#also *i* don’t want to get sick either!!!!!!

[ethicaltreatmentofcowplants]

Rise and shine, everyone! Today we are heading out early to indulge in Aggie’s favourite - well, second favourite (👜) - hobby. Cross-Stitching!  Yes, one sim will be threading their way to a solo date with Lilac.

We’ve been curious to see just how well GOOD traited sim Spencer will get along with our adorable EVIL blorbo Forest, and so far they appear… joined at the hip?

Today’s mentor is Dodo, who is helping out contestants not with stinkiness, but the finer points of fitness. Caden is the first for a private training session, which Spencer does his best to make less private.

(It was Eye of the Tiger that Survivor sang, Spencer, not Pry of the Tiger...)

Cross-Stitch is not sparking joy for everyone. Briar and Giovanna prick their fingers and are forced to take a break, while Spencer dislikes the hobby but perseveres. If he continues his trajectory from the first round then he possibly won’t need the solo date, but damned if he’ll let Caden have it...

...Who for his part is getting rather sick of Spencer’s snooping (why are you so obsessed with him 😉) but manages to produce a NORMAL quality cross-stitch.

Forest appears to have taken Lilac’s critiques from the Strawberry Ceremony to heart and (so far) has been on his best behaviour. He becomes friends with Dodo and attempts some friendliness with Briar, but doesn’t appreciate her mischief interactions.

Giovanna manages to complete her cross-stitch pattern, which sadly is only of POOR quality.

Elsewhere LAZY sim Briar struggles with fitness but completes a nice painting, and even does some cloudgazing with Forest. Does that one look like a flying llama?

Since having Dodo in my save file, it’s become clear to me that he has some kind of telepathic communication with his Watcher, Ana. So here he is yet again dropping his 1001th hint that he wants a nooboo (and who he wants one with).

Eventually it’s Forest who (lest we forget knows the importance of a good skill grind) manages the highest quality work and will go on a date with Lilac tomorrow! Congratulations, Forest. Please consider leaving the autonomous meanness at home this time.

He also discovered that he was a MAKER, so good news all around.

Because the Watcher didn’t cancel Night On the Town and didn’t want sad moodlets from a ruined holiday, we went to the Spice Festival. Forest and Dodo, are you boys twinning?

Yes, we won’t be featured on Hot Ones anytime soon - not even Spencer, who I believe has the SPICE HOUND trait.

Briar shares something else piping hot with Giovanna, while Forest gifts Caden just because - and is strategic enough to make sure he does so right under Araminta’s nose. Her opinions have no bearing on final scores, but having the host anti-shipping you with the bachelorette probably isn’t ideal either.

Finally, it’s time to head back home (and possibly take some Pepto Bismol). As they don’t have to get up early tomorrow and skill-grind (plus have a far more comfortable bed back at Chez Minta), Dodo and Araminta sleep in the woohoo/guest room*.

*No nooboos were made during this stay.

@jonquilyst @mdshh @riverofjazzsims @ravingsockmonkey @akitasimblr

dodo harper by @akitasimblr

[spork-supremacy]

I don’t know how long it’s been since the release of TOTK cause time is an illusion.

but I’m still chewing on the concept and potential of the yiga fake Zelda scene.

I really wish to get into link’s mindset during that bit because the entire scene screams “too good to be true, but just let me have this for a bit.”

like image you obviously didn’t know it was a game and how they work, and finding Zelda could have actually been as easy as she teleported somewhere. Image in you find this before finding out about the back in time or dragon thing. You really get your hopes up that for once finding someone so dear to you could finally be somewhat easy. And then the conversation becomes less convincing as she questions who she is and deep down you think “why did I expect something like this to be so simple in the first place? the gods must hate me.” Because in that moment you knew that this couldn’t be it, there just had to be more to it. Or maybe she did just lose her memory just like you had in some way, you can never be sure. And then just as quickly as you gained hope the rug is pulled out under you as when you tell her who you desperately want her to be, Zelda is no longer Zelda but a random yiga member picking the worst fight of their short life.

On the the other hand there is a possibility a more experienced Link finds her. He knows about everything he sees the dragon in the sky whenever he looks up, either above him or in the distance. But when he finds that fake Zelda he can’t help but indulge himself a little and play along, sure the conversation is short but he at least has to admire the effort the yiga put in. The disguise looks exactly like her, sounds like her, granted the smell’s a little off. For a moment his thoughts betray what he knows “maybe this might actually be Zelda.” Then of course the illusion is broken the moment he turns his head to seek the dragon in the sky, confirming its presence, her presence, the fake Zelda reveals her true form while he’s distracted.

I also like thinking about the ensuing fight, either we have the relatively early game Link who is furious beyond compare, at both the sick joke and the cruelty of fate, and at himself for ever thinking anything could just be simple for someone with the hero’s spirit. In that moment he’s out for blood, but would also like to send a message to what he would do to the yiga if they ever try anything remotely close to that again.

however I think late game Link while still mad, is much more cold with the kill. He anticipated this immediately and is just disappointed he couldn’t even have a whole minute with someone who he can at least pretend is Zelda. He wanted to just indulge in the fantasy for a little longer. When the yiga reveals itself he quickly pulls out his sword and dares them to get close. They take the bait and off their head goes in one quick motion. He moves the head and body off to the side and makes camp. He’ll continue the search tomorrow.

[brainscrems]

I’m so fucking sick of ADL apologia. They’re not “trying to play nice and avoid targeting by the regime” THEY ARE ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING TRUMP AND HAVE BEEN QUIETLY SUPPORTING HIM FOR FUCKING YEARS!!!! The ADL, when faced with a choice between two candidates, a nazi who will let israel get away with whatever war crimes it wants, and a woman who’s not a nazi, has a jewish husband, is a big supporter of the jewish community, and hinted that she maybe, might hold israel accountable for war crimes, decided neither was the best option. Oh, except they also gave an award to the son-in-law of the nazi during that election year. For the fellow jews who see this, ask yourselves, when was the last time you saw the ADL criticize the republican party platform at all? When’s the last time you saw them call out the growing threat of nazism on the far right? When’s the last time you saw them point out the terrifying similarities between action and word of the republican party’s rhetoric towards immigrants and that of the nazi party’s rhetoric to jews? When was the last time the ADL talked abt systemic antisemitism that doesn’t fit their bs narrative of “the left wants all jews dead, while the right says some bad things sometimes but they mean well”. And, also ask yourself, “When was the last time they used their name as the largest jewish advocacy organization to claim that a nazi who just gave a nazi salute, has spouted nazi rhetoric for years, and also gave that nazi salute while giving a speech that sounded like it came right from adolf hitler’s own fucking mouth?” Cause i don’t remember the answer to those first few question, but I sure do remember the answer to that last one.

This is not a defense of left-wing antisemitism. As a leftist jew I see that shit day in and day out and it’s driving me fucking insane. I know what we’ve faced this last year and a half. This is about the ADL being unreliable and actively harming jewish interests. Cause let’s now talk about what the ADL DOES actually say about the left. Cause, yea, leftist antisemitism is fucked. Yea, the ADL calls it out. Yea, the ADL gets it wrong sometimes, and that would be expected of any organization. The issue here, is they’re getting it wrong ALL the time about the right, because they don’t bother to call it out at all. I posit they just throw spaghetti at the wall when it comes to leftist antisemitism and then they see what sticks. Their internal guidance, from an outside perspective, is it’s fine when the right-wing ethnonationalists in control of the government do a nazi salute, but when leftists do it to be edgy cunts to weaponize jewish trauma for their political causes it’s bad. Let’s be clear, they’re both bad. But it’s the difference between violent edgelord trolls and someone who actually wants to be the next hitler. What’s worse? The ADL thinks the college kids are a bigger threat than the people in charge of the entire US government. This is a systemic issue with the ADL.

Now, why this matters. The ADL has been slowly moving this way for a while. It just REALLY stepped up since october 7th because it gave them fertile ground to push what they want. But this isn’t new. The ADL has been tarnishing its reputation w goyim by overeprorting antisemitism on the left, and thus alienating even the more moderate left, and underreporting on the right. If the only people outside out community who have any trust in the ADL are republicans fascists and centrists who enable them, the people who it never bothers to call out, how can they continue to effectively represent us at all? The left thinks everything they say is bullshit because it’s boy who cried wolf with them. They call out everything bc they want to discredit the left. The right thinks they’re great bc they would probably let them get away with a sieg heil. This leaves us with the largest jewish advocacy organization in the US being only trusted by either nazis, or people who refuse to wake up and smell the fascism.

So. If we, as a community, want our voices heard we MUST disavow the ADL. We have to discredit them. We have to say they don’t represent us. Because. Keep in mind. 80% of jews voted against trump. The ADL knew it would look like this because they know what the american jewish community looks like. Yet, still, withheld endorsing the candidate who was, again, running against an actual nazi when it might have swayed some of the right-leaning jews. They did, however, EFFECTIVELY endorse trump by giving his son-in-law an award during an election year. Yk. The one that helped him in his first term to enact his shitty racist policies. I can’t think of any reason for this except that they wanted trump to win but knew an open endorsement would lead to a complete loss of faith from the jewish community. So. I’m here begging you. Stop buying their fucking bullshit. Their interests are not yours. They have abandoned us so they could have a president willing to let israel do whatever it wants without consequence. They have chosen to provide plausible deniability for an open nazi, as anyone who does a nazi salute while giving a far-right nationalist speech is. Do not trust them. Do not quote them. Do not donate to them. There are other jewish organizations and we should start trying to get their names out there to goyim. They ARE sometimes right about leftist antisemitism, but their motivations for calling it out are political, as evidenced by the passes they give the right. If you want our voices to be listened to on this issue start quoting other jewish orgs instead. They are less well known, but we have so many in the US. We, as a community, need to disavow these pieces of shit willing to give cover to nazis. For the sake of our credibility and for the sake of waking up the nation to the nazis we have in power.

[jestercouture]

Hii, i really liked your last post about jonathan and blackmore tending to sick darling! May i ask one like that but with yandere bruno and mista (the diiference being that reader got sick after trying to escape from them and spending the whole night hiding from them on the cold streets)

Bruno Bucciarati

warnings: stalking, kidnapping, obsessive behavior, light gaslighting, threats of violence.

His hands were shaking as he placed a warm blanket across your body; in anger or nervousness you did not know. You could gather that he was angry with you, for hiding, for running away from him but did you really have any other choice?

It was either run or spend the rest of your life in a locked room, disguised as a luxurious paradise, with the “love of your life” attending to your every whim. Except, Bruno wasn’t your lover and he had been closely following your every move without your knowledge as he prepared to take you for himself.

Oh, and he was a capo to the local Italian mafia.

But you hadn’t had a chance to spill a desperate apology from your chattering lips, eyes glazed over with tears burning and about to run down your cheeks. His eyes met yours and you just felt your heart stop; he was furious, that much you could tell, but he was trying his hardest to keep his composure.

Bruno was a man of utmost respect; it was his very nature to care and nurture to the best of his ability despite a difficult situation on his hands. If you had liked him the slightest bit, perhaps he could have also commanded your respect without intention.

Because Bruno did care. Too much, to his own and to your detriment, which is how you got stuck here. He always tended to notice those on the fringes of society, those who weren't cared for and abandoned. You had a family, but after moving to Italy for a gap year as you decided what to with yourself for the rest of your life...it could get quite isolating. Staying in a cheap hostel wasn't easy, especially with your limited Italian.

But you made it work, as an English tutor to parents who wished for their kids to have more options for study and work. It paid well, most times, but you still fought tooth and nail to find a more stable and higher paying position as a barista or something.

If only you hadn’t taken that job at the local coffee shop, with good pay and regular customers who were (mostly) kind.

If only he hadn’t laid his eyes on you, you would be free. And happy.

There was no use in thinking about that now. You life, your freedom, you had been snatched away from all of it, without any thought as to how you would feel. He acted as though you should be grateful. Bruno thought, genuinely envisioned that you would be overjoyed to be stolen away from your own life.

“Do you find joy in being so difficult, mia cara?”, you almost jumped as his voice rang out in the bedroom, almost morose as he looked at you. Disappointment was worse than anger sometimes, because what did he really expect to happen?

“You can’t keep me here forever, Bucciarati. I don’t want to be here an-“, a slew of coughs wracked your body, ceasing your oncoming insults.

“Mmm, and I suppose I should have left you out there in this state?” Warm, strangely soft hands brushed against your forehead, drawing away after he felt the light sheen of sweat forming.

His chiding tone did nothing to inspire guilt, or even a sense of shame for running away from him, it only made you feel much more fury towards him.

Towards what had happened to you. A sadness of what you had now lost, and had no help of returning to.

You let your eyes wander up to his face- admittedly attractive, but his beauty was tainted by his selfishness. Big blue eyes gazed down at you, a sickening mocking care in them that made you begin to shake.

“Oh, carina this is why I keep you here, hm? Nice and safe, warm and right by my side,” Bruno gently placed another blanket over you, smoothing your hair and kissing your forehead.

You could have fallen in love with him. You felt weak enough as it was, sick and shivering and pathetic whilst still despising the man who ruined your life.

“You need me, sweetheart. You just need to give in, let me love you, let me adore you and all of your pain will go away.”

You had that minute of freedom; you grasped it with both hands desperately, knowing it would be last time you would taste it for a while.

Your eyes began to lose your energy faster than you wanted, eyes drooping but fluttering to stay awake.

A relieving, cool hand touched your face and stroked your cheek with tenderness; you almost felt sicker when your heart stopped at the feathery touch.

“Just sleep, amore, I’ll be there when you wake up.”

That’s what you were afraid of.

Guido Mista

"Aww, baby, you really outdid yourself this time, didn't you?"

You were feverish, barely able to see the shadows flittering around the room. It felt as though tiny creatures were jumping and crawling throughout the sheets, nipping and tickling your skin.

"Mista...where?..." you could barely form words, your throat was dry as all hell and your foggy vision was clouding your frail efforts to catch sight of a glass somewhere, anywhere in the haze.

“Shh, shh, just let me take care of you, carina. You’ve only gone and caught yourself a nasty little cold, huh?” His voice was teasing you, that much you could make out, yet your sweating body almost went into shock at the undertones of dread it gave you.

Mista was being uncharacteristically caring about your escape attempt; you had been bracing yourself for a long lecture and one-sided argument at your selfishness, your callous disregard for how you had abandoned Mista when all he wanted to do was love you.

Yeah, love you to death, more like. You had seen him dispose of low-life criminals on the streets of Italy, callous and violent, like it meant nothing to him. He may have tried to shield you from his occupation but you both knew what he was.

You forced yourself to watch Mista if it was possible to remind yourself of what he could do to you if you ever went too far; his gun could be pressed against your head one day if you pushed him far enough, right?

It didn’t matter right now, though. The pitter-patter and united whining of Sex Pistols still rang in your ears until the irritated voice of your captor scolded them for disturbing you in your time of rest.

“Mista, I-I’m sorry for leaving, I just wanted to-“

“Carina, rest your head. You made a simple mistake, hmm?”

Your foggy eyes widened. Mista was letting you off for now? That would have made you sigh with relief months ago, but you’d come to understand over time that he had a bit of a temper at times.

But now, as he fussed and pampered your bedridden body, a new stab of dread became more present in your gut. This could be dangerous.

He could have hurt me, you realized. But he didn’t, or rather hadn’t yet. Was he waiting until you were back on your feet to punish you? To make you regret you’d ever run away so foolishly, throwing his love and adoration for you back in his face?

But you could feel his painful anger towards you, no matter how hard he tried to keep it down. Eyes twitching, tense shoulders, all of them were hallmarks of a Mista meltdown ready to snap on you.

Bated breaths escaped you as a familiar, sickly feeling began to wash over you; anticipation. Whether or not you knew what was coming, you never failed to feel a few stops short of vomiting when he got like this.

“I don’t know why you do these things, bella. It really hurts my feelings when you act up and make me lose my patience.”

Mista pressed a damp cloth to your face, dabbing gently as he spoke, eyes fixed on your reactions. His tendencies is what was scaring you the most, you almost wanted him to lose his shit with you.

“But I know you’re sorry. I know you feel bad about making me worry and chase you down like that!” That last part…why was it spoken with such glee, such assurance in himself? In you, even after you’d run away?

“I-I really am sorry, Mista, I d-don’t know why I did it”-

“You were scared, weren’t you?”

You shut your eyes instinctually, baring yourself to face the inevitable consequences of your actions. But there was nothing, nothing at all, apart from the slow whisper next to your ear.

It made your hair stand on end, your heart thudded to point where you felt as though you could collapse into the pillows and cushions.

“But I forgive you. This time. If you do it again…I’ll break your legs.”

Somehow, you weren’t sure if you would make it out intact.

If you would make it out at all.

——————————————————

like my work?

ko-fi

i hope you enjoyed this one! took me a while, and i struggled with writing Mista a bit and i hope they turn out well!

jjba is on the brain im literally frothing at the mouth morning noon and night

[mymakuu]

Chapter 4!

(I think this one’s mostly filler because my school work was crushing me this week, im sorry, also a huge portion of the italic and bold words were lost in this chapter as well as the others)

“we can talk about this over breakfast! Your new cyborg parts should still be adjusting to swallowing, but they have foods you can eat, by now you should be able to swallow smaller solids.”

this wasn’t exciting to Raiden. Being humiliated was enough, walking around Desperado with Sam’s hand on his back had made him lose his appetite. Monsoon and another employee walked by.

“you two look like a cute couple!”

Monsoon’s joke made Sam take his hand off Raiden’s back.

“I'm just making sure he doesn’t run away”

“if he does we can disable his legs”

Raiden’s eye shot open

“You can what now?”

“You’re still an enemy to us Jack, we had to make sure we couldn’t do anything extreme.”

Raiden had NEVER hated Monsoon more in his life, he started to shake again. Sam reached out to put his hand on his shoulder but Raiden punched him right in the jaw. When Sam stumbled back Raiden tried to go after him again, but Monsoon grabbed Raiden and the employee with him grabbed Sam and helped him stand up. Before Raiden knew it his entire cybernetic body had gone limp.

“(lords name in vain, and the d word) RAIDEN! WHAT THE (h word) IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

Raiden couldn’t reply to Monsoon; his bottom jaw was part of his cybernetics so it was disabled too. The employee who was with Monsoon was now wiping blood off Sam’s nose, it looked bruised. Monsoon got right into Raiden’s ear before speaking.

“You're an employee here now. If you don’t want to be treated like trash you don’t ACT like trash. If you're so scared of being disabled then stay in line. I won't hesitate to toss your useless (a word) into scrap metal, got it?”

Monsoon dropped Raiden and let him slump down on the floor like a discarded doll. It was probably better not to push Monsoon’s buttons, and with that came Sam’s buttons, Khamsin’s buttons, Sundowner’s and Mistral’s, and EVERY other useless cyborg soldiers’ buttons. Any step out of line and Monsoon would probably tell everyone in California his secret. Raiden was finally able to stand up, but with that came feeling pain again, a pulsing electric shock throughout his entire body was the most present. He weakly stood up, Monsoon grabbed his hair and yanked him up like a scruffed puppy. Monsoon then turned to Sam who was still rubbing his nose and asking the employee if it was, “really that bad” and if the bleeding had stopped.

“Sam if he puts ANYTHING out of line you tell me. We could use some more scrap metal anyways.”

Monsoon then said something to his employee in another language and they both walked away. Sam finally stopped rubbing his nose and looked at Raiden, he looked mad.

“I expect better out of you. I spared your life time after time and all you do punish me.”

Raiden opened his mouth but Sam shushed him.

“I won't scrap you on your next mistake, but I won't hesitate to cut your other arm off either. We’re not enemies anymore.”

Sam pushed Raiden a little, suggesting that they should get walking again.

“if you falter that easily at a simple comment then I’d hate to see how you handle a real fight. We don’t use VR on our grown soldiers here, but then again you're not acting very grown”

Raiden stayed quiet, Sam and Monsoon had a point. It was a point he was fond of but it was true.

“Stand straight. We’re going straight to training.”

Raiden pulled his head up, he still felt a little woozy from having his body parts disabled, the pulsing shock hadn’t left either. He felt too sick to eat but too hungry to train, and Sam wasn’t going to go easy on him now that he’d punched him. The training room wasn’t too far, it was the same one where Raiden had cut that punching bag, the memory set back in again, the room got dark and Raiden felt weak, Sam looked over and noticed.

“what’s wrong?”

Sam said something after this, but Raiden couldn’t understand. Raiden’s vision suddenly blurred and before he knew it he was in Med Bay again, this time he was sitting up in a chair with 3 IVs in his arm.

“What happened there?”

Sam was trying to hide his panic, but he wasn’t that good at it. Sam put his hand on Raiden’s shoulder and looked into his eye. the sun was hitting Sam's eyes so perfectly, that they went some vicious to a soft caring deep brown. Raiden couldn’t help but look into them, it was like indulging on something sweet. Raiden just stared into them for a while, until he felt his face get hot.

“you passed out. What happened?”

monsoon was there too, his employee wasn’t, and sundowner.

“Raiden, what happened?”

Sam took his hand off Raiden’s shoulder.

“I'm sorry… I must have pushed you //too far//”

Monsoon began to talk over him

“Are you even a soldier? You pass out after just stepping into the training grounds? maybe //we should just toss you-//”

Sundowner started to talk over him.

“was it because of your prior training?”

After Sundowner said that everyone started to talk over each other, it all got very confusing, and loud. Raiden’s pupil darted between the three of them until he locked his eye with Sam again. He looked into Sam’s brown eyes and imaged them as Rose’s. her loving, deep, brown eyes. He couldn’t believe he was dead to her, to the whole world. This was really his new life now. He snapped back to reality, looking into Sam’s eyes, just then he heard Sundowner's voice say something abhorrent.

“you're lookin’ into his eyes an awful lot Jacklyn”

Suddenly the room felt frozen. Monsoon looked at Sundowner, Sam and Raiden looked away from each other, everyone looked shocked or confused. Monsoon faked an awkward smile before speaking, his accent suddenly slightly thicker than normal.

“Sundowner let’s not use nicknames yet.”

“right.”

Sam still looked embarrassed.

“you can probably stand up now Raiden.”

Raiden stood up, and wobbled a bit but managed to keep his balance, Sam reached out to catch him but a judgmental look from Sundowner made him pull away.

“he can stan don his own.”

Sam nodded and stood back. Raiden stood up straight and looked up at Sam as Monsoon grabbed his arm and pulled the IVs out.

“Are you even qualified to be doing this?”

Monsoon ignored him and kept wiping his arm off with rubbing alcohol, then he wrapped some bandages on it.

“We should probably go back to training now…”

Sam was trying to avoid eye contact, but he finally looked up at Raiden’s face, not his eye.

“We don’t have to do it in the training room. We can practice out- “

“not a chance”

Monsoon interrupted Sam.

“Raiden isn’t leaving the facility unless he’s in chains.”

Raiden glanced at Monsoon, he was serious. The thought of training outside and running away hadn’t occurred to him yet, knowing Desperado they probably had beds of land mines and walls of barbed wire outside, maybe they'd only be child-sized to keep their hostages from escaping.

“He’s not going to run away. We can disable his whole body remember?”

Monsoon nodded and then looked at Raiden.

“Fine. Train him outside. Just keep him away from the Rose bushes”

Monsoon smiled after saying this, for being the leader he was just as immature as a middle school boy, it was a wonder he was married out of any cyborg here. Monsoon saying this also meant he had probably gone through Raiden’s medical records after he was taken in, which made Raiden hate him even more.

“Alright. Come on Raiden, I’ll show you the outdoor training grounds, it's much cleaner than the indoor ones!”

Sam put his hand on Raiden’s back and started to walk with him again, he seemed more excited, whether it was to train outside or because he was getting away from his bosses was up for debate. Raiden still felt a little sickly from his Med Bay trip, Sam kept pushing him until they got to an elevator. It smelled like vanilla, and the lack of music made the place feel desolate. Sam finally took his hand off Raiden’s back, they just stood beside each other a little awkwardly and waited for the doors to open again. The elevator ride was a little long, or maybe it felt longer because Sam was there, or it was the IV wearing off. Eventually, they got to the roof of the World Marshal building, it was a helicopter landing but there were no helicopters there, just a plain empty area.

“We can duel up here, just you and me Blondie.”

Out of all the nicknames, this was the best. Sam put his hand on his sword holster, Raiden realized he still didn’t have his half-blade, and Desperado cyborgs had a much sleeker design compared to Maverick Security cyborgs.

“your sword is gone. But you can use this one”

Sam handed him a wooden training sword, it seemed so unfair that Sam got a real katana while Raiden was stuck with a training sword, it was too small anyway.

“don’t worry”

Sam pushed on the trigger of his sheath, and a wooden sword popped out too.

“can’t have you losing that arm again, cost us a fortune to repair it.”

Raiden looked down at his arm, and then back at Sam, who was now smirking at him.

“oh, by the way, I have a surprise for you.”

Same walked over to him, getting right face to face with him. Then he reached up and pulled up the bandages around his eye.

“I don’t know if you noticed. But we fixed your eye too. And it doesn’t look like Monsoon’s snail eyes, don’t worry.”

“Snail eyes?”

“you’ll see later, let's get back on track.”

Raiden was now looking into both of Sam’s eyes. The color reminded him of a jaguar's eyes, and he only just now noticed that one of them was lazy. He reached up and touched his eye, feeling it over a couple of times and messing with his eyelid until Sam spoke again.

“I thought you'd realize after the first day. I guess you don’t use your mirror often”

Raiden hadn’t really looked at himself in the mirror in a while. It got harder and harder the more cybernetics he got or the more missions he was sent on. After “joining” Desperado it got near impossible to even think of that. Sam finally stepped back and drew his wooden sword.

“Focus Blondie. I want tough soldiers here.”

Raiden wasn’t used to having depth perception, it felt so odd, he had gotten used to only having one eye that it was odd to have 2. He drew his wooden sword and ran towards Sam. Sam instantly undertook his blade and twisted Raiden around so he fell over like a puppy.

“that’s your first mistake, you charge in expecting to chop away at your enemies, but you don’t put too much thought into it.”

Sam Pulled Raiden up and hit his legs lightly. Raiden stood up straight and tried to attack Sam again, but Sam deflected all his attacks.

“you’re self-taught, right?”

“you already know that”

“I'm pretty sure our child-brains could see that. You're sloppy.”

Raiden Stayed quiet. Sam had been trained on the blade since he was a child, and it had been passed in his family for generations, maybe it was time to shut up and listen.

“And that “tool of justice” thing? You need to drop that. Your sword is a weapon, and weapons are used for acts of violence.”

“That's not true- “

“Did blood not spill when you fought for justice?”

Raiden stayed quiet and thought for a bit. There hadn’t been a time when his “justice” didn’t involve the loss of a life.

“But- but those didn’t matter. They were raising child soldiers.”

“what makes a life matter to you Blondie”

Raiden opened his mouth but no words came out, he just paused for a while, thinking…

“what you do with it. Does a life matter if it's only used for killing the weak and innocent?”

“mmm… you make a good point Blondie. But remember what Monsoon taught you.”

Raiden didn’t want to think anymore, about anything, he was up here to duel Sam, not think about morals and life. Besides, being in desperado meant he didn’t need those morals anyway.

“Can we just get to fighting”

“You're fighting with your own mind; how can you fight me?”

“that’s beside the point”

Raiden slammed his wooden sword into Sam’s side and then bonked his head with it.

“you let your guard down.”

Sam stood up.

“Oh, so we're playing that game?”

Sam came towards Raiden and hit his armpit hard, then swung his sword around and nearly hit his eye.

“memories flooding back eh pretty boy?”

Raiden brought up his sword and attacked Sam’s center, then he repeatedly slashed at Sam’s torso and legs. Eventually, Sam deflected his attacks and grabbed his sword in between his palms, his grip was surprisingly strong, and it took a lot for Raiden to pull his sword out of Sam’s grip. Sam started his attacks, they were hard and nearly impossible to dodge or parry. Eventually, Raiden stumbled back and Sam grabbed his head and lifted him by it, he threw Raiden down, and just then realized his mistake. Raiden groaned in pain, and Sam lifted him by his hands.

“Raiden! Are you ok?!”

Raiden used Sam’s kindness to his advantage, and he yanked Sam down to the ground and pushed his sword to his throat.

“You're too cocky.”

Sam pushed Raiden off of himself easily and then brushed himself off as if he had just come in contact with something dirty.

“And you care too much.”

“I’m your mentor. Should I not care?”

Something about Sam being his mentor still brought that empty dry feeling to his stomach. He didn’t see Sam as anything more than a smudge on his visor. Before they could continue their duel, Sundowner came up from the elevator.

“you trainin’ him up here?”

“you said outside.”

“I thought you meant in one of the gardens!”

“he would destroy our gardens.”

“well go train elsewhere. Some of us have work to do.”

Sam took Raiden’s wooden sword off of him, and they started to walk to the elevator. Sundowner finally stepped out and let them in, Sam pushed the button to the bottom floor, it would be a looong ride down from there.

The ride down was mostly quiet until the door opened on the 15th floor and someone else got on, it was the employee that was with Monsoon earlier.

“Hi Sam”

“Ola.”

Sam nudged Raiden and got in his ear to whisper, “That’s Monsoon's wife”, Raiden looked at her and whispered back, “She’s short”, before continuing their elevator ride in silence. Eventually, she got off, and some other employees who all said hi to Sam and gave Raiden dirty looks got on and off, Khamsin even got on at one point, but he got off shortly after. The elevator stopped at the first floor and Sam guided Raiden to get off.

“I'm not allowed to give you a full tour of the base yet. But we can find a new place to train for now.”

Sam took Raiden’s hand to guide him but quickly let go when he saw Monsoon walk past. Monsoon looked at them, it was hard to tell what kind of look it was, but if it was Monsoon, it usually wasn’t a good look, but he kept walking.

“do you guys do anything, or do you just walk around?”

“Some of us stand around.”

Raiden gave him the blankest expression he could, and it was easy to do so since that joke was worse than being nicknamed “Jetstream”. Sam chuckled at his joke and felt no shame for doing it alone, eventually he stopped and looked at Raiden again.

“come on pretty boy. I know a place.”

My first ever fanfic!

Criticism is appreciated 

Raiden joins desperado AU

Raiden gripped the concrete as hard as he could. Shaking in pain as his blood spilled out of his chest. He reached for his weapon in a final attempt to endure it, but it was quickly kicked away.

“Are you finally done?”

Monsoon said while stepping closer, his metal feet against the concrete caused Raiden’s heart to beat faster, so fast that it was all he could hear.

“what can you even do now? Stand up. Show me a man.”

He felt Monsoon’s Sai hit his chin, not a light tapping but a slam.

Instead of giving up in that moment, Raiden forced himself to stand up. His vision was incredibly blurry, it was impossible to see Monsoon’s kick to the legs until he slammed his head on the concrete. The last thing he heard was the ringing, a loud ringing that faded into a beating, almost like a heartbeat.

Most of Raiden’s memories had completely faded like sand in the wind. But the heartbeat brought something back... something sweet, and comforting. The heartbeat no longer sounded like his own, but his mother’s.

It brought back memories of his mom rubbing his forehead back when he was very young, it was soothing… Raiden had completely forgotten about his failed battle until the ringing came back. When the ringing came back the feeling of a hand on his forehead didn’t go away, in fact, the hand felt warmer and larger than a mother’s hand. Quickly Raiden shot his eye open and saw his enemy, Jetstream Sam, rubbing his forehead. Raiden started to struggle against it but he couldn’t move, making Sam laugh.

“Nice try pretty boy”

he finally took his hand off his head

“those EMP shots we gave you won't fade for HOURS”

“WHERE AM I?”

Raiden couldn’t hide the panic in his voice, that tough cyborg façade was about to be washed away, which Sam found amusing because he laughed again.

“you’re at desperado! Do you really think we’d let a valuable asset like you die on the dirty floor? You’re trash, but-”

“shut up Sam. I’m not here for small talk obviously…”

“well, you’re here for a reason pretty boy...”

“are you going to tell me?”

“am I?”

Sam was toying with him, clear as day. Raiden scowled and decided it was best not to entertain a clown, so he just shut his mouth. Disappointingly Sam wouldn’t mimic this action.

“Have you seen your new parts yet?”

Raiden looked down, he did have new parts, red and black with the Desperado logo on his right thigh.

“what the (f word) is this?”

“your new look pretty boy”

“stop calling me that”

“you don’t like it? The logo I mean.”

The armor was beyond beauty. There wasn’t a word strong enough to describe how pretty it was. Maybe it was just the look of fresh armor, or perhaps it was the scarlet accents. It wasn’t that big ugly logo that’s for sure.

“no”

“ah you’re lying pr- “

Raiden quickly cut him off before he could spit out that nickname.

“what happened? Why is your logo on My leg?

“Well, I was getting there if you'd stopped being so catty.”

Raiden finally shut up and started waiting for Sam’s explanation. Sam put his hand to his chin and gave Raiden one of his snarky smiles. Suddenly being dead on the concrete sounded better than this. Sam was taking way too long to speak at this point, so a headache started to form in Raiden’s forehead. Raiden pushed his head back on his pillow and groaned.

“well since you want to know so bad…”

Sam chuckled again

“you put up quite a fight, we couldn’t let a pretty thing like you go to waste. So instead of shooting you dead then and there, we dragged you into the building and took you to the med bay.”

Sam put his hand on Raiden’s new logo.

“they gave you some new parts, monsoon tore yours up pretty bad. We decided that desperado could use someone like you…”

Raiden opened his eye, Sam's eyelids were hung a little. Not in a tired way, but in a relaxed way, it was unnerving.

“so. I'll give you 2 options… you either join Desperado, as one of our cyborgs, or we use you for scrap metal. It's up to you pretty boy”

Sam's hand was still on the Desperado logo. Sam finally took his hand off and then put it back on Raiden’s forehead, which seemed to soothe his headache a bit. This choice wasn’t hard at all, ANYONE with a moral backbone would rather die before joining a company like DESPERADO! Maybe even people without a moral backbone. Raiden was about to say his answer, but the sliding doors opened before his mouth could. He couldn’t tell who walked in by footsteps alone, they were more clicky than sundowners, but too snippy to be monsoon, and not squeaky enough to be Khamsin’s, which meant it had to be…

“Ola Mistral, come to visit Raidey?”

Raiden felt his body tense up at that awful nickname, his stomach even churned every time it echoed in his ears. Sam could tell it was making Raiden sick, so he slid a metal bucket over beside the bed with his foot.

“visit?” mistrals voice was smooth like a cup of Assam tea. But to Raiden, it sounded as smooth as the noise the bucket made on the floor. “I wouldn't say visit. I'm here to see if he weighed his options”

“He was just on that.”

“Sundowner wants an answer by tonight, any later and we’ll scrap him.”

“We can wait a bit, he already acts like scrap metal.”

“Very funny Sam, but its Sundowner’s word is what we follow. And don’t run from the heard unless you want to be mutton”

Sam was quiet for a bit, in the desperado hierarchy, Sam was at the bottom, he was new to desperado and it showed.

“talk to him, Sam. I want the word by tonight. Monsoons on call today if you need him.”

“yes, ma’am. I'm on it, ma’am”

Mistral’s heels clicked on the metal floors as she walked out of the room. It wasn’t until the sliding doors closed that Sam started talking.

“Please Raiden, just join”

“and why should I? you bunch are just a bunch of moralless terrorists. I’d rather d- “

“No, you wouldn’t. come on Raiden, just join, it's better than what's coming if you don’t”

“why would I listen to you”

Raiden attempted to spit at Sam’s face to keep him away, but Sam just put his hand over his mouth.

“I’m not taking no anymore. You're joining. Welcome to Desperado Raiden.”

Raiden felt an indescribable emotion. Anger? Sadness? Something entirely different? Whatever it was it made him throw up. Sam helped him do it in the bucket while holding his hair back too. Raiden didn’t take this as a kind gesture, after being forced to join an organization a bundle of flowers would feel like a bullet to the brain.

I'm sorry Raiden.’

Sam put his hand on an IV bag full of something blue, turning up the dial a bit. Raiden felt his head getting light and airy, and he started to wobble, before he knew it, he was out cold.

When Raiden finally opened his eyes it was dark out, the room would be pitch black if not for the medical equipment’s glow. He heard what sounded like porcelain cups clicking on each other, and heels on the ground. He noticed that one of the lights in the room was moving, it was a faint red glow. he didn’t put much thought into it, realizing that the EMP shots had finally worn off and he could move now was much more interesting. Raiden sat up and was suddenly making “eye” contact with Monsoon. The man who put him in this situation. Neither of them said anything, it was just an awkward silence for a minute or so before Monsoon set his tray down.

“You're up early.”

Raiden didn’t respond.

“I brought you some green tea”

Raiden still didn’t respond. Anything coming out of his mouth would be out of irrational anger now. He could feel his arms shaking in anger at this point. All he wanted to do was dump that hot tea on Monsoon’s face and smash the cups on his teeth.

“calm down Jack.”

Raiden stayed quiet, being called Jack wasn’t helping him calm down. He raised his arm to grab a cup but his headache had gotten worse, and it had spread to the rest of his mind by now. Monsoon picked up a cup and moved to the side of his bed, putting the cup to Raiden’s lips and making him drink it.

“don’t spit it out. It’ll help that headache of yours.”

Raiden kept it in his mouth without swallowing, the chance of a Desperado member poisoning him had gotten lower, but not low enough for him to swallow.

Monsoon set the cup down and got off the bed. He walked to the other side of the room to grab supplies from a cabinet.

“I knew your secret, Jack.”

Monsoon saying that suddenly made him swallow, he choked a bit but got over it fast. Whatever secret it was didn’t matter. If Monsoon knows it's over for him.

“you couldn’t ‘show me a man’ because you're not one.”

[landlessbud]

in what fucking world is it “cute” to come to your partner’s family’s holiday gathering while SICK

[goldkirk]

I don’t know how to explain any more clearly that it doesn’t MATTER if it seems legitimate to you. You have got to fact check every single headline and post and claim on the left just like you need to do on the right.

The left is NOT immune to misinformation and rushed reporting. And the more emotionally polarizing or shocking the talking points, sound bytes, and headlines are, the worse it is and more frequently it happens.

Learn to verify through multiple independent sources. If you can’t do that, you can’t trust it.

If you have to wait extra hours for the real information to come through vetted channels—NOT just one individual somewhere everyone links to, and not just one single media source either, EVEN if it’s a major news network—thats just how it has to be. What news outside of genuine local disasters near you TRULY needs your outrage and post-sharing in the next hour specifically?

Misinformation works best by not seeming like misinformation and by fitting in with the rest of what you already expect to see. It doesn’t help anyone to not be able to recognize and avoid the stuff.

[nonsensechemicals]

crying whenever i talk about Cookie9 because all my friends have these interesting and unique theories on them while i take everything too literally and they all just stare at me like “dude… uuugh we r TIRED” <-they dont actually say this they are very kind to me but i can Feel It

[moreaujeans]

moodboard

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

ppl will go “i’d notice if society was going to sacrifice a marginalised group of people and if they said that it’s ok that a bunch of people would die then i would stand against it” and then they’ll hear people saying “well only disabled and vulnerable people will die of covid” and go “yes this is normal and ok and fine”

[ya-what--ya-erster]

my parents know I struggle with eating sometimes, they KNOW, and they won’t let me just eat what I fucking want for dinner. The only thing that isn’t going to make me sick, because I’ve had my mind set on it for the past several hours. And they’ve decided that if I don’t eat whatever nasty shit they’ve got going on (it’s some sort of meat that has NO seasonings or sauce at all, and potatoes with too much cheese on them) then I’m not allowed to eat anything at all. I just want to fucking eat the food I had fucking ready for myself and they won’t let me because they think I don’t follow their rules enough, so their solution is to make me, who struggles with eating pretty frequently, eat their way or not eat anything and I’m so fucking done

[merevide]

thinking about killing eve again. thinking about eve. and her inhabitions and how she was so repressed and unfulfilled and her only true escape from that was her extensive research into female assassins and through that and getting fired and then rehired she meets villanelle and they basically bring out the worst in each other obvi but that’s also kinda their best selves because all villanelle wants is to be understood and that’s also what eve wants but she denies and denies and denies and she basically keeps denying everything until it’s too late and she’s left alone, again, screaming out in the water.

[camgoloud]

i simply feel that if you burn shit in your roommate’s skillet you should then feel the obligation to be the one who scrapes it out and cleans up

[seventh-district]

several days and 15 thousand words later, i am relieved to report that the suffocating urge to Write Something has been sated and no longer has me in a chokehold

[muutosarchive]

people really wanna be mad at Eminem for no reason. yall too stupid to realize Megan dissed him in Hiss, & he was just firing a shot back. It’s not that serious.

[orangespottedgiraffe]

So