#and just keep doing anything else than using nuclear energy

[darthlenaplant]

No discussion of nuclear power is complete without the fact that the radioactive waste from the process of "making*" energy in a nuclear powerplant has to be STORED SOMEWHERE, WITHOUT POISONING THE LOCALS, INCLUDING THE WILDLIFE, IF POSSIBLE, either.

And I MEAN without poisoning ANY local, no matter their skin colour. [Looks at European countries that export their toxic waste to poorer countries in the "global south" and then say "these countries have so much toxic trash and waste that's poisoning the local flora and fauna!!!111one" with the power of a deadly lazer, like, WHO THE FUCK PUT IT THERE, MÉLANIE??]

*) this is just semantics about Physics mostly, but we don't actually "make" energy, we transform one type of energy (kinetic, solar, thermic) into another (electric), with its usual transforming losses

I wish all environmentalists a very suck cocks in hell

[elemom]

@legofreak33 Thank you for ordering the Autism Deluxe Special!

Here’s why I think Zane Julien is Nuclear Powered

(Contains spoilers for 2011 ninjago seasons 1-3)

(I also have not finished the show so i might be missing some details)

A singular object that has seemingly infinite energy

Infinite energy is impossible, but there’s something that comes pretty close - radioactive materials. Since they are *literally* emitting energy and can do so for thousands of years, radioactive objects are basically the closest thing to an “object that acts as an infinite energy source” you can get.

Blue Light

It’s blue. It glows.

Now I couldn’t find a specific element that glows blue AND could be used in nuclear energy, as the only one I know of is cesium chloride. HOWEVER. I don’t need a specific element in order to prove my point here.

Cherenkov radiation.

Cherenkov radiation occurs when charged particles (say, an electron) moves faster than light. IRL this is only possible in a medium wherein photons themselves are slowed, such as water, but in the realm of make believe anything is possible. Even if we DO have real world physics in play, it’s totally possible that the energy core just has water inside it along with everything else (the core’s Blue DOES have a bit of movement after all!)

Critical Mass and Going Boom

This is where it gets too easy. They literally say it can reach “critical mass” IN THE SHOW. THEIR WORDS. NOT MINE.

If you aren’t familiar, critical mass is basically a point where there is enough material (a certain *mass*) in one area to cause a chain reaction: An atom releases a radioactive particle, which hits another atom, causing it to release another radioactive particle. Now we have two radioactive particles. They keep hitting other atoms. And so on and so forth. (Strangely, the show seems to reference critical mass as running *out* of energy, which is the literal exact opposite of what it actually is, so i’m opting to ignore that.)

So how does this apply to Zane and the references to a critical mass in the show? I personally like to believe that his “critical mass” was caused by *using too much power at once.* Kinda. There’s probably a control mechanism with neutron absorbers inside the core, so maybe the critical mass was caused by him retracting said absorbers, thus causing a chain reaction. (also as a tangent, titanium is apparently a decent neutron absorber! perhaps the real titanium ninja was the friends we made along the way)

Oh, and by the way. Nuclear objects reaching criticality are known to glow blue.

Pic related.

Difference between this and the core glow would be based on the types of particles, with the former being charged particles in a medium and the latter being neutrons. I think. Idk im a biologist not a nuclear physicist i dont go here i just autism about it

discussion section

So yeah! Dr. Julien just created a tiny nuclear reactor to make his son go. Sure. Fuck it. Who Gives A Shit

Anyway i think that’s all i have!!! This obviously isn’t all encompassing (how did Nya survive holding a piece of the core? Why was the explosion all icy and not like, anything else? How does Zane not kill everybody he meets?) but those can all be explained away in the name of “i have had a special interest in nuclear energy since i was a very small child and nobody can take this away from me.” like maybe people are fine because he just has really good shielding. Or maybe Nya is fine because girls are immune to radiation (totally true fact)

Thanks for reading! Take this piece of uranium ore as thanks for reading this entire post. 🪨

[terrence-silver]

Random Concept: Terry Silver with a TikTok-obsessed Beloved

It would be cute if beloved wanted to film cute couple moments with Terry.

Spicier with Terry during the Halloween season because of all the Ghostface masks trending.

I can imagine Gen Z beloved doing something like the Gothic Baby account if they have a kids with Terry.

Like, I do think Terry Silver, in his old age majorly keeps up with trends.

He always has.

He always had his finger on the pulse of the 'brand new thing'.

More so than young people, undoubtedly --- he's a businessman, after all.

He's too clever not to keep up. That's how he can blend in so perfectly and adapt if need be, being chameleonic in nature, changing and transforming with the times. It's how he can manipulate perceptions and cultural norms --- by being in touch with things around him, sure, like the advent of social media. The Online sphere. Being Vegan for a while, because that's a la mode and acceptable in a more Liberal, upper crust crowd in Los Angeles --- it's admirable, even. A societal badge that says one's a conscientious, good person (And Terry Silver's just that? Right?) when that wouldn't have been the case in the past. Thirty years ago it was perhaps the discourse between nuclear and fossil fuels or green new energy that mattered, and today, it's all about Tik Tok. It's Twitter. Or X, rather. And what's trending on there --- the type of stuff that can make or break one's reputation because someone said something stupid or cancel-worthy two decades ago. Heck, even the branding of social media itself changes, having one name and taking on another practically overnight! The world moves fast and Terry Silver moves with it. But, in spite of him been keenly aware what's what and what it means, I envision his Online presence is incredibly scarce and unbelievably curated on purpose and what information can be found on him on the Internet has been fine combed and is continuously fine combed so really, not only can you not find anything too controversial about him on there (maybe just the right amount of controversial, tactically speaking; acceptable controversies, as to not make him seem too inhumanly saintly and by extension, unrealistic, too suspicious and fake) --- you can't even really find anything much of anything in general except what Terry deliberately and specifically wants on there. Man's incredibly private all while putting up a facade that he's an open book --- which, don't be fooled, he's anything but.

What I mean to say with this is that Terry Silver undoubtedly wouldn't be on Twitter, for example, posting his actual, real opinions about...anything. He's smart like that.

So, any beloved of his? Gen Z or otherwise?

Chances are, they wouldn't be chronically Online either.

They wouldn't be on Tik Tok, plastering videos of themselves, their family or Terry Silver himself for the world to see consistently, because the thought of thousands of people (Voyeurs, the way an already voyeuristic Terry would see it) tuning in to see and watch his beloved --- random punks commenting on them, expressing their opinions willy-nilly, judge, complementing them, leering, passing, bookmarking, downloading and sharing said clips around unstoppably, without any monitoring as to how they could use and abuse such material...legitimately forever --- well, it presses the button of someone fiercely territorial, jealous, possessive, protective and control oriented like Terry. He doesn't like it. He doesn't allow it. He thinks it's bullshit. He would take advantage of someone's else's uploads Online for sure, if push ever came to shove, so maybe it is a bit of projection on his behalf, that somehow, someone, somewhere, would do the same to him and someone who belongs to him to weaken him or retaliate against him, so to take precaution against it, beloved's presence Online becomes, possibly, even scarcer than his, because they're the most precious thing he has and when something or someone's precious or valuable, they're tucked away. Hidden, in ways. Plus side to this, though --- I can envision Terry Silver, like a man who was young in the 70's and 80's being big on home videos instead. Private collections for his private viewing pleasure and usage only. Cute couple moments galore are permissible --- everything is permissible, in fact --- but these recordings, lets call them, belong and remain explicitly in Terry Silver's private care, because he's a man who doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve and tends to strategically tuck away everything that ever mattered to him. Everything that makes him vulnerable. Everything that can compromise or damage him. Most of everything he really is from the public. Includes beloved. Whatever children he might or might not have with them.

If someone was somehow skillful enough to discover their names and Google them, chances are, nothing specific comes up in their search results. Not anywhere.

That's deliberate.

[thefandom-casserole]

Dndads Teen Headcanons

(It got kinda outta hand, and these aren’t even the angst ones…)

Hermie curls their hair and Taylor straightens his (but because of the adventures neither of them have been able to do it so they’re slowly reverting back to their original state)

Hermie uses they/them pronouns when not in a roll and Dood uses they/it

Normal and Hero have watched Adult Swim shows from a really young age (Lark, Sparrow, and Rebecca either didn’t care enough to turn off Cartoon Network, or just didn’t realize)

Linc and Hermie were PBS kids

Taylor is always playing games on his Chromebook at school (coolmathgames rules)

Taylor has a ton of pins on his jacket and hat

Scary has a TON of birthmarks, freckles, moles all over her body. It’s gorgeous

Dood‘s Teen body rotates between four outfits that all seem too large and slightly too old for it… (it’s Hildy, Robert, Meryl, and Stud’s outfits) (even if It never technically met Meryl)

FUNFACT: none of the Teens have a nuclear family

Hero’s first language is Spanish (Lark and Sparrow decided that forcing her to go through an almost entirely English-speaking school without knowing English would help “toughen her up”)

All of the Oak’s are fluent in Spanish and English

Scary is afraid of going under tunnels (when she was Terri she’d close her eyes and squeeze someone’s hand)

Linc types like an old man but can game really really well

Hermie does cosplays and posts them on the future equivalent to TikTok

Everytime they go to a mall of something Normal tries reallllly hard to convince them to all squeeze into a Photo Booth (it has not happened yet)

Hermie loves Starkid

Taylor really likes FNAF

Scary’s favorite season is winter

Linc’s favorite is spring (even though soccer season is autumn)

Normal likes all of the seasons (he takes after his grandpa!!)

Dood loves everything (all the seasons), though they absolutely despise the mosquitos and gnats…

Taylor’s favorite season is probably summer

Scary was diagnosed with ADHD at a very young age (not autism though), but when she started being Scary she tried to stop taking her medication (she started taking it again)

Taylor used to LOVE dinosaurs. He had every Jurassic Park movie, the book, everything. He still has the anime and the original downloaded for bad days

Scary is tall without shoes (only shorter than Linc and about the same as Hermie) but she wears platforms to make herself taller (queen <3)

Hermie has a younger brother and a younger sister (like, 6 years old) who were not born by Scam and Jodie, and Hermie has no idea where they’re from

Hermie’s two favorite people are their siblings (they would do anything for them)

All the Teens but Dood and Linc had Amino at some point </3 (but for completely different fandoms/communities)

The only class Normal has consistently had an A/100 in has been GYM

Normal, Scary, and Linc are very very athletic

Hermie is more athletic than people would think they are (you run a LOT in theater, and singing takes a ton of energy)

Normal constantly plays the Zip Game throughout their travels (everytime you see a horse you yell ‘zip’ and keep track of how many horses you’ve called, everytime you see a cemetery you yell ‘cemetery’ and everyone else loses their horses)

Normal and Hermie know a ton of car games (though Hermie wouldn’t admit it) because of looong car rides with their sibling/s

Hermie works at a Haunted Attraction during Autumn

Hermie is freakishly worried about their siblings after coming home and not finding their parents (has not mentioned it to anyone though…)

Scary uses her notes app for everything (song lyrics, poems, reminders, etc.)

Dood is the shortest out of them all, then Taylor

Taylor has a ton of stickers on his cane (anime, survival, etc.)

They’re all autistic and queer <3

Scary has a vent notebook and a lyric notebook

Linc doesn’t really get cold, which is why he always wears shorts and tanktops

Scary only eats the Oreos with the orange filling

Taylor either sleeps with a TON of blankets or with only a sheet. No in between

[occasionallyprosie]

Frayed Edges

AO3 Link

The battle’s over. The Shadow is defeated and the Triforce of Power retrieved… so why is the chain still here? Why haven’t they gone home? It’s not like the Shadow has been the one that’s been making the portals the whole time… it’s not like they’re in an unknown Hyrule with no way home.

Aka, Legend fights depression/anger issues except it’s not his own depression and anger issues it’s literally everyone else’s until he’s pushed to doing the nuclear option. Sky (kinda) hugs him tho :)

TW: implied suicidal ideation

——————————————

It was over.

Sighs of relief echoed around the room as the Shadow was finally defeated, as the source of the portals and the monsters it displaced and empowered was finally defeated.

Legend picked up the little triangle off the ground. He sighed softly, clasping his hand around the Triforce of Power and feeling its energy course through him.

"We should put that where it belongs," Sky said.

"Where?" Wild asked, the question clearly made out of curiosity than anything as he sipped a potion. A cut on his cheek healed over. "That thing feels powerful."

"It's a piece of the Triforce," Hyrule said. "I think Legend can hold onto it until we find out where it's held in this era."

"Then we go home!" Wind cheered.

Twilight laughed. "Yeah, then we go home, sailor. So let's make the best of this one last quest."

Legend let the Triforce of Power fade into his skin, the mark on the back of his left hand emblazoned, the top triangle filling in just like the bottom right one.

"Let's find out which era the Shadow was from," Time ordered and they made to exit the dungeon.

Upon investigation, they learned there was no way to access the sacred realm from this time, none of the methods they knew would work nor did the locations where they usually traveled over existed. The Triforce of Courage turned out to be wielded by a little boy no older than three, the mark on his hand having no more meaning than any other birthmark. The Triforce of Wisdom was the same. There was no kingdom, no Hyrule, nothing.

"It's like they're only wielded," Sky said when they went back to the fairly large, abandoned cabin they'd been making good use of. "Which means there's no place to put it back."

"We can't take it back to any of our eras, that's just an awful idea," Warriors agreed. Wind and Twilight both grimaced while Hyrule looked horrified.

"Like that hairstyle you decided on this morning," Legend muttered and Four snorted, Wind giggled softly too. Twilight even rolled his eyes and the tension was successfully cut as Warriors squawked and argued that Legend knew full well that he hadn't had time to fix his hair that morning.

He realized they didn't know.

Legend watched them all slowly come to the realization even as he and Four and Hyrule forged and enchanted a box to hide the Triforce away.

Even once they put it deep in a cave and used a lot of their assorted items and magic to bury it far out of reach, to place traps to keep it impossible to take, and buried it. That way, whenever the next Champion of Din was born, it would go to them and there would be an empty, magically defended, unbreakable box, but until then, the Triforce of Power would be safe and inaccessible.

Once that was done, he saw the expectation, then they all slowly came to the realization.

They had no way back. None of them did. The shadow had brought them here and the Golden Goddesses had left centuries ago while Hylia died, for the second time, whenever Sun died or will die.

Legend sat on the beam in the ceiling of their new abode, the cabin managing to house them well enough especially after Twilight and Time took Wild to repair most of it.

He watched the realization hit Hyrule and in the near same moment it was hitting Twilight.

Twilight was the one to voice it.

"Oh Ordona," he whispered. "We cain't go back, can we?"

"What?" Wild looked up from the cooking pot he'd set up inside the cabin. "What do you mean?"

"The Shadow made the portals," Hyrule breathed, he looked up at Legend. "We don't have a way back."

Legend met his eyes before he looked away and nodded silently.

"You've known," Hyrule realized too.

"Not the only one,” he said, and glanced at Time.

Time had been silent for a while now, but he nodded when the attention was on him, fidgeting with a blue ocarina.

Finally, the realization settled in on all of them. The understanding that they were stuck visibly hit them.

Sky was in denial, Legend noted. The knight insisted they try and find a way to put the Triforce of Power into the sacred realm. Wild was mostly with him, but both did a lot of prayer to the goddesses to give them a portal.

Warriors and Twilight, however, were in anger. Both snapped at everyone, got mad at Sky and Wild for (being in denial) praying and at Time and Four for trying to find a way to fix things. Twilight usually got his anger out through Time making him help with building up the cabin, where Warriors would end up sparring with someone, usually Legend.

Four and Time were in bargaining, searching everywhere for other options, Time even going as far as enlisting Four with his Ocarina of Time to see if they could use the divine, temporal magic in it to create something that got them back home.

Hyrule and Wind were at depression, when Wind realized there was no way back he left the cabin and Legend followed him to find their youngest in tears, sobbing for his grandmother, his sister, and his best friend whom he'd never see again. Hyrule was much of the same, he'd been the only one though who'd gone through the other stages, he'd insisted otherwise at first, begged the goddesses to give them a way home, snapped angrily at everyone for every little thing, then he was just breaking down and stayed in this depressive state as he mourned his home.

Legend noticed he was the only one at acceptance. He was the only one who seemed to realize that bad things happened and there was nothing they could do to stop that, only improve the end result or aftermath.

He started to help around the cabin even as his wanderlust—and everyone else's—began to grow. He started with the cabin itself, he kept Warriors and Twilight busy with chopping wood and helping him put things up, walls and roofing. He pulled Hyrule and Wind into helping with as much as he could, giving them things to do to keep them from sitting in their grief all day. The other four were stubborn that they wouldn't need the cabin much longer and they'd be home sometime soon, but Legend managed to convince them that having a base that allowed them safety and a bit of comfort while they were in an unknown land was the best option.

He held onto the strings of the fraying group and pulled them back together. Dynamics shifted rapidly, Wild and Twilight constantly at ends as Wild shifted from denial to bargaining, still constantly praying but now helping Four and Time. Time and Warriors got into fights as Time grew closer and closer to depression as he seemed to slowly approach the understanding he wasn't getting back to his wife. Hyrule and Wind both becoming recluses and avoiding everyone else. Four shifting from bargaining to anger and depression at the same time, snapping at everyone and crying himself to sleep.

Legend got Four to help him plan a forge and Twilight and Warriors—who both accepted their roles as the heavy lifters—helped them build it. Four agreed to make hinges and nails which Wild supplied the metal for.

He showed Wild how to cut and sand wooden boards and they worked on a kitchen. Twilight was leaving anger as he got the two to work together on that.

He took Hyrule and Wind to help find animals and coax bees into beginning a new hive in an apiary that Legend had spent a while making out of thatch and wood. They made pens for the wild hogs they'd tracked down and caught, Wind somehow being a naturally with them and Hyrule able to keep them somewhat calm with his fairy magic as they worked to domesticate them.

"You're turning this into a permanent residence, vet," Sky said once while Legend enlisted him to come with him to a somewhat distant but nearby village for more supplies.

"So?" Legend didn't deny that.

"We'll go home," Sky said, "those animals will be left alone soon enough."

"I'll make sure they're free to roam again before we leave," Legend promised. "But until then... Rulie and the Sailor need something to focus on, they both love animals and those are a lot of work. Smithy needs a forge to stay present so we got him a forge. Rancher and Wars both have a lot of things to work out so we're working on it."

"I guess," Sky sighed. "I don't see the point. We'll leave soon."

Legend decided not to mention that they'd been here for a year now and Sky had been saying that the whole time.

"Well, we'll want some sheep or maybe goats, Twi would like goats and they have wool... and milk, goats will do well in the area too. We've knocked down a bunch of trees so there is room," Legend mused. "I wonder if I could grow some apple trees while we're here. I know wild animals adore those so it may help with balancing out all the lumber we've cut down."

"I guess that wouldn't be a bad idea," Sky sighed. "We have cut down a lot of trees, so I suppose giving the native animals something to eat wouldn't be a bad idea. Are you aiming for self sufficiency?"

Legend just hummed and shrugged. He was aiming for his brothers not falling apart, but self sufficiency worked.

He noted to get cuccos too sometime soon, Sky would enjoy those. He'd have to figure out how to handle Time...

Two years into their 'brief stay' in the between era, Legend watched them continue to fall apart despite his best efforts.

They had things to do, things to bond over, he'd send Wars, Wind, and Hyrule to help Four in the forge most days as Four refused mostly to leave. The former three were still in anger and depression respectively. Four was more in depression than bargaining now.

Yet they were fraying. Time snapped at everyone, especially Legend, Wind, and Twilight, then Twilight and Warriors were at each other's backs but were constantly at odds with one another, Wild avoided everyone as did Four, and both were beginning to snap at them all. Sky too, he lost the soft, dreamy-eyed look, and was constantly angry at everyone.

Legend tried giving them days to themselves, days with the few they didn't snap at, but nothing worked. He sent Wild and Hyrule, the only pairing that held true even after everything went bad, on excursions to the woods, asking them to be back within the week, to be careful, and 'get a lay of the land'. He had Wind and Time paired off, the former usually able to coax the latter out of any funk, but Wind only seemed to get more depressive and Time more angry that Legend quickly ended that attempt.

He got bounties from the town and would send Sky or Warriors out on them, often Four as well. They seemed a bit better afterwards, between themselves at least, then whatever camaraderie formed during their time out quickly dissolved.

Wind was doing better, when Legend kept him and Time separated. He enjoyed the hogs that were becoming far more domesticated each day, he taught himself how to handle the goats when Twilight began to avoid them and Legend blamed himself for not realizing that the reminder of home could've been a bad idea for some. Sky enjoyed the cuccos but Twilight hated the goats. Wind was good with the goats, he cared for the two they had, came with Legend to the town and asked another farmer how to shear goat wool and purchased shears to do so. That winter, he did exactly that and Legend took the time to sit him down and show him how to turn that fur into fabric.

Time was doing the worst, constantly snapping at people, tearing them down. He knew the truth, Legend was fairly sure, and that just made it worse. It was the worst whenever he was near Twilight, or Wind or Legend, and Legend was certain it was because he had noticed the similarities between the three of them and someone he knew of his own time, they were his successors after all. Twilight to Malon, Legend would guess his was Zelda, Lullaby, though he wasn't sure at all. He had no idea for Wind. Either way, Time got worse when around them and likewise Twilight and Wind began to get worse when around Time.

Legend didn't know how to fix this. Their team had frayed and he didn't know how to keep them together.

No matter how many blankets he wrapped around crying teens, no matter how many soft or even harsh words he offered, no matter how many blades he sharpened, spars he fought, advice he gave, jobs he assigned, nothing worked.

It was when he sent Sky on a bounty with Warriors and Hyrule that he figured it out.

They came back, and as usual with the few who went on the bounties —Twilight refused to go on any, Time was the same, and Legend wasn't risking sending Wind or Wild to go kill a person— they were closer.

Legend hid in the trees, purple eyes glinting red in the darkness of the shadows, and he heard them tease and laugh as they came up the now well-worn path.

Within three days that dissolved, back at each other's throats and not in a familial way.

Legend finishing weaving a new blanket and embroidering a border on it, a pastime he'd picked up last winter when Wind sheared the goats and had kept since, making sure their fairly large cabin was stocked with warm blankets as winters here got as cold as the champion's Hebra blizzards.

"They need something to stand against," he murmured to the Golden Sword on the hook by the door. She was long gone, but he still talked to her. A habit born from anxiety.

He was bordering the blanket with white waves and seashells, putting secret little telescopes with not-so-secret seagulls. It was for Wind, who'd helped him dye the fabric his apparent favorite shade of blue.

"Zelda mentioned it once," he muttered. "When people don't have something to rally against, they turn on each other, for some of the stupidest reasons too."

He glanced up as he heard Four yelling at Wild over goddesses knew what. He should go break that up.

He put the thread and blanket down and went over to break up another fight.

Goddesses, he was tired of his brothers fighting.

Sky shared a room with Time and Four. Legend had initially intended to put Wind and Warriors with Time but that wasn't an option after Time became volatile toward all three of his successors and Warriors became volatile in general.

Twilight and Wild weren't able to be paired either anymore, so Wild was with Hyrule and Warriors and Legend put himself with Twilight and Wind.

He'd tried an intervention. A meeting with everyone and he laid out what he was seeing—only to be immediately talked over and for yelling and arguing to break out. He had to physically separate Warriors and Sky, again, and force Time to leave Wind alone, as the kid had dared to be optimistic around the others and Time hadn't let that fly for a moment.

It wasn't working.

Legend sat in the window, Wind and Twilight dead asleep inside and the world awake outside. Stars gleaming and the moon shining.

He had a chance here. Something that could work.

Wind felt confused.

He started to understand and accept that, yeah, they weren't going back home, that he'd never see Aryll or Grandma again. He could accept that.

He had to. It's not like they could go back. Time and Four had tried to find a way back home, Sky and Wild had spent weeks praying for the goddesses to give them a way home, they'd tried.

And failed. Nine heroes and they'd failed.

Wind knew Legend was what they had left keeping them together. He knew the others had grown distant, dangerous even as time went on. He knew, when Legend had asked him to be in charge of handling the hogs and later telling him he did a great job of stepping up and taking care of the goats when Twilight didn't, that Legend was trying to keep everyone together. He had, albeit with Twilight's and Warriors's help, turned the run down, abandoned, wooden shack they'd taken to using as shelter into an actual home! When he'd always told them that it was a life on the road for him at that.

So yeah, Wind was confused when the status quo suddenly shifted.

When nobody stopped the fighting that broke out, when nobody left to take care of some bounty for a week or two, when he realized how badly their relationships had gotten in the past two and a half years. The Captain was a face he hardly could find safety in anymore, Time was harmful to be near and he had to purposely avoid the older hero 'less he finds himself in a one sided insult battle that matched the sincerity of the Veteran's and the Captain's earliest matches. Sky used to be a safe space but now he was distant at best, volatile at worst, and occasionally—only when he'd come back from those bounty hunts—his old self.

Wind missed his brothers, but when Legend outright disappeared he freaked out just a bit. That was his last lifeline to safety, to stability.

"Hey Smithy?" Wind poked into the forge.

"Wgat?!" Four snapped, turning those vibrantly ever-changing eyes on him. They used to be a constant storm gray, occasionally flicking through another color or two when tensions or emotions were high, but not always shifting through rainbow like they did these days.

"Have you seen the Vet?" Wind asked, careful not to wince. He wasn't a kid anymore, he couldn't show that kind of weakness, especially not in front of the other heroes.

"Tch, no."

Four glared at the metal in front of him, another expertly crafted sword that would be taken to the town next excursion and sold just like the rest of the extra things they had.

His eyes briefly settled red. "He hasn't bothered me in a few days, finally." In a lowered mutter, a strained one too, he added, "Maybe he finally got the hint that we want to be alone."

Wind grimaced as he looked away. "Thanks anyway."

Four made some comment that Wind decidedly ignored as he left.

Hyrule was by the apiary, fairies had taken to being there too and Wind still remembered the day that they'd set up a little fountain of sugar water—which Hyrule replaced daily. The apiary area was filled with bees and fairies.

"Hey, Traveler? You seen the vet recently?"

Hyrule glanced up. He'd been so silent lately, basically ever since they'd been stuck here, he'd been quiet basically the whole time they'd been stuck here. Wind hated it.

"No," Hyrule admitted.

Wind hummed. He wasn't sure who to turn to when he was worried about someone... not when that someone was Legend. Warriors would snap, Hyrule was distant, Sky could be either, Time hated him for some reason, Twilight...

"You know where Twi is?"

"Not really... I think I saw him with the goats."

Wind raised an eyebrow at that. "What's he doing with my goats?" He muttered to himself as he left Hyrule alone to go to the goat pen.

Twilight was indeed in the goat pen, sitting there and trying to coax the goats to him as they eyed him oddly.

Wind sat on the fence and waited. It was almost sweet. Twilight had been quieter lately, the past couple months or two, he'd been quieter, less likely to snap.

The goats noticed Wind first and abandoned Twilight to run over to him. He laughed softly as he jumped down and pet the animals. Twilight watched and Wind made his way over to his roommate.

"Hey," he greeted.

"Hey, sailor," Twilight replied, eyes flicking up and down at Wind.

Wind crossed his arms, leaning over on one leg. "Whatcha doin' out here?"

Twilight shrugged. "Just... thinking, I guess."

"Smithy thinking or Traveler thinking?" Wind asked.

"Probably, the Traveler's," Twilight sighed heavily. "You remember the other day, when the vet snapped?"

Wind nodded. It was rather rememberable.

Legend had asked everyone to be inside for dinner that day, saying he wanted to talk to them. Then at dinner, he'd cut off every single argument before they started, prompted Hyrule to talk about the apiary, Wild about the surrounding area and his new hobby of cartography, he tried to get them to talk about nice things, things that made them happy. Then Warriors had snapped first.

"Why do you even bother?!" Time had demanded. "How can you act like this is nice? This is good? That it's all okay?!"

Legend had stared, his hands on the table and visibly still as he looked Time dead in the eyes. "Because someone has to."

And thus began a cut-off lecture from their veteran about how they were acting, how they were treating each other, how awful they'd become. That lecture was interrupted quickly by Time, with Warriors beginning some arguments, then Sky joined in, and soon Four as well. Everyone yelling over each other, Wind trying to intervene with some desperate optimism only to be verbally torn apart by his own childhood hero.

"Yeah," Wind said, back in the present. Twilight hummed. "Why?"

"Just thinkin'... when was the last time we actually just sat down and talked? We did it all the time before," before the end, before they were trapped, "at camp, in inns, on the road. We'd just talk, chat, we... we were close. Now... Now I can't remember the last time I was nice to the champion, to you, to anyone."

Wind thought about it.

Twilight kept going. "You're older too! I don't know—somehow I just—I was thinkin' back and then I saw ya an'... you're sixteen now, right?"

"Almost," Wind shrugged, not admitting he'd been counting to basically adulthood. Sixteen wasn't adult, but it was close enough he'd be taken as one. Especially with his height, scars, and how he was slowly losing the baby fat. "Fifteen, almost sixteen."

"Did we even celebrate?" Twilight sounded almost hysterical. "Yours? Or Cub's? Or even the Traveler's or Smithy's?!"

Wind shook his head. "No..." he admitted quietly. "No, we haven't celebrated anything since we got here. Not summer solstice—not winter solstice, birthdays, nothing."

"How..."

"Rancher," Twilight looked up when Wind prompted him, "I came here 'cause I was wonderin' if you'd seen the Vet lately. I 'aven't seen him in a day or two and neither's Rulie or the Smithy."

Twilight blinked, then concern —concern! Wind hadn't seen any of the other heroes look worried in years— flickered across his face.

"Really?" He asked. "He’s normally somewhere nearby, and's definitely always somewhere inside 'round dinner. Wa'n't he in the room last night?"

Wind shook his head. "No. He wasn't."

Then they heard someone running.

Hyrule all but slammed into the fence of the goat pen. "The Triforce!" He cried. "I-I can sense—It's been taken!"

Wind felt his blood go cold as a sense of dread slammed into him.

The table was chaos as the eight of them gathered inside. Hyrule was the most vocal he had been in months and Warriors arguing with him.

"We buried that thing miles underground! We left traps and—nobody could've gotten to it and the other wielders are still alive!"

"I'm telling you, I sensed it be taken! I am—I was the protector of the Triforce back in my era, I can sense it whenever it's not in someone and—That one's gone!"

"It's impossible! Nobody who didn't know exactly where it was could've found it—"

"What about someone who did?" Four spoke up, eyes distinctly darker, shimmering between midnight violet and deep-ocean blue. "I don't see the Vet here."

"As if!" Wind exclaimed. "He's the only sane person here!"

"Weren't you looking for him earlier?" Four retorted. "Isn't it weird that the moment the Triforce goes missing the guy's nowhere to be seen?"

"He's a hero!"

"Of what?! Nobody's hero's here! We're nobodies from nowhere doing nothing!"

They were interrupted by someone banging on the door. They all looked up but nobody moved.

Sky sighed and went to get the door.

"Oh thank the goddesses!" Wind recognized one of the villagers. It was the one who helped him learn how to shear goats. "There's some kind of mage attacking the town!"

The heroes shared a look.

"Show us," Time ordered.

There were a series of attacks, spanning across the whole of this Hyrule. People were able to escape for the most part, but there were burns and injuries everywhere.

Wind didn’t get it. It was like another adventure had begun, but neither the current hero of courage or wielder of wisdom were even called to fight. Wild and Hyrule had gone to check on them, both were happily living in the capital of this not-quite-a-kingdom, which hadn't even been attacked.

It seemed to be going for them.

Legend was still missing, and it freaked Wind out. Legend had been the main one to set the traps for the Triforce. He wondered if Legend had set some kind of spell that would alert him if someone came too close and had gone to handle it alone, and failed.

Twilight had stepped up. They were back in adventure gear and it surprised Wind how quickly things began to set back into... well, harmony. Twilight had asked Wind to give him and Wild a bit and so Wind spent half the night on the sofa, reading some book about... apples? He wasn't sure. It was one he'd seen Legend read a lot. Then Twilight and Wild were better. They found themselves fighting lots of armos and other magical golems, and battle had its way of working out problems within a team.

Warriors and Time made up, Time stopped snapping at Wind and Twilight, Four's eyes slowly stopped constantly changing color and settled back into that slate gray.

Wind figured out why.

"I think this is why we're still here," Sky whispered to him one night.

"The goddesses needed us to fix this new problem too, so they didn't send us home yet?" Wind guessed, looking up at the stars. He'd be rather close to Outset Island if he were in his Hyrule, based off the constellations above them.

"Yeah," Sky murmured softly. "I think so."

Hyrule had came back out of his shell as he began to worry and chastise everyone for their wounds again, him and Warriors falling back into their old place as medics.

Even Wind was feeling more like himself. He hadn't kept his skills sharpened and he'd grown considerably since he last fought, but Warriors had been more than happy to help and Wind found himself falling asleep with a blue scarf over his shoulders just like old times.

The only thing that was missing was their veteran, flames and ice accompanying a singing golden blade, rhythmic steps and quiet humming during and outside of battle. Sharp quips and retorts that lessened the tension.

They found a trail. It hadn't taken long, a couple months at most, before they discovered the golems and armos were coming from some ancient tower.

They made their way there, stopping forest fires, holding off hordes of magically-created monsters, and just getting closer again.

"You know," Wild said one night as they could see that temple in the distance, gleaming with powerful magic. "I... Don't make me be the one to say it."

"Say what?" Hyrule looked confused.

"The Veteran."

Hyrule suddenly looked away, not responding.

Wild sighed, his head dropped down as he settled his distant eyes on the fire in front of him. "Exactly."

"What do you mean?" Warriors asked, clearly a bit more calm than the months, years, before these outbreaks.

"The vet set half the traps that protected the Triforce," Four said, almost deadpan but the red that overtook his eyes briefly over the steel gray betrayed him. "I know I suggested he betrayed us before but— I think... he was always paranoid, so I wouldn't put it past him to set some kind of alarm. And for how we were all acting..."

Wind startled a bit. He hadn't expected anyone to acknowledge their change in mannerisms, yet here Four was…

"He may have gone to check it out alone, and..." Four trailed off weakly.

A haunting tune fell over the air, Wind went rigid while Hyrule shot up.

Everyone was dead silent. Not a sound passed as they listened to the haunting tune, their hands settled on blades.

"Oh, I went there alone," a completely unfamiliarly cold tone in an extremely familiar voice cut through the air.

The tune stopped. Everyone turned and stared at their missing hero.

"Vet!" Wind gaped. "Where—"

Hyrule stopped him. "Why do you have the Triforce of Power, Veteran?" He demanded.

Legend hummed, plucking the strings of some golden lute. The notes rang through the air, but no clear tune was being made anymore. "Because, Traveler. I wanted it."

"What." Time pulled Twilight back a bit as he stepped toward the front. "Why?"

Legend shot him a cold look. Wind hated that look in his eyes. "I was tired. I am tired. I thought I could handle it, I thought I could deal with my whole life being ended and uprooted again, but no. If the goddesses want to play like this, then let's play."

Wind hated how Legend's left hand glowed, only missing a single triangle before it was complete. He hated how his eyes seemed more golden than usual. He hated how the last person he thought he could find safety in suddenly radiated danger in a way even Time hadn’t the past two and a half years.

"You're behind all this?!" Sky tightened his grip on the Master Sword as he spoke. "You—You've been attacking all these people?!"

Legend shrugged. "They're just pawns in the goddess's game. Pawns can get upgraded, I'm eliminating future threats."

Wind wanted to throw up. Warriors was the first one to lunge, but Legend slipped away, a song fell over the air and Legend disappeared.

"What?!"

"He... He betrayed us."

"How could he?"

The final battle was horrible.

They had to stop him, Wind reminded himself. They marched their way up the temple and fought off the dozens of golems and armos that attacked them. They found Legend at the very top, playing that haunting tune again on a pink ocarina.

"Stop," Time ordered. "That's enough, Veteran. It's over."

The crystal-clear notes came to an end but Legend kept his back to them. "You know what I was told once, by the goddess's Oracle herself? I was told I'd be the greatest of all heroes, known for centuries to come, longer than any other. You know what lasts longer than gratitude? Than love?"

He turned and a dose of terror shot down Wind's spine as he saw the cold smirk playing on an emotionless face.

"Fear. Fear lasts generations beyond gratitude,” Legend hummed. A golden power curled around him visibly.

"How could you?!" Hyrule cried, stepping forward. "You're—You're a hero! The Legendary Hero! How can you—Just turn on everything you've done? How can you turn on us?!"

Legend scoffed. "Turn on you guys? It was easier than you'd think." He looked back at the sky. "I doubt you'd get it. Do you realize how hard it is to watch all of the few people you have left deteriorate? Watch them become shells of their former selves, angry at everything? At the world and its inhabitants? Watch them become horrible to interact with? Watch the ones who chose to become filled with anger completely destroy what the ones who became sad, depressive shells had left? DO YOU REALIZE HOW AWFUL YOU WERE TO EACH OTHER?!"

Wind flinched and he felt them all step back.

That cold front that Legend had completely melted and was replaced by a roaring, blazing heated anger. Near immediately as it came, it was cooling back by an avalanche of that cold front yet again.

"I'm doing this because I can, Traveler," Legend spat, blazing heat falling to a simmer and then a frigid chill. "I'm doing this because I want to."

"I don't understand," Wind whispered weakly, his voice strained and his voice choked.

"You wouldn't," Legend responded and Wind flinched at the underhanded jab. "None of you would. It doesn't matter though."

He put the ocarina away and drew a familiar golden sword, that golden magic coalesced to that sword and it gleamed.

"You won't be here long enough for it to matter."

Legend was the one who attacked first.

Warriors stepped forward to meet him.

Wind found himself having to fight his brother to restore peace to Hyrule.

Wind realized how powerful the older… former hero was as they fought. How he fought as if he were dancing to some tune none of them could hear, each movement to a beat but still unpredictable despite that consistency. Blades slammed and magic was everywhere, Wind helped where he could but only so many of them could engage at once and he ended up falling back and taking out his bow like Wild had.

Legend was winning. Somehow, he was winning against them all, Time was hanging from the edge of the tower and Twilight was the one keeping him from falling, audibly begging the older hero to hold on and not let go. Wind ran over to help just as Warriors was thrown into a broken pillar, and Wild had quickly moved to fill in the place that had fallen empty while Hyrule darted to Warriors's side.

Four was driven back and Sky staggered. Wild was thrown into Four and it was just Sky and Legend fighting.

Wind and Twilight got Time back onto the top of the tower as Sky and Legend dueled at a speed and with skill that none of them could intervene. Even arrows shot could hit Sky rather than Legend.

Golden light exploded off them and Wind covered his eyes.

He heard Sky cry out, a scream, and as soon as he could he looked.

Sky was hugging Legend, who had the Master Sword embedded in his chest. Blood trickled from the edge of his mouth.

“Why?!” Sky begged, cradling Legend against him. “You didn’t have to do this! You didn’t—Why did you do this? It never had to come to this, Vet.” Sky sobbed, hugging Legend even as the fallen hero slowly lost the color in his skin.

He laughed, Legend laughed softly and he smiled. He glanced at Wind and Twilight and Time, his eyes flicked over to Wild and Four helping each other up, to Warriors leaning on Hyrule.

"Don't... do it again," he slurred. "You... You're brothers... re... remember to act li'e it."

"What?" Sky questioned softly. They all gathered closer.

"It worked," Legend laughed again, a soft and relieved thing. "You... You worked together... you were nice... happy even... I knew... I knew it... it would work."

"What would work?" Sky asked frantically, he laid Legend down and their fallen brother's face contorted in pain at the movement at the sword being pulled from his chest.

Legend let out a shaky breath. Wind felt a few tears fall down his cheeks and then felt a pair eyes on him.

"Knew... that if... if you had something to... fight against... you wouldn't... fight each other. Peace... peace only... brings infighting." Legend smiled. He smiled softly at the sky above, dazed, slowly dulling eyes shifting from them to the sky. "Don't do it again."

Wind sobbed, his legs buckling. Hyrule dove forward, trying to heal Legend. He felt arms wrap around his shoulders, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to see whose they were.

"No! No, Vet— Don't—"

"You did all that to make us stop fighting?" Warriors breathed, sounding horrified. His voice came from right behind Wind’s head.

"No..." Twilight took a step back.

Legend grinned at them, blood in his teeth and a clear happiness in dimming eyes. "It worked... no more hidin' in the forge... or the apiary... n'more tearin' the rancher or sailor down... n'more fightin'... s'all I wan'ed. All I... wanted. Rule, it won' work. Fi don' heal easy."

"No!" Hyrule cried. "A potion! Please— Vet you can't just... You can't!"

"Mmm... tol' me that... 'hen I fough' Ganon... an' won. I'll do i' if I wan'."

Wind watched Legend fade, eyes settling distantly on the stars above, had it not been for seeing the light leave his eyes, Wind could’ve believed that Legend had just been stargazing.

Legend knew what he was doing when he sat by the window, when he realized what had to be done in order for them to... to come back to themselves.

In order for him to not have to keep an alert and a watch spell on the kitchen at all times, to have one on the forge itself. He knew what had to be done to stop his brothers from pushing each other to their limits.

He had to get them to rally against something. But nothing powerful enough would come anytime soon for them to face...

He glanced back at Wind and Twilight and their sleeping forms. He glanced back outside before he moved inside, grabbed his pouches and hat and sword from his bedside and then dropped out the window.

He didn't regret his decision even as he set a mostly evacuated town ablaze, curbing the flames from truly destroying everything or killing anyone, but doing plenty harm and damage.

He didn't regret his decision when he saw them fight his ever-growing army of golems and armos, watching each other's backs and protecting each other.

He didn't regret his decision when they sat around a campfire while trying to track down the cause of the situation (him), yet had laughed and teased. Though they grew somber at his absence, they were themselves.

Hyrule wasn't eyeing the rooftop.

Four wasn't giving a longing gaze at the forge fires.

Wild wasn't staring at the knife he used to prepare dinner before continuing cooking.

Warriors wasn't twitching his hand toward his sword whenever Sky spoke to him.

Time wasn't constantly degrading Twilight and Wind.

Sky wasn't always ready to fight one of them to the death.

Wind wasn't asking why they even bothered to live anymore.

They were themselves, a bit older, a bit more hurt and strained, but they were themselves for the first time in almost three years.

Legend didn't regret his decision even as he faced them at the top of some ancient tower, temple, that he'd taken over.

He didn't regret his decision as he fought them all off.

He especially didn't regret it as Sky buried Fi's blade through his chest.

He looked over them, how Sky’s eyes filled with tears, how Twilight pulled Wild to his chest and the slightly younger hero broke into sobs in his mentor’s hold, how Warriors pulled Wind slightly back from where he’d crumbled to the ground and buried his own face in his hair.

He regretted the pain he put them in, he knew that.

He did not regret the wake-up call this would hopefully be. He would sacrifice his life a thousand times over, his integrity, his reputation, everything.

He would give it all just to help them, for the chance, that they would at least try to be themselves.

[naladot]

Hey! Maybe it’s a long shot but if you’re still taking fic prompts, could you do one of dasey inspired by taylor swift’s “the great war”? Cause I read the one you wrote inspired on “you are in love” and loved it so much!!

It took a minute but I did it!! I hope you like this ficlet I just dashed off!

My hand was the one you reached for | Derek/Casey (mostly gen) | 810 words | rated g

.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

It’s after midnight. Derek’s not really used to Casey peeking her head into his room at this time of night, and absolutely not when she’d been yelling at him just a couple hours ago. (He’d asked if Max made an effort to pretend like he listened when Casey talked or if he just ignored her—a serious question, and not his fault that Casey took it so personally.)

“No,” he answers, without looking up from the textbook on his lap. He hasn’t managed to read past the first sentence in the last hour since he announced that he needed to go do homework, which had elicited a genuine gasp from Nora.

“It might help if we talk about it,” Casey continues, taking a tentative step into the room.

“It won’t. You can close the door on your way out.”

“Der-ek,” she says softly, not moving to leave.

He sighs and rubs a palm over his face. She won’t leave unless he gives her a reason to. Annoying. “My mom is like this, okay? I don’t need to talk about it.”

Casey does close his door, now, but she’s on the wrong side of it. He wants to get up and push her out of the room, but he doesn’t really have the energy and when she’s hellbent on “family bonding,” he has to be a lot meaner than usual to battle her off. Maybe he should be ashamed of himself for letting her win this one. It happens way too often these days.

She doesn’t say anything though. She straightens her shoulders and then crosses the room to sit herself primly on the end of his bed. She doesn’t look at him or speak, and a strange sense of—something spreads through him. Relief? Affection? No way, definitely not.

But it’s weirdly nice to no longer be alone.

When she speaks, she doesn’t push him to open up like she expects. Instead she twists one hand around the other, her eyes focused somewhere above his computer.

“My dad is seeing someone,” she says.

“Oh,” Derek says, not sure what else to say.

She glances over at him, her chin jutting out in a weird way that suggests she’s fighting off tears. This normally bothers him but this time he holds still, waiting for whatever she’ll say next.

“It’s—fine, I guess. He just told me and Lizzie,” she continues. “I found out the woman he’s seeing has two kids around our age.”

“Ouch,” Derek says, suddenly understanding. He waits for Casey to get mad at him, but she gives a weak smile and shrugs.

“Yeah,” she says very softly. “I just keep wondering if…”

She trails off and doesn’t finish, but he hears her thoughts in the silence. It’s the same thing with his mom—after months of planning for him to go to Mexico with her over the summer, she pulls the plug like it’s no big deal. He’s been saving for it, and worse, he actually wanted it. His fault. He should have known better.

“I don’t think Nora would have been happy in New York,” he says.

“No,” Casey agrees. “But still.”

He doesn’t say anything, trying to imagine the McDonald nuclear family living in some high-rise apartment. He can’t quite picture it—can’t picture this house without them, can’t picture living here without Casey anymore. He’s imagined that reality so many times that he doesn’t know how to feel to discover he can’t imagine it in this moment, like the other was just a daydream but this, a real alternate reality they might have had, feels impossible.

“So that’s what’s going on with me,” Casey says. She looks at him, her eyes luminous. “You okay?”

“I’m good,” he answers—quickly, but without malice.

He watches her contemplate something for a moment, chewing at her bottom lip, and then she seems to make up her mind and reaches out for his hand currently holding the textbook. Maybe she just intended to pat his hand or something, but instead she sort of clutches at his fist. He doesn’t know if he should let go of the book to hold her hand or—what, but now they’re both looking at her hand over his.

And in a split second, he once again wishes the McDonalds did not live in his house.

“Um,” Casey says. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay, and, um—” She pats his hand a couple times, neither of them daring to look at each other. “And, yeah.”

She gets up and leaves in a hurry, giving him just a glimpse of her flushed face before the door closes behind her with a soft click.

Derek leans his head back against his headboard and closes his eyes. There was more than one reason he’d wanted to get out of the house for the summer.

[red-eft]

Vowels for Cordelia and Ivy if you want!!

hell yeah! always happy to talk about my two favorite mage ocs <3

i accidentally wrote a lot about them, so i’m chucking it under a readmore ^^;;

ivy first-

A. what nicknames do they get called?

ivy ! tbh i keep forgetting that her actual name is ivanna

E. what is their love language?

physical touch! ivy stays close to those she cares about. she often follows them around without realizing it. she loves holding hands with cordelia and giving her little kisses on the forehead.

I. what makes them feel safe?

lorne makes her feel safe. he’s like a big brother (despite being younger lmao) that she knows would protect her to his last breath. once she gets closer to cordelia, that’s another person that makes her feel safe. ivy finds refuge in people more than anything else!

O. what motivates them?

she wants to get rid of the fear/superstition that always surrounds dark magic. it's banned throughout the country the story takes place in, and dark magic practitioners are feared and shunned by most.

about a third of the way through the story she’s in, ivy also gains the motivation to rescue her mentor, fiensal, when ydrenth captures him. 

U. what do they like to do in their spare time?

ivy loves exploring old ruins and observing wild creatures! ever since cordelia started teaching her how to fight unarmed, ivy has also started to practice for fun in her spare time.

Y. what physical object do they value most?

she really values fiensal’s grimoire. he gave it to her shortly before ydrenth captured him. it’s a well of knowledge and a deeply personal item. she tries not to read it. it feels like an invasion of his privacy even though he outright told her to study it. 

—-------

now for ydrenth! this one’s a little difficult because i just decided earlier today that she’s not getting a redemption arc.. here's Mean Ydrenth for u

A. what nicknames do they get called?

i’m not sure if it counts, but “the necromancer” is something she gets called pretty often lol

E. what is their love language?

ydrenth’s love language is words of affirmation. she likes to make the object of her affection feel like the most important person in the world. however, she has a mean streak and can quickly become very manipulative. ydrenth is 100% aware of her behavior and doesn’t care to fix it. she is not a good person.

I. what makes them feel safe?

her home/research facility is the only place she feels truly safe. only she knows where it is and how to get in it.

O. what motivates them?

ydrenth wants to rebuild the old world and shape it to her liking. she keeps herself alive by sapping the life from other creatures, but as time goes on, she needs more and more energy.. she's starting to fall apart. ydrenth's current goal is to obtain a dragon heart, which is rumored to grant immortality.

U. what do they like to do in their spare time?

ydrenth likes to read, conduct experiments (usually focused on dark magic), and observe the world to learn about how it's changed over the centuries. she also likes cooking wjdslfk, you get good at it when you live alone for a couple hundred years

Y. what physical object do they value most?

her most treasured possession is an old-world pistol that she found in some ruins. she carries it with her everywhere she goes. the new world has recovered and developed to the point of being able to make basic pistols, but they’re too weak and unreliable for her liking.

—-------

since this ask is about my ocs that use the most magic, i'm gonna throw in a bonus and add some context for how magic works in my story setting :-)

dark magic basically = radiation

in my story, magic came to earth (idk how yet lol). humans combined magic and science to study both. unfortunately, they went too far and caused a nuclear/magic catastrophe that wiped out most of civilization. the earth and everything on it was fundamentally changed. radiation warped to gain "magical" traits and dark magic was born :0 i know it isn’t realistic, but the idea was too fun for me to pass up !! plus nothing that has magic in it is going to be realistic anyways wsdfjlk

there are four races in my story- humans, elves, drakonians, and orcs. i could write actual essays about them.. anyways they were all created/influenced by magic & genetic engineering. humans and drakonians are resistant to dark magic, orcs are immune, and elves are very weak to it. however, even an elf is more resistant to radiation than an actual human on earth irl

dark magic can be used to cast incantations with “unnatural” effects: seeing through walls, healing injuries, creating undead, etc... there are a lot of creative uses for it that cause harm, but there's also a lot of potential to help others.

accepted types of magic include divine magic (very rare) and common elemental magic (fire/water/earth/wind/etc- used for mundane tasks like purifying water or generating electricity)

[xanthezhoupropaganda]

Xanthe assumes, at first, that the Justice League didn't notice the aliens. It's not like they don't all have their own issues, and the aliens are subtle, always on the edge of Xanthe's vision, never in their direct line of sight. It doesn't exactly help the aliens that they've got some sort of - Xanthe doesn't know. Something to shift phases or just make them invisible or whatever; it's all kind of the same as ghost powers, and they've got that down.

But the aliens - and Xanthe can tell this isn't what they mean to do, from all the frustrated energy screaming around them - seem to be friends. Not friends, exactly. That isn't the right word. But doing what a friend would do if they actually were trying to help, and they remind Xanthe of nothing more than Superman. (An accidental Superman. And one in less of a feud with the world's biggest clean energy supporter, whatever the fuck's going on with that.)

Tracing back, because now Xanthe's invested damn it, it starts out small. They've taken peppers, a whole strain of them, and made them spicier. It's an experiment, they can tell, because it's one patch of one field in one farmer's testing area, which covers more than one cross but not all of any of them. Anyway, the farmer won some sort of prize and the peppers are commercially available now. (Of course Xanthe tests them for poisons, and viruses, and microscopic robots. Or, at least, they beg the help of people who can. (Batgirl.))

It's not just food - there's a slightly more sour lemon, an apple that's too bright red, potatoes that have extra iron in them - but that's where they start, maybe just because the distribution mechanism is easier. And then the water, not that that does literally anything in Gotham, but it's some sort of, well, not like anything Batgirl's seen before. Her theory is that it's meant to make them complacent, but from everything Xanthe has seen (again, not in Gotham, where nothing gets by the filters, but from chatting with friends outside the city) it just makes people a little cheerier. A little more upbeat. Not so much it changes their daily routines, really, just a smidge.

So it's not that the Justice League doesn't know, so much as they have other priorities. The aliens are a keeping an eye on them kind of situation, and they keep doing things that probably aren't what they're trying. Xanthe's noticed increased shielding at nuclear plants, heavy metal stolen from fields full of them. Areas blocked off, but it all ends up being canyons and rapids and volcanoes about to erupt. Houses are going missing, huge ones, and it makes the news - but they were all empty anyway. Empty fields are suddenly full of trees. One of Batman's private memos (sorry, Batgirl) calls it terraforming, except that it matches the ecosystems the Terra's already formed too closely to be anything of the sort. Even the cars that are going missing all seem to be covered by insurance, and everyone is upgrading to safer replacements.

But the real thing (and the reason Xanthe found their way to this question, anyway) is the ghosts. They have no idea why, and anyway, it's often best not to question the logic of something like this, but the ghosts are calmer around the aliens. More cogent. They know what they want - you know, when what they want is something other than stealing everyone's qi and trying to bring themselves back to life - and can actually communicate it. Xanthe has been playing psychopomp a little bit? It's weird for them to open gateways to other people's afterlives, but, hey, who are they to judge a ghost? Someone has to help them while the aliens are still in town, because as frustrated as they are, Xanthe can just see them itching to leave.

The aliens may have taught pigeons how to use computers. Or else the birds see something Xanthe doesn't.

Aliens are trying to eradicate humanity in subtle ways but it always ends up beneficial for humanity

[holeposts]

I do think people have a point when they say that adults should be able to afford their own apartment, but I also tend to think there is nothing inherently wrong with having to have roommates as an adult, particularly in very dense urban areas. One bedroom apartments are not an incredibly efficient use of space and with the number of single childless people consistently on the rise, I think it's unrealistic to expect the supply of single-occupancy units to keep up with demand (and yes the rise of single childless people is up partially because of the lack of space but that is far from the only factor and the trend is likely to continue even in a world with an abundance of housing). There's no question that housing prices are out of control and it's unfortunate that people are having to put parts of their lives on hold, such as having a family, or have to live in situations that are severely uncomfortable/don't meet their needs (i.e. sensory needs or anything else that might come up I'm sure there are plenty of such scenarios) due to lack of adequate housing, and I completely acknowledge that. On the other hand, people who live with roommages are still housed. They have safe and stable shelter, and isn't that the fundamentally most important thing? To share housing with people who are not part of your nuclear family is not a travesty, it's actually pretty normal and a perfectly logical thing to do when you live in a city where space is precious. I have a hard time with the idea that making sure every adult can live in their very own entirely private space is a priority - the concept feels very fundamentally capitalist and American in nature if I'm being honest.

In my vision of cities in the Good Future, single-occupany or single-family units are attainable by anyone who really wants/needs one, but it's culturally very normalized and perhaps even expected to live with roommates for as long as it makes sense just to save money and save space for those who need it more. To make up for the relative lack of space in those shared private dwellings, there are lots of accessible public spaces where you can go and do all the stuff that you might not have room for in your apartment, like makerspaces and meeting places and music rehearsal spaces and so on - much more efficient than everyone having excess private space that is only for them to use, and healthier than staying in your private space alone all the time.

This pretty much only applies to dense areas. Living in a rural or outskirts area is a totally different story. I'm just trying to imagine a world where in a city of say a million people, every single adult/couple/whatever has their very own personal adequately sized space, and I'm coming up empty. Yes, abolishing real estate speculation and aggressively building upwards will go a tremendous way towards expanding the housing supply, but I feel skeptical that even that would be enough. And even if it is enough, is it really necessary? Yes roommates can be awful, but most of the time they're just fine, and I think the problem of nightmare roommates would be greatly reduced in a world with both a robust "roommates culture" where living space etiquette is very strong and well-known, as well as where housing is more abundant and it's relatively easy to move if your situation is really giving you hell. And a world where it's common for people to share space will require a lot less construction and development which is still very resource-intensive even when it's as efficient as possible, not to mention the energy needed to heat/cool/maintain each individual unit. Ok the end.

[robertreich]

Mr. Fix-It

Joe Biden is embarking on the biggest government initiative in more than a half century, “unlike anything we have seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades go,” he says.

But when it comes to details, it sounds as boring as fixing the plumbing.

“Under the American Jobs Plan, 100% of our nation’s lead pipes and service lines will be replaced—so every child in America can turn on the faucet or fountain and drink clean water,” the president tweeted.

Can you imagine Donald Trump tweeting about repairing lead pipes?  

Biden is excited about rebuilding America’s “infrastructure,” a word he uses constantly although it could be the dullest term in all of public policy. “Infrastructure week” became a punchline under Trump. 

The old unwritten rule was that if a president wants to do something really big, he has to justify it as critical to national defense or else summon the nation’s conscience.

Dwight Eisenhower’s National Interstate and Defense Highway Act was designed to “permit quick evacuation of target areas” in case of nuclear attack and get munitions rapidly from city to city. Of course, in subsequent years it proved indispensable to America’s economic growth.

America’s huge investment in higher education in the late 1950s was spurred by the Soviets’ Sputnik satellite. The official purpose of the National Defense Education Act, as it was named, was to “insure trained manpower of sufficient quality and quantity to meet the national defense needs of the United States.”

John F. Kennedy launched the race to the moon in 1962 so that space wouldn’t be “governed by a hostile flag of conquest.”

Two years later, Lyndon Johnson’s “unconditional war on poverty” drew on the conscience of America reeling from Kennedy’s assassination.  

But Joe Biden is not arousing the nation against a foreign power – not even China figures prominently as a foil – nor is he basing his plans on lofty appeals to national greatness or public morality.

“I got elected to solve problems,” he says, simply. He’s Mr. Fix-it.

The first of these problems was a pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of Americans -- Biden carries a card in his pocket updating the exact number -- and its ensuing economic hardship.

In response, Congress passed Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan -- the most important parts of which aren’t $1,400 checks now being mailed to millions of Americans but $3,600 checks a child paid to low-income families, which will cut child poverty by half.

Now comes his $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, which doesn’t just fund roads and bridges but a vast number of things the nation has neglected for years: schools, affordable housing, in-home care, access to broadband, basic research, renewable energy, and the transition to a non-fossil economy.

Why isn’t Biden trumpeting these initiatives for what they are – huge public investments in the environment, the working-class and poor -- instead of rescue checks and road repairs? Why not stir America with a vision of what the nation can be if it exchanges fraudulent trickle-down economics for genuine bottom-up innovation and growth?

Even the official titles of his initiatives – Rescue Plan, Jobs Plan, and soon-to-be-unveiled Family Plan – are anodyne, like plumbing blueprints.

The reason is Biden wants Americans to feel confident he’s taking care of the biggest problems but doesn’t want to create much of a stir. The country is so bitterly and angrily divided that any stir is likely to stir up vitriol.

Talk too much about combatting climate change and lose everyone whose livelihood depends on fossil fuels or who doesn’t regard climate change as an existential threat. Focus on cutting child poverty and lose everyone who thinks welfare causes dependency. Talk too much about critical technologies and lose those who don’t believe government should be picking winners.  

Rescue checks and road repairs may be boring but they’re hugely popular. 61 percent of Americans support the American Rescue Plan, including 59 percent of Republicans. More than 80 percent support increased funding for highway construction, bridge repair and expanded access to broadband.

Biden has made it all so bland that congressional Republicans and their big business backers have nothing to criticize except his proposal to pay for the repairs by raising taxes on corporations, which most Americans support.

This is smart politics. Biden is embarking on a huge and long-overdue repair job on the physical and human underpinnings of the nation while managing to keep most of a bitterly divided country with him. It may not be seen as glamorous work, but when you’re knee-deep in muck it’s hard to argue with a plumber.  

[lilacprincessofrecovery]

Tony Stark x Plus Size Reader//Rewrite the Stars

Warnings: Insecurity and paparazzi.

Song: Rewrite the Stars by Zac Efron and Zendaya in The Greatest Showman

Word Count: 950

It had been 3 months since you and Tony Stark had gotten together. He wants to show you off to the rest of the world on an interview coming up. He had been wanting to for a while. He wants every one besides just the Avengers to know, but you don't want the paparazzi to ruin what you have. It's funny. You always wanted to have someone want to show you off and when a perfectly good man comes along and wants to do so you are too insecure about yourself to let him tell anyone. You just knew they would hurt you. He didn't want that and he didn't think they would. They've always been so accepting of him and his lovers and you were more important than just a lover; and he wants you to know he's serious about you and the world knowing. He's never been with a bigger girl before. To him the only way to show you he truly cares is to go to the rest of the world, publicize.

"Y/n… We need to talk…" You look up at the door from the couch in Tony's and yours' bedroom. You swallowed. He had his managerial, stern voice on as he opened the door and had his arms crossed at his chest beginning to lean against the door frame at the right of him. You were scared of what he had to say. You were afraid he may be getting rid of you; finally realizing that you two would never work. You gave him your attention without saying anything.

"You know I want you. It's not a secret I've tried to hide…" Tony rests a hand on your shoulder as he sits next to you. You look at your hands in your lap avoiding his gaze. You are as if a child being chastised. "Look…y/n. I know you want me… so don't keep saying our hands are tied…" You shake your head. "You'll be ashamed... You think it's easy. You think I don't want to run to you..." Tears well up in your eyes knowing what he wants now. "You're here in my heart. So, who can stop me if I decide that you're my destiny…" "There are mountains and doors that we can't walk through… They won't get us. I'm… I'm not your type. I'm almost 2 times your size, Tony. It's ridiculous. We can't tell anyone." "I can't believe this. Are you saying we should break up?" "Maybe we should…" You got up and he grabbed your hand. "Y/n…" "No. I won't ruin your reputation. You aren't supposed to be with someone like me." "Someone like you? Someone like you. Someone who I've seen cry over a puppy dying in a movie. Or… you who I've seen giving your last pennies to charity. Or… you who stays up with me every night to love on you after a long day at work in the lab… you who asks me questions like you actually care about nuclear energy? You let me talk when anyone else would tell me to shut up. or you who lets me rest my head on your soft pillowy belly that I love so much?" He puts a hand on your tummy with a soft smile looking up at you. "y/N, what if we rewrite the stars? Nothing can keep us apart. Let's rewrite the stars…" You looked at his hand on your stomach and pulls away, crying now. "How can you say you'll be mine? Everything keeps us apart and I'm not the one you were meant to find. It's not up to you. It's not up to me. When everyone tells us what we can be… Why is this so important to you? We can't change how people will see me. We can't 'rewrite the stars.'" She used air quotes. Tony sighs and kisses the top of your hand. "I just want them to know about the most precious diamond I have ever had in my hands. I don't care about how big or small my diamond is but if you think about it my diamond being bigger is just a plus side… I just want to share something important to me with the world; the world that I try to protect so often. I don't like hiding things from them too often. There will always be people who disapprove of something we do. We can't let them ruin my… our joy. It should be joyous for you too. We deserve to be able to tell people about how much we love each other. There's nothing different between us and every other celebrity power couple." He pulled her into his lap petting the back of her head against his chest. "Y/n…We can rewrite the stars." She looked up at him. "All I want is to fly with you. All I want is to fall with you. So just give me all of you. It feels impossible. Is it impossible?" Tony grins. "No it's possible. If they say ANY thing against my babe. I'll say something. It won't matter to me what they say about me. Hell, I know I am a very weird guy. I have a glowing light for a heart for God's sake. I'm also freakishly smart and heavenly attractive." He boasted.

She nods with a deep breath and a giggle. "Ok, you can tell them." Tony smiles wide nuzzling into her neck and rushes to get dressed for his interview. He happy he was allowed to tell the world about his beautiful woman. "Now I have it all."

"We can rewrite the stars."

[brionysea]

i'm taking the way his intuitive logic here perfectly matches up with alexei's car metaphor as hope that it doesn't have to end with mike's perma-death

the key isn't the problem. the key is mike's trauma that keeps being used to turn the car back on no matter how many times they turn it off, the same way henry and el and kali's trauma was used to awaken and strengthen their powers

but they had guidance, abusive as it was, and if mike's powers really do come from karen, her wilful ignorance and neglect means that mike has never been taught control. he doesn't even know what he's doing, which leaves all that power and energy open to be taken advantage of (because if true strength can be sourced from strong emotions and channelled into raw power, you know mike's a goddamn powerhouse. he keeps everything inside)

the car and the hijacker who keeps using it to run people over are the problem. they have to destroy the machine itself

mike's lack of a solution and will's suggestion here are making me think back to the conversation between mike and el at the quarry again

at first, alexei only talked about one key, but there were two. we've been shown that el can open and close gates before. hopper talked about the two man rule; two men, two keys, so that one person can't just decide to blow up the world with their nuclear launch codes. this might be why rolling an 11 wasn't enough to defeat vecna in eddie's campaign

and doesn't this exchange, but flipped, make so much sense? if mike and his black and white morality found out that he's the key he wouldn't give himself the same leeway he gives el here. he'd be right back at that quarry, because he'd rather die than keep hurting his friends. and of course the others would try to talk him out of it if they knew what was going on

will would say that mike saved him again, and mike would counter that he put will in danger in the first place

dustin was already tuned in to the "upside down /=/ evil" situation way back when he found dart, and we know he's vehemently against mike self destructing, but mike never changed his mind on thinking that dart should be dead and he stepped off the quarry anyway

lucas is always being his practical self in the face of mike's heavily intuition-based plans and saying that their first ideas to defeat the upside down are only theoretical, and the idea that mike dying would fix things is... well, it's wrong, because he doesn't have enough self worth to realise that taking himself out would just break something else in all of the people who care about him (just like max), but it's also not even a guarantee. and if vecna has anything to do with this, that just leaves him with mike's powers, which is objectively a million times worse

el is the one who saved mike at the quarry. el is the one who keeps thinking that she's a monster for hurting people. el is the only one who could even remotely understand what's going through his head right now. and el's the only one who could help him gain control so that he doesn't hurt anyone else

i truly think the only thing that would get it through his thick skull that he's not inherently evil is el telling him that he's not the monster. she's on her way to start questioning the monster-superhero dichotomy that he put in her head already, deciding for herself that she's not the monster and rightfully putting that on brenner instead only for henry to tell her that's giving him too much credit. it's so incredibly natural that she'd return the favour but also finally deconstruct the entire concept at the same time by telling mike that there aren't any superheroes or monsters in the real world, just people, and it would be such a fantastic way to mend that relationship and round out her character arc

el is different because of her powers. el feels like she doesn't belong anywhere because of her powers and the way they shaped her lived experience. el thinks that mike could never understand because mike doesn't have powers

doesn't that sound like something that's just begging to be disproven? doesn't it sound like this show's favourite thing to do of saying one thing and then having the exact opposite happen? el never says this to anyone else. most other characters on the show don't know what it's like either, but el never tells them that. just mike. they want us to pay attention to mike specifically in terms of having or not having powers

let's jump back to mike's side of the conversation for a minute: he's talking about bullying. and we know he's telling the truth. we've seen him get bullied for being different. el has seen him get bullied for being different. they bonded over that shared understanding before

mike does know what it's like.

el is wrong. and she's supposed to know that she's wrong, but she doesn't.

because she can't see mike. she's not even looking at him. he's blurred out or not in frame at all when she says that he doesn't understand. because he does, on his side of the conversation, and he has the capacity to on hers, but she can't see that yet

you people shouldn't have let me watch this season again. i have so much more manifestation theory ammo now

[nudityandnerdery]

Okay, d&d joke.... was a bard, sang a song to a demon, bit my head off. I continued singing.... it put my head on again and I played for two more years.... not really a joke but happened....but what the eff is going on in the world. Putin said something about nuclear war.... well.... everything is burning to the ground anyway. Can we get the world right again? Been living in it a while and things have never been this bad. I think that we need to do something. Maybe be human for a change

Okay, well, I'm not gonna try and sugar-coat it for you right now. Looking out the window, reading the news, you know what's going on.

Shit's kinda fucked right now.

And it is absolutely fair to look at all this and feel frustrated as hell. There's SO much going on that is happening in places and ways that we feel like we can't control. Because, I mean, Vladimir Putin and Samuel Alito are both about as likely to listen to my well reasoned arguments about why they need to stop their shit as the coronavirus is, by which I mean nil chance at all. There's a lot of people who are just actively out there causing trouble, mixing up shit on social media, and just actively trying to make life more miserable for everyone else. I don't fucking get it, personally, but misanthropes gonna misanthrope, I guess.

And that's all a thing. It's fucking overwhelming sometimes. So that's the first thing we have to do. See to your air mask. By which I mean, we can't do anything if we're just swamped with all of the Absolute Shit™ that is going on around us. So make sure you aren't overwhelmed. Take time to acknowledge the good things around you. You're alive. There's people around who are trying to make the world better. There's cute pictures of dogs on the internet. We can eat pastries that are delicious. Like, I don't fucking care what it takes, what it is. You take some time for yourself every day. Do some basic self care. Remember that though the world is a mess, you are alive. Make sure you are living.

And part of that? Remind yourself that, yeah, shit is fucked. But the world has been fucked before. And the world has been fucked up worse than this. And we've gotten it to a better place from there, right? So we can do it again.

Okay. So what do we do from there? How do we do that? I'm gonna be honest. There's a lot of people out there who have written a lot about how to address the problems that face us. So if you want to fight them, pick one of those topics, find a guide, find how to help, and do it. Know that you can't fix everything all at once. But you're not trying to do that. You're looking at one problem, and chipping away at it. And there's thousands and thousands and thousands of other people out there doing it, too. So that work will all add up. It will all compound. And, as a group, we'll try to make things better. Believe in that.

But, on top of all of that? Even if you don't have the time or energy or money to devote to a cause right now?

Be Kind.

I really mean that one. It's not going to fix everything, it's not even going to stop Putin or anything. But you can do little things to make the world better for someone else. And that shit compounds, too, I promise. You make someone smile, make their day a little better, and they'll feel a little happier about the world. And maybe they'll be a little kinder to someone. And it continues on. If some asshole on the internet can spread a little misery by being a dick, you can spread some joy by sharing a joke or complimenting someone's work or just telling a friend you were thinking of them.

And, honestly? That shit keeps you alive. Not physically, but inside, as a person. It's how we survive. Be kind. Hold on to hope. One feeds the other, and that strengthens it back in return. And that's the whole thing where we keep ourselves going, so we can help others out. It's not easy, it's not always going to get an immediate reward.

But it's the only way to be human, and the only way we can live to see something better than this.

[whatgaviiformes]

Fic: A Study in Light

Here, fam. Have a character study before I head out to dinner. 💛

*****

The sea steals away the gentle light of unfamiliar stars suspended in the deep-purple of a moonless sky, and, though Gordon can’t see the waves, he can hear them surging, lapping towards the sand. Between two palm trees near the back of the beach, close to where they’ve built the path to the villa, he keeps a hammock tied, and it’s there that he sits in the early hours of morning.

John would take offense to him calling them unfamiliar stars. His brother may easily pivot between hemispheres, but Gordon knows he’ll never quite get past looking for the North Star, and these are not the constellations he learned growing up, when his mind was most absorbent.

Scott, who’d learned it from Rescue Scouts, showed him that. How to find Polaris when lost. These days, he lets the water guide him, not the stars.

Gentle stars.

John would frown at that too. He’d tell him that the stars were anything but gentle. That despite how steady and calm they seem from trillions of miles away, on a planet as small and as miniscule as Earth when compared with the infinity of the Universe, the stars churn with nuclear chaos. Forges of a size incomprehensible, scattering elements, and heat, and light so pervasive it can cross the enormity.

To find him here, on the edge of the sand, watching their light die with the depths of his sea.

 He swings his legs, relieving some of the pressure where the rope has dug into the back of his knees.

Once upon a time, Mom would call him “Sunshine.” Dad too, before he’d gone and gotten himself stuck in an explosion that shook their world more violently than any star. He barely remembers the way the phrase sounds from their lips, and no one calls him that anymore.

But they do expect it. They just say it in different ways.

Scott of all of them is the most direct. It’s his job as commander to know his brothers’ skill sets – their strengths, their areas for growth – and to delegate roles on the field accordingly. Gordon’s light, though Scott calls it his “vibrancy,” is perfect for rescues involving children. But that comfort isn’t for kids alone. His strength as a rescuer is his calming positivity. For example, it’s the tone he used with Ned Tedford at the bottom of the sea when all seemed bleak. But he smiled, worked the problem, and made it all seem carefree and easy.

Scott will be the first to admit he can sometimes get lost in the adrenaline rush while Gordon brings patience and a friendly voice and the fine balance that is humor and competency.

Virgil says it in his art, the gold just a bit brighter, the colors bolder, and if Gordon is included as a subject, his smile blinds. In the painting Virgil created for his 21st birthday, Gordon is swimming, descending into the depths underwater, without gear, where the reef and the fish welcome him to their home. It’s a beautiful piece where not even his apparent longing for the sea takes away from the brightness Gordon brings to their depths, and with his sun cast along the coral the scene strikes at his heart every time.

Sometimes, it hurts to look at.

John is trickier, his heart no less feeling than anyone else’s, just harder to read sometimes. John knows Gordon’s passions as equally as his own, maybe not as thoroughly, but he knows what energizes him. Space-residing, but also just as close, John knows how to meet Gordon’s excitement with his own. They both are at the fringes of the world, both living day-to-day for the wonder of what they will find next. And if an exclamation point didn’t accompany the “Awesome, thanks” after sending him an article about the 10 Coolest Nudibranch Species of the Tropics, then John knew something was up. For the record, that article was biased based solely on their appearance, which John knew when he sent it to him.

The proper response was to send him back a podcast about Babylonian astronomy, obviously.

And if he didn’t? If he didn’t have the energy to respond back in kind, John would be the first to call him up and ask what he needed.

Then there’s Alan. Gordon doesn’t know how to be anything other than bright in his little brother’s space, because Alan is the only person in the world he can be a big brother for, and while Alan has four big brothers, Gordon only has the one little one. It’s not that Alan can’t take it; he’s always been smart and intuitive. But Gordon is so proud of him, and if there’s one thing he’s always promised, it’s that he will always try to be the best goddamn big brother he can be to the one little brother he’ll ever have.

It's crushing sometimes, feeling the weight of needing to be - well it’s not on or off, like a switch, so much as it’s a turn of the dial. How much of himself, and which parts is he bringing to the surface?

 The joy is as genuine and honest as it comes.

It’s just? He tones down other parts of himself.

Keep the lights on for too long, and they’ll blow out eventually.

And that’s okay from time to time, as long as they don’t see the worst of it.  As long as he doesn’t bring them down with him.

In truth, his brothers have just as much light to share as he does. He sees it in Alan online, when he sees him helping out newbies get started with better equipment for a more positive experience, and with John, leading the people they rescue from fear into safety with just his voice. Virgil, the first up for a standing ovation when he experiences a piece of live orchestra and piano. And Scott, barrel rolls of laughter over a plate of Grandma’s cookies.

“Gordo?”  His name comes with an exhausted yawn and heavy footsteps along the sand.

“Bit early for you.” That's an understatement. Rescues aside, Virgil is rarely caught out of bed before the sun rises.

He hums, deep and low. “John caught a heat signature out here. Had to be you. Do you even know what time it is?”

He sits down in front of him once he reaches the hammock, not caring that his jeans are collecting beach particles, and follows his glance out towards the blank horizon.

“No? Two or three,” Gordon answers. “I slept out here for a bit.”

“It’s four.” He doesn’t ask what Gordon’s doing out here, doesn’t push for answers. He waits, his presence calm, and comforting, and there. And when it’s obvious that Gordon doesn’t need talking right now, Virgil settles back against the palm tree next to him, his eyes slip closed, and he pauses.

He probably intends to stay awake with him, but Gordon can hear his breathing even out when the hour catches up with him.

It makes him smile that Virgil tried.

“How do you do it?” he asks the sky. But the words are for the slumbering form of Virgil beside him. “Why do you see me the way you do?”

He doesn’t get the answer until the sky fades into gold, when the brightness of the dawn wakes him. Virgil staggers up with a groan, his bones creaking from the position, but he slides next to Gordon on the hammock, clapping him lightly on the back.  

“That’s what’s so encouraging about the sun,” Virgil muses. “It always comes back.” 

[pineapplebread]

Can we talk about a Pacific Rim AU where Steve hasn’t piloted a jaeger in years and retired from public life since his last drift partner Bucky died on a mission? And then Fury calls him back to the Shatterdome when a new invasion attacks and he meets Tony? And they’re both sad and too gay to function but there are giant robots and aliens and soulmatism? Okay, buckle up:

Steve Rogers was part of the first groups of pilots for the experimental jaeger program headed by Nick Fury, Howard Stark, and Peggy Carter and sponsored by SHIELD. It was a group created to fight the threat of alien invasions that came out of a rift in the ocean floor, monsters called kaiju. Jaegers (giant robots) were built in response to fight these threats.

It was with Steve that they discovered that it takes more than one pilot to successfully run a jaeger, and with two minds joined with the robot, it is significantly more powerful and better controlled. The catch is that the pilots must be completely in sync with one another, or “drift compatible.” By being in the drift together, they have access to each other’s thoughts, memories, intentions, and it takes a lot of trust to drift.

Steve’s co-pilot is Bucky Barnes, his childhood best friend. Together they pilot Captain America, the most advanced jaeger of the fleet at the time. They’re one of the most successful teams, with the highest kaiju kill count. They become national heroes and are often sent out to take care of the most difficult and dangerous missions. 

On one such mission, everything goes horrifically wrong, and Bucky dies in action. Steve is devastated. They were still in the drift when Bucky was ripped out of the cockpit by the kaiju, and the severance of his mind where it connected with Steve’s nearly drove him crazy. It took everything he could to finish the kaiju and survive. After that mission and Bucky’s death, Steve swears he will never pilot another jaeger again, he can’t. He disappears from the public eye and lives a quiet life in the wilderness, until the day Nick Fury comes knocking on his door.

The invasions are coming in quicker succession, he’s told. SHIELD has lost many good pilots, and there are few who can do what Steve and Bucky did. He’s needed again. There’s a war to fight. It takes a lot to convince Steve, but it’s been over ten years, and while he still misses Bucky, maybe Steve can fight for the greater good again. He agrees to meet with Fury in the New York Shatterdome.

There, Steve meets young Tony Stark. He’s the son of the late Howard Stark who had co-founded the jaeger program (Howard and his wife were assassinated by anti-jaeger extremists who think the existence of jaegers invite kaiju invasions). Tony is the head of the Jaeger Advancement Research Venture Institution Syndicate and he’s rebuilding the old jaegers as well creating new ones with better weapons and defense. He created arc reactor technology to pilot new jaegers with more efficient clean energy. He got his hands on Steve’s old rig, Captain America and not only fixed her but made her a new shield with a magnetic return and better recoil as well as an updated AI system Tony built himself.

Tony is intelligent and sarcastic and ridiculous and Steve is painfully reminded of Bucky. Tony takes no shit and doesn’t pull his punches, and he’s sharp as a whip, but he’s also kind and understanding, and his big brown eyes are so sad. Steve can’t help but be drawn into Tony’s orbit but he can’t pay afford to attention to that because he needs to find a new partner and he was told Tony isn’t an option. He’s not a pilot.

Steve runs through a gamut of potential drift partners and none of them work. He’s not drift compatible with any of them. He misses Bucky, and he doesn’t think it’s possible to drift ever again. His mind is too loud to let anyone else in. Fury finds him more candidates. They aren’t compatible either. 

Meanwhile Tony has been on the sidelines taking notes to collect the data. Steve has a sudden idea, and maybe maybe maybe. Why not?  He wants to try with Tony. Tony recoils. He says no. “Apparently I'm volatile, self-obsessed, and don't play well with others.” 

The newest kaiju horde they named the Chitauri are at their doorsteps. Steve still doesn’t have a partner. He’s at a point where he thinks he’s just going to get into Cap by himself. At the last moment, as he’s suiting up for the final test run, Tony comes in and says he can try to see if a drift with Steve would work, but he warns him he’s not the kind of guy to lay down on the wire for others. Steve smiles and doesn’t believe him. 

They’re drift compatible. Their connection is stronger than anything Steve has ever felt and there are a few bumps in the road when they train, they often clash and they fight a lot, but this is it. This is the bond he’s looking for.

When they’re in the drift together, Steve realizes that Tony’s reservations about being a pilot are because his best friend, James Rhodes had been a jaeger pilot, now retired after his injuries. Tony had been in War Machine with Rhodes when the mission had gone horribly wrong and Rhodes was injured, resulting in the loss of the use of his legs. Afterwards, Tony became obsessed with building more powerful jaegers to keep his friends, and the world safe. Tony just wants to build suit of armor around the world.

They end up piloting Captain America together. The battle begins, and they’re part of the front line with Thor and Bruce Banner who copilot Thundering Hulk, and Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton who copilot Widow Archer. They almost all get destroyed in the first wave of the invasion. They survive, but just barely. 

After Steve is knocked unconscious during the initial battle, and they’re surrounded by Chitauri with no way out, Tony ejects Steve from the cockpit in a lifepod and stares down the horde himself. He still has a nuclear payload strapped to Cap but her autopilot function is shot, and there’s only one way to get the payload close enough to have any effect. Tony knows it’s going to be a one way trip but he needs to manually pilot into the portal the Chitauri had opened in the tectonic plates deep in the ocean and detonate it there. 

Somehow, Tony manages to send Captain America into the portal and just barely survives after ejecting in a lifepod at the last moment. The old jaeger is lost, but the mission is successful, and the nuclear detonation in the portal manages to close the wormhole and kill the remaining kaiju. 

On the surface, Steve regains consciousness thinks he’s just lost yet another driftmate and copilot when Tony’s pod bobs up in the water. Steve rips open the door of the pod to find Tony unconscious, and he fears the worst, but Tony wakes after CPR. After Tony says, “please tell me nobody kissed me,” Steve could weep with relief. 

Tony babbles, apologizing that he destroyed Cap, he’s sorry, he’ll rebuild her again, even better this time, but Steve doesn’t care. He’s just so happy Tony is alive, he hauls him in for a kiss, and for the first time in a long time, his mind quiets.

And Tony does rebuild Captain America. He adds rocket launchers, repulsors, and gold to her red, white and blue. Her new call sign is Iron Patriot.

[galacticnova3]

Don't forget "I'm nitpicking this thing because it is a real thing, though in a fantasy environment, being written unrealistically and presented in a way that treats it as if it is accurate, and therefore has led others to make decisions and form opinions on the real thing based on this false information about it"

It’s important to recognize the difference between “I’m nitpicking scientific facts because I’m willfully ignoring how suspension of disbelief, fantasy, and sci-fi work and just trying to be obnoxious about how unrealistic this is”, and “I’m nitpicking scientific facts because there are actually some intriguing worldbuilding possibilities if we use them that can add another dimension to the story”, and “I’m nitpicking scientific facts because considering the real-world implications of how this would happen are FUCKING HILARIOUS”