn create a new universe or timeline split, However, since we follow AOS Kirk and his crew, we will be unaware of the differences, unless we were to compare what might have happened were those events not to have occurred.

Okay, so onto Spock Prime: 

We have no knowledge of Spock Prime and red matter. He might have created it. He might have stolen it. All we know is that he knew how to use it and that deploying it on the supernova would contain the blast (likely how they planed to save Romulus).

So Spock Prime KNOWS about red matter. And having gone through time because of it, I’m almost certain he could make these same conclusion: Vulcan is still there. It’s not gonna be in one piece. There are likely NO survivors. But there is wreckage.

After Va’Pak, Spock returns to the colonies under the name Selek (a name adopted from TAS) and helps in the reconstruction of the planet as best he can. He teaches young Vulcans and he helps in physical construction. He helps restore the former databanks of Vulcan history (being careful not to spoil anything from his timeline that may vary). But I believe he was always watching. He kept in contact with Starfleet and kept record of every anomaly, searching all the black holes recorded. Searching for a very particular pattern. A lightning storm in space.

And then one day he finds it. It’s a year into the other Enterprise’s five-year mission. It’s after Khan. Things are peaceful, the colony is starting to be normal life for survivors. He tries to petition the Vulcans to send a search party but they don’t listen. It’s not logical to go and search rubble and I’m not sure most of them believe his theory. Why would they search a place that was lost to them? What is he hoping to find? Nothing survives in space. Digital records would be gone and all artifacts would be destroyed. It’s not logical. Spock manages to get a ship and heads over anyways.

It’s heartbreaking for him

Imagine what it’d be like to dig through your home after a fire, hoping to find any scrap of something that might have made it. There’s nothing. Everything that pulled through is completely destroyed. It’s all just rubble and bodies and he almost turns back. But he’s determined to find something. Just one little thing. 

The things he finally returns with are not enough to be worthwhile to any Vulcan on the colony. Some sand from the planet. A piece of cloth with a black diamond pattern. And a seed. Technically a seed pod (top picture, bottom corner). It’s so small he almost doesn’t see it. Almost doesn’t recognize it. It’s in open space. There’s no way that it survived. There would be no logic in bringing it to the colony to plant. But some small sentimental part of him takes it anyways. 

He names it T’Ling and carves the letters in Vulcan onto the shell. She’s put in a little box that he had on the Jellyfish and added to his collection. 

It’s AOS Spock that plants T’Ling. After Spock Prime passes away, and he inherits the box. “This is my logic” it says, and that is all the explanation he gets for any of the items. But some part of him knows. Understands. There’s a picture of the crew. His crew, old, smiling, and happy. But what’s under it confuses him more. Spock runs his fingers through the sand and knows its from Vulcan. There’s no logic in that presumption, no evidence to support that, but he’s confident he’s right. And buried in the sand and cloth, is a seed with a word carved into it.

Spock is far from a botanist. He runs a scan on it and finds it’s a native species from Vulcan, Lhm'ta. He has no way of knowing where the seed was from. He assumes its from Spock Prime’s Vulcan, and has not idea that the seed wouldn’t likely have survived. So he plants it with help from the crew. It takes a while, and Spock almost discards the notion of growing any of the seeds. But one grows. And she blooms.

He insists on taking her to his room. The conditions are more like Vulcan, he assures. He sets her up under a powerful red light. He’s beyond careful with her well-being, taking trimmings and analyzing them.  The flowers produce a sweet scent he never thought to appreciate while on the planet. The Lhm'ta's roots make a spice tea that Spock never thought he’d taste the genuine flavor of again. And on rare moments, when he meditates, if he opens his eyes and looks over at her on his desk, he feels like he’s home again. @mccoymostly​ because you always seem to like my theories and are always asking to be tagged. So there. Also I might just start tagging you in everything :P @kaitymccoy123​ because Spock friend <3