#i just got back from engine lab and it was the best thing like ever

[sallytwo]

*grits teeth* i donttttt… want to be an engineer..

[roosterforme]

Aim for the Sky Part 10 | Rooster x Reader

Summary: With a little help from his best friend, Bradley rushes to the hospital, panic overtaking his system at the thought of something happening to one of his girls. He was supposed to be the one to take care of you. He felt like he failed.

Warnings: Angst, hospitals, injury while pregnant, potential pregnancy complications, vomit, blood, fluff

Length: 4500 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

Aim for the Sky masterlist. This was written to accompany my series Is It Working For You? along with a bunch of my one-shots and other series, but it can be read on its own! Check my masterlist for the reading order.

Bradley felt wrappers and empty bottles crunch under his combat boots as he climbed into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. Nat had the engine started, and she was tearing through the parking garage without a word. This may have been the first time he didn't have the desire to complain about his best friend's driving or her filthy SUV. He felt too numb to really consider anything except time ticking away on the digital clock on the dashboard.

You were fine this morning. Maybe not great, but you definitely didn't appear as though you were going to collapse at any moment. The only thing Bradley knew was that you passed out in your lab and hit the floor pretty hard. When he begged Nat for more information, she just shrugged, her brow pinched with concern while he cried. At least she wouldn't expect him to say anything at the moment, and she wouldn't even get mad if he threw up like he wanted to.

If anything devastating happened to you or Rosie, he didn't know how he was going to deal with it. He should have been checking on you more often at work. He'd been listening to you telling him you were going to try to eat more even though you weren't feeling well, but he hadn't pressed you to do so.

"Oh, god," he choked out, the afternoon sun and bluebird sky mocking him now as he sobbed into his hands. Nat whipped around a corner, honking at someone, and he didn't really care what happened as long as she got him to you and his daughter as quickly as possible. He had been in the car for six minutes already, winding through Coronado, and he was starting to panic more as he thought about how long you might have been unconscious. Or worse, maybe you were still unconscious now. He couldn't think about anything beyond that, because when he started to slip into that unsettling headspace, he felt his hands shake as bile stung the back of his throat.

"Nat, I can't live without her," he gasped, subconsciously knowing he was talking about both of you. Her hand reached out to squeeze his briefly before returning to the wheel, and he watched as she actually cut around a public transit bus to make a turn.

"We're almost there," she promised, and he nodded as his head tipped back against the headrest. If you and Rosie were okay, he was never going to willingly leave your side again. He'd been worried about someone bumping into you at the fucking Hard Deck, and that was nothing compared to this.

"What am I gonna do?" he whispered, eyes squeezed closed as he ran his sweaty palms along the rough fabric of his flight suit, his breathing starting to get erratic. It was his privilege in life to take care of you. Anything you needed or wanted, he'd hand it to you on a silver platter. But the only thing he needed and wanted was his little family. "Fuck."

"Bradley," Nat snapped, shaking him roughly by his bicep as she careened into the hospital parking lot and made a straight shot for the emergency room entrance. "You need to keep it together. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," he gasped, images far more terrifying than anything he'd ever thought about circling his brain.

"If something happened to the baby, your wife is going to need you to be strong."

Her words left him reeling, because he knew he'd never be as strong as you were. That was part of why he loved you so much. And Rose would be just like you, and he'd have two silver platters ready as soon as she was born. He swallowed hard as her SUV came to a screeching stop in front of a door that said AMBULANCE PARKING ONLY, and he fumbled his seatbelt with shaking fingers before jumping out onto the curb and running inside.

There was an elderly man in a wheelchair and a kid with crutches. Someone with a bloody bandage around their head was moaning in one of the seats, but he didn't see you as he came skidding to a halt in front of the check-in desk. "I need to see my wife. She's pregnant." The last word came out like too much of a question for him to handle, and he had to grip the edge of the desk for support while the woman behind it looked up at him with a neutral expression.

"I'll need to see your identification and get approval before you can go back," she told him smoothly as he yanked his military ID out of the badge holder he was wearing and handed it to her. "What is your wife's name?"

Bradley recited it to her quickly and reverently, watching as she typed away on the keyboard in front of her. "Do you know if she's okay? Can you check if she's alright?" he begged, squeezing her desk again as she slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry, sir, but all I can see is which room she was taken to and which doctors are working on her case."

"But she's pregnant," he repeated in desperation, hoping that if he said it again, the words would still be true.

"I understand," she said smoothly, handing his ID back to him along with a medical bracelet with the date and time stamped on it. "Put that on your wrist, and have a seat while I see if someone can take you back to her."

Bradley stood there, even more numb to his surroundings than he had been in Nat's car. His ears were ringing, and he had a disturbing metallic taste in his mouth, making it harder and harder to swallow as he swayed on his feet. Based on his extensive military training, he figured he must be going into shock, but he would force himself to remain alert until he saw you for himself. Until he felt his daughter moving.

He could hear the woman pick up the phone and say, "Can someone let me know the visitation status of the patient in room seventeen? Her husband is here." There was a pause before she added, "Yes, I checked him in, and he has a bracelet on." 

But she wasn't paying attention to him, and he was already moving now toward the double doors that said EMERGENCY ROOM ACCESS: STAFF AND PATIENTS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT WITHOUT ESCORT. He needed to get to you immediately, and everyone else could literally fuck off. He'd take the double doors right off the hinges with his bare hands if necessary. In fact, he would be more than happy to do so. But as he approached them, ready to get through by any means necessary, one door swung open as someone in scrubs strolled through, and he ducked right inside.

Room seventeen. He read the guide on the wall and rushed down the hallway to his right. The thudding of his heartbeat and the sound of his own breathing was almost deafening as he ran. The fluorescent lights were making him dizzy as he read the number on each door. But then he saw it. Room seventeen was straight ahead, and the door was open a few inches, light filling the gap as he started calling your name. He was almost there as the tears started up again, and he was pushing his way into the room as he rasped, "Baby Girl," at the sight of you on the bed.

----------------------------

When you woke up for the third time, you were so dizzy, you turned your head and started to gag. "It's okay," came an unfamiliar voice in the freezing cold room with too bright lights. "I have the garbage can ready for you."

That certainly was convenient. Just when you needed to throw up all of the contents of your stomach, someone was there to help you out. You never had service like that when you were battling morning sickness unless Bradley had been around. You made horrible noises as you heaved, the room still spinning even as you tried to ease yourself onto your back once again. You wanted to say thank you to the unknown voice of the blurry person next to you, but instead you asked, "Where am I?"

"The emergency room at Sharp Coronado Hospital."

That really didn't make any sense. You'd just been at work. Today was your birthday. Bradley was taking you to the hot sauce restaurant for dinner. Then your brain fog began to clear, and you started kicking at the white blanket that was keeping your legs warm in the freezing room. You were in a hospital gown, and when your hands came to rest on your belly, you realized you couldn't feel the baby moving. At all. You shifted your hands around frantically, and while your body was painfully tender, you could feel nothing. No somersaults. No squirms. No kicks. No thumps. Rosie was never this still.

"What happened to my baby?" you asked, voice wrecked with unchecked sobs as the woman beside you set the garbage can down and reached for your shaking hand. "I can't feel her!"

Something caught on the hospital gown, and you realized there were stitches running the length of the side of your swollen left hand. Your rings were missing, which was also scary, but you couldn't think of a single good reason why your daughter wasn't moving around inside your belly when she was always so active. 

You sobbed loudly as the woman with you took your hand in hers, and you realized she was trying to calm you down as all of the equipment you were connected to started going crazy with loud beeps. Your pulse and blood pressure were through the roof and getting worse as she finally said, "The baby is okay, but we can't have you going into shock again. Listen to my voice and take deep breaths."

"Why isn't she moving?" you shrieked, still fighting to keep your hands on your belly.

"Because you're on pain medication," she said, and you finally realized there were two sets of monitoring devices, and the one with the wires that led to the band wrapped around your belly were giving a much calmer readout.

"Is that her heartbeat?" you asked, pointing to the screen that was displaying the pattern you were used to seeing when you were at your appointments with Dr. Morris.

"Yes, the baby is just fine. The obstetrician on rotation checked her out by ultrasound before we even stitched up your hand and wrist. But you need to stay calm while the medication starts wearing off. You've got extensive bruising, and we're still treating you for a possible concussion, but we can't keep you on the painkillers for a prolonged amount of time, okay?"

The words almost made sense, but they just didn't. And you couldn't stay calm, because you wanted Bradley. Hot tears leaked from your eyes as you tried to take a deep breath, but you shook from nerves and cold. Your teeth were suddenly chattering so hard, your jaw felt like it was snapping, and you could have sworn you heard someone calling your name. As the nurse took a step away from you, that voice started to sound louder. You squeezed your eyes closed, trying to collect all of your thoughts, but there was no mistaking your husband's voice.

"Baby Girl!" he called out, eyes frantic and face far too pale as he pushed the door open and rushed to your side. His pupils were blown wide as he reached for you, and when he closed his eyes, you saw a tear streak down his face. He blinked a few times like he couldn't be sure you were real, so you reached for his face. He dropped to his knees next to the bed as he took your hand gently in his. "Are you okay?" came his shaky question, and you tried to nod as your teeth chattered. "Is Rosie okay?" His words were filled with something terribly close to agony, and you started crying harder.

"Yes," you whispered, trying to pull him closer. He would keep you warm and make you feel so much better, but his whole body was wracked with horrible sobs as he scooted closer until his lips were on yours in the gentlest kiss.

"Oh my god," he said, voice breaking as he cried. "Oh my god, Sweetheart. You're both really okay?" You were nodding in a jerky motion as his hand slid down to your belly, and you could have sworn the baby squirmed just for him. "I was fucking terrified out of my mind. I'm so sorry I wasn't with you. I love you."

His lips were kissing along your cheek as he kept his arm wrapped around you like you were capable of getting up and running away at the moment. As if you would even want to. It wasn't his fault this happened. It was an accident. You could remember listening to Bickel talking about your new list of tasks and the borrowed equipment from Lemoore, and then you just hit the ground. It was evident that you weren't doing enough to take care of yourself as it felt like your whole system was changing again in your third trimester. You needed to do better.

"I'm okay," you insisted, running your fingers through his hair. He melted into your touch, his face finally relaxing slightly as the color came back to his cheeks. When the nurse cleared her throat, you realized you forgot she was there.

"Sir, I don't think you're supposed to be in here."

Bradley was shooting her a nasty glare as more members of hospital personnel, including a security guard, walked into your room.

"What did you do?" you whispered as your husband held onto you just as gently as ever, but now he was shaking his head.

"I'm not leaving this room until my wife and daughter do," he told everyone in a loud, commanding voice. "You can be pissed off or whatever that I didn't wait to be escorted in, but I'm not going anywhere."

The security guard looked at the nurse, and she simply shrugged in response, but you stopped paying attention to them when Bradley turned back to look at you, his brown eyes wide and sincere as he said, "I'm here now, and I'm not going to let anything else happen to either of you."

Finally, you were able to warm up in his arms, and you calmed down a little bit more with each subtle squirm you felt from the baby. Bradley was kissing along your fingers, being mindful of your stitches when he froze. "Sweetheart, where are your rings?"

----------------------------

Bradley wished he smelled better and was wearing something softer, but you didn't complain about the faint scent of jet fuel or the scratchiness of his flight suit as he whispered over and over again how much he loved you. He didn't move an inch from his spot on the floor next to the bed as an emergency room doctor came to check you out again followed by an obstetrician.

"You may have preeclampsia, but you'll need a diagnosis from your own doctor based on historical data from your entire pregnancy. It's hard to tell whether all of the excitement from today is responsible for your high blood pressure or if it's the other way around."

"Preeclampsia," Bradley repeated, giving your fingers a little squeeze. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"It can be," you whispered, and the doctor nodded in agreement.

"Bottom line," the doctor said, tapping the line of fluids being pumped into your body, "you were severely dehydrated and seemed to have a reaction to undereating. The stitches in your hand can be monitored from home until you can see your own doctor next week, so we can discharge you tonight. As long as you keep eating and drinking and stay off your feet as much as possible for the next few days. Healthy meals and rest."

"Okay," you whispered, looking so small and sad in the hospital bed that Bradley wanted to protect you at all costs.

"So I can take them home?" he confirmed, wanting nothing more than to get you cleaned up and changed and tucked into the king sized bed with a tray of food. When the doctor nodded, he sighed in relief.

He had been checking his phone sporadically, which finally helped him solve the wedding ring mystery. Cat took them off of you in the ambulance when your fingers started to swell, and she promised she had them with her. He also knew Nat let Tramp out and was ready to stay the night with him if necessary. She even let him know that she dropped his Bronco off in the hospital parking lot with Jake a few hours ago, and that someone was sitting in the waiting room, ready to give him the keys whenever you got discharged. He wasn't sure who it was, but when you were finally discharged and nearly falling asleep at ten o'clock, he was surprised by what he found.

As the nurse pushed you toward the exit in a wheelchair, Nat, Bickel, Cat and Jake all got to their feet in the waiting room. You burst into tears as Jake handed Bradley his car key and knelt down next to you.

"Don't cry, Angel," he drawled softly. "On second thought, maybe you should cry. Even after waking from that concussion, I hate to inform you that you really are married to Bradshaw." He gave your cheek a little kiss as your tears turned to laughter as he stood up again, and Bradley rolled his eyes.

Nat gave Bradley a hug while Cat fussed over putting your rings onto your right hand for the time being. Then Bickel said, "Do not report to work until you've been cleared by your doctors, Lieutenant Commander. I don't care if that's in four days or four months."

You looked worried now as you ran your fingers along your stitches. "Sir. Did I... break the lab equipment when I fell?" you whispered, and even Bradley could tell by Bickel's face that you probably did. "I didn't mean to."

But there was a reason you liked your boss so much, and you visibly relaxed in the wheelchair as Bickel said, "I'm worried about you, not the equipment, Lieutenant Commander. I'll check in with you on Monday."

When Bradley was finally helping you into the Bronco, you had tears in your eyes, but you looked a lot more relaxed than you had earlier. "I'm so tired, Roo," you whispered as he buckled you and Rosie in with a kiss to your belly.

"I know," he replied, pretty exhausted himself. "I'll take care of everything, okay? I'm just sorry you're not having a better time on your birthday."

When you looked at him and softly said, "It's much better now," he swiped at the tears on your cheeks with his thumbs. "I'm sorry I scared you, and I'll be better about eating, okay? And if I have preeclampsia, I'll make sure Rosie is my number one priority every day, even if I feel awful from forcing nutrients into my body."

Bradley smiled and said, "I just wish I'd been able to take you to Del Mar tonight so you could enjoy some hot sauce." Just then, his phone started ringing in his pocket, and he thought perhaps it was your parents; they'd been biting at the bit for more information after he texted them throughout the day.

"Who is it?" you asked, and he sighed as he checked the number.

"It's the bar I reserved for the evening," he replied, ignoring the call until he got you home.

"Bar? For what?"

He kissed away the rest of your tears and murmured, "Our private silent disco. That's what I got you for your birthday."

You gasped and pulled him close, and even as you cried more, you said, "You're the best husband who ever existed. And I ruined my own night and scared us both half to death."

"Shhh," he coaxed. "We can go a different time. As long as my girls are okay, nothing else really matters. Now can I take you home for a slice of birthday cake and get you snuggled in bed?"

"Yes," you sniffed. 

Not even fifteen minutes later, you were standing in the kitchen in your bra and underwear, eating a slice of the cake that said 'Happy Birthday, Baby Girl' which he'd hidden behind a bunch of things in the refrigerator since yesterday. Per the doctor's instructions, he made sure you had plenty of water to drink before he got you in a warm bath and helped you wash yourself.

"Come in," you said softly, stifling a yawn. "I didn't get to do any of the other stuff you planned for my birthday, but I want you in here with me."

With a deep, exhausted sigh, he unzipped his flight suit, your eyes glued to his every movement. His body was aching now from the rush of terrified adrenaline earlier and how much he'd worried about you since arriving at the hospital. He held your left hand above the water and slipped into the tub behind you, his body automatically relaxing as you eased back against him. Then he placed your hand on the edge of the tub to keep your stitches dry, and he held you as he whispered, "I love you," before setting his hand on your belly.

Finally, your heart rate felt normal again, and as the water got cooler, he could tell you were starting to doze off in his arms. He whispered the birthday song, and a smile crept along your lips even though your eyes were closed, and eventually he had to coax you out of the bath and into bed.

Just as your birthday officially ended, you were laying on your side snoring softly, and Bradley kissed your shoulder before he reached for the blue and pink striped notebook and a pen from his nightstand. While he was pleased you were able to fall asleep, he knew he'd be up for quite a while still, processing everything that had happened. The terrible thought of losing you and the baby left him with the realization that he didn't know if he'd actually be able to cope with something like that happening. It made his skin crawl all over again, but he knew he had to process it somewhere.

Hey, Rosie. You'll learn pretty quickly why I love Mommy's birthday so much. Actually, you'll learn pretty quickly that I try to make every day special for her. It's because she makes everything better for me just by being around. Her smile can make the worst day incredible, and her laughter makes me feel like I'm falling in love with her all over again. But today was her birthday, and it was one of the worst days of my life. I was scared that I was going to lose something that could never be replaced. Something I can't live without. I would do anything for you, Rosie. And I would do anything for your mom.

--------------------------------

When you first woke up on Saturday, your entire body was aching from your fall. For a second, you swore you could hear Bradley and Phoenix talking in the other room, but when you rolled onto your other side with Rose thumping around, you fell asleep again before you could investigate. When you woke up for the second time, you were absolutely certain you could hear Bradley talking to your mom.

You pulled on a random pair of sweatpants and a stretchy maternity tank top, making a stop in the bathroom before heading down the hallway. When you peeked into the kitchen, Bradley had the iPad propped up on the counter, and he had your cutting boards and cookware out as your mom chatted away.

"You have to peel the carrots just like you would a potato, and then you can cut them into pieces about this big."

"Right," he replied, slowly peeling the orange vegetable in this hand and then slicing it while your mom watched. "Should I put it in the chicken broth?"

"Not yet," she instructed. "Wait until you're ready to add the celery and put them in at the same time. And it never hurts to add a few extra carrots."

"Got it," he told her, setting aside three more carrots on the counter. "And tomorrow morning you'll help me with the chicken pot pie again?"

"Of course I will," she promised. "And I'll show you how to make tomato sauce when you're ready."

"Thanks." He wiped his brow with a dishtowel, voice thick with emotion as he said, "She scared me half to death yesterday. I need to make sure she's eating and drinking enough. When Natasha went grocery shopping for me earlier, I had her get these hydration packs that you can add to water along with cases of Gatorade. So those should be good.  And if you help me cook every day, I'm hoping she can start to stomach food again."

"It sounds like you have everything under control, but if you want me to fly out, I can be there tomorrow."

Bradley wavered for a few seconds, but ultimately said, "I can handle it with your help over FaceTime. I'll take care of my girls."

"I have all the confidence in the world that you will," your mom told him. "Call this afternoon when she's awake, okay?"

A few seconds later, after he ended the call, you walked all the way into the kitchen while he was filling the crockpot with chicken broth. "Are you making me soup?"

"Sweetheart." He sloshed some of the liquid onto the counter in surprise and then pulled you into his arms. Your stomach was growling, and Rosie was doing somersaults, and you could see the playset in the backyard through the window. "Yeah, chicken noodle soup for dinner, but I can get something else for you now."

You couldn't stop smiling as he listed off all of the food options for breakfast and lunch. "My mom was right. I also have all of the confidence in the world that you'll take top notch care of us."

"You heard my conversation with her?" he asked, running his thumb gently along the skin next to your stitches as you nodded. "Listen, if your parents move to Coronado, I can get my culinary lessons in person. And then I'll have two more people to help me look after you, because to be honest, it's getting harder by the day, Baby Girl. Now how about some avocado toast and a small slice of birthday cake for breakfast?"

----------------------------

Take care of your girls, Roo. They mean more to you than anything else. His journal entry made me cry. Rose is already so loved, and I can't wait for her arrival. Thanks @beyondthesefourwalls

PART 11

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[outletcrash]

My poison ivy! I'm extremely proud of this. backstory under the cut :)

its been in the back of my head that ivy is indian since forever. i literally have no clue why its just There. she's tamil specifically, because i have favoritism regarding the script its written with.. it tickles my brain...

anyways heres my Poison Ivy: Origins comic i made last night in like 3 hours.

(theres a section here on her early life and the backstory of her parents that im still workshopping. basically she was a bastard child that only her mom supported and they left for gotham)

Bhavani got a job as an accountant for a law firm on recommendation from an uncle who had a company that worked in Gotham (he was kinder to the pair). She was always gifted in math. Bhavani raised her daughter the best way she knew how, even without the support of her family. 

Pamela (now nicknamed Ivy due to multiple kids misreading her last name as Ivy. And she was very nature-focused even as a kid, digging in the dirt and identifying different kinds of trees using books she got at the Gotham Library with her mother) excelled in school, surpassing most of her peers. The pursuit of knowledge was the one thing she enjoyed. Her classmates were sticky and loud and irritating, and when she wasn’t ignoring them she was tying their shoelaces together as revenge for talking too loud during quiet time. She managed to make just enough casual friends to not worry her mother too deeply, but this was the start of a downward spiral.

She lost friends, and not many could take on the effort of befriending her. She lost herself in biology, the study of life. Especially plants and conservation. Plants were just so… simple, compared to human society. But their structures and functions and genetics were fascinating. She skipped grades to take higher-level classes on genetics. Her grades were phenomenal but her social skills were extremely underdeveloped. Not like Ivy cared. Humans were a plague on this earth, pumping the atmosphere with CO2 and poisoning rivers and cutting down forests. In her mind, they did nothing but harm the serenity of nature she so cherished. 

After graduating with a PHD and doctorate, she got a job as a genetic engineer. She studied alternative ways to help regrow ecosystems after deforestation. Her Gotham University coworkers were wary around Ivy. She was a woman none of them knew anything about, who would say ecoterrorist-aligned comments offhandedly the few times she ever spoke. 

Ivy was working on a genetically engineered plant on the day of the accident. It was designed to nurture plant species by sending chemical signals, and it took in energy through waste products left by deforestation and manufacturing. At least, in theory. 

Ivy was working all alone in the lab at 2am. She hadn’t slept for hours, she was so close to her breakthrough. She was so close to making those billionaire bastards pay for what they did to the earth. She wasn’t wearing proper safety equipment nor using proper containment procedures during the incident. And as such, she was infected. The plant didn’t just take in waste material, it took in living flesh. Ivy’s cells were transformed in a gruesome fashion, her entire genetic code was re-written as it spread through her body. Her skin was green and her lab coat was bloody. Her newly-red hair flowed behind her as she escaped the lab, running through university grounds. Each footstep brought grass and dandelions cracking through the concrete in full bloom. Trees and grass grew to get closer to her, reaching for her. 

Ivys powers were completely out of control. She was crying and hyperventilating as her mind was warped. It had given her a need for flesh. When she made it to Robinson park, she couldn’t overcome the primal instinct. Plants still crawling at her ankles, and she killed a squirrel with her bare hands and ate it raw. This only fueled her fractured mind to want more. Ivy's first ever murder was a pedestrian, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He tried to flee when he saw a bloody green woman with a squirrel carcass in her mouth, but it was to no avail. He was strangled to death with poison ivy vines, and eaten. 

Finally, the primal instinct was satiated. Ivy escaped to a warehouse in the industrial district of Old Gotham. She tended to her injuries as best she could, soon discovering she had healing abilities. The injuries from her being torn apart had already mostly healed. She slept on an old couch, dreaming about what she could use these powers for. 

When the news broke on the mysterious and grisly death of a random pedestrian, the media was all over it. Since he was killed by poison ivy, and from security footage the culprit was seemingly a woman, the media dubbed her Poison Ivy. Many believed it wasn’t possible, and that the footage was faked, but the GCPD was stumped. 

Batman looked through the footage and, by process of elimination (matching the appearances of the scientists who had access to the laboratory, keycard scanners throughout that day and evening, as well as their known affiliations and potential criminal history. Two of them did deal weed but it was nonviolent and they didn’t match the woman in the tapes.) 

Dr. Pamela Iyer was the clear suspect. She matched the woman's appearance (besides the green skin and hair, she was a tall woman with long straight hair and a flat nose.) Batman interviewed her coworkers and found she had a history of being antisocial with eco terrorist beliefs. None of them knew where she lived, however. And when the bat interviewed her mother (the only person her coworkers had ever heard her speak to in a positive light) she was very concerned. Suspicious of Batman, clearly, but worried for her precious daughter's well being. She said that Pamela had always loved being near nature, and that she didn’t care for the quality of structure she had to stay in. But other than that, her mother couldn't help. She does bring out the intimidating motherly stare at Batman, making him promise to bring her daughter home safely. 

From here, Batman goes on a search. He prowls rooftops and streets and uses the grappling hook for fast travel. All while monitoring city-wide security cameras (thanks Alfred!) and paying attention to police radio. He stops muggings and thefts and helps get a cat out of a tree as he scans Old Gotham. 

He came to the conclusion Poison Ivy must be in Old Gotham due to damage on the Robinson Park Bridge, connecting Somerset with the southern island. The damage matched with what had been seen on the sidewalks and streets near the University and the scene of the crime. Dandelions and crabgrass taking the shape of human footprints, cracking through concrete. Batman notices some trees down a certain alleyway in the east streets are warped inwards. Very similar to the trees in the park and university. He follows the unusual growth pattern of the trees, like they were hands outstretching to reach a light source. 

There, he finds an old warehouse. He scales the building with a grappling hook, not wanting to be ambushed on the lower levels if he enters on the boarded up front door.  Entering through an old broken skylight, he finds what must've been a long abandoned drug dealer hideout covered in fresh blood. Very, very carefully, he examines the scene. But there's nobody there. She just got away, her blood on the rotting old sofa is still warm. He also notes three strands of long red hair, which he places in crime scene baggies for DNA analysis. 

His current theory is that the doctor was mutated by her own research. He read her notes and the plant she was experimenting with was extremely dangerous. And the security footage (before it cut out during what he believes was the time of the accident) showed her using improper safety equipment. 

He’s on patrol for hours, but can’t find any sign of her. 

That night, Bruce synthesizes a pesticide-like chemical that could prevent Ivy's powers. However, he talks to Alfred about how the plant would adapt to it almost like a bacteria, and that it might not be effective more than once. 

The next morning Bruce Wayne is scheduled for a charity event. Many rich people are there tied to a business venture Wayne was not aware of. The event was for funding for healthcare systems in Gotham. Little does he know, this is the exact place Ivy plans to attack. She’s hated the rich for years and many politicians and businessmen that support an amazon rainforest deforestation project are there. 

She interrupts their little charity event at a historical building in the financial district of old gotham with a surprise. Ivy broke into one of her old greenhouses at the university, taking small samples of extremely poisonous amazon rainforest plants with her. This happened quickly and silently while Bruce was still at the function. 

Ivy crashed through the large art-nouveau stained glass windows, supported by giant vines. She is lifted down the staircase like she was floating, more vines and deadly plants crawling in from the giant hole in the glass, moonlight from the full moon peeking through the clouds and illuminating her entrance. London Planetrees from around the building grow in front of doors, sealing all the possible exits. 

All of the rich and fancy people in dresses and suits meandering around the building are screaming and trying to run, which is when a mad-with-power Ivy releases her plants. 

They grow to gargantuan sizes in moments, releasing toxic spores and fumes and burning people's skin. Ivy finds the most heinous offenders of the rainforest bill and feeds them deadly plants by hand, graphic symptoms ensue. 

In the pandemonium, Bruce pulls out some tree facts about the flammability of a certain species, managing to throw a fire source directly at it as a diversion before escaping through a vent in the opposite wing of the hall. Alfred is already outside with the Batsuit, he brought it as soon as he learned of the attack. 

Bruce suits up and re-enters. It's a grueling and difficult battle, the most difficult he has fought so far. He manages to spray Ivy with the chemical, and she goes down, all the plants in the hall going still. The excessive toxic fumes suddenly go back to normal levels. Bruce uses an extremely strong tranquilizer on her, she’s still fighting to get up. Finally, Ivy is defeated.

Almost the whole charity gathering was injured in the attack with seven people dead and immense damage done to the structure of the historical hall. 

Ivy’s powers are sedated and she’s taken into police custody, where she is deemed insane. Half of the insanity conviction was her actual insanity and the other half was that Arkham is the only facility capable of holding her, especially since it’s located on an island. Batman agrees with Jim Gordon on this comment. 

Ivy didn’t say anything during her trial, silently glaring with little remorse. The physician diagnosed her with ASPD (which wasn’t right but it's on her legal documents.)

The comic ends with Ivy in Arkham, talking about the rich swine tearing apart the world, and how she finally has the power to stop them. How she can feel the mutation inside of her slowly winning against the sedative drugs, adapting and consuming the chemical to turn it into energy as it was designed to do. How she will return the world to ecologic harmony, with her own hands. It ends with her in the Arkham cafeteria, staring at a mysterious blonde prisoner a few tables across…

the writing isn't like, a fanfiction. its a guideline for a comic in a series of origins comics im planning. do not get your hopes up these'll be done in like, 10-20 years at my current speed. i have a scarecrow and riddler outline in the works, and plans for a batman, joker, harley quinn and probably a penguin comic eventually. and more villians. once i'm done with all the origins comics i'll be doing like, a regular batman series. just for fun yknow.

[dreamlandiasims]

previous | next

Erwin: Back in the 70s, Strangerville was a military base and research facility. Well, it was a town before that, too, but the government presence really made it what it is today. The story is they got a report one day of some strange plant growing here and the feds rolled into to check it out. Turns out, the plant was alien in nature. The military did their best to cover it up, but it caught the attention of some of the early ufologists, namely the Curious brothers. Long story short, the military lost control of the situation, the plant-alien threatened to take over the town, and the ufologists had to dispose of it.

Frankie: There’s no way a single word of that is true.

Erwin: Yeah, well, that’s what a lot of people said to the Curious brothers. The government sealed the case up tight, and without any proof, no one believed them. Anyways, the town was pretty quiet after that. Officially, the military operation here was done. But in reality, they had worked out an under-the-table deal with some private organization, which bought the lab and took over research there.

Frankie: I met someone at the lab who said he owned it—well, paid for it at least. Ted Roswell?

Erwin: Ah, the Roswells. So this organization that bought the lab, it’s called Agnos. I don’t know much about it—there’s, like, nothing online—but it seems to involve the leaders and wealthy elite of cities all over the country. I’m talking Del Sol Valley, San Myshuno, Willow Creek… I don’t think the Roswells are really involved at the highest level. But they have the money to keep the lab in operation, so they’re given just enough power and influence to stay loyal.

Frankie: Wait… so how does BioSim Tech come into all of this?

Erwin: Well, now that’s the next piece of the puzzle. BioSim Tech is a real, legit company—but it’s owned by Agnos. They seem to dabble in a lot of different industries, but “bio engineering” is their main focus. On paper, the company is dedicated to “developing cutting edge solutions towards a brighter future for Sims everywhere”.

Frankie: Okay, sure.

Erwin: So it seems like they’re working on cures for disease, operations to increase longevity, things like that. But—and this part is just my theory, by the way—I think it’s all a front. I think what they’re really interested in is Strangerville’s connection to the extraterrestrial.

Frankie: Here we go…

Erwin: See, the alien plant… no one knows how it got here. It just appeared one day. Now, one of the leading theories among ufologists is that there are certain places in the world—places where there’s a higher frequency of abduction stories, UFO sightings, what have you—and that this means that the fabric, the material, separating our world from others is thinner, or more fragile. And so, periodically there are events that may cause a small tear—

Frankie: Aaaand you’ve lost me. How does any of this help me find my mom?

Erwin: I’m getting to that, if you’ll just listen…

Frankie: I’m trying! Could you get there a little faster maybe?

Erwin: Fine. Forget my theories, here’s what I know. A few years ago a new team of scientists showed up, some sort of changing of the guard. Still part of BioSim Tech, but… different somehow. More secretive, more controlling. And things have been weird here ever since. Technology going haywire, people losing their memories, and… well… people coming to town and never leaving.

Frankie: Wait, what?

Erwin: It’s not every person that drives through. But every now and then, they’ll decide to stick around—sometimes they’re tourists, sometimes… they have car trouble. And within a few days, they’ve disappeared. No one sees them leave, but we all just assume they skipped town. You know… helps us sleep at night.

Frankie: And you didn’t think to tell me this sooner?

Erwin: Look, I’m sorry. Like I said, it’s not every person that comes through. I didn’t want to scare you unnecessarily. Also… they scare the shit out of me. Agnos seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. People that go out of their way to warn others… also disappear.

Frankie: … What are they doing with the people they take?

Erwin: That… I don’t know.

Frankie: Then let’s find out.

Erwin: I, erm, what?

Frankie: You and me, Merlin. We’re getting into that lab.

[goosewriting]

How about a romantic Donnie x Reader, with purple 1 said by the reader? I was thinking maybe the reader has been trying for quite a while to impress Donnie, doing all kinds of things that often only lead to trouble and to a seemingly annoyed Donnie. What reader doesn't know tho is that he's in love with them too, and just really sucked at showing it?

I see you (rottmnt Donnie x reader)

prompt 1: “All I’ve ever wanted is for you to see me.”

summary: reader wants to impress Donnie, which leads to a confession. 

relationship: Rise!Donnie x GN reader

warnings: i don’t think this counts as angsty right? fluffy ending!

word count: ~660

A/N: not the avatar sounding title lmao sorry if this one is kinda bland,, i couldn’t come up with anything better sdfdsf hope it’s still to your liking :’)

(english is not my first language. constructive criticism and grammar corrections are very appreciated!)

– – – 

Ever since coming to terms with the fact that you were crushing on your best friend, the purple clad turtle, you had set your mind to sweep him off his feet. You tried so hard to impress him, even  going as far as taking online courses on programming and reading several chapters of the book “Engineering for Dummies”. You just really wanted him to notice you and figured that the best way to do that would be to impress him with your newly acquired skills.

Since you would hang out a lot in his lab, you started offering to help on his projects. You had done so before, but suddenly you were able to somewhat follow his explanations and contribute your thoughts on the topic, which was met with a raised eyebrow on Donnie’s part. You couldn’t tell if he was intrigued or felt like you were overstepping a line of sorts.

The very few times he had agreed in the past to have you help out was to mainly pass him tools. But now you were suddenly welding one of the simpler circuits on his project. Donnie stopped working for a second and you could feel his gaze on you, still unable to read him, which got you self-conscious and you ended up burning a wire, making the whole thing unusable. You gasped in shock, and were about to apologise and tell him you’d redo it, but he was quicker.

“What are you doing?!” Donnie asked in a rather harsh tone, swatting away your confidence and eagerness to work with him in one blow. He came around the table to stand next to you and basically yanked the tools out of your hands.

By now you were holding back your tears, cursing at yourself in your mind, thinking how stupid of an idea this had been. One choked sob escaped you, and you brought your hands up to cover your face, turning away from him.

“All I’ve ever wanted was for you to see me” you said over your shoulder. “I like you, Donnie. Sorry for being a bother.” 

You were already taking a step to walk out of the lab, but a hand around your arm held you in place. You turned back around to face the turtle, and you could tell his mind was running at a thousand miles an hour. He was looking at the ground with furrowed brows. It took him a moment to figure out what to say. It was a rather uncomfortable silence but you waited for him. 

Donnie was at a real loss for words. First of all, his comment earlier had been way harsher than intended; he just didn’t want you to get hurt. Which was the main reason he was so reluctant to let you help out in the lab in the first place. And second, he liked you too, he just didn’t know how to tell you.

When his gaze finally found its way back to yours, you gave him a questioning look. Before you realised what was happening he pulled you in for a hug. You were so stunned at his gesture that it took you a second to process it and hug him back. When you finally did, you gave him a reassuring squeeze.

“I do see you” Donnie said and nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, mainly to hide his face for what he was about to say next. “Thank you for telling me how you feel. It’s the same for me, you know.”

If your heart wasn’t racing before, it surely was now. You two stayed like that for a moment until you separated, a huge smile and tinted cheeks on your face. 

You ended up leaving the lab together to go for a supply run, spending the rest of the afternoon shopping for materials. When you came back, Donnie let you do the circuit again, but this time he helped you, guiding you through the steps.

~~~~~

🐥 taglist: [more info in my pinned post!] @hearteyedracoon, @maribatshipper, @whygz, @lovelylovelydreams, @o0-starboy-0o

[zprites]

February TMNT All 4-1

Another month, another All 4-1 😁🐢

The Gracious Hosts: @turtle-babe83, @thelaundrybitch, @leosgirl82, @tmnt-tychou, @nittleboo, and @post-apocalyptic-daydream

I ended up doing two of the prompts, the dialogue prompt I did reword a bit but the general idea is still there. This was a lot of fun to write so please enjoy the ride full of angst and fluff!

Bayverse! Donnie x F! Reader - SFW

As always, all turtles and reader are over 20 years!

I listened to Avocado Toast by Clinton Kane on repeat while writing this... Sorry, not sorry

Avocado Toast

There are days when it feels like the world comes crashin' And I've been numbin' the pain just to keep distracted Of all the things I would fade You're the one that's lasted Avo Toast - Clinton Kane

This was a huge mistake…

It wasn’t the idea of being set up on a blind date that was the problem. In fact, you grew more excited for the evening as the past week progressed thanks to your good friend and loving coworker, April. Over the last month she gushed about how compatible you and one of Casey’s friends would be, hinting that she wanted to set the two of you up. Finally you agreed on the blind date. All you knew about him was that he was ‘handsome with long hair and abs’, (April’s words), and that he shared similar hobbies and interests with you. Despite her optimism, you were still reluctant to go but you convinced yourself to give dating another try. 

To say that dating for you was hard was putting it mildly. The longest relationship you had ever been in lasted almost two years, taking a piece of you that you still struggled to get back. Since then you tried dating but nothing ever worked out. Either they were only looking for sex or were a walking red flag. Whatever the case was, nothing ever went past the first date. You often found yourself staring up at the ceiling late at night wondering if there was something wrong with you, the phrase ‘you are what you attract’ made a home in your mind and bared its fangs at any positive notion you had surrounding dating. 

The only time you felt whole again was when you spent time with your best friend. The two of you became almost inseparable soon after meeting due to April’s insistence that you meet the brothers. That night in the lair you found your way into his lab to find him elbow deep in an engine. You asked what he was working on, following along as he spoke. The conversation soon strayed to computers, which was something you were knowledgeable in. The two of you just clicked, understanding each other’s jokes and references the other made. Honestly, you enjoyed every moment with him. You texted him throughout your day, while your evenings were often spent together either at your place or at the lair. You spent countless hours with him in his lab, working side by side and conversing well into the morning. This caused you to be almost late to work more times than not, but you didn’t mind. 

You didn’t mind it when he accidentally woke you up with a phone call about a recent breakthrough. You didn’t mind taking care of him when he came down with a nasty flu he caught from one of his brothers. You didn’t mind catching said flu, bedridden while he crashed on your couch to make sure he was there to help. You didn’t mind his thigh resting against yours under the shared blanket during movie nights. 

You didn’t mind because you were in love with him. 

Since you met him seven years ago, your small crush evolved into something much more profound. A deep emotion that caused butterflies to flutter in your stomach and a smile to form on your face at the thought of him. He was there for you through thick and thin, taking you out on a nighttime picnic at a park when you got your promotion and being a shoulder to cry on when you broke up with your toxic ex. He even took you to the American Museum of Natural History one night, simply saying the police owed him a favor before the two of you went through each exhibit hand in hand. Even though you realized your feelings for him fairly quickly you didn't want to ruin the friendship the two of you shared. You were certain he only thought of you as a friend so you stayed silent, bottling up those feelings and convincing yourself it was enough. It truly was. As long as you got to be in his life, you were content.

However as your feelings grew for him, you found yourself going on less dates. Maybe subconsciously you knew that no one could hold a candle to him. Yet here you were, thanks to April’s insistence, on your first date in almost a year. 

No, the problem wasn’t that you agreed to a blind date. The problem was that the person sitting across the candlelit table from you was an absolute jackass. 

Before the two of you sat down you could feel the inflated ego that radiated off him, immediately rubbing you the wrong way with a single comment on your appearance. He talked about himself incessantly, not asking anything about you or allowing you to get a word in, leaving the conversation completely one-sided. The waiter delivered your drinks, interrupting your date and giving you enough time to excuse yourself to the restroom. Your irritation turned into genuine anger as you heard your date talk down to the waiter before he ordered for the two of you, insisting that all you needed was a side salad while you were still within earshot. 

Once inside the bathroom you let out a loud sigh. 

What the fuck were you thinking? Of course he’s just like the others… Man, this place has the best steak in the city too… 

You stared at your reflection in the mirror, contemplating your next move. Despite the fact you spent the better part of your afternoon getting ready and were pretty hungry, you didn’t think you could sit through dinner without decking your date in the face. You could text April and ask her to bail you out but you knew she was at a concert with Casey, and to be honest you didn't want her to know how much of a disaster this was. At least not yet. 

That left you with one option. You knew you could count on him to get you out quickly and that he wouldn't ask too many questions. 

You sent him a quick message from your watch.

You: Hey, can you call me in a few minutes?

You thankfully didn't have to wait long for a response.

D: Hey, sure can! Everything okay?

You: Yeah. I’ll explain when I’m on the cab ride home.

D: No need. I see you’re at Maggioli’s. I’ll be in the alley next to the restaurant in five minutes. Talk to you in a moment :)

You took a few deep breaths to collect yourself before leaving the restroom. As you sat back down the man in front of you began talking about his stance on women in the gaming world. You felt your eye twitch in agitation as the words ‘women can game, sure, as long as their shirt is low cut, but they’re better off sticking to the kitchen’. Thankfully he was interrupted by the sound of your phone ringing. You gave him an apologetic smile as you made a show to check who was calling you.

“Sorry, I got to take this.”

“Really? You know it’s rude to answer your phone while on a date.”

You apologized once more and answered the call, seeing your date roll his eyes out of your periphery.

“Hey mom. What’s up?”

“Mom? Are you sure you’re okay? It’s Don- Oh… This is one of those fake calls where I play along. Um, well... let’s see. Your uh… your cat! Yes! Something happened to Tamago and uh…” It took everything in your power to not smile as he made up a fake emergency regarding your beloved pet. 

You frowned instead. “Woah, slow down. Did something happen?”

“She um… I don’t know. Oh gosh, I’m not good at this…”

You had to bite your tongue to keep yourself from giggling. You stole a glance at your date who looked annoyed. Focus! 

“Oh my god!” You blurted with a worried expression. “No no, stay put. I’ll be right there.”

“Phew, thank you. I’ll see you soon dear.”

Your heart skipped the beat at the gentle tone he used in combination with the nickname he gave you only a month ago. 

It doesn’t mean anything. He couldn’t possibly like you back…

You disconnected the call and stood up from your seat.

“I’m so sorry. My father just had a heart attack and in the hospi-”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

Oh for fuck’s sake…

“I drove here.” You lied. 

“What about the food? You need to pay for your portion!”

You rolled your eyes. “All I ordered was water. Should have thought about that before you ordered for me. It was nice meeting you but I have to go. Sorry again.”

You quickly left the restaurant, breathing out a sigh of relief as soon as the chill of the air hit your face. 

An Oscar-worthy performance. Hopefully you’ll never see him again…

You walked to the side of the building and into the alley, scanning the rooftops as you went. Once your gaze caught sight of a familiar figure you couldn’t help but wave up at your friend. He waved back before jumping off the roof, landing softly in front of you despite his size and the thirty foot drop. 

“Man, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.” You breathed out, a wide smile on your face. 

“I think I have some idea.” Donnie chuckled, rolling his shoulders as he stood to his full height. The purple-masked terrapin towered over you but you were used to the difference in height. 

He smiled down at me. “But I think I’d get a better picture if you explained what that was all about.”

You thought back to the events leading up to now and let out a groan. “Fine. How about you take me home first and I’ll order us food while I spill all the gory details. I’m starving.” 

“Well then, let’s not dawdle. Your chariot awaits my dear.” He said in a teasing tone while holding his arms out.

You swallowed down the rush of certain emotions that threatened to break free at those words. “My turtle in shining armor. Or tech gear rather.” You joked as you allowed him to pick you up bridal style. He laughed at that, holding you close as he began to move. 

“Hold on tight.”

Donnie ran across the rooftops with practiced motions, each leap jostling you slightly. Your arms were around his neck as he held you with only one arm, keeping you pressed against his plastron. Soon the two of you were on your balcony. He set you down and followed after you into your apartment. 

Food was ordered and you changed out of your clothes, opting to wear something much more comfortable. Once in your pajamas you gave your cat who was lounging across the foot of your bed a quick pet. You left your bedroom and joined Donnie on the couch. He had taken his goggles and backpack off and set them near the door to your balcony which meant he was planning on staying. Not that you minded. 

“Slow night?” You asked him while positioning your legs to the side so that your sock-clad feet rested against his thigh. 

“Yep, which is surprising for a Friday night. They’ll call me if I’m needed.” 

You nodded at that, knowing his brothers were perfectly capable of handling any situation thrown their way. “Well, thank you for the save back there.”

“For you, anything.”

Don’t say things like that…

“I am curious about what transpired that constituted me swooping in and saving you though. It looked like you were on a date based on the Michelin star restaurant and the way you were dressed.”

You let out a sigh as you thought back to the date. “Long story short, April set me up on a blind date with Casey’s friend because she thought we’d hit it off, but he happened to be a massive asshat.”

“Really?”

“The first thing out of his mouth was ‘Wow, I’m amazed you have the confidence to wear that with all the extra weight you’re carrying around’. He proceeded to tell me how better I’d look if I went to the gym and offered to bring me with him. He was egotistical, misogynistic, and rude, not just to me but to the server as well. He even ordered for me, telling the waiter that all I needed was a side salad since I didn’t need the extra calories.”

Donnie stayed silent as you ranted.

“The nerve of that guy! If I want to enjoy a steak, I have every damn right to! I shouldn’t be surprised really. No matter how many times I try, I end up disappointed because all I seem to attract are shitty men. Maybe there’s something wrong with me…”

“Hey, now. You know that’s not true.” He straightened up, giving you an intense look. “You're kind, beautiful, and you have an amazing mind." 

You flushed a bit at his words. 

"I know that anyone would be lucky to have you…" He trailed off before turning away with a frown. 

The silence that followed was palpable. You got the sense that he stopped himself from saying more which caused your nerves to go haywire. Biting your lip you contemplated speaking up to say that you didn't want just anyone. You wanted him, but the fear that he wouldn't reciprocate your feelings held you back.

Donnie shook his head. “You know… Leo and I talked a few nights ago.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” He let out a huff before continuing. “He made some interesting points about our friendship. About us…”

You frowned in confusion. A pit formed in your stomach as your anxiety levels rose. “Us?” 

“Look…” He spoke your name as his eyes met yours. “You and I have been through so much together. You’re the closest friend I have and I cherish every moment we spend together.”

See, ‘friend’... Nothing more.

“You always brighten up my days with your jokes and your smile. You see me for me, for who I really am.”

Please, stop…

“I just need to know… How much longer are you going to keep pretending?”

Huh…?

“What are you talking about?” You spoke quietly, finding yourself puzzled by his question.

Donnie licked his lips and took a deep breath. “You can’t possibly have no idea how I feel about you dear.”

Your breath caught in your throat.

“I- I know I’m not good with words, but since the first night we met you somehow found a home in my heart, so much so that I can’t imagine my life without you. You’re the last thing on my mind before falling asleep and the first when I wake up. I just can’t seem to get you out of my head. I didn’t quite know what these feelings were until that night at the park a few years ago, when you got your promotion and we sat on the swings. You told me everything about your life as we freezed our butts off, but that night all I could think was ‘I love this person and I want them in my life forever’.”

What…? This has to be a dream…

“I just didn’t know how to tell you…” He paused as he began tapping his fingers against his knee, something he often did when he was nervous. “I was so worried you didn’t have similar feelings but Leo, he knocked some sense into me.”

Holy shit, he loves you…

“You deserve the world times two and I want to be the one to give it to you, if you’ll let me…”

HE LOVES YOU!

“Please say something…”

Your mouth opened and closed, unable to find the right words to say or any words for that matter. It was as if you lost the ability to form any coherent thought. So instead, you acted on those years of repressed feelings. 

You pushed yourself onto your knees and took his head in your hands before promptly placing your lips on his. He tensed at your touch at first but quickly found himself melting into the kiss, one hand coming to rest at your hip while the other cupped your face. You poured every unspoken thought into the kiss. Donnie responded in kind, the fingers at your waist twitching as you let out a soft moan. The press of his lips against yours was almost too much. Your heart felt ready to burst, warmth spreading throughout your entire body. 

The two of you parted, foreheads touching as your breaths intertwined. You kept your eyes closed as you felt his thumb brush over your cheek, catching the single tear that you didn’t realize escaped. You swallowed and hesitantly met his gaze, soft hazel eyes full of tenderness.

“I love you too…” You whispered. 

He beamed, his smile contagious as you felt the corners of your lips twitch upward as well. He leaned forward to kiss you again.

Knock-knock knock.

The two of you jumped at the sudden rapping at your front door. You chuckled nervously as you regretfully pulled away from him and stood up from the couch. You answered the door, thanking the delivery person before setting the food on the coffee table and returning to your spot beside him.

Your stomach growled before you could say anything, the scent of the warm food filling your apartment. He chuckled and planted a quick kiss on your temple. “C’mon dear. Let’s eat then we can watch a movie.”

“Will you stay the night?”

“Of course.”

“And you’ll stay for breakfast?”

“Sure. I’ll make your favorite.”

“Avocado toast?”

“Yes, with bacon. Just how you like it.”

“...I love you…”

“I love you too dear…”

[locution-youngster-enjoyer]

Weird AU I just thought up of:

Wordgirl x Roblox Doors.

Ok, so it’s not exactly a doors AU, it’s just heavily inspired by doors.

You play as Two Brains, a doctor who was given his strange name due to a bad lab accident, fusing his brain with a mouses. A close friend of yours, a young but unusual girl named Becky, suddenly went missing, and was last reported being seen at an abandoned location. Two Brains, while concerned, wasn’t particularly interested in personally going to try and find Becky, until he got a letter inviting him to the location Becky was last seen in.

Curious, and desperate, Two Brains goes to the location, which turns out to be a mansion. When walking in, he’s greeted on a secret intercom by a mysterious man who calls himself ‘Mr Big.’

“I know what you’re really hear for, Doctor. However, I’d like to welcome you to my little freak show! While I think you’d fit right in, I must advise my friends aren’t *nearly* as friendly when it comes to new faces. I’d get used to this place, you’ll be here for a while.”

So boom, he’s stuck in what seems to be a looping mansion, struggling to find Becky. The last bit of his conscience that is still Steven acts sort of like guiding light, and will make comments as hints. The other villains are all entities. Here’s some ideas I have so far:

Amazing Rope Guy (aka “Snake?”)

He’s one of those entities that can’t actually kill and hardly cause any harm (think Timothy from doors). If you open a closet, there’s a chance you get hit in the face with a piece of rope

Little backstory quote: “Oh him? He’s just trying to fit in. He’s scared”

Chuck + Brent (aka “The ‘Catch-up’ Brothers”)

Basically this AU’s equivalent of Rush. Riding around the halls of the mansion in a sandwich themed car, they’ll run you down if you aren’t quick enough to get out of the way. If you are able to catch a glimpse of them before you’re run over, you’ll notice they look like two people being fused together.

Backstory quote: “Have you ever had a favorite food? Once there were two brothers who both shared a love of sandwiches, but couldn’t decide on how to create the best sandwich. One brother had the talent of engineering, and tried to fuse his and his brothers favorite sandwich. Guess what happens when you stand too damn close to a untested machine? Now they ride around the halls to try and get rid of their permanent adrenaline rush, plus it’s hard to walk around when your existence is a constant three legged race… you know, I think I’ll just stick with fries as my favorite food.”

Eileen (aka “The Tantrum”)

The equivalent of dupe. Whenever you see a door that has a door number that looks like it was drawn on with a black crayon and you try to open it, you’ll get pushed back by either a green hand, foot, or a giant eyeball. If you have an item on you, not only will you take damage, your item will also get stolen.

Quote: “Ever met a spoiled kid? How do you deal with one who’s oh so green with envy? Don’t throw a hissy fit if she steals your things, she thinks its a birthday present. The little ass isn’t allowed to draw on the doors, and refuses to except time out. Her getting herself stuck is the best alternative I guess.”

Invisibill (Aka “Hide’n’Seek”)

The equivalent of screech. Sometimes, you’ll hear the sound of someone trying to muffle themselves laugh. The way to find Invisibill is by looking at any floating object near you, because it’s Invisibill holding it. If you aren’t quick enough, Invisibill will throw whatever object he’s holding at you, and you’ll take damage.

“Have you ever played hide and seek before? Imagine becoming so good at it you barely need to hide. Just keep him entertained, he *really* doesn’t appreciate being ignored.”

Leslie (aka “The Hound”)

Leslie’s role is interesting. She’s still Mr Big’s assistant, but similar to how she is in the show, she’s actually pretty neutral. When it comes to appearance, she looks like what happens if you try to combine a human’s anatomy with either a dog, cat, or reptile. Functionally, she’s a combo of the Figure and either Guiding or Curious light.

Whenever you die, you have a small cutscene where you wake up in an elevator going back to the first floor. The first time you die to specific entity, Mr Big will give you their name and a mocking comment. He’ll also speak over the intercom about any non deadly entities you may encounter (like ARG). However, the second time you die to the energy, Leslie will talk over the intercom and tell you the little backstory quotes, which vaguely hints at what the entity does.

Quote: “I apologize. I’m still trying to do my job. I just have multiple.”

Ms Question (aka “Vertigo”)

Ms Question is the equivalent of Halt. The lights will shut off, and you’ll start to be followed by a blinding light that vaguely looks like a woman. If you don’t turn around and run away when she approaches, she’ll hit you with an amnesia beam, disorienting you so it’s easier for her to hit you again.

Quote: “What are the two things philosophers do? Question and discuss. Now imagine only getting half of that down, and making that your entire personality. To many questions can get overwhelming, so it’s better to just avoid them all together. Don’t blame her though, she’s just very curious about everything, including you.”

Seymour (aka “The Ad-vert”)

Seymour is the equivalent of eyes. In some rooms, there will be a tv, and there’s a chance that an ad will start playing on the tv. If you stare at the ad to long, it starts becoming distorted with Seymour looking less human, and your vision will fill up with the ad and you’ll take damage.

Quote: “Once upon a time there was an rather attractive man. He knew he was destined for tv stardom, but needed a way to consistently be seen by all. Poor guy bit off more than he could chew. Now no one can stand to look at him at all, and he rather be forgotten then hated. To bad he’s stuck with the job he’s got. It’d do you good to ignore him”

Nocan (I could not think of a nickname for this lol)

This guy isn’t really based on any doors entities, and can’t do any damage. There’s a chance that when you enter a room, everything in the room will suddenly reverse (ex: you’re walking on the ceiling now). Hypothetically, if this was a real game, the controls would reverse as well.

Quote: “I always tell him to not do that, it makes a mess!”

The Butcher (uhhhh, I couldn’t think of a nickname for him either. Might just keep calling him the Butcher lol)

Ok, I know I said Leslie was like the figure, but to be honest, both she and the Butcher are like a combo of Seek and the Figure. Design wise, the Butcher looks the same, except more unhinged looking, and with butcher knives for arms (if you want an example of what this looks like, it’s basically the Razor from Slay The Princess but with butcher knives instead)

Quote: “Have you ever had a job you loved? What if you had no choice but to love the job because it’s what you are? It’s physically what you are, and you can’t change it. He’s just doing his job, really, he’s a sweetheart”

The Coach (aka ‘the Dealer’)

The Coach and most of the villain schoolers act as the equivalent of Jerry, El Goblino, and Bob as a safe space to buy items. The Coach is mostly the same, except for a noticeable extra amount of eyes and arms, and is the one selling the items. Chilling with him is Big Left Hand Guy (who’s the same), Captain Tangent (who’s comically accidentally attracting anything metal to him with his hook that’s permanently stuck to his hand), Maria the energy monster (who’s in a jar), and Royal Dandy (stuck in painting form). There are three extra chairs, one of which Invisibill will be sitting in depending on when you encountered him last. The second one is bent and cracked, and has “Property of the Whammer” written on it. The third one has a printer on it.

The Whammer (aka ‘The Earthquake’)

There’s a chance that a sonic boom will travel down the halls, acting as a less deadly version of Rush. The sonic boom itself deals unavoidable damage, but it also knocks down any tables and cabinets around it, which can crush and kill you.

Quote: “Some people really just can’t control their volume. When their mad, when their excited, when they’re scared. I doubt he means real harm”

Lady Redundant Woman (aka “The Redundancy”)

Beatrice is the equivalent of Ambush. She and her clones absolutely zoom down the halls, and will jump you if your in their way.

Quote: “Imagine being your own best friend. You never act the same way twice, so they’ll always be slightly different. She’s just trying to have fun with her best friends, so it’s in your best interest that you get out the way. It ruins their game”

Tobey (aka “The Inventor”)

Tobey rarely appears, but his presence is everywhere. On every piece of machinery in the building (Seymour’s tvs, Beatrice’s printer, etc) there’s the label ‘McCallister’. When you do see him, which you’re not meant to, you see how he seems to have fused himself with a machine. If you stay with him for to long in the same room, he’ll act like Haste (from the Backdoors) and immediately run you down and kill you with the machinery attached to him. If you try hiding under a bed or in a closet, he acts like Hide and kicks you from the hiding place, because there are secret machines in the hiding spots.

Quote: “Smart kid. He’s very helpful. Give him his space, he’s trying to work…. You.. you know him, don’t you?”

Yeah, that’s all I’ve got so far. There is some lore, and I’ll take ideas for any other villain entities, so feel free to ask me about it >:]

[heejayy]

Mentor || Shuri U.

Warning: none

Genre: fluff

Pairing: Shuri x black fem! Reader

Word Count: girl idk but it’s not long

You felt like your heart is about to beat out of your chest. As you got ready for the day events from last night kept playing through your head. You and Shuri stayed up late in the lab chatting about nothing and everything all at once, it was the first time your ever had a real one on one conversation with her.

You weren’t suppose to stay as long as you did, your job was to update her on the growth of the heart shape herb garden and leave but the conversation got carried away.

As you made your way back to her lab your mind wondered on why she’d ask you to come back, you surely don’t work in this part of the palace you weren’t a big time scientist, you were just someone who maintained the gardens and occasionally helped design a few simple things.

You walked through the doors to an empty room you nervously bit your cheek looking around for her. “Up here” you turned around looking up at her as she smiled down from the balcony. She watched you make your way up the stairs studying your outfit.

“You look nice by the way, you’re working inside today?” She questioned noticing you weren’t in your normal garden attire aka dirty jeans and a plain shirt. You almost didn’t register what she said after the “you look nice” comment. Your heart couldn’t catch a break.

“Good morning queen Shuri and yes I’m working in the designing department today” you slightly bowed before her but only to earn a giggle.

“Why are bowing? It’s too formal” she chuckled.

“Sorry my queen“ she waved you off guiding you to where she was working. You took this chance to soak in everything, you’ve never been able to explore the main lab before due to you working either outside or on the other end of the palace but it sure was living up to the stories. It was absolutely amazing.

“This place is beyond beautiful my queen” you complimented as your hands glided across an unfinished project, it looked harmless but knowing Shuri it wasn’t.

“Thank you but I don’t advise you touching that, the last time I was working on it I was shocked and my hand went numb for an hour” you snatched your hand away looking at her with bewildered stare hoping she was joking but her serious face never faltered. You decided it’d be best to walk back over to her.

“So not to be rude my queen but can I ask why you called me in here?” She nodded sitting down her tools.

“Can I be honest y/n?” You nodded.

“I’ve been observing you for a while without your knowledge. I’ve seen you work, you put your all into everything you do for it to never see the light of day” you blinked at her confused on what she’s referring to.

“My queen what are you talking about? Yes I put all my love into the garden but that’s because I care about the future for us, the future of Wakanda. We’ll-“

“I’m not talking about that herb, I’m talking about this” she reached under a metal slate on her work desk pulling out a thick messy note book. You mind went fuzzy for a moment realizing it’s yours. That notebook contains every idea you’ve had from clothing designs down to sketches of technology enhancements you did on the side. You snapped out of your daze and reached for it but she snatched it back.

“I didn’t mean to snoop i thought one of my biologist left this in here, but you know we have a program for things like this? You can share your ideas and-“

“No no this is just a hobby” you blurted “nothing more.” She handed you your notebook shaking her head.

“Don’t doubt your intelligence, you have a bright mind from what I’ve seen let me guide you.” She smiled leaning off her desk.

“Guide me? My queen-“

“Call me Shuri.” She corrected.

“Ok Shuri with all respect you sound ridiculous you have an entire country run and on top of that you’re her protector I doubt you have time to tutor me plus I’m not that good at engineering anyways” as you rambled on and on she just shook her head.

She sat the notebook down and approached you and while reaching for your hands “you’re scared to fail I understand that but just give it a try and maybe during our time together we’ll grow closer” her words were gentle and persuasive but you couldn’t focus on anything besides your queen standing in such close proximity to you. She smelled absolutely incredible it was insanely distracting.

“Plus I’ve always wanted to be a mentor.” She added with a little smile.

“Ok” was all you muttered as a satisfied smile spread across her face.

“You are to stay in here and observe me for today but tomorrow is when we start” you couldn’t fight back the smile that was appearing on your face. Observing Shuri was something you had no problem doing.

Shuri Masterlist

©heejayy 2023 — any reposts or translations of my works outside of tumblr are strictly prohibited unless granted permission 🤍

[hummingbird-of-light]

Prompt: I Didn't Know What To Do

(Fourteenth story for Angstember 2024 by @ivystoryweaver)

She made progress with each passing minute, but the work was arduous. Hudson had never expected that she would ever need to create this antidote. The poison had been destroyed back then. There had only been a few samples and the doctor had also destroyed the PADD with the formulas. It should never have been created again.

But Marianne must have missed something. A small drop, perhaps. Or an ampoule that one of the Romulans had taken and hidden unnoticed before they were arrested. When she had been rescued from the Romulans' clutches, everything had gone haywire and Hudson had simply been glad to be freed from her captivity.

If only she had refused in the first place to work for those monsters ...

~

The cell Marianne had been locked in was cold and empty. She didn't know why they hadn't killed her like everyone else. She didn't understand why she had been taken away.

When the door opened and two Romulans entered the room, the young doctor shivered all over. She had huddled in a corner, filled with grief and fear.

She didn't even try to defend herself when the enemies threatened her with weapons and ordered her to stand up. Fearing for her life, she followed the men willlessly into a room that looked like a laboratory.

The person she saw there made her freeze.

"Macey."

It wasn't a Romulan she encountered in this lab, but a human. And a human she knew all too well.

The woman, who was a few years younger than Marianne, slowly took a step towards the prisoner and gave her a smile.

"That's not my name anymore. They call me Kovari, and I'm a confidant of the commander."

Hudson shook her head in disbelief. She didn't understand. This woman ... It was Macey. It was one of her fellow students from the academy! Her roommate! They had lived and studied together for years!

"Is this the human woman you asked for?" One of the Romulans roughly pushed Marianne a little further into the room and she had to do her best not to stumble.

"It is indeed. You've done a good job." Macey – no, Kovari – nodded to the Romulans before finally stepping up close to Marianne and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"When the commander told me about his plans, I immediately knew which doctor could help us. You were always the best in your classes. And thanks to a spy on board your ship, we were able to find you very quickly."

The smile on Kovari's lips sent a shiver down Hudson's spine and once again she just shook her head.

This couldn't be happening. Macey couldn't really be working for the Romulans!

"I heard how everything went down. I'm really sorry that so many of your crew members died. And I'm also sorry that a member of our landing party tried to shoot you and got poor Martin in the process. She will be punished for that."

At the mention of her fiancé's name, Marianne could no longer contain herself. Furious, she lunged at the woman she had once called her friend.

But her attack was unsuccessful, as the Romulans immediately grabbed her and pulled her back.

And Kovari? She just smiled as she wiped the blood from her burst lip.

"Oh, Marianne. You'll learn who you have to obey on board this ship. I'll see to that myself."

~

In time, Hudson learned the whole story of what had made Macey turn into Kovari. The young engineer had been captured shortly after starting her service and had been tortured and forced to work for the Romulans for many months. Her nature had changed. At some point she had realized that it was for her own good if she obeyed. She had become one of the commander's confidants.

And Hudson had often feared that the same thing would happen to her. But it never happened. And yet she committed atrocious acts during her captivity.

~

She worked in the lab day after day. If only she had been a little stronger, she might have been able to withstand the torture of her tormentors. If only she had been as brave and self-confident and strong as Martin.

But Marianne broke. She simply didn't know what to do other than follow orders.

She was expected to work with the Romulans to develop a highly dangerous poison. Kovari had personally recommended her former fellow cadet for the job, knowing that Hudson was one of the best doctors in the field of toxicology.

It was a poison that made the victims extremely aggressive. They became perfect weapons for a certain period of time, killing and destroying everything in their path before they themselves died in agonizing pain. A poison of this kind would be able to cause entire peoples to wipe each other out, so that the Romulans could use all the natural resources of the respective planets for themselves.

Marianne didn't want that. She didn't want to be part of these terrible plans, but in the end she caved in. However, she worked as slowly and manipulatively as she could.

Maybe, just maybe, she would be rescued in time before these nightmarish ideas could become reality.

[megamindsupremacy]

So you have a reverse Robin au and a reverse billy au (adult William & kid marvel). What about Danny phantom? how would you reverse it?

Okay, so. The thing with Danny Phantom is that, unlike the DCU, it's a much more contained universe with waaay fewer characters. Which makes things easier and harder. So I have two options (with suboptions) for age reversing

Option 1.1: Danny and Jazz switch ages (Danny Dies)

Danny is Jazz's older brother trying very hard to parent her while their parents work 24/7. He's not doing Great but by god he's trying his absolute best. This is his little sister we're talking about, he'd kill a god for her. Jazz is a mini-genius, Danny is also a genius but his academic performance is shit because he's preoccupied at all hours of the day with a) trying to give Jazz any semblance of a normal childhood and b) trying to make sure she doesn't notice just how uhh different? different her childhood actually is. The important part here is that Danny is trying really really hard but also failing.

Danny works a lot with Jack and Maddie in the lab here, they finally started letting him help out with their research/engineering mid-freshman year and so he's less skeptical than he is in canon. They get the portal built the summer before his senior year.

The portal accident goes similar to how it does in canon except Danny actually knows how it works here. Sam and Tucker were over to hang out but Danny is like "FIVE MORE MINUTES" trying to fix the ghost portal to surprise his parents when they return. Then he dies rest in peace. So now Danny is afflicted with senioritis, eldest daughter syndrome, and Dead, and he is having a Bad Time. He's trying to take care of Jazz, fight off the ghosts invading their town, ward off his parents' suspicions, work through internalized ghost bigotry (because he fully believed everything his parents said about ghosts, he had no reason not to), and try to graduate high school. I have no plot here just Danny's Havin A Bad Time Vibes

(everything else under the readmore because i'm having thoughts)

Option 1.2: Danny and Jazz switch ages (Jazz Dies)

Same living situation as above. Danny gets an A++ for effort and a C- for performance with the Eldest Daughter Syndrome (gender neutral)

Here, Jazz, as the resident friendless child prodigy alienated from her peers because of the autism because she doesn't know how to connect with other students, is the one to go to the lab. Danny, Jack, and Maddie are mutually devastated the portal didn't work, they're all out of the house that night. Jazz is like "I can definitely fix the ghost portal they can't turn on!" She's like fully in the wiring, trying to figure out if red cord goes to green or blue, when she connects the wrong two wires and gets got.

Jazz manages to hide her Death from her family for a while. Instead of her first ghost being the Lunch Lady, it's Spectra, which first shakes up and then really solidifies Jazz's intention to study psychology. Jazz is less chill than in canon because less responsibilities+half dead+brain is four years less developed+same amounts of Very Smart, so in the beginning shes like. A tightly compressed ball of rage psychologically torturing every classmate who was ever an asshole to her. Then Spectra happens and she mellows out a Tiny bit. She is a very "work smarter not harder" kinda ghost fighter- she makes the ghosts fight each other, she bullies the ghosts into backing down, she makes ghost hunters fight the ghosts, she convinces the ghosts to not attack, but she rarely goes out and actually starts punching.

Danny finds out really early on (he's kinda overbearing with taking care of her) and he becomes her guy in the chair type. He makes it so their parent's weapons don't target her, he tries to ward off suspicions, he's doing everything.

Option 1.2.1: Option 1.2: Danny and Jazz switch ages (Jazz Dies)

Same everything as above except Danny doesn't figure out Jazz dies ever and instead of Jack and Maddie being the ones to hunt the new ghost terrorizing the town, it's Danny. Jack and Maddie are too invested in squeezing every last bit of data and information they can from the ghost portal, they don't have time for no ghost hunting. Danny is like, fully the villain of the story for a season and a half and it's horrible because Jazz knows how much Danny loves her and tries to help her in every way in her human form but he absolutely hates her ghost half and tries to kill ("kill") her daily.

[blackfairy312]

What ship did Komi 🧣 herself like the best vs the shop that was best for her if it’s not the same thing

oh i love this question!! i love writing complex character dynamics so i have indeed spent HOURS of my life dedicated to writing extensively about all of Komi's relationships in my google docs (not to be shown to the world because im honestly Embarrassed) SO THIS IS SOMETHING IVE ALWAYS THOUGHT ABOUR!

personally i believe Snuppet 🐍☂️ was the BEST relationship for her. the whole thing is tjat Komi just got away from an abusjve relationship and also the whole Thing with Bill Cipher, which is why she has her memories of her previous lives now. she's going through a lot of emotions and traveled to another world to escape instead of doing her job (she still does her job, protecting the multiverse, but she's letting herself Sink Into It i guess. its hard to explain but understand Komi's mental space during the Genshin Impsct era impacts jer relationship with Scaramouche/Wanderer/Pinokio)

Komi SHOWED Scaramouche her memories . he saw EVERYTHING because she wanted him to trust her . THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SHES EVER CRUSHED ON SOMEONE FIRST AND THE POOR GIRL IS DESPERATE AND HOPELESS!!!!!!!!!

it's only after the whole Sumeru Story and Scaramouche -> Wanderer (Pinokio was the name we gave him) that Pinokio/Scaramouche begins to be vulnerable around Komi which then strengthens their already very close relationship .

they're like two edgy angsty young adults in college . kinda. except the college is the Sumeru Akademia and they're both 500+ years old .

SHE FIXES HIM!!! HE FIXES HER!!! THEY FIX EACH OTHER!!! PINOKIO IS THE ONLY ONE KOMI WOULD'VE GONE BACK TO IF SHE HAD THE CHANCE!!!!!!!

as for the relationship Komi herself has as her favorite, it was her relationship with Weskwr . OOOHHH BIOSNAKE ☣️🐍

the Only reason Biosnake ended in tragedy was because of Uroboros . if Wesker hadn't created that virus then he wouldn't have gone Senile and DIED . and Komi knows this to be true and she hates herself so much for not breaking the rules and intervening with the plot to save the man she loved . Unfortunately the Resident Evil universe (she calls it "The Umbrella-Verse", like how she calls all FNAF/FNAF fangame worlds "The Afton-Verse") would've been destroyed and erased from reality if she so much as uttered a WORD to convince Wesker to change his mind .

Wesker is the reason why Komi's favorite color is red now. Sigh.

i love old people . i love those ood people. yeah sure Albert Wesker has the longest crime list on the Villains Wiki out of everyone Komi's ever dated but that is THE man she constantly thinks about. it's just because he Died . like she doesnt a mourn Robin anymore because she actually got closure and was able to move on. WITH WESKER. AND THEN SHE LOST HIM AND THE GUY WHO DID IT MADE HER FEEL LIKE SHIT!! CHRIS.... stop it........

LIKE THESE SAPPY LOSERS HAD PLANS TO GET MARRIED!!! THEY GENETICALLY ENGINEERED THEIR OWN CHILDREN IN AN EVIL LAB TOGETHER!!! HE CALLS HER "DEARHEART" AND "GODDESS" AND HE LOVES HER NICKNAMES FKR HUM EVEN THOUGH HE PRETENDS TO HATE THEM . HES JUST A GRUMPY OLD MAN AND SHES HIS WEAKNESS!!!!!!!!

man whi wants to become god and destroy humanity + god herself and she loves humanity

[ailendolin]

I have been watching ST Prodigy and can't get this idea for a BBC Ghosts Star Trek AU out of my head where the ghosts are holograms on an old, rundown ship Alison and Mike find drifting in space.

More thoughts on that under the cut:

the ship is an old training vessel for cadets that has been damaged in a battle and abandoned a long time ago

the holograms all represent different departments within the Federation: the Captain represents security, Fanny science, Thomas linguistics, Pat diplomacy, Julian command (though everyone secretly agrees that Fanny is more suited for the job), Robin tactics, Humphrey operations, Kitty morale, Annie flight control, Mary medicine and the Plague Ghosts engineering

some of the holograms have glitches, most obvious in Humphrey who's sometimes just a floating head without a body and sometimes just a body without a head (and sometimes both in different places at once) and Mary who panics every time she has to treat phaser burns, insisting she can smell them

none of them can interact with the physical world outside of their respective stations though Julian keeps on trying to

Thomas's programming got messed up when Cadet Francis Button thought it would be fun to put him in a holodeck scenario he couldn't win - his own Kobayashi Maru, so to speak - and see how long it would take him to break. None of the other holograms know how often he died in the duel scenario Francis programmed before the Captain put an end to it but they know it irreversibly changed him and made him unfit for combat situations

the former crew also messed with the original engineering hologram. Someone wasn't happy with it being a woman (Jean), so they duplicated and changed her. Unsatisfied with the attitude of the male counterpart they created (Walter), they made another one and then another one until the engine room was filled with a dozen holograms carrying a piece of the knowledge of the original that couldn't be pieced back together into one single hologram

Robin's speech programming was rough from the beginning on. He was one of the first hologram ever, a prototype, and got damaged during an attempted hostile takeover. The engineers did their best to help him but their own glitchy programming prevented them from accessing his code so Robin has been left struggling to communicate

Alison and Mike aren't too happy about sharing their ship with a bunch of weird holograms at first, especially when they realise the ship doesn't allow them to deactivate them

(finding the hologram of a little girl that isn't listed anywhere in the logs hiding in the vents around the holodeck and singing creepily to herself doesn't really help)

over time the holograms grow on them, though. They help them restore power and get the ship maneuverable again, make sure Alison and Mike know what they're doing and teach them all they know about the Federation and operation of a Starfleet vessel

with Alison and Mike's help, the holograms grow beyond their programming. Robin's speech improves, Humphrey's head and body are seen together more often, the Captain relaxes a little about possible intruders ...

eventually, Alison and Mike build them their own portable transmitters that allow the holograms to go wherever they please, both on and off the ship

Pat, realising they can now touch things, suggests they teach each other their respective tools of the trade. Mary learns how to fly, Robin spends hours in the lab with Fanny learning about the stars, the engineers are keen on learning about history and languages, Humphrey manages to coax Jemima out of the vents and so on

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I just really, really like the idea of the ghosts as holograms that evolve past their programming and become part of the world around them again because two chaotic humans happened upon their ship in the middle of nowhere and decided to give them a chance.

[ptiautiste]

Finally...

I was looking for a really good shortwave receiver for at least a decade -an old tube equipped one of course. The problem getting one nowadays is that they were only produced in small numbers half a century (or more) ago, since then most are scrapped, botched, altered or corroded cause of bad storage -or all together. So if you have the chance getting one today you most likely will buy a 'construction site', needing hundreds of working hours for restoring it in a good working condition.

But after a looong search finally i had real luck. A big wooden crate was delivered on a pallet.

In this crate was one of the -for my opinion- ugliest shortwave receivers ever built, but at the same time also one of the best ones: a Rohde + Schwarz EK07.

Built in 1958 this one was a storage unit from the German Army. Well stored, regularly maintained and serviced, not altered, not botched, never used. So it is in nearly mint condition. It wasn't cheap but getting my hands on this was just sheer luck. Without doing anything: it's in perfect working order. No potentiometer, no switch crackles, every tube checks new -of course you can check all the tubes in the radio itself without removing them.

The manufacturer is more known for it's precision Lab-Equipment and less for it's shortwave receivers. This is also because their receivers weren't consumer or amateur gear, this was pro gear by any means. They were used in applications like coast guards or military surveillance and such. Always things where equipment costs doesn't matter -only the outcome. So back in 1958 when this unit was manufactured you could buy at least two brand new cars for the same amount of money. In exchange for this you got a masterpiece of german engineering and craftsmanship -and also an electro-mechanical nightmare if anything fails and you're not absolutely familiar with it's guts.

Fancy? No, there's absolutely nothing fancy on these. These are absolute workhorses, designed for doing an important job 24/7/365 for decades. Just take a look to that bandswich gear in the photo above. How often you have to switch over the bands until this would be worn out? Millions and Millions of times... And nope: this dark residues at that drum on the left and box below isn't mold or such. These are completely silver plated so it's just the darkened silver.

As you may see, most of the structural parts are made of die-cast and aluminum, so from the materials used it's relatively light weight. But all that built-in sturdiness and shielding adds up to staggering 147lbs/67kg. It's only a receiver, not a transmitter or a power amplifier.

Tubes... and more tubes

If you're not familiar with tube radios: your average AM (and shortwave) Radio from the 50's or 60's used 4 tubes (without the rectifier if this was a tube). Your trusty Hammarlund or Yaesu shortwave receiver from that time would have somewhat from 8 to 12 tubes -and these were quite good and sensitive receivers! This Rohde + Schwarz counts 28 tubes.

Some tubes here, some there, all fully shielded. But why the hell that much? The answer is quite simple: stability. On every count. Constant and stable gain over all bands and for a looong service time, stunningly stable VFO frequencies and all that stuff. No, they used no consumer tubes like in your TV or such. All of them are out of the 'commercial'-tube-series with a guaranteed service life of at least 10000 hours like in every aircraft of that time or such. Failing was not an option, this HAD to work.

Speaking about stability and accuracy:

this of course isn't digital stuff -it's purely analog. In the pictures below you can see the dials. Just add both frequencies and you know where you are -here on 29.630MHz or 29630kHz.

As you see: your readout is easily accurate down to less than 500Hz. So you can read at least 500Hz out of 29630000Hz. With other words the accuracy of your readout is 0.001687% in this case. Your average modern digital multimeter would be proud if it came only near to this 65 year old contraption.

Of course that large dial in the picture on the left isn't the only one. There are 12 of 'em, mounted on a drum and rotating according to the selected band. Giving you a simple S-Meter like in other shortwave receiver was of course also not possible.

Instead they provided you with a Voltmeter which displays directly the input voltage at the antenna input -and the threshold voltage for the 'Squelch' (if you have set that) which isn't a normal squelch. If activated it doesn't cut your Audio, it reduces the Gain instead with a settable time constant, so it acts more like a active noise cancelling between any signal -also between any dash and dot if you're receiving CW (Morse Code). Besides that you can choose your IF-Passband between 150Hz and 12kHz, have a absolutely stable BFO, a good Envelope Detector for AM-Reception and a perfect Audio Stage - that's all.

Speaking of the Audio Stage: 2W undistorted output power from a single end class-A is more than you need with a good speaker. McIntosh ® would call that circuit 'Unity Coupled', further a E88CC for the Audio-Preamp. We're talking about an Shortwave Radio, not an 'High-End' Audio Amplifier. Wanna take recordings of what you hear? No problem: here's your Line-Output, symmetric, 600 ohms, transformer coupled and with +10dBm (if you want) and in accordance to all Studio-Standarts. Sound quality for AM Broadcasts? With a passband switchable up to max. 12kHz for the IF better than the majority of stations can provide.

Precise?

So far so good, but what's about the heart of every shortwave receiver: the Oscillator or VFO? How stable and precisely does it beat after 65 years?

In your trusty -and quite good- Hammarlund or Yaesu amateur Radio from these days the VFO usually is equipped with two tubes: the Oscillator itself and the buffer amplifier -both sometimes also united in one bulb. If i hadn't lost track here they used 12 -and tons of other stuff. So that frickin VFO has a component count which is easily about the order of a complete shortwave receiver.

What the hell is all that stuff about -and wtf they had for breakfast back then? The answer is again simple: precision and stability.

As i said: this thing is 65 years old and i touched nothing. Of course I checked how much it's 'off' in terms of the frequency. After warming up for 20 Minutes i checked it every 1000kHz from the bottom to the top of its range. It was a bit different between all points, at some less than 50Hz and about 1kHz worst case.

My Lab-Equipment is quite good and precise, but for these low errors the tolerances of the measuring equipment has absolutely taken into account. So i made a separate measurement only for 10MHz -with the aid of a frequency standard sourced from an atomic clock. So this was 'the real thing'. After warming up for an hour i measured for 15 Minutes. The deviaton was between -717 to -722Hz. Including the error of the dial. This means frickin' 71.7...72.2ppm. PPM -parts per million! 65 years after manufacturing.... Just absolutely stunning -and with what freaking kind of equipment they had calibrated this back then??? Just have in mind: this is pure analog goodness, not a modern PLL. How the f***k they got there? Here's the clear link between a manufacturer of high-grade Lab Equipment and a shortwave receiver. I'm just stunned over the knowledge of the engineers who designed that circuit back then and the precision this was built.

All without doing anything and all it's original capacitors. Yap, i could realign that but tbh it's just wayyy to less been worth the effort. So it will stay as it is.

Nope,

you're not provided with that fancy stuff your new digital or SDR may have on board. There's no notch filter, no panoramic display -not even SSB! Why the hell they just 'forgot' all these things? The answer is easy: it's modular. The EK07 is just the 'mainframe', everything else you wanted to have can be added as external components you had to buy separately -also for tons of money of course.

Wanting SSB? Just add this:

35kg/77lbs and 18 Tubes more -to mention it's also a synchronous detector for AM is not worth the effort. Panoramic display, digital frequency counter, Teletype Adaptor, a remote control for controlling that beast over a telephone line? FM? Diversity reception?? No problem, you had just buy it. Everything of course with the same standards for precision and build quality.

The outcome...

Yea, i spent a good amount of money getting this -but in my opinion it was worth every dime. I wanted a good tube receiver and i got a really good one. Compared to upper class modern Radios it's still a very good radio. So the only thing I have to add is an external SSB/AM-Synchronous Detector. The originals are nearly impossible to get today, so i decided to build one. It's on the way and i will give you the results later. So stay tuned...

[adventuretolkienlover]

Varian's First Lab Partner (A Short Story.)

Intro: A friend thought a little story about how Varian met Ruddigar would be cute. So here we are! Hopefully it's not too cringy. Although some parts might be. Anyhoo, Hope I did good bestie!

Summary: Varian recounts the day he met Ruddigar to his siblings.

Trigger Warnings: Brief mentions of blood and a very mild injury. Like a cut. Nothing too serious.

A cool breeze blew through the orchard. It was one of those summer days when everything seemed to be at rest. Not much was heard except the lowing of cattle and insects chirping and clicking in the grass.

And of course, the occasional flipping of pages. Made by Varian. Him, Belle, Jacky, and Hugo were sitting beneath one of the larger apple trees enjoying some free time. Varian was looking through a new engineering book he'd aquired. And Hugo was making some adjustments to Cheese's workings. Jacky was lying on the ground staring up at the sky. Last but not least, Belle was simply looking out over Old Corona. The view was magnificent. She could hardly believe she lived there. Bayangor had nothing on this place. The tranquility was unprecedented. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by some rustling in the branches above her. She looked up in surprise and saw Ruddigar balancing precariously on the end of a branch, reaching for a juicy red apple.

"Uh, Var? Ruddigar is-"

But she didn't need to finish. Ruddigar fell out of the tree, apple in paws, right onto Varian's head! This gave Varian quite a shock!

"AH! Wha-" Varian blew Ruddigar's tail out of his face, only for it to flop back against his forehead. "Ruddigar, what are you doing?" He said as he lifted Ruddigar's tail out of his face and looked up at his new headpiece. Ruddigar shrugged and stuffed the apple in his mouth before anyone else could grab it.

Hugo snickered. "Nice coonskin hat Hairstripe." he laughed.

Varian lifted Ruddigar off his head and held him infront of his face. "So, was that apple worth almost hurting yourself?" Ruddigar eagerly nodded yes. "Oh brother." Varian chuckled as he let the racoon curl up on his usual spot on his shoulders.

"Hey Var? How'd you get Ruddigar?" Jacky asked. "I mean, Hugo built Cheese. But where did Ruddigar come from?"

"Oh, that's an interesting story." Varian started. "I actually found him when I was ten. And we've been friends ever since. It's bit of a long story though."

"Oh come on now Var." Hugo interjected. He stretched his arms and leaned against the tree. "We've got plenty of free time. Why don't you tell it?" he continued.

"Heh. Alright. Well, it all started eight years ago..."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Ten year old Varian was on the very last rung of his ladder, trying to reach an apple high in the branches of a tree. "Come on!" Varian strained. "Almost there!" It was the rainy season and a big storm was coming. Him and his father had to get the last of the produce in before the storm hit. Suddenly, Varian's began to lose his balance.

"Wa-WOAH!" The ladder swayed! Suddenly it began to fall! Varian gasped and grabbed ahold of a close branch. CLANK! The ladder fell! Leaving Varian hanging! Varian clawed at the big branch and pulled himself up onto it. He sat there panting and looking down at the ladder.

"Uh oh." he said. He looked around for a way down, but there was none. Varian then looked around for the next best thing. Dad. Varian scanned the farm for the tall muscular figure of Quirin. In the distance, he could see him pushing a wheelbarrow of apples to the barn.

"Dad! Help! I'm stuck!" he shouted. Quirin couldn't hear him though. He was too far away. Quirin went into the barn and closed the door. Varian huffed in frustration.

"Great." he said as he leaned against the tree trunk. "Now what?" Wind blew through the branches and Varian shivered. He tugged at his collar in an attempt to keep warm. Suddenly, BONK! An apple hit him on the head! "Ow! Hey!" Varian looked up while rubbing his head. This day was just getting worse. But what he saw snapped him out of his grumpy flunk. A striped tail was hanging over the branch just above him.

"Huh?" Varian looked closer at the tail. The tail was pulled out of view and a sniffing, shining, black nose poked over the other side of the branch. Followed by a white snout. And then a black masked face. It was a raccoon kit! Varian gasped excitedly.

"Hi! Hi little guy!" The little raccoon ran higher up the tree at the sound of his voice. "Wait! I-It's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you." Varian climbed up to the branch the trembling kit was sitting on. The raccoon scrambled closer to the trunk in an attempt to get away from the boy. "It's okay. Really!" Varian noticed the raccoon had a bad scratch on his leg. "Aw. You're hurt. No wonder you're scared."

Varian remembered seeing some of the neighbors placing traps around the crops to keep racoons and other pests away. He must have gotten hurt in one of them. Varian hated hunting and trapping. He despised it. Why would you want to hurt another living thing? They were just hungry and scared. But there was no time to think about that. Varian had to help. Luckily, he had a bandana around neck. He thought, if he could catch the little raccoon, he might be able to stop the bleeding. Varian slowly took off the bandana.

"Okay. I'm gonna help you. But you have to trust me." The raccoon just stared him. Wide eyed and sniffing the air nervously. Varian reached for the kit. He shied away and squeaked. Varian sighed. "Please little guy? I need to help you." Suddenly a strong gust of wind blew through the tree! Varian lost his balance again! "AAAAAAAAAAAH!" Varian started to fall! He grabbed the branch, but he had no foot hold! The trunk was too far away! He tried to pull himself up, but the thinner branch was hard to grip. He stated to slip! "AhhHHHhhhh! Help! Anyone! Please?!" He shouted. Just then, he felt something tugging on his arm! It was the kit! He was trying to pull him up! "No! No little guy! I'm too heavy!" The kit stopped and panted. Then spotted Quirin across the farm exiting the barn! He had never run up to farmers. But this one's kit was in danger! He need him to come! The kit scrambled down the tree! "Wait! Don't leave me!" Varian cried! But the kit kept on running. Which wasn't easy with a hurt leg. Varian felt like crying. Everything was going wrong.

Meanwhile, Quirin was just closing the barn door. Almost all the crops were in. Just a few more apples. It was good thing too. He could see black storm clouds approaching. Just then he heard chittering at his feet. He looked down in surprise and saw a tiny and very tired racoon in front of him. Quirin didn't know why he was here, but he wasn't going to be eating the apples. He waved his arms.

"Shoo! Go away! You can't eat these!" The kit skittered away slightly, then ran up to him and began pawing at his pant leg. Now this was new. Quirin watched him intrigued. The kit pointed toward the orchard frantically. Quirin looked toward it and squinted. He saw Varian hanging precariously in of the trees! Quirin gasped and ran toward the orchard, leaving the kit behind.

"Hold on Varian! I'm coming!"

Varian was losing strength. The branch slipped through his fingers! He fell. "AHHHHHHHHH!" Varian screamed! He shut his eyes and prepare to feel himself hitting the ground. But his didn't. He opened one eye. Then the other. He looked up. He was in his father's arms! Quirin had caught him!

"Daddy!" Varian exclaimed. Quirin chuckled. "Are you alright son?" he asked.

"Uh huh!" Varian threw his arms around Quirin's neck in a big hug. Just then, a feeble chitter was heard. The pair looked behind themselves. The tiny racoon walked slowly up the Quirin and collapsed at his feet.

"Dad. He's hurt. Can we take care of him?"

Quirin sighed. "Oh Varian. You know we can't keep pests around the farm."

"But he's hurt. If I was hurt and bleeding, would you leave me outside in the cold?"

Quirin looked at the kit. Then at the storm clouds. They were just upon them now. Then he looked at Varian. Varian gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes ever.

"Please?"

Quirin was silent for a moment. Before sighing again and then smiling. Varian had convinced him. Who could say "No" to those eyes. "Alright." he said. Quirin reached down and gently picked up the kit. He handed it to Varian. "But he's your responsibility."

"Okay!" said Varian. He was already wrapping his bandana around the kit's leg. Quirin smiled. Varian was always so compassionate. He loved that. "Now let's get you and your friend inside." said Quirin, as he walked toward the house. "You've had a long day."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Quirin walked into the house and shut the door. He was soaking wet. But the crops were secure. Night had fallen and it was storming outside. He walked into the living room and sat by the fireplace. It was warm and inviting. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. The sound of the rain hitting the roof calmed his soul. While he was resting, he heard something coming from upstairs. It was Varian's voice. The house was so quiet, he could hear the little boy's gently singing an old lullaby his mother used to sing.

Quirin quietly made his way up the stairs and peeked into Varian's room. Varian was in bed, wrapped cozily up in his blankets. He had the kit wrapped up in a towel and was holding him in arms. A plate of half finished apple slices was on the night stand. The kit was sleeping quietly as Varian sang the lullaby to him. Quirin smiled softly. He hadn't heard that song in years. He tapped lightly on the doorframe. Varian stopped and looked at him. "Can I come in?" he whispered.

"Sure!" Varian whispered back. Quirin came in and sat down on the bed. "How is he?" Quirin asked.

"A lot better!" Varian replied. "He ate a lot of apple slices. Then got sleepy. I'm gonna name him Ruddigar!"

"Ruddigar?"

Yep! I saw the name in a book. We're gonna be best friends! We can play together. And he can be my lab partner. And..." Varian stopped to yawn. His eyes were getting heavy.

"Are you sleepy?" Quirin asked with smirk.

"Nope!" Varian said.

"Are you sure?" Quirin began stroking Varian's head.

"Yep! Not at *Yawn* all..." Varian closed his eyes and dropped off to sleep. Quirin sat up and pulled the covers around the little boy. As he pulled his hand away, Ruddigar subconsciously grabbed ahold of one of his fingers and nuzzled against it. Quirin didn't want to admit it, but the kit was growing on him. And he made Varian happy. The happiest he'd seen him since Ulla disappeared. Maybe Varian could keep him. Quirin stroked Ruddigar's soft head. The raccoon made a purring noise, then nestled closer to Varian. Quirin blew out the candle.

"Good night son." he said as he walked out the door. Leaving the boy and his raccoon in peaceful slumber.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

"And that's how it happened!" Varian finished. "What do you think?" Jacky was staring at him.

"Are... You okay Jacky?"

Jacky sniffed. "Wow. I think I'm gonna cry. That was so touching." Varian tried not to laugh. Jacky was very soft hearted. Belle rolled her eyes and smirked.

"Oh brother." she said.

"Great story Goggles." Hugo said as he tosseled Varian's hair. Varian laughed and pushed his hand away. "Thanks!" he replied.

"It's amazing that Ruddigar has stuck around for so long." Belle said. Varian snorted "Yeah. Well, you have an endless apple supply what else is a raccoon going to do?" Suddenly, Varian saw an apple fall from the tree.

"Oop!" Varian caught it in his hands. "Nice." But before he can even bite it, Ruddigar scrambled over Varian and swiped the apple. "Huh? Hey!" Ruddigar ran a distance away before aggressively stuffing the apple in his mouth. The siblings laughed.

"Don't ever change buddy." said Hugo. Ruddigar grinned and scarfed the last bite of apple. Varian picked him up and hugged him.

"Yeah. Don't ever change Ruddigar." The raccoon nuzzled Varian's cheek. Both felt like the luckiest person on Earth.

The End.

[thelighttasteslikelasagna]

so, lil update on my life, I got a job at a daycare while waiting to get a permanent job, and I did! Stayed there for two weeke before a job I was hoping for, called me. Learned that children,,, whew! tire me out! I jokingly call myself allergic to them, but wowzies they're a handful.

so I'm about to start a new thing on the 1st of nov, as a lab tech full-time, this is something I've been,,,, waiting for. gonna work 12 hour shifts, and hopefully pull through! it's a pretty good deal, where I'm from. I feel like this is a big step for me, and hopefully I'll be able to be strong enough and pull through. I'll be sad that I won't get a lot of time to talk to my friends anymore, but I get the nagging feeling that they've gone on to do better and more useful things, while I've been left behind. with this job, I won't get to be left behind.

there's a bit of self-flagellation involved with those 12 hour shifts. I'm not good for much else and reached the point of 'nobody else will take me'. This job may chew me up and spit me right back out, but I'll have to get through it, because -laying my fears out here- I'm a bit of a failure and I deserve all the hardships I get. Choosing bio sciences may have been what I wanted, but. i keep getting reminders that it's not for me, that it's for more brilliant people who didn't slack off in their youth.

It feels like most of my friends have moved on. in really dark moments, I think my current court of friends keeps me out of pity. my online friends don't need anything

to me, getting this job=last step into adulthood. I'm finally going to be an adult, and if that means I'm going to burn myself out, then so be it, because this is what I chose, and it's the only thing that'll take me in.

all ugliness of my raw emotions aside, the job sounds decent. I get to work and get more experience around PCR, maybe learn a few extra processes, and if they like me, they'll let me learn about biopsies and test other samples for other diseases. There's also no dress code, I can come in wearing whatever I want because I'll be wearing PPE all day anyway! Lunch and dinner are also provided, and public transportation to my workplace is super near my place, like, a 3 minute trot.

On another positive note, because I need it- I found a really nice cosplay group for TF2. They've been one of my best highs- I can freely talk about them because none of them are here- we sometimes play together, but most of the time, it's just talking on discord. I love all of them, we stay up talking to each other, ponying around. sometimes we even meet up. They even weirdly emulate their characters pretty well without knowing it, with our Sniper being a bit of a bird enthusiast and a bit of a recluse, our Engineer building the best props (and a sentry!) we've ever seen, and our Scout being...a real life version of Scout, same happy go lucky and energy-packed vibe. In recent months, my team has genuinely been a support network for me, and I try not to lean too heavily on them, but I love them.

[thisisryderinjapan]

May 30 - Last day of the trip! - Independent excursion - academic reflection: Hiroshima

Today was our last day together as a class for the entire trip. Tomorrow, I will wake up early to say goodbye to all my friends as they leave the hotel to catch their various busses, planes, and Shinkansen on their ways back to the United States. I can’t believe it’s been a month; the time has really flown by. Reflecting back on the trip, I would say my top five experiences were easily Team Labs Planets, Monkeys, Tokyo Skytree, Nara, and the Shinkansen. The Team Labs Planets experience was simply transcendent and I think anyone that visits Japan would be remise if they didn’t go; it really was a novel experience that I don’t think I will likely ever have again. The monkeys and the deer were also just completely new to me as I had never seen monkeys in the wild ever and my experience with wild deer was limited to the few that roam around my grandpa’s house in Jacksonville that aren’t nearly as social and unafraid as the ones at Nara. I loved Skytree because it was the first observation tower that we did so the experience was still original, but I also think it was one of the coolest; either that or Shibuya Sky, I can’t decide which one was better. I loved being able to see the massive metropolis that is Tokyo from such a distance that everything seems insignificant and you can really understand just how unimportant you and your problems are. When it comes to the Shinkansen, I knew that was one of the things I absolutely wanted to do in Japan and, as I have mentioned, was one of the original things that got me interested in Japan in the first place, so getting to ride the engineering marvel was very rewarding to me. Honorable mention goes to the rice planting, which, again, was just something I had never done before and probably won’t ever do again, but I’m glad I can casually drop into conversation my background as a Japanese rice farmer for the rest of my life. My biggest gripe over the course of the entire trip was the fact that for many of our excursions we ventured into areas that had plenty of restaurants, but we often found that nearly all the restaurants were reservation only and/or that it was nearly impossible to accommodate more than two people. This sucked because it meant my group spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly looking for a place to eat and getting annoyed, so I wish on these days it would have been clearly communicated to us that we were going to be in such an area and to perhaps think about making reservations in advance. I also wish I had known that we were going to get pocket WiFi’s distributed to us; I would not have spent $100 on my own if I had know this was the case, perhaps this is on me and I just wasn’t listening. Another big wish of mine is that we might have focused a little bit more on slightly more modern issues towards the end of the trip as we prepared to depart such as Japan’s involvement in world conflicts, which brings me to the main topic of this blog post and my final independent excursion of the trip on our last free day in Japan: Our trip to Hiroshima.

We started the day by waking up early so that we could get ourselves over to Kyoto Station in time to catch the Shinkansen so that we could have enough time in Hiroshima to enjoy ourselves before needing to be back at the hotel to regroup for our farewell dinner. The train ride to Hiroshima is nearly three hours once you factor in walking to the subway, transferring at Kyoto station, and buying the Shinkansen tickets, and this is a best case scenario time too because we’re basically pros at riding the Shinkansen now and can buy our tickets in thirty seconds. We have come a long way since the first time we attempted to go to Hiroshima and didn’t make it out of Kyoto Station! The Shinkansen trip to Hiroshima wasn’t bad, but we timed it just right because I literally bought the last reserved seat on the entire train so the two friends I was with had to buy non-reserved tickets and no telling how many of those were left given how full the train was. On the way there, I got the window seat but unfortunately after riding one stop an obese Italian man took the middle seat so I found myself shoved into the window for the remainder of the train ride as I wrote my media reflection blog post. Once we got to Hiroshima, we saw signs to ride a streetcar, which we had no idea about but figured would be cool. I’m glad we got on it, but I totally understand why we don’t really build streetcars anymore because it was super slow, pretty loud, took up a lot of space above ground, was subject to traffic, and seemed to not save that much time at all, but we were able to take in the vistas of Hiroshima which was literally to the whole point of being there so it worked out. By the time we got there, we only had about three hours to walk around, see the sights, and eat before we needed to head back to Hiroshima Station to catch the Shinkansen out. We disembarked the streetcar right outside the peace park and wandered around until we found the memorial museum, which had a very heavy gravity about it and was virtually silent inside out of respect for all of those that perished. My main goal with wanting to visit Hiroshima was to see how the Japanese were choosing to remember the event, if they were blaming anyone in particular, and what message they were trying to convey to the world with their memorials. On the train, I did some research on the memorial museum to see how people interpreted the messages conveyed by the museum.

Academic Reflection

The article that I found was very interesting because it offered a completely unique perspective on not just the memorial but also the atomic bomb: It explained how the memorial museum is actually quite problematic and detailed how the museum doesn’t blame Americans for the massacre, but conveniently also does not mention any of the atrocities that Japanese government had committed that had led to the dropping of the bomb, not to mention the atrocities they would have continued committing had the bomb not been dropped. Just to name a few, the Japanese government essentially brainwashed and forced teenagers into becoming kamikaze pilots, practiced internment of prisoners of war (essentially a form of slavery), and blatantly spread misinformation and propaganda regarding the nature of the country’s participation and involvement in the war, with some of these things continuing to this day. For example, the article details how the Hiroshima Peace Park as well as the Memorial Museum focus so much attention on the physical atrocities of the bomb that it becomes very easy to characterize Japan entirely as a victim of the war. Indeed, the Japanese government has utilized the bombing and subsequent defense-only military as tools to paint Japan as a pacifist country that shouldn’t be seen as evil or as having committed serious wrongs. This rebranding is actually something that we have already seen with the “Japanese cute” we discussed towards the beginning of the trip, where Japan seemed to have consciously and communally moved away from its image of Samurai’s and warriors to a more America-centric (which also meant globally-appealing) image of hard-working citizens and cute culture decorated with rainbows and laughter and fun and smiles and definitely not war crimes and definitely not shoving teenagers onto boats and telling them to go blow themselves up. The article explains how the emphasis on the physical tragedy of the bomb, and not the context that led up to it allows both sides to claim they were better than they were, with America being able to posture itself as the one who just had to do this one single tragic thing to end the war and Japan as being the unfortunate victim. However, the bombing of Hiroshima killed around 300,000 people, which is an insane number, but it is really easy to get distracted by this number and forget about all the other numbers of the war that are also extremely relevant. For example, prior to the Hiroshima atomic bombing, the United States carpet bombed Tokyo with napalm and literally boiled approximately 100,000 people to death. I had never even heard of this until I read it in the article. Indeed, virtually all of my American education pertaining to Japan’s participation in the war had been about either the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with little to no talk of any other events or even why Pearl Harbor happened and why we chose to drop the first two and only atomic bombs ever deployed in history. In short, the article’s essential point was that the museum is mute about the cause and context of the atomic bomb, instead focusing solely on the physical horrors of the event so that Japan can be postured as the victim and push all of the other events and history of the war under the rug.

My experience when I visited the museum absolutely corroborated the author’s claim that the monument takes little to no stand when it comes to the blame or reason for the bombing. Our experience with the museum started with the memorial to all that had died, which itself started with a ten minute video that detailed how young Japanese boys were drafted into the army as well as how they were responsible for the cleanup operation after the bomb detonated. It was a tragic video to watch and certainly enhanced my understanding of the gore and suffering that took place as a result of the bomb, but the video took no stand on whether the bombing was right or wrong and conveniently left out any sort of rationale for why the bomb had been dropped. I thought it was very fascinating that the video chose to focus on the teenage soldiers in the army, with the youngest they mentioned being only fifteen years old, especially considering the fact that the video was talking about the Kamikaze unit, where these young boys had essentially been drafted and brainwashed into devaluing their lives and preparing for death. One boy explained that they would be required to watch long videos three times a week that addressed nothing but dying and convincing yourself to be okay with it. By the end of the course, multiple boys in the video explained that they were fully prepared to die, which is something I think we could spend a lot more time analyzing in another conversation: A country’s own government brainwashing its children to blow themselves up is something that shouldn’t soon be forgotten, but a lot of us are taught in school something along the lines of “oh that’s what they wanted they were just filled with so much honor that they all wanted to blow themselves up and dying was nothing to them.” Indeed, by the time they were carrying-out a suicide bombing, they had been so brainwashed by their government that it wasn’t a big deal, but nobody actually wants to die naturally so the idea that these young boys walked out of their houses one day ready to die for their country is absolutely ludicrous and I honestly can’t believe I ever believed that, but it’s so easy to become distracted by the horrors of the bomb that learning about these more nuanced aspects of the war as a whole seem trivial and maybe even disrespectful to dedicate time to in the face of all of those that tragically died at Hiroshima. This isn’t to say that those who died at Hiroshima weren’t victims and that they didn’t suffer gruesome and horrible deaths that they absolutely in no way deserved, but it seems that education of the event as a whole is very quick to sweep the details under the rug—on both sides—and focus solely on the death and destruction so neither side really has to admit why they did what they did or explain themselves. The Hiroshima Pace Park and Memorial Museum certainly don’t do anything to educate anyone about these intricacies, and are guilty of focusing our attention solely on the human death and suffering. While it is absolutely paramount that this death and destruction be understood, education about such aspects of the bombing must also be accompanied by other discussions of what brought the bombing and how both sides were complicit in creating an untenable situation with such a tragic outcome, otherwise it will never be possible to understand and learn from the tragic event.

Giamo, Benedict. “The Myth of the Vanquished: The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.” American Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 4, 2003, pp. 703–28. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30042004. Accessed 30 May 2024.