#diamonds are a mercs only friend

[charybdiaa]

Something I drew while writing my new fanfic project! Unrelated to the actual plot of it so I'm posting it separate. Jackie Welles and V having the best male friendship for like 7 straight chapters

Fic Linked Here!!

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

Your tf2 headcannons make me smile :), how about the mercs going into their favorite game for a day and they have ti survive

Would The TF2 Mercs Survive In Their Favorite Video Game World? (+ Their Favorite Video Games)

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Awe! I'm so glad I can make you smile 😭Honestly makes me so happy in general to be able to make stuff people enjoy! For the sake of this to make seance I'm going to pretend that all these games work on real human time and take 24hrs for a day to pass (If the game takes more than one day to beat) or the game to be finished. (If the days passing is unspecified)

Also! Mutual appreciation comment time! Thank you for being a mutual I love your asks and thank you for all the likes 💖

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Okay enough of that to the prompt!

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TW: BLOOD, GORE, AND MENTIONS OF DEATH!

SPOILERS TOO FOR, OUTLAST, UNDERTALE,

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Demo- Borderlands 2

Of course Demo would love a game with mayhem, destruction, and humor. He also loves the fact that (for him at least) the game never gets boring, or dull. He always has fun when ever he loads up the game, so waking up one day in the game was both super exciting, and terrifying. I think he would survive, but then die as soon as the day was almost over, like he's not dying the second he wakes up, he's pretty good at the game after all, but he'd get confident, and then two seconds before the day his over he's shot in the head or something 😭

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Engie- Minecraft

I know, I know. It's not a fresh, new, or even controversial take, it's just what everyone assumes, but I wholeheartedly agree Minecraft is his favorite game. He loves the freedom to build, he thinks it super cool he can use things that he would normally not be able to build with. He also loves being able to play with his friends (Pyro and Scout) specifically. He's beat the game at least ten times, and knows the game inside and out. Waking up in the game was suppressing, but to be honest, I think he's had weirder situations happen. He immediately knows what to do, and is on it. After only twenty minutes of being in the game, he's already working on a house, by time the night is actually here he's somehow found diamonds and is working on his nether portal, is so upset to wake up in his bed the next day. He's bitter he couldn't finish the game. Doesn't die, obviously, but did have strong words with a skeleton after receiving an arrow to the back of the head.

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Heavy- Animal Crossing New Horizons.

I'm going to say it, this man doesn't really like violent video games. I know, controversial. My thing is, I don't think some of the mercs want to spend all their time killing, and then come back and kill fictional characters. But I could be wrong, but that doesn't matter because Heavy like Animal Crossing. He loves the villagers, loves the mundane tasks, loves how just, relaxing playing the game is. If he woke up on his AC island he'd be so happy. Hugs all the villagers, fishes, catches bugs, talks to Blathers about literally everything he can. This man is just having a great time, and I for one, am happy for him. Doesn't die (Even if he could, he still wouldn't) But did get stung by wasps at least once trying to catch them.

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Medic- Outlast (For the sake of the game being finished in the way Outlast is played medic is forced into the same confines Miles is put in)

Are we shocked that this man loves one of the most iconic horror games ever made? Loves how many boundaries it destroyed, how gross some of the parts are, and how bloody other parts can be. Giggles at all the gory scenes. ALSO WHEN SEES THE DOCTOR??? When he wakes up in the world, he's very excited until he remembers how pretty much useless Miles is. He still, remains confident in his survival skills, still goes through the physical issues Miles goes through, and finds that to be rather inconvenient, (Regrets always complaining about how upset Miles seems to get, but he understands now that maybe, just maybe, when you aren't able to heal almost immediately, that losing a finger or two isn't super easy to cope with) but regardless, he does survive, he doesn't die because of a lack of skill or overconfidence, but dies do to the plot advancement, you know?

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Scout- Apex Legends

I think in the same vein as Engie, this probably isn't a fresh take, but it still fits. Scout is good at Apex, like really good. I think it's easy to make him a silly little guy, but he's ruthless when he wants or needs to be. This man is an Apex champion more than most people, has more kills than you'd ever think, and is honestly a better teammate in Apex than on the field with the other mercs 😭 He wakes up in Apex world and he's so thrilled, he's ready to put his real-world skills into his favorite game and does pretty well until he's knocked down by an enemy, he hides behind a box and waits for his teammates to come help him, they start moving father away, he moves over to them, they move again, he bleeds out as his two other teammates walk away from him. (Totally never happened to me) then they didn't pick up his banner, so eventually, he just woke up after dying and is so pissed. It did make him a bit kinder when it comes to helping out his teammates, in hopes that he'll never go through that again.

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Sniper- Superhot

Way too good at Superhot, it's almost troubling how many hours he's put into the game. You'd swear you could see the enemies shaking anytime they appear on camera. Sniper sometimes uses this as an opportunity to practice dodging, but also just has fun fighting against an enemy. Loves the slo-mo shots he can get. Loves splitting enemies in half with different weapons. Also love the mind control and weird story setup of it all. If he woke up suddenly pixilated, fighting other pixilated entities, he's either freaking out or shrugging it off. Probably the latter, knowing him. He survives well, with only a few close calls, it's a lot easier when your hitbox isn't an entire VR headset after all. Genuinely has fun being put in the Superhot world for a day.

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Spy- Hitman

Now, I thought I'd be so clever and come up with original ideas, but I was wrong. I think Spy plays Hitman plays for ideas, how weapons would look, how messy a kill would be, etc. Also loves being able to have very minimal risk when he's "killing" It stresses a guy out when you live life trying not to get caught every day, you know? As much as this man likes this game, he is so pissy when he wakes up in this game. He's basically just living a full 24 hours of his regular day job and is exhausted by the end of it. He does a good job, doesn't get caught, and manages to keep his suit clean. Has never been so received to wake up.

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Soldier- Call of Duty Modern Warfare

A man who loves war likes a game about war, who would have guessed? No, but in all honesty, the military aspect is one of his favorite parts of it, he also loves the range of weapons and all the different roles you can play in the game. I'm not going to lie though, if he woke up in the COD world, he'd probably have a breakdown. Like he'd freak thinking everything before this was a fever dream, but he'll eventually figure it out. He would kill at any task he was given, and survive, he'd wake up and immediately feel better because as much as he loves the game, he never wants to go back.

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Pyro- Undertale

Pyro loves Undertale so much that it's insane. Has played his game, at least 30 times. Has never, not even once, played the genocide route. They cannot bring themselves to kill a froggit, let alone Papyrus or anyone else. When Pyro wakes up in the Undertale world they are thrilled, jumping up and down, giggling, screaming, you know all that fun. Literally gives Toriel the biggest hug ever. They have the best time of their life. Manages to do a deathless run, somehow, probably because of the insane amount of times they've played through it, but is heartbroken that they wake up after only being able to get through the neutral route.

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I'm sorry this took so long! I loved this prompt but I hit a slump, and I've been fighting with myself to get it posted, I'm sorry if it's not great, I hope you like it though 💖

I'll try and be more consistent I promise 🫶🏻

[crazyk-imagine]

Chapter X: Can't Start the Party if it Don't Start

Characters: Sulane “Sullie” Celeste, Jasner "Jas" Verbane, James Diamond, Kendall Knight, Carlos Garcia, Hortense "Logan" Mitchell, Katie Knight, Mama Knight, Kelly Wainwright, Gustavo Rocque, Merceds, Jo Taylor, Camille Roberts

Warnings: Fluff, angst, James is an idiot, Jasner is a dork, Sulane has two guys that want to date her, drama continues, Jasner makes a move get shot down but then back in the game, the boys are dumb, Sulane is always there to save the day

Word Count: 3,289

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Sulane sits in her apartment, doing nothing and is enjoying it but- she takes a bite of her licorice, mumbling, “this feels like a trap.”

If only the universe hadn’t heard her and manifested a nuisance for her to deal with.

She doesn’t have to look to see who it was. “Hey, Jas. How was your night after your date?”

He slams the door shut. “I am never listening to you for dating advice again.”

“I didn’t tell you to date her.”

He furrows his brows, staring at her a face that was a mix of anger and confusion. “You’re the one that made the date happen.”

She scoffs, shaking her head. “I did no such thing.”

“You did. You’re the one that practically threw me to that- she-demon.”

“Okay, I know she’s a lot at times but calling her a she-demon is a little much.”

“Whatever,” he pouts, crossing his arms. “I didn’t want my first date to go that way.”

“What was that?”

“I just- I thought when I had my first date it’d be with someone I liked, you know.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, I thought I’d be going out with someone who I liked and was kind of like my friend first, kind of like you.”

She turns to look at him. “What?”

He shrugs, staring at her from the dining chair. “I thought I’d be dating you by now.”

-

The boys planned on grabbing Sulane before they left, effectively ruining her plans of hanging out by the pool so she could talk to the girls.

“Come on.” Carlos pulls her.

“We need your help,” Logan adds.

She tries to pull her arm out of their grip. “With what?”

They glance at one another.

“Something important,” the brainiac explains.

“It’s too early for this, I haven’t had my coffee yet.”

“Since when did you drank coffee?” The helmet lover asks.

“Since you guys got hired.”

“I feel like we should be offended,” Logan says.

She nods, “you should be.”

“That’s hurtful,” Kendall chimes in.

She rolls her eyes, “whatever. Take me where we’re supposed to be going. Let’s get this over with.”

“It’s gonna be fun,” says James.

“I don’t like the tone you used.”

“What tone? I didn’t have a tone.”

“There is some heavy mischief in there somewhere.”

“Ignore him. Onward,” Logan pushes her ahead of the others.

They turn the corner and stop as the boys smell the air.

The teen scrunched her nose, confused, and alarmed by their behavior. “What’s wrong with-”

“I smell party!” They take off, almost leaving her behind until James runs back and grabs her hand, hauling her with him.

“Oh, yeah.”

They wander into the studio, taking notice of the fancy party décor.

“What's going on?” Asks Kendall.

“Please tell us it's a party,” James and Carlos plead to Kelly and Gustavo.

“It is the Big-Time Rush party celebrating the making the making of your first album,” the more experienced assistant informs them.

“Oh, yeah. Was I supposed to be here?”

Kelly shakes her head.

The producer knows where this is going and knows he needs to stop them before they do something crazy. “No. You're not invited.”

That instantly drops their party mood. “What? Why?”

“One, it's a classy party for executives only. Two, I don't need dogs around playing with their food.”

“We don't play with food,” the leader and brainiac defend themselves.

“James and Carlos, turn around,” Kelly orders them.

The two turn around, using some of the good to make a monster face as they growl.

Sulane shakes her head. “Oh, lord.”

“I gotta get new friends,” Logan mutters, knowing these are the exact reasons why they aren’t allowed to the party. “I second that.”

“Wait, wait, wait. How can you have a Big-Time Rush party without Big-Time Rush?” Carlos asks.

“You'll be here in spirit, and in cut-out form,” Kelly tells them, using a nice tone. Hoping it’ll ease the heartache as she gestures to the bands cutout that was just brought in.

“Well, we're staying.”

Sulane’s head snaps over to look at Kendall. “Uh,” she points to him, circling the four. “I hope you mean you guys because I did not agree to those terms and conditions.”

“Fine.” Guatavo doesn’t listen to her and focuses on the leader’s last comment.

The boys cross their arms, wanting to make it look like they don’t care. “Fine.”

The producer runs towards the decoy he brought in for them. “Fine! You can stay. But do not go in my super party fun box.”

“Please tell me- yeah, no. They did it.” She turns back to the adults. “Why am I left with the idiots?”

“Because the dogs listen to you more.”

“They really don’t.”

“I agree with Gustavo on this one.”

“Kelly! Not helping.”

-

The four push the other person in front of them, hoping to get out and get more air faster with less people in their way.

“I can't believe we fell for that,” Kendall comments.

“Oh, Yeah. Definitely didn’t see that one coming.”

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m not trying to.” She says before pulling out her English homework. “Now, go find someone else to disturb. I have homework to finish.”

- ah, ah, ah-ah, oh -

Mama Knight and Katie walk out from their room.

“Hey. I'm taking Katie on a day trip; we'll be back late.”

Katie’s face lights up. “We're going to Vegas.”

“You can’t play the slots,” Sulane chimes in, looking through her textbook for the page she needs.

“San Diego,” the young girls mom corrects her.

The girl lifts her hand, showing off the one thing they need in order to leave. “But I get to drive.”

“You’re not old enough.”

“What she said,” Mama Knight gestures to the teen girl sitting at the kitchen counter.

Kendall smiles. “Hey, mom, would you mind-”

She knows exactly where her son is going. “No parties. It's a Palmwoods rule. And if I get another strike, bitters kicks us out, remember?”

Sulane groans, knowing they’re all looking into the sky like a bunch of weirdos.

The boys grimace. “Right.”

Katie points to the marks, “but did he have to put them on our door?”

Kendall nods in agreement with his sister.

“Be good.”

The leader steps forward, kissing his mom on the cheek as a goodbye.

“I mean it.” She glances at the boys. “Make sure they’re good, please?”

The teen looks up from her homework, offering a small smile. “I will do my best, but I make no promises.”

“Keep them out and away from places they shouldn’t be, and I’ll be happy.”

“That I can agree to.”

“Bye kids.”

The five of them wave to her.

“We have to throw a party. We're teenagers. If we don't party, we could die,” James explains to his buddy.

Carlos raises his arms to get in the right mood. “Party, party!”

“We can't party at the Palmwoods. But there's nothing saying we can't have a "get-together.”

“Ooh,” Logan slides to stand beside Kendall to add, “or a social gathering.”

While the other two are chanting, “social gathering” Sulane looks up from her homework and nods in approval. “A loophole, very nice. Dare I say, I’m even a little proud.”

The leader points to them. “James, Carlos, you two transform 2-j into a cool club atmosphere. And get some snacks and sodies.”

The two pull the items out of thin air.

“That will forever amaze me. Seriously, where did those come from?”

“A magician never reveals his secret.”

She glares at James, “tell me.”

He smirks, knowing it’s going to annoy her. “No.”

“And we keep the guest list short, say, three people each, which is not a party, but a get-together,” Logan explains.

The duo dance around and chant, “Get-together! Get-together!”

“This is good, practice your story in case something happens.”

The brainiac stares at her with a concerned expression.

“And I'm gonna go down to the pool right now and invite Jo, 'cause I kind of got a thing for her.” Kendall turns around, close to exiting the apartment when he turns around to Sulane. “And you should invite Jasner. I feel like we haven’t hung out as much with him. Plus, he knows all the best sweet spots and can help us out.”

She grimaces and stares at her essay. “We’re kind of in another fight and I don’t think a party will help us.”

He nods before eyeing Logan, who nods, knowing what he needs to do.

Graffiti walls billboards lighting up the block every one of us on a mission oh, yeah got a whole crew by my side cars beep beep when they pass us by we ready to get down to business at the club open the door all the girls scream "there they are" it's packed from wall to wall and everybody is calling

She ignores the duo and writes the last word of her essay before slamming her book shut, taking in the new layout. “Yeah, I’m not staying for,” she waves her hand around. “Whatever this is.”

Logan stops her.

The leader raises a brow at their attire, “guys, it's just a small gathering get-together.”

“Dude. We're not in Minnesota anymore. This is the big leagues,” James informs him and Logan.

As she re-reads part of her essay, barely listening, it’s more than enough for her to roll her eyes.

Carlos chimes in, adding to his buddy’s thoughts. “Our big-time Hollywood party crew starts tonight. We start small,” he and James pinch their fingers together. “But you start hot.” They press their fingers together, hissing.

“And before you know it, we'll be known as the Hollywood super party kings of Hollywood,” the pretty boy adds before the two of them hollar.

“Whoo, whoo!”

The brainiac grimaces, “you said Hollywood twice.”

“You bet I did.”

The doorbell rings and the two run to the door.

“Go, go, go.”

“Welcome to the get-together.”

“Snacks to the left. Dance floor is straight ahead, and good times all around,” his partner in crime adds. 

Jasner lets out an excited shout as he makes his way down the slide. “Hey guys.”

The leader and brainiac nod, happy he got their invite.

He makes his way over to the blonde.

James and Carlos do a handshake, “Nice!”

-

They make their way around Camille and Jo.

“Hey, where's Logan?”

The party animals direct her to one corner of their apartment.

“And you can find Kendall,” Jo stares at them. “Thataway.”

“Thank you.”

-

“You’re doing homework at a party?”

“No,” she closes her notebook. “I finished it before, now I can leave and not be a part of this.”

Sulane whines, “ow! Carlos.”

He and Janser help the poor girl off the ground.

The not-so-subtle dancer sheepishly smiles and offers his apologies.

"Can we put this morning behind us?" 

The teen lifts her head, gulping as her nerves are at an all high. "I- I think that'd be good." 

-

The two grab their drinks and make their way to the couple.

“Kendall, Jo, here’s a drink,” Jasner hands it to them.

“Thanks guys,” the girl says.

“You do realize that you’re going to be kicked out of here. This is basically a party and not the small get together you all wanted it to be.”

Kendall shrugs off Sulane’s warnings. “No, we’ll be fine.”

-

“Hey,” Gustavo slides over to Kelly. “We got to liven this party up before Fujizaki literally dies of boredom.”

They stand on edge, watching as the man takes a deep breath.

“His eyes are open. Oh, he's alive. Move it!”

Kelly pulls out her phone and texts the one person she knows who can help in more ways than one.

-

The teen pulls out her phone, responding to her mother.

Jasner, who’s a nosy person, looks over her shoulder. “What’cha doin’?”

“Kelly needs help with their party.”

Kendall spits out his drink and she fights to hide her amusement, already knowing Jo doesn’t like hockey.

The duo’s heads snap up when they hear Carlos and James screaming. “It’s happened.”

“What are we going to do?”

Sulane’s eyes widen as more people pile in, “I don’t know.” She pushes herself up when everyone shuffles to their area, pulling Jasner and Kendall along with her. “I told you this would happen.”

“Maybe you were right.” “Kendall!” “Okay, you were right.”

“Who invited all of these people?” The leader asks.

The pretty boy shakes his head, shrugging, “I don't know. I only invited the three hottest girls in my phone.”

The helmet lover nods, chiming in, “and I couldn't decide, so I texted the first three people in my phone. Abigail Aaron, Andrea Adams, and Al contacts.”

Sulane snatches the phone and the two glance over her shoulders.

“It says "all contacts.” James grabs it from her. “You invited your whole phone?”

Another crowd of people came in.

“Oh, this is bad.”

The teen gasps, “no! You’re kidding.”

Kendall states the obvious. “This was supposed to be a small gathering, and now it's an uncontrollable party that gets us kicked out of the Palmwoods.”

“Opa!”

“Sergei, you made it.”

“Opa!”

The three glances at one another, confused about the people Carlos knows.

James isn’t as curious, if anything he’s more entertained.

The leader stares at the acrobats, more confused than anything. “Hey! You have Russian acrobats in your contact list?”

“I'm a people person.”

“That’s a vague explanation. I’m going to need more.”

The male blond shoves her away from him and Carlos. “Emergency party plan. I'm gonna go get my date, who doesn't like hockey-”

The two hosts spit out their drinks.

“I know, right? And go downstairs, keep an eye on bitters so we don't get our third strike, while you guys get rid this party.”

“Right. On it.” James puts a hand out, stopping the shorter boy from moving further. “We can't stop a party this good.”

The blonde scoffs, staring at the two as if they’ve gone insane.

“We won't be party kings. We'll be party killers.”

“Who cares? Do you want to party or be homeless?”

They don’t answer.

Jasner tugs on her shirt, “come on, we should go help Kendall. We’ll be useless trying to get the party animals to corporate.”

James glances back at her, pouting at her comment. He catches the boys’ eyes, turning away to shake his head and mingle with the newcomers.

-

The pretty boy decides it’s time to end the party and not just because of her comment. “Teenagers should not have to make decisions like this.”

Before either he or Carlos could spring into action to stop the party, Logan stops in front of them.

“I've got a huge problem. There are two girls at this party who are in love with me.”

“Got it,” James says. “Now, what's the problem?”

“Dude, two girls have a crush on you at the same time. This is not a problem. This is the best party of your life.”

They both tell him, “Think about it.”

The brainiac closes his eyes and goes into his dream land.

Sulane finds herself back in front of the three. She turns and finds Logan playing a pretend game of tug of war and he’s the rope. “Is he good?”

“I think I see what you mean.”

They shake their heads, disagreeing with their friend’s logic. “I don't think you do.”

She nods, “great, now they’re all losing their minds.”

James searches for the blonde, knowing she can help better than anyone. He grabs her before they could get sucked into a dancing tunnel. “Sullie, Bitters is on his way, and we need help.”

She narrows her eyes at him, “now you want my help.”

He sticks his bottom lip out. “I mean, if we could get everyone to move out of the room-”

“Done!”

“Wait-” she tries to grab him before he could dance off into the crowd.

Kendall stops in front of the “party kings”. “I told you to get rid of everybody.”

The pretty boy shakes his head. “No, you said to get everybody out of the apartment.”

“And we did,” Carlos blows a party horn.

-

Sulane wanders over towards Camille and Mercedes. “Are you two at least having fun?”

“Did you know Logan was trying to date the both of us?”

Her eyes widen, “you’re joking, even he’s smart enough not to do that.”

Their expressions say otherwise.

“Okay, maybe not. What’s your plan?”

“Throw him in the pool,” Mercedes answers.

She shrugs, “cool. I’ll help.”

They smile.

"Only if you stop dating the boys including Jas." 

Mercedes notices the look in her eyes and nods. "Deal."

Sulane stands off to the side, knowing this is not going to end well.

-

She pulls out her phone, calling Kelly. “Hey, Kelly. How’s the party?”

“Boring. Wait- why do you sound like you’re at a club.”

“The boys threw a party and I know Gustavo threw a boring fancy, bring your guests over and uh- I might need you to do a little sweet talking with the manager.”

“Why?”

“The boys have two strikes against them and could potentially get kicked out if he finds it.”

“You’re staying at the studio with me this week.”

“Deal, I’ll do some extra work.”

She smiles, loving how caring the teen has become. “You really care about them, don’t you?”

“No time to talk, bring them over. Bye!”

-

She turns to her boss. “I just found out where there’s a really awesome party.”

“So did I.”

“Palmwoods?”

He nods. “Palmwoods.”

-

Jasner finds the teen sitting on one of the lounging chairs and hands her a smoothie.

“I was wondering where you ran off to,” she smiles.

“I was going to get milady a refreshing beverage and some treats.” He shakes the bag.

She furrows her brows, “what do you have?”

“I come bearing a peace offering.”

“Why?”

He shrugs, “I feel like things have been weird since this morning and I want to make it up to you.”

Her lips twitch. “Jas, you didn’t have- is that licorice?”

“Can’t have a party without a few party favors.”

“Okay, best party favor ever.”

He chuckles, “good because that’s for you and the cupcakes are mine.”

“Raspberry?”

“What other flavor would I have?”

She rolls her eyes and takes a sip of her drink. “You have to give me your smoothie guys number.”

“If I did that, when would you call me?”

“I’ll always call you.”

He stares at her. “Yeah?”

She turns, the smile never falling from her lips, thinking back to his comment from this morning. “Yeah, I’d say you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid.”

“I’m terrified.”

They chuckle and continue enjoying themselves.

-

You want to be famous, famous you want to be the one who's living the life you want to be famous 

“Well, it's official,” James starts.

“We're the Hollywood super party kings of Hollywood,” Carlos finishes.

“Whoo-hoo! Get it, get it!” They cheer not noticing the two teens sitting close to one another until they’re set back on their feet.

James looks around, trying to find where she went so, they can enjoy the party together, giving him a chance to apologize.

Jo taps Kendall’s shoulder when she notices the pretty boys’ shoulders deflate.

The leader turns, following the direction where she’s pointing and sighs.

He and the other boys know how he’s always felt about her, but they also know he let her go so she could be happy. He catches Logan and Carlos’ eyes, all nodding at the same time.

They need to decide to come up with a plan to keep James happy (and make sure he doesn’t say anything he shouldn’t to Sulane or Jasner about their potential relationship).

-

Previously: Chapter IX // Continue: Chapter XI

-

Tag list

@kmc1989

[nuka-nasty]

Part 4

It had been a whole month since Nate left. MacCready had given himself only one night to cry his heart out then but on a brave face for his boy who clearly felt responsible for his dad's hurt somehow. He packed their things and headed to Diamond City, Piper tagging along.

She had a soft spot for Duncan - as did almost everyone who met him, though. She was telling him about the school he'll be attending with her little sister, and the funny robot that can only say one thing and sell noodles.

Mac watched as the life returned to his boys' eyes. He had practically started vibrating with excited when Mac asked him if he wanted to live in the city for a bit and go to school with other kids.

Piper, bless her, hadn't said a word about Nate and everything that happens. Considering how he used flirt and tease her just to watch her huff and scowl, he was quite surprised. But then again, Nate usually surrounded himself with good people.

Lord only knows what possessed Nate to see something good in himself.

Finally in the city before dark, Piper was just as excited as Duncan to show off the work she, Valentine and Nate did on the place. She opened the door with a 'Tada!'

It was... Perfect. Carpets under their feet, trophies and mounted rare rifles on the wall, all lit up in beautiful wall lamps. An honest to God kitchen and living room fully equipped. The empty end of the apartment was revamped into Duncan's room, with a big carpet, toys, and a desk with school supplies. The middle loft was redone into a bedroom with a bathroom in the top loft.

Duncan squealed and Piper lead him on a tour of their new home.

MacCready doesn't know how long he stood there speechless, just looking around. He couldn't believe this was theirs... They had a home. A safe home that is just theirs.

But... Nate's presence was still heavy. It felt like a physical thing, the way he expected to see Nate's bright smile and excited eyes if he were to look over his shoulder, asking 'so? What do you think?'. He could swear he saw Nate sitting on the sofa reading comics or cooking in the kitchen till he looked directly at it and saw he wasn't really there.

Just then Duncan came running into his legs, saving his sanity. His beautiful boy had the biggest smile and his raw heart softened.

"Is this really our home dad? Really really? I can leave my toys and clothes here forever?"

Mac looked up to see Piper (bless her soul) give him a sympathetic and reassuring smile. Damn perceptive journalist. She could probably see he was struggling and guess quite accurately with what.

"Yes, Duncan. We're home."

Time passed and Mac had to find a way to go on without Nate. It felt like re-learning how to walk on your own. He got a part time job with Diamond City security, assisting them during assaults at the entrance, or when a group of raiders, ghouls, or mutants were settling too close. It was too dangerous for the usual security lads, but compared to what he and Nate did on the daily - it was almost fun. Like target practice.

Word quickly spread of the amazing sharp shooter Merc and his sweet boy. Of course Duncan made friends really quickly and adored school, but he hadn't been this settled anywhere since Little Lamplight.

Soon enough came the requests for help.

Arturo needs mods from KL-E-0, Becky Fallon wants her family heirlooms from Fallon's Department Store, and Piper has a package she needs sent to Preston at the Castle.

It's the last request that makes him cave. He owes her (a big) one.

But he still pushes them for extra caps to make it worth his time (he's still RJ MacCready after all).

That's how he became the 'need help? Talk to MacCready!' guy. One night at the Dugout Inn Vadim made the off shoulder comment that he has become Nate.

And didn't that comment stick to him like ugly to a feral ghoul. He had been trying so fu- damn hard to forget about it, to forget about the crushing guilt and shame of what he did but in a few words it all caught up to him.

That night he laid away in bed, haunted by Nate's ghost again. He refused to acknowledge it but learning to sleep without Nate's breathing was harder than he would like to admit. In the shadows of the room he could still see Nate... Talking to him, smiling, singing, laughing...

He really thought of Vadim's words and realised... He wouldn't have done that before meeting Nate. Nate changed him...helped him become a father worthy of Duncan, a man worthy of friends...he saved him from himself.

He was doing this because this is what Nate would've done if he were here, and Mac would've grumblingly accompanied him as he always did. So in a way, he's not doing anything new. Nate was someone who gave his heart and soul to these people. Maybe in some way, this is how Mac can atone for hurting him though helping those he cared about.

He made a promise to himself that night to do just that. To be the man Nate saw in him.

Things changed from there on. He offered to help instead of hiding until they found him and begged for help. He gave his free time to give shooting lessons to the security. He learned everyone's names and asked them how they've been.

It felt...weird. But good weird. Like your body being sore in a good way the day after vigorous training.

However, with thinking 'what would Nate do', he also let down the high walls of denial and ignorance. Thoughts of the man we're almost always in his conscious mind.

A shotgun mod he would like, something he would find funny, someone he would steal and kill for, and someone he would steal from.

The most powerful of all, however, was the single memory he had kept in a steel box. Memory of looking down at Nate's wet eyes and broken smile, blood on his lips and no air in his lungs as he told Mac he loved him, that it was his only wish when they both thought this was the end.

Knowing that, he started to see some of their other best memories in a different light. He realizes that the soft way Nate looked at him was different from how he looked at others. He sees Nate's favouritism towards him for what it was. He remembers how Nate would lose it if Mac got hurt in a fight, how he threw himself at enemies who had their sights on the Merc, and how he always gave him a stim first.

Mac had thought Nate was just a stupidly selfless guy who needed to him or the world would take Advantage of his good heart. But no...it was because Mac was special.

He remembers thing now. The way Nate would blush if Mac touched his neck or hand to get his attention. How Nate got quiet around Cait and Piper, not because he had a crush on them, but because Mac did (only for a bit though, those ladies are a little scary). How deeply, deeply angry and upset Nate was when he told him how Barnes had treated him in the Gunners and how he got the nickname 'the Merc with the mouth'.

As his memories of Nate start to change, so does his own heart. His own pain blinded him in homophobia, and it took time to not look at a gay couple and wonder which one is being taken advantage of.

It was three months after they moved to Diamond City that he realised...be missed Nate. Deeply. Profoundly. His voice, his scent, his smile, and his presence. And for the upteenth time he wondered where the man was and if he was okay.

Then a message came. From Preston. Covenant needed help with their broken turrets and only Mac and Nate knows how to fix those. The message sounds hopeful, but Mac reads it in Preston's voice that was as cold as the morning he bid them farewell. His eyes just as judgemental, like he knows Mac will say no.

Old Mac would've drawn him a middle finger and sent it back. But new and improved Mac? 'WWND' Mac? He helps.

Piper and little Nat is happy to have Duncan stay with them. Nat had taken her imagined role as older sister of Duncan very seriously, walking him to school and helping him with homework too.

So Mac falls into a comfortable old habit of packing for a mission with Nate, just without him this time. But all the same, for him. This time, slapping the spare PipBoy Nate got him to his wrist.

He stops by Covenant, fixes their turrets without asking for caps much to their surprise. So they spoil him they can - with Deezer lemonade, preserved cigarettes, and vegetables.

After some thought, be heads up to Kingsport Lighthouse. They've been having difficulty settling, and only had corn. They were just as stunned to see him, looking over his shoulder for Nate.

They were overjoyed for the variety of seeds. Mac was quick to spot the weak points in their defenses from being major and working with Nate - and helped them fortify their place. By the end of the week, three more settlers joined.

When the lunatics of Crater House sent 'missionaries' to warn them to leave, Mac had a better idea.

A quick trip to the Slog and he came back with Strong and some heavily armed ghouls. They made quick work of wiping out fanatics' base, and Strong buried the radiation drums in the middle for good measure, just because he likes 'Mac-ree-dee'. That and Mac told him this is how you get milk of human kindness - you hurt bad guys, and help good guys.

Somehow word must've gotten back to Nate's companions of the work he's been doing, because just as he left Kingsport and accompanied the bunch back to the Slog, a Deacon found him with a messaged.

There's an updated on Nate. Valentine requested his companions to come to Sanctuary to discuss it.

MacCready's Biggest Mistake

Part 1

MacCready was Nate's shadow - that much everyone knew. Where you see the one the other wasn't far. You'd think the Merc was the one clinging to the walking legend that is the general of the minute men and notorious 'vault dweller', but try to split them up and see what happens.

"Mac is with me. That is not up for debate." Nate's eyes, usually so kind and friendly, had steel and fire in them when Danse insisted he alone accompany Nate on the brotherhood mission. "If he isn't welcome then neither am I, Paladin."

It was Nate who - when push came to shove - bared his teeth possessively when someone tried to hire or take Mac from him. So for the past 6months whatever mission or job or wander Nate was one, and whoever he was doing it with or for, Mac had his back.

In Sanctuary Nate had taken two weeks to build homes for his companions with three sharing a living room. Piper, Curie, and Cait in one - Valentine, Danse, and Preston in another - Strong, Dogmeat, and Deacon in the last (Dee asked to room with them as neither slept indoors so the spy actually had the entire house to himself and his wardrobe). At the end of the street, however, stood a two story building with a workshop with displays downstairs, and a stairway up to a huge shared bedroom overlooking the valley, carefully designed with floor to ceiling glass windows high enough to not see into On the one end of the floor stood a comfy couch and armchairs with magazine stands, the corner had a desk and shelves with a scatter of mementos, Mac's ammo and pictures drawn by a child's hand, and Nate's Minutemem and Brotherhood holotapes and paperwork. In the centre a huge soft bed and one big chest of drawers. If you didn't know Mac you'd think this could be a commonwealth couple's dream home - but the Merc was as straight as a rifle.

That being said, their friends noted the way Nate would flinch and busy himself with his PipBoy whenever Mac flirted with Piper or Cait. They kept it to themselves but didn't miss the way Nate's eyes softened when Mac got excited over a new comic, a new gun, or letter from Duncan. Nate was smitten, but only his closest friends could tell and they respected the man too much to say anything. With all the pain he had lived through, if the Merc made him happy so be it.

Till it wasn't a secret anymore.

"No... Please, no!" Mac pleaded as he tried to staunch the bleeding. "Help is coming, Nate. You need to hold on!" Blood, so much of it. "FUCK! What is taking them so long!"

They were close enough to Sanctuary to see the the distant lights when not one but two Deathclaws jumped them. A mating pair. They'd put up a good fight, but their supplies were low, planning to restock at home.

Mac put a hole in the one beast's head when the other got a lucky swipe at his back. He cried out in pain and dropped his gun. The last thing he heard was Nate's desperate cry, distantly thinking he's never heard him like that. His best friend and he's never heard that rage and despair in his voice.

Then he felt the familiar sting and 'pissht' of a stimpack he knew was their last.

When he came to a few moments later once the stim did it's job knitting his back closed, he turned to see two downed Deathclaws, and a limp bloodied body between them. In the neck of one beast was Nate's modded shotgun, the blade of it's muzzle embedded in it's throat with enough force to break the stock.

Nate's PipBoy had been equipped with an emergency distress pulse that would alert Minutemen to their location. Mac activated it before he was even on his knees.

So here he was, pleading with every god he could think of to keep Nate alive till help arrived with stims and medical supplies. "C'mon Nate," he croaked through the tears choking him. "I need you. Don't leave me alone, please. Please!"

Nate's eyes fluttered open with a groan as Mac ripped off his scarf and pressed down on the hole in his stomach to staunch the bleeding. His hands, scarf, and the ground beneath his knees now the same shade of dark, wet red. "Hey.." Nate whispered, clearly trying to comfort Mac, and didn't that just make him start sobbing harder.

"Shh, don't speak. Just stay with me, okay? You need to promise you won't leave me!"

Nate gave a weak smile, a trickle of blood on his lips. "Wish I could... Stay forever.. but I think this is it for me, Bobby."

"No no no no, don't you call me that now!" Mac cried out, somewhere between anger and affection. "You only call me that when you want something or feel you need to comfort me! Now is not the time for either!"

Nate smiled, a laugh broke into a cough and more blood painted his lips. "Im sorry Mac. I'm...coward. Never even...got to tell you...how much I love you..."

Mac paused for a moment, his heart skipped and clenched painfully till the reminded himself where he is. "I love you too buddy, but you need to pull through so I can tease you about it okay?" He sniffled.

Nate was flagging. In the distance Mac could heard Preston and Cait calling. "WE'RE OVER HERE!! HURRY!!" He called. "They're here, Nate. You're gonna be okay."

Nate shook his head, eyes fluttering closed. "Love you, Mac... Wish...I told you.."

When Nate opened his eyes it wasn't to MacCready's beautiful blue ones, but to Curie sighing in relief and muttering something that sounded like a curse in French. "Monsieur Preston! He has awoken!"

Preston's face appeared above him with a rushed scuffle of footsteps. "General! You had us terrified there!"

"where-" was all he could croak.

"You're at the RedRocket. You were gone... But Curie managed to bring you back with a pulse of a Zeta gun and 5 stimpacks. So take it easy."

The first clear thought in Nate's mind was "Mac?"

"He's fine," Hancock responded and joined their little peanut gallery next to his bedroll. "Just shook up. I called him but he's outside pacing around. Sure he'll be happy to see you."

Against Curie's advice Nate slowly sat up and stumbled to his feet. He needed to see for himself - see that MacCready was whole and alive before he could really allow himself to breathe.

Hancock helped him limp outside where he insisted he could walk (stumble) on his own over to where he could see Mac leaning against the milk machine.

He really was alive. Nate smiled and limped to him, "you're okay." He said with such relief his eyes teared up.

But the look MacCready gave him instead left ice down his spined. Mac looked at him with an expression of fear, distrust, and disgust. Nate had only seen that expression one before when he stood before Barnes and Winlock. The night he put a bullet in their heads Mac had broke down and told Nate of the 'sick' things they made him do, how they used him for their own pleasure till he managed to escape.

(That was also the night Nate swore to himself he would never, ever make a move on MacCready.)

But here stood the Merc looking at Nate like he was one of those men who used and abused him. Nate had to take a moment to swallow down the irrational tears that now threatened for a different reason as he wracked his brain for why, what did he do!

"Bobby, what's wrong?" He took a cautious step forward but froze when Mac flinched and backed into the shadows a bit.

"Don't call me that."

His words triggered the memory. He called Mac Bobby, he was begging him to stay with him...and he told Mac he loved him.

"...I'm sorry." Was the only words Nate could get out.

MacCready tossed his cigarette to the grown and sneered. "Whatever." With that he walked into the darkness towards Sanctuary.

Nate felt like he couldn't breathe. Tears rolled silently down his cheeks, cooling on his neck where his pulse was hammering. A pain sharper than any he had ever felt - be it bullet, knife, or betrayal - laced through his chest with enough force that his legs gave out.

Of all people, Deacon appeared out of nowhere to catch him. The spy said nothing as he helped Nate to the dirt and held him as quiet sobs shook his broad shoulders. He quietly held him close, angling his head to his cries were muffled against his shirt. He then silently helped Nate to the nearest sleeping bag in one of the little shacks that lined the fence around the settlement, getting up to inform the others that their fearless leader was sleeping and to not bother him.

[satans-left-asscheeky]

Companions discovering that Sole is like… 14? And that somehow this terrifying force of nature (and possibly one of the scariest people they know) is a literal child? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It started with little things... Aggressive intimation, blackmail and even a bit of some good hearted brawls. That they were okay with, but what really caught they're attention was when sole decapitated a group of Raiders and put their heads on pikes just for trying to rob them.... Thats when they knew they were following the scariest, most cutthroat person in the commonwealth...

That's why after the battle they got in their head to confront sole, but little did they know or expect that mid conversation sole's helmet would be removed revealing their ...... baby face?

Maccready

"What The hell!?"

Oh. my. God. They were a kid? what the hell were they doing dragging around a merc at their age? not that they needed it given the past display.... Once he got over his initial shock he'd realize they weren't that different from him at 14

"Huh you kinda remind me of me when I was your age..."

He'd be brought back to his memories of little lamplight and hed probably bore the shit outta sole with his non stop stories. On a more serious note he's gonna keep them safe with all of his being because becoming a parent really changed his veiw on kids in the wastes.... Even if they are pint sized badasses.

Hancock

"Well look at you... just barely big enough to hold a gun and you got the world figured out? better than most folks I reckon."

Hes impressed. At soles age he was still hiding jet under his mattress, sneaking outta his house in diamond city to make-out with the girl next door and being an all around menace to society in the way only a preteen can.... he wonders if they'dve been friends if they had met back then? nah sole would've probably kicked his ass and he'dve probably deserved it.

Cait

"Well aren't you something ya little shite. remind me not to piss ya off.... christ"

She thinks it's hilarious if not a bit terrifying. The most deadly person in the commonwealth is 14 and 5ft.... says a lot about the state of things in her mind.

Danse

"What the hell was that!?

His heart would drop when he saw their tiny face. They were barely old enough to start having responsibility let alone be wandering the wastes.... how did they get out here? no wonder they were so violent they're probably used to people taking advantage of them.

"Listen, I don't know how you ended up out here, but I think you should consider training with scribes your own age. It's important to not take life to fast to avoid.... Discrepancies such as earlier. Train along side your brothers and sisters hone your raw talent into something more than just survival of the fittest.

If they agreed hed personally take them under his wing and teech them all he knows. He would feel a strange sense of pride everytime he fills our a report of their latest accomplishment. proud doesn't do justice to how he feels.

Curie

She'd be rescued by a masked individual in vault 81. Only as they took their helmet off to administer the cure to Austin, did she notice it. They were a child themselves maybe 13/14. A sense of fear for the child's saftey came over her that's why she wanted to go with them. A feeling she would all too soon realize was in vain.

"Oh was decapitation really necessary? Are all children so violent these days?"

After watching the kid make quick and grusemon work of a particularly cut-throat group of Raiders shes very weary of the kid, but also kinda glad to be on their good side? I mean there's nobody else she'd rather have watching her back, but she's scared to get on their bad side.....

Deacon

"There was the old pre-war film called children of the corn..... ya kinda remind me of that"

He thinks they're terrifying. He knew since before he met them that they were only a kid, and his opinion had been the same then, as it is now. He knows what a fucked up childhood can do to someone, but damn.... This was another level... and he was gonna do everything in his power to keep this kid on his and the railroads good side.

Piper

"Well that's just wrong on so many levels...."

She gets the wastland makes people grow up fast, but there's no amount of desensitization that will get you used to an emotionless cut-throat preteen.....

Nick

"Look kid... I get it. Life's hard, but you get back what you give and right now what you're giving is all sorts of messed up..."

He believes wholeheartedly in karma... and this.... He couldn't just watch this kid continue down this self destructive path. especially when he knows first hand what it takes for a person to get to that point..... he'll try hard to mentor them and get them to soften even if just a little...

Preston

"General! That's not how we represent the minutemen. You're acting more like a raider."

he understands anger and resentment, but something about this person's violent tendencies made him feel uncomfortable.... Like everything about it was just all wrong

Thats when they'd take their helmet off cheeks flushed red with anger. He would would freeze. The general of the minutemen was..... a child? I mean it's not like he had them fill out an application, but he had expected them to be older.

"Where are your parents!?

It would slip out of his mouth before he'd have time to fully think it through.

"Where are yours!!

They'd retort with the same harshness the raiders had seen earlier. They'd go on like this for a while before Preston would realize he wasn't wining by fighting with them and would chose to kinda adopt them instead.... They clearly needed guidance after all.

X6-88

"I like you"

If all kids were like this he may just consider adoption.

[theanoninyourinbox]

Happy New Year!!!!!! Time to reveal another Fandom I Like!! Ironically I’ve never played TF2, but boy do I just love those Mercs! And I love doing crossovers sooooooo have one I’ve had stewing since April 2021!

The Sniper was one of a large group of gems commissioned for Yellow Diamond, but his Skinny status was mocked by his fellow Mookaites. However, when deployed on Earth, he was one of the only survivors, his beefy fellow gems were Poofed and bubbled almost immediately. Sniper sensibly surrendered, and was then recruited by Bismuth. Eventually sent on a space mission, he and two compatriots were spared the Final Attack of the Diamonds, and all decided to go back to the Gempire undercover, in an attempt to destabilize the corrupt government. Sniper, acting as a bodyguard to a low-ranking Sapphire, heard of the capture of a Lapis Lazuli, and realized that there were still living Gems on Earth. Gathering his old crew and some new friends, and with the help of said Sapphire’s Pearl, they set off to Earth once more - to stop the Jasper, save the Lapis, and be free Gems again.

[fandomsonrequests]

saturday night’s alright for fighting

fandom: marvel

characters: wade wilson (Deadpool)

reader: fem!

word count: 1.0k+

warnings: harassment, violence, swearing, alcohol 

a/n: okay so apparently, T.J. Miller’s (Weasel, aka Wade’s friend) was accused of sexual assault (ironically) and called in a fake bomb threat before. Due to this, I will be changing the setting a little. 

requested by anon 

Ah yes- the smell of alcohol and sweat mingling in the air, boisterous laughter competing against the loud music from the speakers overhead and the sound of billiard balls clashing against each other filled the Leaky Cantina bar down by the corner. Just a regular Saturday night out with your husband, Wade Wilson.

Despite being busy kicking ass and taking names from the bad guys that messed with him, or hopping around the city with Dopinder’s dingy yellow taxi, Wade manages to always make some time for you. You were his best girl, his diamond in the rough. It was only right to do so.

“The usual, Wilson?” Asked Jess, the owner of the bar. She was a large, muscled woman with biceps almost as big as your face. But when she spoke, it was raspy but warm. She was like a big tough mama bear.

“You know it J,” your husband says from beside you. “But throw a little extra kick in there- ______ are trying to see who handles their alcohol the best.”

“I don’t know why you’re so adamant about this Wade,” You tease, resting your chin on your palm as you lean against the counter. “I told you I’d win.”

“Baby, I literally heal and regenerate. Who’s to say that the alcohol won’t be redirected elsewhere?”

“I don’t know Wilson,” Jess snorted as she placed two shot glasses each in front of you. She pulls out some of her strongest alcohol and fills each glass. “Last time you made a bet with her she had to haul your drunk ass out of here.”

“That was last time- I can do better.”  The merc huffed, crossing his arms like a six year old.

You simply chuckled at his antics, leaning over to press a soft kiss to his cheek. His demeanor fell a little from this and you could see the corner of his lips quirk a bit upwards. You always knew how to crack his facade.

“Happy Saturday night babe,” He tells you, raising his glass and clicking it against yours.

“Happy Saturday night-“

You both down the first two shots, feeling the buzz through your veins. You let out a sharp sigh and signal for Jess to pour a few more. Several shots later, you two were still at it. Your face was flushed form the amount of alcohol you’ve consumed and Wade, Wade looked kinda normal.

“Hold on baby,” he says before you two could take another shot. “I gotta head to the bathroom. Be back soon.”

You wave him off and he hops off his barstool, yelling “don’t swap my drinks!” after himself. You just laugh and roll your eyes in amusement as you wait for your husband to return. Your fingers tap against the surface of the counter when a figure slides into the seat next to you.

This kind of situation wasn’t really new to you. You two were regulars at Jess’s bar and everyone knew how wrapped up you and Wade were with each other. But there were newbies who came in and tried hitting on one of you from time to time. Usually, they’d back off and find someone else to flirt with but there were moments where the newbie was just too damn stubborn.

“Hey gorgeous,” The person next to you slurs, clearly drunk of their ass. “Mind if I get you a drink and steal you away for the night?”

You simply smile at him politely and show off your finger with the golden band around it. “Sorry big guy, but I’m taken already.”

The person didn’t seem to like that but pushed on nonetheless. “Aw cmon, I’m sure your spouse won’t mind. We can invite them to join too~”

You cringe at the stranger’s words, an uncomfortable shudder running down your spine. “Uhm, no thanks. It was nice talking to you.”

As you move to stand and switch seats elsewhere, the stranger reaches out to grab your arm. You tugged your hand away, or at least tried to, but their grip was like iron. “Let go of me.” You tell them, glaring right into their eyes.

They simply ignored you and stood up, moving towards you with a predatory look in their eyes. “Cmon, it's just for the night.”

“The lady said no,”

The stranger was suddenly ripped away from you as Wade tugs tw their shoulders to have them face him. They glare in annoyance at your husband, wobbling in place as they turn to face him. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Her husband; now get lost buddy. You don’t your ass out on the curb now do you?”

The stranger just chortled. “Really? Big talk coming from a wrinkly Freddy Kruger wannabe.”

The stranger’s words struck a nerve in you the second it reached your ears. You know it was Wade who was supposed to get angry but hearing them, or anyone in general, bad mouth your husband would always trigger something in you.

“Oh get the fuck out of here already,” You shout at them, delivering a powerful backhanded slap to their face, sending them stumbling to the floor.

The bar goes silent at the commotion. Wade was shocked at what had happened while you clutched your hand to yourself. That slap hurt like a bitch- but you were too pumped with adrenaline to really feel the pian.

Jess looked over from where she was attending other customers and assessed the situation. She excused herself from them and quickly went over just as the stranger was about to lunge at you. “Alright that’s enough get out you creep.” She tells them, locking them in a tight hold and dragging them out the bar.

As Jess lugs teh struggling drunkard out the door, you finally allow yourself to relax. “Ow, ow, owwie..” You whine and shake your hand in hopes of getting rid of the stinging feeling it had.

“Oh my God- ______!” Wade exclaimed as he went up to you, taking your aching hand in his and pressing kisses all over it before it traveled to your face. A proud grin was plastered on his lips and he held you close. “That was so badass and sexy of you.”

You chuckled through the pain but allowed him to kiss you once again, this time reciprocating it with passion. “Just looking out for you too, Wade.”

[andyfire122]

Fictober Day 8: This is it, isn’t it?

Fanfiction Fandom: Fallout Mentions revenge and beating on a dead body.

“This is it, isn’t it?”

Alice gave a nervous chuckle as they finally got to the door. At this point, the thought of actually finding Kellogg always seemed so far away. Now that she was actually at the door, things got real really fast.

Nick put his hands in his pockets and just waited. "I don't doubt that it's going to be a fight just getting to the man. Hell, it was a fight just following Dogmeat."

The fight to get there isn’t the issue to me. What comes of this is the problem.

“I got this far...just might have to apologize for something before we get started." There wasn't any jokes or hit of any of her usual tone.

Maybe that was the reason she decided to let Nick tag along when he asked. He knew how the old world worked. That’s why this change is almost so shocking. Every emotion she had when this all started came rushing back.

Nick sighed. "As I said, it's your show. I did choose to be here and accept your job."

I don't think he gets what I'm saying. Hell, I don't even understand it.

Her eyes narrowed as she got her gun ready. "I'm apologizing now for how dark I'm gonna get. For first I'm gonna get the info I want out of the man, then I'm going to kill him."

“You wouldn't be the first person to want payback for what they lost." Nick was trying to be reassuring but the point was almost lost.

She sighed. "I was a lawyer in the old world. I was never the one to do any of this. Sure I knew how to fight but to actively want this so bad. Even now I'm not even sure what this is all going to do to me in the end."

Nick was silent for a moment. Like he was trying to think on the matter for a bit. She was about to ready her gun to go up to the roof when he stopped her.

“Changes are bound to happen. Though from what I've seen, your starting to make friends help with all of it." The synth took up a cigarette before following behind.

Sure let’s tell all my friends how I want to violently tear apart those who took my life from me.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

000000

“FUCK YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU STAND FOR!”

Kellogg was finally dead but she didn’t care. She was still seeing red. Not only did she didn’t find her son but then he told her he was in the institute. He kept going on and on about how she should let it go and how her boy was home.

After everything he did to get them there.

All she could do was keep beating on the body. Nick knew better than to get in the middle of all of that. In this state, she was more likely to hit him as well and she wouldn't even be aware she was doing it. It was all the rage she kept in being let out.

“If your done tenderizing the old merc I do have an idea.”

It was almost like something snapped back into place. It was then Alice realized the state she was even in. The blood all over her wasn't even hers. In her rage, there was hardly anything that could make the body be recognized as Kellogg.

She was shaking. “I didn’t even notice.”

Nick just walked up and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'd be surprised if you didn't have some rage to let out. Still, you did say you were going to get dark."

The entire time infiltrating the place she was cold and calculating. Nothing like how a lawyer from the old world would even act. It was very different from the woman who saved him from Skinny Malone.

A lot of things were let out when that dam broke. Didn’t think the blast radius would have this much damage.

He took a step to look over all the terminals. “How about we let Piper have her take on all of this.”

She just nodded as she was staring at the last thing no one picked up. It was Kellogg's gun. The gun would be good in normal circumstances. If it belonged to anyone else.

Nick just picked it up and put it where he'd seen her store her weapons. Hopefully, the walk back to diamond city will put her head back in order.

The rage of a mother is a fearsome one indeed.

[assortedmutts]

Red diamonds for all the boys (and white if you feel up to it)

Send for headcanons!

Merc: I think about Merc’s captivity training a lot. So does he, tbh.

It’s a traumatizing experience to say the least, spending a week in a simulated hostage situation, daily subjected to torture by one’s own commanders (I’m sure they’re not allowed to do things like waterboarding or live burial anymore, nowadays; but things were different in the 80s). Doesn’t help that Merc arrives at it with a personal history of trauma and abuse.

Though the whole point of captivity training is to teach soldiers to brace themselves for a time when they may, indeed, be captured by enemy forces and, though it is general knowledge that no man is unbreakable and soldiers are, indeed, expected to break at a certain point, it was simultaneously frowned upon back in Merc’s days. Worst of all, it taught him new and creative ways by which to hurt himself. More than a decade later, he’ll still punish himself for ‘stepping out of line’ by putting himself in stress positions for hours on end.  

Merc & Dom: thinking about the way Merc’s reason for stalking Dom shifts from keeping him under tabs and maintaining a sense of control in their relationship to something he does to ensure Dom’s safety (let’s not discuss how miserably that fails when Dom gets snatched right out from under his nose). Thinking about the way it might even become comforting for Dom, at a certain point: knowing he has Merc watching over him even when he doesn’t necessarily seem to be there. Thinking about how Merc might even turn it into a little game for them to play one night, with Dom receiving either a phone call or recorded messages ordering him where to go and what to do around his apartment (go to the second window in his bedroom, take his shirt off, etc.).

Job: a pregnancy scare was what initially led to Job’s engagement to his now-ex-fiancé, Nadja. Job was barely nineteen, she was twenty-five; she had no family to speak of in the country, Job was virtually estranged from his own; she was his first true love, and he was determined to do right by her. However, when it was soon thereafter discovered that Nadja was not, in fact, pregnant, Job wanted to maintain the engagement nevertheless. He had already gone through the mental process of accepting he was going to become a father and, though, ideally, he’d have preferred to have been a bit older before having his own kids, the idea of settling down with a woman he loved and starting his own family was one he was not yet willing to give up on. 

Sadly, it was a ghost sighting some months later that eventually lead to their breakup.

Job & Juni: I’m shit at writing lyrics/poems, myself, and I’ve yet to find something I like for what I’d imagine Job would write for Jr. (other than the instant classic of Juni, I really want ya to do me), but he regularly writes love songs and little poems for him throughout their relationship, as well as love letters (and, no - the little postcards and things he mails him from the road do not count as love letters, in Job’s books). He absolutely still does this long after they settle down, and I’m sure Juni winds up owning several shoeboxes packed to the brim with everything Job ever writes him. They’re going to need to move to a bigger trailer with more storage space, eventually.

Saul: one great example of why Saul feels as dedicated to his community as he does is the case of Menashe’s funeral. Needless to say it was a large ceremony, attended by a couple hundred people; Saul was so upset that he simply could not bring himself to read the (well-written, heartfelt) eulogy he’d written his own father. So, one-by-one, about twenty community members, friends and acquaintances of Menash’s got up and gave their own eulogy in his stead. Eventually, when they were all done (yet Saul was not done crying his eyes out), Shosh went to the podium with him and helped him deliver his eulogy. He certainly felt loved, then, and understood everything both his father and grandfather had ever told him about a community being there for its members at times of need. 

Saul & Ari: how guilty does Ari feel on a scale of 1-10 that he’s out of the country when a raid on a Neo-Na.zi group goes wrong and Saul is hospitalized with a broken arm/ribs, a good deal of internal bleeding, a fractured skull and a concussion, and Ari only finds out about it in retrospect, when he eventually makes his way back to New York and Saul is, much unlike himself, not at the deli? (: 

[minuteminx]

Revolutionary

Pairing: Preston Garvey/ Female Sole Survivor

Summary: In the aftermath of personal tragedies, Preston and Charlie both seek to make a difference in the Commonwealth and those around them. They could never anticipate the impact that they will have on eachother in the process.

Chapter Two: Quincy

Chapter Summary:  History is different when it plays out before one's eyes.

[First Chapter]

[AO3 Link]

“What is to give light must endure burning.” ― Victor Frankl

Quincy, September 2287

An early autumn sunset fell over the splintered buildings and raised walkways that surrounded the tattered homes and market stalls known as the Quincy Settlement.  Preston wondered if the sky had always looked like that, or whether the hazy pinks and oranges were yet another lingering effect of the nuclear fallout that had destroyed the Commonwealth some two-hundred years earlier.  Even if that was the case,  it was comforting to think that the end of the world hadn’t been quite enough to darken the Sun.

To call Quincy “the most prosperous settlement in the southeast” was doing it a big favor.  That its settlers had managed to survive in the harsh, swampy land rife with ‘lurks and ferals long enough to establish sound supply lines with Diamond City and Bunker hill was impressive, but Quincy itself was no thriving center of life.  It was just the only place where humanity had managed to establish itself in the region, and as such, it was a big target for raiders and mercs of all sorts, who sought to claim it for themselves.

Preston traveled to the settlement with Colonel Hollis and a small contingent of Minutemen in response to a distress call from the mayor.   Apparently a batty, old jet-head had some sort of vision that Gunners, a ruthless pack of cult-like murderers, were plotting to seize Quincy.  It was a stretch, in his honest opinion.  He’d never been the religious type, and he definitely didn’t believe in psychic visions.  It was just a coincidence that the militia had to drive back a small band of the mercenaries less than a day after their arrival. Many of the attackers fled when they were met with resistance; however, a young boy had been shot in the leg.  Last Preston heard, he still hadn’t recovered.

He finished driving a nail into the latest of many wooden boards he’d been using to fortify the settlement walls and stepped back to examine his work, dropping the hammer to the ground by his feet.  It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing at all.  Besides, there wasn’t much else he was qualified to do.  He’d never been any good with technology, so wasn’t any help to that mechanic, Sturges, nor was he important enough to sit and strategize with Colonel Hollis, Lieutenant Colonel Richards, and Mayor Jackson.

As far as Preston and anyone else was concerned, the only job he really had left was to walk around with a gun in his hand and wait for reinforcements. Not that he believed reinforcements would actually arrive.  Ever since General Becker died, the Minutemen hadn’t been known for being reliable, timely, or helpful.  It almost seemed hypocritical to use the name of an historical group named for being ready to help at a minute’s notice.

“Hey Preston,” chimed a familiar voice, snapping him out of the gloom and doom.  He looked up in time to watch Millie jump down from the walkway just above his head.  She frowned when she saw his face. “Oof.”

“You really need to be more careful,” he remarked as she put her hands on her hips.

“And you need to stop sulking,” she retorted, and handed him a container of purified water “You know, I had no idea when my dad recruited you all those years ago that you’d grow up to be my mother. ”

Preston offered her a shrug as he took a long swig of the water.  Amelia Hollis was the daughter, and only child of Colonel Ezra Hollis.  A handful of years older than Preston, Millie’d been his unofficial mentor since he’d joined up with the Minutemen at seventeen, lost, alone, and hoping to turn his tragedies into something meaningful.  Over the years, she had become his closest friend and constant shoulder to lean on, even after she and Richards coupled up. Part of him had always wondered if his feelings for her were mutual.  Turned out they were just friends after all.

“The walls are looking good,” said Millie, tilting her head and looking at his work.

“I did my best,” he replied, laughing and shaking his head, “Not sure what a bunch of old wood’ll do against laser rifles besides catch fire.”

“Better for it to catch fire than us.”

“That’s true.” Preston frowned and surveyed his surroundings as if reinforcements and an armory full of ammunition would miraculously pop up from the rubble.  He flinched when Millie grabbed his shoulders and squared him up to face her, eyebrows stern.

“We have done everything we can, Preston,” she insisted, grip tightening, “You’ve done everything you can.”

“It’s not enough.”  He shook his head and pulled away from her, attempting to walk past her.  “These people are counting on us, and all we’ve managed to do so far is get a kid shot.”

Millie blocked his path and crossed her arms.  “At least we showed up!  Listen, I know you’ve got these big ideas about what the Minutemen are supposed to be about.  You always have.  But it’s not the reality.  Sometimes all the good guys can do is show up.”

“And that’s just… okay with you?  Just showing up?”  His voice shook, but he refused to raise it.

“No.  ‘Course not,” she huffed and shifted her weight from one leg to another, “Look, the old man said he got a radio message from some guy.  Clint, he said.  Apparently they ran together when Becker was still alive.  Anyway, he’s coming with some of his people to help us out.”

“Didn’t Clint leave the Minutemen after Joe Becker died?”  Preston narrowed his eyes.  He’d heard rumors about Clint, none of them good.

“Dad thought so, too, but he’s offering help and we’re not exactly in a place to turn him down.”

“Fair enough,” he sighed, “Look, I’m sorry for being so pessimistic, it’s just…”

“I know you’re taking what happened to that Long boy personally,” Millie stated matter-of-factly, “But that ain’t your fault and you know it.”

Preston had a hard time convincing himself that he wasn’t responsible for Kyle Long’s injuries.  He had been so caught up with fortifications, he hadn’t noticed the boy following him around toting an old broom handle like it was a laser musket.  Gunners attacked before he could even tell him to run to safety.  Damned snipers had gotten up onto the walkway.  Several other members of the militia dealt with them while Preston Carried Kyle to safety, but the boy had already lost consciousness and a lot of blood.  Marcy’s desperate screams and curses still rang in his ears.  He deserved them all, no matter how many times Millie told him he didn’t.

“I failed to protect him,” he snapped, “And unlike you, I don’t think that showing up is good enough.  So, yeah.  It’s my fault.”

“Christ.”  She threw her hands up in surrender.  “I was just trying to help.”

“I know,” he said, and then paused, a brief, heavy silence hanging in the air between them before he pointed to the pharmacy with his thumb, “I’m going to go check on him.”

Millie nodded, and he turned to walk away, but she called after him.  “Hey… Preston?”

“Hmm?”  He looked back at her over his shoulder.

“Are we… good?”

He softened at the question and smiled.  After all, it wasn’t her he was mad at.  “Yeah.  We’re good.”

The Longs’ home was situated just above the pharmacy, which they owned and operated.  Preston could already hear shuffling footsteps and Marcy’s muffled, angry voice as he stepped inside, stomach twisted to hell  at the thought of facing her again.  He knew he needed to, that it was the right thing to do, but damn it if he didn’t want to avoid the painful conversation at all costs.  Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the back of the store and up the rickety wooden stairs and knocked on the locked door to their room.

“Who is it,” snapped Marcy.

Preston flinched.  He wasn’t used to people taking that kind of tone with him.  People usually liked him, and he didn’t immediately know how to react.  “It’s Preston, ma’am,” he said, sticking to his M.O.

“Great,” she replied emphatically, and with sarcasm that wasn’t lost on him, “Just who we wanted to see.  What do you want?”

“I came to check on Kyle.  I can come back later if—” He was interrupted by the door swinging open, nearly smacking him in the face.

Marcy stared him down, scowling from head to toe. Her eyes were red and swollen. “Well, come in.”

He nodded and walked inside, taking his hat off as he did so.  When he was just a boy, his dad taught him that it was disrespectful to enter someone’s home with a hat on; however, the gesture was wasted on Mrs. Long, who had not even seemed to notice.  She directed him around the corner of a divider that separated Kyle’s room from his parents’. The boy lay in bed, pale and breathing shallowly.  Jun sat beside his son’s bed, elbows on his knees and face in his hands, hair dirty and disheveled.  Preston cleared his throat, hoping to not startle the man.

Jun snapped his head up at the noise, a sad smile twitching on his lips.  “I’m glad you stopped by.”

“Really?”  The disbelief slipped out before he could stop it. “I just, well, I figured—”

“He’s been asking to see you,” Marcy explained, tone softening as she moved to sit on the edge of Kyle’s bed, nudging him gently.  “Sweetheart, wake up.  There’s someone here to see you.”

Kyle stirred, grunting as his eyes flickered open, first glancing between his parents then up at Preston.  A wide grin stretched across his face and he rose up to his elbows as best he could.  “Mr. Garvey!”

“Hey buddy,” Preston said, smiling back at him and kneeling beside the bed, “How are you feeling?”

The boy pointed to his injured leg and whimpered, “It hurts.”

Guilt and rage churned in Preston’s chest.  From the stain of blood that seeped through Kyle’s sheets, and his lack of color, he was far from being out of the woods.  It was not a good state to be in with an expected Gunner ambush.  Even if he survived an evacuation from the settlement, it wasn’t clear he’d be able to keep his leg.

“I know,” Preston managed, “I’m sorry.”

“Daddy says you’re gonna keep us safe from the bad guys if they come back!”

“That’s what we’re here for,” he answered, ignoring Marcy’s unimpressed scoff in the background.

Before the conversation could continue, commotion had stirred outside, first the loud metallic creaking of a gate being opened, frantic shouting, then a gunshot.  Marcy and Jun jumped at the noise, looked at each other, then to Kyle, then to Preston, eyes searching for directions.

“Stay here,” he directed them as calmly as he could, returning his hat to his head before rushing downstairs and out into the street.

At the gate, several Minutemen had gathered, weapons ready and aimed at a line of Gunners.  In the center stood a tall, burly man with an ugly mustache and hyper-reflective sunglasses.  A body lay on the ground at his feet—Mayor Jackson’s body, from the looks of it— and he held the colonel at gunpoint, laser pistol to the temple.  Millie fought against Richards’ arms, screaming as he held her back and out of harm's way.  Snipers once again lined the roofs and walkways as more Gunners poured in from all directions.  How in the hell had the Gunners managed to catch everyone off guard with such a huge contingent?

“Clint,” Hollis shouted, “You dirty, backstabbing son-of-a-bitch.  I should have known better than to think you’d actually help us.”

Clint, once an esteemed militia veteran, now a murderer. A traitor.  Preston’s blood boiled, sweaty palms tightening around his musket.  No one had seen him yet.  He could shoot, he thought,  just once before the mercs lining the walls would fire on the other Minutemen and innocent settlers alike.  Even if Preston managed to kill Clint with that one shot, it would be a bloodbath.

“You never were too bright Ezra, always letting that bleeding heart of yours get in the way,” he said,  finger moving up just slightly to hover over the trigger, “Should have put you out of your misery a long time ago”

“Dad,” Millie cried, breaking away from Richards, and rushing forward. “ Clint, you don’t have to do this.”

“No, sweetheart,” the man replied, despicable lilt in his voice, “I don’t, but where’s the fun in that?”

A gunshot rang out, a loud, searing blast of energy that caused Preston to flinch away, and he allowed himself to hope it had just been a warning.   But Clint didn’t exactly seem like the generous, warning shot-offering type of guy.  No, he and his whole crew were cruel and bloodthirsty, and Preston had just heard someone die.  He hadn’t been prepared for it to be Millie, who he saw fall to the ground just as he forced his eyes open.  The Lieutenant-Colonel cried out and attempted to rush to her, to catch her, but was met with a laser blast directly to the chest instead, collapsing in the dirt.  Panic pounded in his ears so loudly he didn’t even hear the shot that killed Hollis, and time stood still.  The settlement fell completely silent, no noise at all but the crunch of Clint’s boasting footsteps as he and his men advanced further into town.  

“Any more of you pathetic maggots want to take your chances?”  It was less of a question and more of false promise that anyone could survive.  If the people stood their ground, they’d be shot in the chest.  If they ran, they’d be shot in the back.  Some kind of options those were.  

Without anyone to give orders, without a prayer, the remainder of the militia and settlers scrambled, caged animals trying to escape the slaughter, Gunners stalking after them.  Preston stood numbly, watching the chaos from the pharmacy doorway.  He wanted to charge into the fray and take out every Gunner bastard he could before the snipers got him, go down with the sinking ship that was the Commonwealth Minutemen.  As useless as he was to anyone alive, he figured he’d be even more useless if he died.  After all, he’d given Kyle his word that he’d protect him and his family, and that’s what he intended to do.

As he turned to re-enter the pharmacy, he caught a glimpse of two crouching forms clinging to the shadows of the building next door. Sturges, rusty pipe pistol in hand, used his body to shield Mama Murphy  from any potential gunfire aimed at them.  Preston shouted at the mechanic, just loud enough to get his attention, and motioned for him and the old woman to get inside.  Relief washed over Sturges’ face, and he nodded, looked around to make sure they could make a clean break, and rushed past Preston and through the door.

“Shit fire,” Sturges exclaimed, more to himself than anyone else..  

“I told you he’d save us, Sturg,” Mama remarked wistfully, high as a goddamn kite, “I saw it.”

“I know.  I heard you all twenty times you said it before, Mama,” he answered, words clipped but not unkind.  He glanced up at Preston.  “Doped up prophecy or not, I’m sure glad we ran into you, man.  Got a plan?”

A plan.  Were things not so dire, Preston might have laughed.  He couldn’t even put together a single thought, let alone a plan that wasn’t “run” or “don’t die.” He shook his head. Stay here.  I’m going to head upstairs, get the Longs, and then we’re all going to get the heck out of Dodge.”

“What about the others,” Sturges asked, “Everyone’s trying to hightail it.”

“We’ll grab whoever we find on the way,” he answered somberly, “That’s all we can do right now.”

“Sounds good, boss.”

Preston shook off Sturges’ suggestion that he had any sort of authority or leadership over anyone.  He was trained and better equipped to fight than the others, sure, but he was no more in control of the situation than anyone else, no less scared.  He rushed upstairs to where he’d left the Longs just minutes before.  They’d left the door open, and Marcy and Jun jumped up from their seats at Kyle’s bedside as they heard him enter.

“What’s going on,” Marcy asked, desperation in her voice, “It sounds bad out there?”

“There’s no time to explain,” Preston insisted, keeping his voice as low and calm as possible, “I’m really sorry, but we have to go.  Now.”

“But—” Jun said looking back at Kyle who’d lost consciousness again, “It won’t be safe to move him.”  

“Safer than staying here and getting killed by those bastards outside,” Marcy argued, lifting her son up into her arms and then turning to face Preston. “Thank you for coming back to get us.”

Preston smiled, eyes lingering on Kyle’s face, peaceful despite all of the chaos around them. “It’s what I’m here for.”

[charybdiaa]

Chapter 3: You gets no love and I thought you knew it

Rating: Mature Category: Gen Major Tags: V & Jackie Welles, Male Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Street Kid V, Canon is a suggestion, (really) Specific pop culture references Characters: Male V, Jackie Welles, Misty Olszewski, Viktor Vektor, Johnny Silverhand (near the end)

Summary: In Night City, something was better than nothing. It was better to have one friend, some chrome, some eddies than to have nothing at all. But V was greedy by nature. He wanted more than something: he wanted everything. V wanted to be more than a passing thought in this city, more than the slums he was raised in… V wanted to be a legend. But only legends knew that there was only one thing worse than unfulfilled dreams: Dreams that come true.

[nukacoola]

Hey there! I see you were open to writing requests. I haven't had a chance to see your work yet so I'm sorry if this isn't the type of request you typically do! But, I was wondering if you'd indulge me with a little nervous/romantic MacCready confessing feelings? (for sole or Deacon or anyone else you want!)

“Ok, this is it. This is the day. You know what you’re gonna say. Don’t be a fu-, a freaking coward, MacCready. You’ve got this.” MacCready was nervously pacing back and forth in his house in Sanctuary. 

He had invited Sole over for dinner earlier that day but as the clock ticked and the time their meet was scheduled for crept closer, MacCready was getting more and more nervous. He wasn’t nervous because Sole was coming over. On the contrary, he loved hanging out with them. They made him feel happy and safe in a way no one since Lucy had been able to. He was nervous because of what he was planning on saying to them when they arrived. He didn’t know how to thank them when they had helped him kill Winlock, Barnes, and all of their Gunner goons. He didn’t know how to thank them when they still paid him extra caps even after they had become more like friends than business partners. He sure as hell didn’t know how to thank them when they helped him find and successfully deliver Duncan’s cure. And he definitely didn’t know how the hell he was gonna tell them that he, uh, how he felt about them. 

Duncan was out of the house, staying with Curie for the night, and he’d been practicing what he was gonna say all day. Everything should’ve been perfect. He should’ve been ready. Despite his preparations, though, he was a wreck. He was sweating bullets and no matter how much he wiped off his hands, his palms were still clammy. 

“Ok ok, one more time, from the top. Hi Sole! I lov- oh god what the fu- frick! God damn- darn it why can’t I get this right? Hi Sole, I-” MacCready jumped at the sound of knocking at his door. They’re here? Already? He checked the time. It was 6, just as they had planned. MacCready took a deep breath and tried to stop his heart from leaping out of his chest. He wiped his hands on his pants for the 50th time and made his way to the front door. Without letting himself overthink, he opened the door. Lo and behold, it was Sole. They looked really good, as usual, which only fueled MacCready’s nervousness further. Luckily, Sole’s bright smile at seeing MacCready helped ease some of his worries and he smiled back, genuinely. 

“Hey, Mac!” They greeted him with a warm hug which he eagerly returned. “You look really good. Is that a new shirt?” They smoothed their hands over his shoulders, admiring the clean button up.

“Uhh, yeah I just found it at an old Fallon’s.” He answered lamely. The truth is he had paid a good few caps in Diamond City to get a shirt this nice and clean. But Sole didn’t have to know how long he’d been preparing for this night. He noticed that they looked a bit dressed up too.

“So, what are we having tonight. If it’s molerat I’ll only be a little disappointed.” They teased. 

“No molerat!” MacCready promised, trying to keep his confidence up and his voice from wavering. “The brahmin steaks I’ve been making should be ready in just about 10 minutes. Would you like a drink?” He wasn’t sure about Sole, but he certainly needed one. 

“Sounds great.” They replied with a smile before making their way over to MacCready’s couch. “Those steaks smell amazing! I forgot how good you are at cooking.”  

“Oh uh, Thanks!” MacCready stuttered, quickly turning, half to go fix some drinks in the kitchen and half to hide his ruby red blush. He procured two glasses and poured them both some wine. After bringing the drinks over to the living area, he and Sole got to chatting. Mac’s awkward demeanor dissipated as his favorite person excitedly told him about prewar wineries. They were deep in conversation and deep into their drinks when MacCready’s cooking timer went off. 

“Is it done?” Sole asked, “I’m starving.” they flashed Maccready a bright smile which made his stomach flip. He shyly smiled back and nodded.

“It should be, why don’t you go sit down while I take it out of the oven?” 

“Sounds good!” 

MacCready turned to walk into the kitchen and grabbed some oven mitts. He removed the steaks, they were perfect. That made one of them. MacCready was practically shaking he was so nervous. He took a deep breath and willed himself to forget the fact that he was going to tell Sole over dinner. Hey, maybe if the food was good enough they wouldn’t storm out when they didn’t feel the same. He again tried his best to push those thoughts out of his head, instead focusing on the plating of the food. When he felt it was sufficient, he turned back to Sole. He found that they had busied themself with pouring some more wine and two glasses of clean water. 

“Aw, you didn’t have to do that.” MacCready smiled as he set the plates of food down.

“You’ve been slaving away all night! It’s the least I could do.” They grinned, looking up at him. If MacCready didn’t know better he would’ve thought there was a slight pink hue to their cheeks. It must’ve been the alcohol. Sole began to strike up conversation again as they sat down and began to eat. MacCready was starving too. Sole had always said he didn’t eat enough, but his delicious meal and hunger for it were doing little to remedy the nausea caused by the minutes ticking by. He had to tell them but he didn’t want to mess things up. What if they didn’t feel the same? And if they didn't, what if they hated him for ruining their partnership. What if-

“Mac? You ok?” 

Fuck. Sole was looking at him with concern in their eyes. Sole’s hand hovered near Mac’s, but they didn’t touch him. The merc looked back at his partner. His mouth kept opening and closing but the words wouldn’t come out. He had to say something. 

“I-,” Sole’s hand gently lowered to rest on his, “I just, well, we’ve been traveling together for a while now and I have something I wanted to talk about with you.” If his heart palpitations didn’t kill him, the look on Sole’s face would have. Their look of worry shifted into one of borderline fear. Did he already mess this up?? His question was answered when Sole looked away from him and spoke. 

“Did I do something wrong?” their voice wavered. Completely taken aback by this question. MacCready roughly grabbed their hands. They looked up at him, surprised. 

“No no! Nothing like that at all! I mean, hell, Sole! I don’t think you have the ability to do anything wrong.” Sole looked confused, but the worry they had worn before seemed to be gone. “You’re amazing and kind and funny and hell you look like you’re out of a dam-darn pre-war magazine!” 

He heard his words after he said them and internally cringed. That was not what he had planned on saying, but it was too late to take it back. He scanned their face for any signs of animosity but Sole’s face gave no indication of their thoughts. Their cheeks were definitely red, but that was uh, alcohol, again, probably. Mac’s face, on the other hand, could’ve been mistaken for a tato, and it definitely wasn’t from the drinks. 

“Wha-what I was trying to say was I- uh, well I really like you. In a more than friends or work partners kind of way.” MacCready stared at his hands, still holding Sole’s like it was his job. He didn’t want to look up to see a disgusted expression marring his friend’s gorgeous features. If he only had a couple moments of normalcy with them left, he wanted to be able to remember what it felt like to hold their warm hand in his. One of Sole’s hands moved from Mac’s. This was it. They were pulling away. Instead of what he suspected, however, MacCready felt Sole's hand cup his face and tilt it back towards them. He looked into Sole’s kind eyes with a bit of shock painting his own.

“I like you too, Robbie.” Holy shit holy crap oh my god did they just say that?? DID THEY JUST CALL HIM BY HIS FIRST NAME WHEN THEY SAID THAT??? Not even just his first name, a nickname of his first name! The merc felt like his brain was lagging. His face was on fire and he only subconsciously noticed how his stomach was doing gymnastics. Sole laughed. Their cheeks were flushed too as they pressed their forehead against his. 

“So is this our first date then?” They teased.

“I- uh, if you want it to be! I honestly didn’t expect you to feel the same. You’re just so…” MacCready trailed off. There was no way to eloquently explain how beautiful and kind and just overall amazing Sole is. They seemed to get the message though. They flashed him another one of their perfect smiles and leaned back. 

“I feel the same, Mac. I’m so glad you told me.” MacCready smiled. For the first time in a while, he actually felt at ease. 

“Let’s finish our dinner and then we can talk more.” He suggested. 

“Sounds perfect!”

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Here ya go! I hope you liked it :) <3

[dumplingsspookysweeties]

Naga bitty information

Here is the information on all the Naga (snake) bitties we have in the shop!

cut below for length

Moonjelly (Undertale Sans): a peaceful garden snake, Moonjellies tend to live near homes and businesses with gardens or window boxes. He likes to pick off vegetables and eat small insects or the occasional mouse that enters his territory. He’ll adjust well to human contact and will eat any unprocessed foods (fruits, vegetables, meat). Keep a sun lamp handy so he can warm himself, though he can survive without it. It’s more of a comfort thing.

Sunjelly (Undertale Papyrus): another garden variety naga, Sunjellies are even more easygoing than their matching brothers. He only eats leaves and vegetation, being too kind to hurt another being for their food. They do enjoy sparing with either each other or other bitties, but only until someone gets tired. He’ll eat fruit, nuts, and vegetables, and enjoy the sunlamp, but he’ll also need more direct attention and love.

Hisser (Underfell Sans): These snakes are more aggressive, but they’re primarily egg eaters. They tend to live in tree hollows, eating the eggs of nesting birds or the young of the squirrels that also nest around those areas. He’ll be perfectly happy with a couple of eggs from your fridge, and a warm spot in the house, but make sure he knows you want to be there for him or he’ll get hostile toward you. He only allows family or those he cares for to be close to him.

Merc (Underfell Papyrus): A mimic in facial structure for a venomous bitty, these snakes have large fangs despite being constrictors and egg eaters. His diet at home would mostly be a large egg and some bits of meat, and he’ll warm slowly to an owner who provides for him. To get him to like you better, keeping a clean home and letting him choose activities will go a long way.

Bushsnake (Underswap Sans): These naga bitties are rarely seen because they tend to hibernate most of the year. They live around berry bushes since berries are their main food source. A Bushsnake in a home will not hibernate since they only do this for the purpose of sleeping through between berry ripening seasons. They will be awake year round and energetic. Feed on berries and fruits, frozen or canned is fine. Very quick to bond with owners.

Mouser (Underswap Papyrus): These are found in barns and other areas frequented by mice. It’s not that they want to hurt the mice, but Mousers are smart enough to know humans see mice as pests and that keeping their population down helps keep humans away from him and from the areas where Bushsnakes tend to live. In a home setting, he’s fine with any unprocessed food, but will be partial to meat just because they’re used to it.

DarkMoon (Horrortale Sans): These are hunters and despite their small size, they’re a force of nature. He takes down things his own size or slightly bigger, including birds, rodents, and the young of bigger animals. He uses his limited magic to corral his prey, and he’ll use it to prank you until he gains respect for you. This is easy to do if you have a good supply of meat and let him feast as he wants for the first few days.

DarkSun (Horrortale Papyrus): A general omnivorous naga, he’ll eat anything he can manage to swallow. DarkSun’s tend to enjoy home life a great deal and become very attached to kindly and generous owners. Feed any unprocessed foods, and treat him with respect, and you’ll have a friend for life in a fortnight.

Diamond (HorrorSwap Sans):  Named after the rattlesnake, these are actually constrictors. The name comes from the way they rattle their open ribs if threatened. They eat live prey, but are just as happy with frozen mice or meat chunks. Make sure to let them explore your body when they first get home, as they’ll be very curious about how a human or other monster is different from himself. Set your boundaries though, or he’ll go EVERYWHERE in his thirst for knowledge, and then he’ll be so embarrassed and ashamed when he finds out he invaded your privacy!

Treeboa (HorrorSwap Papyrus): tends to climb things, but is lazy and more likely to be an ambush predator. Enjoys eggs and birds, as well as small reptiles and mammals as prey. Will use you as a climbing post, but won’t hurt you unless you hurt him first. Climbing on you is a sign he’s accepted you as his owner.

Squeakers (HorrorFell Sans): Has the same problem with unintentional laughing and noises as all horrorfell sans types, but his come out as small squeaks. Will make these sounds even in his sleep, but if he is calm and happy it will be more rare than when he’s first getting used to his home. Omnivore, but leans towards meat in preferences.

Leader (HorrorFell Papyrus): One of the few venomous bitties, they tend to show their fangs in warning if they’re angry. He tends to stay in shady areas since he’s the most actively warm natured of the nagas. Eats meat of any kind, prefers whole prey. Will eat more if he has to defend himself and use venom.

Titan (UnderWorld Sans): prefers fish as food, and enjoys water. These are bigger than your average bitty by about an eighth of an inch around, and two inches longer. Their jaws work strangely, but they are generally peaceful and lazy.

Feeler (UnderWorld Papyrus): These naga bitties are fascinating and tend to eat small insects. They make their way around by magic sense alone, and enjoy having a companion to help them. They will also eat small pieces of meat, especially if it’s shredded.

Clicker (UnderWorldSwap Papyrus):

Clickers have the same mouth trouble as their legged counterparts, but it makes swallowing their preferred fruit diet all the easier. They’re usually found around fruit trees, especially when the fruit is falling. They can’t speak, but sign very well and will purr like most bitties when content and happy. They can be a bit of a scavenger, as they like and can easily eat fruit that is past its prime, so they sometimes end up a little drunk off fermented ones in the wild! Loves cuddling hands and fingers, curling all around them. They also tend to press their chests to palms, so you can feel their soul pulse. They want their owners to know they’re happy to be with them. this makes toys with holes they can slide through a definite must!

 Goosey (UnderWorldSwap Sans):

They will naturally summons hands to sign like their legged counterpart. In the wild, they live off the mashed fruit their brothers tend to bring. If they don’t bring any, or there wasn’t a lot, sometimes the brothers feed them like birds. (it’s gross, but they mean it in love and don’t do so in a proper home setting. or anywhere else there’s adequate food) They have heat sensing capabilities, so they can get around fairly well on their own! They also enjoy finding (but not eating) small mammals and playing chase with them. This can be simulated by using craft puffs warmed in a microwave or oven

Caesar (FellSwap Red Sans): This is another little venom baby. He likes to hiss and present his fangs, but won’t use it unless he has no other choice. His venom is anticoagulant and corrosive, so you’ll bleed for a while after but it won’t kill you unless you already have a condition in a similar vein. He eats meat and will keep your house rodent free without prompting. Haughty and prideful, he’ll hold himself pretty highly, so it might take a bit to win his favor. Once you do, though, he’ll beg for your attention.

Berma (FellSwap Red Papyrus): A constrictor, he’ll curl up into a ball as a defense. Be gentle and soft with him, and he’ll uncurl and lean into your hand in no time. Loves any food, but will ask for sweets often, especially maple flavored. Amazingly heavy for his size since his magic is thick and powerful.

Milksnake (SwapFell Purple Sans): impusive, these little squeezers are energetic and quick to bite, but won’t put pressure on if they aren’t scared or angry. They tend to squiggle around everywhere, and will make a lot of messes in trying to explore, so just clean up after them and wait till they’re satisfied they know the house. Likes anything food wise.

Rain Viper (SwapFell Purple Papyrus): basically, feed them anything and they’ll be fine. It’s a good idea to be nice to them, since they’re venomous, but their chill nature will make up for any slip ups. He tends to try to trick you out of more food, but it’ll be fine. He may also try to take your jewelry if you have any, or your spare change if you don’t.

Wyrm (UnderTomb Sans):

These guys hide snacks in their ribs like all Undertomb Sans types, and love wiggling around and acting ‘spooky’ by hiding and jumping out at others He’s a heavy boy - they average around three pounds! Will hide in your clothes if it’s cold, especially if you’re still in them! He just wants to be warm, so a big blanket with a few hand warmers inside will be just as good. For food, they like meat of any kind, but can eat anything.

Knucker (UnderTomb Papyrus):

A Knucker likes to hide in burrows; this can be clothes, sand, dirt, cotton balls, anywhere narrow that he can hide in. Warning, this means he might do this inside your clothes if he gets in there! Just tell him about personal space and he’ll not get in there again. Like most Undertomb Papyri, he has a screechy voice, but enjoys attempting to sing. Extremely curious and limber, he’ll try and get into just about anything, no matter how high up! They usually grow to about three feet long! he’s a lot longer than he ever would be tall, but that’s something he enjoys! so many coils to dig himself into! As for their diets, they eat meat by choice, but can safely consume any food.

Reverie and Figment: (dream and nightmare)

With similar powers as their legged counterparts, these little snakes deal more with daydreams. Reverie will help you have productive daydreams that help you get ideas for work, or for any creative endeavors you have. Figment will deal with the intrusive thoughts side of daydreaming, reminding you (when he senses they occur) that those are not your true self or a reality you’re facing, but the odd misfiring of your mind. They both eat anything you’d enjoy, but always want to eat at the same time. carry two servings of any treats you bring with you.

WARNING: DO NOT SEPARATE THIS PAIR. THE FIGMENT WILL GO DARK!

Dark Figment:

this variety will also lose his eye and grow tendrils on his back when he goes Dark. A Dark Figment will become venomous, but with a highly hallucinogenic substance that also corrodes nerve endings painfully. The visions will be all your worst fears coming after you at once, and you will see yourself doing terrible things to the people you love most. If you survive the experience (which is a 75% chance) you will never trust your own mind again without intense therapy. If you choose to try and rehabilitate a Dark Figment, please use extreme caution, have experience with venomous snakes, and wear thick gloves and clothing when handling. Again, it will take years before he is Safe.

Clay (ink sans)- 

His tail is long and thin, and his bones are etched with bas reliefs in the aztec style, which he likes to color with henna or other temporary dyes. He likes a balance of meat and vegetables in his diet and will happily cuddle or doodle with you anytime. He likes to use his namesake to make statues that he colors with his dyes.

Moccasin ( error sans) - requires antivenom in the starter kit. Tends to be one of the only Error types that doesn’t mind touch as much since he prefers his warmth to come from mammals than from an outside lamp or heater. Will substitute one of those ‘warm in the microwave’ plushies for their owner, though, if the owner has to leave. Prefers meat and fish for food.

[mellowheartthecat]

TF2 Mercs as Pokemon Villans

Idea: the mercs but as pokemon villians. Yeah I’m just combining both of my hyperfixations. Obviously not all of them will be a perfect fit but i did my best.

More under the cut.

Heavy as Giovanni from Red and Blue -This man is rather smart and obviously pretty deadly, so it wouldn’t be hard for him to get to the top of a mafia. I feel like in this au he’d only be in it to support his family. -Wears Giovanni’s outfit from LGPE Engie as Maxie from Ruby and Sapphire -Besides the whole hating water thing this is a pretty good fit. They’re both nerds and make machines. -His goggles would have the mega stone thing embedded in the right side of them. His overalls would have Team Magma M on the front side of the straps. His belt would be yellow, and on his arms he’d have those turtleneck sleeves that go down to his wrists. He’d still have the gunslinger as his right hand, covered by a red glove. Soldier as Archie from Ruby and Sapphire -Himbos. -“More water.” “But why?” “MORE WATER, MAGGOTS!” -He’d keep his helmet, have Archie’s anchor necklace, and his battle clothes would be blue and waterproof. Sniper as Cyrus from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl -I believe that Sniper didn’t have many friends (if any) growing up and it’s already cannon that Cyrus didn’t have any friends growing up. The only thing similar to a friend he had was a rotom, and once that one left, he came to the conclusion that emotions are bad and he became the bad guy. The only real problem is that Sniper isn’t a nerd, so he’d probably be one in this au. He’d still be an outdoorsman, but he’d have some cool machines too. -Would keep his hat and glasses. His vest would be swapped out with Cyrus’. His battle uniform would be white with the sleeves being black. Pants are also black. Everything I didn’t mention would stay the same. Spy as Ghetsis from Black and White -Imo I kinda feel bad for putting him as that psychotic bush hair motherfucker, but he was the only one that could possibly fill this role. Obviously in this au he wouldn’t be as psychotic as the actual Ghetsis but he still wants to conquer the Unova region. -He’d keep his ski mask and suit, but would also have Ghetsis’ circus tent pattern as a cloak that he drapes over his right shoulder. -For his B2W2 design he’d change out the cloak for a black one. Medic as Colress from Black 2 and White 2 -This honestly was the easiest one. I mean seriously, go over to bulbapedia and search up this guy’s lines. He pretty much acts exactly like Medic. In this au medic would be more interested in operating on pokemon than humans. -He’d keep his gloves, coat, and boots. His hair would stay the same except for the addition of Colress’ signature internet explorer swirl. He’d have Colress’ clothes underneath the coat (you know, the black with the blue lines). Pyro as Lysandre from X and Y -Put down your pitchforks, let me explain. Lysandre thought he was helping the earth and pokemon by attempting to commit a genocide. Who else also thinks they’re helping? Pyro. So yeah. -The parts that’d normally be red on his normal uniform would be black, and the normally black parts would be orange, with the exception of his gloves, which would stay black. The yellow on his gloves would be orange Scout as Guzma from Sun and Moon -Honestly this is a really good fit. If you really think that Scout wouldn’t be the guy that beats you down and beats you down and never lets up, then you don’t really know scout very well. -He’d have Guzma’s jacket and a white shirt underneath, as well as a belt and scout’s usual pants Demo as Faba from Pokemon Sun and Moon.

-I was runnin out of options at this point and there was no way that he could be Lusamine, and I don’t acknowledge SS’s existence. So Faba it was. I mean, he’s got plenty of knowledge about bombs, so him being a nerd isn’t too much of a stretch. He definitely wouldn’t have Faba’s ego, so he’d be more liked around the Aether foundation.

-Would have Faba’s, um, ‘glasses’, but they would be black instead of lime green. Would have Faba’s lab coat, but it wouldn’t have a collar. On top of that would be Demo’s bulky vest. He’d also have Faba’s gauntlets, but they’d be black instead of lime green. No gloves, white pants, and his usual boots.

More info in tags

[avecorviidae]

Fic: mainlining the spiraling spherical truth of the universe

Fandom: Fallout 4 Rating: T Relationship(s): Male Sole Survivor/Nick Valentine, Male Sole Survivor & Shaun Word Count: 5012

Ao3 Link

Toby descends into the Institute to find a son that's old enough to be his father, and despite that, still looks at him with a very careful sort of vulnerability as he walks with him through the pristine white laboratories, introduces him to his heads of staff, shows him orderly living quarters and serene recreational areas, looks at him sidelong like he's always waiting for Toby's reaction, like he wants him to be proud.

And there's a part of him that wants to pull his son close to him, and tell him, yeah, it's fantastic, this thing you've built, I'm proud of you, I love you.

But Toby knows what the Institute does. He's been smuggling synths out of here with the railroad for months, and they're fucking terrified, gun-shy and shaking, watching over their shoulders for the coursers that will surely, inevitably come to reclaim Institute property. and the way Shaun talks about the folks above ground - so dismissive, as though the towns and cities and communities and bonds, the buildings and the families and the love and the art that people on the surface have created, don't matter because it's not pure, not clean,and he just as much wants to grab Shaun by the shoulders and shake him, go, don't you know that I'm one of those people? That you ought to have been too? That it's beautiful up there? That in the face of all this awful fucking shit, I've found people that have, against all odds, refused to be anything but kind?

So Shaun says, "What do you think of my home? Of everything I've built here?"

And Toby says, "I'm sorry. This wasn't what I wanted for you. This place, it's beautiful, but it's not the world I'm from. It's not a world I can ever be a part of. And you can run your lungs dry justifying every awful thing I've ever seen the Institute do by saying it was a mistake, or for the greater good of mankind, but I'm sorry, kid, the mankind you've got down here isn't any better than the mankind I’ve got up there. I love you, and I am so fucking glad I’ve found you, but I can't support you with this. The things you do here - it's gotta change."

"Please," Shaun says, "Father, let me show you- the work we've done down here-"

And Toby just shakes his head, and says, "I've seen the work you've done. I’ve seen the people it's hurt. That's enough for me."

There is a hard, tight hug, and some tears, and Toby leaves the Institute with his son's permission and blessing, and in the seconds before Toby relays out, they look at each other with hard, tight eyes, and Shaun's got a look about him, stubborn and angry, and Toby, with a sinking sense of dread, thinks, that's my boy,'cause if he's a bullheaded little shit, then he got that from Toby and not a damn place else.

.

“Aw, hell,” Nick mutters, as soon as he finds it. “Guerra? Think you might wanna see this,” he calls over his shoulder to the other room of the abandoned house, where Toby and his terrifying friend had been digging through cabinets looking for unexpired food.

Eli appears in the doorway a moment before Toby does, hand already drifting to the holster at her hip. “Christ,” she says softly, as soon as she looks down, sees the baby sitting on the filthy floor at Nick’s feet, gnawing happily on its chubby fist. It’s about the fifth word he’s ever heard her say, he thinks, and definitely the one with the most feeling behind it.

“Nick?” Toby calls, as he rounds the corner, “Everything alri- Oh. Oh.”

In a moment flat he’s crouched on the floor, waving fingers at the little one’s face to catch its attention. “Hey sweetheart,” he says gently, all bright and smiling. “What are you doing alone all the way out here, huh?”

Pointless question, really. Toby knows as well as Nick does that there’s no good answers to it. Whoever the kid was with before was either dead, or ought to be dead for deciding to leave it behind.

Toby grabs it under the arms and scoops it up, tucking it snugly against his hip. It makes a hiccupping, surprised little noise, looking at Toby with wide, guileless eyes.

(He oughtn’t call the kid an it, really. Most of the humans he knows have been nice enough to do him the courtesy of a pronoun, he can at least return the favour.)

“Okay, sweetpea, it’s okay, it’s gonna be okay.” He’s talking to her in a low, sorta sing-song voice, swaying gently, and it’s right around then that Nick remembers that Toby’s got a kid. Well, it’s not as if he forgot, it’s practically the first thing the guy says to half the people they meet, I’m looking for the man who took my son. But this is the first time Nick’s looked at him and really understood what that means. ‘Cause it’s gotta be some paternal instinct, right? The way he comforts her like he’s not even thinking about what he’s doing, like it comes as easy to him as breathing.

She’s been alone long enough to be soiled, so Toby sends Eli off to look for a metal washbasin, pours some of their purified water in there, warms it over the fire for good measure. Grins when he dips her little feet in there to let her test the temperature and she starts to giggle and kick, splashing him right in the face. She seems delighted with the bath in general - Nick guesses he would be too, if he’d been waddling around in a stinking diaper for however long. (He sometimes gets - phantom memories, he supposes, of what it’s like to have a human body. Sometimes feels a strange nostalgia for the sensation of hunger, or genuine, non-battery-related exhaustion. He has never once missed the ability to excrete.)

Toby’s only got eyes for the kid, all attentive and careful as he cleans her off, and Nick finds himself making an awkward sort of eye contact with Eli, who shrugs slightly, expression as blank and unreadable as it’s ever been. She’s sat herself down cross-legged on the rug, ostensibly relaxed, but Nick’s travelled with enough mercs, knows she’s one of the smarter ones, knows how carefully she’s positioned herself, sat between Toby and the door, rifle across her lap, angled towards the open window. It had used to make Nick nervous, how careless Toby seemed, like he’d never been taught to watch his own back. Guess he gets it better now, the idea of having someone that you trust enough to watch your back for you. He feels safer these days, walking into a room full of strange humans, with Toby at his side, fending off any synth-averse sentiments with a truly aggressivedegree of cheeriness.

“Are you old enough to talk?” Toby asks, to absolutely no response from the babbling kiddo. Still, she’s clearly charmed with Toby, like just about everyone is, and she’s watching him with big, happy eyes as he chats at her. “Can you say... Toby? To-by?”

She laughs, and Toby snorts, swipes a little booger from under her nose, and Nick’s struck again by how unthinkingly he does it, like it’s just second nature to him. “Alright, maybe that’s too hard. Let’s try... Can you say aaaaahhhh?” He goes all dramatic with it, roars like a little deathclaw, and the kid laughs, delighted, and copies him, screeching with all her tiny little lungs can give.

“Awesome, sweetpea! And look at those teeth! You’ve got a whole bunch! Think you can handle some tato stew?”

She’s got no idea what he’s saying, of course, but she’s very agreeable as he lifts her out of the water and pats her dry with one of his clean shirts, dresses her as best as he can given their limited supplies.

Feeding babies is, apparently, a spectacularly messy process, but Toby seems inexplicably delighted to have half of a perfectly good meal splattered down the fronts of him and the kid.

“We’re, what, five hours from Diamond City?” Toby says, eyes not leaving the kid as he waves a spoon enticingly in front of her face, trying to coax her to open her mouth.

“Six, if we take the long way around Hangman’s Alley,” Eli says, almost making Nick jump out of his circuits. She says it real neutral-like, almost careful, makes no mention of the fact that they’d packed for a week out in the wasteland, a job for Nick’s agency, nearly halfway from here to Sanctuary, with no plans to turn back.

“Six,” Toby repeats. “Okay. We’ll catch a few hours’ sleep here, set off at dawn. Someone in the city will be able to take her in.” The kid finally takes her spoonful, only a little of it dribbling down her chin this time. There’s an odd, hard set to his face that makes Nick some weird sorta mix between nervous and sad, a kind of seriousness that doesn’t often touch Toby unless it’s something to do with Shaun, or the gal that Kellogg killed, his life before. Makes Nick almost want to rest a hand on his shoulder, say, look, she’s sweet, but you know you can’t keep her. not now, not here. she ain’t a lost mutt that you’ve found in an alley, and she can’t be what you’re looking for, not when you’re still following leads on your boy. But Toby knows that, doesn’t he? It’s why they’re heading back at dawn. Why he’s going to knock on the schoolhouse and ask around for any families that’d be able to care for a kid her age, why he’s holding her so close on his lap now, his nose and lips pressed into the dark, downy hair on her head. He knows, maybe better than any of them, what he can’t have.

.

Despite that - Toby does go back. Gets a message on his Pip Boy from Shaun, asking if he would like to visit, for coffee. They sit in a careful, studied sort of silence at the table, Toby sipping on the freshest fucking coffee he's had in 200 years and feeling conscious of the fact that he's probably leaving dust and various other wasteland detritus all over Shaun's bright fucking white chairs

"I just-" Shaun starts, shakes his head. “You're from before. When everything was pristine, when humanity was striving forwards. We're doing that, here, now, looking to the future. How can you support the people up there, stuck in the filth and ruins of the past?"

Toby leans back in his chair, sighs. "Forward isn't necessarily a straight line. Sure, back in the day, we had working air conditioning and fancy vending machines, but the way I was- the way I am- was illegal. It was an unkind fucking world, and all the shiny trinkets didn't do a whole lot to hide that people were paying a few hundred bucks a month for medication that they needed to live. Down here—you’ve got the science down, I won't deny it. Clean food and water, medication, synthetic life. The kind of shit we read comics about when I was a kid. But up there? Shaun, they've made art. You can't walk thirty feet in Diamond City without hearing someone playing guitar, there's murals on old billboards, I once met an old church choir made up entirely of ghouls. Here, you're taking care of the body, but Shaun, humanity needs a soul."

The kidbot - Toby can't bring himself to think of him as Shaun, despite the fact that he's got Toby's eyes and freckles and smile - steps into the room with something in his hands, freezes in the doorway when he sees Toby sat at the table.

"I was just-" he starts, looking back at the door like he's thinking of bolting.

"It's alright, don't mind me," Toby says softly, waving the kid in.

"What did you need, Shaun?" Shaun says. Fuck, that's going to get weird fast.

The kid shuffles his feet, something guilty about his face. "I was trying to make my remote control car go faster, but I think I broke it." He holds the little shiny red racecar up to Shaun and Toby for inspection. Toby's actually got a similar one back at the house in Sanctuary, blue paint fading to an off-green, some rust gathered around the wheels. He'd managed to fix up a little motor in it to make it go one night, and he and Hancock had spent half the night racing it against a rat. Good times.

Shaun peers over to inspect the car with a distant sort of interest, but Toby can see where the kid's gone wrong. He's always been good at that shit, fiddly little stuff to do with his hands. Besides, his dad taught him his way around a motor back when he lived out west and they had the truck, and he fixed garage doors for a while when he and Val were trying to get on their feet in Boston.

"Give it here?" He holds out a hand for the car, and the kid hands it over. It takes him a couple minutes of fiddling with the multi-tool he keeps in his coat pocket, but he returns the car with a perfectly functional suped-up battery, and the kid grins when he sets it down and sends it careening off out of the room and down the hall, says, "Hey, thanks!" and runs off after it.

The door slides closed behind him, and Toby finds that he's smiling softy after him, and when he turns back to Shaun, he's looking at him oddly. Do you think you would be capable- Shaun had asked, that first day, Of loving a synth? As though it were a human?

Toby knows he is, as surely and intimately as he knows every crack and tear along the seams of Nick Valentine's face, knows the whirring and clicking of machinery under the skin when he's lying with an ear to Nick's chest, the black metal of his spindly hand tapping an arrhythmic beat on Toby's shoulder.

"Don't you know what you've made, with synths? the Gen 3s, they have free will, they feel.They're feeling for the first time, it's incredible."

Shaun tuts dismissively. "They're just machines. They cannot feel. The Gen 3s have some errors which seem to cause them to behave... erratically. The defects, they are violent and dangerous, and cannot be allowed to roam free."

Toby raises a single, skeptical eyebrow. Shaun wilts, just a little, and Toby realizes that he's just given his son his first ever I’m not mad, just disappointedlook. What an exciting moment in his parenthood journey. "Yeah," he drawls, "so violent and dangerous that they desperately run away from the coursers that want to bring them back to be dissected, and go looking for help and shelter, usually blending in peacefully into human settlements in an effort to live a normal life and find a purpose. Real terrifying. Shaun, jesus, this is what I'm talking about. You've created people, and you have the chance to care for them, to guide them into being a person, and you're treating them like defective equipment! Up there, at least, they can find community. They can find home."

.

You’ve never personally met the General of the Minutemen.

Which, like, you get it. He’s this big important guy, right? Dragged the Minutemen out of ruin and obscurity singlehandedly, spreading goodness and justice wherever he went, and you’re just a farmhand from fuckoff nowhere. You and your folks joined up with the Minutemen because it was your best shot at protection from the local gangs of raiders and other assorted scumbags that tended to make your lives miserable, and all the righteous justice and fun uniforms and shit were just a bonus. Still, you believe in it, right? And you’re grateful. So when the radio call comes through that Garvey and the General want to retake Fort Independence, set up a big fuckoff stronghold, yeah, you want to get involved. You’re twenty-nine and pretty much the most exciting thing you’ve ever shot is a real sad looking radstag, so you’re pretty excited at the prospect of some real action.

When you roll up to the diner across the wharf from the old fort, there’s a few campfires burning all around it, sleeping rolls and tents and scattered packs, folks sitting around on upturned cars and half-rotted benches, cleaning rifles and gnawing on jerky and passing around canteens. Preston Garvey, the biggest bigshot the minutemen had before the general came along, greets you at the door of the diner with a big smile and a clap on the shoulder, tells you to make yourself comfortable, introduce yourself to your brothers in arms. apparently the general’s travelling from pretty far west, and he’d had to detour south to rendezvous with an ally of theirs, so it’d be a few days yet before they mounted the attack on the fort.

There’s folks from all over the commonwealth here, and all sorts. Salt-of-the-earth farmers like yourself, hoity-toity Diamond City types, rough mercenary-looking people, all breaking bread and listening to the radio, singing along to the same five fucking songs, and you’re right there along with them, sipping whiskey and drunkenly drawling Johnny Guitar into the shoulder of one of your comrades.

The General arrives near sunset, and if Garvey hadn’t greeted him as such, you’d never have guessed it. You’re not sure what you expected – maybe a big buff blonde guy waving the star spangled banner, maybe someone more like Preston Garvey himself, big tough freedom type – but it wasn’t the unassuming kid who pulls Garvey into a brief, warm hug, grinning wide as Garvey claps him on the shoulder. You wouldn’t put him at older than twenty-one, and he’s small, got this kinda delicate look about him, all freckles and big puppy eyes and bouncy, curly hair in a cute little ponytail at his neck. He looks soft, and you’re pretty fuckin’ sure that he’s not really the General. Like, okay, maybe he’s got the title, but it’s cause somebody’s his daddy, right? Something like that. Anyways, he’s just some ditzy, pretty kid who smiles at folks and tells them everything’s gonna be okay, and Garvey’s gotta be the real brains of the operation, the one who does all the bloody, dirty work to make it happen.

The attack is being mounted at dawn, and when y’all are gathered round for the strategy meeting, you figure Garvey will take point on explaining everything while the kid smiles and nods along. Still, he seems to have half an idea what he’s talking about as he points to things on the map of the fort, asks questions about fortifications and potential choke points, takes shit into account when Garvey or one of the other more experienced vets chimes in with an idea. It’s just weird to see, you guess. This bright-eyed, smiley kid squatted on his haunches, his pouty, round face all serious as he stares down at a war plan. Fuck’s sake, he’s still got baby fat clinging to his cheeks, he looks younger than your baby cousin.

The plan, such that it is, is not the most complicated thing you’ve ever heard. There’s a bunch of slimy monsters holed up in the fort. You and your comrades will storm the fort, and shoot the monsters. Simple enough. Some of you will be scattered around outside, taking the high ground and moving up to the turrets once the towers have been cleared, to provide ranged support and catch any little bastards who try to escape down the hillside. You’ve all got a nice little stockpile of frag mines to take care of the egg clutches. Gross. You reckon it’ll work, though.

“Gonna let y’all go to catch some sleep before we get this started tomorrow,” the General says, addressing his little crowd of soldiers as a whole. “But just wanted to say one thing, so listen up. If you find yourself shit out of luck tomorrow – if you’re cornered, run out of ammo, get too scared, too tired, too hurt to keep fighting? Run. Scram. Get the hell out of dodge. I know it’s the coward’s move, I know it doesn’t make for a good story, I know it feels like deserting. I know you probably joined the Minutemen because you believed in it, believed in what we do, and you’re willing to die an honorable death doing it – and I’ll be honored to fight and die alongside you. But in the end, that’s just a big old castle with a bunch of mirelurks crawling around in it, and that’s not worth dying for. The fort is a symbol, and in my eyes, no symbol will ever be worth more than people. I’d rather each and every one of you ran away from it screaming and lived to tell the tale, than if we managed to take the fort, but at the expense of half of you getting gutted by some overgrown crabs.”

It is the weirdest damn speech you’ve ever heard, and the weirdest part of it all is, you’re pretty damn sure he means every word of it. He’s looking around at you all like he’s trying to remember faces, nervous sort of energy to the way his fingers tap tap tap on the stained yellow paper of the map at his feet.

“Besides,” he says, smiling ruefully, and you realize that this kid’s carrying an exhaustion that’s older than the fucking war, “If y’all keep on dying, people are gonna start saying that we’re called the Minutemen on account of us managing to lose another man every minute.”

.

They keep irregular coffee dates. Fuck if Toby knows why Shaun keeps inviting him. Fuck if Toby knows why he keeps coming back. Maybe it's the same reason for both of them. Shaun is his son, and Toby loves him, wants to know him, even if he hates him half the fucking time.

The Railroad's suspicious of his intentions, and he has to smile his way into a restricted lab and bring them back some stolen synth research to convince them that he's still on their side, despite getting cozy with the Institute's director. Desdemona's angry that he won't commit to destroying the place from the inside out, but... he's talking to Shaun. It's philosophy and ethics, and even Toby's got to admit that the serene quiet of the Institute is a good place to do it, and Toby brings him little oddities he's found along the way, comics that survived the old word, photographs and holotapes, even shows him some of the sketches he's done of the folks he's met above.

Toby starts bringing toys for the kidbot. They're nothing near as shiny and pretty as the ones he's got down here, but he seems to still love the scuffed up Nuka-Cola van Toby had found in a ruined comics store, goes wide-eyed and amazed when Toby hands it to him.

.

It's a peace that wasn't meant to last, of course. Most of the Minutemen settlements at this point are informally doubling as Railroad safehouses, Dez and the rest delighted to have farms to send newly-escaped synths to, places where they're guaranteed jobs and work and purpose, and folks who will look after them and check up on them like they're family.

Preston flags him on the radio, lets him know that there's been reports of coursers at five different settlements across the Commonwealth. They're going after the escaped synths, and they're more than willing to kill any humans that get in the way.

Nick gives him a dark old look, that, "We've both seen two hundred years of the world going to shit and you and I both know this doesn't end well"look. They recall everyone to the castle, it's the most fortified place they've got, the best shot they've got at defending their people. They all arrive within a couple days, plenty of them with coursers on their tails, and Eli dispatches them with quick, clean shots, the respect that one hunter shows to another. For days, the coursers keep coming, and Toby's people are getting tired. Shaun's not responding to any of his efforts to contact him on the radio, and with grim finality, he lets Preston prepare the Minutemen and the Railroad to invade the Institute and take down the Commonwealth's boogeyman, once and for all.

It's surprisingly quick work in the end, Toby using the access Shaun gave him to relay his little army inside, and they make quick work of the synths that patrol the halls. Ss soon as alarms start blaring, all the humans in clean Institute whites panic and scram, which makes Toby's job a hell of a lot easier. Place the detonator on the central reactor, ignore the frantic ticking of his Geiger counter and the vague feeling that radiation might be making his teethbuzz.

He tells Preston to issue the evacuation order, get as many people and willing synths out as quickly as they can, and he and Nick trek up through the eerily empty halls to the director's quarters.

Shaun's in some kind of biobed, skin ashy and face gaunt, eyes half-lidded as he watches Toby step softly into the room. the kidbot's sat on the floor at the foot of the bed, curled around himself and shaking, and as soon as he sees Toby, he darts up, wraps arms tight around Toby's waist. Toby keeps a firm hand on his back, comforting as he knows how to be, in a situation like this. He meets Shaun's eyes.

I didn't want it to come to this, is what neither of them say, but both of them mean, when Toby blames him for the death and pain the Institute's wrought on the Commonwealth, when Shaun spits back that Toby is destroying his life's work. But what's done is done.

"...You'll take the boy?" Shaun asks wearily, looking at Toby's hand, still keeping the kid close to his side.

"Of course," Toby says, rough with feeling, "Yeah, of course. We're taking everybody, everyone we can get out. We'll take you, too."

Shaun shakes his head. "No. I want to rest now. I don't want to live to see the destruction of my home."

"Neither did I, but I managed, didn't I?" Toby snaps, then shakes his head. That was, well. Mean. Even for him. "You wanted progress. You wanted to move forward. You don't always get to choose the direction that goes. You don't just give upwhen you lose."

Wordlessly, Nick hefts the kid up against his hip, and Toby guides his son to a wheelchair near the bed, pushes him back down the sloping halls to the relay point, where the last party is getting ready to leave, waiting only on their General. Preston and Dez give him hard, unreadable looks when they see who he's pushing, but they've both got the good sense not to say anything, especially with Nick hovering over his shoulder and Eli quickly returning to his side.

.

Later, much later, they return to Sanctuary.

The kid wants to be called Callum. He read it in one of the comics Toby gave him. Toby had helped him to set up a bedroll and a lantern in the upstairs nook of Toby and Nick's home, had tucked him into bed wearing a soft shirt of Toby's that went down to his knees, hugging the bedraggled teddy bear he'd left the Institute with to his chest, and Callum had said, softly, "Night, Dad,"and Toby had smoothed a hand over his soft, perfect, synthetic hair, and said, "Night, kiddo."

At night, Sanctuary's strung up with lanterns and cooking fires, soft orange glows from inside the windows of the carcasses of old homes, flickering lamps in garages and driveways. It's more crowded than usual, on account of it being something of a celebration, the end of the Institute, and all. There's most of the Minutemen from across the state, the Railroad HQ, and the Institute evacuees, scientists, citizens, and synths all. Deacon and Hancock are arm wrestling, and they've drawn... quite the crowd. The Institute evacuees are slowly, surely mingling with the Commonwealth scum, who are meeting them with only minimal suspicion, and mostly good-natured heckling about the ugly white clothes. Someone's playing Johnny Guitar, obviously, and the soft strumming mixes with the gentle, constant murmur of a hundred or more voices laughing and talking and singing.

Toby finds Shaun on the outskirts of the celebration, his wheelchair parked in the dim driveway of the house that he was supposed to grow up in. Toby wonders, vaguely, if that's a coincidence. He's avoided this house, since he woke up. Maybe he's more like Shaun than he's wanted to admit. He's wanted to move forward.

Toby sits beside him on the concrete, follows Shaun's gaze to further down the block, where Preston's got an arm around Desdemona's shoulder, making some kind of triumphant speech, most likely.

"So," Toby says eventually, with a strange sort of serenity. He's got a thin layer of dust and sweat on every inch of his skin, and his fingers probably smell like battery acid from the plasma cell ammo, and his lip is still tingling from the little shock he'd gotten when he kissed the open circuitry on Nick's cheek. He's aching and stinking and exhausted, and he's never been happier. "What do you think of my home? Of everything I’ve built here?"

Shaun sighs softly, and after a long moment between them, says, "I don't know this world. but I suppose I'll have to take after you, and learn to adapt."

He stands, puts a hand on Shaun's shoulder, squeezes. "That's all I can ask for."

[andrewmoocow]

Steven Universe: The Fantastic Mutants chapter 5: Never Again (originally posted on November 16, 2020)

AN: Good to see you all again my dear readers! How have things  been? Am I being too intrusive? Well, doesn't matter! It's good to be  back in business after a few weeks, so let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

--

"So  how much of this show is actual camping?" HYDRA Bob asked Peridot as  they, along with Deadpool & Lapis, watched Camp Pining Hearts  together at the X-Mansion while surrounded by massive amounts of snack  foods and garbage. "A fair bit, but pretty much everyone comes for the  romance," Peridot answered. "Yeah," Wade stated. "like your crippling yaoi addiction."

"What is yah-oy?" Lapis asked while  mispronouncing this new word just as Pearl came in with a broom. "You really should learn how to pick up after yourselves as guests." The Gem  grumbled while sweeping up crumbs off the carpet. "Hey, wise up Pearl,  I'm basically an honorary member!" Deadpool remarked. "Hey, Flat-Top,  gimme a refill on my coke here!"

"And you should also treat the  people housing you like friends, not your servants." Colossus reminded  them, just as disgruntled as Pearl, while he gave the Merc with a Mouth another bottle of pop when suddenly, Xavier came in. "Ah, Professor!  Would you be so kind as to help us teach Wade here some manners?"

"It's alright, Piotr." Xavier calmed the metal mutant down. "Although Mr.  Wilson here can be a bit of a nuisance, we do need all the help we can  get to rescue Steven and Kitty."

"Thanks for the save Cap'n." Wade  grinned at the aged mutant when someone knocked at the window. "Hey,  anyone in there?!" the voice of Spider-Man called from outside, latching  upside down onto the glass. "Peter!" Pearl exclaimed. "Long time no  see. How are the other Avengers doing?"

"The big six are off in  space right now, and the reserves are holding down the fort for now."  The web-slinger answered as he opened the window and leaped through it.  "When your message reached us, I was the first to take it and brought  along a few pals who might be useful."

As Peter finished talking, a  silver and blue blur burst through the front doors, stopping to reveal  itself as Quicksilver. "Pietro, good to see you!" Colossus exclaimed.  "Must mean Wanda isn't too far behind, da?"

"You are correct."  Scarlet Witch answered as she followed her brother. "Hello again Crystal  Gems." She greeted the Gems. "Hello to you and Pietro too, Wanda,"  Garnet replied as she stepped into the room. "It certainly has been a  while since Thanos. I hope you both are well."

"Oh, never better  Garney!" Quicksilver responded as he sat down between Peridot &  Lapis to watch Camp Pining Hearts with them. "Ooh, I love this show! I  always felt Pierre & Percy have really good chemistry."

"Thank  you for agreeing with me good sir." Peridot added pridefully. "Oh, quit with the shit already!" Wade interjected crossly. "No one ever talks about Pierre and Paulette!"

"You take that back, you crimson clod." Peridot snarled threateningly at the mercenary and soon, an  intense shipping debate between the two began. "Oh, this could take a long while." Pearl sighed in exhaustion.

"I just watch for all the crazy shenanigans these campers get up to." Spider-Man gave his opinion while snatching some snicker-doodles from the ottoman.

--

"Come on, work!" Kitty groaned in frustration as she continuously tried and failed to break her and Steven from their imprisonment without using her mutant powers. "If only I could find a way to break this collar, then  we'd get outta here easier."

"Why don't I give it a shot?" Steven  suggested, deciding to use his shield to cut the bars apart. However, that failed as well. "It's hopeless. If I didn't come, then maybe we wouldn't be stuck here."

"Hey, don't beat yourself up like that  Steven." Kitty comforted her fellow mutant. "I'm sure the Gems are  already on their way to save us, so try and keep your chin up until  then." She implored Steven, but he remained downtrodden. "Let's face it;  we're here because of my mom."

"Oh, mother issues?" Kitty  realized. "I get it. That's perfectly normal. But you can't always let  the sins of the parent bring you down." She assured him. "Yeah, sins  like taking part in universal genocide before realizing that wasn't good  and instead doing things far worse than that." Steven grumbled, much to  her surprise. "Whoa okay, didn't see that coming!" Kitty exclaimed.  "Far worse how? Did she actually murder someone?"

"She  deliberately left tons of Gems and other races to die for her just  because she was bored of being Pink Diamond, let two of my friends to be  imprisoned for thousands of years, forced Gems who cared for her to  suffer from her faked death and who knows what else!" Steven complained.  "And then there was that whole thing with Magneto."

As if on cue,  the aforementioned leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants stepped into  the brig to interrogate them. "I see you've been making yourselves at  home while you could." He declared before grabbing Steven by the shirt  collar through the cell bars. "Tell me boy, why do you have her  gemstone? Was it passed down to you?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."  Steven answered. "When I was born, my mom died to give birth to me, and I  got her gemstone and all her powers as a result. She also left me with  all her baggage from ages ago, including when she was once a member of  the Great Diamond Authority."

"Great Diamond Authority?" Magneto  wondered, and Kitty seemed just as confused. "Yeah, I have to agree.  There are more Diamonds out there?"

"That's not important right  now," Steven said before Magneto set him down. "Still, why go after me in particular? We're both mutants. We should be on the same side!"

"You already know about how Rose abandoned me at Auschwitz, but the Gems only told you half the story," Erik revealed, turning away from Steven  & Kitty in the process. "My part of this tale is far more complex  than you realize. Like many a Jew during the war, I was prosecuted by  the Nazis for my religion and sentenced to death. But I was a special  case."

--

Heavy rain poured upon  Poland in 1944 as a large group of imprisoned Jews marched sorrowfully  through Auschwitz, their world nothing but drab colors aside from the  bright yellow Star of David on their clothes signifying their religion.  All around them, more of their people were forced to perform possibly  lethal jobs for their superiors and be treated horribly should they fail  to work or try to resist.

One young man in particular named Erik  Lehnsherr watched just as miserably as his fellow Jews and began to  notice that many of the other prisoners had brands on their arms. As  soldiers began coldly leading their prisoners away from the group,  Erik's parents Edie & Jacob were forcefully separated like the rest  from their son, with Edie being particularly hysterical about having to  leave her child.

Erik raced after his parents in an effort to see  them one last time, but the gates closed before he could get a chance,  and another Nazi grabbed the boy to keep him under control. However,  something miraculous happened. When Erik fruitlessly reached out towards  the gate, it began bending towards him. Another Nazi aided his fellow  soldier in detaining the boy, and two more raced towards him as the  fence began twisting more and more.

Erik's mutant powers awakened  that day as the gates were ripped open with a mere stretch of his hand,  but he was quickly stopped with the butt of a gun to his head from a  fifth soldier. "Bring ihn zu Dr. Schmidt." that soldier commanded his  subordinates. The four Nazis nodded and dragged the unconscious boy  away, to where his destiny would soon be realized.

--

"And  that's where you first met his mom, right?" Kitty asked her captor.  "Yeah, I don't think we need to hear how she ditched you again."

"As I stated, the story is much deeper than that," Magneto said. "Allow me to continue."

--

Soon,  HYDRA had come to assist the Nazis in stopping the Howling Commandos  and the Crystal Gems from instigating the Auschwitz breakout. As Rose  began fighting off soldiers, she began counting off the fleeing Jews.  "Let me see how many we got," Rose muttered while trying to do a  headcount. "Agh, there's too many of them! I can barely keep count when  I'm surrounded like this!"

"Less than a million!" Garnet counted  for her leader with her future vision. "However, there are still a few  that we were too late to save, namely the Lehnsherr family. Klaus  Schmidt is holding their son Erik."

"Klaus?" Rose soon came to a  realization. "That was the boy in the office! I have to go ba-" Before  Rose could finish, a HYDRA enforcer took advantage of her letting her  guard down and fired with an anti-Gem weapon, poofing her form.

"Rose!"  Pearl exclaimed while rushing to the deactivated gem lying on the  ground. While Captain America covered for them with his shield, the Gems  made a hasty retreat. "But what about those other Jews?!" Amethyst  exclaimed. "A few prisoners should take this from here." Garnet  answered, just as the Sonderkommando charged at their captors with guns,  knives, axes, and grenades.

Inside the building where Klaus  Schmidt was stationed, the mutant Jew slithered around the hall to avoid  being caught again. Nazis raced outside to combat without once taking  notice of the boy making his escape. Taking a moment to peek outside the  window, he noticed the Gems escaping the concentration camp and  furrowed his brow angrily. "Sie haben mich verlassen."

As the  warfare continued, Erik quietly made his getaway with his newly awakened  mutant powers and used a wrecked chain fence to fly himself away from  Auschwitz.

--

Many years later in  1963, Magneto was holding a demonstration in New York to make a speech  about the superiority of mutants when she showed up again. Rose Quartz  had decided to show her face to him again after leaving him to rot all  those years ago in Auschwitz, and only now, she shows up with an excuse  to try and make peace.

"You can try to rope yourself into my good  graces all you want Gems," he growled, preparing to fight the Crystal  Gems. "But nothing can ever change the past!"

Ripping a nearby  water tower off its supports, Erik prepared to smash it on top of Rose,  Garnet & Pearl, but then came a loud shriek coming from the Irish  mutant Sean Cassidy, aka Banshee. "Top o' the mornin' to you ladies!"  Banshee exclaimed and let out another scream that brought the master of  magnetism to the ground. "Now Neal!"

"I got you!" the Indian  pyrokinetic Neal Shaara, or Thunderbird to his teammates, boomed while  turning his body into plasma and landing a few hits on Magneto, but the  German fought back by expanding a force-field that pushed him back.  "Longshot, Angel, Mimic, it's all you now!"

"You got it!" Longshot  replied while standing on a rooftop with Mimic and Angel Salvadore and  preparing to throw a large knife at Magneto. "Just got one shot at  this." He muttered to himself just as Amethyst hopped up behind him.  "Hey, what you guys doing?" she asked the three mutants, catching  Longshot off-guard. "Do you mind squirt?!" Longshot barked, but then he  noticed her gem. "Say, you wouldn't happen to know those three, right?"

"We  can discuss it later!" Angel said while sprouting fly-like wings and  flying off. "Hey, wait for me!" Mimic exclaimed, copying his teammate's  power by growing insect wings of his own and soaring after her.

"You  guys wouldn't happen to be like ol' Maggy over there?" Amethyst  continued asking Longshot, who harshly shushed her while trying to keep  his concentration. "Okay, sheesh!"

"Now Longshot!" Banshee  exclaimed as he let out a loud shriek at Magneto to knock him  off-balance, allowing Longshot to fling his knife at the evil mutant.  But Erik stopped the blade before it could reach his face with his  powers and threw it right at Pearl with a wicked grin.

"Pearl,  no!" Rose cried out as she dove in front of her confidant, letting the  knife stab her instead, causing her to ultimately poof and retreat into her gem.

"Rose!" the remaining Gems shouted, racing to protect  their leader's inactive gemstone from Magneto. "Well, that should do  nicely for now." He snidely muttered. "But know this Crystal Gems, we  shall meet again someday soon. Even if we have to wait years to do so!"

With  that, Magneto zoomed off into the sky and left the Crystal Gems &  the X-Men below. "So, sorry about letting your boss end up like this."  Longshot nervously apologized. "That was my knife he threw at her after  all."

"It's alright. Rose will recover soon." Garnet assured the mutant. "By the way, I didn't get your name."

"Call  me Longshot, leader of the X-Men!" Longshot proudly replied. "These are  my teammates; Banshee, Mimic, Angel Salvadore, and Thunderbird. We're  all mutants."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Thunderbird greeted,  extending a hand to Pearl. "Mutants? I think I remember meeting one, centuries ago." Pearl replied, shaking Neal's hand. "You wouldn't happen  to know anyone named En Sabah Nur?"

This revelation caused the  X-Men to gasp in shock. "Wait, you met Apocalypse?!" Mimic cried. "Let  me guess, you guys know him as a real bad guy?" Amethyst quipped. "Yeah,  he's about yay tall, superiority complex, total Darwinist." Angel  replied. "Come along. We can tell you more about him."

"And maybe  we'll introduce you to the professor too." Banshee added happily. "We'd  be glad to meet your professor." Pearl agreed, and Garnet & Amethyst  nodded as well.

--

"So that's how the  Gems met Xavier!" Steven realized. "But how come you remember that last  bit happening? You left after poofing Rose."

"Don't think about  it." Magneto assured him. "And now that I have you in our clutches,  watching Doctor Doom experiment on you will be so satisfying."

"But still, you can't just vent your vengeance on a kid!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Yeah,  this isn't what Xavier would want!" Steven replied, forcing Magneto to  drop his stoic façade. "He knows you can be better than this, barring  the terrorism. You're both on the same wavelength when it comes to  protecting mutants, but kidnapping one of your own for your own sake is  just wrong!"

"Y'know, that does seem like something Charles would  say. Though he would've said it better." Magneto relented, pressing a button on the cell to let Steven and Kitty out. "Fight them off while  you still can children. I shall take the blame myself."

"Okay Steven, let's get outta here!" Kitty declared excitedly. "And no matter what happens, I got your back!"

"Actually  Kit, I think I got yours." Steven replied, just as another door opened,  and Mystique stepped into the brig. "Erik! Why have you let the  prisoners out?" she asked Magneto. "It was the boy who convinced me."  Erik revealed. "As it turns out, he's quite good at turning people to  his side."

"Well, you're too late child." Mystique said to Steven. "We have finally landed in Latveria."

--

The  Crystal Gems, X-Men, Fantastic Four, X-Force, Spider-Man, Scarlet  Witch, and Quicksilver all marched to the Blackbird, ready to go out to  Latveria and save Steven & Kitty. Human Torch and Cyclops were in  charge of piloting the plane while Xavier planted his wheelchair in the  back.

"So tell us what we're in for Reed." Garnet asked Mister  Fantastic, who gave a sharp sigh of regret. "You should know by now that  Doctor Doom is our family's greatest adversary. Intelligence on par  with my own, mastery of the mystic arts, psionic abilities, the works."  Reed explained. "But what I'm sure you probably don't know yet was that  we knew Doom long before he turned out like this."

--

"Victor,  have you gone mad?!" a younger Reed yelled at his college classmate  Victor, who was standing in front of a large machine generating an  unstable portal. "This machine is highly unstable and could explode at  any moment!"

"I do not care what it takes, Richards!" the man who  would be king of Latveria cried as the machine was on the verge of  self-destructing. "This is the only way I can see my mother again!"

"Hey  Stretch, we got everyone outta here!" Ben Grimm, back then a normal  human being instead of a large rock creature, called for his classmate  while he, Johnny and Sue burst into the laboratory. "You gotta come with  us!"

"No Reed, we can see our mothers again, together!" Doom  tried convincing his rival. Reed hesitated for a moment, weighing his  options between escaping with his friends or getting to see his late  mother Evelyn again. But as he made his decision, he turned away from  Victor. "I'm sorry Vic. But I've moved on."

"How dare you?!"  Victor screeched, while his four contemporaries fled the scene. "Don't  you dare run away! We could've been something more!" Just then, the  portal machine has just about reached its boiling point, and caused the  lab to explode with Doom inside. The last thing he said before the room  collapsed on him was a scream of "RIIIIIIIIICHAAAAAAAARDS!"

--

"Never  saw him again after that incident. Ol' Iron Mask got expelled, then he  just vanished offa the face of the planet." Ben regaled in the present  day. "That is until he re-emerged as some young upstart billionaire  named Victor Domashev, who funded the space flight that made us into the  Four we are today."

"Hey guys, less backstory, more blasting  off!" Amethyst snapped her fingers. "Pretty sure Steven might be on his  way to being dissected by now!"

"Yeah, and a certain author friend  of ours wants to get this out as quickly as possible." Deadpool agreed,  his medium-aware comment inciting odd stares from the others. "Can we  move onto the next scene already?!"

--

As  Mystique had declared, Steven was now in the European country of  Latveria, famously ruled by the Fantastic Four's arch-nemesis Victor von  Doom. He and Kitty were led through the aesthetically medieval capital  city Doomstadt, where its citizens whispered in German, Hungarian and an  unknown third language reminiscent of the latter dialect.

"Victor, we have brought the child. And an unwanted guest." Mystique announced  in front of Doom's castle as they crossed the drawbridge. The castle was  guarded by numerous robot soldiers that bore Doom's face, all of them  giving Steven cold and unfeeling glares as he was finally brought before the man who's face the robots bore.

"Steven Universe." Doctor  Doom boomed, resting on his throne while the boy was handcuffed in front of him. "I have heard much about you these past few months child. Erik,  I must commend you for getting the job done, although I've heard of  your possible betrayal and won't tolerate it." Then Doom turned to  Mystique. "Thank you Ms. Darkholme for alerting me of this before you  arrived.

"You are most kind Doctor." Mystique thanked him with a bow. "We hope you return your end of the bargain and grant us mutants  sanctuary in Latveria."

"Raven, you must listen!" Magneto cried to  his second in command. "This boy calls himself a mutant, just like us!  We can't just let Victor experiment on him like this. What if he has  something else planned?!"

"SILENCE!" the king of Latveria roared.  "It seems this child has made you soft Mr. Lehnsherr. No matter." He  rose from his throne and stepped towards Steven & Kitty to give them  a good look. "He shall become useful to me soon. And as for the girl, take her away."

"Yes your Highness." Mystique complied, snapping her fingers to have Juggernaut take Kitty away.

"Hey,  put me down!" Kitty hissed, struggling to break free from the massive  mutant's hands, which was easier said than done since her powers were  still restrained. "Don't worry Steven, I'll find a way to save you!"

"Ah  shaddup!" Juggernaut groaned loudly, stuffing a big finger inside the  smaller girl's mouth to keep her quiet when Mystique put a hand on his  bicep. "And what do you want Bluey?"

"It's about Erik. We may  resort to terrorism to fight for mutant rights, but I think allowing a  child to be experimented on may be going a bit too far." Raven whispered  to Cain while they moved farther away from Doom. "Besides, he is a  mutant much like us."

"So I've heard." The Juggernaut muttered. "But shouldn't he count more as an alien because his momma was one?"

When  the Brotherhood mutants left the throne room, Steven was left all alone  with Magneto and Doom. "What do you want with me Doom?" Steven asked the king. "Was it really necessary to have the Brotherhood kidnap me  when you could've had your robots do it?"

"Why I couldn't have  just sent my Doombots doesn't matter." Doom declared. "But what does  matter is what I want to do to you. You see, you're special Steven, as  you probably know. A being who's a mixture of human and alien DNA, and  that alien DNA might prove very important to me." He explained to  Steven. "I wish to use those genes for my own ends. Perhaps make an army  of similar beings, or perhaps become part-Gem myself to gain ultimate  power! Which is why I chose you in particular."

"Doctor, an  invading ship is approaching Doomstadt." A Doombot announced as it  walked into the throne room. "Shall we send out the reinforcements you  selected?"

"You may, #1961." Doom replied, pressing a few buttons on his arms that opened a door, and behind it were four supervillains.

Trapster, a man in goggles with a container of glue-like substance on his back, attached to a hose with a gun at the end.

Mole Man, a deformed midget in a green suit with a blue visor who was holding a staff in his hand.

The  Puppet Master, a bald, dark-skinned man accompanied by a pair of  human-sized marionettes in the shape of the Human Torch and the Thing,  that he controlled with a special remote.

And the Wizard, a purple armor-wearing supergenius who floated in the air with special anti-gravity discs.

"Frightful  Four, it seems we have some uninvited guests." Doom revealed to the  four villains. "I insist you deal with them at once, while I make my  little guest here at home."

"Yes Doctor." The Frightful Four said  in unison, then the marched out of the throne room to battle. Once again  Steven was alone in the throne room with Victor & Erik, and the  former was all too eager to get things started.

"Now then, shall we begin testing?" Doom asked Steven maliciously, and Steven replied with a very nervous gulp.

--

After  three months of work, it's finally done! We're getting close to the end  of this guys, and I couldn't be more excited. But for now, I think I'm  gonna take a little break to focus on college stuff for a bit, and I'll  be back soon with not just a new chapter, but also a brand spankin' new  Steven Universe tale I've had on the brain for a while. It's an AU  rewrite of Steven Universe Future aptly named Steven Universe: Alternate  Future. If you want to know more about this upcoming series, I've  already got an entire episode list on my DeviantArt page along with  drawings of some original characters created for it. Until we meet  again, toodle-oo!

In Loving Memory of Sean Connery

1930-2020

& Alex Trebek

1940-2020