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mrfellsans · 5 months ago

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HWJWJJS THANKS FOR TAGGING ME!!

Favorite color: black, red, pink, back then my fav color was green but since I had so much red and black to my blog and characters I just started getting really into these colors and for pink idk why I love it so much but I do I sometimes use it with my characters

Last song listened to: I was listening to a lot of old songs because they are absolutely amazing, I'm guessing something from the Beatles, kiss, queens, ac/dc, bon jovi, Nirvana, etc

Currently reading: 🙁I only read one book this whole summer lmao (haven't picked a book up since unless it's a sketchbook lmao)

Currently watching: SAIKI K, AND MOB PSYCHO 100 AAAA I FREAKING LOVE THESE ANIMES SJSJSJJS

Want to watch: ALL THE DEADPOOL MOVIES, ALL THE SCREAM MOVIES, FRIDAY THE 13TH, ALL THE MICHAEL MYERS MOVIES/HALLOWEEN, THE EXORCIST, THE SHINING, GRAVITY FALLS, THE FAIRLY ODD PARENTS REBOOT, UHH YES THAT'S ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT RNN

Currently craving: burritos. Always. burritos are my fav food especially if it's from that one small restaurant I went to in Ecuador HELL YEA sooo good aaa😍

Coffee or tea: COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE (I might die early bc of my love for coffee tho I barely drink it)

Hobbies in mind: hmm well right now drawing digitally and in my notebook, playing video games with my brother, playing PC games especially like gmod right now, hanging out with my sister and then with my brother, yapping to my cat ginger

Current aus:

Smg8 crew: this au is still in development but I've already made a lot of story for the main character smg8, I just need to make the rest of the smg8 crew and then we will be all good >:3

Betrayed: holy shit where do I start, this story is an intense one that I love so much, it's a comic collab with @luigigirl12 and we've been working on it for a while. I am still working on it now having at least 45+ panels done for this comic!

Mr!UnderfellAU: this au has some deep lore it's been a while since I've posted about it but my whole account is literally based off of this au but mostly the sans in this au, this au has so much lore done all I need is to make some character designs and yea! But other then that this au can get pretty dark once you learn more about it!

It's all your fault ⎎⍀⟟⌇☍ ☌⍀⏃⋏⎅⌿⏃

Smg4: ✩Death wish au✩: is an au I am not even close to finishing and have never really mentioned but it's an au about a evil god that has been sealed in a box for over millions and millions of years, his name is Gumi and I know it's a silly name and all but he is horrible, he has one eye and I haven't really been able to come up with many design ideas yet other then like a weird deformed looking thing with one eye, this au is also pretty depressing for Mario because he's been given a curse that it's like everybody has a certain time above there head and if the timer ends above there head Mario has to kill them even if he doesn't want to gumis spirit makes him do it anyway, why? Because he feels like it. Worse of all the people with the least time are closest to Mario(smg4, luigi, meggy)

Tableware highrise: an old classic that's been hanging on my account for a while now, in this pizza tower au it's focused on Tableware and stuff, peppino owns a tableware store when suddenly a nasty germ highrise comes by to try and defeat peppinos business by spreading dirt and germs onto plates and etc, peppino doesn't let this slide and uses his water pump as a weapon to clean off enemies and make them nice again. I've finished all the designs for bosses in this au but didn't make the stages or floors. Fun fact peppinos pump is literally based off of super Mario Sunshine Mario's pump

The✩CircusCasino✩: an au where peppino or in other words CC runs a huge circus and casino all at once and is constantly almost being assasinated or people trying to defame him, this didn't bother him until one day coinhead came by and made a huge casino, circus, plus waterpark and now peppino needs to find a way to not lose all his money (I haven't came up with designs for here at all sadly but I do have CC peppinos design done)

Punk✩Burger au: this au is actually pretty simple, it's about a dude named PB Pino that works at a joint called the PunkBurger, here all the bosses are friends and all work together as employees to run this joint it's pretty chill and nothing really happens but if the employees aren't there for the day burgerhead and coffeeface bring random people from random universes to work there, this au is like those random pit stops you would see while traveling to different universes lol

Here's an example lol

YUPII YUPII THAT'S ALL

@yago-undertale @little--critter @cutechan555 @izzy-the-chaotic-gremlin @pizzatowet13 (anyone else that is booties with me or wants to join you can >:3 I'm so tired I can't even think of many ppls rn lmao)

I was tagged by the wonderful @jqmon ! Thank youuuu and here I go;

Favorite color: Purple, navy blue, and neons in general! They're pretty nice and can stand against a black background.

Last song i listened to: I have just had a random playlist on right now actually, but I think its called A Mask of my Own Face by Lemon Demon!

Currently Reading: "Camouflage of Great Reknown" by RatCandy! Again AUGH i love this fic Zote is me and i am Zote. Anyways, I would go on a tangent about that but this shouldn't drone on longer than my usual ramblings wahahazzzzz Also, "To Kill a Mocking Bird" By Harper Lee.

Currently watching/rewatching: "Yokai Watch!" and "Brave the Animated Series!" I've watched the latter almost 17 times in counting now aodjoeod, it's one of my faves that rivals Yokai Watch (which is pretty impressive if you know me!)

Want to watch/rewatch: "Yo-kai Watch" (OG), "Good Omens", "The Good Place", the new TMNT show and "ROTTMNT"! Quite the list but y'know =u=.

Currently craving: What I would do for some tiramisu right now...

Coffee or Tea: Same as prev, I like em both! I do like them like my chocolate though; a little more on the bitter side!

Hobbies in Mind: Drawing (digital and traditional), singing, playing videos games, and general crafts. I'd try to make anything once ○°w°○ wwwww.

Current AU: I have an unnamed Yokai Watch AU featuring my sona/character Caspian! I like making random stuff for it but I don't have a post or anything on it yet tho aifkoeod. Not to say I haven't fleshed some of it out or come up with a plot+official refs rho! (Fun fact if you've seen some of my posts; the yokai redesigns I showed yall a while ago were mostly just an excuse to show you the AU versions wwwww^) That, and a little personal world thing with two irls that I love <33 (COUGH. @samiisams and @sketchdeath22 ..... they have amazing stuff go look ooooo......)

People who I wanna get to know better: Hope y'all don't mind the tagggggggg!

@analog-smiles @c00kietin @strange0-0storm @amf-studios @aura-bug @suppai-limes @sketchdeath22 @samiisams

Love y'all!/p (hope I didn't accidently tag anyone whose already participated auiemdhjcr...)

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mirohtron · 3 years ago

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??? | prompt fill

—

With the hero chained up, the villain unveils their masterpiece: a weapon that tracks everyone who loves the hero before obliterating them. The map powers on. “Wait. There’s just one dot.” The Villain says. “…Someone loves me?” The hero replies with hope.

prompt from @writing-prompt-s

note: accidentally changed it from chains 2 ropes wHOOPS

—

The villain couldn't help but frown. One dot? How could there be just one dot? The hero was adored by the city, for Christ's sake. Everyone adored the hero, from a 5 year old cosplaying the city's savior to mentors shining with pride every time their protégé's name was mentioned.

The villain landed a hand down on the weapon, ignoring the shout hero voiced at their action, trying to get it to work like you'd slap a remote when it didn't switch to the right channels.

There seemed to be a new kind of fire in the hero's eyes now. More adrenaline fueling their struggling when before there was none, more desperation to stop the villain when before there was just pretend-desperation.

The villain inspected the machine's motherboard, then spent a few long minutes going through some of the main code, and then GPS system, and then they quickly skimmed its chemical combination. Nothing was off. There should be something off. The hero can't just not be loved by everybody.

There was probably still something wrong with the weapon, the villain concluded, ignoring the hero's questions and demands.

"Hey," the hero said, "hey, the thing's not in beta, is it?"

The villain side-eyed them, more focused on making sure the kill switch couldn't be set off by accident, moving the weapon so it faced the wall. They looked at the blindingly bright screen again, showing a 2D model of the city, and then they looked at the 3D hologram of the same thing floating off to the side of the control panel. They swished the little city around, looking between the bright red dot on it and the model on screen.

Same place. Exact same place, unmoving.

The villain never went wrong with their inventions—it was the curse of being a genius, they supposed. Nothing new made from them went awry, except for their plans that the hero, who somehow decided that the villain doing villain things ruined their whole day, stopped.

"Hey!" the hero yelled now, really trying to catch the villain's attention.

The villain groaned, catching their hair in a tight grip, feeling the strands pull tight. The hero hissed from the pain.

"Do be quiet, idiot," they said, harshly letting go of their head, "I'm trying to figure out what's wrong and, you know, give you no reason to live on."

The hero sneered at them. "Don't touch that person."

The villain scoffed, making a show by walking to the weapon and putting their hand behind it. They looked the hero right in the eye, fighting the urge to laugh at their pathetic attempts to free themselves of their restraints.

So ridiculously desperate.

They withdrew their hand. "I'm not going to kill your so-called beloved," they said, smiling, "not if you stay still like a good, obedient little hero."

Promptly, the struggling stopped. The fire in them still stayed; in the way their brows knitted, in the way their jaw was set, but no one said submission and defiance had to be two completely separate entities.

The villain's smile grew. Oh, how much fun it would be if the hero was like their own flame they conjured. Right in their palm, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

"Let me go," the hero growled.

"Stop villainy. Really, hero, you should stop making egregious demands."

Like an animal, the hero bared their teeth. The villain folded their arms, cocking an eyebrow.

"Is that it, little hero?" they asked, "I was expecting something with more bravado."

It hit a nerve. The hero jerked against their restraints, sweat already on their forehead from the exertion.

The villain smiled. Then, something hit.

Ah, a hostage.

"You'd be devastated," the villain said, "if that one person were to be destroyed, wouldn't you?"

The hero tensed, breath hitching every so slightly. An arm tugged against the ropes binding them to place.

"You don't lay a hand on them," the hero threatened. A show of strength, of defiance.

The villain could do with defiance. It was satisfying. Pleasing, to take someone defiant and break them into little pieces in their palm, until what was broken couldn't be fixed anymore. It was fun. It made villainy that much more enjoyable.

The villain gazed at their weapon, then at their maps. Less was more.

They sighed dreamily. "The stakes are high, aren't they?" the villain murmured, crossing their arms, "either I let you go free and this poor person dies, or you work for me and you have a fulfilling life with that red dot."

The hero straightened, some fire in them dying. They strained against their bonds, glaring at the villain.

"You wouldn't dare—"

"I would dare, actually. It's your call, I'm just making it happen."

The hero growled. That fire didn't grow. Their movements weren't as big anymore. Their shoulders were folded in slightly, their lips no longer twisted into a sneer.

Fear worked wonders sometimes.

"It is your call."

"It's also your call to work for me or not." The villain tilted their head. "Really, how bad could it be?"

The column of the hero's throat bobbed.

They both knew how bad it could be.

"Do you wanna be loved, or do you wanna work against everything you protect? It's not like the rest of the city likes you anyway."

That hit a nerve once more. Tears sprang in the hero's eyes, and they almost slumped against their restraints pathetically.

"What would you choose?" they asked softly. Not defiant. But the villain knew it would act up soon enough. Enough to entertain, enough to break down into nothing but fear and helplessness.

It went quiet. The villain walked up to them, and crouched down, undoing the hero's restraints with terribly gentle fingers.

The hero glared. There it was, the defiance. There for the villain to chew up like popcorn, kept crushed between their teeth where it should be.

"I think," the villain said, letting a smile grow on their lips just for the hero, "I'd choose this." They let the ropes drop. "You know, if I were you. But I'm not, I'm just making this decision for you."

The hero inhaled sharply, jaw clenching. They were seething, practically, and the villain made sure not to let an inch of their expression go unseen from beneath their eyes.

"We'll start now. I suspect anything and the red dot goes kaboom, capische?"

"Yes."

The red dot stayed.

#my aesthetic is dying #what even was my aesthetic btw #gta check #lol grand theft auto #heroes and villains #villains and heroes #prompt fill #hero x villain #hero x villain snippet #writeblr #writers on tumblr #creepy villain #defiant hero #emotional whump #kind of #i love how the dialogue flowed w this normally my dialogue Never flows but UGH this was MWAH #FLEW**#god i hate english

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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 4 years ago

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The Voyage So Far: Enies Lobby

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

this is still one of my very favorite nami panels. i think she’s really great through all of water 7 and enies lobby in general, actually, even though she isn’t really one of the characters in focus for a lot of it- like zoro and sanji, she stays pretty steadfast and very badass even though everything that happens, and never gives up on robin for a moment despite being one of the ‘weaker’ members of the crew. and it’s always fun to see her playing with lightning.

one of my favorite jokes from the first half or so of enies lobby is the strawhats both being completely unsurprised that luffy charges in ahead of them as soon as they arrive AND being able to find him immediately by following the explosions. they know him so well.

luffy’s never been scared of dying, going all the way back to when he told coby he was fine with dying for his dream back in chapter two or three. that conversation is what his exchange with blueno here reminds me of- blueno asks him how long he intends to keep fighting, and luffy says until he dies, like there’s nothing to it.

it’s always been a trait of his to face death unflinching with a grin, so long as it’s for the sake of something he cares about, be it his crew or his brother or his dream, and i just really like that about him.

i’ll go into it in the dressrosa post too, but i think it’s really impressive just how long oda held off on giving luffy any sort of significant power-up. he gets his first big power boost in the whole series here, forty volumes in. i’ve always liked that oda is very conservative with power boosts like this, because it both keeps the series’ powerscaling in check and makes the times it does happen much weightier. this is a monumental moment, and it feels like it.

also, i love the way gear two is drawn pre-timeskip, especially with the steam. it looks very cool and atmospheric.

i really like how united the strawhat crew feels throughout enies lobby, after all the internal turmoil and discord of water seven. even though the matter of usopp leaving the crew is still unresolved, they’ll all together once more, on the same page, and fully united in the goal of saving robin, whatever consequences it might bring.��

the tree of knowledge has such a cool design- it looks massive, and even more than that, it looks old. you look at that tree and you know its been there for easily thousands of years. its seen entire eras of history, and it would be priceless even without the countless books stored inside it.

and then it burns.

i’m so endlessly sad about the tragedy that is robin’s relationship with her mother. they never even got to see each other until their world was ending, and even then only for a couple minutes.

olvia is a very interesting character, because she’s someone who chose her dream over the people she loved. that’s not an inherently good or bad choice, but it is a choice she made, and it’s what led to the ending she and robin had to have. i’ve wondered a lot what might have happened if she chose the other way, if she never left or if she came back sooner or if she chose to flee the buster call with robin, and how different (and almost certainly better) robin’s life would have been if she had.

in a way, olvia reminds me a lot of kouzuki toki. they both die in order to fling a light of knowledge and hope into the future, and they both send their children away and choose to stay behind to choke on ash for the sake of a better tomorrow.

i didn’t really notice until putting these panels together, but a lot of things burn in enies lobby. ohara burns, and the pluton plans and the world government flag, and enies lobby itself, and at the end, the going merry burns, too. if you extend it back to water seven, there’s the galley-la headquarters, too. in an arc that deals so much with the preservation and destruction of history and knowledge, it’s a fitting motif.

the world government flag burning is still to this day one of the most striking panels out of a series full of them, in my opinion. in one act, the strawhats proclaim their absolute defiance against the world government, and their willingness to make enemies of the greatest power in the world for the sake of their friend.

it’s also another one of those moments that’s interesting to think about in the context of luffy’s past. it was a ship flying that same flag that shot sabo down, and while luffy wasn’t there to see it, i don’t think he’s oblivious to that fact, especially given how he says just before this he understands robin’s enemies perfectly.

dadan told him and ace that there was nothing they could do against the whole world, and luffy went and did it anyways.

sometimes i just think about how scary it must have been for robin, someone who’s been weighed down by the shackles of her past with no escape in sight for so very long, to open herself up and let herself hope, for life and freedom and a dream that’s always been out of reach.

franky has a lot of really great moments between this arc and water seven- his conversation with usopp as usopp is working on merry and his talk with robin on the sea train are two others. it’s almost impressive how quickly he becomes an immensely likable character once we start getting to know him, given how he’s first introduced as an absolute piece of shit.

his burning of the pluton plans is a favorite of mine, and i think it might be because, like so many people before and after him, he’s choosing here to stake all his hopes on the strawhats, on luffy’s ability to pull off the impossible and on robin’s goodness. when robin’s only ever been chased and hated and called a demon by the world, franky chooses to trust her and luffy with the legacy his dad died for, and neither of them let him down.

monster point looks SO FUCKING TERRIFYING in enies lobby, and i LOVE it. look at that. franky is seven and half feet tall, and in front of monster point he’s tiny. monster point is huge, and dead-eyed, and a force of absolute destruction. i do kind of wish we got to see chopper go completely feral like this more often. he deserves to be terrifying!

i love how much FAITH all the rest of the strawhats continue to have in usopp throughout enies lobby. he left the crew and they really would have a right to be angry at him if they chose to, but it doesn’t even seem to cross any of their minds. they’re just happy he’s okay, and they include him again without missing a beat, because he’s still their friend and they know down to their bones they can trust him, even after everything.

i’ve always really loved zoro and kaku’s little moment of post-battle banter here- zoro relays paulie’s message about cp9 being fired, kaku says he’s out of a job, zoro tells him to try the zoo, and kaku cracks up.

it feels very real to me for whatever reason, and i think part of it ties back into how well one piece handles morality with its characters- zoro and kaku are genuinely pretty similar people who get along decently, it just happens that they wound up on opposite sides. there are series where you’d never see moments like this due to the lines between good and bad being so firmly drawn, and i love how one piece blurs those lines so much they may as well not exist a lot of the time.

this is the other sequence, along with luffy climbing the drum rockies barehanded, that always makes me physically cringe to look at. it looks so painful. robin is so nearly powerless here, but not quite- she can still buy time for her crew to catch up, even if it’s only seconds, even if she risks shattering her teeth or even her jaw in the process. she’s spent so long giving up and has only just started daring to hope- she’s not about to go gentle.

there aren’t many panels that give me catharsis like this one. there really aren’t.

oda’s villains are usually complicated and awful and often a little admirable, if only for how clever or how terrifyingly powerful they are, but every now and then he comes up with someone who’s just pathetic and cowardly and pointlessly cruel. spandam is like this, obviously, and so is orochi, and the celestial dragons, and i’d argue flampe from whole cake island as well. and there’s nothing like seeing characters like them- weak, cruel people so assured in their own power and rightness- get obliterated.

one of the things i really like about enies lobby is that nobody really gets sidelined- everybody gets multiple chances to shine. luffy, usopp, and obviously robin are the most in focus, obviously, but zoro, sanji, nami, chopper, and even franky all get a bunch of individual awesome moments. oda’s ability to handle his cast satisfyingly is consistently really impressive (if sometimes strained in huge ensemble arcs like dressrosa or wano) and it really shows here, i think.

i just really love the entire climax of enies lobby. much like the arc as a whole, it just feels triumphant, even though the situation is extremely dire. luffy unlocking gear three, robin’s cuffs getting unlocked, usopp shooting spandam and the marines all the way from the tower of justice- it’s all just good, a long chain of much-needed victories and catharses, and it feels very good to read.

i’ll always be impressed by just how much characterization oda manages to give merry, a boat. she’s only really a character in water seven and the end of enies lobby, only about two chapters of which she actually speaks in. and yet i don’t think you’d find a single one piece fan who disagrees that merry’s death is easily one of the most heartwrenching in the entire series.

i love the reactions of the strawhats to robin’s thanks. they’ve just gone through hell to save her, most of them are beat to shit and they all risked their lives, and yet they all just smile, or brush it off, because to them there’s nothing else they could have done. it’s all worth it, so long as they got her back, so long as she’s safe and happy.

merry’s funeral just hits me in the chest every single time i read it. it’s tragic, of course, but there’s also something almost lovely about it, something peaceful about her getting to go out on her own terms, carrying her crew to safety one last time, defying every rule of the universe to do it. just like a strawhat pirate.

oda’s ability to communicate emotion through expressions really comes through here, too. merry has the only lines in this scene, fitting for her death in the limelight, but the shots of every other crewmate’s face let us know at a glance just what they’re all feeling and just how strongly they’re feeling it.

you know, i’d forgotten we only learn the name of the new world after enies lobby. we only get proper exposition about the revolutionary army and the yonkou here, too, despite them being set up since loguetown and jaya (or alabasta, or even chapter one if you count from shanks’s introduction) respectively. oda’s ability to parse out exposition and explanation so we always have just the right amount of information is really impressive- we always have more questions, but we also always have the feeling that those questions have answers, and that sooner or later they’ll be revealed.

points at shanks. i just think he’s neat.

it’s my opinion that one of the great joys of one piece is seeing luffy and the crew rise up in the world, and seeing them gain more and more notoriety. i love nothing they do ever happens in a vacuum- everything has impacts, and there are always outside eyes watching, and often those impacts are things that they never could have predicted.

ace and blackbeard is still, i think, definitely one of the coolest looking fights in the whole series. it’s not all that often we get to see two people with extremely flashy and showy abilities go all-out against each other, and the resulting fireworks are still really something to behold, despite how badly it all ends.

#the voyage so far #one piece #opmeta #long post #arc: enies lobby #arc: post enies lobby #not japanese

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disembowel-me · 5 years ago

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SAD SACK Review

SAD SACK is a series of ultraviolent snuff porn comics by meanboss and barbatus following 5 somewhat likable but very maladjusted guys as they commit a series of murders against deserving(?) people. I didn’t know anything beyond that going in, though I was familiar with some of their previous works and loved them so I knew I was gonna love this. This review is split up by my thoughts on each comic, and then my overall thoughts.

Spoilers shouldn’t ruin your enjoyment of these comics, but if you’re the kind of person who cares about that but want to know if I recommend it - hell yeah I recommend it. if you think you’ll like it, you’ll probably like it. This review is also nsfw, which goes for everything on this blog.

disclaimer: I am not an artist, I do write but not very well or often and have no formal training beyond what you get from k-12 and a basic college degree. I’m just a gore, sex, and death enthusiast here to let you know my thoughts on this awesome comic ‘cause god knows more people need to hear the word

1. SO MUCH FOR THE TOLERANT LEFT

This is definitely the most fun. It’s a raw, unadulterated revenge fantasy. It’s passionate, it’s angry, but stays pretty light and fun, or as light and fun as a torture porn comic can be. It’s indulgent. It’s violent pleasure to the max. And it's so! fucking! HOT!

Malik’s dirty talk is so raunchy. Raping a nazi? Making him cry and beg for cock? Jesus christ it’s SO hot. I love Stone’s mock-kindness, and how the nazi bends to their whims so fast. And Garv’s skull-fucking is probably one of if not my favorite scenes in all of the comics. Those exposed brains reeaallly hit the spot.

The art is a little rougher than the others, which is to be expected since it’s the first but honestly? I love it and it fits the tone, and it’s really cool to see how the quality is improved with every comic. The visuals are amazing. The facial expressions are incredible and are exaggerated in such a way that conveys the extreme emotion really well. I love the panels where the nazi’s face is reflected in Jake’s glasses and you see how tiny and pathetic he is and feels.

This one is the easiest to digest. There’s not a lot of story here, it gets to the point fast, it feels like it’s not ‘real’, as in it doesn’t feel like it exists in a world like our own where consequences exist..... until the end where Jake has to go back to retrieve Malik’s sister’s knife and the nebulous “torture world” and the real world the boys live in meet. Most torture porn I’ve consumed thus far has only or mostly only been torture porn, so I like that they have lives outside of this, which is explored a lot more as the story goes on.

2. A SMALL PLOT OF LAND

This murder is purely emotional, and the only one that isn’t sexual at all. I don’t have as many specific things that I liked to point out here but it’s so satisfying to see a cowardly predator get what he deserves. The only explicitly sexual content is at the beginning where Sal and Stone are violently fucking, but the story and gnarly as fuck gore more than makes up for it (and if you’re into that sort of thing, it won’t hold you back from finding parts sexy anyway). I love the quick tonal shift from violent fuck to a tender and vulnerable moment between them. Sal and Stone’s relationship here is sweet and loving and actually pretty cute. For how intense this one is, it ends fairly light-hearted and I got a real kick out of Garv starting to lick the cock and then get pissy when Malik tells him off, and clearly, Sal did too!

What really shines in these comics, aside from all the gore and porn and dicks and yummy goodness we’re here for, are the panels featuring faces. The expressions are intense and scary, and they're not afraid to make the characters look ugly. You can feel Sal’s pain and rage through the pages, and his asthma acting up as things spiral in intensity helps convey that even more. And in the end, when he lets out that heavy breath, you can feel the weight that's been lifted from him.

The brunch date in the epilogue is awfully cute, and I'm glad to see Sal so happy.

3. SNUFF MACHINERY

Malik is so sexy and charming. I love his sweet talk and dirty talk. I like that it starts as a consensual encounter… and Vaska slowly realizes something’s wrong as he chokes on Malik’s cock. I love how lost, scared, and pathetic yet so pliant and willing to please he is. I love that he just opens his mouth up for everybody to pass him around and fuck his face, and I love how grody and sopping wet his beard gets with all sorts of body fluids.

There’s not even any gore until halfway through… but once it comes, boy, things escalate quickly. Ironic revenge is one of my favorites, so it makes his drugged, fluid-soaked face all the more satisfying to watch get crunched. And when Garv fingers his brain… ooh, fuck.

The revelation that Malik’s motive was revenge for something that happened to his sister and not actually to him completely changed the context I viewed it in. You could tell killing him hadn’t relieved Malik of the guilt and anger like he’d expected it to, maybe even made the guilt worse. This seems to sort of mark a turning point in tone for the overall story. Jake and Sal both seemed to be helped by their experiences, but Malik and later Stone were not. If anything, their problems seem to have been made worse by their choice to take somebody’s life, and it doesn’t give me good feelings for the fate these boys are headed for.

3.5. 15°20' FRACTURE ZONE

Simple, sexy, great atmosphere, free. Check it out first if you’re on the fence about buying the others. There’s no gore, but it’s still great.

4. A.M.F.

I think Garv’s date is the most painful thing I’ve seen so far, HAH!

By this point, I’d been endeared enough to all the characters that I was invested in their dinner and karaoke and probably would’ve still been if they hadn’t been planning their next fetish murder. Stone is an unlikable asshole for the majority and it makes me feel bad for Sal, but I still like getting to see more and more of their real lives and I want to root for him to do better. This was by far the most story-heavy, and by far the one I felt the most conflicted about. I was pretty fucked up my first couple reads of this, so I didn’t realize that Evan, their waiter, was Stone’s victim until my third or so read. Realizing this I had an oh, shit moment, and realizing they were talking about his death right in front of him!!! gave me another oh, shit! moment. That’s so fucked. That fucked me up. Up until this point, most people would agree the victims deserved what came to them, or at least don’t feel bad for them, but this man’s only crime was.... being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Looking too much like Stone’s dad? And all the other guys were ok with this too? That speaks louder to me than anything these characters could say. Also, that’s sloppy. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to kill people you know?

It’s the first time I’ve truly been disturbed by SAD SACK, knowing the feast is just a guy who didn’t do anything wrong. After stewing on my feelings and reading again, it… actually makes it hotter? In the sense that it’s that much more provocative. That context made me more sensitive to the gore, too. The tooth-pulling scene was the first one to actually make me cringe, and I still have a hard time looking at it, so good job guys! Jake talking to Stone while he’s getting fucked out of his mind is so fun, and everyone looks so sexy. Every view we get of Sal’s ass is a fucking gift. I’m so glad Stone sat on Garv’s face against his will, and I’d say he deserved getting blood and shit sprayed all over him… or maybe that just because he’s real cute when he’s upset.

Stone's murder was not a good idea and clearly didn't help him. He wasn't prepared for Evan's death quite yet when it happened, just like he wasn't prepared for his dad's. You can't control death, dude. If anything, just like Malik, it might've made it worse. I could speculate about how maybe both were using their murders as a way to avoid actually dealing with their real issues… buuut I'm not here to speculate.

5. Pre BOG

I… like Garv a lot. I think he’s a new favorite character. He stirs the same lustful feelings in me that Lawrence did. I want to hurt and humiliate and control him. Unlike Lawrence, he’s an awful person who I don’t care about at all or want any happiness for but man is he a cute little piece of shit! The fact that he fucks (or tries..to fuck...) the dead bodies at the end of each comic definitely doesn’t help my endearment towards him. I’m a little nervous for his comic because he is such a misogynistic piece of shit... but I’m also excited because I love how nasty he is and excited he gets, especially for the dead.

CONCLUSION

I like that they’re just ‘normal’ guys (minus Garv. Garv is a piece of shit). I like it when people who do bad things are relatable. I like it when you can sympathize with them, and I like it when you can empathize with them, and I like thinking about if I were under similar circumstances, would I be capable of such things? What would it take for me to? Would I ever be able to? How close is the average person to being able to violently murder someone? Is there something wrong with me for even thinking about it? Hopefully, these contemplations will never be anything more than hypothetical but I think it’s still good to analyze my enjoyment of darker things. It’s not just indulgent porn (although it definitely, certainly is that too). It’s an exploration of personal failings, trauma, choosing to deal with your issues through violence and how it does or doesn’t help… but those are topics that would need an analysis, and while one could definitely do a full analysis on this series, I’m not going to otherwise we’d be here for a lot longer.

The art is gross, it’s repulsive at times, and it’s done so well. I love the scant use of color in the mostly monochrome torture scenes, the way their eyes either glow or look hollow, the wonky angles, and exaggerated proportions to maximize the impact. I don’t know if these count as horror but the art has an awesome horror aesthetic, and a lot of the time the way the guys are drawn is downright terrifying. There’s no way I can talk about every small detail I loved. That’s 769 pages to talk about and at that point, I might as well just annotate every page. If you like gore you’re gonna love these comics. If you like torture, or helpless screaming men, or really dark themes, or nasty stuff in general, you’re gonna love it. Even if you’re not into gore sexually, it’s fucking gnarly, and it has a comedic edge. These guys do gross so fuckin well and I absolutely love it. My creative goals in life are to make erotic art - to make porn, but not exclusively porn, things that are able to be used as wank material but also able to be enjoyed outside of that. SAD SACK accomplishes that, and it’s kind of inspirational.

I appreciate everything that goes into this project. I wish there was more violent fetish content of this high of quality, so I think it’s important to support creators when it comes to projects like this. Most horror porn I’ve seen also puts the reader in the victim’s position, and as someone who leans generally on the more sadistic side of things, I appreciate the main characters as the perpetrators. If you do too, go check it out. Thank you, RJ and Nick, for all the incredible amounts of work and time you've put into this project. I've enjoyed it a lot and will continue to do so for quite a while, I’m sure.

Also... I didn’t know where else to put this, but those weeks-old corpses were exquisite <3

#i wanted this to be longer because i have way more thoughts #but honestly this has taken way too long as it is and if i waited for my brain to start workin better to #make those thoughts coherent to others #nobody would ever see this #sad sack

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heyktula · 5 years ago

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Closer, Chapter Two: Aware - Bonus Features

(I'm sorry about the chapter titles, lolsob. They are, in fact, "Risk", "Aware", "Consensual", and "Kink", plus a surprise title for the fifth chapter.)

((Okay, fine, I'm not nearly as sorry as I should be.))

Chapter two of Closer, the first installment in Somewhere in Canada (the Terror kink AU)... is now up! What is wordcount! (Apparently shit to me, since this chapter is three times the length of chapter one!)

Same deal as last week--technical notes first, story notes after, line notes to finish it all up. (Although I still blame Edward, a number of this week's line notes are Jopson's fault, and he's a lying liar on a number of occasions, the terrible sweetheart.)

Alright, here we go.

Technical Considerations:

Chapter Length: So, this story was intended to be much shorter than it is. Initially, the fic was a one-off. After all, it's only taking place over a weekend, how long can it be? (lolsob--sixty k, as it turns out, and that's with a significant number of hard cuts. I cringe for the future Fitzier, because the winter conference is longer than the summer one.)

Initially, I'd followed the same chapter structure I used in one of my earlier fics--one day = one chapter. Obviously, that worked fine for Friday, but didn't work for Saturday or Sunday, both of which I've split into two chapters. I still feel like the chapter length is a bit obnoxious--I prefer a 7k chapter, and chapter two is 15k, but it's the best place to make the cut, I think. I considered a cut after Edward's talk got derailed by Hickey--but that would have left Edward in a really ugly headspace for a week while everybody waited for the next chapter, and I didn't want to let him chill there knowing that Jopson is gonna make him feel better, like, immediately.

Hard Cuts: One thing I really like about the source material for The Terror is that it uses hard cuts liberally, and something about that feels like it frees me up to do the same in my own work? So I cut the things that don't matter to the story, even when they're things that I care about. (That rope suspension scene with Sophia and Gore and Dundy was real good, but Edward did not give one single shit about it, and thus, it is not on the page. Similarly, we didn't get dragged through any of the other panels, etc, that were happening throughout the day, and the one panel we actually did attend, Edward is giving by rote, without thinking about anything he's saying, because Jopson! is! there! oh! god!)

Story Considerations:

Goodsir: Like, of course Goodsir moved to Canada. I don't think it was for Silna, necessarily--and she would have been super unimpressed with that if it had been--but it wouldn't have been not for Silna either. I just think he really loved it here on his first visit, and that was it for him--he came home, he missed Canada, he went back, and he stayed. I'm sure he's in the process of getting his citizenship, and in the meantime, he's going out for hikes and taking pictures of elk and going ice-fishing and organizing kink conventions and generally just having a wonderful time living his best life, and I love that for him.

(And if he's on the receiving end of Silna's strap in increasingly regular frequency, I love that for him too.)

The Tozer-Little Experience: So, outside of the joplittle, which was my primary reason for writing the fic--I also have, like, the world's biggest soft spot for Solomon Tozer. And the dynamic that I ended up developing for Tozer and Little in this fic is a hell of a lot of fun, because it's deeply intimate, and steeped in years and years of shared experiences, but it's platonic at the same point--or, at least, what constitutes as platonic for them, which is more intimate and open than you would see for a lot of male friendships. (I'm putting a pin in the discussion of feelings as feelings relate to their friendship, but we'll come back to it in a few more chapters.) If you asked either of them to describe an ideal partner for the other person, they could both do it, and they've got all kinds of stories about each other, which Tozer shares easily and at length, and Edward keeps his goddamn mouth shut about.

That easy camaraderie between them is, I think, why the takedown panel goes so wrong so quickly. Tozer has no reason to suspect anything is different than it has been any other time, and Edward isn't admitting how much he's obsessing over Jopson, so he's also just stubbornly pretending things are fine. I don't think that Tozer had any intention of letting Edward win, no matter how good Edward thinks his chances are, because it's Tozer's panel, and goddamn it, if Sol's going to all the effort to give a talk, he's gonna try to get his dick sucked as part of the aftermath, am I right, lads?

(Conferences that I've been to are hyper-careful about bodily fluids, and for good reason--so if blood is a possibility, everything should be tarped off and proper protective gear should be used, and Edward visibly bleeding all over everything would have been a Very Bad Look. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.)

((Also, just as a side-note, can we talk about Tozer's quick transitions between "shit, fuck, Little--", "and that is a takedown!", and "do not bleed in here, don't fuck this up for me, I don't know what the fuck your dumb ass was doing"? Because I love that Tozer's first reaction is "holy FUCK are you OKAY" and then he immediately takes control of the room to finish his talk, and then leans in to threaten Nedward. As though the threat is gonna take away the part where your first reaction was being horrified that you clocked him in the face, Sol.))

The Jopson-Little Meet Cute: Okay, fine, I guess it's not really a meet cute when one of you is bleeding into a sink, and the other one of you snuck into a takedown panel late in the hopes of seeing your crush and gets the bonus experience of watching your crush totally get hit in the face. But, whatever. They'll work with it.

One of the things I love about this scene is that the balance of power is exactly the opposite of where it would normally be--Jopson is the one controlling the scene here, through service, and Edward is the one that's following Jopson's lead. Jopson is, in canon, a caretaker, primarily, and I set this scene up so that he would shine, and I think he does that effectively here. Edward is the kind of guy that gets easily rattled when things don't go the way he expects them to, and it's indicative of their compatibility that he unwinds so easily for Jopson.

Also, I appreciate the hell out of Jopson gently bullying the topic of conversation around to giving talks, so that he could just slide his own talk under the door to gauge Edward's reaction. After all, if one is a trans man, and one's crush is a transphobe, better to find out before this goes any further. Between us, Jopson was reasonably sure things would be fine--after all, as Blanky notes later, he's had his face in Edward's blog*, and I'm pretty sure Edward went through his blog a while back and edited all his posts for gender- and trans-inclusive language, and left a footnote indicating he'd done so--but it was important for Jopson to make sure everything was on the table, and Edward's meandering discussion of the requirements for giving presentations was as good an in as any.

*Jopson clearly didn't know who Edward was by name on Saturday morning, but knows by Saturday afternoon. There's any number of ways he might have found out Edward's name, but I suspect he talked to someone** who had attended the power play panel he was on with Tozer earlier that day.

**I have a candidate in mind for this, but we'll get back to it later.

The Rough Physical Play Panel: Well, when that went wrong, it went real wrong, huh?

I think one of the things I'm enjoying so much about writing a modern Terror AU is that it lets me explore Hickey in more detail, because canon!Hickey just makes me so goddamn furious (the motherfucking BOOTS, he took James' BOOTS, and then EVERYTHING ELSE, and I CAN'T) that I can't even delve into him right now without wanting to throw things. But I can dig into him here, because I have the protection of this, you know, not being canon.

One of the things I really love about Hickey is that I think, one hundred percent, that he's exactly the kind of person that pays attention to the things you're interested in, and that makes it easy to start a friendship with him. I can guarantee that he knows every single item Tozer has ever stocked in his booth, and how well each of those items sells. I also know for sure that he's read every single post on Edward's blog, and can talk intelligently about any of them. However, Hickey is also exactly the kind of "friend" that will use that information against you at the drop of a hat if it benefits him in any way--and I can guarantee that the temptation was irresistible for Hickey here, because not only is it an excuse to deliberately trigger Edward's anxiety in front of a room full of people right immediately before those people leave the room, thus guaranteeing it's the last thing on their minds--but it's an opportunity to do so in front of the guy that Edward has been interested in all weekend. From Hickey's perspective, it's for Edward's own good--any idiot can see that Jopson is way out of Edward's league, and the sooner Edward stops making an ass of himself, the better it'll be for everyone involved. (I would also argue that if any of their friend group "deserve" to have more status in the community, Hickey feels that's him, so any attempt by Edward to "rise above" by, say, associating with someone linked to Crozier, is going to be viciously stamped out.)

The miscalculation here, of course, is that Hickey has misread Jopson just the same as everyone else has misread Jopson. We'll come back to why this mistake is important next week, I think.

(It's unfortunate we didn't get the good version of the panel, with the demo, because it's very good--Edward picks a random audience member, demonstrates the consent negotiation in front of everyone, and then walks through an entire gamut of activities, the intensity of which varies depending on how the person he's chosen is enjoying it. This is the way that I had my first exposure to this type of play, and watching the talk was a goddamn delight--and there's nothing that makes someone look competent more than them just improvising an entire talk on the spot.)

Dungeon Setup: So, again, because Canada, every dungeon I've ever been in has separated the drinking section from the fun section for safety reasons. Usually they're in separate rooms, though I've been in a couple dungeons where the drinking section runs along one wall of the fun section. Because this is my fic, and I'll improve it if I want, I went full bore on this and created that second-floor lounge that's open to the dungeon below, so you can stand up there and drink and watch the dungeon from above (or you can sit up there and drink with Hickey, but yuck).

The showcase performance thing isn't something I've seen at a kink conference before--I borrowed that from burlesque conventions I've been to because I needed it for the upcoming Fitzier fic. I kinda wish Edward had paid attention, I feel like that was a really good rope suspension scene. But, he was standing too close to Jopson, and thus, nothing else mattered.

Also, is it really a dungeon if it doesn't heavily rely on Enigma's music? I don't think I've been in a dungeon once without hearing Return to Innocence or Sadeness, and at this point, if I hear either of those pieces outside of the context of a dungeon, I get really nostalgic for dungeons.

(I guess while we're talking about setup, I'll also confirm that pretty much everybody* is staying on-site here--the hotel has a bunch of space set aside for the kink conference, and as long as people booked their rooms quickly, their hotel rooms are also in the same venue, so there's no need for transport, or going outside, or anything like that. Poor Nedward can have his meltdown about collars without needing to call a cab once.)

*I know a certain repressed somebody who has opted not to stay at a hotel full of perverts, but, uh. I mean, it's a Choice, but maybe sit with yourself a second, John.

Line Notes:

“Dude,” Tozer says, swinging his duffel bag off his shoulder and booting it under the table. “I had the most repressed guy in my talk this morning, it was fucking brilliant.”

Hi, Irving.

Edward can’t quite tell what Jopson is talking about, they’re too far apart for him to be able to eavesdrop. He wishes he was over there, though. Listening.

They're talking about you, Edward. Jopson knows who you are by this point, and he is three hundred percent telling Blanky about your blog right now.

He hasn’t paid attention to the specifics, because it’s not his talk, and it doesn’t matter.

Except it does matter, Edward, because one of those times the door opened and Jopson came in.

Jopson takes another step forward, his hands down at his sides, palms facing Edward. “I saw what happened,” he says. His voice is gentle, low. Hypnotic.

I appreciate Jopson approaching Edward like Edward is a wild animal that's going to spook at any moment, because Edward is, in fact, a wild animal that's going to spook at any moment.

“One of the better quality sessions I’ve seen this weekend,” Jopson says.

Thomas Jopson, you are a lying liar. It is the first day of the convention, and this is the first instance in which you've left your booth for any significant length of time.

“—you must see there are gaps. I was thinking, maybe, there’s another conference in six months...”

I can guarantee that this is a conversation that has been had with Francis in slowly increasing levels of volume, and I can also guarantee that Francis has been very supportive of Jopson wanting to fix those gaps. I would also side-eye the length of time (none) it took Jopson to pull up his fully-completed notes for a talk that Edward notes later is ready to go, and doesn't need any alterations. (Anyone taking bets on whether or not Goodsir has seen this? Yeah, I wouldn't bet against it either.)

It’s only after Jopson’s left that Edward realizes his black handkerchief is still on the edge of the sink.

Remember that conversation we had last week about the hanky code? Good, because Edward doesn't.

“Don’t wanna have a discussion about feelings if we don’t have to,” Tozer says gruffly.

Translation: if your eyes are wet because I smoked you in the face, then we'll have that conversation, but for fuck's sake please provide me with literally any other explanation--oh, thank fuck, I forgot about your septum piercing, perfect, good, onwards.

(I'd argue that Edward's probably all up in his feelings from Jopson's talk, BUT both of them are talking around everything in this scene, so I guess we'll just let them have that.)

They’re walking down the hall, and literally anyone could walk past Edward right now—fucking James Fitzjames could walk past Edward right now—and there is no way in hell he would notice, because Jopson is right there...

James Fitzjames, "that online guy" and most recognizable kink celebrity, would be So Offended by this, and it would be good for him.

They’re walking side-by-side, Jopson just a fraction behind Edward, and Edward can’t tell if it’s on purpose.

Jopson knows how to sub--it's on purpose, Nedward.

(I should note that this isn't at all a requirement for subbing--but it's part of how Jopson, in particular, submits, and since that's how he wants to interact with Edward, that's how he's behaving now.)

—not a blog post from five years ago that he’d kept up because there’s hardly any information out there and he wanted to make sure that people were aware of the risks and safety concerns, and—

And, I mean, also because you like to do this, Edward. Let's not beat around the bush here, you're not writing entire blog posts about things you have an academic interest in for safety reasons, although it would be totally valid if you did. But you aren't. You wrote an entire post about how to safely fit your fist into someone's ass because you did a lot of research as to how to do it safely and then subsequently did it on multiple occasions.

“It’s right there on the blog post,” Jopson continues, fingers clenched on his notebook. “The exact same blog post you’re citing has the answers to the questions you’re asking, and it’s disingenuous of you to…to purposefully derail his panel and pretend that the answers aren’t right there.”

If Edward was thinking critically about any of this instead of just bluescreening, he'd realize that it's Significant that Jopson knows this without consulting his cellphone, which he hasn't needed to do here, because his hands are still on his notebook, which means that Jopson either a) sought out this post specifically, b) made it multiple years back in Edward's blog archives, or c) both AND remembers it in detail.

But, he's Edward, and he's not thinking about shit right now except possibly how nice it would be if the building just randomly caved in on top of him. Not everybody else. Just him.

Jopson’s posture relaxes slightly as he exhales. “I was wondering about aftercare,” he says. “What you would normally recommend.”

Translation: Reassure me that you know what the fuck to do with me after we've just done everything that you've been talking about, because I AM DOWN TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW.

“Fucking peckerhead,” Tozer says, straightening up and rolling his shoulders, his eyes flashing. “I needed him to do some goddamn work.”

Yeah, well, Hickey’s got no fucking work ethic, so I dunno what the fuck you were thinking, Tozer. Duty owed, indeed.

It’s the guy that was watching Tozer. His eyes are burning with fanaticism. “It’s not too late,” he repeats. “Your crisis is an opportunity to repair yourself.”

Irving, sweetheart, buddy. You are at a fetish convention. Nobody here is interested in repairing themselves, and neither are you or you would not be here.

“Penny for your thoughts,” Jopson says. He’s still behind his booth, which is entirely too far away from Edward. “And Blanky’s due back any minute, so unless you want an interrogation over what you’re planning to do with the collar, you might want to come over to my side and look at books instead, I promise I won’t give you the third degree about anything.”

JOPSON, you are a LIAR. You fully intend to give him the third degree about everything, you just want him physically closer to you while you do it.

He’s not quite close enough to hear the conversation, but he is close enough to watch the way Jopson’s hands move in front of his body as he speaks, realizes after a moment that he’s signing. Realizes a few moments later that the words he’s saying aren’t English—and only then because it’s a different rhythm than Jopson usually speaks in, a little more halting, less fluid.

Francis' crash course in Netsilik went alright, apparently! I'm sure Jopson is disappointed in himself for not being fluent, but Silna will confirm to Francis that Jopson tried hard.

“We’re acquainted,” Jopson says carefully. Then adds, “It’s been a bit since I’ve spoken to her.”

LIAR, Jopson, you were literally in a deep conversation with her YESTERDAY. Edward, of course, does not notice this, even though he observed said conversation. (*cough*himbo*cough*)

Jopson shrugs, the motion a little self-deprecating. “That’s it. I’ll be finished then.” He sets his jaw, looks away. “I imagine we’d need to be more concerned about your availability than mine.”

Bold of you to assume that Edward "anxiety" Little actually checked his Fetlife messages and sorted out any play dates with anybody in advance.

Blanky grins at him. “That’s more like it. If you’ve got a couple minutes to wait, I’ll cut back the extra leather on the straps here for you.”

A number of people who make collars leave extra length on the straps in case it's needed. In this case, Blanky knows it won't be, so it can get trimmed back before Edward even leaves the booth. (Also, the Edward Little energy of Edward dropping a bunch of money on collars for Jopson, and then immediately freaking out and sticking them back in his hotel room?)

As an aside, considering Blanky is #teamjoplittle, I would give so much to see the content of the inevitable groupchats that are happening right now.

Phew. That's it for this week! Chapter three, Consensual, goes up next Friday! See you then! And if you have questions or anything in the meantime, you can always drop me an ask on tumblr or Curious Cat. I know I didn't cover everything, even in this long-ass entry, cuz there's a fuck of a lot of stuff going on in the foreground, much less the background. I honestly don't mind if you ask, it's totally cool. :)

See you next week!

#the terror #the terror fic #my fic #fic: closer #fic breakdown #fic: the terror kink au #joplittle

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judecz · 5 years ago

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damn, lucy, back at it again. this is the second love of my life, jude ! i am here for all the plots, so please, slide into my IMs & i’ll love you forever. click under the cut to hear me rant some more about this jerk, or give me a like to slide into ur d-scord ;~) ! you can check out his factfile here and his pinterest here !

TW: addiction ( drug + alcohol ), physical abuse, death !!!

[ LORENZO ZURZOLO / ARETE / MNEMOSYNE / MUSE 20 ] / [ JUDE CZERNY ] is a [ 21 ] year old [ MATHEMATICS ] major. [ HE ] is known for being [ GRITTY & LAID-BACK ] but [ FLIPPANT & MOODY ]. when i think of them, i imagine [ BLOODY KNUCKLES, SOUR CANDY, SPRINTS TO THE FINISH LINE, CHEAP T-SHIRTS ]. and even though they’re a proud HU student now, we all have our roots. theirs run back to them being an [ OAK PARK - COPERNICUS ] graduate. i asked around and it turns out they [ ARE ] an AOP student. in their interview, they managed to woo the admissions team by [ CREATING A NEW PROOF FOR THE BIRCH AND SWINNERTON-DYER CONJECTURE ]. i guess that’s all there is to know! unless…

when you’re born, you’re an inconvenience. it’s 9pm on christmas eve when you come wailing into the world. neither the nurse that swaddles you tightly nor your parents particularly want to be in the cold hospital, shivering under neon fairy lights in the depth of a south chicagoan winter. neither do you.

while you’re young, your mama is your hero. you don’t realise it yet, but she’s got a problem; there’s a reason why she sits zoned out on the couch as you tug at her cardigan, why your older brother has to cook you breakfast, brush your hair. and god bless him, he does it dutifully. when your mother tries to sober up, though, she’s perfect. she sings you lullabies in czech and kisses your nose, and you wish every night on the streetlight outside your window that the next day will be a good day.

most of the time, it isn’t. ruth sits complacent on the couch, glazed eyes fixed on the broken television. yet, even when she’s like this; she’s still better than your father. john drinks like a fish, and it brings out the worst side of him. he’s the most violent person you know. after every lost bet, every long night in the bar, you cower with your brother in your shared bed, head underneath the covers. yet it’s always still you that bears the brunt of his wrath.

it’s not your fault. thomas is the oldest, and the only useful one. phillip’s still small and cute, a couple of years younger than you, and looks exactly like your father. it’s you that’s stuck in the middle; you have your mother’s dreamy eyes and the sharp nose of your father, and it’s not enough to stop him from picking at you, pulling you apart. you always disliked him because he disliked you, right from the start.

you live like this for a long time. it’s not until you’re thirteen that your father drinks himself to death. he picks a fight with the wrong person, and bleeds out in an alleyway outside his favourite bar. despite all this, you can’t bring yourself to grieve. too often has your skin been tainted the same shade as your funeral suit from your father’s fists. good riddance.

your mom tries. she really does. but she can’t bring herself to get clean, even with your pleading. one day, they walk in on her shooting up. it’s essentially a death sentence for your family.

so instead, you three boys were torn from the last semblance of normality you had. no one wants three dysfunctional delinquents, but you cling together. screaming, tantrums, breaking things; you’ll anything to stop them from splitting you up. you’re not allowed any contact with your mother, and it breaks your heart, over and over again.

you never find a home for longer than a month. moving from group home to group home, they all have one quality in common: no one there really cares about you. quickly, you turn to crime. your father had taught you how to hotwire a care when you seven, baby-cheeked and innocent. he taught you how to pick a lock when you were six. it was the only thing he was good for.

it started with breaking and entering. you usually get away with it, too. burglary is easy when you were scrawny and small, and can shimmy in a window in seconds. besides, the money helps provide for the three of you; you run away often enough. you have to fend for yourself. at one point, you manage to spend an entire month homeless. but at least you’re still together.

as you grow older, you grow better at what you do. carjacking and vandalism seem more and more fun. the kids at the foster homes aren’t exactly shining examples, either; you were either being tossed around by the older kids, or asked to join in their schemes. you much preferred the second option.

your life continues like this until you’re sixteen. you learn to throw a solid left hook quickly. you switch from high school to high school as you move from house to house, never able to settle. but you have your brothers. you’re as close to happy as you can be. then everything goes wrong. thomas gets caught.

you can’t let him get locked up. he’s just turned eighteen, and that means prison time. so instead, you take the fall. vandalism. breaking and entering. theft. willful destruction of property. you stand in front of the judge; she’s a pristine blonde woman from the lake forest suburbs, and she is not lenient on you. it’s juvenile prison or nothing. as your brothers watch on, you’re led away.

you spend a year there. it’s worse than any foster home, but you develop a thick skin. at least all the punches you take aren’t for nothing. it’s here that you learn you have dyslexia & adhd. it’s here you’re blinded in one eye after another inmate gets hold of a knife, catches you in the dark, makes you pay for someone else’s sins. it’s also here that you learn you’re extraordinarily gifted at maths. a prodigy, someone calls you. it’s funny. at school you had sat at the back of the classroom, never able to see the blackboard in maths class.

when you turn seventeen, you’re let out. thomas is nineteen, working as a mechanic, trying to make a legitimate living. quickly, he gets the paperwork sorted to make him your legal guardian, and phillip’s too; for the first time, the three of you are reunited again.

you finish your final year of high school at oak park academy. you’d won a scholarship while in juvy, swearing you’d never return to the halls of your old school. oak park is an opportunity you’d never even dreamed of. you keep your head down and for the first time, you enjoy school. you make a few friends. no one here knows your troubled past, and you don’t tell them. you fly through maths problems like they’re simple sums, but english still evades you. you persevere, however, and graduate at the end of a long twelve months. not long enough. you wonder what your life would be like if you’d been here all along.

and with the opportunity of oak park, comes hatchett. you applied to every university in the country, but you have your eye on one in particular. you turn up to your interview, stomach churning and hands shaking. still, you spit numbers like they’re silver, quick fingers scraping chalk across the blackboard, ignoring the observant eyes of the panel. you work like you’ve never worked before. by the time you leave, your arms are dusted with white, your brow sweaty; but from the approving looks, your heart soars. you get your acceptance letter, and you glow. a full ride. it’s a blank page, simply waiting.

before you leave chicago for good, however, you have one last thing to do. after a mile long trail of paper and records, of doors slammed in your face and unanswered calls, you find your mom again. you’re surprised she’s still alive. she cries when you show up at her door, and your heart still bleeds when you watch her. even now you still call her, your voice thick with affection; yet you still tell people both your parents are dead. it’s easier that way.

your label is mnemosyne; memory. the memory of the life you used to live haunts you, like a ghost, long fingers digging into every corner of your brain. you’ll never forget the sharp glint of a knife, the screeching sirens of a police car, the smell of blood fresh on your knuckles. still, you tell yourself. you can change, you can change. you’re a shapeshifter now, boy. you’ve erased your old life from both your memory and everybody elses’. no-one needs to know — so you keep the memories of the real you tucked away deep inside your mind. you remember the soft smell of your mother’s hair. the pattern on your childhood duvet. your brother’s laugh, your brother’s crooked smile. you remember the important things, and leave the rest to be washed away by the tide of memory.

#hatchet:intro

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zenin-holmes · 5 years ago

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All About Science you need to know

To comprehend what science is, simply look around you. What do you really see? Maybe, your hands on the mouse, a monitor, newspapers, ballpoint pens, the household cat, the sunlight shining through the window.... Science is, in 1 sense, our understanding of that -- all of the stuff that's in the world: in the smallest subatomic particles in one section of the metal on your computer's circuits, into the nuclear reactions that shaped the ball of gas which is our sunshine, to the intricate chemical interactions and electric changes inside your body that permit you to read and comprehend these words. But just as importantly, science is also a trusted procedure where we know about all of the stuff from the world. However, science differs from a number of different methods of learning due to the way it's completed. Science is based on testing thoughts with proof accumulated from the natural universe . This site can allow you to find out more about science as a method of learning about the natural world and get the sections of science that influence your life.

Science helps fill the natural curiosity by which we're born: why is the sky blue, how did the leopard get its spots, what's a solar panel? Together with science, we could answer these queries without resorting to magic explanations. And science may result in technological improvements, in addition to helping us understand about hugely significant and useful subjects, like our health, the environment, and organic dangers. With science, the modern world wouldn't be modern in any way, and we have much to understand. Countless scientists all around the world are trying to fix unique areas of the mystery of how the world functions, peering into its nooks and crannies, deploying their microscopes, telescopes, and other resources to unravel its secrets.

Researchers are unravelling the secrets of this world. Science concentrates solely on the normal world, and doesn't cope with supernatural explanations. Science is a method of learning what is in the organic world, how the natural world operates, and how the natural universe must be how it is. It's not only a selection of facts; instead it's a route to understanding. Researchers work in a number of various ways, but science is based on analyzing ideas by figuring out exactly what expectations are made by means of an idea and producing observations to discover if these expectations remain true. Accepted scientific thoughts are reliable since they've been exposed to rigorous testing, but as fresh evidence is obtained and fresh perspectives emerge these thoughts could be revised. It depends upon a system of checks and balances, which can help make sure that science goes in the direction of higher precision and comprehension. This system is eased by diversity within the scientific community, which supplies a wide assortment of views on scientific thoughts. To most, science might look to be an arcane, ivory-towered association -- but that belief is based on a misunderstanding of mathematics. Actually:

Science impacts your daily life everyday in all kinds of various ways. Science is fun and can be available to everybody. It's possible to apply an comprehension of how science functions to your daily life. Everyone can become a scientist of the professional selection.

#science #science things #all about science #about science #what is science

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dat-town · 5 years ago

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CODE Z3RO | CODE 03

characters: BTS & Red Velvet genre: thriller, futuristic au warning: none summary: The twelve most ambitious and promising university students are welcomed in Choego, the world’s first entirely artificial intelligence-driven city, to compete for five job contracts that could change their life. But what if something goes wrong? What if they get trapped? What if the city suddenly turns against them? Can they find a way out before the countdown reaches zero? words: 5K tagged: @philosopher-of-fandoms

➼ Chapter Index

At the peak of dawn, merely a sliver of burgundy illuminating the glass and metal giant, Choego indeed resembled a ghost town. There were no people around, not a single proof of living creatures without the buzzing of a city with cars and pedestrians. Even the flickering electricity disappeared from few sections of the town.

Park Jimin, older son of the Park Genetic Industries’ CEO, was so used to the nightlife of the capital city, he found the calm quietness way too eerie. It was surreal and unnatural and yet, he felt a pang of pride to be one of the first ones to explore its labyrinth. However, he found it rather embarrassing to compete with people who complained about having to wake up without enough of their beauty sleep. That said, he agreed with Jungkook on the missing girl’s case. It wasn’t the younger boy’s fault that Little Miss Perfect took too long to get ready. They were better off without her anyway. It was a competition after all and despite the importance of their team work, it wouldn’t have hurt to get rid off the weakest links. Born into a wealthy and prestigious family, Jimin had always known what he was expected to do: to reach for the stars and achieve more. So it was the perfect opportunity for him to show that he was worthy to be the heir of the company.

“Can someone explain in detail what the hell happened and why we had to leave the dorms?” Hoseok, one of his supposed-to-be roommates groaned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

The group of eleven stood in the middle of the street packed with luggages, staring ahead of the road with dim artificial lights while the other end of the road disappeared into darkness. It was a good question because even though it was quite obvious to anybody that something happened, not everybody could figure out what exactly was wrong. What was the researchers’ plan with all this? Setting the beginning of the simulation in the middle of the night when they were supposed to be sleeping? What would have happened if nobody had woken up? Where were those damned cameras watching each of their moves? And what were they supposed to do without instructions?

“The electricity got cut off in the buildings next to ours and the following ones were those near our dorm building. I guess the simulation tries to imitate an evacuation,” the eldest boy, Seokjin, said and if he was any good in what he was majoring in, they could trust him.

“So we should get out of the city? That doesn’t make sense,” the lilac haired, quite temperamental Taehyung spoke up posing the question that had been on everybody’s mind. But if not out, then what were they supposed to do?

“Do you have any better idea?”

“Okay what about we all calm down and I call dr. Han?” Jimin suggested already fishing out his phone from his back pocket. He didn’t like to stay in the dark for too long. He needed answers and normally he had his own methods to get them. Money and power weren't nice things to take advantage of, yet why wouldn't he use his privilege when he could?

While Namjoon murmured something like that they should be figuring it out by themselves, Jimin had already pressed call on the lady's contact and waited… fruitlessly as even the annoying beep sound remained silent. He double-checked the signal on his phone and let out a frustrated sigh at the sight of the saturated bars of the icon. “What the hell.”

His disappointed reaction didn't went unnoticed and Hoseok, who stood next to him, raised an eyebrow at him curiously. “What?”

“There’s no signal and no internet either in the area like we were totally cut off the outer world,” the boy answered, his fingers twitching to check his emails and social media despite knowing that without internet he wouldn't access anything for now. Even his mobile data was somehow disabled on this land which was ridiculous. What kind of test was it? Lexical knowledge was so outdated and old fashioned. Isn't their analytic thinking and resourcefulness should have been rewarded? However, not everybody agreed with him on this matter. Seokjin for example took the news with a short nod as if it was a known fact. He wasn't the only one.

“Well it’s only fair. They don’t want certain people asking for help from the outside,” Taehyung mumbled under his nose barely audible but certainly loud enough for Jimin to hear it.

“What are you trying to say?” the chaebol guy straightened his back trying to look intimidating as he strolled to the mocking boy of his age. It wasn't the first time he was judged because of his family's influence but this was one of the times the accusation left a nasty taste in his mouth like swallowing a bitter pill. Of course, he knew these people were often just envious of his background, so usually he didn't care about them but under the careful watching eyes of the miniature cameras and the surveillance of researchers reevaluating their every move, he wasn't willing to be ridiculed by somebody who had the manners of a caveman. No wonder why the guy had the strong dialect of Gyeongsang Province.

“Oh nothing. I’m just saying that it might be better this way. Equal chances for everyone,” Taehyung shrugged with a challenging look in his eyes.

Jimin's hands itched to punch him straight on the nose, wipe off that shit-eating grin off his face but he couldn't let himself lose his cool over the stupidity of a rival. As a marketing major, being an expert in manipulating people, maybe it was Taehyung’s ultimate goal from the beginning: to rile up and provoke everybody he could. He was nothing more than a kid with a big mouth from the countryside. Only bark, no bite, Jimin was sure and he was smarter than to play this game.

The corner of his mouth twitched as he stared down at the tanned guy - which was quite bold on his part being the shorter one. Then as arrogant as he could, he took a step back with a huff and turned his back on Taehyung. The others stared at their intermezzo expecting it to blow up and most of them seemed relieved, relaxing their tensed shoulders as they saw nothing extraordinary was going to happen under the dim lights of street lamps so early in the morning.

"Let's not argue, guys, we need to work together," Seokjin said in a parental voice which earned a few eyerolls on the youngers’ part. Even if according to the conservative Korean age system, it was polite and a must-do thing to respect their elders no matter what, Jimin didn't plan on playing the role of the perfect dongsaeng.

"But if we cannot leave the city, then what should we do during an evacuation simulation?" one of the girls with baby face spoke up and Jimin recognized her as the Psychology student from the introduction they did on their way to the dorms.

For a while, her question fell on deaf ears but her patience was rewarded with an answer after a whole minute of utter silence.

“We need to keep moving,” a dark haired figure said quietly but still bringing all the attention to himself. Min Yoongi, the mysterious postgrad student, majoring in some fancy named IT stuff, had a cold demeanor and he certainly didn't get on the good side of anyone present after boosting his own ego at the meeting. But if he was so smart, how could he not have any better idea than ‘to move’?

To be honest, Jimin eyed him quite suspiciously because unlike everybody else the guy barely had anything on him. He only threw a small backpack on one shoulder but nothing else which was stupid, wasn’t it? They didn’t knew how long they were going to be gone or what they would need, so his confidence was either recklessness or arrogance.

“Why?” Hoseok whined trying and failing to suppress a long whine. “Can’t we just stay here and rest a little? Not even the Sun is up.”

“Sure. If you came for having fun, be my guest. I won’t shed a tear when you won’t be one of the chosen candidates at the end of the test,” Taehyung said in a mocking tone and to his own dislike, even if he didn’t voice out his opinion, Jimin had to agree with him. They all came here with a purpose and if the researchers woke them up in the middle of the night, they must have had a good reason behind it.

“Oh you have a big mouth on you, don’t you? Then tell me what the fuck is happening because I’m quite sure you’re just as clueless as the rest of us, Mr. Know It All,” Hoseok had enough of being the clown everybody made fun of and told the younger guy off easily. He was right, kind of. They could only guess the cause, some better than others though.

“The technology behind it is pretty simple,” Jeon Jungkook spoke up in a low voice, almost shy but confident in his knowledge. Of course, he knew. Among all of them there had been three other engineers apart from Jimin whose bioengineering knowledge couldn’t help much in this case. However, this was the time for the others to shine. The chaebol boy hated it, the feeling of being useless and depending on others but he was also keen on cooperating if Jungkook had anything useful to say.

“And will you tell us, Golden Boy?” Taehyung crooked an eyebrow at him, voice sounding harsh and impatient.

“Normally complex security systems similar to this have a timer and every certain minute, it goes off in different sections of the place, so if we assume that the city has districts or any kind of separated areas with different electricity panels, they will turn off one by one. The dorm’s was the last one to go, so maybe where we are right now is the next one. Whoever is controlling this, they can easily guide us anywhere they want to unless we find a city map with the sections and their order to know it beforehand.”

After Jungkook’s explanation, Jimin hummed, considering. The whole situation reminded him of those old escape games he used to play on his father’s computer when he was little.

“What happens to the sections that got turned off?” he prompted.

It was time for Namjoon, majoring in mechanical engineering, to have his part of the conversation:

“Those sections are cut off electricity that’s for sure and since basically everything runs with electricity here, that can be pretty dangerous if you’re in a closed area like a building.”

“But they wouldn’t do anything that could possibly hurt us, right? The researchers don’t mean harm to us,” Joohyun’s lips quivered and she looked cold even in her light blazer pulled over the pretty blouse she wore. She seemed worried about Sooyoung being left behind but even the hypothesis was ridiculous. Who would dare to hurt them? Even if the simulation was discreetly kept as a secret from the country’s common netizens, the whole committee that chose them for these roles, knew about them. And their family - including Jimin’s influential father - were aware of their whereabouts and would never let anything like that happen. “It’s just a psychological test, right?”

“I guess,” Seokjin nodded with a lazy shrug as his gaze wandered to his little sister. “They test our reactions, skills and boundaries. They want the five best, so they need to push us a little over the edge.”

“This isn’t the kind of test I signed up for to be honest,” Hoseok admitted while scratching his nape. He looked tired already and the day hadn’t even started yet.

“Well, it’s apparently too late to turn back and give up. Or maybe you can just chill out here and wait to see for yourself what happens when this section is switched off,” Taehyung snorted which was nothing new and Jimin realized fairly quickly that the marketing student cannot be trusted. He was obviously here to win, ready to step over anybody in his way.

They kept snickering in hushed voices but the chaebol guy had rather looked around than to pay attention to them. Maybe it was the early time or just the personality of the group’s other members but they were all uncharastically quiet. Wendy almost dozed off on his boyfriend's shoulder a bit, Joohyun and Seulgi stared ahead of them into the distance at the hundreds of glass buildings reflecting the amplitude of light. And there was the journalist girl, too young to even be there in Jimin’s humble opinion, walked around as if she was on a vacation in a museum and even took photos. She was lucky that her brother was with her or otherwise she would have been in quite a trouble without a chaperon. Too young and too naive to think nobody would notice her secretly snapping photos of the youngest engineering student.

Love has no place in a competition, they said and a part of Wendy agreed, sadly. If you were as ambitious as her, you were bound to lose something even if you won. Sure, she loved Namjoon, they had been dating for more than two years now after that fateful frat party at SNU, but she treasured her dreams more. Being here was a huge step towards becoming what she had always wanted to be: somebody in charge of big chances, helping people, being more than a cog in the system. She couldn’t let herself get distracted but at times like this, nerves tense and breathing shallow, she leaned onto her boyfriend.

Namjoon was a kind soul, a big softie who liked to think of everything in black and white. He could talk about the stars for hours and sometimes he lost track of his own train of thought. He built small robots in his free time and once when Wendy’s car broke down in the middle of nowhere, he drove all the way there and spent an hour single-handedly fixing the gears. But in spite of his huge love for physics and the theory of relativity, he loved Wendy more and they both knew it.

That was the root of all their problems. Wendy thought they were too young to settle down, they had time, a whole life ahead of them and she would have been willing to sacrifice a relationship for her career. On the other hand, Namjoon was a hopeless romantic claiming that she was the one for him and he would have given up everything for her.

This competition was a challenge for both of them. They were majoring in so different fields that their application didn’t endangered the other’s and heck, who would have thought that they both make it there? There was such a slight chance and yet, here they were, fighting for one of those five contracts. One for both of them which seemed even more impossible.

“You up?” a calloused hand nudged her shoulder gently and snapped her out of the crazy theories. Namjoon’s voice had always soothed the girl, so she was able to sigh content despite the circumstances.

“Yeah, just needed a breather. I wouldn’t have thought it’d be so hectic already.”

And it wasn’t even that bad. They have done nothing but wake up and leave the building as soon as it was possible. The most difficult part was to cooperate with others. A system’s weakest point was always the human variable.

Namjoon hummed, agreeing and for a few precious moments they could enjoy this soft bubble around them. It was a fragile little thing, bursting out with the first question thrown into the pit.

“What are we going to do now?”

It felt like the million dollar question in a game show and nobody knew the right answer, the one that they should have figured out, earning points by the researchers.

“I’d pay a visit to the main lab. They have lots of stuff there and maybe we will meet somebody there who can help,” Jimin suggested, fingers adjusting the hem of his Gucci shirt. Wendy had to stop herself from snorting. As if the researchers wanted them to seek help. She firmly believed that they were on their own because that would have made it the perfect trial. Trial of what? That was the good question actually.

“Good idea,” another guy supported the cause but the med student also had a reasonable suggestion:

“We need to find food and water, too. We never know when we need those,” she claimed and as the only medical assistance in the team, Wendy felt like she had to think of everybody’s wellbeing.

Maybe if she weren’t so stubborn and earnest, they would have all gone to the center in that instant, but she couldn’t bypass Joohyun’s nervous behaviour. The eldest girl had been pacing up and down like a lot of others not knowing what to do with themselves. However, unlike the others, she was looking around quite panicked, glancing backwards at the dark dorms on the other end of the street. It was enough for Wendy to take actions and pry herself out of Namjoon’s loving arms to rush to the other girl.

“Hey... what’s wrong?” she asked gently, a soft hand on the shoulder, massaging it with reassuring circles. Joohyun’s breathing became irregular and hasty as the panic settled deep in her bones.

“Insulin. I forgot to bring my insulin,” she replied and incoherently mumbled something about putting it into the common kitchen’s fridge the previous day. They still had hours until breakfast time when Joohyun would have to take the insulin shot before eating, but the thought of not having the medicine on her seemed enough to freak her out which made it worse.

“Oh no, why haven’t you told us before?” Wendy sucked in a breath with a little shake of her head. Of course, nobody would go around announcing to have diabetes since none of them had any idea something like this would happen. With one of her hands still rubbing on the shoulder blades of the other, Wendy raised the volume of her voice to call out to the whole team.“Guys, we need to go to the hospital. Joohyun needs medicine.”

“Fuck it, she can just go alone,” Taehyung growled unimpressed without even sparing a glance at the pale girl resembling an eerie ghost under the moonlight.

“Actually we should go. The hospital must have food in the canteen and if I remember correctly it’s not far from the researchers’ headquarters,” Seokjin stepped in to soothe the uptight nerves.

“It’s right next to it,” a soft, quiet voice supplied and a few heads snapped towards the girl with heart-shaped face and almond eyes. Kang Seulgi, as far as Wendy knew, had majored in architecture and was currently continuing her studies in environmentally-friendly architectural engineering. So at least nobody doubt her word.

“Okay, so you wanna split up? Or do we need to vote?” Seokjin who seemed to be good at managing the team work and handling conflicts looked around. Wendy admired him for his collected, calm words and the way he dealt with even the roughest reactions. He was great in damage control and without him they would have been struggling still to get out of a shutdown area. “Great so who doesn’t agree on going to the hospital for food and then checking out the lab?”

Not a single soul protested, not a single hand flew into the air.

In the end, without much commotion, all eleven of them started walking towards the general direction of downtown. Yet, without a map or GPS signal, it took them almost an hour from the dorms in the residential area to collectively get to the canal dividing the island into two. From the shore at least they could already see the U-shaped building of the hospital and directly on its left, the prestigious building of the researchers.

“We’re here,” Namjoon breathed and pointed at the stocky, glass-walled building with the universal red positive sign of hospitals. Wendy who walked beside Joohyun to keep a careful eye on her looked up relieved.

“Thank god, I really need to pee,” Hoseok let out a sigh and despite the weight of his backpack and suitcase, he jogged ahead to search for a toilette in the building. The two-winged glass door opened as soon as he touched the control panel with his bracelet.

“Nobody wanted to know,” the med student murmured with an eye roll.

Each of them followed Hoseok without precaution into the hospital which was the first open building they found at the break of dawn. Even illuminated by the orange hues of the rising Sun, the city was still so lonely like an empty shell. They all wondered: where were the researchers? Have they gone home into their commonplace houses on the mainland? Or were they in a very different dorm, safe from the turned off electrical circuits? There was nothing like this in their schedule that was placed on their bunk beds. According to that, they had nothing to do until the meeting at nine o’clock.

Inside of the building, they split into smaller groups in search for the canteen, toilettes or just so they can drop off their heavy bags.

“Come on, let’s find insulin for you. Then we can eat,” Wendy nudged the older girl in the side and a slight discomfort settled in her throat as her boyfriend followed them.

“You don’t have to come with us,” she said sulkily like a child angry at their parents for sending a guardian even though they were old enough to be by themselves. That was exactly what she feared when both her and Namjoon’s application was accepted. She needed her own space, the alone time while the boy like physical closeness. He wasn’t touchy but he liked to be there with her even if it didn’t meant for her.

“I know, still I’d like to. But I won’t if you would prefer me not to,” Namjoon’s steps halted and Wendy immediately felt guilty as she looked at the sincerity on his handsome face and heard his genuine voice. She knew Namjoon would always agree to her terms if she voiced them out, but that became a burden after some time. Shouldn’t he have learnt that by now?

“Whatever,” she shrugged and didn’t turn around to watch her boyfriend’s smile fade as she walked towards the pharmacy of the hospital with Joohyun by her side.

Of course, it was closed, like everything normally at 5am, but they didn’t have time to wait for the opening time. Wendy’s empathy was greater than her sense of justice anyway, so she didn’t waste time to climb over the counter.

“What are you doing?” Joohyun questioned furrowing her neat eyebrows.

“Getting you insulin. I won’t wait and sit around. They want us to prove our resourcefulness. Here it is,” the girl flicked her red hair behind her shoulder.

On the shelves there were regular vitamins and medicines, nothing that needed prescription which was understandable. It wouldn’t have been wise to let those be out in the open for everyone to take. The med student’s eyes scanned through the names of the boxes but quickly realized she won’t find the insulin here. Gosh, how could she be so stupid?

“Don’t you see a fridge or freezer?” she asked Joohyun who eventually followed her suite. They were both looking at every corner they could until the psychology major squealed.

“Here.” She squatted down to the small refrigerator hidden under the counter. “It won’t open.”

And she was right. No matter how much they tried to move the metal door it didn’t nudge for god’s sake until…

“Wait!” Joohyun stopped suddenly, looking down at her wrist and the glimmering silver bracelet on it. Lightly she touched it to the small screen next to the fridge and waited. A few moments later the panel displayed Authorification accepted and the door opened with a beep.

Luckily, inside there was the desired insulin to both of their relief and they found syringe right on the next shelf. Injecting the serum was a piece of cake after all this.

“Thank you. Really,” Joohyun whispered, words a bit broken as she looked up at the dishevelled haired girl. Wendy, taken aback by the gesture amidst the supposed to be fierce competition, blinked dumbfounded at first.

“You’re welcome,” she nodded and hoped she wouldn’t have to regret helping her later.

Jimin grimaced at the pre-wrapped food in the hospital canteen. They had found a storage behind the empty stools that opened under the touch of their identifying bracelets but its content couldn’t satisfy the chaebol’s taste. Sure, he knew he wouldn’t get caviar or any other fancy food but sandwiches? Dry waffles and bottled banana milk? What was he, a freaking child?

He forced down a few bites of a ham sandwich just to fill his grumbling stomach with something but deep down he hoped that the evacuation test either ends soon or people start to fill the city with daylight and they can have a normal meal like they did yesterday evening. He had already finished when he saw the cyber tech guy stand up from one of the tables where he had eaten alone and wander down the hallways. It was suspicious enough for him to get up and follow him.

It took a few turns until he managed to catch up and since he wasn’t even trying to be subtle, he was certain Yoongi knew that he was being followed. Yet, the older guy didn’t question him nor he seemed surprised when Jimin spoke up.

“Where are you going?”

Yoongi looked at him from under his dark lashes.

“The main nurse desk or the offices. Somewhere in here there must be something about the evacuation plan. They also have to have extra generators and torches,” he said and it seemed so logical. Why hadn’t anyone else thought of that before? And why he didn’t tell anyone about his little plan? Did he intend on getting all the good points for himself?

“I can help,” Jimin offered not wanting to be left out and Yoongi gave him a stern glance. He looked a bit wary but sighed, giving in.

“Okay.”

The two guys followed the maps on the corners of the walls to find the main reception of nurses but looking through the closets, they couldn’t find anything useful. Only when they arrived to the camera control room on the sixth floor, did their pursuit turn out to be fruitful.

“Ah huh,” Jimin remarked as he pulled out a set of torches, batteries from one of the drawers. They also found a huge but not too detailed city map on the wall of which Yoongi took a photo of before he sat down in front of the computer. As soon as it booted up, a nice robotic female voice greeted them.

“Good morning, Min Yoongi and Park Jimin. How may I help you today?”

“How the-” the chaebol wanted to curse as he jumped back in surprise.

“Artificial intelligence, dumbass, we used the bracelets to get in, remember?” Yoongi groaned under his breath and then cleared his throat raising his eyes to the six black computer screens on the wall. “Uh... hello. Can you tell us the purpose of this simulation?”

“Keyword: simulation, purpose. Searching… One search result found within 0.563 seconds.” The computer decoded his question and a few moments later a video footage appeared on each monitor. It played a recording of them from yesterday when they talked to Miss Raina.

“Don’t forget, even though we evaluate you individually, you have to work together in teams to succeed the simulation. Any questions?”

“What is the simulation about exactly?”

“I can’t tell you, sorry. It would change your natural reactions and the results of our research would be false.”

Yoongi sighed.

“We already know that but...”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you. There’s nothing more in the database that you can have access to,” the computer interrupted his protest in a calm, soothing voice but it couldn’t ease neither of them. Jimin’s jaw clenched as he watched the whole situation unfold, the still picture of the video of them on the screens.

“Great.”

“Can I help you with anything else?” the strangely real voice asked nicely and the IT guy didn’t even have to think about the next question.

“What’s happening in the city?”

“The main computer is shutting down the sectors one by one. But you have already known this, didn’t you, Min Yoongi? You graduated Computer Science on the top of your class a year ahead-”

“Enough,” said boy hissed and Jimin had to admit: it was scary, that this computer knew so much about them. It must have been in their files for the application but still… What else did it know? Did it have access to their social media, too? Because fuck, then he was screwed.

“Shutting down… Have a lovely day in Choego, Min Yoongi and Park Jimin!” the computer said goodbye because it interpreted Yoongi’s earlier harsh word as an order and just as he wanted to make it more clear (Hey, wait…!), the monitors’ screens changed to live video footage of different parts of the hospital. Currently it showed the others heading towards the eastern wing of the experimental labs in the basement.

“Shit.”

“What? What’s happening?” Jimin leaned closer confused because he didn’t see anything wrong. Yoongi typed on the computer so fast he could barely follow with his eyes.

“The lab room, they are going towards for god knows why, is specially guarded. It has some messed up defence system if they don’t have the right authorization,” Yoongi whispered and the chaebol couldn’t decide what was the scarier: the flashing red exclamation mark on a certain part of the screen or the tremble in the usually collected older guy’s voice. “We need to warn them.”

#series: code zero #bts fanfic #btsvelvet #red velvet fanfic #bts x red velvet #stories

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sycriptouk · 3 years ago

Text

A future day with IOTA

Preface:

IOTA is more than a crypto-currency. It is a complete overhaul of known distributed ledger technology (DLT) that offers a complete range functionalities — from currency over data-anchoring to smart contracts, NFTs, and many more), all on a fast, feeless and green base-layer. As of today, many parts of IOTA are approaching advanced beta-states and many industry and research projects progress quickly.

In this article we want to have some fun: Imagine a future, in which IOTA is fully incorporated into everyday technology. We follow our protagonist through a typical day and see in how many ways IOTA technology improves his life. Each IOTA technology and use-case is highlighted, with additional information in the footnotes.

Morning

https://preview.redd.it/2o1spf65cbh71.jpg?width=1386&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8a69cdae6baf705029a77f87ccef001af0ad8ae

8:15 am, the alarm bell rings. “Yes, almost weekend!” - Toms first conscious thought as he rolls out of bed. Tonight´s the night: He and the boys will go out to watch the greatest fight-event of the year: Connor McGregor vs Dustin Poirer 7. Everybody already bought their ticket-NFTs 1 directly from their IOTA wallets 2 via a ticket-vendor plug-in and they are ready to go. Well, almost. A final weekday has to be handled before that.

Since he started working from home, Tom enjoys some morning-shopping at the local farmer´s market before work. His tokenized autonomous car 3 is already waiting in front of the house. He owns 400 of a total of 1200 colored IOTA-tokens that represent ownership of the vehicle. Its autonomous taxi-services earn him some good extra cash at times of the day, where he doesn’t need it himself anyway. As he approaches, the car greets him with Darth Vader´s voice: “Verify identity please”

Toms smart-phone vibrates and shows a pop-up notification “Press here to verify yourself with IOTA Identity 4”. As he confirms, his identity wallet proves to the cars, that he is indeed authorized to use it. The driver´s door opens by itself. “Welcome on board Tom! I hope you had a good night.”, Vader greets him. “Sure, hope you too.” Tom answers and adds “Bring me to the farmer´s market. Also enable data-earning 5 on the way.” “Data-earning enabled. Expected income today is 300 Ki 6” the car responds. “Nice, that’s half a battery! I see you need to recharge too.” The car confirms: “That is correct. I negotiated with an autonomous solar-panel 7 near the farmer´s market. The sun is shining but its owners are not at home, a real bargain”. “OK perfect, then let´s go!”

https://preview.redd.it/xrqub124cbh71.png?width=848&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cf4718a67ae6db57ef1ca7152888b0232d67212

Fully autonomous cars were finally allowed inside cities, after the internet of things (IoT) really took off. Even individual reflector-posts now have sensors and their own decentralized identity to help autonomous cars navigate the complex city environment. 8

As soon as they arrive at the market, Tom is greeted by his favorite farmer lady: “Hey Tom, how are you today?”. “Yeah I´m doing well Lauren, how is the self-made Guacamole?”. Lauren responds in her usual, snippy way: “Delicious of course, best in the world. What else do you expect me to say?” “Ok nice, I would have one." She replies by showing him a QR code 9. As Tom scans the code he gets another pop-up on his smart-phone. “Do you want to verify your identity to “Lauren FamerGirl”?”. He confirms and immediately gets one more pop-up: “Thanks for being a faithful customer! This is your 20th visit, which grants you one free item from our shop 10!”. “Haha check this out Lauren, I´m a faithful customer! So now give me that Guacamole!” “Well sure, here you go. But you still need to pay for the rest! Please confirm.”

Tom confirms the final buy-order of groceries and leaves. A final work day is awaiting before weekend can start.

***

Footnotes:

1: IOTA Digital Assets and NFTs

https://preview.redd.it/vkig8zv1cbh71.png?width=1898&format=png&auto=webp&s=6b05f1fea580e9df9273c6c8114d68cd548e04b4

IOTA offers feeless NFTs and digital assets. With a simple 1-click function in a suitable wallet, individual IOTA tokens or a batch of tokens can be assigned with a non-fungible number. This unique number enables the representation of physical or digital goods (real-estate, cars, stocks, stable-coins, etc) on the Tangle.

https://blog.iota.org/tokenization-on-the-tangle-iota-digital-assets-framework/

2: Firefly wallet

https://preview.redd.it/tqh4uu37cbh71.png?width=1181&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d7c3d14e8db2f002fe3373f882cd5e39d7a9292

Firefly is the current official IOTA wallet for humans. It is highly modular and can be extended with plug-ins from third parties in the future. A security design called Stronghold disconnects the Seed (private key) that controls the tokens fundamentally from all other modules, making it very safe to use.

https://firefly.iota.org/

https://blog.iota.org/iota-stronghold-6ce55d311d7c/

3: Tokenized economy

A concept in which physical goods like houses or cars are represented by tokens on a distributed ledger (i.e. a blockchain or IOTAs Tangle). This enables fractional ownership and quick trading in otherwise illiquid markets such as real-estate.

4: IOTA Identity

https://preview.redd.it/w9jnzdm8cbh71.png?width=1385&format=png&auto=webp&s=8b4dcc05f8d485a185a861da7214dde11b0ecd08

IOTA enables feeless decentralized identities (DID) on the main-layer (layer 1). A DID is a public- and private key pair, which allows the owner of the private key to proof their identity by controlling the public key. A large use-case comes in when a DID gets enriched by verifiable credentials from trusted third parties like governments, universities, etc, that confirm information like age, place of residency or diplomas. DID enables safe and highly private log-ins, account creation and brings back power over data back to the user.

https://www.iota.org/solutions/digital-identity

5: Data earnings

A use-case first researched by Jaguar Landrover based on IOTA. Cars will collect data over traffic, potholes, car performance, etc. and trade them on data-marketplaces for money.

https://blog.iota.org/earn-as-you-drive-with-jaguar-land-rover-and-iota-3c744d8c0cba/

6: IOTA token chart

The IOTA token supply is completely fixed since its creation (0% inflation). Usual trading denomination nowadays is MIOTA (Mega IOTA or Mi = 1 million IOTA token)

https://preview.redd.it/f0mrtzw9cbh71.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=a827958f7e4c92e5eabd76bc79bcde1b8613b997

7: Autonomous electricity-market by EU2020 project CityXChange

https://preview.redd.it/kx178ijbcbh71.png?width=1386&format=png&auto=webp&s=cfb90e8e329d955ce9d4029cc09c301f7c0d809b

CityXChange is a EU research project that builds an autonomous electricity market based on IOTA. Machines, such as cars, negotiate with and automatically pay energy-positive houses, solar-panels, etc. in order to recharge themselves. This project is actively tested in 6 European cities as of today.

https://blog.iota.org/iota-cityxchange-community-update-85f43894bcca/

8: Autonomous reflector-posts to help autonomous cars in Projekt Alfried (Germany)

https://preview.redd.it/x9t6nugccbh71.png?width=1195&format=png&auto=webp&s=0a7e211987de6abe16686baa713ca4c668104b27

The German government funded “Projekt Alfried” aims at fascilitating higher levels of autonomous driving in cities by including autonomous reflector-posts into security. Each post gets its own DID and communicates with cars and other sensors about environmental factors.

https://www.etogruppe.com/en/news/news-from-eto/project-alfried-will-be-built-on-iota-chrysalis.html

9: QR-scan for quick IOTA payment

Retail IOTA payments can be done via established QR-code scanning with payment confirmation in a wallet app.

https://ecosystem.iota.org/projects/tangle-frost-qr-code

10: Identity-based customer loyalty bonus

One of many ideas enabled by IOTA identity. Every log-in at a shop confirms that a specific person showed up (without necessarily buying something). After a certain amount of log-ins, small perks are granted. Could also be used for gyms, lectures at universities and many more.

Medium: https://medium.com/@linus.naumann/a-future-day-with-iota-part-i-239c16a011f3

submitted by /u/Linus_Naumann [link] [comments]

from Cryptocurrency News & Discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/p46tqq/a_future_day_with_iota/ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Cryptocurrency News & Discussion

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randomwoohoo · 7 years ago

Link

Hello there, folks! Happy pride month! Let our colors shine!! Hope ya enjoy this chapter~

Nick: Previously on Zoomorphia

Judy: Ever since Savages appeared for the first time in Zootopia, many mammals have suffered various kinds of hardships. Although the city is already troubled by the monsters, there still are plenty of robberies, kidnappings, illicit trades, et cetera. While some officers were assigned to join Savage Control Unit, each of us, who still remain in police force, must undertake more tasks.

Nick: Good grief, not like I’m lack of sympathy or anything but shouldn’t mammals help out each other in a difficult situation, not wreck havoc, even if they fell victim to Savages’ attack?

Judy: Incidentally, we encountered a weird Savage. Despite not being highly mutated, it sure wasn’t an easy target, not to mention… bomb suicide.

Nick: It’s just because this one is small and slightly swift, so we had trouble dealing with it. If I had got little more serious, we would have defeated it, and yet it blew up first… literally.

Judy: Hey Nick

Nick: What, Carrots?

Judy: How did I end up in your hug at the beginning of the previous chapter anyway?

Nick: Oh look! We must get to this chapter now!

Judy: C’mon Nick! Tell me!

Nick: Now the chapter 8!!

Fanfiction link

.-.. . - .----. ... / -.-. --- -. - .. -. ..- .

A few days later, Judy, dressed in her uniform, was reading papers in the police office cubicle, which was what she was supposed to do, but actually, she was busy thinking another thing.

Mammals reported to SCU that Savages with fighting with Hybrid while Nick and I were somewhere else… Impossible! How did it happen? Giving false evidence? But SCU team won’t flocked to the scene, unless they confirm the statement. Therefore, falsehood is out of the question.

Was it misunderstanding? Then again, who would mistake an armored mammal ,capable of defeating Savages alone, for somebody else?

“Overthinking about that whole the other day stuff?” Judy’s fox partner with rolled-up uniform sleeves and loosened tie was sitting on an office chair next to her.

“Sorry, I know I should focus on the case, still it keeps bugging me.” She apologized, ears drooping.

For the past few days, most of the works were checking cctv footage and finding the clips that had missing parts. Fortunately, they did not require much thought.

On the other hand, when it comes to searching for the relation among these clips, it is a task which undeniably demands analyzing.

Rabbit officer had trouble reading the papers that she together with the fox collected information for since she constantly got distracted to think about Hybrid matter and also... the one odd Savage.

“About that monster we fought with… Its movements, its actions, they all were clearly abnormal.” She stroked her chin, frowning.

“Tell me about it. Although dumb dumb Savages aren’t brainless creatures, that one acted beyond primal instincts.” He put his paws behind his head, leaning against a backrest.

“Who can we ask about this?” She fell face down on table, arms pushing papers aside lightly. “Mr. Know-everybody, are you familiar with someone that knows about Savages?” She was dispirited.

“Umm… Let’s see, someone that probably knows Savages pretty well huh?” Nick’s index finger digital pad tapped the tip of his mouth before he snapped his fingers. “Oh! How about Professor!?”

Judy instantly lifted her head and quickly turned her face to Nick, “He’s already woken from coma!?” getting all worked up.

“Not sure. I have no clue~” He replied, shrugging.

“Then why did you mention him!?” She was still worked up but in upset way this time.

“Well, you asked me “am I familiar with some Savage experts?”.” Nick did an air quotes gesture, giving an obnoxious smug.

Judy rolled her eyes in response, sighing deeply. She went back to face lying down on the table.

“Are you ok? You look tired.” In spite of his usual frivolous tone, Nick’s facial expression grew solemn.

“Mentally tired. Thanks to you...” Judy was not even bothered looking at him.

A knock at the cubicle wall startled the doe. Consequently, she leapt to her partner’s lap. Momentum from a leap made tod’s chair rotate towards a mammal who just knocked on panel.

“Uhh, Hopps... Wilde...” That mammal was none other than their superior, Chief Bogo. He was bewildered by his officers’ action.

“Ch-Ch-Cha-Chift!” Judy hastily got off Nick’s lap to stand upright.

“Come to my office now.” Ignoring what had just happened, Bogo led the duo to his office.

Along the way, the red fox talked with the European rabbit quietly enough that the Cape buffalo was less likely to hear them.

“Carrots, what was that?”

“I really dunno. It seems… I’m used to feeling that if something happens, I must protect your body first.”

“Good grief… I had no idea since when I became the damsel-in-distress.”

It may turn out that the bunny developed a habit of protecting fox’s body owing to experiences of looking after his senseless body while being Hybrid.

The buffalo came to a halt even though they had not reached his office yet. The duo stopped as well, then poked their heads from behind the buffalo to see what brought their chief to a standstill.

“What’s your secret to looking so young, sir?”

“Oh please, Clawhauser~ You’re flattering me~ It probably has to do with my small size.”

“I still can’t believe Director Mickey is in mid-50’s. I initially misthought you’re younger than Chief Bogo.”

“Is that so, Fangmeyer? Ha ha. Oh hi pal~”

While Mickey Mouse (Director of DIB), Benjamin Clawhauser (a receptionist and a radio dispatcher of ZPD) and Jasmine Fangmeyer (SCU agent) were chit chatting at a reception desk, the director turned to say hi to the duo. Moreover, he stood on the desk, so he could talk to larger mammals easier.

“Mouse..., why you aren’t waiting in the office??” Bogo sounded somewhat surprised to see Mickey outside his office.

“Waiting alone is rather boring. That’s why I came out here~ Thank you two for keeping me company.”

“My pleasure, sir! Still, you seriously look so young! It’s unbelievable that you actually are older than chief.”

Clawhauser’s comment impelled Bogo to touch his own face in order to check wrinkles.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Director Mickael Mouse.” Judy raised her right paw to salute, so did Nick.

“Come on~ It’s just Mickey~” Mickey chuckled mildly.

The duo, as well as their chief, approached the desk.

“How can we help you?” Nick conjectured why Bogo called him and Judy to his office. In addition, he reckoned that Director Mouse was possibly wanting something from them.

“Let’s cut to the chase then~ I’d like to ask you a favor to participate in a school assembly.”

“What kind of assemblies, sir?” Judy quizzed.

“Well, you see~ We at DIB, ZPD and SCU must have a responsibility to educate children about dangers in society.”

“But why specify us?” Nick also inquired.

“You two are packed with fame, perfectly fit for representing police public image~” Mickey gave a thumbs up. “Besides, you look tired, Hopps. Taking a break from the cases and doing this work instead doesn’t sound bad, don’t ya think?” He gave the other thumbs up.

Judy felt like Mickey said the last part about looking tired just to convince her to join in the assembly.

“We’d love to participate but-”

Once she uttered the word ‘but’, Bogo interrupted.

“The world has always been broken; therefore, we need good cops, like you, to guide future generation.” He patted Judy on the shoulder, gazing upon the duo.

Why does it sound extremely familiar? She doubted.

He’s simply trying to not upset Director Mouse, isn’t he? Nick wondered.

Seeing that the bunny balked at helping out, “It’ll be fun to work together, don’t cha think?” Jasmine stepped in to convince them as well.

“I’ll go along too.” Clawhauser said.

“Yeah. You’re great with kits, Ben.” Tigress complimented the cheetah.

As for the doe, she sensed pressure from everyone on her and Nick.

“It’s not like I don’t wanna go. It just so happens Nick and I haven’t completed analysing cctv footage related to missing mammal-”

At that moment, a pair of cops, wearing police overcoats, entered through the doorway.

The bengal tiger officer with winter turban on his head was shivering while “Tundratown is bloody cold.” complaining in Indian English accent, which actually is his natural accent and fits his tongue the most. He still had not recovered from a chill to the bone.

“Aren’t you used to patrolling that district yet? It’s been many months.” A bear, walking beside the tiger, said.

“I stand by my point, Mr. Polar bear.” He switched to an American accent.

“For the last time, despite my white fur, I’m a grizzly bear just like my parents.” The polar bear argued sincerely.

The tiger averted his eyes, not bothered to correct his partner’s belief, then noted mammals gathering around the reception desk. He subsequently met tigress’ eyes coincidentally.

“Jackson!” Jasmine the bengal tigress loped to greet Jackson Rajah the bengal tiger with a friendly hug. “Why didn’t ya tell me you come here today!?”

“Ahh Umm aarr...” The zoned out tiger’s heart beat fast. Freezing in place, he barely prepared himself for a very warm welcome from a certain mammal he did not expect running into.

“I’m gonna go ahead. Later, amigo~” The snickering bear walked away.

“Wait! Where are you going!?” Regaining his senses, the tiger shouted.

“Hi Grizzoli!”

“Hi Fangmeyer~” The white bear greeted the tigress (his former teammate) back as he ignored his current feline partner, leaving him behind.

“So… What’s up with you guys gathering here?” The more awkward Rajah felt, the stiffer he became.

“Here the thing.” Jasmine led him to others, paw in paw. “We’re inviting Jude and Wilde to a school assembly. However, she said they’ve not finished analysis yet.” She summarized the situation.

“If it’s about the missing mammal cases...” Once he perceived that he was still holding Jasmine’s paw, he pulled his paw out promptly, “L-let me help you...” hurriedly budging away from her.

“But Jackson, you just patrolled all night.” Clawhauser mentioned. As a secretary, he pretty much memorized most of other officers’ shifts.

“Eh? You must be worn out. Shouldn’t you head home for now?”

“Getting some rest in a nap room and I’ll be ready to get back at work.” Rajah answered Jasmine, smiling to relieve her concern.

“Thanks bud! You are our hero!” She gave the tiger another hug which made him tense up again and slightly blush.

On the plus side, we apparently don’t have to worry about the cases. Judy considered optimistically. “Okay, I’ll join.” She agreed to help out.

“Count me in~” Nick planned to tag along after her, no matter what decision she chose. If she decided to take part in the assembly, he would participate too.

“It’s settled then. Sorry to bother you.” Bogo sighed with relief, casting his gaze on two small officers.

On the cheetah side, he glanced at the chief, ears bending limply, mouth turning down with a slight pull to the corners. His expression was subtle enough that no one noticed.

“Thanks for your sacrifice, you...” The mouse director intended to say the bengal tiger’s name. Unfortunately, he did not know the officer’s name.

“Rajah, Jackson Rajah.” Tiger introduced himself.

“You have such high spirits, Rajah~” Mickey beamed at Rajah. Jackson Rajah… His name sorta rings a bell…

.-- .... .- - / .-- . / . -..- .--. .-. . ... …

At one local elementary school in Downtown, two SCU agents (Fangmeyer the bengal tigress and Keaton the Andalusian horse), Three ZPD officers (Clawhauser the cheetah, Hopps the European rabbit and Wilde the red fox) and a teal-colored platypus DIB agent called an assembly in a gymnasium, standing respectively in front of children sitting on the stands. Between the large spotted cat and the bunny was a Savage slide show projected on a protector screen

Nick was dressed appropriately under the circumstances, neat and tidy, unrolled sleeves and tightened necktie.

They were in middle of educating students about the monsters, Savages.

“Alright. Now, everybody understands what Savages are and how dangerous they can be. But you see, some of them may look similar to us, mammals. Who could give me an answer about the difference between Savages and mammals?” After adults provided a basic explanation of the monsters, Jasmine asked the children.

She picked the kids who raised their paws to answer one at a time.

“Those monsters are all purple!”

“Our eyes only glow in the dark, while theirs also glow in daylight.”

“Their saliva drip everywhere.”

“Yours too”

A child teased another child, resulting in titters from the rest. Hence, a teacher got them to pipe down.

“They all act savage!”

“No, duh. Captain Obvious.” One student replied, causing the young mammals on stands to burst out laughing.

ZPD officers, including the former one, giggled at how children behaved, which reminded them of their childhood.

“Well done!” Feline SCU agent complimented young mammals.

After that, Clawhauser, the other feline, added. “On top of that, we all can walk on two feet and talk but Savages, of course, cannot.” He displayed a friendly manner.

“At any rate, supposing you kits, cubs, pups spot injured Savages, you should stay away from them because they have a high pain tolerance-” Jasmine paused a bit to check whether the elementary school students understood the vocabulary or not. “-and can heal rapidly. It’s not safe to get close to them even though they’re severely injured.” She warned.

Shortly afterward, Judy stated further details. “It might be hard to distinguish those monsters being wounded in the first place, since they don’t bleed, more likely that they are unable to..., unlike when we get hurt. For instance, if we trip and fall, we will bleed and it will take some time for wounds to be completely healed after cleaning them and putting on bandage.”

Maximus the SCU team leader attempted to educate kids as well. “The other major difference is that when we die, our hearts stop, no more breathing, we’ll fall into an eternal slumber, not be able to move any longer…, except if tendons or muscles jerk, which results in corpses twitching.”

Slowly turning their heads, other adults glared at the stallion. Jasmine had already predicted this, knowing her boss did not have bad intentions but sometimes, he could come across as a not quite kid-friendly guy.

“I’m not sure whether he was serious or he just horsed around~” Nick gossiped about Maximus in jest with platypus agent who only made the growling noise in response.

Still not talk huh? Nick thought.

“However, when Savages die, they will come to rest and then vaporize into nothing.”

Subsequent to Maximus done speaking, there was a calf lifting a hoof to ask a question. “Where do we go after death?”

The question stunned the adults so much that they were at a loss for words, afraid of accidentally making a wrong move that leads to speaking of things which potentially go against some beliefs.

Suddenly, the fox cop decided to take action. “Kits, it’s kinda like taking indefinite leave for a sleep.”

“Lying in bed all day must be nice.”

“But only sleeping sounds boring.”

Children chatted with each other.

“Trust me kiddos, once you reach a certain age, you would desire to sleep all the time.”

Hearing Nick’s relatable assertion, teachers had a hard time keeping a straight face.

“Okay, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask.” Jasmine stated. “Yes?” She pointed to a cub.

“Have you ever met that one superhero in person?” The cub quizzed.

“Well, everyone is a hero in their own ways.” Maximus responded, flattered as he imagined that kids may look up to him who constantly protects the city.

“No no! I mean a real superhero like Hybrid on TV!”

The agents together with the officers were mildly shocked when the name of the armored cross-breed mammal was mentioned.

“Can he fly?”

“How do you know it’s he?”

“I think this hero is a girl.”

Most of the youngsters began to speak (partly arguing) loudly. Meanwhile, Judy was trying her best to prevent herself from smiling, almost not paying attention to stuffs around her anymore. She had never seen Hybrid as ‘a hero’, even after she heard Clawhauser called her and Nick’s combined alter ego ‘that’. However, she felt rather praised when these children regarded this alter ego as not merely a hero but a superhero.

The fox officer caught a glimpse of his partner’s reserved smile, thus “Aw, you look so hoppy, Hopps~” joshing her softly, which made the bunny redden.

After the fuss had settled down, “Let’s go over the important matter again. Whenever you find Savage, what should you do?” the tigress tested the students.

“Stay safe and contact SCU immediately.” They answered simultaneously.

“Excellent!” She praised them, clapping her paws a few times.

All of a sudden, there was a door slammed open. A large brown mole janitor, wearing round glasses, rushed in the gymnasium. “Holy crud! Big problem!! Savages are outside!”

-.. ..- - -.-- / - --- / . -.. ..- -.-. .- - .

Following a quick nap, Rajah kept his word. He was reading the papers which Nick and Judy wrote while sipping coffee at his cube. The overcoat was hung on a back of office chair. As for his turban, he laid it on a desk.

The tiger compared the papers related to the missing mammal cases with CCTV footage in ZPD’s database. He also looked at the cases that he took responsibility for investigation.

“It can’t be...” Mumbling, he grew more sullen, disturbed by the supposition formed in his mind. “I hope I’m wrong...”

.-- .. ... .... / - --- / -... . / .-- .-. --- -. --.

During a commotion, Nick and Judy seized an opportunity, telling others that they would go out to check on civilians outdoors. But, in fact, they pinpointed the target, three of mid-sized macropodine Savages wandering the school’s courtyard, sticking together.

The duo made a detour to hide behind walls, an out of sight spot. They were about to transform.

“Ready partner?” Judy brought out her MidniDriver, then put it on. Its belt wrapped around her waist automatically.

“Born ready~” Nick, wearing his morpher, flopped down sideways towards the rabbit. As a result, she reached paws forward to catch him before he could fall down on the ground.

“What’s wrong, Nick!? Are you ok??” Having her heart in her mouth, she carried his upper body carefully.

“I’ll eventually fall on the ground anyway. Skipping some steps wouldn’t hurt~” He pulled his syringe. “DRAW BLOOD”

She rolled her eyes in annoyance, then pressed her device’s syringe “INJECT”, supporting Nick’s falling unconscious body with one arm.

Next, she laid him down and moved her right paw to twist the handle back “IGNITE”.

Driver emitted purple steam, followed by mist explosion covering the bunny entirely. Accordingly, she transformed into the flamingo red full-armored rabbit with fox features (especially the tail), Hybrid Hustler form.

In order not to waste any time, they pushed the syringe “ACTIVATE” to activate instantaneous movement, which allows Hybrid to travel from one point to another instantly.

The duo chose to use this ability instead of running into battle so that nobody saw Hybrid come out from where they were hiding Nick’s body and would start to suspect them.

Hybrid appeared out of thin air above the courtyard. Feet landed on the field. They made a majestic entrance, or that was what they went for, but it turned out that during the landing, Hybrid slipped and fell over.

It did not hurt, but both got shocked what happened nonetheless. The fox and the bunny, sharing the same body, had a feeling of something wet and slippery on the ground.

“Hybrid?” Maximus was guarding gymnasium’s doorway when he unintentionally blurted out.

Two other agents and a feline officer were also surprised to see the armored mammal emerge from nowhere.

“Hybrid!? Where? Where!?” The thrilled children, overhearing the name, wanted to get a good look at a real life superhero, so the adults obstructed them from leaving the building.

The sensitive rabbit ears picked up young mammals’ voice calling Hybrid. Judy was embarrassed to picture that they caught sight of Hybrid slipping down, hence taking control of the body real quick to get up.

Hybrid was confronting Savages with avian feathers. One had a hooked bill in place of a snout. One’s hind legs developed into bird legs. Another one did not have arms but had a pair of wings instead.

“Fangmeyer, call reinforcements. Officer Clawhauser, Mr. DIB agent, protect citizens.” Maximus the horse drew out a pistol, planning to shoot down the monsters. Too bad, the distance between him and the target was too far. Furthermore, he did not have much special ammo for dealing with Savage at the moment; therefore, he stepped on the field to close the distance.

However, he slipped and tumbled after a few steps, neighing shrilly.

There was black watery substance patchily all over the courtyard. Those macropodine Savages coughed slimy liquids everywhere.

Judy began to surmise what this black fluid was, “Saliva!? Ewwwww!!!” disgusted by it. She carefully avoided not to step on wet areas again but-

“All aboard!” Nick, in charge of the body, dashed forth, sliding on the slippery ground with extended leg. Hybrid kicked the macropods in their legs, tripping them over.

“What’s the-!?” Judy wished to reproach Nick for taking her body through a disgusting mess. But before she could finish her sentence, Nick lifted Hybrid’s left index finger to touch the center of the helmet’s muzzle part as a signal for her not to raise her voice.

If other mammals hear Judy’s voice from Hybrid, not Nick’s voice as usual, they will suspect.

Judy could only stay silent, swallowing frustration.

Soon after falling down, hooked billed one raised its head and then ejected slippery dark liquid through its mouth.

The duo were going to dodge the monster’s vomit. Unfortunately, because of slimy floor, Hybrid was unable to spring over far enough to evade the black watery matter and consequently blocked some liquids with left arm.

“Ew! Ew! It’s all wet and oily!” The doe grumbled.

Since it was difficult to run or jump around on the slippery floor like this, she aimed to activate the instant movement ability in order to get close to the monsters and attack them.

However, the left side of morpher got coated by black slime that must be from the hooked billed Savage’s previous attack. The paws slipped when Hybrid tried to push the syringe.

“What’s this thing?” Judy sniffed at stuffs covering the body.

Nick could smell- “Oil?”

In this state, long range attack was more suitable, yet Police form’s gun might spark a fire with oil around them, which was too dangerous, especially nearby school buildings full of civilians. That being the case, Hybrid twisted the handle forth twice “FORM SHIFT-ARCHER” to switch to the most fitting form for this situation.

Armor gaps released purple steam which removed the oil on the body. The doe’s figure enveloped in the fog from the device, core of which brightened along with amethyst headlight eyes.

Hybrid pivoted around to clear the brume, revealing the flamingo red bio-armored mixed breed in green leather tunic, hood with red feather, charcoal mark on face that resembles eye mask.

At the time they were done changing form and “ACTIVATE” summoning a bow, Maximus finally straightened up after several failed attempts. He switched off the pistol safety catch.

Hearing sound of toggling a lever, Judy rapidly turned to SCU’s leader. “Don’t shoot! These black liquids might be an oil!” Nick shouted. Both feared that his firearm could ignite the huge flame with oil on the ground.

“Shut up, Hybrid!” The horse yelled back. “I’ll arrest you later-”

Seeing him not listening, Hybrid generated an arrow from right wrist, then shot it at him. An arrowhead broke off, allowing a boxing glove inside it to pop up.

The boxing glove arrow hit Maximus right in his face, knocking him down, successfully preventing him from firing a gun.

“Please look after that guy. Thank you.” Nick requested Jasmine. Despite confusion, she agreed to do what she was asked, pulling her boss back into gymnasium.

When Hybrid turned back, Savages had already got up, two of them coming towards Hybrid, the other one with avian legs bounding in the direction of a narrow way between buildings where the duo hid Nick’s body.

While they were experiencing difficulties in moving on the oily surface, these monsters easily moved around as they pleased.

Judy hastily created a new lethal arrow to shoot the bird legged macropod. Abruptly, the hooked billed one threw up on Hybrid once more. The right paw was splashed with the black oil. The arrow slipped through greasy fingers, flying to strike the bird legged monster’s calf. It missed the viral spots that Judy aimed for.

“Tsk” The doe disapproved of the outcome, the bird legged Savage still, a bit slower, advanced. She tried to shoot it again but the other two interfered her by assaulting Hybrid.

She “ACTIVATE” summoned a sword to deal with the billed one and the winged one. However, due to the greasy right paw, Hybrid dropped the sword. The only option left at the moment was to avoid the continuous attacks.

As Hybrid was dodging the attacks, she grew anxious more and more, worried about tod’s body.

“Calm down, Carrots.” He comforted her. It was not like he did not worry, even so he was more concerned about his buddy, feeling the bunny’s body tremble from a surge of anxiety.

What should I do? Should I chase that Savage? But if I leave here, our friends and civilians will be put into danger…. But Nick! What should I do? The doe concentrated.

In a critical second, a monitor of Archer form detected an incoming object.

A flash passed in front of Hybrid. The very next image Nick and Judy saw was that two Savages were blown away, which greatly puzzled them.

“Stop spacing out~”

Both swiftly turned Hybrid’s head to the source of male fruity voice. The owner of the voice was a silver chrome full suited (from head to toes) wolf with a reflective black bar over the eyes, two black thunderbolt stripes mirroring each other on abdomen, and solar panels on chest as well as shoulders.

“I’ll take care of the rest. Hurry up and go to your body already~” The mysterious wolf said sotto voce, pointing at an area where Nick’s body were, when the Savages that was just collided started to target him.

Wait! That guy knows about my unconscious body? Nick was undeniably aghast, whereas Judy “FORM SHIFT-HUSTLER” only thought about saving Nick, changing back to Hustler form by twisting the handle forth with left paw.

She moved Hybrid’s leg to sprint through the oiled courtyard. The gusting steam from changing the form blew away the liquid on spots of the ground Hybrid stepped on. Once they reached the edge of the courtyard field where there was no slippery oil, “ACTIVATE” she ran at the astonishing speed to follow the bird legged Savage to the narrow path between buildings.

When Hybrid turned around the corner, they found it poking Nick’s senseless body. Judy, without second thought, twisted the handle back. “CRITICAL BREAK” Hybrid sped up to the point of becoming a red blur with amethyst light lines alongside and then leaped, rolling front flip in mid-air, to kill the monster with a double kick blow.

Hybrid landed backflip before hastening to check on Nick’s body.

“Nick! Are you alright?” Judy’s voice shivered.

“I think so. Still looking handsome and all-” He looked at his own unconscious body, commending in fun.

“Return to your body to make sure!” She did not care about the joke, pulling the syringe, sending his mind back to his body.

The armor let out purple mist, then disappeared. Her body and clothes were back to the previous state.

Nick woke up afterwards. “Yeah I-” After pressing his syringe to inject the blood, “I’m fine.” he continued.

“What a relief…” Judy sighed. “Now! Let’s transform and beat the rest!”

“You detransformed just for this!?” Nick precipitately sat up.

“Quick!” She rushed him.

But then, both heard a footstep… The shadow, representing the familiar feline figure, was cast on the floor. They looked back to the way they two as Hybrid just ran on… Standing at the corner was Benjamin Clawhauser, the cheetah ZPD officer.

- --- / -... . / -.-. --- -. - .. -. ..- . -..

#zootopia #zootopia fanfiction #zoomorphia #zootopia tokusatsu au

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ick25 · 7 years ago

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Rockman.EXE Review Episode 5

I really like this episode, not sure... why...

Of course! There is a giant virus in this one!

Can fish stampede?

The episode opens with a shot of a mans head against the sun right outside of Yaito’s tree house. We then cut to the Net Battle taking place inside between Rockman and Gutsman.

The whole group is viewing Netto and Dekao’s battle but mostly just watching Rockman evading Gutsman’s punches. Rockman beats Gutsman with a score of 23 to 0 by throwing a Mini Bomb at Gutsman’s...

Of course, this was cutted out from the american dub, where we only see Rockman throwing the Mini Bomb and then inmediately cutting to Netto and Dekao.

But what was Rockman thinking anyway? I thought he was better than this. I do like how Roll is covering her eyes though.

The laughs dont last long as the intruder alarm goes off. The intruder is the not so misterious man from earlier, Masa-san, who gets hit in the head after opening the door with what I can just assume is a classic Japanese gag.

Quite the security system you have there Yaito.

After Masa-san introduces himself as the best fisherman in Akihara and the title card appears, Yaito tries to confront him, but instead, he just yells at her bad manners and tells Netto and the others that they are wasting valuable time playing Netbattles indoors since kids are suppouse to play outside, run, climb trees, play sports, etc. And that he is going to force them to do some training because I guess he doesnt have anything better to do, this is followed by this funny reaction from Rockman and Roll.

So Masa-san starts his training by making them “run”, during this, Meiru explains to Yaito about how Masa-san doesnt know much about technology nor does he like it. I put quotation marks on the running part because its easy to tell that they aren’t, It is until Masa-san looks back that he finds out that none of them are running.

Even when the camera only shows them from the waist up you can tell none of them are running, except maybe for Netto who is moving his arms.

This angers Masa-san and decides to get serious. We see a montage of them doing push-ups, climbing threes and escaping from sharks, you know, what normal kids do everyday.

Netto is actually doing pretty good! I dont know why Masa-san is so upset, Netto ran around the entire school in the last episode. Ok, he skated a little, but that still needs good balance and strengh.

Finally, he makes them play Baseball by attaking them with millions of fast balls.

Yaito has enough and yells at Masa-san telling him that her dad is “made of money”, Masa-san ignores her threat and throws another baseball at her, she ducks resulting on the baseball hitting Dekao.

Obviously cutted from the american dub too.

This is followed by yet another funny reaction from Rockman and Roll.

Is it strange that Rockman says that right after Dekao’s scene?

We then cut to the bad guy’s secret HQ where Dr.Wily, leader of the World Three, is playing a montage of the WWW Navis getting their butts kicked by Rockman.

And then they stare at a picture of his crotch XD

“Specially by the exact same chip combo! A Shotgun followed by a Sword?”

Wily scolds the three operators but they then tell him about a new plan they have, this time not involving any of their navis.

Their target, the Robotics fish aquarium!

As mush as I wonder how an aquarium of robotic fish would make sense, I cant help feeling that this couple walked in from a diferent anime.

Maybe they’re just too generic.

Jelly viruses begin to appear inside the aquarium’s server and this causes the robotic fish to go crazy, but at least the damage is contained, right?

Meanwile, we cut back to Netto and his friends all tired out from Masa-sans training, he gives them some fish snacks and decides to tell them some fun fish facts while they eat.

He even brougth flash cards. Masa-san tells them that eating well, playing well and learning well is the key to success. Something Netto doesnt really believe but Rockman sure seems to.

Would you also explain to me how can they be alive if they dont have brains? Or a heart?

After Netto freaks out after seeing a robotic flying fish actually flying in front of him, we see that the whole city has been taken over by the the robotic fishes from the aquarium, who can now fly for some reason.

Ok, that giant octopus makes sense as a robot, but what about the rest of the fish?

As fars as I know, the robotic fish only cause damage by crashing into things, just like a big tuna was about to do with Netto and friends when Masa-san quickly saves them in a scene that was cutted halfway in the american dub.

After Masa-san tells them the damage that species of tuna could’ve done, even as a robot, Rockman tells Netto to plug him into the network so he can go to the aquariums server with Glyde to see whats going on.

Why Glyde? Why can they access the aquarium server through the Net? Why does the robotic tuna have a skelleton? So many questions today.

Netto and Yaito find a payphone and plug-in, showing us Yaitos official plug-in sequence.

They arrive at the server to see that something strange is going on and Rockman spots a fin like object moving in the floor.

The fin attacks them revealing a shark like navi jumping out of the floor. After dodging the attack, Rockman lands on some weak panels making him fall through the floor where he discovers that there is an underground lake infested with Jelly viruses.

The World Three is watching everything from their giant monitor, they recognize the blue Navi and order the viruses to attack him.

The Jelly viruses attack Rockman by launching themselves at him while Glyde can only watch from above.

Glyde can only tell Yaito to tell Netto that Rockman is in trouble, but at the same time, the whole group is being chased by a robotic shark.

After Masa-san proves once again that his knowledge on fish is very useful we cut back to Rockman still being attacked by the Jellies. He finally has enough and dodges a few Jellies before leaping out of the water landing right next to Glyde.

However, the viruses merge together forming a giant Jelly that surfaces.

We cut back to Netto and the others who are cornered by the robotic shark, Netto is frustrated because he needs to get to the aquariums server to save Rockman, Masa-san unsderstands his strugle and throws himself as bait to lure the shark away.

As the group run to the aquarium, the Jelly virus is evading all of Rockman’s shots until it suddently grabs him.

This doesnt look good but I swear, this isnt THAT kind of anime!

Netto and the others arrived at the aquarium but are stopped by a giant robotic squid blocking the entrance, this doesnt really stop Netto though as he quickly passes the giant squid and locates the aquarium server.

He frees Rockman by sending him the Sword battle chip but unfortunately the virus regenerates itself and attacks Rockman and Glyde with the “tsunami” attack.

Netto begins to freak out since his chips can’t beat the tsunami attack until something is suddently thrown next to him.

I would be wondering why is Rockmans image in the chip, but I guess they dont see this in the show.

The new chip is the “Elec Sword”, Elec meaning “Denki” in japanese as Netto figures out the weakness of the Jelly virus.

Netto sends the newly aquired battle chip to Rockman and tells him that the virus’s weakness is electricity. Rockman tries to aim the sword at the Jelly virus but it wont stay still. Suddently, the shark navi from before leaps out of the water and tackles the giant virus from behind, giving Rockman the chance to attack.

Rockman uses the Elec Sword in a super powerful way that deletes the Jelly virus in one hit, virtually telling the World Three to suck it!

I love their faces XD

After the Jelly is defeated, the strange Navi from before introduces himself as Sharkman. Just that, no operator name, no explanation of why he was there or what he was trying to do or why he attacked them earlier.

Rockman says that with his help he was able to delete the virus, but Sharkman only points out that Rockman wasn’t strong enough to win by himself and bids him goodbye before loggin out.

The sun is setting and Netto returns victorious to his friends who were waiting outside the aquarium, Yaito asks him how did he find out the virus’s weakness and Netto explains after literally having a flashback of Masa-san’s lesson about the Jellyfish.

I would expect that kind of logic from pokemon, not from a show where computer viruses have elemental weaknesses that work like in real life.

After a nice group laugh, Netto remembers about the strange object where he got the Elec Sword.

Well, it looks like a fish bone, and a Navi named Sharkman was in the server, so I’d say it was someone who is obsessed with fish, like Masa-san.

But of course it cant be Masa-san because everybody knows he doesnt own a PET. Besides, he is busy ending the episode while standing on a robotic shark that somehow got impailed on top of a tower.

This is really how the episode ends.

My thoughts?

It was a really fun episode and very educative, even if it was about fish, it was Masa-sans time to shine and if you’ve played the game you’ll know that Sharkman is actually Masa’s navi.

Masa was but an optional boss along with Saloma and Miyuki in the first game, its good to see he has a better role in the anime. But if Masa-san doesnt like technology and doesnt have a PET, then why was Sharkman in this episode? Even before playing the games I was really confused, who was Sharkman? Is he good or bad? and why would he look like a good Navi for Masa-san? This is the kind of episode the keeps you thinking, I knew there had to be a conection between both characters!

This is also the first time we see the three WWW operators together and not just talking with Wily through a monitor. And I must say that their interaction with eachother wasnt what I imagined.

It was fun to watch them argue and their reactions when they recognized Rockman and after they lost to him again.

I enjoyed the animation and it was a nice change to the Rockman vs a Navi formula we’ve seen before. The dynamic of the battle and how viruses can also be as dangerous as a WWW Navi. Seeing Rockman underwater, how the viruses merge after he jumps out of the water, its reaction to the Elec Sword and how it only decides to grab Rockman instead of Glyde because he was an actual threat.

Speaking of Glyde, he was compleately pointless in this episode, all he did was stand there watching Rockman do all the work, commentating and informing Netto that he was in trouble, I guess this was another way of having Yaito grow closer to the group, but what was Glyde’s excuse? That he is not built for battle? We’ve seen him bust viruses before!

#Rockman.exe #MegaMan NT Warrior #megaman battle network #anime #my reviews #dub vs sub

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tatlergazette-blog · 5 years ago

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The Day Joker Saved Me From A Jersey City Pimp

By Eiko La Boria

For River Phoenix

Based on a True Story

PROLOGUE

JERSEY CITY: Much has been said about the contagious rage of the Joker, especially it’s potential of inspiring white males that have been bullied or are societal outcasts. Their good nature bludgeoned and discarded. But in Jersey City, white males should be the least of our worries, because rage has no color or sex or social class. Righteous rage can seep into the psyche of anyone that has been taken advantage of, oppressed, tormented, used and abused, treated like garbage or in my case, the attempt to be pimped. The concise effort of a wanna-be hustler to exploit me, have me work for weeks, only to try and keep my money and refuse to pay me, turn-me-out so to speak in the ways of this unapologetic boy’s town. Like Gotham, Jersey City has her share of villains, but in Jersey City they hide and are protected by the cloak of being city employees, community activists, pastors, influence peddlers, and do-gooders who really care about the poor, destitute, minorities, women, the middle class. Insert Joker’s laughter here. Jersey City, like Gotham, is a place where what you see is hardly ever what you get. Every story has endless angles. The wolves do not bother with sheep’s clothing. Greed is God! When you’re hurting the greater good more than you are producing it--that’s a problem--a big one. These are dangerous times in Jersey City.

ACT I

The night before Joker arrived an ominous cloud hovered over New York City, creeping its way across the river and toward Jersey City. I was mesmerized by it’s forewarning.

Jersey City had been preparing for months for Joker’s arrival. I was a part of the preparation. In August 2018, a contractor that I knew for his unique political aspirations, which were supposedly to help Hispanics, let’s call him Emilio, asked for my help in preparing a proposal for a project at the Loew’s Jersey Theatre in Journal Square. He told me that he was a subcontractor and that the electrical contractor, the main contractor, in charge of the project told him that it was a big project that was good for him, but that he needed to submit a proposal. Emilio didn’t know how to write a proposal and needed help. English is his second language and he was not proficient in writing in English. He said that he could not pay me for writing the proposal. I was OK with that. I had no intention of charging him for writing the proposal anyway. Without a second thought I agreed to it. I thought this would be good for him, would help him grow his business and I said, “Why not?” I had also worked for a maintenance company for the past year and I knew how to write specifically for government, private and municipal proposals and bids.

“This is a big project, it has a big budget, something like $ 40,000.00 and it can really help me out.” he said.

I met with Emilio, asked what he wanted the proposal to reflect and I wrote it up. The job required painting, replicating a steel awning, cleaning electrical sockets, pedestrian safety, removing, cleaning, shining and reinstalling the side panels of a marquee. I wrote it up. He got the job. He then said to me,

“You know I don’t have any good people that I can rely on. I need help making sure the job moves ahead. I’d like you to work for me on site because I can not be there everyday and communicate with me, tell me what’s happening. I have to do other jobs. Can you help me?”

“Yes, I can help you.” I replied.

“But I can only pay you $ 15.00 dollar an hour because of the budget and I need a lot of people there. It’s a big, big job.” he said.

I didn't care about the hourly wage, he needed help and I wanted to help him. Besides money comes and goes, but experience and memories are forever.

“Is that the prevailing wage?” I asked. “There is a lot of specialized work in the proposal. It doesn’t matter to me, but make sure you know what the prevailing wage is, you may not be able to find professionals.”

I looked up the prevailing wage for such a job and emailed it to him. It was $ 25.00 an hour, $ 10.00 less than he was offering. He advised that the electrical contractor told him to just pay everybody $ 15.00 dollars an hour, no matter what they did and that was what he was going to do.

“But just so you know, I’m paying everybody at the end of the job, because that’s when the electrical contractor will pay me.” Emilio said.

“That’s fine, but you have to pay me in full.” I replied.

“Yes, of course, I pay you everything. But you have to be there every day and tell me what is going on.” he replied.

He accepted the job and hired me. I was there when he did the initial walk through of the Loew’s. I took notes for him, took pictures, and worked with the Loew’s Management to assure that everything they asked of us was done, especially the materials that were to be used. The protector of the Loew’s, let’s call him Harlin, was meticulous and finicky with his baby, he knew exactly what needed to be done, how it was to be done, and when . It was paramount to Harlin that everything he wanted done, be done to a T. It was during the initial walk through that I learned that this was all in preparation for the Warner Bros. film, Joker.

In its heyday the Loew’s would have been Joker’s natural favorite hangout, it was one of the original wonder palaces erected in 1929. It was a center of entertainment and distractions, movies were just a part of the fun. It was a vaudeville paradise where residents would spend an entire Saturday or Sunday, hours of pleasure and spectacle, an extravaganza that captured the imagination of the young and old alike.

“Joker! You’re kidding me!” I said.

“It’s a Warner Bros. film with Joaquin Phoenix” he said.

And when I heard the name Phoenix, bells went off in my head, I got weak in the knees, my heart raced, my eyes watered, the melody of chirping birds filled the air, a melancholy smile swept my face. My eyes enamored with thoughts of my first crush. Oh baby, like an unforgettable lover he still had an effect on me, he still had a hold. I went back in time, I was a teenager in my bedroom. Poster plastered walls. Joaquin is an exceptional actor, but his brother River was it for me. Growing up in an urban city, not many people understood my fascination with River but I couldn’t care less about their understanding. It was River!

In my basement, there is still a poster or two or three of River Phoenix. He’s one of my favorite actors of all time. When he died of a drug overdose on a dirty Hollywood sidewalk with Joaquin by his side, I wept for days. His death hurt me so much. It became a call of duty for me to do an exceptional job at the Loew’s. This was for River Phoenix’s baby brother whose middle name, Rafael, is my father’s name, and who was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico just like me. It mattered not that he would never know my name. Everything had to be perfect for Joaquin.

On the first day, the job was shut down because the proper permits were not obtained. The crew consisted of me, Emilio’s uncle, and a high schooler. It was a no-go until the proper permits were submitted and approved. Although permits for the average Jersey City resident takes weeks if not months, all the necessary permits for this job were obtained in a few days. We went back to the Loew’s, Emilio, myself and Emilio’s uncle. The high schooler didn’t make it back, he got a higher paying job.

“ It’s OK, we can do everything that needs to be done. We don’t need anyone else. We’re going to make a lot of money.” Emilio said.

As Emilio said that, an uproarious deafening laugh spilled out of a car waiting at the red light. A big hearty cackle, the laughter just came coming and coming. The crazy laugh instantly made me think of the Joker. It was eerie,

“Ooooooh oooooh ooooooh, aaaaaahhh aaaaaahhh aaaaahhhh, heeeee, heeeee, heeeee”

I could still hear it as the car raced past the green light and down Bergen Avenue.

For the first two weeks, we worked on procuring the materials, removing the side panels of the Loew’s marquee and scraping the old peeling paint, assuring pedestrian safety as there were several teams working on the marquee, traveled to New York City for steel and cleaning hundreds of electrical sockets. The first two weeks was all the prep work and the days were long. Emilio hired another worker, named Dwayne, but after a few days, Dwayne told me, “This job is not paying right he’s paying us way below what we should be getting.” And just like the high schooler, Dwayne left for a higher paying job. I couldn’t leave. This was more than a job, it was an opportunity to do something for the brother of someone I adored.

And then there were the influx of memories from the people strolling by, an elderly couple came up to me,

“Are you fixing the theatre, that’s so wonderful, I love this place.” said the elderly woman.

“We are restoring the marquee for a movie.” I respond.

“We met here about sixty years ago, we were both teenagers. It was love at first sight. We’ve been together ever since.” says the elderly man. “I wish you well with the job.”

“We’ll try our best, we want this to look just like it was built yesterday. We are hopeful that it will, we are working very hard.” I say.

“Something tells me that your best is quite good. You have an aura, an energy, you will do great things here.” says the elderly woman.

Just then, I noticed a butterfly landing on a traffic cone next to me. For me it was a sign, a sign that I was working toward something good, something that will be remembered for a long time. It was hope personified. A masterpiece in waiting. I was giving rebirth to a thing of beauty. I took a picture. I took two.

The couple kissed and smiled shyly at me, before continuing walking down Kennedy Blvd. I stared at them, until I could see them no more.

About half an hour later, a loud and shiney Harley Davidson pulls up in front of the Journal Square Pub, next to the Loew’s. A tall and stocky biker, clad in head to toe leather with a bushy beard hops off. He’s hard to miss and the leather seemed to he speaking with his every step. He strolled over to me. Let’s call him Johnny.

“Holy shit! What are you guys doing here, Oh man, you just blew my mind when I saw you guys working on the marquee. I use to hang out here in the 70’s man. I love this place” says Johnny.

“We’re restoring it, a lot of people are excited.”

“I can’t tell you how many good times I had here. I mean I would just come and hang out for the entire day. I made so many friends here. Damn, have you been inside?”

“Yes, it’s grand.”

“It's a fairy tale, you know what I mean. I can’t wait to see the marquee finished, it brings back so many great memories. Man, I gotta get a drink now, my fucking brains just blew out my head, you know what I mean. God bless.”

And just like that he walked away and into the pub. I still smile when I see him in my mind’s eye.

I quickly learned that not everyone was a fan of the Loew’s, the restoration, the fight for the theatre to remain alive. I was moving the railings to make a safe passage way for pedestrians as Emilio’s uncle was working on a lift. I see a thin white woman approaching me with a smile on her face. Let’s call her Beth. I smiled back, as I was sure that she was going to share with me some of her memories...I was getting used to strangers connecting with me because of my work on the theatre.

She comes up to me and says, “Instead of fixing this marquee, why aren’t you getting rid of the homeless people that sleep everyday in front of this shithole. That’s what you should be fixing. I’m a taxpayer, I’ve been in Jersey City for five years and I’ve been walking past this dirty theatre and all the homeless for five years. You’re taking my money so that I can walk past the smell of piss every night.” Beth said.

“I’m sorry ma’am, the homeless is not what I am fixing.”

“Well, you should be. I am a taxpayer and this theatre is taking my money so that homeless people can just sleep in front of it. How is that right? How is me walking past homeless bums and smelling their shit right?”

I just stare at her...I can’t find the words, I can actually, but if I say what I really want to say, things may escalate and at that moment I didn’t think that it was my place.

“Well, I can certainly convey your message to the Loew’s Management.”

“They should just close this disgusting place and put up a nice building, with some beautiful storefronts, that’s what the people around here really want. Why should I be speaking with you? You’re just a worker, I’m wasting my time.” she says.

“Well, Ma’am, the homeless are people too, we just can’t get rid of them.”

Then she breaks out in a boisterous laughter, she bends over, and continued her wild cackle. Pedestrians looked at her as they walked past.

“Homeless are people too,” she says, mocking me, as she continues laughing uncontrollably.

“Aha haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaaa haaaaa haaaa haaaaa ha…”

The laughter was loud and familiar. She turns around and continues her laughter as walks toward a shiny new building past the Loew’s.

I continued working blissfully, with intent, everything that was asked of me I did. And I did so happily. I didn’t take another job while I was there. My complete focus was on making this marquee brand new. They could have asked me to remove every piece of gum from the sidewalk with a toothpick and I would have done it. I was on a mission. I was a soldier.

At the end of the first two weeks, as we were removing the safety railings from Kennedy Blvd and moving them to the basement, Emilio’s Uncle says:

“I’m glad it’s finally payday, it’s been a long two weeks.”

“Are you getting paid today?”

“Of course, it’s been two weeks.”

Just then, Emilio arrived and his uncle shouts out to him,

“You have my money?”

Emilio’s eyes widened as he noticed my stare. To his chagrin, his uncle let the cat out of the bag. Emilio was going to pay his uncle, but not me.

“Yeah! Yeah!, I have your money. Eiko, I forgot to tell you that I got some money from the electrical contractor and can pay you too. You don’t have to wait till the end of the job.” Emilio said.

I could’ve taken the money and run, but I didn’t.

Just then a group of teenagers from nearby Dickinson High School walked past and broke out into a group laughter. They couldn’t contain themselves. They were hugging each other, barely able to stand up from the laughter.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh hhhhaaaaaaa ooooooooohhhhhh heeeeeee”

The laughter. The laughter was my friend. The laughter was warning me.

To be continued...

All pictures are property of Eiko La Boria -- Thank you for reading!

#joker thejoker joaquin joaquinphoenix jerseycity hollywood riverphoenix toddphillips #joker #thejoker #joaquin #joaquin phoenix #hollywood #river phoenix

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krakenator · 6 years ago

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CHAPTER 8 aka “Here comes the sun”

SPOILERS are sprinkled around extremely liberally for The Property of Hate

Masterpost here

“Day 4 everybody! The sun is shining, the tree’s a sun, and it’s time to start a new-

*gasp* the tree’s a sun

THE TREE’S A SUN

*wicked witch voice* ITS MEEEEELTING

oh very funny tellyman

and i SWEAR TO GOD if this is some kind of sick FORESHADOWING where Hero and RGB get separated and don’t appear on the same pages as each other-

oh hey i didn’t notice the Deer on this panel; RGB’s hanging onto its ear

So if the tree was sick and it’s also the heart of the sun... could we say the tree had heart disease?

ok and it also turns out that the whole deer thing is because ‘hart’ is another term for them so could we ALSO say that the tree is a heart of harts?

Izzit me or does Assok’s speech here have greeny-yellow mixed in there? …TOby???

The entire look of the tree and RGB doing a slip’n’slide on it implies a very... meaty texture to me so uh congrats mod thanks i hate it

OH FUC I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THIS REMINDS OF

MOTHERFUCKING MEAT CIRCUS AAAAAAAAA-

This entire page is huge fucking mood. That’s me @the world in my head every time I’m about to do something Stupid n’ Sketchy™

its also the first time we see the frankly DELIGHTFUL dynamic of RGB being like “oh god oh fuck why” and Hero going “YEEEEEEEAAA”. Hero loves rollercoasters and RGB won’t be dragged on one for anything less than certain death otherwise.

LOOKIT that big grin. she seems to smile WAY more in the latter half of the current comic and honestly. Yes. we need more of that

Oh deer. What a staggering outcome. Guess we’re getting right to the hart of the matter huh.

So RGB asks how Hero knew it was sick, and the answer was it had no leaves- the tree’s by the Pool of Tears in chapter 2 during the daytime didn’t have leaves either, but began to grow more near the end of it- are those tree’s sickened as well? OH- this could explain why the Fears were able to wander around in such a forested area

Have to wonder… tree’s are powerful. What could stop one from dreaming like that?

OH. OF COURSE. RGB’s already given us the answer- Nothing. The gooey stuff that was coating the tree, the [-----], is just another form of Nothing! Even more damningly, biting through the strand so the sun could balloon away renders Hero’s tongue temporarily numb.

“You didn’t swallow any did you”- oh motherfucker that’s foreshadowing to when Hero really does accidentally swallow Nothing in the Elastic Valley storm, which erodes her voice from black text to white

So the next question is why did the [-----] melt so SUDDENLY? Black was left behind from Hero’s Fun Impalement Adventure, which smacks far more of Fear stuff than dream/nightmare residue, both of which are colorful, yet Dreams have the healing properties and Hero dreaming in the tree may have even helped the thawing

going on the assumption black = Fear shenanigans, have we found something stronger than Nothing? is this- oh come on. is this a rock-paper-scissors scenario?

Nothing beats Trees, Trees beat Fears, Fears beat Nothing?

on that note I should point out that Hero’s night of rest and dreaming has indeed closed back up her schism

absolutely everybody: how the FUCK did that DUMBASS-

and like they all know it’s THAT dumbass. they all look at the BULLSHIT happening in the sky and say “i don’t know how but i KNOW RGB is in the thick of that nonsense”

RGB rekted counter = 4

and promptly rekted yet again (5)

Ok, we confirm that [-----] is an insulator- a weaker form of Nothing, then. Not enough to destroy the sun-tree, but definitely enough to encase, sicken, and weaken it.

K but [------] as censorship, anyone?

!! Assok’s voice is numb too. How did I miss this bit of the story, did I just skim over it last time? Assok’s voice is the way it is because it’s numb, it could only have gotten numb by chomping on [-----], Assok came out of a crack in the [-----] to investigate Hero’s crying... my god

im such a dummy i finally get it. Assok’s been chipping away at the [-----] trying to keep the sun alive

kids are honestly such little shits; mod really nails this aspect of Hero directly on the head

truly they are made for each other- one shit kid and one bastard man.

OH OKAY I thought Assok threw themselves at RGB’s face in retaliation for yelling at Hero for essentially tazing him but that’s not it- its STATIC CLING

And tally that 6 for the RGB ‘slapstick-comedy Bad Man gets thrown around’ counter

ITS JULIENNE! Aint NOBODY got ANYTHING on her KNIFE FEET

fuckin. the sound effects. step+stab = stap. amazing

bruh i love her speech. i look at it and i taste cherry chocolate. even the shards around the boxes and that haphazardly make speech tails looks like chocolate shavings

Julienne and Melody’s designs are both INCREDIBLE tbh. julienne and click are probably my favorites out of the entire cast. you look at them and you INSTANTLY what they are about

and yet there are surprises

...... shitpost idea

and the candyfloss poke at my head, no fun! i said Julienne- mmgh!- stop it now

RGB looks like he has wings this entire page and I think that’s beautiful. the entire ‘fight scene’ between him and Julienne is utterly fantastic

Hero just calmly going fishing. Serenely stares down the knife Julienne tries to stab through her upon Jules realizes RGB’s gone and kidnapped ANOTHER WHOLE KID but relenting the INSTANT Hero says hello, pats, and flatters her

this chapter is really delivering on the “RGB gets slammed around” aspect of my TPoH enjoyment. I didn’t think we’d hit double digits this quick but that makes 10

Melody, bass-boosted: MY WIFE

as a musician i adore Melody with my entire being and i would die for her. every time i read her FORTE i’m assaulted with the auditory memory of myself and the rest of the trumpet section seeing a “triple forte” note written in our music sheets and as one blasting it in exactly the way the composer surely intended: discordant chaos

aaaaa her foghorn blast includes sheet music in the background!! i wonder from what piece

her speechbubbles be yellow, with short, stout tails and a circular box

is there anything better than seeing just the barest hint of Hero at the top of one panel before she slams into RGB in the next?

Assok’s QUADRUPLE FORTE on the other hand sounds like 50 CHILDREN SCREAMING THEIR OWN COMMENTS AT ONCE FOR A SOLID THIRTY SECONDS

it’s all stuff we’ve heard before looks like: “snice”, “koh ping”, “eediotic”, “damninably frah ghile”, “j ustryin toolwek affrew”, “justav to trusttmi”

dsvjkfkfhh- special fuckin shoutout to “AI DOOHAIT TOOHAFF TORAIMSMA VOYCE” for being the ONE thing in all caps aka the time RGB, uh, raised his voice

join me next time for some QUALITY DUNKING ON RGB. just absolutely roasting him

#tpoh #the property of hate #tpoh time with Gill

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fatbottombucky · 8 years ago

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Stick With Me, Kid *Negan x Reader* (2/?)

Summary: Negan finds a little girl, no more than ten, amongst a car wreckage, after finding out she’s alone in the world. He takes her as his own, raising her through the apocalypse. If there’s one thing that his greatest pride but also his biggest weakness, it’s his daughter, Y/N! Ratings/ warnings: Teen, mentions of blood and violence. I feel like, Negan as a dad is a warning. Writers Notes: This doesn’t really have a set plot, it will follow alongside season 6 & 7, I’m unsure if I’ll make it so Carl and reader have a thing. But… I got big feels seeing Negan and Judith.

Notes: I had this idea last year, I wrote a few parts and then forgot about it. Now here I am, uploading it because I miss writing Negan! - Rosalee

Chapter One: Everybody Dies

Chapter Two: Not Everyone Is Gonna Wanna Save Ya!

You were silent and nervous at the new place with Negan and his men. The night you arrived people looked at you oddly, even more so due to the fact you clung to Negan like glue. The only person you really trusted, trust was a stretch, he was safe. The morning after, he passed you off to a woman named, Mary. You didn’t see him for a few days after that.

Mary, whilst she was nice wasn’t safe. It was also boring, Negan’s policy of living was different to the one you had come from; you pull your weight, you are rewarded or something to that extent. Being the youngest out of everyone wasn’t fun, Negan allowed you time to adjust, meaning you had nothing to do but wait till Mary got back to her room.

You prided yourself on being adventurous. You used to somehow always manage to leave your mother’s overbearing side, a door which unlocked, wasn’t going to stop you from looking around. Negan’s community was in some kind of warehouse, huge and industrial, it housed many people; more than your last community. You didn’t see any harm in looking around, seeing exactly what this place was like. Stretching on your tippy-toes you opened the door, peeking out and then walking out into the cold corridor, shutting it with a little click before carrying on your adventure.

Throughout your little adventure, you had to hide, not to be seen or spotted by one of Negan’s men, you didn’t exactly know if you were allowed to just walk around and you didn’t exactly want to find out the answer to that question.

You came to door, the window looking out was shining sunlight, you smiled and pushed it open. The rays of golden light hitting your face instantly, warming you up a little. You walked out and see a line-up of motorcycles, various colours and styles, you also spotted two men with their backs to you. Leather jackets, jeans and talking loudly amongst themselves, you swiftly turned and walked around the corner of the building.

You noticed a tall, caged fencing, with a frown you stepped closer and through the panels of woods that reinforced the fencing you could see movement. You recognised that sound, the sound of growling and frustrated grunts, yet you still looked. It was some kind of obstacle course, various junk was scattered and those people admitted throughout.

Then from the right, suddenly, a man began to violently shake the fencing for attention. His clothes were just sweats, grey with a large ‘H’ spray painted on in yellow. He had this terrified look in his eyes, they were locked on you and he was panting heavily, sweating under the sunlight.

“Little girl,” he rattled the fence. “You gotta help me,” he persisted, “Open the gate, please?”

Stepping back, it made him rattle the fence in frustration. “Why are you in there?”

“Because I tried to leave,” he tells you, “they found me and brought me back here, please. Just open the gate, I gotta get outta here,” he begged and you nodded once but before you can walk a hand is placed on your shoulder.

It’s large and warm, judging by the man’s wide, shocked eyes you know who it is. You look up as Negan is giving a hearty smile to the man behind the fence, you recognise two of the men from a few nights ago beside Negan.

“Well, hello to you too, Bill,” Negan calls out, “I see you met our newest resident, Y/N, I hope you weren’t trying to make her open that gate. Get her in trouble, get her thrown in there with you, I’d hate for another life be on your hands.”

Negan was clean shaven, leather jacket zipped up and the same baseball bat in his left hand, he had a menacing grin plastered on his face. The other guy, behind the fencing, named Bill was clinging to the metal; shaking under Negan’s stare. You could hear the slight rattling of the fence under the white-knuckled tightness of Bill’s hands, you frowned at his terrified eyes, did he actually deserve to be in there?

“Mike, take Bill to his… room, I’ve got to have words with this little sweetie.” Negan grabbed your hand with his right, pulling you a little forcefully away from the caged area and around the building. A few men littered, watching guard and a few working on the massive trucks. “Where’s Mary?” It was a simple question, yet, you didn’t know the answer.

You lightly shrugged, still holding his hand. “I don’t know,” your voice was small and delicate amongst the loud noises around you. “I didn’t intend to get caught, you know,” he let out a loud chuckle at that.

“A little smart ass,” he commented before he stopped walking. “I didn’t put you in Mary’s care for you to wander off and talk to our castaways,” you look over your shoulder, trying to still see where Bill was kept and Negan chuckled. “We survive. We provide security to others. We bring civilisation back to this world. We are the Saviors.” He gestured around, the men all nodding, “And people who don’t abide by the rules, get punished, Bill, didn’t tell you that he ransacked our medicine, and killed three men in the process of him ‘leaving’. Fair punishment, fitting for his crime.”

You were silent for a minute. “Am I going to go in there?”

“No. Unless you break the rules,” he looks down at you. “I get it. You’re adventurous, curious about this place. It’s okay, I just don’t want you running around alone, not a lot of the men here are very forgiving if you get in their way.” You gave a little nod, “you’ll get used to living around here soon enough,” Negan name is then called, “I’ll have someone take you back to Mary’s room. No more wondering without supervision, got it?” You nodded and he did back before walking around you.

Two Days Later

“He has bigger things to worry about than a little girl,” Mary tells you walking through the Sanctuary’s corridors. “He’s busy still proving to everyone around here he’s leader, it’s a climb to get everyone to completely trust you, he has to be seen as alpha around here. He can’t do that with a little girl clawing at his leg, can he?”

Mary was a small, agile women. Blonde hair and kind eyes, it was easy to see why Negan trusted you with her, he passed you off to motherly figure. There probably wasn’t many around and she seemed to be the only one, so far, that wasn’t cold and horrible towards you.

“He’s trying to lead all these people?” You asked walking into the workhouse, she chuckled and nodded.

“Yeah, he has his second in command, Simon.” You remembered Simon, he hadn’t been around much. “Negan has outposts for miles around, a lot of the soldiers are at those with communities of their own. I was at one before this, I was brought here to look after you,” she nudged and you smiled a little.

There were tables all lined up, piles of either food or clothing on them. Mary had explained the point system to you, this was the first time you had seen it played out. It reminded you of the Flea Markets your mother used to take you to before all of this. There was a man dealing with medicine, another women with food and other necessities a human may need.

“Did you used to get allowances?” Mary asked you nodded lightly. “Well, this is that. You earn points and you spend those points on stuff here, it’s pretty simple and easy to follow, you have few that still try to get around the system. It’s our way of life, now yours!”

You followed Mary around as she got food, a few little things that she needed, she was nice enough to get a chocolate bar for you.

“Don’t wonder off, stay where I can see you, kay?” You nodded and walked around the large warehouse room.

The bustling of people, lining up for what they wanted or needed. You slowly strolled around, eating the chocolate, getting bumped into and pushed around because of how small you are. You peeked over a table, smiling at the man sitting behind it, clothes piled on the surface.

“You must be the new resident,” he amused. His ageing face was either due to the torment of today’s problems or just him ageing. “Must be a big change,” he sighed.

You nodded, “It was a lot smaller and I lived in a house,” he nodded, “and everyone shared what was found, you didn’t have to work or earn, it was given.” He perked up at that, “Maybe that’s why it failed?”

“Nonsense,” He smiled. “That sounds like our new worlds, a new paradise,” you chuckled lightly, “Who knows, maybe, one day that will happen here. I’m Martyn.” He sighed but stands up, you frown and turn seeing two of Negan’s men walking over, shoulders tense.

“Leftie,” The bald one called, “Wade needs new jeans, whatcha got?” Not even glancing down at you as he comes around the table, lightly knocking into you.

The man, Martyn, sighed. “Again? That’s his third pair this month,” causing the man beside you to chuckle at that. Martyn shifted through the clothes he had laid out, “in your own time, leftie.” It was only when he struggled to go through the clothes you noticed one arm, the other sleeve was pinned to keep out of the way.

“He’s going as fast as he can,” you speak up with a little frown, Martyn shakes his head at you but you ignore it. Both men look at another with raised eyebrows, “His name is Martyn, not Leftie!”

The shorter one of the two, light red hair, almost blonde knelt down. “Listen, little girl, let the adults take care of this.” He smiled, “Just cause Negan brought you here doesn’t mean you can mouth off, you don’t get no privileges.”

Mary came running up, closing her hands around your shoulder and giving apologetic smiles to both of Negan’s soldiers. “I am so sorry, I told her not to go wandering off,” you looked up at her as she glared down at you but shakes her head.

“Mary, I don’t want to have to tell, Negan, that you can’t handle the child,” He stands up and she nods once. “Teach her some manners, when to keep her little mouth shut, we then won’t have a problem.”

“Y/N,” you tell him and he frowns, “My name is Y/N, you give basic respect, you receive basic respect; what my dad used to say.” Mary chuckles and tucks you under her arm, a little behind her as the man glares at you.

Martyn butts in with handing the jeans, muttering apologies for taking so long. You were glaring at the two men who took the jeans, giving Martyn a few words before turning to Mary, looking her over once. Their scowls made your skin crawl.

“Well, little girl, you’re here because your daddy is dead. Got it? So, whatever that useless fuck taught you are now forgotten. You respect people higher than you, that’s about everyone in this goddamn place, ya hear?” You looked to the floor, the harshness of his words tugging at your heart. Mary gave a disapproving glare to the men.

“She’s a child,” Her voice laced with motherly venom, you had heard your mother talk with the same harshness a few times before.

“No, she ain’t. In this new world, children either get killed or get you killed, don’t let it be the latter Mary, I’d hate to see you killed.” Both men nodded at Martyn, glaring at your silently crying form before leaving.

Mary took you back to her room, wherein she over a few rules to you. Mostly, not talking ANY of Negan’s men unless, completely, necessary. Negan had already said that his men aren’t entirely sympathetic, you just didn’t really think of it till now. She also told you not to go walking around on your own, even Negan said that, but you needed to talk to him.

Mary had given you a brief tour, not that you remembered where everything was, but you had the general direction to Negan’s living quarters. You heard a few female voices, you peeked from behind the wall and see three women talking before walking through a door, you frowned and snuck up behind them.

Pushing the door open silently, it was a big room and it had just those women inside. A bar was settled in the back, lavish chairs and it seemed music was playing, you hadn’t heard actual music in a while.

“Y/N?” A loud voice called your name, it caused the three women to look at you, you gave a shy smile before looking to see Negan walking towards you. “I specifically told you to not wander around alone!”

He stops a little short in front of you, crossing his arms in question. “I wanted to speak with you, I didn’t know how to find you without wandering.”

Instead of answering, he leans forward and pulls the door shut and taking your right hand, again, leading you down the corridor away from the room. He came to a door where he opened it, it was a bedroom, you skipped inside and he chuckled slightly as you sat in one of the armchairs he had settled by the window.

He followed sitting in the opposite one, raising an eyebrow as you looked, incredibly tiny against the overly large chair. “What did you need to talk to me about that couldn’t wait for you to get Mary to bring you to me? Is it about Mary? What’s she like? I’ve known her since the beginning, I figured she’d be good for you. She had two sons; you settling in a’right?”

“Fine, Mary is great, better than most of the people here.” He raised his eyebrows at that, “your men are rude. They treat anyone who is ‘below’ them poorly,” you expected some kind of response but Negan chuckled. You often got that type of response from adults when trying to be serious, often calling you ‘ferocious like a kitten!”

Negan stopped chuckling, “Listen, kid. I get it, you came from a little community that worked like equals, honestly, I wish it could be that way here. But you got to establish that the men who go out and risk their lives for them, for me, even for you now, well yeah; they deserve a new level of respect. The soldiers, my soldiers, are excluded from the point system because they deserve that privilege.”

“But they’re mean for the sake of it,” you frowned a little and Negan sighed.

“I can’t help it if people are sensitive to that,” he shrugs and that made you frown more, “You gotta develop a thicker skin to survive. You gotta work for what you want, work hard in order to get what you need, I can’t always have your back. Mary isn’t gonna always be lookin’ out for you, I’m not either, you can’t just come to me because someone isn’t treating you like a child; you aren’t one, not anymore.”

You remained silent letting his words sink in. You hated to admit it but he seemed right, you couldn’t rely on him nor Mary, plus maybe you were too sensitive. Martyn was a man, you didn’t know and you stuck up for him, he probably doesn’t care about being called ‘Leftie’. You gave a small nod, Negan nodded.

After your talk with Negan, you remained quiet when around Negan’s men. You didn’t want to say anything to upset them, yet it seemed you had created a feud, the two soldiers from days ago had a grudge against you. On purposefully knocking into you, telling the workers to only deal with your points when Mary was with you; only Mary was out scavenging with a small group.

It was a problem, a real one. Yet, Negan’s words echoed in your head; you can’t act like a child and go running to him when in need, you had to handle this yourself. So, that’s what you decided to do, it wasn’t going so well.

“Mary is out, I need this now,” You try to sound stern but it comes out more of a plea, the women working the food table, the broth bubbling in the pan gives a sympathetic smile. The soldier, Smith, known by his last name because there are four other John’s was standing with his arm crossed. The shorter one from when you first met Martyn. “I have all the points together, I’ve been helping with laundry, what’s the big deal?” You asked.

“You’re a child, we can’t just give you things because you may or may not have earned it, your guardian has to do that for you.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” he frowns at you, “I’m either a child or not, you can’t tell me one week to learn to be an adult and then today say I can’t buy soup because I am not an adult, so what am I?” Your little rant caused the attention of everyone to turn, you didn’t realise your usually small voice was now a yell.

Smith didn’t like that, he stepped towards you with a new fire in his eyes, the mocking smile he had was now gone and replaced with a sneer. “Listen, you no good cow, you should have died the day Negan brought you here. In fact, he should have left you, but he showed all of us his soft side. No wonder he has to work harder to prove himself, he let a stupid bitch like you live,” you backed up a step, knocking into a table as he continued to stalk to you. “Yeah, nothing to say now, no one to stupidly look out for you too. Look around you, not everyone is gonna wanna save ya, not everyone is as stupid as Negan was on that day.”

“Or compassionate,” you say before you can think. “That’s what makes him good, better than you-”

Before you can finish a force so harsh knocks you off your feet. A deep pain is stinging your cheek, your whole face really, but mostly a burning sensation is stricken on your left side. Tears welling up in your eyes, you look up at Smith who is leering over your body as everyone around is too stunned to move.

“You really, really, shouldn’t have done that Smith.”

(So, long chapter, I know. Hopefully, everyone likes this. Totally am not hinting Mary is Mary Winchester, I kinda am, it’s funny too. Love me. Let me know what you think, that helps me lot. - Rosalee)

SWMK Tagging: @trinswhimsys @kari-ayam @lawrysawry @amazingmackenzieisnotonfire @mrsmalek1998 @crowleysqueenofhell @imperatricecjk @moonlight-devotion @nohatarek17 @batjoker12 @lovepizza-cake11 @sora-goofy-donald @theonlyone-meeeee @completelyxaesthetic (comment or ask to be tagged specifically for this.)

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#Negan #twd negan #negan x reader #negan imagine #negan one shot #carl grimes x reader #the walking dead x reader #carl grimes imagine #the walking dead one #the walking dead imagines #twd imagine #twd x reader

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