#i hate disc drives
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i need to start making mix cds again like it's the early aughts. i need to start making mixtape cassettes like uhhhhhhh before i was conscious.
#i hate the lack of disc drives i hate the lack of headphone jacks i hate everything. about modern tech.#argh.#elle babbles
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just so yall KNOW: do NOT buy ANY movie or tv show from itunes / apple - u literally don’t own it lmfao. u get a fucking .MOVPKG file which is just a blocked file that u can ONLY play in the APPLE TV APP, which u ALSO need an internet connection TO USE
#stream#literally#streaming services are on absolute crack#like it’s not even crack like what is it#so basically#i payed years ago for files i USED TO BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD AS A .MOV & can play ANYWEHERE bc i BOUGHT THE FUCKIN THING i Now Cannot do#so#swag#thank got i only bought 5 seasons of archer & now ill just buy#a LITERAL box SET to BURN & then SAVE#girl ….#UNHINGED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#NOW IVE TO BUY A FUCKING EXTERNAL DISC DRIVE BC MY COMP DONT HAVE 1 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭#i hate technology i hate big tech i hate silicon valley i hate what is it bangalore that is the indian silicon valley i hate the idk what’s#the silicon valley of china im just going to say shanghai idc i hate TECH !!!!!!!!!!!!#those are the only 3 silicon vallies that i know like are there even any others i don’t even care
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had to make multiple responsible adult purchases in a short span of time and can't afford a rock n disc until next pay day, 129 dead 900 injured
#why did the aircon in my car decide to break huh why#and air condition is just not something I'm willing to forgo in this near 100F weather we've been having#a little over 900.. I'm just thinking of all the rock n roll disc I could've bought#I could've used that to buy a concert ticket and an airfare ticket to see Pearl Jam 😭 but noooooo#the 129 was the fix the wheel alignment bc it was pulling to one side and causing one tire to ware a lot faster#and for some reason tires for my specific are stupid expensive.. it's just a stupid fucking Chevy Cruze why so pricey to fix yoooouuuu#moments I wish my city had a functioning public transportation system#bc holy fuck I hate having a car and I hate driving#anyways what I had of savings is obliterated#but hopefully that's the last thing my car will need done to it for a while#if it could just continue functioning until I pay it off next year that would be grrreeaaatttt
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need to shell out for a new laptop before the end of the year - for a lot of reasons but mainly bc support ending for win8.1 makes fixing the current beast rather pointless :/ (and. admittedly. there is a lot to fix. she's old and she has suffered.)
but my current beastie is from the last gen of laptops with a disc drive and the thought of using an external/usb disc drive is enough to make me cry tears of blood
#really though it is time to upgrade#and i hate to say it because she /runs/ fine it's all hardware issues w parts that can absolutely be replaced#but if i can't use it to run the programs i need then shelling out the money for those parts would ultimately be a waste#but also the fact that this machine that runs fine is no longer worth fixing bc some google-based bullshit just won't support win8.1 anymor#is ALSO a fucking waste & a pile of planned obsolescence bullshit! and i hate it!#but uh. even though she runs fine and she totally does. she does need. uh.#new keyboard (only 1/3 of keys work; currently use usb keyboard)#new trackpad ribbon cable (trackpad does not currently work; using external usb mouse)#new power button and connecting ribbon cable (turning it on involves opening it up and causing an intentional short-circuit every time.)#(a problem largely solved by simply never turning her completely off- except she also needs)#a new battery (current battery does not charge at all; machine needs to be constantly plugged in or it shuts down immediately)#...ok i might be the 'this is fine' dog about this#but i am still upset! that i will no longer have a disc drive inside my damn laptop.#that's the disc drive's natural habitat; that's where it should be; it's weird and offputting to have it connected via usb!#ack. why do tech companies fuck everything up.#and that's without getting into the way new devices offer less harddrive space so people will use the fucking cloud or whatever???#yeah sorry no i'm not using your goddamn data mining corporate off-site storage i want to keep my shit on my own goddamn machine#go to actual hell if you're trying to sell me a pc with less than at least 500GB of storage i swear to fuck#...in essence you could say the whole process is leaving me rather grumpy
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nothing but rage in my heart due to We Are The Fallen's cover of Like A Prayer existing nowhere on the internet anymore. :) not even the high seas are bringing up anything pilferable.
#for the record i owned the physical CD back in the day but it vanished in the great purge of 2016.#someone's uploaded it to sound*cloud but for how long.#loveless and WATF: recording covers that blast the original tracks into the depths of a black hole#i could just rebuy a CD but my laptop doesn't have a disc drive.......#i hate it here.#text tag
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they already took all the fuckign saw movies off of tubi what if i shit myself and die forever
#like come on man !! fuck !!#i hate having to pirate stuff it's so irritating 99% of pirating sites are utter dookie ass even with adblockers#and i have 1-5 on dvd but i cant watch them at night bc my family is asleep and my laptop doesnt have a disc drive !!!!!#fuck everything forever man. i just want to watch yaoi#puppet rambles
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I am currently angry that by 'upgrading' my case to a lighter one (and newer one)...I now no longer have a place to put my CD drive that was in my last case. It's kinda ridiculous - the physical media didn't GO anywhere! Why did the ability to use it just...get taken away? Even in cars, you often have to pay extra for a CD player now.
RB if you think CD drives in computers are not obsolete, but in fact still necessary, despite being artificially phased out
#yeah I fucking hate this 'digital only' era#FFXIV sells CDs of their music...now I have a CD I can't play#what about old CDs I still have too?#give me back disc drives and a place to put them!!
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linus tech tips talkibg about old tech like it literally vanished from existence has done irreparable damage to tech discussions i fear
#“i hate streaming why cant we go back to mo3 players” you can. they still exist. you can buy bags of them for next to nothing second hand.#tou want something a little nicer? get a second hand ipod no ones stopping you#“i wish pcs still had disc drives :/” get one then. you can get cases with built in disc drives if you dont care how your pc looks#hell you can get reletivly newer cases with blu ray players! i have one! its great!
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fixing my 360 and troubleshooting the drive makes me wanna go back to middle school when all i did was play Xbox ignoring everything outside my room and the thing wasn't so fucking old and busted yet 😭
#im buying her a new rubber band for the disc drive soon the boiling water trick isn't working#i s2g being 11 yrs old w this thing through middle school as a support maintained my sanity#my fav thing was playing SSFIV with my shitty 1st android phone i loved also plugged in to listen to my music in practice mode#i hate that i missed out on all the playstation classics growing up but i would never trade my 360 Elite for anything
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I own a 100 DVDs but not a single DVD player
fuck this shit
#random#don't mind me#ugh i realy do hate how it's not standard to have a disc drive in your laptop these days#dont' get me started onhow it's fucked up my music#this mood was inspired by me being like well I own the entirety of merlin on dvd :-)#and wanting to listen to some audio commentaries#but oh wait#ffs#i have a portable dvd drive i can access but not in this half of the country smh
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Car baby
DadHusband!SimonRiley x PregnantWife!Reader (afab)
Summary: A couple days after your due date, your water broke but you persisted to stay at home while you had the opportunity to - even though Simon hated the idea. And because of that, you are now having the baby. On the way to the hospital.
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word count: around 1.2k
cw: pregnancy, depictions of intense pain - a little blood, bad language, dangerous driving, car birth.
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sorry if they’re spelling mistakes, i didn’t go through it properly properly. kinda lost it at the end, but enjoy !
“Hold on— bloody hell, woman.”
One minute you were trying to rest on the settee with a warm tea in your grasp. And the next, you were hunched over mumbling in pain. The tea had jolted from your hand and split over the carpet.
“..fuuck!” Your voice a sharp groan as his arms quickly found way under your own.
“We should’ve gone to the hospital..” No, he wasn’t scolding you but Simon was a little irritated at the fact your persistence had come to this. In labour in your own home, which wasn’t that ideal.
A wavering whimper left your lips, your fingers curling tightly into his muscle as he gently lifted your pregnant body up.
“Lovie, s’alright just hold onto me. And breathe.”
“Isn’t breathing what I’m doing?!”
“Not exactly, more like whinin’ your guts out.”
The burly man took most of your weight, leading you quickly to the car that sat outside on the drive with duffel bags already stocked for the trip. But it shocked you to think it was all happening now.
Simon didn’t even think to put a towel down before seating you in the car, but everything was going on at a rapid pace he had forgotten.
Once you were sat he did the seatbelt for you before closing the door and rushing to the driver’s side.
“We’ll get to the hospital. All will be fine ‘oney.”
As if he wasn’t shitting his pants right there and then.
Getting in the car, it didn’t take long for you to be pushed back into your seat by an invisible force. It kinda took the breath out of you.
But so was the baby that was literally about to pop out.
“Shit— I know we’re in a rush-” Your voice strained, followed by your brows knitting together. “But slow down!”
Of course Simon didn’t listen. However he did look back and forth at your rounded stomach quite a couple of times. The last thing you would’ve wanted right now was to be caught in an accident.
A harsher surge of pain had swept through your back and lower stomach all the way to the disc of your spine, causing you to choke on a loose sob as your hand took a vice-like grip on Simon’s arm. He cursed something under your moans.
He focused on trying to get there safely, but on a condition that he could cut down on minutes.
As cars swerved out of the way of your oncoming vehicle, which was not going to stop, you held onto him for dear life. Pretty sure there’s bound to be a bruise on his bicep after this.
“Simon, I think I’m bleeding!”
Your cry of words is what snapped 3 quarters of his attention to you. The poor man’s head was on a swivel, returning between both you and the road.
He stuck his hand out and placed it on your bare thigh.
“Hell- is that normal?!”
“I don’t think so!” Your pained moans were swapped with pained cries.
It was making Simon feel sick. Not because you were bleeding, no, but because of the immense pain you were feeling and not being able to do a thing about it apart from reassure you.
A soft hand of yours snaked down below your pants.
Touch.
Take out.
Red. A lot of red.
God the sight could’ve made both you and Simon faint.
“Christ.” A mutter under his cold breath.
He rubbed his toughened hand up and down your thigh, adding pressure as he steered with the other.
“Don’t worry love, we’re pulling over..”
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Your cries of agony were deafening over the hushed woman’s voice of an ambulance emergency operator. It was almost embarrassing, but fairs to you, a newborn was making itself known.
Simon was on your side out of the car, listening to what the woman was telling him to do.
‘Have you got towels?’
“Uh yes, in the back.”
‘Use those for the baby when it’s out.’
“..alright.”
‘Is this her first?’
“Yes—”
Another one of your screams. But it seemed to have supported her next instruction.
‘When you are pushing honey, you need to push for 6 seconds, then take a 10 second breather okay?’
“..okay.” The word wobbled from your lips.
Simon took your hand and placed another on your bent knee. Props to you, you were doing this without a damn epidural.
There was blood literally everywhere, all down your thighs and hands, even on Simon. But he really couldn’t care less.
Your grip tightened as you pushed, feeling the sharp tense radiate through your core as you felt tension building up.
“..keep pushing love.” Simon grunted uneasily, wincing a little at the deathly grip of your hand interlocked with his. “Fuck that’s hard—”
‘Breathe 10 seconds..’
‘Then push again.’
God, you were pushing and pushing. If only tough Simon could experience this, my, would it be brilliant.
As you pushed you felt the tight head of the baby force itself out, followed by a sense of relief and loose pressure.
“The heads out!..” Simon said in quite excited tone, pulling a wonky confused face from you. But it was nice to see Simon show such enthusiasm.
‘Good. Just keep pushing mama, the baby’ll be out in no time.’
All that was coming out of your mouth was just endless cries of pain and weakened mumbles of suffering. It was making Simon feel ill again.
“..jesus— the shoulders on this thing—ah!”
..‘this thing’ was the baby.
“Just the shoulders.. and the baby will be out. Alright lovie?” He kissed you on the head.
You gave a loose nod, hair sticking to your forehead with sweat, and tears staining your peachy cheeks that were washed away with Simon’s thumb.
He then got towels, as the operator had told him to, ready to catch the baby when it slips out. You couldn’t help but feel a little violated of your space, but the man’s seen it all before sooo.
You pushed, along with the woman’s voice through the phone on the dashboard and Simon’s little but effective encouragement. Christ, the tension was too powerful, were you tearing or something?
But it wasn’t too long, before it felt like you had been emptied from the inside out. The relief.
“It’s out— the baby’s out!” Simon called, a small smile plastered along his face. That was something you almost never saw in a while. Sarcasm by the way.
‘Put it bare on the mother’s chest, pat its back until you hear a cry.’
He did as he was told and used the towel to gently place the baby on the unclothed part of your chest, his brows furrowing a little at the fact that for it to be alive, it needed to cry.
Your shaky hand was a bit late to lightly pat the newborn, Simon was already getting to it, but you felt so weak at the moment it was almost unbearable.
“Breathe baby. Breathe.”
The man whispered.
To you or the baby?
The silence was awfully mute, a high pitched ringing the only thing loud in your ears apart from Simon’s bated breath.
A cry.
The breaths everyone had been holding were blown as the baby announced itself to the three of you. Simon dryly chuckled. You swear you heard the operator chuckle too.
‘Congratulations Mum and Dad. Is it a boy or a girl?’
Simon’s eyes laid softly on you with your newborn, a hand on his child, and the other on your meaty thigh.
“A girl.” He said with a small smirk, kissing you again on the forehead as you looked dazed.
‘How’s the Mum?’ Worn out. Exhausted. Little light-headed. Icky. Nauseated.
“..I’m fine. I think.”
You thought it was better just to act.. okay. Although to Simon, it was obvious that you needed space, and possible to be checked over my doctors. Your bronzed gaze looked down at the pair of lidded eyes on your chest.
‘That’s good. The ambulance is nearly there to take you all to the hospital, for them to take a look at you and the baby.’
A tired sigh left your lips, your eyes heavy as your hand rested on the wailing newborn.
“..you did bloody brilliant.” The man reassured, his hand brushing away sticky strands of hair from your forehead.
Your look returned to him, searching for something in his eyes before he pecked your lips with a small kiss.
Damn. You just had a baby.
#simon ghost riley#simon riley x you#simon riley x reader#ghost#ghost cod#call of duty#cod mw2#cod modern warfare#cod mwii#pregnancy#pregnant!reader#dad!simon riley#giving birth#birthing
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I have been throughly enjoying your writing, your work scratches an inch I didn't think I had. Absolutely love Armada Starscream, can't wait to see more of TFP Knockout and Starcream. But what got mw the most delighted was seeing Skids, he honestly doesn't get a lot of love and he is my favourite in the MTMTE comics. Thank you so much for creating all these works!
Thank you guys for reading my silly stories

Even If It Kills Me Pt 10
Armada Starscream x Reader
• “Share a meal with us.” Because if he doesn’t ask you won’t, you’ll just linger on the outskirts like you think you don’t belong. Offering you his hand, some of his tension eases when you climb into his palm so he can lower you to the floor where he’s sitting with the mini-cons. As relaxed as you are around the mini-cons, you still act uncertain around him. Hesitant. When you slide out of his hand to sit on the floor, he’s tempted to pick you up and place you on his leg, but resists. While you don’t protest being handled, he’s not sure you actually enjoy it. It must drive home how small you are compared to him. How helpless.
• “Thank you.” Reaching to accept the package of cookies, you realize you’re going to have to explain that wherever he’s thieving food from, he’s going to have to steal real food sooner or later if you’re staying a while. Because what he keeps bringing you is bottled water and junk food. He’s trying, though. Even if you’re almost positive he doesn’t really understand much about humans. “You have to patrol today?”
• Wings fidgeting as you open the package and remove one of the little brown and black speckled discs, he’s almost positive you need more than that to eat. “Of course.” Maybe the food he stole from the kids is unsatisfactory? Neither of you have talked about the nightmare or him singing to you. You joining in. Something about it had felt strangely intimate. Like it’s something that shouldn’t be discussed. There had been an aching loneliness in your voice that had echoed in his own spark, though. That makes him wonder if you’re lonely when he leaves with the mini-cons. You must be. “I could take you for a flight sometime?”
• Blinking at the offer, you look up at him to find Starscream pointedly looking everywhere but at you. Embarrassed? He’d been embarrassed the night before when he’d sang to you, his gruff voice pulling you out of the nightmare. Distracting you. “I’d love that,” you say, wanting to ask him what the song had meant. To translate the words for you, but unsure if it’d be asking too much. You’re already indebted to him far more than you can ever repay. Unintentionally saving you from a life you hated, but were too scared to give up on your own. A life that was going to end up killing you.
• “Good,” he murmurs, wings flicking. Why is it so hard to talk to you? So stilted? When you smile up at him, his spark warms and he loses his train of thought. Just wants to bask in that smile, find all the little things he can do to keep you smiling. Because his servos itch to touch you when you look at him like that. To touch the back of your hand or your hair and that’s not meant for him. Knows that, but still longs for it. Doesn’t want to ever see you look like you had the day he’d found you, defeated and broken.
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Steamroller // Tim Drake x GN! Reader
happy new year! little enemies to lovers kind of thing kind of (theyre just like on opposite ends and they don’t really know it). stalker update for all interested parties: i think he’s starting to lose interest and give up 🙂↕️🙂↕️! also i graduated! yippee! NOT proofread.
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Your favorite nights were ones like these, windswept and carefree as you sped down an empty street on your motorbike. With the last of your tasks wrapped up for the week, it was smooth sailing until the next rotation. Or so you thought before you heard a familiar grating voice bark at you, swinging into the view of your side mirror and chucking something at you.
Switching lanes, you narrowly avoided the batarang that came whizzing by. This guy again. Swinging your bike back around, you pushed the brakes to screech to a halt.
“Nice try bat rat, maybe aim next time!”
If it wasn’t so dark, you’d see the scowl plastered on his face as he stalked towards you. Red Robin hated you, and that was an understatement. Which was fine, you didn’t like him much either.
“Didn’t need to,” he spat. Pressing a button on his suit started up something like the sound of metal scraping pavement behind you. Before you could react, the sharp little object he threw at you came reeling back where it came, and the wheezing sound of your back tire losing air came with it. He threw a grappling hook at you.
“You’ve got to be joking.” In a way, it was your fault for taunting the guy. But this was the sixth encounter this week, if he wasn’t constantly out to get you, you’d think he were in love.
“What were you doing at the rendezvous point Penguin set up?” He stalked towards you, for what you weren’t sure. Sometimes he just wanted to provoke you, other times he’d just go for the swing. But you didn’t have time for that today.
“Intel, not that it’s your business.” You ripped a patch out from your utility belt, slapping it on the tire he just rudely tore a hole in before applying pressure to see if it’d last the way back.
“I’ll decide what my business is.”
“You stalking me everywhere says otherwise.” The tire sank more than you would’ve liked, but it would do. He stopped ten feet in front of you; looks like he didn’t want to fight tonight either. You rummaged through your pockets for good measure.
“I am not stalking you. You’re just where trouble happens to be.”
“Yeah. If that helps you sleep at night.” When your fingers brushed against the smooth plastic you were searching for, you mounted the bike again, turning on the headlights and adjusting your mirrors. It’s important to drive safe. “Anyways! Move.”
“What-“ Before he could finish his thought you pushed on the accelerator, watching him dive out of the way. It’s a shame his reflexes were so fast, if you ran him over he’d be out of commission for at least a month.
You tossed the plastic discs behind you as you sped off, leaving a flush of smoke behind you. He was good, but he wouldn’t be able to trace you with this.
Mercenary work never really was for you, let alone vigilante work. But growing up poor in Gotham and constantly grappling with loan sharks and the other unsavory groups your parents brought upon your family taught you a few things. And you found out you were pretty good at getting things done, the sneakier stuff: spying, stealing, occasionally taking out single targets, the quiet things. It felt bad but being hungry felt worse, survival of the fittest or something like that.
You were so good you paid it all off, and made a profit; enough to get yourself and your brother through college, and give the ol’ crime lords the slip. And things were good.
You liked your 9 to 5 office job, sorting through papers and typing on your laptop. You liked talking to your neighbors and inviting them over on the occasion for taco night. You liked your partner and the cozy apartment you lived in together.
Until your useless brother threw it all away, talking to the wrong people, getting into debt again, throwing around your name where it would mean anything, and it was square one.
So now you’re here. Running from some vigilante freak that has it out for you when you haven’t even done anything all that bad; it’s the people you work for he should be worried about. Instead he wants to breathe down your neck every night of the week, and he fails, every time. Maybe that was why he got so mad, as if there aren’t bigger fish to fry.
When you got back to your apartment, it was almost three in the morning. Slipping in as quietly as you could manage, you breathed a sigh of relief to find all the lights still off. Your boyfriend, Tim, always sleeps with a night light on, something about being scared of the dark. Lucky for you, he worked ungodly hours which made sneaking around a lot easier.
You’d just slipped into your pajamas when you heard the front door open and someone flicked the lights on. You could tell Tim was frustrated by the way he walked, brisk and heavy as he tugged off his coat and tossed his tie into the abyss. But he softened when he saw you, stopping in his tracks with an almost guilty look on his face, like he was sorry for feeling anything but joy in your presence.
“Oh hey, were you waiting up for me? I told you not to.” You shook your head, making your way over to press a kiss to his cheek and hold his hands. They were still cold from outside, the walk from the parking garage must’ve been treacherous.
“Are you okay?,” you asked, running your thumbs over the back of his hands. They were rough hands, surprising for a rich boy, but in your palms they were always so gentle.
He let out a breath, laughing a little before settling into a rueful smile, “I can’t get anything past you, can I? I’m okay. Just work stuff.”
“What kind of work stuff?” You tightened your grip on him, tugging him over to sit with you on the couch. He complied, leaning on your shoulder as he sunk into the cushions.
“Just something I can’t quite… resolve.” He sounded so tired. Business always went well, and Tim was a genius, it was a wonder how he ran into so many problems in the office. Sometimes you wanted to reach into that pretty skull of his and take a peek into his brain, maybe he was just overthinking things, or maybe you’d finally understand that you could never understand. Both would soothe you.
“Yet. Everything works out in time, and you’re the best I know. Can I help?” You felt him tense when you ran your hand over his shoulder, pulling away immediately to check on him. But before you could manage to ask he reached for you, shaking his head.
“No. It’s sensitive material. I’m okay,” he insisted, leaning on you again as he perched his arms neatly where they would fit around you. “Can we just stay like this for awhile?”
It was a good thing he never asked for anything malicious, because you’d say yes to just about anything he asked.
“Yeah.” You’d never known power so intimately before you held his skull to your chest. The way he surrendered himself and was whole, shedding the burdens of his responsibilities entirely to be vulnerable for a moment. But it was coupled by an intense fear, that his trust was rare and very easily abused or misguided if you weren’t careful. And if you weren’t, it felt as if he wouldn’t ever be vulnerable again.
“Thank you, and I love you,” he whispered. Your tired, hardworking boy.
“I love you more,” you answered.
It turns out the “I’m okay” business was a massive tri-colored bruise that bloomed on his left arm. He was careful to hide it, and if you didn’t wake up a little earlier than usual you would never have known. You didn’t ask, clearly he didn’t want you to, but you were concerned— and moreso curious. He did spar with his siblings, this you knew, but they’d never do something like that to him. Maybe he was sleep deprived and got stuck between the elevator doors somehow, you wouldn’t put it past him. If you had time later, you could check in while he’s in the office, drop off dinner or something to make sure he wasn’t getting picked on.
You got up an hour after him, as you always did. There was a rhythm to your morning routine that you adored, it was comfortable; reliable. Tim made the coffee, and you made breakfast. When you first moved in together he’d offered to cook, being the one to get up first and all, but he was hopeless. Anything beyond instant noodles was a fire and food safety hazard. And you made a mean scrambled egg.
You cooked so he did the dishes, a compromise you never objected to— it was your least favorite house chore. You’d loop his tie for him when he was done, and he’d kiss you on the forehead to leave first. Your job started a little later.
At least it would if you hadn’t requested a temporary leave of absence while you worked for Gotham’s worst. You had to report whatever intel you gathered yesterday night to Black Mask. He’d have another assignment for you after, you were sure. But if you were efficient with these things, it could all be over in a month or so.
That’s what you told yourself as you waved him out the door. Thursday nights Tim usually got back at a human hour, if you could wrap up business early you could be home by the time he was too.
Black Mask was waiting for you by the time you got there, unsurprisingly. It never got easier looking at him, freakish and impossible to read, behind his skeletal metal teeth.
“Penguin’s plan?” He’d asked before you had the chance to fully enter the room, eager as ever to maintain his grasp on power. Breathing isn’t worthwhile unless you’re winning he told you once.
“He wants to spread some influenza with his birds. It’s not serious, but the cure he’s selling is. It’s highly addictive and one of a kind. I got photos on this drive.” You placed it on the man’s desk, pushing it towards him as far as you’d dared. “He’s colluding with the woman who runs the second biggest pharm-tech company in the city. It has a six week timeline, some of it was in motion last week so five from here out.”
“Okay.” Without missing a beat he’d already decided your next assignment, “get me the cure.”
“Four people have access. A team or a raid would be better suited.” You took a breath to answer him. This wasn’t possible, at least not easily. It wasn’t a job you wanted to take, and it wasn’t practical. Money wasn’t Black Mask’s pursuit, it should’ve been enough just to thwart his enemies, not profit from them.
“I don’t pay you to argue.”
You had to swallow the fear that crept up your throat. Fear of death was always within reach, that much was obvious when you took on mercenary work, but the fear Black Mask brought on was a little more primal. Something instinctual you had to ignore.
You couldn’t take this job. The both of you knew it would go over the hours you were signed for, anything that could arouse suspicion from your normal life was carved into stone as off limits. Tim couldn’t know, that was the rule. And this assignment could take you weeks, “…it breaches our contract.”
“I pay overtime. And let me remind you, you’re in no position to say otherwise.”Disagreeing twice was a hefty endeavor and the man was right, you had your brother to consider. It’s always funny, the way you think you have any say in things. “Get me the cure.”
You didn’t have time to pack up, leave a note, or meal prep dinner. It was burdensome to disappear, at least a little. But Tim would be okay; hurt, but okay. It’s not like he’d miss you terribly, he was working over-overtime as it was, and you hoped he would forgive you when you got back.
So you vanished. It was quiet work, mostly tailing people to get a lead, working to worm your way in to the right social circles, sorting through files while people slept.
Red Robin was looking for you, or at least investigating your activity. He’d have caught you a few times now if you weren’t more focused on working during the day. Not that he knew what was going on, that much was evident. Not that he would be able to do anything if he did run into you again anyway, that boy just kept losing. Or maybe he didn’t want to win.
It was hard to know what his objective was. Just that he thought you were bad news and made things harder than they needed to be. But he did intrigue you. Righteous Red Robin never fought dirty and it was a little flattering how he was insistently so hot on your trail. Maybe you’d tease him about it after this whole ordeal and he could throw another grappling hook at you.
It only took two weeks to gather enough standing in Penguin’s sphere to have access to his office. With all the snooping you’d done, you knew every possible password and key you’d need to access the files for Black Mask. If you broke in tonight, you’d be by daylight. Theoretically.
So you took to it. It wasn’t hard to break in once you knew where everything was. Nothing was terribly discreet, just about as hidden as valuables would be in someone’s home. Getting into the main computer was a breeze, you’d talked up enough patrons and underlings for them to spill every access code they knew. As you slipped in a USB to transfer the remaining files you needed, a familiar set of footsteps sounded behind you.
Brisk, decided, and determined to be quiet, you knew he was lurching forward with a right hook before you had the chance to turn around. You jerked your body out of the way before he could make contact, putting as much distance between the two of you as you could manage. Thankfully the file transfer already started before he rudely interrupted your heist, you just needed to buy time.
“Can we not do this today?” You couldn’t help the annoyance creeping under your skin; Red Robin’s timing couldn’t have been worse. If he’d shown up ten minutes later you would’ve been gone. Of all the times to barge in, he chose to when you were just about done.
But he was faster than he usually was, before your thoughts could finish flowing through your skull he was throwing something at you again; muttering a sharp, “shut up,” in tandem. A gasp left you as it grazed your cheek, he’d never drawn blood before, even so minutely.
Before you had a chance to react he was on you, swinging his staff with enough force to kill a man. It was all you could do to avoid it before the next swing came, overbearing and deadly, unlike you’d ever seen from him. Any ounce of annoyance left in you evaporated in favor of fear and adrenaline, he was angry.
“What is your problem? If this is about running you over, I knew you’d dodge it!” The knives you had tucked away in your boot straps were useless, you didn’t have time to reach for them and even if you had them there were no openings to intervene. With a stroke of luck, he hit the wall hard enough for his staff to get stuck, giving you enough time to make a run for the window. The files would have to wait.
Just as you were reaching to pull up on the windowsill, a batarang caught the fabric of your shoulder, pinning you to the wall. Another grazed your outreached hand, distancing you further from your escape route.
If you were scared of Black Mask, you were terrified of Red Robin. Or at least, this state of him. You’d never noticed before how the whites of his mask looked like headlights, barreling towards a sundered deer. With whatever cognition you had left, your uninjured hand reached for the dagger in your boot, but you were slow and he wasn’t feeling gracious. He grabbed your wrist with one hand, pinning it next to your shoulder, and with the other he jerked you forward by your collar.
A glimpse of metal hanging on your neck made his scowl deepen and you winced for whatever he would throw at you next. But instead of a punch or getting hit with a blunt object, you felt the release of pressure when he snapped the dainty silver chain from you.
“Where did you get this?” he barked. There was something off about the way he said it, untethered. The necklace in question wasn’t something controversial; a chain with a pendant Tim had inscribed with his initials next to yours.
It wasn’t particularly valuable, nothing anyone would steal, but it meant something untouchable to you. Exactly eight months into dating he told you he loved you for the first time and presented you with it. The letters were rough around the edges from mistakes in sanding and carving when he etched the metal for you himself. And now it was being dangled in front of you, a reminder of all you could stand to lose if things went wrong. So easily snatched from you, as if they never belonged in the first place.
“Give it back.” You moved to sweep your leg under his feet, kick him, whatever you could to get it back and get out. It wasn’t fair in the slightest, he should know it wasn’t something to steal. But he just tightened his grip on your wrist and kneed your ribs once hard enough for you to keel over and stop moving.
“Where did you get this?” His anger was building, you could hear, but you didn’t care much anymore. He didn’t have the right.
“It’s mine,” you spat through gritted teeth.
“Liar.” A pang of confusion hit you, as if this were something to lie about. He was in your face now, and you glared back behind your own mask. If he didn’t back off soon you had half a resolve to bite his nose off. “What did you do to the owner? This is your last chance.”
Like Red Robin could do anything to you. You felt like a dog backed into a corner, sure enough. But upper hand or not, no one wins in a fight against a rabid dog, even if you manage to put it down.
“And I’m telling you for the last time, it’s mine.” But if you get put down, you can’t crawl back. The courage behind your words was starting to sound like desperation. “My boyfriend gave it to me and you need to give it back.”
And then your resolve was gone altogether, a plea more than a demand, for absolution. Your voice quivered on the last few words, maybe it was for the better, it seemed like that was the only part he heard anyway.
The blood in your wrist started flowing again as he let go of it, looking at you with something akin to terror. Swallowing lead, you considered taking the chance to run; rip the sleeve that was caught and book it. But something held you there, vulnerability? Or some deviant of the terror he was feeling. Your legs wouldn’t move now.
He was slow in reaching for your mask. You must’ve been slower, because you didn’t stop him. You couldn’t do anything at all, not with the way your heart was pounding in your ears. Everything in you was screaming all at once, but you couldn’t understand a thing they were saying and it was getting hard to breathe.
You squinted to adjust your vision once the mask was off, and something wet slid down your cheek. Dust must’ve gotten under the thing, you weren’t one to cry.
“Y/N?” He’d caught you and you let it happen. You heard the chain clink on the floor, and you were so sorry to Tim that you let it happen. Soiled something he put time into. Maybe it was fitting, you always took that boy for granted.
You flinched when he reached for you, pressing your eyes shut. But Red Robin didn’t cuff you like you expected. Knock you out, threaten you, chain you to a street lamp outside for the police to collect. Instead you felt arms wrap around you, hefty and secure, a welcoming warmth in juxtaposition to the cold, stagnant office air. And you knew these arms, and you knew this feeling, and you knew this scent.
“Tim?” It came out like a squeak, you didn’t intend that.
And then his head was buried in your shoulder again, his spot as it’d always been. “I thought someone took you.”
He took the liberty of freeing you from the wall first, and you dropped to the floor. Your knees felt like jello. It made sense, some of it. The late nights and the injuries.
“Without a ransom note?” you murmured. You didn’t know what else to say. It’d been Tim the whole time.
“Don’t joke.” He knelt beside you, tucking a stray strand behind your ear. After the shock, the guilt came barreling in. You caused his injuries. You got in his way. You ran away without saying anything. You’d been hurting him the whole time.
“I’m sorry.” You squeaked for the second time. After the guilt was the confliction. You didn’t know to do. Half reaching for him, half shying away.
So Tim grabbed your hands, stilling you completely with just that. He pulled a strip of cloth out of his belt to wrap around the palm he cut moments before. It was shallow, nothing that would scar.
He was probably as confused as you were, quiet to sort out the events as they’d unfolded— and the before. There was a lot to ask and a lot to explain, you wouldn’t know where to start. And if you did start, you didn’t know if you could stop. It was too much. You were tired. There were time constraints. The first bit of reality slipped itself into your mind, the two of you weren’t the only two in the world and you were here on a job. “Please don’t ask, I’ll tell you when I have the heart but please don’t ask. I might cry. I’m sorry.”
“You’re already crying.” His thumbs brushed your tears away as if just to prove it. But they stayed after, running the pad of his fingers over your cheeks for as long as you’d let him. A soothing pattern.
“Am I? I’m sorry.” Your eyes were locked onto him, and you knew he was looking back even if his eyes weren’t visible. The longer you stared, the more the tears seemed to flow. And you couldn’t fathom why you were crying.
“For what?” He said it as if nothing were wrong, and that’s all it took for the dam to burst. Flinging your arms around him to cry your worth into his shoulders. You didn’t deserve this boy.
“I love you,” you sobbed.
“I love you more,” he answered.
#tim drake fanfic#tim drake#tim drake x reader#batman#dc#red robin x reader#tim drake imagine#tim drake x gender neutral reader#tim drake angst#tim drake fluff#red robin x y/n#red robin
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Meeting up with a guy at his house tomorrow to “watch a movie” but you know my ass is rocking up to his place with my computer, portable disc drive and Dinner in America (2020) on DVD.
I don’t know what will happen but what I do know is that he’s probably gonna hate it and want to interrupt the viewing experience and I will be fucking sat for Kyle Gallner’s performance of a life time.
Like babe stop trying to kiss me THE DINER SCENE IS PLAYING. THEMATICALLY ITS THE BEST SCENE BECAUSE IT SHOWS MUTUAL CHARACTER GROWTH.
#will keep yall updated#this is the funniest thing to ever happen to me#dinner in america#kyle gallner
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What do you think of the idea that YouTubers in the 2010s are the reason Sonic had/has a bad reputation?
It's really stupid. Completely unfounded.
You know why Youtubers in 2010's felt that way? Because a lot of people outside of the Sonic fandom felt that way.
I was in high school when Sonic Adventure 1 came out. I got my Dreamcast for Christmas in 1999. Purely by surprise, my brother sent me $200 for Christmas that year after not hearing from him for a decade. I was living in Colorado, and we'd had a white Christmas, meaning the roads were too slick to drive anywhere on December 26th. But I knew I wanted that Dreamcast.
The local Wal-mart was a little over a mile away. So, I bundled up and hiked it. With other money I got for Christmas that year, I had just enough for the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, an off-brand VMU, an issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine with a demo disc, and a lightgun -- I'd wanted House of the Dead 2 and I was desperate for a home port of The Lost World.
I played Sonic Adventure all day, every day, for like a week. Some of that was the fault of the cheap VMU I got -- it wasn't even a VMU, it was just a memory card, and it was half the price of the official thing. For whatever reason, Sonic Adventure (and ONLY Sonic Adventure) had trouble saving to that thing. My saves would frequently corrupt and disappear. I didn't mind as much as you'd think. I willingly and happily replayed Sonic Adventure over, and over, and over, and over.
When I got back to school in January of 2000, a lot of other kids had gotten Dreamcasts and Sonic Adventure. And it turned out I was the Sonic Adventure evangelist.
I wouldn't say everyone hated Sonic Adventure, but they were pretty frustrated with it. The main talking point was that there were too many characters in the game and most of them weren't very good. Everyone had their ranking list for who they'd rather be playing as, and universally, everyone just wanted to keep playing as Sonic. Knuckles, Amy, and Big brought up the rear for the most-hated gameplay styles. A lot of kids were saying they weren't even going to bother finishing the game if it meant having to play as Amy and Big.
My point of view was that it was normal. Sonic 2 introduced Tails, Sonic 3 introduced Knuckles, so it makes sense that Sonic Adventure would introduce new playable characters as well. It did little to address their complaints that most of the non-Sonic characters were annoying.
This sentiment never went away. A year later, in 2001, Penny-Arcade, basically the biggest webcomic in the world at that point, awarded Sonic Adventure 2 "the best Sonic game where you do not play as Sonic" award, which was less of an actual award and more of a jab at how Sonic wasn't actually in 75% of that game.
Then the Gamecube ports started coming in, which, if you've watched my Definitive Way to Play series, you'd know that SA1 and SA2 were quick and dirty ports that introduced a lot of problems in visuals, control, and sound. Reviews for those versions deservedly slammed them, citing poor music that drowned out the dialog, rapidly dated visuals, and a generally buggy presentation, on top of all the problems people had with the original Dreamcast releases.
After that, the decline really hit its stride. Sonic Heroes, then Shadow the Hedgehog, then Sonic 06. A real triple whammy of things just getting worse, and worse, and worse. Sonic 06 in particular was so much worse that it hit the fabled point where it wrapped around to being kind of funny for some people.
All of this was YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS before "2010's Youtubers" ever stepped in front of a microphone. Those people were just recounting the lives they had lived.
Anyone who thinks 2010's Youtubers did anything are just revealing how young they were back then, and how ignorant they were about the general temperature of things beyond "after my nappy time and my juice box I'm going to play the colorful animals game, yay!!!"
Before that gets me into too much trouble, I'd also like to say that obviously, times change. Opinions are a fluid thing. There will always be a "younger generation" that thinks about things in a different way than the older generation. Anyone, no matter what era they grew up in, can go back and find some beloved nostalgic classic getting blasted by critics. (For example: recently I rewatched Howard the Duck, a legendary bomb for Lucasfilm, and I loved that movie as a kid)
Loving something that you realize everybody hated when it originally came out is kind of just part of the human experience. A rite of passage, almost. But it helps to embrace that perspective, understand it, and realize you can still keep liking that thing regardless.
2010's Youtubers did nothing except exist.
#questions#Anonymous#sonic the hedgehog#sega#sonic team#sonic adventure#dreamcast#storytime#howard the duck#generational differences
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Can I just say that one trend with computers that I absolutely fucking hate is companies manufacturing them without disc drives?
Is physical media really considered so woefully obsolete these days that computer manufacturers don't expect you to even have any anymore?
The only device I own without a physical disc drive is my gaming laptop, and that is only because they don't make gaming laptops with DVD drives anymore.
So any physical PC game I own, I have no way to install it on that laptop unless I purchase an external disc drive. Is it really so fucking taboo to ask for the computer I am spending money on to have a built-in disc drive?
Every other computer I've ever owned, including the one I am writing this post on at this moment, has at least had a DVD drive.
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