#i'm chugging along through taking charge

[nerdalmighty]

You're all suspicious!

Requested by @deerbot36

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI’s “human in the loop” isn’t

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

AI's ability to make – or assist with – important decisions is fraught: on the one hand, AI can often classify things very well, at a speed and scale that outstrips the ability of any reasonably resourced group of humans. On the other hand, AI is sometimes very wrong, in ways that can be terribly harmful.

Bureaucracies and the AI pitchmen who hope to sell them algorithms are very excited about the cost-savings they could realize if algorithms could be turned loose on thorny, labor-intensive processes. Some of these are relatively low-stakes and make for an easy call: Brewster Kahle recently told me about the Internet Archive's project to scan a ton of journals on microfiche they bought as a library discard. It's pretty easy to have a high-res scanner auto-detect the positions of each page on the fiche and to run the text through OCR, but a human would still need to go through all those pages, marking the first and last page of each journal and identifying the table of contents and indexing it to the scanned pages. This is something AI apparently does very well, and instead of scrolling through endless pages, the Archive's human operator now just checks whether the first/last/index pages the AI identified are the right ones. A project that could have taken years is being tackled with never-seen swiftness.

The operator checking those fiche indices is something AI people like to call a "human in the loop" – a human operator who assesses each judgment made by the AI and overrides it should the AI have made a mistake. "Humans in the loop" present a tantalizing solution to algorithmic misfires, bias, and unexpected errors, and so "we'll put a human in the loop" is the cure-all response to any objection to putting an imperfect AI in charge of a high-stakes application.

But it's not just AIs that are imperfect. Humans are wildly imperfect, and one thing they turn out to be very bad at is supervising AIs. In a 2022 paper for Computer Law & Security Review, the mathematician and public policy expert Ben Green investigates the empirical limits on human oversight of algorithms:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3921216

Green situates public sector algorithms as the latest salvo in an age-old battle in public enforcement. Bureaucracies have two conflicting, irreconcilable imperatives: on the one hand, they want to be fair, and treat everyone the same. On the other hand, they want to exercise discretion, and take account of individual circumstances when administering justice. There's no way to do both of these things at the same time, obviously.

But algorithmic decision tools, overseen by humans, seem to hold out the possibility of doing the impossible and having both objective fairness and subjective discretion. Because it is grounded in computable mathematics, an algorithm is said to be "objective": given two equivalent reports of a parent who may be neglectful, the algorithm will make the same recommendation as to whether to take their children away. But because those recommendations are then reviewed by a human in the loop, there's a chance to take account of special circumstances that the algorithm missed. Finally, a cake that can be both had, and eaten!

For the paper, Green reviewed a long list of policies – local, national, and supra-national – for putting humans in the loop and found several common ways of mandating human oversight of AI.

First, policies specify that algorithms must have human oversight. Many jurisdictions set out long lists of decisions that must be reviewed by human beings, banning "fire and forget" systems that chug along in the background, blithely making consequential decisions without anyone ever reviewing them.

Second, policies specify that humans can exercise discretion when they override the AI. They aren't just there to catch instances in which the AI misinterprets a rule, but rather to apply human judgment to the rules' applications.

Next, policies require human oversight to be "meaningful" – to be more than a rubber stamp. For high-stakes decisions, a human has to do a thorough review of the AI's inputs and output before greenlighting it.

Finally, policies specify that humans can override the AI. This is key: we've all encountered instances in which "computer says no" and the hapless person operating the computer just shrugs their shoulders apologetically. Nothing I can do, sorry!

All of this sounds good, but unfortunately, it doesn't work. The question of how humans in the loop actually behave has been thoroughly studied, published in peer-reviewed, reputable journals, and replicated by other researchers. The measures for using humans to prevent algorithmic harms represent theories, and those theories are testable, and they have been tested, and they are wrong.

For example, people (including experts) are highly susceptible to "automation bias." They defer to automated systems, even when those systems produce outputs that conflict with their own expert experience and knowledge. A study of London cops found that they "overwhelmingly overestimated the credibility" of facial recognition and assessed its accuracy at 300% better than its actual performance.

Experts who are put in charge of overseeing an automated system get out of practice, because they no longer engage in the routine steps that lead up to the conclusion. Presented with conclusions, rather than problems to solve, experts lose the facility and familiarity with how all the factors that need to be weighed to produce a conclusion fit together. Far from being the easiest step of coming to a decision, reviewing the final step of that decision without doing the underlying work can be much harder to do reliably.

Worse: when algorithms are made "transparent" by presenting their chain of reasoning to expert reviewers, those reviewers become more deferential to the algorithm's conclusion, not less – after all, now the expert has to review not just one final conclusion, but several sub-conclusions.

Even worse: when humans do exercise discretion to override an algorithm, it's often to inject the very bias that the algorithm is there to prevent. Sure, the algorithm might give the same recommendation about two similar parents who are facing having their children taken away, but the judge who reviews the recommendations is more likely to override it for a white parent than for a Black one.

Humans in the loop experience "a diminished sense of control, responsibility, and moral agency." That means that they feel less able to override an algorithm – and they feel less morally culpable when they sit by and let the algorithm do its thing.

All of these effects are persistent even when people know about them, are trained to avoid them, and are given explicit instructions to do so. Remember, the whole reason to introduce AI is because of human imperfection. Designing an AI to correct human imperfection that only works when its human overseer is perfect produces predictably bad outcomes.

As Green writes, putting an AI in charge of a high-stakes decision, and using humans in the loop to prevent its harms, produces a "perverse effect": "alleviating scrutiny of government algorithms without actually addressing the underlying concerns." The human in the loop creates "a false sense of security" that sees algorithms deployed for high-stakes domains, and it shifts the responsibility for algorithmic failures to the human, creating what Dan Davies calls an "accountability sink":

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-unaccountability-machine/

The human in the loop is a false promise, a "salve that enables governments to obtain the benefits of algorithms without incurring the associated harms."

So why are we still talking about how AI is going to replace government and corporate bureaucracies, making decisions at machine speed, overseen by humans in the loop?

Well, what if the accountability sink is a feature and not a bug. What if governments, under enormous pressure to cut costs, figure out how to also cut corners, at the expense of people with very little social capital, and blame it all on human operators? The operators become, in the phrase of Madeleine Clare Elish, "moral crumple zones":

https://estsjournal.org/index.php/ests/article/view/260

As Green writes:

The emphasis on human oversight as a protective mechanism allows governments and vendors to have it both ways: they can promote an algorithm by proclaiming how its capabilities exceed those of humans, while simultaneously defending the algorithm and those responsible for it from scrutiny by pointing to the security (supposedly) provided by human oversight.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/30/a-neck-in-a-noose/#is-also-a-human-in-the-loop

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en ==

[loveysloveclub]

dress - luca fantilli

in which, you’ve always been in love with your best friend, but he’s never felt the same.

you couldn't remember life before loving luca fantilli. he had been your best friend before you liked him, but even then, you loved him. the two of you grew up together and did everything together, so it was no surprise to anyone when you joined him and his little brother, adam, in moving to michigan for college.

your crush on the boy, while mind numbingly severe, was painfully kept a secret. you watched girlfriends and flings come and go, even having a few boyfriends yourself (though they never lasted long). you sat idly by for the majority of your life and watched him fall in and out of love with every girl but you. but even during this, he still made time for you.

your college roommate, a short brunette girl named charlotte, zipped up the zipper of your little black dress. the two of you were getting ready for another college party, one that luca had invited you to. he invited you to all of them, you not having many friends throughout the campus.

"girl, you look gorgeous. fantilli won't know what hit him." charlotte winked before disappearing into the small bathroom the two girls shared. you smiled at her words, but still tugged down at the fabric unsurely. luca would do the same dance he always did, he would greet you once arriving and then after an hour or two of clinging to your side, a nice, pretty girl would catch his attention and you wouldn't see him until the next day.

the college party, being held at the house all the sophomores on the hockey team resided at, was in full swing by the time you showed up. the house was overly crowded, and pushing passed people in the hallways to get to the main part of the house proved to be a mission. your hand clung on for dear life as charlotte guided you through the masses, mumbling small apologies to people you bumped into along the way.

your eyes immediately searched the crowds for luca, but you couldn't seem to find him.

"sofia! charlotte!" your eyes snapped towards dylan duke, who was charging towards you and your roommate with open arms. a small smile tugged at your lips as you laughed, allowing the drunk boy to wrap you both up in a group hug.

"holy drunkeness." charlotte mumbled as she pulled away, a teasing smile rested on her lips. "how you doing, duker?" you asked the clearly intoxicated boy, who spent the next two minutes drunkenly rambling on about how he had never been better.

"where's luca?" you hated how you asked, how you had to know, but dylan paid no mind to it as he responded. "disappeared outside with some girl from msu, total catch. sucks she's interested in luca of all people." dylan snorted before wondering off.

catching your face before you fell, you turned to charlotte, who was looking at you with a pitiful glance, "i'm gonna go get a drink."

you didn't give her a chance to respond before you were shoving through the masses once more, arriving at a table with a bunch of drinks. picking what seemed to be a clean red solo cup, you began to make the strongest drink you knew you could handle, chugging it before making another.

"sof?"

great, the man of the hour.

pretending you didn't hear the fantilli boy, you began making a third drink before a hand stopped you. "what's wrong?'

"nothings wrong." you mumbled as you freed your hand from his grip and turned to leave, but either he didn't get the hint or simply didn't care as he followed you. "i think somethings wrong."

"don't you have somewhere to be? someone to see?" and with that, you lost him in the crowd.

for the rest of the night, you did a good job at pretending to have fun, avoiding luca and getting drunk. you were a light weight, so it didn't take much for you to be to the point where you were stumbling out the back door, into the quietness of the night.

only a few people lingered outside, but none even spared a glance at the stumbling girl as she took a seat on a random chair. you watched from afar as people laughed with each other and whispered sweet nothings, a small and alcohol induced smile tugging at your lips.

"i've been looking for you all night." you jumped at the sound of his voice, turning your head to glance at the blonde boy. even though you were mad at him, for reasons you didn't have the right to be angry at him for, your drunken state couldn't help but smile up at him.

"hi lulu."

the boy scoffed, "you're drunk."

"no, i'm having fun."

"no, you're drunk and you've been avoiding me all night."

you let out a groan, rolling your eyes as you angled your head to look at the sky above you. "why are you mad at me?"

this conversation seemed to be a common occurence between you and luca lately, but he got under your skin like no other. especially when there was another girl involved.

"i'm not mad at you."

"yes, you are."

"maybe you're the drunk one, cause i'm perfectly fine." you shot back. you could see him visibly tense, which means he was getting annoyed and you knew you should just apologise and everything would go back to normal. but you were torturing yourself with normal, you were sick of normal.

"i think you forget that i know you. you're my best friend, i know when you're upset."

if he knew you so well, then he should know that you hated that word. 'best friend'. it only reminded you of all the things you wanted but would never be able to have.

sighing once, you glanced away from the boy. "i don't want to be your best friend anymore." slurring your words slightly, you braced yourself for the impact of the rejection you was sure to come. what you didn't expect was for his entire face to drop and for him to begin walking off in the other direction.

noticing your mistake, you jumped to your feet quickly. the suddenness of your movements mixed with the amount of alcohol you had drunken in the passed two hours making your head spin and your feet to trip over one another. catching yourself before you made a bigger fool out of yourself, you called out to luca. "wait!"

the boy stopped in his pace to get away from you, turning to look at you with angry eyes. "that's not what i meant. i-"

here was your chance, but you couldn't get it out.

"i don't want you like a best friend."

the anger in his face was replaced by confusion in an instant and you suddenly felt ill. you wanted to crawl up in a ball and die because either way tonight, you were losing your best friend. he either left thinking you didn't want him in your life or he rejected you and the humiliation would be enough to sever your friendship. your hands shook as you rocked back and forth, anxiety thawed at your insides as you chewed on the inside of your cheek.

why was he just standing there? why isn't he saying anything? does he not understand? god, this is humiliat-

"sof?"

and suddenly everything stopped. you glanced up from your feet as he made his way over to you before stopping in front of you.

"i don't want you like a best friend, either."

upon realising what he was referring to, a smile tugged at your lips and a laugh escaped you. "you couldn't have said that like three minutes ago, you scared the shit out of me!" wacking him in the arm, the movement disrupting your still body and sending you stumbling. luca grabbed you by your waist, rolling his eyes playfully. "yeah, let's get you home."

digging your feet into the ground, you glanced up at him, "one more thing."

standing on your tippy toes you connected your lips with his, the boy smiling into the kiss.

seven year old you was currently dying of a heart attack.

[specialinterestshows]

Eat and toke with the Judgment Day in this latest chapter of my Rhea Ripley x lady!reader fic.

Warnings for this section: Cannabis (weed)

-

Absolute Smokeshow (Part 47 of ?): A Dish Best Served Rolled

Licking your lips, you thank the server as your order is placed in front of you.

"Finally," Dominik says excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

"What did you get?" you ask him, curious.

"Chicken tenders," everyone except you and JD says in unison, surprising the two of you, who look at each other awkwardly.

"They're the only thing he eats when we go out," Rhea sighs, looking at Dom with an amused smile as he digs in. Grinning at your metamour, you start on your own dish. A contented silence falls over the table, occasionally broken by the clinking of silverware, as everyone enjoys their food and drinks. Dominik finishes eating first, looking extremely satisfied.

"You ate that way too fast," you tell him, not even halfway through your own meal, "How do you not have a stomach ache?"

"Years of practice," Dom replies, looking very pleased with himself.

"Yeah: practicing smiling through your stomach aches," Rhea says, making him grin sheepishly.

Damian finishes his plate next, hurriedly chugging his water and wiping his mouth before standing and addressing Rhea.

"Need anything from the car?" he asked her, taking the keys out of his pocket.

"My messenger bag?" she requests, smiling as Damian nods and saunters over to the rental, his walk leisurely despite the hurried pace in which he finished eating.

Finn sighs, watching Damian walk away. JD claps a hand on Finn's shoulder, gently but firmly. A smile makes its way onto his face briefly before he notices you watching, quickly shrugging off JD's hand and clearing his throat. JD looks a bit hurt, but says nothing. You feel bad for having watched the two upon seeing JD's puppy-dog eyes, thinking of a time when you had been in a similar situation. Turning instead to look at your girlfriend, you take another bite of your food as Rhea wipes a few crumbs off Dominik's face and kisses his cheek before letting him finish his soda. You had never expected to feel so happy watching the woman you loved being sweet and affectionate with the man she loved, but you supposed what mattered most to you was that you were also important to her, and that she was happy.

"What is it, beautiful?" Rhea asks, noticing the pause in your eating as you look at her and Dominik.

"You guys are just so cute!" you say, smiling harder when Rhea poses and Dom blushes slightly.

"You should date us or something," Rhea jokes, grinning.

"Us?" you and Dominik asked in unison, confused.

"Too much?" she asks after giggling furiously at your reactions. You nod, but Dom seems to be considering it, nodding along with you once he sees you don't seem to be interested. Rhea laughs harder and you can't help but smile at the lovely sound.

"What's so funny?" Damian asks, walking up with Rhea's bag.

"Only two of the three of 'em want to form a triad," JD McDonagh replied, surprising everyone and making Dominik blush and look away, embarrassed.

Acting like he hadn't heard anything, Damian handed Rhea her bag, ignoring the look she gave him that seemed to say "don't be rude!"

"Hey, chica," Damian said, tapping your shoulder and looking around before slyly pulling a blunt out of his pocket, "Quieres?"

"You already know me so well," you reply, returning Damians mischievous smile before looking over at Rhea.

"If he's smoking, it means I'm the one driving us to the next location," she says, shaking her head as she plugs her phone into a portable charging block from her bag, "But you enjoy, love."

Taking one last sip of your beverage, you stand up and kiss Rhea before offering your car as the location for your smoke session with Damian and leading the way.

Feeling the vibration of your phone, you pull it out, expecting to see a text from Rhea. Instead, your phone reads: Text from: Liv Morgan. "Checking to make sure you're still alive! If I don't hear from you I might be legally required to tell WWE" The text ends with an emoji with its tongue sticking out.

Sighing, you quickly message back: "Not dead, all good!" before you and Damian reach your car and you unlock it. Getting in the driver's seat, you pull your sunshade off the floor in the back and prop it up against your windshield with the sun visors before Damian slides into the seat next to you. Just as Damian pulls out the blunt again, your phone buzzes. Opening the compartment underneath the radio, you pull out a lighter you kept there, offering it to Damian and ignoring your phone.

"Better check that and make sure it's not Rhea," Damian says, taking the lighter from you, "Our Eradicator makes it look like nothing phases her too much, but she's head over heels for you, chica."

Nodding, you check your phone as Damian brings the blunt to his lips and lights it.

Text from: Liv Morgan. "Glad you're not dead! You're way too cute to die" The message ended with a winking emoji and you felt your face getting warm.

[end part forty-seven of ?]

Part 48: https://www.tumblr.com/specialinterestshows/729576237256851456/absolute-smokeshow-part-48-of-in-the-hot-box

-

Tag List (thank you!)

@cherryberryshine , @littlemiss-fanficlover , @elisewithak , @babybatlover , @girlofpink , @kagome2909 , @domlynch

[dudeshusband]

Title: Keep on Smilin'

Ship: Mike x Pete Nelson

Words: 760

Description: Safeshiptember day 18: smile.

The train chugged along on the rails, taking the circus to the next town. It was a warm night, and Pete leaned on the window, watching the trees zoom by in the dark. The moonlight bounced off the grease in Pete's hair, making it shine. His brown eyes twinkled like stars.

He had a gentle sort of smile. His eyes crinkled at the corners. It made his eyelids just a bit more puffy, adding to the beauty of his eyes. The wind blew his curls gently. Mike wished they could snap a picture then and there.

He reached into the pocket of his slacks, pulled out his carton of cigarettes and took one. Mike’s eyes followed his hand down to his hips as he did so, appreciating the way his slacks fit around his waist. Just a touch of tummy came forward through his slacks, making the fabric bend around it ever so slightly. This was Mike's favorite part.

He flipped the top of his lighter and lit the cigarette into a cupped hand. He took a long drag then blew out the smoke, sending it into the night air. He had a particular way of doing it: he always blew out of the side of his mouth. It made him look a bit silly for a moment but he always looked all the more pretty afterwards. They couldn't help but be mesmerized by the way he moved his mouth.

He continued to smoke his cigarette and stare at the moon. Mike couldn't bring themselves to interrupt him. They watched the twinkling in his eyes and the moving of his mouth. They watched his big hand move toward and away from his lips.

He stopped for a moment, just letting the cigarette burn in his hand. He flicked the ashes out the window.

He continued on like this for a while. Mike wondered if he might turn around and catch them staring.

He took his last drag eventually and threw the rest out of the window. He leaned against the window again with both arms. Their eyes were drawn to the tanned skin on the back of his neck, where his hair came down in a rounded square shape. They wanted to kiss the nape of his neck, but refrained so as to not scare him out of his skin.

His gentle smile returned to his face, once again illuminating his eyes.

“You're really pretty, you know that?” Mike asked suddenly.

Pete jumped a little and turned around. “How long have you been standin’ there?’”

Mike smiled. “Long enough.”

“You, uh, make a habit of watching guys smoke?”

Mike stared at him for an extended period of time.

“Just the handsome ones,” they said finally.

Pete smiled wider. “You enjoyed the view?”

“Immensely.”

He walked up and slid his arms around their waist. He slid his face into the crook of their neck. Mike could feel his heartbeat against their own. “It's pretty out tonight. The moon's full.”

“I know something else pretty,” Mike said, not feeling the need to elaborate.

Pete moved his head so he could nod and flash his signature grin. “I do too. Real pretty.”

Mike blushed. “I walked into that one, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you walked right into this,” Mike said, leaning in to kiss him. His lips were soft and warm. He tasted strongly like tobacco and the sandwich he'd had for dinner. They kissed him harder anyway, bringing a hand to gently scratch his scalp. He held them just a bit tighter.

He smiled into the kiss and savored every moment of it. When the kiss broke, he trailed gentle kisses along their chin. His lips tickled their skin and made them shiver.

“Can you do me a favor?” Mike asked.

“What's that?” he asked against their skin.

“Never stop smiling.”

He chuckled warmly. “As long as you're here, I have somethin’ to smile about.”

Mike ruffled his curls. “You're a big sap, you know that?”

“Guilty as charged,” he said. “But it's your fault. I'm in love with you.”

Mike kissed him again, softly this time.

“Do you love me too? Hm?”

He littered their neck with kisses.

“You know the answer to that.”

His lips ghosted over their neck. “I wanna hear you say it.”

Mike shivered again. Mike gazed into his eyes as he looked up, brown like melted milk chocolate.

“I love you. More than anything. You know that.”

He grinned again. “I sure do.”

The stood there for some time in each other's embrace, taking in each other's scents and heartbeats.

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Summer Wars

The Favorite Film Train continues chugging along. Today, I'm going to talk a bit about a movie that never fails to make me emotional. I was going to say "cry" because there's also a bit of that, but it feels like too general of a word since this film takes me on a cathartic journey that most films can't even do on first viewing. What's weird about all of this is that all of this is from a romantic comedy that also features a plot about an evil AI taking over "The Metaverse if it actually worked and was popular and interfaced with everything" I am of course talking about Mamuro Hosoda's Summer Wars.

After narrowly losing out on being the Japanese representative in the international Math Olympics, it looks like Kenji's summer is going to be largely uneventful as he does low-level moderation on the social media/metaverse Leviathan OZ. This all changes when a classmate of his Natsuki hires him for an untraditional summer job.

Natsuki wants Kenji to pretend to be her fiance as she goes home to meet and celebrate the birthday of her aging grandmother, a strong-willed matriarch of an old family rendered penniless by her deceased husband. As it turns out, Natsuki has been telling some slight mistruths about her love life to her family, and now wants to lend some credence to her swarm of white lies with an actual appearance just in case this celebration is her grandmother's last. Surely, no shenanigans of a personal or international nature will come to interfere with this plan.

To make matters worse, in a quiet moment between meeting Natsuki's robust, and more than a little kooky, extended family, Kenji solves what he believes to be a number puzzle that turns out to be encrypted with the OZ security algorithm. This allows a mysterious entity going by the name Love Machine to start a takeover of the whole platform that in good old-fashioned over-featuring tradition, holds everything from bank and card details to access codes to public and private systems for its many, many users. What follows is an honestly pretty impressive balancing act as Kenji has to try to undo his mistake in OZ through whatever limited means he has by outsmarting the increasingly unlimited and unhinged Love Machine, while also dodging whole generations worth of shenanigans when the cat comes out of the bag about Natsukis plan and his possible involvement in the OZ hacking scandal.

Where the film goes from good to great though, is when the two storylines start merging. Kenji seeks help from the young pro gamer Kazuma almost immediately, but as the problem with Love Machine escalates, he finds himself involving larger and larger parts of Natsuki's family to help. Natsuki herself does go through a somewhat more limited arc, but her untangling the relationships and loyalties around her half-uncle Wabisuke and his involvement in this sorry business, as well as standing up to her older and more skeptical relatives in order to buy Kenji some breathing room, and eventually even support, is also pretty impressive although it lacks the heft of the Kenji plot.

Where Natsuki really shines though is in the third act, where the plot, for reasons I will not spoil here, pivots on the most important game of Koi-Koi the world has ever seen, and Natsuki is good at Koi-Koi. The game is such a picture-perfect example of climactic pacing and plays with both hope and despair so effectively that I kind of want to do a shot-by-shot breakdown of the whole thing just to capture the sheer dramatic majesty of the thing. Watch this space for that whenever I feel up to it, I suppose. For now, though, suffice to say that it gets pretty intense.

The hardest part about writing about this movie is honestly how easy it is to forget all the really good quiet moments between the visual fireworks of Oz and the charged emotions and very human shenanigans of the real-world portion. Hell, I arguably forgot about mentioning how the "fake dating" scenario ends, as these things so often do, in an actually cute romance as Natsuki and Kenji grow to trust and depend on each other.

This movie has some fantastic moments of quiet, though, from the beats of rest after moments of high emotion that are almost painterly in their composition, to absolutely heart-rending visual storytelling in pivotal moments of character development, it's just hard to remember them when contrasted with the abovementioned spectacle or an 80-year-old woman swinging a naginata at a family member who has displeased her. Still, I believe these small quiet moments are part of why this movie gets to me. Every time the plot slows down even a little, it isn't just to rest, but to deepen the stakes and make us care for the characters.

There are also some historical parallels going on in this movie, the chief one being comparing the relative unimportance of Natsuki's family now compared to their relative glory days during the Warring States period, although their lot was still relatively humble even at that zenith. What is a bit spicier though are some parallels with WW2 history, although I haven't done quite enough research to be comfortable to say much more about those parallels other than that they're there. Chalk this one up to another one I'll get into if I have time and energy at a later date I suppose.

When all is said and done, writing about Summer Wars feels a lot like dancing about cooking. It's a deeply emotional journey for two characters that embody the best of the broad characterization I often criticize anime storytelling for using, and it pulls the viewer along. It's a beautiful, messy, chaotic movie about the beautiful chaotic mess that is family in both direct traditional form and the expanded "we are all one family" sense of the word. Check it out if you have the chance. Maybe bring some tissues just in case though.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: March

this month I am keeping it QUICK and I am keeping it DIRTY. mostly the former, because I've only managed to finish four (four!!!!) books this month so I Do Not have a lot to say. please pray for a more fruitful April.

what have I been reading?

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (R.F. Kuang, 2022) - first of all I must once again thank the unfathomably generous @fabledshadow for sending me a copy of this gorgeous book FOR KEEPSIES at absolutely no charge. I genuinely feel so lucky to have a copy on my shelf now, because Babel is a book that's 100% worth the hype. it's an absolutely brilliant alternate magic history, where the British empire is chugging along consuming the world with one small change: magic, powered by the power of the translated word. from this relatively simple premise Kuang launches into a relentless interrogation of colonialism, power, and assimilation. our protagonist Robin and his friends in the translation department - Ramy, an Indian Muslim; Victoire, a Black Haitian; and Letty, a white Englishwoman - all grapple with the allure of achievement within the white patriarchy of Oxford, as well as the question of what to do when you realize the system you gave your life was never going to love you back. after countless stories of milquetoast centrist both-sideism Babel was a thundering read, and I relished its rage slowly building up in little outrages to a bloody dynamite ending.

Hijab Butch Blues (Lamya H, 2023) - a really heartfelt and thought-provoking memoir that I could not put down. Lamya (a pen name the author uses; her identity is unknown) makes fascinating connections between stories from the Quran and her own experiences growing up Muslim, closeted, queer, and Othered anywhere she went. I especially loved an early chapter in which Lamya lays out her reasons for resonating with a young Maryam, mother of Jesus, as a despondently depressed teen, and describes her sense that Maryam must also be a dyke. Lamya really excels here, empathizing with all the most long-suffering religious figures and finding interpretations that make that suffering make sense, finding ways out and through the pain into a better ending. as with any essay collection that draws on saying x is sort of like y, the connections sometimes feel a little tenuous, but through a lot of thorny, complicated feelings this memoir manages to feel like a little bubble of meditative calm that was an absolute balm to read.

Get A Life, Chloe Brown (Talia Hibbert, 2019) - this month's romance novel was also my first foray into heterosexualty, and I have to say: not impressed! the titular Chloe Brown is, I'm going to be real with you, kind of the worst; I can obviously excuse the trust issues that stem from being abandoned by her fiance and friends after becoming chronically ill, and taking no shit from nosy neighbors performing the classic microaggression of touching Chloe's hair, but it's also casually noted that after an elderly neighbor in her apartment complex mistakenly took Chloe's mail Chloe retaliated by dumping hot tea into the neighbor's mailbox? unhinged. her love interest, Red, is also a mess; he's presented as a "bad boy" per the back cover blurb, but all that ever really amounts to is him having a motorcycle, many tattoos, and a lower class upbringing. class is a recurring point of tension between Chloe, who comes from a fabulously wealthy family, and Red, who's got some #trauma from a previous wealthy girlfriend who once stabbed him with a fork, but it plays out in remarkably silly ways. during one memorable (in a bad way) scene the pair enter an art gallery where the wealthy patrons all immediately turn and glare at Red for the crime of [checks notes] wearing a flannel, acting physically afraid of him as if they can smell the poverty wafting off. the sex scenes are mid (points for Red jacking off, though I wish the narration hadn't made a point of noting his hefty sac) and the romance plotline just isn't hefty enough to carry an entire novel, since there's no REAL conflict except for Chloe and Red's refusal to get along with each other. when the third act misunderstanding arrives it's gnarly, with Red screaming vile accusations at Chloe before immediately changing his mind and bombarding her with gifts until she takes him back. there are stories where I can overlook that kind of thing, but a book where I was bored for the first 95% and have no investment in the characters ain't it.

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures (Sabrina Imbler, 2023) - if you guys know anything about me you know that 1.) I love the sea and all her creatures and 2.) I'm a big ol' homo, so this queer memoir-in-essays had me extremely excited. Imbler is a tremendous essayist, drawing connections between their life and cuttlefish, whales, and salps with a striking mix of appreciation and exactitude. Imbler marvels without getting maudlin, always shying away at the tasteful point well before their speculation becomes full anthropomorphization. I was particularly taken with "My Mother and the Starving Octopus," a painfully familiar reflection upon the uncomfortable relationship with food and weight that's so often passed from mother to daughter, and "Beware the Sand Striker," a thoughtful pontification on sexual violence and the murky places where consent is unclear. Imbler thrives in ambiguity: the ongoing question of their own biracial identity and what it means to them, the metamorphosis of their own gender, the beauty to be found even in aggressively invasive goldfish species. it's fitting that a life represented through the ocean - deep and dark, ever-changing and largely unexplored - is comfortable not having rock solid answers to everything, and I loved joining Imbler in that gentle, shifting space.

what am I reading now?

Necropolitics (Achille Mbembe, 2011) - this book is so smart and I am so dumb :/

The Priory of the Orange Tree (Samantha Shannon, 2019) - I finally started this stupid fucking behemoth of a book and I'm enraged to report that I'll probably really like it. unfortunately I almost immediately to put it on pause while I try to finish 869000 other books :/

White Noise (Don DeLillo, 1985) - every once in a while I venture away from my safe TBR list; this one crossed my path thanks to a coworker who's reading it for a class and lent me her copy. I have no idea how to explain this without making it sound awful but it's a fascinating read.

Cursed Bunny (Bora Chung, trans. Anton Hur, 2022) - my interest in this short story collection was piqued when I saw a writer describe it as some of the grossest shit they've ever read, and I'll be honest: the story I've gotten around to is some of the grossest shit I've ever read. dead dove, do not eat.

[wheretheresaway-theresawilliam]

Chapter 6: The Rave

Word Count: 1172

TWs: Drug usage

/) /) ( • ༝•)

It had been almost two months since Vanita had been hired when she found her golden opportunity to talk to Vanessa one-on-one. One of her friends, a DJ, was hosting a set in an abandoned car factory on the less populated side of town. She was determined to invite Vanessa along.

“Vanessa, if you have a second, I have a burning question on my mind.” She had approached her while she was helping a kid sort through lost and found for a discarded toy.

“Oh? Go ahead.”

“Ever been to a rave?”

She blushed lightly, smiling politely. “I don't suppose being stationed in the Fazcade with DJ Music Man counts, does it?”

“Pssh, I'm not talking about kiddie stuff, Vanessa. But that being said, if you were interested in something legitimate…” Vanita lowered her voice and inched closer. “My friend Meadow is a DJ and he's playing a set in town this weekend. I could get you and any plus-whatevers you want in for free.”

“I don’t know, Vanita…”

“Vanessa, I promise you, it’ll be safe for rave virgins like yourself. Sawyer’s coming, and I told him to ask Doug. At least say you’ll think about it, pleeaaaaseee?” She clasped her hands together under her chin and made puppy-dog eyes as she drew out the word. She could pinpoint the exact second Vanessa began to cave, followed by a sigh.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Yayyy!! Just let me know soon when you’ve decided so I can plan ahead.” She wiggled her fingers excitedly and went back to her post. She knew she’d eventually accept. How could she turn her down when she was clearly so ecstatic about sharing this moment with her? Then the weekend came, and Vanessa, Vanita, Doug, Ginny, and Sawyer had all piled into Sawyer’s car on Saturday night and drove out to the factory. Vanita had even lent Vanessa one of her festival outfits so she’d fit in more; a hot pink fluffy crop top and transparent, iridescent pants worn over high-wasted pink briefs, plus a rabbit-ear headband filled with flashing LEDs. Internally, Vanessa thought it was a bit revealing, but trusted Vanita’s judgement. After all, Vanita was wearing a lime green bikini set, black fishnets, and fluffy green leg warmers.

“Ready to blow your mind??” Vanita asked as they pulled up to the venue and got out of the car. Everyone made sounds indicating agreement, though Vanessa’s “woo” was half-hearted as she took in the building they were about to enter.

“Vanita, are you sure he’s performing… in there?”

“Of course! Standard fare for raves to be in weird locations, don’t think about it too much. Just go with the flow!” Vanita sang, taking Vanessa’s hand and leading her inside. The five of them entered a sketchy-looking elevator, and as it ascended, a thumping bass got heavier and heavier, disturbing the dust and dirt underneath their feet. Even with having chugged two energy drinks before leaving, Vanita was clearly the calmest in this situation, having the most, possibly the only, experience with events like this.

“Everyone’s phones are charged, right?” Ginny asked as they reached the floor the rave was taking place on. Everyone agreed. Vanita had also failed to mention that there likely wouldn’t be a good signal in this building, if any at all. When the doors opened, they were greeted by a small group of security, stationed in front of a rope separating the entrance of the event from the event itself. The music was loud and the energy beyond the rope already appeared chaotic.

“Tickets?”

Vanita stepped up to the closest guard and whispered something in his ear. He immediately went to undo the rope. “Friends of the DJ,” he explained to his colleagues, who nodded in understanding. Beyond the rope, Vanita knew she had brought her coworkers into an entirely new world.

“Looks like there’s a bar over that way,” she gestured off in the distance. “Just remember what I told you and you’ll do fine. C’mon, Sawyer, let’s cut a rug!” Giggling, she grabbed Sawyer’s arm and disappeared into the crowd, abandoning the rest of their group. Vanessa, Doug, and Ginny, though disgruntled, were all too polite to turn around and back out now.

“Don’t worry, Vanessa, we’ll stick by you,” Doug assured as the three of them made their way between the flailing and gyrating bodies.

I guess I don’t like rave music… Vanessa thought to herself as she covered one of her ears. Is this even music??

She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but she knew she was sore from trying to dance around the packed house, as well as dehydrated. A tad upset with Vanita, Vanessa made her way to the bar to buy a bottle of water, only for her to appear just beside her.

“Having fun?” Vanita asked loudly over the glitchy techno music. Her cheeks were red and her hair was glued to her forehead with sweat.

“Yeah! This is… different!” Vanessa lied as the bartender handed her the water bottle.

“Come with me!”

“Where??”

Vanita didn’t respond, instead guiding Vanessa toward the wall.

“Where’s Sawyer??”

“Around.”

The two of them entered the bathrooms, briefly escaping from the noise. Vanita opened her bag and pulled out a tin, Hello Kitty cigarette case.

“I-I don’t smoke…” Vanessa declined as she opened it, revealing two joints.

“Hey, you looked a little stressed out there. I promise you, this will help.” Vanita removed the joints, handing one to Vanessa. She then took out a black Playboy Bunny lighter and set it on the sink counter, alongside the second joint. “I’m going to take a whizz.”

With that, Vanita disappeared into one of the stalls, leaving Vanessa to make a choice. You’re such a square! Her mind snapped at her as she weighed the joint in her hand. It’s about time you lived a little. One joint won’t hurt. Inhaling through her nose, she put the joint between her lips, picking up the lighter with a shaking hand. She assumed it was just like a cigarette, no fancy way to do it… as she struggled to get the lighter to light, Vanita exited the stall and washed her hands.

“Here,” she shook her head, taking the lighter from Vanessa and finally getting the flame to appear. She held it up to the joint, lighting it with familiar precision. “Now, inhale deeply through your mouth…”

Vanessa did as instructed, her eyes immediately watering.

“And--” Vanita couldn’t finish her instructions without Vanessa breaking off into a cough. “That’s alright, it’s your first time. You’ll get the hang of it. You want to exhale as soon as it's in your lungs, don’t hold it in like some jackasses tell newbies.”

For a few minutes, the women stood around the warmly lit bathroom and smoked, with Vanessa slowly getting used to the sensation. She was beginning to feel fuzzy. Suddenly, she had no concept of time. But that was alright. Vanita was saying something encouraging, it only half-registered. That was alright.

[bikepackinguk]

Day Twenty-nine

After some fond farewells and exchanges of contact details with some of the great folk at the hostel, and waiting out a little late morning rain, it's time to hit the road once more!

A gentle roll down the hill and through the city centre, I get to depart Inverness as I entered it, with the sound of bagpipes in the air. Whilst they're much maligned by some, I've always been quite fond of them, and it's a cheering sound to hear as I start the next stretch.

Following the Ness round the corner, we come up to Kessock Bridge which takes us over the Firth, and follow along the path next to the A road before switching off to the right and back into the country lanes across the Black Isle.

It's another day of hills in the aptly named Highlands, but with some rested legs they are handled without much bother, an soon there's a payoff of some lovely views across the Dornoch Firth of the opposite coast. It's quite pleasing to now be up in the hills that I'd been fondly looking at in the distance a few days ago!

A little more journeying and finally the hills give way to some nice long gebtle descents that allow a nice easy cruise down to get into Cromarty, where I'm just in time to roll straight onto the ferry as it's about to depart.

A short boat ride later and after rustling up a late lunch, it's onward through Nigg and a few climbs before passing the Seaboard Villages and on past Portmahomack to reach Tarbat Ness Lighthouse, which is a really beautiful classic red & white structure. There are also some fantastic views of the gills across the water from Wilkhaven Point which I take the opportunity to savour.

I do suffer a bit of a malfunction with my handlebar bag on the way, with a strap giving way, but fortune smiles again and as I'm busying myself with cable ties, another pannier-laden cyclist appears from the opposite direction on his way back from finishing his ride from Land's End to John O'Groates. After deservedly congratulating Martin on his success, he was kind enough to hand me a spare strap of his that allowed me to nicely fix up the issue. Thanks and hope you're resting up!

I've had a bit of light going so far with a gentle tailwind, but now it's time to turn around and meet with a bit more resistance when heading on to Tain, but the legs are still in good condition so the miles are soon cranked out, and I'm able to stop off for a quick resupply and break at around 7pm.

From here there's a bit of a rough road ahead - the A9. There's not much avoiding it if going up the east coast from here, and it's a fairly major road, but there's not really another option.

Though I also am party looking forward to it, as I have ridden it before some years back doing a damn fool ride through the night when riding LEJOG, so there's a certain amount of nostalgia in tackling it once more.

With the time approaching 8pm at this point, I figure that the road will generally be a fair bit quieter at this time, and there's still a good bit of daylight left, so with no time like the present I hit the road and start chewing out a few more miles before bedtime approaches.

Out of Tain, the road leads up and over the Dornoch Firth, and I'm distracted enough in the views and memories that I keep chugging along the A road for a good ways before remembering that I'm not on a charge up to John O'Groates this trip! But thankfully there are additional turn offs towards Dornoch, so I'm not forced to backtrack.

The clouds have held much of the day but are looking threatening now, so the tent gets pitched up by some nearby woodlands and just as I'm finishing up climbing in, the rains begin, so couldn't have been timed better.

[futanariwriter]

The GunShip

Sand-Punk Survivor Ch.2

January 04, 2023

Ch.2 Assembling the Crew 

The first member recruited was Araneas best friend Crab Guy a Xixo a species which communicates through smells and these smells trigger intense emotions. CrabGuy was always there thick and thin through it all for Aranea more importantly though he cared for bastions ongoing fight for freedom in Rayuba and was willing to defend it at all cost. Upon walking Rainbow Road they found Snail Dude slowly chugging along. He was quicker than you would think though, especially with a blade. 

    Next on the list was Mantis man, a middle aged monk about 7 ft. tall and part XiXo. Mantis Man had razor sharp claws which were very intimidating and his alien eyes had a way of looking deep into your soul. We met at the Sea Shrine located a few miles west of the dragon sharks house. 

"So we need to plan how this raid on the factory is going to go down! "There are only three of us and about one hundred of the small demons who worked at these forges which supplied the pyre with weapons so we are all probably going to die unless we do this right." said Aranea the electro dragon. "let's take a step back. I've got this strong shell" said snail gu. "but snail guy what do you mean?" said Aranea quizzically at Crabguy. "i'll put the bombs in my shell and you two just cover me!" "I don't know if we can let you do that said CrabGuy". WHat could we do though if snail guy was going to sacrifice himself who were we to judge as many families had been torn apart already in the short time this conflict had been happening. Still something deep within our souls ached as we helped strap the bombs to him the following morning. 

The Following day they met at the west end of the factory loading dock. "are you sure you want to do this it's not too late to back out?!" said Aranea to snail-dude "Yeah lets do this!" Their troop had gone largely UN-noticed until they broke through the window and a janitor saw them and rang the alarm. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4fjGwVpbm0

"Time to get in your shell and start the charge" said the electro dragon 

Ok DONE!

Just then, a group of Lizardmen broke through the front door of the factory with crossbow and spear ablaze "ragh & Gronk!" they said with a ferocious hissing tone! 

    "Eat plasma bolts bitch!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7rOeSCw41A

They said this and started summersaulting across the floor  in a  flurry of heightened awareness after eating amanita mushrooms. "I'm gonna fuck you all in the ass!" they said as the lizard-men violently turned into bloody sacks of hamburger. "well, I'm all out of plasma bolts now it's time to bring out the plasma spear." They thought as CrabGuy covered them with his large claws which cut the lizard troopers dismembering the. The plasma spear which contained a large ruby from the nearby ocean shrine to Aesma godess of the ocean around these parts. It glowed a rainbow iridescent color like that of Pearl Abalone.  It was technically a trident since it has six tips which glowed even brighter and surrounded the Ruby held within the of the wooden staff which had an iron maiden carved upon it.

Then a laser shot out of the Ruby causing the last lizaard to completly vaporize into a ash pile with some melted armor around it. "Come on snail dude we can still make it out of this place. you don't have to do this!" "it's too late for me, go on without me." he said in a melancholy tone.  "Snail Dude noooooo!" cried Aranea who then reached out their arm for Snail Dude as CrabGuy held them back and carried them to safety. They could see the pyramidal-steel factory exploding in the distance.

After stocking up on plasma bolts and changing the batteries in the spear. Aranea and CrabGuy decided that they needed a bigger rew, mantis Man concurred as well. However it was hard to assemble a crew in these desperate and violent times. So their party continued to head East to the legendary Beast Jungle where they would meet Hanuman. He lived in a temple in a very deep part of Beast Jungle however inside his house were many other animals who had sentience and wanted to fight for their freedom against the Demonic Hordes that the nation of Pyre commanded.  "There are even Mummified Aliens of the lost Arken civilization in these ancient ruins, holding onto their ancient swords, pistols, maces, you name it" said Hanuman. After doing a little grave-robbing some type of detonation was triggered by one of the sarcophagi and sirens began blaring through cracks in the stone pyramid . They quickly ran out of the temple following the monkey, about two minutes before it exploded. Thankfully nobody was hurt, because almost all the animals that live in were hunting for food this morning out in Beast Jungle. "what a way nature has...we are just like a flame in the wind ready to be blown out" thought Aranea peacefully for a moment. "I'm really sorry about your house!" she said to Hanuman "it's ok, these things happen" said the monkey sitting there in utter disbelief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Hd-2OYgH0&list=PL67cMGyeB5sHbGW664C4Kol14cweVKyO8&index=6

[imaginesandbandfiction]

Sisters

An Outer Banks Imagine

Pairing: Alludes to future JJ Maybank x Routledge!Reader

Word Count: 2.7K

Summary: John B's older sister introduces her brother and his best friend to a few of her favorite things.

A/N: This is based on the song Sisters by Saint Motel, and as an older sister myself, this song makes me feel valid, even though I'm not as cool of a sister as the reader in this fic. It's sort of a prequel/companion piece to Switzerland, which if you haven't read yet you should, but they aren't directly connected. In my mind, though, they take place in the same universe.

Masterlist

You were the one who took John B and JJ to their first kegger. Purely out of self-preservation because it seemed like the cops showed up to parties in the Cut more often than they did to parties on Figure 8. Your younger brother was your life insurance policy, and since he and JJ were attached at the hip, you let him tag along, too. 

Alright by Supergrass was blasting through the Twinkie’s speakers and your long, beach-tousled waves were whipping around your head, courtesy of the open windows. John B was laughing as you sang at the top of your lungs, off-key as usual. JJ was in the seat behind you, tapping the back of your headrest along to the beat. The sun, which was just beginning to set, cast a golden glow around you. It felt like a coming-of-age movie where you were the star. 

You slammed on the breaks a little bit too hard and JJ’s body slammed into your seat with a thump. 

“Sorry, sorry!” You yelled over your shoulder, through giggles, as you parallel-parked next to the small stretch of beach where the keg was set up. 

“How the fuck did you pass your driver’s test?” JJ asked, groaning a little bit as he peeled himself off of the back of your seat.

“The guy didn’t make me parallel park!” Your cackles filled the empty space left when the music shut off along with the car, and you tossed the keys to your brother. 

“You’re in charge, John B. Just no drinking, alright?” You told him, pointing a stern finger his way before flipping the mirror down to fix your hair. 

“Yes ma’am,” he replied, giving you a mock salute. You could see JJ’s eye roll reflected in your mirror, and then the boys were off. You smiled to yourself as you watched them approach the party; John B’s side of the car had been closer, so he got a head start, but JJ ran after him and jumped onto his back, letting out an excited whoop. John B buckled under his weight for a second but then caught himself, and he let JJ stay there for a few seconds before shoving him off. When you were satisfied with your hair, you followed them into the mess of bodies and made a beeline for your friends. 

A few hours later, someone had started a game of boom cup, and John B watched with an amused smile as JJ chugged the boom cup. His head was tipped all the way back and the combination of beer and whatever else people had poured into the cup dribbled down the sides of his mouth and onto his shirt. 

“WOOOO!” he yelled once he finished, and he slammed his cup to the ground as cheers erupted from the crowd around him. You clapped along with them as he yanked his wet shirt over his head and tossed that to the ground, too.  

“Y/N!” He exclaimed, finally noticing you standing on the edges of the game. “Come play with me!” His eyes were wide and he looked like an over-excited puppy as he bounced on his heels while waiting for your response. 

“Okay, okay,” you said, chuckling as you walked up to the table. 

“Yay! You can be on my team.” He slung an arm around your shoulders and pulled you into his side. “DID YOU HEAR THAT GUYS? Y/N’S ON MY TEAM!”

“There are no teams in Boom Cup,” John B said. As he was probably the only sober person at the party, he was the only one thinking rationally.  

“Shhhh, JJ, you don’t have to yell! We’re all right here!” You told JJ, resting your arm on his shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. 

“YEAH BUT THE MUSIC’S REALLY LOUD!” He yelled in response, and then it was your turn to roll your eyes. The rest of the group fell into spots around the table and started the game. JJ got to start since he lost the last game (or won, depending on how you looked at it), with some Touron on the opposite end of the table. It took JJ a few tries to get the ball into the cup, but once he did, he passed it over to you. You tried your best to make your shot as fast as possible, but after a couple of beers and two shots of tequila, your hand-eye coordination was suffering. The other cup made it to Rafe Cameron, who got it on his first try, and then he leaned across the table to slam his cup into yours, much to the excitement of the rest of the table. With a groan, you passed the two cups to your left and grabbed a full cup from the middle of the table in one hand, and snatched the ping pong ball out of Rafe’s hand with the other. The cup was full of some sort of vaguely-fruity mixed drink that mostly tasted like vodka, and you shivered as you chugged it. 

The game went on, and Rafe Cameron continued to target you. He was unfairly good at the game. On the fourth time it happened, JJ tried to jump over the table at him but John B managed to pull him back before he flipped the table over in his blind rage.

“What the fuck, Cameron?” He shouted as he thrashed in his best friend’s arms. “Why are you targeting Y/N like that?”

“JJ, chill, man, it’s just a game,” John B said as he tightened his grip around the other boy. 

“Yeah, it’s fine, J. I’m okay,” you reassured him, squeezing his shoulder. 

“Yeah, it’s just a game, man,” Rafe echoed. “Chill out. She can take it, can’t you, Y/N?” Rafe’s gaze shifted from John B and JJ over to you and he slid his Ray-Bans down to wink at you over the frames. “I’m sure she can take a lot.” The suggestive undertones seeped through your skin and settled just beneath the surface. It made you want to scratch until your entire body was red and raw, but you resisted that urge and instead balled your hands into fists. 

“Fuck you, Rafe Cameron,” you spat at him. 

“Oooh, feisty, I like it.” He turned to your brother. “Routledge, your sister’s hot when she’s mad.” John B’s grip tightened around JJ’s arms, but before anything more could come of it, flashing red and blue lights caused mass hysteria. 

“COPS!” Someone shouted, and everyone scattered. John B dragged JJ back towards the van, and you scooped up JJ’s forgotten shirt and followed them, diving into the back seat as John B pulled off of the curb. You laid down on the floor in front of the bucket seats with your hand on your stomach, breathing heavily. 

“Holy shit,” you whispered through giggles. 

“Yeah, holy shit is right,” your brother repeated, though his tone was deeper and angrier than yours. You decided to ignore him and close your eyes, enjoying the way you could feel every turn the car made from your spot on the floor. If you really focused, you could pretend you were out on the HMS Pogue, floating in the middle of the ocean with nothing but your best friends for miles. 

“Y/N, can we smoke some weed?” JJ blurted out into the silence, breaking you free from your daydreams.

“What?” You asked as you sat up, trying to sound outraged. “I don’t… I’ve never smoked weed.”

“Don’t even try, Y/N,” John B butted in, flashing a cheeky smile at you through the rear-view mirror. “We saw you and Lexi smoking in the hammock the other day.”

“That wasn’t weed! I just…stole one of dad’s cigarettes. Just to try it!” JJ turned around and glared at you with the slightest hint of a pout on his face and you couldn’t keep up the act anymore. “Okay, fine, turn around and drive to the Lookout. But if you tell dad about this, I will kill you in your sleep. And take the back roads!”

“Yes!” JJ cheered as John B whipped into a U-turn, slamming on the brakes so hard that they screeched. 

“Hey! Be gentle with my car!” You yelled at your brother, grabbing the center console so you wouldn’t get thrown into the car door. 

“It’s my car, too,” John B shot back.

“Not until you get your license, it isn't!”

“Fine, then I won’t be your DD anymore.”

“Okay, I take it back! Be gentle with our car. Please.” He hummed in acceptance and drove the long way to the Lookout, which only really took five extra minutes but avoided the main thoroughfare where the cops were most likely camped out trying to catch drunk drivers. 

He parked as close as he could and you leaned over JJ in the passenger seat to grab the makeup bag from the glove compartment. 

“It’s been in the car this whole time?” JJ whined. “Dude, we could’ve figured that out.” 

“Whatever, dude, it’s not like it matters now. C’mon,” he shoves JJ towards the side of the car and gets out to lead the way to the hill. You clambered up the giant rock at the top and sat cross-legged, laying out the supplies in front of you. Grinder, rolling papers, lighter, and, finally, a double-Ziplocked bag of bud, which you held up in front of you. 

“This,” you said, pausing for dramatic effect, “Is weed.”

“Yeah, we know, we’re not five years old,” John B said with just a hint of annoyance in his voice. 

“Jury’s still out about JJ on that one.” You turned your head to look at the boy in question, who was struggling to re-tie his shoelaces. He looked up at you with a stupid grin on his face and gave up on his shoes to watch you roll a joint. With practiced ease, you ground the weed until it was as fine as you could get it, and then you laid it in the middle of a rolling paper. 

“How long have you been doing this?” JJ asked, mesmerized by how fast your fingers worked as you rolled. He crossed his legs and rested his head in his hands, staring at you with his lips parted in awe. 

“I dunno, a while, I guess.” You feigned nonchalance with a shrug. 

“And you didn’t share?” John B scoffed, offended. “I thought we shared everything.”

“Not everything.” You wiggled your eyebrows at him as you licked the edge of the paper and pressed down so the joint wouldn’t fall apart. “Remember Colin Matthews?”

“Okay, gross, not what I meant!” Your brother shoved your shoulder in disgust. 

“Hey, be careful! I’ve got precious cargo here!” You held up the finished joint with a satisfied smirk. JJ went cross-eyed staring at it and John B grabbed at it, but you pulled your hand back and stuck it between your lips. “It’s my weed, I go first.” John B grumbled something under his breath that sounded a little like ‘fucking sisters’ but you ignored him and flicked the lighter once, twice, three times before it caught flame. Your first inhale was deep and smooth, and you held it in your lungs for as long as possible before you blew it out in a slow, steady stream. Both JJ and John B reached for it next, and you swatted JJ’s hand away, handing it to your brother instead. 

“Don’t take too big of a hit at first,” you warned, “and try to hold it in for a few seconds, otherwise it’s not gonna hit as hard.” He nodded and proceeded to do the exact opposite of what you told him to; he took a deep breath to mimic yours and ended up spluttering all of the smoke out before it could even reach his lungs. 

“Bro! Don’t waste it,” JJ scolded him, plucking the joint from between his fingers. 

“Like you’re gonna do any better,” John B rasped, still struggling to breathe after that rough first try. You leaned over and thumped him on the back a few times to help him get it all out.

Not one to back down from a challenge, JJ lifted the joint to his lips and inhaled. He had enough common sense to take it slow and stop as soon as he felt his throat start to burn. A couple of coughs still managed to escape, but overall, he had fared way better than John B (and you the first time you smoked, but you weren’t about to tell him that; he’d never let you live it down).

“You’re a natural!” You exclaimed, clapping your hands together in front of your chest. JJ beamed at you as if you had just told him he won the lottery. 

John B’s second try went better than his first, and soon all three of you were passing the joint back and forth with ease. It was funny to watch the boys as they started to feel it; they insisted they didn’t feel anything but you knew they were just trying to act tough and keep up with you. Their eyes were glassy and they kept giggling at everything.  

When John B toppled over onto his side, you cut them off. 

“Y/N, noooo, give it back,” he moaned, making half-hearted grabby hands at the almost-finished joint you had just pulled out from between his lips. 

“I think you’re good, Johnny boy,” you took a quick hit and then gestured to him with the joint between your fingers. 

“Okay, but I get it again, right? Since John B started before me, I get one more, to make it fair,” JJ tried to argue, reaching across the circle to try and take it from you. 

“Yeah, but his first one didn’t count.” He pouted and made puppy-dog eyes at you to try and convince you to let him have more, but you just shook your head and laughed. You leaned back on one elbow and finished off the joint with two more deep inhales, then pressed it into the rock to put it out. John B had rolled over so he was lying flat on his back and he pointed at something above you. 

“Look, guys! Do you think that’s a UFO?” He asked, and you followed his hand and noticed a blinking red light slowly making its way across the sky. JJ’s eyes widened and he looked back and forth from you to John B.

“It’s probably just a plane, dude,” you said through your giggles. You let yourself fall backward and laid perpendicular to your brother so you could use his stomach as a pillow.  

“Hey! I want to lay down, too,” JJ whined. He crossed his arms and pouted at the two of you with a furrowed brow, which sent you and John B into a laughing fit. Your head bounced up and down in time with his laughter, which only made you laugh harder. 

“Nothing’s stopping you, buddy,” you finally managed to wheeze out. JJ’s face did a 180, flipping his frown into a smile, and he settled into the pile, lying parallel to John B with his head on your stomach. 

“This is nice.” JJ let out a small sigh and his eyes fluttered shut as he burrowed his head into the fabric of your t-shirt. 

“Yeah,” John B agreed. He tilted his head down so he could look at you, and took a fistful of your hair in each of his hands. “I love you, Y/N.” He flopped the pieces of hair back and forth over your face and smiled down at you with the biggest, stupidest grin on his face. “You’re the best sister ever.” Your heart swelled with so much love for your little brother that you were sure it was going to kill you. 

“Love you, too,” you replied through your own big, stupid grin. 

“Hey, what about me?” A half-asleep JJ mumbled against your stomach. You reached down to ruffle his hair, letting your hand linger in his blond locks. 

“We love you, too, JJ,” you whispered. You weren’t sure if he heard you, but he nuzzled his head against your hand and hummed in satisfaction. 

Yeah, loving these boys would probably kill you one day, but it would be worth it. 

[ronniescribbles]

Force-A-Chaos 

Scout x Little!Reader

1,205 Words

You can read it on AO3 here!

Spy is forced to leave Scout in charge of watching you when he's dragged on a business trip. Chaos ensues. 

A/N: Ah, Scout, my beloved himbo bean. I honestly headcanon him as a big brother type caregiver, and I think his silliness is something to be adored. :) I hope you guys enjoy it as well! 

An exasperated Spy rubbed his aching temples. Leaving for an assignment in Paris was stressful enough, but having to put Scout in charge of babysitting little you made things tremendously worse. It's not that Scout was a bad guy, he was just a bit too reckless for Spy's taste. That made leaving a delicate, impressionable little such as yourself to his care daunting, to say the least. 

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

"Non, she cannot use the oven." 

"Ey, why not? You're a big kid, aren'tcha, darling?" Scout nudged your arm with a grin, eliciting a happy squeal from you. 

Spy exhaled through his nose, his eyes momentarily closing in an attempt to relieve some of the strain on his intelligence. He turned to look at you, reaching out to hold your hands. "I will call if I can, alright, cherié? Please be on your best behavior for Papá." 

"Mhm, I will, Papá." You give him a nod as extra reassurance. 

"That's mon petite chou fleur," Spy pulled you in for a strong hug. Something felt out of place by how clingy he was being; despite him usually possessing protective caregiver tendencies, he never seemed to be overly weary of handing you over until now. It could've been the fact that Scout had never babysat you before, you thought to yourself, slowly trying to piece together the puzzle. Spy never seemed to get along with the airhead anyway, so it made sense that he was a bit too worried about you. 

Leaving a little with someone as reckless as him wasn't the best idea, but Scout wasn't that bad, was he? When you were big, Scout was pretty respectful of you, especially in comparison to how he treated others around him. Sure, he had a tendency to get on everyone's nerves around the base, but at the end of the day, you saw that he really cared about his team. 

Spy pressed a final kiss into your hand as he turned away to grab his coat. He muttered something to Scout that you didn't quite catch. 

Clearing his throat, Spy recounted, "Remember to read ze list I left! I will be back as soon as I can," he flashed you a warm smile before he turned and strode through the doorway. 

"Aw, crap. I forgot he even wrote that stupid list. Hold on, short-stop," he grumbled, voice thick with his signature Boston accent. Scout fished for a crumpled up piece of paper in his pocket. He tried to smooth it out on his thigh before holding it up to read it. 

"Always keep a lookout on them when small, no sweets after 8 o'clock, bedtime's at 10:30.. blah blah blah..." Scout tossed the list behind him without a second thought. "Yeah, I don't think we're gonna need all'a 'dat, sweetheart. By 'da way, you thirsty? I got some Bonk in the fridge if you want." 

A mischievous smile crept onto your face. Spy absolutely despised soda of any kind, nonetheless Bonk. In his words, it was an "over carbonated sugar water," and you were not advised to consume it. Even Spy was clueless as to how Scout could function after chugging a whole can of it… but your sippy cup couldn't hold a full can of it anyway, so what was the harm? 

"Otay! I's go get my sippy, it's in mh room-" 

Scout was quick to cut you off. "Nah, I got it. Spy gave me a box of all this stuff you like to use, y'know, just so I had it all here." He gestured with his thumb to a box on the kitchen table overflowing with bright toys, decorated pacifiers, and of course, your favorite sippy. "Plus, you're like small and stuff, right? Let me take care of ya, I know what I'm doin'." 

You giggled in amusement, your eyes following the jumpy young man as he confidently bounced over to the table and grabbed your sippy. You waddled over to meet him in the kitchen as he poured your cup full of soda. 

"Now, shortstop, I really ain't suppose 'ta give you this stuff, but I'm quiet if you're quiet, alright?" He screwed the lid shut and placed the bottle in your hands. 

"Mm, tanku Jermy!" That might've been the easiest deal you'd made yet, honestly.

"Aw, no problem, kiddo." You felt his fingers ruffling your hair back. "And you should call me dat more often, cutie." He flashed you a cheesy wink. 

Another squeal escaped your parched lips. Scout sure knew how to keep you entertained! Plus, he didn't mind giving you soda, which was a win-win in your books. You liked that - his ability to relax, to not be so uptight about everything. It felt refreshing, like a cold soda on a hot day.

You drew the bottle to your lips and had a few sips. The sugar instantly hit you, causing the sort of bounce-off-the-walls energy that Spy's no soda rule tried to prevent. You rocked from side to side in a very little-appropriate way to curb the sugar rush. 

Scout obviously noticed how hard the carbonated drink had hit you. "Yeah, when I had Bonk for the first time, I had to run like a mile and a half through the neighborhood, just to burn it off!" 

Your cheeks glowed pink with giddiness. Scout made you feel warm, like a sort of sugary sweetness bubbling to the surface inside you. For a tiny like you, the excitement was almost too much to bear! But, alas, you skipped back over to the bucket, setting your sippy cup down to fish inside for a toy to tide you over. 

Suddenly, you felt Scout's hands latch onto your sides as he attempted to lift you up. He teetered from side to side, but still managed to hold you steady enough for you to peek inside and grab a plush ball. 

Seemingly as soon as you'd been picked up, your feet touched concrete again. "Looked like ya needed a hand, short-stop, seein' as you were on your tippy toes and all." 

You shook your head in defiance. "M not short! Can reach, can reach!" 

You squeezed your eyes shut as Scout's hand landed on the top of your head, gently patting in reassurance. "Yeah, sure thing, kiddo. I'm sure you can reach anything you want, huh?" 

The weight of the ball left your grasp. "Even this, babydoll?" 

Confused, you opened your eyes, only to see Scout lifting the round object way above your head. Despite your futile attempts to reach it, he was tall enough to lift it out of reach. His toothy grin practically glistened at you. 

"Alright, alright, sweetheart. No need to get all pouty on me, y'know I ain't got a need for this thing anyway." He placed his empty hand on his hip, offering the ball on a flat palm. "Unless you wanted to play some catch? Y'know, I'm really good at playin' ball. Not even Sniper can beat me!" 

Your pout evaporates into a beaming smile, watching Scout's chest stick out with pride. "Ahuh, catch, catch! Gonna win!" 

His laugh follows yours. "Alright, but I ain't goin' easy on ya, sweetcheeks~!" 

This was going to be the best weekend ever!

[all-hallows-evie]

Chapter 1: Marooned

Rating: T, for language, Canon Typical Violence/Action. Honestly, this chapter isn't that bad, the T rating is just in case I forgot about something lol

Wordcount: 3,776

Warnings: Canon typical violence and adventure, female OC with name × Tech slowburn, but not too slow lol, NOT BETA'D, because if I have to stare at this first chapter again I'm not going to post it.

A/N: HAPPY TECH TUESDAY, LOOK I'M FINALLY POSTING SOMETHING, WHEEEEEEEEEEE

There were bad ideas, really bad ideas and then there was this.

The ship hums under her feet as it trudges through the far corner of the mid rim, chugging along on it’s route without any sign of trouble or disruption from it’s preplanned course.

It should have been a routine pillaging, something she had placed firmly in the ‘great ideas’ list but instead it had turned into a routine mutiny and finished the day as a routine marooning. She sighs as she lays her head back against the seamless panel behind her.

Fucking pirates. 

She has been stranded on the old freighter for at least two moons, but it was hard to say with certainty. The droids that man the ship have no need to eat so more often than not they forget to pass along anything to keep her mounting hunger at bay, adding along to the lack of any kind of panel to the outside world, getting her bearings is proving to be more difficult than usual. 

She hisses a swear to drown out the low growl of her belly and focuses her gaze on the far corner of the room. Another day, another chance to count the diamond shaped tiles above her cell, she swears the number changes every other time she counts. She doesn’t get farther than eighteen when the door of the maintenance room blows open. 

The dust fills the room, hiding everything under its grimy shadow. The grit in the air crackles as it’s pushed against the red of the electron walls that keep her prisoner with the ships cooling coils and a water filtration unit that has calcified and has never been fixed.  

"Well look at that, we found it! Lucky break!"

"Luck had nothing to do with it, if you had studied the schematics of this cruiser like I had asked-"

"Yeah yeah yeah." The first figure, a hulking shadow in the doorway brushes off the smaller one as he stomps into the suddenly too tiny room.

"The memory core should be at the end of the-" the smaller of the two figures stops in front of her cell as the big one charges towards the end of the room without stopping. They launch themselves into the piles of junk thrown haphazardly inside, "That's concerning."

"Concerning? You see someone in a cage and you go with ‘concerning’?" She replies as she pulls herself up to standing. She takes in his armor, modified clone armor from the looks of it painted pale with a bright red stripe down his chest, his eyes slightly magnified by the goggles on his face, the rest hidden by the elongated helmet.

"According to the intel we were provided there weren't supposed to be life forms aboard." He seems irritated to see her.

"Good old Republic intel, still living up to its reputation."

The other clone approaches, he rips open the metal box in his hands and yanks out the core as if the casing was made of thick flimsy and nothing more, "I've got the thing, time to go!"

She watches, dumbstruck for a moment as her ticket out starts to head for the gaping maw that used to be a door, "Wait, you're taking the old database?" The two of them stop and turn, "It's not complete! It's missing pieces of the coordinates!" Firefek she didn't want to sound desperate but she was.

"Likely story-" The big one chuckles.

"I was trying to steal it too, I almost got all of it before my crew turned on me!"

"A mercenary or a pirate? No matter, I trust you even less now."

She had never wanted to punch anyone's face as hard as she wanted to punch his, "Check the core Goggles, I swear to you! It's missing pieces!" He hesitates and in that baited pause she knows she has him, "Please, just let me out and drop me off wherever you dock next. You can have my data chip. No harm, no foul, just get me out."

The one with the goggles glares at her, the yellow tinted transparisteel of his visor snapping downl before he turns to the bigger man. Klaxons ring all around as he scans the core with a handheld device, but it's taking up time they do not have.

The two clones share a look, silently deciding her fate.

The bigger one caves first, "Aww c'mon Tech, we can't leave her! You saw what's on this ship, she'll be a goner on some mining planet!"

"Under normal circumstances I might agree but she's caged for a purpose, and I'm disinclined to put any trust in her."

"How much damage can she do? She’s smaller than you are!" 

Tech, the one in the goggles, sighs before he turns back around to face her, "If we spring you, you play by our rules. You follow our orders, no complaints, no rebuttals and if you put one toe out of line-"

"Out the airlock, understood." She nods furiously, hands pressed against the panel as she watches Tech short out the electron wall holding her hostage, the panel shudders and then it spews sparks on to the ground as the red fades and she's finally able to step through. 

"Lets go shortie!" 

"Wait, let me just grab-" She scrambles to the other side of the wall, trying to pull at something from the top of a shelf. The bigger clone reaches over and tosses the crate to the floor. She throws open the top and snatches out a bantha leather bag and a helmet.

"Run!"

Tech doesn't have to tell her twice, the three of them bolt out of the door and into the corridor, the lights above flash in time with the klaxons. There is a low rumble that joins the hum of the hyperspace engine, as whatever security droids are on board begin to activate.

"Back to the ship, short stuff!" 

The three of them book it down the darkened halls, ducking behind walls and crates as the first cluster of security droids pass through.

She tosses her bag across her shoulder, slinging it against one side of her hip, clipping it into place with snaps sewn into her jacket. They watch three more droids pass them by before she speaks again, "My name's Nox, by the way." 

"Doesn't sound like a girl's name." The big one chuckles, so deep and rumbling it almost feels like a growl.

"Well it's the only name I've got. My parents named me a bit of a mouthful, Nox just works better."

"Clear." Tech calls out and they continue on their way heading to the service hangar where their ship hopefully was waiting for them.

"How'd you end up out here?" The big one asks, with every flash of light above them she can see more of the large scary face painted roughly on his helmet, lines thrown on haphazardly only to be scraped away by carbon scoring.

She is about to answer when she is shoved back into a corner by Tech. He slaps a hand over her mouth before she can yelp, the leather slightly singed, it smells of electricity and grease.

“Wait.”

"I'm getting tired of all this sneaking around, I say we blow our way outta here!" The big one growls.

"We’re almost there Wrecker, it would be pointless to try now."

She shoves Tech's Hand away, "Blow your way out of here, are you insane? With the amount of baby on board you'd blow us into the next dimension!"

There are a few beats of silence before both helmets turn towards her.

"Baby?" Wrecker repeats but is shushed by Tech.

"You don't mean baradium-"

"Bisulfate? I absolutely do! There were containers of the stuff in the holding bay."

"This Imperial ship is headed somewhere to mine thorilide?" He repeats, tone stressed over every syllable in the word ‘Imperial’.

"That or some unlucky planet is about to be wiped from existence."

"The location of the Republic thorilide mines have been kept under the utmost security for ages, not even the Jedi Council was ever advised of its location."

"Can’t say I blame them, I barely trust them with those glowy sticks of death." She murmurs, making lightsaber sounds with her mouth as Wrecker snickers.

"Stop that. Do you know where this ship was heading? Do you have a copy of the manifest?"

"What, your amazing Republic recce didn't get you that information shiny?" He glares back at her, brows pinching together behind the dark frames of his goggles, "Maker! Did those cloners take your sense of humor? Yes, I know where this ship is going."

"Bet Cid’s contact would pay more for that bit of info." Wrecker’s grin can be heard even through the plastoid of his helmet.

Tech meanwhile has typed something to a com on his wrist, "Hunter, there's been a complication."

"What kind of complication?"

"There is more on board this ship than just the republic database-"

"What do you mean?"

"This ship is a mining vessel, out to mine thorilide."

Tech’s wrist comm goes silent, just quiet static while the voice on the other line thinks, "Ordinance?"

Both clones look at her, she nods emphatically, "Ordinance, med supplies, if there was coaxium on board I wouldn't be surprised, this place is the motherlode."

"Quite a bit of supplies on board, it would seem."

The comm goes quiet again for a few moments, "We don't have time for this, it's only a matter of time before they realize that your cruiser is stolen. Grab what you went in for and leave."

Tech shakes his head, it's so tiny and quick that if she wasn't looking at him in that moment she would have missed it, "Where is it being kept?" 

"Up, five or so floors unless I've miscounted."

"Tech, Wrecker, Get out of there, now!" The voice on the other end grows more and more irritable as they stand around in silence.

"We'll be out as soon as possible." Tech replies curtly as he cuts the comm. He makes it sound so easy like they were stopping by the nearest market to pick up fruit, instead of about to hijack high quality explosives from Imperial custody, "Lead the way."

"What? Just like that?"

"Are there, or are there not these items on board?"

"Yes." 

"You swear?" Wrecker leans in close, hovering over her.

"Yeah."

Tech nods, "Vital signs are stable, no signs of heightened stress-"

"What if I'm just a really good liar?"

"You can try all you want my dear, but the data doesn't lie."

"Does he do this to you too? I'm finding it a bit creepy-" She asks Wrecker as her eyebrow raises.

"You get used to it."

"Weird, so weird…" she mutters to herself as she turns and peeks around the corner. She looks around for anything that is familiar, when she sees a maintenance lift at the very end of the hall to the right. She motions them forward, and silently they sneak their way closer to the lift. She turns her attention to her side as she digs in her bag, her fingers grasp at the odd collection of junk in her pockets until her hand finally wraps around the cool metal of her code cylinder and she can finally stop holding her breath.

Tech's hand on her shoulder pulls her back to the task on hand as he drags her back a few steps. The catwalk above them from here to the lift is no more than a shoddy looking set of grates that creak as a group of security droids march along their patrol, oblivious to the three of them below. 

“The maintenance lift?" Tech sniffs as they come to a stop at its doors. He raises hand to push his goggles back into place, "Perhaps you have failed to notice but none of us are maintenance droids, the moment you try to access that panel they will -”

“They’ll what?” She asks as she jams the cylinder into the port, the lift clicks open silently and she steps inside. 

“The alarms-”

“What alarms? According to this," she snaps her code cylinder from the panel and drops it back into her bag, lost again to the chaos of the random junk held within, "I'm a maintenance droid doing routine inspections. How stupid do you think I am?”

"Hey hey, this one's pretty smart huh Tech?!" Wrecker is thrilled.

"Pirate." She reminds, "You don't see many my age that aren't intelligent and I'll give you one guess as to why."

The doors silently click open and before they can step out a team of at least half a dozen well armed sentry droids roll past. 

They all leap from the inside of the lift and fall into a crouch behind a stack of supply crates. They wait for a few moments before Tech quickly peeks over, "They don't seem to have spotted us."

"Fuck, there weren't this many when we tried this the first time." She swears a few more times under her breath.

"We should do this my way." Wrecker offers.

"What's that mean, what does he mean?!" Nox looks nervously over to Tech, "He doesn't mean-?"

"Explosives and violence? He absolutely does," Tech sighs, “ and I'm afraid we are running low on options and even lower on time. Wrecker, what does your ordinance look like?"

“But you said I couldn't bring any?”

“Yes, and when was the last time you actually listened?”

Wrecker, the fun if not absolutely homicidal one, pulls out a couple of detonators, a roll of plastic tape, a half dozen hand grenades and three droid poppers.

“Great, nice to know you could have turned us into a small sun if I hadn't told you about the baby on board.”

"Everything save for the poppers is far too dangerous to use around those crates." Tech hisses, "Any more of those brilliant pirate ideas floating around in your head?"

She chews on her lip for a moment, wracking her brain for anything else that might be useful as she ignores Tech's sarcastic tone. Apart from the crates on this floor littered with treasure, there didn't seem to be anything of any use...except for the busted water filter. “How big of a distraction do you think it would take to get all those sentries away from the haul?”

“It would need to be something quite large or destructive enough to threaten the integrity of the ship.”

“The water filtration system on board is completely calcified, I don't think it was ever fixed since there are only droids on board. If you could flood that with enough pressure the entire pipe should burst-”

“And flood the entire floor, along with the engine room, that might just do it.” He’s on his data pad before the words are even out of his mouth, he scans the room all around and matches it with the wireframe schematics on his screen. He stalks his way backwards until he finds the panel he is looking for. He pops it open easily and then begins to slice into the mainframe of the ship, “On my count, take Wrecker to wherever the baby is, let him handle it. You get your hands on as much of the medical supplies as you can, the security onboard is a little tighter than I would have preferred so I will have to stay here and continue to flood the filter.”

“Oh, easy.”

“Think you can handle all that tiny?” Wrecker’s thundering chuckle threatens to give away their location even with the steady moan of the alarms overhead.

She grins, Wrecker is back to being the fun one, “Try and keep up.”

There is a sound of roaring water all around them as tech funnels every liquid on the ship into the filter, then a sound like an explosion a couple of feet below them rocks the ship like a lightning strike. 

The sound of the alarm overhead changes as every droid on the floor turns away and heads to a lowering platform, all instructed to assist with the burst pipe.

“That’s our cue!” 

She shoves Wrecker forward playfully before they both break into a sprint toward the storage rooms where their bounty is being held. She points to one of the rooms as they approach, "This one's your big boy!"

The door is sealed shut, but not for long. Wrecker doesn't slow, instead he hunches low, bringing his shoulders down and tucking his chin into the collar of his armor before he barrels straight through, punching a hole through the doors with enough force to make even her teeth rattle.

She dips into the storage room across the hall, thanking the stars that her haul wasn't locked away like his was. She rips open any crate within arms reach, tossing open the tops and letting them scatter around the room wherever they land. She snatches bacta patches and hypos by the handful and packs the crate as full as she can, slamming her entire body weight against it to get it to close. She drags it out into the hall, placing it by the door before she bolts into the room right beside the one Wrecker is standing in. 

Wrecker watches her disappear into the room, the four small crates of explosives tucked carefully under his arms, “Wait, where are you-”

His question is answered as another crate hits the floor beside him. She comes running out of the room, grabbing this second crate by the handle and yanking it along, “Perfect! Not a single explosion! Love that for me!”

Wrecker bends down to offer her a hand but she has already snatched up the first trunk and is flying down the hall with them. She's faster than Wrecker would have believed she would be capable of with the two crates almost her height. She almost trips over herself as she stops and with a swift kick, the second crate lands at Tech's feet, “Come on 20/20, cut her loose, let's go!”

“What’s in that- I specifically ordered you to only carry medical supplies.”

“Yeah well, it sounds like you are used to not being listened to so, ship. Now!”

Wrecker races past, hopping off of the side and down to the level below, the halls are empty as all hands are called to help with the floor that is flooding. 

Nox peeks over the side, she watches as Wrecker sets the small boxes of baby down beside him, "Toss your crate!" He calls up. She nods and yanks the crates handle, flipping it up and off of the edge with a nudge from Tech. 

She helps him in turn, as they gingerly haul the crate full of ordinance over the edge before tossing it below. 

Wrecker sets the crates to one side before turning back to catch Nox, but she's already climbing down. Her fingers dig into spots on the wall where she should not be able to have any grip. She finds her own way down and with a little hop, lands right beside Wrecker as Tech lands beside her. The clang of his boots echoes down the empty hallway. "We'll need to make our way through the flooded floor of the ship in order to get back to the hangar." Tech types away at his data pad again before picking up the side of his crate.

Nox follows close beside the two clones, tossing the crate up onto her back to avoid making any unnecessary scraping sounds as they get closer to the flooded area, the sound of pouring water gets louder and louder with every floor. The next floor they walk through has the water barely deep enough to wash over the toes of their boots, but it rises rapidly after that. By the time they are on the same floor as the hangar, the water has risen up to their knees and Nox has a harder time trying to distract her mind from where all of this stagnant water has been hiding this whole time.

“Holding out ok over there tiny?” Wrecker chuckles. 

She turns to answer, when everything becomes...not alright. Her next step slips out from under her and she goes flying forward, crashing face first into the dark disgusting water, the crate on her back keeping her under the surface as she struggles to pull herself back up to standing. 

A hand at the back of her collar pulls her back up into fresh air, slimy water pours from her mouth and nose as she gags. She doesn't need to clear the water from her eyes to know what the dark figures that are starting to line the hallway are. Tech and Wrecker are on either side of her, blasters raised as the sentry droids file in.   

“I'm hoping you can fight better than you can swim.” Tech calls over as Wrecker leaps over them both and charges straight into one of the sentries.  Tech keeps a few of the others at bay, clipping them with bright bolts from his twin deecees, but it's not enough. She rubs the slime from her face and charges right behind Wrecker, using her entire body to check a droid in her path, she grabs the blaster from its hands as it goes tumbling backwards and into the water. Techs shots ring out around her as he stays behind, watching over the crates behind him. Wrecker tears through any droids that get within reach, sparks flying on to the water before they sizzle and die. She concentrates her fire on any droids Tech misses until the hall is clear.

"There'll be a second platoon on their way, we better get a move on." Tech calls back to them, she tosses the almost empty blaster into the water beside her.

"Are you always just, you know?" She makes growling and ripping sounds at Wrecker.

He laughs, "Not often enough." 

She stifles her laughter behind her hand as she walks back to where Tech is to retrieve the case of medical supplies, for a brief moment the last couple of days are forgotten and even the slime on her skin is the last thing on her mind. For a brief moment she was back with her men, waiting for that score of a lifetime, but when she grabs the handle of the crate and looks back it’s the clone armor that reminds her she is in fact alone. The sudden quiet of sadness doesnt last long as the doors behind them open and a new series of drods begin their march towards them. 

“Incoming!”

-----

Tag list: @themarvelbunch @agentwhiskeysdarlin @pascalisthepunkest @ashotofspotchka

[codeinecupsss]

Red Room chp 1 - British stranger- It was a dark and stormy night, in Vegas. The wind howled loudly and the lights flickered in the streets as Heather walked. In her right hand, she held heels and her purse. Work was time consuming and she only made eight hundred dollars in nine hours, due to her bosses actions. Having nice clothing was for the wealthy and Heather was nowhere near wealthy. She barely paid her rent and fed herself. Heather's outfit, consisted of red dresses, she'd buy from goodwill and it wasn't exactly revealing enough for her job. The flash of the lighting, the roar of the thunder, and the pelting shower of torrential rain, scared Heather making her hug the coat that covered her small body, tightly.   "Crap" She says, increasing her speed towards the direction of her apartment. Heather hated it when it rained, by reason of her hair being curly. She tested pulling her coat over her head, yet failed to keep herself warm. Her teeth chattered and her hair soaked of rain, the warmth now leaving her body. She continued to walk in the freezing cold, clouds of smoke leaving her mouth as she breathed.  Taking a sharp turn, she then arrived at her destination. Exhaling, she unlocked her rusty door, pushing it open afterwards. " Crispy!" she squealed as her fury cat came running to her in excitement. She bent down and pet her, enjoying the warmth of her fury pet. Heather's body warmth came back and she now removed her jacket, hanging it up on the rack as well.  " Look what i brought!?" she then said, pouring the treats in Crispy's bowl. Crispy happily ate her treats as Heather walked to her bedroom.   Her bedroom was very small and tight but she she knew she couldn't do anything about it, sadly. Removing the red dress off her body she hummed a melody, sauntering to the bathroom. Water poured down the drain once she turned on the shower and a small grin formed on her lips.   The shower wasn't very long, only having hot water for ten minutes. She stepped out onto her fluffy rug, and wrapped a towel around her body. Curly hair fell to her sides, completely soaked in water. Heather never thought of herself as ugly. She may have been a blonde with blue eyes but she also had features of her father.  Freckles splattered her nose and her cheeks were lightly tinted pink. She had a gap in between her front teeth, which she hated. Her lips were very pink, very plump.  Water dripped down to her arms and back as she studied her reflection in the mirror.  Reaching underneath the sink, she pulled her blow dryer out and connected it to the outlet. air, forces her hair back and she continued, through until it was completely dry - then ties it into a bun. A strand of her curliness fell down to her nose, and she huffed, tucking it behind her ear. Heather hasn't decided whether she wanted to the bar till morning, or continue her book. If it were the bar, she could wear the black dress, she bought recently. Red was the strip - leaving Heather the reality.   She grabbed the warm fabric and tossed it onto her bed, along with a matching underwear set. A night to herself was all she needed. Lifting one leg up, she slipped on her pink lace underwear and tied her matching bra on as well. The storm had finally stopped by the time she got dressed. Quickly, she grabbed her cardigan that hung beside her closet and put it on. Her curls left the messy bun and fell to her shoulders. No, Heather wasn't planning on walking to the bar silly. Why would she ruin her brand new boots in the rain? Having Uber was useful when she had the amount of money. The driver tried to charge her seventy five dollars, from the strip to home. Lucky for Heather, the bar wasn't far. She paid the driver online and waited patiently for his/hers arrival.  Not only does the bartender love Heather, but he also gives her free drinks all night. Hopefully, he'll be working today or she'd be screwed.  A loud ring, echoed in the silence and she looked down at her phone. The driver had arrived and was parked by her mailbox. Her boots clicked on the floor as Heather ran down her hallway and down the stairs.  Once Heather got comfortable in her seat, the driver drove off down the street, passing a few house along the way.  Jazz music filled her ears as the man continued to drive around the beautiful city. Now that the storm stopped, people began to come out and party like it wasn't 4 AM. Heather secretly admired that about Vegas. Even though it was late, nobody ever stopped partying. life was great for them and life for her, was garbage. The man finally parked behind the building and she grabbed her purse beside her, exiting the car after. Hugging the cardigan tighter around her body, she slowly walked passed a few intoxicated people and inside the building. Every seat in the bar was taken except the ones in the front. Heather normally didn't sit in front, due to the creepy men that flirted with her all night.  " The usual." she then spoke, slamming the one hundred dollar bill on the table. " well, hello to you too. Miss, i'm on a mission."  The bartender mocked her as he poured her favorite drink. sliding the glass her way, she smiled, finally looking up from her lap.  " It's busy tonight, don't you think?" " very." He replies. She shrugged, picking up her glass.  " Keep these coming till i'm too drunk to ask for more." She then says, drowning the shot quickly. The vodka burned her throat and she winced at the feeling. Heather's nights at the bar, consisted, getting wasted and possibly taking someone home. The men she fucked, never knew she was a stripper and she wanted to keep it that way. After her second shot, it began to taste like sprite and she couldn't be happier.  " So.  she pushed her empty glass towards him and smiled. " Is there anyone good looking tonight?"  Raising an eyebrow, he poured her another glass.  " Just him, but he's way too old for you darling." She followed his eyes and turned around in her seat.  A man, probably in his early thirties, sat alone in the back of the bar, holding a half empty bottle of whisky.  Black ink is the first thing she saw.  He looked scary to be honest, but all the scary ones were good in bed.  His brown hair, combed nicely to the side giving her a good view of his green eyes. His face was perfectly sculpted - almost as if he was a statue.  He may have been drunk but he looked absolutely stunning.  She bit down on her lip, fascinated by the man. Turning back around in her seat, she faced the bartender. " Do you have anymore whisky bottles?"  Again, he raised an eyebrow and she huffed in annoyance.  " I'll pay you back, i promise. Please?" She batted her eye lashes, begging him to buy her the bottle.  He sighed, reaching underneath, grabbing a bottle of whisky.  " Don't let anyone see you, I can get fired."  She giggled loudly, jumping out of her seat.  " Wish me luck?"  Rolling his eyes, he whispered a " Good luck." And she smiled in return. " Ooops, sorry!" She squealed, apologizing to the two people she bumped into. They yelled a " Watch where you're going." And she blushed in embarrassment. Keeping her head low, she continued to walk through the crowd, saying a few sorry's on the way. Finally, she was face the face with the attractive man.  " Care for another drink?" She then said, smiling widely.   The man looked up from his hands and raised an eyebrow.  " Excuse me?"  From the way he spoke, he definitely was British and it only made Heather want him more.  She smiled again, placing the bottle in front of him.  " I said.  She then took a seat beside him and poured herself a drink.  " Do you want another drink?" He stared at the bottle, then at her.  " How old are you?"  That was the question, she often got from the men she flirted with and it was pestering to hear.  She bit her lip, stopping herself from giving the man a snarky response, then poured another glass.  " I'm old enough too talk to you."  Sliding the glass towards him, she grinned.   A small smile formed on his lips making her grin widen in satisfaction.  " Oh come on, I'm not that bad."  She brought her glass up, convincing him to take the shot with her.  He held a dark face, with stern features and a heavy brow; his eyes and gathered eyebrows looked ireful and thwarted. The frown, the roughness of him set her at ease. " I'm having a bad night. Do it for me?"  He looked at her when she said this and stopped, ran his eye over her dress and in two minutes, rose from the couch.  " I don't speak to children."  Her mouth fell open, surprised by his rude comment.  All she wanted was a night with him but obviously he wasn't interested.  "Fine.   She snatched the bottle from the table and pushed passed him.  " Ass hole."   When she reached the bar, she slammed the bottle down and huffed, taking a seat.   " He thinks i'm a child." She told the bartender, taking a chug from the bottle. He laughed in response, earning a eye roll from Heather. " Not funny."  He shut his mouth at that and pushed a tall margarita glass in front of her.  " I made you an apology drink?"  She smiled, putting the straw in her mouth. Of course, the drink tasted amazing! It was made by the best bartender here. She continued to drink till the glass was empty.   Her body felt more relaxed once all the alcohol kicked in and she smiled at the feeling. " You got a smoke?" She then asked. He nods, digging in his back pocket. Pulling out a Newport, he passed it to her, along with a lighter.   Thanking him, she grabbed her bottle and stumbled out of the bar. She pushed passed a couple of people and finally made it to the patio. Thousands of people, surrounded the patio and she found it difficult to find a seat to smoke.   Her eyes scanned the entire area till they fell on the attractive man from earlier.  He sat alone, just like before but that didn't stop her from walking towards him.   Slamming the bottle down, she took a seat in front of him. He looked up, quite surprised at her presence.  " I thought I told you, I don't speak to children."  He says staring at her hard.   " It's a free country.. If you don't like it, go back to London."  She response, roughly sticking the cigarette between her lips.  She lights it and inhales deeply afterwards.   Blowing out the smoke, she faced him.  His eyes bored into her and she couldn't help but feel, threatened.  Clearing her throat, she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Setting the cigarette down, she picked up her bottle, taking a chug from it after.   " You know, it's not nice to stare." She looks up and faces him. His stare hardened and a small giggle escaped her.   " Sorry, i'm a bit drunk at the moment."  Sticking the cigarette back in her mouth, she took a huge drag.  " I'm Heather by the way."  She held her hand out for him to shake, but he didn't move. Only stared.  She was beginning to get frustrated by his staring but she refused to let him affect her.  This was part of her job at the gentlemen's club so she held the same expression and stuck to it.  Finally, she finished her cigarette and flicked it to the dirt. " Just trying to make conversation."  She was half way done with the bottle and she felt so drunk, she could sleep.  Her body was heavy and her eyes struggled to stay open.  He reached over, grabbing the bottle from her hand.  " You've had enough love."   " H-he speaks!"  She slurred, holding onto the table tightly.  She knew she'd fall if she let go, so she kept herself seated.  A small hiccup escaped her but she laughed it off after.  Looking at the table, she noticed a pack of cigarettes  where his arm rested.   " May I?" She reached over and grabbed a cigarette from the box, quickly lighting it after.  No matter how cute he was, Heather never said anything, not unless he approached her first.   She's not sure where she got the idea that it was a man's job to do the approaching. Her mother, a staunch feminist in practice if not in name, would tell her. " if you see something, say something."  But the messages she got from everywhere else is that only a desperate women made the first move. She blew out the smoke, staring into his green eyes as he stared into her blue ones. How could someone be so damn hot? She thought.  He watched her carefully and she found it strangely hot. She imagined him push her onto her knees to suck his dick midway, and then command her to get on her knees face down, ass up, and then fuck her senselessly. Heather's heat began to get wet and she bit her lip at the thought.  She then heard the man suck in his breath.  " Heather, fuck."  His green eyes darken and she gasp at the scene.  He stared at her like she was a meal on a plate! Not only was he hungrily gazing, he held his hands tightly on the table. She was afraid he's snap but she was to drunk to do anything.  " Are you upset with me?" She then questioned. Her face held complete innocents but she wasn't innocent at all. She was a dirty dancer, when on the pole. Another hiccup escaped her and that's when the man got up. " Your drunk, let me take you home."   His green eyes came back and she huffed in frustration.  " What if i don't wanna?"  He laughed at that then stopped, reaching his hand out for her to take.   " Heather, it's late."  She loved the way he said her name and each time he'd say it, she got wetter.  After biting her lip once more, she gently placed her hand in his.  When he pulled her up, she slammed into his chest, accidentally dropping her cigarette.  His hands held her waist tightly as she giggled to herself. " I'm very drunk, sorry."  Again, she bit her lip and it drove him wild.  " Please, stop doing that."  She looked up and suddenly, dizziness took over her body.  " I think i'm going to faint."  She whispered - but before he could respond, everything went black.

Should i continue??? lmk 

[summahsunlight]

This Way Became My Journey, CH. 13

Chapters 1-10 / Chapter 11/ Chapter 12

A hot bath and a cup of tea was all Sarah Barrett really wanted when she stumbled into her quarters for her break. They had been traveling at warp speed for the past hour or so to get to Illidaria to ask for help in getting the trapped ship out of the event horizon and Sarah had spent just as long brushing up the rest of the crew on first contact protocols. It had taken a little longer than she was hoping, since the Maquis had no first contact policy and she had to start from scratch when it came to them. By now her feet were killing her and she had walked the equivalent of several miles on board the ship going from department to department.

Thankfully Chakotay's idea of routing power from deck seven had provided some power to the replicators in the mess hall so Sarah had been able to replicate a cup of red tea, with lemon, on her way back to her quarters. She sat in the living room, sipping it, while she waited for the bath to finish filling up. Pulling off the tunic of her uniform she decided to change into something more comfortable. She had one hour before she had to get back in uniform and man her office, there were several rookie space travelers that had requested to speak to her and she had somehow managed to cram them in; however she was going to make the most of this time off.

After slipping into a pair of navy blue cotton lounge pants and a spaghetti strap gray tank top she proceeded into the bathroom to check the water. The tub was almost full. Leaning over she turned the water off as the door chime rang out. Grunting, she pulled herself up. What now?

"Come in," she called, trying to keep the edge out of her voice. She wasn't surprised when Tom Paris sauntered into the room, carrying a bottle of champagne and what appeared to be a picnic basket. "What do you want, Tom?"

"I thought we'd celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Sarah asked, bewildered.

"In case you didn't realize, it was one week ago that we were pulled from the Badlands into the Delta Quadrant, and there's no better way to celebrate than a lunch of champagne and emergency rations," Tom pointed out, pulling out two tumblers from the basket and placing them down onto the dining table. He popped the cork and the champagne fizzled a little before he poured each of them a generous portion.

"That's something to celebrate? Being stranded seventy five thousand light years from home?"

Tom laughed. "Come on Sarah, you know me better than that. We're celebrating surviving our first week out here." He handed her a glass of the bubbly alcohol and clanged his glass to hers. "Drink up; we've only got about three thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine more weeks to go."

She watched as he took a sip of the champagne. "You have a twisted sense of humor, you know that?" But, she reasoned, a glass of champagne would certainly help her unwind a little after the horrendous morning and afternoon that she had just had. She figured Tom's probably wasn't much better. Finally she took a sip out of her own glass and immediately felt her senses tingle. This was a clear violation of the terms that Starfleet insisted that she agree upon if she wanted to go back to work; hell it was a clear violation of Starfleet protocol period, no drinking on duty. But if they were discrete, no one would have any idea they had shared a drink together during lunch.

Tom plopped his tired body down onto her sofa and spread his arms out along the back, the glass resting between his fingers. "You know, I've always loved how the bubbles tingle my nose."

Sarah was shocked how he could toss aside all that was going on around them and just focus on the moment. How often had she wished in the past that she had that ability? She stood there in the middle of the room, her feet bare, hair curling over her shoulders, staring at him. Was this for real? Or was the champagne a facade so he could see her because there was a deeper problem at hand?

"What?" he asked, noticing her stare. "Do I have something up my nose?"

She blinked, snapping out of her trance. "Why are you here?"

"I already answered that question; to celebrate surviving our first week," Tom replied, restlessly.

"No, why are you really here?"

He let out a dejected breath. "I should have known you'd see right through me."

"The champagne may have been a little too much of a give away," Sarah tried to joke, but noticed that it was coming off all wrong. He frowned at her and she saw the anguish flash through his blue eyes. She didn't even think Tom Paris was capable of such an emotion and it immediately thrust her into counselor mode. "Tom, what's going on? You seem…upset."

Leaning forward, Tom's eyes met hers. "Do you ever feel that we've been set up to fail?"

"You mean Captain Janeway's decision to strand us here?" Sarah drawled, trying to understand where he was coming from. "She did what she thought was right. If we hadn't destroyed the array what would have happened to the Ocampa?"

Tom shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes, Sarah, I feel like we did what was right, that their needs out weighed ours, however, other times I feel that being back in New Zealand would be better than facing uncharted space. If this was solely a Starfleet crew I wouldn't be worried, however, we're talking about integrating enemies of the Federation into this crew, our chances of survival aren't good. We just as well will kill each other before we work together. Janeway had to have known that when she pulled the trigger, right?"

"To be honest Tom, I'm not sure what she was thinking when she made the decision," Sarah answered, sitting with him on the couch. "It wasn't like we all had time to discuss it." She tucked her feet underneath her legs and drew them closer to her. "I guess, we just have to have a little faith, after all, it seems that Captain Janeway has some faith in all of us." She laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We'll get through it Tom, we'll make it home."

A sad smile stretched across his face. "You know something when I hear you say it, and hear Janeway say it, I believe it."

"Counselor Barrett, report to the Bridge."

Tom saw Sarah's eyes close and a dark look come over her face. The calm demeanor which she had regarded him in just mere seconds ago was gone, replaced with a worried and stressed look.

"We must be coming up on Illidaria," she murmured. Getting up she downed the rest of her champagne in a chug that impressed Tom, who was known for his chugging during his Academy days, and strode into the bathroom. He heard water draining from the tub and a few moments later she appeared from the room, clad now in her uniform, hair roughly tossed back and boots in her hands.

So much for the bath, Sarah thought as she put her boots on. She tapped her combadge. "Barrett to bridge, I'm on my way."

"The Captain would like to see you," Lieutenant Commander Tuvok instructed her when she stepped out of the turbolift. Sarah grimly nodded her head and proceeded to the ready room door, tapping the chime.

Janeway admitted her a few seconds later and she stepped into see an obvious flustered captain. "Is everything alright, ma'am?" The room was, putting it bluntly, a disaster. The product of having two children spend the whole day cooped up in there. Several toys littered the upper level, one of Ava's bottles had tipped over onto the coffee table and had leaked out, and Michael had made an elaborate block city that weaved around the entire area. Right now, both children were snuggled up, sleeping on the sofa taking what was probably a much needed nap.

"Oh, everything is just wonderful, Lieutenant," the older woman drawled, answering her question, her blue eyes staring intently at the younger woman. "I've got a trapped ship I cannot help without making first contact with a species we know nothing about, second, my children are running rampant all over this ship, third, I don't know who to put in charge down in Engineering. Do you know I tried to do as Chakotay suggested and get to know B'Elanna? She just stormed out of here, right before you came in. I was hoping that you would have made it here before she left. Tell me, Sarah, what am I doing wrong? I've tried to be accommodating, I've tried being welcoming to the Maquis, nothing is working."

"Captain, I don't think there is much more you can do…for the Maquis that is," Sarah responded quickly. "I've tried to get to know B'Elanna as well, all I meet is aversion. Of course to her, I'm nothing but a Starfleet brat."

Janeway had heard that term often enough as well growing up, since her father had been Starfleet. Perhaps that was the problem with many of the Maquis, they believed that she had not earned her way to this position, thus did not have the authority to dictate their lives. So what did that mean, that she get on the comline and tell her life story?

"Sickbay to Captain Janeway," the Doctor's voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes Doctor?"

"May I request that you activate your emergency medical holographic channel?"

Sarah watched as Janeway moved to sit behind her desk and activate her personal computer. Harry must have fixed it quickly, she thought with mild amusement, recalling how the Captain had burst forth from the ready room to get a status report that morning with the broken terminal in her hand, placed it in Harry's lap and told him to see if he could fix it. When he asked what had happened to it, her answer had been, a one year old.

Janeway was gazing at the newly fixed screen with a funny look and briefly Sarah wondered if Harry hadn't fixed it. "Doctor, I'm getting a distorted image. Mister Kim obviously didn't fix my computer thoroughly."

"No captain," the Doctor's voice came over the computer. "You're computer is working properly. This is how I currently appear. I'm…shrinking."

"Shrinking?" Janeway repeated, eyebrows arching in fascination. She propped her chin in her elbow to hide the smile that was no doubt making its way across her face.

The Doctor saw her amusement and scowled, telling how much he was shrinking by. "I've informed Mister Kim; apparently, he has more pressing matters to tend too, for example fixing your computer. However, my…personal problem, is not what I'm calling you about. Several crew members have reported severe headaches, muscles spasms, and sudden waves of dizziness. I've treated them of course."

Let's just add this to the list of things I have to deal with, Janeway thought bitterly. "This could be related to the quantum singularity we encountered a few hours ago," she told him, and immediately saw his face cloud over with disgust. Oh dear, no one informed him.

"Quantum singularity?" the Doctor repeated, in a harsh tone.

"It was sending out strong spatial distortions it might have affected the crew. And your systems as well," Janeway mused.

"You know Captain, if we were in the vicinity of a quantum singularity, I should have been informed."

She gave him an apologetic smile, realizing that since he was their only doctor at the moment, and seeing how he did not have the freedom to come to bridge, there had to be a way set up for him to get information on what was going on, other than by word of mouth. "You're absolutely right. I'll look at linking your program into the ship's database." Suddenly the ship jolted and Janeway was tossed about in her chair.

Stumbling to her feet both Janeway and Sarah left the ready room, neither of them realizing that the Captain had failed to terminate her link with the Doctor, who was calling after Janeway, "Hello? Captain?"

"Report," Janeway ordered, stepping up into the command station.

"It looks like we're running into more spatial distortions," Chakotay answered her, turning to face her.

"I'm reading a highly localized disturbance off the port bow," Harry Kim said.

"On screen," Janeway said, facing the view screen. An image of another event horizon appeared, very similar to the one they had left behind to go to Illidaria to get help. "Mister Tuvok?"

Tuvok ran his fingers over his console, gathering readings. "It is another type four quantum singularity. The physical and temporal dimensions are identical to the one we encountered earlier."

A beep came from Tom's instruments and the young pilot, who had taken his station after Sarah left her quarters, glanced over his shoulder at Janeway. "Captain, according to these coordinates, we've returned to our previous position. This isn't another singularity, it's the same one."

B'Elanna Torres didn't know why, but she was nervous sitting in the staff meeting that had been called to discuss why they were going around in circles and ending back at the same singularity. Joe Carey, who had been called to the meeting as well, looked smug and not the least bit fazed. There were rumors running rampant that this meeting was the one where Janeway was going to make her decision about chief engineer. B'Elanna figured she had ruined any chances of getting the position when she had stormed out of Janeway's office not even an hour ago. But she would be lying if she didn't want the job, for some reason she wanted to prove to Janeway that she was not going to fail, even if the woman was trying to set her up just to do that. However, at the same time, she knew that she wasn't officer material.

In fact, she was so lost in thought that she wasn't aware the holographic doctor had been speaking over the view screen in the briefing room until he was done. He glumly reported that he was still shrinking and cut the connection.

Janeway was leaning forward on her elbows. Chakotay was seated to her right, Sarah Barrett to her left, followed by Tuvok, Harry Kim, Joe Carey, herself, and Tom Paris. What a motley crew, B'Elanna mused, looking about the table as Janeway began to speak to them.

"I've finished my study of the spatial distortion coming from the singularity," the Captain began. "I can give you a long, boring analysis. All I can say is, I don't know what is going on. The readings are confused, the data contradictory, none of it is making any sense. Anyone have anything more constructive?" she asked the group hopefully.

"Ship wide diagnostics have revealed nothing out of the ordinary," Tuvok reported.

"I tried sending out a tachyon signal to scan the singularity, but all I got back was static," Carey said.

B'Elanna was still lost in thought and only brought out of it when Chakotay asked her if she could work with Carey to clean up the signal. "Yes," she replied, eyes flicking to Janeway. "But it won't work. I mean it was a good idea to try, but it won't work."

"You have another idea?" the Captain asked her.

"I was just thinking about the Doctor's problem with the holographic projectors," B'Elanna responded, leaning forward in her chair and resting her elbows on the table. "It seems like the spatial distortions might be interfering with the projector's phase alignment."

Janeway looked intrigued. "That was my guess too."

"If that's the case," B'Elanna continued, "I might be able to screen out those distortions by setting up a localized dampening field around the projectors."

"Is our priority here really the medical holographic system?" Carey questioned, feeling like he was being out matched.

"My point is," B'Elanna said, " that if the spatial distortions are also interfering with the transmission we received from the other ship -," she didn't get the chance to continue, the Captain finished for her, following her path, stating that they could set up a similar system around their external sensors and communicate with them. "Exactly," the Klingon replied, "And they may know more than we do about what's going on."

"Let's give it a try," Janeway said enthusiastically. "Dismissed."

The group of officers got up from the table, with the exception of Janeway and all filed out of the room back onto the bridge. Chakotay turned around at the door to look at her, asking her a silent question. A small smile spread on her face and she gave him a gentle nod of the head. He returned the soft smile, before following the others out onto the bridge. Janeway leaned back in her chair, let out a calming breath and stood up, slowly making her way after her officers. She found them all hard at work, just like she knew they would be.

"The emitters are online," B'Elanna reported, with Janeway now standing over her shoulder, arms over her chest. "I'm rerouting the dampening field through the deflector grid."

Janeway moved towards operations. "Open a channel to the other ship." Immediately the bridge was filled with a garbled message, just like the one they had heard about hours ago it felt like now. B'Elanna announced that she was ramping up the field intensity.

"It's working," Kim said. "We're cutting through the distortions." The message still sounded garbled however. Janeway ordered him to remodulate the EM band to try to clean it up. "Compensating for amplitude distortion," he told her as he typed away at his console. A few moments later a clear transmission filled the bridge and it shocked them all. It was the Captain's hail from hours before when they had first come across the singularity.

"That's your hail," Chakotay told her, even though she didn't need to be told.

"I'm applying our dampening field to our visual scanners to see if I can clear up the image," B'Elanna said. When she did it, it was another shock to the bridge crew, because the ship they were trying to rescue all along was Voyager. All this time they had been trying to save themselves. Suddenly it hit B'Elanna and Janeway as well, they were the ones trapped in the singularity all along, there had never been another ship.

"Red alert," Janeway ordered, the lights dimming and an alarm blaring a few warnings.

"Sensors confirm it's definitely U.S.S Voyager," Tom reported, peeking at his console between staring at the screen.

"I've been hailing the ship on all frequencies," Tuvok said, "But I've gotten no response."

Janeway narrowed her eyes. "I don't think you'll get a response, Commander," she told him, patiently. "That message we unscrambled is the same message I sent out hours ago."

"Could we have traveled back in time and met ourselves?" Kim asked.

"No," B'Elanna said firmly, "that's not it." She moved towards Janeway across the back of the bridge and went to stand face to face with her. "I think I have an explanation." For a moment their eyes met and then Janeway nodded towards the briefing room again, asking that the senior officers move in there.

B'Elanna moved with the others into the briefing room that they had occupied a mere five minutes before, but didn't bother taking a seat like the rest of them. She was too nervous that Janeway was going to think she was crazy. Instead, she nervously paced around the table giving her explanation as to what was going on. "Think of it like this," she started, "you're sitting at the bottom of a pond, which is frozen over, and you look up at the surface and see a reflection of yourself. Now, you might think you're looking at another person, sitting at the bottom of another pond, looking back at you."

To her surprise, Janeway was buying it. "And in this case, we'd be staring up at the surface of the event horizon and seeing a time delayed reflection of ourselves."

"Are you saying we're the ones trapped in the singularity?" Chakotay asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," B'Elanna replied.

"You're right," Janeway agreed, "it's the only theory that explains everything that's happened to us. We've probably been in this singularity since we felt the first jolt."

Paris was confused. "Wait a minute," he interjected. "Let me get this straight. We were cruising along at warp seven, and then picked up a distress call. So we moved into investigate, but now you're saying that the other ship is just a reflection of us, and that the distress call is just the captain's opening hail. But we picked up the distress call before she sent the hail. How could we have been seeing a reflection of something we hadn't even done yet?" He looked around the table to see that everyone was staring at him, and that Janeway had a smirk on her face. "Am I making any sense here?"

"No," Janeway replied, "but that's okay. One of the more difficult concepts to grasp in temporal mechanics is sometimes effect can precede cause. A reaction can be observed before an action that initiated it."

"So how do we get out?" Kim asked.

"I'm not sure," B'Elanna replied, intensely. "But, I do know one thing. That as we slide deeper into the singularity, the spatial distortions are increasing. If that's the case, then we might not have a lot of time before they crush the ship."

Janeway got up from the table and moved around it to stand next to her. "If your analogy is correct, how do we get through that sheet of ice?"

"Look for a crack!"

"Or make a crack," Janeway said in response to B'Elanna. "Take something and slam into the ice until it buckles."

"Wait a minute," B'Elanna said. "What if we already made a crack in the ice?"

"When we first entered the event horizon," Janeway mused along with her.

"If we can find our entry point we might be able to slip out the way we came in," B'Elanna replied.

"So we would be looking for a subspace instability in the event horizon," Janeway speculated. "What would make it show up on our sensors?"

Silence passed between them for a couple of seconds and then they both said at the same time, "Warp particles!"

"If we saturate the event horizon with warp particles we might be able to see them escaping through the rupture we made when we entered!" Janeway exclaimed turning about on her heel and leaving the room. The rest of the officers, most of them stunned by what had just taken place, followed suit.

B'Elanna heard Paris remark to Barrett, "What the hell just happened?" Out of the corner of her eye, B'Elanna could see a small smile creep across the counselor's pretty face as she turned to reply to the hotshot pilot, "I think B'Elanna Torres just got promoted to chief engineer."

She felt satisfaction in hearing that. But she didn't know how much truth was behind the words that Barrett had just said. After all, B'Elanna may have found a way out of the event horizon for them, but that didn't mean Janeway was seriously going to take her on as chief engineer. She still wasn't sure how she felt about the whole thing herself. Was she capable of leading? I guess there's only one way to find out, she thought to herself as she went to stand in the command station with Janeway and Chakotay, while Tuvok took the main deflector off line. Kim was rerouting the power of the plasma flow to the main deflector so they could use it to generate a warp field.

B'Elanna stood rigidly next to Chakotay, realizing that if this didn't work, she was fresh out of ideas on how to get them out of the event horizon and Voyager would be crushed. Well I gave us a week to survive out here, but I didn't think we'd be crushed to death by a quantum singularity.

"Release the warp particles," Janeway ordered. A steady stream of particles emitted from the deflector dish and into the even horizon, filling the bridge with a bright orange glow. Paris immediately began to scan the singularity for an changes. But B'Elanna was anxious.

"Anything?" she rasped out, harshly.

"Not yet," Kim reported, coolly. "Warp particles at full intensity."

"I'm picking up something," Paris announced, fingers running across the conn. "It could be a rupture in the event horizon."

B'Elanna exchanged a relieved glance with the Captain before she ordered to have it put on screen. Sure enough, there was rupture. Now if only its big enough for the ship to get through, B'Elanna thought hopefully. But Paris was already delivering the bad news that it was too small. She felt anger taking a hold of her. "It must have collapsed since we first past through it."

"We found the crack," Janeway said, trying to calm her. "That's the important thing. Let's focus on how we can make it bigger."

"Put a wedge in it and force it open," B'Elanna retorted still feeling angry. "We could try a dekyon beam."

Janeway nodded her head and ordered Paris to move them closer to the rupture, but he turned in his seat and looked at her pensively. "Captain, if we get too close to the rupture our warp engines might make it collapse even further."

Damn it, B'Elanna thought as the Captain asked if they could emit the beam from their current position. Kim told her that they didn't have enough power to emit one from this distance. Another damn.

"Alright, we'll take a shuttlecraft," Janeway said, placing her hands on her hips.

It didn't surprise B'Elanna that Tom Paris was standing up, offering himself up to pilot the shuttle. It did surprise her though that Janeway was putting him down. He had made a valuable point, that she needed her best pilot and that was him. But hers was maybe a little bit more valuable; she needed someone with her that understood temporal mechanics. Once that was out, B'Elanna suddenly realized, Kahless, she means me!

Sure enough Janeway told B'Elanna that she was going to accompany her, and with a final order of leaving Chakotay in charge, the two women left the bridge, en route to the shuttlebay.

[dontreadthistrashgarbage]

Pt.3

Seyoon was unpacking all the late night snacks he had gotten onto a blanket at a secluded rooftop. Hearing footsteps he looked up to see Guerin, who looked different than usual. She didn't appear to be wearing any makeup, had her normal stud earrings but had a cute black mask with a white sharp toothy grin. She was dressed in joggers and a sweatshirt with the hood up. He cocked his head at her as she approached.

"I know, I look like shit. But it was late and I'd already gotten ready for bed. You can't expect me to spruce up after that." Guerin guessed at his expression.

"You look fine. Cozy. It's just different. Also you're late." He shrugged and patted the blanket next to him, sitting as he leaned against the wall behind him.

"I got lost..." she grumbled, "I've never been great with directions." She sat down in the spot he indicated, looking over the spread he had brought, "Good grief I thought you just wanted tteokbokki."

Seyoon smiled automatically, "You said you hadn't eaten, and I know how much you like food so I thought I should get some options." Guerin leaned her head in his direction and offered a wry smile under her mask, unable to argue with his logic. "Besides, I got this for us too." He pulled out an additional bag, from which he drew two paper cups, a bottle of soju and two cans of beer.

Guerin raised her eyebrows and sat up straight, "Oh we're drinking too?"

"We have to. It goes well with tteokbokki, fried chicken and jajangmyeon." He shrugged nonchalantly as he began opening everything up and handing Guerin some chopsticks. "Although it's blueberry soju. I thought you might like that."

"How did you figure that?" She asked, sneaking a piece of tteokbokki and pulling her mask to her chin to eat it.

"Well you said before you liked Grapefruit and Plum but I couldnt find it, so I thought blueberry was the next best option." Seyoon shrugged, separating the cups and pouring soju into them, handing one to Guerin and offering his as cheers.

She laughed in response and took her shot, "Honestly I dont know how that train of thought lines up but you aren't wrong." She watched as Seyoon refilled the cups and couldn't keep the grin from her face, "You really went all out for this, it's awesome. Thank you."

He shrugged again, looking up at her and their eyes met briefly before both looked away to select food options, "Food makes things better." He said simply.

"Cheers to that." They both took another shot and then ate in silence for a while.

"So... how are you?" Seyoon asked awkwardly, unsure of how to broach the subject.

"I'm fine, all things considered." Guerin said almost mechanically, "I keep telling people that."

"Okay... but how are you really?" Seyoon asked again, leaning back to look at Guerin. She sighed and set her chopsticks down and didn't speak for a moment.

"Well. What do you know happened?" She asked finally.

"I know you were attacked by that crazy lady. I know you were arrested but you were cleared because of video evidence. I know that she is being charged by the company. But I also know you haven't been with HEET lately." He trailed off.

Guerin reached over for one of the beers. Seyoon cracked it open and put it in her hand, grabbing his as well while she took a sip, leaned back against the wall and looked up at the sky.

"Yeah. We were worried something might happen again. So part of our plan included recording any more altercations that might occur. Self defense laws are tricky and it's usually one person's word against another. Plus as a foreigner, and a big one, we knew some witnesses might not provide unbiased information." She paused and took another sip, "The boys were so brave, they did exactly as they were supposed to. That woman had some gross stuff in that present too. Police said it was unwashed underwear, a vial of blood, another of spit..." she scrunched her nose, "stuff like that."

"Sounds like you guys have the law on your side." Seyoon said, waiting for more information.

Another sip and pause before she spoke, "Yeah, we do. We're able to press charges. The company is suing her. She might see jail time. They even made me go to the hospital to make sure they had a medical report for the court."

"Wait medical report?" Seyoon looked over at her, surprised, "What happened?" Now that she had pulled down her mask and he was looking closely he saw the cut and slight bruising at the corner of her mouth as she smiled dryly and tapped her cheek.

"I let her hit me. I figured if she looked unharmed and I was injured it would go better for us too."

"You're crazy." He sounded almost admiring as he leaned in closer, "Let me see that, does it hurt?"

"It's fine, I've been hit in the face many times, and she's probably the smallest adult that's ever taken a swing at me. It doesnt hurt at all. OW WHY?" She flinched and cried out as he poked the bruising.

His eyes widened and he let out a snort of laughter, "Doesn't hurt at all?"

"You little shit." She laughed and smacked his hand away from her face, "Of course it'll hurt if you press a bruise."

He giggled again, "Sorry. It does look like it hurts a lot. You should maybe stop letting people hit you in the face."

She laughed, "Well it hasn't always been a choice, this one was though."

"So... there's more right?" He asked after their laughter had subsided.

Guerin avoided his eyes by taking a longer drink from her beer, "Yeah. There's been some blowback. Some false stories have gotten out and theres some people that claim I'm making a bad name for HEET or that I was the one who started it, that I instigated a fight or was being rude to a fan. There's quite a lot that demanded I be removed as manager, actually."

"So they caved?" Seyoon asked disbelievingly.

"Well. Kind of?" Guerin sighed, "I've been temporarily removed. Right now with the case going and the false information it's actually less safe for HEET to be around me in case someone tries to target me. So until things are officially able to be released..." she stopped talking abruptly blinking rapidly, trying to hide it with another long gulp of beer. "It's not like I've been fired. I'm grateful for that. Another company would probably have written me off as more trouble than I'm worth. They have me doing other work right now but... I liked my job. I loved my boys, and looking after them." She couldnt hide the tears running down her face now, and didn't bother to try.

Seyoon floundered, watching her face then looking around before seeing napkins and hurriedly handing them to her. She smiled and thanked him, dabbing her cheeks half heartedly before giving up and chugging the rest of her beer through her tears. With an unconvincing smile she looked at Seyoon, "So that's what I mean when I say all things considered. I'm fine."

He didn't saying anything right away, pulling his long shirt sleeve over his hand, he leaned over and dabbed at her face to dry it. She started to pull away, shocked, but he reached out with his other hand and held her in place. "Hold still." She didn't fight back, he was so close and so handsome she couldn't help but feel somewhat transfixed, despite her stomache dropping and heart pounding, all she could do was freeze until he let her go. He picked up his chopsticks, selected a large piece of fried chicken and put it to her mouth, which she accepted without complaint.

"It's okay to be sad when bad things happen. You don't have to lie to everyone." He paused and added quietly as though he wasn't sure he should be saying it, "You don't have to lie to me."

Guerin choked, "Oh my god." She swallowed as soon as she could and laughed, "Are you using lines on me to seem cool? Is this a drama?" She laughed again.

"Yah." He protested, "I was just trying to be supportive."

Guerin laughed again then fed him some tteokbokki, "You're as adorable as a cicada." She said and pinched his cheek.

"I am so much more handsome than some bug." He protested around the food in his mouth.

"Of course you are." She put a shot of soju in his hand, cheersed and downed hers. He followed shortly.

"Thanks though." She glanced at him, "It means a lot."

He playfully shoved her and stole her chopsticks, which started a whole new bickering fit.

Charlie had been working up the nerve all morning to talk to her boss. It was a privilege to be allowed to be so hands on with animals and she didn't want her boss to think she was taking advantage... but it was such a cool opportunity. She had to at least try.

"Byun Minsoo-ssi." She lead off tentatively. The lead vet looked up from her paperwork. Perhaps she looked stern simply from Charlie's point of view but it was just as believable that she was no-nonsense in everyday life as well.

"Yes? Charlie-ssi?"

"I have a friend who is a manager for an idol group, she is friends with a group called A.C.E and I wondered if they could come behind the scenes to meet some of our animals?" Charlie ventured cautiously.

Minsoo paused for a moment before speaking "A.C.E? Your friend knows A.C.E? And they want to come here?" Her attempt to play it cool was poorly hidden and gave Charlie confidence.

"Yes! I'd like to invite my friend Guerin and A.C.E to come and see what we have. I think it would be an excellent opportunity to promote the zoo and educate on the importance of conservation!"

The normally serious Minsoo beamed at Charlie, "That's an excellent idea. Let's get in contact and organize something."

Charlie did a mental fist pump and hustled off to message her friends.

Deciding to keep the visit informal allowed the planning process to go more quickly. Approval from the higher ups and organizing with Beat Interactive took a few days. Guerin has been allowed to come as a personal guest for Charlie and A.C.E who requested she tag along. Guerin, never passing up a chance to visit the zoo, happily accepted. Charlie hoped it could provide her friend with a genuine mood boost. Guerin tended to internalize her negative emotions but Charlie could tell she wasn't her usual self.

"We'll do formal filming in the behind the scenes areas, but then we'll allow you to do your own self cam work throughout the areas of the zoo the public has regular access to." Minseok explained as A.C.E got last second touch ups.

"What animals are we seeing today?" Asked Chan excitedly. They were in the vet and quarantine areas so it was unpredictable what had been planned for them.

"It's a surprise." Charlie said, the most excited A.C.E had ever seen her.

Byun Minsoo would be taking the lead in speaking for the cameras but suggested Charlie stay by to help handle animals and manage the guests. Minsoo might be strict but she was fair, knowing Charlie wanted to do this with her friends she wasn't going to exclude her.

Guerin was hanging back with Minseok as preparations were made. "Noona do you know what we're gonna see?" Chan tried to wheedle from her, pouting slightly. Guerin stared pointedly away from him.

"Don't pull that cute stuff on me, I can't tell you." Of course she knew what animals Charlie was working with, she couldn't let some aegyo spoil the surprise. Chan pouted more and shook his shoulders in a small tantrum.

"Alright that's enough." Minseok stepped in before Guerin could cave, he redirected A.C.E to the main area so they could begin filming. The recording started with a tour of the facilities, showing equipment and how to accommodate all the different animals they had based on type and size. They explained the importance of training animals to participate in their own veterinary care voluntarily then showed them a video example of a mountain lion presenting for a blood draw, and a gorilla opening it's mouth for its teeth to be examined, or a macaque presenting its arm for an insulin injection. Minsoo continued to talk about the research and breeding that the zoo participated and how it was vital for conservation efforts and how it benefitted animals in the wild.

The boys were perfect guests, asking questions and reacting well. They saw a few animals in the quarantine area, new to the zoo and waiting to be introduced to their new homes. The last area they were taken to was for longer term housing for animals that couldnt be in the usual enclosures. A spot had been sectioned, layered with blankets, plushies and other toys. The boys, perplexed, were instructed to go in and sit down with Minsoo while Charlie disappeared momentarily. She returned with an inauspicious crate, facing it away from A.C.E she opened the door and sat with Minsoo, both grinning for the surprise.

Two young tiger cubs tottered they way out, mowing. The trepidation left A.C.E as they all exclaimed in amazement and adoration. Minsoo and Charlie showed A.C.E how to bottle feed them, then let them take turns.

"Their mother was a first time mom, and she wouldnt take care of them." Minsoo explained as the boys cooed sadly, "It's not unusual for that to happen with new mothers even in the wild. But since we are here we made the choice to step in and help raise them." Once the babies were fed they were left to roam and play. One clambered into Jun's lap and fell asleep, the other playing with a toy with Donghun and Byeongkwan. Jun couldn't control his face, his amazement and joy at being chosen as he got everyone's attention and pointed to the sleeping kitten. Seyoon and Chan scooted near him to pet the sleeping animal. Charlie couldn't stop herself from grinning, Guerin knew at least part of it was Jun's reaction and not just the cute tiger cubs.

Once it was time to say goodbye to the kittens, A.C.E did their formal goodbye with them and the filming for behind the scenes ended. The rest of the staff and guests got an opportunity to greet the tigers as well and once Guerin had her turn she flagged down Charlie as the babies were taken back to their enclosure. After a brief talk with Minsoo who let out a restrained laugh and nod, Charlie and Guerin went to a series of smaller tanks on the opposite side of the room, Guerin returning with her hands closed suspiciously.

"We have one more animal for you to meet." Charlie said with a chuckle. Donghun was the only one with the good sense to he suspicious.

"This is one of my favorite animals." Guerin said with a grin, uncovering her hand and showing a large male Madagascar Hissing Cockroach sitting placidly in her hand. All five boys instinctively recoiled, Chan and Jun exclaiming in surprise. A.C.E's reaction elicited chuckles from most of the staff if they werent busy being disgusted themselves.

"It's okay guys. They're harmless!" Guerin said holding it up. Donghun and Jun recovered the fastest, still looking apprehensive and surprised respectively. Chan was behind Jun, leaning around him curiously but still looking fearful. Beyongkwan, eyes wide, didnt move forward so quickly and Seyoon was the furthest away had a very subtle terror that could only be read in his eyes.

"They're really cool, they're called hissing cockroaches cause they hiss!" She gave the cockroach a light pet down it's back which caused it to take two steps forward and hiss quietly as it protested the contact. The boys jumped again. "So insects dont have lungs, they breath through small holes along their body called spiracles. These guys have evolved to force air out of those holes to make a hissing sound that they use to communicate to each other or even predators! Their mouths are too small to bite us so they're harmless!" She was so enthusiastic in the explanation it couldnt help but draw the boys curiosity. She explained how to tell males from females and how most cockroaches are pests at all and how vital they are to the environment. Eventually Donghun worked up the courage first to touch it when offered. Jun became somewhat enamored and greeted the insect before he touched it, but jumped when it hissed before laughing at his own reaction. Chan actually opted to hold it and Byeongkwan even moved forward but Seyoon stayed in the back.

"Come on Hyung!" Chan called to him, looking more closely at the cockroach.

"I'm just looking at stuff over here you guys go on without me." Seyoon said, pretending to examine equipment near him.

"It is kind of cute." Jun admitted, petting it again, still jumping slightly when it hissed.

"On a scale of Seyoon to a Cicada how cute is it?" Donghun joked causing Jun, Chan, Byeongkwan, Guerin and Charlie to laugh.