#exploding the butt bugs king

[overseer-picard]

*slaps picard's bald head*

you can fit so much trauma in this bad boy

[moved-attre]

info dump for my v! was gonna make this into a whole tag meme but the prompts aren’t very original. oops.

THE BASICS:

FULL NAME: Valerie King.

ALIAS: V / Veronica Li.

DATE OF BIRTH: August 27th, 2049.

AGE (AS OF 2077): 28.

PLACE OF BIRTH: Heywood, Night City.

RACE/CULTURE: Chinese American.

RELIGION: It’s complicated. (Raised Catholic... Now unsure.)

SEXUALITY: Bi

GENDER / PRONOUNS: Cis female, she/her.

SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English and Spanish.

RIGHT OR LEFT HANDED: Right handed.

EDUCATION: College drop-out.

OCCUPATION: Agent at the counterintelligence division of Arasaka, second to Assistant Director Jenkins. Later, mercenary. 

APPEARANCE: 

HAIR: Black. Mid length. Straight. Loose. Briefly changes to neon green, bob cut. Then, back again.

EYES: Dark brown. 

NOTEABLE FEATURES: Freckles on face and body. 

TATTOOS: Snake wrapped around left wrist / Dragon wrapped around left shoulder / Lovers tarot card on left inner forearm / ‘LUCKY YOU’ on left hip joint just above crotch. Angel wings & halo with ‘JACKIE’ on right inner wrist / Collection of roses on right hip and upper thigh / ‘DEATH CAN WAIT’ on bottom of right ribcage. “Johnny + V” in a heart on right inner forearm. 

PIERCINGS: Right and left lobe, double piercing. Philtrum piercing. Navel piercing.

CYBERNETICS/PROSTHETICS: Visible golden cybernetic... plate? on her neck. It can have a skin-like texture covering but it’s sorta transparent. Replaced right hand, and again: has a skin-like texture finish but slightly transparent so the gold chrome is visible. Kiroshi eyes (natural color). Enhanced knee caps/ankles for long distanced jumping. Mantis blades. Cardiovascular and Respiratory system is almost all tech, as is much of her nervous system etc. 

SCARS: None from combat. She has stretch marks on her butt, boobs and tummy.

BODY SHAPE: Curvy / plus size. Not skinny or muscled. Soft.

HEIGHT: 5′3. 

FASHION SENSE: Neon, metallic, holographic. Short skirts, crop tops and big coats / jackets. Wedged sneakers or heeled boots. (Johnny says her style is “hooker”, but what the fuck does Johnny know. He’s worn the same outfit for like 70+ years. Get with the times, grandpa.)

MAKE UP: Neon. Loves yellow or green eyeshadow / eyeliner and shiny colored lip gloss.

NAILS: Long and pointed, like triangle shaped. Always with a metallic finish, colored either: Red, blue or silver.

PERSONALITY: 

ZODIAC: Virgo sun, Aries moon.

MBTI: INTP.

5 FLAWS: Anxious, high maintenance, clingy, emotionally unavailable, jealous.

5 STRENGTHS: Patient, detail-oriented, ambitious, witty, passionate.

SECRET TALENT(S): Can sing.

LIKES: Crappy daytime soap operas, artificial strawberry flavored foods and skin care, MONEY!! and NC in the rain at night.

DISLIKES: Healthy food (She has never touched a vegetable... She’s pretty gross.), other people’s mess, anything with a matte texture and rock music (Sorry to Johnny. But she’s never heard a Samurai song and never will.)

HOBBIES: Boxing. (Not that she ever actually goes more than once a month... She’s got 50+ missed calls from Coach Fred.)

FEARS: Loneliness / being left behind. Being replaced. FOMO.

DREAMS: Stability. A family, whether that’s with a romantic partner or friends. Just someone who’ll stick around.

MUSIC TASTE: Pop, dance, rap. The majority of her library is filled with “girl power” tracks about making money, beating people up and being sexy. 😙

DRINK AND DRUGS: Weed. Likes beer. Smokes cigarettes, thanks to Johnny. Tried various other, harder drugs as a teen but outgrew it.

BAD HABITS: Chews her bottom lip / plays with jewellery when nervous. Tends to bottle up her emotions until she explodes. Has a perpetually messy apartment and will not tidy up.

REASON FOR WANTING TO MAKE IT BIG IN NC: To prove a point. She’s not quite sure who to, sometimes it’s her mom... Other times it’s herself... (She puts a lot of importance on being “self-made”.) For a while, she wanted to succeed for Jackie. Until it got him killed. Now she just wants to survive.

CHILDHOOD HERO: Morgan Blackhand. Corpo-backed mercenary who took on Adam Smasher and may or may not be alive yet? He was like a comic book character to baby V. 

COMBAT/VEHICLES: 

COMBAT STYLE: Netrunner. (Stealth.)

PREFERRED WEAPONS: Her hands. Hacking. A pistol with a silencer. Mantis blades, in an emergency. 

WEAKNESSES: Open combat. She can be slow to react, as she’s overthinking everything. This isn’t the Matrix, unfortunately. 😔

SIGNATURE VEHICLE: Type-66 Avenger, or Jackie’s ARCH.

FAMILY/OTHER RELATIONSHIPS:

FATHER: Everett King, deceased. Low level office worker for Militech.

RELATIONSHIP WITH FATHER: Generally positive. He was her only family for a long time, so V grew very attached. When he passed, she was very angry.

MOTHER: Chloë Li, unknown. Housewife.

RELATIONSHIP WITH MOTHER: Non-existent. Her mom left the family years ago when V was a young child, so her memories of her are vague at best - and clouded by V’s feelings of abandonment.

SIBLING(S): Jordan King (younger brother), deceased.

RELATIONSHIP WITH SIBLING(S): She loved her little brother lots, for the very short time she knew him.

PETS: Nibbles the (creepy) cat.

SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A. Briefly, River Ward. (Johnny... but it’s complicated. 😢)

CHILDREN: N/A. She doesn’t want children, ever.

OTHER MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS: Jackie, Mama Welles, T-Bug, Misty, Vik, Judy, Panam, River, Kerry, Padre. Jenkins, in a mentor role.

META: 

LIFE PATH: Corpo. 

CHOSEN ENDING: Worst ending. V [redacted] and dies with Johnny by her side. She doesn’t see the point in struggling on and letting other people die for her, nor does she want to run away. She’s bound to Night City, for better or for worse, and she’d rather go out on her own terms with the most important person in the world to her by her side.

ACTUAL ENDING: V explores the Old City ruins, finds Arasaka’s top secret cryogenics facility. Johnny’s body is recovered, his engram restored and they live happily ever after in Night City. Tah dah! The end!

PRIMARY SKILLS: Intelligence and Cool.

SECONDARY SKILLS: Body and Technical ability.

[inkribbon796]

Days of Childhood

~::~ 10 Years Ago ~::~

Summary: 5+1, Visitation Day. Yancy palling around with his family. All taking place within the same week.

A/N: Bim and Yan are currently 21, making Yancy and Kay 22, and Illinois and Arthur 23. Meaning that here they are 11, 12, and 13 respectively.

5. Arthur- Bugs Alive:

“Come on, hurry up,” Arthur called out, his notebook clutched to his chest as he ran off, Yancy was struggling to keep up with all the rocks and tree roots.

The two boys were running around the spooky woods surrounding the Manor. No wild animals, except for insects and rats, could be found. Normally people who entered the woods became lost and died. Dark took great pains to hide the skeletons that could be found within the unhallowed woods.

Yancy only caught up when the young Author had stopped at a fallen tree that was covered in mushrooms and other fungi, moss covering the rotting wood in sickly patches. He looked giddy and excited, holding a large jar along with his notebook.

In later retellings, Yancy would admit to this being a huge red flag.

“There you are slowpoke,” Arthur shoved the jar into Yancy’s hands. “I need some bugs so I can study them for my stories.”

Unsuspecting, Yancy smiled, “Can I look at them too?”

The young author shrugged, “Sure, whatever.”

“Did you hear?” Arthur started, smiling mischievously, cracking his notebook open. “Dark gave me a nickname, like the kind his network have.”

“I thought we weren’t allowed to join,” Yancy reminded in confusion.

“Well I’ve got one, that means I’m better than Illy,” with a couple quick words, the entire tree trunk violently flipped over, exposing dozens of types of teaming insects out in the open. “No one else here has one but me.”

Yancy frowned at the snide look on his older adopted brother’s face, “Bim goes by Junior.”

“He doesn’t count,” Arthur snapped angrily, and ripped the jar away and started scooping up insects, uncaring if they crawled over his hands to get away from him. “Wil gave him that.

“So what’s your nickname then?” Yancy asked.

“Dark calls me “his little Author” neat huh?” Arthur smiled proudly as he screwed the cap on and smiled at the jar.

“Yeah,” Yancy leaned in to look at the bugs. “So where are you going to hide them? Dark’ll get mad if you bring them into the house.”

Arthur wrote another couple of words and his bat appeared at his feet, a smile on his face, “What do yah mean, Yanc?”

Yancy scurried back with his hands as Arthur brought the bat onto the jar, crushing many insects as others frantically tried to escape. The young author crushed one trying to flee, bringing up his notebook and making sure they all froze in place. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Sick to his stomach, Yancy tried to scoop up some of the insects, the little crawlers freed from Arthur’s powers when they touched his hand, and he flung them into the safety of the bushes.

“Hey, they’re mine!” Arthur shouted. “Don’t throw them away.”

“Run little bugs,” Yancy scooped up some beetles and a worm and threw them into the bushes.

With a couple flourishes of his wrist, an equal number of bugs that Yancy had saved, exploded. “I can kill them faster than you can take them.”

Yancy stuck out his tongue, scooping up another beetle, “You can’t stop me!

Their game continued, Yancy running back to the Manor with a bloody nose and Arthur more than a bit scratched up.

4. Illinois- Heroes and Villains:

Inside the Manor there were two young boys running around the house, one as, and the other who was in a kid’s brown fedora that tended to fall over his eyes was 13.

“Stop running,” Illinois yelled at Yancy. “You’re the hero, you’re supposed to chase me.”

“Youse always play the villain, I’s want a turn,” Yancy yelled back at him and tripped over the rug, crashing hard on the ground.

“Oww,” Yancy grumbled as Illinois jumped onto him and started tying up his feet.

“Gotcha!” Illinois cheered, “now it’s . . .”

The older boy paused for a bit, “You okay.”

“Yeah it just hurts,” he complained.

“Oh,” Illinois stopped and finished tying him up, grabbing a blanket that had been left on the couch. “You can be the villain for a little bit long if you want.”

“Youse gonna ta drag me ta jail?” Yancy asked, smiling and giggling when Illinois rolled him onto the blanket.

Illinois grabbed the blanket and began dragging it towards, “You’re going to jail for stealing a candy bar!”

“No!” Yancy yelled overdramatically.

Illinois picked up a corner of the blanket and began dragging him towards the nearest closet. They passed Dark who was outside his office and looking at them, unimpressed.

“You two aren’t playing that game again are you?” He asked.

Illinois adjusted his hat so it wasn’t over his eyes, “Yes?”

Dark groaned, “Play that outside, you’re going to break something.”

“OK, Dad,” both Yancy and Illinois agreed and Illinois began dragging Yancy and the blanket towards the door.

Because both of them were turned away they missed the scared look on Dark’s face at the title they’d give him. Fear that quickly gave way to a colder mask. “It’s Dark.”

Both the boys frowned,, correcting themselves before Illinois finished dragging Yancy onto the back patio and then carried him down the stairs to the lawn where he grabbed a couple croquet pins and made a little small fence around him. Both boys unaware that Dark was watching them from the balcony

“There,” Illinois said proudly, hands resting on his hips. “I won.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Yancy complained. “Whatever. Untie me already.”

Illinois tapped his chin, “Nah, untie yourself.”

“Noisy!” Yancy yelled. “Get back here!”

Then Yancy noticed a danger sticking out of the ground. Quickly Yancy rolled over and grabbed the knife and began cutting himself free.

“Hey!” Illinois began racing for the patio stairwell door as Yancy finished cutting himself free. Since the knots were tied by a thirteen-year-old and Illinois hadn’t actually meant to keep him trapped indefinitely, it didn’t take long.

However, now Yancy was chasing Illinois around with a knife in his hand as the boys ran up the stairs. Dark quickly snatched the knife out of his hand the first chance he got.

“Dark, he cheated!” Illinois called out.

The Entity was just sipping from his coffee cup as the two boys raced around him. “You’re the villain now, get away from him.”

Yancy and Illinois kept running around the backyard until they got exhausted and Dark brought them inside for a nap and a snack.

3. Kay- The King of the Squirrels:

Kay was arranging some of the stuffed animals he owned into a pile. The young boy had a red blanket tied around his neck. Dark and King were in a bit of an arms race. King always asked for a pet, every birthday, Christmas, and Thursday. Dark, sick and tired of always saying a two-letter word over and over again bet he could find any stuffed animal and if he was ever unable to, Kay could have that animal as a pet.

It was bet Dark had yet to lose, which led to an arms race of Kay finding different names for animals, and a very extensive stuffed animal collection.

Yancy jumped out of the pile, and raised a stuffed platypus above his head, “Found it!”

“Uh, they don’t hunt squirrels,” Kay reminded him.

“What do they eat then?” Yancy asked, trying to get out of the pile without knocking the whole thing over.

“Bugs, worms,” Kay shrugged and grabbed a leopard plushie. “Here, cats can eat squirrels.”

“But I’s like the platty-pus,” Yancy complained.

“Bring them both,” Kay shrugged, and Yancy took the leopard and held both of them in his arms in a warm hug.

Out of all of his siblings, Yancy liked spending time with Illy, but he always thought Kay was the nicest. The boys ran outside, to where Kay had hidden some of his favorite stuffed animals, his squirrels, up into a tree towards the edge of the tree line into the creepy forest. Wil had magicked them all up a treehouse. Dark had been less than impressed, only agreeing to keep the kids’ new “wooden death trap” when Wil demonstrated its sturdiness by getting up and jumping up and down on the thing and not fall through the wood.

King usually spent all his time up in the treehouse. And Yancy waited at the bottom until he could throw the toys up and climb up.

The afternoon was spent peacefully playing with the stuffed animals.

2. Bim- Starlight, Starbright:

Yancy and Bim were out on the front lawn, sneaking out late at night to catch fireflies. Normally Dark let them stay up late all summer collecting bugs and sleeping in the backyard. But for the last few days he’d been keeping them all inside, constantly watching them any time they went near the backyard. He promised them that whatever was lurking around the area would be gone soon and they could go back to enjoying the stars and bugs.

And if Yancy heard Dark screaming and fighting something in what he was pretty sure was a dead, haunted forest, the young boy was too nervous to talk about it with anyone else.

Bim jumped, his glasses almost falling off his face. He caught another firefly in his hands, cupping his hands around it, “Yes!”

Yancy was catching another firefly and carefully putting it in a jar where there were already a dozen fireflies buzzing around inside. After the fiasco with Arthur, he kept a tight grip on the insect jar, even though Bim had never ruthlessly tortured insects before.

The two boys kept putting little lightning bugs into their jar until Bim was finally satisfied. “Yeah, look at them,” Bim cheered. “Aren’t they cool, their little butts glow.”

“Yeah, ain’t they something,” Yancy agreed, before noticing that the fireflies were disappearing from their backyard, as if they were being chased. “I’s think Dark’s comin’ we should get inside.”

Bim frowned, “I didn’t even get my wish.”

“We’ll make it inside, come on,” Yancy began running inside, both boys missing the slowly gathering black mist that was in the treeline as the two boys raced inside and up into Bim’s bedroom. Only then did they giggle a little bit in the darkness, the only light was from the little bugs in their jar.

“Let me make the first one,” Bim reached for the jar.

“No, you’ll let them all go,” Yancy reminded, holding the jar away from him. “Come on, I’s never get the first one.”

He pouted, folding his arms like Wil tended to do, “Come on.”

Yancy moved over to Bim’s window and began to open it as Bim swiped the jar and grabbed one of the bugs, pinning it to his hand with his almost invisible aura. Yancy lunged for the jar to close it, but two glowing bugs escaped through the window. “Hey!”

“I want to be just like Daddy when I grown up,” Bim wished, blowing gently on the insect and allowing it to fly off.

Yancy was carefully getting another lightning bug on his own finger so he could make his own wish: “I’s wanna be a good person.”

Bim scoffed at that, but only ordered, “Give me another bug, I’ve got more wishes to make.”

Glaring at him, Yancy fought over the fireflies until they were all gone and Bim closed the window, all their troubles safely locked out of Manor.

1. Yan- Teddy Bear Picnic:

Yancy was sitting out in the back lawn with Yan, a little table between them and as many chairs as the little table could fit with a teddy on each chair. Each bear had on a bow tie and a frilly hat and a full tea party in front of them.

Yan was in a nice little red dress while Yancy was in a bow tie,

Two of the bears belonged to Yan and Yancy respectively, and the other three were politely and quietly “borrowed” from Kay’s collection.

Yan kicked her feet a little bit as she poured tea for the bear next to her.

“Why do you always give tea to her first?” Yancy complained.

“Because Ms. Talia is a lady,” Yan said.

“Youse been sittings’ there pouring her tea fer ferever,” Yancy reminded.

Then suddenly the whole table jolted, Yan and Yancy froze and leaned away from the table, Yan gasping in horror as her hard work was mostly tossed to the floor.

“Rawr! Rawr!” Artie began growling excitedly as he moved underneath the same tablecloth.

“Artie!” Yan got up and stomped her feet angrily. “You wrecked my tea party!”

“I’m not Artie,” Arthur said. “I’m a sea monster.”

“There’s no sea monsters at tea parties,” Yancy reminded sharply.

Arthur frowned, “Then you’re having a lousy tea party.”

“No,” Yan spat. “I don’t want sea monsters at my tea party!”

The young author frowned, before growing a bit and running off with the table cloth.

A chase ensued on the back lawn, the two kids chasing their older brother until they could rip the cloth away and slowly start rebuilding their little tea party. With Artie the sea monster in sea monster jail until the end of the tea party.

+1. Dark and Wil- Bruised Egos and Bloodied Knuckles:

It began simply enough. Arthur had brought a rat into the house, and Kay had been excited. A secret little pet to hide from Dark for a while.

Kay named him Pretzel.

The poor creature barely lasted an hour. It was in debate for the rest of Arthur’s existence on what had happened to the rodent. Whether he was jealous of the rat spending more time with Kay, or he simply got bored of it.

Either way when Kay snuck off to check on Pretzel, the rat was gone with only a couple specks of blood on the floor of its cage.

He angrily went to confront Arthur, who was watching a show with Wil and the other kids. Arthur feigned ignorance and Yancy jumped Arthur for killing another creature, trying to separate him from his notebook and hold him down.

The fight resulted in Arthur getting a black eye, Kay getting some scratches to the face, and Yancy getting one of the last of his baby teeth getting literally kicked out of his skull.

Wil was trying to separate the three boys with his aura, and looked relieved when Dark ran in and grabbed Arthur, the two porting over to the young boy’s room.

With Arthur gone Kay finally stopped fighting and just started crying, Yancy crying a bit at how upset he was.

Yancy was given a lollipop as Kay spoke through his tears. “He killed my rat, he killed Pretzel.”

“There, there,” Wilford waved another lollipop into his hand and did a little magic trick. “You’ll see Pretzel again. He didn’t die.”

“Wil!” Dark walked in, looking unhappy. “Don’t make it worse.”

“Kaylor if you wanted another rat toy I could have given it to you,” Dark reprimanded, summoning up a little rat plushie in his hands and holding it out to the boy. “You shouldn’t be fighting with Arthur over a rat.”

Kay glared at the toy and pushed it away, “I don’t want a toy, I want Pretzel.”

Dark took a deep, audible breath, and handed Yancy the toy instead. “We can’t have a pet, and this is why. Be lucky you got as long as you did with the thing.”

“Pretzel,” Yancy corrected.

Rolling his eyes, Dark corrected, “Pretzel, fine. Be lucky you got any time with Pretzel. No one in the house can control themselves, and any other pet will not last. Hopefully Pretzel escaped on his own.”

Dark picked Yancy up with his aura, setting the boys side-by-side as he talked to them. “Just imagine that Pretzel escaped and is living with the other rats. If that makes you feel better.”

Kay nodded and Dark smiled as he dried Kay’s eyes, “I’m sorry we can’t have the pet you want, and maybe one day you’ll get to actually own a pet.”

Giving a small smile, Dark smiled back and smooth out Kay’s slight curly hair.

Then he turned to Yancy, “As for you.”

“What?” Yancy argued back.

“What were you thinking?” Dark demanded.

“Artie killed Pretzel an’ might use his book ta hurt Kay,” Yancy accused.

“How do you know he killed it?” Dark quizzed.

“Because he smashed a jar a bugs an’ he hit me,” Yancy answered as Dark just stoically stared at him.

When Yancy finished, Dark summoned up his favorite candy bar and held it up in front of the young boy.

“Listen to me, Yancy, you need to always protect your siblings, even if sometimes you have to protect them from each other.” Dark had the softest look in his eyes that Yancy had ever seen. When Yancy reached for the candy bar, Dark’s looked hardened and he pulled it away.

“This isn’t a free license to beat up on your brother, do you understand me?” Dark demanded.

“Yes,” Yancy replied earnestly.

Dark smiled and gave him the candy bar. Turning back to Will he said, “Well hopefully Arthur’s calmed down a bit. Can’t leave him in his room all day.”

Dark ripped open a portal in the Void and walked through it, leaving Wil to take the kids back to the living room where then TV was waiting for them.

[sanshineaus]

mingi : friends to lovers

warnings: none!

type: bulletpoint au, fluff

word count: 1989 (a lil short!! i’m very sorry)

a/n: as a san stan, we get fed content every 30 minutes and y’all mingi stans are the backbone of the fandom

you and mingi have a very sweet friendship, really

he and you would most likely die for each other

but also if he touches your charger you WILL kill him

you met through another friend, at their birthday party

right after you congratulated them and handed them their gift, mingi came around the corner and clumsily nearly spilled a drink on you

he still apologized though!!! AND offered to check for you if there was a drink anywhere

your friend laughed and introduced you two

'he's cute isn't he?'

oh boy was he!!!

he really was sweet too; you didn’t know anyone else but your friend and now, him, and he was nice enough to let you stick to him like glue

you even ended up exchanging numbers, and playing 8ball in your respective cabs when the party ended

from then on you began texting

and it grew into exchanging social media

to being inseparable in real life too

mingi would constantly bug you to go out and eat with him

and you’d frequently go shopping together (or window shopping. mingi just LOOKS stingy)

when your snap streaks had officially reached 420 days, mingi made sure to screenshot it and post it on all social media

as he did with any you content in general

and let’s be honest with ourselves— mingi’s a very, very beautiful person

so there was no shortage of people in his dms

most of which happened to be opening with ‘are you single’

because of your numerous posts together, it just didn’t seem likely

but really, you’d say ‘ew’ to that, because ew, that’s your best friend

who you’ve seen snotty crying over a picture of a particularly small puppy resting on a very large cat

and who has seen YOU snotty crying over the same picture but shhhh

you honestly think there’s no way you like him

your heart doesn’t palpitate around him or anything like that

(your chest just gets concerningly warm, so does your face and ears, and you have to take several gulps of air to compose yourself when he smiles. shhhhh)

EVEN if you did (which you don’t!) he wouldn’t like you back

he’s mingi

all mingi likes is dragging you out of bed by your feet

and making you regret giving him a spare key to your place

he’s in general grossly sappy, though

he fully understands that he’s cute and you detest it

because he ASKS you. he has the gall, the nerve to put on a silly cat, make a face at you in the store you’re in, and ask if he’s cute

and you want to say yes and laugh along with him but you settle for sighing and saying ‘sure’

but each and every time

he smiles

and it’s really rejuvenating. maybe an angel gets its wings or something. or fairies get born?

you two once debated over which of those two phrases is better, and you were the firm ‘fairy gets its wings’ believer

until he seemed a bit pouty and you decided to just merge the two

you have very stupid discussions

of the ‘do we belong in a circus’ kind

(yes, you might)

his very hidden talent is carrying a lot of mugs

mingi’s fingers are long, and he hangs the mugs off of them while maintaining focus

his record? 24 mugs

one of which broke while he walked from his room to the dishwasher

he was sad about it because it was a mug shaped like a bird

and you had to both comfort him and drive him in his tears to the store to get another one

to be fair, you also felt bad. so, so bad, because the mug was ADORABLE and you could tell mingi thought so too

but you got a Mingi Hug out of it later

when he thanked you, he really did go all out

(he put in no effort, he was just very huggable and it was very nice)

it was when you were very tired and on the brink of Death™ (you know, Death™, like when you just want to nap for 78 hours somewhere in a forest temple)

that you two decide to go to a 7/11

you both unfortunately have this thing called responsibilities so for whatever reason, neither of you can sleep

and so you offer to mingi to meet up at the store between your houses

to which he agrees, and asks if he can come over

to which you say no, but you also say YOLO™ and decide to leave your work in progress to meet up with your friend

(be gay do crime)

you don’t really do either, actually, you respectfully pay for your drinks and those packaged meals which are never as good at day as when they are at night

he insists you use the plastic bag you two had as a seat so your butt doesn’t get cold

and you do, but you also try and elbow his shin when he also sits down on the concrete

you are reminded of the ew feeling of seeing your best friend scarf down sushi like it’s soup

and he somehow manages to talk coherently about his stupid escapade which brought him to this point of meeting up with you

it’s so frustratingly endearing

because you know he’s enjoying himself if he doesn’t stop talking, and you know he’s comfortable around you

and that’s what makes you heart FINALLY flutter

it doesn’t take long for you two to depart, when you finish your own food and drink

and berate him a bit for not saving his drink for when he ended his meal and then stole a sip— no, a GULP from you

that night you give up on your project

(obviously not entirely)

but you’re certainly too busy to think straight

and lying in your bed with your heart beating quick is something you find pretty exhilarating

it’s actually pretty nice to like someone

because anything mingi does is fun, too

he gives you his jacket? perfection

he gives you a noogie? not AS perfect or ideal, but you’re happy he has you in a headlock because it’s a touch of human contact

and you like This human

he tries talking to you about what he would do if aliens landed

and you call him out on his bullshit, not because he’s wrong but because you love him <3 and he’s also wrong

he would NOT try and be nice to them, he’d immediately go in and look if there’s more species

“mingi would accidentally bring doomsday because he’d reject the flirting of an alien princess” yunho (who you met through mingi on the exact day of your 420 streak) adds, from somewhere near you guys in mingi’s apartment, and you absolutely agree

“marriage proposal? come on, i’d know!”

yunho looks at you, then at mingi, then back at you, and just shakes his head

and you feel offended because you’re aware of what yunho’s thinking

but mingi’s less on board

“are you saying they’re an alien princess?”

you argue that if you were an alien, you’d abolish the monarchy

but you also add that you’d rather be king if it came down to it

mingi is very insistent and it’s then when you realize that your heart is beating like that again

because he’s stood up and taken you with him to show to yunho that you’d make a terrific alien princess if only they put you in a sci-fi dress and crown

you want to put mingi in a sci-fi dress and crown all of a sudden, you don’t know : /

it’s prerogative you get more than one Mingi Hug

Mingi Hugs are a bit of an oddity

not because he doesn’t hug you often

it’s just that this is such a specific brand of hug that he reserves for moments of vulnerability

where he protectively wraps his arms around you, but places his head on your shoulder to hide his face

maybe he’s crying, maybe you’re crying, maybe neither is happening and he’s just grateful you’re there, but you’ve noticed he doesn’t do it as often to other people

it’s really cute, though

you’re sitting on your roof one night

not star gazing, mingi just said he read an article that said some phenomena will hit the skies

you tried to listen to him but he was so excited that explaining failed him and he just grabbed your hand to pull you out

(not that you were complaining, he was so gentle and cute)

you are lying down next to each other; and he’s pointing out constellations to you

you see some of them, others are less easy to spot, but every once in a while he rambles about something interesting he knew

but then it starts

you hear a sizzling first, and then a shot

and your sky is red… with a firework

after that, there’s another pound, the colour this time pink

it is pretty— colours exploding against the night sky is pretty

but what the hell? this isn’t a nebular event

it’s when you finally tear your eyes away from the sky to mingi to interrogate him that you see he’s already looking at you

and he has a very sweet smile on his face

“it’s our 500th snap streak day”

and you aren’t stupid, so you know he’s behind the fireworks, but

“why?”

and he lets out a very burdened sigh before he grabs your wrist, and places your hand in his

“it means i’ve liked you for 500 days”

there’s two emotions fluctuating all throughout

relief and joy

so you scoot over and let go of his hand so that you can swing your arms around his neck

his arms, for the first time, are loose, and you can absolutely hear the beating of his heart

the fireworks stop all of a sudden when your neighbour yells

but you ignore her so you can try and get even closer to mingi

you mumble that you like him too

however he hugs you tighter

and tells you he can’t hear you

but he DEFINITELY CAN AND HE’S JUST—UGHHH

so you decide to be even worse about it

and you y e l l it

now the whole neighbourhood knows you like mingi

though it does gradually grow into love

mingi’s a very caring boyfriend; after all, he was exactly the same as a friend

now with the added bonus of being able to kiss you

which is a power he abuses thoroughly

he gives forehead and temple kisses the most

and he’s a very terrible gremlin, so he sometimes holds your head only to bring it to his lips

or he’ll pick you up randomly

“can you tell i worked out?”

yes, you can, but you’re more focused on trying to land safely if he loses his grip

not that you don’t trust him

you trust him in every aspect of the relationship

he’s reliable— and also brings you food at inconvenient times of the day

plus you get to visit each other whenever

he likes doing animal face masks with you

and offers a bath every. time.

he runs some of the best bubble baths though, you can’t lie

he’s also very warm most of the time, so if you’re a heat sink… guess what! you no longer are!

mingi’s also very careful

he makes mistakes often; physically breaking things, sometimes he doesn’t know his strength, and so on

but he’s always ready to apologize and get you something new

he sometimes ends up going too far with a joke?

apology!

he’s very meticulous with it too. words mean as much as actions to him, and so there’s a lot of meaning in his apologies

he’s just cute

you’re both very cute but also a very annoying couple

pda? she’s your best friend

*yeosang cringes*

[echoghost1]

DannyMay 2020 Day 30 - Family

Would you look at that I actually almost finished this thing!

This is the latest edition to the series that starts first is PhannieMay 2017’s Day 7 Rituals, then followed by this year’s DannyMay Day 21 - Ooze followed by Day 22 - Isolation then most recently Day 24 - Mask.

You can read it here 

or down below

Psychic? His mom figured out his ghost sense and went straight to psychic?

What bugged him more was, if that was the test, how did she know to test it? How did she find out about it?

Danny tried to push his questions aside as he opened the back gate, his mother close behind. They stepped into the alley to find his dad fighting off a small army of ghost rats.

Their toxic green fur bristled as they hissed. Each one did their best to try and bite Jack, but the thick jumpsuit didn't give way to the hordes of tiny teeth.

"Jack, why didn't you call for backup?" Maddie asked as her own ecto-gun whined in preparation.

"Oh hey hon, sorry, they just sort of popped up." He let down his guard a bit and turned to see Danny, "So it worked then?"

Seeing the opportunity, the largest of the rats set its beady red-eyed sights on Jack's throat. On impulse Danny punched the rat mid lunge, knocking it into the neighbor's trash cans. He held out his hand for his mom, "Blaster."

She didn't hesitate to place the cool metal gun in his hands and he easily knocked back the six closest rats in quick succession then frowned when he felt the gun start to overheat. Great, he was stuck in a fight with a gun that couldn't keep up. How the heck did his parents get anything done?

"Nice shooting, tex! Good to know you inherited your mother's great aim."

Danny chuckled back nervously. It definitely wasn't because of months of never-ending practice. "Video games." Maybe they'd buy that answer.

"Well, I guess we better have a game night later." His dad cheerfully exclaimed.

"Fight now, play later." Maddie chided as she daringly rolled in front of them to take out a few more rats with expert precision.

Danny bit his lip and purposely missed two easy shots, one too far forward and one just past the tail of another. He counted to three in his head before shooting the third right between the eyes.

It was bittersweet ghost fighting with his parents. Sure, it was nice he wasn't on the receiving end, but using only their equipment and having to react at what felt like half speed really drilled in how important his ghost side was. If he was on his own he could have cleaned this up easy, five minutes tops.

They were currently pushing the 20-minute mark.

"Mads, you got any spare reloads?"

She fished in her back pocket and held out a full cartridge, "I thought I reminded you to set your empties on the charger after our last outing?"

Danny took the cartridge and traded with his father's now empty one.

"I did. I just forgot to put them back in my pocket." He reloaded flawlessly and was quick to shoot again, even if he did miss.

Danny palmed the empty one and quickly hit the release on his own gun as an idea formed. He passed his mom his own nearly empty cartridge, then took a half step backward so he wouldn't be in his father's peripherals before focusing his attention on the empty cartridge in his hand. He really hoped this worked.

He focused on drawing out just a small portion of his ghost energy and poured it into the container. It hardly took any effort and he slipped the cartridge back in barely a second later.

He lined up his next shot. That huge rat had returned, and Danny had a feeling the fight would end with that one.

The rat king exploded in a glorious shower of ectoplasm. Unfortunately, so did the gun.

Danny was knocked back on his butt from the recoil and felt incredibly stupid for thinking that would actually work.

"Danny are you alright?" His mom popped up from her battle stance and rushed to his aid.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry about the gun, didn't know it would explode." He shook his hand trying to get rid of the weird warm tingling sensation.

"It's fine Dann-o, we got plenty more where that came from." He clapped a hand on his shoulder as he holstered his blaster.

"Why do you think it's your fault?" His mom asked as she examined his hand.

Crud. He really didn't think that one through.

"Pulsed it!" He blurted once he remembered how he had come up with the idea in the first place. "In Doomed, there's this glitch that if you hit both trigger keys at the same time when you aren't dual-wielding the game thinks you're holding two guns in one hand and fires a shot that's twice as powerful. It's my favorite glitch because it doubles exponentially every time you use it! It's fantastic!" He shrugged and added, "That is of course as long as you don't use it past level nine. If you try it in level ten you get stuck in a reload loop and the only way out is death."

“But how did you know that would work with an ecto-gun?”

“Because of the double click trigger. The first click it charges and then you fire. I just double tapped it so it would overcharge.”

It didn’t seem like such a crazy leap in logic. Sure they didn’t have knowledge of the game, but still. He figured anyone with who knew both would be able to connect those dots. And he said as much to his parents.

“True. If I had known about your game, I might have considered that.” She paused and looked him deep in the eyes, “But you didn’t have prior knowledge of that weapon. You couldn’t have. It was a prototype.”

“Prototype? You mean that wasn’t just a regular one?”

“No, what made that one unique was the double-action trigger. I made it that way so it would be quicker and quieter. That gun didn’t make that distinctive power-up whine because it would only charge enough to fire each shot individually.” Maddie explained carefully. "Two actions per each trigger pull."

“Then how did you know?” Jack asked.

Now that she had mentioned it, none of the ecto-weaponry had that type of trigger, yet he knew that one did. Wow, maybe his mom really was on to something.

"Because I'm psychic."

[grimtwin]

What are your favorite and least favorite parts about the arcs of Yu Yu Hakusho?

I’ll break down the “Spirit Detective Saga” down into the smaller bits. 

Surprised to be Dead:

Favorite part is by far and large, meeting Botan. I have no clue if I would have been as involved with this series without a fun character like her to draw me in. The premise of the series was solid and completely new to me, but Yusuke was not at all an exciting looking character.  

Least favorite part of this arc is without a doubt the lack luster art/animation. Being a new series that wasn’t promised a long run and could be canceled at any time, there wasn’t going to be a lot of money put into it at first, and Togashi still had room to grow with his art. 

First Case:

Favorite part of this arc would be the introductions of the villains, and future protagonists of the series, Hiei and Kurama. Yusuke, all of a day into getting his powers or something like that, is sent off to get the Artifacts of Darkness back from Hiei, Kurama, and Gouki, all of which could kill Yusuke without trying very hard. And jumping into that, Yusuke needed all the help he could get in order to get the artifacts back, and “solve” this case. If not for Botan and Kurama, Yusuke would have died again. It’s not often that you see the main character need help or have to use some strategy to win a fight, especially since before dying, all Yusuke had was brute force. 

Least favorite part was Hiei’s demon form. It’s obvious that he was meant to be a one time villain because this is the only time we see it in the series, and I’m not including the Poltergeist Report movie. It’s ugly as hell, fills Hiei’s body with the anti-climatic Legend of Zelda weakness, and was never brought up again. 

Genkai Training:

Favorite part of this arc was Yusuke’s pure and simple, dumb luck. Once again, and it’s a reoccurring theme in this series for Yusuke, but the guy only survives any of his matches in this arc, by getting lucky. He should have been disqualified for not making it on time, but Genkai let him pass because he beat Baldok. He would have lost to Kibano, if Genkai hadn’t gotten pissed off at him and thrown her lit cigarette into the dark room for Yusuke to use. He would have lost to Kazemaru, had Yusuke not slipped into the swamp, which caused Kazemaru’s homing shuriken to explode in his own face. And Rando would have shrunken Yusuke and squashed him like a bug, had Yusuke’s ears not been full of algae from the swamp he slipped into, causing Rando’s chant to backfire on him. Yusuke is a lucky idiot. 

Least favorite part of this arc…hmm….Yusuke never got to go to the Tokyo Dome. Botan bribed him with tickets if he went to Genkai’s, and because he won the damn thing, he was forced into 6 months of training, and didn’t get to go. As a wrestling fan myself, that hurts. 

Saint Beasts:

Favorite parts would be Botan in that smoking hot red tights/leather jacket combo, and the beginnings of “Team Urameshi” being formed. We’d only known Kurama and Hiei as villains, and here they were being…coerced, into joining Yusuke’s mission to stop their fellow demons from trying to destroy Sarayashiki and killing Keiko. We got to see Yusuke show off the results of his training with Genkai, the lengths of Kuwabara’s toughness and loyalty, and better yet, seeing Hiei’s strange honor code and absolutely devastation of Seiryuu after seeing the ice user’s cruelty toward his companion.

I can’t think of anything about this arc I disliked, but I guess Keiko being the damsel? Even then, she and Botan kicked ass in trying to escape a horde of demon insect controlled humans, so it’s not like either woman was defenseless in anyway, just outnumbered and outgunned, so to speak. 

Rescue Yukina:

Favorite parts of this mini-arc would be meeting Yukina, Shizuru, Botan in those tight jeans and brown jacket, and on a more serious note, Yusuke and Kuwabara strolling into this mafia-esque compound full of demons and killer humans, beating the shit out of anyone who gets in their way, until they come across the Toguro Brothers. The seriousness of this situation is kind of lost on us until we find out just how strong the Toguro Brothers are in a later arc, and how easily they could have torn the boys to shreds and stopped the rescue mission. The only reason the YYH group walked away from this fight, is because the Toguro’s allowed them to. 

Least favorite part is just how hideous Tarukane is as a person, inside and out. The anime skims over it, but in the manga, it’s hinted that Yukina has been a prisoner here for a long time, upward of five years. I can only imagine the tortures she’s faced in that time. 

Dark Tournament:

Loved everything about this arc. I’m cheating a bit, but all the fights, Puu being born, the emotional growth Yusuke and the rest of the team were forced to endure, was just spectacular. We got to see the dark history between Genkai and her former lover Toguro, what drove a wedge between them, met new friend that would be showing up later in the series, got to see more of the lovely human and demon world ladies. It was just fucking fun.

Least favorite thing is that Atsuko got left out of the tournament arc for the anime completely. In the manga, she was there through it all. 

Chapter Black:

This arc was fantastic. Favorite part of this arc is Sensui and the rest of the villains in general are amazing. His plan to open a breech into Demon World is so well thought out, that it’s almost total bullshit at times, but still works. He sacrifices his pawns, kills Yusuke, beats the living hell out of our heroes, and gets exactly what he wants the entire time. Sensui won. He may have died in the end, but his plan worked. Not only that, but Togashi wrote him in such a way that we legitimately feel bad for the guy at points, for having his life and ideology destroyed by humans and Spirit World. He’s still an asshole though. Outside of this, I also loved that one butt shot we get of Botan, Botan saving Mitarai, and then Hiei and Yusuke fighting in the forest after Hiei stabbed Sniper. 

Least favorite thing of this arc would be Spirit World in general. They basically caused this whole situation, and when Yusuke was killed, then reborn as a demon, they tried to have him killed as well. Douche bags. 

Three Kings:

I think this arc is generally bad. I don’t particularly care for any part of it besides getting to learn a little about Hiei and Kurama’s histories. Besides a terrible finish, basically removing Kuwabara, Botan, Koenma, Shizuru, Yukina, and Keiko from the show until the final episodes was a very sour note at the end of an amazing series. 

If I had to chose something to like about it, I’d say seeing that everyone got a fairly happy ending. Yukina comes to live with the Kuwabaras, Yusuke and Keiko are sure to be married, Kurama’s working with his father in law, and Hiei’s….in a tree. 

[kingofthewhatpod]

Fanfic Friday #3

Oh god, oh dear, oh no. This was supposed to come out last Friday, and yet it was delayed for a week without any news. I mean, I did technically tweet it last Friday but maybe anyone who follows me can forgive me because this week you get both? And.... er... I’ll try to do better? Maybe I’ll do another post on my real thoughts about Fanfic Friday, but if you’re reading this, and you just want to get to the good stuff, let me delay no more!

I return to Fanfic Friday’s roots (after only a single week off, ha) of seeing how I would teak a non-canon arc. Heck, maybe I'll have constructive creativity for a canon arc one day. But not this day. Because I was originally sending these out as tweets, my thoughts in places are brief. Adventure in the Ocean's Naval was fine. It was palatable. But I don't want a slightly overcooked hamburger and some fries. I want steak with garlic mashed potatoes.

Things I liked:

The mystery of the island, however short lived

The guardian monsters

Captain Joke didn't have friends like Luffy, and that was his downfall

Things that could be improved:

Usopp/Nami didn't do much of anything

Magic not explained

who cares about Joke?

As before, I'll keep the premise. Mysterious island, land of adventure? check. But this time, there's no octopus, no immediate fight. Luffy and Zoro andd the ship still fall down below because hijinks. (maybe Zoro is napping and doesn't keep a careful eye on Luffy, who gets bored and starts messing around on the ship, or he sees a cool bug. And him running around somehow dislodges the anchor long enough that they fall). So they all end up down below, and they meet a rather shady old man (think Jafar disguised as the beggar) who tells them about this wicked cool treasure of the gods. It's on the other side of the island if they're brave enough to get it. It is said to grant any wish.

Usopp and Nami are probably freaked out, Sanji would very calmly be like "who would fall for that?" but Luffy has decided to go check it out, and Zoro is just like "he's the captain." So they end up going, some more willingly than others Now, you'll notice this call to adventure is some kind of bad guy (you know what? Make it a poorly disguised oni. Everyone notices except Luffy), instead of some kid. Firstly, I'm usually not a fan of the kid characters- even if they're related to the deeper themes. But also, maybe there *is* a village down here, and they meet a crying Hamu who is like "don't try to go get the treasure! Even Captain Joke, the hero pirate of the village couldn't do it!" But why would that deter Luffy? Answer: it wouldn't.

Luffy could be all "Yeah, but I bet he wasn't as strong as I am. I'm going to be King of the Pirates." (King of the What Now?) Maybe Hamu comes with to watch this idiot in action, maybe he just stays behind. The crew will come back through for the ship anyways and they can tell him about their adventure. Now, they get halfway across a suspiciously empty field, when all of a sudden these stone walls come up from the ground, creating a labyrinth and separating the crew. Luffy might try to rocket up but there's some magical barrier. Also you can't go back the way you came, inwards!

Now, Luffy will basically get lost and increasingly frustrated. I cannot stress how funny this mental image is, as he yells and rampages but to no avail. I don't think the Straw Hats can hear each other. As I mentioned in episode 25 of the podcast, it'd be interesting if the Straw Hats faced off against the former Joke pirates. You get just enough characterization through dialogue and actions that you feel like you actually know this character. Also, I want to touch on the nature of the Joke pirates. Joke was betrayed, just like in the original. But instead of faceless shapes, there are 4 you can clearly see. Also the hint of *something* off-camera giving off a dark red light.

Spoilers: But because Joke's commanders were evil-hearted, they became tainted, causing their forms to morph and become... well, weird and monstrous. We can imply the other no-name members of the Joke pirates were killed in the labyrinth or by these commanders

Anyways. Zombie commander guys facing Luffy's crew one on one. Zoro first. He faces a man clad in weird armor (because One Piece), who constantly bangs on his breastplate, simply saying "Strong! Strong!" He's very bulky and has tusks. Maybe make him look walrus-ish. Anyways, he's very strong, and he hits hard. Zoro can't pierce his armor, and there's no obvious weakpoints. This guy's deal is that he just wants to be strong, as a dark reflection of Zoro's own ambition. He wants it so bad he'd sell out his captain to make a deal with a monster. Eventually Zoro wins, I think by using the butt of his sword to BANG right on the dude's helmet, and then breaking the monster commander's weapon, maybe burying him beneath the rubble created by slashing the walls  surrounding them. And of course Zoro gets a badass line. "What good is strength if you won't use it for your captain?" Because he is a GOOD, LOYAL BOY. Or maybe a comment on his enemy's internal weakness. "If you're too weak to stand and you get knocked down, stand up again even stronger"

Sanji's opponent: A rockstar with a wicked cool guitar and cool shades and a flashy jacket. Yes, I said a rockstar. This is One Piece which has all sorts of crazy character designs. Does it make sense that he has an electric guitar? Do I care? The ideological reason they're suited for each other is because this guy (maybe he's like a creature of the lagoon. Yeah that's it. He's more frog-ish) likes ladies but he's vain about it and only cares about himself (betrayed Joke because being a priate wasn't cool anymore). Anyways he fires actual music note shaped projectiles by strumming his guitar, and Sanji can't really get close at first. That is, until... maybe Froggy says he'll hunt down Nami? Yeah, and then Sanji kicks tthrough these weird music notes, runs forward and kicks him in the face! 

"Coolness can't be forced," Sanji remarks, adjusting his tie. "And no woman would ever want to kiss you." (Also, side note, I'm not a huge fan of the shonen trope of suddenly becoming stronger when someone is threatened. But I couldn't think of a way for Sanji to win otherwise. I need to get better at this. That’s what having a weekly schedule is meant to help with!)

Usopp's opponent: A squid looking guy who hides behind cover and always runs from battle. He betrayed his captain because he was afraid of what would happen if they continued their journey. Usopp tries to snipe him when he comes up from behind cover but Squid boy is very fast. Usopp wins by purposefully acting all angry and firing a bunch of his explosion stars, secretly taking out the cover further down the battle field until the next time squiddy tries to run he gets blasted in the back. "How can a man run from danger for his whole life?" He asks with a smirk. Bonus points if his knees are still shaking while he says it

Nami: She faces a fairy. Yes, a lady who got all shrunk by the monster's power. Maybe a flying sea horse-ish type design, to keep it aquatic. She, like Nami, is money obsessed, and didn't want to share her treasure with Joke. She's another agile one and shoots giant bubbles. Can Nami polevault with that pole of hers? Yeah, let's say she can. So she leaps over one of the bubbles and maybe throws a coin past the lady, causing her lady to quickly look away- unable to resist the allure of gold- just in time for a nice solid smack of the pole. "Try thinking about others once in a while" is Nami's line before she continues through the maze.

Now, it seems the maze is magic in nature (no duh), and the Straw Hats (minus their captain) have come out of the maze. And before them is the treasure. But before they can approach, the red light from earlier. oh no! It's the old man from earlier! (who could have guessed???????) He gets huge and reveals his true form, growing in size, saying he'll never give up his treasure. But before the battle can start, you hear it. CRACK! WHUMP! CRACK! Cracks are appearing on some part of the maze wall behind them. It explodes and in comes an enraged Luffy! Angry that he was lost for so long. Bonus points, Sanji kicks a piece of rubble that was going to hit him, Zoro cuts a piece that was flying at him, and the eternal butt monkey Usopp gets hit in the head.

Luffy: Who's this? Zoro: Dunno Sanji: That's the old guy from earlier. Luffy: Whaaaat?? Grandpa wasn't a good person?? Nami: Honestly, captain... Usopp: *recovered from the rubble* Hey, Luffy, what was that, you jerk!!!

Now, the point is that this monster likes to sow chaos. Just like in the original special, Joke was betrayed because he had crappy friends. And The Straw Hats seem incredibly disorganized. So the monster king grins. "How would you like to join me and I'll grant you your wish?" Zoro, Nami, Sanji, Usopp, each of them get all quiet and start walking over to accept the deal. Luffy is watching them, a look of mild confusion on his face. They stand right in front of the thing and the monster grins. "Good," he says. All four of them at once give him a solid whack, kick, shot, and slide. "As if!!!"  They cry in union. Luffy grins and punches the big creature in the gosh darn mouth. Well, probably the nose but I like to say "punch in the mouth"

He's not defeated *that* easily, and maybe if I spent more time rewriting and drafting this I could come up with an exciting narrative. The point is that the monster is too strong for even Luffy on their own, but they fight as a team.

You might think Luffy tends to prefer to fight alone, and maybe he does for a while. But the monster *could* wish himself stronger, and it could look like Luffy is about to lose when his crew mates save him, allowing him to prepare for an even stronger punch that will finish it. And of course the wish granting gem breaks. Of COURSE Luffy sends the monster flying and he smashes into the thing and it gets launched with him over the horizon or something. Of course everyone's mad but Luffy shrugs it off, since it's more about the journey than the destination So... yeah, that's basically it. Luffy comes back to the village, Hamu is like "How did you do it?" and Luffy just grins and is like "with help from my crew." And it's a sweet moment. Hopefully you liked it! I feel like this was the longest one yet.

Happy Friday everyone!

[thehobbblog]

Halls of Dread: Final Thoughts

The robots lined up, leading us out. It’s kind of hard to tell if they were giving us a hero’s exit, or just making sure we didn’t steal anything. King said a whole bunch of stuff, but I was so tired. He’s keeping the child safe in his ring, and we’re off on the next leg of our journey. I’m just really confused, or concerned even as to what the point of this all was. So, like. I hope you all don’t mind that I start theorizing here. Get my head straight. Traps: The dungeon had many traps, but they weren’t really great at keeping us out. In fact, as far as I can tell they were more focused on making fools out of us than stopping us from getting further. Let’s do a quick list of the designed traps I can remember. 1. Heat Metal/Magnet room: Hurt a lot, played to the robot’s strengths really well. Nearly broke my phone. Made me feel like an idiot for running in there, but with teamwork we prevailed. 2. Incinerator room: Probably would hurt as well. Consisted of the exact opposite of the previous room’s trap, where acting rash would get you killed. Avram nearly got turned to ash, and then momentarily forgot he was Jewish. 3. Mannequin fun: Hid a chest from us, had us stumbling around a room bumping into things and punching ourselves for a while. I still think the mannequin me had more charisma than Lucas.  4. Acid pit: Had a teamwork based solution, that we screwed up. King thought it was hilarious. Anna thought it was less so. 5. Ghost Weapons: I don’t even really know, Avram’s weapons sort of came to life. Meant we had to attack solid metal and chase it around the room some. 6. Body-Swap room: Really roundabout way of killing intruders, and would only work once. We were put in robot bodies and forced to fight robot cores. Weylinn learned a lot about what it meant to be a robot, and was nicer to the workers after that. 7. Indiana-Jones ball: A big crystal ball with a goody inside, used our pop-culture knowledge to taunt us into releasing a slime. Alice ate the whole thing like a maniac which was neat. 8. Spring floor: A floor designed to fling us on our butts if we didn’t know something we couldn’t possibly know. I’m sure someone out there got a kick out of our pain.  9. Exploding drones: essentially a mine field. Just waiting for someone to do something stupid and punish us for it.  10, Table of personality.... thing: I already did a whole thing on this.  11: Heart room: Not a real trap, but a curious--helpful--way to share pain between party members placed suspiciously close to the big fight. 12. Fake walls: The walls all around the dungeon had an equal chance of being fake. King was kind enough to tell us about that feature quite a time after it would have started being useful.  That’s about it for real traps. Do you see a theme there? They’re mostly concerned with demoralizing us. Making us look like idiots. When they’re not doing that, they’re helping us come together as a group, and make some memories. I wonder who benefits most from that sort of stuff. There were the robots, which were neat. Let’s do a rundown of robot activity. 1. Robots didn’t really care for our presence, they mostly just didn’t want us touching stuff we weren’t supposed to.  2. Robots didn’t care that we had killed robots, in fact they got more tolerant to our presence the more we killed. 3. The robots are built on to small cores, of which nobody but King seemed knowledgeable of. And he was very knowledgeable of them. 4. Robots could be repaired from death, which was weird.  5. Robots definitely didn’t like the bugs. That leads to bugs actually, there were some anomalies in the Halls we should mention. 1. There was Moloch. That was terrifying. I have no idea how it got down there, or why. What possesses that thing to run out into the land of exile, but then stop running in the land of exile to run into an underground... thing and live there for a while, as robots attack it. 2. The bugs were weird. There was the empty room, with a large insect in it. An insect too large to have gotten in there on it’s own. As well as the larger empty room, with the larger insane insect that couldn’t have gotten there on it’s own. 3. Lucas: He just showed up with a gift to buy our trust, and then sat around looking annoyed at us for not solving thigns faster. He’s identifying with the Masked Ones, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. 3. There was a dead Hidden One, with a golem. The poor guy didn’t have a chance it looked like, but the golem had claimed the room he was in as his tomb, and didn’t want to be disturbed. The robots didn’t mind him living there. We did get stuff. Which leads us to loot, there was lots of loot. And all of it was King’s. Well, ok. I don’t know that. But it’s suspicious.  Golden armour, with a specific enchantment to fit itself Cursed belt, that was surely a funny prank Ioun stones with no explanation A big book, of King’s own prototype An I.O.U of King’s, which he played a fun haggling game with us over. Scrolls that called our our Wizard and Cleric Everything that needed an explanation, King knew without looking at it. He knew everything about everything we had found, before we’d even shown it to him.  Everything else, was King’s he’d conveniently “Forgotten” about before we got there. Now, I understand that he’s some sort of timeless creature. Like his whole business is to know shit we couldn’t and then lording it over us. The way he’d know everything in a loot pile and what it did before we had finished looking at them is suspicious to me. Do you see what I’m getting at? The halls themselves were designed to make us act out an entertaining story. The robots seemed to only be interested in keeping the Halls in a state of order. One that would best allow for adventuring.  The anomalies seemed just as confused as we were to be there. Like there was no purpose but to lure in adventurers and reward them. The loot deposits piled nicely as rewards after challenges. And our all too helpful guide knowing everything about them, almost like he’d checked this place out before we were there, or even piled the treasure there to begin with. It’s really not Paladin like to be this paranoid, huh? I don’t know. If there were science machine scattered around I could call it a lab. If there were cameras I could call it an old game show. If there were notes talking about “How much I hate that King guy and why I collect his stuff entry: XIIV” I could pass this. But it’s not adding up. I’m just so certain that cheeky genie knows more about this than he’s letting on. I’d like to keep my face, so I’ll keep quiet. As quiet as one can be, complaining about it on his blog.

[waldos-writing]

The Dig Initiative: Chapter 11

Father Barkley

Alright, it was stupid. It was stupid and fun and it was so much fun but it was stupid. It was. He admitted that. Didn’t mean he was not going to spoon her in that cramped twin bed. Because that’s what a gentleman does after like, shit, what? Hours and hours of practice. Right? I mean, people still counted sex in rounds, in turns. One-Love. Five-six. Whatever. He hadn’t done anything since…but it still counted. Holy balls the girl was a demon and he enjoyed her tricks.

He was buried in her long black hair and he didn’t even mind it. She was texting with his phone, furious little words spit out from her thumbs. She had a fire bug up her butt about this whole tower thing and he liked her energy. It felt good. It just felt nice and he hated that he liked it and he hated that he thought about it too much. He always did. If anything, it didn’t really matter, in the scheme of things.

“Wanna know why?” she used to say.

“Why?” he’d croon back at her, face in her red hair, intoxicated on perfume and gin.

“You’re a speck,” she used to say and he’d nod and tell her to go on. “You’re a speck in a sea of people on a spinning marble in a giant solar system in a clusterfuck of stars you or I or the guy next door couldn’t name or imagine in its completion, in a void that doesn’t even reach our own eyeballs at night and you think if I stepped out into traffic tomorrow that it would change the world?”

“Well,” he’d say, slowly coming out of the fog of hair and sex. “Well, probably change whoever hit you.”

Devon hated when Cherry did that. She liked to ramble and he liked to go with it right up until she started being cavalier about suicide. He tried. He was very good at talking her out of it when she was really messed up. But if she was casual about it, like she was after sex, and she put her head on his chest and occasionally drew words on his stomach with her fingernails, then he’d have to be casual too. He’d try. He’d always try.

“It would raise their rates at least. Might even put them in jail.”

“Yeah. Bet it’d screw with their family too.”

“Bet it would.”

This was a common scene. It was best because he could wind himself around Cherry and she was calm and hot and peaceful. He remembered that this was when they had just purchased the house, the one Devon said he’d build a fence around and fix up the kitchen sometime. Maybe he’d put in new shutters before winter. There was something about the light through those yellowed, filmy windows and that rough beige carpet. It was theirs. They’d earned it begging people to buy her art and his records from his shitty little band and the radio gig in Montpelier, before he moved over to Yellow Yowl Entertainment. It was all theirs and they could walk around naked, eat fruit roll-ups and vodka for breakfast, shower five times a day or once a week and crush neat little lines of oxycodone along the ceramic sink. They could fold origami cranes from grocery receipts and smoke some of the meth they’d stolen from their recently dead neighbor and drink sugary smoothies and cry at Bambi every night. Whatever they wanted. It was theirs.

“Do they do funerals at night?” she asked as she kissed the bright red lines scratched into his chest. Her hair, which was once as red and vibrant as her namesake, had brown roots and split ends. The curls were all frizz, a mess of burnt straw. He brushed it gently out of her eyes. Her bruised, bloodshot eyes that were covered in week-old makeup, smeared with a fresh coat in the morning when he went off to work. She spread it into practiced smoky lines. Her weary beauty made his stomach bubble with delight. “I mean, like, ones under full moons or no moon or whatever.”

“I don’t know,” he answered, feeling that old metal coil of fear corkscrew through his guts. Why was it always funerals?

“You’d think you could, like, really see the soul float up then. I bet if you did one of those barbarian things, those Viking funeral things where you push the body out on the sea and light it on fire. Oh my god, the spark coming off that and the smoke billowing up. Watch it go up to the stars to dance forever. Learn all the names of all the faces looking down on us. ‘Kings of our past.’ Why does that sound familiar? ‘Kings of our past.’ What’s that from?”

“I don’t know, babe. Little Mermaid or something.”

“Something. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder what their faces would look like, don’t you? You know, they’ve been fire for so long; can they even have a face? Do you just, no, listen, do you go up in smoke right away? Or they give you some time to drift around. I want to see them drifting. Blurry faces squirming of everyone below you. Or maybe, maybe, babe, maybe they’re like stone. You think we look like statues to all the ghosts? I’d think springtime would be good. Mist spools up from the ground, like all the ghosts are coming together. Big orgy of spirits, you know? Makes it look like they’re dancing.”

“Right, love,” he said and kissed her over her eyebrow. “Mist in the morning. Speaking of which, I’ve got to be at the station in an hour and you’re up at Sal’s today, right?”

“It’s Wednesday already?”

“Wednesday already,” he answered. “Look, we got a gig at Feuermann’s tonight. You promise me to go to Sal’s, please.”

“Oh, he’s just going to say I need to go back on those pills”

“He will.”

“They make my tummy hurt.”

“I know.” Devon scrubbed her leg, making the pale white skin red and alive. “Also said you gotta take them with food. Go with me to the grocery later, okay? Promise me and I’ll buy you the whole bar if you like.”

“Nah,” she said, reaching for his hand. He gave it to her, just so she could nibble on his thumb. “I like to watch you play with a clear head. Hand me my vest over there. And make some toast? No butter!”

And that’s how it was. Months like that, years even. Where did it all go?

 “I don’t know how you got me to agree to this,” whispered Devon, staring down at the giant monkey wrench in his hand. “And where the hell did you even get this?”

“Brother’s a mechanic,” said Declan. He was over a control panel, tapping part of a screen and sucking in his cheeks only to puff them out and do it again. “Hit that.”

“Hit what?” Devon hissed. His heart was hammering so hard he was afraid he was going to choke on it when it exploded. “I don’t want to hit anything. Oh my god, I’ll just hit you. I’ll hit you and I’ll run and they won’t even find me except for the piss trail I leave behind me oh my god, is that an alarm? Holy shit, that’s an alarm. We gotta go. We gotta go, holy shit, that’s an alarm. I’m going to drop this. I’m just going to set this down here—”

“Pause.”

“Did you just—”

Declan swiveled in the chair that was left in front of a large, closet-sized control panel. Little red lights blinked behind him, a panel of orange lit buttons to his left and too many wheels and gears and pipes to his right. The whole thing looked fake. It thrummed like a cheap television set. Declan, with his black hoodie, his long dreadlocks, his patchy beard, looked like a harmless villain. He even tented his fingers in thought.

A moment stretched as something buzzed persistently behind Declan on the vido screen. It was counting down, probably alerting someone far away and Devon was sure they were about to be pounced upon by a fleet of Black Jackets. They were going to bust in and decapitate them with a flick of their wrists.

“You want some water?” Declan asked.

“Water? What the actual literal entire fuck is your issue. Water! Why the f—”

Declan snapped his fingers and reached down into his old duct-tape duffel bag. True to word, he pulled out a water bottle, clear, glittering with the alarm lights. He held it out as an offering and just before Devon took it, he raised his hand. The alarm on the screen stopped. A green light overtook the control panels. Security was shut off and whoever had been alerted was given a short message of “false alarm.”

Devon stood taller, watching the door and the vido screen. His heart was still going, but he sighed, feigned a little satisfaction and relief. He said, “You did it.”

“Yeah. So, water?”

“Sure.”

Devon reached out and again Declan pulled it back. He said, “I gotta be straight.”

“Okay,” said Devon slowly.

“It’s drugged.”

“It’s—”

“Drugged. Yeah. Here.”

“I don’t want it if it’s drugged!” Devon almost slapped the water bottle out of Declan’s hand, but Declan was quick and snapped it back. “What the hell!”

“Anti-anxiety,” said Declan as he stood. He pressed the bottle into Devon’s chest, and tapped him twice on the shoulder. “Mostly. Thought I’d ask this time.”

Devon held onto the bottle. Anti-anxiety, huh? No rhyme or reason to it, but he started to untwist the cap and just as he was about to sniff the water and convince himself whether he was going to drink it or not, the words clicked. “Wait…this time?”

Declan did not have time to defend himself as Alice burst through the thick steel hatch. She had on a black stocking cap, black skintight shirt and pants, sweater, boots, socks, lipstick, eyeshadow, underwear. Whole outfit of “I’ve seen this in movies and I think I can get away with espionage and wreak havoc” that was not nearly practical enough in the cold night air but damn if she didn’t look fine as red wine.

“It worked?” she asked, for some reason breathless.

“Worked,” Declan answered.

“Worked how what worked?” asked Devon. “What’s it doing?”

Devon chucked the drugged bottle of water against the wall. It bounced, the plastic making a soft “pap” sound before the water erupted out of the opening. An arc splashed the floor in an anticlimactic protest of aggression.

“You should have had that,” said Declan.

“‘You should have meh mlah mah,’” said Devon in a nasally mimic.

“He’s having a bad time.”

“Fucking right I am!”

“Dev,” said Alice and touched his arm. He was pulled out of his useless tantrum. “What’s wrong?”

And it was a simple question. It was. She just asked it, casual like that, touched his arm, casual like that. She’d come out of the shadows with her warm buttery skin and dark oily hair from days without shower. She kept it tied behind her small ears, out of her eyes. Kohl eyes, big lovely eyebrows. Mustard Alice. She was so not Cherry, it punched him in the gut.

“Dev?” she asked.

So what did it matter that her band partner was going to drug him or maybe had done it before. The bar, the egg. This was the usual for good old Declan. Alright, so it wasn’t that bad. They were illegally inside a CleanAire tower and basically dismantling it. Devon tried another big breath to see if it calmed his heartbeat. It didn’t, but he pretended that it did.

“Nothing,” he said at last. He tried to sound convincing. He was good, you know, because he was in radio. “What’re we doing?”

“Fucking shit up,” said Alice, her cheeks dimpled, her eyes sparkling in the low green light of the control panels. “Ready?”

Devon eyed the kid and the bottle on the floor. What did he say? He said he was going to stick to Declan’s side. He was going to follow Alice because he was head-over-heals for her. Devon felt old and stupid, but he wiped one hand on his pant leg and then the other so he had a good grip on the wrench.

“Born for it, baby,” he said, and lifted the wrench high over his head.

Devon wanted to say more. He used to have such a way with words, he did, and he knew there was a lot of terribleness coming that he wanted to speak to. Instead, he hoisted his weapon up high and brought it down on the electrical equipment like he was smiting Sin. Sparks shot up. There was a jolt along his forearms, maybe a literal shock mixed with the reverb. Alice shrieked some fantastic battle cry and knocked a big rubber mallet into a panel next to her. Declan wheeled out of the area, watching calm and cool from the back. He had a toolbox with him and he whistled as he went up the stairs to the filtration center, returning later with grease stains and a new metal pipe. Devon picked up his wrench to ruin the next piece of equipment.

It was stupid. It was stupid and fun and painful, but it was stupid. It was. Of course he admitted that. Devon whooped victory as Mustard Alice kicked her big boot through the projection panel for the vido screen. They might be caught and they might not. When she smiled a big wild grin over at him, Devon breathed. It was stupid. He was in love again.

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