#i liked how it made the underground seem a lot bigger

[skyward-floored]

Whumptober Day 27 - Voiceless, “I have no mouth and I must scream”

I feel like I’ve been mean to Wind a lot heh, I feel bad for the little guy. It’s better than the three arrows I put in his chest in that other fic! ...Maybe, anyway.

Warnings: redeads

Ao3 link

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Wind was not happy.

He struggled and kicked, tried to squirm out of the bruising hold on his arms, went limp and tried to just give the two soldiers dragging him along some underground passageway as worse of a time as possible. They’d already taken his weapons and only held him tighter as he struggled, but Wind kept it up anyway.

One of the Yiga grumbled in annoyance as Wind kicked at his legs, and he felt a glint of satisfaction.

“Rotten kid, that attitude will die plenty quick where you’re going,” the other Yiga snapped, ignoring Wind’s attempts to bite him. “This cell was for the hero, but what better way to lure him there than to dump his little brother in it first?”

“You built a cell underneath the outskirts of a village? Wow, that’s normal well-adjusted behavior,” Wind huffed, and one Yiga sneered.

“We merely adapted it for our purposes. And you’re the perfect person to test it out.”

Wind finally managed to clamp his jaws down on one of the soldier’s hands, and he yelled, gloves not thick enough to really protect him. The other one snatched at Wind and put a dagger to his throat before he could press his attack, and Wind reluctantly released the hand, getting the message.

“Link’ll never fall for your stupid trap anyway,” Wind said with a glare, and the Yiga both chuckled.

“Oh yes he will. Have fun, kid.”

A door was opened, and Wind was tossed through without any sort of fanfare, stumbling as he landed. He whirled back around to the door, but it was already closed and firmly locked.

Wind scowled at it, then turned to look around his prison, mind already turning towards thoughts of escape. Who did these Yiga guys think they were, kidnapping him off the street? He was the Hero of Winds! How had they even gotten the drop on him?

Wind scowled again and kicked at the floor of the cell. At least he’d been walking around with Four and Wild. Surely one of them would notice he was missing soon. And if not, well, Wind was pretty good at getting out of tight spots if he did say so himself.

No problem.

Wind put his hands on his hips, looking around the dark cell. There was a single tiny torch hung up on the wall, too high for Wind to reach that lit up the skinny space. A stone wall stood at the far end of the cell, but the two sides were open bars, darkness yawning beyond them.

It... kinda made his skin crawl.

Wind crossed his arms, feeling cold all of a sudden, but he shrugged it off with a huff. He needed to figure out how to get out of here, creepy darkness or not. The deep shadows beyond the bars suggested a bigger area, so if he could just find a loose one, he’d be set. Maybe he could even climb up and grab the torch.

Wind walked over to a side, starting at one end and giving each bar a solid shake. They seemed pretty firmly in the ground, but Wind worked his way across anyway, hoping for a loose one. He got all the way through without a single loose bar, and sighed, crossing to the other side to try there instead.

He’d gotten about halfway when he heard something, creaky and quiet.

Wind froze, listening, and the hair on the back of his neck went up as he heard it again. That noise was familiar. He couldn’t place it, but he knew it was familiar.

And that it was bad news.

A low moan came from somewhere in the darkness, and Wind slowly began to back away, nerves all alight. If he could just see he wouldn’t be nearly as nervous. Maybe the darkness was just freaking him out, and he was imagining noises because of that?

A bloodcurdling scream rang out, and Wind’s eyes went huge as a familiar sensation wracked through him, deathly cold and terrifying.

Oh no, he thought in a panic, his feet frozen to the floor, body unable to turn away from the shambling footsteps he could hear. Oh no oh no oh—

A face appeared in the flickering light of the torch, decaying and horrible, eyes glowing. A rotten hand stretched forward and wrapped around the bars, and Wind stared at the Redead, trapped in its unnatural terror.

It didn’t look like his version of them, taller, with a few ragged clothes on its lanky body, but the feeling it left him with was the same, sheer, unnatural terror.

I’ve got to get away, maybe by the door I’ll be far enough it won’t be able to—

A different scream rang out, sending another jolt through Wind’s chest, and he watched in horror as another redead grasped at the bars, reaching out to him, trying to pull him close. Beady eyes stared at him, glowing and malicious with hunger, and Wind might have whimpered if he could move his mouth.

He fought the paralysis as much as he could, but the moment it started to wear off, one of them screamed again, leaving Wind with no escape. More screams joined the first two, and Wind choked on his breath as a whole group of redeads shambled out of the darkness. Screams came near constantly from their lips as they grabbed at the bars and reached through, trying to get at him.

They can’t get through, they can’t get through they can’t hurt you, it’s just to scare you, Wind thought frantically, heart drumming in his chest. They don’t want you to escape that’s why they put them there you’re okay you’re okay you’re okay.

The screams just kept coming, endless and piercing and shooting Wind’s heart through with inescapable terror. He couldn’t even move to cover his ears, and he felt a terrified scream build in his own throat.

But it wouldn’t come out. Wind could only keep standing there, immobilized, tears trailing silently down his cheeks.

It felt like his heart was being encased in ice, frost shooting through his veins with every scream and grazing touch. More screams joined the agonizing chorus from behind him, and the terror felt like it would crush him, repeatedly crashing over him like a freezing wave.

Hands grabbed at him, nails grazing his skin. Wind couldn’t move, the torrential screams hammering at him, cracking him, filling him up with so much terror his mind couldn’t focus on anything else.

His world narrowed down to screams and beady eyes, Wind drowning in terror, eyes darting around wildly, mind screaming every time a hand grazed him.

If he could move he’d be curled up on the ground, but all he could do was stand here and sob in his mind as a deathly cold hand finally closed around his wrist.

Then a different noise rang out over the screams.

It was garbled in Wind’s ears, some sort of talking he couldn’t make out over the redeads’ shrieks. But suddenly music poured into the cell, cheery and bright, and the screaming stopped.

All of it.

Wind’s ears still rang with them, and the terror still pressed over him like a wet blanket, but there was finally silence, and the hand trying to drag Wind closer to the bars had stopped in its efforts, the redead’s mouth stuck open with its teeth bared.

Wind would’ve sobbed if he could move, and he heard footsteps and talking, his ears still ringing too much to make out. Strong arms pulled the hand off his wrist and cradled him to a chest, shouted something at the other sets of footsteps. The song trilled again, bright and warm, and though Wind still couldn’t do much as twitch his pinky, some of his panic eased as he felt a steady heartbeat against where his ear rested.

The others were here.

There must have been a trip out, but Wind missed most of it, still trapped in the lingering screams he could hear in his mind. Tears trickled steadily down his cheeks, and past the unnaturally sharp fear was a flicker of annoyance at crying so much.

But the terror mostly blotted it out.

Sunshine finally fell onto his face, warm and soft, and whoever was holding Wind lowered themselves to a knee. A face looked down at him, and Wind saw Twilight, eyes fearful.

“Hey Wind, you alright?” he asked, and Wind could only stare at him, heart pounding, terror still clenching like a talon around him. “Wind?”

“Is he okay?” someone else asked, and Twilight leaned back, Time and Wild’s faces both coming into view next.

“He’s not responding,” Twilight replied, and Time leaned in, studying Wind’s face with a worried look.

“Wind, can you hear me?” Time asked, setting a hand on his chest.

I can hear you fine, I just can’t move! Wind wanted to scream, but his mouth was still frozen shut. The only thing that he was still able to do was cry, apparently.

Time gently wiped his tears away, and if Wind wasn’t still so terrified, he was sure he’d be embarrassed. “Do we know how long he was down there?”

“An hour, hour and a half? No more than two based on when we started looking,” a voice Wind placed as Wild added anxiously. Oh good, he avoided the trap. “Is that bad?”

“It’s a long time to be around an attacking redead, no less dozens of them like he was,” Time replied, gently tilting Wind’s head around as he looked at it. “Usually the song fixes things, I have no idea why he’s still frozen like this.”

“Prolonged exposure I’d guess,” Four’s voice added, and Twilight’s hand combed gently through his hair. “It might just take him longer to break out of it. He’s so cold...”

“I still can’t believe we lost sight of him like that,” Wild said quietly, and a different hand touched his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Wind.”

Oh Wild, it’s not your fault, Wind thought, trying to look the champion in the eye and convey the sentiment. I’d tell you so if I could.

Some more footsteps pounded against the grass suddenly, and the amount of voices around Wind doubled, more faces leaning over to look at him, worried questions floating over his head. The other Links had obviously joined the group, and Wind struggled even harder against the paralysis making him nothing but deadweight. But he remained as frozen as ever, a scream still stuck in his throat, ice around his heart.

“Give him space, I’m pretty sure he’s aware of what’s going on and you all are crowding him,” Warriors’ voice chided, and the majority of heads pulled back from his view. The captain’s face appeared in his line of sight, full of worry. “Wind? Can you move anything? Even just something small?”

Wind started at his feet and worked his way upward this time, trying to move anything he could. Fear still thrummed through him, his body on high alert, tears tracking down his cheeks, but he finally managed to twitch his eyelids a little.

“Hey, there we go,” Warriors said with relief in his eyes. “Can you do it again?”

Wind focused, managing another twitch, and almost did a full blink when he tried again. Warriors’ face was still worried, but he looked encouraged by even the tiny movement.

“Here, let me see if this helps some more,” Time said then, and Twilight shifted Wind around in his arms so his head was a little more upright.

Time pulled out his ocarina, purplish blue in the sunshine, and he played the trilling song again, the one Wind finally recognized as the song of passing. Time played it through a couple times, magic falling over Wind like a beam of sunlight. He was surprised the time of day itself didn’t change, but maybe Time was stopping it from doing that somehow.

Suddenly the magic loosened something inside him, the icy terror cracking, thawing a little. Some feeling swept back into his body, and the scream that had been stuck in Wind’s throat this whole time suddenly burst out, loud and terrified.

Time immediately stopped playing, and Wind began to tremble as feeling slowly spread to the rest of him, his scream ending in a hiccup. It felt amazing to finally give voice to the horrible coldness in him, and Wind barely noticed when a thumb brushed along his cheek.

“Wind?” Time asked quietly, and Wind breathed in a shaking breath, firmly blinking tears out of his eyes.

“Th-thank, tha-ank y-you,” he managed get out in a miserable-sounding whimper.

Sighs of relief went up around him, and Time gave Wind a smile, even with the way Wind was shaking and still unable to stop the tears from escaping his eyes.

“You’re welcome Sailor,” Time replied, and brushed a few more of his tears away.

Wind managed a shaky smile back, then relaxed into Twilight’s arms, more and more of the ice in his chest melting away into bright sunshine.

[ganondoodle]

I probably still wouldn’t have been a big fan of the game, but I don’t think I would have been NEARLY as upset about TotK if BotW didn’t seem like it was so obviously setting up plot points for a sequel. Like, you’re very clearly MEANT to wonder what malice is, and how Ganon became the Calamity instead of just the Demon King. Fi is awake again, where are they going either that? What’s the deal with the Triforce-shaped symbol on Zelda’s hand? There were a LOT of other things like that, and many of them had to do with overarching lore for the series.

I get it if they want to reboot the series, but “BotW 2” was the single worst game you could have done that with. It could have been an amazing conclusion to the original continuity.

EXACTLY, you, you get it

botw felt like the introduction to a vast world with secrets and hints to things that were planned to become a bigger thing- a big giant game as a big giant set up, and then ... like totk likes to do alot, it lacks a pay off, and that is something it even does within itself, cosntantly, set up and no pay off, or set up and the most boring and uninspired pay off you can really not even call that, from the bigger things like the whole dragon thing being hammered into your head as irreversible and then it IS reversible.. out of nowhere without you having to do fuck all, the whole thing with the ancient hero beign a big mystery with lots of interesting ideas attached and then its some weird ass dog creature that doesnt resemble any other race with, of course, sonau armor, bc there nothing that isnt sonau in that game, even finding the old treasure maps you can find that then lead to amiibo stuff from botw id call that

botw wasnt that great with rewards either but exploring the world and wondering about those, surely intentionally, placed mysterious and intriguing designs and places did alot for making it so interesting to think about, totk fumbles it all and even the new stuff doesnt even come close to that environmental storytelling botw was so great at, sonau ruins? ha they look entirely different than in botw actually, bc those were built by hylians you see, the actual sonau stuff is in prime condition considering the time thats passed and its all the same blank blocky blocks that serve no purpose but to be a place for you to find a thing or exchange some currency- the most you can think about it is ... that the sonau hollowed out the entire underground of hyrule, every inch of the map, ... which is WEIRD and doesnt exactly make them look that good but ... thats all there is

at least with the shiekah it made somewaht more sense and it felt much less .. invasive? and you didnt have anyone from that time to talk to, other than dead monks whos only purpose is to give you their last piece of their own spirit, but in totk ... raurus ghost and mineru too are both just there to talk to but DONT tell you shit but vague hints that were already clear, the sky islands used to be on the ground? oh you dont say, you see them there in the stupid memories! and dont get to know how they got up there and theres nothing that can clue you in to that, its just sonau magic yet again i guess

dont even get me started on the whole malice/miasma thing, it made so much SENSE that there was a source of it, someone that has keep kept in a horrible place just between life and death for thousands of years trying to break free by their hate and anger manifesting to such a degree its literally spilling out and building creppy eyeballs, mouths and ribcage like structures like they are trying to rebuild themsleves outside of their awful prison no one knows about is so damn compelling, but no, actually, the guy trapped there was the msot evilest evar, was sealed bc him evil and no other motive, and the previously mentioned stuff is pretty much utterly unceonnected, and his magic beign miasma with red instead of pink and no creepy body parts was the true version of it, that pink one was its own thing heehooo SHUT UP argh

it doesnt help that really, i dont feel like the sonau were set up either, they were a tiny part in botw, really only serving to make the world seem more ancient and more full of history, having ruins from a past civilization there you know nothing about and cant find out more is so good, its compelling and sad and makes the world feel more real, just shoving them into everything, being the center of attention all of thes udden and not even the architecure fitting feels so ... forced, i really truly believe the og sonau werent meant to be more than that, but in their fear of the game being too similarly looking like botw they took the sonau to replace the shiekah with them- imo the shiekah were the ones set up to be deeper explored in botw, with their whole misstreatment by the royal family in the past, monk miz kyoshia reacting the same way a yiga commander would was deliberate and brings up even more interesting ideas, the comments about where the mysterious energy the ancient shiekah used to power everything being concentrated in certain regions?? thats a big ass set up, the fact that the center of what is signaling everything to reactivate being below hyrule castle? the fact the whole arena thing was BUILT INTO THE CASTLE or it on top of it is so??? cool??? and sso damn intriguing, we are scratching the surface of their history- but then no, actually, the sonau are the cool new shit those other ones just uh ... disappear, also the sonau did everythign the shiekah did but even better wayy before them haha

its like they didnt want to tackle the more complicated stuff with the shiekah, their relationship to the royal family and how the yiga ... have a point and a good reason- so they replaced them with entirely new purely goodest good guys that did the same stuff before them with none of the history attached :))

this is why im so insistent on it not really being a sequel, thers no follow up on anything that was set up, NOTHING, and no, a couple having a kid now or whatever isnt a follow up on an interesting set up, how hard is it to understand that-

.... listen to me rambling, you probably know all that already nhjdfkbnkd

(i know i always bring up the shiekah but ... they were so central in botw, while also not taking up every single corner- unlike some other ones >_____>, with so much interesting stuff to connect and think about, i cared about them so much i felt kicked down the stairs by their treatment in totk)

[whereserpentswalk]

You work with people from other dimensions for a living. While you can travel to other dimensions, it's much easier to just connect your computer to computers from other dimensions. You end up finding out about a lot of strange places, alternate earths where things are diffrent in ways you could never imagine. Most people don't even know other dimensions exist, but to you it all feels so normal, so very distant but so very normal.

Because the company that you work on interdimensional technology for needs to outsource some of its dimensional work you end up very quickly having to contact people from other dimensions with a similar skillset to you for one project. And since it's easy to contact them you end up talking to them afterwards.

There's this one girl you end up messaging a lot. She seems so nice and sweet. You talk a lot about programing, and mathematics and magic (which are all very closely connected fields), she's one of the only people who seems to really understand the beauty in it the way you do. She's obviously from a very diffrent culture, and you never sent eachother images, but you like eachother a lot.

You end up messaging this girl more and more. She's the first to comfort you when one of your freinds turned on you, she was the first to support you when you came out to your parents, even though she didn't fully know what coming out was. She messages you "I love you" in the mornings sometimes. And even though she's far away, further way than anything in the universe, you understand her so well. You've seen her art, drawings she's done of buildings and structures around where she lives, they're like nothing you've ever seen before.

You start to talk about being in a romantic relationship. It's hard but you decide it's what you should do, almost what you have to do. You want to be her girlfriend, you want to know how it feels to hug her, for her to rest her head on your breasts on a warm summer night, to be inside eachother, to touch in a way you don't get to touch. But you can still message eachother, it's just one small contact but it means so much. You want to move in with her, it might never happen but there's something inside of you that wants to wake up next to her every morning.

Eventually you decide to build a portal to eachother, so you can see eachother, and if all goes well, you'll actually move in. You both need to talk to a lot of people, and get help from a lot of programmers and spellcasters from several dimensions, but it's done. The money that was supposed to let you move into a bigger apartment ends up going to a doorway sized portal, stored one of the few buildings in the city that can store such things. You need to get a ticket to go, even though the portal is yourse it needs people to operate it. But you can go. And if all goes well, you'll live together.

When you get to her dimension the first thing you feel is fear. It's dark, you think your underground, only a few bioluminescent organisms light the way. The city you're in is wet, and cold yet humid, everything is made of either moist steel, or dark wood that's covered in some strange layer of material that feels like wet cardboard. The creatures here aren't human at all, they're all strange bug like and fish like beings.

You eventually go to your girlfriend's apartment. Afraid of what you'll see. It's completely dark inside, and decorated like no human would ever decorate anything. When you see your girlfriend for the first time the horror breaks the love you want to feel. Her body looks humanoid, though she's so thin you can see her ribs, and pale in a way only corpses are useally pale. Her face was almost pretty, but her eyes were one solid pinkish color, and her moulth was just a tiny hole, like a jawless fish, it couldn't move at all. And massive fleshy tentacles came from her back, four of them, with razor teeth at their ends, for chewing her food outside her body so that her tiny slit of a mouth can lap it up. You both just stand there, you realize that this is the girl you love, you realize you look as horrifying to her as she does to you. You begin to weep, and she doesn't understand what your eyes are doing.

You spend the night in her apartment. There's no way you're moving in together. You're not sure what this means. You don't want to look at her at first, but eventually you do. You realize if you have to go back to your world you do want to spend time with her. Your languages work so differently that you still need to use computers to talk to eachother, but you can talk to eachother. And you tell her that you're sorry, that you still want to be together.

You let her hug you, and comfort you, her body is so strange, but it becomes less scary when you fully realize that it's her your looking at, that that's who you've messaged all those nights. Despite her eyes and mouth her face is pretty, and though her body is much thinner then you expected she still moves gracefully. You let her touch you, every way she wanted to touch you, let her tentacles wrap around your body. She shows you her computer setup, and her favorite video games, and she even gets to introduce you to some of her freinds, and her little isopod like pet who really likes being pet by you. You can't help but feel uncomfortable in her dimension, but you feel safe with her, and despite everything you enjoy being held and touched by her. At the end of your stay you make love for the first time, you don't have the same genitals as her species, but you make it work. You fall asleep in her arms, and she would do the same to you, but her kind does not sleep.

When you go back home, because you do have to go back home, you don't tell many people, even people who know about dimensions, what happened where you went. But you still message her a lot, and when you can you visit her, and very rarely she'll visit you. Your mother would never approve, and no priest would marry you, but you can't help but fall into the feeling of her body next to yourse.

[mimobombs]

SONIC 3 THEORY; SHADOW WAS MADE ON EARTH

After rewatching the trailer over and over and overanalyzing every screenshot. I think I have a fair assumption that Shadow was not made on the Ark. In fact, I doubt the Ark existed in the Movie universe until Sonic's time.

Crazy theory time is a go,

Why do I think Shadow was made on Earth?

1. Trailer backgrounds.

We see three scenes with Shadow's test tube. One where it stands intact, and two where it is seen broken. In the scene where its intact, its harder to tell where its located, with just machinery and darkness as a backdrop. Which easily could have mislead us to thinking this is the Ark.

But when its the broken one scenes, we can see first in its reflection what looks like an old railing. Its is very faint in my screenshots but if you give it a look on bigger screens its a bit more visible.

The railing is more fitting of a 70s house railing than a space station's. Unless Gerald made his quarters look like a house, a possibility.

But. In the second scene where Shadow punches forward, this very same broken test tube is seen, and the lightsource is now clear to us. Its a hole in the background wall. This hole is clearly either damage from a fight, or a natural collapse. But whats for sure is that the location is on earth, as overgrowth can be seen through the debris and around the broken wall.

Now this can be bounced back as maybe a secondary location to hold Shadow to have further testing when Gerald was contained and brought back to earth. But. We also have to think of another detail.

2. The Era

Gerald's story is set 50 years ago on our earth, our world. Gerald was not a roboticist, but more a biological scientist, and in that era, they had very rudimental space exploration shuttles, like the Apollo missions. I highly doubt a ship the size of the Ark was made during that time, and that the military had advanced enough ships to raid said Ark and return to earth without a risk. We could say the same with the technology used to create Shadow being way too advanved for its era, which honestly is true.

To me the interesting part is the Ark seems to have been contained in a G.U.N stronghold, as we see what I assume is the Ark emerge from the waters in London.

As far as we know, G.U.N was only created recently, as the second movie indicates, so they couldn't have been in possession of such a gigantic asset for a long time. Unless the military was the one in possession of it and transfered to G.U.N when they were wipping their database from Robotnik's info. Maybe it was found after? Maybe Eggman made it? Wtf's it doing in LONDON? Changing its location alone would be impossible for how big it is... Many ideas could explain this but my theories have nothing solid for the small bits of content shown...

But either or, the last piece of proof I have is.

3. Maria's death scene

Not much is seen in that one shot, but it speaks for a lot.

In this scene, clearly the area has been raided, there is military, but the background also has hint details for us. We can see a flipped over car in the corner. There is also possibly a military car/jeep seen in the other corner burning. They may be in an underground area long enough to use cars, like a tunnel? Part of a military base? Sadly the amount of smoke doesnt make it easy to figure out whats behind them, and even whats on the ground. Though i just feel like it doesnt really look like the Ark to me.

With that in mind we also have to remember that this is not a note for note retelling of SA 2. Clearly something like the Ark will appear as seen behind Tails in that one shot.

But I theorize it was made later. Gerald, if alive or not, is seen with Eggman tech in his old home, probably for research purposes to better understand his grandson's mechanical genius, and maybe to recruit him to build or perfect the Ark project? Clearly in this scene Eggman seems surprised to see his tech there...

About Gerald, its hard to know if he is truly alive or not. To me two options are possible. Either Eggman is hallucinating tf out after either being knocked out or something of the like, meeting his grandfather and it goes into a spiral of insanity.

Or.

Gerald completed his research that he had first aimed for with the existence of Project Shadow. Immortality. the detail that makes me wonder if we will go that path, is during Maria's death scene, Gerald looks the same age as when he's seen interacting with Eggman. His white mustache and body stance is exactly the same, and we would have expected a lot more wrinkles and showing bones if the man was almost 130 years old.

Another detail into question;

If Shadow was made on Earth, what kind of sickness does Maria have? An interesting detail I did notice from all the shots that clearly belong to Gerald's home, is that its absolutely dark. No windows are seen, and the type of debris and breaks seen on the walls feel like it was made of concrete. Which makes me think that possibly, his home was a bunker. Hidden in the alps somewhere, so he could work on his research in secret, but also keep Maria safe.

An interesting twist for her character to not have experienced earth, would be if she had a type of illness that renders her Immuno-compromised to the point of it being fatal, or maybe a reaction so intense to the sun or even simply the air up on the surface being dangerous for her. She could only dream of the world outside as she is not allowed to leave the bunker to see it. It would bring a similar narrative to her and Shadow watching the earth from space!

Anyways I digress, I don't claim anything I've said to be solid truth. Ive just been digging the trailer and turning it in my brain in every possible direction that I had to post my ramblings somewhere, or else I would have gone insane. This will eat at me for the next months until the release, or a more detailed preview is posted. Enjoy the brainworms yippeeeee ♡♡♡

Also please if you have seen bits and pieces of the leaked unfinished cut please dont tell me about it Ive ran into 4 different mini spoilers and I'm still mad about it :)))

[penofwildfire]

I have this headcanon (I've mentioned I before on my alt acc) that people who died during the events of Skybound are able to remember it, which is why Nya remembers (Jay remembers because he made the wish). So there's just a bunch of random people who remember this wacky event happening, and it becomes like a whole underground conspiracy theory. There's a lot of comedic potential there, of course, but consider the angst potential?

We know some of the pirates in Nadakhan's crew were normal Ninjago citizens, like Squiffy and Bucko, formerly known as Landon and Collin. What if, sometimes, Jay sees people on the street that did things to him on the Misfortune's Keep? He remembers their faces, he remembers how they hurt him, but most of the time, they don't remember. Maybe he tips the rest of the team off that they "seem suspicious" at times, and they often turn out to be criminals in some way.

And then one day, he meets someone who does remember. Someone who looks at him with a recognition beyond just "oh hey it's the Blue Ninja". Maybe they've become a low-level thug, a lackey for a bigger villain. Maybe they make a point of targeting Jay during the little scuffles they have. Maybe they refuse to let him forget what they did to him.

Anyway yeah just... Skybound angst y'all.

[sinon36]

Ghost x undercover!reader (HC) Part VI

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI

Warnings: torture, violence, gore, mistakes.

- the sixth time you meet it’s after a lot of frenzied searches

- the missions have been slow a while now; you mostly act as a handler for TF141, alongside Laswell; the boys got used to your calm voice in their earpieces, guiding and directing them through buildings and underground bases; your “hacking” skills come in handy when Laswell gets caught up with something else

- they always come home in time for you to get supper together; it’s a nice way of living; so different from the loneliness you felt before; now you have a small family to call your own; the banter between you and the sergeants feels the air; you throw jokes to one another; Price quietly chuckles at his younger subalterns; Ghost on the other hand stays silent most of the time;

- you always sit next to him, in the mess hall, in briefing rooms, in helis, or cars; it’s something he’s not sure yet how to interpret; yes, the two of you got along just fine; you have the same dark humour that makes the other soldiers in the base shiver when they hear you laugh at your jokes; you can sit in comfortable silence for hours; you don’t pry into each other’s lives, which he’s thankful; you hadn’t even asked him his name, and you already know one another for more than two years; he won’t admit but he doesn’t like the way his heart feels when you laugh at one of Soap’s jokes, or discuss with Gaz one of the new books you’ve bought, or even when Price comes close to you, peaking over your shoulder and talking quietly with you about the files you’ve got in front of you;

- Ghost does not allow the thought, that he might be jealous on his comrades’ interactions with you, take roots inside his mind; he can’t; you’re just doing your job and you just happen to enjoy the 141’s company, in the most platonic way; he knows that your bond is far superior to that of the other’s; you saved his life, saw his face, and he in turned saved yours; that must add up to something;

- yet he feels that something’s wrong with him; Price pointed out that ever since you joined TF141 he seems quieter, and less present; he’s becoming more and more his namesake; he denies that, and argues that he’s just tired, now that he’s getting older; Price calls out his shite; the captain is older than him, and he’s far more active than him;

- but the captain can’t do more than that, a friendly conversation; yours and Ghost’s relationship is extremely professional; he rarely sees the two of you interact in the common room, or anywhere else for that matter, that’s not the battle field or the briefing room; you also work incredibly well; you two and Soap had made quite the trio when it comes to field work; he affectionately calls you the Unholy Trinity of Task Force 141; trails of body are left in your wake and almost all missions go well without the tinniest hitch; the men joke around that surely you are some kind of witch that made a deal with the devil to have success; you laugh and chalk it all up to skill, hard work, and a shite ton of sheer luck;

- though you keep reminding them that your luck will run out one day, they ignore you, joking that you’ll have to tolerate them until you retire; you’re not as optimistic; you’re the realist of the whole team; you know the risks are ten times bigger than theirs

- most of the times you go in alone, unarmed, no back up, no communication; you only have yourself to rely on; and you know that when the fatigue catches up with you, you’ll slip up, make a mistake, that’ll get you killed or worse

- and then the worst you feared happens; you go MIA during a simple infiltration; the boys find no trace to indicate where you’d been taken to or by whom; Laswell can’t find any sign of you, no matter how hard she tries, or how far she’s stretching her informant network; nothing; denial turns to angry searches, busting down doors and torturing anyone they come across; that turns to desperation, they start looking into the most unrelated events they find, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they get a glimpse of your name, or an alias, or something, no matter how small; and that turns to silence, they stop bringing you up, start avoiding your name or anything that might point out you’re not there; after Laswell mentions you in one of their briefings, that the time to change your status to KIA is due, Ghost smashes the chair you used to sit in

- it’s one of the most violent reactions he’s had outside the battlefield since you’d disappeared, and Price starts to worry that his lieutenant will do something stupid if they don’t find out what happened to you; he threatens Laswell to not touch that file of yours; ‘Not yet, Kate. Not yet.’ He says in a sadder and calmer voice    

- acceptance never came; the thought that maybe you’re not even alive, buried somewhere unmarked, or body burned beyond recognition is a thought they’d long banished; wherever they went they kept their eyes peeled for you; their hope of finding you never wavers

- and then their prayers are answered; they get something; it’s not much; a 3-second clip; it’s blurred, to few pixels to really make out any details; and the camera seems to be moved violently, barely catching the hunched posture of a person tied to a chair; Laswell got it form one of her contacts; it’s from a half destroyed hard drive they recovered from heli the dropped out of the sky

- it’s not much; actually, is far too little to go on with; the video doesn’t show a face, nor reveals any names; the background so dark they can’t make out anything; But they agree it’s you; from the size of your body, to your complexion to the colour of your hair, now longer and falling over your face; it’s been months since they last saw you but they know it’s you   

- ‘Proof of life’ Price concludes; ‘But fur who?’ Soap voices the question they all thought of that; ‘It don’t matter’ Ghost points out, voice gruffer than ever; ‘Where is more important.’ Gaz specifies

- they get to work; they comb the crash site, having received the location from Laswell; at first they don’t find anything; but Ghost’s keen eyes find it; it’s a small piece of silvery metal, wedged in the dirt; it’s only half, but he can make out the letters clearly; cyrillic letter; he grunts; ‘Price…’ he shouts to get everyone’s attention; when they come closer he shows it to them; ‘Russians’ they conclude

- the hunt begins; Nik is there to smuggle the Brits over the Russian borders and to provide them with an extraction vehicle, in his case an old rusty Russian helicopter, that can barely fly under the radar, it flinches and grunts at every gust of wind, but it’s as covert as can be; they don’t bear any insignia visible on their black camo uniforms; their faces tucked under black balaclavas; even their guns are Russian, some AK-47 Nik provided them with no striations on the barrels; they even agreed to keep their mouths shut, letting the captain converse with anyone that they might encounter; no one can no that a team of Brits put their feet on Russian soil

- they carefully went over all the details just like you got them used to when you did infiltrations; they are as prepared as ever; the plan is simple; take out the guards that make their rounds through the facility and take their place; that will give them sufficient time to look for you and find a way out to get you out; “if” they find you; the information came through Laswell and it was already a couple weeks old; chances are you’ve been moved;

- they search everywhere; you’re not there; time for plan B: infiltrate their data base; Price gets his hand on a computer and plugs the USB containing the backdoor virus; it takes some time to install, then to reboot the whole system; Laswell gives the green light that they’re in; they get out of there leaving no trace that they ever were inside

- the next two weeks are gruesome; Ghost spends most of his time destroying the punching bags in the gym; he barely eats and barely sleeps; he starts hearing your voice in the night when he climbs the ladder to the roof, perched up like an owl, having a smoke away from everyone; he hears a soft whisper, or a small chuckle; he’s going crazy, he thinks; crazy with worry for you;

- it’s been years since Simon felt worry for someone; when his family was killed, he vowed to never get close to another soul again; but then you had to save him; you didn’t even know him; risked your life for a stranger that cannot repay you for that act of kindness

- but he can; he can make sure you’re safe on missions; that’s why he’d always stalk your figure through the scope; that’s why he’d have you with him and Soap every time you’d split up; so he can keep his eyes on that pretty face of yours; that’s why he’d threaten the other marines on base with the court martial when he’d hear lewd comments about you being their whore and so much worse; he’d be wringing their necks if Price didn’t keep such a close eyes on his actions  

- he misses you, and your presence, and your sweet perfume, and your voice, and your eyes that would look straight into his when he told you a joke, smirk matching his own; he missed the way you’d drink your tea together in the morning, in silence broken only by soft sighs and the sound of the sofa under your weights; if he got up before you he’d make sure to boil enough water for two mugs and he’d put the tea in the moment he could hear your footsteps heading to the common room; he was so accustomed to you that he could make out your footsteps even in the busiest corridors; lighter than most, almost quiet but quick, lively; he misses that too

- the way you’d make your away towards him and with a nod take the seat next to his, softly brushing his shoulder with yours in an unspoken acknowledgement… I’m here, next to you… your simple touch made his skin boil underneath his clothes and yearn for more; he’d take advantage of situations out in the field; he’d grab you and help you climb over obstacles, he’d give you a head anytime he felt you needed it; and you’d never refuse his help;

- he’ll be dammed if he doesn’t find you; just like you found him when you first met

- two weeks pass by slower when you’re almost always awake, Simon knew that already; but he’s the first to get on the tarmac when Price gives the order for heading out; Laswell managed to pinpoint your location; one of the Russian commanders moved you to an off the record, but not really cause ‘Russians are shit at keeping a low profile.’ Laswell adds, compound where they’d keep foreign prisoners for interrogations; the American woman sends them out to get you out and wipe any witness that has seen your face

- exactly what Simon wanted; the green light to do what he’s best at: mauling his enemies;

- the compound they keep you in is underground, ventilation system outdated, like pretty much any piece of technology they keep; they record the interrogation on an old Sony camera; you doubt it can register your mumbled responses, not that you’d say anything useful; you’d match every question with a curse in a clear American accent; you don’t want to give them anything that might be traced back to your British boys;

- they can’t get anything out of you; not your name, not whom do you work for, or where you’re from, what you were looking for when you infiltrated their operation, etc.; they were met with an unsurmountable resistance; no matter how many times they’d beat you, drown you, burn you, cut you, electrocute you, or humiliate you; they took away most of your clothes, leaving you in your underwear and what little remained from your tank top, enough to cover only your upper torso; you were cold, hungry and in pain; you had been in this condition for months; but you wouldn’t give up

- in the academy they taught you that the longer you lasted the more chances of being found; that thought has crossed your mind more than once; but you don’t allow yourself to hope; that would only weigh you down the more time passes; no, you look for ways to free yourself and learn the personnel’s schedule; and you wait for the best opportunity

- that window of opportunity is near; for a week now you worked on pulling out the nail in the chair that holds the chair’s handle together; you managed to pull out the nail and twist your wrist to try and scratch at the rope; the motion is uncomfortable and painful, the skin of your wrist is cut open by the rope that soaks up your blood; you’ve been at it for hours, trying to cut yourself loose; and you finally manage; surprise overtakes you as the rope unravels and your hand is free; the limb aches with exertion as you shake it to get the flow of circulation to get back to normal

- then you lean forward and grab at the knife left there from the previous session, still wet with your blood; freeing yourself is more strenuous than you would have imagined; as you bend down to free your ankles you almost pass out from the sudden rush of blood to your head; you lost of it, enough to hinder you in your escape; but you push through

- when you stand up you grab the chair for support and move in slow motion afraid you’ll pass out; you have a plan in mind already; get dresses in the coat left on the hanger by the door, and lay in wait for the interrogator to come back for another round; now that your body is filled with adrenaline times moves slower, but it doesn’t take long for the door handle to start to move; you wait for the tall and skinny man to enter; if he were a little leaner you wouldn’t have had a chance; but this failed physician that took to torture won’t even know what hit him; you stab him in the neck with a somewhat quick strike;

- he dies drowning in his own blood; you manage to drag his corpse under the table, leaving the pool of blood untouched; maybe they’ll think that you finally bled out and someone took your corpse to the morgue to be burned; you don’t care as you grab the handgun off his waist; the same one he’d threaten you with when you wouldn’t answer;

- judging by the thick clothes your assailant wears you know outside is cold; so you do what they told you at the academy; you undress the corpse an take his pants an shoes; they’re huge on you but you can’t complain; you shiver at the warmth still trapped in the wool fibres;

- you make your way outside checking for any guards; you found none, as expected; you heard the Russian complain that is too cold and stuffy down here that nobody but him frequents the lower levels; some people don’t know to shut up and you are glad to exploit that; with his gun, knife and car keys in hand you make your way through the dark corridors; you follow the boot prints left on the filthy floors;

- the only guards you encounter are the ones stationed by the door that leads to the stairs; you make quick work of them; one shot for each of their heads; you almost fall down on your ass as the gun kicks back in recoil; you take a moment to lean on the wall taking a few calming breaths

- your ascend is slow, laboured breaths escaping your gaping mouth; you strain your eyes and try to decipher the word on the walls marking the level and the facility; you’re looking for the parking lot; you find it after climbing to the second to last level; Russians really don’t know how to keep a facility secure; as you climb the emergency stairs there is no one to stop you; they underestimated your ability to escape this hell hole; their mistake

- as you reach the parking lot you look for the physician’s car; it’s a rusty red Lada; it’ll do just fine; as you get in the passenger side you start hearing gunshots; it’s faint; maybe you imagined it; but no, it’s there; you don’t wait to find out what’s happening, as you turn the key in the ignition you pull out of the spot and quickly drive towards the exit; whatever firefight broke out in there, pulled away every guard from their stationary position; for a moment you think about TF 141, but you quickly dismiss it

- you make your way out, a little dizzy from the spiral ascension; once out of there you notice that there’s forest around, and some snow; you hit gravel and as you look back you notice the exit; the only indication that there is something men made here; you doubt that tunnel can be spotted from a drone; the trees block the line of sight; that confirms your suspicions

- the gun fire must be coming from another escapee, not as lucky as you; you drive down the dirt road following every twist and turn hoping you won’t see any other cars; you check the glove compartment; now that the adrenaline rush is over your body aches like never before; you search for some pain meds but you only find a wallet with some cash in it; Russian rubbles, enough to keep the car going for a while; maybe you’ll find a gas station; it’s risky but you are I dire need of food and water; that might give you enough strength to push forward

- the 141 moves quickly taking care of the two sentinels at the mouth of the tunnel; two well placed shots and they’re down; Gaz and Soap move the bodies in a bush and hide their car in the tree line; hopefully nobody will come looking for this two in the next crucial minutes; they comb through the facility dropping anyone they encounter; their pistols bear silencers masking the loud sounds; they move deeper and deeper, but soon the alarm is sounded and a full fight ensues; the guards are no match for the 141; they drop like flies; but the fight costs them precious minutes;

- Ghost breaks away from the rest of his teammates; he knows they got it; he needs to hurry to find you; he needs to make sure you are still breathing, and that your pretty eyes still hold fire in them; he gets to lowest level where the holding cells are; he checks behind every grate and every door until a he gets to what seems to be the place they torture the prisoners

- he notices how filthy and cold it is; but what makes his blood freeze is the chair and the large pool of fresh blood; no…, he’s too late; he came to late; a wave of blinding fury surges and like a tsunami Ghost thrashes the room; he stops only when he discovers the body of a tall Russian man behind the desk; his throat slit; pants and boots missing; atta girl he can’t help the smirk taking over his face under the balaclava; you were capable, he knew that, but you still manage to surprise him; he gets out trying to radio in the discovery to the rest of his teammates

- the radio crackles with static, concrete walls too thick for the signal to penetrate; he’s made his decision; he’s going after you even though he knows Price will kick his ass later; you need him; probably not as much as he needs you; he chases the droplets of blood you left on the ground as you walked towards the emergency staircase; at the door, two more casualties; no, you didn’t need him; you had it handled

- in the parking lot he finds a military truck with the key in the ignition; he follows you as quickly as the car gets on the dirt road

- you drive for what feels like hours; your mind is struggling, eyes out of focus and body feeling heavier with every minute; you don’t know why or when the car starts to shake and tilt, you feel yourself flying out of the seat; everything goes black

- Ghost’s eyes scan the road in front of him through the thick snowfall; he almost misses the red car that swerved of the road and now rests on the side in a ditch, snow piles on top almost making it disappear; he gets out of the truck and approaches the car pistol pointed at it; he wipes away the snow that covers the window on the driver’s side; inside he can make out a body that’s laying on its side face obscured by the thick collar of the jacket; he pulls the door open carefully and nudges the body to see if they’re conscious or not; when there’s no movement he peels the collar from their face

- Simon thinks he is no longer able to panic; he survived through his father’s and brother’s abuse; then he joined the military where they taught him to surpass any fears and to control himself; then the Mexican cartel who buried him alive; that experience showed him what terror looks like; only to return home and find all the people that he held dear massacred; Ghost is the result of so many horrifying events; he is the cautionary tale of what prolonged survival in a malignant environment looks like

- the level of fear matches that of when he found the body of Beth hugging Josep’s smaller one; he acts without thinking, grabbing your limp and cold body and pulling you out of the wreckage; your head is bleeding from where you hit it on the window; lips are blue and your skin cold to the touch; he checks for a pulse; he can’t tell if he feels yours or his own; his hands are trembling with rage and powerlessness; he grabs for the radio’ telling Price he’d found you but you need medical assistance immediately; there’s no answer on the other side; just static

- he hoists you up and takes you to the stolen truck placing you in the front seat; he climbs in the driver’s seat letting you down slowly over the seat head resting on his lap; he puts the heat on high trying to make you warm again; he checks for your breathing and he’s thrilled to find that small puffs of air come from your open mouth

- he starts driving, he doesn’t know where; he neds a safe house to treat your wounds and to keep you safe; the snow is falling heavy, making impossible to see where he’s driving; then he sees it; to the side he can make out a building in the tree line

- the abandoned cottage is nothing more than a ruin; but it has four walls and a roof and he’s glad to see a small fireplace, dry wood abandoned next to it; he puts you down on what he can only assume is what remained of a thick rug long forgotten by its previous owners; he works quickly and efficiently, in mere minutes a fire burns casting a warm glow in the barren room

- he moves to work on you; he peels the jacket off only to find that you are nearly naked under the stolen clothes; he gets angrier at the Russians wishing he could bring them back only to subject them to the same kind of torture they did you and some more; he quickly checks for deeper cuts or signs of infection; but he can’t find none; they must’ve given you antibiotics to keep you alive as much as possible;

- he cleans the cuts with the antiseptic wet wipes his med kit contains; then he dresses the wounds with gauze; your thin body looks like a mummy from the amount gauze; he addresses your head next wiping the blood of and bandaging your forehead; he sighs in relief when your lips and skin slowly turn pink from the warmth; you lay in between his legs as he sits on the floor, your head laying on his thigh

- he tries contacting 141 again, but to no avail; looks like he’ll have to hold out here tonight; he’ll stay awake to protect you until you wake up

- it’s morning when you stir, he watches your face intently from above you; your eyelids groggily open eyes trying to focus; as you lay eyes on brown ones, hidden behind a black balaclava you start to panic; you weakly push at his hands and chest, mumbling and trying to get away from him; he doesn’t relent though; his grip is firm on you and in a commanding voice he orders you to sit still; hearing your name does the trick; you didn’t tell those fuckers your name; and his embrace is not restraining more like protecting; you think hard and try to remember eyes flickering over the balaclava; ‘Ghost…’ you croak when your vocal chords decide to vibrate; ‘Gho…’ you repeat even more brokenly; he shushes you and reassures you that yes, he’s here and no, he won’t go anywhere; not without you; that puts your mind at ease and you close your eyes again

-when you wake up again is noon; he feeds you some water through cracked and dry lips and he gives you a dose of morphine to help with the pain; that sends you back to sleep

- the third time you wake, you are being carried by strong arms; the sound of blades cutting air becomes louder and louder; Ghost walks backwards shielding you from the snow that’s being picked up by the gusts of wind;

- he climbs the heli; Nik greets Ghost, as Soap and Gaz pull him and you inside; the ride is silent, no one says anything; the Russian pilot takes you to a better equipped safehouse

- you wake up to someone entering the room; you’re in a warm comfortable bed, IV connected to your wrist fluid being pumped in your veins; you open your eyes to a dark-haired man bringing in a tray of food; you panic again when you hear him greet you, voice laced with a deep Russian accent; he sees the look on your face and he slowly puts the tray on the table; ‘Don’t vorry, I’m Nick. A friend ov 141. I von’t hurt yu, agent’; he tells you it’s nice to finally put a face to the name, and that you are prettier than Gaz told him; you watch him in silence, regarding him with apprehension; when he stops talking, you look to the door and ask for Ghost

- he chuckles knowingly and then informs you that “your boy” is being ripped a new one by the captain just outside, and he leaves you to tell Price that your awake; you don’t have time to correct him cause he already out the door; Price walks in soon after, you’re glad to see him; ‘Ah, there you are’ he smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes; he asks you how you’re feeling; numb thanks to the morphine; he wants to know what happened

- it was a trap; they were waiting for you, Russians; they wanted to know who you were and who did you work for; you told them nothing; he knows; he asks you about your time in the facility; you don’t quite remember much, just the torture and the questions; he tells you that you did good, and that you need to rest now;

- Gaz and Soap stop by to talk to you a bit; you tell them you’ll be fine; and then you ask for Ghost; they rub their necks a little ashamed; you asked them what happened; Ghost got scolded for going AWOL in search for you; Price even threatened him with the court martial; you huff; and swing the blanket off; you sit at the ledge of the bed; you’re glad to find you’ve been clothed in a pair of slacks and a long sleeve shirt; you grab the IV needle and pull hard on it; then you stand grabbing the table for support

- the two sergeants move forward to catch you if you fall; you wave them away and move towards the door; you search the living room for any signs of Ghost; instead, Price and Nik talk about something at the dinner table; when Price sees you up and about, despite him telling you to rest, he mutters a ‘Bloody stubborn they are’ and points toward the kitchen; you thank him; you can hear Nik commenting something about you and Ghost deserving each other; but you keep walking, slowly, one hand on the wall for balance

- Ghost stands by the window, his back turned to you; he ignores your poor attempt at greeting him; without thinking you cross the distance and hug his waist burying your nose in his hoodie; he tenses

- ‘I’m probably high right now,’ you nuzzle your face in his back inhaling his scent: soap, cigarettes and something you can’t quite tell; ‘thank you, for coming after me’; you let go of him turning to go back to rest; he grabs your upper arm and gently turns you; he watches you closely, you can feel his breath on your face, and smell the cigarette on his lips; his balaclava is pushed up his nose; he stares into your eyes as he speaks ‘Tell me to stop’ his eyes shift to your lips

- ‘Please don’t’; he kisses you, deeply and for a long time; you pull away for air ‘Ghost, I…’ ‘No,’ he cuts you off; ‘Simon, my name is Simon’ you smile lost in his pretty brown eyes; ‘Simon Riley’ and he surprises you taking his balaclava off; you stare at him, trying to memorize every scar and blemish; he’s handsome, in a rugged way; blonde hair, pale skin, and brown eye; you kiss him again.                                                

Previous part here.

[barbieb0y]

okay. i finished the 2.0/floor it! to the golden city event story. thoughts/ramble under the cut bc spoilers

i feel like. the plot is kinda all over the place ?? it starts off with this legers dude wanting to meet with j for "a slice of that new age market pie" which means .... what exactly? am i just dumb?? i still dont get what he wanted from j that has to do with the new age market and/or manus vindicslay. i'd appreciate it if someone can explain to my dumbass. but then, understandably so, the j gang sees legers and his cronies as a threat to haight street. and then it leads to ... j wanting to visit his sister paulina/polly at the foundation

i feel like there couldve been a better lead-up to this other than "man we shouldve left like polly did but now we gotta deal with some baddies". like idk it feels abrupt to just cut to them visiting the foundation. but then theyre like oh polly couldnt have died bc her hand doesnt match this old pic we have of her and it's kinda silly and they raise a commotion and bla bla bla the foundation chases after them bc of it (i find it funny how thats how they get the foundation in on the bigger problem thats brewing underneath everything). matilda is tasked with catching the men and then through matilda's diviner skills, they confirm that polly's dead. manus vindicslay comes to stir shit up again so matilda's like okay fine i'll help you guys

fast forward they stumble upon the underground market blah blah blah mercuria is evil ⁉️ except i actually. dont understand what her role is here. like at first i thought that might be the point of her character bc she never stays in one place so she never stays in one role but idk. for someone who seems to be so important in this event, her motivations are unclear. but anyway

i dont understand the whole "oh we planned this all along" think they pulled either like??? what. did they plan exactly? the ambush and j faking a death and working alongside legers?? none of this was explained properly right??? or am i dumb???? ngl when i was playing through that scene i was like "are they expecting the audience to be smart enough to piece everything together?" my mind started to wonder like if they pulled a persona 5 and have a whole scene explaining their plan, would that be underestimating their audience? MAN IDK BUT THEY DIDNT SAY SHIT ABOUT THIS PLAN UNTIL THAT SCENE PLAYED. i definitely related to matilda in that moment 😭😭😭

but anyway what i liked and not-confusing about this event is the characterization of the characters (aside from mercuria). everyone feels consistent, from j all the way to eternity. im glad the quality of the character writing is still intact at least, for the most part

the character dynamics are also quite well-written, especially between j and polly. it's as heart-wrenching as i expected it to be. thinking about it actively gives me emotional damage. the fact that it took me more than a dozen chapters for me to realize that j sees polly in matilda. seeing his friendships is also heartwarming and it showcases j's personality quite well. his dynamic with pioneer is also cute. theres always something funny coming out of their dialogue when they interact

the setting is an interesting choice, it's enlightening to see how it impacts the worldview of the characters and their motivations. the poverty, disease, crime, and neglect of it all. the new age market is intriguing is a nice choice to get a lot of people of different backgrounds and stuff to gather in one place. not much to say beyond that

tldr: i dont know what the hell happened story-wise but it Happened but i truly love all the characters in it and how they interact with each other and their environment. this event story brought me Massive Pain™️, especially when paulina is on screen

not my fave event (which may be surprising bc j is in this event, i know), rayashki takes the cake for that, but i would be lying if i said i dislike this event. in fact, it's made me want to cry a few times. if it wasnt for the confusing pacing, i wouldve been more moved

[razzle-zazzle]

Whumptober Day 31: Asking for Help

"I'm alive, I'm just not well."

2376 Words; Coleverlord, various points pre-pilots and end of s1

TW for bugs, body horror imagery

AO3 ver

The sky darkened, Pythor’s laughs echoing across the empty city.

They were too late. The ground trembled, ancient stones creaking and cracking under the sudden strain. Cole stumbled back as the spiral in the arena gave way, a million marching ants blotting out the sun as a giant moving shadow lifted from the ground. The darkness shifted, parting to reveal scales and fangs and two baleful eyes—

She’s gorgeous.

More powerful than I ever imagined.

Beautiful, pure DESTRUCTION—

Yeah, yeah, Cole got the picture. He reached out to steady Kai as the Devourer slithered all the way out of her hole, frills flared. Off to the other side, Pythor was singing similar praise, as though the massive size of the Devourer wasn’t intimidating to him in the slightest.

Which made it all the more satisfying when the Devourer swallowed him whole.

(Cole’s chest lurched when he realized that Wu had been swallowed, too.)

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student wasn’t what Cole expected.

Though, to be fair, Cole wasn’t sure what he expected. So maybe this was normal. Just…

The guy would not stop yapping! He’d introduced himself as Jay Walker, which Cole was pretty sure was a joke except the guy seemed completely serious, and hadn’t given the words any chance to breathe before rambling on about how high up the monastery was, seriously, why did every mysterious mentor figure have to live in fuckass nowhere, did this place even have running water, and wow this mountain air was so much different from the desert, not that he would know that of course because he was totally from the city and not some weird place like a scrapyard, haha, hey where are you from, what’s your name, is there any way he can get his hands on some scrap metal to work with—

“You talk a lot.” Cole commented, the moment Jay stopped to take a breath. It had been a neutral observation, the termites crawling along his bones more confused than annoyed.

But there must have been something about the wasps in his chest, or the worms in his gut, because Jay suddenly deflated, drawing in on himself. “Sorry, I—sorry.” And he scurried away, down the hall to where Wu had pointed out their bedroom, leaving Cole standing alone in the hallway.

“I didn’t mean…” Ugh. Whatever. Cole knew the effect he had on other people. Wu seemed to be somehow immune to it, probably because he was some kind of dragon in disguise according to the spider in Cole’s brain. But Jay wasn’t a dragon—heck, he was probably nervous talker. Cole should have known it wouldn’t take long to unsettle Jay—it never did.

Cole sighed, and made his way out to the yard to train.

+=+=+=+=+

“It’s gone.” And so was the Destiny’s Bounty, shattered pieces spread wide across the sand. Cole walked to the back of the cave, trying to calm the wasps buzzing in his chest.

“That was too intense.” Kai was panting as he removed his hood, chest heaving as he leaned against the sand bank.

“There’s no time to rest.” Zane urged. “We need to warn people, before it becomes bigger.”

I say let her play, Vessel.

“Bigger?” Jay stood up, “BIGGER?” His voice was edging into hysteria, now, and Cole wanted to take the spiders that were crawling up Jay’s back and snuff them out, “That thing in one bite just crushed our entire ship!” He started to pace around, gesturing wildly. “We need to save as many as we can, we need to find some kind of refuge—oh! The Serpentine Tombs! Yeah, they’re underground, sure, we’ll be without sunlight for months, but they’re perfect!”

“What, and just give up?” No, no, Cole couldn’t give up, he always kept going on no matter what, because it was what he was good at and because ninja never quit—

“We have no chance against that thing!” Jay argued back. Cole wanted to punch him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake him—

To find every shadow that made him doubt himself and BURY IT—

Protect your own, Vessel. Let the Devourer play.

“Guys! Is this what Sensei Wu would have wanted?” And there was Kai, interjecting himself into the argument so seamlessly, “Just running and hiding? Giving up?”

A tactical retreat is not giving up, Vessel.

“But… he’s not here anymore.” Lloyd mumbled. The conversation continued on, Kai urging them all to remember Wu’s teachings—

The spider in Cole’s brain sang so sweetly, spinning a web across his thoughts. He lost the thread of the conversation as shadows blotted out his vision, so many worms starting to eat at his flesh. He imagined his chest splitting, ribs opening up into bloodied wings as a spider emerged from his head, every inch of his body shifting to accommodate its new master—

“Cole?” Zane’s voice cut through the premonition, his hand on Cole’s shoulder.

Cole shook his head. “Sorry. Lost focus.” It wasn’t the first time It showed him that—Cole knew how his path would end. But it wasn’t time for any of that, yet—there was a snake to catch. Zane and Cole ran out into the sands, calling the vehicles hidden in their golden weapons to join up with the others.

+=+=+=+=+

Jay was… Cole was pretty sure Jay was still avoiding him. Sure, Wu insisted on them training together, and Jay didn’t skip out on that—not after Wu saddled him with scrub duty for skipping—but Cole barely saw Jay outside of the training yard. He could hear him, of course, either chattering to Wu or doing something with metal that was loud—

But Cole doubted Jay would ever really like him. And he didn’t have high hopes for the new student Wu was bringing in soon. Or… today, it looked like, Cole coming to a stop at the edge of the yard as he noticed the new arrival.

“New student?” Cole asked, drawing Wu’s attention. The guy next to him turned as well, regarding Cole with not quite hostility, not quite interest. At least, insofar as Cole could tell.

“Hello. I am Zane.” The new guy introduced himself, holding out a hand. Cole took it, ignoring the isopods scuttling under his skin and the centipedes biting at his spine. Zane’s pleasant smile did not change as he and Cole shook hands—was he like Wu, then? A dragon in disguise, unbothered by the spider in Cole’s brain?

No, he feels as normal as you mortals come.

Okay. That was… huh. “I’m Cole.” Cole said, waiting for the moment where Zane would yank his hand back and find somewhere else to be. The moment where the shadows clinging to his feet reached over to Zane’s ankles—

“It is nice to meet you, Cole.” Zane said instead, releasing the handshake normally. “I sense we will do great things together.”

Cole’s face burned. That was—oh, wow.

Vessel, don’t get attached.

The spider in his brain bit down, millions of termites digging into his bones. Zane’s smile finally faltered, face returning to a neutral expression, and Cole pulled back. Shadows curled at the corners of his vision—he should leave. Zane was already walking away.

Wu had disappeared somewhere—to go find Jay, maybe? Zane was poking around the training course curiously. Cole should definitely leave, before he unsettled Zane further. Maybe he shouldn’t have accepted Wu’s offer. Maybe he was doomed to always be stuck in the spider’s shadow, only truly loveable by the very thing that made him so unloveable—

“Do you want to run the course with me? I’m afraid I don’t know how to start it.” Cole flinched, stumbling over flat ground and falling to the dirt in surprise. He rolled over, looking up at Zane, face getting progressively hotter—

“I.” Cole sat up slowly. “You startled me.” Which was definitely not what Cole was used to.

“My apologies.” Zane offered his hand, but Cole stood on his own.

Hm. Maybe Wu taking on other students wouldn’t be too awful.

+=+=+=+=+

“ZANE!”

Shadows clawed at Cole’s brain, and the Devourer withdrew back into the earth. House centipedes scrabbled at Cole’s bones, a million buzzing flies in his ears as he fought to escape his seatbelt. “Is everyone okay?” He needed to get out out out—

Vessel, calm—

“Right here.” Zane’s voice cut through the buzzing, canisters clanking as they fell away. Cole winced—half of Zane’s face had been scraped right off, revealing the metal beneath. “That was close.”

You still want me to let her play? Cole wondered, even though he knew—whatever the spider wanted, It would get. And It wanted the Devourer to cause havoc, to “play.”

I will not let you come to harm, Vessel.

It was the most that Cole could expect It to concede. He picked his way out of the wreckage, making his way over to the others. He didn’t care if he got hurt—he just wanted his friends to be okay. Was that so much to ask?

“Too close.” Kai agreed.

“Perfect. Now that was a total failure!” Jay complained.

“Not total!” Kai argued, “Did you guys notice, on its forehead—it has a weak spot!”

I thought I removed that…

“Ohhh, great, lemme make a note of that.” Jay chirped, miming writing a note. “Giant snake has wee itty bitty weak spot that’ll be TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO GET AT BECAUSE THE THING IS TOO RIDICULOUSLY HUGE TO DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT!”

“Are you done?” Nya asked. Jay heaved, hissing through his teeth before, “Yes.”

“Guys, where’s the Devourer going?” Lloyd asked, pointing to where it had surfaced again and was beelining away. Cole flinched the moment he recognized the route—

“It’s going to Ninjago City!” Zane announced.

Ohhhhh, that was not good. If it ate something that big—

Shadows bloated out Cole’s vision. He stumbled, feeling the vague sensation of a hand on his arm through the haze of worms squirming under his skin. The spider still wanted the Devourer to play, still wanted Cole to stay out of the way—

But how was Cole supposed to do that? Jay’s parents were in Ninjago City. Jay would be devastated if they were eaten. Cole couldn’t just stand by and let that happen. He was supposed to protect his own, wasn’t he? There was no way Jay wouldn’t go to Ninjago City—

Fine, then. Go and throw yourself into the jaws of death.

I’ll pull you out, but I won’t stop you.

+=+=+=+=+

Wu’s new student was brushing his teeth. Cole, Jay, and Zane watched from the rafters, waiting for the perfect moment to strike—

The new guy shifted, glancing over his shoulder. The spider in Cole’s brain spun a web of shadows, Jay and Zane shifting in response—

“What the—” Now! Cole jumped down, scythe flashing in the lamplight. Twin thuds signaled Jay and Zane’s arrivals, the three of them completely surrounding the new student, who tightened his grip on his toothbrush.

The next several minutes were a riot of chaotic thrashing about. The chase brought the four of them through the halls, back up into the rafters, out onto the roof—at some point, the four of them had eschewed proper technique entirely, devolving into a chaos of thrashing and grappling. Cole’s head was pounding, the spider in his brain biting, shadows swirling into his vision as they all fell from the roof out into the yard—

The new student grabbed a training sword and hit Jay with it, forcing him back. Cole untangled himself from Zane and stood, leveling his scythe at the new guy—

“Enough.” Cole muttered, the pressure in his head intensifying. The shadows clawed their way up the new guy’s pajamas, making him flinch back as Cole tried his best to loom. Cole advanced a step, and the guy fell backwards onto his ass, face contorted in a scowl as he scrabbled for his weapon—

“Enough!” Wu’s voice cut through the night, bringing them all to a halt. The wasps in Cole’s chest subsided, the shadows retreating. The new guy stood quickly, knuckles white around the hilt of his sword—but he was otherwise fine, standing tall like he hadn’t just taken the brunt of the shadow in Cole’s mind.

Wu explained—wait, had he not told this guy that he had other students? Really? Cole shrugged—Wu withheld the strangest things. Their practice gis were exchanged for new ones; Cole’s new gi was just as black as before—

The color of the earth, and the shadows that hide within it.

The shadow sounded vaguely proud. Cole’s shoulders hiked, his face flushing behind his mask—

“What was that?” Kai was asking, gesturing loosely towards Cole.

“That was you getting totally Coled.” Jay bragged, before launching into a litany of his habits. “…a little bit of poetry—”

“More like mouth of lightning.” Cole commented, focusing in on the current conversation. He nudged Kai with his scythe. “Nice to meet you, kid. I’ll watch your back.”

+=+=+=+=+

Slime exploded outwards, splashing across what felt like the whole city. Cole stumbled back, grabbing onto Kai’s arm—the sheer force of the wave was almost enough to knock him to the ground. But he stood, shadows lacing into his bones to hold him steady, and the wave subsided.

Ewww, everything was sticky now. And the spider was scurrying around Cole’s skull, hissing displeasure at the Devourer’s death.

They made their way down to street level, Jay running over to his parents and being pulled into a hug. Garmadon was nowhere to be found—

(“You won’t give them back.” It wasn’t a question. It was barely even an accusation.

Garmadon shrugged. “What other choice do you have?” There was no point in denying it.)

Cole gasped. “Sensei Wu!” And there he was, standing up in a particularly thick patch of slime, looking none the worse for wear.

Of course he survived. Did you expect anything different, Vessel?

All six of them piled into the slime, tackling Wu in a hug from every direction. Cole’s arms ended up around Jay and Zane, his face pressed into the junction of Wu’s neck and shoulder. He got a faceful of slime for it—but he just didn’t care. His friends were all together and safe and whole—

Cole was doomed, he knew.

But he could still enjoy these moments while they came.

[angsty-twihardxx]

I’ve seen a lot of dbf!joel and was wondering if you’d write a dbf!tommy as there aren’t any and I absolutely adore your writing style x

RIGHT WHERE I WANT YOU | T. Miller

dbf! Tommy Miller x fem!reader

A/N: THANK YOU I LOVE YOU AND THIS IDEA. I have been tinkering with this idea for a while because there are no dbf! fics for this man and he deserves it, let’s be real he’s a horn bag and a tease i just uh-😩 also I would love to do multiple of these or even a series, plz let me know what y’all think and send ideas.

Feel free to gander at my masterlist if you like x

Warnings: 18+ (minors go away), PnV, age gap (reader is 21) basically porn with little plot. This is NOT edited I very much rushed it no apologies.

You remembered the first night that you met Tommy, he was leaning against the bar with your Dad who beckoned you over. The dining hall was cramped which wasn’t new on a Saturday night, you had mainly come because your dad mentioned a new member that he found on patrol. Usually you dreaded it, but when you saw him across the room you had a change of heart.

His black curls sat on his shoulders when he turned to face you, his lips curving up to give you a wide smile— which you returned quickly. His smile suited him, making his honey brown eyes squint. “Nice t’meet you, m’Tommy.” He spoke lowly, his Texan drawl catching you by surprise as he extended his hand out for you to shake.

You didn’t expect the accent, at first. It made sense though, the more you thought about it he did seem like the cowboy type. You tried your best not to over think how his hands felt enveloping yours, how much bigger his hands were compared to yours.

But that night was a long time ago. When it was merely just a crush on an older man that was friends with your Dad, which developed the more and more you saw him— which ended up being a lot.

Early in the morning’s were now filled with his presence, always standing with a mug full of coffee as he leaned against the kitchen island talking to your parents. The muscles under his button up sleeves flexed as he moved the mug up to meet his lips.

How was he actually so perfect? It wasn’t fair.

But now your feelings had developed, becoming more filled with desire and need. You were a women now, with womanly needs that weren’t being met with the boys your age. It’s not their fault though, newly developed minds bodies that was being pumped with hormones made them awkward and well— quick.

Its not like there were any classes going around for this kind of stuff in Jackson, but you just knew that you needed more.

Maybe it was some undiagnosed daddy issues that had you interested in the younger Miller brother. You could just tell that Tommy knew what to do when it came to sex, after ‘accidentally’ overhearing him drunkenly spew his past life to your father as the two got into a bottle of whiskey, he seemed to be quite the man-whore back in the day. You imagined what he’d be like fucking you, whether he’d be gentle or if he’d pound into you relentlessly till you were screaming his name.

And he knew it too, the smug bastard.

It made the blood in his body rush to his cock seeing you look so flustered from something as simple as a ‘mornin’ darlin’ when he’d see you first thing in your kitchen. When you’d descend down the stairs in your tiny pyjamas, he had to force his gaze off of you when he realised he was staring. He imagined what the soft flesh of your ass would feel like in between his fingers.

Everything about this was wrong, SO WRONG— but yet, neither of you could stop.

. . .

A cool breeze crept in through the ajar open that you sat beside in your living room, book in your lap. Taking the liberties of enjoying the large empty house on your own, which seemed to be happening more and more often lately. You had finished patrol only a few hours ago, thankfully it had been quiet and you were partnered with Eugene. The older man was well liked by you and your friends, mainly for his secret underground weed bunker.

Which is what led you to this point, leaning against your window as you blew out the smoke from your joint.

“Should you really be doin’ that n’here?” Tommy’s voice ripped your attention from your book, he was leaning against the entrance. His denim coat was covered in a thin layer of sawdust, you remembered him mentioning building a new set of homes over breakfast yesterday. “Well, last I checked the smoke detectors don’t work so—“

Your shoulders fell, a huff of air falling from Tommy’s nostrils in amusement. Dragging his palm along his hand he moved to sit beside you on the sofa, just enough space between you. It wasn’t unusual for Tommy to come check on you when your parents were away, whether it was because he wanted to or because he was asked to by your parents was another thing.

You felt butterflies as you thought about the domesticity of your situation right now, the thought of being the first thing he saw every night after work. Being able to ask him how his day was while the two of you ate dinner together.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.” Tommy sighed, rubbing his fingers through his sweat damp curls. Even after working all day in the heat he still looked fucken amazing—it wasn’t fair. You extended out your arm, holding out the lit joint in front of him to take. An unspoken invitation, which he declined. Muttering something to you about working in the morning.

“C’mon it’s not like you have to worry about a drug test in the morning.” Tommy’s brows burrowed in confusion, before deciding to just take the joint from you. Your breathing hitched as his calloused fingers tangled in yours, taking ahold of the still lit joint in your fingers. “How the hell you even know about that?”

“Eugene was telling me about it today.” You smiled proudly, watching as his lips pursed around the hand rolled paper.

Everything about him just made you want him more, the way his dark curls sat on top of his broad shoulders as he leaned his head back. You wondered what they would feel like with your fingers brushing them back, would it really be so wrong for you to test the waters? You were an adult, and a mature one at that.

. . .

Maybe it was the weed that blurred Tommy’s judgement, the longer the two of you sat together engrossed in casual conversation. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of your exposed thighs, the shorts doing very little to cover you. Giving him the perfect view to admire your soft supple skin.

Stretching his arm out Tommy let it fall down to the back of the chair, his hand now grazing the soft exposed skin on your arm. Goosebumps form on your skin, burning from his grazing fingers.

He loved how you shuddered from his touch, he could only imagine what how wet you were from just one touch. Tommy doubted that anyone your age could please you the way he would. He always noticed how they watched you, none of them new the first thing when it came to pleasing a woman.

“So have you uh-been seein any boys around here?”

“Not at the moment, but I uh— have an eye on someone at the moment.” Your sultry voice only made Tommy’s blood rush to his cock, you had no idea the affect you had on him. “Oh really?”

“Yeah he’s a little bit older than me, but I don’t mind.” You teased, exhaling a breath of smoke that danced in the so between you both. A cheeky smirk plastered on your face, you knew exactly what you were doing. “That right sweetheart?”

Without another second of teasing glances and lingering hands, cupping his stubbled cheeks in your hands you pushed your lips together. A small whine left your mouth as he pressed back, with even more of a fever.

“Tommy—“ You whined against his kiss swollen lips, savouring how his tongue darted to dance with yours. It was everything that you thought it would be, the way soft lips kissed into you roughly it only got you hornier. His facial hair scratched the underside of your palm, his curls were soft as you dragged your hands to the back of his neck. The wetness pooling in your underwear was only growing.

“God, this is wrong.” Tommy groaned in between kisses, he shouldn’t be doing this, with one of his closest friends daughter. Friends were hard to come by these days, especially good ones like your dad. He took him in and gave him a purpose again in Jackson. Yet here he was, his tongue down his daughters throat.

“If it’s so wrong— then stop.”

This emitted a playful growl from Tommy as he moved to nip the soft skin of neck with his teeth. He was already to deep into this, no backing out now. “S’that what you want sweetheart?” Tommy dared to ask, maybe you had changed your mind about the whole thing, but was pleasantly surprised when you shook your head, your lips never leaving his.

“Absolutely not.”

Tommy’s strong hands lifted you up as he held you up around his middle, his fingers kneaded the doughy skin of your ass. Your legs instinctively wrapped wrapped around his waist as he lifted you off the sofa. It felt so surreal to you, Tommy’s hands felt exactly how you imagined them. All those years of working as a contractor meant his palms were rough and calloused, you needed this hands to explore all over your body.

Tommy made quick work of taking long strides to get to your bedroom as quickly as possible, the same bedroom that he would pass every morning to join your family for breakfast.

Never did he think he’d be on the other side of the door, regardless of the many times he thought about it. Fucking you relentlessly in your room, your faced pushed into your pillow while your parents were completely clueless downstairs.

You let out a shocked gasp as your back made contact with the bed, Tommy quickly climbed up on the bed to hover above you. His elbows propped by your head as he leaned down to pant his lips onto you again, all you could think about was his erection pocking against you thigh through his jeans. “Tommy-“ You whined as your hips bucked into him,

“Need you Tommy.”

“Don’t worry baby, ‘gonna take care of you.” Tommy trailed his fingers down till they dug themselves under the waistband of your underwear. Your skin felt like it was on fire, you needed him now. In one swift motion your pants were pulled off of you, Tommy let out a sharp breath of admiration.

You watch as he fumbles with his belt, before once again pulling off his jeans without hesitation. His cock springing to life before you, and fuck was he big.

“Y’alright?” He looked back up at you with all seriousness, to which you nodded quickly.

“Oh fuck!” You gasped out as your eyes squeezed shut, feeling him fill you up was almost overwhelming. You always imagined him having a huge dick, when he would sit with his legs wide open. Now it was actually happening you felt like he was going to tear you in two.

The blissful sting was quickly quickly replaced with pleasure as he slowly eased himself into you, his hips rolling into yours.

“That’s it baby girl, takin’ me so well.” He muttered softly into your ear, his hot breath had the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. His praises had your hips bucking against his, driving his cock into you deeper.

He already had you in a puddle of gasps and moans, your mouth failing you anytime that you tried to speak. Your stomach was in knots, feeling your orgasm beginning to approach you wrapped your arms around Tommy’s neck. Pushing his face down to meet your lips once again. His herbal soap mixed with the salty sweat forming on his back, all your senses were taken up by Tommy.

“S’fucken amazing baby.” He groaned against your lips, his own pace beginning to falter. Your head fell back as the pleasure grew more intense, feeling your stomach tightening as his pace quickened. “Fuck Tommy, I’m gonna come!”

“Come f’me darlin, that’s it.” He whispered softly moving his lips to kiss along the soft skin of your neck, which was enough to send you over the edge. Your body shuddered as your orgasm rolled through you, feeling the jolt of electricity course through you as your vision went white.

“That’s it baby, good girl.”

A animalistic groan erupted from deep inside Tommy’s throat, right before he was about to come he pulled out. His sweat-covered forehead fell to rest on your still heaving chest, the two of you merely laid silent for a moment. You couldn’t form any thoughts besides the fact that Tommy just fucked you—in your bed!

After a few moments Tommy lifted himself off of you, the mattress dipping as he fell beside you. “Y’alright? That wasn’t too much f’you?”

“Are you kidding me? It was amazing.” You exasperated as you rolled onto your side to face him, your flushed cheeks pinched into a smile. “Y’know Tommy, it’s just going to be me on my own in this house.” Your head tilted to fall onto his chest, a playful smirk plastered on your face as you waited for his reaction. “Oh is that right?” Tommy feigned ignorance, a wide smile on his face. “Might need some company, s’that what you mean?”

“Thats exactly what I mean.”

[stevenbasic]

GITJ Post 334: A Saturday at Melissa's, p9 (7pm, Cici)

No, Cynthia Carlisle was not invited to their little pool party. No, Cynthia was not drinking wine, ordering take out, or watching movies with friends. No, Cici was not in the place she’d want to be most, cuddled up with him on the couch, buried under blankets trying to keep him warm after an evening swim like the rest of them were doing, right at this moment.

What was Cynthia Carlisle doing? Swiping through all their stupid social media and getting mad. Very, very mad. 

And eating. 

She’d had her simp, AJ, if that was still his name, bring her food. He’d just brought it to her, along with one other man, one of his worker friends. As she sat there eating they stood dumbfounded by her as she wore only her new red Polish “superbra” and matching panties.The lingerie had grown with her over the past weeks which was good; if she was naked these turds would likely not be able to breathe. AJ in particular was especially enamored of her size, she knew. She’d long since crested six feet, was nearly halfway there to seven, and had started calling him just ‘you’ or ‘boy’ or, when she was feeling generously tolerant, ‘puppy’. He seemed to like that, the dehumanization seemed to haha actually turn him on and make him even more submissive. The others did too, the crowd of underling toadies that spent their days constructing all this for the women, like little worker ants for their fucking queen. No one would really know it by just looking at them, but their minds had been turned nearly all to mush by the all-but-constant exposure to the artificial perfumes that were being pumped through this place. It was the same chemical that Cynthia wished she could just bathe in, because it was obviously making her bigger. 

Bigger and stronger, tits huge. Hungry. 

“More bread. I want more bread,” she growled, having eaten three rolls already. She looked at AJ as he scrambled to try to appease her, awkwardly searching the paper takeout bag in a half-panic.The other toadie just stood there, hands crossed in front of himself in nervous supplication. “C’mon, you. You worthless…thing.” 

The toadie heard her chuckle when he shivered, his heart fluttering. He and AJ had set up a spread here in her makeshift dining area in the basement, food that they’d ordered for her from the place she liked. It was a lot and sometimes she’d let them have some. A Saturday night, he thought, and this was now how he spent them, in servitude to a hulking woman that seemed bigger every time he turned around. She was bigger, she was stronger, and despite the fact that he could somehow sense she was turning into a monster he couldn’t do anything but obey every word she said. Nor could AJ.

“More bread, fucker,” she spat. 

“b-be right back,” AJ spoke, backing out of the room, leaving the toadie with her.

Where was he?!? She seethed, silently to herself and barely noticing AJ’s exit as she tore a chunk off the bone of what was some sort of pork. She sat at a fold-up table, the flimsy chair beneath her feeling ready to break under her weight. He wasn’t here last night, he’s not here tonight. I had plans!!! Working at the office during the weekdays had not been enough. She’d grown, of course, under the influence of whatever it was coming from Melissa, whatever it was that they now poured through the vents here. But it wasn’t enough. She’d begun to sleep here, hidden away with her simps’ help in the basements and sub-floors away from the construction. She’d made sure they pumped it in heavy, into the dark spaces where she stayed, and ignored the calls from her aunt. She was not going home anytime soon. Weekends, now, too, she stayed all day underground sucking it in, breathing it, and eating. Alone, with her simps at times, practicing.

But last night, Friday night, she hadn’t wanted to be alone. She knew he stayed upstairs, above the office, in the little apartment his skinny-ass wife supplied for him. He was dating her now, yes, but Cynthia could show him…show him how good a girlfriend she could be. A big girl could do it for him, and she could get so big. She wanted to call him down, to her underground caverns, and show him. But he wasn’t here. Last night, and now tonight either. GAH! IT MADE HER SO MAD!! 

They were all eating together, the bunch of them, at her place. Sushi. Cynthia hadn’t been invited of course, and she was watching it in full FOMO mode on social media. They hadn’t asked her, they never asked her. She was too ‘other’. There was something wrong with her. It made her growl sometimes but she knew it. She’d have to wait to bring him to her, another night. It just, she figured, gave her time to get even fucking bigger, bigger than them all and then he’d see and rrrrrrrrrrrrggghhhhh.

Cynthia put down her pork chop and looked at the toadie. It was just the two of them, now, alone in this damp basement room. He looked cold; she was never cold anymore. But he, this simpering boy dog thing was just like the rest of the men here; they were all just workers, like ants in a hive, mindless. Squashing one or two wouldn’t make a difference, right?

She felt her mouth start to curl into something like a smile as she leaned forward over the table. She watched his eyes go down, drift to trace the veins which ran in a pattern all over her hulking breasts, leading down into a cleavage deeper and darker than her cave. She knew where their minds went, once she had them looking at her breasts. They got dumb. Well, dumber even than usual.

“So, you like me?” she asked, watching the toadie’s jaw drop open to a gape as she gently pressed her breasts together between her arms. “What’s your name?” she asked, indulging the thing with what he would think would be actual interest. She watched him, swaying there on his feet for a few moments, saying nothing

"Can't you speak? Did no one ever teach you?" she continued, slowly squeezing, then releasing the pressure on her breasts, making them swell out and then in, out and then in in a pulsing, undulating rhythm. She knew they loved that, that they found that hypnotic. "Or is that just the effect I have on you?"

“Muh…Mason,” he said, finally answering her question.

First name, last name? Or is that just his job here? she thought, Not that it matters.

"I.. I.." the toadie stammered helplessly, suddenly feeling bold enough to address her again.

“What is it?” she asked, eyes narrowing, studying him. If she squinted enough, here without her glasses, she could almost pretend this was him, Dr J.

"No.. Wha.. I..." He was obviously confused, standing there in the semi-dark with this blond Amazon swimming in the weapons-grade pheromones being pumped into the room.

"Oh, you poor creature,” she chuckled, hearing her voice deepen. She’d decided, finally, that she’d indulge herself with some fun and felt her thighs quiver. If he wasn’t here at least she could make herself feel better with one of them. “You can't even talk, can you?” she asked, “Why don’t you come here, closer…” Suddenly, then, she pushed aside the table, laden with her dinner as it was, Its metal feet scraping against the concrete floor. “...let me kiss you better."

She loved - or, she’d grown to love - the feeling she got when they began to shake like this. When their little feet began to move all by themselves, when they were drawn to her like a moth to a big huge fucking moth-magnet. She sat there, on the little folding chair that she knew she could bend into a crumpled little ball of metal tubes if she wanted. This wasn’t him, this wasn’t Doctor, but this was something she could do to kill the time. Maybe it would make her feel better.

He came to stand in front of her, now, where she sat. If she stood, she would tower over him. But as it was she was looking up at him. That would just not do. Without a word Cynthia lazily placed an arm on each of the man's shoulders, and then she pressed down gently. A look of surprise - or maybe some deep survival instinct rallying from the depths - came over his otherwise slackened face. It was followed by one of shock as she pushed down, forcing him to bend in his knees. He tried to push against her with his legs, but found her strength utterly irresistible. With both his hands, he grabbed her wrists, trying to remove her hands from him, but all his efforts proved totally ineffective. Her female arms did not move at all, except to force him down further. She stopped pushing when his face was level with hers, he in a crouch. Tilting her head slightly, she leant towards him, her lips puckering in preparation of meeting his.

The man turned his head away from hers, this time for sure on instinct. "I thought you liked me." Cynthia cooed in mock disappointment. She removed her left hand from his right shoulder, easily shaking off his grip from her wrist. She was delighted to see that she could hold him in place with just one hand on his other shoulder as effortlessly as she had done it with two. With her free hand, she gently cupped his chin, turning his face back towards her. She could see his neck muscles bulging as he tried to fight against her, but his struggles once again proved futile. It gave Cynthia a tremendous thrill to see a full-grown man utterly unable to fight against her vastly superior strength. She had been experimenting, in her time alone down here, with what she could do. It was fucking incredible.

Cynthia leaned towards the quivering man and, still holding his chin, pulled his face to hers. Then she parted her lips slightly and planted them on his. Until just a month or so ago she hadn’t kissed many boys at all. Now, she’d kissed a bunch. Despite the pleasure he felt, with her big pillowy lips on his, she felt him place both his hands on her shoulders, desperate to push her away, grunting with the effort. The blonde-haired young woman remained completely immobile aside from now opening her lips a little further, pressing them against his face, forming a seal around his mouth. With the man still struggling without effect, Cynthia began to inhale slowly and deeply.

His eyes bulged wide in astonishment and his efforts to force her away from him became desperate. Cynthia continued to breathe in, her mouth locked on his. The look in his eyes became panicky and the color began draining from his face. Quickly, his struggles grew weaker. She kept on drawing air into her lungs. His eyeballs seemed to be about to pop out of his head. His complexion was now a bluish white, and his arms hung redundantly by his sides. Cynthia heard a muffled squelching sound and tasted blood in her mouth. Instantly, the man's eyes became dull.

She stopped inhaling, taking her lips off of his and bringing the kiss to an end before removing her hands from her victim. His body seemed to fold up on itself as it became a heap on the floor. Cynthia looked down at him, where he lay crumpled at her feet, and smiled as she used a single finger to wipe at the corner of her lips. It surprised her that she had enjoyed the taste of his blood as much as she had enjoyed sucking the life out of his male body. What a feeling - to have collapsed a man's lungs just by kissing him! "So this is how it feels to be a goddess," she mused to herself, to the empty room.

Now where was that other one, the bald one, with her bread?

==================================

more at my Patreon

[ganondoodle]

Oh man I saw your totk issues post and I agree 100%!! Those are all things that have really bothered me about playing totk, and things that made playing it not nearly as fun (the dungeons, the shrines, the building, etc).

Especially the map!! When I tell you I was so disappointed by the maps on totk, I was hoping for something new! It really just feels like a modded botw, not an official sequel.

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the concept of “what if they had sent link to the past instead”? So the surface map would feature huge differences in the land forms and buildings that exist, and we’d get to see more ganon whenever he visits Hyrule, or go out to the desert to see Gerudo town, etc.

If they really wanted no sheika tech, they could also just have it being newly built? And you could introduce the new characters and such, etc etc.

(I also think the past champions are such a missed opportunity? If botw is about grief and loneliness, and finding hope in the hopeless, and Totk is about coming together despite that, it could have been really interesting if Link had gone to the past! They could have used the past setting as an eerie reminder to what Link and Zelda had lost when the Calamity struck!)

THAT BEING SAID: I’m not as familiar with the legend of Zelda lore, and haven’t played totk very much! I wanted to know your thoughts on this because you seem to have a lot of story and game mechanic knowledge that could explain why this could be a bad/good idea!

(Plus, your discussions are always super interesting to read, as is your custom totk lore, so I’d love to know what you think🩷)

I’m sorry if you’ve already answered an ask like this! If that’s the case, feel free to point that out and I’ll go through your ask tag if you have one:) I hope you have a great day!⭐️

Hi!

im glad you enjoy my rants, i often feel like im being overly mean but tbh were else could i just rant as much as my heart desires without getting spammed by annoying people (certainly not on twitter lol)

i have talked alot, and i mean ALOT, about totk and my issues with it, both lore and gameplay wise, i dont claim to be an expert on any, though i am an old zelda fan and aspiring gamedev, i really only talk about what i feel about it, what i think about it, and by all means im biased as hell xD

if you dont know yet, the "ganondoodles rants" tag is where all my rants go, so if you are interested in reading more on my totk thoughts thats the way to search (given tumblrs search in blog works ..)

and to answers your question, i have touched on it briefly, sending link back in time before the shiekah tech existed would have been an easy way to excuse how they jsut got .. rid of it, bc they didnt, it literally didnt exist yet- and for reusing the map- though that argument falls a little flat bc ... they coud have already done that in present totk, like i brought up in one of said rants, things like flooding gerudo desert, collapsing death mountain, drying out zoras domain etc, and changing the location of the main populations would have already done alot without having to redo the map in its entirety;

the little changes to map itself really wouldnt that big of a deal if they didnt also send you to the EXACT same locations AND repeat the SAME LOCATIONS AGAIN but in the underground, like thats a fact i have talked about multiple times bc its so illogical in every way, anywhere theres a settlement on the surface theres a bigger mine below, its so stupid, the shrines conenct to a lightroot, the same, again, you dont need to explore bc theres nothing TO explore (its also extra weird bc theres one below taburasa (tarrey town) which .... link literally build with dumsda (hudson) a few years ago .. unless that got retconned too idk wth do i know anymore honestly- AND it makes the sonau extra weird bc why the hell do they have a bigass mine under every settlement ESPECIALLY UNDER GERUDO TOWN like, that just adds to my suspicions towards them)

anyway, link to the past was the point and yes, it could have solved a few issues (mainly shiekah tech and the whole "story" taking place AGAIN in the past completely disconnected from you the player) i personally am not so much a fan of it, but that mostly comes down to me just not liking time travel, i dont like going back in time, i want to play and do things in the here and now, i want to repair the damages of the calamity, find out its origins, maybe fix that too, i love to learn about past stuff too, but that more in text, no literal flashback (unless done well), i want to connect to the past but it also holds alot of mystery that maybe shouldnt be touched upon, some mysteries and unkowns are much more interesting when left as such, i want to THINK about things and come to conclusions that are logical and makes sense in hindsight even if it wasnt clear at the start, i dont want information and what to think about it told to my face over and over like im stupid

after botw i really didnt care much about the past, maybe about the acient hero who alot of people specualted to be of gerudo origin due to its red hair- which also got a monkeys paw curled bc in totk they do sth with but its so stupid and insulting that i do not accept it as canon, say what they want, there are no dog people anywhere in the past nor present botw/totk wtf is that i hate it- and its not even .. why is that the reward for that, it has literally NOTHING TO DO WITH TOTK ITSELF I COULD YELLLL AAAARGH

main point is that really, i wanted to explore the past .. in the present, i hoped to find broken old shiekah structures, old labs and maybe some left over damage and records from when the old king persecuted the shiekah for their tech, i wanted to know where the ancient energy the shiekah used was coming from, what the boss arena in the middle of hyrule castle really was- so many things just discarded and acted like they never happened or mattered; i dont want to travel into the past, i want to discover whats left of it, piece it together, discover dark secrets you can ask no one about bc all that knew about it are long gone- thats what intrigued me about botw, it felt like there was so much left to discover only for totk to throw it all away and just do its own thing .. but not commit to that hard enough either so its neither its own thing nor a sequel-

.. that wasnt really what you wanted to know was it? xD sorry i tend to ramble on if someone seems to give me permission to

to sum it up, i think it COULD work, sending link to the past instead, if done well, but so could canon totk have been, it could have been done well but wasnt for reasons i dont know and tbh even fear bc i worry its sets a dark future ahead of zelda; i personalyl am just not a fan of time travel so i dont have that much to say to it :O

[hey-hamlet]

Might I ask for another five from the Yaoyorozu Yakuza?

fighting for my *life* to find this au you have no idea. It was so annoying im tempted to make an au masterpost - but. thats *so many* aus. I'm considering it, though.

anyway!

The Yaoyorozu family own a lot of different businesses, but their main one is a chain of upmarket department stores across the bigger japanese cities. Some (specifically the one in Ikebukuro and the one in Akibahara) of them have what the public lovingly call 'otaku floors' dedicated to all things merchandise. She invites Izuku out to get coffee and look at merch - partly because she thinks head get a kick out of it, partly because he's really good at breaking down what makes a good brand for a hero and shes Listening.

He maybe almost happy cries when he looks out at the whole floor full of different hero merch stores. Some of the bigger heroes have their own shops, some heroes get merch produced by the same companies which have their own stores, and some heroes didn't trademark their names because they were supposed to be underground and a searchable trademark would have made that a bit dumb. Yaomomo and Izuku decide to find every single piece of Eraserhead merch across every store her family owns and buy (buy is a strong word when you are using your parent's credit card to buy something from a store your parents own but. eh.) every piece of it.

Izuku also spends about 30 minutes waxing poetic about how 'useful' merch like cookware is the best, and how Momo and Satou should be like Fatgum and produce it, along with cookbooks. Its all very interesting.

Oh also, the two of them get kidnapped on an outing during exam season. They could break themselves out, but they get so tied up about Aizawa docking their grades for breaking the law they just end up sitting there for about 6 hours until Momo's "family" break them out. Momo is faintly embarrassed, Izuku thinks everyone is very cool and UA is panicking that their students seem to have been double kidnapped. They are relieved to be told that the Yaoyorozu bodyguards are just very enthusiastic.

[stuffyflowers]

as the CEO of the ketsukane's what do you think of some takes of Kanako if she got to grow up normally/deltarune yellow kanako's? I find it a bit lame that a lot of people just turn her into bigger dorkier Ceroba, I think it'd be fun if more people did stuff with her interests in games and just generally her taking more after Chujin since her taking so much after Chujin (being so self sacrificial) is partially what caused her end in UTY. Idk on the deltarune yellow takes I just find it weird to turn her into some sort of shrine maiden when her wanting to be a superhero is right there. And they'd really think she'd wouldn't grow up with a love for tinkering?

tbh I don’t rly see enough grown up kanako centric fanworks to have any comment on the ‘bigger dorkier ceroba’ aspect ngl???+ in general im a lot more interested in how she’d grow up in the canon uty timeline as an amalgamate, and I am not a fan of how ppl erase the opportunity to explore her being one just to make things more ‘feel good’. but okay, hypothetical of her growing up without the incident taking place/deltarune yellow esque au…,

i do agree she’d take more after chujin obviously, tho I think saying her being self sacrificial is taken solely from chujin is a bit inaccurate, id argue both her parents are self sacrificial (ceroba throws her morality and wellbeing out the window just for a chance to make a difference! its not just chujin). The part id say that comes solely from chujin rather than both of her parents is more her interests and skillset, as u mentioned a bit with the video game he made for her. (and cerobas description of her also leaning towards her being more like chujin ofc)

on that note, i quite like the idea of her getting into robotics! i feel she would find much more success in it than chujin did... not to say there wasn't any passion behind the axis project, but at that point chujins priority had shifted more towards his overambitious goal of protecting the underground from a seemingly imminent threat. the fact that he was clearly less inclined to this line of work than his peers did not and could not stop him. meanwhile i feel like kanako would have a more genuine pull towards robotics, the opportunity to create life out of metal and magic would fascinate her. two of her greatest strengths seem to be her creativity and her intellect, which would mix perfectly in this role.

she would love the opportunity to create something that could help others, especially. another defining trait of hers is how driven she is by a desire to make things right and help others: willingly taking part in chujins experiments shows her love not only for her family, but for all of monsterkind (+getting very tunnel-visioned w the idea of being their 'hero,' title soaked in blood etc etc), and the lengths she is willing to go to show this. obviously making helper bots would be a much healthier outlet for this trait than letting herself get injected with a dangerous serum, lol!

as for the kind of robots she would make, i could see her starting off pretty simple with a bot to help her family out w/ everyday duties, maybe a gardener bot to tend to chujin's garden? as she gets more confident in her abilities, she grows more ambitious, creating bots w much higher capabilities. Though her favourite part always remains giving them their own distinct personalities and forming bonds with them, treating them like family (just as I like to believe she would have done with axis if given the opportunity… kanako and axis friendship is real 2 ME!!!! I could go (and I have b4 lol) on a whole other rant abt how ceroba treats the steamworks robots and how chujin abandons axis once he’s ‘dangerous’, and how this contrasts to kanakos drawing of axis, depicting him exactly as she would in a drawing of a friend to hang on her wall. She would love all robots unconditionallyyyyyy okay)

uh fuck how do I conclude this.. um accept robotics nerd kanako into yuor hearts. that is all👍

[c-cw-f-saeko]

the depths of restaurant row (yokohama liumang headcanons 1/3)

hi! i still have less than a week of delusion allowed so who wants to hear my headcanons about the liumang!!! i shared this with oomfie not too long ago and decided to do more stuff to add to it :D

- east and west wings of qing jin

the thing about the liumang is that low-level and high level members live in a completely different world (as expected). 

an example of this is qing jin, the big high-end restaurant deep in restaurant row. only officers and higher ranked members of the liumang are able to dine in there without getting invited and it is known to be the place where a lot of secret deals happen. dining in there was common sign for the new and lower ranked guys of “i made it!!” 

qing jing do open up on many aspects that only high ranked members have access to. for example, each wing of the restaurant are entries into another level of the underground. 

until the coup-d'état, mabuchi and zhao shared oversight of each wing. zhao always had low interest in cabaret clubs and casinos so he took on the apartment complex. on his part, mabuchi wasted no time showing off his newly acquired second-in-chief of the liumang (and his prominent rags to riches story) by blowing his cash on women and co.

-> the east wing has tunnels leading into mabuchi's purgatory, a pleasure district and gambling hall, replica of the one in kamurocho.

-> the west wing has tunnels leading zhao's apartment complex, a three story building situated somewhere in yokohama which entry is only possible through qing jin.

- the purgatory (mabuchi's dream girl)

pleasure district mabuchi had built as soon as he became the second in power of the liumang. he had visited the purgatory of kamurocho before and wanted his own version under restaurant row. it’s maintained by the highest ranked officers of the liumang.

one way mabuchi revelled in his newly acquired notoriety and money was to indulge in women. he often visited cabaret clubs and spent on the most expensive alcohol. but for the the few times zhao came with him, the girls always seemed to be more interested in zhao than him. hence why he got the purgatory built, so there was an area he’d declared king no matter what.

his purgatory houses many different workers like (highly skilled in performing arts) female escorts, gambling dealers, street fighting competing in an arena, etc. mabuchi aimed to do everything on an even bigger scale and quality than the one in kamurocho. of course, it access is reserved to elites, tycoons and his closest associates. zhao always thought the endeavour was ridiculous, but left him to his devices.

since the purgatory's inauguration, lin lin was one of the most known female escorts there. as she was known to be a very good entertainer (lin lin sings very well, play instruments, and has a good presence). it didn't take long for mabuchi to fall for her. so, he did his best to woo and impress her by any means necessary.

one of the ways being how he named one of the business he was managing after her. it was the newest cabaret club in restaurant row at the time. zhao did kinda make fun of him for doing so much to serenade an escort; which at the end of the day would never accept his advances. however, mabuchi always thought zhao was wrong about that and they fought a lot about it.

(but zhao was right about it actually)

lin lin never really accepted mabuchi - as it was one of her goals to not get more involved than she already was (dating the literal second in-line of the liumang comes with lots of issues isn't it LOL).

as the coup d'etat grew as a looming threat over the liumang, lin lin moved from the purgatory to the said cabaret club. as it is a more normal job anyway and won't have to suffer the consequences of a potential collapse of the purgatory. she could easily play off sharing the same name as a coincidence as only a few even knew mabuchi named it after her.

mabuchi exiled of the city not long after that and relinquished its oversight to zhao.

tesso and zhao at the entrance of the purgatory

zhao introduced the purgatory to tesso shortly after he became the leader of the white mask branch, as a "gift" for rising in the ranks. it's at that point that tesso started to understand the world higher-ups (like zhao and mabuchi) lived in. this is also when he was first given entry to one of the wings of qing jin.

"zhao-san, what am i even supposed to do there?" "uhhhhh, how am i supposed to know," zhao answered, laughing. funny enough, it's not like tesso was a regular customer or cabaret clubs and stuff like that and zhao is the last person to give advice on that. tesso decided to have a taste for one night, to see how it's like.

this is where tesso meets lin lin for first time. seeing a new face for in a long while, she became his guide to show him around and let him know how things goes down here.

tesso and lin lin always share a drink for the rare times tesso spares the time to visit (becoming the leader of the white mask branch, he has less and less time) and they get along well until this day.

- zhao's apartment district

"tesso-kun, take care of this"

as he got into power in the liumang, zhao focused on building an seemingly normal-looking apartment complex that's connected to restaurant row through the underground. it was used for his assassinations 🤩 (there's a body dump in the basement that not the police nor the geomijul can trace back its origin.) zhao also concludes deals with his associates. given its construction, that complex is known to be the most private place in yokohama. not even the geomijul is aware of its use nor entry.

three levels of such alleys and there's an apartment of various use behind each door

in the midst of the coup-d'état and not too long before he left, zhao gave the key to his private apartment complex -- which finally gave him access to the other wing of qing jin. once again, tesso wasn't sure of what to make of it again being the only one of his peers to even have access to qing jin like that. zhao said he could whatever because he thought it would be a waste to not use the building.

(i'll explain tessohui more in another post LOL) but, following the liumang's change of leadership and transition into seonhee becoming the leader, tesso and seonhee got closer. then, he decided on sharing one of the apartment with her there.

given their schedules, this is neither their permanent residence. tesso has a few homes -- he moves frequently between restaurant row and isezaki road (subsequent apartment he wishes yua lived in), depending on the current job. seonhee is usually up in koreatown. they meet in the west wing usually when privacy is needed.

funny enough, every time seonhee has to get there, she's mad as hell 😭 all the way from koreatown with her sandals, her feet always hurt a lot. tesso says time and time again she should try out shoes like his because of this 😂

[ystk-archive]

Forgive me in advance for the weird question, but given that Nakata's career seems to be winding down, what, in the end, do you feel his legacy was/has been/will be? And perfume's legacy/impact, if any? Do you know anything about how/if perfume had a role "gakkyoku-ha" idol phenomenon (e.g. the rise of other genre-dols like bis, babymetal, maison book girl, sora tob sakana, etc.)?

Perfume definitely helped usher in the genre-dol trend of the 2010s -- down to being the template for Babymetal (also from Amuse). Though I want to emphasize that Perfume aren't underground idols, which usually have a lot of overlap with gakkyoku-ha...I think. I'm not a big J-idol otaku, lol.

Legacy/impact questions are very complicated to answer even though they're things I've thought about a lot over the past four years, and it gets more confusing when you're talking about Perfume and Nakata as separate entities because there's some overlap there... Like his legacy -- and Perfume's by proxy -- in Japanese pop culture is predominantly going to be a Valentine's Day song and sometimes Polyrhythm. I think it'd be disingenuous to claim he hasn't inspired any younger musicians in Japan (though I often think they didn't study him hard enough), but it's equally misleading to act like he was some sort of boon to the music industry; looking at the way things are now, I believe ultimately his impact on J-pop was quite weak. He was an early adopter of the "bedroom producer" format (though he never made music in his room that I'm aware of lol) and it's likely that amateur laptop-based producers in Japan are more aware of him for that, but his do-it-yourself approach and aesthetic hallmarks are definitely not followed through in mainstream acts. If anything, pop music in Japan has become more inward-facing over the last ten years; Nakata started out looking elsewhere.

On a global level -- because we still have to separate the self-imposed petri dish that Japan tends to be from the rest of the world (namely the monolithic west, though on the flipside they ignore practically everything that happens in Japan that doesn't fit into neat and tidy fictitious genres like "city pop" and "Shibuya-kei" or that isn't anime/videogaming; this is a separate rant lmao) -- I do get the impression that his music may have helped precipitate what became "hyperpop" and that his influence on the style Sophie developed is the biggest measurable impact he's had, because Sophie wound up becoming a much more known artist in the world of electronic music. In terms of Perfume I've wondered if they had a bigger effect on the maturation of K-pop than I give them credit for, as K-pop took its early cues from J-pop; K-pop fans tend to namedrop them as their token Japanese music at any rate, so I'm not hallucinating the similarities in appeal.

I could probably talk myself in circles about this all day so I'm curious what other people think on this topic. Definitely not weird questions, they're actually the most thoughtful ones I've gotten in a long time, thank you.

[tiny-minecraft-rabbit]

Day 4: Shrink Ray

Using my own prompt list: here. You can also read this and every prompt as they come on AO3.

Summary:

Zed has a super fun and awesome new challenge for Tango. It does require some.. size adjustments!

"Tango! Tango! Tango!"

"Zed! Zed! Zed!" Tango repeated, chuckling as he let the shulker box closed, standing for his friend. "What can I do for you buddy?"

Zed had a grin that meant something very silly and very fun was about to happen, which was the usual expression Zed had. It was pretty fantastic having a friend like him. 

"You're going to love this one," he insisted, hands flapping at his side, "Wanna follow me?"

Tango glanced down at his shulker box and the project of redstone behind him. He really should get this finished… but a few hours working with Zed was worth it. "Yeah, hold on," he broke away the shulker box and set it back into an enderchest. Once everything was just tidy enough that it wouldn't be overwhelming to return to he took Zedaph's hand. 

Surprisingly Zed didn't lead him back to his base, instead leading him underground. The facility was made of concrete and quartz, purposefully looking sterile and like a mad scientist lab, though it only seemed to be a long hallway that led to a small room with a gray stained glass window that looked into a large room. Inside the large room was a giant thing with a big red X painted on the floor where it was pointed, and to the side was a small maze, made for something about the size of a frog or even an endermite, with a cake sat in the middle.

Tango couldn't help the giggles, "Well this isn't ominous at all!" 

"I know right! Very comforting. There's even cake!" Zed replied with a grin, flipping a lever and the bright overhead lights turned on, "Now, Tango, I think you know where I want you."

"I can take a guess. Do I- Do I get to know what you're going to be blasting me with?" 

"You'll know very soon. Right this way," Zed said in lieu of explaining, opening an iron door and standing aside to let Tango through first. 

Anybody but Zed Tango would be turning the other direction and running for the hills, but there was always something so fun with Zed's tasks or experiments. Even if he ended up dead he would die laughing and cheering. He stepped through the iron door, barely containing a yelp as it slammed shut behind him, and walked down the few stairs (there was a bed at the bottom and he set his spawn) and into the big room.

He waved to Zed through the window and stood a few steps to the left of the red X, "Here?" 

He could see Zed's exasperated sighing and giggled. "To the right, Tango! On the X! Come on, you got the easy part. For now, that is."

Tango raised an eyebrow as that but swiftly moved over on top of the X, "Okay. Okay. Here then?" 

"Perfect! Now I need you to stand very still. I'be only tested this on sheep so far, and if they wriggled too much they died," Zed explained as he pressed a button in front of him. 

His laughter got slightly more nervous, "Noted! Staying still." 

The machine started lighting up, flashing a spiral of blues and purple, and humming lowly as it powered up. He hadn’t the faintest idea what was going to occur, but the pure yellow beam of light completely washed over him. He looked down, observing his arms and legs, trying to see what it was doing to him; if it was giving him polka dots or turing his outfit into a bright pink leotard. On the surface it didn’t look like it was doing anything. He looked up at Zedaph through the observation window to see him grinning, so it must of been working. He looked back at the machine– and then he had to look up at the machine, cause it was significantly larger than it was a moment ago. Another glance at Zed, and then the rest of the room, proved just what he thought, everything else had gotten proportionally bigger as well. 

Or, well, he had gotten a lot smaller. 

He burst into excited laughter as the machine turned off, “Zed! What? How!?” 

“The power of science, my friend!” he answered through the intercom. He pointed towards the maze at the side of the room, “Please enter, would you? There should be a ladder on the back.” 

“You’ve turned me into a lab rat!” Tango accused as he made his way over to the maze. He climbed the ladder quickly. The walls of the maze that he could have easily seen over just moments ago towered over him, and he wished he had thought to memorize it’s layout (but to be fair there was no way he could have known he was going to be in the maze). 

“You have one minute to get through! After one minute I’ll be adding a endermite for every thirty seconds you take, understand?” 

“Endermites? Wait- Wait- What’s the point of this challenge? Why am I doing this?” 

“Your timer starts-” Zed grinned, completely ignoring Tango, “Now!” 

“Oh geez,” Tango sighed before racing through the maze. He had a somewhat good idea where to go, but it was a lot bigger and trickier than he thought it was going to be. 

The minute passed before he was even halfway through, a note block chiming above him. There was the sound something like a gate opening and the chitters of a endermite echoed through the walls. He ran faster. Then another thirty seconds, still no end to the maze, and another endermite entered. Then another. 

It was two minutes and seven seconds in when he ran into an endermite, the bug that usually only ticked one heart of damage grabbed a hold of his leg and suddenly he was half health. He barely got a chance to scream before the second grab

He sat upright in the bed, laughing as he did. He was back to his usual size, which was expected, Zed didn’t have admin abilities. He couldn’t change his code so casually, this was more akin to a potion or beacon effect. He quickly made his way back into the middle of the room. 

“That was amazing!” He shouted up at Zed before yelping as an endermite bit him on the ankle. He crushed it under his foot on impulse. (He did not think about how it was possible that was the endermite that killed him and how easy it was to smash something so small.)

“Glad you enjoyed! Ready for round two?” Zed asked, hand already on the lever. 

Tango nodded, taking a step back onto the red X. “Let’s do this!”