#i might download it again in a couple of weeks to see how it ends but that's it

[theodoravery]

ended up deleting the love is blind game app. i had such high hopes given how good thth was this year, and it had so much potential at the beginning, but for weeks now the chapters being released have sucked. a lot

[the---hermit]

05|06|2024

New day new struggles working on this history paper. I cannot stress enough how stressed I am about how bad the new research interface of my uni is, I feel like ever since they did the big update it's super complicated to get results that have to do with what you are looking for and that are accessible too. Moreover no one cares about this topic because I genuinely cannot find anything. I have found a couple of articles to help me with context but not much. By the end of the week I plan on finishing reading and highlighting what resources I have found and then I'll see what I can make of them, and get back to the professor. I am procrastinating emailing her back because I have no idea what to say tbh. My English lit review on the other hand is going pretty well, and reviewing in the afternoons seems to be a good plan. Since I am a bit more tired having to review out loud helps me with staying focused, and I also don't have to read historical sources all day, or else I'd lose my mind. This afternoon I struggled to stay focused anyway, but at least I got some stuff done, if I had to continue my history research I wouldn't have done anything probably. My brain is just very very tired again.

Today's productivity:

started my morning with an audiobook

more struggling looking for historical sources (I found a couple more but I am keeping those for the very end because they are once again not 100% relevant to what I have to do)

read and highlighted quite a few sources I downloaded at the beginning of the week (a couple were more or less useful a couple were a waste of time, but maybe I'll quote a couple of context details in the end, who knows. At the moment I only need to read two more and then I am done with my first round of secondary sources, but one of those might get deleated because I'm pretty sure is totally useless)

got to practice my French because of a couple of said historical sources, and wrote down the new words I learned today (surprisingly my understaning is better than I expected giving that I have not used my French in years, I should really get back to it more seriously)

continued my first outloud review of all my English lit materials (today I started working on the Shakespeare part, it will take a couple of days to finish it, especially bc today I didn't do as much as I had hoped)

wrote a little summary of a couple of sentences for all the scenes of The Merchant Of Venice in order to review it without having to reread it for the fourth time

[pix-writes]

Playing Swooning Over the Stans (also, have you played it? omg is so fun) made me think; what would happen if the reader is friends with Stan? Like the reader actually likes Ford but becomes really good buddies with Stan, would Ford assume something is going on with them? Would Stan act like a matchmaker? sorry for asking so many questions omg

I did play it aaaaaaaaaaages ago, when it first came out! ^^ but I didn't get very far in it I have to say, I downloaded it a couple weeks ago and only got as far as the forest with ford again. I like dating sims but idk my adhd just really plays up when I try to play this one, I guess I got disheartened because some people have said its hard to complete?

This is an interesting one! This took me a while to think about.

---

I think being buddies with Stan would be a good way to then become friends with Ford himself, in a way, he's more on the periphery, you hanging out at the mystery shack whilst ford is absorbed in his research work. You're likely to get swept into Ford's experiments/adventures. But it makes you crush on him HARD.

Stan might not pick up on it immediately, but it only takes something little for him to notice, he's got a good read on people's tells whether they're lying or nervous and you've played cards together enough times to know yours well.

Will definitely say something immediately after Ford leaves the room, like 'so you got the hots for my brother, huh? What's that nerd done to catch your attention? Haha!' and will gauge your reaction and floundering to see just how serious this crush is and make mild, humourous threats about not doing anything in the shack/in front of him/not breaking his brothers heart etc etc.

He'd definitely joke about it like 'alright, quit with the goo goo eyes at my brother' 😠 or even 'hey! what does pointdexter have that I don't 🥺 pay attention!' definitely don't get distracted when you're playing a betting game, you may be friends but he'll pocket or switch cards whilst you're paying attention to Ford/ daydreaming as punishment. Stan will definitely tease/mock you until you make some kind of move and embarrass you cause he's not the most subtle 😅

Though, he'd be jealous at first, not because he likes you that way, you're more like an annoying little sibling to him, but because he feels the insecurity that your friendship will be taken away from him, which hits harder for him when it's his brother (who has little/no idea that this is happening) due to all they're been through in the past.

Stan is deep down a very loyal person to the people he cares about the most, so it can be a little more conflicting and awkward for him than he likely shows, cause you're his best buddy and Ford's his twin brother, so if you two get together, who is he going to fight if one hurts the other? If you break up, how will that affect all of your relationships together, will he just end up losing a friend? If you get married, he can't be both your best man! He wishes there was a manual for conundrums like this. He'd joke like he isn't affected by this, but also will be quite defensive and distant with you at times as well, which might confuse you.

He'll get over it once he realises that its more mutual, if he sees his brother is taking a noted interest in you too, and/or when you spend time together his brother is significantly happier, he'll start to play wing man to both of you! Ford will get the talk of 'so you have feelings for them, sixer, admit it!' and 'why don't you just talk to them, knucklehead'. I can imagine Ford getting all stuttering and blushy.

As for Ford thinking something is going on between you...... no, I don't think he would? It would definitely depend on the circumstances, like if you're freindship enters that flirty type of joking around or he assumes a situation to be more romantic than it actually is - he might question himself into whether there's something between you, but he's likely to outrightly ask stan out of curiousity. It's only if stan puts him off of you that he'll suspect there's any deeper feelings involved, but knowing his brother, if he did truly like you romantically, he would have said specifically that you were off limits. If this happens, it will give him some time to chew on what he does feel for you, as well as wonder if you like either of them...

If you both pine (no pun intended) over each other as friends and it becomes quite obvious to everyone else but you two don't act on it, Stan would get fed up with it! It won't take him long for this to go on, especially if you're out adventuring together, for him to (unpleasantly) break the ice for you. Cue the, 'oh, spare me' type speech "just cut the tension already, and admit you wanna smooch each other!"

If that doesn't work, Mabel definitely will find out in the summer and do the work that Stan failed at, to get you two nerds to go on a date. Just don't forget to spend some time with your pal like old times. Though that's easy enough to do, since you were practically like in-laws before, the dynamic doesn't change drastically for you, there's just more grumbling and jokes about your relationship with his brother, but now you get to tease him back! Tell him you're next project is collaborating with Mabel to set him up on a date and he'll change tact quick 😅😂 So, ultimately, both twins are happy with the outcome.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Pearl of the East China Sea

Here we have the brightest boy in Jinling City - Zhang Zhehan as the young Lin Shu from Nirvana in Fire.

The inspiration for this fig is pulled from several different places in the show, but the primary inspiration was brief flashback scene near the end of Episode 40. It's been cut out on the version on YouTube, but it is watchable on Viki, starting at 39:00 in the episode. I can't download it from Viki, but I do have a small clip I downloaded from somewhere years ago that plays out this scene:

Apologies for the lack of attribution, I am not sure who originally posted this.

I took a couple screenshots in better definition so you can see more of the detail:

I hate to admit this, but I have not watched Nirvana in Fire yet despite it's epic reputation. BUT I'm hoping to start next week! I have a long flight ahead of me and plenty of time to get started on it's 54 episodes.

I loved this clip when I saw it because of how delightful it was - the young Lin Shu is adorable, with a smile that can really can light up the city.

He arrived safely tucked into his polystyrene box. The little cutout to the right side of him didn't have anything in it. My guess is that it was originally for his lantern, but (very thankfully) it came pre-installed. We won't need to have me sweating over trying to carefully slide it into his little hand.

The pearl is definitely as big as a chicken egg!

The (fish? frog? tadpole?) lantern in his hand is SUPER cute. It's also from the show as well, since I recall seeing a clip of him carrying it, but unfortunately I don't have a shot of it. When I watch the show I will keep an eye out for it, and come back and update this.

This is also a good angle to see the beauty mark on his left ear. This fig maker always adds the beauty marks to Zhehan and Gong Jun's ears.

The lantern is really too cute. Look at the little feet! I'm a complete sucker for those claymation animals with the googly eyes, and this totally reminded me of it. I'm so, so grateful that this didn't arrive broken and once again that I didn't have to wrangle glue on it to stick it into his hand.

The scales on the lantern! Such great detail.

I love figs with cloaks. Here you can see the little bit of detailing for the fur trim.

As you can tell by the fig stand, this little guy did not stand up on his own. You might think the weight of that enormous pearl might drag him forward, but no, the weight of his head kept tipping him back. I glued him down right away - no chance of this little cutie falling and breaking something!

He's not in his full armor here like he was in the clip, he's wearing clothes that Lin Shu wears elsewhere. I think it was a good call by the fig maker to have the clothes be recognizable enough without being overpowering. It really allows the pearl and the lantern to take center stage.

I love this fig, I think he's just so cute.

The fig maker really captured the youthful roundness of his face, and rendered his hair perfectly. The detail on the fur trim on his cloak is subtle but very nice. Just a great execution all the way around.

He's wearing black pants tucked into his black boots, but it's a little difficult to see due to the color.

It's easier to see from this angle.

You can see more detail on the guan here, and we have a nice shot of his hand holding the pearl and the googly eyes on the lantern.

I like the hair a lot on this fig, it's a great look.

This fig maker always has great box card art, and you can see the name of the fig here - Pearl of the East China Sea.

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 493

Scene Count: 31

Rating: Even more precious than a pearl

[link to the Master Post Index]

[theseasideskies]

Finished Jenna's route a couple weeks ago but I forgot to post anything, now I finished Carl's route too. Now I get to ramble about both!

I'd seen a bit more spoilers for the game at this point, especially discussion about how the older routes are less polished. The typos and repetitive narration were a bit of a shock to me. I'd have thought they'd go back and clean up that stuff before finishing development. The story still worked, but I can definitely understand the criticism around Carl's route. (Spoilers for both Jenna and Carl's routes beneath the cut)

Jenna's Route

Full disclosure that I've only hit the good ending here, and my PC's currently busted so I had to download Echo on my phone to continue playing so I don't think I'll be seeing her bad ending for a while yet.

This one felt incredibly strong to me, same as Flynn's route. The early subversion of having Carl disappear really shocked me and left me open to seeing where the story went next. The relief I felt after we heard Jenna's grandma on the radio, and then seeing that we were allowed to escape the town? That was powerful.

Super funny to me that the game where everyone feels like they're a repressed homosexual, has one of the best endings if you choose to get with the one girl in the group.

The whole thing with Duke and Brian was very intense, and I've also since seen spoilers that other routes get a lot more heavy on the sexual violence. So uh, yay I guess.

I'd also seen a post on r/furry_irl arguing that it's better to play the routes in order of release. I did the mini version of that I guess, going from Flynn to Jenna. And yeah it definitely felt like those two routes had a lot more connection. Jenna's route provided more closure on both Leo's behavior and that voice coming from the mine, as well as the stuff around Syndey's dad. I was watching bits Keith Ballard's playthrough of Jenna and he does mention being able to tell who wrote which part, and, yeah definitely. No offense to Howly or anything but especially comparing it with the older routes, you can tell.

Carl's Route

After Jenna's route I figured I'd play Carl's, since I'd seen spoiler memes about Jenna getting possessed in it so I thought maybe the themes would connect. Now knowing that I'd played the oldest route, right after the newest one, definitely makes more sense why it didn't connect after all. Maybe that also affected how I felt about the horror, not quite buying the scares when I was expecting something else to be the source.

I can't quite place why the horror didn't work for me this time around. You'd think possession would be incredibly creepy, and put me on edge a lot. Not being able to fully trust anything anyone says. I guess at a certain point the game kinda dragged on the point and it just got frustrating. (Again the repetitive narration affected that too)

The climax for both endings here was still pretty good I'd say, though definitely in different ways. The whole dubcon getting molested by a ghost thing was unsettling for sure. The added context from the good ending of "they were in the house the whole time and just hallucinating" also adds a touch of creepy to the bad ending. The heart-to-heart with Chase and Carl in the dorm was definitely sweet.

I think the other thing that rubs me the wrong way about Carl's route is the resolution not being related to the group's own traumas. Sure Carl has that thing where he realizes he needs to be more independent, but Jenna snaps out of it only when Chase assures John that the real story will get out. The fact that the group got to swim in Lake Emma on Saturday, and then the narration pointedly says "Hah, it's not that easy." really takes away a lot of the agency (and therefore connection) I had with the final act.

The fact the good ending still doesn't let you see the other members of the group was also annoying, though I will admit I might be biased coming off of Jenna's good ending and getting to see everyone together at the diner.

[silverefflux]

skl

Chapter 7 of my König x Fem!OC fic, Rush

See Chapter List

Photo by Dương Nhân

Summary: “I want to tell you something.”

A/N: LET'S DO FLUFF TODAY.

SORRY BUT I AM BORED OF SMUT RIGHT NOW. Basically people do things to each other and in the end, one or both cums. Fuck Chapter 5 and 6. And fuck chronological order.

. . .

Be More // Stephen Sanchez

A couple weeks after they last saw each other, Kate and Dominik kept in touch, many thanks to Kate convincing Dominik to download a video chatting app for them to communicate on. Talking over text when more than 10,000 kilometers apart simply would be too expensive, dry, and unreliable.

“What time is it there?” Kate asked Dominik.

“I’m six hours behind. It’s 2:03 PM here,” he stated, followed by a slight sneer on his lips, “So ‘round about…8:03 PM there?”

“Yeah pretty much,” she nonchalantly replied, eyes intent on what’s in front of her. A sizzling noise from her end of the line competed with her voice, along with the clacking and scraping of a wooden spatula. Some steam rose from the pan she held, floating into a small, unused range hood above the stove. Others wafted all over the tiny kitchen of her apartment.

Dominik tried to bring his attention back to the book he was reading on his sofa, but couldn’t help himself from glancing at his phone, which was standing against the armrest. There’s something about watching her cook that seemed more interesting at the moment than the connection between war and geography, or his cup of coffee.

He set his book down on the coffee table and would forget about reading or drinking for the entirety of the call.

��That looks delicious.”

Kate cast a disbelieving look at him. “Me or my dinner?”

“Both,” he let out a single chuckle. This woman and her words. “But really though, what are you cooking?” he asked in childlike curiosity. He shifted so that his feet were up on the couch and the hand, now holding his phone, was situated on the backrest.

She enthusiastically grabbed the phone from the countertop, which was previously leaning on an electric kettle, then flipped the camera to show what she was making. “It’s just stir-fried veggies. So that’s garlic, onion, oyster sauce…” she listed off as she stirred what was in the pan, “Then…what’s the word...sweet potato leaves? Yeah. Then I’ll eat this with rice.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

“Thanks, just a quick dinner,” she smiled.

“Do you like cooking?”

She paused to think. “Uhhh…I like nice food. And so happened to know how to make some of it…? What about you?”

Mein Gehirn hat echt Wandertag heute. Mann, that was like asking someone if they take showers as a hobby. “I cook a bit, yeah. I bake sometimes. When I feel like it.”

She immediately looked at him again, fascination painted in the glow of her eyes. “Whoa, that’s so cute.”

“What?” he tilted his head ever so slightly, unaware of the small blush that was starting to dust his cheeks. The last time anyone genuinely called him “cute” was when he was a child, so the association of him with the adjective felt quite bizarre.

“You baking. I barely know any guys who can bake,” she explained.

As the call carried on, each amused the other with their own takes on their country’s food culture. There’s food for breakfast. Food for Christmas. Food for drinking and hangovers. Both relished in their memories associated with the meals they liked.

Sure enough, Kate’s dinner was ready, so she invited him to accompany her for dinner—virtually, that is. She grabbed a hefty bowl and flipped it upside down for her phone to lean on, making it as if she and Dominik were sitting across from each other on the small dining table of her apartment.

Kate’s stomach fluttered as she quietly indulged in scenarios she would be embarrassed to admit of, being a woman of her age. Thoughts of how sweet it might have been, had there been no expanse of land and water between them. Part of it felt to her like those little dollhouse skits one would do when they were little, where the guy and the girl would have a dinner date sitting across each other, occasionally sneaking glances at each other and smiling to play it off once they were caught by the other’s eyes.

Maybe there would be some spaghetti served, and they would twirl up some pasta from the same plate, only to realize they were eating the same noodle as their faces inched closer and closer until they kissed. Then there’d be fireworks and dreamy eyes. But that’s just Lady and the Tramp. Real dinner dates have you feeling extremely conscious over how you eat. Unless you’re too smitten to bother about presenting and witnessing immaculate table habits. Such is the case for Kate.

A while into their virtual dinner together, however, Dominik’s expression faded from cheerful to uncertain.

“Hey Kate?”

She hummed in response while she took a spoonful of rice into her mouth. Her brows raised in anticipation.

“I want to tell you something.”

She took a gulp of water to down her food quickly. “Yeah, shoot.”

He took a deep breath and his right began fidgeting with his fingers. His heart leapt to his throat. His gaze landed everywhere but at her. This confused and worried Kate at the same time.

Is there something wrong?

“I…”

Come on, just tell her. It’s nothing deep.

Kate tried to guess in her head whatever it was he was about to say, but she couldn’t fathom what seemed to be bothering him about it, internally crossing her fingers that it wasn’t anything awful. Then a thought struck her.

Is he going to say what I think he’ll say?

For some reason, Dominik was gutted by a fear that she would just outright leave the call once he told her what he wanted to, but he took another breath anyway just to force the words out of his chest.

“I took a contract.”

Oh. She now got somewhat of a grasp on why he looked that bothered. “Well..congrats? Sorry, I don’t know what to say when it comes to that but it’s a new job so I suppose that’s good…?” she replied sheepishly.

Okay…so she didn’t end the call. “Yeah, danke,” he spoke abruptly, taking another deep breath. “I’m getting deployed in two weeks. But it’ll be around six months before I come back.”

“I see. Where to?”

“Can’t say.”

She kept her cool, but deep down, there was uncertainty gnawing itself into the crevices of her mind. Anything could happen when a soldier—or a contractor, in this case—is deployed. It’s sad, but not in the dramatic sense. Rather, an awkward and empty one; as if their whole budding romance started from an unexpected "oh wow” moment, then the movie of their lives just cuts right when the climax is about to happen and you’re left with "oh well" before anything gets really deep.

“That’s awesome. Good luck. And be safe out there, yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Neither of them called the other in the next couple weeks. Dominik was too afraid to call. Kate was busy and assumed he simply needed space based on how he was acting when he told her about his upcoming work.

It wasn’t until a day before he left, that he called all of a sudden. Luckily, Kate wasn’t on any flight that day. It was only to say goodbye, but then she asked if there was any internet in his destination, to which he realized that she still wanted to chat. For that, he admired her persistence…and the seemingly unfazed air about her despite him being in a potential life-or-death situation. It was almost like she already knew what it was like.

. . . 

Fast forward to Dominik’s deployment, it didn’t take long for Kate to figure out that he was somewhere around Adal or Urzikstan based on his mentions of the desert, the time zone differences, and the recent international news. Trying to speak over a video call was too frustrating due to the limited connection, so he and Kate returned to mere chatting and texting.

Her life, like any other, had always been an ebb and flow between lull and activity. Business as usual meant getting assigned flights, studying the routes, submitting flight plans, coming home, driving occasionally to her parents’ house to have a meal with them and her brother, and spending the rest of the time in her apartment through chores and hanging around.

Dominik would pop up in her mind every few days. Whenever that was the case, she would leave him a small “How are things there?” or a “Hope you’re safe. Chat me when you’re back.” His responses would range from a couple hours to a couple days away, but he was kind enough to reciprocate with bits of “Have you eaten?” or “Did you fly today?”

Sometime about four months in, he went dark for five days straight. She internally crossed her fingers in hopes that nothing awful happened.

From his point of view, those five days of radio silence ended up with him limping on his right leg all the way back to his barracks at night after a particularly rough clearing operation. He switched on his phone and was welcomed with one single message.

Problem was, she wrote it in Filipino.

As any non-speaker of any language would, his knee-jerk response was to copy the text and run it on Google Translate.

Which led to the next problem: the result made zero sense.

Verdammt blöde App, he rolled his eyes.

The next morning, he sat on a medical table in a container building, patiently waiting as a nurse replaced the bandage on his injured leg. He stared at the nurse, who was too occupied to notice his eyes, then drilled his sights into the wall. He clenched his teeth, deeply weighing his choices should he approach this nurse for such an unprofessional plea for assistance.

“Excuse me,” he hesitantly called her attention.

The nurse looked up at him, mildly intimidated as she found his eyes in the hood that he insisted on wearing despite not being in combat. “Sir?”

“You’re Filipino, right?”

“Yes, Sir. Why?”

Silence.

He discreetly took his phone out of his pocket and opened his phone gallery. He knew not to be a show-off about it, as some of the military staff were allowed little to no usage of mobile phones. The nurse squinted at him, initially suspicious over what was taking him so long, but then brushed it off in favor of resuming to wrap the rest of the gauze around his leg.

“What does this mean?” he leaned over, presenting the nurse with a cropped out screenshot of Kate’s message.

She paused from bandaging again to check at his phone. Then her eyes blew wide and she looked at him with a wry smile, which earned a flustered expression from Dominik.

His stomach dropped. Was that a dirty text?

“Iniisip kita. Share ko lang,” the nurse quoted the text in a playful tone she assumed it was supposed to be read in, “She’s telling you that she’s thinking of you.”

He stared with a mix of relief and surprise, internally hoping his emotions weren’t so obvious through his hood. “She”? Is it really *that* obvious?

“It’s just cute though, because the way it’s said, like she’s playing hard-to-get a little bit? ‘Share ko lang’ kinda has a tone of ‘I’m just sharing,’ or, ‘Just sayin,’” the nurse softly elaborated, waving a hand off to mimic the coyness of the message, “Is that from your wife—”

“Ah, it’s—it’s not—”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have assumed,” she gasped.

“It’s all right. Is this done yet?” he asked hastily, pointing at his injury that was being tended to.

The nurse returned her focus to bandaging his leg, speeding up to end the whole interaction. “A little more…You should reply to her. Or him. I don’t know…but that’s pretty sweet,” she shrugged.

After his wound was freshly dressed, he quickly thanked her, got up and paced his way out of the room. He made his way back to his barracks briskly, bypassing dozens of staff in his way. It was as if he had no injury in the first place.

Perhaps it was from embarrassment of asking the nurse to translate such a personal text. 

Perhaps it was from her probing from context that the message wasn’t just made by some relative or friend.

Perhaps it was from a newfound will to make it out of his mission alive and come home.

Perhaps it was from the prospect of hearing Kate’s voice, or seeing her face again.

One thing for certain is that something changed in him. As he sat back down on his bed, his heart raced and his eyes danced, searching for anything to divert his clamoring thoughts. He was an awkward, giddy teenage boy all over again. He sat on the bed and hunched over his phone, reopening the sole conversation he safekept in a messaging app inbox. His thumbs swiped gently at the sides of his phone as he held it with both hands. A rush flooded through his chest, climbed into his face, and fizzled out the top of his head as a familiar, warm, fuzzy feeling of delight.

She’s thinking of me.

. . .

Translations:

Mein Gehirn hat echt Wandertag heute. - My brain has a field trip today. Verdammt blöde App - Fuckin stupid app

A/N: And yes, for the Filipinos out there: yes, our slightly-conyo girl eats talbos ng kamote <3 Eat ya fokken veggies

[willfrominternet]

A long post about getting old and change

I've put some time into being a nostalgic boy over the past couple of weeks, which has led me to dig back through my old Tumblr and play the hits, as one might say. And in doing so, I found this letter my 23-year-old self wrote to my 18-year-old self:

(Yes, that's my old Tumblr reblogging my old old Tumblr, which is now dead, although I do wish I still had access to that. High school blogging was a whole other ball game.)

The letter goes on much longer. I won't post the whole thing. But one part of it struck me, and I'll share it here:

So don’t think that change is something that hits you. You can’t feel change just like you can’t be afraid of change. You never know when a new era of your life is going to begin, so you might as well stay up and enjoy it. You never know when you’re going to have that moment again.

My guy was right: Change comes and goes, and you can neither prepare for it nor can you live in fear of it. You have to ride the wave, deal with the bullshit, and do something to better yourself every day regardless of what monumental period of change you're going through. You can only look back on those times; you can't realize you're in them while you're in them.

And so this post acts as sort of a letter to my 23-year-old self, living ten years ago in that wild and tumultuous period of self-discovery. That version of me lives in New York, sees comedy shows on public access television, has a lot of questions about his sexuality, wants to get into performing his music and poetry, and really doesn't want to fall into the trap of the 9-to-5 corporate death loop.

Well, kiddo, over the next decade, you do just fine. Sure, you have to go through a pretty rough relationship, four years of a Donald Trump presidency, a whole encyclopedia of global tragedies, a worldwide pandemic, two moves, and a bunch of mental breakdowns to get to where we are now. Some of your friends you have will move away or pass away or never want to speak to you again. You will feel loneliness at times. You will feel useless at times. That's okay.

But you also find a person who makes you feel seen. You find your voice in your writing. You live in a beautiful house near a pond, even though you rent one floor of it and will probably rent forever and don't know where you'll end up next. You have so many friends and family members who love you and you know how to deal with the people who don't. You get paid pretty well to do work worth doing, and the job gives you the time to do the things you love doing. (Best of all, they let you work from home.) And last but not least, you feel free to live the kind of life you want to live, but you realize that kind of self-discovery is not a sprint, but a marathon.

You had the wisdom at age 23 to tell our 18-year-old self not to fear change. I respect that. But you will go through so much over the next ten years. And I know that when I re-read this post ten years from now - definitely not on Tumblr, but in some downloaded archive - I'll have more changes to add to the list. I don't know what those are and frankly, I don't want to know. I want to live life and see where it takes me, and so should you.

The point is: You'll be fine, kid. Now go post on your blog and enjoy your Nerd Karaoke at the Way Station and have fun. We'll take it from here.

[workingfromjapanandchina]

Day 1:

My journey started with a 11 hour flight from San Jose to Narita airport. The flight was mostly uneventful, I watched a couple of downloaded movies on Netflix and tried to use the free Wi-Fi, but it was very slow. During the flight I found out about the shooting with our former president, it was pretty wild to see that news and not be able to get instant information because the Internet was so slow. One really cool thing about this airline is that you can use your phone to order a variety of snacks and drinks and some food from your phone and they bring it to you within a minute or two. The prices were actually pretty cheap, but that could be because the Japanese yen is so cheap compared to the US dollar right now.

This trip is something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. My job lets me work from anywhere so I thought I might as well go to Japan for a week before I need to go to China for some work in Beijing so to make this work, I need to be able to keep my body on Pacific time where I’m from in California. This sounds easy in theory, but I’ll find out how it actually works in practice soon. 

After my flight, I went through customs and immigration, and then fired up Apple maps to figure out which trains to take to get to my final destination of Shinjuku, which is near Tokyo. I ended up taking about an hour and a half of trains with only one transfer and then had a short eight minute walk after that.

I got to my hotel, took a shower and went to sleep, which was at about 2 AM, not great but then again it was late Saturday night or Sunday morning in Pacific time so not that far off. Now I just need to make sure that I wake up at a normal time and I should be good, I’m looking forward to seeing what life is like in this area of Japan, and just taking it easy. Most of the time whenever I travel somewhere I try to fit in as much stuff as possible, and it can be quite tiring.

[ratralsis]

I mentioned recently that my cat went through a sudden emergency that wound up costing me a few thousand dollars.

For a couple of weeks, it wasn't clear if he was going to fully recover. As it turns out, by buying him special prescription food that costs me about $5/day, he's doing much better now.

It sucks. I'm not happy that it's so expensive to feed him and keep him healthy. But that's how it is, and it can't possibly last forever. Since he turns 14 this month, it probably won't last more than a couple more years, frankly. But who knows. That's what I said about my other cat, who's been on slightly less expensive prescription food since January. She's 17, going to turn 18 at the end of the year.

They're both very old, and it's now costing me over $200/month just for food. It's absurd. I'm unhappy about it. I'm going to keep spending it just as long as they're both alive, because the alternative is to have them put down them for being expensive.

Which is what I'll do if either of them winds up requiring another surgery, because, while I can do my best to budget around $200/month for food, I simply can't afford another trip to the emergency clinic like I had in August.

This is where, if I had enough readers to justify it, I'd put a donation link where you could send me money. But it'd be to keep my cats alive. To cover my pet expenses. It'd feel wrong for me to ask for money for that, so I won't.

And yes, that does mean I feel a little conflicted about it when I see other people post those kinds of donation links. "Help me cover funeral expenses for my dog," that kind of thing. I just can't justify it. I know that pets are family members to a lot of people, and they're family members to me, too, but, in my case and only in my case, I feel that I'm the one who decided to take on the responsibility of pet ownership. I don't know the details of anyone else's case, so I'm just left wondering.

But, well, for now, both cats are doing alright, and, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to budget and save and be back to where I want to be in a few more months. November is one of two months in the year when I get three paychecks, so that'll help a lot.

We'll see what happens. I've been trying to find ways to earn more money this year, and, because I work in IT and tens of thousands of other IT workers were laid off at the start of the year, it simply hasn't happened yet. Maybe it'll happen soon. Who knows.

Or maybe, in a couple of years when I finish my book, I'll be able to start raking in that sweet, sweet passive income that I keep hearing about. I doubt it, though! I really, really doubt it!

That's enough of a life update for now. I'd like to get back to writing about writing again soon. My ad-supported Amazon Fire Tablet really pushed a book on me hard called Zodiac Academy: The Awakening, which I was able to download for no additional cost because I have some Kindle membership, and I made it about four pages in before the author's fixation on the first-person narrator's butt and their absolutely fucking awful punctuation (an inability to use commas, mainly) made me decide to stop reading. I'm not sure if I want to actually write about that or not, but I'm thinking about it.

I guess the series must be doing well, though. There are like ten books in the series? A lot of people must not give a shit about their authors being good at writing, which isn't shocking, but it is a bit sad for someone like me, who does.

I mean, just, like, hire a fucking proofreader. They're out there. They exist. Might even lead to enough additional copies of the books being sold to pay for the cost of it.

Okay. That's enough of everything for now.

[curioscurio]

Wowza! So, fun new thing I learned: Aparently, Califorina has some really aggressive fire ants policies, so you guys don't really have them! Either way, it's good to know just in case you do see some floating ant piles lol

Some more Floridian tips if Hurricane Hillary ends up really nasty:

These are all good ideas if it starts getting really bad! A huge issue though, as a Floridian, is living without power post hurricane. I admit I have no idea what the power situation would be like in the califorina area of the hurricane will be, so this may not really apply to you, BUT:

If you DO lose power, I would suggest getting a couple of hand crank flashlights and charger bars that can act as phone chargers, just in case. We had to live for about a week with no running water, lights, internet, etc during the last hurricane and even a few hours of a charged phone helps with making sure you can contact your family and emergency services and keeping yourself occupied with no power. Consider downloading some games or apps that work without internet onto your phone! Also, keeping your phone on airplane mode will help your battery last longer; just be sure to turn it back off every now and then to make sure you're not missing any important texts/phone calls/messages/etc.

If you have a generator, be sure to make sure it's set up somewhere with proper ventilation, like outside or on a patio. Also, grab some extra fuel for your generator next time you're getting gas. Also, you're gonna wanna try and fuel your vehicle up completely as soon as you can before the hurricane hits. People will rush to gas stations, and you may end up in a really long line for gas, or worse, the station could possibly run out before you can get any. This also might not happen! It really depends on the severity of the hurricane and stuff. Just try and stay updated about local news mostly.

Anyway back to generators They're loud and can emit toxic emissions inside the home and can harm and even kill you. It's an engine yknow? Idk if it applies to every single generator or anything, but that's how it was with ours! Just make sure you're running it safely according to the instructions! Because Florida, we would only have our generator running at night to conserve fuel. You may be tempted to keep it on during the day because it gets hot, but unless it's absolutely essential, you're gonna wanna conserve it for the most important times like at night or mealtimes. (Or to use medical devices)

If you're able bodied and in a position to do so, try and help people whose houses have flooded. Sandbags around doorways and drains, etc. There's a lot of helpful sites out there that can instruct you how to safely and properly help keep floodwaters out of houses, but sandbags are HEAVY and there can be a lot of vulnerable people who are unable to do such intense physical work alone. If it's a lot of flood water, there may be a lot of other bugs, spiders, animals, etc hanging around in the flood waters. You may have some spiders trying to climb on you. We went and helped put some friends with flooding and let me tell you there were so many bugs on me that day...

Also! Not saying this will work... but. If you happen to come across the trucks who go around restoring local power... let them know you appreciate the work they're doing. Most likely, they're all being put through the ringer trying to get power back to everyone's homes and stuff. a couple of beers and pizza make for a pretty good incentive for them to get to your house quicker if you've been a few days without power. Again, not saying this is a sure-fire way to get your power back on quicker, but... it might work? Just try and be as courteous as you can towards everyone else who is working through the hurricane overall haha!

And honestly! Hurricanes are really unpredictable, and It could end up as dangerous as a really nasty thunderstorm in the end if it breaks up in the ocean. And even so, a really nasty hurricane is still something you can recover from :] stay strong and stay safe yall!

@ California mutuals: If it hasn't already been said: Try not to walk in flood water. If a power line is down its a perfect recipie for getting electrocuted. Its likely also dirty and full of sewage. Sometimes theres no choice, so if you DO end up walking in flood water, beware: if you see a patch or raft of brown like this, it's fire ants. They all climb on each other to form a raft and it's TERRIFYING (and cool to watch. ) Yes those are ALL fire ants.

[foxingpeculiar]

Video game blogging:

Finished Horizon: Forbidden West (after 96 hours and change). I didn't liveblog this one, but I definitely enjoyed it and will play it again. I know Burning Shores comes out in like 3 days, but I think I'll do the same thing here I did with Zero Dawn and save the DLC for the second playthrough. Plus, I'm playing this through the PSPlus thing, but I do wanna get it on disc, so I'll pick up a definitive edition at some point or something.

Story-wise, I think I said earlier that this feels like a trilogy and now, after seeing the ending of this one, that feels even more true. Also, they had the perfect opportunity to write Sylens out, but didn't, so I'm still curious what they're gonna do now. Like, you can't just fridge him after that... he's GOT to be part of part 3 now, so are they gonna recast him or find some creative solution?

Anyway, I am currently downloading the PS5 upgrade for Disco Elysium: The Final Cut, as voted on by Tumblr, which I very well might liveblog because it does gangbusters on here apparently. But I don't know that I'll start that tonight and I have a seminar paper to write in the next couple of weeks, so it might be a slow start. We'll see how it goes.

After that... well, it's gonna depend on how that goes. I have a preorder of Final Fantasy XVI and will be doing that when it comes out. And I do wanna get Tears of the Kingdom at some point as well. But I'm hoping to maybe get through a couple interesting games this summer and I've got a long queue of games I have access to and want to play, including (but not necessarily limited to): Tactics Ogre: Reborn Jedi: Fallen Order The Last of Us, Part II Dragon Quest XI Tails of Iron Ghosts of Tsushima Kingdom Hearts III Spider Man: Miles Morales Deathloop What Remains of Edith Finch Blasphemous Gravity Rush

And like... I haven't even looked at the classics catalog, really. And this is not including stuff I've started and want to go back and finish/redo (RDR2, Death Stranding, Like a Dragon, Nioh 2), or things I've been wanting to replay for a while (Sekiro, mostly, but also some of the early Final Fantasies, Fear Effect, a bunch of old stuff, actually).

Not enough goddamn hours in the day.

[babyboibucky]

Salt, Sugar and Viruses

Pairing: Office!Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: You’ve been secretly making coffee for Bucky at the office.

Word Count: 1,962

Warnings: Two idiots just doing idiot things

A/N: This was done in a haste so I kinda hate it lol but I can’t get this story out of my head and thanks to @bitchassbucky for pushing me to write a full fic of this 🥰 luv u 🥺

MAIN MASTERLIST

"You have a crush on Barnes' grumpy ass?!" Sam choked out.

You angrily hushed him and frantically looked around the pantry to make sure that your secret was still safe. Fortunately, only you, Sam and Nat were inside having your respective afternoon breaks.

"What? He's nice. And cute." you told Sam as you stirred your coffee, smiling to yourself at the thought of your office crush, Bucky.

"How'd you even meet him, he works all the way at the IT department." Sam asked.

Nat snorted recalling the encounters she witnessed for the past few months. Some of which were unintentional but most of them? You had carefully planned out just so you could come up with an excuse to request for Bucky's assistance.

"She might have gotten viruses in her computer once...or twice. Or thrice." Nat teased.

The first time you met Bucky was when most of your files suddenly got corrupted. It was hella embarrassing because you didn't know shit about how computers worked and well, you've been illegally downloading torrents since the office's internet connection was a gift from the internet gods. Without a doubt, your computer was a nest for viruses.

Bucky showed up in your floor that morning and you almost sunk into your seat from shame. You'd heard the IT Department complain about everybody else in the office messing up their computer systems. When you turned around, Bucky greeted you with a charming smile and soft hello. You could still remember how he felt when he stayed behind you as you sat on your chair, bending over to take your mouse in his hand.

God, he smelled so good you almost turned your head to nuzzle your face into his neck.

He was very soft-spoken you realized; Bucky was kind enough to walk you through the process and to be honest, you couldn't recall a damn thing he said. Something about firewalls? And shields? Whatever, you didn't really listen. You just stared at Bucky as he explained everything, solving your problem in less than fifteen minutes.

Since then, your crush for Bucky grew bigger. You'd entered the elevator together a couple of times, shared small conversations that made your heart flutter. When those little moments didn't seem enough, you started your devious plan to fuck up your computer a bit. By the third time Bucky fixed your computer, he was already comfortable enough to tease you for being a "virus magnet".

"Hello? Young lady, come back to earth." Sam snapped his finger right in front of your face, interrupting your thoughts.

You clicked your tongue at him and swatted his hand away. "If you ever tell this to anyone, Wilson. You are dead." you warned, poinitng a finger at him.

Sam rolled his eyes, "It's so unfair how he's kind to you. Last time I requested for his assistance he got all smug and grumpy at me." he complained.

Nat shook her head in amusment, "That's because you've been downloading porn. You know the IT department can access our browser histories, right?"

You choked on your coffe, "WHAT?!"

Nat narrowed her eyes at you, "You been up to no good for you to react like that?"

You faceplamed, "I've been stalking his Facebook account."

Sam chortled, "What are you, in high school? Jesus, calm down. You're gonna be fine. Why don't you just tell him you like him?"

You made a face, "I'm not Nat to have the guts to do that."

Nat hummed, bringing her mug to the sink to wash it. "Why don't you start by making him coffee?"

"I don't know how he likes his coffee."

You received a pointed look from both your friends. You groaned in defeat, "Okay, fine. I know how Bucky likes his coffee."

Nat smirked, "Stalker."

-

Bucky always arrived in the office half an hour before nine in the morning. This gives him time to settle into his cubicle, buy a sandwich at the stall downstairs and to make himself a cup of coffee. It was his daily routine and upon going back to his desk after buying his breakfast sandwich, Bucky was surprised to see a cup of newly brewed coffee on his desk.

He looked around but there were no signs of anyone. There wasn't even a note of some sort. Carefully, he brought the cup to his face and inhaled its scent. Shrugging, he took a tiny sip.

-

"How's the little secret admirer doing?" Nat asked, grabbing a chair and sitting down beside you.

You deadpanned, "I've been leaving him his coffee for an entire week now and nothing's happened yet."

Nat frowned, "Are you kidding me? Why would you expect for something to happen when you haven't been leaving any clues?" she said.

"I'm shy, okay?! Maybe I should hide somewhere, check for his reaction. See whether I have a chance." you shrugged.

It was stupid of you to leave the coffee on Bucky's desk. You never stayed to wait for him. You just left it there without a note or anything that would even give him a clue about you and your little crush on him. You knew the reason why, of course. You were afraid of rejection. Sometimes, you'd feel like you have a chance with him since he was always so kind and warm to you. Not to mention, everyone in the office knows him to be grumpy but around you, he was totally the opposite of that.

But then again, maybe he was just nice to you because you were nice to him too.

-

One morning after leaving Bucky his coffee, you finally decided to leave him a note. You ran back to your cubicle to get a post-it and a pen. Before you could even walk around your desk, you spotted Bucky headed over to the pantry, the cup of coffee in his hand.

"Fuck, okay. Maybe I should just directly ask him out?" you thought to yourself.

You quickly followed Bucky into the pantry and almost whined when you saw that Sam was inside as well. You widened your eyes at him, signalling for him to leave but Sam was preoccupied on observing Bucky who seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Rough morning?" Sam just had to ask as you awkwardly stood by the doorway, finding the right timing to butt in.

Bucky's forehead creased as he let out a huff, "Rough weeks, actually." he answered.

You opened your mouth to say something comforting, wanting to lift Bucky's spirits up but he turned around and glanced at you and then back to Sam.

"Does anyone hate me in this office?" Bucky asked.

You and Sam exchanged looks, both of utter confusion before shaking your heads in unison. "Why'd you ask?" Sam asked.

Bucky lifted the cup of coffee that you made, "Someone's been making me coffee." he stated.

You cleared your throat, "...is it bad?" you asked.

Bucky made a face, "Terrible actually."

Ouch.

"I mean, the first time I saw it I was actually flattered. And then I took a sip and it's just...salty." Bucky said, pouring the coffee into the sink before throwing it into the bin.

Sam's head snapped towards your direction, his face almost red from biting back a laugh. Your face heated up at the realization that you've been putting salt into Bucky's coffee instead of sugar. All this time. You wanted to disappear right then and there. And Sam had to be the one to witness your huge failure.

"I thought it was a mistake since the next day, there was another coffee on my desk. I tried it out and it's still salty. It lasted a week, you guys. And I was dumb enough to keep on tasting it in hopes that it might have been a genuine mistake. But now I'm starting to think that someone hates me that much to fuck my coffee up." Bucky explained, face scrunched up into a mixture of irritation and curiosity.

Sam failed to stifle his laughter and exploded, "Funniest shit I've ever heard." he told Bucky before standing up and making his way to the door where you stood.

Your face was red and if the salt and sugar mishap was already humiliating enough, Sam decided to make things even worse for you.

"You really need to check the labels before pouring shit into his coffee." and with that, Sam gave your shoulder a squeeze before leaving the pantry.

Closing your eyes, you took a deep breath and tried to calm yourself. When you opened them, Bucky was staring at you with an expression you couldn't paint.

"Did you...were you the one leaving me coffee?" he asked.

You secretly pinched yourself in the arm to check whether you were just dreaming. Fuck, you hoped you were having a nightmare but the pain that you felt made it clear that you totally fucked up.

You nodded in embarrassment.

"You hate me that much?" Bucky asked in disbelief, as if he was offended that out of all people, it had to be you.

You quickly shook your head, "No, God no! I just...it's because I..." you stammered, trying to find the courage to spit out the words you've been dying to tell Bucky.

Bucky tilted his head, "Because you...?" he urged.

Your hands balled into fists as you let out another deep breath. Bucky probably hates you right now, but whatever. This was your only chance and to hell, you were going to confess.

"Because I like you?"

You didn't think that Bucky's confused look could even turn more...well, confused. But he was looking at you incredulously as though you've grown a second head, or a third head.

"You like me so you decided to put salt in my coffee?" he asked again.

You honestly didn't know who sounded even more stupid now, you or Bucky. Because if he still didn't understand what was going on, he was dense as fuck.

"No!" you explained. "I wanted to make you a decent cup of coffee but I guess I was too careless and didn't realize that I've been putting in salt instead of sugar." you said.

Bucky didn't say anything after that. He just stared at you, but he didn't seem confused anymore. If any, he looked like he was processing the entire situation.

"You like me." he stated again.

Will your embarrassment ever end?!

"Yes, Bucky. And I messed up my chance and you know what? I'm just going to show myself out and leave you alone." you told him and forced a fake grin before attempting to walk out.

A hand gripped your wrist, pulling you back into the pantry. This time, Bucky was the one who looked embarrassed.

"I might have...done something pretty stupid too." he said, avoiding your gaze as he rubbed the back of his neck.

You eyed him suspiciously, "What do you mean?"

"I uhh...I did something to your computer...the day before you requested for my assistance for the first time." Bucky admitted shyly.

It was your turn to get muddled at Bucky's confession. "But why?" you asked.

Bucky offered a shy smile, "Because I've been seeing you around the building and thought you were cute."

And then everything clicked. It was a light bulb moment for the both of you.

"Oh. Ohhh okay. I see." you said before suddenly breaking into laughter.

Bucky joined you and scratched his head, "I guess we're both idiots." he said, placing his hands inside his pockets as he stared at you.

"This went...way more interesting than I thought." you said with a nod.

There was a pause before you decided to speak up, "So, do you want coffee?"

Bucky beamed at you as he nodded, "As long as you'll use sugar this time."

-

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[the-weirdos-mind]

League of Villains X Teen! Reader: You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid

Songfic of the song with the same name by The Offspring. Here’s the reader’s quirk: 

 Quirk- Manipulation

Type- Emitter

How it works- Similar to Aizawa’s and Nighteye’s quirks you have to look someone in the eye to get them under control. They’re unaware that you’re controlling them but still aware of their senses. When you have someone under control you can do whatever you want with them until you either look away from that person (it doesn’t always have to be eye contact), blink, or release them. Whenever someone is under your spell, it’s like being trapped in a room with one-way glass. They are aware of what’s going on but, can’t get help. 

Drawbacks- If you use the power for more than an hour you’ll get a headache. If you push yourself you’ll get a migraine. You can choose when to activate it and for how long but the time still adds to an hour no matter how many times you activate it in the day.

Trigger warnings: Blood and use of violence, if I’m missing anything then let me know so I can correct it 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Show me how to lie You're getting better all the time And turning all against the one Is an art that's hard to teach

    You followed Giran down the hallway to an unknown place. You had the hood of you (F/C) on to hide your (H/L) (H/C) hair with your eyes on the ground. You watched as foot after foot in (F/C) shoes put pressure on the dirty ground. You mentally sighed as you reflect your life choices. You didn’t want to live this life but everyone around you saw your quirk as one thing; villainous. You got tired of the words and became what they wanted you be. You realized that heroes are worthless and they didn’t care that a young (boy/girl/person) was heading down a dark path. You glanced up to see the man opening the door. You immediately looked down and followed him in the room.

     Side glancing at the room you noticed it was a bar. There was a purple cloud like man with yellow eyes in a suit and a metal brace around his neck. He was polishing a glass behind the bar. On a red stool was another man holding a glass of alcohol. He had his pinky raised away from the glass though and you silently raised an eyebrow. Is this because of his quirk or is he British? His shaggy blue hair was covering most of his face but when he turned to face the two, you saw a pale hand covering his face and his red eyes glaring at you. You glanced down at the floor. Not yet.

    “You seriously brought a child?” He asked setting the glass cup down. “You do know that this is for mature adults? And (she/he/they) can’t stare at me in the eyes? How rude.” His voice was raspy and you concluded he was holding the glass like that was because of his quirk.

  “Shigaraki, this is (Y/N), I brought (him/her/them) cause (he/she/they) need some training with (his/her/their) quirk.” Giran said and took a drag from his cigarette. He exhaled and a smoke cloud came in the room. “(He/She/They) is getting better at it but, (he/she/they) still needs some help.”

    You rolled your eyes at him. “At least I don’t treat kids like they’re nothing.” You mumbled still bitter about Shigaraki’s comment.

     “What was that?” The blue haired man asked, dangerously.

     “So, you’re deaf huh? I thought an excellent leader would treat a new recruit with respect no matter the age they are.”

Another clever word Sets off an unsuspecting herd And as you get back into line A mob jumps to their feet

    “Shut up.” Shigaraki muttered and scratched his neck. He was stressed about the trouble this kid was causing. Sure he and Dabi didn’t get along but he liked being in control. “(He/She/They) is mature for (his/her/their) age.” Giran said. “Maybe with (him/her/them) as leader it won’t be bad.” He added. He knew what you were doing. If you get him mad enough to get him to look at you in the eye then you can show off your quirk. You did keep your mouth shut as the man stood up and walked over to you. You looked at him in the eye and a (F/C) hue came to your (E/C) eyes. His eyes begin to fog up a little, not enough to appear blind but enough to look suspicious.

Now dance, ****er, dance Man, he never had a chance And no one even knew It was really only you

     Shigaraki barely saw the change of your eye color. He was so surprised to started dancing. His feet moved in a fast pace in place. “What the ****!?!” He yelled, only in his mind. Dabi started laughing again. The scarred man leaned over clutching his stomach. He’s laughing so hard he might start crying, or blood will fall from his destroyed tear ducts, if he’s not careful. After a few minutes of dancing you blinked to end the curse on him. They didn’t know that you caused it to happen. Giran smirked and patted you on the head. “What the h***?” The man asked looking around, wondering what just happened.

    “That is (his/her/their) quirk at work.” He man said before the other could get angry. “With a power like (hers/his/theirs) would be useful for heist situations and causing diversions wouldn’t it?”

    “What is (his/her/theirs) quirk?” The wisp man asked.

    “Manipulation.” You said. “Whenever I look at someone in the eyes it activates my power. I can hold control of them for at least an hour before I get a headache. Best part is no one knows that they’re under my grasp.” You said.

    “I’ll admit that I’m impressed.” Shigaraki said. “Welcome I guess.”

    Giran smiled. “You won’t be disappointed.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now you steal away Take him out today

   After a few weeks of joining the League you’re on your first solo mission. Before this one you were mainly paired with a blonde haired girl named Toga. She was pretty nice when she wasn’t obsessing over blood or trying to stab you. Other times you were paired with a man named Twice. He would say two different things and it would give you mixed feelings about a job well done.

    You walked through the area of the city to a hero agency. Your job is to find maps of the inside and steal them. Shigaraki didn’t care if they were on paper or not all he cared about was getting them, It’s pretty simple to do but considering this is you, you had a knife and a handheld gun just in case if things went south. So far it was going well. You got a security guard under control and using him you were able to get a computer with the building’s layout on it. Pulling out a flash drive that Compress had given you, you stuck it in the computer and start downloading. Unfortunately, you looked away from the guard and he glared at you.

    “I don’t know your plan here kid, but it’s best if you leave now.” He said. He did try to alert someone but it was useless, he was trapped in his mind until you looked away. You looked at him and put your hand in your pocket with the knife.

    “I don’t think so.” You said. Before he could call for backup you pulled the knife out and threw it at his chest. He gasped at the impact of the knife and slumped to the floor. Blood was falling from the wound fast, staining his shirt and forming a puddle. Thankfully there was a ding as the data had finished uploading to the flash drive. You walked over to the computer and pulled it out. You smirked as you pocketed it and pulled the knife out from the guard. You left the building leaving behind a guard slowly bleeding to death.

Nice work you did You're gonna go far, kid

    You walked back into the hideout and put the flash drive on the bar next to Shigaraki. He nodded at you when he saw it. “Good job. A win for us.” He said and carefully pocketed the piece of tech.

    “And in an hour too.” Spinner said.

    “That’s really impressive!” Twice said. “It’s not that impressive.”

    You feel a hand clamp on your head and ruffle your hair. “Not bad, kid.” Dabi said. He could tell you’re gonna go far in the villain industry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a thousand lies And a good disguise Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes

   You had gotten in the school with one of the best lies you have, your parents went there. It wasn’t U.A. but it’s also training people for the hero industry. The plan was to get the best marks in the school and transfer to U.A. as the highest in your class. Giran came into play for making fake documents that pass off as real.

    The one on one fight that took place with some kid you didn’t even bother to know was annoying. His quirk was something water related and you almost drowned a couple of times. You finally looked at him in the eye and ordered him to stop. You ran up to him and punched his face, in the between the eyes a couple of times. The first one stun him while the other knocked him out.

When you walk away Nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

   You panted and wiped the sweat away from your forehead. You walked away from the ring where the training took place and looked at everyone else. They looked away from you in fear and parted like a body of water. You swore you saw someone running for their life. You smirked to yourself and took your seat on the bleachers. Pride danced in your eyes like lightning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Slowly out of line And drifting closer in your sights So play it out I'm wide awake It's a scene about me

  The first thing the infamous Class 1-A noticed about you is how secretive you were. You shared nothing about yourself other than your name and quirk. They noticed that you did some… shady things to put it mildly. Some noticed you snuck out of the dorms at night. Idia, Miydoriya, Bakugo and Todoroki had followed you to an alleyway and heard you talking to some shadowy figure there. Both spoke in soft whispers that they couldn’t tell who you were talking to and whether or not they were male or female. Other than that occurrence, they didn’t get anything else.

   About a week later, the League attacked UA. You had managed to get them in through your student ID and gave them full access to the school, by a really good copy of the little plastic card. Five minutes prior to the attack, you had excused yourself from math, who needs it anyways, and went to the bathroom. While the lockdown was going on, you met with Toga in the halls. The plan was to get to All Might and kill him, the typical plan made by the man child of a leader you have. You both heard footsteps running towards you and saw it was the class president, Iida. “(L/N), get away from her!” He yelled, doing his hand chop thing. You smirked and took out the dagger the blonde handed you. “No, I don’t think I will.” You responded. Time to shine.

There's something in your way                                                                       And now someone is gonna pay And if you can't get what you want,                                                              Well, it's all because of me

    He stood there, shell shocked at the sight before him. His classmate was a villain? You couldn’t use your quirk yet, anyways. You decided to let the scene play out. You let a dark chuckle seeing his face. “All my life I’ve been told that I was best suited for a villain. You know, you could’ve used the time you knew me to get to know me but, everyone treated me the same as before! It’s too bad that things had to end like this. Wait, no it’s not that bad. You and your class are gonna pay!” You yelled. You lunged at him and he dodged as he snapped out of his shocked state.

    “(Y/N), it doesn’t have to be this way!” He said and continued to dodge the blade. He was still surprised and didn’t attempt to fight back because he couldn’t believe the suspicions about you were true. You growled in frustration. “It’s too late for me anyways. You can’t turn me to the light.” You said and looked at him in the eyes and yours started glowing (F/C). He almost let out a gasp but it didn’t leave his body as his eyes fogged up a little.

Now dance, ****er, dance, man, I never had a chance And no one even knew, it was really only you And now you'll lead the way

   You smiled as the class representative had fallen for your trick. “Now, we’re going back to the class, and you’re going to act like everything is alright.” You ordered.

   He nodded. “Yes, (Sir/Ma’am/Other).” He said, voice coming out robotically. He set off to find his class and you followed him, due to your power. The irony of the situation was almost amusing to you. Almost. The head of the class, now a puppet. A puppet that can dance to whatever twisted moves that you have set for it.

Show the light of day Nice work you did You're gonna go far, kid Trust deceived

    You followed him down the twisting paths of the hallways to the rest of the class. Your gaze fixed on the back of his head. You knew Toga was going to inform everyone else that everything was according to plan. Finally, the two of you reached the hiding area where everyone else was. “Thank goodness you found, (him/her/them!)” You heard Izuku said. Then he noticed that something was off about his classmates. You were refusing to look at anybody else than the boy in front of you and Iida’s looked dazed. Like he was… under someone’s control.

    The greenette’s eyes widened. His classmate was… no. He had his suspicions but the truth is hard to handle. Before he could say anything, Iida gave him a swift kick in the face.

With a thousand lies and a good disguise Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes

    They stood there in surprise and shock. A blanket of fear had covered them, making them stand there like statues. The only sounds were the groans of Miydoriya and the thud of his body hitting the ground. “I-Iida.” Ochaco stuttered in fear. No one had expected the class president to attack their classmate outside of training. The blue haired boy then hit the nearest person, Mineta, giving him a punch to the cheek. No one really reacted to that. In all honesty, the grape had it coming.

When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

     While they were distracted, you used the opportunity to leave. It didn’t matter if Iida was going to spill the secret you kept from them. That s*** was already out. You smirked to yourself knowing which side of the street you belong in.

Now dance, ****er, dance, he never had a chance And no one even knew, it was really only you So dance, ****er, dance, I never had a chance It was really only you

    The mission went out as planned. It was only a ploy to strike fear in the hearts of citizens. After all, an attack with no causalities is far worse with ones that do. You now sat at the bar, a bottle of water in your hand. You may be a criminal but the age of drinking consent is something that you can’t argue with.  No matter how hard you tried. The news was on talking about the event. Everyone was able to get away without anyone being caught. Call it luck or whatever but, you’re thankful that they did. The anchorwoman was talking about how a student was involved with the League and helped out. A picture of your face appeared on the screen and you smirked. It wasn’t a school photo but a mugshot from a previous capture. One you managed to get away from. No one even suspected you, or so you think, but regardless it’s wonderful to see.

With a thousand lies and a good disguise Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes

    You couldn’t help but chuckled remembering the looks on each of their faces. What they thought was a classmate was really playing a part. A perfect disguise if you asked yourself. You have the innocent looking (boy/girl/person) appearance and if anyone who didn’t know you found out about your job. It would’ve made you laugh as not everything is as it seems.

    Your fists tingled as they remembered the feeling of their face contacting your skin. You placed the hand that held the plastic bottle on top of the other’s knuckles. The feeling is something you’re going to remember for a long time.

When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

  A pair of footsteps came walking in and you dropped your hands to your lap. You see Shigaraki walking into the bar holding a folder, with a finger away from it as always. You know it could only mean one thing. “Another mission?” You asked, voicing your thoughts. The boss nodded and handed it to you.

     “Go over it and be ready for when the time comes. You did good on your last mission, keep up the good work. You’re a valuable character.” He said before walking away. You weren’t sure if the last sentence was a praise or another video game term but regardless you nodded.

     “Will do.” You said and opened it up, wondering what will be to cause more fear in the people. And more pride in yourself. Each success makes you happy.

Clever alibis, Lord of the Flies Hit 'em right between the eyes Hit 'em right between the eyes

   You almost busted out laughing seeing  which role you were supposed to play. An innocent citizen who loves all the hero crap. You won’t be alone this time, having Toga to accompany you on this one. You felt excited for the mission. It would mean more people will realize what idiots heroes truly are. The truth will knock them down from the clouds.

When you walk away, nothing more to say See the lightning in your eyes See 'em running for their lives

   But right now, it’s time for a nap. The last mission tired you out. You took the folder with you and walked to your room. All that matters right now is a bed, a blanket, and wonderful dreams of a world where people run in fear from you.

[subwaysurf45]

Tech problems (bucky x reader)

Summary: bucky doesn’t know how to work the TV, his new phone, anything. After getting made fun if he wants to quit but the reader helps him out.

Pairing: bucky barns x reader

Warning: mentions of death near the end, but it’s mostly fluff

Masterlist!

Bucky stood at the counter in the kitchen, full weight leaning on the concrete slab that most people ate off of. His eyebrows were basically touching as he fiddled with his phone that Tony just gave him, he just couldn’t figure it out for the life of him.

“Hey, old guy!” Tony walked in, “whatcha doing?” He walked over and peered over Bucky’s shoulder.

“Trying to…” his brain wasn’t focused on completing the sentence, more on creating an e-mail.

“I see,” Tony snatched the phone from Bucky’s hands and turned his back to him, Bucky tried to see what he was doing but Tony kept walking around. A little bit of anger grew inside him because Tony seemed just fine at working with tech- everyone did.

Steve had walked in, “Tony, what are you doing?” His voice was tired and annoyed, he already knew what was happening simply from the way Bucky looked longingly at Steve. “Tony-“

“Ah-ta-ta, let me help him.” Tony smirked, his voice dripping in sarcasm. “I’m doing it all for him, aaaand- done!” He turned and slapped the phone in the table, it looked like everyone else’s.

“What did you do to it?” Bucky asked, his anger coming through in his tone.

“Nothing, tin man- old man- silver hair, just nothing.” He seemed like he was telling the truth, “i just did it so you wouldn’t keep annoying me and asking so many god damn questions, jeez.” Tony scoffed and walked away, Bucky didn’t pick up the phone, rather stare at it.

“How stupid am I?” Bucky asked, “really, like you got this figured out in less than a week, Tony told me when I asked for the Bluetooth password.”

“Wifi.” Steve corrected.

“What?” Bucky looked over, “same thing, who cares…” Bucky waved him off, his head snapped up at Steve suppressing a laugh, his stomach sank, “what?” His voice light and almost a whisper.

“It’s not the same thing, very much not the same thing.” He laughed, Bucky sighed, he’d had enough of this. Bucky picked up the phone and walked down the hall, “oh, come on! I’m having fun with you!” Steve laughed.

~~~

You wiped the sweat from your forehead, training with Nat had just ended and you were heading back to your shared room with Bucky. As you walked past the kitchen you saw Steve looking at nothing, he hand kept his head up.

“Why the long face?” You panted, still needing to catch your breath.

“I made fun of Bucky, he’s mad now.” His mouth barley moved, the sentence was muffled.

“About what?” You asked softly but you were still mad, he made fun of your boyfriend.

“Him not knowing how to use tech,” Steve looked up and saw your jaw drop, “what?”

“Literally last night he was so upset because he called me when I was training and he used the emergency signal, so I came running to our room and he had no idea.” You looked towards the bedrooms, “he was so upset with himself that he made me scared, he was all in his head. I need to go check up on him,” you sighed and turned to go to your room; that hot shower had to wait.

Once you made it to your room you softly knocked on the door, “Bucky?” You called, when you heard a hum you opened the door a jar, seeing him slumped over with his phone in his hands. “Hey, babe.” He seemed to break out of his thoughts when you placed a hand on his back.

“Hi, doll face.” He tried to smile, “how’s training?” He looked over to you as you sat beside him.

“Very long and very tiring,” you chuckled, you knew if you asked how he was doing he might get mad or breakdown, “Steve told me what happened, he seemed sad when I was in the kitchen.” Your hand started to rub his upper back, making sure you didn’t hit any scars through the shirt. “You wanna talk about it?” His phone was still on the home page, all the apps were downloaded but you knew he didn’t do that himself.

“I don’t know anything,” he sighed, “i don’t know how to work my phone, the microwave, the TV…I don’t know how to use the system thing in here properly, I can barley understand cars these days, that’s why I use the motorcycle because they didn’t change much but-… y/n, everyone thinks it so funny, the old guy who doesn’t know jack shit about tech.” He slumped forward.

“I don’t think it’s funny,” you moved up to the back of his neck, knowing he likes when you get under into his scalp.

“You’re different.” He stated.

“How so?”

“Because you’ve never been mean to anyone, you’re this shining star, you’re a light and you’re never mean.” His eyes left his phone and he looked at your leg, not wanting to make eye contact after saying that.

Your heart melted, his lips turned up at the quickly kiss to his cheek. He looked over and kissed you back, your hands wrapped around his neck and his pulled your waist in. After pulling away your foreheads rested on one another’s.

“Let me teach you, yeah?” You whispered, “no jokes. No funny business. As long as you need, I’ll go through it all.” You leaned back and waiting for his response.

“I don’t wanna make you go through-“

“Nope. Final rule, no self-doubt.” You smiled, his lip pouted out and he tried to cover his face and blush.

“Okay,” he nodded, “teach me.”

“Not right now,” you laughed, Bucky quirked a brow, “I’m tired and sweaty and I feel gross, also, I would like some cuddles.” You stood and grabbed your towel and a change of comfy clothes, “tomorrow.”

~~~

It was the next day, Bucky sat on the bed as you walked around the TV in your shared room, deep down he wanted to take some notes but he knew if anyone found them, he’d never hear the end of it.

“So let’s start basic,” you stood in front of the blank TV, “let’s say you’ve lost he remote, this is how you control it. Right here,” you pointed to the circle with a line through the top symbol, “that is the universal signal for on and off, look for that. Then, once you’ve pressed it here is the little notches for the volume and then the channel notches.” You pointed as you went along the bottom of the screen.

“Sounds easy,” Bucky muttered more to himself.

“But we have a remote, here, same little symbol, on and off. There, that’s the volume, and the big circle can help navigate up and down, side to side.” You showed him up close, “lots of these buttons will never be used, so I won’t really go through them.” You waved it off. “Okay, test number one, turn of the tv.” You passed the remote.

“Okay…” bucky clicked the button with the symbol he now knew and the screen lit up, some random cartoon played, “yes!” He shit up and jumped, quickly catching himself he sat back down.

“Can you change the channel for me?” You asked, a smirk on your face from his reaction before, he clicked the channel button and it went to the news. “And turn it up, please.”

“Easy,” he smiled and clicked, no sound came out. “What?” He clicked again and the sound came back, but not louder.

“You hit the mute button, use the long button here,” you pointed, he clicked up and it went up one level, after catching on and holding it the volume kept going up, “Bucky-“ you tried to warn but the volume cut out completely.

“Shit.” He stood up, Bucky fiddled with the notches on the actual TV but nothing happened. “What did I do?” His face i genuine terror, “did I break it, oh god, Tony’s gonna get some mad.”

“You blew out the speakers,” after observing the smoke coming out from the side of the TV that was the only possible answer.

“I knew i’d mess it up, I get so cocky, I really thought I had it.” He paced around, tugging his hair.

“Don’t worry, it’ll all be fine,” you calmed him and sat him in the bed, “it’s hard at first but it will only get easier.” You smiled before pulling him into a hug, you could feel his sigh of defeat as he hugged back.

You both headed out to the kitchen, Bucky still in a mood from breaking the TV a couple minutes ago. You both had some coffee, yours with a little milk.

“Hello, lovebirds.” Tony walked in, Bucky looked right at his feet and tried not to look awkward. “What’s up with cyborg over here?” Tony giggled.

“Nothing,” you dipped your coffee, Bucky just nodded along.

“I got a notification that the speakers in your room were blown out,” Tony teased, Bucky stiffened and inches closer to you, “what happened?”

Bucky looked up, his mouth open and about to talk. You gently placed a hand on his chest and looked him in the eye, a way of saying ‘I got this’.

“I sat in the remote, turns out my ass poked it right at the volume and I couldn’t figure it out in time.” You laughed, Bucky looked at you crazy before forcing one out.

Tony hunched over, “I can picture that, oh wow- I wish I was there!” He cackled before turning away and walking down the hall, “it’ll be fixed by tomorrow!” He called over his shoulder.

~~~

It was lonely without you, it was very rare you’d go in missions without Bucky but also rare you’d go alone. It was a simple infiltrate, you were more on the espionage rather than Captain America side of powers. 

Bucky had tired to talk to Steve about letting someone go with you, this mission would involve zero contact with the base. But no one listened, it was always going to be you.

It had been a month, three quarters done with the they needed. The tech lesions had to be halted, you weren’t there to teach and Bucky refused to let anyone tell him anything about the tech in his room.

“If only you could see me, babe…” he whispered as he worked the TV, that was the only thing he knew, and he was great at it. Last week he recorded a show, he was never going to watch it, but it as recorded. He almost had a heart attack when the remote stopped working, but it just ran out of batteries.

After doing all the cool tricks he knew he looked over to your side of the bed, it was neatly made and seemed untouched. Whenever you’d be fine for even a night he’d sleep on the ground, but he promised he’d sleep on the bed, but he never rolled over or even sat on your side.

The one thing he missed was the way your shampoo stunk up the whole bed in a good way, when he’d wake up the morning after you’d showered he’d could smell your lavender shampoo right away, it almost puts him back to sleep. But as the days went on, it faded.

Bucky looked around before gently placing his face your pillow, almost like an afterthought of your sent came through; just barley there. His face hovered before he gave in and relaxed on it, he knew if he’d roll around the sent would fade quicker, he didn’t really care.

There was a hard spot on your pillow, he reached under and found a green spiral notebook. It didn’t have anything in the cover, once he opened it a gasp fell from his lips.

It was a notebook, for every piece of tech in the house. From his phone to how F.R.I.D.A.Y. works, it was all there. Intricate diagrams that where labeled, one page had everything he needed to know.

Bucky’s phone sat face down in his bedside table, he flipped the that page and looked it over. He picked up his phone and read through it all, slightly muttering then words that were written to himself like he was being taught.

“Okay, you got this,” he said as he pressed the on button, as he navigated around he learned how to add a contact, send and text, google, the a picture, send an email. Everything.

~~~

You walked into the compound completely exhausted, one black eye layer, the base had been infiltrated. You went to your mission report computer and Tony was there, he gave you your phone.

“Connect back to the wifi,” he nodded before leaving you to connect.

Once you were fully back online your phone began to buzz, over and over. Tons of notifications rolled in. You went to emails first.

From: bucky

To: y/n

Subject: test?

Hellooooooo this is a test, don’t worry about it!

You laughed and scrolled through the other emails, finding out they were all kind of the same, then you went to text messages.

There was a selfie of him holding the green book, his smile couldn’t have been wider. He sent three, probably by accident. But they were still cute.

So I figured hit text!

Kinda cool

I found the book, it was like Christmas

Anyway, I know you won’t read this but I think I’ll try the oven next, I’ll ask wanda about it.

As the texts went on, your heart started to drop and your stomach swirled. They had been getting progressively sadder.

Hey doll face, I hope you’re well, miss you

I miss you

I love you

I wanna marry you one day, maybe live on farm and have a few kids

If you want

Sent: two months ago

I finished your book, I think I know it all now, I’ve been going over those tests you put in the back sleeve, they’re really good

You’re very thoughtful

I know you can’t see this

I don’t know what to do with myself, this is very hard.

Sent: one month ago

Are you dead?

I had a dream you died in my arms, and I can’t tell if it was a flashback or a dream

I hope you’re not

I love you too much

Please come home

Please

I really need you

I wish I never learn how to use this shit, honestly, I can’t seem to put my phone down because this is all I have if you right now. I keep checking it to see if you’ve responded but I know you haven’t, but part of me wants you to respond so I know you’re alive.

I’m not ready to say goodbye to you yet.

Sent: 24 hours ago

You slammed the phone down and raced down the hall, you passed the kitchen and everyone who smiled at you because they hadn’t seen you in three months, they probably also thought you were dead.

You stopped right before the door, you could hear soft whimpers coming from inside.

“I miss you,” the voice was muffled.

You opened the door silently, you saw Bucky lying right next to your side of the bed, it was still perfectly made. You also saw what looked like glass shattered by the wall, a closer look and it was his phone.

“Bucky?” You asked.

His head shot up and he sat up straight, after wiping his face he ran right over to you. His hug pushed you back on the floor, he just stayed there.

“Don’t ever do that again, please.” His voice was still shaken, “I can’t go through that again.”

“Never again, i was so worried when I saw your text a minuet ago.” You whispered and ran your fingers through his hair.

“Your name in my phone, your the only one.” He sniffled, “it was like it was taunting me, I got really mad and I threw it.” He hugged you tighter, “you were supposed to come home two days ago.” He cried.

“I know,” you housed him and sat up, as he pulled away he saw your bruised face, his thumb gently traced the purple mark.

“I don’t want a phone, I like knowing about it, but I’ll only ever borrow yours.” He seemed like he was pledging something, like an oath.

“Done deal,” you pulled him in for a long kiss, hoping it would never end.

[dreamsmp-au-ideas]

wooohooo MCU gremlins drabble

Thor and Bruce examined the burn patters swirling on the remains of a wall, as Tony and Steve chatted to themselves.

“It’s been a month since these so-called Four Warriors were summoned, and we still haven’t found them. And now we know they have energy-based weapons.”

“But don’t you think that’s strange? These Warriors have been in New York for a month, and this is the first we’ve seen of any sort of attack.”

“Ahem.” Thor stood up. “I’m afraid that you are incorrect, Man of Iron.”

Tony raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Bruce stepped in, data pad in hand, which he passed to Tony. “The burn patterns here are too sporadic to be man-made. They look like natural lightning- or the kind of stuff Thor can summon. If I didn’t know this came from the middle of the city, I’d say the wall was just struck in a storm.”

Tony hummed. “So, what are you saying? Instead of the Warriors running around my city with weapons, they’re running around with superpowers? That’s worse!”

“Tony, you have to calm down.”

The Thunder God shook his head. “Actually, I have seen this kind of lightning before. It was made by a child of the stars- your people do not have a name for their race.”

Steve blinked. “An alien?”

“Yes, but one forged in the heart of a star. That is not the concerning thing about these markings, however.”

“What is it?”

“They are powerful, but wildly inaccurate. Whoever shot these blasts was not trained to use them effectively.”

“Meaning?”

“They are either a non-combatant... or a juvenile. I would tend towards the latter, as a fully grown star child would have more power in their blasts.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “It’s a kid? You’re sure?” He stopped. “Fuck.”

“Language.”

“Shut it, Rodgers. I just remembered something.” He tapped the data pad. “When we fought that weirdo with the staff, we saw a bunch of teenagers.”

Steve made a noise of realisation, and his heart sank. “Four teenagers. I thought they’d been caught up in the blast, so I made sure they got out safely. I only saw two of their faces- but they were definitely just freaked-out kids in over their heads.”

Bruce took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. “Are you saying he summoned teenagers to do his dirty work? Are you saying the dangerous Warriors SHIELD has been tracking are kids?”

“Most likely stranded kids, if they’re still in the city.”

“Fuck.”

Steve didn’t admonish him this time.

——————————————————————————

A good thing about a city that’s constantly under attack is that nobody looks at a beat-up teenager twice, except with pity. Tommy knew that from back in L’Manberg, and it still rang true in... wherever the fuck they were. New York? He kicked a rock. “Fuckin’ stupid name. I would have come up with a much cooler one.”

Purpled scoffed, but there was no malice in it. “Uh huh.” The Starborne kept an eye on the entrance to the alley, fingers flexing around a hidden knife. He wouldn’t be caught unawares again. “You’d have named it L’Yorkberg or something.”

“Like I said, a much cooler name.” Tommy shot his friend a grin, and the wall behind them promptly disappeared. A tall figure with a hood over his face beckoned them through, the wall clicking seamlessly back into place behind them.

Finally, safety. The house they’d found was abandoned, and if anyone had come across it they’d be... confused. Random chunks of soil, sand and marble in perfect cubes were scattered around the room, and every surface was covered with random bits and pieces of machinery.

Purpled swept some scrap metal off of a cube of granite, and emptied out the bag of food he’d snagged on top of it. “I got enough to last us the week. I don’t think they saw me, but we should go to a different store next time to be safe.” Tommy passed the hooded figure a handful of first-aid kits. “Did Tubbo get that fridge working?”

The hooded figure- Ranboo- nodded. “Yeah, put the meat and stuff in it so it doesn’t go bad.” That had been a shock- food in this world spoiling over time. They couldn’t get ill from it, just Hunger, but it was still unpleasant to eat. The worst part of it was that they couldn’t just stock up on bread and wait for someone to find them, they had to constantly go out to get food. At least the first-aid kits were just a precaution.

The ram hybrid in question leaned into the room. “Hey, guys! Did you run into any trouble?” Tommy shook his head emphatically, while Purpled looked sheepish. “No...”

Tubbo put his hands on his hips. “What happened?”

Purpled coughed, embarrassed. “We kind of got mugged. They wanted this green paper stuff we found.” Tommy puffed out his chest proudly, wings flicking mischievously under his hoodie. “Purpled kicked the shit out of them, you should have seen him! Zapped them right through a wall.”

The ram’s eyes lit up, radiation symbols dancing in his pupils. “Sick!”

Ranboo, on the other hand, looked slightly panicked. “Uhm, aren’t we trying to keep a low profile?”

Tommy shrugged. “Eh, we had our hoods up, plus there’s a fuckin’ million people in this city. It’ll be fine.”

Tubbo clapped his hands together twice, banishing the nervous air that had grown in the room. “Right. Ranboo, you’re still banned from the kitchen after the Spaghetti Incident, so Tommy, it’s your turn to cook.”

——————————————————————————

Tony Stark was not good at waiting. It took approximately seven seconds for JARVIS to illegally download the CCTV footage of the attack, and about sixty for everyone watching to see what had really happened. It was still too long for him.

Two teenagers were walking down an alleyway, one in a red hoodie and one in a purple one. They were talking together and laughing about something.

“Red has blond hair, blue eyes, about 6’3. I think he’s got a dyed white streak in his hair.” He’d roped Natasha in for this, her spy training making her excellent at spotting details others would miss. “Purple has lighter blond hair and... purple eyes? Huh. They could be blue too, just a trick of the light. He’s shorter than Red, maybe 5’11?”

One of the teenagers swung his bag at the other with a grin on his face. The other yelled at him. Two older men appeared at the other end of the alley.

The spy’s eyes narrowed. “Two adults, 20-25, Caucasian, wearing beanies and dark clothing. They’re armed, one of them is nervous but the other has done this before.”

One of the men pulled a gun, and the other cracked his knuckles. The teenagers scowled.

“Huh. Interesting. Red and Purple aren’t afraid of them. They look... annoyed, but not scared.”

The man with the gun lunged forward, and was promptly knocked through a wall with a blast of electricity. The other man froze, and the teenager in red hit him over the head with a bag, before bursting into nervous laughter.

Nat’s eyes widened. “Holy shit. Okay, now I get why you wanted me to see this.” She looked at Tony. “Mutants? Have you contacted Xavier yet?”

Tony shook his head. “Not just mutants. Thor thinks Purple is an alien. Called him ‘a child of the stars’ or something.”

Shadows appeared at the end of the alleyway. The teenager in red swore, the words clearly visible despite the silent recording. He tore off his hoodie to reveal a large pair of wings, and grabbed his purple-clad friend. The pair flew out of sight of the camera.

“Red might be a mutant, we don’t know. Neither of them are showing up on any databases. No birth records, schooling, missing persons reports, anything.”

Nat sat back in her chair. “Right. You got any idea where they went after this?”

He shook his head. “Not one. We can assume Red landed in a remote area and hid his wings, before meeting up with the other two.”

She rose an eyebrow. “Other two?”

“There were four teenagers at that battle, remember? Just after four great Warriors were supposedly summoned.”

Recognition flashed in the spy’s eyes. “You think they’re the Warriors? They’re a little young.”

“Oh, I’m well aware. Steve was pissed when we put two and two together and Bruce nearly Hulked out. Kids don’t belong on a battlefield.”

“What do we do now?”

“Look for patterns. Where we see them, and when. JARVIS is looking through all public cameras right now, and he’s already found Red and Purple stealing food from a nearby store a couple of times.”

“No sign of the other two?”

“Not yet. Although, they could just be better at hiding. Hell, one of ‘em could have invisibility powers or something. Hard to tell.”

She shook her head. “I doubt it.”

Tony recognised that calculating look in her eyes. “You’ve figured something out. Alright. What’ve you got for me?”

She steepled her fingers together. “Put it this way. You’re a kid, and let’s for argument’s sake say you’ve been summoned to an unknown city, possibly even an unknown planet. You’re lost, and you’re evidently not able to get money or food, if you’re stealing from stores regularly.”

“Right.”

“If one of you has invisibility, why risk the visible ones getting caught? Why not just send them instead? No, my money is on Red and Purple being the most inconspicuous.”

He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“They’re the easiest to blend in- the most baseline human-looking. And considering one’s an alien and one has wings, that’s saying a lot. The other two might not be able to go out in public without causing a scene.”

“Huh. I hadn’t thought about it that way. But it makes sense.”

She shrugged. “Or the other two could be injured. Red was holding a bag full of medical supplies.”

“Shit. We need to find them, and fast.”

!!!!!

:D

[carryon-anon-fest]

ART

I Just Wanna Dance With You (G)

The Prom AU

Firebreathing Simon (G)

Make A Wish (G)

G/T+

The Best Laid Plans of Magazines and Men (T)

Helping Baz learn to flirt with Simon in a healthy way seemed like a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, Dev and Niall's plans and their friend's capabilities are a bit of a mismatch. 'A bit' being an egregious understatement. Hilarity, predictably, ensues.

Craziest Season (T)

Baz is bringing Simon home for Christmas this year, so he can finally meet his family. The catch? Baz is not out to any of them yet, contrary to what Simon originally believed. They end up pretending to be just roommates, but it's fine, really. It's only for five days. What can possibly go wrong in only five days? (Everything, apparently.)

When We Fight We Fight Like Lions (But Then We Love and Feel the Truth) (T)

Simon and Baz are secret agents, working for W.A.T.F.O.R.D (the Worldwide Agency for Threat Flagging Operations, Reconnaissance and Defence) They have to go on their biggest mission yet, to infiltrate a top-secret weapons convention. The only problem is, they have to do it under the cover of a newly-wed couple...

The One My Soul Loves (T)

The “Worst Chosen One” has a gift for technology. What if that had been encouraged instead? This time, he and Penny stop the Humdrum before eighth year. Simon finally has time for his dream project: a soulmate finder app. Others find love, but Simon’s match won’t download the app. Can he find peace with this? Why is Baz acting strange? What will happen when an unhappy user curses Simon, driving up the stakes to find his soulmate?

Classroom Politics (T)

At twenty-five, Simon Snow’s life is finally on the up. He’s got his magic back, people listen to him, and he can draw the Sword of Mages. A lot of people think he should lead the Coven. But not everyone. The Old Families still see Simon as their enemy and they’re quite willing to quote obscure magickal law to stop him ascending to Mage. Simon’s never backed down from a challenge, though, or let anyone stop him doing what he needs to do. He’s not starting now. Even if it means going back to school.

However Souls Are Made (Ours Are the Same) (T)

Fiona wants to come out and shock her parents, so she enlists Ebb to help. Ebb agrees to fake-date Fiona for the hols—they're best friends, aren't they? She can help Fiona out a bit. Except Ebb has been half in love for years and Fiona is plotting, as is the Pitch way.

Why We're No Longer Allowed to Do Boardgame Nights (T)

After a disaster on the night of 2 February 2019, I have decided to conduct a report to look into a case that ended horribly, after starting as a simple boardgame night. This report is constructed entirely of witness statements. Let’s begin. (Aka, The Gang decide to have a night of Monopoly, Twister and other such things, and it goes tits up)

The Kind of Love I Want (G)

An awkward conversation between Simon and Agatha leads to new revelations and a friendship reborn.

Happier Memories (G)

In which Simon decides to plan, and Baz decides to do something impulsive.

Here, Kitty-Kitty... (G)

Simon adopts a cat. Baz pretends to hate him. It's probably safer for everyone this way...

In the Middle (T)

Simon should be overjoyed at his Penelope's engagement, the second of his sisters to be so fortunate, but all he can think about is Mr Grimm-Pitch. He fears he has ruined the greatest chance of happiness he could ever have hoped for.

Today Is Tomorrow (T)

Simon Snow's having the worst day of his life... over and over and over again.

Mirror, Mirror (T)

For all the Mage's claims that Simon Snow was the World of Mages' prophesied savior, the Humdrum certainly wasn't the only danger their world faced and Simon certainly wouldn't save the world alone.

The Coolest Part (By Far) (G)

When Penny leaves for a study trip, Simon and Baz are left all alone. And who can blame them for getting a kitten? In their defense, they were left unsupervised.

Hallmark Presents: Amid the Winter's Snow (T)

Big city businessman Baz Pitch just wants to get the promotion he's been gunning for. When he travels to his quaint hometown for Christmas, he (literally) runs into the most handsome man he's ever seen and ruins his day. Thus begins the animosity of a lifetime as the town prepares for the annual Christmas Eve Ball. Baz never asked for love. And he definitely never asked to discover the True Meaning of Christmas.

How I Find Myself Without You (T)

At a dinner party with friends, Penny, Shepard, and Agatha come clean about their relationship...and about where Agatha's been living all this time.

If You Wanna Be My Lover (T)

It's the week before graduation, and former roommates Simon and Baz run into each other at a particularly lively karaoke night. In between terrible renditions of "Brown-Eyed Girl" and "Mr. Brightside," they just might begin to realize what it is that they really really want.

NSFW FICS BELOW:

So Close, We've Always Been (E)

Simon Snow has worked in security for most of his life, having dealt with some of the most difficult clients. None has come as close to being as frustrating as Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch. The man is stuck-up, arrogant, and a complete arsehole. He's rude, careless, and Simon really should have quit months ago. Until there's something more that keeps him by Baz's side... Namely him being the best shag Simon's ever had. He may insist that the nights with Baz mean nothing, but not even he can prevent the feelings that start to flicker beneath the sheets.

Hard to Get (M)

Dev needs a favour. Baz agrees despite his better judgment. Because it really wouldn't matter to anyone, especially not to Simon Snow Salisbury. Or would it?

Kiss Him, Then Go. (E)

Tomorrow morning, Simon Snow will face his lifelong nemesis on the battlefield. But tonight, he sneaks into the Pitch family compound, and seeks out his former roommate.

Feed Me I Live (Drink I Die) (M)

Off the sofa, out of the flat. That's Baz's only goal when he brings Simon along with him to a house Fiona discovered on her vampire hunt across the country. There was only supposed to be books there. Baz knows books. Simon knows how hungry creatures grow.

Midlife Crisis (E)

Following his midlife crisis, Baz finds himself in the middle of the countryside. It’s plenty annoying as it is, without the trouble of him meeting the local constable Simon Snow, whom he somehow finds attractive. But that is only due to the bloody fresh air, right? Not in one hundred years would Baz fall for someone like him.