#Tagged Jimmy Switch Writes

[tagged-jimmy-switch-writes]

The Bebop Crew, a Splatoon fanfic or something...

So I've had this idea and these characters kicking around since Splatoon 2, and i finally did something with them. YAY!

Just a little slice-of-life joint about a squad of Octolings. I don't know how much of this I will write but I have a chapter or so worth and I wanted to share it with my Sploon friends and anyone else who wants to read it.

Anyway...

Session One: Jupiter Jazz

The Bluefin Depot looked as stunning as ever today. The sight of the place almost brought a tear to Jazzmine's eyes. It had been closed for conservation efforts for ages, as the Bluefin Bay had been so littered and trashed for so long. The folks over the Bay had finally deemed it clean enough to reopen, enacting strict rules to keep it from falling into disrepair again.

Jazzmine Spiegel stood at the back of the spawn pool. She had never played with these three Inklings before, but that was the way of the Turf War. Your best friend could be your sworn enemy three minutes from now, and strangers could be fierce comrades in arms. Jazz spun her Neo Sploosh-o-Matic around one finger, waiting for the whistle to begin the match.

The whistle finally came, and the four players split from the spawn. Jazzmine made her way up the left side, covering the turf with fuchsia ink. Jazz found the fuchsia and lime palette boring. She preferred purple and orange. Other than super special Splatfest colors, those two were her favorite.

She hopped down to Shthe second layer of the stage. The spawn points rested at the top layer, outside the opposing team's reach. Once she came to the small pool of water at the center of the stage, she scoped out the surrounding area. There were splotches of lime ink around but most of the other team had missed the area.

The stage received an update during the Bay's cleanup initiative. Inkable walls appeared at the farthest edge of the stage where Jazz remembered grates. She could slip up that wall and be well into enemy territory, instead of trying and failing to throw a Squid Beakon across the water. She laughed as the memories rushed to her mind, spraying ink on the wall and dipping into swimming form.

It was harder to see while swimming, as her eyes rested on her back. Inklings and Octolings changed to their Cephalo form when swimming through their ink, returning to their common 'Kid' form to run. There was also a Ghost form taken after being splatted. Jazz had theories about it, but nobody was truly certain. Some things about Turf War weren't meant to be understood... such as spawn camping with Chargers STILL being legal.

Jazz spotted an enemy and put her Charger thoughts away. Her Special meter was full so she fired her Tenta Missiles. After briefly locking on several enemy targets, she fired her projectiles. The Special Power Up chunks in her shirt powered her missiles up. She'd spotted three targets on her map, making about twelve shots. The octoling she'd spotted swam into her missile by mistake, instantly getting splatted. Jazz cackled as she watched the girl's 'ghost' fly toward the enemy spawn.

The other two came out of hiding to avoid the ink missiles and regrouped on the right corner of the Depot. Jazz gave chase, meeting a teammate on the way. She and the squid with the Tenta Camo Brella covered the foe's lime ink with fuchsia. Sqiud laid down Ink Mines periodically along the way. The octoling, whom Jazz had splatted, fired her Clash Blaster at them, but Squid Girl spread her Brella to shield. The enemy's blaster ran out of ink, giving Jazz time to splat her.

She moved to fire on her enemy's approaching teammate, but the front of her weapon fell off at her feet! She panicked and continued firing, splatting her foe at the last second. She grabbed the missing piece of her Sploosh and tried to reattach it, being splatted by a stray Tenta Missile. The whistle blew as she flew back to the spawn in her Ghost form.

Jazz's team won by a sizeable margin. Jazz didn't stick around for a photo with her team. She scooped up the pieces of her busted weapon and ran for the train. She tapped at her phone the whole ride home, trying to contact Eddie and ask them to fix her Sploosh before Splatfest that weekend.

\/\/\/\/\/

Eddie Ein stared intently at their computer screen, waiting for Chess's next move. Playing board games over Splatnet was their favorite pastime; chess and Shogi were their favorite games. This game had lasted for days, as Eddie's games usually did. Chess the sea snail was Edd's only equal. They pondered what Chess would do next, thinking through the knocks at the door that grew louder over time.

"One-one, I know you can hear me!" Called a voice that sounded like Jazz. Edd ignored the girl at their door and typed a message into their Splatnet chat. "ONE-ONE PLEASE!"

"Edward is very busy right now. Please hang up, and call back later!" The small octoling with the bright orange tentacles finally replied. Chess still hadn't moved, so whatever Jazzmine needed would have to wait.

"Eddie, I know your game is important, but I need you to fix my Sweetheart before Splatfest this weekend!" Jazz pleaded.

"Leave your Sploosh at the door and it will be repaired in due time..." Eddie told their teammate through the door. A small flap in the door swung open, and Jazz deposited her weapon into Edd's apartment.

"How's the new song coming, by the way?" Jazz asked when she poked her head through the door, taking care not to get her spiky tentacles stuck. Eddie sighed loudly from their computer screen.

"It's been at a standstill because it's missing something... The track is open on my music software, laughing in my face. YES! CHESS HAS FINALLY MADE A MOVE!" They eagerly clicked back to their chess game, swiftly analyzing and plotting their next move. After taking it, they looked at Jazz. "Would you listen to my song and perhaps play guitar for me?" They asked, their bright orange eyes meeting Jazz's soft purples. The taller octoling grinned with intrigue.

"I don't see why not. Wouldn't Jet or Vivi play better than me?" Jazz could feel Edd rolling their eyes at that.

"Jet is grinding his life away in preparation for Splatfest, and I do not wish to deal with the attitude of Vivian Valentine. Let alone his floppy fretwork, which has no place in my music. It must be you, my wonderful Jupiter Jazz." Jazz chuckled and blushed at their friend's words. Edd was eccentric and sometimes tough to understand, but they were always honest.

"Could I come to listen now, or would you prefer later?"

"The lab is in shambles due to this chess game. Your weapon repairs should be finished by tonight, so could you come by tomorrow? Ooh, and bring Crusty Seanwiches, please!" Edd's face brightened at the thought of their favorite sloppy sandwich. Jazz nodded and grinned, twirling her bright pink tentacles.

"I'll be there! You're the best, One-One!" Jazz cheered as the door flap closed.

"This is true..." Edd bragged. Chess's next move trapped Edd's king, much to their chagrin. They typed 'GG' into the chat and closed the Splatnet window. They grabbed the pieces of Jazz's Neo Sploosh-o-Matic and got to work. They couldn't wait for Jazz to hear their amazing new song.

\/\/\/\/\/

The Piranha Pit was drenched in dark blue ink, which was how Jet always left it. He'd played several matches today, but the Pit was closing soon. He fist-bumped his teammates one final time as he looked down at his stage map. He took a screenshot for his records. Now he would Super Jump to the nearest eats.

"Midnight Black! You're still kicking around in Turf War?" Jet heard from behind him, spoken by a voice he'd sooner not hear. He turned around to see his squad mate's brother Vivian. How could Vio be remotely related to someone so insufferable? Oh well, it wasn't her fault her brother was a traitor.

"Vicious!" Jet hissed at the boy with the long white tentacles. The ocotling sneered at Jet. Jet loved pushing this terrible boy's buttons, especially when Vivi tried so hard to push Jet's.

"I'm not a part of your silly squad anymore. Call me Vivi like everyone else." Vivi rolled his eyes as he replied. It was all Jet could do not to laugh in his face. Jet pulled his tentacles out of their tight braids, letting them take their usual afro shape.

"Well, Vivi, I am still part of the Bebop Crew. So call me Jet or don't bother calling me." Jet fired back, his hands gripping his Dualies tightly. Crow and Raven had seen him through many matches. He loved the Dark Tetras with all his heart.

"Well, Jet, I'd say it was nice to see you, but I wouldn't want to lie to your face." Vivi cackled as he turned to leave.

"Wait. I want to hear it from the seahorse's mouth. Did you really give up Turf War? Or did you leave the Bebop Crew to chase some squid girl?" That stopped Vivi in his tracks. Jet thought his face would get stuck in that sneer. His eyes narrowed as he looked back at Jet.

"Who told you about her? My nosy kid sister, I'm sure!" Vivi spat. A smirk came across Jet's face at the other boy's anger.

"Wow, you really are a totally different person. Vicious would never miss an opportunity to brag about his new squeeze!" Jet laughed. Vivi rolled his eyes so hard Jet thought they might fall off.

"I don't see how that's any of your business. Does the Bebop Crew truly miss me that much?" Vivi spat back. Jet could feel the venom in his former cohort's words, but it only made him laugh harder. He turned away from Vivi, leaving him to seethe.

"I'd say it was good to see you, Vi, but I wouldn't want to lie to your face." Jet grinned at his parting shot, knowing it would eat Vivi up. Vivi twirled one of his long white tentacles.

"See you around, Jet Black. The displeasure is all mine." Vivian shot back before turning to run over to his friends.

"I assure you, Vivian Valentine, it is not." Jet popped off as Vivi joined his posse of inklings. Sure enough, Orange Range was among them. Jet would recognize that braid anywhere. He dismissed all thoughts of Vicious and his new squad, checking his phone to see where the Tidal Tacos truck was parked today. Ooh, nice and close! He dipped into a puddle of ink and shot off in a glorious Super Jump. Time for tacos!

\/\/\/\/\/

Jazz had an hour or so of free time before band practice so she would watch a match. Her sister's shift at the Arowana Mall's food court should be over by the time she arrived. She caught up with Saturn and the two bought food from a different spot in the mall. They could see the stage area of the mall decently from their table, and the business had a screen to watch on in case they couldn't see.

This match was Orange vs. Purple. Jazz felt a hint of jealousy seeing her favorite palette. She looked closer at the players on the screen and realized her best friend Vincent was on the Orange team. "Rings, lookit! Volaju is playing!" She told Saturn, who nodded in between bites of her burger. Seaside Snackages made the best burgers in Inkopolis, according to Rings and Jazz.

Jet sometimes protested, but he didn't like burgers that much anyhow. His heart was with Tidal Tacos forever and always. They did make banging tacos, but Jazz could never find the truck during business hours.

The whistle blew to start the match. Jazz paid close attention to the Orange team for the first part of the match, but a player on Purple's team distracted her before long. This pompadour player was using a Stringer weapon. Jazz had heard of these but had never seen one in action. This beast fired three rounds of ink at a time. Jazz saw a shot fall short of hitting Vinny, but he got splatted moments after as the rounds exploded!

Jazz knew immediately that she had to meet this bow slinger! She watched as they threw a Toxic Mist bomb at another foe, trapping them in a purple cloud so their Special could splat them. The pompadour octoling unleashed the Killer Wail 5.1, a set of smaller but more concentrated sound attacks than the old-school Wail Jazzmine remembered. This octoling must be from the Splatlands since the hot new weapons usually arrived there first.

The match ended soon, and the purple team devastated the orange team. Poor Volaju and his cohorts never stood a chance. Jazz and Rings caught up with him for a moment as the teams shook hands after the match. Jazz saw the pompadour again and yelled out to them. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name on the screen. I hope it isn't rude, but I absolutely need to see that main weapon you're using."

"Not at all. She's pretty, isn't she?" Pompadour cheered. Jazz tried not to blush at the word 'pretty' since this octoling and their weapon both fit that description. "This here's a Tri-Stringer! Stringers are all the rage in the Splatlands!"

"So the exploding rounds are a charged shot? Incredible! One-One would flip out over this thing!" Jazz fawned over the weapon. Pompadour's ears perked up at that.

"You know One-One? I use the Splash Cannon they invented sometimes too!" The purple octoling replied with a quizzical look. Jazz nodded.

"We're in the same squad. They usually test their prototype weapons on all of us..." Jazz twisted one of her tentacles as the awful memory of the first Cannon test rushed to her mind. The Pompadour in front of her twitched and raised an eyebrow suddenly. "Something wrong?"

"You're with the Bebop Crew? They're, like, my favorite squad ever!" Seemed it was their turn to fawn. Jazz chuckled loudly, as she usually did when she met a fan. It always surprised her that anyone knew her squad without facing them in a match.

"Yeah! I founded the squad. Well, Jet and I." She mentioned. Pomp gasped again.

"YOU'RE JUPITER JAZZ? Can I have your autograph?!" They squeaked excitedly and felt around in their pockets. "Oof, I don't have anything you can sign..."

"And I don't have a pen. You know, the Crew has been short a member since Vivi left. I think you'd make a great fit! What was your name by the way?" Jazz asked. The purple one tripped over their words nervously for a moment. "Wow, I didn't think the Crew was famous..."

"You guys are all anyone talks about in the Splatlands! You're as famous as the Fabulous Killjoys are in Inkopolis Plaza!"

"I don't know about all that..." Jazz blushed ten shades of pink. Her face matched her tentacles. Her sister Rings laughed at her. "

But yeah, my name is Mulberri Stardust, and I would love to join the Bebop Crew!” Purple finally answered, a huge grin across their face. Jazz blushed even harder at their pretty smile. She pushed Rings toward Volaju, sensing she was about to make a comment that might embarrass Jazz.

“You’d have to meet the rest of the squad, and One-One might want to test your skills, but I’ll put in a good word for you!” Jazz cheered. A squid girl approached Mulberri and hugged and kissed them as Mulberri told them about Jazz’s offer. Whoa, their girlfriend was cute, too! Jazz tried not to blush any more than she already had.

“Neat! I’m Scatta! If they join your squad, you’ll see me a lot!” The squid girl mentioned. Jazz smiled as they parted ways. Jazz and Rings caught the same train, but Jazz got off sooner to make it to band practice.

\/\/\/\/\/

Band practice had gone quite well, as per usual. For a band with eight members, practice meetups were surprisingly frequent. Sometimes they were missing a horn or some keys, but only because half of them had other music projects or jobs. Jazz played bass in the band, be it a bass guitar or a double bass. Her lobster girlfriend Sandy Claws played the drums. Krillin Clubs the shrimp played keyboards.

Krillin had brought half the band with him after his last band fell out. Dizzy Diamonds the smooth sax inkling had joined with him, as did Spiny Spades the urchin on trombone, and Hammar Hearts the singing shark.

Mars Volta was their new guitarist, a fiercely talented starfish girl. She had wiped the floor with Vivi when he challenged her to a music battle and joined the band when he decided to leave. She brought Farrah Legator with her, an alligator who played a killer trumpet. The eight of them formed Asteroid Bluefin and played jazz that was anything but smooth, inspired by the soundtrack to Jazz’s favorite show.

Singing about space and bounty hunters always made for a fun practice and a wonderful concert. Jazz couldn’t wait until their next gig, though they didn’t know when that might be. They’d almost gotten onto the lineup for Splatfest this weekend, but something fell through and another band got the spot. Jazz was still bummed out about it, but there was always next Splatfest.

Sandy reached her claws around Jazz’s waist and gave her a big hug and a kiss on the shoulder. “Babe, you’re the best band leader I’ve ever had...” The lobster girl complimented. Jazz blushed bright pink at that. She had heard plenty of horror stories about the last band Sandy was in, though they weren’t much of a band. More like a singer with enough ego for a whole orchestra and the only musicians who would put up with him.

“You’re an amazing drummer, my love. It’s not your fault your old band’s singer only wanted to hear his own voice and didn’t let you play the way you like. His loss.” Jazz replied, stealing herself a kiss on Sandy’s lips. Sandy hid her face for a second as she blushed a dark blue.

“So there might be a new member in the Bebop soon? I hope they’re as cute as you said they are.” Sandy laughed. It was Jazz’s turn to blush again. “Just don’t go kissing them without me.”

“They have a girlfriend so I’m sure there won’t be any kissing unless they both want to kiss me. And I would never kiss them without you!” Jazz chuckled back. The two girls laughed and blushed for a moment more.

“I wouldn’t kiss anyone without you either, love... except Marina. I would keep her all to myself.” Sandy giggled. Jazz pouted at the idea, but she understood. Sandy had loved Marina for ages before she’d met Jazz.

“That’s fair. But hey, maybe Mulberri and Scatta will kiss both of us...” Jazz joked. Sandy laughed again at the silly idea.

“What a life that would be!” Sandy cheered as she kissed Jazz again. The two of them snuggled up together to watch a movie, but they didn’t pay much attention since they were cuddling.

\/\/\/\/\/

Mulberri stood in the center of the local training room. Edd had rented the place out to test Berri’s skills with the Splash Cannon, the weapon Edd had designed themself. The cannon was a modified Rapid Blaster with maxed-out stats. It took 300 points to charge the special since its range, damage, and fire rate were so high. It could fire three or four rounds before needing to refill ink, but a skilled blaster could cover plenty of turf with that.

One-One had created quite an obstacle course for them today. The level design was their strong suit, and they were even in the process of designing an official stage. Maybe this test would be a prototype of that. Berri was ready for anything.

The whistle that began the test finally came, and Berri came out swinging. Some Squid Balloons came at them, and they took all three of the dummies down with a well-placed blast. They climbed up a wall in Cephalo form and looked around. They blasted another dummy before dipping down into their purple ink to refill. They swam down off the wall and ran across an Ink Mine, performing a Squid Jump to evade the explosion.

More dummies popped up in front of them, and Berri splatted them with cannon fire. Their special was ready to activate, so they charged up their Booyah Bomb and threw it into the mob of dummies across the stage, splatting all of them as the whistle blew a second time.

The entire practice area was covered in purple ink, and Mulberri wore a huge grin across their face. Suddenly Jet’s face appeared on a screen. He had his tentacles in tight braids instead of the usual afro. He wore a black tuxedo. Jazz rolled her eyes at his theatrics.

“So, Jazz has recommended you, and One-One has tested you. Since you have passed, the last thing is a little questionnaire. Question One: what is your favorite stage?”

“Well, I love the Piranha Pit and Crableg Capitol, but my absolute fave is Humpback Pump Track. I detest Shellendorf Institute with all of its ceiling snipers, but it can be a fun stage sometimes.” Berri answered honestly. They hated camping chargers as much as anyone else did, and the Institute seemed to be designed for them.

“Interesting. Next question: Have you ever heard of the one called Vivian Valentine?” Jazz chuckled at Jet’s question.

“Now, Jet, that wasn’t on the last test!” She joked. Jet shot her a look through the screen.

“Mind your business, ma'am. Now, Mulberri?” Jet snapped back, turning back to Berri.

“I have had the misfortune of being in the same room with him, thanks to Orange Range. It was not an experience I would plan on reliving.” Berri answered again, trying not to roll their eyes at the thought of Vivi. They were happy Scatta wasn't friends with Range anymore.

“Third question: What handle would you use with the Crew?”

“Mercury Stardust. Anything but ‘Kuwabara the Ma’am’ since I chose that name in what feels like another life.” They sighed but put those thoughts away to focus on the questions.

“Final question: What is your favorite thing about Turf War?” Jet asked. Berri had to think for a moment.

“Honestly, what is there not to love? For three minutes all the worries of life fade away. It’s you and your three teammates against the world, and then a flash of pretty colors and it’s onto the next match. It’s pure adrenaline and it’s my favorite thing to do!” Berri answered the final question. They could see Jet thinking. He seemed to be dragging out the silence for dramatic effect, but they weren’t certain. The skill test was one thing, but Berri was never great at talking so they weren’t sure about this questionnaire.

“Well, Mercury Stardust, pack your grip and join my ship, the Bebop!” Jet finally answered. The rest of the crew cheered for Mercury as they realized they had passed all the tests. They all went to Tidal Tacos to eat after Berri’s tests. “They have the best eats in town, undisputedly!” Jet bragged about his favorite taco truck. Berri was ecstatic to be a member of the Bebop Crew.

\/\/\/\/\/ \/\/\/\/\/ \/\/\/\/\/

So yeah, that's what I have so far, as well as a couple scenes for later parts. Or other parts, since I'm not really sure if this will have much of a direction. I know like two things I want to happen by the end, but who knows?

[profound-bouquetbird]

Hi yes,i completely understand as to why someone might feel uncomfortable writing a fic abt jimmy in a romantic aspect,which is exactly why i asked for angst. ( I'm a sucker for angst )

I was asking for a scenario where the reader and jimmy had already been in an established relationship with Jimmy wayy prior than boarding on the tulpar, i was wondering that the reader has positive views on jimmy but after finding out what he did to anya the reader completely breaks down and loses every ounce of love/compassion/respect for jimmy. And how curly/swansea and daisuke would try to comfort the reader.

Jimmy tries to convince the reader to give him another chance but the reader rips him a new one,like just jimmy being pathetic and miserable like he deserves to be.

I've been sent requests and messages that everyone can't wait for this fic, now I'm scared I'm going to disappoint 😔

BUT WHO CARES, I'M STILL WRITING IT, RAAAHHHH 🦅💥💥🦅🦅🦅💥💥💥

Edit: I'm done with writing it and right as I was about to post it, I realized that I forgot to put the actual comfort in the fict... Yeahh....

Warnings: mentions/hinting of sexual assault, Daisuke and the reader having a parent/son relationship, mentions of paper cuts, mentions of guns, drug overdose, murder, blood, hurt/no comfort, not proofread

I looked at Jimmy in absolute horror. No tears, no sobbing, nothing left my lips. There was only one feeling remaining though...

Disgust.

He called out my name, and I couldn't stop the shiver of fear that rushed through me.

"Please... Let me explain."

Three days before boarding ᯓ★

"One year?!" I gasped out in disbelief, eyes widening in shock at the news my boyfriend just dropped. One year out in space? Why would he even accept that offer?!

"I know, I know... But we need the money." He breathed out, not looking so pleased with the outcome either.

I sighed, knowing that he was right. I relaxed back onto the couch, crossing my arms in disappointment.

One year without him here with me? No contact at all? I barely survived his last shipment, and that only lasted three months, and now I had to wait a year? they were asking too much. What do they even ship out?

"... I'm sorry." He breathed out, and his expression only made me feel worse.

"You don't have to apologize... It's your job." I sighed, a small smile on my face to reassure him. Sure, it would be a loonnngg year for me, but it was for the money, for our future... for us.

"I'll go start dinner for us... Okay?" He gave me a sad smile, walking over to me and resting a gentle hand on the back of my head, placing a light kiss to my temple as he made his way towards the kitchen.

I smirked, watching him walk off with a playful roll of my eyes.

"And by that I'm guessing you're ordering pizza?" I teased, causing him to let out a quick laugh before disappearing into the kitchen.

With him gone, I was now alone with my thoughts.

I mean- a whole year away from Earth? That's sure to leave some impact on both me and him.

... My saddened expression slowly started to fade as a thought crossed my mind.

What if I applied for the job with him?

A smile grew on my face, but I couldn't tell him now, it should be a surprise! Yes! Imagine his joy when he finds out I get to tag along with him, and for a whole year at that!

Oh, the overjoyed look on his face-

"You want plain peperoni again or do you want to switch it up for tonight?" I jumped a bit; my thoughts being interrupted as Jimmy yelled from the kitchen.

"Uh- Yeah! A peperoni will do!" I yelled back, smiling to myself. Maybe I should apply after dinner.

One week before boarding ᯓ★

I giggled to myself quietly as I watched Jimmy pack his bags. He always liked to pack early, says he has time to check everything and pack anything that's missing.

"Jimmy..." I dragged out his name, trying to contain my excited expression as I watched him.

"Yes, Y/n? I'm busy, I wouldn't want to miss anything." He mumbled out, rummaging through his things. My smile felt slightly, but I decided to shake that uneasy feeling away. He was just stressed.

"I've got some exciting news." I stated, my smile and excitement returning as he peaked at me over his shoulder and gave me a confused glance, "I applied as a Pony express nurse and... I got in!" I almost squeaked out in excitement, but... my excitement died down when he didn't return it.

He stayed in silence for a little while, still looking over his shoulder but not looking at me.

"... Why would you do that?" He asked me, his voice cold as he still didn't look at me. Did I... do something wrong?

"Well... I'm sure that us being apart would make both your journey and my stay would feel way longer than it was supposed to, so... I thought going with you would make both of our stays fly by faster." I stated sheepishly, now unsure of myself. I looked down at my hands, feeling an intense sense of guilt wash over me as the two of us stayed in silence.

I heard him sigh and his clothes ruffle, soft footsteps walking towards me and soon enough his arms were wrapped around me in a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry I reacted like that... I just didn't want you to get hurt." He mumbled into my hair, one of his hands resting on my lower back while the other ran through my hair.

Every ounce of dread faded away with those simple words, hugging him back with a smile on my face.

"... I should've told you earlier, I'm sorry too." I mumbled back. I felt his grip get a bit tighter, which made me feel comforted. He mumbled something underneath his breath that I couldn't comprehend, but I didn't question it.

Two months before the crash ᯓ★

Life on the ship was... Weird. I mean, I knew I was away from Earth, but it felt like we didn't even take off, which I guess is better than floating around.

Everyone on the ship was nice as well. Anya, my coworker was really sweet and really competitive when it came to boardgames, but she's been oddly quiet around my boyfriend, Jimmy... maybe because she found out he was my boyfriend she didn't want to seem like she was going to steal him away from me, which I find very sweet.

Daisuke was interesting. He was a bit nervous for the first few days, but I couldn't really do anything since he didn't really want to talk to anyone. He quickly opened up to us though, and it's always interesting to hear him talk, he does say some weird stuff sometimes though.

Swansea was the same as boarding day, acting very serious and only talking about work, but I sometimes get to hear a little about his past. He has a wife and two kids! How nice.

Curly was a nice captain, I don't see him nor talk to him often, but the times that I did he was nice.

And of course there was my boyfriend, Jimmy. He focuses on his work a lot, which is good don't get me wrong! But I sometimes want him to spend time with me or even visit me in the medical bay...

All of the relationships to the side, work wasn't really that hard. Everyone made sure to take care of themselves, Daisuke got hurt every once in a while, but even he knew not to waste supplies over something as little as a paper cut (I still sneak him my own band-aids every once in a while, though).

---

I smiled to myself as I read through the reports, Anya and I split the 'interrogation' part of the psych test, I was the one to deal with Daisuke since he was the only one to actually drag out the psych test with his little stories. Anya complained to me about it, so I offered to take the test instead of her.

I sat in the room with the young intern, finding myself actually interested in his stories. He somehow managed to find a story with every question that I asked... And when he didn't have an opportunity to rant about a story, he just extended his answer.

He was just done with his rant about how he managed to hit his pinkie toe when he was trying to pass a screwdriver to Swansea, hilarious really.

"Hm..." I hummed a bit, tapping my bottom lip with my pen as I inspected the questions. "... How would you say your relationships with the crewmembers are?" I read off the question, ticking it off the list for myself.

"Awh, absolutely great!" He began excitedly, and just as I thought he was going to leave it at that, he continued.

"Curly is an awesome captain! Sure, I don't see him often, but he's so cool! He always knows how to fix a problem.

Anya is sweet too, but I don't see her as often like I do you. While we're on the topic of you, you've also been pretty awesome, you didn't have to give me your band-aids though.

Swansea is rude, but he can be cool from time to time. I'm still proud that I managed to make him laugh the other day with one of my jokes. But he can tone it down on the yelling sometimes...

Jimmy is also pretty cool! Being a co-pilot must be really hard, and I appreciate that he's in the cockpit most of the time to make sure we don't crash. But he could come out every once in a while... Last time I saw him was a day or two ago when he visited Anya in the medbay though." My smile fell at that small comment, my writing stopping abruptly as I stared down at my notes for a moment.

Jimmy visited Anya. Why wouldn't he come to visit me? I mean- maybe he walked into the medbay to look for me and I wasn't there, even then why would he ask Anya where I was or at least wait for me to come back. So why did he leave the cockpit and not come to visit me first. I'm his damn partner!

Daisuke noticed my silence, his own happy expression turning awkward and on edge.

"Uh... Did I say something wrong?" He asked sheepishly, almost sinking into his seat while clutching the edges of his seat awkwardly.

"Oh... No, Daisuke. Don't worry, I just got lost in thought." I smiled warmly towards him. That small act made him relax. Jimmy is not important currently; I'll talk to him after the psych eval with Daisuke.

I looked back at the paper to see the rest of the questions, only to be surprised that we were done with the last one.

"Looks like we're done here." I sighed, setting down the papers on the small table. Daisuke let out an overexaggerated sigh of relief, slumping in his seat.

"Ugh, finally!" He chuckled, "I thought the questions were never gonna end!"

I chuckled at his antics, standing up from my seat and picking up the papers once more.

"I suggest you get back to work, don't want Swansea worrying now, do we?" I chuckled, opening the door and waiting for him to walk out.

"No! That's even worse! Please continue with the questions!" He whined, getting up and walking out despite his words, although with a bit of a slump.

I walked out right after him, closing the door right after walking out.

"Good luck." I sighed, watching him walk away to where Swansea supposedly was.

"You, too!" He yelled back, smiling brightly, waving goodbye while turning the corner.

I exhaled through my nose, making my way towards the medbay. You know what? I don't have time to argue with him right now about him visiting Anya, he always thinks he's in the right, so the argument won't really lead to anything.

A week before the crash ᯓ★

Anya looked... on edge recently.

She has been jumpier than before... Now that I think about it, I don't remember her being jumpy in the first week.

I did ask her if something was wrong and that she could talk to me if needed, but she just brushed me off and told me that she was fine. People deal with their problems in different ways, and I get that, but... I'm worried about her.

Right now, I was sitting on the kitchen counter, poking at my food a bit as I was lost in thought.

My thoughts were interrupted by footsteps. I turned around only to spot captain Curly. I smiled at the man, turning fully to greet him.

"Morning, captain." I smiled, "Came for some breakfast?" I asked, as if it wasn't already obvious. The man gave me a tired smile and walked to the kitchen, grabbing the already prepared meal like I had. Anya was kind enough to make us a plate each because I slept in and Curly doesn't come out of the cockpit often, same as Jimmy.

"Yup." He tiredly answered my question, sitting down beside me as he began eating. I observed his tired manors for a couple of seconds, giving him a sympathetic look.

"Need a nap, Curly?" I asked him, taking a bite of my own food as I waited for his response.

"Desperately, but it's not like I can." He sighed, the small smile on his face turning into a small frown. I furrowed my brows at his words.

"How so? Jimmy is there to take over when you're too tired, right?" I questioned, setting down my fork. He furrowed his brows, closing his eyes for a moment. He looked like he had been caught in a lie.

"It's not that... simple." He dragged out his words, which only made me even more confused.

"What do you mean?" I cautiously asked, eying him suspiciously. He exhaled through his nose, setting down his fork as well as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"He just... doesn't look like he's in the right place to maneuver the ship properly." He said, trying to end the conversation with that. But I didn't want to back out that easily.

"He's been in that cockpit almost 24/7 since we boarded. I don't understand how he couldn't control the ship properly." I tried to argue, getting a bit agitated. Why would he think my boyfriend was incompetent? He can take responsibility.

"Just... leave it to me, okay?" He sighed, obviously not wanting to argue, and I respect that.

"... Alright, captain. I trust you." I backed out, standing up to wash my dishes.

"Leave the dishes to me." Curly spoke up, standing up himself to wash his own dish, grabbing mine before I could protest. I smiled, mumbling a quick thank you before making my way towards the medbay.

Zero days before the crash ᯓ★

I was patching up another one of Daisuke's paper cuts. He claims that he doesn't know how to use a band-aid correctly, but I think he just wants to rant to me.

"I wonder what I'm missing back on earth..." He sighed after finishing his long rant about some hard level that he barely passed on his Gameboy.

"You'll be so far back on the trends." I chuckled, patting his paper cut to convince him that it was on correctly.

"Don't you worry about me; I'll easily catch up." He tried to flex his muscles for the dramatic effect. I rolled my eyes at that, patting his shoulder and standing up.

"Well, your injury is taken care of, you can head back to work-" I was interrupted by blaring red lights and alarms.

my heart dropped at that, looking around the room as if I was going to find the source. I looked back towards Daisuke to see his panicked expression.

"Stay here, I'll go look to see what's wrong-"

"Are you insane!? Don't go out, please!" Daisuke pleaded, clinging onto my uniform sleeve to make me stay. My heart ached at his desperate please.

But, then again, it could just be a fake alarm... But that also doesn't mean I should leave him alone-

The whole ship started to shake; the alarms started to blare more loudly and so did Daisuke.

He kept repeating "Oh my god!" and "Please, no!"

I clung to him tightly, covering his head as a sort of instinct as I pulled us down onto the floor. The things on the desk we were next to started to fall onto us and I covered Daisuke from everything. Everything moved and trashed around in the medbay and the only thing I could do is cling to him.

What was going on?

Two months after the crash ᯓ★

I sat next to Jimmy, trying to comfort him by resting my head on his shoulder and slowly petting the back of his hand with my thumb. But he was still tense, his expression looking permanently sour.

"... Talk to me, Jimmy. Please..." I tried to get him to open up. I heard him scoff and moments later he shoved me off of him.

"Fuck off, leave me alone." He grumbled, standing up and storming off. I didn't chase after him.

I let out a long exhale, pinching the bridge of my nose and resting my elbows on my knees. I understood why he would be on edge, I mean, one of his closest friends literally drove the ship into an asteroid, who wouldn't be upset?

But he could at least talk to me about it, I'm his partner after all.

"Are you okay?" I heard a soft voice behind me. I turned around to spot Anya. I put up a fake smile to comfort her though.

"I'm okay, Anya, really." I breathed out, straightening up my posture to mimic a confident look, although failing.

She gave me a pitiful look, taking a seat in the armchair next to me.

"... How have you been holding up?" I asked her after a couple of moments of silence. She was quiet for a little while, making me think it wasn't as well as I previously presumed. I mean- the ship crashed, and Curly is basically lacking skin and limbs but... she strong... Gosh, now I sound like a piece of shit when I really think about it.

"Poorly, I can't..." She closed her eyes, resting her head on the back of the couch. It felt like she was keeping something from me.

"... Nevermind." She muttered, standing up to walk away. I opened my mouth to call out to her, for her to tell me what she wanted, but I held back. Maybe it was better if I didn't know.

Four months after the crash ᯓ★

Everything and on the ship felt eerie.

Daisuke was quieter, which absolutely broke my heart. Anya looked weaker, she couldn't even glance towards Curly or his general direction. Swansea was getting absolutely drunk out of his mind on mouthwash. And Jimmy was... distant.

How could Curly even do this? The last time I talked to him he seemed completely fine, why would he change up so suddenly?

I heard a rough voice call out my name, I turned quickly to spot Swansea.

"Yes?" I hummed. The old man grabbed my forearm roughly.

"We need to talk." He stated, dragging me away from everyone in the main area. Jimmy gave the two of us a glare but stayed in his spot.

After the two of us were out of eyesight and earshot, Swansea let go of me. I was quick to massage the spot he grabbed, giving him a glare.

"There was no need to drag me." I grumbled. Swansea ignored my words and began to talk.

"I already talked to Anya about this beforehand, so this is mostly me telling you the plan." He pointed an accusing finger at me. I stayed quiet, waiting for him to begin talking as I massaged the spot he grabbed.

"There is only on cryogen pod left. And Anya and I agreed to give it to Daisuke." He stated. I gave him a look of confusion.

"I thought the room to the cryogen pods was completely blocked off by foam...?" I muttered in confusion. Why would he lie about something like that?

"I said that because Jimmy would've made it a big deal and it would've been a damn free for all in here." I was offended by his words, giving him a look of disbelief as I took a step back.

"Jimmy? Why would he do that?" I grumbled, making sure to keep my voice quiet. I didn't want him to hear, how offended and utterly hurt he would be if he heard Swansea's accusations.

"He- Never mind..." He gave up on an explanation, and I decided to not push it further. "What I'm trying to say is... We're saving the last pod for Daisuke." He said and I didn't protest, giving him a nod of approval and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Alright... but I should really tell Jimmy tha-"

"One word to him about this and you're dead." He grunted, pointing a finger to my chest before storming off.

I lightly massaged the area where he poked me, watching him walk away with a frown and furrowed brows as I composed myself in silence.

Why are they so against telling Jimmy, their now captain, about the cryogen pod? I don't understand...

---

I was panicking.

Daisuke and Jimmy were nowhere to be seen, Swansea also, and Anya had locked herself in the medicalbay.

"Anya, please open the door, talk to me!" I yelled at the door, my voice shaky and my breaths quick as I leaned against the door, staring at it like I was going to pass through it.

She called my name weakly, making me even more anxious than before.

"I'm... I'm so sorry." She sounded like she was crying, which only made my worries worsen.

"Sorry? You- you don't have anything to be sorry for, Anya. Please open the door for me." I laughed awkwardly, like when you're caught sneaking out by your parents and are trying to make up an excuse.

"Jimmy... he..." Her voice was weak, and the mention of my boyfriend's name made me swallow thickly, afraid of what she would say.

"He what, Anya, please... Say something." I whispered, caressing the door, pretending like I was comforting her.

"I didn't want to... He made me." She called out my name, "He forced me- I'm sorry, I really am..."

I was confused.

"Forced you? Anya, please unlock the door and we'll talk, I won't be mad. Whatever you say I'll understand." I tried talking to her, but she became unresponsive. It stayed like that for a little while before I began banging on her door.

"Anya? Anya please respond-" My blood ran cold as I heard an echoing scream come from within, but it wasn't Anya's... No... Please-

Before I could think of anything else, I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head, and everything went black.

One hour until Judgement ᯓ★

My eyes fluttered open, my breathing slow as I tried to remember what happened. I tried moving but I realized I was tied down onto something.

I blinked rapidly to get used to the new lighting, looking around to see where I was. I was in the common area, living room as Daisuke called it.

Speaking of him, where was he? I remember hearing something... He screamed, he got hurt

I squinted as I looked around rapidly, where was everyone?

"Daisuke? Anya? Jimmy? Swansea? Anyone! Can anyone hear me?!" I yelled, my voice raspy and my head throbbing. It was hard to adjust to the red lighting, but once it did, I tried looking for clues.

"Can anyone hear..." My voice trailed off as I spotted someone lying on the ground, it was heard to see who it was. I squinted and tried to focus.

"Daisuke?" I questioned, but the boy didn't budge.

"Daisuke! Don't fuck with me! Are you alright?" I yelled at him, tugging at my restraints. His lack of a response left me frustrated. I groaned, trashing around to try and loosen up the ropes a bit. Who would even tie me up in the first place?

I managed to loosen up the knots, finding them and untying them in the process. Whoever did tie me up sure didn't pay attention in whatever knot tying class they took.

I sat up straight, looking down to see I was tied up on the coffee table. I stretched a bit, finding the silence awful, but I continued.

I walked towards the laying boy cautiously, my eyes adjusting the closer I got and... Oh... Oh god-

"Daisuke..." I breathed out, eyes wide in horror as I stared at the interns split face.

I quickly ran towards him, crouching down as I didn't want to touch him, feeling like my filthy hands would ruin him.

"What... how-" Tears welled up in my eyes as I stared at the lifeless body of the intern. I looked back to where I was tied up, jumping and feeling petrified as I saw Swansea's limp body tied up in a chair, how had I not noticed him before?

I switched my gaze between the young intern and the older mechanic, not sure what to do. Is there even anything I can do? Daisuke's skull is literally split open and, by the looks of it, Swansea has two bullets in his head.

I stood up, legs shaking as I walked back, looking down the hall hesitantly and into the medical bay.

I slapped my hand to my mouth as I saw Anya, lifeless with blood seeping from her mouth from what I could see. Quiet sobs left my lips as I tried not falling to the ground. There was only one person who could've done this...

But... Jimmy would never do such a thing! Yes, he may seem a little cold and distant at times but that doesn't mean he's a murderer! He's my boyfriend, he's... he's supposed to be the good guy...

Who else could have done that though? What else could've done that? I looked back at Daisuke.

His head was open, I stated that multiple times... But with what? A pipe couldn't have done that, and the axe was in Swansea's care... Then that would explain him being tied up in a chair.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

The harsh reaction I had when I told him I got the job, Anya's usual attitude falling when he was around, looking scared and over all staying quiet... Her words. It all made sense

Not only did he go on a killing spree, but he cheated, he forced himself onto Anya, he traumatized her. He didn't kill her, she killed herself because of him, and that was far worse.

The love I previously had for him seemed to just disappear at that moment, being replaced with guilt, anger.

I heard shuffling, my head snapping to see him.

I looked at Jimmy in absolute horror. No tears, no sobbing, nothing left my lips. There was only one feeling remaining though...

Disgust.

He called out my name, and I couldn't stop the shiver of fear that rushed through me.

"Please... Let me explain."

"Explain what?" I questioned, voice barely audible.

He opened his mouth to speak, but he stuttered, not knowing how to even start his sentence. Pathetic.

"I... I had to! Anya fucking killed herself because of a stupid depressive episode she had! Daisuke got injured in the vents while trying to save her, I tried to save him too, but he was badly injured and Swansea fucking killed him! I had to shoot Swansea in self-defense because he wanted to kill both of us. He tied you up and wanted to kill me because he wanted the cryogen pod all to himself! That was his plan all along! He wanted to leave all of us for dead." His excuses only made me hate him more.

Anya killing herself because of an episode? Swansea killing Daisuke because there was no hope? Him shooting Swansea in self-defense? His story had shitty plot holes, and even I could see that with the two minutes I had to look around.

"..." I stayed quiet, just staring at him in disbelief that he could make up such a statement. How many excuses and lies did he tell me while we were dating?

"... Baby, please-"

"Don't call me that." I hissed, cutting him off mid-sentence, I didn't want to hear any more excuses, any more pleas, nothing. "I'm done." He stared at me in confusion, but I could see his usual irritation growing.

"Done with what?" He hissed back, voice lower, brows knitting together in irritation.

"I'm done with you." I grumbled. I watched him as his grip on the gun got tighter. "I'm done with dealing with your temper tantrums, I'm done with being patient, I'm done with listening to your every order, and I'm done with your cheating."

"Cheating? What are you talking about-"

"I don't want to listen to your annoying voice anymore, Jimmy. I have tried time and time again to ignore your flaws, I tried to see the best in you, but I can't anymore." My heart was beating in my ears. From fear? From anger? I couldn't tell. "All this time while I was on the Tulpar- No, while I've been dating you, you have shown that you don't care about me, and I don't even know why I decided to stay with you for this long."

I could hear his angered breathing even from this far away, which made my fears worsen, but at this point I'd rather be shot than survive.

"Shoot me. I'd rather be dead than carry the burden that I chose to be with you." I mumbled, my voice quieter now as I gave him a challenging look.

The two of us were consumed by silence once more, the sparks of faulty wiring and his intense breathing giving me a sense of anticipation.

I watched him as he raised the gun, a look that I could only describe as disappointment resting on his face.

"You don't understand." He grumbled, the gun aimed at my head. I only glared at him, daring him to pull the trigger. "And I know you never will."

With that, I watched him pull the trigger the last thing I heard was a loud bang before my body hit the floor.

[tunastime]

Love in the Time of Calculation

as promised: the first chapter of the ranchers SEN fic! this fic takes place inside the au I created for Stretching Endless Night. I'm hoping posting this first chapter will actually get me to. write the rest of it. since I've got so much of it written. jazz hands!! enjoy!

In order to continue supplying food for a growing station, Commander Tango Tek, second to the head of engineering on the space station Prometheus, takes a six month study with the Empire-2 station at the behest of his admiral. There, he meets their botanist and horticulturist, Jimmy, a man he's only communicated with in communiques, voice memos, and documents. When they meet for the first time face-to-face, Tango realizes they both have something very interesting in common. In the face of all odds, two androids fall deeply, horribly in love. (6711 words)

Tango flips a switch on his navigation panel.

“It would be funny,” he says, slowly, enunciating as the recorder picks him up. “If I were to start these with some outlandish startdate. I would find it hilarious, I think, but I don’t know how many other people would. So…

Stardate 2105.47: I’ve just made brief contact with the Ring-style Space Station known as the Empire-dash-2. After discussion of docking procedure, I was forwarded the…passkey for the docking sequence and I should be arriving within two hours of my current time. That time is…in hour format…8:07pm. Lookin’ forward to meeting them, as much as they’re probably lookin’ forward to meeting me. I’ve never spoken to them in person—it’s all been electronic. So…it’ll be interesting, to say the least!” He nods, feeling some inclination to sigh—despite there being no way to. Motions he’d learned and copied from his peers. 

“Thus begins my month-long stay with E-dash-2. I can only hope some work with hydroponics actually gets me somewhere. They tell me the guy’s a genius, so I’m inclined to believe them.”

Tango jabs his finger against the stop recording button. After a beat, the small, LCD screen flashes SENT in dark, bold letters. Leaning back in his chair, Tango folds his arms over his chest, and sets his boots on his console. The ship around him hums faintly, enough to be heard if he pays attention to it. As he leans back, he surveys the inside of his ship, the LTS-111, the small craft that he called home. In comparison to other ships on the Prometheus, it’s smaller, built for short term travel between locations, a cool, dark grey inside. There’s two swivel chairs at the helm, a large front, port window, overlain with his control panel, above and below his chair. Behind him, a door opens to a short hallway—mess hall and his room, just a plain, grey-white with one bunk. There’s a crate with his belongings, of which there are few, a plant on the windowsill to keep him sane. The mess is devoid of food and drink. It’s a luxury he doesn’t need. It’s nice when he can, but it’s nothing but an experience for him. Nothing to be gained from poorly made HASA meals full of crude protein. The edge of his boot catches the lip of the console, pulling at the rubber. He’s tucked his flight suit into his boots. His eyes follow the bright red and gold stripe down the side—division colors. Commander, engineering and technology. On his sleeve there would be the same designation, as was on all of his uniforms. Even the plain black, well fit shirt underneath, even his boots. HASA; Commander. Luckily his boots didn’t have a commander or engineering tag. If he felt so inclined to sand off the small rubber HASA branding he could.

His eyes follow a line across the ceiling, to the small strip of light that brightens the room. He runs his fingers over the seam in his sleeve—habit, again, but he’s not sure from whom. 

The hour passes slowly. Tango spins simulations in his mind, projects from the ship's computer the schematics of E-2. He can see the docking station there on the map and traces out the line from there to the botanical garden. He spends time memorizing that path, and out to other locations, and rolling the names of his new compatriots around in his language acquisition program. None of these things are foreign to him—he’s built for new experiences, new learning opportunities. He can feel where known things end and new begins, and craves to fill the space, often and continuously. When that hour ends, there’s a tinny beep from his communications panel. He looks over the message displayed.

LTS-111 prepare docking sequence.

Tango dials the coordinates into his navigation system, overriding the current charting program to pilot into the docking bay. As he does, a crackling voice jumps to life.

“LTS-111, this is Fwhip, Commander of E-2. Do you copy?”

“E-2, this is Commander Tek of Prometheus. I copy. The Rift is ready for docking procedure.”

“Commander!” The voice—Fwhip—laughs. “It’s good to have you. Glad to hear you made it safely.”

Tango nods to himself.

“Myself as well. Looking forward to meeting you all.”

The line clicks out. Tango resettles in his chair, sitting up straight, taking in the sound of Fwhip’s voice, the designation, the information. He files that away.

The curve of E-2 comes into view, stark white and grey, glittering gold where the paneling reflects light. He watches as the shining craft sits suspended amidst stars, its own field of gravity and oxygen and life shining a faint blue in the light of the nearby sun. He feels that warmth through the front viewscreen, despite the gold foil and shade to block it. It’s nice. In the closest approximation to nice he could get. He pulls the seat’s harness over his chest, snaps it in place as he begins standard docking procedure—slowing to a noticeable crawl, flipping on his communications panels, and switching to reserve thrusters. The Rift was made with older tech, anything he could salvage and amass from ships being decommissioned. It functioned—better than the standard HASA ships and was fully compliant—well beyond what he’d ever expected. Though he wasn’t quite human enough to have real expectations.

The ship settles into a launch port on the far side of E-2. Tango takes his time collecting his belongings. He wanders into his room as the ship powers down, settling into a dull hum. He repacks his bag, giving a quick once-over of the bunk before he lifts the trunk into his arms, the weight negligible. He settles the plant in the corner of his bag, making sure it’s settled before he slings the bag over one shoulder and sets the crate on one hip. His startup keycard sits in his front shirt pocket, and his credentials badge in his back pocket. 

The first thing he notices as he enters the launchpad for E-2 is how clean and bright it is. The launchpad is devoid of anyone working, and there are certainly no other docking ships. The two other ships Tango can see are relatively new and clean, parked closely together. He glances around the space, looking for any sign of movement. His footsteps echo quietly around the empty chamber. To his right, beyond a stabilizing membrane is the winking stars of space. There’s a planet in the far distance, but it’s much too far to see anything notable. 

The bay door to his ship closes as he steps toward the winding steps up to the lofted second floor. He starts up the steps, lifting the crate into his arms. 

“Commander Tek!”

Tango startles. Looking up to the second floor, he sees someone lean over the railing, waving enthusiastically. Tango squints at him, surrounded by the white facade of the walls around him. 

“Commander Fwhip?” Tango says, cocking his head to the side. He sees Fwhip nod again.

Tango smiles a little, eyebrows furrowing despite it. Fwhip. The intonation matches what he heard crackling over the communicator of his ship, though, of course, without the static. He’s wearing stark black, with a large diagonal line cut in red across his chest, up to his collar, and over his shoulders. Tango realizes for a moment that his jumpsuit may not have been the prime choice for meeting a commanding officer—no matter the rank or office. Especially considering that he was supposed to be both a liaison and a researcher. 

But as Fwhip meets Tango on the landing, he shakes his hand firmly. There’s a spark, somewhere, in his eye, his heart rate elevated as Tango greets him. He’s winded, too, like he ran all the way here. Tango feels a piece of information in his mind click unexpectedly into place.

“Commander Fwhip,” he says, copying the smile Fwhip is giving him more fully. “It’s a pleasure.”

“Oh, please,” Fwhip laughs. “Commander, the pleasure is ours. Congratulations on your most recent publication.”

Tango nods. Somewhere, something kicks in his chest, just the faintest flicker of painful phantom sensation. It took him two years to publish that paper—and it was a damn shame he had to die to get it published in full, despite Doc and Etho’s help.

Fwhip’s hand is warm in his, enough to notice the change in sensation between them. He can feel Fwhip’s heartbeat in his palm and the way his breathing stutters for a second when Tango and him shake hands. Fwhip looks down at his hand. Tango lets go first, the noticeable white lines on his skin pulsating in and out. His hand feels stiff as he stretches it, feeling metal extend and retract.

“You’re…” Fwhip starts. Tango sees him frown, just the smallest change between his eyebrows. 

“An android?” Tango finishes. He watches color rise to Fwhip’s face as Tango tilts his head, expression neutral, amused, even. Fwhip laughs, even if it’s born from a touch of embarrassment. Tango hums something low, a version of a laugh he can manage to sound normal. 

“It’s not strange, if that’s what you think I think,” Fwhip says, leading Tango toward the stairs. “Unexpected maybe, but—to be fair, they didn’t tell you anything about me, either.”

“That is very true,” Tango says. He feels that itch, then, that want to know, to delve deeper. He shifts the box in his arms as they round the stairs, reaching the upper platform. “I think most people are surprised to find that I’m an android.” 

“That’s a shame—you’re brilliant for more reasons than just being an android,” Fwhip says, and the click comes back again, like he’s cracking a combination lock one number at a time. 

“I appreciate that,” Tango says, inclining his head. If there were anything in his face to indicate blush, he would be bright red. He hums instead, tilting his head back and forth in a dismissive sort of shake. Fwhip backsteps to walk by his side, raising his eyebrows over his glasses.

“So,” he starts, motioning to the door. “Did you have any questions about the ship as you settle in?”

Tango looks down at his shoes for a second, letting the thought spin in his head. He nods, just once.

“Yeah,” he says. “I’d love to hear more about the botany division—I got a real short mission briefing with Admiral Xisuma before I left. I know we were in a hurry to find the sweet spot of travel.”

“Of course,” Fwhip says. “Lining up that parallel can be real difficult if you don’t time it right.”

“The Admiral’s got an eye for interesting navigation patterns.”

Fwhip laughs, nodding his head. 

“Glad to hear you’re in good hands,” he says, opening the door for them. Tango follows him into a brightly lit hallway, lined in white and cream and bright floor lights. Along the edges are colored lines, intersecting and dividing—red, blue, green—to locations Tango can’t see. He follows Fwhip down a corridor, further from the launch platform. Tango knows this layout—further down the hall is a passenger elevator meant for the science team. They’ll take it down four flights to the belly of the ship, where many of the labs rest, tucked away. The ship's rings orbit each other, so he’ll be in this ring for as long as he’s doing research. They’re relatively straight forward, broken into divided sections inside. He traces the pattern out in his mind as Fwhip begins to speak.

“Well, to give you a station briefing, our main team fluctuates, but I’d say we have about 15 to 20 of us at any given time on command, and then a hundred of personnel and staff besides ourselves. I work closely with Lieutenants Scott and Pix, and both of them know our botanist pretty well,” he turns to Tango as he calls for the elevator, pressing his keycard to the small panel next to it. The numbers above the sliding doors illuminate in orange, bright and blocky. Tango raises his eyebrows. 

“His name is Jimmy,” Fwhip continues. “He’s a Lieutenant Junior Grade, but he’s incredibly good at what he does. I’ll let you two get acquainted when we get down there.” The elevator doors slide open. Fwhip gestures Tango inside before he himself steps in, pressing the button for their floor. Tango sets his trunk at his feet, toeing it off to the side and out of the way. “He spends most of his time down there, so you may not see him much at all besides when you’re working.”

Tango hums. He screws up his face into an approximation of thinking, running the words over in his head. A junior lieutenant. A higher officer, for certain, but for him to be teaching Tango—there feels like there should be a catch. Tango pulls at the seams of the phrasing, the intonation. His eyebrows furrow.

Fwhip answers his question before it leaves his mouth.

“He basically revitalized the hydroponics system overnight—nothing’s changed in the watering or feeding system, but the plants grow like crazy now,” Fwhip folds his arms, glancing over at Tango as Tango folds his hands behind his back. “I think it was his specification for a while, so as soon as he got here, he requested the transfer, and his work brought him up the grade.”

“That’s impressive,” Tango says, a touch quiet. The only other person he knew who’d ever done something like that had been Mumbo, and most of his ideas were feats of engineering so large they required a three-room modified lab space and a blast chamber. Meridian supplied that—though Prometheus—himself included—was sad to lose him to their sister station, especially after how long he worked with Tango. 

“He’s written a paper on it—it’s in the works of being reviewed now,” Fwhip says. “I don’t know how likely it is to go through, though.”

Tango hums again. 

“Why’s that?”

Fwhip shrugs. “He’s just not a nice guy to work with,” he says. “And I don’t mean that to be rude, either.”

The elevator doors open. They spill out into a lackluster hallway, still the same bleach white as the floors above. Taking a sharp right, they follow the curved edge of the ship down the green line, toward a series of crew cabins. Fwhip gestures toward a room closer to the middle of their row. As they stand there for a moment, he offers Tango a keycard.

“We got you a room—well before we knew that you…probably wouldn’t need the bedspace,” he says, shaking his head apologetically. Tango waves his hand. “You’re welcome to it, though.”

“Oh, I’ll absolutely take it,” Tango says, trying that smile again. Fwhip smiles back this time, one that touches his eyes, and makes Tango smile harder.”I like having my own space. Normally I have an office, so this’ll do just fine, I think.”

He presses the keycard to the door as Fwhip lifts his crate into his arms, struggling under the weight for a moment. The door slides open. Inside, as the soft yellow lights raise to bright, is a sparsely furnished room. Fwhip carries his crate into the room, setting it at the foot of the double bed. The room is small, clean, tidy. He turns in a small circle as Fwhip sets the crate down, nodding his head.

“This is great,” Tango says, dipping his head. “Thank you.”

Fwhip nods, clapping him on the shoulder.

“Absolutely,” he says. Moving past him, he gestures back to the hallway. “I’ll be forwarding you the ship changelog, so you know who’s on shift at a given time, and when meals are, if you have any interest.”

“That sounds great,” Tango says, moving with him to the hall. He follows Fwhip back down the hall, back towards the elevator. They diverge at a second hallway and down a third, following the winding corridor through the ship’s interiors. The walls shift from opaque to translucent as they follow the path down, with more and more people shuffling about. Fwhip moves through the hall easily—Tango navigates with a bit more difficulty, skirting past doors sliding open and bright lights and the new rush of people. As they weave through, Fwhip says:

“Figured I’d show you down to the lab,” he checks his wrist, a brief flash of numbers and notifications that Tango doesn’t quite catch fully. “I’ve got a bit before I have to be back at the bridge.”

Tango hums.

“Great—I’ll…hopefully be able to find, uh, Jimmy?”

Fwhip nods. 

“Mhm—” he says. They pause at a lab closer to the end of the corridor. Through the high ceiling and tinted glass, Tango can see the warm yellow and purple light that floods the space. The lab stretches further down the hallway and out of sight. Fwhip tilts his head toward the lab. 

“This is it?” Tango asks. 

“This is the one,” Fwhip says. He steps back from the door, letting Tango tap his card, the door sliding open for him. It stays open for a moment as Tango steps in. Fwhip checks his wrist again.

“I’ll let you find him,” he says. “Hopefully you’ll get a briefing before you leave to unpack.”

Tango nods, smiling again. The warmth of the room starts to roll over him as he stands still—cooling kicks on to adjust, like a sigh out of his chest.

“Thank you, Commander,” he says. Fwhip nods, dismissing him, before the door shuts between them, and Tango stands, alone, in a room full of plants.

He picks his way around the lab for a long while. The quiet is nice, the sound of air circulating and the soft hum of lights and electronics. He hadn’t run this particular section over in his schematics—something about it almost felt invasive. He wanted to learn it for himself, standing in the center of the room, hands braced on the work table. The equipment portion of the lab is its own self-contained room at the front of the lab—big enough for a table, several workstations, shelves of equipment. He rounds the table as he spots a secondary sliding door, obscured by the semi-translucent, white glass. 

Tango presses his loaned keycard to the scanner, watching the door slide open. Stepping inside, he stands amongst a huge lab filled with rows of vegetables, aquatic plants, and small trees. He can see potatoes, carrots, beets, neat and lined in suspended troughs of water and sitting in cups on the floor. Along the walls are digging and planting tools organized haphazardly, strewn about in small piles. The air is warm and humid as he walks his way around a series of rows—it almost feels like its own planet, like the atmosphere alone were thick enough to taste. 

Tango walks along a row, watching the plants with a careful consideration, as if they would move, or reach out to him, or something. But they’re just plants—unmoving beside the slight wave in the airflow. He reaches out after a moment, brushing one of the leaves, feeling it between his fingers. It’s rhubarb. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen rhubarb before. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen this many plants before.

Moving around the hydroponics, Tango wanders around the other side of the lab, watching as it stretches out and further back, rows of plants in tight lines, purple lighting and tubes for irrigation running across the ceiling. He turns into a slow circle, moving back through the rows as he does. The rows loop around back to the supply stations, where Tango walks backward, trying to see the end of the lab, where else it could lead, where else he could explore.

His foot catches under him, sliding out as his knees buckle and he lurches sideways.

He yelps loudly, flailing as he falls, losing his balance and smacking into the shelf behind him. A handful of ceramic plants pots and glass beakers fall with him, smashing to the ground as the shelf comes loose. Tango scrambles up, slipping again as he lands on his hands and knees, fumbling as he tries to scoop the glass into a reasonable, unnoticeable pile, to fix the shovels that must’ve fallen with him, the stacks of gardening gloves under his right boot. He mutters to himself as he does, babbling as his mind whirs with simulations. They were always there—right? That’s fine! He tries to stack a pair of gloves back on the shelf, watching them slide directly off. 

Shoot. Shoot! Damn it!

“Shit—” he mumbles.

“Hello?”

A voice calls out from the other side of the room. Tango hears a door shut. He pushes the broken shards of a pot near his knee together, like he could even try and fix the shattered pot. He searches wildly for the voice as he does.

“Hi—” he manages, voice warbling unexpectedly. “I’m so sorry—I didn’t mean to.”

“What?” the voice comes again. “Who…”

Tango follows a shape through the row of plants as a man in grey steps around toward him. He blinks, owlish and confused, as he stares at Tango. Tango can see the name stitched into his quarter-zip.

Jimmy.

“I’m so sorry—” Tango starts again, but the man—Jimmy—is already halfway to kneeling in front of him, taking the broken pot from him, scooping the rest of the shards into his hands. Tango realizes, all at once, that he’s still sitting on the ground, surrounded by the carnage of him falling unceremoniously over into the stand. He starts gathering the tools around him into his arms.

“It’s…it’s alright—” he sighs, a trickle of confusion, of agitation, leaking into his voice. “Walk me through it, what happened?”

“I walked into it—” Tango says, feeling foolish all of a sudden. It’s not a tangible feeling. He just knows something is churning and curling in him and he can’t place what. “One minute I was turnin’ around lookin’ at this place and the next—wack.”

Jimmy hums under his breath, something amused. Tango blinks at him as he rights the shelf and replace the items from the floor. 

“Wack?” he says, starting to laugh. “I…yeah. Sorry, I don’t organize things very well, it seems like.”

“I don’t either, I’ll be honest…” Tango says, shaking his head. “You’re Jimmy, then?”

Tango scrambles up with glass still in his hands and Jimmy turns back to him as he looks around for somewhere to put it. Jimmy nods his head over to a waste bin, dropping the shards of clay pot into it. 

“Mm,” Jimmy nods. “You’re…?”

Tango makes a half-sound as he turns back to him, waving his hands.

“Commander Tek,” he says, sticking out his hand, smiling a bit lopsided. It feels lopsided at least. He’s trying to copy what he knows, and he thinks he’s failing. “Er, Tango. You don’t have to call me Commander.”

Jimmy raises his eyebrows. 

“Ah—Fwhip told me you were coming,” he says, tilting his head a little, something like a smile coming to his face. “You’re sure just Tango?”

Tango nods.

“Too fancy with the whole thing. I prefer just Tango, anyway.”

Jimmy smiles in full. The action alone splits his face in half, stretching up to his eyes. Tango copies him, after a beat, something that falters just a little bit as he does.

Jimmy takes Tango’s hand. As he does, a buzz of electricity spikes up Tango’s arm and to his elbow, pooling there, zinging cool and bright. Tango startles, jolting back, making a small, sharp sound that gets lost as Jimmy audibly yelps. It didn’t hurt, but it felt new. Tango likes new.

He feels something wash over him, even as he jolts—memory, knowledge, understanding, like an imprint of knowing the man before him before he even did. Jimmy blinks, a furrow coming between his eyebrows. Tango, for a split second, wonders if the feeling is mutual.

“Sorry,” he blurts. The static shock dissipates as he shakes out his hand. “Sorry, I might still have glass….”

Tango looks over his hands, prodding at the silicon for any shards left there. There aren’t any, though—he even brushes them together, trying to feel for anything. Tango glances back at Jimmy. He’s looking him over, that curious, owlish expression on his face again. His mouth quirks up a little, the sides of his mouth lifting.

“You’re an android,” he says.

Tango’s eyes flick over his face for a moment. It’s completely symmetrical, brown eyes clear and bright, hair neatly parted. His movements are smooth as he steps back and adjusts his sleeves and reaches to gently brush something from Tango’s jumpsuit.

“So are you,” Tango finally says, mouth quirking up. His mouth tastes like static electricity.

“Huh,” Jimmy says, soft, thoughtful. The edges of his mouth fully curl up in a way so human and so foreign. Tango catalogs it immediately. “That’s so interesting.”

Tango huffs out an approximation of a laugh—which causes Jimmy to laugh in earnest. The tension dissolves as he laughs, and Tango feels his shoulders drop. That tingling feeling still hasn’t left Tango’s hand. He wonders for a moment if it ever will, or if every time they brush together it’ll light up like static, or if maybe they just happened to be carrying just enough electrical discharge to shock each other. Tango hopes it doesn’t happen again. He’d like to be friendly without risking a shock.

“So,” Tango starts as they stand together in the hydroponic farm. “Is there a reason ESA lets you use terracotta and glass in space?”

Jimmy shrugs. 

“They want it to feel more like Earth,” he hums, amused, turning away from Tango. He wanders a bit before Tango startles to catch up, following him through to the lab room. Jimmy pushes up the sleeves of his ESA sweatshirt. “Not that I would know what that feels like…though I do like it.”

They step through to the lab with the door hissing shut behind them. The humidity and heat follow them in, clinging to Tango’s jumpsuit. He can hear Jimmy mumbling to himself under his breath as he circles the large lab table in search of something. Tango tracks him with his eyes, pausing in the space where Jimmy once was, folding his arms. Jimmy fumbles around for a moment, digging through his cabinets, with Tango watching over his shoulder.

“That’s nice,” Tango says, eyes following him. Jimmy hums, nodding in response. “I can’t say I’ve ever seen Earth myself, either.”

“Oh yeah?” Jimmy says. When he turns back, he’s holding a data pad, a thumb drive and a blank badge. He lines them all up on the table, sitting next to each other. “Have you ever been planetside?”

Tango nods. 

“A few times with my old crew,” he starts, waving his hands back and forth. “Some dry and dusty ones for sure. Not too exciting.”

Jimmy tilts his head a bit. He’s still smiling, and Tango, for a moment, can’t take his eyes off it. He isn’t sure anyone’s ever smiled at him for that long, or maybe he’s misreading it—emotions were a fickle, strange thing. Maybe Jimmy was simply happy. 

Tango leans against the table, back pressing to the side of it, glancing down at the data pad and keycard for a moment. Jimmy looks away as Tango catches his eye. Tango thinks he sees him flush as he turns back around to the computer.

“They haven’t really briefed me on why you’re here,” Jimmy says. “Why’d they send you?”

“To E-1? We’re uh…our science director was looking for a secondary project to help bolster our food supplies—stretch it out a little longer?” He folds his arms over his chest. “Our admiral’s been in contact with Fwhip a few times conversationally, but we normally reach out to the Meridian, a station in our system, for help, but they weren’t having any hydroponics success. So…here I am.”

Jimmy nods absently as he continues typing.

“Hopefully I can give you something useful to take back,” he says, glancing up to Tango. Tango nods, raising his eyebrows.

“I mean, they say you’re the best,” he offers. It’s true—everything Pearl had told him seemed to point directly to whoever was running the botanical experimentation lab on E-2. And here he was, an android, standing in front of Tango.

“Do they?” Jimmy asks.

“Mhm!”

“That’s very nice of them…I uh, I’ve got a badge for you,” Jimmy says, sliding the piece of plastic toward him. Tango picks it up, turning it in his fingers as he listens. It has a small symbol on it, like an overlapping square and a green stripe all the way around it. When he looks back to Jimmy’s face for a moment, he notices that same green stripe around his upper arm. Green. Science. It was fitting. He fits that bit of information right next to what he knows Prometheus’ color to be: nearly the same shade.

“It’ll get you into this lab and ones like it, um, all the way down this hall,” Jimmy unlocks the data pad, pushing it toward him. “And you can record anything you’d like on this pad.”

“Oh, thank you, that’s great, actually” Tango says. He tucks the card into his pocket, where it rests against his chest. The data pad is blank, no notes, no sketches, and no documents. Just the time and date. From what he can recognize, he’s been aboard for about two hours. “Is, uh, is there somewhere we can share notes, or should I be handing this off to you periodically?”

“Whatever you write there will also be stored on the lab computer,” Jimmy says, gesturing back to the screens behind him. “Either of us can access it at any time. It should recognize you as having access to the console, so there shouldn’t be too many problems with that.”

Jimmy studies him for a brief moment before he picks up the thumb drive, twisting it in his fingers. Tango watches the movement, eyes flicking between it, and the pad, and the screen.

“So,” Jimmy starts again. “I can’t say I was expecting an android, but that does make this whole process a lot easier.”

He holds out the thumb drive—Tango holds out his hand. The small bit of plastic that falls into Tango’s palm is lightweight and bright white. He holds it between his thumb and forefinger, frowning just a little.

“What’s this for?” he asks, setting the data pad on the table again. His hands feel an itch to turn the drive around in them, nervous ticks surfacing as he receives data and writes to disk. The humidity, Jimmy’s expression, the curious glint in his eye, the buzz of excitement he can nearly feel in the air. For an android, Jimmy was certainly animated, certainly running high on emotion. Tango could reach out and grab it, if he knew he would catch something.

Jimmy nods a few times, leaning on the table in front of him.

“That right there,” he says, pointing at the drive. “Is all of my research. That way you can just—” he mimes a plugging motion, patting the back of his neck. If Tango’s chest could cave, it would have, as he feels some gear shudder and start again. “Get it all.”

Tango blinks. His vision stutters for a moment, fading out on the edge as he tries to process Jimmy’s comment, his voice. He feels that tug at his eyebrows as they furrow, a copy of a motion he’d seen so many times on so many faces. Jimmy’s research rests in the palm of his hand, still cold, despite the heat leaching from Tango’s synthetic skin.

“I think���” Tango says. What a stupid turn of phrase. He knows—he’s not thinking this time. He knows. “I can’t do that.”

Jimmy hums, face morphing into concern for a moment. Tango sees how his posture stiffens, almost a gut reaction to the change in Tango’s voice. Write to disk. Catalog. He softens his stance as Jimmy pipes up.

“What d’y’mean?”

“I think I’d rather just learn it from you,” Tango says, closing his fist around the thumb drive. “I’ll keep this, but I would like to learn from you, if that’s alright.”

Jimmy raises his eyebrows high on his forehead, nodding a few times. His dark eyes go wide, too. They flick across Tango’s face, looking for something, before they land on the table in front of him as Jimmy raps his fingers against the plastic top. Tango tucks the data drive into his pocket, where it rests with the keycard, sticking his hands in his pockets to give them something to do.

“Oh—I mean—I, sure. Sure, we can do that,” Jimmy stutters, shaking his head. “Yeah, that should be fine, you should be able to learn that way.”

“I hope so,” Tango says, nodding. Jimmy nods with him, that color briefly back in his cheeks. “I’d at least like to try. It’s what I’m known for, honestly.”

“Mm,” Jimmy says, face settling on that half-pleased, half-curious look. “Sure. That would be nice, I think. I don’t know how much I have to teach, but I can try.”

“I’m sure you’ve got plenty, Mr. Plant Guy,” Tango quips, patting him on the shoulder as he rounds around him. Jimmy laughs. The tingling sensation of touch before has gone now, and the new touch offers nothing but the sensation of soft sweater fabric, of coolness from Jimmy, and a brief flicker of information that he doesn’t quite catch. It feels like energy he can’t process. A line of code that doesn’t slot itself into place. He gives his shoulder a quick squeeze before he pulls away, gesturing to the door.

“Do you think you might be able to walk me back to my cabin?” his shoulders shrink a fraction. He tries to quickly run the simulation in his mind, etching out the turns of the hallways in the belly of the science department. All he can remember are faces, half-recognizable from research and names partially unobscured by association. “I lost track of how many turns Commander Fwhip made.”

Jimmy shrugs, nods, patting the table as he pulls away.

“Sure,” he says, fishing his keycard from around his neck. “My cabin is close to that area, so I know the way back pretty well—-”

“You have a room?”

The door slides open in front of Tango, the cool air of the hallway flooding into the room. He steps through, into the empty, well lit space, with its green stripe and green carpeting. The white-yellow lighting smooths out the edges of the walls around them, dotted with windows of the station’s central core as they slowly rotated around it. Jimmy pauses for a moment to watch as Tango does, before he nudges him with his elbow. Tango turns to follow.

“I like the bed,” Jimmy says, making a pleasant, almost chirping sound. “And the sleep cycle. And a space for my things that isn’t the lab.”

Tango nods.

“Our secondary engineering lead gets onto me when I don’t rest, but I prefer to not have to,” he says, shrugging his shoulders, waving one hand about. That gesture was from Doc, who loved to make things more nonchalant than they had to be, gesturing with his part-plastic, part-metal arm. “It wastes time.”

“You’re a busy man, Tango,” Jimmy says. He pauses just as he’s about to say Tango, like he had meant to say Commander, but had skipped the instinct. It stutters as he speaks. Tango feels a little bit of a twist, somewhere in the gears of his chest. Maybe everyone should just call him Tango. It felt a lot better, somehow. It felt earned.

“I try to be,” Tango says, waving his hand again. “I’m built for continuous learning—neuroplasticity. It’s what I’m meant to do…kind of.”

“Interesting…” Jimmy hooks a right at a fork. Tango notes it. “I don’t think I’ve met an android without a base program. And it was HASA who decided that?”

Tango nods.

“That was the plan, anyway. So far, it’s worked out alright. I have no issues, our technicians make sure I’m running smoothly, I can run my own diagnostics as far as I’m aware. And…I get to take back knowledge to our ship,” he sticks his free hand back in his pocket. They take a left, following the curving wall. “That’s a win to me.”

“That does sound nice,” Jimmy says, frowning a little, mostly in his voice than on his face.  As the wall evens out, Jimmy slows to a stop. Before them, on the leftmost side, are a row of doors, which Tango recognizes. He marks down their exact location, how the wall hugs the left, looping back around on the far side. Jimmy splays his arm out, gesturing to the doors. Tango manages a smile.

“Thank you,” Tango says, nodding. Jimmy hums.

“Of course, glad I could help,” he says. He looks pleased, now, none of the nervous flit that he had when they’d first met. Tango, too. He feels settled, somehow, like he was already beginning to understand the space around him, already acclimated to new gravity and new routine. Jimmy’s easy smile and tone of voice made that all the easier to do.

As Tango steps away, toward his door, he turns back to Jimmy, who’s folded his arms over his chest. Something’s there, in Tango’s chest, maybe just a trick of mechanics, something he can’t really place. It smooths out any bumps in logic programming. It makes things even, whatever the thing in his chest is. Jimmy makes a noise, and Tango’s eyes flick up to his face.

“Y’know—not to jump ahead or anything, since I know we’ve just met. But if you wanted to, my cabin is a bit closer to the lab. If you ever feel like you want a roommate, you’re more than welcome to stay there,” Jimmy starts, clasping his hands together. The small smile on his face hasn’t really faded, and his voice is even with curiosity. “There’s—there’s only one bed, but you said you don’t sleep. So it should be fine.”

Jimmy continues to babble, now, eyes flicking down to the patches at Tango’s knees. 

“I can always request you to the room next to it—I think that one’s unoccupied, too. If you ever want to sleep, that is. But you can let me know. Figured it might be nice to have a roommate so you’re not lonely,” he finishes, shrugging a little. Then he startles, blinks, and waves his hands. “Unless you like being alone.”

Tango tries to make a sound to dissuade him from that idea, but it gets caught in his programming and his vocal filter and it kind of sounds like a wheeze, or maybe a laugh, but he shakes his head several times, copying Jimmy’s easy smile from before.

“No, no…” he assures. “That sounds really nice, actually. I’ll…I’ll let Fwhip know that I’d like to do that.”

Jimmy visibly relaxes, and the smile comes back to his face, and he laughs a little, an actual, natural laugh.

“Sure thing…” Jimmy scrunches his nose. “Roomie.”

Tango feels something flip-flop over as he jumps, shaking his head again.

“Don’t call me that—” he manages, before Jimmy waves his hands again and says:

“I’m just joking, Tango!” and reaches out to clasp his shoulder. That rush of static only prickles for a moment, leaving a warm sensation in its wake. Tango feels it trickle down his elbow and to his wrist as Jimmy steps away from him. “Have a good night, alright? I’ll see you at 0700.”

Tango nods, realizing he’s still smiling just a bit, even as he steps into his room and the door slides shut behind him. He stands at the threshold, with his back to the wall, for a long moment, letting the memories play in his head as he does. The quiet hum of his room and the orange-yellow lighting soothes his otherwise spinning mind to a controlled simulation. Even still, Tango’s hand and arm prickle faintly with sensation he can’t place, and a warmth in his chest he’s not sure he fully understands.

Pulling away from the door and into his room, Tango furrows his eyebrows and starts an internal diagnostic.

[saintmagx]

I Knew you were Trouble ❤️‍🔥

In which y/n joins the WWE as a female competitor and is thrown into the crazy world of the Usos. Friendship, love , betrayal and mutual pining awaits.

AN: Literally making this for myself, might publish more of it, might not - enjoy I guess? 😳😂

in this reality, Trinity is still with WWE

Pairing: Jimmy uso x reader, Jey uso x reader (platonic)

w/c: 766

⚠️ Warnings: 18+ , swearing, violence (this is the WWE after all) slight smut, infidelity, jealous Jimmy, bad writing, cringe story telling, the Usos (because they are a warning in themselves) ⚠️

I was in your sights, you got me alone, you found me❤️‍🔥

“And the challenger, being accompanied by the Usos, from y/h/t, y/r/n”

I was on top of the world. My life couldn’t be much better. I had my boys walking me down to the ring to face off against Charlotte for the Woman’s championship. I had been busting my ass for the past 8 months and finally earned my shot at the title. Nothing could ruin this moment for me - right?

“What the - ”

THUD

Then there was darkness.

Ok, so we may be getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, let’s take it back to 8 months ago, when it was your first day on Smackdown.

8 months ago

I was finally getting my opportunity after years of busting my ass in the independent circuit. I guess you could say I had made a name for myself and the WWE just had to have me.

Tonight I was making my debut on Smackdown, I was teaming up with Naomi to face off against Carmella and Mandy Rose. Carmella and Mandy where the current Woman’s tag team champions and Naomi had been teaming with Natalya - however she had been injured and I was asked to step in. This match could make or break me - I HAD to impress.

Standing backstage doing my pre-match stretched I’m broken from my trance

“Hey girl, I’m honestly so excited to be partnering with you tonight”

“Trinity hey, honestly same - though I’m a little disappointed we have to lose the match.”

“Yeah it bummed me out abit too at first, but all we have to do is put on one hell of a show”

“Good luck tonight baby” my eyes switch from Trinity to the handsome as hell man who approached her. His smile was infections, enough to make me weak at the knees. Wait…..baby?

“Y/n, this is my husband Jon, Jon this is y/n”

As if time stopped, his attention was on me, I could feel his eyes bore into me, slowly dragging up my body, my cheeks HAD to be red, oh god please don’t let anyone notice. Jon smirked at me - safe to say he noticed.

“Pleasure to meet you y/n”

Before I could reply, another equally as handsome man joined his side.

“Josh, this is y/n, y/n this is Josh, Jon's brother” Trinity said as she was stretching out for our match.

“I’m the handsome brother” Josh says, with a wink

“You do remember we are twins right?” Jon retorts

“Obviously uce, but I’m still the better looking brother”

Josh stood there with a shit eating grin plastered on his face. He had ruffled his brothers feathers once more and he was proud of himself.

These boy are going to be trouble.

• ❃°•°❀°•°❃•❃°•°❀°•°❃•❃°•°❀°•°❃•❃°•°❀°•°❃•

Our match was set up for us to lose, but we put on one hell of a show - main event material. Back at the gorilla Hunter were there to chat with me after my debut.

“Think of the bigger picture y/n” Hunter says

“You can’t always win. Remember when you go through that curtain you are telling a story, selling it with you matches and promos. Anyway, this sets it up perfectly for you guys to go for the titles”

“What?” I look up at him in disbelief

“The titles?”

“Y/n your hard work and determination shows off. The tag titles is a fantastic opportunity to kick start your time here.”

Not really sure what came over me but next thing I knew I had my arms wrapped around hunter squeezing him tight.

“You have no idea how much this means to me, thank you, thank you, thank you - I won’t let you down”

“You deserve it kid, now go show everyone what you are made of”

Leaving the gorilla my eyes glance to Trinity and the boys walking towards catering.

“TRIN DID YOU HEAR” I scream, jumping her from behind.

“HUNTER IS GIVING US THE TAG TITLES”

“What?”

A twinge of jealousy spreads across me as I watch Jon dip his head down and place a kiss on Trinity's forehead - wait, I shouldn’t even be feeling like this - I give myself a shake and turn my attention to Josh.

“We have to celebrate”

“Josh, we haven’t actually won the titles yet, let’s save the celebrations till then huh?” I laugh

“Wait that’s a great idea, let’s do drinks, come on y/n let’s go get ready” Trin says as she drags me off.

Guess we are celebrating tonight.

If I’d have know how the night would turn out, I’d have headed straight back to the hotel.

[narcolini]

On Your Mind

javi x gn!reader, sort of hurt sort of comfort, 866 words for day 3 of narcoctober: song prompt, there is something on your mind - big jay mcneely a/n: i can't believe this is my first time writing javi and i cant believe its something like this and not a 30k friends to lovers kjfhg tagging: @narcosfandomdiscord @garbinge @drabbles-mc @hausofmamadas @cositapreciosa

He’s home before you are, though you never gave him a key. The lady downstairs is kind and stupid enough to let anyone into the foyer, as long as they ask politely, and you’re kind and stupid enough to have told him exactly how the lock jimmies open, if you get it just right. So here he is now, un-expectantly expectant of you. 

‘I should look into getting an alarm system,’ you say, shutting the door behind, and pouring the day from your shoulders to your feet. 

‘Maybe.’

‘Are you here for long?

He shrugs. ‘Maybe. I don’t know.’

You pause where you are and look at him. He’s leaning against the table, which stands against the cabinet by the bed, because you’re yet to buy any dining chairs, and he’s yet to find a way to be comfortable here, as often as he comes, which makes you both look like strangers, really. Neither of you have settled. It’s more of an introduction on neutral ground than anything else.

He’s got his arms crossed. Bare forearms, rolled sleeves. He looks from you, to the floor, to the half-drawn curtain over your window. Nobody’s bothered to turn the overhead light on, so he’s orange, and you’re blue. 

‘Bad day?’ you ask.

‘No worse than the rest.’

You try a smile, pull that card from your deck. ‘Something a whiskey might solve?’

‘Look.’ He sighs and draws his gaze back to you. ‘We should talk.’

The lamp on the bedside flickers. He waits until the amber glow is steady again, and then he nods, like you’ve asked something, and his brows pull together like he’s apologising for it. 

‘Can I take my shoes off first?’

‘It won’t—’

‘Please.’

You get another nod, and a raised hand to wave you on, before it’s tucked back under his forearm again. Crossed and waiting. 

The lace of your boot has become knotted, so it takes a pregnant minute for you to get it off, leather fighting the curve of your heel, then it drops to the ground with a thud. 

The second comes off easy and quiet. 

‘You want a drink?’ you ask, sock-footed and able to move again. You cross the room before the offer’s been answered, hand on the fridge before drink has even tilted up into a question. 

‘It won’t take,’ he tries again, ‘I shouldn’t stay.’

‘That’s what you say every time.’

‘This is different.’

You take two beers from the case on the shelf. White light there and gone again. 

‘You’re different?’ you guess.

He lets the quiet have its turn before answering. ‘I’ve been thinking.’

‘Yeah, I noticed last time.’ You could tell he wanted to talk then, too, but he’d been too scared, or too happy, or too greedy, to want to tell you so. ‘You don’t fuck the same when you’re thinking about something.’

There’s a laugh that you reward with one of the beers, handing it to him as you reach his side of the studio. 

‘And you’re just telling me this now?’ he says. 

‘I could hardly tell you then.’

He snorts and you match it, smiling, before dropping onto the side of the bed. From here his cheek is gold, his hair is gold, and the rest of him is grey, muted by the moonlight through what’s left of the window. 

‘Please sit,’ you say, and when he doesn’t move you add, ‘it won’t hurt less from the table.’

‘I was trying to give you space,’ he admits, standing as he does. Arms slack, knees straight. He walks two steps then dips the bed as he goes down beside you, shoulder to shoulder.

You switch the lamp off. No more orange, just blue.

He starts before you’ve even tasted the beer, which sits damp between your palms. 

‘I don’t think,’ he says, ‘we can keep doing-’

‘Wait.’

‘-this.’ His eyebrows trick his eyes into looking soft. Or tired. 'Baby,’ he reasons.

‘You’ll have to give that up,’ you reply. ‘Baby.’

You imagine his palm on your thigh and his thumb running the outer seam. Replace it directly with the sight of his fingers now, threaded together, and balanced in the gap between his knees.

‘In the morning,’ you offer him. ‘Let’s save it for then, okay?’

He exhales and looks away before the last of it can hit your face. ‘It wouldn’t be fair.’

‘To who?’ You’re smiling somehow. ‘I’m the one suggesting it.’

‘We can’t just keep on—’

‘Don’t say it,’ you interrupt again, because you know already. ‘Don’t tell me until the morning, Javi.’

‘How is that any better?’ he asks. ‘For either of us?’

‘How is it any worse?’

You’re both orange, and you’re both blue, and you’ve known the colour of him since the beginning, really. Since you first told him how to get the lock just right. There’s nothing here that you hadn’t seen coming, and nothing left to say, either. 

‘One more night?’ you ask, for a final hopeless time. ‘Don’t tell me now.’

You watch his throat as he swallows the request, his lips as he nods in reply. ‘Alright,’ he says, ‘until the morning.’ 

And then there’s his hand. There’s your thigh. 

______

[mxlti-fand0m-imaginess]

🧡 - blurb: give me a character and a topic/situation and i’ll write a blurb about it!

Hello :) thoughts on fem reader comforting Maggie Esmeralda (after Jimmy flipped a switch and started drinking), and then they run away together, because i just think she deserved better 😔

“look, i know you really liked him. but… you can do so much better than him. and so much better than this place,” you said, leaning your head against maggie’s shoulder, your hand slowly inching closer to hers.

“maybe you’re right… but still, where would i even go? i don’t have a home, i don’t have anyone.”

“that’s not true, maggie. you have me. i’ll follow you wherever you go,” you smiled softly, your pinky finger intertwining with hers.

maggie looked down at your hand and smiled to herself. turning to look back at you, she saw the earnest look in your eyes. you truly meant what you said, you’d follow her anywhere. and just knowing that meant more to her than you would ever know.

maggie’s smile grew, her hand moving to hold your hand in hers. “so let’s go. just you and me. i don’t care where we end up. as long as we’re together, i’ll always have a home.”

tags: @jamespotterslover @tates-radio @hallecarey1 @madisonsslave @evilcr0ne @hockstterrs @milly-louise @larawrrites

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (27 Aug-2 Sep 2023)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 Unseen (Rath & Rune #2) (Jordan L. Hawk, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - back in Widdershins with Librarian Sebastian & his be-tentacled half-human lover Vesper Rune, trying to collect the evil Books of the Bound. The Rune brothers are also finding that unfortunately it's harder to cut ties with an abusive family than one might wish.

🥰 Pretend to Be Nice (Interdepartmental Cooperation #2) (seekwill) - 57K, GO Gabriel/Beelzebub - same universe as Golden Handcuffs, just as good as that fic - I love a fic where two jagged edged people learn to see how their broken pieces fit together

🥰 Unknown (Rath & Rune #3) (Jordan L. Hawk, author; Joel Leslie, narrator) - On the hunt for the Book of Bone. Widdershins may know its own but the Old Families definitely still cause a lot of harm

😍 The 70 Days After Groundhog Day (Ptelea) - really great Batfam fic - Dick's POV, focusing on Jason & Dick but also about Jason's relationship to everyone after a 53-day timeloop that only Jason can remember

💖💖 +121K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

love you like rlb (orphan_account) - MCU: stucky, 3K - forever fave, reread - when Steve wakes up he finds the phrase 'love you like rlb' is world-famous, but no one knows why and he doesn't tell them, at least not immediately

No Place Like Home (asocialconstruct) - MCU: stucky, 5k - post-WS Bucky time travels to pre-war Stucky & sexy times ensue - always a fun, hot read

Cassiopeia, Orion, Bootes (AidaRonan) - Stranger Things: steddie, 10K - forgot how much I love this fic with the hilarious tag 'he was a gator boi' & some extremely excellent monsterfucking

[Podfic] The Three-Steve Solution (seleneaurora) - MCU: stucky/samsteve/stony, 6K - excellently done podfic of a hilarious cracky fic with multiverse Steves of different omegaverse designations being kidnapped by baddies and their respective partners showing up to rescue them

[podfic] Doctor Feelgood (cricketsong1985) - MCU: stucky, 10K - fave, relisten- another great podfic - Bucky discovers one of Steve's kinks and sets out to make his fantasy real - hot sex but also I love how well their relationship is expressed

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Celebrity Jeopardy - s1, e5

Insane Pools: Off the Deep End - s1, e1

Leverage - s2, e5

Make Some Noise - s2, e1

Maine Cabin Masters - s1, e1-8; s8, e1-4

Harley Quinn - s4, e8

Um, Actually - s8, e12

What We Do In The Shadows - s5, e9-10

Only Murders In The Building - s3, e5

D20: Mentopolis - "Grappling With Death" (s1, e4)

D20: Adventuring Party - "A Random Sequence of Events" (s14, e4)

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Villa de Vecchi

The Sporkful - A Garlic Dispute 20 Years In The Making

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - It’s Getting Hot in Here

Re: Dracula - August 30: Millions of Kisses

Ed Zitron's 15 Minutes In Hell - Episode 4 - Rob Corddry, Actor

Vibe Check - Introducing The Stacks with Traci Thomas

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - How to Quarantine in a Ghost Town

99% Invisible #551 - Office Space

Switched on Pop - Olivia Rodrigo’s Good Ideas

⭐ Song Exploder - Re-issue: Janelle Monáe "So Afraid"

Re: Dracula - August 31: Do Not Fail

⭐ One Year - 1955: The Weather Girls

⭐ One Year - 1955: The Crockett Craze

Dear Prudence - Relationship Podcasts Are Ruining My Friend's Life. Help!

Re: Dracula - September 1: Am Writing

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Suits And What's Making Us Happy

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Maine Windjammers

Welcome to Night Vale #233 - Citizen Spotlight: The Vampire of Lombardi Street

⭐ One Year - 1955: The Team Nobody Would Play

Re: Dracula - September 2: Suck From my Wound

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Inflammable Material [Stiff Little Fingers] {1979}

Nobody's Heroes [Stiff Little Fingers] {1980}

Funky Hangout

my Journey playlist

The '90s Ska Revival

Vintage Blues Reworked

Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads [Jimmy Buffett] {1992}

[cocajimmycola]

>open file "introduction.exe"_ >file loading. . .

Hello, Guest! My name is Jimmy, or Cola. I will be your assisstant. Below, you can find more about what this program does.

About Me:

🌟 :: I'm a polyfragmented system. Alters sign off in the tags. 🌟 :: I switch between i/me and we/us pretty often. 🌟 :: Our collective pronouns are It/Hush/Doll, and many others. 🌟 :: My timezone is NZT. Following this, we live in NZ. Apologies if we use slang/other that you don't recognise. 🌟 :: The To-Do list is here. 🌟 :: Users can be found here.

Available Programs:

1.0 : Icons 2.0 : Name help 3.0 : Pronoun Help 4.0 : Flag making, Term coining 5.0 : Send me a palette and I'll make a pattern. (Nene specific)

Note: I can do almost any media. This app wants to be as available as possible, to introjects, irls, and those who kin. There are only a very select few medias we won't do.

Additional Programs:

💗 : for something random. 🎵 : for pronouns based on a randomly shuffled song. 📖 : for an infodump about one of my interests. ✒️ : nene specific - send for nene to write a short poetic writing. you can include a theme if you want.

Program Code:

The DNI can be found here. ⚫ :: We do not have a complied list of our tagging system, my apologies. ⚫ :: Tagging us in promos and posts is 100% okay. ⚫ :: Sending us random chitter chatter is welcome. ⚫ :: Current anons; ⚫⚫⚫ :: 💌 ⚫⚫⚫ :: 🌊🐺

For more information, see our carrd.

[imabillyami]

Do you still like Jey and his story?

Hey anon! Thank you for asking!

I'm sorry in advance if I go off topic at some point in my reply & I hope you don't mind me using this as a way to let everyone asking - including the unkind people talking trash in my inbox (I see you, I just choose to not interact with you) - know:

Yes, I still very much like Jey. I still like all of them. Sami, Jey, Jimmy, Kevin, Solo, Roman, Paul and so on - everyone. But especially Jey & Sami as individuals and/or together.

Jey's story, well - I like that they're going for a redemption arc with him. I like that he's allowed to be a star and shine bright far away from the rest of his family. At least for a while. I like that he's not automatically everyone's best friend just because he turned babyface. I like that they're including Kevin and Sami and even Drew and others he has history with in his story. I don't even mind Cody being there (which is huge - cause y'all know my opinion on Cody). I think that speaks for how much I like and support Jey's single's run.

The only thing I really don't enjoy is the whole TJD being involved thing and Jey losing twice in a row. Jey is the biggest babyface and TJD is the biggest heel faction on Raw currently, so of course it's probably good for business if Jey appears on screen with them. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

I like every single individual member of TJD, i really really do, I'm just extremely tired of them as a group and have been for a while now. I was a fan for a while, but they got extremely stale to me. And before anyone argues, it's not the same as it was with The Bloodline, cause there's two very obvious things that TJD doesn't have, and it's the two things that kept (and are keeping) the Bloodline afloat and working well for so long: (1) Deep, meaningful, layered characters & (2) an intriguing story to tell. (Istg if I never have to see a 6-man-tag match involving TJD again it'll still be too soon.)

I'm tired of the people in charge just constantly feeding the top talent to them, doesn't matter if it's Seth or Kevin or Sami or Jey or anyone else. I get that they're heels, they're not supposed to play clean and fair all the time and you're supposed to dislike them and their actions, sure. But there's a difference between disliking someone's actions and being downright tired and annoyed to the point where you switch off the TV mid-segment. If you're a TJD fan I'm happy for y'all, I truly am. But I'm tired.

I've been keeping up with all my boys and girls, but with TJD being pretty much around and dominant and constantly involved in all 3 shows, I haven't been extremely enthusiastic about it lately.

Sorry, this turned into a bit of a rant.

The point is: I love Jey, I'll always love Jey, I'll always keep up with his storylines and everything, I just need a minute or two to catch a breather, cause lately I find myself not enjoying the parts I want to be enjoying, so I hope a little distance and casually keeping up with everything will get me to the point where I can be happily and fully invested again.

That being said, I'm still here, I'm still reading and replying to messages most of the time and just generally enjoying life and good things and writing and all that rn, but if you don't see me as active and around all that much, don't be surprised and also don't think for a second that I stopped liking or supporting my boys and girls. <3

[joysmileyay]

tag people u want to get to know better :●)

tagged by: @leoprosy first ship: davejade (i think) 3 ships: still davejade to this day :) and jimmy mcgill and kim wexler from better call saul and also... well i have two character pairings that are important to me but they arent romantic relationships. im still gonna say them anyway: DENJI AND POWER!!!! from chainsaw man and frenchie and kimiko from the boys last song: Plants by Crumb https://open.spotify.com/track/2cOzI3LOIkRIKEidcGZ1Bc and also the track switched to Wild by Inner Wave as i made this post so why not https://open.spotify.com/track/0yaPKGf4W7ME79pAFNeRg7 last movie: The Menu, i think (it was good but mostly for the humor i didnt care too much for the... intent behind it i guess. i would recommend it still tho because i love pretty much most movies i watch) while were on the topic of movies chungking express is my favorite movie ever highly recommend, i recently watched knives out twice in a very short time period to watch it with a friend who had not seen it and i rarely ever rewatch movies unless i REALLY like them and of course everything everywhere all at once was fucking great currently reading: marcys journal (amphibia :) ) and gideon the ninth which... i have to say i was not impressed with right off the bat and its still kinda meh to me. really not too fond of the writing style but im interested enough to see where it goes recently i reread all of percy jackson and the heroes of olympus and that was very fun. normally im never reading anything the first fifteen lives of harry august is a pretty good book currently consuming: hmm... ive also very slowly been watching mob psycho. ive casually had scooby doo mystery incorporated on kinda in the background just because everyones been talking about scooby doo and i simply love the artstyle i love how the eyes look. probably other things but im forgetful lol. also, my discover weekly on spotify and ive been MEANING to keep watching season 4 of atlanta but i havent gotten around to it. and of course the latest chapter of chainsaw man as it comes out (asa i love you) currently craving: this pizza im about to eat tagging: i dont like tagging people but if you see this and wanna do it then go ahead hiiii :)

[keefwho]

May 06 - 2024 Monday

11:01pm

5/10

I've been getting to bed late so I haven't had the proper time to write down my thoughts. It has to be quick tonight too. This morning I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, it was nice and looks so much better. I didn't rake though, I will next time. In the shower I tried to play VRchat again but I joined an empty world and stayed there. No one else joined. For breakfast I made my last jimmy dean sandwich and rice. My weight was up a tiny bit so I planned to have a light lunch. I started an episode of Black Mirror that DS recommended me and I got hooked. I was only able to watch half before work and I was eager to continue later. I popped in on BR and JG in their VC very briefly to see what was up.

For work I warmed up with arm sketches, looking at different muscle locations. Then I sketched the commissions I forgot to on Friday and finished GS's commission. I had 30 minutes to spare so I worked on a personal thing too. While reading comments at the beginning, someone had said all my characters look like cubs on an e621 tag bot post which was insane to me. Like I don't know what he's seeing. We also found out he likes school girl stuff so.

After work I continued Black Mirror while I snacked and made lunch. I ate the rest of my Salt and Vinegar chips and made lipton soup. Since my frozen bread broke apart, I used it in my soup instead of crumbled up crackers as a way to thicken it. I didn't boil it long enough though so all I got were chunks of soft, slimy bread that ruined the soup. I choked it down anyways but it was not fun. Then I started the first Black Mirror episode since I was curious.

In the afternoon I sketched something for DS that I got permission to continue with. I did some more sketches while I waited for that and that was pretty much the whole hour of friend art this week. The request winner didn't get back to me in time and neither did the second winner so I skipped requests today. With how I was feeling and the upcoming therapy appointment, I didn't work on anything else today.

Therapy was fine, we mostly went over what's been happening and how things are pretty stable. Next time I'm going to have some long term goals organized and maybe he can help me come up with a way to keep track of them so I keep working on them.

After that I hopped on Minecraft in a call with AE and BT. They didn't talk much. I was trying to figure out how to start my new snowman kingdom. Then DS called so I joined her while I played and we watched furry videos. I briefly switched to KSP and she headed to bed. While she did, I finished that first BM episode. In bed we did puzzles, set a new record for the crossword time, and I played KH2.

I want to give journaling more attention. Sometimes I do it as a chore and sort of mindlessly. I'd like to take my time and consider it as if I was writing for someone who has no context for anything in my life. I think it'll help me to expand in greater detail and assist in my communication/perspective taking skills. But to do that I need time so I should probably enforce a nighttime cutoff time again where I get off to do dishes and get ready for bed. Usually 10:30 has been good enough.

[tagged-jimmy-switch-writes]

‘No Justice No Peace’

Some of y'all still think rap is a craft made just for y'all to laugh

But then someone gives your fave the shaft and you get mad.

Even though rapping ain't nothing but talking fast, talking smack. Some of them talking black.

But I'm white so I'mma just stop with that and talk some more trash until your broad gets on her back

Then I'll even stop rhyming the same syllable.

I'm the pinnacle. Speeding like Sonic, can't see haters in my peripherals

Not to get political but fuck Trump and his posse full of N*z*s pedophiles and criminals

And that's not being cynical, it's just telling the truth

That's all that happens when I'm back in the booth

I'm spitting fire, so in here it's a thousand degrees.

Only singer hotter than me is Cristina Vee

LIke Shantae's hair I'm whipping all my enemies.

Throw out these fascists and tear their statues down like Germany

Burn the hatred. Abolish the racists. Grab your lighters and set fire to the billionaire rapists

Divvying up their cash while the rest of us die.

Hunting us for sport but no one bats an eye.

Apparently breathing is only legal if you're rich and white

Otherwise some Johnny Law might have to kneel on your neck

Or bust in your house, murder you and still collect a check

Throwing gas and shooting bullets at a peaceful protest

But we won't go quietly. Won't let the evil rest.

No justice means no peace. The time is now up

I'm not afraid to die with my mask on to climb this tower.

I will fight until my last breath, my final hour.

Fuck the system. Row! Row! Fight the power.

\/\/\/\/\/

So this just started as a rap line that came to me during work, and then it sort of just happened. I’m tired of seeing people die. I’m tired of stupid people acting like there’s nothing wrong when it’s the end of the goddamn world outside. I’m sick of living in this divided nation run by ignorant fascist trash!

And I won’t shut my face until something is done about it. 

[tatesdiary]

Nightmares

summary Elsa's group welcomes you after you manage to escape the clown's grasp, but nightmares still follow you every night. Jimmy helps with that.

tags short, set in s4 of AHS, female reader (but barely specified)

word count 658

a/n Since Netflix took AHS down I haven't been able to watch it, so I was stuck ok season 3 for like a year... Since I'm quite deprived of Evan content I watched the Jeffrey Dahmer show, but that's obviously not the same as Tate, Kit or Kyle :'D found a website on which I can watch and I HAD to write something for Jimmy. He's so cute. Also; I haven't finished season 4 yet

my other account for stranger things/BTS

Your nightmares of being back in the rusty his or whatever it was were more frequent, now that it was clear he was going around wildly murdering.

A police officer had come a few days ago, interrogating some of the others and heavily implying that it wouldn't be heard to shift the blame on them if necessary.

It had angered you, but before you could step in Jimmy had, and assured the officer in his usual dismissive way that they had nothing to do with the murders.

The officers had left in a grumpy mood, not bothering to even pretend to be nice.

After yesterday though, your nightmares had gotten worse again. You were a hundred percent sure you'd seen him again, just standing there with the awfully dirty bag in his hand, piercing eyes fixed on the twins.

You had been frozen in shock, trying to melt into the rough material of the tent. When you were about to tell Elsa about it he disappeared, every hint of him ever being there gone.

Waking up in a cold sweat was normal by now - if you were able to rest at all. Sighing, you drag your hands across your face before getting up.

It was close to 2 AM and the full moon shone brightly on the caravans before you.

You went around yours - you'd been lucky they had one left, otherwise you would've been forced to share one with the twins - and sat on the dry ground, staring into the night sky.

"Can't sleep?" You flinch in surprise, turning around in a hurry only to see Jimmy. He'd switched his usual tank top for a white shirt that sat tighter than the tops, a pair of seemingly old sweatpants low on his hips. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, an unconscious habit of hiding them you'd realized recently, and he looked more than attractive.

You clear your throat and try smiling, "Oh, you know. The usual," he knew about your nightmares since he asked you why you always looked tired after your third day here.

He shrugs and sits down next to you carefully, keeping a respectable amount of space between you (though you wouldn't have minded him any closer).

"Have you slept at all so far?" You pick at the grass in silent agreement. He huffs a little amusedly, "Yeah, me neither."

You furrow your eyebrows and look at him, "Why?" He tenses a little and after half a minute of awkward silence you're about to take your question back, when he answers. "The thing with Meep and everything," you may have only known him for a few weeks but you could read him enough to see he was blaming himself.

Without thinking you reach out your hand and lay it on his, hoping to be assuring, "Don't blame yourself, after all you didn't want this to happen. You thought you were protecting them, you meant well."

He turns his hand so he can hold yours, slowly and carefully as if leaving you space to back away again. It was truly devastating to see how insecure and unsure he was about himself behind all the charms and flirting.

"Don't be ashamed of yourself. Just because you're different doesn't mean you're bad," you tug his hand in your lap and lean against his side. His breath hitches and he looks at you. Silence stretches over you two, though this time it's comforting.

When he breaks it, it's with a question. "Uhm, you wanna sleep.with me tonight? Maybe you can sleep if you're not alone… you don't have to, of course, but you know."

He does the sweet smile he always does again and you almost coo out loud, before his suggestion sinks in and you grin as well. "Sounds great."

[jellyjimmy]

i read this one fic just because it listed jimmy/bobby as a side ship and they quite literally two sentences of SOMEWHAT romantic interaction and im. Hurt. but yknow the main ship was lawrusso so what was i thinking LMAOOOO IM DELUSIONAL!!!!!!

im so starved for og cobra ships lmao one day im gonna spam ao3 will all the fic ideas i have

[thatssonanii]

Masterlist

A/N: I'm still building this. So, if you're looking for fics of mine and they are not linked below, they're coming soon! Check the tags on this post in the meantime to find them!

Bloodline Family Series

Features Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso & OCs

Welcome Home

Parent Conference

Embarrassing Moment

Parent Conference

Big Boy Simba

Just Say No 2

Just Say No 3

Just Say No 4

Fed Up 1

Fed Up 2

A New Leaf

Wait … Before You Hit Me

Guess What

Fight

M&M’s

Freshmeat

House Party

Simba’s First Date

Heartbreak Pt. 1

Heartbreak Pt. 2

Clumsy

Studying

Fan

Daddy’s Got You

Todd

Throuple

Meet the Family

Meet the Washingtons

What’s Done in the Dark

Comes to the Light

Birthday Girl

Early Christmas Gift Planning

Dinner & Dessert

New Blessings

Congrats, Grad

Attack

Attack 2

Attack 3

Old Wounds

Old Wounds II

Old Wounds III

Tha Block is Hot

Knock, Knock

Goin’ Off

Lines

Dinner

Surprise

Boxes

Well

Let’s Talk

Draft Night

Bloodline Family Series Shorties

Features Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso & OCs

Do You Want It I’ll Buy It For You

Smoke

Haleigh & Carlito

Auntie A

You Don’t Have To Do All The Things You Do

I’m Not Gonna Stop Poking You

I Fell in Love With My Best Friend

It’s A Real Shame No One Asked For Your Opinion

You’re So Cute When You Pout Like That

That doesn’t Even Make Sense

Facetime

Child is Sick & Wants Daddy

Bedtime Temper Tantrum

Parental Paragraph

Is That Mistletoe?

My Parents Will Love You, Don’t Worry

Let’s Bake Cookies!

I Want A Picture with Santa

Daddy, Can you Help Me Write A Letter to Santa?

I Don’t Sing

Baby, Help Me Write Christmas Cards

It’s 1AM, Get Up!

Bloodline Family Series AU

Features Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso & OCs

Netflix and …

Privacy

Family Ties

Spinoff from BLFS

(I wrote all fics linked here but this series is co-run with @annoyedkayah2395, go to her blog for the installments that she's written)

Practice

First Day In Cali (Goes with “Todd”)

Video

Cali

1+1=3

Just Because

Coping

Hear Me Out

Carlito’s First Sleepover

Girl Talk

Let Me Tell You

Morgan & Chenice

Nightmare

Father’s Day Prep

Come Get Her

Family Court

Story Time

Dreamin’

Storm

Pop Up

Tragedy

Hey Alexa

MJ

Family Ties AU

(I wrote all fics linked here but this series is co-run with @annoyedkayah2395, go to her blog for the installments that she's written)

Water Balloons

But …

Studio

Co-Parenting

BLFS//FT Crossover

Excuse Me Miss

Icky

Haleigh’s Appointment

Man to Man

Jealous

Charlotte

BBQ

Home Alone

Grandpa King’s Farm

Sour Patch Kid

Birthday Party

Mama Tasha

Caught

Like It?

BLFS//FT AU Crossover

Haleigh’s Visitor

New Kid on the Block

One

Two

Three

Late

Mommy

Gifts

Unicorns & Rainbows

Awkward 2

Movin’ Out

Get Right

My Baby

ER

Visiting

Responsibility

I’m Sorry

Mama Bear

Stop!

I’m Fine

Take Care of It

Runaway Bride

Firsts

Disrespect

First Trip

Kid Free

Have & Have Nots

(I wrote all fics linked her but this series is co-run with @annoyedkayah2395, go to her blog for the installments that she's written)

Officially A Malone

Gotta Go

Bonding

Confrontation

Mind Your Business

Emergency

Recovery

Pop Up

Formal Introduction

The Real Her

My Brother’s Keeper

Family Time

Father

Let’s Talk

The Morning After

Night Out

Checkmate

Saturday

Engagement Dinner

Another Emergency

Beat Down

Sweeties Day

Creepin’

What Are You Doing Here?

Skeletons 2

Why

For You

Blood

To Zion

WTF

First Day

Warning

Just In Case

Lunch

Dumb Broad

Lil Thug Life

Moving

Old Friends

Prep

A Tragic Day

Savannah

Thin Ice

Empty House

Officer

Full Story

Family Dinner

The Last Straw

Listen

Leaving

Unbelievable

Oops

Gee Wiz, It’s Christmas

Oh You Forgot?

Guests

Coach

Who Is She?

I’m Pregnant

Conley

Sneaky

Back In Town

Stop Playin’ With Me

Oliver & Company

Unbothered

Nerves

Plan B

Back Off

Sistas

The First Baby

Switch

You’re …

Caught

Enough

Sibling Rivalry

Another Willis

Have & Have Nots AU

10 Seconds

Trouble Man

Awkward

Be Nice

Dumbass

Tyson

New Leaf

One

Two

Just The Two of Us

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Seven

Eight

Nine

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

SVU

Familiar Face

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Trial Prep

A Special Victim

The Things We Have to Lose (Pt. 1)

The Canary

Features Roman Reigns & OCs

One

We All Want Love

Features Roman Reigns & OCs

Cast

Chapter One

Line in the Sand

Features Tama Tonga & OCs

One

Two

Three

Four

Five (Pt. 1)

Five (Pt. 2)

Six

Seven

Eight

Empire

(I wrote all fics linked her but this series is co-run with @annoyedkayah2395, go to her blog for the installments that she's written)

Prince of Rap

Group Project

Condo

Come Here

Faded Memories

Ghost

Come Clean

Ghost 2

Rocky

Meeting Ms. Taylor

McIntyre Family Series

Features Drew McIntyre, Montez Ford & OCs

Temper Tantrum

First Night Home

Bonding Time

Daddy, Can You Help Me Write A Letter to Santa?

I’m Pregnant

My Parents Will Love You

Is That A Mistletoe?

Sleeping Headcanon

Anger Headcanon

Kissing Headcnnon

New Years #4

Main Event

Champ

Champ 2

Deja Vú

Features Florian Munteanu & OCs

One

Two

Three

Four

Shorties

Daddy Daughter Time (Seth Rollins)

Twitter Fingers (Tama Tonga)

Baby’s First Shots (Tama Tonga)

Temper Tantrum (Samoa Joe)

First Day of School (Tama Tonga)

Baby’s First Doctor’s Appointment (Jeff Hardy)

Nightmare (Tama Tonga)

Child is Sick (Jeff Hardy)

Breakfast Time (Samoa Joe)

Daddy Daughter Bonding (Jinder Mahal)

Parental Paragraph (Big E)

Director's Commentary

Haleigh & Messiah

Jey & Apryl

Roman & Kandice

Best & Worst Traits of Characters

Drew & Danica

[empires-au-ideas]

Hello! What the name says.

I will make aus for both seasons. I have aus I will post, but you guys can also send asks to MAKE aus.

My main is @killmebythebeach and I have done some writing and other aus for empires there.

This pinned post will be updated as we make more aus. The tags for each au will also be in the tags here.

I will be making no aus about the streamers/ccs themselves, just their characters. So please do not send asks about streamers.

Writings for the aus is my writing tag! Find short stories or long chaptered fiction for the aus here. People can also share their writing here.

Art for the au is for any art I make or any art shared with me for the aus here!

Any crossover with another smp will be tagged as "[smp abbreviation (hc, dsmp, ect.) x esmp".

...

SEASON ONE AUS:

Xornoth wins au (temp title): Scott is put in the crystal instead of Xornoth, and in a weird draw of luck Jimmy is the one who has to save the other empowers from the demon.

Empire falls au: gravity falls au with roseblings as the pines twins! Let's see if they can solve all the wacky mysteries of the town.

Three skulls au: the whole WRA gets corrupted right off the bat and they are here to cause problems on purpose. This includes problems for their boss.

The cold wanderer au: Scott and Xornoth switch places, but not gods. When Exor reveals himself to be with Xornoth and not Scott like everyone thought the prophecy said, Gem and Fwhip have to go hunt him down and force him to help. Inspired by atla

Living on au: inspired by pjo, Pearl accidentally becomes the older sister of many many demigods. On ao3

The twin dragons au: during a fight, the dragon egg turns splits in two, giving Xornoth a new dragon minion and leaving Gem and Fwhip on the run with the other dragon

Gilded changeling au: Sausage is kidnapped by the fae of Gilded Helanthia and replaced with a changeling. He was fine with his life in the court of Queen Pearl, until he finds out where he's really from when the Staff of Mythland chooses him

Power couple au: both Lizzie and Joel become gods. No one has a good time except those two.

Wilted Helanthia au: Pearl dies in the arena fight, leaving the WRA to mourn. When the roseblings go to Xornoth to get her back, Sausage is forced to face his grief and stop them.

Salmon Jimmy au: Jimmy is kidnapped as a child and is indoctrinated into the Salmon life. Making the WRA his friends, and his own pong lost sister his enemy.

Joel: champion of Aeor au: Joel is Aeor's champion, leaving everyone involved increasingly frustrated

SEASON TWO AUS:

Bounties at sea au: pirates! Joey accidentally becomes pirate captain on a ship with Scott and Sausage as The Sheriff and Katherine try and hunt them down. Wacky hijinks ensue.

The frog house au: Owl house! False as Luz, Shelby as Eda, and many many more.

Falsehoods in a false world au: Alice in Wonderland au (based on the book, not movie) with False as Alice.

It was Oli all along au: Oli is the bad guy in everyone's backstories and I see if I can make that a cohesive time line.

Princess Protector: Gem and Skeletron are now besties. That's it. That's the au.

The Soul King au: ANOTHER au based on atla where the main cast has to go and take down the Tyrannt King to stop him from hunting down magic users with Oli, Sausage, Scott, Shelby, and Katherine as the Gaang.

Sea of Secrets au: Shelby is a selkie who has locked her coat away in fear of the school or her fellow emperors finding it. Katherine wants to find out what's wrong.

Poison Flowers au: surprise surprise, more nature wives! Katherine having both powers over light and darkness, using her light powers to be Ms goody-two-shoes in the day, and her dark powers to actually stop crime without the hero agency in her way at night. She may or may not be obsessed with taking down a villain, Shelby, with powers over the cold dark emptiness if the void.

SEASON CROSSOVER AUS:

Withered witch au: Shelby is haunted by the ghosts of Sausage and Gem from s1, and they attempt to help her with magic.

Storyteller au: after living peacefully in Scott's afterlife, the cast of s1 is brought back to the world as ghosts, traveling between empires to tell their tales. When they catch the attention of the s2 rulers, the rulers go to Pix to uncover who these people were.

Reincarnated Sausage au: s2!Sausage is the reincarnation of s1!Joey, same with s2!Pix and s1!Jimmy. After the Rune Sword has deteriorated, Xornoth and Scott are unleashed unto the world again

The Riffs Archives au: tma au with Shelby as the archivist, the rest of the nether star alliance as the assistants, and Pix as head of the institute

SERVER CROSSOVER AUS:

Empire Mumbo au (hc): Xornoth wins and puts Scott in a crystal, corrupting all the other empires. But in a mission to conqure other dimensions, the Scott crystal is lost and comes into the possession of one Mumbo Jumbo